Ep. 5 - In the Wee Small Hours

Rz’n closes in on the seam, and a storm gathers outside its hull. In Rook’s apartment, the shift passes slowly.

Content Warnings

• This episode contains a depiction of stalking and stakeouts, smoking, suicidal ideation, vague discussion of future suicide, and vague allusions to past abusive or toxic relationship (no descriptions of said abuse or toxicity).

For full The Drifting City content warnings, please reference the Show Notes & Disclaimers linked at the bottom of the episode description.

The Drifting City is not affiliated with Wizards of the Coast.

Cast & Credits
Chrys: Lily Bell
Morin Wreaver: Aspen Langford
Orion Amaros: Porter Hurst
Rook Aarden: Victor Thorne
Valentine Bellana: Marilyn David
The Narrator: Ray Hamilton

Class & Subclass
Chrys: Coven of the Green Witch (find the class at: Worlds Beyond Number Patreon)
Morin Wreaver: Floater Ranger (Homebrew)
Orion Amaros: Echo Knight Fighter (find the subclass in Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount)
Rook Aarden: College of Spirits Bard (find the subclass in Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft)
Valentine Bellana: College of Hard Knocks Bard (Homebrew)

Editing, sound design, episode titles and descriptions by everyone at The Rolling Waves.

Intro & Outro Theme
“The Drifting City (Theme)”
Composed by Porter Hurst.
Performed by Porter Hurst, Victor Thorne, and the friends and family of The Rolling Waves.

S1E5 Music Credits:
Late Night Friends by Sugoi
The Smoke Room by Alexandra Woodward
Parking Lot Glow by Anthony Earls
Ominous Light by Amber Glow
A Last Game of Chess by Alec Slayne
The Plan by Wendy Marcini
Once Upon a Road by Bladverk Band
Light-Footed by Bonnie Grace
A Caper Story by Martin Landstrom
All courtesy of Epidemic Sound.

S1E5 Sound Effect and Ambience Credits:
All courtesy of Epidemic Sound.

Show Notes and Disclaimers

Transcript

 Episode 5 - In the Wee Small Hours

Narrator: Welcome you to the end of Shift Wire. I'm Barnaby Dickens, your host with the most up-to-date news available. In Risen. This broadcast learned the latest guidelines from the first council subcommittee on Health and Hygiene, hear a heart wrenching story of an Ydyth'kaian in the lower decks, giving their all to help the orphans of the tangle.

And finally, we'll wrap up our news with the crime report, which I expect will take us all the way into the next shift. You've been busy out there risen, but first breaking news from our weather report. The meteor answers on the bridge report, the Mathooran seam, is open early this year. If you take a look out the Portside porthole, you may just be able to see the glint in the distance.

Our journey to the seam will be a bit bumpy as a premature opening has kicked up a mighty Shaw Trus and violet twister. Let second a thought, maybe stay away from those portholes folks and not for the weather. Let's get to the news you really want to hear about. But first, a word from our sponsor, the brand new electrolyte enhanced provision straight from the upper deck, our canna labs.

You'd be surprised how affordable sustenance can be. The tinny echo of the end of shift broadcast continues to tickle its way through the windows facing the street. As the drone continues, Valentine emerges from the bathroom, followed a few moments later by a substantially more composed looking ataria. The air hangs thick with secrets and anticipation. A toxic cocktail that keeps relaxation pushed to the corners of the room, like a trapped rat just trying to breathe. There are 17 hours left before the city docks at the horran seam. What do you wanna do?

Valentine: Well, it sounds like we might have to move up our timetable a little Orion Morin. You got the suit.

Orion: Uh, yeah, it is. And I think, Orion takes the suit out from the chest for the first time, and not prematurely. Um, I. Um, and I think he probably does is is saying this almost like he's familiarizing himself with this suit again. He's holding it so reverently since it's been quite a while, since he is been able to handle one like by himself. And he is pointing out to Atter like, where the buckles go and how this part goes together with another part.

He takes the canisters to the side, they won't be used. and he's just kind of pointing out all the, you know, places to look out for, you know, how to wear it and not get pinched by a chain or how to actually even get in because the opening in the back is so non-intuitive.

Narrator: Hmm, Orion, as you're doing this, why don't you make a wisdom saving throw for me,

Orion: Okay.

Chrys: Oh no.

Orion: Which D 20 are we picking today?

Rook: I

Narrator: a lucky one.

Rook: I don't like that

Chrys: One of the, one of the better ones maybe

Rook: Oh,

Orion: Well,

Chrys: considering all of the fails we had last time.

Rook: Mm-hmm.

Orion: Uh, I rolled high, but what does this mean for me later? I rolled a 19, so that's just like a flat

Narrator: I I'll say you're, you're good. I was about to say, just tell me what it is on the die and I'll tell you if it'll make a difference or not. What your modifier is.

Orion: Mm-hmm.

Narrator: is good. Um, are showing atter, you know how the, the suit works, the opening on the back, which has this intricate overlay of leather pieces and ties that create and airtight seal as they layer on each other. And as you're doing this, your mind drifts for just a second a time when someone else was showing you how this works. And you think about it for just a moment before. A spark of lightning at the corner of your eye, your hair almost catching a light with this memory, you're out of it again. You don't get sucked in. You push it back away to the corner of your vision where the after images live continue on your way. You don't even a beat in your explanation. This has happened many times before.

Orion: I think after kind of running through the basics of the suit, Orion turns and straightens facing everybody else in the room and goes, ah, you know, correct me if I'm, if I'm wrong, but, um, they said chartreuse and it purple violet? Was that what they were broadcasting today? I.

Valentine: I stopped listening after the seam was open early, so I couldn't tell you

Chrys: I heard that. What? What did that mean?

Orion: Hmm.

Valentine: or the seam.

Orion: The, storm.

Chrys: What is, what is a twister?

Orion: Well, you know, um, you, you live near the hole, right? The, the,

Chrys: I live in the whole yes.

Orion: live in the hole. That's right. Um, have you

Chrys: Note. This is HULL, not whole

Narrator: Just don't, you know when, when I make a face, because I'm trying not to laugh because I'm a child. Lily, you can keep it to yourself,

Rook: All right. A show of hands who'd be living in a hole.

Chrys: Me. I do,

Narrator: uh, whole with a

Chrys: yes.

Orion: Yes. HULO.

Narrator: uh.

Orion: Um, I, I know you mentioned earlier that, you know, you haven't really been out and about outside the hole, but, you know, the city sustains itself on essentially radiant energy and we get those from We get those from storms that pass by. That's. Why sometimes, you know, we get these big, you know, like arcane outages and it's just a big pain.

But, um, as important at these as these storms are and as, as beautiful as they can be, they're incredibly dangerous, which is why, and Orion kind of gestures over at the suit again, which is why you need that to get in there. And his voice lowers a little bit to the point where you almost feel like he's mumbling to himself again.

And he's just like, if it's, it's mostly chart truths again today, then I'm not even sure if that is gonna be of much use at, at any point. Um, but, but any, at any rate, um, the twister, it's essentially, you know, radiant storm, different types of damaged, all different colors. I can list them if you like.

But, um, if, the, if today is gonna be mostly Chartres and Violet, then well, we're looking at a lot of acid and necrotic damage today. And, uh, ain't nothing that eats through this suit faster he kicks the leg a little bit.

Valentine: Narrator, remind me what the time was on the roots, like

Narrator: Um.

Valentine: would the indoor route take?

Narrator: The indoor route. Of course all of these double the time if you are being stealthy. moving at a slow pace. So going through the city to a gang way and getting, presuming you're not waiting in the line to have your papers checked. So just pure distance, it takes probably an hour to get from where you are through to a gangway through the seam by pure distance. You know, taking the gondola up to the middle decks, finding where they are going through to go outside, around the of the, of the city would take more like depending on certain environmental factors, two to four hours. If you are just going pure distance, it's two hours, but it tacks on time if you are being careful not, you know,

Morin: Certain unnamed environmental factors.

Narrator: Cer, certain unnamed may be just named environmental factors. And just to be clear on the timeline, they said the seam has opened early, you are not arriving any earlier. What opening earlier means is that the time you will be docked there is likely shorter, and they did not announce how long that'll be. Because as we've said before, the city likes to dock after it's open and leave before it closes to minimize any risk or damage that might happen to the external parts of the city being near this unstable rift in reality. it likely means you will be docked there for a shorter period of time, but the city's already moving at stage four.

It's not gonna get much faster to get there any faster. So you still have 17 hours before you're within striking distance of the thing.

Chrys: Oh, is that why the ship started moving faster?

Narrator: Yeah.

Chrys: Okay.

Narrator: Well, you didn't know that yet. But, but

Chrys: Right, right.

Narrator: but because, of, of now connecting the dots, it seems like somebody maybe had a little bit of a head notice on that before it was announced to everybody else and the city started moving faster.

Valentine: Okay, so if we still have 18 hours, do you think we should maybe get some sleep? We could take turns.

Orion: Probably for the best.

Rook: I think some shot I would do a lot of us. Some good. Yeah.

Chrys: I do not sleep, but some rest would be nice.

Valentine: Okay, any, I can take the first watch, I suppose, since it was my idea.

Chrys: I could accompany you if you would like.

Valentine: I would love that, Chris. Thank you.

Rook: I'll do the, uh, second watch.

Orion: yeah, I'll, I'll stay up for a second trip as well. I gotta keep my eye on the, on the twister and see how that progresses. I

Morin: I suppose I'll take third shift if we're going in three.

Narrator: Alright,

Orion: good.

Narrator: I guess, uh, I'll, I'll stay up with, uh, mor, I Morin, right?

Morin: Yes. I don't know your name and you don't have to tell me if you don't want to.

Narrator: Oh, it's eter.

Morin: Okay, great.

Narrator: The face of a woman who cares, not, uh,

Rook: just cool. Literally could not have asked less, but thank you.

Narrator: The moment when like, you don't have to tell me is actually just don't bother. All right. Well, like me, if you need anything, sunshine,

Valentine: Sleep well Eter.

Narrator: I'll sleep well when I'm dead.

Valentine: Yikes.

Morin: No one liked that.

Orion: feel like, I feel like Ter.

Chrys: Everyone just like in the corner. Everyone disliked that

Orion: Yeah, like while Aari is like walking away or Ryan's is doing the, you know, when people silently make the what face at everyone.

Chrys: or just like, it's just like a line of each character's name. Just each character. Character, character, character, disapproves.

Narrator: Mm-hmm.

Rook: Roke fully like rolled his eyes at that. Like, oh my, are you, you've got to be kidding me. Like of

Narrator: All right.

Rook: nonsense things to say.

Narrator: Rooks having nothing, nothing to do with this, like fem fatal drama queen energy. But there we go. So, first watch, we've got Chris and Valentine. How are you guys like going through, staying up? Like are you posted up at Windows looking out, or are you just kind of, you know, sitting and being alert? How are you sort of gonna Navigate this.

time?

Valentine: I guess I'll take a window out to the street, and just kind of like evil queen at Disneyland style. kind of post up there smoking.

Narrator: Oh, man.

Chrys: how many like windows are there in this apartment?

Narrator: I'll definitely let Victor chime in here. I was picturing for sure at least one window in the living room facing the street towards the front of the building. But in terms of where other windows might be, you can let me know. Mm-hmm.

Rook: Yeah, it's kinda like somewhat corner position. So there is a room, there's a window in the living room facing the street and there is a comparatively smaller window in like the little kitchenette sort of thing that he is got going on. that faces to like the other corner.

Narrator: Yeah, out front of the building there is, sort of a general thoroughfare. It's not incredibly busy 'cause this is a more residential part of the city. But the buildings are not quite so packed together that every single street is absolutely shoulder to shoulder. There is enough, space that, carts can go by.

People riding, the discs, oh gosh, Marilyn, what are they called? Um, trawlers for, for two trawlers to pass each other with plenty of space to not have any, interaction with each other. And then the side window of the kitchenette faces a back alley area. The two sides of the building have much more narrow. Routes in between, but you can kind of see out to the street. And of course this apartment has no view of sort of the back area of the building. All right. So where, where is Chris holding up? Because I know you were asking about the windows, but I don't think we got exactly where Chris was positioning themself.

Chrys: Hmm, so you're next to the window in the living room.

Valentine: Yeah, I'm gonna look towards the street or, yeah, I guess I'm trying to decide which of us would be less noticeable. I feel like probably better for people to wonder why he's got a lady in his living room than why he is

Chrys: Yeah. That's probably a good, I was thinking that. I was like, imagine just like Chris is just staring out the window and some kid like glances up and is like, oh my God.

Narrator: The

Chrys: Some lady just fates.

Valentine: Oh my gosh. Dark.

Narrator: right. So where, so where is Chris? Are you gonna go to the kitchenette window or are you going to go by the door? What's, what's the plan?

Chrys: Honestly, I was thinking that Chris would like just kind of sit, sit in front of the door.

Narrator: Okay.

Chrys: Like, like li listening and also just like, I am here if people decide to bust the door down.

Narrator: Sounds great. So I'll say that Chris has, his listening ears on. And Valentine's keeping a lookout out the front. It's just helpful for me to know what you might see, should it be relevant, or hear in Chris's case. So go ahead and, do perception checks for me.

Chrys: Bet.

Valentine: 20.

Narrator: Nat 20.

Valentine: Yeah,

Chrys: Like not. oh okay. I got a 24, but like the not 20 is still gonna beat that.

Morin: 24 to 25.

Chrys: And like one of those was not,

Narrator: so

Chrys: I, listen, I am proficient in perception. I have very high wisdom.

Narrator: All right.

Rook: we're gonna see who Marilyn's Dice Curse went to instead. Instead of

Chrys: For,

Narrator: Alright. We'll start with the 24 first because it's not a Nat 20. focusing more on what Chris can hear, the door leads deeper into the central hallway of this apartment building. It's a relatively thin, more shotgun style building. The apartments are not very wide when it comes to front door to outside window, but there's more lateral space, stretching out on either side. So actually at that front door, you are closer to the apartment across the hall than you are to R'S bedroom or the kitchen to give you an idea of the space.

Chrys: Okay.

Narrator: So you're in almost the heart of this building and as you listen, think for the first time that Chris can remember, hear people and not in this abstract, one off, two off, three off groups of people coming to you for a purpose or stumbled upon in the whole, but you hear. Probably for the first time. Sincerely, baby. You hear what seems to be a couple, a man and a woman fighting loudly, probably floors down, you had a 24. you hear playing in the hallways, you hear someone in loud work boots coming up the stairs. You with the 24 smell, the smell of provisions being heated on the stove just so they have a slightly different consistency the sludge that they normally are. sort of accurate artificial smell of magically created food. And it is almost a bit overwhelming for Kris to realize that she is surrounded by so much life in a way that was, or that is different the life you surrounded yourself with of the lichen and the plants in your little sanctuary. This is life that might for the first time actually expect something of you, something that

Chrys: Hmm,

Narrator: might not be able to give,

Chrys: Hmm. Interesting.

Narrator: that's all. You don't hear anything that is too concerning, of movement and what not, but you don't hear conversations that seem directed at you or what's going on in this apartment. You don't hear anything that sounds like violence other than, you know, arguments and of that. Valentine at the front.

With the Nat 20. You look out on the street and you see movement, people going back and forth. Like I said before, it's not terribly busy because it's more of a residential area, an offshoot from the main streets and bridges that lead to the different areas of the decks. there's people coming and going. There are, it, it's almost the end of the, the shift your watch will bridge, first shift to second shift, so as the end of that first hour comes about. Flurry of movement, people leaving, people coming back. but in between not a terrible amount of activity terms of things that might stand out to you.

With a Nat 20, you see that there is a kid sort of playing by the stairs near the front of the apartment building who is just sort of aimlessly has a beat up metal, rusty looking toy truck this little kid is just sort of rolling on this step. And they've been doing that aimlessly for the whole hour.

You've been watching. After a little while they pick it up, put it in their lap and just sort of stare at it. They pull out what appears to be a slim stick packet of provisions and munches away. But yeah, that kid's just been sitting there for hours and yeah, in terms of people going by, no, nobody checks on this kid.

Nobody talks to this kid. That's the main thing you see that sticks out.

Valentine: Some people would think that's sad. I think it's just suspicious. Okay. Good to know. I'll just keep an eye that kid.

Narrator: During this hour, is there anything in particular that Marilyn and Chris would like to interact about, talk about, or anything they internally would like to parse through? You can have a conversation or we could let this be an inner dialogue moment. Just let me know.

Chrys: I'll say, you notice like, especially because like all, there's so much like noise that Chris isn't familiar with, and like they're also just in a place that they're not familiar with. They're still like, even if they're like sitting on the ground, they're still doing that thing where they're like swaying from like side to side.

Like, not like super hard, just it feel, it looks like they're not even like really conscious of it. He still has like the knitting needles in his hands, but he is not like making anything with them. He is just playing with them in a strange way.

Valentine: Don't worry. We'll be done soon. You can go home.

Chrys: There is, is it, is there always noise like this

Valentine: No. Often it's much louder.

Chrys: louder?

Valentine: Louder.

Chrys: There are many people here. I did not know how many there were up here.

Usually I just talk to a few at a time. They come to me, so.

Valentine: I think you had the right of it. If any of us were as wise as you, we would've headed down for our own little corners long ago.

Chrys: Well,

if you're talking about me, if you're talking about me living in the hull, um, I don't know how pe, I don't know if people like you could live there. Um, because there are, uh, different, it's diff there are different things down there. Um, like um, there is no, uh, there is no RA rations down there. You would have to come up here for that.

Valentine: I've got a job to do up here anyway,

Chrys: I that

Valentine: but I think you're very lucky, Chris. I don't want this place to change you, so I advise the minute we're done. You go back down to the hu.

Chrys: nice. I think.

It is definitely curious to be here, but yes, I would like to go home after this,

Valentine: Did you need to be paid for squirting us earlier?

Chrys: um, if, yeah, if you would. I believe that is a thing that people do. So, um, I I do not take the normal things that people take for that sort of thing. Um,

if you have any, um, things or knowledge that I may find curious, um, or, um,

anything else that, that would be fine.

Valentine: Let me, I'll find something for you. She'll kind of root around in the pockets of her rain jacket and come up with a little. and it's like a piece of paper that is wrapped around a pair of cylindrical objects and just hand that to you. It's not worth much, but I could be curious.

Chrys: Is it like a thing that I should open?

Valentine: You can, if you want to. It's like, just kind of with a very thin, seal, almost like an envelope that's not sealed super tight. It's sealed together.

Chrys: I see, what is it?

Valentine: It's for the temple of the all and none. If you open it, there's a little charcoal, a match. You're meant to draw someone that you've lost and then you burn it.

Chrys: I

I would not, I do not, I do not have anyone to draw, and if I do, I do not remember them.

Thank you. That is good. What is, I have heard it. I have heard, um, your religions mentioned up here. Many. What is this one?

Valentine: Yeah, let me open up the document really fast.

Rook: That's so real. 

Valentine: Where is it?

Rook: I absolutely know that. Let me, let me get my flashcards just a sec.

Narrator: This thing is very deeply important to me as a real, living, breathing person. Just let me look it up.

Rook: Mm-hmm.

Valentine: me Google that real fast.

Orion: Yeah, of course. I know your name. Let

Chrys: Valentine just pulls out her cell phone and opens Google.

Valentine: She is been texting this whole time.

The all is the storms and the nun is the void. It's life and death. It's everything that brackets this tiny life and that's what we worship.

Chrys: Curious.

Valentine: I take you to a temple, but you're going home.

Chrys: Yes, I am going home. And I also do not know if they would like me there

Valentine: It's not that great to be liked by them. To be honest. They liked me plenty and I wish they liked me a little bit less.

Chrys: like that, like that man from earlier.

Valentine: You are perceptive.

Chrys: I see. Thank you for telling me. I like to learn things. I don't see much down there.

Valentine: Just make sure to be careful. There's lots of things up here that it'll hurt you to learn, and then I'll just kind of turn back to the window and keep down at that child.

Orion: You are like, I wouldn't want you to get hurt by the things up here violently glare at

Narrator: Yeah. Valentine, the angel of creeping on little kids.

Chrys: Oh no.

Rook: you really

Chrys: Whoa.

Rook: in this world. Like that thing,

Orion: like that thing.

Narrator: Oh man, that sad

Chrys: What's the one thing worse than

Rook: pinnacle of

Chrys: a child?

Rook: the

Chrys: No.

Narrator: exactly. All right. But your watch goes by and nothing happens.

Chrys: How, how many hours are we on watch, by the way? Like, how are we doing this?

Narrator: that typically a long rest is eight hours, but it allows basically everybody to get hours of watch during that period. Nobody signed up for the last amount of

Chrys: Oh, I'll do it. 'cause Chris only needs to quote rest for four hours. But like that rest is also like conscious, but like, yeah, Chris, Chris doesn't need eight hours.

Narrator: Yeah.

Chrys: I'll, I'll take the last one

Narrator: as well, so she'll, she'll stay up with Morin and then stay up with Chris

Chrys: bit.

Narrator: So there's always four, uh, two people, but, all right. Next group I believe was Orion and Rook. Where are you guys gonna post up During this period?

Orion: Before that, uh, Ray, I had a quick question.

Narrator: Mm-hmm.

Orion: So, the end of the shift broadcast that we heard earlier, was that just coming through the wires or,

Narrator: Yeah. There was a lamp post outside with a wire hookup.

Orion: I,

Narrator: And it basically was broadcasting for this whole area. As you get into the deeper part of the lower decks, there's not really any functioning wires anymore, but this high up in the lower decks, there's a few scattered around. It just so happens that's located in the heart of this little neighborhood.

And you heard it through the windows outside?

Orion: Okay. 'Cause I think what I might do is if, if it's possible, I will find a window that is that, you know, if possible that I can kind of see the sky or what's supposed to be the sky. Because Orion has had previous, experience with just pretty much any kind of possible storm out in the void. He knows from personal experience that, chartreuse is a very, very bad news.

Narrator: Mm-hmm. Probably in this apartment, unfortunately, because the kitchenette window faces basically another apartment building. And these buildings are very tall. They're, they're thin and long and tall, and the only really spot where you might be able to crane your neck a bit and see a bit of the hole far above you would be that front window.

Orion: Okay. I also just really at the image of like, you wake up in the morning, you do the, you know, like musical theater thing. You throw open the blinds and it's just like a wall. You're like,

Narrator: Welcome to New York.

Valentine: As Valentine is going to bed, she's just gonna point out the kid to Orion. Since he's taking her spot at the window, be like, I don't know,

Orion: All right.

Valentine: small child sitting in one place for the whole shift.

Orion: Yeah. Like Orion immediately like starts doing, like, he like starts squaring up. He is like, all right, I'll keep an eye on the kid. I'll keep an eye on the child.

Rook: So I,

Valentine: don't

Rook: have a,

Orion: I won't, I won't unless they give him any reason to,

Rook: I have, I have a question. Would I have seen this child around before on this corner sitting there chilling? this be a semi-normal occurrence?

Narrator: a history check.

Rook: Okay.

Orion: and.

Rook: terrible. Not terrible at all. That's going to be an 18.

Narrator: Okay. as you're transferring, I, I think it's fair that you would hear this warning. You take a look out the window and look down. You recognize the kid. It's a kid from the building.

Morin: Something's not right.

Narrator: You don't remember the, I mean, that's a spot where kids sometimes play. It's, you've normally seen this kid playing with other kids, but you recognize the kid, you even recognize the outfit and you recognize that toy truck.

You've seen that kid with that toy truck before. maybe it's a little weird that this kid has been sitting in the same spot for two hours at, you know, his age looks to be about nine, 10 years old. But you do recognize the child as a child that lives in your building.

Rook: okay.

Orion: me and me and Valentine are like, about to punt this kid, and then Rook just looks over. He's like, oh, that's Billy from next door.

Rook: we just, we just kinda looks at the two of you and was just like, um, that happens to be one of my neighbors. Just, uh, FYI.

Orion: Hmm.

Rook: So I, I can't say that I've ever met him personally, but, um, I don't particularly think that the 9-year-old that I've seen a lot around here is gonna be much of an issue.

Orion: Fair enough.

Valentine: I'm not worried about a 9-year-old. I'm worried about someone paying the 9-year-old to camp out in front of your house, Rook. But you know best

Rook: I absolutely do not, but, okay.

Valentine: I know I'm gonna swan off to bed,

Morin: The drama.

Chrys: That that felt targeted.

Orion: Orion listening in the back is just like, ouch, dude.

Narrator: All right.

Rook: Rook is just going to be pacing between the door and the kitchenette window. Just he, his watch is constantly, constantly moving.

Valentine: keeping everyone awake by facing around the apartment.

Orion: Nobody gets any rest for the rest of the night.

Chrys: I mean, Chris isn't asleep, but.

Narrator: Oh man. Alright. I will have both Orion and Rook do perception checks for me.

Rook: Yippy, this rest is pacing and smoking.

Orion: Okay. Perception. Perception. Okay.

Narrator: What'd we get?

Orion: 17.

Rook: And I got a 19.

Narrator: Nice. Those are both very good. We'll start with the lower first. We'll start with the 17. Looking out the front door, or sorry, front window. You see it's, it's a lot more dead than it was for Valentine because second shift has started. You're, you're already an hour into second shift by the time you take over and there's some movement. You see primarily kids running around outside, not very many. Mostly running from place to place. Don't notice anything too suspicious with a 17 because it's been pointed out to you. You do watch the kid the kid after a while sets the car by his side, the truck by his side, and sort of leans back on the steps and just seems really bored, but is still just sitting there and is not moving. You don't notice anything else Too suspicious though.

With a 17 rook, with a 19, as you're going back and forth, don't hear anything suspicious in the building. You look at the kitchenette window, don't see anything too troubling. As you look out the kitchenette window, you notice that there is a tall man in a cloak, or tall figure in a cloak. You don't necessarily know what's a man, and leaning against the wall in the alley. Just smoking. Smoking a cigarette, but you went to the kitchen at once, you did a pace and came back and they were there.

They were not there the first time. They're there now you do a few circuits and you know, every 10 minutes of your circuit, back to the kitchenette window and there's another cigarette down by their feet and they're just working their way through the pack.

Rook: Oh boy. Does, there anything somewhat recognizable about the posture or the style of outfit the kind of skulking that's going on?

Narrator: Style of outfit would be history, posture and whatnot would be insight.

Rook: You know, let's go. Let's go. Insight.

Narrator: All right,

Rook: Come on. Please be good. Please be good. Suck at Valentine. I do know best. that's a 22.

Orion: Dang.

Narrator: Leaning up against the wall, slumped shoulders, chain, smoking, whispered cigarettes. This person seems bored. Bored, and they've been bored in this alley for going on nearly an hour now. And from the way they keep shifting and leaning, seems like they're planning to be bored for a long time. Yet. You see them do the thing where their feet get tired, so they put one up on the wall to rest it for a minute, put it down, put the other one back up on the wall.

Rook: And he is just, just sitting there switching up his posture,

Narrator: Mm-hmm. So they don't get too stiff,

Rook: Mm-hmm. does, does the figure seem like he's looking up at the window at all There?

Narrator: with that high insight. it seems like this figure's currently looking at the, like the area, basically they're right at the edge of the alley where peeking out. They can see. Basically your building is at the end of a T intersection. There is a street that goes either way in front of your building and then a wider street that goes off into the distance directly in front of the front doors.

And there are alleys on either side of your building attached to that sort of T road that goes in front. This person is holed up in one of those alleys looking out, so they can see a good view of that whole T intersection.

Rook: Okay, so they're looking out at the intersection.

Narrator: Yeah, past your front door.

Rook: Okay, so R's gonna kinda like look over at Ryan and just say, um, what, what's going on out in the front side of the building there?

Orion: Uh, I mean, honestly, nothing much. There's, I mean, that kid's still there. You sure you know him?

Rook: Pretty, pretty sure I've seen him around a bit, but it is a little weird considering. Kids don't usually like sit and still much, much less for more than two hours. And, uh, got a guy watching the intersection there on the other side there below the kitchen window.

Orion: When's there's. How long has, how long has that guy been there?

Rook: Um, close to wood, an hour

Orion: Hmm.

Rook: gone through way too many cigarettes. At this point, passing by time, it's a little confusing. He hasn't looked up at the window, or at least not when I was seeing it.

Orion: Do you, is he perhaps a neighbor? I've, I can't imagine he is. With the way that you're going about this,

Rook: Well, it is a little difficult to tell from the, uh, mostly obfuscated appearance. But for, um, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say, no, probably you.

Orion: uh, that concerning. Hmm. Am I allowed to go and take a look at the guy who's like marathons chain, smoking outback?

Narrator: I mean, yeah, you can. No one will be watching the front during that time.

Rook: I, I think we're gonna, I think

Orion: Can we switch? Yeah. Have rook glare at the kid for a little bit.

Rook: I'm, I'm gonna take kid glaring duty

Narrator: go for it. While you're doing Kit glaring, go ahead and do another perception check for me since we're you're switching positions, both of you.

Rook: and You got it.

Orion: La la. The dice loves me today.

Rook: Oh, very, very nice.

Orion: I'm so scared. We're instead of, I'm just gonna, I'm just going to say that this is probably karma from the last few recordings stacking up. That's a dirty 20 for me.

Rook: I have, I have yet to get Karma. I got a 22 again.

Narrator: Ooh, wait, what? What was it that you got? Orion.

Orion: I got a dirty 20.

Narrator: nice. With these new perception checks, Rook, you see someone with a similar cloak and outfit to the guy in the other alley, walk in front of your building and go down a side alley outside of your view, towards the back of your building. And then Orion, you keep an eye. And with that, high, high check, you see just the slightest nod from the person smoking in the alley As that other person walks by, they walk by where Orion is. You see the nod, they walk in front of the building. By where Rook is watching and then go back outside where you have to crane your head, but you can barely see them tuck into that alley on the other side of your building.

Rook: Okay. Now could I see if I understand what the outfit means? If it means anything,

Narrator: Yeah, sure.

Rook: great. Peachy.

Orion: RuPaul's in town. I don't know, like

Rook: I was worried about this new set of dice for this session. I should not have been. That's a history set you said? Um, that's a 17 plus four, so 21.

Narrator: Nice.

Rook: I do in fact know best.

Chrys: Dear Lord.

Narrator: Well, I will say, unfortunately, there's not anything unique or distinctive about the outfits themselves. You do see that they are dressed similarly in cloaks hoods up. The irrigation has stopped. There is slight drippings still off of the sides of buildings flowing from gutters, but there's not really a reason for people to have their hoods up anymore. And you see the mist starting to filter up from the grates in the street that take the water down deeper into the hole, and it's getting a bit misty out, but there's still no reason for people to be. Dressed like they're expecting rain, they're basically in rain. Ponchos over normal clothes, hoods up, keeping their faces covered. The formlessness of the poncho makes it hard to tell what's underneath terms of clothing or equipment they might be carrying. That's probably the the most significant things. You would expect this to be. The kind of outfit of someone who is trying to be inconspicuous, but also needs to have layers to hide.

Rook: Great.

Orion: Um,

Rook: Okay.

Orion: look, I don't know what you're seeing over there, but I'm pretty sure that this guy, um, okay. Uh,

Rook: Mm-hmm. Yep. Uh, copy. A hundred percent. Same page there.

Orion: is the kid in on it?

Rook: Um, I don't know. They probably needs to get punted across the street. Um, I'm losing so much of my patience. I swear. I'm so, I, I would like to apologize. You are probably seeing some of the worst of me that has been around here for days upon days upon days.

Orion: Well, hey, the steady does seem to have a talent for bringing that out in people.

Rook: yes, it does. But some people more than others.

Orion: Um.

Rook: of, suppose it's time we, um, a little awakening and a little heads up.

Orion: Um, yeah, Hey, uh, before we switch out, just, I, I haven't stopped thinking about this since we, since we, um, about. I just, I just want you to know that my head doesn't explode case, case you needed me to punt the kid. I can't, You know,

just from, from, from exploding energy alone, I

can't do that.

Rook: No, I, I, I, I figured that your head did not in fact, explode.

Orion: Okay, Awesome. That's, that's a weight off my chest. I just, I just needed you to know that. And Orion kind of runs his, he runs his fingers through a patch near the back of his head, and the, the curls are almost like clouds. They clinging onto his fingers, but then his fingers seem to slip right through them.

And as the curls get stretched out from his head a little bit, you see little sparks of what look like static or even like, just teeny, you know, you know, like the, what are they called? Is it like the little plasma ball things?

Rook: Like, like, uh, little electricity arcs.

Orion: Yeah. And you see that like, I'm just like, I just, know, I like to, Make people aware that that happens.

'cause you know, it doesn't mix very well with, humidity, but Yeah. Um, sorry, just, I just needed to get that off my chest. Weird guys out back. Um, we should.

Rook: Duly noted. I, I'm not the biggest fan of humidity myself. It makes the, uh, the cough worse. Um, trust me, if there's, I, I would say I'm more likely to explode than you are, but I'm a little too, uh, burnt, burnt out for that.

Orion: Well, know if there's anything I can do for that.

Rook: I think you're about several years. Way too late. But yeah, appreciate the offer though.

Orion: it's gonna make a quick mental note of that and let's go wake up more in an aery.

Rook: Oh, I was gonna say, if, if this was about to get really bad, I was, I was actually saying more of a mass wake up. 'cause it seems like we're being stocked. I'm, I'm gonna just completely say it. It, it feels like we're being surveyed right now.

Orion: Uh, yeah, I'm getting that too.

Rook: So, uh, what do we think the move here is? ' cause we can either let them get fully set up get the drop on us, or we take the initiative and figure out what is going on here. Exactly.

Orion: Hmm. Ray above table. How many hours has it been?

Narrator: At the end of your watch, it has been four, so currently only Ataria would've had a long rest. I believe because Chris was on second shift. I know that, you know, she only needs four hours, but it's been broken up at this point.

Rook: Yeah.

Orion: Hmm.

Rook: I really would like more sleep than that, but, um.

Narrator: Yeah. I will say like with your high insight, this is a stakeout. You can tell their post they, they're planning to be there for a while, so it doesn't necessarily look like there is immediate infiltration risk, but your, your concerns are valid. I am simply saying Rook would not be under the impression that, you know, they're getting ready to go.

Rook: Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I'd say maybe wake the others up for their watch soon, but, um, keep a terry away from the windows.

Orion: Uh, yeah, that's a, that's a really good idea. Tell you what, um, it might be. I'll stay awake for the next, for the next trip. I, feeling okay. Um, and, you know, I gotta monitor the storm anyways. Um, you, let's keep people posted, you know, like, let's not wake everybody up, but let's get enough people up so that if, um, if need be, if stuff starts, know, heading down, then I, you know, just less people to wake up.

Rook: Okay.

Narrator: Just so you Porter are aware of mechanical consequences, you do need the full six hours at least to get a long rest as an ity. So if you do not rest again, or like if you stay up this time, you will not get enough rest you will take another level of exhaustion.

Orion: Oh

Chrys: Oh, that's,

Orion: have

Chrys: I forgot that he had one.

Narrator: Yeah,

Orion: forgot. Thank you for keeping track Ray.

Narrator: And so basically if you complete this long rest, you can remove one level of exhaustion. Those of you who have more than one will keep extra,

Chrys: Oh,

Narrator: don't complete this long rest, anyone who doesn't complete it will get a level of exhaustion because it's been over 24 hours basically that you guys have been operating.

Orion: Okay. In that case, I'd, I'd like to retract that statement. I, I do not want two levels of exhaustion. That sounds terrible.

Rook: Yeah, that's, that's rough. That would be awful.

Orion: yeah. I was like, ah, one

Chrys: especially on the fighter. Oh God. You would never make an attack roll again.

Orion: Yeah. just dies immediately.

Rook: Mm-hmm.

Orion: Uh, okay. Um, all right. So I say that, oh, is it possible for people who are sleeping to be, you know, more clumped together so that if we do have to wake them up, we don't have to go room to room waking people up? It might be quicker that way.

Narrator: I assumed everybody was sleeping bags in the living room kind of situation or just, you know, heads on coats. was not, uh, picturing people split into different rooms.

Orion: All righty.

Rook: There really aren't that many rooms to sleep. It's like a, it's like a studio.

Orion: yeah.

Rook: there's the bedroom, there's a bathroom that's not directly connected to the bedroom,

Orion: Yeah.

Rook: living room and kitchenette attached to the living

Orion: Orion's like hanging off the ceiling. Um. Okay. Um, yeah, you know what, in that case, let's just, you know, it's pretty clear that something's happening, but it doesn't seem to be like it's kicking off immediately. So, um, let's be Um, but let's also actually get somewhat rested.

Rook: yeah. Agreed. Let's just give the others a tip off. Keep, keep Eter away from the window and just hope for the best. 'cause. Honestly, I don't think the best has been happening. would be nice for a change of pace.

Orion: Oh, oh yeah, you're right. All right. Well, uh,

Rook: a little bit before I get back to sleep and he goes over and just resume smoking in the kitchenette.

Orion: he is like trying to like outmatch the dudes, so like

Chrys: Smoke off

Narrator: so fast.

Rook: Just like, I only got three more jars left. How much is he gonna go?

Chrys: Rook

Orion: aggressively

Chrys: this man's level of chain smoking.

Narrator: Your watch ends and you wake up Morin and a terria.

Rook: and of course we inform him of stuff I.

Narrator: I will say you shake a Terri's shoulder to her up and she turns eyes wide, fully, was not sleeping,

Chrys: Oh.

Narrator: has been wide awake this whole time, just staring at the wall, you know, accepting her level of exhaustion with, you know, her whole heart. She looks at you both begins to stand up and as you're explaining, sort of keeps, you know, always at most her profile, but trying to sort of keep her shoulder to the window and moves towards the door to do what Chris did last time and stay more so by the door, keeping an ear out during her part of the watch.

Morin: I will pull a rook and try to quietly wander around between. The windows to keep an eye on everything.

Narrator: Mm-hmm. All right, I'll roll a perception check for Atter and you can roll as well. Okay. 19 for Atter.

Morin: 22 for Morin. I was nervous because I'm using the same dice that were really bad last time and everyone had been rolling well. but it's good.

Orion: For those in the

Narrator: Nice.

Orion: I, I don't think there's anything that quite gives, that quite drives a stake of fear through the heart. Like your DM Rolling Dice,

Chrys: Yeah, that's true. Yes.

Narrator: There you go.

Chrys: Like me randomly talking, and then Ray just, I hear clickity clack, and I'm like, what was that for?

Narrator: no matter, perhaps, these are luck checks. to say I'm to say they're luck checks

Orion: you roll on that one. Orion explodes.

Chrys: Oh.

Narrator: turns out, yeah. Water plus Orion's Head does equal explosion.

Rook: Brigg SWAT team through the door.

Narrator: alright, so with a, i was it 22 for Morin? Alright, so, and are you bouncing between the two windows? Okay with a 22, you see the other person Rook mentioned who went back alley. There's not a window that faces that direction, so you can't know what's going on there. But you keep an eye on the kid at the front and the tall person smoking in the alley. notice that the person smoking in the alley seems to have run out of cigarettes and their hand is fidgeting at their side, just sort of against their leg, like tap, tap tapping, you know, doesn't have anything to do with their hands anymore, but, is not moving. Shifting feet just still posted up, looking, not quite so nonchalant now that they're out of cigarettes. then going back to the front, the is still sitting there at the front now, not sitting, pacing back and forth on that front step, kicking at dirt a little bit as, he walks back and forth. steel truck still in his hand. Looking sort of all around, looking, so bored, but moving from that position.

Really just pacing a little bit in that spot. And with a 22, you don't notice anything else During these two hours out front, ter uh, will back over to you and go, I don't, I don't Hear nothing outside. Uh, too

suspicious.

I hear. I don't know, folks being folks.

Morin: You know what I hear that's suspicious? Is you talking too loud? Take it down a moment please.

Narrator: I'll say above table. I, I find Aspen to be very soft and, and hard to hear. But, in general, uh, I gotta voice that carries okay. but alright. We don't have to talk at all. And Aria just leans by the door, crosses her arms. Seems a little bit put off by that. A

Morin: As Eter, when Eter says that moron just kind of beams and then walks back to the window in the kitchenette,

Chrys: Oh my God,

Narrator: Where did this come? When

Chrys: the Eter

Narrator: start?

Chrys: Club is too strong. Currently,

Morin: listen,

Rook: with it.

Morin: it's

Chrys: Eter Beef Squad is two people strong.

Morin: It's not personal, it's just it's time to sleep and Morin doesn't care.

Narrator: I, I love that for so much. It makes sense. So Eter will just stare at you in silence for two hours she listens at the front door and you bounce between these two windows. during this span of time, interesting seems to happen,

Morin: Epic.

Valentine: Seems to.

Narrator: but Eter is gonna stay up as it's now time to transfer. And I believe Morin was going to wake up Chris for this last portion of the shift.

Chrys: And I have fully long rested, yay. That's four hours.

Narrator: Yay. Hey, I believe at this point, oh no, it's only Chris and Ter that have technically long rested. This is the last segment for everybody else. well, ter currently has the spot by the door, so is

Chrys: Mm-hmm.

Narrator: to try to not look like a dead guy at the window?

Chrys: Yeah. How would I go about that?

Narrator: I think you can pull your hood up. It, it would look a little strange, I think, to anyone walking by, looking up. But again, this is a very tall, very long apartment building. So yeah, it, it would not necessarily be, someone would have to be looking up and happen to see you or looking at these

Chrys: Okay.

Narrator: particular to see something, strange. But, yeah, you just sort of duck. And you can also keep low too. It's not like you have to stand full tee posing in front of the window.

You can, you know, sort of peak and whatnot. Um mm-hmm.

Chrys: window would you guys recommend Chris post up at? The one with the kid or the one with the dudes in the alley.

Valentine: Could always pace.

Chrys: Okay. I could do that.

Narrator: Slink between the two.

Chrys: Yeah, I could do that.

Narrator: All right. Perception, check time.

Chrys: Oh, buddy, let's go.

Narrator: Oh, poor baby.

Chrys: Oh, that's fantastic news. That would be a 23.

Narrator: Alright. Nice. I'll let you know. got a 10, has a good bonus to perception, but, uh, rolled quite low out of these two windows. You look and you see the kid is still there. guy in the alley is still there. And. With above a 20, you notice a shape move past the guy in the kitchenette window into that alley back far enough that you can no longer see the shape. You can't tell if it's going all the way to the back of the building or just far enough back in the alley that it cannot be seen from the front of the building. But this shape is hulking, still humanoid size.

I wouldn't say like d and d terms. It's not large, but we're talking, pushing the boundaries big and covered in a cloak, poncho thing, like the other figures.

Chrys: Okay. And that is that all,

Narrator: Yeah, that's it. Eter says she doesn't hear anything.

Chrys: um, there, there is a new person in the, um, space between the buildings and they are very large.

Narrator: I guess we'll talk about that when everybody's awake, because I'm not supposed to be talking about things like that right now. No, sorry. No,

Chrys: Chris cos their head in confusion.

Narrator: no, you're fine. No, I'm being petty. I'm being petty. No. Do you think we should wake up and miss the self-righteous or the angel? The, did any of them need to be woken up or do we think, does, did it look like anything dangerous was happening right now? Or like,

Chrys: What, what does Chris think? Like, what do you think? Like, should I like roll for that or,

Narrator: I'll also do an insight check to, you can get a, a lay of the land, maybe

Chrys: lovely. Ooh. Okay, Chris. Damn. I'm worried 'cause I keep rolling really well. I'm scared for later. That's a 22.

Narrator: a 22, with a 22, you look. The two figures. You can see the kid and the person who was previously smoking in the alley. They're looking antsy. They're moving around, they've been waiting for a while, the shape just got here and you know, it, it, they're not leaving their positions. It's not like they're starting to look around the corner.

It's not like they're looking. I'd say with a 22, you get the impression that these folks are antsy, but this is a stakeout. There's not intention to enter the building. There

Chrys: Okay.

Narrator: to immediately jump upon something leaving.

Chrys: Okay. I do not think they're going to come to us. I think they're waiting for us to go to them.

Narrator: All right. Well then I guess what we do is we just, uh, keep a lookout. I'll keep an ear out. can't really do anything about it right now. And it seems like folks really need the rest. I know you and I are all right, but, uh, I know, I guess I'd feel better if, uh, everybody else was at. Peak capacity or something close to it. So, uh, you just keep those, uh, strangely well preserved eyes a you as, uh, on the lookout, huh?

Chrys: I can do that. Yes.

Narrator: And we'll, uh, we'll report to the rest when it's time to wake 'em up. We've only got another half a click. Maybe, uh, we'll see if we can hold out that long.

Chrys: Okay.

Narrator: You all

Chrys: Chris is still doing the swaying thing

Narrator: Yeah. You all

Chrys: and kind of fiddling, like they keep doing this like rep, like repetitive motion with their hand as well, and like it doesn't look like it's really conscious that they're doing these things, that they're just kind of doing it.

Oh, yes. I suppose, um,

I suppose, uh, pacing maybe is making me nervous, but I need to do it so.

Narrator: What's you doing with your hand? What's

Chrys: Huh?

Narrator: With your hand?

Chrys: Oh, was I doing something with my hand?

Narrator: Yeah, it's like a twitch or something. Your hand. Okay.

Chrys: Chris looks down at their hand and they, they recognize the shape that it's in. Oh, I think it is a nervous habit just to twitch my hand in the strange way, probably. Um, I don't know. It just, I just do it sometimes. I don't know why.

Narrator: Well we've all got quirks things that we do. It was just making sure you were all right. It seems like you were getting almost as antsy as this folks out there.

Chrys: Yes, there is a, there is. I, I do not, I know many things, so I hope that I am right, but I believe I am.

Narrator: I think you are. I think you know more than think. You got a good instinct it seems, but

Chrys: That's probably good then.

Narrator: it can be. It can be. Well. Just take some deep breaths. We've only got a little bit more time and, uh, if anybody asks, I say a peep

Chrys: Okay. I will not say that you talked, if somebody asks,

Narrator: that a boy I Eter goes back to leaning against the wall by the front door sort of turns, so her ear is more towards the hallway and the rest of the passes by

Chrys: I will say af. After that conversation, Chris is now looking down at their hand and consciously doing the motion and staring at it

Narrator: hmm.

Chrys: for the rest of the, like watching.

Narrator: All right. But at the end of that hour, Chris and Ataria walk around and start shaking shoulders. A long rest was had by all.

Chrys: Yay.

Valentine: Ooh.

Morin: Success.

Chrys: Fantastic news guys. I did not think we could do it.

Orion: Ryan sits up and is like, ah, I can barely feel the stab wound from Antell on my foot.

Narrator: Oh yeah. I will say, Chris dur

Chrys: doing

Narrator: the long rest. Um, Terrell When you nap. I'm gonna say that's the rule. Terrell is, is not awake when you are

Chrys: or sits and stares at the floor at the very least 'cause Chris doesn't sleep.

Narrator: yeah. Is not aware when you are not aware, for our purposes.

Chrys: Okay.

Narrator: when you were awake, by the door or pacing, Sean Terrell, pulled some laces from one of R's extra pairs of boots and has fashioned a little belt around her waist of this long bootlace has nod the chip given by Morin into a little shank, but has used their gums and their, like, weird little mushroom tongue to wear out a little circle in the top and strung it on the belt. And

Chrys: Oh my God,

Narrator: somewhere else, probably the kitchenette has acquired a, uh. Yeah, there's not a lot of wood available, so they have taken a, like metal spoon has just been gnawing on it. And slowly you can see the sheer force of the gnawing has started to slowly, like the end of a popsicle, or not Popsicle candy cane, you know, when you like, suck the end into, like the sharpest point you can imagine has just started gnawing on the end of the spoon so that the thick part is still grab-able, but they're creating another little shank out of this spoon that they had got from Rooks kitchen.

Chrys: little familiar is gonna start taking rogue levels in a minute.

Orion: Above table. I just, I would, I would do anything for Sean Terrell.

Chrys: Sweet. Lord. Sh I don't rem I, I like that. Like we've just decided that Shael has these sharp little teeth

Narrator: just, or just the, just the hardest gums. Just,

Orion: Yeah,

Narrator: um,

Chrys: I'm not even sure what she is to be honest.

Narrator: The.

Orion: like distant blacksmithing, but it's just Terrell in the room making a, it is just in the other room, making a

Chrys: Just, you just hear, it's just like, you just hear like the sound, but it's just

gnawing on stuff like,

Narrator: So anyway, that's

what Sean Terrell's

been up to. But

you can fill everybody in on what happened

during your shift. If it's all right. We'll, we'll just say

that Everybody gets.

filled in

Chrys: okay.

Narrator: is up to speed on what happened during everyone's shifts. And, now you can decide it's been eight hours, it's nine hours until the seam is, or you're supposed to dock at the seam. Yeah. Lily.

Chrys: This is less for me and more for everybody else. Long resting takes away exhaustion levels, right?

Valentine: One.

Narrator: Just one at a

Chrys: One. Okay.

Narrator: So if you

Chrys: Cute one.

Narrator: one, you have to long rest multiple times to get rid of them all.

Chrys: Okay. I don't have one, but I think a couple people might have one. So,

Narrator: Thank you for, for making sure it was clear.

Valentine: What's going on now?

Narrator: Yay.

Chrys: And I have all my spell slots back. Yay.

Valentine: so we have nine hours

Narrator: Mm-hmm. Until you dock.

Valentine: Okay. Okay.

Rook: the window.

Valentine: I know.

Rook: Mm.

Valentine: No, so

Orion: Although I will say just above table, depending on how the stakeout goes, we might need that extra time.

Valentine: that's, it's your apartment, Rook. you have a plan

Rook: Well, um,

Chrys: route like there was in my home.

Rook: maybe

Valentine: people in the alleys, got that route covered.

Rook: got alleys covered. They've most definitely got the, uh, the front of the building covered. So, um, shoot,

Valentine: there anyway. Does your building connect above or below to another deck? Could we get out that way?

Rook: I mean, I'm not sure if it connects below to another deck. know there's always a rooftop, but I'm not sure how much that'll serve us, but. There might be other buildings we might be able to jump onto from here. Could be risky, but it'll let us take a different alternate route. Um, hold on. Let me, let me think. Um, would I, would I know of any, like, other directions?

'cause they seem to be covering the front. They seem to be covering the sides. is there a back entrance to the building or is there like, you know, a more underground exit point or anything like that?

Narrator: There is a back entrance to the building. and there is a, you know, on either side there is an alley. So that's basically the main ways someone could get in and out of this building. There is a back entrance, there's side entrances into the alleys, and then there's the front entrance. Those are the, the four main ways you can get into and out of the building.

Rook: Cool. There is a roof. Yes. Yes.

Narrator: Yes,

Valentine: Nope.

Rook: the, are the buildings that are on the opposite ends of the alleys, are either of them shorter than this building

Narrator: no, everything here is uniformly the same height.

Rook: and about how wide is the alley?

Narrator: The alley about 20 feet wide.

Rook: Hmm. 20 foot jump. That's a really big jump. I could not jump that far.

Valentine: Me neither. Maybe if we went the front way, I could distract the kid and catch up with you all.

Rook: Oh, shoot. Um, maybe I'm really worried about that. Um, that big guy that they were talking about, is he is, is he still down by the, like the kitchen window area?

Narrator: The, the shape moved past to the point where you, you'd have to stick your head out into the alley to try to see you further down.

Rook: Hmm. Okay. Way too conspicuous. if the shape move past, I'm gonna go out on a limb and assume that's the thing. Covering the back entrance.

Valentine: Agreed.

Rook: Well, we know they're there. They can't get the drop on us per se either. We can all go out ready for conflict or you make a distraction. But the problem is they all saw us come in here together. That includes you.

Valentine: Or they followed Orion and Morin in here after the rest of us.

Rook: Oh.

Morin: Hate to say it, but that is a likely possibility.

Narrator: And then were you talking really loud?

Morin: Um, I don't know. I don't think so. I think we were just like carrying a box, you know?

Narrator: Mm-hmm.

Rook: Really large box by the look of it.

Orion: Um,

Rook: Shoot.

Orion: Orion looks deeply uncomfortable with making the suggestion, but, if it's a distraction that. You're looking for? I mean, we're doing a distraction, is the plan post distraction just to like run like hell?

Rook: Um, so it would seem or try to lose them in a way that they would not be able to follow. I don't know how many of us have, um, and more obscuring of a trail or anything like that. But, um, if one happens to have that ability, it would be very useful to, uh, say that right about now.

Chrys: What would obscuring of a trail entail above table?

Rook: A visual obscuring, like some sort of like smokescreen mist, fog.

Valentine: the spell fog cloud,

Rook: Yeah. Like fog cloud.

Valentine: traces.

Rook: Fog

Orion: do not.

Rook: without trace, expeditious retreat,

Chrys: actually I do know Fog Cloud,

Orion: The corpse comes in clutch,

Chrys: eh,

Rook: be, that could not work out better.

Valentine: book it.

Chrys: okay. That could work.

Rook: It could

Chrys: would fog, would fog Cloud be too conspicuous? Is my only question. I also Yeah.

Rook: past the

Chrys: Yeah.

Morin: This is the least conspicuous possible setting for Fog Cloud.

Orion: out. Yeah.

Chrys: Fair enough.

Rook: Um, I might be able to get one of them unconscious. Might be able to get one of 'em off our trail. We'll see.

Valentine: Perfect. Do we have, are we just going straight to the docks then over land, or are we going out into the void to the docks?

Orion: Above table. I was assuming that since we got the suit that we would be going around the hole, not the hole, going around the outer edge of the city as to avoid the lengthy and probably incriminating, documents station that Ontario would have to pass through in order to actually get through the seam, you know, legally, uh.

Valentine: Okay. do we have do we have like a rendezvous point for that? Then? Uh, Orion Morin.

Orion: So my guess is that we, that Chris casts Fog Cloud, run like hell and try to lose them in one of the secret like floater outer point entry like passages.

Morin: I can do that for you.

Orion: Alright. Um, if

Morin: if that is the plan, then

Orion: can I hold an

Morin: action to when we step out into the thought cloud.

Narrator: Well, we haven't done it yet, so when we get to that point, you can tell me what the action is and what you would like to hold. Keep in mind you can't hold a bonus action. Um

Orion: Okay.

Chrys: And then also I believe I can, if I'm, if I'm not mistaken about how Fog Cloud works, I can move the cloud with us if we need to. I think, can I do that? Is that a thing I can do?

Narrator: the, read the spell. 

Valentine: You can't move it.

Narrator: No, you, yeah. I

Chrys: I can't move it damn

Valentine: range.

Chrys: well. Anyway, I also have, we, Terry also has a misty step use, so if that's useful for her at all. If, if like we need to get her outta somewhere really quickly.

Valentine: true. I mean, we just need it on the door and then to run.

Rook: Okay. Real quick, R is gonna his pipe and do like a long, really long drag off of it and then kind of aim his neck up and point the smoke directly at the ceiling. As I am going to use Tails from Beyond and see what it gives me.

Narrator: Hmm.

Rook: Oh, cool. useful. And this kind of smoke app operates, it starts out gray and then it turns this like kind of angry, bright, blue color. And then it almost congeals and coalesces, as it kind of settles back down. on R'S Belt, it almost solidifies into this weird, solid, smoky dagger that has just materialized there and is on his belt right behind his other knife.

Valentine: Awesome.

Narrator: Nice

Chrys: Question above table are we? I was too busy looking at my stuff. Are we going just straight out the front door or are we going via the roof?

Narrator: front door. Seems like the plan. Is that right? Team?

Morin: Narrator question. Long jumps are usually if you get a running start, it's the same number of feet as your strength score. Yes.

Narrator: Yes.

Morin: Is there any way we could fun flavor it to involve dexterity for Morin as a floater?

Narrator: I think probably not it is a feature of raw strength to be able to, like, push yourself forward. Dexterity is more like strength launches you in the air. Dexterity is how you land, if that makes sense. Right? So I think that it takes your strength to launch yourself forward. Could maybe an incredibly skilled acrobatics check allow you to like grab the edge if you, you know, weren't quite far enough maybe. But I think that you can't necessarily swap, swap those scores for that purpose.

Morin: Okay, fantastic. Not doing that, gravity is not my forte.

Narrator: You do have a grappling hook? I mean, just as a tool.

Morin: Yes. But would it be the most stealthy thing possible while we're booking it to be like a hook? Every time I'm jumping across the 20 foot,

Orion: fog cloud. Like I, it's not, nothing about this is inconspicuous, you're, they're

Chrys: am kind of worried about how, how conspicuous we're being about this actually.

Valentine: They already know we're here is the thing, you

Chrys: Okay. But like, we want to get out without them seeing us.

Rook: there's

Morin: not gonna happen.

Rook: out without them seeing us un, unless,

Chrys: Oh, do tell,

Rook: okay. Hear me out here. We fog cloud, the front entrance to make it seem like we're dipping out the front entrance. We leave out the back entrance after we know they're all rushing to the front

Chrys: Hmm.

Valentine: or vice versa.

Rook: or vice versa.

Valentine: the back entrance because of the shape.

Rook: Oh yeah. Big guy.

Chrys: Question above table.

Like if, like, entertaining that idea. Because I have a familiar, would it be possible 'cause like she, chantrell can cast spells at a distance from me,

Narrator: Mm-hmm.

Chrys: like I can cast spells through Chantrell. So if that's useful at all, like, if we want to like, like,

Valentine: I mean, but then you need Chantrell to get back to you, right? Is the only problem.

Chrys: Hmm.

Orion: I mean, I have something that could very briefly create a stand in, so to speak, at the back, while the rest of us

Chrys: Oh, that's right.

Orion: So that is an option.

Chrys: That's right. I forgot

Orion: So,

Chrys: you

Orion: So the plan as I see us so far is casts Fog Cloud at the back, and I a little stand-in, dude there. We rush out the, they think that we're at the back. Go to the back. We, run like hell out the front and just keep going.

Morin: That sounds about right.

Orion: All righty.

Rook: fair enough. And,

Orion: How many

Rook: and

Orion: would you say?

Rook: be, it's

Chrys: Let me double check something.

Orion: Yeah. Hey,

Chrys: Uh.

Orion: by any chance how many feet between the back door and the front door?

Narrator: this shotgun building that I described as being very, very long,

Orion: Yeah.

Narrator: more than 30.

Orion: Ah,

Valentine: I still kind of think that maybe we should just cast Fog Cloud on us because with the building being so long, it's not gonna take them that much time to figure out that there's no people coming out of the Fog Cloud. And then we're just un

Chrys: mean, I could up cast it to make it a bigger radius.

Orion: But then you'd be blowing higher level spell floods.

Rook: wait, or we take a page out of their book.

Orion: We 

stake 

Chrys: How do you mean?

Rook: No, not smoke a lot of cigarettes. Uh, although, you know, if that's, if that's what you're gonna do, that's what you're gonna do? Uh,

Orion: Rick just bust out the front door aggressively smoking.

Narrator: smoking so much.

Rook: what I'm doing. No. Um, all wearing stuff that obfuscates what

Chrys: smokes to establish dominance.

Rook: and got some spare clothes and some spare rain clothes. Especially since a lot of the time I'm out, we all put cloaks on, we run out in the fog in different directions, pairs. You can't tell who's who

Valentine: That's an excellent idea. I think we should do that.

Morin: Then we just

Chrys: That's actually a great idea.

Orion: Rendezvous

Morin: at the exit. Yeah.

Orion: We need a

Chrys: Really the only fear that I have about this is splitting everyone up, but

Rook: it, it,

Valentine: oh, sorry.

Rook: no, no. After you. After you, of course.

Valentine: We just need to make sure that Ataria is with, I would say either Orion or Morin who can protect her

Rook: Okay.

Chrys: mm-hmm.

Valentine: And then it really doesn't matter what the rest of us do. 'cause I don't, I mean, unless this is more of your friends moron, I don't think they're looking for us.

Morin: I don't think they're mine. Also, someone needs to carry the box.

Chrys: I forgot about the pucks.

Narrator: I like put

that thing on

under the cloak or like,

Orion: Yeah. But then it'd be really hard to move around because that thing weighs a ton.

Rook: son of,

Narrator: eh.

Rook: um,

Orion: Okay. I probably have the best strength stat so I can take the chest,

Narrator: Strength that, what's that?

Orion: uh,

Chrys: I think this was above table.

Rook: he meant

Narrator: Her nose starts bleeding.

Orion: yeah's nose starts bleeding,

Valentine: So maybe Orion with the box. And I kind of think that Orion should go with, not Eter, because Orion will be somewhat visible with the box.

Rook: Mm-hmm.

Valentine: in an eter.

Morin: I can do that. My hands will be free.

Narrator: It'll be a pleasure.

Valentine: Okay.

Orion: make an inside check on that one.

Rook: God.

Narrator: Valentine's, just like I don't have time.

Valentine: We're all gonna die. Um, And then Orion, I can travel with Orion.

Rook: And I got Chris then.

Valentine: Perfect.

Orion: Right. And I guess final order of business, what's our rendezvous point?

Morin: I can describe to everyone the nearest floater exit that I know of, and generally the route to get there. And then I'd assume that most of us, except for Chris, would be familiar enough with the street layout to get back to street that they need to be on to get there.

Orion: And Chris

is with Rook, so I think he's good there.

Narrator: Yeah, the nearest floater exit is in the back of a warehouse nearby that has a wall that is the outside hole of the ship. It is, you know, in the far reaches, sort of in a more industrial part of the city, but close enough here to the residential area that that's where some people go to work in those warehouses there.

So you know that if you enter that building and go to the back, there is essentially a special filing room that if you move some of the. Filing cabinets and whatnot. There is a crack in the hole, where you can slip out into the void.

Valentine: All right. Do we wanna send. I'm thinking maybe Porter and I go first because Porter will have the suit. So then if, oh, Orion. Sorry. And

Orion: Please don't put me in there. I, I don't run very well.

Valentine: Oh,

Chrys: Capable of, um, making themself look like someone else.

Valentine: not, I, unfortunately, except for

Chrys: 'cause

Valentine: this off and I'm, she just kind of waves a hand towards her halo.

Chrys: I'm double checking something.

Rook: I unfortunately lack that ability.

Orion: I have

Chrys: Oh my God. It's not,

Orion: budget version of that.

Chrys: hold on. Lemme double check something.

Narrator: I will say, Valentine's hair is dyed, but you are, you know, ostensibly an elf as

Chrys: Oh my God. It's not

Narrator: to eter in some ways. hair is the wrong color, but

Valentine: Ah.

Chrys: because because we just finished long rest. So I can prepare spells,

Narrator: mm-hmm.

Chrys: could, I have a spell where I can make myself look different. I have disguise self above table. I could repair that and make myself look like a terrier.

Rook: I, um, I'm kind of for that.

Orion: Yeah.

Valentine: Yeah.

Rook: So then are

Orion: If you really want it to be.

Rook: we going with obfuscation or overt?

Chrys: Well, for here's what I'm thinking. Like, everyone, like runs, but like maybe I, I could like pretend to like, I don't know, like my hood falls down or something and then I put it back up.

Orion: any easier, Orion could take Terrell so that you know, one of the arias doesn't have a little mushroom dude.

Chrys: That would be good.

Valentine: well,

Rook: Yep.

Valentine: I be, I know, I I am pretty sure that this is not how this would work in real life, but would it be possible for Valentine to wash the dye from her hair in these few moments?

Narrator: I'll say how it works for you. You have to basically be constantly dyeing your hair because the radiant shine inherent to your body constantly bleaches your hair and forces its way through, so you're dyeing your hair like weekly. So I would say if you focused hard and really tapped into that power within yourself, you could bleach out your hair in minutes.

Orion: Awesome. No, just everyone just being like, no, I'm just imagining like we're okay. All right. We got a plan. Let's go. And then we turn around. And Valentine's just aggressively scrubbing her hair in the sink.

Narrator: Just one second guys.

Orion: One second.

Morin: I kind of like this.

Valentine: I know. Yeah. Just bugging on her eyes like

Rook: and, and like you and like you see, instead of like red veins on her eyes, like getting bloodshot. It's just like they start glowing a little bit on the edges.

Narrator: Mm-hmm.

Valentine: exactly.

Narrator: But I will say Valentine, in order to do this though, you have to tap into that radiance within you, which requires touching the divinity in your blood. And in order to do that, I'm going to need a charisma, saving throw from you.

Valentine: Oh, good thing.

Rook: boy.

Valentine: those famous last words.

Orion: knocking on wood.

Valentine: Oh, 19.

Orion: Oh.

Narrator: You reach down within and you feel a pulsing current in time with your heartbeat inside of you. And then reach deeper into that part of your very soul that doesn't belong to you, but belongs to the everything, the thing that is bigger than you and this city and this everything. And you grab onto it, mold it in your hands. Push it out through your scalp and your hair bleaches bright white.

Valentine: I hate doing that. At least. So if Chris casts his spell, then we'll have one Eter pair

Chrys: Ooh, that's great news.

Valentine: we're gonna Harry Potter this ish.

Chrys: Yep.

Morin: I was gonna say.

Orion: Orion is by the sudden, hair change.

Rook: Does everyone here have like. Some crazy going on with their hair.

Chrys: Um,

Rook: that what we got? is that us?

Valentine: I think

Chrys: Chris, Chris takes their hood down, says, uh, people think my hair is weird. And you witness when they take their hood down, like it, they have, they have a head of hair. It's like, it's, it's there. It's like dark brown. Um, it's kind of like, um, it's like not short, it's like kind of ish, like shoulder, like about the bottom of the shoulders, it is the most hacked out hairstyle you've ever seen in your life. Like, it looks like an 8-year-old went into the bathroom and just randomly chopped at pieces of their hair. That's what Chris's hair looks like. Like there are some parts that are like tufted and normal, like haven't been really cut much.

And then there's some that are just like very abruptly cut, like straight across.

Valentine: charming.

Chrys: if that's what you were asking.

Rook: Down in the, down in the hall. I've heard.

Chrys: I did this myself

Orion: Oh.

Chrys: and they kind of do that smile thing that is kind of like that correct smile they have.

Rook: It looks very nice.

Narrator: Yeah, it

Chrys: you.

Narrator: like you put in a good effort. It looks, uh, unique.

Chrys: Yes, I heard that um, cutting hair was a thing people did, so I wanted to try it

Narrator: Does

Chrys: I like, I think I liked it.

Narrator: does it grow back?

Chrys: I believe so.

Narrator: Fascinating.

Chrys: I know that on my normal hand, my nails grow.

Narrator: Wow.

Orion: I have so many questions yet, so little time.

Rook: beyond the logistics of corpse hair and nails, um,

Valentine: are we

Rook: I believe it would be time

Narrator: I will say, my understanding is we've got like nine hours before we're close enough that I can leave. So are we just like gonna hang out outside for, for like seven hours or like in like the acid and like necrotic storm? Or are we like finding a different place to hold up? Are we gonna wait here until a little close at the time?

Like what is, what is the, what's that plan, what's the, after we leave plan?

Valentine: That's a great question, Ontario.

Morin: I feel like it makes sense to find someplace to hide out to where we're docking, so that we make sure we're not missing it. I'd rather be there seven hours early than a couple minutes late.

Orion: Yeah.

Valentine: Do any of

Morin: Yeah, that's.

Valentine: have any, who lives closest to the docks or is this it?

Narrator: So probably in terms of living close r this residential is the closest to the crack that you guys are going to in the hole. The docks itself are in a different spot and Orion probably lives closer to those. 

Orion: So are we taking a quick pit stop at my place then?

Rook: I think we're taking a series of ever-growing gambles, showing these people where we're. We live just throwing that out there. Um, and unfortunately people already like to keep tabs on me, I'm not too terribly concerned that people that are probably not the best know where to find, make, 'cause you, you know, they kind of occupational hazard. Um, I would rather save other people the fate of that.

Valentine: Now chivalrous,

Rook: No, it's not.

Chrys: God, the beef.

Orion: Okay.

Valentine: if we ever meet again, rock. I'll have to teach you about the fine art of sarcasm, but

Rook: I was, oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. Don't, don't mistake it. I know you're being sarcastic. I am simply ignoring that because I'm trying to do something to prioritize someone other than myself. that seems to go well over the heads of half of you here. quite frankly, now that I'm a little more rested, I can put it in a little more eloquent of a way. I apologize for my curtness yesterday, but I'm not gonna let myself stand here and be called in a sarcastic way and self-righteous and goody two shoes when I don't personally think it's anything wrong to care about someone else here on this God's forsaken hunk of rock. So I would rather not put anyone else at risk.

Valentine: I only called you one of those things, and I agree nothing wrong with caring about someone else. If you're being paid to do so, we should go.

Rook: Agreed.

Narrator: In Valentine, you look past Rook and you see Ter you sort of a knowing look. And then she just sort of waves her hand behind R's back and then

Rook: Do I notice that?

Narrator: um.

Valentine: you.

Narrator: What's your passive perception?

Rook: I don't care if it's behind me. I'm petty. My passive perception is 14.

Narrator: Okay. No, I, it's too subtle. It's literally like she looks at Valentine and goes, goes kind of like, you know, that's it.

Orion: behind you.

Narrator: So she doesn't say anything or do anything? 

Valentine: Um,

Chrys: Remember that we are audio.

Narrator: Mm-hmm. Oh, yes. For the sake of the audience, I had my hand to my face and I did a sort of like, oh, whatever gesture. I ha eyebrows up hand flipped to the side and went back to sort of covering my mouth in a demure, little sassy way. I hate describing myself like that, but that's where

Chrys: It's okay. I forget. Literally every time we record.

Orion: Very demure.

Narrator: Yeah. Oh gosh.

Valentine: Maybe this warehouse area that we're heading to, maybe we can stay there for an hour or we could make our way on the interior route, which would take us to four hours or more if we're being stealthy, which we should be, and then we would get there right on time.

Orion: Mm.

Rook: Assuming no issues along the road or anything like that could be optimal.

Orion: We'd still have to come up with a different rendezvous point.

Chrys: Question for Ray. Did Atter have a cloak?

Narrator: Eter is wearing a big trench coat style jacket. Does not have a cloak per se. I know trench coats don't normally have a hood, but hers has a leather hood she can pull over her head for

Chrys: Okay,

Narrator: excuse me, for when it rains, but

Chrys: because I was thinking that my, like, like I could switch cloaks with somebody to obfuscate it even more. Maybe because I would directly look like atter and my cloak is very weird. It's that, remember it's that patchworky multicolor thing.

Narrator: mm-hmm.

Morin: Most of us we're gonna take cloaks from

Rick. Closet anyways.

Orion: Right.

Chrys: that's right. Now I remember.

Valentine: But

Orion: Yeah.

Valentine: smart for one of us to have a Terry's actual hood.

Orion: Right. And especially the one that will look pretty much exactly like terria,

Narrator: Works for me that Terry starts taking off her jacket.

Orion: co. Our rendezvous point could just be at a spot near the, the seam, like where, where we dock if we're taking the interior route.

Valentine: And I just wanna clarify not to bog this down with a million questions narrator, but taking the interior route to that wouldn't preclude us kind of floating her into the seam as was kind of

Narrator: No, you could sneak out. I am sure floater wise, there are ways out of the city that are closer to the docks, but the closer you get to the docks, the more the area of the ship is populated and has stuff going on because they're preparing the city to be attached to this rip in reality. So there will be sun lashers out there, there will be other people there.

That's something that at Ontario was going to have to go through what in order to get to the seam. Logistically it hasn't been discussed a lot, but it seems like in terms of the deal, you've said you're getting a, a ter in a suit outside the ship and then actually getting through is all prerogative, but getting out of the city there by the seam. Will be a slightly harder task than getting out of it down here, but it's definitely possible it's not, I'm not telling you that it is not possible or that it's better to try to go the legitimate route through the gangway. It is simply saying is tougher to do it there than it is down here.

Morin: Can you remind me the inside route was shorter than the outside route, right? Timewise?

Narrator: two hours just going, or

Sorry,

an hour, I believe I said

going normal, but stealthy.

it was

more like two hours

to

get up there and then outside the ship could be two to

four hours you are

going normal. slash careful

of the environmental factors. 

Morin: Okay. So if we wanted to eat time, then outside still seems like the best option.

Valentine: Yeah.

Chrys: I also want to say Chris is going to be pretty useless regarding navigation, so whoever goes with Chris quotes around it, Terria is going to need to know where they're going for sure,

Narrator: Mm-hmm.

Rook: I'm

Chrys: Chris will get lost. Chris does not live up here.

Rook: pretty sure I'm good on that front, so.

Narrator: Yeah. Rooks and native.

Morin: okay, so our plan is. Fog cloud by the front door, and then we split off in different directions in three pairs each with one atter slash atter lookalike, and we meet up at the warehouse

Narrator: yeah, I'll say Morin is able to easily describe where this warehouse is. so you will all be able to find your way there, assuming you are with someone who is familiar with the area at least. The plan is set, gonna split the party on me into

Morin: three groups.

Narrator: three separate groups. Um, uh,

Chrys: I mean, if we're splitting, they have to split too.

Narrator: hey, hey, you know what? That's very right. and we'll see how, how it goes. All right.

Narrator: final things y'all do? I'll say you've, you've distributed the cloaks. Ataria is now wearing, I think Chris's cloak and Chris is wearing what Ataria was wearing as her coat. Right.

Chrys: Yes.

Narrator: Um,

Chrys: what can I do with my, what can I do with my cloak in the meantime?

Narrator: I think Ari Yeah, Ari is wearing

Chrys: that's right. That's right. That's right. And then we're all gonna be wearing stuff from Rook.

Valentine: Mm-hmm.

Narrator: Valentine's

Chrys: Okay. 

Narrator: Her clear sort of rain jacket with, with the, the cloak. Is there any, any last things y'all say or do before you leave the apartment and head towards the front door?

Valentine: Try not to die, everybody.

Orion: Yeah, seconded.

Rook: Isn't that just the day to day

Valentine: That's

Chrys: sit in my house.

This will be a second for me, I believe.

Valentine: You'll be fine.

Rook: we got this.

Make it to the

warehouse, no problem. 

Morin: Right before we get ready to head out the door, Morin will kind of tap Valentine on the arm, and just go your, your hair looks nice, and then immediately shuffle back into her spot by Ter.

Valentine: Valentine's gonna blow her a kiss.

Morin: Morin

Narrator: Uh,

Morin: just stares at you, makes no facial expression for a few seconds, and then gives like a slight professional nod and goes back to what she was doing and is just kind of staring wide-eyed at the floor.

Chrys: Pride month. Everybody.

Rook: So true.

Chrys: We're recording this in June. If, if that's a,

Narrator: in January.

Chrys: we recorded this in June, guys.

Valentine: Little does Mora know that the, that blowing a kiss is basically Valentine's equivalent of a professional. No.

Narrator: Oh yeah. No. Uh, gosh. Okay.

Rook: Oh,

Orion: Roll to flirt back.

Narrator: You

Chrys: love them.

Narrator: to

Chrys: I.

Narrator: leave the apartment. And walk down the staircase. Orion vu in reverse, carrying this incredibly heavy, spacesuit, basically diving suit, bath spacesuit. you are moving through this stairwell, you come to the front door and there's a little, it's not it's not horrible. It's just a little lobby area. At the bottom of the stairs here, there is a double set of doors in the front with two glass panels, on each door, trying to make it look a little inviting for people to come in. And as you get closer, you do see that the little kid is still sitting by the door. this time it seems to be back to rolling the truck aimlessly on the step, but right there, if anybody opens the door, the kid is going to notice.

Chrys: Before, like obviously like probably before we even started going down the, the stairs, um, Chris did the disguise self into eter. Is disguise self just physical and not voice?

Narrator: It's just physical, I believe.

Chrys: Okay. Chris is just gonna look at everyone, but like it's, they look exactly like eter now and with Chris'. Voice is gonna go, does this look okay?

Valentine: You are perfect, sweetheart. Let's go.

Narrator: The last thing I need is a marching order. As this, spell goes off, you guys said you wanna take off running. I need to know pair's first, second, third, direction. There is right forward left 'cause of the T intersection.

Chrys: Okay.

Narrator: So I will need to

Chrys: Which, which way are the people in the alley?

Narrator: You are, you believe there are people in probably each alley.

Chrys: Damn. Okay.

Valentine: So

Chrys: I'm, I'm, I'm going, I'm with Rook, so.

Narrator: Mm-hmm.

Valentine: we should send a Terry up, straight up the middle,

Narrator: Mm-hmm.

Morin: for the best chance of booking it out.

Orion: Is the left or the right side is that which is the one with more like closer to more people?

Narrator: As you are looking out the front, you are basically smack dab in the middle of a shift. So it is pretty dead outside. There are a few people walking around, but it is not busy by any stretch. busiest, that in mind, the busiest. Option is forward. There are more people on the bigger street going forward than there are on the two smaller streets going left and right.

Valentine: and we believe the shape is to the right.

Narrator: The looking out at the apartment, the alley with the guy that was smoking was the alley that's to the left and the shape went down that alley. You don't know if the shape went all the way to the back or if the shape is still in that alley. you saw another guy go to the right and disappear down the right alley?

Valentine: Okay.

Narrator: Yeah. The kids kind of in the front is to the left slightly, but basically right there on the front stoop.

Valentine: Okay. Okay. I might do Orion, maybe Orion and I to the left.

Orion: Uh, yeah, I second that.

Narrator: Where in the marching order? One, two, or three.

Valentine: I think we said one

Narrator: Okay.

Valentine: that

Orion: Yeah. I'm okay with, I'm okay with one or two. I think one would immediately garner the most attention.

Rook: I think either the first or the. Would garner the most attention.

Orion: Mm.

Rook: So probably best to have a Terry. Go second.

Orion: Yeah. Okay. We'll,

Chrys: Do all of the Atter have their heads obscured?

Valentine: I

Narrator: Who's up? Yeah.

Valentine: have

Chrys: Yeah.

Valentine: um, obscured

Orion: yeah,

Chrys: Okay.

Orion: because Valentine probably looks the least like a Terry.

Valentine: Yes.

Orion: Like still very similar, but

Rook: Mm-hmm.

Narrator: There you go. So it'll be Valentine Orion first. Yeah. Valentine Orion first. They're going left then, more in Ataria second going forward. then we will have Rook and Chris going last and they will be going Right, right. Is away from the direction of the warehouse, so you'll have to circle back around. those who are going left will have the most direct route. Those who are going forward will have to go a block up and over and those going right will have to do a little bit of a bigger circle to get there. Sounds good.

Chrys: Okay.

Narrator: Alrighty.

Rook: Joe, with me.

Orion: Yep.

Narrator: Chris, what does it look like when you cast Fog Cloud?

Chrys: Me. Ooh. Okay. It kind of reminds you guys of the steam down in the, in the hole. Like remember like how there was just steam everywhere because it was like, 'cause we were in fourth gear. So like Chris's Fog cloud kind of reminds you less of actual fog and more of the whole steam and smoke and stuff.

Narrator: Nice. And the mist is pouring up from the grates in the street anyway, making it already pretty misty outside. So you basically pull it up from those grates and coalesce it into this form in the street and off you run.

Chrys: Okay.

Narrator: where we'll end this episode.

Chrys: Uh,

Rook: Oh.

Chrys: we're gonna die guys.