Ep. 9 - The Persistence of the Departed

A madman’s notes provide much-needed clues. Chrys holds on. The dead and dying reveal the past.

Content Warnings

• This episode contains a depiction of ghosts and haunting, discussion of murder, discussion of mafioso violence, and smoking.

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

A Dungeons & Dragons Actual Play Podcast. 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.

S1E8 Music Credits:
A Grey Day by Guto Lucena
The Calling Card by Martin Landstrom
Waltz’s Noctis by Dian Shuai
Akai Hinode by Sugoi

All courtesy of Epidemic Sound.

S1E9 Sound Effect and Ambience Credits:
All courtesy of Epidemic Sound.

Show Notes and Disclaimers

Socials and More!
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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:05

Hey, Ryan.

SPEAKER_05 0:10

Oh, yeah. Thanks, Noose.

SPEAKER_03 0:14

And Noose begins to pull tight the laces on the back of your sun lasher suit. He deftly and with expertise ties the various knots, pins the clasps, layer over layer of this enchanted equipment, binding you in this protective shell before at the end of tying it all together, pats you three times on one shoulder, three times on the other, and whispers a prayer you've never fully been able to hear to the primes for your safety before he mutters under his breath, We're gonna die today.

SPEAKER_05 1:05

Mm-hmm. Yep. That's a bit tight. Any tighter and it'd be a corset. To his credit, if if we end up, you know, getting cooked alive out there, then uh, you know, we pre-made coffee.

SPEAKER_03 1:24

Yeah, well, let's hope that that doesn't happen to any of us. I don't need any of that gallows humor getting in the way of our fun today, and Dreflin uh punches you in the arm and uh shakes her unruly head of curls and begins to pin it back with her hair tied to go into the diving helmet and turns around. You mind doing me up? I don't care to be uh too tight to breathe out there.

SPEAKER_05 1:52

Yeah, for sure. Um you mind moving that bit of hair off to the side? I don't want to get it caught uh caught in any of the clasps or anything.

SPEAKER_03 2:01

Yeah, thank you.

SPEAKER_05 2:02

There we go. Okay, cool.

SPEAKER_07 2:04

And Orion repeats the same uh ritual that is at this point more muscle memory than anything else, but doing the knots, the clasps, the final zip, and the final pat down to make sure that everything is exactly where it's supposed to be.

SPEAKER_03 2:22

I'm all set to go.

SPEAKER_05 2:26

Same here. Noose, everything good over there?

SPEAKER_03 2:30

Oh uh, yeah, Dreflin uh did me up earlier. Can you make sure she didn't tie anything into an untoward shape or something?

SPEAKER_05 2:41

More than happy to, noose. Come here. Alright.

SPEAKER_03 2:45

And when he shows his back, you see that a few of the knots have been tied into a shape that is uh eerily provocative of a certain piece of anatomy common to many male species.

SPEAKER_07 2:59

I think Orion he tries not to laugh. It's not particularly successful, but he gives Noose a hard pat on the back exactly where the knots are, so Noose can feel that bump through his hand and says, All good noose, all tied up.

SPEAKER_02 3:23

Alright. Whatever you say, as long as it's secure.

SPEAKER_08 3:29

Oh, it's it's secure.

SPEAKER_03 3:32

Uh that very put upon side that you've long become used to. Dreflin looks at you and winks.

SPEAKER_07 3:41

We share a quiet high five in the background.

SPEAKER_03 3:44

Yeah, she reaches and she gives you a high five, and then she reaches for the chains that you all begin to loop, one continuously, but looped through each of you in sequence, through loops on your legs, your torso, one at the center of your back, each of you in turn threading this chain through, this chain that will keep you secured to the ship proper as you begin your work. In the final moments where you are all taking your diving bell like helmets and fastening them down onto your suits. Do you share any any words before this particular excursion outside of the city?

SPEAKER_07 4:32

The helmet is really heavy. I think, generally speaking, especially the more experienced lashers, I think the ship would slow down a little bit whenever the airlock is about to open. And they figure out the exact time frame where you can get that helmet on at the last second so you don't have to sit there and struggle to breathe while sitting in the very hot airlock. But as they sit there with their helmets at the ready almost putting them on, Orion says, Hey, uh, I know it's getting kind of late in the shift, but are you are you too free after today?

SPEAKER_03 5:23

I don't have any plans. And Dreflin looks at you and goes, always for you, Ryan, what's up?

SPEAKER_07 5:32

Nah, it's uh kind of dumb.

SPEAKER_05 5:35

Uh, but you know, I figured um we work hard, get the shipment canisters back in uh to inventory. Uh how do you guys feel about taking a float around the hole? Like that little area by the side of the where mid-deck area is. Oh it's been a while since we've been.

SPEAKER_03 5:59

Yeah, close to the to the gears that work the gondola.

SPEAKER_07 6:03

Yeah, yeah. And it's a nice view of the city from there, and it's I guess it's been a while. Uh I don't know why. I kinda got feeling nostalgic today.

SPEAKER_05 6:14

So you know, after we're done, I figured it'd be kinda nice just to visit there, just three of us for old time's sake. What say you?

SPEAKER_03 6:25

Well, you know me, I'm always down for a float. Uh spoil sport over there, the old man gonna be into it.

SPEAKER_05 6:33

Ah, come on, news.

SPEAKER_03 6:35

I am half that girl's age. Anyway, yeah, sure. Fine, whatever. Uh, you buy drinks afterwards.

SPEAKER_05 6:45

If you're coming, then yeah.

SPEAKER_03 6:49

In that moment of agreement, you all fasten on your helmets and the gangway begins to extend out. You feel the shift of the metal plates beneath you as your airlock extends out in a tunnel from the side of the ship, like a protrusion erupting from the side. And at the very, very pinnacle of the furthest extension of this gangway, there is but a moment of pause before the doors open and weightlessness takes you, the vacuum of the void pulls you from behind, and you are drifting out into the absolute nothingness that forms the rest of the universe outside of your tiny massive city. And in that nothingness, color, shifting shapes, almost like what we would know as the Aurora Borealis, a vivid chartreuse, dangerous but beautiful, and just at the edges a tinge of brilliant violet. And then you also see a red so deep it's almost maroon, and an orange, and a vivid yellow, and a little bit of indigo blue, and you realize that the predictions were right. This is not merely a storm or a twister, but as the colors begin to shift and move, you see them twirl up in each other and form at their core a brilliant white light, the purest form of radiance. And maybe that raging storm, that beauty in front of you, that captures your attention and the attention of your dearest friends. That must have been what made it so easy to sneak up on all of you. The flickering of the neon sign is some of the only illumination in this small space, as the tiny arcane ball of light set into the ceiling struggles against the darkness to create any sort of illumination. Rook is currently spreading out papers from the wall that it was Rex and Rolane's mad attempt to make sense of the world of the lower decks. And Valentine is coming back from reading a letter to herself. I will say, will Valentine have taken the gun from the box yet?

SPEAKER_09 11:23

100%.

SPEAKER_03 11:25

Okay. When you lift it, you'll see that that velvet lining that you thought it was sort of nestled in is actually like it almost trails out with the gun a little bit, and as you pull it out, you see it is a velvet on the inside, so it's very soft and comfortable, but on the outside has little clasps and buckles. And as you look at it, you see that it is a thigh holster for the gun.

SPEAKER_09 11:55

That's the best news I've heard all day. She'll emerge from whatever corner or the bathroom or whatever, and she will definitely have that on.

SPEAKER_03 12:07

Wonderful. And so I believe everybody is crowded into this apartment. What are other details of this apartment that you know stand out to everyone as they're crowded into this space, Valentine's little home?

SPEAKER_09 12:22

I'm trying to remember if I described it at all in episode one.

SPEAKER_03 12:27

Mm-hmm. I think you described it as kind of a studio.

SPEAKER_09 12:31

Yeah. And it's a disaster. It's like there's, you know, makeup everywhere, clothes on the floor, incense and drawing materials and half-finished sketches on every flat surface. It seems like the kind of place that people don't or that she rather doesn't spend a lot of time in. You know, she comes in, she sheds whatever skin and face she came in wearing, puts on another, leaves.

SPEAKER_03 13:11

And so, Rook, as you were spreading out these papers, you're pushing some of these sketches and some of this clothing, you know, like under the bed, pushing a low to the ground coffee table over to the side to the wall to make enough space, trying to jigsaw puzzle together these papers that were sort of half-hazardly pulled down from the wall. There are little tacks of like red string that are still stuck together to different pages that have now become stuck by the tack, and you're trying to put this all together. And so whoever will be attempting to help with this basically puzzle box of papers can either provide the help action or do an investigation check themselves to see what y'all are able to uncover from these papers.

SPEAKER_09 14:10

I'll help.

SPEAKER_01 14:12

Very kind of you. I guess I'll take that at advantage then. Out of curiosity, how are you helping me sift through this massive pile of notes?

SPEAKER_09 14:23

I think that she is, I mean, first of all, she's sort of clearing things away, making a flat space, and then she's also kind of sorting through things, kind of ordering, putting together kind of uh pictures of people. And I think she's doing it not really based on any kind of information she has or knowledge, because she's not smart, she's more wise. She's more basing it off of this uh person in this drawing has a brutal face. This one has a cunning face, this one, you know, kind of the impressions that she's getting from these people.

SPEAKER_01 15:08

Okay. I I'd say Rook is probably gonna be sorting through all this. I'm very glad that you are in fact helping Sift through. I guess Bro's still a little green at it because my first roll was a two. My second roll, however, was an 18 for a total of 26.

SPEAKER_03 15:25

Woohoohoo! Okay. Let me do something. I think with the 26, um, you get the whole file. And so I will direct your attention to the handouts page that I've created in our Discord server. I'm about to send something. There we go. Um I I only had so much time, so I basically just assume that the most important information is all here. There should be now a PDF in there.

SPEAKER_07 16:04

Uh, for those who are listening, this is genuinely one of the most incredible things. It is handwritten. I'm in awe.

SPEAKER_02 16:14

Yeah, Rayu 8 was this.

SPEAKER_03 16:17

Thank you. I it does it look adequately like the ranting notes of a madman. That's what I was going for.

SPEAKER_01 16:25

Dude, forget this. This is amazing.

SPEAKER_07 16:27

This is fantastic.

SPEAKER_02 16:29

Um my god, man.

SPEAKER_07 16:31

If you need me, I'll be pouring over these for the next few weeks in real life.

SPEAKER_03 16:35

Well, what I want now, yeah, for y'all to do is you can take a minute, but then, you know, at like in character, you can go through and start like noting things and putting things together. And you can ask me any follow-up questions, which might prompt other roles, but you can note things that maybe are interesting to you or or that you might want to know more about. Yeah, so I guess what I would like to know from y'all is in this selection of files, what is the thing that stands out most to your character that you want to highlight and note right now? And we can get one for each person that is examining and in that way sort of go through instead of having me narrate the file, what what is the thing that stands out most to your character?

SPEAKER_09 17:42

I'll go first if no one else.

SPEAKER_03 17:45

What stands out to Valentine?

SPEAKER_09 17:48

Is that Vere near the E-R-E plus undertow? What's that word?

SPEAKER_03 17:55

Uh near, near.

SPEAKER_09 17:58

I think near plus undertow with the note that someone I'm assuming Ebder has a background in alchemical radiotomy.

SPEAKER_03 18:12

Yeah. What stands out most to Rook?

SPEAKER_01 18:19

I mean to Rook, I think, aside from the big thing that said near plus undertow, I think the other main thing that's standing out the most is probably the description of Uncle Glenn Stevron, I think it says, as quote unquote turncoat.

SPEAKER_03 18:41

Mm-hmm. Yeah, if you want, you can do a history check on that for me.

SPEAKER_01 18:46

Sure, I'll do a history check. Let's see what we got. That's an 18.

SPEAKER_03 18:56

Okay. With an 18, you like the the cousins are a very well-known criminal organization, primarily in the lower decks, but they have connections to the middle and upper decks. Uncle Glenn Stevram has only been in power in his position as one of the three uncles for around 20 years, a little over 20 years, and he took over after, you know, this is the like public knowledge. This is what he took over that position after killing everyone between himself and that position after marrying into the Stevram family. So he basically married the youngest grandkid of the uncle at the time, who was Uncle Ekin Stevram. That was the one that was in power before him. And then he married like he he married into the youngest grandkid and then killed everybody between him and that position. And so that earned him this sort of pejorative nickname of turncoat. No one would call him that to his face, but he has a reputation for being bullish and bloody and got to his position through nefarious means. So that's what that nickname or that title brings to mind.

SPEAKER_01 20:31

Good to know.

SPEAKER_07 20:35

Um I think what might catch Orion's eye is a note towards the end about how the feds have been in trouble since the rattlers became active. Um I think Orion, because he does odd jobs here and there, you know, being bodyguard, just trying to keep his ears open for new things that are happening in the city. That name doesn't quite ring any bells for him, and he's kind of intrigued as to what though what that could possibly mean.

SPEAKER_03 21:22

Yeah, you can go ahead and do a history check for me. The the DC is high, but if you don't meet the DC, depending on what you get, I'll I'll give you a little bit of something if you're really trying to focus on your connections that you have to the underground here. Alright.

SPEAKER_07 21:42

It's not a negative modifier, so oh good. What does a 12 get mean?

unknown 21:49

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 21:50

A 12 isn't a two or something. Yeah, that name does not stand out to you, and that's the thing that helps you make. This connection. So it's not necessarily you succeeded on the history check, but you did do an intelligence check and it helps you make this connection. You don't know that name, but you've done odd jobs for all sorts of different underground gangs, members of the Federation, cousins, independent actors. You've done a little bit of everything. So you would think that if this was a name that was common knowledge or was widely being disseminated, it would be a name you would have at least heard in passing. So the note here that specifically says that the name seems to be catching on in Federation circles leads you to think, oh, it must be higher up. It's not catching on on the ground level. It's catching on somewhere that like your average everyday person isn't isn't hearing this name.

SPEAKER_06 22:54

Fascinating. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 22:57

Is Chris looking over the file?

SPEAKER_02 23:00

I mean, we don't we're not really doing anything else, so I I would say maybe yeah. Yeah, what's something that stands out to him? The problem is none of this means anything to Chris.

SPEAKER_03 23:12

Yeah. Well, what's something that even if it doesn't mean anything to Chris, Chris is like, oh, that's like particularly like that stands out to me as something that I'm like, oh, that's weird. What's that?

SPEAKER_02 23:24

Okay. I suppose. Because like, okay, so you guys have like Chris has been like asked, like, whenever Chris hears like a word for like a family member, Chris doesn't know what those words mean. So Chris is probably wondering why multiple of these people have the same first name, supposedly.

SPEAKER_03 23:50

Like, why are all these people named Uncle?

SPEAKER_02 23:53

Yeah, that's probably what Chris would ask.

SPEAKER_03 23:56

Yeah, I love that. Wait, would Chris ask that out loud? Yeah.

SPEAKER_12 24:03

Why are all of these people named I uh that word it starts with a you.

SPEAKER_09 24:16

Uncle normally it's the brother of your parents, but this is a title. It means that they're powerful in the cousins. They're criminals.

SPEAKER_01 24:34

Very organized group of very not great people, to put it pretty simply.

SPEAKER_12 24:42

Oh so they are not related then.

SPEAKER_09 24:51

Some of them are or used to be. That was how the cousins started. But now it's a little bit looser, larger. So their first name Lucian his first name isn't Uncle, it's Lucian.

SPEAKER_12 25:16

Curious.

SPEAKER_03 25:20

Is there anything that stands out in this file to Morin?

SPEAKER_10 25:26

On the page about Uncle Glenn Stevram, there's some information about a bouncer who is bribable. Um and neither I nor Morin can make out where the lines are leading and who it's talking about. But there's a bouncer on the third and first shift that is bribable, and that along with the information about someone who's potentially an enforcer for for Lucian, who has a tell in their left shoulder, are probably the details that Morin's gonna pick up on.

SPEAKER_03 26:01

Nice. And so as you are all piecing together these bits and pieces, there's lots of random information, lines going between pages that might take some time to piece together. Um, including like a grocery list is thrown in there at one point in particular, little notes to self, things that lead you to believe that this wall of paper that used to exist in this office was just sort of a catch-all for whatever thought came into Rexham Relane's head at any given time. But the most sort of center stage thing on the page for Uncle Eder Sparkstone, the one that seems to be the main focus for Rexham in these notes, and everything else is just branching out from there, is a list of known associates, and some of them have already been thrown out, such as Uncle Lucian Ember Shadow, Uncle Glenn Stevram, but then there's also a list of five that are circled with notes that they could be part of the pale hand. And these individuals are Tess Yumer, though by her name there is a question mark, Garth Gindrak, Vine, who is noted as perhaps that being a pseudonym, and also noted to probably have magic, Paulo Near, and Winton Undertoe. Those are the list of the associates, and those five members, there's a little note I wanted to point out. It's like you know, five fingers, like the five fingers of the pale hand, and then there's a note that just says thumb question mark. Because, like, is a thumb a finger? But just little things that made me laugh when I wrote it.

SPEAKER_08 28:05

Alright, no, I it's it's so sad, like watching this slow descent into madness, but also I'm just it it's really funny to imagine this dude losing his mind just like high out of just high on cloud nine and whatever. And he's just like, it's a thumbnaf.

SPEAKER_03 28:25

Does it count for these purposes? Oh yeah. The one other thing that I will note is that on the side of the page there is a portrait of Ebder Sparkstones, very crudely drawn, that portrays him as having a hand print on the side of his face. The left hand side, if you're looking at him, but his right hand side. Um, and there is a note that says, behind the hand, he is untouchable. And I wanted just to highlight that note. Like with the 26, I'll highlight some of the most important things. So the names are the are important notes like that are important, but all of this contains clues and other pieces of information to be poured over whenever convenient.

SPEAKER_07 29:22

But not ominous at all.

SPEAKER_03 29:24

Yeah. With this initial little look at this information, what are your thoughts? You can either discuss in character or you can let us know what you're thinking might be next steps here.

SPEAKER_02 29:43

Out of curiosity, and it's fine if not, because everyone's looking at it, so Chris is obviously also looking at it. Is there anything in here that like makes Chris's weird brain or like flashback or whatever saying do anything at all?

SPEAKER_03 30:03

Go ahead and I will have you do an intelligent saving throw.

SPEAKER_12 30:10

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 30:11

Oh boy. Fabulous news, because I'll tell you the DC.

SPEAKER_03 30:16

The DC to get a little piece of information and have it not be detrimental is 15. The DC to get a little piece of information and have it like negatively impact Chris is 10.

SPEAKER_12 30:33

Okay. That would be an 11.

SPEAKER_03 30:41

Okay. So Chris, you're Oh wait.

SPEAKER_02 30:47

Nope, that's a nine.

SPEAKER_03 30:48

A nine, okay. So Chris, you're looking at this piece of paper. I'd say what is your what would it be if you were doing a history check?

SPEAKER_02 30:58

If I was doing a history check, it would be same, same thing.

SPEAKER_03 31:06

Oh, okay. So yeah, you're looking at it and nothing really sparks that unique sort of tingle you get sometimes when you're looking at something that feels like you should know what it is, but you don't. Um, but what I'll tell you with that nine, it it's it's a failure, but I'll tell you is that you do have that feeling. There is something in this file that holds meaning to you that you you currently don't know.

SPEAKER_04 31:35

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 31:36

Can I use one of my knowledge from a past life things on this perchance?

SPEAKER_03 31:42

Oh yeah. Tell me about that ability again.

SPEAKER_02 31:45

When you roll when you make an ability check that uses a skill, you can roll a d6 immediately after seeing the number and add the number on the d6 to it.

SPEAKER_03 31:53

Okay. I'll let you do that, but I will say that doing that will regardless, even if you rolled like a six and you got a 15, it would still lead to the negative consequence because you failed the intelligence saving throw.

SPEAKER_09 32:09

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 32:10

Yeah, screw it. I'm doing it.

SPEAKER_09 32:12

That's the best of both worlds, honestly.

SPEAKER_02 32:15

Literally, literally anything I roll will do something because it's like Yeah, you're right on the edge. I rolled a six, so that's so nine plus six is fifteen.

SPEAKER_03 32:26

Nice. Okay, so what I will say, reverse everything. You do get the tingle, but the tingle is productive. It's a productive tingle this time. So you are looking at this sheet, and the thing that immediately stands out to you once you, you know, you have this tingle, you're looking at it, your eyes are drawn, and the moment you process some words, something triggers in your mind. And on the very last page in the PDF, but in like the collected, you see a note, and it's hard originally to make the connection with the line, but you see that the word undertow is circled on the next to last page, and there's a line that goes to the last page, and the words been there over eight years, why join then? And instantly you think, I've been alive for eight years, the timing is too perfect, and in that moment you feel the crushing weight of decay on your bones, and you look down, and in this moment, you feel that the skin clinging to your bones is being held to them by a force of will that you did not know you were consciously exerting. It's the kind of thing where when you experience trauma, it's held in your body and you have to be trained to like let it go. Like you have back problems and you don't know why. It's because your muscles just never relax. You are holding your skin to your bones by that force of will. And in this moment, you feel your control starting to slip away. And you are going to let me oh no, take five points of radiant damage. Yight, oh no, as your soul begins to leak out of your body slightly, and you have to focus consciously on not passing on to the next life. As everything in this world, in this universe, in this fabric of reality looks at your existence and tells you you should not be.

SPEAKER_04 35:22

Oh no.

SPEAKER_11 35:24

What does that look like to everyone else out of curiosity?

SPEAKER_08 35:29

What does a soul exiting a corpse look like, right?

SPEAKER_03 35:33

Chris, what happens is you essentially start crying pale white mist, and you breathe out like you're breathing hot air on a cold, cold day, but the fog is thick and almost has a shimmer to it as you feel your soul leaving your body, and in that moment you are fairly certain you are about to well and truly die, and then Chantarelle leaps in front of you, uses their tiny little mushroom nubbins, and scoops your like soul out of the air, and just kind of start shoving it back in the various holes in your skin, trying to get it like back into a portion of your exposed rib cage, and then just holds her little hands over it until the episode passes, and you are and you are fine again.

SPEAKER_07 36:53

Whoa.

SPEAKER_02 36:54

Chris is now sitting Chris is now sitting on the ground.

SPEAKER_07 36:58

Uh you s you still you still with us? Hey.

SPEAKER_12 37:08

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_07 37:12

You Okay, um could use a little help over here.

SPEAKER_09 37:21

Do you Do you need healing? I maybe. Okay, I've got Okay. Just everybody take a breath. I'm gonna cast healing word at a first level.

SPEAKER_02 37:38

How many points I took six points, right? Five. Five. Five. Okay.

SPEAKER_09 37:43

I gave plus what? Plus five back. Perfect.

SPEAKER_02 37:51

Fabulous. That's perfect.

SPEAKER_03 37:52

What does it look like when Valentine casts healing magic?

SPEAKER_09 37:57

I think that her halo kind of dims and her hands begin to radiate an energy that's kind of white like her halo, but almost opalescent, where there seem to be a bunch of different colors, the colors of storms in the void, kind of playing at the edges, and if you look at it too long, you start to see all of them. And she just kind of runs a hand down Chris's back and puts the other hand on his shoulder and just says, You're okay. Don't worry. You're fine.

SPEAKER_04 38:43

Okay.

SPEAKER_12 38:52

Okay.

SPEAKER_07 38:53

You back with us?

SPEAKER_12 38:56

I am all right. I think I I think I almost died again.

SPEAKER_09 39:08

Why?

SPEAKER_02 39:10

I I and then Chris looks back at the thing that they were looking at. Um Chris points at the um eight years why that I have been alive for eight years.

SPEAKER_01 39:43

Mind if I take a look at that in that case?

SPEAKER_12 39:46

Here.

SPEAKER_09 39:50

Wait. You think the undertow had something to do with this? With you?

SPEAKER_12 39:59

I do not know who that is. I read the name on the papers, but I do not know I I do not know. I just know that I was suddenly not dead.

SPEAKER_06 40:22

And you said it's been eight years since then.

SPEAKER_09 40:30

I believe so. Yes. Does the name undertow mean anything to me?

SPEAKER_03 40:39

Go ahead and do a history check.

SPEAKER_07 40:41

While we're on that history check, does the name undertow mean anything for me?

SPEAKER_01 40:45

And while we're on a history check, does eight years ago ring any big event instances to me?

SPEAKER_02 40:53

Everybody, everyone scroll. Does eight years mean anything to anybody here?

SPEAKER_10 40:59

Yeah, have I heard of the number eight before? Can I roll?

SPEAKER_09 41:05

I rolled double digits for big all 14. Nice.

SPEAKER_01 41:11

Uh narrator, what's a what's a hand?

SPEAKER_09 41:14

Oh. Is a thumb a finger.

SPEAKER_01 41:19

Wise words.

SPEAKER_03 41:22

Alright, so what did everybody get?

SPEAKER_07 41:25

For history?

SPEAKER_03 41:27

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_07 41:28

Uh Marilyn, I see your 14 and I raise you a 14.

SPEAKER_09 41:33

Well, I know everyone else can roll. Just happy for me.

SPEAKER_10 41:36

I see your 14 and I raise you another 14. Seriously? Wow. A 13 plus one.

SPEAKER_01 41:44

I see all three of your 14s and I raise you a dirty 20. Okay.

SPEAKER_10 41:48

No, you've ruined the fun.

SPEAKER_03 41:50

Alright. Well, so for Orion, it was specifically on the time like eight years, right?

SPEAKER_04 41:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 41:58

And then it for Valentine and Rook, it was more so the name undertow. And then Morin, what was Morin like reflecting on specifically?

SPEAKER_01 42:08

Or uh actually, I was going eight years. I think Orion and Valentine was. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 42:14

I got that mixed up. Sounds like I think that's what they said.

SPEAKER_07 42:17

I would like to switch my answer to eight years.

SPEAKER_03 42:21

Okay, I'll accept. Fine, I'll accept. And then Morin, what was Morin focusing on?

SPEAKER_10 42:27

Um, I'm focusing on the name as well, but specifically trying to think back to my time in the brig and if I heard of anything that would be connected to these names.

SPEAKER_03 42:36

Okay. So for eight years for Orion, upon reflection, you think, because it it almost strikes you, oh, it's been that long. Eight years ago is when, you know, capital I, it happened. You know what I'm talking about.

SPEAKER_07 42:58

Don't I know it?

SPEAKER_03 43:00

And for the 14 for Valentine on the name Undertoe, it does not immediately ring a bell, but you've been trying to learn more about the cousins and take jobs and talk to people. And so with the 14, while you've not met anyone named Undertow or heard too much about them, you think, okay, piecing together with the notes that you have, you've never been able to interact with people who've been in Ebder's inner circle, but you know, or even in the next to closest circle, you're you're still in the outer rings. But the people who are managers of the organization, those who report directly to Ebder, are out of your reach. But the people within your reach would have to report to somebody that isn't Ebder because there's so few people that report to Ebder. And even if that person reports to somebody that's not undertow, you probably know somebody who reports to somebody who reports to Undertow, right? So you think that if you did enough legwork on the street, if you talk to enough people, you could probably talk to somebody who's met this guy, if not find a way to meet this guy. In fact, as you're looking at the list, this is probably the one that you have the best chance of just meeting casually. And then for the 14 for your time in the brig thinking about it, what you can what you do know because you were there for a period of time, there's actually not that many people who spend prolonged time in the brig. So you would know none of these people have. None of these people have spent an extended period of time in prison. And that is interesting. And you would think that in the higher echelons of a criminal enterprise, maybe somebody would have.

SPEAKER_09 47:42

I think our next step, unless anyone has a better idea, is to try to get some FaceTime with this undertow.

SPEAKER_01 47:54

So it would seem. Yep. Yeah, fair enough. Only direction we got.

SPEAKER_09 48:06

We've got a lot of directions, but this seems like the most promising. Can answer questions for Chris too, maybe.

SPEAKER_01 48:13

Yeah. Probably get some answers there. Yeah. Real quick, narrator actually. With all of the Chris weirdness happening just a second ago, was there any other associated weirdness in the area that I was that I was getting the vibe of?

SPEAKER_03 48:32

It depends. Do when you're focusing on an investigation, do you sort of keep that sixth sense open, or do you kind of close yourself to it a little bit?

SPEAKER_01 48:48

See, as much as I would like to say that he can just sort of focus on it, he cannot make that go away by any means to an irritating degree. So I would say it's just kind of passively, passively going.

SPEAKER_03 49:04

Okay. So I would say roll a insight check.

SPEAKER_01 49:13

Oh, interesting. Okay. Let me see my stat for that because I never roll insight because I don't listen to people. Okay. My die is very, very nice to me today. That's a 17 plus 4. 21.

SPEAKER_03 49:33

Okay.

SPEAKER_07 49:35

Over the table, I'm so convinced that Rook is just like taking everybody's role.

SPEAKER_01 49:42

Look, my luck is gonna come crashing down at the most crucial moment, and I know it, but for right now, I'll take the luck at this tiny stuff. Okay? Okay.

unknown 49:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 49:52

As a part of that, roll a wisdom saving throw.

SPEAKER_01 49:56

See, I it would appear that the the luck come crashing down part actually happened a lot sooner in real time. Well, well, roll it, Victor.

SPEAKER_02 50:06

Oh, sweet god.

SPEAKER_01 50:09

Okay. Um, so I I got a two. But but I have a plus two to wisdom saving, throw, so it's a four. That's double.

SPEAKER_09 50:23

Believe it or not, that passes the check. You know what if another one?

SPEAKER_08 50:26

It could have been the first time ever. That's true.

SPEAKER_03 50:32

Sometimes the the dice the dice decide. Um with your insight check, what do the voices normally sound like for Rook? What?

SPEAKER_11 50:51

Oh boy.

SPEAKER_03 50:53

What is the baseline state of noise that he experiences?

SPEAKER_01 50:59

The baseline state of noise, I would say it varies from place to place, but usually in areas like this, just on the decks and stuff, kind of far away from the main, you know, pipes and valves and all that stuff from the engine. I'd say on these sort of main deck levels, it's more almost sort of like a passive, like kind of restaurant, like quiet restaurant ambience. Like you get like a hushed tone, like it constantly kind of throughout, but nothing crazy, you know? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 51:41

Okay. What is the loudest it has ever been?

SPEAKER_01 51:50

Probably probably when he was like right on the brink a couple years ago. It was very, very loud, louder than like being by the engines. Like it was it was very much present and direct and overwhelming in every sense, and was not able to be dealt with in any way because couldn't really get away from it.

SPEAKER_03 52:22

In this moment, when you are focusing on it and thinking about it, we're gonna flash back slightly to that moment where Chris's soul was leaving her body. And the cacophony explodes around Rook, but for the first time that you have ever experienced the voices spoke as one. And they simply screamed. The same screen thousands, thousands and thousands, and thousands, depending on the by failing your wisdom today, you understand what that screen means. Viscerally and impossibly, you understand. Risen's dead remain. Your theories are confirmed. You know this for a fact. There is no peace, there is no afterlife, there is nothing. There are only ghosts.

SPEAKER_02 54:21

Oh no.

SPEAKER_01 54:24

Do I come to this awareness like a good bit after processing it? Like, do it.

SPEAKER_03 54:30

Yeah, I'll say maybe like in this moment, like it takes you a minute to like for a second your senses are so overwhelmed and the feeling is so powerful that Rook goes to the defense mechanism he's always had of just like, oh, what about the timeline and the mystery and the investigation? And then he suddenly is like, oh wait. And then for a listener, I would like to say the the facial expressions are quite something that I am seeing.

SPEAKER_11 55:11

My hair is standing up right now.

SPEAKER_09 55:14

None of us are muted. We're just yeah.

SPEAKER_01 55:18

It is drama. It is just silent, speechless silence, and the most exasperated facial expressions you've ever seen. I am I am thoroughly horrified by this.

SPEAKER_09 55:30

Oh no. What is Rook Like, what are we seeing?

SPEAKER_02 55:34

Yeah, like when did this happen roughly? Like in the moment.

SPEAKER_03 55:39

You guys are discussing like the timeline and connections, thinking maybe you need to speak to Undertow, and then suddenly this is what you see cross like Rook's face.

SPEAKER_02 55:48

So it was like Chris is soul used their body, Chris explains what happened, everyone's like, oh, what the heck?

SPEAKER_01 55:54

And then Rook is like, oh So actually, no, to paint more of a picture, as it's happening and as he just kind of checks out for a second and is like, hmm, I wonder what the significance of eight years ago is. As he's thinking about it, he's thinking about it, all of a sudden, anyone who can see him, he's already a pretty, a pretty gaunt dude. But it in that moment as he's doing this and he's like thinking to himself, like his eyes just kind of go wide, and it looks like he has aged probably about five years in like an instant from how like sunken in his eyes look, and you just see kind of these two almost what appear kinda like magma of tears just streaming down his face. Just all of a sudden, just this awful, horrible awareness washes across his face, and he stops speaking in the middle of a sentence.

SPEAKER_07 56:56

Oh god. Um uh Valentine, can you do what you did again? I think Chris is contagious. Rook, Rook, hey.

SPEAKER_09 57:06

Uh I guess I can use another spell.

SPEAKER_01 57:09

No, uh Um I'll I'll go get um nope, I'm I'm I'm okay. I'm okay. Sorry. I'm I'm good. I'm good. Um sorry.

SPEAKER_09 57:26

What happened to you?

SPEAKER_01 57:30

Oh, uh just thinking about the case, thinking about just old stuff.

SPEAKER_09 57:38

Insight check.

SPEAKER_08 57:42

The battle of wits continues between our resident bards. The battle of wits is fine.

SPEAKER_01 57:51

This is the man making the most garbage attempt at a lie because he is too thrown off to think of anything more convincing.

SPEAKER_10 57:57

There's there's no way any of us.

SPEAKER_01 58:00

15. You know it is absolutely not true in the slightest. You get the sense that probably it does have to do with old stuff, but it is definitely not nothing. And it's definitely not just some random information.

SPEAKER_09 58:18

You're not very good at lying. So you may as well just tell us.

SPEAKER_07 58:27

Yeah, I'm not the s I'm not the smartest guy, but that didn't look like I've seen you think. That wasn't thinking. That was I don't know what that was.

SPEAKER_01 58:39

Just lights up a pipe again because he is coughing profusely after that whole little little episode. Um Yeah, um, not not the best look for me. Um normally I can lie a little more convincingly, but it's a little difficult to do so when you just heard probably thousands of voices all screaming at the same time.

SPEAKER_10 59:09

I'm sorry. Did anyone else hear that? I didn't hear that. I want to make sure I'm not alone here.

SPEAKER_07 59:17

No, no, I didn't hear that. I definitely didn't hear thousands of wait, Chris isn't contagious, is he?

SPEAKER_01 59:26

No, Chris ain't Chris ain't contagious. That's not what it is.

SPEAKER_12 59:30

I'm sorry if I made you L Rook. I did not know I could do that.

SPEAKER_01 59:35

Nope, nope. It uh it it is tangentially associated with you, but not you directly. Not you directly in any way. Um Okay, I'm gonna excuse myself. Um sorry about that. Don't wanna get a bunch of smoke in your place. I'll be outside for a sec.

SPEAKER_07 1:00:02

Can I stand near the door? Just to make sure that he doesn't have another episode.

SPEAKER_12 1:00:13

You certainly can.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:16

Yeah, he's just he's just gonna start trying to walk outside.

SPEAKER_07 1:00:20

Yeah, I don't stop you. I'm not gonna go through the door, but I'm just like in case, you know, the screams of the damned return, like there's somebody to catch him.

SPEAKER_09 1:00:31

Rook, come back. We wanna know about the screaming.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:39

Like Do you say it in that tone too?

SPEAKER_03 1:00:42

Please Valentine is like, I've heard too many men talk about the screaming. I just get it off your chest.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:55

Just walks back in the room, just kind of shaking out the rest of the smoke from the pipe, just as he was clearing his lungs.

SPEAKER_09 1:01:06

You can smoke in here. I'm not gonna get my security deposit back anyway.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:11

Yeah, in the spirit of honesty, I just kinda wanted to walk out for a sec.

SPEAKER_09 1:01:18

Well, if you want to walk out and then come back and tell us the truth, you can.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:28

You all remember how um when we were down closer to by the engine, um down in the down in the hole where we found Chris. You all remember how things were starting to feel a little weird, right? And some Morin, I think you were having a pretty hard time with it, right?

SPEAKER_10 1:01:50

Morin gives it like a solemn nod from where she's standing against the doorframe.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:57

Yeah, this was along the lines of that. Um much information you want, I can give you either the very short of it or the very long, exhausting, and much more crazy part of it.

SPEAKER_09 1:02:16

We've got nothing but time.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:20

Fair enough. Um You know how um we dispose of our dead here, right? Sure. With certain exception. Um most people are just burned off in the engine. Um just kinda shot into the wake and that's that. Well yeah. Uh which is all fine and dandy until you realize that the wake doesn't leave.

SPEAKER_07 1:03:07

The wake sticks around here. Yeah, the wake sticks around here, it's floating behind us all the time.

SPEAKER_12 1:03:13

What like the dead?

SPEAKER_00 1:03:20

They don't leave for how long? They don't leave.

SPEAKER_09 1:03:32

Like none of them from the beginning of the city leave?

SPEAKER_01 1:03:37

At least as long as it's been out here.

SPEAKER_06 1:03:43

Can I can I insight check that?

SPEAKER_03 1:03:48

Well, what are you trying to glean?

SPEAKER_07 1:03:52

I think Orion in this moment knows what Rook is trying to say, but he's trying to find like contrary evidence, like he hopes that Rook is not saying what he's currently saying. So I think if anything, he wants to know, like, if specifically Rook is referring to the physical bodies that drag along in the wake that are incinerated at various intervals by the uh by the storms, or if he means the essence of the people that are left in the wake and or engine.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:33

Okay. So essentially, Orion wants to understand things a certain way. So in a way, he wants to fail this insight check, is what you're telling me.

SPEAKER_07 1:04:47

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:48

Okay. So roll it.

SPEAKER_07 1:04:59

That's uh that's a grand total of eight.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:03

Okay. You're able to deceive yourself. You write it off. You're like, okay, okay, this is fine. Whatever cognitive dissonance you must hold in your mind in order for this truth not to weigh on you, or what you perceive as truth. Uh, this man did learn this on a failed wisdom save. But, you know, you basically are like, okay. No, I'm gonna I'm gonna believe this.

SPEAKER_12 1:05:36

If I may ask, I hear the words thrown around quite often, and I have discovered or figured out that they mean what you just said, but what does what is the wake exactly?

SPEAKER_01 1:05:58

It's the um The the back end of the ship. The um it's the trail that's left by the engine as we you know keep hurtling through the void at all times constantly.

SPEAKER_12 1:06:16

And you throw your corpses into it.

SPEAKER_06 1:06:22

Ah, we do that more in the engine.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:24

The wake is really more reserved for I just real quick, I want to clarify because I think there might be a misunderstanding. Bodies are not burned in the engine unless they're part of the cult of the crew. All bodies are disposed of in chains behind the ship and then burned in the radiant storm.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:44

I am understanding. I misremembered that. I misremembered.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:47

They're all good.

SPEAKER_09 1:06:50

Um Valentine is sitting heavily on the end of her bed and has gone kind of pale. And she says, So where are they? They're just here around us all the time.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:14

The the bodies burn off. That's you know what it does. Nothing can survive out there for very long, but um ever since a handful of years back, I've just been made painfully aware of um the persistence, I would say, of the departed. Um to the point where I was actually a little amazed that I wasn't in even worse shape than Morin when we were down in the hull. Because to say there was a splitting headache going on was a very big understatement. Because fortunately for all of you, you're not hearing them. When Chris started uh I guess unraveling, so to speak. All of them that are usually pretty quiet around the decks, it it was just it was just a uniform screen when that was happening.

SPEAKER_09 1:08:31

Are they uh different in different places, or can you hear individuals?

SPEAKER_01 1:08:40

Um individuals, sometimes it's just a cacophony, sometimes it's one that's so persistently close that they can actually give me a bit of a tip from time to time. It's um part of the uh the the quote unquote smoke tricks that I'm that I do a lot of the time.

SPEAKER_07 1:09:08

Question Answer.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:11

What's that?

SPEAKER_07 1:09:12

Or Ray.

SPEAKER_08 1:09:14

Uh does hearing this much more specific and detailed description do anything for Orion's precariously constructed understanding of what he chooses to believe?

SPEAKER_03 1:09:30

I'm gonna I'm gonna leave that in your court to decide how Orion is reacting to this. I will say in that moment at that time you were able to deceive yourself, but you know, you can decide whether Orion is processing this in a way that protects himself or in a way that doesn't. That's up to you.

SPEAKER_06 1:09:53

Okay.

SPEAKER_07 1:09:57

I think in that case, probably because I think you're right, like initially he'd be like, no, of course not. What are you talking about? But then as Rook continues to speak, um, it just becomes too pointedly obvious that he's talking about the literal like souls and essence of the people that were burned away in the storms. I think if anyone I mean, like, we're probably all looking at Rook right now, but if anyone cares to notice, really, like, you see that Orion has gone very stiff and he looks vaguely nauseous about something.

SPEAKER_10 1:10:46

This is this is crazy. Rook, you're hearing voices, and you then you expect me to believe that because of that there's no escape from this place. Have these voices said anything to you? Is it just the screaming? I'm not hearing voices.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:06

How close have you come to join them?

SPEAKER_10 1:11:12

I prefer to everyone be a little bit less cryptic right now. I feel like there's a lot of talking around the topics, and you're talking about hearing the voices of the dead, and I feel like I need some direct language.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:24

Great. Um, how close have you come to being dead? How close are you currently to being dead?

SPEAKER_10 1:11:33

Are you implying that you're close to being dead?

SPEAKER_01 1:11:37

I'm asking you how close have you been, or how close are you to being dead? That's my question. I'm not you to be direct here.

SPEAKER_10 1:11:44

This doesn't feel direct. It feels like you're getting to a point about yourself being close to being dead. No, Rook, I'm not close to being dead.

unknown 1:11:50

Great.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:51

That usually does that. I'm amazed that Chris isn't hearing this, but you know, that's Should I be? No, nope, nope, nope, no expectation there. That's I have no clue why this is happening or how. It is terrible, and I'm very happy that you are not hearing it as well.

SPEAKER_07 1:12:10

So, Rook, you're saying that if you're close to being dead, that you would be able to hear the voices?

SPEAKER_01 1:12:26

What are I don't know how it works. I don't know the ins and outs. I haven't exactly pondered it in an academic context. What I have, and what I do know, is that ever since a couple years ago, I have been hearing them, and it is ceaseless, and it is constant, and the thing that preceded it was as close to death as one could reasonably be.

SPEAKER_09 1:13:04

How many years is a couple?

SPEAKER_07 1:13:08

Uh let's see. Um If it's eight years, I'll sh that rook.

SPEAKER_09 1:13:18

Get squatting, Tannin.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:23

So true.

SPEAKER_09 1:13:24

Um I mean ten, fifteen, twenty.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:31

It's about nine-ish, give or take. When it started, but I mean I I suppose more that when I started hearing it was around Ryan, don't hate me, it is around seven or eight, I'm so sorry.

SPEAKER_09 1:13:51

So it's possible it's possible that that's when it started happening. That you started hearing the voices and that's when the dead stopped leaving. Right?

SPEAKER_01 1:14:07

I suppose that could be a possibility, but if that was the case, I would have started only hearing one. Right? I would have started maybe not even hearing any if it was only, you know, starting then. Um It's it's been it's it's been a good amount since the start. And I feel like I am absolutely insane for saying this, and I honestly perceive you as a little more insane for actually taking it seriously. Cuz I usually have kept this pretty like pretty close to the vest, just because obviously no one would take this seriously.

SPEAKER_12 1:14:51

Uh I am pretty dead, so I believe you.

SPEAKER_07 1:14:59

No, Rook, Rook, Rook, Rook, you said that you started hearing this. You said eight around eight years ago.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:12

Tell me. Around that, yeah. That's what I said.

SPEAKER_12 1:15:18

That is how long I have been alive.

unknown 1:15:22

Gods.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:24

I I I I don't I don't know. I don't know the larger implications of this. I only just now was given the unfortunate awareness of the fact that they are not, in fact.

SPEAKER_07 1:15:37

None of us know what happened. Rook, and you see Orion starting to lose composure and get very agitated. I mean, Chris, you said eight give me that. And he takes the paper from Rook to see if there's like anything else that he can glean from the page. Just like been there over eight years. Why join the uh Rook? And you say like how many? How many Rook like do you hear all the time?

SPEAKER_01 1:16:11

Is it how many human voice or how many just voices do you hear throughout your day? Around your workplace? In place of gathering on the street side. Do you count all of them?

SPEAKER_06 1:16:28

Rook. No, no, something's something's not right. Rook, I died eight years ago.

SPEAKER_07 1:16:40

I beg your pardon. I d I don't know what's happening here, but it it cannot be coincidence that something happened to all of or nearly all of us eight years ago. Why do you think I stopped being a son last year, Rook? That was the That was the only home that I ever knew. And I died out there, Rook. So you tell me right now, you tell me right now, what what do you mean? What happened to you eight years ago that has you hearing voices? I died, I came back, where are mine? What do you mean? What do you mean that the souls don't leave?

SPEAKER_09 1:17:40

Maybe that just means that Morren's right, and whatever happened to Rook drove him out of his mind. That it's not true. And you don't hear voices, then maybe it's just not true.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:04

Maybe the difference is that I didn't get quite all the way there. See this along my face? See this running down my neck. And you look, and what's usually like fully shaded by the large hat and by the like coat collar that he has, he kind of pulls it aside, pulls down his shirt a little bit, and you just see these like awful, dark, deeply set cracks. Like almost like what would happen if you like snapped a piece of charcoal. You see kind of that effect going up his neck and up the side of his jaw. I'm wilted. That's what happened to me eight years ago. I'm wilted.

SPEAKER_09 1:18:54

Does that mean anything to me?

SPEAKER_03 1:18:57

Yes. Common knowledge, it there is an illness primarily amongst the lower decks where people do not have access to easy healing and medical care called the Wilt. And it is an illness that you know it's fairly typical in the sense of like it primarily takes the young and the old.

SPEAKER_09 1:19:52

How did you survive?

SPEAKER_01 1:19:56

Well, despite me being a little young when I got it. Again, I don't exactly know, because we didn't exactly have the money for a healer. And I couldn't really do anything. I was sat and I was pretty much bedridden for the vast majority of two years straight. And despite not having any sort of healing, and despite not having the ability to receive any sort of intervention, I simply didn't quite get all the way there. I don't know if it's just maybe my body runs a little too hot for the disease to fully set through. I heard someone saying it was sensitive to temperature and all that. It's you you all commented, it's the reason I have that cough of mine. It's still in here. It just it it just kind of stuck. One way or the other. Doesn't really call it a stalemate, so to speak.

SPEAKER_09 1:21:20

So you think that dying for so long is what caused the voices?

SPEAKER_01 1:21:29

Maybe. It could be that I was sitting on the brink and didn't know what was gonna happen and I don't know. Maybe the dead were getting antsy that I wasn't quite going all the way there. Maybe there's a difference between slowly eking closer and closer to that edge versus having a clean break, like dying from some traumatic incident. Knife wound. You know, falling from a high place. Maybe there's something about how long I lingered in the doorway, so to speak. I don't know. I don't know at all. And if I'm being perfectly candid, this is honestly the first time I have told another living soul about it.

SPEAKER_09 1:22:24

Valentine's just shaking her head, kind of looking down, just kind of continually shaking her head. Like she's making a choice not to admit what she knows must be true.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:49

I mean you use magic yourself too, don't you? I know you do. I'm seeing you do it. You've seen what mine looks like. You've seen the effect of it. I didn't have all that before right around that time. It just started setting in. Like it just tapped into some sort of whellsper. I don't know. But all I know is that now I can do way more than just letting a fire on my phone.

SPEAKER_09 1:23:38

I believe you're telling the truth, Rook.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:44

I believe you too. Insight check on all of them.

SPEAKER_11 1:23:48

I don't believe a word you say all of them specifically because the term from Valentine's.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:54

I feel like Morgan is like the one voice of reason who's like, hey, you know, maybe you're just crazy. Maybe we don't all need to shift our entire theological and psychological worldviews.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:07

Chris is a neutral party here, and also Chris is undead. So Chris is like the weirdest thing I've ever heard in my life. I am undead.

SPEAKER_10 1:24:16

I mean I need to circle back on the Orion dying thing that was never elaborated on. Yeah, let's go.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:22

I mean, it was circle about it.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:26

Yeah, yeah, sorry. I got a I got a 19.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:29

Okay. Well, does Valentine believe him?

SPEAKER_09 1:24:34

I think that with a 19, I rolled persuasion just to check and only got an 18. So I think that you see that she is choosing her words very carefully. I think you can tell that she believes you're telling the truth, as in she believes you believe what you're saying. But I think that she fundamentally cannot believe that what you're saying is the reality, or it would shatter her. And so she is choosing not to.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:18

What about Orion? Because you also said that you believe Rook.

SPEAKER_07 1:25:25

Orion believes Rook because he also started being able to cast certain types of magic or just do certain things, and at first it was entirely out of his control. He's learned to work with it more over the years, um, but it did start only after he came back. So he entirely believes, Rook, that you could die or get really close to death or being close to death constantly. Um, but that he believes that changes a person fundamentally in some way, and that it's possible that it extends to your magical capabilities as well.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:15

What twitch or tell or fidget is plaguing Orion in this moment that isn't his? As you are deeply uncomfortable here.

SPEAKER_07 1:26:39

And it looks a little out of place because the rest of him is so rigid, but his hands are ringing together with a fluidity that doesn't look quite all his, set against how tightly he is holding himself everywhere else.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:06

Okay. For a listener, I would like to convey that basically Victor, I think, was like up in his chair, gesturing at the screen, like what is happening? You know, Marilyn is shaking her head, like what is going on? Everyone is like, I don't understand.

SPEAKER_08 1:27:31

The Porter is taking a sip of tea.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:34

I would like to insight check that, please.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:38

Oh, sure. Give me an insight check.

SPEAKER_07 1:27:41

Oh no.

SPEAKER_12 1:27:44

Oh, fantastic. That is a nineteen.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:51

I'll give you something with a nineteen. You look down at your own hand and see it bending into a shape subconsciously. And you recognize this tendency within yourself to do things or say things or think things that feel like you but not the you you are now. And you don't know Orion's whole deal. But with a 19, you look at the way that he's wringing his hands and you think, oh, that's certainly a subconscious behavior, just like minor subconscious behaviors. So there is something sub his conscience that is making him do that. Just like there is something sub my conscience that makes me do that. And you know, you don't necessarily detect anything nefarious or anything. It's just, you know, you recognize a kinship. You're like, oh, we are the same.

SPEAKER_08 1:29:01

So there is the inbreakable bond form between. Between two dead people who just wring their hands constantly.

SPEAKER_03 1:29:13

Just like rubbing them together.

SPEAKER_08 1:29:16

Sorry.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:19

Chris is making that shape with their hand, by the way. That they make when they're nervous and they do it subconsciously.

SPEAKER_07 1:29:29

Can I actually get a description on that?

SPEAKER_03 1:29:35

We are we are seeing a hand shape that is not dissimilar to one who is holding a firearm.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:45

It actually does look like very good trigger discipline on on a on a on a sidearm. Oh, thank you.

SPEAKER_07 1:29:52

Actually fascinating. Also, new note never give Chris the firearm that Valentine has.

SPEAKER_09 1:30:02

Yeah, so no one's getting that firearm.

SPEAKER_11 1:30:05

It's good to know that Orion recognizes this hand shape.

SPEAKER_09 1:30:10

Alright. You all are weirding up my apartment.

SPEAKER_10 1:30:17

I take a real hard look at Chris. Like a real hard look. Just because I have a hunch. Can I do like an investigation or a history or something? Whoa. That frightens me. What are you attempting to discern? I'm trying to see if I recognize their body.

SPEAKER_03 1:30:40

Ooh. Yeah, you can do.

SPEAKER_04 1:30:44

Oh.

SPEAKER_03 1:30:45

I know we're doing a lot of history checks, but this feels like history because investigations to discern like new knowledge. History is to like make piece together stuff from your memory.

SPEAKER_08 1:30:54

I have truly never been more afraid.

SPEAKER_03 1:30:56

I am so afraid, actually.

SPEAKER_10 1:30:58

Hello? This it it might be.

SPEAKER_07 1:31:00

This might be the last episode, guys.

SPEAKER_10 1:31:03

It might be absolutely nothing. I think it might be absolutely nothing.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:06

I think we just solved the storyline.

SPEAKER_10 1:31:09

I think it is very, it's very possible that it might be absolutely nothing, but I just want to I just want to check because there's something strange happening with those two.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:17

Guys, Chanterelle is the B G. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:21

No, you you couldn't possibly mean me and Orion who are throwing up cryptic gang signs because we died eight years ago. No. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:31:34

That's an 18. Okay. What is more in hunch? Just so I know what kind of information to give you.

SPEAKER_10 1:31:43

The problem is that I as a player have a hunch, but as a character, I would not have that specific hunch, so I'm trying to see if the character would make the connection.

SPEAKER_03 1:31:52

Okay. Well, what is the based on the player hunch? Yeah.

SPEAKER_10 1:31:56

It's the player hunch.

SPEAKER_09 1:31:59

We could mute if it's yeah.

SPEAKER_10 1:32:02

Yeah. Everyone turn your ears off. Okay. Hear me out. I think that Orion's entire backstory. I think that Orion did actually out in the void. And Chris. Now, Orion, Chris thinks that is just a hallucination, a manifestation of their right. Um, but actually is real. Ryan is a secret by Chanterelle into our party to keep tabs on us because is the captain of the first council, the secret captain of this ship, and we are all being infiltrated.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:58

Oh, I see. Okay. I will say with an 18, examining Chris and Chris' facial features, they do not look like someone you recognize from your past.

SPEAKER_10 1:33:17

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:19

But with an 18, I will say that they don't look like someone you recognize from your past, but there there is something to the story that you're putting together, the timeline, and all those things. You are not correct in this hunch, but like there's something there. There's something about this connection that is maybe worth trying to pull on a little bit.

SPEAKER_10 1:33:50

Okay. Thank you very much.

SPEAKER_04 1:33:53

Okay.

SPEAKER_10 1:33:54

Come back, come back.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:57

So, Valentine has made the comment about weirding out the apartment, and then Morin has been given the stink eye to Chris a little bit. No, not the stink eye, just just the inquisitive eye.

SPEAKER_07 1:34:10

Let's stank to it.

SPEAKER_03 1:34:11

What's next for our investigators?

SPEAKER_01 1:34:16

Uh, Rook is gonna very insultedly look at Valentine and just go, oh, so you all could weird up my apartment and make it no longer hospitable, and now this is a problematic quantity of weird. Okay.

SPEAKER_09 1:34:39

I don't plan on us being here in three cigarettes length of time. I think we have a direction. I think we should follow it.

SPEAKER_07 1:34:47

Okay, well, I'm gonna go smoke as many cigarettes as I can get through until we leave.

SPEAKER_01 1:34:52

I think maybe you're underestimating the speed at which a stressed man smokes.

SPEAKER_12 1:35:00

Not um weirding up means, but I am sorry for almost dying in your apartment.

SPEAKER_09 1:35:08

You're fine, sugar. Don't worry about it. And so I think Valentine, I don't, I as a player don't know the name of the contact that would be the directest link, I think, to Undertow.

SPEAKER_03 1:35:26

Yeah. I think that Valentine would realize that, okay, probably the best place to go would be to some of my contacts down in the warehouses close to the engines again, because that is the place where a lot of you know underground stuff is happening, and you know a few people who know people down there, and you think that would be a good place to start, but you figure that's not where I'm going to find him, but that's where I'll find the the trail. And you know, once you start asking around, I'll have you do investigation or persuasion, and you know, we'll lead you sort of on from there. But that's sort of where you start. You know, like where to start asking, and then roles will determine from there where you are given information to go.

SPEAKER_09 1:36:20

Okay. I don't know where he is, but I know where to start asking. Do I think that it would be better, like based on knowing the situation, does it seem like it would be better to leave everybody at my apartment or take them with me?

SPEAKER_03 1:36:36

It would be less conspicuous for you to be by yourself, because that's how you normally operate. However, you have been chased by a shape and stabbed with an icicle, and you know, it seems like times are inordinately dangerous. So it I this is not me as a DM saying like you have to keep the party together, but this is just it is a decision between how inconspicuous you want to be and how like ready you want to be with people to back you up if something happened to go down. Like, where would Valentine sort of balance that?

SPEAKER_09 1:37:19

I think Valentine would come down on the side of maybe take one person. So I think Valentine will say. I know where to start. I don't think we want to bring everyone. We're conspicuous enough, but Morin, if you wouldn't mind coming with.

SPEAKER_10 1:37:46

Yeah, I guess is it okay with the rest of you if if Enix stays here? I Morin kind of had him stationed outside like a guard belt.

SPEAKER_03 1:37:55

Oh yeah, I forgot Enix. No, Enix literally has like taken the shoelaces out of his boot and tied them together and is doing like finger yarn games with like the little loop, but like doing the little Jacob's ladder and like I forgot that Enix was here. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:38:10

He's still here.

SPEAKER_03 1:38:12

Yeah, no, and he like is like whispering over to Morin, like, hey, so they said you had like a tough time down in like the hold, and like we're gonna need to unpack that for sure. And also, like, there's a lot of like drama dump happening that I don't I'm just and he's doing this in a softer, but I can't do this accent softly. So he's like, so I'm just like chilling out and uh you know, tell me what you need me to do, but like these people are psycho crazy.

SPEAKER_07 1:38:44

Yeah, as soon as Rook was like, I hear, I was like, I see dead people, like Enix is just over there, like, okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:38:56

And is just like, if I'm not perceived, the weird can't touch me.

SPEAKER_01 1:39:01

Somehow less social graces than Warren. How is how stealthily can I cast a spell real quick?

SPEAKER_03 1:39:08

Hey, hey, whoa, whoa, leave him alone. Roll a stealth check.

SPEAKER_01 1:39:13

I'll roll the stealth check. I'll take that.

SPEAKER_10 1:39:15

Rook kills Enix. End episode.

SPEAKER_01 1:39:23

Oh yeah. Stealth, that's an 11 plus three for a 12.

SPEAKER_09 1:39:32

My passive perception is 15.

SPEAKER_03 1:39:34

Yeah, if your passive perception is higher than a than a 12, then you would see this.

SPEAKER_01 1:39:39

Cool. I see this. Um Rook kinda like takes his pipe back out again. And he doesn't light it this time, but he just kind of takes a puff off it. And even though it's not lit, there's still kind of this like purple smoke that starts emanating out the side corner of his mouth. But for those who notice it, it looks like he's trying to like really stealthily like blow it out the side corner. Like a like a kid trying not to get caught vaping or something. To the point where the smoke kind of trails off. And then right behind Enix, he casts Mage hand, and it comes up like kinda this weird, kinda slightly flaming, slightly starry, shimmery, purplish, like bony hand that just kind of settles on his shoulder.

SPEAKER_03 1:40:35

Okay, I'm gonna roll something.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:38

Okay, Lord.

SPEAKER_01 1:40:39

And this was a bad idea. Just for funsies.

SPEAKER_03 1:40:41

Oh yeah, no. Enix is it is astounding how high he jumps from being cross-legged. Like, is he somehow cross-legged sitting on the ground, jumps and like clears two feet. Like it's crazy. And he's like bliss like and and just like is suddenly just just beside himself.

SPEAKER_01 1:41:19

As soon as he as soon as he sees it and notices it and jumps, it dissipates like it was never there.

SPEAKER_03 1:41:25

Just Lauren, you gotta get me out of here. I can't you can't leave me with these guys. I can't stay here with them. It's not you can't leave me here.

SPEAKER_08 1:41:36

If you loved me, you wouldn't leave me here. Father help.

SPEAKER_10 1:41:46

Brooke! What the hell, dude? You barely know him.

SPEAKER_01 1:41:53

Okay, and he opened the guy's door after I said nothing to do with that.

SPEAKER_10 1:41:58

And then everything turned out perfectly fine. I Enix, I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_01 1:42:01

Yeah, and everything turned out perfectly fine right there. I don't see what the problem is.

SPEAKER_10 1:42:04

Valentine, can you convince him to be nice?

SPEAKER_09 1:42:08

I'm not that good. And after all, Enix committed the only cardinal sin there is disagreeing with Rook. Ooh.

SPEAKER_01 1:42:20

In that offense, it was really entertaining. So I'll take it.

SPEAKER_09 1:42:25

Enix could come with us, or Rook could come with us just to separate them, or Rook could go sit in a sewer for all I care.

SPEAKER_03 1:42:36

Or I could just like go back to the apartment more. I could just like sit this one out and just like. Or I don't know, there's a couple jobs I've heard about like low-level stuff. Like I've I've heard that someone needs like a package, take it from a kid. I could just go do some stuff and we could connect later.

SPEAKER_10 1:42:59

Promise you're safe. You promise that's it?

SPEAKER_03 1:43:02

Oh, I won't get into trouble. You know me.

SPEAKER_10 1:43:06

Yeah, I that's why I'm asking. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:43:09

Okay. I promise I won't get arrested and I won't die.

SPEAKER_10 1:43:16

Good enough. Okay. I'll I'll meet you back at the apartment sometime, okay?

SPEAKER_03 1:43:21

Yeah, yeah, sure, sure. I'll uh I'll make sure I'm there at the end of like every third shift or something.

SPEAKER_10 1:43:29

Okay. She's gonna give like an awkward, almost fatherly shoulder pat to him and then kind of turn back around to Valentine.

SPEAKER_09 1:43:42

Ready?

SPEAKER_10 1:43:44

Ready.

SPEAKER_09 1:43:46

And maybe if you all wanna work the alchemical radiotomy angle somehow. Or just sit here talking about being dead. We are leaving the dead people. I plan to come back here and live here. So if you make this place unre unlivable, I'm coming after you.

SPEAKER_01 1:44:19

Should I do the same about my previous apartment then? Is that the precedent we're setting?

SPEAKER_09 1:44:24

That wasn't my fault.

SPEAKER_01 1:44:26

I never said it was, and this won't be my fault. I mind myself quite well. Thank you very much.

SPEAKER_09 1:44:33

I'm just telling you what will happen so that you have fair warning.

SPEAKER_01 1:44:37

I'll make sure. Okay, well, fair enough. I'll make sure I don't join the three dead folks here.

SPEAKER_09 1:44:46

What were you saying, Orion?

SPEAKER_07 1:44:48

I'll make sure we smoke out the window.

SPEAKER_09 1:44:52

Much appreciated. Okay. Then I'll get out with Morin.

SPEAKER_10 1:45:00

And what's Morin doing? As Valentine turns out to leave, Morin will like is following behind her like a little puppy and looks back and kind of glares at the other three of them and touches her hook. And then follows her out the door.

SPEAKER_03 1:45:19

What did I do, bro? I'm just here. As Valentine is leaving, you pass by the incense and the sheets of paper and to the mirror by the door. Does Valentine look in the mirror before she leaves?

SPEAKER_09 1:45:45

Yes.

SPEAKER_07 1:45:47

When you start with that's always a good thing. Oh yeah, totally.

SPEAKER_03 1:45:54

All Valentine sees is the ghost she always sees. And thinking about all Rook has told her today, and the fact that she needs it to not be true. She she looks at this ghost and and needs it to be her reflection for maybe the first time. She needs it to just be her. And then you can head on out. Yay! That ain't cool.

SPEAKER_12 1:46:36

Alright. Oh.

SPEAKER_02 1:46:37

After they like after they leave, like have have very much left, Chris is going to look at Rook, and there's like that like weird smile on their face on his face, and he goes, His face was funny.

SPEAKER_01 1:46:57

Thank you, I thought so too, but I guess it wasn't appreciated.

SPEAKER_12 1:47:01

It wasn't very nice, but his face was funny.

SPEAKER_01 1:47:06

Exactly, that's the whole point. It's it was harmless. It wasn't very kind, but it also wasn't harmful, that's the point.

SPEAKER_03 1:47:14

Enix in the process of restringing his boot with the lace by the door who is still there, is like alright.

SPEAKER_02 1:47:24

It's fine.

SPEAKER_01 1:47:25

Look, I okay. I meant to say that like after they'd all left, but Oh no, and I honestly this one's kind of funnier.

SPEAKER_02 1:47:32

No, it's fine.

SPEAKER_03 1:47:33

I get it. It is funny. It is okay. I'm gonna you know what?

SPEAKER_01 1:47:39

Real quick, I I I do apologize. It was not cool of me to do that. It was a very easy opportunity because you were very on a high horse saying that I was crazy, and so I thought it would be very humorous to also make you feel like you're crazy. So you know, it was kind of very low-hanging fruit for a joke there.

SPEAKER_03 1:48:02

Hey, I don't know what the hells a horse is, but I'm not high. I'm in my right mind, and you know, it it was funny, sure, whatever. Alright? I'm gonna leave. And you know what? Stairs are boring. He goes and just opens the window and just jumps out, and just you see him like do a parkour onto like the fire escape on the next building, and then jumps down and lands, you know, very like he's training to be a floater, you know, right? And he just like runs off into the the dim of of the streets and the alleys and the lower decks.

SPEAKER_02 1:48:52

I was gonna I was gonna say, like, as he walks to the window, uh Chris would probably say something like, Oh, Mr. Annex, and says it in the most genuine, like, like it's very genuine. Please do not break your arm again.

SPEAKER_03 1:49:08

As he's like heading out the door, gives you a little or out the window, gives you a little salute, and it's like, not the plan, kid. And then he just does his head first dive out the window.

SPEAKER_07 1:49:18

Yeah, right. In my in my mind's eye, I'm seeing this as like the you know, from whatever movie it was. I don't know. It's like a Disney movie where she's like, I forbid you to see, and then he just like dives out the window, like I'm imagining.

SPEAKER_08 1:49:33

Cinderella 3. It was yeah, Cinderella 3.

SPEAKER_03 1:49:36

Yeah, these are reaching references that I I cannot follow, but I uh I believe you wholeheartedly. So as we'll come back to the staying in the apartment crew here in a moment, but as Valentine and Morin are walking down this Stairs and out onto the lower deck streets, passing the entrance to the fading light and heading deeper towards some of the even darker and seedier elements of the city in order to meet up with Valentine's contacts. What is sort of the mindset that these two people are in as they are walking down the street?

SPEAKER_09 1:50:29

Valentine is feeling a lot of different feelings. I think that she feels physically kind of nauseous and shaky and unsettled from what Rook was saying. And I but I think also she feels not quite hope, but for the first time in years, she feels like the path is open ahead of her. And she feels kind of a rush of fresh anticipation and anger and determination.

SPEAKER_12 1:51:15

What about Moran?

SPEAKER_10 1:51:19

Deeply unsettled by the words that work was saying, even if she is still choosing to believe that he's a little bit crazy because it just goes against everything that she knows about the importance and the permanence of death. And so this startling uncertainty is driving in her um a stronger tether to this duty to protect. And so she's on high guard. All right.

SPEAKER_03 1:51:58

Well, as you start reaching parts of the city where the eyes that always follow Valentine turn from being casually inquisitive to knowing. Some knowing and suspicious, some knowing and friendly enough, some knowing but knowing enough to know that you're not around if you don't want something. Go ahead and choose whether you want to roll an investigation or a persuasion check for me.

SPEAKER_09 1:52:39

Persuasion. All day, every day.

SPEAKER_03 1:52:43

Okay.

SPEAKER_09 1:52:45

Oh my gosh. Yes. The natural 15 for a 23.

SPEAKER_03 1:52:53

Beautiful. Taking into mind your role, how is Valentine going about asking for this information? And I'll say with a 23, you're you're able to keep it pretty subtle, but still make headway.

SPEAKER_09 1:53:13

I think that what she is kind of presenting and giving off is like. I think what she's saying is I have an opportunity, I have a request, but she's kind of using the presence of Morin to give off a kind of above your paid grade energy where she is bearing herself very regally and trying to give the impression without saying so, that since the last time she was down here, her circumstances have changed. She's going up in the world, she can't be dealing with you peons anymore. She's got a bodyguard. She needs to be talking to the next fish, the next big fish up the chain.

SPEAKER_03 1:53:59

Okay. What is the opportunity that you are presenting that you have? Like, what are you hinting at?

SPEAKER_09 1:54:09

That's a great question. I was hoping I would be able to figure out before I got here. I think that she is hinting at having a new connection with the floaters that could be of use to the cousins.

SPEAKER_03 1:54:44

Okay. Above table, I'll say you have picked exactly the right thing, and I don't think you even fully understand why yet, but it'll be very fun. So you start floating around the floaters, and I mean it's the perfect lie because you you literally have a floater with you, like a recognized, you know, grappling hook, because I was gonna say card-carrying member, but you're you're a grappling hook carrying member of the floaters, and it it lends you an extra bit of credence and and more weight. And you're asking around, and because you so perfectly accidentally nailed it on the head, you are basically told, in lieu of me having to create several like NPCs on the spot, but you are essentially told through different sources that there is someone in the cousins who in particular would be interested in speaking with floaters and opportunities having to do with floaters, but this individual would want to meet in private and would want to not meet at any known cousin's location. Essentially, you get the vibe that this individual would want to hear you out, but not officially in their role within the cousins.

SPEAKER_09 1:56:40

Like maybe they're stepping out.

SPEAKER_03 1:56:42

You get the sense that it is a little bit more of an intellectual curiosity. They're looking for information.

SPEAKER_09 1:56:52

Okay. Okay. How much would it cost to like rent a room? I don't super want to bring whoever this is back to my apartment or back to the fading light. How much would it be to rent a room at a flop house or something for like two hours?

SPEAKER_03 1:57:20

Oh yeah, that would be like the the cheapest monetary denomination that you guys have is a day chip, and it would be like a day chip to do this.

SPEAKER_09 1:57:34

Great. Then I will oh, then if possible, I would kind of write down a flop house that I know I'll be able to get a room at, and kind of slip that to whoever, and then I would want to, if possible, rent two rooms next to each other so that we can stage everybody right there.

SPEAKER_03 1:58:05

Okay. I'll say that is certainly doable. You you can rent the rooms and do all of that and get this situated.

SPEAKER_09 1:58:17

Amazing.

SPEAKER_03 1:58:21

And so unless the room crew, unless the or back in Valentine's apartment crew has anything, I will say this takes you several hours to, you know, make all these connections, find the right people. It takes you maybe the better part of a shift, actually, to and then you have to go and rent the room and stage it and do everything, right? So it's the better part of a shift before this is ready to go. So would the people hold up in Valentine's apartment have tried to do anything in this, you know, basically full day of time before Valentine gets back in touch saying that she has a lead. How many hours was this? It's a shift, so it's been almost eight hours. It's been like a full day.

SPEAKER_01 1:59:12

Oh, that's um, yes. The answer is yes.

SPEAKER_03 1:59:16

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:59:17

Yeah, me too.

SPEAKER_03 1:59:19

Um, what would you get up to and we'll sort of figure out where we're gonna go to leave off, but I wanna kind of know where we're where we're heading, Valentine's apartment crew.

SPEAKER_01 1:59:34

After they leave, and there's a good bit of silence for a little while, Rook is just going to look dead at Orion and just go.

SPEAKER_07 1:59:45

Care to elaborate on the fact that you just said you died eight years ago and Orion so very much regrets the fact that he only said he would smoke three cigarettes before coming back.

SPEAKER_01 1:59:59

If you go back outside to smoke to avoid this, I will join you and I will outsmoke you.

SPEAKER_12 2:00:07

Um please don't leave me alone.

SPEAKER_07 2:00:11

No, no. I don't think it's a I mean you're you're the detective mortality rate's pretty high in sunlashers, you know?

SPEAKER_01 2:00:32

I suppose that's a fair point.

SPEAKER_12 2:00:36

But is sunlashing dangerous?

SPEAKER_06 2:00:41

It could be. If you're not careful.

SPEAKER_01 2:00:49

And were you not careful? No. I don't think I was. Oh not careful you're talking. I'm going out without a suit, not careful.

SPEAKER_07 2:01:06

You know, I I'm gonna say this to you because I don't know, might help you, all of us, get to the bottom of whatever whatever is going on.

SPEAKER_06 2:01:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 2:01:32

I died. Everyone who knows me back at the Everyone who knows me. Oh my god, I'm so fired. Oh my god, I'm so fired. Everyone at work. I've been gone for so many shifts.

SPEAKER_12 2:01:47

Oh my god, to set you on fire.

SPEAKER_07 2:01:50

No, no, no, no. I'm just Oh my god, how many shifts have I missed? Rook, what what time is it?

SPEAKER_01 2:01:58

Narrator's in.

SPEAKER_03 2:02:01

This amazing gosh, I have lost track a little bit, but I know that it has been at least two days at this point. Not three. Is it more like three?

SPEAKER_02 2:02:16

God. I know it's been like three shifts at least.

SPEAKER_03 2:02:20

Yeah, because it was like three shifts between meeting Ateria and Ateria being gone, which was a full day. And then I know that you slept overnight in Rook's apartment, or sorry, not Rook's apartment. Some Orion's apartment, and then there was like the investigation w into Rexham, and then now you've gone almost to you're basically in the sixth shift of knowing each other, so you're you're nearing the end of day two, I think, if if I remember myself.

SPEAKER_07 2:02:54

But after Orion has his brief existential crisis about probab most likely no longer having his office position, which to be fair, he hated from the get-go, but it was still work. Listen, it everybody back at work, you know, like, gosh, I'm sure if you look far back enough in the archives, they probably would have just logged me as another casualty, but um someone floated me.

SPEAKER_10 2:03:43

The Drifting City is a production of The Rolling Waves, a group of friends who wanted to make a creative project together. Your drifters are Lily Bell as Chris, Aspen Langford as Morin, Porter Hurst as Orion, Victor Thorne as Rook, Marilyn David as Valentine, and Ray Hamilton as the narrator. Editing and sound design by everyone at the Rolling Waves. Episode titles and descriptions by everyone at the Rolling Waves. Music, sound effect, class, subclass, and other credits can be found in the episode description. Thank you for listening to our story.

SPEAKER_08 2:04:23

Sorry, I'm I'm trying to stay in character, but I just keep thinking about uh Ryan and Morton trying to like lug the chest.

SPEAKER_11 2:04:36

Oh my god, dude, you're a genius!

SPEAKER_08 2:04:40

Sorry. Um