Fearful Symmetry

0:00:00 Fantasy High: Sophomore Year Emily Axford as Fig Faeth; Zac Oyama as Gorgug Thistlespring; Siobhan Thompson as Adaine Abernant; Lou Wilson as Fabian Seacaster; Ally Beardsley as Kristen Applebees; and Brian “Murph” Murphy as Riz Gukgak Episode 18: Fearful Symmetry < [Previous Episode] | [Next Episode] >

0:00:00 Brennan: All right, hello one and all and welcome back to "Dimension 20 Live" presents "Fantasy High Sophomore Year." I'm your humble dungeon master, Brennan Lee Mulligan. With me, as not always is only some of our intrepid heroes. Say hi, intrepid heroes.

0:00:15 All: Hi intrepid heroes.

0:00:16 Siobhan: We miss you, Ally.

0:00:16 Emily: We miss you!

0:00:19 Brennan: When you die in the game, you die in real life.

0:00:22 Emily: Whoa.

0:00:23 Siobhan: Crikey.

0:00:24 Brennan: Gang, this is "Dimension 20 Live." This is a continuing adventure of the Bad Kids, a group of teen heroes from the Aguefort Adventuring Academy in the world of Spire who are on their spring break sophomore year adventuring mission to retrieve the Crown of the Nightmare King. Before we get started with the recap, a couple things. Number one, a new episode of "Escape from the Bloodkeep" out this Saturday. Make sure to head over to the "Dimension 20 Show" on YouTube, YouTube.com/dimension20show.

0:00:49 Lou: Oh, YouTube.

0:00:50 Brennan: So yes, new--

0:00:51 Lou: I was like, y'all got Matt Mercer back in the chair? All laughing

0:00:58 Brennan: Well, er, new, if you haven't seen it yet, is gonna be coming up at YouTube.com/dimension20show. Through April you can get 20% off all "Escape from the Bloodkeep" merch by using the code bloodkeep. Darken the land with savings! Only two--

0:01:06 Zac: That's the whole code?

0:01:14 Siobhan: That's the whole code.

0:01:15 Brennan: No, no, the code is just bloodkeep. The other part was a slogan.

0:01:21 Siobhan: That gets you into the secret website that's cooler and darker.

0:01:25 Brennan: Exactly.

0:01:26 Emily: Ooh!

0:01:26 Brennan: Guys, after tonight's show there's only two more episodes left in the Live season.

0:01:31 Siobhan: That's not enough! What are you talking about?

0:01:33 Brennan: Make sure you tell your friends and family to catch up so they can watch the final two episodes live! Also, we're in the midst of a global pandemic, so just in case you haven't heard, wash your hands and stop touching your face.

0:01:40 Lou: Oh good.

0:01:47 Brennan: For real!

0:01:48 Lou: I'm glad that we're about that here on this show.

0:01:50 Emily: Yeah!

0:01:50 Brennan: There's a global pandemic, wash your hands, and don't touch your face as much.

0:01:56 Emily: Now everybody's gonna be watching to see if we touch our faces.

0:01:59 Lou: Can we get a face count going?

0:02:00 Murph: My hand is literally on my face.

0:02:02 Zac: Yeah I was going there too.

0:02:03 Siobhan: I just wiped so much coffee off of my face.

0:02:05 Murph: It's too late. Zac reaches his hand threateningly across the table towards Murph.

0:02:06 Siobhan: What am I supposed to do, leave the coffee on there?

0:02:08 Emily: Yeah, we all touch each others' faces. Siobhan and Emily both wiggle their fingers near Zac’s face.

0:02:12 Brennan: Um, guys, last we left off, our intrepid heroes were deep in the forest of the Nightmare King. They had to escape from the clutches of Kalina back to Arborly to cure Kristen Applebees of the curse. Working together quickly and efficiently to save their party cleric, they returned to the Tinkerer's Hall where they identified the Infaethable Bass and got Gorgug a sweet new magic axe. Made their way back into the forest all the way to the Temple of the Unnamed Goddess, where they found many skeletons, including the skeleton of a unicorn in a chapel to a faceless goddess. Discovering the runes and scrolls left by Arianwen Abernant in this chamber, Adaine has just cracked the nature of the four lesser curses of Sylvaire. Knowing what they are, and what they do, including the most mysterious of the four, the one based on the tree, which was the broomstick of the goddess, which commands the forest and turns away would-be travelers, like a labyrinth, from its center, if you go in any direction but the direction of your greatest fears. This eureka, this incredible breakthrough, these curses that you've been studying was soon thereafter followed by an incredible religious catharsis on the part of Kristen Applebees who managed to contact something beyond, and immediately thereafter something contacted her by way of a horn through her heart.

0:03:58 Lou: Boo.

0:03:59 Brennan: Boo to me.

0:04:00 Lou: Boo to you.

0:04:01 Emily: Boo!

0:04:02 Zac: Boo!

0:04:02 Siobhan: Boo!

0:04:03 Brennan: It's fine, I'll do all the bad guy stuff so the story happens, and you can all just boo me.

0:04:05 Lou: Yeah! Yeah.

0:04:07 Siobhan: You love it!

0:04:08 Lou: Yeah, that's what you get paid to do, my guy.

0:04:10 Siobhan: You like it! That's your job. You enjoy it.

0:04:12 Lou: Yeah, sip your coffee and eat your fuckin' dice.

0:04:14 Brennan: All right, all right, all right, all right, so the unicorn came to life. The unicorn, the skeletal unicorn leapt to its feet and gored Kristen Applebees through the heart, as she fell dead. This is the exact moment that we come back to. Fabian shouting as something happens. Fabian, I'm gonna say that you're the first one to see this, so you are the sort of first to act. You and this being will roll initiative.

0:04:30 Lou: Great, yeah.

0:04:46 Zac: You and this bean?

0:04:48 Brennan: Being. A big ol' bean will roll initiative.

0:04:51 Lou: 23?

0:04:53 Brennan: 23. Fabian, you are first to act.

0:04:58 Lou: Perception check, Kristen looks full dead?

0:05:01 Brennan: Full dead.

0:05:02 Lou: Okay. And everyone is, who’s close, like how far am I away from everyone else in the space of the temple?

0:05:11 Brennan: They are, the chamber is about 15 feet down the hallway, and then opens up, and in the middle of the chamber about another 15 feet past that are Adaine, Riz, and Fig, and then past them by another 20 feet is Gorgug.

0:05:25 Lou: Oh will this thing get an opportunity to attack on me if I--

0:05:27 Brennan: It has not closed distance with you at all.

0:05:29 Lou: Okay, great. I'd like to full on I think, not taking my eyes off it, fade back toward everyone else, just shouting,

0:05:38 Fabian: Kristen has been killed!

0:05:42 Adaine: What?

0:05:43 Gorgug: What?

0:05:44 Fabian: [panicked] Yeah, this dead unicorn. Everybody!

0:05:47 Fig: Wait a second!

0:05:49 Adaine: What the hell?

0:05:50 Fig: Right, Kalina's been trying to trick us. Are you really Fabian?

0:05:51 Fabian: Kristen is dead, come to the sound of my voice!

0:05:56 Lou: And I'm just gonna—

0:05:57 Gorgug: What size shoe do you wear?

0:05:58 Fabian: Don't, not now!

0:06:00 Lou: And I'm not gonna attack it, but I just, I'd like to take the dodge action and move my, you know move 30 feet back toward everyone else.

0:06:11 Brennan: Oh cool, you take the dodge, move 30 feet back towards everyone else. You hear the noise of the hooves clattering on stone [hoof noises] And the temple goes silent. [soft, spooky ambient chords]

0:06:35 Lou: I think I'm still waiting for everyone to gather.

0:06:38 Emily: I mean, if Kristen's really down we need to get to her within a minute.

0:06:42 Lou: Okay great.

0:06:42 Murph: Yeah, so we run to Fabian?

0:06:46 Emily: Yeah.

0:06:47 Zac: We run to Fabian. Can I make a Perception check from where I am, just in case?

0:06:51 Brennan: Yeah, you guys can run to Fabian. I'm gonna say that we come out of initiative, immediately. You go ahead and give me a perception check, Gorgug.

0:07:02 Zac: Right, the green one. Nat 1. I switched dice, and then I rolled a nat 1. Scoffing and laughing.

0:07:13 Brennan: On a nat 1, you, your heart is beating so fast in your chest that you cannot hear much of anything. You begin to feel air pressure change deeper into the passageway past this room, like a little bit of wind moving through the temple.

0:07:36 Zac: And I was sort of towards the outside, right?

0:07:38 Brennan: Yes, you were in the direction that you believe the people you're following left through.

0:07:44 Zac: I'm gonna start walking that way.

0:07:46 Brennan: Cool, you are going to walk out of the room with your friends?

0:07:50 Zac: Wait, sorry. I'm walking towards my friends.

0:07:54 Brennan: You're walking towards your friends, away, 'cause you were at the farthest exit guarding it, and now you're walking away from that farthest exit, back towards your friends, and the entrance of the temple that you guys found.

0:08:06 Emily: No matter what, I need to get to Kristen's body and just do a Perception check on if it's—

0:08:10 Murph: Is the unicorn still over her body?

0:08:14 Brennan: Well, someone's gonna have to run back down the hallway--

0:08:16 Emily: I'll just skateboard to Kristen's body.

0:08:20 Brennan: Okay.

0:08:21 Murph: Yeah, we run into the room, at least.

0:08:24 Brennan: Cool. Everyone real quick roll initiative just to see who gets there first.

0:08:31 Murph: I use Kristen's dice.

0:08:33 Zac: My god.

0:08:33 Emily: 18.

0:08:34 Siobhan: 7.

0:08:36 Murph: I still have my rolls, even though I'm using their dice.

0:08:38 Zac: Rolled with advantage another nat 1.

0:08:40 Murph: I got a 9.

0:08:41 Lou: 14.

0:08:41 Emily: 18.

0:08:42 Brennan: Did you roll double nat 1s?

0:08:43 Zac: No, this time it was a 4 and a 1, just 2 out of 3.

0:08:46 Brennan: Did anyone get above an 18?

0:08:48 Emily: Oh no, I got an 18.

0:08:48 Brennan: Cool, Fabian, you rush through. You rush back, you're the closest to her, you rush back in, you have Fandrangor in your sheath, in your hand. You are ready to go. As you do so, you, I'm gonna need a Dexterity saving throw.

0:09:11 Lou: [sadly] Oh, that's sick. That's 15, that's 14.

0:09:19 Brennan: You rush down the hall, turn the corner, and thankfully do not take damage as you smash into a mirror. The entrance to the chapel--

0:09:33 Lou: That Kristen was in before.

0:09:34 Brennan: That Kristen was in before, you hit the surface of a reflection, physical shards of mirror glass fall, exposing flat, gray stone behind it.

0:09:45 Adaine: What the hell?

0:09:46 Fabian: I was in that room.

0:09:49 Emily: All right, can I, okay we're playing with illusions, right? Can I Phantasmal Force an entrance through this door into that room?

0:09:57 Brennan: Hold on one second. Love the pure chicanery of it all. We just gotta make sure—

0:10:05 Emily: And I only have to do it, so I guess I would do, it only takes root in the mind of one creature, so I would do it on myself.

0:10:11 Brennan: Okay.

0:10:12 Emily: Could I intentionally fail my save, or whatever?

0:10:15 Brennan: Can you cast Phantasmal Force on yourself? You craft an illusion that takes root in the mind of a creature. Difference between a saving throw and a failed save you create a phantasmal object, creature, or the visible phenomena of your choice that is no larger than a 10 foot cube, and that is perceivable only for the duration. So this room was much larger than a 10 foot cube. What are you trying to create in your mind with this illusion?

0:10:34 Emily: So it was basically you left the room, and then the door went, like the wall went up? I want to create a door back into that room, that I can use to go back into that room.

0:10:43 Lou: Perhaps a crawlspace, maybe that's smaller.

0:10:46 Brennan: Cool. You create a door in your mind. The four of you see nothing. Fig, you see a doorway with pitch darkness behind it.

0:11:04 Fig: Bye guys.

0:11:04 Emily: I go into it.

0:11:07 Brennan: Fig walks straight into the wall. [whoosh]

0:11:13 Lou: So in like a kind of funny way?

0:11:15 Murph: Does anyone have a way for us to follow her?

0:11:16 Zac: Gorgug is going to just walk into the wall.

0:11:18 Lou: Wait, oh, like walks into the wall? Not like, not [hits himself in the face] like ow.

0:11:23 Brennan: Not Three Stooges style.

0:11:24 Lou: That's what I thought you were describing—

0:11:26 Brennan: No, no, no, I'm talking like Kitty Pryde style, not like Three Stooges.

0:11:29 Lou: Kitty Pryde style!

0:11:31 Siobhan: I can Misty Step through. Oh god, that's so scary.

0:11:35 Murph: You have to be able to see.

0:11:37 Siobhan: Yeah, you're right, no I can't Misty Step through.

0:11:40 Zac: I wanna go to the wall, but a little over from where Fig was standing, and just fuckin' hit the wall with my ax.

0:11:44 Emily: Ooh!

0:11:49 Brennan: Hell yeah.

0:11:50 Zac: So that's automatically a crit.

0:11:53 Brennan: Roll to see if you hit. You're still rolling to see if you hit, and you can obviously Reckless with no worry or anything else.

0:12:01 Zac: Does a 22 hit?

0:12:03 Brennan: 22 hits, yeah. You hit, you hear this, the buzzing of the axe 'cause this is your first time putting this thing to work. Boom! You cleave into the wall. As you do so, I'm going to ask you to make a saving throw for the building.

0:12:29 Siobhan: Fuck.

0:12:30 Zac: What should I? Is it a--

0:12:32 Brennan: You roll a D20. You want the building to survive, and the wall to take the damage.

0:12:38 Lou: Can I give the building Bardic Inspiration? [cast laughs]

0:12:40 Brennan: I don't think you know this is happening until it's happening. This is not a high DC, it's just DC10. The wall gets a plus four. You just need to roll a six or higher.

0:12:50 Lou: I'm still gonna put my hand against the wall.

0:12:52 Zac: 13.

0:12:54 Siobhan: Lucky 13.

0:12:54 Lou: Jesus Christ.

0:12:54 Brennan: 13. Okay, you boom! Hit into it. I think your artificer's sense, you cleave into the wall, cut through a section of it. You know that you're deep inside of a structure. 13 was not super high. You know that you will have to make a roll for the building again, but that your next blow will also bring the wall down. So there's a risk hitting the building again, but you can, if you want, continue to push through and try to go through to something else.

0:13:23 Zac: Can I see through that--

0:13:24 Siobhan: Can I cast Web? To help shore up this space?

0:13:30 Brennan: Yes, I'm gonna let you, I'll let you do Web. We'll say that Web is not as much help as giving it full advantage, but it will give plus one to the saving throw.

0:13:40 Siobhan: Oh, can I help him then? Can I just help him?

0:13:43 Brennan: It's not, he's not the one making the roll. I'm making Zac roll the building save.

0:13:47 Zac: When I take my axe out, can I see through the axe hole to the other side?

0:13:50 Brennan: No, because this thing is so made of burly thick stones and roots, it's really you hitting this thing. Like you feel the end of your axe, it goes from weighing 120 pounds to momentarily having the mass and inertia of a moving car. Foom! So really, it's like you're gonna take out this section of wall on the next hit.

0:14:10 Siobhan: Can I just Mending all around the hole so that--

0:14:13 Brennan: I say that and Web will give advantage, yes.

0:14:16 Siobhan: Okay, great.

0:14:16 Gorgug: Okay. So, do we have any other plans? Should I just keep doing this?

0:14:21 Riz: I mean I don’t have any spells.

0:14:21 Adaine: Just keep hittin' it, just keep hittin' it.

0:14:22 Fabian: I don't know we get to the other side—

0:14:23 Gorgug: Can y’all look around, just in case there's—

0:14:26 Fabian: Okay!

0:14:26 Riz: I mean I’ll investigate—

0:14:26 Gorgug: I'm sorry, spring break, I believe in you.

0:14:28 Fabian: No, no it's intense, it's intense.

0:14:29 Riz: Spring break, I support you, we need to find Kristen-

0:14:30 Emily: Can I hear them through the wall?

0:14:31 Brennan: We'll get to you in a second.

0:14:33 Siobhan: Oh no.

0:14:34 Emily: I wanna reassure you guys, but I can't.

0:14:36 Murph: I got a 24 on Investigate.

0:14:39 Lou: I got a 22 Investigate!

0:14:41 Siobhan: Can I cast Dispel Magic?

0:14:44 Murph: That's not a bad idea.

0:14:46 Brennan: You, can you cast Dispel Magic? Dispel Magic, voom. Nothing.

0:14:51 Siobhan: All right.

0:14:54 Lou: Did we find anything?

0:14:57 Brennan: You make, what's your investigation check?

0:14:59 Murph: 24.

0:15:00 Lou: [eagerly] Mine's 22.

0:15:01 Brennan: And yours is--

0:15:02 Lou: Don't write me off. All right, I saw you face straight to him. [Emily laughing]

0:15:05 Zac: That's pretty good! Definitely two less than his.

0:15:06 Emily: But you probably rolled higher, though, cause his Investigation is—

0:15:07 Lou: It's still less, but I rolled a 19 and I got really excited 'cause I was like oh maybe.

0:15:13 Murph: [gesturing to himself and Lou, who without Ally are alone on their side of the table] We got the bardy boys over here, right, right?

0:15:15 Emily: Wait, I like to bardy too!

0:15:17 Lou: Bardy boys!

0:15:18 Zac: Why are you a bardy boy?

0:15:19 Murph: Well, because I'm a Hardy boy, and he's the bard.

0:15:23 Emily: No, we're the bardy boys. [points to herself and Lou]

0:15:24 Murph: But we’re investigating!

0:15:24 Brennan: You're taking another attack.

0:15:26 Zac: I was waiting.

0:15:27 Brennan: Okay, so you investigate. It's a solid stone wall. You know, both of you guys are able to look and see a solid stone wall. You went into this room before.

0:15:41 Murph: Yeah... Can I shoot it with my watch 'cause it does radiant damage? I'm just hoping maybe this evil thing is weak to it?

0:15:49 Brennan: Sure, absolutely.

0:15:50 Lou: Great move, bardy boy.

0:15:52 Murph: Shoot the wall, it's like ah. It's like Riz, the bardy boy! Everyone laughs.

0:15:56 Lou: The bardy boys are at it again.

0:15:59 Brennan: A laser pops out, hits the wall, doesn't appear to do much of anything.

0:16:07 Zac: Okay.

0:16:07 Murph: All right, that did nothing.

0:16:09 Zac: Maybe if I break your wa— no. All right, I'm just gonna hit it again.

0:16:13 Lou: All right.

0:16:14 Zac: So 15… 25.

0:16:18 Brennan: 25 definitely hits, you do max damage. Give me a saving throw with advantage for the building.

0:16:24 Lou: [singing] Saving throw!

0:16:25 Siobhan: [whispers] Okay.

0:16:26 Zac: 15.

0:16:27 Brennan: Okay, great.

0:16:28 Zac: Plus whatever, yeah.

0:16:32 Brennan: [crunching noise] Dense, reeking dust and fog comes out of this place. Fig, we're gonna go to you now. You move through a dark hallway. I'm going to need you to give me a Survival check, not to get lost.

0:16:56 Emily: Not to get lost. So does it feel like I'm walking not into that room that we saw?

0:17:01 Brennan: You're walking through a jet black corridor with your darkvision. You can see stone. It's not the same shape, it's not leading you to where the other room was.

0:17:09 Emily: Okay, I do think that I'm very focused on getting to Kristen right now, so if I'm thinking this is not leading me to where, then I might turn around.

0:17:17 Brennan: Cool.

0:17:18 Emily: If I think this isn't leading to where Kristen is.

0:17:20 Brennan: Give me a DC20 survival check to turn—

0:17:23 Emily: [smugly] Will a 21 work? Brennan looks into the camera like he’s on The Office, just briefly.

0:17:25 Lou: [finger guns] Ba ba booey, ba ba booey.

0:17:28 Brennan: Cool.

0:17:28 Lou: Bardy boys strike again, dude.

0:17:30 Murph: She's a bardy boy too.

0:17:32 Brennan: You guys, Riz, you guys have your investigation checks. As reeking, dense just almost like toxic gas begins to come out of this, out of this tomb, you that made the investigation check on your 22 and 24 do see something. The shattered mirror shards all over the floor, you begin to see something moving in them, and you see hands pressed up against them. You see Fig. Shattered fragments of Fig. You walk back, get to where the door was, and just see shattered, hanging pieces of mirror glass, and your friends looking up their legs as they stand over you from the floor.

0:18:21 Zac: Wait, I thought I moved over away from where, was it just a continuation of the mirror? 'Cause I think I was intentionally hitting away from where she walked into.

0:18:32 Brennan: That has, the mirror shattered when Fabian took the corner and rolled that Dex save.

0:18:38 Emily: All right, well then I—

0:18:40 Lou: Can I pick up a piece of the mirror?

0:18:41 Murph: Can we mend the mirror?

0:18:43 Siobhan: Yeah, can I cast Mending on the mirror?

0:18:44 Zac: I have Mending as well.

0:18:46 Brennan: You cast Mending on the mirror. The mirror comes together. As it does so, Fig, make a Dexterity saving throw for me.

0:18:58 Siobhan: Ah crap.

0:18:59 Lou: [singing] I don't like any of this.

0:19:02 Emily: Okay. 21.

0:19:05 Brennan: The doorway you created with Phantasmal Force begins to vanish. Do you have an impulse to jump through it, or no?

0:19:12 Emily: Yeah, I jump right through it.

0:19:14 Brennan: You succeed on your Dexterity save, which allows you to leap out of the mirror. As you see that you [whooshes] Mend the mirror, and the mirror begins to lose its reflectiveness and just turn into a dark, opaque pane of glass, like stained glass.

0:19:31 Fig: Okay, we have to get to Kristen. Should we—

0:19:34 Brennan: There's a hole in the wall that Gorgug just cleaved through that is over from the door, into what the chapel would've been.

0:19:41 Gorgug: Does anyone have a flashlight, or a light?

0:19:44 Murph: I shoot a signal flare into it. Brennan makes an explosion noise.

0:19:48 Lou: Hell yes.

0:19:48 Zac: That’s cinematic!

0:19:49 Lou: Now that's a bardy boy move!

0:19:51 Fig: We gotta go in! I'm going in as fast as I can.

0:19:53 Murph: Yeah we rush in.

0:19:54 Brennan: You guys look in this place. There is a skeleton on the floor of the chapel. It is not a unicorn skeleton.

0:20:00 Adaine: What the hell?

0:20:06 Riz: Is it Kristen's?

0:20:08 Brennan: At the base of the unnamed goddess's statue, covered in centuries of dust and rubble is a human skeleton, clutching shattered pieces of stone in its hands.

0:20:27 Zac: Shattered pieces of stone?

0:20:28 Siobhan: I would like to cast the Identify spell on the skeleton.

0:20:32 Emily: Yeah. Brennan looks down at his computer. His mouth is a straight line.

0:20:37 Lou: He's making a face. Which face is that? Which of Brennan's faces? [shimmering identify spell music]

0:20:42 Identify Spell: Ah yes, this is another use of the Identify spell. Adaine makes a “get on with it” motion with her finger.

0:20:47 Identify Spell: What you now behold is an ancient religious relic. The skeleton and remains of the blessed Saint Kristen Applebees who died in this chapel 850 years ago.

0:21:01 Adaine: No!

0:21:02 Fabian: What the fuck is going on?

0:21:04 Adaine: 850, no, come on!

0:21:05 Fabian: I don't like this.

0:21:07 Identify Spell: This has been another use of the Identify spell.

0:21:10 Gorgug: What's the... rock, what?

0:21:12 Emily: How the heck did this happen? Okay, first off have we confirmed, can I do an Insight check just to make sure Fabian's real?

0:21:18 Brennan: Yeah.

0:21:19 Emily: I got really good. I got 22!

0:21:22 Fabian: Fig, why are you looking at me so hard? What's happening?

0:21:26 Riz: We're supposed to be the bardy boys.

0:21:27 Fabian: We are the bardy boys!

0:21:28 Fig: No, you're right, we are.

0:21:29 Adaine: Is everybody a bardy boy, or is it just you three?

0:21:30 Riz: No everyone’s a bardy boy.

0:21:32 Fig: I'm missing everyone but Fabian. It's really Fabian. He's telling the truth. This is not a trick of the woods.

0:21:36 Riz: As long as you investigate and have a song in your heart, you're a bardy boy. Everyone laughs.

0:21:42 Zac: Okay. But I, okay can I inspect the rocks that...

0:21:46 Emily: Do I have, can I do an Insight if, because Disguise Self here would become Alter Self, do I have an insight that Revivify would become True Resurrection?

0:21:57 Brennan: No. The reason being that Revivify doesn't start as an Illusion spell, so it won't get stronger.

0:22:03 Murph: Do we have any way of knowing if this is an illusion, or if we did travel to the future?

0:22:07 Lou: Can I ask, to what extent can I tell the difference between the room I was in minutes ago, and this room now?

0:22:17 Brennan: Wildly different.

0:22:18 Lou: Wildly different?

0:22:20 Zac: But same shape?

0:22:21 Brennan: Same shape, same shape, but this room smells like death, like it's been sealed up. I mean, to give you an example, it's how a room would be different if it had had an open doorway with air flow for eight centuries, or if it hadn't.

0:22:36 Fabian: This room is [perturbed] drastically different than when I was in here minutes ago.

0:22:40 Siobhan: Can I do an Investigate check on the room?

0:22:42 Brennan: Sure.

0:22:43 Riz: [sarcastically] Kristen wasn't an 800 year old skeleton before?

0:22:45 Fabian: No, no, no, Ri- no, The Ball.

0:22:47 Fig: I knew Kristen was a saint, but—

0:22:49 Siobhan: Gonna use Boggy for, nope, nope, nope.

0:22:52 Riz: Should we take Kristen's bones out of this room?

0:22:55 Fig: We should take Kristen’s bones, because if there are other areas that amplify certain types of magic, maybe there's an area that would amplify Revivify to become True Resurrection.

0:23:03 Siobhan: Yeah, is any of Kristen's stuff here?

0:23:06 Zac: What, can I look at that rock that she was holding?

0:23:08 Brennan: Can you—

0:23:10 Zac: Shattered rock?

0:23:12 Brennan: The shattered rock, yes you can. Go ahead and give me a Perception check on it.

0:23:17 Zac: Okay, and I would love to try Mending it.

0:23:19 Brennan: Oh sure.

0:23:21 Lou: Can I give him a help action on this?

0:23:22 Brennan: Yes, you can give a help action.

0:23:24 Emily: And the unicorn skeleton's gone?

0:23:25 Zac: Perception, 19 Perception.

0:23:28 Murph: I can investigate too.

0:23:29 Brennan: Go ahead and give me an Investigate check.

0:23:32 Murph: Oh baby, 27.

0:23:34 Lou: Couldn't beat that.

0:23:36 Siobhan: Could get a crit.

0:23:37 Lou: Not with my bardiest roll.

0:23:39 Brennan: Your 27 investigation check, I'm gonna let you make a Medicine check with advantage as well.

0:23:49 Murph: Dirty 20.

0:23:52 Brennan: You're investigating these bones. The posture, something is wrong with the posture. The joints look wrong. It looks like this, the look of this ancient skeleton, that there is wear and tear on these bones as though of having not only decayed during death, but perhaps also decayed during life.

0:24:22 Fig: Is there a possibility that these bones are not actually Kristen Applebees and instead, because we are in a place of illusion, that it could trick the Identify spell?

0:24:33 Adaine: I think very possibly, because if somebody—

0:24:35 Gorgug: Or the Identify spell itself is a trick.

0:24:36 Adaine: Well, if somebody had created an illusion of Kristen's bones—

0:24:38 Fabian: Here.

0:24:40 Fig: It would be real.

0:24:42 Adaine: Then it would be real here, so the Identify spell wouldn't be able to--

0:24:44 Fabian: Tell the difference.

0:24:46 Adaine: Tell the difference.

0:24:49 Emily: Can I do an investigation check for other bones?

0:24:52 Brennan: Sure.

0:24:52 Emily: Are these the only bones?

0:24:56 Brennan: These are the only ones in the chapel that you can see. You know there's tons of skeletons outside. You did the Mending to the thing. You can't mend it because it's not one face. The shattered stone has like, a nose, eye, as though someone shattered the face of a statue, but as you try to put them together, the features don't go together. You could swear that some of the features look like some of you [Siobhan groans, creeped out] There's a bit of Fabian's brow, some of Fig's chin, a little bit of—

0:25:34 Emily: Distinctive chin.

0:25:35 Brennan: Distinctive chin. Like, Riz's ear.

0:25:39 Fabian: That's my brow! That's my brow for sure!

0:25:41 Gorgug: Fabian's brow.

0:25:42 Brennan: There's only so many places on the face.

0:25:44 Gorgug: Riz's forehead.

0:25:45 Adaine: Gorgug is obsessed with us. He's so obsessed with us.

0:25:48 Fabian: Can we hold onto those, like regardless? Yeah, I feel like we should—

0:25:52 Fig: Should we put everything into a sack?

0:25:53 Gorgug: I don't want these. I don't want these at all!

0:25:56 Fabian: Alright! I just feel like they might, I'm not gonna—

0:25:59 Riz: Okay, well these bones were all wrong.

0:26:00 Fig: Yes, these bones are wrong and this face doesn't make one face.

0:26:05 Murph: I tell you why the bones are wrong.

0:26:06 Gorgug: Wait, so is there a bone, so if the bones are wrong there's no sign of a broken ankle from when Kristen jumped off of that tower?

0:26:17 Fabian: Maybe that's the decaying life?

0:26:18 Riz: According to my medical opinion. God, these bones were decaying long before—

0:26:24 Zac: Is there anything else in this room?

0:26:26 Murph: Do we see any evidence of the unicorn?

0:26:30 Brennan: You got 27 investigation? Yeah, I mean there's been no wind in here forever, so you do see ancient hoofprints of like, skeletal hooves in here.

0:26:40 Siobhan: Do they lead anywhere?

0:26:41 Brennan: Out to a hallway that then doesn't have any trace of them.

0:26:45 Siobhan: Can I cast Locate Creature on the unicorn?

0:26:49 Brennan: Yes, you can cast Locate Creature on the unicorn. You sense it for a moment, and then vanishing beyond the range of the spell, moving inwards into the forest.

0:27:07 Siobhan: Into the forest, so not down the path that the hoofprints are going down, like back where we were going?

0:27:13 Brennan: Not back to the entrance, although the hoofprints that Riz sees do lead to the entrance, but you sense with magic the actual unicorn leaving here. Everyone here make an Insight check.

0:27:28 Emily: 8. Contend with an 8.

0:27:31 Zac: 16.

0:27:31 Murph: 27.

0:27:33 Siobhan: 22.

0:27:39 Brennan: Riz. With a 27 Insight, you are looking at the expressions of horror, confusion, frustration, and doubt on the faces of your friends who are trying to figure out what the hell is going on here. And you, as you've been trained to do in investigations of this type, when you get frustrated because the clues aren't adding up, you take a step back. You are in a forest where illusions are real, in a chapel to a goddess whose main domain was doubt. The clues don't add up, and the physics of this place aren't going to reward your thinking from the world outside here. It is—   you are in wonderland now. Coming at these things with logical problem solving will not help you, because the game has been changed on you. The physics of this place work by dream logic, and if you try to get to the root of problems, using the same linear thinking you would've used to solve mysteries back in Solace, you will probably end up going mad, or simply failing in your quest.

0:29:08 Siobhan: [whispers] Crap.

0:29:09 Emily: [murmuring] So, to your talents then?

0:29:09 Murph: Yeah.

0:29:13 Gorgug: We have to follow—

0:29:15 Fig: I guess, do we want to try to do this lucid dreaming thing that other people did, or do we want to just follow our fear into the woods?

0:29:22 Siobhan: Will the lucid dream… do we get the impression that the lucid dreaming will help the fear situation? Like how would us [giggles] being on mushrooms help, or hinder us?

0:29:36 Brennan: The thing that got glossed over a little bit last time that is really important is the element of that fourth curse, which is that you guys actually can't get to the center of the forest without becoming more afraid as you go. The physical layout of the forest will change as you enter more into it. You don't have the nature of your mother's ritual. Her ritual was largely Abjurative. However, you know that dusk moss will probably… [sighs] it will certainly expedite whatever process is bound to happen as you move through this place. And you could attempt to improvise a ritual to use it to the best of its ability, but you don't, you know the most important elements were taken from here.

0:30:27 Fig: Okay, I can also just cast Fear on us. It only lasts for a minute, but that would get us a head start to—

0:30:34 Adaine: Yeah, I mean if we—

0:30:36 Fig: Know the right path.

0:30:38 Adaine: I mean, if we take these drugs and then cast the Fear to push us into a bad trip?

0:30:44 Fig: Yeah.

0:30:46 Gorgug: What?

0:30:49 Adaine: I don't know, I don't understand any of this

0:30:50 Fig: You don’t want to have a bad trip, you maybe take the lowest dose?

0:30:51 Fabian: I think for Kristen, we have to take these drugs.

0:30:53 Fig: I think so too.

0:30:55 Adaine: I think so too. I think that's what Kristen would have wanted us to do.

0:30:57 Fig: I know that... I agree, yeah.

0:30:59 Riz: Oh boy.

0:31:00 Fabian: Let's burn the drugs, and face our fears!

0:31:02 Lou: And I take off my father's eye patch and I'm like, let's do it, let's do a thing.

0:31:05 Emily: All right.

0:31:08 Siobhan: I take a moment to… [clenches fingers in a perfectly circular shape] Hard hold Boggy, and all of his feathery softness, [Brennan makes owl noises] and then I dismiss him.

0:31:16 Brennan: Poof.

0:31:24 Baby: [screeches] What of me, mistress?

0:31:25 Fabian: Keep, maybe?

0:31:26 Adaine: I mean, he's so scary. He's not a cute baby. He's so scary.

0:31:30 Gorgug: If you wanna have a bad trip, then yeah.

0:31:32 Fig: You have a really important role to play. Keep being you. (Baby shrieks)

0:31:37 Adaine: Maybe do some little dances.

0:31:39 Baby: [puts his arms up and bounces around] Dum dum… dum dum dum dum.

0:31:39 Fig: Remember when you asked me, do you remember—

0:31:40 Adaine: Oh god… Oh I hate it.

0:31:42 Fig: When you asked me, should I whisper or scream?

0:31:45 Baby: Yes.

0:31:46 Fig: For today, we scream. Baby screams

0:31:51 Fig: That's good, okay.

0:31:53 Fabian: I am... Let's get this over with.

0:31:57 Adaine: Can we tie ourselves to each other? Or is this just like a one...

0:32:02 Fabian: I feel like that's being too safe.

0:32:03 Adaine: [panicked] Oh god!

0:32:04 Fabian: I think if anything, there might be part of this where we need to do things alone.

0:32:06 Adaine: Oh, I hate this.

0:32:08 Fig: Okay.

0:32:08 Adaine: Oh no.

0:32:09 Emily: I think I'm gonna say,

0:32:09 Fig: Let's get messy.

0:32:10 Emily: And then shake my hair out of its braid. For the first time in my life.

0:32:13 Adaine: Okay, before we go in I just wanna say, this is so scary, and I'm so glad that we're doing it together.

0:32:20 Fig: Yeah.

0:32:22 Adaine: [a little shaky] And I don't know what's gonna happen, but if I can, I will have everybody's back, and I know that you'll have mine.

0:32:30 Fig: There's only so far we can get from each other, right?

0:32:34 Fabian: Yes, we're all headed in the same direction.

0:32:36 Riz: Spring break?

0:32:36 Adaine: Spring break.

0:32:37 Fabian: Spring break.

0:32:38 Gorgug: Everybody, spring break. They all put their hands together in the middle.

0:32:38 Fig: I believe in you.

0:32:38 Gorgug: Spring break. I believe in you.

0:32:41 Riz: I believe in you.

0:32:41 Fabian: Spring break, I believe in you.

0:32:42 Fabian: For Kristen Applebees.

0:32:43 Adaine: For Kristen.

0:32:43 Fig: For Kristen Applebees. But still I think we should tie ourselves together, yeah, no?

0:32:47 Adaine: I'm into it.

0:32:48 Fabian: I mean, until—

0:32:48 Riz: I think that's not a good idea here.

0:32:54 Fig: Okay!

0:32:55 Riz: In fact, we might, things might have to get weird.

0:32:57 Fabian: Yeah.

0:32:57 Fig: Okay.

0:32:58 Everybody: Spring break. Spring break. I believe in you. They take their hands out of the huddle.

0:33:02 Murph: As soon as we pull back, I rush off into the woods after Kristen. Brennan’s jaw drops, and he lets out a surprised almost-laugh.

0:33:07 Emily: Without…?!

0:33:08 Murph: So Riz's greatest fear is to not have a plan, to not be able to figure it out, and to get his friends in trouble, so I'm running off without you guys.

0:33:14 Zac: He's not even gonna take the drugs?

0:33:15 Murph: I'm not even gonna take the drugs. That's a plan, that's like doin' it—

0:33:17 Brennan: Riz darts off into the temple.

0:33:21 Fabian: No, The Ball!

0:33:21 Adaine: What are you doing? Oh my God...

0:33:22 Emily: Okay wait, if it's Opposite Day, I'm straight edge, except for drugs, so I'm not gonna take the drugs and instead, I take a flagon of whiskey out, and I take a shot—

0:33:32 Siobhan: A flagon? You have a whole flagon of whiskey with you?

0:33:36 Emily: What's a flagon? I only read it in books...

0:33:38 Zac: Gorgug is scared to do the mushrooms.

0:33:40 Siobhan: It’s like, huge.

0:33:40 Murph: It's like a mug.

0:33:41 Fabian: Let's do, I don't do, burn it, burn it and let's breathe it in, I don't know.

0:33:46 Gorgug: Should I take a bite of it?

0:33:47 Fabian: I don't think, I think it's a smoke, you smoke it.

0:33:51 Zac: Do we, can I make a check to see if I understand how to take this drug?

0:33:54 Brennan: You remember the gnome saying you have to light it. It's like a brick of incense.

0:33:58 Lou: Great.

0:33:58 Zac: Hell yes.

0:33:59 Lou: I light it up. I light up some of it.

0:34:03 Brennan: Okay.

0:34:04 Siobhan: I'm also gonna take my meds out of my pocket, and I'm gonna leave them. Brenan puts his hands over his mouth in shock.

0:34:10 Lou: I hate this. I hate this.

0:34:12 Siobhan: This is awful.

0:34:13 Fig: Wait, don't leave them. Just give them to me. Just give 'em to me.

0:34:15 Adaine: No, because then you'll have them.

0:34:18 Fabian: But that...

0:34:20 Brennan: Fig starts downing whiskey. Fig starts downing that whiskey. Adaine, you, near the last little owl feather on the floor from where Boggy vanished, you take out your jacket-produced, the language on your anxiety meds is whatever language they write and speak in the interdimensional city inside your jacket. You put the little orange bottle down on the ground. Gorgug, you have this brick of dusk moss incense. Gorgug lights a flame under the brick, and it catches with a whoosh. Lou takes deep breaths.

0:35:02 Gorgug: Is there a ritual also? [chanting] We are scared and we're coming for Kristen. We are scared and we're coming for Kristen.

0:35:12 All except Riz: [chanting] We are scared and we're coming for Kristen! We are scared, and we're coming for Kristen!

0:35:17 Brennan: I'm gonna say you all choose to voluntarily fail your Constitution saving throws.

0:35:21 Siobhan: Yep.

0:35:21 Lou: Yes.

0:35:22 Emily: Except for me, actually. I would like to try to pass.

0:35:24 Brennan: Okay.

0:35:25 Emily: I'm not straight edge, except for drugs. [rolls] I do pass.

0:35:30 Brennan: Incredible. Cool, so the dusk moss… and give me one for the whiskey as well?

0:35:36 Emily: The whiskey. Damn it, I pass everything. All right, I do the dusk moss. All right, I intentionally fail it.

0:35:43 Brennan: Are you gonna cast Fear as well?

0:35:44 Emily: Yes.

0:35:46 Brennan: Before you cast Fear, I'm just asking because it was a little bit of lack of clarity, Kristen's remains, or [airquotes] what the Identify spell referred to as Kristen's remains, are in the chapel still, correct?

0:35:58 Siobhan: Yeah, I mean I'll take one piece of her, because I feel like at this point Revivify won't work, so it just will be like a full reincarnate.

0:36:09 Brennan: Okay, just a tip of a finger bone, something like that?

0:36:12 Siobhan: Yeah, just something I can put in my pocket.

0:36:13 Brennan: Cool.

0:36:14 Fabian: Can I take that stone of my brow?

0:36:16 Adaine: Maybe we should all take a piece of her.

0:36:17 Fig: No, I think we should, I think we should, because there's a chance that we could go to somewhere else, and Revivify could work like True Resurrections. Although true resurrection, you really only need to speak a person's name. So never mind.

0:36:28 Brennan: You take the piece of the finger bone. You cast the Fear spell.

0:36:34 Lou: It's cast on us?

0:36:35 Brennan: Yeah, you're going into a bad trip.

0:36:37 Fig: I’m just trying to help you!

0:36:39 Fabian: I know, I know, ooh.

0:36:41 Adaine: Oh, I hate this.

0:36:41 Fabian: God!

0:36:42 Gorgug: This is a bad time. Brennan claps his hands together and laughs in a distinctly evil way.

0:36:46 Fabian: And then do we just, yeah okay.

0:36:48 Brennan: Well here's the thing. I wanna know right before that Fear spell gets cast, let's go down the line, and I want each of you guys to tell me what you're anticipating in your bad trip. What does your character imagine they're gonna see when this bad trip starts?

0:37:08 Zac: [eyes squeezed shut] Oh god.

0:37:09 Lou: Damn. Like what do you mean?

0:37:11 Brennan: I mean that generally speaking, the thing you dread is the thing you imagine, and you're making your imaginations come to life with a powerful gnomish hallucinogen and a third level Fear spell. So, whatever your characters are imagining. I'll let you guys stew on that. Riz, you dart through the temple. [panting] Out into the woods you go. What is Riz doing as he emerges from the other side of the temple in an even thicker and more briar-tangled version of the forest? What are you doing? [music: dark, spooky chords with faint piano]

0:37:48 Murph: I'm trying to run towards wherever Adaine thought the unicorn was going.

0:37:54 Brennan: So you're trying to follow the unicorn.

0:37:57 Murph: Yeah.

0:37:58 Brennan: Go ahead and give me an Investigation check.

0:38:00 Murph: Okay. And I think I'm specifically being reckless. I didn't wanna be involved in this because it's too much a Riz thing to come up with a plan, so I'm just charging.

0:38:11 Brennan: Then give me it with disadvantage, so you're just gonna roll straight.

0:38:13 Murph: Sweet. Oh so straight, let me roll again 'cause I just rolled twice… 28. [sighs uncomfortably]

0:38:23 Brennan: Riz, you begin to dart through the forest as fast as you can. You begin to follow what you believe are the hoofprints of this unicorn. As you do so, it occurs to you number one, that Kristen's body was the one that had all of the Revivify diamonds on it, which you now no longer have access to. You continue to move as fast as you can. What, as you're following the right unicorn, what is Riz anticipating doing if he finds the unicorn out here in the forest?

0:39:25 Murph: I think Riz wants to see if he can deduce what happened to Kristen, or if there's any way to bring her back, or if this unicorn stole any essence of her.

0:39:46 Brennan: You start hoofing it. Go ahead, and give me a Survival check, if you'd be so kind.

0:39:59 Murph: Okay… 18. Clattering of many, many dice.

0:40:09 Siobhan: Oh no.

0:40:10 Murph: You simply hate to see it. Brennan smirks as he arranges the dice.

0:40:12 Lou: Fuck you.

0:40:13 Emily: Jesus. Those better be D4s.

0:40:15 Murph: I am getting Kristen rolls, though.

0:40:17 Siobhan: Yeah.

0:40:17 Emily: Yeah, that's nice.

0:40:18 Murph: Which is good.

0:40:19 Emily: It's nice to have them Ally dice here.

0:40:26 Lou: Thank you.

0:40:27 Murph: Thank you. Lou and Murph put their hands on the back of Ally’s empty chair.

0:40:28 Brennan: [deep breath] You… Siobhan kisses two fingers and holds them up to the sky for Ally. Emily repeats the gesture, but holds her two fingers down and apart in an ‘A’ shape.

0:40:28 Emily: Ally. Siobhan copies her.

0:40:28 Siobhan: Ally.

0:40:29 Emily: Ally. Lou does the gesture as well. Emily starts trying to spell Ally in Sign, which Siobhan and Lou also try.

0:40:35 Brennan: You stop down. You, also give me a Stealth check if you'd be so kind. Unless you're not trying to be stealthy at all, and you're just—

0:40:41 Murph: Not trying to be stealthy.

0:40:44 Lou: Come on, The Ball!

0:40:45 Brennan: So you're just [panting] running through. You got your briefcase, you got your gun. Just a kid with a flat cap and a tie, running a dead sprint through deep, dark woods. [cast laughs]

0:40:50 Lou: What is—

0:40:54 Murph: This is what I used to do to catch the bus [everyone laughs] No wait!

0:40:59 Emily: Now your neighbor's mom can't drive you in.

0:41:01 Murph: My greatest fear…

0:41:02 Brennan: Briars begin to come up around you.

0:41:06 Murph: Keep runnin'.

0:41:08 Lou: [nervous] Mm.

0:41:09 Brennan: Go ahead and give me a dexterity saving throw.

0:41:14 Murph: Nat 1. [slams the table gently and leans back in his chair, running his hands through his hair]

0:41:20 Brennan: You take 11 points of damage as you just breakneck sprint through briars, twigs from the trees scratching at your face, and then you see it in one of the hoof prints. There's a little sliver of, there's a little sliver of mirror, like a trace amount, like dust. You're getting closer, you're catching up. And you begin to look around, you're in a part of the forest that's a little bit strange to you. The trees have metal in them, as if the forest grew up around something metallic. You look and see that, you knew you were getting hurt by briars, but you didn't see where the cuts were. The cuts are only on your hands. Just your hands are bleeding. You hear a voice from the forest.

0:42:23 Baron: [alien French-Canadian-esque accent] Oh no, it seems your hands are bleeding once again, Riz Gukgak.

0:42:27 Lou: [pressing his fists into his eyes] No! Everyone groans.

0:42:29 Siobhan: No! [waves her fists around in spooked frustration]

0:42:31 Zac: No, no, no, no, no, no. Not like this!

0:42:38 Riz: I don't have a romance partner!

0:42:40 Lou: [brings his arms down] No!

0:42:41 Baron: You do not have a romance partner? Emily laughs.

0:42:46 Lou: God, I hate this.

0:42:48 Riz: People don't even call 'em romance partners.

0:42:49 Baron: In the Baronies where I am from they sure do. [lower register] They sure do, Riz Gukgak.

0:42:56 Riz: You're not from anywhere, 'cause you're not real, Baron. I made ya up.

0:43:00 Baron: Why did you do such a thing, Riz Gukgak? Why did you make me up whole cloth from your mind? Group laughs. Lou slams the table twice and yells a little.

0:43:18 Murph: I—

0:43:20 Lou: Oh man.

0:43:21 Murph: Screw it, I run towards where I hear him coming from. I run towards Baron.

0:43:28 Brennan: One of the shards of mirror, there's Baron standing in it. He goes,

0:43:33 Baron: Do you want to come through to the other side and meet my stark father? There's a reason you made me up, Riz Gukgak. You would not have lied so frivolously. You love the truth. You seek it so much that you cut your hands upon the inside of crystals. But, you use deception to protect yourself from something you fear. What do you fear, Riz Gukgak?

0:44:08 Riz: I… [long, silent pause] ...fear being wrong, and it getting my friends hurt, like Kristen.

0:44:21 Baron: Hm. [softly] You made me up, because you are worried of being wrong?

0:44:29 Riz: Well, no you are a different thing. You're because everybody else is hookin' up. People do it, people hook up, it's normal. And I'm not super into that, so I made you up so that there wouldn't be any questions.

0:44:47 Baron: [whispering] Any questions about what?

0:44:50 Brennan: You begin to see in other mirrors, there's movement. Things are moving in the other mirrors around you. You look up in a mirror. You see Fabian and Aelwyn Abernant in one of the mirrors, dancing this insane tango. You see—

0:45:12 Lou: [approvingly, wiggling his shoulders] Okay.

0:45:13 Brennan: Tracker. You see Tracker and Kristen on a couch, just making out. You see Fig on stage, playing to Ayda in the front row who's clapping her hands. And you hear Baron say,

0:45:39 Baron: Why do you think your friends keep you around, Riz Gukgak? If it had not been for detention on your first day of school, and for you to solve this little mystery, do you think they'd look at you as someone they can truly understand? Or are you just a funny little thing that finds the clues? What is it they call you most often of all?

0:46:13 Riz: They call me The Ball, but Ragh made that nickname up, and Ragh's my friend now.

0:46:20 Brennan: You see Ragh making out with Fathethriel in another mirror. You see he says,

0:46:24 Baron: The years will go by, and everyone will find someone that matters more to them than you.

0:46:34 Brennan: Go ahead and make a Wisdom saving roll for me. Murph groans nervously.

0:46:42 Murph: 11.

0:46:46 Brennan: What's goin' on in Riz's mind right now?

0:46:51 Murph: I think that... Riz, this is truly one of Riz's greatest fears, and he's not super equipped to wrestle with this at the moment, and I think the only thing kind of giving him hope is the cold, logical thought of being like, Ragh doesn't like Fathethriel. Group laughs.

0:47:31 Murph: These people aren't all gonna end up together.

0:47:38 Brennan: You see, as you start to move through, you start pointing out the flaws in them. And you hear Baron's voice say,

0:47:55 Baron: That is a good crack to the riddle, Riz Gukgak. You are right, Ragh will not spend the rest of his life with [wavering on the pronunciation] Fathethriel. Group laughs.

0:48:07 Brennan: You see, he says,

0:48:10 Baron: So it is true. You are unlike Ragh. You are unlike Gorgug. But do you know who you are most unlike?

0:48:22 Brennan: The last and greatest mirror comes up in front of you, and you see that there is a beautiful garden party with red and white paper lanterns, and a young Pok Gukgak and Sklonda Gukgak dance together.

0:48:45 Baron: [very quietly] You are most unlike your mother and your father.

0:48:52 Brennan: And you watch the way your mother and father look at each other. How suave, and debonair your father is. How confident and poised your mother is.

0:49:07 Baron: Do you know how I know you are not like them, Riz Gukgak? Because, they were not afraid that they were nothing more than a ball. And also, they would never have so easily abandoned their search for the unicorn.

0:49:25 Brennan: And you look and see, you're not even in the forest anymore. You are in a world of mirrors. We're gonna cut back to— Siobhan makes a nervous screech, and Zac makes a muffled noise into his hands. Murph leans back in his chair and runs his fingers through his hair again. Emily and Brennan laugh.

0:49:38 Lou: Fuck that.

0:49:41 Emily: [pointing at Brennan] Stay away from my husband.

0:49:44 Siobhan: You’re not invited to any parties.

0:49:45 Lou: Get 'em, get 'em, dude. Get 'em, get 'em.

0:49:46 Brennan: I admit there might be something wrong with me.

0:49:50 Lou: The return of Baron. Players groan and laugh.

0:49:53 Siobhan: I knew it was coming eventually.

0:49:55 Emily: It's like we all wanted it, and then it happened. Siobhan groaning.

0:49:57 Lou: No, I didn't want this. I didn't want this one bit.

0:50:00 Brennan: Okay, let's go down the line. What's everyone afraid of? Uproar amongst the players.

0:50:05 Siobhan: I'm not telling you secrets!

0:50:06 Zac: That's the most Brennan thing I've ever heard. Brennan laughs.

0:50:08 Lou: Let's go down the line, come on.

0:50:10 Emily: We can't start on this side. I haven't thought of mine, I was too distracted by it.

0:50:14 Brennan: It's not what you're most afraid of. It's what your character is dreading in the moment as you're doing this dusk moss ritual.

0:50:20 Zac: I think the track that Gorgug's mind would go down, given the ritual, what he's scared of, or what he doesn't like... Brennan eats out of his hand. Everyone turns to look at him.

0:50:38 Siobhan: Keep crunchin', dude.

0:50:40 Lou: Yeah, this is a great time to do that, my guy.

0:50:41 Siobhan: Practice for those dice later, my man.

0:50:42 Brennan: My hands started getting tingly from blood sugar, I'm sorry.

0:50:46 Lou: Okay.

0:50:48 Zac: I think Gorgug is a person who has died. Literally died, and I think he's scared of the fact that all of this has happened after he died. And so, is this real? There's already a bit of imposter syndrome stuff going on with like he doesn't feel very smart, and he's doing what is traditionally something for smart people lately. Just, feeling very uncertain about the reality that he already experiences.

0:51:43 Brennan: You, your hold on reality starts to fade as you become more and more uncertain. The dusk moss spreads. And you feel a little thing, like pa-ping on your crystal in your pocket. You can feel yourself about to slip into unreality as this ritual is taking place, but you have one last moment of hanging onto the real world, as you feel your crystal ping in your pocket. By the way, bear in mind that if you wanna do any shenanigans with your crystal later in the forest, you have a limited battery life on this thing. But you feel something notify you in your crystal.

0:52:35 Zac: Fuck. It was working?

0:52:37 Brennan: Yeah, you were getting service in the forest.

0:52:40 Zac: I'll look at it.

0:52:44 Brennan: Your home screen is a picture of you as, in an awesome drumming photograph from a Fig and the Cig Figs concert. You're in your sophomore year of high school, and you are a rock star athlete who, you're a rock star athlete who saved the world from a dragon with your best friends last year. Does Gorgug really feel like that's who he is, or does he feel like the kid who catches backpacks in the parking lot?

0:53:24 Zac: [sighs] Man. He feels like the kid who catches backpacks.

0:53:28 Brennan: The notification on your phone is from Skrank. Gorgug taps something on his phone.

0:53:37 Brennan: You see it's a little message that just says,

0:53:40 Skrank: [squawks] Hey Gorgug, I heard you and Zelda are back together. I'm so happy for you. Hope everything's cool between us. Lou drops his head to the table.

0:53:45 Siobhan: [whispering] Ooh, son of a bitch.

0:53:50 Gorgug: What? Why would, hey Skrank. [stuttering] Why, I guess I—

0:54:00 Murph: Fully on drugs.

0:54:04 Gorgug: Why wouldn't it be?

0:54:07 Brennan: You see a little ellipses come up, and go away.

0:54:17 Siobhan: [sighs] Crap, goddamn.

0:54:20 Zac: I'm gonna turn my phone off.

0:54:24 Brennan: [phone powering down noise] You look up, and see, well I'm gonna go actually before I say what happens when you look up from your phone, who else, what else is someone dreading as the ritual starts?

0:54:38 Siobhan: I think for Adaine, it's all about a mix of, like the twin fears of the fear of failure, and the fear of loss of control, which I feel like go hand in hand. Like so much of this last year has been sort of building her self-esteem outside of just what her parents thought of her, but that is so close to the surface still. Even though, I don't know, I think underneath she's just still afraid. She's small, and she's weak, and she, I dunno, her friends, she loves them. But, you never know the inner life of somebody else's mind.

0:55:41 Brennan: [sighs] I'm going to need you to, we haven't done this since season one. I'm gonna need you to make a roll for a panic attack. You do not have to do this with disadvantage. You can still do this straight.

0:55:52 Siobhan: That's a 4.

0:55:56 Emily: [quietly] Panic attack might help us.

0:55:59 Brennan: Adaine, you begin to experience the beginnings of a full blown panic attack.

0:56:05 Siobhan: Oh God fucking damn it. I do what I can to do the breathing exercises that Jawbone has taught me over the last year. 'Cause even though I know I should probably let it go and lean into it, it's still so terrifying to let it happen that I'm working against it. But, I dunno.

0:56:32 Brennan: You begin to breathe. You are fighting against the panic attack happening. Even though you know that fear will bring you deeper into the forest. Adaine gets her wish. You fight it, and the panic attack ends. You are on the other side of the briar wall. You got out of the forest, 'cause you couldn't handle it, and you've run out of the gym while your friends fight the dragon again. Adaine No, goddamn it! How do I get back in?

0:57:13 Siobhan: I try and get back in.

0:57:16 Brennan: How do you attempt to do so?

0:57:18 Siobhan: Ah! I look through the briar, and I try and Misty Step through it.

0:57:27 Brennan: Bff, you Misty Step through and [buzzing impact], feel yourself rebuffed. You are back on the outside of the briar wall. You breathed in that dusk moss, you had that moment of feeling true fear again, and you couldn't do it. You couldn't let yourself get there, and your friends are through an impenetrable barrier on the other side without your help, and without your knowledge of the curses. Fabian, Fig.

0:57:56 Emily: Okay, before I say my Fear can I just do an Insight check? I need to know, I basically want to make sure, 'cause I know Adaine put her meds down, and I don't wanna take it against her will, but I don't want her to leave 'em, so I just wanna know if I will hurt her chances if I have Baby go pick up the meds.

0:58:23 Brennan: You will not hurt her chances.

0:58:25 Emily: Okay, I'm gonna send Baby to go pick up the meds.

0:58:27 Brennan: Adaine, again, doesn't need to, Adaine has her Jacket of Useful Things.

0:58:33 Emily: I know, but if I see her and she's in a state where she needs someone to give it to her.

0:58:38 Brennan: Absolutely. Baby goes over. Baby cackles.

0:58:41 Lou: [chuckling] God.

0:58:42 Fig: No, these are not for you.

0:58:44 Baby: What if I could use them?

0:58:46 Fig: Well, we'll talk about that later. We'll talk about that later.

0:58:51 Emily: Okay. Okay, I guess I don't, hm. I guess Fig is maybe anticipating, there's like two images she could anticipate encountering which is a dead Gilear, or the feather in her pocket just dissolving, and that meaning that something has happened to Ayda, or even encountering Ayda as a baby, and finding out that she reincarnated, and is now a baby would be really weird. I do think that there's also sort of a fear, but then I guess, I don't know if it's a shallow fear because really I should just be worried about the safety of other people, but there is a deep rooted fear that now that she's actually showing, you know trying to be herself around people that that will end up not being enough, and that she'll kind of find out that she's very charismatic and charisma can make a good first impression, but not a lasting one. So someone like Ayda, for example, would meet the [airquotes] real Fig, not the glamor or the idea of Fig that Fig has portrayed, and she would find out she's not enough, and she's just a bass player and no one wants to hear the bass play solo.

1:00:21 Brennan: In this moment, right before the, as you are casting Fear and you know you're about to see your worst nightmare, is like the coin is spinning, and it's about to fall on a side. Is Fig more afraid that she is a fraud, and there's no reason to like her, or is she more afraid that the people around her keep getting hurt?

1:01:00 Emily: [narrows her eyes at Brennan] I think more likely, 'cause right now she's really worried about the fact that she can't, that she couldn't save Kristen. And so I think she's more worried about people getting hurt right now. She can worry about herself later.

1:01:16 Brennan: Give me a Wisdom saving throw.

1:01:23 Emily: [sarcastically] Well, the dice wanna tell your story. I got a 6. Brennan laughs. Lou claps.

1:01:29 Brennan: I'm getting roasted out here tonight.

1:01:30 Lou: Salty.

1:01:31 Brennan: I'm getting roasted.

1:01:34 Siobhan: We're scared, Brennan.

1:01:35 Lou: This is literally, I'm so tense right now.

1:01:38 Emily: I know.

1:01:39 Brennan: You gotta, if you're doing a whole Nightmare King season, you gotta get to Nightmare Forest.

1:01:41 Siobhan: I’m so sweaty.

1:01:43 Lou: We were having so much fun, though. Remember when we were runnin' around, and people were flying on ropes?

1:01:47 Zac: We had a shrimp party.

1:01:49 Lou: [mournfully] A shrimp party.

1:01:52 Brennan: You try to be the person who's more afraid that your friends are gonna get hurt, but it occurs to you that the fact that you were worried about how people see you, and that that entered your mind at this point in time, is proof that those fears are true. Because if you were the person who was really the most worried just about saving your friends, that other thought would've been quieter. You watch, frozen to the ground, as a beautiful, resplendent, cool, awesome, funny Fig splits from your body, stands up, quietly looks to you as Adaine vanishes, and says,

1:02:54 Nightmare Fig: (to Fig, threatening) You stay here. (to party, cheerfully) Got it from here, guys.

1:03:02 Brennan: The story of you, the performance of you, is what your friends care about, and the real you freezes to the ground. Fabian.

1:03:20 Lou: I think Fabian is really bad at this, and is like, trying to psych himself out to be brave in front of his fear, and it's running back the past experiences with the, like with the version of him eating yogurt in his father's memory museum, and being trapped in the ocean, and thinking I'll probably go there, and here's what I'll do. But I think underneath it all is this feeling of being helpless, or unable to use his prowess to overcome whatever he's about to face. Yeah, the idea that I won't be able to jump, and dance, and stab my way through whatever is to come is, I can't, I don't know, I'm not sure, like I don't, if that's not how I can handle the situation, I won't know what to do.

1:04:32 Brennan: Fabian, you watch yourself begin to vanish. [raises hands up to his face with a whooshing noise] Hands go see through. So right now, Adaine is gone, Riz is gone, there's an illusion of Fig. Gorgug, you are still here. All of you forget Fabian. The Bad Kids were the five kids who met in the detention room on their first day of freshman year. They defeated the dragon Kalvaxus. And Fabian, you watch yourself literally turn invisible. You're a ghost. Less than a ghost. You are a perspective, you have your memories, but you watch Fig stand up, look at Gorgug, and say,

1:05:51 Nightmare Fig: Okay, I'm gonna go get, we need to find Adaine, Riz, and Kristen. So, I'm gonna go do that.

1:06:00 Brennan: [snaps, whooshing] Fig vanishes. Gorgug.

1:06:06 Gorgug: What?

1:06:10 Brennan: You don't see anybody else here in the room with you anymore. You have been completely abandoned. What do you do?

1:06:25 Zac: I think at this point Gorgug takes a little bone from Kristen, just to have some sort of anchor to something.

1:06:36 Brennan: Yeah.

1:06:41 Zac: I think since everyone literally vanished from the point which they were, he's just gonna walk towards the direction that Riz, I guess, went.

1:06:50 Brennan: Yeah.

1:06:52 Zac: Just 'cause that's maybe where someone could be.

1:06:54 Brennan: Yeah.

1:06:55 Zac: That's a direction at least.

1:06:57 Brennan: Absolutely. You head off into the woods. As you begin walking, you are left with this sinking feeling of what the hell are you gonna do? As you leave, what do you do when you exit the temple and get out to the rest of the forest here?

1:07:22 Zac: I guess I have to follow what's scary. I think I'm losing touch with what I'm doing, a little bit, but remember that much at least.

1:07:37 Brennan: Yeah.

1:07:38 Zac: And so, probably going a little slow.

1:07:42 Brennan: You're going a little slowly, but you're walking off into the woods. Fabian, you can still move. You still exist. What are you gonna do as you see Gorgug begin to leave the room?

1:07:53 Lou: Can I call out for Gorgug?

1:07:54 Brennan: Yes, you can.

1:07:56 Fabian: Gorgug!

1:07:57 Brennan: [to Zac] You hear nothing.

1:08:00 Fabian: [louder] Gorgug!

1:08:05 Brennan: It occurs to you that maybe Gorgug can't hear you, but—

1:08:11 Lou: Can I run up and put my hands on, grab him, put my hands on his shoulder?

1:08:15 Brennan: You are physic—, as you go to try to move him, you physically can't. [mimes pulling at something] You look at your translucent hands, try to pull him, it's like trying to stop, I don't know, like a train moving down a train track. You just can't physically make it stop.

1:08:30 Lou: And he doesn't respond at all to my touch, or any, like there's nothing?

1:08:35 Brennan: No response to any of it. You could possibly affect the physical world. You could try to write something, like on the ground in front of him. But other than that, none of the auditory, you don't seem to be able to interact with him.

1:08:54 Lou: I… [long pause] I let him go. And I feel like... I dunno, I feel like Fabian sits down. [nervous laugh] There's just too much going on right now.

1:09:23 Brennan: Cool. Fabian takes a seat. Fig, you unfreeze from where you were locked into the floor as your illusion left. You are able to move freely again, but all of your friends are gone.

1:09:47 Emily: I guess I also go.

1:09:47 Fig: [hands cupped aroun dher mouth] Riz, Fabian, Adaine, Gorgug! Baby?

1:09:58 Brennan: Babian— uh, [sighs] Babian.

1:10:01 Zac: Babian?

1:10:02 Brennan: The ship people didn't know they needed.

1:10:04 Lou: What’s up dude? I'm in the corner making out with Baby. Your great fear!

1:10:09 Emily: My true! greatest! fear!

1:10:13 Lou: Oh, fuck.

1:10:16 Brennan: Baby left with your illusion.

1:10:19 Emily: Okay. Does anyone respond to me?

1:10:23 Brennan: Either they are out of earshot, or they are choosing not to respond.

1:10:28 Emily: Okay, I think I'm going to walk towards the woods.

1:10:35 Brennan: You walk towards the woods. Make a Perception check as you begin to walk towards the woods.

1:10:43 Emily: 18.

1:10:49 Brennan: Gorgug, make a Perception check for me as well, actually.

1:10:57 Zac: 23.

1:10:58 Murph: Nice!

1:10:58 Brennan: Cool. Fig, you begin to walk out of here. On your way out of the temple, you see that there is a room with a giant placid pool. There's like a fountain in there. And you see in the roof above it, there's a stone sculpture of an eye that is being pulled open by claws at its lids. But you detect some kind of, like—

1:11:34 Emily: Magic?

1:11:35 Brennan: Magic in the pool.

1:11:37 Emily: Okay. I guess I'll just, what am I, I'll follow my Fear. I'll just put my foot in the pool.

1:11:48 Brennan: The water is like exactly at your body temperature, which means that it's extremely warm. It's like weirdly unsettling to get into something warmer than room temperature that's just sitting here stagnant. As you do, you hear a voice go,

1:12:18 Voice: [whispered and raspy] What dreams do you now wish to see?

1:12:25 Brennan: And you feel that you are in some kind of scrying pool. Probably a limited scrying that you could only gaze at, not at someone's physical waking location, but if someone were dreaming, you could look at what their dreams were.

1:12:41 Emily: If someone were dreaming, I could look at what their dreams were?

1:12:45 Brennan: Yes, if someone were dreaming you could look at what their dreams were.

1:12:49 Emily: Feel like I should be strategic and say, Aelwyn, but yeah, I'll say that. I'll say Aelwyn, even though I wanna say Kristen Applebees.

1:13:02 Brennan: You say Aelwyn. The pool shimmers, and you don't feel like you've lost an opportunity. You may be able to say more than one person. But it shimmers in such a way that you think Aelwyn is maybe not gonna react. You also sense that sleep and dream magic, due to Aelwyn trancing instead of sleeping, that the Abernants might be hard to affect with this magic.

1:13:28 Emily: Yes. Then I will, I guess I'm gonna, this is so stupid but I'm holding out hope that Kristen Applebees is in some capacity existing, so I'm gonna say Kristen Applebees. [music becomes suddenly quick, tense, and discordant strings]

1:13:49 Brennan: You say Kristen Applebees. As you do so, you see that the entire pool shudders, and you are (explosion noise) your glyph glows on your forehead, and it is violently reshaped. First of all, your new archdevil glyph comes into being, which moves from the sort of classic, blase pentagram into just a rad, punk anarchy symbol on your head. You are flying through a vortex of shadow. You see a woman who's some like, she is a mountain, and you are a speck flying in a whirlwind around her. She exceeds you in size by some orders of magnitude, and you see that she is clutching her fingernails into her scalp, and screaming, going, ‘Woman’ shrieks.

1:14:46 Brennan: As this storm surrounds her, lightning surrounds her. As lightning strikes her, you see that she is like being actively killed by some incredible act of magic. And as she's being electrocuted by the storm, you see that there are moments where the lightning strikes her, and all of her hair and clothing and skin fades, and you just see a screaming skeleton. You [gasps] come to, back in the pool as mist rises up from the surface of the pool.

1:15:22 Fig: Riz? Fabian? Adaine? Gorgug?

1:15:31 Brennan: Does Fig do anything else in the pool?

1:15:34 Emily: I'm gonna collect some of the pool water.

1:15:35 Brennan: Cool, you collect some pool water. Gorgug, as you walk—

1:15:42 Gorgug: [small voice] Riz? Fabian? Adaine? Fig?

1:15:47 Brennan: As you walk deeper into the forest, go ahead and give me a Survival check.

1:15:57 Zac: 20, not nat.

1:16:01 Brennan: [sucks in a breath] Very good.

1:16:09 Zac: Is that helpful to get good scores?

1:16:12 Emily: I don't know, that's the mysterious thing.

1:16:16 Zac: Are we in opposite world?

1:16:19 Siobhan: Maybe?

1:16:20 Lou: Yeah, should we be rolling low?

1:16:23 Brennan: You come to an area of the forest where the tree trunks become so thick that you don't think you can pass through it. You see a tunnel underneath the roots. It is extremely small. It would not just be crawling, it would be dragging your body. It's not enough space to even be on your hands and knees. The surface is littered with leaves, and you see insects crawling in and out of the tunnel.

1:17:03 Zac: Gorgug's definitely afraid of small, enclosed spaces. Just as a powerful large person, hitting his head on things is like, an everyday occurrence. So an even smaller version of that is scary, and bugs. He just doesn't like bugs.

1:17:21 Brennan: Yeah.

1:17:27 Zac: I think he thinks about cutting the trees down, but I'll just crawl. Zac takes a deep breath in and puffs his cheeks out.

1:17:38 Brennan: Go ahead and give me an Acrobatics check.

1:17:43 Zac: [whispers] What the hell? [normal] 21.

1:17:54 Brennan: You pull yourself, you can feel insects crawling all over the surface of your skin as you begin to just go underground. Even your darkvision, it doesn't help because the tunnel begins to wind, and there's roots in the way. And there are so many moments where you will go around a corner, and just suddenly feel like oh, literally my ribcage is too big to get around this corner, and I don't think I can, you realize after traveling under here for about 10 minutes that you're like, “I can't back up out of here. If I get stuck down here, no one's ever gonna find me.” With a 21 Acrobatics, you keep going. Remind yourself that you are truly like, going the right way. You're going in the direction of your fears. You pull through, and you, are on the ground of some kind of dungeon. There's roots everywhere, but there's a stone floor. And you see that there's a passage leading in the direction, you know goes deeper into the forest.

1:19:13 Zac: Okay. Does it look like I've, it looks like I've made progress.

1:19:19 Brennan: It looks like you've made progress, yeah.

1:19:23 Zac: I forget if I gave it to anyone, but the little like thing,thing that I artificed like a rock that can record?

1:19:29 Brennan: Yeah.

1:19:31 Zac: I'm just gonna, it can record six seconds?

1:19:33 Brennan: Yep.

1:19:36 Zac: I just wanna say,

1:19:39 Gorgug: [into the rock] It's Gorgug, keep going.

1:19:41 Zac: And just drop it on the ground in case anyone catches up.

1:19:45 Lou: Oh man.

1:19:46 Emily: So sweet.

1:19:47 Zac: And then—

1:19:49 Brennan: You leave, as you do that, you say “it's Gorgug, keep going,” Fig, Adaine, Riz, Fabian, you all feel a momentary glimmer of reality shimmer for a moment. Of just a thing of like, a moment where the panic subsides. Wherever you are in the forest, there's a moment where you catch your breath for a second. Gorgug. You move forward from this place, and you come to a giant chamber. You see that there is a huge dungeon stone door that has this insane, multi-hexagonal shifting stone puzzle on the front. And you see that next to it, in shadow, is a massive beast. It is partially obscured, but you see enormous feathered wings and paws, a lion's tail, and you see the face of a man, some kind of anthropomorphic creature. As it opens its mouth, sharp teeth run down inside. An enormous probably 30 foot long sphinx.

1:21:14 Gorgug: Looks like a bug. It's a bug?

1:21:23 Brennan: [laughs] You see the sphinx says,

1:21:26 Sphinx: [slow, low voice] You think I'm a bug?

1:21:29 Gorgug: No. ...Right?

1:21:34 Sphinx: You are not very clever, are you Gorgug?

1:21:47 Gorgug: [sighs] I feel like it's a complicated answer, but ultimately, no. I don't think that's, in the traditional sense, no.

1:22:01 Sphinx: All you need to do to pass through this door that will take you to the center of the Nightmare King's forest, is to solve this puzzle. Many have done it before, but perhaps you are uniquely ungifted. And I should mention, that if you fail, I will devour you.

1:22:23 Lou: Uh-oh.

1:22:28 Sphinx: You may also turn around, right now, and leave the way you came.

1:22:37 Gorgug: Do… How many times can I try?

1:22:46 Sphinx: You may try for as long as you wish, but once you begin to solve the puzzle you must not stop.

1:22:59 Gorgug: Well, I think I'll give it a shot.

1:23:11 Brennan: He says,

1:23:11 Sphinx: Very well.

1:23:15 Brennan: You go up and begin to solve it. Go ahead and give me a flat Intelligence check with disadvantage. And the reason you have disadvantage is the sphinx is going to keep talking while you do this. DC20.

1:23:40 Siobhan: He has minus one to Intelligence.

1:23:41 Brennan: He could roll two nat 20s.

1:23:43 Lou: [disbelieving] Okay.

1:23:45 Zac: I got a 19 and a 14, so no.

1:23:51 Siobhan: [whispered] Goddamn it.

1:23:54 Brennan: You see the sphinx says,

1:23:57 Sphinx: You are welcome to ask me for help if you'd like, I am all-knowing.

1:24:04 Gorgug: What happens if I ask you for help, though?

1:24:09 Sphinx: Every time I give you some help, I will tell you something true about the puzzle, and then I will tell you something else true about your life. Are you afraid to know the truth of your life, Gorgug?

1:24:26 Gorgug: Well now I am. Can I give it another shot?

1:24:32 Brennan: Yeah.

1:24:34 Zac: 18 and a 19.

1:24:36 All: Ooh!

1:24:37 Lou: Wow!

1:24:38 Siobhan: So close!

1:24:39 Brennan: So close.

1:24:41 Lou: Oh no!

1:24:43 Gorgug: Looks like we got a couple of knobs. A couple of deals over here. Yeah, why not? Let's just hear a thing.

1:24:52 Brennan: He gives you help. He lowers the DC of the puzzle to 15, gives you some help. You see he says,

1:25:01 Sphinx: I'm going to tell you something true about your life, Gorgug.

1:25:11 Gorgug: Okay.

1:25:15 Sphinx: You found your father... the end of last year, correct?

1:25:26 Gorgug: Yeah.

1:25:28 Brennan: As he says,

1:25:36 Sphinx: Look into my eyes, Gorgug.

1:25:41 Brennan: As he does, you [whooshes] see a vision of Digby and Wilma much, much younger. You see them with this giant, orcish baby in the Thistlespring tree. And you see a lot of other gnomes in the tree who are like, it looks like Digby and Wilma are having a fight with a lot of other gnomes. You know that you have aunts and uncles and grandparents, and stuff like that, but you've never really have ever spent time with them. You and your parents and them are not necessarily on speaking terms. You see… The sphinx looks at you and says,

1:26:45 Sphinx: Do you know what the cause of this strife in the Thistlespring family was?

1:26:50 Gorgug: No.

1:26:58 Sphinx: A babe the size of one of these gnomes appeared at their doorstep, and their family said, "Will it not break your hearts when inevitably, the child grows to know only rage?" Your mother and father cast out the rest of their family that day. Did you prove your parents right, or did you prove their family correct?

1:27:41 Gorgug: I think I'm still figuring that out. Sphinx licks its lips and slurps.

1:27:47 Sphinx: You don't have much time left to figure anything out, Gorgug Thistlespring.

1:27:56 Zac: Can I give it a shot?

1:27:56 Brennan: Mm-hm.

1:28:00 Zac: No. 16 and 11.

1:28:03 Brennan: You can go ahead and make another attempt if you would like. Zac rolls.

1:28:14 Zac: No.

1:28:15 Brennan: You stay under the ground, and you can feel the sphinx begin to prowl around the outside of the room. We're gonna move over to Fabian.

1:28:26 Lou: I think in that moment of, that feeling from Gorgug, I take a deep breath, stand up, and follow deeper into the forest.

1:28:40 Brennan: You begin to move deeper into the forest. As you do so, you begin to hear a voice behind you in the woods.

1:28:59 Chungledown Bim: [chuckling] I'm gonna shit in that mouth.

1:29:03 Zac: [whispering] Oh no.

1:29:04 Lou: [puts a hand briefly to his mouth in pained laughter] I full on like, spin around.

1:29:07 Brennan: Leaping like a monkey from tree to tree is—

1:29:11 Lou: [stands up] Fuck this, fuck this!

1:29:15 Chungledown Bim: I'm gonna shit in that mouth! I'm gonna shit in that mouth!

1:29:19 Lou: I don't think Fabian has ever run faster in his whole life. In his whole life. It's a, like full on, and a lot of that weird kind of looking back, terrified, trying to figure out if I—

1:29:35 Brennan: You see him leap, he's got a huge to-go coffee. Chungledown Bim takes quick sips of his coffee and laughs maniacally.

1:29:42 Brennan: As he does, you're still invisible. Are you dead sprinting, or are you looking for places to hide?

1:29:48 Lou: I don't, he's running around like a fucking monkey, and I think it's full on, I don't think I'm trying, are there places to hide? I'll make a perception check, but I don't—

1:30:01 Brennan: Make a Perception check. See if you can find a place to hide.

1:30:03 Lou: Fuck me, dude. Dirty 20.

1:30:10 Brennan: Dirty 20. You see that there's a cave. He's back off in the trees somewhere. There's a cave you can jump in and hide.

1:30:15 Lou: I do, I do it.

1:30:17 Brennan: You leap into the cave, and you hear, Chungledown Bim cackles.

1:30:20 Brennan: [laughing] As Chungledown Bim leaps off into the forest.

1:30:23 Emily: You're gonna have to let him shit in your mouth. Group laughs.

1:30:26 Lou: [stands and slams his hands on the table] No, no! That’s not—

1:30:29 Emily: I think you're gonna have to.

1:30:30 Lou: Don't, no! This cannot be....

1:30:33 Emily: If you wanna get to that tree.

1:30:35 Lou: [muffled through his hands, which are over his mouth] Don’t, no...

1:30:36 Brennan: Fabian, you hear a voice in the cave with you. You see it says,

1:30:41 Voice: [high-pitched, out-of-breath] Don't worry, it's safe in here.

1:30:45 Fabian: Baby?

1:30:46 Voice: Here, wait. Let me find a match.

1:30:50 Zac: Classic cave.

1:30:50 Siobhan: Woody Allen?

1:30:52 Brennan: A match lights, and as it does, you see a full human sized lady rat with incredibly thick thighs—

1:30:56 Lou: [crosstalk] Oh, fuck this. Fuck this!

1:31:01 Brennan: —Farrah Fawcett hair, and lipstick and goes,

1:31:04 Sexy Rat: Muah muah muah muah!

1:31:06 Lou: I back out into the—

1:31:08 Brennan: You see this sexy rat comes running out of the cave behind you,

1:31:10 Lou: Fucking piece of shit, dude!

1:31:12 Brennan: And goes,

1:31:12 Sexy Rat: [running in a girly way] Chungledown, I found him!

1:31:12 Fabian: No, no no no!

1:31:17 Lou: I keep, I like, I keep, I don't, I can't. Chungledown, oh man. Oh, okay I do, I think I run for another 50, like I keep running and then remember what we're supposed to do here, and I stop running.

1:31:42 Brennan: Yeah, you just start sprinting as fast as you can. Okay, we're gonna go to Adaine. Adaine, you're on the, Adaine, you're on the outside. You're on the outside of the briar wall having a full scale panic attack. What do you do?

1:32:08 Siobhan: Yeah. That momentary feeling that I got from Gorgug makes me feel like there might be something more going on than me just being outside. So I really don't, God, Jesus Christ. I'm gonna take off my jacket.

1:32:28 Brennan: Okay.

1:32:29 Siobhan: And I'm gonna put down my arcane focus, and I'm gonna close my eyes, and I'm gonna spin around, and I'm gonna walk.

1:32:44 Brennan: [blows out a loud breath] You just start walking. You walk for what feels like days. You miraculously don't fall off anything, or bump into anything, but you take a full 14 points of slashing damages from briars and twigs. And suddenly you stop and hear… ocean. And you know that if you take a step farther, you'll fall off of cliffs at the edge of the sea. You feel like you've come as far as you can, but you sense someone next to you. Do you open your eyes?

1:33:40 Siobhan: No, I think I step off the cliff.

1:33:47 Brennan: You fall. As you fall, reflexively, your eyes open. But it's too late. You look up, you see the being that was in the tent with you. That you couldn't look at its face, or something terrible would happen. The being is now dressed in all black, in widow's garb, staring out over the sea, and the face you couldn't look at is your own. You see a version of yourself wearing black at the edge of the sea, because this is the you after all the friends you knew and loved are gone. And you [splash]! Hit the waves. You are completely drifting in the surf, give me an Athletics check. We'll do disadvantage for this as well.

1:34:59 Siobhan: Great, 'cause I only already have a minus two to it, so. It's a natural 1.

1:35:09 Brennan: The powerlessness that you feared is here. It is not even the powerlessness of, like being trapped somewhere where you can stalk your cell, like being boiled by a wave in the ocean. You are completely at the mercy of the tide, and like the oracle before you, you begin to drown. As you do so, you feel edges at the edge of this space. What does Adaine do as you are adrift in this chaos?

1:35:59 Siobhan: I don't know, I feel like, it's not a… Adaine's instinct would be what's the puzzle? How do you solve the puzzle? How do you make yourself more scared, but it's not a puzzle that you can solve that way, because that way makes it less scary. So I don't know. I think that she, she has to, fight as much as she can, because that's, it's scarier to keep fighting than it is to give up.

1:36:35 Brennan: You begin fighting, and as you stay in this sphere, the light begins to fade, and you are in an orb, drowning.

1:36:49 Adaine: No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

1:36:51 Brennan: Floating in this orb, and you see a massive hand pick you up, put you on a pedestal in this orb, and you see dressed like a carnival barker is Biz Glitterdew, who goes,

1:37:05 Biz: [nasally] Ladies and gentlemen, step right up, step right up! We have here the amazing elven oracle! Siobhan leans back in her chair and runs her hands through her hair.

1:37:14 Brennan: And a crowd of people, you're in this insane carnival, and you see that he does this carnival barker act. Make an Arcana check for me.

1:37:35 Siobhan: That's a 15.

1:37:36 Brennan: It doesn't overcome your panic, which is a good thing, because you know that you've made the right decisions. Immediately you're like, there's no way I've made the right decisions, but in part of your head you're like, this is, the fact that it's gotten this phantasmagorical means you have moved deep into the forest. As you go through the concentric rings, and the illusions become more powerful, it becomes just true, absurd, unreality, in the orb, you hear a voice of that woman you left on the cliff say to you,

1:38:09 Nightmare Adaine: This is the greatest fear, isn't it? That you will know all the right answers, and be powerless to give them to the people who need them?

1:38:25 Brennan: And you see people lining up to come. You're like a little Zoltar machine in this insane carnival of people that you see just desperately need answers. We are going to leave Adaine there. Riz!

1:38:37 Siobhan: [shivers] Ugh!

1:38:48 Lou: Where the hell is this?

1:38:54 Brennan: What are you doing in this mirror world?

1:38:58 Murph: I think, in the sort of break from the intense anxiety from Gorgug's message, I think Riz takes comfort in the image of his parents. And then, all my friends are there just making out, right?

1:39:29 Brennan: Yeah.

1:39:30 Murph: I take comfort in seeing my friends there, makin' out. Emily laughs. Lou squeezes his eyes shut and shakes his head a little.

1:39:35 Murph: Not in a weird way.

1:39:38 Zac: How much comfort?

1:39:40 Murph: Normal amount of comfort. And then I guess, I say to Baron,

1:39:59 Riz: You're wrong. I have, I love my parents. I don't need to be like them, they love me. Kristen sacrificed herself to save me. She could've cured herself, but she cured me instead. ...Yeah, I love my friends and they love me.

1:40:36 Brennan: You see Baron says,

1:40:39 Baron: Oh Riz Gukgak, how can you be certain your friends love you?

1:40:45 Brennan: As Baron starts talking, go ahead and make Investigation check for me.

1:40:53 Murph: 23.

1:40:55 Brennan: Ooh, baby. The mirrors can't be real. None of this is real. You look around, and as Baron begins to sort of go, like,

1:41:12 Baron: What are you to your friends other than merely a detective? Tell me, Riz Gukgak, your close friend Penny Luckstone who you searched for so much. Did you spend much time together, or did you like her more when she was a mystery, and not a person?

1:41:38 Riz: Relationships evolve. She has her crew of friends, and I'm the little shrimp of this crew.

1:41:51 Brennan: A little shrimp pops into being in front of you. All the mirrors shatter, and Baron is dead. [snaps]

1:41:59 Murph: [laughing] Oh my god.

1:42:02 Brennan: For a moment, all of you guys feel another pulse like Gorgug's pulse through the forest.

1:42:07 Zac: Shrimp.

1:42:12 Brennan: You look, you see two things in front of you. You see the tracks of the great unicorn. You feel confident that you could follow them, that you have no doubt in your mind that you could head after them and catch this unicorn. And then you see off to the woods a little bit, there is a beautiful bed of moss with pillows and blankets in it. It looks like the nicest spot in the world to just go to sleep and take a nap.

1:42:48 Murph: [makes a scrunched-up face of disgust] Is my greatest fear sleeping on the job? I'm so lame! Group laughs.

1:42:57 Lou: Oh, come on, dude. People be tryin' to shit in my mouth, and you just have to fucking take a nap? Fuck this. Fuck this, dude.

1:43:02 Siobhan: Where is your coffee now?

1:43:07 Emily: I love this, I love this.

1:43:08 Murph: Riz, Riz bravely walks towards the bed. Bravely takes a nap.

1:43:16 Lou: Fuck you! [continuing laughter]

1:43:19 Murph: Shivering the whole time.

1:43:21 Lou: I'm about to let a man shit in my mouth. And my man's gotta get in a bed?

1:43:26 Murph: I'm tossing and turning only because I'm comfortable, not because I'm having nightmares.

1:43:29 Riz: [shivering] No, no!

1:43:33 Brennan: Incredible.

1:43:34 Emily: You've having nightmares that you are asleep. You're having nightmares that you're having a good night's sleep.

1:43:36 Lou: Fuck you, dude.

1:43:38 Brennan: Okay. We're gonna do Fig. You come out of the pool. Where does Fig go next?

1:43:49 Emily: Okay, I know that we're supposed to be, can I use the pool for one last scry?

1:43:54 Brennan: Yeah, absolutely. You can use it, if you wanna use it for more than one you can as well, but.

1:43:57 Emily: Okay, what I would like to do is I would like to take Ayda's feather, scry on Ayda, and then try to Dimension Door to where she is, whenever I see it.

1:44:10 Brennan: Take the thing, okay, you take Ayda's feather, use the pool to scry on her. You see the same place you saw in the scrying with Adaine, and you shoot off into the forest off the path, sort of no idea where you are.

1:44:28 Emily: Okay. Had to try. All right, so that didn't work. So I guess I'm just gonna, I'm gonna go back to walking towards the woods.

1:44:39 Brennan: Hell yeah. You start walking toward the woods. Go ahead and give me a survival check.

1:44:43 Emily: Okay. 7.

1:44:50 Brennan: You immediately become lost. You journey for hours and hours. You take 18 points of damage. Just like briars, falls, scrapes, you know moving through. You arrive at an ancient wood elf village. Deep in the woods, covered with cocoons and spiderwebs everywhere. You see that the shapes in them are roughly humanoid sized. Make a perception check for me.

1:45:37 Emily: 12.

1:45:39 Brennan: You see that some of them are less wound up than others. You also see on the floor of this place, a griffin feather.

1:45:47 Emily: Okay. I pick up the griffin feather, and I look for Sandra Lynn or Baxter.

1:45:54 Brennan: Make an Investigation check for me.

1:45:58 Emily: 9.

1:46:03 Brennan: You don't find Sandra Lynn on a 9. You see that some of the wood elves are less consumed in the chrysalises. You see that there is one wood elf in particular that actually, you've never seen an elf looking this old before. Looks like an old woman, who you see is partially entombed in this chrysalis, and you see that she's breathing.

1:46:30 Fig: Hi, excuse me. Do you need help?

1:46:36 Brennan: I guess make like a flat Charisma check to...

1:46:42 Emily: Okay, 21.

1:46:44 Brennan: Okay, yeah your innate sort of magic takes this slumber off, and you see this (gasps) little old woman looks up and says,

1:46:50 Old Woman: Huh?

1:46:56 Fig: Hi, can I help you? What happened to your village? Do you guys want this to be happening, or you don't want this to be happening?

1:47:06 Old Woman: [small voice, whispered] Wha? The Nightmare King, oh no, oh no. Where?

1:47:13 Brennan: And you see she's just looking around, horrified. It looks like she's part of this village that got, in the rise of the Nightmare King must have been whatever. She says,

1:47:21 Old Woman: I need to find my family. I need to find my—

1:47:26 Fig: Yeah, I can help you find your family.

1:47:27 Emily: Can I help get her out of this thing?

1:47:28 Brennan: Yeah, you get rid of the webbing very easily. She takes your hand, and is like for a little old lady leaning on you, she says,

1:47:37 Old Woman: My home is on the other side of town.

1:47:41 Brennan: As you start to walk with her, she looks terrified around. You sort of have no idea where her home would be, though.

1:47:49 Emily: Okay, but she seems like she knows the way?

1:47:50 Brennan: She seems a little bit confused about where it is as well.

1:47:54 Emily: Okay.

1:47:54 Fig: Do you know any distinct landmarks that your home is near? Maybe a babbling brook, or a 7-Eleven?

1:48:01 Old Woman: I know my address.

1:48:02 Fig: Yeah! Old Woman/Hilda Hilda: 22 Hilda Street. [suddenly screaming] And 22 Hilda Boulevard!

1:48:12 Brennan: You see that she, from the distance, you hear (loud, deep barking).

1:48:19 Hilda Hilda: My big dog is tied up outside! [scary laughter]

1:48:24 Fig: Okay, okay, okay! What do you want from me?

1:48:28 Brennan: She grows another set of arms, they all have claws, and starts running at you screaming.

1:48:33 Emily: Okay! I'm gonna, I'm gonna just fight her. I'm gonna fight her, okay?

1:48:40 Fig: You wanna fight, let's fight!

1:48:41 Murph: She's gonna fight Hilda Hilda?

1:48:43 Fig: I'm gonna fight you, Hilda Hilda.

1:48:44 Brennan: Incredible.

1:48:46 Fig: If I best you, I get to officially be Hilda Hilda.

1:48:49 Brennan: You begin to fight Hilda Hilda.

1:48:51 Lou: These are the rules of this combat. Two Hilda Hildas enter.

1:48:56 Emily: Although perhaps— Lou’s chair breaks and he falls off.

1:48:57 Siobhan: Oh my god, are you okay?

1:48:58 Brennan: Are you okay?

1:48:59 Lou: Yeah, I'm okay.

1:49:00 Brennan: Oh no.

1:49:00 Lou: Sorry.

1:49:00 Brennan: Terrifying.

1:49:03 Lou: Keep going, keep going with the story. Lou gets up and attempts to fix his chair.

1:49:06 Emily: I think I'm, yeah.

1:49:09 Brennan: Cool! I'm gonna say, you see a dog, a German Shepherd the size of a dragon charges out of this forest.

1:49:18 Emily: Okay, I run then, yeah I run, I run.

1:49:21 Fig: Never mind, you can keep the name. It wasn't much use to me anyways.

1:49:26 Brennan: You tear off after, you tear off, oh no. Lou removes his chair and moves Ally’s chair to his spot

1:49:35 Lou: I'm sorry.

1:49:35 Brennan: It's okay! Grabbin' Ally's chair.

1:49:39 Lou: Don't tell them. Nobody tell them that I did this.

1:49:40 Siobhan: Nobody tell them.

1:49:41 Lou: And when they fall off, we'll have a big laugh.

1:49:44 Siobhan: A real Ally move to fall off their chair.

1:49:50 Brennan: You. You flee from here as fast as you can. As you do, I'm going to need you to make a, I'm gonna need you to make a Wisdom saving throw.

1:50:01 Emily: 7.

1:50:06 Murph: Oh my god.

1:50:12 Brennan: You flee from this village as fast as you can, and voom, freeze in spot, float in the air, and magical bindings appear around your arms and legs. Your illusion walks out of the forest.

1:50:34 Nightmare Fig: Hi.

1:50:36 Fig: Hi.

1:50:40 Brennan: You see the illusion looks at you and says,

1:50:52 Nightmare Fig: What do you think's gonna happen when I wear off? And Ayda notices the real you?

1:51:09 Fig: I hope that she finds something that I didn't know was there.

1:51:22 Brennan: That beautiful sentiment reverberates through the forest. Once again, you guys all feel, boom, and you realize that there are no mirrors here and you can't see yourself, and you're just looking at this idealized image of you. And you realize that the bindings on your hands and feet have become like marionette strings. What does Fig do as the illusion begins to walk away, and you begin to marionette march behind her?

1:52:12 Emily: I feel like we are supposed to, I don't know what we're supposed to do. I'm the archdevil of rebellion. I mean, I definitely Phantasmal Force a bunch of flying scissors to cut myself free.

1:52:27 Brennan: Hell yeah. You begin to snap snap snap snap snap snap snap, try to cut yourself free. And you see this glyph comes back, and you have a vision again of that crown in that first night's dream that you had, and you feel your confidence sap from you with all the times you've been possessed before. And you see that crown, and you just hear the illusion of yourself speak in your head and say,

1:53:01 Nightmare Fig: Why did you want that crown so much?

1:53:08 Fig: I don't think I wanted it. I think they, they just used it to control me.

1:53:18 Brennan: The crown disassembles from gold, into coins. The coins glitter and shine, and become the snapping of camera flashlights. The lights go up on stage. You're up there singing.

1:53:34 Nightmare Fig: There's no part of you that wants a crown?

1:53:40 Fig: Well, see when you're on a stage, everyone sees you from a controlled perspective. So you can put forth the front that you wanna show, and then you can go backstage and be alone, and you can control what people see of you.

1:54:04 Brennan: The puppet strings tighten, and your illusion says,

1:54:09 Nightmare Fig: Here's all the control you're ever gonna have, if you depend on me.

1:54:15 Brennan: And you feel yourself marching further into the forest, and feel that sense of panic. Give me a, give me an Insight or an Arcana check.

1:54:31 Emily: 14.

1:54:33 Brennan: Similar to Adaine, there's a terror of how beholden am I to the image of myself? But part of you is like, we're going the right way. The forest goes deeper. We're gonna cut back to Gorgug. [ambient, discordant noise]

1:54:52 Zac: Okay. So.

1:55:01 Gorgug: Okay, Mr. Sphinx? I just, I think I realized that, you know, look, not the smartest guy, right? But, with enough time, I usually figure out what I need to figure out. A lot of people said I couldn't make a cell tower. I definitely could not, but after a while, I figured out something else with the help of other people. Anyways, my point is eventually I will solve problems that maybe smarter people can solve in a shorter amount of time. So what my point is,

1:55:50 Zac: This is what Gorgug's thinking is that it's scarier to admit that he is too stupid to figure this out, and he's just gonna say,

1:55:57 Gorgug: I'm a dumbass. Eat me, you stupid bug.

1:56:05 Sphinx: You think I'm a bug?

1:56:08 Brennan: The puzzle solves. (clacking noises) And the sphinx leaps at you, turns into bugs, and is a swarm, and dissipates. The door opens, and you can walk through. You solved the puzzle. Fabian, you are in the cave.

1:56:33 Lou: As I'm running...

1:56:35 Brennan: Oh yeah, no you're not in the cave. You're sprinting through the forest, yeah.

1:56:38 Lou: I feel the pulses of the bardy boys, and remember why we're here, and the nature of this place. And I stop running, and I don't turn around, but I just quietly whisper,

1:56:52 Fabian: Shit in my fucking mouth. Group laughs throughout.

1:56:57 Chungledown Bim: There he is! The man who's not a pirate.

1:57:01 Fabian: No, I'm not a pirate, and you're gonna shit in my mouth.

1:57:06 Lou: Then I lay down on the ground.

1:57:11 Fabian: [panicked breathing] And you, sexy rat, you're gonna fuck me or do whatever weird fuckin' shit. I'm gonna get fucked, and I'm gonna have you shit in my fuckin' mouth, and my friends, and you're gonna shit in my mouth, and you're gonna fuck me. [crying] And I'm gonna save my friends. Just shit and fuck and do whatever the fuck you want, just do it! The cast is laughing hysterically.

1:57:37 Brennan: You guys feel another pulse, voom, spread throughout. [laughing] And Fabian, making the ultimate sacrifice! Not, they look at you in absolute dismay as the ground opens up underneath you. You hear a distant roar of the Hangman's engine. Gold coins, and you are falling through a hole like the dream you had at the very beginning. Literally the earth opens up right underneath you. You escape Chungledown and the sexy rat at the same time.

1:58:25 Lou: [sighs] Doesn't make it better. It doesn't. I was fully ready to have shit in my mouth.

1:58:34 Zac: I think it might make it better.

1:58:36 Lou: I don't know.

1:58:37 Emily: Definitely makes it better. Your mouth tastes better right now than it would.

1:58:39 Lou: That’s fair.

1:58:41 Brennan: As you fall...

1:58:44 Lou: God.

1:58:47 Brennan: As you fall, you feel yourself actually, truly disappearing. You hear a voice in your ear. It's Cathilda's voice.

1:59:16 Nightmare Cathilda: If you are your own new man, do you believe in your heart that this new man will be extraordinary? Or will you not write your name on the face of the world?

1:59:37 Brennan: And I think Fabian also senses a trap here.

1:59:42 Fabian: I think, yeah. I mean, I don't know what I will be. But, I like the direction I'm going, and I'm not concerned with where I end up, 'cause I like where I am. So maybe I'll never write my face, or my name on the world. But I'll be with the Bad Kids.

2:00:22 Brennan: Gorgug, in the tunnel that you're traveling through, there is a collapse in the roof overhead. You jump out of the way, and one of your best friends in the world, Fabian Seacaster lands in the tunnel next to you.

2:00:36 Gorgug: Oh you! Fabian!

2:00:38 Fabian: You know, you can see me?

2:00:38 Gorgug: Yeah!

2:00:40 Lou: I run and hug Gorgug harder than I've ever hugged anyone in my whole life.

2:00:44 Zac: I return the hug.

2:00:47 Gorgug: You've never hugged me.

2:00:48 Fabian: I, shut up.

2:00:54 Brennan: Amazing. I'm going to say you two guys, right now, [to the camera] this episode has been wild. I'm sure you guys watching at home have been like this is not our normal kind of episode. [to the players] You guys have been through hell. They've been through the Nightmare Forest. You can feel yourself near to the ends of the forest. I would like each of you guys to go ahead and you can, I would like you guys to take your lowest ability score, which I believe is Wisdom for Fabian. I believe it’s Intelligence for Gorgug. And you don't have to do it, you guys can do it separately on your own while we're moving on to another scene. You can go ahead and take 4d6 and re-roll that ability score, and you can, if you get, but it will bump by a minimum of two, but there's a potential for it to go over that, okay?

2:02:00 Zac: No matter what it'll—

2:02:01 Brennan: No matter what, if you roll under it, like if you, I don't wanna take away, if you guys get a—

2:02:06 Lou: What if I get three sixes?

2:02:08 Brennan: It'll be 18.

2:02:11 Lou: Damn, I must be enlightened up in here dude.

2:02:14 Brennan: You guys do that on your own time, but it's 4d6, drop the lowest. You guys, we're gonna do twenty episodes this season. You guys have been through hell, and Fabian, you know, Gorgug I think as you guys hug, Gorgug you've solved so many puzzles. In freshman year, in this year, Gorgug has had insight into a ton of the mysteries. Gorgug is not dumb. He's just not! You figured out satellite technology. Fabian is not unwise. You knew what mattered, and when it counted, and you're a different person than you were. You don't have to be the same forever. If you roll higher than you want that score to be, you can artificially lower it.

2:02:57 Lou: Great.

2:02:57 Brennan: Okay?

2:02:59 Zac: Why would I ever? Group laughs.

2:03:01 Lou: Fabian's gonna be walking around just in a robe.

2:03:05 Brennan: We just want to reflect growth. Amazing. Fig, and then we'll go to Adaine. Fig, you are marched through the woods here into the deepest part of the Nightmare Forest. What's going on with Fig as she travels?

2:03:34 Emily: I think she thinks this really sucks, but she knows it's the right thing to do, so she's just, trying to enjoy it as much as she can. You know, like when you're on a train and it kinda bumps kinda nice and the view is kinda nice, she's trying to experience that.

2:03:54 Brennan: You attempt to experience everything you can of moving through this place. Looking at the illusion of you as you're moved through here.

2:04:04 Emily: Do I see Baby by that illusion of me?

2:04:06 Brennan: You do, yeah.

2:04:07 Emily: All right, at least Baby's safe.

2:04:12 Brennan: You're moving into the deeper part of the forest. As you move through, you feel the water in you, the water you took from the pool start burning. It cracks, and steam bursts, because this part of the forest is familiar to you. This is the place where the celestials are kept up in their webs. Ayda is nearby.

2:04:38 Emily: Oh, I Dimension Door now to the--

2:04:41 Brennan: No verbal or somatic components, 'cause you're bound. You, heartbreaking I know.

2:04:51 Emily: So I can't say anything? I can't,

2:04:53 Fig: Pull over, pull over! Even if you're the glamorous idea of me, you still have a freakin' crush on Ayda.

2:05:00 Brennan: You see the illusion of you looks back and says,

2:05:04 Nightmare Fig: Ayda can see me, but she can never see you. You're going away forever.

2:05:12 Brennan: You see the last of the scrying water turns to steam in front of you, and you feel the feather glow. Like you can feel the heat from it in your side. [soft piano music begins]

2:05:24 Brennan: And the scrying changes to, you see what Ayda is dreaming in this Nightmare Forest right now. What Ayda is seeing right now is a lifetime growing up on Leviathan. You see all these images of her and other lives screaming at her to be better, and to do better. That she is not enough. You see this struggle to be herself. You see her navigating Leviathan as a child. And you see this internal monologue shape on her face through all the times that she didn't understand something, and nobody explained it to her. And you see you appearing in her life. The you that appears in her life is not the illusion. It's really you. And it's the first person that ever looked at her, and saw her for who she was, and was kind. And she speaks to all these versions of herself that are very different from Fig's other version of herself, but in many ways, just the same. And they say,

2:07:13 Previous Ayda: How could it be logical or reasonable that someone as incredible as Figueroth Faeth would find any quality of yours redeemable, or worthwhile? Emily is holding back tears.

2:07:25 Brennan: And you see Ayda saying to herself,

2:07:32 Ayda: The fact that I have not found such a quality in myself does not mean that someone as brilliant as Figueroth couldn't find something in me worthwhile.

2:07:44 Brennan: And the exact sentiment you echoed of her, she echoes of you, and you are brought to a space between the trees, bound. You are in the center of this forest, but all of the fear leaves you. Whatever your persona is, your social media presence, viral shrimp parties. There is someone who didn't even know what a rock star was, who had their whole life changed by you just being yourself, and that's never gonna go anywhere. Riz, you're napping.

2:08:38 Emily: I sit down and I write the song, "She Likes Me for Me," which doesn't exist yet in this world. Group laughs.

2:08:47 Brennan: What I would love now, actually, you see by the way that Riz is completely bound up, like across from you. You're farther away from where Ayda is now, but you are bound up. [mimes hands being bound over his head] Riz is there as well, but he's fast asleep, just (snores) like snoozin' away.

2:09:08 Emily: I don't wanna wake him. But he would actually probably make a pretty funny sound.

2:09:18 Brennan: Riz and Fig, I wanna offer you the same thing that I offered Gorgug and Fabian. In my opinion, it feels like Wisdom would be the score for both of you as well to be—

2:09:32 Emily: Actually Strength is my lowest, but maybe I would boost something else. Yeah, Wisdom is the thing that keeps messing me up and making me get controlled.

2:09:41 Brennan: Yeah, I think, so—

2:09:43 Murph: Yeah Wisdom or Strength is my lowest.

2:09:45 Brennan: Is what your lowest ones are? I think that your solutions to these issues were not strength-based, and so I think, I will offer you the same exact thing I offered to Gorgug and Fabian. Adaine. You are in this insane carnival orb. As you are here, you hear the voice of that lonely mourner on the cliffside.

2:10:31 Nightmare Adaine: You were always very clever, Adaine. You've done everything right. Closed your eyes, stepped off the cliff. There's only one thing left for now. This is your last chance to speak with me if there's anything you'd like to ask.

2:11:02 Adaine: Why don't you have friends now?

2:11:11 Nightmare Adaine: The years will pass on and on. All of them will in their time, come to their own ends. The passing of ages. You will stand watch over a world, knowing the answers, but as clear as my sight is, I do not yet know if answers help the conditions of the world. It may be possible to see forever, and still not have an answer.

2:12:07 Adaine: I think that the only answer is that you have to keep looking for love. I don't know if you're real. I don't know if you can hear me.

2:12:25 Nightmare Adaine: Of all your friends…

2:12:30 Brennan: You see the images in the orb begin to appear of Bill, you know “my darling boy”, you know, hugging Fabian. The amazing Thistlesprings, “there you go bud!” And ants on a log. You see Gilear and Gorthalax. You see Sklonda rubbing Riz's head. You even see the Applebees, who as horrible as they were to Kristen, wished that she had stayed. The voice quivers as it speaks to you.

2:13:17 Nightmare Adaine: Many questions I can answer, and yet, one remains, as early as any in my life. I do not know why I was so easy to discard.

2:13:41 Adaine: I think that, I don't know, I think some things don't have answers. Perhaps, the same reason that you no longer have friends. Because the attachment, and the potential of loss is scarier than not feeling anything at all.

2:14:27 Nightmare Adaine: Do you ever fear that the kindness shown to you by your friends is a reflection of their character? Our family did not love us. And perhaps there is some trait of us that made that easy.

2:14:54 Adaine: [crying] Yeah, I fear that all the time. I fear it every day. But I know that my friends do love me. And so, maybe there's hope for us yet.

2:15:15 Brennan: You feel that flicker of hope, and, you guys all [zapping noise], feel that from Adaine. And the voice pauses for a long time and says,

2:15:42 Nightmare Adaine: You must let it go for now. For all your cleverness, you know that this is not real, and now you must make it real. The last step to the center of the forest.

2:15:57 Brennan: And you feel the little wisp of that hope, and you can just let it go, if you wish.

2:16:10 Siobhan: Yeah, I let it go. The hope blows away.

2:16:14 Brennan: You know that all of this has been an illusion, and you know therefore that there's always been a part of you keeping it from being fully scary because you were sure that you had the right answer, and now you take the last step by making it real. Your orb is no longer filled with water. You-- psh! Appear in the dark heart of the Nightmare King's forest. [music change: ambient, dark, discordant noise]

2:16:45 Brennan: This clearing is filled with a red glow. You see roiling red eyes, and a gem deep in a broken chest as Killian stares at you. You are in a prison orb. Standing before you are your mother, your sister, and your father. Your mother has just finished the spell, summoning you to this orb. She looks up at you. Your sister is not making eye contact with you. She still has many levels of exhaustion, and is just staring completely dejectedly at the forest floor. Your father has a huge swollen eye, arm in a sling, longsword, deep green cloak and traveler's clothes. With his one good eye, he glares at you murderously. Your mother, who has this sort of curse wound on her neck, and on her hands. You don't see the crown anywhere on her. Looks up at you and goes,

2:18:19 Arianwen: [sighs] Adaine. It's good to see you.

2:18:24 Adaine: Is it?

2:18:27 Arianwen: Yes, very.

2:18:30 Siobhan: Can I message Aelwyn?

2:18:32 Adaine: [through Message] Are you okay, what's going on?

2:18:34 Brennan: You message Aelwyn. She Messages you back, and just flatly—  she was in high spirits when you saw her leave, she had a villainous escape. Something has happened. You see she looks and says, her eyes look up and meet yours and she says, mentally,

2:18:52 Aelwyn: [through message] Adaine, for once, it's better to just do what they ask. Please.

2:19:09 Brennan: Your mother approaches. She says,

2:19:17 Arianwen: Adaine, you should know that your friends are all alive. Nothing bad is going to happen to any of them. You're not in trouble, but we know that you, given your druthers, would attempt to stop us without even talking to us about what our plan is.

2:19:49 Adaine: Why would I care if I was in trouble with you?

2:19:59 Brennan: See, your father says,

2:20:01 Angwyn: An instinct for self-preservation, perhaps.

2:20:10 Adaine: [shrugs] What else can you do to me that is worse than what you've already done?

2:20:16 Brennan: Your father's about to answer, and Arianwen puts a hand up and quiets him, and says,

2:20:21 Arianwen: Adaine, listen to me. Everything is almost done. We are at the center of the forest, we have everything we need. We are going to bring the Nightmare King back.

2:20:36 Adaine: Why?

2:20:38 Brennan: You see she looks at you and says,

2:20:40 Arianwen: It's very simple. Certain promises were broken. When a promise is broken, a person has communicated that they can no longer be trusted, so, new allies must be found. It's as simple as that.

2:20:59 Adaine: [shaking her head] That doesn't explain anything to me. Why am I here, why are you here?

2:21:03 Arianwen: You are here because you have a role to play in this yet, because we don't know what your friends are up to, or what they're going to try. So we need to understand what your game is here. If you explain what you know, what you've been communicating in secret behind a Message cantrip, how you've been attempting to stop Kalina, all of that, we will keep your friends alive. The Court of Stars imprisoned your sister. They said, if I brought the Nightmare King crown to them, they would release her, and they did not keep their promise.

2:21:42 Adaine: So you're gonna bring back the Nightmare King, because they wouldn't release Aelwyn?

2:21:51 Arianwen: The Abernants have always been a very important family. And the disgrace that was brought upon our house, largely, darling, by your actions, must be ameliorated. I don't think that this was my first, or second or third choice of action, but I've consistently found my hands tied over and over again. If we are to be restored to our proper station, then we must take drastic measures.

2:22:22 Adaine: How did you make it here? How did you make it here, and through all of your fear, and still be so deluded?

2:22:29 Brennan: You see, you see Aelwyn looks up and says,

2:22:32 Aelwyn: You didn't do the dusk moss ritual to get through all that?

2:22:35 Adaine: Yeah, we did.

2:22:37 Brennan: Arianwen looks at you and says,

2:22:38 Arianwen: I think you may have improvised some sort of hasty dusk moss ritual.

2:22:43 Adaine: And yet here I am. Wiser than every other person here, apparently.

2:22:55 Brennan: Incredible. Speaking of wiser, Adaine, I'm gonna offer you the same that I offered to all your friends through this insane phantasmagoria through the forest.

2:23:09 Siobhan: For Wisdom?

2:23:11 Brennan: You can take it for Wisdom if you want. If there's another ability that you, probably not, I would say probably Wisdom, or Charisma maybe, but either one you can take that on.

2:23:20 Siobhan: Okay. [rolls]

2:23:28 Brennan: You see Arianwen looks at you and says,

2:23:37 Arianwen: Darling, I know.

2:23:41 Brennan: She starts crying. She says,

2:23:42 Arianwen: I don't know how to make you believe in this family, and I've never known. I don't know why you can't be like Aelwyn, and see that we are together. I don't know how to make it clear.

2:24:13 Adaine: You've been so cruel to me, and so loveless to me. Why would I believe in you? [about to cry] My friends were warmer to me on the first day that I met them than you ever have been my whole life.

2:24:32 Arianwen: That's not true. I've been a very loving mother.

2:24:37 Brennan: You see on her face just a deep, I guess make an Insight check with advantage.

2:24:52 Siobhan: 22.

2:24:54 Brennan: You see the most genuine shock in the world, as you suggest that she was not warm, and you watch someone truly and fully not have any clue who and what they are.

2:25:27 Adaine: I, I don't know how to… I don't know how to tell you that, I'm so much better than you think I am.

2:25:43 Arianwen: Adaine, I understand that you believe that, but now is the time to prove it.

2:25:50 Adaine: No! Not in the way that you want me to prove it.

2:25:54 Arianwen: [louder] Adaine, what is love without expectation? What is that?

2:25:57 Adaine: What is expectation without love? That's what you've given me.

2:26:03 Arianwen: I'm becoming upset, and I don't want to be upset in front of you.

2:26:05 Adaine: Your expectations are idiotic. Look at who I am.

2:26:14 Arianwen: We simply don't have time. Angwyn, I need to get started.

2:26:19 Brennan: You see that your mom takes Killian, walks out of the clearing. Angwyn steps forward with Aelwyn remaining here. Angwyn looks up at you, and says,

2:26:36 Angwyn: When we're done with you, Adaine, if you have not come to your senses, I will find what is wrong with your mind, and I will change it.

2:26:56 Adaine: [slowly shaking her head] You've been trying to do that for a very long time, and I'm sorry to tell you that it has not worked.

2:27:01 Brennan: His hand crackles with light, and he says,

2:27:04 Angwyn: Perhaps I have not been using the correct instruments.

2:27:13 Brennan: Riz? You come to in a clearing across from Fig. You are both fully restrained, and bound.

2:27:26 Riz: [whispering] Fig.

2:27:27 Fig: [whispering back] Hey.

2:27:28 Riz: Hey.

2:27:29 Fig: Are you restrained by your blankets?

2:27:31 Riz: Yeah, I think so. Is this what happens every night when people sleep with blankets?

2:27:37 Fig: Absolutely not.

2:27:38 Riz: Okay.

2:27:39 Fig: Yeah. You might've just got super knotted up if you had a bad dream, though.

2:27:44 Riz: Okay. I'm glad you're okay.

2:27:46 Fig: Yeah, me too.

2:27:49 Brennan: You guys hear (clucking tongue like hooves) and see a skeletal unicorn enter the glade. Its horned skull looks from one to the other. And you feel the presence of a growing malevolence in the heart of the forest. Adaine, you are staring at your father, and to his side, Aelwyn is there. Gorgug and Fabian, you guys are journeying through a deep tunnel. You come out of the edge of the tunnel, and as you do so, you push at this rock and debris. The landscape is an endless ocean of mist. Rising from them are enormous islands of stone. Columns of pure rock that have forest on top of them. Almost like how cliff spires of rock would come out of a coastline, but instead out of endless mist. Between the spars of rock covered in forest, there are some long, snaking, rickety bridges. As you see about 200 feet of cliff above you, you sense your friends nearby, but you know that the endless, inky abyss of the mist waits underneath you. But you know you are close.

2:29:37 Fabian: Spring break?

2:29:38 Gorgug: Spring break.

2:29:41 Brennan: That's all for this episode of "Fantasy High." Tune in next week, and we'll see you guys then. Players groan.

2:29:48 Lou: Jesus fucking Christ, dude. That's the worst thing I've ever done. That's the single worst thing I've ever done. [NEXT EPISODE - Episode 19: Spring Break! I Believe In You!]

2:29:48 Captions extracted by: matthew

2:29:48 Edited by: gluegunshots, Hana, Ruth, Ashherner, rowan solsys