Party of Seven

0:00:03 Brennan: [voiceover] In the world of Spyre, did the prophecy foretell that the dragon Kalvaxus would rise to power when once more were seven maidens chained at the mouth of his cave. What the prophecy could not predict was what the seven had in store for the world. United by prophecy, bound by friendship, the seven maidens would quickly become one of Spyre's premier parties of teen heroes and all-star students at the Aguefort Adventuring Academy! [END ANIMATED INTRO]

0:00:37 Brennan: Hello, one and all! And welcome to a thrilling new season of "Dimension 20" with a brand new cast of players. I am your humble dungeon master, Brennan Lee Mulligan, with me for the very first time are our heroic high schoolers! Say hi, heroic high schoolers.

0:00:51 All: Hi, heroic high schoolers!

0:00:54 Brennan: Welcome friends to "Dimension 20: The Seven." As we return to the world, wait a minute, the Aguefort Adventuring Academy? [gasps, dramatic voice] We return to the world of Spyre. A world of myth and legend where dragons roam the skies [normal voice] with a brand new cast of amazing players. Let's go round the table and introduce everybody, Aabria Iyengar. [group cheering]

0:01:21 Aabria: Hello, hi. I like this little hype moment! Hi, I'm Aabria Iyengar, and I'm playing Antiope Jones. Your ranger danger. [rolling] Brrrrah!

0:01:30 Brennan: Rekha Shankar! [group cheering]

0:01:33 Rekha: Hiiiii. I'm Rekha, I'm playing Katja Cleaver. Neigh neigh.

0:01:39 Brennan: Becca Scott! [group clapping]

0:01:39 Becca: Hi, stop! Hi. I'm Becca Scott, but today and for all the days, I am [higher voice] Penny Luckstone. [group aw’s and ooh’s]

0:01:51 Brennan: Erika Ishii. [group cheering]

0:01:53 Erika: What's up everyone, I am Erika Ishii and I am playing Danielle Barkstock, [chill voice, makes peace signs] y’know, man?

0:01:57 Rekha: [makes a smoking-a-joint gesture] Let’s— [laughing]

0:02:01 Brennan: Hell yeah, Izzy Roland! [group cheering]

0:02:07 Izzy: I'm Izzy Roland and I'm [Jersey accent] Ostentatia Wallace. Bling bing. Various cast members repeat “Bling bing” immediately.

0:02:17 Rekha: It’s canon. It’s canon. You can't delete.

0:02:18 All: [overlapping, laughing] Bling bing.

0:02:18 Izzy: Bling bing, bitch.

0:02:20 Aabria: I need the merch, today. [overlapping chatter]

0:02:22 Izzy: That's the bling bing.

0:02:24 Brennan: That's a bling bing and-

0:02:26 Izzy: Already got it, first line.

0:02:27 Brennan: Sephie Valentine.

0:02:30 Sephie: I am Sephie Valentine and I am playing [snaps open fan] Sam Nightingale. [cheering]

0:02:37 Brennan: Can we all, can we all, can we all? Each cast member gets out an individualized paper fan and fans themselves.

0:02:42 Sephie: I am absolutely drenched to be here! [laughing]

0:02:47 Brennan: Gang, this is "Dimension 20: The Seven" as we return to the world of Spyre to see a group of heroic adventurers. In the world of Spyre, a world of myth and legend, where danger lurks around every corner, where dread vampires and elder warlocks stalk the halls of the Necronomicon. The Mountains of Chaos swarm with beasts and monsters and one little country, and kind of even more simply one little town in that country, kind of breaks the mold. Folks, we are in the nation of Solace in the town of Elmville, where the world's premier high school for heroes, the Aguefort Adventuring Academy houses a group of wonderful heroic adventurers. And indeed, we should mention "Dimension 20: The Seven", the seventh- also, Zelda Donovan, who will be played by yours truly. [cheering]

0:03:38 Becca: Go, go, go, go!

0:03:42 Rekha: Yeah, what's your thing?

0:03:43 Brennan: [Zelda voice] I didn't think of one, it's [muttering] [group cheering]

0:03:48 Rekha: Bling bing, baby.

0:03:50 Izzy: Bling bing, bitch.

0:03:50 Erika: Bling bing.

0:03:51 Brennan: [Zelda voice] I totally bling banged. [laughing]

0:03:55 Brennan: We are gonna start not at the beginning. We're gonna start before the beginning. Indeed, a year and a half ago, I invite all of you to imagine surging mountains of dark red stone, erupting like the spines of an angry beast from the very earth itself [imitates an eruption] high in the mountains of chaos, overlooking vast stretches of wasteland. We see the mouth of an enormous cavern drenched in shadow, surrounded by seven peaks of flat top stone stacked boulders, and at the top of each stack of stone, we see a circle carved into the very stone itself, Draconic runes. In the middle of each runic circle is a maiden, a young woman. At this very moment, coming to from the depths of torpor and sleep, I need everybody here to roll a constitution saving throw at the beginning of this flashback.

0:05:20 Rekha: Sorry, we rolling a d20, guys?

0:05:22 Aabria: Yeah.

0:05:22 Rekha: Cool. I got 4, don’t say anything, thank you.

0:05:25 Bren: Amazing.

0:05:25 Erika: 17.

0:05:27 Brennan: Amazing, we have a 17 for Danielle. Did anyone beat a 17? Did anyone get between a 10 and a 17?

0:05:35 Rekha: Yeah.

0:05:35 Brennan: Ostentatia, what did you get?

0:05:36 Izzy: 15.

0:05:37 Brennan: 15 for Ostentatia. What did Sam get?

0:05:39 Sephie: 12.

0:05:39 Brennan: 12 for Sam. What did Antiope get?

0:05:42 Aabria: 7.

0:05:42 Brennan: Ooh, 7 for Antiope. What did, Katja got a 4?

0:05:48 Rekha: Plus my thing, right?

0:05:49 Brennan: Yes, plus Katja's-

0:05:50 Rekha: 13, yeah.

0:05:51 Brennan: 13, that's right, Katja. And what did Penny get?

0:05:56 Becca: Also 13.

0:05:58 Brennan: Also 13 for Penny. I'm gonna roll one for Zelda… 19 for Zelda.

0:06:06 Becca: Come on, Zelda.

0:06:06 Rekha: Okay, Zelda. Fine, be strong! [crosstalk]

0:06:09 Sephie: Showing us all up.

0:06:12 Brennan: Sorry! The wind howls. [soft music playing] It is a burning hot wind. The kind that scorches the moisture from your skin and leaves a fine grit of soot and dust across your face. All of you are a clad in whatever garb you were in when either Aelwyn Abernant or Johnny Spells, or perhaps even Penelope Everpetal placed you into the crystal palimpsests perhaps weeks ago, perhaps months ago, perhaps for some of us more than a year ago. The first person that begins to wake from torpor here in slumber is Danielle Barkstock. Could you please describe [bright music playing] your character for us, Erika?

0:07:15 Erika: Danielle Barkstock is a Half-elf, Asian, long and willowy with long hair that's never been cut. She's wearing sort of like a Midsommar style, like a Scandinavian tunic dress. But instead of flowers in her hair and on the dress, it's all like mushrooms and ferns. And like the little trendy moss walls, that you see in bistros. She is constantly pig-penned like followed by cloud a little spores and like a Disney princess, but for weird little mites and such. [laughing] She is just, you know, chillin. [makes two peace signs]

0:08:01 Brennan: You come to, just chillin, you see that each of your legs are free, each of your wrists are manacled to long about 20-foot lengths of chain that go towards the very edge of the spire you are on. Sort of like, so in order to get to where it's staked to the ground, the other chain goes taut. So you kind of have these long wide chains on either side but you have some range of mobility, like interpersonally as long as you stay in the center of that circle. As you begin to come to, you look and see again, these sevens spokes are centered around this promontory, this spire of stone. Almost like these stones here are either for people to be chained and witness something emerging from the cave onto the Promontory, or perhaps you're chained in this way in order to be eaten. [gasps] You come to and see a number of other Aguefort students, all of whom you recognize in that way that you recognize people that you go to high school with, but none of whom you're particularly close to. The only other two kids in your year that you see are Ostentatia. You recognize Ostentatia from your year. But as you are looking around you see there is actually a freshman-looking student who you are not familiar with who is a young satyr with a green hoodie and a big emo flop of hair across her face who is sort of across from you on another boulder.

0:09:46 Danielle: [lower register, speaks a little slowly] Hey, man.

0:09:48 Zelda: [nervous, gentle voice] Hey, um, do you… Sorry [chuckles] It's super nice to meet you, I'm Zelda.

0:09:57 Danielle: Oh man, I'm Danielle. Nice to meet you, Zelda. You can call me Yelle, my friends call me Yelle. I feel like you could be a friend.

0:10:06 Zelda: So I don't know how we got up here, but yeah, I'm sorry, that's so awkward to say that first, [stutters] I'm your friend.

0:10:14 Danielle: Oh, you know, I think we're up here because Penelope, you know, was trying to fulfill a prophecy. It's supposed to sort of topple the establishment and reinstate a new world order that should be more equitable than our current patriarchal society. That's kind of the gist of what I got from it anyway.

0:10:39 Zelda: Wait, you knew about Penelope's evil plan?

0:10:42 Danielle: Oh, I mean, like, evil's kind of like a relative term, man. [cast laughing]

0:10:49 Zelda: So why did, wait, so Penelope...? Throughout her long speech, the other cast members silently copy Danielle’s outstretched peace signs.

0:10:51 Danielle: Oh yeah, you know, it's like we had all these long talks late into the night about, y’know, how to implement real change, yknow. Real change never happens without outliers and groups that are willing to go the extra mile to shake things up, right. None of this middle of the road nonsense, right. So like things are going real well and I heard there had to be sort of sacrifices, which look, I'm the first one to know you gotta have sacrifices for the cause but like, it's just not, it was kind of a harsh vibe man. So, you know, all the stuff about the evil that all came out later and that's not great. That's not great. [cast laughing]

0:11:41 Danielle: So, yknow, sorta fell off the bandwagon there.

0:11:45 Zelda: Okay, so it's sort of the chaos and disruption you were down for and then they are like-

0:11:51 Danielle: Yeah, Yeah, yeah, you got it, you gotta burn the forest in order for new growth to happen, right.

0:11:59 Zelda: You're awesome. The cast members flourish their peace signs.

0:12:03 Danielle: Yeah, you are pretty awesome yourself.

0:12:06 Brennan: Oh, cool. Yeah, so you see, as you're having this sort of heart to heart where you reveal that Danielle was briefly on board when the plan, Yelle was briefly on board before the plan took a weird monarchistic turn. Yeah, you begin to have sort of visions of like being trapped in these palimpsests and a weird thing at the arcade of being like teleported somewhere and immediately being teleported into unconsciousness back in physical bodies. And the next person to come to is Ostentatia Wallace. Iz, could you please describe your character for us?

0:12:47 Izzy: Ostentatia is…

0:12:50 Becca: [laughing] I'm already laughing.

0:12:56 Izzy: What? Is Jersey mansion trash. [laughing, clapping]

0:13:07 Izzy: And she is absolutely decked to the nines in gems and jewels that she doesn't want anybody to know she made herself and did not come from y’know, one of the fancy stores at the international airport. She's a forge cleric, she's stocky and stout and fucking fabulous.

0:13:42 Brennan: Amazing, yes. Ostentatia is a cleric of the forge god, of the dwarven forge god Logran Soulforger and also, as you've said, bedecked in jewelry. You come to the memory of the arcade, of being at your house party, of Aelwyn Abernant enclosing you in a gem, in a crystal palimpsest.

0:14:06 Izzy: [rolling her eyes] Fucking bitch. [cast and Brennan laugh]

0:14:11 Brennan: Ostentatia, as you awaken you see the sort of dire landscape before you and see that Yelle and Zelda are both sort of coming to and conscious. What do you do as you awake?

0:14:26 Ostentatia: [gasps] Fuck! I'm gonna fucking kill that bitch.

0:14:33 Danielle: Yeah, and just like absolute power corrupts absolute— oh hey, Ostentatia!

0:14:39 Ostentatia: Hi!

0:14:39 Danielle: You're awake. How's it going, man?

0:14:41 Ostentatia: Um, bad. [laughs]

0:14:44 Danielle: Yeah.

0:14:44 Ostentatia: What's going on?

0:14:46 Danielle: Oh, just a whole, I'll catch you up later, prophecy and sacrifice. Yeah, you doing okay? There's a lot of our classmates here, you know. I guess we should probably try to figure out a way out of this, huh?

0:14:59 Ostentatia: Yeah. Hi.

0:15:03 Zelda: Hi, I'm Zelda. Yelle already said we were friends, but you don't have to, like, you don't have to be pressured to like-

0:15:12 Ostentatia: [Jersey accent] Listen, as long as you're not Aelwyn Abernant, we're fucking friends.

0:15:17 Zelda: Yeah, that is so yeah, [stutters] she's bad, yeah. We got put, yeah, put in palimpsests. I think it's pretty bad-

0:15:29 Ostentatia: A what?

0:15:30 Zelda: A crystal, it's stupid. It's just basically a crystal that has been scraped of all its information and it's not trackable and it's used to seal souls and people inside of them.

0:15:39 Ostentatia: That bitch can't afford my crystals. [cast laughs]

0:15:45 Ostentatia: I'll tell them.

0:15:47 Brennan: As Ostentatia communicates that to everybody, this rage at Aelwyn Abernant, Katja Cleaver, you begin to come to. Could you please describe your character for us?

0:16:01 Rekha: Yes, Katja is a half orc battle master. It doesn't really matter when you wanna capture her, she's wearing her horse riding clothes. [laughing]

0:16:12 Rekha: So she's got, you know, the riding pants, the riding boots. Some sort of oversize nondescript T-shirt to hide herself. A little riding helmet, long, curly, black frizzy braid. She's Asian too, let's go, South Asian. [clapping]

0:16:32 Erika: AAPI.

0:16:34 Rekha: Happy AAPI month. [laughs] Someone is Asian. [cast laughs]

0:16:42 Rekha: [laughs] Most people are. And yeah, so that is what she looks like. When she comes to, it's with a ferocity because she is half orc. But you're a little surprised 'cause what she says is,

0:16:59 Katja: [yelling] Cinnamon! [laughing]

0:17:04 Ostentatia: Someone's having a good dream.

0:17:06 Katja: No, where's my horse, Cinnamon?

0:17:09 Danielle: Oh babe, sorry, you're, long story but we are about to be virgin sacrifices and stuff. So whoever this Cinnamon is, not here, sorry.

0:17:20 Katja: Cinnamon is my horse, if Cinnamon dies, I die.

0:17:26 Brennan: Go ahead, anyone who's awake right now and make an insight check for me.

0:17:31 Izzy: What's 6 plus 13?

0:17:33 Rekha: 19.

0:17:33 Aabria: 19.

0:17:34 Erika: I had—

0:17:34 Izzy: No, that's not true.

0:17:37 Bren: 6 plus 13?

0:17:37 Aabria: 6 plus 13?

0:17:38 Izzy: Is 19. [laughing]

0:17:40 Erika: 17.

0:17:40 Brennan: 17 and 19. So Katja says, “if Cinnamon dies, I die,” and both you are powerful divine spell casters who know that there are things like, oh, maybe there's like a soul bond or something like that. You kind of get the vibe that maybe this is not true in a literal sense, but also maybe it is true in a literal sense in just a non-magical way that Katja might die of grief on the spot should anything ever happen to Cinnamon.

0:18:07 Danielle: Oh, honey, you're-

0:18:08 Ostentatia: Locked in a cave with a horse girl, that's amazing.

0:18:10 Danielle: 100% horse girl.

0:18:13 Katja: Thank you.

0:18:14 Danielle: It's okay, like, we'll, we'll. Get out of this little pickle and then we're gonna go pick up your horsey.

0:18:22 Katja: You can't pick up Cinnamon, she's too massive. [Brennan laughs]

0:18:27 Danielle: Oh.

0:18:28 Katja: She's the strongest woman I've ever met. And she's my best friend, Penelope said she'd be my best friend. And that's why I'm here, but it's okay you can have a best friend that's a horse. It's okay. You know, sometimes you find problems with humans, but I find no problem with a horse.

0:18:48 Ostentatia: So everyone knows we're all virgins?

0:18:52 Danielle: Well, [mumbles] yeah.

0:18:56 Zelda: Yeah, that's sort of what they… There was something with Johnny Spells and he was working with like Penelope Everpetal and some other people, like, it's not, it's bad. So we are sort of maybe gonna get eaten or something. And then also like people, yeah people know that we're virgins, yeah.

0:19:14 Katja: Wait, we're gonna get eaten?

0:19:17 Ostentatia: Because we don't have hymens? [Aabria laughs]

0:19:19 Ostentatia: Oh, wait because we do?

0:19:19 Katja: We have extra hymen.

0:19:21 Danielle: Myth, myth!

0:19:23 Zelda: No, I don't, I think-

0:19:23 Ostentatia: It tastes better?

0:19:24 Katja: My hymen's always breaking.

0:19:24 Zelda: I don't know how the magic, I don't, if the magic counts like hand stuff or mouth stuff, I think these like ancient spells are kind of just gross, if I'm being honest, like what counts for where and what.

0:19:37 Danielle: Yeah, I know why should my identity and you know, my label on how I'm considered change just because I've had, I don't even know, is it like penetrative stuff or like?

0:19:48 Zelda: Right, like lots of sex is not-

0:19:49 Danielle: What counts, like emotional stuff?

0:19:51 Ostentatia: It's like popping the cherry.

0:19:52 Brennan: In the midst of this conversation, Penny Luckstone, you awaken to hear this.

0:19:56 Danielle: Because like popping the cherry is like totally-

0:20:00 Katja: I told them I was a virgin, outright 'cause I don't care.

0:20:02 Danielle: And if you know, like you're riding a horse constantly. There is a good chance that your hymen is broken.

0:20:08 Katja: I'm bleeding three weeks-

0:20:09 Penny: [very loudly, high-pitched] I love it here!

0:20:14 Brennan: [laughs] Becca, please describe your character for us.

0:20:15 Becca: Okay, I'm Penny Luckstone. Penny is three feet tall. She's a halfling, a lightfoot halfling, a rogue. She is pressed as much as she can be. I think she's been trapped here the longest, but like everything originally looked like it was very well ironed and she's trying really hard not to get it smudged. She's a little type A and yeah, I asked for my chains to be tightened 'cause I didn't like the slack, it was too loose. [laughs]

0:20:33 Erika: Hot.

0:20:50 Penny: Hi, I'm Penny. [laughs cutely] I'm Penny.

0:20:55 Danielle: Hey!

0:20:56 Penny: I've seen you all around, but I'm very, like, small. And if someone's standing in front of me, you can't see me. So maybe you haven't seen me, but I've seen all of you.

0:21:02 Danielle: Oh man, no, I definitely like clocked you around. Just because something's small doesn't mean it's not noticeable and worthy of note. I'm Danielle, you can call me Yelle.

0:21:14 Penny: Okay, that would be great. And I will and if I had a hand, I would write this in my notebook.

0:21:19 Danielle: Sweet.

0:21:20 Katja: I'm Katja, my horse is Cinnamon and we don't know where she is.

0:21:23 Penny: I'm so sorry.

0:21:24 Katja: I know.

0:21:25 Penny: How are you dealing with that?

0:21:26 Katja: It's very bad for me.

0:21:27 Penny: I get that.

0:21:27 Katja: I feel horrible.

0:21:29 Penny: I'm here for you.

0:21:29 Katja: Thank you.

0:21:30 Erika: Can I use Locate, Locate Animal.

0:21:35 Brennan: You know what? Go ahead and give me a sleight of hand check DC 15. [laughing]

0:21:39 Erika: [looking at their character sheet] Fuck.

0:21:43 Aabria: I believe in you.

0:21:44 Becca: I feel like she needs disadvantage.

0:21:47 Rekha: Sleight of hand in chains.

0:21:48 Erika: 12.

0:21:48 Brennan: 12. You go to do the like somatic components of the spell and the fact that your arms are like lengthened apart from each other, prevents you from being able to do that. As you attempt to cast the spell, you see Zelda looks over at you Penny and goes,

0:22:05 Zelda: I think the boy, not boy, guy, it's this guy Gorgug-

0:22:10 Penny: You're doing great, keep talking.

0:22:11 Zelda: Sorry, thank you.

0:22:12 Penny: And it's gonna come out when it needs to.

0:22:15 Zelda: Wow, you're so nice.

0:22:16 Penny: No! ...Yes. [laughing]

0:22:21 Ostentatia: That's what she said. Nobody around here likes jokes?

0:22:22 Zelda: You see, anyway, he's friends with this kid. I think, you know, Riz Gukgak, who was like looking for you, I could just almost like hear you talking to him in the crystal, back in the arcade thing or whatever.

0:22:29 Penny: Yes!

0:22:36 Zelda: They, I think that they're like, they were trying to like get us, I think. So people know that we're like gone.

0:22:45 Brennan: As Zelda says that, Sam you awaken on your pillar of stone.

0:22:52 Sephie: As soon as Sam's eyes open, she starts slamming against the chains, trying to break them, droplets of water just like splashing all over as she's like trying desperately, desperately to get the fuck out of here.

0:23:04 Danielle: Whoa, whoa, whoa.

0:23:04 Ostentatia: My extensions!

0:23:07 Katja: Scary noises.

0:23:07 Penny: You need this. This is for you.

0:23:07 Ostentatia: Oh, my God! Sam fights against her chains.

0:23:12 Penny: Get it! Keep getting it! Let it out.

0:23:15 Brennan: Sam, just wrapped in emotion and rage and betrayal. Could you please describe your character to us?

0:23:24 Sephie: Sam Nightingale is a water genasi and like at some point everything she was wearing was very well pressed, ironed and clearly designer. She wears like a matching blue blazer and skirt set with a white vest and a white beret. Aabria snaps.

0:23:41 Sephie: Has long curly hair that goes from like green to blue to white, like an ocean wave. Otherworldly beautiful. But just ripshit. Absolutely fucking ripshit. [laughing]

0:23:57 Izzy: What is ripshit? Sephie looks over at her but doesn’t answer. [all laughing]

0:24:01 Becca: Like ripped.

0:24:01 Izzy: Ripped?

0:24:03 Becca: But like even more so, 'cause shit on the end.

0:24:06 Izzy: Oh, super, super ripped.

0:24:08 Sephie: Yeah.

0:24:08 Izzy: Okay.

0:24:09 Rekha: Fuckin’ ripped!

0:24:09 Becca: Ripped shit level.

0:24:12 Brennan: Strongly as the rattling of the chains, you remember the moment of, you know, meeting up with Johnny and Penelope talking to you and you remember a look in Penelope Everpetal's eyes that you couldn't clock in the moment and now know that Penelope let you, not only maybe let you walk into this fate, but wished for you to.

0:24:48 Sam: [higher voice, soft] I hate everything about this. I don’t know who any of you are. I don't wanna be here. And I want to fucking murder my ex.

0:24:59 Penny: Hey, it's okay.

0:25:00 Ostentatia: Me too.

0:25:00 Sam: No, it's not.

0:25:02 Penny: Yeah, well, like we are here together.

0:25:04 Danielle: Okay, well, hey, first of all, your feelings are valid, okay. You have every right to-

0:25:09 Sam: Of course my feelings are fucking valid, I was trapped in a fucking crystal!

0:25:12 Danielle: Man, I've been there.

0:25:12 Penny: Whoa, yeah.

0:25:16 Katja: I've been there too.

0:25:16 Ostentatia: Me too.

0:25:17 Katja: See, been there, done that, bought the T-shirt. [laughs nervously]

0:25:19 Danielle: I'm Danielle, this is Ostentatia, and Penny and Katja and, I don't know if I know her but, you know—

0:25:30 Sam: We're doing introductions right now?

0:25:32 Danielle: Oh yeah, I mean-

0:25:32 Ostentatia: Well, we're gonna, I think-

0:25:35 Penny: We're gonna be here a really long time, it's like a slumber party where we're all chained.

0:25:39 Ostentatia: I think we'll get out pretty soon.

0:25:40 Sam: I've heard of those before, I think.

0:25:42 Danielle: Hell, yeah, so fun. But that aside we're gonna all get out of this together, okay.

0:25:49 Sam: Okay.

0:25:50 Danielle: You look at me, you're gonna be okay.

0:25:52 Sam: Yeah. I'm Sam.

0:25:55 Ostentatia: Hello.

0:25:55 Danielle: Nice to meet you, Sam.

0:25:56 Penny: We know.

0:25:58 Sam: [nonplussed] Okay.

0:26:00 Penny: Oh yeah, you're like really popular. We know who you are.

0:26:03 Sam: Right, that is, was really mostly Penny's deal, but. Penelope's, rather.

0:26:12 Penny: It's okay, she can have the nickname. [all laughing]

0:26:17 Penny: It was just my given name.

0:26:21 Brennan: On the seventh spire of stone, Antiope Jones awakens. Aabria, could you please describe your character for us?

0:26:31 Aabria: Before you actually see her stir, there is just a little puddle that spreads out on the stone as she wakes up. Antiope is Black, dark skin, angular features. She's wearing like black athleisure but it's all like too short at the elbows and like ankles 'cause she went through her big growth spurt while in the crystal.

0:26:54 Erika: No!

0:26:55 Sephie: Oh, no.

0:26:55 Aabria: Soon as she wakes up.

0:26:57 Antiope: I had to pee before we started. [gasps]

0:26:58 Antiope: My bones hurt! Ow. What?

0:27:00 Ostentatia: You pissed yourself?

0:27:02 Penny: Why are we looking at her, no one look at her, it's fine.

0:27:04 Katja: Hi Antiope, it's Katja.

0:27:04 Antiope: Oh, Katja—

0:27:07 Katja: I don't care that you pissed yourself.

0:27:09 Sephie: Can I cast Prestidigitation and make it disappear?

0:27:12 Brennan: Give me a sleight of hand check.

0:27:13 Sephie: Okay.

0:27:14 Danielle: Man, it's okay when you gotta go you gotta go, nature calls man.

0:27:16 Antiope: I’m sorry.

0:27:18 Sephie: That's a-

0:27:18 Antiope: Fuck!

0:27:20 Sephie: Oh, God, math, 13.

0:27:22 Brennan: Oh, 18?

0:27:22 Sephie: 13.

0:27:23 Brennan: Oh, 13, you go and there is a, with a 13 prestidigitation little [whoosh] comes over. Your clothing is… it basically moves all of the accident to the stone and off of the clothes. Which is an improvement.

0:27:38 Antiope: We are good, I'll just scooch back. Thank you.

0:27:40 Brennan: You scooch back—

0:27:42 Sam: You're welcome.

0:27:43 Danielle: I wild shape into like, can I do that?

0:27:48 Brennan: You look at that and you're like, it's time to take care of business. As you were about to do that, you see [pulsing whooshing] concentric rings of sulfurous golden glowing smoke emanate not only from the cavern to your stones, but towards the edge of the horizon. Each of you [eruption] erupts in a beam of golden light as the stones alight and hear an infernal [growl]

0:28:26 Ostentatia: I've also pissed myself. [all laughing]

0:28:29 Katja: I've also pissed myself.

0:28:32 Antiope: Just scooch back.

0:28:33 Ostenatia: In solidarity.

0:28:33 Becca: [makes a roll] Oh, I pissed myself too. [all laughing]

0:28:35 Rekha: Wait, a 1, nat 1.

0:28:39 Aabria: We pissed a little bit.

0:28:42 Brenan: The palimpsests have been sustaining you biologically, but you are the age that you would have been if you'd been aging in the world. So it wasn't like suspended temporal animation. In other words, you've been going through biological time in the palimpsest so whatever- For some of you, like a year and a half of like not showering, I think Penny's stuff, you starch your shit so much that your clothing is still crisp. [all laughing]

0:28:58 Rekha: Potato chip.

0:29:14 Penny: I knew this would pay off someday.

0:29:17 Rekha: You could like break it.

0:29:19 Brennan: But there is a moment of recognizing the passage of time. For Ostentatia, you've only been here, you've lost a few months. Maybe like about three months. Zelda, even less time than that. But for Katja, for Antiope, for Danielle, for Penny, you've lost more than a year of your life in this crystal.

0:29:46 Antiope: Katja, you look old as shit.

0:29:48 Katja: Oh my god, really? I have cellulite, cool. [laughing]

0:29:57 Katja: I probably look so old 'cause I, honestly, in the last five minutes. I don't know, have you seen Cinnamon?

0:30:02 Antiope: What, no. I've been in a— no, I haven't.

0:30:06 Katja: You're right, I forgot, you've been in a crystal. Okay, get out of my face, okay.

0:30:11 Antiope: Go find her.

0:30:15 Brennan: You see that emerging from the cavern are a few, they don't look Solisian. They look like they're from the Red Waste. But you see some sort of muscular looking humans wearing like red dragon, like red dragon scale, partial mail. These looks like servants of some Draconic power emerge from the cavern and go,

0:30:36 Kalvaxus Groupies: It has occurred, the prophecy has come to pass. [laughing manically]

0:30:40 Antiope: Who the fuck are you?

0:30:41 Penny: These guys are really nice.

0:30:42 Katja: Eww.

0:30:44 Brennan: Taking these two short spears,

0:30:45 Kalvaxus Groupies: We are servants of the Emperor of The Red Waste Kalvaxus, long may he reign in eternal wealth and prosperity!

0:30:52 Brennan: And drop to one knee.

0:30:53 Sam: Calluses?

0:30:53 Becca: Do we know their names?

0:30:56 Brennan: These look like the people that came and bound you up here in this place. Unless you overheard it in your sleep, you can go and make a Perception check, see if you maybe overheard one of their names.

0:31:03 Rekha: 10.

0:31:11 Becca: You definitely don't know.

0:31:11 Brennan: Cool.

0:31:15 Sephie: No way.

0:31:16 Aabria: 21.

0:31:17 Brennan: The name Mordreth comes to you?

0:31:21 Antiope: Which the one fuck of you is Mordreth?

0:31:25 Mordreth: I am Mordreth, servant of the Emperor of the Red Waste, Kalvaxus, the prophecy has come to pass, a king and queen are crowned anew in Solace and seven maidens are chained at the mouth of his lair.

0:31:38 Penny: I'm so happy for you, Mordy, living your truest self.

0:31:40 Antiope: Stop!

0:31:40 Mordreth: Thank you.

0:31:42 Antiope: Stop it!

0:31:42 Sam: Don’t be nice to him.

0:31:43 Penny: I don't like that you trapped us here though.

0:31:45 Ostentatia: You're voluntarily calling yourself a servant?

0:31:49 Mordreth: It is an honor to serve he who may eat me in a single bite, I hope he does.

0:31:54 Ostentatia: You need to get a personality, babe. [all laughing]

0:32:00 Sam: Maybe keep your kinks to yourself.

0:32:02 Katja: Yeah, no, I didn't say that I wanted to hear your weird freak stuff.

0:32:05 Mordreth: No, I'm not a, anyone would be lucky.

0:32:09 Penny: Mordy, are you a freak?

0:32:10 Mordreth: What?

0:32:10 Penny: Are you a freak, Mordy?

0:32:12 Mordreth: Gladly, if Kalvaxus wish me to be that then that I am.

0:32:13 Ostentatia: Okay, but what do you like?

0:32:14 Katja: Whoa, if Kalvaxus jumped off a bridge, would you jump off a bridge too?

0:32:19 Ostentatia: Exactly.

0:32:19 Penny: Yeah.

0:32:20 Antiope: Prove it, right now.

0:32:22 Sephie: How close is this man to the edge of the cliff?

0:32:24 Brennan: They are pretty close. I wanna resolve this 'cause I wanna resolve whatever this is. I also wanna resolve you wanting to wild shape.

0:32:29 Erika: Yeah.

0:32:30 Brennan: So, what does Yelle do in this moment?

0:32:33 Erika: Oh, she's like,

0:32:33 Danielle: [mumbling] Oh, that's right.

0:32:37 Erika: And she like, poofs into, let's say a tardigrade. [all laughing]

0:32:45 Brennan: A tardigrade!

0:32:46 Izzy: A what?

0:32:47 Brennan: You go so, a little like microscopic thing. Here's the thing-

0:32:51 Rekha: A sea bear!

0:32:52 Brennan and Aabria: A little water bear, a little water bear.

0:32:54 Brennan: Now, here's the thing, you can only go to I think size tiny, but I'm gonna say an enormous water bear. So like a corgi sized water bear. I also think, again, like Yelle is very much in tune with parts of the natural world that are less glamorous. So you're wild, the poof of your wild shape is all of your normal half-elf flesh, goes fungal in this really perfumed, fragrant rot smell like a floral rot as your skin- [slurps] It looks like you're dying. You're just and your body sloughs off into a sludge. And there's a tardigrade with no wrists to manacle, you're out of the manacles.

0:33:36 Erika: Cool.

0:33:37 Brennan: You see Mordreth goes,

0:33:37 Mordreth: Shit! [all laughing]

0:33:42 Erika: Can I?

0:33:43 Brennan: Oh yeah, so that's your action. And I wanna let Sam get an action in as well, you're out.

0:33:48 Sephie: Sam is a little done with anyone involved with this and I want to cast Tidal Wave from the inside of the cave and just push them all off the edge.

0:33:57 Brennan: [gasps] Oh my God, okay. Does Hideaway [sic] have any somatic component? You have to use your hands for it.

0:34:03 Sephie: Let's see.

0:34:05 Brennan: If it lists those there, let me know.

0:34:08 Sephie: It doesn't say anything… Oh, wait, verbal, somatic and-

0:34:11 Brennan: Okay, so just give me a sleight of hand check to get that spell off.

0:34:15 Sephie: Come on. Okay, that is a 23.

0:34:20 Brennan: Woah, incredibly dexterous. I'm going to say on a 23, you full pull one of your wrists out of the... Wait, you also have War Caster too, right? [quick, tense piano music]

0:34:30 Sephie: Yes I do.

0:34:31 Brennan: So you bam!, both of your wrists are out. You cast hideaway.

0:34:36 Sephie: No, a Tidal Wave.

0:34:36 Brennan: Tidal wave. I was like Hideaway? You cast Tidal Wave. They make a saving throw for that, correct?

0:34:44 Sephie: I believe so, it is dexterity.

0:34:49 Brennan: Dexterity, here we go.

0:34:49 Sephie: That'd be 16.

0:34:54 Brennan: Knocked prone. Incredible! They both fail that save.

0:34:56 Rekha: Yes.

0:34:59 Sephie: Okay.

0:35:00 Brennan: Sam, so you go full water bear, and Sam, you bust out of your pure like Fantasia, a like spiraling helix of beautiful glowing saltwater, like ocean water and foam goes around the top of the stone and from the cavern [whooshing]  water just blasts these dudes and the water comes up so high. It's like inches away from the level of stone that you're on and goes out in a torrent. Both of these dudes are blasted into open air off the mountainside. [whooshing]

0:35:36 Sam: I wanna leave.

0:35:38 Izzy: Can I cast—

0:35:38 Antiope: I also want that for you.

0:35:39 Izzy: Animate Objects and just release everybody else?

0:35:45 Brennan: Yes, go ahead. Give me either a sleight of hand or if you want to use another skill to break out of it although actually, as a water bear. 'Cause you're fully free from everything.

0:35:54 Erika: Yeah, yeah, so I go [slurping]  and then I re-manifest and just sort of like start unlocking everybody-

0:36:01 Brennan: You unlock-

0:36:02 Izzy: I wanted to do something fucking cool too, but- [all laughing]

0:36:04 Brennan: So you unlock Ostentatia, and Ostentatia—

0:36:07 Rekha: Yeah, Ostentatia doesn't let you do the rest.

0:36:10 Aabria: Yeah.

0:36:11 Erika: She was like- Danielle and Ostentatia look at each other for a moment.

0:36:12 Izzy: Yeah.

0:36:15 Brennan: You, which you actually can do, summon your hammer, your family hammer to your hand. As you animate these objects, what does the spell look like as your casting it?

0:36:25 Becca: Is that called the Fammer?

0:36:27 Brennan: Fammer, family hammer, exactly. What does it look like as Ostentatia asks these chains to awaken?

0:36:37 Izzy: She just sort of closes her eyes for a moment. And all of the links of the chains just sort of go like, beep bop beep bop beep bop beep bop. [all laughing]

0:36:50 Brennan: And little googly, it looks like gem eyes open. Oh, you see that, all of the links for a moment, glow a little bit red with the fire of their forging, just [imitates fire blazing].

0:37:02 Katja: Ow!

0:37:02 Antiope: Fuck!

0:37:05 Ostentatia: It's not that fucking hot. [all laughing]

0:37:09 Sam: Dip them in the remaining water. Dip them in water.

0:37:11 Penny: Impressive though, wow. You all are so—

0:37:13 Brennan: You are all freed, you are on the top of this massive mountain, but with that Tidal Wave, I will say some of the promontory is covered in some bits of like metal and some other trappings. It looks like some like treasure chests had been emptied. And you see from inside the cave, some glittering and looks like there might be some other objects within there.

0:37:46 Rekha: [about to say something] Sorry.

0:37:46 Aabria: [to Rekha] No, let’s go.

0:37:46 Brennan: What would you—

0:37:47 Rekha: I was gonna say, I think Katja is full Cinnamon horse mode where the fuck is my horse?

0:37:53 Erika: I use Locate Plant and Animal.

0:37:57 Brennan: You cast locate and that might have a range limit normally, but because Cinnamon is a magical horse. Danielle, you put your hand on Katja's shoulder and you get a vision, Katja, of Cinnamon.

0:38:14 Katja: Oh, beautiful. [all laughing]

0:38:17 Brennan: Your beautiful Palomino like deep auburn rust fur and a shimmering like platinum gold mane, just galloping supernaturally fast.

0:38:30 Katja: This is my favorite movie. [all laughing]

0:38:34 Brennan: Down the shoulder of a highway. Just screaming,

0:38:38 Cinnamon: [posh British accent] Katja, my mistress, I am coming with all haste. I shall find you!

0:38:44 Katja: You are my best friend. [laughs] I just saw the most beautiful thing I've ever seen in my life. It's my horse, being normal.

0:38:53 Danielle: Oh, man!

0:38:54 Katja: And coming for me.

0:38:55 Danielle: That's good, that's good. It's all Gucci, baby.

0:38:57 Katja: Thank you.

0:38:59 Ostentatia: This is Gucci too. [all laughing]

0:39:02 Katja: Oh, wow, that's incredible.

0:39:04 Sam: Are you sure?

0:39:06 Ostentatia: Yeah.

0:39:07 Antiope: Hold on, what is this fuck- no. There is shit in there, and there's, let's go get this stuff.

0:39:13 Ostentatia: I love stuff.

0:39:13 Penny: Oh, yeah.

0:39:16 Katja: Maybe food for Cinnamon.

0:39:18 Brennan: Looking at this promontory and looking at the fact that there's like, it seems that there's really no, you obviously many of you can fly and teleport do other stuff like that. So like getting down from the mountain is a possibility, but it's also not a thing that you're gonna be able to do quickly. So there's a moment of like, we can go investigate the cave, we're just like way in the fuckin’ mountains right now. As you enter the cave, everyone here go ahead and make an Investigation check for me. [quick, light, tense music playing]

0:39:46 Becca: That one's not good.

0:39:49 Erika: 5.

0:39:50 Aabria: 13.

0:39:50 Sephie: 23.

0:39:52 Brennan: 23, amazing.

0:39:58 Becca: [gasps] 23.

0:39:58 Brennan: 23. [laughing]

0:40:02 Brennan: You guys go into the cave and see that this is first of all, it is enormous, a creature the size of, huh, a gymnasium could move through this space. So even the openings are the size of cathedrals, right? And within it, a stunning amount of treasure has been removed from here. A lot of the objects that are left are almost like containers, like chests, like armor stands. It looks like a lot of things of lesser value have been left here in what was at one point, a Dragon's cave. Antiope, as you move through the space, you begin to get, like, dragon scent.

0:40:49 Antiope: I fucking hate dragons. Fuck this bitch. We're gonna find him. This has awakened something in me.

0:40:57 Aabria: And I just kick the closest thing next to me.

0:40:59 Brennan: Bang! just like a helmet, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, flies off. You begin to move through. So I know that we have two 23s, did anyone else beat a 15? Rekha shakes her head.

0:41:09 Aabria: Nope.

0:41:09 Brennan: No, no worries. So everyone's just looking around, I think for Katja and Antiope, you are both sort of looking around and scouting for any more soldiers or servants that might be here. Ostentatia, you're looking at a lot of the gear here. You can immediately tell right away just from being a forge cleric, nothing of value that would constitute it being treasure has been left here, right. And Yelle, you're looking around and just seeing basically like a lot of the natural sort of like, oh, something big and draconic was living here for a long time. Mountains of chaos tend to have a lot of parts of their ecosystem that exists outside of the natural order. There are a lot of things like dragons or abominations or monstrosities here that tend to come from arcane or other planar places rather than what is considered the natural world. Penny and Sam, I would love to know what you are looking for in the cavern here, if anything? Is there a bent, are you together, are you separate? And is there like a focus of your investigation?

0:42:12 Becca: Yes, definitely. Okay, we're definitely separate because I would like to find something that I can fashion into a bracelet for each of my new friends.

0:42:22 Brennan: Amazing.

0:42:23 Becca: So they know that I will remember us being chained here together forever.

0:42:27 Rekha: I think we all wanna remember. [all laughing]

0:42:32 Becca: Yeah.

0:42:33 Aabria: Silver lining so fucking fast.

0:42:38 Brennan: And… [points to Sephie]

0:42:39 Sephie: I am looking for anything that can tell us what the hell is going on and what we can do to murder whatever is coming from it.

0:42:47 Brennan: Incredible, there are a lot of other small chambers. For a moment I think, Penny and Sam, you guys are looking together and you move into this space where the chambers start to get a little bit smaller. Now, a lot of true dragons in this world have magic or the ability to change into humanoid sized things. But this cavern doesn't really look like the dragon who lived here liked doing that very much. But you do find a small entrance that again is humanoid sized, which is immediately sort of interesting. A small stone staircase ascends to a landing that then branches into three other short staircases that go to other rooms. In one of those larger chambers up those staircases. Penny, you find a number of shattered pieces of mirror.

0:43:46 Penny: Huh.

0:43:48 Becca: Does it look like you could string anything through it?

0:43:50 Brennan: It looks like you could probably fashion something through them. And also by the way, you could, you've seen Ostentatia do some forging magic already. Like these pieces of mirror are really, really beautiful. You could absolutely. You could shape them with magic or you could do a sleight of hand check or thieves tools check to shape them and set them into a bracelet.

0:44:13 Ostentatia: I'm really good at making jewelry.

0:44:15 Katja: Making jewelry? I thought you bought all of it?

0:44:17 Penny: I'm not. My jewelry's really ugly, but I do make a lot of it. Okay, yeah, I wanna-

0:44:23 Ostentatia: It sort of depends on what you're into, I guess.

0:44:25 Brennan: Oh, yeah, give me a little thieves tools check.

0:44:28 Becca: Okay! [whispered] How do I do that?

0:44:30 Brennan: Dex plus proficiency.

0:44:33 Becca: [excited] Oh, oh! [whispered counting]. 27!

0:44:42 Brennan: Wow.

0:44:44 Rekha: These are gorgeous.

0:44:45 Brennan: These friendship bracelets, I'm gonna say there's like a little pieces of like halfling yarn that are like very summer camp friendship bracelet with a little mirror set into it. And you just sit there, twining them together. You find the room with the most mirror shards. There's one to the right that doesn't have as many mirror shards. And there's two others that kind of have more. Sam, you walk up this staircase as you see Penny on like the main landing, making these friendship bracelets.

0:45:15 Becca: Yeah, there's a lot of humming involved. Like I plopped down, which is really still so it's so low to the ground. And then, [Penny starts humming]

0:45:24 Sam: Penny, was it, hello?

0:45:25 Penny: That's right.

0:45:29 Sam: Umm. We need to get out of here or we're gonna die.

0:45:31 Penny: I don't think so. All of you are really powerful and I feel really safe around you.

0:45:37 Sam: Okay, maybe...

0:45:40 Sephie: I just grab Penny and just start dragging.

0:45:43 Sam: Hold on, hold on-

0:45:44 Brennan: You start, yes-

0:45:44 Becca: Okay, I don't get up.

0:45:47 Brennan: With that 23 investigation check, you see something over your shoulder as Penny pulls back to gather up her work. In the room to the right, there's fewer mirror shards. You hear something for a moment.

0:46:06 Sam: What was that?

0:46:09 Brennan: It sounds like a whisper or the kind of... It's not a sob, it's more like the intake of breath as one is trying to soothe themselves after crying for a moment. And it sounds echo-y, far away. Like it's not even in that room, but past that room. [wind whistling]

0:46:33 Sephie: I immediately just keep dragging Penny and I'm going gunning for it.

0:46:35 Becca: I’m still working.

0:46:37 Brennan: Down the stairs or up the stairs into the room?

0:46:39 Sephie: Up the stairs into the room.

0:46:41 Brennan: You grab Penny, move inside and you have a little magical mirror of yourself. In this room, there are some mirror shards on the floor but there is one mirror still standing. And when I say standing, I mean... set into the jagged unworked stone. The floor and steps are all masonry, they're solid blocks but the walls and ceiling are still jagged and cavernous and set into the natural forming of the stone taking a strange geological shape, almost like water forming into a puddle and taking the form of whatever cavity it is in. There is a dark glass mirror, not a modern mirror, not something really chrome and reflective, something much older, a dark glass. And you see that it sort of swirls and these did not exist in the other rooms you went into, Penny and this is something that is still here, still whole, in other words. [imitates whooshing] Moving.

0:48:09 Becca: When we stand in front of it, do we see anything?

0:48:12 Brennan: Do you wanna see something?

0:48:13 Katja: Woah, okay, what? [all laughing]

0:48:16 Becca: Yeah, Penny is thinking about all 19 of her siblings and her parents and they haven't seen her in over a year. So they're probably worried. So that's what's on her mind as she looks in.

0:48:29 Brennan: You think of siblings [serene music] and you look through the mist and smoke. You see a woman who to you would seem older, an adult, but a young woman on her knees holding onto her face in that very like not just hunched over, squatting on her butt, but like fully on her shins, like elbows on the ground, long gray and black hair trailing off into mist, who appears to be hiding in the mirror. And you see a young woman trapped behind crystal and glass. As you think of your siblings, you hear that whispered voice again go [soft intake of breath] and a face looks up and you see a tear streaked face, pale gray look up a little bit of like blood red color on her lips, but sort of black brows.

0:49:46 Woman: [very soft, shaky, reverbed] Anima, is that you? Hello?

0:49:50 Penny: Who? Hi, cutie pie!

0:49:57 Brennan: As you say cutie pie, you see the voice of the woman in the mirror goes,

0:50:04 Woman: I'm still here. Are you all still there? I haven't heard from you in a long time.

0:50:12 Sam: Who are you?

0:50:15 Woman: I am… Who's this asking me and what may I call you? I don't want to give you my name.

0:50:24 Penny: [quietly to Sam] Should we give our names?

0:50:26 Sam: [whispering] Probably not.

0:50:29 Penny: My name is Kelly.

0:50:31 Sam: My name's Cecilia.

0:50:32 Woman: Kelly and Cecilia, I will guard your names. [Rekha laughs]

0:50:35 Woman: I will not, I will not misuse them. Where, where do you now stand? I can hear your voices, but cannot see you.

0:50:46 Penny: Oh, well we look really cute. Especially Sam, her outfit’s really nice. We're not dirty at all.

0:50:48 Sam: Thank you.

0:50:51 Penny: And we did not pee ourselves.

0:50:53 Sam: And we definitely don't smell. [nods] [chuckles]

0:50:57 Brennan: You see she looks out and says,

0:50:59 Woman: Do you see my sisters anywhere out there? Do you see any other shapes? They might look like crystal or glass, something of that nature. Do you see any others like me?

0:51:16 Sephie: How many spaces are there around the walls?

0:51:18 Brennan: There's another one in here, but there were those other rooms as well that you remember where all the mirrors were shattered.

0:51:23 Rekha: Mmm.

0:51:28 Sephie: Wanna bet they were seven?

0:51:29 Penny: [quietly] Do you wanna, do we tell her?

0:51:36 Sam: I think she'd wanna know.

0:51:39 Penny: [at a normal volume] Hey, do you know what happens if your mirror were to shatter, totally unrelated to our previous conversation?

0:51:45 Woman: [angrily] My mirror, this is far from my mirror. I would not have it, I would not have it for all of the stars in the sky or all the long years of the turning of the world, [growled] I would not have it!

0:51:58 Brennan: And you hear a boom! And you see that the mirror's glass thumps outward. You get a feeling that she is trapped in here.

0:52:08 Sephie: I pull out my mirror, my mirror of the past, and I am going to think about this woman whose name I do not know and look into it, it's a compact.

0:52:17 Brennan: Yeah.

0:52:17 Rekha: Cute.

0:52:18 Sephie: And see what it can tell me about this person. [suspenseful music playing]

0:52:23 Brennan: You look into your mirror of the past, the mirror begins to shake in your hand. Give me an intelligence saving throw.

0:52:43 Sephie: That's an 18.

0:52:44 Brennan: You hold on to your mind. Sephie takes a deep breath. Rekha and Izzy “ooh” in shock.

0:52:51 Brennan: When you have looked into the past before, you sometimes get like a couple of years, you get like, oh, this person had a rough, you know, high school experience. Countless aeons and the turning of the world move past you. Histories of stars and planets that cannot exist anymore. You see this person whose name she has not given, but you know her name. Her name is the Ending of Things. And she wishes to be free.

0:53:39 Sam: I haven't felt this bad since math class. [all laughing]

0:53:46 Sam: Umm. Okay, so..

0:53:50 Penny: Should we let her free or-

0:53:54 Ending of Things: Please Kelly, Cecilia. [all laughing]

0:54:00 Ending of Things: Listen to me, I hear silence and I know that you ponder. It will be very difficult for me to escape this mirror, long it has kept me here, but great power can I place into your hands if you should let me free. All I ask is for your help in this matter. My sisters need my aid and I would bring it to them.

0:54:31 Sam: Who are your sisters though?

0:54:35 Ending of Things: The most beautiful and noble beings that have ever existed.

0:54:42 Penny: Do they go to Aguefort? [laughing]

0:54:45 Sam: Sounds like a Hudol thing.

0:54:48 Brennan: [laughs] You see, she smiles and looks and she gets up, takes a step towards you. And the mist begins to part and she says,

0:54:56 Ending of Things: Aguefort.

0:54:59 Rekha: Oh, no.

0:54:59 Aabria: Uh oh.

0:55:00 Ending of Things: Aguefort Adventuring Academy. Yes. Now I—

0:55:03 Penny: Oh, you've heard of it? That’s my school.

0:55:04 Brennan: And you see that she looks and makes eye contact with you and says-

0:55:08 Rekha: No! Everyone from below,

0:55:08 Katja: Shut up!

0:55:11 Brennan: I'm gonna actually say, maidens pour into the room. So you all appear like-

0:55:15 Penny: You guys, this girl's heard of our school.

0:55:17 Brennan: Yes, now all, even from the entry, see a figure materializing closer towards the surface of the mirror from the other side. Those of you in the doorway so Katja, Zelda, Antiope, Yelle and Ostentatia it's almost like you see it at a diagonal and you can see that this thing is not humanoid. There's just something about it. Like catching the face at a diagonal through the mirror. You see it like extending into smoke and fractalling backwards into something far greater than a mortal being. However, for Penny and Sam, you both see what looks again like this beautiful hair flowing down almost like becoming of a substance with her gown. This sort of shimmering ethereal black gown. The only piece of color, again, just this red on her lips that if you look, maybe it looks a little bit like blood.

0:56:24 Rekha: Question, is the reason that when we're in the door where we feel like this isn't a humanoid, is it our distance from the mirror? And it's like, we just can't tell or is it something where this mirror shows you something different?

0:56:33 Brennan: It's almost more like, to be honest, like an angle. In other words, like the thing in the mirror has only observed Penny and Sam right now.

0:56:42 Rekha: I see.

0:56:43 Brennan: And so you're catching something-

0:56:45 Rekha: That hasn't seen me.

0:56:47 Brennan: Yes. So you all rush into the doorway, you see this. Sam and Penny, you see again, that the woman looks and says,

0:56:53 Ending of Things: Aguefort. I can tell you that my sisters are there. My sisters are there.

0:57:00 Antiope: What the hell is that?

0:57:02 Penny: Oh, this is our new friend, we didn't catch her name.

0:57:04 Sam: Oh, we know the name.

0:57:05 Aabria: When I yell that, can I Hunter’s Sense it?

0:57:10 Brennan: Yes, you can. Hunter's Sense doesn't have a saving throw or anything like that, right?

0:57:13 Aabria: No, I just wanna know like vulnerabilities, resistances.

0:57:16 Brennan: Give me a strength saving throw.

0:57:19 Aabria: Oh, shit, cool, cool, cool.

0:57:20 Izzy: Oh no.

0:57:24 Aabria: Uh. Yeah, 3, it's a 3. I got it. [laughing]

0:57:26 Sephie: [hand to her head] Oh, no.

0:57:27 Aabria: No, no, no, sorry, I lied, it's a 7.

0:57:30 Brennan: Antiope you go and... All of you in the doorway see Antiope immediately spring to your defense. And this level of just quickness of thought, intensity of purpose. You see Antiope's heroism in this moment, Penny and Sam, you see, [gasps] this is an invisible spell, except for when it becomes visible as the woman in the mirror grabs the magic and yanks Antiope, you go skid on your back and go up I'm gonna need Penny and Sam are the only people in between it. The magical tether anchoring you to your target is being used to drag you into the mirror.

0:58:14 Aabria: Holy crap.

0:58:15 Erika: Thorn Whip.

0:58:15 Rekha: No, no, no.

0:58:17 Sephie: Lightning Lure.

0:58:18 Brennan: Lightning Lure and Thorn Whip, okay. [chuckles] Are you casting this on Antiope or are you casting it on-

0:58:29 Erika: A point on the ground 'cause Thorn Whip will whip up and grab.

0:58:34 Brennan: Incredible, these spells do if I'm not mistaken deal damage.

0:58:37 Sephie: They do… it's an instantaneous reaction.

0:58:42 Brennan: Amazing, I'm gonna need each of you-

0:58:47 Sephie: Oh wait, wait, wait, wait.

0:58:48 Brennan: Yeah, yeah, go for it.

0:58:49 Sephie: Can I Counterspell instead?

0:58:52 Brennan: Amazing, go ahead and, yes, I will actually allow a little ex post facto Counterspell here. So what does Hunter's Sense allow you to do?

0:59:03 Aabria: I want to know the creature’s damage, immunities, resistances, and vulnerabilities and if they're hidden from divination magic or not.

0:59:11 Brennan: So immunities, resistances, vulnerabilities.

0:59:14 Aabria: Yeah.

0:59:15 Brennan: Gotcha.

0:59:17 Aabria: Can I kill it is what I would like to know.

0:59:19 Brennan: What you immediately sense is that this thing is purely immune to all forms of necrotic damage, has resistances to almost every form of elemental damage, complete immunity to non-magical weapons. This thing is stacked with immunities and resistances. You skid across the floor. We are counterspelling. Go ahead and give me the ability check associated with counterspells.

0:59:55 Sephie: Ugh, that's not good. That is a nine.

1:00:03 Brennan: That is a nine. So you go to counter, do not break the spell that is being cast by the being in the mirror. And I'm actually going to need a strength saving throw from you as well.

1:00:13 Aabria: Oh, God!

1:00:14 Sephie: Of course, this is a great score for me. That's a 13.

1:00:21 Brennan: So, you go to counter this spell and she's got another rope in the mirror pulls, I am going to go- I'm just gonna say for people that haven't acted yet. So we have a Thorn Whip that's gonna resolve here. You're Thorn Whipping at Antiope to like pull her back?

1:00:40 Erika: Yeah, well, if I see Sam go, I'm gonna do something else.

1:00:43 Brennan: Okay, you see Sam go as well.

1:00:45 Erika: Okay, I do Erupting Earth on the mirror.

1:00:50 Rekha: Oh no.

1:00:51 Brennan: Danielle.

1:00:51 Becca: No, no, don't let her out.

1:00:52 Penny: Don't let her out! [shattering noises]

1:00:55 Brennan: The mirror shatters. Sam and Antiope are saved. [gasps]

1:01:00 Rekha: And then where does that person go? [whooshing]

1:01:04 Sephie: I think we are about to find out.

1:01:08 Penny: Hey, you guys, I made you friendship bracelets.

1:01:12 Katja: Oh, cute!

1:01:14 Danielle: Amazing.

1:01:15 Penny: They might have a piece of an evil demon creature in it. I'm not sure, I didn't check these ones.

1:01:21 Sam: Well, this is very sweet but we might have just let loose the Ending of all Things.

1:01:25 Danielle: Oh, shit, man.

1:01:26 Sam: The Ending of Things, that's what it's called.

1:01:31 Penny: Her name is the Ending of Things?

1:01:34 Sam: I don't know if it's a name or just what she is.

1:01:37 Danielle: A very post-modern name, you know. The Ending of Things.

1:01:41 Penny: That's pretty cool.

1:01:42 Brennan: You hear from the mouth of the cave,

1:01:42 Voice: Hello?

1:01:46 Danielle: Hello!

1:01:46 Voice: Hello?

1:01:48 Danielle: Hi!

1:01:49 Penny: Wait, no, no, no, don't answer.

1:01:52 Antiope: Maybe don't be your namesake for like two seconds.

1:01:54 Danielle: Oh, yeah.

1:01:57 Brennan: You see Zelda looks up and says,

1:01:59 Zelda: I actually think I recognize that voice. I think that's Gorgug's friend's mom.

1:02:07 Penny: Is she evil?

1:02:08 Zelda: No, she's just a lady.

1:02:10 Danielle: They're cool.

1:02:10 Sam: In my experience, moms can be very evil.

1:02:14 Sandra Lynn: [loudly] Hi, if anyone's in there. This is Sandra Lynn Faeth, I’m a ranger, I'm a Solisian ranger, I'm here to rescue you. Anyone's who's-

1:02:23 Katja: Oh, is this Fig's mom?

1:02:25 Sandra Lynn: Yes, my daughter is Fig, yes, absolutely.

1:02:28 Danielle: Oh, Fig, is she in like the somatic components class in like third period?

1:02:34 Sandra Lynn: We can have this, I don't know where in the cavern you are. So if anyone wants to come-

1:02:38 Antiope: Upstairs.

1:02:39 Sam: Why is your daughter a fruit?

1:02:41 Sandra Lynn: Well, her name is Figueroth, but okay, everyone!

1:02:44 Brennan: You see that this woman walks in, who's got kind of like very crocodile hunter style, ranger clothes, khaki shorts. The little tan button ups with the sleeves rolled up shirt, big hiking, boots, bow over her back. She says,

1:02:59 Sandra Lynn: Oh my god, you all made it. I'm Sandra Lynn, there is something very bad happening back in Elmville right now at the adventuring academy. You all were chained up? You got out?

1:03:07 Sam: We got out a while ago, yeah.

1:03:15 Penny: Yeah but we— some of us liked it.

1:03:17 Antiope: Did you like… I wanna put a pin in that.

1:03:20 Katja: Wow, someone's mom is coming to rescue us.

1:03:21 Penny: Really nice.

1:03:22 Sandra Lynn: Listen, the world is very much about to end. So we gotta, there's an apocalypse to avert.

1:03:29 Becca: As we follow like,

1:03:30 Penny: Sandra Lynn, just a question, were you like in the neighborhood or did you come all the way here for us?

1:03:37 Sandra Lynn: Oh, my daughter told me that you all were captured and I knew that there was a lair of Kalvaxus's nearby in the mountains. So I came to get you as soon as I heard.

1:03:47 Penny: I don't even know Fig and she wanted to save me?

1:03:50 Katja: That's so nice.

1:03:50 Antiope: It's really nice.

1:03:52 Sandra Lynn: Yeah, yeah.

1:03:53 Sephie: While they're talking about that, I look at the mirror and what just happened and if there's any remnants of anything in there.

1:04:03 Brennan: There was that weird exhalation of wind. But I think that, oh, actually, you know what? Anyone who wants to can give me an Insight or an Arcana check if you'd like.

1:04:21 Becca: 22.

1:04:21 Izzy: What's 9 plus 13?

1:04:23 Rekha: [about her roll] 13. [to Izzy] 9 plus 13 is 22.

1:04:25 Izzy: No. [laughing]

1:04:27 Sephie: That's a 14.

1:04:29 Brennan: Did anybody here beat a 20?

1:04:31 Izzy: Yeah.

1:04:31 Sephie: Probably. Aabria, Becca, and Izzy have their hands raised.

1:04:32 Brennan: Cool, so this is, oh yeah.

1:04:34 Erika: So 26.

1:04:36 Brennan: What do we got here, 22, 26?

1:04:40 Izzy: 22.

1:04:40 Brennan: 22.

1:04:40 Aabria: 24.

1:04:40 Brennan: 24. And what were our skills are- we're using insight here or?

1:04:44 Erika: Insight.

1:04:44 Brennan: Insight, insight, insight.

1:04:46 Becca: Arcana.

1:04:46 Brennan: Arcana. I will say this, so Ostentatia and Yelle, as you're walking out of there you look at the shattered mirror on the ground and can tell that in its own way, much more ancient and much more powerful palimpsest has been shattered. This mirror that was broken here was holding something here from a long, long time ago. And Yelle, you feel, you got 26, right? You don't get a bad feeling, necessarily. You get a feeling like something is in play. Something is in the world, something is moving.

1:05:47 Izzy: Could I try and cast Mending on this friendship bracelet and try to like put the mirror back together?

1:05:57 Brennan: Yeah!

1:05:58 Becca: It's still all attached so we get dragged- [laughing]

1:06:02 Brennan: You cast a Mending spell on the mirror. And as you do, you guys feel a powerful magic connect all of you. I wanna go into these checks real quick, but we're gonna talk about this in a moment. Penny is crying.

1:06:19 Ostentatia: [pointing] She is crying.

1:06:23 Penny: I felt you connect us and it was really nice.

1:06:26 Ostentatia: I did that on purpose.

1:06:32 Brennan: As for you, For your checks... Arcana, you know with that Arcana check and you got a 22? Penny, you feel in this space that Antiope and Sam very much just had their lives saved. You can see that a) something terrible would have happened if they had gone through that mirror, like Yelle needed to do that or they were very much going to go to whatever the other side of that mirror was. And number two, Antiope and Sam, you just... There's something about the two of them as they walk out of there, the mirror shards shake a little bit more as they move away. Antiope you got a...

1:07:36 Aabria: 24.

1:07:36 Brennan: 24 insight. Where are you pointing your insight to in this moment?

1:07:47 Aabria: Just trying to figure out what that creature was, what the tether was. And it's almost a little bit reflexively inside too. 'Cause I think that's the first time that she's done that. So she was like, what is this and why, how are you, what is happening?

1:08:01 Brennan: You feel on a 24 insight. Yeah, Penny sort of knows that this sort of nature of the spell that's happened. You have a more ranger's intuition. The thing that just escaped the mirror, you connect to it. You also feel like, oh, that thing marked me in some way. And some weird rangers intuition possesses you in this moment. And you feel a certain thing of like, and I think you can probably tell also that Sam has been similarly marked, right? But you connect to in some way and go, like, if something can see me, I can see it. And you feel a part of you lock on to nothing more concrete than a feeling. But when you remember the face of the being you saw in the mirror, completely like transparent and visible hairs on your shins and forearms go to attention, stand up. You feel the presence of this thing in the world in the way that a hunter feels something that it's pursuing and know that you can rely on that connection going forward. But again, almost similar to what Yelle had, where it was not necessarily this hyper negative thing. In the shattering of that mirror, you know that many other mirrors have shattered just like that. And the thing escaping didn't feel to you like a [imitates evil laugh]. It felt like something injured and weakened slinking away from a trap. It felt like something getting free somewhere. The thing you saw was not a triumphant surge or charge towards an objective, but rather a full retreat into deeper shadows than you can imagine, in places far from the sunlit world. And whatever danger is now unfolding at your old high school.

1:10:16 Aabria: All right. Bet.

1:10:19 Rekha: Would a history check apply here or no. Just cause I have very good history.

1:10:23 Brennan: Yeah, you can make a history check.

1:10:27 Rekha: Oh my God, where is it, 15.

1:10:29 Brennan: You clock some primordial writing on some of the stone in here. Just interesting, Primordial is the language of elementals. Something you clock.

1:10:39 Sephie: And I can read it.

1:10:40 Brennan: And Sam can read Primordial. But there's a griffon waiting for you outside. Sandra Lynn says,

1:10:46 Sandra Lynn: All right, so, you know, we're so glad we found you. You're all gonna be okay. We're gonna get you back there. My daughter and her friends might be in a little bit of trouble. There's a ritual, the ancient red dragon Kalvaxus.

1:11:05 Antiope: Fuck dragons, let's go!

1:11:07 Danielle: Cannot wait to find out the backstory behind that comment. [laughing]

1:11:13 Ostentatia: The fucker who you washed away was saying Kalvaxus a lot.

1:11:19 Sandra Lynn: Oh, okay, yeah. So, some of his servants also attacked several homes in Elmville. It's been a wild night, but we're gonna get you to Aguefort right away.

1:11:29 Brennan: And you are swooped up many of you like one of you in each of the talons of the griffin and the rest of you on the back of Sandra Lynn. This griffin is struggling, [imitates wings flapping]

1:11:40 Rekha: I am clutching on to Sandra Lynn, and I whisper into her ear,

1:11:44 Katja: Thanks for showing up.

1:11:47 Brennan: She looks back and some deep mom part of her heart goes,

1:11:51 Sandra Lynn: Yeah kiddo, of course, of course. And hey, good looking out on all of you. You showed up for each other when the chips were down.

1:11:59 Brennan: And Ostentatia finishes casting the Mending. And as Ostentatia, as you mend the mirror, you see that the mirror. You touch it and your face appears in the mirrors of all your friends' bracelets.

1:12:20 Izzy: My face?

1:12:21 Brennan: Your face appears in everyone else's mirror.

1:12:23 Katja: Whoa.

1:12:24 Ostentatia: You’re welcome.

1:12:25 Katja: It's Ostentatia o'clock. [all laughing]

1:12:29 Ostentatia: I love that.

1:12:32 Brennan: We cut a year and a half into the future. [all cheering]

1:12:38 Brennan: Amazing! It is a beautiful day in Elmville. It's the beginning for some of you, it's the beginning of your senior year. For others of you it's the beginning of your junior year. Weird palimpsest shenanigans and super seniors and repeated years and some people intentionally bombing finals have made a weird mishmash of years to the point where for Danielle, Zelda and Ostentatia it is the beginning of their junior year. And for Sam, Penny, Katja, and Antiope it's the beginning of your senior year. Maybe even for one or two, you are at the beginning of your second senior year.

1:13:19 Antiope: We don't talk about that. [all laughing]

1:13:23 Brennan: So in this beautiful morning in Elmville, it has been a year and a half. You have ventured into the Red Waste, you have fought together to claim dragon's eggs, you defeated Hyperia the Gorgon queen of Throshk. You are the Seven. You are known in the Aguefort Adventuring Academy of some of the most bad-ass adventurers of all time, though, again, having the weird trait or abnormal trait of being across years. You came about not through, you know, meeting up and making a group formally on your first day, but through the actual events of the terrible prophecy of the Emperor of the Red Waste, Kalvaxus. We are going to go ahead and begin. And this time, you know what, we'll go, in reverse order. We are going to start at the Jones residence. And I'm actually going to go ahead and say, and ask for a little bit of detail here. Aabria, what does the Jones' home kind of look like here? What do we see when we see the Jones residence?

1:14:31 Aabria: The Jones, they call it the compound. It's very much like single story, flat, very indoor-outdoor living. And there's like a central ludus in between like instead of a yard, there's just this outdoor training area. It’s a CrossFit- I live in a CrossFit box, I think. [all laughing]

1:14:54 Aabria: It's very stressful.

1:14:57 Brennan: Antiope, you awaken still on the other side of this very vertical growth spurt.

1:15:05 Aabria: Ow, my bones hurt.

1:15:08 Brennan: You have your bow and your arrows there by your side. How is your bedroom decorated as you wake up this morning?

1:15:15 Aabria: It's kept super clean and fairly spartan, but there's one big mirror at the far end that you can see there's like holes in the wall where it keeps getting moved, like higher and higher, because I went into the palimpsest like a solid 5'7 and I'm like rocking 6'2 now. So it's like much bigger. And then there's just like a bad Sharpied version of a dragon that gets scribbled out, just give it a weird look. [all laughing]

1:15:42 Brennan: You walk out to begin to walk through the halls of your home. Again, very Spartan, the compound, any art objects that are here are dedicated to a multi-generational lineage of some of the greatest fighters that have ever lived in Solace. You see grandparents, aunts, and uncles. You even see a hall of portraits of your older brothers, Ajax, and Prospero, and Ulysses, you even see a photo of your teacher and older sister, Corsica.

1:16:21 Antiope: [pained] Cool, cool, cool, cool.

1:16:24 Brennan: And all of these portraits are them, not only in incredible combat, but also incredible combat specifically in the service of Solace. A lot of your family has gone into the military, has gone into the service of the Council of Chosen. Sort of like Solisian National Guard. And you see that there are all these models up on the wall of service, fidelity, and loyalty. And you see that there is a big space up on the wall where your portrait will one day go and you walk into your kitchen. A fleet of blenders— [all laughing]

1:17:12 Aabria: I need to stay strong.

1:17:16 Brennan: --are there. You see off in the corner on a little fantasy treadmill is your dad who is extremely muscular, salt and pepper mustache, little salt and pepper like he is- hair is usually buzzed and shaved, but he's got a little bit of salt and pepper stubble, just around his head where the balding has come up and around. Dad is very muscular fit. But your dad is also like, old dad. Your dad's like, like way later sixties.

1:17:48 Aabria: I was a mistake, it's fine.

1:17:50 Rekha: Awww.

1:17:52 Aabria: A surprise, it was a surprise.

1:17:53 Rekha: Surprise, not mistake.

1:17:55 Brennan: And you see, he's got like, again, your dad exercises in kind of like Olivia Newton John garb, like headband, weighted wristbands, weighted like. [imitates panting and running]

1:18:08 Antiope: Dad, they have for sure updated workout apparel. You do not have to wear like, it’s shiny. Why is it shiny? Rekha and Sephie get out their fans. The others join them eventually.

1:18:11 Sephie: Drenched.

1:18:15 Rekha: [fanning herself] Keep it going, Mr. Jones.

1:18:16 Antiope: The light, it catches the eye, dad, stop.

1:18:20 Brennan: Yeah, you see there's this,

1:18:22 Hector: You gotta be limber. You gotta be, babe, you gotta be limber you gotta stay on it. These are the clothes, I move like a fox in these clothes.

1:18:30 Brennan: You see, just [huffing]/

1:18:32 Sephie: Silver fox daddy.

1:18:33 Rekha: Yeah, okay whenever we talk about Antiope's dad, we gotta-

1:18:35 Becca: Yep, yep, it's fan time. [laughing]

1:18:39 Brennan: So dad is on the treadmill, here is what you see, he's got like the real, you see every 10 seconds, he reapplies the little heart monitor sticky 'cause he, of course, measures heart rate the whole time. But he's also got a lot of chest hair so it keeps coming off and keep putting it back on. [running noises] And your mom, Athena, is also here in the room. Your mom is a beautiful, very plump older woman. She's got some little half-moon spectacles. Your mom is an incredible fighter in her own right but also sometime in her middle age, moved into being a tactician and studies the history of warfare and combat. So you see that she smiles as she looks over to you. She's got a huge, like her dreads are up in like a big bun that is wrapped around and makes a little bun on top. She looks over and smiles and goes,

1:19:33 Athena: Antiope, good morning, sleepy head. Nice to see you up.

1:19:37 Antiope: Sorry.

1:19:38 Brennan: You see that she smiles and says,

1:19:38 Athena: You hungry?

1:19:42 Antiope: Yeah, can I have- [imitates blender whirring]

1:19:44 Antiope: Dammit, I can chew, I'm very good at-

1:19:48 Athena: You just gotta have a shake, we have a shake here ready to go.

1:19:50 Antiope: Yeah, thank you. I don't want bananas in it.

1:19:53 Athena: No bananas, of course, I remember.

1:19:55 Rekha: All egg whites.

1:19:58 Brennan: You look around and again, there are like all of these very worn stools at the kitchen counter. You have again, four older siblings, all of whom are within eight years of each other. And then you're eight years younger than Corsica. And there is very much a feeling in this house and has been for a couple of years of like a long bringing up of the rear, a long caboose of like all the other kids grew up and moved out. And then your mom and dad kind of act in some ways like parents that are retired, but in other words they already have turned your siblings’ rooms into dens and offices and workout rooms. They're living their post-child life kind of in the last year or two of your high school.

1:20:48 Aabria: The nest isn't empty yet, please. [all laughing]

1:20:52 Izzy: You just got called a long caboose.

1:20:53 Rekha: A long caboose. That's gotta be insulting, yeah.

1:20:57 Sephie: That's salt and lemon.

1:21:01 Izzy: Like Juicy Couture track pants with "LONG CABOOSE" along the ass.

1:21:04 Rekha: The caboose part is really scrunched in there like a bad happy birthday sign. [all laughing]

1:21:10 Aabria: My siblings call me L Cab and it's very sad.

1:21:12 Sephie: L Cab!

1:21:14 Rekha: Listen, L Cab.

1:21:18 Brennan: Amazing, the front door opens and your older sister Corsica walks in. Sort of walks in, waves hi to your parents. She's got the awesome silvery chrome buckler over her back sharp tank athletic shorts. She's got the gladius at her side, long box-braids down at the moment. And you see that she looks over and just goes like,

1:21:43 Corsica: Hey, Ant, how's it going?

1:21:45 Antiope: Hey, hey Cor, how's it, hi, sup? [awkwardly adjusts her smoothie]

1:21:48 Corsica: It's going good.

1:21:50 Brennan: You see that she looks over, sits down and makes sort of a meaningful eye contact with your mom. Athena sort of raises her eyebrows.

1:22:03 Antiope: I can see, like I can pick up nonverbal cues. What is this, what is happening?

1:22:09 Athena: Corsica, am I allowed to say?

1:22:13 Antiope: What is, I hate this.

1:22:16 Brennan: You see that Corsica nods and says,

1:22:21 Corsica: I'm not allowed to say anything until— Principal Aguefort is gonna wanna meet with you and the rest of your pals today. It's just an advan— I'm not supposed to share that but I just heard it in the faculty office so.

1:22:35 Antiope: Nope, no, nope, we don't. What does that, are we in trouble? Why, what, for what reason? Hold on, we're, no, we can't be done with this part. That's anxiety for the day. Why are you like this?

1:22:46 Brennan: You see that Corsica says,

1:22:48 Corsica: I don't wanna get in trouble. I don't wanna get in trouble. Do you still need a ride to school or no?

1:22:53 Antiope: I mean, yeah, no, I can, I can go, I'm fine. No, I, I would like a ride.

1:22:57 Corsica: Okay, I'll give you a ride.

1:22:58 Brennan: You see that your mom says,

1:23:02 Athena: So Antiope, your father brought up something interesting to me this morning. Do you remember a colleague of mine, a woman named Charity Blythe who works for the Council of Chosen. She's in charge of the Ministry of Adventure. And we talked to her about a internship, which, you know, I know that you like your friends a lot, but-

1:23:30 Antiope: I like my friends a lot and I have a good thing. Cool, at what point is this like now this is the point where you like spring this on. Why are you? Okay, keep going. I'm sorry, I'm listening. [Rekha laughing]

1:23:42 Antiope: I don't want this, but continue.

1:23:44 Athena: You seem upset.

1:23:45 Antiope: It's a big— no, I'm fine. Don't tell me how I feel.

1:23:50 Athena: I didn't tell you how you felt. I said you seem upset.

1:23:53 Antiope: Cool, I love having a master tactician for a mother. Please get the fuck out of my head, I hate this.

1:23:58 Athena: Are you saying the master tactician thing because you want me to apologize for who I am and what I do?

1:24:02 Antiope: Why are you getting calmer? Like you get calmer when I get keyed up, and I feel like that's an intentional thing and dad's just there fucking vibing on it. Hector continues running.

1:24:09 Antiope: You can interact at any point! The fans are out again.

1:24:12 Hector: I love you, sweetheart.

1:24:13 Antiope: Why is his shirt off?

1:24:16 Izzy: The thing is, the mom is hot too. [all laughing]

1:24:18 Rekha: Wait a minute, yeah, the whole Jones family can get it.

1:24:21 Sephie: Yeah, basically.

1:24:23 Aabria: I hate this.

1:24:24 Brennan: You see that your mom says,

1:24:30 Athena: You seem keyed up and you've just said that you're keyed up. I can tell that you're keyed up.

1:24:34 Antiope: Yeah, okay, we don't have to use that phrase over and over, fine, I'm fine. I'm fine, I'm fine.

1:24:40 Athena: Does saying it all those extra times make it happen? Aabria puts her face in her hands.

1:24:43 Rekha: Oh! I love playing a teen.

1:24:50 Antiope: See, here's the thing I could, I would say a thing that's hurtful, but I know you dealt with this like 40 years ago while you were going through menopause with all of my other siblings so I'm just gonna be the chill one I'm not gonna escalate the situation, so what's happening?

1:25:03 Brennan: Corsica fully pushes herself back from the table and just looks like, and you see your mother goes,

1:25:15 Athena: Do you think that there is anything other than love in my heart for you even when you say hurtful things?

1:25:20 Antiope: [under her breath, successfully guilted] Ow.

1:25:26 Athena: Antiope, that was a very hurtful thing to say. And all it did was telegraph your weakness and insecurity to me.

1:25:32 Izzy: My gosh!

1:25:34 Antiope: Agh, I felt bad and now I feel mad again!

1:25:38 Athena: Just remember in life, when you are committed to the ideal of strength in the tradition of many Joneses before you that have come and served the nation of Solace, remember nothing can harm you, when you are a part of something greater than yourself. And all of these insecurities and all this ego, it's all coming because you yourself are worried about your future and me and your father want to help, that's all.

1:26:09 Antiope: [gritted teeth] Thank you for your help.

1:26:12 Athena: I love you.

1:26:13 Antiope: I love you too.

1:26:14 Athena: Thank you for saying so. [all laughing] Rekha rubs her arms and they all “ooh”.

1:26:19 Sephie: Oh, my God.

1:26:24 Rekha: [getting the her fan out] Okay.

1:26:24 Becca: Yeah, yeah, Athena!

1:26:32 Brennan: Corsica is in the front seat of the car driving you to school that day. And it's like four minutes of silence is just...

1:26:47 Antiope: Well I'll just say it, I handled that badly, I-

1:26:50 Corsica: You handled that badly, you handled that badly yeah.

1:26:52 Antiope: I didn't know. I don't want an internship. I am part of something better than myself. I got that quote wrong, I've heard it so many times, I'm sorry. I have a thing. And you guys are like trying to do like a new, another thing on it and I don't want that necessarily.

1:27:11 Corsica: You're [sighs deeply], yeah.

1:27:16 Antiope: Yeah.

1:27:18 Brennan: You start getting some texts on your crystal, by the way. [message notification chimes]

1:27:21 Antiope: Oh, thank God.

1:27:22 Brennan: You see it's from Ajax, Prospero and Ulysses your older brothers.

1:27:23 Antiope: No...

1:27:25 Brennan: Saying, just saying, “wow, wow” and Ulysses quotes the thing that you said to your mom and starts being like, one of them even, yeah, they start FaceTiming with you. You see Ajax, who's this enormous muscle bound, Ajax is like, they're lifting. And then every time he does, he just eats a huge bowl of eggs. And then does another few sets. The fans are again out.

1:27:49 Rekha: Okay.

1:27:49 Antiope: Eat a potato. Why are you like this?

1:27:50 Ajax: What? Listen, I don't know if Corsica said it already, you can fight it, and there's a lot of great training in fighting it. Mom and dad win, in the end mom and dad win.

1:27:57 Antiope: No. [defeated] Yeah.

1:28:04 Ajax: So I don't know what to tell you. Mom and dad win in the end.

1:28:07 Antiope: They always do. [groans]

1:28:09 Brennan: You see that he says,

1:28:09 Ajax: Love you, Ant, I do.

1:28:14 Antiope: I love you too. I'm scared about the future, but I'm not having a moment with you like while you're like mid bench.

1:28:21 Ajax: Al right, I'm going to get this set.

1:28:24 Brennan: And again, your brother Prospero, looks at you sorta like with little spectacles Eldritch Knight brother, and just goes like,

1:28:31 Prospero: This is a, just, you know, mom's a tactician. She appreciates tactics. So all you have to-

1:28:42 Antiope: Why are we not calling that just manipulator? That's what that is. I don't know why we call it tactics.

1:28:48 Prospero: That's a pretty good tactic. You should use that on her. [all laughing]

1:28:50 Antiope: Oh, my God, thank you!

1:28:53 Brennan: And you take off with Corsica. Your final brother, Ulysses who's the gunslinger just says like,

1:29:02 Ulysses: Ant, you know, you know that they love you and they're doing the right thing. [stutters] They're worried because you're worried.

1:29:15 Antiope: I am a teenager still. I'm gonna feel that way I think forever. I don't like this.

1:29:20 Brennan: We see Ajax goes,

1:29:22 Ajax: Are you guys all worried?

1:29:23 Brennan: And when he says that, your other brothers go,

1:29:24 Prospero: No, I'm pretty, I'm pretty confident. I think I'm doing great.

1:29:27 Brennan: And you see Corsica goes, like,

1:29:28 Corsica: Yeah, I feel pretty good too.

1:29:29 Antiope: I hate this. Cool.

1:29:31 Brennan: We're gonna cut from there to a beautiful home. [light music]

1:29:40 Brennan: We are gonna cut to a home that is not the Nightingale home.

1:29:45 Sephie: No, it's not.

1:29:48 Brennan: This is the Everpetal home.

1:29:51 Sephie: Yeah.

1:29:55 Brennan: Sam, what do we see when we look at the Everpetal family home?

1:29:59 Sephie: So the Everpetal family home, they are upper middle-class. Solidly upper, but not upper-class. But they have one of those houses that has a white veranda and columns and a bunch of hanging flowering plants just all over the place, the entire place. You can smell it from a block away. And on the inside, it's all warm tones of brown and russet and little bits of green in there. It's a very welcoming and inviting home, except it feels a little empty and cold.

1:30:41 Brennan: Sam, you are starting your morning off in your bedroom which is in the upper floor of the house. How is Sam's room appointed?

1:30:56 Sephie: Sam's room is probably just as extra as she is. We're talking seashells on a mirror, a large mirror on the corner. Canopy with a full silk bedspread. A fluffy fur white rug on the ground. A vanity that's white and gold in the corner.

1:31:21 Brennan: Beautiful, beautifully appointed room. You step out of your room, you get a little text from Zelda being like,

1:31:30 Zelda: Hey, if you're still good for that ride, I'd love to come get a ride with you and Sebastian.

1:31:36 Sam: Definitely, will definitely come pick you up.

1:31:39 Brennan: And you walk downstairs like in the upper hallway. Sam's room is, I mean, every room in this house is nice and large and spacious. You walk past a room with the walls no longer painted. They just are covered in white primer. There is no furniture in the room. There is an elevated part of the floor as this was a very decadent master bedroom at one time. With a room maybe even a little bit more extra than Sam's, maybe even pointedly always a little more extra than Sam's, that is now very empty. And the person who once occupied it is never mentioned in this house.

1:32:28 Sephie: It's strange to have a space that she occupied and not have her in it, because she always filled the space, to the point it was overwhelming.

1:32:39 Brennan: A very empty house. You walk downstairs and you see Rebecca Everpetal down there. Rebecca Everpetal is… [chuckles] Or I should say was Penelope's human parent. Penelope was a Half-elf. So she had an Elven dad and a human mom. Rebecca looks up... Rebecca is very upper middle class mom. Some sort of like very crisp like quilted pencil skirt, quilted jacket, like matching matching and some fillers in her face being wed to an unaging Elven man. [all laughing]

1:33:28 Becca: Not fair.

1:33:29 Sephie: There is a lot of—

1:33:29 Aabria: Yo, respect.

1:33:30 Sephie: Botox up in that face.

1:33:32 Aabria: Yes.

1:33:32 Sephie: Up in the mouth.

1:33:33 Brennan: And you see that Rebecca is... There are some cardboard boxes in a corner and there is, like a suitcase is out and Rebecca looks up and goes,

1:33:50 Rebecca: Sammy, how are you doing sweetheart?

1:33:53 Sam: Hi, I'm good. What's with all the boxes, Mrs. Everpetal?

1:33:59 Rebecca: [pressing her fingers to her eyes] Oh. [laughs] Oh, you wanna take a seat, sweetheart? [all gasping] [solemn music]

1:34:12 Sam: I'm not sure I do now.

1:34:18 Rebecca: It's nothing that you have to worry about, you're fine. It's about me and Gideon. I'm gonna be, I'm gonna be, oh my God. [crying]

1:34:32 Brennan: And she starts crying and laughing at the same time.

1:34:34 Sam: Oh, no.

1:34:37 Rebecca: Okay, so sweetheart, you know-

1:34:39 Sephie: I go instantaneously to her.

1:34:40 Brennan: Yeah, she just takes Kleenex and starts dabbing at herself.

1:34:44 Rebecca: You know, you are my sweet, you're my daughter. You're my sweet daughter, kiddo. Me and Gideon have been going to counseling ever since, you know.

1:35:02 Sam: Yeah.

1:35:06 Rebecca: And you know, it's not... It's not working. And I wish I could say that it was going to, but it's not. [imitates sniffling]

1:35:18 Sam: But you can't be alone.

1:35:23 Rebecca: [wheezy laugh] Oh yes, I can. [all laughing; Becca flaps her fan]

1:35:30 Sam: I just meant since everything that happened.

1:35:35 Rebecca: You know, Gideon is, you know, he's out working, he's on a business trip right now and he got in touch with me and let me know that, that we're gonna move forward and we're gonna make it sort of a legal process now. And it's just gonna be better for me to not be living here.

1:35:58 Sam: He let you know through a phone call?

1:36:02 Rebecca: [very quietly] Yeah, kiddo.

1:36:06 Sam: Do you wanna burn all his stuff? [Brennan laughing]

1:36:09 Rebecca: I know you could, you are an incredibly powerful sorceress.

1:36:12 Sam: I can make this happen.

1:36:15 Rebecca: Sweetie, it’s—

1:36:16 Sam: I'm better at drowning things, but you know.

1:36:17 Rebecca: Sweetie, he's in Fallinel with his assistant. [all exclaim]

1:36:26 Sam: Not the blonde one. Rebecca doesn’t respond.

1:36:29 Sam: Not the blonde one.

1:36:30 Rebecca: [whispers] Yeah, the blonde one, yeah.

1:36:33 Sam: He's been spending so much time with her since she got her butt done. [all gasping]

1:36:38 Rebecca: Sam, I know. [all laughing]

1:36:40 Rebecca: I know that, I know that.

1:36:42 Sam: Your butt looks better.

1:36:44 Rebecca: [teary] God bless you. [all laughing]

1:36:46 Brennan: She just gives you a huge hug, and just starts bawling. She's like,

1:36:49 Rebecca: I'm so sorry, I don't know. You've been through more than any, you've been through so much and I don't wanna lean, I'm an adult, I don't wanna lean on you. But look, what I wanted to say is I'm gonna go be with my sister for a little while. We're just over at Ashgrove. We're not that far away. And the point is this, I've already reached out. We're gonna have meals in the fridge, we're gonna have pre-prepped meals in the fridge. And obviously you're gonna be on my delivery account. So your food is gonna be here. You're gonna have a place to stay. And I'll have the crystals system up so you can-

1:37:28 Sam: You want me to be here alone?

1:37:32 Rebecca: Well, you're welcome to come with me to Ashgrove, but I know you're in your last year at Aguefort and you know, that's a hell of a commute, kiddo.

1:37:45 Sam: I don't know if I could be here alone and she was...

1:37:55 Rebecca: [stutters] I don't have the answers, sweetheart. And I'm sorry. You know, I'll bring it up because she did call me, I did talk to her last night. Your mom, Camille called.

1:38:06 Sam: Oh boy, what did she want?

1:38:10 Rebecca: [sighs] She said a lot of really ignorant stuff.

1:38:17 Sam: She's still on about the comeback? Is that what her current obsession is after she's done fucking the pool boy?

1:38:26 Rebecca: [sighs] Yeah. She basically said that, she says she didn't think that you should finish out at Aguefort but if you were going to, it's a short enough time away now that you're a senior, that you should be planning a comeback and planning a re-entry into show biz. She kept saying, people don't know Sam Nightingale. They don't know, You know, this is a... and she said a lot of other stuff about that it will be very “in vogue” and I got a bad taste in my mouth.

1:39:01 Sam: Oh, so it's fashionable now that's why she wants me to do it, while it's fashionable to transition. Got it, got it, great. I've deleted her number from my phone. You can just not answer those calls. You can just not. In fact, I prefer you didn't. In fact, if she calls, why don't you just throw your fucking phone across the room and shatter into pieces? Just like I'd like to do to her skull. [quieter] I might have anger issues.

1:39:29 Rebecca: Sweetie, if you didn't, I'd be more worried.

1:39:33 Brennan: She takes her crystal out, opens it up. You see her delete a number, delete a contact and block the number and say,

1:39:49 Rebecca: We don't need selfish people in our lives, sweetie.

1:39:52 Sam: Thank you, mom.

1:39:56 Brennan: [imitates crying] She fully kisses you on the cheek and just wraps you up in this big embrace. She says,

1:40:00 Rebecca: Sweetie, if you wanna come stay in my sister's apartment with me, we'll snuggle up on the sofa and we'll get you, there's a light rail that comes to town and you can take the train in to go to school. If you don't wanna be in this house, I understand.

1:40:19 Sam: I'll be okay. I think you need time.

1:40:25 Rebecca: [wiping a tear] Oh.

1:40:28 Sam: Can we revisit setting things on fire?

1:40:32 Rebecca: There are a few things that I would love to be ash. [laughing and cheering]

1:40:41 Brennan: And you go with Rebecca and collect some stuff and ash, collect some stuff and make a little bonfire of some of Gideon's—

1:40:50 Rekha: Incredible.

1:40:50 Brennan: There's a crystal vinyl record collection of Gideon.

1:40:54 Sephie: Any trophies, any trophies.

1:40:54 Brennan: Any trophies.

1:40:56 Sephie: I'm gonna melt that into a disgusting little brick. And then just,

1:41:00 Sam: Where is he staying?

1:41:05 Rebecca: Oh, Gideon?

1:41:05 Sam: Mm-hmm.

1:41:07 Rebecca: He's staying at the mithral Arms in Fallinel.

1:41:12 Sam: Classy!

1:41:12 Sephie: I'm mailing it to him. [all laughing]

1:41:17 Brennan: Amazing, after Rebecca gives you a kiss on either cheek and she says,

1:41:25 Rebecca: I'm not going for a little while so there'll be time to, we'll have a little dinner and we'll-

1:41:32 Sam: I know you're not gone forever.

1:41:34 Rebecca: I'm always, I'm a crystal call away, sweetie.

1:41:37 Brennan: And you get into your beautiful sea foam green Aqua convertible.

1:41:47 Sephie: With the seashell detail and the scale.

1:41:49 Brennan: With the seashell details and the scales. The car, as soon as you sit in the driver's seat and put your handbag with your crystal in it on the center console the car automatically turns on.

1:42:00 Sebastian: [a little sultry] Ah, Sam Nightingale. The fans are out.

1:42:07 Rekha: Okay! Car!

1:42:11 Izzy: Okay, car.

1:42:15 Brennan: You know what…. [gets out the horny fan for the first time] [all cheering]

1:42:19 Brennan: You see that… [laughs] Sebastian says,

1:42:24 Sebastian: Ms. Nightingale, where to?

1:42:30 Sam: Sebastian, to Zelda's house.

1:42:32 Sebastian: As you wish. [imitates car zooming] And you see the exhaust, like little beautiful bubbles just come out of the exhaust.

1:42:39 Sephie: Yes, my car is fuckable, okay.

1:42:42 Rekha: We know. Sam, we know.

1:42:42 Becca: Yeah, we know.

1:42:42 Aabria: We finna find out.

1:42:44 Rekha: I'd love to find out, Sam. [all laughing]

1:42:49 Bre: Incredible, Sam, we take off and you go to Zelda's house. Zelda, it’s like, moss covered. You see that there's just a centaur wearing a Toga passed out on its side with a wreath of laurel leaves. You see there's clearly a party happened here last night, fully a weeknight.

1:43:10 Sephie: So, perfectly normal.

1:43:11 Brennan: Perfectly normal. It's a wild sort of like, bacchanal here most of the time. [serene music]

1:43:18 Brennan: Big, big, house windows are all shuttered up so that people don't get bright sunlight in their hangovers indoors. And hoodie up but with her horns still crawling around it. Zelda sprints out and goes,

1:43:33 Zelda: Hey Sam, thanks for the ride, so much.

1:43:35 Sam: No problem, Zelda, just get in.

1:43:39 Brennan: Now you see that she opens the door and gets into the other seat and does things, she does every morning, she's like,

1:43:43 Zelda: Shotgun okay or- [all laughing]

1:43:47 Sam: You can always take shotgun.

1:43:49 Zelda: I just didn't know if someone else called it.

1:43:50 Sam: No, no, you have shotgun. You keep that, yeah.

1:43:56 Zelda: Oh wow.

1:43:57 Sam: Do I ever pick up anyone else, forceful like-

1:43:59 Zelda: No, I'm sorry, I just… I always think maybe someone else is getting a ride and it would be so awkward. It would be like super-

1:44:03 Sam: Do you want me to put your na— Sebastian, can I write Zelda's name on the seat now or?

1:44:07 Sebastian: Mistress, of course.

1:44:09 Brennan: And you see, [pretending to write] Zelda's name comes in this beautiful sea foam embroidery on like the cream leather seats.

1:44:16 Sam: See, full blown permission and consent.

1:44:18 Zelda: Oh my God, thank you so much. Is everything okay?

1:44:27 Sam: [pauses] Not really. I don't wanna bog down the morning though. Like it's fine, everything's… [shudders] The Everpetals are divorcing.

1:44:38 Zelda: [hand up to her mouth] Oh my God, I'm so sorry.

1:44:40 Sam: I mean, I can't say I'm, well, I shouldn't be surprised. I guess there was a lot of yelling and fucking of assistants. You know, you sort of like meet people when they're together and you just sort of expect them to stay that way no matter what happens. Do you know what I mean?

1:45:01 Zelda: Yeah, no, I, it's fucked up that grownups change. Like, I mean that, it's fucked up that they change. It's weird when you realize that like, the people who have always looked the same and been the same and you've been getting older and taller and learning more, and then they, and something of theirs breaks, it's like fucked up.

1:45:27 Sam: Tell it to my mother, she never changes. There's a lot of cosmetic surgery that goes into that but-

1:45:34 Zelda: [sighs] Yeah, I can't, I honestly, I can't think about your mom too much or I start… [growling noises]

1:45:39 Sam: You'll go into a rage, yeah. [laughing]

1:45:42 Zelda: I'm sorry, sorry, it's so awkward. [little laugh]

1:45:43 Sam: No, it's fine, it's fine. If I could rage like you, I would in fact do so and-

1:45:48 Zelda: Honestly, I've seen you kind of get scarily close.

1:45:52 Sam: Well, you know, thunder and lightning and waves and all that. They have an effect.

1:45:58 Brennan: She puts a hand on your arm and says,

1:46:00 Zelda: I'm really sorry, Sam. It sucks.

1:46:04 Sam: Yeah, is it fucked up that I'm gonna miss Mr. Everpetal too even though he cheated on her?

1:46:12 Zelda: No, like, yeah.

1:46:13 Sam: And I set a lot of his stuff on fire and melted down all his trophies from college? [laughing]

1:46:19 Zelda: Yeah, even the things that are like in your life that weren't great, even if they were, you still might've relied on them and had them be familiar. I get it.

1:46:34 Brennan: Sebastian with Sam and Zelda in the front seats, cruises off towards the school. And we go over to the Luckstone home. [all cheering]

1:46:44 Brennan: Hooray! So, Becca, what do we see when we see the Luckstone home?

1:46:51 Becca: Wow, you see the Luckstone. It is a giant stone that this sort of thatch lean-to has been built up against and curving into. Very simple, modest home that obviously bits and pieces had to be added onto over the years to allow for all the Luckstone children of which they were lucky enough to have all 20 of us. [laughing]

1:47:17 Rekha: Lucky number 20.

1:47:17 Becca: Yes. Well, I was number one.

1:47:22 Brennan: Amazing, we zoom into the Luckstone home, where it's a busy, happy morning with 20 kids. We see mom and dad, Bonnie and Danny.

1:47:34 Becca: My Bonnie and Danny.

1:47:36 Brennan: Bonnie and Danny are there. And you see that the home is a kind of like maddening mix of order and chaos because there is no way for 20 kids to be running around in the house and not have it be total chaos. But also you couldn't have 20 kids without incredible systems of organization that the parents are putting into place. So there's things like blocks scatter and there's like a trap set, like a rogue trap set up to like immediately like sweep the blocks out of the hall as the next kids run down the hall. [all laughing]

1:48:10 Brennan: You see that Bonnie and Danny are running through. Danny has like three days of scruff. Danny is fully a stay-at-home dad. So Danny is just there looking like mad.

1:48:19 Danny: Okay, get the juice boxes! [noises of exertion]

1:48:22 Brennan: And like throwing them into these sack lunches. And there's a sort of weird again, rogue mechanisms. It's a spinning saw blade that shoots a bunch of pre-made sandwiches into the lunch box, it's like... And your mom's like,

1:48:37 Bonnie: [loudly] T-minus three minutes and we are out the door!

1:48:43 Brennan: You see her look over and go,

1:48:45 Bonnie: Penny, sweetheart, how are you doing, how are you doing, darling? [wipes sweat off her brow]

1:48:48 Penny: Good, good, do you need me to grab anything for anybody?

1:48:52 Bonnie: You're all good, sweetie. We have 30 seconds to do this. We got a letter in the mail from the Society of Shadows. It would be a bigger deal, it's a very big deal, I would celebrate it. But we're on a schedule.

1:49:01 Penny: Wait, Society of Shadows? It was a letter for me?

1:49:03 Bonnie: A letter for you from the Society of Shadows.

1:49:03 Penny: Okay, and you kept it?

1:49:05 Bonnie: Kept it from you. It's an organization of secret rogues. There's the best rogues in the world they have an apprenticeship program.

1:49:08 Penny: What?

1:49:11 Bonnie: You've gotten a full ride, sweetie. You've been killing it, you've been doing great. So you would have to move to some secret clandestine headquarters. Again, this should be dramatic and filled with pauses, I can't do that right now. We're not gonna get to the bus on time.

1:49:24 Penny: Mom, I need to know more stuff about this.

1:49:26 Bonnie: Here you go, bam, there's the letter, okay. That's for you.

1:49:30 Penny: Can we discuss this maybe and you could tell me all about it?

1:49:32 Bonnie: [yelling] Not now!

1:49:32 Penny: Okay.

1:49:33 Bonnie: Okay, I love you.

1:49:34 Penny: I love you too.

1:49:35 Bonnie: You're such a great student. You're the apple of my eye. You're such a high achiever—

1:49:38 Penny: I know.

1:49:38 Bonnie: And I love it about you. That's the time.

1:49:41 Penny: Wait, no, I have a, okay.

1:49:43 Brennan: He shows up at the door. Danny comes over and goes,

1:49:45 Danny: [panicked] Sandwich?

1:49:47 Penny: Yes, please.

1:49:47 Danny: [shoving it at her] There it is!

1:49:48 Penny: Okay! [laughing]

1:49:54 Brennan: As you start going out the door, you see that Bonnie and Danny walk out. So your mom works and runs a very stressful tourist tavern in downtown. And your dad is mostly a stay-at-home dad, but pulls a couple shifts here and there. All your family are Mumple people.

1:50:15 Becca: Yeah, we are Mumple people.

1:50:17 Brennan: You are Mumple people for the most part. So, but you see the bus from Mumple comes up and all your other 19 siblings begin to pile into that bus. Your mom says,

1:50:28 Bonnie: Are you grabbing a ride with a friend today or you need a ride?

1:50:31 Penny: I could crystal somebody and see, yeah.

1:50:33 Bonnie: That would be great. Your dad had to pick up an emergency shift.

1:50:37 Brennan: Your dad looks and says, yeah,

1:50:38 Danny: I gotta go to the mall and stand at the front and talk about things that are happening in town.

1:50:44 Penny: That's a thing you do?

1:50:45 Danny: The city pays some Mumple professors to just be at the mall and say sort of things that are going on in town.

1:50:52 Penny: But the Tavern's going great, you don't even need to do that.

1:50:56 Danny: Well, where… [sighs]

1:50:59 Penny: I thought money was fine, like, do I need to get a job?

1:51:03 Danny: Sweetie, you don't worry about it. Mom and I have everything covered, okay.

1:51:07 Penny: No, I know, I know.

1:51:08 Danny: We are on the ball.

1:51:09 Penny: Yeah, no, you cover everything. It's just, sometimes I think that you might shatter into a million pieces and now with-

1:51:16 Danny: If you work, hey kiddo, if you work hard and you smile and you put in the elbow grease and you give it your all and you sing a little song about it, [forcefully] I'm fine.

1:51:27 Penny: Okay, dad, I believe you and take you at your word.

1:51:29 Danny: All right, see, what do we do, kids?

1:51:31 Brennan: And you see every one of your little siblings, you see them like, all your little siblings exist in a space. You can watch the spectrum of the youngest siblings who live in the perfect happiness of a life where people have worked really hard to give them everything. And as it goes up the spectrum and gets closer and closer to adulthood, you see the kids that have gotten old enough to start modeling [laughs] your mom and dad's behavior. So your dad's like,

1:51:59 Danny: Hey, kids, remember, sing a little song on your way to school. And that way you'll be fine.

1:52:09 Brennan: Your dad gets in a car and takes off, your mom goes,

1:52:11 Bonnie: Alright, sweetie, you have a friend picking you up from crystal, can I walk you to the corner?

1:52:15 Penny: Sure, yeah.

1:52:16 Bonnie: Okay. [big, big sigh]

1:52:16 Penny: Wow. Mom, you're doing great.

1:52:24 Brennan: Gives you a kiss on the cheek, she goes like,

1:52:25 Bonnie: Wow, oh my God, we carved out. This is a full two-minute walk to the corner, carve that out, take that schedule.

1:52:32 Penny: It was really special. And I really appreciated the time. Can we talk about this Society of Shadows thing?

1:52:38 Bonnie: Well, you know, your dad and I are Mumple people. So we sort of had to take everything on face value. But it seems like a very big deal. It's basically a grad school, it's a college. So it's not in Solace, so you'd have to move to attend. But it's basically a full ride apprentice program.

1:53:00 Penny: Well, my whole adventuring party is here though. So how do I, [stuttering] how?

1:53:08 Bonnie: Oh, well, yeah, if you wanted to stay with the Seven, you could absolutely do that-

1:53:16 Penny: You know the name of my adventuring party?

1:53:19 Bonnie: Sweetie, I know everything about you.

1:53:21 Brennan: She rattles off like your birthday, your favorite color, how you take your sandwiches, what you like, what's your thing.

1:53:27 Rekha: "Take my sandwiches".

1:53:28 Aabria: [pushing her hair dramatically out of her face] Crustless!

1:53:29 Brennan: Cream, yeah. Take it with cream. But like, runs down this list that you can see is filled with very genuine, it's two emotions at the same time neither of which compromise the other. It is a full and burning love for you as the unique individual that you are. And also a ferocious need to be on top of it.

1:53:55 Becca: Yeah, yeah. I get that.

1:53:59 Bonnie: So, you know, yeah, The Seven Maidens, if that's what you want then yeah.

1:54:09 Penny: I couldn't choose anything else for them. 'Cause they're the most important thing in the world to me. I mean, I've already sent them like 30 crystal messages just this morning. The other maidens check their crystals with varying unsurprised reactions. Ostentatia takes a selfie.

1:54:15 Bonnie: For sure, you know, one of the things, is it takes, you know, there's a certain amount of money. You know, this is a full ride. So I don't know if you have a patron or a sponsor for your adventuring party yet, but that's something to consider because if you have to sponsor yourselves then that, it all costs something. So that's just something, just being practical. It's just something to think about.

1:54:39 Penny: Yeah, I just feel like a lot of the sponsors out there are dragons and we kind of can't go there.

1:54:45 Bonnie: Dragons have a tremendous amount of wealth, you know, and— Aabria mouths “Fuck Dragons”!

1:54:51 Bonnie: -but sweetie, ultimately you make the decision that's right for you. And again, you don't have to do this. I've never heard about this group before. I think that's the point. They're very proud about how secret they are.

1:54:57 Penny: [quietly] Wow.

1:55:04 Bonnie: But, one of the things I just wanna say is anything you wanna do is good. And I support you in everything that you wanna do. And there, you know, you've always been our oldest and kind of you marched to the beat of your own little drum and you know the drum more than I do and I trust you, okay.

1:55:26 Penny: Wow, that's a lot of pressure, but yeah, I appreciate it.

1:55:29 Penny: If you get it wrong, that's beautiful because it was you getting it wrong. [Rekha laughs]

1:55:35 Penny: So much of a blank check to write that it really is leaving too many possibilities-

1:55:39 Bonnie: You've sailed past the horizon of your dad and my frame of reference long ago. So you're taking our love with you into an area where we can't provide perspective.

1:55:54 Penny: Wow, okay, so I'll just figure it out, yeah.

1:55:58 Bonnie: You'll have to.

1:55:59 Penny: Okay.

1:55:59 Bonnie: I love you.

1:56:00 Penny: I love you too.

1:56:00 Bonnie: I love you. And so… [taps her watch]

1:56:03 Penny: This is really nice.

1:56:05 Bonnie: It's really nice, sweetheart, bye bye.

1:56:08 Brennan: Did you shoot a text to anybody to pick you up on your way to-

1:56:10 Becca: I hit up Sam to hop in the back of Sebastian.

1:56:17 Rekha: Yeah!

1:56:17 Brennan: Love it, I love it.

1:56:18 Becca: You can hear the bubbles coming from around the corner.

1:56:22 Brennan: And as bubbles come around the corner, you hop in the back.

1:56:25 Sam: Hey, Penny. Get in girl, we're going, waving, wait no, surfing? [all laughing]

1:56:31 Sam: Surfing.

1:56:33 Becca: All right, like Penny is so tiny she just hops over into the backseat. And just immediately, you can't even see her. She's way low.

1:56:41 Brennan: You have to like take down the arm rest. And there's like a custom seat, or like a halfling sized seat in the arms.

1:56:49 Rekha: Like in the cup holders- [overlapping chatter and laughter]

1:56:55 Brennan: [Brennan] Amazing.

1:56:56 Becca: So my name is carved in embroidery in the tiny cup holder seat?

1:57:00 Brennan: In the tiny cup holder seat, exactly. Amazing, we move from there— [light music playing]

1:57:07 Brennan: --to Skullcleaver Manor, which is not just a home, it is rather an estate. Rekha, could you please describe Skullcleaver manor for us?

1:57:17 Rekha: It is an enormous mansion just like the kind of thing you could take a picture from a helicopter to get a full view of like a Beyonce Jay-Z mansion situation. And that is the part of the house that is the line of Cleaver's pride and joy. But almost as if we're just panning slightly to the left is a small stable. And this is kept up nicely, but it's not the main attraction of the house, but this is where the action's at for Katja. There are 101 horses in there. [all laughing]

1:57:58 Rekha: If you were like going in Katja's room, so there's wings of this house, right. And it's actually kind of a trip to get to another wing. Her dad works in one area, her room is in another area. They often will eat dinner together through like a zoom conference call kind of sit- It just a lot of effort to get across this house. Katja kind of lives by the hands of a lot of the houses staff. She's chummy with the butler and the farrier and all those people. Her bedroom is like how you would design a two-year-old's bedroom. She's never made any amendments besides the bed because she doesn't care what her room looks like. She doesn't really care about her possessions. Her closet is like her horse shrine. She's got all her horse riding materials in there, her and I mean materials, I mean books. I mean letters to each horse for their birthday, her riding clothes, dozens of helmets, all of this sort of thing. And she is currently at the stable.

1:59:03 Brennan: Amazing, your beautiful, magnificent horse Cinnamon is there. She is, again, this gorgeous Palomino horse. Like many of the horses here, she is magical. She is like a permanencied Find Steed spell basically. And Cinnamon is this like, again, gorgeous, like auburn rust color with the beautiful, like shimmering platinum blonde mane. But a lot of the horses in here, again, the world of Spyre contains so many different kinds of horses. So there are like Elven steeds and Appaloosas and paint horses and other things like that. And then there are horses that are straight out of like a Technicolor Oz like- Like truly, there are some like phantasmagorical Lisa Frank wonders. [all exclaiming]

1:59:52 Becca: You said the magic word! [all laughing]

1:59:57 Rekha: When people ask about Cinnamon... Cinnamon is the most important thing in Katja's life. And it's like, Cinnamon was born purely from a child's imagination. This is like the perfection of Cinnamon, like straight from like Katja's favorite series of books, "The Babysitter's Horse" to reality. It's a book about a horse that’s a babysitter. [all laughing]

2:00:20 Rekha: Into reality, Cinnamon is born.

2:00:25 Brennan: [typing on his laptop] Amazing, just writing down the Babysitter Horse.

2:00:29 Rekha: Yeah, thank you. It's a series of books, it's incredible, it's about a horse that babysits a bunch of girls. She's a total Christy.

2:00:36 Brennan: Amazing, yeah, you're there. The farrier Gertrude. Gertrude is a wonderful lively bugbear woman. You see, she's there with like a gray button up shirt in this big leather apron. As a farrier she fashions and fits horseshoes. She's fittings for these magical horseshoes onto Cinnamon. And you see, she looks up, she's got big rows of these beautiful brass earrings and chains along her ears and smiles and goes like... And has a little nose to ear chain as well.

2:00:54 Aabria: Go off, girl.

2:01:12 Rekha: Okay, woah she's Indian, interesting. [all laughing]

2:01:16 Rekha: Interesting. [writing it in her notes] Indian.

2:01:21 Brennan: And you see that your butler, Lockwood is there as well, who is a hobgoblin butler. But the sort of like the master of the house has not been here for a while. The staff are not very cold to you. They're actually quite, so Gertrude is going like,

2:01:39 Gertrude: [low voice] Well, this is gonna be great, as soon as we get this done here, and look at this here.

2:01:42 Brennan: You see that she sort of clips out and clips the horses hooves and puts the new horseshoes on. And she says,

2:01:49 Gertrude: Ah, beautiful. Look at that, a perfect fit.

2:01:52 Cinnamon: [plummy, posh accent] Thank you very much, Gertrude.

2:01:52 Brennan: From Cinnamon. [laughing]

2:01:58 Brennan: Lockwood sort of crosses his arms and says,

2:02:01 Lockwood: [British, not posh] It's lovely, that is. Um, by the way, for breakfast, I only got an order for Cinnamon's breakfast. I didn't get your order for breakfast.

2:02:09 Katja: Oh, that's okay. We take the same.

2:02:14 Lockwood: Hot oats with berries, very fancy for a horse.

2:02:21 Brennan: You see and just brings these two things and he's like,

2:02:24 Lockwood: You must let me put hot water on the oats for you. Katja reaches her hand out and shakes her head.

2:02:33 Katja: It's okay.

2:02:34 Brennan: Gertrude looks up and says,

2:02:34 Gertrude: Well, so, oh— Katja eats her un-watered oats and chokes a little.

2:02:43 Brennan: Getrude looks up and says,

2:02:43 Gertrude: Oh, what's this?

2:02:44 Brennan: And a little screen appears. There's like literally a mounted TV screen in the stable. Skullcleaver Manor is many generations of half-orcs who descend from one of the earliest and most famous adventurers in like the foundation of Solace's history. So this is like, old money. And a screen comes on and a little- [imitates beeping sound] And a little, [ringing sound] bing bing bing. You see it says, Mr. Cleaver on it, your dad.

2:03:14 Rekha: I hit the thing, got my dry hot oats in my mouth. I don't know how we accomplish both of those flavors or textures.

2:03:21 Katja: Hi, dad.

2:03:23 Brennan: You see, there's the thing.

2:03:24 Karl: [holding his crystal away from his face] Is it working, is it working? Hey, s—

2:03:25 Katja: Yeah, dad, it's working. It works every day.

2:03:29 Karl: I'm in a dungeon, look at this.

2:03:31 Brennan: And you see he looks up and you see there's just like pounding stone traps and there's like a writhing pit of snakes. And you see your dad is like a career professional adventurer. He's like almost certainly 20th level. He's like,

2:03:46 Karl: Gotta go in here. Some kind of demon lord, can you believe it?

2:03:49 Katja: Oh, my God, dad, when are you gonna stop doing this? You don't need to be doing this anymore.

2:03:56 Karl: Listen, as long as the world needs somebody to run in here and cleave skulls, your old man's gonna be cleaving them, kiddo, that's the truth.

2:04:04 Katja: Can you at least take direct flights when you go, I feel like you're trying to save money everywhere you go.

2:04:09 Karl: Oh, direct flights, like I'm made of money?

2:04:12 Katja: Okay, you are made-

2:04:14 Brennan: And a topiary, endless topiary.

2:04:16 Katja: Yeah, you are made of money, dad. You gotta use the money, right? You gotta enjoy it.

2:04:21 Karl: That money that can become magic items that can become material components. You know how many times I've died and they have to bust a gem to, to get my dead ass back alive?

2:04:32 Katja: [resigned] I know how many times you've died, yeah.

2:04:34 Karl: I died a lot of times, kiddo, okay. How are you doing? Is that Nutmeg, Hi, Nutmeg!

2:04:40 Katja: No, Nutmeg is over there. This is Cinnamon.

2:04:42 Karl: Cinnamon, beautiful, beautiful. Can you believe this demon lord, 888th layer of the Abyss. That’s deep. We're going deep this time.

2:04:52 Katja: Wow, you can still go that deep?

2:04:55 Karl: Deepest we've ever gone, every day is a new challenge it's my favorite part of adventuring. [flexing] Looks like your old man’s still got it, still got it.

2:05:02 Katja: Okay, dad, you don't need to do that. The horny fans are out.

2:05:06 Sephie: Definitely. [laughing]

2:05:09 Katja: All my friends keep talking about that.

2:05:14 Brennan: Yeah, you see that your dad is in this incredible, your dad is armored up, he's got like polearm battleax, sword over here, a bandolier of daggers, a flintlock gun on his other hip. All of it is magic. You know that every piece of his armour, every piece of equipment has a story. He's got like magical henna tattoos that he can activate to do like battle master maneuvers and shit. Rekha does an excited little dance about magical henna. Aabria looks impressed.

2:05:41 Brennan: Literally some of his tattoos can like spring out as counter spells. He's adventured for so long, but he's like,

2:05:47 Karl: I got my ass beat by magic enough times. [wheezed, waving his finger] But not again.

2:05:53 Brennan: So he looks and says,

2:05:53 Karl: Ah, kiddo, so proud of you, so proud of you. And I wanted to say, I know it's many months. I know the year's just starting but I might still be in the Abyss by then. And I'm not sure about service 'cause it's an extraplanar place. So I don't know how the time works. Some of these, Gelgador, my party wizard, you know Gelgador.

2:06:14 Katja: I know Gelgador.

2:06:16 Karl: Uncle Gelgador, yeah.

2:06:17 Katja: Always just squishing my cheeks in a way that's stupid.

2:06:20 Karl: He loves you, he loves you.

2:06:20 Katja: I know.

2:06:22 Karl: So he was telling me that time might work in a different way. So I don't know, I might have to miss your graduation. But I'm just sending so much love to you, kiddo. I'm so proud of you.

2:06:31 Katja: Okay.

2:06:31 Karl: I'm so proud of you.

2:06:33 Katja: [audibly dejected] Thank you, dad.

2:06:33 Rekha: And Katja is really sad but one of the greatest courtesies she feels she can do for her father is not show that she is sad. Because her dad has done everything for her. And that would be his biggest nightmare is if Katja is sad.

2:06:48 Brennan: You see that, go ahead and make a deception roll for me if you'd be so kind.

2:06:55 Rekha: 11.

2:06:57 Brennan: Your dad-

2:06:57 Rekha: Oh, no.

2:06:59 Brennan: Your dad rolled a 10.

2:07:02 Rekha: I rolled a 10 but with plus one.

2:07:04 Brennan: He has a minus one. [Rekha gasps]

2:07:06 Brennan: So your dad has a minus one to his insight check. And so he looks at you and says,

2:07:12 Karl: Oh great kiddo, I'm glad, I was worried you might be upset. I just know 'cause you know, [sighs] I miss you like crazy.

2:07:21 Katja: I miss you too.

2:07:22 Karl: You know, obviously… [soft, somber music playing]

2:07:23 Karl: If Mom was in the picture, someone would have been there just to get you to graduation and get y'all done up. But I sent a message to Lockwood. So, oh, I didn't sorry, I didn't send it. Lockwood, are you there?

2:07:38 Brennan: You see Lockwood… Make an insight check.

2:07:43 Rekha: Nine plus two, 11.

2:07:46 Brennan: Yeah, I don’t think Lockwood was trying to hide it, you see Lockwood looks disappointed. You see that he says,

2:07:52 Karl: Lockwood, buddy, if you just want to make sure that graduation, whatever Katja wants, you know, whatever the school's asking, go get the best version. Go talk to someone, get the best version of it, okay?

2:08:03 Brennan: And you see Lockwood says,

2:08:05 Lockwood: Right you are, Master Cleaver.

2:08:07 Brennan: And he says,

2:08:07 Karl: Thanks, bud. Great, good job. You know you're all like family to me right? Nutmeg too. [laughs]

2:08:18 Rekha: Nutmeg's laughing. I lie, nobody is laughing.

2:08:22 Brennan: He goes, he says,

2:08:22 Karl: Hey, been all over the multiverse, been everywhere, I've been everywhere. You are the greatest adventure I've ever been on, all right.

2:08:34 Katja: Thank you, dad.

2:08:35 Karl: I love you like crazy, kid.

2:08:35 Katja: Love you too.

2:08:37 Karl: All right, be well, hey, be well and knock them dead, huh, huh? Hey, what do Cleavers do?

2:08:44 Katja: Knock 'em dead.

2:08:44 Karl: Knock 'em dead. [laughing]

2:08:46 Karl: All right, kiddo, take care.

2:08:46 Katja: Bye.

2:08:52 Brennan: What does Katja do?

2:08:53 Rekha: I think she is very aware that Lockwood's eyes are probably on her from knowing that that was like a bummer.

2:09:00 Brennan: Yeah.

2:09:01 Rekha: And she tries to, you know, she's been brushing Cinnamon's hair for probably fuckin three hours. And she just says to Lockwood,

2:09:15 Katja: You don't have to get me anything.

2:09:20 Lockwood: Well, [sighs] if there is anything you wish for, you know that myself and Gertie and everyone will do whatever is in our power to get it for you, right?

2:09:33 Katja: Yeah, I mean, there's one thing I wish for, but he's working. Various “awws” and pained reactions from the other cast.

2:09:45 Brennan: You hear a crunch and see that Gertie has straight up punched through the stable fencing. Goes,

2:09:50 Gertrude: Oh, my hand is bleeding. I'm gonna go.

2:09:56 Brennan: You see, she gets up. Cinnamon looks again at like the little locket around your neck.

2:10:07 Rekha: Yes, which is a half heart for like a best friend necklace that's not complete.

2:10:13 Brennan: And Cinnamon looks and says,

2:10:20 Cinnamon: Katja, why don't we go on a fun ride? Why don't we go the scenic way to school today? I'll take you to school today.

2:10:30 Katja: I would love that. Oh my God, I mean, every day you have it's just better than the ne— the previous one, Cinnamon. You are just so good at everything.

2:10:38 Cinnamon: I love you. And there is no greater love than that a horse can have for her horse girl.

2:10:46 Katja: I found one. The one a horse girl has for a horse. Katja makes little petting motions at Cinnamon. [all laughing]

2:10:51 Brennan: And you see she says,

2:10:51 Cinnamon: I can't do it, I don't have hands, I don't have hands. I can't do it. If I had them I'd be doing it.

2:10:59 Rekha: [giving them to Cinnamon] Dry, hot ass oats.

2:11:02 Aabria: I wanna send a breakfast check to Katja. There's a picture of me frowning with a sad blender bottle.

2:11:09 Katja: [taking a picture] Dry hot oats.

2:11:12 Antiope: We suck. [laughing]

2:11:16 Brennan: Incredible, we are gonna move from Katja to the incredible Ostentatia Wallace. A home that we have actually seen crafted by the incredible Rick Perry, shout out to Rick Perry. But how is Ostentatia's home appointed right now and where is Ostentatia in the home as she awakens?

2:11:40 Izzy: Ostentatia wakes up in her cavernous bedroom that has a lot of purple all over it. And she's got one of those like canopy beds.

2:11:58 Brennan: Does Ostentatia pray for her spells in the morning or at night before she goes to sleep?

2:12:03 Izzy: At night.

2:12:04 Brennan: Cool, so you’ve prayed for your spells, you feel the magical power as you awaken, after you've prayed for your spells to Logran Soulforger. Minor thing about the god of the forge in sort of this Dwarven tradition is a lot of clerics are able to speak to their deity. And the dwarves get spells from the god of the forge. But he, in that faith has not communicated to, or spoken to a cleric in like many, many centuries. So you just feel the presence of the magic there and awaken and you can hear sounds in the kitchen downstairs of music playing, something is being cooked. And you can hear your mom talking to your grandma downstairs.

2:12:54 Izzy: Yeah, I like put on— [upbeat lively music playing]

2:12:58 Izzy: --like headphones or whatever normal people use. Not like over the ears, but like in the ears, right?

2:13:09 Brennan: Yeah.

2:13:09 Izzy: Okay. [laughing] And I'm listening to early 2000s top forties. [laughing] And go downstairs and like start my day.

2:13:26 Brennan: You head downstairs. Do you walk into the kitchen to get something to eat or drink first thing in the morning?

2:13:29 Izzy: Mm-hm.

2:13:32 Brennan: You head in the kitchen, as you're listening to music, how loud is the music? Would you be able to hear your mom or grandma saying something to you?

2:13:38 Izzy: No. [all laughing]

2:13:40 Izzy: And I walk up and kiss my Nonna on the cheek and like, like hip bump my mom and like get orange juice from the fridge.

2:13:49 Brennan: She looks at you and she sees your buds in and you see that she hip bumps you back and starts talking something and you just see her, you can't hear her 'cause she does the cute little hip bump and just goes, Ostentatia’s mom mouths something. She’s a very animated talker. She points to Ostentatia’s headphones. They have an extremely animated silent conversation. [laughing]

2:14:08 Ostentatia: I can't hear you.

2:14:10 Brennan: She reaches and pulls them out and says,

2:14:11 Lucia: [very Jersey] I know you can't hear me, coming to the kitchen like you've got nothing to say to anybody! Your Nonna's over-

2:14:16 Ostentatia: I already said hi.

2:14:18 Lucia: Oh, hi miss, hi young miss.

2:14:20 Ostentatia: What did I do?

2:14:22 Lucia: Why'd you come in here, why can't you say hello like your grandmother's come over.

2:14:27 Ostentatia: Grandma's here every day!

2:14:29 Lucia: Yes, and you should be so lucky that your grandma comes over everyday.

2:14:33 Ostentatia: [very high-pitched] Oh my God, what did I do?

2:14:35 Lucia: You didn't do, I love you. And I don't want to fight first thing in the morning.

2:14:38 Ostentatia: I love you, ma.

2:14:40 Brennan: You see that your Nonna comes over and says,

2:14:41 Nonna: [Italian accent] Beautiful, beautiful, mwah! mwah!

2:14:44 Ostentatia: You are beautiful, you're so fuckin hot, grandma. Rekha takes out the horny fan and the others follow suit.

2:14:47 Brennan: You see that she says, your mom, by the way, is a beautiful, she's decked out like you as well. She's like incredibly orange, tan, like spray tan, bushy, bushy brown beard. Your grandma has this long braided silver beard with all these old school heirloom brooches and rings in and you see-

2:15:12 Izzy: Can't wait to get those when she dies. [all laughing]

2:15:18 Brennan: And you see that your grandma doesn't think, she very cutely, like grabs your face to kiss it. But then you say she rubs her thumb on your chin. And she goes,

2:15:27 Nonna: Why you shave? You patchy, still patchy?

2:15:30 Ostentatia: It just doesn't grow for me.

2:15:33 Nonna: We do, I go with...

2:15:36 Brennan: She says,

2:15:36 Nonna: Get mushroom from deep under the ground.

2:15:39 Brennan: And you see your mom says-

2:15:39 Ostentatia: I know!

2:15:40 Lucia: Your Nonna is gonna make a mushroom salve if your beard is not coming out, is it not coming in full?

2:15:44 Ostentatia: [whispering] It is coming in but I don't want it to show.

2:15:48 Lucia: [quietly] Don't tell grandma you shave on purpose. I don't mind that you shave on purpose. I know dwarves your age shave their face. Just don't tell your grandma you shave on purpose.

2:15:57 Ostentatia: [as if it’s obvious] I'm not gonna tell grandma.

2:15:58 Lucia: Don't take an attitude with me.

2:16:00 Ostentatia: I don't have an attitude.

2:16:01 Lucia: Don't take an attitude with me.

2:16:02 Ostentatia: I love you.

2:16:03 Lucia: [a little aggressively] I love you. [louder] Oh, your cousin Chenzo called, he's having problems at the garage. Can you do a miracle?

2:16:10 Ostentatia: Yeah.

2:16:11 Lucia: Talk to forge god and get a miracle.

2:16:15 Ostentatia: Okay, yeah, I mean, I can also just like fix it.

2:16:18 Lucia: No, he's not getting enough cars in, he doesn't want you to fix the cars. If you can do a miracle, some more cars are breaking down in the neighborhood.

2:16:27 Ostentatia: Okay, I could try to do something like that, but it doesn't just sort of happen.

2:16:32 Lucia: [loudly] Chenzo does a lot for this family and he doesn't ask for a lot—

2:16:35 Ostentatia: Why are you freaking yelling at me now?

2:16:36 Lucia: [yelling] I'm not yelling at you! [laughing]

2:16:40 Ostentatia: I love you.

2:16:40 Lucia: I love you.

2:16:44 Ostentatia: Yeah, I'll call him but like I got school.

2:16:46 Lucia: I'm not asking for you to move heaven and earth. I'm asking you-

2:16:50 Ostentatia: [yelling] You just asked me to perform a freaking miracle!

2:16:52 Lucia: [also yelling] Don't you raise your voice at me!

2:16:54 Ostentatia: [full screaming] You are asking too mu— [normal voice] I'm sorry, Nonna.

2:16:58 Brennan: You see that Nonna takes a little Sprig of like a floral deep subterranean mushroom and just like spritzes some water on you and your mom.

2:17:05 Ostentatia: Stop, stop, I put toner on today already.

2:17:10 Nonna: When you fight in the kitchen, it poison whatever is cooking.

2:17:14 Ostentatia: We're not fighting, we're talking.

2:17:18 Nonna: [beat] I love you.

2:17:18 Ostentatia: I love you.

2:17:19 Brennan: And you see your mom says,

2:17:19 Lucia: I love you, I love you, we all love each other.

2:17:21 Ostentatia: I love you.

2:17:24 Brennan: Give me a perception check if you'd be so kind.

2:17:32 Izzy: 18. [quick, slightly tense music playing]

2:17:34 Brennan: You see that your dad's tools, his mithral working tools which just hang on this leather backed chair in a little room adjoining the kitchen and just kind of been there since the mithral factory Shut down are gone. The metal tools are gone.

2:17:51 Ostentatia: Where's Dad?

2:17:53 Lucia: Oh, your father ran out, there was a union meeting they were sort of calling so he's at the union hall.

2:18:00 Ostentatia: For what?

2:18:02 Brennan: Give me an insight check.

2:18:06 Izzy: 23.

2:18:10 Lucia: It's nothing,

2:18:11 Brennan: Your mom is keeping a secret.

2:18:14 Ostentatia: What is it?

2:18:16 Lucia: Nothing.

2:18:17 Ostentatia: That's not true.

2:18:19 Lucia: Calling me a liar?

2:18:20 Ostentatia: Yeah, I'm calling you a liar because you're lying to me.

2:18:22 Lucia: [a bit louder] Well, maybe I wouldn't lie if you didn't call me a liar!

2:18:25 Ostentatia: What's happening?

2:18:25 Lucia: What, I don't know.

2:18:28 Ostentatia: Yes, you do.

2:18:29 Lucia: Look, your father's at the union hall. It looks like for the time being that talks with management have... terminated.

2:18:46 Ostentatia: Talks with management have terminated, put it vaguer, please.

2:18:55 Lucia: They were trying to get management to come back to reopen the mithral factory. And it looks like at the moment, there's not gonna be any more negotiating and not in the way where they reached an agreement. In the way where people are kind of walking away from the table.

2:19:15 Ostentatia: All right.

2:19:17 Lucia: Are you happy?

2:19:20 Ostentatia: [insincerely] No.

2:19:21 Lucia: Well, me neither. So that makes two of us.

2:19:25 Brennan: And you see that Nonna looks and just goes,

2:19:27 Nonna: I am happy. [all laughing]

2:19:35 Brennan: You see that your mom looks and says,

2:19:35 Lucia: So you know your father, yeah, your father got the news a little bit beforehand. And so he is at the union hall right now. But looks like they were closed for a little while. And that the mithral factory is probably not gonna reopen which is fine. It just means that we're gonna have to look through for something, we're just gonna need it, we're just gonna need a little bit of grace, that's all. If you could, I wouldn't hate it.

2:20:22 Brennan: You see she winks back at you. And as you get ready for school, I think that you, as part of that 23 insight check that doesn't explain why the mithral tools are gone. And you're not quite sure what that's about.

2:20:40 Izzy: Yeah, could I like go to the factory before I go to school?

2:20:46 Brennan: For sure, yeah, you can head to the factory before you go to school. On your way there, you see your dad out in the neighborhood walking to his car as you're on the way to the mithral factory to go look for it. And you see him, so yeah, you see him walking back to his car. And also he's got a little bag of something in his-

2:21:12 Izzy: Can I be in his car when he gets in? [all laughing]

2:21:17 Brennan: Yeah, your dad, Carmine, gets into the driver's seat, gets in and goes,

2:21:24 Carmine: Holy shit, oh, Jesus!

2:21:28 Ostentatia: Hi, daddy.

2:21:28 Carmine: [less Jersey but it’s there] What are you doing? What do you, sweetheart, my princess, my angel. You know when you get into a car and there's someone in there and you didn't know they were gonna be in there that usually means you're about to die, right?

2:21:39 Ostentatia: Yeah, that's aside the point. So what's going on? [tense music playing]

2:21:45 Carmine: What you mean, what's going on?

2:21:47 Ostentatia: I mean, what's going on?

2:21:52 Carmine: Oh, you, did your mom spill the beans?

2:21:55 Ostentatia: Yeah, but she didn't even have to.

2:21:58 Carmine: Listen. Luch, she worries, your mom worries, we know it, okay?

2:22:01 Ostentatia: What do you have?

2:22:06 Carmine: My angel, my princess, daughter.

2:22:09 Brennan: And he says,

2:22:09 Carmine: This is for you.

2:22:11 Brennan: And he hands you a bag. He says,

2:22:13 Carmine: I know that your next year at school is starting up and you're out of gemstones for Revivify. And I know that you would hate for any of your friends to be permanently dead, wouldn't we all? So you know, that's for you and that's on your old man.

2:22:31 Ostentatia: Where'd you get this?

2:22:34 Carmine: What do you mean where'd I get it?

2:22:35 Ostentatia: I mean, where'd you get it?

2:22:38 Carmine: Young lady, that's none of your business.

2:22:39 Brennan: Make a perception check for me.

2:22:43 Izzy: Natural 20. [all cheering]

2:22:48 Aabria: Let's go!

2:22:52 Becca: Shit, let’s go! The fans come out. They are probably celebration fans this time. Brennan reluctantly gets his fan out too.

2:22:55 Rekha: Uh, oh, daddy, you gotta tell.

2:22:57 Izzy: Ooh, daddy, you gotta tell.

2:23:02 Brennan: As you are looking at you father trying to read him, your eyes move past him to what's on this random block in Elmville, which is a pawn shop.

2:23:11 Becca: [softly] Oh no!

2:23:20 Brennan: And you look into the glass case there and you see a number of mithral working tools.

2:23:30 Ostentatia: [very quietly] What did you do?

2:23:31 Carmine: What do you mean what did I do, I did nothing, I got them from a friend. They're a friend’s.

2:23:36 Ostentatia: Did you give away your tools?

2:23:42 Carmine: What does it matter to you? What does it matter to you what I do to take care of my family, I'm your father, you're a kid. Why do you got a problem with me taking care of you?

2:23:54 Ostentatia: I don't.

2:23:55 Carmine: [loudly] Okay then, so when I hand you five diamonds in a bag, how about a thank you?

2:24:03 Ostentatia: I'll give you a thank you. [gasps]

2:24:05 Izzy: Could I cast Animate Objects on the tools and make them [giggling] come into the car from the pawn shop?

2:24:12 Brennan: You cast Animate Objects, you see this ancient, small it's for mithral working, it's for the finest, armor making and mithral working. This hammer glows red for a moment, burning hot mithral eyes opening the face of the hammer and it pops up and you see, literally like legs made of the wooden handle and arms made of the wooden handle. And it goes,

2:24:39 Mithral Hammer: Thanks, kid. We're getting the fuck outta here!

2:24:43 Brennan: And smashes the glass. And you see,

2:24:46 Mithral: It's a jail break, go! Fellas, go, go!

2:24:49 Ostentatia: Open up the window and drive!

2:24:51 Brennan: And you see that the tools get out and you see that one of the other tools, there's a sort of like a pair of tongs that smashes another case grabs a gun out of the pawn shop and just says,

2:25:07 Mithral Tongs: I've got you covered. [Brennan imitates gunshots]

2:25:10 Ostentatia: [screaming] Wow, wow, stop doing that!

2:25:12 Erika: Oh, my God! [all laughing]

2:25:13 Mithral Tongs: We know what you want, boss, we got you.

2:25:17 Brennan: And you see that a bunch of these tools, one of them takes out a like quick crow bar. One of them that is a crowbar is grabbed by another crowbar and crowbars the trunk of the car open. And they all leap into the back.

2:25:29 Ostentatia: I've opened the window for you.

2:25:32 Mithral Tools: What's that, nah, we are good, [bangs table] drive!

2:25:36 Brennan: And your dad tears off and you see, he goes, as he's driving, he's like,

2:25:42 Carmine: I don't wanna be a fuckin criminal, Ostentatia.

2:25:45 Ostentatia: You are!

2:25:46 Carmine: Now.

2:25:48 Ostentatia: Yeah, well, [stutters] everybody knows what you do, what you've been doing trying to keep the factory open, okay? So we're gonna keep that fuckin’ factory open.

2:25:58 Brennan: Your dad pulls over, gets out of the car and says,

2:26:06 Carmine: You want to steal the tools, you want to grab them, that's your business. I'm not gonna be parented by my kid. I can take care of you, okay? [tearing up] I can take care of you.

2:26:21 Brennan: And he walks away, leaving you in the car.

2:26:29 Ostentatia: Okay, tools, let's go to the factory. [all laughing] Rekha does a little dance.

2:26:33 Brennan: Tools head out to the factory. We move to a beautiful forest glade, a massive Holly tree stretches over the glade. This is a beautiful home [light music playing] that is mostly outdoors rather than indoors. There is a beautiful little multi-bed eco yurt, geodesic eco yurt, but there's chickens out here and outdoor work benches and beautiful garden. It's one of those things where it's just like 90% of the living that people do here happens outside. Erika, please describe the yurt to us and everything going on inside.

2:27:22 Erika: So Danielle rolls out of bed, just like slips on the Birkenstocks and just walks out as is. The yurt and the sort of geodesic yurt has been built to fully integrate with the ecosystem of the surrounding area. The holly tree is enormous. It has spread its shade and its branches over a number of like tiny little huts similarly integrated into the ecosystem. Danielle pops out and this place is fully off the grid, on her way out she splashes water on her face. She goes and she picks up the kombucha from the jug in the corner, takes a swig. She goes on outside and-

2:28:28 Brennan: You walk out. With orbiting asteroid belts of stones and pebbles moving around her as she levitates in space, your Elven mom, Alyria, floats, sees you come out, exits her sorceress meditation and goes,

2:28:48 Alyria: [very gentle, sweet voice] Uh oh, is the sun rising twice on the same day? The whole cast “aww”s.

2:28:52 Rekha: Oh, my God.

2:28:54 Alyria: Is there a beautiful sunrise in the middle of the day, my darling daughter?

2:29:00 Danielle: Dawn's greetings, Alyria.

2:29:03 Alyria: Dawn's greetings, my sweet daughter. Oh, I can feel the earth celebrating you through the ground.

2:29:12 Danielle: Man, yeah, they're having a rager.

2:29:15 Alyria: Yeah, oh, wow, a rager. Oh, oh, someone's got school and friends on the brain. I remember those parties, those wild times when I was young. And that's a part of the earth's spirit too, the wild part, yes! Yes!

2:29:31 Danielle: Yeah, you are a legend, ma.

2:29:36 Brennan: Your human mom, WiNonna, comes out. WiNonna is wearing like jeans, flannel, boots. She is very proudly wearing, like, age. She's like probably in her late fifties, she's got like gray, messy bun. She's got two hooks and a hay bale that she's moving out somewhere and she goes,

2:30:03 Winona: [a little Southern] Oh, there's my little cactus flower.

2:30:06 Danielle: Winona, hey. [makes finger guns]

2:30:09 Winona: Oh, hey. Aabria decisively snaps out her fan and the others follow suit. [Brennan laughing]

2:30:11 Aabria: Gorgeous.

2:30:13 Winona: Oh, there she is, sweetheart.

2:30:16 Brennan: So your fey sorcerer Elven mom and then your human ranger mom, you see she comes over and gives you a hug and it's a long hug. And it's a good two and a half minute.

2:30:31 Becca: Just like Erika's.

2:30:31 Winona: Wow, wow, wow, wow. There you go, there you go. Danielle lets out a long, relaxed sigh.

2:30:36 Winona: Beautiful, yeah.

2:30:36 Danielle: That's nice, yeah.

2:30:39 Winona: It's good, the body wants affection. It wants touch. Oh, I love you, I love you so much.

2:30:49 Brennan: And you're just in that hug as a little postal truck trundles up with some mail way out here at the end of the range. And you see a little halfling postal worker, Bud Cubby emerge. Your little postal worker, he goes.

2:31:05 Bud: Oh, hey, there, yeah, it's all our friends, it's the Hempstock-Barksdale-Barkstock family!

2:31:13 Danielle: Hi, Mr. Cubby.

2:31:13 Bud: Oh, hey. Kiddo, I gotta thank you so much. The other week when we got that intel about that pipeline, that crystal extraction pipeline and we had to go burn it down, you were just clutch there, kiddo, I've never seen so many bugs in my life. You really destroyed a lot of corporate infrastructure and I love to see it.

2:31:36 Danielle: Oh, Bud, nah, it was nothing, you know, all of the incredible pyrotechnics that have just completely destroyed the foundations down to the rubble of that whole warehouse, man, that was all you.

2:31:57 Bud: Aw, shucks kiddo. You sure know how to make fella feel like a million bucks, that's great. Well, you know, it's wonderful to see you. I hope the new school year treats you well. And you gotta fight the power and take it down from the inside.

2:32:10 Danielle: Absolutely, down with the man.

2:32:13 Bud: Oh, for sure, all right, you gals, you have a great time out here.

2:32:17 Danielle: Good luck destabilizing the system, Bud.

2:32:20 Bud: Ah, you too, Yelle, be well, kiddo.

2:32:23 Brennan: And drives off your, your moms look over and go,

2:32:27 Alyria: Wow, that's really wonderful. Look at the positivity that you bring out in people.

2:32:35 Danielle: You know, I just kind of bring out what's there to begin with, you can't germinate a seed from nothing.

2:32:43 Brennan: From almost nowhere your moms take two sips from the most enormous ceramic mugs of matcha you've ever seen. [laughing]

2:32:55 Erika: As she's talking about that, she's gathering things like mushrooms everywhere. And like, you know, free-range herbs just all around. Like,

2:33:05 Danielle: Thank you, thank you. And just, I wanna do something to keep, you know, our whole, not-a-cult sustainable, right. And that means sometimes taking drastic action, because as wonderful as it is to be completely off the grid, completely independent of any sort of capitalist structure. All my friends, all my colleagues, they are shackled by the oppressive systems that had been built up over generations. And we gotta free them from that, you know. [mixes something up in a bowl]

2:33:51 Brennan: Your moms looking at you, give me an insight check. [papers rustling]

2:34:00 Erika: 18.

2:34:01 Brennan: Your moms look at you, agreeing with everything you're saying, but you feel a hint of concern from them in some way and you see them just share a look.

2:34:13 Danielle: What's on your minds, moms?

2:34:16 Brennan: You see that Alyria says,

2:34:20 Alyria: My beautiful star shine, I love your conviction. And I love… [thinks] your conviction. [laughing]

2:34:33 Brennan: And you see that Winona says,

2:34:35 Winona: Ah, I love your conviction too sweetheart, just make sure you… Hey, why don't you check on your pals?

2:34:44 Danielle: Oh man, wow, Penny sent like 30 messages. Wow! [all laughing] [repeated message chiming]

2:34:51 Penny: Hi, good morning, you're amazing, I love you, can I get a ride, okay.

2:34:58 Brennan: Yelle, as you're checking your messages, you actually see a little email thing from Aguefort. and actually all of you get an alert of an email from Aguefort with a newsletter that comes the sort of like a little like, hey, the new year's starting up at beginning of the year whatever thing. And the other thing you get in it is an email saying that you all actually are going to allowed to skip your first period to come meet with principal Aguefort who wants to have special meeting with your adventuring party in particular. You see in the little newsletter, Danielle, there's a group photo of the junior year druid class all together doing like a group druidic project to like awaken this Grove. You're not in it. And you see them all smiling and looking at the camera. It's clearly all the kids that you're in Druid class with. And you're not there.

2:36:10 Erika: Well, I'm just gonna shoot off a little message to one of my classmates. Say like,

2:36:18 Danielle: Oh, hey, awoken the Ash Grove, huh? Sweet, what- Oh, I must've missed that, yeah.

2:36:36 Brennan: The message shoots off and hangs there unanswered for as long as you care to look at it.

2:36:44 Sephie: Ouch.

2:36:46 Aabria: Read receipt?

2:36:47 Rekha: Oh, fuck.

2:36:50 Danielle: [very softly] I'm going to kill them all.

2:36:53 Brennan: And Danielle, you go to school. Give me an insight check real quick.

2:37:03 Erika: Dirty 20.

2:37:06 Brennan: You look back at your text history with this person. This is like the first message you sent to them in like maybe like six or eight months.

2:37:17 Erika: [Yelle voice] I'm busy, you know, we all live busy lives.

2:37:21 Brennan: Exactly, we all live busy lives. You all arrive at school. All of you gather and see each other in principal Aguefort's office at beginning of the school day.

2:37:33 Ostentatia: [very loudly and for a long time] Hi!

2:37:33 Penny: Oh, hi!

2:37:37 Ostentatia: [lips smacking] Mwah, mwah, mwah mwah.

2:37:39 Becca: I hug each of you, but it's just your waist down that you feel it.

2:37:44 Sephie: Just cause it's from the waist down doesn't mean it isn't just as beautiful as one of our hugs.

2:37:48 Brennan: In a poof of smoke, Principal Arthur Aguefort appears!

2:37:54 Aguefort: The Seven, chosen champions, I have fantastic news. Your adventuring party is being broken up at the end of the year!

2:38:04 Penny: No.

2:38:06 Sam: Nuh-uh.

2:38:07 Aabria: I cast Hunter’s Mark.

2:38:08 Brennan: And that's all for this episode of "Dimension 20: The Seven".

2:38:11 All: Oh, no!

2:38:11 Becca: No.

2:38:14 Brennan: Tune in next time. [all clapping] [NEXT EPISODE - Episode 2: In or Out] [NEXT TIME ON DIMENSION 20]

2:38:19 Aguefort: Your adventuring party is being disbanded at the end of the year.

2:38:23 Penny: I just categorically have to say no to all of that.

2:38:26 Danielle: It's a broken system. And who are you to deny us these bonds forged in fire?

2:38:33 Ostentatia: Forged.

2:38:33 Sam: We also didn't finish—

2:38:33 Penny: [offscreen] You think—

2:38:35 Aguefort: Surely the dissolution of the structure of your group of beloved friends, shattered against the rocks of the material world with the endless [eye twitches] ticking of time, time, time, by grain of sand. Doesn't mean you can't stay in touch.

2:38:53 Ostentatia: What do you expect us to do next year?

2:38:55 Aguefort: Graduate in your year, Miss Wallace.

2:38:58 Rekha: Can I roll intimidation?

2:38:59 Sam: Listen here, you're not leaving until I say so! _____________________________________________________________

2:38:59 Captions extracted by: Kyber Bonsai

2:38:59 Edited by: sola, rowan solsys, Tillie the Paladin, gluegunshots, kindlestuck