In or Out

0:00:03 Brennan: [voiceover] In the world of Spyre did 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]

0:00:39 Brennan: Hello one and all. Welcome back to another thrilling episode of Dimension 20 presents "The Seven." I'm your humble dungeon master Brennan Lee Mulligan. With me as always are our Heroic High Schoolers. Say hi, Heroic High Schoolers.

0:00:49 All: Hi, Heroic High Schoolers.

0:00:52 Brennan: Last we left off, the Seven were in the principal's office of the Aguefort Adventuring Academy speaking to none other than Arthur Aguefort himself who just delivered the news that their adventuring party was going to be broken up at the end of the year. What could that mean? The preceding episode we saw the various home lives and families of the various seven maidens, and we saw also a flashback to an earlier adventure in the Cavern of Kalvaxus deep in the Mountains of Chaos. We arrive now, and we're gonna do one of those 1980's style, you know where like the episode where you come back from commercial break and you kind of see the last five seconds of the preceding, you know what I'm talking about?

0:01:33 Rekha: 100%, Brennan.

0:01:33 Sephie: Yeah, yeah. Really, can you do a slow-motion attempt to kill Arthur Aguefort, got it.

0:01:39 Izzy: [exaggerated] What do you mean we're getting disbanded as an adventuring group?

0:01:45 Brennan: Indeed, here in the principal's office of the Aguefort Adventuring Academy you see Arthur Aguefort. A long, white wizard's beard, purple suit, holding his walking stick. An elderly Black man with a twinkle in his eye and a look of ultimate mischief and wonder at a world where anything is possible. Standing with shelves, all sorts of artifacts. There's the Crown of the Nightmare King and there's a wastepaper basket maybe with a prophecy in it and all the sorts of things that Arthur Aguefort has been known to do and he looks at you all and says,

0:02:13 Aguefort: Well, that's quite right. Your adventuring party is being disbanded at the end of the year.

0:02:16 Sam: No.

0:02:20 Aabria: I use Hunter's Mark.

0:02:21 Penny: [nervously] Hi!

0:02:22 Aguefort: Ah, very cheeky, Miss Jones. Yes, indeed.

0:02:26 Penny: Professor Aguefort, hi. I'm Penny Luckstone. I've only met with you a couple of times because I'm a really good student.

0:02:35 Aguefort: You've met with me vastly more times than you think you have. What is a small amount of times to you is far more than the average student. You request a lot of meetings with a lot of faculty members to get clarification.

0:02:49 Penny: Yes, that's right. I just wanted to say, I appreciate you just like I start every meeting that we have together. I'm really impressed by all your accomplishments. I've read up on all of them.

0:02:58 Aguefort: You've read my book?

0:03:00 Penny: Yeah, "The Nightmare King." Wow, some of your best work. Also, I just categorically have to say no to all of that. And also, may all of us start over again with freshman year next year? Antiope shakes her head and mouths ‘no’.

0:03:10 Aguefort: As you are all well aware, you were trapped in a bunch of crystals. And your student years in which and what times everyone was supposed to graduate went higgledy-piggledy and quite catawampus so we— Ostentatia is giving Aguefort a Look.

0:03:26 Aguefort: Are you unfamiliar with the term?

0:03:28 Ostentatia: Yeah, what words are you saying?

0:03:30 Aguefort: Well, I actually said two words, the first of which was higgledy and the latter of which was piggledy.

0:03:38 Sam: All I'm hearing is bullshit.

0:03:38 Katja: Is that a different language? [Aguefort laughing]

0:03:41 Sam: This is not happening.

0:03:44 Aguefort: A saucy word indeed, and I shall say this. Yes, well, as you are well aware some of you have delayed and there has been various chicanery and academic trickery, but indeed, four of you are seniors and you'll be graduating and three of you are juniors and will not. As you are well aware, we inform people to make their adventuring parties in freshman year and all attempt to graduate together which is sort of the modus operandi of the academy. Yes, Miss Cleaver.

0:04:16 Rekha: Can I roll intimidation?

0:04:16 Brennan: Yeah, go for it.

0:04:19 Rekha: Okay, 8 plus.

0:04:20 Aabria: Hold on, can I give her advantage?

0:04:22 Brennan: Yeah, you can help actually, roll again.

0:04:23 Aabria: I want to help.

0:04:23 Rekha: 17 plus 5 so 22. In a way where this man probably doesn't know what my intention, I step forward with my full gait. You know, I use a half gait when I step in a stable to not spook my horses 'cause I have 101 of them. I'm using my full.

0:04:43 Brennan: [Brennan] Full gait, yeah.

0:04:47 Rekha: [pounds table] I walk up to the principal and I say,

0:04:54 Katja: You cannot do this. This is the first group of friends I've ever had. [Brennan laughing]

0:04:58 Penny: Oh, Katja.

0:05:02 Brennan: You see he looks at you and says,

0:05:02 Aguefort: I understand. You are all devoted to one another. You are the model adventuring party in many ways, sworn to each other's service, greater than the sum of its parts, absolutely unhinged and impossibly violent.

0:05:25 Katja: Thank you, thank you.

0:05:25 Sam: Okay, that was very sweet, the one thing out of your mouth.

0:05:29 Penny: [flattered] Okay, okay. The fans come out.

0:05:32 Penny: Wow.

0:05:32 Sam: So sweet. [players laughing]

0:05:34 Aguefort: These are all of the requisites for an adventuring party. However, this is a publicly-funded high school. And though we are not bound by the laws of physics!

0:05:51 Brennan: And here he clones himself a couple of times and collapses back in on himself. Penny claps.

0:05:55 Aguefort: We are bound by the laws of the municipality of Elmville and of the nation of Solace. Ostentatia raises her hand.

0:06:03 Aguefort: Yes, Miss Wallace.

0:06:03 Penny: Uh-oh.

0:06:05 Ostentatia: So… [to Penny] No, don't worry. Okay, you said, I don't remember exactly any of the words, but you said that we're sort of [sounding it out] exemplary.

0:06:18 Penny: Piggledy catawampus.

0:06:18 Katja: Keep going.

0:06:21 Aguefort: Yes.

0:06:21 Ostentatia: An example for, you know, what an adventuring party should be, right?

0:06:29 Aguefort: Absolutely.

0:06:29 Ostentatia: Uh-huh. And so does that mean that, you know, we've sort of fulfilled our requirements?

0:06:40 Aguefort: A very interesting point, Miss Wallace. Your requirements, of course, have been fulfilled with the exception of the matriculation of the three juniors in your party.

0:06:54 Ostentatia: Okay, but what do you expect us to do next year?

0:06:56 Aguefort: Graduate in your year, Miss Wallace!

0:06:59 Ostentatia: Okay, but you want like, the rest of our party to just leave and then the three of us are just gonna hang back just the three of us?

0:07:07 Katja: It's like taking the tail off of a horse.

0:07:08 Penny: What, you've done that?

0:07:08 Danielle: Here's the thing, man, sir.

0:07:11 Katja: No, I would never.

0:07:11 Aguefort: Yes, Miss Barkstock.

0:07:15 Danielle: It's a broken system, you know?

0:07:18 Ostentatia: Yeah.

0:07:18 Danielle: It is flawed. It is set up to put us into these little boxes.

0:07:24 Penny: Like a crystal.

0:07:25 Ostentatia: Maybe the school and Elmville need to evolve.

0:07:30 Sam: For our express purposes and benefit.

0:07:32 Ostentatia: Yeah, for us.

0:07:32 Danielle: We played an instrumental role in stopping the end of the world. And who are you to deny us these bonds forged in fire?

0:07:44 Ostentatia: Forged!

0:07:44 Sam: We also didn't sue.

0:07:46 Aguefort: I would say this. Anyone who knows me knows my absolute contempt for laws of any kind. I cannot tell you how much I am against this restriction. As it stands, Miss Nightingale, Miss Jones, Miss Cleaver, and Miss Luckstone will graduate as seniors at the end of the year. And Miss Barkstock, Miss Wallace, and Miss Donovan.

0:08:13 Brennan: And here you see, you guys look and see Zelda's like, she's like on the verge of tears having a hard, hard time with this. She says it's the end-

0:08:21 Sephie: I go hold her.

0:08:23 Rekha: Yeah, I put a hand on her shoulder.

0:08:24 Zelda: Sorry, it's just stupid, I'm just-

0:08:26 Penny: Let’s all pile in here. Let’s all pile—

0:08:26 Ostentatia: Doing it at once-

0:08:28 Antiope: Look at what you're doing!

0:08:28 Ostentatia: -feels like a maybe too much.

0:08:32 Brennan: [laughs] You see, yeah, everyone piles. Ostentatia leaves a little space. But you see that Principal Aguefort looks and says,

0:08:42 Aguefort: [sighs] This comes directly from the Ministry of Adventure in Bastion City. We train young people to bend arcane and divine powers to their will and unleash terrible violence on a world filled with horrors, and they just really want us to round out four years for people because we do that. And at the end of the day, the Ministry has very clear guidelines. The Council of Chosen overseeing that Ministry has very direct, there are necessary components.

0:09:24 Brennan: Anyone who wants to can give me an insight check.

0:09:26 Sephie: Yes, absolutely.

0:09:27 Izzy: You don't have to ask me twice.

0:09:30 Becca: [offscreen] 12.

0:09:30 Izzy: What’s 8 plus 13?

0:09:30 Rekha: 20, dirty 20.

0:09:32 Brennan: Dirty 20.

0:09:32 Sephie: 19.

0:09:33 Erika: 19.

0:09:33 Aabria: [offscreen] 19.

0:09:33 Sephie: Oh, yeah!

0:09:33 Brennan: 19. Eight plus 13 is 21. Anyone here who, I'm gonna do a little-

0:09:39 Becca: 12.

0:09:39 Brennan: I'm sorry, Penny.

0:09:45 Aabria: You're just very emotionally invested.

0:09:46 Becca: I can't right now.

0:09:46 Brennan: Anyone who beat a 17, a little bit of a low roll from Arthur there, sees his eyes sort of [looks back and forth] flicker for a second. He goes,

0:10:00 Aguefort: [sighs] Yes, but listen. You all seem to dread the idea of your adventuring party being sundered at the end of the year. But surely there are other opportunities. [winks]

0:10:17 Brennan: And here he winks at Antiope and Penny.

0:10:20 Aguefort: Certainly other possible careers. And many of you also will not rely on adventuring for the rest of your life. Surely the dissolution of the structure of your group of beloved friends [suddenly shouting] shattered against the rocks of the material world with the endless ticking of time, time, time, by grain of sand doesn't mean you can't stay in touch.

0:10:50 Sam: You're hiding something.

0:10:50 Aguefort: What?

0:10:52 Brennan: And here he turns into a bat and flies out the window.

0:10:54 Sephie: No, no, Lightning Lure.

0:10:57 Brennan: [laughs] You Lightning Lure the Principal?

0:10:59 Sephie: Yes.

0:11:00 Becca: Yeah, I'm gonna cast Hold Person.

0:11:01 Sephie: Oh, that's probably more effective.

0:11:04 Becca: Oh, it's gotta be humanoid.

0:11:06 Brennan: I fucking love it, incredible!

0:11:09 Sephie: A strength saving throw.

0:11:09 Brennan: A strength saving throw. I'm gonna roll, as you might imagine, a strength saving throw is not particularly proficient for Arthur Aguefort.

0:11:16 Erika: Hey!

0:11:19 Brennan: So he's just going to roll. And with a 12, Arthur Aguefort, you all watch Sam. This crackling, scintillating, beautiful, just like extra sparkles coming off of it, brrrah!

0:11:26 Ostentatia: Gorgeous.

0:11:33 Brennan: Grabs the bat, pulls the bat in. Poof, Arthur pops back, badly singed and goes. [coughs]

0:11:45 Sam: [smiling] Listen here, you're not leaving until I say so.

0:11:47 Ostentatia: Oh my.

0:11:47 Sam: We're gonna talk about this.

0:11:49 Penny: Okay, Sam, nicely done.

0:11:49 Ostentatia: Yeah. Izzy pops the fan.

0:11:53 Brennan: You see that he goes,

0:11:59 Aguefort: My dear Miss Nightingale. Brennan pops the fan. [players shouting]

0:12:05 Becca: Yes, Queen Arthur!

0:12:07 Brennan: You see he says,

0:12:07 Aguefort: Some extremely quick and prodigious spellcasting. And though it injured me in a way that might have killed a lesser mortal—

0:12:20 Sam: I'm guessing you're used to feeling burning sensations in parts of your body.

0:12:22 Katja: Oh my God, she went there.

0:12:24 Aguefort: You are referring to my paramour, a fiery phoenix to whom I have made love many times.

0:12:29 Katja: I think she's saying he has chlamydia.

0:12:32 Antiope: Yeah, I thought it was the other one and I'm more upset that I'm hearing about-

0:12:34 Sam: There is phoenix chlamydia. It's the worst thing ever.

0:12:35 Katja: Oh my God, that sounds-

0:12:38 Aguefort: You can't get rid of it, it comes back.

0:12:40 Katja: It keeps coming back and back and back.

0:12:43 Ostentatia: Every time it goes away, like right, right.

0:12:47 Aguefort: Like a phoenix.

0:12:48 Katja: Like a phoenix from the ashes, the chlamydia rises.

0:12:49 Danielle: Rising up from the ashes.

0:12:51 Aguefort: Regardless, I will not sit here and bandy words about phoenix chlamydia with you students all day. [players laughing]

0:12:57 Katja: What?

0:13:01 Aguefort: Miss Nightingale, you were right to attack me with that spell, for indeed- [players laughing]

0:13:05 Sam: You don't need to tell me.

0:13:07 Aguefort: No, I am well aware. [sighs] Actually…

0:13:10 Brennan: You see… He starts to cry a little bit. It's like,

0:13:13 Aguefort: I'm very proud.

0:13:15 Ostentatia: Oh my…

0:13:16 Aguefort: I would hope that any student who received the tutelage in my academy would know that in a moment of crisis they were absolutely welcome to fuck my shit right up. [players laughing]

0:13:26 Danielle: Yeah.

0:13:27 Ostentatia: Wow.

0:13:27 Katja: What are you lying about?

0:13:30 Aguefort: Not a lie of deception, but perhaps a lie of omission. Indeed, there are ways. Ways of graduating at the same time.

0:13:46 Katja: Skipping a grade or being held back, what do you mean?

0:13:48 Brennan: You see he says,

0:13:48 Aguefort: All of the academic chicanery that you have all used from various interpretations of the calendar based on the amount of months that you have been imprisoned in crystal palimpsests, years repeated, we have pushed those boundaries as far as we can and yet.

0:14:07 Brennan: You see he looks around and says,

0:14:11 Aguefort: Even now we may yet be watched, unless...

0:14:16 Brennan: [mimics explosion reverberating] And you watch as he looks up at all of you and says,

0:14:24 Aguefort: Let us very quickly—

0:14:26 Brennan: And as he moves his head to the left and says, “let us very quickly”, another head stays where it was and says,

0:14:32 Aguefort: You must all learn to give up on your dreams. That is the Aguefort way!

0:14:36 Brennan: And as he steps away and says,

0:14:36 Aguefort: The library, my seven friends. [Becca gasps]

0:14:41 Brennan: And as he does he leaves an illusory version of himself saying,

0:14:46 Aguefort: Dreams are bad, and to change the world is wrong. [players laughing]

0:14:51 Aguefort: Quickly, quickly, we are going to break some rules. How about it? I'm going to light up a drug cigarette, ah! [gets out a lighter]

0:14:59 Danielle: Oh yeah!

0:14:59 Sam: Yeah.

0:15:01 Aguefort: Quickly, now, this way!

0:15:01 Penny: Can you pass that?

0:15:04 Erika: Danielle grows a little extra mushroom out of the end of her blouse and is like, [eating it]

0:15:05 Danielle: Hey man.

0:15:10 Aguefort: Hell yes.

0:15:10 Ostentatia: Getting down real.

0:15:11 Aguefort: In the hall no less. Ostentatia uncaps and drinks from a flask.

0:15:14 Aguefort: Straight drinking from a flask, we love it. Katja chomps an apple.

0:15:18 Aguefort: An apple, sure. [players laughing]

0:15:24 Izzy: An onion.

0:15:24 Brennan: Yeah. A full onion.

0:15:29 Rekha: Yeah, well, let's retcon that, that's an onion. [mimes chomping an onion and then crying]

0:15:31 Brennan: Yeah, exactly. He begins to sneak down the hallway. He says,

0:15:37 Aguefort: Now, I am going to, so Aguefort the Second will be talking only for a matter of minutes so you must be very quick, to the library!

0:15:46 Brennan: And begins to rush down linoleum locker-lined halls of the high school. Do you all follow your principal?

0:15:55 Sephie: Absolutely.

0:15:56 Aabria: I want to fall in by Penny as we're running.

0:15:59 Becca: Oh, it is so stealthy, no one sees me. [Brennan laughing]

0:16:01 Aabria: So slick.

0:16:04 Izzy: I'm clomping down the hall.

0:16:06 Rekha: I am full gait. [group laughing]

0:16:10 Sephie: Just galloping. [Rekha mimics galloping]

0:16:13 Penny: Oh, oh.

0:16:14 Izzy: Katja and I are just like, boom, boom, boom.

0:16:17 Rekha: Yeah, smashing lockers.

0:16:18 Izzy: Like man, phoenix chlamydia really lights you up.

0:16:21 Brennan: As you guys are worried, Penny and Antiope, you look sure kind of as like stealth squad here. And you see that Aguefort up ahead winks at you and says,

0:16:30 Aguefort: Worried about being seen? Impossible, we don't even exist in this time.

0:16:36 Brennan: And you see that as you walk by, other students can't seem to perceive you. Aguefort walks up, you guys see the Vice Principal Gilear Faeth is there going,

0:16:44 Gilear: Children, please do not roughhouse or horse around.

0:16:48 Brennan: Aguefort goes,

0:16:48 Aguefort: We are invisible.

0:16:52 Brennan: And full atomic wedgie like, briefs over the head of the Vice Principal-

0:16:57 Izzy: Ostentatia's shirt immediately— [mimes pulling up her shirt and sticks her tongue out] [players laughing]

0:17:00 Rekha: Wait a minute. Isn't it still visible to the Principal?

0:17:05 Brennan: Yeah, you see... [players laughing]

0:17:07 Becca: Detention, immediate detention.

0:17:10 Ostentatia: He's been alive forever!

0:17:11 Brennan: Aguefort looks up and says,

0:17:11 Aguefort: Ah, yes.

0:17:13 Brennan: And you see, just puts up censor bars.

0:17:16 Ostentatia: I will not be censored!

0:17:21 Danielle: Free the nipple, man.

0:17:22 Penny: Are we doing this?

0:17:23 Aguefort: You're absolutely right, Miss Barkstock!

0:17:25 Brennan: He takes his shirt off.

0:17:25 Aguefort: To the library! [running] Izzy also pretends to run. [players laughing]

0:17:29 Rekha: [pretending to de-shirt] Katja has an identical shirt underneath.

0:17:33 Brennan: You arrive at the library which is, again, that kind of extremely lint-colored, government-issue library carpet. The metal connects shelves with all the laminated highly used books all over them. You see Mrs. Maugly Dimweather, the ancient librarian who's at the desk and Aguefort walks past and starts to recede to the back wall and goes,

0:17:59 Aguefort: Here, yes.

0:18:04 Brennan: Takes a velvet rope off, goes into the forbidden section of the-

0:18:08 Ostentatia: The adult section.

0:18:08 Penny: Let's go.

0:18:10 Katja: This is the porn section of the library?

0:18:13 Penny: Oh yeah!

0:18:13 Sam: Absolutely, yeah.

0:18:13 Danielle: Bet.

0:18:14 Katja: Whoa!

0:18:15 Penny: I’ve snuck in here many times.

0:18:18 Brennan: He goes,

0:18:18 Aguefort: Very funny, Miss Cleaver. We do not keep pornography in a school for children. It just happens that many of the arcane tomes in here are highly erotic when read from the right vantage point. [Rekha and Becca laughing] [Aabria groans]

0:18:31 Brennan: You see that he puts the velvet rope back, says,

0:18:36 Aguefort: And you thought that this was the only part of the forbidden section? No, this is simply the visible portion. [soft piano music]

0:18:44 Aguefort: [raises a hand] Descend!

0:18:47 Brennan: And you see that a circle of carpet, a glowing line forms around it that you are all standing in and begins to turn in the room and spiral downward into the bottom of the school as he goes. [laughs]

0:19:03 Ostentatia: You're having fun.

0:19:03 Aguefort: I'm having a great time!

0:19:05 Antiope: Okay, we have the budget for that, but my locker's been stuck for like six months.

0:19:09 Katja: Yeah.

0:19:09 Antiope: Yeah.

0:19:10 Aguefort: You are always welcome to submit a maintenance request.

0:19:12 Katja: Oh my God!

0:19:12 Antiope: Absolutely not.

0:19:13 Katja: We know nobody reads those.

0:19:16 Aguefort: The Vice Principal has been empowered-

0:19:19 Antiope: The yogurt guy?

0:19:19 Aguefort: Hm? Oh, yes, the gentleman I atomic wedgied in the hall is the Vice-

0:19:25 Sam: He always smells like spoiled yogurt.

0:19:25 Antiope: Like a little bit.

0:19:25 Sam: Like, yeah.

0:19:26 Antiope: Yeah.

0:19:26 Sam: Mm-hmm.

0:19:28 Aguefort: He brings me joy with his sorrow.

0:19:33 Brennan: You see that you spiral down in a full, like, dungeon dungeon.

0:19:40 Aabria: Before we get all the way there I do want to like, nudge Penny. Just be like,

0:19:43 Antiope: Did you get like an internship thing, too?

0:19:48 Penny: [gasps] I only read the letter like six times, but I think that I do have-? I don't want to go though.

0:19:56 Antiope: I don't either, but that might be a way out.

0:19:59 Penny: A way out of what? Everything is perfect, why would we ever want out?

0:20:03 Antiope: What kind of, these stairs go down a long way.

0:20:09 Aguefort: For a while I toyed with having this go to the very center of the Earth, but it took too long so we just settled for pretty far down. [Becca laughs]

0:20:17 Danielle: That sounds, that's a lot.

0:20:20 Sam: You didn’t send it to the molten core? Wouldn't your lover be disappointed about that?

0:20:23 Aguefort: You know what's funny is I have actually spoken to my lover, the phoenix about it, I'm sorry, my paramour, and by the time you get to the core it's actually hardly fire anymore. It's just compacted super-hot metal so that's sort of interesting. Anyway, the ultra-forbidden section!

0:20:40 Brennan: And you look at this dungeon. Every book you see here is bound up in weird Infernal leather and- The lights in the dome change to red.

0:20:47 Rekha: Oh no!

0:20:52 Sephie: Oh no.

0:20:52 Brennan: You see there's a book that has just like, the leather of the book has a gagged mouth and a single yellow slitted eye. And the book goes,

0:21:00 Book: [muffled groaning]

0:21:08 Sam: On it.

0:21:10 Brennan: Aguefort says,

0:21:10 Aguefort: [chuckles] Don't open that one. Now, where were we?

0:21:18 Brennan: And he begins to approach a lectern at the rear of the dungeon, shrouded in darkness. He approaches a circle of runes drawn out in salt. You see the raised ridge of the lines and runes of salt there. He holds his hand out and says,

0:21:43 Aguefort: We would approach. There is dark knowledge that I must deliver to those who would seek to know. [intense, slightly foreboding music]

0:21:55 Brennan: And wind ushers from the back of the dungeon, parts the circle of runes and a dim, red light descends onto a massive jet-black grimoire bound in copper, Infernal runes covering it. And he approaches and beckons for you to join him in the circle.

0:22:20 Izzy: [whispering] What's a grimoire? What is that?

0:22:20 Becca: It's a book!

0:22:22 Brennan: An old-ass book.

0:22:22 Becca: Of spells.

0:22:26 Danielle: This better not just be like the syllabus or something.

0:22:30 Antiope: If this is just about graduation, what the fuck?

0:22:33 Penny: Do you think while we're down here I could like, memorize the whole book?

0:22:36 Antiope: Probably.

0:22:37 Sam: Is this like the graduation ceremony? Is this what's happening now?

0:22:38 Katja: It's so hot.

0:22:42 Antiope: You're wearing 30 shirts and they all look the same!

0:22:42 Katja: I know. [laughs]

0:22:44 Sam: You already took off one!

0:22:46 Antiope: Go down to the last one!

0:22:48 Zelda: Yeah, like, I always wore—

0:22:49 Ostentatia: I still haven't put mine back on. [players laughing]

0:22:54 Brennan: You see as you walk into the circle the runes close up behind you. And Aguefort holds a hand in the book pages. You see that the pages are a razor-thin copper, and that the writings of the runes are etched into the metal of the pages. You see he looks and says,

0:23:23 Aguefort: Wicked things within this grimoire, wicked things indeed. Carved deep into the heart of that most ancient of evils. Herein are the bylaws of the Larger Solisian School District. [Becca and Rekha gasp]

0:23:45 Penny: Sacred, no one's been able to read this.

0:23:48 Aguefort: Show me, show me.

0:23:50 Brennan: And you see his eyes begin to roll back into his head and some blood sort of moves out of his nose. He goes,

0:23:54 Aguefort: Show me the General Education Development!

0:24:00 Brennan: And a column of writhing ghosts screams out of the page.

0:24:08 Ghosts: [hissing] Horror of horrors! [Aguefort screaming]

0:24:14 Danielle: I bet there's just like, a test we can take or something.

0:24:17 Penny: No, this is the only way.

0:24:18 Danielle: Or maybe like a couple of extra credits.

0:24:20 Antiope: Are you good?

0:24:21 Aguefort: [gasps] Always, always good.

0:24:27 Ostentatia: Are we being traumatized right now?

0:24:29 Katja: Yes.

0:24:30 Aguefort: To exist is to be traumatized if you really think about how strange it is to be here at all. The General Education Development is a means in which a student can graduate early. Your General Education Development or GED as it is known is a way for you to acquire your high school diploma without having to conclude the temporal end of your term, in its own way a form of chronomancy! [beat] Different schools have different requirements for the General Education Development. Mumple, it's about a 90-minute test to demonstrate basic proficiency with math, reading comprehension, and the ability to perform good tasks and services. And for Hudol there is of course an extremely grueling magical endeavor. For Aguefort Adventuring Academy... yes, it could work. You of course could seek the normal path for a graduating adventuring party if you all graduated. And there is a means for an adventuring party to, as a group, attempt to pass a General Education Development for its members. Now, generally in the past this has been performed by juniors in totality that wished, for whatever reason, to conclude their education early, but there's no reason that it couldn't apply to a mixed group of seniors and juniors, as unusual as that is. The requirements are very simple. The completion of a class, A, B, or C quest and, oh.

0:26:19 Brennan: And here he reads further and says,

0:26:22 Aguefort: And a sign-off from the Superintendent of Schools. [sighs] Oh no.

0:26:31 Antiope: Why? Why, "Oh no"?

0:26:34 Katja: It's a signature.

0:26:34 Sam: I do not like that tone.

0:26:40 Aguefort: The Superintendent of Schools. There are two things here that trouble me. Number one, the Superintendent of Schools disappeared from the Nation of Solace in ages long past, more than 12 years ago. Number two, I have rarely met someone more disturbingly chaotic and impossible to gauge or predict than the Superintendent of Schools. They are just sort of all over the place in a way that is frankly alarming to me.

0:27:26 Sam: Sounds great.

0:27:26 Antiope: We’ve got Yelle, so.

0:27:27 Penny: So's Ostentatia and she's fine.

0:27:28 Antiope: Yeah, that's like half of the group.

0:27:30 Katja: Honestly, there's so much drama at this school.

0:27:31 Sam: Are you the superintendent?

0:27:32 Ostentatia: [rolling her eyes] Yeah, I'm the superintendent.

0:27:34 Katja: I really think you just aren't aware. There's a lot of drama at this school. There's a lot of chaotic people here.

0:27:40 Aguefort: That is troubling that I am unaware of drama at the school. I shall have to amend that. To live amongst the teens, yes. [steepling his fingers]

0:27:50 All: No, no.

0:27:50 Ostentatia: Back on track.

0:27:50 Penny: No, that's-

0:27:52 Katja: Wait, stop postulating stupid stuff. What's the name of this Superintendent?

0:27:58 Aguefort: The name of the Superintendent when she was last seen here was Tectonya Karkovnya. She is a incredibly powerful spellcaster. A unparalleled genius mind. She departed from these lands, as I've said, in ages long past.

0:28:26 Ostentatia: And nobody sort of took over as superintendent?

0:28:30 Aguefort: No one can until the original superintendent is dead.

0:28:34 Antiope: Why is that a rule?

0:28:35 Penny: Why can't you just assume she's dead?

0:28:37 Sam: So we know she's alive, right?

0:28:38 Ostentatia: Have an election or something.

0:28:39 Sam: Yeah.

0:28:39 Aguefort: It's in the book. You know, they explain it. They lay out the bylaws pretty clearly. Can't be a new superintendent till the old superintendent is deceased. So we know that Tectonya, wherever she is, is yet alive.

0:28:53 Penny: Point of order. More bylaws have to be added eventually, right? Why couldn't we just add a new bylaw that you elect a new superintendent?

0:29:01 Aguefort: Oh, that's a great workaround. If you would like to run for City Council and eventually get your place onto the Council of Chosen-

0:29:06 Penny: Okay!

0:29:07 Aguefort: You might have a hard time doing that before graduation.

0:29:09 Ostentatia: Literally don't even, like dare her because she's gonna do it.

0:29:19 Penny: I've already got the paperwork at home just in case.

0:29:24 Aguefort: Yes, no, I remember. There was a moment where I remember you sort of asking for there to be a form of student government here, but I won't have my power usurped, not even by students.

0:29:35 Penny: Okay. I have been holding meetings, but I'm the only one there.

0:29:41 Danielle: Vote for Luckstone!

0:29:41 Erika: And Danielle pulls out a button and puts it-

0:29:44 Aguefort: [yelling] This is not a democracy!

0:29:46 Brennan: And you see he disintegrates the button.

0:29:48 Antiope: Whoa, that feels like an overreaction.

0:29:51 Ostentatia: Yeah, for someone who said that they didn't like laws very much, you're sort of adhering to a lot of these rules.

0:29:57 Katja: You're a big law guy.

0:29:58 Antiope: Well no, that's the thing, is anyone in power, their priority is in preserving and maintaining their own power.

0:30:04 Ostentatia: You get that-

0:30:04 Danielle: The status quo.

0:30:08 Antiope: Exactly.

0:30:09 Ostentatia: Yeah, you get that about yourself, right?

0:30:11 Sephie: Brennan. While this discourse is going on. [all laughing]

0:30:14 Katja: So true, yeah, fuck ‘em.

0:30:14 Sephie: Can I discreetly pull out my mirror and think Tectonya, what is it, Karkovnya?

0:30:20 Brennan: Yes, Tectonya Karkovnya. You look into the mirror of the past. You open your seashell compact. And you see a Earth Genasi woman. She looks intense. Most Earth Genasi you've ever met have a classically rocky or earthen sort of form. She looks made of polished copper, very metallic. Her eyes are pupil-less, iris-less burning brass. She is fully bald, like proudly bald with just smooth, metallic skin. And you look in the past and see Tectonya and Arthur at like a small cafe talking. And you see that Arthur's like,

0:31:22 Aguefort: Well, of course the nature of chronomancy.

0:31:24 Brennan: And you see her go, [scoffs]

0:31:24 Tectonya: [very calm and measured] Yes, chronomancy, of course. It's a darling practice.

0:31:31 Brennan: And he goes, [grumbles]

0:31:31 Aguefort: Darling, it's more than darling.

0:31:35 Brennan: And you see she says,

0:31:35 Tectonya: Yes, well, I've always rather been of the persuasion that the greatest form of magic was the magic of consciousness itself."

0:31:47 Brennan: He's like,

0:31:47 Tectonya: Consciousness, you're referring to the school of enchantment?

0:31:51 Brennan: She says,

0:31:51 Tectonya: No, no, far from it. I merely mean to suggest that magic and its ability to alter the fundamental rules of existence would seem to indicate that the prime material of existence has at its base, will and consciousness, otherwise why would a mortal's mind be able to reshape reality? So to understand reality, one must first understand consciousness, or did you believe that all of this was real, Arthur?

0:32:24 Brennan: And you see that she splits into mirrors of herself. Ping ping ping ping.

0:32:29 Rekha: Mirror, mirror, mirrors.

0:32:29 Brennan: Surrounding Arthur and Arthur goes,

0:32:32 Aguefort: Tectonya, what the fuck are you talking about? [players laughing]

0:32:39 Aabria: Icon.

0:32:44 Brennan: And your mirror moves to shadows, movements. You get a feeling of danger. The mirror shows you Tectonya becoming more and more concerned, diving deeper into her studies again, as Superintendent of Schools. And you eventually see her [dramatic instrumental music] walking out beyond the border of Solace into the Mountains of Chaos. And you see her walking up into the mountains into a giant spiring peak. Tall chimneys of stone, like huge, spiring towers of stone. Not that different from where you were all chained up at Kalvaxus's lair, but this one is even higher to the point where you can see as an Earth Genasi that her breathing is labored like the altitude is so high there's snow capping everything up here. You see statues here and a temple that she is journeying to. And you see that there are enormous statues of Dwarven warriors all throughout the mountains going up through here. You see there is one in a far temple. There's another in a small cavern. Another is up on the crest of one of the peaks with a beard and shield and ax. And you see Tectonya moving. And you know that this didn't happen in reality. The mirror of the past doesn't show you a recording of events exactly as they happened but rather tells you through images what it is important to know. And you see shadows moving behind her, following her and her ever keeping one of her gleaming, brass eyes pointed behind her. And that's where the mirror fades out.

0:34:50 Sam: So she's just really cooler than you, right?

0:34:53 Aguefort: What?

0:34:55 Sam: [points] Mirror.

0:34:55 Aguefort: Oh, you have a mirror. Yes, she was much cooler than me. And that bummed me out, but you know, when you have a sad little day you pick yourself up. Ain't that the truth. Your General Education Development is something within your reach. You need simply acquire the sign-off of the Superintendent of Schools, wherever she may be and the completion of a class A, B, or C quest and you will be able to graduate together if that is truly what you wish. I would say only to be careful what you wish for. This book is draining my soul and we must leave.

0:35:41 Penny: Oh, okay. Can I just flip through for notes just real quick?

0:35:44 Aguefort: Do you want to grab some photos on your phone? It's way safer.

0:35:46 Penny: Uh, sure, yeah.

0:35:49 Rekha: Can I do a history check on the book?

0:35:51 Brennan: Yeah, go for it.

0:35:53 Rekha: Oh, nat 1, so what do I got?

0:35:56 Becca: Wait, no, automatic re-roll because I feel that, oh, luck.

0:35:59 All: Yeah!

0:36:00 Rekha: Wait a minute, Katja feels the strength of pity running through her veins.

0:36:05 Becca: Oh yeah, that's what this ability is called, pity.

0:36:08 Rekha: Okay, 13 plus 7, a dirty 20.

0:36:12 Aabria: Nice!

0:36:12 Sephie: Nice.

0:36:13 Brennan: You look at the book and do see that it is part of the Nation of Solace's sort of historical. This is actually specifically just for the school code so it's just Solace's School Code.

0:36:25 Rekha: Okay.

0:36:25 Brennan: But you do see that there is a lot of stuff in here about like, specific ways that they were going to bind the Aguefort Adventuring Academy. And you see, like in your history check you know that part of this book was sort of, like, the Aguefort Adventuring Academy is about as old as Solace itself. And Solace had a lot of like, okay, if this is gonna be a thing where you're gonna have this incredibly powerful institution which is a high school there's gonna be some give and take about how this is gonna work, right?

0:36:57 Becca: Is Arthur Aguefort as old as the school?

0:37:01 Brennan: Centuries, yes. The school is named after Arthur Aguefort.

0:37:04 Becca: [shrugs] There could be other Agueforts.

0:37:06 Brennan: For sure, absolutely. No, Arthur Aguefort is the original founder of the school. You snap a couple photos of the bylaws. Go ahead actually and write that in your inventory, if you'd be so kind.

0:37:14 Rekha: I have a question. Is there any, the pages are made of copper?

0:37:21 Brennan: Yes.

0:37:22 Rekha: Tectonya’s also made of copper. Does this matter, do we care? Why is everything made of copper?

0:37:29 Becca: Maybe she is the book?

0:37:29 Izzy: Do I know why-

0:37:29 Rekha: Is she the book? [laughs]

0:37:29 Sephie: Maybe she wrote it.

0:37:32 Becca: Yeah.

0:37:32 Aabria: Maybe she wrote it.

0:37:35 Izzy: I've got shit with like, metal and tools.

0:37:38 Becca: Animate the book. Izzy gets a big, frankly alarming grin.

0:37:38 Aabria: Oh God, oh, ooh, don't. That's a soul-draining book, please don't make it alive.

0:37:47 Brennan: You can make a, I would say make either a history or, oh, you have proficiency with tools, right? With smith's tools. Go ahead and give me wisdom plus proficiency so it should be plus 9 to this d20 roll. Izzy rolls, then looks up at Brennan with a little smile.

0:38:06 Brennan: What's that? Izzy holds up one finger.

0:38:11 Brennan: Nat 1. This book sucks, it's shitty. They really made bad-

0:38:15 Izzy: I'm taking pictures of my tits and sending it to the group text.

0:38:19 Katja: We see it though, we already see them! You're not wearing a shirt! Why are you sending them?

0:38:23 Sam: This angle is really nice though. They do look really good.

0:38:25 Ostentatia: Actually, that's true-

0:38:26 Katja: It's the light in here from the-

0:38:28 Ostentatia: I'm like straight down. Danielle is staring at the pictures with an approving grin.

0:38:28 Sam: I mean, they still look great.

0:38:30 Ostentatia: Thank you.

0:38:30 Antiope: Hey, Yelle, you need some water? Danielle looks up for a moment then continues staring at her phone.

0:38:32 Sephie: Also, I tell everyone the vision stuff.

0:38:34 Brennan: You are aware of-

0:38:35 Becca: Are we wearing our friendship shards that I gave everyone?

0:38:37 Brennan: Yeah.

0:38:37 Rekha: Yeah.

0:38:39 Becca: So we can see each other's faces.

0:38:39 Izzy: Of course.

0:38:39 Becca: What exactly does it do?

0:38:41 Brennan: It allows you all to interface and communicate with each other. So they're little communicator things where you can all tune in to each others', you can see each other. And unlike your crystals, you can do it if someone is say, unconscious and making death saving throws. You could find out where they are. They're basically like little magical communicator things.

0:39:01 Erika: So as they follow Aguefort, Danielle starts asking questions about,

0:39:10 Danielle: [turning her hands over in front of her as she speaks] So what are A, B, and C missions and where might we have some leads about where the former Superintendent has gone? And you ever think about hands?

0:39:25 Aguefort: Oh, you ate that mushroom for real earlier. Yes, yes, yes, I think about hands almost every day.

0:39:28 Ostentatia: Answer the first ones.

0:39:31 Antiope: Don't lead into that.

0:39:32 Aabria: I give you a water bottle.

0:39:34 Sephie: So I relay all the stuff that was in the vision to everyone so we have one-

0:39:39 Brennan: Yes, Principal Aguefort escorts you back up and says,

0:39:43 Aguefort: Seven, you have a task before you. Also, that illusion is for sure gone by now so I'm not gonna keep talking about this because you do never know who's watching. But you have all of the information you need.

0:39:58 Katja: No, we don't.

0:39:58 Aguefort: What's that?

0:40:00 Katja: We don't have anything, you're very cryptic.

0:40:02 Aguefort: When you have friends, you have everything. [various awws]

0:40:05 Katja: No we don't!

0:40:05 Aguefort: Farewell.

0:40:07 Brennan: You see he falls back into a portal and bloop.

0:40:11 Ostentatia: You know that you just did what you did the first time that you apologized for, right, with the bat.

0:40:17 Katja: Men don't learn from their mistakes is the thing.

0:40:20 Ostentatia: Never!

0:40:20 Penny: He did take us to a sub-basement to tell us secrets.

0:40:22 Katja: Yeah.

0:40:22 Ostentatia: To read us like a fucking bureaucratic-

0:40:26 Penny: Oh, put your shirt, Ostentatia. [adjusting her]

0:40:28 Antiope: Oh yeah, people can—

0:40:28 Katja: Oh my God, you're right!

0:40:31 Rekha: I put on my first shirt. [players laughing]

0:40:34 Sam: I mean, at least we know something that we can do, right?

0:40:36 Ostentatia: Yeah.

0:40:37 Sam: Like, we're not just gonna leave it like this.

0:40:39 Penny: It's so easy. All we have to do is do one mission and then find this missing person that hasn't been seen in 12 years.

0:40:46 Ostentatia: That sounds like a mission to me.

0:40:48 Erika: Do we know what an A, B, or C mission is?

0:40:51 Brennan: I'm gonna say, I'm trying to think of the skill for bureaucracy. Everyone actually just give me an intelligence check. [soft instrumental music, rolling sounds]

0:41:04 Rekha: Do I add-

0:41:04 Becca: [to Sephie] No! You’re tired.

0:41:05 Erika: 19.

0:41:05 Sephie: Nat one.

0:41:05 Aabria: [to Rekha] Just that big one.

0:41:05 Rekha: Okay great, 17.

0:41:09 Brennan: 17.

0:41:09 Erika: 19.

0:41:11 Brennan: 19.

0:41:11 Aabria: Dirty 20.

0:41:13 Brennan: Oh, dirty 20. Actually your mom and dad talk about this shit all the time. This is not really a thing that you cover at Aguefort. Aguefort is very much like praxis, and these kind of classifications of quests are what the Ministry of Adventure is more interested in. And you think about that thing with Charity Blythe, who's an old colleague of your mom and dad's with this internship with the Council of Chosen. You know that you'd be able to get a straight answer from maybe your mom and dad but also this woman as well. Basically it just means like, A is like the worst, like big kahuna, and then B and C are kind of like, still, I think you know that it goes to F. So there's A, B, C, D, E, and F classification quests, but you wouldn't know like, what the parameters that bureaucrats file them in as, but it basically means on the upper half of difficult quests.

0:42:13 Antiope: Okay guys, full level, I did know this meeting was gonna happen. And I was offered, not trying to blow up your spot, I was offered an internship with the Council of Chosen so maybe we can go and talk to them. I've heard some terms around different classes. I don't want to talk to my parents about it so I have a contact. We just need to get to Bastion City, yeah? And we can look into it there. I want to say the thing and it's worth asking. We want to stay-

0:42:48 Danielle: We would follow you to the ends of the Earth.

0:42:50 Antiope: That wasn't the question.

0:42:50 Sam: You are our leader.

0:42:51 Antiope: I'm not, no, no, that wasn't-

0:42:53 Danielle: Anywhere you go.

0:42:53 Antiope: What, no.

0:42:55 Katja: You're the leader here.

0:42:56 Antiope: Why is this beam of sunlight?

0:42:57 Aabria: I step out of it.

0:42:57 Penny: You are the leader for sure. You're the leader.

0:42:59 Antiope: No.

0:43:00 Katja: Thank you for stepping up.

0:43:00 Antiope: No!

0:43:02 Katja: When no one else had the bravery to.

0:43:03 Antiope: Fucking no, God damn it.

0:43:03 Danielle: It may be dangerous and hard and difficult as hell to be a leader, but we are so glad that you are up to-

0:43:12 Penny: We're really glad you volunteered.

0:43:14 Sam: Yeah, really, very brave.

0:43:14 Antiope: I don't want this.

0:43:16 Zelda: You got this, Antiope, for real.

0:43:17 Antiope: God damn it! I just wanted to make sure, like, we have to do a lot of work. We want to stay together, right?

0:43:26 Danielle: Oh yeah.

0:43:26 Sam: Is there a question of that?

0:43:28 Antiope: I just wanted to make sure.

0:43:28 Sam: There can't be.

0:43:31 Danielle: We had big plans, you know? Of all the raids we were gonna do and of all of the hoards we were gonna pillage and of all the people we're gonna save. And yeah, we can't just scatter to the winds, you know?

0:43:40 Katja: Cinnamon’s become accustomed to you.

0:43:50 Penny: Or we could totally, left-field idea, all join the Society of Shadows, could be cool.

0:43:57 Sam: The what?

0:43:57 Danielle: What's that?

0:43:58 Antiope: That sounds terrible.

0:43:58 Penny: That society, I know, it's very secret, that's all I know.

0:44:02 Becca: What was in my letter?

0:44:04 Brennan: In your letter, I'll let you say this. So in your letter it was like, dear Penny Luckstone. Congratulations on your admission to the apprentice program at Society of Shadows, the world's premiere secret organization of master rogues. Real quick, please don't tell anyone we exist. [players laughing]

0:44:24 Becca: Retcon, retcon, retcon, retcon!

0:44:26 Brennan: No, but you know that the offer, while extremely appealing, is very much like rogue-centric. It's very much like, and they literally say, what they said in the letter, too, was an acknowledgement that they had heard from Arthur Aguefort that you were not going to be able to pursue an adventuring party path. And they were like, you being a free agent means that we were able to scout you and-

0:44:50 Becca: But if you join a society you can't adventure 'cause it's like, a ministry in a building?

0:44:55 Brennan: Yeah, you're adventuring with the society at that point. You're in this group of rogues.

0:45:01 Becca: Okay, I did not say that then.

0:45:02 Brennan: [laughs] You see-

0:45:02 Aabria: Say what?

0:45:04 Becca: Yeah, exactly.

0:45:04 Brennan: You see Zelda looks up and goes,

0:45:07 Zelda: Um, this is obviously like the best, like, it's like the coolest to be in an adventuring party this badass, but like, my vote is for us to stay together. But also I know that while we're all standing in this circle that there is a weird pressure. And maybe people like, I don't have any opportunities that are like, pressing or anything else like that. And like, if people have stuff that's cool, I don't want to make you feel like you have to just like, Antiope and Penny, you're both seniors. You're both graduating, cool. Doors might open up and just like you going on an adventure just to graduate some of us, I don't want to put that pressure.

0:45:52 Ostentatia: Okay, Zelda wants to stay here with Gorgug.

0:45:55 Antiope: Oh.

0:45:55 Ostentatia: That's totally it.

0:45:57 Zelda: [raising a hand] I—

0:45:58 Ostentatia: 'Cause what cool stuff could they have?

0:46:01 Sam: I mean, he's already going all over the place without you.

0:46:05 Antiope: Whoa.

0:46:05 Danielle: Whoa, this got-

0:46:06 Zelda: Cool, Sam.

0:46:06 Sam: Well, it's just the truth.

0:46:09 Danielle: Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, you're getting a little heated here. Zelda, listen, you're right. We're young and when you're young it feels like this is the center of our world, man. Like, the things that are important now are always gonna be important and that's not true, okay? So like, all the petty bickering, all the drama-rama llamas is-

0:46:32 Ostentatia: Who's being petty?

0:46:35 Sam: Your tone seems very pointed right now.

0:46:38 Ostentatia: Who's being dramatic?

0:46:38 Danielle: I would never. I would never, ever, ever.

0:46:42 Zelda: Like, the vibe is so bad even already? Like, I'm so super stressed out 'cause I don't know what Gorgug has to do with anything. I'm gonna eat this can. [crunching]

0:46:50 Penny: Zelly!

0:46:52 Ostentatia: Eat as many cans as you want.

0:46:53 Danielle: Like, you know, Zelda's right, maybe we sleep on it, you know? Like, we get freshened up. We get ready, potentially, to go and see about your internship and talk to them.

0:47:07 Penny: I mean, the Council of the Chosen could be really cool for you. We don't want to get in the way.

0:47:10 Sam: I don't understand why we're talking about this. What other choice is there?

0:47:12 Ostentatia: Right?

0:47:15 Brennan: Zelda looks and says,

0:47:18 Zelda: You said you need to go get in touch with this person so I'm just saying, like, Ostentatia, Sam, I don't want this to end. I'm literally saying, I don't want it to end. I don't have anything going on other than this group of friends. What I'm saying is, literally I don't want to pressure anyone that has... stuff.

0:47:39 Ostentatia: Who has stuff?

0:47:41 Penny: You're saying it like you have stuff.

0:47:42 Zelda: Antiope-

0:47:42 Sam: How can there be pressure if there's nothing else that's to be done?

0:47:46 Ostentatia: Antiope was offered an internship. What, are you gonna leave the group for an internship?

0:47:49 Antiope: Let me be very clear, it's a very prestigious— Okay, hold on, hold on, I feel-

0:47:52 Ostentatia: Is it paid?

0:47:53 Penny: It kind of sounds like unpaid when they say internship.

0:47:56 Ostentatia: Offering an internship is disrespectful to her because she's like a legend. So she's not gonna leave the group for an internship.

0:48:04 Penny: If it was like an apprenticeship-

0:48:07 Ostentatia: Right?

0:48:07 Penny: That's be a totally different ballgame.

0:48:09 Sam: No, it's completely the same thing.

0:48:10 Antiope: What, that's the same thing!

0:48:10 Ostentatia: What's an apprenticeship?

0:48:11 Penny: I feel like an internship sounds...

0:48:15 Antiope: You're really gonna… What's your thing, then?

0:48:18 Sam: Are you joining a cult? Is that's what's happening here? 'Cause I already have one member in a cult.

0:48:21 Ostentatia: Who?

0:48:22 Danielle: [making peace signs] #NotACult.

0:48:23 Ostentatia: Oh yeah.

0:48:23 Antiope: We don't call that a cult.

0:48:25 Katja: Guys-

0:48:25 Ostentatia: What is going on?

0:48:26 Becca: I cast invisibility on myself.

0:48:28 Ostentatia: No, no!

0:48:28 Sephie: I cast Counterspell.

0:48:31 Brennan: Penny, you cast invisibility. You're like, can't handle it, you zip off. Zelda goes like,

0:48:35 Zelda: Well, Penny is upset because we're all fighting and it's like, I don't know, maybe I should just go be with my boyfriend that’s apparently the only thing I've got [snarls] going for me. I'm just like. [growls]

0:48:49 Danielle: Count to ten.

0:48:49 Zelda: [exhales softly] Sorry.

0:48:51 Danielle: Count.

0:48:51 Antiope: Do you want a granola bar?

0:48:53 Zelda: I would love one. Antiope passes her a bar and she chomps it.

0:48:55 Danielle: We're all under a lot of stress, okay.

0:48:58 Ostentatia: I'm not stressed.

0:48:58 Sam: I'm pissed.

0:49:01 Danielle: A lot of stuff is happening in our lives.

0:49:03 Katja: We can't-

0:49:04 Danielle: Or not happening in our lives as the case may be.

0:49:07 Katja: Exactly, we can't judge if people have something and want to live their life and leave other people.

0:49:14 Danielle: So let's just say, we can text the group thread, okay, with our decisions a little later tonight.

0:49:21 Sam: I can't believe all of you.

0:49:23 Ostentatia: We're gonna text each other if we're breaking up?

0:49:28 Danielle: It's a little less confrontational. Some people might have something else, as Zelda said. I don't want to text anybody either.

0:49:36 Becca: No one can look at me, I'm not visible.

0:49:38 Erika: I'm in, and immediately Danielle texts, I'm in.

0:49:43 Danielle: That's me.

0:49:43 Ostentatia: I'm in.

0:49:45 Sam: Yeah, I'm in because obviously this is the most important thing, and this is what we should do.

0:49:50 Brennan: Zelda says,

0:49:50 Zelda: I'm not gonna text right now because it's fucked up that you're not giving people the space to think about what's, if it's so meaningful and important then it should be something that you're okay with people thinking about.

0:50:02 Brennan: And Zelda takes off.

0:50:07 Becca: I follow Zelda invisibly.

0:50:10 Rekha: [laughs] I was gonna follow Zelda visibly, full gait. [pounds table]

0:50:13 Brennan: Yep, full gait. [Becca laughing]

0:50:16 Antiope: Sam, I don't know what the fuck that was, you good?

0:50:21 Sam: [sharply] I'm fine. Obviously.

0:50:27 Antiope: ...We'll talk later.

0:50:28 Sam: What is there to talk about, clearly?

0:50:31 Antiope: You know, what, now I'm on-

0:50:31 Sam: I'm done, I'm done. I'm leaving.

0:50:33 Sephie: Sam storms off.

0:50:37 Becca: Storms.

0:50:37 Sam: Yeah, exactly. [Brennan mimics thunder rolling]

0:50:41 Brennan: Distant thunder rolls, Sam leaves. Danielle, Ostentatia, and Antiope, you are left. The three of you in this central place. I believe Yelle, Ostentatia, and Sam already texted the group, “I'm in.” Do you depart from this place to go home and?

0:51:05 Erika: I'm gonna go after Sam.

0:51:05 Brennan: Cool, you walk after Sam. And we'll go over, Penny, you are invisible. Katja, you walk over and see Zelda sort of crouched up under a tree crying.

0:51:21 Rekha: I put a hand on her back. [tender instrumental music]

0:51:24 Katja: Hey, I'm sorry that that all happened, are you okay?

0:51:29 Zelda: [sniffles] It's stupid, I'm sorry.

0:51:33 Katja: If it's stupid you wouldn't cry about it.

0:51:36 Zelda: [sniffles] Thanks, Katja. I like… [sighs] It's really hard for me to talk to people. It's really hard for me to like, just make a point and disagree with someone. And Sam and Ostentatia are so, like, beautiful and people listen when they talk. And it's just like, I can feel my hands shaking when they disagree with me. And it's like, really hard to like... I just feel stupid.

0:52:15 Katja: You're not stupid for having a different opinion.

0:52:20 Zelda: If Antiope and Penny leave I don't...

0:52:26 Rekha: Katja completely agrees with Zelda, but doesn't want to show her cards because she wants people to decide what they want to do.

0:52:33 Brennan: Yeah.

0:52:34 Rekha: Without having to factor that Katja will feel abandoned by another person in her life. Brennan makes a pained expression and has to look away for a second.

0:52:40 Rekha: [laughs] So she's playing her cards close to the chest.

0:52:44 Brennan: She's like,

0:52:44 Zelda: It would, fucking, like, you know, like, I want it more than anything. I just want it...

0:52:54 Katja: Someone has to want to stay.

0:53:00 Brennan: Just give me a deception roll.

0:53:04 Rekha: 2, oh wait, plus 1, 3. [laughs] Uh-oh, uh-uh, bitch.

0:53:10 Brennan: You say, “​someone has to want to stay.” And you, I will let you tell me how this makes Katja feel.

0:53:24 Rekha: Yeah.

0:53:25 Brennan: Your lip trembles a lot when you say that.

0:53:28 Rekha: Oh yeah, I think she swallows it and says,

0:53:31 Katja: Too much spit, sorry.

0:53:31 Rekha: Trying to cover it. Very clear bad lie. [laughs] And I think she starts to kinda heavy breathe to herself. She's kind of run out of words to comfort Zelda in that moment.

0:53:47 Brennan: Zelda remains silent and puts like, Zelda is the other frontline person, but she's like itty-bitty short, but she is the barbarian and you're the fighter.

0:54:01 Rekha: Yeah.

0:54:02 Brennan: So she puts an arm up high around like your waist which is where she can get it and says,

0:54:06 Zelda: [wipes a tear] Oh, I found this cool new playlist. Here, hold on.

0:54:13 Brennan: And you see that she just puts an earbud in your ear and is like,

0:54:15 Zelda: Um, you wanna just like, take a walk back to, let's just, yeah.

0:54:23 Brennan: And she puts an earbud in your ear and you guys just silently-

0:54:24 Penny: Oh, wait! [players laughing]

0:54:28 Katja: Oh my God!

0:54:28 Brennan: Zelda full on, she's both scimitars like. [screams]

0:54:34 Rekha: Yeah, I take out my axe like-

0:54:34 Katja: Who the hell?

0:54:36 Becca: I'm in the tree above them hugging the branch. I'm surprised that when my tears fell onto their shoulders they didn't feel it.

0:54:45 Penny: It was beautiful, and I didn't want to interrupt 'cause I'm invisible still for a while, uh. Sorry if it's creepy.

0:54:55 Brennan: Zelda does a big goat-leg leap to grab you up out of the tree and holds you close and says,

0:55:01 Zelda: Penny, you don't have to like, go invisible when stuff pops off, like.

0:55:07 Penny: It feels really natural. I don't like confrontation.

0:55:08 Katja: I also hate confrontation.

0:55:11 Zelda: I also hate confrontation.

0:55:12 Katja: Oh my God, I also hate confrontation. I'm so glad we agree. I don't know what I would have done if we didn't agree.

0:55:18 Becca: Wait, can you be hugging and I'm in the middle, like feet off the ground 'cause I'm even shorter than she is.

0:55:24 Brennan: You guys hug, we're gonna cut back to-

0:55:27 Izzy: I would like to talk to Antiope.

0:55:29 Brennan: Yeah, that's right 'cause you go after Sam so it's just Ostentatia and Antiope left.

0:55:34 Izzy: Ostentatia's like looking at Antiope after everyone's left and Ostentatia's like,

0:55:39 Ostentatia: Listen, you know I love confrontation. [group laughing]

0:55:44 Antiope: I get that, I love it.

0:55:44 Ostentatia: But I wanna be gentle when I say this and because I think that I have been a raging bitch very recently. And it has caused some problems.

0:56:00 Rekha: Do you mean 10 seconds ago? [players laughing]

0:56:03 Aabria: This is a big, I'm not gonna jump in on it in your defense, like. [holds up her hands]

0:56:06 Ostentatia: I'm gonna be gentle.

0:56:09 Antiope: Mm-hmm. [Rekha laughing]

0:56:11 Ostentatia: [strained] Do you have something that you want to do that's not the group?

0:56:19 Antiope: Oh my God, are you gonna fucking cry?

0:56:23 Ostentatia: No. [group laughing]

0:56:26 Antiope: Whew, good. Look- [Ostentatia] sobs extremely loudly]

0:56:28 Antiope: Oh God! [reaches to catch her] [group laughing]

0:56:30 Rekha: Aw.

0:56:32 Aabria: Just on the first sob she just catches you. She's like,

0:56:35 Antiope: Okay, okay.

0:56:36 Ostentatia: [through tears] What the fuck is going on?

0:56:38 Aabria: I'm gonna take a knee here like,

0:56:41 Antiope: All right, here's the thing. Everything I've ever done has been decided for me before. Like, all the Joneses and they were like, you're gonna be a fighter.

0:56:49 Ostentatia: You've been keeping up [mouthing] with the Joneses? [Rekha chortles]

0:56:52 Antiope: It's even worse when your last name is Jones, and it's not funny. I don't like that you're, I wish you were crying and not laughing about this. I want the other emotion more 'cause I can interact with that.

0:57:03 Ostentatia: Everything is happening so just take your pick.

0:57:05 Antiope: Yeah. I was a little relieved when I thought that I was stuck in that stupid crystal and I wouldn't have to live up to those expectations, but now we're back and I've grown like half a foot, and now I'm finally that person, but I don't. I know Sam said that from a place of hurt or whatever the fuck she's dealing with, but she doesn't get to choose that for me, too. I love you guys with my whole heart, but I don't want any options taken away from me. I want to choose it, do you know what I mean?

0:57:40 Ostentatia: Yeah, I think I just got upset because like, it sort of came out of nowhere that anybody was even sort of like considering anything that wasn't the group so um, that's, you know, sort of where I was coming from. Been watching a lot of sort of like therapy shows recently to talk, you know, like a normal person.

0:58:08 Antiope: I appreciate you using I statements.

0:58:10 Ostentatia: [looking up] Yeah.

0:58:10 Antiope: That's very nice.

0:58:12 Ostentatia: Yeah, um… [soft instrumental music] So I guess we're all gonna sort of think on it. And it's actually gonna be fine. [Ostentatia makes a strained face, players laughing] [soft instrumental music]

0:58:34 Antiope: I think I just… [players laughing]

0:58:38 Antiope: You think you're good? [long pause] I love you.

0:58:42 Ostentatia: I love you.

0:58:44 Aabria: I just come around— [mimics hugging]

0:58:46 Brennan: You give a big hug. Yelle, you—

0:58:48 Ostentatia: I'm gonna go apologize to Zelda.

0:58:52 Brennan: You find Sam or you catch up with Sam as she is walking back to her car.

0:59:00 Danielle: Hey merbae, how's it going?

0:59:05 Sam: You know I can't keep a straight face when you say stuff like that, right?

0:59:10 Danielle: [grinning] Yeah. [players laughing]

0:59:13 Sam: I don't want to talk about it.

0:59:14 Danielle: Well, if you don't want to talk about it, you don't have to talk about it. I'm here in whatever capacity you need your friend Yelle in, you know? It's clear that something's really bothering you because you would never have popped off at the girls like that because you know how much they love you. You know how much they're dedicated to the group. And you know that this is a big decision. I mean, you have a lot of things going for yourself, too. Who's to say you wouldn't have chosen some other thing. You're brilliant. You have a whole history of...

0:59:58 Sam: Abandonment.

0:59:59 Danielle: Yeah, yeah, that seems to be a running theme for all of us, right? [gentle instrumental music]

1:00:06 Sam: Look, I can't lose more friends, people. I... I don't want things to change. And like, Penny has stuff all of a sudden, so does Antiope and... You know, we're an adventuring party. We're supposed to be together for a while. Like, we're supposed to do adventuring stuff and go on quests and, you know, murder people. [Rekha and Aabria mimic sobbing, players laughing]

1:00:52 Danielle: That's the Aguefort way.

1:00:54 Sam: Yeah, I just, how can they not want that? How can they want anything else?

1:01:02 Danielle: Well, here's the thing is that they do want this, but also listen, you have a lot to reckon with in your past. The abandonment, you know? And you have a lot of anxieties about the future. But maybe you just gotta live in right now.

1:01:25 Sam: The me that's living right now wants to continue being part of this group.

1:01:30 Danielle: Okay, so just express that and live in that. You've made your choice, you gotta let them make theirs. Nature constantly changes. Entropy's the way of life.

1:01:45 Sam: Nature sucks.

1:01:50 Danielle: [pauses for a moment] You're angry. [group laughing]

1:01:57 Danielle: That's fine, I'm gonna let that one go. [reaches out as if to soothe nature]

1:01:59 Aabria: Oh my God. [players laughing]

1:02:02 Sam: [Persephone] Okay, I know I upset Zelda. I know she's probably crying right now and I feel really, really bad about that, like, I do. I don't want to upset Zelda most of all, but like...

1:02:14 Danielle: Well, just send her a message on your crystal. Let her know how you feel. You know, we're family, okay. Like, some things, they say you never know who your people are until you're looking back at your life, but sometimes it's, you just go through things with people that you just know. [tender instrumental music]

1:02:44 Sam: Okay, maybe you're right this time. I still don't think you should have set fire to the cafeteria last week. [Brennan laughing]

1:02:50 Danielle: Man.

1:02:51 Sam: But this time, okay, maybe you have a point.

1:02:52 Danielle: They gotta get sustainable or they gotta get gone.

1:02:56 Brennan: [laughs] The thunder-

1:02:59 Sam: You're very intense right now.

1:03:01 Brennan: The thunder fades into a light misting of rain, the kind that doesn't even soak into your clothes, that just cools you down and evaporates as soon as it hits you. And as you all head home, and we're gonna run as many scenes here as you all wanna run, but you also do get emails from the school obviously 'cause this is sort of happening in the middle of the day. Other people have classes and schedules and things like that. But all of you get emails from the school registrar from the Vice Principal's Office basically saying, [Gilear voice] it has come to my attention that you'll be booking out the next two weeks for a quest. And you see that Aguefort must have done something to clear your class schedule. So for anyone else here, some of you have not responded to that text. Others have various other things they want to do. I'm gonna let anyone here tell me if they're doing something that night before we get to the next day.

1:04:08 Izzy: I would like to apologize to Zelda.

1:04:10 Brennan: Great, do you want to pursue her physically or do you want to just do that over...

1:04:14 Izzy: I think I run after her after I talk to Antiope.

1:04:17 Brennan: Cool, you run and you are like, so it's like before the next period. They're hanging out at a table, but it's Katja and Zelda and Penny just listening.

1:04:29 Katja: Three earbuds.

1:04:29 Brennan: Yeah, Penny comes in. Zelda has her crystal open on the thing and you see that she's doing this thing that Zelda does where she like, can't quite maintain eye contact but is looking to make sure you like the music she's playing. This music is literally. [mimics guitar roaring] Just wall of sound. [energetic metal music] She's like,

1:04:48 Zelda: Um...

1:04:49 Penny: Zelda, just use the friendship bracelet I gave you to check in and see people's faces.

1:04:53 Zelda: Oh, yeah, sorry.

1:04:54 Penny: You don't have to even make eye contact at all.

1:04:56 Zelda: Gotcha, are you enjoying it, like?

1:04:58 Katja: Yeah.

1:04:58 Zelda: Move your wrist a little. Oh, good, you like it, great.

1:05:03 Katja: I feel like I liked their earlier stuff better. This feels more derivative, but...

1:05:08 Zelda: That's totally what it is. That's literally exactly what I said.

1:05:11 Katja: Yeah, no, I'm literally so glad.

1:05:14 Penny: I like how they layer screams on top of other screams.

1:05:18 Katja: Yeah, did you listen to that podcast that broke down one of the songs into the first layer of screams and then the second layer of screams?

1:05:25 Brennan: Running up is Ostentatia. Izzy does an extremely aggressive run. [players laughing]

1:05:27 Ostentatia: [yelling] Zelda!

1:05:29 Brennan: She looks up and the last time you saw you, you were so mad she goes- [makes a face of pure terror]

1:05:31 Ostentatia: [still yelling] Not bad, not bad!

1:05:36 Zelda: Oh my God, oh my God. [laughs] Izzy mimes Ostentatia’s chest swinging back and forth as she runs.

1:05:39 Izzy: It's bag and boobs.

1:05:43 Aabria: It's just a flow to it.

1:05:43 Izzy: And extensions.

1:05:45 Brennan: Yeah, and extensions, just a lot is moving. She looks up and goes,

1:05:47 Zelda: Ostentatia, what?

1:05:51 Ostentatia: I'm so fuckin' sorry.

1:05:51 Aabria: Aw.

1:05:55 Zelda: [sniffs] Oh, God, yeah.

1:05:55 Brennan: Just bursts into tears. She looks up and she's like,

1:05:58 Zelda: I am so sorry.

1:06:00 Ostentatia: No! You don't even have to be sorry. I was such a fucking cow.

1:06:07 Brennan: She gives you a huge hug.

1:06:07 Ostentatia: Are cows mean?

1:06:12 Katja: No. [players laughing]

1:06:14 Brennan: She looks and says,

1:06:14 Zelda: Well, I'm half goat so [laughs awkwardly] you know, cow, animals.

1:06:18 Ostentatia: That's not a cow, but, you know.

1:06:21 Katja: Actually, Zelda, she's right, actually she's right.

1:06:25 Ostentatia: That's not a cow.

1:06:25 Zelda: You're right, listen, we all get things wrong sometimes and I'm wrong that, cows aren't goats and that was stupid.

1:06:30 Brennan: And she gives you a big hug and she's like,

1:06:36 Zelda: I, like, that's the funny thing is like, I agree with you, like, you're right. And I just can't get to that, like, it's so awesome how angry you get.

1:06:50 Ostentatia: Thank you.

1:06:51 Brennan: She's just like,

1:06:51 Zelda: I just like, can't get there without actually grabbing my sword. And I wish that I had somewhere between zero and 60 to get to, and like, it's not healthy that I don't. And I really, I really appreciate you. I appreciate you saying it 'cause it is, [very quietly] fucked, like.

1:07:11 Penny: Say it, say the word.

1:07:13 Zelda: [whispering] Fucked.

1:07:14 Penny: Pronounce all the syllables of it.

1:07:16 Zelda: [with a lot of emphasis on the “ed”] Fucked!

1:07:19 Penny: That's really good.

1:07:19 Ostentatia: Sorta added some.

1:07:21 Penny: That's really good. [Brennan laughing]

1:07:24 Zelda: Like, I don't want to be, like, if this adventuring group breaks up, like, what am I gonna do? Go with my famous boyfriend while he tours around either doing-

1:07:33 Ostentatia: Okay, well, don't say that because that sounds awesome. [players laughing] But listen, like, I'm in the same boat. I reacted emotionally because I was hurt. And, I um, you know, I... Listen, wherever… [a little teary] But without this group, I wouldn't have ever been able to say I'm sorry to you like I just said, do you know what I mean?

1:08:12 Zelda: That is great. I never would have been brave enough to even say, literally any words.

1:08:18 Penny: Mm-hmm.

1:08:18 Ostentatia: Yeah.

1:08:20 Katja: [crying] Without this group I wouldn't be able to look at the conversation.

1:08:24 Ostentatia: What?

1:08:24 Katja: Without this group, I wouldn't be able to look at this conversation, you know?

1:08:28 Ostentatia: What? [players laughing]

1:08:33 Zelda: No, I kinda get it.

1:08:35 Ostentatia: I kinda get it.

1:08:37 Katja: [sobs incoherently] This conversation.

1:08:40 Ostentatia: Yeah, absolutely. [players laughing]

1:08:46 Penny: Without this group, I just would have stayed in my previous adventuring party and graduated on time and got straight As and then gotten into a... I couldn't have done anything without this group.

1:08:55 Katja: Did we ruin your life? [players laughing]

1:08:57 Ostentatia: Seriously!

1:09:01 Rekha: Oh no. [laughs]

1:09:02 Zelda: No, but like, that's I get it, I get that, too, it's… [sighs] I need this, too.

1:09:12 Katja: I do, too.

1:09:16 Ostentatia: I guess like, Penny, no offense to talk about you like you're not here, sorry, but...

1:09:24 Penny: I never said I have a thing. I don't even have a thing.

1:09:27 Katja: Usually right before you say that, something offensive happens.

1:09:31 Ostentatia: And for sure, but, like, if Antiope and Penny have to go, you know, maybe we could still do this.

1:09:44 Penny: No, you can't! [group laughing]

1:09:48 Penny: Either all of stay together or there is no group.

1:09:52 Katja: See, everybody's trying to control what everybody else does.

1:09:55 Ostentatia: [through gritted teeth] I know, I just sorta can't get with that Penny, 'cause this was me sort of compromising.

1:10:02 Penny: Okay, but, [stutters] I can't deal with this.

1:10:07 Brennan: Zelda looks at you, Penny, and says,

1:10:09 Zelda: Penny, you having opportunities is awesome, but like, getting to choose any door is a gift, but nobody gets to choose every door. Like if you walk-

1:10:24 Penny: You can with chronomancy! [group laughing]

1:10:30 Penny: Pretty sure you can, there's a way, and I'll find it in that dark dungeon library.

1:10:34 Ostentatia: I think that's just a word that people like to say and like, isn't a thing.

1:10:37 Katja: Like higgledy-piggledy. [group laughing]

1:10:41 Ostentatia: Piggledy.

1:10:45 Brennan: Zelda looks and says,

1:10:45 Zelda: You have to decide what's right for you, but if you get to make a choice, so do all of us and...

1:10:53 Penny: I seriously never even told anybody I had a choice for anything so like, I don't-

1:10:57 Ostentatia: You like said the word, like you did bring up the word apprentice, so I think maybe just sort of like, perked us up a little bit.

1:11:08 Penny: [whispering] I just have a big vocabulary.

1:11:10 Brennan: Zelda looks and says,

1:11:10 Zelda: I love you.

1:11:17 Ostentatia: I love you.

1:11:17 Zelda: I love you. And Penny, I love you.

1:11:19 Penny: I love you.

1:11:22 Zelda: I love you.

1:11:22 Ostentatia: [to Katja] I love you.

1:11:24 Katja: I was so scared. [group laughing]

1:11:29 Zelda: I love you too, Katja, I love you.

1:11:32 Katja: [again through tears] I love you.

1:11:32 Ostentatia: I love you.

1:11:33 Penny: I love you and Cinnamon. Rekha pretends to fall over.

1:11:38 Brennan: You all go to the nurse's office as Katja passes out. Cool, we're gonna cut there. Are there any other scenes that happen that night in Elmville before the following morning?

1:11:47 Aabria: I'm definitely gonna ki— oh sorry.

1:11:49 Brennan: Oh sorry, yeah, yeah, yeah.

1:11:49 Reka: What? Kill?

1:11:50 Aabria: Yeah, I was gonna go kick down Corsica's door. I don't care if she's in the middle of class.

1:11:53 Brennan: Yeah, cool, you go back to the compound and Corsi-

1:11:55 Aabria: No, I do it while we're at school.

1:11:57 Brennan: Or her office, yeah.

1:11:57 Aabria: Her classroom if there's a class, I don't care.

1:12:00 Brennan: Yeah, she's fully teaching a class. She's there talking about like- Izzy mimes pushing a double door dramatically open.

1:12:04 Aabria: I just kick the door in.

1:12:04 Brennan: -stance and position and using your sword and she's like,

1:12:05 Corsica: Hey.

1:12:08 Antiope: I need to talk exactly right now.

1:12:10 Corsica: Okay, I'm in the middle of work.

1:12:13 Antiope: All of you, go.

1:12:17 Brennan: You see that this class of freshmen fucking clears out. [players laughing] Yeah, Corsica goes,

1:12:23 Corsica: Stop, stop, stop.

1:12:23 Brennan: And then watches them leave and says,

1:12:29 Corsica: Okay, Sis.

1:12:30 Aabria: I just bring a desk over and sit in front.

1:12:31 Corsica: Okay, sis, what’s up, what's going on?

1:12:34 Antiope: One, that was very fun, I enjoyed that. Erika snaps their fan open. The others, minus Brennan and Aabria, shortly follow.

1:12:37 Becca: Right?

1:12:37 Rekha: Yeah. Girl, it's been a minute.

1:12:40 Antiope: It was pretty cool.

1:12:42 Becca: I was thinking it, I reached for it.

1:12:44 Erika: [to Izzy, who has her fan partly open] I think there's only one correct way.

1:12:46 Aabria: One time, one direction.

1:12:46 Sephie: It only opens one direction. It's not bi-flippable.

1:12:51 Antiope: So, talked to Aguefort. Internship, they're gonna break up the group and everyone was super mad about it, it was terrible and I just need advice because like, you know that I bombed out of my first adventuring group so these girls mean everything to me. But just, I am very confused and actually I would like advice on what to do 'cause there's a group chat and I haven't responded and I know I need to. Help, please. I love you. I'm doing that a lot today, I'm very confused by this.

1:13:28 Corsica: I love you, too.

1:13:35 Brennan: Corsica sits back on her desk and crosses her arms and thinks hard. You see her not go to the pat answer. She doesn't go to the thing of like, you know, “oh, follow your heart, it's easy.” And you see the trip put on your sister, too. She didn't bomb out of her first group. She was an exceptional fighter from the jump like your brothers were, and you see her and see this weight of sorrow on her face from knowing how much harder of a time you've had bringing up the caboose of the Jones legacy. You see-

1:14:21 Rekha: Long caboose, caboose. L-cab.

1:14:23 Brennan: You see her think for a second longer, too, and she goes,

1:14:39 Corsica: [long pause] Ajax is stronger than a lot of giants, and Ulysses is quicker on the draw than almost any elven archer I've ever seen. Prospero is better at magic than most wizards and he's a fighter. And none of us have ever done the actual hardest thing there is to do [soft instrumental music] which is disappoint Mom and Dad. Thinking about it makes me sweat. I've held open a wyvern's mouth by standing on its lower jaw and pushing the upper jaw up with my hand.

1:15:35 Antiope: I remember the Christmas story that you tell every year. [group laughing]

1:15:40 Becca: It's on the Christmas card.

1:15:40 Rekha: It's in the card. It's a newsletter, yeah.

1:15:41 Becca: Yeah, yeah.

1:15:42 Brennan: You won't believe what Corsica did this year. [players laughing]

1:15:46 Izzy: Our Corsica.

1:15:46 Sephie: Our Corsica.

1:15:50 Brennan: You see she goes, [soft instrumental music]

1:16:02 Corsica: Here's what I think. I think if you do something because I say it's a good idea, you'll probably be operating from the place that me and Ajax and Prospero and Ulysses go from. We're incredible warriors, but we want to be part of the team and ultimately we're soldiers. We like to have the shots called and we execute and we get it done. Those kids walked out of the room when you told them to. I've never stepped out of line. It's not who I am. Maybe for you it's not about stepping out of line or stepping into line. Maybe you're supposed to be the one calling the line to attention.

1:17:12 Antiope: [stuttering] Okay, I was really, you're a really good teacher. That was really good.

1:17:19 Corsica: Oh thanks, sis, I appreciate it. You know I got this job 'cause you went missing, right?

1:17:23 Antiope: No, I know. You don't have to- Thank you, thank you for becoming a teacher and not like actively finding me or anything like that, that's-

1:17:32 Corsica: Oh shit, for real? [players shouting]

1:17:34 Antiope: I'm just playing-

1:17:37 Corsica: Listen, I gave you a lot of compliments. I will kick your ass in the middle of this empty classroom. There's no witnesses thanks to you. [players laughing]

1:17:44 Antiope: You know what? I'm gonna do a push up and then I'll be back.

1:17:50 Brennan: She leans in and gives you a kiss on the cheek and she says,

1:17:51 Corsica: Whatever you do, I'll do my best to cover for you with Mom and Dad, okay? And there's no wrong choices, not between you and me.

1:18:02 Antiope: Thanks for always looking out for me.

1:18:03 Aabria: I just headbutt her a little too hard.

1:18:05 Brennan: Boom, yeah, she likes it.

1:18:07 Rekha: I thought of a thing I want to do before the night ends.

1:18:09 Sephie: Same here.

1:18:09 Brennan: Awesome, amazing. Let's go, actually, I think everyone might have something. Let's just go around the table. Rekha, let's go for it.

1:18:17 Rekha: Yes, I want to call my dad because my family's super rich. I think one of the schools is named after us, an elementary school or something, right?

1:18:23 Brennan: Yeah, Skullcleaver Elementary.

1:18:24 Rekha: So he might know- [group laughing]

1:18:28 Rekha: Copy that. Fucking “kill people elementary”, K through four.

1:18:35 Aabria: Oh my God.

1:18:35 Becca: Poor nurse.

1:18:37 Sephie: Here's your first broadsword.

1:18:40 Rekha: Yeah, right? I want to ask if he knows anyone, like the Superintendent of Schools or anyone who might know her or anyone at the Department of Education or whatever.

1:18:50 Brennan: Amazing, I'm gonna ask for a straight up, just a d20 roll, and you just want a high number here.

1:19:00 Rekha: [rolls] Okay, wait, you said high or low number?

1:19:02 Brennan: I said high number.

1:19:02 Rekha: Oh, you said high. You didn't say, 2?

1:19:09 Aabria: Can I see that? Rekha hands Aabria her die and Aabria throws it clear off the table.

1:19:09 Brennan: Cool. You- [players laughing]

1:19:09 Rekha: In-crrrredible!

1:19:09 Brennan: I love it, I love it.

1:19:15 Sephie: That's banned.

1:19:15 Aabria: We're done.

1:19:16 Rekha: I don't even remember what that said. I usually roll-

1:19:19 Sephie: Did you roll anything?

1:19:22 Rekha: I think that roll, it went over there.

1:19:23 Aabria: There was nothing there.

1:19:24 Brennan: Yeah, yeah, it doesn't count on the ground.

1:19:27 Izzy: What does it say? Brennan leans down to check.

1:19:27 Aabria: I don't know, I can't see it.

1:19:30 Brennan: So you get home that night. Lockwood has dinner ready for you, everything's looking good and you go to your room and go on your screen and you call your dad and it goes. [mimics phone ringing]

1:19:45 Aabria: Don't.

1:19:46 Brennan: Hey, you've reached the voicemail of Karl Cleaver, I'm deep on the 888th layer of the Abyss. Leave a message, if I don't get- [coughing laugh] The demon doesn't get me, I'll get back to you.

1:19:58 Erika: He made a custom-

1:19:58 Rekha: I was just, yeah.

1:20:01 Katja: Hey, Dad-

1:20:01 Erika: Message for that quest.

1:20:03 Katja: Number one, you don't need to update your voice message every time you go somewhere. I think that's very boomer of you. And then, two, if you could just call me back. I know the time difference is weird, but I just wondered, do you know someone named Tectonya Karkovnya or anyone at the school district just 'cause I figured out what I want for graduation, and it's that I don't want to lose my adventuring party.

1:20:32 Brennan: [pained] Cool.

1:20:32 Katja: Okay, bye.

1:20:34 Brennan: Incredible. Go ahead though and give me a history check if you'd be so kind.

1:20:38 Rekha: [rolls] Okay, that's interesting. Okay, 13.

1:20:42 Aabria: [with a significant glance at the die] I'm gonna.

1:20:44 Rekha: Yeah, can you throw this for me? [laughs]

1:20:46 Brennan: Your dad has an office here that you're welcome- Rekha gives another die to Aabria, who yeets it. It makes a pretty loud noise. [players laughing]

1:20:52 Becca: Through the dome wall.

1:20:52 Sephie: Breaks the dome straight up.

1:20:55 Izzy: Did you throw that in the set?

1:20:57 Brennan: I love it, I love it.

1:20:58 Aabria: That's so far!

1:20:59 Brennan: It's good, I love it.

1:21:02 Sephie: Things happen.

1:21:04 Brennan: So with a 13, you go into your dad's office. You look around some of his documents. You find some stuff about Tectonya, who is again, the Superintendent of Schools for Solace so mostly oversaw a lot of mundane high schools 'cause there's only one Adventuring Academy in Solace which is the Aguefort Adventuring Academy. But you find some correspondence looking through your dad's desk where he gets in touch with the Superintendent's Office. You don't see anything from Tectonya personally, but you see stuff from the Superintendent's Office where he's basically trying to guarantee. First, he's pushing for your admission into Hudol even though you're not magical just 'cause it's prestigious and he's very wealthy.

1:21:50 Rekha: And that deeply embarrasses me that he had to push for that, but yes.

1:21:54 Brennan: Yes, it's very embarrassing. But you find some other stuff in here, again, from the Ministry of Adventuring that obviously he works with and sometimes for as an adventurer. Basically like, you know, some huge percentage of Solace's population, like probably not north of 10%, but like, a percentage of its inhabitants are adventurers. So some thousands and thousands of adventurers are off running around the massive world of Spyre. And so there's a whole sort of governmental agency that deals with them. Your dad's one of the world's most powerful and famous adventurers. And so you see a lot of interface there. And there's specifically like, a lot of actually interesting bureaucracy stuff here. And you see, I'd say on a 13 you see a piece of correspondence asking a question from a couple years ago to Mr. Cleaver if he had any contact with Tectonya. And you don't have his response 'cause it was sent in a letter, but there was a letter sent to him many years ago basically saying if he had heard from Tectonya Karkovnya. And that's the only information you get on a 13.

1:23:22 Rekha: Is there anything else in this office I can poke around and look for?

1:23:26 Brennan: Give me an investigate check.

1:23:29 Rekha: I'm running out of dice.

1:23:29 Aabria: I'm sorry.

1:23:30 Rekha: No, it's beautiful.

1:23:30 Becca: [gasps] It's a 2! Throw it, throw it!

1:23:33 Rekha: It teetered!

1:23:36 Aabria: It bounced on 20!

1:23:36 Rekha: Oh my God.

1:23:38 Brennan: Oh no.

1:23:38 Rekha: I'm rolling like Daisy, so it was a 5.

1:23:41 Brennan: Oh no. You find nothing else in here.

1:23:43 Rekha: Incredible.

1:23:46 Brennan: You find nothing else. If anything, oh no, sorry, you do find one thing.

1:23:49 Rekha: Okay.

1:23:49 Izzy: A hunk of shit.

1:23:50 Brennan: In a drawer of your dad's desk is a small framed portrait of a Half-Orc woman.

1:23:57 Rekha: I close the drawer immediately and I go out to Cinnamon and I go,

1:24:03 Katja: And he had a photo of her and I feel horrible! [laughs]

1:24:07 Brennan: Oh no! [laughs] Oh sorry, you said he had a what?

1:24:13 Rekha: Oh, he had a photo of her.

1:24:14 Brennan: Oh, he had a photo of her, yes. Cinnamon says, [sighs]

1:24:15 Cinnamon: I'm so sorry, Katja. Would it help if I pranced?

1:24:23 Katja: Cinnamon, you fucking know it would. Brennan does an interesting arm dance that vaguely resembles dressage horses.

1:24:28 Rekha: And can I check to see if I can dance pretty well alongside her?

1:24:33 Brennan: Yeah, give me a performance.

1:24:34 Aabria: 2.

1:24:34 Rekha: Okay, that's a 3 plus- [players laughing] Okay, so I'll tell you exactly, 3 plus 1, 4. Okay so yeah.

1:24:38 Brennan: Cool, you don't prance well.

1:24:42 Rekha: Yeah, so Cinnamon's doing that. I've tripped over myself and into Cinnamon's fucking butt.

1:24:49 Brennan: Katja's having a hard night. Penny, what does Penny get up to that day?

1:24:54 Becca: Well, I just can't 'cause that's like a callback to this thing and there's many memes of, we call it dressage what you just did. Becca and Brennan do dressage arms.

1:25:02 Aabria: We call it dressage.

1:25:03 Rekha: We!

1:25:03 Brennan: We, the dressage community.

1:25:06 Rekha: We're Sterling here.

1:25:06 Aabria: Yeah.

1:25:08 Becca: We call it dressage.

1:25:08 Brennan: Oh.

1:25:09 Becca: No, it was like an RPG game where we all were horses and did dressage. I gotta go. Penny. Penny really wants to talk to someone and her mom's at a tavern, but it's so hard to talk to anyone in her family. And she wants to talk to her friends but they're kind of like the thing she needs to talk about so she's gonna talk to Mrs. Maugly Dimweather the librarian.

1:25:35 Brennan: I can dig that, absolutely. Also, I will say this, too. If you're looking for faculty to talk to at the school well, I was going to say, if you're looking for specific arcana. It depends on if you're looking for intellectual or emotional aid at this moment. Intellectually, Maugly Dimweather's great. She's the librarian, she's definitely gonna help you find stuff. But if you're like, want to talk to someone, your school has a guidance counselor.

1:26:03 Becca: I need to see the guidance counselor.

1:26:05 Brennan: Cool.

1:26:05 Becca: Yeah. [warm and cute piano music]

1:26:06 Brennan: You walk into an office. It smells in here like fresh herbal tea and sunshine and a lot of great little plants and flowers. You see there's a bunch of books of like, there's a fun mix of books about psychology and meditation and health stuff but also a lot of books of journalism and world cultures. There's a lot of gonzo journalism-style things of people who've traveled and explored and written essays about places. There's also some rock posters up on the wall, some cool band posters. You see a full werewolf in a beautiful, thick-neck cardigan, like long to the knees cardigan. Rekha snaps open her fan. Everyone else follows suit.

1:26:58 Brennan: He's got-

1:26:59 Sephie: Oh yeah, Jawbone, abso-fucking-lutely.

1:27:01 Aabria: Let’s go, oh yeah.

1:27:02 Brennan: He's got some denim cutoff shorts where the pockets peek out a little bit and an old, faded band T-shirt. Rekha, on hearing “denim cutoff shorts”, starts fan headbanging.

1:27:15 Sephie: Oh God, yes.

1:27:15 Brennan: And some little, half-moon-

1:27:18 Rekha: Oh, yeah. Rekha is hitting herself in the face with her fan. [players laughing]

1:27:22 Brennan: And some half-moon spectacles. And you see he goes,

1:27:24 Jawbone: Well hey there, Miss Luckstone. How's it going? Come on in, pull up a seat. Hold on, let me get a chair. It's a mess.

1:27:34 Penny: [swooning a bit] You didn't have to get a chair for me. I could have stood for a really long time. I know, I am the same, yeah.

1:27:41 Brennan: Yes, you see a little gold plate saying Jawbone O'Shaughnessey.

1:27:45 Becca: Right, right.

1:27:46 Brennan: And you see he goes-

1:27:46 Izzy: He's Irish. [group laughing]

1:27:51 Rekha: Oh fuck, this guy's Irish, oh fuck.

1:27:54 Brennan: You see, so Jawbone says,

1:27:54 Jawbone: Come on in, kiddo, take a seat. Oh, I heard the, I think I know what this is about. How are you holding up, are you okay?

1:28:07 Penny: What did you hear?

1:28:08 Jawbone: Well, I talked to Principal Aguefort and he said that you were gonna be graduating. I know that the Seven, you're nigh on inseparable.

1:28:18 Penny: I know, we're fucking epic, and I'm sure everybody's really upset about it in the whole school. Were multiple people not in our group coming to talk to you about our group disbanding?

1:28:29 Jawbone: Other students sad that your adventuring party was breaking up? [players laughing]

1:28:35 Penny: Yeah, was there anybody else concerned?

1:28:39 Jawbone: Well, you know, I don't want to lie, but I also... Here's the thing, Penny, you know who was really concerned? I was, I was really concerned.

1:28:48 Penny: Aw, I thought a lot of people would be concerned. First of all, I really appreciate that you are such a guide.

1:28:57 Jawbone: How can I help you?

1:28:57 Penny: I don't know what to do. All I've ever wanted in my life is be a part of this Society of Shadows I never knew about until yesterday [players laughing] 'cause that's how secret it is and I shouldn't have told you, but guidance counselor confidentiality, right?

1:29:16 Jawbone: Not super especially on that.

1:29:17 Penny: [yelling] Say it! Say it!

1:29:18 Jawbone: I'm actually a dedicated reporter so I have to, but yeah.

1:29:22 Penny: Okay, swear to me though.

1:29:24 Jawbone: What's that?

1:29:25 Penny: Don't tell anybody about the secrets or else they're probably gonna retract their offer of apprenticeship.

1:29:30 Jawbone: I swear I won't tell people about this secret society that was completely unprompted by me, but yeah.

1:29:35 Penny: Okay, cool, so now that we have our guidance counselor confidentiality worked out. Should have done that first. I really love my friend group. I love them so much, but I mean, can we be our high school friend group forever? Do people adventure forever with the same party? Yes, they do, why even? I don't know! I'm just really torn. I have to text this group crystal thread back tonight or else they're never gonna, you know, they're gonna be so mad, especially Ostentatia. She's like, she's holding it in so well. [group laughing] For now. Izzy pretends to flip a table.

1:30:16 Brennan: You see Jawbone looks at you and says,

1:30:23 Jawbone: It's a big decision, and there's a lot to think about there.

1:30:30 Penny: It's like the highest achieving thing you can do. I know, I'm sorry, you were gonna say a big speech, but it's just like, I want to do the highest achieving thing and I didn't know that that could be something other than academic and career stuff until I met this group and these maidens, which we're not gonna be maidens forever. We don’t need to talk about that, we don’t need to talk about that. [players laughing] I'm sorry, I'm focused on what you wanna do. There are various yells from the cast. Some fans come out.

1:30:52 Jawbone: It's okay.

1:30:52 Penny: I caught it.

1:30:53 Jawbone: It's okay, hey, the important thing is this. You have a real bond with these friends, that matters. Yes, things change over time, but also you can hold onto things that matter to you. What I see, if I can be honest with you, is a little bit of anxiety. Maybe like, in your life you've never had to choose because you could always just try harder to keep every single plate spinning. And maybe as you approach adulthood, something is coming that might actually mean something gets dropped. Am I incorrect? You have a fair amount of siblings, that's right?

1:31:50 Penny: You could say that.

1:31:51 Jawbone: You live in that house. I heard about that. You live in that Rube Goldberg machine, right?

1:31:55 Penny: Uh, well, it's not like a machine. I mean, we created it specifically to serve me and my, yeah, me and Katie, Susie, Johnny, Bobby, Billy, Jenny, Kathy, Becky, Joey, Nellie, Ollie, Wally, Dolly, Kenny, Kelly, Carrie, Dewey, Halley, and then Lorie is the baby.

1:32:11 Jawbone: Oh, how's Lorie doing?

1:32:13 Penny: She's adorable.

1:32:14 Jawbone: Amazing.

1:32:15 Penny: Yeah, she just gurgled this morning and spit up on the floor.

1:32:18 Jawbone: Oh, I love babies, that's great.

1:32:21 Penny: The mops just outdo themselves.

1:32:25 Jawbone: Your flawless grades, keep a lot of things in the air. I think that there might be a part of you that is feeling anxiety, again, not just around the social aspect of all of this but the fact that for the first time you're starting to see that in adult life you're not on the rails anymore. We structure the lives of kids to have an amount of brass rings where you can grab them all. Year after year there's grades and there's finals and there's all these things. And as you approach adulthood, all of a sudden, you're not on a ride, you're in the amusement park and it's closing eventually. And you gotta decide what rides you want to go on and what brass rings you want to get 'cause you, and Penny, I need you to hear me here. You're not going to be able to get them all.

1:33:30 Penny: Okay, but you just bring a tent and then you camp in the amusement park and then you can do anything.

1:33:34 Jawbone: Yeah, so extend that into the metaphorical meaning of what I'm saying.

1:33:40 Penny: Yeah, okay. I think you're saying I have to make a difficult choice and no one's gonna give me the answer.

1:33:51 Jawbone: Yeah.

1:33:53 Penny: Wow, you're really good at this.

1:33:56 Jawbone: Hey, you know, I just sit here and I drink tea and I just talk about life. Again, mostly it's, you know what you gotta do. And the hard thing is this, Penny. The stuff that's coming, no one's gonna give you a grade on most of it. Your friend group, you have to decide the right thing to do and there's not an answer at the back of the book. It's just gonna be what you want.

1:34:37 Penny: What you're saying is a really harsh and cruel-

1:34:41 Jawbone: [laughs] It's not. It's actually pretty... Kiddo, you're gonna make the right choice, okay?

1:34:51 Penny: Okay.

1:34:53 Jawbone: Best of luck.

1:34:55 Penny: Thank you Mr. O'Shaughnessey.

1:34:56 Becca: And I lean in for a kiss. [players laughing]

1:34:57 Rekha: Oh my God, oh my God!

1:34:59 Brennan: A furry paw grabs your head and he says,

1:35:02 Jawbone: All right, kiddo, you have a good one.

1:35:02 Brennan: And just walks you.

1:35:06 Rekha: Horrible.

1:35:09 Aabria: That's bad.

1:35:10 Brennan: He closes,

1:35:10 Jawbone: Any time, little Luckstone.

1:35:12 Brennan: And closes the door.

1:35:12 Penny: Thank you. It was just a thank you kiss.

1:35:18 Brennan: Erika.

1:35:18 Erika: So Danielle goes home to the tree and she sits outside of the yurt while she is playing with, it's a seed that she's like, sort of training to form itself. So instead of whittling the wood away it's growing the wood around it. So while she's doing that, she addresses Holly, the tree.

1:35:50 Brennan: Holly, who in many ways also raised you and has been here your whole life, turns around. Face forms out of the tree's bark. [soft piano music]

1:36:02 Holly: [very slow and warm] Oh, hey, sweetie.

1:36:07 Danielle: Aw, hi, Holly. Good to see you, tree mom.

1:36:12 Holly: Oh, my little leggy kiddo walking around on legs. [players laughing]

1:36:21 Danielle: Well, someday I'll put down roots.

1:36:26 Holly: I hope so. For someone who was raised by a tree, I feel like you spend a lot of time in the clouds sometimes, Yelle.

1:36:36 Danielle: [staring into the distance] Yeah, the clouds. [group laughing] Well, so you know, faced with the prospect of the group going their separate ways, you know, I just want what's best for everyone. And I don't think they even know what that is. I don't think any of us can really know, but uh... You know, it's been hard not having a group, you know? I mean, after the debacle with the refinery and first year and then that second group with the cafeteria fire it's been kinda hard to find out where I belong.

1:37:55 Brennan: A branch comes down.

1:37:57 Rekha: Oh.

1:37:58 Brennan: And touches your arm. And for some reason, Holly being a manifestation of the natural world, being a living, awakened tree, I don't know how often Danielle has opened up like this to her Elven and Human mom or to other people at all. Holly looks and says,

1:38:25 Holly: You're a voice for a lot of parts of the world that don't often get a chance to talk. And you work so hard on being calm because I think deep down you know how unfair the world is to all the things that can't speak for themselves.

1:38:57 Brennan: And you see a beautiful forest full of trees and animals, all of whom you would know on sight and have come up to you and you've fed each and every one of them. And she looks at you and says,

1:39:15 Holly: I can share something that might be painful.

1:39:28 Danielle: You know, you need to open up a wound to clean it and so it can heal, yeah.

1:39:36 Brennan: Holly smiles and tears come out of her eyes as she goes,

1:39:39 Holly: Very lovely adage. And you are a voice for the voiceless, and you speak on behalf of those who can not speak for themselves. And you speak always in terms of what is right. Wisdom, compassion, justice. A heart that is dedicated to speak only for the voiceless may struggle from time to time to speak for itself. There is no great cause of justice in acknowledging that you are a creature of the forest with a heart who may from time to time be lonely.

1:40:51 Danielle: [very softly] Yeah, yeah, I sometimes feel like, you know, I care so much about all the living creatures in the world. And yeah, I finally found some that care about me. I don't want to let go of that, but I gotta let 'em speak for themselves. Maybe you're right. I should speak for myself.

1:41:26 Erika: She looks down and there are six perfectly formed little wooden and sprouted half hearts.

1:41:38 Sephie: Aw.

1:41:38 Rekha: [leaning back in her chair] Oh my God. Sephie puts her hands over her heart.

1:41:46 Brennan: Holly smiles and looks and says,

1:42:00 Holly: The thing that may hurt that I wish to share with you is how worried your mothers are because they hear the wisdom in your voice. You speak with a clarity of purpose that far surpasses the burden that is placed on most people of your age. They worry that you have tended to the soul of the world at the expense of your own heart. A moment may come when you need to communicate a need for something that is of the self, and you will not be able to cloak that need in words of cause or justice. It will be the cry of an animal in pain, and you will need to be able to say that.

1:43:16 Danielle: Oh. I really hope I'm high for it. [group laughing]

1:43:26 Brennan: Six little hearts gleam with a fairy firelight. And we move from Yelle to Ostentatia. Was Ostentatia doing anything that night in Elmville?

1:43:43 Izzy: The only thing that I would like to have Ostentatia do is like, I think she's just sort of having a pretty regular night, like avoiding her dad 'cause of the fight that they had. And she, in her room, I would like her to cast Commune with the City.

1:44:02 Brennan: Awesome.

1:44:06 Izzy: To see if she can find [with great emphasis on each syllable] Tectonya.

1:44:10 Brennan: Mm-hmm.

1:44:12 Rekha: So she says, [air quotes] “Tectonya.” [laughs] Allegedly.

1:44:21 Brennan: You cast Commune With the City. She is not in the city of Elmville, but do you detect that she has at times been here. The city is able to communicate back to you at least that.

1:44:31 Izzy: Are there like, remnants of her magic?

1:44:39 Brennan: Sam communicated everything from the mirror, right?

1:44:42 Sephie: Mm-hmm.

1:44:42 Izzy: Yes.

1:44:43 Brennan: Go ahead and make a religion check for me. Izzy rolls and it tumbles away from her, but she stops it before it falls off the table.

1:44:48 Aabria: Good catch.

1:44:48 Izzy: Should I take that?

1:44:50 Brennan: Is it flat on the table?

1:44:51 Izzy: Yeah.

1:44:51 Brennan: Yeah.

1:44:52 Sephie: Bounced off the hand though.

1:44:53 Izzy: Religion?

1:44:53 Brennan: Yeah.

1:44:56 Izzy: 17.

1:44:59 Brennan: You saw that Dwarven temple in Sam's mirror.

1:45:04 Izzy: Oh yeah. [dramatic instrumental music]

1:45:07 Brennan: You feel like you've heard of places like that in the past. You even, on a 17, you know that there is. You could go look it up. If you went to a church or went somewhere you would be able to find information. But like, there is a famous Dwarven holy site in the Mountain of Chaos that sounds, that that sounds descriptive of to you. It's not a temple that has a congregation. It's like the site of a very dangerous and deadly pilgrimage for Dwarven heroes that go there. But yeah, so you would know that. And it's interesting that Tectonya went there. Your dad makes it really easy to avoid him. He just stays in the TV room pretty much all night. You hear a lack of fighting from downstairs which is maybe even more disquieting. And you say your prayers to Logran Soulforger at night. What prayers, if any, do you say to your divinity as you pray? Izzy gives him a considering look.

1:46:26 Brennan: Sorry, I should say, as you're praying for your spells, is there anything that you add in communication to your deity?

1:46:34 Izzy: When people pray….

1:46:34 Brennan: Mm-hmm.

1:46:36 Izzy: What do they say? [group laughing] Like, hey, would you give me this? [chuckles]

1:46:47 Brennan: Yes, usually a little bit more, but no, I would say that like-

1:46:51 Aabria: More bargaining. [laughs]

1:46:51 Brennan: Yeah, yeah.

1:46:53 Izzy: I'll give you-

1:46:55 Rekha: Yeah, it's a trade.

1:46:56 Aabria: I'll stop doing this if you please fix this.

1:46:58 Rekha: I'll give you my Walkman, you give me... [laughs]

1:47:03 Izzy: Good times.

1:47:05 Brennan: Just if there's anything that you would communicate to a divinity that does grant you spells, but if there's anything else, like a miracle, like your mom asked to ask for Chenzo to have more broken cars-

1:47:15 Izzy: Yeah, I'll sort of throw that in there.

1:47:17 Brennan: Great.

1:47:18 Izzy: Be like, yeah, fix Chenzo's car. But most importantly I'm like, I want my dad to feel like himself again. [warm piano music]

1:47:34 Brennan: You ask for that and feel that go to a place. You hear emptiness of ancient stone halls somewhere waiting for a response that in your life has only ever been spells in the following morning. And this night is no different. Sam.

1:48:00 Sephie: So Sam goes back to the Everpetals' which is now empty and dark. And she goes in the front door and then looks at her phone. Hovers over Zelda's name and debates texting her but doesn't. And then just stands there in the quiet of this place where she shared a space with the girl who tried to use her as a sacrifice and makes a bad decision. She goes upstairs and into Penelope's old room and shuts the door behind her.

1:48:51 Brennan: You shut the door. [dramatic instrumental music]

1:48:55 Sephie: She pulls out the mirror. And even though it's used its charge for the day she attempts to force it to show her Penelope.

1:49:10 Brennan: Give me a wisdom saving throw.

1:49:13 Sephie: Absolutely. That is a 5. [players gasp]

1:49:22 Izzy: Well, I am scared.

1:49:23 Brennan: You hold the mirror. The room is dark. White primer on the wall. The mirror goes from the cool, misty, metallic feel at the seam and begins to become much warmer than that by far. Edge of the mirror flickers with flame. You go to the past. You see middle school-aged Penelope with braces running up to you and throwing her arms around you for the first time and saying, “we're gonna be best friends forever.” And the mirror, pushed past what is safe for it, flickers with fire, and it does not show you the past for very long. Ringed in flame, endlessly dark you begin to see a visage in a beautiful, pink satin gown, tattered and burning. In the mockery of a crown, jagged shards of glass stabbed into her skull in a ring bleeding. Deep eyeless sockets.

1:50:57 Izzy: No!

1:51:01 Brennan: And a mouth full of uncountable razor-sharp teeth.

1:51:15 Penelope: Um, oh my God. A call without a text first. Are you out of your fucking mind?

1:51:26 Sam: You look better than you ever did alive.

1:51:28 Rekha: Oh!

1:51:28 Aabria: Oof. No

1:51:30 Rekha: Oh my god. [screams] Oh my God. Some fans come out.

1:51:33 Aabria: Yep, okay. [Rekha gasps] Izzy, from where she’s collapsed under the table, flaps her fan out. [players laughing]

1:51:43 Brennan: The infernal form of Penelope Everpetal confined to the depths of Hell looks up and goes,

1:51:58 Penelope: Um... [chuckles] That's a nice little jab, Sam. [sinister instrumental music]

1:52:05 Sam: Like all those jabs in your skull right now?

1:52:08 Penelope: Oh, I think you'd know something about jabs in the face, sweetie. [Rekha wheezing]

1:52:14 Aabria: [whispering] Oh my God.

1:52:17 Penelope: Or is that just what water genasi look like? Nice beret, by the way.

1:52:21 Sam: Thanks, it's vintage just like your dress. You couldn't change in Hell?

1:52:28 Penelope: I don't know. I'm gonna be like this forever, so I thought, why not still wear my old prom dress? [deep, demonic voice] It still fits.

1:52:35 Sam: Hm, yeah you might want a second opinion on that.

1:52:38 Brennan: [chuckles] You see she smiles. Make an insight check for me.

1:52:44 Aabria: She’s trying to drag you.

1:52:49 Sephie: [nervous noise] I don't know what that is, okay-

1:52:52 Becca: A 10?

1:52:52 Sephie: 10, it landed like, I'm gonna go with a 10, that's a 19.

1:52:59 Brennan: She smiles. On a 19. Let me ask something of you or of Sam. On a 19, does a 19 feel, 'cause Sam is actually trying to get insight into herself. How good is Sam at reading herself? Does she read herself on a 19 or no?

1:53:26 Sephie: No.

1:53:30 Brennan: Then Sam doesn't notice that this trading of barbs will only ruin her because at the end of the day Penelope delights in pain and Sam doesn't.

1:53:50 Penelope: So you just called me out of the blue 'cause you're obsessed with me or do you wanna finally, I don't know, make a deal with the Devil? [tucks hair behind her ear] I would do a lot to get back into the world, Sam.

1:54:05 Sam: I bet you would, I really bet you would. But sadly, those knees are scuffed enough. [players laughing]

1:54:15 Brennan: She says,

1:54:15 Penelope: At least I get my knees scuffed. My God, how long were you dating Johnny Spells, a guy who doesn't fuck?

1:54:23 Brennan: Off in the distance you hear, Johnny Spells, presumably: That was only true while I was alive! Please stop spreading that rumor! [players laughing]

1:54:32 Penelope: Do you want to say hi to your old flame? He's even [demonic voice] flamier [normal] than ever.

1:54:38 Sam: Why are you so willing to pass off the spotlight, Penny? Or should I say Penelope?

1:54:44 Penelope: Yeah.

1:54:45 Sam: I have a different Penny in my life now.

1:54:47 Penelope: Oh God. [mimics gagging] The Seven Maidens, advertising your lameness to the entire school, incredible. I'm so glad that you were able to bounce back. What is it that you want, Sam?

1:55:03 Becca: Defend us.

1:55:08 Sam: You should know your parents are divorcing.

1:55:10 Sephie: And I close the mirror. [players screaming] [Brennan laughing]

1:55:19 Erika: Oh my God.

1:55:19 Rekha: Wild! [pounding the table] Oh my God! Sephie snaps her fan out and coolly fans herself in the midst of the chaos. [players laughing] [players clapping]

1:55:30 Brennan: As the mirror snaps shut, pow, the room goes dark in a very quiet house and from there many other things may happen that night, but I am going to ask us to move to the next day with the only caveat being, does anyone else respond to the group thread?

1:55:52 Rekha: I think Katja, after just seeing that picture of her mom, talking to Cinnamon, dancing with her and failing to dance is so irate and so fucking just heated up she pulls out her crystal and she starts drafting a long message. She's like, I know I haven't always been one to. No, no, no, no. Like, she does this for one hour.

1:56:16 Brennan: Yeah.

1:56:18 Rekha: And then she just writes, I am in, period and sends.

1:56:24 Brennan: Zelda does not respond to the group thread. And a few minutes after Katja sends, I am in, just Antiope and Penny get a message from Zelda saying,

1:56:41 Zelda: I don't want to be the fifth “I'm in” waiting for you on the group thread. I love you both. Whatever decision you make is the right one.

1:56:54 Brennan: And then you see, so we've had four responses of seven. And we will move to the next day unless there is a response that night. The next morn-

1:57:12 Becca: I gotta text Antiope.

1:57:14 Brennan: Yeah.

1:57:15 Becca: Exclamation point, question mark, exclamation point, question mark.

1:57:19 Aabria: Oh, God. Antiope has two modes. She's a terrible texter. It's tapback reactions and wall of text. [group laughing]

1:57:28 Rekha: Just tapback, exclamation point.

1:57:30 Aabria: Yep, [laughs] 100%.

1:57:34 Becca: Uh, more question marks. [laughs]

1:57:38 Aabria: Yeah, I think she's gonna call you. God, what a nightmare response. I hate it, I'm sorry.

1:57:42 Antiope: He—

1:57:45 Penny: Hi, should we be talking this late on a school night?

1:57:48 Antiope: 'Kay, what?

1:57:49 Penny: I'm sorry. [players laughing]

1:57:51 Antiope: I thought I was doing the literal lamest thing by calling, but...

1:57:54 Penny: No, no, it's just all my siblings are asleep.

1:57:57 Antiope: Oh, I'm sorry. Are you okay to talk?

1:58:01 Penny: Yeah, yeah, yeah, no of course, I'm totally cool, it's fine. We sleep in different sides of the room.

1:58:07 Antiope: I feel like you're deflecting. Oh God. [players laughing]

1:58:13 Aabria: And she hangs up and it goes back to texting.

1:58:16 Antiope: That felt bad and I'm sorry. [laughs]

1:58:17 Penny: Wait, no, no, no, I'm walking outside by the Luckstone.

1:58:19 Becca: And I call you back.

1:58:21 Penny: Okay, I'm not supposed to be out, but like, my parents put total trust in me so they wouldn't even get mad. They'd just be disappointed if they found out. It's fine, we don't need to talk about my parents. What are you gonna do?

1:58:35 Antiope: Look, I asked the group if that's what they wanted because I just wanted to make sure that we weren't deciding for them 'cause we're older in-

1:58:44 Penny: You really shouldn't have asked. We can't think about this anymore now.

1:58:47 Antiope: What? This is like the most important thing. You have to ask.

1:58:52 Penny: Okay, okay. So what's your cool thing? Do you even know yet?

1:58:57 Antiope: I mean, not really. My parents were really excited about it and my siblings were all really excited about it so it was a big deal and I just, I wanted to be excited about it for just a little bit.

1:59:12 Penny: Is that hard because you never want to be excited for what your family's excited about?

1:59:17 Antiope: It's that, but it's also like, I wouldn't do it. You guys are the best people in the whole world. Like, I would kill or die for anyone.

1:59:29 Penny: We literally have done that and it was awesome!

1:59:31 Antiope: So many times!

1:59:32 Penny: It's so fun-

1:59:33 Antiope: We're not gonna give that shit up! And then Sam came out of pocket and I was like, I'm gonna choke her. [players laughing]

1:59:43 Penny: [nodding] Yeah.

1:59:44 Antiope: Right?

1:59:44 Penny: Right.

1:59:46 Antiope: Like, she can't let me have one thing. She is always in the spotlight.

1:59:52 Penny: I mean, she fucking rocks the spotlight.

1:59:55 Antiope: Yeah, I'm not saying that that's not the case, but there was a moment, and I just wanted a moment to tell my friends something that was cool. And I feel like that was taken away, but I don't want to punish the group because I'm salty over...

2:00:10 Penny: Hey, Ant.

2:00:11 Antiope: Yeah.

2:00:12 Penny: Your thing is really cool.

2:00:14 Antiope: What's your thing? Okay, I feel like I'm deflecting on-

2:00:15 Penny: Okay, okay, hold on.

2:00:17 Antiope: Yeah, go, you go.

2:00:18 Penny: Okay, um, I can't tell you anything. [players laughing]

2:00:23 Rekha: Get this, get this.

2:00:23 Antiope: Okay, okay, okay, okay.

2:00:25 Penny: It's secret, okay.

2:00:26 Antiope: Friend NDA, friend NDA, friend NDA.

2:00:28 Penny: That's it, I can't. [gestures wildly and takes a deep breath]

2:00:31 Antiope: Wait, no, what? No, you have to, you have to tell.

2:00:34 Penny: Okay, I'll tell you this.

2:00:36 Antiope: The whole thing.

2:00:38 Penny: It's just, the group is amazing, and I love you all so much. And also, nobody needs a rogue. You all can blow a door open. You don't need me.

2:00:48 Antiope: Are you kidding me?

2:00:50 Penny: But like, what if there was a place where rogues are the coolest?

2:00:53 Antiope: Rogues are always the coolest! What are you talking about? You literally, you sneak up and you murder people before they know there's a problem. That's the coolest shit I've ever seen. And I stand in the back and shoot arrows and I'm like, oh, there she goes.

2:01:12 Penny: Yeah, it's just that, yeah, they never look at you with fear the same way they'll look at Sam when she casts something.

2:01:16 Antiope: You're the last thing that a lot of people see before they die in surprise. And I need you to, we're gonna honor that for a second, okay? That's the raddest shit.

2:01:25 Penny: [slightly teary] It means so much to me that you would say that.

2:01:28 Antiope: Is your thing a cool rogue thing? That like, oh, is it like, it's like a rogue- [Becca shushes] [players laughing]

2:01:35 Antiope: [whispering] That's so cool, that's incredibly cool.

2:01:39 Penny: I know, but like, the group is incredibly cool. The party, we have a party, you know? A lot of people die before they ever really get to what we have gotten to together.

2:01:56 Antiope: Here's the thing. I couldn't imagine going into the world without our group together, but that doesn't mean, that's a failure of imagination, and we're more than a party, we're friends and sisters. And that doesn't end if you go and do cool rogue shit that we can't know about. So real talk, if you say yes, I'll stand beside you. I mean, I won't see you 'cause you disappear constantly.

2:02:23 Penny: I know, I'm so good at that.

2:02:25 Antiope: But the cloud of where you were I will fucking salute.

2:02:30 Penny: Oh, I thought you were gonna make this decision easier but now it's harder. What are you gonna do?

2:02:36 Antiope: I don't know. I'm afraid to text the group.

2:02:39 Penny: I feel like we need to go with you to meet this person-

2:02:42 Antiope: Yeah, okay. What if we politely abstain and get some more information?

2:02:50 Penny: I love that.

2:02:50 Antiope: I love you.

2:02:52 Penny: I love you!

2:02:54 Antiope: That was such a good Ostentatia, oh my God, oh my God. Look, "Wall-ach-ay."

2:03:04 Brennan: The next morning comes. All of your class schedules have been cleared. And of course the first up is going to be Antiope up at like, before the crack of dawn.

2:03:17 Aabria: Yep, morning run.

2:03:20 Brennan: And doing a wild squatting, arm-twisting calisthenics as your dad out in the yard.

2:03:27 Aabria: I'm wearing the outfit with him.

2:03:30 Hector: And we're gonna move and everything's coming from the core, sweetie.

2:03:33 Antiope: Yep.

2:03:34 Hector: Everything's coming from the core, and we're always engaging 'cause you wanna feel. If you're not feeling the muscle, you're not working it, okay?

2:03:41 Antiope: 100%.

2:03:41 Hector: Great.

2:03:42 Antiope: Posterior training, I got it.

2:03:43 Hector: So internship, right?

2:03:45 Antiope: Oof.

2:03:45 Hector: What are you thinking?

2:03:46 Antiope: Uh, ooh, oh. [laughs awkwardly] Keep squatting. You know what? I'm going to be visiting, I'm gonna go to Bastion City, and I'm gonna go, we're gonna go, I'm gonna-

2:04:00 Hector: You don't have class?

2:04:01 Antiope: No, no, I talked to Arthur. I'm gonna call him Arthur. I feel strong about that. Arthur and I talked-

2:04:12 Hector: Whoa, a little senioritis kicking in. First name?

2:04:14 Antiope: A little bit.

2:04:15 Hector: Wow.

2:04:15 Antiope: Super senior, baby.

2:04:16 Hector: Okay, there we go.

2:04:18 Antiope: And yeah, you know, he said it was super important that I make sure I have all my options on the table so I'm gonna go have a fact find. I'm just gonna see if they can like, what can they offer me? I am struggling right now.

2:04:34 Brennan: He takes out his crystal and- [mimics keys tapping]

2:04:38 Antiope: Oh, you don't have to call people. What, oh, fuck...

2:04:42 Hector: Hey, Charity, yeah.

2:04:44 Antiope: [clearly pained] No...

2:04:44 Hector: It's Hector Jones. [laughs] He would, yeah!

2:04:51 Becca: How'd you already fit a joke in there?

2:04:52 Rekha: Yeah, I was like that's a quick joke.

2:04:55 Becca: Oh, the old son of a bitch.

2:04:55 Rekha: You would!

2:04:58 Hector: Listen, Charity I'm here with my youngest Antiope, and she is very excited about the I-N-T-E-R-N-S-H-I-P.

2:05:08 Antiope: [stretching] That's so many letters.

2:05:09 Hector: And she wanted to come down to Bastion City. Could you pop out for a second and grab-? No, no, no, understood, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay.

2:05:19 Antiope: I'm just on my phone now. [texting] Oh shit.

2:05:20 Hector: Sure, drop a, yeah. No, we'll put her on a train right away. What time is it right now? It's getting late, it's almost 4:30 in the morning. Listen. [Rekha laughing]

2:05:29 Hector: So yeah, I'll put her on the 8:00 AM. You got it, yes, yes, yes. Okay, yeah. [laughs] Eh, we're friends, all right. You see he… [players laughing]

2:05:42 Aabria: I think in that time I've sent a text, like four texts like, get up, get the fuck up.

2:05:46 Rekha: Yeah, not at the group, just four individuals.

2:05:49 Becca: Well, I think the previous night we counted down and we both three, two, one sent “abstain.”

2:05:55 Aabria: Yeah.

2:05:56 Becca: Yeah, and that was the previous thing in this thread.

2:05:57 Aabria: Oh, yep.

2:05:58 Brennan: Yeah, yeah, yeah um...

2:06:00 Izzy: Can I have sent something to the group thread?

2:06:03 Brennan: Yes.

2:06:03 Izzy: After the abstain thing?

2:06:05 Brennan: Yes, yes, yes.

2:06:05 Becca: Uh-oh.

2:06:07 Izzy: It's like, okay, so Ostentatia takes a video of herself.

2:06:10 Brennan: Uh-huh. [Becca laughing]

2:06:11 Izzy: To send to the group and she's like,

2:06:13 Ostentatia: I have made the executive decision that no matter what anybody wants I would like to personally acquire my [pronouncing it with a soft “g”] GED. So if anybody wants to do the quest and find Tecto-nonya, you may accompany me. [mimics smooching] Love you! [group laughing]

2:06:45 Becca: In, in.

2:06:49 Brennan: So you send that video out, which is a lovely out 'cause it is true that if nothing started right away, you would still have some time to go on this quest. But you see that as you all get these texts like, wake up, wake up, you see Hector says,

2:07:11 Hector: Charity would love to grab a coffee with you today. Obviously she's a very busy woman. She works for the Ministry of Adventures in Bastion City. You don't have the clearance to meet with her at her office, but she's happy to meet you. She'll drop a location and you can meet her there. I'll give you her number. And sweetheart, I'm very excited about this. This is the beginning of a very exciting process in your life.

2:07:39 Antiope: Yeah, uh, yeah. And of course you would love me no matter what I would choose.

2:07:46 Hector: Of course, and it's such a courtesy that I won't have to extend myself to, you know.

2:07:50 Antiope: [stuttering] What—

2:07:54 Hector: It's such an added cherry on top that in addition to loving you unconditionally, you're also doing the right thing.

2:08:01 Antiope: [strained] Oh God, I'm gonna go for like a five-mile run.

2:08:05 Hector: [pointedly] Five miles?

2:08:07 Antiope: 12 miles.

2:08:08 Hector: 12 miles, let's go! [running]

2:08:10 Aabria: He's gonna join me? [group laughing]

2:08:20 Brennan: Cool, all of you are on the, there's like, you're put on the 8:00 AM train down to Bastion City. Super speedy quick light rail gets you down there. All of you jump in and join which is something, like, your dad drops you off and then you meet up with your adventuring party there. And you all arrive and a new number leaves a thing on your crystal that says,

2:08:46 Charity: Antiope, got your number from your father. Excited to meet and chat-- Charity Blythe...

2:08:56 Brennan: And then there's a dot, dot, dot at the end. Just a scary boomer ellipsis at the end of the-

2:09:01 Sephie: Oh no.

2:09:01 Aabria: Why are they like this? [group laughing]

2:09:08 Brennan: Terrifyingboomer ellipsis at the end. And we're gonna cut to wonderful Bastion City. Big, huge skyscrapers, crystal tech, tons of cars moving around. It's a quick 90-minute ride down to the city. Rekha mimes taking a lot of selfies, including various poses with her tongue sticking out and eating things.

2:09:22 Becca: I'm dashing between people’s feet.

2:09:25 Brennan: And the place she drops you off is the Museum of Questing History in Bastion City.

2:09:38 Rekha: I have a question.

2:09:38 Brennan: Mm-hmm.

2:09:39 Rekha: Did I bring Cinnamon? [Becca laughs]

2:09:41 Izzy: On the train?

2:09:44 Brennan: Actually, if you guys want to have your, like, I don't know. Would you have come with your adventurer gear in case shit pops off? Are you like, kind of ready to go at a moment's notice?

2:09:57 Becca: Always.

2:09:57 Izzy: We're adventurers.

2:09:58 Aabria: I'm here because I'm trying to be impressive.

2:09:59 Brennan: Yes, cool, so you guys are all geared up in your adventurer gear. You arrive at the Museum of Questing History which is basically just this big, beautiful civic building with all of these statues of the original Queen of Solace and the adventuring party that defeated Kalvaxus and all this other stuff like heroes and adventurers from all over. Big museum here, a lot of Aguefort alums in here. There are some like, this woman said she'd meet you in a general time period. Do you just wait in the lobby? Do you walk around the museum?

2:10:33 Antiope: Kind of want to walk around.

2:10:35 Katja: Why wouldn't she let you in her office?

2:10:38 Antiope: I don't have a high enough clearance?

2:10:40 Ostentatia: We should all hide together and watch your interview.

2:10:48 Antiope: Oh God.

2:10:49 Katja: We could hide behind Cinnamon.

2:10:51 Sam: We should abstain from watching.

2:10:54 Penny: Okay, but we could just-

2:10:54 Antiope: [to Sam] Really?

2:10:55 Penny: Learn a lot from this opportunity.

2:10:57 Katja: Uh-oh, uh-oh.

2:10:57 Ostentatia: So everyone's new thing is sort of abstaining.

2:10:59 Katja: Well, it's just sort of always been my thing.

2:11:01 Antiope: I am trying to make an informed-

2:11:02 Katja: I'm a maiden.

2:11:04 Penny: Yeah, I've been hiding in trees jumping down on my friends, eavesdropping on their whole conversation.

2:11:09 Brennan: You see you walk into a room and all of a sudden they look up and see suspended over you is the, in this room that kind of is a terrifying room where a giant exhibit is suspended over you, you all see the skeleton of Kalvaxus. [someone gasps]

2:11:28 Antiope: [angrily] Oh!

2:11:30 Becca: Wait, are we noted in the plaque?

2:11:33 Brennan: You literally look and see a guy leading a tour to a group of tourists and be like,

2:11:37 Tour Guide: And if you look over here, you can actually see the Seven Maidens, some of the adventurers who killed Kalvaxus.

2:11:43 Becca: Quick pose. [puts her hand under her chin] Ostentatia squishes her arms into her chest so it’ll stick out more and Danielle makes a peace sign with a deeply unusual expression.

2:11:45 Tour Guide: They're not normally here. I don't actually know what's happening. This is a complete coincidence, but we're just rolling with it and um...

2:11:54 Sephie: Is he cute?

2:11:55 Brennan: The tour leader's pretty cute, actually.

2:11:56 Aabria: [gasps] Yeah! Becca gets her fan out. [players laughing]

2:12:00 Aabria: It's preemptive.

2:12:04 Sephie: I'm going to go over to him.

2:12:06 Tour Guide: And if you'll look over to our right, I'm being approached by Sam Nightingale, one of the adventurers who killed Kalvaxus along with the other Maidens and the Bad Kids in the gymnasium at Aguefort Adventuring Academy.

2:12:17 Sam: [puts a finger over her lips] All of you, go. [gasps]

2:12:21 Brennan: You see that all the tourists look at each other and say,

2:12:22 Tourists: May we take one picture as we part?

2:12:24 Sam: ‘Kay.

2:12:26 Brennan: Snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap then they all walk away and you see the tour guide goes like. Tour guide is a very sort of like, tall, sort of tall, a little scarecrow looking. He's like a Half-Orc, but whereas most Half-Orcs are kind of built out he's a little bit on the ganglier side.

2:12:47 Antiope: All you.

2:12:50 Katja: Oh, hello. [players laughing]

2:12:52 Sam: I didn't realize this was Zelda's type.

2:12:54 Brennan: [laughs] You see he goes like,

2:12:56 Morris: Hi, I'm Morris, nice to meet you. You're a famous adventurer.

2:13:04 Sam: Uh-huh. Why is this skeleton here? [tense music]

2:13:07 Morris: Oh, well, so the bones, it's just a, you know, it belongs in a museum, you know? I don't actually put the exhibits. Sephie starts looking through her character sheet.

2:13:26 Penny: You didn't do anything wrong, Morris, it's fine. That's just Sam.

2:13:28 Sam: [sweetly] Oh, you didn't do anything wrong.

2:13:30 Sephie: I'm about to, though. [Brennan laughs joyously]

2:13:34 Sephie: So Sam is not having a good time. She's a little fragile and a little frazzled cause of Penny. Also fighting with Antiope.

2:13:45 Becca: Don't call her that, that's mine!

2:13:46 Sephie: And Zelda. Oh my God, I keep doing that, sorry, Penelope.

2:13:52 Rekha: It is very funny.

2:13:52 Sephie: Penelope.

2:13:54 Becca: I'm the only Penny in your life now!

2:13:57 Sephie: You're the only living Penny in my life now.

2:13:58 Becca: Okay. [groans awkwardly] thank you.

2:14:02 Aabria: That counts for something.

2:14:04 Sephie: I don't like this skeleton not being ground into powder. I'm gonna cast Lightning Bolt on it.

2:14:14 Brennan: Um, you go to cast Lightning Bolt on it. You reach up and the spell is countered.

2:14:27 Sephie: Of course it is.

2:14:29 Brennan: Powerfully, high level spell slot by a thin, blonde woman, hair in a tight bun, some sort of writing implement, looks like a very fine, some sort of pencil or something through it. Pencil skirt, sharp blazer, walking glasses, a cup of coffee in her hand. [mimics wind whipping] Gets rid of the spell and goes,

2:15:01 Charity: [uppercrust, bit British] Miss Nightingale.

2:15:03 Antiope: [whispered] Sam!

2:15:04 Sam: You want this thing around?

2:15:06 Antiope: I want you to not make a scene everywhere you go for like two seconds.

2:15:10 Charity: Miss Jones-

2:15:10 Penny: It is very dead.

2:15:12 Charity: Miss Jones, I wasn't aware that you'd be bringing your friends.

2:15:14 Sam: There is power in dragon bones, you know that, right?

2:15:15 Antiope: You know what? We wanted to come see the exhibit for ourselves. It's fine, they're just, they were leaving. They were leaving if you wanna talk.

2:15:24 Katja: Yeah, we were about to go to...

2:15:26 Danielle: We just wanted to drop our friends off.

2:15:26 Becca: We're watching as we step backwards slowly.

2:15:30 Rekha: My horse stepping backwards slowly as well, too.

2:15:32 Izzy: We’re just sort of going away.

2:15:33 Brennan: You see that the woman speaks up and says, [regal piano music]

2:15:36 Charity: Young ladies, are you going to actually step out of the room or are you going to kind of, like a bunch of little sort of rapscallions sort of peek around a corner with each of your heads stacked on each other, sort of all looking all in that little tower, following your friend wherever she goes? 'Cause if we're gonna do that, you might as well just stay in the room.

2:15:56 Sam: No, I'm just gonna stay here.

2:15:58 Penny: Can we stay? So we can stay.

2:15:59 Ostentatia: Rapscallion?

2:16:03 Charity: Miss Jones, it is a pleasure to meet you. I'm Charity Blythe. I work for the Ministry of Adventurers.

2:16:10 Antiope: Nice to meet you.

2:16:11 Brennan: Very reserved, almost no movement to her hand. She just sort of lets you grab her hand.

2:16:16 Becca: Oh no. [regal piano music]

2:16:21 Charity: Well, welcome to Bastion City. I had meant to conduct something of a non-interview interview. The position has already been extended. However, your father did call in a favor and ask me to meet with you. What questions, if any, can I answer for you?

2:16:38 Antiope: Oh, I was just, I wanted more, [clears throat] I wanted more information just about the nature of the internship. I want to, you know, weigh all of my options. And I was just curious about questing and that whole life in general. Just trying to know more about the life.

2:17:00 Charity: The internship would be a one-year commitment which could be extended on our behalf to two or three years. You will receive a stipend. You'd be living in Bastion City. Aabria mouths “yeah, bitch!” then quickly stops herself.

2:17:15 Charity: And you would be learning the inner workings and assigned to a security detail for the Council of Chosen, representing those that lead the Nation of Solace and— Katja raises her hand.

2:17:25 Charity: You, young lady whom I don't know...

2:17:31 Katja: Just a question. Can it be done remotely? [players laughing]

2:17:39 Penny: By crystal, a lot of jobs these days can be done by crystal.

2:17:42 Antiope: You don't need to leave at all.

2:17:43 Izzy: Ostentatia's just sort of like, [mimes holding Katja back]. [group laughing]

2:17:46 Brennan: You see she looks deep and goes, are you-

2:17:50 Izzy: Trying to pretend that I'm hugging.

2:17:51 Brennan: She says,

2:17:51 Charity: You are, oh, Katja Cleaver.

2:17:57 Katja: Yes.

2:17:58 Charity: Ah, I have had some correspondence with your father.

2:18:04 Brennan: She says the word correspondence.

2:18:06 Becca: Ooh.

2:18:07 Brennan: And you think about that letter asking your dad about Tectonya Karkovnya.

2:18:12 Katja: Oh, how so? [Erika laughing]

2:18:16 Charity: Well, I am one of the people who runs the Ministry of Adventuring. And your father, as well you know, is a renowned and quite successful adventurer.

2:18:28 Katja: Yes, yes he is. So what did you talk about? [players giggling]

2:18:41 Charity: Rather inconsequential, a bureaucrat had gone missing some years ago and I was inquiring due to his familiarity with her. I believe that they shared a friendship of some kind.

2:18:56 Erika: Friendship, Detect Thoughts.

2:18:58 Aabria: Ooh.

2:18:58 Izzy: Whoa!

2:18:59 Aabria: [laughs] Oh my gosh.

2:19:00 Izzy: We're gonna get in trouble.

2:19:04 Brennan: If you're disguising that spell, go ahead and give me either Sleight of Hand or Deception.

2:19:11 Erika: Um...

2:19:11 Sephie: Crossing all my fingers.

2:19:13 Erika: Correct me if I'm wrong. Is it that if you go into the second layer of it, you need to disguise it?

2:19:18 Brennan: Let me double-check here.

2:19:20 Erika: But that for anything on surface thoughts like something they're talking about.

2:19:24 Brennan: You need to disguise a spell because you're near her.

2:19:26 Aabria: Yeah.

2:19:26 Brennan: And she can, you saw her Counterspell something very-

2:19:31 Erika: Am I still invisible from Pass Without Trace?

2:19:34 Aabria: I think I stopped passing Pass Without Trace.

2:19:36 Rekha: Can Cinnamon block her?

2:19:36 Aabria: Yeah, Cinnablock!

2:19:39 Becca: I can give you invisibility.

2:19:41 Rekha: Cinna-mon.

2:19:43 Brennan: I'm gonna say here, if you have Pass Without Trace, go ahead and give me a stealth check here.

2:19:52 Erika: Okay, with advantage?

2:19:54 Brennan: Because Counterspell does require sight. And detect thoughts doesn't have a visible component. You have advantage, you have stealth.

2:20:00 Erika: Um… 17. Izzy squeezes her eyes shut and looks away.

2:20:11 Brennan: I'm going to be rolling a perception check in the Box of Doom.

2:20:14 Aabria: It's time, yes! Let’s go!

2:20:18 Sephie: Oh, it's time.

2:20:20 Brennan: In the Box of Doom.

2:20:22 Aabria: [high-pitched] Okay, no, no, no, this is fine, this is good.

2:20:23 Sephie: It's fine. [Erika sighs]

2:20:23 Rekha: Oh.

2:20:25 Aabria: Oh, totally normal place to roll a die. [Box of Doom’s dramatic instrumental music]

2:20:27 Brennan: You got a 17.  I'll let people know right now that this person adds a +8 to their perception check.

2:20:37 Rekha: So what?

2:20:38 Aabria: Yeah, that’s fair.

2:20:39 Izzy: Yeah.

2:20:39 Rekha: Literally don't care at all. Charity’s perception roll is an 18, although the players cannot see it. Brennan puts the box away.

2:20:48 Rekha: Oh, you sneaky little bitch. [players laughing]

2:20:53 Sephie: Oh no.

2:20:57 Brennan: You go to cast Detect Thoughts, and the spell goes and her surface thoughts materialize in front of you. She is thinking of Tectonya Karkovnya.

2:21:15 Erika: Yes...

2:21:16 Brennan: She is thinking about the Superintendent vanishing and disappearing. And she is also thinking about an object that Tectonya took with her. Those are the surface thoughts that you glean. She turns and says,

2:21:42 Charity: Yes, but the internship would require you to stay in Bastion City, and you would be dedicated to the service of the Council of Chosen as many in your family have been. It is a prestigious beginning, opening a pathway to a life of some exemplary deeds. Um, Miss Cleaver, you were asking about the, did I successfully answer your question?

2:22:13 Katja: Not at all. [players laughing]

2:22:18 Katja: I asked you about a correspondence between you and my father. And then you sort of, shall I say intimated a relationship between my father and this missing bureaucrat.

2:22:37 Brennan: Charity turns and says,

2:22:37 Charity: Very well.

2:22:41 Brennan: You see in the surface thought as you, again, are just skimming over the surface, the object comes a little more sharply into focus. You see a crystal screen tucked under one of Tectonya's arms and you see that there is a map of the world on it. All these motes of light of different colors, and you see that there is a small legend in the corner, a little key to understand the different motes of light and colors on it. It says, classes, class A, class B, class C, class D— [Erika gasps]

2:23:15 Brennan: And it goes down to class F And you see Charity says-

2:23:24 Becca: Oh, there's only E in between D and F, just so you know.

2:23:27 Brennan: No, that can't be right. [players laughing]

2:23:32 Rekha: All the way down.

2:23:32 Brennan: You see Charity says,

2:23:35 Charity: Yes, I could go into more detail if you'd like. Perhaps you and I can take a walk.

2:23:41 Antiope: Yeah, yeah, I'd like that.

2:23:43 Katja: I've clocked that Danielle got information 'cause I obviously don't know what you saw.

2:23:46 Erika: Almost as if sort of in the back of your minds, you all, everybody in the area hears a description of this Superintendent. She's on a crystal screen. She has A all the way down to F.

2:24:09 Rekha: Fuck, no one can count that high. [players laughing]

2:24:12 Erika: For class missions. She has stolen an object, that’s what you all hear.

2:24:22 Brennan: As Charity walks away with you, you all have a moment. The remaining six of the seven have a moment to check in and say,

2:24:31 Zelda: So, that lady that's talking to Antiope knows about the Superintendent running away. She's like, thinking about her?

2:24:41 Danielle: Yeah, this Superintendent stole something.

2:24:44 Ostentatia: ...with your dad?

2:24:48 Katja: I don't know that, my dad's [suddenly quiet] barely home!

2:24:51 Rekha: Her voice fades into the wind. [laughing]

2:24:54 Aabria: Oh my gosh, oh no.

2:24:54 Sephie: Oh no.

2:24:58 Brennan: So you and Charity go on a walk. She delves into the details of the internship more like that and she says,

2:25:03 Charity: So, Miss Jones. I do have to get back to work in a moment, but we would be delighted to have you come and work for the Council.

2:25:16 Antiope: When would my start date be?

2:25:19 Charity: As soon as you like, this school year.

2:25:22 Antiope: Uh. [sighs] I don't have to sign anything, right? It's just like a verbal agreement, like?

2:25:35 Charity: There will be some paperwork.

2:25:36 Antiope: Yeah, but not like, right now.

2:25:38 Charity: Not right now, no.

2:25:38 Antiope: Yes, then yeah, sure, yeah.

2:25:42 Charity: Amazing, we look forward to seeing you in Bastion City.

2:25:47 Brennan: And she turns and walks away and you turn and see your six friends looking at you.

2:25:54 Antiope: Hey, hey, okay, what the, what was that? I had a weird thought.

2:25:59 Danielle: Yeah, so what'd you learn?

2:26:04 Antiope: Nothing.

2:26:07 Katja: What happened about the internship, what'd you say?

2:26:09 Antiope: Oh, uh-

2:26:10 Penny: You probably don't have to make decisions like that right away. She wouldn't possibly ask that of you.

2:26:14 Antiope: No, she was just like, I'll have to give you more information, we'll send some paperwork along, like a brochure, like, nothing set in stone.

2:26:21 Katja: This is crazier than anything I've said. But what if you take the internship so we can get more information and then we still do our adventure?

2:26:36 Penny: Yeah.

2:26:38 Antiope: An interesting idea.

2:26:39 Brennan: Antiope.

2:26:40 Katja: I know it's crazy. Bless you.

2:26:42 Brennan: The hair- [players laughing] Antiope, the hair on your arms and legs stand up. [dramatic instrumental music] Through the crowd of people in the room, a grave face with blood red lips looks at you [snaps fingers] and disappears. That's all for this episode-

2:27:04 Rekha: What the fuck? [all yelling]

2:27:06 Brennan: Of Dimension 20.

2:27:06 Sephie: What's up?

2:27:09 Brennan: Tune in next time.

2:27:09 Sephie: Oh my God.

2:27:11 Brennan: So bye! [NEXT EPISODE - Episode 3: Big City Connections] [NEXT TIME ON DIMENSION 20]

2:27:12 Voice: Ah, very well. It seems I've caught you just in the nick of time.

2:27:17 Katja: My friend is gonna fail out of school.

2:27:19 Ostentatia: [crying] I told you not to tell anybody!

2:27:22 Katja: I'm sorry, I'm sorry. [Ostentatia crying]

2:27:24 Brennan: Preston looks at you and says,

2:27:24 Preston: Absolutely.

2:27:27 Antiope: Oh, oh my God. Brennan is mimicking unbuttoning his shirt.

2:27:28 Aabria: I'm not gonna stop him, but I will look embarrassed.

2:27:30 Voice: [menacing] You think a flock of bird— [menaced] what the fuck? [screams] A new beast of magic!

2:27:34 Rekha: You didn't think about birds, did you, Brennan?

2:27:38 Voice: Where are you right now?

2:27:39 Penny: With my friend Eumir Persei.

2:27:39 Voice: Yes, darling! And I. [laughs]

2:27:46 Antiope: I do wanna just jump in and say, it does not make sense to me.

2:27:49 Sam: No, not even a little bit.

2:27:49 Antiope: Okay, cool, not just me?

2:27:50 Sam: Yeah we're, yeah, mm-hmm, yeah.

2:27:52 Antiope: Vibes. _____________________________________________________________

2:27:52 Captions extracted by: gluegunshots

2:27:52 Edited by: gluegunshots, Tillie the Paladin, solsys