We Need To Talk About Cody

0:00:05 The Unsleeping City: Chapter II Lou Wilson as Kingston Brown; Ally Beardsley as Pete Conlan; Zac Oyama as Ricky Matsui; Siobhan Thompson as “Anastasia” Iga Lisowski; Emily Axford as Sofia Lee; and Brian “Murph” Murphy as Cody “Night Angel” Walsh Episode 4: We Need To Talk About Cody < [Previous Episode] | [Next Episode] > [upbeat music]

0:00:10 Brennan: [drum roll] Hello, one and all. And welcome back to another exciting episode of "The Unsleeping City." I am your humble Dungeon Master Brennan Lee Mulligan, with me as always are our intrepid heroes, say hi, intrepid heroes! Everyone is revealed to be making exaggerated walking motions.

0:00:21 All: Hi, intrepid heroes! [laughing]

0:00:23 Brennan: Heck yeah. Last we left them off, the champions of the Unsleeping City, heroes of New York were… Everyone but Murph is still pretending to walk.

0:00:34 Brennan: Had just fought a haunted Halloween subway car, filled to the brim with monsters, made from a horrifying intermingling of an otherworldly substance known as antipopuli which is basically antimatter, but made of the norms and customs of a given place, mixed with this strange ebbing of raw Umbral Arcana. This intermingling of sort of pure dream substance, being extruded out into the waking world, took over this subway car and our heroes found themselves foisted not into Nod, but into this bubble of dreaming that was physically present in the waking world. Fought their way out of the subway car, past various Halloween monsters that had taken over people breaching subway etiquette in very egregious ways, zapped some vampires, admonished a werewolf to sit down and calm down. Zac wags his finger scoldingly.

0:01:45 Brennan: (laughing) We fought Frankenstein's monster on the roof of a 90 mile per hour express train and due to some careful reading of the city's safety ordinances, shut the train down and stopped the passengers and got them off safely. Again, civic safety coming to save the day from the forces of nightmare and the dreaming.

0:02:05 Zac: As always.

0:02:06 Brennan: As always. (Emily laughs)

0:02:08 Brennan: With a carefully hasted Dalmatian, some wicked spell casting and turning of the undead and our dear friend, Cody, aging 20 years, that is now a 47 year old man. (Siobhan and Emily crack up)

0:02:21 Brennan: Our heroes saved Halloween in New York as the costumed passengers left. We cut now to a secret chamber within St. Owen's Hospital. You guys took that A train way uptown. So, St. Owen's was the nearest spot. You guys ended up in the Bronx and it is now probably about nine and 9:30 pm, Halloween, plenty of Halloween night left to go.

0:02:51 Emily: Oh, okay.

0:02:52 Brennan: But you are at St. Owen's Hospital. Ricky, you've got some salves and wraps on bad spider bites. Sofia, you've got a little drip, but are otherwise just seated in a chair. The person who is up in traction on a hospital bed right now is Cody who, as Kingston has said, you guys basically need, like an eight-hour period to long rest. Does Kingston--? Correct me if I'm wrong. You have the ability to cast Greater Restoration, but you need to prepare it. So you need eight hours to work on Cody basically.

0:03:32 Lou: I do, I was also gonna ask and I don't know where it is in the world. La Gran Gata gave me that Tide. [Emily gasps]

0:03:42 Lou: Or like some kind of Detergent of Greater Restoration that I don't think I ever used in season one.

0:03:45 Emily: Ohhhhh.

0:03:47 Murph: Whoa!

0:03:48 Siobhan: Ohhhh.

0:03:49 Lou: Would that be here or at my apartment?

0:03:52 Brennan: Sorry, this absolutely should be here in your items. This is the Holy Grail Detergent that you got from La Gran Gata, which will speed this up a whole lot. I'm gonna say that this is probably in your magical nurse’s office.

0:04:11 Lou: Great.

0:04:12 Cody: Kingston, this duster is dry clean only so...

0:04:16 Kingston: Hey, my man, this is magical detergent. All right, I don't think it's gonna do anything to the duster, all right?

0:04:23 Cody: All right.

0:04:24 Kingston: It's gonna be okay.

0:04:24 Cody: Cool, cool--

0:04:25 Kingston: The duster off.

0:04:27 Ricky: We could maybe take the duster off and put it on a hanger.

0:04:30 Iga: Maybe we should hand wash it.

0:04:33 Sofia: Yeah, I--

0:04:34 Cody: I prefer if I kept it on at all times. (group laughs)

0:04:36 Sofia: That’s a good point, I don’t want to see it off.

0:04:38 Cody: Although I do have this cool tattoo now, nevermind.

0:04:41 Pete: Yeah, dude, show off the tattoo, get that duster outta here.

0:04:43 Cody: That's true.

0:04:47 Murph: Take the duster off.

0:04:49 Emily: I throw it out the window. (group laughs)

0:04:52 Cody: No!

0:04:52 Zac: He dies now. [pantomimes climbing out a window] Grabs it. (laughs)

0:04:54 Lou: Yeah, how does the Holy Grail detergent work, am I washing Cody or am I washing—

0:04:58 Ally: The duster?

0:05:01 Emily: Are you eating a Tide Pod?

0:05:03 Brennan: I think at this point, Kingston. I think at this point--

0:05:06 Lou: “Eat this tide pod, Cody. Open—” (group laughs)

0:05:10 Murph: In his mouth already. “Do you dare me?”

0:05:11 Brennan: I’ll leave it up to you. The Holy Grail Detergent, you used to one of its four doses splashing on Kugrash way back at the battle of the stock exchange.

0:05:22 Emily: That's the last person, they had used it on? [rolls a die]

0:05:26 Brennan: That's the last person that it was ever used on. [gives a thumbs up] Sofia is okay?

0:05:29 Emily: Yeah. Kugrash is a trigger for Sofia. [group groans]

0:05:36 Brennan: Kingston I think also though, it's up to you. If you would want to, you could also leave it here in the hospital, and like distill it into medicine so you don't have to use full doses of it. Like when you have to just splash it on someone, that's a very inefficient way of using what is a very incredible resource.

0:05:56 Lou: Great, in that case, yeah, maybe I'll just leave the detergent on the wall in and we'll just do it the long way, because we have the time and the space to do so.

0:06:05 Brennan: And I think too, because you have that here, I will let you, it's not gonna take a full eight hours. It's like, you're like, I think maybe Cody, you see with all these medical supplies, you see Kingston put on the gloves, get all washed up and dip a syringe into a big plastic jug of detergent. [Emily wheezes] [whimsical music]

0:06:16 Cody: [quietly] What?

0:06:27 Kingston: Oh. It's a lot— [flicks the syringe] Yeah. That'd be right, that would be just right.

0:06:31 Ricky: You don’t know how much that looks like poison.

0:06:35 Kingston: Don't worry.

0:06:39 Sofia: Yeah it really does. Or maybe like a fun, like a children's candy. That shouldn't be a children's candy. [Siobhan laughs]

0:06:45 Ricky: Yeah. Too colorful.

0:06:46 Sofia: Just like, a brightly, bright blue syringe.

0:06:49 Cody: It's because I'm like kind of a devil now. So I need to be like hurt to be healed. It's like when you cast like fire spells on a fire monster in Final Fantasy or something, ‘cause I am the darkness. [takes a drag on his tiny cigarette] [music abruptly cuts out]

0:07:03 Pete: You can't smoke in here, man. (group laughs)

0:07:05 Kingston: You can't smoke in here.

0:07:06 Cody: Honestly, that's my fucking bad.

0:07:08 Kingston: Thank you Pete. I appreciate that.

0:07:09 Pete: You can't.

0:07:10 Kingston: I really appreciate.

0:07:11 Emily: I take the cigarette, throw it out the window. Hopefully the duster catches on fire.

0:07:15 Cody: Yeah, I think you guys are fucking cool. You guys did cool shit on the train. I'm not trying to fucking freak out. Okay, I'm cool, shoot me with your poison.

0:07:28 Kingston: [laughs] Okay, it's not poison, but okay.

0:07:30 Lou: Yeah, and I just, I give Cody a nice good old dose.

0:07:33 Brennan: [laughing] You give a—

0:07:36 Sofia: Yeah, could you do a little something for his personality too?

0:07:41 Kingston: Sofia, we both know there's nothing we can do about that. [group laughs hysterically]

0:07:44 Brennan: Incredible. So you have, it's very calm in here. You guys hear laughter and partying outside, but in here it's very calm. Cody, it's gonna take Cody still like about an hour, hour and a half for this to like take effect, you hear, beep beep, sort of measuring his vitals. As you can see, slowly de-aging from this ghost nightmare.

0:08:12 Murph: And the whole time I'm just talking to Kingston about nu metal bands. [Brennan and Emily wheeze in laughter]

0:08:15 Kingston: Uh-huh. So it’s—

0:08:18 Cody: So you see, yeah, so there's Three Days Grace, which like, they're pretty cool, I guess.

0:08:21 Kingston: Uh-huh. Uh-huh.

0:08:24 Cody: But then there's Breaking Benjamin, which is awesome.

0:08:26 Kingston: Yeah. Yep.

0:08:27 Cody: And then there's Linkin Park and some people are Chester guys. Some people are Mike Shinoda guys, personally a Shinoda guy. Kingston is nodding the whole time. [group laughs]

0:08:36 Cody: Then when we're talking about pro wrestling, we've got the Hardy Boyz. It's like, do you like the tactical prowess of Matt Hardy—

0:08:42 Kingston: Wait though, from the, hold on, the Hardy Boys? From the book.

0:08:45 Cody: Yeah.

0:08:47 Kingston: They wrestle now, is that, who, what? (laughs)

0:08:50 Cody: Is anybody hearing this, is anybody hearing this? Fuck, dude.

0:08:53 Iga: Yes, my son Nicholas also like the Hardy Boy books.

0:08:57 Cody: No, not those, no, they're not from—

0:09:00 Kingston: [crosstalk] It’s those, it’s those, it’s those two children, they love running around and—

0:09:01 Iga: [crosstalk] I read those to him when he was very very young and he liked it.

0:09:03 Cody: They're not the child sleuths. Okay, they're fucking cool ass wrestlers who wear cool shit, do flips off ladders and stuff.

0:09:12 Iga: Then why do they have the same name as the childhood sleuths?

0:09:14 Cody: No, they're Boyz with a Z.

0:09:14 Kingston: Oh! ...Okay.

0:09:19 Zac: I'm gonna take off and find my sister, I think. [group laughs]

0:09:22 Brennan: Hell yeah. For you guys here as Cody is healing, you guys, it's been, I won't say it's been a wild two days for everybody because I think for a lot of folks, for Kingston and Pete and Sofia and Ricky, yesterday the day before Halloween was kind of like you guys in your routines and your new life. And today, I mean like even for this, Halloween always has some fucked up shit happen on it. Like even the past couple of years, you guys there's always something that requires... Even Kingston for you that have kind of like very much in your comfortable domestic life now, Halloween always calls some attention somewhere. It's just a crazy day in New York. You're in this room, Cody, weirdly Cody's ghost thing is the most fixable easy thing. The reason you're in this room, that's ta— able to taken care of, peeking out from under Cody's shirt is this chest piece with this new bullshit devil lord that Pete was able to bind to Cody, which has created an incredible feedback loop for Cody and with some quick sorcererous thinking on Pete's part because yes, this is your boss, but also he's now bound to your body and can't leave. [laughs] So it's—

0:10:39 Iga: You are always on the clock when you sell yourself to a devil, that's what they say. [group laughs]

0:10:45 Cody: Amen.

0:10:47 Brennan: Additionally, so the main thing is looking at you are for, especially for Iga and Cody, this has not been a normal last 24 hours. The appearance of this devil and binding it to you, what the devils are sort of saying about, how empty and wide open New York is, and then Iga for you, your box changing for the first time in forever and looking at the chest and it's even… so the chest is still small in your handbag with Misiek curled around it, but you feel it kind of pulsating there. And then I think for Sofia and Pete, there is that weird thing of what you saw with the Umbral Arcana in the subway at the end of the fight. And for Kingston, I think with that Insight check, you didn't see the like, I mean like Sofia and Pete handle that dream realm shit pretty well, but you feel something in the city as well, the real city.

0:11:51 Lou: Yeah.

0:11:54 Brennan: Yeah before you guys get into… and I think Iga you're also looking at your box in your handbag and maybe want to, it might be good to inspect it as its, the fullness of its, of what it can do. Would you guys have called anybody here after the subway fight?

0:12:17 Zac: Oh yeah, I was just thinking, if we actually are taking a beat to like, just to have a conversation about it, I probably would call Esther.

0:12:27 Emily: Yeah, I was going to suggest the same. I also should probably I'm like, I've started… I know the Order of the Concrete Fist has a strange relationship with the dreaming world. And I'm worried that I've sort of breached their trust by telling Pete about the stuff that I read in the library. So I feel like I don't know how far I wanna walk down this path without like, getting the A-OK from one of them.

0:13:02 Ally: Yeah, remind me again, what did you tell me from the library?

0:13:06 Emily: I basically vaguely told you that like there's that the world of dreaming is bigger than we've seen and there might be some beasts and threats in the deep dreaming that aren't as frequently around, but can show up.

0:13:25 Ally: Got it, cool, cool, cool.

0:13:26 Brennan: Pete, give me an Arcana check and I'm gonna say other than Esther, what if anyone had called out to anybody else to come sort of check in during this time?

0:13:37 Lou: Who's the oldest person I know like the old… who's the oldest person I am like, who's been in the city the longest?

0:13:46 Brennan: Damn, that's a great question.

0:13:49 Zac: Wally? [laughs] No.

0:13:49 Lou: Wally.

0:13:49 Brennan: First of all, I think, something about— I think something about Kingston probably goes back weirdly to that one afternoon you spent with the dragon of Bleecker Street.

0:14:03 Lou: I, yeah.

0:14:06 Brennan: And I think you have memories of, you never heard from the dragon again and could never find that subway station again.

0:14:16 Lou: Yeah.

0:14:19 Brennan: But I think that your mind moves off of that for a while. It also was like, you are what you knew at the time somewhat and now know is that the dragon on Bleecker Street found you on what was probably its last day after being in the city and nearly forever like the dragon, you heard its heart slowing in a way that happens as people are letting go. Yeah. Other than that, Orlando and Rovias, Rovias, by the way, reconstructed!

0:14:36 Siobhan: Yay!

0:14:54 Lou: The lions?

0:14:55 Brennan: The lions, both lions are back. Patience and Fortitude are both back.

0:15:00 Zac: Hell yeah.

0:15:00 Brennan: Nice thing about constructs, magical constructs is, that they can sometimes be fixed! Em is very old, about 1800's, Willy is similarly old. Willy's been around since the 1800's as well.

0:15:16 Lou: I think that, given that what you've given me is like, I think more just where my head's at. I don't think I'm calling them to this meeting, but I think there are people Kingston is thinking he'd like to check in with with regard to moments of change in the city.

0:15:34 Brennan: Hell yeah, great, great, great and then obviously in other realms, Nod is incredibly old and also your guys’ friend Rowan Berry who is sort of checked out, but Rowan Berry has been here in some form or another since the very beginning. You guys see… hold on one second.

0:15:53 Ally: You want me to roll Arcana?

0:15:55 Brennan: Yeah, give me that Arcana roll Pete.

0:15:59 Ally: That is 9, 24. [quiet, dark, dreamlike piano music]

0:16:02 Brennan: As Sofia talks about the deeper dreaming I think Pete, some of that squares with Pete as well. Because you, it's pretty clear on examination that the fact that Nod mirrors so closely to New York City, doesn't imply that everybody in the world, when they dream, comes to a magical version of New York. That in the way that Kingston is the voice, not of all people in the world, but is the voice of the people of New York City. You are the voice specifically of Nod of the Sixth Borough, which is the dreaming, which is the fullness of the dreaming realm. But it's the fullness of the dreaming realm as it reflects New York City. And so in a weird way, when Sofia talks about the deeper dreaming, you check in with your memories from the Metropolitan Museum of Memories on a 24, give me not only an Arcana, but give me a History check as well.

0:17:18 Emily: Can I maybe give him a help action since—

0:17:21 Brennan: Yeah.

0:17:21 Emily: I'm kind of like telling him stuff that I don't know if I shouldn't be telling him, but,

0:17:26 Brennan: Yeah, for sure.

0:17:28 Ally: 15.

0:17:28 Brennan: 15. So the 15 doesn't pull up anything because, Pete you find, there are holes in the Metropolitan Museum of Memories, there have been a couple of Vox Phantasmi throughout New York City's history. In the museum, the majority of them, you have visions of their deaths of like how they passed or like if they died in battle or something like that, which lets you know that, which lets you know that there are ways for Nod to retrieve the memories of Vox Phantasmi without them having to give it themselves. Like in other words, it's like, okay, someone died in battle and that memory made it to the Metropolitan Museum of Memories, obviously the dream realm had some way of collecting it without the, with them already being posthumous. There are one or two of the Vox Phantasma throughout New York City's history that don't have their final memories recorded in the museum.

0:18:40 Brennan: And again, your relationship to those memories is very like organic and chaotic. It's not like you have a Dewey Decimal System for them. It's just that like you absorbed those memories into yourself and you recall them like a person recalls their own memories. Like when something sort of moves it. But now that you're like really racking your brain... there are chapters missing from the end of different Vox Phantasmi like throughout New York. And you find a commonality in the ones who the end of their lives vanishes. And they also vanished from having been that for people, which is... in one or two different occasions a Vox Phantasma has saw fit to try to go deeper into dreaming past the Sixth Borough.

0:19:40 Ally: Do I have their names?

0:19:41 Brennan: Yes you do.

0:19:41 Lou: Whoa. [wiggles his shoulders]

0:19:43 Brennan: Hold on one second, let me go find this somewhere. The two Vox Phantasma that you find that you don't have their final memories within the museum. The first one is Hans Fischer. Hans was a Hessian… Sorry, Hans was not Hessian, Hans was a German soldier, that was a mercenary who quit the army and became a New York dilettante in 1775 and disappears from memory in 1783. So this is old, old long time ago in New York, but he was the Vox Phantasma for a period of time. And there are memories of Hans back in that time that you bizarrely understand, even though you don't speak German, of this, of him having a curiosity about having discovered what was further back in there. The other Vox Phantasma is one that you already know about, Josefina Gatsby, who was an heiress impossibly wealthy woman who was Vox Phantasma starting in 1920. And in 1929, she just vanishes. And you do have more records of that time period.

0:21:11 Emily: Pete, do you think you would share this information with me?

0:21:15 Ally: Yeah, I think so.

0:21:15 Emily: Okay cool. I wasn't sure if I should write it down and know it or not.

0:21:20 Ally: Yeah, I think I would.

0:21:20 Brennan: Pete, you have memories... There's one memory in particular you're… you're doing anything almost like in your head of like rolodexing through memories, you see a memory for a second and you're like flitting past it. It's Josefina in this incredible opulent manor house like penthouse looking at a mirror and you know from Josefina's memories and that sort of weirdly intimate thing about the different Vox Phantasma is, how much of these people's lives you remember. Josefina towards the end of her period as Vox Phantasma before she disappeared, struggled a lot with heartbreak. The feeling that she was not close to anyone and didn't know any people and began to feel in the last couple of years of her time as Vox Phantasma, that she had no connection to the city of New York anymore. She struggled with loneliness, though they didn't have the modern language at the time for it. You see her struggling with addiction, struggling with isolation in her memories. And it's pretty intense. You watch her spiral out, become completely unattached to anyone or anything in the waking world because there never were Vox Phantasma or Populi at the same time in New York City's history until you and Kingston. You see that 1920s New York, it's crazy. It's the roaring 20's and there's a… no one is kind of there is no voice in her life of groundedness. There is no voice in her life of connecting to real things and real people. And you're flipping through these memories and I may be on some personal level aware that she doesn't have a Kingston in her life and she whoo, whoo, whoo, moves through stuff. You see, you move past a memory in that way where you're like flicking through channels so fast that when you see your channel, you are already three past it. Like you're scrolling too fast kind of. For a moment you see her looking in a mirror and instead of seeing her reflection, there's nothing there, but there's something wrong with her reflection. And by the time you move back to that memory, that memory is gone. [low, ominous music]

0:24:06 Brennan: Almost like you, maybe you made it up. It's not there anymore. That's what, so that's what Pete feels in that moment.

0:24:16 Ally: Can, is there any way to like go to the Metropolitan Museum of Memories and see if the memory is there?

0:24:25 Brennan: You absolutely could do that, also lemme—

0:24:27 Ally: That's something I can do eventually.

0:24:28 Brennan: Yeah, and that all occurs internally in your head for… So like Sofia, you're watching Pete as he kind of goes glassy-eyed like, as people that are like falling into their own heads do, but Pete, you come to and see Sofia kind of looking at you. So if you wanna share that knowledge.

0:24:47 Ally: I think... [laughs]

0:24:48 Pete: Hey, what's up. [laughs]

0:24:50 Sofia: Hey, sorry.

0:24:50 Ally: Yeah, I share—

0:24:52 Sofia: You went all glassy-eyed and I just creepily watched you.

0:24:55 Pete: Yeah, well, yeah so I have these...

0:24:55 Ally: And then I relay, I think just all of that and maybe see if you would want to go to the Met Memories Museum.

0:25:08 Sofia: Yeah, absolutely.

0:25:08 Pete: Cool.

0:25:10 Sofia: Yeah.

0:25:12 Zac: Ricky would probably mention to everyone, like,

0:25:14 Ricky: I don't know if we really rounded up about what that train was about.

0:25:18 Brennan: Yeah.

0:25:19 Emily: Oh yeah, I think like, I guess like… sort of like the stuff that Sofia said to Pete, I think like we kind of tell everyone.

0:25:29 Brennan: Yeah, I think you is kind of are having a little impromptu war counseling here, walking through the hospital doors by the way, you see that the hospital door that is partially like, actually is fully closed into Kingston's room. The door opens, but the rest of the hospital is not through it. You see the Gramercy Occult Society through it as Esther is doing some rad doorway teleportation.

0:25:54 Ally: Incredible.

0:25:55 Brennan: So she walks through, opens it goes,

0:25:59 Esther: Oh! Sorry.

0:25:59 Brennan: Closes, knocks on the door from the other side, and says,

0:26:03 Esther: Kingston, okay to come in? Sorry, frazzled.

0:26:05 Kingston: Of course. [laughs] Always welcome in here.

0:26:11 Brennan: She walks in. She walks up to you Kingston, gives you a big hug, it's good to see you. You guys have, I think gotten together over the years because Alejandro was your best friend and was her mentor. And you see, she gives you a big hug. She is, you see like… has a very last minute sort of Halloween costume put together, which is basically her wearing her jacket that she likes, but has a little like cat nose and makeup of her being like, shit! Today's Halloween. [Emily laughs]

0:26:48 Brennan: But you see coming in behind her, both doing their vampire float and giggling, are Ana and Amelia Ortiz, Alejandro's granddaughters who come in, who are both, they have… they are having a ball, fangs distended, these two vampire wizards float into the room. You see, like Ana has like a sort of black fishnet shirt. The other one they sort of are like a very casual goth, nowhere near Cody, [Emily laughs]

0:27:23 Brennan: But they're like, they're like dressed for, they're like basically just like having a ball dressed for Halloween. They don't need costumes cause they can just run around and ease the Umbral Arcana around them and be two vampires having a ball tonight.

0:27:36 Murph: I think for Cody, since he's seen skeletons and zombies and stuff today, I think when they come in, he gets super excited and leans into Kingston he goes,

0:27:44 Cody: Is, are these actual vampires, or is this—

0:27:47 Kingston: Actual vampires, but like good ones. There are a lot of vampires you shouldn't trust. These two, great girls.

0:27:55 Murph: Cody gets insanely pumped and just like straightens up.

0:28:00 Zac: Just so worried for the conversation that Cody has.

0:28:07 Iga: Look, I just wanna say, this seems like a war council type situation. I'm just here to get my box looked at. I just need somebody to look at this chest. I don't need to be involved in this whole shenanigans—

0:28:22 Kingston: Are you talking about--?

0:28:22 Iga: With jumping around.

0:28:24 Kingston: Uh-huh.

0:28:25 Sofia: Are you sure? [crosstalk] Madam Anastasia, you were electric!

0:28:26 Iga: It's not, I'm not, it's like a literal box.

0:28:29 Siobhan: Like I pull the box out like,

0:28:29 Iga: This is not—

0:28:31 Kingston: Oh okay, great. [Ally laughs]

0:28:32 Iga: I'm not here for any kind of gynecological—

0:28:34 Pete: What's going on?

0:28:34 Iga: —situation. It is literally a box.

0:28:37 Ricky: I could get my sister, y’know.

0:28:40 Iga: I helped you in the fights—

0:28:41 Kingston: I would never have done it, that's not my—

0:28:42 Sofia: Actually I have a really good gynecologist, so—

0:28:45 Iga: I have an excellent gynecologist. She's from the ha... is very good.

0:28:52 Kingston: Well, let's get the box on the table. And Esther, maybe you can take a look at it or anybody who's got an awareness for magical items.

0:29:02 Brennan: Esther, Esther nods—

0:29:04 Sofia: What about that guy who puts things up his ass and Identified—

0:29:07 Iga: No, we are not putting my box up anybody's ass. I know him.

0:29:10 Kingston: That guy, I think is not— His speci—

0:29:12 Iga: I don't think he needs to put things up his ass, I think he just like it. We’re not—

0:29:17 Ricky: Safety-wise, I'm worried about it expanding. [group laughs]

0:29:22 Sofia: [crosstalk] Okay okay, am sorry I just felt like it was in the air and no one was gonna say it, so I said it.

0:29:25 Iga: [crosstalk] I am worried about it because I think he would like it.

0:29:29 Brennan: Esther, I'm gonna make a roll for Esther here. Brennan rolls, then puts his hands over his mouth briefly.

0:29:32 Siobhan: What’s with that little smile?

0:29:36 Brennan: She scans the box and, Iga you see, her cover the box in runes. She raises an eyebrow and goes,

0:29:50 Esther: This is powerfully warded. This is covered in a tremendous, tremendous amount of nondetections, abjurations, wards to, kept this from being found. There... A lot of the wards on this… Sorry and what is your name, madam?

0:30:14 Iga: I am Anastasia, if you would like to come for a reading, I am at 72nd and Columbus, you will know where to find me. [Lou laughs]

0:30:21 Sofia: She's amazing. I still—

0:30:22 Pete: I actually would love to.

0:30:25 Iga: Please do, I will give you a very good rate for my readings.

0:30:28 Zac: I hand Iga a cup of coffee.

0:30:30 Iga: Thank you. Thank you, what a nice boy. He's a nice boy.

0:30:36 Brennan: You see Esther, squints her eyes at you and says,

0:30:40 Esther: What's crazy is, I know that tarot is real and works. And I still feel like I'm partially being scammed. Is that— [group laughs]

0:30:49 Sofia: She's amazing, changed my life.

0:30:49 Iga: But you like it. This is part of it, you see people like to be scammed a little bit.

0:30:56 Brennan: You see she shrugs, you see she says,

0:30:57 Pete: Ooh, I can’t wait.

0:30:58 Esther: Ana, Amelia, do you guys want to take a look at the box here?

0:31:01 Brennan: You see Ana and Amelia go,

0:31:03 Twins: Hell yeah, we'll take a look.

0:31:04 Brennan: And come over and, they stand on either side, [magical energy humming] see that their eyes go kind of blood red, as they cast Divinations on the chest,

0:31:16 Kingston: Cody, calm down, Cody relax, all right just relax.

0:31:19 Cody: I just feel like I should help, if we're doing dark lord stuff, then I have… we fought a werewolf today. They’re natural enemies. And I feel like we're all a part of this.

0:31:32 Murph: And I just look at the vampires.

0:31:34 Brennan: You see that Ana and Amelia both looking, they both look at Cody and one of them turns to look over at, they both sort of look over at Kingston and go,

0:31:43 Twins: Is this guy like, okay?

0:31:46 Kingston: Yeah he's new, he's new. Pete signals “no” by waving his hand in front of his neck. (group laughs)

0:31:50 Sofia: Not yet, not yet.

0:31:50 Kingston: He’s new, he's adjusting.

0:31:51 Zac: You're still like 40 year old right now. [group laughs)

0:31:53 Cody: I’m not actually 40. I don't know how old everybody is here, but I'm 27.

0:32:00 Sofia: Oh, he's 27.

0:32:02 Brennan: You said they both look at… both these like college age girls look over at you saying “I'm actually 27,” and they're like,

0:32:05 Twins: Cool, okay. [group laughs]

0:32:11 Pete: Whoa, really young.

0:32:11 Cody: I thought, vamp— You're like 400 years old, right?

0:32:17 Twins: We got turned into vampires like three years ago. We would be still younger than you if we were still human.

0:32:28 Murph: [laughing] Cody goes,

0:32:28 Cody: Ah, the healing is fucking me up.

0:32:34 Murph: Cody pretends to pass out. [group laughs]

0:32:40 Brennan: You see that Ana talks to you, Kingston about this, and Amelia comes over to you, Pete. And it's like,

0:32:45 Amelia: Is that dude a vampire, or is he just like super sick?

0:32:50 Pete: He, no, that's actually my roommate. [Brennan wheezes in laughter]

0:32:53 Pete: His name's Cody, he's cool. He's, um, he sold his soul to kind of like a devil's friend. [group laughs]

0:33:05 Pete: Not quite a devil, just kinda peripheral devil.

0:33:09 Brennan: You see in your chest Cody you hear it in your mind again, Bazathrax go,

0:33:13 Bazathrax: Dude are they talking about me out there, what are people saying?

0:33:16 Cody: [whispering] Shut the fuck up, shut the fuck up, we have to be fucking quiet, fuck!

0:33:20 Bazathrax: Dude, listen, did you not see what you did on that subway? That shit was sick as hell dude. Did I not tell you, you're gonna get powers? Don't shit on—

0:33:30 Cody: [still whispering] It was awesome. It was worth it. You fucking hooked me up, you fucking hooked me up. [group laughs]

0:33:33 Cody: I'm gonna act like we're not fucking friends in real life, but we're so fucking tight in here, okay.

0:33:40 Bazathrax: That's what I'm saying dude, I'm trapped in your chest. So for the time being I'm hitching a ride, okay? And if I'm hitching a ride, that means that you gonna be a hot ride, baby. We're gonna soup you up, it's Ferrari time, okay?

0:33:53 Cody: I would do it all over again. This was the best fucking day of my life.

0:33:58 Brennan: You hear Bazathrax say,

0:34:00 Bazathrax: Dude, I'm putting feelers out all over the city. There's some crazy shit going on. It's a fucking free for all out here babe. Listen, I know you keep talking about wanting to get traded and shit like that, but I'm not gonna trade you 'cause here's the thing you kick ass dude. I don't know where you got that sword from that sword is sick as hell, baby okay?

0:34:23 Cody: I got it on Etsy. Etsy. It actually, yeah.

0:34:27 Brennan: You see he goes,

0:34:27 Bazathrax: Hell yeah.

0:34:27 Cody: Pretty good stuff.

0:34:29 Bazathrax: That's what I'm talking about. So listen, devils, those weird Highway Hex or whatever... Nobody’s looking, okay? There's no upper management that can get here, but let me tell you something. Something's fucking up dude. The other wards and protections on the city right now with this, there's like a substance everywhere around us in this city that's like, a haze or something like that. You could throw down here and get some shit going and nobody will be able to tell dude, here's the thing, I can't trade you to another devil in hell, but there are a lot of other renegades out there. Other devils that have escaped the nine hells. And if you want, I could send some invites and we could get a fucking party going here. You wanna command lesser devils? you want, imps and other kind of minions and shit do your dark bidding, you want that?

0:35:29 Cody: [nodding] Yes, absolutely, I fucking want that. [Brennan laughs]

0:35:33 Iga: Why is he nodding to himself?

0:35:34 Ricky: Cody, Cody. What are you saying?

0:35:35 Kingston: Yeah, what do you want?

0:35:37 Murph: Yeah, Cody is talking out loud. [player crosstalk all around]

0:35:38 Sofia: We’re hearing one side of the conversation and—

0:35:38 Cody: Good talk.

0:35:38 Ricky: I just heard you say “yes, I want that”, and you’re looking straight forward.

0:35:41 Iga: Inside voice, Cody.

0:35:41 Cody: Okay, um. [clears throat]

0:35:43 Sofia: I also heard you say—

0:35:43 Pete: You're grunting.

0:35:45 Sofia: “I’m gonna pretend like we're not friends, but inside we're super tight.” [group laughs]

0:35:49 Cody: Okay.

0:35:50 Pete: And then “you hooked me up.”

0:35:54 Murph: [laughs] Cody… And then “this is the best day of my life.”

0:35:57 Ally: “You hooked me up.”

0:35:58 Emily: He did say that it’s the best day of his life.

0:36:00 Murph: I forgot that it is canon that Cody talks out loud when he talks to his devil. [group laughs]

0:36:04 Murph: So I think Cody swings his legs over, and he like pops back up,

0:36:07 Cody: [grunts] I've recovered. The devil within me has brought me back. So listen, I know we're all really concerned about Goliath and them closing down the mall—

0:36:21 Sofia: Gladiator.

0:36:21 Cody: Gladiator, right. I'm just pissed at corporations in general and...

0:36:29 Sofia: Hey, Goliath is one of the better corporations.

0:36:33 Iga: No, there's no ethical concern for them, they’re capitalists.

0:36:36 Sofia: I know you're right, you're right.

0:36:38 Sofia: I'm just saying, when I'm choosing between Goliath and Gladiator, I choose Goliath, go on. [Murph laughs]

0:36:44 Cody: So yeah, the devil that lives inside me, God, it feels so fucking cool to say that says that there's like other devils and shit that can help us and they're just like around.

0:36:59 Pete: [suspiciously] Oh, whoa.

0:36:59 Cody: So.

0:37:00 Ricky: I, you know.

0:37:01 Cody: And there’s other renegades.

0:37:02 Ally: [to everyone but Cody] Can I talk to you guys for a second, can we like go away from Cody and be like,

0:37:07 Pete: That might be so cool!

0:37:09 Sofia: [to Cody] That's a really good, thank you so much for bringing that up, kid.

0:37:13 Pete: Man.

0:37:13 Emily: And then we walk away.

0:37:14 Sofia: Madam Anastasia, come with us, come with us.

0:37:15 Ally: So it's all of us.

0:37:19 Pete: Madam Anastasia, you're fucking cool.

0:37:21 Sofia: Yeah, you're fucking cool, come with us.

0:37:23 Ricky: You know, it feels like he's got a lot to figure out and maybe there are bigger problems at the moment, but we should probably keep an eye on this guy. [Murph laughs]

0:37:33 Sofia: Yeah.

0:37:33 Kingston: Yeah, I think it’s good to keep—

0:37:34 Pete: Should we see if he can bring the devils here and we can talk to them?

0:37:41 Kingston: Well, I think I'm more interested in why there are so many devils within reach. And I'm wondering if— Pete is nodding slowly.

0:37:47 Sofia: That's what I’m thinking.

0:37:48 Kingston: —it has something to do with the emergence of antipopuli and perhaps this dreaming stuff that Sofia and Pete had been talking about.

0:37:55 Sofia: Yeah, I think that maybe it might benefit us to be straightforward with this kid and say, you know,

0:38:02 Kingston: Yeah.

0:38:04 Sofia: You got this one devil, that's enough for now.

0:38:06 Kingston: Yeah.

0:38:09 Sofia: But please tell us anything that this devil is saying. I don't know if the kid will be okay with that?

0:38:14 Pete: I live with him so I could just keep an eye on him, is it,

0:38:17 Kingston: Yeah.

0:38:19 Pete: Yeah.

0:38:19 Sofia: Yeah. And it's good.

0:38:20 Pete: He's cool, he's cool though.

0:38:22 Sofia: How are you feeling Madam Anastasia? This was a lot to throw at you. I know you were just trying to get your box.

0:38:27 Iga: Yes, I mean look it's not a lot to throw at me in terms of—

0:38:30 Pete: Just trying to get your box serviced. I’m so sorry. [group chuckles]

0:38:33 Iga: I just need to get my box serviced. It's an oil change type situation for me. I don't really want devils running around the city anyway. Like if I have to, I will do something, but.

0:38:47 Ally: Did we see some of that material sink into her box? [giggles] Did we see that like insane Umbral Arcana?

0:38:56 Brennan: Iga did, you saw some of that haze, some of that like raw Umbral Arcana sink into the chest while you were at the subway platform still, but I don't know if you've mentioned that or not.

0:39:09 Siobhan: I have not.

0:39:09 Ally: Yeah, we didn't see it.

0:39:12 Lou: Have the Gramercy Occult Society people, have they learned anything about the box or—

0:39:17 Emily: Yeah.

0:39:17 Brennan: So yeah, you see again, Esther looks over and says,

0:39:24 Esther: Look, this box is extremely warded.

0:39:27 Brennan: Ana and Amelia both nod and they say,

0:39:31 Twins: Has anyone, like detected this from like a non wizard standpoint? Like, does anyone know if there's like fiendish stuff in it or divine stuff in it?

0:39:39 Ricky: I used, hey what's going on? I'm gonna—

0:39:42 Brennan: You see they go,

0:39:44 The Twins: Hey Ricky, good to see you.

0:39:44 Ricky: Good to see you. Look, I used my Divine Sense on it and detected something not like other stuff that I've seen before. Y’know, it wasn't infernal or fae or whatever, it was something, uh… different? [gentle bassline begins to play]

0:40:02 Iga: I mean, you can look at it from the inside, if that's easier, it might be that the wards are on the outside, on the inside it's a different situation.

0:40:12 Sofia: Oh, we can open it?

0:40:12 Iga: No. You absolutely under no circumstances can open the box, but you can go inside it.

0:40:17 Cody: I will definite—

0:40:21 Iga: It is a magical box, I don't know what to tell you. Doesn't obey the laws of physics.

0:40:28 Sofia: I would love to go inside that box.

0:40:30 Kingston: Yeah, how does that work?

0:40:31 Sofia: [quietly] Sounds cool.

0:40:33 Iga: I can take five of you inside the box.

0:40:37 Ricky: Well, hold on first…

0:40:37 Cody: Let’s go, right?

0:40:37 Iga: So probably the wizards,

0:40:39 Pete: I feel like I shouldn't do that with my memories of all the Voxes disappearing. [Brennan laughs]

0:40:45 Sofia: Okay, okay that's good—

0:40:46 Iga: The Voxes inside the boxes?

0:40:46 Zac: I wanna try to sidebar with Esther before we go in a box.

0:40:50 Brennan: Yeah. You see, yeah, Esther, Esther sidebars with you and she says,

0:40:57 Esther: Hey hun, how was the fight in the subway, you okay?

0:41:00 Ricky: Yeah I got a couple of little spider guys on my back. Esther sucks in a concerned breath.

0:41:03 Esther: Ahh.

0:41:06 Ricky: I love your costume by the way.

0:41:08 Esther: Thank you.

0:41:09 Ricky: You look exactly like some sort of cat.

0:41:11 Esther: I look like a cat dressed as a woman who was working on Halloween, but I appreciate it.

0:41:15 Ricky: That's awesome, that's a really specific costume. Yeah, does that mean anything to you, the like, the fact that it wasn't, a type of magic that…

0:41:29 Zac: I list the other ones that—

0:41:36 Esther: On one level, it's encouraging because we know that we're not dealing with the undead or with fiends or something like that. Another level, the part of me that likes to solve problems and to know information is not happy, that there's a huge question mark here. I think, look… unless the trick is this, Either we need a full Identify on it and I won't be able to identify it. There's two things we can do and we could do both of them, but we need to do at least one of them. One is for, I think Madam Anastasia to be more forthcoming about what that box is and what her relationship to it is. Or we need to find someone who can cast Identify very powerfully.

0:42:27 Ricky: Like that guy's butthole.

0:42:29 Esther: [nodding] Kind of—

0:42:29 Emily: [arms up in victory] I was right!

0:42:29 Esther: It's unfortunate— Unfortunately I mean, it's a huge boon that the chest can be shrunk down. I mean, that's already feels like a huge boon to us, but I'm not, I don't feel comfortable suggesting that, I just met Madam Anastasia right now, but...

0:42:51 Ricky: I'll do it, I think I should say it.

0:42:53 Esther: Yeah. [Emily laughs]

0:42:56 Ricky: Madam Anastasia, it sounds like it could be cool to go in the box, but before we do that, would you care if we put it up a man's asshole?

0:43:09 Iga: Are you asking me if I would care, if you put my family's heirloom that I get all of my magical power from, Ricky nods very seriously.

0:43:20 Iga: Up this little creep's butt?

0:43:23 Kingston: Oh his name is Lowell,

0:43:23 Iga: Yes I would care about that.

0:43:24 Kingston: He's not a creep, he's not a creep--

0:43:26 Iga: He's a creep. I have meet Lowell, he is a creep.

0:43:27 Kingston: He is not a creep.

0:43:27 Pete: He can put it in a condom, right?

0:43:30 Sofia: Oh yeah.

0:43:31 Ricky: He could put some sort of protective layer on it.

0:43:32 Cody: Jackass style. Did you guys see the first Jackass film?

0:43:32 Pete: That would be fine.

0:43:35 Iga: Would that work with a spell?

0:43:37 Cody: Yeah, this is— It’ll be fine.

0:43:41 Brennan: You see Esther looks and says

0:43:43 Esther: First of all, timeout, stop, Madam Anastasia that's a pretty big revelation. You get all of your magic from this chest. What sort of magic do you wield from it, and what… Madam Anastasia look--

0:43:57 Iga: Look man, I don't ask questions about the chest, the chest gives us power, we have the power. You ask questions, you get more questions. It's not a question-based box, it's a power-based box.

0:44:14 Brennan: You say that, you see Esther like furrows her brows goes,

0:44:18 Esther: Mm mm mm.

0:44:21 Iga: Just mind your business.

0:44:23 Ally: Okay wait, Lowell has a lot of money, right?

0:44:28 Brennan: Lowell has a thriving artifact business, he sells artifacts, yeah.

0:44:33 Pete: So what if we set up a reading? I'm sure he's so interested in the Occult. What if you gave Lowell a reading for some insanely high rate, then you get paid, the chest is in his ass, you're reading some cards for him...

0:44:40 Kingston: And New York is saved!

0:44:47 Pete: I’m sure Lowell would love it. Lowell owes us one, if we're gonna give him one of these.

0:44:54 Iga: I mean, I would give him a reading in exchange for a reading, I guess, but God damn, if he does not have some kind of wet wipe hand sanitizer situation.

0:45:04 Pete: Yeah, Oh he has the whole process, I'm sure he's got a whole kit that rolls out— (group chattering)

0:45:09 Iga: Because this is a very porous wood. I'm just thinking about the liquids, that could seep into it, that's pretty nasty—

0:45:16 Cody: I say we do we just do a buttoned-up Jackass style, we do it with a condom.

0:45:20 Pete: Yeah. You, look, if Lowell is constantly putting things up his ass, he's douching, he's clean, all right?

0:45:25 Sofia: That’s what I was gonna say.

0:45:29 Pete: Sphincter to sphincter, there's nothing in there. So let's go throw your family heirloom in between those two sphincters and find out what it is.

0:45:37 Kingston: There's two sphincters? Lowell only has one sphincter.

0:45:40 Pete: No, everyone has two sphincters, people, wake up! [tapping his forehead] [group laughs]

0:45:45 Kingston: Okay Pete.

0:45:45 Sofia: Um, okay, yeah.

0:45:46 Brennan: You see, as Anastasia is talking to Pete, you see Esther is just shaking her head. Looks over at you Sofia and is like,

0:45:55 Esther: I want to be very clear. Your relationship with La Gran Gata is beautiful and very important to the city.

0:45:59 Sofia: Right. Uh-huh.

0:46:02 Esther: This is what drives me fucking crazy about warlocks. Could you hear that? Like no curiosity about how the power works. Just like there's a box, we get our spells from it. I don't ask questions, like what is that?

0:46:15 Sofia: I'm gonna tell you the thing that's fucking me up the most is that I really believe she was a psychic, but she can't tell me what's going on with the box. [Brennan laughs]

0:46:24 Sofia: So it kind of puts every single reading she's given me in to like a miasma of uncertainty. I'm feeling a little scammed.

0:46:36 Brennan: You see that, yeah, she nods her head and says,

0:46:36 Esther: Yeah. How much is she charging, or is that too personal to ask? I don't wanna get into--

0:46:43 Sofia: No, that's fine. I don't give a shit about money, $200 a reading.

0:46:48 Esther: Wow, okay.

0:46:48 Sofia: Yeah. And if I get good, if I get like good cards, then she charges extra.

0:46:55 Esther: She does a fee based on how good the future's gonna be?

0:46:59 Sofia: Yeah, like if it's a good reading, then it's like, Oh, okay, well.

0:47:02 Ally: Wow.

0:47:03 Sofia: And so I have to, yeah.

0:47:05 Esther: God, oh, Sofie, okay yeah, for sure, for sure, yeah, yeah, yeah.

0:47:11 Sofia: I think that I'm looking for guidance from everyone but myself. (laughs)

0:47:18 Brennan: Kingston, you got a hit back from Lowell. On your phone he says,

0:47:21 Lowell: Kingston, great to hear from you.

0:47:30 Brennan: And you see, by the way, he has a set up, he sends you, your little text history thread with him is him sending you receipts from, he demands that you take a finder's fee. Anytime artifacts come up from "The Unsleeping City." I don't know if Kingston could demand that he do something else with that money. But he's very adamant about anytime, (chuckles) an artifact is—

0:47:55 Lou: Yeah. It all gets donated to community centers. Kingston wants nothing to do with his, butt money. [group laughs]

0:48:06 Brennan: You see the—

0:48:09 Ally: You give it to Ricky's shelter or something.

0:48:12 Lou: Yeah, exactly I give it to like Helping Hands.

0:48:14 Brennan: So just like a thing of Lowell's donation receipts to helping hands from the artifacts that are sold. And he also does, anytime there's an artifact that he thinks is would be like dangerous to sell. Most of them are pretty common or don't do things that are that destructive or dangerous. You see he goes like, “Hey, busy schedule over the next two weeks.” Texting you like,

0:48:41 Lowell: Hey Kingston, great to hear from you. We've got a busy schedule over the next two weeks, but I should be able to “squeeze it in” sometime closer, to probably like the 15th.

0:48:53 Kingston: Laugh Out Loud. We'll see if we can wait that long, but maybe might need to, this might be a more pressing matter, hope you're staying clean, Kingston.

0:49:10 Brennan: You see that (chuckles) yeah. He says,

0:49:12 Lowell: If it's a rush job, I can try to move it ahead of the line. Probably get it into the next few days.

0:49:18 Kingston: Good to know, thank you Lowell.

0:49:23 Brennan: Rad—

0:49:23 Lou: And I communicate that to everyone else that

0:49:24 Kingston: Lowell is not… could not do it in this immediate moment, but if we waited we might be able to put his talents to use.

0:49:37 Pete: He needs time to prep.

0:49:37 Cody: So is this like… another, Madam Anastasia, is this like another dimension or something, that's in the chest, or like we can go in there?

0:49:48 Iga: We can go in there. I don't know if it's another dimension. It's just like a really nice—

0:49:53 Cody: Have you been in there?

0:49:54 Iga: Yes! I go in there all the time, it's very soothing. I have two children. Sometimes you just need a little bit of a break. You go inside the box for 10 minutes. You're rested, it's a good time. You go about your day, it’s nice!

0:50:06 Sofia: Oh, that's nice.

0:50:07 Iga: It’s nice, it's nice in there—

0:50:09 Pete: Did you furnish it?

0:50:11 Iga: No, it came fully furnished, I don't know what to tell you, it's nice in the box!

0:50:14 Sofia: What is the furnish like? Okay.

0:50:16 Cody: If she's gone in there, we can just fucking go in there.

0:50:20 Sofia: I wouldn't mind going in there, I'm very curious.

0:50:24 Kingston: Yeah, Madam Anastasia—

0:50:26 Pete: I'll keep watch… [Murph and Emily laugh]

0:50:28 Kingston: I just wanna say, of course I wanna be respectful of your privacy. You've made choices in your life with regard to your relationship to The Unsleeping City that I'm not going to ask you to erode or change. However, you have to understand that we are in a position right now where the city, something big is happening right now, and your box seems to either be in connection to that or aware of that. And so if there's anything you can do to help us help this city, I understand that it would be an infringement on you, but there might be something you could do.

0:51:07 Iga: Look, this city has always changed. That is the nature of New York City. It's a beautiful thing that the city is always in flux. Everybody's like, “Oh, I miss the city from five years ago, ten years ago, twenty years ago.” It's all the same people from 20 years in the future will be saying, “Oh I miss it, this New York that I am sort of making up in my head that is from 20 years ago.” That's the nature of it, this is a changing place. [slightly ominous string music]

0:51:36 Brennan: Kingston, go ahead and give me a Persuasion check if you would be so kind.

0:51:43 Lou: Wow, really suckin' it today. That's gonna be 12.

0:51:45 Brennan: 12, okay copy that. You see Ana and Amelia are both looking around. Esther also looks over at you, Anastasia, says

0:52:04 Esther: To reiterate the words again of, the Vox Populi, [clears throat pointedly]

0:52:11 Brennan: Sofia you can tell Esther is like not—

0:52:12 Iga: I didn't vote for him. I like him, I didn't vote for him.

0:52:17 Brennan: You see Esther (mumbles)... You can see Ricky, you can tell your partner is approaching the edge right now. She goes,

0:52:29 Esther: Well, okay, understood. Obviously you get all your power from this chest. Mr. Masters has the ability to, hopefully illuminate some questions that maybe you have about the chest itself. Regardless, if you would like to extend us the courtesy of taking some of us into this pocket dimension, that could be potentially very helpful. Also, if you would be so kind as to even just expanding the chest out to its full size would maybe allow us some more insight into this. Again, we also want to keep you safe. And I understand that your desire here is to have the chest identified and appraised, to understand why it is changing, that is our goal as well, ultimately.

0:53:30 Ricky: Well said, well said.

0:53:33 Siobhan: Yeah, I expand it to full size.

0:53:37 Brennan: You see more trees are gone and there are two figures on a street carved into the top of the box stretching away, an older man in a long coat with his hair tied back and a younger man next to him, holding a teapot in his hand.

0:54:03 Iga: See this is, why are you on my box? [players crosstalk, loudly]

0:54:07 Kingston: Yeah, I wanna know that too.

0:54:08 Pete: Why are we on your box?

0:54:09 Sofia: See, I do wanna know that too but Madam—

0:54:10 Kingston: Why are we on your box?

0:54:11 Cody: [aggressively] This is all Gladiator buildings popping up. Think about it.

0:54:14 Iga: I’m sorry, Gladia—?

0:54:18 Sofia: Think that the kid has a point, because you say that the city's always been changing and that's what makes it what it is. But the city has been changed because of the people. But if it starts changing because of another reason, it might lose the charm of what it is. And even you, your box is changing and that's kind of bothering you. And that's probably how Kingston feels about his city.

0:54:45 Iga: Look, I don't wanna cause a fight. I think that you people are good people. I think that you do what you did for good reasons. I'm not here to cause a fight. And if my box is the thing that is making this stuff happen, let's stop that from happening.

0:55:03 Pete: Okay.

0:55:03 Ally: Can I take a photo of the part where it's me and Kingston and try to figure out like which street or—

0:55:10 Brennan: Hell yeah--

0:55:10 Ally: Do I recognize the area?

0:55:13 Brennan: [mouth full of snack] Go ahead and give me a… you can give me a History check with advantage as well.

0:55:17 Ally: Ooh, that’s right.

0:55:21 Emily: I'll take a picture of where… I've to find out what building. I'm assuming it's Empire State Building, but...

0:55:26 Brennan: Mm-hmm.

0:55:26 Ally: 15.

0:55:29 Brennan: The detail, it's still very fairytale in, like, the art style of the carvings is very sort of mythical. Like you and Kingston on the street are like standing in the middle kind of heroically, just sort of presenting yourself to the street. But you do see, as it goes along, it has the same like number of lanes and like parked cars and stuff like that, kind of looks like 125th street. And yeah, Sofia the building that you and Ricky are on—

0:55:55 Ally: Which is...

0:55:58 Brennan: Kind of looks like the Empire State Building. 125th street is the main thoroughfare, where the Triborough bridge from Astoria you ride down 125th street all the time to get to Uncommon Knowledge, Kingston—

0:56:08 Ally: And that where Kingston is. Okay.

0:56:10 Brennan: Kingston and St. Owen's are both right off 125th street.

0:56:16 Cody: I also, when I met Lucifer personally, I found that book in the mall. I know you guys don't care about the fucking mall, but all of the shit is what happened to the mall. Think about it. [takes a drag from his tiny cigarette]

0:56:31 Pete: Dude, you may be right, you really might be right.

0:56:32 Sofia: Yeah.

0:56:34 Kingston: Stop. Smoking. In the hospital.

0:56:36 Ricky: You’re just gonna have to get rid of that.

0:56:36 Iga: You gotta not smoke.

0:56:37 Cody: Every time I make a fucking cool point, I wanna smoke. [Brennan laughs]

0:56:40 Cody: I'm fuckin' sorry, alright? Goddammit.

0:56:42 Pete: Hey, let's just get you like a—

0:56:43 Iga: Where are you even getting these butts of cigarettes? [group laughs]

0:56:45 Murph: [laughing] I just collect—

0:56:47 Sofia: They all look newly finished.

0:56:47 Iga: Little baggie.

0:56:48 Ally: You just have an altoid tin full of butts of cigarettes. Murph nods in agreement.

0:56:53 Cody: I save 'em, we're gonna pick this up after I'm done.

0:56:57 Brennan: Esther looks at you Cody and says,

0:56:57 Esther: Very interesting… Also pleasure to meet you, um, Cody. I'm Esther Sinclair, I'm the head of the Gramercy Occult Society. These are two of our young wizards Ana and Amelia Ortiz.

0:57:11 Cody: We've met, it was weird.

0:57:14 Esther: Oh yes, understood. You say you encountered a Fiendish Codex within which, this is the Queens Center mall?

0:57:25 Cody: Yes. Yeah, I was going in, I was collecting some Adventure Time hats and Jack Skellington hoodies, as you do. And I saw a devil book and I opened it and I flipped through it. And then I saw a highway and then a devil reached his hand out and I pulled the devil into here. And then I sold my soul to him for powers, but we're all up front with it. And Pete sealed them in me now and we're cool.

0:57:58 Esther: Huh, okay.

0:57:58 Brennan: You see, Esther looks over to you Pete, goes,

0:58:02 Esther: Quick thinking, Pete. Good looking out.

0:58:06 Pete: Thanks.

0:58:08 Brennan: Well you see, she looks over at your sheet,

0:58:12 Esther: Well, Mr. Walsh, that is um… excellent, okay, wonderful.

0:58:18 Brennan: So Esther looks over, you guys still have, the chest in front of you? And Esther looks over at Madam Anastasia and says,

0:58:30 Esther: So ultimately I would highly recommend the wards on your chest, protecting it probably from the prying of wizards like me into your family's magical business, is preventing me from discerning more about the chest. Mr. Masters, I can almost guarantee you will be able to understand more fully what's going on. If you would like to take some of us into the chest to take a look around, we're happy to do that at the end of the day, we're happy to provide a service to you. It's not about us demanding that you do anything, whatever it is that you're comfortable doing.

0:59:12 Brennan: And you see that she waits for… to see what Madam Anastasia is going to say.

0:59:18 Iga: Would you like to come inside the chest?

0:59:21 Brennan: Esther nods her head. Says,

0:59:21 Esther: Yes, that would be delightful.

0:59:26 Brennan: You see that she looks and says,

0:59:28 Esther: Would anyone else like to come inside or not?

0:59:31 Sofia: I mean, yes.

0:59:31 Cody: Yes.

0:59:34 Ricky: I will go, if Cody goes. [group laughs]

0:59:40 Ricky: Uh, or maybe I— [laughs]

0:59:43 Sofia: I can keep an eye on him too.

0:59:45 Ricky: Okay.

0:59:46 Cody: A rivalry, two sides of the same coin, lightness and darkness. [takes a drag]

0:59:48 Kingston: That's—

0:59:50 Sofia: Okay. [reaches out like to grab his cigarette]

0:59:52 Iga: I— what—

0:59:52 Kingston: You have to stop. Stop. Stop.

0:59:53 Pete: You can't smoke in here!

0:59:54 Zac: I’m gonna flip out one of your duster jacket pockets, to see if it's filled with a lot of cigarette butts.

0:59:59 Iga: Again, you gotta wash this jacket man, it's nasty.

1:00:03 Murph: Ziploc bags, full of cigarette butts that he collects and smokes.

1:00:07 Ricky: We're just gonna get rid of these, we’re just gonna get rid of these.

1:00:08 Kingston: That's five right? so the five that you can fit inside the box.

1:00:12 Iga: Mm-hmm.

1:00:12 Sofia: Oh, anyone can go in my place if they want, I just figured—

1:00:14 Kingston: No. No, Sofia, I think you should go.

1:00:18 Sofia: Okay, I’m going.

1:00:18 Ally: So who's going? [counting on their fingers] Sofie—

1:00:21 Brennan: Sofie, Esther, Ricky, Cody. Zac puts his face in his hand and laughs.

1:00:26 Iga: And I can take five people, so it's me plus five people.

1:00:28 Ricky: Hey, can I sidebar with everybody but Cody for a second? [group laughs]

1:00:33 Pete: Yeah, totally.

1:00:36 Sofia: Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. Yeah what's going on?

1:00:36 Kingston: What’s going on?

1:00:37 Ricky: Look.

1:00:37 Sofia: Yeah.

1:00:39 Ricky: We all know that I love Cody, and I'm gonna do the work to love Cody. Murph is losing it in the background.

1:00:44 Kingston: Yeah.

1:00:45 Ricky: Are we sure that—

1:00:45 Pete: Keep talking about all this work that you gonna have to do,

1:00:47 Ricky: No, I love—  Ricky loves everybody, and I love people—

1:00:54 Sofia: Ricky, do you know it's okay to not love everybody, right?

1:00:57 Ricky: Well, y’know, I mean, I hear that in theory.

1:00:59 Kingston: Yeah. I'm the Vox Populi and I don't like people.

1:01:02 Ricky: Sure. And, that's your choice or you, that's how you feel. And I know that I will really like Cody, [Brennan wheezes in laughter]

1:01:12 Ricky: Are we sure, are we 100% sure we want Cody to go in this magical box of mystery?

1:01:16 Sofia: I think that right now he's being controlled by a devil and could potentially have access to more devils. If we turn our back on him now, he's going to go to the devils.

1:01:29 Ricky: Okay.

1:01:29 Pete: Yeah, I mean, he's honestly a cool guy. He seems maybe kind of harmless? What do we think?

1:01:34 Sofia: Yeah.

1:01:34 Ricky: He just needs some guidance, we were just saying he needs guidance.

1:01:36 Sofia: Yes.

1:01:36 Ricky: Cool. Awesome.

1:01:37 Sofia: I think that, what Pete is providing for him is amazing for maybe both of them.

1:01:42 Ricky: That's awesome. Cool, cool.

1:01:44 Pete: Hey, maybe.

1:01:46 Ricky: That’s awesome.

1:01:47 Pete: All right, so Kingston, do you wanna go as well or not?

1:01:51 Kingston: I have such a—

1:01:51 Pete: There’s one more spot.

1:01:53 Kingston: I have such like a low understanding of like magical items that I feel like sending Ana or Amelia would probably be a better use.

1:01:57 Sofia: Ohhh...

1:02:02 Pete: Oh yeah.

1:02:03 Brennan: You see—

1:02:04 Lou: Like, my Arcana is so low that any checks I would be making, like, I don't know. I'm not sure I could distill anything.

1:02:12 Brennan: Esther actually looks at Ricky and Sofia, going into the chest and you can see that her faith in the two of you is unparalleled. And she says,

1:02:21 Esther: Actually, I kinda agree with Kingston, I'd like to stay out here and talk with the two Voxes if I can. Ana and Amelia, do you two wanna head in and give a sort of arcane appraisal to whatever's in there?

1:02:31 Brennan: And you see that Ana and Amelia both go like,

1:02:33 Twins: Oh my god, fun dimension adventure.

1:02:38 Brennan: You see that they both look at each other, smile, thumbs up.

1:02:43 Sofia: [laughing] I can't wait to see how this is decorated.

1:02:45 Ally: What do you guys have for Arcana, Ricky and Sofia?

1:02:48 Emily: Ah, not good.

1:02:49 Zac: My Arcana’s not good, but I have—

1:02:50 Brennan: Ana and Amelia--

1:02:50 Zac: Other things.

1:02:51 Murph: I also have Divine Sense.

1:02:51 Brennan: Yeah, Ana and Amelia have dope--

1:02:53 Sofia: I'm more there to make sure Cody doesn't freak out.

1:02:57 Cody: I'm not gonna fucking freak out. The devils are on our side, guys.

1:03:01 Kingston: You constantly yell that you're gonna freak out. You say that all the time. It's almost your catch phrase, "I'm gonna freak out." [group laughs]

1:03:08 Cody: That's when I killed the ghosts, that's what I did, I freaked out. Listen, the blade is a controlled weapon.

1:03:13 Murph: Pull out the sword. [whooshing] Cody swings his sword around in demonstration.

1:03:18 Kingston: Put it down, stop that--

1:03:18 Iga: Swords inside a hospital.

1:03:21 Sofia: Okay, okay, okay.

1:03:22 Iga: Very dangerous.

1:03:22 Brennan: Cool. Ricky and Sofia, Cody, and then Ana and Amelia step forward in front of Anastasia.

1:03:32 Siobhan: I clap my hands, I say,

1:03:32 Iga: Open sesame. [Emily laughs]

1:03:37 Siobhan: Ridiculous spiral of light goes all around us. And we're snapped into the box.

1:03:43 Ricky: Did she say “open sesame”?

1:03:47 Brennan: You guys are standing on the balcony of a fairytale castle in an Alpine pine forest, wind whipping all around. The castle is both somehow beautiful in a fairy tale way and also like menacing. It has those tall conical towers that are almost like navy blue and a grayish white granite stone, parapets everywhere. The castle is built sort of like almost on a mountaintop and stretches up into the sky. The forest extends about a quarter of a mile in all directions, half a mile in all directions, and then just drops off. But you're standing on this incredible balcony overlooking behind you, there's a giant archway leading into the castle. You see it is daytime here, but there is no sun. The light is just ambient. So you see Ana and Amelia both go,

1:04:49 Twins: [hiss up at the sky] Oh shit okay, Oh my God that was so scary. We're good. We’re good, we’re good.

1:04:54 Sofia: You kinda undersold it, when you said it was furnished. [laughs]

1:04:59 Ricky: Sort of like a whole world.

1:05:01 Iga: You know, you don't wanna brag.

1:05:02 Cody: Sort of like a full— [Emily laughs]

1:05:03 Sofia: Oh, that's very humble.

1:05:04 Brennan: Anastasia, the woods used to extend to the horizon in all directions, a like primeval Polish, like Eastern European, alpine forest going in all directions. It used to stretch on forever and ever and ever. And now it ends in a kind of mist, just like luminous gray light, almost like this was just floating in unoccupied, medium lit grayness. But so to you, you guys are beholding a place of incredible wonder and fantasy. Anastasia, this place is less than the last time it was here.

1:05:58 Iga: Okay, so all of this gray shit is new, and I don't, this is not… Okay, you're not actually seeing it at its best— It's very impressive, I know it.

1:06:08 Cody: I actually think the mist is really cool. I think it makes this sort of like a cool vampire castle type situation,

1:06:12 Sofia: You should AirBNB this.

1:06:14 Cody: If that’s what you were going for.

1:06:16 Iga: No offense to you, but cool vampire castle is not what we're going for here. [Emily laughs]

1:06:21 Cody: Interesting.

1:06:27 Brennan: You see, Ana and Amelia both look at you guys and say,

1:06:30 Twins: Cool, we're going to do like a scan of the outside of the castle. Later!

1:06:34 Brennan: [magical poof] Two bats, they turn into two bats and they get to fly around, bound, you guys see visible sonar coming out of their mouth, like in expanding rings of sonar is like (high-pitched ringing) it's like sort of taking a scan of the outside of this castle. The rest of you are left here on the balcony, but the rest of the castle inside.

1:06:56 Iga: You want some tea? [somber music begins to play]

1:06:56 Sofia: Absolutely. I'm really sorry that something's going on. If this is less than you're used to.

1:07:06 Iga: Yes, it's, I feel like I have not done my duty to my family to be keeping this up, but, I don't know what I have done or what anybody else has done. This is very strange to me. I worry for my daughter, this is our inheritance. This is our--

1:07:25 Sofia: Wait, can I ask you a question about yourself? And you don't have to answer if you don't want, did your mother have these, you said it was passed from mother to daughter, right?

1:07:35 Iga: Yes.

1:07:38 Sofia: So did your mother have these powers and then it wasn't until she passed that you received them?

1:07:44 Iga: That's correct, I mean… the powers, I train my daughter in it, but for now it's all pretty theoretical. She's not actually, honestly that interested. She's just a kid, she's wanting to be with her friends, but it's important this cultural stuff.

1:08:06 Sofia: Yeah.

1:08:06 Iga: To keep on passing it down generation to generation. And she'll like it when she gets it. It's you get it when you get it. Hopefully, God willing, she won't get it for a while.

1:08:19 Sofia: Yeah.

1:08:19 Iga: You know?

1:08:20 Sofia: Absolutely.

1:08:21 Brennan: Iga, you are walking by a hallway of framed portraits of these, like you see there's one woman who has like 1960s hair and is very clearly like Iga's mom. You see there's like another woman past her, portrait. Go ahead, everybody here and give me a Perception check. [ethereal music]

1:08:48 Emily: Nat 20, does that mean I find out her name is Iga? [Ally gasps]

1:08:51 Emily: I just got a nat 20. [laughs]

1:08:53 Brennan: Yes, you see that there's an empty frame at the beginning of the hallway that says Iga Lisowski under it doesn't have a portrait in it yet.

1:08:59 Emily: Take a real quick picture, sly picture. [camera clicks]

1:09:02 Sofia: Hmm, interesting, who's Iga?

1:09:03 Iga: You think people would come and take tarot readings from somebody called Iga?

1:09:07 Ricky: Your name’s Iga?

1:09:10 Sofia: [nodding] Yeah, I absolutely would.

1:09:13 Iga: Yes, but like don't… people expect a certain kind of service. You know what I mean? The readings are real, but the things around the readings, people needed to feel safe and secure.

1:09:32 Sofia: Yeah, I like the name Iga, but I also like the name Madam Anastasia. [group laughs]

1:09:37 Iga: Thank you.

1:09:37 Brennan: You walk through the hall, on that Nat 20 perception, Sofia. The, everything in this castle is it seems like you're in a magical, extra dimensional space. There are rooms filled and piled high with treasure mountains of gold coins, swords, lances, tapestries around the edges where the frames touch these portraits, you see like water damage, which you only recognize as being like, there's like some fading, some cracks in the painting. You only recognize this because your brother Mario used to like work in like forged paintings. So you're looking at them and these aren't forgeries, but they are, getting damaged in a way from aging, which doesn't make sense for the realm you're in to you. It's like, this is a realm that should exist as pure fairytale. And some like element of time has been brought into it. And like the paintings are fading slightly.

1:10:54 Emily: Can I point it out to Madam Anastasia or Iga, whichever she prefers, and just say,

1:11:00 Sofia: Is that new or?

1:11:04 Iga: Yes this is not… This is not normal. Misiek, Misiek, how are you feeling my little dragon? [Misiek makes some pathetic little moaning noises.]

1:11:19 Iga: Yeah, me too, me too. That is how I'm also feeling.

1:11:25 Cody: I think I'm gonna go check out this mist.

1:11:27 Ricky: I will—

1:11:29 Cody: And see if it's in—

1:11:32 Ricky: Follow you. [group laughs]

1:11:35 Iga: You cannot, just walk out into the forest. This is a magical forest.

1:11:43 Ricky: Wow, that's—

1:11:43 Iga: Like maybe if you can fly. Can you fly?

1:11:47 Cody: If you give me 10 minutes, I can summon a steed.

1:11:52 Iga: That can fly, a flying steed? You cannot wander into a magical forest. That is a basic rule of magical forest. That is Magical Forest 101. You just cannot wander into it—

1:12:07 Cody: I need to go take a piss real quick, I just need to take a piss.

1:12:09 Sofia: Not to mention Cody. This is, we are in Madam Anastasia's house right now. So we do have to respect Madam Anastasia's rules.

1:12:18 Cody: There’s a magic forest in fucking fog, and we’re not gonna look at it?

1:12:18 Iga: I’m not, look, you can wander into magical forest on your own if you want to, you will get immediately lost.

1:12:24 Ricky: I'll go with Cody. We’ll just walk around the forest a little bit, we’ll stay on the edge.

1:12:26 Iga: There will be strange things that will lure you out of your way.

1:12:29 Cody: We’re just gonna peek!

1:12:29 Ricky: Okay.

1:12:32 Cody: That's what we're gonna do!

1:12:33 Brennan: Cody and Ricky, you guys head off to go peek Sofia and Madam Anastasia head to the kitchen to get that tea, Cody and Ricky, you guys head out to the forest. What do you guys do as you sort of go do… you go down many lower levels. Get rooms piled high with treasure, artifacts, huge like, samovars and lanterns and lamps and dangling chandeliers and all kinds of crazy shit in here.

1:13:06 Murph: So, any swords?

1:13:08 Brennan: Oh shit, go ahead and give me—

1:13:09 Sofia: This is someone else's house. This is someone else's house.

1:13:11 Cody: I'm gonna ask. I'm gonna ask.

1:13:14 Lou: [laughing] “I’m gonna ask.”

1:13:18 Brennan: Go ahead and give me an Investigation check, both of you. (Ally giggles)

1:13:23 Lou: [crossing his fingers] Nat 20, Nat 20, Nat 20—

1:13:23 Cody: Ricky, look around for any swords. We're gonna ask!

1:13:26 Ricky: Looking around for swords, sure.

1:13:28 Murph: I got a nat 1. [group laughs]

1:13:31 Emily: Aha! That's what you deserve.

1:13:33 Murph: What! I was gonna ask!

1:13:34 Zac: 18. I got a 18.

1:13:34 Emily: Looking around Madam Anastasia's house like that.

1:13:39 Brennan: Cody—

1:13:40 Murph: You got a house full of treasure!

1:13:41 Brennan: Cody, you go to touch a… There's an incredible like ruby-hilted scimitar, you go to touch it and your hand gets badly burned by the rubies in the hilt.

1:13:53 Ricky: Oh! Be careful.

1:13:54 Cody: Ah! Brennan imitates quickly letting go of something hot.

1:13:56 Zac: I think Ricky has the energy of like a dad trying to talk to his, like relate to a son. Yeah, like playing a video game. (group laughs)

1:14:04 Cody: Fuck, fuck! Did you see that? It must've belonged to like an angel or something.

1:14:06 Ricky: Yeah, whoa, that’s pretty hot.

1:14:08 Cody: [fanning his hand in the air] Or like rejects evil. Fuck dude, did you see that?

1:14:14 Ricky: Yeah, I did see it, I did. [Murph laughs uncontrollably]

1:14:17 Brennan: Ricky on 18, you see that there are, there's a wall of swords. There's a whole wall of swords. They're all behind locked glass. However, they look incredible and magical and awesome. And then there's an umbrella stand next to that glass case of swords that just has like one kind of like humble looking sword in it. It’s sort of just like, leather wrapped hilt, it doesn't, it's not shimmering or shining with magical potential. It looks like sort of what a medieval sword would look like.

1:14:38 Ricky: Huh.

1:14:59 Zac: Ricky will, I guess, pick it up and be like,

1:15:02 Ricky: Hey, this is pretty cool. I don't know if you're interested in it, Cody.

1:15:06 Cody: It's super, I'm interested in every sword yeah.

1:15:10 Ricky: Here, why don't you—

1:15:10 Lou: [laughing] “I’m interested in every sword.”

1:15:12 Zac: So I hand him the sword.

1:15:16 Brennan: Cool.

1:15:16 Murph: I take the sword.

1:15:16 Ricky: Pretty cool sword, right? Hey so, we're kind of similar, right? [chuckles] I feel like we—

1:15:23 Cody: Two sides to the same coin.

1:15:25 Ricky: You know, you keep saying that. I just think we've got… We sort of have similar things we can do. Maybe we get our powers from different things, but also, I think that's kinda interesting, right?

1:15:39 Cody: Yeah, I think sometimes you have to become a demon to defend an angel, if that makes sense.

1:15:46 Ricky: What is the angel? [group laughs]

1:15:50 Cody: Just the world? The mall, the mall is the angel.

1:15:53 Ricky: Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah. Well...

1:15:55 Cody: There's sort of a Sasuke/Naruto thing going on with us.

1:16:00 Ricky: What's up? [group laughs]

1:16:04 Cody: We should go look at the mist.

1:16:06 Brennan: [nearly laughing too hard to speak] You guys head out and go look at the mist.

1:16:10 Ally: “What's up?”

1:16:16 Murph: [laughing] Ricky definitely just like watches NCIS and nothing else. Zac nods.

1:16:22 Ricky: I'm not, I know of anime, wasn't quite my thing. It's cool that you like it. [group laughs] [whimsical orchestral music]

1:16:32 Brennan: You guys, head out… In the kitchen Anastasia, you arrive, the kitchen is like a vast, there's like a huge 20 foot long butcher’s board in the middle of a vast multi-stove like this is a kitchen to like cook feasts in. And you see, there is an icicle-encrusted, like walk-in, ancient medieval freezer that has like a bank vault wheel on like the outside of it. There's like food and stuff in, and Iga, you know this place is like stocked non-stop.

1:17:11 Iga: Mm-hmm, yeah, the food does not go bad here. It's just,

1:17:14 Sofia: Oh!

1:17:16 Iga: And it's just here. You can eat it, it's fine, it's not unlike eat the food, sell your soul situation. Just in case you were worried.

1:17:23 Sofia: Hmm, I wasn't even thinking of that until you said that, but now I think I'm just gonna eat this Luna Bar in my pocket. Thank you.

1:17:28 Iga: Okay. Well, I will have a cup of tea.

1:17:32 Ally: What flavor?

1:17:32 Iga: It’s good tea!

1:17:34 Ally: What flavor on the Luna bar?

1:17:34 Emily: [laughs] Lemon Zest. I love lemon-flavored granola bars.

1:17:38 Brennan: Iga, Misiek flies ahead of you grabs a little thing and flies around it in the little circle to open the vault door so you can go in and grab some stuff. Anastasia or yeah, as you enter, Iga, you see that the splendor of the freezer is pure tons of food, giant haunches of like hunted elk and forest beasts and stuff like that. Every time you open the door, this place is fully stocked. You see that there is a big empty section on one of the shelves and this place is always replenished. You've never walked in here to see it empty before. The two plates that are empty, are a platter of sheep's cheese and a giant dish that every time you came in here was filled with borscht bites. And they're just gone.

1:18:47 Iga: [blinks several times] Mm, who is eating my cheese? Is this a… Hmm, a small Polish child living in this ball? I do not like this, I do not like this one bit. People are taking my stuff. Hmm.

1:19:11 Siobhan: I get a lemon and sugar for the tea.

1:19:17 Sofia: Madam Anastasia, I know that everyone's asking a lot of you right now, but you can also ask us if stuff is going on. I think if everyone's coming on strong, it's because, we like to help.

1:19:29 Iga: No look, no, I get it, you're helpful people. You're good people. I just, you have to understand my people were persecuted for a very long time, it's not—

1:19:39 Sofia: Yeah, I know.

1:19:42 Iga: It was not like a good fun thing to have magical powers in Poland in the medieval period. Do you understand?

1:19:48 Sofia: Yeah.

1:19:50 Iga: Like that was bad, that was not good. We have been trained to stay secret, and it has worked for us because when you get involved, bad things happen.

1:20:02 Sofia: Absolutely, but I just want you to know that the people who are trying to help you right now, like magic, we love your magic. We wanna see it exactly how you want to see it.

1:20:17 Iga: I'm gonna give you such a discount. I'm gonna give you such a discount, you will not believe.

1:20:22 Sofia: Thank you so much. Even though my faith in your services has been shaken. I will still be coming back.

1:20:29 Iga: Hey, Sofie sometimes the reading is a real reading and sometimes the reading is what you need to hear. And that's just as important.

1:20:34 Sofia: Yeah.

1:20:36 Iga: Do you know what I mean?

1:20:38 Sofia: Yeah I'll be honest. Like I mean, I think that you do charge way too much, but your readings are also true.

1:20:44 Iga: I'm in the Upper West side, you want a cheap reader, you go to a different neighborhood you know what I mean.

1:20:49 Sofia: Exactly.

1:20:49 Iga: The rents are high.

1:20:51 Sofia: Yeah (laughs)

1:20:53 Brennan: You two just ended having a lovely cup of tea here. Yeah, I think that, how is Iga feeling in this moment, especially this is the first time you've had other people in the chest with you probably for a while. And it's also very different to be this, there is something I think very potent here as well of like you being in halls that you know your mom and your grandmother and your great-grandmother and your great-great-grandmother, all walked in.

1:21:26 Siobhan: I feel like it is like a safe space for her. It's a very calming space that she goes to when she needs to be alone. And it is a little weird having people there, because she hasn't welcomed anybody in for a long time. I think maybe even like her husband doesn't really come here. Like she has taken him here to show him, but really it's her space. So she likes these people. She likes that they're helping her, but it's still a little tense having people over. I feel like--

1:22:07 Brennan: Yes, absolutely. Ana and Amelia—

1:22:13 Emily: Sofia is very respectful. She uses a coaster.

1:22:17 Iga: Thank you.

1:22:18 Brennan: We’re gonna cut back to the hospital room that now just has a big magical chest Kingston, Pete and Esther. Esther looks over at the two of you. And basically just says,

1:22:33 Esther: Well, Voxes of New York City, how are we feeling about the scuffle on the subway, does this feel like routine Halloween shenanigans or does this feel like something else?

1:22:47 Kingston: It's something else.

1:22:47 Pete: I think it's something else.

1:22:50 Pete: Kingston, have you been noticing anything weird in your area, this like 125th Street area?

1:22:59 Kingston: We had a, not really I mean, one of the bigger electronic stores is sold, but I mean, that's not something so crazy. I'm more disturbed by this woman I talked to when she got off the subway, just the energy I got off of her, I don't know what, Madam Anastasia said about the city changing is right. But this change feels different. Something about places.

1:23:31 Pete: Hmm.

1:23:34 Kingston: Yeah.

1:23:34 Lou: Ah, like, quick question, Brennan, that chest pain that I had before I got on the subway, is that tied to my physical being like Kingston, being an old man or the nature of what we were doing?

1:23:52 Brennan: Give me a Medicine check.

1:23:52 Lou: Okay. That's a 25.

1:24:03 Brennan: You like take a second now that the room is a little bit more intimate and you're just here with Pete and Esther to like, take your blood pressure. You're doing great, man, you're in great health. You scrapped hard in that fight and feel great. You believe that was something supernatural. You believe it was the presence, the antipopuli as a concept is all about, like, this thing exists in a miasma. Particles of it appear in the world as a supernatural element, but in doses so small that they're almost always microscopic. And what was there on that train was like a lethal dose. Something that can kill you if like a drop of it enters your bloodstream or your area, you respirate it or whatever. And it was physically tangibly there. This like, powerful hatred of New York. You feel like that was sort of beaten back. That stuff being there feels more like a fluke to you. The antipopuli, you don't think... That stuff is always around. You've never seen it congregate like that. In other words, to make it something like the raw, well, I guess you don't know necessarily about the raw Umbral Arcana thing yet. You know, that amounts of antipopuli like that only exists in Nod. They aren't found in the waking world like that, so—

1:25:46 Ally: I was gonna ask you about your chest grab anyway. 'Cause I perceived…

1:25:50 Lou: Yeah.

1:25:53 Ally: Um, so maybe we can just swap that info now. I can tell him about the raw that I saw, and—

1:25:56 Lou: Yeah I think I pass along—

1:26:00 Brennan: Yeah Kingston, so you guys confer and Esther hears this, where Pete you're basically like, yeah antipopuli probably got pushed here almost like when a wave of jellyfish gets washed up on the beach by the tide, the jellyfish sting you and are nasty. That's like the antipopuli, but that might be a fluke, that might not happen again. The tide coming in that strongly, that's a big problem. And the tide in this instance would be that raw Umbral Arcana.

1:26:29 Ally: Yeah and specifically from where, if we can figure that out?

1:26:34 Brennan: Esther, as you guys share, this speaks up and she says,

1:26:38 Esther: Well, this is something that I just came across yesterday in Alejandro's old notes. The Umbral Engine, I was operating under a misconception from my years when back when I was just the Proctor of the Clinton Hill Chantry, that the Umbral Engine created the Umbral Arcana, that's not actually true. The Arcana is a naturally occurring substance within Nod and the umbral engine disseminates it and harnesses it to create what we call the Umbral Arcana is actually a specialized network of harnessed raw Arcana from or I guess like raw Umbra from the Sixth Borough. If you saw, you visibly saw it with the naked eye Pete? Pete nods.

1:27:41 Esther: [pushes her hand into her hair] Okay…

1:27:41 Pete: Yeah.

1:27:45 Esther: That's not great.

1:27:48 Pete: It went under the subway, it went deep in somewhere else.

1:27:56 Esther: Obviously there are ways for the Arcana to get into the city because we that's what we use to protect the Unsleeping City. But, if like you're saying there was enough of a concentration, A, that it was able to push through that much antipopuli to take over that subway car or that entire subway, then that... we got to talk to Sofia. She's been mentioning stuff like this for awhile. She's found some stuff at the monastery that I think might be worth us looking into.

1:28:33 Pete: She told me about that too, yeah totally. Yeah, yeah.

1:28:38 Brennan: I think you see, she looks at you Pete and goes like,

1:28:40 Esther: I think what we're experiencing here in the waking world. We're getting the ripples of something happening. Maybe not on this side.

1:28:53 Pete: Definitely.

1:28:58 Kingston: We're gonna have to go to Nod?

1:29:02 Ally: I was gonna say, can I invite Nod here or gray baby?

1:29:04 Brennan: Yes. Um— [Emily laughs]

1:29:07 Lou: Gray Baby.

1:29:11 Brennan: Yeah, you see Esther says,

1:29:15 Esther: Maybe it might, Pete obviously you're free to, if you wanna head into Nod, if you have business there, that's obviously your prerogative as the Vox Phantasma for us, for people that might need to take more precautions heading there,

1:29:28 Brennan: And you see Esther makes eye contact with Kingston here. She goes like,

1:29:30 Esther: I think starting at the monastery and at the society, it might be the place to start. But I think honestly,

1:29:36 Brennan: You see, she raises her hands, she’s like,

1:29:40 Esther: This might be a full court press scenario. We don't know where we're we gonna find the, find bingo here, but we should probably look across the board anyway.

1:29:53 Brennan: So she nods… Ricky and Cody back in you guys moves to the forest, get to the gray edge of the forest here. You see, it's not really mist. The delineation is kind of sharp. The land just sort of falls away and it's not mist. It's more like just ambient gray light, just (pulses).

1:30:30 Zac: I guess I'll cast Divine Sense just to, I feel like—

1:30:33 Murph: Yeah, I wanna do the same thing and specifically mechanically I wanna kinda do a Religion check and see if I sense any of the same magic that I sensed from like, specifically Cody is looking to see if Gladiator has any ties to the supernatural.

1:30:55 Brennan: Are you doing a Divine Sense?

1:30:58 Murph: Yes.

1:31:01 Brennan: Each of you guys can give me either Religion, Arcana or Perception if you want in this moment.

1:31:10 Murph: Would it be, what are your stats? Would it be more helpful for one of us—

1:31:13 Zac: My perception’s, a lot. I get, do I still get a advantage on this perception?

1:31:19 Brennan: Yes you do.

1:31:19 Zac: Okay. Cool.

1:31:19 Murph: Oh sweet. So then I'll just make a Religion. Oh sorry, what did, what kinda checks did you say were okay?

1:31:26 Zac: Arcana, Perception, and Religion.

1:31:28 Brennan: Yeah.

1:31:28 Murph: Oh great. I'll make Religion.

1:31:32 Zac: I got a 18 Perception--

1:31:35 Murph: I got a 15.

1:31:36 Brennan: Cool, when you cast Divine Sense, you get back either celestial, undead, fiendish, or whatever, or when you cast it, you will get back like, this is regular, this is mundane, but you get a reading, you get back no reading here. It's like the difference between something being the answer is no, versus just like N/A. Right? Like not applicable.

1:32:03 Zac: Yeah.

1:32:05 Brennan: You don't, it's like nothing comes back out to you and on an eight— on a 15. Yeah, man you, the feeling you get in the pit of your stomach from not receiving information back from your Divine Sense Cody, is the feeling you got, when the wall in the mall that used to be full of like concert posters, became filled with like Gladiator campus arriving soon. You can't tell if that means they're magically connected. You feel a connection though, in terms of that thing of like reading like a Gladiator advertisement and just being like N/A. I don't relate to that at all.

1:32:59 Murph: Right, Yeah.

1:32:59 Brennan: It means nothing. It is nothing. Ricky, on an 18, if something were to appear in the mist, what would Ricky imagine would appear in the mist?

1:33:13 Zac: What would he imagine appear? I mean like, it definitely feels like something not good to him is out there. So remembering this sort of deep, whatever, I don't know, like probably a monster of some kind.

1:33:29 Brennan: For a moment, you see a silhouette of Esther in the mist, and it's just a moment, a silhouette. And you hear in your ear, like you're wearing headphones almost in terms of it's very loud, but it's not pulse, it's not like telepathy or in your mind or whatever, you hear it but you know that no one else can hear it. You hear a click of like an answering machine or like clicking into your voicemail and you hear Esther's voice, but it's not Esther's voice. As it speaks to you in person, it's a recording, like a voicemail would be, and you hear Esther's voice say,

1:34:14 Esther: Hey Ricky, it's Esther, we need to talk.

1:34:20 Brennan: And it ends.

1:34:25 Ricky: [stares for a long time] Oh no.

1:34:27 Cody: So I'm getting a sense of kind of just general nothingness, did you pick up anything?

1:34:36 Ricky: [shakes his head] I did not pick up anything, [Brennan laughs]

1:34:40 Ricky: Sort of also a general nothingness.

1:34:46 Cody: So maybe like something is like, just like swallowing all the stuff, or like...

1:34:53 Ricky: Yeah.

1:34:55 Cody: It's just like a fucked up thing, it's just like, interesting.

1:34:58 Ricky: It feels like maybe we're maybe not the two best people out to guess what this is.

1:35:05 Cody: No dude, we can fucking figure this out. Like, let's think about this, okay. So there's like good like normally we'd be able to know if there was good stuff or bad stuff, but this is just nothing stuff.

1:35:13 Ricky: Yeah.

1:35:15 Cody: And the nothing stuff is just like getting all over. And so, but the, okay, lemme ask my devil, Hey, I'll translate for you, and I'll just kinda say out loud what the devil is saying.

1:35:31 Murph: Hey, what is my devil's name again?

1:35:35 Brennan: Bazathrax, yeah.

1:35:35 Cody: Bazathrax. Dark Lord Bazathrax, are you getting a reading from any of this shit?

1:35:43 Bazathrax: Ah, dude, I get, what's going on out there? I'm stuck in your chest, can you open your shirt?

1:35:49 Murph: Yes, I pop like this. [mimes pulling open his shirt] (laughs)

1:35:52 Cody: This was specifically requested, I'm not just showing my tattoo to the mist.

1:35:54 Brennan: You see, he goes,

1:35:56 Ricky: Okay.

1:35:57 Bazathrax: Oh dude look at that. What's out there is gray, but it's like bright and gray at the same time, that's crazy, yeah?

1:36:05 Cody: Yeah, so are like the devil's pissed about this too. Is this like, just like when you said there were renegades before, are you saying that there's like people that are on like monsters that are on another side? That are just like—

1:36:20 Bazathrax: Oh dude, no renegades is like people that either got out, left, or were kicked out of hell. Like some devils are too much assholes and and Lucifer don't wanna keep them around no more. And so he's like, “get the fuck outta here!” And then they're in earth, they're just on earth. [Murph laughs]

1:36:38 Cody: Okay.

1:36:38 Bazathrax: Anyway, anyway dude—

1:36:39 Ricky: What’d he say?

1:36:41 Cody: Just devils everywhere.

1:36:42 Bazathrax: Anyway dude, I sent those fucking invites out to the renegades like you asked me to, so there's a bunch, like New York, there's like a bunch like, there's imps, and there's lesser devils, but I kinda, I still see a bunch of people, dude. So it's all gonna be good.

1:36:59 Cody: Okay, so my devil, I told you guys a bunch of stuff before, but I forgot some shit. My devil's super quick acting, just like a really good, quick assistant, kind of CC'd bunch of devils. So there are devils coming, but they're minor devils and they were fired. Most of them are fucking fired. They're not even in hell anymore.

1:37:18 Ricky: Cody, what are you talking about?

1:37:21 Cody: There's, okay, so my devil, so there's other renegades that got into earth, right? 'Cause they got like kicked out of hell,

1:37:29 Ricky: Can you start swinging the sword around? [group laughs]

1:37:32 Cody: Yeah, [swings it] so they are like around. There's other renegades which is like, honestly, if you think about it, pretty freaking badass, but there's like other imps and stuff that are going to, my devil manager said that they would do my bidding. But my devil manager also at one point said he was Lucifer. So..

1:37:55 Ricky: Your devil manager assistant Lucifer.

1:38:00 Cody: It's super confusing because apparently, he got fired from hell. He's not even like Lucifer, they're not even on good terms. So there are devils coming, but I don't… because this mist is the bad guy. I think that, that's fine.

1:38:16 Ricky: Maybe we should head back.

1:38:16 Cody: If you had asked me.

1:38:17 Ricky: I think we should head back.

1:38:18 Cody: [nodding] Cool.

1:38:20 Brennan: [laughs] You guys head out of there. Ana and Amelia come and join up. And they meet up with you guys on the balcony again, after Sofia and Iga have their tea, they say,

1:38:32 Twins: This castle is awesome, like this is so fucking cool. It's the only castle we've seen is like Belvedere Castle or like, it's like this place fucking rules.

1:38:42 Iga: Oh yeah, now this is a real ass castle. This is the real deal castle-wise.

1:38:48 Twins: So we basically looked and we were, basically what we were looking for, was like, is there any infection here, is there something going on? We did detect traces of Umbral Arcana here. And honestly, like not even necessarily Umbral Arcana kind of like raw Umbra, just sort of here in the castle. We don't have like permissions from the wards of this place to go and dispel that ourselves, Madam Anastasia, you could grant us that, but also maybe this is something that you just wanna handle yourself.

1:39:20 Brennan: You see they sort of whisper to each other and they just go like,

1:39:23 Twins: [quietly] Okay, yeah.

1:39:25 Brennan: And they say also like,

1:39:28 Twins: Do you super know what the source of the power in this place is?

1:39:37 Iga: Yes, it is the spirits.

1:39:39 Twins: Okay, yeah, for sure! Awesome!

1:39:41 Iga: The spirits of the castle, they give us the power.

1:39:44 Brennan: You see—

1:39:45 Iga: Sometimes leave a little bowl of milk out for them.

1:39:48 Sofia: Oh, okay, a bowl of milk—

1:39:48 Iga: You know, they like the treasure, it seems like,

1:39:53 Brennan: Ah, you see Ana and Amelia both nod—

1:39:54 Iga: We don't hang out, I don't know what to tell you. We're not hanging out.

1:39:57 Murph: Speaking of the treasure. I look at Ricky and Sofia and then I look at Madam Anastasia and I go,

1:40:03 Cody: There was this sword and it just seems like a pretty dumb sword, so, it was just kind of—

1:40:09 Sofia: Okay, that's not how you ask something. This place is full of family heirlooms, so don't call any of them dumb. Show some respect, young man.

1:40:20 Cody: Madam Anastasia, can I have this sword?

1:40:23 Iga: The umbrella sword? [Emily laughs]

1:40:27 Zac: It was a regular sword in an umbrella holder, right?

1:40:30 Brennan: Yes it was a regular sword in an umbrella holder,

1:40:33 Cody: It's just a regular ass sword, but it's cool.

1:40:37 Sofia: Say something nice about the sword.

1:40:39 Cody: It's a cool sword. [quietly] Fuck.

1:40:44 Siobhan: Can I do an Arcana check on the sword to see if it actually does anything. 'Cause if it's just a shitty ass sword he can have it.

1:40:55 Brennan: Go ahead, yeah, go ahead and make the check. Go ahead and make a—

1:41:02 Siobhan: Yeah, that's a 25 Arcana. [Emily laughs] [mystical music]

1:41:05 Brennan: This is a.. you call it the umbrella sword. There are legends attached to the sword of it being forged for a knight, who was a tyrannical knight in medieval Poland, who basically got it made, hated it, and like tossed it aside and got his other knights, like burned down the village where the sword was crafted and a peasant boy found it, picked it up. It's sometimes also called the peasant’s sword. And basically took it and trained with it until he was like a master swordsman, went and killed the knight who burned his village down, who had requisitioned the sword to be made. It works best in the hands of the humble is the only thing you know about it.

1:41:57 Iga: You know, actually I think the sword will suit you. [laughs]

1:42:02 Cody: Sweet.

1:42:07 Iga: But you do owe me a favor, just to be clear. This is a pretty big, it was a nice, good—

1:42:11 Cody: Super appreciate it.

1:42:13 Sofia: [quietly] Cody. Cody. Pay her, pay her.

1:42:14 Iga: Yeah, you know, stay humble, Cody.

1:42:18 Cody: I don't have money.

1:42:20 Emily: Can I look at the sword and see if I think it would be a better fit with Ricky?

1:42:25 Brennan: With no rolling necessary, a million percent would be a better fit for Ricky.

1:42:28 Cody: It kind of hurts when I touch it. Fuck.

1:42:32 Emily: Can I try to look at, can I try to make eye contact with Ricky kind of be like,

1:42:37 Sofia: All right. Ricky, by the way I just wanna say like, thank you so much for giving the questing blade to my deceased husband so that he could visit me sometimes—

1:42:46 Ricky: Oh, yeah, of course.

1:42:48 Sofia: I just, I've noticed your holster empty ever since.

1:42:51 Ricky: Yeah, well, I mean to put it in… so you know Cody. Cody is swinging the sword.

1:42:57 Ricky: Can you stop swinging it? Can you stop—

1:42:57 Cody: Yeah, what's up?

1:42:59 Ricky: I used to have a pretty cool weapon and then I gave it up when it felt like I should. And now I'm not using a weapon until it feels like I should use, like until that weapon finds me, you know.

1:43:10 Cody: Cool.

1:43:11 Iga: I mean, maybe you try the sword.

1:43:11 Cody: Do you want—

1:43:13 Iga: You should try it.

1:43:15 Ricky: I'm okay.

1:43:17 Brennan: Bazathrax goes,

1:43:17 Bazathrax: Dude, under no circumstances, give this fucking sick ass sword up there under no fucking circumstances.

1:43:27 Cody: [doing figure-eights with the sword] Feels right, dude. exactly the same as this other sword. [group laughs]

1:43:30 Brennan: Incredible. You guys exit from Iga's otherworldly dimension.

1:43:37 Sofia: Thank you so much for a lovely stay Anastasia that really was very nice.

1:43:41 Iga: Thank you, no it's nice to have guests, even under these unfortunate circumstances.

1:43:50 Brennan: As you exit, Kingston and Pete, you see Ana and Amelia as these guys come out of the chest Ana and Amelia walk over to Esther to report to her really quickly and basically go like,

1:44:00 Twins: We scanned the castle and everything, there's definitely raw Arcana in there, which is probably not great. Until Lowell identifies like the chest, we won't know all the wards that are keeping that dimension in there. I think, look like the only person who's gonna be able to really like explore that castle is gonna be Madam Anastasia. The castle is not the source of the magic. There's like something in there. Something like down deeper in the castle, I think.

1:44:40 Brennan: And you see that Esther goes,

1:44:40 Esther: Ah. Well, maybe we have plenty to deal with as it is. And Madam Anastasia has made clear that her involvement in the city is limited to what she desires.

1:44:59 Brennan: I think Kingston and Pete give me Insight checks.

1:45:01 Lou: Ah, Nat 20.

1:45:01 Ally: 20 but not Nat.

1:45:03 Brennan: Whooo! Dirty 20 for Pete. You guys both call it Kingston you can see, absolutely. Esther, all of the things that are going on here, like Cody's devil stuff and Iga's box. You can see Esther in her head being like, okay, a kid found a random infernal book in a mall. This warlock who'd kind of like, doesn't give a shit about the rest of the Unsleeping City. Like has a problem with her family heirloom. You can tell that Esther has been like, these are symptoms. The disease is the stuff the Voxes and Sofia are worried about. And you can see her kind of in her head also because she, you can see that she has just like a wizardly disdain for warlock magic and people that like don't have deep curiosity about that kind of shit you can both tell that she possibly like too quickly writes Iga and Cody off as like, these are clearly dominoes that are falling based on a larger, more primary domino. She goes,

1:46:10 Esther: Okay, well, we have Lowell trying to get Iga on the books. I think that we can let her have her privacy until such time as Lowell becomes available, there's plenty for us to do.

1:46:23 Brennan: And you see that she motions over to you Sofia. She's like,

1:46:24 Esther: There's plenty for us to be doing in the meantime.

1:46:27 Ally: I think I clock this kind of like cold scientific attitude and really try to make up for it by getting to know the two of them more or just being like,

1:46:38 Pete: Hey, thanks so much for swinging by. And I really would love a reading from you Iga.

1:46:45 Iga: Look, you guys have been very nice. I'll give you all a little card, one card each.

1:46:51 Pete: Yes please.

1:46:51 Iga: But this is not—

1:46:53 Sofia: I wouldn't mind a card, honestly.

1:46:55 Iga: Here we go, if you want it is a card. Thank you and payment in kind for kindness to me today, okay? So Sofia, tell me when to cut. There’s a beat where they just stare at each other.

1:47:13 Iga: You gotta say it fast—

1:47:13 Sofia: Cut.

1:47:14 Iga: 'Cause I'm running out of the cards. Oh my goodness, the Ten of Pentacles, money and wealth.

1:47:21 Sofia: Wow.

1:47:21 Iga: Will come to you soon. And maybe two little dogs. Maybe the nice time—

1:47:26 Sofia: Okay, I'm more of a cat person, okay.

1:47:31 Iga: That's understandable, they're nice looking dogs. Pete, if you like to tell me when to cut.

1:47:40 Pete: Cut.

1:47:42 Iga: Oh, the Nine of Cups. You're a man and you're sitting here with your nice cups. You're having a nice time at a celebration with your cups is a thing you like to do, your drinking and your cups?

1:47:56 Pete: Yeah, there are probably too many cups around me at all times.

1:47:59 Iga: Yes. But see maybe you're ignoring the cups you having a nice time ignoring the cups that are behind you because you don't need them anymore.

1:48:10 Pete: Wow, that's really deep. I want a full reading from you please, I'll come by.

1:48:16 Ally: I like write down your address.

1:48:17 Iga: Any time, any time.

1:48:17 Brennan: Hell yeah, so you guys healed up in Kingston's hospital room, successful from the subway battle. Cody, you've reverted to your correct age. We're gonna move right now because there's so much arcane research and stuff to do. And you guys have a lot of questions unanswered. We're gonna move into a period of downtime, which is also just because "The Unsleeping City" takes place at a place where you guys all have jobs and families and work and shit. Your adventures do have to get squeezed into the schedule from time to time. You guys have a little while before Lowell can take a look at Iga's chest. During this period of downtime, we will probably run some scenes here, but also it's totally fine if we narrate our way through it, let's start off over the period of the next like week to two weeks. (upbeat music)

1:49:12 Brennan: Over through the next weeks, two weeks before, while you guys are waiting for Lowell to sort of examine this chest. There's a lot of stuff that comes up about Sofia and the monastery, Pete had those ideas about Nod and Metropolitan Museum of dreams. There's a lot of investigating, Esther in the Gramercy Occult Society. So everybody go ahead and think of what you're... like a primary and a secondary activity during downtime. And also, for Pete and Sofia in particular, I'll need to know your downtime activities specifically as well. Does anyone have an idea of the main thing that I'll be looking over the next week or two and the big stuff you that you have on the plate in front of you to handle?

1:50:04 Emily: The other is one piece of housekeeping I have to do, which is like, I just need to talk to some of the people at the monastery, or we don't have to run it as a scene. I just need to get the A-OK, 'cause I know that they have a different relationship.

1:50:21 Brennan: I think we absolutely should run this as a scene. So the following day Sofia goes home from Halloween, you walk into your bedroom and you see wrapped up on your bed, a silver gleaming pair of nunchucks on the bed. [soft, somber instrumental music]

1:50:50 Emily: (sighs) Okay, I go look at them.

1:51:02 Brennan: You see, there is a note left on them that says,

1:51:10 Dale: I'm not any good at lying, and I know that you've probably caught wise to what I want to do. But I would never do anything without talking to you. These don't belong to me, and I've been using them, to come and see you when the world and other people might use them for something that they need them more for. I'm sad all the time because I'm hanging on to you so hard, and I feel like me doing that is keeping you from finding something in your real life. But I wouldn't just say goodbye to you in a note either. Come to Greenwood Cemetery if you wanna talk with me, and talk about why I feel this way, but I can't keep doing what I've been doing because as happy as it makes me, I know it's hurting you.

1:52:33 Emily: I don't know if I should go to Greenwood Cemetery right now, but I also, if he asks for it then yeah, I'll go to Greenwood Cemetery. [map whooshing, zooms in on Greenwood]

1:52:49 Brennan: You go to Greenwood. You're there at two o'clock in the morning. It's like Halloween night still. You've had the fight earlier in the night. And you arrive at Dale's grave that you first visited with Jackson three years ago, and you see, shimmering over it is Dale. Who's already just fully weeping.

1:53:22 Sofia: [on the verge of crying] I guess, I just want to say that if you were doing this to try to make me feel better, I would never let you do it. The only reason I would let you do it is because, I mean, you're in heaven right now! And you deserve to enjoy heaven as much as you think I deserve to enjoy where I am. You deserve to enjoy heaven, I mean, I can only imagine what it's like up there. I mean, so I really wanna fight you on this, but I think that, I think that what you think you're giving me, I need to give you, but I guess I wanna ask one thing. If I ever found magic that could bring you back, would you, I just feel like, I feel like the world really lost something when they lost you. And I feel like the world lost something when they lost us. So if I found any of that magic would, could I use it on you?

1:54:45 Brennan: Dale thinks for a moment, and he… You look at your husband and you can see him wrestling with this.

1:55:09 Sofia: You don't have to answer today 'cause I don't have it. I don't know where it is.

1:55:15 Brennan: He looks at you and says,

1:55:20 Dale: Sweetheart, it's a really bitter lesson. When you realized how much hope hurts. The idea of you bringing me back is something I've thought about every single day. I got taken away from you, senselessly, stupidly. I got close to some bad people and they got the jump on me. And that was it. The only thing that kept me sane was knowing that you were gonna find them and you were going to make it right, because there's nothing in this world that you can't do. If you find a way to bring me back…

1:56:11 Brennan: And you see something snaps in him and he goes,

1:56:14 Dale: I didn't beat the shit out of angels over the course of three years to stop you from trying to bring me back,

1:56:17 Sofia: [smiling through tears] Okay.

1:56:20 Dale: But you got to promise me something.

1:56:21 Sofia: Uh huh.

1:56:23 Dale: That you won't let the hope of that drive you crazy.

1:56:27 Sofia: I know, I know and I know that there is something I'm supposed to learn by us not seeing each other in a way that is unnatural. And I will figure out what I need to figure out without you. But I swear to God, if I get my hands on something that can bring you back, I'm probably gonna use it, unless you tell me explicitly not to.

1:56:54 Dale: The things that are possible in this wild fucking world, sweetie, they're endless and natural, unnatural. I love you in life and from beyond always and forever. And I wouldn't have… I just realized in the forest the other day near the deer that just, I could tell how much you were counting days.

1:57:21 Sofia: I know, but I could also tell it on you. There’s a long silence.

1:57:33 Dale: Live life, be happy. I— I know we're each trying to give the other person the same gift. We've always done the same thing. We've always tried to be the person lifting the other person up. I understand that. Only difference is this, is that, where I am there's no rush. And there's nothing on the line. Let me be the one to count days because there's nothing on this side that's demanding my attention, other than how much I love you.

1:58:14 Sofia: I know. [sniffs] I won't, let my, I won't let, you know. I won't let it compromise my judgment, I know that. What I feel for you doesn't come first in this world, but it for sure fucking comes second.

1:58:34 Brennan: [giggles] He smiles, he embraces you. He says,

1:58:38 Dale: I like that. After all, what comes after is where I'll be waiting. And this should come first because what's second is always gonna be there.

1:58:54 Brennan: He kiss—

1:58:54 Sofia: [whispering] Okay.

1:58:56 Brennan: He kisses a tear off of your cheek and smiles and looks… He has the same look that you know is on your face of wanting this so desperately and knowing that as good as it is for the other person, it's also hurting them, in a way that he can't bear anymore. And he smiles and fades into light. [chiming]

1:59:29 Emily: Okay, I think that was actually good for Sofia though, because she wanted to know if she could hypothetically someday bring him back. [Brennan laughs] Not that she, I know that the lesson is not that she's supposed to focus on that, but there is an ease to know that if she found an option that he wouldn’t be mad at her.

1:59:53 Brennan: Hey Sofia's— (mumbles) Hey, Dale will be wrestling with it. And so will Sofia because hope hurts. But it's hard to let go of if you think it might be out there.

2:00:08 Emily: And then I look at these cool nunchucks, and I say,

2:00:10 Sofia: Wow, I bet these do something pretty fucking cool.

2:00:13 Emily: And then I just put them in my pocket. [both laugh]

2:00:19 Brennan: You put 'em back there. Cool, awesome, awesome. The next day you head over to the Monastery of the Midnight Sun. You climb the fire escape outside of Spaghetti's Bakery, head up into the monastery. You see the monastery again is made out of all sidewalk, pavement blocks, the walls are sidewalk, the ceiling's a sidewalk. And as such people can walk on any dimension sort of the MC Escher style, like everything is floor basically. You see out in the yard there's a group of monks doing training, like calling out forms and poses. You see that there are… you walk into another room, that has those like spinning wooden blocks, where like you strike them and they spin around they strike you from the back. But there's a dude running with a full pizza through it. Like, Brennan mimics balancing a pizza over his head.

2:01:13 Brennan: [martial arts grunting] You see, training that guy running through with the pizza is the head instructor of the monastery. Solomon who waves over at you and goes

2:01:22 Solomon: [deeper voice] Morning Sofia, how are you doing today?

2:01:24 Sofia: Morning Solomon, I'm good, how are you?

2:01:27 Solomon: Good, good, oh Cindy wanted to talk to you for a moment, by the way.

2:01:32 Sofia: Yeah, yeah, I'll go find her. How are the recruits looking, strong, fresh, agile?

2:01:41 Solomon: This one sucks, but yeah, the other ones are good, for sure.

2:01:45 Brennan: You see the guy with the pizza just full face plants and Solomon goes,

2:01:47 Solomon: Boo! Boo to that. [Emily laughing]

2:01:57 Brennan: You walk along the hallway coming out of, one of the live, the sort of scroll libraries. And again, unlike the sort of Occult Society, your scroll, a lot of your things are just like long unfolded scrolls that have, in addition to writing, like a lot of pictorial stuff, like anatomy guides, pictures of poses, the libraries of the Monastery are all practical. There's not a lot of waxing poetic here. A lot of it is like, here's what we learned works. Here's how to defend yourself. Here are the inner practices and spiritual guidelines to keep yourself safe in like realms beyond. And you see that Nadia walks out, goes like,

2:02:36 Nadia: Hey Sofia! Good to see you back. How you doing?

2:02:38 Sofia: Hey Nadia. I'm okay, how are you doing?

2:02:42 Nadia: Good! You've been on patrol for a minute. Good to see you back in the monastery.

2:02:46 Sofia: Yeah, I started to miss the books, so I had to come back and check and make sure they were still here.

2:02:53 Brennan: Yeah, she's like,

2:02:53 Nadia: I'm gonna go see Cindy right now too. Did you hear what happened?

2:02:59 Sofia: No, what happened?

2:03:01 Nadia: Well, an old First Fist of the order who left a while ago, back in like the late '80's to go start a monastery in San Francisco, he just got back.

2:03:17 Brennan: And you see, he walks in and she says,

2:03:20 Nadia: Yeah, something fucked up happened. Like a monastery got destroyed out in San Francisco.

2:03:28 Brennan: You walk into this giant chamber lit by like golden candlelight everywhere. You see that there are a couple of other monks meditating in here, Cindy Wong, who is the abbess of the Monastery, who's basically in charge of the school, the libraries, the relics and everything like that. Looks up to you Sofia, as you enter as the current First Fist of the monastery, she smiles… She is a very like plump, wonderful, smiling, middle-aged Chinese American woman who has like tons of like light floral imprints and like floral slippers, a true beam of sunshine next to this, not tall, but like about honestly about the same height as you broad shouldered, thick muscles, tattooed, older looking monk who you see, she gets up and says,

2:04:35 Cindy: [smooth, calm voice] Come right this way. Sofia, this is Jackson's predecessor. This is Tony Simos.

2:04:45 Brennan: And you see, this guy looks up older eyes. You see like, honestly, yeah, like mid late, like mid to late 50's, but kinda like, New York, like older Greek guy, like so Staten Island kind of like clearly has been to like the Jersey Shore or like Long Island so much that he is just like baked into leather. His tattoos are all like faded into his body. Thick old man biceps, you just see a muscular old man. And you're like, oh, wow, like, oh dude. [Emily laughs] Shaved head, thick like sort of peppery salt, more salt than pepper beard. He gets up, he's got tears in his eyes and he gets up and goes.

2:05:35 Tony: [Staten Island accent] Huh, [wipes his eyes] holy shit. A pleasure and an honor, Miss Lee, I met Dale once coming back home. I'm sorry for your loss, I have, (sniffs) sorry you caught me fuckin' emotional out here. Fuckin' being back in this place is a trip,

2:05:54 Sofia: Yeah.

2:05:54 Tony: Pleasure and an honor and...

2:05:59 Sofia: It's a pleasure and an honor to meet you. What happened in San Francisco?

2:06:04 Brennan: He sighs and Cindy sort of rubs his back as he goes. [soft, sad piano music]

2:06:11 Tony: It's fucked up war of attrition, kind of over the past, like 15 years, we just lost a lot of fucking monks in the monastery. And a lot of young kids, there weren't as many like kids from the neighborhood around anymore. Like we fuckin'... I went out there to start the Order of the Iron Heart. We had our monastery, we were overlooking the Bay. You could see the bridge, beautiful. Basically, by the end there was only about, about a dozen of us left. People had moved, people stopped coming. We weren't finding as many worthy candidates. And one night we got attacked by these... I don't know, they were like shadows or something. And… Monastery cracked in half, I could've kept fighting, they didn't have me down, but the stone just crumbled and something magical, and the monastery gave out and they were gone.

2:07:32 Brennan: He looks at you… give me an Insight check.

2:07:36 Emily: Ah, 15. [soft instrumental music]

2:07:40 Brennan: You can tell that he's doing the best he can to tell you what happened. But there's definitely a simultaneous thing of, like all like machismo, it is deep shame. And there's a ton of him talking about this, is hurting him to talk about.

2:08:02 Sofia: Oh, well, hey, you know what? It's happening everywhere, that kind of stuff.

2:08:12 Brennan: You see, he nods and says,

2:08:12 Tony: Yeah.

2:08:14 Sofia: Yeah, that's not on any monastery shoulders. I bet you all were doing a great job. But there's some shit going down, which is actually why I was hoping to speak with Cindy a little bit, but I mean, you as well, of course.

2:08:33 Brennan: You see, he looks and says,

2:08:33 Tony: Yeah, by all means, go for it yeah.

2:08:36 Brennan: He says,

2:08:36 Tony: And honestly, I'm just honored to be... Just sort of don't have a home right now, but...

2:08:43 Sofia: You do now, especially if you were once here, you’re actually coming home. (laughs)

2:08:47 Brennan: You see, he sees, he smiles and says,

2:08:49 Tony: Oh, look at that, a little hospitality, nice to see a Staten Island girl by the way.

2:08:52 Brennan: He says, (laughs)

2:08:56 Tony: I know you're Sofia Lee, but I knew your old man, back in neighborhood we grew up together, not sure what your relationship is to your family, but.

2:09:11 Sofia: My relationship is that I live with my mother and I don't see any of the rest of them.

2:09:14 Brennan: He's like,

2:09:14 Tony: Good, 'cause I tell you what. Your father, Bicicleta, he was a fucking punk then and I bet he's a fucking punk now so...

2:09:23 Sofia: He's still a fucking punk, yeah. I guess I wanna make sure, Cindy I've, I think I've taken some liberties and I need your A-OK to continue in a direction that I should have consulted you about.

2:09:39 Brennan: She says,

2:09:39 Cindy: By all means, Sofia what's what's going on, what do you need consulting with?

2:09:45 Sofia: I kinda started reading some stuff at the library about some stuff deeper, about deep dreaming and how like it's, how there's all these other monsters out there. I know that in the past, the order's been little more adversarial with the dreaming world, but I kind of maybe told Pete a couple things. Pete's the Vox Phantasma.

2:10:17 Brennan: Go ahead and give me like a Persuasion check here.

2:10:20 Emily: Okay. 12.

2:10:27 Brennan: Nadia… Uh, and go ahead and give me an Insight check.

2:10:34 Emily: Dirty 20.

2:10:34 Brennan: Cool. Nadia has enough like friendship with you and respect for you that she looks like, Nadia looks like she doesn't even know why that would be weird. Cindy knows why it would be weird that you didn't mention it before, but doesn't seem averse to it. Like she—

2:10:53 Emily: Okay.

2:10:55 Brennan: She looks like, has a look sort of like, “oh, that's unfortunate that you didn't tell us first, but I don't disagree with your judgment”.

2:11:04 Sofia: Okay, it wasn't premeditated. It kinda came up because some stuff is maybe happening with a dream world. So it came up organically, I didn't plan.

2:11:13 Brennan: You see Tony looks at you and goes.

2:11:15 Tony: Shit, we got a Vox Phantasma in the city right now?

2:11:18 Sofia: We got a Vox Populi and a Vox Phantasma.

2:11:21 Tony: Holy shit,

2:11:21 Sofia: Yeah.

2:11:24 Brennan: You see, he looks over at Cindy and shrugs his shoulders and says,

2:11:28 Tony: That spells fucking trouble, huh?

2:11:29 Brennan: He says, he points to you and says,

2:11:31 Tony: Mrs. Lee—

2:11:32 Sofia: Trouble?

2:11:33 Brennan: He goes,

2:11:33 Tony: Yeah, you got your work cut out for your kid. I got your back, if you need anything. Vox Phantasma in the city has always precipitated huge incursions from the dream realm. Talking about monsters, beasts, vermians, paragons, shit like that, I mean fucking bad news. If there's a Vox Phantasma, do we know where this person is?

2:11:53 Sofia: No, I'm friends with the Vox Phantasma. He's a great kid.

2:11:56 Tony: Oh, okay.

2:12:05 Sofia: He's a really good kid, we had a huge incursion from the dream world and he (finger snaps) made it go away. I'm, from where I'm standing having a Vox Phantasma, Vox Populi at the same time, it's like, wow this is a rare opportunity.

2:12:25 Brennan: And he looks over and says,

2:12:26 Tony: [unconvincingly] Huh, okay, well, yeah, okay.

2:12:34 Brennan: You see, Cindy goes,

2:12:38 Cindy: All right, well I understand that—

2:12:40 Sofia: I'm sorry, what'd you say your name once again?

2:12:42 Brennan: He says,

2:12:42 Tony: Oh sorry--

2:12:44 Sofia: Sorry, I just wanna, sorry.

2:12:45 Tony: Tony, Tony Simos.

2:12:45 Sofia: Tony, right, okay. Yeah, yeah, cool yeah.

2:12:50 Brennan: You see that Cindy goes,

2:12:56 Cindy: Well all right, listen, have you talked to Miss Sinclair about it?

2:13:03 Sofia: Yeah, I have, yeah, yeah We talked about in, I guess I wanna to initiate sort of pooling some resources with Gramercy and other folks.

2:13:13 Brennan: You see that she looks and says,

2:13:17 Cindy: You are First Fist of the Monastery, if you believe that this is going to keep the monastery safe, this is within your purview. As our lead warrior.

2:13:27 Brennan: You see that she says,

2:13:32 Cindy: If Miss Sinclair sees some benefit to pooling resources in this way, and this feels like a way to address some issues.

2:13:43 Brennan: She says,

2:13:43 Cindy: We haven't seen you in a few days, I take it that there's some dreamworld activity that is pressing or of concern.

2:13:52 Emily: Can I do an Insight check on if I should say what's going on in front of Tony?

2:13:57 Brennan: Give me an Insight check.

2:14:00 Emily: 17 plus one 18. Wait, oh wait, think I have plus three to insight. Yeah plus three, dirty 20.

2:14:06 Brennan: Dirty 20. You're, Tony looks to your extent rattled right now, I think on a dirty 20 it's up to Sofia, there's an awkward situation here. Tony used to be First Fist of the Monastery and left to go start his own order. That position does not revert back to him, but he used to have Sofia's job in the order. [Emily laughs]

2:14:36 Brennan: And there is a degree of, (laughs) I don't know, it's up to, I will let Sofia, I'm gonna give you, I don't wanna tell you what you see on Tony with a dirty 20.

2:14:42 Emily: I know.

2:14:48 Brennan: But there's a spectrum that runs from the shallow end of this guy is old school and rattled all the way to worse stuff than that.

2:15:02 Sofia: Okay, yeah, Cindy, we got into a scuffle. There's actually so much to talk about that I'm gonna have to catch up with you later about it. 'Cause I'm meeting up with Esther, but actually one thing I would say is we got a kid who is obsessed with the mall and he made a deal with a minor devil. So I think we're gonna focus on that. That's our big problem right now. [Brennan laughs]

2:15:29 Sofia: Yeah, so yeah.

2:15:29 Brennan: Hell yeah. Go ahead and give me Deception.

2:15:33 Emily: (breathes heavily) Okay, 10.

2:15:40 Brennan: Cool. You don't see anything from Tony. You see Cindy goes,

2:15:47 Cindy: All right, well.

2:15:47 Brennan: And she says,

2:15:49 Cindy: Nadia, if you could go and help Sofia with whatever you deem would be necessary to share.

2:15:57 Brennan: You see, she looks and says,

2:15:58 Cindy: Would you, maybe it would be safer or better for, the wizards of the Gramercy Occult Society to come here.

2:16:06 Sofia: They're certainly welcome, yeah. I think it's wherever they feel most comfortable getting into their sort of wizardly concentration. But I'd love, I would love to like, show them some of the bestiaries I was looking at.

2:16:26 Brennan: You see she goes,

2:16:29 Cindy: Very well, absolutely, Sofia.

2:16:31 Brennan: Sofia, you walk away from there. Tony follows you for a moment and he says,

2:16:38 Tony: Hey Sofie, I just wanted to say, I heard all about Alejandro's passing, incredible guy.

2:16:48 Sofia: Yeah.

2:16:49 Tony: And I also heard about what went down New Year's Eve three years ago.

2:16:55 Sofia: [quietly] Yeah.

2:16:59 Tony: Great work, I just wanted to say, I know that that Dale was looking out for, that Dale was sort of our chosen one and, congratulations, seriously. The order is lucky to have you.

2:17:18 Sofia: Well, thank you very much. I only hope to serve it as well as Dale would have. I'm really looking forward to working together. It's great to have another super powerful person here.

2:17:33 Brennan: Yeah, he smiles and says,

2:17:34 Tony: Hey, I'm glad that the rumors precede me, all right. Hey and if you need a hand, I'm happy to offer one.

2:17:40 Sofia: Absolutely.

2:17:43 Brennan: Awesome! Downtime, okay, great. [Emily and Brennan both laugh]

2:17:53 Brennan: Cool, cool, cool. What are people's downtime activities that you guys are waiting for Lowell to kind of get back around to the chest?

2:18:02 Siobhan: I do think that Iga is going through the castle, in what downtime she has...

2:18:08 Brennan: Cool.

2:18:10 Siobhan: To like, make sure that everything is, just to sort of do an inventory of like, what's here, what's not like, what can I notice that's changed? [gentle strings fade in]

2:18:23 Brennan: Awesome, go ahead, there will be plenty of these downtime periods. So these are not gonna be make or break rolls because there will be many of these opportunities, but I'm gonna go ahead and just sort of set our DCs here at 20, across the board. Go ahead and give me an Arcana check for this first period of downtime.

2:18:45 Siobhan: Great. ...Mm, that's an 18, I'm gonna use a luck point to re-roll that

2:18:51 Brennan: Go for it.

2:18:54 Siobhan: That is a 25.

2:18:56 Brennan: Hell yes, Iga, you notice as your journey on the castle, you have never explored the castle all the way down before, because a lot of the inherited wisdom of your mothers and grandmothers going back is there are places in the castle that—

2:19:19 Siobhan: Avoid the darkness.

2:19:20 Brennan: Avoid the darkness in the castle, stay in near places with windows that can see the sky. Right?

2:19:24 Siobhan: Mm-hmm.

2:19:26 Brennan: You... stuff continues to fade within the castle. It's not happening rapidly, but those portraits fade a little bit, some of the color saps out of things and closer, around like the week mark or so, you get into a bit of a fight with Jessica. And you see that Jess… you're supposed to have a lesson 'cause she is getting older to kind of talk about some of this stuff more. And she kind of voices like, hey, I'm like, not interested in that. And it becomes a little bit aggressive. And you just notice that she, in the course of the argument, talking about the stuff that she's learning, she forgot the name of this old Polish fairy tale you used to tell her as a kid, and it just hurts your feelings I think, maybe in like an unexpected way that she's like forgotten something that was a very beloved memory of yours from her childhood. She heads off to go hang out with friends in the city you, the next time you're in the castle, there are books about the character from that fairy tale that are gone from the library and those spaces on the shelf are just empty.

2:21:00 Siobhan: Hm no, this is not good. It's very bad, okay. Can I maybe call up Kingston and be like,

2:21:10 Iga: If we can move things along with your guy with the butt, I would appreciate it things seem to be rapidly...

2:21:19 Kingston: Yeah, of course, it's good to hear from you when yeah. I'm texting Lowell every day. As soon as he's ready, we'll get things going.

2:21:30 Iga: Thank you and if he needs some help moving things along, [Brennan laughs]

2:21:35 Kingston: Okay.

2:21:35 Iga: Not with, just financially, not with the butt stuff.

2:21:40 Kingston: Oh not with the butt. No he's he has lubricants and things that are medical grade.

2:21:44 Iga: Yeah no, just but like— financial bump to bump the chest up the list—

2:21:51 Kingston: It's encouragement, I understand. You got it, Iga.

2:21:56 Brennan: Yeah, and Iga, I think that seeing those books missing Iga's point about New York and how much it changes and how that's okay. I think reverberates back to her, seeing this family heirloom lose those fairytale books from this amazing, magical castle.

2:22:19 Siobhan: Like maybe she was okay with the city changing because this was always gonna be the same.

2:22:24 Brennan: Yeah, I think so. Other people doing downtime stuff.

2:22:28 Zac: I feel like Ricky would, although Pete is watching over Cody, would like want to also be an influence in Cody's life with regards to like paladin stuff.

2:22:41 Brennan: Yeah.

2:22:41 Zac: Just to like, he's new to it.

2:22:46 Brennan: Yeah, so Ricky's kinda hanging out, giving Cody a hand. Cody, I think this is gonna give Cody advantage on whatever downtime activity you're taking.

2:22:54 Murph: Sweet. I think Cody is trying to, because Cody's not trying to be evil, he's trying to harness the darkness.

2:23:02 Brennan: Yeah. [Emily laughs]

2:23:04 Zac: He thinks he’s spying.

2:23:05 Murph: Yes exactly. So Cody, I think is trying to find out the nature of this devil book and these like renegades that are coming and to see like, if... Cody is trying to see how bad he fucked up or if he can actually do this.

2:23:28 Brennan: Awesome, give me… you can either choose Religion if you are trying to study or Investigate If you are going to like locations trying to find shit out.

2:23:42 Murph: Hmm I think I'll do Religion is better for me.

2:23:45 Brennan: Cool, go for it.

2:23:49 Murph: That's a dirty 20.

2:23:51 Brennan: That is the DC for these downtime activities.

2:23:53 Ally: Hell yeah.

2:23:54 Murph: Yeah.

2:23:54 Brennan: Hell yeah. What kind of questions are you looking for?

2:24:00 Murph: So I think first off, I'm asking Bazarath—

2:24:07 Cody: Who did you CC?

2:24:11 Brennan: He's just mentioning, he's like,

2:24:13 Bazathrax: Zargariel, Lanothrax, Zargobon, Grazel, Grazel, Grazel. Um, fuckin’,

2:24:20 Cody: Okay cool, and they are under, are they under you, or where do they stand?

2:24:27 Bazathrax: Oh dude, well, yeah, they, I mean, some of them might've been, but a lot of them from different departments, the fucking, I mean the main thing, dude, it's like, we're all renegades now, but don't worry. All these people chill. And I was basically like, I was like, only chill people. Night Angel is a chill champion of darkness. I called you Night Angel, I didn't call, 'cause no one knows your name's Cody, dude.

2:24:50 Cody: Very cool, very cool. Ambassador of the Dark Lord is cool too.

2:24:55 Bazathrax: Yeah, I didn't put that, but I did a bunch. I did a big CC and I was basically like, come in, New York is a fucking free for all. We're gonna get rolling, we're gonna get it in style. we're gonna get wet. Let’s fuckin’--

2:25:09 Cody: All right. No, alright. Just shut the fuck up, okay?

2:25:14 Emily: Get wet? [laughs]

2:25:16 Cody: We need to figure this out. We're not gonna, we're going to send a reply all.

2:25:20 Bazathrax: Okay.

2:25:20 Cody: Okay. Listen to me.

2:25:21 Bazathrax: Yeah. Okay, reply all.

2:25:24 Cody: We're gonna send a reply all. We're gonna say, We're not just fucking everything up. We have particular things that we're gonna fuck up. You need to come talk to the Night Angel, the Ambassador of the Dark Lord. Let's get this shit buttoned up, Jackass movie style.

2:25:46 Bazathrax: Dude, I fucking love Jackass—

2:25:48 Cody: So funny, so fucking funny.

2:25:50 Bazathrax: So fuckin’ funny.

2:25:51 Brennan: We actually have to come back to this scene in a moment. So we're gonna handle, (laughs) we're gonna 'cause there's something that it's very good you rolled that 20. Holy shit. [gentle jazz music]

2:26:01 Lou: I am, I think with all the talk of places and spaces and things going away, I think Kingston is thinking about the electronics store. So I think I'm gonna, I'm gonna bake a dozen muffins, package them up, in little like, little twosomes. And then I'm gonna, I would like to go on like a long walk around the neighborhood, delivering muffins to friends, but then also looking at properties that have been bought or like real estate development, that's happening in my area. And if there is a recurring theme or a name that's coming up a lot on possible properties that are being bought up much like the electronic store.

2:26:44 Brennan: Incredible, go ahead and give me either, this is either Investigation, if you are really looking— Oh yeah, go for it. Yeah what'd you get?

2:26:54 Lou: Oh no, is there another option?

2:26:56 Brennan: I say Investigation is the first one, but you also, if downtown, if it's really about people, I would let you do Insight as well.

2:27:05 Lou: I mean, well, let's go to the people. [laughs] Especially 'cause my Investigation is only plus two. Insight, we're going big 29.

2:27:18 Ally and Emily: Ooh!

2:27:18 Brennan: Holy shit.

2:27:21 Zac: That's a big 29.

2:27:22 Ally: That's a big 29.

2:27:26 Lou: A big 29! Wall to wall 29. Yeah, I think as to just what's getting bought up, Who's buying, who are people selling to? If there's just, if there's a recurring name or a group.

2:27:43 Brennan: Hell yes. [soft jazz continues]

2:27:46 Lou: And then of course, the muffins are also an essential part of this, this is not just, this also just a good time to see people.

2:27:54 Brennan: Hell yes, you go around the neighborhood, 29. Yeah man, on a 29, a lot of people in the neighborhood have been approached. I'm gonna say on a 29, you find out there is a company called Excelsior Dynamic Homes. That people got hit up, Reggie gets back to you too. And it's like, yeah, that's the company that came for that store there. And you get a meeting on the books, with a guy because there's a building that is going up. It's not right on 125th, it's a little bit buried. It's like a smaller five. There's like a five or six story apartment building. But it has a nice view kind of, oh, you can kind of see 125th Street from it. And a young enterprising real estate agent agrees to show you some homes who work for, who works for this company who agrees to show you some apartments. Cool, cool.

2:29:16 Lou: Yeah, great.

2:29:17 Brennan: He meets you downstairs, this is like luxury. It's like a, they've renovated like a luxury condor space. He goes like,

2:29:24 Devin: Oh! Mr. Brown, pleasure to meet you. I'm Devin, hi, hello, hello.

2:29:29 Kingston: Okay, nice to meet you, Devin.

2:29:32 Devin: Great, well, why don't you come on up and we'll show you some of the units.

2:29:36 Kingston: Great.

2:29:39 Brennan: He begins to go around,

2:29:41 Devin: So, central air in all of these obviously lot of great stuff available. You can see all the way around

2:29:50 Brennan: And you see these like—

2:29:50 Kingston: Yeah, it's just…

2:29:50 Lou: Oh, go ahead.

2:29:53 Brennan: Expansive apartments. The price listings here are insane, man.

2:30:01 Kingston: Hey Devin, so, I'm of course. Thank you so much for showing me around. In terms of this kind of… you work with Excelsior Dynamic. You guys do, you guys, are there other properties that might be able to check out in the area that you guys are working on?

2:30:18 Devin: Yes, we have a couple of other buildings. This is one of our oldest. This is the one that we're really trying to move.

2:30:26 Brennan: He says,

2:30:26 Devin: We only actually have two units left in the building.

2:30:30 Kingston: Oh really?

2:30:33 Devin: Yes.

2:30:33 Brennan: Kingston, as he says that you've been walking down this hallway, all the doors are open. All of the apartments are just empty. So you've walked past like eight apartments that like the doors are open, there's no furniture in them. There's just like, there's some like, cleaning equipment and stuff like, that to keep places clean. But here he says,

2:30:56 Devin: Yeah, we only have two units left in the building.

2:31:01 Kingston: [laughs a little] Is that, it just seems like they're not many people actually living here.

2:31:06 Brennan: He looks at you and sort of smiles and goes like,

2:31:08 Devin: (chuckles) Of course, yeah, I mean, most of our—

2:31:11 Kingston: Of course what?

2:31:13 Brennan: He's like,

2:31:13 Devin: Well, I mean the units, these units are extremely appreciable assets. So, most of the people that own these units, are don't live here.

2:31:28 Kingston: So a bunch of people are buying up property in this neighborhood and just choosing actively to not be here?

2:31:35 Devin: Well it's well, yeah I mean, these are obviously one could choose to live in an apartment they owned, but these are assets are only going to appreciate in time, the price of these going up and up and up. And you this is a I mean, honestly, this is a better investment than bonds, I mean. [laughs]

2:32:00 Lou: Kingston's blood is boiling, [group laughs]

2:32:06 Lou: It's just going to, rather than fight with Devin, just be like,

2:32:11 Kingston: Devin. That is one way to see the world. It is not one that I— (group laughs)

2:32:17 Kingston: It is not a lens through which I choose to view. Thank you so much for your time. I have your card, I might give you a call. This place is great and it's worth living in. And I don't get why these people are having such a hard time seeing it. Good day.

2:32:34 Lou: And I head out.

2:32:39 Brennan: You head out and walk past the corner where you see an old bodega on the corner, and you just noticed that it looks a little dusty and it's still open, still there.

2:32:56 Lou: I move, I hustle to it and just order a bacon, egg, and cheese, and just sit out in front of it.

2:33:07 Brennan: You see the guy happily makes it for you and smiles and says, [gentle jazz music]

2:33:10 Bodega Owner: Hey, thank you so much. First sandwich I sold today.

2:33:16 Brennan: And you realize it's like middle of the afternoon. And all the people that would be on this block, walking past this Bodega aren't here.

2:33:30 Brennan: [claps] That is Kingston's downtime activity.

2:33:33 Lou: Kingston is crushed. [Emily laughs sadly]

2:33:41 Brennan: Pete, downtime activity from you real quick.

2:33:42 Ally: I would, so I obviously would love to talk to Nod or go to the Museum of Memories, but I think honestly just what the memories that I have of Josefina are so like depressing in that way, kind of when you like realize they're like patterns in your family that you also have, and you're just kind of feeling kinda doomed. So instead I'm gonna go to an NA meeting. [chuckles] [brighter, slightly more exuberant jazz]

2:34:16 Brennan: Hell, yes. Yeah. you, there is arcane stuff to do, but you finally have a stable living situation for the first time in a while. You take—

2:34:25 Ally: Yeah.

2:34:26 Brennan: You take two week to get moved in, get your stuff. You meet Lugash, out on the street one morning, he goes,

2:34:33 Lugash: Oh, Peter, it is so good to see you, my friend.

2:34:37 Brennan: And your sponsor, Dr. Lugash, walks you to your great meeting. And it's pretty easy you grab the R, sorry not the R, you grab either like, something on the yellow line that takes you down. And then you grab the G train going into Greenpoint to your old Greenpoint meeting spot. Dr. Lugash is there and you spend two weeks really focusing on yourself. Your sobriety die moves up to a d6.

2:35:12 Ally: Sweet.

2:35:12 Brennan: You are doing better than you were a little while ago. [group claps]

2:35:15 Brennan: Way to go, Pete. Hell yeah.

2:35:16 Ally: Hey, thank you. [group chattering]

2:35:19 Brennan: Hell yeah.

2:35:21 Ally: Now I've got a little bit of cushion. Barely. [group laughs]

2:35:26 Brennan: You know, Pete—

2:35:27 Murph: No chance of rolling a 1 on a d6.

2:35:29 Ally: Yeah.

2:35:30 Murph: No chance at all.

2:35:30 Ally: No chance!

2:35:30 Brennan: No chance.

2:35:32 Ally: None.

2:35:34 Brennan: But again, rolling a one on d6 now, wouldn't mean Pete relapses—

2:35:38 Murph: Oh right, yeah.

2:35:39 Brennan: It would just mean that he moves to a d4, so there is, even with that, there is cushion. Pete's doing way better. Sofia, downtime activities from you here.

2:35:50 Emily: Oh yeah, I think just doing the research, helping out with the Gramercy Occult Society. I definitely want to like shoot off some loving texts to, honestly, everyone could probably use a loving text. But yeah I wanna stay in touch with like Madam Anastasia and yeah, just, I think just like going through these bestiaries trying to take the practical stuff that's in the monastery and then some of more of the theoretical stuff in Gramercy Occult Society, and then seeing where they overlap.

2:36:28 Brennan: Copy that, okay, go ahead, and I'm gonna say too so that list of stuff that you're doing there, you're going ham, keeping in track of people and helping with Arcana and stuff like that.

2:36:42 Emily: Yeah, and then maybe I mean, I'm also kind of keeping an eye on Tony.

2:36:47 Brennan: Cool.

2:36:47 Emily: Like if, anything else weird comes up with him, I think I'm gonna try to give them the benefit of the doubt if he's ever around I wanna, remember, tell a story of like Pete saving the day or stuff like that. [upbeat jazz music]

2:37:04 Brennan: Incredible yes, absolutely. I'm gonna go ahead and say roll your Arcana, roll either Arcana or Investigation here.

2:37:15 Emily: Okay, they're both plus one. (laughs) That's an 8. (laughs)

2:37:21 Brennan: Eight, cool. But you do, you are sharing a ton of resources with the Gramercy Occult Society. So Esther, I'm actually gonna say, if you want instead of rolling yourself, you can give Esther a help action on—

2:37:35 Emily: I will do that.

2:37:36 Brennan: Yeah, yeah. [laughs] Awesome, Esther gets started looking into it. And basically it goes like arrives at something where she's like,

2:37:48 Esther: Okay, I think we have enough that as soon as Pete is free and able to get back into things, we have a lot to go on, to get started. These are incredible resources, Sofia.

2:38:05 Brennan: You also meet a new person that Esther has inducted into the Gramercy Occult Society. There's a new wizard in the Gramercy Occult Society that you meet Sofia named JJ. JJ is this person that she was talking about back in episode one, who was like the Columbia math whiz guy. You see he's wearing, he is a big dude, he's got a little 1up, like, video game t-shirt. And is sort of amazed… He's like just been inducted into the Unsleeping City. He's like,

2:38:40 JJ: Hey, I'm JJ, super nice to meet you. This is all wild, this is crazy.

2:38:48 Sofia: Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's really cool, right?

2:38:52 JJ: Yeah, thank you for all these research materials. Holy shit magic is super fucking real!

2:39:00 Brennan: He's like—

2:39:00 Sofia: You like video games?

2:39:02 JJ: Yes I actually—

2:39:04 Sofia: I have a new friend who really likes video games. He talks about them a lot.

2:39:08 JJ: Oh, I can't tell if that's good or bad, but that's— [finger guns]

2:39:13 Emily: What are the video games that you keep referencing, Murph?

2:39:18 Murph: Soul Calibur and Final Fantasy.

2:39:21 Sofia: He loves Soul Calibur and Final Fantasy. I'm not sure which one.

2:39:26 JJ: Hell yeah, awesome. I'm here to keep an eye on this stuff.

2:39:31 Brennan: You see Esther smiles and says,

2:39:33 Esther: JJ is, has done a lot of research specifically into physics surrounding time and so we're really excited.

2:39:44 Brennan: He's like,

2:39:44 JJ: Yeah, I kinda discovered this theoretical particle of time. If that makes sense. And Esther was like, hey, that's, you've discovered magic through science. So you're kind of a wizard, so wooo. (chuckles)

2:40:01 Sofia: Tell me more.

2:40:03 Brennan: You see, he's like,

2:40:03 JJ: So basically it seems like New York has an interesting relationship to time. We know that time and space are interrelated, right? That sort of relativity and everything like that. But,

2:40:16 Brennan: He goes on and starts rattling off to you. Also Sofia, because you were going ham in his two week period, your sobriety die is going to go down to a d12.

2:40:28 Emily: Okay.

2:40:28 Brennan: Cool. Yeah, you're just, you're you're going ham. [laughs] Awesome. As JJ is talking, Cody, we're gonna come back to your scene real quick, you see Bazathrax goes,

2:40:47 Bazathrax: Okay, so we're sending out the CC reply all great. [beat] Um… hey, we might kinda have a problem.

2:41:00 Cody: Why?

2:41:03 Bazathrax: So, you know—

2:41:04 Cody: We're all on the same side here. We all embrace the darkness. What is the problem?

2:41:10 Bazathrax: So, you know how like, when you’re like doing a birthday party email and you're like, who do I invite—

2:41:17 Cody: No. [Brennan laughs]

2:41:20 Cody: No, we don't do that. [tense electronic music]

2:41:22 Bazathrax: Hey, I'm sure I forgot somebody. So if there's anyone I left off, feel free to bring them along, right?

2:41:34 Cody: Did you not invite somebody who you should have invited, or did you invite like some asshole devil?

2:41:42 Bazathrax: So I kinda wanted to keep it New York specific, but it looks nice to people outside of New York, kinda maybe found out and heard there was gonna be a party and they're kinda on their way. They're fuckin' extremely powerful, dude. They're extremely powerful. And they're not from the fucking city.

2:42:05 Cody: So are they, what there're… [whispers] Fuck! But they're on our side, right?

2:42:11 Bazathrax: Oh dude I kinda don't know, I kinda don't know. This guy is kind of a big deal. He just kinda—

2:42:17 Cody: Who?

2:42:19 Bazathrax: He kind of found out that I was, I've invited everybody to a rager.

2:42:20 Cody: [hands on his head in exasperation] Fuck.

2:42:22 Brennan: These people don't like, treat places that they go to on the weekend super well. Ah shit dude. This is really super bad.

2:42:36 Cody: Are they from New Jersey?

2:42:39 Bazathrax: Yeah, dude, it's the Jersey devil. [Emily laughs] Murph covers his face while Ally flips Brennan off.

2:42:44 Bazathrax: I'm super fucking sorry dude. I super fucked up dude. He's on his way dude! He's got all his buddies from A.C.—

2:42:51 Cody: Fuck!

2:42:52 Bazathrax: And the shore.

2:42:52 Cody: You fucked up!

2:42:53 Bazathrax: They're on their fuckin’ way, dude—

2:42:53 Cody: You fucked up dude!

2:42:56 Bazathrax: Dude, I just got a message back—

2:42:57 Cody: I said to reply all! You said they would be cool!

2:42:59 Bazathrax: They’re comin’ to the Holland Tunnel, dude! They’re goin’ to the Holland Tunnel, dude!

2:43:02 Cody: We are supposed to be on the same fuckin' side man. Fuck!

2:43:05 Murph: Uh, Ricky— [laughs]

2:43:07 Brennan: Sofia you are with Esther and JJ right now. And you see in the Occult Society, [beeping] these alarms start going off.

2:43:23 Brennan: Esther goes,

2:43:23 Emily: What the hell is that?

2:43:25 Brennan: JJ starts looking around he goes,

2:43:27 JJ: Okay, did someone forget to plug something in or something?

2:43:35 Brennan: You look around and begin to see this alarm going off. Esther goes,

2:43:41 Esther: That's the city's defenses. That's the edge of the Umbral Arcana.

2:43:50 Brennan: Cody and Ricky, what are you guys doing as this is happening?

2:43:54 Murph: I'm just scrambling to tell—

2:43:54 Zac: Wait, I’m sorry, where am I? (laughs)

2:43:57 Brennan: You're with Cody at this present moment. And I'm actually gonna say that Sofia, you see those alarms going off, Cody and Rick, you guys look out— It is night-time outside. [music stops] By the Hudson River, you see New Jersey and storm clouds gathering on the other side of the Holland Tunnel, as you begin to hear, (beatboxing) and a voice bellowing from the clouds,

2:44:27 Voice: Let’s get fucked up, dudes!

2:44:30 Brennan: (laughs) And that's all for this episode of "The Unsleeping City."

2:44:36 Emily: This is so funny, Murph summoned New Jersey! [group laughs]

2:44:41 Lou: Well done, Murph. [Brennan claps]

2:44:43 Lou: Well done. [NEXT EPISODE - Episode 5: Trouble at the Tunnel]

2:44:43 Edited by: Kyber Bonsai, gluegunshots, rowan solsys