For the Hoard

0:00:04 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 Rowan Berry; Emily Axford as Sofia Lee; and Brian “Murph” Murphy as Cody “Night Angel” Walsh Episode 15: For the Hoard! < [Previous Episode] | [Next Episode] > [Aldous Young's "New York 2006”]

0:00:08 Brennan: Hello, one and all! Welcome to another thrilling episode of "The Unsleeping City." I'm your humble Dungeon Master, Brennan Lee Mulligan. With me as always are our intrepid heroes. Say hi, intrepid heroes!

0:00:18 All: Hi, intrepid heroes!

0:00:21 Brennan: Last we left off, our champions had just returned from the Monastery of the Sacred Rat. They met with the spirit Kugrash who told them all about different ways to bring back the Dragon of Bleecker Street to defeat Null. We had a meeting with Pete's new friend, Maddie Park, a hacker who was able to show them a bunch of crazy stuff that Gladiator was doing buying Ellis Island. JJ invented the Gotham Timepiece that allows you to time travel through objects that have a strong, magical, emotional connection to the past. Our friends wound up on Ellis Island, which was the location of the missing seven artifacts of the dragon's hoard, the last thing they needed to bring the dragon back as long as they can reunite these artifacts with the dragon's long lost horde. All seven objects were collected. However, Null has pushed through into the waking world. This property has been bought by Gladiator Industries. In a surge of raw umbra, Null has pushed through and is now here in the waking world. We left off mid combat. It is about to be Iga Lisowski's turn. How many hit points does Iga have left, Siobhan?

0:01:38 Siobhan: Nine.

0:01:39 Brennan: Nine hit points left. There is a Warding Bond. We return to combat, Cody has jumped into these lithograph, the sort of old daguerreotype photo. Cody has leapt in there with you. Cast warding bond. At the beginning of your turn, Iga, I am going to need a Wisdom saving throw. The DC is 21. You have Bless.

0:02:15 Siobhan: I have Bless. I have a plus two to wisdom.

0:02:18 Murph: And you have a plus four from me.

0:02:20 Siobhan: And I have a plus four.

0:02:20 Emily: Ooh!

0:02:23 Brennan: Let's go ahead and roll this in front of the board. Let's go ahead and roll it in front of the board, Iga.

0:02:28 Siobhan: Great.

0:02:31 Brennan: This also, I will say, this is its Annihilating Aura because you're starting your turn in its presence. You get a plus six to this roll. Let's roll the d4 of Bless first, so we know what you have to hit on the d20.

0:02:46 Siobhan: Okay.

0:02:53 Brennan: Four, okay.

0:02:55 Emily: Oh. So you’ve got a plus ten to this.

0:02:58 Brennan: You have plus 10 to this roll. You need an 11 or higher on the d20. Go ahead and roll.

0:03:07 Lou: Can I ask what happens? I don't know what Annihilating Aura is. What happens if this doesn't go well?

0:03:12 Brennan: A lot of damage and a potential for it to lower Iga's HP max.

0:03:19 Ally: From 19?

0:03:25 Lou: Whoo!

0:03:26 Brennan: 16!

0:03:27 Emily and Zac: Yeah!

0:03:29 Siobhan: All right, okay.

0:03:32 Brennan: You succeed on that. You do not take any of that damage. Iga, it is your turn.

0:03:46 Ally: (chuckles) A crowded-ass picture.

0:03:50 Siobhan: I would like to… The candle has already been taken?

0:03:55 Brennan: Yes, that's correct.

0:03:56 Siobhan: But do I get the impression that if Null destroys this picture everybody in the picture will be destroyed?

0:04:05 Brennan: Null will likely erase every one of these photographs. If it is allowed to remain here, it will do what it did to Willy. It will do what it has been doing all over the city and consume this place.

0:04:22 Siobhan: Okay. I will cast, I'm gonna do, I'm gonna start off by doing… (sighs) I'm gonna start off by doing an Eldritch Blast to it.

0:04:38 Brennan: Okay.

0:04:39 Siobhan: Do I have Bless to attack rolls?

0:04:42 Brennan: Yes, you do add Bless to attack rolls.

0:04:44 Siobhan: Okay. So plus nine, that's a… A 28. And a 26.

0:05:03 Brennan: You hit three times.

0:05:06 Siobhan: Great. So that's, I'll roll in front of the board 'cause I can't do math right now.

0:05:18 Brennan: Hell yeah.

0:05:19 Siobhan: So that's 37 damage to it.

0:05:23 Brennan: Iga, you stand up and (mimics explosions) Null is shredded with the force of this ancient dragon magic. Is not gone. Remember you're fighting, like, a tentacle of a kraken that is still out in the ocean. But this hurt.

0:05:48 Siobhan: So I'm gonna use my Metamagic Adept sorcery points to do Quicken Spell.

0:05:56 Brennan: Hell yeah.

0:05:56 Siobhan: And I'm gonna blast it again.

0:05:58 Brennan: Go for it.

0:06:02 Siobhan: That's three more hits. Lou swings his arms side to side in a celebratory dance.

0:06:05 Brennan: Ooh, Doctor! Let's go!

0:06:11 Siobhan: It'll just be plus 15 'cause I already used my bludgeoning damage. That's 37 damage.

0:06:20 Lou: Whoa. : 28?

0:06:22 Brennan: Damn.

0:06:24 Siobhan: I'm gonna use the watch.

0:06:26 Brennan: Yeah!

0:06:26 Lou: Let’s go.

0:06:27 Siobhan: And I'm gonna go again. How fucked up is it looking?

0:06:32 Brennan: Not that fucked up, but these are powerful hits. It can't take an infinite amount of these.

0:06:38 Siobhan: Okay. Ooh! Okay, I crit. And I also rolled a nat one, but the other one also hit. So I hit, I crit, wait, does Bless, if you add Bless to a 19, it doesn't make it a crit. Okay. So it's still 3d10 plus 10, okay. Math.

0:07:10 Lou: [exaggerated] Math.

0:07:13 Siobhan: That's 28 damage to it.

0:07:15 Brennan: Iga has done a phenomenal amount of damage to this being.

0:07:25 Zac: Can you get out of there?

0:07:26 Siobhan: It's gonna wipe this photograph. It's gonna wipe Willy, right?

0:07:31 Zac: It seems like it's gonna wipe these photographs anyway.

0:07:34 Emily: Yeah, I think we need to get, I think we do need to get him gone.

0:07:38 Siobhan: We need to get him gone.

0:07:41 Murph: We can kill him, but you should also back up 'cause you dying doesn't help.

0:07:46 Siobhan: Yeah.

0:07:47 Ally: Your hit points are so low. We don't want you to get full dead.

0:07:52 Emily: You could jump out of the picture.

0:07:54 Siobhan: I'll jump out of the picture then. Yeah, I guess I'll also… Since I have it, I'll activate my Elemental Gift, so I can fly.

0:08:07 Brennan: Hell yeah.

0:08:07 Siobhan: And I'll get out of the picture. (magical whirring sound)

0:08:13 Brennan: Iga jumps out of the picture. You've moved a full 30 feet. Null goes next in the initiative. (Lou groans)

0:08:27 Brennan: Seeing the candle taken out of the picture, Null ceases its attack and moves back into the room, walking slowly behind Iga. (Lou laughs)

0:08:44 Siobhan: [whispered] Fuck.

0:08:46 Ally: Making some sort of horrible clicking noise or something like out of a horror movie. Brennan measures something on the roll20 board.

0:08:54 Lou: No! Stop using your ruler. Stop.

0:09:00 Brennan: We're gonna roll a recharge. Five or six, Null recharges it's mind blast.

0:09:05 Lou: Fuck this dude. (Null gets a 4; Lou yells and claps) Oh. There we go, kids. There we go.

0:09:12 Brennan: It is now going to use, it's going to make two enervating strikes against Iga who is in range. Again, these hit on threes or higher. Rolling in front of the board. That's a nat 20.

0:09:35 Siobhan: Oh fuck. Lou drops his head out of the camera’s view. Siobhan takes her glasses off and rubs her temples.

0:09:39 Brennan: Okay. We'll roll the non nat 20 first. That is going to be...

0:09:53 Siobhan: 19 is my max, so if it does 30 damage I’m dead, dead.

0:09:59 Brennan: Okay, actually no. I'll be fairer and I'll roll the crit first. That is going to be 10d8 plus six.

0:10:11 Lou: What?

0:10:13 Brennan: That's double damage. Rolling in front of the board.

0:10:21 Ally: Wait! Wait, what did you hit with? Is there a way for me to Bend Luck on those attack rolls?

0:10:28 Brennan: A nat 20 would be a nat 20. This thing hits Iga on a three. Like, you know, like even-

0:10:35 Ally: Of course.

0:10:36 Brennan: And the nat 20 wouldn't cancel the crit. It would just adjust the final total. Iga, you take 42 points of damage.

0:10:50 Zac: Warding Bond?

0:10:51 Murph: Warding Bond goes, that just means she dies. And also I get hurt. (sighs)

0:11:00 Ally: Wait, Warding Bond doesn't keep her from dying? I thought it means you take all the damage that she would be taking?

0:11:07 Murph: She gets resistance. This spell words is “willing creature you touch-”

0:11:10 Siobhan: So I would take 21 damage. So I'd be down but not dead.

0:11:18 Murph: Because of, yes, great. Oh. you’re right.

0:11:21 Brennan: You are down, but not dead.

0:11:22 Murph: Great.

0:11:23 Brennan: It hits you again, which I think is also had, which is probably just going to be two death saving throw failures. I'm gonna roll this. If it deals your hit point max, I think you're fully dead, which is 19, right?

0:11:41 Siobhan: Yes.

0:11:42 Brennan: 'Cause you're at zero. [rolls] 35 divided in half—

0:11:50 Siobhan: So it's 17.

0:11:51 Brennan: 17. It doesn't hit your hit point max. It's two death save failures.

0:11:57 Murph: Oh my God.

0:11:57 Ally: Nooooo.

0:11:58 Brennan: We're not out of the woods yet. This is very bad. Okay. Iga is not fully dead, but now you have to make two saving throws. Two DC 21 saving throws. Because you're out of the photo, you no longer get Cody's plus four bonus, but you are proficient in these Charisma saving throws. You have a plus nine. Go ahead and roll that d4 twice first.

0:12:30 Murph: I have to roll for concentration on Bless 'cause I've taken a bunch of damage.

0:12:35 Brennan: Oh yes, yes, yes. Go ahead and roll damage.

0:12:38 Siobhan: Yeah, roll your concentration.

0:12:40 Murph: What did I take each time?

0:12:42 Brennan: First time you took 21. The next time you took 17.

0:12:45 Murph: So 10 and 10?

0:12:47 Brennan: Yeah.

0:12:48 Murph: Okay. First one is a… I pass, 13.

0:12:59 Brennan: Cool.

0:12:59 Murph: Second one. I pass, 14.

0:13:03 Brennan: Cool.

0:13:05 Lou: Oh, I can't take this.

0:13:08 Brennan: So, three on the first one and then a one on the second one for your Bless. So, what you need to hit right now is basically a DC 18 and then a DC 20. You have-

0:13:21 Siobhan: I have a plus nine.

0:13:23 Brennan: So you need a nine or higher and then an 11 or higher. Let's roll these. First one is you get a nine or higher. ….16.

0:13:36 Siobhan: Yeah, baby! Lou groans in relief.

0:13:37 Brennan: Roll again. 11 or higher on this one. ….12! Murph cheers.

0:13:42 Emily: Yeah, baby!

0:13:44 Lou: This is a nightmare.

0:13:45 Zac: Oh my God.

0:13:46 Lou: Oh, I don’t like this.

0:13:47 Brennan: Iga still has two death saving throws and this creature has legendary actions. I know I keep saying it, we are not out of the woods yet. That is Null-

0:13:59 Emily: I don't think anyone was acting like we were out of the woods.

0:14:01 Lou: Yeah, which one of us is dancing, Brennan? Which one of us is cheering?

0:14:07 Emily: Yeah, which one of us just said “we’re out of the woods now!”

0:14:08 Ally: I mean, I was shouting "we're out of the woods."

0:14:12 Zac: "I can not believe we're out of the woods," I said.

0:14:14 Siobhan: "Oh my goodness. It's so nice here in the sunshine."

0:14:15 Ally: “I can’t even see the woods anymore!”

0:14:17 Emily: "Thank goodness. Pack up the tent 'cause we're not in the woods anymore."

0:14:21 Brennan: [sassily] Okay, okay, okay, okay. (Ally screams)

0:14:27 Brennan: Sofia, that is your turn.

0:14:28 Emily: No, it's Pete's turn.

0:14:29 Brennan: Oh, sorry. Pete, that is your turn.

0:14:31 Emily: Sofia, doesn't do anything. (laughs)  It's Pete's turn.

0:14:34 Ally: I am going to, I had a med bracelet in the earlier season, but I actually switched to testosterone gel. So, I just take out a little packet of testosterone. I take out the gel. I rub it on the back of my neck.

0:14:49 Pete: Ooh, baby. I forgot about that this morning.

0:14:52 Ally: And I cast a sixth level Dispel Magic on Iga.

0:14:58 Zac: On Iga?

0:14:59 Brennan: To dis - What is the effect you're trying to dispel?

0:15:01 Ally: Can I, like, have her get her hit points and stuff back? Would that like, is she under a spell that's like fucking with her right now?

0:15:08 Emily: It'd probably be a Greater Restoration, right?

0:15:10 Brennan: You would need a Greater Restoration on her to-

0:15:12 Murph: If you can do a Medicine check, I don't know what you have to buff yourself, but you have a d4. You'd have to hit a Medicine check that would get her to zero and stable and no more death save fails.

0:15:24 Ally: That's sick. Okay, I will definitely… Oh boy.

0:15:30 Siobhan: You'd have to get to me first though. Like, you're so far away.

0:15:33 Murph: Or yeah, if you have Thunder Step or anything that-

0:15:36 Siobhan: Misty Step, Dimension Door.

0:15:37 Ally: I mean… I don't have any of those. I'm also rolling with disadvantage on all my checks.

0:15:41 Zac: Can you just fuckin’ annihilate Null?

0:15:45 Siobhan: Oh, everybody has a level of exhaustion.

0:15:49 Ally: Yeah, I'm just gonna do a, I'm just gonna do an attack, I guess.

0:15:53 Siobhan: Wait, should I have been rolling with, oh it's at the end of my next turn that I'm exhausted.

0:15:59 Zac: Or, I mean like… Sorry, I don't mean to suggest that if you have other options, it's just like - I’m trying to, like -

0:16:03 Ally: No, that's kind of all that I can do.

0:16:06 Emily: Kingston does have Revivify so there's hope in that.

0:16:10 Siobhan: Can you just attack-

0:16:12 Ally: Okay, cuties.

0:16:13 Siobhan: Null?

0:16:14 Ally: Yeah, that's exactly what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna step up to right there, and then I am going to cast Disintegrate on Null.

0:16:25 Brennan: Hell yeah.

0:16:27 Ally: That's a Dex saving throw.

0:16:30 Zac: Yeah.

0:16:31 Brennan: Hell yeah. Let's see here. Disintegrate. First off, Null is gonna use its reaction to Counterspell that Disintegrate.

0:16:42 Emily: I Counterspell it! Don't I have a Counterspell in my leopard print shirt?

0:16:46 Brennan: I believe you do. I believe you do.

0:16:49 Emily: I Counterspell his Counterspell!

0:16:50 Brennan: You gotta be 60 feet. It's gotta be 60 feet.

0:16:53 Emily: Oh shit.

0:16:55 Siobhan: God, you're like 75.

0:16:57 Emily: Oops.

0:16:58 Brennan: It's gotta roll. Its bonus to this is, hold on.

0:17:04 Zac: Does Sofia… Did that detergent do anything to you?

0:17:09 Brennan: Yeah, Sofia is unstunned.

0:17:10 Emily: It did, it unstunned me. But I haven't had a turn since it unstunned me to move.

0:17:15 Brennan: Okay, so what's gonna happen-

0:17:17 Ally: But that was last round? Okay.

0:17:20 Brennan: Pete's casting a sixth level spell. Null's gotta roll an 11 or higher to Counterspell this. I'm gonna roll in front of the board. That's a nat one, baby.

0:17:32 Emily: Yeah!

0:17:35 Brennan: That's Disintegrate.

0:17:38 Ally: Why couldn't that have been the dex save?

0:17:39 Emily: Disintegrating nothing.

0:17:40 Brennan: Counterspell does not work. Now it's gonna roll its saving throw. Does have magic resistance, so it's gonna roll this with advantage. Plus four both times. It just needs one of these to be a 13 or higher on its saving throw. One of these d20-

0:17:59 Ally: I'm ready with a Bend Luck.

0:18:02 Brennan: Cool.

0:18:07 Ally: Oh! 17. Oh, it's 13 or higher?

0:18:10 Brennan: So it got a 21.

0:18:15 Ally: [confused] What's up?

0:18:16 Lou: But you said 13, right?

0:18:19 Brennan: Yeah, 21.

0:18:20 Ally: So Bend Luck wouldn't work?

0:18:21 Brennan: Bend luck would not work. It gets blasted with disintegrate, survives the assault, but wastes the Counterspell and is blasted back. That is going to be...

0:18:35 Siobhan: Not gonna take reactions.

0:18:38 Zac: Well, Null has legendary actions.

0:18:40 Brennan: It has legendary actions.

0:18:42 Siobhan: But.

0:18:43 Ally: I'm going to actually, I'm gonna do… I'm going to Quicken Spell to have made that a bonus action and then use my full… Let's see. Let's see, oh man, you're so far. Motherfucker. I'm just gonna run up and just fuckin' lay over Iga.

0:19:14 Brennan: Cool. You lay over Iga. As a legendary action.

0:19:22 Ally: Oh! I didn't wild magic surge.

0:19:25 Brennan: Oh shit! Pete, give me a wild magic surge for your last two turns. This one's one through eight.

0:19:33 Emily: Come on something good.

0:19:33 Ally: 11.

0:19:35 Brennan: One through nine. Give me another roll.

0:19:37 Ally: 16.

0:19:38 Brennan: One through 10!

0:19:40 Siobhan: God damn!

0:19:41 Emily: I feel like wild magic surges are good. I like wanted-

0:19:44 Ally: Same, that's what I was thinking.

0:19:49 Brennan: It is going to cast a spell. I'm going to need a, yeah, I'm gonna need a Charisma saving throw from you.

0:20:03 Ally: But I'm on top of Iga. Can she be targeted?

0:20:06 Brennan: Yeah, absolutely. 100%.

0:20:08 Ally: I'm pretty buff. I've actually been making some gains.

0:20:12 Lou: Yeah, all that popcorn with olive oil, that fat.

0:20:13 Ally: Thank you!

0:20:14 Brennan: DC 21. Iga, let me know what you get. Gonna need a 12 or higher on this roll.

0:20:22 Lou: Fatty popcorn makes you buff, dude.

0:20:25 Ally: Yeah. Siobhan gets a 3. Murph groans.

0:20:31 Brennan: You all watch Null change tactics. Iga's incredible luck, and Null's sense that the tide is turning. You see Null cast Banishment. Using all three of its legendary actions casts banishment on Iga. [eerie whispering] You would know, Pete. It consumes Iga into a place of timelessness, which means that Iga is not, it's not gonna ever get to her turn because she is sucked into another realm and Null vanishes.

0:21:24 Lou: Fuck you, Null.

0:21:25 Ally: Banishment puts her in a harmless demi-plane?

0:21:30 Brennan: Yep. Pete, give me an Arcana check.

0:21:34 Ally: I know, I know. I can banish someone and have them join her.

0:21:39 Emily: Ooh! That's so cool, Pete!

0:21:42 Brennan: Pete, if you want to try to hit Null with a Banishment.

0:21:46 Ally: Kingston with a, oh, Null with a Banishment.

0:21:50 Brennan: If you want to hit Null with a Banishment on its way out as like a parting shot, I would let you roll some dope fuckin' arcana shit if you want to see what it's done to Iga.

0:22:03 Ally: Yes. Yes. I can roll an Arcana check right now?

0:22:07 Brennan: Hell yeah. It's gonna try to make its save against your banishment. Hold on, this is pretty dope. We're making a bunch of shit up right now. Hold on.

0:22:14 Lou: Yeah.

0:22:15 Brennan: Null's only got a plus five. Null needs a 12 or higher here. That's an 11. Pete, you cover Iga with your body. Null is trying to unmake Iga. Kill her, have her magic go away. Instead you see that Null erases Iga. You hit Null with the Banishment and put a tag on Null, (correcting himself) or on Iga, as she is consumed by Null. Iga goes to a place of timelessness. Null despises time, wishes for nothing more than the end of time, the end of space, right? Iga is in a place where she can't be hurt. She is in the nothingness. Iga is in a place with Josefina Gatsby, with Hans Fischer, and Heather Simos beyond time. And Pete sees it. The things that Null has consumed. Death is a part of the natural cycle of life. What Null is doing is not nature, and the things it has consumed are in it somewhere. And as it retreats from the waking world, you guys see steam arising from all the walls. All the photos are still here. Null has used up all of the raw umbra in this place. There was not enough raw umbra here to even sustain its presence anymore. Pete, you know that Iga is gone somewhere, but… Either all of the universe will join Iga where she is in dissolution and void, or you will get her back. We exit initiative. Iga is gone. I think everyone else here sees Iga be vanished by Null as it vanishes and disappears.

0:24:26 Ally: Did her box go with her?

0:24:28 Brennan: Box is still there on the ground.

0:24:31 Ally: Okay, I grab the box.

0:24:35 Brennan: All of you look at each other in the hollow silence of both Null's absence from this space and Iga's as well. [solemn, quiet piano]

0:24:46 Lou: Okay.

0:24:48 Zac: Are we still fucked up in the same way? Like, is our Wisdom still gone?

0:24:52 Brennan: Yeah, Cody and Ricky are fucked up. You guys are not looking good.

0:24:57 Ally: Will Dispel Magic work on getting them their, like, charisma and stuff back?

0:25:02 Brennan: Greater Restoration will.

0:25:04 Lou: I go around with the detergent and I give a Cody a splash and I give Ricky a splash. [heavenly sound effects]

0:25:10 Murph: Appreciate it, appreciate it. Zac mimes taking a drink.

0:25:11 Lou: As we kind of all deal with-

0:25:15 Ally: Do you give yourself a splash?

0:25:17 Pete: You gotta put your own oxygen mask on first, Kingston.

0:25:21 Kingston: If you can believe it, Pete, my grandfather who, yeah, my grandfather touched me and I don't know, magic happened, per usual.

0:25:33 Zac: Oh yeah, I forgot.

0:25:35 Kingston: So, I'm all good.

0:25:36 Pete: Oh, I met Alejandro, young sexy Alejandro (laughs) before all the smoking. He's a vet.

0:25:45 Kingston: Incredible. So about Iga.

0:25:48 Cody: So, Iga's in the same place as the other—

0:25:51 Pete: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, Iga is in, it's a harmless demiplane, but it is Null's, like, space. It's timeless and not in the cool, like, a trench coat is timeless way.

0:26:10 Cody: Right.

0:26:11 Pete: This isn't a time to laugh, you guys.

0:26:12 Sofia: Well, Kingston, if you saw Misty in the painting, maybe she could come out of the painting?

0:26:20 Kingston: Oh, that's not a bad idea.

0:26:24 Pete: What?

0:26:27 Kingston: I guess, should I, y'all want me to go grab Misty?

0:26:33 Soifa: Seems like it, right?

0:26:33 Cody: I don’t know who that is.

0:26:34 Pete: Yeah! Or Rowan, but no, it's cool.

0:26:39 Kingston: Well, it didn't seem like, I mean, I was completely disassociated from her when I met her. 'Cause, you know, Null. but it did seem like she didn't wholly remember me.

0:26:53 Sofia: Oh.

0:26:55 Ricky: Kingston?

0:26:56 Kingston: Yeah?

0:26:57 Ricky: I want you to tell your family that I'm sorry.

0:27:01 Kingston: Why would I need to tell my family that you're, why would you need to apologize to my family? I'm assuming you went in there and explained that you needed the bouquet and you hopped right out.

0:27:14 Ricky: Well, I, you know. Sometimes things don't go down like you want them to and I guess your grandmother or great-grandmother slapped me in the face when I ripped the bouquet from her hands and I ran away. I'm a leprechaun and, uh, good luck.

0:27:31 Kingston: What?

0:27:32 Ricky: But I mean, your family seems like it's done well, so...

0:27:38 Kingston: Thank you. Well, I guess I'll go talk to my, I guess I'll go apologize to the people who are still alive later once we figure this out. So am I gonna go grab Misty, is that the plan?

0:27:51 Pete: Well, yeah.

0:27:55 Ricky: I'd love to have Misty here but are there other more pressing things? [Zac laughs]

0:28:00 Kingston: Well, my question is, can we perform the ritual now? Like, do we have everything we need?

0:28:04 Brennan: Kingston, so you guys are sitting here and again, I think that there is, you guys are stunned by Iga's sudden departure from this place. Pete has that revelation about the nature of how Null consumes these things. But Iga is very much suddenly gone. As it always has, the stakes surrounding this of like, not only do you need to defeat Null to save New York, if you can not defeat Null in a meaningful enough way, Iga will be gone forever, even if she never makes that third death saving throw.

0:28:45 Pete: We should've put her in that box, man.

0:28:47 Sofia: I know.

0:28:51 Brennan: But you look up at these photos. You have all the others. Kingston, this is everything you need. Ricky can summon those totems whenever you want, you just have to return these totems to the hoard of the Dragon of Bleecker Street, and you can do this.

0:29:09 Kingston: Well, I mean-

0:29:10 Pete: Let's do it.

0:29:12 Kingston: Yeah, we do have everything we need to pop this off and really take it to Null.

0:29:18 Cody: All right.

0:29:21 Lou: But yeah, can I bring people out of the paintings? I didn't know if that was a thing. But, well I took the leg so who knows.

0:29:32 Brennan: Kingston, you go over and approach that drawing and the person in it by the way, was not Misty Moore. That was actually Holly Branch who was an earlier incarnation of the being that has been Misty Moore and Rowan Berry. You approach it. Cody, you begin to see sparks coming out of your pocket.

0:30:03 Murph: Oh. I pull out, is it the Fairyland thing?

0:30:10 Brennan: It's the chunk of the Fairyland sign.

0:30:14 Cody: This thing is freaking out. Kingston, help. What is this?

0:30:21 Kingston: I don't, I'm not sure.

0:30:24 Lou: I guess, I hold it maybe closer to the...

0:30:28 Brennan: (Brennan mimics spark sounds) All of you are surrounded in a swirl of sparks from the Fairyland sign. Holly Branch from that drawing turns out to look at you. And having driven Null away from this place. All of those photos momentarily come to life in a swirl of sparkles around you. Pete, you see those Irish immigrants wave to you with the coin in your hand. You see little Jackson waves at Kingston and Sofia as you guys move away. Sofia, you see that dad has his little girl on the handlebars of his bicycle and waves to you and says,

0:31:12 Bicicleta Ancestor: Sofia! Goodbye, farewell. It is so good to see you! [Italian hand gesture]

0:31:16 Sofia: Bye, sorry, I didn't get to meet you!

0:31:18 Bicicleta: It's okay! It happens! You know, sometimes the saving throws they don't work out!

0:31:25 Sofia: Sometimes you roll nothin' but sixes, you know? Metaphorically.

0:31:28 Bicicleta: Metaphorically speaking, I get it!

0:31:31 Brennan: And he scoots away on his bicycle. Siobhan, you okay if I throw a curveball your way?

0:31:36 Siobhan: Yeah.

0:31:38 Brennan: You guys appear in a scintillating amusement park. Roller coasters, ferris wheels, all around. Faeries flying everywhere. And as you do so, you see getting funnel cake and some cotton candy are Stephen Sondheim and one Rowan Berry who turns around to face you. Siobhan, what does Rowan say as her friends appear here in Fairyland next to her?

0:32:13 Siobhan: I say,

0:32:13 Rowan: Oh, it's you!

0:32:15 Siobhan: And then I look at Pete,

0:32:15 Rowan: Oh, it's you?

0:32:18 Siobhan: And then I notice Cody. And I'm like,

0:32:20 Rowan: [disapproving glance] And this, what's the situation right here? What's going on here?

0:32:25 Cody: I'm actually… This is kind of the mall that I work at. I know it's not a mall now, but this is kind of the mall. If that makes sense.

0:32:31 Rowan: Mm.

0:32:37 Cody: Fuck. (Brennan laughs)

0:32:39 Rowan: I'm Rowan. Hi. (Brian laughs)

0:32:41 Ricky: We should let them have a couple minutes, right?

0:32:43 Sofia: Yeah.

0:32:43 Emily: I walk away.

0:32:45 Lou: What space and time are we in? Are we in the past or are we in the present in like the Faerie realm?

0:32:53 Brennan: It looks like you are fully in the present in Fairyland. It looks like after Null left, Cody's little chunk of the Fairyland sign activated, and as you went to reach out to Holly Branch in that photo it alerted Rowan Berry. Siobhan, Rowan has been very busy running Fairyland these last couple years. Stephen Sondheim turns to you and goes,

0:33:26 Sondheim: Rowan, darling. These were the heroes I was telling you about. When I met Cody here, he was a nude man with a triple sword.

0:33:38 Rowan: Nightmare.

0:33:41 Sondheim: One man's nightmare is another man's... bad idea.

0:33:45 Emily: Sofia quietly remembers Iga pulling, the three of wands in the very beginning and looks at Cody. (everyone laughs)

0:33:59 Sondheim: In any case, these were the individuals I was mentioning that, if you notice how outside of Faerie and Nod everything is crumbling and falling apart and turning into-

0:34:08 Rowan: Right, yes. No, I do know most of them.

0:34:11 Kingston: Yeah, we go way back.

0:34:13 Sondheim: I remember.

0:34:14 Rowan: So, why is the world crumbling? Why haven't you called me? What's going on? I'm very busy. I'm wearing a pantsuit. I wear pantsuits now.

0:34:23 Brennan: Yeah, Rowan is in a beautiful yellow pantsuit with a little silver flag pin and a short hair, like, pixie haircut.

0:34:32 Emily: I'm gonna put my arm around Pete just for, like, some moral support.

0:34:37 Pete: Thanks.

0:34:39 Emily: But I do it in a way like I need his support. (laughs)

0:34:44 Pete: I got you. This is probably pretty awkward for you.

0:34:47 Sofia: Thank you so much, Pete. Thank you so much. I'm going through so much.

0:34:50 Rowan: Are you okay? You all look like somebody died.

0:34:54 Kingston: Well, they're not dead.

0:34:55 Cody: Somebody got kind of erased. But they're okay maybe?

0:35:00 Rowan: Okay.

0:35:02 Cody: Are we in the past?

0:35:04 Rowan: No. No, this is now.

0:35:06 Kingston: Cody, this is another part of Nod.

0:35:09 Rowan: Don't eat anything here. You'll have to stay, though.

0:35:13 Kingston: Okay.

0:35:14 Rowan: So you know.

0:35:14 Ricky: Cody.

0:35:15 Zac: Just knocking all the food out of Cody's hands.

0:35:18 Brennan: Cotton candy, funnel cake, deep fried Oreos. It's amazing. Zac mimes ninja swiping Cody’s food away.

0:35:23 Cody: What? [cast laughins]

0:35:25 Ricky: It's really unhealthy.

0:35:27 Kingston: We are kind of up against, uh, this kind of monarch of dreams. And it's kind of wrecked the Sixth Borough pretty hard. And it's making a solid push on New York and just kind of took one of our friends into a timeless demi-plane where they will be trapped for the rest of time because there is no time there and New York will join them unless we can do something. So, we've been busy. So I'm sorry we haven't, we just haven't had a chance to catch up but it's so good to see you. And you look well, and this is fantastic.

0:36:07 Rowan: Thank you. It's so good to see you too. I'm so sorry. I feel like I… I've been just so busy for three years. [presses her hands to her temples] It's so boring.

0:36:16 Kingston: You run a land. I mean, I can only imagine.

0:36:20 Rowan: Just so many meetings. You wouldn't imagine. Faeries, you'd think, all fun and games. No. Lots of legislation apparently.

0:36:30 Sofia: When I was First Fist it was a lot of paperwork.

0:36:33 Rowan: Right!

0:36:34 Sofia: I'm not anymore though.

0:36:36 Kingston: That also happened.

0:36:37 Rowan: Is that a good-

0:36:38 Sofia: It doesn't feel good.

0:36:40 Brennan: Rowan, go ahead and make an Insight check for me if you'd be so kind.

0:36:46 Siobhan: Oh, I'm not Blessed as Rowan. Dirty 20.

0:36:54 Brennan: You watch your bedraggled human friends that have just been through a whole hell of a lot looking up at you, and have one of those moments where you remember how tender and sentimental human beings are. Your friend Sofia apparently is no longer First Fist of the Monastery. Three years does not seem like a long time to Rowan. You feel a heaviness here. Things have gotten very bad outside, and you have been busy, but you're looking at some people that are in dire need of like, that have sacrificed a lot to get these resources together and are fighting something very vast and powerful.

0:37:41 Rowan: Let's go sit down somewhere. Let's go sit down. It's very loud here.

0:37:46 Kingston: That'd be nice. [gentle, soft piano music]

0:37:47 Brennan: In a beautifully appointed room with moss, like, sort of moss around and cushions, you guys enter a part of, like, almost like Central Park-esque ramble. Rowan, you are given some food and drink. Your guests are not because they don't want to be trapped here forever. And for the rest of you, all of you are looking at these seven objects that you have collected and saved here. Victorious in having gone and gotten everything Kugrash said about these objects were destroyed but not fully destroyed. And realizing that it meant the memory of them was not destroyed and you have saved those memories. You sit down with the leader of the Faerie court of New York City. And Rowan, I think you also see that Fairyland sign. Either make a perception check or an Arcana check for me.

0:38:52 Siobhan: I will do Perception. Still not great. That's an 11.

0:38:59 Brennan: You can't crack the riddle on an 11, but you know that you have been struggling for years because Fairy has been having a hard time rooting itself in the mortal world. And you look at that sign Cody is holding and see potential in that sign. The rest of you look and see Rowan regarding you with a sort of look of paying attention. Like, you guys arrived in a blast of magic and now looking at how truly dire things have become.

0:39:38 Ricky: Rowan, I feel like we, you know, I don't know if you're mad at me, or, you know, the rest of us.

0:39:50 Rowan: Not a person on this world has ever been mad at you. Sweet soft child.

0:39:53 Ricky: I don't know about that. I'm not sure, but it does feel like we need some help right now. I mean, we have a bunch of, I know that like I have this very specific task to do to, like, help bring about this dragon of New York. But I don't know if you know any more about that kind of thing.

0:40:22 Sofia: Did you know the Bleecker Street Dragon?

0:40:25 Siobhan: Did I? I mean, I must've done, right?

0:40:28 Brennan: Yeah, you knew the Bleecker Street Dragon, absolutely.

0:40:32 Rowan: Yes, no, he was… Delightful. Loved pie!

0:40:38 Kingston: Yeah, he loved pie. Dutch pie specifically.

0:40:41 Rowan: Big pie fan, and who can blame him?

0:40:45 Kingston: Yeah.

0:40:46 Rowan: It's the little things. When you have that much power it's the little things.

0:40:49 Kingston: That's what's doing New York in right now, it's those same little things.

0:40:53 Rowan: Oh, no.

0:40:55 Kingston: But we got them. That's what, I ran into your, I guess a reincarnate, a previous version of, you know?

0:41:04 Rowan: That was you?

0:41:06 Kingston: Yeah. I was all crazy. Yeah, I'd been disassociated from my personality for a second. So I don't think there was any, it was a real, you met me at a very strange time.

0:41:18 Rowan: [shaking her head] Honestly, pretty sure that I had ergot poisoning at the time, everybody was going off the rails—

0:41:24 Ricky: What's an ergot?

0:41:26 Rowan: —with weird hallucinogenic. It gets into the wheat and then you see things.

0:41:34 Kingston: Wow.

0:41:35 Rowan: It was a big problem back then.

0:41:37 Pete: That's what all the witches had.

0:41:41 Ricky: ….Oh. (Brennan laughs)

0:41:43 Brennan: Rowan, you sense Pete being quite strange around you.

0:41:50 Pete: Which is why they thought that there were witches.

0:41:52 Cody: Totally, I've heard that too, Pete.

0:41:53 Pete: Yeah, that's like people thought that women were doing magic but they were just poisoned by the wheat and they were hallucinating.

0:42:00 Rowan: So, you two are friends? You two are friends? This is what the situation is?

0:42:04 Pete: Yeah, we're roommates! This is my really good friend. [puts his arm around Cody and grins]

0:42:09 Ricky: Why did they all three have their arms around?

0:42:10 Rowan: Fascinating.

0:42:11 Emily: Sofia's still in there. (everyone laughs)

0:42:15 Sofia: You know, honestly, I've spent the night there.

0:42:18 Cody: Sofie lives with us sometimes.

0:42:19 Sofia: When I don't want to go home to my mother.

0:42:21 Pete: Yeah. It’s pretty much us three all the time. (Emily laughs)

0:42:25 Zac: I put my arm around Kingston.

0:42:26 Sofia: Honestly, it's just nice to be included.

0:42:32 Rowan: [putting her arms up] I want to get in on this. This seems nice.

0:42:38 Siobhan: I definitely position myself as far away from Cody as possible.

0:42:43 Lou: I don't blame you.

0:42:46 Kingston: But yeah, Rowan we're in a bad spot. And I don't know. It's not often that, you know, the waking world is called on, you know, y'all for help. But if there's anything you could do in this moment as the leader, New York is in big, big trouble.

0:43:10 Rowan: Well, honestly, I mean whatever affects New York affects here as well. There was strange things going on here as well. I just assumed that, frankly, that I wasn't very good at my job, which to be fair I don't know if I am very good at my job but it's sort of nice to know that maybe it's other things as well. Kingston, it's so boring.

0:43:34 Kingston: Oh, come on, you get to wear a pantsuit. What a dream! And you look fantastic!

0:43:38 Rowan: But everyday I have to wear a pantsuit. And then I have to get these people to agree with me.

0:43:44 Kingston: I mean, yeah, people. Hey, organizing is tough when you're trying to get a bunch of people to see things and you have all these different point of views. It's a lot of work.

0:43:53 Rowan: I would say it's like corralling cats but honestly, corralling cats, I've done it many times. Pretty easy in comparison.

0:44:00 Kingston: Yeah, I used to watch Kug corral cats, and it was a snap of a finger for him.

0:44:06 Sofia: Yeah, Kug ran a really good trap, neuter, release. (everyone laughs)

0:44:11 Kingston: It was fantastic. He could corral cats-

0:44:13 Ricky: You should see the way these cats react to him. Giant rat man, bunch of cats. You'd think there'd be more conflict.

0:44:20 Kingston: Herds of cats he would lead through the streets like a shepherd.

0:44:22 Rowan: Ahh, the pied rat man of Hamlin.

0:44:24 Pete: He played a little flute.

0:44:26 Sofia: Honestly, he was so charming, he didn't even have to trap them sometimes. It was just neuter, release. (everyone laughs)

0:44:33 Rowan: Stab them in the balls and let them go.

0:44:36 Pete: He would play a little flute.

0:44:38 Sofia: Play a little flute. Flute, neuter, release.

0:44:41 Kingston: Flute, neuter, release.

0:44:44 Pete: I have a question. Do we have a feeling like maybe bringing Fairyland back to the waking world would be some sort of restoration of, like, tradition and fun and memory?

0:44:58 Rowan: Oh, playfulness.

0:45:00 Pete: Just, like, Cody and I watched like Astroworld, the, like, Travis Scott documentary. And like, it was pretty sick. Like, you know, they closed down Astroworld, and he was like, the kids need a cool fun place to like, go hang out with and make memories. Like, maybe this is like Queens' Astroworld is Fairyworld. And we can make sure it's gonna have a big music festival. (Emily laughs)

0:45:25 Brennan: Cody, as Pete's talking about Astroworld. You remember studying about that place called Fairyland in Queens.

0:45:32 Ally: Fairyland, got it.

0:45:34 Brennan: Yeah. Make a fuckin' history check.

0:45:37 Lou: Make a fuckin' history check. [laughs]

0:45:40 Murph: 17.

0:45:43 Brennan: I think you might feel like knowing the Unsleeping City, Fairyland may have been some actual, like, gate to Faerie in the past. Might've been some connection to, like, actual fairies moving throughout New York in the past.

0:46:03 Murph: Okay.

0:46:04 Cody: I know I was super confused when I first showed up and I thought we were in the past, but- (Emily laughs)

0:46:11 Cody: There is some stuff going on. I do think that the old Fairyland which was an amusement park with the same name, maybe it had some kind of connection between Faerie, maybe it was like a gate between Faerie and the waking world and it got closed. And maybe this could be that again.

0:46:31 Rowan: Yes, and then they built a terribly depressing mall on top of it, just full of chain stores.

0:46:34 Cody: Well it wasn’t depressing—

0:46:37 Pete: Actually it was pretty cool!

0:46:39 Cody: It's complicated. It's actually super complicated.

0:46:42 Rowan: Really hard to negotiate. Kind of fizzing fluorescence the whole time, you never know where you are—

0:46:46 Pete: Have you ever had a cinnamon pretzel while you're spending like $29.99 on a shirt? (Brennan laughs)

0:46:50 Cody: Thank you.

0:46:51 Pete: Has that ever happened to you?

0:46:52 Rowan: Yes, not to mention the fairgrounds—

0:46:53 Sofia: Not to mention there was a good Super Cuts there.

0:46:56 Cody: There was a solid Super Cuts. That’s why my hair’s so long.

0:47:00 Pete: That’s fun. Lemonade with a cinnamon pretzel. Delicious combo.

0:47:02 Ricky: So do you think that—

0:47:04 Cody: I haven't got a haircut since Super Cuts closed.

0:47:06 Ricky: Whenever we’re done talking about Super Cuts...

0:47:08 Sofia: [laughs] A lot of really good hairdressers worked at that Super Cuts, I'm telling you.

0:47:10 Cody: You guys wanna talk about Super Cuts?

0:47:13 Ricky: I could talk about Super Cuts forever. (everyone laughs)

0:47:16 Zac: Ricky loves Super Cuts.

0:47:18 Cody: You guys wanna go to Super Cuts?

0:47:20 Sofia: Yeah, maybe I'll go apply to work at Super Cuts.

0:47:22 Zac: 90% of Ricky's haircuts are from Super Cuts.

0:47:26 Ricky: Well, I mean, if it was a real gateway to Faerie, and it really existed in the waking world in the past, then it is a part of New York's past.

0:47:37 Rowan: Yes.

0:47:38 Ricky: That feels like something, that feels important in some way, right?

0:47:44 Brennan: Rowan, yeah, you look at that piece of the Fairyland sign and feel power spreading out around you. I think Rowan probably feels like you maybe have some work to do here in Faerie. You've been trudging through bureaucracy and Fae nonsense for a long time. This may be a missing link of what you've been working on, that's been keeping you from your friends for years. I think Rowan probably feels like there's work to be done here. I know that the mortal human beings of the champions of New York definitely have shit to do back in the waking world.

0:48:19 Sofia: Do you have a library here, Rowan?

0:48:22 Siobhan: Is there?

0:48:22 Brennan: Hell yeah! I mean, Siobhan, you're in charge of Fairyland in New York. You do it, whatever you think. There's a library there, there's a fuckin' library there. Hell yeah.

0:48:30 Rowan: Yes, but it's mostly theater history. (Brennan laughs)

0:48:36 Rowan: It's like VCRs of every Broadway show and lots of-

0:48:44 Ricky: Illegally taped footage?

0:48:46 Rowan: Illegally taped footage.

0:48:48 Sofia: I'd love to take out a bootleg of Kinky Boots. (Murph laughs)

0:48:53 Ricky: Does that mean you would have to watch Kinky Boots forever? What are the rules here?

0:48:55 Rowan: I think your mom would love this one. Moms love Kinky Boots.

0:49:00 Sofia: Okay, well then I won't try to use, I won't stick around and try and study in your library.

0:49:06 Brennan: Awesome. You guys part ways. It's not gonna be a sweat for you guys to get back to the waking world from here. You have Pete with you. You guys are mortal beings that will have an easy time getting back. You'll probably show up back around Broadway or the theater district.

0:49:23 Rowan: Steve, darling, you're in charge. Sorry, I'll be back soon.

0:49:27 Brennan: And Rowan's going to go back out with them to the waking world?

0:49:29 Siobhan: Yeah, I think so.

0:49:31 Brennan: Hell yes. You guys go back to the waking world.

0:49:36 Ally: I mean, as we're walking, I feel like maybe I kind of like walk slower next to Rowan, and I'm like,

0:49:42 Pete: Hey, umm, so-

0:49:45 Rowan: Hi. You disappeared off the face of the-

0:49:46 Pete: Apologizing always feels, hm?

0:49:50 Rowan: You disappeared off the face of the planet. Where did you go?

0:49:55 Pete: Me?

0:49:56 Rowan: Yeah! (Zac laughs)

0:49:59 Pete: I, well, see, so the thing is I… So as you know (laughs) I was just very, I was on a lot of drugs the last time we hung out, and I actually don't do drugs anymore.

0:50:13 Rowan: Where's your hat?

0:50:16 Pete: What's up? I'm different now. You know, I work at a bookstore. I don't throw up and cry. I don't embarrass people in front of like all their friends in their cool apartment because I'm nervous. Just, you know-

0:50:34 Rowan: Have you been avoiding me for three years because you threw up in front of me?

0:50:39 Pete: Yeah, but then I cried.

0:50:42 Rowan: Pete, I've been alive for hundreds of years.

0:50:45 Pete: For sure. Of course, you've probably seen, you've seen dysentery. That's probably not dissimilar.

0:50:52 Rowan: I mean, it was a lot of vomit and you did cry very snottily.

0:50:59 Pete: I did. You know when someone's like too fucked up and they're like, I'm too fucked up (groans) and like they’re making you do a lot of labor.

0:51:07 Rowan: I do remember.

0:51:10 Pete: Yeah, so that they can seem self-aware… Yeah, that's… That's what I remember. So anyway, I found vomit on my belt two weeks later which kind of memories started coming back, and I was just more and more embarrassed of what happened. And also what I didn't remember had happened. And I'm still pretty chaotic, but I'm working on not relying on that as a personality trait. And anyway, it's good to see you.

0:51:35 Rowan: Yeah, good to see you.

0:51:36 Pete: This is my chip.

0:51:36 Siobhan: I ruffle Pete's hair a little bit.

0:51:39 Pete: (laughs) No… That's funny though.

0:51:44 Rowan: Wait, let me see this chip.

0:51:46 Siobhan: I pull the chip out of Pete's hand.

0:51:49 Pete: Been going to some meetings. It's an anonymous program, so you really aren't just supposed to show your chip around but to you, I needed you to know.

0:52:01 Rowan: [nods] Good job.

0:52:02 Pete: Thanks.

0:52:03 Rowan: Yeah. You seem well, you seem really well. You don't seem like... skeletal.

0:52:12 Pete: What's up? [Lou laughs]

0:52:13 Rowan: You don't seem skeletal.

0:52:15 Ricky: Hey guys? It feels like we got a bunch of shit to do, I don’t know what’s-

0:52:20 Pete: For sure, for sure, for sure.

0:52:22 Rowan: Yes, I haven't been here in ages, and I do need to have, like, anything from a bodega. Just anything.

0:52:31 Ricky: Let's get that on the way.

0:52:32 Zac: I think Ricky is looking at his new watch, and is like,

0:52:34 Ricky: Why don’t we, we gotta fuckin' move, right? I don’t know what’s going on.

0:52:37 Kingston: Iga is suspended in time. (everyone laughs)

0:52:39 Zac: I start slapping everyone in the face.

0:52:41 Rowan: Who’s Iga?

0:52:42 Brennan: You guys, cool. You guys dip the fuck outta here. You guys tell me, what do you guys do?

0:52:52 Lou: Can I use Word of Recall to get back to the dragon's hoard?

0:52:58 Brennan: Hold on one second.

0:52:59 Emily: Oh right. It's time to hatch the dragon.

0:53:01 Murph: Hell yeah.

0:53:02 Lou: Or can I just go there? I don't know how to get there, but Word of Recall allows me to return to sanctuaries that I've been to.

0:53:10 Zac: Whoa.

0:53:11 Brennan: You did not have the ability to prepare the dragon's hoard as a sanctuary.

0:53:17 Emily: Wait, it was magically hidden in the subway though, right?

0:53:21 Lou: Yeah, I know where it is.

0:53:22 Sofia: Maybe some of Kug's friends that we just met on that little hot dog stand.

0:53:30 Ricky: I can talk to Marty and he'll probably know.

0:53:34 Rowan: Oh no, not the stinky cockroach.

0:53:37 Ricky: He's a juicy cockroach.

0:53:38 Sofia: Juicy, yeah.

0:53:40 Ricky: He maybe used to be stinky, but he's at least also juicy now.

0:53:45 Pete: He's wearing little sweat pants that say juicy on the butt. (Emily laughs)

0:53:50 Cody: But like the rat himself smells like shit, but the juicy cockroach actually smelled fine. (Emily laughs)

0:53:57 Brennan: Hell yeah. You reach out to old friends of Kugrash. Rats, cockroaches, everything like that. And you hear back from Marty.

0:54:12 Marty: Hey, buddy, you got it. We're gonna get all the bugs and everything. We're gonna find this fuckin' dragon's hoard. You better believe it, bud! We're on it, we're on it now!

0:54:22 Ricky: Thank you. And I love the sweatpants. I feel like that's a great addition.

0:54:27 Marty: Yeah, I just like to lounge around the house. You know, that's what I'm interested in doing.

0:54:34 Emily: It actually makes sense that they would have a pair of juicy sweatpants considering like that style is so old you could only find it at a thrift store.

0:54:43 Zac: It got so old that it became a doll's toy clothing.

0:54:48 Siobhan: Yes. Shrunken down.

0:54:50 Ally: Sometimes you say things just for the fan art. (everyone laughs)

0:54:56 Brennan: Cool. You guys get bugs on finding these. So Word of Recall will not get you there, Kingston. 'Cause you were not able to set that place up as a sanctuary.

0:55:07 Zac: I feel like we have to talk to Iga's family.

0:55:11 Brennan: Probably.

0:55:12 Lou: That feels good.

0:55:16 Brennan: And Pete you have the chest, right? Yeah, who wants to bring the chest to Iga's family?

0:55:20 Ally: Definitely, I'll go and do that. Yeah, I have the chest.

0:55:24 Zac: Should we all go?

0:55:25 Ally: Yeah, let's do it.

0:55:27 Brennan: Cool. All of you head out. Oskar's there. Nick and Jess are there. They take the chest from you. Nick is very protective over it. (sighs) As much as Pete tries to explain the fact that Iga is in this place where it is eminently possible that she can be retrieved, it is hard for this family to hear, and you feel the mounting of the pressure on you to get this right. So much has already gone right for you guys. You have collected so many of the resources that you need to make this work. You have been so triumphant over and over again, but you've also realized that if you can't stick the landing, no pun intended, all will be lost.

0:56:27 Zac: Wait, I don't want to say this in front of the family but can I ask everyone else, like,

0:56:35 Ricky: Do you think it's worth talking to Nick—

0:56:39 Sofia: Dragon?

0:56:40 Ricky: And seeing if he can get us in the chest to talk to the dragon?

0:56:45 Kingston: Definitely.

0:56:46 Sofia: Sure.

0:56:48 Brennan: Nick shares with you that he is not powerful enough to get all of you into the chest.

0:56:54 Emily: Oh, right, that was a special warlock ability.

0:56:58 Brennan: But he can try to communicate something for you. He looks up, Jess looks very shaken. She's like,

0:57:06 Jess: I got to talk to Ana and Amelia at the society about this.

0:57:11 Brennan: And Nick looks up and says,

0:57:11 Nick: What is it? What is it you want me to ask the dragon? I can try to ask something.

0:57:22 Ricky: What do you think, Kingston? Is there anything that feels right to you?

0:57:26 Kingston: I mean, the things in my head are like, can you ask, oh, I've never truly had to say her name and I know I'm gonna say it wrong. So please correct me as soon as I say it, Nick. Smodka? Smishsmodka?

0:57:40 Nick: Smoczmatka.

0:57:41 Kingston: Smoczmatka, there you go. Will never say it wrong again. Is there a chance, like I think, like we're asking Smoczmatka, like, where a hoard would be or, yeah. How does a hoard move? Yeah. Or does a hoard move? I guess the nature of hoards.

0:58:04 Cody: Does it get buried with when the dragon dies?

0:58:08 Brennan: You see later after you guys depart from the Lisowski family, Nick and Jessica vowing to, you know, make this right and help any way they can. Nick sends a message to all of you basically saying dragon hoards should be easy to find. And that if you're not able to find it, especially if you've been there before, something's wrong.

0:58:35 Pete: The memory of it was erased!

0:58:41 Lou: Is it still in my head?

0:58:43 Brennan: Yes, still in your head. You got it.

0:58:45 Sofia: Do we have a piece of it at all? Because maybe we could use the time piece to go into the piece of it.

0:58:51 Lou: I hold up the eternal token.

0:58:54 Brennan: You hold up the eternal token. It feels, you can definitely, it feels worth trying. You can experiment with that with the Gotham Timepiece and are busy putting this, sort of, putting this together. Nick says he's gonna keep trying to look into what Smoczmatka knows as you guys are all on top of this together. I'm going to move us forward in time now. The bugs begin to look for it. Days pass as the bugs are looking for the dragon's hoard. We are going to enter another period of downtime now. And it is a period of downtime marked by a growing sense of dread as Marty and the others prove unable to find the original hoard of the Dragon of Bleecker Street. What I'd like from all of you now is what your characters are doing in the interim while this place is being searched for and Christmas draws ever closer.

1:00:23 Lou: Kingston's at that phone every day.

1:00:28 Brennan: Kingston, we're gonna do straight up two weeks of downtime right now. Go ahead and roll that percentile dice 14 times for me if you would be so kind.

1:00:40 Lou: Yeah, I'd love to. God, this is not fun if they don't come up the way I want them to. [sorting through his dice] Okay, so I didn't like you last time. I didn't like you last time. Here we go. Okay.

1:00:56 Brennan: Hell yeah.

1:00:57 Lou: 14 times?

1:00:58 Brennan: 14 times! Here we go.

1:01:01 Lou: First one. It's gotta be 11 or less, right, on 2d10?

1:01:05 Brennan: 11 or less on a 2d10.

1:01:07 Lou: First one is 16. (everyone winces)

1:01:11 Lou: Second one is 32. Third one's 30. Fourth one, 25. Fifth one, 72. Sixth one, 51. Okay, swapping out dice. Let's get a new team in there. See if they-

1:01:36 Zac: How do you roll an 11 or lower?

1:01:40 Lou: It'd be 10 and one or then zero, zero in anything. This is seven. 16 again.

1:01:51 Murph: Oh my God.

1:01:54 Lou: 99.

1:01:56 Siobhan: Oh my God.

1:01:57 Lou: How many more do I have?

1:01:58 Brennan: You have five more.

1:02:05 Lou: That's 40.

1:02:08 Murph: Okay, this is the one. This is the one. It's happening. Guaranteed!

1:02:13 Lou: 76.

1:02:15 Murph: Fuck!

1:02:16 Lou: Three more.

1:02:17 Brennan: Three more.

1:02:18 Lou: Three more?

1:02:19 Brennan: Three more.

1:02:20 Murph: This is insane.

1:02:22 Lou: [quietly] God dammit. 40.

1:02:26 Brennan: Two more.

1:02:31 Lou: Two more?

1:02:31 Brennan: Two more.

1:02:34 Lou: It's cocked. 26.

1:02:38 Brennan: Last one.

1:02:44 Lou: Please. Kingston is like, doin' that thing where you like, press your head, like, against the like, just pressing just like before he puts the coin in, just like head against the metal, just praying. ...56.

1:03:01 Brennan: Brutal. Kingston goes looking for that Divine Intervention every day. Do not find it. But you guys do have non-miraculous things at your disposal. What is everybody else doing during that two week period as the bugs, again, that mounting feeling of dread, the bugs are not finding it. What is everyone doing during this, like, tense mounting period of downtime?

1:03:44 Zac: Do we think someone should talk to the Shen family maybe? Maybe they have any guidance for this? I don't know.

1:03:52 Siobhan: Yeah, that's a good idea. I feel like Misty would probably know them. I think Misty could maybe do that. I mean Rowan. Rowan would probably know them.

1:04:01 Brennan: Yeah, what do you want to go talk to them? Oh, you wanted to talk to them about the dragon's hoard?

1:04:08 Siobhan: Yes.

1:04:09 Brennan: Cool. Go ahead and give me a DC 20, DC 20, we'll call it a Perception check.

1:04:19 Siobhan: Okay. I have a plus seven to perception.

1:04:22 Brennan: Cool.

1:04:23 Siobhan: No, I don't make it. I get a 14.

1:04:26 Brennan: The Shen family is as confused as you. They explained to you that the hoard should be easy to find. It should be on Bleecker Street. I think they do also explain that the hoard was on Bleecker Street because that's where the dragon wanted it. But that the hoard could actually be anywhere. Like, that hoard can appear at that secret subway stop wherever someone wants, wherever the dragon wants it to in the city.

1:04:50 Siobhan: Why don't we ask the egg?

1:04:52 Brennan: Not a terrible idea. Rowan, that is your downtime activity. Towards the end, you're, like, out of answers. You're thinking about, like, it has to be the egg. Pete, or sorry, anyone else? What are you doing during that two weeks? As you can feel you're so close, and yet this last piece of the puzzle is eluding you.

1:05:14 Murph: I guess… Maybe I'll text Ricky because I think we both have Locate Object. I wonder if we can like investigate areas that we, like, essentially ask Kingston, like what do you remember? Is there something you remember seeing there?

1:05:36 Brennan: Yeah.

1:05:37 Murph: And then being like, okay, we'll check out Bleecker Street. We'll go to, if we know it was originally brought to, if we know the dragon was originally brought to Chinatown, we'll go to Chinatown, and I'll just ride around on my moped with, like, a homing beacon casting Locate Object every day, I guess.

1:05:56 Brennan: Hell yeah. Well, go ahead and give me like, as a downtime activity, give me an Investigation check.

1:06:05 Murph: 18.

1:06:07 Zac: Should I get one too?

1:06:09 Brennan: Yeah, Ricky, you should give me one as well.

1:06:13 Zac: Pretty good. Investigation, that would be a 19.

1:06:19 Murph: We should use Bless maybe. That would make things easier.

1:06:23 Brennan: I think over the span of time-

1:06:25 Murph: Over the span it's not gonna work?

1:06:26 Brennan: Yeah. You guys are looking and looking and looking. You guys look hard, just like trying to sort of investigate, cast Locate Object yourself. Something is you guys get just like a sinking feeling. Something is weird.

1:06:35 Ally: [softly] Fuck.

1:06:44 Brennan: What is Pete getting up to during downtime?

1:06:48 Ally: I'm going to meetings with Lugash.

1:06:50 Brennan: Cool.

1:06:53 Ally: And then it’s maybe, like, Maddie's birthday or something. Like, I might just be, like,

1:07:02 Pete: Do you wanna like get a coffee? Or like, what do you usually do on your birthday, or, whatever? LOL.

1:07:10 Brennan: “LOL.” Maddie hits you back up and is like, is like,

1:07:17 Maddie: I don't have a lot of close friends in the city. A lot of my friends are online, but it would be awesome to do something in person for my birthday.

1:07:29 Pete: Cool.

1:07:31 Brennan: Pete, your sobriety die moves up to a d12, which is-

1:07:35 Ally: [resigned] No, it's a d10.

1:07:37 Brennan: Oh, it's a d10. Copy that.

1:07:42 Ally: I shot down when Danny wanted to buy drugs from me. (Brennan laughs)

1:07:51 Ally: But we're back at a d10, baby! We're back at a d10!

1:07:54 Brennan: Back at a d10.

1:07:55 Ally: This is where I'm comfortable. It's the most beautiful shape.

1:07:59 Brennan: You and Maddie have a lovely birthday celebration together for her birthday.

1:08:05 Ally: Cute.

1:08:06 Brennan: Truly lovely.

1:08:07 Ally: I get her that book, "Kitchen." Zac puts his face in his hand.

1:08:12 Ally: That's like a really old like book. It just has like a really interesting trans character in it. And it's just, like, fun to read. Like,

1:08:21 Pete: Hey, it's by this writer Banana Yoshimoto. It's like pretty cool. It's like early magical realism from like the 80s or 90s. And I don't know. I just thought it was pretty cool. So...

1:08:33 Brennan: She smiles and says,

1:08:33 Maddie: Well, thanks. I always love a gift that like, you know, keeps on giving. It's like, oh, I'll be able to enjoy this for a while. That's awesome, Pete. Thank you. And you said you're Aquarius, right?

1:08:45 Pete: Yeah.

1:08:45 Maddie: So I got time to think of a gift for you. Good, good, good.

1:08:48 Pete: Yeah, totally.

1:08:51 Brennan: The only two people I need answers from are Sofia and Kingston. Kingston, I know you've been doing your Divine Intervention rolls, but you still have your downtime. What is Sofia doing during this time?

1:09:05 Emily: I think Sofia has been feeling like she's carrying this life in her, right? But she can't really celebrate it until she tells Dale, but she can't tell Dale until she figures out the best way to do it or a way to do it that's not just painful. But I think she's been feeling really, like, isolated and selfish because of this. So, I think she is gonna, like, she's just gonna use her time to try to help. So, I think two things she'd like to do, one, she'd like to, like, contact Nadia and see if she could get into the library to look for if they might have any information about a hoard and how to find it. And then she also kind of wants to contact Tony and ask him if he wanted to get coffee.

1:10:02 Brennan: Go ahead. I'm gonna let Sofia do both of these things. And I believe that's gonna move you down to a d8 if I'm not mistaken.

1:10:11 Emily: That's fine. I feel like I have been nothing for a while. (Emily laughs)

1:10:16 Brennan: Oh no!

1:10:17 Emily: She wants to contribute.

1:10:18 Brennan: I think you reach out. Go ahead and give me an Arcana check for Nadia and go ahead and give me a, I guess it can be Perception, it can be Insight for Tony.

1:10:35 Emily: Okay. My Arcana was a six, and my perception is 18.

1:10:41 Brennan: 18. You reach out to Nadia. Nadia gets back to you and is basically like,

1:10:48 Nadia: So sorry. So sorry, Sofia. Nothing about specific locations of the dragon hoard.

1:10:54 Sofia: Okay. Thank you so much for looking. How is everyone doing by the way?

1:11:01 Brennan: She's like,

1:11:01 Nadia: It's great. We just went on this retreat with the occult society. Went super well. We're gearing up for the expedition around New Year's.

1:11:10 Sofia: Amazing.

1:11:12 Nadia: Really, really good.

1:11:14 Brennan: You get a ping on your phone from Tony texting you back saying,

1:11:17 Tony: Coffee sounds great.

1:11:20 Emily: Great. I think I'm gonna swing by and talk to my dad really quickly. 'Cause I want to get some information from him above the board.

1:11:31 Brennan: Hell yeah. You swing by your old family home and find your dad watching the game, drinking a cold one.

1:11:42 Emily: Sweet.

1:11:44 Sofia: Hey, Dad. What's up? Long time no see.

1:11:48 Anthony: Sofia, what the fuck are you doing here? It's cold as hell.

1:11:55 Sofia: Yeah, it's just the holiday, so, you know, just figured I'd stop by. Anyways I ran into a friend of yours, Tony Simos. You remember him?

1:12:07 Anthony: Yeah, Tony. Yeah, I remember Tony. He's a fuckin' hothead. He's a lunatic.

1:12:12 Sofia: Yeah, lunatic, right? 'Cause that he had some, some wife or something like that?

1:12:20 Anthony: Yeah, she left him though. She fuckin' bailed middle of the night. Fuckin' left his ass.

1:12:25 Sofia: Yeah, yeah, cool, cool. Thanks so much. That's just the information I need.

1:12:31 Anthony: This is unreal. What the fuck? (Emily laughs)

1:12:36 Anthony: What the fuck? You come here to talk to me about some fuckin' guy from the neighborhood?

1:12:43 Emily: I send my unseen servant to go grab, like, a present from like a liquor store and I'm like,

1:12:49 Sofia: Yeah, actually I was here to drop off this. It's a can opener. (everyone laughs)

1:12:54 Sofia: You like Beck's, right? The beer?

1:12:58 Anthony: [placated] Yeah, yeah, I like Beck's. Shit, okay. Thank you. Yeah, thank you. Shit, okay.

1:13:07 Murph: A Beck's bottle opener?! (everyone laughs)

1:13:11 Sofia: Merry Christmas, Dad.

1:13:13 Lou: A single bottle of Beck’s.

1:13:15 Ally: That is the funniest specific— (laughs) Oh my God. (everyone laughs)

1:13:23 Emily: And with that, I want to go meet up with Tony. I basically needed to get the information about him so that I could tell him that I heard from my dad without lying.

1:13:34 Brennan: Copy that. You go and meet Tony for coffee. He's waiting for you when you get to the cafe, looks up and says,

1:13:44 Tony: Sofia, good to see you. How ya doin'?

1:13:49 Sofia: I'm good. I just wanted to talk to you because I learned something about you that I think we have in common, and I don't meet a lot of other people who experience it. And I guess I just wanted to reach out. I don't know if I'm looking for advice or consolation or maybe to say like, I see you in a different light now.

1:14:15 Tony: What's the different light you see me in?

1:14:20 Sofia: I'm gonna bring up something that's personal, but I want you to know that it's coming from someone who also experienced it. I heard around the block about what happened with your wife. (Tony exhales)

1:14:41 Sofia: I just wanted to reach out because I obviously lost my husband. And it's something that I still don't fuckin' know how to deal with. And when I learned that, it just, I felt for you and I wish I had known that. And if I offended you by bringing this up, I'm super sorry.

1:15:10 Tony: Nah, it's all right. You lost Dale. And I know how much that hurt you. I know there's bad blood here, but Dale was a good guy. And… Hurts, yeah, you know. Wife just up and left.

1:15:35 Brennan: You see him like giving you the, like, waking world version of events. Like, not sharing the other stuff with you.

1:15:47 Tony: Yeah, I don't know where she is. I hope wherever she is she's happy.

1:15:52 Emily: Fuck, can I do, I'm like, I want to do some kind of check. I almost want to, like, I kind of want to tell him then he'll know. Fuck, I really want to tell him. I guess maybe I'm just gonna say, I just think I'm just gonna try to be human and say like,

1:16:12 Sofia: I don't know. I guess just, like, maybe just tell me how you moved on or tell me how you found a life after that. Maybe that'll help me. And I don't know. Maybe it's just nice to talk about with someone who's gone through the same thing.

1:16:28 Brennan: He nods.

1:16:33 Tony: I don't know. I don't know if you ever do move on. You know, if you got a big heart, you can… The stronger you are, the more muscle you got inside to carry those hurts for a long time. I've been carrying mine for a while but no use in letting them make you weak, you know. It's hard. I tell you, Sofia, I give you credit, you know. Imma be honest. I feel like a fuckin' loser.

1:17:24 Sofia: Why?

1:17:27 Tony: Coming back here, old dog fuckin' trying to be First Fist again, make up for something that happened so many years ago. Why would I even… Why would I do this to myself, put myself through all this hurt? Sitting here at this fuckin' retreat with the society, giving us the run around. Fuckin', you know, there's no fuckin', we're not going on an expedition. It's obvious that it's all a fuckin' hoax.

1:18:04 Sofia: What?

1:18:06 Tony: You know, the expedition it's fugazi, it's not real. Like, you know, we're getting jerked around.

1:18:15 Sofia: Why, how? I mean, I'm friends with Esther. I can talk to her.

1:18:20 Brennan: I'm gonna need Sofia to give me a deception roll.

1:18:29 Emily: [sighs] Okay, wait, all of these dice have rolled poorly for me today. Six.

1:18:37 Siobhan: God, these sixes.

1:18:43 Brennan: Tony looks over at you and says,

1:18:46 Tony: Well, maybe I'm wrong. I don't know. Maybe it's all real. Maybe I'm just paranoid. Hey, this was real nice of you, Sof. I appreciate it.

1:19:00 Sofia: Yeah.

1:19:02 Tony: I'm gonna head back to the monastery. Thank you for your time, Sof. Appreciate it.

1:19:12 Emily: I mean, I guess I'm gonna text the group and be like,

1:19:15 Sofia: I was trying to get some context for him, suss him out. Obviously I fuckin' made things worse again. Should I just fuckin' tell him that we have a way to get Heather Simos back and maybe he'll just fuckin' get on board? [players mumble in thought]

1:19:34 Cody: Yeah.

1:19:35 Emily: All right, I chase him out of the coffee shop.

1:19:37 Sofia: Tony!

1:19:37 Brennan: Cool. He turns around.

1:19:39 Sofia: Tony. Look, yeah, okay. The meeting, look, I met with you under a pretense that wasn't true, but the core of why I wanted to meet with you was true. I know what happened with Heather. And I think we can get her back.

1:19:55 Tony: You know what happened with Heather?

1:19:57 Sofia: I know what happened with Heather. And I think we can get her back.

1:20:02 Tony: How?

1:20:04 Sofia: We just lost, do you remember the woman with the chest?

1:20:09 Tony: Yeah, Lisowski.

1:20:10 Sofia: We just lost her to a timeless pocket dimension that Heather is in.

1:20:16 Tony: Wait a minute, wait a minute. She's somewhere out there?

1:20:21 Sofia: Yes, she was, you know her magical purpose, right?

1:20:28 Tony: Yeah, she was the Vox Phantasma.

1:20:31 Sofia: Yes.

1:20:32 Tony: Nod made her the Vox Phantasma.

1:20:34 Sofia: Yeah because Nod believed in her. And she brought so much enthusiasm that Nod couldn't totally work with just yet. And she went too deep into dreaming, and she got sucked up by something. And I think we can get her back.

1:20:52 Tony: Holy shit. Oh my God. How do we get her back?

1:20:57 Sofia: I don't know. What we need to do is, well, we're trying to get a dragon. I know you don't believe in dreams, but this dragon could bring a lot of people back.

1:21:09 Brennan: Give me an insight check if you'd be so kind.

1:21:13 Emily: Oh no. It's gonna be another six.

1:21:17 Murph: Jesus Christ.

1:21:18 Zac: Are you kidding me?

1:21:19 Siobhan: Throw your dice away.

1:21:19 Emily: Well it's plus three, so it's a nine. Yeah.

1:21:26 Brennan: Tony says,

1:21:26 Tony: Look if this is true, that's fuckin' incredible. That's fuckin' incredible. Listen, we got to talk. You and me, let's talk tomorrow. Come by the monastery, you know, like four o'clock in the afternoon and we'll get it going. Absolutely.

1:21:44 Sofia: Tony, don't fuck me for letting you in on this, okay?

1:21:50 Tony: I'm not gonna fuck you, okay?

1:21:52 Sofia: Okay. Well that could be not a lie, but also (laughs) You're gonna fuck me, aren't you?

1:22:01 Brennan: You see, he looks at you and says,

1:22:10 Tony: You bringing this up means a lot.

1:22:16 Brennan: And Tony heads off into the night.

1:22:19 Sofia: Okay, well, I did it, everyone. And I think it was probably a mistake. (everyone laughs)

1:22:22 Ricky: Really interesting.

1:22:25 Kingston: I doubt it.

1:22:27 Pete: No, trust your intuition. Trust your insight.

1:22:30 Rowan: Who is this guy? Do you want me to beat him up? He sounds bad.

1:22:34 Sofia: I feel as though pregnancy has been terrible for me and I haven't had a good day since-

1:22:38 Rowan: You're pregnant? (everyone laughs)

1:22:41 Rowan: Well, let me throw you a shower.

1:22:46 Sofia: I can't have a fuckin' shower until I tell my dead husband. And I can't tell my dead husband 'til I can figure out if I can fuckin' bring him back!

1:22:57 Pete: Understandable.

1:22:58 Sofia: Thank you. Okay, I'm not crazy.

1:23:00 Rowan: Actually I've had a not dissimilar situation before so-

1:23:05 Sofia: Tell me more.

1:23:06 Rowan: Many lifetimes!

1:23:08 Brennan: I'm gonna say, Sofia, give me one last, I'm gonna ask for a either Arcana or Religion check with advantage.

1:23:24 Emily: [laughs] Cool. Why not?

1:23:26 Siobhan: Two sixes.

1:23:27 Emily: Ooh! Okay. Uh, 19.

1:23:33 Brennan: You are talking and you remember years ago at the Clinton Hill Chantry there was a book of some kind specifically about, like, the dead and necromancy and stuff like that. And as you say this thing to Rowan of, like, "I can't do any of this until I can figure out if there's a way to bring my dead husband back," your mind just goes to this thing at the Clinton Hill Chantry and you know that there's something that you should check out there. The last person I want to talk to-

1:24:06 Emily: I also do one last thing. I just want to shoot a text to Esther that I fucked up. So that she's on her game.

1:24:15 Brennan: She says,

1:24:15 Esther: Okay, I'm on it.

1:24:18 Brennan: She says, she's like,

1:24:18 Esther: Don't worry about it. I'm on it.

1:24:21 Brennan: Cool. Kingston, what are you doing during those two weeks of downtime while the dragon's hoard is being searched for?

1:24:32 Lou: I think, Kingston is, like, talking to the egg. And if anything, I think I like take the egg with me out into the streets, like, in and around the areas that I used to, like, you know- like, walking that same path.

1:24:47 Zac: Is it in a stroller?

1:24:50 Lou: Yeah, I have a little stroller out. And me and the egg are just like walking around, and I'm just like,

1:24:56 Kingston: How do you feel about this place? Is this anything? (Emily laughs)

1:25:01 Kingston: Let's keep, let's keep moving. All right, here we go. Here we go.

1:25:06 Lou: Yeah. Kingston, I would like even like burn my, like, Gotham timepiece, like, you know, level of exhaustion after downtime. Like, Kingston is upset and really wants to figure this out.

1:25:22 Emily: I think you might not want to do that though, because you'll get disadvantage on ability checks. That's what exhaustion is.

1:25:28 Lou: Is that after the downtime?

1:25:30 Brennan: That's after the downtime. Yes, yes, yes.

1:25:33 Lou: I'll take it. If it's after, I'll take it.

1:25:38 Brennan: Cool. Kingston is going with the egg. Go ahead and give me a, you can give me an insight check and then that extra action lets you do an extra downtime activity. So if there's something you want to do other than the dragon.

1:25:53 Lou: I guess I'll use it if this doesn't work.

1:25:55 Brennan: Cool. Go for it. Yeah, yeah.

1:25:59 Lou: That will be a 28.

1:26:04 Brennan: Kingston, it is the morning. It's been two weeks. The egg keeps stopping at this one area on Central Park North, the North side of Central Park. But it keeps stopping in a place where there is no, like, subway entrance. It's near 110th Street, but you keep stopping in this area. With that 28 perception, Kingston, you're holding the egg, and you haven't used your extra actions. You don't have exhaustion.

1:26:44 Lou: I haven't used it yet.

1:26:47 Brennan: At the end of that downtime, Kingston, you're walking with the egg. You keep stopping at a place with no subway entrance. You look at yourself in a mirror. Umbra is pouring out of your eyes. This dragon's hoard is find-able, but not if it's being hidden from you. And there's only one thing powerful enough in this city to hide the unseen from those who see the unseen every day. Something is wrong with Gramercy.

1:27:34 Zac: Oh shit.

1:27:35 Ally: Holy shit!

1:27:37 Siobhan: God damn.

1:27:37 Brennan: This is the next day. Sofia, Esther texted you this morning being like,

1:27:50 Esther: Hell yeah, come by the Clinton Hill Chantry to look for whatever you need. I'll be up, like, I should be upstairs in the apartment if you want to come say hi. Don't worry about Tony. I'm gonna handle him. Ricky will be out at Helping Hands tomorrow.

1:28:15 Emily: Okay.

1:28:16 Brennan: And Sofia, you are riding, or I guess you're taking your car up through Clinton Hill.

1:28:25 Emily: Take the Verrazano Bridge.

1:28:26 Brennan: Take the Verrazano Bridge. As you have said, Sofia is in not a great way right now.

1:28:40 Emily: I think I know what she needs to do.

1:28:42 Brennan: As you are driving, you look over and see a flickering image just in the mirror of a passenger in your back seat that is a colorless silhouette.

1:29:04 Emily: Can I pull over and punch it?

1:29:07 Brennan: Yeah, you turn around, punch it. It's not even really in your back seat. It's just in the reflection, and Sofia, you are a woman pulled over on the side of the road, punching the back seat of your own car.

1:29:19 Sofia: This is not my low, if you can believe it. (everyone laughs)

1:29:27 Brennan: You hear a voice in your own mind ask you,

1:29:38 Voice: It only hurts because you keep fighting. If you stopped fighting it wouldn't hurt anymore.

1:29:51 Ally: Can I roll an intuition luck check? To maybe just shoot Sofia, like, a friendly text, like, "Hey, just happened to be thinking about you."

1:30:02 Brennan: Yeah, I'm gonna let Sofia respond first. If she's going to respond and then I'll let Pete roll.

1:30:07 Emily: I think that Sofia knows not to fully buy this. I think that part of her realized, like, you know, having a dream in your heart is amazing. But I think that in her very literal situation she needs to make peace with the fact that she can't necessarily fix this situation so that she can… I think she hasn't known what to do whether or not to tell Dale or not 'cause she keeps thinking I'm going to fix it. But the longer it goes on the more guilty she feels about not telling him. And it's just like, it just has to come to, it just has to stop. So, I think she's maybe just, like, does she know how to contact Dale?

1:31:07 Brennan: She could try to go to JFK.

1:31:12 Emily: That sounds like a big endeavor. (Brennan laughs)

1:31:14 Emily: Okay, I think that she, I don't want to take up that much time. (Ally laughs)

1:31:19 Brennan: No, I think that's beautiful. I think you should. I think you, and Ally go ahead and roll that luck check for...

1:31:28 Ally: Hey! 17.

1:31:29 Brennan: Yeah, Sofia, you're thinking of not going to JFK. You get a text from Pete. What does the text from Pete say?

1:31:37 Pete: Hey, was just doing my morning pages and you came up as always. I'm just so appreciative of you and hope you're doing great. I went on a date this week, which felt kind of selfish. So just wondering if you need help with anything. I would love to help.

1:31:53 Ally: It's a lot. It's a wall of text.

1:31:55 Eemily: Sofia writes back and she says,

1:31:55 Sofia: I do need one thing. I need you to tell me all about your date. (Brennan laughs)

1:32:05 Pete: Great! So I got her a freakin' book. I hope she likes it. I felt kinda stupid. What are you up to?

1:32:14 Sofia: Pete, I think I'm gonna tell Dale. Do you think that's the right thing? I've been so fucked in my head about whether or not I should, whether or not I should tell him or not tell him. And I've just, I think it's felt so inhibiting.

1:32:32 Pete: That's a really big decision and I'm here with you if you need help. I can even take you to Nod, and we can go to the magical JFK and try to see him.

1:32:45 Sofia: Okay, yeah.

1:32:45 Pete: It's better than the real JFK, I promise. We can just fly there. There's no Uber or Lyft.

1:32:53 Sofia: Yeah, okay.

1:32:54 Brennan: Pete and Sofia, you're at JFK, and you look up and see the pearly gates. You see the light up there. You know that what you say here will be heard by anybody waiting for you at the gates. You don't even have to go into the airport.

1:33:18 Emily: I just have to shout it? (laughs) Oh, fuck me.

1:33:24 Sofia: Pete, hold my fuckin' hand.

1:33:27 Ally: Yeah, I'm holding your hand, and I'm just kind of squeezing it at, like, soothing intervals. Just like thinking about ya. (Emily laughs)

1:33:38 Emily: Okay. I guess I'll just say,

1:33:41 Sofia: Hey hun, I'm pregnant. It's obviously yours. I wanted to find a way to bring you back before I told you, but I need to stop hanging on to that. So at least I need to stop hanging on to that. I just had to fuckin' tell you. It felt so fucked up to not tell you. So that's the situation. I've been writing every single memory I can remember of you. And I promise no matter what you are gonna be in this child's life in every fuckin' way I can make that happen.

1:34:31 Brennan: The light gleams, and you are followed back to the waking world by a beam of sunlight that even when you return to waking keeps clipping out through the clouds behind you. As you arrive at the Clinton Hill Chantry, did Sofia bring all the letters she's been writing about Dale with her or no?

1:35:08 Emily: No, I mean, she's definitely got that at home.

1:35:11 Brennan: Gotcha, so is it weird for Sofia when she sees all of them in a book on the table in the Clinton Hill Chantry?

1:35:19 Emily: Yeah.

1:35:21 Brennan: A spot of sunlight is shining on a book in the Clinton Hill Chantry called "The Axioms and Laws of Paradise."

1:35:32 Emily: I pick it up and read it. I'm a pretty active reader now.

1:35:36 Brennan: Pete, you're with Sofia in this moment.

1:35:38 Ally: Yeah, I'm like doing the friend thing of like where I'm hugging you from behind. So we're both just kind of like walking as a unit. (Emily laughs)

1:35:48 Brennan: Sofia, because you went to JFK and this sunlight is on this book in the Clinton Hill Chantry, and it's the one you remembered being here. You read a law that has to do with, paradise plays by the rules. And they don't return souls lightly because death is a part of life.

1:36:13 Emily: I know.

1:36:14 Brennan: However, there have been numerous instances where a soul has been returned to the waking world. There had been resurrections. There have been raisings of the dead. Hell, Kingston's cast Revivify which is just a short term resurrection. But one of the things they do here, and where you find these Dale pages that you have spent weeks lovingly writing is in an area where basically they say heaven isn't stingy with souls. It's not like hell where they want to desperately cling on to souls. And in a case where either poor accounting on the part of angelic clerks would have a soul be in paradise when it shouldn't, examples are given like when a demon has stolen a soul and that soul gets liberated from the demon and brought straight to heaven. But the person that got their soul stolen never actually died in the world. Heaven of course returns those souls to the waking world right away. Obviously Dale actually was killed. So they wouldn't return a soul in that case. But if Dale had had his soul stolen by a demon and then showed up in heaven, but he had never actually died in the real waking world, of course Heaven would return his soul immediately. And as Sofia is processing what heaven's diligence about returning souls when they've made a mistake and someone actually isn't or wasn't dead, you hear some noise coming from upstairs. And Ricky, you walk in right about now as well. 'Cause you live here at the Clinton Hill Chantry. You see Sofia and Pete are downstairs.

1:38:03 Ricky: Hey, guys. (everyone laughs)

1:38:06 Sofia: Hey, Ricky. I just sorta shouted at heaven about my pregnancy. So yeah.

1:38:14 Ricky: Well, you know, let me know if you want me to also yell at heaven. Happy to scream at heaven as well.

1:38:21 Emily: So, I mean, is there some hope in this clause? Like, what would be the...

1:38:27 Brennan: Sofia's trying to figure it out because you're basically like, okay, so heaven gives souls back, but, like, you're trying to work around right now the fact that like Isabella Infierno did murder Dale, but it doesn't seem like heaven is greedy about the souls they had. They would return Dale if you could prove that-

1:38:46 Emily: If someone filed the right paperwork?

1:38:49 Brennan: If you could prove that Dale was never killed by Isabella Infierno or that it was a mistake or a clerical error, they would return his soul in a heartbeat. You guys hear thunderous noise from upstairs in the Clinton Hill Chantry.

1:39:02 Zac: I run upstairs.

1:39:04 Ally: Same.

1:39:05 Emily: Okay, I run upstairs.

1:39:06 Brennan: You run upstairs. Ricky, your apartment's in disarray. There are lightning bolt marks on the walls. Everyone here, go ahead and give me an investigation check.

1:39:24 Zac: Fuck, I got a nat one.

1:39:26 Brennan: Shit.

1:39:27 Emily: 11.

1:39:28 Ally: Five.

1:39:29 Brennan: You guys are looking around. There literally was just a struggle here.

1:39:36 Sofia: It's fucking Tony. Did I fuck up Esther?

1:39:39 Zac: Can I...

1:39:41 Brennan: Sofia, you get a text on your phone from Tony saying,

1:39:48 Tony: Thanks for the heads up, kid.

1:39:53 Brennan: Says,

1:39:53 Tony: I appreciate all you've done. I've had some fun doing some things of my own. I take it you guys have had a hard time finding that dragon's hoard. Sucks to be a sucker, don't it?

1:40:07 Brennan: You see he says,

1:40:09 Tony: But after today, nobody's ever gonna have to worry about finding something magical ever again.

1:40:18 Zac: I cast Locate Object on Esther, like Esther's, like, whatever jewelry that she might have or her staff.

1:40:26 Ally: I cast Haste on Ricky.

1:40:28 Brennan: Cool.

1:40:29 Lou: Have I texted people about me knowing something's going down at the Gramercy Occult Society?

1:40:35 Brennan: You guys get your texts from Kingston right now.

1:40:38 Zac: Okay.

1:40:40 Lou: I'm headed there immediately.

1:40:41 Siobhan: I will head there immediately.

1:40:43 Ally: I send photos of the room and what we've seen or whatever.

1:40:47 Brennan: Sofia, you look down 'cause you're searching for clues. You look in the wastepaper basket of the bathroom. There is a full unopened box of Junior Mints that has some pee on it. [beat]

1:41:05 Zac: What?

1:41:08 Emily: Can I sniff it to see if it smells like pregnant pheromones? (everyone laughs)

1:41:14 Brennan: Sofie, you don't have to sniff it. You look at a full box of Junior Mints with a little bit of pee in-

1:41:21 Sofia: Esther's fuckin' pregnant?

1:41:23 Zac: Am I still there?

1:41:24 Brennan: Ricky is still there.

1:41:25 Ricky: What? (everyone laughs)

1:41:29 Ricky: Hold on, what?

1:41:35 Zac: I'm just like,

1:41:35 Ricky: I have to go.

1:41:40 Sofia: I'm coming with you.

1:41:42 Brennan: You're coming with. Tony sends one last text to you. Ricky, you see this on Sofie's phone. The last thing from Tony says,

1:41:54 Tony: And a sweet hello from me and your friend, Esther.

1:42:01 Brennan: Ricky.

1:42:04 Sofia: Why do I try? Why do I try to reach out to anyone?

1:42:09 Zac: You know, at best we were non-entities to each other and now I really want to, I think Ricky is like ready to fuck this guy up and is going full, like, and like wants to just do something. I need a fuckin' weapon, you know?

1:42:29 Brennan: As you feel, I need a weapon. You guys hear, (Brennan mimics rustling sounds) A box in your attic shudders, raises, explodes, and coursing with lightning and radiance, Esther's baseball bat slams into your hand.

1:42:49 Zac: I take it and I'm off. I'm just sprinting out the door.

1:42:55 Emily: Yeah, I want to try to follow him.

1:42:58 Ally: Yeah, can we just ride on you? Or like what's going on?

1:43:01 Zac: Probably.

1:43:02 Brennan: Kingston, you take off. Are you bringing, you're bringing the egg with you, I assume?

1:43:07 Lou: Well, I mean, at this point, I'm just like pushing the stroller at full speed. And then I'm also gonna summon Alejandro.

1:43:15 Brennan: Hell yes. Incredible.

1:43:18 Lou: Ask him to fly us there with his angelic wings.

1:43:22 Brennan: Amazing.

1:43:23 Emily: I'm casting Jump on myself.

1:43:25 Brennan: Yeah, as you're going, you're getting texts. You're getting texts from Nadia, Solomon, Cindy, Sofie, all saying the monastery's been attacked. It looks like Tony pulled some of Gramercy's wizards into the fold with him. He's like he stole-

1:43:43 Emily: Like he flipped them?

1:43:44 Brennan: Yeah, like he flipped them. Yes.

1:43:47 Emily: Oh, so this was happening before. So I didn't absolutely fuck us.

1:43:52 Brennan: It was happening way before. Tony's been a worm for a while. He's flipped some Gramercy people. You're sprinting. Nadia says he stole some things from the monastery.

1:44:07 Sofia: What did he steal? Tell me what he stole. That'll give me a clue of what he's after. Obviously he's after Nod.

1:44:14 Nadia: A bunch of our scrolls. He stole Forms of the Greater Dreaming. He stole a bunch of other stuff.

1:44:18 Brennan: You see that...

1:44:21 Emily: I smile when I know that he stole a bunk form of the greater dreaming. (laughs)

1:44:29 Brennan: You guys arrive. You guys all converge on the Gramercy Occult Society. You see Orlando and Rovias are completely stationary with banners wrapped around them saying “New York Public Library brought to you by Cypher Energy Fluid."

1:44:50 Lou: God damn.

1:44:52 Emily: Oh, my—

1:44:55 Brennan: You guys rush down the steps. Kingston, you summon Alejandro. Alejandro looks at you and says,

1:45:00 Alejandro: Thank goodness you summoned me. Kingston, I bring news from paradise. Dale heard what Sofia said.

1:45:08 Brennan: And you guys rush into the depths of the society. You hear battle breaking out.

1:45:14 Zac: I think Ricky is just running through the front door like the Kool-Aid man and shattering.

1:45:18 Brennan: Yeah, you're like boom, through stone! JJ is there. JJ links up with you guys. He says, he looks,

1:45:25 JJ: The engine, Tony tampered with the engine!

1:45:27 Brennan: You know that JJ has been holding it down because if Tony grabbed Esther, it's broad daylight, Ana and Amelia aren't here. JJ rushes down with you. All of you begin to just descend, and you feel the umbral engine, not breaking, but being juiced. It is getting more and more powerful. Tony is getting more umbra into the city. And you realize what will happen if he does that. The thing that this has been doing to prevent regular people from seeing magic. Tony wants to jam this to 11, and every single magical thing in the city will forget that magic ever existed at all. (cat meows) (Ally laughs)

1:46:20 Brennan: Tiny little cat meow. You guys rush the steps and see Tony and a cadre of Concrete Fist monks. He looks up and smiles and says,

1:46:37 Tony: Oh, I'm glad we get one last dance before we end this whole shit show once and for all.

1:46:44 Brennan: I'm gonna need everybody here to roll initiative. And that's it for this episode of "The Unsleeping City!"

1:46:51 Emily: I got a fuckin' nat one!

1:46:52 Ally: Nat 20! (Brennan laughs)

1:46:57 Emily: Well, Tony, thank you for making it easy to fuckin' kill you now.

1:46:57 Edited by: gluegunshots, solsys