Candela Obscura: Seeking Serenity/Transcript

List of Transcripts

Introduction

TALIESIN: Catastrophe lies at the edge of the Vastchasm for any circle daring enough to tempt fate, though when stakes are high, great risk is a calculation worth taking. A long lost and dangerous relic has surfaced from the depths of time. The assignment we've handed to our investigators is simple: Parley with the dealer, recover the artifact, and return to the Pharos. But a circle is at its most vulnerable when a threat is underestimated. And for those lucky enough to return home, Serenity awaits. The Circle of the Crimson Mirror: Assignment Number 4149, Seeking Serenity.

TALIESIN: The "Candela Obscura Core Rulebook" has arrived and is ready for you to dive into. Visit darringtonpress.com/candela to learn more.

Part I

LIAM: To begin at the beginning, the sound of footfall on stone, shoes stepping rhythmically, ceaselessly, in a wavering sea of vibrant, throbbing color. Fuchsia, pink, and red. Underfoot, ahead, and above, infinite and fluid. The sense of deceit and guilt. A quickened pace as the footsteps pick up speed and guilt co-mingles with fear. Surely, they'll know. Maybe it isn't too late. You've always been better than this. Abruptly, the sound of running comes to an end. Only breath now. Low, ragged, laboring in this blood-hued nowhere, and where but a moment ago there was nothing, a face, large and imposing, stares in horror, lips curled back in fear around the gaping, disdainful mouth, eyes bulging in disbelief, their gaze cast downward to an undulating bloom of darkening blue and veins of deepest black. Its shape spreads and retracts slowly, over and over, like lungs, expanding and retreating in rhythm with every breath. A growing nebula, azure tendrils spreading like veins, growing fainter the wider they expand, ever so slowly taking on new form, gossamer and thin, like an infinite network of veins still shifting and pulsing with every breath. What began as one small, concentrated bloom, a void has grown larger than life, giving rise to the shifting outline of a towering angel set against an endless infinity of throbbing coral rose. Wings splay wide and undulate. A tangled network of starry darkness wafts from the figure's head as it nods slowly. The angel's wings flare wider still, thin and transparent, and the looming giant bends at the waist. Its body begins to lose its shape, the veins of darkness running suddenly apart like rivulets of water on glass pouring down from above like deep, deep rain. The rain is falling in heavy sheets on the deck of the SS Dandridge, a small yet stolid tramp steamer that has been soldiering forward through a very trying night. The crew, exhausted from what has already been a rough few hours at sea, fights on in the middle of an absolute beast of a storm, not nearly far enough from the Vastchasm as any onboard would like. The Vastchasm, as a reminder, is the many miles-long wound in the Glass Sea created almost 2,000 years ago when unimaginable calamity sundered the ocean, swallowing up the once mighty city of Oldfaire. Any ship that draws too close is chancing its own destruction, as even the heartiest of vessels have been known to meet an unknown demise in its depths. Your circle, the Circle of the Crimson Mirror, has brought your current assignment largely to a close. Three days ago, you set out by steamship to rendezvous with members of the Red Hand. The Red Hand are illegal traffickers in rare objects and artifacts, not always but often steeped in the flow of magick. You know this because it is your business to know. You are members of Candela Obscura, a centuries-old, clandestine network of paranormal investigators spread across the nation of Hale and beyond. After your quartet caught wind of this information, and after informing your handler, Lightkeeper Zora Manning, contact between the Red Hand and Candela Obscura was made. Candela decided the juice was worth the squeeze, and the Red Hand's asking price was met. Your task was simple. Travel by ship to meet the Red Hand on their ship, deliver the payment, secure the remains of Atia Griffia, and return home. You see, several weeks ago, a man named Aroha Tama-Kai, a long time power player in the Red Hand, was purported to have come into possession of the partial remains of Atia Griffia, an historical figure known to scholars of the shrouded history of ancient Oldfaire, one of the most powerful alchemists of her era, serving for a time at the right hand of Emperor Calinus himself, the last great ruler of Oldfaire before that once mighty empire was swallowed by the sea. These bones, Griffia's bones, you learned, radiate with an unprecedented level of bleed, the corruptive force of magick in this world. Far too dangerous a thing to leave in idle hands. Deep at sea, the exchange was made, the bones procured. All that was left was to return to Newfaire. But the storm. This storm darkened the skies between you and home. What started in the morning as a brooding cloud on the horizon has blossomed into a raging squall that has you with your backs to the Vastchasm, white knuckling every passing minute. A crack of thunder rumbles down from above, and subsequent flashes of lightning briefly illuminate the clouds as the skeleton crew of this tiny ship stressfully yell to one another over the roar of the waves. You are beginning to wonder if you will survive this night. Everyone, take a mark in Brain. That's right. None of you have said a word, and I am coming for you. Malcolm, we'll begin with you. Only minutes before, a score of barrel drums secured near the bow burst from their binding and began to careen dangerously around the deck, slamming into the battened hatches sealing off the cargo hold. Standing in the doorway of your cabin, which is open to the chaos of the deck, you watch as a man and woman on the crew try desperately to drive these barrels back into the corner where they belong and strap them in. A heavy torrent of water crashes up over the starboard side of the ship, and this man, who you know as Sunny, slides clear across the deck and is slammed into the opposing wall, crushed by this steel barrel. In this moment, you stand looking out on the chaos. Tell us who we see and what you are doing in this moment.

IMARI: I'm a soldier that's used to land battle, not sea battle, so right now I'm steadying myself, getting acclimated. I see people scrambling around. I see Sunny pinned. To the dismay of everyone else on the starboard bow, rushing to his aid. Sunny's screaming in pain, agony, and I think I ought to assist him.

LIAM: The woman, her name is Gabi, is crossing across to him, trying to get through the slosh of water that is on the deck, screaming for help, anything. Do you run out?

IMARI: I run out, and I run out to assist Gabi.

LIAM: Okay.

IMARI: Immediately.

LIAM: There are seven or eight of these steel barrels, and his leg looks like it has been crushed against the wall of the ship. They were strapped against the far end of it. Are we going to try to pull him out, drag these barrels across the way? What's your action here?

IMARI: To drag the barrels would be pointless. It's too much ruckus in the ocean. We're unsteady. My main objective now is to make sure Sunny's free, make sure we get aid to his leg and help Gabi, resolve this mission.

LIAM: Do me a favor and give me our first roll of the night. Give me, take the Move action to get through the mess of water on the deck of the ship and reach this man in dire need of your assistance.

IMARI: Got a Candela.

LIAM: You got a Candela?

AIMEE: Yeah!

LIAM: You grip the side wall and pull yourself all the way up using a body toned from years of training and battle and make your way 20 feet forward to this guy and grab your hand onto the barrel and drag it out of the way. You can see that somehow, a sliver of wood has lodged itself deep into this man's leg, and his left arm looks badly crushed. "Someone get me-- I have to get off the deck!"

IMARI: Sunny, I want you to listen to me. Listen. You're in shock right now. What I'm about to do is going to hurt you immensely, but we have to move you in, we have to get you cover.

LIAM: "No, no, no!"

IMARI: We have to do it, Sunny. Gabi, I need you to hold, is there anything you can put in Sunny's mouth right now? Is there anything you can find?

LIAM: There are slivers and chunks of wood from the actual wall of the ship that are on the ground in the water. She reaches in, her arm disappears from view, and she pulls up several broken pieces of wood from the deck of the ship and the wall.

IMARI: Put that in his mouth. We're about to move him right now. He's going to need to chomp down on this. We're going to move him in one, two, three!

LIAM: She shoves the stick into his mouth. He begins to "(screams)" in extreme pain as you guys begin to move him.

IMARI: You're doing so good, Sunny. Bear with-- Stay with me, Sunny. We're going to go-- We're going to get you covered right now.

LIAM: You begin dragging him towards the deckhouse of the ship, which is where Candela's cabin is onboard, as well as the helm, which is on the second floor of the deckhouse. Pause there. In that moment, Leo, you are peering out of a round porthole window inside that selfsame cabin. You just watched as Malcolm ran off into the hell storm outside, and all you can think about in this second is how long ago last night's fucking cocktails on the deck seem to you. There are charts, maps, your belongings, bottles of perfectly good gin scrambling everywhere off the table in this room. Who do I see in this moment, and what is going on?

TALIESIN: Leo is older, though well put together. I'll say early 40s and lie a little bit. He is currently wrapped in a very, very expensive robe that is very warm, with a little bit of a scarf, because we are out at sea. I do not have the constitution for this sort of travel. This is really inappropriate. He is doing his best to hold himself together, but is appreciating that we are away from the weather and the elements but close enough to a possible life raft that we can get out, and you're ridiculous!

LIAM: You see Malcolm coming towards you.

TALIESIN: I am going to hold the door and wait for you to get close enough, and then I'm going to flail it open, and then close it as quickly as possible.

LIAM: Sure, you're pushing now against water that is streaming into your cabin. Why don't you make a-- We'll call this a Control roll.

TALIESIN: Delightful. I'm going to spend a drive, because this is embarrassing. Here we go.

LIAM: You are going to try to wedge the door open.

TALIESIN: If I have three, I don't have to take the lowest, correct? If I use a drive.

LIAM: If you use a drive?

TALIESIN: Oh, I get one. I'm so sorry, I did that wrong, thank you. Five.

LIAM: It's a single roll?

TALIESIN: Yes.

LIAM: Okay. You push as much as you're able, and you get it open by a foot. Water is pouring in from outside. Your hand is starting to get raw. We are in deep autumn, late autumn, pushing in towards winter, and it is freezing out here. You hold the door open. Malcolm, you get there just in time to help, grabbing your hand on the door.

IMARI: (noises of exertion) Pull, pull, pull! Pull it open!

TALIESIN: I am pulling!

IMARI: Hurry, hurry!

TALIESIN: You need to push!

IMARI: Just a little bit more. A little bit more. Sunny, we're going to pull you in.

LIAM: The door opens, water gushes in, and Sunny collapses onto one of the beds in this room. Gabi, who is the woman who was outside, comes running in as well, and she pushes past after you and goes to the exact opposite corner of the room, and she is in a state of shock. "Mother above, we're not going to make it out of this! The Vastchasm is a quarter mile behind!" Upstairs, in the helm, Edgar, you are standing with the ship's captain and the helmswoman. You've been here for the last two minutes, not saying a word, nobody has uttered a single word, as you watched through the windows out on the chaos of the deck, watching waves crash 20, 30 feet high in the air and crashing down on the deck of this place. You can't imagine how you're going to survive the next hour. All that has gone down in the room for the last three minutes is tense breathing with three frightened people lost at sea. Who do we see, and what is going on in your mind?

ALEXANDER: You see a man standing off to the side, as out of the way as possible, in clothes that wear him more than he wears them, and he acknowledges that he is sick, but he is observing it from the outside. Rather than feeling ill, he just acknowledges it, and he is watching this ocean that he has no control over and trying to accept that he can't change the situation he's in while watching people more skilled than he is at this particular situation and knowing he can't do anything about it.

LIAM: That might've been true moments ago, but now you watch as Malcolm has run out onto the deck of the ship in this nightmare, grabbed an injured crew member, and dragged him all the way to your quarters underneath. You hear the screaming through the crash of thunder and the wind, and now you definitely hear it. One floor below, you hear a woman screaming about the Vastchasm and a man shrieking in pain down below.

ALEXANDER: I charge downstairs to our cabin.

LIAM: Great, make a Move roll for you as well as you go down the rain-streaked steps.

ALEXANDER: Six.

LIAM: Six? You manage to hold the railing and make your way down, slipping for a brief second, but you catch yourself. As the door is swinging shut behind this group of people, you make your way in and find a crew member on the bed in the corner, blood drenching the sheets. As you assess the situation coming over, there is a chunk of wood that looks to be at least two or three inches long protruding from his upper thigh--

ALEXANDER: Shit. Shit.

LIAM: -- in a very dangerous spot.

ALEXANDER: Leo, give me my kit.

TALIESIN: I-- Oh!

ALEXANDER: Over in the corner, over there.

TALIESIN: Right, I cannot look at that right now! Oh, that is a lot. I am so sorry.

ALEXANDER: Move out of the way.

TALIESIN: Okay, very quickly.

ALEXANDER: I walk over to examine it more closely.

LIAM: What I'm going to tell you now is that this is a deep wound very close to the aorta of this man. The artery. Excuse me, the artery just above the wound in the thigh. So dealing with it is going to be very precarious. If you're going to do anything, I'm going to say it's a high stakes roll. Not for you, but for Sunny.

ALEXANDER: All right. I open up my kit. What's your name?

LIAM: "SungJin, but they call me Sunny."

ALEXANDER: Sunny. A pleasure to meet you. My name is Dr. Lycoris. I'm here to help you. Now, I need you to try and be very still. I'm going to do everything I can to help you here, so just lie still. Malcolm, I need you to hold him.

IMARI: I hold him down. Where?

ALEXANDER: On the bed. Keep him still as best as you can.

IMARI: Got it. Yep.

LIAM: "It's going to be all right, right?"

IMARI: You're going to be just fine, Sunny.

ALEXANDER: You're going to be fine.

IMARI: You're going to be just fine.

ALEXANDER: Unfortunately, I have to do this slowly.

IMARI: You're going to have to be brave.

ALEXANDER: I'm going to take--

IMARI: Be brave, Sunny.

ALEXANDER: -- hold of the piece of wood and I'm going to slowly remove it.

LIAM: Okay.

IMARI: Close your eyes, Sunny.

LIAM: This will be a Control roll for you.

ALEXANDER: Okay. I'm going to burn a drive. Four.

LIAM: Four. Okay, you slowly begin to pull at the jagged piece of wood in his thigh, and it splinters and starts to tear at the wound, taking part of it away with you. It is coming out, it's giving more resistance than you would care to be seeing.

ALEXANDER: Okay. I take out a scalpel and a pair of forceps, put the forceps in and open the wound slightly. Then I'm going to make a small cut at the flesh that is caught to try and remove it, to then remove the piece.

LIAM: You start to sever away at the man's living flesh to widen the area around your extraction. Now, you do manage to pull this piece out of him, and the artery, you believe, remains intact, but it is still a deep wound, and he is beginning to bleed pretty heavily. You are going to need to bind him fast, or you're going to lose him.

ALEXANDER: Towel!

TALIESIN: Oh! I'm going to run to the bathroom, grab one. Barely looking, throw--

IMARI: Hurry, Leo, we don't have much time!

TALIESIN: -- a bunch of them in that direction.

ALEXANDER: I tie it around and I pull as hard as I can.

LIAM: The man's face goes pale as a sheet and he blacks out entirely.

ALEXANDER: That's probably better.

IMARI: I agree.

LIAM: But for the moment, it seems like you've got the wound taken care of. For the moment. Meanwhile, down in the belly of the ship, we find our cargo. This artifact, these bones of Atia Griffia, rest within a relatively small, finely wrought, gold-lined chest, roughly the size of a child's coffin. The panels of this container are etched in alchemical sigils whose origins can be traced back to the ancient world. You have become somewhat familiar with these in your time in Candela. The gold and these etchings are what now keep the dangerous contents of this box from bathing you, every man and woman onboard the ship in the dangerous bleed of magick. It's currently secured with rope to a pallet in the center of the cargo hold to keep it safe. It's here that we find you, Grimoria, sitting vigil over Atia's remains. There are two lanterns swinging from the ceiling in here, casting moving shadows on you and the room around you. The boat rocks sickeningly with the sea. You are in the belly of a whale. Who do we find here?

AIMEE: We find an 18 year old young woman, slight of build, but mighty of spirit. That being said, she's never been on a boat before, or ship, or anything other than dry land, and she's using her entire body, swallowing the bile that is rising up in her throat every 20 seconds or so, to maybe use her feet and her back up against another pallet, maybe, to keep that pallet, without trying to touch the box, from moving.

LIAM: The pallet is wide. It is about-- The case itself is quite small.

AIMEE: Yeah.

LIAM: Ropes run over it down to metal rings on the edges of this pallet to keep it taut and in place. And there is other cargo down here. There are barrels and wooden crates. You have your back pressed against a stack of them, and though you are small of frame and so young, you are beyond worry with what is inside this chest and are pressing with conviction to hold it steady.

AIMEE: Can I read the language that's on the box, or am I just familiar with it?

LIAM: Well, you are familiar with it because you have been in possession of it for over 24 hours at this point. This was provided to you by the Red Hand, and there is some amount of shared overlapped knowledge and language between Candela and the Red Hand. They have different goals and purposes with ancient artifacts and the phenomena encountered in this world, but they are both experienced in it.

AIMEE: Okay.

LIAM: What has been etched onto the outside of this box is meant to contain--

AIMEE: Great.

LIAM: -- the corrosive effects of what are inside. You hear steps above you. Someone comes (pounding footsteps) down the wooden stairs into the hold. It is an older crewman. He's bearded and he's soaking wet and has a large, flopping down rain hat and raincoat on. "Is everything steady down here?"

AIMEE: I don't know. I mean, for now, but what if it's not?

LIAM: "You've got it tied down?"

AIMEE: More than it already is?

LIAM: "No, no, it's good. All right." It's in that moment, that you feel the floor beneath you buck and raise nauseatingly high. Leo, I will say that because of the bloody mess going on in the cabin, you have moved to the window and are staring out at sea, because that is better than staring at the gore behind you. You watch as the deck of the ship rises into the air, cresting over a massive wave at sea, and then comes slamming terribly down into the ocean as an oncoming wave envelops the front of the ship. I need everyone each in your place on the ship to make a Move roll to survive-- No, this would be-- Yeah, Move, because you are trying to hold yourself steady and not be knocked senseless. Get your result and hold it for me.

IMARI: Oh! (laughs) That's not good.

AIMEE: (laughs)

LIAM: Grimoria, we are with you, so we will start with you.

AIMEE: It's a four.

LIAM: That is a four. You immediately grab onto the crates behind you, pressing into the pallet in front and behind. The man goes stumbling forward off of the steps, slick shoes, and literally splays over you and falls, slamming. His head strikes the corner of the golden chest--

AIMEE: Oh no.

LIAM: -- leaving a smear of blood along it, and he crumples into the ground and begins to list sideways as the boat lists off to one direction.

AIMEE: God.

LIAM: Be right back. Where are you at, Leo?

TALIESIN: Four.

LIAM: That's a four.

TALIESIN: Yes.

LIAM: Okay.

AIMEE: Oh, thank god.

LIAM: You are by the door, staring out a window. You manage to grip the window, and as the boat begins to list to the side, you go careening into the side of the cabin, but manage to crash into one of the beds in this room. You still slam a shoulder into the back wall of it, but because you coincided with the bed, you avoided, luckily, something much worse. You are now wedged into the side of the bed and the wall, embarrassingly, and you hate to look awkward.

TALIESIN: I hate all of this so much! Please!

LIAM: Malcolm, what did you get on your dodge roll?

IMARI: Malcolm's going to get messed up right now.

AIMEE: No!

IMARI: Malcolm rolled a two.

LIAM: A two. You are holding this man down as the doctor is at work. The entire ship lurches. You feel yourself rising up in the air and are thrown with Sunny backward across the room. You watch as your patient and your coworker slow motion careen through the air and slam into the opposite wall. You smash your left arm and shoulder hard and feel it go numb. You will take a body mark and collapse to the ground with a man bleeding on top of you. You see-- No, you don't. What did you roll?

ALEXANDER: Six.

LIAM: Six! You feel the boat start to give beneath you, and you immediately grab hold of the end of the bed and feel yourself bucked in the air and then slammed back down on your feet. But you watch the soldier, the man who has pulled you out of a number of dangerous spots, careening through the air, a bleeding sailor flying with him. They crash into the wall into a heap on the ground, and this man, Sunny, you watch as the wound comes open on top of him and starts to glut on top of him and over Malcolm's body as well.

IMARI: I just bought this vest.

LIAM: (laughs)

IMARI: (laughs)

LIAM: The woman, Gabi, starts screaming in the corner of the room, talking about the Vastchasm and its proximity. You hear someone outside yell, "Man overboard!"

TALIESIN: Jesus.

IMARI: Damn.

ALEXANDER: Ooh, I can't help with that now. I'm going to go for Sunny, try and get him back on the bed and try and fix the problem at hand. I'm sorry, my dear, what was your name again? Saying to the woman who's yelling.

LIAM: "(sobbing) What does it matter?"

ALEXANDER: Because this is my operating room right now, and if you're just going to scream, I need you to go outside.

LIAM: "(flustered sobs) Gabi. My name is Gabi."

ALEXANDER: Gabi, please shut up. I go and grab-- I get Sunny.

LIAM: You drag Sunny off of Malcolm. You see that your friend is still conscious, but in pain. You drag this man, let's be honest, he is starting to go on you, up onto the bed. Blood is pouring out of his leg.

ALEXANDER: Is he still unconscious?

LIAM: Yeah, he is gone.

ALEXANDER: Okay. All right, I'm going to-- He's going to die if I just-- I take a needle and thread out of my bag.

LIAM: Okay.

ALEXANDER: I'm going to attempt to stitch up this wound.

IMARI: Can I make a suggestion?

ALEXANDER: Yes.

IMARI: Do you think we might be able to cauterize it faster if we cauterize the whole wound with something hot? Do we have something hot in here, burn the flesh?

ALEXANDER: That's not a bad idea. Is there a fire in a fireplace anywhere or anything like that?

LIAM: There is not a fireplace in here, not on this ship, no.

ALEXANDER: Is there a gas stove?

LIAM: There is a gas stove in the kitchen, which would mean going out on deck and traveling a little bit.

TALIESIN: I have a lighter. I don't know if that's enough, but--

ALEXANDER: That'll work. Give me your lighter.

TALIESIN: Okay, there. Here, here.

ALEXANDER: I'm going to take the lighter and I'm going to pull a-- Is there something large and metal in the room? Some sort of, maybe, something flat or something--

LIAM: There is tons of metal in here. There's metal chairs in here, two of them--

ALEXANDER: Okay.

LIAM: -- which you could drag over, and heat that.

ALEXANDER: Yeah. All right, I will take that. I'll take the leg of a-- I'll take one of the metal chairs and I'm going to try and heat one of the ends of the legs to try and--

LIAM: Okay.

TALIESIN: Oh, Gabi, why don't you come with me? Let's go upstairs. I think it's a little more calm up there.

LIAM: "Okay. Okay."

TALIESIN: Hi, I'm Leo. Why don't you come right with me? It's going to be okay.

LIAM: "It doesn't fucking matter!"

TALIESIN: Oh no, it feels terrible. But I've survived worse. Come on.

LIAM: You two head outside into the rain.

TALIESIN: Oh, I thought we were going--

LIAM: You have to go outside to do that.

TALIESIN: Oh we're going to have to-- Oh, Jesus.

AIMEE: (laughs)

TALIESIN: How far?

LIAM: Well, it is not too far to the stairs that lead up to the helm room, or you can double back around the side and head to, there is a kitchen back there, there is a radio room.

TALIESIN: Oh, I'm not going alone, damn. I thought it was just upstairs.

LIAM: I understand.

TALIESIN: I'm going to take her to the side, then, and have a conversation.

LIAM: "Okay."

TALIESIN: Hi. What are you doing on the ship, anyway?

LIAM: "Well, I mean, I mostly help in the kitchen."

TALIESIN: Oh, do you know the captain at all? Have you met him?

LIAM: "Captain Devir? Yes, I do."

TALIESIN: Devir? How much do you know about him? Because I did a little research. He's actually survived four, four storms, before coming around this, he has a very good record. I hate sailing, and he's apparently the safest around to go.

LIAM: "I've been with him for about a year. We've never been in a storm like this."

TALIESIN: This was a long time ago. Clearly, these don't happen very often, so there's not a lot of people who've had quite that many.

LIAM: Could you do me a favor and make a Sway roll?

TALIESIN: Oh, yes. Yes. I'm also going to burn a drive for this.

LIAM: As this is happening, by the way, while you are trying to calm this woman and you are trying to figure out how you can save this man who is on the edge, there is screaming from outside, multiple voices now. Someone is yelling, "Heath! Heath, hold on!" There are two or three people now on the deck screaming. But go ahead.

TALIESIN: Six.

LIAM: Six. You catch her into a trance, almost. She just is lost in your eyes.

TALIESIN: It's going to be absolutely fine. Let's just talk like people. How often do we get to talk like people? This is the sort of opportunity, we have to let loose anything we've been holding back. Anything you want to say, just, it's time.

LIAM: "I kind of wish I wasn't doing this job anymore."

TALIESIN: I think you've had enough of this, yes.

LIAM: "I've always wanted to work on stage."

TALIESIN: Wow, I mean, honestly, once we get back, there's plenty of small restaurants, I know a coffee shop. You'll do a little bit of part time work there. You'll have time to go to auditions, take a class. I know somebody.

LIAM: "That sounds crazy."

TALIESIN: I know!

LIAM: Hold that thought.

TALIESIN: Yes.

LIAM: Back to the medical situation.

ALEXANDER: So I'm heating up the metal foot of this chair to try and get it so I can place it against his skin and cauterize this. While I'm heating it, I say: Malcolm, are you awake?

IMARI: Yeah.

ALEXANDER: You awake?

IMARI: Yeah, I'm good.

ALEXANDER: Can you move your arm?

IMARI: Yeah, it's 50/50, Doc.

LIAM: Extreme stiffness, but it is functional.

ALEXANDER: I think they might need help outside, if you're feeling up to it.

IMARI: I'm always feeling up to it. You know how I am.

ALEXANDER: Yeah. Is it hot enough?

LIAM: Yes, it begins to glow slowly.

ALEXANDER: It's a good thing you're unconscious.

LIAM: "(screams)" You wake him out of it screaming in pain as he sits straight up.

ALEXANDER: I try and push him back down.

LIAM: He fights against it. You can make a Control roll for that.

ALEXANDER: Four.

LIAM: Four. He swats you in the face, knocks your glasses off your face, but you manage to push him down. The metal is hot. You can feel it getting hotter in your own hand.

ALEXANDER: You have to stay put for just a minute.

IMARI: Can I assist in holding him down, too?

LIAM: Yes. Yeah, I'm not going to make a roll for that. You then push him down. He is pressed into the bed. He's starting to sweat visibly and hyperventilate and passes out under your grip. The wound is raw and starts to char, and the bleeding slows, at least enough time for you to take some of that towel and wrap it tight again and pull as hard as you are able and staunch the flow. Whether this guy's going to make it through the night, you don't know, but you've addressed the problem in the moment. Malcolm, you are heading out onto the deck?

IMARI: Yes, sir.

LIAM: Okay, you stride out into the chaos. There are now three men out there, out there screaming, looking off the port side of the ship, and you can just barely make out a fourth man in the ocean. Water is just enveloping him and he reappears. He doesn't have a life jacket on. He's got nothing.

IMARI: All right.

LIAM: He's just out at sea. There are, on each side of the ship, two life preservers tied up on the sides with rope. He is out there.

IMARI: Okay. I want to immediately go to the life preservers. I want to see if I can get a rope and I want to fasten the rope to the life preserver and try to see if I could throw it out to him for him to grab onto.

LIAM: Good news is it is already tied on. One end is tied to the ship and the other is out there. So you're going to try to heave it out towards this guy?

IMARI: With my good arm that's not struck, because I have more power in that arm.

LIAM: Right.

IMARI: I lasso it. I throw it as hard as I can out to the ocean.

LIAM: Go for it. I need you to make a, we're going to call this Control.

IMARI: Control. ♪ Control ♪

AIMEE: (laughs)

IMARI: I'm going to burn a drive on this.

LIAM: Okay.

IMARI: I want the guy to live. Fours.

LIAM: Four? Two fours you got?

IMARI: Two fours.

LIAM: A pair of fours, okay.

IMARI: Pair of fours.

LIAM: You get a bead on him. He disappears for a second. You wait 'til he's there again and you can see that he is moving slowly, getting pushed to one direction. So you actually aim and throw off to the side. The good news is it lands about five or six feet to the left of where you last saw him and he resurfaces just a foot or two away. His arms are just beating the water around him and he feels it before he sees it and grabs on for dear life. The bad news is that a second massive wave, 40 feet high, comes along the starboard side of this ship and slams into everyone on board.

IMARI: Damn.

LIAM: Make another Move roll for me, and it is high stakes.

IMARI: All right. I have one drive to burn, yeah.

TALIESIN: Yeah, just--

IMARI: I'll burn it.

TALIESIN: If I were there, I would-- Oh, I couldn't help. (laughter)

IMARI: (sighs) Candela.

LIAM: Candela.

AIMEE: Nice.

LIAM: Phew.

ALEXANDER: Woo woo woo!

IMARI: (laughs)

AIMEE: You're on a roll.

LIAM: You feel it before you see it. You can just hear a roaring, rising crash behind you and you throw your hands out. As soon as you see that thing land and the guy grab it, you hear your death coming and your hands reach out at waist level and you feel yourself pushed forward and a wall of water envelops everyone on deck. Another person in the crash of the wave, you can just see them, as you are underwater for a moment, fly past you and off the side of the ship. The wave moves past the entire boat. We'll get to your dodge rolls in a moment. The entire ship lists to one side, to the point where you feel like it is going to go under, and then slowly comes back. You are hanging on. Two people in the drink. Hold that thought. All of you, please make a dodge roll for me.

ALEXANDER: A dodge roll?

LIAM: Yes.

TALIESIN: Which one of the--

LIAM: That's under Move, yeah.

TALIESIN: Okay, Move.

LIAM: Yeah, it's just a subset of Move.

AIMEE: I'm going to spend a drive on that.

LIAM: Yeah.

AIMEE: So that means I add one, right?

ALEXANDER: Yeah, yeah, add it on after. Just one drive.

AIMEE: Oh. Fuck. Three.

IMARI: Five.

LIAM: Five. Well, you're--

ALEXANDER: No, you're fine.

TALIESIN: You're good.

IMARI: (laughs)

LIAM: Hold that luck for later, my friend.

IMARI: Goddamn it.

LIAM: Five.

IMARI: Oh, of course I get a five.

LIAM: Four.

ALEXANDER: Four.

TALIESIN: Damn.

LIAM: Okay. The two of you inside the cabin with Gabi and this man feel the entire ship go sideways for what feels like an eternity. You lift off your feet, and this time you're not so lucky. You do slam into the wall, both of you.

ALEXANDER: (groans)

LIAM: You strike your knee and thigh, the point of impact is there, and it smashes into the area where your scar rises up your body, which is always a little tender, especially so now.

ALEXANDER: (sighs)

LIAM: Leo, you feel your face strike a table as you cartwheel across the room. You see stars for a moment and land in a heap on the ground. Gabi is unconscious next to you. There is a ringing in your ears. The strike was so hard. So that is one body, one body.

ALEXANDER: Oh! Yeah, yeah, yeah.

LIAM: You got a three?

IMARI: Oh no.

LIAM: You feel the pressure that existed between the pallet and the crates behind you that held you in place. You try to push as much as you can, but the sudden jerk of motion rips you free and you watch and feel like the ship is almost spiraling. Except it's you. Your head strikes a post connected to the wooden rail--

ALEXANDER: Ooh! Shit!

LIAM: -- and stairs coming down in here. Your vision explodes in white stars and then you feel yourself crash into the floor and just are barely able to perceive the floor righting itself and rocking down in the belly of this beast. Also, at this moment, there is a mast on this steamship that holds an auxiliary sail in case of emergency. Unfortunately, as this small tidal wave strikes it and the boat comes back, the mast begins to bend, crumple and break, plummeting down into the battened hatches. The hatches, which normally have hatchwork holes that let light down in, but during a storm like this, you cover and seal. Now that cover and seal is rocked by the mast crashing down on top of it. Down below, you vaguely become aware of water pouring in and sloshing into your face here in the cargo hold. But what's worse--

IMARI: Worse?

LIAM: What's worse is the feeling in your teeth, in the back of your skull as you begin to feel the corrosive effects of bleed on your body. As your eyes flicker awake in the cargo hold, you see the golden chest, ropes split, lying in the side of the cargo hold, open, and one or two bones on the floor of the cargo hold pulsing with green, alchemic light. I'll be back. Two men at sea. Two not very physical men on the ground and you are holding on. What the hell are we doing in this shit storm?

TALIESIN: Oh good, she's asleep. (sighs)

ALEXANDER: (coughs)

TALIESIN: Patient?

ALEXANDER: Yeah. Hey, where's Grimoria?

TALIESIN: I was just thinking the same thing. Ah... Sadly, Malcolm left before I could ask him to run down. She was heading downstairs last time I talked to her.

LIAM: Leo, as you stand with your now very bruised side of the face and eye, you see out that same porthole window you were staring out of earlier. You can see a greenish, sickly light wafting up out of the hatches on the deck of the ship behind Malcolm, who doesn't even see it yet, in the storm. The sheets of rain that are coming down are all illuminated in this one particular area hovering over the hold. You know what the fuck is up.

TALIESIN: I think we have to get down there.

IMARI: What am I doing right now? Am I holding onto something?

LIAM: There is a rope taut against the side of the ship. One man holding onto the life preserver 60 feet away in the drink, and another one attempting to swim towards him. I'm not normally supposed to roll, but I'm going to roll for this other person because I'm just curious, and I don't want to decide. Okay, he got a five. This other crew member begins to fight his way through the crash of endless waves in this storm and grabs hold of the rope itself, not the preserver, but he manages to get caught about two thirds of the way to his friend. You begin to hoist. You can make a Strike or Control move for this.

IMARI: I'll do a Strike.

LIAM: Okay. Because this is muscle. This is hard work.

IMARI: Fudge. Two.

LIAM: Two?

TALIESIN: Yeah, mm, mm.

LIAM: You begin to pull as hard as you can, and it does give, and you feel the coils. You can feel the texture of the rope pulling over the side of the fence as you go. After five or six pulls, you're getting it, you're getting it, and then suddenly, (snaps)--

IMARI: Ah!

LIAM: -- you feel it give way. You don't let go, you just feel a lack of resistance. You see over the edge about 35 feet away that preserver has broken free and that man is starting to waft away from the ship. The boat is slowly lurching its way away from him.

IMARI: How far away are they from where I initially threw the first one?

LIAM: They're about 35 or 40 feet away from the ship. There is a ladder, like a rope ladder, that is affixed to the side of the ship. So if one of them were able to get close, or if you wanted to, one can go down into the drink or one could hopefully swim their way back. Or one could live to see another day. Their lives are literally in your hands.

IMARI: All right, I'll go down into the drink.

LIAM: Okay.

IMARI: I could never forgive myself if I let them perish.

LIAM: You two start moving towards the doorway, thinking about Grimoria, and seeing the extreme danger that is lying in the center of this ship. You watch as Malcolm hoists himself over the side of the ship and you guys lock eyes with him just as he's about to lower out of sight.

ALEXANDER: (shouts) Malcolm!

TALIESIN: Grimoria, now!

IMARI: Just wish me luck, guys.

TALIESIN: No!

LIAM: The stairs--

TALIESIN: I am screaming.

LIAM: Are you on your way down? Because you don't see Grimoria. She is down below.

TALIESIN: We are trying to get him.

LIAM: So you're yelling to Malcolm?

TALIESIN: Yes.

LIAM: Oh, you want Malcolm?

TALIESIN: Yes.

LIAM: Okay.

IMARI: Do I see the green? Do I see the green in the distance? Do I see it?

TALIESIN: Who is seeing it behind us?

LIAM: I'll say it is loud out here and you can hear, "Grimoria," but it is masked by the sound of the storm. Why don't you make a Survey?

IMARI: Survey.

TALIESIN: Oh yeah.

LIAM: Just to tell me if you understand what you're leaving behind. I don't want to stop you. I'm coming for you.

IMARI: I got a four.

LIAM: Okay. You hear Leo's voice screaming and it causes you to pause just for a second and you dart your head around and you see him. You see wild looks in these two men's eyes and you're like, "What the hell is wrong?" You scan the ship and you see it. It was behind you, about 20 feet behind you. You don't know for how long there is death wafting up from below. In that moment of indecision, "Do I stay? Do I go?" your grip looses, slips, and you begin to--

IMARI: Get to Grimoria!

LIAM: -- you say--

IMARI: I'm going to tend these two right here.

LIAM: You don't even get that last bit out. You fall into the ocean below. You lost your grip.

IMARI: Oh man.

LIAM: You plunge into ice-cold ocean water. You can hear "(panicky gurgles)" somewhere maybe 25, 30 feet away.

IMARI: Okay.

LIAM: Let's pause you there.

IMARI: Oh.

LIAM: You two, on the deck of the ship, at the door of your cabin, see the hatches glowing from below. You haven't heard from Grimoria in the last 10 minutes. You don't know how she is.

TALIESIN: And we just saw that.

LIAM: You see him go down and you see the light coming up from above and you know that she was keeping vigil in the hold.

TALIESIN: Are there any obvious life preservers or anything like that sitting up there?

LIAM: There is one more preserver on the side that you just saw Malcolm disappear from. There are two on the other side, but they are bound to that side of the ship.

TALIESIN: Is the other one bound or is the other one--

LIAM: They are all, yes. The way they are attached is the rope. They are rolled up and stowed there, but one end is affixed to the ring of the life preserver and one is firmly attached to the ship.

TALIESIN: How long do you think it would take to-- I don't know. We don't have bloody time. If it's on the way, I'm going to try and just give it a tug and see it will-- I'm not even going to throw it. I'm just going to try and loosen it

LIAM: And just let it go down into the drink?

TALIESIN: Somebody will fucking find it.

LIAM: Yeah, you don't need to roll for that. It is there for help. It is there for this moment. So you yank it free and pull off a tie on it that lets it open and then just, what, let it drop into the drink?

TALIESIN: He went down. I'm just letting it go down where he went down.

LIAM: Okay, you drop it into the ocean and it is bobbing in the sea below.

TALIESIN: And then I'm heading-- Bloody typical!

AIMEE: Do I hear them coming?

ALEXANDER: Of course do something like this.

LIAM: Through a foggy haze, a concussion haze, you can hear shouts at the top of the stairs now.

AIMEE: I think if I can manage to say, in a really small voice, like: Don't come down here. Stay where you are.

LIAM: It comes out of you in a croak.

IMARI: [inaudible]

LIAM: And there is-- I'm not going to make anyone roll. It is hell outside. You are in the worst storm of your life. They have to shout to be heard above. But you do, on your side, your face blossoming in a bruise on the side, weakly croak out your warning to them.

AIMEE: While I do that, can I fish into my pocket? I would like-- I'm mean, she's really-- There are no good options at this point. So she's going to try to-- I'm going to try to get a small book of occult text.

LIAM: Yes.

AIMEE: I think I know it well enough where I could find the chapter where there are ancient, I don't know, maybe like holding spells or spells of protection against bleed of this specific kind of magick. I know that I'm dealing with something that's way bigger than a book can probably tell me, but if it can get me five seconds to come up with a plan, I will try.

LIAM: Okay. Well, yes and no. There's a two-part response to that. First of all, did I ask you to take a bleed yet?

AIMEE: Not yet.

LIAM: Take a bleed.

AIMEE: Okay. (chuckles) What kind? Oh, just a bleed.

LIAM: Well, that's the first.

AIMEE: Yeah.

LIAM: As this eons-old artifact--

AIMEE: Yeah.

LIAM: -- this dead woman's bones radiate with magickal entropy, it is beginning to get into your bones, but you stiffly pull a small journal that you keep on you at all times with notes that you have written in the past. Why don't you do me a favor and make a Focus roll? So in this moment, you can try to make heads or tails of notes you've taken in the past, and this chest, which you understand its purpose, but you didn't craft it.

AIMEE: Okay, I'm going to take a drive for that.

LIAM: Okay.

AIMEE: Oh wait.

IMARI: Yep.

AIMEE: Yeah. Fuck, a four.

IMARI: Nice.

LIAM: A four.

IMARI: (laughs)

LIAM: Okay. You begin to flip, again, your mind is half-numb, but you begin to flip through these pages. This is in the moments of these men yelling to each other. Everything is happening in unison.

AIMEE: It's not a good situation. (laughs)

LIAM: You pause on two pages where you once wrote down notes on wards and protection, and it is the alchemical practice that goes into the devices that Candela uses to soak in bleed, but this is more elaborate.

AIMEE: Right.

LIAM: You weakly look at this chest which is toppled over and open like a V on the ground and the notes you've taken. This is probably 11 months old, these notes, but you can see somehow in this haze that, many of the glyphs of the old time are circular, that there are sigils in a specific order that you've encountered at least five times in the past, which is what led to making these notes. There is a disc on the front of this chest that is circular and has sigils that are not exactly the same, but similar and you can tell that they are in the wrong place.

AIMEE: Mm.

LIAM: They are on a separate standalone disc of brass or gold apart from the chest itself. Somehow that is a ward that is not working right now.

AIMEE: Yeah.

LIAM: You are in the ocean. You are starting--

IMARI: I'm freezing.

LIAM: -- to go numb all over. There are two men at the distance. This is insane. You could easily die right now. You could change your mind right now. I won't make you roll. You can climb the ladder right now and go help your friends. You don't know these guys.

IMARI: (shivers) I'm going to push forward. I got to save them.

LIAM: Same as it ever was. It's not what you did in the war, and it's not what you do now. You plunge off into the drink to get to these guys. This is definitely a Move roll.

IMARI: Oh.

ALEXANDER: Wow.

IMARI: I'm going to burn a drive. I replenished both Move and Nerve drives because I had two marks and I have the ability of Adrenaline Rush and that gives me the ability to, each mark I take, I can immediately refresh a drive point of my choice.

LIAM: Yes, every time I sting you with a mark, you get a little bonus treat of a drive returned--

IMARI: I can rub my bruise. I can rub them.

LIAM: -- because you are amped on adrenaline right now. Yes, you are.

IMARI: I'm amped. (shivers) Candela.

LIAM: Candela? Is it a single six?

AIMEE: Dude.

LIAM: Just a reminder-- Oh, I believe you.

TALIESIN: Yeah, if there's two--

LIAM: I want you guys to tell me if you get two sixes because that is--

IMARI: No, it's a single.

LIAM: That's great. You are alive. The ocean shocks you more awake than you've ever been and you dig yourself through this moving serpent of an ocean. You get to the first man who is still hanging onto the rope. You just couldn't feel him before. But the other man is another 10 feet past. You pull yourself, well, you don't pull yourself, you find the edge of the rope and take it and we're going to use that six to have you swim further and get to this guy and wrap the rope around your own arm and his.

IMARI: (clutches)

LIAM: Do I want let you swim back on that six?

IMARI: You do.

LIAM: I don't.

IMARI: You do. (laughter)

LIAM: I don't. I do not. I want you to make another--

IMARI: Do you want to? You know you want to.

LIAM: -- Move roll for me to go in the opposite direction.

IMARI: (strained) Okay.

LIAM: Because I am a little shit. Roll those dice.

IMARI: I'm going to burn another drive. Okay. Five.

LIAM: Five. Okay.

IMARI: Johnny 5 is alive.

TALIESIN and IMARI: (laugh)

LIAM: You, one-handed, much more slowly because you can't swim, but you manage to use this python here to slowly pull yourself and this man closer and closer to the next man. Then you guys are a little knot on the end of a charm bracelet in hell and you start to pull yourself up, and I'm going to say the stress of this, the strain of this, it doesn't feel like you should survive. Hopefully you will. But you're going to take a brain.

AIMEE: A brain.

LIAM: You make it to the bottom of the ladder that is disappearing and reappearing by the ocean water swelling and lowering every couple of seconds. You begin to-- I will not make you roll to climb this ladder. You see these two men up ahead of you and you begin to climb your own way up and you splatter on the deck of this ship into six inches of water there as well, the three of you alive and whole. Hold that thought, Malcolm. Doc, Leo, where are we? What are we doing?

TALIESIN: He was heading downstairs.

ALEXANDER: Running down and to the hold.

TALIESIN: Yes.

LIAM: Okay. You get down below and here is what you find. The pallet is ripped open. There are crates and boxes askew down below. You see first, it's hard to miss, this golden chest, this small golden chest cracked open off on the side, on the port side of the cargo hold down below. You see 18-year-old Grimoria on the ground, journal in hand, staring. Water has been leaking down through the broken hatches above, and she and this book are starting to get soaking wet and there is an inch or two of water in here, catching. Every time the ship lists to one side, the water moves with it, and these two leg or arm bones are drifting and bringing their green, arcane sickness with them as they move. There is also Edgar, a crew member down here lying on their back, unconscious. One side of their face and chest and arm is eaten away and there is a steady stream of red and black and green particulates wafting off this person's body. It's as if 25% of their face bleeding down into their neck and chest is gone, and there is this sickly, it almost looks like steam down here. It is not entirely unfamiliar to you. Different, but reminiscent over a great many years. You can see, I'm sorry, parts of the orbital area of the inner eye. You can see teeth and the side of his tongue because there is nothing there.

ALEXANDER: (fortifying grunts)

TALIESIN: Go.

ALEXANDER: Go for her.

TALIESIN: Darling, we're getting out of here.

AIMEE: No, no, no, no! She's fighting. I'm going to fight you on that because I feel like if anyone can stop this, it's her.

LIAM: The haze, the pain--

AIMEE: Yeah.

LIAM: -- is gone, it is less numbness now, less of a fog and more intense pain in the side of your face, which brings with it clarity.

AIMEE: Yes.

LIAM: You fight off Leo, turning towards this golden chest on the ground, and 20 feet away from you, these bones. You are trying your best to help your friend.

TALIESIN: I am-- What do you need to get us out of here right now?

AIMEE: I think in the clarity-- (sighs) This is so-- I can't believe I'm doing this the first episode. I would like to use The Prestige to channel someone that I encountered back in my time, which is a very slim amount of time. An ancient priest or priestess, someone that I've encountered through an object.

LIAM: For clarity for the audience--

AIMEE: Yes?

LIAM: You are a bit in tune with the spirit world, yes?

AIMEE: Just a bit.

LIAM: So when you say that you encountered this person, you encountered a spirit.

AIMEE: A spirit, yes.

LIAM: In your work.

AIMEE: In my work, which I can explain, but I don't know if we have time.

LIAM: Maybe we'll get to that later.

AIMEE: Great.

LIAM: But for the people watching at home, I want them to know that you're not phoning a friend.

AIMEE: No. I think it's like a Rolodex, though, in her mind, and stops at this one person. I want to say it's an old, ancient priest who was the high priest of whatever temple they had in Oldfaire and this is a real gamble because she doesn't know if bringing these bones back in the box or closing the box requires physical touch, which clearly is not going well for this crew member, or if someone powerful enough can do it with a word.

LIAM: Understand, you want to, because when you commune with these spirits, and it doesn't happen often--

AIMEE: Right.

LIAM: Spirits and encounters with them and phenomenon in this world are few and far between, but you have been having encounters like this since you were a child.

AIMEE: Yeah.

LIAM: You have at least 10 times, probably more, come face-to-face with moments like that. Maybe about halfway through those encounters in Oldfaire, your first trip there, you did touch the wrong bronze knife and felt a life that was not your own flood into you. It lasted only a minute and a half maybe at that time, but you have carried a ghost of memories ever since.

AIMEE: And haven't been able to learn how to free them. So they don't live in her mind, but the memories live in her mind and she takes them with her wherever she goes.

LIAM: So, you step back into this long-dead person's mind and take a bleed for doing so.

AIMEE: Yep.

LIAM: So you have two bleed.

AIMEE: Yeah, and it looks like to her when she is channeling someone, it looks like peering through the opposite end of a telescope where everything gets really far away. She's begging for this person to take control and hope that he can assess the situation very quickly.

LIAM: Okay. Since we're off-rules a little bit, I would like you to make a Sense roll and I'm going to give you a free drive because I like the cut of your flare.

AIMEE: Thank you.

IMARI: (laughs)

AIMEE: Okay.

IMARI: She gets everything she wants.

AIMEE: All right, here we go. I'm going to use my gilded die, too. Four.

LIAM: Four.

AIMEE: On the gilded die.

LIAM: On the gilded die.

AIMEE: Yeah.

LIAM: So you get a drive back.

AIMEE: Drive back, woo.

IMARI: Nice.

LIAM: In Intuition.

AIMEE: Great, yeah.

LIAM: So, are you just taking their memory or are we seeing anything different?

AIMEE: Yeah, I mean, hey, if we're going to spend it, we'll spend it. I think you can see her hunch a little bit. She's already pretty short, but she's somehow getting shorter, and taking on ancient-looking clothing. I want to say for reference, almost an Egyptian, an ancient Egyptian look, darkly-painted eyes. You can tell this is a man of great honor and position. But even so, his work has taken a toll on his body. So I think he looks a little hunched over, a little worse for wear, and it's shocking to see this young girl turn into a pretty old man. I want to say in his probably 70s, which was back then pretty old.

LIAM: Yes.

AIMEE: Yeah.

LIAM: Let me put a spin on it for everyone who is conscious in this room. In the light of these bones down here with water spilling in, and again, there's two lanterns on chains swinging around. So it is a shifting light show down here and you could swear in the glare of all of these conflicting light sources that your friend is now an old, old man and takes a few hobbling steps forward.

AIMEE: Maybe he has a cool cane or something.

LIAM: He now has a cool cane and steps along. Really, Grimoria's hand is out in front of her and in flashes of light, you see this cane appearing for glimpses. Grimoria, your vision twists away and this chest, which was 15 or 20 feet now seems to spiral away down a corridor. And yet, the sigils that run up the back and sides and front of this thing begin to have meaning. They are not translated, but you understand what you are seeing and you know that that circular disc at the front is a lock, is a seal, and needs to be put in its place to bring language into clarity and seal them in. But first, you have to--

AIMEE: Get the bones in.

LIAM: Get the bones in.

IMARI: Uh-oh.

AIMEE: Okay.

LIAM: Or someone does. Think about that for a second. Malcolm, you are sputtering water out as well as these other two people. You're in a bit better shape than they are. You see green light wafting up from below and the ship is rocking. I will say the storm clouds are a little less hairy, not much, but it feels like the eye of the storm, the absolute dark center of it which has been perched on top of you guys for almost an hour is shifting somewhat behind, but it is still a terrible mess around and there is still water sloshing around on the deck and you can see it spilling down below and green death coming up. What are we going to do?

IMARI: Well, I immediately notice this. I'm going to go down and I'm going to help my friends.

LIAM: Okay.

IMARI: Make sure they're okay.

LIAM: Okay, then we are all met. So in this moment where you start to hobble across, you hear heavy footfall down the stairs and suddenly, the Circle of the Crimson Mirror is together. The quartet is whole in the belly of this beast.

IMARI: (sighs)

LIAM: Everybody take a bleed.

TALIESIN: Oh my god.

AIMEE: Wait.

IMARI: (laughs)

AIMEE: I think I'm out, then.

LIAM: No, you are not.

ALEXANDER: You've got three.

AIMEE: Oh, okay.

LIAM: You have three bleed.

AIMEE: Okay.

LIAM: As the prolonged effect of this artifact is digging its way into your bloodstream.

ALEXANDER: Grimoria, what do you need?

AIMEE: I don't know if I hear that through the thing I'm on. What I'm picturing is this man has a tall head piece.

LIAM: A headdress of some kind, head piece?

AIMEE: He's going to take it off and try to scoop the bones using his hat back into, at least close enough to the box.

LIAM: I am going to dicker with you--

AIMEE: Okay.

LIAM: And tell you that--

AIMEE: It's not going to work.

LIAM: The form that comes around you is a mental construct.

AIMEE: Got it.

LIAM: And while you have brought some of the consciousness and thoughts from the last couple thousand years, you have not brought his physical belongings with him.

AIMEE: Right, right. Is there anything that I can dig through his experiences to maybe have a spell that maybe can temporarily render the effect of the bones useless?

LIAM: Oh, you have many talents, Grimoria. Spells is not one of them.

AIMEE: But does he have spells? (laughter)

LIAM: You should've asked him when you had the chance.

IMARI: Oh.

AIMEE: He's here.

TALIESIN: Nope.

LIAM: The memories you received at that time--

AIMEE: Yeah.

LIAM: -- are with you. I will say that these bones are radiating outward and sliding around the hull. This man's face continues to disappear. It's about half gone now.

IMARI: Jesus, man.

LIAM: And--

AIMEE: Anyone have a box?

LIAM: Edgar, also you begin to see a little bit of black shadow tracing away from this man's skull.

ALEXANDER: All right, Edgar goes into his kit and he puts on gloves.

LIAM: Take a brain, by the way.

ALEXANDER: Puts on gloves, takes a deep breath.

TALIESIN: Wait, hold on. I can help. I think the closest one's right-- I'm going to try and track it and send you in the right direction to the closest one.

ALEXANDER: Okay.

TALIESIN: I'm going to use Survey, if that's all right.

LIAM: Survey?

TALIESIN: To search, track, spot.

LIAM: In the world, what are we trying to do? We know very well where these bones are.

TALIESIN: Okay, they are visible. Never mind.

LIAM: They're glowing, radioactive green.

ALEXANDER: Guessing what has to be done from the attempted shoveling--

LIAM: Yes.

ALEXANDER: -- Edgar is going to try and run over, and as fast as he can, to hold these bones as little time as possible, is going to grab them and throw them in the box.

LIAM: Throw them in the box?

ALEXANDER: Yeah.

LIAM: Okay.

IMARI: Oh no.

LIAM: Okay.

IMARI: Where is the box? Where is the box right now?

AIMEE: What's in the box?

LIAM: From your point of view, you're halfway down some stairs. Nothing's in the box now, baby. It's out of the box.

IMARI: It's out of the box.

LIAM: You're halfway down the stairs. They are in a little bit of a semicircle or triangle facing away from you, and the box is a good, it's about 10 feet away from Grimoria, who has just taken a couple of little hobbling steps towards it, and you see as she bends even further down and her hands scoop through the air a little bit and pauses there, he begins to move forward.

ALEXANDER: Now, I do have an ability that may not be applicable here, but I want to see if you'll let me get away with it.

LIAM: Pitch me.

ALEXANDER: I have Dissection.

LIAM: Mm-hmm.

ALEXANDER: "When you use a Focus roll to inspect or dissect a piece of organic matter, I am not affected by bleed and I gild an additional die."

TALIESIN: A container.

LIAM: Yes, that's right, and you said you're wearing gloves?

ALEXANDER: I'm wearing gloves.

LIAM: Okay. So, you are able to approach, and the exposure just to the air down here for too long is going to be lethal for all of you, but you walk through this burning sensation that you can feel, again, in your teeth.

ALEXANDER: I feel the entire left side of my body flare up.

LIAM: All up those marks up the one side of your body. The bones are pulsating, and the pain in your body goes in waves along with it. You're standing above them. The box is knocked over on its side. Two of these bones are on the ground, awash in the corner. You're using that skill?

ALEXANDER: Using that skill. Having handled bleed-infused flesh and organic matter before, I try and pick them up as gently as possible and move them into the box as quickly as possible.

LIAM: Okay.

IMARI: Can I ask a question?

LIAM: Yes.

IMARI: I have a bleed containment vial. Can our containment vials dampen the effects that the bones are giving off right now? I mean, I know that it's powerful, but can we offset it just a little bit, weaken it just a little bit, so it gives us more time?

LIAM: If you wanted to, say, retroactively, and I'm fine with that because we're new in our story and with our characters and the functions that they have, if you want to say, rather than taking that bleed, shielded yourself, I would allow that to transpire.

IMARI: Okay, all right, I'll do that.

LIAM: Okay, so we can erase that bleed.

IMARI: All right.

LIAM: It was soaked. Where was it soaked?

IMARI: It was soaked, so this is my hand.

LIAM: It might be time to tell us.

IMARI: When I was with my unit, before the Great War was over, I was sent to investigate a phenomenon with my squad. Upon investigating, it was an artifact that was loose and glowing. It evaporated my entire squad. In doing so, I reached out to one of my members with this hand. I attempted to grab him, to try to hold him in, and this... energy evaporated my hand to the point where the flesh is almost all gone off of it and there's just nubs right here. Disintegrated my fingertips all the way down to the nubs, and this right here is a special prosthetic that I use so I can still function in battle and in life. It covers the scars, but also it has little levers and triggers. It's almost gauntlet sized, and it's made out of copper. Rivets can be seen on each digit, and I'm able to have 75% to 85% function, depending on the day and the weather. Within it, I have my bleed detector as well as my bleed containment vial.

LIAM: So built into a compartment in that hand--

IMARI: Built into a compartment that's right in the center of my prosthetic hand.

LIAM: As soon as you come down those stairs, you feel the corrosive effects of this artifact and grip your hand and absorb as much as you can in there. This is an ongoing threat, so it has tided you over for now.

IMARI: Right, there's a limit.

LIAM: So, Doctor. I'm going to meet you in the middle.

ALEXANDER: Yeah.

LIAM: Because these bones once belonged to a flesh and blood person. That was a very long time ago, and I can't swear by the chemical composition of their inside anymore.

ALEXANDER: Fair.

LIAM: So I'll tie it to a roll. Give me a... Let's make it a Focus roll as you attempt to not be horrifically scarred by touching these.

ALEXANDER: Five gilded.

LIAM: Five gilded.

IMARI: Fabulous.

LIAM: Okay. So you kneel down before them, your face awash in their light, and you are gloved, so you take some confidence in that, and you are very familiar with the structure of the human anatomy. You attempt to grip each bone in the most slender portion of each limb and lift as carefully as you can, the same way you've removed hazardous materials from bodies before in the world's most dangerous game of Operation. You can feel the burn in your fingertips as you start to lift one bone in. The chest is still upside down at the moment.

ALEXANDER: Flip it!

AIMEE: I think Grimoria slash old man hears this, takes the cane, and feebly, but, you know, powerfully, I guess, tries to either hook it and flip it or hook it and then bring it down.

LIAM: You are awash--

IMARI: Can I run to assist her with that?

TALIESIN: I was pretty close at this point.

LIAM: Everyone can run to assist.

TALIESIN: Yeah, I was--

LIAM: Multiple people can assist.

AIMEE: Yeah, and so obviously the cane doesn't work, but she can use her foot, she's using her foot.

LIAM: Again, you become awash in two places at once in moments like this, and so for a split second, you remember, and then get your hands on it. Now, your fingers touch the inside, and you can feel the burn reaching through--

AIMEE: I was going to do the foot.

LIAM: Oh, your foot?

AIMEE: Yeah.

LIAM: That's fine, too.

AIMEE: She is wearing a shoe.

LIAM: It is heavy. It is made of gold. You start to lift, but you are slight of frame. You guys are assisting?

IMARI: Yeah, I'm running over to assist.

LIAM: Okay, does that mean we're adding drive?

AIMEE: Lift my foot.

LIAM: Or you're just coming in for flavor?

IMARI: No, I'll add a drive.

TALIESIN: I don't have Nerve drive, but I'm there for flavor.

LIAM: Okay, great, so you guys come over, and everyone starts to try to get a foot under. Leo, you place your hand on this old man, Grimoria's shoulder for support. I think you would make a Control roll for me, because it's super heavy.

AIMEE: Oh, and I got a drive from someone?

IMARI: I give a drive, yeah.

AIMEE: So that means I take--

ALEXANDER: You spend a drive.

AIMEE: I can spend my own drive?

LIAM: Yes, yes.

ALEXANDER: That would give a two die roll.

AIMEE: Two die roll, okay, great, because I have none. Okay, great. Oh, come on, baby! Four.

LIAM: Four.

AIMEE: Four is my fucking number today.

LIAM: Okay.

TALIESIN: You don't have a resistance there, do you?

AIMEE: I do.

TALIESIN: You can use the resistance.

ALEXANDER: You can use the resistance to reroll.

TALIESIN: One, or--?

AIMEE: Yeah, how much can I reroll if I use a resistance?

LIAM: If you use a resistance, you can only use the base of the stat.

AIMEE: Which is zero.

LIAM: So you can't add in any drives.

AIMEE: It's just one die, then.

LIAM: That's kind of a long shot, but you could do it.

AIMEE: Worth it?

ALEXANDER: If it was the base of the stat, then you'd be rolling two die and taking the lower.

LIAM: You got a four, which is a mixed success.

AIMEE: Let me think.

ALEXANDER: I think you should keep the four.

AIMEE: I'll keep the four.

LIAM: You keep the four?

AIMEE: Yeah.

LIAM: Okay, you lift, and for a split second, you think you're not going to be able to do it, because I don't know if it is solid gold, but this thing has gold built all around it.

AIMEE: Yeah.

LIAM: That is something that you guys are aware of in Candela, that gold in the old world was often used as a barrier. It took a knowledge of alchemy, and then gold was often a component, so this thing is heavy, and you lift with all your might. You think you're not going to do it, but then you feel Leo's hand on your shoulder squeezing, and then Malcolm is at your other shoulder, and you feel comforted a little bit, and you lift, and it manages to clatter backwards. But the combination of everything that has happened, the storm, the bones themselves, the injuries that you and obviously your friends have taken, it's too much. You take a brain.

AIMEE: Does that mean I'm out?

ALEXANDER: No, just fill out another brain.

LIAM: Edgar, the box hits the ground and manages to land with the back, the lid, hanging open. You're able to drop the bones in.

ALEXANDER: Drop them in and shut it.

LIAM: Shut it down. Grimoria, you see this disc now that clamps into place, and you can tell that it is not in the right position.

AIMEE: Okay.

LIAM: So, let's get it in position. I need you to make a Survey roll.

TALIESIN: I can help with this.

AIMEE: Survey, okay, and I will also--

LIAM: That is to understand this--

AIMEE: Three, yeah. What's that?

LIAM: -- this alchemical wheel that the Red Hand has crafted to seal the bones in this box.

TALIESIN: I've been doing this for a little bit of time. I've read a few things. I can help, yes.

ALEXANDER: You're adding--

TALIESIN: Yes, I am adding a drive to this.

AIMEE: Oh, thanks. Four?

ALEXANDER: Yeah.

IMARI: Okay, this is--

AIMEE: Okay, no, that's good. That's good enough. Ready? Okay.

IMARI: Oh my god. I'm going to-- Fudge. Can I add a resistance to her?

LIAM: Not after the fact. What'd you get?

AIMEE: Can I resist? I don't have one.

LIAM: No, you don't have a resistance packed. All failures?

AIMEE: Yeah, they're all ones.

TALIESIN: No way! No way.

ALEXANDER: Wait. You've got... You would have three, because if you only have three here, and three here, you would have three here.

AIMEE: So I do have a resistance?

ALEXANDER: You do have a resistance, yeah.

AIMEE: I'm going to use my resistance.

ALEXANDER: So just roll one.

AIMEE: One.

IMARI: One!

AIMEE: Come on, baby. Do me good. Four.

TALIESIN: (groans)

IMARI: (laughs)

AIMEE: She's going to be dead, the first episode. Oh my god, thank you.

LIAM: So, here's what happens. You lay hands on the physical chest and this wheel, and as soon as you do, it burns at the touch , like fire and ice in one, and you begin to turn the wheel and watch as three or four sigils, which mean more than they should to you now as you see through the double vision of a long-dead old man and your own, and they slide and stop, and you know that that is not right. You continue, and you watch as two of the sigils at different points on the clock change literally in front of your eyes, and because you have the knowledge of the ancients with you, you then reverse direction. You know that it is right, and turn back, and it clicks in place where it was, and all of the sigils and all of the linework all over the chest, it is faint, but there is a thin little shimmer over every single line at once, and all of you in here hear a little (clunk) and then Grimoria collapses on top of the chest, taking too much bleed. The bones are contained, and Grimoria, whether it is exhaustion, physical pain, or the damaging effects of magick in this world, you men don't know, she falls still and unconscious on top of this golden chest. The rain actually has abated at this point. It's not gone, but you have been too distracted to focus on anything but imminent danger and your friend, who you are afraid is dying in front of you. With time, crew members come and duck their heads down here, telling you that the storm has indeed moved past and behind the Dandridge, towards the Vastchasm behind you.

ALEXANDER: Okay.

LIAM: It slowly, slowly starts to sink in that you are not going to die tonight.

ALEXANDER: We need to bring both Grimoria and this man upstairs. I need to take a look at them both.

IMARI: Let me help you.

LIAM: Okay, so in the rain, and now it is just rain, Malcolm lifts Grimoria's tiny body and brings her up to the cabin, which is a terrible mess, just like every person and every inch of this ship. Leo and Edgar, you carry this man together, who's ravaged. He is dead. There's not enough of him left to call dead, and lay him in the room on the floor by Grimoria in bed. The captain, who you have not seen since before things really kicked off, Edgar, sticks his head in. "Is she going to be all right?"

ALEXANDER: Hopefully. Unfortunately, he won't be.

LIAM: "Shit. We're going to have a lot of work for you in the morning."

ALEXANDER: (scoffs) Wonderful. Knowing he is dead, I'm going to attend to Grimoria and make sure she gets through.

LIAM: The three of you set a little vigil around Grimoria. She is breathing. You inspect her, as the surgeon you are. Open an eyelid. There is eye movement. Then, sliding us forward in time, after maybe a half hour of intense worrying, she doesn't wake, but she stirs, and you're hopeful that it won't be her last encounter with danger.

ALEXANDER: You're going to have to wake up sometime, Grim.

LIAM: I think-- I think that's where we'll leave it for now, with the clouds beginning to part ever so slightly and the storm a far away threat now, that wall of rain traveling away. The assignment was done, is done. It was supposed to be easy, but the cost, as it often can be, was high. And with that, we'll see where Grim and the rest lie after our break.

Break

TALIESIN: Delve into a new tabletop roleplaying game of investigative horror with the "Candela Obscura Core Rulebook" using the Illuminated Worlds System by Darrington Press. Roam the turn-of-the-century- inspired setting of the Fairelands, including the bustling city of Newfaire and the ancient ruins of Oldfaire below. Assemble a circle of investigators within the paranormal secret society of Candela Obscura. You'll analyze strange and horrifying events, fight back against dangerous phenomena, and contain the bleed that spreads from corruptive magick. Choose from 10 custom character sheets to empower your investigations and explorations. Use tactical intuition and brawn with the Soldier specialty, use your charm with finesse and flair as the Magician specialty, or study and practice mystical arts as an Occultist. Explore districts of Newfaire, competing organizations, four full assignments, and dozens of example assignments to inspire you. If you choose to brave the role of Game Master, this guide contains everything needed to pave the way for your Candela Obscura investigators. Offered in both a standard edition as well as an ornate limited edition for collectors, the "Candela Obscura Core Rulebook" contains 204 art-filled pages, including maps, items, immersive notes, mysteries, and plenty more to power your very own story. Keep this tome close for the knowledge obtained may be the key to protecting you, your allies, and the Fairelands.

Oh hey, it's us. Your friendly neighborhood ambiguous shadowy weirdos here to say cryptic things at you as usual. Are you ready for the third and final season of Midst? We certainly are. Some of you have been waiting a very long time. Good news: the wait is almost over. Midst, man. What the heck? A lot of questionable characters doing incredibly problematic things to each other in a series of increasingly insane escalating circumstances while struggling to follow their warped moral compasses and do what they think is hopefully the right thing. Can the Trust get worse somehow? Can Phineas get less worse? How much longer can Lark outrun her past? Are there any objectively good guys in this story? Other than Moc Weepe. How can any of these threads possibly be resolved with only one more season to go? And we STILL don't even know what happened with that dang moon. Are we ever gonna get some ANSWERS? Yes. As a matter of fact we will. The third and final season of Midst unfolds February 14th. Listen to the pure sound experience anywhere you stream podcasts or watch illustrated video episodes on the Critical Role YouTube channel. In the meantime, you can follow us at @midstpodcast or join the Fold on Midst.co to get early access to episodes, behind the scenes bonus content music downloads, digital artwork, and more. Everything's been leading to this. We'll be with you to the end. Do you Trust us?

Part II

LIAM: Another sunrise breaks over the Glass Sea. The wrathful elements have retreated from the heavens and the sky is now littered with slowly passing clouds, the sun sharing its rays through the breaks it finds in their cover. It's a beautiful sight to look on, though the air is still bitter cold. This far out at sea, a touch of the Shiver that has overtaken the Faraway lands, known as the Shiver, but a cold snap, almost a mini Ice Age, it can actually be felt here out at sea with the more temperate climate of the Fairelands awaiting you at home. I would like to take a moment here as we resume to do a little bit of upkeep for your circle, which is a little bit off the cuff, but despite last night's unexpected danger, you can still consider your assignment at a close. You have the artifact. You're heading home. So we're bending a bit here so that you can take care of yourselves. The sea is near smooth as the glass it is named for. All that is left for you guys is to travel back to the port of Hallowharbor. Get to the Fourth Pharos, Candela's home within the Flare and hand off. That's it. Since that's the case, I would like to ask how you guys would like to tend to yourselves in the time you have left on the Dandridge. So just talking in gameplay terms, we won't do a full-- We won't do the full deal here using the Illumination Key, but if anyone wants to, at this interim moment, take a Stitch, a Refresh, or a Train, now is the time. The only cost for it is to tell me how that factors into the world we're in. Actually, I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's start with you, Grimoria. You awake in bed in the cabin that the four of you have been sharing on this cramped little boat. The fellows aren't here right now. The room is still akimbo. It's still a mess. It's sunny outside coming in through the glass of the windows, the portholes here. You've taken enough bleed in to earn yourself a scar. So, a couple of things. One, in the freneticism of the first part of our story today, I don't think we've got the full picture of you as a human being in this world. So I would love for you to tell us what she's wearing, how she appears, and then how she's changed.

AIMEE: And that's it? No backstory? Which is fine. We can save that--

LIAM: No, no backstory.

AIMEE: -- for another time. Well, she's wearing this.

LIAM: Okay.

AIMEE: But obviously, it's kind of been waterlogged and her hair is not as nice as this. It's definitely, she's got naturally curly hair and it's definitely showing at this point. As far as how she's changed, I think with this scar, she's always had this supernatural ability compared to the average person walking around Newfaire, but it's always been very linked to artifacts or touch. If she touches something that is imbued with a spirit or someone deceased living in it, she can intuit that. I think now with this scar, something that, like you said-- What did you call it? It was like a--

LIAM: A problem-tunity.

AIMEE: A problem-tunity. I think that this isn't something she can control, by any means, but it's almost like now a different part of her brain has been awakened and it's auditory. I think that she's hearing sounds and voices, maybe from spirits, she doesn't really know, but in times of stress, it only adds to the discomfort of her gift, which can also be a curse. So I think, I don't know how it's going to manifest long-term, but I think when she wakes up, she doesn't realize there are no people in the room because she just hears many voices.

LIAM: You have had a sensitivity, a certain kind of sensitivity since you lost your parents at the end of the war. When your gift or curse, however you want to look at it, first manifested itself, you've had a sensitivity to the other side. Now, as you prop yourself up on a pillow in the cabin of this ship, you are just experiencing the first moments of a new sensitivity. It is hard to get accustomed to. You wonder if it will always be this challenging to listen and hear, or if it's temporary, but it's undeniable. So that means you've taken your first scar in our game, and you have to do a little rearranging of your character sheet. So we will move a point from one of your actions to another. What is that change going to be?

AIMEE: One of my actions to another. It can be in any of the boxes. Correct?

LIAM: If there is one that you would love to be even better than ever, you can pull from one and slide in there. Or if there's something that makes sense to you with the kind of scar you've taken--

AIMEE: Mm. I think that I'm going to move. But if I move one that is bolded, one of the circles, does what I move it to also become a bold?

LIAM: No. No. So if you have a gilded ability, you would remove a point in it, but that would stay gilded. It would just be harder to succeed with that gilded ability.

AIMEE: Gotcha. Okay. So I won't move a gilded, but I think that I'm going to use-- I'm going to take from Move, and I'm going to put it to Hide.

LIAM: Okay.

AIMEE: It's not very strategic, but I feel like if she can't--

LIAM: If it feels right, it's right.

AIMEE: If her equilibrium is off because of the hearing whatever, then she might get better at just hiding.

LIAM: I have a-- Let's do that. I have a pitch for you.

AIMEE: Yeah, I'll take it.

LIAM: But it's not my choice. It's your choice.

AIMEE: Let me know.

LIAM: If you have-- Speaking as someone who has hyperacusis, which is an increased sensitivity to sound--

AIMEE: Huh.

LIAM: Your Sense might be more acute if you are hearing--

AIMEE: Oh, great.

LIAM: -- more greatly. But that's just an idea that popped in my head. It doesn't mean it's the right idea.

AIMEE: That's good.

LIAM: It's just a thought I had.

AIMEE: Okay. I'll do that. Then I'll move Move--

ALEXANDER: To Sense.

AIMEE: -- to Sense.

LIAM: You're sensing-- More than ever, you're sensing too much.

AIMEE: Yeah.

LIAM: Don't want to railroad you into anything.

AIMEE: No, that's so smart, actually.

LIAM: It was just an idea I had.

AIMEE: That's a good one.

LIAM: Okay.

AIMEE: Thank you.

LIAM: (sighs) Okay, so. As you gather your thoughts and grapple with the new sensitivity you have woken up with, let's now have everyone weigh in, including you. Does anyone want to take a Stitch, which would clear all marks for yourself, wipe the slate clean? Refresh means you would recoup all used drives and resistances. Then Train means you're going to take a little time to reflect or study something and be ready for the future. You would have 1d6 that you could use with any roll in your next assignment.

TALIESIN: Oh.

LIAM: So that's like a one-time bonus.

TALIESIN: We can only pick one of those.

LIAM: One. You can pick two of those.

TALIESIN: Oh.

LIAM: Two of those things. But you have a very limited allotment of them and when they're gone, they're gone.

TALIESIN: They're gone-gone.

LIAM: Remember that I didn't wait 'til the end of this game to do it. So I'm burning through the, if you use them now, which I encourage, it's great, but you're burning through them sooner. And boy howdy, am I going to come at you, so.

AIMEE: Do we get the drives back anyway after like a long rest?

LIAM: No.

AIMEE: We don't?

LIAM: No.

ALEXANDER: Mm-mm.

AIMEE: So it's--

LIAM: The ways to get your drives restored are to, with your limited amount of times, choose Refresh in moments like this. Or you can gain drives back using your gilded abilities, only in those gilded actions. So, yeah, it is diminishing returns. So you have to make your choice wisely. Is this the moment? Am I really close to taking another scar and dropping, or do I just have like one in a couple? I'll probably be fine. I'll be fine. What's the worst Liam could do? But I do need you to make some decisions.

TALIESIN: He won't have them later.

ALEXANDER: I'm not going to do anything.

IMARI: So if she uses a Refresh, it just works for her, but it doesn't work for all of us, right? It's just for her, like her just refreshes her.

LIAM: If she picks a Refresh, it is for her.

IMARI: Okay.

LIAM: So you guys are saying, is anyone going to take one? All right. That's the last time that one is ever going to be used. Please take it, Aimee, or please take it, Imari.

AIMEE: But we have five of those.

LIAM: In each.

IMARI: In each.

LIAM and AIMEE: In each.

IMARI: So we can use, yeah, so we can use each a Stitch, a Refresh, and Train five times.

LIAM: If you're close to taking a scar in another one, it's maybe a good idea to take a Stitch. If you're totally empty of drives, which is, again, that's like, I got to really buckle down and make this roll work, if you don't have any drives, you might want to do that. The Train, for me, is one that's up in the air.

AIMEE: Yeah. Okay. You said you're going to take one?

IMARI: No.

AIMEE: Oh, no, you--

LIAM: I mean, they still-- If you don't use them, they never get used.

ALEXANDER: I'm going to hold off.

TALIESIN: I'll hold off right now.

IMARI: I'll hold off right now.

AIMEE: Do we have an opportunity to do this mid-game, or is it only when you give us the opportunity?

LIAM: I will tell you. It is at the end of an assignment. Usually, that lines up with the end of a game, and we're mid-game. But I'm telling you that your assignment is done. You're going home.

IMARI: Yeah. I mean, you know it's--

TALIESIN: Do you have anything sitting in a--

AIMEE: Yeah, I have a choice to make. Maybe you can help me make it as a group. So I've got two. I have a new scar and I've got two brains for two brain marks. But then I also have like, my drives are kind of, and resistance have been fucked.

IMARI: What about, so when she gets a scar, doesn't that wipe her other--

LIAM: Not everything. Just that one.

IMARI: Just that one category. Okay.

LIAM: Only thing that wipes the slate clean for the level of marks you're at is Stitch.

TALIESIN: Drives come and go, in my opinion. Marks on the other hand, if you're going to--

LIAM: That's right.

TALIESIN: -- clean right now.

LIAM: You guys also have the circle ability of In This Together. So when you help each other on rolls, like, "I need help driving this car," "I need help fighting this weirdo," and you fail, which you're going to a lot, you'll get drives. That will generate drives. Nothing is going to take away the marks. There's very few things, though. Sometimes there's an ability that some people have. I don't think anybody has stuff like that.

ALEXANDER: I didn't take any of those.

TALIESIN: No, no.

AIMEE: I think, if that's okay with everyone, I will take a Refresh.

IMARI: Yeah. That's fine with me.

LIAM: Totally fair.

ALEXANDER: Or Stitch.

TALIESIN: You want us--

LIAM: Are you trying to get rid of, bring your drives back or wipe?

AIMEE: No, sorry. I want to wipe my mark.

LIAM: So you want a Stitch.

AIMEE: I want to Stitch. Sorry about that.

LIAM: You want to Stitch. So--

AIMEE: So right now, all I have is a scar, but no other marks.

LIAM: So there is, on our table is that. So wipe away one Stitch. Anybody else? Anything?

ALEXANDER: No.

TALIESIN: I think I'm fine. I'm going to press this.

IMARI: Yeah. I have two brain marks right now.

TALIESIN: Would not be insane to take one, but you could be fine one way or the other.

ALEXANDER: I've got one body, one bleed, and two brain.

AIMEE: Wait.

LIAM: You mad lad.

TALIESIN: That's a little crazy.

IMARI: Yeah, I would take a Refresh. I mean, I would take a Stitch.

AIMEE: He's intent on killing us. What are you doing?

ALEXANDER: I'll take a Stitch.

LIAM: Oh, I did it.

TALIESIN: I'll hold. I've got one in each right now.

LIAM: I suckered you just now.

ALEXANDER: You did.

TALIESIN: My Nerve is shot--

LIAM: Deplete those resources.

TALIESIN: But I'm just going to--

LIAM: So that is two--

TALIESIN: Hope you on alert.

LIAM: -- Stitches of five gone. You two, your slate is wiped clean and you guys are holding fast.

IMARI: Yeah.

LIAM: I love it.

IMARI: I mean, I have two brain. I get a brain, I get like what--

AIMEE: It's like Sam's flask.

IMARI: (laughs) Got to stay hydrated.

LIAM: Edgar.

ALEXANDER: Uh-huh.

LIAM: A few hours into the morning, Grimoria has not yet woken, at this point. You are out on the deck of the ship, just ruminating on everything that happened. The cook, Gabi, comes up to you.

ALEXANDER: Gabi, wasn't it?

LIAM: Gabi. Gabi is the woman who was thrown across the cabin. "Morning."

ALEXANDER: Morning.

LIAM: "Sorry. I just wanted to thank you for last night."

ALEXANDER: Oh, you're welcome.

LIAM: "You haven't eaten anything yet, I don't think. You should come by the kitchen."

ALEXANDER: Thank you. (stammers) I will.

LIAM: "Okay. Sorry. It's just the boat's-- Everyone's a bit shaken. Losing Heath last night."

ALEXANDER: Yeah, understandably.

LIAM: Heath is the gentleman who lost 30% of his body mass.

ALEXANDER: Right. Yes, that was, um, very sad.

LIAM: "Do you think you could come look in on Sunny?"

ALEXANDER: Yes, absolutely. If you would show me where they are.

LIAM: "Sure. I'll take you to the crew quarters."

ALEXANDER: Thank you.

LIAM: She leads you back towards the rear of the ship where you've been, but not spent a lot of time back there. The four of you have been forced to share a pretty cramped cabin near the front of this small, again, steamship. But in the back is crew quarters and there are people milling about walking in and out. But in the rear of this room, once you walk inside the deck house, you see Sunny and he is, again, the gentleman whose leg got wrecked and he is on his side, shallow breathing, and sees you and weakly pushes himself up.

ALEXANDER: Don't. You don't need to get up.

LIAM: "(labored breathing) I guess you tried to save my life."

ALEXANDER: So far it seems to have worked.

LIAM: "Yeah. I don't think the fates wanted to make it easy."

ALEXANDER: No, they did not.

LIAM: "How does it look?"

ALEXANDER: Do I smell anything? Un--

LIAM: I understand you're wondering if you smell anything. Oh, make a Focus roll.

ALEXANDER: Six.

LIAM: Six.

ALEXANDER: Perfect success.

LIAM: You don't. Yes, a success. A success. You don't smell the thing you're fearful you will. You don't smell any festering. On closer inspection, the wound is burnt from your quick work last night, but it is raw and it is oozing a little bit. It could be cleaned and rebound.

ALEXANDER: I'll take the time to do that. Could you bring me-- Do you have any-- I wouldn't. Do I have? I wouldn't have any on me. The cleanest alcohol you have.

LIAM: "Oh."

ALEXANDER: Clearest.

LIAM: "Like whiskey?"

ALEXANDER: Do you have anything less dark?

LIAM: "Gin?"

ALEXANDER: Yes, gin would be great.

LIAM: "Your friend has gin."

ALEXANDER: That's right, he does, doesn't he?

LIAM: She scuttles off and is gone for a moment and leaves you with Sunny and there are a couple other crew members, a man and a woman in the room hanging by the door and they're quietly watching.

ALEXANDER: I have to clean this out; it's probably going to hurt.

LIAM: (pained) "Okay."

ALEXANDER: But less than it did the other night.

LIAM: "I was going to say, I don't think anything's going to compare to last night."

ALEXANDER: No.

LIAM: "Worst fucking night of my life."

ALEXANDER: Understandably so. It was bad for a lot of people.

LIAM: "What are you even doing on this tub, doc?"

ALEXANDER: An unfortunate choice in transportation.

LIAM: "(pained ironic laughs) Everything in here is covered in rust. Not exactly the best place for a surgeon."

ALEXANDER: No, but I'm making the best of it.

LIAM: Gabi returns with a bottle of hooch that she filched. "By the way, your friend seems to be up."

ALEXANDER: Oh!

LIAM: "The young woman."

ALEXANDER: That's good, okay.

LIAM: "Also I took a nip of this, I hope that's okay."

ALEXANDER: I don't care. It's not mine.

LIAM: "Okay."

ALEXANDER: I proceed to clean the wound as best I can, rebind it.

LIAM: Right.

ALEXANDER: Then I will rush back to see Grimoria.

LIAM: Yeah, I'm not going to make you roll anything since you went to medical school for this. You worked at the Grand Halen Hospital. You are a top tier surgeon. You clean the wound, you pour gin on it. He does scream. I won't role play that--

ALEXANDER: (laughs)

LIAM: -- and you bind it tightly and for the first time with this patient, you feel like he is not teetering on the edge.

ALEXANDER: That's good. Unfortunately, this is going to leave a scar.

LIAM: "At least I get some time off."

ALEXANDER: Yes, I would hope so.

LIAM: "Thanks, doc."

ALEXANDER: You're welcome.

LIAM: "Don't come on our boat again, okay?"

AIMEE: (laughs)

ALEXANDER: You couldn't pay me.

LIAM: "(chuckles) Wish they paid me better." Grimoria, Edgar pops his head in at the front door and you're not alone for the first moment this morning.

ALEXANDER: Hey.

AIMEE: Hi.

ALEXANDER: You're awake, good.

AIMEE: Yes. Thank you.

ALEXANDER: You're welcome. That's what I do. But you took quite a lot last night.

AIMEE: Well, seeing as that was my first time on a boat and hopefully my last time--

ALEXANDER: Yeah.

AIMEE: -- I'm, I guess, just happy to be alive.

ALEXANDER: We all are happy you're alive. How does your face feel? I'm going to walk towards her to inspect it.

AIMEE: It feels hot. Does it?

ALEXANDER: It's all bruised, I assume?

LIAM: There is a dark flower on her upper forehead and cheek around one eye.

AIMEE: But I do feel this odd ringing. It's not a ringing... It's like I'm hearing voices?

ALEXANDER: Okay.

AIMEE: I don't know if that's a medical thing.

ALEXANDER: It could be. It's not really my area of expertise, but considering, well, it is either you hit your head very hard.

AIMEE: I definitely did that.

ALEXANDER: So that could be the cause of it, which would be unfortunate.

AIMEE: Yeah.

ALEXANDER: But it could be something to do with the exposure we had, that we all had last night and you had quite a bit of it.

AIMEE: (gasps) What happened to the box?

ALEXANDER: You managed to close it again.

AIMEE: Is it secure?

ALEXANDER: Yes. As far as I know.

LIAM: Grimoria, as Edgar is talking to you, you are hearing his voice and you are hearing ghosts of his voice almost stuttered out or delayed occasionally just before he speaks.

AIMEE: Hmm.

LIAM: Every once in awhile, you hear a voice that is not his.

AIMEE: Can I make out what that voice is saying?

LIAM: It's whispers, it's syllables. Sometimes you think you're imagining it and then at other moments, there's no denying it.

AIMEE: Sorry, can you repeat what you just said?

ALEXANDER: That's fine. You managed to close the box and seal it and it's secure as far as I know for now.

AIMEE: Okay. Well, how much longer do you think we have left before we get back?

ALEXANDER: It shouldn't be that much longer. I don't know for sure. I'm not that acquainted with sea travel.

AIMEE: Yeah.

ALEXANDER: It shouldn't be too much longer.

AIMEE: I have to get back to work.

ALEXANDER: Yeah, I understand. I'll have to get back to the hospital.

AIMEE: Okay.

ALEXANDER: Well, you should definitely rest. I'll let everybody else know you're up, but I'm glad you're awake.

AIMEE: Thank you.

LIAM: Just as you're reaching this moment in the conversation, Gabi actually pops her head in again.

ALEXANDER: Hello, Gabi.

LIAM: "Hi. The Captain's Looking for you guys."

ALEXANDER: Okay, all of us?

LIAM: "Yeah. Do you know where the rest are?"

ALEXANDER: Not off the top of my head.

LIAM: "Okay, well, just come up to the, sorry, not up. Go back to the radio."

ALEXANDER: Okay.

LIAM: "Over past the kitchen when you find him."

ALEXANDER: Come on, let's go. I'll help you.

AIMEE: Okay. May I hold your hand?

ALEXANDER: Yeah, it's fine.

AIMEE: Thank you.

LIAM: Edgar, just because my memory is so spotty and it was so hectic last night, can you give me one more visual description of our good doctor?

ALEXANDER: Yes. It would be difficult to pick him out in a crowd. He's not exceptional looking in any way. He very much blends into the background. He is a relatively, (sighs) he's tall, but not overly so, and he is wearing clothes that would be considered current and fashionable, but it seems as though he didn't pick them out for himself. Someone told him to get these. He's not wearing them well. He has small round glasses that he uses for reading and other things and he has a very, it doesn't look like he's slept or sleeps well and he wears almost always very full coverage clothing. He doesn't wear anything that really-- always collars with ties and long sleeves and things of that nature. He likes to be covered and is always neat.

LIAM: Grimoria, you take the hand of this tall, but not too tall, very neat doctor and head out onto the deck. Where do you think you two gentlemen are this morning?

TALIESIN: I have probably been, do I have anything resembling a private room? No.

LIAM: You wish.

AIMEE: A suite.

TALIESIN: I assume.

LIAM: You wish. You are climbing the walls on this ship, even before the storm.

TALIESIN: I would have found a place to sit. There's a bar of some kind, I assume, or some sort of-- where's the kitchen?

LIAM: The disappointment that you're feeling now--

TALIESIN: I'm so sorry, I'm thinking of a larger--

LIAM: -- would be the disappointment on day one, which is yes. This is--

TALIESIN: Oh, I know exactly where I am.

LIAM: This is a tramp steamer.

TALIESIN: Okay.

LIAM: Off the books, this is a ship, the Dandridge is a ship that the Candela has commissioned from time to time, it's your first time on it, to do things that they do not want recorded.

TALIESIN: I am sitting as close to the radio room and as close to the activities of the ship, whatever people are doing, whatever work they're doing and I'm sitting as gracefully as I can under the circumstances, working and writing in a journal.

LIAM: Okay.

TALIESIN: Just listening to the sound of people going by, waiting for news.

LIAM: Excellent, and you do hear some sort of radio chatter for a moment, but the door is shut and it only lasts for a moment. You see a younger squirrely guy who you think somebody referred to as Doug at one point a few days ago run out for a minute and then he pops back in, shuts the door tightly behind. What about yourself, Malcolm?

IMARI: I have the closest thing that resembles a cup of coffee in my hand.

LIAM: They got that here.

IMARI: I have that and I'm overlooking on the bow, the ship, overlooking into the ocean. I'm thinking about last night, taking it in. The arm is still sore. It's still banged up.

LIAM: And Leo and then to you, Malcolm, but give me the full picture. Paint Leo for me.

TALIESIN: Leo is sitting in whatever his second pair of clothes were. It's still very nice. I will say the robe is the same robe from last night. It is drenched.

AIMEE: (laughs)

TALIESIN: It is slightly burnt at the edges, but still the most comfortable thing possible in this weather. It is a very nice, small leather-bound journal. It's got wonderful texture on the front. It's got a paisley burned into it with a little gold leaf and just a man attempting to be comfortable sitting on the ground, listening to people wander by and trying to put as much of what happened down on paper as possible.

LIAM: The sound of that busywork is a comfort to you, I know.

TALIESIN: Very much.

LIAM: Malcolm, cut a figure for me.

IMARI: Well, even though I have a vest on right now, I am down to my undershirt of last night, which is folded up in the corner as neat as it can be because years of military service has strengthened traditional orderly morning routines, which would either be making my bed, grooming myself or putting myself together for the day. I'm right now in an undershirt. I have my slacks on still. Should I go over how old I am now?

LIAM: Sure.

IMARI: I'm about 32 years old. So I'm not recovering as fast as I used to when I was in my early 20s, but it's fine.

ALEXANDER: (laughs)

IMARI: I'm used to this kind of action where lives are put on the line since I did military service. So I am basically trying to reorganize myself to try to not let that-- There's ways that you can compartmentalize things when you see tragic events happen or things that might scare you and I have a way of compartmentalizing that or moving on from it or digesting it and going on to the next thing. So that's what I'm doing right now. I'm still dirty from the night before. My skin has, you know when salt dries on it?

AIMEE: Oof.

IMARI: You have those little patches of salt on your skin?

AIMEE: The worst.

IMARI: It still hasn't washed off because I saved these two gentlemen. So I'm in need of a bath, but my face is washed because that's what I was able to do at the time.

LIAM: Yeah.

IMARI: I'm still disheveled a little bit, but I'm still very stoic, very calm and prepared for what may come next.

LIAM: Compartmentalization, something you learned very, very fast during the war, for survival.

IMARI: Yes, sir.

LIAM: So you two coming out of the cabin do a quick loop and near the rear of the ship, you spot Leo squatting on the floor writing in his journal and not too far off, paying Leo no mind is Malcolm contemplating the sea.

AIMEE: What are you writing?

TALIESIN: Oh, look at you. I'm going to get up properly. (groans) The little method actress is awake.

AIMEE: Thank you for your help.

TALIESIN: Oh, it was literally the least I could do. Literally, it was the least I could do. I wish I could have done more. That was quite a bit. I am writing down what I can recollect. It's important to write these things down. It's going to change in your mind and change and change.

AIMEE: That's smart.

TALIESIN: I can get you one of these if you like. I highly recommend it.

AIMEE: Oh, sure.

TALIESIN: Yes, it's nothing better than looking back and seeing what an idiot you were.

AIMEE: Can you repeat that last part again?

TALIESIN: It's nothing like looking back and seeing what an idiot you were.

AIMEE: Oh. (laughs)

TALIESIN: Are you all right? Did we get some water in the ears?

AIMEE: I think I might have.

TALIESIN: Oh, we'll have to have that looked at.

AIMEE: Yeah.

ALEXANDER: Some side effects. We'll get them worked out when we get back to the city.

TALIESIN: Oh dear, oh dear.

AIMEE: Malcolm, are you feeling all right?

IMARI: I'm just relieved that you're okay. I want to give her a big hug, if I can. How are you feeling?

ALEXANDER: Gentle.

AIMEE: I'm feeling good. I'm worried about getting back home.

IMARI: Yeah.

AIMEE: I have somewhere to be, but that's okay. We'll get there when we get there. I have a good excuse.

LIAM: Up the side of the ship, the door next to you pops open and that little squirrely young man Doug looks around. "Oh, you're right there, jeez. Come on, you got a call on the radio." He pops back in. You all follow into a pretty small, cramped little room with-- Doug sits at a chair and the Captain is here too. Captain Devir.

ALEXANDER: Captain.

LIAM: "Glad to see that you're up and about. We were a little worried last night."

AIMEE: Yes, well, I appreciate your concern. I'm sorry about your crew members.

LIAM: "I haven't seen a storm like that in 15 years."

ALEXANDER: It's good to know that doesn't happen often.

TALIESIN: You've been in a storm like this before?

LIAM: "In my younger days, yeah."

TALIESIN: Oh my god, I wasn't lying.

ALEXANDER: No, apparently not.

IMARI: (laughs)

TALIESIN: I feel better.

LIAM: "Doug, how are we doing?" "Yeah, I'm trying to reestablish connection. "Sorry, hold on a second." He's fiddling with a mass of dials and trying to hook in. "Hold on one second. I'm going to try to reestablish connection." [radio warbles] [radio static] [radio chimes] "Yeah, ma'am, are you there?" (British woman) "Hello? Yeah, hello, do you read me? Edgar, Grimoria? Are you there?"

AIMEE: Yes.

LIAM: (Doug) "Everybody's here, ma'am." (British woman) "Oh, thank goodness." Despite the spotty connection, you cannot mistake the deliberate voice of your Lightkeeper, Zora Manning. All of you are naturally intimately familiar with Zora, meeting with her regularly at Leo's flat on Tivery Lane in the Red Lamp, your chapter house. Zora, for all of us, is a tall, gaunt woman in her 60s with an owlish shock of short, dark hair with strains of white running through it, usually very serious, but not without a bit of sentimental fondness for your Circle. It's comforting to hear her voice, even through the tubes of a radio. "I understand you were in a bit of a predicament last night. I'm sure that's an understatement. How are you all holding up?"

IMARI: We've seen better days, but we're alive. (chuckles)

LIAM: "I'm so glad nobody's the worst for wear. Grimoria, I understand it was looking a bit dodgy for you last night?"

AIMEE: Yes, I would say I got my sea legs or maybe not. I don't know the term. (chuckles)

LIAM: "You sound all right now, though."

AIMEE: Yes.

LIAM: "Well, I look forward to a proper play-by-play in Leo's sitting room when we're back. I'll rest a hell of a lot easier once all my chicks are back in the nest. I have an excellent vintage, Mr. Amicus, one that I think can compete with your collection. I'm hoping we can put it to the test."

TALIESIN: Oh yes, that would be lovely. It is everything I could use right now.

LIAM: "Just, I'm so relieved. We couldn't reach you last night. I'm just so relieved."

IMARI: We're safe now and we can't wait to see you when we get back to shore.

LIAM: "Right. Well, listen, there is one thing I needed to talk to you all about. I'm sure the last thing you want right now is me sending you on another errand, but I am hoping to ask you all for a favor, or, well, maybe it won't seem like a chore at all, I don't know. It's been a while since you've seen him, I believe."

ALEXANDER: Who?

AIMEE: Who?

IMARI: Who?

TALIESIN: No.

IMARI: Wait.

TALIESIN: No.

LIAM: "I'm a little concerned about Decklan Murphy."

IMARI: What happened?

AIMEE: I thought he was reassigned.

LIAM: Decklan Murphy. Decklan Murphy. Not that you have anything but the utmost trust and reliance on your fellow circle members, but hearing that name out here after the night you had, you find yourself really wishing Decklan were here. You all came to Candela in your own roundabout ways, some directly scouted by Decklan. A couple of you met him upon arrival. But all four of you mentored under him to a degree when there used to be five members of the Circle of the Crimson Mirror. Zora is your Lightkeeper. Zora gives you your marching orders, but it was Decklan who guided you when you first began your strange and hidden second life. He used to be a history teacher. History was his vocation. When he joined Candela a few decades back, history became his purpose. A born leader, charming, affable, knew everyone, could talk to anyone. In the early days, when you were a little less sure of this new life you'd embarked on, he was the glue that held you together. Eventually, he was reassigned to another circle to do for them what he'd done for you, as Zora tells it. So, hearing him brought up in this particular moment makes his absence feel very pronounced. "You see, he left town a few weeks ago and has dropped all communication, which isn't like him, you know. You know Decklan. I'm sure it's nothing. I know exactly where he is. He's told me, or left a note, anyway, through the usual methods. He's, well, he's been in the weeds for several months, you see, and recently dropped me a note letting me know he's gone home for a couple of days, his childhood home, to the isle of Serenity. You're about a day's journey from there now. I-- I'm maybe being a nervous Nellie, I suppose, but I just want to know he's all right. I'm sure he is, but as all of you know after the night you had, the work can get to you. It's about a day from where you are. It's on the way home to Hallowharbor. Would you mind terribly much looking in on him?"

IMARI: Of course. You didn't even have to ask.

TALIESIN: I'm quite glad you did ask, and no, I think it would be, it's the perfect time to see him, rather remarkable.

AIMEE: Anything for Decklan.

TALIESIN: Objections, doctor?

ALEXANDER: No, as long as the ship's willing to take us there.

LIAM: (Captain Devir) "Ah, yes, sir. Doc, I talked briefly with Ms. Manning and certainly doesn't add any fuel costs and be there in a day, it's on the way."

ALEXANDER: Great.

AIMEE: I may need to use your radio to notify my employers.

LIAM: (Zora) "Ah, well, you took the week, didn't you, darling?"

AIMEE: Has it been--

TALIESIN: It feels like a week.

LIAM: It's been about four days that you've been at sea, so this was--

AIMEE: Oh.

ALEXANDER: Four days, okay.

LIAM: It's a good thing to bring up. You do live a double life. You all live double lives and you work for the Foggs, dealers, curators of the fabulous and strange. But you have had to slip away and it took asking for a bit of vacation time for this longer trip, but--

AIMEE: Great.

LIAM: You secured it.

AIMEE: Great.

LIAM: But you only have a couple days, so you do have to get home relatively soon.

LIAM: "Well, is there anything I can do for you at home before you arrive? Are you sure you're all right?"

IMARI: We're fine. We just want to make sure Decklan's okay.

ALEXANDER: It was a stressful night, but we all got through it somewhat in one piece.

IMARI: Like we always do.

LIAM: "It sounds like it was a little hairier than normal, Malcolm, but I'm glad to hear. I'm glad to hear. All right, well, I'm sorry, Captain, I don't want to take up any more of your time. If you need me, I'm here, I can be reached. Once you see him, drop me a line, let me know, let me know that he's okay."

IMARI: Ms. Manning, is there anything that we should be aware of before we, before we pick him up? Is there anything that you're concerned about that's on your mind that we should pay special attention to?

LIAM: "No, I'm sure I'm just jumping at shadows, but he's been on a prolonged mission with his current circle and sometimes I worry that it's getting to him. That's why I retired from the field. It gets to you, I understand."

TALIESIN: I don't suppose you have access to those files, and I don't suppose you can give us access to those files. It is the sort of thing that I'm aware is difficult.

ALEXANDER: Oh dear.

LIAM: "I'm afraid it's on a need-to-know basis."

TALIESIN: Mm.

LIAM: "Apologies."

TALIESIN: Yes, yes, yes.

LIAM: "Anyway, it's where he grew up. I hear it's charming, Serenity, so it may very well be a lovely stop."

ALEXANDER: It would be quite the name if it wasn't charming.

LIAM: "All right, well, I'm just blathering. I have a Cocker Spaniel to feed and I look forward to your return. The vintage, Mr. Amicus, the vintage. I do hope you'll like it."

AIMEE: Maybe save me some of that vintage.

TALIESIN: Always, always.

LIAM: "Oh, it's a crate, darling. I'll see you in a few days."

IMARI: All right.

LIAM: "Hear from you sooner."

IMARI: Yes, Ms. Manning.

TALIESIN: One glass, please.

AIMEE: Yes.

TALIESIN: I'd find the tiniest bit of privacy before we have this conversation.

ALEXANDER: Fair. Captain.

LIAM: (Captain Devir) "Yeah."

ALEXANDER: The man that passed last night.

LIAM: "Yes, that was Heath."

ALEXANDER: Heath. May I take a look at him?

LIAM: "Of course. He is, we've put him in cargo."

ALEXANDER: Thank you.

LIAM: He leads you out on deck and in less than a minute you--

ALEXANDER: It doesn't have to be now, it can be after we have this talk.

LIAM: Okay.

ALEXANDER: I want to eventually take a look at him.

LIAM: "All right, all right. You know where to find me."

ALEXANDER: Thank you.

LIAM: Are you finding a-- Maybe off to your cabin to have a chat?

TALIESIN: Yeah, or at least outside of it where we can see in any direction.

LIAM: Okay.

AIMEE: So do we feel safe leaving the artifact here unattended when we disembark?

ALEXANDER: Well, if everything goes well, we shouldn't be there that long. It may just be a stop off to say hello and then get back on board and head home, but if it--

LIAM: I will dip in to say I understand that reservation, but Manning, Zora Manning, this was her arrangement and she seems to put her faith in this crew and has used them multiple times.

AIMEE: Okay.

TALIESIN: Well--

ALEXANDER: If we do as much as I assume they're trustworthy, if we see anything that leads us to doubt, we can always take it off. It'll take some effort, but we could remove it from the ship, if possible.

TALIESIN: I find it interesting that we go through an experience like this and the first thing that happens is we're sent to see Decklan, which is exactly what I would do if I wanted to smooth everything over with a group like ours.

ALEXANDER: Mm.

TALIESIN: It makes me suspicious. Not terribly, but a bit suspicious.

ALEXANDER: Well, I mean, it's not like-- I don't know. I mean, it was just a storm, they happen. We got into a particularly bad one.

TALIESIN: Well, there are storms and there are storms , and sometimes when you're carrying something that has a gravity of its own, things get pulled towards you. Also, just because a place is called Serenity means nothing. All it means is either it is serenity or it's exactly the opposite and they were hoping people wouldn't notice.

AIMEE: (sighs heavily)

IMARI: What are you alluding to?

ALEXANDER: Seems like you're jumping to conclusions.

TALIESIN: Caution. I don't trust anything right now and--

ALEXANDER: We all had a very bad night.

TALIESIN: Very bad.

ALEXANDER: That's going to make us jumpy, but that doesn't mean that the storm was part of a larger conspiracy.

TALIESIN: No, just--

IMARI: If anything we can trust, it's Ms. Manning, and it's definitely Decklan. Now, if someone maybe might be manipulating Decklan, or he might be wrapped up in something, I think it's our duty to investigate and to assess the situation and to act accordingly.

ALEXANDER: I mean, it is also possible that he just is out of contact for a perfectly legitimate reason.

IMARI: I mean, he could be undercover. We don't know what the mission is.

ALEXANDER: He went home to take a break.

AIMEE: Well, if it breaks the tie, I would like to feel dry land under my feet.

ALEXANDER: Yes.

TALIESIN: Fair.

IMARI: I wouldn't mind a nice bath.

TALIESIN: Well, we are clearly going anyway, he is family and we take care of family, even if we haven't seen them in quite a while.

ALEXANDER: It is not-- I'm not saying I don't want to see him. It is a little bit of a coincidence that we happen to be so close on the way home, I understand that, but it is-- it will be nice to see him, regardless of the situation.

IMARI: Mm.

TALIESIN: This is true.

ALEXANDER: But we should all try and relax, and as your physician, you should rest because last night was a lot.

LIAM: Would now be a good time to go look in on the corpse?

ALEXANDER: Yeah.

LIAM: Okay.

ALEXANDER: I grab my medical bag and head down.

LIAM: Okay, so in less than a minute you are there. You traipse down the same set of stairs that lead to the now secured remains of Atia Griffia. In a separate corner on its own, laid out on a blanket, are the remains of a new corpse. It is like a portion of one side of this man's body evaporated away and left. It's not a bisection or a clean cut leaving that display, but it is hills and valleys of melted-over and unfinished anatomy.

ALEXANDER: I'm making notes as I examine the body and journal. Are the edges rough or are they smooth? If I inspect very closely the edges of the skin, where they disappear, the evaporated flesh, are they charred? Are they rough? Are they smooth?

LIAM: It is not charred. There is no burn here. It is relatively smooth with, and if you run a single finger down it, it has a bit of a texture or a mottling. Mottling, not modeling. But definitely to the eye, it looks smooth, it doesn't look scorched burned.

ALEXANDER: I'm drawing diagrams and making notes and trying to record everything that happened, examining the specific way he died. Is there the effect that I witnessed last night with the black and the stuff drifting off, and that has stopped, it is still now.

LIAM: It has been halted.

ALEXANDER: I'm going to take--

LIAM: I will add that in the event that happened last night, his body lay the closest to the remains in the final moments.

ALEXANDER: I'll take a little vial out of my medical kit and scrape, or cut off some flesh to keep and put it in the vial, put it away just to have a sample.

LIAM: Okay. All right, keep track of that.

ALEXANDER: It's unfortunate. Sorry this happened to you.

AIMEE: While he's doing that, I think Grimoria takes his advice and tries to rest, but I'm curious, as a player, I took on Let Them In, which, can I read it?

LIAM: Yes.

AIMEE: It says, "Whenever you take one or more bleed marks," which I have four, "you also gain additional information about the phenomenon that harmed you. Ask the GM one question about the source of the bleed."

LIAM: Okay. You can ask me a few.

AIMEE: Yeah, okay, great. So I think while she's in this kind of restful, fitful state--

LIAM: Reflecting.

AIMEE: Reflecting, I wonder, I don't remember where they all came from, but can you tell me anything about what makes this particular artifact so powerful? I guess that's my first question.

LIAM: Well, you have all familiarized yourselves with who this woman was in history, which was, she was listed in general history as a high seat in the government of the time of the ruling class. But in texts that are harder to find, and have come into Candela's collection over the centuries, from what you've learned, you understand, you believe, you know that Atia Griffia was a highly powerful alchemist in her time and served at the right hand of Emperor Calinus. There's a market in Newfaire called the Calinus Market. It's named after this man. He was the last person to rule before, I guess Candela believes the people of that time flew too close to the sun and it all came apart. Whatever it is that caused the Vastchasm to erupt, whatever caused the end of the city of Oldfaire, some belief can be traced back to Calinus, and this woman was in his daily life.

AIMEE: Okay.

LIAM: And very powerful. She disappears. I'm going to call this a couple questions. She disappears from those history books for a while. There seemed to have been some sort of split between Calinus and Atia, and there are some records that believe that she fled Oldfaire for parts unknown.

AIMEE: I'm going to reserve one question, but maybe for later--

LIAM: Mm-hmm.

AIMEE: -- to see what I can come up with. But I guess something--

ALEXANDER: (laughs)

AIMEE: -- that I'm curious about.

LIAM: It's got to be--

AIMEE: All at once.

LIAM: -- connected to the thing that caused--

AIMEE: No, for sure, but maybe something--

LIAM: Oh, okay.

AIMEE: -- later will come up in the story.

LIAM: Okay, I like it, I like it.

AIMEE: But I do have one question.

LIAM: Yeah.

AIMEE: Considering my abilities to connect with deceased spirits--

LIAM: Mm-hmm.

AIMEE: -- and also this, that I have Let Them In, is there something that this person would want us to know? A message?

LIAM: There is no answer to that question. The rules text for this feature is, "Ask the GM one question about the source of the bleed." Or am I thinking of a past one?

AIMEE: Well, I got four bleeds.

LIAM: "Take a bleed mark, but if there is no answer to be given, to return the bleed." I might be remembering a past version of this.

AIMEE: Oh, I don't know, and that's not on mine, but cool if it is.

ALEXANDER: Hmm.

LIAM: I'll tell you what, I'll factor that into how hard I go on you with bleed in the future.

AIMEE: (laughs) Okay.

LIAM: And there is no answer.

AIMEE: Damn, well, had to ask.

LIAM: Mm-hmm.

AIMEE: Okay.

LIAM: Out on the deck, Malcolm returned to your spot, staring out at the sea, and thinking about the conversation you just had, and a woman named Joan comes up to you. "Hey."

IMARI: How do you do?

LIAM: "I'm good. I just wanted to thank you for last night. You saved my friend, Burke."

IMARI: Oh, well, well, you're very welcome. How's he doing?

LIAM: "He's a little embarrassed, and shaken up, but he's okay."

IMARI: Mm. You tell him he's brave, he hung on, so, it's a pretty brave soul you got there, as a friend.

LIAM: "I think so. He's a little more than a friend, but."

IMARI: That's, you said, your husband, right?

LIAM: "Oh, I said friend, but--"

IMARI: Oh.

LIAM: "More than a friend."

IMARI: More than a friend? Well, now I'm really glad that I saved him, then.

LIAM: "Me too. Did you serve?"

IMARI: Yes. Yeah, yes, you could say I did, yes, yes, I did serve. I was in the war--

ALEXANDER: (laughs)

IMARI: -- but it was, eh, kind of traumatic, to say the least.

LIAM: "That's kind of the whole bag, isn't it?"

IMARI: Mm-hmm. Definitely.

LIAM: "Yeah, I thought so. I did, too."

IMARI: You did?

LIAM: "Yeah."

IMARI: Where'd you serve?

LIAM: "(sighs) Well, I was, I was in Westecklyn."

IMARI: Oh.

LIAM: "Close to the city."

IMARI: So you saw a lot of action, then?

LIAM: "In the early days, yeah, but I took a bullet, and they pulled me out, and--"

IMARI: (sighs)

LIAM: "I was out about a half a year before the worst of it."

IMARI: Wow.

LIAM: "Still saw my share of shit."

IMARI: Of course you did, so. (knowingly inhales) It was all for the good cause, right? So we tell ourselves. (laughs)

LIAM: "Yeah, there's some truth in it, but it's complicated, right?"

IMARI: It always is.

LIAM: "(sighs) Well, anyway, genuinely, thank you."

IMARI: Oh, well, thank you for thanking me. I appreciate it.

LIAM: "I'm going to let him know how glad I am he's alive. Have a good night."

IMARI: Tell him there's some extra strong coffee down there for him if he wants to take a sip. (laughs) If he feels so inclined.

LIAM: "I read you."

TALIESIN: If, oh, if it's all right--

LIAM: Yeah.

TALIESIN: I would love to be sitting, writing just far enough away to hear some of this conversation.

LIAM: Mm-hmm.

TALIESIN: Then once they walk away, Malcolm, do you have a moment?

IMARI: Uh-oh.

AIMEE: (laughs)

IMARI: Yes... (sighs) I can already feel this coming.

TALIESIN: Congratulations on saving that lovely stranger, and saving the heart of that other lovely stranger.

IMARI: Mm-hmm.

TALIESIN: Mm.

IMARI: But?

TALIESIN: I have no buts, I am not enough of a fool to argue with a gambler on a winning streak.

IMARI: (laughs)

TALIESIN: I just, I want you to know, I don't pretend that I would understand what it was to be raised by your parents and your family.

IMARI: Hmm.

TALIESIN: Clearly, it was difficult, but family--

IMARI: Mm.

TALIESIN: Family is a very precious commodity.

IMARI: Hmm.

TALIESIN: Some people have very little of it, and it is worth quite a bit.

IMARI: Hmm.

TALIESIN: Some people have so little that it's worth that box of bones at the bottom of the ship. (sighs) Putting a stranger ahead of family, risking your family for a stranger, that's, well, that sounds more like your brother to me, doesn't it?

IMARI: Mm.

TALIESIN: If you're going to emulate your brother, I would prefer if you found a better trait to emulate. Do you understand me?

IMARI: Yes, I understand.

TALIESIN: I doubt that.

IMARI: Well, you need to understand something, too.

TALIESIN: Mm?

IMARI: The reason why we do what we do is not just for our own gain, it's for the protection of those that we are supposed to be serving within the shadows. That's everybody, that's anyone, that's from the ship hands, to the captain, to a president. What I did was what I've been asked to do ever since I started joining Candela, so.

TALIESIN: I sincerely disagree with that reading of it.

IMARI: Well, you know that I can't watch an innocent life just fade without being able to do something, but I understand what you're saying, and I apologize for worrying you.

TALIESIN: You know enough to know that I don't have a lot of family. She's family. And as lovely as that conversation was, and believe me, I understand how lovely it was, if you had not been there, the conversation that you would have directly after that one would've been so much more unpleasant.

IMARI: I know.

TALIESIN: I don't think you do.

IMARI: I have a hunch.

TALIESIN: Well, I hope you don't ever have to learn. Get your head together. I can see too much of your family in you, and it's disappointing.

ALEXANDER: (laughs)

TALIESIN: You're better than that, I swear it. I'm going to close my book, having just written down the advice that you gave me--

IMARI: (laughs)

TALIESIN: -- and walk to my cabin.

ALEXANDER: I would like to come out on deck after examining the body.

LIAM: Mm-hmm.

ALEXANDER: -- and see them walking away from each other. Malcolm.

TALIESIN: Sorry.

ALEXANDER: Malcolm.

IMARI: Huh, yes.

TALIESIN: (laughs)

IMARI: You want a little go at me too this morning?

ALEXANDER: No, I don't care. I want to take a look at your hand.

AIMEE: "No, I don't care." (laughter)

ALEXANDER: Can I see your hand, please?

IMARI: Of course.

ALEXANDER: It hasn't been exposed to that much water before, and I just want to take a look at the connecting tissue.

IMARI: Oh, thanks, doc.

ALEXANDER: I just want to take a quick look over it, and see if it's working.

LIAM: Sure.

ALEXANDER: I don't know anything about the actual mechanics, but just where it's connected to his actual physical body.

LIAM: Right, right, right.

ALEXANDER: In case any damage has been done, or it looks inflamed.

LIAM: Remind me, Malcolm, it is there for the world to see--

IMARI: So, there's 10--

LIAM: Or it is gloved?

IMARI: It's a gauntlet-esque contraption, where it's a synthetic rubber mixed in with metal.

LIAM: Okay.

IMARI: Below here is a clasp, that connects my flesh to, that's fused, it's fused to this glove, to this prosthetic hand. But I can remove it in order to do maintenance within it. That's, it's painful when it happens.

LIAM: Okay.

ALEXANDER: I don't need you to remove it, but I just want to look at the connection.

IMARI: Of course. But I've been used to the pain, it's not like, you know, I've had it checked over many times, so, it's not something that I can't endure. Not, or can not endure.

ALEXANDER: Does the skin look inflamed, or is there any bleeding, or anything?

LIAM: You take a minute to gently turn the hand over, and you've examined this hand before. You guys got to know each other in a hospital. There isn't, this hand was a gift of sorts from Malcolm's family, sort of a parting gift when he became less welcome at the house, the mansion in the Eaves. But it was top of the line, because the Trills family is an old one.

ALEXANDER: Right.

LIAM: They have very large coffers. But it seems all right.

ALEXANDER: All right, you can put it away. Seems fine.

IMARI: Thank you. Yep, it looks, it feels, it's a little stiff from the, what I assume would be the sea water, but nah, (sighs)

ALEXANDER: Well--

IMARI: I think it'll still do the duty.

ALEXANDER: Good. (sighs)

LIAM: Leo-- oh.

TALIESIN: I will eventually go looking for that one, but go ahead. Sorry.

LIAM: Well, I'll wait.

TALIESIN: No, no, no.

LIAM: No, no.

AIMEE: (laughs)

LIAM: No, no, I'll wait.

ALEXANDER: Just talk to each other. (laughs)

TALIESIN: Where would you be, would you be at the room?

AIMEE: I think I'd be in a room, I guess maybe what we, the room we share, and trying to... trying to sleep, but not being able to, and maybe writing down in my little, I mean, it's an occult text, but just writing, making a note.

LIAM: It's your occult text.

AIMEE: It's mine, but making a note about what you said about the, about Atia--

LIAM: Mm.

AIMEE: -- and her history, making some notes under it.

TALIESIN: Oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't know that you were actually working.

AIMEE: Oh! No, I just, I just keep having these thoughts, you know, about yesterday, and how are you doing?

TALIESIN: Oh, the usual, I suppose. We're worried about you.

AIMEE: Thank you.

TALIESIN: Are you writing about whatever the person was that--?

AIMEE: Well, I didn't get much information, but-- (laughs)

TALIESIN: It's not about that.

AIMEE: About her. But I did-- She was very powerful, and who she worked for, Ken--

LIAM: Calinus.

AIMEE: Calinus, Cannula. Cannalis. (laughs) Was a very powerful--

TALIESIN: Mm.

AIMEE: Well, we know, there's a street named after him. That's really all I know, but it's nice to put details in where there are none.

TALIESIN: Anything you saw, what sort of person they were, honestly, I was just a, mm. When you talk, it comforts me, that's all. I was just hoping to hear a little bit about what it was like.

AIMEE: Oh, well, I can just I guess, just tell you about the whole thing.

TALIESIN: What a, there was a, I saw you doing a thing with your hand.

AIMEE: Oh, (laughs) yeah. Well, I'm still getting used to that-- But sometimes when I, I guess, channel someone--

TALIESIN: Hmm.

AIMEE: -- I feel like I'm in their body, and I'm wearing their clothes, and sometimes I try to use maybe what they have, and then I realize, "Oh wait, I can't." (laughs) It takes some getting used to.

TALIESIN: Mm.

AIMEE: But you really came in, and were a hero.

TALIESIN: Oh, pfft.

AIMEE: Thank you.

TALIESIN: No, I was middle management at best. There's not a lot I can do in these sorts of situations other than worry, but--

AIMEE: That's enough for me.

TALIESIN: Yeah, just, mm, I don't know who else I would talk to on this boat right now without getting angry, so.

AIMEE: Huh.

TALIESIN: I just needed to clear my head a bit, you know how I get.

AIMEE: Well, do you want me to read from my book again?

TALIESIN: That would be--

AIMEE: Just to keep you company?

TALIESIN: You do need to sleep, but a moment would be lovely.

AIMEE: I can't sleep. She just starts from page one. (laughter)

AIMEE: And just starts reading.

IMARI: I like it.

TALIESIN: I'm going to occasionally fix grammar.

AIMEE: Yeah, right. (laughter)

TALIESIN: I know the... so, this is for a little bit.

LIAM: Do you think that would take you guys to bed that night? Close this out when the moon is out, and it is the exact opposite of the night before, it is clear and hauntingly beautiful on the ocean. You have a night of rest ahead of you, and part of the day left before you'll reach your errand. The next morning, uneventful. Everyone gets up, and putters around the ship, and begins to get ready for their next stop, but the one thing that I'll throw in, Leo--

TALIESIN: Mm.

LIAM: -- while you're out on the deck on your own, it's pretty early, staring out, looking for any sign of an island that you'll be arriving at, and about three or four hours out, though. The other man who ended up in the drink that night, the other night, sidles up next to you on the ship.

TALIESIN: Oh hello.

LIAM: "Hey."

TALIESIN: Hmm.

LIAM: "Man. Completely different than the other night, huh?"

TALIESIN: Feels almost like an apology. (laughter)

LIAM: "I like the quiet, don't you?"

TALIESIN: Never quite got used to it, actually. I-- I don't like my thoughts, I try and drown them out a bit.

LIAM: "What, you don't like the quiet?"

TALIESIN: Mm, not too much.

LIAM: "Hmm."

TALIESIN: You?

LIAM: "I like it when I like it."

TALIESIN: Hmm. Mm, probably means you like yourself, since it's the moment that you are just with your own company.

LIAM: "I saw you writing in that book yesterday. What'd you write in that book?"

TALIESIN: Oh. Just-- and I definitely pick a page that does not have anything too scandalous. (laughter)

TALIESIN: Just a bit about what happened. I like to remember things. I can barely remember names, so this helps.

LIAM: "That's cool, I don't know any writers."

TALIESIN: Pff, I don't either, believe me, this is terrible. (laughs)

LIAM: "So, you don't want it quiet, huh?"

TALIESIN: No. How long, I mean, if you must, if you, how long have you sailed on this ship?

LIAM: "Ah, three years, at least."

TALIESIN: You don't look it, you look great.

LIAM: "Ah."

ALEXANDER: (laughs)

LIAM: "Well--"

TALIESIN: Mm.

LIAM: "If you don't like quiet, you want to go make some noise?"

AIMEE: (gasps)

TALIESIN: Mm. Yes, desperately. (laughter)

LIAM: "I hear we got three or four hours before we land, come with me."

TALIESIN: Mm. That's a shame, I had easily six hours of ideas.

ALEXANDER: Oh my god.

AIMEE: "Six hours of ideas."

LIAM: He leads you off--

AIMEE: (claps hands)

TALIESIN: And--

LIAM: To the rear of the ship.

AIMEE: Someone's having a good time.

IMARI: He gets booty on the ship? I don't get booty on the ship.

AIMEE: Thank god Grimoria can barely hear.

TALIESIN: Have to work in your flexibility--

IMARI: Goddamn.

TALIESIN: -- to get booty on a ship.

IMARI: Not fair.

TALIESIN: Sorry.

ALEXANDER: Christ, I wasn't expecting that.

AIMEE: I love it. (laughter)

AIMEE: I love it.

TALIESIN: I was hoping.

LIAM: Eventually--

TALIESIN: Hmm! (laughter)

LIAM: Eventually--

AIMEE: Rated S for Smut.

LIAM: One can hope. Off in the distance, you finally see an island rise on the horizon, and it takes an hour or so to get closer, but eventually, you start to make out detail. Let me see. What you see is beautiful. You see it's a fairly small island, but the coastline to this place is rough, but breathtaking.

AIMEE: Wow.

LIAM: It's bleakly beautiful, stretches of stone beaches. Occasional single homes of stone caved in on themselves, sometimes on a high rocky outcropping along the way, fields of grass bending in the wind. You can, at this distance, you think you see little flecks of white and wonder if you're seeing sheep this far out. Eventually, the Dandridge draws close enough to Serenity for you to spot a small seaside village of sorts. Before long, you dock, and the four of you are standing on a humble wooden dock in a place you might hesitate to call a village, really, a dirt and gravel road runs along the coast here, bordered by a low stone wall. There's a string of small meager cottages, and what appears to be a pub directly up the path from where you now stand, you assume, because it has a little painted sign out front that says, "Edge 'o the Isle."

IMARI: Hmm.

LIAM: You see a few people walking about town, they are humbly dressed, this is remote as it gets. Some of you have heard of Serenity before in passing, it is remote. Sometimes people talk about it mockingly. Decklan never did. He was fond of it. While, at the same time, admitting that he couldn't wait to leave as a young man. Some tourists have tried to make a go of it here, too, but it never really quite stuck. It is just half of a village on the edge of the known world in the Fairelands.

AIMEE: It's perfect.

ALEXANDER: Did, I don't remember, did Zora give us the address?

AIMEE: No.

ALEXANDER: Are there addresses here? There's another question.

LIAM: Well, looking at--

ALEXANDER: (laughs)

LIAM: -- a small handful of homes that are here, you actually don't see any street signs or house numbers.

ALEXANDER: Well.

LIAM: They are all very humble little cottages. There are thatched roofs on all of these places.

AIMEE: I bet if we ask at the pub.

ALEXANDER: I was going to say, it is town this small, they probably know.

IMARI: Yeah, I'm sure Leo would deal for a nice good proper drink, anyway, so it's killing two birds with one stone.

TALIESIN: Are we not having a drink at the pub?

IMARI: (laughs)

TALIESIN: It seems very rude not to.

IMARI: Well, let's go.

TALIESIN: And I don't drink alone, so everyone's drinking, too. You only get one a day, though, we've had that conversation.

AIMEE: Yes.

LIAM: So, you step up this muddy little path away from the docks.

ALEXANDER: I turn around to the ship. We'll go and check it out, figure out what's going on, and we'll come back as soon as possible to let you know the situation. Keep you updated when we can.

LIAM: "Sure, but we're leaving today, right?"

ALEXANDER: As far as I know, yes.

AIMEE: Do you want anything from town?

ALEXANDER: (laughs)

LIAM: "Whatever they got in that place."

TALIESIN: Mm.

IMARI: I thought you'd say that.

TALIESIN: I'll also say, if anyone strange comes up, let's not let anybody on board, and perhaps at night, let's dock far enough away that nobody, it'll make it a little more difficult to sneak on.

LIAM: "Would you like me to pull out and go a ways away?"

TALIESIN: Not too far. Stay within signaling distance just in case. Just in case.

LIAM: "All right, well--"

TALIESIN: I've had too much happen.

LIAM: "We won't go so far that we can't have eyes on this spot. So, this is the spot, all right?"

TALIESIN: I believe this will be the spot.

IMARI: If your gentleman can take the different shifts to the basement to make sure our shipment is secured, that'd be greatly appreciated.

LIAM: "I would like to think that the trouble we had the other night was a one-time thing. I run a pretty tight ship, normally we don't have any issues."

TALIESIN: Mm.

LIAM: "If you ever wanted to--"

ALEXANDER: I'm sure you do.

LIAM: "-- hire us again, I wouldn't expect the same. Again, 15 years since I've seen anything like that."

ALEXANDER: Just being cautious.

IMARI: Yeah. Yeah.

LIAM: Okay. So you watch from the dock, you delay for a moment, and the ship slowly pulls away. You don't watch it for too long, but you see it withdrawing from the island of Serenity. Turn and look up at the Edge 'o the Isle, as you stand on the edge of the isle. Heading on in?

ALEXANDER: Yeah.

IMARI: Yep.

LIAM: Okay.

TALIESIN: Oh dear.

LIAM: Well, it is a room barely bigger than the table we're sitting at. There is a little peat stove, which smells wonderful, and there are wooden tables and stools on a dirt floor. There is a barkeep, there is a man standing at what really just looks like a wooden plank. He's in his 50s, has graying hair and a beard to match, warm brown skin, a broad nose, and well-worn wrinkles at the corner of his almond eyes and smile. (Irish accent) "Morning to you."

IMARI: Morning, sir.

TALIESIN: Morning.

LIAM: "Morning to you."

IMARI: Morning, sir.

TALIESIN: Absolute pleasure.

AIMEE: Can we get four glasses of alcohol, please?

ALEXANDER: (laughs)

LIAM: "Right, well we have--"

AIMEE: With her--

LIAM: "-- choices for you."

AIMEE: -- bruised face.

LIAM: "Yeah, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to stare at you."

AIMEE: It's a birthmark.

IMARI: (laughs)

TALIESIN: You should see the other guy.

LIAM: "Mm. (laughs) Well, you bring trouble to Serenity?"

AIMEE: No, no. We're actually just looking for an old friend.

LIAM: "Oh, all right."

AIMEE: Last name--

IMARI: Perhaps you've heard of him. Sorry.

AIMEE: No.

IMARI: I didn't mean to step on you.

AIMEE: No, please.

TALIESIN: I mean, a bit of a drink first before we begin.

LIAM: "Well, we've got beer. We've got Poitín.

TALIESIN: Mm.

LIAM: "And we've got, if you got coin to spend, I got one bottle of whiskey."

IMARI: Oh, I think we need some whiskey.

TALIESIN: I think we have-- I had so many thoughts, and then you said that, and I believe the bottle of whiskey will do quite nicely.

LIAM: "All right." He leans back behind this desk, and a cat, a mangy cat walks out onto the bar, swishing its tail, and then lies down and flops, and stares at you guys lazily, tail swishing as it goes. He turns around and he's got a whiskey and four glasses that are clean-ish.

ALEXANDER: This town seems fine. Did you all have any trouble with the storm the other night?

LIAM: "Oh jeez, it was terrible. Yeah, there was thunder for hours. Me own house, part of the fence got knocked down, and three of my sheep, I still haven't found them."

ALEXANDER: Oh dear. I'm sorry. Yeah, we were on a ship during then, so we're a little happy to be on land right now.

LIAM: "Oh, Mother above."

TALIESIN: It was quite a lot.

LIAM: "Mother above, that sounds terrible."

ALEXANDER: Yeah.

ALEXANDER and TALIESIN: (laugh)

AIMEE: This isn't a birthmark.

LIAM: "I know, lass. I know."

ALEXANDER: (laughs)

AIMEE: Didn't want you to worry.

LIAM: You notice for the first time that there are two more people in the pub. Because they were to the right of the door, so you just walked right past them. It's a pale, drably dressed elderly woman with stringy white hair. There's a small boy, filthy face, sitting next to her in the corner, and he's eating a bowl of porridge or something. She's drinking a glass of something dark.

IMARI: Hmm.

TALIESIN: What do you think of this whiskey, do you have an opinion on it, out of curiosity?

LIAM: Who are you asking?

TALIESIN: Oh, the bartender. I'm so sorry.

LIAM: Oh, okay.

AIMEE: The child. (laughs)

TALIESIN: I actually haven't gotten his name yet either.

LIAM: Oh, Dermot. "My name's Dermot."

TALIESIN: Dermot.

LIAM: "Dermot Gallagher."

TALIESIN: That's a good name.

LIAM: "Thank you."

TALIESIN: No, it's fabulous. I collect them.

LIAM: "(laughs)" "I'm sorry, what was the question?"

TALIESIN: What do you think of this whiskey?

LIAM: "Oh. Well, it's the only whiskey we can get here."

TALIESIN: You've had a glass before, though.

LIAM: "I have."

TALIESIN: Would you like a glass now?

LIAM: "Are you offering to buy me a drink?"

TALIESIN: I'm offering to buy you, and I think she looks a little rough, too. Not the child, obviously, I'm not buying him a-- He has to pay for his own, but.

LIAM: "This one?"

TALIESIN: Yes.

AIMEE: Just a nipper.

LIAM: "(laughs)"

TALIESIN: Everyone had a rough night.

LIAM: "You're already picking up the accent, huh?" (laughter)

TALIESIN: First time traveling, we're very excited.

AIMEE: I'm very good with accents.

LIAM: "You know, that's charming. Yours is on the house. Not yours."

AIMEE: Thank you.

TALIESIN: Oh, thank you.

ALEXANDER: I wouldn't expect it.

LIAM: He begins pouring--

TALIESIN: Mm.

LIAM: -- five drinks.

TALIESIN: We've all had a rough night.

LIAM: (old woman) "What about me?"

AIMEE: Oh.

LIAM: (Dermot) "You've had enough." (old woman) "I haven't had enough!" Boy is just spooning porridge into his face. (Dermot) "Mag, you've had enough, and I don't want to hear another word." (Mag) "(sneers) You're not the boss of me! My money's good as his! Another glass!" He shakes his head at you.

TALIESIN: Mm.

LIAM: (Dermot) "(sighs)"

TALIESIN: Speaking of trouble, actually--

LIAM: "10 years I've been listening to this one. Sorry.

TALIESIN: No, I mean, she's-- Is it 10 years on that one?

LIAM: "Thank the Mother, no."

TALIESIN: My god.

LIAM: "She's old enough to be my mother."

IMARI: (laughs)

AIMEE: I never want to judge.

TALIESIN: No. Well, since you brought up trouble, we actually have a friend that we were looking for, who actually is from around these parts, I believe.

LIAM: "Oh, do tell."

TALIESIN: It was Murphy, Decklan Murphy.

LIAM: "Well, there's, there's the Murphys up on the, two miles up the island, yeah."

TALIESIN: Mm, two miles up--

LIAM: "Yeah, you head out the pub and take a right. There's not a lot here, if you haven't noticed."

TALIESIN: No, it's very peaceful.

AIMEE: So, which Murphys live here most of the time?

LIAM: "Well, it's a family. I knew their mother, Margaret, for a spell. But they keep to themselves mostly."

TALIESIN: So, you've never met Decklan? No stories or anything? He's a bit of an odd duck.

LIAM: "No, I mostly knew his mam. I've heard his name said, not in a long time."

AIMEE: Well, we--

TALIESIN: How's my bullshit detector right now, out of curiosity.

LIAM: Hmm?

TALIESIN: How's my bullshit detector right now?

LIAM: Well, you have to roll for that.

TALIESIN: I'm happy to. Where's my glasses? That would be-- What would that be?

AIMEE: Roll for bullshit.

LIAM: Your skill called Lie Detector, which you'd love to read out to the table.

TALIESIN: It's Read, yes, I've got Read, which is interpret body language, spot lies, gather motives. I also have a thing called Sweet Talk.

IMARI: Oh.

TALIESIN: Which is, after I've made small talk with someone for a little while, I can add an extra die on to any Read roll I make in which they are the target.

IMARI: That's how you get booty on a ship.

TALIESIN: If the target, if the Cunning, my Cunning--

AIMEE: That's how you get booty on a ship.

IMARI: Booty on a ship.

TALIESIN: Your current Cunning resistance is two or higher, then one of the dice is gilded.

LIAM: All right.

TALIESIN: So.

LIAM: Take your pick. Pick your poison.

TALIESIN: Wait, I'm trying to see if Cunning resistance is--

LIAM: Which one are we focusing on, Lie Detector or Sweet Talk?

TALIESIN: No, that is Sweet Talk. I also have Lie Detector. I was going to do both.

LIAM: Oh, you're stacking it.

TALIESIN: I'm sorry, that was a Sweet Talk.

LIAM: Woo!

TALIESIN: It's when I do a Read roll in an attempt to figure out whether a person's telling the truth, I can gild an additional die.

LIAM: All right.

TALIESIN: So, that's two gilded dice.

IMARI: Very nice.

TALIESIN: Read, so that's one, two, three dice, and two are gilded. It's four dice and two are gilded, excuse me. No, wait. One, two, three. Three dice and two are gilded, excuse me. All right. Two sixes, both on gilded.

IMARI: Oh wow.

LIAM: Wow.

IMARI: Two Candelas.

TALIESIN: I don't even know what that means anymore.

LIAM: Both, wait, do you--

AIMEE: Two candies.

TALIESIN: Two Candelas.

LIAM: Okay.

TALIESIN: Both gilded.

LIAM: Okay, okay.

ALEXANDER: As we have dubbed them, Candelas.

LIAM: So I suppose you'll take the gilded, right?

TALIESIN: I'm going to take either of them.

LIAM: So you drink in this man's charm, and his accent, and his story, and a lot of it seems true to you. A lot of it.

TALIESIN: Hmm.

AIMEE: But.

LIAM: But it does seem off. He does seem to be circling something. His smile's just a little too wide, or quick to your jokes.

IMARI: Ah, hiding something.

LIAM: Something about it.

IMARI: Mm.

LIAM: "Anyways, let me pour for you all."

TALIESIN: Thank you.

IMARI: Where am I when he's having this interaction with Leo?

LIAM: "Right. What's your question?"

IMARI: No, for you.

LIAM: Yeah.

IMARI: So, where am I in the room?

LIAM: Oh, it's a very small room, so you guys are basically crowded in the center of it.

IMARI: So I would hear what was going on.

LIAM: Oh, you can't escape the conversation. The little kid can hear every bit of this conversation.

IMARI: I want to talk to the barkeep.

LIAM: Sure.

IMARI: You seem a little nervous to me, sir. Is there anything that might be troubling you at all, or anything?

LIAM: "Well it's not often we get visitors to the island, but I don't feel nervous, no."

IMARI: No? Have you seen anything out of the ordinary in the past two days? You said the Murphys are up the hill.

LIAM: "Yeah."

IMARI: You say you know the mother. Anyone else in the family might come along, might frequent the pub, or maybe might make rounds into the town?

LIAM: "No, I haven't seen any of the Murphys. I seen one of the daughters maybe a month ago."

IMARI: Daughters, huh.

ALEXANDER: Hey. We're looking in on old friend, and we've never visited them at their home before. So we're just asking some questions.

LIAM: "Well, the Murphys are there, they've been on this island for decades. They come down in town a few times a year, but a lot of people here keep to themselves. That's the beauty of Serenity." (Mag) "That's the beauty of Serenity!"

TALIESIN: Mm.

IMARI: I want to have a chat with that lady.

ALEXANDER: Oh god.

IMARI: Where is she, how drunk is she?

LIAM: (buzzes lips)

IMARI: Is she vomiting in the--

LIAM: She's not vomiting.

TALIESIN: Is there any actual water in her, is what I want to know, or is it just pure, it's all straight liquor.

LIAM: It's all dust, it's all--

IMARI: I want to walk over to her. Madam, how do you do?

LIAM: "I'd be doing better if I had another glass of whiskey."

IMARI: Oh, I bet you would. I bet you would. I can smell that.

LIAM: "(sniffs)"

AIMEE: (laughs)

IMARI: Have you noticed anything strange?

LIAM: "What's your name?"

IMARI: My name is Malcolm. What's your name?

LIAM: "(sighs) Beatrice."

IMARI: Oh, that's a beautiful name.

LIAM: "You're a handsome one."

IMARI: Well, thank you, my lady. You're quite charming yourself. Do you mind if I ask you a few questions, Beatrice?

LIAM: "Aye."

IMARI: Would you be up for that? I want to whisper with Leo. Get her a small little something, just enough to keep her awake.

LIAM: "My hearing's not that bad, lad."

TALIESIN: Oh no.

IMARI: Get her something stronger then.

TALIESIN: I am not getting involved in this one, excuse me. I'm going to back up, and I'm going to side eye the kid really quickly, and then I'm going to walk outside. I'm going to give the kid a little bit of, so sorry, I can't believe this is. I'm going to go sit outside to see if, see if I, yeah.

AIMEE: I'll come out with you--

LIAM: See what you see.

AIMEE: -- and pull out a little, what's that game you used to play with kids? It's like a pick-up--

LIAM: Jacks.

AIMEE: Jacks.

IMARI: It's Jacks.

AIMEE: I don't know why I would have one, but I do. (laughing)

AIMEE: Maybe whatever--

TALIESIN: I'm a big fan of--

AIMEE: Whatever bench we're on, but I would love to sit in front of the window the kid's at so he can see us play.

TALIESIN: Oh, even just the-- Yeah. I'm just sitting, taking it.

AIMEE: But maybe hoping that he'll come out and play with us.

TALIESIN: Yeah, no. I'm trying to-- Yeah, because--

AIMEE: Yeah.

TALIESIN: Since the mom's talking.

AIMEE: Right.

LIAM: Okay.

ALEXANDER: I watch them both walk out, and I guess I'm in charge of him.

IMARI: Beatrice, have you noticed anything strange in the past couple of days? Anything that might've been out of the ordinary?

LIAM: "Well, you lot showed up."

IMARI: Before the lot showed up, was there anything maybe similar, or equally as strange--

AIMEE: 10 minutes ago. (laughs)

IMARI: -- before we showed up that you might have noticed?

LIAM: "Are you talking about the storm?"

IMARI: Yes, the storm. Was there something that happened before the storm? Anyone that you might've noticed before the storm occurred? Someone out of place.

LIAM: "That bastard, Pete Mulligan, was in my yard." (quiet laughter)

IMARI: Hmm. Pete Mulligan. Is that your neighbor?

LIAM: "Aye, he's a dirty wee fucker."

IMARI: Hmm. So, I take you two haven't dated, then.

LIAM: "Say again?"

IMARI: Nothing. So, Pete Mulligan, anything else besides Pete Mulligan? Anything that you might have seen, or have you heard of the Murphys? Are you familiar with the Murphys?

LIAM: "I don't truck with them."

IMARI: No. Why not?

LIAM: "Eldest daughter's a bitch."

IMARI: Hmm.

ALEXANDER: (laughs)

IMARI: What's the eldest daughter's name, by any chance?

ALEXANDER: (sighs)

IMARI: You remember that?

LIAM: "Maybe Gráinne."

IMARI: Gráinne. That's the oldest daughter, huh?

LIAM: "Yes. The only other thing strange is I have a urine infection." (laughter)

IMARI: Hmm. That sounds tasty.

ALEXANDER: Oh no.

IMARI: Well, Beatrice, (laughs) I think this has been a lovely conversation. Before I make my leave, anything else you want to recollect? Hemorrhoids, or something else you want to confess? (quiet laughter)

LIAM: "You're a handsome one."

IMARI: Oh, thank you so much. You have yourself a lovely day, Miss Beatrice, take care of yourself, okay? You can get her some water, please.

TALIESIN: I'm not here. Oh yeah, and the bartender, yeah, sorry.

LIAM: "I have another whiskey."

ALEXANDER: Let's go outside.

IMARI: I'm going to go outside.

TALIESIN: Did the kid leave, or no? Is the kid still there?

LIAM: Kid scrabbles out just before Malcolm leaves, and he silently comes and sits down, and just watches you for a bit.

ALEXANDER: What is wrong with you? That was the most conspicuous thing I've ever seen anybody do.

IMARI: (sigh) You win some, you lose some.

ALEXANDER: How were you ever going to win that?

IMARI: You never know. Who knows where you can get your information from? Sometimes when you're a little bit high on the drink, you get a little more information than you think.

ALEXANDER: No, I'm not--

IMARI: I made it rhyme.

ALEXANDER: Never mind. I'm not talking about her, I'm talking about you. (laughs)

LIAM: The boy looks like he's never seen so wonderful a toy as Jacks.

AIMEE: Do you want to learn how to play? Well, she teaches him how, because Aimee doesn't know.

ALEXANDER and IMARI: (laugh)

LIAM: Oh, well.

AIMEE: (laughs)

LIAM: You bounce the ball and see how many jacks you can get.

AIMEE: Okay, you bounce the ball and see how many of these you can get. Why don't you try?

TALIESIN: How old's the kid, by the way?

LIAM: Like five. Jacks go everywhere.

AIMEE: Oh, you're doing such a good job. Isn't it fun?

IMARI: Can I ask the kid a question while she plays Jacks?

ALEXANDER: No.

TALIESIN: I shoo you away immediately. (laughter)

AIMEE: You go ahead.

TALIESIN: Take the scary robot hand away.

LIAM: It's not totally abandoned. You see a woman, maybe in her 30s, with a basket of clothes or wash or something walking up the road. She passes, she exits one building and heads up the road and then walks off, not the distance or direction you were told to go, but in the opposite direction. There's some old man sitting up the road on a stool in front of one of the cottages on the way to, apparently, the Murphys. But it's quiet here.

IMARI: The old man walking towards the Murphys, you said?

LIAM: There's a man sitting.

IMARI: Sitting, okay. All right. Listen, I think what we need to do is go to the house and then investigate the Murphys right now.

ALEXANDER: Yes.

TALIESIN: We'll be one moment.

IMARI: Are we going to sit here with the--

TALIESIN: Oh, we have shooed you both away. I assume, yeah, this is just--

ALEXANDER: I'm sorry, are you objecting to them sitting with the child while you talked to that woman for 45 minutes?

IMARI: Oh yeah.

TALIESIN: Oh, that's true. This could have been happening beforehand actually.

AIMEE: That's true. Why don't you guys get a head start? We'll meet you there.

TALIESIN: We'll catch up. Walk slowly.

LIAM: Okay, so you two are moving up the road in the general direction?

TALIESIN: Mm-hmm.

ALEXANDER: Yeah.

LIAM: And you two are hanging back?

ALEXANDER: No, they're hanging back, we're on our way.

TALIESIN: We're playing Jacks.

LIAM: Who's playing Jacks?

TALIESIN: The two of us.

IMARI: The two of them are playing.

LIAM: Jacks check.

AIMEE: Yeah, jacks check.

LIAM: Okay, you two are playing Jacks, and you two--

AIMEE: And the child.

LIAM: You two gentleman are-- The kid has not said a word, but he is enraptured.

AIMEE: For sure. For sure.

TALIESIN: I feel like-- Mm.

IMARI: Can we take the child with us?

AIMEE: No.

IMARI: (laughs)

ALEXANDER: No!

IMARI: (laughs) Because we could have been--

TALIESIN: This is a very small island.

AIMEE: Why don't we start with: Have you ever seen this game before? You know, it came all the way from Newfaire. Have you heard of that city, Newfaire? Yeah. Have you ever met anybody from Newfaire? Anyone come by, any strangers lately? Can you point me to where they live or where they are?

LIAM: He points in the direction that Malcolm and Edgar are walking.

AIMEE: Do you want to ask him anything?

TALIESIN: It was a man, I suppose. Was he alone or did he have friends? Just him. Was he scary, did he seem nice? Was he scary? Hmm. We're worried about him. He's a friend of ours, but we haven't seen him in a very long time. So we're just trying to figure out what happened.

LIAM: It has been so long and the boy has said absolutely nothing, and it starts to sink in at this point. He can't or doesn't talk.

TALIESIN: I'm fine with that. I'm enjoying the game.

AIMEE: Hey. You can keep this if you want, for all your help.

LIAM: He looks in the window at--

AIMEE: His grandma?

LIAM: -- Beatrice, who is now semi-leaned into the window.

TALIESIN: You're smart enough to know to hide these, correct? Yes, when you take them, you put them somewhere safe. I'm going to make sure that the next few bowls of porridge are on the house. You've been really helpful. If you hear anything, just let us know. Just give us a little.

AIMEE: (laughs)

TALIESIN: Or knock on wood. If I hear a knock, if we say something stupid, please let us know.

LIAM: In addition to you guys are being so kind to this boy and that's obviously having an effect, he also is marveling at your outfits and your hair. Even though it's a little bit crimped from everything you've gone through, he has not seen anything the looks of you, especially you two.

TALIESIN: I'm going to go in and put a little money down on a tab. It is a very big world out there, child. Take your time, this is going to be terrible, but you will find something delightful if you wait a little bit and go over the horizon. You're too smart for this place. I'm going to go in and put $20 on, just for food on the kid no matter what.

LIAM: 20 bills.

AIMEE: 20 bills.

LIAM: 20 bills.

TALIESIN: 20 bills. Thank you, I was trying to remember.

LIAM: Sure, sure.

AIMEE: While he does that, she straightens up his little hair, tucks it behind her ears, grabs a little bit of her thing and wipes his face off, and then makes sure, she grabs him by the hand and walks him back in the pub. Thank you.

LIAM: He silently goes over and pushes himself up on a bench and looks at his grandmother. Looks at her big tall drink and then picks up his bowl.

AIMEE: (laughs)

TALIESIN: We've all got one.

AIMEE: (laughs)

IMARI: Poor thing.

AIMEE: So sweet.

LIAM: So, you guys hung back a little bit.

TALIESIN: I'll double time it up.

LIAM: So you both headed up the road.

ALEXANDER: Walking slowly.

LIAM: Slowly, sure.

TALIESIN: We'll double time.

LIAM: Yeah. Again, when I say village on the edge of the isle, there's maybe 20 buildings here, tops. You can see in the distance, the coast here bends and curves and there's one single cottage in the distance that is not two miles away. This seems to be the center of Serenity. But as you guys reach the end of this little road, this row of cottages, you reach this very wiry old man, vaguely reminiscent of the persona that Grimoria took on.

AIMEE and ALEXANDER: (laugh)

LIAM: He has barely a shock of white hair. You can see more scalp than anything, and he is gaunt and hunched. There is a stick or a cane lying on the ground next to him, and a tall glass in the dirt next to him on a stool. As you approach him, he doesn't look, but says, "Oh, hey. We've got visitors again. How's all?"

ALEXANDER: Good afternoon.

LIAM: "Afternoon to ye."

IMARI: Visitors again?

ALEXANDER: Yes, we're on our way to see some friends who previously went this way.

LIAM: "Previously went this way, eh? Well, are you going to the Murphys?"

IMARI: We are.

LIAM: "Hmm."

IMARI: Do you know of them?

LIAM: "Oh yeah. They've lived here time out of mind. Oldest girl there is a bit of a surly one, but they're all right. They're good folk. Their son's in town."

ALEXANDER: Yeah, that's our friend.

LIAM: "Oi?"

ALEXANDER: Aye.

IMARI: Have you seen him? Have you seen him recently?

LIAM: "(wheezy laugh) I ain't seen nothing for years."

IMARI: Oh, he's blind. (laughs) My apologies.

LIAM: "Oh, that's all right, I'm just fucking with ye.

AIMEE: (laughs)

LIAM: "No, but I can't see. But I--" (laughter)

LIAM: "Though I did talk to him a handful of days ago. He was heading home. Hasn't been in a while. Comes once or twice a year. So, we're friendly-like."

IMARI: Is he the only one who's there now? Does he have his family there as well, or--?

LIAM: "I believe it's him and his mom, and he's got three sisters. He's the oldest of four children."

IMARI: Oh, he's the oldest. What was his oldest sister's name again?

LIAM: "Oh, that's Gráinne."

IMARI: Gráinne, that's right.

AIMEE: She's a little bitch.

TALIESIN: Yeah.

LIAM: "Let's see, there's Gráinne. She's a tough one. There's Nora and wee Pegeen."

AIMEE: Cute.

LIAM: "Anyway, yous looking for him?"

ALEXANDER: Yeah.

IMARI: We are.

LIAM: "You got to take him back home?"

IMARI: We just want to make sure he's okay. Why would you want to leave such a beautiful place anyway if you don't have to right away, right?

LIAM: "Oh, it's the most beautiful sight you ever seen. (wheezy laugh)" (laughter)

LIAM: "All right, well enjoy our island."

ALEXANDER: Thank you.

IMARI: Thank you so much for your information, sir.

LIAM: "Right, right."

ALEXANDER: There will be two of our company that arrived with us following us up the road. They're just a couple steps behind.

LIAM: "I can hear them."

AIMEE: (laughs)

LIAM: "There's a little one there and a regular size one I think."

ALEXANDER: That would be them.

LIAM: "Ah. Hello to ya!"

AIMEE: Hello.

TALIESIN: Hello.

LIAM: "I was right."

IMARI: Finally you guys come.

LIAM: "I'm always right." He picks up the glass, he feels gently for it and finds his glass and takes a big swig of it. Places it back down.

LIAM: "Ah. Fucking rain the other day."

ALEXANDER: It was a lot.

LIAM: "Where was ya for it?"

ALEXANDER: On the ship.

LIAM: "What ship?"

TALIESIN: That one over there.

ALEXANDER: The ship that dropped us off.

LIAM: "Ah right, that's how you got here."

TALIESIN: Yeah. (laughs)

AIMEE: He can't see.

LIAM: "I'm usually quicker than that.

TALIESIN: Mm.

LIAM: "Gentlemen and lady, apologies, apologies."

TALIESIN: Oh no, I'm already delighted.

LIAM: "Well, my name's Ned. I live here. If you need to find Ned, Ned's here."

AIMEE: Thanks, Ned.

IMARI: Thanks, Ned.

ALEXANDER: Very helpful.

IMARI: I want to give him 10 bills for his trouble.

LIAM: "What is this?"

IMARI: It's just something for your trouble.

LIAM: "Oh."

IMARI: Maybe treat you to a meal for tonight.

LIAM: "What's the number on this bill?"

IMARI: That's the number 10, Ned.

LIAM: "Oh. Fuck me."

AIMEE: (laughs)

IMARI: Buy yourself a few meals with that, huh?

TALIESIN: And figure out which pubs are honest. So you'll know very quickly if they tell you it's anything other than a 10.

LIAM: "There's only the one pub."

TALIESIN: Well, then you're in trouble. I don't think he's very honest.

LIAM: "Oh." (laughter)

LIAM: "Oh, he's all right. Dermot's all right."

TALIESIN: Does Dermot have anything against the Murphys? Is there any interesting-- It's a small town, please, I miss gossip.

LIAM: "Sure. Oh no, gossip we have here. Everybody knows each other's business, I fuckin' tell you what."

TALIESIN and AIMEE: (laugh)

LIAM: "Everybody knows what this one's got a grudge on him for that and she wants to strangle that one with her bare hands. You know, we're trapped in a small space here."

TALIESIN: Oh no, I know, my family was the exact same way. I haven't seen them in years. I miss this sort of thing. I don't know, I got a read. I got the vibe that he was not necessarily--

LIAM: "Well, I don't know any bad blood between Dermot Gallagher and any of the Murphys, no."

TALIESIN: They're friendly with each other then? Even the older one?

LIAM: "No, you want to avoid the older one there."

TALIESIN: (laughs) Oh, that's what everyone keeps telling me.

LIAM: "Well."

TALIESIN: Oh, that's good. I love not liking people.

LIAM: "Truth is truth."

AIMEE: I bet she's just misunderstood.

TALIESIN: Hmm. There's only one way to find out.

LIAM: "Sounds like someone who hasn't met the eldest Murphy girl."

AIMEE: (laughs) You're right, I haven't. Thank you for your help, Ned.

TALIESIN: Mm.

LIAM: "Oh sure, lass. How are you today?"

AIMEE: Oh, we've seen better. Well, I've seen better. Oh, sorry.

IMARI: (laughs)

LIAM: "(wheezy laugh)"

TALIESIN: (laughs)

LIAM: "It took me a second."

AIMEE: (laughs)

LIAM: "And it's me own joke."

AIMEE: (laughs)

LIAM: "Well. Well, well, well. I hope yous have a fine day and Ned is here, I'm Ned."

AIMEE: Thanks, Ned.

IMARI: Thanks, Ned.

TALIESIN: Absolute pleasure.

ALEXANDER: Goodbye, Ned.

LIAM: You guys begin to stroll away from the edge of the isle and this small cove of cottages and make your way along this really hauntingly beautiful coastline. You pass by, you begin to walk for awhile. It is such a stark change from your night on the ship. You do see other people though, still. There's a field in the distance on a gently-sloping hill, and there's a couple, a man and woman, maybe they have married vibes. I don't know, that's just a guess. But they're traveling with a whole flock of sheep around them and when they spot you, they just hold and stare.

TALIESIN: I'm going to wave.

IMARI: That was interesting.

TALIESIN: Hold on. I'm going to wave again.

LIAM: This is at a distance.

TALIESIN: Okay.

LIAM: They never stop staring at you. They're probably 2,000 feet away. They're up a hill.

TALIESIN: Is it public or private property, does it seem like? Are there fences?

LIAM: It's hard to read property lines here. It just looks like a--

TALIESIN: Okay.

ALEXANDER: It would make sense that we're getting these reactions. We don't look like anyone here and I don't think anyone comes here.

TALIESIN: I have had a lot of reactions in my life, but standing perfectly still like a deer is unusual. Normally it's forward or backward.

LIAM: You get close to that one solo cottage which has got a little bit of smoke coming out of the chimney through its thatched roof. You saw this from the distance and as you get closer to it, a door opens and a gentleman, probably like 25, in a white shirt rolled up at the sleeves and he's carrying some sort of a leather satchel as he walks out and he sees you guys.

AIMEE: It's a birthmark.

LIAM: He walks on, he doesn't even respond to that. He just walks past you on the road and you see him travel down the way you came.

ALEXANDER: I think we just look weird to them. I think we're just odd.

TALIESIN: I'm not certain. Again, I'm used to an awful lot of reactions. These are strange.

ALEXANDER: You're just used to the city.

LIAM: You're a little bumped, Leo.

TALIESIN: Fair.

LIAM: I'll say, as you pass this cottage and you look back over your shoulder and you see the man, he's still walking, but you see that couple again up on the hill and they are--

AIMEE: Are we close to the Murphy cottage?

LIAM: You don't see. You've only been walking for a couple minutes. They said two miles.

AIMEE: Oh shit, okay.

LIAM: It's 20 or 30 minutes.

AIMEE: Yeah.

LIAM: Right?

IMARI: All right, so I guess we're going to go definitely-- I mean, grab the clue.

TALIESIN: Give me two and half good reasons why I shouldn't go talk to that couple right now.

IMARI: I'll give you no good reason. I think we should go talk to the couple.

ALEXANDER: Oh my god.

IMARI: I am in agreement with you.

TALIESIN: Doctor, you're the smart one, please.

ALEXANDER: I just think we should leave these people alone.

AIMEE: I kind of agree, I think we should keep going.

ALEXANDER: We should just go see. Look. We're just here to see if Decklan's here and all right.

IMARI: Yeah, but ever since we got to this island--

ALEXANDER: That's on the two of you. We just have to check in, say hello and then we go home.

TALIESIN: Everybody I've talked to has been very generous and reasonable.

IMARI: Well, while we do this, why don't we scratch our itch, and why don't you guys go to the cottage and then we'll meet up at the cottage and we'll catch up with you?

ALEXANDER: We'll wait for you. Just go talk to them, it's fine.

IMARI: We're going to go try.

ALEXANDER: (sigh)

LIAM: Okay, yes?

TALIESIN: Just a little bit. I want to see what their reaction is if we start walking towards them. (quietly) Let me do the talking, just for the beginning until things get strange, which I think they inevitably are going to.

LIAM: Well, they are staring at you and you go off road, which means you are pretty quickly wading through very tall grass.

TALIESIN: Any way I can avoid as much of it as humanly possible?

LIAM: There's stone, too, so when you can, you are billy goat hopping from--

TALIESIN: Any reaction?

LIAM: Yes.

TALIESIN: What are they?

LIAM: They are watching from up high and when you get like 30 feet off the road coming their direction, turn around and they walk in the opposite direction--

TALIESIN: Ooh.

LIAM: -- through their sheep. They're not running. They're just walking away.

TALIESIN: Hmm. Which direction are they going?

LIAM: Up a hill.

TALIESIN: Is there any structure over there or anything like that?

LIAM: No, not from this view.

TALIESIN: Well... That seems like an invitation that has been taken away.

AIMEE: Am I hearing any interesting sounds, voices?

LIAM: You are still hearing a bit of distortion or maybe it's that everyone's voice feels a little more crisp or intense--

AIMEE: Okay.

LIAM: -- in your eardrums. But also, you know, there's wind blowing on this island and you know--

AIMEE: Pretty quiet.

LIAM: Every once in a while, though, you-- (ominous fleeting whispers)

AIMEE: But nothing I can make out.

LIAM: No.

TALIESIN: I'm fine to turn back. I just wanted to see what it would take to spook them. I think that they have-- Hmm. I think that there's a very... I think they're afraid of where we're going. I don't know. Maybe I'm just paranoid now.

IMARI: All right.

LIAM: Okay.

IMARI: I'll turn back around.

TALIESIN: If you're satisfied, I'm satisfied.

IMARI: I'll trust your instincts.

LIAM: You wade back down to the grass and join your colleagues and continue along this dirt road for a while. It is just quiet and windy and you want to enjoy it, but it is hard to deny the oddity of some of the people who live here. You walk for five minutes or 10 minutes and there is, you start to approach this stunted tree at one bend in the road and in a spot where there's no other defining feature. You walk past and you couldn't see her, but right there on the other side of the tree is a tiny elderly woman in black with a head scarf on. She is a little shorter than you are and she has a face like a dried apple.

IMARI: Oh god.

LIAM: She has got an apron on, shawl, headscarf, and...

ALEXANDER: (gasping sigh)

AIMEE: Well, hello.

IMARI: (shocked gasp)

LIAM: Like she's 15 feet away from you and you didn't see her and she's just--

AIMEE: (gasps)

LIAM: -- staring at you.

ALEXANDER: Hello.

IMARI: (timidly) Hi.

ALEXANDER: Sorry. You startled us.

TALIESIN: I'm so sorry, ma'am. What's your name if you don't mind?

LIAM: "Oh, my name's Rosheen."

TALIESIN: Rosheen. You give me the sense of someone who knows something that we should know, like we're making-- I don't want to talk out of turn, but we are from out of town. I don't know if you can tell. (laughter)

TALIESIN: Everyone seems to be getting very nervous.

LIAM: "We don't get a lot of outsiders here on the island."

TALIESIN: People come home, though. People leave. People come back.

LIAM: "I don't know about that."

TALIESIN: Hmm.

IMARI: We have a friend who might have come back. Maybe you might know of him. His name's Decklan. You ever know of a Decklan? Murphys.

LIAM: "We know of the Murphys. They live up the road about a mile."

IMARI: Yeah. Yeah.

LIAM: "Yes."

TALIESIN: What do you know about the Murphys, other than the eldest daughter is a bit much?

LIAM: "The eldest daughter is a bit of a bitch."

TALIESIN: Mm.

AIMEE: (laughs) (laughter)

AIMEE: Are you sure she's not just misunderstood?

LIAM: "I don't know if she is or if she isn't. What are you doing here on Serenity?"

AIMEE: Well, we're just looking for a friend.

ALEXANDER: We're friends with one of the Murphys and we're coming to visit him.

LIAM: "We don't get a lot of visitors on Serenity."

ALEXANDER: I gathered.

AIMEE: He told us so much about this beautiful town. We just had to see it for ourselves.

TALIESIN: It's so beautiful. Why do you think you don't get many visitors if it's so beautiful?

LIAM: "Ah, they tried for years, but they don't like it in the end."

TALIESIN and AIMEE: Hmm.

LIAM: "Because there's nowhere to go."

TALIESIN: Do you like it?

LIAM: "I don't know if I do or if I don't."

TALIESIN: That's fair. You like the Murphys?

LIAM: "I don't have much business with the Murphys."

TALIESIN: I am trying to read this woman. I know it's a lot to push.

IMARI and ALEXANDER: (laugh)

TALIESIN: I just feel like she's--

ALEXANDER: Eating an apple.

TALIESIN: She's nervous about something and I'm trying to hit it. I don't think I'm ready to roll quite yet, but... What's wrong? Can we help? We're happy to help. Anything to... This place is just lovely and we do eventually have to leave, but I would like to give a good impression.

LIAM: "I don't know what to tell you on that."

TALIESIN: Do you need help? Is there trouble? You'd be amazed what we can do.

LIAM: "It's a hard life on Serenity."

TALIESIN: Mm.

LIAM: "A lot of our young ones leave."

TALIESIN: That can happen.

LIAM: "Just like me own brother."

TALIESIN: What was it--

LIAM: "Nigh on 70 years ago, went to live in Newfaire."

TALIESIN: It's a shame that they don't come back after a while.

LIAM: "You think that Murphy boy, he come back?"

TALIESIN: We think he did.

IMARI: We think he did, too. We're actually looking for him.

ALEXANDER: He's a friend of ours.

LIAM: You should try the Murphys, a mile up the road.

ALEXANDER: That's... where we're going.

TALIESIN: Do you have any advice for talking to the Murphys--

IMARI: (laughs)

TALIESIN: -- when you talk?

LIAM: "Avoid Gráinne."

AIMEE: Yeah.

TALIESIN: Yeah. Town seems to think that. Well, if you think of anything we should know or if you have any advice about anything, I'm always excited to learn something new.

IMARI: If you don't mind me asking, what is it about Gráinne that people don't like? I'm very curious.

TALIESIN: (laughs) I like it.

LIAM: "She never has a kind word to say about anyone."

IMARI: Hmm.

TALIESIN: Hmm.

LIAM: "Sometimes she can be a bit much."

TALIESIN: I'm excited--

IMARI: Bit much.

LIAM: "I try to avoid."

IMARI: Bit much like violence, conniving? What's a bit much? What would you say? Bit much.

LIAM: Just means she's a bit of a bitch."

TALIESIN and IMARI: Mm.

TALIESIN: Well, to be fair, Decklan can be a bit of a bitch as well.

IMARI: (laughs)

TALIESIN: Well, we're going to go. I don't know. Obviously, you haven't seen Decklan and I don't even know the last time you've talked to the Murphys. Do you talk to the Murphys?

LIAM: "I don't talk to nobody."

TALIESIN: Mm.

LIAM: "I don't want to be talking to you."

ALEXANDER: We can tell.

TALIESIN: And, yeah, other than that lovely couple over in the field over there who seemed quite nice, I'm trying to remember their names. What are their names?

IMARI: There's sheep around them. What was their names? I forgot.

LIAM: "There's sheep all over the island."

TALIESIN: Oh, the couple that live over there.

LIAM: "Won't find anyone who doesn't have a sheep on this island."

TALIESIN: I'm just pointing, the couple that live over there.

LIAM: "McNamaras."

TALIESIN: Hmm?

LIAM: (emphatically) "McNamaras!"

TALIESIN: The McNamaras. They all right?

LIAM: "They're all right."

TALIESIN: All right. Well, I'm sure we're taking up way too much of your time, but it was lovely having a chat with anybody out here.

LIAM: "Right then."

ALEXANDER: Have a good rest of your day.

TALIESIN: Yes.

LIAM: "Right then."

TALIESIN: If you need anything, just ask for the strangers. I'm sure we're the only ones right now.

ALEXANDER: I'm sure.

LIAM: "True enough. True enough."

TALIESIN: We owe you a favor.

AIMEE: I put my hand on her shoulder. I'm so sorry for your loss.

LIAM: She doesn't respond. She freezes up, stiffens at your touch.

ALEXANDER: After we walk away for a bit--

TALIESIN: Yeah, I'm giving the two of them a little room.

ALEXANDER: I'll wait 'til you're done. Do we continue up the road?

AIMEE: (laughs) Oh!

LIAM: I don't know. Something about to happen? Did I miss something?

AIMEE: No. I just was shooting my shot and seeing if she said anything, but she's shocked. So maybe she's shocked into silence.

IMARI: I think it's time for us to make our leave to the Murphys.

LIAM: She doesn't respond and she doesn't move. She just watches you go.

AIMEE: (whispers) He's here with you always.

IMARI: (laughs)

LIAM: "Fintan?"

AIMEE: Yes.

LIAM: "That's not possible."

AIMEE: It is possible.

LIAM: That makes her scurry down the road.

AIMEE: You got to shoot your shot.

TALIESIN: Mm. No.

ALEXANDER: Have you all ever spoken to someone in a normal manner? Any of you?

TALIESIN: These are not normal people. I do not know of normal people.

ALEXANDER: They're perfectly normal people. They're just people who live on an island and don't have a lot of communication skills.

TALIESIN: You were doing your thing, weren't you?

ALEXANDER: Oh my god.

AIMEE: I was trying it.

TALIESIN: What name did you get?

AIMEE: Vincent.

TALIESIN: Oh, Vincent. That's so good. Do you know dead brother, dead son?

AIMEE: Oh, I don't know. I was just guessing because she was wearing all black.

TALIESIN: Mm. Good job. Good job.

ALEXANDER: They're going to think we're witches.

AIMEE: (laughs)

TALIESIN: We are. (smugly laughs)

LIAM: So we're heading further up the coast.

ALEXANDER: Yes.

LIAM: Closing the distance. Okay, so you walk and the landscape bends and twists, but stays largely the same. Just white caps on the sea and sheep on every hill. Eventually you see a house away from the coast, up on a new hill. It looks like there's a thorough fire going because there's smoke curling up and you can see to the rear of the house, there's a little fenced-in area, there's a pen and a an-- Oh, there's one single tree outside this home. There's a rope swing, two ropes. It's a slat hanging, blowing in the nonstop wind out here. It's been about, it doesn't say "The Murphys," but it's been about two miles. It's a safe bet.

AIMEE: Do we have any idea what his family thinks he does? Like, you know what I mean? Like what his day job is or his cover?

LIAM: From conversations you've had with him, you gather they probably think he is still a history teacher.

AIMEE: Ah, cool. Okay.

ALEXANDER: I'm going to walk up and I knock on the door.

LIAM: Okay. In moments, you hear (light footsteps), a door opens and you see a woman, late thirties and shoulder-length brown hair, a flinty expression, and she just--

AIMEE: Gráinne?

IMARI: Gráinne.

LIAM: "What do you want?"

IMARI: (laughs)

ALEXANDER: Excuse us. We're here to see Decklan.

LIAM: "Well, he's not here right now. Who are you?"

ALEXANDER: We're friends of his from Newfaire.

AIMEE: The university. We're students.

TALIESIN: I'm not. I'm a teacher.

LIAM: "What'd you come here for?"

ALEXANDER: He's a good friend of ours and we wanted to check in on him. We hadn't heard from him for a while.

LIAM: "He's visiting the family."

AIMEE: Oh. Well, he didn't take a leave of absence or anything and I was hoping he'd grade my paper.

ALEXANDER: We were just a little concerned about our friend.

LIAM: Another woman pops in behind her. (Woman 2) "What are you doing over here?"

AIMEE: Nora?

LIAM: (Gráinne) "I don't know. Who are they--" (Nora) "Yes?" "I'm sorry. Go mind the pigs." (Gráinne) "Telling me to mind the fucking pigs. I'll mind the fucking pigs when I want to." She stalks off into the house. (Nora) "I'm sorry. Who are you?"

ALEXANDER: We're friends of Decklan's and we came to visit him and check on him.

LIAM: "Oh, well, my brother's not here. Would you like to come in?"

ALEXANDER: We'd love to.

LIAM: "All right. Yeah, sure." You step in and you can smell a fire burning. There's a little fireplace in here. It's humble. It's not awful. It's not dilapidated or anything. It's cozy, but it's old and it's one large room and there's a door that leads probably towards the rear of the home in here. There is an old woman sitting in a rocking chair by a window, like 20 feet away from you, across the room. The rocking chair's rocking and she's a stockier older woman with graying, reddish brown hair. The rocking chair is rocking. She's just staring out the window, so you're just seeing the back of her head. "Come in. Come in." Nora says.

ALEXANDER: Thank you.

LIAM: "Yeah. My brother, he's out for a walk right now. I can't imagine he'll be gone long. Is everything all right?"

ALEXANDER: Yes, everything's fine as far as we know. We just, we're sailing by or returning home and he had told us that this is where he grew up.

LIAM: "Oh, goodness."

ALEXANDER: We knew that he was here visiting.

LIAM: "So you're coming from the big city, then?"

ALEXANDER: Yes.

TALIESIN: Yes.

LIAM: "Oh!"

TALIESIN: I'm clearly.

LIAM: "Oh my."

ALEXANDER: I know we look a little out of place.

LIAM: "Oh, my." A third sister comes in. The woman you were just speaking to, Nora, has very short, short-cut hair, on the verge of pixie cut, but a little mousier. Then this third woman that comes in is petite and has her same color hair, but it's tied tightly back into a ponytail and she's all smiles. "Oh my. Did you come from Newfaire?"

ALEXANDER: We did.

LIAM: "That's amazing!"

AIMEE: Hello.

LIAM: "You came to see Decklan, did you?"

ALEXANDER: Yes.

TALIESIN: Oh, yes.

LIAM: "Oh, goodness. Oh, he's out taking a walk right now. Would you like a bit of tea or something?"

ALEXANDER: That would be lovely.

AIMEE: That would be great.

LIAM: (Margaret) "I would like a bit of tea." (Pegeen) "Ah, Ma?" "All right. Tea?"

AIMEE: Yes.

IMARI: Sure. I'd love a spot.

AIMEE: Go up to Margaret. Hello, Mother Margaret. I'm Grimoria. I'm a student of your son's. How are you doing?

LIAM: (Margaret) "I'm hungry."

AIMEE: Oh, we should get you something to eat.

LIAM: "We should get me something to eat." She looks back out the window.

AIMEE: Are you looking for someone?

LIAM: "Decklan's out."

AIMEE: How long has he been gone?

LIAM: "Part of the day."

AIMEE: Oh. But he always comes home?

LIAM: (Pegeen) "'Course he always comes home. Doesn't he always come home? You're always worrying. He's fine." (Margaret) "He's gone up by the fairy homes."

AIMEE: Fairies.

IMARI: Fairy homes?

LIAM: "Aye." She turns away from you, looks out the window. Nora leans down the hallway that leads out the back, going like, "How are they? Do they have to be fed?" (Gráinne) "I'm fucking feeding them. I said I would. Mother above."

AIMEE: I would be in a bad mood, too, if I had to feed the pigs.

TALIESIN: I'll see if they need any help with anything, I see a kitchen, and I desperately want to see it.

LIAM: There is a kitchen. Although, so, we've got-- Gráinne went out the back to the pigs , and Nora and Pegeen are playing House, although Pegeen is working out, and there's a tea kettle over the fire, and she's stoking the fire, and getting it going to make the tea. There is a kitchen. No one's in there right now, but there is-- it's a drab little place, and there is a little icebox, and a simple wooden table, and there is a painting on the wall of four little kids of various age, probably between eight and 15.

TALIESIN: Does it seem like a family portrait?

LIAM: Yeah, it's the kids together.

TALIESIN: Okay--

ALEXANDER: (laughs)

LIAM: Yeah, there's one boy, and three girls.

TALIESIN: I was just making sure it was the boy and three girls. Are they--

AIMEE: It's the kids they fed to the pigs.

TALIESIN: Are there--

AIMEE: There are no good questions.

TALIESIN: It's entirely-- weirder things have happened.

AIMEE: Totally.

TALIESIN: Sometimes it is the photo that came with the frame.

AIMEE: (laughs)

LIAM: (Margaret) "It's not right."

TALIESIN: I was going to say, I'd be happy to help cook, if you like, I desperately miss it, and I'm quite good at it.

LIAM: Nora says, "Ah, that's okay, we do have some biscuits. Do you want biscuits with your tea?"

ALEXANDER: Biscuits would be grand.

LIAM: "All right."

TALIESIN: What sort of tea is this, by the way? I'm always-- is this local?

LIAM: "(laughs) Aye, just about everything here is local."

TALIESIN: Excellent.

LIAM: "If you want, the biscuits are in that cabinet by the stove, if you want to get it."

TALIESIN: Thank you, yes, I hate not being useful.

LIAM: (Margaret) "I'm hungry."

TALIESIN: And I'm going to go up and--

AIMEE: Maybe we should get Mother Margaret a biscuit, quick.

TALIESIN: Yes, oh, everyone gets a biscuit.

LIAM: You scuttle off to the kitchen.

TALIESIN: Mm-hmm.

LIAM: All right.

TALIESIN: I am-- looking around.

LIAM: You three are in here. You're by--

ALEXANDER: Sorry to drop in on you like this, unannounced.

LIAM: (Nora) "No, it's all right, you know? I'm sure he'll be back any minute. He's been gone about an hour or so."

AIMEE: You all seem pretty worried about the fairy houses. Can you tell me more, a little bit about that?

LIAM: "Don't worry about what me ma says, she took-- she's a bit doddy, you know?"

IMARI: What are the fairy houses, though?

LIAM: "Ah, they're old, you know, they're old stone huts that have been there for ages, ages and ages. And--"

IMARI: Interesting.

AIMEE: Nobody lives there?

LIAM: (Margaret) "It's not right."

AIMEE: What's not?

LIAM: She turns to you.

AIMEE: What's not right about it?

LIAM: "It's not right. Poor boy. Don't you believe him?"

AIMEE: I would love to believe him.

LIAM: "It's not right." You hear behind you (pattering footsteps). Pegeen, who was stoking the fire, has an iron poker, and she goes, (heavy slam).

IMARI: Oh fudge.

AIMEE: At what?

LIAM: Into the mother's head.

IMARI: Oh shit.

LIAM: Which splits, and cranial matter, and brain, and blood goes (spurts).

AIMEE: (gasps)

LIAM: Your face goes (spatters). Malcolm, behind you, you hear, (quick footsteps) Gráinne is there, and you turn around, and she goes (whooshes) and blows something into your face, and you go--

IMARI: I knew it.

LIAM: (sputtering and coughing) Start coughing as something just went up into your nostrils, and down your throat--

IMARI: Shit.

LIAM: -- you immediately feel burning in the back of your throat, and in your nose. The mother's body leans in the wheelchair. Excuse me, the rocking chair, and begins to slowly spill, pour out onto the rug, and blood starts going (glubbing).

AIMEE: Ugh.

LIAM: (blood gurgles)

TALIESIN: I think we should move at high speed. I'm going to try and find--

LIAM: Pegeen turns. (pants) And runs at you.

AIMEE: Okay, before she does, can I move? Can I do something?

LIAM: You can attempt to move.

AIMEE: I'm going to attempt to move, and also, from my little magician's kit, I have what's sort of a smoke bomb that I use sometimes in my performances. As she goes to strike either one of us, I attempt to throw it, and create some smoke to frazzle her.

LIAM: Okay. I will say that the room, I will pause that die roll, and say that the room instantly fills with smoke, and we hear the sound of Nora and Pegeen are both coughing. Everyone's coughing, now you are coughing a bit as well.

AIMEE: Yeah.

LIAM: You especially are coughing--

IMARI: What is this bullshit?

LIAM: -- your whole throat, and especially the inside of your nostrils, and behind your eyes feels like it's itching. There's a burn back there. It is hard to see in here for a minute, and we can all see silhouettes moving in your magician's improvised trick.

AIMEE: Yep.

LIAM: The iron poker that she was holding, you hear it, go (quick whoosh). You hear what you think was the middle sister, Nora, go, "(groans and gasps)."

AIMEE: Oh god.

LIAM: The smoke starts to clear.

AIMEE: Okay.

LIAM: You are in the kitchen when this happens, and you, out the back window, you see Gráinne, you see her running away from the house, out the back, with something in her hand. She is running out the back pen in this moment.

AIMEE: Towards us?

LIAM: Away from the house--

AIMEE: No, away from us, okay.

LIAM: -- out the back. (sighs)

TALIESIN: Is there a way out in the kitchen, or no?

LIAM: No.

TALIESIN: Shit.

AIMEE: Just wondering.

LIAM: The kitchen is off of a long hallway, and there's a couple more doors, and Pegeen, the smoke is starting to clear. "(pants)" Nora is on the ground, and there is blood pouring down her rib, and there is a huge gash, because the poker, an iron poker, if you're unfamiliar, has a long spike--

AIMEE: Yeah.

LIAM: -- then it's got a hook.

AIMEE: There's a little hook, yeah.

LIAM: That hook went (intense impact). But Pegeen "(pants)" rips the poker out, and she sees you coughing, and she comes running, and starts to swing at you.

IMARI: Okay, well, I definitely want to dodge and parry.

LIAM: Okay, make a Move.

TALIESIN: You're going to dodge and parry?

IMARI: Yeah, well, I'm sorry, parry and strike, sorry.

TALIESIN: Parry, well, no, I mean, I was, I was thinking--

IMARI: Isn't this parry?

TALIESIN: Well, I have nothing dealt with, I don't--

IMARI: I'm going to do dodge.

LIAM: Mm-hmm.

IMARI: Okay, so that's a Move, right?

AIMEE: Think I just got nauseous.

LIAM: Yeah.

IMARI: Because--

ALEXANDER: I think Edgar's just been sitting in the chair he was sitting in, he hasn't fully understood what's happening all of a sudden. He's just staring at the mother, trying to figure out what happened.

IMARI: Five. Five gilded.

LIAM: Five gilded, so you choose that gilded, you get a drive, a drive in there--

IMARI: Then I will happily fill that drive.

LIAM: Okay, you refill that drive.

IMARI: (increasingly higher-pitched doots)

LIAM: (sighs) So you see her coming at you with an up-handed swing, and you throw yourself out of the way, and feel your foot step on the old woman's arm, and you fall backward--

IMARI: Oh god.

LIAM: -- and stumble, and lightly rap your head on the side of the rocking chair, and you are now on the ground. She is pulling the poker out of a dresser cabinet that she has obliterated the tabletop of, going, "(intense grunts)"

IMARI: I want to put her in a bare naked choke hold.

LIAM: That'll be Control, I think. Finesse, yeah.

IMARI: Awesome.

LIAM: No, or we, you can do-- Let's do Strike.

IMARI: Oh, Strike?

LIAM: I think that's Strike.

IMARI: Okay. Oh my god, no, baby, no, baby, no, no. Two.

LIAM: Two?

TALIESIN: Didn't you say you have a-- Well, no.

IMARI: No. It's a two.

LIAM: You go--

IMARI: How do I not get her in a bare naked choke hold?

LIAM: You pull yourself up, you were on your back. You get up and you try to dive at her, and she somehow manages to pull the poker free and then bap the handle of it off the side of your face, pushing you down. She scrambles away, and plows into the side of the door, grunts as she hits it, and then turns to stand. Nora on the floor, who is bleeding profusely, you see a glint of metal, and she is swinging around from the floor, and shoving a knife towards your thigh--

IMARI: Oh shit.

LIAM: -- Edgar. So you can make-- You can do anything you want. But you're getting stabbed at the moment.

ALEXANDER: Oh, good. So Edgar, catching eyes with Nora shakes him out of his confusion, and then registers the knife, and goes to essentially spin out of the chair, away from Nora. So just to make a dodge.

LIAM: Okay.

ALEXANDER: That is a four.

LIAM: A four?

ALEXANDER: Mm-hmm.

LIAM: You lunge out of the way of this oncoming knife and you feel it tear through your pant leg. You stumble back and feel yourself crash into Pegeen by the door, by the hallway that leads to the kitchen and out to the back. Who knows where Gráinne is at this moment, but you now have stumbled into this younger woman with a--

ALEXANDER: With the poker.

LIAM: -- a poker in her hands.

AIMEE: Am I anywhere near him?

LIAM: Yeah, it's not that big a room. She, as soon as you come in close, takes the poker and then throws it over your head and begins to pull up and press into your throat.

ALEXANDER: I, if I can, reach into my coat--

LIAM: Yes.

ALEXANDER: -- where I do have my tools.

LIAM: Yes.

ALEXANDER: I take the scalpel and I'm going to stick it in a very particular part of her thigh that will cause a lot of bleeding.

LIAM: Okay. So that is, for you, a Focus roll.

ALEXANDER: A Focus, because I have Anatomical Strike, which I know where the body is most vulnerable, and when attacking an enemy, I may roll Focus instead of Strike.

AIMEE: Yeah, baby.

LIAM: Great, so, you go tumbling backwards, feel yourself plunge into this maddened woman, and then you feel a metal bar under your throat, and you feel it starting to press hard into your Adam's (grunting) apple. (choked grunts)

ALEXANDER: Ooh, that would be a four. (sighs)

LIAM: A four.

ALEXANDER: I am distracted.

IMARI: All these fours.

ALEXANDER: But I get my gilded back.

AIMEE: Oh, I know. It's the curse of the set or something.

LIAM: She screams in pain as the scalpel, as you dig it into what you know is a point that will start to let the most blood. She screams, but you feel both of your bodies start to fall backward into the hallway.

ALEXANDER: Yeah.

LIAM: You land on top of her, causing her to scream further. But the poker goes (choking gasp) into your throat as you hit.

ALEXANDER: (chokes)

LIAM: You take a body.

AIMEE: At some point, can I follow him and try to, I guess, a lack of a better word, straddle his chest, and try to grab the poker from her? I'm assuming because she's been hit--

LIAM: Absolutely.

AIMEE: -- it's kind of loose, and I can do that.

LIAM: She is, she's on the ground with a scalpel shoved into her now between them.

AIMEE: Yeah.

LIAM: Yes, you can. You want to try to rip, or pull away?

AIMEE: I'd like to pull it away.

LIAM: Okay, yeah. So, he is gasping just the way--

AIMEE: Yeah.

LIAM: -- this man is. That would be-- That could be Strike, Strike or Control for you.

AIMEE: (scoffs) I'm going to--

ALEXANDER: Both equally great.

AIMEE: Both equally horrible. I'm going to spend a drive.

LIAM: Okay.

TALIESIN: Mm.

AIMEE: All right. So if I-- Just one. (laughs) Great.

TALIESIN: Oh. Okay.

AIMEE: Oh, come on.

ALEXANDER: (laughs)

IMARI: What'd we get, baby, what'd we get?

AIMEE: It's a one!

IMARI: Oh no! No, no, no--

TALIESIN: Do you have any resistance or anything?

AIMEE: That's a one. I do have resistance, but I have one.

TALIESIN: I mean, you might as--

AIMEE: So yeah. This is important. I'm going to use a resistance.

TALIESIN: Can't be worse.

AIMEE: Which means just--

ALEXANDER: Reroll your--

AIMEE: Just do one. I'm going to re-roll a different one, okay? I'm going to take this one.

IMARI: Get rid of that die.

AIMEE: Get rid of that, that one's in jail.

ALEXANDER: No, it's re-rolling the base roll, so you now roll two, and take the lower.

LIAM: So you don't get to add drives or help or anything.

AIMEE: No, just rerolling the one that I--

ALEXANDER: You roll the two and take the lower, because you're not adding the drive--

AIMEE: Oh, I roll two--

TALIESIN: Yeah.

AIMEE: -- and take the lower. Okay, well, that's--

LIAM: It's harder.

AIMEE: You think?

TALIESIN: Can't get worse.

ALEXANDER: Yeah.

TALIESIN: Yeah.

AIMEE: Oh! Both fives!

IMARI: Yeah!

LIAM: Both fives?

AIMEE: Yes!

TALIESIN: See?

LIAM: Wow!

AIMEE: Worth it!

LIAM: Wow, that's amazing.

AIMEE: Hoo!

LIAM: So--

TALIESIN: Mm!

IMARI: He's upset, he's like, "Damn it."

LIAM: Pegeen and Edgar go down, and you step through this minefield of a home, and lunge and get on top of Edgar and grab the bar--

AIMEE: Yes.

LIAM: -- and start to pull at it. Then you feel this whole knot that is the three of you buck as this smaller, larger than you--

AIMEE: Yes.

LIAM: -- but smaller woman begins to push up with her leg, and teeter-totter this whole knot over it, and you feel yourself lunging forward, so you're going into a headstand position--

AIMEE: Sure.

LIAM: Then rolling into the hallway.

AIMEE: Yep.

LIAM: You go clattering into the ground. It's not too bad, the poker gets ripped away, and goes-- (clanging)

ALEXANDER: (gasps for breath)

LIAM: -- in the hallway at your feet in the kitchen. You take a brain.

AIMEE: Okay.

LIAM: Because this is fucked.

AIMEE: Yep. Can I still-- Can I grab at the thing though that fell?

LIAM: Yes, you can.

AIMEE: Okay.

LIAM: At the poker, you mean?

AIMEE: At the poker. I'd like to have the poker.

LIAM: Can you tell me how many brain you are? That's one, right?

AIMEE: That's just one.

LIAM: Because you took a Stitch.

AIMEE: Because I did my Stitch.

LIAM: You took the Stitch. Thank you.

ALEXANDER: I'm--

IMARI: Thank god you did.

ALEXANDER: So am I still on top of her?

LIAM: Yes, and she's writhing--

AIMEE: I'm fucked.

ALEXANDER: Okay.

LIAM: -- like a freaked out cat.

ALEXANDER: I need you to know--

LIAM: Mm-hmm.

ALEXANDER: -- that I'm going to pull this out of your leg, and you're going to bleed a lot. Now, if you want me to stop that bleeding, you have to not try and kill me again. Do we have a deal?

LIAM: She's just ferally grunting at this point. "(grunts)"

ALEXANDER: Okay. I pull the scalpel out.

AIMEE: Yeah, bitch.

ALEXANDER: I start trying to get up.

TALIESIN: I'm going grab the poker and back up again.

AIMEE: Oh, I have you the poker.

LIAM: You've got the poker.

TALIESIN: Oh, wait.

AIMEE: I have the poker.

TALIESIN: You have the poker.

AIMEE: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

TALIESIN: Okay.

LIAM: Okay. Okay.

TALIESIN: See if I can find the teapot. What's in the kitchen is the--

AIMEE: Knife?

LIAM: Well, there are kitchen knives visible, and there is a tea set platter, and--

TALIESIN: There's not a hot pot of tea, is there?

LIAM: No, the tea is on the fire.

TALIESIN: Mm.

AIMEE: Ah, shit.

TALIESIN: It's okay. But there are kitchen knives.

LIAM: There are kitchen knives, there are three kitchen knives, and one of them is a big fatty like you're hoping for.

TALIESIN: Mm-hmm.

IMARI: (laughs)

AIMEE: (laughs)

LIAM: (sighs) Malcolm, your eyes are starting to redden a little bit. You're feeling like you're having some sort of allergic reaction, and you don't know what. You're having trouble breathing in here, and you feel like you want fresh air right now.

AIMEE: At any point, can I yell: I think Gráinne has gone to get more villagers. We should get the fuck out of here.

TALIESIN: Mm-hmm.

AIMEE: Gráinne.

LIAM: So you pull the knife out.

ALEXANDER: I pull the scalpel out, and I'm now trying to disentangle myself from her.

LIAM: She is trying to disentangle from you. She starts to crawl away, and you do see a little smear of blood on the floor as she moves. Nora is on her feet now, though.

AIMEE: Oh, okay.

LIAM: She has got a knife in her hand, and she awkwardly flips it around so it's in this position, and she is now walking towards the two of you.

AIMEE: I got the poker.

ALEXANDER: I have my scalpel.

LIAM: She sizes you up really fast, and then she instead turns, and shoves the knife towards Malcolm's chest.

IMARI: Oh great.

ALEXANDER: You can take--

AIMEE: We have time to react, or no?

ALEXANDER: Or, I-- I don't think so.

IMARI: I got to move.

TALIESIN: Yeah, I was going to start--

LIAM: Anyone can try to do anything as long, soon as you call it--

TALIESIN: Oh.

LIAM: -- you make it reality.

TALIESIN: If it was clear, I was going to try and start sneaking around her to see if I could get a shot behind her.

LIAM: (clears throat)

TALIESIN: I took, I pocketed the other two knives.

LIAM: I would say that you can catch up with her, but since I called the--

TALIESIN: Yeah.

LIAM: -- the action of the scene, that that precedes it. So--

ALEXANDER: But-- (grunts)

LIAM: All of you see this. Now, it can proceed any way you want, you can try to get out of there.

AIMEE: Can I-- Am I close enough to try to swing at her head with the poker?

LIAM: I think so.

AIMEE: Okay, I'd like to try to do that, try to disrupt it.

IMARI: I would like lend her a drive for that, too, by the way.

AIMEE: What is that, Strike, right?

ALEXANDER: Yeah.

LIAM: How do you help?

IMARI: I want to try to, in my-- I'm gagging, I'm gagging, I want to try to shove her closer to Grimoria, so that she has a more of a better chance to strike her. To get her off balance so that Grimoria can--

LIAM: Okay, sure, I could say you can see Grimoria with poker in hand. She's coming at you to kill you. So I think you could try to bat her away as you're hacking.

IMARI: Yeah, because I'm (coughing).

AIMEE: Okay.

LIAM: You can take that drive.

IMARI: Out of desperation.

LIAM: You got it.

AIMEE: Which just means I get the one. Okay. Fuck.

ALEXANDER: (laughs)

LIAM: (impacts)

IMARI: I'm dead.

AIMEE: I'm so sorry.

LIAM: Sinks into Malcolm's chest up to the hilt in the side, and you feel cold steel run into the center of your body. You take a body.

IMARI: Yep.

LIAM: Is that three marks, or your fourth?

IMARI: That's two.

AIMEE: Oh god.

LIAM: Two?

TALIESIN: I'm going to take this opportunity to try and get right around into the neck and hit her in the neck since her weapon's currently stuck.

LIAM: So you're coming at Nora, right?

TALIESIN: Yeah, I'm coming around and trying to get in.

LIAM: Sure. So you see that happen. She is completely engrossed in the act of violence that she is committing to, and you follow up, a chain reaction. You make a Strike.

TALIESIN: Mm-hmm. This is going to suck unless anybody's got any way to help.

AIMEE: I literally don't have anything to give you.

TALIESIN: I know

AIMEE: I'm so sorry.

TALIESIN: That's okay.

IMARI: Wait, I'm going to burn a drive.

TALIESIN: Thank you.

IMARI: Yeah.

ALEXANDER: How would you help?

AIMEE: All my drives are gone.

IMARI: Oh, I already burned a drive. Shit, I'm out of stuff.

TALIESIN: You've got her--

IMARI: Shit.

TALIESIN: Honestly, you've got her.

LIAM: A knife in your chest.

IMARI: Yeah, yeah.

LIAM: That doesn't mean you can't move. If you can give me a narrative explanation to how you help.

IMARI: The knife is right here, so maybe I hold onto her--

LIAM: Mm-hmm.

IMARI: -- as he's going so she doesn't move, so I give a better strike.

LIAM: You draw her in and hold the knife in your chest, so she can't retract and get away.

IMARI: She can't retract any. Yeah.

LIAM: It digs deeper and it hurts like hell.

IMARI: (groans)

LIAM: Here comes Leo.

TALIESIN: Come on.

IMARI: (grunts) Four.

LIAM: Four.

TALIESIN: (grunts)

AIMEE: I need to start fucking warming up this fucking hand, let me tell you what.

LIAM: The knife sinks into this woman's, into her shoulder and neck. It's a knife, it is a kitchen knife. It is this long, and almost all of it goes (knife thrusting) and sinks into this middle-aged woman's back, this villager, this normal person. She screeches while her sister Pegeen is dragging herself along the floor and trying to stand. She flails wildly back into you and the two of you go stumbling into Pegeen and all three of you get caught up in each other and fall towards the fire. Nora stops short with the blade in her shoulder, standing in the room, and you and Pegeen fall past and stumble into the fire. You smack your head on the mantle of this fireplace and Pegeen stumbles absolutely into the fire, her face in the fire. You take a body.

TALIESIN: Yeah, that's great.

AIMEE: They're going to think we did this shit.

LIAM: You hear in the fireplace, "(desperate groaning)"

IMARI: Oh, man.

LIAM: One sister is in the fire and the other one is groaning and trying to pull a knife out. She is going to run at you, charge at you with a knife in her back and try to plow, tackle you.

AIMEE: Can I--

ALEXANDER: Okay, so what I'm going to do, as she charges me-- This is so difficult. Edgar's going to fall to the ground.

LIAM: Drop?

ALEXANDER: Drop backwards. As she charges, I'm going to stick out the scalpel and slice the back of her tendon.

TALIESIN: Ooh! No, no, no!

IMARI: Surgical precision.

AIMEE: Like the Achilles?

TALIESIN: (groans) Feel that. Oh no.

IMARI: Yeah, me too.

TALIESIN: I feel that right in the-- Ugh.

ALEXANDER: Six.

LIAM: Six.

IMARI: Oh nice.

TALIESIN: Fuck!

IMARI: Candela!

TALIESIN: Candela.

LIAM: This woman with her--

AIMEE: We're getting some Candelas.

LIAM: -- pixie haircut--

AIMEE: All ones.

LIAM: -- in her mid-30s with a steak knife coming out of her back comes lumbering at you like a steer, like a freight train, and leaps and you go limp, tall noodle that you are, and you've still got the scalpel. She runs up and on you, and you see the opening and you reach out and slice. It cuts through her tendon and you feel the muscle, that thick tissue separate and she stumbles, crashes over you, hitting your head, inconsequentially, as she falls into the hallway and is now dragging away from you up--

AIMEE: Jeez, will not die.

LIAM: (moaning)

ALEXANDER: We're not trying to kill her.

LIAM: -- towards the back door. Pegeen has gotten up and is burning, her hair is burning and her face is charred and she is beat to fuck.

IMARI: (laughs)

LIAM: She starts to lumber towards the front door that you came in and pushes the door open.

ALEXANDER: Please sit down. Stop! What are you doing?

LIAM: She is, her arms hang slack by her sides and she begins to walk lamely down the muddy path away from the home.

AIMEE: We got to get her.

ALEXANDER: I'll walk--

AIMEE: We got to get her.

ALEXANDER: I got to attend to Malcolm. Please, you two go get her.

TALIESIN: I'm going to start following her down and I've left that one knife, I've got two others now and I'm going to start walking down.

AIMEE: I think she, we just, if you are cool with grabbing her by one arm and we'll drag her back because if I'm these villagers fucking see her, we're--

TALIESIN: I'm knocking her down.

AIMEE: Oh, perfect.

TALIESIN: I was going to pull her down.

AIMEE: Right.

LIAM: You knock her down. As she rolls over onto the floor, onto the ground, the earth and she flips over and her hair is muddy and bloody and streaked through her face and she's staring at the sky and her arms are weakly--

TALIESIN: Where is Decklan?

LIAM: -- swatting into you.

TALIESIN: Where is Decklan?

AIMEE: We got to get her out.

LIAM: Arms are hitting you.

TALIESIN: Where is your brother? Where is he?

LIAM: Her arm slumps into the mud.

AIMEE: I'm going to grab her by the feet and start dragging her back into the house.

TALIESIN: I'll help.

LIAM: You begin to pull her body, her corpse through the mud and Leo grabs the other half and you get her inside. You are calming. It is calming. The intensity is lessening, but one of those women just did something to you and you don't know what they did.

ALEXANDER: Hey, hey, hey, hey, calm down. It's going to be okay. I got you.

IMARI: (gasps)

ALEXANDER: Just slow breaths. Concentrate on breathing.

TALIESIN: I'm going to-- Where the fuck is that bitch?

ALEXANDER: It's just an allergic reaction.

LIAM: Nora has made it within about two feet of the back door down that longer hallway and is slow like a slug--

TALIESIN: I'm going to walk over there.

LIAM: -- with the knife protruding from her back.

TALIESIN: I'm going to grab the ankle.

AIMEE: Yeah, I'll grab the other one.

TALIESIN: Not right now. What are you? What?

LIAM: She flexes around and reaches at your throat--

TALIESIN: I am staying back.

LIAM: -- and is reaching for you, ineffectually.

TALIESIN: Where are the Murphys? What's wrong with the fairy houses?

LIAM: "(lightly gasping)"

TALIESIN: I am backing up now and I'm going to throw, grab the plate of crisps and throw it at her.

AIMEE: Crisps. (laughs)

LIAM: They batter off of her face. One hand drops down and one continues to pathetically grab at the knife in her back and the hand gets her on the handle, and her body sinks into the wall and you watch her face press and she lies still like that, holding the knife in her own body.

TALIESIN: I'm going to grab the poker. You have it, right?

AIMEE: Yeah, here, here.

TALIESIN: I'm going to very gently get her hand off the knife. (thumps)

LIAM: (thuds) And lumps onto the floor.

AIMEE: I don't know what to do here. They're going to think we did this, so either we run and leave Decklan, or we burn the house down, cover all the evidence. I don't know.

TALIESIN: Oh, I think they know damn well what was going to happen up here.

ALEXANDER: Where did the third one go?

AIMEE: Probably to get everybody else.

ALEXANDER: Which way?

TALIESIN: One of them ran, but she looked normal.

LIAM: She left to feed the pigs. You saw her at the kitchen.

TALIESIN: She ran.

LIAM: Running out the yard.

ALEXANDER: Did she go towards town, or did she go towards where?

TALIESIN: She did not.

LIAM: You look out the window in the back now and you can see a pen and you do see three pigs in the back, nosing around in the mud, and there's a field that becomes more stony as it goes and raises up into a hill. You do see some, in the distance, there is some dark mound or something, ball on the wall.

ALEXANDER: Okay, here's the thing. I got to take care of Malcolm and then when we can move, we'll follow her, but right now I have to make sure he's okay.

TALIESIN: No.

ALEXANDER: I'm going to attend to Malcolm who is stabbed and also choking.

LIAM: Yes.

TALIESIN: I'm going to--

LIAM: He's not choking, sorry. He's not choking anymore.

ALEXANDER: Okay.

LIAM: Malcolm, you are breathing.

IMARI: But I have this knife that's in my chest.

LIAM: That is the problem.

IMARI: Right.

LIAM: The breathing, the burn is subsiding, it's fading.

IMARI: But then also, like, I'm like--

ALEXANDER: Just chill.

LIAM: It's down here.

IMARI: Down here.

LIAM: Yeah.

ALEXANDER: Where exactly? In the side, okay. Here, look, we're going to have to take it out.

IMARI: Just do it, dude. Just pull it. Pull it!

TALIESIN: Grimoria, let's go somewhere else while this is happening.

ALEXANDER: Move your hand.

TALIESIN: Come on.

IMARI: Ugh.

ALEXANDER: Okay, and there's a possibility you're going to have a punctured lung.

IMARI: What?

ALEXANDER: We're going to find out in a minute.

IMARI: All right.

AIMEE: Do you need us to put pressure or anything?

ALEXANDER: I need you to grab me a kitchen towel.

AIMEE: Okay.

TALIESIN: We already-- Yeah. I'm running into the kitchen and grabbing.

AIMEE: Yeah.

ALEXANDER: I... pull it.

IMARI: Oh! (gasps)

ALEXANDER: Then I slam the towel against it. Okay, how's your breathing?

IMARI: That's good.

ALEXANDER: Can you breathe?

IMARI: Oh god.

LIAM: It is... It is, you don't hear any bubbling or liquid.

ALEXANDER: Okay, I think you're going to be okay.

TALIESIN: I am tearing the cabinets apart. I'm looking for anything, especially anything, any powder. I'm looking for anything unusual going through.

ALEXANDER: Grimoria--

LIAM: Make a Survey roll, yeah.

ALEXANDER: -- look for a belt. I need a belt.

AIMEE: I'm going to try to search the bodies for a belt.

LIAM: Yeah, I would say that Nora has a belt and she is wearing slacks. Pegeen was in a skirt.

AIMEE: Okay. So I take the belt, give it to you. While he does his thing with the belt, is there any opportunity for me to-- I know it's like they just died, but is there anything there for me to glean, like left behind any residual spirit energy that I might be able to connect to?

LIAM: You can Sense. You can try Sense.

AIMEE: Okay.

ALEXANDER: I'm going to, I want--

AIMEE: Three die. One gilded, okay. So if I have three and then I use a gilded, I just replace one of those.

ALEXANDER: Yes.

AIMEE: Okay. Here we go, you dumb fucks. Oh! Five on the gilded.

LIAM: Five on the gilded.

ALEXANDER: So you can replace one of those.

TALIESIN: Four gilded on mine, but I'll wait until this is done.

AIMEE: Sorry.

TALIESIN: No, no, no. We're all doing the work.

LIAM: What I can tell you as you kneel by each of these bodies, one after the other, is that you have learned to feel souls on a very subtle level. And you feel emptiness in both of these two. It has happened in your time, your short years, living amongst the dead, where you have felt souls staying behind, or restless, or even just there for a moment. Not every time.

AIMEE: Right.

LIAM: You don't bat 1,000.

AIMEE: Right.

LIAM: But you don't feel anything now.

AIMEE: Damn it, I got nothing.

LIAM: They didn't stay behind.

AIMEE: They didn't stay behind.

LIAM: No.

AIMEE: This is a stupid question, but were they human souls?

IMARI: I was going to say, were they there to begin with?

TALIESIN: Were they ever there?

IMARI: Were they ever there?

LIAM: It's a hard question for me to answer. You're searching?

TALIESIN: I am, and I got four gilded.

LIAM: Four gilded. It's not a big house.

TALIESIN: No.

LIAM: You spend two or three minutes. Side note, oldest sister Gráinne left those two or three minutes ago.

ALEXANDER: Yeah, I know.

LIAM: You find all manner of cutlery and women's underwear and pill bottles, anything that you would find in a house out here in the middle of nowhere. You do find a little pouch, not in the house. You finally end on the sisters and--

TALIESIN: I'm going to, I'm also going to--

LIAM: -- in Nora's pocket there is a little pouch of something. Dust.

TALIESIN: I'm going to-- I have a bleed detector I have not had the chance to use yet and I'm going to pull out this, it's a strange little contraption. It looks like a snuff box almost, but a snuff box lighter combination. It's a little odd and it has this wheel and you spin it and I spin it with my thumb and it has this little, it looks like a lighter, it either glows red or it sometimes it glows green just as I--

LIAM: And red means?

TALIESIN: Red means nothing, but when the green hits, there's something odd and I'm running it over.

LIAM: Yes, you bring it in proximity to this stuff and it puzzles you because it, you look at it for a good half minute and you're wondering if you're getting a false positive. It is faint to the point where you're mostly doubting, you're thinking you're imagining it or you want to see it, you expect to see it. Or maybe you are.

TALIESIN: I'm bringing it out. It's odd and I'm trying to see if it's a powder or a herb, or--

LIAM: It is, here in this little living room in a cottage, it looks like a dry, white, inconsistent powder. Like it's not fine. There's texture or larger grains.

TALIESIN: Does it look like-- I think I got a hint of what happened there. Does it look (puffing) like it would.

LIAM: It could be that, yeah.

TALIESIN: I think this may be the culprit, maybe not, and I'm going to gently close it and I'm going to feel, is it spongy? Is it sand?

LIAM: It's dry.

TALIESIN: Okay.

LIAM: It feels dry to the touch.

TALIESIN: There's only one bag that I found.

LIAM: Yeah.

TALIESIN: Okay.

ALEXANDER: I've cut up the side of his shirt. I've opened it up and I'm looking at it. It's just, did the knife wound get twisted or is it just a slice?

LIAM: Straight in.

ALEXANDER: Straight in, okay, so I go into my medical kit. Grimoria, please apply pressure. I go into my medical kit, I get gauze or a small something of the like, and I'm going to press it, remove the towel, press the gauze in there, and then I'm going to take the belt and I wrap it around your chest and tighten it against the wound, leaving that there. That's going to have to do for now until I can suit you up.

IMARI: Gotcha.

ALEXANDER: How are you? Can you stand?

IMARI: Yeah, I think so.

TALIESIN: Yeah, come on. Come on, let's get you up.

IMARI: (grunts)

ALEXANDER: We need to follow her.

TALIESIN: Yes, yes we do.

AIMEE: All right.

ALEXANDER: I just--

TALIESIN: I don't think they have a walking stick, but you can try using the poker.

IMARI: Ugh, fucking poker.

AIMEE: Is it worthwhile, one of us taking him back to the ship?

IMARI: I'm not going anywhere.

TALIESIN: I don't think that's a good idea.

ALEXANDER: I don't think he would go even if I told him to.

TALIESIN: No, he really wouldn't.

IMARI: Figure this out right here.

LIAM: So you guys move out the back of this house past three little pigs in a pen and move through the grass and start to move through this small field behind their home. The land is already moving up almost immediately. You're climbing a hill, and the grass fades pretty quickly and you start to see more stone. The whole landscape really becomes cracked chunks of rock, almost like what you'd expect if you looked-- You guys have looked through a telescope and peered and imagined the moon. You could almost imagine you are on the moon, except here, shoved in between all these stones, you see occasional wild flowers growing out of it. Again, this island, just eerily beautiful but barren, and you have to start to climb. The stones get larger and you are climbing your way up now a pretty steep incline. It's not like you need rock climbing equipment, but you don't want to stop paying attention. If you take a tumble, it won't be good. You eventually make it up to a plateau. This is five minutes later, so it was pretty close. About 100 feet ahead of you on this bumpy plateau of stone, broken up chunks, you see what looks like a stone dome, almost like part of an egg, maybe 20 feet high and with the clouds moving overhead, it's a gray day and there is a dark, rough, rectangular hole at the base of this. So maybe this is a fairy home, but it's shaped like an egg or a beehive and it's just sitting by itself.

IMARI: That's odd.

TALIESIN: This is worse than I imagined.

AIMEE: Can I use Illumination Key to Sense Phenomena?

LIAM: You can Sense, you can do an action to Sense, yeah.

AIMEE: Why not? A roll? I will use a gilded die.

LIAM: Yeah.

IMARI: ♪ Boo boo boo, doo doo doo ♪

TALIESIN: Every time after.

LIAM: Yes, of course. Of course.

IMARI: (laughs)

LIAM: Yeah, hit me with what you got, guys.

AIMEE: Well, I got a Candela.

TALIESIN: Yeah!

LIAM: A six?

AIMEE: It's not on the gilded, yeah.

ALEXANDER: A six.

IMARI: Candela.

AIMEE: A Candela.

TALIESIN: Candela. Yeah, no, you win that. That range.

LIAM: In this moment of fear and doubt, you close your eyes and listen to those voices that have been whispering in your ear all day and a part of yesterday. In those whispers, you feel like you can hear Decklan's voice mixed in, and he's reaching out in the way only you are able to reach out. It's obvious he's waiting for you, in some way calling to you.

AIMEE: I share that with the group.

TALIESIN: I'm running the bleed detector quietly like a fidget toy.

ALEXANDER: Okay.

LIAM: It's not a false positive.

TALIESIN: No.

LIAM: It is starting to glow.

TALIESIN: I have the bag as well.

LIAM: Every step closer you take, it brightens.

TALIESIN: I put it away. I have the bag and I'm probably just touching the knife in the pocket.

LIAM: Okay. Knife, poker. Scalpel.

AIMEE: Wait, who's got the poker?

TALIESIN: I have two knives.

LIAM: Oh, I thought we gave it to Malcolm.

ALEXANDER: Imari has it.

AIMEE: Oh no, you should keep it because he's injured.

IMARI: I need that poker.

AIMEE: He's got the poker.

TALIESIN: I grabbed one knife in the sister and then I had two other in my pocket. I took the whole batch of them.

AIMEE: Can I grab one knife from you?

LIAM: Yes. Yeah.

TALIESIN: No, yes.

LIAM: You guys would be foolish not to.

AIMEE: Yeah.

TALIESIN: Yeah.

LIAM: You are slowly marching towards this fairy house.

TALIESIN: Oh.

LIAM: You close the distance. Edgar, you looked like you had something on your mind?

ALEXANDER: I'm looking at this fairy house and I do have Occult Researcher as a skill.

LIAM: Mm-hmm.

ALEXANDER: Where I can take one brain to ask the GM an important occult detail that I would recognize from your studies that has not yet been revealed. If there is none, I clear the brain mark.

AIMEE: Cool.

LIAM: Clear the brain mark.

ALEXANDER: Okay.

LIAM: But I will give you a non-phenomenon bit of knowledge, and that is that Oldfaire was a, for its time, very advanced, you all know, through alchemical artistry, a mighty place, but it was not the only thing in the world and there were other cultures that lived in and around it and held onto their identity in the outskirts of Oldfaire. Many of them lived in stone structures built by hand roughly where the weight-- There's no mortar, there's no anything holding it together except for early engineering.

ALEXANDER: Okay.

IMARI: Hmm.

ALEXANDER: (sighs)

LIAM: So we walk our way toward this structure.

IMARI: I'm going to get my gun out.

LIAM: Okay. 50 feet away. 30 feet away.

IMARI: He's just holding like that.

TALIESIN: Anything following us? Anything around?

LIAM: You don't see anything--

TALIESIN: Okay.

LIAM: -- easily. 20 feet away. 10 feet away.

AIMEE: I'm going through my Rolodex in my head.

LIAM: You're standing outside of this stone hut and you can just see a bit of the dim sunlight fading in, dirt floor on the ground. You don't see anything, but you hear far from you inside, "(soft, shuddering breathing)"

IMARI: Oh shit.

LIAM: "(shuddering breathing)"

AIMEE: That's Decklan.

IMARI: I'll race to assist immediately.

LIAM: Do you race in?

TALIESIN: Whoa, whoa, whoa.

ALEXANDER: Wait.

IMARI: Well, it's a bleed. Oh sorry, before I do that, sorry. Let me stop being impulsive. Are all our bleeds going off right now? Is it strong right now?

LIAM: Bleed is damage you take. Bleed is a negative effect.

ALEXANDER: Bleed detector.

IMARI: I'm going to use my bleed detector, sorry.

TALIESIN: Mine was going nuts as we were walking up.

AIMEE: Oh yeah, there is definitely magick.

LIAM: Leo's has already gone off.

TALIESIN: It was very obvious.

IMARI: I mean, how else are we going to figure it out?

LIAM: Grimoria believes she's heard him.

AIMEE: Yeah, he's definitely in there, that's him.

IMARI: I would say I'd go in there.

TALIESIN: Mm.

LIAM: So your friends are putting a hand on your arm.

IMARI: All right.

LIAM: But anyone wants anything can do anything they want.

ALEXANDER: You can.

TALIESIN: Decklan.

ALEXANDER: Yes. What was her name? What was the sister's name that ran away?

LIAM: Gráinne.

AIMEE: Gráinne.

IMARI: Oh yeah.

ALEXANDER: Gráinne, is that you in there? Can you hear me?

LIAM: "(soft, shuddering breathing)"

ALEXANDER: Or is that you, Decklan?

LIAM: "(soft whimpers)"

ALEXANDER: Can you hear me? All right, go in.

IMARI: We're going to have to freaking rip the bandaid off, gents and lady.

LIAM: You walk in the door and as soon as you step under, you have to lean down to get in here and you move your head in and you immediately on your right hear dirt scrabble and look and you see Gráinne with an axe--

IMARI: I shoot her.

LIAM: -- swinging down at you.

IMARI: Straight up.

AIMEE: (laughs)

IMARI: Shit, I got my gun ready to go.

AIMEE: Pow pow.

LIAM: The axe blade is moving. So you've got two ways of handling this. You can try to get out of the way of it.

IMARI: Oh.

LIAM: Or you can say screw it and take the hit and shoot this woman.

IMARI: Oh dude, no, no.

LIAM: But you are in this moment.

IMARI: I'm going to get out the way.

AIMEE: Yeah.

LIAM: All right.

IMARI: Because I can't get anymore damage, I might mess myself up even worse. (laughter)

TALIESIN: I was like, that's a bold--

IMARI: I'm going to burn a drive with that too, by the way.

TALIESIN: -- move going in there. Going to burn a drive here. Burn it!

TALIESIN: Yep. Oh man.

AIMEE: I wish I had one to give you.

IMARI: Give daddy some bacon. Give daddy some bacon. All right, I got a four.

LIAM: That's a four?

AIMEE: You got it back with the--

TALIESIN: You got a gilded.

IMARI: Yeah, I get it back.

AIMEE: Yeah, you get it back.

IMARI: I just left it. I didn't erase my drive.

TALIESIN: Anything to help with?

IMARI: It's all good. It's all good.

LIAM: In a split second, you hear that dirt scrabble and you realize she was fucking waiting for you. Then you try to twist your trajectory in time and pray that it is enough, and you feel the wood come crashing down on your noggin.

AIMEE: Goddamn it. At least it's the wood.

IMARI: Yeah, at least it's not steel.

AIMEE: Fuck.

LIAM: I'm going to shift it to brain because it was a solid clock and it certainly hurt, but more than anything, you just came within a split second of getting your head cleaved in half, and you are stressed. So take that brain.

IMARI: Got that brain.

LIAM: Okay, what happens next?

TALIESIN: Can we see her?

LIAM: You see her legs and lower half there inside the doorway of this stone structure.

TALIESIN: I will start to back up, but I will take the bag of whatever it is and start to threaten to pour it, and have the knife. Does it seem to do anything?

IMARI: Bro, she's crazy right now.

LIAM: She is locked on Malcolm--

TALIESIN: Okay, she's not there.

LIAM: -- and doesn't may any-- It makes sense to me. However--

TALIESIN: She's just not.

LIAM: She is in it.

ALEXANDER: I'm going to go through and try to push her away from Malcolm and take her down to the ground if I can.

LIAM: Okay, make a Strike move.

TALIESIN: (exhales forcefully)

ALEXANDER: ♪ I don't have anything in that ♪

AIMEE: I wish I could give you something.

ALEXANDER: Two.

LIAM: Two?

ALEXANDER: I have to roll two and take the lower.

LIAM: Oh!

TALIESIN: Do you have nothing to--

ALEXANDER: No.

TALIESIN: -- burn at all?

AIMEE: We're all out of drives.

ALEXANDER: I only have one drive.

TALIESIN: Drives are terrible.

AIMEE: Yeah. We're going to have to rethink that.

IMARI: I'm going to shoot her, because my drives are plentiful. Because I just took a--

LIAM: Hold that thought.

TALIESIN: Oh shit.

IMARI: I just took a mark.

LIAM: Edgar goes running in as you hold your head and move off to the side. You charge her and she turns, and with the axe-- You got a two?

ALEXANDER: Mm-hmm.

IMARI: Oh man.

LIAM: She doesn't have a chance to swing it, but she manages to whack it up under your chin.

ALEXANDER: Okay.

LIAM: You go falling back into the dirt. You take a body. As you, your jaw is--

ALEXANDER: (groans)

LIAM: -- maybe broken, and you hit the ground and look stunned as you are with this woman standing over your body. I will get to that gunshot in a second. Across the hut, you see Decklan Murphy cowered into the corner, arms up, his face pale white, mottled, some sort of growth around his eye and up into his hairline. "(fearful whimpering)" Over to you.

IMARI: Oh my god. So Decklan's over there, he has a growth. He has a growth on his face.

LIAM: Yes, and looks out of it and terrified or heartbroken or wrong.

IMARI: Or wrong, okay. So at this moment, his sister is--

LIAM: She's just--

IMARI: Boom. I want to shoot her.

LIAM: -- maybe broke her jaw.

AIMEE: Shoot her.

LIAM: Has her back to you.

AIMEE: Yeah, yeah, do it up.

IMARI: Okay, now-- One of my abilities is Sharpshooter.

LIAM: I know it well.

IMARI: All right, so that's "When you want to make a ranged attack with a weapon, you may spend one Nerve to steady your aim before shooting."

LIAM: Yes.

IMARI: "And add 2d to your next shot at this target."

LIAM: Yes.

AIMEE: Here we go.

IMARI: So the first-- So how does that work for me? So my one Nerve would be--

LIAM: So if you got a Nerve, you erase it, it's gone.

IMARI: Okay.

LIAM: You add two dice to the roll, and if anybody--

TALIESIN: Oh, is it--

ALEXANDER: Does that take time to aim the shots?

TALIESIN: Wait, what kind of Nerve does it take? Does it take a drive?

LIAM: That's just him, that's just making this moment count.

ALEXANDER: Okay.

TALIESIN: Okay, it takes a drive.

IMARI: I take one drive.

LIAM: She has turned away from him and rocked your world and is looking to you to then turn the axe around for the kill.

ALEXANDER: That was my worry.

LIAM: So she's got her back to you.

AIMEE: Shoot that bitch.

IMARI: So if I have-- So I add two more to the shoot, right?

LIAM: Yes.

IMARI: I have one Control.

LIAM: So using that ability burns a Nerve.

IMARI: Right.

LIAM: You get to add two dice to whatever you have for Strike-- Or, excuse me, for Control.

IMARI: Control.

LIAM: For shoot. If you want to burn drives if you have them, you can add more dice.

IMARI: I'm going to add, because I'm obviously not doing well right now with that, I'm going to add another drive.

LIAM: Okay.

IMARI: I want her done.

AIMEE: Wish I had one to give you. It's Nerve, right?

LIAM: Yes.

IMARI: I got four.

AIMEE: Yeah, I don't have anything.

IMARI: ♪ Oh, a handful of dice, Handful of dice ♪ ♪ Give Malcolm something nice ♪ Oh, I got a four.

LIAM: You got a four?

AIMEE: We'll take it. We'll fucking take it, man.

IMARI: Just shoot the girl in the butt. Shoot her in the booty. (chuckles)

ALEXANDER: Control.

IMARI: (laughs) How dare you shoot her.

AIMEE: Dude, I got nothing.

IMARI: Shoot her somewhere.

LIAM: The back of her head erupts.

AIMEE: Oh, thank god.

IMARI: Perfect, but with a cost.

LIAM: Spraying you--

AIMEE: I don't--

TALIESIN: No.

LIAM: -- with all the backside of her brain. You shot her from six inches away.

IMARI: Okay, maybe it was a little too-- I maybe overdid it a little bit.

AIMEE: No, it's fine.

LIAM: Well, I put you six inches away because of everything you burned. You spent a lot to make that shot count.

IMARI: Yeah.

LIAM: It was a small, enclosed place. She was going to kill your friend and you have just ended her. She's struck, staggers forward, and topples over on top of you. So many people toppling on top of you.

AIMEE: So skinny.

LIAM: And you hear a scrabble in the dirt behind you.

AIMEE: Oh no.

LIAM: Decklan gets up and starts to run through you all towards the door.

ALEXANDER: I grab him.

LIAM: Past you to the door. Makes his way out. You're still outside.

AIMEE: I'm still outside as well.

LIAM: You're still outside.

TALIESIN: I have the bag.

LIAM: You have the bag. Sunlight hits your friend and his face is decayed around the lip.

AIMEE: Does it look like the guy on the ship, like that sort of--

LIAM: No.

AIMEE: Okay, different.

LIAM: No, that guy was--

IMARI: Melted off.

LIAM: Sort of evaporated away.

AIMEE: Yeah.

LIAM: Decklan's face has got growth on it.

AIMEE: Okay.

LIAM: There is some sort of mottled white and pink growth on his face and he crashes into you. He comes crashing towards you.

AIMEE: Decklan!

LIAM: "(gasps)"

TALIESIN: Push him away.

AIMEE: Are you all right?

LIAM: "(pained groans)" Runs right into you.

IMARI: Okay.

AIMEE: Okay.

LIAM: If you don't move, he topples over, stumbles into you onto the ground. "(gasps)"

TALIESIN: Back! Back! And I pull it away.

IMARI: He might be contaminated.

LIAM: Bits of his face sort of fall away and not the dust that went into Malcolm's face, but chunks of his skin on this side of the face are spongy and break easily. You got little chunks falling in your face and little bit of it goes in your mouth--

IMARI: Oh no.

LIAM: -- you think, and he--

AIMEE: Throw up immediately.

LIAM: You take--

AIMEE: Yeah, literally.

TALIESIN: I was trying to drag her out of it.

LIAM: I'm going to say you take a brain. And you take a bleed.

ALEXANDER: I'm getting out of that hut--

LIAM: He doesn't stop, though. He falls on top of you and coughs and sputters.

AIMEE: Well, I, at this point there's enough time that I'm, I get hit, but I'm not going to stay down there.

LIAM: Yeah, but he actually has moved over and past you.

AIMEE: Sure, sure, sure. So he's away from me, and wait, so, quick. I get a special thing with bleed. What is the source of the bleed?

LIAM: What is the source of the bleed?

AIMEE: Yes.

LIAM: Decklan is the source of the bleed. Decklan is a phenomenon now by definition.

AIMEE: He is fully not himself.

ALEXANDER: Someone grab him.

LIAM: It's parsing language.

AIMEE: Is it fairy bleed, like is it anything?

LIAM: There's no fairy bleed in this world.

AIMEE: Okay, I don't know.

LIAM: No, there's fairy tales and tales of fairies.

AIMEE: Gotcha.

LIAM: Anyway, he's up on his feet and he is running--

TALIESIN: Is he up on his feet?

LIAM: -- over these unstable rocks away from you back towards the house.

TALIESIN: I wouldn't have, yeah--

ALEXANDER: Charging him.

TALIESIN: I was going to say, I wouldn't have let him get up.

ALEXANDER: (sternly) Somebody grab him!

TALIESIN: Yeah, I wouldn't have let him get up. I would've run and pushed.

LIAM: All right, so that would be a--

TALIESIN: I know.

LIAM: -- Strike.

TALIESIN: Yeah, that's going to suck.

AIMEE: Can't help you.

IMARI: Don't say that.

TALIESIN: Well... Two.

LIAM: Two.

IMARI: Four, you have four.

TALIESIN: I have nothing out of this.

LIAM: You run into him and his arm slaps you in the side of the face, not enough to truly harm you, but you get knocked back a foot or two and he continues to run. You see him fall in these rocks because it's very uneven and there's huge wedges that it's easy to twist an ankle in here.

ALEXANDER: Malcolm, grab him! He's going to fall off the edge.

LIAM: He stumbles and hits the ground.

IMARI: I'm going to go back from there. I'm going to seize upon the moment to go there and catch up with him and subdue him.

LIAM: All right, make a Move to catch up with him. He's about 40 feet ahead of you.

IMARI: All right. Candela.

LIAM: Candela.

AIMEE: Get that drive back.

IMARI: Can I get that drive again?

TALIESIN: Jeez.

LIAM: You go running along this plateau of stone and you are watching your steps as you go, stepping on stone, careful not to make one wrong step and wrench your ankle as you go. You catch up to him and you barrel into him and knock him down to the ground. You get him on his back on stone, and he is struggling against you with his arms and his eyes really don't feel like they're taking you in and he's just swatting at you. It's not enough to hurt you. You have the upper hand here.

IMARI: I have him, come over here and help me out.

LIAM: "(gasps)"

TALIESIN: I'm walking over.

IMARI: I want to-- Is there anything I can-- I'm like: Decklan, wait right here, man. Are you there?

TALIESIN: Keep-- be careful. Don't, what he's breathing is bad. Do not get anywhere near it.

AIMEE: Could I maybe use--

ALEXANDER: Let me see him.

AIMEE: -- connect with someone to see if he will tell me anything or I can hear anything through the voices, anything like before where I could sense him before I saw him?

LIAM: You could try to learn something new by rolling Sense again.

AIMEE: Okay. I'll keep rolling it 'til I get something.

ALEXANDER: Decklan, can you hear me? It's Edgar.

AIMEE: Oh! No, I got a Candela.

LIAM: You got Candela.

AIMEE: Just not on the gilded.

IMARI: (laughs)

AIMEE: We're going to call it that.

LIAM: He is there. You can feel him there, but he's not, which means his soul is present.

AIMEE: It's like, but it's like fighting for--

LIAM: He's not responding to you, Edgar.

ALEXANDER: Okay.

TALIESIN: I don't know what the powder would do. I'm going to take out a handkerchief and use it to at least keep him from coughing.

AIMEE: We can all try.

ALEXANDER: Just wait. I'm going to take some, in my medical kit, I assume I have ether or chloroform or something like that, some sort of thing to knock, to put someone out.

LIAM: Yeah.

ALEXANDER: I'm going to put him out, just knock him out.

LIAM: He struggles against it.

ALEXANDER: Hey, you're going to go to sleep for a little bit. It's going to be okay.

LIAM: His body goes limp.

ALEXANDER: We need to get him down from here.

IMARI: All right, let me help you out.

ALEXANDER: We got to carry him, we got to carry down the hill.

TALIESIN: I can't even feel my throat anymore. Okay.

ALEXANDER: Let me get the legs, you get the torso.

AIMEE: I mean, I'll help.

LIAM: Yeah.

AIMEE: We'll all help.

ALEXANDER: Before we bring him down.

LIAM: You guys carry him.

AIMEE: Yeah, and if you're going to carry, can you also point a gun while you carry?

IMARI: Well, I don't know if I need to yet because we're, I mean we don't have--

AIMEE: Maybe I can just have it.

IMARI: Yeah, why don't you hold onto it.

AIMEE: I'll hold onto it because we're going to help me.

IMARI: You're going to need that.

TALIESIN: Take a second to truss him up. If you don't mind, can I borrow you for one second, dear?

AIMEE: Sure.

TALIESIN: I'm going to walk back to that egg.

ALEXANDER: Yes.

TALIESIN: I'm going to pull out my lighter and walk in slowly and look around and I'm not going to breathe. I'm going to--

LIAM: Cover your mouth. It's a very old place. You can see in the far end where he was, where you found him, that there is traces of white chalky dust mixed with the soil here. There's no belongings.

TALIESIN: Is it similar to the dust that's in the bag?

LIAM: It could be, it could be. It's a similar color.

TALIESIN: I back out.

AIMEE: Get going or, down the hill?

IMARI: We have to make a decision. All right, it seems like if he himself is a bleed, and we do not know the source of, we don't know what's causing the bleed, we don't know what's affecting him, that we should contain him and bring him back for--

LIAM: The way to do that is to bring him home.

IMARI: Bring him home?

ALEXANDER: Yeah.

IMARI: We got to knock him out, though, and how far is home from where he is?

TALIESIN: Home is home.

LIAM: You're about a half day away from--

IMARI: Half day away.

AIMEE: I'm sure he's got plenty of that chloroform or ether, like you keep knocking him out.

IMARI: I bring him back to the shower, if we go back to the house at all.

TALIESIN: Keep him tied down.

ALEXANDER: Once we get him on the ship, we can restrain him. Knocking him out over and over again is not a good idea, it's not good for him.

IMARI: Yeah.

ALEXANDER: We need to get him on the ship, but that's going to raise questions when we walk through town. The ship's not there.

IMARI: So they have their farm. Is there any wheelbarrow-like instrument we can use to cover him up so that we can go through town and disguise him, the fact that we have him in the wheelbarrow? How long will chloroform work?

ALEXANDER: Depends on his system.

TALIESIN: Also, we can tie him up. It'll be easier to carry down the hill.

ALEXANDER: Look--

TALIESIN: What?

ALEXANDER: What we have to do-- we sent the ship away. It's not going to be there waiting for us and we can't just stand on the dock.

TALIESIN: We'll be able to do signal, but yes.

ALEXANDER: What we can do, I'm sure people on this island have rowboats. We steal a rowboat, we row out to the ship. We don't make a noise, we don't make a fuss, we just leave.

AIMEE: Do we see any rowboats nearby?

LIAM: Well--

ALEXANDER: Not here.

AIMEE: No, no, no, but like, or, you know, we can't be far from water or from another house.

LIAM: Here's what I'll do for him. You get him down to the house. That takes 15 minutes. You get out on the road with him and get near the coast, and it doesn't happen right away, but you do find a rowboat. This is a seaside place. No one challenges you and you climb in and lay your friend in the hull of this small boat and spend the next hour rowing your way back to the Dandridge. You're a day away from knowing anything, if you'll ever know anything. I think with all that you have suffered in the last 48 hours, we'll end things here. Returned to the Dandridge and heading home to see if you can figure out why your friend is not your friend. That's where we'll end our game. Well survived.

AIMEE: Not for lack of trying.

TALIESIN: Mm.

IMARI: Yeah. I know. (laughs) Boo yeah baby. High five, team.

LIAM: That was a good time.

IMARI: (laughs)

AIMEE: My blood pressure's like--

LIAM: Same. Same, same, same, same.

TALIESIN: Badder badmouth.

LIAM: (sighs) Well, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you too bad. Thank you very much for going to sea and traveling to Serenity with me. Too bad we didn't find any.

IMARI: (laughs)

AIMEE: Yeah, well, for a split second there. When you lose consciousness, kind of serene.

LIAM: Well, we've made it to the end of the first piece of our chapter. Do me a favor, you guys, you were such lovely players tonight. Will you please remind the audience of who you are here on Earth One and who you are playing as here in the Fairelands?

ALEXANDER: My name is Alexander Ward. I was playing Edgar or Dr. Lycoris. You can find me on the internet under that name. I'm around.

AIMEE: Hi, I am Aimee Carrero and I'm playing Grimoria who is a Weird Medium Magician.

IMARI: (laughs)

AIMEE: That's clearly a little homebrew action, thanks to our wonderful Game Master.

IMARI: My name is Imari Williams and I'm playing Malcolm Trill, Till, sorry.

AIMEE: Trills.

IMARI: Trills. I should know my own last name. I'm a voiceover actor. You can find me on Instagram under Imari Speaks or on TikTok under Imari_Atari_Ferrari. (laughs) I love it, came up with that myself.

AIMEE: Give us your Finsta.

IMARI: Malcolm is-- He's ex-military. He comes from a very powerful family and I've survived a great tragedy that struck me while I was serving in the war, the great war of Newfaire and I'm basically the muscle with a heart of gold, I would say.

TALIESIN: My name is Taliesin Jaffe. I'm a voiceover actor and you can find me deep in the nightmares that dreams have when they sleep.

IMARI: (laughs)

TALIESIN: I was playing Leo Amicus, who is a, technically speaking, the Journalist class in Candela, but of course, we can play, so he is in fact actually a professional man of leisure.

LIAM: Well, I had a lovely time with you all and thank you for joining us. I'm Liam O'Brien, your Game Master on this chapter, the Circle of the Crimson Mirror here in Candela Obscura. Sleep well, family.