Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hello and welcome to explorers of elsewhere's Alicia Rising. I am DM Dan. Hi. Pleased to meet you.
I am accompanied by four, the most fastidious. I don't know if that's right. Fastidious companions I've ever. What does fastidious mean? Fastidious. Who thought this was gonna be an english lesson? Right the start of the episode. Very attentive and concerned about accuracy in detail. That is correct. Fastidious group of players.
And we are here to jump into your first, like, solo project, aren't we?
Yeah, you've. You've. You've rised from the ashes. Light, literally, of the. The ruby raising, as it's now being referred to, into. And you're. You're your own people now. You're just striking out, doing whatever it is you want.
What can go wrong? Eh?
Yeah, we look. We're looking forward to it. Now the training wheels are off.
[00:01:06] Speaker B: What could go wrong?
[00:01:07] Speaker C: We're definitely not going to desecrate anything today.
[00:01:11] Speaker A: Absolutely not. No.
You've got a spotless track record, it would seem so. I'm. Yeah, very much looking forward to seeing what sort of above board hijinks you're gonna all get up to.
So, with that in mind, shall we? Yeah.
[00:01:31] Speaker B: Cool.
[00:01:37] Speaker D: Welcome to Elysia, the jewel of the north. On our gilded streets, fortune and fame can be found by anyone.
Hi, I'm Julia and I'm playing magpie, an ace of our lurk.
[00:01:54] Speaker E: Hi, I'm Nate and I'm playing cavern, a dragon scent slide.
[00:02:00] Speaker D: Hi, I'm Meg. I'm playing Frieda, a wolfkin cutter.
[00:02:04] Speaker B: Hi, I'm JC and I'll be playing Alganon, an ace of our spider.
[00:02:10] Speaker C: Hello, I'm Erol. I am playing atta, a goblin whisper.
[00:02:15] Speaker A: And my name is DM Dan. I will be the games master on this adventure.
[00:02:20] Speaker D: So come on in and marvel at our wonders. Make sure you see the beautiful views we have to offer. And don't mind the ghosts. They're friendly, really. Grab yourselves a seat and make yourselves welcome in the city of Elysia.
[00:02:42] Speaker A: Stories are to this day a welcome form of entertainment among the people of Elysia. Perhaps more so now than before, due to the inherent confinement within the walls of the vale.
Of the many types of stories told and traded, mysteries are particularly exciting and enthralling. A sense of bewilderment leading to the gratifying release of upon the solving of the mystery.
Elysia, however, is now a place full of unresolved mysteries.
The shadow of the many overbearing questions surrounding the city's predicament brings little excitement to those contained within.
Where did the veil come from? Will we have enough food or water?
When will this all end?
Some mysteries are best unsolved, as the truth is more distressing than the ignorance that came before it. But in the aftermath of the ruby raising, these are distressing times indeed.
And so where do we find the four of you?
Just over a week since the destruction of the keep inspire park, now being referred to among the citizenry as the ruby raising.
Whereabouts in the city?
[00:04:19] Speaker E: Do we want to change the scenery? Do we want to be in our new little hideout in Celestia?
[00:04:27] Speaker D: Sure.
[00:04:27] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:04:28] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:04:28] Speaker A: Okay.
Okay. So we find the four of you in. So I I'm picturing during sort like one of the back rooms, almost like a mini kind of office space at the back of the gold pot, which is, uh, Alicia's largest kind of gambling den slash casino, which.
Yeah. Is controlled by the family.
And a blot on the. The pride of the tellers. And they're sort of like gambling ring circuit that they have threaded throughout the city.
Um, is it. Is it a back office, or is it sort of like a private little bar area out back? Like a little, like a little meeting? Meeting bar area of sorts?
[00:05:31] Speaker B: Little vip space?
[00:05:33] Speaker A: Yeah. Okay. Yes, very, very vip. Um, the. The atmosphere is very different to that of the speakeasies under the spectre.
It's a lot more garish, for a start. There's a lot more ostentatious kind of decoration, kind of on the walls.
The mujani lady behind the bar is positively dripping with gold jewelry, and the. The jewelry itself shimmers in the.
The extensive candlelight that kind of permeates the room.
And the. The drinks in front of you, you notice are.
You're told they are of a higher quality, but what you certainly notice is that they are also of smaller portions.
Yes. You like, as you kind of take in the smell of the kind of more lengthily brewed mushroom, mushroom juice, mushroom booze that you've got intermingling with that seemingly ever pervasive incense smell, that kind of. That you have in il Naishi.
Places of interest.
What.
What's on the agenda for today?
[00:07:10] Speaker C: Probably a fairly serious conversation about our. The most unpleasant gang members around the. And what around the city and what to do there. Right.
Because nobody. Nobody's really excited about kicking off that conversation.
[00:07:29] Speaker A: So. Well, you know that since you've kind of started emerging from Kabula da mana a bit more often, there are a number of developments within the city. The gangs that you're thinking of at are certainly first and foremost the. The conflict and friction between the various factions is now all but, like, unabashed, like they're just being quite public about it now, more so than any. The city watch, which seem to have kind of conglomerated into a number of, like, war bands.
And they are kind of jostling with one another to see who can kind of rise to the top and become the new leader, the replacement of Algarve, the new Martian.
But their kind of internal strife is, in a sense, keeping them in check with. With everyone else.
But you also know that the.
Like, the marionettes.
So songbird has begun plan.
She's. She's been kind of very quiet recently. She's been up to something.
And you also, like musto, Mustovan has been quite quiet as well. He's not really approached you in this as you understand it. He's been tasked with something by the songbird. What you've heard is he's not doing a particularly good job of it, but. But he is kind of getting stuck in.
Meanwhile, the chamber and the children of Aya are also up to something as well.
The number of religious processions through the city seem to be increasing in pace, increasing in number with every passing day, and you note that they're kind of stretching out into more territories, specifically or particularly into Havening and Duskland, in an attempt to seemingly barricade off entrance to the ivories.
But are there any particular gangs that have caught your attention that you've decided you want to kind of tangle with?
[00:10:02] Speaker B: You probably noticed that Al Ghanon, over the last few days, has become a bit quieter, more sullen.
And at the moment, he's got a new pack of cards from this casino. Flicking through them, practicing his. His shuffle and his sleight of hand.
We spoke a little while ago about our good lady Tovarien and the fate of her spirit.
Do you not think? Friends, it is not too late to follow up on that endeavor.
I sent our man Roeth to gather information about Algarve's demise and perhaps that could be a future score for a daring group of arcane smugglers such as ourselves.
But while the iron is hot, maybe there's still a chance to visit the mausoleum.
[00:11:03] Speaker A: So you what. With that in mind, let me quick, because you absolutely right. During your downtime, you did instruct roof to do some information gathering. Roof is a tier one asset. Let's see how we got on.
Good boy. Oh, rolls a six.
[00:11:21] Speaker B: No nonsense, ladies.
[00:11:23] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Just. Just the. The tip of his nose and his eyes over the. Out above the water surface.
And. Yes. So he's. He's informed you that, like, Spire park is a bit of. A. Bit of a nightmare. Obviously, one of the city watch war bands has kind of taken up residence there, and they're trying to impress that they're, you know, they were closer. The Spire park watch were closest to Algarve. They should take command.
They seem to be clashing heavily with encroaching children of Aya.
But strangely, the black guard seemed to have maintained their post around the keep, and they seem to be doing. There's seem to be a lot of black guard activity around the ruins of the ruby keep.
Some of it is, like, light excavating, but they just seem to be almost guarding the ruin.
[00:12:30] Speaker B: I've also been looking through my pocketbook regarding all the factors in play across the city. I'm slightly concerned about how mysterious. Bedfellows who we encountered in that old bakery.
[00:12:48] Speaker C: Caleb's friends.
[00:12:52] Speaker B: Caleb's friends, yes, the nutters.
The nutters, the Hollow, whatever you call them. We upset them slightly at the beginning of this endeavor by stealing some of the equipment at the. At the manor house.
Obviously, they're no friends of ours, but I'd rather. If they are in bed with the kindling, I'd rather avoid an all out conflict bringing fire to the ivory.
[00:13:27] Speaker A: Yes, you're absolutely right. You're currently at minus two reputation with the hollow impression part to your. Your pilfering before the campaign started to get the hideout workshop up and running. And then also, I think there was another. Was there another scuffle? There was another scuffle at some point.
[00:13:48] Speaker E: Well, Algernon, if we've known you for long enough, it's obviously that you're not going to bring up both of these items together.
What are you. What are you suggesting?
[00:14:04] Speaker B: I'm suggesting that the hollow obviously have technology to capture ghosts. We found an orb in their bakery.
They've been experimenting with undeath.
Perhaps we could twist their arm to get in their favor a little bit and. And maybe they can help us out with some more arcane knowledge.
[00:14:29] Speaker C: I'm all for finding out what the hollow know and why they're doing this weird stuff with ghosts in bottles.
Atta's, like, on one of the counters, and I think she's like, I don't know if there's fruit machines here, but she's, like, tinkering with something which is maybe close to a fruit machine, and she's trying to rig it up so it will, like, give, like, a gentle, like, buzz to the people when they, like, win. So, like.
Anyway, she's trying to make a vibrator cum fruit machine situation.
[00:15:15] Speaker A: Sure. Okay. Also, it's like, seven, seven seven. You get a little.
Marvelous. Marvelous, is it? And is this to go back out into the public kind of area for. Yeah.
What's. Yeah. How's Magpie feeling about it?
[00:15:40] Speaker D: Yeah, I think she'd probably wrinkle her nose and say, are you suggesting we work for the hollow?
[00:15:49] Speaker B: I'm suggesting we work alongside them temporarily, just to avoid an all out conflict.
[00:16:03] Speaker D: I suppose, if it helps us to avoid getting into trouble with them. But I am not dismembering any bodies on creepy tables. That is. I'm not prepared to do that.
[00:16:16] Speaker B: Oh, well, me neither.
[00:16:19] Speaker E: Likewise, I'm not eager on transporting bodies. The live one was worse enough.
[00:16:27] Speaker C: I think this is a keep your enemies close kind of situation.
More than let's help remove limbs.
[00:16:40] Speaker D: So if we're not chopping up body parts, what do you propose we offer them?
[00:16:45] Speaker B: Judging from my intelligence, they might be interested in moving into the mausoleum over in Dustry Hill.
There's some troubling events happening there which might keep them outside out of that particular playground. If we're daring enough to go in there, we could perhaps see if there's any quid pro quo we can offer.
At the very least, I would like to poke around and see what they're up to.
[00:17:26] Speaker A: So if you're. Are you presumably. Are you gonna kind of reach out to the hollow beforehand to.
Yeah.
[00:17:37] Speaker B: Yes, I think I'd like to do some gathering of information.
[00:17:42] Speaker A: Sure, sure.
[00:17:43] Speaker B: And maybe trying to find what they're up to in waterside. And who's in charge.
[00:17:49] Speaker A: Yeah, okay, how.
So to. How are you planning on doing that?
[00:17:56] Speaker B: Well, there's some local. According to the map, there's some more local hollow activity to where we are now. So that might be more useful to us to find in celestry.
[00:18:05] Speaker A: There are? Yes, there are indeed. Okay, so you tracking down, like, the hollow?
Yeah. Okay. Yeah. How. How are you going about finding where the hollow?
Like, how are you kind of setting up the meeting?
What are you doing around town?
[00:18:28] Speaker B: I think if Atta agrees, we could perhaps give back some of the stolen equipment that maybe isn't as useful as we first thought. If there's anything in your workshop that's.
[00:18:41] Speaker C: Gathering dust, Atta, I think we have a weird mask. And maybe if I mix some dust and red paint, we can write a spooky message inside it. For them. They like that stuff.
[00:18:58] Speaker B: Perfect. A spooky message on the back of the.
Of the creepy mask. What better way to get their attention?
[00:19:08] Speaker A: Well, is there? I guess one way you could do it.
You could always give them, say, a coin's worth of stuff just to, like, rather than delete the workshop upgrade from the hideout.
[00:19:28] Speaker B: Yeah, that's. That's what I was thinking.
[00:19:31] Speaker A: Sure. Okay, so I'll remove one coin from the crew stash.
Okay.
And. Okay, so you've got. You've got the bribe, if you will.
Yeah. How are you going about finding them? And amongst the winding alleyways of the debaucherously winding alleyways of celestry, I might.
[00:19:59] Speaker B: Stop having a bit of a consort with our illness. She.
Patrons here at. Here at the gold pot, they're. They're sort of occultists as well. They might have had some.
Some run ins with the hollow in their neighborhood.
[00:20:18] Speaker A: Okay, yeah. In which case, if you take a moment to ask the. Like the lady behind the bar, like, she. She turns to you and the sort of, like the headbands of kind of gold. They're like circular gold coins, just kind of covering over her left eye.
They kind of jingle. She. She turns to look to you, you notice like a gold chain going from her nostril to her right ear. Kind of balances out the jewelry on her face and the hollow. Yes, there's. They have. They are proving to be a bit of a nuisance on the streets of celestial.
There are.
There are dark rumors that be there. Well, there are. This is not rumors. There is news that people on the streets of Celestia are being swallowed by the alleyways themselves.
But some say that it is not the streets that are stealing these unfortunate souls away, but it is in fact, the hollow.
[00:21:29] Speaker B: Interesting. You couldn't perhaps point me towards any alleyway that's particularly notorious for swallowing?
[00:21:42] Speaker D: And then we send fiends in as bait.
[00:21:50] Speaker A: Like the majority tilts her head. And there are a few places you couldn't try. Yes, and yeah, she. She indicates a number of, like, a number of a number of streets. And a lot of them are sort of like deeper, more kind of secluded alleyways.
I mean, Celestia in itself is just a bit of a man, a bit of a rat run anyway.
And like the buildings, just a lot of the alleyways end up being almost tunnel like as the. The buildings either side are kind of grown up and like, some of them, conjoined, blocking out the view of the veil overhead.
Yeah, she gives you a couple of. A couple of addresses. And if you. If you linger around these places for long enough at the appropriate times, eventually, if you do not find the Hollow, the Hollow will find you.
[00:22:51] Speaker B: Thank you. And I appreciate the arch delivery. And I tip her with one of Taro's mystery gold coins.
[00:23:01] Speaker A: You, as you place it down, the Majani lady just kind of looks down and like her, the eye that you can see opens wide and.
Interesting.
A fresh mint.
And she pockets it.
[00:23:19] Speaker B: Fresh mint for your pillow.
Cool. So let's go and check out some haunted alleyways.
[00:23:30] Speaker A: Okay. Roll me. Yeah, I mean, Romeo consort.
Just see how good of information was.
Okay, so you head to the sort of like the locations.
You hit to a number of locations that she's given you. The first few come up proper. You know, you don't really kind of get any bites.
It's like they seem more. Just kind of dangerous to your well being than anything else. Like, there's a couple of eyes that are clearly not affiliated with the hollow watching you a bit too closely until you get to the third.
The third location on the list. And you hear a scream, like a muffled scream, coming from just further down the alleyway around the corner.
And who. Who else is with you?
[00:24:43] Speaker D: I mean, I'll be there, I suspect.
Well, unless we feel it would be better. More inconspicuous of Falcon or went alone. What do you think, JC?
[00:24:54] Speaker B: I think he'd like Magpie to come along.
[00:24:57] Speaker D: Okay, I'm probably not being obvious. I'm probably hanging back and attempting to melt into shadows, but keeping an eye on JC and what else is going on.
[00:25:12] Speaker A: Okay.
Um. Okay, in which case, yeah, the two of you both hear this kind of like it. Clearly something's going on, because it starts off as, like an audible, loud scream that is very quickly muffled.
[00:25:32] Speaker D: I'm sort of waiting to see if Algernon wants me to break into a run or sort of stay cloaked. What do you think?
[00:25:44] Speaker B: Algernon gives you? Like, this very specific military hand signal and then gets frustrated when you don't understand it?
[00:25:51] Speaker D: I could understand it if you give me a signal.
Depends how specific it is.
[00:26:01] Speaker A: It's really complex sign language.
[00:26:04] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:26:04] Speaker A: Uh.
[00:26:04] Speaker C: Oh.
[00:26:05] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:26:05] Speaker D: I probably don't get that.
I sort of. I sort of make a bit of a.
[00:26:09] Speaker A: What what?
[00:26:11] Speaker D: Gesture at you.
[00:26:13] Speaker E: Okay.
[00:26:13] Speaker D: Okay, I'm gonna try and sneak up to the sort of area where the scream came from as proudly as possible.
[00:26:23] Speaker A: Sure.
So as you kind of get closer, you can hear, like, as you get to the corner, you can hear that there is sounds of a struggle happening around this corner.
And some of the sounds are being muffled.
Are you kind of chancing a look? Are you just stepping around, or.
[00:26:47] Speaker D: I'm gonna. I'm gonna do a sneaky look.
[00:26:50] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:26:50] Speaker D: Rather than bursting out.
[00:26:53] Speaker A: Sure. So as you kind of peer around the corner, you notice that there is. There's two, like, two men in this alleyway.
One of them just looks like kind of a patron of the streets of celestry.
And he is currently being, like. His face is being smothered by, like, a hooded assailant who's kind of got one arm kind of round the neck, and, like, another like this. A rag kind of over the face, and they're tussling. And the kind of. The man being attacked looks like he's putting up a bit of a fight, but given the situation, it looks like he's losing.
You notice that the figure doing the attack.
So the figure behind is wearing a kind of a. Like a dirty, grimy white coat, similar to that worn by the lady you found in the ridge. The rook ridge hollow hider.
And you wonder if, in this moment, you've just stumbled across a hollow kidnapping.
[00:28:13] Speaker D: I probably.
So Algon can't see this right now. I've sort of dashed ahead. I'm probably gonna look to Algernon for some guidance and kind of indicate as silently as I can that there's someone being.
Being assailed.
[00:28:34] Speaker B: I give you the signal to wear the doppelganger's mask and to approach the assailant as a spooky, anonymous, blank faced person.
[00:28:53] Speaker A: Ooh.
[00:28:54] Speaker D: You sure you don't want to do it?
[00:28:58] Speaker B: I can't have all the fun, Magpie.
[00:29:03] Speaker A: Fine.
[00:29:06] Speaker D: I spookify.
[00:29:08] Speaker A: Okay. Okay.
In which case, as you place on the doppelgangers mask and algorithm, you watch as magpies form what silhouette seemingly changed slightly into something a bit more kind of nondescript.
And her face just becomes this kind of featureless canvas, if you will. Just two very kind of blanks. Plain eyes, and an almost kind of rectangular slit of a mouth.
To look at her, it's quite unnerving.
It's the sort of. The visage you're seeing is one that if you passed it in a crowd, you just wouldn't even register. But to pay it attention. Attention really drives home the kind of the strangeness. The uncomfortable strangeness of it.
Yeah. Donned with this mask, you step out, Magpie.
[00:30:14] Speaker D: Yep, I do.
[00:30:17] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:30:17] Speaker D: And I probably clear my throat in order to make my presence known to the person who is trying to kidnap the other person.
[00:30:26] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:30:27] Speaker D: Is it just one. One. One on one this.
[00:30:31] Speaker A: And as you step round and clear your throat, the assailant kind of looks up to you. And you see that under the. The cowl there's a reflective sheen of like two kind of goggles, like two goggle lenses. And this slightly sort of like, like, you, teeth bed crazed. Look at that. As he looks, looks up to you, he panics for a moment and you notice that the. The attackee starts to go a bit limp.
And then from somewhere behind you, you hear and the assailant rocks back as a crossbow bolt embeds into his arm. He goes reeling back, claps to the ground. And the man being kind of attacks, is released as he kind of clatters to the ground. He like breathes deeply, like he gasps for breath. And then.
And he looks to you, panics a little bit and just looks at the assailant and then just bolts and runs.
[00:31:41] Speaker D: I would probably have looked over my shoulder by this point, I think. Yes, yes.
[00:31:48] Speaker A: In which case, as you look over your shoulder from a nearby rooftop, so from a nearby kind of second, 1st floor window, you see the glint of a silver raven's mask.
[00:32:11] Speaker D: Great. Is the hollow man dead before the.
[00:32:15] Speaker A: Figure disappears back into the shadows?
[00:32:19] Speaker D: Sure thing. How's my hollow man?
[00:32:22] Speaker A: Wheezing heavily as the crossbow bolt appears to have struck him just under the collarbone, like dangerously close to puncturing lung territory. But he's like cussing and cursing as he like, holds onto the bolt as if that's.
[00:32:42] Speaker D: Hmm. I wouldn't remove that if I were you.
[00:32:48] Speaker A: Who are you? Oh, why, look what you've done. What you've done.
[00:32:54] Speaker D: Yes, apologies for that.
That was quite unlucky, wasn't it? But then again, you were in the midst of some fairly unsavory business.
The hollow, I presume.
[00:33:10] Speaker A: The. The man is sort of like he's writhing on the floor. He's almost in like a fetal position. And then like his head whips around to you, as you mentioned the name the Hollow.
And he sort of like he's looking at you incredulously. And then the longer he looks at your face and you realize he's not kind of reacting the same way the Algernon seems to when Algernon was looking at you face on. But instead, this man's face goes from one of sort of like anger and frustration.
And then it begins to mellow. There's a look of kind of confusion and then realization.
And perhaps.
Perhaps we do have things to talk about, he says. And he kind of giggles as he realizes you're kind of clearly wearing some sort of magical apparatus.
[00:34:13] Speaker D: Yes, my people would do business with yours. Any chance of a meeting?
[00:34:22] Speaker A: Um, the hollow. Like, the man on the floor looks at you for a moment, give me a sway.
[00:34:33] Speaker D: This should absolutely have been Algernon.
Um, I wonder, is there anything I can do?
[00:34:42] Speaker A: What.
[00:34:43] Speaker D: What kind of role is it?
[00:34:46] Speaker A: I reckon. Well, I mean, you. You tell me.
[00:34:50] Speaker D: I feel like I'm in a position of dominance here. This guy is injured, and I'm standing over him.
I don't know whether that it is still a bit, I guess.
Would you say that's controlled or risky?
[00:35:07] Speaker A: This.
[00:35:08] Speaker D: And I've got backup around the corner.
[00:35:10] Speaker A: Well, so currently, what ability? What school?
[00:35:17] Speaker D: Then again, I am trying to sway him, and he does think I just shot him. So.
[00:35:25] Speaker C: Can I help in some way?
[00:35:27] Speaker D: Can anyone help in some way?
[00:35:31] Speaker C: Can I try and do spookier tune things, like try and, like, gather. Gather, like the veil kind of focus, like, atop of the kind. I don't know whether that's, like, a thing that atta can help.
[00:35:46] Speaker A: I mean, try if you want to emerge from the shadows. Atta. And this was. This was a trio piece all along.
[00:35:56] Speaker C: I don't think Atta's very, like, you know, imposing, but if Atta can do something with their ookie, spooky powers to.
[00:36:03] Speaker A: Make, we could pan up and see atta squatting on a railing like Batman.
[00:36:08] Speaker E: Could we have done, like, some sort of flashback where Atta did something else with the mask? So maybe the eyes just sort of.
[00:36:18] Speaker C: Yeah. I took the mechanisms out of, like, the buzz, the buzzy, vibraty fruit machine, and now there's just, like, a low hummingbird, an ominous slow worm.
[00:36:34] Speaker D: I love the idea of special effects for magpie smoke. Like, smoke coming out, smoke machine under my cloak.
[00:36:44] Speaker A: I'm happy that.
[00:36:49] Speaker C: Paint starts dripping down the walls.
[00:36:53] Speaker D: It does feel more like a tinker.
[00:36:56] Speaker A: I'm. I'm gonna say that this sounds like a setup maneuver, so thank you, atta, please roll me a tinker, and then we'll see how that. How that pans out.
[00:37:08] Speaker C: I'd be rolling, tinker. Okay.
[00:37:09] Speaker A: Yes, and that. So that will be a controlled standard because you're doing that back in the safety of the gold pot.
Four partial success. Okay.
[00:37:21] Speaker D: Okay, I'll have it.
[00:37:23] Speaker A: Um, so you're. Yeah, there's, like, smoke wafting, there's, like, eyes flashing, and you just kind of adopt this very, very magical nature about you. Look down at the hollow and the hot, the man just, like, starts nodding.
[00:37:47] Speaker D: What does that mean for my role.
[00:37:51] Speaker A: So you may take advantage on your setup as long as it makes so plus one effect or improved position. So I'm gonna say it was. It was a risky standard, but now you can either go risky, greater or.
[00:38:09] Speaker D: Controlled standard, go big or go home, baby risky. Great.
And do I want to push myself? Is that too stressed to push yourself?
[00:38:24] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:38:25] Speaker D: Blimey.
[00:38:27] Speaker A: Devil's bargain.
No matter what happens.
Someone heard the screams.
[00:38:37] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:38:39] Speaker C: For sure.
[00:38:40] Speaker D: Okay, I'll take plus one. Die.
[00:38:42] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:38:43] Speaker D: Okay.
[00:38:49] Speaker A: It's good for you to.
Okay. Um, the hollow like that. So the hollow man, like, holds his hand up to, you know, you ask him to be helped up and still kind of cradling the, like, the bolt protruding from his, like, from his peck. And you can see that, like, the white coat is very quickly staining crimson.
The. The man just sort of, like, starts nodding frantically and, like, up close, you can see that there's just a general level of grime and filth that's kind of coating this. This person.
And, like, it. Yes. Across his skin, across the goggles. Like, his hair is kind of sweaty and matted back like that. It looks like this person's been living in, like, squalid conditions for a very long time.
But there's this kind of. This is kind of flicker of.
Yeah. A flicker of mania that's kind of etched across his face.
I I think we. We could talk. Yes. Yes. I think that. Absolutely, yes.
And he. He thinks about it, and he looks down the alleyway that the man kind of ran off down, and he pulls, points at one of the manhole covers in the street.
Head down there.
We'll see you in an hour.
[00:40:36] Speaker D: You go and get yourself seen to.
[00:40:39] Speaker A: And he. He nods and, like, winces as he sort of, like, you can see that he's explaining, excited enough that he's beginning to, like, vibrate. And, like, his hand is jiggling his hand holding the bolt, and he winces. And it's just like, a clash of emotion on his face. And then he. Oh, I will, he says, and he scampers off, and you watch as, like, quite fluently, he just move, like, pulls up this manhole cover, like, disappears down the hole, pulls it back into place, and he's okay.
[00:41:18] Speaker D: What a strange man.
[00:41:21] Speaker A: Um, okay, so you've got a meeting set up. Um, is there anything else that's happening, or shall we force fast forward to the meeting?
[00:41:29] Speaker D: I'm a bit hacked off that the raven just came in and shot my dude. Like, what? What was that? For.
That's rude.
[00:41:40] Speaker A: Um, well, you roll. Roll me a real quick consequence less study.
[00:41:47] Speaker D: Okay, I've no. I have no pips in study.
It is critical.
[00:41:57] Speaker A: This is six. Yeah, yeah, good work. You have to take the lowest of the two, but, yeah, still a success. Um, you think that yourself. Like, what? Why? Why?
And then you think back to a meeting that Algernon, I suspect, gave you, where I imagine it's a map of alicia with a number of, like, many pins and strings on it, and, like, one of those telescopic pointers where Algon was kind of demonstrating where all of the facts, the faction friction around the.
[00:42:29] Speaker D: Many lectures that Algernon has given us.
[00:42:32] Speaker B: Now, pay attention.
[00:42:33] Speaker A: This time, there will be a test of this.
Yes. And you know that like the inoue, the onishi have a strong presence within celestia, as do this new, newly kind of discovered lodge reticence.
[00:42:53] Speaker D: Okay, gotcha, gotcha, gotcha.
[00:42:55] Speaker A: Which you believe to be the same faction that have invited you to dinner.
[00:42:59] Speaker D: Still not sure why he's shooting people I'm trying to have a chat with.
[00:43:06] Speaker A: Interesting.
[00:43:08] Speaker E: Trying to impress you.
[00:43:10] Speaker D: You could get me flowers if he wants to impress me.
[00:43:14] Speaker A: Okay, so if we fast forwarding to the meeting, who is in attendance?
[00:43:18] Speaker D: All of us.
[00:43:19] Speaker B: Yeah, we can all come along.
[00:43:20] Speaker A: Yeah. Okay.
[00:43:22] Speaker E: Catherine comes along. Is he not going to be. And unless that woman who was in the bakery is also there. But she might have been arrested. We never know.
[00:43:31] Speaker D: We could put the doppelganger mask on you.
[00:43:39] Speaker E: Tada.
[00:43:40] Speaker B: It's me.
[00:43:44] Speaker D: I'll be giving it to them.
[00:43:46] Speaker B: Okay, I don't think. I don't think we have to give them any of our magical items from that job. We can just give them some of our down payment.
[00:43:57] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:43:58] Speaker E: I also didn't want to spoil the flow of anything when you were talking about the mask, but as soon as you mentioned the mask, all I could see was the Jason Statham mask that's behind Dan, and it really weirded me out.
[00:44:11] Speaker A: Yeah, that's pretty much it. That's what you see when you put the.
[00:44:15] Speaker C: Ask them, does anybody want to wear the soul seeing glasses to this meeting in particular?
[00:44:23] Speaker D: Maybe at a.
[00:44:24] Speaker E: That might disguise me a little bit.
[00:44:26] Speaker D: Yeah, that's true.
[00:44:27] Speaker C: Or make you even cooler.
[00:44:34] Speaker A: Okay, go for it.
Marvelous. Okay, so in which case, all four of you heads to this. This meeting with the hollow.
And, like, quite grime it quite grubbily. You head down that manhole cover and kind of looking left and right, like, eyes squinting because of the stench.
You can see that the tunnel is.
Is kind of unlit, but in the distance you can see that there is what appears to be like a breadcrumb of lit torch sconces. Seemingly kind of leading you through the sewer, like the sewer corridors.
And before long you find yourself like heading to a hole. What is effectively a hole in the wall that leads to what appears to be like an under cellar of a building somewhere in Celestia.
Based on your kind of as best as you can navigating without any kind of real sense of like compass point or direction.
You suspect that you're closer towards the northern half of celestry under sort of like all the artistes and the like like under the hill.
And sat on a curiously locate, like, it's a high back, relatively plush, high back chair is this scrawny kind of goblin woman. Wild hair, wilder eyes, same kind of grubby like coat that the man you spoke to, Magpie, was wearing.
And she like claps excitedly as you enter.
Friends? Friends, she says.
[00:46:46] Speaker B: Yes, well, let's hope so.
[00:46:49] Speaker A: I hear that you.
You met one of. One of my workers earlier to today.
I heard you. You interrupted an attack from from that that that evil bird of prey.
[00:47:12] Speaker D: Hmm?
You are aware of him, they call?
[00:47:19] Speaker A: Yeah, he's a scourge of the streets. A scourge to progress. He does not, it does not want us to succeed, and therefore it is our enemy. But you stopped him. You. You def. You distracted this foul creature. And now my friend is still alive. So we thank you, but we do not know you.
[00:47:46] Speaker B: Well, then we shall introduce ourselves.
A few months ago, we borrowed some equipment from friends of your. Yours. And we just would like to give the deposit back, as it were.
[00:48:01] Speaker A: The. The goblin kind of tilts her head and looks confused and are you producing the like the workshop equipment, Atta? Is it you?
The sack over her shoulder, perhaps?
[00:48:16] Speaker C: Yeah, just gives a salute.
[00:48:19] Speaker A: Okay. Um, in which in which case, as you present it, um, the. The goblin woman, like the goblin hollow member, like looks at you and she like leaps out of the chair that she's in. Um, it's quite a way for her to like, get down to the ground.
But then she sort of like rushes you at her and sort of like grabs both sides of your head with her hands. And then she, her sister of science and sorcery, she like vibrating slightly, and then she releases your head suddenly and then starts like rifling through the satchel of equipment that you brought back.
[00:49:09] Speaker C: Oh, Atta would have like, full grasp the face back and gone science. And then let go.
[00:49:17] Speaker A: What? Just. Why? Why? And I just frantic nodding. Yeah.
Um, so, yeah, the. The goblin woman kind of nods and.
Why. Why is there this gesture of. Of.
What is this? What is this? What are they doing? What are they. What are they trying to do? Are you. Are you trying to make friends or.
[00:49:42] Speaker B: Are you trying to stick with neighbors? For now. Shall we? We're operating in the same areas, but we could avoid stepping on each other's toes and maybe come to some kind of agreement. In the name of science.
[00:49:56] Speaker A: Yes.
Go on.
[00:50:01] Speaker B: We know. We know you and your friends have been experimenting with spirits.
Not the kind you find at the bar.
[00:50:13] Speaker A: How do they know? How do they know? It doesn't matter. It's all for the. Go on.
[00:50:21] Speaker B: We are in the business of smuggling the arcane.
And there are numerous people in the city who might want the ghosts of departed community members and loved ones smuggled.
I believe that you and your friends have the technology to help us do this.
[00:50:49] Speaker A: Sounds good. It sounds good.
This sounds like it could help with the plans. It could. Go on.
[00:50:58] Speaker B: We are looking for a down payment for ourselves.
Means of containing ghosts for transportation. And in return, we'll be willing to experiment for you. Maybe go into some other districts where your little fingers cannot reach.
[00:51:21] Speaker A: Anything you can do.
If you. If you would. If you would plan to help the evolution, then. Then we would, we would. We would gladly accept any. Any help. We would help his heart to come by. No one. No one believes him in the evolution there. They are fools. They will be left behind. They will be nothing more than corpses in the annals of history. But we. We will evolve into what we need. We need to. In order. Yes, we will accept your help. Yes, we will help you, sue. So you can help us.
[00:51:58] Speaker B: Very well.
[00:52:03] Speaker A: Where are you planning on getting these ghosts?
[00:52:11] Speaker C: Our sources are of the highest vintage. Don't you worry. Fellow arcanist scientists.
[00:52:22] Speaker A: Like the goblin sort of like, clenches her fists and, like, squats, like. Like her shoulders come in and, like, she. And she silently squeeze to herself before she, like, stands back up and, like, there's a blank look on her face.
You tell us how you. How we can help you so you can help us attain the great evolution.
[00:52:59] Speaker D: I'm almost afraid to ask, but Magpie needs to know what this woman means by the evolution.
I think she's beside. I think, despite herself, she's going to go, uh, what. What is this evolution?
[00:53:14] Speaker A: You speak of the solution, and she looks directly at you.
The solution to all of our problems. The. The attainment of a higher form of life. That is the only way that we will survive.
And it is our. It is our duty to unlock the secrets of. Of the evolution.
[00:53:41] Speaker D: Ah.
Going well, is it?
[00:53:44] Speaker A: Yeah. Some call it mad, but it is not mad. It is the only. It is the only option that lies itself self before us.
[00:53:55] Speaker D: Well, desperate times and all that.
[00:53:57] Speaker C: You gotta break some eggs to make a great omelet. Right?
[00:54:03] Speaker A: If you can provide us with ghosts that will aid in our experimentation towards attaining the evolution. We need more. We need more tests subjects.
[00:54:17] Speaker D: Excellent. Right.
Lovely.
[00:54:23] Speaker A: We will provide you with apparatus apparati with which you can contain these. The. The spirits, the ghosts, where are they going to get from? I want to know what is a vintage source? I'm excited.
You bring us six. Six spirits and we can. That. That we can get. Make significant progress on our experimentations.
[00:54:54] Speaker E: And you probably have more idea of how to do this, but how do we, um, actually get them out?
[00:55:09] Speaker A: The goblin looks to you with, like, slightly open, pursed lips, and then she looks at you ata, and then she.
And doesn't answer.
[00:55:24] Speaker C: Atta makes, like, the motion of cracking an egg.
[00:55:29] Speaker E: No, thought as much.
[00:55:31] Speaker A: Yeah.
Yes. So this. This goblin looks to you, and she sort of like it. As you're making that cracking motion, she, like, scampers off into the darkness and that gingerly emerges carrying six glass orbs, which look pretty much identical. So the glass orb that you saw in the chest in the holdout at Rookridge, but these, unlike the other one, are clear. They're like clear glass orbs.
There's no kind of swirling kind of mist or, thankfully, kind of screaming, scared looking faces inside.
[00:56:16] Speaker D: Not yet.
[00:56:18] Speaker A: Not yet.
[00:56:19] Speaker E: Do we have a spare orb for.
[00:56:23] Speaker D: I don't think. I don't think she's given us any spares.
Um. Shall we. Does someone want to persuade her to give her. What if one gets broken? Let's have a spare one.
[00:56:35] Speaker C: One of my load. One of my loadout items. It can be spirit bottles.
If I can, like, reverse engineer these. These bottles.
[00:56:45] Speaker A: Yeah. Okay. Yeah, sounds good. So, yeah, we. In which case, yeah, but we go to do the loadout. You can always attack on that. Yeah, the spirit balls.
Cool. Okay, so it seems like.
Yeah. Like, doing this job will increase your standing with the holo, for better or worse. And, yeah, it'll also kind of. Is there anything else that you're asking of this peculiar little goblin who, I should add, is making atta look like the most boring person.
[00:57:25] Speaker D: Most stable goblin.
[00:57:27] Speaker A: Stable person. Yeah.
[00:57:29] Speaker C: What a nice lady.
[00:57:34] Speaker A: Yeah. Is there anything. I mean, we can always flashback if need to. But if you're there any kind of lingering questions that you've got.
[00:57:42] Speaker C: I guess just like, scene setting. Like, how many folks are down here? What kind of are the. Do they just have their stuff out in the open? Or are they, like.
[00:57:54] Speaker A: So you can see? So while you've been talking to her, you've seen sort of like one other person, this very gaunt, clearly very malnourished, sunken eyed laura var man who's just been, like, slowly plodding in and out of the room. Like.
Like his feet are doing that.
He's not really picking his feet up, but he's just, like, slumping around, but he just seems to be like he's reading a tome of some sort and just sort, like, going from, like, wandering from one room to the next, like, backwards and forwards, just muttering to himself, like, the room that he keeps on wandering into. Every so often, you see, like, periodic flashes of blue light and, like, slight crackles. It sounds like crackles of, like, lightning or some. Or some such.
But like, whatever's going on in there, he seems completely unfazed by it, almost, if he's not even recognizing it's happening.
Otherwise, the rest of the room just looks like a bit of. A. Bit of a wreck.
Like this chair that she seemingly, like. You can see disturbances of, like, dust and grime on the floor. It looks like this chair was dragged into the position it was in specifically to greet you.
But everything else, like this kind of broken, like, arcane apparatus kind of lying about. There's books strewn on the floor. The book, like, the bookshelves are in disarray.
Like, from a scientific, like, arcane perspective, like a place of intelligence. This is hell to look at. But you can't help but shake the feeling that there seems to be this definitive, like, order to the chaos.
Just like, they just seem to know what all of the piles of kind of trash are.
But just from the two that you've seen and like, what you saw in Rook Ridge, it's clear that whoever these hollow are, they're all just mad. Mad as bats.
[01:00:17] Speaker D: If you want to be in the hollow, it's in. It's in the interview. Are you absolutely mad?
[01:00:24] Speaker A: Yes.
[01:00:24] Speaker D: And if you're not, then they say, sorry, you can't be in the hollow.
But thank you for applying.
[01:00:33] Speaker B: You do have to be mad to work here, and it helps.
[01:00:39] Speaker A: So, um, you've been given these orbs which you can use to kind of do that kind of side. Side hustle for the hollow is the. What. What's the next stage of the plan, is it to start figuring out how to get into the mausoleum?
[01:00:57] Speaker D: Yeah.
[01:00:59] Speaker A: Okay.
In which case has you slowly back away out of this hollow hideout and make yourself make your way back up to street level.
[01:01:14] Speaker D: Oh, by the way, did we ever find out her name?
[01:01:18] Speaker A: You did not. But in a flashback, you could ask.
[01:01:21] Speaker D: Yeah.
[01:01:23] Speaker B: Three stress.
[01:01:25] Speaker D: Wait, what did you say? Umi.
[01:01:29] Speaker A: Umi.
[01:01:30] Speaker D: Umi.
Lovely.
[01:01:34] Speaker A: Umi. Ember brew.
[01:01:36] Speaker C: Oh, is that so?
Sorry. Goblins usually are. Like, what architects. Is that, like, a well known name?
Last name? Like, is it like, prestigious within goblinishness?
[01:01:55] Speaker A: Ember Brew?
No. And Umi isn't a particularly goblin name either.
But there's no, there's no hint of, like, deception in her eyes when she tells you. She looks positively excited at the. When she gets to say the word.
Me.
Yes. So, as you presumably are going to make your way somewhere where you can have a quick rinse off to wash off all this sewer dirt and then the planning for the mausoleum heist begins.
Okay, I reckon that's a good place as any to grab a quick break.
So if you are a fan of Umi and the rest of the holo, make sure to hit the like button and comment down below.
And if you want to see how this score goes down, make sure to hit the subscribe button and the bell icon for notifications when release new videos because they come out very frequently and we need to miss out. So I will see you all in a bit. See you all in a bit.
Okay, bye.
