Critical Role & Sagas of Sundry - Chapter Four: Message in a Bottle | Ten Candles: Eclipse

Episode Date: April 21, 2025

Escaping the Tidal Bulges, the survivors trudge across the broken earth under the light of the powerful moon.   This captivating series, based on a game of tragic horror, includes a cast of 40 players, one game master, and zero survivors. Warning: for mature audiences only.   Starring Alex Frew, Stef Woodburn, Amy Vorpahl, Aki, and storyteller Ivan Van Norman.   Video versions are available at https://www.youtube.com/geekandsundry Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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back for a pole yeah good to you know interesting to be here i'll say that at one of your table i'm so sorry i'm really sorry in advance in advance i'm sorry for for having you here i'm don't get me wrong i am incredibly happy that i get this table to be able to play with i'm just i'm just really sorry you do realize we signed on for this yeah right i know okay i'm gonna say is it weird that i'm looking forward to this. I'm so exciting. Well, good. I'm glad to hear it. I'm still waiting for my Djanga apology. You will never get it.

Oh, I mean my wooden block apology. My wooden block tower. Yeah, well, you will, like I said, you will never get it. So, you knew, you knew what you got. We had that talk. You knew what was you up. And now you're here again. So I am stoked because

there are some people I have not played with before, so which I'm totally happy to have at my table. So Alex, And Aki, thank you so much for joining us. And then I got some vets over here. Bam. And Steph, it's been a long minute. It's been a minute, but I don't get a high five.

Oh, but do you want a sandwich high five? Yeah. There we go. That was, that was. So I thought I would give you serious cross-hand talks. So. Yeah, but this is good. This is, I'm not here.

But no, it's, yeah, I mean, I think it hasn't really been since the early days. It's been since the early days. Yeah, maybe no survivors or something else, but what was the last time we played? Game, the game? Game the game, for sure, for board games. He made me a sandworm.

Ah, the bread, yes. Which I will never forget. He said, Ivan's having a game. Do you want to play? I said, yes, he made me sandworm bread. Yeah. It was a cinnamon, cinnamon raisin bread. Oh, so delicious.

That was wrapped up like Shihulud, had a little tiny gummy bear fremen. that were writing the worm. You made it? So do I remember this? With a recipe. Whoa. Yes.

I've heard of that. Yeah. And it was from an amazing website, which I'm failing to remember right now. But it's a nerdy cookbook. Geekrecipies.com. Yeah. And it was great. It was very tasty.

And it even came with like the, they called it the spice glaze that you pour it on to. Oh, okay. So spice. Yeah. All right. A way to get us all hungry before you, you know. Yeah. By the way.

We go real hard gaming for three hours. Yeah, you haven't had food in three days. So we're gonna start with that. So. Angry. Super hungry. But before we get into characters, before we get into everything, for those who may not know who you are, I think it is just appropriate that we learn who the player is before we dive directly into character creation.

So Alex, would you start us off, please? I absolutely would. I'm Alex Frue. I am a content operations nerd here at the company of Geek and Sundry. The company. And the company, yes. And I do some voice acting on the site. Yeah, great, man.

So thank you. Glad to be here. Estreff. I'm Steph Woodburn. We're not looking at the camera, so I'm just going to be. That's fine. You can look at me. I'm here.

I'm going to look at you. I am a Twitch house and a writer performer. and I'm so excited for this game. Yeah. We're going to win the game of life. No. Something like that? No.

I thought it was a game of hope, so. Yeah, it is. It is a game of hope, but also of expectations. Misplace of optimism. Go for it. Ms. Warple. I am going to look right at camera because you can't stop me, I guess. But I'm Amy Vorpal, and I am a actor-writer,

host for a lot of digital companies like Nerdiskeek and Sundry, caffeine, BuzzFeed, and College Humor. Yeah, that's good. It's like you have them in your brain or something. Yeah, I've written a lot of bios. Only recently was I like, can I add college humor to my bio? And it's like one of those questions where you're like, yeah, I think they wouldn't have a problem with it. So.

The proverbial they. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Cool, cool. And Aki. From the proverbial day to the literal day. I'm Aki and I do some hosting stuff here at Geek and Sundry and I am also one of your moderators.

Yeah. And I'm really happy to be here because I finally get to play with these people. Yeah. And Super Secret Project. Yes. Super Secret Project. What does literal day mean though? Literal they.

Literal they. Got it. Oh, okay. Yes. Great. Okay. Well then as we, I think we will begin. So as you'll see, you don't have no cards in front of you, but you have pictures of you.

I'll just briefly say that the reason you have note cards is because we are going to be writing your virtues, your vices, your moments, and your brinks on these, and we're going to hand them to our neighbors. So when they are burnt or used in the game, rather than having to toss them into the fire to get that wonderful effect,

I will instead rip them apart. Just great alter. Just to give a little something, a little something, because, spoiler alert, live fire on sets is something that we have to deal with. So, yeah. You know. So let's start

by first taking one of your cards and I would like you to pass them to the neighbor on your right. Passing me. Will you please pass to Steph? Okay, here you are. Oh, wait, to your right. So that would be Amy to Steph. Is that Amy? This is Amy? Oh, this is Amy.

Yes, Mary. I thought you were handing me. I apologize. Adorable. Yeah, I'm nearly as adorable as Aki, but quite a little different. And on this card, I would like you to turn it over and I would like you to write a virtue on this. Something that you inspire and hope someone to be,

something that you maybe see in yourself, but you are viewed upon others. What is a virtue that you would like to impose? And is this an internal thing or an external, like, laughs a lot? It is a descriptive, one word word. Yes, a descriptive word.

So if you want to be someone who laughs a lot, you can be someone who's amicable or someone who's joyful, something like that. This is a great picture of you, Alex. Thank you. I wear a lot of blue

I figured out. Just like every single one. Spread of Alex's life. He's blue. Yeah. It has been written. That's why it's Sharpies. Where's my lovely smell?

Yeah. I have to tell, I will say that in a game earlier today, everyone has commented on the abrasive texture. I kind of don't mind it. Oh, of this? Is it because there's no label? Yeah. I didn't even notice.

There, there you go. That shows something how detailed. I'm not going to last long. That perception check is really low. It's just zero. Or you're unflappable. Yeah. Or that?

It feels a little alive. Well, let's pass it back to the left. To where it goes. Furry peach. I'll take it back to you. I'm hoping that's my virtue. Do we not look at it? No, we're gonna read it off right now.

Would you start for us, Steph? Yes, I am compassionate. Compassionate, great. Alex? I am protective. Protective, okay, great. Haki. I'm empathetic.

Empathetic, all right, and Morpal. Ooh, I'm super smart. Okay, can Steph write that one? Yeah, Steve. Jeff did. Okay, so Super Smart's fine. It's smart is a virtue, but I would probably lean more on

to like intellectual or something like that, just for future reference. So I'm keeping into it, because Super Smart's technically two words. Oh, but it is, yeah, not the way I wrote it. You put another capital S in there though. Yeah, but you know with websites

and the way they are, like capitals don't necessarily. Okay, you get a pass, It's the best hashtag ever. Super smart in your head, intelligent in your heart. I do like doing virtues and vices as hashtags. Hashtags. Okay, duly noted. Now let's take another one of your cards

and let's pass it to the left. Please pass that to you. Treat her, Jeff. I shall. And then here, I'll give it. Now on the back of this one, I would like you to write a vice. Something that causes more problems than it starts. and something that you would never wish upon anybody,

except for you are now. I may be O for two in spelling. You know what? I think you're gonna be okay, Alex. Yeah, no one's gonna know but whoever you're handing it to. And maybe me, so. You don't need to know what to spell at the end of the world. Let's pass it back to the left.

Okay. Back to their owners. We go. Vorpal, would you start us off? What is your vice? I am stubborn. Stubborn, great. Naki?

I'm vindictive. Vindictive, excellent. I am vengeful. Vengeful, all right, vindictive, vengeful. See a lot of hatred in this group. Stubborn, awesome. And? I'm reckless.

And reckless. I love it. Okay, perfect. Then now is about the time in which I kind of tell you a little bit about what you're dealing with where we are. Now, in full disclosure, we did have an opportunity to talk about this a little bit before coming to the table, but just to refresh everyone's memory. You will be playing 12 days after the monoliths have risen from the ground. And at this point, 12 days is fairly subjective because the sun doesn't seem to be rising or setting

in any kind of regularity at this point now, much like a popular television. show, the nights are long, and the days are long, and that doesn't seem to have any kind of normality to it whatsoever. So when I say 12 days, it feels like it may have been 12 days at this point, but it is night, and the night currently is long. So, you, I think we talked a little bit about you dealing with the tidal surges that are a part of what has occurred as a result of these modelists coming out into the ground. And having some foresight on these tidal surges, perhaps in the light of the day, you are able to make an excursion as far away from the oceans as you possibly could, watching as fresh lakes are basically being engulfed by these wide

swath of water as it is literally tearing down everything buildings foliage and animals as it's just making its entire crest upon the the European landscape and seeing that you wisely chose to go the other way right mm-hmm yes so we're going to basically start our situation with the post-title surges of day 12 leading into the night. The night has set a while ago, and you have long since run out of food, and I know I was jokingly saying that it has been days without food, but now I'm literally saying it has been days without food

since you've all eaten and you are feeling not only... You've gone past the pains of hunger, and I don't know if any of you have fasted or anything like that in the past, but there is a point in which you no longer have hunger, and you simply have just a chronic pain that exists with you until you're able to, A, mentally push that past or be able to internalize it until the next stage comes, which is the muscle fatigue.

Not quite there yet. Now, let's talk about your moments at this point. And moments are something that you, you will not give to anyone else, but it is your own. It is a moment that you hope to create while in this story. And should you create that moment and live through it, you will be awarded a hope dice, which now will become part of your greater conflict dice as you roll.

This is a much, much better dice than the regular ones. But it does have to be something that has the option of failing at the same time, too. Cool? Okay, all right. Let's take a card, turn it around, and I'd like you to write that moment down now. Does this have to be something that can really happen? In real life?

In this world or in the real world? The... Yes, it should be something that is possible, but also has the option to be. Can it be other player dependent? Absolutely, it can be other player dependent. Yes. And to be fair, this is something that you will hold on to.

We will talk about it here. It's not secret, but we will be sharing it with everyone at the table. Okay. Is everyone good? I stopped hearing screeching. So we'll take this opportunity to not only learn about your moment, but also learn about the character

that you'll be playing today. So, Aki, could you start? My moment is I find proof. May I learn who your character is first? Oh, my character is first. I'm sorry. I'm going to be playing Corrin Jones. Corinne Jones.

That's spelled Q-O-R-I-N, Corrin Jones. Excellent. Corrin Jones is a university student who has been backpacking through Europe when all of this started and is now basically stuck. Yeah. Can't go home. And they came on this trip with their twin sister. Ah. And their sister has since gone missing.

They have no idea where she is. where they are. Where she is. So, Corrin, do you want me to tell you what Corrin looks like to? Is that part of this or just a general idea of?

If you feel it's important to distinguish it, then by all means, take it. Eh, it's your twin sister. Yeah, Cora is my twin sister, and basically my moment is I find proof that she's still alive. Okay, that was the moment that you hope to create.

The names are your... I'm Corin, my twin sister is Cora. Got it, okay. Cora is also spelled with a cue. Got it. Corrin versus Cora. Great. Alex, who will you be playing today?

Today I will be playing Thomas Rhodes. Thomas Rhodes. I am a Swiss watchmaker. Ha! Cool. Non-descript Swiss watchmaker. Yeah. I decided to leave my hometown

when my wife passed away at the beginning of everything. All of this. Yeah. And, uh. Did she go missing or did something happen? Something happened. Okay.

All right. And I watched it. All right. And wanted to get far away from it. Understood. So I took it on the land and met up with some fine people and you're with them now. I'm with them now. All right.

And, uh, Oh, so the moment that you hope to generate. Yes. Please. My moment is to do what I could not do for my wife. Save somebody else. and save someone else. All right.

Duly noted. Steph, who you'd be playing today? I will be playing Virginia. Virginia. And I am a pastor's daughter. Okay. I'm 18, so reckless and compassionate go great for my character. Perfect.

And I grew up in what's the equivalent of the Orange County of Croatia. Oh. And I just want to meet God. Okay. And or a literal thing is to feel. That's the moment. That's the moment.

You want to feel God. Yeah. And I want to, so the moment can be to feel a sign from above that things are going to be okay. Okay. Duly noted. All right. Ms.

I mean, God, God's kind can be a dick. So maybe you might meet God and it's real bad. In the Bible? Well, is this Old Testament or New Testament? I don't know. Why don't you have the title? Don't you have the title flood to tell you something? Yeah.

You might already have been chosen. I'm playing Maria Ogden and Maria. And she's a QA slash customer client relations director for. for a tech hardware company. Okay. Came up through the ranks, you know, building computers as a child and at this point can now like...

Point anything. Say what's a good wire and what's a bad wire and what, you know, yeah, all the... No stuff about cards and wires and data. She's... She... As far as any of, you know, I mean, she's lost a lot already.

She's basically virtually alone and a pretty impenetrable wall as far as emotions go. And that leads me to my moment, which is she wants to feel love one more time before she dies. Okay, feel love one more time. That's wonderful. Finally, the last thing we'll do before we dive into our story, so we will take one more card,

and we are going to write a brink now. A brink is something that you will write for your neighbor, that you have seen them commit. The lowest moment they've been some kind of dark secret that you have observed. It's often described in the book as, I have seen you dot, dot, dot, dot. And it is anything and everything that they would come to when being at a brink, which is why it is titled as such.

Now, for Alex and Aki, you are both in a unique situation at this point because I will be participating in this exercise with you. What this means is that while everyone else will be sharing a brink for their neighbor, Aki, you will be writing a brink for them. You will basically say something, I have seen them, dot, dot, dot.

I have, it can be about the monolith, it can be about these proposed things that you have heard are in the ground, it can be about the circumstance in general, but it cannot be a weakness, and it is something that you will share with me in order to help continue to build our world. At the same time, Alex, I hope you're writing a brink for you. Oh, good. which they have seen you, and it will be something that you will be aware of, but is something that is also aware of them. Savvy?

Cool, cool. Then let's do that now. Do I take one, do I take, sorry, we're gonna take our things and pass, so we're gonna take them to the right. Okay, yeah, so I'm gonna write there, you get this one, here you are. Thanks.

And so what I write is what that, what you have seen her character do or feel or frankly anything. Okay, yeah, great. So a quick reminder on just rules. You will roll, should a conflict come up, you will roll dice equal to the number of candles that are currently in the game. If you roll any sixes, that will conflict

is considered a success. If I have any dice from dice being removed, moved from previous actions, I will roll against you for narrative control. Otherwise, you may take liberties on whatever happens. At the same time, should a conflict fail, I will immediately snuff out a candle, the conflict will fail, and we will begin to speak truths about how the story unfolds ahead. Let's pass it back. Now, we will not be sharing these with everybody. Do we read them? Oh. You should absolutely read them.

So before we begin, I would like you to basically stack your deck. So the way that's going to work is you can put your virtues in your vices or your moments in any order you want. The brink must go on the bottom. Okay. And this is important because you will not be able to burn any one of the three cards that I'm talking about. I'm sorry, you won't be able to burn any of the two cards or fulfill the moment. unless that card is on top. So you cannot fulfill your moment

if your virtue and vice as a top it until you have burnt both of those cards. Likewise, you cannot burn your virtue and your vice if you put your moment on top until that moment has been fulfilled. Cool? Okay. Great. So make your stacks.

We should have one that is blank. The one that is blank is simply for your concept, your person, your name. Oh, can we put this in the pile as well? It doesn't operate as part of the pile. It's kind of left off to the side just to kind of be your name and who you are. All right.

And do we want to burn these cards or no? It's really up to you. If you don't mind me telling you a little bit of previous experience, there's absolutely nothing wrong with burning virtues and vices even early on in the game. When you burn a virtue in the vice, it is only to re-roll ones.

So, because if you do, if you leave those ones to be, I will claim them in your dice pool is reduced. All right. What about burning a moment? The moment will not be burnt. It will only be fulfilled once the moment is on top

and the moment happens. Got it. A brink should you get down to your brink can be used to re-roll all the dice. Sixes and ones included. but you'll be acting upon that brink. If it succeeds, then it goes off and you get to keep your brink. It does not go away.

But if it fails, you lose your hope dice, a candle is snuffed out immediately, and you must activate upon that brink. Right? Great. Questions, comments, concerns? Then let's begin. Your story starts.

in the rolling vineyards of central Europe as you are traversing along a broken ground in front of you night has fallen 12 hours ago at this point and you have been walking since you have seen the water recede at this stage so you are amazed at just how many insects are currently just chirping in your ear? Because the eerie quiet is otherwise completely just absorbing. There's no talking. There's no people. And this is not uncommon.

It has been a long time since you ventured out from whatever stronghold you were holding on to as you go into it. but just going into what you thought would be a highly populated area with many people, you were just surprised and just how ghostly and silent it is. And being said, the sounds of nature are still prevalent in what you're doing. And really the only things that you're feeling now is that chronic pain that sits in your stomach. As you know that you haven't eaten anything in days, you have some water,

and you've been able to last on that for a while. But even that's slowly starting to run out as well too. So my question is, what do you do? Two birds, one stone. Let's get some of these insects. Yeah. Oh. I'm vegetarian,

but I thought about it. switching right now. I don't think we don't, we have much of a choice. I mean, they sound, they sound, taste as good as they sound. At this point, with so many days of hunger under your belt, probably anything would sound pretty good right now. Yeah, Virginia, I think we've all changed a little bit

and I think to help you survive, I'm gonna, I'm gonna have to shove some insects down your throat. I feel like I'll be judged. Like it's going against my morals, but I'm really, really hungry. I think they'll give you a pass here. There's no one left to judge you, by the way. Did we talk about religion yet?

Because you know I'm a past. Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, we got that. So what's the, are we making like a large net? At this point? Oh, I see. Are we collecting, are we hopping like four year olds on a creek trying to catch insects? sucks. Do we have a net? We're gone. We don't have any

any way to light our way all of our, like do we have any like a flashlight or... You would have what is in your pockets. Are any of these bugs like glomming onto us or like flying around or like... Oh, that's a good point. So let's answer several of your questions at one point. Normally in Ten Candles it explicitly says you start with what is onto your pockets at this circumstances for your journey. I think it is fair and safe to say that you are basically working with a rag torch at this stage and you've been walking with, you know, essentially a table chair wrapped in cloth, dipped into fluid and has been carried with you. So that kerosene smell

is also just with you as you're walking around holding this oily piece of wood. And yes, 100% that would attract insects. Yeah, that would bring them to the point of where you could at least see them and their clumsy movements just hopping around as they stupidly slap into you and fall down and roll back up on their little legs and then hop again. And, yeah. There are grasshoppers. I'm definitely trying to catch me some grasshoppers.

Oh, nice. I can use my shirt to, let's catch some grasshoppers. Coren. Oh, okay. Well, Adam. Yeah, that started. We have two ones and zero successes. That's great.

Good start. Yeah. First roll. How are you feeling? You know what? I'm going to go ahead and burn my virtue. Which is? Which is empathetic.

I can see how hungry everyone is and how desperate we're starting to get. And the last thing that I want is for us to start, like, losing hope. because it could get really bad if that happens. Persistence through empathy. So take those ones and re-roll them for me please. Oh, great. No successes. No. Just.

No ones. Thus, all we did was training. Here we go. Getting off to a great start. Corinne, as you are trying to try, trying so hard just to catch these insects. You, you know, were you handing the torch originally? You kind of hand this torch over to Maria,

who as you just start to like clasping, you get farther in, you slowly start to get farther and stray farther and farther away from the light, as you begin to just grasp and hold onto these things as much as you possibly can. And then out of nowhere, you feel the ground fall out from underneath you, as you tumble forward, and you feel as the wind is knocked out of you,

as you just feel like you're tumbling and tumbling down somewhere. We have nine truths to speak now as part of how the story moves forward. And, Corrin, you have the pleasure of offering the first truth. Sorry, the first truth is the world is dark. But what truth would you like to speak?

I've broken a bone in the fall. All right. You are currently in a set of dried brambles. By the way, for people who are new to it, I should say truths can be both circumstantial and they can be like scenario round. You can also do things like fast forward in time as well too. So however you wish to play out your truth,

just know that it is a truth. That's all. Okay. Sorry, continue. As I watch my friend tumble away, I do nothing to help. You do nothing. That is your truth. All right. We're at three right now. Four. I run over to see if Corin is okay and secretly wondering if we're going to eat each other if we die. Is that a truth?

So if I'm interpreting your truth, it's okay. The one I interpreted your truth, what might be interesting to say is that I'm considering eating my friends. Yes. Okay, because that can absolutely be a truth. But insects or a problem? Miss vegetarian. That escalated fast. Also, a truth could be, too, that if a friend dies, you will eat them.

Well, that's more of what I was thinking. Cool. That's fair. calling one, but like, oh no, Corrin, but like, oh. Five. Maria, you're next, what is a truth? And this has to be personal to me of, like, what my character does. It can be anything that's happening.

I mean, if you don't mind me saying, you could even say we get Corrin out of the bush. That would be the truth. I'd rather, I want, I want to say, luckily, the bramble, she, the briar patch they fell into is, is rife with, like grubby insects. Ah. You could have also said berries, but grubby insects are excellent. So, yeah.

It could have been anything. Right. I wanted to do something good, and that's what we all wanted to eat. Look on a hot day. Yeah, nothing better. Nothing better. Oh, the grubby kind that can't really hurt you.

Boren. I can still walk. Okay. That's a good truth. You have, the water. Did you say they had the water? They had the water.

They had the water? Yeah. But thankfully, none of it was spilled. Ah, okay. Yes. Good. Good, good, good, good. I made you use it.

You did. Which is fair. And I believe Virginia, you get the last one, which is because we're at nine, and I believe it was the eighth. So, Virginia. It's so crazy, but the bramble that they fell on top of is oddly on top of.

It is oddly on top of a large house that has a stocked pantry. I would probably... Wow. The house, yeah. So you're on top of a house. Yeah. That's great. That has a stocked pantry.

Sure. Absolutely. Shoot. That was too easy. I mean, it might not, you know. That's all right. We are now moving forward with nine dice. such as we have refreshed.

And we will open the scene with Corinne, currently just ensnared inside of brambles. There are small nicks and cuts all over you. And you, what do you do? Someone want to, someone. We're all going. We're all going. Maybe we didn't do anything to stop you,

but I for sure was yelling. Corne, what the hell were you thinking? I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I think I broke something. What? Oh gosh. So you all run down the hillside using the torch to bury you down. I think I had already run down. Yes. Can I reach out for her?

For them? You can absolutely take an opportunity to try to fish them out of the brambles, yep. Come on. Reaching to fish. Go out. Okay, okay. Great, one six and one one for me.

I don't have any kind of dice that have been awarded to me yet. So Virginia, you are able to tell everyone how this went down. Great. I reach out and I feel your hand, but this is the one that has a book of broken bone. Ah, not that one. Ahri. It's okay, it's okay.

Oh, I landed on something. And you looked down and you landed on what looks like a sheet metal roof with just some kind of like obstruction that you put all of your pressure on and landed upon. That you heard the distinctive metal slam as if like a great had hit

on you and maybe is, I don't know, like some kind of handle or something that you just pressed down upon? At this point, have we arrived? You're all down there. And, you know, to be clear, you did succeed in getting them out. So even though you had this narrative ability to be able to come in, how did you effectively get them out? I pulled out their legs.

They still work. Yeah. That was true. So Virginia pulls you out by your legs. Okay, alright. We got you. We got you. And like tiny, tiny cats that are covered across you,

you feel scratches, just rake across your entire body, a small pits of cloth and skin are just being pulled as Virginia undelicately just rips you straight out. Thanks, Virginia. Thanks. Oh my God. And you get down to see that. now. You were covered in scratches. Yeah, I think I broke something. I couldn't get out on my own. Virginia had to get me out the only way she could, which is, you know, dragging you by your legs, yeah, of course. I'm fine, but there's, I'd landed on something. There's a roof or something here. Okay, should we help you first? I mean, do any of you know how to set a bone?

I'd like to try. Do you want to look at it with the torch light right now to go through it? Yeah. I'll hold the torch. All right. So Thomas holds the torch and Corin, as you slowly, gingerly take off the coat. Do you have an undershirt underneath it? Yeah.

Is it what you're wearing now? Yeah. So you take this denim jacket and you take the vest. Or the vest, that's actually just a vest vest vest. So you pull it off and you can already immediately see the blood spot. that is currently just inside of where your, is it, do you wanna do upper arm or do you wanna do lower? Okay, and you kind of look at it.

And you can tell that not only, there is no, you see nothing has jutted through, but it is swelling. Yeah, okay. It hurts like a bitch. Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, it's gonna hurt even before it gets better. Great, wonderful. Can I just do it?

You wanna set the bone? Yes, set the bone. Do the bone. You need nine. Okay. I get one. Oh, no, I'm sorry. We lost one in the last one, so.

Oh, I see. Okay. All right, I'm good at this. Yeah, you are. Great. All right. Two successes, two failures. Two of those go to you?

Yes. They just go to you? All ones go to me. Unless you want to use virtues and vices. But I have succeeded. You absolutely have succeeded. I get one dice to see if I seize narrative control. There's no way because you have two.

Maria, would you please tell me how you set this ball? Yes, there's a certain nurturing motherly. I'm older than both of these students, and there's nurturing way about me. Everything's very delicate and friendly and cajoling up until it can't be anymore. And that's right when I am, it's okay. It's okay, we're gonna get through this together. Oh, is that where that hurts?

Okay, well, that's okay, let's take a look. And I just have to do it on a surprise basis, otherwise they would pull away from me. So you nearly bite your tongue, but you go through it. Yeah. This is the, that's the right way to do it. There's no other way. They would have pulled away from me.

Thank you. Holy crap, that hurts. You're gonna be okay. You're at least for now, and I'm gonna, one of the brambles you know, it's probably a little straight and I'll make a splint as... Oh, you see. That's cool.

Is that okay as part of the... Part of it. So you basically, you take a little bit of their coat as well as the bramble, which you now, after stripping it, basically make a small kind of string. And using that, you make a very makeshift kind of arm-sling made up of both their coat and the bramble, which is now kind of tied over, so it keeps close to your chest.

So it's up to keep the swelling. down and it's pretty much up against your chest like this. So, oh shit does it hurt? But it is at least sad. Thanks, Maria. I'm really, really sorry. I just wanted to help. I shouldn't have wandered away.

I'm really, I'm really sorry. We're glad you're okay. You will be fine. We will need to get someone to look at it at some point. I'm no doctor, but don't say I never did anything for you. You should drink some water. Yeah, fluids of help. That's the first good idea you've had, Virginia.

Listen. Let's take it easy. Yeah, the bag is gone. The bag? I don't. It must have. Did you lose it on the hill? Must have.

Oh. I take the top. and just extend it back and see if I can find it. Just looking back? Yeah, just look at it. It's not in the immediate vicinity from where you hold it back. Well, if we're gonna go look for it,

we better do it together, no more splitting up. Before we do that, there are these grubs here. And we know we're all hungry, and you're chase for grasshoppers. We wound up finding some things that we could actually eat that aren't harmful to us. Yeah, let's-

Quick snack. They're not harmful. No. Just pop them into the fire really fast and give them a, You should use a bramble and roast it. That's not a bad idea. I don't have time for that.

I just grab some. All right, Thomas, so you basically pluck the first big one that you can see, which is almost like a Junebug kind of grub, and you just pop it in. And it, I mean, it's odd because it doesn't taste bad, but the fact that it's still moving when you're biting into it gives you that initial gag reflex. that kind of forces it back. And its tiny little crawlers do kind of give you a little bit of an odd moment.

But once you get that first one down, it's slimy yet satisfying. I think the moment Corrin sees Thomas do it, like they just, they go for it too. They go for it too. And I suggested it. So I for sure will not be left behind. on the grubs feast.

Absolutely. I'm trying not to throw up watching the wriggles go down. It's more just the fact that they just are literally, they didn't even bother cleaning the dirt off of them. They just threw it right in. And you can hear it. It's an interesting texture. I'm so hungry.

I want to see you conflict, see if you throw it up instead. Oh, she totally could. Take one and I think I am so, so sorry. And I put it, I put it and chew it and we'll see if it goes down, right? Yeah, it goes down. Yeah, it goes down. Oh, it goes down. Yeah, I get that one-one.

So, question. Yeah. Would we be aiming to hold? This is all the dice we get ever. No, when you fail, the, the candle will go out and the dice will refraud. based on how many candles are lit. It is a decaying dice pool.

Yes. There we go. You can do this, Virginia. Try not to think about it. Wow. He did it. Yeah. Not so bad, huh?

I don't know. It's... Good job, Princess. All right. Pretty bad. It's bad, but at the same time, just the knowledge and understanding that something is in your stomach.

It's... it's holding it together at this point. Because you know at this point if you threw up, you would lose more water that you've been drinking more than anything else. And it's kind of that weird grit that kind of keeps you there, less than it is the knowledge of eating a bug. I guess it's like four grams of protein. I wish you could see,

you could have seen the contortions your face made as that bug went down. It's the funniest you've ever been. ready for another one. I am. Okay. So you basically all of you, gingerly some, more aggressively others, you clean through as much of the grubs as you possibly can. All the ones that are visible and all the ones that are at least in as much of the top soil that you can find. I want to kind of keep close to that sheet of metal that I'm pulling on because while I'm eating,

I'm also sort of exploring that, trying to figure out what it is. Having the light be a little closer, it distinctly looks like some kind of hatch. You guys, I think there's something down here. Water first? Sure, yeah, let's try and find the water thing first, but yeah, this looks like some kind of hatch. Might lead down to something. Okay. Come back for it?

We can maybe, we've been walking for 12 hours, right? Yeah, probably longer than that. Maybe we can get the water and then hole up. Yeah, that would be a good, it seems like a good. Good place to rest. Good find. Are we all decently full on bugs now? I mean, it's enough at this point.

But I do want to see if you can find that water. So Thomas, I do want you to make a conflict roll, please. Okay, let's do this. All right. As you basically double back where Quaren has moved, you lose track of where you are going and you find yourself wandering aimlessly up and down this hillside as you lose your bearings.

And I can't even give you, there's no one here in which you re-roll. So, okay. Let's speak some truths. We have eight. You now have eight dice to work with. Thomas, let's start with you. I lost myself for a moment. But I found the water.

You found the water. Okay, that's fine. Two. I think I'm going to hell because I ate these bugs. Okay, you're going to hell. Well, I think I'm going to hell. I'm not actually, but that's how I'm feeling. That's your perspective on it.

Yeah, sure. So we got the water. There is a friendly, a friendly voice in the hatch. There's a friendly voice in the hatch. Okay. We won't find any more food after this. Aside from the fully stocked thing that we already spoke. That's part of this game.

It's about telling the best story. You can't win ten candles. And it's not a... So you just might as well lean in. Lean in. Lean in. Five and so six. Be gentle.

Who are you talking to? I realized that as soon as I said it. Friendly voice inside. They sound friendly. Friendly voice in... The voice sounds friendly, but it isn't. It's not a denial what I'm trying to say. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

This is that the voice sounds friendly. I knew you're right. In the hatch. The hatch. Yes. Okay, I'll go with it since I found the water. Yeah. I lost the torch.

Cool. We started. One, six, seven. I saw a big shadow move over there. Big shadow. Yeah, I mean, it's over there is probably about five-eighths of a mile away. Ah. But it's there.

I saw something. Dark vision. Five-eighths of a mile. I don't think your dark vision would quite cover five-eighths in a mile, but I can- Is there a moon? I just, I thought I saw something move, not sure if it's worth bringing it up.

You saw something move, it's perfect. And for the record, yes, the moon is incredibly bright. And very, very big. Yes, and very big. We're actually talking about it fills up a large portion of the night sky. And last one. Last one.

Okay, so the hatch seems to be a little bit underground And there's a bit of water at our feet Probably from the incoming tide Even though we've escaped the brunt of it And it's leaking into the... The water is leaking into the hatch Yeah, from above. From above, yeah, okay.

It's below ground. Yes. From what we can tell, okay, cool. Okay, so the water is leaking into the hatch. Okay, great. Well, the world is dark And now we start That's always the truth

Normally that's the first truth is the world is dark But at least it's been said So now we're going to start Yes You said the other group had a truth for us I did, yes And that is coming up Oh, it's coming up

At this point Okay Just live in ignorance As long as possible Yeah Yeah, great So you, we start the scene back up. You guys have lost the torch,

but you've managed to find this water. And losing this torch to me looks a lot more like the torch has completely burnt out and there is no more accelerant to basically light it back to where it is again. So it's worthless basically at this point, but you did find the water. And at some point you do hear aloud

Hey Anyone up there? Unless the monolith speak English. I'm pretty sure that that voice... No, this is amazing. Is human. This is amazing. We found another survivor.

Yes, yes, there are four of us. Can you help us? Are you armed? Of course not. All right. Greetings, adventurers. Spring has sprung here in Los Angeles, and that means it's a brief period where it's only

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Greetings, Adventures. Lately, I've been getting a bit more intentional about what I wear from. day to day because instead of just falling out of whatever laundry baskets nearby, I've been leaning into pieces that feel easy and comfortable, but still put together because it just makes getting dressed simpler when I have a plan. Quince has been my go-to to help with that, because the fabrics feel elevated, the fits are clean, and everything just works without me needing to overthink it. And Quintz has all the wardrobe staples you need for spring. Think 100% European linen shorts and shirts from just $34. They're lightweight, they're

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and don't move. This doesn't feel right. Why doesn't it feel right? Of course it... because the hatch is not next to the brambles. The hatch is at the brambles. Oh. So stand at the brambles? They want you to stand in front of the brambles. Yes, yes. Of course they're suspicious.

I don't think we should stand at the brambles. Virginia, what else are we going to do? They have cover. We wanted to spend the night here. What if they want to eat us? All right, Virginia. I'm just saying. And people might be crazy.

Maria's right. this is a chance for help here. I think Habama should not stand at the brambles. Virginia, you can do whatever you want to do. I'm not going to fight you, but I also think you're being a little bit dramatic. I'm just saying there's some crazy people here. Yes, everything's gone crazy.

We have to take the chances that we're given. Come on, we don't get... Can you just ask them why they want to stand at the brambles? Yes. Thanks. Before we stand right where you want us to, how can we be sure we can trust you? I could say the same of you.

What's at the brambles? Sorry. The cameras. I think they just want to check how many of us there are, I guess. Oh my gosh. Cameras are my bag. I mean, I don't say that out loud.

I say this to these guys. Okay, cameras are my bag. Can I identify with... It's so dark. You're dealing with the moonlight, and they are, whoever's down there, is basically telling you to go to the brambles.

If you would like, I'm perfectly happy to have you see if you can look and identify these cameras without getting too deep into it. I don't mean to sharpshoot the integrity of this voice, but are we certain that electronic cameras even work now? That's true. You're right. You're right, all of my electronics.

It'd be interesting to find out. It'd be such a cool experiment. I'm going to say that because it's my truth, that it's a friendly voice, that I'm going to stand at the brambles then. So you walk over to the brambles and you hear what appears to be a very light mechanical whirling just for a second. You look, try to identify where it might be. How are there are electronics still working? It's working, I don't know. And you look down and you see nothing.

You can't see anything. But then you can go, you hear the voice go, I see one of you, but I heard other voices. I'm going to identify the camera from here then. Okay, yeah, from where you are, you can, yeah, go for it. I love conflict roles, so let's do it. All right, I'm good at these. Oh, wow.

Four ones, no sixes. Wow. I like the intention, though, going in. I thought that was very positive. It worked last. Would you, this would be one of those circumstances, what I would recommend. Okay, great.

A burn. So this is number one is super smart. Yeah, all right, which is, very appropriate. Very appropriate. Take those four ones. Okay. And let's see how smarty pants super smart. Nice.

I converted two ones into two sixes and the other ones are four. Okay, great. Very good. You, you, um, useful. Yes. Looking down as you kind of hear this voice, and in that split second when you see, see it, you do notice something. It is a tiny, it is a very well-concealed dome that is part of like a

home security system. And you can see it's been covered really articulately with the brambles that are right where you are. But you can distinctly see even with the moonlight coming down the hint of a lens that just seems to be covered in this bramble bush. It's below or above? It's below. It's like on the floor. then can my success, I definitely notice it. Can I also strategically, like, I'm not going to show any of my friends. I'll just like nod to them,

and I'll play it, I'll be near it so that as soon as the hatch opens, I'm going to stop on it. Oh, okay, fair enough. Great. So you kind of seeing where the field of the camera is, I would definitely allow you to kind of get into a position where you can kind of block it.

Okay. you hear the voice call out again, basically saying, I see one of you, but I heard more voices. Is it a male or female voice? Hard to tell between the steel, great. Okay. I'm probably sticking sort of close-ish to Maria just on the basis of feeling a little bit of a maternal...

Yeah, she sent your bone. Yeah. Connection, and I'm really craving family connection right now. Yeah. So you get close to Marry. I do kind of get close to that they can see more than one of us. Yeah. Feeling that I will also join the group,

knowing that most of them are headed in that direction, and I'll stand in plain sight of. Okay, so I see three of you. Show me your hands. I just wanna make sure there's nothing on you. Oh God, I haven't seen people in so long. I know. I can't believe it.

Okay, here's the deal. I'm gonna open the hatch real soon. slow. I need you all to take two steps back so I can take a look at you. Okay. That's fair. That's fair. Okay. So you both take two steps back. I know we'll see how it is. Okay, okay. Yeah, but if you want to go for it, I'm not going to stop you at all. And you kind of hear a, like, some kind of big, just mechanism, just go, and you hear basically a mechanical lock just unloaded. I'm sorry, when I mean mechanical, I mean it's a manual kind of like a,

when you hear like an airlock door being unhinged and you just watch as it popped, it just goes, just for a second as if like a pressure seal just came out and you see a hand stark white unduried and just kind of press up on top of the hatch and you see just hair chest muzzled frazzled hair

and two just pupils fully dilated beady eyes lift their head up and kind of look at you and okay

okay opens the hatched along it still can't tell at this point if it's male or female or what it is it's just just dusty frazzled hair everywhere and kind of

He goes, well, you're alive. Yes. So are you. Yeah. Hi. How long have you been down there? Three months. Three months.

Three years maybe. I'm not too sure, honestly. I don't really tell time too much down here. You want to... How many of you are there down there? Me. Just you. Just you.

Just me. Just me. This is me. This is me. Yep. You got a name? You can call me Starci for now. Starci's fine.

Starkey. Holy. Shit. And you see Starchy is like now at this moment looking at the giant fucking moon that is in the star, and just covering the horizon and almost goes. Yep. That makes sense. So yeah, all right.

You want to come in? Yeah. Just start you look well-nourished? Yeah, I mean, beyond just the frazzled hair and kind of this beaded look that, and I can already see the question in all of your eyes. It's like how can 12 days turn a person like this? But they don't look malnourished.

They don't look like they've been, you know, abused in any except for maybe self abuse at this stage as far as hygiene might go

but that's what you got okay on the way in I want to make sure that I at least surreptitiously make eye contact with Virginia because she hasn't

been seen yet necessarily so I just want to like questioningly yeah you don't know okay but on as we move towards there I do want to step on the camera. Oh, just step on it. Just like

try to cover it with your foot, right? Try to, no, try to get rid of it. Oh, break it? Oh, like full-blown break it. Yeah, I'd call that. That's worth a roll. Because it's, whether or not, we'll see how that resolves. Okay.

I make money no means. No ones. But one success. But one success. Okay. So Starchy does not hear, a loud crunch as you basically step on what it is. And, I mean, to be fair, you probably aren't breaking the camera so much as you're taking

all of the mud and goo that you have, you know, accumulated on your shoes at this point and just smeared the crap out of it at this point. So that at least as far as outward visibility goes, it's compromised. Ah, shoot. Yeah. So you watch is kind of like Starchie just has this hatch up and starts crawling down. And again, tell me if this is not your intent,

but as you all are kind of coming down the hatch. Except for Virginia, I just wonder. Are they leaving the hatch open? You hear Starci as he's coming up and they yells to whoever's last, and it goes, shut the door behind you. I'm like, I think because of my arm probably in between.

Yeah, okay. So do you not shut the door? I shut the door, okay? You do? I shut it. But not like, gently. You actually like full bone shutting. Do not see her making the motion to not.

So you, Virginia, hear this just as Thomas is. Oh my God. There are things out there. Don't you see she's not with us? I could have saved you. I said to yell at the hatch. I could have come in there just in case anything happened. But no.

No. No. So you climb down and you see a well-lit hallway. It is the first time you have seen anything this well-lit ever in two weeks. It has been a world of darkness. But this fluorescent light is just feeding straight into you, and it is sterile, and it is exactly incredibly unsettling in its contrast to the above world. And Starci kind of just... How did you find this place?

I made it. It's mine. It's mine. I made it. Made it. Yeah. Yeah. Starkey, if you haven't been above the surface in months or years, a lot. has happened in two weeks. And you said it makes sense to you. Yeah, I know, I know. Yeah.

So two weeks is what everything bad happened, right? Well, how do you know that? Did you see I had cameras up there? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I saw the water. I saw the riots. But why does this make sense to you?

You see that honker up there? That big old Wongadong sitting in the sky? what's the moon do? Yes, it makes the tides, sure. It makes the tides. So it's messing up by its distance to Earth. Yeah, by like a factor of 10,000? Do you see how close that thing is?

Yeah, we've been living it for the last two weeks. Oh, that sucks. Did you predict this? How did you know that you needed a bunker? No, no, no, no, I just like bunker life, I guess. You just did it for fun? No, no, I just, I knew something would happen.

You know? Something's going to happen, whether it's, you know, the world falling apart or the riots or the government failing or the moon just decides to come and pay Earth a little visit. I don't know. It's something was going to happen. I'm going to casually glance around and see if I can locate the monitors that are attached to those cameras. Even though StarChi has a pretty well-encompass thing here, it's very difficult and expensive to build anything with any kind of less thing. We're not talking.

It's not like a compound underneath. You're basically looking at like a one-bedroom apartment down here. And so the monitors are like ostentively as soon as you come through. It looks like maybe what Starkey had done in this circumstances had taken two containers from like a container ship and basically buried it under the ground because you can see the kind of ridged walls with spot welding done everywhere

as far as stuff had done. And at this point, you can actually see that Starci has started taking buckets and has put wires on top of a lot of the bucketry there because one of the things you noticed when you started stepping down into this place was the small amount of water that seems to be accumulating now at the bottom.

of this crazy compound. Is this how you've been collecting water for? No, that's new. That's new. Don't like it. And I should probably pump it out. Yeah, that's probably the next thing to do. There's no way for you to make it like potable

so you can drink it. It's groundwater. I mean, you can drink it. I mean, it's probably going to have whatever is in the ground that you can have there, but I drink dirt water when you've got. got carbon water. You're so kind to allow us your abode.

We're really looking for just a short, a place to rest for a short time. We've got to be making our way further inland. Oh. If you don't mind, we just need some hours to, as you can see, my friend here has broken their arm. Oh, yeah, no, I can help you take care of that for sure. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I'm coming over here. and you kind of start you leads you into the bedroom, the one bedroom that's in this whole place

and kind of sets you down and you can see there's several cabinetry that's kind of laid out where it is and I mean it's a it's a fully stocked medical supply I mean we're talking morphine we're talking you know you know splints like a like a real splint that you could actually set the bone with at this point and it's uh I mean this is this is this is a prepper's dream what you're in right now wow wow starchy are you a doctor no no no um more of a more of a self-learned doctor really i've uh i've set a few animal bones over the years just you know uh trying it out i'm a friend who would like you very much so here you it looks like you've already tried to do that a little bit right yeah but i don't

think this will hold up once you think you kind of before you as you're talking She kind of grabs their other arm, though not the broken one, but grabs this one. And I was already taking some iodine and has, you know, like, sterilized this part of your arm and it's just shoved an IV needle straight into your piece. So right there goes, okay, it takes a saline bag. Are those antibiotics?

No, no, this is the morphine. You'll like this. Excuse me? And you basically watch it like a drip starts going right into it as the morphine starts entering into your system. Hold on, should we, Maybe we're being a little hasty with the pain killers here. I'm sorry, what?

Yeah. No, it's going to hurt otherwise. Like, big time. I mean, you did this, right? That's right. Yeah, it's not a bad job, but we're going to need to go in there. I say we let it happen. Look at everything they've got.

And at this point, while you two are talking, that Starchy is just kind of settled in here and is taking the arm now and taking your makeshift branch with the coat splint and kind of brings one of those metal surgical tables and, like, puts your arm right up on there and starts looking at it, okay, well, it's not broken through the skin, that's good. Oh, but you got swelling.

Swelling, all right. Well, we're going to bleed that real quick to make sure you don't get any internal stuff, and they're doing this action while they're talking about. It's almost like they're just talking to themselves and using Quarin as a little bit of, like, an experiment at this point. So, you know, they, they bleed whatever's left in there because you can see that it's starting

to puff up a little more. So they get all the excess blood out of it. And they basically reset the bone. Well, you don't feel a damn thing at this point. I'm just loving it the funny way that she talks. And, and, uh, and, uh, and, and after a few short minutes, treated minutes, basically, um, uh, resets the bone stops. the internal bleeding and then puts a real splint onto the board there.

So, all right, cool. Well, that's done what's next. Oh, yes. Thank you. Yes, thank you. Draining the container ship. That's right, that's what's next. Do you have any food?

Oh, yeah, go ahead, go ahead. And she kind of like motions behind where they are and kind of like looks at, you can see it's three or four floor to ceiling cabinets that are kind of laid out. And they start basically bailing water, like putting in the buckets, and just starts filling it up and seems to be pouring it into some kind of like a potable toilet.

Okay. Yeah. Corr, are you okay? I feel great. Okay. Do you think you can get some rest? Hmm? Can you close your eyes and sleep?

Sleep sounds good. Okay. But I really want something to eat. That's not bugs. Okay, I can handle that. Okay, I'm gonna help our friend. Okay, and then maybe our other friend. Right, right.

Maybe in reverse order, maybe we should, I'll go do that. Okay. I'm gonna kind of make my way back down the hallway and up to the ladder. Back to where the ladder is. Okay. Just, I'm gonna check on our friend

and just climb up and pop open the... Right, so we'll get to the food real quick. It's a little quicker to resolve. So, Maria, as you walk over to the cabinets, you pull open. The first one, it's empty, completely bare. Nothing there whatsoever at all. And you move over to the second wardrobe

and pull it open. That one, it definitely has food inside of it. It's actually quite a bit of food. Okay. Maybe about half of it is gone at this point. But it's canned. It's between powdered protein, canned goods, MREs, or the European equivalent of MREs, which you probably not have the acronym MRE.

Okay. And a lot of other, yeah, everything from. Any canned peaches or fruit that have that delicious syrup? It is not, there is not many of them, but there is a few. Yes, it seems to be. one of the like starchies delicacies that they don't seem to touch too often. Okay, well I'm no bitch, so I'll leave those there.

Okay. But I'm assuming you probably grab some of the ones that are really easy to just rip and then dive into. Yeah, beans. Yeah, okay. So you make a meal for the three, Thomas, as you start hearing your feet clung up the rungs of the ladder, you start you go,

wait, wait, wait, wait, whoa, where are you going? And you hear as they kind of like come around and the splashing of the water just kind of comes and goes, what are you doing? Well, I figured, I need to check on our friend real quick, real quick, and then we can help you. Friend, there's more than one, two, three of you? Well, yeah, we said there was, there was,

we said there was more. I remember, one, two, three, not four, get down. Okay, okay, I'll climb back down the ladder and just kind of approach him for her slowly and just be like, so truth time kind of lied a little bit. Truth. Yeah, I really want to check on our friend who's outside.

And this is my fault. I forgot. I forgot and I closed the hatch too quickly. I'd like to make up for that. Oh, no! And just check. Oh, uh... But, but... But he's fine. Except their bone.

One success, no one's. Okay. Starchy kind of looks and you can see that they've got that tick in their eye that you're just starting to notice now and kind of looks to you and goes, okay, yeah, go go go go go get them, bring them back down. We'll do.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And as you're walking, they kind of stay surreptitiously, maybe awkwardly behind you a little bit as you climb up. Okay. Very, very just, look, I'm, see? Yeah, no foul play here.

Super transparency. It's going to open them. Virginia, you hear as the hatch opens up. Well, can I have looked around to see if there's other entrances? Oh, absolutely, yes. Just because there has to be air unless I was, There must be, in my head, there must be some type of air or watch. Something is going in or out, unless it's just a vacuum.

But I was looking around. That's great. So around the brambles, you can definitely see that the brambles are ostensibly like cover for here, you know, without a doubt. You know, and since it has been raining a lot, otherwise, there wouldn't be any reason for the groundwater to start swelling the way that it was. there's air holes. You can see them now. They're covered. They're just basically tiny little spouts about this big

that have a clear bug grate on it so that nothing can get in. And you can see they only stick up out of the ground about that far. It takes a while, but you do kind of notice them with the limited dark vision you have as you do a perimeter around it. Okay.

And as you're doing this perimeter check and looking for these items, you do hear the loud of the distinct sound of the hatch opening up and you do hear the hinge just, Hey Virginia. Oh, hello there. Hi.

So I apologize that that was my bad. I got flustered. I was very excited to get in someplace clean and get some food, So come on down. We've got food. I'm like, wisdom, like, help. Yeah, very helpful.

Morphine, treating the wound. Like, it's okay. Come on down. Can I grab just a mini, I had a mini bramble that I, can I just have like a tiny little, it doesn't won't help anything about best by own feeling of feeling protected. You can literally bring. A little bramble branch in my hand.

Just a little bramble branch. As you hold on to this bramble branch coming down, you kind of. go down and Starci is right at the bottom waiting for both of you, like, like right there to the point of where you can't really turn around without like kind of brushing into them. And Starci takes like one dramatic step back and sticks his hand and goes, Starchy. Thomas. Good.

Thomas. And you watch as you do the shake hand, they pull you kind of lopsize of them and puts you back the other way. And watches you come down Virginia and go. Starchy. I do the same thing. I put the brains on my other hand and I shake the hand. Grab the hands and starts pulling you in and sees, oh no, that goes back outside.

No contaminants in starchy's basement. What's that? That. My good luck term? That. It's bad luck here. Not good luck. You don't want any piece of the earth in here?

I worked hard to make sure no earth gets in here, and I don't want any blackberries in here. I've got them in the back already. Plenty of them. I kind of look at you and I'm thinking, do what they say. Do what they say. Yeah, yeah.

And then I look over and check out Corrin. Corin's passed out. Well, and you wouldn't be able to see him down the hallway as well too since I just try to see around. No, no, I'm here, I'm here, right here. Hi, I. Yeah, eye contact is very polite. That's true.

Okay, I'll just go put this right back upstairs. Great, okay. I'll stay here. So I climb up. I put it upstairs. Take one last breath of fresh air. Think what have we got ourselves into? Close the hatch on your way down. I say, goodbye, Moon, in my head.

I'm going to see you again. Having heard these neurotic, like these neurotic conversations about like what starchy allows and what they don't allow, I'm going to search the med bay for things like scalples and sharp objects. Oh, cool. Yeah. Maybe poison slash, you know, sleeping reagents or something, you know, just like what I'm getting a sense of claustrophobia already. Sure, absolutely. So I want, I'm looking for something that they also might try to experiment with. Right. So as far as medical equipment goes in this time, you would definitely see things like scalpel, scissors, things that can be used to cut, treat people that could potentially be used inappropriately, ethically.

Starchy has kind of everything laid out in front. There's not a lot of hidden items in here. Okay, because if I only got what I'm wearing right now, I'm going to slide a scalpel in my boot. Oh, okay. All right. And maybe take one of those, like, I don't know if there's a morphine-filled syringe or, like, something. Oh, there wouldn't be. There's just the vials that they use to kind of, you know, pop in. If you wanted to take the time, I would let the scalpel happen while this all occurrence is going down. Then the scalpel happens.

And the scalpel happens. But you do definitely see needles, for sure to, you know, be able to put stuff inside of it. They're not in the same area where the med bay is. You do absolutely notice there is things like. bleach, lie, rat poison, things like that that are absolutely in here as well, too. They're on the bottom shelf. Okay. You know, and, I mean, there is not an inch of this place that doesn't have some purpose

or some kind of cover in this area, for sure. Yeah. Bleach, huh? So, you come down and start you, again, as you close the hatch, walk down and start he goes and starts walking back and go make sure that you check

the hatch and goes okay and then comes back down and sits down and goes to goes back to their central station you know they kind of like grab a piece of hair

and kind of like tuck it back into there and pull their hair back a little bit and then just it's right into typing something okay yeah I'm gonna make for the food all right

yeah repeat that conversation with you do you go for the peaches though I don't I do not go for the peaches no no those are those are on a pedestal

I go for what do you have in I've got baked beans ooh yeah great I could go for some baked beans yeah there's plenty there's plenty yeah maybe I have

made plates for people right you're starting to dish out the first decent meal you've had maybe a week. Yeah, wash the taste out.

Yeah. And you sit with this, you know, with, if you can believe it, paper plates. Wow,

really prepared for the apocalypse weren't we, Starchey. Stargey's on it. Single use items. Single use items. As you prepare

the food in front of you and you kind of just watch as Starge's just seems to be in some kind of closed loop, just like, Typing seriously, like 80 words per minute typing,

kind of a situation. Wow. You know. Yeah, I'll just eat the beans and just kind of, hey, Starchy, what you're working on? Keeping a log, got to keep a log. If you're going to go to a bog. Yep, that's just my diary.

Everything I need to do and want to talk about who you are, which reminds me, swing around and look at you. Who all are you? My name is Maria. Hmm? And I... Starci. Yeah.

Shakes the hand. Yes. Thank you so much for your hospitality again. Nothing really to note here. Just trying to, we're really trying, we're trying to survey

what really is happening. So far we have figured out as much as you told us the moon is responsible. Yeah. It's vicinity to the Earth. I'm thinking about that too now. Yeah, actually I was running some numbers.

Just looking about the giant radius of the moon right there. I'd say probably the whole thing is about, it's about 150. thousand miles from the earth now. That's too close. Yeah, no, absolutely. Yeah, that's way too close.

Definitely explains why you're talking about tidal surges. I'm assuming most of the West Coast has probably gone, right? Or did you... Where'd you come from? We're from, thankfully, inland. No, we don't really have much information about any of the coasts at this point. All right. You're probably right.

I assume most of the earth is under water. It's still worth noting. And she kind of turns around again and starts taking notes. While you're trying to talk to them. They're just kind of now writing down this new information and kind of just tightening it back into the system. So, you know. Can I ask about your, the power?

Huh? Power? Yeah, just curious how your machines run. Oh, yeah. I was studying one of the subjects at school was studying with computer programming language, but we always needed power for our computers. Yeah, no, power and computers are really important. They need to go. Bath to that I learned too.

Yeah, cool. Okay. Is she all right? She's, yes. Okay, cool. Yes, power is necessary to make the computers work. I had an outage about two weeks ago, but I just popped in a new battery

on top of the self-generating machines over there and everything about it back up pretty good. Oh, interesting, self-machines. Yeah, no, it's a... Actually, don't mind, I'm running a little low right now. You get a pass, but would you mind... What? They're motioning over,

and you can see that there is a pedal bike. That's just like... Oh, it's... into the corner, and it seems to be bolted into the ground. Yeah, sure, I haven't had a workout in a while, except for walking for 12 hours. Okay, great, thank you. I appreciate that. Again, we're looking for a time to just short, quickly rest,

and then move on our way. We don't want to take your power away or anything. Yeah, certainly don't want to impose. Well, but we're happy to, we're happy to pedal. And I was thinking before I even took a rest, maybe Jonathan and I might be able to pump out some water for you. Maybe fix that situation.

Yeah, I'm not sure who Jonathan is, but I would love to do that. Yes, Tomathan, like I said. No, that's not no. No one, I'm sorry. That's not going to work. No. No, no.

Sorry. What's not going to work? No, you can't go. You can't leave. You just got here. And we won't leave for a little while. But you're going to. We have to.

We have to. No, why? Why leave? Why go up there? We've... I'm looking for people. Oh, you have staunchy. We volunteered to find information and deliver it back to the other survivors.

No, no, no, no, no, no. You go just got you. You can't go with us. No, no, I can't. No, of course not. I can't go outside. No, no, no, no. know, have you seen that thing?

And plus you have to keep the log. And yes, and I have to keep the log. I have to keep everything so that when it all goes, someone has something. But you can't go, you can't leave. Starkey, look at us. We have to. And I don't know what on earth you think you could do to stop us. The war is over and both sides lost.

Kingdoms were reduced to cinders. armies scattered like bones in the dust. Now the survivors claw to what's left of a broken world, praying the darkness chooses someone else tonight. But in the shadow dark, the darkness always wins. This is old school adventuring at its most cruel. Your torch ticks down in real time. And when that flame dies, something else rises to finish the job. This is a brutal rules-light nightmare with a story that emerges organically, based on on the decisions that the characters make. This is what it felt like to play RPGs in the 80s,

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Listen now, wherever you get your podcasts. When the Chaotics are on the case. I walk by, I give Maria a very meaningful look, and I start to pedal just to do something that Starchy wants us to do.

But I Starchie. And Starci is now like taking deep, calming breasts like to the point of where they're kind of getting to a point of hyperventilating at this stage and Oh.

You got to chill. Like do you do yoga down here or anything like that? It's great for that kind of stuff. No, I pedal bike. The pedal bike gives me all of the energy burning I need. No, I, you know you know where Starkey's basement is.

If I give you out, if I let you, I let you in because I thought you could stay and you could be with me, but if you go out, you could bring other people here. I don't want other people here. I want just you here. No, you don't understand. We can't be in big groups. It's bad. What about big groups? We've heard rumors.

Rumors that big groups don't stand near as good of a chance as smaller ones. And we want to give you the best opportunity to survive. That doesn't make sense. You're making that up. You're telling Starchy lies. No, no, no, no. Starchie. And I'll just gingerly lay my hand. Okay.

Here, let's do one of these, because now we're getting into touchy zones on Starchy. So, uh-oh. Everybody's got boundaries we don't know about. All right, so you get, you get, I get one. But you do get a success here. Let me, we have eight, so I only get one.

Okay, no. You can kind of narratively take control of the situation and how you, this touch is, actually helping calm down, at least at the point where they're not yelling anymore at it. Sure. I'll just kind of get into a rhythmic

rapport with Starci and just be like, listen, Starci, what Maria is trying to say, what we're all trying to say here is that we all have our own logs. You have your log here that you are keeping and we have our log that we need to finish. Yeah, yeah. And that destination

isn't here. That destination's out there and we have to go fulfill the log. You know how it is. I don't like that, though. I haven't seen how long I've been down here. I finally made a decision to let somebody in here. And Starci, we appreciate that. We really, really do. But how cool is it that we're in each other's logs?

That is pretty cool. Can I ask Starci? Oh, Starci is here. Do you believe in God? Kind of. She's a real dumb one, isn't she? doesn't know about power and computers and now's going on about God

She's just different, Archie You know what, you can go You can go I'm all right with that I step off the bike And I'm saying well If you're sure I send you

And I try to I kind of like put my hands out And I'm trying to send you positive energy But I don't know I mean If you don't like religious people they're all kind of religious that you didn't mean

really? No no yeah? No? No? You're not? You want to stay down here? I wouldn't go that far. I don't want to stay down here You don't want to stay down here? Well we have our... Yeah, we need to give them some time

to rest. I'm fine, I can go any time. You need to stay... Your facilities. So kind of as you're kind of talking, Starkey kind of goes up and kind of climbs up the peg to where the ladder is and just kind of like takes the big wheel and just shum, kind of like clips it to a certain place

and you watch as like Starchie kind of like reaches into one of the pockets that they have inside of their coat and they kind of like it looks like a little, like an Allen wrench almost and they just start twisting it and turning it. Oh no, I need to stop that. What are you doing here, Starchie? What's going on here?

Grab her in a polar. She bitches locking us inside. I thought you thought I could go. That's, all right, two successes, one failure. Okay, you know. No. So she like is actually trying to. So they're clearly taking the wheel off.

Like strip the bolts? Not stripping. You can kind of see that they're kind of just taking it to, I mean, for all you know it could be, they could be stripping the bolts coming out on it. But it looks like they just jammed. and Allen wrench and are kind of like taking the turn wheel off at the moment when you get to Starkey's foot. Okay.

And you have narrative control. Okay. So all I see is like some version of making the hatch not work. And so I, I, yeah, for our safety, I grab, I grab her legs and just pull her on top of me. Okay. So as you pull Starchy's legs kind of in front of you, you kind of like, you grab the legs and pull forward. Starci's feet falling back from underneath them

kind of comes out underneath and you hear a, as like a large, like, ting, like bone on metal, as Starci basically hits their jaw on the first rung of the ladder as it just comes and you watch as like, their head just flies back and you both tumble backwards, like straight into the splashed water that's right below you.

And- It's okay. It's okay. I had to do this. Starchy, you do not get to tell us what we can and can't do. Starchie's out cold. And so there. I think that's our welcome. I think it's time to go. We can't. It's fine. It's okay. It's going to be fine. Let's get out of here. Let's get food. Let's get whatever we need. Let's get. Let's go. Let's go. Okay. Do we want to take things from here or is that bad harm? No, take it. No, no, no. No. Take it. No. Take it. No. Take it.

Take whatever you need. Yeah, on our way out. Start filling bags. Yeah, start filling if we've got a rucksack. We have food and medical supplies, especially. Let's make that for, Maria. Let's see how much you grab and take. Let's see how long starchie's out.

Okay, one success, one failure. All right. So you start grabbing as much as you possibly can and just stuff it with everything you can get. Food. What else? Are there torches? No torches.

Starkey doesn't need torches. There would probably be one hand light, like kind of one of those bulky D battery flashlights. And they're all set up with a sling. Yeah, you're all set up. Okay. Yeah, great. Water. Yeah, fresh bandages.

Great. Awesome. So you grab. But before we leave, I want to make sure that Starci is like not going to drown in the water as it's rising. So I'll lay her out. Now that you're grabbing a hold of them, you can it's a her for sure like now that you're feeling it's it's even though i said they didn't look malnutrish like she's definitely like we're talking like stick thin like way fish yeah um as you kind of

lay them down onto onto the bed yeah yeah and um and you can hear her start to kind of like mumbled let's go let's get out of here oh thanks for it can we can i glance at the at the log before we leave Same. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. If you kind of glance at the log, you go and see that Star-sheet has been doing,

like has written about the moon and has typed in, and you can see that they've been doing some calculations and some string of math, but the last, last thing that you see before it comes in is eight days until impact. and you walk up the stairs. What's the point? I crack open a bottle of whiskey.

No, no, no, let's get out of here. Let's get out of here. I don't want to die with her. So you start climbing up the stairs and you, you know. Are you doing all right? I'm fine, I'm fine. One-handed, yeah, I bet you do. One-handed.

You kind of have to be underneath them to kind of give them the boost. I support corn's legs again. I'm doing great. This is, what an adventure. Well, I really wish that Cora could be here for this. You too, I'm really. While they're helping Corinna,

I'll just quickly type on the log. Thanks for everything. Sorry about the bump. Okay. Woo! High hatch that, Thomas. And you shut the hatch. It doesn't seal because you can't seal it

from the outside, but you kind of lay the hatch down. And what do you do now? You got to get really far. away from this place. Yeah. I cover the hatch with some brambles to give it some protection.

Cool. And then we didn't, I agree. We still haven't rested though. No, no. No, we should rest away from this hatch though. Yeah. Let's light up this flashlight and is that away from the bramble?

Yeah. Okay. So you begin walking. You begin walking. What are the monoliths? Like, when you say the monoliths have risen, like what are we, are they, are they, How viewable are they?

You can see them. I mean, in this just intense moonlight that you're dealing with right now, I mean, you're basically looking at what is like, you know, a full moon times 10, right? And so these monoliths that are in front and around you, you can see one on every horizon, so to speak. Some are obviously much closer than others.

At this point, you are pretty far away from any one particular, monolith that you can look at in any particular direction. Okay. But they're obviously massive if they're, if they're viewable from the horizon. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Also, I neglected to give you one last thing that was inside of Starkey's basement, and this is your tell from the last game. But I'm finding the best way to give it to you.

There was a list. It was a special list that was taped and laid out literally along the side of Starkey's monitor. And it had very specific things that was laid out onto it. These things are true. They are afraid of the light. They swim through the earth. There is a light in the monolith. Don't go into the light.

Okay, so let's stay the heck away from those if we can. But they're afraid of the light, right? We got this bad boy. So as you walk, you enjoy making as much distance from where Stargey's basement was to where you want to be. And it is along an arduous walk. Every once in a while you hope that maybe you could find some place to settle down and sleep in. Or like trees.

like an oak tree with branches that could hold people. Yeah, yeah. And you can, you know, there are a couple places where that might work, but just it's so ruinous the area around. It just seems like no matter what, there's not any flat dirt. It just seems like the earth had been churned

and tumbled everywhere you go, and it's just been lifted and torn about, so trees have fallen. Buildings have been completely destroyed. There is an occasional rare building that still seems to be standing, which you could theoretically go and investigate if you wanted to go inside

and find someplace to sleep. Let's check it out. You are in vineyard territory-ish, so you might occasionally find like an estate that still has some structural stability to it. A bottle of white? Yeah, in that case.

Great, let's see if you can... Here's Brunteridge now. Virginia. It's been a while since we've seen your role anything. Why don't you look for an estate? Yes, lucky roll, lucky roll Virginia. Looking around. And we almost, we almost, but we don't.

No successes and no ones. And no ones, so I look very, very hard. Wait, that's a fail? That means that we're on to the end of town. Oh, that's, no fails and no sixes mean we blow out another candle. Yep, and the scene ends. So we'll basically end the scene with you walking in through the

darkness attempting to find some kind of sanctuary in which to rest your weary bones, which is going on four days now at this point. No rest. So we have seven candles to now work with, seven dice, and also seven truths of which to speak of. The first truth is the world is dark. next is Virginia what's the first truth of this story the food is

half gone Maria because of the moon there is now a bog like fog covering yeah six eight ten feet tall cool corn

they are closer than we think the fog is caustic thankfully we have plenty of healthy batteries for this flashlight. Six. And we can make, we could just make things that we see. What would you like to be a truth

of this story? I would like to see a bridge. So you come across a bridge. Come across a bridge. It was, okay, last one. Okay, the things, they who have been swimming in the earth are

are closer than we think. In fact, we have seen the back of one surface. Yeah, sounds good. Okay. So we will pick up this scene as a very acrid and dense fog now swells upon you as you kind of step in. And it's not so much as you watch

into it as it just kind of almost as if like a bad guy was coming into the room. It's just whoosh kind of whoops around and it's not so much that you can't breathe. It's just it's just it's not like putting hydrochloric acid on your skin or anything but it does tingle. It does feel like the way that cold or like when it's cold outside you try to go running and it just affects you a little. Yeah it just gets you a little bit and it just is not comfortable. It's nothing deadly by any stretch, but it is uncomfortable.

And as you begin walking through the fog, you come across what appears to be a lone, you know, eastern countryside bridge at this point. For what little you've seen, you can assume at this point you've probably been walking through like farmland vineyards at this point, like rolling hills on the inner sea, city or the outer countryside of where you are.

And that's why it's been so hard to see really anything. And the moon is making this fog so bright. It's almost like if you chucked high beams straight into something and it just is so opaque to the point of where you can barely see a few feet in front of you. I want to try and because I think the morphine is starting to wear all quite a lot. I'm in a bit of pain. I want to sort of see if I can tell if I can tell

if there's any water running beneath the bridge. Right, right, right, right. You kind of go towards where the bridge is and you listen more than anything just to hear if you can hear it trickling. And there is a small kind of pittle of what appears to be a light creek that just is running through

this, you know, to be fair, not very steep, little dip leading towards where the bridge is. I think you could maybe try and sleep under this or rest? It's probably the best thing we found so far. Under the bridge? When we saw the monsters come from the earth?

And they almost like if you were to see a whale that would, you know, lift its tail before diving deeper. That's kind of what you saw was basically a crest of something come up before it just dived back deeper. I feel like we're safer on the bridge. Yeah, maybe in the middle. In the middle of the bridge. All right. For a moment, just really wanted something soft.

Sorry. I wasn't thinking clearly. It's okay. So you go to the center of the bridge and it's an open bridge, you know, not one of like a covered bridge or anything. So it's not really affording a whole lot of protection from the elements, but you do feel a sense of safety as you lay down and kind of enjoy a small amount of food, which is hard to eat. simply because of just how irritating the fog is around you. It's just as, it's abrasive. And you want to enjoy the food, but it's just so uncomfortable.

The pain is starting to come on in full now. But you take the moderate amount of coverings, blankets, you know, aluminum blankets that you have, and you try to find some sleep on the middle of this wooden bridge. I don't think I can sleep. No. So you stay up? Yeah, I'm just too painful to sleep.

So I'm kind of just prop the bridge. You want to lean against my back? No, it's okay. I can, the bridge will help keep me awake. So as you lean on the bridge, you three managed to catch an hour, maybe an hour and a half of real rest. Just unconsciousness takes you, just the adrenaline of the situation,

just led to straight, just hitting it hard. And you are, Gordon, you're sitting kind of watching and you can't see much with the fog being as opaque as it is. And you being awake, what is going through your mind right now? I'm thinking about my sister. And I'm replaying the last moments

that I spoke to her. because we came on this trip together, but we weren't together when the mallets came out of the ground. And I was on the phone with her, and then the phone went dead. And I've been doing everything I can to try and contact her, like find her, trying desperately to get to where I think she might have been. And then that's when I was intercepted by this group of people.

Where were they when you last talked to them? So she was in the same city as I was, but she was still back at our hotel room. And I had gone out to grab us some breakfast. Got it. So you're on the cell phone. That's what you were before it cut out. And I went back to the hotel room

and she wasn't there. Got it. All right. Well, as you're mulling through these last vital moments of precious connection between you and your sister, replaying this moment in your head over and or over again, as it is something to do when you have to hold on to either two things,

the present or the past, and you've chosen the past to latch on to. This is clouding your mind as well as the pain, So it doesn't really strike you what happened until you basically hear the rumbling and the displacement of Earth as you hear and you don't see because of the opaque fog but just Earth just flown up out of nowhere just column after column and you actually hear small screeches.

Everybody, it's time to wake up. And everyone wakes up, not just from Koran's cries, but also from the screeches of these things that are just, we have to run. What is it? They're here. And you hear as basically just this terrifying sound

as something, just anything. And if you get up and start, are you staying on the bridge? Are you running off? No, we're running. As you run and you kept just going off the bridge, you continue to see as more just columns of dirt, just lift up. And every once in a while you will pass,

and you'll see a shadow inside of this opaque fog, just something, a long, articulated, almost segmented thing that just is scuttling. And it is long, and like if you were watching a centipede, but you know, a centipede the size of a minivan that just is lifting up and it just seems to be scuttling everywhere. And as you're running, you are trying to watch

as each one of these creatures just seem to be moving around you. And you almost run, into the back of one as one of them kind of whips and attempts to slap Maria inadvertently to the ground with the back of its body. Okay, I have two successes in one failure. Right. Tell me how you avoid this imminent slap. Well, I think I'm running with my arms out. Yeah. Yeah. And I think, I also think that because of their movement, they adjust the fog or the fogginess with their bodies. so there's this sense of blowing air as like coming towards me.

And I just kind of, I kind of do a baseball slide and duck, and it just misses me. You just kind of watch as spines just, and you can't tell just exactly if they're sharp or if they're collagenous or anything like that, but you just watch as like spines just kind of like flick by your face for a moment as you see like forearm-sized legs just kind of just go right by. by you as it skittles off. Are they after us or they're not, they're not affected by us at all. Yeah.

Okay. Just random. They just seem, they seem more startled than anything else. Should we stand still or keep running? Stand still, I think. Okay, so you all. As soon as we stay together, it's gonna be okay.

Okay. So you all stop. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And you kind of continue to to see the occasional flits of movement

and even after a wall, another column just erupts again as you watch this time the full length of this thing. And have you ever seen like a magician like pull the endless amount of tissue out of their sleeve? Like just imagine that, but with the centipede creature just unfolding out of the dirt just over and over again. And eventually you see as it comes out and it starts skittling off.

and away. The hell? The moon didn't cause that. No. No, that's much worse. What do we do about it? I... What do you do about it?

There's nothing we have that can possibly kill one of those things. I think we just have to stick together. And that's when the ground begins to shake. Stay a run, stay a run. Do we recognize that rumbling? This is familiar rumbling more than it is familiar in the sense that if you've ever been in the beginnings of an earthquake. You would start to first feel the nausea in your stomach as you feel like your body is slowly being displaced and moving around. The only thing I know about earthquakes is very few people get hurt when trying to change locations.

That's when they mostly get hurt. I grab Virginian cord's hands. Okay. And you stay and you stand still. Sure, sure, sure, sure. Where are we? Are we still on the bridge or are we now off? You've run far from the bridge at the stage.

And are there trees or anything that can fall on us around us? The thickness of the fog around you. You don't see anything in the immediate vicinity, certainly not within the two arms reach that you could reach through to see through the fog. We just need to make ourselves as small as possible. Okay. Good plan. So you all huddle together in a small group as you get as close to the ground as possible,

and you feel the tremors, which we're now moving. And since you're so close to the dirt, you can see a little bit of things kind of swapping around and coming in. And in the back, in just the back of your consciousness, you can still hear the faraway screeches of whatever these things were. that were. I just start snapping, one, two, three. And you just start to feel as that small tremor now becomes a bigger jumble, as now you have to stay close because if you were standing,

you would have absolutely have fallen at this point. And you can hear cracking as just grating on earth, on earth, just r-h-and it just seems to be, and you can actually even feel the snapping of just the area around you. you coming across you, and even for a moment, you start to see the ground beneath you begin to spider web and split at your feet.

It's gonna be okay. It's gonna be okay. It's gonna be okay. Five, six, seven, eight. I start to approve. Now, tell me just for a moment, I know you're counting, but reality check me here for a moment. Is that help with magnitude, or is that just something

you're doing to help yourself? It's just to help me stay. Okay, all right. So you continue to count through, and 30 seconds pass, 45 seconds pass. And the shaking is still the same level of which you felt it, and at some point you actually feel the ground adjust.

And at that moment you throw up, it just shifts suddenly as if you just dropped like a foot and a half, like if you were in an airplane and you suddenly reached turbulence and you just dropped for a moment. And you just feel that your stomach lurch as you all fall briefly down into the ground. and about a minute before, a minute after the whole shaking had started,

it stops and the rumbling ceases. Oh my gosh, let it out, get it out of there. Oh, that was something. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Oh, fuck. Don't apologize. I just wasted all of that food. Better, better to feel.

to feel better. We've got to, can we do a quick search around to see like what is still ground around us? Yeah. You all. And is the fog any version of clear or is, like, what's the fog situation? The earthquake like that, how much would it displace the fog?

It is less opaque, you know, this point. It seems, it just basically, it shifted, and the air pressure has basically pushed and displaced this enough. to where it's not nearly the density you have. In fact, you can see a lot farther than you could have previously after kind of sitting up. And now that you can see farther,

you definitely see that the whole, like the fact that you're in this big open field, not far from where the bridge is probably pretty fortuitous. Because as you look around, you can actually see jagged spires of rock that have now lifted directly up from where they were previously. But as far as what you can tell,

minus these jagged spires, you don't see a whole lot more around you. Are we in a hole or? That is true. So you, because of the displacement, as you look around, you do see that you have sunk at least two feet into the earth, at least.

And the area that was above you is definitely to a point where you would have to boost yourself up in order to crawl over. So right now we're in a tiny bit of a hole or like a shielding then. Yeah, it's a tiny crater, yeah. But we're in the ground. You're in the ground, yes.

Make a break for it or rest here? This is actually a decent resting position. You want to just go back to sleep? You know, it just gets worse and worse as we keep going, so we might as well rest. I know that Corin didn't get any school. sleep. That's what I'm concerned about. So we might just... I'm fine. I'm really, I'm okay.

If we're all going to survive this, we've got to keep in mind that we're friggin human. Yeah. And our bodies do need rest. And right now it looks like we're in a field, an open field. Perhaps the worst has passed. Let's hope. The good news is those monsters, those enormous insectoids, weren't attacking us. Yeah. Nice dodge, by the way. So if you guys all sit to rest, and that's what it sounds like.

You curl back up and two. I'm going to cocoon, Corrin, to maybe help. And cocoon, just to kind of keep, because I'm assuming when you got up and ran, those blankets that you had long gone back on the bridge. Yeah, I probably didn't grab one. Okay. Oh, yeah.

So you, it's also good news, too, since you have moved down a little bit, the fog is not nearly, because it has settled above. It does not kind of come into the place of which you are for a moment. So, yeah, you curl up and you find blissful, restful sleep. Great. Oh, sweet. Nice. Does Corinne finally sleep? Corinne, you're finally sleep.

sleep is a stretch okay um it's fitful it is a semblance of rest yeah it's a half it's definitely not sleep it's a painful rest yes okay so you have a wonderful blissful eight hours of sleep eight hours four hours six hours it's hard to tell it's enough though that you've all definitely fallen into a deep sleep and Thomas you are the first one to wake up, you get up. And you can see the three companions are around you are still in some kind of state of either restful and fitful or otherwise peaceful sleep using whatever they have around you to kind of cushion into it.

The fog is not nearly as caustic as what it was earlier, or maybe you're just used to it at this point. But what's going on in your mind as you kind of wake, up in this wonderland. Well, I just finished up a dream about my wife. And I look amongst my companions and just kind of let the first moment of peace rush over me. You don't wish that you were somewhere else.

And that dream, that lovely dream about your wife, where you were. Oh, of course. I wish I was in a nice warm bed and her next to me. Right. But you do find some peace just seeing where you are

knowing that has been madness leading up to this point. Yeah, I'll take it where I can get it. You meditate upon that peace as you kind of look down and you hear something behind you.

Just, I turn to see what it is. You look behind you and you can see a long, curving creature is coming down slowly, the crater. Hey, hey, hey, everybody. Just tap shoulders. Kind of tap shoulders.

And this thing is, you wake up and you see this thing is slowly kind of moving. And now that you have both, awoken, you see it rear up, and you watch as two almost like prey mantis like scythe's just come right up. Oh, geez. And you watch as it just goes straight for you, Virginia. Are these the same creatures? Are these the centipedes that weren't attacking earlier? Or do they look like different creatures? They look very much like the creatures that were scuttling around trying to escape earlier, but now have come back.

Can I, am I? You're avoiding it or am I reaching for a flashlight? I don't know. We'll see how the roll goes. Right now it's don't die. Come up for me in you. Oh, look. Oh no.

One, one, no successes. We're going to sacrifice my compassion. All right. My compassionate virtue. And I can re-roll that. We'll re-roll that one. So this has to be a six. or else.

Yeah. Or the conflict. Pretty good odds. Oh no, is it too. So I do need to hear an act of compassion as still part of this failure from what it is. It.

I, so the scythe arm is coming at me. Yes. So I can't move. I can't move enough out of the way, but as I roll, I roll, but I roll, but instead of hitting me straight on, it hits my side and still hits me, but I push sleeping Corin out of the way further from the other scythe, because I think there's two. Was it safe to say that maybe the scythe was more going towards Corin than it was you,

and you had to push them out of the way in order to get into it? And I'm going to do you a favor, Virginia. I think this thing goes actually through your shoulder as you watch as this barbed, this whatever, this mantis kind of appendages, just exit out through your body as you start to feel your warm blood start to cover your top.

And that will end our scene. We are now at six candles, six dice, and six truths. First, the world is dark, but Virginia, you have the first truth. We escape from the attack. From the creature.

From the creature. Okay. All right. Next truth. Next truth. We, the monoliths are clearly

the monoliths have summoned them and we also feel a slight pull great the creature managed to tear away the last of our supplies great three that summoning that feeling

that you have when the monoliths are close becomes louder and stronger, the closer you get to it. The flashlight was successful in staving off whatever that thing was that attacked us. Right. And you get the final one. Virginia. Making our way to building.

Welcome to Mick Unplugged, the number one podcast for self-improvement and modern leadership. I'm Mick Hunt, your host, and I'm here to challenge your why and few. You're because. This is where leaders, entrepreneurs, and go-getters come to level up. Each week, I bring you unfiltered conversations, game-changing strategies, and the kind of motivation that transforms lives and legacies. I've learned from legends like Les Brown, Damon John, and Robert Irvine. And now, I'm bringing their lessons, along with mine, straight to you.

From modern leadership tips to creating unstoppable momentum, this is the podcast that redefines what's possible. Hit play, subscribe, and join the millions who've made Mick Unplug their go-to source for growth and greatness, because your next breakthrough is just one episode away. This is Mick Unplugged, the voice and face of modern leadership entrepreneur and self-improvement. Let's get started. Look, there are a lot of celebrity interview podcasts out there, but there's only one happy, sad, confused. I'm Josh Horowitz, and yeah, I'm the host of the show, so I'm a little biased, but truly,

Happy, Sad, Confused is the place for nerdy and intimate conversations with all your favorite actors and filmmakers. From Andrew Garfield and Scarlethawanson to Christopher Nolan, casting what-ifs, backstage stories, and much more. Listen to Happy Say I Confused on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Head, which looks like a dilapidated church. A dilapidated church? All right. So we pick up our scene, six candles in, as you are all hunching, some bleeding, injured,

as you're kind of running from these creatures who, Thomas, you just occasionally just swing the light back, and you'll sometimes occasionally hear a screech, but more often than not, you seem to be making pace, whatever is behind you is not aggressively following you but no matter where you are you can hear and since the fog has dissipated

more in this travel you can see them scuttling what appears to be everywhere like not a minute goes by before you see at least one of them at some distance somewhere that appears to be moving around as if they're just wandering aimlessly amongst the countryside

side. Do you make it to this old church in front of you? I wonder what stirred them up so bad. Let's head for that church. We just got to get out of the open and maybe up somewhere high. Yeah. Some place we can get some safety. What are we going to do about Virginia, though? You have to stay alive. You're losing far too much blood. Do we have any bandages left? The backpack got ripped off when we got attacked. But I think maybe we could maybe take off some of my advantages and use them for her. I only need a little bit to keep the split on.

I don't mind sharing. Is that what you like to do? Yeah. So you start unwrapping the little bit of bandage that is covering your arm. And before it gets to where your actual break is, you rip on. off a piece and you hand her part of what your bandages. But if we're in the church, I mean, they might have something. Yeah, they might have like,

you could at least use those Bibles in the- Bible pages, Bible pages, or priest robes, pastor robes, whatever. Find some supplies. I'm really good at this. No successes, one, one. Oh, I burn this because I'm stubborn. stubborn.

I'm stubborn and I will not take no for an answer that there is not something helpful. Go. Feverishly start just ripping through this place, just knocking things off of shelves. Oh yeah. Ripping things out. Yes, highly, highly immoral,

destroying probably sacred tapestries and stuff. Look, I watch you and I think maybe she shouldn't destroy the sacred tapestries and then I think, no, I have blood pressure. I definitely, yeah. I'm definitely like ripping Bible pages to see how how like the soak ability of them like squeezing it like Charmin baby Yeah just nope all right well that was quick wow As you poor all I was doing was searching for support

No it's not it's not you it's not me It's just the dice Why you do this why are you as you pour through this place and just tear it apart with every gumption of stubbornness that you have upon you. Your mind is racing. You're grabbing pieces of parchment. You're just holding on to Bibles,

looking at it just crumpling them. Everything is so waterlogged from either the fog at this point or it's just been raided and it's terrible. and you are just pouring through this place and you kick back into where the pastor's offices and you see bodies of each other laid out in a pyramid right in front of you. Just stacked and they've been wrapped

in all of the material that you would have used to help treat her wound sheets, robes, all of the cloth that you would have done but they are meticulously laid out stacked like kindling in front of you and ends are seen let's uh go to five dice let's establish some truths Maria you do get to start with the first truth first of all the world is dark the world is dark um the human who did this is the pastor of the church and he for you can just stay for there you can just leave it with the pastor of the church unless there's more is there something really important you want to add on to that i mean yeah

he's uh he's hovering in midair uh is the pastor still on the church yeah he's but he's he's hovering he's like he's floating okay he's he's alive or is he dead he's alive he's alive he's alive yeah so the pastor is he's alive is he's alive yeah so the pastor is he's alive. So there's a few things here. We can do this because you have an opportunity for the other players to be able to establish truth with this and lay off it as well too. We can say

and this can be a truth. The pastor is alive and he did this. Pastor is alive and he did this. How's that feel? Cool. Cool, cool. If we stay here, we'll die. The pastor wants to

appease them. rolls in becomes even thicker. I call to the pastor, Father. Is this a truth? You have one last truth. This is the truth. You just call to him, Father. I mean, I'm bleeding and there's nothing, right?

Oh, you're bleeding? Yes, of course. Well, because I have my shoulder. Yes, you are. I mean, like, I'm kind of. No, I get it. I just, if you don't mind me saying, that sounds like something you could do in game

to call out to him. Oh. Unless there's you have an opportunity to give a truth in this if you wish Okay, hold on, let me take it. For good or ill. Okay. Yes. There's a lake behind the church.

All right. There's a lake behind the church. We start our scene now with five dice, five candles, and five truths established. Maria, as you are just, again, Having stumbled upon this scene in front of you, you are doing it purely for the sense of just you cannot let her bleed out. You need to find something in order to help her. And stumbling into this room, there is a shock and there is something that is bugging you before you even notice the pastor is there and alive.

What is it? Um, they're, uh, they, none of them have wounds on them. None of them. None of the rags are bloody. None of the rags are bloody. They're just wrapped. Okay. Great. So you stumble in and you kind of come into this place and you can see that the pastor is actually, was sleeping on a cot as you burst into this room and you watch as he just kind of sits up. I'm sorry, actually, you establish in your truth. You said, that he was hanging, right?

Well, I overstepped my bounds, but... That's right. You didn't, we didn't adjust. I did. I had him hovering, like a... Like a supernatural creature. Yeah, but right, then we changed it to... He's just alive, and he definitely stacked the people and wrapped him up.

Thank you. Yeah. So you kind of, or watches, this pastor just sits up and just looks at you and goes, what? and yeah. Who are you? And you kind of see as he gets up and he seems to grab something. Guys, we gotta go, guys.

Sorry, father. And he rushes straight towards you and just kind of automatically motions like, get out, get out of here. Okay, okay, okay, we're gone. Let's go. He kind of runs towards you and kind of, yeah.

Backing up, like immediately towards the the entrance of the church, like trying to put as much distance between myself and the pastor as possible. All right. You, at least you three are all, like, making your way out from where the church is. As you see this angry pastor who's in a nightgown at this point, not even in his frock coat, but just in his nightgown coming up. He seems to be holding some kind of rag in his hand. He's holding a rag? Yeah.

I say, hello, father. My dad's a pastor, too. Virginia. Not now, Virginia. I'm a little lightheaded as well because I don't have much blood. All of you. He has a rag. This is a house of God. And don't you know, they are coming and it is time for them to accept.

It's time for all of us to accept. How are you even alive? It doesn't matter. Get away from us. All right. He makes more steps towards you and he's kind of walking towards the one who isn't running right now. What happened? What did you see?

Stacks of bodies wrapped in wrap. I pull out my scalpel from my boot. Oh, okay, you pull it on, goes out. Fine, fine, very well. Just leave this place, leave this place immediately before they find you. Yeah, let's, Virginia, let's go. Who's they?

The ones who have becoming the cleansing ones, the ones that we have to appease, the ones of the monolith, the true beacons of God. I don't know that we're of the same cloth or faith anymore, but I see you have a ratification. in your hand. And he takes a few steps closer towards you.

No, I definitely put... Tata! Okay, you want to do this? Yeah, go for it. Go for it. Put that hand up and stop him as he's coming up. Hey! Awesome.

All right, so this is one. So I just interpose myself between... You kind of, if you don't mind me, giving it to you a little bit. Actually, I could theoretically roll for narrative control on this, but I kind of imagine you doing him a little bit like a body check.

Yeah, yeah. You know, with your good shoulder. My good shoulder, I don't. just kind of like shove him out of the way and get right in between him in Virginia. And I just stare him down. Don't you see? And you realize we've all been chosen

the ones who haven't been taken directly from this earth. This planet is dying. This is the great calamity and we are all a part of it. The only worm food I see here is you. They're gonna let us go. Yeah, well, I don't see.

seem to have the means of stopping you at the moment and he keeps looking at that scalpel there. Just back away. Are you using the rag? Because my shoulder is bleeding father. And I think it would be, I stick out my hand. A benevolent, benevolent thing. Toss the rag.

Nothing funny. It kind of is gauging the odds right now, four against one at this moment. And he kind of lazily drops the cloth. turns around and walks straight back into his office and slams the door. As you hold the cloth, Corrin, you get close to it and you catch a whiff of something.

It's strong. What is it? Do you think, Corrin would, do you think? Probably. Do I feel lightheaded when I... Yeah. Yeah, that's chloroform. I was going to try and knock us out with this.

I can't let you. We can't. That's too close to where you breathe, but we'll find another way. Maybe we can find some clean water, maybe wash it out. Yeah, that would work. Okay. You start to hear shouting coming from the pastor's office at this point, loud prayers, as if he is just shouting to the loud of his being, and you can hear him.

He's just making as much noise as possible, stomping on the earth, banging against the walls, calling out for his vessels to come and cleanse this land and take his offerings at this moment. Let's go to the lake. We'll take it on the road. Yeah, let's go. Let's jump in the lake. So you go around to the back and jump in the lake? Is that what I heard?

Or we could keep going. We can at least rinse out the rag. Yeah, rinse out the rag. So you dip the rag. I put the scalpel back in my boot. Cool. So you dip that rag. and you clean and wash it off as much as you possibly can

and shove it back into whatever packages you still have left of supplies at this stage. Let it dry before we. Yeah, before we have. At this point, you can hear. You still have the bandage that I lent you. Yeah, I still have the half of the thing. As you continue to run around,

you can still hear the screaming and the wailing of this pastor and at this point you can absolutely see the scuttling movement of whatever these creatures are. as they seem to be moving and at least circling to the point of where this building is. And in fact, one of them you actually see, start to crawl up to the side of this church and you watch as it just,

it lifts its just body and just prides open one of the sides of the door, just looking at it and it just feels it's pulling with its little pincer, just pulling pieces of wood off and it screams, inside of it and then you watch as you watch as as something is flung into the air and you see as this thing snatches and you watch it slip back out with a white body inside of its mouth as it kind

of skittles out and starts to move crazy let's get out of here and I would like at least at this point because it's moving around that's right because one dice was gone yeah um Yeah, you need, if you want to get out of here, then you can go. Yeah, yeah. I use the flashlight to cover our exit. That's right, you have that. So you kind of shine it as it kind of looks at you with its body. It just, like, just sucks it in a single movement.

It just screeches as it scuttles back away, and you go. That's right, asshole. You know, keep going. All right, let's go. You run for a short time, 10, 15 minutes or so, as you continue. to continue to get as much distance behind the church as you possibly can when Thomas, you're still in front, right? Mm-hmm.

You start to feel as you run forward, and out of nowhere you feel your foot just fall, just steep out of nothing. You just kind of, almost like you missed a step while going down a long staircase, and you just feel as your momentum just drops down for a moment. Roll.

One six. So. What the heck? One six. sometimes, and I haven't been executing it as much as I should have, the conflict succeeds, but you can sometimes the GM can take narrative control by taking whatever dice has been taken away from the scene at this moment

and then apply it. And I'm only doing this so that I can say as your foot stumbles and you fall and you start to feel your body topple over, you feel Maria just grab you by the back of your collar and then just pull you back as hard as you can as you both tumble down onto the ground. A lot of people falling on you

this circumstance. I look at Maria and I think she's such a savior. She saves so many people and look back to the church and I think I'm really disheartened about that pastor and about church.

Makes sense. You all right there? Oops. Maybe you better hold on to this for a second. I enter the flashlight. Virginia is you kind of seeing that happen, you take a few steps forward to look at just exactly what occurred here, and you look down and you can see that there is a crack, there is a crevasse that is just

laid out in front of you in which the earth has split, and it has caused a small chasm that is between where you are on your side and the other side. How wide? Well, wide enough that he would have fallen inside of it, for sure. Can we leap across it? Absolutely. Does there appear to be any way around? Could go around for a while.

Yeah, if you wanted to take the time. So we can't see the ends of the crevasse from our current perspective. You can see the end of the crevasse. It is a jumpable distance, but we are talking about five feet, six feet at this moment as well too. So it's a running leap distance. not so much a bunny hop across the crevasse kind of an attitude. But it appears to go horizontally from as far as I can see.

It is cutting a current blockade in front of you. How do we feel about track and field? Normally good. I think I'm running on a little low fuel right now. But we can, I think you all should go for it first. and then bring up the rear. No, no, I'm still going to go for it too. But if there are more of us on that side,

then if she misses, we can maybe grab her. Okay, okay. I mean, you too can. I obviously, worth nothing right now. Don't say that. I'll go first. Great. I step back from the crevoss and run and jump.

So, Thomas is you. Steady yourself and you plant your feet in the dirt. you look back to the three people who are with you and you dig your heels in and you run for all your worth. This is a deadly circumstance. What does that mean? It means that if this fails,

there is a good chance that he will die. Is that determined by cards or by you? That is determined by the dice. Okay. What game do you think we were playing? I'll be fine. The game of life. One one.

Yeah. I'll take the hit and go first. That's very protective of you. To try this before everything else. Thomas. What the? You run for all that you're worth. You come across and you jump.

and you sail through the air. And for a moment, it looks like you would have absolutely made it. In fact, had your foot not just kind of slipped on its original purchase, you would have absolutely made it to the other side. But that one foot tumble just instead of landing you on the other side, flattens you against the side of the crevasse.

And from there, we end our scene. We have four truths in which to establish here. I'm giving you an opportunity to be able to take this conflict and establish the first truth, Thomas. This is not an immediate death for you, but I'm not letting anybody take him off right now. Okay?

So I'm letting you have the first truth. I'm able to grab hold of the opposite side of the ledge, but my ankle is shattered. Shit. All right. God, y'all. Second truth. There's a crack going towards you from the other side

that you can grab hold of that leads straight to where you are. So there is a crack that is forming, leaning to where he is. That a grabable one, like something that you can use. Like a handhold? Yeah, a handhold. The creature has finished its meal and turns as attention to us.

Right. There is a shadow looming over the moon. Great. We have four candles, four truths. The world is dark. Now we begin, Thomas. You are literally holding on with your nails at this point as you are grasping a hold

of crumbling dirt with every ounce of strength you have. Your dattered, shattered foot is dangling underneath you at the moment as you keep one foot and it is the one that's basically hanging onto a root at this stage and that is what you have purchased on. What do you do? Help? Someone help, please, please help me.

Yeah, can I make it across? Do I have to roll for that? Absolutely make it across. Well, I would rather help him. He's on the other side. He's on the other side. So we can only help him if we make it across. Basically.

I'll go. I'll go. Okay, okay. Yeah, I got a little cold feet there. I have a, um. As you all kind of stare at each other wondering, what do we do as he is crying? Help.

Help Virginia speaking out from nothing says. I, what do I say? I just, I heard you say, I'll go. Oh yeah, I'll go. My reckless nature hits over. Sure, I'm bleeding here, but I think I've got better odds because I believe I'm gonna make it. And if I don't, at least the two healthy people

will be left to help him. Okay. Ah! I'm really good at this. One success, no failures. Nice. You. Against all odds.

Right, you run Virginia and tell me how you. you get across? Well, I use the weight of my not great shoulder, and I kind of leave running with it, and then I force the other one to forward really hard, and I leap.

Slam. Get there. Yeah. And can I grab his hand? You slam on the other side? I'd like to feel like that when you get over there, you kind of get hit in the midsection as you kind of just lose a little bit of breath, but you

use the one good shoulder to pull yourself. up as you get over to the other side and you are able to grab Thomas' hand as you hold onto him. It is at that moment you start to feel the ground shaking again. Can I pull? Can I pull?

Just gonna try and assist and pull up. Yeah. I pull him. You pull him up from the top of his moment to where he is. you two on the other side of this crevasse, Corinne and Maria on the other side as everything starts to shake again. We've got to jump.

We have to, okay, yeah, we do. We have to get to the other side of this crevasse because that thing is coming across us. Okay, all right, you go first. Yep, here we go. One, two ones. Corinne, tell me how you get across. So I...

That means she succeeds. Sorry, they succeed. Oh, my God. So, but now we have to do. only have two dice to roll. Oh, no. For the rest of this. Ooh, boy.

So, Corrin takes a cue from watching Virginia and uses the weight of their useless arm to kind of, like, propel them forward, and then, like, pushes as hard as they can off the edge and reaches forward with their good hand, knowing that this is actually probably going to re-break their arm if they land wrong. Yeah. And like... And at this point you land, but you have two arms waiting for you

as they basically grasp a hold of you and lift you up as you feel your hips and your legs impact against the side of it for a moment, but you fall forward and they're able to pick you up and lift you up. Maria, you are the last one on the other side of the crevasse, and you can hear the screeching behind you. you can hear the scuttling.

All right. I flip around, shine my light to give me some, at least some time, some time before I can, like, back up and run forward and jump. I have to roll. Yes. I shout, just believe. You got this, Maria. You can do it.

Can I burn? Is it a moment? Yeah, it's a moment. You cannot burn a moment. Oh, okay. Can someone else burn a moment? Burn something? No.

is a failure, which means that this scene is over. Before I end this, I'd like to say, Maria, as you are running for all your worth, you feel for a moment as you run and leap. You feel the stinging pain in your foot for a moment. As you look behind and see the pincor of one of these awful creatures that had come to stalk you, just go right through your thigh,

which made you lose all of the momentum that you had as you were coming into it, and you felt as your hands grasp and fall down. And while Thomas hit the side and was near the top and left his foot on the root, you reach out and grab for the root. So I don't know if I grabbed it or not. you get the first truth.

Okay. Shoot, shoot, shoot. I mean, so I can make the first truth that I do grab the root? Do you, yeah, the first truth is you grab the root? I grab the root for sure. Quirin. The creatures are big enough that they can reach the other side of the cross very easily. That is truth.

The earthquake is intensifying. And that's all we can have. That is the three truths that we speak as we go into this next scene with three dice. It will be very upfront with you now. Every check at this point is deadly. You are in a deadly terrible circumstance and everything at this point is,

we are nearing the end. We have three candles left. Oh, it got me, it got me. I got you. I got you, I reach over the side and try to help her up. And I'm like brace, try to brace Thomas' legs so that he doesn't. I try to grab her other hand too.

You grab a hold and Thomas, you reach down. This is it, this is what you can do, this is your mind. You can take her, you can bring her back up, you can save her, you can do it. And as you feel the root starting to slide is that bits of bits of dirt are now mixing with the sweat of your hand, you have a, have a chance to grasp behold of him,

but he has to reach for you. He has to grab you. One failure. Eventually, not relent. You were not dying today. Wow. Not today. Wow, that vengeful.

Yeah. Quite offensive. And I just look into her eyes as I pull her wrist and just yank her out of the crevasse. You just pull her up with all of your strength. That's the shaking and the crumbling of the earthquake to pull further. Is the top one your moment?

Is that your hope? Yes, okay. All right, as you are pulling, you feel her lift up as she just rolls onto this now shaking, pulling, moving around. It got me in the lie, thank you so much. Can you run? I could try.

I also can try. Just lean on me. I can still run so I can help. I can, I will carry you all if I have to, but let's just go. Let's get out of here, let's go. And I just try to hop. Yeah, I also, as much support as I can.

And I, I. So the two walkers support the two non-walkers. Yeah. There's two shattered legs and two shattered arms. So they're leaning on our non-hurt arm. Yeah. This is so, great. This is so hard, everyone.

This is so hard. The ground is moving underneath you violently. It's pulling apart as just, This quake is already looking to be infinitely worse than the last one is. And you can hear the scuttling and the screeching as you watch as the creature has starting to move and give itself a bridge as it's coming over.

But then out of nowhere, the area you just were, that part of land it was just drops again, just as it falls down and you watch as the creature just grasps its little legs and it starts to skittle back up again, pulling itself back up. for all that it's worth, and you all shift again as the earth begins to move and crack around you

as you are now tumbling just as just the ground is cracking around you. And you can feel the dirt start to move and the ground underneath you every once in a while. It will just press up right up against you, cracking against your shattered ankle as you scream in pain, and you are moving while the earth is shaking and moving.

And you run. And you run for everything you're worth. You run as you move forward. Virginia, you're losing blood. You've had this pressure placed against you, but your wound hasn't been treated the way that Corrin's is a muddled thought going through your mind.

What is it? What are you feeling right now? I think if we've made it this far in the rapture, then we're probably going to make it. I think that there's a reason we've come this far and escaped all these things. So you think if you've made it this far, it's going to drop and you're going to be all right.

Great. So you continue to run. These are the fleeting thoughts that are happening in your brain when suddenly a crack just opens up in front of you and you step a foot in as you lurch in front of you and this wistful I'd thought of we're going to make it happens before the earth

shifts again and it cracks and it splits your leg as you feel the bones crunched from underneath you as the earth has basically grinded you like a small pedestal underneath you. Virginia. Oh my god. Am I dead? No, no, you were not dead.

No, but. I wish it was painful. But you almost wish you were with what this is. Okay. And you need, you want to pull your leg Yes, I would like to pull my leg free. Oh, we have three people who can't walk. Great.

I'm trying to pull Virginia from. All of you. He's helping, you're all. Using the last good leg. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We need more limbs, y'all. Virginia roll. Three days.

Three days. I'm rolling to pull, to get pulled my leg out. Just get your leg out. Otherwise you're stuck. You can also, obviously, beyond the screaming, talk to your people right now. Um, you just want to say thanks. Don't talk that way.

I think we're meant to make it. I do. I do. I just, I believe. Oh, hi, caramba. Okay, okay. Okay. And that belief you all with all your able limbs and my other good life managed to pry out.

So the moment happens in which as you're pulling, the earth shifts yet again as you feel it crunch and move. Actually, I'm so sorry, this is technically your success. You get to do your narration. Oh, yeah. Well, the earth crunches and moves, but we're so fortunate that it moves to release the leg again a little bit more apart. So on top of your very strong lifting, we also get a help push from the earth. Let's let's go. And as you lift your leg up, you can clearly see

that it is shattered. You actually are looking down it and there's compound fractures everywhere. You can actually see as pieces of bone are jutting at various parts across your calf and you can't put any way on it. Can we move? We have to get out of the open or something.

Do we hear, do we still hear them? The screeching, it's being drowned now by just this breaking and moving of earth. Do we see anything through the fog? Through the fog, you can see the earth kind of moving and crumbling in front of you, and you do see a small bailey of trees that are kind of in front of you from where it is,

but you can see they're just shaking and moving with just such ferocity as things are moving around. No, there was the lake that was behind you, but this field that you're in, you feel like you're maybe in an area where both the field is ending, and maybe forest begins. And, you know, there could be something,

but you don't, you're not here, not where you are now. Avoid, avoid the trees? We want to avoid the trees? Yeah, let's stay. Right, sure, sure. But I think, I think the only thing we can do right now is try and keep as still as possible and away from big things.

Let's all, yeah, maybe there's some, some roots of something that we can all, like, Hold on to something that's connected to the ground. Get close enough to the trees where they won't get like bonus, but if there are any like roots sticking up that we can just sort of hold on to or shelter under something like that? Yes.

So you begin to look around and you come and find that not getting into the trees, but being close enough since they are large trees. With the earth being pulled apart, you do see a small tangle of root as kind of being pulled out. And there is just one of them, enough to where you could probably have one person grab it and then all of you could be holding onto each other

at one point or another, and you grasp a hold of it. And then that is when the ground shifts with you again as you feel the ground that you are and start to slant as it pivots itself up, in fact, throwing, tumbling some of you up into the air ever so slightly as earth begins to pull itself away from where you are. The floor falls out from underneath you as you drop yet again holding onto the root all three of you together whoever is on the bottom

who is on the bottom i'm not sure whoever of us would probably be the smallest it's either you or me probably me because my leg i probably got there last yeah yeah yeah virginia as you have two functioning arms yeah i'm like hold on to this for all it's worth and you're grasping this route and virgin virginia as you're kind of grasping a hold of it, the bottom of your feet can just barely touch the ground beneath you just as its tippy toe. Oh, I think I might stand on one leg here, maybe if we drop. Maybe. What would you like to do? Uh, we can't climb out of here. We don't have a rope. We're stuck. Huh. The ground is always moving now.

I say we commit a little bit more to the roots. Sure. Maybe try and pull ourselves up. Can you climb up from the top? From the bottom up. Oh, I don't know. How's your shoulder? Can you?

My shoulder is bleeding. But I can try my other arm. You want to power through it? Yeah, I can power through. So I'm climbing, you know, with everyone instead of having. You're climbing up them. Okay. You're using them as a huge,

as you're attempting to take your one arm and you grasp a hold of cloth and you pull yourself up with your one arm and your shattered leg using your knee for purchase whenever you can get it. Roll? Do you? Yep.

Okay, we got this, I believe. Oh, two ones. Oh, well, good thing I can sacrifice my recklessness. Oh my God. So even as I feel as I'm about to slip and not make it, I say, go for it and I go, and I keep trying with my one arm to just keep going. You're putting some real weight, in fact,

you're making your friends more uncomfortable. Oh no. Lifting them up as you're digging what little amount of strength you have into them and pressing your weight upon them. What is the moment? You can't sacrifice the moment. You can't sacrifice.

Oh no, it's right, right. Can I use mine? No. You cannot use yours. With this, we and this scene. And Virginia, your recklessness as you just grasp and you pull and you hold onto each one as you're lifting yourself up, everything you can.

You get up to the point of where you might be close to where Thomas is when all of a sudden you feel the arm that you've been used, that you've been powering through the pain through in order to place the sin, you put your arm onto it, but it just goes limp out of nowhere. And you feel yourself slip as you tumble, and you tumble down.

And as you are falling through this crevasse, looking to your three friends in front of you, there is a moment, there's something you're thinking of. What is it? I don't know that I believe. anymore. And that is the last fleeting thought you have before the back of your head hits a piece of stone

and you three hear a loud crack. No. Virginia. Your body tumbles into the earth below. No. Steph, thank you so much for playing. I appreciate it. I really do. It's a real pleasure.

Thank you. Are you okay? Yeah. Okay. My head hurts. Yes, your hand. It probably does hurt. But thankfully, it's not you.

It's a character. I'm going to have to ask you to leave my table. Okay. Okay. I try to send good vibes from my deadness. Okay. So, goodbye. The scene ends.

Love guys. Mm-hmm. They don't have a whole lot of time left. We have two candles, two truths, and two dice. Normally, Virginia would offer the first truth, but since she is not here, I will first begin by saying the world is dark. And then I will say that you all climbed out of the crevasse with effort to find stable ground. Thomas, you have the second one. It took everything that I had to climb out of the crevasse and scraping against

the sides of the rock just pulling and scraping. I make it out, but I am bloodied. You're bloodied. Got it. As you all find purchase, first Corinth, Thomas, and Maria, you find yourself on this slanted piece of earth that has been bending towards the chasm in which Virginia has fallen down into.

You find that the earth is still violently moving, not as abrasive or as intense as it was, but enough that you could not stand even if you tried at this point, shattered leg, nonwithstanding. What do you do? Corn is kind of staring over the edge into the darkness.

They just completely stunned and not sure what to do next. Right. I think, just, I think it just ran on. No, don't say that. It can't. It can't. We can't let it.

We have to find a way. They'll get us if we don't. What do we do? What she would have done. We have to believe we can get out of here. Leave the way. Do you feel that? You can hear it.

And in fact, you are impressed at this just how loud the buzzing is. It's taken over the cacophony of the earth moving even at this point. And you can feel more than you can really see because the fog still obscuring the vision, just the presence of the monoliths. And even though the creatures aren't around because the earth is shaking so violently, You can tell that they are all near there somewhere around where you are.

Just listening. The monoliths might have the answers. What do you mean? Hey, I don't know. But they seem to know. If, hey, it's, hey, the worst that happens is, That's the worst. And we've seen it.

Much more I can take. We have responsibility to write these things down. Somebody else might find us. Somebody else might know what to do. That's good. That's good. But if we're here, we have the chance to find out what's going on. To the monolith?

Yeah. All right. Let's keep going, guys. Thomas is you are holding on to the people who still have good legs at this stage. You. One good leg. One good leg. You are aggressively, and you are a battered, shattered group.

You came from this. You walked miles. Before we go, I want to write our names on one of the trees. With like a knife or with your scalpel. Yeah, with my scalpel. What do you write? Do you just put your names on there? I just put our names.

I draw a monolith below us. And then yeah, I draw four people holding hands. As you leave this effigy encased on this tree, you begin to hobble what you can and it is more crawling than it is any kind of serious walking because the earth is still just making its movement. And at this point, you still occasionally feel the earth just adjust and shift around you

as you just pull yourself up and you look towards what you feel where the monolith is. And you, I said this earlier, but you traveled so far miles to make it past the tidal waves. to get to hear, knowing that the monoliths were maybe not something you wanted to get close to, but now you are here and as you see the earth begin to break and pull,

you lift yourself up a piece of broken incline as you come over to literally see as the monolith is above you. And the earth is laid out in front of you. And you can see almost as if someone took a scalpel and cut this land straight in half. You see just black onyx rock going straight into the earth. And you see a perfect cut of the earth's crust right in front of you. Just laid out in front. And it is 50, 60 feet high in front of you. as this wide breath of expanse is laid out before you,

and it is you and this tree of which you've marked upon, and you realize it, as the fog dissipates around you, you are on an island, an island of rock, the monolith in front of you, and this sheer rock laid out in front and the tree, the tree that is there. There is what appears to be a craggy pathway that could lead back towards the area

that you or once came from leading up. But it is a long climb indeed to get back up to the ground level. Is there a way to get closer to the monolith? Yeah, straight in. Jumping in? Yeah, from what you see, the incline is unknown. So, like, it could slide in?

Yeah, I have no idea, though, if the ground breaks out from underneath you there, or if it leads all the way into the monolith, though. We shine the light down, do we see? There's so much breakage, and there's so much rock that, It's a reasonable thing, but there's such a narrow window, and it's so steep and there are loose rocks everywhere. All it would take is a small adjustment

to fall off to the side, and the rocking has stopped. The earth is there and steady, but aftershocks. I think I'm the only one who can go down there safely. I'm with you. I don't know about you guys, but I've spent the last couple of days more than that, knowing that we know what's that way.

Let's find out what's this way. Can you make it down all right? I'll try to help you if I can. I'll give him my best shot. What do you think, Maria? It does seem so dangerous to do this. Something, you hear it though, right? Yeah.

It's there. You're so close to the monolith, it is this iridescent. and hum and you can feel. But it wants me, and part of me wants, if this is the end, I want to go out on my own terms and not on some rocks terms. I don't, Saul, that I'd rather go in there

than be eaten one of those things out there. There's something about answering to this thing that makes me hate it. You know, I know I'm just a kid to you people, but we just watch one of our friends die. Are we really not going to go down there and figure out what the hell is going on? We owe her that much.

They're right. What? No, it's clearly evil. Of course it's evil. So is the giant trench. So are the things that have been trying to eat us. I'm just saying. What are you afraid of? I would rather, I would rather

my friend have died for a reason other than me walking into the maw of a monster. Well, then you can go, but I'm going down there for answers. Is that your choice? Do you wish to go down there for answers? Or in places herself, almost like a child, ready to go down a slide.

I will burn vindictive. If there was a one, I would let you burn. But there's no one. And you place yourself at the bottom as you look at this sliding, ramp below you and almost like a just petulance in your heart you just slide down with your one arm as you hold onto it and the rocks are so loose as it's coming across you you have reasonable control as you dive into it and you hold onto it and you feel in a weird way this is this is the longest

most intense slide you've ever had in your life. And then you feel it start to air to the left. And you know that if this arm was working, you could put your hand down and you could use the momentum to steer back to the other right. But as you tempt to put your hand and put your shoulder down to get that momentum, instead it just tumbles and it falls

and it rolls you off into the other side, and you, the darkness, there's, there's a reason you wanted to do this. You knew what could happen, you knew that this was possible, and I know you hoped for it to happen, but why did you go down this light? Why did you really want answers so bad, Corrin? This is where my sister went.

That hotel full of people, they all had to have gone somewhere. You were hoping maybe they were inside the monolith. You too see as Corrin silently, Thank you. So much for playing, I really do. Thank you so much for having me at you table. Absolutely. This is the end of our scene. There is one candle left.

There is no truth to be spoken other than the world is dark. You two sit as you stand upon this island of rock staring at this monument laid out in front of you in this cut earth. that stands before you and you watched Quorum such drive and determination and desire to find what the monolith was

unceremoniously flicked off into the night and the wasteful tragedy of it is the first thing that just lays into your head if this was a movie she would have made it

it would have been landed into it She could have gleaned whatever, touched it, and maybe would have lit up and turned into something and the whole world would have been right again. But instead, she just flipped into the earth. Both of you stand and stick at this, Maria. What's going through your mind? Well, I think, I think this has happened.

I didn't realize, I didn't realize that it would have to... Feel love. One more time. Thomas, I've lost, there's so much no one will know about me. And I, years before this even happened, I began building walls not to feel things anymore. And I thought there was a chance that I might, just a small chance, but that I might love something, someone, I just didn't realize it would have to be at the expense of losing. losing them again. But I lost a child all over again. That's all she was, was just a child. Yeah.

Children just think they know what's right. They just think they know everything. Is that her fault? Yes, it is her fault. Why can't they just all grow up? Not enough time. I mean, I'm sure they would have. any other circumstance, any other slide? Can you fault him for trying? Yeah, I can. Both of you sit are next to this tree,

this tree that you've carved, this effigy. I'm the monolith with four people holding hands together. Small aftershock hits the area around you and it startles you, but you, it's not even like it really does anything at this point. I'm gonna throw, there are rocks, right? I'm just gonna throw rocks at the monolith. Just start throwing rocks at the monolith. And as you kind of are,

feel as after shock hit, you notice that rock, that little pathway that was on the back, just cascades and crumbles down into nothing as it just falls on the earth beneath you. But neither of you really pay attention. You're here on this island with no food, no water. Both of you were bleeding. And you just throw rocks at the monolith, chocking dirt.

There were eight days left. With any luck, we'll be down to one soon. Yes. Do we take our chance with the narrow escape? Try and climb out of here. You got one more in you? You know, what's weird is I still, I just don't want to die. I don't want you to die.

So why don't you too live for however long it takes to stay here on this rock together? Unless, Thomas, you are dedicated to leaving Maria behind to go and face that monolith. And I leave this moment, this picture for both of you, of two people who have found each other on this lost island under the earth, with this carding of friendship behind you and this pure cut of earth in front of you. And at this point, you truly do notice

that above you, the moon is so long. that you don't see much else up in the sky other than it. Whatever purview you have is covered with the craterous expanse that is our closest celestial body. And you both know that by the time that comes to this planet, you will not be there to witness it. I think we start talking about trivial things as people do.

As people do, right? Our favorite cereals. And that's where we end our story. That's where we end right there. Just two people talking about nothing. Thank you both so much for joining us. I'm going to have to ask you both to leave the table, please. You got it.

Thanks, buddy. Thank you, Ivan. Thank you. See you on. the other side. There is only one last thing to do, and that is to listen to the final messages of our dearly departed characters. Hello, my name is Thomas Rhodes, and unless my name is on your wrist, I doubt very much that you've heard of me. I never could muster up the courage to stand up for anything, to man up, as my wife called it. Much of my life was spent tucked away at work,

crafting and caring for devices that kept the world on time. And when you spend as much time as I did, surrounded by the rhythmic ticking of the future becoming the past, you'll learn to love the scarcity of life. I was in love. But times change. The world broke. And that broke us.

And when the dark came to take her, I cracked. She needed a shield, but all I could do was watch. Do you think she will ever forgive me? All right, whoever finds this, this is Maria Ogden, and look, the universe or God or whatever you believe in, it's not been nice to me so far. It took a lot, took my kid away from me. I've spent five years trying to just be okay with that and try to forget. give and all of that stuff but finally i've found i found a way to make things right i might

might get to be with my baby girl again but before i do i'm gonna i'm gonna find some answers i'm gonna get to the bottom of all this i've learned a lot and and i'm gonna put it to use um because i think i've always thought my baby girl wants to see one more one more smile for me while I'm still here so going out there

and I'm going to bring some people hope for Caroline it doesn't make sense you know one minute you can be walking down the street enjoying hot dog or ice cream and then the next

you're realizing it's possible to lose everything in an instant. Watch your whole world disappear in an instant. Didn't know I cared about that until it was too late. I just always thought you'd be there. You're gone now. And I can't find you. And all I can think sometimes is,

why wasn't it me? Yet here I am. Trying to stay alive. But still I wonder. What's the point? If you're not here, I guess you can't hear this wherever you are. And when I'm gone to, it's probably too much to expect that I would be with you again. I wish I knew what they wanted. I'd give them anything at all if it meant that I'd be with you again. Hey, mom and dad, this is Virginia. I just wanted to tell you, because, you know, who knows how these

things work out but I believe I have hope and I hope that you do too I think that we're going to make it and I know that not everybody does but I know that our belief is strong enough and that we can survive any obstacle that comes our way so I'm going to do my best and I hope that I make you really proud and should anything happen I hope that that we all continue to believe. Bye. Welcome to Mick Unplugged, the number one podcast for self-improvement

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