High Rollers DnD - High Rollers: Aerois #72 | Astral Styx and Astral Stones (Part 1)

Episode Date: May 24, 2020

The team become acquainted with Captain Thalia and the crew of the Twin Star! Support the High Rollers and get early access to podcast episodes (and more) on our Patreon: www.patreon.com/HighRollers Thanks to our sponsors D&D Beyond! D&D Beyond is the official digital toolset for Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition. Create your FREE account now and start digitising your campaigns here: www.dndbeyond.com/ Music courtesy of Epidemic Sound Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pickaxe. seasonal favorites. You can look forward to new discounts throughout the aisles at Loblaws to get your essentials at great prices. It's your cue to stock up and save. Look for new value programs when you shop at Loblaws in-store and online. At Best Western, when you stay three nights this summer, you earn 10,000 bonus points. And while you're reliving your summer childhood road trip memories, they're creating new ones. So check into any one of our more than 2,300 hotels and make more memories to look back on. Here, we'll set the scene. Life's a trip. Make the most of it at Best Western. Visit bestwestern.com for terms and conditions. Hello everyone, welcome back to High Rollers, a Dungeons & Dragons podcast in the world of Erois,

run by Dungeon Master Mark Sherlock-Humes, with me, Tom, playing Keelak Adkalad, Cleric Wizard. I am Chris Trott, I'm playing Lucius Viren, Elowin Elanastio, and I am a High Elf Sorcerer. Hi, I'm Rhiannon, I'm playing Sentry, I am a Guardian Paladin. Hi, I'm Katie, I'm playing Ayla a wild elf barbarian and i'm kim i'm playing nova who is an air ganassi and she is a hexblade warlock thanks to our regular sponsor dnd beyond the official dungeons and dragons tool set create your free account and speed up your campaigns today last time on eros our heroes have made an unexpected planar visit to the world of Elysium, an angelic planet that is

now controlled by the Valkyrian Empire, and they are in search of a way home to Erois. While searching for allies, they met with the Wings of Ishtar, a rebellious group of Celestials who sought to do what they can to fight back against

Calus and find a solution to the threat of Hadar. Their leader, a Solar called Zelian, has offered his aid despite some of the party's suspicions, and has proposed a plan to infiltrate one of Calus's main warships and rescue their friend Valar. With preparations needed to initiate the dramatic rescue, the party returned to the Planar Port to meet with their captain they have hired to take them home. Captain Thalia and her astral ship, the twin star Longbow, meet them and with a desperate escape pursued by Valkyrian forces,

they manage to board and jet off into the great astral beyond. And that is where we begin today's session. Throughout the sleek, deep red and crimson interior of the astral ship, a faint but consistent hum of magical energy lingers on the very edge of your awareness. The main lounge you find yourselves in is a comfortable space with a few long cushioned benches and chairs with soft white lighting a large white cat is curled up in one corner of the room atop a thick woven rug whilst the sound of two people arguing echoes from a sleek narrow cockpit that connects to this section and i have a cockpit uh view for

you over on roll 20 it's very basic but it gives you the rough layout of the of the ship um there is a main lounge with ladders that go up into uh small kind of compartments uh there is a gangway uh that kind of leads off which has rooms sectioned to the side of it um and then there is a sleek narrow cockpit as well it is not a huge ship um it is well it is technically a huge ship in dnd size but it is not particularly spacious most of it appears to be the exterior of the the astral you know ship itself um it itself. There's not a lot of living space, is what I mean. And yeah, you guys are all together. Thalia and her navigator, the Imp Bim,

seem to be in the cockpit arguing about something. You know that there is another crew member, a girl with wings and clawed talons and hands, but she has not appeared. Um, and then big cat, which is the large white cat, uh,

that sits in the corner. And the rest of you are, well, all of you are in the lounge together. Uh, and that is where we pick up the day. Okay. So we have two choices.

One to go across this. There was a stairway route. So the last thing that was discussed... That's weird. Yep, Nova's got it. Yeah, the infinite stairway. That is one of the ways of traversing planar space. And then it was the sticks. Yes, which is a kind of subplane

that rests between the sticks itself. You don't know too much more about them, but you could easily just go and ask Avi or Bim who can explain it. Yeah. And I believe we had decided off-camera was you wanted to go with the sticks, I believe. Yeah.

Yeah, correct. Because the things there, I can't remember the name of the things but we could potentially get away from those whereas the starbane valkyrian ship they're gonna catch up to us right yeah um so they sound potentially get away from them you're basically what you're talking about is it's like you can either take the heavily patrolled militarized freeway, which is the staircase where you're going to have checkpoints and, you know, citadels and, you know, defensive bases designed, you know, that is controlled by the Valkyrian Empire. And you might be able to outrun them. You might be able to avoid them.

The other option is the kind of illegal underway or the illegal kind of side roads, which is the sticks. But you're more at risk from things like pirates, criminals, raiders and, yeah, mind flayers. That's OK. We're pirates now. Well, that is a thing. So, yeah, and I believe like you guys have settled on traveling via the sticks, but you need to let Thalia know. And there might be other stuff you guys want to ask about. There might be stuff that you want to do. You don't really know in terms of things like sleeping arrangements.

You haven't had that discussion yet either. So, yeah. It's also a chance to explore the ship a little. Get to know where you're going to be for the next few astral days. the ship a little. Get to know where you're going to be for the next few astral days. Lucius is taking a backseat currently because he fainted with the

dawning realization that he's in a tiny hole with the vacuum of space just millimeters outside. So he's sitting in this lounge, head between his legs, just recovering. Breathing deep. Yep. Okay. So Lucius sits there with his head between his legs, Just recovering. Breathing deep. Yeah. Okay.

All right. So Lucius sits there with his head between his legs, taking some deep breaths, panicking. That's deep breaths. Team, team, team. Group huddle. Group huddle. Team huddle.

Group team huddle. Okay. Huddle. This is the best. We're in space. Don't remind me. It's fine, Lucius. It's fine.

Deep breaths. Deep breaths. Before we decide what to do next and get ready to do all this, like, Tassadar stuff, Wings of Ishtar resistance group, should we call home, or your home,

my home, I don't know anymore. Is it my home? I don't know anymore is it my home i don't know um should we call ariah and maybe you know use the sending and be like hey uh a little bit off world at the moment try not to get the ship impounded oh the ship is 10 out of 10 impounded right now we've been i gave her extra money i gave her extra money don't you remember how long have we been The ship is 10 out of 10 impounded right now. We've been gone for a little while now. The ship's gone. I gave her extra money. I gave her extra money.

Don't you remember? I gave her extra money. How long have we been gone in comparison to how long we've been in space? Then let's ask Oriah. A day here anyway. I'm sure Oriah as well is smart enough that if we weren't going to turn up, she's not going to let the ship get impounded that's her

I just didn't think of the ship being impounded so much has happened in such a short amount of time we put so much time and effort into that you had dreams about it Quill holding some rods and going through the valley of storms has that all changed now

it's still possible the only difference remember So is Aayla holding some rods and going through the Valley of Storms? Is that all changed now? It's still possible. The only difference remember, Sentry in the Dream had the glowing orb that she has now. The future is still... On track. That future anyway. Well, of course! The only difference is the gun. It's still gonna be like a little human kebab thing going on with the lightning. Excellent. Yeah, exactly.

That's still going to happen. Elf. But that fills me with hope. That means we're all going to not die in the vacuum of space. We're going to land somewhere and end up back on our ship. Yeah, I mean, that possible future. Then die in the Valley of Storms instead. Well, well...

It's better to die on a rose than not, right? Optimism. Technically, we can die anywhere at any time, so really, it doesn't matter. Just take your pick where we are. Given how much all of you have already been through, I think that you're all very painfully aware of the risks of the universe and being heroes.

Is this reassuring you, Lucius? Nope. Okay, now Harold. Go on, Century. Sorry, what was that? I think Harold's at the blacksmith's. I don't know if she's ready. I don't know if she's been... Oh don't know if she's been picked yet.

Oh, crap, I forgot about Harold. Oh, no. I hope they're okay. I hope she's managed to get picked up. Araya is smart, okay? If we've only been away for, well, a day, if, then they're probably still where we left them if if if we were away for longer i think she's smart enough to pick up herald and then go looking for us i can send her a message but

remember i only have 25 words i need to in 25 words explain that we have been jetted off to the other side of wherever's ville and we are going to be back, but we're also in space, remembering that Uriah and the rest of the Rose doesn't really know about the Astral Sea, so I kind of have to explain the concept of the Astral Sea to her as well. I mean... Honestly, it's us. I feel like whatever we say, they'll be like,

yeah, okay, they'll be back. I mean, she knows that we were in space, I guess five. Like, okay. They'll be back. I feel like they're used to us being an absolute mess. And therefore, it'll be fine. We don't need to go into the minute details of being in astral space. We can just say, yeah, got shifted somewhere else. Trying to get back BRB you know

you're in charge okay I'll draft a message Tom I think it's time that Quill developed a compression alphabet which is where you can fit more knowledge and more words

into 25 words. Well, that's the beauty of Arakokran language, right? Is that Arakokran messages, they can send things in like three squawks and that tells a novel. Two other Arakokra, yeah. It's a shame, alright, it's not another Arakokra.

We need to get, what you're saying is we need another Arakocra on the ship. Like, we need a bird on the ship purely so that if we get trapped in astral space, we can tell them the entire story and everyone knows the full details. In Auron, yeah. Sure, yeah.

Also, you need to be aware... Let's focus on getting that. Let's focus on that part. There's a chance the message might not actually be received But I can keep casting, I suppose Yeah, you can I believe it is a 5% chance I mean, I could

Try with Dream as well I don't know if she'd be sleeping I don't know what on Earth the time zones would be doing But it's worth a chance And then I could just show her You know that Dream won't work across planes. Dream won't work because we're completely in the wrong plane.

This has come up before that you've learned that Starbane has tech that allows him to do it across planes because normally he can't. Same with teleportation circles. Normally they don't work across planes, but there is Magitek that obviously allows the Empire to do so. It's been a really long day,

so just ignore what just came out of my face there. I just don't want you wasting it when you would know it would not work. It's a small rest slot. You hear kind of like meow as this

very large cat is looking at your conversation. The best way you could read his face is annoyance. He's cat is looking at your conversation in a the best way you could read his face is annoyance he's kind of looking you annoyed um and then it kind of puts its head back and tries to go back to sleep

I forgot there was a huge cat in this this shit plays shit with us honestly I think that the cat is quite i think the cat's quite cool i'm quite comforted by the giant cat i think yeah it looks very

fluffy but yeah i think that's what it is i think that it does look very fluffy yeah uh there is a couple couple of more sort of like, you can overhear the kind of echoing sounds of arguments and then a small red skinned little tiny figure kind of wearing very thick bottle glasses comes walking down into the main lounge from the cockpit.

And he kind of adjusts his big glasses. You can see he's got one hand is holding a crystal slate, very similar to the one Nova has recently acquired. And he is like, well, we think that we've put in a basic navigation

route to make us start making our way to where I think your planet is. The captain's got some things that she needs to discuss with you just to go over. There's I think she mentioned something about a final payment waiting on and also

there's just a couple of things that you should just be aware of around the ship. So maybe you should go and speak to her while I get things ready. Okay. What are... What are... a clearance level

for this ship? Where can we go? Do we just stay in the lounge and just... He kind of looks... He looks very confused at you. He's like, it's not a big ship. You can kind of go where you want, just don't touch stuff unless you ask i guess okay i think this is just well if we had outsiders on our ship we'd be wary it's it's just being courteous is all well the fact is is that none of you really know

how any of this stuff works and if she wanted to the captain could seal the cockpit and just vent you all into space, so... Oh, really? That's fair. So she's not really that worried. I mean, we've dealt with... Well, she's dealt with... I'm not a fighter, by the way. I'm like a scholar. There's a reason that I'm here and not anywhere else.

The captain's dealt with people far worse than any of you before, I think. Okay, okay, okay. Reinsuring. Okay, don't vent. Please don't vent. Why are you talking to me about this? I'm just a navigator.

And he kind of begins making his way. You can see that there's a small child-sized chair that is his. And he kind of sits in it. It's not like a high chair but it's like a little like it's like a small micro chair uh and he kind of scrambles up into it gets his little slate out and he just starts looking at his slate and it's you can see it's covered in maps and little uh pieces of text and writing and he's just kind of like analyzing it he looks like a toddler with an ipad but yeah he's a tiny little devil um he's listening to baby shark um okay i've got a message to send to ariah okay uh which has a five percent chance of failing so before tom does that or do you want to just let

tom do that and then crack on let tommy do his thing. Alright. So 5% chance, how do I do that? I guess a natural 1 on a d20, right? No, d100. And then if it's 0 to 5. 87. Nope, goes through. Okay, I send to her clear skies teleported by Hadar. Whoops!

Going to be a while to get back to you. Stay safe, stay vigilant, stay calm. Okay. Yeah. It's like you're trying to encourage yourself to stay calm while you send a message to her.

Stay calm. Stay calm. Stay vigilant. Yeah, actually I've got an extra word, so I say calm again. Okay. A few moments go by and a response comes. Um, okay. You've not been gone very long, but yes, I will keep the ship safe. Clear skies. She knows the code.

Do you know how long you've been gone for i know you said not long but is that hours days you just didn't say she just said you've not been gone long um you can send another you can try another sending spell if you like maybe ask about herald let me make sure they pick up herald could you pick up the toddler From daycare please Thank you It's like

Parents have gone on a mountain Oh I forgot to pick up Harold He's at a football practice just sitting Waiting for his dad to come pick him up in the car And it's raining We've just gone to the pub And gone home. And...

Harold's just there like... That guy. That guy. We're terrible people. Right. Jokes aside, what are you guys doing? I guess we're going to the captain, right captain right yeah let's go speak to the captain yeah there's no right it's you tell me what you want to do no that was a

right to everybody else right okay all right okay um yeah you can go and speak to her the cockpit is a very slim narrow section of the ship there's seats there's about four seats uh two at the front and then there are two behind those um but you can kind of crowd in sentry and ayla are probably the ones who struggle the most um because it is you know not particularly yeah two of you very large strong ladies uh fill the cockpit quite easily um whereas everyone else is kind of slender and small enough that they can kind of squeeze squeeze in um yeah you can see before like the the main controls of the ship is a mixture of different uh crystals and runes inscribed onto this um kind of crimson red metal um there are two large crystal spheres built into a chair which uh thalia has one hand on

um and then with the other one she's kind of tapping and and kind of lighting up different runes on this uh section of the the front panel um her snake-like hair of uh her medusa form uh kind of hisses softly not aggressively but in a kind of you almost get the sense that they're alerting her that somebody is approaching or coming behind her. And she kind of turns her head to look around. Ah, yes, you're all here. Excellent. There's just a few things that we perhaps should go over. I wasn't expecting all of you. You don't all have to be here if you don't wish.

You can just remain. But if you wish... Anyway, very well. Is it going to tip the ship forward? Are we going to sink? No, that's not... Do we need to distribute our weight? No, bless you, bless you, you little backwater folks.

No, it's not going to happen like that. You can... Please stop panicking. It's just upsetting. It's throwing off my vibe i feel like i need to drink uh with you freaking out all of the time no you're perfectly fine you're perfectly safe if you wish i've prepared uh two there are two crew quarters at the back of the ship um near engineering there are two rooms prepared for you uh they have a bunk bed in each and then i've prepped a secondary cot. You will obviously need to share.

I leave that decision up to all of you. The mess is next to your rooms. You'll find ample amounts of dried foods and supplies. I expect you to cook for yourselves. Neither myself or Bim will be able to entertain you. This isn't a passenger cruise um you are you have booked passage i will deliver you um but i expect you to help out around the ship where you can look after yourselves keep it clean uh and if anything does if we get into any troublesome situations i situations, I expect you to help. If that's clear?

Yes. Clear. Perfectly. Now, in terms of what you can do, the best things around the ship that you can assist with... Bim is an excellent navigator, but he's not very good at much else. I generally try and keep the ship going

by myself, normally. You might encounter Kairi. She's a little... She doesn't do very well with people. She's a little bit nervous around others. But she's a good gunner, so she'll normally take one of the turrets, but there is one remaining.

If we get into an encounter, it would be useful if one of you jumps in that. There is also the engine room. Do any of you have any experience with Magitek? Yes, the Ganassi. Yes, you look quite excited about it all. I think I do. If I don't, I can learn.

Yes, Bim can show you the basics, but I'm sure you'll wrap your head around it. It's based on similar Magitek properties that you may have encountered. But, yeah, speak with Bim. And then one of you perhaps could sit up front with me to assist as a co-pilot. I can run you through the basics of that, if necessary. Quill, you should do that. You can see everything. Everything. I don't really care who it is.

Okay. I could do that, yeah. Excellent. It shouldn't be necessary unless we get into a problematic situation, shall we call it. But just so you are aware of your stations, Thalia looks at Sentry and Ayayla and Lucius.

Amongst the three of you, yes, like I mentioned, there is one turret. Anybody can fire it. It doesn't require any particular skill. You'll get the hang of it, so I leave that to you. And then the other two, perhaps one of you can assist in engineering. Sometimes it requires a little bit of brawnwn and you can see her eyes flicker to Ayla and Sentry to help with repairs

but I leave this to your discretion what else what else do you need a morale officer no oh okay oh okay Mr. Morale Officer? No. Oh.

Okay. Oh, okay. No, that's just... Why would I need such a thing? That's how we do it. Okay. Do you have a salute? Moving! No, we don't have a salute. You want one?

You are very strange. No, I don't want a salute. Why. You want one? You are very strange. No, I don't want a salute. Why would we want a salute? It's a waste of time. Recognize superior officers and things. You are the captain. We don't have superior officers. I'm the captain.

It's my ship. All the rest of you do what you're told. That's it. Okay. I'll salute the storm chaser salute to her. Oh, for goodness sakes. That's our salute, Quill. Don't give her our secret salute. Okay. I'll salute the storm chaser salute to her. Oh for goodness sakes. That's our salute Quill. Don't give her our secret salute. Okay, um... I'll do whatever you tell me to do.

Eyebrows. You are quite an eclectic bunch. And you can see she reaches down, pulls out a flask, takes the lid. Good. There is a bathroom. It's next to my quarters. Don't go into my quarters uninvited. I don't think I need to explain basic social manners to you all.

There's a cargo area which has got a bit more room if you want to stretch out or do some exercising. I have some basic equipment in there for fitness. That's pretty much it. Don't touch things unless you know what they do. Otherwise, just behave yourselves, I suppose. The last thing that we need to discuss is my payment. My final payment.

She kind of leans back in her chair. Yes? I mentioned this to your Ganassi friend. Oh, me. Once I deliver you, I expect some form of payment once we arrive. This could be the form of, ideally, some sort of powerful magical relic. Ideally. Something rare, not something particularly common.

I don't really have much use for things like gold and jewels and things like that, but magical relics are always useful. They can always be sold. There is another option. I could use your assistance with something. And if you assist me, I would be willing to share the

profits of that endeavor. And also I would consider us equal for your passage on my ship what's the task well it is there's some elements of a personal nature to it but

the simple basics of it is there is a planet called Azaghrat. It is something of a hedonistic den of pleasures and debauchery. And there is a place called the Argent Palace on it. It is a mixture of a casino and pleasure house. And there is... there's a legend about it. It is a mixture of a casino and pleasure house, and there is... There's a legend about it. A legend that I know is true.

There is... The owner of the Argent Palace has a game. A particular game. A legendary game. It's never the same. It's always different for each challenger but whoever wins it receives three wishes wishes that can change many many things that can do a lot i want one of those wishes if you assist me in acquiring these wishes, I will give you the other two and consider our debt paid.

What? Do you know what the game is? I won't know until I get there, unfortunately. I know that the owner of the Argent Palace is a powerful demon lord, therefore I expect the game to be rigged, which is why I require assistance. People that can help me avoid the... the cheats. Or perhaps, if necessary,

simply find out where the wishes are stored and in what form and steal them. Okay. But you also have the option of I simply require a payment just before we arrive at your planet uh oh well i mean we do have some magical items and things but it would need to be something powerful so you can show it to me and i will give you my verdict um but i figured that perhaps uh if you do not wish to part

with something and you wish to gain two very powerful tools then perhaps the offer of the Azaghrat job is in your hands I do like the sound of the job though trying to

fight a rigged game against do you know what happens if you lose? there's all sorts of rumours about it generally there are wagers involved in all sorts of things such as souls and the like but it is also possible that

well, Grast has well grasped has also gratz has also uh wagered different things um i think that i have enough contacts in the world that i could leverage them i think that i can at least at least get an audience with grouts and with grats uh but yes i don't know But it would be my life on the line, not yours, my soul, not yours. I simply need assistance. Okay, okay. Of course, if I did happen

to lose my soul, you would not have a ship to take you back to your planet, of course. So it would be in your interests to keep me in the fine condition that you see me in and she kind of gestures down at her uh relaxed form and uh tight pants uh it's very fine condition indeed and i'm assuming this this this side endeavor this won't take us too far off course to our, you know, intended goal. Well, let me

show you the map, and she touches a few runes on her console, and she brings up a map of the multiverse, which I can show you on roll 20. Oh,

man. Okay, man. Okay, and hey, if you want to see this, it will be on Patreon as well. Yes, it will go on the Patreon. So she gestures. Now, this is a map that has been detailed by Bin, my navigator, using his knowledge, what he has learned, and also some guesswork on his behalf,

but we're quite confident in it. There is not every location in the multiverse. This is only really the places that Bim and I know and places that we can assume based on legend and myth and that sort of thing. You can see that we

are here at Elysium. And she taps the map and you see like a small pulse around it um now this is three-dimensional space but this is a rough approximation of how everything can be located as a grat is on the way as it happens to be um so it should not become much of a diversion to head there if you wish to assist me i know that you had mentioned little ganassi wanting to travel to ganass it is possible you can see it here it borders the material core and the inner sphere uh it is somewhat close to the shadowfell nebula which is not an area of astral space i have any particular keenness to visit and it is extremely close to gideon prime the heart of the

valkyrian empire but it is uh it would be possible to divert there if you had a burning need to travel there of course that would take us extra that would require extra supplies and some extra payment on my behalf to reach it. And also, if there is anywhere else you wish to go or if you have any other needs for things, there is lots of adventure and interesting things that we can get up to in the universe. And she kind of waggles her eyebrows at all of you. I'm guessing on this map, Erois is on there, right?

Yeah, it has. If you scroll down, or zoom out, you can also zoom out and then you can see a little bit more of everything. Yeah, you can see it. Is that the legitimate place for it? You don't how would you say guess okay it's just i guess okay cool oh yeah like she said that it's it's you know this

map has been put together even bim has said he thinks he knows where it is um okay okay i'm just saying like the map doesn't just say yeah we're going the right way well no of course it doesn't yeah wonderful um yeah what okay how long if we were to go to azergrat and then aroas how long would the journey actually take azergrat won't take us off of our course we need to head in that direction anyway that i suspect based on bim's calculations it will take us approximately 12 astral days to reach your world. If we're using slipspace, if we're using the sticks or the staircase, which I

believe that you would inform me you wish to travel via the sticks, I think that that is a wise decision. The sticks whilst rife with criminal scum like myself, I would much rather deal with pirates and illithids than dealing with the

empire. The empire has far more firepower even if they don't suck out your brains and eat them Oh Okay And brushing past that one, this ship you said it could outrun illithids and pirates

if we do get into a fight, is it capable? She makes a face when you say that. The Twin Star is a fast ship. It is a fast ship. If we encounter raiders and pirates, we will likely need to defend ourselves.

That's why I have guns on the ship. Okay, I'm just trying to judge if the two guns on this ship is impressive. You know, is it good compared to... They are... It's difficult to say, my young friend. You must understand that there are very many different Astral ships out there. I have outfitted the Twin Star as best as I can,

and they're good cannons. I have a pair of arcaneane lances we call them um they are potent um they can be repelled by shields or at least some of their impact can be absorbed by shielding um they are they don't stand up too well against things which are resistant to magic, but most ships don't have that sort of power. Things like raiders, they'll come in smaller attack craft. They're not very durable, but they're quick, and they have a strong cannon, normally just the one, which can weather us down if too many of them swarm us of course

larger ships such as a nautiloid well who knows what they can have i've heard all sorts of tales of living ships and spell jammers that can do strange things um i'm afraid that i've yet to encounter one uh that i did not outrun The other difficulty is if once we are in slip space, it is difficult to escape. Once we are in slip space, we are there until we can reach a breach point. So if we are attacked whilst we are

in the sticks, we should definitely try and fight our way out of the situation. Okay. Okay. The ship is capable. That's... Of course. Of course. I would not have allowed you to come aboard if this ship was not capable. It is one of the finer astral ships

that you can come across. It has a name for a reason. Ships don't get names without good reasons out here. And the Twin Star is a good ship she's been with me for a long time and you see she kind of runs her

hand you know she's got this pale skin but you can see kind of like sections of it covered in scales and she runs like a hand down the console with a very loving understanding like you can see that this ship means a lot to her let's throw up somewhere else then not on the console yes yeah definitely don't do that or you might get vented i was i was giggling to myself because i realized that

technically in my inventory i have the pylon Golem Gatling Gun. And I was like, let's just pull that to the outside. But no, I'd like to think that I'd actually left that on the Storm Chaser to be fitted. You do not have that. You do not have that on your tool kit. I just had this idea of just like she just pulls this big gun out of her bag. It's like, let's just stick this on the outside well carrying a massive

tick yeah and also you can't just stick stuff on the outside Kim like it doesn't work it's fine I'm sure it's pristine here like so um yeah so Thalia says well

that's that's pretty much it for my briefing, I suppose. If there's anything else, if you'd like to know anything more about Astral Sea, I can always let you know. It'll take us about a day to reach a breach point for the sticks. They don't tend to manifest

too close to planets, so we're basically on our astral engines until we can reach a breach point. Okay. A lot of different words being used. Get settled in. We tend to use...

My good man, we tend to... If you're in doubt, put astral in front of it. That's how most things seem to work. Okay. I feel astral in front of it. That's how most things seem to work. Okay. I feel astral woozy. A fitting explanation. If you're going to be sick, make sure you do it in the bathroom, however.

There's a cleaning stone in there for a shower and things like that, or if you wish to freshen up. Okay, thank you. As a warning, I don't knock. I will just go in it when i wish it's my ship right fair enough and then she looks like okay we're done you can all leave now why are you here is the big cat going to attack anyone no of course not not unless you try and harm me

anyway big cat's my protector my bodyguard oh can it understand us yes yes it can he's he's quite intelligent he can't speak but uh he'll understand what you're saying. Right. Good to know. He tends to be a little territorial, so don't go in his corner. I mean, there's not much territory to avoid. Ah, and don't try casting spells on him either. I don't recommend it. I wouldn't think of it. Okay.

Good to know. I'm curious. What spells have people tried to cast on him before oh all sorts of things they've tried to hit him with lightning bolts they've tried to dominate his mind and turn him against me but the the species that he is magic he reflects it he can reflect most minor magics back at the person who cast it upon him. That's why I have him as my bodyguard. And she kind of smiles and the snakes

kind of hiss. Okay. I guess we'll discuss the Azaghrat payment situation then and get back to you shortly. Indeed. And like I said, if you have any questions about, well, the worlds, about you have any questions about the world, about astral space, about the ship,

you may come and speak with me. If you have anywhere else that you wish to go, come and let me know. I'm sure you'll be seeing a lot of Nova. Hey! You're more than welcome, my dear. And she kind of leans over and pats the co-pilot's

seat and kind of looks at you from lidded eyes. More than welcome my dear and she kind of like leans over and pats the co-pilot seat and kind of looks at you from lidded eyes more than welcome but I understand you have some business to discuss we do we do okay we'll be back when we have an answer

for you bye thank you Captain Farley she kind of like waves and then goes have an answer for you. Sure. Bye. Thank you, Captain Foddy. She kind of, like, waves and then goes and just diverts her attention back to the vast, empty astral space in front of her.

Okay. Alright. I'm going to head into the living quarters. Sure. Actually, I guess I'll head into the sleeping area and just see what that's like

Yeah let's go check out our dokes Yeah The big cat's kind of listening in the Lounge area We can always talk Messenger ring Yeah And not annoy big cat

Yes yeah you got the impression Less that he was trying to like listen in and be nosy and more that he was trying to sleep and you were all talking very loud and he didn't like that um no if you head to the back of the ship um nova you can see that there is a kind of ramp that leads down where you can see the glow and hum of magitek um and you can see bim's kind of shadow uh down down there uh which is the is where the engines and the systems and the magic is kind of keeping the ship running. The corridor is split into two other sides.

There are two guest quarters. Each have... They're not very big. There's enough space for a couple of foot lockers, a bunk bed, and one of them, a temporary kind of fold-out bed has been set up um and there is not much else that's pretty much all there are in the crew in the guest quarters in the crew quarters um attached to these rooms is a small mess kind of like a kitchenette uh where there is like a little stove there's um you know dried food storages various kind of containers that seem to have basics uh you know in them and then like a little table to

eat at as well but yeah these rooms are not big these are not like big tavern rooms or hotel rooms they're really just a bunk bed a foot footlocker. Like steel walls, grey beds, metal frames. The beds have mattresses. They're not straw mattresses that you might have seen back on Aurois. They're more like what the Sky Cities would have. So they're kind of

filled with... You don't know what they're filled with, actually. As you touch the mattresses, they're kind of squishy. They're very soft and squishy A little firm But they don't appear to be filled with No there's no spring There's no feathers

It's just some sort of Astral sponge It's like a gel almost You kind of get a jelly kind of feeling But it's firmer than that But there's pillows which are filled with feathers They just look like normal bird feathers almost. You kind of get like a jelly kind of feeling, but it's firmer than that. But there's pillows which are filled with feathers. They just look like normal bird feathers they're filled with.

Maybe. Maybe. But there's normal feathers. There's blankets, yeah, and then there's a fold-out bed. Well, she's just put five beds. She doesn't care who sleeps where. So if you want a bed sentry, there is a bed. She's just put five beds. She doesn't care who sleeps where. So if you want a bed sentry, there is a bed.

Ooh. Yeah, I suppose I could give that a go. I'm on my chair for so long. First time for everything. Very true. Do we do this fairly? So we could, I don't know, pull from a hat or something? Or we could all spin around with our eyes closed and whatever you point at is the bed you get. Um, well, we can just take turns using the smaller one, or maybe.

I'll squish into the smaller one, it's fine. Oh, you don't have to do that, Nerva, but thank you. Yes, you will. That's okay. Yes, that'd be great. Perfect. I'd recommend Sentry Bottom Bunk for you. Yeah.

Understood. Okay, that's nice. Just in case. That's very true. Yeah, okay. Just in case. That's very true. So I'm assuming you're going to go with the classic Quill Lucius in one room,

Sentry Aayla in the other room, with Nova with them. Boys and girls. Yeah. The classic was Quill and Sentry. Oh, that's true. It's normally called 11th century. Either or.

Okay. Doesn't matter. So, payment. It's an irrelevant detail. It's really irrelevant. Yeah. So, payment for Thalia. Thalia?

Thalia. Thalia. Thalia. Which one is Thalia? Thalia. Thalia. So, I mean, the most magical item we have to spare is... What, the trident?

But that's not really to spare. That was a gift. Do we have any other magical items we can give? I've got Gadwin's hammer, but I feel like that's not really what she's looking for. I think she wants something more. Well, if you look at where we've been, we've been on Elysium. really what she's looking for. I think she wants something more. Yeah. Well, if you look at where we've been,

we've been on Elysium with so much more impressive technology that was beyond any of us. Look at this status lab! It's not as interesting as things from Eros that she's probably never seen before. That's probably

why she wants it something i i don't really have i'm not giving up my hammer that that is not an option so we've got smaller things but like you say i don't think it's good enough for her i think the magical items i don't really want to part with a sequester scroll, even though it'd be worth a lot of money. But also, wishes from this demon's game. I mean, if he has

rigged it in his favour, what's stopping us from rigging it in ours? There's no way he'd know about the eye. Depending on what the game is. It's a demon and they're very much smarter than we are in terms of rigging things. If it could be detected, yes. I feel like if it's a wish

there's got to be a lot of difficulty in getting that. That's quite a big prize. Surely that's going to be quite a dangerous mission or whatever the game is. It's going to be quite dangerous. But then could you imagine... Could you imagine

if we infiltrated the Tassadar with two wishes? That would give us a huge advantage. I'd like to wish Tassadar not to exist. Well, I want to address this because Here he comes.

There is, well, it's more that because you know we all know the rules of dnd and you know we know that wish is a spell and there are magic items that grant wishes and stuff like that you guys know in character anybody especially with any magic knowledge quill nova lucius century i think ayla is the only one who maybe wouldn't know this stuff off by hand but there are always stories about like wishes and and stuff like that that have you know these miraculous magical miracles that can happen um generally they can be very powerful you could you can do a lot with them you can't for example be like i wish hadar didn't exist you can't do stuff like that with it it's not that level of power but you could be like i wish we were all back on Erois. I wish I had pieces of Tiangong.

I wish blah, blah, blah. I wish my hammer was an artifact. I wish this person back to life. You can bring somebody back to life even if they don't have a body. I wish my family was back to life. Volucious. You could literally do stuff like that with it. So it's stuff that's can't you can't kill you

can't be like i wish callus is dead yes yeah you can't be like i wish callus was dead right you can't you know control you can't kill somebody you can't reverse time you can't um do stuff like that with it but you could do really powerful things like i want to summon these things to me i want to travel to this place i want to bring my family back i want to gain these things to me. I want to travel to this place. I want to bring my family back. I want to gain, you know, make myself stronger. Like, you could increase your strength with it. There's tons of stuff you can do with it, but I just want to make sure you guys are aware of what's possible and what's not.

No. For fuck... He did it. That's a hard-coded rule. Oh, is it really yeah okay can I wish for a magic item that grants wishes you could try what happens if you

cast a wish that you can't it can't fulfill do you use the wish you don't know but generally anything you ask for it will try and provide the best it can um this means that doing things like i wish hadadan exist could end up with disastrous consequences yeah um it could be like well well it's more like oh well i can't make hadan not exist but i can summon him

to you so you can kill him. It could do stuff like that. This is the way to do it, yeah. Yeah, this is how you do it. Yeah, it's monkey's paw, in a sense. Generally, if you're not asking for too much, it won't fuck you over. If you're asking for something which is achievable by another spell,

if you're asking for something which doesn't have a selfish context to it or isn't asking too much of the universe then you can probably achieve it um and wording is important right much like uh again it depends on what you're asking for it depends on what you're asking for wording yes would be important but you don't need to like freak out and be like well we can't use it because it might fuck us over just don't do anything like i wish hadar didn't exist i wish the campaign was okay don't break the campaign i won't fuck you over like the metanology of that

i guess if you if you wish hadar never existed then it goes through a thing of like well if hadar never existed then you would never exist and then i guess the universe would never be in the state starbane would never Maybe it could do that. Again, yeah, maybe. You don't know. And then everything, it just goes all the way back and then suddenly, Lightfall campaign. Whoa, weird.

That's a universe where Hadar never existed. I wish our characters became aware that they are characters in a D&D show. Oh! Say what? became aware that they are characters in a dnd show so could we just wish we were literally i i literally no no you can't okay okay good i'm just making sure like the parameters like i said all right if you don't break the campaign you're gonna be fine if you're gonna do something cool, I will reward you. Alright. Okay. Alright. So a little bit more like

the coin that me and Ayla had. Or have. Sorry. More powerful, but yes. Yeah. Alright. Okay. Okay. Um... How powerful is the coin, though? You don't know. You've not used it. I know.

But could be something that you could use if you do try this mission. Could definitely be something useful. You are in the perfect place to kind of, you know, if this is where Lady Duskwillow is from. She is somewhere out here in the Astral Sea. You might even meet her.

Where? I don't care. Yeah. So what is our next port of call it will give me some uh some confidence knowing what our plan is and what we're doing next the other one I don't want to railroad you guys

too much but I'm going to just remind you that you also have the mission for Zellion and the Tassadar and as part of that he gave you two site like optional objectives that if you complete them will help you on the tassadar um and that might be something you want to talk to thalia about and figure out as well oh yes yeah point as that is a gentle reminder we could wish for the schematics of the tassadar you could that is something you could wish for yes absolutely

small waste i i wish that the tacit are uh run out of power no because tacit are would be you can't teleport to it you've caught me you've caught me kim but you got him um okay but i like the sound of this thing i don't think we have the magical items to give up. If we did gain two wishes, that's hugely powerful. And she's only asking for one. We're getting a better end of this deal. It's just having to navigate a demon's bargain. That's the problem.

It's the lure of knowing that a wish is available, which worries me. To have that as the dangling carrot on a stick suggests to me that getting it is near impossible imagine the tactical advantage we'd have just imagine and it's such a good i could reform tiangong i could reform tiangong and then we'd have a member of the triumvirate and then if we free tasadar that would be two members of the three members and then we could have the most powerful ally i'm gonna need to lie down we could wish that dar never existed we could all do a lot of wishes but ultimately we need to get help it's on the way it's on the way i'm just thinking about what we need a payment regardless and i don't think We need a payment regardless,

and I don't think we have a payment for her beyond going to this place, this Argent Palace. I have nothing I can give. We need to pay her. Either we find something or we do this. We sort of outwitted Caridus before. Kind of. A little bit. Maybe what? We outwitted Caridus,

remember, at the Kali's rest under the thing? I mean, that was mainly Vala just bouncing us away and bringing Starbane to the planet. But, you know... We were tied up. We did absolutely nothing in that situation. We got captured

and really hurt and Sentry died. I love the optimism though. Quill, as this conversation is going on, you guys are in one of your quarters I'm assuming. You guys are having this conversation

crammed into a small quarters somewhere. Quillill you hear like the sound of what sounds like claws on the metal of the ship of the floor um and just kind of glancing out the door you can see lurking in the lounge kind of peering around a corner

in the direction of where the crew quarters are you see she can't be sort of like older than sort of like 18, 19, but you can see like a humanoid face. She's kind of got like these quite narrow, thin eyes, and she's kind of peering around, and her hands are like these big claws, and a kind of a feathered wing is kind of around her,

and she's nervously kind of just like looking in the direction of the cruise quarters but she doesn't think you don't think that she's seen you or any of the others but she's just kind of looking in your direction uh verb friend are you saying that as ayla

no okay no ayla would never say verb. I think I, like, um, Thalia said that she was nervous so I'll sort of like

turn around but not really like, you know, go like, oh hey! But like, just sort of turn around and look.

Well, if you turn around and look at her, she goes bright red and then vanishes she just runs back into the lounge and away um just it's like and you can hear like scraping talons on metal as she runs and like flapping of wings and things like that nice to meet you probably goes she probably goes like and it makes makes a slight squawk sound as she runs. It was nice to meet you.

Anyway. You too, big cat. There you go. See, we're really ingrained now. It's like Milo's in the room. Uncanny. He's part of the crew. see we're really ingrained now it's like Milo's in the room uncanny I suppose if we're stuck together for a long period

of time was it 14 light somethings or others astral time 12 astral days astral everything astral I don't know how long they are, but it sounds like 14 of them is a lot of sleeps.

So maybe we should try and be nice and friendly to the big cat that could kill us at any moment. He'd be fine with the cat. He's just sleepy. We haven't rested since Hadar. True.

We could do with that Hadar true we have yes we have we had a walk like a short rest but not like a proper thing a sleep we've not slept since Hadar we've not had a long rest by virtue of that also since

the Abbey right yeah should one of us inform what we're doing, and then we'll have a rest so that she can make her... Okay, we can also ask about... We'll also ask about the Ishtar

requirements as well. Co-pilot Quill, you do it. Oh, yeah, co-pilot. I need to learn how to be a co-pilot, too. That's on you, Nova. I think either of you two are more than capable. Yes.

That means someone else being an engineer. Okay, Nova, engineer. Me, I guess co-pilot. Who wants to be a gunner? I'm not going to lie, that sounds very fun. Okay, Ayla, gunner, Sentry, I guess Co-engineer, Lucius, morale officer You can

Do it and we won't get Sucked out into space That's the worst morale officer we can have on a spaceship Not feeling it You can teach him Sentry I'll go to Thalia then Okay So Korg goes to Thalia, what's everyone else doing?

It's not just a one man show I'm lying down Someone else can come with me Yeah yeah yeah I will I'll probably go Yeah I'm gonna go and

Find the gunner area And see if I can say hi to Sure, okay, Nova Can I nerd out with Bim? I'm going to go and find the gunner area and see if I can say hi to... Sure. Okay. Nova? Can I nerd out with Bim? Yeah. He seemed like he was down in the engines.

Shit, Sentry, the note taker's not coming with us. Have you written anything down? As much as I can. My three-year-old tech is ready to go. Sentry's not bad at making notes, even because you're not um okay we'll go round

um Ayla for Ayla have you seen Rhiannon's notebook it's just doodles and occasionally the word fuck

written it's still better than it's better than Tom's notes there's mine I was organised as kids yeah I've got a lot going on in my organisation

right Lucius great I need one of those. Lucius lies down and goes to sleep. Ayla, there are two very clear access points. There are two turrets. Let's call them

north and south. Which one do you want to go into? Which one do you try and check out first uh north okay north you make your way north um and it's it's you basically a short ladder leads up into a cylinder like tube um and when you as you begin climbing up the stairs, you hear like rustling of feathers and this. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Can I help you? Oh, hi.

Sorry, I'm not. Nice to meet you. I got told that you might need another gunner. I was just wondering if you could show me. I could probably show myself, but you know, I don't want to break a spaceship. No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

You shouldn't do that. The captain will get mad. And you see she kind of has like wings folded around herself, like kind of hiding most of her body and her claws are kind of like tucked up under her chin um but you see a harpy so feminine form but big feathered wings claws uh and then big taloned feet like a bird's but she's kind of wearing uh like

rugged half like half length like shorts like long shorts, I guess. And she has a little tank top with a jacket with the back cut out for her wings. The tank top is actually got Shansara, like an image of the Eladrin singer on it. And it's kind of like half faded and it's got like stains on it and stuff like that. And when you kind of finish climbing up the ladder, you emerge into what can be best described as a nest um you can see that there are clearly these big like crystal controls but every other inch of this like little uh domed turret is full of a mixture of things blankets clothes there are stuffed toys there are uh pictures that have been torn out of books that you can see like kind of picture books um that have knights that have princesses that have dragons uh there is a collection of

weapons um you can see some sort of like long toothed blade a flail there appears to be a pistol like a thunderstone pistol or an arcane pistol and it's all just piled up and shoved in a corner uh and it's a fucking mess everywhere like everything's just kind of like spread out um there's like little figurines and statuettes that have been stuck to the console of the gun of the turret itself um and yeah she's kind of sat kind of her legs brought up these huge claws wrapped around the base of the chair and she's kind of sat with like her knees under her chin and her arms and she's looking at you with these wide eyes and she's got like her hairs parted down into like little pigtails and she's just like hi uh-huh hi i'll show you how it works uh thanks i'm not a big one for conversation either so you know it's fine yeah i like what you've done

with the place though i like the way she's just like she like covers her face when you say that like the realization that you can see all of her stuff and she just puts like these giant claws over her face and she's like i'm sorry it's such a mess it's so embarrassing we should go to the other we should go to the other turret we could go to the other turret and I'll show you that and she's like look she won't look at you she just does not look at you I like the weapons they're

they're nice they're good they're really cool I mean I I don't actually have you should see my room it's kind of really really gross it's like it stinks

it's the worst so that kind of like oddly like why are you saying that and uh I'm I've never been on a ship before and I don't really understand any of this

so I'm just trying to make you feel better that I'm not in any way a threat to you sorry it's not that I'm not worried about that it's more

it's really embarrassing and then she kind of like awkwardly turns away and she's like more. I just get really embarrassed. It's really embarrassing. And then she kind of like awkwardly turns away and she's like, okay, so this one, when you pull this one, it makes it go this way. And when you pull this one, it makes it go this way. And then there's these little buttons on these and then they make the cannons fire.

And you can use, and she basically starts explaining how the turret works in a really terse and awkward as hell manner. Where she won't look at you and if you get too close to her you see her like physically like and like flinch and tense up but she explains how the

turrets work she still hasn't said her name I'm Ayla by the way I'm Cori, by the way. Hi, Ayla. I'm Corey. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. Thanks. Thank you for the lesson.

I look forward to hopefully not having to shoot things, but also kind of do want to shoot things, because it's kind of cool. Yeah, it's pretty fun. But hopefully we don't have to. I sleep in here, the way so don't maybe don't come in here at night okay okay i i won't come in here uh without permission okay yeah that sounds great yep okay i'm in it okay bye um and then you make your way down sure um nova you make your way down into the engineering and it's small it's not big it's not like on the storm chaser where you have this large area where the

ethereum engines and all these pipes and stuff and magic cables this is quite condensed really there's um it's a small chamber uh that has a series of these crystalline panels that you've seen in other ships and things like that before that seem to give readouts on engine efficiency and um power distribution um there clearly is some sort of system where you can see power running through the different parts of the ship um most of that is channeled into the cockpit and then the two turrets. And then it goes back into three engines, which is what propels the ship itself. You see Bim going over several of these readouts,

like kind of getting his big glasses and he's kind of on his tiptoes. Actually, no, he can fly. He's got little wings and he's flapping his little wings and he's reading out on his tiptoes. Actually, no, he can fly. He's got little wings and he's flapping his little wings and he's reading out several of the readouts. And then he checks his little pad and he's like, oh, good, yes, yes, everything's fine. Excellent. Oh, hello there, Miss Ganassi.

Just doing some routine checks. No problems. Hi. Oh, my name's Nova, Nova Vija. Hi, pleasure to meet you, Bim. Well, I guess we kind of already met, but formally meet. Hi, Bim. Who's got a bit?

Me. Nice to meet you, Nova. Hello. No, you're Bim. I'm Nova. Yep. I'm going to come and help you in engineering. So, hi.

Oh, well, I'm not much of an engineer, I'll be honest. Thalia's taught me how to do the various readouts and things, but Thalia's the one who knows the ship inside and out. But I can show you a few things if you're interested. Now, do you understand how magic works? That this, and he gestures, generates magic that makes the ship fly. Do you understand that?

Yes. Can I... Do you understand that? Yes. You did call yourself Bim a second ago. Yeah, true that. Yeah, no, I understand. I understand that bit. Yeah, that's fine. Oh, good. So these are crystals.

And he starts going through it. Go on. Yeah, I'll fine. Oh, good. So these are crystals. And he starts going through it. Go on. Yeah, I'll just be like, you know, can I just like ask a question? I don't know what it would be like. Just ask a question out of nowhere. That's a really technical question. But what is the manifold output of the crystalline density of this? Just like a really like, yeah, just ask him that.

Yeah, you ask him like that sort of question and he just looks at you and it just like a really like yeah just ask him that yeah you you ask him like that sort of question and he just looks at you and he's like i don't know wait you actually understand this stuff you do you know magic yeah oh i thought you were an idiot i just thought that you come from a backwater idiot planet that didn't know anything oh this is surprising no no that's very very fair i mean i've always said that you know i've always wanted to travel on spaceships and you know get off the the planet of eros i mean we have we have airships there but none of them can break through the stratosphere and like yeah this is a mate this is a dream come true for me by the way

ah right oh that makes sense yeah well i i guess the difference there is you don't have the necessary uh power output on your planet generally well there's really there's only a few things that can really propel a ship like this an astral ship out into the full astral sea first of all you need the the appropriate protections otherwise um some ships do this through a magical field, but the Twin Star is enclosed, obviously. But you need a certain amount of power output. The Twin Star uses a dual infernal engine. So it's two primordial infernals which are bound into magitek engines

that then deliver the output. Very, very powerful. Ancient beings. The first astral ships were built thousands of years ago, long before even the Valkyrian Empire. We think that they might have originally been from the schematics, something called a Genesis relic, a really powerful device of the very first beings

that came through the Genesis well. Oh, really? Mm-hmm. Hmm. The angels themselves aren't relics. But we think that the schematics to build the first one. Hmm.

If there was ever, like, a power outage or, like, one of the primordials just, like, gave out, like, do you think you could ever replace it temporarily with an elemental that you could summon yourself? No, they're not. It's not the same thing. An elemental that you can conjure yourself, say through magic. They're lesser beings of the elemental planes, elemental planets.

You can summon them, but they're pretty simple, right? They're kind of sentient, but they're not real living beings. The infernal primordials are ancient they're like um i don't know it'd be like the difference between you know how you could summon an elemental of air right you know magic enough that you can summon air elementals well i can do that this is more like this is more like the the creatures bound into these engines. It would be like the storm itself. It's like binding the very essence of something. These happen to be two essences of infernal planets, effectively,

like the things that create hellfire and brimstone, the kind of things that even the archdevils and the demon lords are kind of somewhat sworn to not necessarily obey but they draw their power from and the two from the twin star are from a long dead world now but um that's basically how it works so yeah those kind of elementals aren't powerful enough but um maybe if you found a really powerful magical being something old and made of magic itself that could power a ship hmm interesting uh anyway let me let me show you how let me show you how the rest of the

engine works and then bim goes on a here's how the engine and then can we just like nerd the fuck out for like the next however long thing nova this is probably the first time you have met somebody who is as fascinated about planes and technology and magitek as you are and it's weird because you know he's a little devil he's like a little devil but with these glasses and he shows no other traits of like other devils you've seen he just loves learning about this stuff and he is fascinated by it and he probably asks you tons of stuff about eros as well like it's it's like a genuine little oh we're science bros like you're the little science bros you know like yeah yeah i think we would talk like and just

talk and talk and talk and talk until someone actually comes and gets us like yeah and that will probably happen um i believe that we need to take a quick break, and then when we come back, we'll have Quill and Century chat to the captain. Yeah, figure out how to be a co-pilot. Sound good? Yeah, I mean, I'm not going to role-play that. I'm going to give you some statistical information

if anything happens, but it's pretty simple. Yeah, yeah. Nice. Cool, cool. We'll come back, talk to Thalia, and then jump into the sticks. Cool. Into the sticks. Yes, sticks, yeah. Nice. That's cool. We'll come back, talk to Thalia, and then jump into the sticks. Cool. Into the sticks.

Yes. Yes. Yes.