Legends of Avantris - Once Upon a Starlight | Ep. 10 | The Flame

Episode Date: May 25, 2026

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Victoria's howells echo through the warehouse of the long defunct machine parts company called Buckshot Ironworks. The final pleading words of the last Molaya soldier are silenced by a single bullet. And celebration turns to frenzied looting as the dead are ripped apart for any notes, weapons, jewelry, or trinkets. But for those of you who are still conscious, your focus is on the green light flooding in from the hole in the roof. You know this isn't over, and you know that your final destination is of Rima's lab. Frost, you finally regain consciousness and see your friends standing over you in the warehouse as the chaotic sounds of the hellhounds echo all around you. They are in a frenzy.

With murder fang unconscious, you see that, uh, You see that Bruce has her slung over his shoulder. He is not looting like the rest of them, but he is keeping her protected as she is very clearly in and out of consciousness, but the hellhounds aren't paying you much attention as they are picking the Molina soldiers clean. I think for a moment,

oh, we should probably leave someone alive to question them. My guy, the murder bang is knocked out, and I see the there, but, have them on, Frusty! Do I see that your eyes open? I think that you wouldn't see my eyes open, but you would see that I have put my hands up. I'm no longer limp on the ground.

My hands are either holding my shoulders or reaching up and caressing my temples in pain. Yes. You're all right, Frosty? Grigo. Oh gosh, we were sick. I'm looking, you, you don't, you got a, do you, see what you,

oh, God. Greg on what's happening. You're making any sense. You, you like stop reality and change the world. I mean, you blew up everything. It was amazing and horrible, and amazing and terrible. Please speak a little softer. My head is bounding. Sorry. And we're not the ones howling and also executing all the wounded people and die. Just ignore that. We're still alive.

Yeah. It's all right, man. Don't worry. I got you. I'm here. Come on. Let's go meet up with the others. I think Frosty's waiting off. Yeah, they went through that hole in the roof. Her fucking Yancoe. Where the fucking frauds come from? Hell if I know what the heck that was, man, but...

Go give some of this to murderfang, and I'll throw you some chemicals that I have no mechanical answer for, but if you're... No, it's fine. Flavor your palate and biz that way, or your enforcer... No, I love that. I still have some reinvigorate points left. I think what I would do is get to my feet, make sure that all of my bones are not shattered into bits and pieces,

and basically take them a position as the guard, dog of the group, make sure that Frost is okay, make sure that you guys are okay, make sure that Murder Fang is okay. I will take the chemicals that Mr. Kay has given me and I will administer them to Murder Fang using another 10 points of it reinvigorating, if I may. At least with five left. Yeah, I will say you're easily able to do that. She, I mean, you first have to get through Bruce, but you've known him for a while. He's, the elderly sharp hay that kind of keeps an eye on her and make sure that she's okay. But he sees the good intentions and presents her to you.

Her limp body is breathing shallowly, but you're able to administer the medicine. And you see that her breath begins to rise and fall. Her eyes occasionally flutter open. And you see that she looks around like she wants desperately to join in on the looting and pillaging and murdering. of the rest of the Mulnaya soldiers, but she is clearly too weak. It's also extremely important to note that I made a note last week that says backshot ironworks, and it's actually buckshot ironworks. Backshot is right out.

Don't accidentally read that the wrong way and we make notes. Back shots in a different district. Yeah, back shots ironworks. Exactly. That's not the industrial. That's not the industrial. Who business idea? Do you? Maybe not I and have stainless steel.

No, my own god's my god's. It's more like backshot pipe works. Oh! We're shutting down the Starlight Lounge. I'm going to kind of like limp over. I'm going to grab my cane

and I'll sort of get up and if I'm not already standing however we ended in the last session. And I'm going to kind of lean on my cane a little heavier than I normally do and approach Ross. you'll see that I'm still breathing erratically. And I'm struggling to keep my eyes open. It seems like every time I open my eyes there,

I'm hit with light sensitivity. And so I sort of have to shield my eyes and then push the pain of a headache away. I'm clearly very drained, not just physically, but emotionally and psionically, from the experience that's just occurred. You with us, Frost? I'll lean down and I'll be kind of like just very lightly hitting the side of your face

to kind of like see if you're responding in a way that's present or checking the sea. Are you still kind of? My hand would try to push yours back away to resist, but it wouldn't be very strong. I'm not my whole self. Cremie, crummy, crummy. And I'll open my eyes. Where is in you?

What happened? I lost the plot for a moment, and I'm not sure where we are and how long it's time has passed. Did I see any of that happen? We saw, correct me if I'm wrong, we basically saw time stop or something happened, and then everything slowed down or stopped or something. But then we flashed forward, they were holding hands and both exploded. The last thing we were basically away talking to every month. The last thing that you remember is that Frost and Zenya weren't even close to each other.

and then in what felt like a fraction of a second, you look as this blast is happening, and they are hand in hand. I remember all that, but I didn't see, you were looking at a brema. No, you didn't see any of that. I know,

because you and Frost were both unconscious during the transformation of Yanko and all of that bits. You have no recollection of any of that. I go to Phil Cremian. Oh, Cremian, but you're missing. I couldn't. There is the cowardly dog my way.

You see a big hole in my tooth. That's very... Yeah, I mean, Yanke, he got turned into a big monster. And kiddies, er, a derpe's bar, dingong, humble gawkaberry. You know what I mean? And then he went away, and it was the same... Oh, Friggum, slow the fuck there.

They're gone. They're not dead. Yeah. They didn't die any of this. And Rima got gutted. I mean, her entrails were literally spilling out, but she stopped it or something, at least for a little bit.

And then Yanko got turned into a monster. So she turned him into a fucking monster. She injected him with something, and she injected herself with something else. The same cry of a monster, eh? What would have froze me in Taubeck? And so in order and, uh, and,

oh, blah, blah, but, Ma, Maunaa, Mauna. Zena,

she got frozen along with Dr. Arama. I guess she was having bad headaches, and her guts were fucking spilling out. And they got frozen and he left to the lab. No way that's going to do, her in. I'm sure they all survived just five.

No, and gave herself a little bit of something for on account all the entrails and they slithing like fucking ears like sturdials so they're gone but where Frost what do you remember? I was talking to it all of a sudden I looked over and you y'all just fucking teleported

you were holding hands and that's the and then I it was out yes I remember now I was very worried that things weren't going to according to plan I wasn't sure exactly what you were going to do I hope that you had an eighth of your sleeve, and then

Zendia looked at me and I realized, Remy, Zena, zero, one. I thought zero one was a clone of Mela. Or Mila was a clone of Z. Wait a second. And I look and I think, behind the tattoos and the aging, does Zeno, to any of us,

and heavy smoking, look like, does Zeno look like Mila? Is that like a huge loop? With how much time you've spent with Mila, you know what? I'm still gonna have you roll for it. I want you to make a perception check for me. I need dice, I guess. The DC is low.

Natural one. Yeah. I think it's pretty good, probably like a six or a seven. Well, you know, I wasn't gonna make you roll. So, you know, I'm not gonna make you roll. I wanna give you this information. And I don't care. I don't care.

It's a nine. It's a nine. You know, I was gonna make the DC a 10, but I think, I think for the sake of, you know, how much time you spent with Mila, I'll make the DC an eight now. I've decided. Oh, it's a nine.

As long as it's a nine. Fantastic. So I've just made it an eight here in this moment. Oh. You think back to when you first met Mila when her eyes were sunken in, her skin was sallow. She was waif-like, exhausting.

And you think to, you think back to Zena and she was beautiful and put together. There's no resemblance between the two of them. But then you think about what Milo looks like now, now that she's being taken care of, that she's happy. She's eating. She's sleeping. you've given her a type of medicine that's helping with a lot of what ails her. And you think about her slight smile, and it's the exact slight smile that you saw in Zena's face, though without, with the innocence of a child, without the pain of everything Zeni has gone through.

And it's very clear to you that the girl that you know, know now is just a tiny version of the woman that you just sat down at a table with. Are you sure? Are you 100% fucking sure, Frost? I can tell you more. Please. When we locked eyes, I didn't just see the eyes of the person that I knew from my forgotten past. I remember everything. I remember being in the lab with her. I remember the experiments.

I remembered what it was like to be that age, and I was transported. We were linked somehow. Zena and I, we went to some other place, a place in our minds, and we shared a long time together. We were able to talk. We were able to talk. I know may have been just an instant or however long it's been. Much seems to have happened, but for us, we were back in that laboratory. back in those our youthful bodies and we were talking to each other

as though we knew each other. She was a good person. There was a time when Zena was talented and powerful, more powerful than I. She was the one who freed me. The reason why they thought I was dead,

why I was able to escape and why I ended up on the streets, why I ended up nearly starving until you found me. And she'd told me, that she'd lost her powers that same night.

She's been operating not with the same pressure that I have to deal with every night, every day. But no, she she's been building all this, knowing that she once had what I have.

And craving it, Cremie. So that's why she asked me that question. We had the ability to awaken power. with someone who wants had them. Yeah. There's no way that little Mila is a clone of that monster.

She wasn't a monster. She may be a monster now. She may have had to do monstrous things, but she's... She was good. You grew up before, Sanya? It wasn't like we were toddlers together and grew up like that. But when you spend any amount of time like that in a laboratory and they do the things that they did,

us to someone, it might as well be a lifetime. She was my best friend. We trusted each other, we loved each other. A lot can change, Frost. I'm not the man I used to be. Sometimes it feels like that man's dead. I'm beginning to understand what that means. So what does that mean?

Well, it means number one is Molinaia. She lost her powers. Frosty woke him back up. So now she's got her powers and that Vremas got her. And that's what she wanted this whole time. She wanted number four or Mela. She wanted somebody with powers. Now she's got the original source.

And I say that because possible, Frost, that that girl you knew in the lab, maybe she's dead too. I can't say. I know Zinia's been a terrible threat. She's been the focus of our very mortality for last few days, ever since Mila came into our lives, but for just a moment, she was... That young woman again, she was a friend to me. And somehow when we linked, she was able to awaken.

I imagine she may be returning or already back to her full strength. By the gods. What is that? Oh, lads. I wish we had a crispy. Oh, wait. Are you, are there any crispy boys in that cooler over there? It's just vodka.

They're probably too busy looting there, Greg. You know how to me to look at them. I would say not a single one of them looks towards you as they are ripping weapons and notes and anything, jewelry off of any of these. It's also definitely a dead body part of them. Yeah. Instead of a freezer.

They're in a frenzy. They're in a frenzy. I'll walk over. I'll walk over to like the, I think you said they were like the limited bottles of something. I look at there's any kind of beer at all. You're looking through the freezer? Yeah, I'm looking for the wherever cooler icebox that they have. Yeah, you're able to move into one of the back rooms and you find a handful of large

freezer chests and you open one up and amidst the body parts. amidst the body parts, you are able to find different beverages. So I just fliers vodka. Oh, right. And a couple of Bartles and James. No, there's probably Krispies. That caviardles and bames. Might not be caviar, but grebele eyeballs.

All right. They're called gribles. I mean, just a little swig, eh? I'll grab. I'll grab something. And I'm gonna say, okay, now I can fake finally. Finally, the following I can think, Grico, just hold your nose and throw it back. You know what? My Uncle Globo always used to say, before he went and moved to open up his shop at his restaurant on Cherox.

He always said, hey, you know, Grico, you can have as many crispy boards as you want, but as soon as you stop getting in the vodka, you may be an alcoholic. That stands the reason. Anyways, what I mean to say is that if Zanyan knows you and she now remembers you, does that mean that we still have to fight her and kill her? Are you going to be okay with that, Frosty, if we have to? And what makes you think she's half fucking decent? You sound like the other people in the laboratory when I was a child.

Everyone feared Zena and she Was powerful. But I felt there was good in there I don't know this Zena. I can't tell you whether she's good or bad I can't tell you what she'll do with her power now that she has it and for so long after having to do the things that she then to do and frankly I'm exhausted. I can't I can't think more than one foot in front of me. I don't know. I look at the fridge that Grico's in front of,

and I stare at one of the, I wish it was a crispy boy, but whatever drink there is in there. You move aside the jar of pickled nemootone ice stalks, and you find what is very clearly, it's like some kind of wine cooler. I'm going to reach my hand out and try to pull it into my hand with my mind. And for a moment, the wine won't move until it shifts and weakly moves.

It moves into my hand as I pull it in with my mind. I would say it doesn't even move into your hand, but it shakes on the glass shelf and slowly slides. And as it gets to the edge, it just falls. over and crashes the floor and spills. But you do clearly still have your power. You're just incredibly weakened. Just having been unconscious

mere, you know, maybe 15 minutes ago. Whoa, whoa, whoa, she didn't like steal your pals or something. Did she Frost? Hold on. Let me take a look. And I want to, because I haven't really gotten a good chance to inspect Frost. Yeah. And I'll get you a fucking drink.

And I will grab another bottle for Frost and all. Yeah, that's for, Frosty. I'll uncork it and I'll pass it to you. While your small sip, sip it on it, I'm just gonna kind of like get a pulse. I'm gonna look into your eyes, make sure you're not bleeding. Roll a medicine check for you, please.

You were bleeding out of like every fucking orifice, weren't you? Oh, yeah, I don't normally believe the way Mela does, but... 23? 23. Damn. But in this case, I am actually... You're not actively bleeding any longer, but there's blood caked around your ears, your nose, yeah, the edges of your mouse. I don't notice.

Out of the corners, out of the corners of your eye, you are checking Frost, and you can clearly see that he is exhausted. He needs sleep more than anything else. I got a pen out of my pocket. Grab this. I'll focus my mind and endeavor to pull it into my hand. and using only my sonic power. It takes a moment, but you are able. This is significantly lighter than a glass bottle of alcohol.

So does I feel like he has it, let go. You let go. You feel the pull. And you know, as long as you hold onto it, he doesn't have the strength to pull it to him, but the moment you release your grip, it flies straight into your hand. All right. I don't think she stole my powers,

but something resonated. It's like we're on the same frequency, the same tone. Huh. I need rest. Frost, I don't want to push this, especially with everything that's just happened, but I'm with Mr. K on this one. I don't think I need to remind you that this woman has been running a vicious crime family for God's knows how long. Whether you like it or not, I don't think there should be any more half measures. I should have killed Clegg when I had the chance and I didn't.

We're gonna kill Zena. We're gonna kill of Rima. We're gonna end this for good forever. And we might die trying. Norbeg, I just remembered that I had a best friend and that we, were scared together that we protected one another as best we could and that we endured much and then lost her all over again as i said to cremey i'm not sure that the mulnaya that we know is that same that same friend i'm merely grieving i'm merely grieving the person that i lost

I'm not going to stop us from doing what we need to do not not going to stop that because Frosty I'm you can grieve whatever way that you need to

you know that we'll support you no matter what but you know that if it comes down to a choice between little girl Mila and apparently who she's cloned from

it's not a question to any of us and I hope it's not a question to you neither I just need time to think and I'll support whatever decision we all make and it's terribly terribly tired yeah you need a fucking sleep that's clear

we've all been through a lot and this place isn't going to go undisturbed for long I mean they can't ignore the howling and the giant fucking hole in the roof Nexus security is gonna be cold on this place probably in the next fucking 20 minutes. Wait a second. You didn't take your meds today, did you? No, and I intend to...

I intend to keep it that way. Why? Maybe it's just coincidence, but... For all this to happen on the day you don't take your meds. You seem in control, though. I'll wipe my nose. I... I'm not sure what would have happened if I'd taken my meds.

Perhaps I would have recognized. then yeah, but the connection might not have occurred. That bond. Then you wouldn't be with her powers, but we wouldn't be here. I thought we were toast. Well, yeah, I mean, it did almost kill me. What happened? What was like it on your side? I still not sure exactly what happened in what order. It seems that we were able to overcome the Molanias. I see the hellhounds are here. it was very painful yeah that's for sure we got blasted back about 20 fucking feet yeah i'm lucky we didn't smash me at on that pillar over there come take took a nasty crack to the cranium man very sorry about that you guys were doing something together some some some superpower resonance

thing like you said and then some giant blast erupted from you guys you at the epicenter tossed us all back if rima took that uh opportunity to hit the east injectors, Yanko changed. Yanko changed. Changed to a giant, that same fucking thing we dealt with in the cryo lab. It wasn't like the same kind of creatures. It was basically like a bigger, monstrous

Yeti-Lock version of Yanko, as opposed to like an elephant, walrus, whatever that was. And this fucking time we were ready. Yeah, we steered it off. But they were all able to escape. They were all able to go. Up there.

Long gone. Long gone. I mean, we could have gone after him, but you guys were bleeding on the ground. We were just going to leave you here dying. I'm glad you made the choice you did. But we know where they're going. She said,

Take her to the lab. I'm going to look around and assess all the damage. I'm sure that there are bodies in all directions, not just from the initial blast, but those who were killed afterwards by the hellhounds. Do I see murder fans? Yeah, Murder Fang is in the arms of Bruce.

She's still unconscious, but she's doing much better. Not you're trying to let me some drugs. Good shit. She occasionally will lean up and shout a couple of orders and snarl a little bit. And the hellhounds are very clearly on a mission of loot and destroy. And that is all that they're. are motivated for in this moment. What's next?

Well, we got to get out of here and figure out what we do about all this. I mean, you know, I don't know this crazy lady as long as you have, but you see that look in her eyes. She ain't giving up. And who the hell knows what Lady Molina is going to do now that she's got powers back, but we got to first figure out someplace to go to recover. Can't go back to the Starlight. Corpos are crawling all over it next to security.

I'm a little concerned light about. I don't know if you gone so. But I'll reema, she had a gut spilling out of her stomach. She's a, I mean, we're of a size. She's a little bit taller than I am. Her guts were spilling out, and her face was unchanged. If me guts were spilling out, I'd be screaming in pain, terrified. There was a lick of fear.

You're right. It's like a doll's eyes. I've only met a few people like that in my lifetime, Gregor. And those are people you do not want to mess with. I mean, she's a monster. He's like, she's a psychopath. It's like I saw a devil. It's like a demon.

I don't know. It wasn't, it wasn't a person in there. You know what I mean? It was like the spooky stories I would tell Laura that. I didn't think there was a real. I thought I was making all that up. I thought maybe that something happened that she had changed down the line at some point. Maybe Neo-Ed effects had gotten to him, climbing the corporate lad or something, but no, I think she was always like that.

She said a good fucking job blending in. based on all this time and she must have been working on this as long as I've fucking known her and she's responsible for everything that happened to me and Zena in my youth. She's responsible

I know that you don't trust Zena I can't say that I do either especially now that she's been awakened but Vrema is a different monster entirely she is a maker

of monsters. Here's the thing, Frost. I don't know who's responsible for what happened. Maybe it was her. She said she had a predecessor, Ron? Yeah. And she researched your file, obviously picked up,

but whatever kind of monster, I don't think you're a clone, Frosty. I think you're the original. As far as I can tell. Absolutely. Zania's probably not a clone and neither are you. At some point down the line,

someone decided to start cloning y'all. If she's doing anything like what happened to me, then my point still stands. Maybe we'll never know. Either way, we gotta find this lab and we gotta kill it. It's the only way that's fucking ends. Well, that's for sure.

Are we all resolved on that? Yes, absolutely. No half measures. Murder fame was so close. She was so close. Speaking of, there are a lot of casualties on both sides. I think we gather up as many people as we can. Go back to the hellhole, look our wounds, get some rest,

and tackle this as soon as we feel up to it. I think we got to send them back if you can try to calm them down and convince murder fane to do it. Send them back to the fucking sewer. We still got the van, right? Oh, Sherry. Oh, Sherry. I think we got pocket back wherever the fuck we came from

because somehow it's gone unnoticed this whole time, so that's a good fucking spot. I'm gonna look at kind of all the looting that's going on and all like. Oh, you turn around and look and you see that the looting is essentially stopped. They have, it's almost as if, and you don't know of Murder Fang awoke and gave an order

or what's happened as you've been having this conversation, but they seem to have had the same realization that you had, that Nexus Security will be here soon. And you see that some of them have already started to head towards the manhole to return to the drain. And that there are about half of them left in here that there had been, and they're just doing the final pickings

on these bodies. I'm good on you, talk back for running with his eyes. I used to run with some rough customers. We get a little rowdy, not this rally. Okay, I'm gonna go check on Sherry. And I'm gonna go basically run out I run out of the warehouse to see if Sherry's still there. And on the off chance, I'm gonna try to look

to see if I see any glimpse of the big King Kong motherfucker leaping through the city. This is long gone, but just in case, that's what I'm looking for. Perception or investigation, your choice. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Isn't another natural one, because I'm That's funny.

I don't know, it's natural six, but I'll take a nice 11. You find Sherry immediately. She is exactly what you like for. Oh, Sherry. However, Yanko is nowhere to be seen. The amount of time that you spent tending to your friends,

taking the time that you needed to reassess the situation that you found yourselves in, theorizing about what could be happening, was more than enough time for them to make their way deeper into the Greenlight District and wherever it is that their final destination is,

wherever of Rima's lab may be, there is no sign of them. And whatever trail may have been left behind has easily gone cold. I'm gonna put my head back in. I'll give a thumbs up. Hey, sure is do you, lads. Don't see Yanko.

I'm gonna start it up, take your time, no worries. And I'm just gonna get in the van, basically get ready to, and keep an eye out. I'm going to keep an eye out posted for Nexus security, and I'll basically play the lookout and the driver while I wait for them to recover and do whatever they've got to do. I have no interest in staying or dealing with any of this,

and I'm so tired. If I could follow Grico and just shotgun, I'm going to get into the front seat and sit down and, like, I think the moment I realized that Murfang has given instruction and she's got the rest of the hellhounds basically doing her thing on out. You now see that she is, she's not standing. like she normally does on Bruce's shoulder. She's, like, ordering people around.

She's sitting on Bruce's shoulder. And clearly bloodied and bruised from being knocked back, her tiny body slamming into the wall as it did. But she is slowly regaining some of her, some of her oomph, and she seems to have them under control. That's her whole bag. Got nothing to do with me. She got it under control.

She's the big dog. I'm out of here. As soon as everybody feels like we're good to mobilize, Tormex out. I just presumably Cremmy's still limping. I would just be helping him to the car, walking back together. As I get into the van

and we're all in there, I'll say, can I make one final selfish fucking request? And if this is stupid, you tell me, but

on our way back, can we drive by the Starlight? We can keep our fucking distance? but I'll just want to look at him one last time. You know me. I'm Mr. Nonsalong. There's no telling what they'd done to the place, Crammy. You sure you want to see it like that? It might be swarming.

They could have picked it down to the rafters. Could have torn walls out, blown into pieces, looking for every little nook or cranny. We could be hiding that kid. It might not be coming back. I hope we are. I hope we have that God's damn Zatamack show. And there's a chance we don't.

Well, I don't. And the Zatimax tapes are still nice and safe at the hell hole, eh? And I love this neighborhood. I love the Starlight. Spend my whole life down here. But worst case scenario, if we got to leave if the Starlight's gone and we don't survive all this, I got a new business opportunity. My uncle, uh, my uncle Globo on Cherix.

He says that that his old buddy Grobulus got murdered. And his club got bought by some guy who apparently can't run it at all. It's apparently running it in the ground. But I feel like we do a much better job running a club like that, eh? Look, I don't, I don't want to get everybody's spirits down or rough. But maybe it's morbid curiosity. I just want to see. Human meat, fellas?

Absolutely. Yeah, crummy. Yes, Mr. Kay. Let's risk it. And you know what? I agree. Also, you know, we pick up a little tension. It's been a while since I've gotten, since I've been a little fast and furious.

Oh, Sarah's got a few tricks up of slaves. No, don't get close. Don't get a strapped to any fucking checkpoints. Just keep your distance. but I just want to see what they've done to her. All right. We'll play it cool, okay, let's. Cross, are you playing it cool?

My name is Frost. I should wait out to hear. You be cool and I'll be crispy. I'll pull my seatbelt on and ready. The Hellhounds return to the drain through the manhole cover by the warehouse, and you all pile into Gricko's Van Sherry. You make your way through the store. streets of the Greenlight District. You seem to be unwatched. As you turn down the main thoroughfare,

you decide to casually drive past the Starlight Lounge. The neon sign is dark, but the lights are bright as a whole squad of Nexus security is posted out front and have barricaded the entrance. They have taken over your home. Sullenly, you pass by and then finish your trip to the overheated corner of the district and follow the now familiar path down to the health. hole. When you arrive back at the makeshift gateway and see the Seven Hells Bar, the gang has returned and are already mid-celebration. Yips and howls of victory echo through the sewer as they enjoy the spoils of their victory. Could have been worse. It could have been a lot worse, eh? Yeah. Well, we made it back in one piece.

And look, the rest of the gang made it back in one piece. Well, most of them. A couple casualties, but a lot better than he was expecting, you know? They're certainly in high spirits, that's for sure. If we survive all this, then maybe there's a chance that, you know, things can go back normal. And we don't have to go all the way to Cherokee. That place sounded like a dumb, that was just me trying to make us all feel better. That's just not my kind of joint, Greco. You know what I mean?

It's just, it's a different flavor. Never a different kind of fucking degenerate. Never even been off world, man. You don't think I could make it in Paradise City? No, I'm saying for myself. A whole different world. I'm barely been out of the Greenland. man just up top a couple times I mean they write songs about that place you know and

none of them seem to end very positively that's true I'll probably be dead in a gun over in a way guy lights yeah I'm not sure people like getting I are meant to leave the green light yeah jerks ain't for us man the green light is yeah you know the chemical entertainment that I cook and offer at the starlight is uh you know the design of dream so to speak. And I just feel like everything I've heard about that place is a little more devil make care. Yeah.

Uncle Globo says real. It's real, real degenerate shit, you know? Oh man. But hey, I mean, you know, I'll just keep, all I'll keep you was posting, you know, for clothes and, you know, goes up to an auction and we'll see what we have, you know, we're Maybe a bit of franchise, a starlight. One thing. One thing at a time, huh?

Yeah, you're right. All right. Well, I mean, I feel like, you know, we're all down in the dumps, eh? We're all feeling gloomy. Come on, lads. We thought we were going to all certain doom, and we're all in one piece, all five of us

and most of the hellhounds, eh? That calls for celebratory Krispies. I actually agree with Gricko. I thought that maybe, we were going to die and though I am hollowed out in a strange way it's hard to articulate. A

Krispy and the fact that we no longer have any time pressure is something to celebrate. You know what I'll do when I feel a little bit hollow, Frosty? I'll have two to six Krispies. That's what I'd do.

Let me start with the one Krispy and we'll see what happens. That's what one's a great thing about one beer. It's a great start. I have heard you say that many times. Let me ask you, let me ask you all, given what happened with Sanya, I'm worried that in my current state, I don't know what might happen if I am put in the presence of Mila. I like Mela very much, but I am concerned that I have no way of knowing. If suddenly I were to lock eyes with her, that suddenly there might not be some

concussive force that might hurt you or the other hell hounds here, it would be confusing catastrophe, perhaps very damaging. For now, I want us to be cautious. Is that all right? All right, but certainly hit like a damn truck last time. I'm sorry again. The only thing, and I've been thinking about this the whole time, is that we ought to find this lab.

If it's true what a Vemer said, that the one that you're from got blown up. Then it's a different lab and only meal has been there. We're gonna have to get her to tell us where it is. Somewhere locked in that child's mind is the same memories like myself. If that lab still existed, I think I, honestly, truly, I think I could leave us back there. Well, in danger or not, Frosty, you might have to see if you can connect with her. Dive into her memories like you did, uh, Zanya. I mean, that might be the only way.

and she's got her side sit on you, she's got her side sit on Cremie, that's something we can't fucking abide, right? We got to move on this quick. We can't give them the opportunity to lick their fucking wounds. Yeah, that's why, you know, as much as I wish, there wasn't time pressure,

that's exactly what it is. If he manages to do that, though, are we worried about obliterating the hell? You look around and you see that the celebration around you is one of true victory. And though, while you are upstairs in the warehouse, it felt like there were casualties on both sides.

As you look around, you realize that you don't see anyone missing. And you do hear that there had been, you do see that over by a similar pyre, there is a little bit of somberness as apparently only two of the hellhounds fell. It was a significant victory for them. So everyone's celebrating but mourning the loss of Sneak hound and Little Bark Bark. Not Little Bark Bark?

Little Bark? Damn it! Sneak hound and Little Bark Barker. I called him Old S.H. Oh, for short. No. He was so young. You pronounce the tease.

It's Little Bark Bark Bark. I'll never forget Little Bark Bark. He was such a tall, like a... Yeah, so Little Bark Barker's actually eating a hat of... He's more like a bear than a light. He was absolutely huge. He was absolutely huge. He's the biggest lanker than every.

He's bigger than Torbag. Yeah. Oh, little bark, bark. Little bark. Little bark back. Little fire. Little. Little.

Little. So important. I am willing to give it a try. I just, I need a moment to decompress. Yeah. I mean, we need some fucking rest, right? And look, I mean, we got to, are we done talking about this? I have to imagine that they'll be coming down any fucking second.

Let me ask you one more question. Do you think that it's possible that link was only, only made, that the potential of it only existed because we had not taken our medicine. I wish I could answer that, Frost. I have no fucking idea what happened happened, right? Look, I'm just a chemist. I cook psychoactive and Esper-related drugs. That's what I do.

It's my thing. And beyond that, all I can do is take a guess. Maybe. It's entirely possible. Or maybe just y'all being in contact with each other. Have you ever, you know, been within five feet of Zania before tonight? No, I can't say that I've been in the same room. We've certainly never looked at each other. Maybe it was some kind of magnetism, you know, once y'all got close enough, just happened. Exactly what it felt like, yes Well, it's never happened with you and Mila You guys have been in the same room several times now

So maybe if it was gonna happen, it would have happened I was on my medicine all those times Look, if you feel like you're about to explode just pop one maybe two Even three you'll be okay I think about the medicine in my pocket and I nod at Cremie and I take another sip of my Krispy boy and I take another sip of my Krispy boy I'm also drinking Krispies. Yeah. They brought a handful of coolers outside, and they are, as they're celebrating, they've got this bonfire going as a way to celebrate the lives of sneak hound and Little Bark Bark, as well as to celebrate their victory that only two of them had to give up their lives to protect the drain.

And so there are Krispy Boys all around, places for you to sit, little. pockets of area for you to find a little bit of privacy because the doors to the seven hells are wide open and you can see that it's an absolute raucous mess inside as they are celebrating. It would be difficult to find even a moment piece of peace inside. I'm probably trying to stay somewhere quiet. The morning and the celebrating and the hellhounds as being what they are, the heat the oppressive heat of this place being what it is, I need somewhere to decompress.

And that might be with any of my companions. I'm not trying to find an alone place, but I am just trying to... Like, physically, I don't think I'm actually that tired. Physically, I'm okay. Well, you do have one level of exhaustion. I think that is primarily expressing itself in terms of mental and psionic exhaustion.

And so it's like... It's like the day after we play Stardust Rhapsody Anthem. Yeah. That is, that is, you've never said true or worse. That is the best analogy you possibly could have made. So relatable. Oh, man. You know, I'm just emptied out.

Yeah. You're an M.D. Caprisa. Yeah, where the flesh is willing, the mind is weak and swishing sponges. That's so good. Yeah, no, right. So I'm just sitting there, sort of still in a date. And, you know, anyone can come chat with me, but like, that's what I'm doing with my time.

I really want to give you inspiration for that. I mean, I'll take it. I'm not going to. I'll take it. I need to, you know what? For you, for you, I will give you one. Hi there. For one, I think you guys, I think Rich is right, I think you could use one for the, for what's in your future.

But I think you had a crazy vision. You've accomplished so many things with your friends, and that was a fantastic analogy. Thank you. That's where Frost will be. You can come chat with me as I ponder my ponderings. Do we know where Mila and Blarby are in this moment? Well, you know that they're not outside. So they're either inside partying with the rest of the hellhounds. Oh, we're not been inside yet.

You haven't been inside. You've still been hanging out outside. In the general, there are coolers. Absolutely. That's what I imagine this is like. There's cakes. That's literally how I described it. They pulled coolers out, bonfires go in.

They've got these little seating areas set up. They're all partying in these little. pockets and they were just having a good time. There's a back half of a truck, not the front half, but the back of a truck just for smoking a barbecue. I'm helping build the pyre for sneak out and little bark. Little bark bark, sorry. Little bark bark, sorry.

Little bark barred. And sneak hand. Grico, here's a green duo's cup full of beer for you. It's funny. What's a green duo? It's a red solo cup. Oh, I love that. Green duo's cup. Also, when you were reaching out for a drink I wanted to say was a spot-on instead of a smearing-off.

I'll imagine that like we're, it's a sci-fi setting, so they have a really good cool refrigeration because of how hot. Yeah, absolutely. The beer is probably still a deliciously iced cold. I love that. And you, you know that generally, you know, sneak hound would have been the one manning the boombox. Oh, my gosh. There is, there's no boombox tonight in honor of sneak hound.

No boom box? No boombox. Oh my god. But there is still, there's a live, there's live music inside. It sounds like, it's not living up to the energy. It sounds like Bob Seeger. And as you peek your head in, do you realize, you realize that it's-

Bob Seeger? What the hell is what I'm saying? I'm saying it sounds like the Bob Seeger vibe. And as you look inside, you see that it is, You see that it's Bruce, up there with his lone acoustic. Father God, I got Bob Sheik. His sad, Sharp-Hawls hanging low as he sings mournful songs. Brutal.

I know a nexus accountant that's gonna be thrilled. I would give Frost his space. I think I would, I think I would keep drinking crispy, boys. Not my drinking choice, but you know what? When in Rome. There's heavy, there's alcohol here too. You'd have to go into the bar to grab it,

but people are flowing from outside, inside. The doors are wide open. It's just inside's crowded. It's packed. That's the majority of the party. Like what's happening out here is more of the people who want to celebrate in small groups, more in the loss of sneak hound and little, bark, and just have some more intimate celebration.

But you could get, you could get a cowboy if you are looking for one. What? I don't know. You call it a cowboy, the weird milky thing that you drink. That's a rat drink. Yeah, no, I don't. Well, that's probably here too. Oh, for sure.

Yeah. It's just cream and whiskey. That was fucking disgusting. They've got a large jug of pre-made new fabricated. Old fashion. Very well done. Very well done. Yeah.

All right. So yeah, then what I'll do is I'll grab a green, a green duo cup. And I will pour myself a handful of them are playing a pre-made old fashion. No, is new fabricated. New fabricated. What are you, they're playing,

they're playing crispy. A handful of them are playing Krispy Pong. Hell yeah. Krispy Pong. And I would check in on some of the... I would be like giving my, my condolences to the several members of the Hellhounds that were closest to S.H.

And, you know, just Remic this thing about how great his music selection was. Yeah, you walk around, you talk to a handful of them. You have Abigail Avery, Fiona Garrett, Caleb. Caleb, Cochran, Thomas and Simon Scoble, and Whitney Stubbs. Laslow Grewgorghumvich. Laszlo Gorgharvich is there.

And Jirbert Smith is also hanging out. Jerbert's a common name in this galaxy. Very common name. That's what I'm doing. Perfect. We're going to say what we're going. Yeah, yeah, that's what I'm doing. Oh, I mean, I'm definitely, mechanically, I am fucked.

I am on my last fucking leg. So I would just probably be drinking more so than you guys would probably see me as like a bouncer security man would normally drink because I don't feel like at this point there's anything really to defend ourselves against and everybody else is kind of parking. So I think that Torbeck would have probably a few more beers

than he normally would in the hopes that it would actually help us like a sleep aid to knock me out. And like, otherwise, I'm kind of sitting, not really talking too much, and just enjoying the fact that we managed to survive another day. You start to get a little bit tipsy, and right around that time, you hear murder fang clear her throat behind you. Well, looks like we survive. Well, some of us.

Quite frankly, the casualties were less than I was expecting. Krispy Pong? Say less. Clear the table. And there are two, there are two, like, older, um, older hellhounds there are playing a game and they immediately just knock their cups off. You see beer everywhere as they start to put new cups down and fill them up.

And you and Murder Fang are able to play a nice, rousing game of Krispy Pong. Can you roll, uh, let's do dexterity saving throw? Yeah. She got a natural 20. I will say I'm canonically terrible with this game. Yeah. For sure. She's canonically great.

There's no way. Dex check, you say? I got a 13. Crushes me. Yeah. You are playing, but she is, she does this all the time. Yeah, I'm just there. And she's not even slightly tipsy, though she's exhausted, but you spend the next, you know,

hour or so playing round after round of Krispy Pong with Murder Fang. And it's nice to feel like you're back into the fold of the Hellhounds, though this isn't your family anymore. Sure. You're no longer exiled. You're welcome here. And it's, it's a good feeling to have. Yeah. I will basically, I appreciate, I'm very grateful for what the hellhounds have done for us. And I'm very grateful that, you know, they've taken us in, that we have this community. And I'm going to help them, basically kind of go about their rituals. I'm going to, you know, I'm going to hang out with Frost and, you know, Make sure he's feeling okay. Hang out with Torback.

Make sure he's feeling okay. But I'm going to try to enjoy myself. I think there's been a lot of dourness. And I think that Grico is just trying to enjoy, perhaps this last night. There may be a sense of not having many opportunities like this again. And so he's just going to enjoy himself. You walk around.

You talk to the hellhounds. You cheer on Torbeck and Murder Fang as they play Krispy Pong. You help keep the fire going. and you say some nice things about Sneakound. You make your way inside, you pass out drinks, you enjoy some more drinks, you dance on the dance floor as Bruce sings day still, and you enjoy the evening.

God, I love saxophone. I would just, I wouldn't be partaking in anything. I would have a drink, but I think you'd be sitting next to me, almost entirely untouched. I'd find like a beam or something where I'm just sitting on the ground and my back's laid up against it. I'm not thinking about the hellhounds. I don't even register that they've lost two people. As far as I understand, a brilliant psychopath scientist has Frost and Cremie in her sights.

And I have my little engineering notebook that I take notes in. I flipped to a blank page and I just start jotting down everything I can think of that stood out to me from the encounter. Concussive force of the blast off Frost and Molina. How quickly it felt like the monster moved, how she moved, what she injected with, the fact that it was afraid of fire. Anything I can think about for what's coming next to just mentally lock in. With everybody else going about their business this evening and finding a way to cope with what's happened, not just over the past 24 hours, but the past week, you were easily able to find some peace and quiet. And though you don't touch your drink much, you do notice that it never runs low as the hellhounds make their way around and always make sure that your drink is topped up. but they don't stop, they don't talk to you, they don't try to pull you into the revelry,

as they know as well as well as anyone else, that everyone needs, has their own way to cope and to grief. And that is how you all spend your evening. Eventually, the partying does begin to die down, though the diehards do not leave the bonfire, and the bar is still absolutely pumping. Bruce has long since gone to sleep, and it's much quieter than it had been before, enough so that from out here, even though it's still swelteringly hot,

it's cooled down a little bit, and you can hear the echoing noises of the drinking at the bar. But it is getting to a point where it is now late enough that you are all feeling the effects of a very, very long day. I would, and this would have been very unusual for me, but landing in a place and not trying to make myself look presentable,

but just sort of sitting and effectively zoning out for an extended period of time, I'm known to zone out, but I'm not known to do so without putting on the best appearance. And so hair tussled, a few flakes of blood still on each ear, a mess of an outfit. At a certain point I would finish what I feel is the number of crispy boys that I need to swallow the memories that have suddenly resurfaced. And I'll stand and I will make my way upstairs to clean up. I will make my way back up to the apartments.

being mindful that I know that I might run into Marbury or Mila. I want to take into consideration the caution that I have for that potential disaster if it is going to be one. And I will also start to think, now that I've gotten a little bit of my energy back, a little bit more of my momentum back, I will be going back to the place where we had spent the night the few times that we've spent our time here in the hellhole. and look for that bathroom where I might be able to splash some water on my face and just refresh to try and get into a ritual back to some normals. You make your way down the hallway, and you get to the door of the room that you've been

sharing with Blarvie and Mila, and you know that the bathroom that you're seeking is further down the hallway, and as you go to pass the door, you hear the sounds of the two of them giggling over something and the smell of what is clearly something burning and that oven that that little girl should never have been given. I'll wrinkle my nose a little bit and then I will. I'll ignore the sound. I'll keep going down the hallway and I'll find a place where I can look into a mirror for the first time in a long while, but since we left to go and confront the Molanias.

I'll splash some water on my face and if I can try to I imagine that most of my effects are for night my nice suit that we got topside all of those things are in that room so I'm just gonna

take a cloth and wipe myself down and turn and start to make my way back and then I'll knock on the door rather than enter You hear the giggling of these two girls. Amelia's giggling is significantly louder and more feverish. And as you knock, it almost goes dead silent for a second. And you can tell that they're listening.

And eventually you hear, hello? Who is it? Blarby, it's... Oh, hey! It's Frost. Immediately you hear something get knocked. over. Sorry, honey. And then the door is just blown wide open as Blarby rushes out and just wraps her arm around you. I am so thankful you're all right. Thank you. Oh my gosh. Yes. We're back. We're back.

I heard about a, I heard about poor sneak hound and... A little bark, bark. Your little bark, yeah. I didn't know them too well, but gosh, that's just horrible. We didn't want to come down and disturb you guys where you were all, you know, dealing with everything. Can I speak with you privately here in the hallway just for a moment? Oh, yeah, sure. Meele, you don't mind, do you? No, it will be okay.

I have to continue to make these little worms, and you see that she takes out this tray of completely burnt worms, turns the little oven back on and sticks them right back into the machine as Blarby shuts the door. I will very carefully avoid her eyes as I see her. The, the, the, the, the, the, the, focus in on it, hyper-fixated, and then I'll step out of sight so that I can no longer see in through the door,

leading Blarby a little farther down the hallway. Yeah, she shuts the door and she moves down the hall with you. We were able to survive, but only barely. It was a... Oh, you look so tired. I'm not going to lie to you. I'm exhausted. I

You know that I You need to eat No no no I I need to rest If you need to eat You're such a way for the thing I need to rest It's not

Hunger or Or water or Or nourishment that makes me feel the way That I do I spent a great deal Of my mind this evening Do you want to use my fuzzy eye mask? I'm not going to say no right now But I'm trying to get you to

I'm sorry I'm so scared about you. Barbie, I know. And you've been an unbelievable ally. You don't have to explain it to me. Do you know I don't ask questions? I'm trying to explain it to you. I think it's important that you understand. It's so scary when you go away.

If I don't know what's happened, if I don't know what the danger looks like, it's manageable for me. Ask questions. She turned your face towards. to look directly in her eyes. Do you think I can really handle knowing what made you look like this? It's making your eyes look so hollow. You're the strongest, most caring person that I know, Blarby.

I do think that you can handle it. But I understand that you don't want to know and I'm not going to tell you. Would it ease your mind if someone who cared about you as much as I do knew what was going on. The rest of the rest of the gang knows.

You know what I mean for us. Actually, we need to find something out from Mila. Yeah. I'm sure she would tell you anything. And it will involve more danger, more challenge, more difficulty for us. For you? For her, for both of you, for all three of us. For all of us.

Oh, okay. This isn't over. But before we gather the others and before we go inside the other room, I want to ask you a question. Oh, right? May I kiss you? Oh, God. Why did it take you so long to ask? And she jumps on you and does not even wait.

I pull my arms around her and I lay one on her. I kiss her for a long time until we're both out of breath. She just clings to you and lays her head. your shoulder. I'm so glad you came back. I was really worried about you, honey. I've been wanting to do that for a long time, Blarby. Yeah, it took you further. What were you waiting for? I was scared. I don't bite. I didn't understand myself. I didn't know. It doesn't matter. I'm kissing you now. Again? We make out in the hallway.

It isn't until one of them come back up to check that that make out stop. It can be torment. Wouldn't be made. It ain't me. Someone's going to come back to find out about Mila and D'Arby. They're all standing at the bottom of the stairs like. Gregor, why is there a sock on the door handle? And I like those camera shoes.

But yeah, you and Blarby have a special moment. alone in the hallway. No one bothers you, at least no one that you notice. And eventually you are able to separate in a way that you can continue your conversation. And eventually, I would imagine. I've stood downstairs. You what? I'm still downstairs. A certain point, someone would come up, but apparently Cremie's the last to come up. I'm sitting in the dirt. I'm sitting in the dirt studying.

I'm like Christmas pulling. Fuck that. I'm going to drop back. Well, that's okay. Someone's got to check on me like. Because I was saying, they didn't make it out the hallway. Well, I got to see how spooky these spooky skitters are. Well, no, I would say, I would say you are alerted because Frost and Blarby are,

they're... Loud. Not loud. They're loud. But they are distracted. But you are, you're having a drink at the bar when you, something is very definitely, Definitely burning.

Oh no. Maybe it's the Krispies. Or that child safe oven isn't quite as child safe as it's set on the packaging. You know what, I'd better go check on Milo and Blahby to see how spooky them Skitter is are going to be right now to see if she's doing good. Ah, I think Frosty's having a great victory, right? On account of the spooky skinners, oh, let's go take a look. I pull away from Blurberry.

What's that music right now? I'm going to come upstairs, and you will hear me saying, Oh, I hope that I think I smell spooky skittleres. It's just like the commercials, Booty Skittles. As I call out, I make myself very well, though, that I'm coming up the stairs.

All right, all right. I'll pull away from Blarbury for a moment and sort of smooth our clothes, our hair, these sorts of things. And as soon as I see Grico come around the corner, Rigo! You have a lipstick all over your face. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It is everywhere.

It would be extremely obvious. Oh, oh, wow. Hot pink lipstick everywhere. I am going to, I'll almost say. Yeah, no, no, no, we'll DJ. This is very important. This is very important. This is very important.

Grego. Hey, Roshley. Hey, Grico, it's good to see ya. Oh, hey, Blobby, how you doing? Hey, yeah, good, good. The victory celebration. We were just celebrating in the hallway. Oh, and a great tragedy of two hellhounds lost here.

Firstly, there's something different about you. Hey, it's been a long day, Grego. He's exhausted. No, it's not that, it's not done. You look a little tired. Um, I think we... You do something with your hand? Yes, it seems to be going in the other direction.

I'll just, I'll run my hands through my hair to push it back. Yeah, yeah, to change the part. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, looks good. It's good, looks good, lad. Thank you, thank you. Little pixelated hearts are like circling as sneakers. Yeah. How's it, uh, has a little one doing, Blambi?

Thank you for keeping an eye on her. I'm sure for us who fueled you in on arc. Well, it was a victory, so to speak, but it's not to do. Yeah, no, she's good. She's been making those creepy critterers. of whatever he asked you to make. Speaking of witch. What is that smell?

What's that smell? Oh, God! You'll burst the door open, and you see the entire thing is like on fire. Mela is taking two little metal tongs and trying to pull the tray out, but it is very clearly not coming out. On fire.

I go into, I am drunk. Yes. I am drunk, but I am. go into like smooth out missing a beat I'm not worried at all I go in like the dad mode where I just run run over I take my beer I pour it over the I pour it over the thing grab her push her away grab it put it over the same without missing hopefully without missing a bee I don't mean to roll for you all you know those spooky skitters do get up to a lot of skittering and so the commercial says they need it I mean ever there's all I have to go back to thinking about

all the bills piling up they have to go back to the old bowling chain I mean, oh, you know, before they go back to the misses, I figured they might need a crispy, you know what I mean? They were double-fried and well done, and now they are moist. Yeah, that's right. Double-fraud, well-done, they're cooked. You know, I mean, so they're needed a crispy. She moves back over to it, and she turns it on.

It sparks a couple times, and a little fire starts in the middle as she starts to make another set of, um, whatever you call them, skitters. Okay, let's see, let's see who you've made. Let, lit, lit, lit. You see that there are these little wire racks all over the ground, and they're covered in nothing but burnt skitterers. I'm gonna step forward.

You love them? Abubbubh. Did I do? Too spooky, just like you said he was gonna make. Oh my goodness. They're not that spooky. Just like the commercial Sunday would be. I'll throw them off them.

and she goes to throw them away. Oh, hold on, I don't throw them away. That was, that means that you've passed. That means that you've passed with a test. Just like you promised me you would make the scary, the spookiest spooky skittler is, whatever it was. She, as you're saying this, she turns towards you and she holds one up.

Oh! And you've earned yourself a reward. Oh my goodness. Oh, I'm so spooky. I'll say... What do I get? What kind of prize? Exposed wiring and overheating light bulbs. The real danger. It's the real fear.

You have earned yourself. And get that nose piercing? Oh, yeah. That sounds fun. Wait, no, you're to your... I mean, 11. We can always say yes and not give a timeline. Yeah, you can one day have a next. piercing and you may have all I got on me is this beard it's a little warm it's

bit of me pocket okay there you go I will be back I'm going to as this is happening and unfolding I'm still nervous but I am she crushes the can oh no still filled with a very different energy as I waste over to my my stuff and I'm going to start sort of looking for a change of clothes just something else to freshen myself Yeah, little one, I'm, Mila, I'm so glad that you had a wonderful time with Blabby. I mean, she was hot, man, it looks like you, I mean, it's no wonder you're, she was so sweaty when I got here. It's really hot in here on the counter the oven. No, it's because she was making it with frost in the hallway for like 30 minutes.

Oh, you show up, girlfriend. No, I'm not going to shut up because it's the truth. Say what? No, you don't have to say what. You can just say they were making out in the hallway. It was like really loud and slimy. Meala, did you- Young man?

Your mind to- Young man, Fausty? You look at me and tell me the veracity, is this true? What's you making out with our bartender? His lipstick all over his face. Yeah, if we were making out. Well, normally we'd have Gideon fire somebody for making up with our bartender,

but I figured this since this is we're making an exception. Thank you. Hey. Hey. Look, look. It's not important right now. Gosh, how do you feel? I feel like I'm flying. You know?

Damn. Oh man, Frosty. And I've actually flown. Yeah. That is how it feels, ain't it, ladd? This is still somehow better. Well, I hope this works out, Lange. Because you're not going to feel that about no one else ever again.

I can promise you that. I hope you're right. I'm beating. We need to get the other- This is really uncomfortable. Don't worry, you don't understand when you're older. No, ew. Boys are gross.

Mila, we need to talk and I need to get the rest of the gang in here so that we can- Okay, I can leave. I'll go have more Krispies downstairs. No, no, no, no. Let's talk here. It's safer here. Oh, you and me. Oh, you and me need to talk. Yes. Oh.

How come for why? I... Am I in trouble? No. Frosty doesn't you talk to you? It's very important for me. I know that we're celebrating on account of the spooky skitterer of victory. You having your first fool crispy, which I've realized now I'm meant to only give you a sip. And I realize that now. It's too late.

It was such a fucking mess. Do you. Foolish me. I realize that now. But it's now serious. And we all elevate on the fact that he finally kissed a bartender, you know what I mean? You also kissed Blarby? Oh gosh, now.

Are you kidding me? She's way too young for me. But now, we're celebrating Frosty and Blarby, finally breaking that tension. That you could have cut it with a knife, cut it into a donut shape, I dunked it into some coffee and her and ours bars. It was so uncomfortable. She would not stop talking about him all the time. I mean, you know, this is what bartenders do.

Talk about Frost? You'll understand when you're old. Anyways, I'm going to go meet with the lads. But this is very serious. I'm just going to be one downstairs. I'll just need you. Frosty has to talk about something that's very important. Yes.

About everything that's been going on. And it's a secret, so I shouldn't tell anyone ever? Yes. Okay. It's really something for you and Frosty. And because you're of a kind. Something that I don't understand. So I'm proud of you, Mila.

Those are some very spooky skaters, okay? Congratulations on your first four, Crispy. I'll be, I'm gonna go find the lads, eh? Please, bring them quickly. Oh, yeah. And I'll- You step out into the hallway where Blarby's waiting for you. She leans in, blows a kiss to Frost,

and shuts the door and you make your way. Hey, back to the rest of the guys. And- While this is happening. No. No, while this is happening. I'm kind of rocking back and forth. I've switched to just Krispy Boys.

Yeah. Get in Nathaniel Cole. Are you sitting in the dirt during this absolute fucking bang up? Relaxing in the day still. I forget, I forget, I forget up again. God, I love Bob. You know, you know, it's not spelled how you think. This was S.H.'s favorite. You know, it's just unbelievable. We're not going to see that smile anymore.

smile anymore. Really could light up a room. Yeah, he was the best of us. You know, I'm really starting to like these crispy boys. You think it's the nine and a half percent? Jesus crap. I think they are, ruin on them. How many of those are you had? Oh, I don't know, like five or six at this point. The crim of your building a toothpick, man, you can five or six. Yeah, I know. Damn, it's good. Okay. My knees hurt. My back hurts. I'm getting old. Tell it, crummy.

Tell it. I'm getting old. Thank you, Mike. How are you feeling? You looked awfully so in a melancholy. Are you mourning, our dear comrades? Not even little. Bacobach.

He's all big. The Grinco really like. And that was like yesterday, man. Wait, the real big dog. The big dog. And the other way, you know, Grico was always like, man, he sure, like, Louise, sure really was a big dog. Wasn't his name like Koham's Tooth or something?

Something like that, man. Something, something, something, Coahan, that tooth. You know? No, me too. He's still alive. Oh, man. I'm trying to figure out how the heck to handle what's coming next, all right? What do you mean?

The freaking Enrima chick. She's a psycho, man. She's after you. And she's after Frost. You're in her past, but she's got her fucking sotset on you guys. And we got her party and she's up there hatching evil science plots. Yeah, I mean that's kind of her whole thing though, you know what I mean? Hatching evil science plot.

Look, I know that this is like a new thing to you, but I've been dealing with a reema fucking Ottomis, Dr. Biologist, P.H. F. fucking D. Hatching evil science plots for 15 fucking years. No longer than that. 25 fucking years. Yeah, and how many of those years did she attack you with a giant science, giant Frost Monster? Well, there's a first time for everything, yeah.

Well, tonight was a second time, all right? It happened twice in two days. You're right, I lost it. It happened twice in two days. Too many, I was unconscious when the monster showed up. Odds, grim, you're in trouble, man. Easy chick is coming at us. He's awakening in Moldonius powers.

Wait, rotate the seats coming on. Turn it up. Love rotate the sheet. Creamy, I can't talk to me like this. I was gonna call it close the buck. You're like a... God. Look, kid, if I had a nickel for every time,

a psychopathic corporal stole everything that I spent over a decade working on, bleeding, sweating, crying over. I'd have two nickels, which isn't a lot, but it's weird. It's happened twice. They took the Starlight gear. It's saying, now. I don't know if we ever get it back.

Damn, what's in this? Oh, mean a little on Gideon, because the room starting to spin a little bit? All right, all right. Listen, I took more than the Starlight, man. It says made with real wormwood on the side. The Arminite monkey. I think I deserve this. I think this is some kind of cosmic justice,

and I'm real sorry. You know, you want everybody else's mixed up and all this. Well, I don't really give a fuck about cosmic justice. I don't care if cosmic justice is coming for you or not because, you know, I'm going to look straight in his fucking face and say, fuck off. All right?

You ain't got no business around here. Now, more than I already took Pop. They took the King Cole. Maybe they got the Starlight. They ain't taking you to them. All right? That's all I'm fucking saying. And I'm going to make sure that whenever we eventually chase this fucking bitch down

because Torbeck's going to sniff her out. All right. We're going to find her. We're going to get to her. I'm going to put the birth of the straight to her fucking face and pull the trigger. And that's the end of it. I mean, I hope that happens. I just feel like, whoa, whoa, whoa.

All right. All right. I'm not fine. I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm fine. Okay, okay. I'm straight up, soldier, straight up, all right? Oh, oh, this is a good one. Oh, wait.

I'm gonna seem like this as the pressure valve, man. That was a hell of a night. And here I go, rotate the she. And here, there I go. And no one man your size can put away so many startinis. Look, look, lady Lux done me a solid more times than I can fucking I just got a feeling like my luck's running dry. You know what I mean? Like, it's a miracle.

I'm standing here. Well, that much is true. A miracle you haven't fallen over yet. I'm just not counting on happening again as all. Well, you ain't got to count on luck, but you're man. You don't need luck when you have a plan. That I do. Here I get, I don't need luck.

I got my BFP. I didn't know about that. You know about the BFP? What do you mean how do I know about the BFP? You know about the BFP? I thought you were knocked out when I did that. What? A lot of my big fucking pig.

Are you referring to something? You know, Coraham Tooth stand right there. You know, the dance floor, look, at Corham's tooth. I'm glad that mob goons didn't shank you. Me too. I'm so happy. Me too. Come on, come on.

This time to pack it in. We got to see what falls in. Rotate the page. Or some. Sneak hand was slain in the blast ones. They don't never forget them. Krami, you have no fucking clue who sneak out is, all right? You have no fucking clue.

I know who sneak out of it. You have no clue of the sneak out of this. I know my friends. Explain. It describes me ham by one thing to me. And he can't say he was sneaky or ham. I knew he was a house. Drink Krispy, like I could...

I knew Sneakown, you don't know me. You know my life. Well, just because I'm a lonely middle-aged man. You think that I can't have friends? Oh, lonely. What are you lonely for all of a sudden? What do you mean lonely, lonely middle-aged man? Well, there seems to be the implication.

I just feel like, you know, you think that I don't have any friends. I must be a lonely man. You don't have any friends here. You couldn't name one thing about Sneakown. You couldn't have a single thing. Tell me the... I couldn't tell you. Tell me, Greg.

Bricko's best dog friend. And you can't stay Torbeck. Tell me that other guy's name, the big dog. His name was Little Wolf Wolf. He was made up. And Grico's Curse the cowardly dog and I heard the word Huckleberry. Did you say that out loud in public? Yeah, of course I said that out loud of public.

Riding on the fucking ground. Frost was going supernova. John Ice Monster, the shit, was running at us. I just slapped the actual BFP into the Bertha and I had to fucking fire off. Man, I saw you line on the ground. Stay the fuck away from my Huckleberry, you dumb something, bitch. Well, you promised that would stay between us, it's all. What do you want me, Grimmie?

All right. I bet she was hitting the fan. Your crazy ex-scientist partner from 20 years ago was, was jabbed, Yanko, fucking sucks, by the way. Turn him into a giant ice monster, he starts running at me. Hold on, I need up the crisp request. No, you don't need another crisp. No, no, no, no, no, no, you don't need another.

You still got to be cool. I appreciate you, C.D. You had a little bit. I don't know any sex in the hair, Jake, but I'm like, he's even doing it with you. I'm slapping his head. Just kind of slapping us in.

Yeah, and then we sort of fistful with her. All right. I'm good at me. Yeah, I think I'll think so you bring that with you. All right. That's just a good one took you into that. Only winner.

You did someone say from across the bar as another song plays. I will allow Gideon to lead me upstairs. I'll just pick you up in my arms. Yeah, you're not walking upstairs. You're not walking upstairs. You're not. walking upstairs. Yeah, exactly.

As ugly winner begins to play, you cling to Gideon and he carries you up the stairs. Oh. In the meantime, Torbeck, you continue to lose to murder fang. Yeah. But things are quiet out here. She keeps making up house rules that all added

since you left. Right, right, right. Every single time you think you'd do it, She just makes up a new house. And I don't argue at all. No, I just need to use the front of your hand to block that ball. You have to use the back now.

Yeah. I'm just there for the vibes. Well, on the third round, you have to throw it from behind, but I don't because I go second on this round. She's clearly just clowning on me. Right, and I'm just letting that happen. And I assume at a certain point, Gricka will show up,

right? To round us up. Was that what you were gonna do? You were gonna come find us? I don't, no, I was giving Frost time to fucking do psychic shit. I'll come back. Oh, okay. So I go back, but this is probably while you've been doing it, so I will eventually come back.

Okay, I misunderstood. I thought Frost said to gather us. He did, but you're not going to know. Fine. Then I'm just, I'm just, I'm just chilling, I'm vibing. I probably every once in a while I sneak a glance over whatever balcony, like, what's going on between you guys. And like, I'm just vibing and taking it all in. And I'm trying to chill and relax. In the meantime, up in the room, Frost, the door is shut. as Grico and Blarby make their way outside to join Torbeck. And you find yourself alone in the room with Milo.

So did I do something bad or... No, no, no, certainly not. No. What I'm hoping that we can all discuss when my companions come back and we... Why do you put such an ominous song on your Walkman floor? Look, I don't... Bob Seeger has a wide spectrum of sound. I can't speak to why. This particular song sounds so nefarious.

It's spelled B-A-W-B. What kind of a man would make music music? The name like that, it's remarkable. It's really, really bad. I, listen. Mela, we need... The immediate threat of what we were trying to protect everyone about. we were surprisingly victorious.

Would you like one of these, one of these things, these little worms? Well, they're very spookly. You can eat them. Can you? I don't know. She hands it to you. Would you like to eat one with me? Do they look edible? Well, I mean, let me ask you. You know, the original intent that they were edible. It is definitely very burned, but she slurps one down. If she does, then I will put one in there. It's awful. Yeah, no, no.

This is like eating a burnt band-aid. That's exactly what it's like. That's a fantastic description of what it's like. And an oddly moist. I just put that aside. It's burnt and oddly moist. Mila, listen. What I want to talk to you about is what happened before you found the Starlight Lounge,

before you found us. We have reason to believe that the people who, the people who are dangerous are hiding somewhere. Where are you came from? I don't want to go back to the hospital. I don't want you to go back to the hospital, but I need you to help me understand how to get to the hospital because I think that if we knew the path,

that we would be able to defeat the evil, and then it wouldn't matter whether you were at the hospital or here or at the Starlight Lounge or anywhere else. There would be no danger anymore. I don't remember. Yes, but what I'd like to try to do is link with you, to use our abilities. You have unbelievable talents and so do I, and if you're willing to, I want to walk into our minds together and see if we might be able to unpack where you came from, where you escaped from, to find the way back. to the hospital, not so that you can go back. No, not so that you're in danger. You won't be in danger.

You'll be with me the whole time. But if you can show me, then I might be able to help destroy the things that might attack us. If we link our minds together, what if something goes wrong and I pop your head like a grape? I have the same fear. We have terribly powerful minds, you and I. But I'm giving you my forgiveness right now, no matter what happens, that we tried to do the right thing. Your forgiveness means no offense, but literally nothing. Plurby would kill me if I popped your grapehead. And she loves me.

I don't want her to want to kill me. I know you wouldn't care if I popped your grapehead. She would care probably a lot. I don't think that's going to happen. I think the risk is almost nothing. I know that you're... You care about Blarby and she cares about you. But the chance of you blowing my mind up is...

I just experienced something like this. It's very taxing, but I think it's important that we try. How... But how would... Just to start, I want to take your hands and try to go to a... quiet place and see if we can't reach out with each other's minds and find somewhere else to be somewhere like near the hospital.

I don't want to. I don't want to go back there even just in my mind. I'm scared. What if they have some way of knowing that we are seeing that we are seeing the this place together and they can find me. Not in your memories. Not where I want to go. I do.

Mila, I just experienced what I'm trying to share with you. I was able to go back into my own memories and it was not easy. I can tell you that it was not a pleasant experience, but it was very illuminating. And it isn't something that you need to be afraid of. Why do you need to know about this place? Why do you need to know where it is? You're not going to go. You're not going to take me back, right?

We would never take you back there. If anything, this is to protect you further. We need to know so that we can... So that we can send people there to take care of those who are trying to hurt you, to trying to hurt your friends, to hurt all of us. If we know where the danger is, then we can... we can stop it. It's like right now there are a bunch of, it's like right now there's a bunch of bees all around and they're scary and they're loud and they're, and they get close to you and you

try to swipe them away. But until we know where the hive is, those bees will keep coming back. If you can show me where that hive is, then we might be able to stop the source. You understand? I like being happy. It feels nice to be happy. And if we don't fix Mila, then you all hate me because I will be dangerous always. If not tomorrow, if not in two years, then when I'm older, it will happen because I'm dangerous. and I will hurt one of you and then you hate me. I know this.

I don't want to go back first. I don't want to see this place. But if there is a chance that by going there or by sending people there that I could be fixed and then I could always be happy, I will have to take the chance Because I don't want you or Krami or Torbeck or Greco or Barbee

Or Gideon to ever hate Mila That's never going to happen And you know why I know that? Because I am just like you I escape from my own hospital I have these powers that you have They're just the same and my friends, they love me.

Larby, she cares for me very much. And because I experienced almost the same thing that you experienced, I felt the exact same way that I couldn't be myself, that I couldn't share my whole self with the people that I love. And I was afraid that they would tell me that they didn't love me. I was afraid for a very long time, so much so that I pushed the hospital out of my mind completely.

and I could never get back there. You're very brave. And I know that that's a hard decision to make. But I want to try because if we go there together, I can be there with you. And I promise you that we're never going back there and that you're never going to push us away with your mind. I took me a long time to understand that, but I can promise you that because I know it's the truth.

You've done a lot for me. All of you have. I will do this, even if I am scared. You're very brave. Because I can't keep running from my past, or it will always follow me. And if we can get back to that place one last time, We can end this. Everyone will be safe. I cannot promise it will work. I can't remember anything. It's just white. I can't promise that it'll work either. But I will try.

All right. I'm new to this, so it'll be a moment. But if you're willing to try right now... Okay. Would you like another? one of these little slurms things? No, thank you. Oh, please. Take that one, the big one. I'll hold this, like, the largest one.

It's a little, like, bulbous, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll think about it for a moment, and Frost would be horrified about this, but he's thinking about how brave Mela is. And he'll chew it with the side of his mouth, and then just say fuck it and pop the entire thing in

and with a few big chews he swallows it. I put my lucky coin in that one. I see. Well then then I will be lucky. So now you will be successful. It'll be for the rest of my life, I'm sure, lucky. Here, sit with me. Okay. I'm going to try to reach out to you with my mind.

I want you to try to do the same with me. All right. And if we can find each other in another place, then I want you to lead me. I want you to think back to the Starlight Lounge, and then I want you to walk back through the streets that you ran through, that you hid in, and try to run from the things that scared you. But instead of running away from them, I want you to try to follow all the way back to the lights.

Can you do that for me? I can try. Here, take my hands. I want you to look into my eyes, and I want you to go back to that place. See, if you can tell me where the hospital is, where the places that made you feel scared or hurt. and I'm going to join with you.

I'm holding your hand. I'm not going anywhere, all right? Don't blink. I won't. And I need you to roll an intelligent saving throw for me, please. Natural fucking 20. That's insane.

Yeah. That's actually insane. I will take a 28. That's been insane. Good luck. We have the best fucking luck of those people. We've been spiking a lot of us. We've been spiking it like in...

Yeah. Amazing. You look into Mila's eyes and hold her hand, and suddenly your head starts to ache. A moment later, you stand beside Mila in a sterile room, much smaller than zero zero-zero-ones. There are no drawings, not even any books, just white walls, white tile floors, and a simple computer terminal. There's a stack of learning programs, as well as a small handful of ancient and archaic educational games, including a game called Mila saves the aquarium. The fluorescent white light is garish.

There's a small bed with white sheets. Hanging by the sides are heavy steel restraints and a whole wall of medical implements, including a hazardous waste bin for discarded needles. You've done it. I don't like this. I know. I know. It's all right. It's all right. Look, I'm right here. I'm right here.

I'm going to reach out and I'm going to make sure that she feels my hand. on her shoulder. It's so weird looking in on it like this. It's very strange, I know. And I know that you feel a little different. That's totally natural. I've been

like this before and it's all right. I feel fear. Yes. No, not my fear. The doctor's here. They're afraid of me. Even they think

I'm dangerous. I don't know why. I don't know what I did, but I think they hate me. They are afraid. And some of them are envious or jealous.

Some of them are frustrated. That they might not have your superpowers. Your talents. You can do some special things, and that's very amazing. That's what makes you special. It's not something to be mad at yourself about, though, understand?

I see the room. I remember this room, but I don't know where to go from here. I don't know what's outside those doors, where it leads, how to escape, how to get back here. I don't know. I just know this room and the white on white, on white. Do you mind if I try the door? It won't open, it's always locked. Can we go together? I want to try it.

I will be strong. I will open the door. Hold my hand. Come, come on. Come with me. You grab her hand and you lead her towards the door. She walks hesitantly, occasionally tripping over her steps. You can tell she really does not want to move forward. And as she reaches her small hand up, you can see that she's shaking violently. And for a second she stops right before grabbing the hand. handle and she recoils for a second, but she reaches up and she grabs the handle as her eyes go

wide as if she's just remembered something. And suddenly, the bright white light floods the room, getting brighter and brighter until there's nothing but white. Moments later, the white is replaced by flickering yellow light as you and Mila walk through a cracked concrete tunnel, water dripping from the ceiling above. Stairs before you lead up to the open, air glowing with the neon light of the green light district. As you ascend and step into your neighborhood, the smell of the stench of the polluted river of the undercity assaults your nostrils, and you step out into the shadow of the abandoned Flean Stadium by the old wharf.

In an instant, you are transported out of memory into the present. You hold Mila's small hand and realize you know exactly where the lab is. And that's where we'll take a break. Oh my god. The old Fleeon. Under the old Fleem Stadium. Damn. Damn, folks.

I love this campaign. I love this campaign. I love this campaign. Thank you, baby. Thank you. Thank you. Andy Flynn here. And I have huge news.

Our next Kickstarter campaign is coming and it's called Neon Odyssey. It's a 1400 plus page space opera trilogy for Dungeons and Dragons 5.5E. It has tons of Opsychester campaign. for players and GMs alike, including an entire galaxy to explore 30 plus species, 40 plus subclasses, a brand new space combat system, and so much more. It's taken us three whole books to fit it all in. Thank you. You're holding on to Mila's hand. You've just witnessed this shared experience together. And it's almost as if you can still smell the scent of the wharf. You can feel the heat of the lights of the stadium.

the stadium. And you know exactly where this is. I, without hesitation, will look to Mila to make sure that she's steadied. She is still shaking, but she has steeled herself and she seems okay. Mila, that was incredible. Well, I didn't do too much. I just thought a lot. You did exactly what you were afraid to do and you unlocked the door. I don't think that I could have done it on my own. I think you deserve some sort of special treat. I don't know what it is, but we're gonna get you something nice. Popcorn? Yeah. Well, we have popcorn back at the lounge. When we get back to the lounge, I can make you some of my special popcorn. They also have popcorn downstairs because sneak-h-h-oh.

Did sneak-hound make the popcorn? He loved popcorn. It was his favorite snack. I wasn't aware of that, but we can make some popcorn. It might not be sneak hound's special method, but we can not try to honor him. He knew how to put the salt on there and the fake butter, too. Did he watch him do it? No. Oh, well, we'll find our own way, I'm sure.

I was too short to see over the counter, but I knew that he liked it. It's like that gross stuff that's not butter, but it's like, Pig fat flavored butter. Oh, yes, you're talking about, I don't believe this is butter. Yes. I'm sure that they have a lot of that down here. I'm sure it's hard to procure real butter in the hellhole. The goose guy with the really pretty hair does all of their marketing.

I'm not sure what you mean, but I am glad that you're feeling okay. Yes, or maybe he's a flamenco. I need to tell the others what we saw. Or maybe he's a sparrow. I need to tell everyone so that we can... It could also be a duck. No, that's Howard. I'm going to...

No one else is in the room with us right now. No. Why are you saying this to me? No one else is in the room right now? No, because you kicked everybody out! I, uh, no, I'm glad that we did this in case anything dangerous happened, but, uh, everything is safe and fine now. Let's go find the other. That's why Grigo couldn't be here, because you thought I was going to explode.

his head. I thought perhaps I might explode his head. His head seems easily expletable. Wouldn't you agree? I don't think you should tell him that, but yes. Yeah, yeah, no. If anyone sells the head was going to explode, it was definitely going to be great. Well, it's definitely not going to be cramies. No, no, no. Torpex heads way too big.

Yes, yes, yes. Gideon's head way too hard. It would be most dangerous if it was Gideons. The horns would go in any direction. Who knows? Yes. It would be like a a frag grenade. It would go all over. thought about this way too much. Well, yes, I have. But what's important is that we have what we

need in order to defeat the evil and you helped to do that. I would like to take some of these little spooky things. The spooky skitturer, I think it is. Yes, that's what they're called. I burned the label off of the device and so I can't remember what they're called. I would like to take some and put them on the pillow of everybody so that when they come upstairs to go to bed, they can enjoy a nice skater before they sleep. In hotels, they leave little mince on pillows. It'll be just like that. It will be just like that. They'll all enjoy a special type. I saw this in a magazine once. They also take little towels and they turn them into rhinoceroses. And then they put them on the bed. I actually know how to

to turn a napkin into a swan. Could we do that, do you feel? I would love to show you how it's done. Could we have enough napkins that we can leave everybody a swan and some skitters? All you need is a square fabric of any kind, really. It's just a matter of rolling and folding. Oh, we can take Kremi's velvet robe and cut it up into pieces. I feel that Kremi might be quite upset if we were to cut up his robe.

But if it were for the sake of swans... Let's talk about it in the morning and we can consider that option. Ugh. Why would we put swans on people's stuff in the morning? You're supposed to do before they sleep. That's true, but I want to make sure that it's a very special surprise and I'm sure everyone is very tired. They might not be able to truly appreciate this creative event. Okay, but that was really brave. Yes, you were.

That's true. Yeah, I'm not denying that. We can at least do the skitters stuff. Here, I'll hand me some and I'll put some on a... I made a tray for every person. That is six whole skitters per person to eat before they sleep. I will spend some time walking through which skitters are appropriate for which pillow. And I'm sure that Mila has very strong opinions. She does.

And in that time, the rest of you can finish whatever you're doing and make your way upstairs if you'd like to. I'm basically asleep in Gideon's arms. Yeah. Hey, lads. Um, I'll give, uh, oh, do I run into, I guess am I? I'm with torn back.

Yeah, I'd be, I'd be wrapping up at the pond. I don't think that is a thing. What is this part? This is a bullshit guy, and we should have not proper billions of dots like real, lads, I. Grico, let it go. Oh, this is. You're only saying that because you would lose if you tried to play.

Oh, yeah. You know, you wanna bet? Yeah, how much? Oh, I'll bet all. I got all the cash on me. How much is this? Don't do it, Grico. I got 47 notes on me.

You're asking for trouble. That's less than a gold piece equivalency. I don't know if you knew that about it on a second. I didn't know that. It's slightly less than a gold piece. Well, I'll do 50. I told me Don't free notes

I'm gonna have three notes I reach in my pocket begrudgingly And I peel off three notes I'm gonna do you I also imagine that you're not getting those Your wallet is like this Yeah I definitely have one of those fat wallets It's got a bunch of like

Use of garbage in it essentially Like the old business card Harder% from 10 years ago Just tons and tons of garbage paper in it Okay let's go But I had three notes. All right.

Well, clear the table. And so you see as these two big mastiffs make their way over, they're clearly twins, and they begin to clear the table and reset it up. I need to roll a dexterity saving throw. Savian throw or a check? Natural 20. That's fucking crazy. She's a sharpshooter, man.

I had a natural 20 on the first one against Torback, too. Natural 20. Natural 20. Is it a ability or save a throw? Savi throw. Oh, saving throw. I guess we could do a bill. 27.

We gotta roll again. Because it's a tie. It's a tie. It's a tie. Holy shit. Are we doing darts? I don't even know what we're doing. You're doing it.

We're playing. We're playing beer pong. Chrisby Palm. And all the kids are doing this, I. Oh, natural one. Natural 19. Whoa. Yeah, she has a number, bro.

Wait, it's a rule of it. and bounces and gets to close us qualified if I don't do if I don't do a spinny twirl and go oh woo I lose all me points what are these fucking house rules that's the rules were you watching what the hell oh man too easy okay she tosses it over against the end fine there you go the notes richer crispy ping oh crispy ping That's better. That's pretty funny. Don't know. The last 50 notes are ahead. I try to tell you.

You want to do double or nothing? I lost three of you. Don't bet you got a hundred notes on. No, a fucking chance, Gras. Hey, go, house too. You got a hundred notes on you? Just so you know, if that guy lends you money,

he's gonna take it out of you with a knife. Right as that moment happens, I'm still conscious and we're passing you as Ivan Gideon's arms. Do you ask Cremmy for money? Oh my goodness Creming!

Did you go 100 notes on you? What do you need on? I'm done a little nothing. Oh, just say no more Don't give him 100 I let this happen. Fine, do not let this happen. I love you, man.

I love you like a bud. I love you, Creming. I'm sure. I was for a perfect bedtime. I'm going easy on you. I'm going on easy. Don't get it all in my place. You guys know we got ahead of us.

What are you playing, The soul of the day. Do you not want my money? You know what, Coorhoundstiff? I feel like I'm going to get an ear-talking tooth from Big Dog over here. If I'm doing this. So I'm just going to go to bed and I'm going to go catch up. Oh, I can't even buy friendships.

And he puts his wallet back. Sorry, Coah's Tooth. No, you can. Brutal. You have a good knock, Coranth Tooth. Thanks for all to help. I hope you are. I hope you are your head's doing okay.

matter of fine. Lance, I don't know how to do this. But guess who I saw smooching in the hallway? Wait, what? Who? You know I'm right here, right?

Oh. It was, it was, it was, it was, it was, Blabby and Frosty was smooching in the, in the hallway. Frosty was smooching in the hallway? Well, no, I didn't see it, but Frosty looked a little, different and turned out he was smother than pink lipstick, I?

Why are you telling us this? Can you believe that? Finally. I can't put finally. Finally. Seriously, finally. Finally. Wait, I'm happy for him. Me too. This is an L.H. This is a violation, right? Like, this is chill. Oh, yeah, it's not a problem, right? Yeah. I just closed it.

I mean, it just happened. I didn't even have time to disclose it. Yeah. I think there's a fore. You got to fill out, but as long as it's all above board. Don't you think that you should have let Frost or Burby tell us this instead of... I mean, I'll feel like if... If, if, if, if, if, if it's okay for the owner and operator and the head of operations, it should be okay for the mate of D and a fucking bartender. No offense.

It doesn't matter anymore anyway. Nexus has the larums, so I mean, yeah. Hey, crummy chipper up. Oh, man, all right. Up to bed, up to bed. What is it even really matter anyway? You guys know these Christmas. boys were 9.5.

Oh, yeah. As soon as I saw the... I'm not y'all's false. As soon as I saw the hominaut space given, I knew it was fucking hell. Do whatever the fuck you want.

It's got real wormwood in it apparently. Okay. You're gonna have your hands full. I think Frosty thought I was getting everyone to come back. I'll just realize this now in a moment of clarity. We've been playing

Ping, Krispy Ping for like, you know, now and a half. No, I know. I know. I know. I realize this now. What the heck, man? You got to start having more moments of clarity. I just had a moment of clarity

wash over me. Like, like the desert needs the rain. You know what I mean? Just like, just like venom injection used to sing about, gosh. Well, what do you want? I mean, we gotta go talk to him? What's up?

Gideon, you're drunk. Stop talking. Oh, I have it. Hey. Yeah, follow me, lads. Don't blame the Kris boys, all right? Blobby, we'll see you. We'll see you in a bed.

like it's real sleep in the same quarters. Oh, am I not allowed to come along? Or do I used to stay down to it? All right. Go sleep, little soldier. I can't tell you what to do. Modifying is been great playing.

Call hands, it's been a pleasure. Thanks for everything. You guys murdered those lads. I mean, more gruesomely than we ever could have hoped for. So thank you. I mean, I hope that they had a lot of notes in their pockets.

Cold hands, too. Yes, crummy. I almost died the night. know if you knew that about me. I did hear that about you. Oh, well, I'm just dealing with my mortality and solve a passion of time as Bob Seagos. He doesn't know you, man,

right? We just met this guy 20 minutes ago, all right? Come on. You're stronger than you think, Krammy. It's going to take a lot more than some Malaya goons to kill you. I appreciate that, but I think, uh, I mean, I especially on a counter, there ain't no more no more night. A Coon's left on the counter you, Lord.

Okay. One lucky shit from old Muddafang, and I think my guts would be still laying on the floor of that fucking factory. Yeah, I'm pretty great with a knife. Yeah, no, I mean, I'm sorry that the, uh, that Rima had that. You, you had a guts. They were, they were, you turned her in-eds into outings. I mean, it was impressive.

I went all the way. Yeah, I mean, that was a single thrust, too. Golly. Um, anyway, gnaught, gnaut. Should I angled down towards the colon. Gnacht. Uh, next time. You got them.

Next time. It just doesn't smell great. Yeah, I would've known. I would have known. Okay. All right. Well, it was a great time taking your money. I didn't, I don't know.

Thanks for the beer, Mervang. Thanks for the games, Torbeck. Anytime. See you in the morning. Yeah, you got to sleep this off. We can maybe kill some more people. Yeah. I'm not fine.

Oh, actually, matter of fact, Tobit wanted you to talk to you about something about earlier. We're gonna go, come on, Lance gets, it's gonna fuck out of here. Yeah, all night to talk to me. What do you want? Tobe was saying that he was,

say something earlier. What the fuck do you want? You were saying something earlier. Bricko. About wanting to talk to you. So we're gonna go. Pricka, you're wasted. Gideon,

get out of me. No, I'm going with my guy. Can you walk? I gotta carry you too. do? I got them. I'm a picture of football. I put my hands in my pockets. I can walk, I don't believe I. I walk like Don Quixote do flamingo. But as I, absolutely not. I go in every direction. So up the stairs. Okay. All right. Come on. Up and onward. All right. We're going up the stairs.

Good night. Good night. Don't change the playlist. Keep a play. I can hear through the food of fucking floorbones. Thank you. Do you have a request? Oh, just Bob, see you're on repeat. Okay. Thanks, C.H.T. Anything for you, Kay. I like how in crime he gets drunk.

Everybody just comes through initials. You just turn everybody to do initials. There's nothing else there. There's nothing else there. And with that, you all make your way up to the room. And it is quiet as you make your way in. Mila is already snoring fast asleep in her bed. She has a, why can't I remember what they're called?

Skitterers. Skitterers. I keep wanting to call them slurmies. Yeah. I mean, that's also a great name. Slurmies is also a great name. She has a burnt skitterer hanging out of her mouth, fell asleep, mid-chomp.

And all of you make your way into this room and you see that on your bed are a small pile of burnt skitters picked just for you by Frost and Mila. Gentlemen, Warby. Frost. Frost. Don't mind, crime me, he's going to call you some kind of weird name, but it'll be okay. He's probably just going to call me F again. Wait, what? When you get like this, you've called me F in the past, and it's very strange.

I thought I called Murder Fang M.F. Yes, you did. A clever F. There are a number of Band-Aid tasting-like skitterers on all of your pillows. I recommend that you find a discreet way to destroy them. I don't know what you face is governing. lipstick. Oh, that would be my fault. Yeah, no, I mean, but like, it's got to been like an hour since that happened. How come me in a lot of all? Oh, yeah, it's so cute.

You didn't wipe it off. Why'd you leave it? I didn't realize, actually. I will go and clean myself up. But before I do, I need to share some information with you all of you before we get to rest. I don't call them MF and all. I call him CF. Oh, are you talking about murder fang? You're talking about Frost. No, thought, false. All right. Well, you said you called MF. You C-Ced C-F. Yeah, no, he's C-F. What does the C stand for? Hey, you're not a part of this, all right?

You mind your business. Wait, what? What does the C-Stand for? C-F, you know what C-F is. C-F? Close or frost? No, clean-free. Clean and frost.

Take a bit. Hey, well. Hey, Frosty, what is it? What is it you want to tell us? While you were all away, I felt that it was prudent, given the safety that anyone might be blasted away by our linking, I was able to talk to Mila and she took me to her laboratory, to the hospital. And she was able to show me in her memories where she had been experimented on from where she came. Wait, wait, so it works. Both of you are unharmed.

and everything's okay. And you know where it is. Probably that's great work, man. She was very brave, and I think we're all right. Nothing happened, and we were able to navigate the danger. Well, where the heck is it? The Fleen Stadium. The abandoned Fleen Stadium out by the wharf.

Stadium by the Wolf on it. Wait. The old flea, that's where the green light and spacegivers used to play. Ah, yes, the Gigi's. I remember their Gigi no-Reeves that they would do. Yeah, she's the G-Gs, the Green-Laggillers. So they shut down that stadium before me,

even before me dad was allowed. And my understanding, it's what her memory told was true. And I have no reason to believe that it isn't. That wherever these experiments are happening, is somewhere underneath that stadium. Wait, under the stadium. Yeah, I mean, I think I shut down.

Who knows, decades ago, long before I came down here, but man, they were fucking terrible. I know. I've heard rumors of their reputation. Just fumble after fumble after interception after fumble. Wait, so, are you sure about this, Ross? I'm very sure. I saw it with my own eyes.

I heard they were terrible too. I walked with Mila through her mind, through the laboratory. As always, and when we exited that place, it was as though I was standing there. I could smell the wharf. I could look up and see the stadium. There's no question my mind.

All right, well, it's great, Frusty. Nice to sit down, lad. Yeah, meanwhile, I guess we know what the plan is. We try and get a little bit of rest and seize the fucking place, but hopefully with the element of surprise tomorrow. I think that's the right move.

We need to find a way to get some reconnaissance, perhaps, look into whether or not this intel is correct. And if we can make a move, then we can destroy this threat, not just to ourselves, not just to the Starlight Lounge, but to the entire Greenlight District. Yeah. But I need rest. It's finally gonna be over.

I feel like you're sure about this and let's get some sleep and let's go to the old fucking stadium. We'll remind you of all this information tomorrow for you will surely forget giving you intoxicated state. I'm fine. I'm gonna remember everything. All right. I normally don't ask questions, but what do you call me when you're drunk?

I plead the fifth. I'm going to bed. Good night. Guys, and you see as she bounces over to her side of the room. She pops a couple of these disgusting skitterers in her mouth. You're right. They do taste like burnt band-aids. I wouldn't have recommended that.

You should just hurt them away. No, a little girl would really appreciate if I did this. And then she climbs into bed. Good night, fellas. Place me down in my bed. Good night, Blame. Good night. Is me already asleep?

Oh, yeah. She was fast asleep before. She was fast asleep before you even got in here. I will say, oh, the Krispie will do that. I'll walk over and I'll kind of make sure that like the blankets are okay. She has a partially eaten skitterer hanging out of her mouth. I'll get rid of that.

I'll throw it away in the trash can. Hootie's been kicked off the bed. I'm gonna put, you know, put it kind of under her arm. And I'm shaking out, they go on, and I'll give her a little smooch on the head as I stumble over back to my bed. And I have a little bit of crispy left. I kind of sit down and I take my last sit

before I doze off. I will lay my head down on all of the scary skitters and just pass out. Yeah, I'd probably write my notebook for maybe a couple more minutes, think about stuff and then fall asleep sooner after. Perfect. With all of that, with that out of the way,

you all find yourselves falling into a date, deep sleep. You've had an incredibly long day, and once you choose to relax, the sleep comes very quickly. And you all get a long rest. Hell. Oh. Pretty big. That's huge.

That's massive. Pretty, pretty big. I had five HP. I had six. I'm hacking. I'm hacking. I'm cheating. I'm a changer. I'm hacking. 360 no scope. I was shockingly well.

All right. You awaken to the sounds of gunfire and howling as alarm bells ring, screaming throughout the drains. The building you're in shakes as an explosion erupts. The hellhole is under attack. Holy shit. Everybody up. Everybody up. Something's happening. I would start probably pretty quick and immediately reach for my jacket.

I think that would be the only thing I would have taken off to go to sleep. throw the jacket on and make sure that I have my hand cannon loose from my belt as I go to see what's going on. What the fuck's going on? I will get your shit on this. Don't sound like any got a party. Blarby, uh, make sure me a little safe. Make sure she's all right.

Uh, I'll be right back. Grab everything. Get ready to leave it at moments notice. I'll make sure we're ready to go. You just let me know if we, if we're leaving. All right. I put on whatever clothes I can. and I grabbed my axe, and I am gonna join my friends

and rush down and see what the hell's going on. We race outside. Yeah. You rush outside of the seven hells, and you see a battle between the hellhounds and dozens of Nexus security officers. Some in massive power armor, all of them with highly advanced weaponry.

A burst of plasma and half of the rickety, makeshift barricade at the entrance is turned to splinters. It is clear to you that this haven is now lost. I think in this moment, normally I would turn to Mr. K. But I know that he's probably going to either still be drunk or have a hell of a fucking hangover. That's why I turn to Gideon. Gideon, we can't stay here. We got to get the fuck out of here, man.

Fuck, we have to find Murder Fang. We got to get everybody we can. We got to get Blarby, Mila out of here. We got all the shit. We can't leave anything behind, including the tapes for Datamax. Let me find Murder Fang. You guys rally Blarby and Mila and anyone else. and anything else that we need.

And we'll get a plan going. We get 30 seconds. I mean, they're coming in fucking hard. You see that power armor? I'll meet you right back here. What's the safest pot that we should leave out of here? Is that one? Is that the way? Good question.

I must have some sort of idea of where we would be able to escape to. Two. I would say in this moment, I'm gonna have you roll a perception check. Shit. 18. Not that. 18. Not bad. Fantastic.

So you're going to get a couple, you're going to get a bit of information from this. Okay. You look around and you see that a significant portion of the hellhounds have been killed. There are bodies littering the floor. And this is what draws your attention to murder fang. You watch as she is taking her serrated blade fully across the neck of one of these nexus soldiers. She is completely incensed. And you see why?

Because at her feet lying face down. clearly dead is Bruce. She is killing all of the soldiers around her, but she is very clearly about to be overrun. There are maybe five other hell hounds around her trying to help her, but if you don't get them away, if you don't calm that bloodlust, they will very clearly fall.

Okay. That being said, you notice that directly, directly behind her away from where the Nexus the security is coming in over the barricade that had been put up, that there is a tunnel that leads to not the, not necessarily a place you want to find yourself in again, but probably, oddly enough, the safest place, and that is taking the suner, the, the sewers back through the drain

and then eventually into the train tunnels where you know. Oh, fuck. Yeah. Where you know that Jackson, his gang. All of this stream of conscience is happening in seconds, right? I'm thinking about all of this very quickly. I turn to Grico to basically answer its question and say, the only exit out is deeper into the sewers towards the train station.

Yeah, they're the train tunnels. The train tunnels. I know that that is the last thing that any of you want to hear because we know that that's chemtech territory. But I think it's the only way out. I think our best course of action is for you all to start heading that direction. Let me get to murder fang and I'll meet you there. It sounds better than dead.

Try to get you to miss him to retreat, but don't get yourself killed on account of it, lad. Don't fucking kill yourself if she wants to go out guns blazing. You understand? I won't. I'll meet you at the tunnels towards the train tunnels. Don't go too deep without me, understood. All right, lad. Good luck. See you on the other side. And I'm gonna pat you on the back. I'm gonna give you Barton's inspiration. Or iconic inspiration. D8. D8. Yep.

Beautiful. And I will say you don't need to RP this. You are able to quickly rush upstairs. Grab. Grab. I get up there and you see that Blarby's already packed all of your stuff for you. You're able to just rush over, grab your stuff, throw it on your shoulders, and head out. She took what Frost and Grico said very seriously and made sure that you were all ready to leave.

If you needed to. I brush quickly to my things. And I would do all of that, but also I would grab the medicine for Mila, realizing that she might not have even had the medicine last night. Oh. And I might be okay with that. I grab that. I grab everything else. Make sure I all my chemicals and I'm out of there.

I entrust the Zeta Max tapes to Grillo. I all take them. I entrap. Thanks, Rossi. Here you go. I'm getting anything. Am I? I got my drugs.

I got my fill of bathroom. I think that's everything. You forgot to eat your skitter. You got it. There's Skitterer, like, Stice in my face still. Still in his face. Oh, slippers, fuck. I got my slippers.

The way we're running out, are there multiple options in tunnels? There was a tunnel that he pointed to. So, I mean, are there more than one? Are there more than one? Yes, there are more than one access. It's a crazy network out. When we start running towards the tunnel that we were

directed to, I'm going to quickly toss two of my turrets in the mouth of another tunnel. And so there's still, they have big, Big enough range, they'll start firing on these security guys. But as best I can in the kerfuffle, I want to try and make it look like we're guarding the, like that's the tunnel we went down with the parents.

Look at the Bissor-Rey-on-Gis. Roll a deception check for me. I'm in now, baby. I'm in now. At advantage because of the chaos, and I think that's a clever plan. It's pretty good. Even better.

Would, would, is Milo like big enough to kind of keep up with us? Or would it be, it makes sense for? Yeah, she doesn't need to be carried. She's not like, she's not like a tiny kid. Got it, yeah. And worst case scenario, if something did happen, Blarby's got her.

Got it. So you don't have to worry about her. Okay. 17, nice. Nice. Easy, you place these down and they immediately begin to take out some of the Nexus security cards. You notice that a handful of them,

they don't even look towards you. They turn directly to this and rush over towards your turrets. And then you notice that their attention goes straight, towards the Seven Hells itself is they start to tear down the actual facility. Oh my God. Come on. And you make your way into the tunnel that Torbeck directed you to. At this time, Torbeck, you are rushing towards Murder Fang. Yeah, I would basically try to get within range of, you know, within like a hundred feet

and basically try to take pot shots with a hand cannon just to like not even see if I could hit anything. to just cause a distraction and shout to murder fang. I will say two attack rules. Covering fire too. Does I have them, you know, named the dog behind cover? That's not good.

It was a 13. That's a 19. On the 13, I'm gonna, I'm gonna save my bar of inspiration. I'm gonna save my bar of inspiration. While I'm taking the shots. So the 13 goes wide. And again, I'm like,

not far anyway. But I'm gonna, I'm gonna be a speechless shout. Murder fang! We have to fall back. It's over. The hell, the hell, The hell hole is lost.

No more casualties. No, no. Oh, you carpal pieces. And she rushes in and she slices the throat of another one. And then you see as she goes to head towards another and she turns out of the corner of her eye and she looks at you. I want you to roll a persuasion check.

And as I'm rolling this persuasion check, I'll shout, live to fight another day. Now's the time. Yeah, that's the time. Persuasion. Oh, that's pretty good. Oh, pretty good. Come on.

23. Okay. She turns and looks at you. She winks. She rushes forward. She jumps against the wall, twists, jams her knife directly into the top of the skull

of the closest nexus security guard. And as she's standing there with her blade, like buried deep within his skull, she calls out, Hellhounds! Retreat! And she rips the blade out, leaps off of him,

and then runs towards you. lead the way, just get us out of here. And she looks around and you see that there are maybe 15. Hell hounds left. I nod to her solemnly, basically do this motion to have everyone follow me. And I run to the tunnel. As you begin to run, you watch as she reaches down

and she's got these two little bombs at the side of her at her belt. She takes them. She strikes a match, lights them on fire. And as she runs, she throws them behind. And as they let out this huge blast, it collapses one of the tunnels, but it's enough to blow back the guards,

the security guards, and make enough of a distraction that they don't see which tunnel the few of you run into. And thanks to Gideon's turrets, their attention is all directed towards that tunnel. Nice. You make your way towards the tunnel

leaving the sound of Nexus security guards tearing down the hellhole behind you and make your way through the pipes and tunnels of the drain. You travel for two hours and finally arrive at an access way to the old metro tunnels beneath the district. You see the glow of vibrant colors up ahead and hear the loud sound of rock music and raucous voices, and you know that the Chemtech revolution still remains undiscovered. It isn't long before you and the Hellhound refugees are confronted by dozens of revolutionaries. There are far more members of the rebellion than you had ever expected. Then, familiar grizzled Etheron pushes through the crowd and Jack's bar glars you down.

The crew, give me one reason I shouldn't have my crew gunned down right now. Hey, Jax. If it helps, that one reason is, we're all on the same page now. You ain't wrong. I don't know what you've been up to. Whatever you've done doing since Nexus, we have far more recruits than we ever have. Well, that's another reason. Look, we're all one step away from, you know, fighting and dying to bring down these corpos. So you're back to help. You finally seen the light? Well, I'm trying to get to the old Fleen Stadium. Why? What do you want with that place?

You know it's always swimming... swimming with guards? You do know that, don't you? The old Fleen Stadium is swimming with guards? With security? Always has been. My guys don't mess around with those tunnels. Fuck Look But you know If you're looking for a diversion

I'm your guy But it'll cost you Can you do that for us, Jax? I think we could Come to an agreement How Confident Are you that you can

Get that security away from the stadium? I've never been more confident you do what I want you know what I'm asking we'll make a diversion big enough to draw all the attention of the corpos

you'll have a clean shot to that stadium whatever you plan to do there all right checks look I think I know what you're gonna need me to do I want you to cook for me Cremant you know what I want yeah that's what I figured damn look

I want enough for this diversion and for whatever we have planned after. If you got what I need, I'll cook for y'all. He looks around and you see the mass of people in these tunnels. Oh, I got what you need.

Bodies. I'll cook for you on one condition. All right? No hospitals. No soup kitchens. That's two conditions. That's three. How about this?

Don't blow up innocence, all right. Civilians. There's no way to avoid it, Cremie, and you know that. No hospitals. He thinks for a minute. Roll a persuasion check. Oh, man, I want to use my... Sir was renting.

What's that? Persuasion? What's go? 29. Yeah. Uh, yeah. Oh, God. You make everything I want.

We don't have a lot of time checks. Look. Is it like the early morning still? I would say, if we slept through the night? You slept through the night. You got a long rest. I would say it's probably late afternoon. Or maybe midday.

The amount of time it took. Yeah, you took two hours. So it's like midday. You know, you didn't, you didn't wake up at the ass crack of dawn. You're parting until late. then you slept enough to get a rest. And then there was a bit of fighting and organizing.

I mean, you didn't really fight. You ran, but you know, you did what you could. And then it was two hours to get here. So yeah, I would say it's afternoon. I look around at all the Kemptec revolutionaires. Are there like more than I expect? Way more than you expected. But you knew that they had, that they were,

you knew that they were using fear to bolster their ranks. But even the last time that you talked to him, a lot of what he was, talking about was needing to do these drastic actions to gain recruitment. Recruing was low, they were struggling and it is very clear that they are struggling no longer. So now that Nexus security is like going crazy and they're getting... It is very clear that now that Nexus is in their home and causing trouble, that recruitment is easy.

All right. We don't have all the time on the world, understand. So I'll do what I can to cook as much as I can, as fast as I can. But I can't be spending days on this. This has got to happen as soon as you can make it fucking happen. Can you do that for me? As long as you can get me enough to fully gas out a factory. One whole factory. It's going to draw them all, crummy, like rats to the cheese.

All right. Just one building? Let me think. Do I think, If they have tons of stuff, how long are that possibly take? How long do I think that I can make enough to fulfill what he is asking?

You have seen the lap. You've seen the lap that they have. And you know that they have very clearly stolen some fancy equipment. They've got huge barrels of what you need. And that there are clearly people in there doing exactly what you need to do that they have, you wouldn't be alone.

you would have helpers. And you imagine that you could probably get it done. You could get it done by the next day easily and plan to move tomorrow evening. But because they need to plan, that though you might be able to get it done in the wee hours of the morning, it wouldn't be a good time to act. You'd want to wait until the next night. So you've got one night here with them. All right.

Give me your day tops. Maybe less. You think you can get it done in a day? I can make sure our plans are ready for tomorrow night. That's all we can do. I need full access to all your equipment. I need any chemical that you got on hand. You got to get it for me.

I may need something extra. Someone may need to go grab something somewhere else, you understand? I need all your chem heads. I can get you ten. I ask them to jump, they need to ask how fucking high? So it shall be done. And tomorrow night will be beautiful. Before I shake on it.

Once you get a taste, Cremie, gonna find it hard to leave this life behind. You do you about all this, all right? Hey. I got my own problems to worry about and my own people to worry about. What is one factory against the many? I'll leave that for y'all to sort out.

Before I do this though, fellas, you good with this? Mr. Kay, I'm gonna lower my voice a little bit just to make sure that we're having like a conversation that's not, you know, super... I don't like it one bit. But quite frankly, I don't think we have a fucking... choice. Yeah, yeah. I think Torbeck's got the right of it. I mean, I don't fucking trust this guy, but I mean, there ain't no other option than taking that remit down. This seems like the way.

I said it before. No half measures. Grico. Torback's right. I don't like this law, but I hate to fucking say it. There are a lot. There are better than the Corpos, Vrema, Jax's, something. I don't know what it is. Definitely a demon of some kind from the stories I used to tell, Laura Lai. But of Rima, sees something far worse. And I guess it's true what they say, the devil you know, eh?

And I know these lot, to spot your long history with her than whatever the hell she is. You know what they say, Grico. The road to cacophonies paid with good intentions. But, if any of us are gonna end up there, y'all better let me go alone. You understand? We'll let the gods of Agafo sort out, eh, Gramey? Mm-hmm.

It's not for us to decide. Mm-mm. We do what we can. Oh, nod. I'll take off my jacket, I'll hand it to Gid. I will roll up my sleeves, and I'll approach Jax, and I'll reach my hand out, and I'll say, let's get to work.

And I'll shake it as in. Let's get to work. And he immediately calls for 10 of his top guys, and he explains to them that you are the boss. For the next 24 hours, if you ask to jump, They say how high. All right, Kim heads. For the next 24 hours,

I'm the Kim boss. I said the thing. And with that, you get to work. You all watch as Kremi makes his way deeper into the abandoned, not what seemingly to outsiders would be an abandoned train station, but you know to be the lair for Jacks and his gang. And Kremi makes his way to work tirelessly. to make the gas that Jex has requested.

And I'm trying to go as fast as possible. I know that every hour that they have potentially. Ugh, yeah. I'm going to have you roll a skill check. What's skill check? Chemist tools? Yes, I'm going to have you roll with your chemist tools. And I would say you can roll at advantage

because you have the telp of 10 of his best goons of his chem boys. I don't remember what you called them, but I liked that. And you have the use of a force of, fully functional and highly capable app. Yeah, chem hits. So hold on, how to make sure that I fully understand

how this works. I think if you're proficient in, you have tools, you add your proficiency and your role advantage. Let me just see. Tools. And what skill should I add? Mike, that's more, yeah. probably dexterity or intelligence or yeah what ability

I mean yeah I'm working with my hands slide a hand slide a hand is fine slide a hand slide a hand slide a hand check a slide a hand a dexterity slide of hand check using your chemist tools

technically got it I think that's how you would write that I feel good about that it's 21241 in the morning for my brain in that case

If I'm just adding slide of hands, it'd be a 22. And then if I add anything else for chemist tools, are you proficient? That's proficient. That's proficient. So if I get another three, it's 24. You are incredibly effective with what you're doing. You are no stranger to making these sorts of chemicals.

The reason that you're making them feels like a betrayal of who you're, you've become. But you know what's at stake and you push that aside as you focus on the chemicals themselves. You focus on the science and not the reason behind why you're making what you're making. And it is your ability to close off that part of yourself that allows you to just do the work like you've had to many times in your life before. And you work tirelessly. Over the course of the next 24 hours, you create. barrel after barrel after barrel of this gas that Jax has asked of you. In the meantime, the rest of you work alongside Jaxe. He is cordial to you. He seems jovial almost. And you are met with a plan.

Once Kemi, or Kemi, once Kemi, once Kremi has, that's very funny, that's very funny. Once Kremi has finished creating the last of the barrels that are needed, he is going to have an elite group of his men loaded on a train and headed out of the tunnels. He's then going to take you to a vantage point where you will not be given the, not the code, but you won't be given the signal, thank you. You won't be given the signal, but he won't be given the signal, but he He assures you that you will know it when it happens. And it is that point that you'll be able to head towards the Flean Stadium.

To move on the stadium. And to move on it. And that is the plan. It's simple, because simple works best. And so for the next 24 hours, you work and you plan, you argue with Mila a little as she, you want her to stay back. You don't want her to join in on this. She's just a little girl, even though it's

dangerous to have her stay here with the Kemptec revolution, but she will have none of it. As scared as she is, the conversation she had with Frostways heavy on her, and she refuses to not come along. She will know these tunnels better than anyone, and she believes that once she's there, she's the only person that's going to be able to lead you through them. And it is with all of that knowledge that Kremi is about an hour off. from finishing the last of these barrels. Is there anything else you want to do

before it's time to enact the plans? There's one thing I would do. And Grico would basically kind of with, he's helping, you know, it's kind of this little... Some of you occasionally go in and help Krami, grab some things for him. You make sure he has food. There's overlap here,

but there's a little bit of metal versus punk tension as well as my history that kind of like, I don't, you know, I don't like these lead, you know, it's whatever. But there's a little, Grigo's a punk rock history, right? And so he's kind of feeling guilty. And I think, but he would help. He would finally, he knows that he doesn't have a choice.

And I think there would be a time where he would basically go up to try to get fresh air if that's possible at some point. And he would have his phone and he would once again kind of look at it. And it's like, I feel like it's probably the next day and it's almost getting ready. He would have protested against Mila coming along. But if she wouldn't take a no for an answer, he'd say, okay, but we're going to protect you. And then after all of that, it's almost time. I think he would punch in the numbers. He pulled out his phone.

He'd punch in all the numbers from Mim's phone. And before that final number, that seventh number, because before area codes, he would hesitate. That final five. Yeah. He'd hesitate and then just hang up. and kind of just take another breath, take a look around, and kind of look in the direction that he knows Mim's apartment is,

and kind of just take one last look at there and look back down on his phone, and just head back, and then he's ready. I think I would be spending more time with Mila than I might otherwise. Frost certainly has always felt a connection to Mila, but he knows that his role in this environment, isn't best served at the side of Cremie. Cremie has the support that he needs.

And so selfishly, he's spending time with Mila because it means spending time with Blarby. And you would do this. And you would laugh. Blarby would tickle Mila occasionally. They have little tickled fights. And they tell, they, Mila wants to tell you a lot of stories that she's very clearly making up on the spot.

He would be trying to engage. And all of this would happen. And all the while, Blarby knows full well, she'd heard the conversations that Mila was going to go with you. And she will eventually broach the subject with you. Frost, I know you're taking the little one off on this journey with you, but I don't think there's a place to me in this.

I don't know how to do what you do, and I don't have. Blarby, I'm glad you said so. Honestly, you've already done so much, but this last mile that we need to walk, I want you safe. I don't want you to put yourself in danger. And even though we need to take Mila because of her connection to all of this, that doesn't mean that you need to put yourself in danger as well. Barbie when we get back

and things have calmed down I intend to take you topside yeah yes I don't know if I've ever been topside at least not since I was a little girl I have much to share with you then

there's a amazing a wonderful lounge up top or jazz is beautiful and the food is sweet there's a hotel that I want to share with you. Krami was able to show us unbelievable things and I it's not just coffee, a

movie, a dinner, a date. I want to take you up there and show you maybe even a taste of the opera if that's something that would interest you. I always wanted to go to the opera. Frost, you don't have to do that. I know. I would be happy just to snuggle up and watch one of those vintage movies you like. I want to share it with you. I would love to do that.

I've been saving up quite a bit of notes, so we can do a lot of fun stuff. Let me take care of it. Be sure? It's my treat, really. Aw, honey, you're the sweetest, but you know what this means. What's that?

You gotta survive. I'm counting on you, okay? I don't want to be worried about you. you the whole time. You're the strongest guy I know. And the sweetest. I'm not sure about that, but... No, just frankly, you're the best guy I know. And always. I'll survive. Because

I know I'm coming back to you. I know you don't like the sappy stuff. But I'm gonna head upstairs. I'm gonna see what I can do about this start. Don't tell I don't want to make promises I can't keep, but I'm... I got some strings I can pull. I'm going to see if we can get those nexus goons off of your place.

And I'll try and get it cleaned up if I can, but no promises. The way, you have a place to come home to all of you. And depending on what you're doing here, I don't even know if there'll be any more of them to swarm around the place anyway. I think that if we're successful, that the invasion of this district, might actually end and for a good long while. Well, I'm gonna give you a hug if that's all right.

I care about you a lot and I'll miss you, okay? I'll be waiting for you. I turn that hug and do another kiss. She expects it. She holds on just a little bit longer and a little tighter and then she kisses you on the cheek, leaves a huge pink kiss mark there. Don't wipe that one off.

I won't. And as she walks away, I'll remind her that I have a third hand. She laughs. Don't see it like that. With a little pinch. Frosty. I'll give her a wink.

You're such a scamp. And then I will turn back to work. And she will bounce her way through the tunnels. and you see the last remnants of her pink kitten heels as she climbs up out of these tunnels and makes her way back up into the Greenlight District proper. Watch her go. Anybody else?

There's nothing else that I would want to do before we head out. I don't think there's anything left to do for Torbeck. All I would have been doing throughout all this time, like Grico, I'd be helped. helping lifting heavy things for Kremi. I'd mostly be watching over him to make sure nobody pulls any underhanded,

you know, shisty shit. I'd be keeping my eye on Jex because I don't trust this fucking guy. But other than that... He's got a pep in his step. Maybe encouraging murder fang after losing so many hellhounds. Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, we don't have to RP that. And basically, Torbeck's resigned. He's ready. He's locked in. There's nothing left to be said or to do except to meet destiny. Perfect. I think Gideon would just be, I would be working on like every piece of equipment that I have for 20 straight out. Like however long it's taking cremian until he's done, even though I know everything is in peak functional order, I'd be taking things apart, putting them back together, cleaning things, taking them apart, putting them back together to be triple, quadruple, and tupel sure that everything is in functional order.

I'd re-up everybody's, I'd take a look at everybody's pieces of gear that I've given all of them and just make sure that every single, Everything's operating at absolute max efficiency. Perfect. All of you do what you need to do to prepare. And eventually, Kremi, you finish off the last of the barrels. That should be enough. I'm leaving it in your hands now, Jax. Jax counts the barrels.

He gives some silent signals to the men around him as they begin to, as they begin to swarm towards the barrels. and begin to load them on a train that you see that they have positioned at one of the exits of these tunnels ready to- I'll take the hands of all the my assistants. Yeah, they're gonna pat him on the arm. Great job, Mr. LaCrew.

Fantastic job, sir. And they seem really impressed by you. And they all seem to be bright, bright young citizens of the Greenlight District. All of them, you imagine if they had If they hadn't fallen in with the Chemtech Revolution, they're smart, they're capable. If the situation of their lives had been different, they could have had really something special. You don't need a job, swinging by the starlight once all this is over.

You see that this makes them a little bit nervous as they back away and join the revolution. But you notice that for a couple of them, there's a glint in their eye. and they occasionally turn back and look at you and meet your eye as if there's a part of them that wants to take you up on that offer. But they eventually move back in with the rest of Jex's crew. And it takes some time, but they continue to load and load. And eventually, you watch as the aerosil chemicals you've cooked are finally fully loaded onto the modified train car, along with countless other explosives. A group of about a dozen of the most hardened and upgraded rebels

get on the train armed to the teeth. One of the rebels goes to the console and presses some buttons, and moments later, the doors close, and the train slowly pulls out, or the train slowly pulls out of the station, down the darkened tunnel. Well, step one. Now I've just got to take you someplace where we can watch the magic happen.

You must trust those guys. I do. You got a weapon of mass destruction on that fucking train car. Oh, thanks to you, Mr. Lucre. All thanks to you. I look around. Does it look like basically all of the rest of the rebels have like left? Yes.

This is the basically the only people left here are the hellhounds. Hmm. Yeah. Well, step one out of the way. It's time to go watch the fireworks. As I said, you'll know when you see it. And when it happens, you make your move. And our deal will be done.

All right. Now's the time. Make sure you have everything on you. I'm ready. You have what I need. I am very ready. I unroll my sleeves. I button my cuffs and I will collect my jacket back from Gideon.

Jex occasionally looks down at Mila, but he doesn't question you taking this little girl. And he begins to lead the way. You follow Jex up to the roof of the old District 87 station. You see the green lights of the district humming and flickering in the dark of the undercity. From this vantage point, you can see the huge tillusium plant at the edge of the district. And as you scan across the rooftops, you find the polluted river and follow it to the large ruined Flean Stee. where you know of Rima conducts her vile work. Jex casts his gaze across the city and you see the cybernetic glow of his implanted eyeballs,

seeing things that you clearly can't. He takes in a deep breath and turns his gaze back to you, Cremie. Do you smell that, LeCrew? No, I suppose you wouldn't, not without the enhanced senses that Noel has provided us. You never understood Noel's vision. Noll's vision, but tonight you will see it, and the sunrise you have helped ignite. He points at the massive cylindrical towers of the Toulouseum plant. You see, that has been my goal, my alabaster, ether whale.

But no matter how much we planned, we could not figure out how to get around the top security of the plant. It's more locked down than even the highest security prison's on ferret. until you, your gas, LaCrew, that's what I've needed. That's what my top infiltrators have needed. Now that our goals fully align, we light a fire in the undercity we can no longer ignore. Suddenly, the entire district shakes violently, and the night alights with brilliant shades of blue, pink, green, yellow, and every other color you can imagine as the Toulouseum plant, explodes. The massive smoke stacks of concrete and metal crumble and collapse in a massive dust cloud.

In moments, the destruction of the district's power plant causes a total blackout, and the entire greenlight district is shrouded in darkness. And you realize this was the signal. You hear the raucous sounds of screams and rock music that reverberate through the tightly packed buildings as one by one, prismatic explosions erupt across the city. Chaos comes to the Greenlight District now that its namesake illumination has been snuffed out. Moments later, wailing sirens of Nexus' security join the chaotic chorus as you see the lights of the district's various units mobilize in response. A huge battalion of armored vehicles and officers swarm from the old abandoned Fleen Stadium toward the inferno at the plant. As you finally have your

opening to get to Avrima's lab. You hear a sound you thought you'd never hear. Jek's Bar laughs. And that's where we'll end the session. Oh. Oh, oh. Oh, Torbett hates every. I hate this so much.

What the hell? Oh, God. Great session. Yeah, seriously. Let's start the session. Thanks, guys.