Legends of Avantris - Once Upon a Starlight | Ep. 8 | The Pursuit

Episode Date: May 4, 2026

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You all speed through the air of Neo-Ett effects, massive skyscrapers whirring past you. You hear the garbled voice of Blarby through Frost's phone as the static becomes all-consuming. The last words you hear are, She's gone! And then the call loses signal, and you hear nothing but a dial tone at the other end. Beep, beep, beep, me, me, Frost. You hold your phone as,

as the call disconnects. Your situation has gone from bad to worse as Gideon pilots the Barry Sexy toward the Concordia Hotel. What did she say? It was hard to make out, but I think she was trying to say that Mila's gone, she's missing. What do you mean?

From the hellhound, she's not there? She, she, it was all garbled. Remind me again, did I get a sense that she'd been kidnapped or, or, or, that she just couldn't be found. Did I get any more substance than just that Mila is gone? It was incredibly hard to hear the things that she was saying. I would say, yeah, the most you could hear is really that Mila was gone.

She didn't know where she had. That's all I know. That's all I could make out. It was all static. We have to get back underground very quickly. Why would she go? I mean, she had hooties, she had Blotby, but she had the Hellhounds and she had Murder Fang.

And perhaps someone took her. I couldn't hear. That's why we need to go right away. Try, try, call her again, color again. I'll hit Speed dial. Nobody could have got in on the Hellhounds, Ryan Torbeck. I mean, she can't get it, she can't have gotten snatched. There's no way, no way.

Beep, beep, be... I'm not even getting voicemail. There's no signal up here. I can't connect. Oh shit. Man, first every month, now this? We're just going from bad to worse. I'll text her. I've observed this. I feel like this is some kind of cosmic punishment.

I will text, stay right there, we're on our way. You send the message and you wait for the, you wait for the letters to go bold, but they never do, because the message never sends. Sure. Letter note? She, well, why would you run away? I mean, I used to run away from my only moment when we go through an accident, I mean, in that argument.

There's no way for us to know until we get there, and the only way we can do then is to get to the elevator, make our way down, and, and, and, and... Torbeck leaves us back through. Back to the Hellhound. Yeah, yeah. Frost is right. We gotta get back on the ground as quickly as we can. I only hope it says we don't run into more Nexus security on the way. Uh, if the way is clear, then. and it shouldn't be too long on the shot, but we have to not act suspicious at the same time, so we can't run. It's very frustrating.

We've got to get on the ground, and if Lady Luck has one more favor for us, maybe Camero and Nexus doesn't know the full extent of what she's up to. Maybe we don't even pitch the car. Maybe if Beryl just thought he misplaced the keys or the ticket or something, and we might have, if they haven't reported stolen, then maybe we don't have time to pitch it. and taxi the fucking taxi everywhere.

I mean, there's in trouble. I thought she was slaughtered at, eh? We still gotta get back to the hotel and get our shit and get out of there before we head back down. We can't just leave it at the obrah. It's just bad lads. One thing at a time, one thing in a time,

one thing in a time, one thing in a time, one thing in a time, one thing in a time, one thing at a time, I'll pop a, uh, one of my pills. I agree. If anyone left anything at the hotel, we should go to the hotel and we should take care of it and then we should, it's not that far walk.

We should probably ditch the car and just make our way to the elevator, and then once we're there, we will casually come. You hear, whoop, and you look down and you see that your message is sent. It went through. My message went through.

All right, she knows that we're on our way. We need to hurry. We need to hurry as confidently and as calmly as we can. Well, we should hit the hotel, get our shit we'll ditch the car I guess we just drop it back at the

opera maybe we catch a taxi back to back to 84 back to the elevator I mean I guess we're going down the same way we came up we can't go through 87 I don't see why we take the car back it'll be found he'll be able to put out a report

fuck barrel I don't fuck that old trunk I don't get a fuck about barrel the opera's too obvious how about why don't I'm parking in the shopping district. We'll leave the keys in the car and we'll just stroll away. Yeah. They'll find it. And at least, you know, we didn't wreck the damn thing.

Hey, shopping district should be on the way to the elevator, right? We're going back to, uh, going back to 84 to elevate 84. That's our best bet. Same way we came up. No, me la. I just don't understand it. I will, I'll notice that Frost's taking his pills. I'll kind of this look of realization and I'll say, oh no, but I'll be gave. her the medicine before she went to bed. How long? How many hours does she have? That's right. Oh fuck. She can't administer herself. Can she? There's no way she wouldn't 12 hours? If she even took it with her. I mean the half-lap's about 12 hours but I mean if we're lucky it'll have some effect after that. She's a taking time bomb.

Damn it. Yeah now we're not going back to the out front. Fuck Barrow and a stupid wife. Sorry Barrel. now we gotta get our shit we dish in the shopping district we get back to the elevator we get back to the drain we figure out what the fuck's going on

I mean hell maybe she's just misplaced maybe she's hiding out and then with the hellhounds and Blarby just can't find her maybe she's hiding yes that's good that's good just a kid

maybe she's playing games yes Blarby might have freaked down and who knows how long it's been or what the situation we have to get down there How much further are we away from the hotel now? No, don't go more than nine over, all right?

We can't speed. We don't want to get pulled over for anything, all right? Just play it cool. I'm good. I'm good. Couldn't even if it's worth that opera, maybe Act 2 is wrapping up in never 20, 30 minutes. And then there's probably, I mean,

payroll's going to be, like, you know. You might be passed out for another, before he gets kicked out by all the others, right? They're not driving older than that anyway, man. They're probably taking a taxi. Oh, so far away. Good fucking luck. I bought it got, I got you. We might be in for a very long stretch of time without any rest or sleep.

Are all of you going to be okay? Can you keep this up? I'm going to go, man. How are you holding up? That fucking thing swallowed you hold down there. I can do this all day. Yeah, I'll still feel chilling me bones, but at least I can move. I'll feel like this chill's going to stay.

Maybe when we get back. How good is the hellhound stew down there? It's impassable? It leaves something to be desired, that's for sure. It's all sewer-out, isn't that? Just be ready in case there's more fighting ahead of us. We don't know what we're going to come across. Be ready for anything.

All right. All right. We get to the Concordia. We have our plan. Get to the elevator. And if there's any... There's any fucking luck or providence They'll let us down.

And once we get down, it doesn't matter what the fuck Ifremah does after that, eh? The doctor's powerless. We'll be in the sewers, will be in the end of city. There's been any power down there. What could she be up to? Do you have any idea? No, I don't.

I don't even think I know her anymore. She had dead eyes, like a doll's eyes. Like a doze, awesome. Didn't seem like she was interested in turning profits, man. No. I mean, it's all a means to an end with her. And that's the thing. You can't even negotiate with that.

I could offer all the notes in the world, and I think, you know, she wants to achieve perfection. I hate to say it. There's any chance we can find Mila before. Monaya What was the name? Zena? Yeah. Fus.

Senia doesn't already have her hands on her. Maybe we have to go to her. You were able to talk your way out of that? We weren't able to talk her way out of what the fuck we does experience. We got it turned into popsicles. It's a fucking miracle we're alive. Look, I'm just going to say it. There's a chance that

at some point very soon, none of this is going to be any of our problems. anymore and I apologize for that. I'm sorry that any of y'all mixed up in any of this. And what I will say is once we can make it back down, if any of y'all want to give up and quit, going to hiding, lay low until the heat is off. I understand, all right? No hard feelings. And I will accept your resignation on the spot. No need for two weeks notice. Grimmie, shut the fuck up. With all due respect, Mr. Kemp, Yeah, he's right. How many times do we have to say it?

You sound like a fucking moron. I would all do respect, Kremi. We almost got turned into space cucumber robber, a good quadrihees and trows and popsicles down there. And we're still here. We're going to fight for that little girl. We're going to fight for Mila. We're going to fight for you. And we're going to fight for the Starlight. That's a home. We don't got no home besides that.

Guys are right, Kremie. I mean, heck man, we're all in it now, and even if we weren't, we would be, you know. Gramey, I fight for the truth. I still feel a tremendous amount of gratitude and loyalty for the years that you showed kindness to me and showed me a path to a better future. But if Rima clearly knows what happened to me and why I am the way that I am, and I think you know also. And my patience is running thin. I want to understand the full story,

to fill the gaps in my memory. So I'm in this all the way to the end. And besides, we don't make it, at least we try to do some good for the end. Yeah, that's right. Maybe, you know, some even if we could at least save the greenland district make it a better place to live often that's worth dying for that's something worth dying for not that whatever sort of

chem tech zellatory or otherwise let's hope let's hope we don't come to there so stop flapping your fucking gums all right about doom and the The looming prophetic fucking visions. There you have, crummy. I'm sorry about that. Well, I don't want to fucking hear it no more, all right? I don't want to be questioned. And I know Tolbeck doesn't.

And Frosty certainly doesn't. We're all Frosty has and that young lady down there. I'm sure she feels awful, Frosty. Let's make sure we don't make her feel any worse, all right? Well, I can tell you, Gideon loves me in question. doesn't that was I don't know yes yes we just an attempt to levity in this uh life in that situation fucking moment no I understand I understand all right look just get us there and I I just need to come up with the plan I think to call with the

plan you just got to take this one step at a time for now we're gonna pull it to the hotel here in just a minute slow down getting you slow down oh never mind about Ten minutes. I'm just gonna shut my eyes for a moment. Okay, Tallbet, you probably shouldn't set your ass for a little bit. Are you all right? I'll be all right. I just, okay. I just need a minute. How many fingers are my holding up, lad? Three, get your fingers out on my face. Okay, okay, all right, all right. Listen, he can stay in the car. We can go, we can grab whatever stuff we need. We can come down and then just rest, man. Just my old clothes. Yeah, just rest. We'll grab you. The remainder of what I am wearing. The jacket is, we're stretching. We're just rest. There's one sleeve hanging off the thing. The rest of the jacket is gone. I can picture it. I can picture it. I still have my slacks and my button-up shirt and my tie, but I'm disheveled, I'm stained.

I was swallowed. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I look like a nightmare. The jacket is gone. I basically peel the sleeve off and drop it into the into the car. And just kind of lean back and like shut my eyes and just try to rest for a minute. You stay in the car and if anyone comes fucking sleep, snooping. Maybe you get behind a drum and just fucking peel out of you that, right?

I'm sure. I don't think anyone will bother me. I've got all reliable anyway. And I pat the handcan in on my on my belt. And I will sit in the front seat if everybody else

is going to go up and just because again, I don't have anything. You would know that I have like just a couple articles of clothing. That's it. So we gather whatever relevant to you. Wherever, if maybe you left your dog tags up there,

if you didn't wear those, something like that. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. And I know it's not enough for a short rest, but Torbeck would just shut his eyes for 10 minutes. Yeah. Yeah, I'd say if it's fair. We're probably back to the hotel room.

Back to the hotel. Grab my stuff. I'll check out. For the sake of brevity, you're easily able to hand off tasks to each other as Torbeck watches the car. Cremie goes to check out. The rest of you make your way

into that same pristine elevator and ride all the way up with a couple of quick requests to Judy. You're able to round up all of the possessions that you brought with you and quickly pack them back into your bags. And it takes barely any time at all for you to wrap things up in the hotel room and make it back down to the lobby. I would have asked Judy to basically, I don't know. know if they have, this is maybe too fancy. Oh yeah, Judy. But if there was some like the instant noodles where you can kind of rip it and it gets hot instantly,

and it heats up, I would be kind of, I would immediately ask for that and I would basically just, and I'm gonna grab an extra one for Torback. Yeah. Because I know that he's kind of cold as shit. Thank you. So I basically pack that with my stuff. I go-

A tray of noodles for you, sir. And there's a noodle for each of you. I'll take the noodle, but I won't I don't eat. I'm going to wait until we're in a more stable place. What I will instead do is, I actually look relatively pristine. I didn't take any massive hits. I didn't take any huge damage. I lost my mind and I was a rageful warhead monster. But I look kind of like the dishevelment of someone at 2 a.m. after a long wedding day as opposed to in a fight having been swallowed and engulfed and frozen and all of these nasty things. So I will change, make my very expensive outfit that I now treasure, one of the most expensive things that I own, even certainly more premier than the shoes that I wear. I will carefully put that in my pack and change back into my streetwear, knowing that probably shouldn't walk around the Greenlight District wearing a suit as nice as that.

I would feel out of place. And so I will change, and I will run a hand through my hair and take the noodles to go. I'm not changing. I don't want to take the time. Before I go into my room, I'll say, before Frosty, you can go into yours. I'll say, Frusty, you look a little shake-up, you're all right? I'm concerned that we won't be able to find Mila. I'm worried about everything we've learned over the last 48 hours. I was already on the edge of panic before all of this, based on the financial situation of the Starlight Lounge.

I'm on the edge. I'm not leaving to finish this loud. I'm going to hand him a beer. And you better drink the whole thing quick because we gotta fucking go, Frosty. And I'm gonna go to my room. I will have bought a duffel. And I bought a bunch of stuff at the shopping district.

And I would have bought kind of a sturdy duffel bags I knew I had to make it back to the sewers. And I'm taking all of the gifts and the things that I bought in the shopping district basically blowing most of like the spare cash that I brought with me. And I'm gonna stick it all in there. I'm gonna throw in the extra noodles,

the pat noodles in there as well. And I'll have my guitar case. I wish I'd been able to bring it to the opera. And so I'll sling that over my shoulder. And I think that's everything. I'm taking also a couple Krispies. I love that. I hit like all the other rooms.

I'd get Torbeck stuff. I'd get cremmy stuff. I'd get my own normal streetwear, my workman's belt. I too wouldn't change out of my clothes just yet, thinking that I would definitely, I think Frost normally wears a slightly higher class of clothing than both Grico and I do. But I think that we would stick out.

You would know that he invests in the higher quality clothing. Yeah, as much as he can afford. As a front of house guy, you know, you're far more presentable, I think, normally. And I think we would stick out as a sore thumb all the way to the elevator. So I'll keep the clothes that I have on right now. I also didn't get too messed up in that fight.

I would say like even, especially with the lockdown, that you would know that someone who looked like they had a lot of money is gonna be much more likely to get through security than people who look like they're out of place in top side. Yeah, 100%. Exactly right. I will also grab, not something that looks terribly expensive,

but I would grab a bottle of nice liquor, like a whiskey, something like that, off the bar as I'm running around, just to take back with us. And if Frost and Grico are coming back into the room. The Wahale whiskey, sir? Perfect. And she will get it down from the top shelf

and hand it to you. I'm ready. Not gonna like that. Before that happens, or rather, sorry, sorry, not before that. Oh yeah, before I would have gone and done that. I wanted to mention is that it looks like what the reverse

of a nest tea is, which is Campbell's soup. So I look like a snowman, and I eat the soup, and I turn back in the... That's a little bit of a wishlight joke for you as a treat. That doesn't happen. We get one. We get one. We get one.

We get one. We get one. I will meet and I'll just unzip the duffles. Hey, I got toadbeck stuff. All right. And I will... Here's this stuff. Because I know that you have cremmy stuff.

And so basically I'll take storeback stuff. I'll put it all in the duffel that I have as well. And all's all in the duffel that I have as well. I'll slip it off and I'll say, alright, Cremont, Kramm's gonna fucking kill us. He falls up, but we're ragged up. Just don't tell him, don't tell him. See the prices on some of this shit, man?

Hopefully you checked that before, I hadn't really thought about it, but one more moment. There's enough room and have duffel, I think. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I race back to the bathroom and I grab the extremely fluffy robe, and I find one in Barbie size. And I roll it up and I stuff it into the duffel, and then I race over to the food

and beverage area. And I will open the drawers looking for what I know her favorite sweet is, these sour candies. And I pull it out. There's an cartoonish image of someone's head exploding. It says atomic bombs on the top. And

I can't say the actual name of the candy. That's my subglass. And then I run to and I race to Gideon End and Grico ready to go. Well, I mean, we've already done enough damage. We've already sunk cost fallacy, eh?

Well, one more, one more pack of Krispies, Judy. One more, one more pack of roadies, please. I'd be like we should get some of those nuts for Torbeck, man. He really liked them. Oh, yeah, you're right. Yeah, he really did like those almonds. Okay, you're right. And they also have Pocky here.

It's just Pocky. There's nothing. It's remarkable. It's unbelievable. Unbelievable. Yeah, so clear out and basically kind of just like knowing that that's a tomorrow problem, At least the small comforts that we have on our way back is basically what I'm grabbing. If we're worried about paying those debts, it means we survived.

Yeah. Smash go to the front desk. I'm checking out. And I'm reviewing the bill. Oh, no. I don't want to sign up. No, I just pay by the gods. And I'm starting to sign. And then there'll be an alert behind the desk. and say, oh, sir, it looks like several more items have been added to your folio, let me print you out a new bill. And he hands me a new flower. Oh, by the gods. All right. And I'll start to sign that. Oh, no. Excuse me, sir. One more, sir. One more has come in. Wait, there's more. All right. All right. Just give it to me. Give it to me. And another. Oh, fuck. You just handed me like print out after print out, like, bill after bill.

Great choice. A bottle of holy whiskey. Top shelf. Stop. You got the one. Holly, oh my God. And at the bottom of every single receipt, it's an additional note for each receipt. Because it's printed on like nice embroidered paper.

100%. Yeah, yeah. A surcharge. The receipt surcharge. Oh, man. And I will finally sign the final bill. Pray to the gods that they don't take anything else. All right.

Take care. And you'll see you next time. Your room keys, sir. Oh, uh. Well, y'all just, you know, you're gonna print more right here. Well, here's mine. I believe in our notes that we had a total of five. Oh, just charmed me for, I gotta go.

Well, one moment, does he prints off another receipt for four room keys? Thank you. You have a lovely day. He was well, sir. We hope to see you again at the Concordia, Mr. Nacru. I will turn it. I'll go back in the car and wait for them to come down. When you open the door and get in, I'd probably wake up. And I wasn't really asleep. I was just resting. I'd probably come to and just, uh, Mr. Kay, is everything all right?

No, no, yeah, everything's gonna be fine. All right. I can't believe they approved all that. But you know what? That's a problem for Future Crammy. And we wait for the remainder of the game to show up. It takes 15 years. Jesus. We all die. No, it's not. It's not.

No, it's not that, it's not that much longer after Kremi pays for the missing room keys that you make your way out of the elevator, stumble out into the lobby with your all of your bags. Now, extra bags laden with paper towels, with fluffy hotel towels. Burn paper towels. Why don't we take this? Who knows? with fluffy towels, little bottles of expensive lotion, basically everything.

The shower cap. The shower caps. Anything that you could pilfer from this place, you have tucked into your various satchels and cases as you make your way through the lobby and out to the streets of Neo-EFX. And eventually... I have one of those wheeling units

and a 66-inch LED television on it. I feel like it's got to be worth it for you to at least try to dispute. charges as fraud to live. Next is financial. If we live, yeah. Just play off like the car got stolen. That was not even there. We were readying ourselves for this concert.

The hotel was very nice. They charge $1 per receipt, but when they print out the receipt, they don't print the receipt for the receipt. And it would just keep going and going. That's true. That's true. And, you know, the statement period doesn't close for another week or two, and then I have 30 days from that.

I've got, probably 40, 45 days to worry about it. Yeah, if we survive. That's true. That's true. I don't have the TV. No, you don't. Definitely don't. But I did take the robe and the atomic bombs.

And the Curic machine. I did take the curate machine. You took the what? We can use it at the bar. It's so much easier than manually brewing coffee in the drip. All you do is put in these little pumps. Oh, no, it's an egg boiling machine. It's an egg boiling machine.

It's called a curig for some reason. You boil eggs. Have you ever had your eggs boiled, Grimmie? I mean, I've had boiled eggs. But, I mean, could you just use the one at the lounge? This one knows when the center is at that perfect gooey temperature. And it has an obnoxious red light. Can we keep it, Grimmie?

Can we keep it? Yeah, yeah, Frost, we can keep it. And with that, you all pile back into the Barry Sexy and... Oh, too back, man. Here we go. I've got to the Rode miracle Breakfast of Champions and I hand them the noodles and a beer. Wow.

I've got your stuff too, don't worry. We are good. Greco, this is very considerate. I appreciate you thinking about me. I mean, you've ripped the cord on this thing and begin to sip on it. Because even though I don't look outward since I'm so fuzzy,

I'm still very cold deep down in my bones. And I begin to drink from this thing. And you can tell that I'm genuinely touched that you thought about me. All right, I've got to look after each other. It's going to be, It's going to be a rough couple days. Yeah.

Now, are we taking the very sexy to the elevator, or are we taking a cab? Frost, you check your phone. Frost, you check your phone, and you see that the message has been sent, but you do not see that it's been read. I've got no confirmation then my message that even received or red. It's, it's, I'll just hope that the signal goes through eventually. Well, we got to hurry then. Got to get down there figure out what the heck's going on around here.

So we'll take the car of the shopping district. We'll drop it off. We'll hoof it to the elevator. It's close by. We'll head down from there. Crammy, I grabbed a bottle of O'Haleh. Something to take the edge off, all right? I know, kiddian.

What do you mean? I saw the bill. Well, you look at the bill? Well, it's probably the single largest purchase I've ever made in my life. Well, who reads the itemized portion of it? I mean, we're in her. Hurry, Kremmy, you took the time to read the itemized list? Well, it came up in conversation with the front desk guy.

It complimented your taste. Oh, well, Judy just handed it to me. So, you know, it was pretty easy, but it looks good, man. Oh, did she just handed it to you? Yeah, she just handed it. I mean, you know, she took it off the shelf, handed it over to him and he said, hey, this is good, this is this gets you the right place. I didn't know she could reach the top shelf.

That's a miracle. She had to stretch. You know, she didn't really get on her tibble. toes, you know, but... You read the full line of mine's receipt? Yes, I did, fraud. And that includes any of the pay-per-viewed movies that might have been

viewed overnight. You don't have... Well, let's move on. Let's go, let's go. We... Mela's missing. What are we doing? I wasn't planning on bringing that up, Frost. I just needed to know. Oh, I'm making a note.

You immediately think back to the receipt and the itemized list, gelatinous boob, gelatinous boob, gelatinous boob, over and over and over again. I was gonna say backdoor oozled's nine. The ninth one specifically. No one's ever seen one through eight. All have you know, Krami, that the,

that the 10 Airship 20XD6 concert, love in concert is well worth the price. I mean, there's nothing better than getting absolutely wasted and watching old recorded live concerts. No, it wasn't pornum that you saw on that receipt. It was things like marble racing. It was things like-

Why pay for any of that? No, it's hard to know. But it was the pay-per-view marble racing, 24-hour special. It's pretty good. I was gonna say. All right, shopping district, and then we just get a cab to the elevator. And if by all the gods of Agafos, there's any fucking mercy to let us through.

Here's open. Clean shut, boys. I'm going to have you roll a group deception check to see how well you do navigating the streets. I'm pretty good at that. To take this car, hide it, and then make your way to the elevator. Not bad. I got 17. There's a deception?

Natural 20. Nice. I'm leaving Rupert Valor Wing over here now. That's too bad. That's a 30. That's not enough. I thought I did well. 24. Yeah.

Oh, 14. I got 14. The DC for this is 52. Oh, man. But we had all that's close. No, no, no. At least one of you has to reach 52. And the flash of armored wings

on my soul. And it's flies the 24. Thank you, Quabdice. Is that what you're listening to on the radio? All right, turn that out my love this. All right, that lowers the DC. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. What did you give me?

14. 14. What did you get Torbeck? 17. Okay, fantastic. Yeah, but between all of you, that's more than enough, as you are easily able to make it through the street, streets of Neo-Ed effects. And though this place has changed since you spent the majority of your

time since you lived here, Kremi, you still have a good sense of where to deposit this vehicle. And as with constant reminders to Gideon to make sure he doesn't go over nine miles, nine miles over, you are able to keep eyes off of you. You do not draw the attention of one. enforcement in any way, make your way into these back streets. You're able to deposit the car and make your way towards the elevator to District 84. When we parked the car before we get out, I'll say, all right, fellas, just hold your breath for a second, and I'll pull out a canister and I'll shake it up, and I'll press a button.

And that same kind of detergent gas that I use after that first night at the club in this campaign, will sort of spread through the car, and any kind of dirt or grime or blood or muck will be sort of eaten away as the gas dissipates. Mechanically, casting prestidigitation on the car and all of our clothing. Nice. So that we are as presentable as possible.

And I was not going to like, you know, bring a excuse back, but it looks at least kind of stylish now. But I would say part of that, part of that deception with that prestidigitation, with that gas, you are, you imagine that when this car is found, there would be no trace of who took it, where it's been, or how it got here.

Never trust people with prostitution. Those murderers can cover up anything. Damn, I'm good. And with that, unless there's anything else you want to do. Should we like, I want to leave a note from like, from like one of Beryl's mistresses or something to say that she took the car or something. Oh, that's a little.

You want to fuck this guy over it way more? Just leave it in mystery. I mean, if it gets him off our tail, okay, never mind. It was bad idea. It was bad idea. Wasn't it the wife that was sleeping around anyway? Well, I mean, yeah, but they're still getting mad at each other. That's a brilliant idea.

Hold on. Oh, God. You all right. You all right. Are you kidding? Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? Oh, that's a stupid idea.

Yeah. Okay. Look at this guy. A head of operations and engineer. What the hell is a record? purpose of this. And say that I do not agree with this decision. Rico's just a sound guy, just a rowdy.

He's not smart with no good on things. All right. I'm just checking my phone. What's the same? What should it say? I don't know. You two figure this out. I'm going to go fix Torbeck's jacket a lot more.

Say, Barreled. All right. How could you? Gosh, what was all those soap operas that men used to not? Oh. That,

Oh, how could you sleep with my twins? Oh, those, those knots on Pismara were unforgettable. How could you throw away all that with your ass queen of a wife who don't do the things while I do? You know, our main barrel. Did you say that's queen or ass queen? Oh, what about like you said you were going to leave her five years ago? Oh, exactly wrong, exactly right.

Yep. Yep, yep, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly right. And something about the pool boy? Didn't you see something about the pool boy? Oh, yeah, and say, uh, oh, we know what, uh, we know. We see the poo boy in that, uh, the poo boy in, uh, the poo boy in, uh, you know, those little, those little trunksy wears those for a reason. That was the name of the video you saw, the arse queen and the poo boy.

Nope, that's in heaven. All right. All right. Nope. Uh, I'm trying to do it in almost like a, like a, like a, Flourishy, pretty-looking. Oh, and you're some of that perfume you got, you know? Well, I'm gonna have you roll another deception check for this one.

All right, wait, hold up. I will reach in my coat pocket. And I'll say you can do it at advantage because you have Grico's help. Oh, tell her she's pregnant. Tell her she's pregnant. Oh, they're always pregnant. Yeah. F fucking brilliant.

All right, no, she's pregnant. What else? Should she be? Oh, she, uh, she, uh, congrats. Uh, Oh, left the car is a warning. Something bad's going to happen in the future. Oh, she's like a fortune teller style thing.

Kind of just more thinking like a fret instead of like any kind of gifted prophecy. Oh, this is a clairvoyance. I don't think she's a clairvoyant. I mean, she might be. You never know. Look at this guy. I mean, I guess that's true. I mean, I wasn't faking.

Lots of flavors of Esper in the world, you know. I don't think I have any clairvoyance. Oh, oh, oh, oh. Tell her. Tell her, uh, hey, Beryl, you should probably get checked out, you know what I mean? You should get the never regions. Tell her, you should get check for Hallmarts. You know what I mean, from Dilland?

Get even the eyes green. She should get a chassis check for, you can get his charging check for Holmarts. Oh, man, fuck Beryl, that guy sucks. What? Uh, I know, I also miss the Bullboy thing. I don't know what you guys are talking about. Okay. I think that's pretty good.

Use some of that fancy, uh, you know. Oh yeah. You still got that perfume? Good idea. And I'll fold it up and I will take some of perfume that I have on me, of course, and I'll... Oh wait. You want to really see the deal? I'll reach into my pocket and I'll pull out some lipstick. And I'll... Get it really on there. All right, this is really going to sell it, Phyllis. And I'll like kiss the bottom. Oh, I got it. I should sign it. Yeah. Who should I sign it by? Oh, gosh, I don't know. What was? What a...

Can you make a name for this? Like, a nickname, like, your, uh, your eternal love or something? Yeah, just like, uh... You're, you're... Oh, a vein, you know? Oh, uh, you're, uh, you're wed, wed woes. I'm triphony. They're all named triffony. Yeah, you're packed or a resort.

Triffony. What if we're wrong, though. I kind of like some sort of like... Oh, oh, oh. Oh, then she'll project on who it could be. Exactly right. Oh. What's it, what's a good, like, de first a theme kind of like pet name? Uh, uh.

You're like, um, Cumulus Nimbus. What about you like, your fluffy puff? Oh, you're, oh, your fluffy puff care bear. Duh. Your fluffy buff care bear. Oh my God, this might just work, fellas.

Gonna need you to roll a deception check. I'll leave it on the driver's seat. Hopefully they don't do any DNA testing on the lipstick. Was I assisted in this deception? Yes, yes. You are at advantage. I was really hoping that Mace would come up with a name. I like when Mace has to come up with the names. Eternally yours, Gerbert.

23. It sounds like Gerbert. Gerber. Gerberta. Gerberta. You use it 14? 23. Oh, okay.

I don't know where I got 14. Yeah, I don't know. You feel like that's probably good enough. Well, we ain't kill a rim, but I'm pretty sure we killed Bear. He's gonna have a heart attack and he's gonna have a heart attack. He was already dead inside. Let's go.

All right, to the elevator. And if it's even, we probably have to take a car there, some vehicle if it's like, you know, in some. I think we won't at least like four blocks. You have to walk out of these. We have to haul a cab.

We definitely walk with you. And you make your way towards elevator 84 or towards District 84 and the elevator down. Do we think Game Master? This would be constituting the short rest. Oh.

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After hailing a cab, you make your way through the streets of Neo-Ett effects and eventually arrive at Elevator 84. You step up to the Nexus security guard as he looks over your identification. He looks back and forth between the image on the identification in each of you. And then he does a double take. His eyes narrow as he looks you up and down, looking closely, and then he speaks. Wait a minute. Your outfits from Harry's?

I love his stuff! What cuts are these? Oh. Oh. Yeah. That color looks great on you. Well, Henry's. Did I say Harry's?

Yeah. I meant Henry's. Oh. He could say Harry's. No, he said Henry's. Oh, okay. He said Henry's. Canonically, he said Henry.

Yeah, they're from Henry's. Yeah, you know Henry? I love his stuff. I get all of my, I get all of my best suits from him. Well, I hope you clean up good. Wow. I'm glad the Nexus security can afford those pros and know what I mean? Yeah, I'm most bet y'all wear.

Yeah. Whatever it is, it isn't enough wrongline. You know they do. Oh, yeah, yep. Uh-huh. You, uh... Oh, I, I don't want to hold you up. You should, you...

Need him. Let us know. Oh, yeah. Nosteis, notsticed. So, we're good. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. If I get my ID back. Oh, yeah, of course, of course,

you start handing back the IDs. I appreciate that. You love this color. Love this color. You like it? Yeah. I think it looks sharp. Do you think it would look good on me?

Contrast. Would it look good on you? Maybe you can't see much about it. He's fully armored. He's got a helmet on and everything. Oh, you know what? What if you try chocolate brown? Oh.

Oh. That? Yeah. What do you think? Nice brown suit? I really know, man. But yeah, yeah. I think you pull off a nice chocolate brown.

He stands up a little straighter. And though you can't see it, you imagine that with a smile, he punches a button on the panel, and you are let into the elevator. Again, the rows of benches are entirely empty. The door closes behind you, and the elevator door groans shut and lurches as you start to descend. As you finally sink below the line that separates the undercity from the top side of Neoet Effects, you watch as the security guard waves down at you happily, wishing you well on your way. The moment that the door closes,

I'll kind of like let out a side of relief. And I was going to save this for a fan just to chill, but I can't. It is absolutely canonical that this guy, there's no way in hell that he can actually afford these suits from Henry's. It's exactly like the, I think you should leave sketch with Dan Flashes with the really expensive shirts where he's not eating.

It's exactly my style. and he's spending every penny that he has on tan flashes. That's probably true. Like, he just thinks he can afford it, but he really gets. It makes him feel really good about him. Right, exactly right. Exactly right. I'll let out a side of relief because I didn't speak during that interaction.

I was right. Well, there's your bit of luck. That's Ron. It's not all lost lads, I? Well, I mean, this is like step two, step three. We got a long way back. still. We gotta get down there. Then we gotta get to the drain, then we gotta make our way back without getting killed by horrible monsters. I feel way better about our chances through the drain

and getting back to the hellhounds than up there. Yeah. I still have no idea if Blarby knows we're on our way. She's probably freaking out. Either way, we're gonna have to find Mila. So if we just get down there and hopefully she hasn't gotten far. You know what? I gotta say, Lance as nice as it is up there with all the comforts and all the fancy crush. I'm so glad. Is it just because I have the same window as the other ones of like we can probably see like we're going down. You can see as you're going down. Like welcome to the playground starts playing by from Arcansans. Yeah.

As we're seeing it, I'm like kind of looking out a little wistfully. It's like you know, nothing beats home and especially once I get to see the Green Lodge of the Green Lodge of the Green Lodge district that'll be so nice. Great. I scan the view. There was a tremendous amount of violence not a day go and I'm wondering if the air has cleared. Does it look like everything's on fire? You're on the elevator.

We're districts over. We're like three. Oh, that's right. We're in district four. You're coming down and you forget what I does. Yeah. I would just look at everybody else's we're kind of like mulling this over and say, uh,

look, once we get back, then we can assess the situation. And I think I have an idea. But we need. to talk to Blarby first. We got to head back there to figure out what the hell happened. And now I think is the time we get changed, all right? Because now is the exact opposite situation. We go through the fucking,

the undercity, like, just like this, we're going to stick out like a fucking sword thumb. Agreed. Oh, I mean, there's nobody in here. We may as well start getting changed. Oh, I'm in agreement, Greg, Joe. No, no. I know absolutely not.

I've already got to do. I'm already doing my time. I'm taking my own. I don't sit my page. There's enough time for a couple of, I got my Krispy boy, and I'm going to toss out some beers. Some elevator beers. I'll just sit my beers and I'm already changed

and look at the other passengers of the elevator. There's no being in there. I know. I'm very much wearing boxers that are way too long for me. So they like go down in my shins. That's so funny. That's so perfect. And I try to fold up.

I do a very bad job. So I try to fold up, and I kind of get. I just shove it into the bag. No, no, no, no, dude. And it's a nice, it's a nice piece of my... Come on, I was... I grabbed the clothes and I like, with a few twists.

All right. Yeah, I'll ninja twist it and then right in your face will see me passing my jacket at my face. I don't even look at you. I immediately just grab them and immediately start folding them perfectly. Yeah, yeah. There you go. Not that bag, my other bag, you know weird bag I hate.

You got a travel lighter, man. You can't have so many bags every time I'm doing anything. I never know what I need to wear. Thank you. Of course. How many pairs of shoes is Mr. Kion? Like a bunch? Like a ton.

Oh, man. You know where there's no closet space? Probably not. Well, it depends how much of a sneaker head frost is. Okay. So I don't think it's like the wall to like floor to ceiling like all of the boxes. but he has probably dozens of pairs of shoes.

Yeah, I would agree with that. Many different colors, many different styles, finishes, sheens, fraud. They'd all be like dress shoes. Frost is a sneaker head, I think it'd all be dress shoes. Frost is a sneaker head, but he doesn't, he's never been able to afford more than a few pairs. They're extremely expensive.

Yes. On par with any of the best chews that you might own, but he has to save up for months, if not years for that. I don't know if anyone's seen these videos of these people where it's really full clock. of just sneakers. So maybe if we, you know, if we make it rich one there,

that's what he would do. Yeah. So that's to answer your question. As fancy as all that stuff is, nothing beats denim and leather, hey lads, you know what I mean? Now I'm imagining Grico with denim underpants. D denim on denim.

Oh, it's nice of healthy. Yeah, yeah, when it's worn in, oh, it's just nice, ah, this is comfortable, lads. And proper footwear for kicking in some, Some Nossi mutants, you know? Okay, lads. When we get down there, just stay with me. We can pick up the pace now that we're not under the watch of any prying eyes.

And I'll get us back to the hell little quickly. Well, we still got to move a little safely, man. I mean, what if we run in the security? He was down in the drain last we came up bare. If they're still sweeping. Anything's possible, but I'm hoping that the hellhounds ran on my mom. all off. Yeah.

They did quite the number on them as we were leaving. Yeah, that was, that would fruit. That was quite funny. Be ready for anything. But again, be tough for them. Stick it out overnight. Might make things worse, but we're going to find out.

All right, man. I got my guitar around my back and then my duffel back. I'm ready to run. As the elevator opens. I'll look out and I'll say. No, 84. It doesn't have the same charm as 87.

No, the whole doesn't. No, it's done. No, it don't. Well, that's what 84 ain't home, lads, eh? Well, said, Gritow. Well, Tom to maybe almost die in a drain, eh? Be cool, be cool. Okay. You enter District 84, and Torbeck guides you once more to the entrance to the drains. You descend into the stinking depths and follow Torbeck's guidance through the maze of sewers, pipes, and processing pathways to the section of the drain beneath.

the Greenlight District. What surprises you is that Nexus security is not guarding or patrolling down here like they were when you left. It seems as if the Hellhound Massacre scared them off, along with the urban legends about the sewers. As expected, the temperature rises more and more until it becomes sweltering as you get beneath the Toulouseum plants of District 87. And finally, you arrive at the ramshackle barricades of the makeshift settlement of the hellhole. It's not much longer until you make your way towards the seven hells, where Blarby is looking absolutely distraught. As you come up to this place, you see that she is running around the perimeter of this place. She's looking, picking up the same rocks, the same turned over

large barrels and just panicking, sweating profusely, all the while chewing on her lips, and blowing the biggest Blarby bubbles you've ever seen, as she is just panicked. Does it look like anyone else is assisting, or is she alone in this effort? It is oddly strange. It is oddly quiet. Okay.

As soon as we spy Blarby, I will race forward. Larvin, Blarby, we're here. We're here. Oh, God. Oh, my God. Barbie, is everything all right? What's happened? No, everything is not all right.

Anything over the phone, except that perhaps Mila was gone. It sounds like she is, but what, you said you fell asleep and she's just missing? We don't know where she is. Yeah, I won't. She left a note. She left this cute little note.

May I see the note? Sure, and she hands it to you, and you can see that it's written in this, this loopy childlike scrawl, and it doesn't say much, but most of it is, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. This is all my fault. I have to fix this.

I'm headed back to the hospital and I won't be your problem anymore. Thank you for everything that you've done. I'll miss you. I read this out loud as I'm absorbing it. I don't read it all the way through and then speak it. I speak it as I'm reading it for the first time. There's a second sheet. And as you turn to the second sheet, you see that she's drawn all of you as a little family.

And it says with love, Mila, never forget. I show off the image and... It's just awful. It's the worst. She must have run away. This is... I was worried that she'd been kidnapped. She took a knife. Who told her that a kid could have a knife?

Warby, all right? It's all right. Dial it back a notch. It ain't your fault, all right? No, it's not all right. She's not your fault. She stole a gnaw from the ball? This could have happened to anyone, and Milo was clearly determined to wait until you were asleep to leave.

Staying up, I... It says right here that she intended to go to the hospital, so she's anywhere between here and wherever the nearest hospital that Mila would think to go to, it'd be. I can't even imagine. She'd probably just pick a direction and then hope that she'd run into the place. I can't imagine she knows how to get back there, given everything going on with the mind, but she didn't take a medicine. and with it, did she? No, no, she didn't. And then Murdafe and the rest, they went off to look for her, but I didn't, I didn't have

anything to give them. And so they were following a cold trail, but, but I, I found this after they left. And she holds up Hootie. I'll take a step forward and say, uh, Barbie, that's, that's perfect. Listen, when I, when I used to run back with the hounds, my job was to track. down take care of the people who chose to run away I can find her you just got to give me the doll yeah yeah cool oh course I don't go hooty with her no but at least she has enough as a small kid she's armed we're gonna find her everything's gonna be all right

and I will step probably she needs the knife and what the hell is closer to Barbie I'll put an arm around her and I will and I'll try to comfort comfort her for as long as she's upset. Oh, Ross, I, I, I'm so sorry. You're okay. I had one job. I was just supposed to keep the little ones safe. You had two jobs.

You did one of them expertly. You gave me this lucky scruffy, and I'm, I'm, uh, scrunchy, and I'm, I'm back. We all survived. Everything's fine. I'm so glad you're safe. I don't want, I don't want my panic over the little one to make you think that I. No, no, we have much to do. you're panicking over the right thing.

If I were in your shoes, I'd be upset too, but we're going to solve this problem together, and we're all here now. I was truly concerned that she had been kidnapped on the spot, but there's a chance now. There's hope. How did she... I just... These tunnels, they're dangerous.

I know, I know, and we will sniff her out, if I had to guess. I'm mostly concerned on account of... I wouldn't normally be, frankly, anything down here could threaten her, But what you made her? She's a sitting duck, eh? At least she's got a knife.

That stuff was pretty strong, right? You think she's like... Hey, that smell? That's good thinking! You think she's totally turned off? She can't wield any kind of power? I don't know. I just don't know. I mean, it's possible if the medicine,

work as I intended, you're right. I mean, she won't have too much access to blowing people's heads off, but... I hate to say this, but... I don't know how he fell asleep. I hate to blame her, but I think I think she did something in my brain. So that's the thing, right?

It's... For her to get out of here, out of this place, unnoticed. I have to imagine it wasn't just through savvy and wit. Yeah. It's also perhaps an explanation for the sudden change of heart. I just don't know. She was so... When we left, she was so nice.

We had a very nice. a chat and we promised me to be back. That's not even the worst part. And she moves over to a pile of rubbish. The murder thing found this when they were bringing one of the drunk friends back from a night out partying in the tubes. These have been put up all over the place

and she holds up a missing child paper. with a reward, a very large reward on the bottom. If anyone finds her, if anyone finds her, they're gonna take it or whoever this is, whoever's number this is. She'll be recognized more easily with that advertisement out and there's games after there is the, the, she's not looking as sallow and she's looking healthy now that,

Yeah, now that she's being taken care of, but you can tell it's her in this picture. All right, listen, don't worry, all right? We're going to figure this out. We're going to find her. We'll track her down. We'll bring her back. We'll straighten this whole thing out, all right? Yeah.

It's not your fault, Blabby. No, it's not. No, I mean, you're just a bartender. I'll do respect. I'm just disappointed that Doomhound could have let this happen. Oh, yeah. You should have heard. You should have heard him howling when he found out she was gone.

I can't believe you're doing hell. They created such a fast friendship. You're a guest in this place. It's not your responsibility to keep an eye on things. No, they're all, they're all feeling it too. It's just, I mean, over night. She changed in my... Were you keeping an eye on her where she's sleeping?

Did it seem like she had any bad dreams? Not that I'm not. I could not that I could tell. She seemed like she was doing fine. We're all playing games. She was worried about you guys. I could tell it was weighing on her. I mean, oh gosh.

What are you thinking, Grico? Exactly what I'm thinking. Right, Gregor? She was. She was. She was hiding it. Why the change of heart, Grico? That's what I'm saying.

I just, we noticed she had that one dream and she blew the whole sort off of the star. and she was saying that she was sorry. She said that she was sorry here. I would have bet my sneaker collection that she wouldn't have run away like this. When we left her, she was safe. She was with Blarby.

She was warming to us like a family. And she decides to suddenly say, I'm sorry, and get up and sneak away in the night. That doesn't seem like her at all. While this entire conversation is going on, I would be spending time with this. stuffed animal and trying to see what kind of scent I can pull from it and then see if it's familiar to Mila and what I can glean from spending, you know, while this entire conversation

is going on, I'm- Roll a perception check for me. As I'm thinking about this, I would also like to try to evaluate whether or not I feel the card is genuine. I'm questioning everything. the letter that she left. I want to look at it very closely and try to determine if she was kidnapped and a forgery was left as a deception

to, I'm looking under every stone at this point. Frost is trying his best to see through something to find you. Roll an insight check for me. Thank you. 22. Oh, easily with a 22. You hold Hooty up to your

up to your nose and you take in a big inhale. And there are a myriad of sense that you have to untangle before you're able to get to the one that you very clearly associate with Mila. And as you have that at the forefront of your mind, you begin to move around this space. And it's almost as if in your mind's eye, you can see these trails of sense going off in different directions. You pick up on the scent of murder fang and um uh and um gore howl is that we're calling doom house sorry doom don't forget greggie and greggie um as you uh you pick up these scents that you recognize and you see as they are looping all throughout this space you see um it's it's almost like you can envision um the lapse that blarby has made around the exterior of this place um over

overturning everything, trying to find any sign of Mila. And then you catch the scent, Mila scent. And where the hellhounds went off in one direction, Mila scent goes off in another. I'll take a minute. I'll take a deep breath. I've got it. And I lad, too, bank.

Are we ready? You take a couple more minutes with this. letter crossed. And you, though you've never seen anything that she's written before, as you're looking at this, you can, you see the tiny tear stains on the parchment as she was, as she was writing this. You see the shaking of her little hand as she, as she was trying to form these words, the little misspellings, the extra R's, the, um, all of the missing punctual.

and you see a tiny smudge that clearly could have only been made with a tiny palm. Okay. And it's very clear to you that this was, that this was written by Mila. I feel pretty confident about that. And I don't voice that thought. I just have taken the time to look at the letter more closely. And seeing that everyone is ready to follow Torbeck and his witcher senses, I will, I will quickly turn to Blarby.

Here, I need you to take care of this. I'm going to hand her my pack, and keep this safe. It's got some nice clothes in it that we got on the upper side. And also, and I'll go through the duffel bag. I got you this candy and this rope. This is for you as a thank you for everything that you've done. And you have earned it. I know that you might not feel that way right now,

but you've done a tremendous amount more than you needed to. And thank you, Blasley. Thank you. We will, we will, thank you. That should do this. Well, you're not putting this up in our room. Oh, yeah, sure, sure, sure. Just leave everything here.

I'll get it all this days. A couple roadies while we go. Oh, we should run, we should run. I didn't even drink the other beer. Here's it Chris people. Oh, I need that. She pops it immediately and she chugs it. We'll be back.

Stay safe, stay here, and if you get any messages or you have any updates, please text me. I know signal hasn't been very good as late, but it does arrive in time. Come on, lover boy. Blobby, I owe you another one. Can you grab her medicine for me? I should have it on me just in case.

Sure, I got it on me right here. And she moves her fanny pack around to the front and she unzips it and she pulls out the medicine and passes it over to you. All right. Hopefully I won't need this. There's no stealth, flage. We run.

As fast as we can without falling into any kind of toxic ooze. We fucking run and we yell for her. She doesn't know the area, she's just a little kid. So hopefully we can catch up quick. Stay close. Here we go. Lead the way. And I take off. I started a brisk jock.

Mata! And I am screaming, Mata! Torbeck. Yeah. You follow the scent of Mila. Did I have you roll a survival check? Okay. Because I'm gonna have you roll one.

Okay. Is it advantage because he has the scent? You know what? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It will be. So you have... That's an assist. Right? You have found the trail, but I need you to keep the trail.

I roll 14 or 13, just like it in 18. Oh, yeah. Not bad. Not bad at all. Hello, Mila's scent, which oftentimes gets overpowered by the stench and smells of the drain, but you were able to guide your friends on the path that Mila took out towards the direction that you took

to reach the hellhole. But then the scent continues off towards a side pipe that is so narrow you need to crouch to travel through it. This way down there. The path leads to an overflow tunnel, and you see a flashing glow in the darkness ahead. It is bright and colorful, and as you approach, you realize there's a small sneaker with lights flashing in the heel.

You immediately recognize it as meelas. There, see it quickly. Come on. Come on. I'm gonna run right up to it and grab it. I'm not thinking about any kind of evidence. I'm gonna grab it. Is this the sneaker, the frost? It looks very much like the sneaker.

like the sneaker that Frost gave to. Meena! Your voice echoes back towards you from the tunnel. I check to make sure the shoe is actually hers. Yeah, roll a perception check for me. I'm just scanning. I appreciate Grico's yelling and I understand its prudence, but I am deeply concerned.

You're all standing there looking around. Grico's shouts are echoing back towards you. The only sound in this darkened tunnel the only light, the fading blinking of this sneaker, it seems like it's been blinking for a while and the light is slowly starting to dim over time. As you begin to sniff, to make sure that you're in the right direction

and immediately you pick up on the scent again, but not just one scent. There's another scent that's now mingling with Milas, a scent that is terrifyingly familiar. Clegg. I will, I'll be holding. holding this, oh shit. I'll be holding this speaker and I'll

and I'll stop. I'll straighten up and I'll look at the rest of the crew and I'll say, Clegg. What? Do we know who Clegg is? We don't know who Clegg is, do it? Oh.

We would have flipped. Yeah, you guys, you got to film. You just don't know what it looks like. You've seen him, right? But like, you're aware of what that. We've heard about everything. Oh, sure. He might be slightly taken it back.

Grico and I are 45. Frost let you know about, you know, the partially slitting of his throat. Oh, yes, it was, absolutely. I let the, the sneaker fall to the ground, and I turn and I bellow. Clegg! Bastard, you bastard, you bastard.

This is not good. No, well, hey, he gotcha? He's a fucking man here. He's desperate. If he knew it about the ransom, it would all be over. Well, hold on, hold on, hold on. Look, the good news is that you're on a trail,

All right, just keep going. And maybe he just happened to take this way too. Right? Maybe it could just be a coincidence. There's no sign she's been hurt yet, right? I try to focus, and I try to think about what Mr. K is saying, and I try to think about where her scent is leading and now trying to pick up on this new scent to see if I can see

if I can also follow where Clegg might have gone to. I'll have you roll another perception check. Just follow Mila's scent. Even if he's got her, we can't keep shouting, through the tunnels, man. If he has her, surprise is gonna be our best element if we gotta deal with this dude.

If he's as bad as you gotta say. No more running and back to the south, I ain't quite agree. You're at advantage for this. Oh, okay. Because you have the shoe with both of their sense, you have the, you have a hooty with her scent. You've got enough to make this easier for you to manage. The one that you're thinking of is that it's when I,

when an ally I see me than 30 feet, he fails at D20. Oh, I don't know. This is just proficiency in the inside perception. Which has been helped. Yeah, you're right. I just adding to it. My high roll is a 12, unfortunately, a little bit lower this time. But I'm a wild up.

Right, you're riled up. I think with a 12, that is enough. It just takes you significantly longer than you would expect. You are, you sniff around and you follow the scent, but you are, you are, you are, so overwhelmed with what this could possibly mean, the ramifications of what it means if Clegg has found Mila in these tunnels, that you occasionally get lost in your own thoughts and you drop the scent and you have to backtrack. And what should have taken you, maybe 10 minutes, takes you 30. Okay. Yeah, that's like that. But you do follow the scent until

you see a glint in the darkness. As you approach, you see makeshift bedding made of bloody newspaper and cloth, empty whiskey bottles scattered about. This must have been where Clegg was sleeping after his exile. And there, at the top of the pile of bloody newspapers is a missing child's advertisement

that the same exact one that Blarby had just recently shown you. But there is blood. There is blood. I would immediately go for the blood and sniff it to see then if there's more of it, maybe a trail or even just anything, or if it's just localized in this spot. That would seem weird to me, but I would immediately, or lock onto this blood, I think.

Is it the blood from when you beat the shit out of it? Yeah, yeah. I mean, I would see how old it is, right? I think I would immediately lock onto the scent of blood. Roll another perception check for me, please. Oh, much better. I'm feeling helpless. I have no way to help.

You, I'm just going to pop. You immediately smell the scent of iron and your eyes focus on the blood. And you see that this is very clearly recent. It's far too recent to be the blood from the wounds that you administered to Clegg. The blood is relatively recent. It's fresh. You can smell both Mila and Clegg here. And as you get closer to the blood, it's nearly impossible to disentang. those scents because you see on the ground

the small knife that Mila had stolen, covered, coated in dried blood. Does the blood smell like Mila scent or Klexsen? It's hard to tell. They're intermingling. The girl was here and someone was stabbed. I can't tell exactly whose blood this is. You should have banished him, Tollman. You should have just killed him out there!

there's no way to know that this is going to happen. This is a, one in a million gems. I should have been put down. Hey, listen, we can't worry about what it could all, right?

Right. Mila still needs us. She's ahead of us. You got dissent. Maybe she's in danger. It's almost certain he has her. It's almost certain he's trying to turn her in. All right.

Look at this right here. He has the missing girl report. He probably knew who the fuck she was. Or at least recognize her to this. All right? He's trying to pay. He's trying to get. get a payday. Which means she's probably hopefully still alive. Exactly right. I know that

Nuff, that's all probably got him. Maybe, maybe she got him in the heart. Maybe she called him the throat and he's on his way out. Maybe a couple more steps will see his dead body and her standing over him, all right? Maybe, maybe, maybe. Let's get the knife. Let's make sure that we've covered everything and then Torbeck. Can you follow the scent? Yeah, I'm just trying to focus on this Indram Mingold's scent now, even though I can't distinguish between the two. Presumably they are together, and I'm trying to lock onto the singular mixture of sense to follow. I will keep your perception check for that role. Thank you.

As you are choosing to leave and continue on. Oh, yeah. Yeah, there's nothing here that I can see immediately that I give a shit about. Immediately. Seems like they've left. Yeah, immediately you're able to tell that. that the co-mingled sense of Clegg and Mila continue deeper into the sewer system.

As you follow the sense through the pipes and tunnels, ahead you see even more bright red. As your stomach sinks, you realize that there are larger puddles of fresh blood. As you continue to follow it, you are able to see that this blood couldn't have been shed more than an hour ago. I'm just, I'm sticking to this trail.

Would I get this sense, though, that the amount of blood that we're seeing, would it be too much for a little girl? Or is it still not clear? I would say it's not clear. Looking at it, once again, I'll use your same perception check. Looking at it, you are, you can very clearly see there's only one trail of footprints. And they're very much too large to be a small girl. And as these footprints are making their way through this space,

the blood is dripping in tandem with them. Okay. And so it almost looks like something, something that Clegg is carrying is potentially bleeding. With every step that is taken, blood is being dropped. And so it almost looks like, I would say that to you. It's too hard to tell. I'm not gonna say anything to the guys

because I don't wanna worry them. And I'm not certain of what I'm seeing. So I don't, I don't want to make an assumption and like set Bricko off or upset Frost or anything like that. So I'm gonna keep following this trail at the best of my ability, but I pick up the pace.

Like I am hustling. You do, you invest, you take the time to investigate the scene, but you notice that there are more drops of fresh blood ahead. I would like take a look at Grico and I'll say, look, I mean, he's bleeding like a stuck pig.

That's how I made you gonna get a grue. Even if, you know, He does have her, and we don't know if he does or not, right? Like, I mean, he might just bleed out, and she'll just scamper away. I'm sure she's fine. All the mate was just breaking, was doing a little bit of be a knee, and I don't mean baking and eggs, and he nicked his leg on a, on a, on a, on a, piece of broken glass.

He was dead an hour later. Oh, my God. Well, yeah, maybe that's what happened to him. Holy shit. Is that true? He's going to be false. It's going to be one. Let's get to keep.

Just everyone keep their voices down. Let's see if we can sneak up on him if he's still alive. If not, we'll find Mila at the end of this. I am just gonna sprint though. I'm using every six seconds. I'm not stealing. I am not yelling at me. I am discouraged.

I am sprinting. I'm moving however fast. Mechanically. We're cooking. Yeah, I'm following them. From fresh pool of blood to fresh pool of blood, the bloody trail guides you deeper into the drain. And you realize that it is leading you to the super

beneath the industrial district by the abandoned wharf, straight into Molaya territory. The pipe opens up to a huge cylindrical chamber, which had once been a waste management chamber used to house the waste from the processing of countless fish and other creatures. Now, however, it's filled with toxic sludge from the underhanded dumping from the various factories in the neighborhood above. The bubbling acidic waste is slick and sheaning with a pearlescent hue, almost filling the space with a gyrating rainbow glow. Your attention is drawn upward as you see something moving. High on a ladder, several dozen feet above you is Clegg, a bloody stab wound on his leg as he struggles to climb up the metal rungs,

wrestling with a squirming meala in his grasp. He is heading towards the surface. The moment that I see him, oh fuck. He puts his hand over her mouth and continues to try and wrestle with her. He looks down and you can still see the wound on the side of his mouth that was put there by murder fang as he opens his mouth and lets out a laugh as he continues to make his way up.

Not concerned, he's so significantly high above you, you are not a threat to him. I whip out from the back of my belt, what starts out, it looks almost like a small thing that wraps around my hand and expands out, And it takes the shape of what almost looks like a grenade launcher. And I pointed it up at him. And I just shut up.

Hey, you drop that kid or you're coming down hard. You whistle you. He blew you up. You see him begin to move up a little more. Mila's wriggling in his arms as he has one of his hands firmly clasped around her mouth as he tries to make his way up. But as you shout this, and you see as he looks over his shoulder and sees the, you said it's a gun?

It looks almost like a giant triple-barreled grenade launcher. Oh, a grenade launcher. Well, it's like a giant gun. It's like a big old gun. It's a big old gun. It's a big old gun. It's a big old gun. It's a big old gun.

It's a big old gun. It's just one in the entire three-barreled lots of. But it looks like it shoots massive like canisters. Gotcha. And as he sees this aimed at him. There's a nerve gun that does that. It's really cool. This fully catches his attention.

As you fully make yourself known to him, the Lika, hangs off the ladder with a maddened look in his eye. He clutches Mila around the neck, his sharpened claws dangerously close to her throat. His snarling words bark out and echo through the metallic chamber. One step forward. Now I tear the girl's throat out. I'm getting her to Mulnoy and I'm getting that bounty.

You're not stopping me, Torbek. And you see the claws digging into her throat. You see, even from this distance, you can see the. darkened spots where little tiny droplets of blood are beginning to form. I pointed him when he mentions me and I say, I spared you, Clank. Your life is mine. I own you. You've crossed the line.

You owe nothing. I'm getting my life back and I'm doing it with her. You and I both know you're not leaving the drain of life. the drain alive. You make one motion and I'll rip her throat out. I'll do it. You took everything from me. You're not gonna see a damn set.

If you do that, they want her alive. You rip her throat out, and next thing it happens is your throat comes out. He, I'll roll a persuasion check at advantage for that one. In this moment, as they're aiming their weapons, I'm sort of edging a little closer. I'm sort of moving, moving to the aside. I'm being very, very still and I'm not, I'm not being aggressive. But each of my

companions in turn will hear my voice. If Milan drops, I think I can get to her in time. I just need to get within 60 feet of her or so, and I may be able to reach out and catch her with my mind. Are you talking openly to us or is this in the mind? This isn't telepathically. Can we answer you? Yes, you can. I'll say this, this moment saying this, well, tell me what Tell me what your role is first. I got a 27. I got a natural 20. You immediately see the color drain from his face as he realizes that what you've said to him is indisputable,

that he does need this girl alive, but that's his bargaining chip. He is breathing heavy. He's growling. You can still see his claws digging into her neck. And you see as he looks like he's about to say something to you, but he leans down and he begins to growl and speak quietly enough only to Mila. You see her entire body go rigid with fear as whatever he's saying to her is imperceptible to you.

As Frost says this to you in this moment. If you can catch them, I can drop them off that ladder, I think. Just try not to hit Mila and I'll be able to stop her from colliding with the ground or falling into the slunch. You guys, better be fucking careful. Can we all talk to each other? Or is it like a one way? I would say you-

It's me a real-A- Also, you better be fucking careful. Yeah, I- This ain't gonna end the way you think it will, Clegg. You, this is all happening in a moment as he has this realization, you communicate to each other.

You see Mila go rigid and then in a split second, he drops for a moment and then lunges forward, trying to bridge the gap between him in the very, very top. And he, with one arm, he's got her on one arm, his claws digging into her neck,

he grabs on to the final, the final rung. It is about to pull himself over as his fingers slip, coated in the blood from his very own leg, as Mila bites down on his hand and lets out a scream. The both of them begin to plummet.

Clegg's maddening eyes go wide with surprise, is his hands and feet slip, both he and Mila falling. She manages to squirm out of his grasp, the shock of the fall preventing him from keeping her firmly clutched to him. Both Clegg and Meila are plummeting towards the acid below. What do you do?

I immediately jump into action. I'm going to, with a focus that you perhaps have never seen, I am going to jump immediately over the, not even thinking, over the toxicity all around us and catch myself with my psionic abilities. I'm going to unleash that explosive power within me to fly.

And I am going to sprint forward 120 feet in six seconds. It's like whenever Superman jumps into the air and there's that sonic boom moment where I just like, I lift up into the air and then and I'm going to super sonic try to catch her in midair before she hits the ground. It's almost as if time has slowed down. Gideon, that as you, as you readied your weapon,

was the catalyst that caused Kleg to panic enough to lunge himself forward, not thinking about the slick grip that he would have on these rungs, as all of this begins to happen in milliseconds. But for you, Frost, everything is slow as you propel yourself forward and launch yourself into the air. And with quick movements, you are able to snatch Mila out of the air just in time as she screams in terror, mere feet above the bubbling waist. Clegg, however, is gnashing and barking all the way down. Before his exclamations are suddenly replaced by a sicker.

crack. His back lands hard on a steel railing. Oh. For just a moment before his crumpled form crashes into the toxic ooze with a splash. His form hisses as it begins to dissolve and sink beneath the surface. Mila clutches to you. I will grab her. She is screaming. Just unending screams. When I pivot in order to not collide with the wall because I beeline straight to her.

And so there's this moment where I'm flying but basically running along the on the wall trying to slow down as I grip her screaming. She's just, she's screaming and, and holding on to you. Hold on to me, hold on to me. She's pulling on to you a little too tight. You can feel her tiny little nails digging into you, but she is, she is very clearly distraught. I would have, as soon as Mila had, would fall,

I will use my second level spell slot. And I would have whipped around my guitar and with a wailing, with this cool guitar riff, I'm gonna cast Misty Step as I burst forward, but you just rocket past me. As I am going, and I see you, as I see you grab her. And I'm gonna think all of us who win since we hear fucking clicks. Oh, yeah. Snap.

Oh, wow. I don't even hear it. As soon as I finish the distance, obviously my dad instinct is kicking in. As I will start playing that kind of like, um, like a simple riff that I've played her before. I'm like, she's got a smart and it seems to me, reminds me, as I would play a suddenly turning it into a lullaby, despite the horrid echoing of the snapping spine.

And I'm going to try to cast calm emotions from my global and your future. Fearing the music and recognizing that Grico is very near me, I will gently lift myself away from the wall and from the... You are purged precariously close to this. pool of acid. Yeah, yeah. I've come to rest, but Mila's still screaming and squirming, and I jump towards you and slowly

fly down to land by your side where I can bring you Milas and listen more closely to your melody. And I would basically do it like an unplugged version with my electric car. Sounds a little tinny. Sounds a little tinny. It's perfect. But it's kind of like going it into a lullaby as I will try to sing what I would have

sung to Loreline, when she was feeling like trying to calm her down, perhaps having a violent episode in her sickness. As I will use my once-a-day calm emotions in an attempt to cast it on her. You're going to be okay. You're going to be okay. I'm trying to comfort Mila as she's listening to this music, and I'm looking to my companions to see what they're doing, where they are as I let Grico try to calm this poor girl. I'll say what I'm doing.

Though this is chaos. Oh, absolutely. But Torbett is focused on one thing and one thing only, and it's the slowly dissolving body of Clegg. As I just watch as he sinks into this toxic ooze, and I think to myself, there's no place in Agatose for him. You watch as with a final pop, his hand, the last remnant of his flesh sinks down beneath his.

the goop of this toxic waste. And you know that, just from the smell of this place, that not a single piece of him will ever be found. And I'm just, that's what I'm doing. I saw the girl was saved and frosted his thing. And everybody's like, you're trying to calm. I'm just, I'm just thinking about Clegg and she okay?

How does your calm emotions? How is that working, Rico? That was fucking intense. Oh, my God. Technically, each humanoid in a 20-foot radius sphere, which would probably just be the three of us. Must a teen on Christmas saving, thorough be affected by one of the following effects.

Immunity to charmed and frightened conditions. Ooh. So to suppress the frightened. And there's one about basically being hostile or indifferent. So I am trying to suppress her fear the best that I can and perhaps also calm our heart rates. I will be enjoying the music and I will be holding a meal. If it feels like she wants to run to Grico

or if she wants me to let her go, I certainly will. But I'm holding on to her because I have a kinship with her spirit, us having gone through so much of the same experimentation and uncertainty and our minds sharing so many of the same patterns. I am grieving along with her, I'm sure, experiencing some of the same kinds of fears that she ran away about, even if I'm perhaps a little older.

She is screaming at the top of her lungs still as she is clawing into you. She is horrified. She is scared. As, Grico, you begin to play this song and almost instantaneously frost. You feel her limbs turned to jelly in your arms as she collapses against you, breathing heavily,

but no longer screaming, a gentle whimper against your shoulder as she begins to sob quietly. Grico, you look on as you see Frost patting her back and you see that she is covered in dirt, covered in dried blood, very clearly Clegg's blood. As Frost moves her further away, from this caustic, from this caustic pit.

Her little legs dangling there, only one shoe remaining on her feet. The other one is a dirty, damp sock as you move her back towards everyone else. But she is, she is at first not saying anything. And then gently you begin to hear, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I know, I know.

You're all right, you're all right. Trouble, I'm sorry, Frost. We're just glad you're safe and I promise everything's gonna be okay. Don't don't feel the need to apologize. Just we're so glad that you're saying. You were very brave. You managed to- I stabbed him.

Yes, yes. We found the trail. That's how we were able to catch up to you. Everything's gonna be all right. Did she, oh, sorry, go ahead. Does she look hurt at all? Or is it clear that that was like Clegg bleeding? It was very clear that it's Clegg bleeding.

You see some scratches. You see a couple of bruises from where she's falling. from where she's fallen down, tried to escape. He probably grabbed her. But there are no, like, it's definitely not, you don't see any like knife wounds or any like intentional harming in that way. It all appears to be accidental wounds from her capture.

I'm gonna let you down now. Just hold, hold on. Did I kill him cause I beat him and then we fell? Was it my, I killed the top one? No, no, no, no, you didn't kill him. It was the acid that did that. It's all right. possible is that ringling.

I'll just, probably a little combination, a little columnite, calling me, but hey, you're all right, we're not, man. She rushes over and immediately gives you the biggest hug. Hey, you found me. Hey, you're all right, we're all right. We're all together, just like, just luck in the lounge, eh? And I'll look at Gideon, and I'll say,

well, don't you just make triple quadruple short and nothing comes back up, right? Yeah, yeah, all right. All right. Go to the beachhead of the acid and just, I'll drop, I'll drop both my turrets. You walk right up to me. Yeah, I just nodded you.

Hey, what's up? I'll drop both my turrets right at the beach head. They're set to auto-lock. I would say you got one of them angled up towards the exit to this place, then another one down the tunnel that you came and that way both are guarded should anyone or anything make their way in this direction. I am glad to have comforted Mila and I feel for her.

And I know that she's now being comforted by Rico and that things are settling down. We aren't in any immediate danger. And the initial sprint, the surge of that psionic energy is still coursing through me, but balanced in a way that I've never experienced. Some combination of the experiences that have happened over the last few days and the pills that I've taken in what order, perhaps a combination of the alcohol I have in my system. I don't know what it is, but I'm able to lift off the ground again. And for the next few minutes, I...

He's entered a flow state. Oh, my shit. I seem to be able to control my movement in the air in a way that I've never been able to. And this is shocking to me. And so I experiment with that a little bit. I'm not trying to show off or show the others, but for a moment, I'm just kind of amazed by this thing that's unlocked within me before I settled down and continue to be with the rest of the group, but I'm still grappling with what just happened

when I shot off to save Milo. Okay, hold on, careful, Frost, not so close to the asset, all right? Is that you doing that? With your mind? Yes, I'm in complete control. I seem to be able to- That was pretty unbelievable, man.

Moose through the air. And you had pills today, didn't you? I had two pills. Even in the last few hours, I had pills. Speaking of that, Mr. Krumman, No. No. No. You're not in trouble, Mela. We're gonna have to figure out why you, why you wanted to run away from the hellhounds and do this. I mean, you put yourself in danger, but...

I was going to go back to the hospitals and the family would not be in trouble anymore. Being that I would be the reason you are all dead. Look, look, trust me, if anyone's gonna be the reason that we're all dead, it's me, okay? Don't feel bad about that. No, it wasn't your fault. It was me. No, I promise you, it's my fault. It's always me.

No, I was gonna die, right? Maybe I should leave with that. All right, look, and you didn't kill Clegg either. I think Gid just spooked him. I mean, look, you pouring that big thing at him. I'd be spooked if that happened to me. Earth is quite the conversational list. I mean, she just, well, that's this here.

That's my giant, you know. Mela, you're not in trouble. Can I pull the trigger? If you want to Shoot him in a minute, yeah, no, he might turn into a mutant down there and give her the gun. Yeah, hey, you don't want it. It's bigger than she is.

It's like, absolutely. Everybody takes, you take three steps back from the edge. I'll kick her up. Three of wings around in a circle. Where am I? Well, I'll kick out like a little stand that she can kind of place it on and I'll balance it right at the, at the acid pools.

And I'm gonna, uh, I have earplugs on a musician. And so I'm gonna basically make sure that she has ear plugs in. And I'm like, he was rocked down there. I mean, I mean, I think the railing gone on, but just make sure, me a lot. All right, now listen, kiddo. I mean, I built the thing, so it doesn't kick hard, but for you, it's going to kick like a mule. So hang on tight. I can't believe what you're doing this.

Don't keep it on, keep it on your cheek, but not against your eye, all right? This is an extremely irresponsible. Your body's going to move with the recoil, all right? So when you pull the trigger and it's just five ounces of pressure, all right? That's all you need, and it'll go off. What does recoil mean? Whatever you do. You're about to find that.

When you pull the. the trigger, make sure you release the trigger. Otherwise, you're gonna end up being like a, like you're shooting a grenade launcher in Golden Eye on Temple level. He's got something wrong going on with his mind right now. Don't worry about him. He's been through a lot in the last two hours, all right?

Make sure, make sure, Gideon, you stay in the Honda. So I just, and she swings it over. No, no swinging it around, all right? No, you need, we're down range right now, right? Because like, ass is like, whoop a hot below it, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. She's got appointed, just occasionally she swings.

Yeah, it plugs hand is slowly going into the acid still. All right, just shoot right there, pull the trigger. Right now? Well, if you want to, man, you want her to. She pulled it and literally flies backward. That's recoil. Oh, my God! You're sitting on the ground.

She's looking at that bell up. It was really cool. Yeah, and there'd be like a pretty, like, probably like a big spray of acid that we like. No, it rains down acid. And massive show that we don't have any umbrellas. No, I would say it is. Everybody's dead.

No, it's a little on the other side. Let's stop a woman now. All right. Well, fun fact, you got to shoot that before I did. That's very funny. I'm really dangerous. Hell yeah, you are. See, Mila?

Now, now we're sure that he's not going to hurt nobody no more. You know that he also hurt Torvecqqqqqqqqqq. a lot for quite a long time and then right door back he was he was so mean i was walking down the tunnel and he he came out of the side and he said hello would you like a candy and i said no i don't take candies from people i don't know and then i said oh wait you're that little bitch that got a beat up in that little in that little bit and then he laid see you were very brave and you even stabbed him almost fatally. I did right and he just went,

then I dragged down. And, and Mila, I'll think that if you hadn't stabbed them, we wouldn't have been able to catch up with you. But am I in trouble because I used the bad word? Mila, you'll be in trouble when you do things intentionally malevolent. I did say it intentionally and in the bad way because he was so mean to do more back. But you were being brave and you were standing up to a bully. That is a very different thing.

and when you understand the difference, then you'll know that you weren't in trouble now. I felt really guilty after work. You ain't in trouble, kid, all right? You ain't in trouble. We just gotta get you out of here. Right now we're standing next to a pile of acid and there's God dissolving into it, right?

I can't come with you. And Molina's secret base is probably right above us, okay? This is the worst possible place to be having this conference. At least in the neighborhood, all right? We need to get you back. Blarby's very worried about you too and we have to go back.

Why do you think you can't go back? Hey, take a hit of this, by the way, all right? Just breathe in here. What are? It's a breather. It's gonna make you feel better, right? Okay. And so, you know, bad dreams?

We'll cast cure wounds on it. Nice. Oh, nice. With the breathing mask that I used on, we go and toward back. Okay, me like, little one. Hey, dreams, it's all just fancy. They all come true.

And even if it was sort of a prophecy, you know, my uncle Grobo, he used to have a saying about prophecy it was like a treacherous woman. Actually, no, I shouldn't tell you that. Sorry. It's not gonna come true. It's nothing to be afraid of.

Whatever you saw, it's just your mom playing tricks. And your mom's been through a lot over the last couple days. So it's hard to tell what's real. You don't have to worry about none of that. No matter what you saw, even if it was some sort of premonitions, we're gonna take care of it. You know what? Everything's gonna be all right.

Remember, Milo? What do I keep telling you? Everything's gonna be okay. And if it's not, we're gonna make it okay. There's six of us together, there's seven, we plobbing. I hope I did the eight of us with Hooty. All right. But my dreams like to come true.

And she looks to Frost. Don't yours? We can start a freaking carnival. I'll be honest, I don't dream like you do. Mela. We, many shared experiences and I have had dreams, but... So I'm just the broken one alone. No, no, that is not the case.

Eventually, as you grow up, look, look, watch me, and I will lift her up, and I will pull her, and for the last few moments that my magic lass, I will float with her, five, ten, ten, in the air, letting her experience this. I am able to do this because I've been able to get control over my abilities. And when we master these things, it's not broken. There's a tremendous power within you. Your clairvoyance, your ability to see through your dreams when you sleep may feel like a burden now, and it may feel like you're looking at terrible things,

but I promise you, on the other side of that door, there's magic like this. You see? I don't want to hurt you. I don't want to hurt any of you. You're my family. You're all I have now. Mila, when I get upset, I... Sometimes I lose control and I'll be honest.

I feel a tremendous amount of guilt and shame when I... Catch my friends in the Crossfire. But there's a tremendous amount of trust. between all of us and you're still my friends no matter how your power sway you or what happens I will still be your friend no matter what you understand and I promise you I don't want to be in this world without you now come here I'm gonna hug her you don't have to be as long as you stay with us all right no more running away

You will keep Mila even though it is dangerous for you to do so? We keep all of each other, even though it is dangerous to do so. We all have our own dangers. And I hope you want to keep me around just as much as I'm telling you that I want you around. You understand? Okay. Come on. I'm going to land with her. I won't run away again, but you have to promise.

that he won't die. I promise not to die. Promise? Yes, now let's have this discussion when we're not directly underneath. By sludge. Yes. And the dead man. Yes, the smell is just out of control. Potentially horrible, you know, mute monsters and all that.

We should probably start heading back. But speaking of mean people, and look, first of all, I'm not going to let you hurt anybody, all right? And second of all... You won't die, Mr. Crummy? Well, I'm... You have to promise that you're not going to die, Crumby. Say yes, man.

She's a kid. Just say you're not going to die. I promise. I will not die. However unlikely that outcome may be. I'm really tired. Me too. I do have one question, Milo.

During all of that, did you ever think about making Clegg's head explode? No, I thought about stabbing him in his butt cheeks. Did you ever like try to make his head explode or like, you know, that, that Monia felt that, you know, you... I didn't... No, I don't try to make anyone's head explode. I got very, very scared. Did you feel the same kind of feelings? Yes, but it felt like I was underwater a little. All right. I'll make a note of that. That's good.

You know, I never had someone walk me through it when I was Mila's age. I never had anyone focus me and the outbursts have been very chaotic. With some more mindfulness, perhaps Mila, you might be able to more safely unlock one's inner magic. I'm gonna need you to make a log of every pill you took and the exact time you did over the last 48 hours for me, all right? Easy enough. No rush.

It's gonna fuck out of here. I turn around. I just like start walking. I have no idea where I'm going. I'm trying to head back to the fucking... I'll wait for... Torbett, please. The moment that I see Mr. K. Start to walk off, I would catch up and basically start to lead us back to the hellhole. Come on meela. Suddenly you feel a hand on you the back

of your collar as super clag shows up from teenage being injured turtles too. I would Molly walk that bitch. Oh my god. He picked a wrong motherfucker to mess with okay oh no I'd like to see him try. Come on meela we don't have time for super clag we don't have time for super clag we don't have time sweetly not it's time for bed we'll have a notch and nice to rumble Super clagrhy. This is rumbling. Oh no. We'll have a Noss, mid-knock snack.

And- Can I have, can I ride, can I ride on your back? Of course. No. Rico. Oh, you'll be my hiding. I mean, you're tall than I am. But you're so strong.

Okay. Here, I want to get down there. Okay. Yeah, because then I don't have to jump. We hear a bone crickets he like. She wraps her arms around your neck and clings on. And dangling there, she's about as tall as you are. It's fine. It's fine.

Just go back to the hell. Oh, perfect place for a child. I think. We did it. Man, that, you lads. I mean, that was caught a snap when he landed. That was caught a snap when he landed. Yeah, I'll never forget that sound. Oh, man.

Oh man, I feel like me back's gonna be like clags after this. Oh, man. And I'll follow Torbeck back to, yeah. And with that, Torbeck, you're able to easily lead the way back to the seven hells. And when you make it back, you see that the rest of the hellhounds have returned and Blarby rushes straight over to you. Tears streaming down her face.

as she veers directly towards you Frost and just throws her arms around you as she begins to sob. Mila is very clearly fast asleep on Grico's back as for the sake of brevity because you're right, it is 1146. The Hellhounds, specifically Murder Fang, chats with you a bit. It's very happy to see that Mila's back, but calls off the rest of the hounds and orders for them to be quiet. and give you the space that you need. They all hang out around outside as they begin to pass beers around and other drinks and things.

They build a big bonfire out here and begin to quietly celebrate Mila's return. And the five of you, with seven of you, Mila and Blarby included, are able to make your way inside of the Seven Hills upstairs to the back room

that you have all been, that you have all been occupying. and you're able to find a quiet amount of respite even amongst the riotousness of the Hellhounds. We finished telling the story of Torbeck's unbelievable survival abilities and tracking the skills and how everything went down to Blarby. I would say it's not just me. everyone's sort of chipping in how they contributed, and she gets the full story. At this point, Blarby's got Mila on her lap.

Mila has, it is drifting in and out of a peaceful sleep, but occasionally she wakes up to interject about something. You can tell she's slowly expanding on the story, making it seem even more heroic, even more adventurous, very clearly telling a tall tale, spinning a yarn as it were. By the time Mila's telling the story, I'm sure that she's doing like, martial arts and you know they're actually like shooting laser blasts.

Yeah, her and Clegg had a hand-to-hand combat at some point. He was incredibly weakened by the time that you guys got there but he had almost made it out before you were able to toss her the gun and she blew his head off before he plummeted into the acid. It sounds like crouching Laika and

a Lika and Hidden Mela at that point. And all of this is happening and Blarby's face is just an utter shock. As she looks around. You let this child fire a gun? Perfectly safe. Yeah. Oh, that one offered five.

Maybe she had a chance. I objected to it. Didn't matter. I was younger. I was younger. I was like eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve. Poping a couple of crispy boys and firing guns. I mean, Uncle Globo taught me out of fire a gun like when I was eight.

You know what? It's not in my business. I'm not, I'm not asking any. questions. I'm done to my business. She's here safely. You're all here safely. I'm exhausted. You can rest now. What are we gonna do come tomorrow? Are we staying here? We heading back to the Starlight Lounge. Are we finally done with all of this? We can go home? It's just the beginning. Yeah. It's just the beginning. I think, I don't know. I got to come with a plan. I'll be honest. I don't think we don't think we don't think we don't.

discuss it tonight. Right now we know we're okay and even though there is a timer on our dealings we would do well to rest and when we wake up our minds will be clear enough to think of the right plan.

Yeah. Is that tomorrow? We got about 24 hours left. So we got time. 24 hours, that's just better than our fault, ain't? And to your point, I don't have a plan to discuss right? now, I'm still mulling it over. I'm just saying that we would mechanically benefit from such a choice. Yeah, I mean, it would be nice to get a long rest, hey? Oh, yeah. Torback was eating whole

or like an hour? Exactly right. Tollback, is it the left head or the right head of the rat stew that's lucky? I got the left head, I think, emmy rat stew. How can you tell? Who told you that? I don't know. I think it was Doom Howe. Yeah, it was even the left head or the right head what was lucky. We got a lot to learn, buddy. You ever get used to the smell of mildew living down here? Yes and no. Yes. Sometimes it's just not as bad as other times. Sometimes you block it out. Yeah. Well, either way, at least we have a day. We want to figure out. The kid and I are going to go in the corner. We're going to get some sleep. Yeah, oh, before, before we got a bad,

Mila, I got you a bunch of stuff from the top side. They got a whole bunch of fancy doors up there. I'll unzip the things. Did you get me my very own gun? Well, no, no, they wouldn't. I didn't have the papers. There's a lot of papers and regulations about getting a gun up there. They sold those at the hotel they would have.

Yeah, exactly right. So I got you a few sets. Okay, I mean, this is all arranged. I talked to the people what worked at the tour store. And we got a more friendly Lama Coon. Here we go. Here we go. Wow, you're so rainbow.

We got pumpkin patch pals. Here we go. Gives adults a little creepy. I mean, the kids apparently like it. Here we go. Okay, this is all to reach. I love it. Miss Melonhead.

Oh, and I can put things out of her butt and onto her face. Yeah, there was also a miss melons, but I don't think that was child appropriate. Uh, I don't get this. I don't think I could ever solve this. This is a double helix der gehedron. Apparently, this is for all the smoke kids. She grabs it and immediately solves it. Wow, that was incredible.

Wait, Frosty, can you even beat that? I can try. Do I have to roll? Yeah, yeah, let's have a roll off. Oh, nice. Intelligence? Yeah. Street 15.

Natural 16, plus your intelligence modifier. You are not faster than Mila. Wow, that tracks. This is a slumpy. This is clearly for you. It's a slumpy. Slumpy. very good at this. Yes, it comes very natural to you.

It slumps. This is a slumpy and I mean it's like a membrane filled with ooze that kind of slumps down the stairs. It's slumps so cute. Look at it. It was filled like glitter and like dolphins and stuff. Hold on, let me, when you slap this slumpy, it goes faster and she slaps it and it rolls down a bunch of barrels. That's gross. Very aggressively. That's a really great. That's a really aggressive. Technically, they said this was a boys toy, but he looks really cool. He looks like he's ready for some sort of war. It's elongate leg power.

I've always wanted one of him. Yeah, look at his crew cut. Look at his crew cut. Look at his, he never skips leg day. It's on the box. I love him. He can help to protect Hurtie. Oh, stretch arm strong.

I got you. This is the. Just don't pierce it. If you pierce it, it'll be right. And I got you, I got you, his good friend, Gunhaver. Aw, I can't believe that Gunhaver gets to have the gun. So Gunhaver, yeah, Gunhaver and Alonagged Lang Power, our pals, and then finally, it's a big old box, and see, this is called Spooky Skitterers.

How did you fit this all in the duff? What's a big duffel? It's a big level. Spooky. Skidiviris, you bake a bunch of like gooey, creepy, crawling aliens. I take the box. You skitterey. The box, I flip it over and I say, why is there a 100,000 watt light bulb that'll burn the shit out of here?

I don't know. I mean, it's for children. It's the time of brain. It was a different dog. I can't wait to make some crawling cakes. You can make a look. There's even a mold for long worm in there. That's amazing.

It totally is. 100%. So anyway, I'll figure, well, we're probably going to go off, you know, taking care of business here and there. I feel like you would, you know, you need some toys. I mean, Hootie, and, you know, Hootie, he missed you too.

I don't want to seem ungrateful, but on the back of the box, it says you can get the 286 flies collection that's got the trays for 286 flies. I mean, I kind of wasn't able to afford that. I didn't see that. I was hoping you wouldn't see that. That's okay.

Mila, Mila, look around. We've got 286 flies right here. Yeah. And there's a whole bunch of collectibles along with Gunnava. They're not eatable. And we didn't have enough for Jerb, the accountant. I know he was all sold out. Oh, I like him so much, though.

Yeah, I know he's got a tie and glasses. I mean, I love how all these nexus subsidiaries are just shameless. Look at Gunnhaver's box, right? I'm just just buy all the places and toys. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, right there on the package. Yeah. Anyway, I'll just, you know, get some sweet dreams.

It was very thoughtful, Grico. If you have a dream that's nasty, this is nasty things that are going to happen. It's not real, and it's not true, all right? Okay. Okay. I'm going to bet. This has been a long, long day.

Yeah. Yeah. I'm sorry I made your night order, but thank you for coming to get Mila. Mila, I know that it was a little difficult for you and that you were upset and we had to put in the effort to find you and all these things, but I'm oddly grateful. I feel that you can truly trust us now. Don't do that again. You had us all terribly worried, please.

But we're not angry. Thank you for not being angry. I was just trying to do good. We're glad, exactly right. We're glad you're safe. Now get some rest. We all are. And if you have a scary dream,

don't run off into the night. Just let Blarby know. Let us know. We're here to comfort you and make sure that you are stable. Don't forget, before bed. Medicine time, right? And I'll give Blarby back the,

The meds. Medicine, Tom, and just a few sips, okay? Jesus. All right, then she knocks back a shot. Injection, but. And then, um, and then she looks over to Blarby. And each hand that shit out of the way right away. We, she could fire guns.

Oh, me, come on, let's see her. No, no, no, no. We're not, we're not doing that. Definitely not. Oh, fine. And Blarby looks to her, you know what, you know what time it is? And she goes, yeah, it's jelly bones. And then she just goes completely jelly.

Barbie does the injection. And then they snuggle up into bed and quickly fall asleep. We have a campaign of science fiction where we have psionic abilities, magic, a world made of technology, all of these layers. But the most unrealistic thing is that she would take her medicine immediately. It would be like getting a kid to brush her teeth. It would be impossible. What I would say is any, there would be promises and bargaining.

It would go back and forth. No, any other night, that's exactly what would happen. But she feels horrible for what happened. So she is not going, she jellybones right away. All right. This is probably the only night that this would happen. That's justified. Thank you.

Is there anything else that you want to do before sleep? Why are you having one of them crispy sprickle? Oh, go play. And we paid for them, hey, lads, come on. One nightcap. One night cap. We all have a beer. Cheers.

Hey. Cheers, lads for another night alive. Man. You all enjoy a nightcap, and you settle down to sleep in the seven hells, unsure of what tomorrow holds. And Frost, you dream. Immediately, the darkness of slumber

turns to bright, flashing red as a siren wails all around you. Roaring fire rages, casting shades of flame against blood-stained walls that had once been a sterile white. You peer from your hiding place, whimpering as tears run down your face. You glance down at your hands, at your body, and you're not much more than a child. You are filled with terror, but something possesses you to move. move. You creep forward as you see small pale feet pass you by, levitating off the ground. Your head peeks out of the air duct as you see a human girl rip open a dynastial door with her mind. The lab around you has been completely destroyed and the floor is littered with the corpses of many

scientists. The girl stops for a moment as she notices you behind her. All you can see is her brunette hair as it shrouds her profile from view. And then she turns to look at you before drifting off into the green lights of the undercity. And the face you see is shockingly familiar. The teenage face that stares at you with eyes filled with hatred is unmistakably an older version of Mila. And that is where we'll end the session. Yeah.