Legends of Avantris - Stardust Rhapsody: Anthem | Ep. 24 | Light Years: Part: 1

Episode Date: May 29, 2026

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Last time, on Stardust Rhapsody. Having just witnessed the death of Rex, the party rushes into the Don's home, eager to finally bring things to an end. Confronting him, they find not the calm, calculating man who's led the scarlet eye to unprecedented heights, but a madman unraveling along with his schemes. Nido cast them into a pit, sentencing them to death, consumed by his chimeric rangadon. The party dispatches it quickly in an explosive fight on a battleground. round of bone. The Don has been executing his own people for fear of betrayal, and he's done so by the dozens. Escaping the pit and making their way back in, and through the mansion, the party sees the familiar, strange markings impossible to make out all throughout the house. Eventually, they make their way to

the last room that stands between them and the Don, and they find it filled with goons. The Scarlet Goons make one last stand before the party shuts their eye for the final time. The syndicate in ruins, the party confronts the dawn for the last time. They find him drained and near lifeless as the Viceroy had clearly begun to tie up loose ends. Rett sets his cannon to disintegrate and the dawn turns to ash, melding with the odd snow of the room. The realization of what comes next barely has a moment to occur to them as an engine roars outside and a voice comes over the comms.

Miraculously, Rex survived. He takes the Don's ship as payment for his troubles and heads out for parts unknown, for the first time and a long time, a free man. Maybe Lady Luck really is on his side. You stand in Don Nito Control to his office, the final resting place of the ash and remains that mix among the swirling snow and ash that drift across the space on the cold wind that blows in from the open window where you spy the final glint of the Crime Lord's Pleasure Cruiser.

as Rex Maxim leaves orbit to find his own destiny among the stars. The long shadows creep along the surfaces as you look back to the task at hand and survey the office. Don Nito Contralto may be dead, and the Scarlet Eye Syndicate may be doomed to crumble, but the danger is far from over. I'm looking over... I'm looking over the Don's remains. And Rhett, like, disintegrated him. Is it ash?

Like, what is it, what is like a gravity disintegration rate do? Is it like dust? It's not, it's not ash. It doesn't burn, right? But basically, it's like almost just, like, breaking apart as atoms. And so it would be, I think it would look like, like dust or ash. It wouldn't have that, like, burnt smell, though. I don't think.

It might smell like ozone. Yeah, exactly. And maybe not quite as, like, flaky as ash would be. Right, more fine. like, yeah, extremely, like granular. Yeah, exactly right. I will take off my backpack. Or my harness.

And grab pixel and I'm going to wipe off. There's like a nice chair that I could put a, if there's on a couch, there's a chair that a Globlen could rest. A luxurious, like almost velvet-veiton, red leather, chair with wooden arms that come out at the end in the shape of claws grasp you can find easily. I'll wipe off all like the ash in the snow. I'm like, what the fuck is this? It's not even winter. And I'll place down a pixel as maybe I'll go like a pillow, right, and I'll put her head on it. Just kind of seeing that same catatonic form that she's had this

since the dawn faced us. And I'll look at Wrette and I'll look at Wrette and I'll say, I'm fucking sick and tired of being in this place. What do we need besides the video that Zicky got? What is the GBG want? I'm tired of this place. Well, I don't personally think they're going to take a bag of whatever he is now. Well, they got the video evidence. I got it.

I got a seat right here. But I'll be honest. I'm low on battery. I don't have much left in the tank. We need to get the heck. Ha, ha, ha. The fuck out of him. Yeah.

Come on, Zig. I don't know what they know about any of this, but I mean, we need to find whatever we can on the Weissroy. This may be our one fucking shot. We're here. And I don't know if the Don has anything, but I mean, we got a fucking case this place. We don't have time to... I mean, it would be here, right?

Be in this room? I don't fucking know. But we gotta start here. We know he's gone, right? I want to kind of like look around the room and just get a sense. I think I did this last time too, but now that, you know,

we've seen Rex blast off again, I just want to see if I can like investigate the room to see if there's any sign of the viceroy lurking or remaining. Or a investigation check. 10. With a, 10, he seems to you to be, there's no evidence that the viceroy is here.

There's in fact no evidence that the vice roy was here, except for the fact that Don, the Don reported to you that he had been here. He was the one that had sapped the life from him in the goals of tying up loose ends. There's nothing that stays that lingers that shows, except for the fact that the room feels unnaturally cold. And there's nothing else about this planet, this space, that will lead you to think that this is the correct climb for where you are.

I think I started this maybe last session. But I'm just going to get to start, like, tearing it apart. I'm going to, like, just like, if there's, like, a photo on the wall, I imagine there's a photo with him with, like, a space horse, like, in the Sopranos. I'm just, like, picking it up and, like, fucking chick. That's very nice way. This is tacky as shit. Go the fuck would ever get a portrait of them

standing awkwardly next to a space wars. What the fuck? Roll a group investigation check for those who are currently conscious. Can I have our retail things that are over there? Thank you. Oh, natural fucking 20. You find all the new country. You find all the new laundry for me.

I'm gonna spike a natural 20. No, I'm gonna spike on national 20. I got a natural one. Die. No, because it's a skill check, it's not a crit fail. I can still win with a plus two at the three. You can still win Dungeons and Dragon. You throw the poster and it's stuck to your hands for some reason.

It's a three total. The ghost of Paiomai haunts me. What did you get, Zygi? It's a deep cut. I got a 23. What's Paii? 23. You guys got natural 20. You start to investigate the Don's office.

Push. Ziggy, you are pretty immediately drawn to a computer terminal behind his desk. You may even sit down in the seat that he had occupied just moments before. The two

of you, Coe, you really just start kind of destroying things, tearing things open, looking for anything that you can find. God, this is really tacky. Oh my God. You really don't like the decor. You're smashing everything that you can see. Not moving, couches, but breaking them open.

You two, you end up finding basically a collection of gems, notes scattered about, fine drinks, dark liquors, wines, things that he has on hand that he maybe just kept if he was if he was

holding guests, anything to feel fancy to be able to present just those same iterations of papers behind his desk. Ret, you can take those up. And for now, we talk about the value of what all that will look like together in a moment. But for now, that's really all you find. Aside from, you are extremely confident that there are no signs that the Viceroy is still here.

The two of you especially. As we're kind of just like rifling through things together and like looking at stuff, I'm gonna just look at red and say, uh, you all right, big guy? No, I'm fine, eh? I've just never seen or experience anything like this before. Yeah, well, that was a hell of a shot. I mean, I'm surprised it was that easy, frankly. I don't think this was easy. I don't think we did anything.

Look at Pixel. He's so fucking catatonic. I'm gonna go over and check on her. I'm gonna like, you know, try to... I'll pull out, like, you know, a rag that I had out of my vest, and I'm gonna try to, like, I don't know if she's, like, all clammy.

But I'm gonna try to, like, make sure that she's all right. She is... She is clammy. She's cold to the touch, but not as cold as the last time you had checked on her. Oh. Since you...

Since the event. Since the events of this room, there's a very slight warming to her skin. But roll a medicine check. Mm, medicine, hey. Okay, that could be worse. It could be worse. Medantine. 14.

14. With a 14 from kind of the, the, you're understanding, that is what you're able to deter. She seems to be slightly moving towards better, but still, very briefly, something afflicts her. Hang in there, Picks. We're going to get you out of here. Don't worry. He's gone. The creep's fucking dead. The monster's gone, but we're going to get him. Don't worry, Picks. Pixel, you are lost in the darkness. Frigid wind bites your flesh and swirling plumes of gloom, swallow each path of escape that you search for. You call out to your friends to help you, but there is no response. You call out to Grobulous J. Weedlevox to help you, but he does not

materialize. Not this time. Despite your best efforts, you try to call out to anyone to save you, but your voice leaves you, your voice leaves you and silence blankets you. Then you, you see his form take shape in the gloom, punctuated with the two discs of scarlet that slowly grow larger as he approaches, looming taller and larger with each passing moment. His voice is as cold as the frozen air, even colder. Songbird, in your companion's time of need, you were powerless to aid them. They put themselves in the path of annihilation to keep your own spark alive. You wish to be there for them, for only you among them can sing the song of creation. And yet you are here with me.

I am the one who is called to you. watched you from the shadows, made you the rising star you were, for as long as you could stop yourself from following, feasted upon your very soul, if only just a daze. But that more so was not enough. It will never be enough. You know this better than anyone, for you and I are one and the same. There is a bit within us, and ever-growing emptiness we seek to fill. And the more we seek to fill it, the larger it grows, the larger the void grows.

But there is hope yet for you. Hope for me. All you must do is be at my side and sing. Sing the dirge. Be the first note of the nocturn that ushers in the long night. Suddenly you jolt awake in a strange and cold room shrouded in darkness, snow and ash. And although your nightmare is over, you have the horrific realization that you can feel his presence in this room. He is here.

He is with you. Behind the wall, his presence rings out like a cacophony. He's dead. What, Picks, you're okay? You're alive. Oh, God. You're okay?

He's here. He's here. No, no, he's not, he's not. Oh my gosh, did you see that? No. He's still, Picks, Picks, it's okay. It's okay. It's Picks, all right?

Picks, Picks, are you okay? Look at me. Look at me. No. Hold on, hold on. Let me take a look. Let me take a look. How are you feeling? Not good.

I would like, to try to get a sense of her vitals, see how she's feeling. Does she have a pulse? Is she a vampire thrall? I don't know. Also roll a meditin check. Seven. Oh yeah.

I'd say with a seven, there are things that are very easy to discern. Does she have a pulse? Yes. Does she seem to be a vampire thrall? No. The heat that's returning to her. Yeah. She does not seem to be changed into a member of the silent. She seems to be very much alive and returning to health, but weakened. Look okay, Picks. It's my makeup all right. Don't worry about that. New Cross always could have worried about it. He's here. I can feel him everywhere.

Who's here? The Viceroy is here. I can feel him all over. He's not here. No, he's Here. Where? You can't feel that. Where? What the fuck is he? It's so cold. It's icy cold.

You have this strong sensation that he, the presence that you sense, that, that deep innate cold that emanates from the viceroy, that resonates with you. It feels as though it's coming directly from behind the wall to the left of his desk. The desk over to the left. He's there, the wall, by the corner there. I can feel it. Looks like it shadows there sometimes when I look too long. Red. I don't want to be close to it, come.

I didn't think of you. I didn't think you're fucking creep. I'm gonna get up as I'm just gonna walk over and I'm gonna look at the wall. Hold on. What? I look at Pike. Come with me.

I don't think I can walk. Can someone put me over, like the opposite side of the room. I don't want to be close to it. Stay with Pixel. Let Rhett and I handle this. You protect her, all right. I'm sorry. I'm always getting you guys in trouble.

Hey, hey, don't apologize. I wasn't there when you needed me. You're hiding like a fucking rat in the wall? You're scared of us? You should be! I'm with you. As we start to take steps towards this corner, do I get a sense,

I'm trying to see if I feel anything that I felt previously with any other encounters that I may have had with this, as I'm approaching cautiously with Rhett next to me. Roll an Arcona check. Ooh. I don't know. Or a religion check. I prefer that one.

Your choice. Yeah, I want to take religion here. I will back up while they approach. 16, not bad. You can fucking disintegrate that guy too, right? And I'm going to walk over to Pixel. I'm going to look, and if I can't find any blanket, I'll just take off my vest, and I'll say, it's not much,

but maybe this will help, and I'll put it around Pixel. He's warm. He's not here. He's not here. And if he is, we're going to fucking kill him. He's a dumbass if he didn't run. You walk up to the wall, bike, and it's relatively bare. You put your hand towards it. Open palm, you touch it.

The whole room feels cold and there's something strange, almost the sensation when you put your hand to a wall and you can feel electricity behind it. Very faint, but a noticeable thrum. Is he Dave? I don't think it's him, but there's something here. I pulled the vest up over my head and all you can see is just pixels, little green face poking out of the vets.

I'll get in between pixel and the wall, and I'm gonna take a few steps forward. Okay, blow a hole in that thing, Rhett? How do it? I would say if I looked at Rhett and I'd kind of shake my head about blowing this thing up, I would see if we could help to see if there's an opening or something first.

I wanna see if perhaps there's a way to open this wall without destroying it initially. Roll one more investigation check. With Rett's help? Yep, with Rett's out. I would love to it. I would have got it. I brought him with me for a reason.

Red is helping. You may roll with Rettel. We still played dating here for me. I showed an 18 and a 20. Nice. Whoa! For a hot 21 with my plus one. You start knocking the wall, and this seems to be relatively bare.

You run your hand for seams, and you don't find anything that suggested the wall would lift or open or move away. However, you don't find anything. don't, you also do not find any evidence that where you would be between you and Rhett as you start to look at it, that you would think studs would be here. Load bearing at the very least, it still follows traditional architectural structure. And there's nothing, there seems to be a wide spance that if the wall was removed, there would be an opening to something that feels beyond.

Just beyond the wall. And I'm, we're having a conversation, and I'll lead to rent and I'll say, you hear that? Yeah. I take a couple steps back. Hollow. All right. Blow it open. I don't have much juice left in the tank. Not enough for a disruptor beam, but I can see if just a regular old shot will take care of it. Let it rip.

Stand back. I take a few steps back. I just shoot a regular shot from my Gravgun, where the hollowness seems to be. You and I'm trying to aim like where I'm not gonna like you know I don't destroy anything but I'm still blowing I'm shooting the wall so we'll do that. You shoot the wall and you come to find that this is a this is a normal almost shoddily constructed space in the wall as if it's intended to be taken down quickly for at any point or reason you blast open all

hole in this wall. What you see beyond it is a very small metal room. Around the edges you see those same runic markings. Blood spreads across the floor and against the walls. In the center of it, a single pedestal and on it an item. What you find is a strange tetrahedron, tetrahedron made of crimson metal, each of its four sides marked with strange geometric symbols. One of its sides, the one facing you, glows with a dull, humming burgundy light along the glyphs and patterns. It's difficult to tell if it's an art relic, a piece of technology, or something else entirely. I throw my cigarette on the ground, and without looking at red. He's not there, Pax, you're okay. Oh, fuck. What is it? What's in there?

It's not him. Don't worry, Pax's you're safe. Don't come over here. Be careful. Keep Pixel away, all right? Be careful, he's fine. Don't go in there. It's okay. You don't have to worry about him, Pix.

You worry about yourself, okay? This is the only thing in the room when you find no evidence of the Viceroy. Stay close to you, right? He's hiding here, you're okay, Pikes. I'm right behind you, Pike. I take a step into the room. No, it's okay, Pix.

And I raise the- What he does. And I take a couple of steps in cautiously as I try to walk towards this thing. Nothing bars your movement as you attempt walk towards this thing. You feel that similar thrumming that you felt as you put your hand against the wall. The energy is unmistakable. I'm like super heightened awareness at this point, like just trying to be ready for anything, but I am going to get within arm's reach of it and attempt to

pick it up. It is clear to you almost upon seeing it that this relic has some connection to the viceroy. Big is it. I'm about that size. All right. Yeah, I'm gonna try to pick it up. Don't smile like that. I'm staying close.

I'm staying probably like a good two feet behind it, so I'm close, but I'm not right up. No, 15, 15 or 20. 15 or 20. I'm in there. I'm in there with him. You, you pick it up and you feel that thrumming, uh, you feel that thrumming resonance, that thrumming energy, and you know for certain that this has something to do with the viceroy.

This is a relic of some power, and it would be foolish to leave it behind, open and exposed. All right. Hey, Rhett, we got to take this thing with us. What the fuck is it? It's definitely got some connection with the viceroy. Oh my gosh. Thousand percent.

I bet every note I ever made on it. And yeah, we're taking it. No, we should destroy it. As he touches it, Pigsaw and begins to bring it into the room. You get that sickening, uh, sickening feeling in your stomach. Have you, are you still in the room or have you walked it back into the... I'm kind of towards the edge of the room where Rhett was like waiting for me. I brought it back like towards him.

I haven't quite left the room yet, but I'm... like at the edge of the opening that he created. To like show him basically what I've got. What the fuck is that thing? I don't know. I've never seen anything like this before, but I can tell that there's some connection here for sure. I don't like the way it makes me feel.

As you look at it, Big Surve us. You recognize the symbols on it. Even from where you are, you can see them. They're the same symbols that were on the Viceroy's pendant. and inlaid in the speakers in the Glitz Room. Markins. What?

The Weissory, you know, you went out with performing for him when he was trying to take me out, or whatever he was trying to do to me. He had a pendant, and it had those markings on it, but not just that. The speakers at the Glitz Room where he used to perform, the red ones, those, it was on there.

You almost hear a double knock in your head as you picture, Whedelvox's ring with the same emblem emblazing on it. Block this ring. They're all connected in some way and all.

I don't feel so bad. It's okay, Pixie. You're going to be okay. No, it doesn't mean. I don't like to be a few. You're going to be able. Weedlevox is dead. The Viceroy is gone and we will kill him. Don't worry. The Don is dead.

There's something wrong with that thing. Well, that all but confirms it. We need to take it with us, Pixel. The Don himself. Before he went, he had nothing lose, he was a dead man, and he still made it very fucking clear that this doesn't end as long

as the Viceroy's alive. And if this is connected to him in some way, maybe we can use it or, I don't know, hack it, something. I can definitely take a look. I just need more time. Once we get back to the ship, I can spend, you know, 10, 15 minutes easy. I'll be able to tell you all about it.

No, Picks is right. We should just fucking smash him. No. Let me fucking try. Look at what's doing the Pitz. Time out, all right. Look, she doesn't have to touch it. She doesn't have to look at it. Rhett and I will make sure that it stays safe in our possession. I don't think just destroying this thing is gonna be as easy as you think it is. Can I at least fucking try?

I don't think that's wise. It's good, taking that thing. Because this might be our only connection to find out where the Vice War even is. You heard what he said. Fuck. We've come this far. Fuck! It's the only life.

lead we have. The way that it was made, whoever made it, what's it function? Any of those could be clues that lead us to the vice-roy. I let you guys down. I was a failure and I succumbed to whatever that was. No, no, no, no. He told me, he said

that I let you down. And it's true. I'm always messing up and so I'll deal with the way it makes me feel if we think it can help us. Right, you got to I won't let you down again. You let us down, Picks.

That guy's a loser and a creep. He's run away every time we've tried to face him. So how powerful can he fucking be? He runs away in the shadows like a coward. Hides behind the wall like a fucking rat. Hey, let's hide this thing. Yeah. Put it in something.

Give me a second. And I'll sort of, I'll put my cannon around and the arms will sort of grab it. As I will sort of hit some buttons and you'll hear these release valves pop. As I will take my, pack off and put it down on the ground and sort of at the bottom there are sort of some compartments that I'll pop open and also take some things and move some tools

around and move them put them in pockets and stuff and this should be able to contain it. As I'm putting it in I'm gonna look to ret and the rest of the group and say look I've got an idea but it's gonna take some explanation and I think We should wait till we get back to the ship. I don't think that thing's gonna directly hurt us, but I don't think that Pixel should touch it. All right, are we in agreement? Yes, you don't go anywhere near that, Vicks.

Sure, I don't wanna go anywhere. Just give me some time to think. Yeah. Let's get back to the Rhapsody, and I'll explain everything. The normal neon pixel usually is diminishes to like almost sickly green. Okay, Picks, we're gonna get you out of here. I'm gonna try to pick up Pixol as gently as I can.

And look for anything. I'll tear off the, you mentioned like a curtain, right? Yeah, absolutely. I'm gonna tear that shit off if there's like no blankets. And I'm gonna just try to like cocoon. Can I keep this for a little bit? Yeah, you gotta. It's yours, I don't care.

You rip the curtains off the window easily. The ones open. The cold whips in just a little bit deeper. Almost cutting as it moves past you. The shadows of the room almost seem to dance and laugh as it happens. but you're able to wrap Pix, Pixel, in that red, in the red curtains that you rip off the window.

It's a little bit of a cuckoon. And out of character, Coe wouldn't think about this, but maybe some of the, maybe my friends would, maybe this is relevant to the Dungeon Mets, maybe Coe would notice, are the, that pixel recognized the symbols. Was that on the one glowing side, or were the markings different on all four sides?

Oh, so there's one glowing side and the symbols were reflected on the glowing side, but the markings around the edges are very clearly different, and they seem to hold different, we'll say representations. And so it's only the glowing side. Only the glowing side that you recognized. Only the glowing side you recognized did it feel like you recognized the symbol of the vice Oh my God, it's a giant D4. We can kill him with that. Oh, he has to do is step on it.

Okay, Picks, we're going to get you out of here. What else? Do we have everything that we need? Ziggy, you got to figure out what's in that computer. As they've been talking, I haven't been able to help since they blew a hole in the wall. I've been multitasking. I've been listening and I've been watching, making sure the pixel's okay, making sure that the tetrahedron doesn't explode and Pike's face, all of these things. But I have been sitting behind the desk or wherever this terminal is. I'm picturing it at the front desk, I don't know why. Oh, behind the desk.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right. So I'm picturing this terminal. Zieg would think of two things. First, he would obviously be attracted to the terminal and start to delve deep going into hacking mode. But before he does, I want to check the drawers. I've been amongst the wealthy and I know that a desk like this, not all the information might necessarily be in the terminal. It could just be paper clips and pens.

but I want to just quickly open the drawers and get a sense of like, are there any valuables in here before I engage the terminal and that's what I've been doing as the scene has played out. You can easily check the desk. You'd find in the top left drawer

as you pull it out, a laser pistol. On the right, the top right drawer as you pull it out, you find these like dried, almost like star-shaped, dried, like, meats that you think he may have used to give to... Oh, it's like snacks for...

Snacks, yes. Zerkes. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Right in the drawer that he'd have on hand. And then a similar kind of thing in the slightly larger drawer underneath, you pull out,

and you find an exceptionally nice bottle of dark liquid with... with two glasses. Does any of it, especially the laser pistol, I know that there might be, someone like the Don might over-invest in a pistol. Like, I'm not a pistol user, but is it like engraved or have like a nice, if I can grab it and stuff into my pack before I engage through the terminal,

I will. I'd say you don't recognize exactly what like a heavily manufactured or a super or in eight one might look like, but even you would get the sense. that this seems to be a very expensive. I was hoping for a bunch of diamonds, but I'll settle for a laser pistol. With that said, I am going to start to mess with the terminal.

I'm going to boot it up. I'm going to endeavor to get past any passwords that there might be if I need to, but just starting to look through files and see if I can find any information that might be relevant to the drugs or the... Well, computers check. Oh.

It would be... Hot dog. My pleasure. Am I using my grid spikers deck? I think it's on the Fritz. So I'm trying to remember. Oh. Oh, she leaves.

Yes, it is. Thanks for maintaining games. Can you recall how Fritzy I am? I think you subtract a D4. Okay, but if I use the Spikers deck, I believe you roll and subtract a D4 from the roll. Was it more? D6?

I'm pretty sure you're just currently subtracting. I should have written it down, and the answer is, did I? Let's find out. That's a very good game state. Thank you for reminding me. Minus six. Minus six. That's what I thought. I thought it was a flat minus six.

I did have a right. Flat minus six. So I'm still going to use it. I plug it in and I'm doing that, but it's like, it's slow. They jump. Whenever the information on the screen changes, there's that like brief moment of after image before the information shows back up.

I will subtract six, but I'm still gonna roll at advantage because I'm using my spikers stack. Okay, let's do 19. 19. With a 19, you hack into this terminal, almost with ease. You find a series of files, information, all laid out in front of you. the drive lays open at your fingertips. You don't think that you have the time to sit here

and sift through everything, however. So you go to copy over the drive, copy the file, download everything to your... If I feel like I can find the data core or whatever, like I would select all, and I would hit Control A, Control C, Control V in my own. Like, easy, easy money. Just pop, oh yeah, I got it, I got it.

You start copying it. everything over to your grid spiker. And it's as you do this, that there's a momentary blip as you're downloading. Come on. An automated response triggers as you dig deeper into his terminal.

The screen suddenly flickers with a dull digital green, with a dull digital green and a recording, of Don Nito Controlto appears as the signal lights on the computer ping rapidly. Hey, hey guys, I found a recording. The Don's face looks full and has color. The lines of immense stress and collapse not yet present. The speakers crackle as he speaks to you from the past. It's like an automated message.

It's playing by itself. Attention all captains of the scarlet eye. If you were receiving this transmission, I am dead and the organization we have built is leaderless. I present to you the opportunity to continue our work. If you have the resolve to do so, I have transmitted the coordinates of my private estate which contains the wealth, technology, and information to continue my mission. It is here for you to take if you have the strength, will, and ruthlessness to lead. Good luck.

Of course she has a fucking dead man switch Damn it. I guess it's time to go. Deadman switch, what the fuck is that? Wait, yeah, what does this mean? Can you go on doing, Ziggy? No, it already went out. It went out as soon as he was dead. I just found the recording, that's all.

Wait, this is already gone out? It must have gone out moments ago, yeah. You can see through the computer than an irreversible beacon has begun to ping from your location. from the office, picking out all throughout the galaxy like a constant pulsating target of where to go.

Anyone would be able to pick up the signal if they had the right protocol, they would be able to see it. This is not our first time dealing with the Dead Man Switch. I don't wanna talk about it right now, but we need to go. I mean, yeah, we don't have time. Can you just fucking rip the hard drive out? Let's get the fuck out of here. Do I feel like I could, if there's a cassette or a zip disc-style button that I can push that just gets me the data, I'm through copying.

I'll have copied everything I can do the gridboy, but like if I can just take this fucking laptop to go, I'll grab the data. Or if there's just a few seconds left, I can wait for the progress. I would say that you feel like 15 more seconds and you just have the contents of the drive. Just needs to be 15 more seconds. I mean, we have time, but we don't know. I mean, the closest red belt might be light years away or might be fucking on world. We have no idea. So I don't know if they're on world.

They're going to be here pretty fucking quick. We got to go straight to the ship and back. Do what you got to do. Let's grab what we can grab and let's get the hell out of here. Hurry. All right. It's valuable. What is, I mean, all this looks like a fucking gaudy junk.

I found this laser pistol. I'm watching the progress far. I will attempt to loot, but I'm just trying to loot any kind of information, anything that I think would reflect on him, get insight into his life, or even just anything that I think I could show to the guild to sort of add to the proof of like, look, this dude's toast.

You rifle through some of the papers and you find things that look almost like invoices, like banking guild statements. Utility sales is exactly right. on them. Exactly. Anything, you find several documents that seem to

allude to you to the movement of money. And you're able to gather a series of gems, strange or neat things almost look like they were crafted from gold,

a replication of the Rangadon, almost melded and formed. You see a gem cut relief of Xerxes is on the desk. You can take anything like that you'd like and pack it up, loot the place, and head out.

Unless there's signs of a safe, I'm not gonna like spend a ton of time taking trinkets and stuff. If there's something like super valuable, I might grab it or if someone else would. Yeah, I think I would grab a couple of things, but I'm gonna focus on basically picking a pixel. We're gonna get the fucking out of here, Pix.

I'm gonna carry you all the way back to the ship. You can fly back at the Rhapsody, right? Your download is good enough to fly? Oh, yeah, I don't really think I have a choice. Well, I'm not. You got an hour, okay? Yeah. So I'll take like the cocoon pixel,

I'll just kind of thunk it into the, like the little basket or the harness or whatever, and then I'll get it back on. Okay. It's gonna baby Yoda hurt. You should be right. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

Okay, should be good in there, Picks. My ears similar to baby Yoda are flop. Oh yeah, uh-huh, uh-huh, yeah. Um, you said my download complete. Yep. I've got a little T. I'm all set. File, eject, drive. F, okay, I'm out, I'm ready to go. I unplug the cable that connects me to this terminal. I stuffed my grid boy into my backpack. We could stay and lose this place forever, but I think we just have to get out of here. There's going to be people here minutes from now. Yeah, it's all fucking junk anyway. We don't need it. All right, who remembers the fastest way out of here?

I got you. I remember. You know the fastest way out of there. Hurry up. You can run faster than that, Ziggy. Hurry up, Ziggy. Come on! This is life for death!

Why do you get sweating so much? It's cold, he's here. If we happen to pass the armory, I would want to maybe stop quickly. But if we don't go past the armory, I wouldn't like that. I take a fast to the armory. I would say that you would know. So you would come back down, basically the pathway you would come out of the room

where you would come out of the room where you fought the goons down the spiral stairs, down the long hallway and at that point on your left would be the door that releases to the promenade which you could exit and run to the ships. You'd have to pass it a bit to continue down the hallway to the armory. The army is basically on the other side of the mansion. It's open and you could get to it but it's not necessarily on the way out.

I would not say a fucking B and Ziggy. Okay. It should be like if I'm be lining, but I thought that the armory was on the B-line. And so I'm just very, Derek, as a player, is very sad. Ziggy very smartly takes us to the way out as fast as possible. Yeah, I'd love the child, I love to see what's going on. I love to change the location of the armory, but I'm pretty sure it's the other side.

Yeah, I think that's right. Yeah, that's fine. That's fine. That's fine. It's fine. It's gonna be okay, Derek. You make your way out of the office. You pass the shattered remnants of the gun turrets.

The bodies of the Scarlet goons still line the floor around you. Remnants of the battle you'd had just before kicking in that door. You make your way down the hallway. You hang that left as you go down the stairs. You walk down that carpeted, almost velveteen. stretch of hallway as you approach that Grand Foyer entryway. On the right, the front door that leads to the car park where Rex had taken off from, the left the promenade. While we're passing the main room, if the corpse of Xerxes is still there, I will stop there quickly. Absolutely. You definitely.

And with my robotic arm, I will try to rip the gem out of its forehead. Oh! And take that with us. I don't know if you're if it's relevant towards the Camara or towards the nature of it being a biological thing. But I'm going to, if it's still there and it's sort of something that is, that I could with my bare hands basically pull off, I will do so. Yeah, I would say if you want to roll either like sleight of hand survival or medicine, I'd give you any of them. I'm gonna guess medicine is probably the best.

Ooh, 21. With a 21, you just easily, well, I guess just with your bare hands, you get your grip around this gem that's in the center of... Like the gears kind of whirring as I'm like... Yeah, and that strength, that enhancement almost as it pulls back, and it fights you for a bit as you try and rip it out. And then with a sickening, sucking thump, you get it out of the skull of Xerxes.

Blood and viscera rips off the back of it as you, just the center into the brain of this creature decimated and broken at your feet is exposed to you. If anyone saw that, I'll just say, sorry for anybody that witnessed that. Never fucking know. And as we're leaving, I'll say,

I think, why don't you hold on to this one? And I'll just like smirk as I take a drag on my cigarette and say, nice. You earned it. And I'll slip it into my jacket pocket. And it's kind of nasty, but I'm just going to talk it. It's definitely not been clean. It has a, like a gummy.

I kind of rub it off on my shirt a little bit and I stick it on my jacket pocket. It's one of those things that doesn't like really phase me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We've been doing this for so long. It's nasty. You're custom to get in your hands dirty. It has a kind of like gummy texture almost on the back of it as you rub it off. But you get it as clean as he's repulsed.

You get it as clean as you care to. And then pocket it. Yeah. As we're leaving, we're hustling, right? Oh, yeah, yeah. Something about this. You're going to trash as I can. You're fucking hurry up, Ziggy.

I'm jogging. Ziggy's jogging. You're moving at a walk. Something isn't right. I mean, I've known shitty. I mean, they're all petty crime. bosses and would be crime lords, but none of them, if they die, would give a shit about

their work. And while that guy was dying, didn't he say that all of his fucking goons were going to tear each other apart and destroy everything and he didn't care? Doesn't make any fucking sense. Look, I don't think for a second that anyone's going to take up the

mantle and continue the fucking work. They're all going to fucking destroy each other. This place is going to burn to the ground. Exactly right. That's why we need to get the fuck out of here. I mean, this is going to be, if someone can get here quick before anybody else does, then they can ransack the place fucking all the power to them.

But I guarantee you, they're not picking up the mantle. The Don is a petty fucking psycho with a sick sense of humor. Yeah, welcome to bounty hunting. Fuck. Oh, by the way, Picks, Rex is alive. Why? Why? I'm going to get exploding into pieces.

You're never going to fucking believe this. Okay, well, tell me, I need to hear it. Well, there was a giant lake octaum, and we continue to the whole story perfectly. From recollection. Also, he was naked, I think, when he threw off. You made the way out. You head out through the promenade. You walk down those twin spiral steps as you enter into the green expanse in front of you.

The section of ground where you had stood as the Don cast you into the pit is now blown completely open. As you run past it, you can see the remnants of Rhett's ether blast during the Rangadon fight having cracked the ground and exposing it. You look down and you can see the body of that creature and the bones of former scarlet eye thugs lining the ground as you make your way. As you exit the flame and the smoke take up the the night sky, still from the burning wreckage, almost now put out from the time that it's been since the ship it exploded. It takes about an hour as you retrace your steps and you make your way back, careful to land the ships far away from where Anatra was meeting wrecks. It takes

just a little bit to get back. Each one of you makes your way to your own ship that you're able to get into as you begin the journey back up to the Rhapsody. Yeah, I would load in. I would make sure everybody was good to go. You would, I guess, say, pixel or a shit. I would unburrito pixel. And I would say, okay, I know this is one of the first times you've flown this. You okay to get back?

Just follow us, okay? Yeah, no, I'll trail you. It'll be all right. All right, Pike, I'm sending you the coordinates of where the Rhapsody is. Why don't you lead us there? I'm expecting a quiet flight, but if anything goes south, don't worry, we'll take care of it, all right?

God, wouldn't be fucked up with more pirate show. God, that would suck. Why would you say that? Whatever happened to Shitmouse? Oh, I think we've, I think Rent fed him this morning, and he's okay. Oh, is he still on the rest of the day? Fet him.

Meals and goldfish? He's still, so Rex didn't die, and Shitmouse shitdress didn't die? Yeah, we keep my fucking cockroach Dido died. Yeah, he's dead. Yeah, Red killed him. What about his wife?

Oh, no, she's still dead. Oh. No, she wasn't. Rett was actually unscathed, believe it or not. Yeah, no, but she, no, she, no, she, yeah. She exploded from the inside out. It was really fucked up. It was actually really horrifying.

This is all on the ship's car. Yeah. You have a quiet flight back to the Rhapsody, except for the conversation to explain the events that it happened while Pixel was unconscious. I zoom ahead, I get separated, then I have to come back. I'm just... Oh, still taking to the flight of space and understanding it.

Now, out of the simulation, actually, in the true experience of it, you found a little more footing, but still getting used to the controls, you do fly every now and again, stray from the pack until you're brought back in. Pike, you lead the group back to the Rhapsody without, event. It's bay would open in deep space as you all fly into the hangar bay. And once again, kind of one by one entering, finding your spaces, the Grave kind of shackles

built by Rhett will either raise you into the air to the wall and then chuk, will chunk into the side as you begin to park your ships and disembark. You'll find yourselves now having landed back inside the Rhapsody in the hangar bay, making your way back to the lounge to plan what comes next. Ziggy's mooring would be the one closest to like the floor. Mooring, thank you. So he has, you know, less like ladder to climb down.

My like feet are gaming, but there's foot like floor like inches below it. Just let go. Cool. I think I've got the name for my ship, by the way. I think I figured it out. Oh, really? Yeah. What?

I'm going to call it Roll a D20. Me? Yeah. Yeah! Let's go. Five. I'm going to call it the Cyphertron. Sounds so cool, right?

The cyphertron. Cyphertron? Yeah. What do that even mean? I mean... Oh, I'll think of something better. I don't know. I kind of like it. Yeah. I mean, it's not bad.

I mean, it's not as cool as Thunderfang, but it's not bad. I'll cross off my list. No, no, it didn't resonate. You guys didn't, you know, everyone got us to get really excited. Okay. Can we? We got to get out of here. Can we, I'm tired, Rhett.

Can we, can we get some rest? I'm worried that we're going to get attacked by, by Pirates, or by Blitzleet or by some, someone. Hank would have told me if he was picking up. any pirates on the scanners and hopefully I mean all things considered you know you weren't down there that long I think we'll be okay for now all right well I have to start going through this data I want to scan that thing listen to me Ziggy I'm not so sure this thing is something that you're going to be able to hack all right

Look, if I fail, I'll let you take a crack at it, but I don't think that this is something you're going to be able to handle. All right. Well, I mean, I was just going to, like, you know, run it through my computer. I can't tell you everything about it. But, like, if, if, it's better that I focus on Don Vito's data files and you want to, you know, look at it or whatever, that's fine. I need to spend some time with it, but. I think we also have to have a difficult conversation. What do you mean?

Well, Rent knows most of this, but it's time I clued you guys into what's been going on here. Look, the silent, discordant, it's clear that I've got a little bit of information on this, and I haven't been entirely honest with all of you. Yeah, you've been really... Really holding out on us, jackass. Wait, are you lying?

lying asphalt stuff. I haven't lied to you. I haven't given you all the information that I'd known because I didn't want it to be true. You've been omitting things. And you've been lying by omission. At least until I was certain

about what we're dealing with here. That we can be trusted? Maybe. This is just half-pie kids. It's because it's Ziggy, isn't it? What about me? You're going to end up in infospheres.com, I'm not gonna put it on.

Don't you put on in five days. I can be very discreet. I'm a hacker. I can be very discreet. Yeah, that's true. The first time I met you. And I was very discreet about that. I had nothing to do with that, Vicks.

So you were saying. Go on. It's fine. Long before I joined up with Red and became a bounty hunter, I used to work for a group called the Polaris Society. Wait, this was before, Rhett? It was a long time ago. Hey.

Look, they, I got roped in with them, all right? They promised me that I could see the stars. I'd be able to do good across the galaxy while spreading the word of Alara, all right? One of the things that they did was track down and deal with discordant. Now, that was way above my pay grade, all right? I was just some low-level guy, all right? So I don't have all the answers. This wasn't really a thing that I dealt with on a daily basis, or ever really.

The good news is, I think I might know somebody who does have more information about this. Meaning they can tell us what that's all about and what this whole plot's all about, everything? It's possible. Well, let's find him. Are they kind of like you all, you know, smoky and sultry? Yeah, with the name of like the Polaris Society, I bet they're all really badass like that, you know? That cool, a mix of action and melancholy. Like leaning back being too cool for school?

Yeah. Look, Pike. Yeah. Why don't you take some time with it? All right? Before we need to involve anybody else. else okay let's just see what we can find from it it's been a long fucking day sure look like I said I got a couple of plans let me work on it yeah there's always plans there's

always something going on in that area of yours okay buddy I trust you I trust you guys but if you don't find anything we should just fucking smash that thing you've got holes in your Well, I didn't have time to patch them up. What's wrong with that? Can I fix it? Ruins the charm, don't you think? No, you can fix it, you can fix it, you can fix it, don't worry about it, don't worry about it. Can you, can you, can you sew? I don't know, figure it out.

I trust you. Well, if we're not gonna, if we're not gonna contact your person, you know, and what are we gonna do then? I don't want to jump to any conclusions. conclusions and i don't want to fucking jump the gun no no i'm not saying we should i just we've been through a lot and we just we just flew off of a planet and and and wrecks blowed up but then isn't blowed up and that woman's blowed up and then that other guy and there's just a lot that's happening i don't really know how to come down off of that right now i got you well we just make burritos and play video games all night i had we're gonna do something look look i i

I have to go through Don Vito's files. It'll take like 10 to 15 minutes. Then we can make a burritos, we can play video games. We're relaxed. We're just going to go from all of that to just relax it and playing video games. I think it's essential that we go from all of that to playing video games. I think we should kill shit mouse. What?

I don't know. I just want to do something. No. What? No, we just kill so many people. I don't think we should leave him alive. Okay. I'm going to put it in a bad.

Pix. Pixel. Look, everyone go take a shower. Go fucking eat. Whatever you want. There's snacks and food in the freezer. All right. If you need Hank's help.

I could use Hank's help. But we've been through a lot. And we need to figure out, before we add any more third parties, I've had enough graphs in my life, enough Waxley's, and whoever the fuck else, enough quibbleys and glups. What's a Waxley? It's a long story. We can talk more about this later, but... Here, let me get the thing.

I'll take it back to my room. Let me see what I can do, all right? And if nothing comes to bed, I can cast it to identify as a ritual. Okay, no, no, if I can have Hanks help, I got something I can do to keep my mind occupied. Please tell me it's not killing Shembrat Cidgall. No, no, no. I was just thinking, but I mean, we don't have to.

Oh no, and not even right now. I mean, his name is shitmouthed shit draws, though. It would be the kind thing to do, I feel. I've already considered it. And I put that to bed, Pix. I'm a better person now. It doesn't have to be painful. Pixel, I'm going to record the cameras that are pointed at his cell.

I'm not going to go kill him. She's not going to kill without permission. What else are you going to do? Nothing? Just leave him alone. He's fine. Right now he's eating a sandwich. No, I'm not even going to go down here.

I'm going to go to the slime. All right. Right. With Hank. Okay. I'm gonna go take a shower. Me too. I need to wire the guild.

I'm gonna figure out, find the closest fucking outpost. I'll let them know about the Dom. Ziggy, if you can send me a video or two, whatever you found. Oh yeah, no, I'll just, you know, I'll have to do is break into these files and then I'll be able to give us all the information we need. Easy. Before you get lost, doing all that, would you mind rolling the microwave out of the bathroom so we can use it while you're busy? Yeah, no problem. Thanks.

Give me a few hours. All right, I'll come back and find you guys, all right? Okay. We should just go to sleep, guys. Couldn't sleep right now if I try. Well, there we go. I'm going to lean down and pick pixel up, and I'm going to carry her to her quarters. Take the time you need.

Ziggy, you take the time you need. I need to get some work done. All right. I'm gonna contact the guild. Hopefully get a big payout for the town. All right. All right. And then we'll drop off the pirates. And I guess we don't have wrecks to worry about it anymore.

Except for I still fucking smell his cologne. We can get that cleaned out. Flash back to him walking around, just spraying his cologne on everything. And yeah, and so I'll just nod and say, well, you know where to find me. I wanna get some fucking sleep. You all start to head in different directions.

Rhett, you head to the bridge to organize things with the GBG. Co, you take Pixel back to the rooms. Pike, you give just a minute of time before you also head in that direction to take time. Before we all split up, I want to pull Pike aside. Oh, you got it. Look, you're dealing with dangerous shit, all right?

I want you to be careful. And I've never wanted to pry into everything you've had going on. And I know that things are feeling like a bit of a desperate times call for desperate measures. But I think we can do this on our own. All right. So if what you find changes things, that's fine. But just be safe. Brett, you know me.

I'm not cutting in anybody if it means potentially splitting the share. Okay, that's one. And two, wouldn't be fun if it wasn't dangerous. All right. You got my word. I'll be safe. I'll be working. See you soon, big guy.

I will, as I'm walking through, I'll look for Hank, and I'll say, hey, buddy, get up. Get up. You've been napping this entire time. Get up. Come on. Pixneasy right now.

Come on. And so I will kind of basically carry Picks with hopefully Hank at my heels, go into Pixel's room. Saying Pixel needs your help, he would leap to, he would leap to attention and start trotting after you.

I would get her into her pajamas, you know, all in her bed and then hoping that Hank will basically kind of curl up next to her. And then I'll just say, I hope you dream is something more pleasant than all of this. And then I'll turn around and. Hank leaps up on the bed and does it quick. You're getting ready to leave.

As you're getting ready to shut the door. Cole. Yeah, Picks, you're awake? Yeah. You shouldn't be. Not for long. Love you, Cough. And then Picks'll close her eyes and go to sleep.

Night Picks. And I'll turn around and I'll... I'm going to move the microwave back into the main area. I am not gonna take a shower. I'm not gonna take a shower. I'm gonna go back to my room and I'm going to talk to Silica, and start to walk through these files and see how difficult it's gonna be to breach

the hard driver copied files from the... You pull the microwave out of the bathroom. It almost scratches against the floor as you move it out. And then you make your way to your room. Silica engages and you start to work through these files. You start to work through these files. You start to work through these files. You find very quickly that it is obvious

that Don did not encrypt this himself, that he had an extremely proficient programer, gridrunner, encrypt his personal computer for him. You know that you can break it. However, you know that it will require the building of a skeleton key. Skeleton key encryption breaking programs are illegal

the galaxy over. Oh, shit. You can build it easily. But it will take time. Now, should you choose to do so, I'll have you roll a computer check. I'll roll the first of

perhaps many computer checks to see if I can... Oh, I'm going to use my Spike cares deck, which means I still subtract six, but I'm going to do it at advantage. 18 minus 6 is 12. 12. Skeleton key encryption cracking

protocols are extremely delicate to program. You put the process in place to begin it, and it will take at least seven days before you can check. on its progress. And silica, I told them this is going to take 10 to 15 minutes.

You know that until the skeleton key program itself is complete, you cannot even begin to hack into the Don's information. It will take at least seven days before you see whether or not your first attempt at it has been successful. Okay. It'll like start to like Rubik's Cube swordfish style where all the cubes are like slamming in and then like Yeah. I'm going to be working on that, and then as that's running in the background, I'll flip over and start to play a video game. All right.

That's me. Perfect. Rhett, you're on the bridge. I would say that you are able to reach out to the GB. You are easily able to organize a meet with them at the closest outpost so that you can handle. over the video information of the Don and collect, organize, collect the payout from the turn-in. All right. Yeah, I'll just, I mean, it may be, you know, who knows, days away, right?

So, like, I think just I'll let them know, hey, we're on the way. We got these guys coming. And, yeah, we'll, we'll. I would say that you're able to easily tell that the nearest outpost is still at least about a week. journey to get to. You'd also communicate the Bloodfleet pirates that you plan

to turn them in as well. And the rest that you'd have to offer them. All right. Yeah, I'll just sort of let them know it's coming and that we will be on our way.

Perfect. Pike. We go to your room. You have have you walk in you see your same relatively Spartan room with the training post that Rhett had built for you that sits with already heavy use in the corner of your room that the tetrahedron sorry the tetrahedron with that strange thrum still almost pulsing in hand? My room is kind of sparse. You know, there's not like a ton of stuff in here.

And it's kind of cleared out so I have the ability to do the things that I need to do. And so I will take my jacket off and kind of toss it over onto the bed like I normally do. And I will place this tetrahedion like in the middle of the room on the floor. And I will sit down in front of it. with my legs crossed in front of me, and so that I can kind of rest my arms on my knees, kind of like a meditative pose, as I begin to just kind of look at it

and really try to like take in what I'm looking at in this moment and not really do anything immediately. Just like soak it in and see what I can kind of garner from this thing for maybe like 10 minutes just looking at it. it. And as I'm sitting there, I think about something that I haven't done for potentially a very long time. And I will close my eyes in this pose and bow my head and attempt to say a prayer to my God, Alara. Alara, Lightbringer, Queen of love and beauty.

Phoenix rising. You are still my goddess, and I am still your Godhand. I walk the path of truth, freedom, beauty and love. Fill me with the light of your sun. And I think that the words will come back to me a little bit slower.

It's something I haven't said for a very long time, and I'm hoping that I can feel something or some connection or answer or truth about all of this. You, the tetrahedron sits in front of you. It's one glowing face staring back at you. You sit over it and you pray to Alara, something you've not done in a very long time. And you feel the flow of energy, of your soul almost,

as it moves through your body as you call out, as it moves down your arm through your gauntlet and into the gem that rests within it. You pray over this object hoping to get a response. And none comes. You continue this for hours. I think in addition to, though, I would have a brief moment of hope, though,

where I still have this feel, like I get this feeling. I think that would be surprising to me. Having not such a prayer for so long, I have a moment of hopefulness where I feel like there is still a connection beyond just the powers that I've been utilizing, you know, with my friends and the crew. Absolutely. But I keep trying. I say the prayer over and over again if I have to.

As many times I feel like I need to, hoping to get closer, however many hours it might take. And you continue to do so. You continue to sit over the tetrahedron, legs folded, eyes closed, calling out to Alara. You do this for hours. You start to begin to feel like it is not working. Damn it. And then you sit in the quiet of your room. The only sound around you, the quiet hum of the Rhapsody's engines.

You turn your focus inward. and feel the flowing currents of your soul coursing through you. You search within you and without. You become even more aware of the gauntlet on your hand as you meditate and pray. You lose all track of time as you spend each moment trying to become more in tune with your soul like you used to do so often. Reaching out for answers like you used to do so often in your own. youth, after hours pass, you begin to feel like it isn't working, like you've lost the

connection you once had, that you are alone in the galaxy. But then right before you lose hope, you feel a presence at the center of your right hand, and the wisdom comes to you. You feel the true radiance of the light bringer within you for the first time in so many years. You are still a disciple, but this revelation confirms your worst fears. The device before you is from cacophony. It is of cacophony. Its frequencies are tuned to the discordant powers, and you suddenly realize the truth of what you're facing. Discordant, malevolent fiends of the hellish dimension of cacophony, hateful entities of corruption and pain.

Always seeking to defile and twist the harmony of the sapient peoples of the galaxy to become of them. Every thinking being with a soul is under threat from the four tones of discordant. There have always been four. There will always be four. Both aligned and opposed in their aims. Then your memories and experiences connect through the divine inspiration. and you connect the dots and realize you've encountered all four tones in your life in different degrees. Thrill.

A mad clown on the run from his past and fighting against his very nature a battle he knows he will ultimately lose. Instinct. Footage from a mission briefing. Not intended for your eyes. A civilization fighting against extinction, against a switzerland. against a swarming mass of carapace and mandible. Entropy. The man in the darkness glaring at you behind red lenses

while slipping into the shadows. The abomination drained of hellish blood felled by a lucky shot. The cryptic symbols that hum on the glowing face of the tetrahedron before you. And finally, progress. The thundering engine, the acrid smog, the eruption of hellfire from smoking pistols, the heavy, measured, clanking steps of long, thin metal legs,

the shadow cast over your broken body and the killing blow, that mechanical face staring down at you with the nonsensical mixture of malicious spite sick enjoyment and steel indifference. The name he spoke to you before blowing your head off. A voice with the gravel of grinding gears and smoldering sulfur. Cain. Then you open your eyes, the wisdom delivered, and you have a horrid realization that while the entropy side of the device

before you still hums with the glowing burgundy, a new face of the shape radiates with a garretary. crimson, the side of progress. It flares like a siren for just a moment before fading. So quick, you're not sure if your eyes were playing tricks on you. But then you smell the smoke and sulfur. And you were filled with an overwhelming fear, the likes of which you have not experienced for over a decade. The moment that I smell that smoke and I think that I see that flare of the other face of this object, I immediately recoil in fear kicking the tetrahedron across the room and I scream, no, no, damn it.

It flattered across the room, slides on the ground, it bounces across the many faces until it lands the face of entropy pointed at it. LIT, unsure whether anything else had illuminated on it. Though your strikes are strong, it's clear. It is completely unmarred on any surface. As my back hits the wall from scrambling away from this thing, kicking it across the room, I press myself up, and I quickly look around to see if there's just anybody in the room.

I worry that someone may have heard me scream. I'm sorry, say that one more time. I just quickly look around. I almost have like a moment. like a moment of embarrassment. Like, I'm worried that someone may have heard me shout. I'm just like, I forget where I am almost, and I just take a quick look around to see if I, if anybody's there. And you listen for the sounds of footsteps, the sounds of commotion, anyone coming to your calls as you cry out in response to these visions. Some may say gifted to you, others may say

cursed with. You hear nothing. You've now spent several hours. attuning to this item. Oh, shit. I will walk over to where I kicked it, and I'll pick it up. And it responds once more to your touch, as if a lining to you taking it. You now have, oh, this is also part of it, sorry,

you now have the whispering shard. I keep this to myself for now. No. Yes. No. GM, should I keep this to myself for now? Yeah, I, yeah, I would say until, until it makes sense to share, I would keep it to yourself. That's where point to decide.

Okay, and holding this thing, I'm actually shit. Let me just peruse this real fast. Let me just take a real quick look. Okay. Do I have, I have to have some place in my room to be able to be able to to secure this thing? Oh, absolutely. A safe.

A safe, easily, whatever you would have had in the room easily built for you by Red, I'd say even an extremely enhanced one. I'm sweating and I'm pale and I am filled with fear. I will attempt to secure this thing in this safe, you know, wherever it may be hidden, whether it's a hatch on it, in the floor of my room, whatever it might be, to secure this thing and lock it up. And immediately, the only thing that I think about in my mind is I need to find Red.

You're able to put it away with ease, the ether machinations of the safe open to your touch as you approach it. It has almost that same pulsing, warring that you hear from Rhett's equipment as he operates. And you place the tetrahedron within it. I walk over to my jacket and I pull out a pack of smokes. I will shakey, my hand's shaking. I pull out a cigarette from the pack. I put it to my lips and I light it.

I try to dab my brow away, gain my composure, before taking a long drag on the cigarette, and I step out of my room to go see if I can find red. You begin a relatively short journey. You know the first place you'd check Where you always find him working The low thought of your footsteps as you make your way through the Rhapsody Don't hit your ears as your mind is completely consumed by what you've seen

It's moments before you find yourself Entering the room with Rhett Presumably So if it is are we? It's like the middle of the night. I would say it's very, very late in the night. It's been hours. It's been hours.

So, of course, rats. I will be sitting at the kind of table in the lounge that we sort of usually meet with. And there'll be sort of papers kind of strewn across various folders. There will be a calculator sort of next to me, a notepad with lines and sort of vertical lines going down. And you'll hear kind of the clunking and the thunking

of this calculator as all scribble things down. And as soon as I think I know, as soon as I notice you, if I notice him before he's like, right, like upon me, all sort of quickly like, as nonchalantly as I can, shuffle some of the papers and like close the top of the manila folder over some of the papers. As you see like a pyramid logo on some of the

Oh shit. I'm scared. I definitely do not notice that. I'm just shaking. I don't notice. I don't notice. I don't notice. I don't notice that. I would say you have a relatively innate ability to, Pike moves almost silently. He's extremely stealthy and he knows how to operate. But you have this kind of innate ability to understand that he's coming to the room. I would say that you're able to act in enough time to close those papers and he's so consumed that he would not have caught that. Yeah, not a chance. And so I will finally, once that's done, I will raise my head, and I will look at Pike. Do I notice... Oh, absolutely. Do I notice the state of things? I would say that I've gained composure from how I was, but I'm still sweating and pale. Like, you definitely, you definitely notice that something's off.

What happened? We need to talk. Is it bad? It's not good. Sit down. I will jump up immediately. I'll sort of shove my folder to the side. I will grab two glasses and I will,

if there's any, if we manage to stock up, I mean, if we could afford some bloke for getting up. Yeah, I have to imagine that I picked up a bottle or two of whiskey. I would say also you absolutely would have taken some of the fine bottles from the Don's office. If that's something you would have reached for. You found several bottles of nice wine, dark liquors,

and board. If, like, Coe was grabbing stuff and holding stuff, that would have been one of the things that maybe I would have handed to go. If Fred told me to do it, I would have done. Yeah, absolutely. It's done. So, yeah, I will grab, you know, I don't know, a bottle of, what would it be? I don't like brandy or something. You know what I mean?

Yeah, something extremely like kind of. Something real. Yeah. What somebody thinks, like, the hyper wealthy would drink all the time. Yeah, like a brandy. Yeah. And Red almost does, I don't even care really what it is, but I sort of, I kind of like make sure that you sit down and I grab two glasses and I'll throw some ice in each and I'll put it down and I'll pour. All right. Give you one second.

And I'll top myself off. You put the drinks down on the table, right? You pour from the brandy taken from the Don's office. The papers shuffled and put aside, Pike, you sit down, you take the glass in your hand as you both take a moment. I'm sorry to come to you like this. I mean, I figured it'd be bad, but not much shakes you. Remember a few weeks ago, I told you to be prepared. Something bad was coming, the nightmares were coming back. Yeah, yeah, that something was coming.

That's right. I don't believe in premonitions. I think I was right. That thing that we found, it's definitely of cacophony. Yeah, I mean, it's... Demons from hell, right? Like, that's what you said. And... But that thing, it's like from there, it's from hell?

I think so. Oh my God. Look, I don't know for sure, but I bet money on it. Architect help us. You know that I tell you more than I tell anybody. I know. And I know I've mentioned the society before, but I got to come clean, Red. Look, you don't have to, but look, I, you know.

The Polara Society, you know, they're a social club and, you know, they need help. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to. I've always told you that. I have to. It's time. I'm here. I'm here. You can tell me anything you need to, all right?

The society, they, look, they masquerade as some sort of a social club, but that's not what it is. All right. I felt like I didn't have a purpose, all right? I was bouncing around. They picked me up. They found me. I don't know.

They said they saw something inside of me, right? Maybe it's the connection that I had with my God. Maybe it's the connection with the gauntlet. I don't know. But they spoke to me and they made me feel like I could go see the galaxy, that I could do good. That's what they told me. That's why they trained me.

Yeah, yeah. It's, it's, you know, we, I think we, we both had that in us. Well, it started off pretty tame. Next thing I knew, though, I was carrying out hits. Like, yeah, I mean, we were assassinated. bad people, but at the end of the day, that's what I was doing. I was assassinating people.

I stuck with it. I was doing good. I was getting to see the stars and spread Alara's word, the light. But then all of a sudden, you know, it's a slippery slope, right? You start doing things that you're, you wake up one day and you're like, how did I get here? I wasn't so sure anymore. And I think I realized that I'd been more or less indoctrinated into whatever they were telling me to do. So you were an assassin, hitman.

Yeah. I did what they told me to do. It was my duty. We're keeping the galaxy safe, right? I was executing on Alara's will until I felt like I wasn't. Look, I don't know what you want me to say. I can't change those things. I have a lot of regret.

I don't forget about what I did. I know I can't change it. And even all of that, all said and done, that isn't even really where the real trouble began. Well, don't feel bad. Yeah, you know, I knew you were wrapped in the stuff, and I knew it probably wasn't, you know, You weren't kissing babies and cuddling puppies for a living, that's for fucking sure.

You know, I knew we had a kinship about, I mean, you know, I was a company man. So I get it. You fucking believe in the mission and you'll do fucking anything. You'll kill anyone that they tell you to fucking kill. I was so blind. And then that damn mission. That damned mission that I've told you about so many times. It was just another hit.

Some guy that we had to kill. The group was in position. I saw him. We all did. His family was there, Redden. I wasn't going to let it stop me. There were kids there. I wasn't going to hesitate.

The job was the job. The guy had to go. Everything was set, just like it always is. Then it happened. That thing came. The one that I've told you about. The one that killed you. Yeah. Machine, man, I don't know but the smell. I can remember the smell and not just the whatever it is.

It's still in my nostrils, in the nightmares. I was lying there. I couldn't move. I was shaken. The fear. I couldn't move my legs. And that thing, it walked right up to me. It leveled its weapon directly at my head. That was it. I died. Right then and there, I was dead.

And to this day, I don't know how I'm sitting next to you. You know, Pai, don't hold this against me. But, you know, I don't know if I ever really believed. that you really that you died I've seen men torn in half barely clinging on to life

and somehow the doctors fucking saved I just figured it was that sort of thing I don't blame you you're not the only person that doesn't or didn't believe me I can't explain it and here's the thing

the way you're acting now I get it, I get it. But then how and why? Look, I know Polaris had a religious land. I knew that they had a reason to have operatives and send people on missions. And that was the extent of what I fucking knew. But I mean, they're killing families? Yeah.

And here's the thing. I was just some operative. I wasn't even that high up. God knows what they're doing. Or why? Did. You don't have to answer this. But did you kill your mark?

That day. I don't know. I don't know. That thing. It had a reason to show up and I... I don't know. Whether the mark is still out there, or that thing is still out there.

I can feel it. I think that's why I'm still having these nightmares. Was this... Did this unlock for you? What actually happened? Did you... How did you learn this? How did you...

Did you mind me asking? I mean, like, how does it work, if you even know? Well, I think... spending time with the that thing. I locked it up in my room. Don't worry to get safe. I spent some time.

For the first time in a long time, I, I meditated. I prayed. I prayed to Alara. And I felt something. I felt something for the first time in a long time. And I think I was gifted some sort of wisdom, knowledge.

But right now, that's neither here nor there. I gotta get this off my chest. When I came to, I was a mess. And quite frankly, I think I still am. I failed every eval they put me through. They wanted me out. And quite frankly, I didn't want to stay. Do you know what happened?

What? Why? Why'd you stay? Ophelia vouched for me. Shit. Yeah. She said that I was fine. She said that I could go on. And she, she vouched for me. I begged her to leave with me.

I told you this. I told everyone this. I said that I thought it was a setup. Yeah, a setup. And you tried your best. That was a lie. Maybe I believed it at the time, but it was a lie that I told myself. I was terrified.

Look, I, there was a period. a time where I wasn't scared of dying. I wasn't afraid of death. You can't be to be an assassin, to be a hitman. But when that thing was standing over me, and I knew that my time was up, I was scared.

And when I came back, I was scared. And I ran. And I left Ophelia, I left the team, and people died. And I don't think she'll have to be. forgive me and I don't blame her but I I didn't want to risk it I didn't want to face that thing again and I don't know Polaris is looking for me I don't know if they care who knows but I fucked up there's a lot of blood on these hands

look like we've all done things we regret okay and and I look, I get it. It wasn't wrong for you to be scared. It wasn't weakness. It was fucking... I mean, who wouldn't be? All right? I've done things.

I'll never forget. And I've seen what the fear of death will do to men. I've seen soldiers facing a fucking line. a sorrock war beasts and fucking gem lasers and gnashing teeth

they start screaming for their mommies and they run the other way and I think they know that it's punishable by death but they don't fucking care it's the fear of death

nothing else matters but running and so shit I probably would have done the same thing I can't say I've ever died do you think Alara brought you back it's possible I chose to believe that a lot of the time but sometimes I have doubts faith hasn't always been as strong as it's been or was when you found me and we first linked up I was just running, and I think I'm still running. From my past, from that thing, and I think I'm on borrowed time.

I think it's only a matter of time before Kane finds me. Kane, that's his name. That's what it said, if you can even call that speech. Well, I was hoping it was just a dream, like I said before. Look, if he shows up, If he happens to find us, we have a crew. He's gonna have to reckon with the fucking five of us. No, six of us.

Hank counts. But, I mean, this was a decade ago, more. I mean, maybe he just thinks you're dead. Maybe. Maybe that's been my only saving race. But why now? now? Why after all this time now? We're getting tangled

up with all these discordant again. I don't know. Maybe it's the universe or harmony or fate or the fucking gods of Agathos. Maybe it's Laura's way and telling you, I don't

know, it's time to to maybe get back to who you were. I mean, we both sold our souls to an organization and fucking did what they said

did what they wanted right and we found each other and I told you I never live for any other man ever again live for ourselves

there's no one else more worth living for that's our fucking anthem like we said said. And that's what we fucking built here. It wasn't just me. This was us. We built this crew. We built this team. We're going to figure this out. We're going to put it into fucking red line. Yeah. And I just hope that everything's going to be okay. I'm not going to sit here and lie to you. I'm still scared. But less for me and more for all of you. I can't lose another crew. I can't lose them, they're rookies. What have we gotten them into? Yeah, fuck.

That's the... I never thought in a million years when we decided to go after these red line, the fucking red belts that we were gonna... get tangled up in something like this. Me neither. I thought the worst of it was that you had to do six months in the fucking can. I'd have done four years if it didn't mean having to get involved with this.

I just wanted to fucking hell I just wanted to be a bounty hunter and still find a way to make some kind of fucking difference but I think we are back

we're doing it our way right we're not hit men we're not fucking assassins we've done it our way and we're gonna fucking continue and those rookies one day they're not going to be rookies

and frankly you know they're not anymore they're some of the most fucking capable people I've ever fucking worked with. And they're our family. It's different. I feel it in my fucking bones.

It's different this time. I trust you. While we're sharing fucking secrets. I'll pick up the folder and sort of throw it in front of you and I'll flip it open. You see the logo of that eye on the documents as you open it. What is this? It's loan documents. We didn't have cash to cover the new ships.

So I took out a loan. And like I said, but what I didn't tell you is that Nexus required collateral. So I put up the Rhapsody. It's going to be okay. They were cagey about what they were going to pay for the dime. But I'm hoping it's enough. to pay off the loan and if it's not we'll figure it out. Hey, we're not gonna lose the Rhapsody.

You know that none of us are gonna let that happen. Right? You even see Nix's as repo, man. Look, I'll make Ziggy flip burgers, I don't care, man. We're gonna, we'll figure it out. That's the spirit. Yeah, we're all fucking, we can all throw on aprons, and we'll fucking sling pizzas.

And look, I don't feel like, I don't feel. think that's going to happen but even if it did at the end of the day you and me everybody else will start again as long as we've got each other as long as we got each other you're right how you feeling any better no but i didn't think i was going to suddenly just feel okay and that's all right can you try to get some sleep yeah look whatever that thing that thing is you're going to get some sleep yeah is wherever it came from i don't think it'll be easily destroyed and i think it's our i think it's our connection to the viceroy we got to use it i know that pixel doesn't like it i know that the others are wary of it but i think that we can utilize it to our benefit even pixel you got to

trust me on this one. I trust you. Look, this is way out of my fucking realm of expertise. This is all you, and I'm going to trust whatever decision you make on how we handle this. But like I said before, I'd like to have all the information

before we make any decisions. Yeah. We still got a week to the Guild outpost. Ziggi's got to, you know, go through his files. Maybe he'll find something where easy enough. We just go to these coordinates. We find the Viceroyer and we kill. I don't think it's going to be that easy, but maybe I'll say a prayer to a Laura of the lightning.

Yeah, it couldn't hurt. Whoever's listening, right? I'm going to take mine to go. I'm going to grab my drink as I stand up and say, uh, I know you won't, but just don't say anything the others yet. You know I won't. And there's ever anything else. You want to tell me.

You know, in all the years we've known each other, I will never pry. So your sole fucking discretion, Pike. Cheers. Good night. Good night. And I'll walk back to my quarters. I will open up my folders

and I'll sort of get back to what I was doing and maybe get a little bit of sleep at the end of the night. Can we have a Stardis Rhapsody side story in which we all play repo men that go to repossess? the Rhapsody. Oh! And Ryan Reynolds and Jeff Bridges were there.

Oh my God. And we're actually like just little robots, like colored robits that all have our own jobs. Come on. It's a great idea. It's a great idea. What can go wrong? Shoot, shoo-try. That's great.

I just want to put it out there. If we ever, if we ever cannot like play a real session for some reason, but we still want to do it. working that up the the reclamation of the rhapsody you continue to flip to the papers read and after a while you yourself do find your way to bed and you tuck in for the rest of the night Pike you make your way back to your room you open the door you walk towards your bed almost faltering for a single step as you walk over the safe the ground, knowing what you've buried just beneath the surface. The fear, having subsided

after speaking with Rhett, you just can't quite shake that accurate smell of smog that hangs in your nostrils, as you also settle in to sleep for the night. We did it. Hold on. This is hopeful. This is hopeful. Ziggy. Roll a computer chip. Sure. Am I using my deck? Sorry.

So what will happen? You began the skeleton key encryption program. That will take baseline seven days. Okay. And that time, we'll say you have spent that time repairing your grid boy. you may now remove the negative effects of I sneak into Rett's workshop and he comes back to a fucking mess

that's a nightmare that's a terrible thing to do to a man why does everything have a touch screen and wear all this peanut butter would you like me to roll to repair my grid boy or would you say that I At the time that you would have had seven days, there is traditionally a roll if you would do it like in the moment or you try to do it same day. Over the course of seven days, we'll say that you are capable of repairing your grid boy.

So I will have you roll a computers check at the end of seven days to examine your skeleton key program. I'm going to take a long rest. Oh, yeah. That's a good idea. At this point, what we're doing right now, seven days will pass. Everyone may enjoy the benefits of a long rest. Let's go. Hot damn.

That feels good. I'm gonna take a fuse. I will prepare some new spells in a minute, but first let's resolve a skeleton key check. And I'll do it at advantage. That's gonna be a 23.

23. Well, the 23, you examine the skeleton key and you know that when you first built the programming... Wow, this is so illegal. It was flawed. So what you thought was going to take seven days to build the program. It will now

take more. Roll another computer's check for me. Zicki's so good at this. I get a natural 20 and a one. But a natural 20. Yeah. First and worst. Give me some 27 skeleton key action, please. Wow. You won't believe. With 27,

you meet the DC. You, but it will determine how long it takes you to do this. Okay. It will take you two and a half to build the skeleton key program. You spend your time doing so. You have to run the code pretty regularly.

You have to check in on it almost hourly. Losing sleep most days to ensure that it continues to run the script that you've built out. Once the key is complete, it will then take another week for you to run it over the program that the, over the Don's hard disk. it takes you three and a half weeks to break into the Don's heart disk,

but you eventually do so. Three and a half weeks will pass. All right, so I am getting very little sleep for 25 days in a row, and... So what's new? Yeah, exactly right. I'll lie to take a long rest. All I take a long rest, but you do,

at the end of it, you are haggard. I start referring to the skeleton crunch as I... That's so funny. He's so good. There are bags under my eyes. I'm not showering. I never showered in the first day. He's microwaving tons of fried rice.

That's right. He's just fried rice nonstop. You've had to move the microwave into your room. You actually haven't left your corridors for almost. No. No, it's bad. You bring the microwave. You only leave to use the bathroom. You, in fact, barely leave your room itself.

Do I learn anything about the encryptor? Whoever this other gridrunner is, I hate them. I hate them with a fiery passion, and if I could find some sort of marker or clue as to who this person is that defended Donvito's... You know, just for, you know, vengeance. Roll one more computer check. Oh.

This is going to be at 26. I got a 19. Okay. Okay. Okay. I'm making enemies. Anime? Oh my god, his name is CipherDron. I'm crossing that off the list. I'm crossing that off the lift.

I'm going to change my ship name to let's go with six gigabit. You, in the code, as you deconstructed, you find a signature at the very end as you finally crack it using the skeleton key. It's almost this dancing icon of a laughing face before you dismiss it and you break through the final level of encryption.

And signed in the code, you see the name Triple X Mega Destroyer Triple X. And the E's are threes. Oh, he's using threes for the ease. Oh! I'm complaining to I'm complaining to Silica constantly throughout this entire skeleton crunch.

And, no, don't do that. And so I will note that, but I'm more interested in finally being able to deliver. What I've been doing with the rest of the gang is they've been like, I thought it was going to be 15 minutes. And I was like, oh, yeah, it'll just be another 15 minutes. It'll just be another 15 minutes. And I'm sure they've gotten very upset with me. What do I learn when I finally access the archives of the Don?

When you finally code break this data disk, the full picture unfolds to you. Even breaking it, it takes you several hours to comb through all of the relevant data. You find out the following things. One of the most pertinent pieces of information, the viceroy, not a name, a title. The person who has eluded you for so long, the reasoning, you've had nothing to go on except a viceroy in the Cavalon Empire. You learn his name. I learned the viceroy's name. The vice roy is Lord Harcon Morvane.

Lord Harcon Morvane. He is the vice roy of Sterlock on the edge of the Cavalon Empire. Sterlock. although he appears human to conduct his duties, this is a disguise, and he is decidedly not human. You find information reflecting that upon their first meeting,

Don Nito felt that he had entrapped the viceroy and that he was working for him. And it wasn't until much later that he found that he was in fact the one in the trap. And it was too late by the third time he himself discovered that Lord Harkon was not who he was meant to be and instead a discordant. He spent time trying to figure out how to get out from under the thumb of the viceroy. He spent millions of notes researching ways to kill him.

Researching ways to kill the vice-roy. researching ways to kill the viceroy. I immediately opened that file. I double click. He spent he spent a backup plan in your pocket. Unbelievable amounts of notes. Not that would make you shudder,

but that would impress you. In the quest to develop a weapon that he could use to destroy the viceroy and get out from under his influence. In all that time, with all that money, he uncovered nothing.

Well, balls. He discovered that there was a form of a shadow that seemed to protect him, that seemed to immerse himself. It made him difficult to capture in any form, digitized camera, even to look directly at him. His form was hard to grasp. Okay. Which we witnessed.

You did what you. Set on the cameras too, right? In the lab. So that's the result of this veil thing. Whatever is surrounds him. He's cloaked in a form of a shadow. He's cloaked in some sort of a thing. Okay.

You find basically research notes that every single hypothesis ends in the result. He is almost immune to any form of standard weaponry. There are finally notes from Nito himself that, reference him resigning to the abandonment of the pursuit to try to defeat to beat or kill the viceroy okay and instead ensure that his value was never he would always have value and he was never useless to the viceroy this identifies the beginning of redline and the work on rubato and that is the content of the information you find. I slide back in my chair and sort of heavy sigh, like, I'm done. I've finished my project.

Ziggy, I will have taken, I imagine that it took all of this time to do the skeleton key project and that once I unlocked it, that I actually scanned through all of this data and figured out how to connect the dots from all of these documents and archive records and everything pretty quickly. Yeah, I would still say it took, I mean, the whole hacking of it with three and a half weeks, in which you kind of begin to piece this picture together. It's not instantaneous, but it's still, you're capable of getting the broader picture in probably two hours.

Okay. I will run out and I will find wherever the rest of the gang is. Team meeting. Team meeting. You call a team meeting. I call a team meeting. I'm there. I got it.

I cracked the code. I finally did it. I know I said it was going to take 15 minutes. And to be fair, once I cracked the code, it only took about 15 minutes for me to compile all this, I swear. Your judge and perception of how long it's going to take you to do something is the worst I've ever seen something. It's not my fault.

It was Mega Destroyer. Who? Oh, he left his signature. The person who encrypted the data files for Don Vito's name is Mega Destroyer. to find him and I'm going to crush him. Do you want me to crush him for you? I mean, if we can find him physically. But, you know, I'll just ruin his reputation online.

I'm going to find this guy. But that's not important. Good name's the kid mega destroyer. Well, it was one of the names of my ship, actually. But it's not anymore. It's not anymore. He even put three Xs on both sides of the name. That's so cool.

Fuck that guy. What did you learn? I learned a whole lot. I learned a whole lot. Look, I found out the vice-roy's true name. I find out where he is. All right. His name is Lord Harkon Morvane.

He's Viceroy of Sterlock. It's, it's, and I pull up a chart to show where Sterlock is, maybe if I know it. You were able to put, you can effectively have the coordinates, and it's on the edge of the Cavalon Empire. Now that you have his true name, he is basically findable. I push my glasses up, I click, and on one of the large displays, you see what is the, what is, essentially a default PowerPoint template presentation, and the chart bounces into view. Oh, God.

Oh, glones. And then a bullet point appears, and it, like, waves in as, as, uh, Lord Harkon Morbain, Vice Roy of Sterlok. Oh, and he's not a human. I learned that, too. Don Vito wrote everything in here. Nido. What?

Don Nito. Don Nito. I'm sorry. Why am I saying Vito? Yeah, I don't know what they're talking about. Don, he, he, he, Wait, so all we gotta do is just, just kick his door and kill him. Now we know where he is.

Yeah, yeah, I think we have to find him, but there's one other piece, which is to say, and I switch over to the next slide, Invincibility cloak. Don, he spent millions of notes trying to crack this code, but he could never figure out how to kill him. He never really wanted to serve the vice-roy in the first place.

He thought he had the upper hand And then I guess it got Switzerud And then he realized that the only way That it'd keep himself useful Was to develop Redline And Rubedo and all these other drugs So that he could stay alive Otherwise you just get crushed

On the Vice Roy's thumb But there was no way to kill him He never figured it out If the Don couldn't figure it out I don't know what we're going to do But he's cloaked by this shield Of invincibility Nothing's going to get through

If he's not a human, what is he? I that wasn't in the notes I mean, even the Don, I don't think he knows what it is. He just knows he's not some guy. So even if we go to Sturlock and find this guy, we can't just kill him. No, we can't shoot him or, or, you know. Crush him with a bat? I don't think we can crush him with a bat.

We have to figure out a way around. Well, if you hammer. No, an axe? That's all bludgeoning. Fuck. You did, in the notes, discover that he was racked. as a discordant. And he was referenced as a discordant.

Yeah. He was just a part of a devil. No, no, no, it's the Gio City's Diablo. We all know. We all. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, man. Oh, gosh.

They're so real. Okay. How much time has passed? past, you said like a week, right? Three and a half weeks. Three and a half weeks. So that means that in the meantime, we had a tearful goodbye with shit, mouth, shit, jaws.

Yes. So in the time, you'll be able to do what you may. But you, in the very beginning, in that first week, you know that you had organized a connection with the GBG. You'd gone to one of the local outposts, the closest one to you at the time. and you had organized the drop-off of the Blood Fleet Pirates. Captain Saltooth and his fierce swore.

I don't know how else to say it. And you also were able to hand over the evidence that you had on Nito, the Don. You got an advance on the payout for him, and you discovered one additional thing. that the person who is paying out for the contract knows that there is actually someone above the dawn and will pay out an unbelievable amount for them. At this stage, you have been given enough notes to basically float the refueling, the restocking of the Rhapsody

and stave off any creditors for the immediate time being. though that is still very much a threat. But the advance on the payment of the Don was substantial enough to keep you afloat for just the next couple weeks. So then what we're learning is that whoever, whatever, is like paying out these bounties on the Red Belt's know something about that the Don was at the end. Dude, this is like, this is layers of information.

They have not named, they've not named, they've not. named the vice roy. They don't know anything about that or what, but it is, it was expressly conveyed to you that specifically the person paying out the bounty who is not the GBG with the actual backer. The client. The client. Oh, this goes so far. We are so fucked. Has identified that they know there is a, there is one higher tier than the Don. Though the bounty officially ended at the Don. We just got like, we are in such a deep shit. Here's cash to get you by, but that's the real bounty. Okay, all right. The reason I asked, too, how much time goes by.

Yeah, please. Because in the three and a half weeks that has passed, I would say that the entirety of the crew, but especially co, would notice that I have begun training harder than ever. When we spar, you notice a ferocity of the sparring that I don't normally have, and I'm teaching you things that I can with the knowledge that I have about what we're up against. And in the course of the three and a half weeks, I would like to have also shared the information that I have about this item and the knowledge that I gained from praying

about the four different types of discordant, the different quadrants, the what I know about them, so that we have that information. And I would try to do my best to educate the gang about what I learned through meditation. Absolutely. So at this point, all of you now are basically as far read up on cacophony and the tones of discord that Pike knows. Thrill, instinct, progress, sorry, thrill, entropy, instinct, and progress.

That being said, Ziggy has now given us all of the information and informed us that he's in his own. He is. He's title card. Yeah, he's title card. And also during this time, I would have just done more typical bounty hunter style sleuthing of maybe checking with contacts and see if they've heard anything of what's become of the red belts, if they heard anything at all about the fallout of the mansion, if anyone consolidated power, just Googling stuff on the viceroy that wouldn't have returned anything, I'm sure.

Roll an investigation check at advantage, because that's very cool. Oh, advantage. You're so generous. You're almost looking for, like, patterns of things that don't seem, like, related just to see if you can find anything. Yeah. Just anything, you know, I'm no, like, you know, hacker man or whatever, and I'm no, like, you know, religious.

No, but you know how to keep it here to the street. Exactly. 18. 18. That's respectable. With an 18, you're able to find information that paints you a murky picture, but you start to get the feeling that several lieutenants, many responded to the call from the Don, ended up in the same place, and there was a bloody,

uproarous battle for the crown to see who would take over. the seat. One thing that keeps coming up is this scarlet eye almost fully dismantled. What's happened to them, you can't quite figure out, but there continues to be mentions of Connobeau. Oh. Interesting. Let's go. I would 100% keep that to myself. Yeah. You met? Especially the amount of times I've heard co- yell about Connoebo. You met? Very smart? Yeah.

Very smart? Not to withhold information from my crew member, but I would also make sure that Pixel States topped up. And, co, I'm going to do my best. If I can. To make Pixel feel like a million bucks, I'm going to be checking in on her. But I never have an inkling that she's on the stuff. I never have an inkling that you've had anything.

I am oblivious. Yeah. It's three and a half weeks of pure obliviousness, but I'm just doing my best, trying to help out how I can, and I'm just training. I know we gotta, I gotta fight demons, and I couldn't punch that thing in the lab, but I'm just gonna try to punch it and hit it harder. I don't know what else to do.

Yep. That's what I've done. Pixel has been playing solo games of Meteor Mall Madness, because someone wants to play it with her. So she has, like, different accessories she'll put on, depending on which player she is, whether she's one, two, or three, and then she'll jump from the side of the board and just play the game by herself most of the time. But then in her spare time, this is mainly when Coe is working out,

working out. In her spare time, she's been working on a present for Coe when the opportunity arises. Okay. Okay. Absolutely. So that is the last three and a half weeks. You all spend it in the forms described. We're now in the present. Zieg has just cracked the code, has all the information on Lord Harkon, the Viceroy, and is relaying it to the party. First of all, I don't know why you would put a dancing baby in there. It's not relevant at all.

Look at it, me. It's so cute. It's awful. That's cute. Anyway, but, I mean, if we can't touch this guy, we're fucked. Oh, God, he lost again, but you three won. And then I'll run around. Yay, it won!

Good job, Picks. Thanks. And win every time. You know, you're just that good? Well, I don't know what we're gonna do about. this veil, this cloak. What about the ether? Ether, tech, right?

I mean... It's possible, right? Who's to say? I mean, maybe the Donn's Files didn't take that into account, but I mean, I'll sort of look at Pike and kind of be like,

I don't know how much you've shared... I mean, if you sort of brought everybody up on the general sport, but like... For sure. You know, like... I don't know. Would you have said that you would have... you would have relayed basically everything you told Rhett?

No. Okay. I only relayed the information that I got from studying the artifacts. Just the, just the realm of the tones of Discord. Anything that I had a conversation with Red about is private. Understood. Okay. But you guys know about the different types of discord.

Yep, yep. You know more about cacophony, silent, all of that stuff. I have shared as much information I have about that with everyone so that we're well equipped to try to fight whatever threat we may be faced with. Understood. Okay, so the thing is, look, I don't really want to talk about this. It makes me feel like he, but we got to. And so if we can't attack it because it's some kind of cloaky thing,

what if, what if the little pyramid that we got? What if that can do damage to it or something? Oh. Because they've got the same thing, right? Maybe that's why, because we're not it. We're not of it. I hadn't thought about that. Have you had any success?

I did. and that's basically how I learned more about what I've shared with all of you. Here's the thing. I don't think it's necessarily a weapon that will take the vice right out, but I do think that it's going to age. Can we smash it then? No, we can't smash it. In your time of studying it, Mike, you understand certain properties of it.

It would be relatively easy for you to draw the conclusion that it was a relic that was potentially gifted to the dawn, and it has the power to exert influence over people, which led to a relatively normal leader of a syndicate to rise to such heights, to deal with people in certain rooms. I see. That power, the power of the viceroy, the power of the tetrahedron, is what allowed him to soar to such great heights. Okay, I absolutely share that with everybody.

You were saying? Well, I mean, we've earned a lot of time waiting for Ziggy to backdoor the mainframe or whatever the fuck he was doing. I had to build a skeleton key. Do you know how hard that is? It's very illegal. It's illegal across the galaxy. I could build a skeleton key in, I don't know, 15 minutes. A digital skeleton key?

I don't think that you could. I'd like to see you. try and to be fair. No, a fucking physical skeleton. No, no, no. This is a hacker's tool. You refer to it as a skeleton key because it can open any encryption. So it's a skeleton key.

Yeah, yeah, with threes instead of these. And I know it took me three and a half weeks, but I, I remade it twice during that entire process because I wasn't happy with the first one. And he ate all of the hot spockets. There were no more ham and cheese ones. Wait, I just restocked those. I had a lot of work to do. I needed that hammond chief.

So you've been busy in your room with the door locked. A lot of weird noises, backdooring. Yeah? Just to tell us we're fucked. And eating all of a hot sprocket. All of a, well, I mean, they're either too cold or too hot. I don't know why you guys like those things. They suck.

I don't know. But there's not neither here or that. This is something about them. There's neither here nor there. We just learned that we're fucked. What do we do? We need to find some way to injure this guy before we confront him. Red, I know you're not going to like this, but I think it's time I make a call.

What? What? You turn us into the... Are you locking us up? Look, I told you, I trust you on this. Okay. Burnt three and a half fucking weeks. What are you thinking, Pikes?

There's only one person in this entire galaxy that I know that'll have any information. about this at all. Ziggy's mom. Pinky. I wish it was pinky. Yeah, me too. I wonder how he is. Rex Maxim.

No. Is it who I think it is? Is it the circumstance? Because I really like that guy, too. Oh, it's probably the circumstance knows everybody. He gets a lot of jobs. I mean. And you know, you know who's, you know who's DTF?

Derek, he's D. He could help at any time. He doesn't know anything about the discordant. Let's not go find that. Are you all done? Well, I have we just tried to know. We hot or cold, come on. Yeah.

Not even close. Oh, we both like a hot sprocket. Do you want the PowerPoint? We just got to find her. Oh, it's a hurt. The one and only, Ophelia Callos. Oh! No!

You're stuck! Of course! She's fucking round us! Oh, yeah. She's crazy. It's crazy. It's crazy. All right.

Okay. She! director of the Polar Society when I worked there. Can I ask a question? Please. Is your mom as hot as she is? I'm not going to answer that. Oh, he's actually probably up there.

He's not answering. Ophelia was ranked a lot higher than I was in the society, and thus she has access to more information and all sorts of other stuff that I was never privy to. I mean, the Don, he spent millions of dollars researching how to get through this. Look, do you think the society could have answers about it? That sort of thing? Yes, Ziggy, I do. What makes you think she's going to answer the phone if you call?

I don't think she's going to answer the phone if I call. And that's going to be the challenging part is finding her. If Ophelia doesn't want to be found, she's not going to be found. Of course she doesn't want to be found. She stole all of her freaking money. She's the only leave we've got. Well, to be fair, if she wanted to cover her tracks, that would have to assume that she believed we were competent enough

to even like catch a trail to begin with. We're not confident enough to get that's, yeah, that's, oh man. So there's hope. So what you're saying is, we have another manhump on our hands. Unfortunately, yes. Well, where do we even start? How do we even begin? I'm not sure.

I always thought our paths would cross again. I just didn't think it would be this soon. Do you? I mean, it's, it's only because I read so many of those, like, those dirty novels, but is there any chance that maybe she left you some kind of, like, hint, a clue on how to find her and that little chip thing she left? Yeah. I reach into my pocket. I pull out the poker chip and I hold it up. Keeps that thing on.

And as, yeah, absolutely I do. I like Diana. And as I flip it back and forth, you'll... No, I can, because he's right next to his heart. You'll see on one side the writing of the casino, and as I flip it over, you'll see the lipstick mark on the other side. Pristine. It hasn't, it hasn't smudged at all. And I just kind of hold it up and look at it and say, well, I thought it was just a poker chip.

I'm not sure. I'll sit back in my pocket. I mean, Rex did have the adultery phone on him. I couldn't find it. I don't know if it works the same. I don't know if it works the same. Look, sometimes a poker chip's just a poker chip. All right.

I don't know. I was trying to avoid this. Uh-oh. And we're not getting scammed again, all right? But given the circumstances... The circumstance? This. Oh.

I'll entertain it. And I trust you. All right? I don't think we have another fucking shot at this. Well, I wanted the chances she pulls a fast one on us twice. Now we're ready for it. It's very, very unlikely. We've really improved since the last time.

She'd have a hard time. Pull him and overrun us now. Let's just look, lesser of two evils, she's the only lead we've got. Just everybody be aware. It's not like we have anything to even steal at this point. Why would she even help us? Yeah, she has more money than the gods of Agathos. And some of it's ours.

Because at the end of the day, she knows what we're up against. And you think that's going to be compelling enough to have her even lift a finger. God's, I hope so. One of those perfectly manicured fingers? All right. Well, we can do what we do best, I guess. Get to hunting.

Think about how much money she had. Somebody's got to see something. We'll make some calls. I'll do some calls. You make some calls. You can't spend that much money without getting noticed. Is she rich because she stole our money? Or was she rich before she stole our money?

Column A, little column. So why did she steal money? Well, I think her family's rich. That doesn't necessarily mean that she's rich. Yeah.

And I stopped myself. Yeah, what if she got, what if she was a nepho baby that got cut off? What? I can't fucking believe that. Wow. Yeah.

Can you believe that to me? What an hate? Yeah. Can you believe that? Regardless. How does it do you know? Who doesn't money? She had.

You know what? Obviously, she wanted more. And in her defense, she spent a long fucking time plan in that highest. And we came in the last second. So I'm not even as sour about it as I could be. Co, are we mad about it? I'm pretty mad about it. Well, Coe and I am mad about it.

But. But. I mean, we have to, if she was trained on how to fucking kill us, demons that even Pike didn't learn. Yeah. That could be useful. Okay. So are we mad about it? We're considering it.

Wick Cohen and I are considering it. But she did do us pretty dirty. We don't know if we can trust her, right? No. Not sure if we feel like we can trust her is the problem. Yeah, that's the problem. Oh, I wouldn't trust her as far as I can throw her, but she's the only shot we got. So what I would ask but two of you,

Three of you is that let's trust Pike on this one. We gonna have a fucking choice. Well, come and I don't have a fucking choice, so we're gonna go ahead of trying. This goes on moving forward. Yeah. That's fucking funny. That's very funny.

I take you that now. It's okay, but that's incredible. I would talk, I would say basically suggest to the crew, like in my mind, right? Like we had said with the amount of money that she stole, I would hope that we'd be able to maybe just like run some scans, make some calls, look for weird activity, and like try to see if we get any kind of a lead. I'm not expecting her to pick up my fucking phone call.

Let's see this. Roll a group investigation check, except Ziggy, who can roll a computer's check. Oh. Oh. Okay, I don't remember. Is the purple, the Stardust Dice, or the blue? The blues, the Beaselberries.

That's what I thought. I have 14. I should have rolled the Beasle Night. Again, 29. You said group perception? That's- insane. Oh, investigation.

Holy shit. How about that? Did you say 29? No, nine. Oh, I thought you said 20. Oh, no. I was like, what? That's not even possible.

I was not even possible. I'm that. I had that. It's like you turned into a wizard overnight. Oh, wait. Just kidding. I have a vision. I'm Robin to the Batman,

and I got a seven. Seven, nine, seventeen, fourteen, and? You two over there on two. 21. Yes! What Pixel and I decided to do is we get a bunch of catalogs and we try to deduce what Ophelia would want to buy

with all that money and we try to basically run down those leads. And we're entirely wrong. Okay, yeah. We're on the phone with QBC for like an hour. Yeah, you are putting all of your effort in defining Ophelia and you are largely useless to the efforts. The catalogs was such a brilliant idea! Yeah, I know.

So she's Batman, but she's Adam West Batman. Yeah, so the Adam West Batman logic just doesn't Yeah, it never seems to turn up fruit. That's right. But they're just good ideas. Anybody else who wants to call out a specific way, they might try and track Ophelia down. Did I hear you correctly that you have a way to contact her,

but she's not answering your calls, or are you joking? No, like, I would have like a number, but I would assume that it's just to contact her. it's either disconnected, no longer in use, and if it did work that she wouldn't pick up my calls. I'm not trying it. Okay. Okay. If you're not trying it, then my suggestion.

I mean, you can suggest it in character and see if you can persuade me, but Pike wouldn't, is not gonna just go fucking call or kill you. You can try texting, then I can see if I can trace the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, might at least give us an idea of what network it attempts? No, no, I think I got it. We just need four easy payments of what?

eight eight easy payments at $3999 you had written Space Mall again give you that take the catalog away I would have been I think the way that I would have done it is I would if I had any old buddies

that like were relatively well connected I don't know if it'd be probably not graph but like someone like that that would know something about the general goings on about socialites and the rich people and basically like

sort of the, you know, checking to see if there are any like Jay Gatsby's on the scene or like all of a sudden out of nowhere somebody shows up. That's what I'm talking about. And like, you know, it's like has all this money

and like no one really knows how they got it. And, you know, I feel like even if their identity was kept hush-hush, there would be sort of murmurs and rumors about a person like that. Excellent. Funny? Did you actually suggest that to me?

Yeah, if you just tried, then I might be able to trace the signal and it would at least go through the networks and when it wasn't responded to, whatever network it went to, it would bounce back. We might get a solar system, we might get a planet, we might get a city. That's a good lady. You want me to send her a message. Yeah, if you send it, even if she doesn't respond or even if you get a bounce back, I might still be able to follow that signal to whatever device it's trying to send to.

First off, the last time that I had any ready contact to her was over a decade ago. We didn't exactly catch up the last time that I saw her. Right. And two, you think I'm desperate enough to send her a message? It's not about desperation. Well, okay, no, we're desperate to find her. Yeah, we need to find her right now. Yes!

If you think we're going to, she's going to have the information, it's not about texting her. It's about, we need to find her. All right, well, I'm a lot of ideas, unless you just want to do a general query for socialite Ophelia and see if that comes up. Well, I mean, Pink, do you think you would like the Ultimate Love Song Collection? It's normally 2699, but for the special offer,

it's only 1699, plus shipping an animal. Yeah, and look at all the extras you get. You get that weird tape that plugs up holes in everything, and you get that little, rag that's supposed to rag things more. I think she might like that, Pigs your arm or something. With those roles, it takes about two and a half weeks.

Oh my God. And you all explore your different pathways to find Ophelia. Rhett, it's yours that finally turns up a lead. You have been connecting with your connections, all the people that you normally tap to hunt your bounties. And it's about two, we'll say just shy of two and a half weeks in, where you find word that someone, mysterious,

a beautiful woman has shown up on Delphaza and has been spending in ungodly amounts of money. Huh. So I just get the the the is it a world? Sorry, yes, it is a world. Delphaza is a world. And you would, it's findable. You would know how to, how to route there, and you could set a course.

It seems by what you're looking for, it seems very likely that this could be Ophelia. All right. Thanks, buddy. I would call a team meeting and I would uh I got a lead awesome I don't know how good it is yeah I don't know how good it is but I think it's our best shot there's apparently some new money that's just been spending ungodly amounts of notes on a world called I'll check my notepad del fosso del faza he was role playing mason is that drag Do you like, when she was doing her whole, like, office siren thing with you, like, you know,

and you had that work wife and work husband relationship is actually really fucking toxic and very embarrassing. Would she ever mention, like, wanting to go to Del Faza if she made it big and spent her retirement on that world? Anything? Well, have I ever been to Del Fy? Do I know anything about Del Faza? You would recognize, and probably the both of you, would recognize Del Faza as, as, you, an extremely high-end kind of vacation goers spot. Island going prominent, you would go there to live in the absolute lap of luxury and only the

most, only the truly rich can afford to spend time there. She never mentioned it specifically, but it checks out that she'd be there. I think it's worth a shot. Okay. All right. Worst case scenario, we go to a nice planet, right? It's been two and a half weeks. Do we have much in the way of funds left?

Well, Coe and I spent a lot on QV, Cosmic C, and so we, I mean... What did you guys see? It stands for Cosmic Cosmic. What do the Q&V stand for? You don't want to know. That's where they get you. That's exactly right. Yeah, and our delivery should be here probably sometime within the next couple of weeks.

I It's a bunch of Star DUS Rhapsody Feemed legally distinct merch from episode one, Star Wars episode one of we're like the Darth mall inflatable chair like the weird Jar Jar Tongue just the absurd shit The droid like

You know soda can carrier I'm just the shit that no one actually wanted. There's a replica of the heart of the ocean from actually the Titanic. Yeah, yeah. Cubics are conian. It's just a bunch of junk.

All right, I'll set a course, and I think we just hit the world and start asking around. Fingers crossed. Yeah, I'll head to the bridge and go on. Are we gonna stand out like a swore thumb? Looking, Like us?

We still have all of our clothes. We didn't return those, didn't we? What clothes? Fuck, we never returned those. Yeah, it's still in my closet. Yeah, we have all the... Oh, like my fancy prom dress. Yeah.

Okay. Or, you know, just general beachwear will probably be fine. Oh, I have my bikini. Yeah. Well, it's volleyball. Remember we played volleyball? Oh, yeah, I remember. Yeah. We got that.

I think whatever you decide to wear will be just fine. will be just fine. This is going to be a quick in and out operation. I've been learning to sew, so if anyone needs anything made, I can try and make it for you. Well, I appreciate that. We'll keep that in mind, Bix. Good job.

Thanks. Hey, you meet me at the bridge. Boop, boom. We will chart a course and we'll start headed towards Del Faso. You chart a course, and the Rhapsody sets off into the ether waves you go.

It takes about a week to get from where you are to Delphaza. And I think during that week I would be trying to get more information about where on this world this person might be if there's any sense of, you know, more detailed location or if I think that it's going to be like, we'll have to sort of wait until we're there to sort of ask around. That's fine too. You spend that time, you spend that week, like any good bounty hunter, you follow the money. And you heard tell of someone. who had shown up and started to spend in absolute gobs. You be able to, you, with the help of your crew,

you begin to find where this money is going. And you have a very good sense of exactly where to head when you get. Perfect. I will head there. You enter the atmosphere of Delphaza and see glittering oceans and tropical islands stretching as far as you can see. You land the Rhapsody on the water as the bottom. buoyant starship floats steadily on the sea.

You ferry over to the island where you've tracked your quarry and see a luxurious tropical vacation. However, the beautiful scene is marred by ugly air cruiser haulers marked with the logo of Nexus repossessions. Okay. Relatively short and squat. robots go in and out of the mansion. Oh my God! Taking out lavish, furniture, art, and other seemingly

very expensive items and loading them onto the cargo haulers. However, on the beach, you see a single figure sprawled out across in a lounge chair underneath a colorful umbrella, clad in a bikini wearing oversized

sunglasses and sipping from a fruity alcoholic beverage is a Ophelia. Kelsey, can you please come to the table? Hey! Oh, get it over there.