Legends of Avantris - Stardust Rhapsody: Anthem | Ep. 28 | Man in the Mirror: Part: 1

Episode Date: June 26, 2026

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Last time, on Stardust Rhapsody, the party landed on Sturlock to confront the viceroy, Harcon Morvane. They explored the town searching for him but found no trace of anything except something called Russetloaf. A well-respected local merchant told them an uncharacteristic cold had ripped through the crops, destroying all food sources. But the viceroy saved the city with this new bread, a bool with a rust-colored hue. The party tracks down its manufacturing to a warehouse off the main promenade.

Working their way inside, they discover its dark secret. Russetloaf is made of concentrated RDL-8, better known as Red Line. Confronting the workers to shut the place down, they see the power that the perfected form of the drug can have. Workers with giant holes in their chests shuffle out of the storm. Before the party can question them, demonic creatures from cacophony reach their claws out of those new, formed portals and ripped their way into Stirlock, turning the workers inside out. Putting the nightmares to rest, the party sets the factory to explode. With the building now engulfed behind them, Pixel is wrought with a vision.

Harkon reaches out to her once more and she discovers he isn't on Sturlock, but above it, on the moon. A terrible red beam fires from above and strikes the Viceroy's manner connecting the celestial bodies. The cacophonous connection rips the harmonic souls from the people of Sturlock and draws them upwards towards the moon, towards the Viceroy. Racing to the final confrontation you dispatch his aerial guard while the green swirling whale of those you just met circles around you. Avoiding his tower's defenses, you land the ships and race forward. The strange hellish black metal structure rips out of the ground upwards and you see you

him, the viceroy, Harkon. He stands upon its highest balcony, opening his mouth terribly wide. He begins to consume the wave of green energy flowing from the planet below. The moon's shine is the only light cast into the beginning of the long night. You all run across the rough and pock-marked surface of Sturlock's moon as the pulsating castle before you rises up like a fortress from hell itself. all black metal, gray stone, and strange fiendish technology. The monstrous bat-eared Viceroy's jaw finally closes after consuming thousands of souls, before he slowly turns and disappears from the balcony back to the highest chamber in the highest tower.

Minutes later, there's a rumbling on the moon, as the beam increases in its intensity, as the crackling discordant energy rages as it crashes down onto the planet below you. Now, out of your cockpits, the ether of space fills your lungs as you feel its effects more and more as you arrive at the large black staircase that rises to a huge double door shimmering with a dull maroon glow. Viceroy Harkon-Morvane's castle stands directly before you. Question. Is it safe to assume that you have more exposure to this than other people? Do you feel like, how do we all feel about like this, you know, like breathing? I would say that you, and you would all know this going on.

You're standing outside of any kind of protective barrier of your ships, not on the Rhapsody, not on a standard planet where life is traditionally sustained. you feel the heavy weight of ether as it fills the air around you and it absolutely is taking its toll. I think of everyone, Rhett would feel it the least, but is not immune to its effects. Got it.

It creeps itself within you and you know that you will have to find a way into what you hope is solace behind these doors. before too long, or you may sustain permanent damage from ether poisoning. But we don't have to make any consular anything. We're good for now. For right the second.

I guess we're running, so we just come to a sliding halt in front of these double doors. Exactly right. You race from the ships across that pocket mart surface of the moon, the rising, almost eruption of the black metal fortress in front of you, and the staircase that climbs purposefully up to these large, metal double doors. You find yourselves just at the base of the staircase as you can choose to ascend and find a way through and into this tower. We're on a moon. Is the gravity different? That's a great question, Derek. Roll a perception check.

One perception check. We're coming up. I get a 14. You're on a moon. Gravity absolutely does feel different. You do not feel the familiar pull of a planet's surface as you take steps. Even you would have noticed every single one of you, possibly, as you bound from the ships towards this structure, a lighter spring in your step. Every launch of the foot propelling you further forward than you would have expected. Everyone else is gracefully sort of bounding from step to step.

Ziggy is not doing well with this environment. I would say he sort of launches himself, but doesn't quite make the next step. He would hit his stomach and then tumble forward before regaining his balance and then taking three quick steps and sort of tumbling again in another cartwheel. He's keeping up, but doing terribly and not looking graceful whatsoever. What does that sound like? Run!

I'm going to turn to Red. I'm going to turn to Red and say, All right, Wret, the time for subtlety is over. Rip those fucking doors off. I will. Look at the doors. Do these feel like doors that I could punch through with my, with my cannon? Or does it even look locked?

Like, or does it just closed? Well, they certainly look closed. I'd say right now at the base of the stairs, if you want to see if they're locked, you'd have to ascend the staircase. Not about a massive staircase. But you'd have to walk directly up to the doors and see. But roll an investigation check. Ooh, that's still pretty good.

Then I roll the seven. It is eight. I do. It's 14. It's 14. Um, with a 14, on our kana check. Oh, come on natural 20 plus five is 25. Hopefully more to come. Many more to come. Wow. First of many. Wow. You get the sense. I got this sense, pike. You get the sense, maybe it's something out of the fiendish technology. Maybe it's the, maybe it's the hum off the, the hum that's coming off the tower, whatever it is. You believe these doors are magically sealed. I don't know how easy it's going to be, but I'm going to give it a shot. And I'm just going to shoot a blast.

My normal blast for the Grav cannon, the sort of port will open up and you'll see the singularity spin as it begins to power and shoot the first blast this session from my gun. Just see what it does on the door. Knowing that it probably won't do any. I would say that you'll hit guaranteed. You can roll to see if you may crit. Ziggy's breathing hard and he's crashing all over the place.

But I really want to get inside because of the ether that's surrounding us. Would I be able to make a quick function patch, using my function patch ability to add a 1D4 to that. Absolutely. I tap a few buttons on my grid boy and you see a little loading bar, little loading bar, but do-do-do-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d. And all of a sudden, you feel that that little extra oomph in your gun there. Better not be burning a resource.

As long as it's unlimited, I will do that. That's, because it's got a pretty good hit to you. Roll damage. You know, Ziggy, with the amount of video games you play, you'd expect a boss fight coming up. I don't think that I'm going to need function patch during the boss fight. 20 damage, of force. Oh, wow, damn it, okay.

From a single attack. That's pretty fucking good. You fire off, you hear the as it collides with these giant metal, impossible to tell the ore, but these giant metal doors as it hits, and this shimmering, like red barrier almost cracks under the weight

of the blast that you've fallen into it. But you feel like this door begs, for a resonance. And it does not yet shatter the barrier in front of it. And now, I need everyone to roll a con-saving throw. Oh.

Oh. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Is this a con-same to avoid or end the exhaustion or prone condition? Or do you avoid being forcibly moved? Uh-oh. Not forcibly move. Did you say avoid exhaustion?

Yeah. I would say you can think of it that way. Then if you will allow me as an etherom Ron to roll with advantage. I will allow you as it, I would say against ether exposure, you may absolutely roll with advantage, but everyone will need to roll a consuming throw. It's not for poison. Help! I got a nice.

It's pretty hot tonight, folks. That's either a great side or a bad side. No, no, it's gonna end right before. Don't, you're spending them now. Yeah. I got a 16. No one will get me like, I'm spending anything. You're spending them now. Function Patch.

Um, I'm all out of function. I'm all out of function. Don't worry, I can find a shelf on the face. Don't worry. 24. 19. Four. Four. Four.

Okay, okay. I'm also coughing next to Ophelia and Co. I should have smoked more cigarettes to toughen up my lungs. You amateurs. I've got a cigarette in each finger. That's very funny. I get a six. I get a fixed.

I'm doing bad. I got a 17. 17. All the smokers are weird. My lungs are so scarred, nothing can harm me. How are you doing, Picks? Are you feeling? I'm scared.

Me too, Picks. I don't like this. Boy, there's gonna be a bunch of boot-looking assholes coming out. I'll smash all of them. Don't worry, Picks, you just stand behind me. And I'm looking around also for, like, you know, there are these cultists fucking pilots and met pilots. I'm looking around for, like, guards and soldiers.

Do we see anything? You look around, and as you're, As your eyes go up and you scan this structure, you look for parapets or shorter balconies, anywhere that you might think to see, potentially guards holding Overwatch or standing, ready to drop anyone rapidly approaching the tower, as far as you can see from the outside,

you see nothing. Almost a strange lack, almost a strange lack of defenses. The blast will fizzle on the door. Damn. And I'll lean over to Pike and I'll say, I think it's protected by some kind of hell magic I gotta say

it's quiet too quiet I give you a knowing nod this was a smoldering look well we need to find our way in you're going to be fine we shouldn't come to the moon you shouldn't come in the car

you gotta kill this asshole I need a cigarette I can't breathe I'm gonna ascend the stairs and I'll sort of look to Pike almost a nod like hoping to join 100% I'm glued to your side. I'm right there with you as we approach the door. You make your way of the stairs. You now stand directly in front of the double doors and you can the barrier stands in front of you. You can feel what you may have you may have expected heat or

thrum of energy. You feel this cold and you almost pull your your clothes tightly around you before you realize that the cold is not emanating from without you, but from within. The kind of gold you get when you have the flu and you pull the sheets around you and you just can't get warm. Oh, that's a terrible feeling. Ah, damn it. How close are we to this thing?

I'd say you're right dead in front of it. What are you thinking? This feels like a job for Pike Starfall. I would also say, as you become this close, Pike, You feel a strange resonance on your person. I'll, again, I'll look to Rhett and give you kind of a knowing nod, just absolutely blue steel look, you know? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And I will reach into my jacket, and I will pull out the whispering shard. Oh, as I know, nobody else knows, I know that this thing is offering me some sort of resilience. I've experienced it since having this thing. Have you told us you brought this thing? I only told Red. And I will pull it out.

And you may or may not be able to see it. I don't know. I'm holding it. My back is to all of you. And I will attempt with it in my hand to, like, touch this barrier to see if I can, if it reacts to my gauntlet, the shard. I would say as you move it closer, almost like, like crackling red lightning dancing between the objects as they move to connect, once it makes impact of the surface of this,

lock that bars this door, as if it was a key, it starts to crackle and disperse. As the energy moves away, and the door stands unlocked in front of you. The whole time I'm doing this, you would hear me like praying under my breath. You might not be able to make out the words, but you'd hear me like muttering to myself as I'm trying to. And so I've dissipated the barrier. You have, you dissipated the outer barrier. Pike, what the fuck? You brought that thing with you!

What thing? What then are you thinking? Okay. He has the fucking hell thing! Oh, God. Look. Through the Don! We're fucked!

It's getting innocent side, all right? We'll talk about this later, but... We've got to get in. The fucking... The Don had it because it protected him from the immediate effects of the viceroy. All right, and clearly, it's doing something. You've got to trust me on this one, all right?

Now step back. And I'll tuck it back into my jacket pocket. What the fuck? As I step away. Pixel, step way the fuck back. Yeah, no, I'm behind Co. Come me a pixel, then you're fine. I want to wait until I pikes away.

And I'm like clutched onto Co. Just in case something happens, since I'm not feeling the effects of the ether as much, I want to be the one that's like within 10 feet of this door as I try to push it open. Okay. You push it open. And as you put your hands on it and you give it, the true Aragorn might as the doors swing open. Oh, deep load you protect me.

And you swing your hair all around you. I don't say that. That's on this. Your priors lost. The doors make way under the weight of your force. Oh. Oh shit. As they swing open,

inside of the threshold of this door, as you move forward, you feel yourselves walk through one more red barrier that you pass straight through. However, this one does not attempt to stop you. As you move through it, you will feel the effects

of the ether exposure outside end. Not the effects, but you are out of the ether outside. Get in, get in. I'll wait for everybody in. Let them know that it's safe. Yeah, I stay clutched to go. Hold on, Picks. This triggers another.

You can do whatever the fuck. What you want? You're the jam. How do we know this is a good of fun, mix up? I can't breathe. How do you feel, Vicks? I know you can't breathe. I can't breathe either.

You look at this face, Go. We got to risk it. There's air in here. Come on. You see how my eyes are rolling back in my head instead of neon green? She can't stay out there. Come on. I've seen both nose fraud one and nose fraud, too.

I don't want that to happen again. Those are just movies. You feel fine, Pac? I feel okay. We're doing all right. We have to get in here. Look at her. Bring her in here,

Co. You don't have the choice. And all the grab picks and I'm just going to run through the barrier. After a Constitution saving throw, sure, wait. Get in here. Get in here, Co.

Get in here. You make your way in. You do not spend that much additional time outside by the rules of ether exposure. You make your way in. You all enter the grand, entrance hall of the castle before you and are immediately swallowed by cold and quiet. Despite the size of the room before you is entirely empty. Smooth stone and metal surround

you as a dark stairway with hundreds of steps rises before you as the double door still remains open behind you. The only light coming from the colorful ether of space is behind it. Almost instinctively, knowing that I can't see as well in here, I will hold up my arm, my right hand with the gauntlet on it, and cast light as a small, like, it looks like a small synth wave sun floats above my fingers, I cast light, and holding it up with that kind of fingergun motion,

attempting to kind of give us some light around us. Picks talk to me, okay? Yeah, I'm breathing now. Is he talking to you? Huh? What? No. Who? You think the fucking vice room. What do you think?

Oh, yeah, well, I mean, uh, no. You're not seeing him? No. I'm not seeing anything. I'm not feeling so hot, but... Okay, where you were... I expected more to be going on in here. We're all of his assholes.

I... Going through this castle fortress, whatever it is, and as we would have approached too, I would have been treating it like I was pushing on a... any kind of fortified structure, keeping an eye on where there might be, you know,

suppressive fire or whatever. I want to, like, be very on edge and just sort of checking doors as I go through this. My eyes will be darting around. Expecting, you know, some goons to jump out, you know, Cavalong goons to jump out and start chish out. I'm looking around as I look to see,

you know, is this, like, are there, is there furniture? Is there, you know, I don't know what to expect. I've never been in a castle before. You can rule, let's do this. We'll roll a great. Group perception check and will hold the results through moving through the castle.

Also, what was the effect of the ether? I was kind of like in the zone. Oh, yeah. I'm gonna pay to find out. Oh. Oh. I pay two. Perception you said.

I'm not pretty all. I'm gonna jinx this. I'm doing all right. I'm doing okay. That was not a great. I love everything in the other. I need two, Bernal. 17.

15. 14. 14. God, please. Yeah. 40. 14. 14. 13. 13. 13. Oh, that was good. I love me. Thank you. That was good. Thank you.

With that, even on approach, Rhett, you would have seen a similar thing. As you're moving on this structure, the Viceroy standing at the absolute pinnacle above with that terrible crashing wave of souls engulfed at the peak of this tower. As your eyes run down and you scan its structure, you see no outer defenses. Aside from the anti-aircraft turrets, you see no manned defenses against a foot incursion. And even inside, in this room in particular, you don't see abandoned defense stations or anything like that. You see nothing except this staircase that leads upwards. A complete lack of guard or person or even weapon or section you think somewhere.

might man to slow an assault on this place. You get the sense that the feeling is that this tower was unassailable. It's quiet. Too quiet. That's my life. Season 11 in episode 13 of Skybreak exile. Brett already said that exact same thing. How would they?

Unbelievable. Stole that for me. I've been saying that for years. I know. Well, it doesn't matter who said it first. it's true. Where is everyone? I think he's never had a need

for defense before. Those goons, they were already in their starships probably just protecting the moon. I'm sure that's all he's ever needed. I mean, I guess this is a backwater planet on the edge of the empire. Maybe those...

Oh man, do we like kill the rest of the guards and the knights of... With that riot, Bix? Oh, they might all be dead. Yeah. I mean, they deserve it, but like... Yeah. Man, I didn't get to smash any of them.

You know what that means, though? What? We're all alone in here. Just us and him. I don't know if I liked that better than the alternative. Yeah, the first time I've ever felt like us versus won the odds on in our favor. I'm hoping it's a lucky break. And you know, Coe, if things go to...

tits up, it might be too against you guys, is he's got a pull over me. What if he uses me against you? He's not going to fucking do that. And if he does, we'll cave his skull and he can bleed like anybody else. We got the thing, the bullets.

That's right. You don't do it. No offense or anything, but how sure are we that those are going to work? Like, we just we heard that they were going to work, but we have any proof for it. What do we do if they don't work?

What if we get in there and she shoots him like dead in the chest or whatever? And nothing happens. We have on good authority. It's like God bullets. Like their family and they all worship the goddess. It's the bird, the pretty bird. I do like pretty birds. I'll look at Pike and Ophila and I'll say,

Oh, I'll better start saying your prayers because we're gonna need all the help we can get. I'll just kind of like, again, I'm holding holding the gauntlet in a position that I have done many times to be ready and just say, way ahead of you. I would like to try to light a cigarette. Is it too cold to light a cigarette? Oh. Oh, I love that. For now, no. Okay, so I'm able to successfully like this cigarette. For now. I would say that where you're at, there, you, even outside, I don't know if I said this, even outside, there's almost this in an approach of this swirl

whirling a mist of a presence of snow and ash as you approach this place. It is cold. It feels cold from without, it feels cold from within. But as you stand right now, as you take out your cigarette, a little bit harder to bring the flame on, but as you do, you alight it. Nowhere to go but up, right? I'm right behind you. Here we go.

Be ready for anything. I'm with you. As Pike says that, and Ophelia, as you scan the room, your visor trying to make sense of the section in front of you, looking for any tactical opportunity, any tactical place to take advantage. You see, on your readout, you hear,

Bidoo, bidoo, bidoo. And you see incoming transmission, home. Someone from home. Someone from home. I'll answer it. Apologies for the interruption, Mistress Ophelia. Are you okay? Yes, we're all right.

It's Belvedere. We have received an alert that your suit has experienced extreme ether exposure. Shit. Yes, Belvedere. It's been strenuous. I think we're okay now, though. Are you still getting readings? Your vital signs are of questionable condition, mistress.

If you would, I took the liberties to pack additional stim packs in your utility belt enough for yourself and your friends. Belvedere, you're always looking out for us. Well, thank you. I know how you like to go on your adventures. I also took the liberties to pack

some of your favorite snacks should you get peckish on the trip. You really are the best. Tell the dear. Why is he calling you? He said that They got readouts, the extreme ather exposure. Does he know about the rounds?

I don't think so. He said he packed some additional stim packs for us. What the fuck out? What did he have the time to do that? I don't know. God, I'm really now afraid with that guy. He really freaks me out. He's always been this way.

My family, pious. My underwear smelled weird after we left your house. I don't think you can blame that on belt with you. He's the utmost professional, always preferred. What? And he packed snacks, so. Oh, can a guy have a snack? I don't think now's the time, hold on.

He's still on the line. Is that his belved you? Mr. Sophilia. Yes. And you have the ecliptic rounds. Uh, uh. Does he know? What's he saying?

Does he know? What's happening? Let her talk, let her talk. Does I think he knows. Mistress. Yes. There wasn't a question. Yes, I took them.

You should know we're getting a reading of extreme discordant presence. You mustn't. If you engage, you must remember that to kill it, and then it cuts out. Static. To kill it, I what? Belvedere. From behind you, the two double doors crash closed. As the static comes across the wall.

line and Belvedere's voice cuts out. What the hell? He went dead. What happened? He said that there's extreme discordant readings. Yeah. Shit. He got cut off.

He said to kill it. And then he went dead. I don't know. I don't know what he's going. No, he didn't die. The feed went dead. But I don't know what he was trying to tell me. Then surely he can come in there, there's going to be support, right?

I don't know. Look, how hard can it be? It's ammo. You put it in the gun and you shoot it. That's right. That's true. All right. Who's got a better aim than you? No one.

No one. That's why I'm here. We're going to be all right. Hopefully there's no Eldridge Archane Law you need to use to fire that thing. What if it's got a password? I don't know how that would be possible. You know, everything's got a password these days? We'll figure it out as we go.

What if it's got two? to authentication. You hear that the crack is. I left my cell phone in the starship. You hear that? Everything's cut too back to authentication. Sometimes three. You hear the crackle of static as a huge screen

at the top of the landing above you blinks on with a dull red light. It flickers to a dark screen of static and garbled sound with feedback and warped shapes through it until it snaps to a crystal clear picture of the master of this castle. Harcon Morvane sits on a metallic throne with pallid gray flesh,

bat-like ears and nose, and elongated skull and huge fangs in his mouth. His eyes still covered by crimson-tinted sunglasses. His coat and shirt are open, and his withered flesh looks sunken and weak, and you see a yawning pit of darkness at the center of his chest.

And you realize now that he has several tubes connecting to ports within his flesh, pumping a glowing maroon-colored blood through clear piping that runs elsewhere into the castle. His voice is almost weak as he speaks directly to you. Oh, shit. You have come to the gates of hell, and nothing remains before you but Gagovany. Kill your hope. Night is closing in. To proceed is to face not me,

but something far worse. Your selves. Your demons, they are. You will join them. You will become them. Then, and only then, you will join me as darkness descends. If you do not wish to see yourself fall as I have fallen to yourselves. It is too late for end.

The screen cuts out as the castle whirred to life as a dull red light fills the space and you see discordant blub pumped through transparent tubes throughout the walls, spreading it like veins as if the castle is alive. You feel pulsing like a heartbeat break the silence. Incredibly slow, incredibly soft, but it sounds like doom. I'm gonna take a long drag on my cigarette and just look to ret. Listen to me. I don't know what lies and wait for us. But if something were to happen to me, you recover the gauntlet, you don't let them get it. And do what you can to figure out how to harness it. I know that's a tall ask.

But don't worry about me. Worry about the gauntlet. You got it, Pike. You got it. What the fuck was he talking about our demons? What the fuck is going to happen here? It's got to be some kind of defense. We're not seeing some kind of something to protect him.

And did you see how he was looking? He was looking terrible. He was crazy. I don't have any demons. I'm fine. I got no fucking problems. You got problems. You look like shit.

Who knows what we're going to face? I've certainly never dealt with anything like this. This is the fucking lab. The thing that he killed in the fucking lab. Yeah. Does Coe shouts that out? You could almost picture the tubing that the creature buried beneath Omicron was connected to as its blood was pumped out and pumped through the structure. Very cool.

That was a cool thing to say, Judgeon. I'm a game master. I look, is the tubing in the walls? Is it like at smashing level potentially? Oh. The tubing is all around you, almost like the piping in a grand cathedral, as large. charge tubes run up the walls and snake all throughout this structure. Some cool shit the same, man.

Is it kind of like how the purple liquid pumps through memories rest sanatorium and the crooked moon and kind of lights it? I don't know. Rich I haven't read it. Yeah, I think it is. That's what sounds like to me. That's really cool. It's exactly like that. It's exactly like that. It's cool, cool, cool, cool. It's funny you mention that and you'll find out why in five minutes. Oh no. You really are fucking stupid, aren't you? You had your contract. put the plumbing on the outside.

And I'm just gonna like run at this piping. And I'm just gonna take my club and just start smashing the tubes. Roll to attack. Absolutely. Oh shit, I used up my function patch. That's very funny, Derek. 12. You hit. Roll damage.

Oh, fuck yeah. I'm not using my streets of rage of the streets. Not my streets of the rage. That's funny. Max damage. Hell yeah. Hell yeah. So, 15. Ludgeoning damage.

Swing your club with a massive blow as it strikes this pumping cacophonous blood. And as your first blow lands, it stops instantly killing the momentum of your swing. Whoa.

You can't help but take the reverberation of the pain of the strike for this tube. through the upper section of your body, you take five points of damage. Oh!

From the visceral blow. My Gimli, fellowship of the ring, I kind of bounce back as I, or it's a dull, I guess, probably. And you're like, almost like the absorb over the blow. Spine. Are you all right? Damage absorption, not nullification.

Maybe I'll get that. That was for handy. Fuck. I appreciate it. I guess he would have thought of that, huh? Hey, are you all right? I looked like it hurt. It did.

God, that fucking stinks. Oh, my God. I propose we just start climbing. No more smashing. No more shooting. Let's just find him. Climbing? But I'm exhausted.

Come might be able to help you there. I don't have an answer for using. I'll ask you, what do the stim packs do? Oh, I'm sorry. The stim packs. You take out of your utility belt, they're like these white, square-like, very thin packs,

almost not too much bigger, almost than like a large credit card, like a slim wallet. Coming out of it, just the junt of of a needle, and you would know that they would issue the user the benefits of a short rest. Oh, shit. Okay. That's fucking huge. I like that. I'm actually kind of beat up. No, I'm all fucked up. My HP is like decent, but it's the, it's all my features. I don't have any features. Yeah. This is Polaris issued field deck.

Oh, God. Oh, man. Would I be familiar with them? I would say you recognize them upon season. seeing them, absolutely. And this is not something you'd be able to go anywhere to get. This is very extremely rare. Secret. Secret technology. Secret high tech technology. Listen, we don't know what we're going to find up there, so if we need to rest, here, these are from Belvedere. We pack them for all of us, and I'll go into my very sexy fanny pack and my tactical fanny and hand out these stem packs. I'm assuming he packed enough.

He said packed enough for all. I'll pass one out to everyone. Are these trucks? In a sense, but probably not what you're looking for. It's been a long time since I've seen one of these. So I hope you feel rested. Good. They're powerful.

Save them for when you need them. I would literally only get function patch right now. That's very funny. That is some interesting design right there. I'll study that later. We're not going to use these? Use them when you need them. How will I know?

Well, how do you feel? Like crap. Well, then you might want to use them. You can use it bits. Yeah, yeah, if you're low health or whatever. Oh, no, I got all of my, yeah, I'm really sturdy. I just feel very scared. Do you have all of your other features and whatnot?

Oh, no, I'm missing most of my high-level spells, but the thing is, this isn't going to do anything for that. No, no, no, it doesn't. Do you got any like mega stem packs? What if you just put all of the stimpacts into like one person? Do they get the benefits of a long ranc? I'll search through my tactical fanny.

Do I have any mega stimpacts? Try and do something nice for the table, you know? Um, and you search, your investigation check is in that for 20. You search your tactical fanny. You have no mega stem. Fresh out of mega stimp. Just normal stem packs.

I keep so many things in my tactical fanny, but a mega stymie. A mega stim pack is not one. No, it's okay. I use it once I'm feeling really bad. After I've been carried up, carried up over a hundred stairs. You're really tired.

The castle's lit now with the tubes. It thrums in this reddish glow of that maroon blood of demonic, of the demonic blood of the viceroy pumping through the walls. And so it does, it is lit, but in this eerie, glow. So like walking through a submarine when there's like emergency power.

Hell yeah. That's very good. Yeah. That's cool. It's very correct. I'll look at everybody and I'll say, are you all ready? Yes, what are you ever going to be? Let's end him. I think you go first. Sail us. And again, with the little glowing orb at the tip of my finger shedding some light in a 20-foot radius, I will lead the way. The only direction looks like we can go, which is up the stairs. You make your way in the only direction you can go up. And you begin to ascend the stairs. The beating heart of the viceroy

is the only sound that matches your footfalls as you make your way up. It's like that part of Final Fantasy set on up Shindra Tower. Oh, yeah, it is. You have to go up 52 sets of stairs, 52 flights of stairs, to get where you're going. You make your way. And what felt like hundreds, you're able to ascend,

not with relative ease, but you make your way to the first landing that appears to you before the stairs continue upward. In front of you, stands a room. I think I'll have my gun away at this point. The only reason I have mine out is because it's currently our light source and it's attached to me. Yeah, we literally have only the light of the blood pipe, uh, pipes, and you're... It's giving a different color, a huge, warmer magenta light, right? Yeah, 100%.

So the door, we just came to a closed door. Yes. A large, single black closed door. I try to open the door. It swings open. I very, you know, gingerly, just quickly look left, right as I stick my head in, and I take a few steps in to see if I can shed some light on what is waiting for. in the room. You step in and you shed your light upon a room filled with instruments. It has instruments of all varieties arranged as if a full orchestra could play. Oh shit. Every inch of wall is covered in blood red mirrors that reflect the room. However, as you enter, it casts no reflections of yourselves.

And I'll just keep walking in deeper into the room. to try to get a better view assuming, hoping that rats were behind me. Why is it always... We close me. Guys. I mean, why do all of these rich people always have a music room?

It's like buying a like a space yacht. It's like you're just looking to burn money. Yeah, I mean, you gotta have a music room. It's badass. But they never have like any cool stuff. What do you mean? A bunch of boring, like,

orchestra, classic. like an electrocello. It's that cool shit. I mean, it's not rock and roll. Stop metal. I look around, do I see any guitars? Uh, roll a perception check. Or investigation check. Oh, it would be a... It's the same for both, hilarious.

21. I would say with that, you see several instruments that are stringed instruments that have that frame of body. That kind of vaguely looks like a guitar. Oh, I feel like it's, uh, you know, it's a little oddly shaped, but you could probably rock out on

one of those. Think about how many notes he's made in his lifetime. Who knows how long he's been alive? And what else are you going to spend it on? Pixel. Oh, fuck.

Is you seven eight hundred times a session? Oh, fuck. Not the last time I'm older that name. As you spend a moment in this room, it's not long before, in its center, a larger electronic harp. You find it beautiful, and it calls to you. Look at this thing, look at this harp.

You know, in a strange way, kind of similar. to my key top and shape at least. There's something about it. I just, I reach out to touch it. Oh my God. Oh, my God. A note rings out throughout the room, which starts beautiful, but then turns discordant.

Suddenly, there's a pulse of darkness at your core. Oh, okay. And you, a black spot reflected in the mirrors around you. The darkness spreads and you see a scene emerge before you in the mirrors. Am I the only person with CSA? No. What the fuck? A poor human peasant boy reads a data pad in a small provincial town on Sturlock.

Hundreds of miles from the nearest city. He's a bright boy and eagerly consumes any information he can get his hands on. losing himself in numbers and data before returning home to his agrarian homestead. When he arrives, his father is drunk again, and his mother is screaming at him with wide, unstable eyes. She berates him for wasting his time and not helping in the fields, spitting his name, Harkon, with spite. Young Harkon Morvane escapes to his room to cry. And this pattern repeats often. However, on the rare day where the town doctor pays a visit and provides the rare and expensive

medication that soothes his mother's mind, she comes to him with a gentle embrace, kisses, and soft words. Then his favorite part, she sings him a soft lullaby with a beautiful voice that she said was her favorite song she heard on the Galactic Radio. Then the next day, it was back to harsh words and neglect, and a small pit of darkness fester's in the boy's heart. What was that? I think, I think we're seeing, I think we're seeing his child like Cole. Is that actually him? Is this some kind of trick? If it's a trick, it's a cruel one. So he really, was a human? What happened?

We go from that to whatever he is now. That's what they all said. The troops that you could fall to discord if you weren't good and pious and gallant like the empire wants you to be. But he seemed like a good kid. He was looking for knowledge and reading his data pad. Do we still see the dark pit in the mirror in pixel? Like, is that reflecting?

Is that what, is that, is that, am I understand that correctly? You don't see it in pixel, but where pixel is reflected in the mirrors all around the room, you see a dark pit. It's like when she moves in the mirrors, we see the dark pit.

It follows her movement through the room. Well, that can't be good. You can't be feeling sorry for this guy. How can I not? And every fucking bad guy jackass criminal mafios who has some fucking sobbed, story. Oh, I grew up up in a high hour times. I had a rough childhood.

My mom, my pa at the butcher's shop lost their fucking job. And now I'm going to be a thug. He had a fucking choice. Look what he's doing. You always have a fucking choice, bitch. Don't feel fucking sorry for this guy. We're going to have to go kill him. It's just going to make it harder. Not everybody

has a choice. Everyone has a fucking choice. You don't get to choose that your family is called. No, we fucking don't. I know that better than anybody. But you can't get if you're soft on me. I can't believe this. You've always been soft. You gotta fucking toughen up, pics.

I'm trying. Because we gotta kill this guy. Take it easy. I don't give a shit about his shitty sob story. Is that what he's showing us? You don't care about him yet? Did he mean to show us that? Or it's it because he's been feeding on you that it's showing us this.

That's right. He wouldn't show it to us unless there was a reason. Unless he were supposed to be dead by now. Look. You're supposed to be eaten by now. It's okay to feel sorry for him, all right? Alright? But I've known a lot of bad men in my life. Not all of them had it easy. Not all of them were wicked to the core. Sorry for him. Doesn't mean I'm gonna let him... I'm with your parents. You're right. That does suck.

I've heard, I guess, maybe just because I've heard it time and time again. You know, they're real fucking tough. And then when you're smashing their fucking teeth in... Yeah, Picks. Did you family love you? My pa love me. No idea what it feels like. Maybe I don't. But I... I never did any of the shit that he's dead.

I didn't do any of the shit of all of these thugs that ruined people's lives that kill. No. And we cannot be getting weak in fracturing just because he showed us a sad story. Or you showed that sad story. I don't know. I always beg, oh, please, I had a tough life.

Mercy. We have to wonder sometimes, though, that one decision that makes them go bad. Did they know at the time where it was going to lead? That's hard to say. Doesn't matter? I'm going to walk over and just sort of silently put my arm around Pickle's shoulder and give her a little squeeze.

No one would squeeze. We're going to be okay. We can take a moment. to acknowledge if what we just saw is real. That and still get the job done, you know? Yeah. And I promise you they don't. In that moment, nobody thinks that way.

But you just do the next thing. And then Tom gets away from you. You look back and there you are. You wonder why you made the choice. as you did. And if you could have done it different, would you? Who would you be if you had? But the fact of the matter is,

it doesn't matter. He's got to pay for what he's done. But I can still mourn that little boy I just saw. Because it wasn't his fault. That I believe. You're right about that. You okay to keep going? Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, it'll be all right. All right. It's got to toughen up, you know. Stop being so soft. I take a look around. I see if there's any other door here, or if it looks like we have to go back out the way that we came.

You take a look around, and pixel. Roll a charisma saving throw. Oh, great. Well, surely this won't go back. You gotta get a lot of Christmas. Yeah, yeah, no, I'm quite curious. Yeah, no, that's a good one. I don't know why, but I thought that was Mace that just got up.

I'm like, you asked me to make a Christmas heavy throw. You leave? He says, all right, I'm gonna head out. What kind of mind-fucker is this, May? I'm gonna head out now. I gotta go pick up a gyro. See ya. 18.

I got a date with a pizza. With an 18. Pike. You look around the room and you see the instruments spread out in front of you. A gorgeous array, not just wealth, but of musical procurement, of taste, beautiful instruments all around. You get this sense that this room has accomplished what it's set out to. And the way is out and up. I'll take a moment to even amongst the,

how messed up this whole situation is, though, to appreciate the beauty of the instruments before turning around and kind of just leading everyone back out. And to, again, just take the lead, take a look up the stairs, make sure we're clear, and continue to lead and try to at least head off any danger that might be coming. So that only I get ripped to shreds before my friends have time to react.

I mean, that's what's ideal. Yeah. Seeing the second set of stairs, of stairs. I will very quickly type on my gridboy. And with your permission, I won't need the 10 minutes to take for me to as a ritual cast floating discs so that I can float up the stairs like a minute. I would say you're able to... How long is floating is last? An hour? Nice. Oh, wow. It might even be longer than that. Hold on. No, no an hour. Nice. You may do that. I sit on it. At 50 minutes, you can start to recast it and then like it'll just instantly hit the 8 when 10 minutes is up,

refresh. I continue to lead, trying to cast light on the way forward and just looking for any other rooms or doors or even just trying to head off danger so that way we're not completely ambushed if something come down to the stairs at us. You walk back out into the section of this tower, this black structure whose pinnacle threatens to pierce the sky above. As you make your way up the next flight of stairs, once more, the only sound paralleled to the footfalls is the beating, the slow, soft, beating heart of the Viceroy, the tower itself.

You make your way. You walk up and up, uninterrupted, until you reach the next large black door. I fucking hate this place. All right, everyone. Be ready for anything. I'll slide off of my disc. I'm ready.

We're checking these rooms just in case there's anything in here that gives us insight and edge. Anything that turns the tide in our favor. Maybe we'll see more information about the Viceroy. Just stay behind me. I attempt to open the door. You do so. Same as the last. It opens easily at your touch. The creek of the hinge as it swings open forward mixes with that soft heartbeat heard through the halls as the blood pumps throughout the region. You walk in and once more you find yourself in a room covered wall to wall in mirrors. It's shockingly hot as you're

as you hear bright and whimsical music from an electrocaliope. It is an empty room with the wall-to-wall mirrors, and you see a horrific carnival of thrill. Pleasure, shit, and pain in the crimson glass. The only reflection you see is ziggins. The fuck? What is this? Everyone is hoping for chuckles.

Guys? I start gesturing. See? Does he look like that? Does his reflection look normal? It looks like him. Against this backdrop of this horrific carnival, standing in front, you see what looks to be the reflection of Ziggy as you know him.

Wait, wait, why are you to play something? I didn't expect this. Have you ever seen anything like this, Red, glass that only reflects? Certain individuals I've never seen Not even once This is all hell shit Zicky are you feeling okay

I feel fine I feel fine right You feel fine I feel fine Aside from the cold that has been persistently surrounding you Almost the coldness From within sense of dread Um

I'm wearing a hoodie And I'm a little pudgy I don't feel the cold I'm fine You feel, you feel, you turn the AC up. No, you've been on the disc, you're not funny. You do something that's difficult to place, you do feel a little weary. But it didn't start in this room.

But otherwise, from stepping in this room, you feel unaffected. My lungs explode out of my face. I will, this is uncanny. Look at all, look what's going on. I don't know why it's targeting just me, but. Do we still see the dark pit of pixel? I was literally just going to.

Exactly. Ziggy is the only thing reflected in the mirrors. Ziggy doesn't have one of those? Do I look pitiful? Normally. Well, I could have phrased that differently. And look, there's no dark smudge. This is just different.

So I'm the only one with the dark sun. much? What the hell is that? Does what I'm looking at with the carnival and all of that, does it remind me or Pike of anything in our past? I would say, yes.

It reminds you of a character you encountered on your journeys. Some of the things, some of the acts taking place reflected in these mirrors not too dissimilar, but there's an extreme more demonic, painful flavor and flare to what you're seeing in front of you.

But it can't help to evoke a memory. Hmm. I elbow Ziggi, hard. Oh, look, he's calling you a clown. I, should I, like, touch the mirror? Like, do we play another instrument? Like, should you do... You know, I'm a musician and I played an instrument, and then we got...

some more information maybe you need to do what you do best perhaps a joke yeah you funny at all I I'm good at gaming that's not very funny that's not I'm not not trying to be funny I'm trying to I'm trying to my skills I can I can hack stuff and I can I'm good with computers well gaming's fun to do ain't it I love gaming that seems fun going on in there you know yeah maybe you just supposed to have fun okay uh i'll pull out my grid boy and i'll load up um my hold on i'm just going to invent something right now uh i'm going to load up an app of like a puzzle game that i play all the time called sweet smash and uh i start to play the puzzle of matching uh all of the

things look look i'm on i'm on level 573 and i i'll like show it to the to the to the to the to the mirror How do you rank on the leaderboards? Well, I would be number one if we weren't always hunting bounties, but I'm really quite skilled, and I quickly clear the level as fast as I can. Ziggy, I thought I was teaching you to become a true fighting game master, and here I catch you playing microtransaction mobile slop. I play all kinds of games. I can play both.

It's just sad. That's not fun, Ziggy. It's as you start playing your micro-transaction mobile slop. that something happens in the mirrors. Ziggy's reflection suddenly shrinks and becomes just a boy. His siblings are petting the dinosaur beasts that they have bonded with,

as is tradition with the Sarak dynasty. Crystals embedded into their scaly hides. A regal basilisar and a majestic tantadon that made both Senator Woogs extremely proud. And then there was young Ziggy, holding a furry, long, snouted, bushy-tailed, saber-toothed shrewill, much to the shriegren of his parents. Despite the shame, they say Ziggy brings to his family, he loves the shrill with all his heart, and the pair inseparable, playing pranks on Ziggy's siblings and other folk in his hometown. But then, one day, Ziggy returns from schooling and his beloved attrual is gone. When he confronts his parents, they say they gave him away, refusing to elaborate.

The pain within Ziggy is immense, and rather than facing it, he ignores it. Distracting himself with TV, movies, video games, hacking, and other hypergrid activities, The larger the pain grew, the more he deflected and ignored it with the fun and distraction of a life that became more and more tethered to his screen. You see Ziggy's face turn a ghostly white and covered in garish paint as his frills splits into bald gestures cap and bells. His spiky nose horn rounds to a bulb and his beak grows wider and wider and until it is a maniacally laughing grin.

turns to a clown before you, a discordant creature of the thrill cacophony, a motleyan. You are overcome by hysteria. I would rush to Sigi and like just grab you by the lapel of your sweatshirt and like start shaking you. Because I think this is like extremely upsetting for us, even in this case. Sigi, so Sigi, wake up. Is the reflection a motley and he's just normal? He, he is normal. The reflection has become a motleyan. In the mirrors, he is not changed into a motley in himself. He is overcome by this hysterical fit as his visage once more reflects him, but then shapes into the form of a motleyan.

Ziggy, look at me, Ziggy. Sit out of it. See, come on, come on. Do I feel different now? Even though I might look the same in not my reflection self, Am I, am I, Ziggy of Clown? Ziggi of Clown.

Zygia. You feel overcome by hysteria. Okay. So it's not just my reflection that's laughing and insane in my land. You feel like this, you feel this, you feel the mirrors, the reflection, the tale, the scenes played out in front of you

have had an impact on you and you feel overcome by hysteria. Trying to shake you out of it so I can do is I yell you. Oh my, my. gods. Ziggi, are you in there? Don't you guys want to have fun? This is so fun. It's a blast. We can laugh. We can play. We can hang out. We can, we can enjoy the thrills of every day.

I don't know what to do about this, Red. I will losing him. Come on, settle down. This isn't you. I'm going to rush over to Ziggy, and I'm just going to wrap my arms around his waist and just hug him. I'm not going to say anything. I'm just going to hold him as tight as I can. I'm here with you, Ziggy, we're here. It's going to be okay. Ziggy. It's going to say. to fucking kill this guy. We can't have you breaking two. We don't have to rise, look! And I'm just squeezing my horn nose.

It's what I would imagine in the reflection would actually be like, like, oh, oh, like that. But I'm just grabbing my nose as I'm possessed by this illusion. The end of your horn, but in the mirror, your nose begins to honk, reflected in the mirror. Zee, roll a charisma saving throat for me.

Oh, no. That's a pattern that's... How to twist work in this game? We only got seven of them. Oh, we only have seven of them. I'm like my charisma. It ain't too grand. Either there's mine to worry.

Okay, hell, yeah. Good roll. Let's not waste all these good rolls. Yeah. That's just doing moderate rolls. He's in adrenaline. Don't, why, why? I'm saving my dreads for a very special moment.

I'm trying to ban them out. Why do you try to ban them out? Don't do that. No, it's careful. That'll be awful, no. You, as your, as Pike grabs you by your shirt and begins to shake you and Rhett pleads with you, and Pixel wraps yourself around you and co-shouts at you, and Ophelia puts a hand on you comfortingly,

you feel the hysteria ebb as you seem to regain your faculties. Go get fun, come here! I just keep holding it really tight. Hey, hey, hey. Hey, you all right? Look, look, listen to me, listen to me. Hey, we're here for you.

It's not okay, I'm not okay, guys. Maybe it's okay to be not okay. I'm gonna loosen my grip on your hoodie as I kind of like, you know, let you go and realizing that you're back with us. And the moment you start to pull away, I have an arm around pixel and an arm around you. And I pull you guys in for a snotty hug.

as I continue to cry. Oh, I miss him. I miss that. That really happened. That was my pet Dash. He was the cutest and he was so funny. Oh, I miss him. Ziggy, we get out of this.

You tell me all about Dash. Yeah. Yeah, I like that. Oh, right. You have a song about him. Oh, that would be really great. Maybe I know Co likes to draw. She doesn't talk about it.

about it much, but maybe we can make him like one of those little, uh, Marshall the scattering cards, like a special card just for him. You said you were telling anybody about that. Why would you say that? This is not the moment for this. I almost just fucking smacked the shit out of Ziggy. Holy fuck, that would have been so bad if I did it? No, so we go on?

I'm like my hands still up and get ready to beat the shit out of him. So we can go ahead and just draw the damn card for him. Hey. I punch you really hard in the arm. Ow! Ow! I'm all right. I'm fine.

I pull my glasses. up real quick and I wipe my little needy eyes, which are wet with sobbing, and then I reapply my glasses. Yeah, I would like that. I don't really talk about him that much. I don't know what happened to him. I never found out, but I,

a little shrewl. He's so funny. He used to make me go fetch. He's probably okay somewhere on a farm somewhere. That's what my parents said. That might be baby. I don't think that's true, I think. It doesn't matter what I think. I, I, I, can we get the fuck out of here?

You're all right? What, what it, what a chuckles used to do to calm down? Was it coffee from that damn machine? Who even knows what was going through that twisted mind? Are you with this? Yeah. Yeah, I, I feel, I feel, uh, Ziggy. I, I feel like a real whole sorry and I'm fine.

If anything changes, just got to let us know, okay? I will certainly not laugh hysterically. I will say, guys, I think I am turning into a motleyan, and things are really rough and hilarious and, you know, sometimes kind of sexy. So I'm curious, do we know the word motleyer? Or do we know now, right? I think you would know now.

Motley. Yeah, that's exactly what he was. The clown guy you talk about? He seemed to have some sort of self-awareness. It wasn't completely gone, but half the shit he said didn't make any sense anyway. It wasn't scary like that. That was horrific. You're not gonna turn into that, are you?

Well, I mean to unpack what just happened. We all, we all, we all, we all, we all, we all, we all, what was in the mirror and and you know what happened when I was a pretty young kid but I that the ending isn't that I turned into you know a different thing I'm still I'm still still Ziggy not yet what it's your future I don't I refuse to believe that I can I don't want to fall like that and be all all weird and laughy I I like games and I like having fun I like you know escapeism as much as the next guy But that's not my future.

That can't be. So just to be clear, those were your memories. Yeah, I found this little shrul out in the wild. And we're all supposed to, as Sarians, we're supposed to bond with, you know, be tough, honorable, noble dinosaurs, right? And I had this little guy and he had this, he looked crazy. It had some sort of burn or injury or something like that. So we had this wild side to him like this.

And he was the cutest little thing, even. if he was a little, you know? And I loved every little minute that I had with him, but it wasn't longer than a week when my parents said, no way, absolutely not. And then I came home and he was gone. You know, I did turn to video games and snacks more than after that, but like, I didn't become a laughing clown thing.

I see the resemblance, but you're not close. All right, I think you're fine. I think we're all fine. And if he's doing this on purpose, It's to make us, I don't know, to fucking put us on edge, to weaken us, to tear us apart, all right? He wants us to doubt ourselves. So don't hit anybody. Exactly.

When Ziggy was a Montman, did he have that dark circle? He did not. That's great. I love that. I'm going to, I'm going to look at Ophelia. I'll say one thing just beforehand. You have heard the door. creak open.

Oh. To the stairs. Thank you. To the stairs. Who heard the door creak open? The door that behind you leading back out to the stairs

has creaked open. I mean, the second I hear this thing fucking move, I like, yeah, I spin on my fucking heels like gauntly raids ready to fucking unload. Like, I'm on a hair trigger here. You point the gauntlet and you wait. The door

opens fully. You can see the stairs beyond that, but no Spector stands in its threshold. Only the steps leading further upward is if the tower itself beckons you. Someone was about to say something, so I don't want to interrupt them,

but I'm just going to make my way to the door because I'm ready for fucking anything. I'm not saying shit. You guys are good to go. I'm going to go to Ophelia and say, you're ready to use those fucking things? Yes. On any of us? if he turns into a fucking clown.

That's good point. I'd probably prefer the death. Well, let's hope that it doesn't come to that. We can hope all we fucking want off, Phelia. Are you a trained assassin or not? Isn't that what you are? You're a trained fucking killer? She's mission first. She always has been.

It's not going to come to that, Co. I don't give a shit. We need to be fucking ready. I'll be ready to do what I have to do. That makes me feel better. All right, outward. But, Siki didn't have that...

No, we saw it. We saw it in the vice, Roy. We saw it in me. Why didn't Dickie have it? What does it mean? I don't know. He's trying to fuck with you, Picks. What if it means something bad?

It probably does mean something bad, Picks. But at the end of the day, what does it fucking matter? We're gonna kill him. You know what he said. He said, if you're afraid of... What's it? Something about...

If you're afraid of becoming like him, then just, you know, right now. Maybe yeah, that's what... Maybe you should just... I'm gonna shut the fuck up, Pix. Stop talking crazy. I think I'm going crazy. This place is making me nuts! Ophelia's gonna do what she has to do.

Even for me. Not for you, Picks. If the time comes... If the time comes, if and not ever before, And it's not. I'm done entertaining it. Let's keep going. Because I'm not fucking doing. Come on. Yeah, let's go. I told you I wouldn't do it.

I'm so scared of what we're gonna see of there. Where's get it with you? I've light a new cigarette and I lead the way. I'll put my arms behind everybody and just try to get everyone out of the room. I'm already out. I thought we were walking through the door all right. It's becoming harder and harder to strike the flame. Oh, okay. Chilly.

Dammit. Bub bum. I lead the way. I proceed upwards. You are really. arrive at the next landing. As you approach, this door creaks open, as if daring you to enter.

I've ever hesitated once my life. And I, again, I'm just trying to clear the way. I'm looking out for my friends and trying to head off any potential threats. Go inside? You move in, clear each room. I would have my light pistol out and just kind of doing this. Or mirrors line the room as you enter a large statue gallery. Pieces of art and culture from across the galaxy all throughout the room.

At its center is an enormous statue of a Pegasus with blackened bat wings rearing its hooves in the air. A plaque, electronic beneath it, illuminates the name Daunt. dauntless. Ooh. Music room, art room. Give me a break. This is so fucking cliche. Is it clear now? Because I think that like the word was that they were

dragon wings on his sigil. It's very clear that they're bat wings. In the statue. Oh yeah. It's extremely clear. They're bad wings. Very clever. It still has the pegasus shape but with the wings of a bat. Absolutely. In the heart of a lion.

the heart and I want to say, who's, lines, don't know whooves. The heart of a lion was just the better place to end that. I shouldn't have been. It's okay. I should have spoken. Sometimes we start sentences where we don't know where they're going

and you just keep talking and we're not really sure what the end is going Yeah, been there. Don't list is that the name of this horse thing? Maybe that's like his house words or something. Seems like it. I want to look around and see. see what's going on in the mirrors.

Oh. Yeah, I mean, by now, I've never to feel like in the mirrors to see which one of you is now reflected. What stares back at you in the mirrors is a dark black pit. Is it coming from where pixel is? It seems to be following pixels. Seems that way. Sure is.

What do you see? I'm not looking at the mirrors. And I'm like walking around in a circle. Yeah, look at that. Look at that pretty thing, Pix. Look at that. Look at the flowers. Look at the mirrors.

I'm writing a song in my head to keep myself happy. Okay, you're good at that. Yep. Yeah, you're really good at that. So who are we seeing? Who is it this time? There's a horse. Yeah?

Yeah. Look, he's kind of cute. Look at him. You know that I say that's cute. He's very majestic. It's like a Beguses, a Bat Pegasus. It's as your gaze falls on the Dauntless. Oh, no.

The mirrors around the room swirl to another scene, reflecting an adolescent Moraine. He rides a beloved steed that he named Dauntless, which he afforded with notes. He scraped together through jobs at the local bailiff's office, counting notes and doing the books with his talent for finances. It is a special day as a noble from the capital of Vassin is passing through with an entourage, including a pack of stirhounds. As Harkon tries to pass by, the hounds attempt to lunge at the horse, which gets spooked and runs through the procession, nearly trampling the lordling, wearing heraldry of crossed laser axes after throwing Harkon from the saddle.

Despite Harkon's profuse apologies, the lordling will not hear it, and he demands Dautilus's head. Despite having the town on his side, Harkon is not wealthy or powerful, and therefore he watches as the axe comes down on his steed's neck, and the beast falls to the ground with a horrid shriek. Harcon looks on as the procession leaves shedding no tears, but the hate he feels for them, and the envy he feels for their power grows. as does the black pit that swells within his very being. The poor beast. What the hell?

This guy never stood a chance. Look, I hate to say it, but is he trying to show us this because he wants us to have sympathy? Is he, is he planning this? I don't know. How could he? How could he?

He said, he said we were supposed to face our demons. This is just exactly like what I just went through. And they said we wouldn't be able to and that we should just fucking kill ourselves. Does he even know he's doing this? I don't know. Is this just how the discordant are? Is this just it?

I still don't care. It's poor horse. That fucking Lord Ling deserved to fucking die. I hope we did. We're not feeling sorry for you. You're not gonna save yourself. You understand? Yeah, none of this makes what you're doing right now right.

None of what you're doing is good or helping. What you're doing is wrong. Yeah, I tried. I don't think you can hear us. Probably a good thing you can. I don't think that he's doing this. Right? There's crazy pipes of blood pumping through this thing.

This is... And he looked like shit. That's not intentional. If it's unintentional, then we're just strange witnesses to this whole transformation. Some sort of side effect. Yeah. It's like this, the whole fortress is a monument to his fucking trauma. Pixel, roll a charisma saving thing.

When we catch up to him, we can have. ask him if he was trying to show us all this stuff, and then we can, you know, beat him to hell and collect our bounty. Let's hope it's not easy. It won't be. I'm just feeling optimistic. No? Okay.

Oh, nothing seems to happen. You're okay, Pix? Yeah, so far. Unlike Ziggy, Pixel does not seem overcome by any emotion. Aside from the ones she's naturally feeling. I just think it's awful. I don't know. I don't want to talk about it.

I just get to the top and get this over with. We're gonna fix this, picks. Whatever's going on there, and I'll point to, like, the spot. Is it bigger than it was in the last one? Oh, that's a great question. Yeah, from the previous floor. Oh, the dark pit. Bigger.

Is it growing up? It's making the dark out. Oh, man. Pretty good. The question is, is it larger? Yeah. The answer is yes. Oh, boy.

Well, that can't be good. I don't get it. I'm starting to leave the road now. Yeah, I'm with you. If we can proceed up the castle. I just don't understand why he would dwell on it. Why he sit here in his lonely tower just dwelling on it. Maybe he tried to lock it away,

and now it's resurfacing whether he knows it or not. Just no use thinking about any of stuff like this as I proceed out of room. The next descent, the next cold walk, the next several heartbeats. You're way better. Just do it. I know. That's what. I tried. The next landing. I'm going to make them lower each time. And the next door. I'm losing my patience. I'm getting frustrated with all of this. This feels like some sort of fuckery that is just designed to mess with us, even if that is not the intention. And how does Pike feel?

kick open the door Oh, not wrong, and kick open the door. It swings open beneath your booty. It crashes against the wall and a loud metallic clang as it hits the cold stone on the other side.

And I'm ready to start blasting with each of these doors. The empty room almost vibrates as you hear what sounds like the buzzing of thousands, maybe millions of swarming insects.

Oh God. The mirrors show towering, pulsing hives of some horrid bug-like creatures that are pockmarked with countless holes and sickly, yellow, plustral-looking eggsacks. Ugh. You look around the room. You look for the dark pit. You see, you look to see whose reflection gazes back at you. You find co. There's an almost imperceptible.

small sigh of relief from Pike No I'm not fucking doing this right now I'm not doing this this is me it's fine we're not fucking doing this I won't I won't look I'll turn around

What the fuck are you looking at Keep your cool co Not fucking doing this And I just I keep my clove And I just run forward And I just run forward to try to fucking smash the mirror I'm not fucking doing this Roll to attack.

Oh, yeah, I'm good at that. Roll damage. Yeah, you're not, you can't miss. It's a wall of mirror. I mean, it's a fucking mirror. I mean, it's one of the holes, so it's not that. It's a roof of mirrors. That's about 10 points of bludgeoning damage.

And if my weapon property activates, I knock it back. You blow a hole in the side of the castle. Oh, there's a secret chamber here. That's pretty good. Three things happen. As your rage bubbles over and you charge the mirrors, the image shifts. But not before your club collides with it

and stops dead. Shattering no glass, feeling as if it's shattering the bones in your arms. As your weapon property triggers and you are cast back from the mirrors, you take five. more points of damage as you lie on your back and you look to the ceiling as the scene in the mirror. The reflection of Coe shrinks just a bit until she becomes a teenager as she is

arguing with her sister, a smaller red rhizo covered in piercings and chaotic tattoos. Coe is yelling about her sister's new boyfriend, a thug who has gotten mixed up in the local organized crime, running errands, but aiming to rise through the ranks. Despite the pleading, the words go unheeded, and weeks later there's a break-in at her father's convenience store, and Coe knows that her sister and her boyfriend are to blame. Rage consumes her. A moment later, she is holding a young Rhizzo punk over an empty elevator shaft who begs and pleads for mercy. that doesn't come. The words unheeded and the would-be mafioso

drop screaming into the chasm of darkness below. The screaming of the boyfriend is replaced by the rage of Co's sister who cuts her deeper than any physical violence. The words, you're not my sister, ring in the room around you. The rage consumes commutes. Co. It's how she deals with the pain, how she smashes thug after thug, criminal after criminal. Each blow, each smash, tears down the pain that Coe feels. You see her blue skin turn a sickly amber kite. Her limbs become segmented and her lower jaw splits into an insectoid mandible dripping with

acid. Coe becomes a discordant creature of the instinct cacophony. Adatho. Co. You are overcome by wrath. Fuck do you know any of that? You don't fucking know me. This is my fucking demon. I'm fine. As I just, I run forward and I am just trying to, I look at myself. And I am filled with utter disgust in future. fucking disgust me! And I just am running, I am going to try to smash my reflection. If there is, if I'm perceiving a bug, a Dauphi version of myself coming at me at myself with a club, a spike club, or whatever it is, I'm going to try to kill it. I'm going to try to

smash this thing. You stare into a monstrous form as you charge at the mirror and it charges it you. Your club finds purchase easily. This is a wall of of mirrors, a room of mirrors, you cannot miss it. Every collide crashing into the frame, every collide, daring the glass to stand beneath your mighty blows, and yet it dares. You're cast back time and time again,

but it doesn't stop you as every thrown thrust of force that casts you back, causes you to rush, causes you to rush forward with even more rage. Would you like to try something, or would you like me to try something? I will let me go first because he's a higher initiative than I. I think that after the second hit on this mirror that you go reeling back, I would immediately try to move between you and the mirror

and use the techniques that I've basically been studying my whole life to attempt to use your own momentum against you just to try to slow you down and like jujitsu throw you down so you stop throwing yourself against this mirror. Because it's very clear that you're physically harming yourself. And you might barrel straight through me. I might fail, but I would be trying to be like, uh, uh, Co, look at me, you have to stop.

Settle down. I will never fucking stop, Pike. And I'm gonna attempt to like judo throw her and like, get her off balance, just slow her down a little bit. As Pike moves between you and the mirrors, and for a moment, your laser-locked eyes of wrath break from this, uh, this visage of yourself as the dafu that stands before you,

charging at each other constantly. As Pike moves between you as you charge forward, I need your role charisma saving throw. Oh shit, I'm not trying to hurt her. I'm just trying to, you know. Wow. I forgot I'm a pet limit. Yeah.

You, yeah, you're character. 22. Hey! 22. We keep in all for the rules. I know. I just want you to be away at. With a 22, and I'm that I'm swinging at Pike.

Don't try to stop me! And what are you doing, Pike? Do you have a... I mean, if we... If we really wanted it to be a mechanical thing, I can try to use deflect blows to, like, redirect the attack and basically use the momentum against her.

And I'm not trying to hurt her. I'm just trying to, like, slower down and, like, get off balance. Basically, if she doesn't take damage. Yes, right? Basically, if Pike... I can redirect it into the ground, like, you know... How about just an acrobatics or athletics check?

Sure. That's very reasonable. It's happening, I'll say. Code, we've been through this. Pixel, can you help her? Pixel is just sitting in the very center of the floor and her heads down, she's rocking back and forth, and humming a tune that sounds familiar,

but I don't think anyone here would know why. Dirty 20 on acrobatics. Cool. As you charge Ford at the Dathu, you see, It's not even unearie at this point, but the speed at which pike moves between you still staggers you. The next thing you see is the mirrors swirl around you. Top side ground as you're flipped over and you crash onto the floor. And you feel this, you feel the cacophonous pull of wrath and instinct.

feed from you. Breathe. I'm here. Coe, look at me. Come on. Look at me. As I'm, like, going and I'm trying to basically put you into a grapple, you know, maybe like my, there's my, my fist is crackling with lightning.

We're like wrapped up. As I am trying to basically smash Pike's face. I'm gonna finally smash your pretty face. No, no. And as I am. We got each other's backs. I got your back. I'm here for you.

Come on. Breathe. Breathe. Are you with us? Once I think that you've kind of regained control to some degree, I'll just like let go of you and like collapse on the floor. Ah, oh, co, man, easy. Gotta keep it together. Look, you're scaring her. And all sort of motion to pixel. Yeah. Okay. It's okay, Pix. I'm okay, Pix. I'm okay, Pix. Don't worry about. I'm not just that's bugs.

It's not me. It's bugs. It's fucking bugs. It's bugs. I don't like it. It's bugs. I don't like... I don't like... I like a cute cricket.

You always make me kill the spikes in your room. You told me not to tell anyone that. Sorry, Co. And if I may have player Fiat, I imagine that maybe this kind of buggy form has like the if there's gross my horns will turn into kind of those bug like those cricket like clappers that uh that mrs umay uh gave me that was also in her shop that uh i had and i kind of and maybe like with each one there's some sort of kind of like this fiendish demonic

like cricket uh uh fiddling almost as all calmed down and i'll say it's not me they saw me that'll never be me pay If it is, I'm not gonna be me look how fucking I believe it. You still hit like a truck. Ah, no. It's okay, Bixie. Dude, these mirrors, this room and the thrill rooms in the way, look like what I would imagine hell looks like

based on the stories and the lore of how cacophony and hell is talked about. Roll a... religion check. That works. It's great. Either way, it's plus five, because I'm a smart fella. 18. Yes.

Look, this isn't you. That's not her. None of this is us. We're looking at hell. That's hell in front of us. All right? I don't think any normal fucking mortal being can keep it together entirely being faced with what we're going through right now. All right?

Hey, just, just think of it as good energy. Good energy to be this mad. When we face the vice right, you can punch him so hard. You know, got to keep going. He doesn't know me. He doesn't know my family. He may not even be doing this. The mirrors are just trying to, to fuck with us.

Brett. It's okay, Pax. Don't worry, I'm fine. We're going to be fine. We're going to kill this guy. Oh, I know it's not much. But as long as I'm pixel, I'll always be here for you. Thanks, I'm here for you.

We're all here for each other. Thanks, Pike. I'll give him like a still probably a little too hard, a punch on the shoulder. Yeah. Man, but can you imagine how funny it would be if I finally depredified Pike? I'm sorry, that would suck for you. Many have tried. I'd still love it. me even if you were a bug.

Said Mikey. Very funny. Very funny indeed, Dixote. Good job, Bixlowe. Good job, Picks. I hope. I know. I hope you're just joking, Picks. No. Because it means that I, that I failed.

No one should love anything like that. Nothing like that. That's not lovable. Well, you know what I hope? what I hope. I hope that as long as we continue to love each other and we're here for each other, we won't get there. Because that thing that comes from a place without love. You'll never stop loving all of you, so. This place gives me the fucking creeps. My skin is crawling. Let's get the fuck out of here.

I don't want to go. Let's go. Let's get her up. Let's go. I'll help Picks get up. As, as Rhett offers me a hand to picks me up, I'll stop for a second and say, uh, you know our time's coming. Whatever we see, whatever happens, just know I won't think any different of you and I, I know you'll offer me the same grace. Of course. I don't think differently of anybody, all right? We can't round it forever. Maybe something about us. Maybe we're too old and jaded to get affected by stuff like this. maybe you won't get hit by it or maybe we should list all the shitty things

we've ever done our experience right now and get it out of the way I don't think we have time for that look how many stairs there are 52 flights let's go a next potion I have to use the bathroom

is there a bathroom in this place oh it's on the first floor here just keep I can hold it Be on the load balancer and I'll push it off and it'll sink to the bottom real slow. Oh. There's a place to go. I guess it is in the bug room.