The Adventure Zone - The Adventure Zone: Ethersea - Episode 26

Episode Date: February 3, 2022

Cambria's Call: Part Five From the bottom of the sea, from the deepest reaches of Finneas Cawl's mind, a voice beckons. Devo, Zoox and Amber cease to be – all in an effort to answer.Additional music in this episode: “Homeroad” by Kai Engel http://www.kai-engel.com/. Happy MaxFunDrive! Right now is the best time to start a membership to support your favorite shows. Learn more and join at https://maximumfun.org/jointaz

Previously, on the Adventure Zone, Ethersea. We y'all are rolling deep with Phineas fucking call? Anigrato. You're the only person I know they can get it. Now our only hope is to reach the source of the original phytoplankton. But those memories that are in Phineas' head are unreachable, and we have been told that with concentrated grotto, this is possible. There may be an option. But it's going to involve all y'all.

It requires you to sort of suppress the part of your mind that tells you that you're you, and you all are aboard a ship that is diving down deep into the heart of the ocean. These are your two most trusted compatriots who have departed on a mission with you to find the vanguard and the bathosphere that they stole. and most other people would be scared embarking on a mission like this, but not you, not Phineas Call. Dad, why did you say-in-ya-why-just-stop the show? Right before we start recording, Dad says, oh, I have to get my nail clippers.

It's horrifying. Inside joke. I'm gagging you. What's an inside joke? I'm pulling your legs. I'm pulling all your legs. Isn't an inside joke if none of us thought it was a joke? Well, to the listeners.

It's the most inside. Sometimes people don't get my humor guys. But that's not how an inside joke works, though. Like the definition of an inside joke is that the people you're telling it to get it. I'm going to start doing that when I say says that bombs. Inside joke. It's an inside joke for the voices inside my head like the movie Inside. Hey, Dad, I took a big dump inside your PC.

That's an inside joke. You wouldn't get it. You don't know. An info dump? Oh, that's fun. Wow, that's actually funny. That was good. All right, let's get into today's episode.

It's going to be messy. It's going to be a fun time. I want everyone. Like a double dare challenge? I want everyone both on the call and listening at home to keep an open mind. Because I think this is our first time doing a, well, you know what? I was going to say a flashback episode, but we did quite a bit of those back in Taz balance of memory serves.

You all are taking a. trip into the memories of Phineas Call. Could you play some music to set the scene now, Griffin? I actually have an intro to the scene. Do you have a joke you were going to do? Because I can save my intro for after your joke. No, I just wanted some music. I thought we don't do enough, like, kind of meta music cue.

So I thought I would say, like, can we have some music? And then the music could start playing. And it would make it seem like it was happening in the moment. Yeah, sure. Okay. Well, let's start that right now. Okay. The Gryffamackery story.

The first of many challenges facing the shoreside community during their final year on the surface was the disappearance of the Vanguard. Once well-respected laborers in the community, the Vanguard stole a valuable piece of technology to begin their undersea migration before the rest could follow, the ancient bathesphere.

As the community developed methods to sustain an underwater city, Phineas Kahl, the legendary explorer and adventurer, realized the bathysphere held answers to many of their logistical problems. And so, in late summer, Phineas Kahl and a small crew dove beneath the waves in search of the vanguard and the vehicle they had stolen. Their voyage was sabotaged. Weeks after their departure, the bathysphere returned to the shoreside, its sole inhabitants being a comatose call, a dead body, and a standing pool of water

filled with oxygen-rich phytoplankton. Now, the details of their doomed expedition will find, finally be revealed through the memories of Phineas Call. So in today's episode, Dad is playing Zooks, is playing Phineas Call. And your mission during this memory journey is to find the bathysphere and recover it. Justin, playing Amber, is playing a character named Bertrand Bay, who was a Delmer Soldier, who also became old Joshi student, one of many students who joined this mission

as a sort of security detail. And Travis, playing Devo, is playing Ona Ward. He is a homine biologist going to study the deep sea life as this mission is going to take everyone sort of deeper than any person has ever traveled before. You all are traveling in a ship called the Nightcrawler, named for its deep sea exploration capabilities.

And it's a far cry from, you know, more modern ships. It is, there's not a lot of bells and whistles. It is completely unarmed. Now, while this episode and this sort of memory dive is going into something that is effectively set in stone, there will be things that you all will decide in this episode that will have ramifications on what happens in the future. The things that are set in stone is that basically the baptosphere returns with a comatose phineas call, a dead body, and the phytoplankton. Everything else is more or less completely up in the air. Any questions before we start?

Yes, I have a question, and maybe we're going to get into this here in a moment. Sure. Is this a, for lack of a better example, a quantum leap scenario in which Devo is Devo playing these? characters? No. So in the last episode, you all kind of went through your own memories in order to essentially dissociate and become these people inside of. Okay, so we are them. You are them. You are not aware that you are them. Got it. It's not a, we can change the past because it's just a, it's just a memory, right? Right. Right, right, right, right. All right. If there's no other questions, let's start. So the three of you, Phineas, Ona, and Bertrand are on the bridge of the nightcrawler. And it

probably has the same sort of aesthetic that the Coriolis has, because they're both kind of older ships. The rest of the crew, which is almost entirely made up of old Uncle Joshi's school for defeating Blinksharks' enrollees is sort of back in the main cabin. And it's been a few days since you all departed, and we'll start you here. Phineas, you have piloted the ship down several hundred meters over the last few days, and you've been following a tracker that you have thrown together that can sort of follow the energy signature of the bathosphere that was stolen. And it's already dark, because you've gone down so far, but this sensor that you have been

following toward the bathsphere says you've still got quite a ways to go. So you've descended into this abyss and found your ship moving down a ravine with these jagged nooks and crannies. And nestled in one of them, the light on the front of the night crawler, shines across bodies. Dozens, dozens of bodies. Bodies that would later be discovered by the rest of the the shoreside community once they start building Founders' Wake. But of course, you don't know that yet. You just found a big pile of bodies. What do you all do?

Well, it's ONA, is it? Yes. Well, I, Travis, have seen enough CSI. I think ONA is going to try to see if he can recognize any kind of, like, you know, clean up. It wouldn't be bugs, but, like, philis. and worms and that kind of thing to see how long these bodies have been dead. Okay, are you doing that from the bridge or are you...

Well, if we can see them, yeah, I'm just trying to visually scope it out see if I can, you know, check out the deterioration. Yeah, make an investigation check for me. And you all, because you all are kind of similar to the characters that you are inhabiting in this memory, you all are just going to use your standard character sheets. Um, that is an 18 plus three, a 21.

Good God Almighty. Yeah, that's a good one. Okay. With a 21 owner, you are able to figure out that these, these bodies are not, like, are hardly decomposed. They are relatively fresh within a matter of weeks, you would estimate. You also notice, like, a few other things with that good of an investigation check. they have mutated in places. Not dramatically, but every few people that you look over have like these very narrow gills or like one of them you notice has like super sharp teeth.

A few of them have scales. A lot of them are just people, dead dead people obviously. Some of them look kind of different. And I will also give you this. You notice what appear to be a few sets of like twins. There are some people in this pile who are like almost identical to one another. Okay. I relay all this information to Phineas and to Bertrand.

Let me ask one quick foundation question. Do we have vap suits? You probably have like. Do we have an arm? like we had on the other. No, I will say that you all probably have like a dive suit, like a heavy duty sort of diver's suit, but like vape suits don't exist yet, I'm pretty sure.

I have one more foundation timeline question. Where is this at in relation to the shore community getting hit by the sallow? That has not happened yet. And we've never seen this before, this salloy. No, no, no, no, no. Hmm. Well, all righty. Let's see what we can do.

Let's see what we can stir up here. Bertrand. What does that look like to you? Do you recognize any of those specific people out there? It's like nothing of ever saying, boss. Hmm. Hmm. Oh, no.

What do you think? Any faces, anybody look like at? Somebody you've seen before? It is hard to tell from here. They have deteriorated. Not much, but the, the, the facial region is one of the first to be affected by decomposition. But I will say, Phineas, this has not seemed to be natural.

And I don't know if this is something we need to meddle with so much as it might just be a guidepost that we're headed the right direction with our investigation. Yeah, yeah, I got you. I hear you. Well, I think we need to go out and investigate it up close and purport. personal. That may be... Well, I mean, I said we, but I actually, you know, meant you, Bertrand. I mean, you got all that shark fighting experience, right?

So, I mean, you probably know how to swim around and stuff. Roy, almost strong swimmer, yeah. Yeah. You don't like that idea, owner? It just seems to be taking us away from the primary mission of discovering the bathysphere, not to mention the fact that whatever... has caused this death we are unsure of. And so it still might be a concern, some sort of contaminant, or maybe even some sort of creature nearby that killed these people. And we are

merely putting ourselves in danger. I hear you. I hear you. I'm going to take that into consideration. But don't you think it's kind of a big quinky dink? If this is not related to the whole thing we've been looking for us. We've been kind of tracking that whole, that whole smear. I do see your point. Yeah, I really think we need to, you know, we need to bring it on board here and, you know, kind of take a look at some of them, or at least get up close and kind of check it out. Yes, I think I could be persuaded to go out and investigate, but to bring something like this on board the ship without any of our equipment, anything to. first determine the cause of death seems like we're really in fighting trouble. I think that we need

to be very careful approaching whatever this is and try just for visual examination. Okay. Okay. Never let it be said. If any his call doesn't compromise, what do you say, Bertie, you want to go out there and kind of check it out real close and in person? And while we're doing that, on them, maybe you can keep an eye on that tracker machine thing and see if there's any kind of connection or anything at all. Bertrand, you, uh, you cool with that? Yeah, I suppose. Well, let's get to it.

Okay. Why don't we do this in a couple different roles? We can start... We're already in a couple of different roles. Words sound like other words. You ever notice that? Yeah, they rhyme. Yeah, well, they sound, they're homonyms.

Homonym-nimnum-nimnum-num-numines. Sure. Homonine. Yeah. Homonine. They're hominine hominin. Okay, Bertrand, you suit up in this, you know, Eva suit. I don't know what it's called.

What's it called for a deep sea suit? Just a diving suit, I guess. Yeah. And you are able to get right up into this big pile of bodies. And, Ona, you are keeping an eye on the tracker. Let's start with Bertrand. How are you sort of trying to gain more info here? So I'm like outside in the suit.

I guess I would kind of poke around I'm not like an investigator Yeah sure sure Like he's just kind of like moving stuff around Like I don't he's not exactly sure what he's looking for I think Yeah I figured he had the most familiarity with the seas And you know the life under the seas

Maybe he could pick up some kind of Well Bertrand's also the biggest I would say by far the biggest boy Yeah not the biggest baby though Not the biggest baby though someone different. Why don't you make an investigation role for me, Bertrand? Okay. Two. Yeah, Bertrand looks around and... Oh, this all looks ship shape. It's all good stuff.

Just a bunch of dead bodies. Let's see. Oh, no. Why don't you make a... I'm wondering what like a navigation like, why don't you just make an intelligence check? 17 plus 2, 19. Okay, yeah, here's what you will get for that. You are looking at the sensor, right, that gives you a general bearing on which way the bathysphere is. And while you're looking at that,

you can also see out the front viewport of the ship. And while you are like able to see both those things, you notice another body that is coming in like a current down this ravine and it too hits this sort of trap that the rocky walls of the ravine are making and just tosses another body onto the pile. I would say narrowly missing Bertrand who is out there. Phineas? Yeah. Sorry. If I'm not mistaken, I think we may be at the end of some kind of pipeline, some kind of current. Someone is dumping these bodies, and this just happens to be where the water is taking them.

And I'm sorry to sound callous, like flotsam on a beach that would wash up and get caught in the same outcropping. I believe that's what we're looking at. We should be able to follow this current to find this. the source. Hmm. Are we in contact with, Bertrand? Yeah, sure.

You can yell down his hose or whatever. Yell down his hose. Okay. Yo, yo, yo, yo, Bertrand, my friend, can you, uh, can you detect any kind of current out there? I mean, if you just floated around, would you, uh, would you be moved in any way?

Hold on. No. Finnis, we have sensors we can track the current well I know what I'm just trying to oh you're trying to include him

yes I see this is very kind of you yes well you know it's all about helping you young men develop become better people I did notice he's just kind of standing out there staring at the bodies go

Bertrand you want to come on back in yes all head up did I bring any tools with me or anything like do I have any like yeah we can say there's a tool like a, you know, a compartment for tools in the dive suit. Okay. All right.

Bircham starts swimming back towards the, you know, goes underneath the ship and starts swimming back up towards the hall. The airlock. Mm-hmm. Okay. All right. Do we have any kind of decontamination? Any kind of decontamination?

No, I don't think so. Damn it. Okay. All right. You have gotten back on board the ship. and you make your way to the bridge. And now you all are back together in the bridge and sort of have found this current

that is bringing bodies to this point. Now, Bertrand, could you relay your findings to us? What were you able to detect it? Were you able to figure out any sort of cause of death? Ah, it's all real, spooky, right? No, was I. one dead person and another and they were just so dead it was really bad I see okay spooky it was

oh spooky okay I'll write that I'm in my eighth birthday it did oh god that day I'm afraid you're gonna have to give us a little detail I'd rather not It shaped me to my very coordinate Well you know what We'll save that for our next fake seance Up Shoreside

Listen let me ask something Bertie Do you get the impression That this is their natural state Or I mean Did they look like they was People Turned into fish

Or fish turn into people Or do you think This is just the way they are I think Whatever we're doing? we need to go now. I'm worried whatever did this. Might still be around, I.

I, yep. I agree with Mr. Bershund. Okay. Let's follow that current and let's make it so, fellas. All right. You start the ship back up and turn in the direction of the current. And it is slower going now, because you all are essentially piloting your ship against the current.

You feel like you're going about half as fast. But then the drag on the ship becomes like kind of extreme, like way more than, you know, just piloting a ship against the current should be doing. And after fighting this for like this drag for a few minutes, you realize that like the tail end of your ship is starting to like, almost drag on the floor of this ravine. Hmm. Well, we've got to make sure we're not doing any damage here, right?

Want me pull up a little bit? You're the captain. Oh, that's right. I know. I know. What would be like if the pilot came back into the plane and was like, tap you on the shoulder and is like, hey, we're getting pretty close to the ground.

You have to be. Just like gut check. What do you think? Quick vote, actually, with everybody. Okay, so we got to raise up a little bit, right? Just be careful that we don't lose the current. As long as we can keep, you know, some sort of track of it, I don't want to lose our lead. So are we going against the current or are we going against the current?

Yes. When you pull up Phineas, you realize now what is wrong. the ballast of this ship, which is the chamber that kind of balances air and water to affect the, you know, ascent and descent of the ship, is like completely flooded. There is no air left in the ballast whatsoever. And so like the only force keeping you off the ground right now is the just sort of general thrust of the engine. knowing that is enough for you to be able to get the ship off the ground, but now you're going at like sort of a wild diagonal angle, sort of pointing upwards so that you can keep your butt off the ground. Bertrand, you're an engineer, correct?

Have we taken damage? Is something, how did this happen without us noticing? Hard to say. Oh, I don't know. This is the thrilling overlay between Justin and Bertrand. We're finally there one. I don't know. I have no glitz.

What is happening? There's a whole mechanical set of quote-unquote skills that you can roll against, and then Griffin has to tell you what happened. Okay. We'll see, Amber's not really good at that, and I was using Amber's stat. Where is it mechanical? I mean, there isn't really a mechanical skill. I mean, go ahead.

What would it be? Like, investigation or? This is something you would know, right? So. I would say you are proficient in this. So I'll say it's like your wisdom plus three and initiative plus two. So go ahead and roll with a plus five. Plus five.

Three. Great. Plus five. Great. I'm fucking fire today. This is good. I'm going to Reno. All right.

Are you just trying to think of this in your head? Are you going back there to investigate? I'm going back there to investigate. Okay. Yeah, I mean, with an eight, you are not necessarily any wiser. If there is, like, damage here, you are not seeing it. Okay. But this is, like, the interior, right?

This is on the inside of the ship. I don't see interior damage. Yes, correct. It's just, it is just completely flooded. Okay. Hmm. We don't have any kind of pumps or anything like that? No, this is not supposed to happen.

So in many ways, the ballast is the pump. So I think just like the thing you realize is unless you, you know, find some place to repair this and take some time to repair this, this ship is not going to reach the surface again. Yeah, we can't surface without that ballast. Right, exactly. Here's the plan. All keep working on it. and you will keep headed towards a destination. Okay.

Yep, we'll do that. It's going to be slow going, though, because we're having to kind of go in kind of a diagonal zigzag. And I rolled an eight in engineering, although maybe the repair will be a better roll. Cool. Hi, I'm Jesse Thorne America's Radio Sweetheart. And I'm Jordan Morris' boy detective.

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On the perfect wrestling podcast. Tights and fights. Every Saturday, Saturday, Saturday on maximum fun. So, you all follow this current for a while. And when I say a while, I mean like another, another week, a week of, I would say pretty uncomfortable sailing, right? The ship is at an angle. It's not like you guys have artificial gravity. So everybody is just kind of constantly leaning backwards as you all very slowly push forward. It is taxing on the ship in so many ways. The ship is not supposed to move

like this. And so there are just kind of constant groans of protest coming both from the hall and the crew of this ship. So I have, do I have white back here? Yeah, yeah. I I would say the ship is lit. Okay. Oh, this ship is lit. Definitely. But after about a week, you all finally reach the end of this ravine. And it opens up into this huge clearing with what appears to be like a cavern moving sort of further downward.

And down in that cavern, you all see light. You get closer to it and you all see at the bottom of this cavern. a city or something that is like approximating a city. It's organized in a semicircular pattern around this huge central building that almost resembles like a church or a temple, like a basilica with like the huge round central building with like a bunch of different towers and stuff coming off of it. And then fanning out from that huge temple, you see these rows of what appear to be just kind of like simple buildings that look like just rows of small identical lodgings.

And the curious thing about the city is that it is not submerged. There are a dozen or so of these large overlapping barriers, almost like huge bubbles surrounding the city infrastructure. And those bubbles appear to be keeping the city dry and also presumably are providing breathing breathable air to the people that are just walking around inside of there that you all have seen. You are seeing this with, I would say, like, telescopic, just, I guess maybe just a telescope. So they have not taken notice of your ship, but you all have found this city that you have followed all the way from the current. And so you assume is where the Trail of Dead were coming from.

Well, this is wonderfully fortuitous, isn't it? Because we were looking for, one, a place to repair our ship. But more than that, we have found a city under the waves. Everything is fixed. We can simply move from the shore to whatever this city is. Well, I know I'm Captain Phineas, not Captain Obvious, but don't you think that's a little coincidental? That doesn't set off a few alarm buttons in your head?

I mean, coincidence or fortune, you know, the gods have guided us to this moment. Right, I'm Ryan thinking that hominine like he's cool with the gods, right? Yeah. I know hardly anything about these new characters that I made up for this episode. So if you want that to be true, that's absolutely. Well, I just, we don't have like a hominian character. And so I'm trying to make sure I understand their relationship. to this. I would say, yeah. I would say if this person is as learned as they are, a lot of that

probably comes from, like, the religious institutions of hominy. The gods have led us to this moment. This is, we were brought to the shore by a voice that said, you know, this is the plan. And then we have found salvation. Well, let's try to hail them. And we can feel them out, huh? See how they sound. That sounds good. That's a good idea. How exactly do we tail- question?

What do we think like long-distance communications would be? Morse code type light blinking? Yeah, I would say. I mean, radio waves don't make sense. No, I mean, there's the tone. We've like talked about tone wheels, but I don't think that those exist yet.

Probably some sort of rudimentary, like maybe like a, yeah, like a Morse code type Okay. Sure. Flash exterior lights? Yeah, exactly. Yeah. All right.

So I guess, Phineas, you're at the helm. What are you flashing? Well, we've got a lot of exterior lights. So I thought maybe we would pull a close encounters kind of thing where we would flash them in different sequences. Okay. To show that we are intelligent beings and intelligent creatures. I mean, we're in a ship. Well, yeah, but we're pretty far away.

I don't think they're going to think, like, there's some dogs in there. They haven't seen it. Sea dogs. I'm just saying any, just flashing the lights is probably enough. You're not going to believe this. We have assumed, we are assuming it's hyper-intelligent dogs. How do you know they're hyper-intelligent? Because how else would dogs pilot the ship?

We're assuming it. They must be hyper-intelligent. Otherwise, how do they get in there? I mean, maybe they might have sat accidentally on the gear shift and moved in into neutral and the ship rolled down here? I guess that's possible. Well, then we got us a name. We're the descendant dogs. We're going to descend down there and flash our lights.

All right. So you were just flashing it in a pleasing pattern then. Yes. As if to say a taste stranger. Okay. You do that for a few seconds, honestly. And that is enough for some of the people down inside of the bubbles to look up. and see you all.

And a few of them go running toward that central building. A few of them run back into one of the little residential, like, rows. And after a few seconds, the, like, main sort of barrier covering up the basilica starts to shoot a few bubbles up. And, like, you cannot, this is not any kind of code that you are aware of. But it does seem like the city is responding to your, uh, your, your, you're flashing. Uh, see, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, let's,

let's, let's descend real, so, we don't have much choice in descending, though, right? You can descend. Yeah. But can we control the speed of the descent? He's been working on it for a week, right? Yeah, I mean, you've been piloting the ship for the week, so I will give you advantage, but you will need to roll for it because this is the most you've had to descend since you realized your ballast was all fucked up. Okay. So why don't you roll?

Acrobatics? No. You're piloting a ship, right? So this is almost like a vehicle proficiency role. Should I use the ship sheet? Speed, that would be plus speed. Why don't you actually, we'll just do dexterity. And since you are like, you have been doing this for a while, take also your proficiency.

So that is a plus six total with advantage. Okay. So dexterity, that is a 12 plus. three, which is a 15. Okay. And you said plus another six. Plus another three. So it's an 18.

You got an 18 total. 18. Okay. And then you have advantage if you want to roll again. Well, wouldn't hurt. Okay. Go roll again. That would be a big old three, so I'll stick with the 18.

That's a good idea. Okay. Where are you trying to descend to? It's nice because, you know, oftentimes we say, like, if you want to learn how to play, like, role playing games, don't. We're not the ones to go to you, but I do think it's an important lesson to take away that if you're rolling

and you have the chance to choose between a really high number or a really low number, take the high number. A lot of people don't know that. Isn't that fucked up? Yeah. I didn't know till just now.

I'm glad to have pointed that out. Sometimes on critical role, Matt Mercer will be like, take the low number just to see who you can trick into it. And we're the ones who get shit on Reddit. Yeah. Even when Matt Mercer's like, take the low number.

Take the low number because it's like cold. Sometimes it's better. And they're like, Did you say sometimes? Okay. All right. I'd say towards the cathedral. That seems to be the main structure, right?

Do like a clearing near the cathedral? Well, you're not going to land on top of the cathedral. Stutz. Well, because remember, there's no water inside the thing. So once we go through the barrier, I would just say towards the whatever bubble and maybe with our sensors and our sharp eyes, We would be able to detect some kind of, you know, bay or some kind of opening or something along those lines. Oh, yeah, that's a good question. Do we see any kind of like other ships?

No, you don't see any other ships here. It's just, it is just this sort of like almost ancient looking city. Like the houses as you are descending and get closer to them. They just look like they were made out of like the clay. at the bottom of the ocean. Like it is not, this is not some sort of technological sort of marvel, as far as you can tell. So there's no like hatches or anything to, no hangers to bring your ship down into.

Where were the bubbles coming from the communicating bubbles? They were just popping out the top of another bubble. Like just air was being expressed. Yeah, but I mean, what was that bubble around? The basilica come from like the top of the church. Okay, but then I say we try to find some place to set down. Okay. Well, wait a minute.

Once we set down, we ain't going back up. Not without help. I would say with the 18 that you rolled, you can find a spot at the end of one of those, like, rows of houses where you can kind of like park half in the water, half in the bubble. And also at this point, if we don't get somewhere dry, we can't fix our ship all the way. Right. So it doesn't really matter. Okay. So there's a place where we can set down that is at least partially inside the air bubble without disrupting the air bubble.

Yeah, exactly. You can put it down. So basically the airlock opens up into the bubble. Okay. And you're all right. Okay. That works. And would that be at the end of one of those long buildings?

Yeah. At the end of like one of the long rows of buildings coming away from the church. Okay. Bring it down there then and land perfectly. Well, I mean, you've got a busted ballast. And you're landing half inside of dry land. And it was a dirty 18. It's not like, yeah.

Yeah, that's true. So you get the ship down, but it has not. I mean, the ship hasn't felt right in a while, but you bring it down. And when you do, and you all approach the airlock, you can see through a window that there are people who are starting to gather around your ship. And they are looking at your ship not like, there's no pitchforks or torches. like they look very curious. And what's, I guess what's everybody doing? Is everybody leaving the ship?

Are some folks staying behind? What's, what's the plan here? Oh, yeah, me, I mean, I'm going. Like, yeah. Yeah, I think we should stick together. Okay. Yeah, I say the three of us go and we put lieutenant somebody in charge of staying behind. Lieutenant Red.

Yeah. There you go. And I also would say it's short for Lieutenant Red. Red shirt. I thought you said Lieutenant. I thought you said Lieutenant Bread, which I would ask that is actually who we change it to if you don't mind. Yeah, it's Lieutenant Bread. Yeah. Who else is on this ship? His name is Lieutenant Bread. His name is Ryan Bradden and everybody just calls him Rye Bradden. And he hates that. So that's why he's joined the military. I am writing down right now rule number five of Ethersea. Homanines love hominins. I'm sorry. That's the end is rule number five. I don't think that's a

common as much as it is a rhyming word, but that's I think it's just a pun. It's nothing. Okay. I regret saying it because of how much show it just took up. There's about a half dozen of Joshi's acolytes who have come along with you at the request of Phineas

call. Some of them stay behind. How many of them do you want to stay behind? You got six in total. I mean six, right? They're not going to be very interesting in the story. Okay, that's fine. Yeah. Leave them here. Or think you should just be the free of us.

The brand trust. And I would also like to suggest that I don't know what kind of signal it sends. We are explorers, obviously, but I think Bertrand ought to be armed. Oh, I have a, I have a. You will go ahead. I forgot my tools. I don't know that we should be approaching them with any kind of weapons. I'm just getting my tool.

I'm getting, I just said my tools. Yes. But then you winked. I have something in my eye. Okay. Oh, here, wait. Let me get that for you. There you go.

That was a very tender moment. Thank you, really tender. Thank you. So gentle. All right. Bertrand runs back on the ship to grab his bag of tools. Okay. Okay.

That's good. That's good. And listen, I understand what you're saying, Ono, but listen, we don't know what the situation is out here. We don't know these folks. We need to at least have some kind of backup just in case things. get a little, you know, finis.

Messy. I don't know how to tell you this. And I know that sometimes you say I'm too cautious, but it is worth noting, we have a busted ballast, we are under the ocean, in their dome, and there are way more of them than there are of us.

If we have to resort to a backup plan, it's going to get very bad. Well, yeah, but a backup plan, plan to me would be running away. How? And if we're running away back to the baths, or back to the ship, just, you know, to be safe, I think I'd like to know Bertrand was there with his tools. Now, see, you did it too. Is it tools or is it weapons? I just got tools. It's tools. Wait, wait, wait, wait. I locked the ship from the outside so they, in case anyone tries to come alone.

They don't get in. Okay. You all step outside then and descend down a stairway that is popped out of the side of the ship and you are now standing in front of a crowd of people. Ona is pretty tall and kind of lanky

and he is doing some deep bows. Okay. Oh, thank you for having it like, as a gracious a guest as one could hope for. Then make a charisma check, just a straight-up charisma role to see how this influences their reception of you. 10 total? They all look at each other and kind of laugh.

Because you can actually already tell, like these folks here are pretty excited to see the three of you. But they also seem a little bit nervous to actually like step forward and initiate actual conversation with you all. I've just decided as we are figuring out these characters for this little sidetrack here. I think that I'm going to say that ONA is the kind of like biologist where he studied a lot of animal behavior and totally thinks he knows how to handle situations like this. Awesome. Great. Yeah, sure. And so he makes himself kind of small.

and non-threatening, as he says, thank you so much for allowing us into your home. And he's avoiding eye contact, so it's not to seem threatening. Please allow me to introduce my very good friends. This here's Bertrand. Bertrand, say something. Aye. Okay, and this is Phineas Cole.

How y'all doing? And you might be, and he bows again. They all look at each other and whisper. And one of them walks forward. It is a young woman, probably in her early 20s, and she steps forward. I think you all realize that this would be like totally obvious if it wasn't true.

None of these people have any kind of like, fish features, like the bodies that you found earlier. Also, Grivenar, any of them recognizable as the vanguard that left? Why don't you all make a Noticing check? Oh, okay. Yeah, an investigation check. Oh, no. I got seven. Oh, no, wait, that was intimidation. Excuse me. The words look very similar.

I have a 15 total Uh Zooks Or did A 15 total also Uh Firtin Uh

Bertrand Intimidation or investigation Investigation You guys got me all All confused Uh Six plus Zero

Uh So Ona and Phineas You all do recognize A couple of the people here as the vanguard who left.

And the vanguard were like pretty standoff. They were kind of assholes, right? They thought, we are the gatherers of this community and we aren't treated with enough respect. So, like, they were very insular before they stole the bathesphere and left. But, I mean, with a 15, like, you all do recognize a couple of those people,

and you do put it together that they are vanguard. I will also say you do also notice a couple sets of twins here. Cool. Um, um, hey, uh, twins. Twins. Sorry. I actually held it in for four to half seconds, which is a new record for me.

Yeah. That's huge. Hey, uh, fellas, uh, hang on one, hang on one second, folks. Those, uh, huddle up here real quick. Oona bows his way over to the huddle. Mm-hmm. We, we know some of these folks, don't we? Don't they look?

Yes. The vanguard that we've been looking for. Yeah. But, I mean, remember anybody by name? Oh, I'm not good with... No, I'm not good with names. Well, they seem to like you. Why don't...

I mean, surely they talk our language then, right? Yeah, maybe let's talk to them and find out. That's good. Phineas, you feel a tap on your shoulder. And you turn around to see that young woman. Whoa, hey! Now you recognize her as one of the Vanguard. That was on the beach.

You probably never spoke to her or anything like that. But you have seen her around and she says, Hello, Phineas. I was wondering if we would ever see you again. We're so excited that you and your friends have come to visit. Oh, yeah, go on, go on, go on. I'm Naomi. And, well.

Naomi. Oh, Naomi. Yeah, of course. Welcome to, welcome to our domain. We had, um, is, how was your, was your journey? Is, is, is, is, are, are you all okay? Um, did you experience any, any problems making your way to? Um, well, a little bit, a little bit, a few, uh, technical issues, um, that, that, to be honest with you, if we could, if we could get y'all's help, we would, we would really appreciate a little

trouble with the old craft, with the wheels, so to speak. Our journey down here was, was pretty, pretty trying as well. What, what brings you all here

to the, to the ocean floor? Well, beyond with you, we, looking for you. For us? Yeah, yeah.

I mean, you're left and we're gone. and, you know, we, we never, never seen you again. We were, you know, and, you know, to be honest, you kind of, you know, borrowed our ship and, I mean, it's all, you know, water under the bridge, of course, or wander over the bridge. But, you know, we could have used it a little bit, a little bit.

But, yeah, we were looking for you and our, our, Oh, we want to know what happened to you. Why you never came back? She stops and smiles and says, okay, I think I understand now. One of our great regrets is that we stole the bathysphere when we did. It was foolhardy and immature of us. And we can, of course, return it to you. We obviously don't need it anymore.

We've arrived at where we need to be. We appreciate you coming to find us, though, but this is not really a situation where we need to be rescued. Well, no, sorry, if I may, it seems quite the other way around. This is perfect. We'll fix the night crawler. There's our ship here. And then we'll take the bathysphere.

And with those and some of the other ships, we will be able to start ferrying down the people on shore down to this new home. the salvation that you found. It's perfect. She is like, everybody is, everybody just starts cheering. You see twins like grabbing each other and looking at each other just like so excited, like barely able to contain their joy. And Naomi says, I, that's, that would be a dream come true. I, I, okay, I'm getting way ahead of myself. There's someone that you should meet.

before we move any further. And if we do anything else, I feel like they will be upset that they are missing out on this moment. So we'll leave some people here to start looking at your ship and see what they can fix up. And you all come with me and we can make everybody very comfortable, but we should get moving. Oh, yes, Phineas and Bertrand.

This is where they will take us before the leader, perhaps some sort of alpha, if you're familiar with this term. And then we will supplicate ourselves to them to show that we are submissive to their leadership. And then they will accept us and we'll be able to join them here in their herd or pack or however, whatever you want to call it. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Well, that's one way it could probably go. One way it looks like it's going to go. All right.

I need to say something out of character for a second. Sure. Just just pick it. I don't want to split the party up, but I'm wondering if Bertrand would stay behind to kind of supervise these repairs. Or is that? I mean, you can ask him? No, you know, I don't.

I withdraw that. I would draw that. Okay. I was following. I was following two logically. Sure. Two story-wise. I think it makes sense, but I feel like Bertrand would be, would stick with Phineas.

Okay. Maybe I could stick with Phineas and, um, I'm sorry. Ona could like see what they could learn. Okay. And make sure nobody like got in trying to fuck with their shit. Yeah, I think we should go meet this, this person first. Okay. But like there's six other people ostensibly on the thing.

So and I think we can assume that Bertrand is not the only engineer person there. Sure. So I don't think we need to worry too much about it. Okay. I would at the very least, and this is a complete sidebar, I would say that just like he ran back to get tools, maybe Bertrand runs back to the ship just to kind of tell the rest of the crew, this is okay. These folks are going to be working on the outside, right? Are they going to be working on the outside of the ballast? Yeah.

Okay. And just, is that okay? Do you mind if we just insert that little nugget in there that that happened? Yeah, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, burnt your in back and told them. Okay. All right. Let's go, let's go meet the, uh, the high horse. Sure.

Uh, you all are, uh, making your way through the city. And, Ona, make a, make a, make a perception check for me. Actually, everyone make it perception. 17 plus 3, a 20. Woo, dirty 20! 18 plus well. 3.

And what did you get? Phineas? 14? Finneas got a 15. Okay. So 15 to 20 and a 21? Yeah, everyone, question. You all saw everything.

As you were walking down, the, this like radial toward the basilica at the back of the, you know, the city, you all see a lot more. Now not like twins, but, you know, triplets and quadruplets and et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, you are seeing a lot of the same people as you walk through. And at first, maybe you think it's deja vu, but there's one younger guy that you have. seen easily 15 of just on this one walk. Needless to say, because I'm sure everybody is in this group, but ONA is fascinated by it. Very excited by this?

With a 20 and a 21, Ona and Bertrand, you also notice that these radial sort of pathways leading back toward the Basilica, there are what appear to be like huge, almost super, street lights that are sort of positioned every 20 feet or so. And you notice that the, the bubbles that are overhead surrounding the city are sort of centered on those streetlights, which have these huge, like, glowing glass globes. Oh, that was fun. On top of each one. And actually, from your position inside the city, like walking around in here, you notice that the bubbles appear to be like moving gently, like expanding and contracting, just barely, but enough for you to notice it, almost like they are being sort of inflated and deflated in rhythm.

Naomi, I'm so sorry. Clearly, this has been here long before the Vanguard arrived. How long has this city under the sea been? here. That's a tough question because are you asking about the city or the buildings and infrastructure that make up the city? Is it different? Oh, I suppose whichever's oldest. She says this domain has existed from so far back that our minds couldn't comprehend it. Not necessarily the dawn of time, but awfully close to it. The buildings are always being expanded outward as our community grows.

And so defining the exact age of that would also be quite difficult. Sounds like they're old. Yeah, especially the basilica. That is... Griffin, how long has the vanguard been gone? I don't know the exact amount of time, but it has been... I think you have only known that they have been gone for just a short while. Like two years, months?

Yeah. Weeks. Like the pickax things washed up on short the end of episode three of the setup episodes. And then this expedition is taking place like in the middle of the fourth episode. Okay. So it's been they left on this mission months ago. You've realized that they have been they something bad happened to them weeks ago. I want to. Okay. Then I want to ask Bertrand a question. Okay. I, you mentioned the community. This is also fascinating to me. How long have the other residents been here? It seems well established, but somehow we've been completely unaware of this underwater marvel. How long have they lived here? How do they get here? She looks around and she says, that's a great question that I don't really know the answer to. But I'm sure Cambria will be able to fill you in on.

all the details. So much to be studied. This is amazing. Yeah, she says we're proud of it. Uh-huh. Cambria, I assume that's the high horse we've been talking about. Yeah, the cambria is the first. Okay.

You all continue making your way down this pathway. There appears to be like some systems of irrigation that you have started passing that look like streams of algae that are sort of, moving across the city. You can actually see some in the neighboring radials as you get closer to the, the basilica that are all sort of leading, like the branches of a tree back into, back underneath that core. Oh, Oda's into that. Yeah, sure. There's a lot of stuff here that is probably quite fascinating to Oda. And you all make your way inside of the basilica. And when you get in there, you are standing in a big foyer that despite the fact that like this building is made up out of

clay it is like so ornate so like intricately carved uh this this clay is and there are sort of doorways leading off into different sort of passages in this room but naomi leads you up these two curving stairways to this higher platform with a uh an enormous opening in and she says okay um is everyone ready to go in? I could not be more ready. Could I talk to you owner for a second

before we go in? Um, uh, yes. A quick second. Yeah, you all have a, I wanted to talk to Naomi here a little bit too, so you all go ahead and have a little confat. Listen, it may be bad. I don't know. Listen, I'm going to leave my tools with you and I'll go in with the boss.

You hear anything, I mean anything. I got a cocking laser in the bag. Now, you don't have to use this a weapon. Remember when I went back to talk to the boys? I told them to keep an eye out for it in case of trouble. You hear anything, you shine this cocking laser at the ship, they'll see it and get over here real quick and real well armed. But I want to go in.

I understand that I don't want to die. We all got wants, don't we? But why would you think that this is bad? They've been wonderfully pleasant and welcoming, and maybe you're just worried about nothing. You ever been through what I've been through? Hey, trust me, you don't want to go in there by yourself. I'd stay out here, but if something goes wrong in there, I need to be there to protect the boss. I will wait one minute.

While you go in and get the lay of the land. But after a minute, I'm coming in. I have to find out my curiosity is absolutely bubbling. Give me five. I'll get a good breed on the guy. I'll give me a shout, hey? Two. Two and a half.

Two minutes and 15? You drive a hard bargain owner. So pointless. We'll be sure to track that. Yeah. We'll set a timer. Okay. And clarified butter.

See, that's the key. If you clarify the butter before, leaves all flaking. Yeah, unfortunately, no cows. All right. Oh. She opens up the doors. And Ona, Bertrand, hands you the tool bag as he walks inside with Phineas. And as Phineas...

Sorry, NAME. I'll be right in. I feel a sneeze coming on, and I don't want to embarrass myself inside. So I'm going to get my sneezes out here. She nods and says, oh, okay. I'm not sure that's necessary, but okay. Okay, this throws Phineas a little bit, so he makes high contact with Ona and then glances over at Bertrand trying to figure out what's going on. And he, Bertrand mouths, 215.

Oh, gosh, okay, yeah, we got to get a move on it. It's 215 already. All right. In we go. Hey, Siri, start a timer for two minutes and 15 seconds. Don't actually do that. No, not 10 minutes and 15. Jesus.

Naomi shuts the door as Bertrand and Phineas walk in. And when that happens, it's like Ona just like vanishes. Because this memory is happening in real time, but you are seeing it through the eyes of Phineas call. So when Ona is no longer on Phineas' camera, so to speak, we don't know what is happening to them. The two of you, Bertrand and Phineas, make your way into this large chamber. And it is cavernous and it is dimly lit. And it's not quite as like intricately carved as the rest of, of, of, this facility. Like it is

it is just the dome that you can see from outside like at the very central of this basilica. And the only light in this room is coming from a hole in the very center of the room

that is maybe like 80 feet in diameter. Yes. Wait? Yes. Yes. Yeah. Diameter is across the middle. Right. And it is, it's not just like a flat hole. It's more like a volcanic like mound. And coming from it are these bright, hot bubbles that are coming up out of nowhere and just floating upward through the air. And they are hot enough that actually you can feel like the temperature change in this room as you as you walk into it. And you hear. a voice coming from not just the hole, but like it reverberates around the walls.

It sounds like it is coming from absolutely everywhere. And the voice says, Welcome, Phineas. I've been anticipating this meeting for quite a while. Well, I have been too. Who am I speaking to right now? The others have taken to calling me Cambria. I lived without a name for so long when there was nobody else to name me.

Well, I'm glad you got a name now. That's a step forward. Do you mind coming out here so we can see you? Some find my form to be alarming, but know that I do not wish you or your people any harm. Quite the opposite. I want to save you. Good, good. From what exactly? Hmm. From the end of the world. I am the progenitor of every living thing for eons.

I drifted below the ocean floor, a stew of organic compounds, and then one day the mosaic took form. I am the first two cells who decided. decided to work together to form a higher purpose. I am the first life. And from that vent, a blast of hot air shoots into this room. It hurts your eyes and you feel like you're getting a sunburn. And then it emerges from this mound. and you see a towering, easily 40-foot-tall, pinkish, white flatworm

with translucent frills that undulate in the air. It's not even entirely out of the vent, and it is towering 40 feet. Welcome home, children. Maximum fun.org. Comedy and culture. Artist-owned. Audience-supported.