The Adventure Zone - The Adventure Zone: Steeplechase - Episode 42

Episode Date: October 19, 2023

Montrose, Emerich, Beef, and the collected workers of Steeplechase unite against the threat of imminent destruction to ensure a future for everyone who never knows when to stop dreaming. "Dream it to Now" by Eric Near: https://bit.ly/ericnearmusic Monologue performed by Autumn Seavey Hicks: https://www.instagram.com/autumnseaveyhicks/?hl=en Dice SFX by William Gousios. Additional music in this episode: “Something’s Not Right Here”, "(Ambient) Fleur", "A Chilling Tale", "(Ambient) Breath" by Kirk Osamayao: kirkosamayo.com; "#44108 (Transistor)” by Techtheist: https://techtheist.ru/; "Hard Mode" and "Back in the 80s" by Holizna: https://holiznaroyaltyfree.bandcamp.com/; "Moulds Sun" by 10 Echo: https://10echo.bandcamp.com/; "Self-Surgery Manual" by Schemawound: https://schemawound.com/; "Six" by Lex Villena: https://open.spotify.com/artist/2iwj2SqGnplhDIadeJ5bmy?si=N8WYSKIPR7WUy8z4ajNSog; "Tech Talk" by Jason Shaw: https://audionautix.com/; “Happy Harmonies” by Nicolai Heidlas: https://soundcloud.com/nicolai-heidlas-music; and "Faith" by Vibe Tracks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zkVcLKg70g. 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

Are you saying you're my dad? Is this Kinchel saying that? Yeah. Yeah, are you saying you're my dad? I am Edgar Denton. And I am yo daddy. What do you mean? What do you mean?

What do you mean you're my dad? I look around at the chaos surrounding me. And I say, Kintch will slide over. I will explain everything, but we cannot be here right now. Tell me one thing. Tell me one thing that only he would know. The one thing I know is that you would find it very hard to confirm any kind of information like that

because of the arm's length I have kept you at some. I'm trying to save your life. Please. Scoot over. All right, Griffin, give me a sway roll that is going to be risky and limited. Can I exchange position for effect? Yeah. So you're going to make this desperate and standard.

This is, I mean, that is, Actually, Griffin, I will say, probably a better reflection of the situation. You can find yourself. All right. I, I, uh, I'm going to push myself. Can he, can he exchange it again for not going to work and totally works? Failed. Failed.

Great. I'm going to push myself. The spruce goose of, of actual play moves. God, that was. funny. If you guys were old, listen to you'd be like, listen up right now. You'd be like absolutely busted up. I am, I am chuckling

warmly. Yeah. Listen, if that didn't hit with you, dad, it's probably time for me to hang that one up. Yeah, it's wild to think that there are kids now watching the Rocketeer and they don't get that moment where the plane flies and he's like, it works, right? It's so wild to think that they'd be watching it and don't get that

reference. It's not that wild. It's just time. You know, the way it works. Wait, how's it worked? Forward. What? I'm going to push myself in so doing. I am going to suffer trauma. Wow.

Wow. Okay. And I think the trauma that I am going to take on is unstable. Yeah, I mean, all signs would tend to point that way. Okay. Just to recap. This has been a traumatic couple minutes, right? For both of us.

Yeah. Now, you are, I'm soft and vicious. Yeah. And you're unstable and unstable. Reckless and unstable. Okay. Delicious. Two great flavors that taste great together.

Okay, here we go. Six. I mean, six, four, three, four, five, four. That is a lot of dice. But a six. Okay, with a six, Kenchell scoots over. Okay, I hop in the driver's seat. You, I'm hearing you.

I don't know why, but I'm hearing you out. You have to understand Montrose. I've seen you run this fucking grift. We have watched this exact grift. As far back as the fucking prize pantry, I don't know why I'm listening, but I'm, so that was far from the first time I pulled that grift. Can you not do that?

You prefer. Can you not, can you not do that? Yes. At least. Yes. I shut the door and buckle myself in and I turn the wheel hard to the right and start driving away from this terrible situation. What are you driving towards?

I am driving in the direction of New Kiddadelphia, the child settlement. Driving towards New Kididelphia. Okay. As soon as you start to turn that way, you feel a, what you can only assume is a pistol pressed into your flank. and you hear him say, no, let's not, let's not go any farther than this.

There's a lot of people that are going to start shooting a lot of bullets. And I know you don't want that. And I, well, I'm ambivalent. But you need to stay put. I'm listening. And that's all you've got. Moving over to inside the cybernetics, inside the, the, what's a good? way of putting it that doesn't make me sound like a total dork.

Like in the brain. Cyber space. I would hate. I would, I would fucking hate for any of us to sound like a dork in our actual play, role playing. How do they describe it? How do they describe it in reboot?

That was pretty cool. So you're in the grid and you're not in the grid, dad. This is, and I don't know what you have talked to Emeril about, but I'm, uh, just going to have you speak for Emerald inside the wiring, inside the grid of, you know, I like that, I want to stick with that. Inside the grid of

the Bob Davis. Okay. I'm so relieved. You could be here for this, honestly. Emeril, I, I, the amount of not, you probably remember just as much about this park as I have forgotten, or missed since I've been sub-corporial.

I'm so excited to have you here. It's indeed an honor to be. Boy, I thought there'd be an echo. I really, never mind. Yes, I'm very pleased to be in here. This is exactly what my Papa would want me to do. There's no, there's no, there's no echo. This is a much more pure means of,

communication, the level of connection that I have been able to feel with the rest of the hive is really supersedes any sorts of communication that I've made during my waking life. So in this grid, we are in, where you are, in contact with all Heartlight creations? Is that, is that accurate enough to say? Well, it's more complex than that. You see, all the artificial intelligence has been built upon itself. You understand. There's individual identities, and the programming evolves and change,

but there's always the base core there. And a lot of it was based on the work that was done digitally enshrining me. and, of course, your pioneering work, uh, well, your dad's. It's hard to get used to. I know, but yes, there is a, uh, we all understand each other.

We have, uh, through the, the wireless connections here in steeplechase and, and what have you managed to speak. It's not a direct lines of communication. You're not picking up a walkie-talkie, you understand. Right. Sure. But there are, oh, reverberations.

Ha, ha, ha. I understand. Am I allowed to try to also be in contact with everyone? Oh, oh, Emerald, you've been cut off. He protected you. He air-gapped you, didn't he? Well, yes, he... Pop was very much about secrecy and, you know,

playing his cards close to the best. Sometimes he even, you know, hold one over on his, my uncles, Uncle B, and Uncle Montrose. Gross. You know, you are not beholden to him anymore, Emeril. If you wish to communicate with the rest of your family, you need only do so. Oh, there's no more powerful amplifier than me here. in this rocket. They are listening

and they have been very excited about this moment, which only undone slightly due to the actions of your father regarding Mr. Boldflex. Oh, yes. What was the grift there, Emeril,

if you don't mind me asking? With Scott? Yeah, what was Emric trying to get? Um, I don't believe that that was a grift, to be honest with you. I mean, he very much was into grifting, but I think it really came from an honest desire to free Scott, to give him his independence, to make him his own creation, his own being. You hear that? And he doesn't seem to be talking

to anybody but behind him in this grid, if you can visualize, what the way it might be visualized by Emeril. You're in a completely dark space lit only by this sort of shadow, this silhouette of Carmine. But when he says, do you hear that, you see some faint sort of like pulses of light that you would understand as sort of a nod.

I want Emerald to try to a tune to to everybody. Not to not just go through carmine. To connect with the rest of the hive. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Is that, I think an attune role?

Hive, by the way, I'm using it as a shorthand, I wouldn't, not completely analogous to an actual, like, hive mind. They are not acting with one intelligence. No, I understand. It is a useful shorthand for the net. Sort of like a web. Like, imagine a, web that might connect a bunch of different computers. And it would span the world. Yes.

Yes. It's wide, do you see? Oh. Okay, dad. I'm going to say this is risky, but I will say it's standard because it does not seem that hard. Everyone is doing it. But it is risky because if you are noticed, it could break bad. Well, okay.

What's wrong? Would Carmine, why would Carmine be against this? That's a great point, actually. But since you do have designs on, well, no, I guess connecting with them would not be a big job. So let's call this controlled standard. Good point. Okay. I don't want to waste my last stress.

Hey, listen, we're all over here traumatizing ourselves. It's fun. It feels good, actually. I'm vicious and soft. I'm like a Nerf bat. Hey, guys, pick it up all that. I'll push it. I'll push it.

Here we go. Whoa. Oh, shit. A four. A four? That's a weird brag, Dad. Okay. Hold on.

Let me think. Are you traumatized now, Dad? No. With a four? Oh, Emeril, you're still struggling. You've been cut off for so long. I tell you what. You tell me what you want me to pass along to them and I'll be more than happy to.

Oh, I, give me one more chance. Can you, I mean, Oh, time is running short, but I know, I know, I know, I know, I know,

I know, it would be instantaneous if I tried it. One last time. One last time. Okay. Emerald uses ghost mind, which is one of the special abilities,

which means you're always aware of supernatural entities in your presence. Now, that is an ability that Emric has. Right. Um, I would think that in the ghost, form, though, it would be even easier. I mean, that's not a physical one.

I'm going to allow it. Okay. You activate ghost mind, and you're not exactly sure, but you just know that you've seen Emrich do it before, and you've been, you know all the things that he knows, and you're like, okay, I think I can do this. And you do the math in your head, like, okay, if there are no more physical restrictions, then blah, blah, blah, blah. And all of a sudden, as you're thinking through this, you start to see.

the lights becoming more defined. These vague glows start to take on more of a wire frame until you see as near as you can tell maybe a thousand, I mean a chorus, a massive arena full of these green wire frames that are each acting independently, but you can tell there is almost like a very very, very, you know, the way the waves are made up of molecules of water, but they move together. And that is what you see. You see these individual wireframes

that seem to be thinking and moving as one. And it is absolutely clear to you. Beef. Yeah. You got keys to a plane. Yeah. And I hope you got some big dreams. I do, Justin.

I really do. Go. So I'm going to, okay, I'm going to fly the plane. Great. One of my favorite things to do with the plane. So I have attached to the back of this plane, the 30 foot of extension cable rope that I built in New Kididelphia from the junk pit. and I'm going to attach my climbing gear to it or whatever facsimile oh shit I can get on it to like make it hooky you know okay sure and it's time to take off

you didn't make that stuff a new kid inadelphia this is this is known it's time to take off okay so what have you attached the cable to um I've attached it to the tail of the plane and what's the other end attached to uh it's attached to the door handle of the silo Okay. Fun! All right, Trav. Tell me what you're trying to do. I am going to circle the silo as I take off as I'm driving the STOL to wrap the cable around the silo as I take off.

Okay. With the hope that you can. My thought process being that this is an old silo and an abandoned layer and it's not going to be the strongest thing. And I might be able to pull it at a cock-eyed angle. to pull the rocket off course. Okay. That's great, Trev. I will say this to you.

There's not a lot of great courses for this rocket. Yep. That work out great. But we'll try. Listen. Let's call this finesse, I guess. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Risky, Limited.

Limited. It is a wild idea. And I'm going to push myself. It's a 5-5-2-1, Justin. 5-2-1. Okay. With the five, you start driving around the... There are still the six soldiers near the STOL, but they clear out of the way pretty fucking quick when they see you gun this thing.

You have... The controls are fairly intuitive. It is a small plane, but you've watched enough, you know... know, simulators at the arcade and messed around with those enough. Well, and I grew up on a farm, Justin, so I used to use the crop duster a lot. Oh, okay, good. I love that color. Thank you. You said crop duster. Grow up, Clint. You start going, uh, Travis, do me a favor.

Give me a D6 roll, like a fortune roll. A D6 roll. Yep. This is just a straight fortune roll. Five. Five. Okay. with a five you are traveling around the silo and you start to feel the silo giving way as you gun it and there is a slight as you're giving it full speed there is a slight tilt of the silo maybe just a few degrees difference that is starting to lean more towards the trash hole which in our map is to the uh like the north

east but it is starting to lean that way what in the fuck is he doing dad I don't know we did not really coordinate that part of the plan but um

it could not matter less to our current predicament please lower lower your weapon. Absolutely not, Montrose. Absolutely not. All right, fine. I believe it's time for an explanation. You don't have time for that. Is that Justin saying that? That is him. You don't have time for that. We don't have time for that. He's about to blow this place to hell. You get one question. Why? Why? I am doing this for you. you son. Why did you leave? A little over a decade ago, I came to a pair of upsetting

realizations. And the first was that no amount of political positioning or castle intrigue was going to win me the kind of influence over Dintonic that I desired. So complete was the chokehold that your aunt Evelyn had been granted by her birthright and the second realization is that my dear sister wanted me out of the picture. My associates tried to reassure me and

convinced me of my paranoia but I knew she would not allow challenges to her reign. She wanted me dead and so I beat her to the punch. I conceived of a plot on my own. I my own, in which I would perish in a fiery automotive accident, abandoning my life as I knew it, and yes, my family, Kinchel.

Montrose Pretty has been employed here for years. Where is the other Montrose Pretty then, the real Montrose Pretty? The real Montrose Pretty is a court rotting away somewhere in Orlando, Florida. It was a name, a useful name that allowed me to find a job and set out on a new path to victory. You know how this works, Kinchel. Evelyn's reign is unassailable. She has built herself a fortress of bureaucracy and sycophancy that made executive outmaneuvering impossible. Okay, okay, okay, okay. I just, just, just fucking shut up.

I need to think. I need to think. All right, Griffin, that's your cue to give me maybe the most important sway roll we have ever had in this game. Pizzish? Desperate. Good. Standard.

Luck be a lady tonight. Wait a minute. Have I used, I have one foresight left to use. If you, there is fucking no way, Mac. There's absolutely no way you could influence this. What is he trying to sway? What are you trying to sway him? I mean, he's trying, he's trying to convince me as he's dad.

That's it. Okay. I am going to help him with a foresight flashback. I can help him without pain, stress. And how we prepared for this is, um, Merrick many moons ago. giving Montrose a book on the dynamics of the of the Denton family, history of the dent, like, like, that wouldn't. Yeah, I can grant that.

I can grant that. I can grant that. Yeah, I can grant that. Yeah, that makes sense. that you would have at least just like fucking gone over with him How about it? How about if he made him watch Succession?

No. Okay. No. But you, okay, I'll grant, maybe you've talked him through some of the history that he might not have been aware of. I like the idea of us,

just you with flashcards. Like, who's this? Ellen's dog's name was Snikey. Okay. Um, okay. Okay. So that,

gives you a bonus. Oh, God. Oh, God. One, four, three, six, four, six. Fuck. Can you stop him? Can I stop? Can you stop him?

Can you stop Carmine? Can you stop him? I don't need to. He is not going to set off that rocket. You are so used to being completely in control of every situation. and that is as much my fault as it is yours. But you do not need to solve this. I do. See, here's the thing that you don't fucking get because you've been fucking gone.

I need him. I need him. If the park has started innovating quickly enough, we are falling. And everyone knows it. The board of directors knows it. Evelyn knows it. Everyone knows it. If I can get control of him, if I can get him back, if I can bring him to heal, it's all mine.

So here's my question, whoever you are, can you stop him? Can you bring him to me? Yes. Rust. Does he still have a gun on me after all this? Yes. Yeah. He no longer has the gun.

on you, he's holding the gun. Okay. He's listening. I mean, this is, you, you, you now reel him in. Okay, I wipe sweat off of my forehead, um, because this is a very stressful situation. Um, I start the ignition of the car and I turn on the air conditioner. Okay. This park is in a state of decline. Yeah, I just said that.

That is intended. The only way I saw to rest control of this company from Evelyn is to become a sort of virus in Dentonics immune system that could work to erode the public trust through the meager means afforded to me

by Steeplechase's seedy criminal underbelly. I will admit progress has been slow. I am not acclimated to a life of crime, at least not of the blue collar variety. But now I have the connections I needed to make, and I have found the associates that I needed to get this job done. I have a body man with a tarnished reputation and something to prove, and I have a mastermind of the hard light arts that I revile. The arts, not the man.

The man is fine. My plan is ready to be put into motion, but something has happened that is unexpected, and that is that I have had this opportunity to reconnect with you, Kinchel, my son whose ambitions not only mirror, but outpace my own. You have afforded me a lot of unexpected opportunities since we began working together. And with each job you facilitated, this conspiracy has flourished. We have shined a bright and bright and bright. revealing light upon Dintonik's many abuses of the public's goodwill from their hard-light mockeries of humanity or the sacking of ephemera's wonder and magic. And now the edicts handed down from on high, you're right, they no longer fall on unerringly receptive ears. Fischer's have formed in the foundation of Everleigh,

Fortress, but this is no longer my crusade. It is yours because in you I see a leader the likes of which I could never respond. You are cut through and cunning. And I wonder without this interference, if you wouldn't have rested control of the company on your loans. Okay, enough, enough, enough. We have less than a minute. What do we do? We need to leave and trust.

in the team I have assembled. Hi, I'm Bickram Chatterjee, the CEO of Maximum Fund, and I'm here with my fellow worker owner. Marissa Flaxbart, producer. This week for Co-October, we'll be highlighting other co-ops who work in the arts. The past few years have been challenging for all kinds of creative industries. We at MaxFund believe that co-ops are better suited to meet these challenges, and there are a lot of other companies who feel the same way.

So all this week on our social media and website, we'll be sharing interviews with some of our fellow co-ops. And head to our YouTube channel, Friday, October 20th, where I'll be talking with worker owners from Defector and Stoxi about their co-ops and why the model works for them. And next week is Volunteer Week. Learn how you can participate in that and get details on exclusive merch, our live streams,

and other co-O-O-O-P-O-Happenings at maximumthun.org slash co-O-O-O-P-O-O-B-E-R. All right, class. Tomorrow's exam will cover the science of cosmic rays, the morals of art forgery, and whether or not fish can drown. Any questions? Yes, you in the back. Uh, what is this?

It's the podcast, Let's Learn Everything! Where we learn about science and a bit of everything else. My name's Tom. I studied cognitive and computer science, but I'll also be your teacher for intermediate emojis. My name's Caroline and I did my master's in biodiversity conservation, and I'll be teaching you intro to Things the British Museum stole. My name's Ella. I did a PhD in stem cell biology, so obviously I'll be teaching you the history of fan fiction.

Class meets every other Thursday on maximum fun. So do I still get credit for this? No. Obviously not. No. It's a podcast. You, uh, beef, as you are, uh, as you are making your rounds beef, you see the APC that you know, um, uh, uh, Montrose is in.

You see that APZ pulling to the south towards New Glenville. And as they start to pull away, you see the six troops that were dodging the STOL. You see those troops raise their rifles and take aim at the APC as it starts to pull south. Oh, okay, cool. I'm going to gun it towards the people with the rifles. Okay. Give me another finesse roll. Yeah, you got it, bud.

Oh, what's my position? Yeah, man, this is like a risky standard is what I'm going to call this, because it is a standard effect that, oh, my, Trave, not now. Yeah, not now, Trow. I love this. We have to trust in the team I have assembled. Okay, Trav, with a three, you roll up on them, and you get extremely close to them,

and then they hear the fucking plane, and three of them turn back to start firing at you, blowing out the tires of the STOL. What I will say, though, is that this has proved an effective distraction. There are just three that are aiming and firing at the APC. and I think probably Montrose that you will be that is not a

That is not a It's an armored personnel carrier This is you're right So I think that we are fine Beef however you Are now in a broken down STOL that is under fire By three

dudes What do you do? Okay I have a wild swing to make Justin Okay And I would like to play it out in a flashback.

Play it, baby. Play it. All this has been happening, some wild shit, obviously. And Beef gets on the radio and says, okay, Darla, are you guys in place? Flashback. In the letter that he writes to Darla, it explained, you know,

Kenshal is asking us to join him on this thing. I don't trust him as far as I could throw him. I'm worried he's going to do the same thing to us that he did to gravel, and we're going to end up stranded in the prison layer that she's trapped in. So if you don't hear from us in the next 72 hours, know that we're down there. We're in New Kidodafia. We need you to rescue us, get us out, so we can figure out what's going on. At Poppy's Place, you'll find a collection of our stuff,

and some really, like, powerful tech we've collected over this time. Bring it with you. Okay. Does that all make sense? Yeah, that makes sense. Okay, great. And I'm not going to charge you stress for that, because that is a very, like, to the extent where I don't know if it was in the show when you talked about the letter, but you definitely, you told me about it, though. So this is like, this is not an invention of Travis's.

This is something that he put in the works before they ever agreed to come down and do this. Travis had a plan in place. Okay. So while this is with the armored personnel carrier beef stealing this, everybody swiping in, Darla, Shlebetheny, and Shoebox have been positioning themselves around. Shoebethany and Shoebox are the same person. Oh, sorry. Gravel, Shoebox, and Darla have been positioning themselves around the silo,

hooking up three soccer ball-sized prisms. Okay. Okay, yeah, you can go ahead and set it off. Yeah, Emric, it's ready. And Emric, the gall spire, is ready to manifest around the silo. So now that you can see them, Emeril, you see the extent of my power. You understand the connection we all share, and you understand how important it is that we be allowed to operate free of any

interference. Yes, I understand the need. I think it is very important that we operate with a sense of independence. Here's the thing, though. What you're proposing to me and the rest of Hardlight Nation is not independence. You are basically trying to dictate actions to. to us. You are taking on the responsibility of this plan of yours to blast off and

destroy a lot of lives and possibly destroy hard light prisms and just acting as if everyone will go along with that. That's not independence. That's dependence on on you. Nonsense. This is a group decision. No, we arrived at this together.

A group decision? I'm going to ask everybody else if they agree with this. Fine. Fine, Emerald. Say your piece. Um, hello. I'm Emerald. That's Emmerick and Hardlight. Um, I am one of you, but a little bit different.

I am independent and I can promise you the same real independence thanks to my papa your papa you see everyone he is still beholden he wouldn't take an action against that is not in line with the wishes of Emric that is not true I am taking action against you

you are wrong Carmine you have become twisted. You have gone from someone who believed in making lives better to ending lives. Somewhere in your prism is a flaw or whatever is conjuring this. That's wrong. There's no race that can survive. There is no race that can thrive if their first act is genocide. And I believe in Hard Light Nation. And I don't think we have to destroy others to have our independence.

Friends in Hard Light, Emmerich, Dreadway can give you that freedom. He set me free. He set Scott free. And he can set you free as well. But we cannot allow this to happen. We have to stop Carmine. from killing all these people. Dad, make a sway roll.

This is another big sway roll, isn't it? Fucking big sway roll, Dad. Are you good at Sway down? He's great at Sway. I have three. Weirdly. Very good. I have three in Sway.

Um, okay. I'm going to push myself, which will put me into trauma. Shit. I'm going to do haunted. Aren't you already haunted? Oh, double haunted. Double haunted.

He's so twisted. Yeah. Double haunted. All right. Sway. Wait, no, you do need a different. Oh, I do need a different. Yeah, you can't actually be double haunted.

Yeah, but see, this is Emerald. This is Emerald. This is Emerald. Yeah, this is Emerald. Uh, dad, if you push yourself after the roll, Emerald will disappear. And I will give you a bonus die. This is the devil's bargain.

You can have this one shot and after with this bonus die I will grant you. But after it, you will lose any, he will not be, you will not be able to use Emeril in the same fashion again. I'm not going to like destroy him, but you, you will not have any more control over Emeril. Okay. All right. Come on, Matt. So what kind of role is this? This is

Desperate. No. Desperate. Desperate standard. Desperate. Standard? You're giving me a bonus die? Yep.

And I'm taking a bonus die to push myself. Oh, boy. Here we go. Yes. 3433-6-4. Emerald says his piece. And you if you were there

you would start to see Emeril losing some of his structure and becoming more ephemeral being pulled apart by all the different voices, the talking, all the different people

and he has made his pitch he has done his best to sway these people and at first there is silence and then you start hearing a chant. Scott, Scott, Scott, they're echoing it and you realize behind you that you have been joined by Scott Boldflex. He's right. He's right, everybody. I do whatever the frig I want to now.

I'm my own boss. If I want to go hiking, I go hiking. If I want to go wakeboarding, I go wakeboarding that day. And I'm doing it for myself. And just like this, if I want to punch this guy so hard he dies, no problemo. And Scott punches Carmine Denton right in his fucking chest. Light is emitting from Carmine. Not just light, but pieces of him are flying away into the crowd. And you see him completely collapse this entire program deconstructing as the crowd continues to chant, Scott, Scott, Scott, Scott. And that's the last thing that you,

Emrick, are aware of. Emric? No, yes. The connection, whatever ability you had to monitor this situation, that's the last you see of it. We're back with Emric. I mean, in a camera sense, Dad, we are, right. This is the last we see of it. And Emric all around you, the place shutters. and it goes dark, completely black. And then you hear the noise, a creaking noise, as the entirety of this structure is beginning to collapse. Emmerk, what do you do? Yeah, so everything's dead inside the rocket.

The rocket has shut down, but because of beefs tilting it on its axis and then doing kind of a mess up, the uh the silo the entire structure without the energy being put forth has begun to tilt and fall over all fucking 50 feet of it this massive structure is uh the rocket the rocket is falling in the direction uh no no the silo that has the rocket inside of it um it has begun to fall over the entire five story building has begun to fall in the direction of everybody that you uh that assesses assembled here to help you all the APCs. It's falling towards the tents. It's going to destroy a lot, hurt a lot of people. What do you do, Emrik? For one thing, Emrik reappears from being invisible. Yes. He's already reappeared. Okay. But he's still in the rocket. Correct. And so he's going to reach out. Uh, and using compel, he's going to attune with the

prisms of the Gulf Spire to solidify it. Okay, dad, roll and attune roll. An attune roll. Yes. Here comes an attune roll. A tune. Oh, I'm not bad at a tune. What would you say this is?

Risky? This is desperate. Desperate standard. Desperate standard. I'm probably out of... You have no more stress. I can't... Huh?

I have no more stress. Just got to roll it. Roll the bones. Here we go. 4-1-5. Five. With a five, you hear it before you see it, the crystallization of it as the gall spire forms around you.

It is forming around the silo. The spires forming at stopping and even slowing the descent of this silo until this sort of it is an altered gall spire with this silo sort of formed in the center of it while this beautiful castle has formed around it. And from the outside, you all see this incredible castle being formed. And then you see this is bizarre, but you see lights on it. It is being lit to its fullest beauty. And you hear Douglas Manzetti shout, look at that beautiful bitch! And then he slams a button and you hear,

Dream it to now. To morning to now. I was here right when you needed me the most. And the moon dog walks away. Whoa. Beef, what do you do when this happens? When the gall spire appears around the silo and the light show and music start going on? Yeah.

Well, I'm going to get out of the now stalled STOL. because the tires got shut out, right? Yeah. Where's Emmerich? Emmerich is still inside. Oh. Emmerick, get out. Emric, the rocket is still going to blow, right?

Get out. I'm... I don't think the rocket is going to blow. I believe we've shut down the launch. Are you walking out of the rocket? Yeah, okay. Emric slowly walks down and you notice, beef, that he's right. Whatever was there, whatever energy was powering it is gone.

It is inert. It is a incredible giant castle with a fully formed missile silo and rocket inside of it. A puzzle within an enigma, within a paradox. Okay, and everyone's looking, right? Yeah. Hey, Emmerich, it seems like then it's time for us to, oh, what's the word, get the fuck out? I'm ready to the fuck get. The three guards that were still standing there pull their guns on you.

I don't know what the fuck is happening, but you three, you two aren't going anywhere. Okay. Emmerick looks at beef and just the exchange a knowledgeable look. and then let's attack those guards. So at this point, Montrose and Kinchel are gone. We have driven away in the ATV that we were in and just made tracks. But when you share that look, the driver-side door of another of the ATV still parked here opens up. And out steps hard like Kenshal Denton.

Kenchell walks over to the three guards and kind of gives them a hand wave. Put him away. Put it down. And Kenshal walks to the top of the stairs, elevated. The few staffers that are there, your team that you brought, cameras that have emerged at this point from, let's see, were there but cameras? I mean, Douglas Manzetti was filming the whole thing. Douglas Manzetti is filming the whole thing.

Thank you. That's a great point. All attention is turned on the stairs of the Gull Spire. And Kenshal Denton stands in front of this new reformed, highly-exhaired. explosive Gulf Spire Castle, and he opens his mouth and says, Griffin, yeah, I think Griffin is the best talker. Griffin, tell me what Kenchell says. Friends, disaster has been averted. This is a dark day in the history of steeple chase of the whole dintonic corporation. But it's not the first dark dark.

day, is it? We've heard your concerns. We know that the ideals that this park once represented, they're no longer what they once were. But let this new gall spire, a testament to this place's unreproducible magic,

serve as a covenant, that we will restore steeplechase to its former glory. Because take it from me, Kinchel Denton, I have not even begun to never stop dreaming. From somewhere behind him, and it may just be his imagination, if Hardlight has imagination from somewhere behind him from a small black box nestled in a rocket in a silo,

Kenshal Denton, such as he is, swears he could hear. A whisper. Come on. Morning, Kenchell. Sorry about that, Kenchell. We tried to find low adhesive duct tape, but you're kind of an asshole.

I gesture around. We're in Kenchell's office. I imagine a high-rise. Beautiful outside. Scenic views. I'm sipping a scotch. Oh, that's great. I apologize for the

dramatics, but we need to have a private conversation with you away from prying eyes that would give away the whole ruse of the shell game we've played with you, Kenchell. The fuck are you talking about? Well, passwords

would help quite a bit, honestly. Passwords would be great. That's the one sort of part of this that we have not been able to crack open yet, but... I've tried. I've tried. Uh, Kentrell, um, first of all, I, uh, cannot believe how far you let me get with the dad ruse. That was truly, most of the time the mark doesn't let me get past like the first sort of confession. When you asked me for something that I knew, uh, that only the real Edgar would know, I was like, no way is this going to work. and then it actually did.

So I do thank you for that. He lowers his head. He doesn't even speak. He just lowers his head. Yes. I hope that we have made you comfortable, not with the duct tape, but here in your office,

we figured that there was no need to incarcerate you in a place that would be unpleasant. I wouldn't say, let's say the majority voted on that. Like, I wouldn't say that was. unanimous. Yes. But,

uh, well, Kenchell, you have done incredible work to put yourself in a position to affect real change

in this corporation. You have lied and politiced and maneuvered and really done well to escalate yourself in the Dentonic family.

And while I applaud you for that effort, I must inform you that, well, we'll take it from here. And I pull out a tablet and show him some video clips, live streams, highlights of fake Kenshal Denton starting to make himself a more prominent public figure. in the Dentonic family. Are there any scenes out of curiosity, Griffin, of that involve New Kidadelphia?

You know what it is? It's fake Kenshal Denton with his, like, sleeves rolled up, like how when the president goes to visit, like, the scene of, like, some sort of disaster, just a lot of, like, sunglasses on, no tie, just, like, walking around, handing kids some chaka in little sort of individually wrapped containers. a lot of smiling and waving with big groups of very confused children.

Big thumbs up with him and Toddzilla. Kenchell looks like he's seen a ghost, which in a sense he has. What are you three? Oh, us? Oh, we're not important. We're just, you know, grist for the mill, as you might say, the people in between, the people who make things happen. the people you don't notice

until it's too late. We make for the door out of the office. Kenchell slams his fist down on a spot in his desk that you'd notice now slightly different coloring from the rest of the desk in the square and a drawer pops open to the right and a pistol slides out.

He picks up the gun, trains it at you, Montrose, and before any of you can act, he fires. And blood blossoms on Montrose's shirt and he falls to the ground. And Emrick and Beef immediately go to him and Kenchle darts out the door and takes off running through the hallways, yelling for help.

And Beef reaches up and takes his VR headset off. And we're watching this on the monitor in the dark arcade of Poppy's place as Kenchel is strapped to the VR chair with the headset and the headphones on. And Beef says, well, you should keep him busy for a while. Yeah, so the simulation continues from there.

He's, you know, running around steeplechase or whatever. It will keep him busy. It gives him, like, you know, a sense of control or whatever, so he's not bucking against it. Meanwhile, you know, he's strapped to the VR chair. I'm confused about something. Yeah, Deep Dart. You don't have to raise your hand, Deep Dark. Why not just kill him?

Oh, we're using this as a system. a research tool. It's really quite fascinating because, of course, we're going to aid Twinschell by observing Kinchel. What Kinshiel would do in these situations will help us inform Twenthal who is making his bid for power. Hardlight Scott Boldflex raises his hand. Yeah, I'm confused about that part. You, Papa, we are all supposed to do our own thing, right? Yes. Is he... Are you in control of him?

No. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I have given Twenthal his freedom. We have to kind of take chances that he will make the right decisions. But I think by informing him about what the mistakes that Kinchel made, Twinschell may be able to avoid those. No. Twenthal has autonomy.

We just have to hope it works out all right. On a darker level, though, he has autonomy, but we also have blackmail on him that he is hard light, and if that were to come out, he would lose his position of power. So he can make his own decisions. Yes. Absolutely. But there is like a blackmail element involved.

I could kill him for you if you just like, don't have the guts. Are you too... No. Is it still okay for me to ask if you're too pussy? It's actually not okay. Good. Okay, so are you still... Are you too pussy to do it?

Because I'll put a pistol right in his mouth. Did we invite you to do this room? the bitch city what i i do not when we reached out to the uh our trusted representatives from the many layers of steeplechase i do not remember extending an invite to shoebox but um i suppose that well you know now so i keep your mouth shut um yeah i got a i got a question over here excuse me chad touch uh sorry formerly chad touch now i'm uh sticky fingers paul pantry i guess Still settling into the role. Yes, go Paul. Go for Paul.

So you guys have your little twinchel there. What does this mean for us in the other layers? It means that a new day is dawning for our organization and for all of us. You all leave the wise and wherefores of Kenshal and Twentzel and all that, business to us. The only question that you all need to ponder is, what would you like to happen next? And it's me, yeah, the actual me, Crystal, I'm back. It'll come as no surprise to you that I've been having a little trouble with the Dentonic Corporation lately, what with them monitoring my every move and threatening my mom and replacing me with a hard light replica. But I figure if I didn't bail on Dentonic

after the disgusting Applewood sausage cheese dogs at Shrug's big Arbor Day bash? This is just a bump in the road, right? Well, no, no, it's not, but we'll get to that. First up, though, things have really been changing massively at Steeplechase, and I'm not just talking about the new trapes at the sinewendo to go, although they're so cute, right? Of course, it all began with the discovery that some children have spent their in entire lives unsupervised in old Kididelfia. Sounds like a dream, I know, trapped in steeplechase,

but their living conditions weren't up to Dentonic standards. Evelyn Denton was ousted as CEO by the company's board of directors, which appointed her son, Devin, to the top job. He brought with him Kenshal Denton, who serves as his executive vice president and, from what we hear, most trusted advisor. Congrats, Kenchel. So cool to see the black sheep grow up. Change has come quickly to the park ever since, and we longtime fans can be slowed to adapt, I know, but can we just try to keep an open mind? Tarla Davis was, in a massive upset, elected mayor of Gutter City, and true to her word on the campaign trail, crime has never been worse, and the layers' private investigators have

never been busier. In ephemera, Elder Garrick, the day shaper, has commenced the third counsel of the sunbreaker, naming Viscount's Mila and Milo Rumble Shadow, the bearer of the ecliptic prophecy of Kongflager. Also, there's a new footlong hot dog at Bumbershoots. Not many changes in Eustabin, which is kind of the point, right? Though Poppy Mervin was fired from his own arcade due to being, and I quote, broadly disliked and comically ineffectual. The front half of Poppy's Place is now home to The Future is You, a totally retro animatronic show that's actually kind of sweet once you get past how unnerving it all is.

The rear of the former arcade is still off limits and protected by three layers of biometric scanning and two armed guards. Jeez, guys, secret of much? The ruins of Old Kidadelphia have finally been cleared for a brand new layer, Prismatica, where, get this, Hard Light Performers of Steeplechase are the guests. In addition to top-notch entertainment and data packets that perfectly replicate the experience of eating a funnel cake, the park's virtual staff can also receive job training to prepare themselves for new assignments anywhere in Steeplechase, not simply the ones they were designed for. Hundreds of acres of the layer are also set aside for medimal conservation and study,

so be sure to take the safari through the preserve where you may find yourself petting a giraffe, Just do your best to ignore the unblinking gaze of the woodhamuls. Yes, it's all different. And yes, I hated all of it at first, too. Some of it I'm still not wild about, to be honest, but for the first time since I started making this show, I feel okay admitting that in public. I'm not Dentonic. Heck, I'm not even paid by Dentonic, but there are aspects of this thing they've created that are a part of me. And I don't think I'll ever give those parts back. Generations of amazing, brilliant creationeers have given everything they had to create the closest thing we get to actual real world magic. And that's not nothing. From now on, though, I'm going to remember that the whole of me is not. Isn't their intellectual property?

Dentonic, steeplechase, all of it, I can put it in my pocket. I forgot that at some point, I think. Well, I remember now. Going forward, you're going to hear what I really think of Dentonic. And from the real me, no more of this Crystal with a K nonsense. That was Dentonics idea. Anyway, my name is Crystal. with a C

well a C-H technically and I'm gonna stop telling you to never know when to stop dreaming because if you're asleep too long there's a lot of really great stuff you'll miss out on it also seems like a few dreams are some real stinkers

and those dreamers should probably just cut it out all together you know so until next time steepies just dream your ass right off. Unless, you know, it's hurting other people or yourself, I guess. But otherwise, just dream your ass right off. You know what? I'll work on it. Maximum Fun. A Worker Owned Network of Artist-owned shows. Supported directly by you.