Gavin Ross, played by Max of 9mm Retirement Radio.

Some debts aren't paid in cash, and some secrets aren't buried deep enough. The sun rises on a cabin in the swamp, but the morning light only illuminates the cracks in the team's trust. A shared breakfast turns into a confrontation, and a ritual intended for liberation summons something far worse than judgment. When the sky tears open and the payment comes due, we learn that the cost of knowledge is always flesh, and the only thing heavier than a weapon is the weight of a friend you couldn't save.

Cast

Nick Sayers... Writer, Handler, and Editor

Kristina... Agent Ryan

Ryan... Agent Barone

Jordan... Agent Del

Podcast art by Studio Janie

Music and Sound Effects from Envato.

Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/576NbWAEm1uOBDxlW1F4Os?si=c7228e49ddb94035

Listen on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dead-letter-bureau-delta-green/id1826992923

Find us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@deadletterbureau

Find transcripts: https://dead-letter-bureau.captivate.fm/

Talk to us on Discord: https://discord.gg/2RFYaWHm33

Here are some other shows we love! Search them up.

9mm Retirement Radio

RPG Reanimators

Black Flare

Hand on the Door

Sorry, Honey, I Have to Take This

Stories and Lies

This Line Isn't Secure

Published by arrangement with the Delta Green Partnership. The intellectual property known as Delta Green is a trademark and copyright owned by the Delta Green Partnership, who has licensed its use here. The contents of this podcast are ©Nick Sayers, excepting those elements that are components of the Delta Green intellectual property.

you

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you

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Careful, you spill water on that and you might accidentally summon a Stormbond Fjall.

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Uh, no.

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Sorry, it's not magic.

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It's memetics.

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memetics.

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That's a ten dollar word for a two dollar room kid.

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The high ups think meme is a French maid.

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You're trying to explain algebra to a room full of gorillas.

11

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With respect sir, the data holds up that Anna Nairber wasn't just looking for relics, they

were building a linguistic virus, a syntax if you look at it at the propagation curves in

12

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1944.

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believe you.

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I believe you.

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That's the problem.

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I believe you.

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But the guys upstairs, want satellite photos of T-72 tanks.

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They don't care about syntax.

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You're going to write a brilliant report.

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It's going to get filed next to the UFO sightings.

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And you're going to spend the next 20 years analyzing wheat fields in Ukraine.

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So what am I supposed to do?

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It's the truth.

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Find a different audience.

25

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There are people.

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Private interests who pay a premium for men who can see the pattern in the noise.

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and wildlife mercenaries.

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uh Think bigger.

29

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A quiet little think tank called the Arminage Group.

30

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They handle the R &D, Subsidiary of March Tech.

31

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Okay, and what does a defense contractor want with Nazi folklore?

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We have a project out in the Painted Desert.

33

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There's a team of biologists out there.

34

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Absolutely visionary stuff, But they are difficult.

35

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They deal with materials that don't follow the usual rules of biology.

36

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We're looking for a case manager.

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Sounds like you mean a babysitter.

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A translator.

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Someone who understands that sometimes a symbol isn't just a drawing.

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It's a circuit.

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You're wasting that brain here, Talk to them.

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Hey, wait.

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Who do I say sent me?

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Gavin Ross.

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you

46

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You get a night's rest, the sun starts coming through the window around 6 a.m.

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and before you know it, Barone, the door, softly nudges your leg as you're asleep and

Karas comes in.

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Oh, we have a new person here.

49

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And he looks as rested as his jaundice Lee.

50

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gross skin can look and he steps past you and walks into the middle and notices the papers

are on his desk were moved around a little bit.

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uh Kind of walks, does a quick like walk around and goes into the kitchen and pulls out a

can of uh beans and puts it in a thing and turns on a butane stove and starts heating up a

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can.

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And he's like,

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I'm sure um you're hungry.

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And then he pulls out some more capsules and sets them next to like where he's cooking.

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But it's nice to meet you.

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I'm Julian Kross.

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Dell will just see the beans and he'll say, I hate it here.

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I'm like, did I just hear a can of beans opening?

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What kind of beans are you making?

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respect pins.

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favorite.

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uh But he holds out his hand to shake yours.

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says, uh, Julian Cross.

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Hi, uh I'm Ryan.

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It's nice to meet you.

67

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I've heard a lot about you from my fellow agents here.

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I appreciate you giving us a place to stay tonight.

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Of course.

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up my friend.

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I wouldn't leave him to die, so I'm sure you're hungry and you have questions, but please

make yourselves comfortable.

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Yeah sure, mean I have two questions.

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um Do you have any of those liquid beans around?

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um Some coffee?

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Do you have coffee going?

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Yeah, he reaches up and pulls out like those little sticks of instant coffee.

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I'm sorry I don't drink them much, but this will have to do.

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And he has another pan boiling some water.

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that I am underwhelmed but still alive so that's fine.

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That's fine.

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uh Second question.

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So with what you injected into me, how will I know if it worked or not?

83

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Will I crave metal for a while?

84

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Will I...

85

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Will it fall off?

86

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How do navigate that?

87

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Well, bicarbonate should work pretty quickly, um, within a day, so...

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I'm not...

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Yes.

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Well, I'm gonna go ahead and take one of those metal ground pills, because for some reason

I still want it at the moment.

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We're gonna hope that falls right off and I'll go ahead and take one of the pills, grab a

glass of water and start to swallow it down.

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Okay, we are welcome to it.

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um Out of everybody here.

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yeah, Ryan.

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So we found our friend.

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He's here.

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He's alive.

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He's good uh You guys just met obviously don't know why I'm saying that uh Ryan here is uh

the the part of our party that probably knows the most he's uh he's the brains of all the

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studies uh that That we've uh you know done up to date So if anybody can can help you out

Ryan here is gonna be your guy

100

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What manner of help could you provide me?

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I'm not so sure.

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just depends on what information you're looking for.

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you know, I, along with Dell was the one that found Arthur Finch's writings and some

drawings that I kind of remember as we thumbed through them.

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Yeah, but I don't know.

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guess it just depends on, you know, what kind of information you're after.

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Well, I'm after...

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I guess we would...

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It's really scientific, but there's a...

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It's a ritual of sorts, but...

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The underpinnings are still scientific.

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It's a...

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dimensional...

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calling, I suppose, through reverberations of voice mixed with some of these symbols that

Finch had been...

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sending me and I'd been collecting.

115

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And I was trying to finish the...

116

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the uh...

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I guess the symbols to complete my work.

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And what sort of work is that?

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what, eh what are you wanting to do with this information?

120

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My vessel, and he points to his body, is sufficiently prepared to move on from this world,

and I believe I can do that with this song, for lack of a better term.

121

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Okay, so you're saying uh something will happen when you put these things together and are

you talking about like that?

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And I point over to the brain in the jar.

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I...

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I...

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My assumption is yes.

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So, I'm not, again, new territory, but...

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Is that how that brain ended up in that jar?

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That brain is ancient, I'm not sure, but I'm trying to find the architect of the jar and

the one who puts the brains in it.

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That's what this song, I assume, brings to us.

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Mm-hmm.

131

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Okay.

132

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Well, I'm totally sure I'll be able to help you out with that, um if you want to show me,

you know, what you have, maybe something will ring a bell.

133

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And I kind of look at them and give them like a a wink.

134

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Like I don't, you know, trying to communicate to him, like, I don't want to talk about

this in front of these people, but maybe I can help you.

135

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with a private combo.

136

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Later.

137

00:08:49,774 --> 00:08:51,760

Well, I can show you what I have.

138

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It's over here.

139

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And he goes to the desk to find his paper with symbols on it.

140

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So you did mention the architect and the reason why we exist is to keep humanity from

exploring the horrors that are out there or experiencing them rather.

141

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em Is this architect dangerous?

142

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We know they created the verdant path.

143

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Gonna have to clean that up a little bit.

144

00:09:18,766 --> 00:09:28,322

uh But is this a danger to humanity as a whole or is this like a you give it what it wants

and it goes away type thing?

145

00:09:28,322 --> 00:09:41,967

I assume their motivations are beyond us grasping and our tiny intellects, but um they

have posed no danger to me.

146

00:09:42,728 --> 00:09:56,813

The verdant path were left to imbibe and take on the swamp and be changed, and they called

upon it multiple times, unsuccessfully, but it was not an affront or anything.

147

00:09:57,114 --> 00:09:58,374

So I- uh

148

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I don't sense any danger in this, I just sense liberation.

149

00:10:05,166 --> 00:10:05,666

Interesting.

150

00:10:05,666 --> 00:10:17,593

So actually you just reminded me and Ryan you may be able to expand on this a little bit

but you said that they called unsuccessfully but they called something somehow.

151

00:10:17,593 --> 00:10:25,727

Something flew over um Ryan here and into the swamp and they pulled it off into a I don't

know further down into the swamp.

152

00:10:25,727 --> 00:10:27,658

Do you know what that was?

153

00:10:27,658 --> 00:10:29,600

I've never seen anything like that, but...

154

00:10:29,600 --> 00:10:36,907

um It sounds like they've called, like you said, something, but it wasn't.

155

00:10:38,609 --> 00:10:39,869

The same...

156

00:10:40,331 --> 00:10:41,091

Yes.

157

00:10:41,091 --> 00:10:43,253

But let me show you what I have.

158

00:10:43,253 --> 00:10:44,314

um Please.

159

00:10:44,314 --> 00:10:47,968

em If you can, join me.

160

00:10:47,968 --> 00:10:52,302

He offers you to come outside.

161

00:10:52,302 --> 00:10:57,832

Okay, so I get off the couch and I like start crawling towards that door.

162

00:10:58,705 --> 00:11:00,130

You do one hit point?

163

00:11:00,130 --> 00:11:01,153

Yeah.

164

00:11:01,153 --> 00:11:05,195

Your one hit point would have, your one hit point would have like.

165

00:11:05,582 --> 00:11:12,262

limping towards the front door, hopping on one leg.

166

00:11:12,310 --> 00:11:20,516

If Ryan started to kind of like fib like that, uh I think I would get up and then just

like give a swift kick to that limb.

167

00:11:20,516 --> 00:11:24,468

Like whatever one you were feigning dragging like, sorry.

168

00:11:24,974 --> 00:11:28,261

Roll your unarmed and then Ryan roll your dodge.

169

00:11:28,322 --> 00:11:30,992

Like we're not going for injury, but I do want it to hurt.

170

00:11:30,992 --> 00:11:33,120

Um, that was a 28.

171

00:11:34,072 --> 00:11:36,346

So what's up with all these people slapping me around?

172

00:11:36,346 --> 00:11:41,178

um I'm looking for 30 and I got 14.

173

00:11:41,592 --> 00:11:48,880

Yeah, so you are able to kick Ryan and it does hurt Ryan right in the leg, but it doesn't

damage you.

174

00:11:48,880 --> 00:11:50,452

It's not trying to do damage.

175

00:11:50,452 --> 00:11:53,184

What do you do after being kicked by Del?

176

00:11:53,934 --> 00:11:56,528

I just look at him and I'm like, what?

177

00:11:56,528 --> 00:11:57,154

Why?

178

00:11:57,373 --> 00:11:58,456

Why would you do that?

179

00:11:58,456 --> 00:12:04,670

Yeah, I mean, I think I was trying to make it look as though I was, you know, fumbling and

stumbling.

180

00:12:05,972 --> 00:12:14,418

But it's really like, uh we got enough things to pay attention to on the outside of us.

181

00:12:14,418 --> 00:12:20,504

I ain't got patience or mental capacity for whatever shit you're pulling right now.

182

00:12:20,504 --> 00:12:24,017

Yeah, Khorras is like, okay.

183

00:12:24,017 --> 00:12:27,314

And he just continues to walk out past you.

184

00:12:27,314 --> 00:12:37,447

Um, he, you're staying inside a little bit, I'm guessing as you're talking, you've seen

him go sit down cross-legged and start scrawling symbols into the mud around him.

185

00:12:37,447 --> 00:12:41,922

But go, what are you guys doing as you're having this conversation inside?

186

00:12:41,922 --> 00:12:50,168

I mean, I'm just getting mad and I'm like, Dell, if you want to get up and follow us,

you're welcome to join us.

187

00:12:50,168 --> 00:12:51,188

Okay.

188

00:12:51,429 --> 00:12:52,549

How about that?

189

00:12:52,549 --> 00:12:54,030

You able to do that?

190

00:12:54,476 --> 00:12:55,778

Yeah, we're moving.

191

00:12:55,778 --> 00:13:06,279

Yeah, I'll grab the beans and I'll spoon some beans into a bowl, grab my coffee and kind

of be the last one out the door type thing with my hands full like going through the

192

00:13:06,279 --> 00:13:06,936

doorway.

193

00:13:06,936 --> 00:13:08,533

Always the peacekeeper.

194

00:13:09,688 --> 00:13:10,484

Yeah

195

00:13:10,518 --> 00:13:13,070

Hey man, don't fight on an empty stomach, that's what I say.

196

00:13:13,070 --> 00:13:17,733

You get onto the porch and you're standing there on the porch all together.

197

00:13:17,733 --> 00:13:24,597

Jordan is still really hard for you to walk, but you do feel you're able to push through

it and step out there.

198

00:13:24,597 --> 00:13:34,343

And he starts singing this song, like the song you know, and he has scrawled these symbols

all around him.

199

00:13:34,343 --> 00:13:39,976

Ryan, go ahead and roll either a natural or just roll a natural.

200

00:13:41,486 --> 00:13:43,926

Okay, I only have 16.

201

00:13:43,926 --> 00:13:47,392

I rolled a double of seven again!

202

00:13:47,392 --> 00:13:57,527

Ryan, you feel the unnatural tug of this ritual and there's something off.

203

00:13:57,527 --> 00:14:05,090

Like you sense that he is doing this exactly the way he should.

204

00:14:05,891 --> 00:14:11,633

Like you are seeing this almost as a mirror of what you did last night.

205

00:14:11,633 --> 00:14:13,496

He's not missing anything.

206

00:14:13,496 --> 00:14:14,997

same symbols.

207

00:14:16,120 --> 00:14:20,217

Same symbols, you look around and there's just a...

208

00:14:20,217 --> 00:14:24,785

like a resonance to his chant that is compelling you.

209

00:14:24,785 --> 00:14:26,627

If you want to give into the...

210

00:14:26,949 --> 00:14:30,173

like this compelling feeling, just roll me a d6.

211

00:14:30,912 --> 00:14:32,491

you mean by give into it?

212

00:14:32,491 --> 00:14:34,232

What does thought entail?

213

00:14:34,232 --> 00:14:38,872

You feel the ritual pulling you in because you've done it before.

214

00:14:38,872 --> 00:14:40,806

This is morning, yes?

215

00:14:41,322 --> 00:14:42,470

it's daylight.

216

00:14:42,472 --> 00:14:48,096

So giving in to this means like taking over and doing this for him.

217

00:14:48,661 --> 00:14:49,750

sing along

218

00:14:49,750 --> 00:14:54,090

I don't think I will join.

219

00:14:54,090 --> 00:14:55,854

I will fight against it.

220

00:14:55,854 --> 00:14:57,614

What do I need to rule to do that?

221

00:14:58,175 --> 00:15:02,297

All right, looking for 80 or under 80, I guess.

222

00:15:03,830 --> 00:15:06,191

Yeah, you don't join in.

223

00:15:06,211 --> 00:15:09,712

You see him continuing to sing.

224

00:15:09,712 --> 00:15:12,131

I have to roll for him for a second.

225

00:15:14,553 --> 00:15:17,594

It is crescendoing.

226

00:15:17,594 --> 00:15:18,594

He's trying.

227

00:15:18,594 --> 00:15:31,498

He looks completely insane and is singing at the top of his lungs and there is a chord

that he starts to strike as this is happening and

228

00:15:33,176 --> 00:15:36,659

Or can somebody roll me a D12 and just tell me the number?

229

00:15:37,452 --> 00:15:38,169

Yeah, definitely.

230

00:15:38,169 --> 00:15:38,552

uh

231

00:15:38,552 --> 00:15:41,868

Five.

232

00:15:41,868 --> 00:15:49,372

He falls over and collapses and you see him go into a seizure and starts shaking.

233

00:15:49,372 --> 00:15:51,522

I'm jo-

234

00:15:51,522 --> 00:15:57,448

I'm dropping the beans or sitting on the banister and rushing down the stairs like that we

need more out of this guy.

235

00:15:57,448 --> 00:15:58,429

He can't be going now.

236

00:15:58,429 --> 00:16:00,340

So I'm running straight for him.

237

00:16:00,696 --> 00:16:02,907

While he's seizing, he's speaking.

238

00:16:02,907 --> 00:16:06,068

He's saying, flesh, you think the flesh matters?

239

00:16:06,068 --> 00:16:08,089

The sack of what noise?

240

00:16:08,089 --> 00:16:12,401

The constant sloshing of blood, the shit, the pointless thoughts, prison of bone.

241

00:16:12,401 --> 00:16:15,882

I've spent my entire life listening to this goddamn rattle in my head.

242

00:16:15,882 --> 00:16:18,793

The chains, it's a fucking chain.

243

00:16:18,793 --> 00:16:20,294

But I found the key.

244

00:16:20,294 --> 00:16:25,036

And he's just going on and on as he's shaking on the ground.

245

00:16:25,036 --> 00:16:30,638

As this is happening, there is a frequency.

246

00:16:30,754 --> 00:16:43,651

almost a dismantled thought, a buzzing hymn that is sung in a language that is only the

static of dying stars, a noise that is incomprehensible, that starts to nag at the back of

247

00:16:43,651 --> 00:16:45,902

your frontal lobe.

248

00:16:46,583 --> 00:16:58,850

And far above in the sky, you see first two and then a third shape of purple light start

to descend.

249

00:16:58,932 --> 00:17:06,256

from the heavens and they get right next to where the cabin is.

250

00:17:06,256 --> 00:17:14,330

And you see some plates come out of all three of these lights now.

251

00:17:14,330 --> 00:17:20,884

Their limbs, a chaotic mess of claws and delicate weird filaments twitching and pointed

random.

252

00:17:20,884 --> 00:17:24,916

They look completely different from each other yet very similar.

253

00:17:24,916 --> 00:17:28,812

And veins of sickly purple light bleed as their

254

00:17:28,812 --> 00:17:35,922

ripping through and you look up, all of you roll sand as this starts happening.

255

00:17:36,266 --> 00:17:37,627

Yep, absolutely.

256

00:17:37,627 --> 00:17:40,961

Guess I thought we were gonna Nick you're throwing us into chaos, man.

257

00:17:40,961 --> 00:17:44,616

I thought we were gonna get some time to prepare and it's gonna go so smoothly

258

00:17:44,616 --> 00:17:45,388

What mean?

259

00:17:45,388 --> 00:17:47,271

We got one hit point back.

260

00:17:47,271 --> 00:17:49,350

I got a 12.

261

00:17:50,510 --> 00:17:52,242

Yeah, I got, I was aiming for...

262

00:17:52,242 --> 00:17:55,045

Go for it.

263

00:17:55,045 --> 00:17:57,574

I was aiming for 55, I got a 30 success.

264

00:17:58,350 --> 00:18:00,014

CF43 success.

265

00:18:00,130 --> 00:18:09,353

Okay, all of you still lose one San for just seeing this and he starts to mutter and looks

up at you, Barone.

266

00:18:09,353 --> 00:18:16,374

As you're shaking from seeing this, you hear him say, you think this is murder, you're a

tithe, this is a gift.

267

00:18:16,374 --> 00:18:22,696

The gardeners have come, they've cutting from the vine and I'm gonna give you to them.

268

00:18:22,977 --> 00:18:25,237

You have to pay the butcher, you see.

269

00:18:25,817 --> 00:18:28,448

You have to get a look in the back room.

270

00:18:28,600 --> 00:18:37,886

Double-crossing son of a bitch you absolutely and then I'll draw my gun and stand up

Leaving him to lay on the ground you double cross us didn't you?

271

00:18:37,996 --> 00:18:42,110

You just hear him scream, take them they are the offering find it worthy.

272

00:18:42,551 --> 00:18:45,442

I have prepared them all.

273

00:18:45,442 --> 00:18:48,671

Okay, I'm gonna cock the gun and I'm gonna shoot him right in the chest.

274

00:18:49,484 --> 00:18:51,940

Yeah, you're a point blank range.

275

00:18:51,940 --> 00:18:55,470

You can roll firearms just to see if it jams or not, but-

276

00:18:55,470 --> 00:18:56,291

sure.

277

00:18:56,473 --> 00:18:59,886

Looking for 56 I got 82.

278

00:19:00,430 --> 00:19:12,032

eh It's still your it's a hundred percent the only way to fail is if you critically fail

So yeah, so you shoot him in the chest roll a d6 for a pistol, I believe

279

00:19:12,302 --> 00:19:15,662

D12, my GP100 is a D12.

280

00:19:17,102 --> 00:19:18,162

Yeah man, I know.

281

00:19:18,162 --> 00:19:19,242

And an 8.

282

00:19:19,242 --> 00:19:20,514

Let's get that 8 in there.

283

00:19:20,514 --> 00:19:20,874

Pop.

284

00:19:20,874 --> 00:19:22,235

He starts to wriggle.

285

00:19:22,235 --> 00:19:39,103

You see him actually starting to shudder from the gunshot and these three things come

through and sit there in this grim tapestry of madness and broad daylight.

286

00:19:39,463 --> 00:19:41,744

You have a dying man below you.

287

00:19:42,125 --> 00:19:43,756

Del, you have the highest decks.

288

00:19:43,756 --> 00:19:45,106

What are you doing?

289

00:19:45,198 --> 00:19:48,804

Still, my rifle is right next to the door.

290

00:19:48,804 --> 00:19:52,230

When walking out, you would have seen it propped up there, but I don't have it on me.

291

00:19:52,230 --> 00:19:53,122

That's where that would have been.

292

00:19:53,122 --> 00:19:57,219

I would not have taken it outside to talk to him about nature or whatever.

293

00:19:57,219 --> 00:19:59,562

So I just have my pistol on me right now.

294

00:19:59,656 --> 00:20:00,026

Hey.

295

00:20:00,026 --> 00:20:08,959

uh Yeah, I imagine all of our uh firearms are stashed on the porch where you had uh

collected them.

296

00:20:08,959 --> 00:20:16,052

Can I get a bead on the posture of these beings coming through the portal?

297

00:20:16,052 --> 00:20:22,862

Does it look like they are ready to make good on Karas's words, or is there perhaps a

different motive?

298

00:20:22,862 --> 00:20:24,014

It's really hard to tell.

299

00:20:24,014 --> 00:20:26,369

There's just no...

300

00:20:26,369 --> 00:20:27,842

nothing about them is human.

301

00:20:27,842 --> 00:20:30,837

So you have no bead on anything.

302

00:20:31,722 --> 00:20:32,875

Go ahead.

303

00:20:32,875 --> 00:20:33,745

Uh-uh.

304

00:20:34,171 --> 00:20:48,686

Yeah, there are only so many precautions that I know how to take and I will run to uh my

rifle in the crook of the door and I will grab it and I will uh posture safety off, full

305

00:20:48,686 --> 00:20:57,064

auto engaged and at the first sign of hostility I will not cease to unload on the one

nearest to me.

306

00:20:57,772 --> 00:20:59,354

Okay.

307

00:20:59,354 --> 00:21:01,242

What's your decks again, Barone?

308

00:21:01,304 --> 00:21:03,796

Dexterity is seventy-

309

00:21:03,796 --> 00:21:05,693

What's the raw number, sorry.

310

00:21:05,958 --> 00:21:07,262

So it's high, yeah.

311

00:21:08,152 --> 00:21:09,646

the O, the raw number 14.

312

00:21:09,646 --> 00:21:10,087

14.

313

00:21:10,087 --> 00:21:11,340

Okay, great.

314

00:21:11,340 --> 00:21:12,233

You have a turn.

315

00:21:12,233 --> 00:21:12,730

Okay.

316

00:21:12,730 --> 00:21:12,990

great.

317

00:21:12,990 --> 00:21:14,330

I have another turn.

318

00:21:15,590 --> 00:21:17,790

So that that shh.

319

00:21:17,790 --> 00:21:25,090

God, I wish I just had five minutes to ask him about the weapons for for majestic you son

of a B.

320

00:21:25,270 --> 00:21:26,390

Okay.

321

00:21:26,830 --> 00:21:31,330

So that shot in is just as a withering.

322

00:21:31,330 --> 00:21:36,330

Waif of a human left that probably did him in pretty good.

323

00:21:36,370 --> 00:21:39,530

Oh, the ATVs are probably pretty close.

324

00:21:39,662 --> 00:21:42,473

uh They would be like kind of near the bottom of the stairs.

325

00:21:42,473 --> 00:21:56,988

I'm going to Starsky and Hutch over the ATV to the far side for some cover, turn around

and take a shot at whatever one is most of whatever one's furthest out of the portal and

326

00:21:56,988 --> 00:21:58,169

the most danger.

327

00:21:58,169 --> 00:21:59,469

That's what I'm going for first.

328

00:21:59,469 --> 00:22:01,480

And I'd like to take a shot at it.

329

00:22:01,666 --> 00:22:09,716

You jump behind the four wheeler and shoot at the one that is right above where you and

Karas were the one closest.

330

00:22:09,716 --> 00:22:12,038

Go ahead and roll your firearms.

331

00:22:12,664 --> 00:22:14,414

Gah, come on.

332

00:22:14,414 --> 00:22:16,358

91 failure.

333

00:22:16,430 --> 00:22:19,636

Okay, goes wide, just pop, right?

334

00:22:19,636 --> 00:22:23,742

Del, does that mean you're just shooting your shots or are you just waiting still?

335

00:22:24,140 --> 00:22:30,068

No, I understand that Barone considers them hostile, but I want to consider them hostile

first.

336

00:22:30,411 --> 00:22:39,042

And the one that you shot at Barone phases out of existence quickly and then is right next

to you um in a purple flash.

337

00:22:39,984 --> 00:22:41,550

Go ahead and roll your dodge.

338

00:22:41,550 --> 00:22:43,750

Oh no, okay.

339

00:22:43,750 --> 00:22:44,630

Yeah.

340

00:22:44,690 --> 00:22:46,470

Yeah All right dodge.

341

00:22:46,470 --> 00:22:48,890

We are looking for whoo pretty low.

342

00:22:48,890 --> 00:22:50,130

We're looking for 30.

343

00:22:50,130 --> 00:22:52,462

I got 23 did good success

344

00:22:52,462 --> 00:23:06,561

The shocking sensation just enters your body as one of the tentacles from around it wraps

around you quickly and you feel um just an electricity power through you.

345

00:23:06,561 --> 00:23:10,074

Your whole body stunts and you are being held there.

346

00:23:10,074 --> 00:23:16,908

um It doesn't feel like you can move as this like weird current is going through your

body.

347

00:23:17,230 --> 00:23:17,581

Okay.

348

00:23:17,581 --> 00:23:18,385

Okay.

349

00:23:18,518 --> 00:23:20,585

Agent Ryan, it is your turn.

350

00:23:21,450 --> 00:23:24,778

Do they seem to recognize me at all?

351

00:23:24,778 --> 00:23:29,276

Like, from my interaction with them last night?

352

00:23:29,466 --> 00:23:34,766

can't tell they're flying above you about 25 feet

353

00:23:34,912 --> 00:23:40,512

Okay, and is Cross dead at this point or is he like still alive?

354

00:23:40,758 --> 00:23:42,001

It's hard to tell.

355

00:23:42,565 --> 00:23:44,332

Everything's moving too fast.

356

00:23:44,332 --> 00:23:46,277

You have one thing you can do.

357

00:23:46,582 --> 00:24:00,694

Okay, I am going to, I'm gonna start chanting again.

358

00:24:00,694 --> 00:24:10,122

um The same chant that I did the night before to bring them here.

359

00:24:10,316 --> 00:24:11,308

Yeah.

360

00:24:11,653 --> 00:24:15,087

Yeah, go ahead and roll just power.

361

00:24:15,668 --> 00:24:18,840

Power 80 13

362

00:24:19,532 --> 00:24:23,024

Yeah, you pull their attention as they're chanting.

363

00:24:23,024 --> 00:24:28,796

The one holding Agent Barone shifts slightly and Barone, you come with it.

364

00:24:28,796 --> 00:24:34,359

You're being held up in the air and pulled towards and now you're facing Ryan.

365

00:24:34,359 --> 00:24:39,691

Your eyes are wide open as this current is running through you and your muscles aren't

working.

366

00:24:40,392 --> 00:24:45,518

Ryan, what are you doing as you're chanting and they've all basically honed in on you.

367

00:24:45,518 --> 00:24:48,078

I will start talking.

368

00:24:48,078 --> 00:24:54,178

I can start talking to them and say, I owe you payment and you can take him.

369

00:24:54,178 --> 00:24:58,476

And I point to Kuros on the ground.

370

00:24:58,476 --> 00:25:18,886

Yeah, um, you hear the record player setup that was in the cabin start to buzz and sizzle

and zzzz uh

371

00:25:19,746 --> 00:25:20,687

No.

372

00:25:21,530 --> 00:25:26,038

If they're talking about Barone, no, no, that's not my pact.

373

00:25:26,038 --> 00:25:27,580

Your pact is this.

374

00:25:27,601 --> 00:25:30,025

And I'm like pointing at cross.

375

00:25:37,738 --> 00:25:45,438

kind of regals and wriggles out sloshes down towards Del

376

00:25:50,072 --> 00:25:59,477

So the pact that Khoroth had made was for two people and they're trying to take Del and

Barone.

377

00:25:59,477 --> 00:26:01,020

Am I understanding this correctly?

378

00:26:01,020 --> 00:26:02,742

Sorry, I'm a little confused.

379

00:26:07,392 --> 00:26:09,846

You have alleviated the pressure on yourself.

380

00:26:09,846 --> 00:26:16,826

You would have been Karas's third donation, but you're trading yourself for Karas.

381

00:26:16,826 --> 00:26:18,018

Is that what I'm understanding?

382

00:26:18,018 --> 00:26:19,849

Yeah, do you want to ask them a question?

383

00:26:20,238 --> 00:26:22,478

How many brains do you require?

384

00:26:23,042 --> 00:26:27,549

Julian Cross' deal with us was Fabrious for him.

385

00:26:27,610 --> 00:26:29,873

Brian's deal is one-

386

00:26:31,854 --> 00:26:33,400

I wish I could talk right now.

387

00:26:33,400 --> 00:26:36,059

Go ahead and roll a power, Brian.

388

00:26:36,059 --> 00:26:36,259

Me?

389

00:26:36,259 --> 00:26:37,684

Or, Barone.

390

00:26:37,684 --> 00:26:38,606

Power times five.

391

00:26:38,606 --> 00:26:42,406

Yeah, Pow times five, looking for 55.

392

00:26:42,406 --> 00:26:44,486

I got 57 fail.

393

00:26:44,526 --> 00:26:46,875

Okay, yeah, still unable to talk,

394

00:26:47,886 --> 00:26:48,842

Make sense?

395

00:26:48,856 --> 00:26:52,318

Delph, anything you're trying to say in this moment?

396

00:26:52,820 --> 00:26:56,181

Is Ryan's communication in English?

397

00:26:57,014 --> 00:27:01,782

Yeah, he's speaking to the record player voice that's coming out of the cabin.

398

00:27:01,998 --> 00:27:06,244

Okay, but there's not some sort of extra-tractual translator happening there.

399

00:27:06,244 --> 00:27:14,336

um This thing is wriggling towards me intending on collecting payment, is that right?

400

00:27:14,336 --> 00:27:18,241

It hasn't stayed its hand just because this conversation has been happening?

401

00:27:18,306 --> 00:27:19,731

standing by you.

402

00:27:20,672 --> 00:27:22,363

I mean, the fuck it is.

403

00:27:22,363 --> 00:27:24,242

I'm going to fire on...

404

00:27:24,242 --> 00:27:33,129

I will start to strafe across the porch as it is moving towards me and I will fire on the

one that is holding uh Barone.

405

00:27:33,129 --> 00:27:39,003

This is like maybe the culmination of all my trainings at once, In a...

406

00:27:39,003 --> 00:27:48,142

you imagine starting your career as a firearms, uh like a shooting range attendant and

they have those...

407

00:27:48,142 --> 00:27:55,685

uh cardboard cutouts of the man with the hostage gun, you know, held in front of him and

you got to shoot the outline around the hostage.

408

00:27:55,685 --> 00:27:59,867

And then I did that for real, taking people out in houses.

409

00:27:59,867 --> 00:28:09,166

And now I have like the biggest, fattest, juiciest target and I am just going to try and

milk an upside down horseshoe around Barone's profile.

410

00:28:09,166 --> 00:28:13,106

Yeah, roll that firearms fully auto and then give me a lethal.

411

00:28:14,446 --> 00:28:18,046

77 for a critical success.

412

00:28:19,594 --> 00:28:20,155

Yeah.

413

00:28:20,155 --> 00:28:21,237

Right under it.

414

00:28:21,237 --> 00:28:24,562

All right, go ahead and let me see.

415

00:28:24,562 --> 00:28:26,235

Let me see what lethality.

416

00:28:26,235 --> 00:28:28,529

Does lethality matter on a critical success?

417

00:28:28,529 --> 00:28:29,262

Actually, you know what?

418

00:28:29,262 --> 00:28:30,463

Roll lethality twice.

419

00:28:30,463 --> 00:28:31,813

You get two shots.

420

00:28:32,075 --> 00:28:32,455

Okay.

421

00:28:32,455 --> 00:28:34,698

And then we'll take both that as damage.

422

00:28:35,030 --> 00:28:44,584

All right, that's a five and a one, so six points on the first, and that is a six and a

one, so seven points on the second.

423

00:28:44,852 --> 00:28:47,869

Okay, so five and six.

424

00:28:48,814 --> 00:28:50,817

Eleven, sorry.

425

00:28:51,470 --> 00:28:54,570

No, sorry, six and seven, 13 points.

426

00:28:55,060 --> 00:28:57,171

Six and seven, 13 points.

427

00:28:57,171 --> 00:28:59,310

Yeah, you open up fire.

428

00:28:59,310 --> 00:29:02,014

It starts hitting this thing in random spots.

429

00:29:02,014 --> 00:29:09,418

Some of it you see like it phases out of existence as the bullet hits a spot and then goes

through it.

430

00:29:09,418 --> 00:29:14,700

And other parts you see it hit it and take purchase and start.

431

00:29:15,281 --> 00:29:18,343

There's some weird viscous liquid that shoots out.

432

00:29:18,343 --> 00:29:22,585

It drops you Agent Barone with being struck by Dell's gunfire.

433

00:29:22,585 --> 00:29:24,814

um It is your turn, Agent Barone.

434

00:29:24,814 --> 00:29:29,785

Okay, so having seen that, could we see that it actually took damage?

435

00:29:29,785 --> 00:29:32,471

So some phased through some did take purchase.

436

00:29:32,471 --> 00:29:34,284

Are bullets effective?

437

00:29:35,278 --> 00:29:37,285

Seems like sometimes, yes.

438

00:29:38,382 --> 00:29:41,144

seems like sometimes yes.

439

00:29:41,485 --> 00:29:48,376

How long would it take me to get up to the stairs and get to the brain in the jar on the

table?

440

00:29:48,376 --> 00:29:53,178

You could do that in a turn, but you would be in the cabin at the end of the turn.

441

00:29:53,178 --> 00:29:53,614

Yeah.

442

00:29:53,614 --> 00:30:02,777

Okay, so 13 points of damage is a lot of damage and it didn't seem to do a ton like this

thing isn't falling over dead from 13 points of damage.

443

00:30:02,837 --> 00:30:05,317

It was a questionably effective.

444

00:30:05,458 --> 00:30:06,158

Okay.

445

00:30:06,158 --> 00:30:07,378

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

446

00:30:07,378 --> 00:30:11,439

I think I'm running for that brain.

447

00:30:11,439 --> 00:30:16,381

I think I'm running up the stairs gun in hand and sprinting straight for the brain.

448

00:30:16,601 --> 00:30:17,831

Del I have an idea cover me.

449

00:30:17,831 --> 00:30:20,662

I'm so sorry and I'm gonna disappear into the house.

450

00:30:21,880 --> 00:30:28,826

You get into the house, you grab it, and you have the brain, and you're almost like a

shuttle run.

451

00:30:28,826 --> 00:30:30,857

You're about to turn around and head back.

452

00:30:30,857 --> 00:30:35,341

Del, can you roll a unarm?

453

00:30:35,341 --> 00:30:36,982

Or sorry, roll a dodge.

454

00:30:37,004 --> 00:30:37,816

Yes, indeedy.

455

00:30:37,816 --> 00:30:40,502

Oh!

456

00:30:40,502 --> 00:30:41,714

Triple zeros!

457

00:30:41,714 --> 00:30:43,448

Is that a time for that to happen?

458

00:30:43,448 --> 00:30:44,780

Is that a good thing?

459

00:30:45,280 --> 00:30:47,217

That is a critical failure, so...

460

00:30:47,217 --> 00:30:48,038

uh

461

00:30:48,792 --> 00:30:50,528

that's the wrong thing.

462

00:30:50,851 --> 00:30:51,266

Yeah.

463

00:30:51,266 --> 00:30:53,395

That is, yep, yep.

464

00:30:53,528 --> 00:31:00,622

Del, as you shoot this other one, it reaches out with a tentacle and grabs you.

465

00:31:00,622 --> 00:31:05,145

This one has a claw to it and it almost looks like a laser, but it's solid.

466

00:31:05,145 --> 00:31:14,070

It is so thin and this black scalpel thing just comes out and strikes the top of your

skull and starts to slice downward.

467

00:31:16,546 --> 00:31:29,512

but only does one damage to you right now, ah but it is starting to potentially split your

entire skull open and you feel it humming throughout your whole body.

468

00:31:29,613 --> 00:31:40,128

In fact, your tear ducts are uncontrollable now and you're starting to uh cry as this

thing is doing some impromptu brain surgery on you.

469

00:31:41,174 --> 00:31:52,140

Yeah, you know those little saws that they use in the surgical field where they don't whir

all the way around, they're just bone saws and they vibrate back and forth?

470

00:31:52,220 --> 00:32:00,004

I imagine that is kind of like the paralyzing uh reverberation that I feel, right?

471

00:32:00,004 --> 00:32:10,500

Where it is capable of cutting only as deep as it wants, only the material that it wants,

and like the execution of that is...

472

00:32:10,500 --> 00:32:12,451

like truly terrible to behold.

473

00:32:12,451 --> 00:32:13,276

Yeah.

474

00:32:15,086 --> 00:32:18,489

We will see how much it can do.

475

00:32:19,291 --> 00:32:29,121

The third one floating right above Karasa's body unceremoniously goes down to him.

476

00:32:29,121 --> 00:32:38,250

You see a cylinder come out from this strange pocket that's floating around with it in

purple light and it...

477

00:32:39,274 --> 00:32:42,166

uses that same scalpel to split the front of his face open.

478

00:32:42,166 --> 00:32:47,520

You see his eyeballs like fall out of his head and blood just starts to gush everywhere.

479

00:32:47,520 --> 00:32:54,805

And it reaches in with a ginger claw and pulls out his brain with some of the brain stem

attached.

480

00:32:54,805 --> 00:33:01,149

And another scalpel from another appendage cuts it at the spine and it goes into a jar.

481

00:33:01,149 --> 00:33:03,931

And this is happening lightning quick.

482

00:33:03,931 --> 00:33:08,640

And it fills with this viscous liquid that comes out of

483

00:33:08,640 --> 00:33:15,016

One of these things mouths as it spits it into it and it locks the jar in front of you.

484

00:33:15,537 --> 00:33:17,268

Agent Ryan, it is your turn.

485

00:33:18,026 --> 00:33:19,232

insane.

486

00:33:19,682 --> 00:33:33,938

Fuck, okay, I am not wanting to try to reason with these beings anymore because they

clearly are gonna take their payment no matter what.

487

00:33:33,938 --> 00:33:47,574

So I also will pull out my gun because I'm such a firearms expert and try to take a shot

at the thing that's got, that has been attacking Del.

488

00:33:47,712 --> 00:33:48,410

Absolutely.

489

00:33:48,410 --> 00:33:49,251

Nice.

490

00:33:49,454 --> 00:33:51,434

Yeah, go ahead and roll the firearms.

491

00:33:51,954 --> 00:33:54,990

It's a large target, so you can add 20 % to it.

492

00:33:54,990 --> 00:33:56,230

Okay, thank you.

493

00:33:56,230 --> 00:33:57,830

I'm for 40 here.

494

00:33:57,830 --> 00:33:59,230

Oh God, 91.

495

00:33:59,874 --> 00:34:01,045

You fire, you miss.

496

00:34:01,045 --> 00:34:02,652

Dell, is your turn.

497

00:34:03,152 --> 00:34:05,094

do I have full agency?

498

00:34:05,094 --> 00:34:09,550

Okay, is there anything that is holding me in place?

499

00:34:09,550 --> 00:34:14,830

um The only thing that's holding you in place is one of its tentacles as it's trying to

lift you up.

500

00:34:14,830 --> 00:34:28,805

Um, do the floorboards in Karas's porch look sturdy or as though they could be broken

through?

501

00:34:28,805 --> 00:34:29,766

uh

502

00:34:30,400 --> 00:34:32,062

Roll a lot.

503

00:34:33,147 --> 00:34:35,060

They look like they could be broken through.

504

00:34:35,094 --> 00:34:45,303

Okay, I am hoping that perhaps the tentacle is like doing more of like a grasping maneuver

and is not prepared to hold my full weight.

505

00:34:45,303 --> 00:34:58,204

And just like that uh carnival game where you're meant to shoot the entire star out with

the with 100 BBs, I'm going to do a 360 on full auto and then try to uh punch a hole

506

00:34:58,204 --> 00:35:03,238

through the floorboards under my feet and just thump down uh underneath into the crawl.

507

00:35:03,918 --> 00:35:13,542

80 firearms and point blank you're able to do that and drop through everyone you hear a

crack as he falls through the porch.

508

00:35:13,542 --> 00:35:22,262

He's only about three feet down from this thing where the ground level was but you are

down there now Dell.

509

00:35:22,262 --> 00:35:32,628

Yeah, my intent, sorry, my intent is to like fall prone on my back with the gun pointed up

through the hole so that next turn I could just continue pumping lead.

510

00:35:34,402 --> 00:35:35,566

Agent Barona,

511

00:35:36,226 --> 00:35:39,439

God, so I'm trying to think like, what can I possibly do?

512

00:35:39,439 --> 00:35:40,099

What can I do?

513

00:35:40,099 --> 00:35:42,091

Okay, great.

514

00:35:42,091 --> 00:35:44,113

I am completing the shuttle run.

515

00:35:44,113 --> 00:35:49,786

have grabbed the jar and I'm running back towards the door.

516

00:35:49,786 --> 00:36:03,549

I think when I get to the door, so my backpack is probably right next to the door and I

have taken everybody's guns and the grenades.

517

00:36:03,549 --> 00:36:05,710

Del, you have grenades, correct?

518

00:36:06,254 --> 00:36:07,968

I don't know what I would sleep with.

519

00:36:07,968 --> 00:36:11,385

you mean on my person or just in my, in my possessions?

520

00:36:12,064 --> 00:36:13,459

Around period.

521

00:36:13,459 --> 00:36:14,431

Would I?

522

00:36:14,431 --> 00:36:22,050

Around period and there would have been uh two bricks of c4 on the on the ATVs as well

523

00:36:22,050 --> 00:36:23,432

Yeah.

524

00:36:23,432 --> 00:36:27,475

There are both grenades and C4 in the ATVs.

525

00:36:28,778 --> 00:36:29,578

Yep.

526

00:36:30,086 --> 00:36:30,646

Shit.

527

00:36:30,646 --> 00:36:31,306

Okay.

528

00:36:31,306 --> 00:36:31,946

Um, all right.

529

00:36:31,946 --> 00:36:43,386

I think as I run and I get to the door, I'm going to throw the jar out there and say, I

think you forgot this.

530

00:36:43,386 --> 00:36:50,566

And then swap out my GP 100 for the AR 15 that would be by the door.

531

00:36:50,826 --> 00:36:53,798

And when I throw that,

532

00:36:54,178 --> 00:36:55,281

Do they track it?

533

00:36:55,281 --> 00:36:57,567

Do the attention turn to it or do they ignore it?

534

00:36:57,567 --> 00:36:59,060

And it doesn't really matter.

535

00:36:59,726 --> 00:37:03,192

uh It's hard to tell in the heat of things, so...

536

00:37:03,192 --> 00:37:04,623

Yeah, yeah, yeah, fair.

537

00:37:04,623 --> 00:37:05,364

Okay, great.

538

00:37:05,364 --> 00:37:14,953

I think I throw it and then the one that had dealt is it next to like just outside the

front door?

539

00:37:14,953 --> 00:37:16,544

Is it super close to me?

540

00:37:17,090 --> 00:37:21,998

Yeah, they're both right next to you, right next to the porch, the one that got you and

the one that had Dell.

541

00:37:21,998 --> 00:37:27,098

Okay, so I'm not going to be able to scrape by and get down to the ATV in one turn.

542

00:37:27,098 --> 00:37:33,298

I think after I throw that, I'm going to pull the rifle up and fire at whatever's closest.

543

00:37:33,438 --> 00:37:34,658

Let's start there.

544

00:37:34,658 --> 00:37:35,838

at whatever's closest.

545

00:37:37,158 --> 00:37:38,338

Plus 20%.

546

00:37:38,338 --> 00:37:41,338

Firearms are looking for 76.

547

00:37:41,758 --> 00:37:44,818

We got a 55 crit success, finally.

548

00:37:45,230 --> 00:37:45,672

Amazing.

549

00:37:45,672 --> 00:37:49,109

Give me two lethalities and then we'll add them together for the damage.

550

00:37:49,398 --> 00:37:50,245

What timing?

551

00:37:50,245 --> 00:37:50,838

sure.

552

00:37:50,838 --> 00:37:52,021

Define lethality.

553

00:37:52,021 --> 00:37:53,400

I haven't had to roll that yet.

554

00:37:53,400 --> 00:37:56,053

just under 10 % for the AR-15, I believe.

555

00:37:56,053 --> 00:38:01,119

So you roll twice and then if it's under 10%, you kill it.

556

00:38:01,119 --> 00:38:04,622

And if it's not, then we add the two numbers together.

557

00:38:05,326 --> 00:38:10,306

Okay, so am I rolling a D12 or 100?

558

00:38:10,434 --> 00:38:11,360

to a D100.

559

00:38:12,206 --> 00:38:21,696

100 got it so and I'm rolling twice I got a 55 again and then I got a 79

560

00:38:21,760 --> 00:38:22,650

Okay.

561

00:38:23,392 --> 00:38:32,600

Okay, so you open up fire with air, you throw this thing as you're running, you grab your

thing from the hip fire on the one that attacked you.

562

00:38:32,720 --> 00:38:38,686

And it hits it in few spots, but then other spots like the bullets disappear.

563

00:38:38,686 --> 00:38:43,552

um But you see it lurch in the sky.

564

00:38:43,552 --> 00:38:54,155

and half of it falls out of this purple pocket that it's coming out of this dimensional

thing and sloshes right onto the ground with a thud and falls over and splashes everywhere

565

00:38:54,155 --> 00:38:55,275

and it is...

566

00:38:55,702 --> 00:38:57,408

a mess of gore.

567

00:38:58,062 --> 00:38:58,942

Okay.

568

00:38:59,584 --> 00:39:01,126

All right, we're down to two.

569

00:39:01,126 --> 00:39:08,394

uh How many shots would that, just so I'm tracking my ammo correctly, how many shots would

that have been?

570

00:39:08,418 --> 00:39:12,906

With full auto, basically you have about three turns till you have to reload.

571

00:39:13,248 --> 00:39:16,404

So after Dell's next turn, he will have to reload.

572

00:39:16,798 --> 00:39:20,182

Okay, sounds good.

573

00:39:20,182 --> 00:39:23,454

Okay, think I'll probably stop there.

574

00:39:23,454 --> 00:39:24,604

That feels like it.

575

00:39:24,604 --> 00:39:25,280

uh

576

00:39:25,280 --> 00:39:25,841

That's a term.

577

00:39:25,841 --> 00:39:40,639

And so the one that was attacking Del turns to you and you see its carapace open up and

some tentacles come out and they create like almost like a round hole and you hear this

578

00:39:40,639 --> 00:39:42,150

humming sound.

579

00:39:43,808 --> 00:39:49,960

Okay, and just this massive, strange feeling hits you.

580

00:39:49,960 --> 00:39:53,501

Your stomach drops, but you're lifted off of the ground.

581

00:39:53,501 --> 00:39:59,123

Del, you're lifted up as well, and then dropped with the weight of...

582

00:39:59,403 --> 00:40:09,226

an incomprehensible weight as something has happened to the gravity, and the cabin behind

you, Barone, just explodes into splinters.

583

00:40:09,566 --> 00:40:17,508

And it rolled above its lethality for that weapon, so it will do four points of damage to

you, Barone.

584

00:40:17,508 --> 00:40:21,570

Also four for you, Okay.

585

00:40:21,770 --> 00:40:24,521

And Ryan, you're standing behind this thing.

586

00:40:24,521 --> 00:40:34,454

You've seen this cabin just be obliterated and the bodies of your two friends are thrown

up in the air and slammed to the ground and they're laying there.

587

00:40:34,642 --> 00:40:38,824

There's dust everywhere as this thing starts to implode on itself.

588

00:40:38,824 --> 00:40:46,148

Killing this other one seems to have pissed them off in a way that you don't understand.

589

00:40:46,148 --> 00:40:51,850

The one above you tucks the brain away and then hovers down to you, Ryan.

590

00:40:51,987 --> 00:40:53,991

I'm not going back on my bargain.

591

00:40:53,991 --> 00:40:56,578

I don't want you to hurt my friends.

592

00:40:56,578 --> 00:41:01,720

I will deliver my payment to you in the time that we agreed.

593

00:41:01,720 --> 00:41:06,432

There is just a massive shake.

594

00:41:06,432 --> 00:41:09,113

The earth shakes under you, Barone.

595

00:41:09,113 --> 00:41:12,615

You're laying there in the rubble of this building, so are you, Del.

596

00:41:12,615 --> 00:41:20,417

And you see two of these creatures go over to the third that's laying on the ground.

597

00:41:20,498 --> 00:41:31,159

Looks like they cut open some strange hole in reality and it slips through, almost like

it's slipping into a sewer out of reality and they disappear.

598

00:41:31,159 --> 00:41:32,146

Damn.

599

00:41:33,698 --> 00:41:34,900

What on earth?

600

00:41:34,900 --> 00:41:37,475

uh he's okay, so they're gone.

601

00:41:37,475 --> 00:41:38,506

They're gone?

602

00:41:39,170 --> 00:41:39,935

Yes.

603

00:41:40,950 --> 00:41:43,952

Okay, I get up.

604

00:41:43,952 --> 00:41:47,864

m I guess I don't want to drop my gun per se.

605

00:41:47,864 --> 00:41:53,437

I will sling my gun and I'm sprinting to where Del fell into that hole.

606

00:41:53,478 --> 00:41:54,292

I'm headed to

607

00:41:54,292 --> 00:41:57,420

Same, I'm running over there too.

608

00:41:58,070 --> 00:42:16,206

As you reach over to the place where you saw Dell disappear into the hole, um you are

greeted with a pin cushion of bloody splinters as the floorboards that had punched their

609

00:42:16,206 --> 00:42:25,454

way into the ground are now impaling through his gut and his chest as he has been slammed

down onto their

610

00:42:26,799 --> 00:42:28,560

Yeah, I'm not gonna believe it.

611

00:42:28,560 --> 00:42:32,863

uh Tears welling up in my eyes.

612

00:42:32,864 --> 00:42:35,746

Barone's gonna be like, Del, Del, hang in there, hang in there.

613

00:42:35,746 --> 00:42:37,568

Oh, fuck, fuck.

614

00:42:37,568 --> 00:42:45,245

And she's gonna take the cloths from her backpack and start like, I got you, don't worry,

Del, don't worry.

615

00:42:45,245 --> 00:42:53,482

And then I'm gonna start um trying to plug his wounds and not accept that he is anything

but alive.

616

00:42:53,486 --> 00:43:02,213

When you run over, you see the strange beginning of a scar on Del's forehead where that

scalpel first almost entered.

617

00:43:02,294 --> 00:43:06,327

And you look down and you're working, right?

618

00:43:06,327 --> 00:43:08,159

Like this, this can't be happening.

619

00:43:08,159 --> 00:43:10,280

You are patching wounds.

620

00:43:10,280 --> 00:43:22,250

You're putting things on there, but you, about 30 seconds into it, you look down and it's

just such a mess that

621

00:43:22,626 --> 00:43:24,278

There's just no way he could have survived.

622

00:43:24,278 --> 00:43:28,191

There's organ failure, there's trauma all over his body.

623

00:43:28,292 --> 00:43:29,483

He's not even moving.

624

00:43:29,483 --> 00:43:30,593

There's no breath.

625

00:43:30,593 --> 00:43:35,659

You look at his eyes and they don't have the life that they had in them before.

626

00:43:35,780 --> 00:43:38,362

They seem vacant and empty.

627

00:43:38,766 --> 00:43:39,586

Okay?

628

00:43:39,908 --> 00:43:42,011

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

629

00:43:42,573 --> 00:43:46,220

God damn it, Ryan, and I'm gonna take my rifle and I'm gonna spin on Ryan and aim at him.

630

00:43:46,220 --> 00:43:47,758

What the fuck was that?

631

00:43:47,758 --> 00:43:51,178

They did not come because of me.

632

00:43:51,498 --> 00:43:53,338

This is not my doing.

633

00:43:53,804 --> 00:43:55,434

No, they said a deal, Ryan.

634

00:43:55,434 --> 00:43:57,483

You made a deal, Ryan.

635

00:43:58,144 --> 00:43:58,774

I did.

636

00:43:58,774 --> 00:44:00,038

I did make a deal.

637

00:44:00,038 --> 00:44:03,865

um And I still have two days to pay it.

638

00:44:03,865 --> 00:44:06,870

So they weren't coming from my payment.

639

00:44:07,342 --> 00:44:08,808

Payment for what, Ryan?

640

00:44:08,808 --> 00:44:15,172

They want a brain, so I have to deliver one to them within two days.

641

00:44:15,172 --> 00:44:21,874

Clearly, Keras had done the same thing and tried to sacrifice you all for that.

642

00:44:22,712 --> 00:44:24,410

That's what you were doing in the swab.

643

00:44:24,410 --> 00:44:25,173

You weren't injured.

644

00:44:25,173 --> 00:44:26,569

You weren't attacked.

645

00:44:26,569 --> 00:44:27,643

You were making a deal.

646

00:44:27,643 --> 00:44:28,636

ah

647

00:44:28,636 --> 00:44:29,258

yeah.

648

00:44:29,258 --> 00:44:30,602

Yeah, I was.

649

00:44:30,602 --> 00:44:35,447

I didn't know that that's what I was doing, but that was the end result of my actions.

650

00:44:35,447 --> 00:44:35,822

Yes.

651

00:44:35,822 --> 00:44:39,023

um I'll let my gun drop to my side.

652

00:44:39,442 --> 00:44:51,910

I don't know what to do with that information right now, but I'm alive and so are you and

Dell is not any longer and this place needs to burn to the ground.

653

00:44:51,910 --> 00:44:55,153

Agent Ryan, you look over at Del's lifeless body.

654

00:44:55,153 --> 00:44:58,755

ah He was your confidant earlier.

655

00:44:58,755 --> 00:45:07,214

What are you thinking now that you see him down there and his dead eyes looking up at

nothingness in the sky?

656

00:45:07,214 --> 00:45:08,765

I mean, obviously I feel horrible.

657

00:45:08,765 --> 00:45:16,641

The last interaction really that I had with him was him kicking me in the leg on the way

out.

658

00:45:16,641 --> 00:45:28,249

So I had a lot of, you know, respect for him and it just hasn't fully hit me, I think, at

this point.

659

00:45:28,574 --> 00:45:29,190

I...

660

00:45:31,086 --> 00:45:45,504

I a mixture of sadness and guilt and relief in a weird way that like I'm still alive um

myself.

661

00:45:45,686 --> 00:45:46,516

Yeah.

662

00:45:47,342 --> 00:45:51,264

There's always that gnawing thought when somebody dies, right?

663

00:45:51,264 --> 00:45:58,669

Like that grief hits you, but then there's that little voice that's always saying, better

them than me.

664

00:45:58,669 --> 00:46:00,769

And that's what you're left with.

665

00:46:22,752 --> 00:46:30,766

Agent Ryan and Agent Barone, are presumably standing above the corpse of Del.

666

00:46:30,766 --> 00:46:38,309

You see that he is a Swiss cheese display with splinters coming through his body all over.

667

00:46:38,309 --> 00:46:45,352

His face is intact but scarred, but the rest of his body is a bloody pulp of a mess.

668

00:46:46,433 --> 00:46:48,884

Can you both roll sanity for me?

669

00:46:50,566 --> 00:46:53,426

Okay, I'm looking for a 46.

670

00:46:53,426 --> 00:46:55,306

I got a 31, success.

671

00:46:56,302 --> 00:46:59,162

Current sanity is at 60.

672

00:47:00,902 --> 00:47:02,302

So...

673

00:47:02,302 --> 00:47:06,222

I got a...

674

00:47:06,222 --> 00:47:07,562

47.

675

00:47:08,635 --> 00:47:12,080

So both of you succeeded your sanity rolls.

676

00:47:12,141 --> 00:47:15,916

Please both still roll me a d6 for sand loss.

677

00:47:17,152 --> 00:47:20,619

I lost the full six, which that that makes sense

678

00:47:20,974 --> 00:47:22,475

Do you want to project?

679

00:47:24,056 --> 00:47:26,228

Willpower 10 sanity.

680

00:47:26,228 --> 00:47:34,397

um What's my threshold to go like my first big threshold?

681

00:47:34,397 --> 00:47:36,259

Do you remember what number that was?

682

00:47:37,401 --> 00:47:38,462

The breaking point?

683

00:47:38,462 --> 00:47:41,225

Yeah, because my willpower is 11.

684

00:47:41,225 --> 00:47:42,956

So I would hit that at.

685

00:47:45,210 --> 00:47:47,518

Yeah, I'm definitely going to project.

686

00:47:47,601 --> 00:47:48,312

Okay.

687

00:47:48,312 --> 00:47:54,366

Yeah, go ahead and roll a D4 for the projection and we'll see if you go temporarily

insane.

688

00:47:55,136 --> 00:47:57,065

Okay, one.

689

00:47:58,926 --> 00:48:02,765

Okay, so what is the order for Barone?

690

00:48:02,765 --> 00:48:05,583

Fight, flight, freeze.

691

00:48:05,583 --> 00:48:07,286

Which one would you do first?

692

00:48:08,492 --> 00:48:23,041

I think Freeze would probably be first because everything happening at once, learning of

the betrayal from potentially Butterfield, knowing that we just got betrayed by somebody

693

00:48:23,041 --> 00:48:31,145

that I just poured my trust into because, you know, my belief that, you know, all life is

sacred and nothing, you know, should be taken lightly.

694

00:48:31,145 --> 00:48:35,858

And then now losing Dell, I think I'm just gonna would completely lock up.

695

00:48:36,078 --> 00:48:41,644

Okay, freeze and then behind that would be fight or flee.

696

00:48:42,018 --> 00:48:43,782

I don't think there's anything to fight.

697

00:48:43,782 --> 00:48:48,855

think it would be flee, even though I definitely don't want to leave here without

information.

698

00:48:48,855 --> 00:48:50,869

But fight, don't think would make sense.

699

00:48:50,869 --> 00:48:52,522

Or I'd be fighting Ryan.

700

00:48:53,752 --> 00:48:54,764

Exactly.

701

00:48:54,764 --> 00:48:59,604

All right, Christina, what was your D6 roll?

702

00:49:00,622 --> 00:49:02,674

I haven't done it yet, I'm gonna do it right now.

703

00:49:03,103 --> 00:49:03,925

Four.

704

00:49:04,718 --> 00:49:06,641

Okay, do you want to project?

705

00:49:07,758 --> 00:49:13,376

So if I don't, then I take another four off of my sanity, correct?

706

00:49:15,562 --> 00:49:18,248

And you go temporarily insane.

707

00:49:19,918 --> 00:49:21,978

sounds kind of fun.

708

00:49:24,198 --> 00:49:29,818

I will project onto...

709

00:49:29,818 --> 00:49:31,418

yeah, I'll project.

710

00:49:31,854 --> 00:49:33,139

Okay, roll your D4.

711

00:49:34,318 --> 00:49:35,922

94

712

00:49:38,318 --> 00:49:39,574

Three.

713

00:49:40,408 --> 00:49:41,158

Okay.

714

00:49:41,780 --> 00:49:51,114

So you're able to take three off of that sand loss and your willpower, which probably

leaves you around one willpower and a bond of your choice, which bond?

715

00:49:53,518 --> 00:49:57,378

Wait, sorry, I lose three off of my willpower.

716

00:49:58,338 --> 00:49:59,878

Oh, okay.

717

00:50:01,078 --> 00:50:07,138

Okay, so I have a one willpower and then I take three off of my bond.

718

00:50:08,158 --> 00:50:08,798

Correct?

719

00:50:08,798 --> 00:50:16,418

Okay, my grandmother, my grandma whose birthday I missed.

720

00:50:17,592 --> 00:50:21,735

Yeah, are you feeling bitter about having missed that birthday or the fact that it-

721

00:50:22,146 --> 00:50:27,234

I was, but I have bigger things to feel right now.

722

00:50:27,534 --> 00:50:29,036

Okay, yeah.

723

00:50:29,157 --> 00:50:35,116

All right, Baron, I'm gonna go ahead and roll your D6 to see how you react to this temp

insanity.

724

00:50:35,554 --> 00:50:36,625

Okay, great.

725

00:50:38,060 --> 00:50:41,166

You said second was flee or fight?

726

00:50:41,166 --> 00:50:43,093

was was flea

727

00:50:43,246 --> 00:50:44,006

Okay.

728

00:50:45,007 --> 00:50:59,678

Yeah, you're hit with an overwhelming sense of your own mortality and the fact that your

entire worldview of feeling this optimism pointed towards humanity is being shaken to its

729

00:50:59,678 --> 00:51:01,159

core in this moment.

730

00:51:01,159 --> 00:51:02,500

You really just want to leave.

731

00:51:02,500 --> 00:51:04,862

It's up to you what you do.

732

00:51:04,862 --> 00:51:06,923

You can start packing up the four-wheeler.

733

00:51:06,923 --> 00:51:08,744

You can walk into the swamp.

734

00:51:08,744 --> 00:51:11,456

ah What do you think Barone would do?

735

00:51:12,366 --> 00:51:21,146

Unpacking her things 100 % is gonna be her mindset You know kind of a panic like oh no,

everything's wrong.

736

00:51:21,146 --> 00:51:30,966

We need to get out of here We need to escape prepping to do so so Going in the house

grabbing her While she had a rifle

737

00:51:31,704 --> 00:51:35,861

house is completely destroyed, the only thing left is that tunnel.

738

00:51:36,760 --> 00:51:37,912

Okay, great.

739

00:51:37,912 --> 00:51:48,837

Yeah, just grabbing her belongings from around like her backpack that was probably in

shambles somewhere in that huge mess of a house now, you know, some of the things and

740

00:51:48,837 --> 00:51:51,170

starts tossing them on the on the ATV.

741

00:51:52,140 --> 00:52:01,195

Agent Ryan, you see Barone frantically digging through rubble and trying to find stuff

that she had in the house.

742

00:52:01,195 --> 00:52:03,456

You're not even sure anything's left in there.

743

00:52:03,456 --> 00:52:05,477

She doesn't seem in her right mind.

744

00:52:05,477 --> 00:52:08,628

Are you doing anything to try to calm her down?

745

00:52:12,048 --> 00:52:12,989

no.

746

00:52:12,989 --> 00:52:24,843

I think I'm just kind of pacing and letting her feel however, you know, she needs to feel

and do what she feels like she needs to do.

747

00:52:25,046 --> 00:52:30,770

I think that I ask what she's, what she's looking for.

748

00:52:32,494 --> 00:52:33,856

What am I looking for, Ryan?

749

00:52:33,856 --> 00:52:35,709

uh Fuck me.

750

00:52:35,709 --> 00:52:39,223

don't- I don't- My- My things, my stuff, my...

751

00:52:39,584 --> 00:52:39,995

bag.

752

00:52:39,995 --> 00:52:40,625

Gels bag.

753

00:52:40,625 --> 00:52:42,408

We gotta- We gotta scram, man.

754

00:52:42,408 --> 00:52:43,840

We gotta get outta here.

755

00:52:45,696 --> 00:52:50,169

Yeah, I mean you think that that stuff needs to go with us?

756

00:52:52,395 --> 00:52:56,680

I don't like not being prepared and not having my things.

757

00:52:56,680 --> 00:53:05,600

Yeah, no, yes, yeah, and I'm just, you know, running around flipping over uh bricks trying

to find my pieces of gear.

758

00:53:06,018 --> 00:53:15,018

Okay, then I try to help her a little bit, ah you know, by lifting up, you know, some

piles of wood and looking around for stuff.

759

00:53:15,554 --> 00:53:25,188

Yeah, getting in there with her and showing her that she's not alone, can you roll me a

persuade plus 20?

760

00:53:26,218 --> 00:53:32,138

Yeah, so my persuade is 24.

761

00:53:34,147 --> 00:53:37,366

and I rolled a 77.

762

00:53:39,466 --> 00:53:41,276

not very persuasive.

763

00:53:41,998 --> 00:53:42,898

from

764

00:53:44,526 --> 00:53:52,655

Can you tell me what happens when you start getting aggravated with Ryan as Ryan's trying

to help you?

765

00:53:52,986 --> 00:53:56,079

I think you blame Ryan for what happened to Del.

766

00:53:56,800 --> 00:54:01,285

Ryan is right next to you and your blood is starting to boil.

767

00:54:01,285 --> 00:54:02,346

What do you do?

768

00:54:03,086 --> 00:54:14,009

Okay, um I think I go to pick up my bag, instead of putting it at the ATV, I'm just gonna

chuck it right at his chest pretty much as hard as I can.

769

00:54:14,409 --> 00:54:20,561

Well, you know, Ryan, we wouldn't be fucking out here and obliterated in a thousand pieces

if you didn't lie to us.

770

00:54:20,561 --> 00:54:25,113

If we had any fucking time to prepare whatsoever, Ryan, this would have been different.

771

00:54:25,113 --> 00:54:26,293

Del wouldn't be dead.

772

00:54:26,293 --> 00:54:27,383

We'd have the information.

773

00:54:27,383 --> 00:54:30,614

We would be leaving here without me in a fucking panic.

774

00:54:31,072 --> 00:54:34,062

Hey, I don't remember dragging you out here, okay?

775

00:54:34,062 --> 00:54:34,636

So...

776

00:54:34,636 --> 00:54:35,418

No, you didn't.

777

00:54:35,418 --> 00:54:37,404

You didn't drag me anywhere, Ryan.

778

00:54:37,404 --> 00:54:41,905

You didn't drag me to the meeting in the middle of the swamp with your super secret

aliens.

779

00:54:41,927 --> 00:54:43,649

What the fuck was that about?

780

00:54:44,748 --> 00:54:45,500

I joined you.

781

00:54:45,500 --> 00:54:46,552

You were already out here.

782

00:54:46,552 --> 00:54:48,206

If you Did you d-

783

00:54:48,206 --> 00:54:48,906

You joined me.

784

00:54:48,906 --> 00:54:50,046

You joined me.

785

00:54:50,046 --> 00:54:50,346

Yeah.

786

00:54:50,346 --> 00:54:54,246

Like on a team, because teammates, I don't know, tell each other things.

787

00:54:54,246 --> 00:54:56,046

They don't keep secrets.

788

00:54:56,206 --> 00:54:59,026

Like, I have no trust in Butterfield.

789

00:54:59,026 --> 00:55:03,386

Like, in this fucking picture, and I pull out the picture, in this picture, are you with

him?

790

00:55:03,386 --> 00:55:04,966

Are you a traitor also?

791

00:55:04,966 --> 00:55:07,346

Is it Barone by herself?

792

00:55:07,346 --> 00:55:09,006

You tell me, Ryan.

793

00:55:10,067 --> 00:55:14,399

I I can't explain the Butterfield picture any more than you can.

794

00:55:15,862 --> 00:55:17,503

Okay, so you're...

795

00:55:18,025 --> 00:55:19,045

not...

796

00:55:19,427 --> 00:55:21,929

in league with Butterfield, so...

797

00:55:22,991 --> 00:55:24,182

There's three teams here.

798

00:55:24,182 --> 00:55:27,215

You're on your team, I'm on my team in Butterfield's.

799

00:55:27,377 --> 00:55:29,058

On his own, or...?

800

00:55:29,960 --> 00:55:40,720

I didn't plan on this happening either, so I don't appreciate you blaming Del's death on

me.

801

00:55:41,130 --> 00:55:49,219

I didn't know that Cross had similar interests.

802

00:55:49,219 --> 00:55:54,936

And if you do recall, I was alone when I decided.

803

00:55:54,936 --> 00:55:57,148

to explore my interests.

804

00:55:57,148 --> 00:56:05,637

I didn't drag you guys into anything and I don't appreciate being blamed, you know, for my

friend's death.

805

00:56:05,637 --> 00:56:18,830

um I'm just as upset as you are about it and yeah, there was some things that I didn't

tell you but ah surely you've kept a liar too in your life.

806

00:56:20,620 --> 00:56:28,413

And as she reels back just a little bit thinking like, she definitely didn't tell people

when she was infected.

807

00:56:28,673 --> 00:56:30,674

And she nods.

808

00:56:31,295 --> 00:56:31,975

Right.

809

00:56:31,975 --> 00:56:32,935

Yeah.

810

00:56:33,235 --> 00:56:33,816

Maybe.

811

00:56:33,816 --> 00:56:35,356

But I'll tell you what, Ryan.

812

00:56:35,356 --> 00:56:40,478

uh You're not going anywhere without me for a very long time.

813

00:56:41,139 --> 00:56:42,519

You're all I have.

814

00:56:42,519 --> 00:56:45,701

But at the same time, I don't trust you, Ryan.

815

00:56:45,701 --> 00:56:46,661

So...

816

00:56:47,902 --> 00:56:49,012

There's that.

817

00:56:49,430 --> 00:56:51,566

And then I will go back to packing my stuff.

818

00:56:51,566 --> 00:56:55,988

But it's not entirely up to you either, so.

819

00:56:57,218 --> 00:56:59,179

both of you were only in alertness.

820

00:57:02,318 --> 00:57:05,740

Okay, I'm looking for 81 and I got a 21, success.

821

00:57:05,774 --> 00:57:10,834

45 on my side and I got an 86.

822

00:57:11,254 --> 00:57:24,930

You're explaining yourself and, Barone, out of the corner of your eye, you see just the

faintest purple glow from the porch where Del's body is.

823

00:57:25,374 --> 00:57:31,358

You would have to walk over from where you're at inside the rubble to see what it was, but

it does catch your eye.

824

00:57:32,770 --> 00:57:34,051

Yeah, absolutely.

825

00:57:34,051 --> 00:57:36,343

think anything is a danger right now.

826

00:57:36,343 --> 00:57:38,676

Do I have autonomy like back?

827

00:57:38,676 --> 00:57:40,940

Am I still in flight mode?

828

00:57:40,940 --> 00:57:47,126

So I rolled a secret roll that tells me how many rounds you're in that state and it was

only three.

829

00:57:47,126 --> 00:57:50,944

So I would assume that was about three rounds of action.

830

00:57:51,630 --> 00:57:52,410

Okay.

831

00:57:52,951 --> 00:57:53,911

Great.

832

00:57:54,631 --> 00:57:55,672

This can wait, Ryan.

833

00:57:55,672 --> 00:58:09,238

And I'll grab my pistol and grab his shoulder and spin him towards it and walk towards it,

prepped for what's coming, know, gun in hand, low ready, walking towards the thing.

834

00:58:10,392 --> 00:58:21,190

Yeah, you peer over some of the rubble into the hole in the ground where Dell had fell

after blowing a hole in the porch.

835

00:58:21,190 --> 00:58:27,794

And you peer down and you see that Dell's face is completely split open.

836

00:58:28,855 --> 00:58:37,000

And there is a cavity where his mind and computer slash brain used to be.

837

00:58:37,060 --> 00:58:39,782

And his skull is a jar.

838

00:58:39,830 --> 00:58:45,920

in two halves and it's laying there slightly moving a little bit like it was just touched.

839

00:58:47,426 --> 00:58:50,945

Wait, his brain is missing out of his head?

840

00:58:52,110 --> 00:58:53,981

Del, can you roll me sanity?

841

00:58:55,006 --> 00:58:57,074

I thought we were free from this horse yet.

842

00:58:57,074 --> 00:58:59,746

Uh, 17.

843

00:58:59,946 --> 00:59:01,369

Keeping it together.

844

00:59:01,486 --> 00:59:05,486

Yeah, you only, you don't get a D20 of loss, you get a D12 of loss.

845

00:59:05,486 --> 00:59:07,026

Can you roll me a D12?

846

00:59:08,246 --> 00:59:09,126

Okay.

847

00:59:09,646 --> 00:59:23,626

So, Del, the last thing that registered in your sensory experience on Earth was falling

and then just this strange lifting feeling and your stomach dropping and then oblivion.

848

00:59:23,946 --> 00:59:28,026

And you remember your automatic features still running.

849

00:59:28,026 --> 00:59:31,014

There was some breathing happening, some...

850

00:59:31,058 --> 00:59:34,041

sensory shock experienced.

851

00:59:34,041 --> 00:59:35,962

But now there's just unfeeling.

852

00:59:35,962 --> 00:59:45,130

You feel suspended, not in darkness, but in a thick insulated void that your human senses

were never meant to process.

853

00:59:45,130 --> 00:59:54,358

There's no sound, there's only the phantom memory of loud reports and the crunching of

gravel and Barone's panic breath over your body.

854

00:59:54,702 --> 00:59:57,794

The memory echoes, but your present is completely silent.

855

00:59:57,794 --> 01:00:07,152

No light, you have no eyes to gather photons, only an internal perpetual grayness that

swallows all of your sensory experience.

856

01:00:07,813 --> 01:00:08,953

You're done.

857

01:00:09,474 --> 01:00:11,075

You have no body.

858

01:00:11,436 --> 01:00:14,718

This is at first a paralyzing terror.

859

01:00:14,718 --> 01:00:23,445

Dell, you are a man of action, defined by your ability to hold a rifle, embrace against an

impact, and feel solid ground beneath your boots.

860

01:00:23,445 --> 01:00:24,652

That anchor's gone.

861

01:00:24,652 --> 01:00:34,240

Your consciousness registers the catastrophic absence of a central nervous system and you

feel yourself going insane in this state.

862

01:00:35,222 --> 01:00:51,073

Yeah, I think, through the blackness that I cannot perceive, I imagine that there is a

cold, smooth, cylindrical wall in front of me, some centimeters that I cannot perceive.

863

01:00:51,073 --> 01:01:04,722

And as I am listening desperately for anything that might pierce this void between

sensation and, and know, I begin to just imagine

864

01:01:04,822 --> 01:01:07,785

my head tapping against that glass.

865

01:01:08,006 --> 01:01:09,026

Tink.

866

01:01:09,427 --> 01:01:10,447

Tink.

867

01:01:10,468 --> 01:01:10,868

Tink.

868

01:01:10,868 --> 01:01:18,056

A sound that I'm making for myself to fill the nothingness that would otherwise be there.

869

01:01:18,056 --> 01:01:20,198

Um.

870

01:01:21,698 --> 01:01:26,724

I think I can almost start to feel it on my frontal lobe, right?

871

01:01:26,724 --> 01:01:35,924

Just like a slow phantom bashing to try and cut out the nothingness.

872

01:01:37,068 --> 01:01:40,360

Yeah, that is all a subjective experience.

873

01:01:40,360 --> 01:01:53,087

You feel a prisoner in your own mind, basically a biological hard drive, nothing to um

control or reach out with.

874

01:01:53,448 --> 01:01:57,760

I'm curious, what does Del's regret in this moment?

875

01:01:59,882 --> 01:02:00,878

if you can speak.

876

01:02:00,878 --> 01:02:01,528

you

877

01:02:01,528 --> 01:02:02,820

Biggest regret.

878

01:02:02,842 --> 01:02:04,745

I think, um...

879

01:02:06,798 --> 01:02:11,018

leaving things so flat-footed, maybe, right?

880

01:02:11,018 --> 01:02:16,078

Like, there wasn't a clear path forward that we had determined.

881

01:02:16,258 --> 01:02:22,898

There wasn't, ah-ha, clearly when we finish this, we will move on to blah, blah, blah.

882

01:02:22,898 --> 01:02:25,606

And so the idea that...

883

01:02:27,682 --> 01:02:37,070

With all those loose ends that we knew that we had, I can't even really imagine what way

my friends would turn in my absence, right?

884

01:02:37,070 --> 01:02:49,260

It's like a mystery book that you'll never be able to finish and you just gotta hope that

they, you know, that you're not yelling at your screen wishing that they wouldn't go into

885

01:02:49,260 --> 01:02:51,882

that basement or whatever it is, you know?

886

01:02:52,856 --> 01:02:57,567

You're left with that and at this point, time becomes meaningless.

887

01:02:57,567 --> 01:03:04,880

There's no sun, no feeling, no sense of how long has passed.

888

01:03:04,880 --> 01:03:07,550

Seconds might be hours, hours might be seconds.

889

01:03:07,550 --> 01:03:18,093

The only markers are fleeting, agonizing clarity of these memories as they flash through

your head, potentially Ryan's betrayal, the smell of the swamp, frustration at Barone for

890

01:03:18,093 --> 01:03:20,194

not revealing her infection.

891

01:03:20,344 --> 01:03:28,577

These memories loop in sharp and agonizing detail, because really it's the only reality

you have left that and your own regrets.

892

01:03:30,254 --> 01:03:32,414

Yeah, I mean...

893

01:03:32,414 --> 01:03:37,194

That sounds like plenty to fill a 10 second loop from now until infinity.