SPAAAANG! Maybe running an errand for Principal Wordsmith wasn’t so easy after all. Now Connor and Craft have to climb the Ad-Mage-Istrator’s Tower while Rowan keeps the box safe. Also… I have a weird question… what’s in the box???
We’re playing Masks for this campaign! You can access a running list of all the NPCs from Campaign 4 here.
Sponsors
- Mage Hand Press, whose Gunslinger class is now available on D&D Beyond. Check out their work at magehandpress.com
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Cast & Crew
- Game Master, Co-Producer: Eric Silver
- Co-Host, Co-Producer, Sound Designer, Composer (Connor Lyons): Brandon Grugle
- Co-Host, Co-Producer, Editor (Shelley Craft): Julia Schifini
- Co-Host, Co-Producer (Rowan Rosen): Amanda McLoughlin
- Artwork: Allyson Wakeman
- Multitude: https://multitude.productions
About Us
Join the Party is an actual play podcast with tangible worlds, genre-pushing storytelling, and collaborators who make each other laugh each week. We welcome everyone to the table, from longtime players to folks who’ve never touched a roleplaying game before. Hop into our current campaign: the drama and excitement of a superhero high school! Or marathon our completed stories: Campaign 3 for a pirate story set in a world of plant- and bug-folk, the Camp-Paign for a MOTW game set in a weird summer camp, Campaign 2 for a modern superhero game, and Campaign 1 for a high fantasy story. And once a month we release the Afterparty, where we answer your questions about the show and how we play the game. New episodes every Tuesday.
Transcript
Amanda: Last time on Join the Party.
Eric: The students are called to Wordsmith's office who asks them to bring a box to the administrative office. Don't look in. Don't let anyone else take it. Just bring the box. Pretty easy, but when you're harassed by other students who wants to know what's in the box, maybe it gets a little more complicated. Also, the administrative office is in a Wizard Tower, and there are three gargoyles who are named after New York Yankees who won't let them in, like Jeets and there's no door. Rowan sneaks in because she's crazy powerful, taking the box with her, so Connor and Craft have to deal with the gargoyles the old-fashioned way, by talking about their daddy issues. Rowan isn't safe for long as she gets attacked by a big corvid/raven/crow, all of which is a mage familiar who's always saying, "Never more," who's trying to take the box from her. At my old school, we never got attacked in a Wizard Tower. This is much better. Let's get the party started.
Eric: Hey, all you super friends. You want to get good together? You want to skip math together? You want to punch bad guys together? It's not that I haven't used my words, it's that nobody listens to me and I can shoot fire. 1, 2, 3, 4.
[theme]
Eric: Folks, the three of you are at extra help right now because you didn't do your assignment from last episode, so now we have to do last week's assignment and this week's assignment.
Brandon: Okay.
Eric: Which where you all were supposed to come up with a cover for last episode by the end of the episode.
Brandon: Oh, right.
Julia: We were supposed to do that.
Eric: Yeah. And I called home and none of your parents cared. I think that's probably why you're all acting out.
Julia: I mean, I think it is a shot from inside of the box that was given to us by Wordsmith, and it's all of us peering into the box.
Brandon: Oh, that's cute.
Eric: That's fair. I did do that with the— I feel like I did that with the fridge, like—
Julia: Hmm.
Eric: —a few episodes ago, which is why I pulled back on it.
Amanda: Okay, okay.
Julia: Okay, fair enough.
Amanda: Okay. Then it can be, like, the cover of A League of Their Own, but it's us in old-timey softball uniforms.
Brandon: I like that a lot, too.
Julia: Sure, sure.
Eric: Wait, why are you in old-timey softball uniform?
Amanda: 'Cause the Yankees.
Eric: Oh, right.
Julia: As we've told Amanda, the cover never has to actually be related to what happens inside the comics, so—
Eric: No, that's no close enough. Like the—
Amanda: Yeah. Three of us are us, three of them are gargoyles.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: We're all old-timey lesbian Yankees.
Julia: Oh.
Eric: Got it. No, I like— no, that's true. All of you are— you— you're all the Rockville Peaches, and it's you three and the gargoyles. That's good.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: Okay, that's fine.
Julia: I like that, actually.
Brandon: Can I also pitch, too, that we're on the cover and Deadpool is there?
Julia: And Deadpool is there?
Eric: Deadpool is all— Brandon, you can put Deadpool in whatever cover you want.
Julia: Deadpool is actually canonically in the background of every single one of the comic covers.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: Yes.
Julia: And we do have to pay Marvel a lot of money for that.
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah, we did the Sony deal with Marvel at the same time, but—
Brandon: We need you guys to become patrons so we can pay for Deadpool, please.
Amanda: Please.
Julia: Please.
Amanda: It's that or Ryan Reynolds will, like, lick my ear for every check I don't send.
Julia: Hmm.
Eric: Well, I have to integrate Madame Webb into the campaign if we can't pay them.
Julia: Canonically.
Amanda: Eric, you could sneeze out a movie better than Madame Webb.
Brandon: Yeah, for real.
Eric: Nothing's funnier to me that when they had to put product placement in for Pepis which is a big deal. And, like, there was a whole thing of, like, you know, Dakota Johnson's holding a Pepis can the whole time and, like, show— not only— she's, like, never drinking it. She's always, like, just touching it, and she's, like, about to sip it, and, like— for an entire barbecue scene, she's just, like, holding it out, but like, Pepsi won the day. Pepsi saved the day.
Brandon: Eric, I would love to play in this space with you. I simply have not seen it because it’s trash.
Eric: Okay. Brandon, at the end of the movie, the Pepis Ex Machina.
Julia: I really didn't know what you meant at first, so I was like, "What the fuck are you talking about?"
Eric: It's Pep— it's pronounced Pepis, Julia.
Julia: Hmm.
Eric: At the end of the movie, Brandon, a very large neon sign for Pepsi falls ona bad guy.
Brandon: That's incredible.
Eric: It is— it's also— you see that sign earlier in the movie, so it's a late motif.
Brandon: I love that.
Eric: Pepis is a late motif.
Julia: It's Chekhov's Pepsi—
Eric: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Amanda: Billboard.
Julia: Yeah, cool.
Amanda: Chekhov's Pepis, exactly.
Julia: Hmm.
Brandon: I was nominated Pepis Ex Machina in high school. That was my superlative, so—
Julia: Cool.
Amanda: That's mean. They do bully different in Texas.
Brandon: That's mean? Oh, no, I've been mistaken this whole time.
Julia: Oh, no.
Eric: Wait, I thought that's why— Brandon, that's why you got that scholarship to go to NYU, right?
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: Because you were Pepis Ex Machina?
Brandon: Uh-huh.
Eric: Okay, right. Last episode, we had the fill in so that we could bring all of our comics to Comic Con. And then this cover, we're all looking like the turn of the century. We're all wearing baseball flannels. We have bets going with, like, 1910s bookies, and we're all gonna get banned by the MLB for a long time.
Julia: Cool.
Brandon: Oh, man.
Amanda: Craft is Madonna.
Julia: Yeah. It's very kind of you to say.
Eric: I think it's funny they now craft over her baseball flannels, just has, like, Madonna's pointy bra. That's good. All right. Well, hey, something weird is happening right now. I don't know.
Brandon: Not that I remember.
Eric: Is it that like— no, Craft got flirted with by another student last time, and that was kind of weird.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: I guess Connor's there, but that's not what what I mean specifically.
Brandon: That's rude.
Julia: Connor is just there.
Brandon: Oh, is it that Deadpool's there?
Eric: Yeah. Oh, right.
Julia: Oh.
Eric: Sorry, Deadpool is making fun of me, so my confidence isn't really high. Oh, that's right. Right now, at this moment, Rowan is getting attacked by a giant crow. That's right.
Brandon: Oh.
Eric: I forgot.
Amanda: God. You're always forgetting this.
Eric: Right. Incredibly dark, filled in crow with eyes that gleam with your nightmares. And you can even tell because it's outlined in white instead of outlined in black. Very scary in the comic book. And the crow— as we left it in their last panel, the crow is right up in Rowan's entire fucking grill.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Rowan, you're getting attacked by a crow. What do you do?
Amanda: Yeah. I think Rowan is just going to instinctively act to thrust this threat as far away as she possibly can using her gravitational powers.
Eric: Hell yeah. I think that you can push it away, but immediately, it just comes back around. It is like— it sees you holding the box, holding the package, and just like a boomerang, you push it and it comes back. And you push it and comes back. On the final go around, as you ready yourself to hit it with another gravity push—
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: —the crow dives around you and then comes up, up between your legs and gets its claws on the package.
Amanda (as Rowan Miriam Rosen): I'm like 17. You can't do that.
Brandon: Now, Eric, real quick, is this a crow or a raven? Because if this is a crow, I will not stand for this injustice you have done to the beautiful, majestic crow.
Eric: You know, Brandon, thank you. Thank you. You're right. There is an amalgam of corvid things happening at the same time with this. It is just black wings, black feathers, you know, scary eyes and vibes. And it is big. This is a big fucking bird.
Brandon: Could be a blue jay.
Julia: Could be a blue jay.
Eric: Could be a blue jay.
Amanda: Eric, I'm glad you're describing how big it is, because I think Rowan's instinct, when faced with a threat this big, is to make it as small as possible. And so she is going to try— instead of pushing it away, because that is not working, she's going to try to compress this bird and smoosh it right on down into a little key.
Brandon: Oh, no.
Julia: And you know what birds famously have? Very tough bones.
Eric: I think you're directly engaging a threat, my friend.
Amanda: I would agree. would agree.
Eric: That sounds like what's happening— the— this magical corvid amalgamation is getting at your package, and you have to do something about it. Remember, when you directly engage a threat, you're rolling plus danger. On a hit, you trade blows because this thing is getting all up in your biz so you might get hurt.
Amanda: Okay. That's a six plus two for an eight.
Eric: That's an eight.
Amanda: That's a mixed success, baby.
Eric: On a mixed success, you get to pick one, you can resist or avoid the blows, take something from them, create an opportunity for your allies, or impress, surprise or frighten the opposition.
Amanda: I would love to create an opportunity for my allies here. I think letting my allies know where I am—
Eric: Hmm.
Amanda: —would be extremely helpful. Maybe, if I may, instead of compressing the bird, as I was trying to do, maybe I kind of slide off of it, and my gravitational forces instead, like, shoot down through the tower, almost creating a beacon pointing to where I am.
Julia: Damn.
Brandon: I love that.
Eric: That's so scary.
Amanda: Like, you know the diagrams of a black hole and sort of space-time distortion of, like, that little bell shape?
Brandon: Ooh.
Amanda: I'm picturing that happening, like, in the floors of the tower.
Brandon: Hawking radiation, more like Rowan radiation, am I right, everyone? Who knows what I'm talking about? Am I right?
Amanda: Brandon, I haven't flown in the last few months, so I'm not up to date.
Eric (as Jeets): That's definitely something I know, me, Jeets.
Julia: I wonder if Rowan can, like, create a gravity well that, like, sucks us up to her location in that moment.
Eric: That is so— yeah. I think that's very funny that, like, Rowan has created enough gravity that, like, things on the bottom of the tower have now started to just, like, float upwards through the tower. And now, your teammates know where you are. Here's the thing, though, because you're trading blows, the magical corvid amalgamation is giving you a rapping, tapping right on your fucking face. And you are also afraid, because a bird is trying to peck out your eyes. And it's gonna make it harder for you to directly engage with threat. Later, I'm making you take the condition of afraid.
Amanda (as Rowan): I didn't know this was a fear I had to worry about.
Julia (as Shelley Craft): I didn't realize I was afraid of birds.
Amanda (as Rowan): The pigeons and I have really good terms.
Brandon: I mean, dinosaurs are very scary, so I get it.
Julia: Oh, my God, Brandon. Please.
Eric: The magical corvid amalgamation lets go of the package. There are little indents. There's little crinkle, little crow crinkles on the package, but the crow is going for something else.
Brandon: Oh, no.
Eric: The crow is flying around the scroll auditorium and picks one, and pulls it out, and then water starts gushing out of the scroll.
Brandon: Uh-oh. This crow's a wizard. Guys, this crow's a wizard.
Julia: Didn't realize that crows could do magic. That's kind of cool.
Brandon: Have you met a crow, Julia? They're magic. Okay?
Julia: Hmm. I know that they are magic. I didn't realize they could do magic.
Amanda (as Rowan): I know birds could read. Damn.
Eric (as Corvid): Never more. Literary allusion.
Eric: From the bottom, on the bottom floor of the Wizard Tower, the Yankee gargoyles, Connor and Craft, you are now seeing this column of gravity is now starting to float things upwards. I think you're kind of just in a magical realism modern atrium. You know, like it's still stone everywhere, but it's like, there's a place for you to put your shoes and like, there's some knickknacks that you put in the front of your wizard tower. And, like, you know, there's like these golden, clicky-clack balls that are just, like, knickknacks are now like floating upwards. As these knickknacks are bumping up against the ceiling, they reveal a door on the ceiling.
Eric (as DiMaggio): Sounds. The door reveals itself with powers emerging. You must go quickly before the tower turns off itself.
Julia (as Craft): Sick. DiMaggio, thank you for the help. Thanks for letting us in.
Eric (as Mantle): Mantle get— Mantle give leg up. Up.
Julia (as Craft): Oh, yeah. Sick. Thanks, bro.
Eric (as Jeets): Jeets also going to help.
Julia (as Craft): Okay, Jeets. Can you grab Connor?
Eric (as Jeets): Absopivly. Let's go uppies.
Julia (as Craft): Uppies, it is.
Amanda: Uppies.
Eric: Mantle gives you a leg up and just kind of tosses you up to the door, up there, Craft, and Jeets runs Connor into the wall, but eventually flies him up there.
Julia: Great.
Brandon: Yeah, yeah. Should I take a powerful blow or—
Eric: No. I just like— you know, the fun thing about Masks is that it's just like fun, I can just say that. And—
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Julia: You have a little bump in your head now.
Eric: Yeah. In the background, there's like a poorly drawn, like a sketchy Connor and Jeets.
Brandon: Hmm.
Eric: And we should just let Connor bumping up the side of the wizard tower.
Brandon: You know, a couple sessions ago, we talked about how easy it would be to diagnose something on Connor. But what we didn't say is, like things like rashes—
Eric: Hmm.
Brandon: —eczema—
Julia: Hmm.
Brandon: —skin-based disorders, he's fucked.
Amanda: Very difficult.
Julia: Yeah. But I bet you can see, like, bruises, like where the blood cells have kind of ruptured or something like that, so that's interesting.
Brandon: Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Anyway, I just wanted to say that Eric, I'm sorry.
Eric: No, it's great. I'm glad— I know, I'm glad you did. What do you do?
Julia: I think Craft's gonna try to open the door in the ceiling and swing herself through.
Eric: Craft, you are holding yourself up by the door up there, and—
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: then a— almost like a dialog box in an RPG pops up like—
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: —carved into the door, and it gives you like a bunch of different choices. I— you know, it gives you, like, a dialog wheel, almost of all of these different choices. But each of them you see like cafeteria, and chemistry room, and then—
Julia: Ah.
Eric: —auxiliary gym, and dorm five, and lots of different stuff in here.
Julia: Okay. Cool.
Brandon: Is this actually visible?
Eric: Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Julia: Can I assess the situation by just, like, kind of— Rowan sent us a signal of some kind. Is there a way that I can trace— I know it's in the wizard tower. Is there a way that I can figure out what room on this wheel Rowan is currently in?
Eric: Yeah, sure.
Brandon: I mean, you could ask what here— if you get the roll, what here can I use to choose the right room.
Eric: Yeah, sure.
Julia: Yeah. Cool. What do I roll? Superior. Plus one right now.
Eric: Woo.
Brandon: Nice.
Julia: Which is good because I rolled a six plus one for a seven, so—
Eric: Ah, there you go.
Amanda: Good deal.
Julia: All right. What here can I use to determine where Rowan is?
Eric: That's a great question. Craft, you open the door as you brace yourself— because you've been tossed up there. As you brace yourself, you can wrench the door open a little bit, and you are just looking into deep, dark nothingness. The— you are looking into the void, and the void is looking back at you. Actually, if you focus, you can see really far away. There's an eye down there, that's just looking back at you.
Brandon: Don't like that.
Eric: And then— but through the crack in the door, kind of like these, like, pottery barn-esque golden knickknacks are floating through into the void.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: And then it's floating towards a door jamb that is on the other side of the void.
Julia (as Craft): Okay, I don't think those were the mushroom chocolates I took this morning.
Eric: So to answer your question, what here can you use to figure out where Rowan is? Rowan is not— in the—
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: Oh.
Eric: —is not here. Rowan— because the gravity well is still pulling, there is another door jamb on the other side of the void.
Julia: Can I use Rowan's gravitational pull to kind of float to the other door?
Eric: That's a good fucking question. I think you can.
Julia: Okay.
Eric: I think you would be unleashing your powers—
Julia: Sick.
Eric: —if you tell me how you do it, or you're just gonna kind of like hope and pray?
Julia: I don't know if I'm gonna hope and pray necessarily, but I think that Rowan, in practicing our powers together as a team, has definitely taught us how best to navigate in low or zero gravity.
Eric: Uh-hmm.
Julia: And I think Craft knows how to, like, spark just enough electricity in, like, for example, her shoes—
Eric: Hmm.
Julia: —in order to propel herself in a direction while in low or zero gravity.
Eric: Absolutely. Okay. So you want to go through the void and just ride the fucking gravity well.
Julia (as Craft): I think if anyone's gonna go through the void, man, it should be Craft.
Eric: Okay. So you get plus one, because you assess the situation.
Julia: Okay.
Eric: I'm gonna ask you to unleash your powers. I'm gonna need plus freak from our good friend Craft.
Julia: Okay. My freak is zero, but I am getting the plus one from assessing the situation.
Eric: Yerp.
Julia: That is a nine plus one for a 10.
Brandon: Yo.
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: Five plus four plus one.
Eric: It's so in— that is so incredible. You find a magic door that has a bunch of rooms on it, and you're like, "Nah, I love the void."
Julia (as Craft): The void, sick as fuck. I'm gonna find out what that eye is down there.
Eric: The eye stares at you, as I think we see from the eye's perspective of just Craft, an innumerable number of feet up, just floating slowly and securely through the gravity well to the other side and grabbing the door in the dark door jamb.
Julia: Craft looks at the eye and goes—
Julia (as Craft): I'm staring back, motherfucker.
Eric: It blinks, and it does that loud blink you only hear in cartoons, like the wet one.
Julia: Toink.
Brandon: Ugh.
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: At the same time, Connor is going to follow up behind Craft, following along. And also, I want to use my unstoppable.
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: Oh.
Brandon: Which means I get to smash my way through scenery to get to or away something.
Eric: Hell yeah.
Brandon: Luckily, there's no scenery to smash, but I do want to get to something.
Eric: I mean, I think that also not engaging with the mechanic and going through the void is— I would consider that smash.
Amanda: Shortcut.
Eric: Right. You're doing a shortcut instead of engaging with the environ, you know?
Julia: Cool.
Eric: So what is this move?
Brandon: So I roll plus danger, and on a hit, the world breaks before me, and I get what I want.
Eric: Oh, just on a hit? That's cool.
Brandon: Yeah. I'm sorry.
Julia: Hmm.
Brandon: On a 10 plus, I mean, yeah, yeah. All right, here we go.
Eric: Danger.
Brandon: Five plus—
Julia: Uh-oh.
Brandon: —danger is two.
Amanda: Seven?
Brandon: So that is seven.
Julia: Seven. Seven's fine.
Amanda: That's okay. That's fine.
Julia: Seven's okay.
Amanda: That's fine.
Brandon: So on seven to nine, I choose one, mark a condition, leave something behind, or take something with me.
Julia: You're not lost in the void, so that's good.
Amanda: Oh. Oh, Brandon, you should take Jeets.
Brandon: Amanda, how about I leave Jeets behind?
Eric: No. No, no, no, no, no. No, no. You don't get to say— actually, Jeets was in my item inventory the whole time, and I'm leaving him behind. No, no, no, no, no. Either leave something behind that you like or leave— take something with you, you don't.
Julia: I think we're— we've been doing a very funny bit where Connor leaves his phone in random places when he uses his power, so I really like this idea of Connor loses his phone in the void.
Eric: Do you get to choose what it is, or you just get to choose the thing, or it doesn't say?
Brandon: On a miss, I do the thing, and that's GM's choice.
Eric: Right.
Brandon: But it does not say for the seven to nine. I don't really want to mark another condition, I already have two.
Amanda: You should lose your phone. I like that idea.
Brandon: Yeah. I do, too. I think I'm just going to— so Connor sees Craft, get to the void easily and quickly. And so he's like—
Julia: He goes, "I could do that."
Brandon: "I could do that, yeah." So he sort of takes a running start and barrels through this doorway towards the other one. Not looking where he's going, not really seeing what's in front of him, and just sort of screaming the whole way. And as he takes his first big, old giant step, his phone is— because it's Connor, it's loosely held in his pocket, and so it falls out.
Eric: Oh, into the void?
Brandon: I was gonna say into the castle, but it could be into the void, yeah.
Eric: I mean, it could be behind you. I think it's so funny, because the door is on the ceiling, so it's like, I kind of imagined you, like, bracing all four of your limbs against the door jam, and then, like, throwing yourself through the void.
Brandon: Oh, that's cooler. Wait— yeah. I—
Julia: I think the eye gets TikTok now. The eye in the void gets TikTok now.
Eric: 100%. I think, like, the— your phone falls out of your pocket as you've flung yourself, and then, like—
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Eric: —falls on the eyeball, and then the eyeball, like, grabs it, and then dis— like, disappears.
Brandon: Oh, no, it disappears?
Eric: Well—
Julia: What did— what have you changed?
Amanda: I'm sure that'll never come up again.
Brandon: Oh, no.
Amanda: Wet blink.
Brandon: It has all my contacts now.
Eric: Ah, because it's an eye? Brandon, what a good, intentional joke.
Brandon: Yep. Yep, that was intentional.
Eric: Good— what a good, intentional. Hey, back with the magical corvid. Rowan, the water is flooding fast and furious, and the crow is perched on the top of the scroll auditorium, watching, waiting, cocking its head, even rapping, napping, slapping against the water to see if it's cold. It's pretty cold, so it's just waiting for you to drown. Hey, how do you feel about that? What do you do?
Brandon: Is there— real quick, is there a panel where in the— we are from the crow's perspective, from the corvid's perspective, and does Rowan look like a giant peanut?
Amanda: I think the box looks like a giant peanut.
Brandon: Hmm.
Julia: Hmm.
Eric: Yeah, we see corvid vision for a second and then, like, everything— everything's grayed out, and Rowan is drawn like a sick figure. And— but except the package is in full color.
Amanda: Can that be our Free Comic day? Like, special release issue is, like, the crow's day? Like the crow's Wednesday or whatever?
Eric: Ooh. Pretty good.
Brandon: That's cute. I like that.
Amanda: Eric, mechanics question.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: So last episode, I rolled to charge my burn.
Eric: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: I've used all of them.
Eric: Okay.
Amanda: Can I roll again? Because it says I lose all burn at the end of a scene. I'm still in the same scene.
Eric: Well, because where'd you start the scene?
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: God, what the fuck is a scene?
Brandon: I don't think you rolled for burn in this— in the corvid.
Amanda: No, it was definitely before getting into the tower.
Brandon: So I don't know. I don't know what the scene is.
Amanda: And the consequences stick, like, I still have the conditions that I marked because I didn't roll particularly well the first time.
Julia: Hmm.
Amanda: But I don't want to do it if it's not allowed.
Eric: No, I don't know what— I guess I don't— that's so funny. There's something about this game where they use so many different types of tabletop RPG vocabulary. So it's like, I don't fucking know what a scene is.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Julia: Hmm.
Eric: Like, they've— I don't know where they say that in other parts of this book. Yeah, do it again.
Amanda: It doesn't—
Eric: Who can— yeah.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Why not? Do it again. I don't give a shit.
Amanda: It doesn't feel like breaking the game, because I still have the consequences from the first time, you know?
Eric: Yeah, I think it's like—
Amanda: Okay.
Eric: —you can't burn twice in the same fight or whatever.
Amanda: Sure.
Eric: But you did sure do it and then immediately use it.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: And now you're out of burn, and now you got to do it again.
Amanda: Okay.
Eric: So, yeah, the water is flooding. The magical corvid amalgamation is parched, looking at you, waiting, watching. What do you do?
Amanda: Rowan looks around her, remembers her swimming lessons from the Lower East Side Municipal Pool.
Julia: Hell yeah.
Amanda: And remembers that the worst thing you can do when drowning is panic. And so she closes her eyes, takes a deep breath, and—
Brandon: Gives in, floats to the bottom.
Amanda: —charges her burn once more.
Brandon: Oh.
Eric: God, it's so scary. I feel like at this— there's a panel of the comic where the water has now, like, fully submerged the entire room, because it's not that— it's honestly not that big. And then there's just like a gravity center of Rowan sitting at the bottom of the pool, I guess, like— with like an empty sphere around her—
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: —which scares the shit out of me.
Brandon: That's cool.
Julia: I'm picturing like a long panel, like tall panel—
Eric: Oh, yeah.
Brandon: Oh, yeah.
Julia: —where, like, Rowan just like curling up into a ball and, like, slowly sinking in the frame.
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: In between— I feel like it's cut with shots— with increasing zooms of the corvid's eyeballs.
Amanda: Just waiting.
Eric: So scary.
Julia: Very artistic.
Amanda: Ooh, beautiful. Happy to say this works, because I rolled a seven plus the conditions I—
Brandon: Wee!
Amanda: —have marked, which is four.
Julia: Woo.
Brandon: That's a lot of conditions.
Eric: Lot of conditions.
Amanda: For an 11, meaning I have three burn to burn.
Julia: Hell yeah.
Eric: Three burn.
Brandon: Hell yeah.
Amanda: Three burn, baby.
Brandon: I just really like the idea of a swim coach who was like, "The worst thing you can do is panic, so just give in and let it happen."
Amanda: Brandon, that is what my mom taught us about riptides.
Julia: Hmm.
Amanda: Because it's more dangerous to tire yourself out trying to get back in, so you just swim parallel to shore until it lets you go, and then you can doot back to shore.
Julia: That is true.
Brandon: You're just gonna die in the riptide. Just let it go.
Amanda: No. No, you're not. Okay. Beautiful. So I think you see Rowan's eyes open. I think the eyes are filled with the spectral static of a certain friend. And when she opens her mouth—
Eric: Oh, my God. You open your eyes, and then you have, like, green M&M eyes for a moment.
Amanda: Exactly right. And when she opens her mouth, instead of air coming out, I think black and gray static rushes out of her mouth.
Brandon: Oh, no.
Amanda: And forms around her, swirling, lifting, lifting her back up to the surface of the water until it coalesces in the shape of a cube.
Brandon: Oh.
Amanda: Because Rowan is going to use construct to create any object with her powers up to the size of a person, and she is going to make a box identical to the box she's holding.
Brandon: Oh.
Julia: Oh.
Brandon: Genius.
Julia: Interesting.
Eric: You're making an identical box?
Amanda: Yep.
Brandon: Is this construct or construct? Like, can you make— because I guess you could make a little guy, right? Like a per—
Amanda: I could make a little guy and it— the flare is called constructs.
Brandon: Oh, okay.
Julia: Wow.
Brandon: That's smart. I like it.
Julia: Wow.
Brandon: Smart.
Julia: I do also like that your instinct is like, "I'll figure out the drowning later. We gotta figure out what's going on with this box."
Brandon: Well, you can't drown when you got gravity around you—
Julia: Well—
Brandon: —Julia. Everyone knows this.
Julia: Well—
Eric: So you use your burn to make another make a second box?
Amanda: Yep.
Eric: And now you're holding both boxes?
Amanda: Yep.
Eric: Okay. Cool. You hear a, "Sploosh!" As the corvid amalgamation dives through the water, slicing through the magic water. It's so good at swimming in magic water. It was born in magic water its whole life. It was born in the magic water and you just adopted it.
Julia: Hmm.
Eric: And it dives for a box.
Brandon: In my head, I did hear the crow, the corvid go— [squawks]
Julia: [squawks]
Eric: "Oh, oh. Never more." Here's what I'm gonna say, when something tries to take the box from you, I'm going to make a custom move to figure this shit out, because then I'm gonna say that this is superior. Because if someone's trying to take an object from you, you are the one with the object, and that makes you a better person than the other person.
Julia: Hmm.
Amanda: Sure.
Eric: Because they're a thief trying to take your shit from you.
Amanda: Normal.
Eric: So I'm gonna say, please roll plus superior to figure out if the box is being stolen.
Julia: Now, could Amanda choose to fail this roll but offer up the fake box?
Eric: Well, if you succeed, you can give them a fake box. That's the wonderful thing about Masks, is that now you've done this thing and it exists, and you can do it if you roll correctly.
Amanda: Let's see. Plus superior, I have zero right now. Now, Eric, in Episode Eight, I got a plus one forward that I have not used. Can I use it, or is that supposed to be in my next roll?
Brandon: Probably should've been in the next roll.
Julia: Yeah, I think in general—
Amanda: Then I'll—
Julia: —the forward is for, like, the next action related to why you got the forward. But I appreciate you marking that you had it down.
Amanda: All right, let me roll. I have plus zero to superior right now. All right, that's a six. Is there a way that the team can help?
Eric: Well, the team, they're not with you, but you could always do something selfish and bump your superior up.
Brandon: I love the idea of you gossiping with this corvid.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Anything selfish. I mean, you're already pretty selfish by leaving immediately, so you can just totally do a bunch of selfish stuff.
Amanda: Yeah, let's do it. I'm gonna use that last team because it feels like I don't want to lose this box right now.
Julia: No.
Amanda: If that's cool with you guys. All right. Yeah. So what is something selfish I do?
Eric: Yeah. When you act selfishly, say how your actions ignore or insult your teammates, and then shift one label up and one label down.
Julia: I mean, a selfish thing could be, as we're floating through the void, you turn off the gravity well to focus on doing the crow stuff. That sure does ignore us.
Eric: Yeah, it could be that. You could just keep going, is another thing. You could just find a way to bust out of here without remembering that your teammates are probably trying to find you. Could be another way you ignore them.
Brandon: You could call me a jerk.
Amanda: You know, I think I want to ignore my teammates, conviction, not to look inside the box.
Julia: Ah.
Amanda: And so tell me if this works. I think what Rowan is going to do is, like, dip and weave her shoulder to miss the bird coming at her.
Eric: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: I think she definitely, like, uses some gravitational force to, like, move the bird away. That probably sends a wobble into the gravity well that already exists. And I think as she's turning around, holding these two boxes, she's just like—
Amanda (as Rowan): You know what? Fuck it.
Amanda: And Eric, I want to do one more thing and use one more burn.
Eric: Okay.
Amanda: Elemental awareness. So this is where I spend a burn and mark a condition to open my mind up to the world around me with my powers. I can ask any one question about the world around me, and the GM will answer honestly. So I think we see—
Eric: Okay.
Amanda: —the title map and the gravitational well of this, like, vortex that Rowan is in. I think her turning so quickly and using gravity actually starts to make a whirlpool, if you guys ever did that, like in a pool as kids and, like, walk around and around until it makes a—
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: I think that's beginning to happen. Maybe even water starting to go into the gravity well, which might be bad for you guys. But Rowan is going to mark superior up, mundane down. And Eric—
Eric: Hmm.
Amanda: —I want to know what's in the box.
Brandon: Do you have five conditions now, too? All five?
Amanda: I sure do.
Julia: Jeez, girlfriend.
Amanda: I'm marking hopeless because I think I'm fully in. And either this is a good thing to find out what's in the box, or it's going to be very, very bad for all of us. So Rowan isn't looking in the box, but she is, I think, using her gravitational power to do that kind of X-ray—
Julia: Probe the box.
Amanda: —and see the shape of— see from the outside, the shape of what's in the box.
Julia: It's gonna be like a fucking sandwich.
Eric: You know what's funny? Is that, like— I mean, that's what I said about Connor's thing, is, like, if you found a way to enhance your senses—
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: —you could see inside the box. So I guess you're gonna be able to see inside the box.
Amanda: So, Eric—
Julia: Wow.
Amanda: —I'm asking a question about the world around me, what's in the box?
Julia: What's in the box?
Brandon: What's in the box?
Amanda: What's in the box?
Brandon: Should you just tell Amanda?
Eric: Okay. I'm try— I'm also trying to— there's like three things I need to resolve, too. So I'm trying to, like, also remember to write out— of all the things I need to resolve after I tell you what's in the box, too. Which is crazy, because it's like, this is just— you're using a burn power inside of doing something selfish to raise your team that eventually— we need to resolve, that someone taking the box from you move.
Amanda: Brandon just said something interesting. Do you want to just tell me?
Brandon: Or you can just tell me, only me.
Julia: Or you can just tell Brandon.
Amanda: No, it's your call, but I thought that was a really good suggestion, Brandon.
Eric: All right, fine. You guy— yeah. You guys take your headphones off for a second, and then I'll wave my hands. Yeah. All right, they don't get to know what's in the box. All right.
Amanda: What's in the box?
Eric: In the box, you can see— I have to take off my headphones because Brandon's singing The Girl From Ipanema. All right. In the box, surrounded by a bunch of tissue paper, is an incredibly large light bulb. The light bulb is almost the entirety of the size of the package. I think I said the package is like, I don't know— in my head, it was like, you know when there's a box on a basketball?
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: So it's like— it just like— there— you try to put a cube around a sphere.
Amanda: Yeah. There's, like, a little cut out for the belly of the sphere.
Eric: Yeah, but it's like— so the box is pretty much all— there's tissue paper holding this whole thing, but it's a basketball-sized light bulb.
Amanda: Huh.
Eric: The majority of it is the kind of head of the light bulb. There is a— you can see that there is a very large filament inside.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: It is incredibly jagged. The, like, Edison bowl, but like, even more so. Like, it doesn't just make the kind of, like, wavy line.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: It's like—
Amanda: It's more kiki than bouba.
Eric: Yeah— no. No, no, no. It's even more so. Like, it's not— it is erratic in a way that doesn't feel like this filament was made by machine or by hand. Like, why would— you know how, like, humans and machines make straight lines?
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: The universe doesn't make straight lines. Why would you make a filament that's like this? That's so intentionally all over the place, in jagged?
Amanda: Huh.
Eric: The base of the light bulb is very small. It is also incredibly odd. It is not, like, circular. It doesn't like, fit into what we understand a lamp—
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: —feature. It is like— it's weird. Like, when you get a key— when you see a key, and you're like, "How— what lock—"
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: "—takes this key?"
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: That is also what you feel about the base of this light bulb.
Amanda: Okay. Thank you.
Eric: Okay. So it's just like in Halo 2, honestly, when you think about it.
Amanda: Okay.
Julia: Cool, cool.
Brandon: So it's just like in Halo 2?
Eric: Yeah. That's— I was— oh, sorry, you heard that? I was just finishing describing it to Amanda.
Brandon: Oh, okay.
Julia: Uh-huh. Amanda famously knows all the Halo games and everything that happens in them.
Eric: Yeah, it's kind of like a Kilimanjaro when you think about it.
Amanda: Master commander.
Julia: Hmm, Amanda, what's the name of the AI assistant?
Amanda: Lana.
Brandon: Cortana.
Julia: So close.
Amanda: Shit. That's too hot to handle. Again.
Brandon: There's a sword in there.
Eric: There is—
Amanda: Is that the one with all the holes? The horny holes? No, that's portal.
Brandon: The horny holes.
Eric: Oh, my God.
Brandon: I don't think they're horny. Are the holes themselves horny?
Julia: Any hole is horny, Brandon.
Eric: The people are very horny about GLaDOS, so I can kind of— if you only see this video game through A03, I could see why you think the holes are horny. There's an Instagram series where, like, a guy— it's called, like, Things My Girlfriend Shouldn't Know.
Julia: Hmm.
Eric: And just, like, asks her, it's like, "What—" it's like, "What is this?" It's like, "No, this is Lionel Messi. That's not who it is. What is this?" It's like, "This is Blood Gulch from Halo 1." Like— and I feel like that is what— I feel like we're seeing with what Amanda is saying right now.
Julia: Sure.
Amanda: You're welcome.
Julia: That makes sense.
Amanda: I can't quote the entirety of The Raven if that's helpful at any point.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: I've asked you to do that recently, and you could not do it, so—
Eric: Wow.
Amanda: Oh, my God. That's, like, the seventh stanza, Brandon. It's a long poem.
Eric: Amanda— I think Amanda is a fake gamer girl.
Amanda: Wow! I thought this was about ethics and video game journalism, and suddenly, it's about who could quote The Raven and who can't.
Eric: That's what GamerGate was about, actually—
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: —which is crazy.
Amanda: Jesus.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: It's fucking crazy.
Amanda: I got swatted for this.
Eric: Yeah, that's why Kotaku shut down.
Julia: Damn.
Eric: Fuck. Okay. So we resolved the selfish move, right?
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: So now, we're selfish. This move is now up to a seven, which is a mixed success. A mixed success for am I going— is the box gonna be taken away from me? Is that you still hold on to the box, however, you are still being pursued by the thing that is pursuing you, plus something else.
Amanda: Oh.
Eric: And that's when you hear another sploosh. And you can't get a good read on it with the swirling of the whirlpool. You just kind of see, like, athleisure leggings and an athleisure, you know, crop top going by you. The water coalesces with, like, a forearm shiver to the face of the corvid. And now, the magical raven thing spins off into the water. And then, kind of, like, the movement of the water, comes back around, and it's enveloping you. And the box is spinning around and around, furthering the whirlpool around you and even— and seeping into the gravitational powers around you. If you don't do something right now, you are going to drown. So Connor and Craft, right?
Julia: Hey, what's up?
Eric: What kind of room do you— would— do you think— are you in on the other side of the door jamb?
Brandon: Well, hopefully, the scroll room.
Julia: Hopefully, the library, it's not the scroll auditorium, I'll tell you that much.
Brandon: Didn't Julia get a success on finding the room?
Eric: I answered Craft's question, which is what is the best way to figure out where Rowan is? And the answer was, you got to go through the next room.
Julia: Hmm.
Eric: Craft asked, which room is Rowan in on this directory? And the answer was the gravity well went to the other side of the door jamb.
Brandon: And so there's potentially rooms still between?
Eric: Exactly.
Julia: Ah, okay.
Eric: Welcome to blueprints.
Brandon: Yay. I type in every date I see into every safe.
Eric: So hey, what kind of do you think you're in, in the wizard tower?
Julia: Cafeteria.
Eric: Wizard cafeteria?
Julia: Wizard cafeteria.
Amanda: Is it like a YO! Sushi but they float instead of they're on a conveyor belt?
Eric: Bom, ba-bom, ba-bom, ba, da, da, da, da, bom, ba-bom, ba-bom, ba, da, da, da. We are the fish. Boop, boo, boop. It's like in Sorcerer's Apprentice, where they make all the brooms come alive and do all the broom stuff, but it's like—
Julia: I wanna eat a fish that says, "We are the fish."
Eric (as Toro Sushi): Hi, I'm Toro Sushi. I get in your mouth. Bom, ba-bom, ba-bom, ba, ba, ba-bom.
Brandon (as Connor): Hey, Sushi, where's the big noise and water coming from? Can you point us in that direction, please?
Eric: All of the sushi, all of the onigiri that is on plates come together and turn into one big, large sushi fish. Like, they're a school of fish that pulls itself into— in—
Julia: Yeah. We've seen Finding Nemo.
Eric: Yeah, yeah. It turns into a big school of fish, like Wishiwashi, the Pokemon. It says—
Eric (as school of fish): Where the water is seeping from, that is where you need to go next. Let me into your belly.
Brandon (as Connor): No, thanks.
Julia (as Craft): I'll take a snack.
Eric (as school of fish): Please. It is my life's duty to let me into— to be led into your bellies.
Julia (as Craft): I got a little munchies. I'll take one.
Brandon (as Connor): The more you want it, the less I want it.
Eric (as school of fish): Thank you. Let me into your belly. Open up. Bom, ba-bom, ba-bom, ba-bom, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba-bom, ba-bom, ba-bom.
Eric: And just like the sushi breaks and, like, just one by one kind of trots its way into Craft's mouth.
Amanda: This is very Scooby-Doo.
Julia: And then Craft chews and then goes—
Julia (as Craft): All right, next room. Let's go.
Eric: And then there's, like, more sushi, like, try to bump into your face.
Julia (as Craft): All right. Okay, get— stop, please. I'm good and full. I've had ample.
Brandon: And then Craft gets a tape worm.
Julia (as Craft): Hey.
Eric: What— this is magic sushi, Brandon.
Julia (as Craft): This is good sushi.
Eric: I think you can sur— you confused Magic Sushi with gas station sushi again.
Amanda: Oh, okay.
Julia (as Craft): Hmm, different things.
Amanda: I'm always getting Magic and Kroger mixed up.
Brandon: Yeah, the gas station was called Magic, though, so that's why I was confused.
Julia (as Craft): Oh.
[theme]
Amanda: Hey, it's Amanda. This midroll is brought to you by a lunch break in the garden. Oh, so nice. Thank you and welcome to Pointy Purple Penguin, our newest paying supporter on Patreon. You, Penguin, join the hundreds of other patrons who support means we'll be posting another episode of the One Shot Derby, playing your fave and mine, the true crime podcast game very, very soon, like this Friday, very soon. The video and audio will be available for all paying patrons, along with incredible benefits that you get every single day from our Patreon, usually. Like our wholesome and very active Discord, ad-free episodes, our biweekly Party Planning podcast, and more. Join the Patreon Party now, see what I did there? At patreon.com/jointhepartypod. If you like Join the Party, you are going to love the rest of the stuff that Multitude is cooking up. Most recently, I want to tell you about season two of Attach Your Resume, which just started a couple weeks back, where Eric and I interview different online creators about how their jobs work and how they got here. You can hear us talk about the personal stories behind seismic events in digital media and learn what concrete steps we can take as people, as people who make and consume digital media to make a sustainable media landscape. Attach Your Resume proves that the best credential for deciding the future of media is actually making stuff. By the way, if you watch Bon Appetit and you liked Carla Lall music, I interviewed her in person in the Multitude office. It was sick as hell. Go and listen to that episode in your podcast app or watch it for free at the Attach Your Resume Patreon, patreon.com/attachyourresume. And we are sponsored once more by our friends at Mage Hand Press. Look at them, putting their money where their mouth is in terms of supporting the DND community. You'll love to see it. Specifically, Mage Hand is sponsoring this episode because they have just published the gunslinger class from Valda's Spire of Secrets, aka the Homebrew that powered all of Campaign 3 of Join the Party on D&D Beyond. So if you subscribe to D&D Beyond, like the thousands of people who do, to make online D&D play accessible at your fingertips, you can also use the goodness of Homebrew in that system. Specifically, you should play a gunslinger, which was Troy Riptide's class from. Campaign 3. If you want to score critical hits, have extremely cool weaponry, and generally just be a lovable himbo, though, that is available technically at any class. So the gunslinger class specifically comes with six new subclasses, Troy was a trick shot, a slew of gunslinging spells and new features, so you can shoot first and ask questions later, like we all love to do. So go on over to magehandpress.com to learn about the great stuff that Mage Hand is doing all the time. And hey, congratulate them on getting a brand-new class up on D&D Beyond, that is a big deal. Thank you, Mage Hand Mike, for supporting the show, and congratulations. Now, back to the show.
[theme]
Julia: I look around for another door, being like—
Julia (as Craft): All right, where is that water coming from?
Brandon: Yeah, I would like to follow the water. I would like to use my supernatural senses to feel the humidity—
Eric: Oh.
Brandon: —in the room and see where the most moisture is.
Julia: Oh.
Eric: So would you say that, like, you have— one of your senses is for detecting what's moist?
Brandon: I would say, Eric, can you feel humidity?
Eric: So, like— but for Connor, specifically, like he knows what's moist?
Brandon: I would not say— I would say, can you feel humidity?
Eric: I would say skies--
Julia: I'm so concerned by this line of questioning.
Eric: No, I just wanted to see if I could get Brandon to say moist. Yeah. In the cafeteria, there are doors leading in all directions, because in various places you need to pick up lunch, they do it at the Mad Mage Cafetorium, where they also put on the play— that's where the plays are too, because there's a little stage over there.
Julia: Oh.
Brandon: Cute.
Julia: Cute.
Eric: Yeah. And, yeah, Connor, one of these doors, feeling kind of moist.
Brandon: It's feeling kind of humid?
Eric: No, that's— there's a different one that feels humid that goes in the—
Brandon: Connor yells over to Craft—
Brandon (as Connor): This one feels the most humid.
Eric: You open it up and there are Jaguar— and you are now like on top of a Mayan pyramid, and there are Jaguar warriors, like, stabbing an unknowable beast.
Brandon (as Connor): Fine. It's probably the other one that's— that feels human.
Julia: Wait, Craft goes—
Julia (as Craft): Do you know Samantha, the golden warrior? Any of you know Samantha the golden warrior? Has the power of the setting sun.
Brandon (as Connor): Is a child.
Julia (as Craft): Is a child sometimes.
Amanda (as Rowan): Whenever she's not a panther, she's a child.
Julia: You're out there.
Eric: Sorry, I've like— I was imagining that you just opened it, there now is just like a door panel that's like 10 feet up on top of this Mayan pyramid—
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: —and below, all the warriors are just like—
Eric (as Mayan warrior): It is your purpose to die fighting the beast. Those of you who die will live on in our hearts and minds forever.
Eric: But it's translated it at the bottom.
Julia: Okay. Yeah, there's subtitles.
Eric: Yeah, there's subtitles.
Brandon (as Connor): No, thank you. We're good.
Julia (as Craft): Okay, cool. Later.
Brandon: Connor closes the door. And then he goes to the other humid door, Eric.
Eric: Yeah, this one's wet, dude. This one is wet. It is bending with the water pressure that is pushing against it.
Brandon: Connor puts— sort of, like, moves Craft over, and then opens the door so they're behind it, and then water will flow out if it happens.
Amanda: Nice.
Eric: Hmm, that's smart. That's smart. You open the door and water is rushing.
Brandon: Connor yells—
Brandon (as Connor): Be free, fish, be free.
Julia (as Craft): You don't have to be sushi if you don't want to, except for the ones that were in my belly now.
Eric: The sushi school of fish, now there's like a fin taken out of it. And now, they all speak together and be like—
Eric (as school of fish): We have not known free will before. We cannot return to our more ancient states. We only know sushi and the mastication to bring us to the next path of existence.
Julia (as Craft): Okay.
Brandon (as Connor): Okay.
Julia (as Craft): That's tough.
Eric: And now, like, there's just, like, a bunch of wet sushi, like, floating in the water, because water is just rushing in and Rowan, like the floor gets taken out of you, and you rush out with the water.
Julia: And Craft goes—
Julia (as Craft): Oh, Rowan, hey.
Eric: You're gonna turn over and over, and the water dissipates. I feel like there's a mad— there must be a magical, like, slop sink in the back that just, like, takes all the water through. So you hear the water drains out, and there's like puddles everywhere. And Rowan is holding a box, and Glimmer is holding a box as well.
Julia (as Craft): Which one do we shoot?
Brandon (as Connor): Glimmer? Oop! Wait, no, sorry.
Eric (as Glimmer): Why are we shooting me? Why are— what are you— hi, hey, hi.
Brandon (as Connor): How did you get here? Why are you here? Give us the box back.
Amanda: I know which box is the right one, right?
Eric: Maybe. I don't know. I don't think so. If you make an exact replica— unless you use another burn to know which one is the right box, I can't tell— I don't think so.
Amanda: But how did she get it away from me?
Eric: Because you guys tumbled out with all the water getting flooded out.
Eric (as Glimmer): Oh, I, you know, I just wanted to see what you were doing in the wizard tower, and I just wanted to help. So, you know, when there's water—
Julia (as Craft): No, you didn't.
Eric (as Glimmer): —I felt like I felt a disturbance in the water force, and I got—
Brandon (as Connor): That's not a power you have.
Eric (as Glimmer): —and I was drawn there, so—
Brandon (as Connor): You've told me your powers before. That's not one of them.
Eric (as Glimmer): What are my power— Connor, what are my powers?
Brandon (as Connor): Fish, hybrid, breathe underwater.
Eric (as Glimmer): Uh-huh.
Brandon (as Connor): Well, with the hood thing, the tank thing. And you also said, "Make boys go crazy." But I don't know about that one. I think that was just like a normal— I think either a joke or just like a normal thing that people have.
Eric (as Glimmer): I mean, you know, it's not in my file, but, you know, I guess I do.
Julia: Jesus Christ.
Eric (as Glimmer): I've been working on your— my power is not like you actually know, and now I can commune with water, and I'm a protector of the oceans, the eight seas. Yeah, there's a fucking eighth sea. You didn't even fucking know that. And—
Amanda (as Rowan): Yes, gravity.
Eric (as Glimmer): It's not,
Amanda (as Rowan): And also the water is gone now, so you can go, thanks. I'll take that back.
Amanda: And Rowan sticks out her hand.
Eric (as Glimmer): No, I'm gonna deliver the package.
Julia (as Craft): Yeah, to who?
Brandon (as Connor): You don't even know where it goes.
Eric (as Glimmer): Oh, you mean to floor seven, to the Mad Mage— in the Mad Mage Administratorium?
Brandon (as Connor): No, it's room seven.
Eric (as Glimmer): Oh, thank you.
Brandon (as Connor): Shit! Shit!
Julia (as Craft): Damn it, Connor.
Eric (as Glimmer): So I do know where to go. I guess one of these— I mean, one of these doors must go— much— might go to it, so I think I'm just gonna deliver it. I mean, I'm just trying to help. I don't know why you guys are so fucking bent out of shape about it. I wanted to get out of fucking AP US History. Jesus.
Brandon (as Connor): Why? That's such a fun class.
Eric (as Glimmer): No.
Julia (as Craft): Where's the note getting you out of that?
Brandon (as Connor): Oh, yeah, we'll tattle. We're gonna tell on you.
Eric (as Glimmer): Oh, cool, nice. Yeah, sure, if you want to, I guess. But I'm gonna deliver the package, and then Wordsmith gonna be like, "Oh, thank you for delivering the package!" And it's gonna be great.
Amanda (as Rowan): So did he tell you it's important to look in the box before you deliver it, make sure you're delivering the right thing?
Brandon (as Connor): He did say that, yeah.
Julia (as Craft): Yeah.
Amanda (as Rowan): Go ahead.
Julia (as Craft): Because we've all looked at the box already.
Brandon (as Connor): Yeah. Do you even know what's in it?
Eric (as Glimmer): Do you even know what's in it?
Amanda (as Rowan): Yeah.
Julia (as Craft): Yeah, bitch.
Brandon (as Connor): Yeah. We can't tell you, though, if you don't look at it. Well, why are we—
Eric (as Glimmer): Okay. Well, what's in the box?
Amanda (as Rowan): Go ahead, look.
Eric (as Glimmer): I don't want to look in the box.
Amanda (as Rowan): I can't tell you. You can only look for yourself. It's the rule.
Brandon (as Connor): Yeah. It says in the box, you can't tell anyone else what's in this box.
Amanda (as Rowan): It's like learning a life lesson, like you gotta do it.
Brandon (as Connor): Except for this sentence that is written inside the box.
Amanda (as Rowan): Yeah.
Eric (as Glimmer): Okay, fine. I'll look in the box.
Amanda (as Rowan): Well, if you're too chicken, you just give me the box and then you can leave, so—
Brandon (as Connor): She's a fish. Rowan, she's a fish.
Amanda (as Rowan): Shh. Chicken of the sea.
Eric (as Glimmer): Fine, I'll look in the box. Fine.
Amanda (as Rowan): Go ahead.
Eric (as Glimmer): Okay. I will.
Brandon: She turns into a pillar of salt.
Eric: You know what's funny? I'm wondering on how to resolve this.
Julia: I think there is literally a move called provoke someone.
Eric: Yeah, I think I'm being provoked to do something right now.
Julia: Yeah. Yeah.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Absolutely. When you provoke someone susceptible to your words, absolutely, she's insecure. Say what you're trying to do and roll plus superior. I think this is Rowan.
Brandon: Yeah, I have a minus one, so—
Julia: I got a plus one to superior.
Eric: It doesn't mat— I feel like we gotta go by narratively.
Amanda: Character, yeah.
Eric: And I think Rowan—
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: —was the one who said it.
Amanda: I have plus one to superior after shifting my labels, but also a minus two to provoke someone with my guilty condition.
Julia: Ah.
Amanda: So that is a net minus one.
Eric: Okay. So I'm looking— we're just looking for something.
Amanda: All right, I rolled a seven minus one for a six.
Eric: Oh.
Brandon: Okay, do we— we don't have anything else, do we?
Eric: No, the team's gone.
Amanda: But that is my final potential, so your girl's leveling up.
Julia: Woo-hoo.
Amanda: But, yeah, I failed to provoke someone.
Julia: Ya-hoo.
Amanda: Oopsies.
Eric: Oh, boy.
Julia: I mean, Amanda/Rowan is the only one who now knows what is actually in the box, so that's something to consider as well.
Eric: That's true. You are the one who knows what's in the box. So I have two ideas of what I want to do, and I'm trying to decide which you would— you three would like less.
Julia: Fair enough.
Amanda: To avoid that one?
Brandon: Why don't you tell us both of them, and then we'll tell which one we'd like less?
Julia: Yeah, we hate this one.
Eric: Well, I'm wondering if she either leaves— yeah. I mean, she's just gonna fucking leave, right? Which—
Julia: With the box.
Eric: —she's gonna do. And I'm not gonna tell you if she has the box or not. That's kind of what definitely happens, right?
Brandon: I mean, we have vision. We can see if she has the box.
Julia: Well, no, because there's two boxes and we don't know which box.
Amanda: I made two identical box.
Brandon: Oh, if it's the correct box.
Eric: The correct box, right? And she—
Amanda: Okay.
Eric: I, 100%, think that's the worst thing possible, right?
Julia: Yeah.
Eric (as Glimmer): I think you're all lying, and I think you're all really mean, and I just wanted to do something fun, and I thought that we could be friends, but I guess not—
Eric: From the back kitchen, you hear the ripping of metal and through with like a water hand, the slop sink gets thrown across the room and slams Rowan in the face. And Rowan, I need you to roll to take a powerful blow, and you have all fucking five conditions, my friend.
Amanda: I sure do.
Julia: Damn, dude.
Amanda: I rolled a two.
Julia: Oh.
Eric: Oh, shit, you were—
Julia: That's still a seven, right?
Amanda: Oh, plus condition mark, okay. So that's two plus five, that means I do indeed get a seven, so I have to choose one.
Brandon: That is literally the best you could have possibly done.
Amanda: Yeah. Thank you.
Eric: That's— that is absolutely insane.
Amanda: So I can't take— I can't struggle past the pain and mark two conditions.
Eric: No. No.
Amanda: Because that would take me out. I would hate to give ground, but why would I lash out verbally, provoke a teammate to foolhardy action?
Eric: I think you should give ground, because I'm definitely going— I was already thinking of doing that next. I think that one makes the most sense.
Brandon: I mean, if you wanted to bash— lash out verbally, you could provoke me to, like, try to beat the shit out of her or something, but—
Julia: Plow forward.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Julia: That's not very Connor.
Brandon: Yeah. But—
Eric: It's up— yeah, it's up to you.
Amanda: I think Rowan is astonished to be lashed out at verbally and then physically. So she is just gonna stumble backward and maybe, like, almost dropped, but then recovered the box that she's holding. And I think she's gonna give ground, and the opposition gets an opportunity.
Eric: Yeah. And I mean, the opportunity is that Glimmer opens one of the closest door near her, and just— and walks through and gets away.
Amanda: All right.
Eric: You could pursue her, but she takes the box and she steps out.
Julia (as Craft): Shit. Rowan, you okay?
Amanda (as Rowan): I don't— I'm sorry. I don't know.
Julia (as Craft): Damn. Is that the box? Is that the actual box?
Amanda (as Rowan): I don't—
Amanda: And I think Rowan's gonna use her final burn here and move.
Julia: Can she just drop the—
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: Before you use your burn, I'm sorry.
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: Can she just stop using her power that created the alternate box?
Amanda: So what I can do, Julia, I can't dissolve it, because it dissolves at the end of the scene.
Brandon: But you know what I can do, Amanda?
Amanda: What?
Brandon: Is negate your power.
Julia: Oh.
Amanda: Oh, that's cool.
Eric: I think the box exists. I think— if we're talking about the narrative stakes of this thing, she— I think she has the box.
Julia: I mean, also Glimmer exited the scene, so—
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: —if the box was fake, would it disappear?
Amanda: I don't know. The scene has not ended like in fiction, so I would guess no.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: But what I can do, Julia, is use my final burn to animate this construct independently of myself. Rowan is gonna, like, kind of shake off her shock, and then put out her hand, and I think you guys might hear it, as a voice goes—
Amanda (as Voidie-Lynn): Now, that's kind of embarrassing, innit?
Brandon (as Connor): What the—
Amanda (as Voidie-Lynn): Come here, little box.
Amanda: And—
Brandon: Is that you?
Amanda: —the box, whichever is the one Rowan created, is going to shimmy itself out of whoever's holding it and come as if attracted by a magnet to doink against Rowan's hands.
Julia: Amanda, it's your scurry.
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: It's your scurry.
Eric: Rowan, the box in your hand goes—
Eric (as box): Mama, mama, mama.
Amanda (as Rowan): Yeah, she's got the little one.
Eric (as box): Hungy.
Brandon (as Connor): Shit.
Julia (as Craft): All right.
Brandon (as Connor): Shit. Is this— do we have to care about this box now?
Julia (as Craft): Yeah, Connor, we got a bust. We got a bust on through.
Amanda (as Rowan): It's got, like, a weird light bulb in it.
Julia (as Craft): It had— what? Sorry, it had what in it?
Amanda (as Rowan): Like a weird light bulb.
Eric: The box kind of, like, lurches for Connor, and says—
Eric (as box): Dada?
Brandon (as Connor): No.
Amanda (as Rowan): I don't know. Sorry.
Brandon (as Connor): No.
Julia (as Craft): Okay, can we— Connor, can you do your thing?
Brandon (as Connor): Yes.
Eric (as box): [makes baby noises]
Julia: Craft takes it and fucking kick it. Get out of here.
Eric (as box): Ahh!
Julia (as Craft): Fucking useless. All right, let's fucking go.
Eric: In the background, you hear—
Eric (as box): Weh, weh.
Brandon: Connor is going to use his move called unstoppable again, where he's going to just make a beeline straight towards where Glimmer was going.
Eric: Hell yeah.
Brandon: And just sort of lower his shoulders like a—
Amanda: Tush push.
Brandon: I'm not a linebacker.
Julia: Yeah. Isn't that a linebacker?
Eric: Yeah, like a running back slamming through the hold.
Brandon: Yeah.
Julia: The defense guy.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: Yeah.
Julia: Whoever does defense in football, you know?
Amanda: Big one.
Brandon: You know? He's gonna lower shoulder like a running back, protecting the quarterbacks. You know how there's two quarterbacks on team?
Eric: I do.
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: And the queen.
Brandon: And the queen.
Eric: Well, I guess if you castle, it's more confusing.
Brandon: And just try to slam his way through anything that's in their way between here and Glimmer.
Eric: I love that. This is wonderful. Hey, do you guys want to do a montage? Throw some shit in the wizard tower?
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: I think that there's a Scooby-Doo montage and we'll— I— Brandon, I promise we will resolve your roll at the end of this, but I love the idea of, like, we are going up through the wizard tower and Connor is just, like, fucking barreling behind Glimmer with the two of you running behind Connor.
Brandon: [sings Yakety Sax which devolves into Sleigh Ride]
Julia: Why— wait, why did it become a Christmas song?
Brandon: [keeps singing] I don't know, Julia.
Eric: It's the Simple Plan, What's New, Scooby-Doo?
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: What's new, Scooby-Doo? Connor's running after you. He's really scary, and you can see his guts. What's new, Scooby-Doo? Connor's behind you. What's new, Scooby-Doo? But Simple Plan was singing that.
Julia: Cool.
Amanda: Can we each name a room we run through?
Eric: That's exactly what I'd love. Tell me a room you run through and where the door is.
Julia: Bathroom, and you have to go through a toilet.
Brandon: Why would you do that to us, Julia?
Julia: For fun.
Amanda: We're already wet.
Julia: We're already wet.
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: Amanda's got a great point.
Eric: Everything is white. The door— like the big, ornate white door opens up and there are actual stalls in this magical wizard room. And Glimmer jumps right into a toilet and dissolves into it. And again, you can just see, like, her leggings and athleisure top just, like— just always swirl into the toilet.
Julia (as Craft): Embarrassing, giving yourself a swirly.
Amanda (as Rowan): Oh.
Eric: And then how does— and then each one of these has to end with how Connor barrels into the next door.
Julia: Connor busts on through the, like, entire porcelain—
Amanda: Yes.
Julia: —of the toilet. And—
Amanda: It shatters.
Julia: —we just go down a huge pipe.
Brandon: Uh-hmm. Exactly, right.
Eric: Yeah, we see you're all bouncing through the pipe. I love that.
Brandon: Like a Mario, if you will.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: I love that.
Brandon: The next one we go through is like a rookery.
Eric: Hmm.
Brandon: Where there's a bunch of pigeons—
Julia: Hmm.
Brandon: —that are used for magic shows, if you will.
Amanda (as Rowan): Not again, God.
Brandon: And we get covered in feathers as we go there.
Amanda (as Rowan): I thought we were friends.
Eric: Yeah, all—
Julia: Cool, because we're very wet.
Brandon: 'Cause we're wet.
Eric: All of them peck at Rowan.
Amanda (as Rowan): I thought we were friends. We're neighbors.
Eric (as pigeons): Never more, never more, never more.
Eric: Which is like—
Brandon: No, they're pigeons, so can you make it sound stupider?
Eric (as pigeons): [coos] Never more.
Amanda: And what's— just Connor, like, smash through the wall of cages to free the pigeons, but also us?
Brandon: Well, what does Glimmer do first?
Eric: Oh, I think this has to do with the door in the rookery is all the way up, and there's, like, a real, like, rock climbing situation, or it's like in an action adventure RPG where you have to climb both side—
Julia: Double jump, double jump, double jump, double jump.
Eric: Yeah, you gotta climb up and sideways and jump from all those things. He was like—
Eric (as Glimmer): Up, up, up. Aaahh.
Eric: She has a link from Super Smash Bros. sound effect.
Eric (as Glimmer): Huh! Yeah. Yeah.
Julia: Yeah. Yeah.
Eric: And she makes a big, long jump like Mario.
Eric (as Glimmer): Wa-hoo!
Brandon: Wa-hoo!
Eric: And grabs the door, goes through the next one.
Julia (as Craft): Who are you, TeamCast?
Brandon: And you see that Glimmer does this with, like, grace and skill and speed, and Connor just, like, does the same thing, but smashes into each side of the—
Eric: That is so funny.
Brandon: —rookery, killing a bunch of pigeons on the way up.
Julia: Oh, no.
Eric: That's so— that is so funny. Like, if Glimmer was the protagonist in that action adventure RPG, we see Connor following behind her, like smashing through everything.
Brandon: Exactly.
Eric: I love that. And how does Rowan and Craft get in through the door?
Amanda: I think Rowan floats us up very gently, but also gets a lot of pigeon feathers in her mouth.
Eric: That's fair. That's fair.
Brandon: And Julia, as the pigeons die, they poof into a magic cloud of dust because they weren't real anyway.
Julia: Oh, okay, because they were summoned, right. Got it.
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah. They dropped like two rupees on the ground.
Julia: Oh.
Eric: Amanda, what's the next room in the wizard tower?
Amanda: Well, it's gonna be a greenhouse where all kinds of herbs are grown for wizard spells, but the thing is that every single flower or berry or fruit is an eyeball.
Julia: Oh, no.
Amanda: And you just them go, "Blink, blink, blink, blink, blink."
Brandon: I don't like that.
Julia: Is one of them watching TikTok on Connor's phone?
Amanda: Yes. All of them are watching TikTok. You can see it in the pupils. Scroll, scroll, scroll. Ad, scroll.
Eric: Yeah. No, that's really funny. Glimmer spies an in ground sprinkler system, and then follows the sprinkler system, the hoses through. And at the end, there's a big wheel that she turns on, and the sprinklers turn on full blast. And then she continues to twist the wheel, and it opens up into like a little hatch, and she jumps on it.
Julia: I don't like her. I wanted to like the girl that had a crush on Connor, but I don't like her.
Brandon: No, we knew that.
Amanda: All the eyeballs swivel to watch her leave, and then swivel back to watch us.
Eric: And this is where Connor— let's resolve your unstoppable move.
Brandon: Okay. So I add plus danger was— I believe is a plus two.
Eric: Danger.
Julia: Let's go, bro.
Eric: Danger.
Brandon: Danger. Seven plus two for a nine.
Eric: Ooh.
Amanda: Pretty good.
Julia: Oh, pretty good.
Eric: How'd I do?
Brandon: On a seven to nine, choose one, mark a condition, leave something behind, or take something with you.
Julia: Do we have a new scary plant friend?
Amanda: Is that how you have to text from now on? Is convincing the plant to do it?
Brandon: Oh, I kind of do want a scary plant.
Amanda: Like a Venus flytrap, but it's an eyeball.
Brandon: Yeah. What if a Venus flytrap eyeball— like it's a solid eyeball.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: But then as we go through, it splits in half, opens up, big scary mouth.
Eric: No, that's big scary. That's big scary.
Julia: Oh. Feed me.
Brandon: And grabs onto Connor's foot as we go through.
Julia: Uh-oh.
Eric: Yeah, that's cool. I like that.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah. We'll see if that thing hampers you on later or is involved, but that's cool as hell. I like that. And I think that as the three of you jump through the final hatch, although you are jumping down, somehow the door is on the bottom and goes upwards, and you are on the top of the wizard tower, the— in the Ad-Mage-Istration office. You now are just, like, spit out into a regular-looking, you know, dingy high school office. Everything was definitely surplus. Every— all of the furniture— there are cork boards that have seen too many pins in the past. There are flyers advertising dances that happened 23 years ago.
Julia: Damn.
Brandon: Oh, no.
Eric: And were '90s themed, which is upsetting.
Julia: Oh.
Eric: And of course, like, there are all these doors leading to other offices, everywhere around you. And every direction of the compass rose, there is a door leading in a new direction. And, of course, it's like that wood door with the frosted glass, although it's— it had like the numbers painted on at one point. They're chipped off, so you can see 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 doors around. And you don't see Glimmer.
Brandon: Shit.
Julia: Huh.
Brandon: Hmm.
Eric: What do you do, folks?
Julia: What to do?
Eric: What to do?
Julia: Can I try to see if there is any sort of, like, path of water dripping, leading to any of the rooms?
Amanda: Smart.
Julia: May I?
Eric: I think—
Brandon: May I?
Eric: I definitely think you do. Okay. Yeah. I mean, there's definitely— there's drippings in front of number seven, and there's also drippings in front of number four.
Brandon: Is— does Glimmer run on legs or on fins?
Eric: Oh, the thingamabobs? She has two because she has legs, but they're— I think she has fin feet, but leg— but legs.
Amanda: Regular.
Julia: Okay. I'd like to figure out, like, if Glimmer is trying to ambush us or, like, make us look bad, you know? Can I assess the situation, Eric?
Eric: Sure. I think you could— if you were willing to put yourself in a situation where you could find her, you could pierce the mask if you really wanted to.
Brandon: Could also try to provoke her out, you know?
Julia: Yeah. I mean—
Eric: If you find her, I think the best way to answer that would be to pierce the mask and engage her— or either, like, get a good chance to look at or engage her in conversation. So if you find her, I think that's a great way to do it.
Julia: I'm gonna open the door to room four.
Eric: Do you just like bu— how do you open the door to room four?
Julia: Craft goes—
Julia (as Craft): Knock, knock.
Julia: And opens the door.
Eric: Glimmer is sitting in a room that is full of the absolute shittiest folding chairs you've ever seen.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: It is like someone has been into a doctor's office and then left them there for 10 years, and, like, let, I don't know, magical animals just kind of fart on them for an extended period of time.
Brandon: And that makes them degrade over time.
Eric: Yeah, Brandon, they toot out the matching, which degrades the fabric.
Julia: Hmm.
Eric: So it's like— she's almost like in a empty doctor's office waiting room, is kind of the vibe. But there are, like, so many chairs in there. It's like a 100 chairs. And there is a desk with, like, a ton of tchotchkes on them that are all, like, bright, bright pink.
Julia: Hmm.
Eric: And there is a car— a bright pink cardigan on the back of a rolling chair that is pushed up against that desk. And she's like—
Eric (as Glimmer): Oh, hi.
Julia (as Craft): Hey.
Eric (as Glimmer): The Mad Mage wasn't here, so they told me to wait, so I am.
Julia (as Craft): Okay.
Eric (as Glimmer): Hi.
Julia (as Craft): Cool.
Eric (as Glimmer):Hi.
Julia (as Craft): Glimmer—
Eric (as Glimmer): I have an appointment already, so I can't— you can't stop me. So I'm like, already— I got it.
Julia (as Craft): Glimmer, what— what's going on here, you know? Like, what are we even doing here? Like, why— first off, why are we even fighting when we could be doing this as a team, you know?
Eric (as Glimmer): You're fighting me. What do you mean?
Julia (as Craft): I mean, you ambushed and tried to steal the box away from us. That's not us fighting you. That's you creating conflict with us.
Eric: Oh, Craft that is like so good for being a teenager and vulnerable. Why don't you pierce the mask, my friend?
Julia: Yeah, I would like to do that.
Eric: Roll plus mundane.
Brandon: Now, Eric, Glimmer, bend at waist or just backslash against chair?
Eric: Ooh, backslash against chair. Yeah.
Julia: So I have a negative one to mundane right now.
Eric: Okay.
Julia: But I rolled an eight—
Eric: Hmm.
Julia: —minus one for a seven.
Eric: That's good.
Amanda: All right. Pretty good.
Eric: You can ask a question.
Julia: I feel like I know the answers to a couple of these already.
Eric: You might have an assumption, but fair. Do we ever know another person, really, unless we ask the question, Julia?
Julia: Other players, let me know if you think that this is a fair thing. Part of it is, I want to see, how can I get your character to hand over the box, right?
Eric: Uh-hmm.
Julia: But I also think like we can do— how can I get your character to, like, get on our side.
Eric: Sure.
Julia: You know what I mean?
Amanda: Or to think she's one while doing what we want her to do?
Brandon: Well, it's also possible that she has been sent by Wordsmith to, like, try to foil us as, like, a test or something.
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: So what are you really planning could be—
Julia: In my gut, I feel like if I ask, what are you really planning? It's to give this box to the Ad—
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: —Magistrator.
Brandon: I mean, that's what Eric would definitely probably say.
Julia: Yeah. Yes.
Brandon: But we don't know that for sure.
Eric: Brandon, you're assuming, and can you really know someone unless you ask them a question?
Brandon: That's true.
Eric: Sorry, I didn't even— wasn't paying attention. I was singing What's New, Scooby-Doo? to myself in my head.
Julia: That's fair. What do we think, then?
Amanda: I mean, it's—
Brandon: I mean, ultimately, it's your choice.
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: I know.
Amanda: I mean, it's how can I get your character to give us the box and leave, or something like that.
Julia: I don't even want her to leave necessarily.
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: Like, if she wants to fucking take some of the credit with us, whatever.
Amanda: That's fine. Yeah.
Julia: Who fucking—
Amanda: Share the victory.
Julia: Yeah. I'm gonna ask, how can I get your character to share this victory with us?
Eric: Ooh, that's a good question.
Julia: Because I'm trying to build bridges here, man.
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: You know?
Eric: I—
Amanda: That's why they call her Craft.
Brandon: You're trying to Craft some bridges.
Julia: I think if we treated Glimmer a little nicer, maybe she would stop being such a bitch.
Brandon: I mean, she tried to poach me for her team.
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: So that's why I was not a fan.
Julia: Because she likes you.
Brandon: Yeah, but that's shitty.
Eric: Did you tell them that? I forget.
Brandon: No, I did not tell them that. They don't know that, but that— I was just explaining to Julia.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: No, no. I mean, I think that's— I think it's important, but you— I— that definitely— that felt like something— it's like, "I don't tell my friends this because I think it's gonna cause more problems than actually is worth it.”
Brandon: Well, yeah, I didn't tell them because she also insulted y'all while she did it.
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: So—
Julia: I think that maybe Glimmer is well-intentioned and just bad at what communicating that.
Brandon: So she's a teenager, yeah.
Julia: So I stand by my question.
Eric: Great.
Julia: How can I get your character to share in this victory with us? So I think the question you asked was like, what is going on? Why did you ambush? That was the last thing you said, right?
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: And then Glimmer says—
Eric (as Glimmer): That's what— I mean, looking from my perspective, you three walked out of the office, holding this package. I'm like, "Heym guys, cool package. Can I come with you to go do it?" And then you say no and push me up into the lockers. And then a teacher tries to stop you, and you just kind of blow by them. And then I'm like, "Well, something's going on, and it seems cool, even though they don't— and so I want to check it out." And I just wanted to check it out. What do you— I should say the same thing, what's going on with you? What is— why are you— the three of you so obsessed with this package?
Brandon (as Connor): We did say in the hallway that it was from Wordsmith, and we had a note.
Julia (as Craft): Yeah.
Eric (as Glimmer): So? Cool. Sounds great.
Brandon (as Connor): No, that's— that makes sense— still makes sense for you. I just met for— Mr. Withers.
Julia (as Craft): Yeah.
Brandon (as Connor): He did not respect the authority of the note.
Julia (as Craft): Harvey was not respecting the chain of authority at the school, and that sucked. But Glimmer, you're— Glimmer, you're absolutely right. We didn't approach this the right fucking way, you know? And I'm sorry about that. That fucking sucks. I don't think you reacted in— perhaps the best way possible to how we treated you. However, I want to apologize, and I want you to be a part of this mission.
Brandon: Connor looks over at Craft with his mouth agape, and, like, he, with his transmuting flesh power sources, starts to melt because he is he has lost his role in the group.
Eric: Are they— oh, I didn't— oh, other people could do that? Shit.
Brandon: Oh, shit. Oh, fuck.
Eric: Hey, dude.
Julia: Hey, dude.
Eric: Why don't you roll to comfort or support someone?
Julia: Whoa. I've never done that before. Oh, no, I did it with Connor, but—
Eric: You extremely did that. And let's see if we can get you some bonuses.
Julia: [dice roll] That is another eight, minus one for mundane four.
Eric: That's great.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Hey, on a hit, they hear you. Glimmer says—
Eric (as Glimmer): Wow. I mean, yeah, I just wanted to get out of class. Thank you. I mean, I'd— I—
Julia (as Craft): If there— if there's anyone who understands wanting to get out of class—
Eric (as Glimmer): Yeah, right?
Julia (as Craft): It's your boy here.
Eric (as Glimmer): Yeah, right? I mean, you know it's like— oh, you were— oh, you were best friends with George Washington, but then then you went through a time loop. Like, who fucking gives a shit? You're a bad teacher.
Julia (as Craft): Yeah. I think he's just using that as an excuse as to why his teeth are made of wood.
Eric (as Glimmer): Oh, and why he doesn't know how to update anyone's grades on Brightspace.
Julia (as Craft): Yeah.
Eric (as Glimmer): Yeah. Fucking sucks. No, I just wanted— I— yeah. I don't know. I shouldn't have come at you so aggressive, but you know, you guys are— the three of you are pretty intimidating, so I just had to—
Amanda: Rowan takes off her blazer and hands it to Glimmer.
Amanda (as Rowan): I think you look better in this than me. I don't think I deserve the collar.
Eric (as Glimmer): What?
Julia: That’s an insane statement to make.
Eric (as Glimmer): Rowan—
Amanda: And then she hands it over.
Eric (as Glimmer): Rowan, I don't want— I don't— Rowan, I don't want your blazer.
Amanda (as Rowan): Well, it's—
Eric (as Glimmer): I have— my— this is my casual outfit.
Amanda (as Rowan): Yeah, but like athleisure with the blazer says that you have boss shit to do, but also you still got time for Pilates.
Eric (as Glimmer): I'm gonna get it— no. I mean, that's really nice. And I've seen where you're coming from, but I don't want to get it wet. I don't think it fit—
Amanda (as Rowan): I don't deserve it.
Eric (as Glimmer): It's very nice that you're doing it. I don't want it.
Amanda (as Rowan): I don't deserve it.
Brandon (as Connor): How do you get up from this, like, leaning position? How do you get back up?
Eric (as Glimmer): Oh, you know, I do the dolphin thing, Connor. It's like this.
Eric: And she, like, dolphin—
Julia: Just does a flip in the air.
Eric: —like, "Huh!" And, like, does a flip and gets out of the chair. It's in— Connor, even to you, it's incredibly impressive.
Brandon (as Connor): That was tight as fuck.
Julia (as Craft): Yeah.
Eric (as Glimmer): Yeah. You know? I mean, I should have said— I mean— I don't— I kind of know why the three of you are weird towards me, so I know I should— I probably should have asked Connor to, you know, be a part of the Freak Squad. So— and I guess I was ste— kind of stepping my boundaries there and, I don't know, it was the beginning of the year, I was feeling weird. It was at a party. I shouldn't have done that. I just—
Brandon: Connor is doing the like—
Eric (as Glimmer): What?
Brandon: —stop talking emotion.
Julia: Craft, like, turns and looks at Connor, is like—
Brandon (as Connor): Hey, Craft.
Eric (as Glimmer): Connor, you didn't tell them?
Julia (as Craft): I—
Brandon (as Connor): Tell you— I—
Eric (as Glimmer): I thought that's why you guys were being so fucking weird to me. You were just being weird?
Brandon (as Connor): This is the first time I'd heard of it. What are you talking about?
Julia (as Craft): All right. You know what? Not important right now.
Eric (as Glimmer): Connor, you should— probably should have told them. And I actually— again, you know, we're all set with Frög, so it actually worked out pretty okay. Frög's very cool.
Julia (as Craft): Actually, Frög's pretty cool, so—
Eric (as Glimmer): Have you guys hung out with Frög?
Julia (as Craft): Yeah.
Brandon (as Connor): God— I thought we were gonna get Frög on our side.
Julia (as Craft): Like, once or twice.
Eric (as Glimmer): Yeah.
Brandon (as Connor): Goddamnit.
Julia (as Craft): Yeah.
Eric: Glimmer has, like, angled her body away from Connor, is now just like facing Rowan and Craft. It's like—
Eric (as Glimmer): Have you hang out with Frög? Frög is so funny.
Julia (as Craft): Yeah.
Amanda (as Rowan): Glimmer, you want to hang out sometime?
Eric (as Glimmer): Yeah. I gotta give back this blazer you lent me.
Julia (as Craft): Yeah.
Eric (as Glimmer): So we obviously need to find some time to do that.
Julia (as Craft): Yeah.
Amanda (as Rowan): All right.
Julia (as Craft): Well—
Eric (as Glimmer): Yeah. Oh, you know what's funny? Is that I actually— they gave it because I'm, like, a lifeguard on the weekends, so I have the keys to the pool if you guys want to hang out after.
Amanda (as Rowan): Oh.
Julia (as Craft): Oh, that's cool as hell.
Eric (as Glimmer): Yeah.
Julia (as Craft): I always wanted to smoke near the pool.
Eric (as Glimmer): Yeah. We'll have to set up, like, an elaborate fan system, but I think that we can definitely make that happen.
Julia (as Craft): That sounds like such a cool idea. Also, why is it taking so long? Why is there no one at that desk?
Amanda (as Rowan): No one else is here.
Julia: Is there a little bell I can ring for, like, service?
Eric: Yeah, there's a real— there's a hot pink bell sitting right on that desk.
Julia: Ding.
Eric: When you do that, coming from a hot pink coffee mug that says, "If I didn't exist, this entire thing," and in parentheses, "(institution, galaxy, plane of existence, et cetera) would collapse, so let me have my coffee." Says that on the mug. From the coffee— like it conjures from the coffee mug, a djinn, but of course, the djinn does look like every single school secretary you've ever seen in your entire life. She is 72 years old, has dyed hair and a perm, and is already wearing a different hot pink cardigan, different than the one that's on the chair.
Eric (as Peggie): Thank you for ringing the bell. How can I help you?
Julia (as Craft): Hey, I'm Craft. What's your name?
Eric (as Peggie): Marguerite.
Julia (as Craft): Oh, hey, Marguerite. How's it going?
Eric (as Peggie): Marguerite Stevenson.
Julia (as Craft): Marguerite Stevenson—
Eric (as Peggie): —Forrest Pruitt.
Julia (as Craft): Should I call you Miss Stevenson-Forrest Pruitt?
Eric (as Peggie): No, you can call me Peggie, dear. What do you need?
Julia (as Craft): Peggie? Oh, hey, Peggie. Listen, we just— we have a package to drop off for the Mad Ad-Mage-Istrator. It's a little bit pressing. It's from Principal Wordsmith. And we just wanted to, you know, get that to him ASAP, so that we can get on back to classes, because we really care about school.
Amanda: Rowan laughs and turns it into a cough.
Eric (as Peggie): Oh, that's fine. The Mad Magistrator isn't even here. I'll just take it.
Julia (as Craft): I think we did— according to the note from the principal, we have to give it to him ourselves.
Eric (as Peggie): All right, kids, that's fine. I'll let you in.
Julia (as Craft): Thank you.
Eric: And door se— and then, like in a very sort of like puzzle video game sort of way, we do a cut scene, and it takes five seconds to load. And we— and then we see the door seven opens up, and then it takes another five seconds to load to go back to the room you are already in.
Eric (as Peggie): Yeah, you can go on in there. You can just put it on the desk.
Julia (as Craft): Okay, is he in there?
Eric (as Peggie): No, he's not, but I'll let Principal Wordsmith know that you dropped it off.
Julia (as Craft): Yeah, just so we know, where is he? Is he out fighting the Blurbs, Borlbs?
Eric (as Peggie): Oh, the Blurbs.
Julia (as Craft): The Blurbs.
Eric (as Peggie): Yeah, something like that. Yeah.
Julia (as Craft): Something like that?
Eric (as Peggie): I keep his schedule. It's confidential, sweetie, unfortunately, but now you— I understand Principal Wordsmith, a real stickler for the rules.
Amanda: Rowan is gonna float the schedule from the desk over to herself.
Julia: Yeah. Craft's gonna keep her distracted being like—
Julia (as Craft): You just seem like everything would fall apart here without you. Can you tell me how you even started working here?
Eric: Yeah. On the calendar, Rowan, you see it and every single day, Monday to Friday, like it's the same school calendar that you guys have.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Like in your student planners, or like the one on the website, right? And it like— below it, it has, like, what's in the cafeteria every day. The Mad Magistrator is different because he has his own cafeteria. It's everything that you— is in your cafeteria, but it just says alive on it.
Julia: Okay.
Amanda: Ahh.
Eric: Like, a live Sloppy Joes. Every single section just has the word "surveillance" written on it.
Julia (as Craft): Does he have like, an orb that he looks through to, like, do the surveillance? That'd be crazy.
Amanda: Rowan looks up, looks left, looks right, and then looks at Connor's butt.
Amanda (as Rowan): Connor, you got an eyeball over there.
Brandon (as Connor): What? What? What?
Amanda (as Rowan): The plant!
Brandon (as Connor): Oh, shit.
Brandon: And Connor, like, kind of kicks it off.
Eric: The eyeball of the Venus flytrap jumps off and then starts, like, hopping towards room seven.
Julia (as Craft): Follow that plant.
Amanda: Rowan walks with the plant toward room seven.
Brandon: And we're just walking, like, very average pace, because the plant is having to try its hardest to jump as far as it can.
Eric: And then you go into the Mad Magistrator's office. It also just kind of looks like a regular office, honestly, like crappy furniture, halogen lights, chair that would give you more back pain than back support.
Julia: Hmm.
Eric: A lot of books on teaching and on teenagers, but they all have, like, really strange titles, like "Is my teenager going through adolescence or is a conduit to the bad place?"
Julia: Oh.
Eric: "Is my child stupid?"
Julia: I recently saw that one as well, Eric, on the internet.
Eric: Yeah, yeah, that's a good one.
Brandon: It's just called, "Is my child stupid?"
Eric: It's just called “Is my child stupid?”
Julia: Yes. A 59-year-old woman said, "I just found this on my mom's bookshelf."
Amanda: Oh, no.
Brandon: That's incredible.
Julia: "Should I be concerned?" And someone said, "Yeah, it's taken you 59 years to notice it."
Eric: Teach like a champion and or a cult leader. Books like that.
Julia: Fair.
Julia (as Craft): I think my dad had that one.
Eric: And then the desk is very clear, except in the middle. There's kind of like an indentation. It looks kind of strange. You know, if it was a lock for a door, you'd be like, "What the fuck key goes into this? Like, how do these grooves fit with any sort of key that exists?" And it's just right—
Amanda (as Rowan): So—
Eric: —in the center of the desk.
Amanda (as Rowan): So, the thing I described earlier—
Amanda: And Rowan, like, makes eye contact with Craft and Connor.
Julia (as Craft): Uh-huh.
Amanda (as Rowan): That fits in in there.
Eric: Glimmer says—
Eric (as Glimmer): How does it fit in there? What are you talking about?
Amanda (as Rowan): Need to know, Glimmer, need to know.
Eric (as Glimmer): Well, I need to know. I'm right here.
Amanda (as Rowan): No, you do not.
Julia (as Craft): I think it's okay if Glimmer knows, I promise.
Amanda (as Rowan): Okay.
Julia (as Craft): It's all good. We got to be more trusting as a group.
Amanda (as Rowan):Trust is really hard for me, what about the trauma? Okay. The—
Julia (as Craft): Fair enough.
Eric (as Glimmer): You know what would help you trust a little bit more, Rowan?
Amanda (as Rowan): Kiss?
Eric (as Glimmer): No. Well—
Julia (as Craft): Huh. Huh.
Eric (as Glimmer): I—
Amanda (as Rowan): I was curious what a fish would kiss like. Okay. Inside the box is like a weird light bulb. I didn't look but I felt it with my powers, and it's really weirdly shaped. And the light bulb is really big, but then the socket part is really small. And t's all, like, jagged and weird, and I think it fits in the desk. Maybe it's like the orb you're talking about, Craft.
Julia (as Craft): Oh, yeah.
Amanda (as Rowan): But I'm not gonna open it.
Julia (as Craft): Wizards love a fucking warp.
Amanda (as Rowan): Yeah.
Eric (as Glimmer): I was gonna say, put your blazer back on so you could feel more trusting, but that's what I'm trying to say.
Amanda (as Rowan): No, I was trying to, like, absorb my guilt by giving you, like, a thing that was important to me. And it's my blazer, because it's like the shield with which I move through the world.
Eric (as Glimmer): No, no, I like that, and that's why I was going to offer to you— but I'm distracted by you said— why you said— that you said kiss. What did you say, that there was a light bulb?
Amanda (as Rowan): Yeah. And it's shaped real weird and I think it fits you.
Eric (as Glimmer): Okay. Well, do you want to— what do you— do we want to put it in the desk?
Amanda (as Rowan): No.
Julia: Amanda just shook her head so hard, "No," that her glasses fell off.
Amanda (as Rowan): No, I do not. No, I do not. I do not want to break the rules.
Eric (as Glimmer): Okay.
Amanda (as Rowan): Except if we kiss in the pool later.
Eric (as Glimmer): Yeah. What?
Amanda (as Rowan): What?
Eric (as Glimmer): Yeah.
Amanda (as Rowan): Huh?
Julia (as Craft): What's happening?
Amanda (as Rowan): I don't know.
Eric (as Glimmer): I can't focus if you keep saying kiss. All right, let's leave the box. Are we leaving the box?
Amanda (as Rowan): Yeah.
Eric (as Glimmer): Okay.
Amanda (as Rowan): Craft, Connor, do you think it's okay?
Julia (as Craft): I'm gonna try to summon the Mad Ad-Mage-Istrator. Oh, mighty mage, we got shit for you. Come on out.
Brandon (as Connor): Did you read this in a book or something?
Julia (as Craft): No, but, like, my dad knew a bunch of evil wizards and, like, a lot of times, they just, like, could be summoned by, like, saying some key phrases that they basically had, like— you know how people have, like, Google searches for their name saved?
Amanda (as Rowan): Yeah.
Eric (as Glimmer): Yeah.
Julia (as Craft): It's like that, but for, like, magic.
Brandon (as Connor): Oh, okay, okay.
Eric: From the bookshelf, you hear—
Eric (as Jeets): Package receives.
Eric: And there's like a bookend-sized, Jeets the gargoyle.
Julia (as Craft): Oh, hey, Jeets. What's up?
Amanda (as Rowan): You do look really nice up there.
Eric (as Jeets): I can put my consciousness in multiple places.
Julia (as Craft): That's sick as hell, bro.
Eric (as Jeets): Absolutely. I'll let the Mad Mage know the package was delivered.
Julia (as Craft): Is there a way that we could see him?
Eric (as Jeets): He's not here.
Julia (as Craft): Jeets, tell me where your daddy is.
Eric (as Jeets): He's not here. He said he's doing— he said he's working busy.
Julia (as Craft): I know, but hey, Jeets, where's your daddy at?
Eric (as Jeets): I don't know. He's at work. They don't tell me. They don't tell me. That’s all I know.
Amanda (as Rowan): Help. I am in danger of forgetting or breaking a rule.
Julia (as Craft): Oh, no. I think the Burlbs of Aspelenium 8 are coming back.
Amanda (as Rowan): Help. There is a weird plant that is that is following us. Aah.
Julia (as Craft): Rowan's about to start the Great fissuring again.
Eric: The Jeets gargoyle bookend falls and smashes the Venus flytrap.
Julia: Oh, no.
Brandon: Oops. Uh-oh.
Julia: Oops. Uh-oh. I guess that wasn't important.
Julia (as Craft): Okay. So none of my SEO statements work?
Eric: No, no, no.
Julia (as Craft): Oh, sick.
Eric: I was too busy enjoying you guys doing it. Yeah.
Amanda (as Rowan): Glimmer, any ideas? What does an administrator do?
Eric (as Glimmer): I don't know.
Amanda (as Rowan): Just like sit around you, get paid a lot of money and not do anything?
Eric (as Glimmer): Yeah. Connor, do you know? This feels like part of, like, your, like, support classes. You understand how administrators work.
Brandon (as Connor): Oh, man. It seems like you might be the more expert here, Glimmer. Seems like the team wants to talk to you, so—
Julia: is Connor feeling bad because we've adopted Glimmer?
Amanda: Oh, buddy.
Brandon (as Connor): Yeah.
Julia: Oh, Connor.
Brandon: To be clear, Brandon feels great about it.
Eric: No, I gotta say, you're acting so hurt. I love it.
Brandon: Connor is bummed because not only has Craft usurped him as the leader and his normal role, but yeah, Rowan just asked Glimmer before she asked Connor.
Eric (as Glimmer): Yeah. Okay. Well, do you guys know a way out of here? I kind of just— I only use— I got in through the water spell, so I don't really know how to get out.
Julia (as Craft): Is there another door in here?
Eric (as Jeets): Yeah, there's one at the top. Just go on through.
Julia (as Craft): Okay, sick. Hey, Connor, can you yeet us all up to the door?
Brandon (as Connor): Yeah.
Julia (as Craft): That would be really helpful.
Brandon (as Connor): Yeah, I can just lift you all up.
Julia (as Craft): Okay.
Eric: Connor, you can— yeah, you can yeet them up.
Brandon: I'm not gonna yeet them. I'm going to just slowly lift them.
Eric: Sure. Go, yeah.
Julia: Gently lift us up.
Eric: All of y'all get— yeah. All of y'all get out of the tower. There's like a big rope ladder that kind of goes down— goes out from the top, and you're gonna all safely get out of the mage— the— at Mad Magistrator's tower.
Brandon: Wee.
Julia: Is there— hey, Eric, before we get, like, out of the tower.
Eric: Uh-huh.
Julia: Or, I guess, once we are out of the tower, is there, like, a big glowing eye at the top of this thing?
Eric: Oh, of course there is.
Julia: Okay, cool. Is that where the Ad-Mage-Istrator is?
Eric: No.
Julia: If he's doing surveillance?
Eric: No.
Julia: No?
Eric: No, the big glowing eye at the top is keeping the Burlbs away. That's why—
Julia: Okay.
Brandon: I think the Mad Mage either never existed or was killed by the Blurbs and— Burlbs and now no longer exists.
Amanda: Or is doing one of those COVID remote jobs where you have two full-time jobs at once.
Julia: Whoa. Damn.
Eric: Hell yeah. Well, that's the end of the session, folks. I have one more thing that I wanted—
Julia: That's it? We’re done?
Eric: That's the end of the session. I want to do— I have one more thing that I want to share with you, but I'd love to do the end of the session moves.
Amanda: Well, first of all, Eric, I marked all my potential, so I'm leveling up, baby.
Brandon: Hell yeah.
Julia: Let's go.
Brandon: Who's to say?
Amanda: I am going to unlock the rest of my burn. So just like last time—
Eric: So scary.
Amanda: —I'm gonna unlock three new flares, which leaves me with all the flares.
Julia: Damn.
Eric: That's so fucking scary.
Julia: Oh.
Brandon: Hell yeah.
Julia: Terrifying, Amanda.
Brandon: Love it.
Eric: Did anyone else level up?
Brandon: No.
Julia: Not yet, but I might.
Eric: All right. Let's see. Well, let's do it here. End of session. At the end of every session, please choose one, grow closer to the team, grow into your own image of yourself, or grow away from the team.
Julia: I think Craft grew more into the image of herself.
Eric: Hmm.
Julia: I think that Craft is someone who sees that she is perceived as a villain, but knows in her heart that she is good. And so that apology and peacekeeping with Glimmer made her feel very good about herself.
Eric: Hmm.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: I love it. Yeah, shift your labels.
Brandon: What are you gonna shift?
Julia: I think because that was a lot of, like, piercing the mask and comforting and stuff like that, I'm gonna move my mundane up.
Eric: Smort.
Brandon: Well, in opposition to that, I think Connor also grew into his own image of himself but in the other way, in that he's a freak.
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: Oh, buddy.
Brandon: And without his ability to sort of use words and talk through stuff and the approval of his peers, you know, whether or not it's actually true.
Eric: Yeah. You were just unstoppable instead, yeah.
Brandon: Yeah, he just feels like a big, old monster, so—
Julia: Oh, buddy.
Brandon: —I'm gonna shift my mundane down, and I can't shift my freak up anymore. Is there a rule if you can't do that?
Eric: You can't do that, because if I did that, you would get, like, too drunk on it, and then I have to inflict a condition.
Brandon: Got it.
Julia: Maybe you put danger up instead.
Brandon: Yeah.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: So I'll do my danger up instead.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: So—
Eric: Is that what you use for unstoppable, is danger? Or you use freak?
Brandon: Danger.
Eric: Yeah, yeah. Definitely do danger.
Brandon: Okay, yeah. So my danger and freak are up to three.
Eric: Wow.
Julia: Damn, dude.
Amanda: Wee.
Brandon: Everything else is a minus one.
Eric: You're so minimax right now.
Julia: I'm so average. All my things are either plus ones or zeros.
Eric: Yeah, that's because you're becoming a well-adjusted young woman. That's what you're doing.
Julia: I am.
Amanda: I think Rowan is going to grow closer to the team. Craft in particular displayed a lot of trust in Rowan, and I think that makes her feel really welcome and loved. So since you already have influence, Julia, you're welcome to shift my labels right now from first to last. I have plus two, three plus ones, and then negative two.
Julia: Oh, what's your negative two right now?
Amanda: Mundane.
Julia: You want to come up a little on that?
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: Cool.
Brandon: You want to come up a little on that?
Amanda: I can do that. And then who's going down?
Julia: Let's move danger down by one.
Brandon: Wait, what? What's happening?
Julia: So because Rowan fell closer to the team, and Rowan and I both already have influence on each other, I get to shift Rowan's labels.
Brandon: Ah. Thank you.
Eric: Ooh.
Julia: Do you also get to mark potential for that, Amanda?
Eric: And then you either get to—
Amanda: Four.
Eric: —give influence to that character, which is what we just did, and clear a condition or mark potential.
Amanda: So with this end of session move, I would love to clear one of my conditions, but Eric, would you accept that trying to give my blazer away, the thing that makes me feel powerful and is my signature look to Glimmer, can count for clearing guilty?
Eric: Well, I guess if she holds onto it and you don't get it back, then yeah, it's true.
Julia: Oh.
Amanda: Okay, hell yeah. Good. So then that's guilty taken care of.
Julia: Rowan, the character who can control gravity in a way that could break the universe.
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: The thing that makes her feel powerful—
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: —is her blazer?
Amanda: Sure is.
Julia: That's so funny.
Eric: I— yeah. Sure. I'll take it. Although Glimmer kept making a whole thing about giving it back to you, she doesn't.
Brandon: You're gonna get it back off of her floor later, if you know what I mean.
Eric: I mean—
Amanda: Hey.
Eric: Hey, Connor, do you— how do you feel about— hey, Connor, is that something that you're gonna feel a certain way about?
Brandon: Connor likes to not think about his friends' sex lives, so he doesn't care about that.
Amanda: Sure.
Julia: Fair.
Eric: Okay. I mean, I guess, hopefully, it won't be rubbed in your face in the future. I guess we'll see.
Brandon: It's humid, Eric. It's humid.
Eric: It's humid. It's not moist, right, right, right.
Julia: Brandon famously has said that humidity does not exist.
Brandon: Shh. Julia, shut up, shut up, shut up. I'm hoping that Lauren does not hear this episode.
Amanda: So that's guilty. And with my action, and then with the end of session move, instead of marking potential, I'm going to clear another
condition, and I'm going to choose to clear afraid.
Eric: Great.
Julia: Hell yeah, dog.
Eric: Cool. All right, hey, I have one more thing, though. There's— oh, these pages are stuck together. There's one more page.
Brandon: Again? We need to be really careful about this.
Julia: Oh wow.
Eric: It's so— well, it's really humid where I keep my comic books.
Amanda: That's bad. Don't do that.
Julia: That's not the way you're supposed to keep comic books.
Eric: I don't have a choice. My mom puts her fish tank in the same room that I keep my comics.
Julia: Damn.
Eric: We cut back to the Mad Magistrator's desk. There's no one in there. Jeets is still on the floor, and the cardboard box pops open. The contents of the package just float out. It's covered in tissue paper. The tissue paper falls. And for Brandon and Julia, last— I think Rowan kind of explain there is this big light bulb, very— it's like the size of— the head is the size of a basketball. The base is very strange and only fits in this very specific, strange indentation in this desk, like I described. And the filament inside is very odd. It is very jagged, it is erratic, it is random. It doesn't feel— the way that I described it was that humans make things in straight lines. The universe does not do things in straight lines, right? The entropy and the randomness of the universe does not do that, right? The light bulb floats out, screws itself into the indentation in the desk, and the light bulb turns on. The filament is so bright. If you look at it, you see so many different colors, kind of vibrating through the white light. And yet it comes out— as we get a panel of the entire office, it warms the entire room. It warms the entire floor, and every single room is kind of constructed around the center of the top of the wizard tower. And you can see, like, the— this warm light, and we see it kind of from the outside as well. In the warm light, we hear this prophecy. "Are you flame for moths or light for roaches, or maybe the power that dances through filament? A lighthouse on a wine dark sea emerge sparked steward, your choices will be permanent. No matter where you go, no matter where you travel, you, the world shall be united, or the sweater will unravel."
[theme]