(Unsleeping City music)
- Hello, one and all,
and welcome back to
another thrilling episode
of "Dimension 20: The Unsleeping City,"
I'm your humble dungeon
master Brennan Lee Mulligan.
With me, as always, are
our Intrepid Heroes.
Say "Hi," Intrepid Heroes.
- Hi, Intrepid Heroes.
- Lovely, incredible, wonderful.
Last we left them off,
the champions of New York City,
we're in the midst of
a lovely October day.
The day before Halloween wherein we saw
Sofia Lee living with her
mother above Spaghetti's Bakery,
heading out to her psychic.
A new character we're
meeting for the first time.
Ms. Iga Lisowski who runs a
little illicit money laundering
slash psychic operation
out of the upper West side
as Madam Anastasia.
We also saw Pete the Plug
working at a bookstore,
looking for a new spot to live,
get together for pupusas with
the wonderful Kingston Brown,
living with Liz back
in their spot together,
and also saw a little flashback
to Kingston's earlier days
back in the early nineties.
We saw Ricky Matsui in a clock tower loft
with the wonderful Esther Sinclair,
living a wonderful life heading off
to work at the homeless outreach shelter,
and also met Cody AKA
the "Night Angel" Walsh,
mall lifer and now
infernal paladin of "Lucifer"
who is just going by Bazathrax.
- I wore a demon necklace for you, Cody.
- I appreciate it. Thank you.
- We saw a day in the life
of our wonderful and familiar heroes,
some emotional turmoil here and there,
some engagements announced over Instagram,
some fights over underwear,
nothing too far.
- Delicates.
- Delicates.
Your delicates, exactly.
And an Islanders ticket that
needed to go to a friend.
We also saw the summoning of a devil
into the slated for
demolition Queens Center Mall
soon to become a Gladiator
shipping and fulfillment campus,
bringing tons of jobs and new buildings
and a wonderful state-of-the-art
campus to Queens, New York,
along with a strange relationship
with an arcane chest in the bedroom
of Ms. Iga Lisowski in Greenpoint
and a changing of a chest
that has been unchanged
previously for some hundreds of years.
We return now to the Unsleeping
City where that same day,
we see Ricky Matsui working his heart out
at the Helping Hands
Homeless Outreach Center.
What kind of work is Ricky getting up to
today at Helping Hands?
- Oh, man.
Well, I think Ricky has recently watched
a lot of YouTube videos on organization
and is trying to organize
like hygiene kits
as best as possible,
and just like really
knocking out a ton of kits.
- Hell yeah.
Ricky is getting these kits good to go.
- Nice.
Doing it.
- You're doing it.
Tasha Keane, who is the director
here at Helping Hands comes in and goes,
"Oh, look at this.
All these ducks in a row.
My goodness, Ricky, you are a gem.
What a hero."
She pats you on the shoulder,
and mentions, she says,
"Oh, by the way, Rusty is here
and would like to say hello
to Ox if you get a chance to."
- "Oh, yeah. Of course."
I feel like is Ox inside
or can he be in with. . .
- Ox?
Yes, he's a super,
well I think that you have
like support dog qualifications for him.
- Mm-hmm.
He's hypoallergenic.
He can't be allergic to
this animal I summoned.
(laughing)
- Exactly.
Rusty comes in.
Rusty's an old fellow.
He's by here a lot
and is very sweet to specifically Ox,
but you look up as he comes
in, and he looks up and says,
"Hey, look at that.
There's Rick the man.
How's it going, Rick the man?"
- "It's going pretty good, Rust the man.
How are you?"
(laughing)
- "I'm better now that
I got this boy here.
Look at this guy.
Come on, you bud."
- I mean, I hope that Ox is not being
manhandled too much by an old man,
but it seems like they have a
good relationship I imagine.
- Yeah, he's being very sweet to him.
You see that Rusty looks up and says,
"Hey, I'm sorry I haven't
been around too long
to say hi to the fellow.
I've been busy busy.
I'm glad to see this fellow.
You're looking good, Rick.
How're you doing, Rick?"
- "I'm feeling good, you know,
I just made a bunch of kits here,
and, you know, I feel like
I got my routine in order.
You know, I got no complaints.
How are you doing, Rusty?"
- "Good.
Coming by, coming by, you
know, come by to help.
I'm gonna help out a little
bit, gonna get a bite to eat,
but, you know, it's all good.
I'm glad to see you and
the dog are good here,
and I tell you, it's wild
out there, you know?"
- "Yeah, I think I know what
you mean, but if you. . .
Rusty, are you okay?
You sorta stared at the
ground pretty hard."
- "Nah, it's pretty
good. It's pretty good.
There used to be a rat."
- "What?
You used to be a rat?"
- "No, no, there used to be.
He would come around, you know?
I remember sometimes, you know,
having a hard time getting myself here."
- "And a rat would show up."
- "A rat would show up and help me out."
- "Hey, Rusty, there
did used to be a rat."
- "What?"
- "There was a rat, and it was huge,
and it was gross, and
it would help people.
That's real.
Rusty, that's real."
- You see, down the hall,
Tasha kind of turns her head.
She's not fully listening,
but she just turns to see
Ricky talking to Rusty.
He goes, "I knew it."
- "Yeah."
- "I knew it."
- "That's not a thing you made up.
I just want you to know
'cause I've seen that rat,
and I think he's,
I think the rat's gone now,
but I think, you know, other
people will help in his place."
- You see, Rusty smiles and gives you
a sort of ginger but
warm embrace and says,
"I know they will.
They're doing it right now.
They're doing it right now.
Hey."
He gives you a little punch in the arm.
- Ow, so strong, dude.
(laughing)
- "Troublemaker, yeah, troublemaker here."
(laughing)
- I get Ox to do a back flip, I dunno.
(laughing)
- What?
- How late does Ricky tend
to work at Helping Hands?
- I think he helps close up
whatever the like hour is that happens.
- Cool.
Rusty stays for a little
while to help close up.
Rusty is one of a couple
of people at Helping Hands
who both use the services
here and also donate
and volunteer their time here,
and you have a lovely day
making a tangible difference
in the lives of people who need it.
It's later at night.
Sofia, after meeting up with
Iga for that card reading,
what does Sofia get up to that day?
- Wow.
- Or I should say into the night.
I should say.
- I mean Sofia's a little shook
by the description of
you can't fall in love.
You're falling off of a tower.
So I think Sofia is like,
"Okay, if my present
is falling off a tower,
I'll go climb some towers.
I'll do a little falling
and catch myself."
So I climb some skyscrapers,
but I'm also keeping an eye out
for any trouble because
part of not drinking is
excruciating boredom,
and so a little adrenaline
rush from getting
into a scrap with someone who deserves it
is perhaps acting as a substitute.
- Copy that.
Go ahead and make a
perception check for me.
This is if Sofia gets lucky,
and if Sofia is really
looking for a scrap,
you can add an investigation
role there as well.
- She's really lucky.
I got an 18 for perception
and a 10 for investigation.
- Cool.
You climb up some skyscrapers.
What, I guess, you. . .
- Scaffolding, fire escapes,
window washer units.
(laughing)
- You're just standing up on the precipice
of a skyscraper looking out.
You're kind of like near
the Manhattan bridge
on the Brooklyn side.
You're partway home to Staten
Island before you get home,
and the sun is setting.
Gazing out over the city,
you look, yeah, and there's just
something about jumping from roof to roof
of these tall buildings
where the moment that you are in motion,
and all you can do is anticipate landing
and rolling into the next leap,
there is a gleeful surrender
of having to think about
or do anything other than jump,
and you're leaping from place to place.
As you do so with that 18 perception,
you see sort of early night.
You're a little bit closer to
like the Clinton Hill area.
You see there's some
trees lining the street.
There's some sort of
dining areas out here.
There's some bars.
You see that there is a couple
outside of a bar kind of engaged in a,
it's just an argument,
but man, are they being
nasty to each other.
- Okay.
I suppose out of curiosity,
this could be almost like a reality show.
I suppose I. . .
Is there like an area
of darkness near them?
- Yeah, there's an area
of darkness nearby.
- Okay.
I'm a shadow monk now,
so I teleport to that area
of darkness to eavesdrop
from the shadows.
- You teleport across the
street through the shadows.
In Sofia's departure from the
way of the drunken master,
having embraced the way of the shadows,
you are a ghost in the night, and. . .
- I'll listen 'cause if
it's a lover's quarrel,
you know, I'll stay out of it,
and in fact maybe it's kind of fun to hear
some lovers really get into it,
and be reminded that romance isn't all,
you know roses, and
bed and breakfast.
- A hundred percent.
Yeah, you hear that this is a couple that
for all intents and purposes,
should not be together.
They are having a clearly bad time.
They are not communicating well.
It's a big argument going on,
and yeah, I guess for Sofia being like,
"Hey, this is great, a
couple that's on the rocks."
- I think if that's the case,
then I come out of the shadows,
and I say, "Life is too short.
Do you know how nice it is to be
with someone that you belong to be with?
You are preventing both of each other
from finding that person.
Go.
Leave each other.
Right now."
- Give me an intimidate roll.
(laughing)
- I'm gonna intimidate you to not ruin,
to not waste your lives.
Nat 20.
(laughing)
"Do you understand there people out there
who would not make you feel
the way you both make each other feel?
Do you understand how it will
feel to feel that, right?"
- You see the woman looks up at you.
Tears burst into her eyes.
She goes,
"Oh my God.
I can survive being single.
I don't need to be in a bad relationship."
- Yeah.
- She turns and goes,
"Steve, go f*ck yourself."
- Yes, Steve.
- And she flips this dude off.
Steve is mostly angry at you, so he goes,
"Who the f*ck are you, lady?
Get the f*ck out."
You see that as the
woman turns to walk away,
he reflexively grabs her arm hard.
- Okay.
I disarm him.
I flip him over.
I flip him over into the shadow,
so that I now have all advantage
on all of attacks against him,
and he has disadvantage on
every attack against me.
(laughing)
- Go ahead.
Go ahead and make your attack rolls.
- Okay.
I don't like that he touched her,
but I'm not really trying,
I'm trying to like,
I'm trying to control his body
but not really hurt him.
- Okay. Copy that.
- Not really like.
Okay.
So I think I just want to
physically control his body
so that he doesn't try to do
that to another woman again.
The first one is gonna be a 27 to hit.
(laughing)
- Yeah. For sure.
- Okay, I'm gonna go
for a stunning strike.
That's gonna be, okay,
so that is eight damage,
and then I'd like to try
and stunning strike him,
so just to stun him.
- This dude is, you flip
him into the shadows
and move his arm in such a way
that it like pinches a nerve,
and you see he goes into
a full muscle back spasm
where his full body can't move
as he breathlessly gasps in pain.
The young woman turns around to see that
'cause his hand is on her
arm until you pinch his wrist
so that all his fingers
snap open off her arm
so that she can watch as he,
just like a sack of dirty laundry,
flips off into the shadows and just thud.
She looks at you and goes.
- Zumba.
- She puts her fingers over her lips
like you've said a secret name of God
to her and goes, "Thank you."
And rushes off into the night.
Ricky.
You. . .
I'll actually, first of all,
you know, Sofia, you get
a text on your phone,
but the guy is still muscle
spasmed in the shadows.
- Oh, I think I wanna like
release him from it now that he,
now that the girl is safe.
- You release from it.
He's gonna take a swing at you.
- Okay, he'll do it with disadvantage
'cause we're standing in the dark.
- You see a terrible, sloppy, bullshit,
break-your-wrist haymaker from someone
who's never been in a
fight coming your way.
- All right.
I catch his wrist, and I break it.
(screaming)
- He falls to the ground.
- "I was trying not to hurt you."
- He goes,
(groaning)
just on the ground.
- "See, this is what bothers me.
I was trying to teach you a
lesson about touching women,
and you f*cking did it again, so."
- Incredible.
Superhero Sofia Bikes is
standing over this dude.
You hear a little bing on your phone.
- I look at it.
- You see a text from Esther saying,
"Hey, Sofia.
Miss you. Hope you're well. . ."
and then you see another
one dropping a pin
from her find a friend's,
which several months ago,
she asked for you guys
to turn on your mutual
find a friend, and she was like,
"Cool that you're in Clinton Hill.
Seems like you're doing some roof hopping.
Hope everything's okay."
Then under that says,
"Seems like you're in the neighborhood.
Wanna grab a bite?"
- Yeah.
I think I call her back.
- Cool.
Okay, she picks up, and she's like,
"Hey, oh God.
Sofia, how's it going?"
- "Sorry, I just thought
it was easier this way.
Yeah, let's get a bite to eat.
Where do you wanna go?"
- "Let's go rent a car somewhere.
I'm not gonna be free for
another like two hours.
Does like a late dinner, like
a 9:30 dinner work for you?"
- "Oh, okay.
Yeah, that's fine.
Yeah. Uh huh."
- "Okay, all right, well miss you.
It'd be great to see you.
Hope you're well."
- "Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, I know I am.
Yeah, you too.
Bye."
- Phone goes off.
Ricky you get a text
immediately being like,
"Sweetheart, Sofia's in the neighborhood.
Looks like she's roof hopping.
I'm not gonna be able to get away
from work for another two hours.
Can you go check on her?"
- I could go hop on some roofs.
(laughing)
- I send her a selfie
of me and Rusty and Ox
just hanging out.
(laughing)
- Immediate heart emoticon on the selfie.
- Roof hopping crew.
(laughing)
Rusty will not hop on roofs though.
I think he's too old for that.
(laughing)
- You immediately get
a little notification
as Esther adds this
photo to a Dropbox folder
called "Ricky Selfies."
(laughing)
You take off.
Sofia, after a little while,
Ricky finds you on a rooftop
somewhere in Brooklyn.
I don't think you got any advanced notice
that Ricky was gonna swing by necessarily,
but Ricky, give me an insight
and a persuasion check.
- Insight would be, sorry.
Oh, 14,
and persuasion, is what you said?
- Oh, perception.
Perception.
- And I do perception
with advantage, right?
- Yes.
Ever since you got turned
into a dog momentarily.
- 18 on perception.
- Cool.
You smell a little bit on Sofia,
just some of those like those dogs senses.
You smell a little bit of
adrenaline and the fear sweat of bad men.
- "Sofia, are you cool?
Sofia, hey."
- "Whoa. Oh, hi, Mr. March,
How are you?"
- "I'm good.
Hey, are you okay?
'Cause I can smell,
it seems like there were
some bad vibes around here recently.
- "Yeah, it's okay.
I broke their wrist though."
- "Oh, sh*t."
- "Yeah, there was a bad vibe.
I broke his wrist.
I'm hoping that it leads to
meaningful introspection."
- "Okay. Sofia, I."
- "Yeah, how are you?"
- "I'm good."
- "I feel like I haven't
seen in you in a while."
- "I'm pretty good.
I, you know, I sort of changed jobs.
I have a different, you know."
- "Yeah, I know.
I got the calendar this
year, and you weren't in."
(laughing)
- "Yeah, that's been, you know,
an adjustment, not being in that calendar.
Look, are you okay?
What are you doing right now?"
- "Oh, I mean I'm just kind of, you know,
my psychic said that I'm
falling from a tower, right,
so I'm just taking it very literally."
- "Well, you know, I'm
not a firefighter anymore,
and so safety is not
100% my goal all the time
although it is a pretty
heavy hobby of mine,
and I should say that you probably
shouldn't jump off a giant tower.
It seems maybe not the
safest thing in the world.
I have faith in you
that you have abilities
to handle a situation like that,
but just would, you know, I
recommend caution to everyone."
- "Yeah.
You know, Ricky, I
think it's really sweet,
but I do want you to feel comfortable
that I can jump off a lot of things,
and I have a lot of
resources at my disposal
to make it as convenient as possible,
and in general, I think
the people you should worry
about the most are the
people who cross my path."
- "Wow."
(laughing)
- "I mean like who cross my, you know."
- "Are you out for vengeance right now?
I feel there's a bit, you know."
- "No, I'm just out.
I just, you know, going home is always
a little bit of a reality check,
so, you know, I stay out late."
- "Yeah, well I don't know.
It seems like Esther talked to you,
but if you want to hang out with us,
you know in a little bit."
- "Yeah, that'd be great, yeah."
- "I think that'd be fun,
and also like it's just,
I mean, I don't really get to like
have this conversation
with that many people,
but hopping on roofs is
f*cking tight now, you know."
- "Thank you. See.
That was what I'm saying.
I absolutely appreciate
how you feel about safety,
but when you practice something enough,
you can kind of put safety
in the backseat a little bit, you know?"
- Yeah, when you get a
level of comfortability
with something, you can just, you know,
you can have fun with it."
- "Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, so if you wanted to just
like hop a bunch of roofs,
we could do that until Esther was free."
- "Tight.
Oh, did I show you this?"
And I make Ox do a back flip again.
(laughing)
- Oh my God.
Sofia faints.
- "I've been training him."
- "Did that dog just do a back flip?"
- "Yeah, he can do the thing where he hops
off my shoulder and catches a Frisbee,
and he can dart between my
legs like dog show style."
- Can I minor illusion a
Frisbee to try to do this?
- As long as it's over the roofs.
I'd appreciate that, but yes.
- Okay. Wow.
- You hurl a Frisbee,
you see that as you hurl the Frisbee,
Sofia, it's made of sparkling light,
and the sparkling light around it
transforms into La Gran Gata
who catches it herself, going,
"It is mine."
(laughing)
- She's very greedy.
I love that about her.
Yeah.
"How are things with Esther by the way?"
- "Oh, I mean, we just. . ."
- "You know, I know a jewelry shop
around here that stays open late."
- "Okay."
- "If you wanna go.
I'm just saying I might go
there to look for some stuff."
- "Late night jewelry shop?"
- "Yeah."
- "Hey, you know this is
honestly interesting to me.
It's the second person who's asked me
about a jewelry shop lately,
and do I come off like a jewelry guy?
Like, I don't.
It's usually not very functional to me.
I don't think about jewelry."
- "Yeah, no, sometimes
it's like a fun present
or a fun like a token
meaning something else."
- "Oh, cool.
Yeah, well I guess I'll go
with you if you wanna go."
- "Okay."
(laughing)
Me and Ricky go look at engagement rings,
but I never call it out.
I pretend like I'm looking for myself.
(laughing)
- "These are cool."
- Bummer.
- "Are you gonna buy a couple of these?
These are really expensive."
- "No, Ricky. I'm not.
I'm not, no."
- "Okay, so I guess I'll
see what Esther's doing."
- "Yeah, okay. Okay."
- You guys do some roof jumping.
Ox and La Gran Gata keep their
respectful distance from each other,
and you eventually end up
at a tiny, little, very. . .
You end up at a tiny,
little Italian restaurant
around the corner.
Like couple of tables, very small,
great food, not that expensive,
and Esther comes in and sees you, Sofia.
You've probably been working with her
not too infrequent, so it's
not like you've gone months
without seeing her, but she
walks up and goes, "Sofia."
And puts her arms wide
and gives you a big hug.
- I lean into the hug.
"Esther, I'm actually
really glad to see you.
I have some sort of more official business
to maybe talk about unless
you wanna just sh**t the sh*t.
We can talk about it later
in a more official capacity."
- "No, go for it. Let's sit down."
You guys sit down, get
some bread and olive oil,
and some like little candle light.
She goes like, "Yeah, absolutely."
- Wait, now I feel like
I'm crashing their date.
"This is very romantic.
Do the two of you just wanna be alone?"
- She says, "No, I mean, this is like our,
one of our like local go-tos,
but it's not here all the time, yeah."
- "Okay.
It's just, it's much fancier
than we have in Staten Island."
- "Yeah, I mean it's like at Clinton Hill.
This is, I think this is sort
of pretty, yeah, you know.
I'm sorry if it made you uncomfortable.
I didn't want to."
- "You're fine."
- "Yeah.
But yeah, what did you wanna talk about?"
- "Okay, well I guess
I've been doing a lot
of reading at the library at the monastery
because they actually have
like many interesting texts,
and, you know, reading is a
hobby I picked up in sobriety
that's actually a pretty underrated hobby.
It's. . ."
- Esther nods vigorously.
She says,
- Yeah.
"Yay books.
Yeah, a hundred percent"
- "Honestly, I agree.
I feel similarly."
- "Yeah?
What's you favorite book, Ricky?"
- "Gosh, my favorite book,
'The Mind Hacker,'
it's a near future a novel about
water rights and, and also Bitcoin.
I didn't kind of catch a lot of it
and didn't quite understand
what it was about, but."
- "That's cool."
- "There's definitely layers
of mystery throughout."
- "Wow."
- It just says that verbatim
on the back of the book.
(laughing)
- He's been reading
this book for two years.
(laughing)
- "Well, yeah, I've so
I've been going through
a lot of the books at the monastery,
and a couple things keep coming up
that are a little strange,
and I was curious if
Gramercy Occult Society
knew anything more about it,
but, you know, a lot of
the books at the monastery,
it's very practical,
very pragmatic, you know,
how do you defend yourself
against X, Y, or Z,
but they keep referencing sort of like
monsters and beasts
from like deep dreams."
- Esther sort of furrows her
brow a little bit, and. . .
- "Like something deeper
than what we went and saw."
- She sort of thinks
for a moment and says,
"Huh, well I feel like a
lot of that is conjecture."
I mean, you see that she
looks very interested.
She says, "I remember
you talking about finding
some of these older scrolls about like
the most dangerous
forms of dream entities,
but, you know, there's
so much we don't know
about the geography of Nod.
This is sort of, I mean,
I've read some things that are talking,
that talk about like different
other cities' relationships
with the dreamscape
and other things like that.
What have you kind of read about the. . .
Have you read anything about
like deeper dreaming or no?"
- "Well, I guess the thing
that's kind of bumping me
is that like, you know, that you say,
'Oh, it's just conjecture,'
but like the Order of the Concrete Fist
is all about what is.
They are the opposite of conjecture,
and so when I read, you know, bestiaries
about deep dream of beasts
that only come out sometimes
that doesn't feel, it's not in their style
to be hypothesizing."
- She looks to you and says,
"Okay.
Well, yeah,
it's true that we, there's a lot
we don't know about Nod even still.
I mean the society is trying to bring
on new members right now to kind of engage
in all the work that needs to be done.
Do you think, look I don't wanna. . .
the order and the society
have had periods of tension
in their working relationship over
the past century and a
half in New York City."
- "Yeah."
- "It. . .
I would be, oh, listen
this is, it's you and me,
you're the chosen one.
I'm the chairwoman and head of the order,
head of the society.
If we said thumbs up,
do you think you and the other monks
might be into a more formal
exchange of resources?
I mean, if there's stuff
the monks know about, things deeper."
- "I mean."
"Yeah."
- "Yeah, I haven't really. . .
If anything, it was probably
a little, a little. . .
I probably jumped the g*n
by telling you because we're friends.
I probably should have
run it by the other monks.
I mean Nadia at the library
knows I've been looking
into this stuff, but I'll
bring it up with them,
I'm sure I can."
- "Yeah, I mean that sounds. . ."
- "I'd love to pool our resources.
I don't think that there's
any reason that we shouldn't."
- "I think we should."
- "Right?"
- "I mean this is the order, the society,
and two voxes in the
city at the same time.
We have. . ."
- "A rare moment."
- "The planets have aligned as they say.
Yes.
Talk to the monks, and let's
put our heads together."
- "Okay."
- You see that she think. . .
Go ahead and give me an
insight check real quick.
- Nat one.
- Here's the deal.
Sofia has been burning the
midnight oil researching,
and basically what you had discovered that
about the nature of Nod was basically
that the sixth borough is
the part of the dreaming
that touches New York and
the Unsleeping City, right?
And what Sofia's revelations were about
were about the relationship
of like, is Nod,
I guess like what started
Sofia's journey was,
is Nod the fullness of the dreaming,
or is there more dreaming past Nod
the farther you get away
from the Unsleeping City in New York.
And Sofia's found out
some troubling things.
You were about to see
Esther connecting dots
in her own head with some of the
society's resources until
your guys' food arrived,
and you saw her, in
perfect rhythm with Ricky
setting up his plate, just
take something from her plate
that she knew Ricky would want,
that she wouldn't want
and put it on his plate,
and there's just a small
squeeze of his arm.
- Puts a whole meatball in his mouth.
- Okay, that was a trigger
for me, but I passed.
(laughing)
- So you. . .
- "The book says it's a, you
know, it's a thrill ride.
It's suspense."
(laughing)
So, that's also. . .
- He's holding the book.
- Important to continue that.
- He's trying to be one of those guys
that has a book in his back pocket like,
"Oh, just on the go.
I'm just reading."
- This is my favorite book.
- Sofia, Esther and Ricky walk
off arm in arm that night,
and Ricky, Esther walks away
with you and looks up and goes,
"How do you think Sofia's doing?"
- "That's a hard question.
I feel like she seems really busy.
I don't know if she's too busy, you know?
I think she's,
maybe like there've been times where
I wasn't feeling so great,
so I worked out super hard,
and I just would do two three-a-days."
- "Sorry, two three-a-days?"
- "So sometimes, so you know
I do two-a-days, right?"
- "Of course. Yes."
- "So I would add two
three-a-days to every week,
and so three days,
so two days of a week, I
would work out three times,
and that was usually 'cause
I wasn't feeling great."
- As you do that you see Esther just nods,
and her eyes just sort
of slowly migrate down
to your abs through like
your baseball shirt.
She's like, "Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm."
- "You know, you know what makes me. . .
Hey, Esther?
Sorry, my eyes are up here."
- "Yeah. Sweetie, yes of course.
Yes, yes, yes.
Absolutely."
- "What's interesting to me is like,
I feel like in the past when
I had questions like this,
I used to ask my ax, and I'd feel like,
I dunno, I was just
thinking about that today."
- See, she looks and says,
"Yeah, I mean, what you
did with the questing blade
was incredibly selfless, sweetie."
You guys get back to
the apartment together,
and Esther takes a moment to sort of
put some stuff away and
then sits on your couch.
Again, super lovely, cozy home together,
and she looks at you and says,
"Sweetie, you. . .
You're very good all the time,
and it's not like you don't
take care of yourself.
Like, you do take care of
yourself physically, mentally,
like you're all about safety.
Is there. . .
It was a huge sacrifice when
you gave up the questing blade
because that was that was your
key into the Unsleeping City.
That's how you met me.
We went to the Hall of Heroes,
and you saw the other
champions of New York,
the defenders of the city,
and I think you know you always do that,
like hero Ricky Matsui thing
of anytime you make a big
sacrifice, you're so quick to go,
'Anyone would have done it.
It's the right thing to do.
It's the thing I have to do.'
But occasionally, if you
do something selfless,
it's okay to acknowledge that
it like stings a little bit.
It's okay if part of you misses that."
- "Yeah, I hear you.
Well I'll, I mean anyone
would have done that.
It was the right thing to do. . ."
- "g*dd*mn it, Ricky, no.
No."
- "That's definitely true, but. . ."
- "No, that's not, I
wasn't saying it in that."
- "You know, to be honest,
every now and then, I
instinctively reach for my ax,
and it's not there and I,
I feel a tiny bit sad,
not so much 'cause I want
to hit things or whatever,
but, you know, he was
kind of a bud, and. . ."
- "You deserve a bud."
- "Yeah."
- She gives you a big warm comforting hug
and buries her face and
your neck, and goes,
"Well, you know,
questing blades are pretty
rare, but who knows?
Maybe, maybe the questing
blade will return
or come back, I don't know but. . ."
- "I looked on Craigslist.
I couldn't find anything."
- "Probably not Craigslist, hun.
Yeah, probably not Craigslist.
Probably a different website
or maybe not a website at all,
maybe something more magical than that."
- "A magical website?"
- "No."
(laughing)
"You see. . ."
- "It just feels like, sometimes to me,
the magical thing could be honestly
any regular thing that's magical,
you know, like, magical podcasts
or something like that, you
know, or a magical. . ."
- "We should start a magical podcast.
I feel like we, if we did
release a magical podcast,
it's not a huge audience of people
that can perceive magical things,
but that could be very fun,
that could be a fun
couple of thing to do."
- "Yeah I would do that."
- You see, she looks at you and goes,
"I'll keep an eye out
for anything like that.
In the meantime, I know that Sofia
is gonna need some help tomorrow
just like keeping an eye on the city
during Halloween, and
questing blade or not,
I know you're off from work tomorrow.
Maybe tomorrow like tag along with Sofia
and like hit the old
stomping grounds again,
you know, go keep the city safe."
- "Gosh, I like safety.
Gosh."
(laughing)
"Yeah.
Yeah, let's do it.
I'll hop some roofs
hanging out with Sofia.
It sounds like a good Halloween.
Thanks, babe."
- "You got it, babe."
And you guys get ready for the night.
Sofia, you head back to Staten Island,
what do you do as you arrive?
How do you make your return
to your home in Staten Island?
- I get in my car.
I go all the way back
to the upper West side
where my car is,
and then I drive back,
once again going through Bay Ridge
and taking the Verrazano Bridge.
- You take the Verrazano.
You're driving to Spaghetti's Bakery.
You pass by
the empty lot
where your house used to be,
and you see
a shimmering, scintillating
column of light
very faintly but almost like fireflies
or something like that,
and you see a shape turns
and beckons to you there
as a mama deer and two fauns
come out of the woodline.
- I put the car into idle,
leave the keys in it,
and open the door and try to follow them.
- You go.
- Is the car still moving?
- Yeah.
(laughing)
The car just kind of
inches forward very slowly.
Ghost riding.
Sofia, you walk over.
It's been a couple weeks,
but as you approach,
you see that the light
sort of moats, the fireflies coalesce,
and with wings on his back,
Dale appears before you.
- And, but I saw him a couple weeks ago?
- Yeah, probably like six weeks ago.
- Oh.
Can I touch him?
Is he corporeal?
- He's corporeal.
- Okay, cool. I make out with him.
- He, 'cause he's covered in angel blood.
He's got the questing blade on his side.
He's beaten his way out of heaven again.
You guys make out hard.
You can tell that he's so invested
in this tiny amount of time he'll have,
and the spaces between
visits get longer and longer
as the angels find ways to stop him
from using the questing
blade to get back out again.
He's making out.
You can tell the only thing
as he's making out with you
is every once in a while,
he'll come up for air he go,
"Look, look, look, look, look, look,
They're licking the dew off the grass."
- "Oh my God. I mean it's just,
I was gonna say it's heaven on earth,
but you're literally heaven on earth,
so I mean there's just a
lot of that right now."
- You guys fully make out.
I will say that like,
you see the deer start
going back into the woods.
As the deer retreat
further into the woods,
Dale's like, "Do you wanna follow them?"
- "Okay, yeah."
- You go follow them
with Dale into the woods.
You quickly lose the deer in the woods
and return to making out,
and I would say whatever. . .
Dale is down for whatever
Sofia wants to do
in those midnight Staten
Island forest with the smell
of the New York Times printing factory
and the world's largest or
America's largest landfill.
(laughing)
Beautiful.
- Yeah.
- Off in the distance.
- I think we do exactly what you imagined.
And she's gonna be like,
"I don't know, is this gonna work?
Is this. . .
Okay, yeah, I don't entirely understand
how you're physically here,
but I'm not gonna take it for granted."
- "Hey, these are not,
you don't have to ask these questions.
If it works, it works."
And you see, he smiles at
you and winks and says,
"It is what it is."
- "It is what it is.
It's, yeah, which is honestly a bad motto.
It's not a great motto.
It's not inspirational,
but it is what it is."
- He nods.
You two are in a tiny clearing
off in these sort of Staten Island trees
lying down on the ground,
looking up at no stars at all
because of all the light
pollution from New York City.
Just looking at the underside
of gray clouds and empty sky.
Just going.
- "Beautiful."
- "Wow."
- "So, Dale, just so I can
kind of get my bearings,
what's the social scene in heaven like?"
- "You know, there's a lot
of wild people up there.
Some people, you would expect.
Some people, you honestly really wouldn't,
and the people who aren't
there are surprising.
There's some people that you really think
would be there, and they're not there."
- "Wow, wow.
I guess I'm trying to understand like,
what's your social life like up there?"
- "Oh.
I don't really,
I don't really have,
I don't really have one up there."
- "Okay."
- "You know, there's the
other, I talked to other monks
both from the Concrete
Fist and from other orders.
There's a tremendous amount
of sort of enlightened people,
and incredible
sages and scholars and. . .
Why do you ask, if I can ask?"
- "I just, you know,
our visits are,
they're not scheduled,
so every time I see you,
it's kind of a surprise,
and then I wonder if
they'll stop at some point,
and if there would ever be
something in heaven that would,
you know, beyond the angels that are
physically trying to prevent
you from coming back down,
if there was, you know,
if there was ever going
to be anything else
that might prevent you from coming down.
Like if you,
I don't know, met someone up there."
- Go ahead and give me an insight check.
- 19.
- Also, Dale got a 24 on
an insight check for you.
You look at him and see
that he looks sort of confused and. . .
- "I'm sorry, I know this
isn't a fair conversation.
I just, you know. . ."
- "No, I understand.
I don't really spend a lot
of time focusing on heaven,
paradise, you know, the beyond.
I'm mostly just trying to plot
and figure out ways to get past security
and get back here."
What is he reading on Sofia right now?
- What he's reading on Sofia is that
she is in the opposite situation,
but the same situation at the same time
where she's not really
living in the present.
She's kind of just always,
when she daydreams,
it's daydreaming about
getting to where he is.
- He looks at you, and it
gets very quiet for awhile.
He goes,
"How about you?
How's your social life down here?"
- "It's awesome.
(laughing)
I just had dinner with Ricky and Esther."
- "Oh, great.
Oh, Ricky's such a good dude."
- "I mean, yeah."
- "He's the founder of the feast.
He's why I'm even able to come here."
- "Yeah, yeah.
So yeah, I'm really,
I'm really having a lot of fun."
- He looks at you lie to his face,
and he goes,
(slow music)
"These are really hard for you."
- "Oh, please don't read
that from what I just said.
It would be harder if it didn't happen,
and I hope you understand that."
- "Right.
No, you're right.
I. . .
Yeah.
There's. . .
The things that are waiting
for us past here are not worse
considering each and every day
of your life here in this place."
(slow music)
Huh.
You see, he starts crying pretty hard,
without sobbing, but you just see
those sort of tears are
coming down his face.
- "Why, why?
Why are you crying?
We're. . ."
- "Nothing. I'm sorry."
- "We both agree that we miss each other.
Isn't that beautiful?"
- "Of course.
Of course it's beautiful.
Of course."
- "Is it hurting you to come see me?
God, it is, isn't it?
I mean, you should be enjoying paradise.
You shouldn't be trying
to escape it all the time.
For what?"
- He smiles and
looks off and just goes,
"I. . .
Yeah, I got some. . .
Sorry I'm having a hard
time articulating things.
How is the monastery
Cindy, Nadia, Solomon,
everyone's good?
First Fist of the monastery.
So cool.
Chosen one."
- "Yeah, it's a lot of paperwork, yeah."
- "Mostly I mean it's a whole monastery
about pragmatism and realism.
So the being chosen one is mostly
paperwork, and just sort of. . ."
- "Mostly paperwork, yeah."
- "Sorting out the kind of
tax status of the monastery.
Yeah, it's great.
Woo. Fun."
- "Yeah, I know.
I'm learning a lot, and I see
why you loved it so much."
(giggling)
- He nods and says, "I'm so proud.
You're the best thing
that ever happened to me."
- "Well, you are obviously the best thing
that ever happened to me."
- He goes silent, and you guys spend
a nice long amount of time together,
continuing to talk about
favorite memories, things shared.
- Okay, so it transitions to good
because I definitely feel
nervous from this conversation.
- You see that Dale moves it
in the direction of good and sweet things.
- Okay. Cool.
- And it almost seems like he
makes it like a perfect night,
like you hit every one
of your inside jokes,
all of your favorite bits,
every great memory all the way down,
and that he takes a lot of time
to say like little things here and there
like bits of advice about the order
and things that he
wished he had known back
when he was a monk, and
stacks all these things up
until truly it's like
the sky is getting light
in the East, and you wake
up in the middle of the day,
covered in ants on a hot patch of dirt.
You fell asleep in Dale's
arms, and he is gone.
- Okay, I the player know
exactly what that means.
Does Sofia know what that means?
What you just described mean?
Does she pick up on the fact
that he made it the perfect night
and also gives all of the
tips that he needs to give?
- Go ahead and roll.
Give me a DC 20 insight check.
- Okay, I desperately want to fail this
'cause I don't wanna know.
Six plus a three.
Nine.
I don't know it.
Great. Good.
(laughing and clapping)
"Wow, that was just an awesome evening.
Wow, I feel really. . .
I mean, Dale really went out of his way
to like have a good time.
That was awesome."
(laughing)
- Incredible.
The following day.
It's Halloween.
We have some characters that had
a lot of crazy sh*t happen
the proceeding night.
The following morning,
Pete and Cody, you guys are
now living in the same spot.
The following morning.
Cody, you know like the nearby
like bagel spot and place
to get like a breakfast
sandwich and stuff like that.
Pete, this dude who got infernal awakened
into the Unsleeping City last
night is now your roommate.
- Yeah.
- What are you guys. . .
As you guys dive into it the next morning
on your way to get breakfast,
you're walking down like
Steinway street and Astoria,
what are you guys talking about?
- Okay, I think I wanna
know like everything about
what you promised, what the like,
do you have the contract on you,
or like what the f*ck?
What are talking about?
- Let me see.
f*ck, I was so excited.
Did I bring the book
with me or the contract?
- Give me honestly a DC
five intelligence check.
- Oh, my intelligence is okay.
It's my wisdom that's bad.
- Okay.
- Okay, I'm fine.
Dirty 20.
I rolled an 18.
- Great.
- So yeah I guess I show
the back of the ripped
WWE poster that is signed in my blood
that doesn't, I think,
doesn't clarify anything.
It just says that I gave
my soul away essentially.
- Go ahead, give me an Arcana check, Pete.
- Oh, great.
Okay.
So this is gonna be,
oh, yeah 27.
- Ooh, doctor.
This is the f*cking
dumbest infernal contract
you've ever seen.
You've ever seen.
It's on the back of a WWE poster,
crisp out of the plastic,
scrawled in blood.
It's very clear that Cody
got woozy from blood loss
because he wrote the
full word "Night Angel"
out in his own blood,
which is too long to
write in your own blood
without getting woozy.
The deal, the contract,
the bargain is in exchange
for selling his soul,
he gets to work for this devil.
- "What?
This was a bad deal, dude.
What the f*ck were you thinking?"
- "Lucifer himself f*cking
comes out of hell."
- "No."
- "And tells you that
you can save the mall,
and you won't sell your f*cking soul?"
(laughing)
- Oh my God.
Do I have any idea of like,
why devils would be back or?
- On a 27, you know sh*t load.
Ask me as many, truly as
many questions as you want.
First of all, you know Bazathrax.
Memories comes up from
Emma Lazarus back when she
was the Vox Phantasma of New York.
Bazathrax is a lesser,
lesser, lesser devil lord,
like sub, sub, sub devil lord.
He is literally a lord of the second
out of nine pits of hell.
He's in the number two,
he's in one of the number two,
and like kind of right
through the front door,
and he is the sub lord
of reckless decisions.
That's his fiendish domain
is reckless decisions,
and literally he's
what you're realizing is like the,
like the highway hex is still here,
like Robert Moses is gone,
but the thing that kind
of shunts powerful devils
and fairy creatures and
celestials like out of New York.
Bazathrax is one of the larger entities
that could have made it
through the highway hex,
so also you remember that,
like Isabella Infierno,
back three years ago,
was hell's representative here,
and she was a succubus.
She was like not a high
ranking devil either,
like again one of the most powerful. . .
It's sort of like a net that
bigger fish can't swim through,
but smaller ones can, and so like,
Isabella could make it through,
but because no one could like,
no one bigger than her could come get her,
she just like joined up with Robert Moses
and hung out for years, right?
But with her gone,
there is literally zero
infernal presence in the city,
so you're like, "Oh,
someone like Bazathrax
who is a full-stop chump
could still clean up here
because there's f*cking no competition,
and there's 8 million people."
- Yes.
"Okay, can I. . .
Hey, 'Night Angel' Cody,
can you f*cking summon Bazathrax please?
I need to talk to this guy."
- "I was super pumped when it happened.
I'm not a hundred percent sure if I can,
but I think I can 'cause
technically he's my boss now."
- "Yeah, yeah, right.
Yeah, cool man."
- "Cool."
- You know how employees can
always summon their boss?
- "'Cause like you can like
make butterflies and sh*t,
so you made a deal with another
devil or something, right?
We're getting the mall back."
- Okay.
I explain like,
can I just explain a lot more to Cody?
Like there's actually a
whole group of people.
We work to keep the city safe, or. . .
- Yeah.
- Can I explain?
Yeah.
- You guys are Blade.
- "And you keep, see, I notice, man,
that you keep bringing
it back to the mall.
We're actually, none of us
are working on the mall.
I'm so sorry to tell you."
- "So that's sort of my thing, I guess."
- "I'm not the Vox Phantasma for the mall.
I'm like for the whole city."
- "But I am."
- "No, dude.
Well, yeah maybe.
Yeah. Yeah."
You're kind of the Vox
Populi of the mall."
- "Got it. Cool.
Yeah, I think I get like
the f*cking gist just a bit.
Let me call Lucifer and
see if wants to. . ."
- "Bazathrax, yeah."
- "Maybe that'll, maybe
he'll sort it out."
- "Great, yeah bring him in."
- "Oh, mighty, Lucifer,
in the name of Jeff Hardy
and the Hardy Boyz,
in the name of Breaking Benjamin
and all the other sick a*s,
new metal bands,
I summon you."
And then I just like pull out a knife
and stab myself in the leg.
- "No, dude, you don't have. . .
You just gotta, you
just gotta say his name
I think, man, don't worry about it.
You don't have to hurt yourself."
- On that 27, first of all, Cody,
you fall to the ground.
You have a bad leg stab.
- "f*ck."
- It's bad.
For Pete, you can tell
that nothing happened here
because the devil's name is not Lucifer,
so this is, it's not gonna work.
- "So, hey, man, look you
just got to say, 'Bazathrax.'
You gotta summon Bazathrax.
You got me?"
- I say the exact same thing
again except Bazathrax,
and I stab my leg again.
- "No, no, no, you don't have
to f*cking stab yourself, man."
- In a burst of nasty like sewer smoke,
a man hole cover pops up,
and you, Pete, see Bazathrax again.
Marmot head, ram's horns, slimy humanoid,
very like emaciated looking torso
with long claws and
like a centaur-capybara
lower body with a long rat
tail that goes, "Holy sh*t,"
and crawls out of this smoking manhole.
- Okay, I'd like to grab him by the collar
and shove him against a wall
and be like, "What the
f*ck are you doing here?
Tell me everything."
- Holy sh*t, okay.
Go ahead and roll initiative.
- Oh, not intimidation?
- Actually, yeah, before you roll,
intimidation, gimme intimidate first.
- Okay.
Ooh, that's a 28.
(laughing)
- Cody, you've seen Pete do
some like butterfly stuff.
As Pete slams this demon,
you see that the wall behind Bazathrax
turns into pure liquid chrome,
and circling daisy chains
of happy, what look like, children's dolls
with buttons sewed into their eyes,
dancing in this technicolor
swirl going into infinity,
reach out, and with
their little puffy hands,
grab Bazathrax and restrain him
in this circling phantasmagoria.
Bazathrax goes,
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, I give up.
I full give up. I surrender."
- My butterfly is flipping him off.
- "Are you f*cking kidding me, dude?
Can I sell my soul to Pete?
Can you trade my soul?"
- "Well, I'm gonna try.
I'm gonna try to get your soul back.
Bazathrax, what the
f*ck are you doing here?
How did you get here?
What's going on?
Tell me."
- "I don't f*cking know, dude,
I don't f*cking know.
The kid summoned me all right?
He said my name in the f*cking book,
and he signed his soul.
You can't sell your soul to
sh*t, dude, you work for me."
Cody, you see that he
snaps one of his fingers
even while restrained, and you slam down
to one knee with the sword in your hand.
- It's so f*cking sick
that I work for a devil,
but Lucifer kind of sucks.
- Can I like, with any
sort of magic, create
like a contract for Bazathrax to sign
and try to somehow get Cody out of this?
- Give me an Arcana check here.
- Okay.
Here's my Arcana.
Oh, good.
Ooh, 20 but not nat.
- Cool.
You feel like this devil's
probably not gonna sign anything
because the worst you could
do to this devil really
is banish him back to hell,
and then he would just be in hell,
but one soul richer right?
So there's not, like, you
and he are at an impasse
because you're vastly
more powerful than him,
but because of the nature of what he is,
there's like a short list of things
you can do to a guy like this, right?
- Okay.
- But you could definitely
get some concessions
out of him because he's scared of you.
- Yeah, I wanna know
everything or what's going on.
What his plans are.
"Cody, let Cody stand back up.
Jesus Christ, man."
- You see, he goes, "All right, all right,
all right, all right, all
right, hey, stand back up, kid.
Stand back up.
Do what the Vox Phantasma says, okay?"
- "Yes.
I serve my dark master."
- "No, dude."
I put my arm around Cody.
"Look, man, you don't.
This is a f*cking like
weird old gym teacher."
- "I understand, I understand,
but I'm just trying to make the best of it
because do you know how long
I've been waiting for this?
Do how many f*cking goth kids just wait
for the devil to f*cking show up
and just turn you into a
f*cking like hell warrior."
- "He's not the devil.
He's honestly, he like stocks
the vending machines of hell, man,
like you're f*cking talking
to like not the devil."
- "I wish.
I f*cking wish.
That's a primo gig.
That is a primo gig."
- "All right, Bazathrax, you can work,
you can stock the vending machines,
I f*cking believe in you, you f*ck."
- He says, "Cody, Cody, I'm lying.
I really am Lucifer.
Don't worry.
Don't worry.
I really am, just shh, shh, shh, shush."
- "I am no fool to believe anymore."
- "Hey, Cody, okay. . .
Actually, you know what?
Bazathrax, just what, what's going on?
Literally spill it."
- You see, he says,
"Look, something f*cked up
is happening in the city.
This place is crazy."
He goes like, "There's, it's like,
there's, there's no f*cking
devils here anywhere,
and like, I don't know how to put it,
but there's like something
that's keeping like
people from noticing when
sh*t is weird or whatever."
- "Yeah, yeah, we have that."
- "They're doing something at the mall.
they're taking over everything."
- "I explained the Umbral Arcana to Cody."
No, no, it's not the mall, again.
Anyway, so, it's much
bigger than the mall."
- You see, Bazathrax says like, "Yeah."
He's like, "That sh*t,
it's f*cking leaking out everywhere.
It's getting thick and goopy in places,
which is pretty f*cking crazy."
He's like, "There's something f*cked up.
It's. . .
It's going down.
Has anyone been keeping
an eye on the sewers?
Do any of you heroes keep an
eye on the sewers or anything?"
- Would I know if any of us
have been doing like monitoring?
- Well, not really since Kugrash tied. . .
- Kug would have.
- Yeah, Kug would have.
- I think I have like on my key chain,
I have a little like
class of 2019 for Kugrash
'cause we all said he graduated,
and I think I got everyone
a little key chain
that says that to remind them of Kugrash,
and I just hold it.
- Bazathrax says, "That's all I know.
I can help you find it.
Look, something's f*cked up in the sewers.
Something's f*cked up in
the subways right now.
There's a, there's a confluence.
There is a confluence within the subways.
That's all I know."
- "Tell me more.
Can you take me there?"
- He says, "Yeah, yeah,
yeah, I can take you there.
I can take you there."
- "Are these demons friends or foes?"
- He says, "Oh it's not demons.
It's coming from people."
You see, he says, "It's the anti populi."
(laughing)
As he says anti populi, Pete,
I think you hear anti populi.
Give me an Arcana check again.
- Let's see.
That is 11.
- Anti populi is way out
of your field of knowledge.
This is some Kingston sh*t.
- Okay, when am I gonna
meet Kingston for that game?
- That's happening probably
like two days from now,
but today's Halloween, so
probably you gotta like,
today might. . .
You know that Sofia is gonna
be busy doing sh*t today.
It might be time to round up the troops.
- Yeah, okay.
I send out a text to everyone
just kind of explain
this whole devil thing,
and just say my new
roommate got roped into it,
and he's cool.
Just, I'm gonna introduce you to a guy.
He's cool, just he's cool.
- Gotcha.
- As a way to get. . .
Oh, sorry.
- Sorry.
I was gonna say, Iga Lisowski,
the next morning it's Halloween,
your kids are getting ready.
Your chest is still changed
after being unchanged for centuries.
- "I do not like this.
I do not like this."
Is there anybody I feel like
I could talk to about this?
Like I'm somewhat within
the confines of the. . .
- Yeah, you're within the Unsleeping City,
but you've just made a point
to avoid those people
because they're dangerous,
and you like have a family
and don't f*ck with those kind of people.
- We could say hypothetically
that I would have probably texted you
for like a tarot reading after seeing Dale
or something like that.
- I mean, you do know that you have
one client who is an important fit.
You know Sofia has
divulged everything to you.
I think Sofia's your go-to probably.
- Great. I will maybe text Sofia,
"Hey, I need to talk to you.
I can give you a reading at a discount."
(laughing)
- Not even free.
- Sofia immediately hops
on the phone to call her.
- "Hi."
- "Hello."
- "Hi."
- "Hi, Sofia.
How are you doing?"
- "Honestly a little confused,
which is why I texted you that wall."
- "Yes.
Fun.
I have a thing that I need
maybe some little help with."
- "Oh, absolutely.
What can I do?"
- "There is an heirloom that
I have, a family heirloom,
it's an important,
let's say powerful heirloom."
- "Hmm, necklace, broach."
- "Sure.
So something happened to this heirloom.
It is a, it's a box I will tell you,
it's a box that has power.
Now, something happened last night.
It has always had trees on it,
and now it has you on it as
well as the trees, so. . ."
- "I'm sorry,
me or like a hypothetical you?"
- "There is a picture
of you and also a very,
very buff looking man
who is taking a selfie.
This is, again, a
hundreds of years old box.
I do not know."
- "Madam Anastasia, have you,
have you gotten the firefight. . .
Do you have the firefighter's
calendar from 2019?"
- "Yes, of course I have the
firefighter's calendar for 2019.
It's the best one.
They took out, they replaced
Mr. March this year.
I'm like, 'What is going on?'"
- "Right, okay.
Is there any resemblance between
the man on your box and Mr. March?"
- "Oh my God, this, yes,
definitely is Mr. March.
He is my favorite in that whole calendar."
- "He's everyone's favorite."
- I feel like, as you're
having a text conversation,
Sofia, you and Ricky
just have like your feet
off the side of the skyscraper
you're like eating lunch on.
Like, Ricky.
- "Yeah, would it be
okay if me and Mr. March
swung by and looked at this box?"
- "Yeah."
- "Is that the help that you
were looking for, or did you?"
- "I don't know.
I mean if you think, yes.
Do you or do you know somebody
who's like good with magical items, or?"
- "I know a couple people."
I guess I'll get on that group thread.
Can I just add Madam
Anastasia to the group thread?
- You absolutely can, yes.
- "It's fine.
It's my burner phone."
(laughing)
- Welcome to the thread.
- Hell yeah, so,
as Iga is going to meet up,
you see that Oscar says like,
"All right, you headed
out for the day, darling?"
- "Yes, I've got to, hmm.
Yes.
I'm going to, yes.
I'm going out for a little bit."
- Your husband looks
at you with a look of,
I have known that my wife does
something bizarre for,
you know, like 15 years
and he goes, "Okay, you
have a great time to go
out in the city to do your business.
I love you."
- "I love you.
Hey, I'm going.
If I go by the Carnegie Deli,
I'll get you a sandwich."
- "Yes, please do.
Also maybe we grab some,
from Carnegie Deli,
if they have that, the
pickled radish, you know."
- "Oh, yeah, no the, yes.
Yes."
- "Great, I like it from there."
You see that your kids are getting ready
for Halloween later in the day.
Look at you headed out with a
box that is now travel sized.
After you have compacted
it with your magic.
- I have that and Meshach in like
a really big sort of hand-woven bag.
- Incredible.
You head out to meet Ricky and Sofia.
Cody and Pete,
you had the thing Bazathrax said.
You're still carrying Bazathrax with you.
Cody, very humiliating,
your devil lord is being
dragged around by Pete.
You guys can see that Bazathrax
is just on a sedan chair of
like, sort of, they look like
they're made of light paint.
Like it's made of light, but
it's dripping like paint would
and splashing into light on the ground.
Just a small like cushion of butterflies
that he can't escape
from of different colors
is moving him along he's like,
"Whoa, whoa, whoa."
- "Dark lord, could you like,
do devils ever like trade?
Like could I get traded?
Could you just like trade me up?"
- "It's not the f*cking NBA, dude, okay?
People don't get, no one's
getting traded, all right?
That's not gonna happen."
- "f*ck.
Yes, my dark lord.
This f*cking rules.
This f*cking rules."
- "Whee, dude."
- When we're walking, can
I ask Cody about the mall?
Like, "What's your thing with the mall,
and what's happening
with the mall right now?"
- "What's not happening with the mall
right now is the question."
- "This is gonna be poetic, isn't it?"
- "I worked at the Hot Topic.
I was a mall goth."
- "Yeah."
- "All my friends were there.
I had friends who worked at Spencer's.
I had friends who worked at Zumiez.
Hell, I even had friends
who worked at PacSun
even though I don't like the sun.
And then people started
buying sh*t online,
and it was really f*cked up.
First, Spencer's closed and
then Zumiez not long after."
- "Whoa."
- "And then PacSun,
and Hot Topic stayed right till the end,
but then they just shut
the whole mall down,
and now Gladiators come in with their,
'Oh, we're on the internet,
but we're gonna, we
need to f*cking campus.
f*cked up, so."
- "They're just mowing it all down
and making a f*cking Gladiator campus?"
- "Yeah, they're making,
like they said it was gonna
be like a big job thing
or some f*cking bullshit,
like they're just,
like they're crushing all the
small businesses like Sears.
You know what I mean?"
- "Yeah, totally.
Little mom-and-pop shops like Sears."
- "Yeah, like Sears and the
McDonald's is f*cking closed.
I have to walk like a f*cking
two miles to get to McDonald's."
- "That sucks."
- You guys arrive where
you've been headed,
which is outside of st.
Owens Memorial Hospital.
Kingston, you're just getting off a shift,
having been reached out
to by young Pete here
'cause you knew that Kingston would
know about that anti populi thing.
- Yeah, can we go to like Kingston's
little secret whatever room, or?
- Yeah, absolutely.
- What does the devil
look like in real life?
Is it like Kugrash, or it just looks
like something weird, but not a devil?
- It looks like a bunch of
sagging helium balloons right now
that all have satanic logos.
So that's what everyone else is seeing
as Pete has a bunch of sort of sad,
half deflated, satanic
balloons behind him.
- "Get over here."
(laughing)
Talking to these balloons.
(laughing)
- Yeah, Kingston is fully
dressed up for Halloween
and is dressed like a pirate.
- "Oh, sh*t.
You're a goth, too?"
- "What?"
- "It's so f*cking good to,
it's so good to meet another goth."
- "I've never been called a goth before.
Nice to meet you.
Pete, is this your new friend
and your other new friend?"
- "Yeah, look, Kingston
doesn't usually wear eyeliner.
It's just for his thing right now.
Okay, yeah."
- Cody looks extremely offended.
- "Kingston, devils have gotten in.
This devil right here, this is Bazathrax.
He conned my new roommate
into giving him his soul.
We'll deal with that later,
but he's said something
about the anti populi.
- "Can I interject?
I really didn't con him.
He was extremely quick to offer."
- "I need to believe that you conned him."
- "Well, the thing is
that Bazathrax is like,
okay, you know when you
start working at Hot Topic
and there's like your manager,
and then there's like corporate,
so Lucifer is corporate,
so that's my real boss.
So I work for Lucifer."
- "Okay."
- "I'm coming for
Bazathrax's f*cking job."
- "Okay."
- "All right. Okay."
We can, we'll work through this I think.
I think, Cody, it's nice to meet you.
I'm Kingston Brown.
We'll. . ."
- "Nice to meet you."
- " We can get into
Bazathrax and all of that.
I think that seems to be
a little less pressing
than, Pete, the anti populi."
Have I heard the word
"anti populi" said before?
- You a hundred percent have.
Go ahead and roll me a
religion check with advantage.
- Oh, what a thrill.
Here we go now.
It's only a 14.
- Only 14.
You know the term "anti populi,"
it basically refers to,
it's like antimatter but made specifically
of ill will towards people.
Anti populi is rooted in the culture
of the place that it's in.
So the anti populi of a like, you know,
small, quaint, Northeastern
town might be like,
oh, not saying hi to Jeff
down at like the lumber store, right?
Anti populi in New York
is specifically related
to the misanthropic ill will
and refutation of the
social norms of the city
that create a magically
toxic spiritual substance.
And when it congregates,
it can become spiritually
poisonous to people
in a very potent way.
It's extremely dangerous stuff.
It is a combination of
misanthropy, ill will,
and substance that exists
in direct opposition
to the social customs
and norms of a place.
- That gets Kingston real nervous
'cause I don't know.
Well, it sounds like, yeah,
I think I like, look at
Pete and I'm like, "Okay.
I mean, the fact that we
have anti-people building up
or anti populi building up is a bad thing,
and it sounds, I mean,
this definitely means
that there's a bigger problem going on,
but I mean, if there's something
we can handle right now
that your Bazathrax can maybe bring us to,
it feels like we should
get the g*ng together
and go handle this."
- "I think so too.
Yeah, it sounds like just a bunch of
this substance is being
created in mass under the city.
Yeah, we should get
everyone and go back down
to the sewers, the train station.
It seems underground."
- "Hey you, in the chair,
you said you have a,
you know where this is coming from?"
- "Yeah, yeah.
I've been snooping around all night.
You know, taking a look around.
I can lead you to it, yeah."
- "My dark lord, what
if people just started
calling me ambassador of the dark lord
and you would like not come out
and you would just like
talk to me in my head?
- "What's that?"
- "Dude, why don't you like,
get the f*ck outta here,
and you can just talk to me in my head
and tell me where sh*t
is, and I could just be
ambassador of the dark lord?"
- "Cody, this is a hospital.
You can't smoke in the hospital.
I'm sorry."
- "f*ck."
(laughing)
- It's just like, when it's his roommates,
I feel like he's like an as*h*le,
but as soon as like an adult tells him
to do something, he's like, "f*ck."
- "Hey, thank you for putting that out.
I appreciate that.
Thank you."
- "Fine."
- You see, Pete, with that incredible
intimidate check from before,
you feel like you could probably
at least momentarily
like imprison Bazathrax
within Cody, so he's not
like getting up to trouble.
- "Hey, Cody,
I'm about to do something
really metal for you.
Are you ready?"
- I bend a knee and put my sword out.
- Can I take Bazathrax and turn him
into a chest piece tattoo for Cody
and just slam him into his chest?
- A million percent.
- I turn him into a chest
tattoo that says "redemption,"
and it's dripping in blood.
(laughing)
- Cody never smiles and just
like keeps trying to not smile.
"This is awesome.
Thanks."
- "Hey, are you okay, man?
Are you having a stroke, or?"
- "No one has ever been this happy.
This is normal f*cking stuff,
and I'm just doing my job.
Thank you."
- Oh my gosh.
- "For sure, man, I got you."
- You can feel Bazathrax burning inside
this incredible tat that has been made
by the Vox Phantasma himself of New York
slamming this like raw dream magic
into your chest that is now
this dripping Gothic font.
You hear Bazathrax in head say, "Oh, sh*t.
What the f*ck, dude?
Aw, goddammit."
- "Well, okay Bazathrax, we're gonna
have to f*cking work something out
because you can't just
talk whenever you want.
You need to like tell me sh*t,
not just say like, 'What the
f*ck is going on in here,'
because that's going to get,
you're going to drive
me f*cking nuts, man."
- Cool.
I'm going to say that
you're not sure how to talk
in his head so you do
have to talk out loud.
(laughing)
Your half has to be out loud.
- I'm just freaking out.
Yeah.
You see, he goes, "All right, dude,
look, I'll help you out, okay?
Look, there's a confluence
happening on West Fourth Street
by Washington Square Park,
West Fourth subway station.
That's where I saw it, okay?
If you guys head there, that's
what you're gonna find it."
- All right. I relay that to the crew.
- Let's do it.
- Great.
- We text everybody.
- "Exactly.
Wherever Sofia and Ricky can meet us,
We'll meet, and the new person,
you guys know who the new
person in the group chat is?"
- "Her name is Madam Anastasia.
She's the most honest
person I've ever met."
- So, Iga you, you head
and you have your box.
You meet up with Ricky and Sofia as they
are taking like the L out of Brooklyn
to go meet up with everybody
else at West Fourth Street.
On your way to this thing,
I think, Iga, you're probably
just getting swept up
in it by virtue of like
talking to these people.
What do you say to Ricky and Sofia
as you meet up with them?
- "Oh.
Oh my goodness, Mr. March.
It is truly just such
an honor to meet you."
- "Former Mr. March."
- "Oh, yes.
Well, yes, but the
forever Mr. March in our,
in our hearts."
- "Thank you.
Thank you.
I might be making my own calendar,
but I'll let you know if it happens."
- "Wow."
- "Yeah."
- "That's amazing."
- "Maybe it was supposed
to be for just private."
- "Yeah, I was going to say,
I think as someone who's
friends with Esther,
I can't see that calendar."
- "Yeah, maybe I'll. . .
We'll talk about it.
We'll give you an answer.
We'll talk.
Sorry, nice to meet you."
- "Madam Anastasia, what is going on
with this box that
you're telling me about?"
- "Yes, so. . ."
Nobody but us could see it
on the train anyway, right?
'Cause it's only people who are inside.
- If you made it full-size,
everyone would think you just had
a lot more suitcases than they thought.
- Okay, great.
So, I like elbow people out of the way
on the subway and then make it big.
- "Whoa."
- "Okay, this, it's hard,
it's, okay it's a little hard to describe
because you didn't see it before,
but this used to be just trees,
and if you look at that's for sure, you,
and that's for sure you on
the bunch of buildings."
- Can we see ourselves on it?
- You can see two figures.
This is like an ancient, medieval
like Eastern-European kind of
moss covered in parts chest.
It looks like something that some
ancient pagan warrior god
would have had in their
like, giant castle in
a fairytale somewhere.
And instead there are
still trees carved into it,
but now there are skyscrapers,
and they look and feel
ancient to the touch.
And you see that there are two figures
on top of one of the skyscrapers
that look like a broad-shouldered man
and a woman with like high hair swept back
in a ponytail from her
head gazing heroically
off into the skyline of these skyscrapers.
- "Madam Anastasia, you've
been so direct with me already,
and I'm sorry to ask for
more honesty from you,
but what does this box mean to you?
What do you keep in it?
How does it. . ."
- "Oh, I. . .
The box, we do not open.
We do not open the box.
I had a great-great aunt.
As a little girl, she opened the box.
Who knows."
- "So it's sort of a big haunted box
you keep in your bedroom?"
- "I don't like haunted.
I would say more it's a box of power
that a powerful spirit
resides inside, and. . ."
- "You have children, right?"
- "It helps out our family.
Yes, I have two children, and. . ."
- "How do you make sure the
children don't open the box?"
- "They know not to open the box."
- "Okay.
Okay."
- "Feels a little like we should maybe
take a few more
precautions with this box."
Ricky's gonna cast divine
sense to see if it's,
to detect good or evil.
- Powerful magic.
Not divine, not fiendish,
not fey, not undead,
but something of a
category like those things
that you've never detected before.
Give me a perception check.
- Can I do one as well?
- [Brennan] Yeah.
Give me a perception check.
Calling DC 20.
- I only got a 10.
- I got 13 for me.
- Cool.
You guys look at it,
and yeah, your divine sense
tells you that there's
some powerful magic to this with a type
of being like those other
things but not those things.
Feels deep and prime evil.
- "So Madam Anastasia,
was it communicated to you
what your, that, you know,
did your parents say,
'Watch over this box?
Never open it?
It is the task of our family?'"
- "Yes, pretty much that.
Yeah, those are all the
things that were said.
It's been passed down
from mother to daughter for generations."
- "Mother to daughter.
Interesting."
- "Yeah, always mother to daughter.
I don't know.
We always have one daughter.
She's the one that takes the box.
It's sort of an inevitability.
I don't know.
It's. . ."
I shrink the box back down
and put it back in the bag next to Meshach
and give Meshach a little bit more drink.
- You guys transfer trains to go down.
You take the C one-stop
down to West fourth,
and as you merge on the platform,
Kingston, Ricky and
Pete, meet up with Iga,
or sorry,
Ricky, Sofia, and Iga meet up
with Cody, Pete, and Kingston.
- "Hello, Kingston."
- "Hey.
Hello.
I was wondering if it was
this Madam Anastasia."
- "How you doing?"
- "I'm good.
How are you?
Interesting.
I haven't seen you interacting
with the Unsleeping City."
- "You know, I tried.
It's not my business.
It's your business.
I don't try to get involved,
but, you know, sometimes maybe
we can help each other out
a little bit, you know."
- "Hey, this is true.
This is true.
Good to see you all."
- "Hey, what's up, everybody?
I am the ambassador of the dark lord,
formerly the 'Night Angel,' AKA Cody."
- I mind link with everyone
while he's talking.
(laughing)
I'm like, look anyway, like explaining,
but nodding next to you like.
- I'm nodding based on what Pete is saying
and not listening to Cody.
- I just like keep going on.
"Yeah, so like Bazathrax is like,
he's a manager, but corporate is Lucifer.
So I work for Lucifer."
- "Wait, what is your name?
What's your name?"
- "The ambassador of the dark Lord."
- "No, no, Cody?"
- "My name is f*cking Cody."
- "Okay, thank you."
- "Do you want us to call you Cody,
or do you want us to
call you something else?"
- "You can call me,
you can call me Cody."
- "Dude, he goes by 'Night Angel.'
I don't know why you're
being so shy, man."
- "Well, now I'm the
ambassador of the dark lord."
- "Dude, you're a lot of things,
and they're all badass, okay?"
- "If you wanted to,
you could just tell us
which one you prefer."
- "Cody's cool.
You can just call me Cody."
- "Okay, Cody."
- "Kingston, how do you
know Madam Anastasia?"
- "Oh, I mean, I just know most people,
and, you know, she's been
around, has chosen to,
not be as involved, and
I respect that choice,
but it is nice to see her today."
- Kingston, you feel a,
a sharp pain.
A sharp pain in your chest.
If you were going to guess what it was,
it'd be like a,
some kind of like maybe a muscle spasm
or maybe something else,
but you feel sharp pain in your chest.
- Being in this group, I
think I do my best to hide it.
Just kind of like, be like,
"All right, well, let's, ow,
let's, let's get to it."
- Give me a deception check.
- Great.
That's gonna be, wow, that's only a 12.
- [Sofia] What would that go up against?
Our passive perception, or?
- That's your passive insight,
so anyone whose passive
insight is 13 or higher,
Pete, yeah, you notice
something's wrong with Kingston.
- Oh, yeah.
Mine as well.
- Yeah.
- I clock it, but I
don't call him out on it,
but I want to ask him later.
- Kingston, you begin to hear whispers
coming from one of the empty rails.
You guys are on the platform
in between the local. . .
You have like the local
train stopping on one side
of the platform, the express on the other.
Looking down one of the
express lanes, Kingston,
you see this woozy thing of the
subway extending down there,
and for a moment, all of you stop,
like seeing certain things.
Like Pete's little green butterfly
like flickers out for people.
Everyone kind of sees Meshach,
the little sick looking
dragon in Iga's bag,
kind of turn into a
chihuahua for a second like,
and the tunnel extends.
Kingston,
You begin to hear, sort of like a
(rasping breaths)
"Move over.
I said f*cking move.
Why are you always like this?"
(rasping breaths)
"Yeah, I said it, he wouldn't know."
"I'm not giving up my seat."
(laughing)
(rasping breaths)
And you see through a
haze of like a heat wave,
a train approaching the station,
and you get this powerful sense
of New Yorkers wailing out.
And this is not articulately put,
but you just know this is a bad train.
- "Hey, everybody, this next train,
this is not articulate,
but it's a bad train."
(laughing)
- "Whoa, did you just come up with that?"
- "That sounds kind of fun to me.
I like that."
- "Do you wanna just throw
a f*cking rock at it, or?"
- "No, it's not the good bad.
It's the bad, bad.
I might, I'll be ready for something."
- You guys see the train
pulls into the station.
As it starts slowing
down, you start seeing
it's filled with commuters,
but it's also sort of
flashing in and out of,
it seems like somehow more or less normal
than usual distorted somehow.
As it gets very, very slow,
the train is like looking
at it's about to stop,
and then you hear over
the PA it being like,
"My mistake, this train is going express.
Not making this stop.
Not making this stop at all."
- I jump on it.
- Can we try to make it stop?
Yeah.
- Yeah.
- Yeah, Sofia you can
leap to the very back.
- Cast jump on myself, and jump on it.
- You can leap to the very
back car of the train.
Actually, all of you can.
It's starting to pick up speed again,
but if every one of you guys wants
to leap to the back of the train,
you absolutely can.
- Let's do a run and jump onto it.
- You run and jump on.
- I'll reach my hand out to help anyone.
- Cool.
- I try to pick up Cody.
- Can I cast cold?
Can I cast like cone
of cold to like freeze
its gears and like keep it there,
or does it seem like I don't have time?
- You can definitely cast cone of cold.
It would potentially
damage the car itself, but
you could definitely do it
to slow it down for a moment
to let everybody like leap onto the train.
- Nah, we'll just leap.
I think we'll make it.
- Cool.
- I'm gonna use my elemental gift and fly.
- Hell yeah.
Iga just takes off flying off the ground.
As the train begins to pick up,
you hear that voice say,
"That's right, ladies and gentlemen,
this train is making all express stops.
In fact, just one more stop.
The end of a line."
(laughing)
You guys leap.
So trains like this have conductors,
sort of like stations at
both ends of the train.
You guys bust through the door on your end
to see this conductor's area has been
completely destroyed,
smashed apart, rent asunder,
and as you open the door to look in,
you see a bizarrely empty subway car
with people crowded around the doors.
You see that the people
crowded around the doors
are crowded because there's a bunch
of just f*cking spaced out people
who are not moving further into the car.
They're just like on
their phones or reading
and like leaning against
poles and sh*t, like,
and there's all these New
Yorkers that are trying
to get to seats that they can't get to
because these people
won't move further in.
Kingston, as you see
this, this is like a shot
to the heart of like you don't do this.
- Yeah.
- And you realize this entire train
is flooded with anti populi.
There is a magical substance here.
This train car is filled
with a spiritual force,
gleefully shredding the most
basic and fundamental laws
of how you are supposed
to behave on the subway.
And as you recognize that,
all of you see the people flicker,
the people that are stuck disappear
as the train car morphs into a train car
with the floor as grass and
stone gravestones everywhere.
And you see those people
that are not moving further
into the car just like spaced out,
not being considerate,
not paying attention.
Rotting flesh hangs from these zombies
as indeed you pass by the station
of everybody here on Halloween.
I'm going to need everybody
here to roll initiative.
- Yeah.
- That's all for this episode
of the Unsleeping City.
Tune in next week as a
very Halloween-y subway car
filled with monsters,
all engaging in the rudest acts
of New York subway etiquette imaginable.
Join us next week for episode
three of the Unsleeping City.
(eerie laughter)
- Wow.
- "Oh, Kingston, nice Halloween costume."
- Oh, yeah.
Full on dressed like a pirate
through this whole fight.
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08x02 - Heaven and Hell on Earth
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A tabletop role-playing game show produced by and broadcast on Dropout and created and generally hosted by Brennan Lee Mulligan as the show's regular Dungeon Master.
A tabletop role-playing game show produced by and broadcast on Dropout and created and generally hosted by Brennan Lee Mulligan as the show's regular Dungeon Master.