(upbeat music)
(table tapping)
- Hello, one and all.
And welcome back to
another exciting episode
of "The Unsleeping City."
I am you humble Dungeon
Master Brennan Lee Mulligan,
with me as always our intrepid heroes,
Say hi, intrepid heroes.
- [Group] Hi, intrepid heroes.
(laughing)
- Heck yeah.
Last we left them off.
The champions of "The Unsleeping City"
heroes of New York were...
had just fought a haunted
Halloween subway car,
filled to the brim with monsters,
made from a horrifying intermingling
of an other worldly substance
known as anti-populi
which is basically antimatter,
but made of the norms and
customs of a given place,
mixed with this strange
ebbing of raw Umbral Arcana,
This intermingling of sort
of pure dream substance,
being extruded out into the waking world,
took over this subway car
and our heroes found themselves
foisted not into Nod,
but into this bubble of dreaming
that was physically present
in the waking world.
Fought their way out of the subway car,
past various Halloween monsters
that had taken over people
breaching subway etiquette
in very egregious ways,
zapped some vampires, admonished a werewolf
to sit down and calm down.
(laughing)
We fought Frankenstein's monster
on the roof of a 90 mile
per hour express train
and due to some careful reading
of the city's safety ordinances,
shut the train down
(laughs)
and stopped the passengers
and got them off safely.
Again, civic safety coming to save the day
from the forces of
nightmare and the dreaming.
- As always.
- As always,
(laughs)
- With a carefully hasted Dalmatian,
some wicked spell casting
and turning of the undead
and our dear friend, Cody aging 20 years,
that is now a 47 year old man.
(laughing)
Our heroes saved Halloween in New York
as the costume passengers left.
We cut now to a secret chamber
within St. Owen's Hospital.
You guys took that A train way uptown.
So, St. Owen's was the nearest spot.
You guys ended up in the Bronx
and it is now probably
about nine and 9:30 pm,
Halloween, plenty of
Halloween night left to go.
- Oh, okay.
- But you are at St. Owen's Hospital.
Ricky, you've got some salves
and wraps on bad spider bites.
Sofia, you've got a little drip,
but are otherwise just seated in a chair.
The person who is up in traction
on a hospital bed right now
is Cody who, as Kingston has said,
you guys basically need,
like an eight-hour period to long rest,
does Kingston, correct me if I'm wrong.
You have the ability to
cast greater restoration,
but you need to prepare it.
So you need eight hours
to work on Cody basically.
- I do, I was also gonna ask
and I don't know where it is in the world.
La Gran Gata gave me that tide
or like some kind of detergent
of greater restoration
that I don't think I
ever used in season one
- Wow
(group impressed)
- Would that be here or at my apartment?
- Sorry, this absolutely
should be here in your items.
This is the holy grail detergent
that you got from La Gran Gata,
which will speed this up a whole lot.
I'm gonna say that this is probably
in your magical nurses office.
- Great.
- Kingston, this duster
is dry clean only so...
- Hey, my man, this is magical detergent.
All right, I don't think
it's gonna do anything
to the duster,
all right?
- All right.
- It's gonna be okay.
- Cool, cool--
- The duster off.
- We could maybe take the duster
off and put it on a hanger.
- Maybe we should hand wash it.
- Yeah, I--
- I prefer if I kept it on at all times,
(group laughs)
- Okay.
- Although I do have this
cool tattoo now, nevermind.
- Yeah dude show off the tattoo,
get that duster on here.
- That's true,
take the duster off.
- I throw it out the window.
(group laughs)
- No.
(laughs)
- Yeah, how does the holy
grail detergent work,
am I washing Cody or am I washing--
(group laughing)
- Do you eat a tide pod.
- I think at this point Kingston.
I think at this point--
- Eat this tide pod, Cody open--
(group laughs)
- In his mouth already- do you dare me?
- Only that he, the holy grail detergent,
you used to one of its four doses
splashing on Kugrash way back
at the battle of the stock exchange.
- That's the last person,
- That's the last person--
- They had used it on?
- That it was ever used on.
Sofia is okay?
- Yeah.
Kugrash is a trigger for Sofia.
(groans)
(group laughs)
- Kingston I think also
though, it's up to you.
If you would want to,
you could also leave it
here in the hospital,
and like distill it into medicine
so you don't have to use full doses of it.
Like when you have to
just splash it on someone,
that's a very inefficient way of using
what is a very incredible resource.
- Great in that case yeah, maybe I'll just
leave the detergent on the wall in
and we'll just do it the long way,
because we have the time
and the space to do so.
- And I think too, because
you have that here,
I will let you, it's not
gonna take a full eight hours.
It's like, you're like,
I think maybe Cody,
you see with all these medical supplies,
you see Kingston put on the gloves,
get all washed up and dip a syringe into
(giggles)
big plastic jug of detergent.
(group laughs)
- Oh,
- It's a lot--
yeah.
(laughs)
That'd be right, that would be just right.
(group chattering)
- Don't worry
(laughter crowds speaker)
Or maybe like a fun,
like a children's candy.
That shouldn't be a children's candy.
(laughs)
- Yeah.
- A brightly--
- Which is like...
- It's because I'm like
kind of a devil now.
So I need to be like hurt to be healed.
It's like when you cast like fire spills
on a fire monster in
Final Fantasy or something,
(laughs)
...'cause I am the darkness
- You can't smoke in here, man.
(group laughs)
- You can't
- Honestly, that's my f*cking bad.
- Thank you Pete.
- I appreciate that,
- You can't,
- I really appreciate.
- I take this cigarette,
throw it out the window.
Hopefully the duster catches on fire.
- Yeah, I think you guys are f*cking cool.
You guys did cool sh*t on the train.
I'm not trying to f*cking freak out.
Okay, I'm cool, sh**t me with your poison.
(laughs)
- Okay, it's not poison, but okay.
Yeah and I just, I give
Cody a nice good old dose.
(giggles)
(group laughs)
- Yeah, could you do a little something
for his personality too?
(group laughs)
- Sofie we both know there's
nothing we can do about that.
(group laughs hysterically)
- Incredible.
So you have, it's very common here.
You guys hear laughter
and partying outside,
but in here it's very calm.
Cody it's gonna take Cody
still like about an hour
hour and a half for this
to like take effect,
you hear beep beep sort
of measuring his vitals.
As you can see slowly de-aging
from this ghost nightmare.
- And the whole time I'm just talking to
Kingston about new metal bands.
(laughs)
- Aha
So you see, yeah, so there's
three days grace, which like,
they're pretty cool, I guess.
But then there's breaking
Benjamin, which is awesome.
And then there's Lincoln Park
and some people are Chester guys.
Some people are Mike Shinoda
guys, personally a Shinoda guy.
(laughs)
Then when we're talking
about pro wrestling,
we've got the Hardy Boys.
It's like, do you like
the tactical prowess--
- Wait though, I've heard of them,
hold on, the Hardy boys?
from the book
- Yeah.
- They wrestle now, is that, who, who?
(laughs)
- Is anybody hearing this,
is anybody hearing this?
- Yes my son Nicholas also
like the Hardy Boy books.
- No, not those, no, they're not from--
(group chattering)
- They're not the child sleuths.
Okay, they're f*cking cool a*s wrestlers
who wear cool sh*t do
flips off ladders and stuff
- Then why do they have the
same name as childhood sleuths?
- No they're boys with a Z.
- Oh, okay.
- I'm gonna take off and
find my sister, I think.
(group laughs)
- Hell yeah.
For you guys here as Cody is healing,
you guys it's been,
I won't say it's been a
wild two days for everybody
because I think for a lot
folks, for Kingston and Pete
and Sofia and Ricky,
yesterday the day before
Halloween was kind of like
you guys in your routines
and your new life.
And today, I mean like even for this
Halloween always has some
f*cked up sh*t happen on it.
Like even the past couple of years,
you guys there's always
some thing that requires
even Kingston for you
that have kind of like
very much in your comfortable
domestic life now,
Halloween always calls
some attention somewhere.
It's just a crazy day in New York.
You're in this room, Cody
weirdly Cody's ghost thing
is the most fixable easy thing.
The reason you're in this room,
that's ta- able to taken care of,
peeking out from under Cody's
shirt is this chest piece
with this new bullshit devil lord
that Pete was able to bind to Cody,
which has created an incredible
feedback loop for Cody
and with some quick sorcerer's
thing on Pete's part
because yes, this is your boss,
but also he's now bound to
your body and can't leave.
(laughs)
So it's--
- You are always on the clock
when you sell yourself to the devils,
(group laughs)
that's what they say.
Ahm
- Amen.
- Additionally, so the main
thing is looking at you are
for, especially for Iga and Cody,
this has not been a normal last 24 hours.
The appearance of this
devil and binding it to you,
what the devils are sort of saying about,
how empty and wide open New York is,
and then Iga for you,
your box changing for
the first time in forever
and looking at the chest and it's even...
so the chest is still
small in your handbag
with Mishek curled around it,
but you feel it kind of pulsating there.
And then I think for Sofia and Pete,
there is that weird thing of what you saw
with the Umbral Arcana in the subway
at the end of the fight.
And for Kingston, I think
with that insight check,
you didn't see the like,
I mean like Sofia and Pete handle that
dream realm sh*t pretty well,
but you feel something
in the city as well,
the real city.
- Yeah
before you guys get into...
and I think Iga you're
also looking at your box
in your handbag and maybe want to,
it might be good to inspect it at it's
the fullness of its of what it can do.
Would you guys have called anybody here
after the subway fight?
- Oh yeah, I was just thinking,
if we actually are taking a beat to like,
just to have a conversation about it,
I probably would call Esther.
- Yeah, I was going to suggest the same.
I also should probably
I'm like, I've started...
I know the order of the concrete fist has
a strange relationship
with the dreaming world.
And I'm worried that I've sort
of breached their trust by
telling Pete about the stuff
that I read in the library.
So I feel like I don't know how far
I wanna walk down this path
without like getting the
A-OK from one of them.
- Yeah, remind me again,
what did you tell me from the library?
- I basically vaguely
told you that like there's
that the world of dreaming
is bigger than we've seen
and there might be some beasts
and threats in the deep dreaming
that aren't as frequently
around, but can show up.
- Got it, cool, cool, cool.
- Pete, give me an Arcana check
and I'm gonna say other than Esther,
what if anyone had called
out to anybody else
to come sort of check in during this time?
- Who's the oldest person
I know like the old...
who's the oldest person I am like,
who's been in the city the longest?
- Damn that's a great question.
- Wally?
- First of all,
I think, something about--
- Wally.
I think something about
Kingston probably goes back
weirdly to that one afternoon
you spent with the dragon
of Bleecker Street.
Ahm
- I, Yeah.
- And I think you have memories of,
you never heard from the dragon
again and could never find
that subway station again.
- Yeah.
- But I think that your mind
moves off of that for a while.
It also was like, you are what
you knew at the time somewhat
and now know is that the dragon
on Bleecker Street found you
on what was probably its last day
after being in the city and nearly forever
like the dragon, you
heard its heart slowing
in a way that happens
as people are letting go.
- Yeah
Other than that, Orlando and Rovias,
Rovias is by the way, reconstructed
- Yeah, yeah
- The lions.
- The lions, both lions are back.
Patience and Fortitude are both back.
- Hell yeah.
- Nice thing about constructs,
magical constructs is, that
they can sometimes be fixed.
Em is very old about 1800's,
Willy is similarly old.
Willy's been around
since the 1800's as well.
- I think that, given that
what you've given me is like,
I think more just where my head's at.
I don't think I'm calling
them to this meeting,
but I think there are
people Kingston is thinking
he'd like to check in with
with regard to moments
of change in the city.
- Hell yeah, great, great, great
and then obviously in other realms,
Nod is incredibly old and also
your guy's friend Rowan Berry
who is sort of checked out,
but Rowan Berry has been here
in some form or another
since the very beginning.
You guys see...
hold on one second.
- You want me to roll Arcana?
- Yeah, give me that Arcana roll Pete.
(dice rolls)
- That is nine, 24.
- As Sofia talks about the deeper dreaming
(upbeat music)
I think Pete,
(upbeat music)
some of that squares with Pete as well.
Because you, it's pretty
clear on examination
that the fact that Nod mirrors so closely
to New York city,
doesn't imply that everybody in the world,
when they dream comes to a
magical version of New York.
That in the way that
Kingston is the voice,
not of all people in the world,
but is the voice of the
people of New York city.
You are the voice specifically
of Nod of the Sixth Borough,
which is the dreaming,
which is the fullness
of the dreaming realm.
But it's the fullness
of the dreaming realm
as it reflects New York city.
And so in a weird way,
when Sofia talks about
the deeper dreaming,
you check in with your memories
from the Metropolitan
Museum of Memories on a 24,
give me not only on Arcana,
give me a history check as well.
(upbeat music)
- Can I maybe give him a help actions since--
- Yeah.
- I'm kind of like telling him
stuff that I don't know if I
shouldn't be telling him, but,
- Yeah, for sure.
- 15.
- 15.
so the 15 doesn't pull
up anything because,
Pete you find,
there are holes in
the Metropolitan Museum of Memories,
there have been a couple of Vox Phantasmis
throughout New York city's history
in the museum, the majority of them,
you have visions of their deaths
of like how they passed or
like if they died in battles
and like that, which lets you know that,
which lets you know that there are
ways for Nod to retrieve the
memories of Vox Phantasma
without them having to give it themselves.
Like in other words, it's like, okay,
someone died in battle
and that memory made it to
the Metropolitan Museum of Memories,
obviously the dream realm
had some way of collecting it
without the with them
already being posthumous.
There are one or two of the Vox Phantasma
throughout New York city's history
that don't have their final
memories recorded in the museum.
- And again, your relationship
to those memories is very
like organic and chaotic.
It's not like you have a
Dewey Decimal System for them.
It's just that like you
absorbed those memories
into yourself and you recall them
like a person recalls their own memories.
Like when something sort of moves it.
But now that you're like
really racking your brain,
there are chapters missing from the end
of different Vox Phantasmi
like throughout New York.
And you find a commonality in the ones
who the end of their lives vanishes.
And they also vanished from
having been that for people
which is in one or two different occasions
of Vox Phantasma has saw fit to try to go
deeper into dreaming
past the Sixth Borough.
(upbeat music)
- Do I have their names?
- Yes you do.
- Whoa
Hold on one second, let
me go find this somewhere.
The two Vox Phantasma that you find
that you don't have their final
memories within the museum.
The first one is Hans Fischer.
Hans was a Hessian...
Sorry, Hans was not Hessian,
Hans was a German soldier,
that was a mercenary who quit the army
and became a New York dilettante in 1775
and disappears from memory in 1783.
So this is old long time ago in New York,
but he was the Vox Phantasma
for a period of time.
And there are memories
of Hans back in that time
that you bizarrely understand,
even though you don't speak German,
of this, of him having a curiosity
about having discovered what
was further back in there.
The other Vox Phantasma is one
that you already know about
Josefina Gatsby, who was an
heiress impossibly wealthy woman
who was Vox Phantasma starting in 1920.
And in 1929, she just vanishes.
And you do have more
records of that time period.
- Pete, do you think you would share
this information with me?
- Yeah, I think so.
- Okay cool.
I wasn't sure if I should write
it down and know it or not.
- Yeah, I think I would.
- Pete,
you have memories
there's one memory in
(upbeat music)
particular you're...
you're doing anything almost
like in your head of like
rolodexing through memories,
you see a memory for a second
and you're like flitting past it.
It's Josefina in this
incredible opulent manor house
like penthouse looking at a mirror
and you know from Josephina's memories
and that sort of weirdly
intimate thing about
the different Vox Phantasma is,
how much of these people's
lives you remember.
Josephina towards the end of
her period as Vox Phantasma
before she disappeared,
(upbeat music)
struggled a lot with heartbreak.
The feeling that she
was not close to anyone
and didn't know any people
and began to feel in
the last couple of years
of her time as Vox Phantasma,
that she had no connection to
the city of New York anymore.
She struggled with loneliness,
though they didn't have
the modern language
at the time for it.
You see her struggling with addiction,
struggling with isolation in her memories.
And it's pretty intense
you watch her spiral out,
become completely unattached
to anyone or anything
in the waking world because
there never were Vox phantasma
or Populi at the same time
in New York city's history
until you and Kingston.
You see that 1920s New York, it's crazy.
It's the roaring 20's and there's a...
no one is kind of there is no voice
in her life of groundedness.
There is no voice in her
life of connecting to
real things and real people.
And you're flipping through these memories
and I may be on some
personal level aware that
she doesn't have a Kingston in her life
and she whoo, whoo, whoo,
moves through stuff.
You see, you move past a
memory in that way where
you're like flicking
through channels so fast
that when you see your channel,
you are already three past it.
Like you're scrolling too fast kind of.
For a moment you see
her looking in a mirror
and instead of seeing her reflection,
there's nothing there,
but there's something
wrong with her reflection.
And by the time you move
back to that memory,
that memory is gone.
(upbeat music)
Almost like you, maybe you made it up.
It's not there anymore.
That's what, so that's what
Pete feels in that moment.
- Can, is there any way to like
go to the Metropolitan Museum of Memories
and see if the memory is there?
- You absolutely could
do that, also lemme--
- That's something I can do eventually.
- Yeah, and that all occurs
internally in your head for...
So like Sofia, you're watching Pete
as he kind of goes glassy-eyed like,
as people that are like falling
into their own heads do,
but Pete, you come to and see
Sofia kind of looking at you.
So if you wanna share that knowledge.
- I think
(laughs)
Hey, what's up.
(laughs)
- Hey sorry.
- Yeah, I share--
- But I was also just
creepily watched you.
- Yeah, well, yeah so I
have these and then I relay,
I think just all of that and maybe
see if you would want to
go to the Memories museum.
- Yeah, absolutely.
- Cool.
- Yeah.
- Ricky would probably
mention to everyone,
like, I don't know if we really rounded up
about what that train was about.
(laughs)
- Yeah.
- Oh yeah, I think like, I guess like...
sort of like the stuff
that Sofia said to Pete,
I think like we kind of tell everyone.
- Yeah, I think you is kind of are having
a little impromptu w*r counseling here,
walking through the
hospital doors by the way,
you see that the hospital
door that is partially like
actually there's fully
closed into Kingston's room.
The door opens,
but the rest of the
hospital is not through it.
You see the Gramercy
Occult Society through it
as Esther is doing some
rad doorway teleportation.
- Incredible.
- So she walks through, opens it
goes, oh sorry, closes, knocks on the door
from the other side it says
"Kingston okay to come in?"
sorry, frazzled.
- Of course.
(laughs)
She--
Always welcome in here.
- She's walks in she
walks up to you Kingston,
gives you a big hug, it's good to see you.
You guys have, I think gotten
together over the years
because Alejandro was your
best friend and was her mentor.
And you see, she gives you a big hug.
She is, you see like...
has a very last minute
sort of Halloween costume put together,
which is basically her wearing
her jacket that she likes,
but has a little like cat nose and makeup
of her being like sh*t today's Halloween.
(laughs)
(laughs)
But you see coming in behind her,
both doing their vampire
float and giggling,
Ana and Amelia Ortiz,
Alejandro's granddaughters who come in,
who are both, they have...
they are having a ball, fangs distended,
these two vampire wizards
float into the room.
It seems like Ana has like a
sort of black fishnet shirt.
The other one they sort of
are like a very casual goth,
nowhere near Cody,
(laughs)
but they're like,
they're like dressed for, they're like
basically just like having
a ball dressed for Halloween.
They don't need costumes
cause they can just run around
and ease the Umbral Arcana around them
and be two vampires having a ball tonight.
- I think for Cody,
since he's seen skeletons
and zombies and stuff today,
I think when they come in,
he gets super excited and
leans into Kingston he goes,
is, are these actual
vampires, or is this--
- Actual vampires, but like good ones.
There are a lot of vampires
you shouldn't trust.
These two, great girls.
(laughs)
- Cody gets insanely pumped
and just like straightens up.
(laughs)
- Just so worried for the
conversation that Cody has.
(laughs)
- Look, I just wanna say,
this seems like a w*r
council type situation.
I'm just here to get my box looked at.
I just need somebody
to look at this chest.
I don't need to be involved
in this whole shenanigans--
- Are you talking about?
- With jumping around
It's not, I'm not, it's
like a literal box.
Like I pulled the box out like this is--
- Oh okay, great.
(laughs)
- I'm not here for any kind of--
- What's going on?
- Situation.
(laughs)
- There's literal a box
- I could get my sister
- I have been--
- I would never have done, that's not my--
- Actually I have a really
good gynecologist, so--
- I have an excellent gynecologist.
She's from the ha...
is very good.
- Well, let's get the box on the table.
And Esther, maybe you
can take a look at it
or anybody who's kind of an
awareness for magical items.
- Esther, Esther nods--
- What about that guy who puts things
up his a*s and unidentified--
- No, we had not putting
my box up anybody's a*s,
- That I think is not--
I don't think he means
to put things up is a*s,
I think he just like it.
- Safety-wise, I'm
worried about it expanding.
(group laughs)
- Okay okay, am sorry I just
felt like it was in the air
and no one was gonna say it, so I said it.
(giggles)
- Esther, I'm gonna make
a roll for Esther here.
She scans the box and, Iga you see,
her cover the box in runes.
She raises an eyebrow and goes,
this is powerfully warded.
This is covered in the
tremendous amount of
nondetection abjuration wards to,
kept this from being found.
There're a lot of the wards on this...
Sorry and what is your name, Madam?
- I am Anastasia if you would
like to come for a reading,
I am at 72nd and--
(Kingston laughs)
- She's amazing.
I still--
- I actually would love to.
- Please do, I will give you
a very good rate for my readings.
- I hand Iga a cup of coffee.
(group laughs)
- Thank you.
Thank you, what a nice boy.
He's a nice boy.
- You see Esther, squints
her eyes at you and says
what's crazy is I know that
Taro is real and works.
And I still feel like I'm
partially being scammed.
Is that--
(group laughs)
- She's a med--
- But you like it.
This is parts of it,
you see people like to
be scammed a little bit.
- You see she shrugs,
you see she says Ana,
Amelia, do you guys want to
take a look at the box here?
You see Ana and Amilia go,
hell yeah we'll take a look
and come over and
(growls)
they stand on either side,
(heavy growls)
see that their eyes go kind of blood red,
as they cast divinations on the chest,
- Cody calm down, Cody
relax, all right just relax.
- I just feel like I should help,
if we're doing dark lord
stuff, then I have...
we fought a werewolf today.
There's natural enemies.
(laughs)
And I feel like we're all a part of this.
And I just look at the vampires.
- You see that Ana and
Amelia both looking,
they both look at Cody and
one of them turns to look over
at they both sort of look
over at Kingston and go,
is this guy like, okay.
- Yeah he's new, he's new.
(group laughs)
- Not yet, not yet
- He's adjusting.
- You're still like 40 year old right now.
(group laughs)
- Am not actually 40.
I don't know how old
everybody is here, but I'm 27.
- Oh he's 27.
(laughs)
- You said they both look at...
both these like college
age girls look over
you said I'm actually 27,
and they're like cool, okay.
(group laughs)
- Whoa very young.
- I don't.
(group laughs)
- Pete, you're like 400 years old, right?
(laughs)
- We got turned into vampires
like three years ago.
We would be still younger than
you if we were still human.
(laughs)
- Cody go, ah, the
healing is f*cking me up.
(group laughs)
- You see that Ana talks
to you Kingston about this,
And Amilia comes over to you, Pete.
And it's like, is that dude a vampire,
or is he just like super sick?
(laughs)
- He no, that's actually my roommate.
(group laughs)
His name's Cody, he's cool.
He's he sold his soul to kind
of like a devil's friend.
(group laughs)
Not quite a devil, just
kinda peripheral devil.
- You see in your chest Cody
you hear it in your mind again,
Bazathrax go, dude are they
talking about me out there,
what are people saying?
- The f*ck up, shut the f*ck up,
we have to be f*cking quiet--
(laughs)
- Dude, listen,
did you not see what
you did on that subway?
That sh*t was sick as hell dude.
Did I not tell you,
you're gonna get powers?
Don't sh*t on--
- You f*cking got me up,
you f*cking got me up.
(group laughs)
- I'm gonna act like we're not
f*cking friends in real life,
but we're so f*cking tight.
(group laughs)
- That's what I'm saying dude,
I'm trapped in your chest.
So for the time being I'm
hitching a ride, okay?
And if I'm hitching a ride,
that means that you gonna
be a hot ride, baby.
We're gonna soup you up,
it's Ferrari time, okay?
- I would do it all over again.
This was the best f*cking day of my life.
(laughs)
- You hear Bazathrax say,
dude, I'm putting feelers
out all over the city.
There's some crazy sh*t going on.
It's a f*cking free for all out here babe.
Listen, I know you keep talking about
wanting to get traded and sh*t like that,
but I'm not gonna trade
you 'cause here's the thing
you kick a*s dude.
I don't know where you got that sword from
that sword is sick as hell, baby okay?
- I got it on Etsy. Etsy.
(laughs)
- To actually yeah.
- You see he goes, hell yeah.
- Pretty good stuff
- That's what I'm talking about.
So listen, there're those
weird highway hex or whatever
nobody is looking, okay?
There's no upper management
that can get here,
but let me tell you something.
Something's f*cking up dude.
The other wards and protections
on the city right now
with this, there's like a
substance everywhere around us
in this city that's like, a
haze or something like that.
You could throw down here
and get some sh*t going
and nobody will be able to
tell dude, here's the thing,
I can't trade you to
another devil in hell,
but there are a lot of
other renegades out there.
Other devils that have
escaped the nine hells.
And if you want, I could send some invites
and we could get a
f*cking party going here.
You wanna command lesser devils?
you want, imps and other
kind of minions and sh*t
do your dark bidding, you want that?
- Yes, absolutely, I f*cking want that.
(laughs)
- Why is he nodding to him self?
- Yeah, what do you want?
(group chattering)
- I just said this yes I want that.
- The inside voice Cody,
- Okay
- I also heard you say--
- You're grunting.
- Am gonna pretend like we're not friends,
but inside we're super tight.
(group laughs)
- Okay.
- And then you hooked me up.
(group laughs)
- And then this is the best day of life.
(group chattering)
- That Cody talks a loud
when he talks to his devil.
(group laughs)
So I think Cody swings his legs over
pops back up, I've recovered.
The devil within me has brought me back.
So listen, I know we're all
really concerned about Goliath
and them closing down the mall--
- Gladiator.
- Gladiator, right.
I'm just pissed at
corporations in general and...
- Hey, Goliath is one of
the better corporations.
(laughs)
- No there's no ethical concern for them--
- I know you're right, you're right.
(laughs)
- I'm just saying, when
I'm choosing between
Goliath and Gladiator,
I choose Goliath, go on.
(laughs)
- So yeah, the devil that lives inside me,
God, I feels so f*cking cool to say that
says that there's like
other devils and sh*t
that can help us and
they're just like around.
- Oh woa.
- So
- I, you know
- Can I talk to you guys for a second,
can we like go away from Cody and be like,
that might be so cool.
- That's a really good,
thank you so much for
bringing that up kid.
- Man.
- And then we walk away.
- So it's all of us.
- Come with us.
- Madam Anastasia you're f*cking cool.
- Yeah, you're f*cking cool come with us.
- You know, it feels like
he's got a lot to figure out
and maybe there are bigger
problems at the moment,
but we should probably
keep an eye on this guy.
(giggles)
- Yeah.
- Yeah
- Should we see if he
can bring the devils here
and we can talk to them?
- Well, I think I'm more
interested in why there are
so many devils within reach.
And I'm wondering if--
- That's what am thinking
with the emergence of anti-populi
and perhaps this dreaming
stuff that Sofia and Pete
had been talking about.
- Yeah, I think that may
be it might benefit us
to be straightforward with this kid
and say,
- Yeah.
- You got this one devil,
that's enough for now.
- Yeah.
- But please tell us anything
that this devil is saying.
I don't know if the kid
will be okay with that?
- I live with him so I could
just keep an eye on him,
is it,
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
- And it's good.
- He's cool, he's cool though.
- How are you feeling Madam Anastasia?
This was a lot to throw at you.
I know you were just
trying to get your box.
- Yes, I mean look it's
not a lot to throw--
- Just trying to get your box serviced.
(group chuckles)
- Get my box serviced.
It's an oil change type situation for me.
(laughs)
I don't really want devil's
running around the city anyway.
Like if I have to, I
will do something but.
- Did we see some of that
material sink into her box. (giggles)
Did we see that like insane Umbral Arcana?
- Iga did, you saw some of that haze,
some of that like raw Umbral
Arcana sink into the chest
while you were at the
subway platform still,
but I don't know if you've
mentioned that or not.
- I have not.
- Yeah, we didn't see it.
- Have the Gramercy Occult Society people,
have they learned anything
about the box or--
- Yeah
- So yeah, you see again
Esther looks over and says,
"look, this box is extremely warded."
Ana and Amelia both nod and they say,
has anyone like detected this
from like a non wizard standpoint?
Like, does anyone know if
there's like fiendish stuff in it
or divine stuff in it?
- I used, Hey what's going on?
I'm gonna--
- Should have gone,
Hey Ricky, good to see you.
- Good to see you.
Look, I used my divine sense
on it and detected something
not like other stuff
that I've seen before.
Wasn't infernal or Fae or
if something different.
- I mean, you can look
at it from the inside,
if that's easier,
it might be that the
wards are on the outside,
on the inside it's a different situation.
- Or we can open it?
- No.
you absolutely under no
circumstances can open the box,
but you can go inside it.
It is a magical box, I
don't know what to tell you.
doesn't obey the laws of physics.
- I would love to go inside that box.
- Yeah, how does that work?
- I can take five of you inside the box.
- Well, hold on first
- So probably the wizards,
- I feel you guys shouldn't
do that with my memories
of all the boxes disappearing.
(laughs)
- Okay, okay that's good--
- Try to sidebar with Esther
before we go in a box.
- Yeah.
- You see yeah Esther,
Esther sidebars with you and she says,
"Hey hon, how was the fight
in the subway, you okay?
- Yeah I got a couple of
little spider guys on my back.
(whines)
- I love your costume by the way.
- Thank you.
- You look exactly like some sort of cat.
- It looked like a cat dressed as a woman
who was working on Halloween,
but I appreciate.
- That's awesome,
that's really, specific costume.
Yeah, does that mean
anything to you, the like,
the fact that it wasn't,
a type of magic that I
list the other ones that--
- On one level, it's encouraging
because we know that we're
not dealing with the undead
or with fiends or something like that.
Another level, the part
of me that likes to solve
problems and to know
information is not happy,
that there's a huge question, mark here.
I think, look...
unless the trick is this,
Either we need a full identify on it
and I won't be able to identify it.
There's two things we can do
and we could do both of them,
but we need to do at least one of them.
One is for, I think Madam Anastasia
to be more forthcoming
about what that box is
and what her relationship to it is.
Or we need to find someone who can cast
identify very powerfully.
- Like that guy's butt hole.
- Kind of it's unfortunate--
(laughs)
Unfortunately I mean, it's a huge boon
that the chest can be shrunk down.
I mean, that's already feels
like a huge boon to us,
but I'm not, I don't feel
comfortable suggesting that,
I just met Madam Anastasia
right now, but...
- I'll do it, I think I should say it.
- Yeah.
(laughs)
- Madam Anastasia, it
sounds like it could be cool
to go in the box,
but before we do that,
would you care if we put
it up a man's as*h*le?
(giggles)
- Are you asking me if I would care,
if you put my family's heirloom
that I get all of my magical power from,
up this little creep's butt?
(giggles)
- Oh his name is Lowell,
- Yes I would care about that
- He's not a creep, he's not a creep--
- He's a creep, I have met Lowell--
- He is not a creep.
- He keep put it in a condom,
right?
- Oh yeah.
- Jackass style.
- That would be fine.
- Would that work with a spell?
- Yeah, this is--
- Yeah.
- You see Esther looks and says
first of all, timeout, stop,
Madam Anastasia that's
a pretty big revelation.
You get all of your magic from this chest.
What sort of magic do you
wield from it, and what...
Madam Anastasia look--
- Look man,
I don't ask questions about the chest,
the chest gives us
power, we have the power.
You ask questions, you get more questions.
It's not a question based
box, it's a power based box.
- You say that, you see Esther
like furrows her brows goes,
"Mm mm mm."
- Just mind your business.
- Okay wait, Lowell has
a lot of money, right?
- Lowell has a thriving artifact business,
he sells artifacts, yeah.
- So what if we set up a reading?
I'm sure he's so interested in the Occult.
What if you gave Lowell a reading
for some insanely high rate,
then you get paid, the
chest is in his a*s,
you're reading some cards for him
(laughs)
am sure Lowell would love it.
Lowell owes us one, if we're
gonna give him one of these.
- I mean, I would give him a reading
in exchange for reading, I guess,
but God damn If he does not
have some kind of wet wipe
hand sanitizer.
- Yeah,
Oh he has the whole process,
I'm sure he's got a whole--
(group chattering)
- Because this is a very porous wood.
I'm just thinking about the liquids,
that could seep into it,
that's pretty nasty--
- I say we do we just do a
buttoned-up jackass style,
we do it with a condom.
(giggles)
- Yeah.
- You, look, if Lowell is constantly
putting things up his a*s,
he's douching he's clean, all right?
(group chattering)
there's nothing in there.
So let's go throng your family heirloom
in between those two sphincter
and find out what it is.
- There's two sphincters?
Lowell only has one sphincter.
- No everyone has two
sphincters people wake up.
(group laughs)
- Okay Pete.
- Am okay, yeah.
- You see, as Anastasia
is talking to Pete,
you see Esther is just shaking her head.
looks over at you Sofia and is like,
I want to be very clear.
Your relationship with La Gran Gata
is beautiful and very
important to the city.
This is what drives me
f*cking crazy about warlocks.
Could you hear that?
Like no curiosity about
how the power works.
Just like there's a box,
we get our spells from it.
I don't ask questions, like what is that?
- I'm gonna tell you the thing
that's f*cking me up the most
is that I really believe
she was a psychic,
but she can't tell me what's
going on with the box.
(laughs)
So it kind of puts every
single reading she's given me
in to like a miasma of uncertainty.
(laughs)
I'm feeling a little scammed.
- You see that, Yeah, she
nods her head and says, yeah.
How much is she charging,
or is that too personal to ask?
I don't wanna get into--
- No, that's fine.
I don't give a sh*t about money $200 a reading.
- Wow, okay.
- Yeah.
And if I get good, if
I get like good cards,
then she charges extra.
- She does a fee based on how
good the future's gonna be?
- Yeah, like if it's a good
reading, then it's like,
Oh, okay, well.
- Wow.
(chuckles)
- God, oh, Sofie, okay
yeah for sure yeah, yeah.
- I think that I'm looking for guidance
from everyone but myself.
(laughs)
- Kingston, you got a hit back from Lowell.
On your phone he says, Kingston,
great to hear from you.
And you see, by the way, he has a set up,
he sends you, your little
text history thread with him
is him sending you receipts from,
he demands that you take a finder's fee.
Anytime artifacts come up
from "The Unsleeping City."
I don't know if Kingston could demand
that he do something else with that money.
But he's very adamant about anytime,
(chuckles)
an artifact is--
- Yeah.
It all gets donated to community centers.
Kingston wants nothing to
do with his, butt money.
(group laughs)
- You see the--
- You give it to Ricky's
shelter or something.
- Yeah, exactly I give
it to like helping hands.
- So just like a thing of
Lowell's restrict donation,
receipts to helping hands from
the artifacts that are sold.
And he also does, anytime
there's an artifact
that he thinks is would
be like dangerous to sell.
Most of them are pretty
common or don't do things
that are that destructive or dangerous.
You see he goes like, Hey, busy schedule
over the next two weeks.
Texting you like, Hey Kingston,
great to hear from you.
We've got a busy schedule
over the next two weeks,
but I should be able to
squeeze it in sometime closer,
to probably like the 15th.
- Laugh out loud.
We'll see if we can wait that
long, but maybe might need to,
this might be a more pressing matter,
hope you're staying clean, Kingston.
(giggles)
- You see that
(chuckles)
He says, if it's a rush job,
I can try to move it ahead of the line.
Probably get it into the next few days.
- Good to know, thank you Lowell.
- Rad--
- And I communicate that
to everyone else that Lowell is not...
could not do it in this immediate moment,
but if we waited we might be
able to put his talents to use.
- He needs time to--
- So is this like...
another, madam Anastasia,
is this like another
dimension or something,
that's in the chest, or
like we can go in there?
- We can go in there.
I don't know if it's another dimension.
It's just like a really nice---
- Have you been in there?
- Yes I go in there all the
time, it's very soothing.
I have two children.
Sometimes you just need
a little bit of a break.
You go inside the box for 10 minutes.
You're rested, it's a good time.
(chuckles)
You go about your day--
- Oh, that's nice
- Nice, it's nice in there--
- Did you furnish it?
- No, it came fully furnished,
I don't know what to tell you,
it's like nice in the box--
- What is the furnish like?
- Okay.
- If she's gone in there, we
can just f*cking go in there.
- I wouldn't mind going in
there, I'm very curious.
(laughs)
- Yeah, madam Anastasia--
- I'll keep watch.
(group laughs)
- I just wanna say,
of course I wanna be
respectful of your privacy.
You've made choices in
your life with regard
to your relationship
to The Unsleeping City
that I'm not going to ask
you to erode or change.
However, you have to understand
that we are in a position
right now where the city,
something big is happening right now,
and your box seems to either
be in connection to that
or aware of that.
And so if there's anything you can do
to help us help this city,
I understand that it would
be an infringement on you,
but there might be something you could do.
- Look, this city has always changed.
That is the nature of New York city.
It's a beautiful thing that
the city is always in flux.
Everybody's like, Oh, I miss
the city from five years ago,
10 years ago, 20 years ago.
It's all the same people
from 20 years in the future
will be saying, Oh I
miss it, this New York
that I am sort of making up in my head.
That is from 20 years ago.
That's the nature of it,
this is a changing place.
- Kingston, go ahead and
give me a persuasion check
if you would be so kind.
- Wow, really suckin' it today.
That's gonna be 12.
- 12, okay copy that.
You see Ana and Amelia
are both looking around.
Esther also looks over
at you, Anastasia says
to reiterate the words
again of the Vox Populi,
(clears throat)
Sofia you can tell Esther is like--
- I didn't vote for him.
I like him, I didn't vote for him.
- You see Esther (mumbles)...
You can see Ricky, you
can tell your partner
is approaching the edge right now.
She goes well, okay, understood.
Obviously you get all your
power from this chest.
Mr. Masters has the ability to,
hopefully illuminate
some questions that maybe
you have about the chest itself.
Regardless, if you would like
to extend us the courtesy
of taking some of us into
this pocket dimension,
that could be potentially very helpful.
Also, if you would be so kind as to
even just expanding the
chest out to its full size
would maybe allow us some
more insight into this.
Again, we also want to keep you safe.
And I understand that
your desire here is to
have the chest identified and appraised,
to understand why it is changing,
that is our goal as well, ultimately.
- Well said, well said.
- Yeah, I expand it to full size.
- You see more trees are gone
and there are two figures on a street
carved into the top of
the box stretching away
an older man and a long
coat with his hair tied back
and a younger man next to him,
holding a teapot in his hand.
- See this is, why are you on my box?
- Yeah, I wanna know that too.
- Yeah,
- Why are we on your box?
(group chattering)
- This is all Gladiator
buildings popping up.
Think about it.
(group chattering)
- Think that the kid has a point,
because you say that the
city's always been changing
and that's what makes it what it is.
But the city has been changed
because of the people.
But if it starts changing
because of another reason,
it might lose the charm of what it is.
And even you, your box is changing
and that's kind of bothering you.
And that's probably how
Kingston feels about his city.
- Look, I don't wanna cause a fight.
I think that you people are good people.
I think that you do what
you did for good reasons.
I'm not here to cause a fight.
And if my box is the thing that
is making this stuff happen,
let's stop that from happening.
- Okay, Can I take a photo of the
part where it's me and Kingston
and try to figure out
like which street or--
- Hell yeah--
- do I recognize the area?
- Go ahead and give me a...
you can give me a history
check with advantage as well.
- I'll take a picture of where...
I've to find out what building.
I'm assuming it's Empire
State Building, but...
- Mm-hmm
- 15
- The detail, it's still
very fairy tale in like
the art style of the carvings
is very sort of mythical.
Like you and Kingston on the street
are like standing in the
middle kind of heroically,
just sort of presenting
yourself to the street.
But you do see, as it goes along,
it has the same like number
of lanes and like parked cars
and stuff like that kind of
what's like on 125th street.
And yeah, Sofia the building--
- Which is...
- Kind of looks like the Empire State Building
A 125th street is the main thoroughfare,
where the Triborough bridge from Astoria
you ride down 125th street all the time
to get uncommon knowledge, Kingston--
- And that where Kingston is.
- Okay.
- Kingston and st. Owen's are
both right off 125th street.
- I also, when I met Lucifer personally,
I found that book in the mall.
I know you guys don't care
about the f*cking mall,
but all of the sh*t is
what happened to the mall.
Think about it
- Dude you may be right,
you really might be right.
- Yeah.
- Stops smoking in the hospital.
(group chattering)
- Every time I make a f*cking
cool point, I wanna smoke.
(group laughs)
- I'm f*ck' sorry--
- Hey, lets just get you like a--
- Butts of cigarettes.
(group laughs)
- They all look new--
- Just--
- I just have an altoid tin full of--
(laughs)
- I save 'em, we're gonna
pick this up after I'm done.
- Esther looks at you Cody
and says, very interest...
Also pleasure to meet you, Cody.
I'm Esther Sinclair, I'm the head of the
Gramercy Occult Society.
These are two of our young
wizards Ana and Amelia Ortiz.
- We've met it was weird.
- Oh yes, understood.
You say you encountered a Fiendish Codex
within which, is the Queen Center mall?
- Yes. Yeah, I was going
in, I was collecting some
adventure time hats and Jack
Skellington hoodies, as you do.
And I saw a devil book and I opened it
and I flipped through it.
And then I saw highway and then
a devil reached his hand out
and I pulled the devil into here.
And then I sold my soul to him for powers,
but we're all up front with it.
And Pete sealed them in
me now and we're cool.
- Huh okay, you see, Esther
looks over to you Pete,
goes, quick thinking Pete.
(laughs)
Good looking out.
(laughs)
- Thanks.
- Well you see, she
looks over at your sh*t.
Well, Mr. Walsh, that is
excellent okay, wonderful.
So Esther looks over, you guys still have,
the chest in front of you?
And Esther looks over at
Madam Anastasia and says,
so ultimately I would highly recommend
the wards on your chest, protecting it
probably from the prying
of wizards like me
into your family's magical business,
is preventing me from
discerning more about the chest.
Mr. Masters, I can almost
guarantee you will be able to
understand more fully what's going on.
If you would like to take
some of us into the chest
to take a look around,
we're happy to do that
at the end of the day,
we're happy to provide a service to you.
It's not about us demanding
that you do anything,
whatever it is that
you're comfortable doing
and you see that she waits for...
to see what Madam
Anastasia is going to say.
- Would you like to come inside the chest?
- Esther nods her head says,
"Yes, that would be delightful"
You see that she looks and says,
would anyone else like
to come inside or not?
- I mean, yes
- yes.
- I will go, if Cody goes.
(group laughs)
or maybe I--
(giggles)
- I can keep an eye on him too.
- Okay.
- Hmm
- A rivalry, two sides of the same coin,
lightness and darkness.
- That's--
- Okay
(group chattering)
- You can't smoke in here!
- I should have flipped out one of your
Astro jacket pockets,
to see if it's filled with
a lot of cigarette butts.
(group laughs)
- Again, you gotta wash
this jacket man, it's nasty.
(group laughs)
- Ziploc bags, full of cigarette butts
that he collects and smokes.
- We're just gonna get rid of--
- That's five right?
so the five that you
can fit inside the box.
- Hmm
- Oh,
anyone can go in my place if they want,
I just figured--
- No
- Sofie, I think you should go.
- Okay am going.
- So who's going Sofie--
- Sofie, Esther, Ricky, Cody
(giggles)
- And I can take five people,
so it's me plus five people.
- Hey
- Can I sidebar with everybody
but Cody for a second.
(group laughs)
- Yeah, totally.
- [Group] Yeah what's going on?
- Look,
- Yeah.
- We all know that I love Cody
and I'm gonna do the work to love Cody.
- [Group] Yeah.
- Keep talking about all this work
that you gonna have to do,
- No I love--
Ricky loves everybody and I love people--
(chuckles)
- Ricky, do you know it's okay
to not love everybody, right?
- Well, I mean--
- I'm the Vox Populi and
I don't like people.
(laughs)
- And, that's your choice
or you that's how you feel.
And I know that I will really like Cody,
(laughs hysterically)
are we 100% sure we want Cody
to go in this magical box?
- I think that right now he's
being controlled by a devil
and could potentially have
access to more devils.
If we turn our back on him now,
he's going to go to the devils.
- Okay.
- Yeah I mean,
he's honestly cool guy.
He seems maybe kind of harmless.
- Yeah.
- He just needs some guidance,
we were just saying he needs guidance.
- Okay.
- I think that,
what Pete is providing for him is amazing
for maybe both of them.
- That's awesome.
- Cool, cool.
- Right, maybe.
- All right, so Kingston, do
you wanna go as well or not?
- I have such a--
- With one more spot.
I have such like a low
understanding of like magical items
that I feel like sending
Ana or Amelia would probably
be a better use.
- Oh --
- Oh Yeah.
- You see--
- Like, my Arcana is
so low that any checks
I would be making, like, I don't know.
I'm not sure I could distill anything.
- Esther actually looks
at Ricky and Sofia,
going into the chest
and you can see that her faith
in the two of you is unparalleled.
And she says, "actually, I
kinda agree with Kingston,
I'd like to stay out here
and talk with the two Voxes if I can"
Ana and Amelia, do you two wanna head in
and give a sort of arcane
appraisal to whatever's in there?
and you see the Ana and
Amelia both go like,
"Oh my God, fun dimension, adventure".
You see that they both look at
each other, smile, thumbs up.
- I can't wait to see
how this is decorated.
- What you guys Arcana Ricky and Sofia.
- Ah, Not good.
(laughs)
- Ana and Amelia--
- Have this things.
- Yeah Ana and Amelia have doped--
- I'm more there to make
sure Cody doesn't freak out.
(group laughs)
- I'm not gonna f*cking freak out.
(laughs)
The devil is on our side--
- Yeah that you're gonna freak out.
You say that all the time.
(laughs)
It's almost your catch
phrase, "I'm gonna freak out."
(group laughs)
- That's when I k*lled the ghosts,
that's what I did, I freaked out.
(laughs)
- Listen, the blade is
a controlled weapon.
(whooshing)
- Put it down stop that--
- Swords inside a hospital.
- Okay, okay
(laughs)
- Very dangerous.
- Cool.
- Ricky and Sofia, Cody,
and then Ana and Amelia
step forward in front of Anastasia.
- I clap my hands, I say open sesame,
(laughs)
ridiculous spiral of
light goes all around us.
And we're snapped into the box.
- Did she say open Sesame?
- You guys are standing on the balcony
of a fairy tale castle
in an Alpine pine forest,
wind whipping all around
the castle is both somehow
beautiful in a fairy tale
way and also like menacing.
It has those tall conical towers
that are almost like navy blue
and a grayish white granite
stone parapets everywhere.
The castle is built sort of
like almost on a mountain top
and stretches up into the sky.
The forest extends about
a quarter of a mile
in all directions, half
a mile in all directions,
and then just drops off.
But you're standing on
this incredible balcony
overlooking behind you,
there's a giant Archway
leading into the castle.
You see it is daytime
here, but there is no sun.
The light is just ambient.
So you see Ana and Amelia both go,
(wauls)
Oh sh*t okay, Oh my God that was so scary.
(laughs)
We're good.
- You kinda undersold it, when
you said it was furnished.
(chuckles)
- Sort of like--
- You don't wanna brag.
- Sort of like a--
(laughs)
- Oh, that's very humble.
- Anastasia, the woods used to extend
to the horizon in all directions,
like primeval Polish,
like Eastern European,
Alpine forest going in all directions.
(ethereal music)
It used to stretch on
forever and ever and ever.
And now it ends in a kind of mist,
just like luminous gray light,
almost like this was just
floating in unoccupied,
medium lit grayness.
But so to you, you guys are
beholding a place of incredible
wonder and fantasy.
Anastasia this place is less
than the last time it was here.
- Okay, so all of this gray sh*t is new,
and I don't, if this is not...
Okay, you're not actually
seeing it at it's...
It's very impressive, I know it.
- I actually think the
mist is really cool.
I think it makes this sort of like a cool
vampire castle type situation.
(group chattering)
- No offense to you, but cool Vampire castle
is not what we're going for here.
(laughs)
- Interesting.
- You see, Ana and Amelia
both look at you guys and say,
"cool, we're going to do like
a scan of the outside of the castle."
Later,
(vocalizes)
two bats, they turn into two
bats and they get to fly around
Bound, you guys see visible
sonar coming out of their mouth,
like in expanding rings of sonar is like
(sonances)
it's like sort of taking a scan
of the outside of this castle.
The rest of you are left
here on the balcony,
but the rest of the castle inside.
- You want some tea?
- Absolutely.
(upbeat music)
I'm really sorry that
something's going on.
If this is less than you're used to.
- Yes, it's, I feel like
I have not done my duty
to my family to be keeping this up,
but, I don't know what I have done
or what anybody else has done.
This is very strange to me.
I worry for my daughter,
this is our inheritance.
This is our--
- Wait, can I ask you a
question about yourself?
And you don't have to
answer if you don't want,
did your mother have these,
you said it was passed
from mother to daughter,
right?
- Yes.
- So did your mother have these powers
and then it wasn't until she
passed that you received them?
- That's correct, I mean...
the powers I train my daughter in it,
but for now it's all pretty theoretical.
She's not actually,
honestly that interested.
She's just a kid, she's
wanting to be with her friends,
but it's important this cultural stuff.
- Yeah.
- To
- To keep on passing it down
generation to generation.
And she'll like it when she gets it.
It's you get it when you get it.
Hopefully God-willing, she
won't get it for a while.
- Yeah,
- You know?
- Absolutely.
- Iga you are walking by
a hallway of framed portraits
of these, like you see there's one woman
who has like 1960s hair and is
very clearly like Iga's mom.
You see there's like another
woman past her, portrait.
Go ahead, everybody here and
give me a perception check.
(ethereal music)
(dice rolling)
- Nat 20, does that mean--
(howls)
I just got a nat 20.
(laughs)
- Yes you see that there's an empty frame
at the beginning of the
hallway that says Iga Lisowski
under it doesn't have
a portrait of it yet.
- Take a real quick
picture.
(camera clicks)
Hmm, interesting, who's Iga?
- You think people would come
and take thorough readings
from somebody called Iga?
(giggles)
Yeah, I absolutely would.
- Yes, but like don't...
people expect a certain kind of service.
You know what I mean?
The readings are real, but the
things around the readings,
people needed to feel safe and secure.
- Yeah, I like the name Iga,
but I also like the name Madam Anastasia.
(group laughs)
- Thank you.
- Walk through the hall on
that Nat 20 perception, Sofia
(upbeat soft piano music)
The, everything in this
castle is it seems like you're
in a magical, extra dimensional space.
There are rooms filled and
piled high with treasure
mountains of gold coins,
swords, lances, tapestries
around the edges where the
frames touch, these portraits,
you see like water damage,
which you only recognize as being like,
there's like some fading,
some cracks in the painting.
You only recognize this
because your brother Mario
used to like work in
like forged paintings.
So you're looking at them
and these aren't forgeries,
but they are,
(upbeat soft piano music)
getting damaged in a way from aging,
which doesn't make sense for
the realm your in to you.
It's like, this is a
realm that should exist as
pure fairy tale.
And some like element of time
has been brought into it.
And like the paintings
are fading slightly.
- Can I point it out to
Madam Anastasia or Iga,
whichever she prefers,
and just say, is that new or?
- Yes this is not...
This is not normal.
Mishek how are you
feeling my little dragon?
(growls)
- Yeah, me too, me too.
(laughs)
- That is how I'm also feeling.
(giggles)
- I think I'm gonna go
check out this mist,
- A wolf.
- And see if it's in--
(group laughs)
- You cannot, just walk
out into the forest.
This is a magical forest.
- Wow, that's--
- Like maybe if you can fly.
Can you fly?
- If you give me 10 minutes,
I can summon a steed.
- That can fly, a flying steed?
You cannot wander into a magical forest.
That is a basic rule of magical forest.
That is magical forest one -o- one.
You just cannot wonder into it--
- I need to take a piss real quick--
- Not to mention Cody.
This is, we are in Madam
Anastasia's house right now.
So we do have to respect
Madam Anastasia's rules.
- Does a magic forest--
- Am not,
look, you can wander into magical forest
on your own if you want to,
you will get immediately lost.
- I'll go with Cody
There will be strange things
that will lure you out of your away.
- We just gonna peek,
- Okay.
- That's what we gonna do.
- Cody and Ricky, you
guys head off to go peek
Sofia and Madam Anastasia,
head to the kitchen to get that tea,
Cody and Ricky, you guys
head out to the forest.
What do you guys do as
you sort of go do...
you go down many lower levels.
Get rooms piled high with
treasurer, artifacts,
huge like, samovars
and lanterns and lamps
and dangling chandelier's
and all kinds of crazy sh*t in here.
- So, any swords?
- Oh sh*t, go ahead and give me--
- This is someone else's house.
This is someone else's house
- I'm gonna ask.
I'm gonna ask.
(group laughs)
- Go ahead and give me an
investigation check both of you.
(Pete giggles)
- Nat 20, Nat 20--
- Ricky look around for swords.
- We're gonna ask.
- Looking around for swords, sure.
- I got a Nat one.
(group laughs)
- Aha! That's what you deserve.
(group chattering)
- Madam Anastasia's house like that.
- Cody--
- You got a house full of treasure.
- Cody, you go to touch a...
There's an incredible
like Ruby Hilted Scimitar,
you go to touch it and
your hand gets badly burned
by the rubies and the hilt.
(laughs)
- Be careful.
- I think Ricky has the energy of like
a dad trying to talk to
his, like relate to a son.
Yeah, like playing a video game.
(group laughs)
- f*ck, f*ck.
- Did you see that it must've belonged
to like an angel or something
(laughs)
- Or like rejects evil.
- f*ck dude, did you see that?
- Yeah, I did see it, I did.
(group laughs)
- Ricky on 18,
you see that there are there's,
a wall of swords.
(giggles)
There's a whole wall of swords.
They're all behind locked glass.
However, they look incredible
and magical and awesome.
And then there's an umbrella stand
next to that glass case of
swords that just has like one
kind of like humble looking sword in it.
It sort of just like leather wrapped hilt
it doesn't it's not shimmering or shining
with magical potential.
It looks like sort of what a
medieval sword would look like.
- Ricky will, I guess
pick it up and be like,
Hey, this is pretty cool.
I don't know if you're interested in--
- It's super, I'm interested
in every sword yeah.
- Here why don't you--
- Am interested--
So I handled the sword,
cool, pretty cool sword, right?
Hey so, we're kind of similar, right?
(chuckles)
I feel like we--
- Two sides to the same coin.
- You keep saying that I
just think we've got...
We sort of have similar things we can do.
Maybe we get our powers
from different things,
but also, I think that's
kinda interesting, right?
- Yeah, I think sometimes
you have to become
a demon to defend an
angel, if that makes sense.
- What is the angel?
(group laughs)
- The mall, the mall is the angel?
(laughs hysterically)
- Oh, okay.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
- Well, there's sort of a Sasuke/
Naruto thing going on with us.
- What's up?
(group laughs)
- We should go look at the mist.
- You guys head out and
go look at the mist.
(group laughs)
- What's up?
(laughs hysterically)
- Ricky definitely just like
watches NCIS and nothing else.
(group laughs)
- I'm not, I know of anime
wasn't quite my thing.
(group laughs)
- It's cool that you like it.
(group laughs)
- You guys, head out...
In the kitchen Anastasia, you arrive,
the kitchen is like a vast,
there's like a huge 20 foot long
butchers board in the
middle of a vast multi-stove
like this is a kitchen
to like cook feasts in.
And you see, there is an icicle encrusted,
like walk in ancient medieval freezer
that has like a bank vault
wheel on like the outside of it.
There's like food and stuff in,
and Iga, this place is
like stocked non-stop.
- Mm-hmm, yeah, the food
does not go bad here.
It's just,
- Oh
and it's just here.
You can eat it, it's fine, it's not unlike
eat the food, sell your soul situation.
Just in case you--
- Hmm,
I wasn't even thinking of
that until you said that,
but now I think I'm just
gonna eat this Luna bar
in my pocket. -
- Okay.
Well, I will have a cup--
- What flavor?
- Good tea
- What flavor on the Luna bar?
- Lemon Zest
(laughs)
- Iga, Mishek flies ahead
of you grabs a little thing
and flies around it in the little circle
to open the vault door so you can go in
and grab some stuff.
Anastasia or yeah, as you enter,
Iga you see that the
splendor of the freezer
is pure tons of food, giant
haunches of like hunted elk
and forest beasts and stuff like that.
Every time you open the door,
this place is fully stocked.
You see that there is a big empty section
on one of the shelves and these
place is always replenished.
You've never walked in here
to see it empty before.
The two plates that are empty,
are a platter of sheep's cheese
and a giant dish that
every time you came in here
was filled with borscht bites.
And they're just gone.
- Mm, who is eating my cheese?
Is this a, Hmm,
a small Polish child
living in this (mumbles)
I do not like this, I do
not like this one bit.
people are taking my stuff.
(laughs)
Hmm, I get a lemon and sugar for the tea,
- Madam Anastasia, I know that
everyone's asking a lot of you right now,
but you can also ask us
if stuff is going on.
I think if everyone's coming on strong,
it's because, we like to help.
- No look, no, I get it
you're helpful people.
You're good people.
I just, you have to understand
my people were persecuted
for a very long time, it's not
- Yeah, I know
- It is not like a good fun
thing to have magical powers
in Poland in the medieval period.
Do you understand?
- Yeah.
- Like that was bad, that was not good.
We have been trained to stay secret,
and it has worked for us
because when you get
involved, bad things happen.
- Absolutely, but I just want you to know
that the people who are
trying to help you right now,
like magic, we love your magic.
We wanna see it exactly
how you want to see it.
- I'm gonna give you such a discount.
I'm gonna give you such a discount
- Thank you so much--
you will not believe.
- Even though my faith in
your services has been shaken.
(laughs)
- I will still be coming back.
- Hey, Sofie sometimes the
reading is a real reading
and sometimes the reading
is what you need to hear.
And that's just as important.
- Yeah.
- Do you know what I mean?
- Yeah I'll be honest.
Like I mean, I think that
you do charge way too much,
but your readings are also true.
I'm in the upper West side,
you want a cheap reader,
(laughs)
go to a different neighborhood
you know what I mean,
- Exactly
- The rates are high.
- Yeah (laughs)
- You two just ended having
a lovely cup of tea here.
Yeah, I think that, how is
Iga feeling in this moment,
especially this is the first
time you've had other people
in the chest with you
probably for a while.
And it's also very different to be this,
there is something I think
very potent here as well
of like you being in halls
that you know your mom
and your grandmother
and your great-grandmother and
your great-great-grandmother,
all walked in.
- I feel like it is like
a safe space for her.
It's a very calming space that she goes to
when she needs to be alone.
And it is a little weird
having people there,
because she hasn't welcomed
anybody in for a long time.
I think maybe even like
her husband doesn't really come here.
Like she has taken him here to show him,
but really it's her space.
So she likes these people.
She likes that they're helping her,
but it's still a little
tense having people over.
I feel like--
- Yes, absolutely.
- Ana and Amilia--
- Sofia is very respectful. She uses a coaster.
- Thank you.
- We gonna come back to the hospital room
that now just has a big magical chest
Kingston, Pete and Esther.
Esther looks over at the two of you.
And basically it just says,
"well, Voxes of New York city,
how are we feeling about
the scuffle on the subway,
does this feel like routine
Halloween shenanigans
or does this feel like something else?"
- I think it's something else.
- It's something else.
- Kingston have you been
noticing anything weird
in your area, this like 125th street area,
- We had a, not really I mean,
one of the bigger
electronic stores is sold,
but I mean, that's not something so crazy.
I'm more disturbed by
this woman I talked to
when she got off the subway,
just the energy I got off of her,
I don't know what, Madam Anastasia said
about the city changing is right.
But this change feels different.
Something about places.
- Hmm
- Yeah.
- Ah like,
quick question Brennan,
that chest pain that I had
before I got on the
subway, is that tied to
my physical being like
Kingston, being an old man
or the nature of what we were doing?
- Give me a medicine check.
- Okay.
- That's a 25.
- You like take a second now that the room
is a little bit more intimate
and you're just here with
Pete and Esther to like,
take your blood pressure.
You're doing great, man,
you're in great health.
You, scrapped hard in
that fight and feel great.
You believe that was
something supernatural.
You believe it was the presence
the like anti-populi as a
concept is all about, like,
this thing exists in a miasma.
particles of it appear in the world
as a supernatural element,
but in doses so small
that they're almost always microscopic.
And what was there on that
train was like a lethal dose.
Something, that can k*ll you
if like a drop of it enters
your bloodstream or your area,
you resperate it or whatever.
And it was physically tangibly there.
It's like powerful hatred of New York.
You feel like that was
sort of beaten back.
That stuff being there feels
more like a fluke to you.
The anti-populi, you don't think
that stuff is always around.
You've never seen it congregate like that,
in other words, to make
it something like the raw,
well, I guess you don't
know necessarily about
the raw Umbral Arcana thing yet.
You know, that amounts of anti-populi,
Like that only exists in Nod.
They aren't found in the
waking world like that, so--
- I was gonna ask you about
your chest grab anyway.
'Cause I perceive...
- Yeah.
so maybe we can just swap that info now.
I can tell her--
- Yeah I think person--
- That I saw,
- Yeah Kingston, so you guys
confer on Esther hears this.
where Pete you're basically like, yeah.
Anti-populi probably got pushed here
almost like when a wave of
jelly fish gets washed up
on the beach by the tide,
the jellyfish sting you and are nasty.
That's like the anti-populi,
but that might be a fluke,
that might not happen again.
The tide coming in that
strongly, that's a big problem.
And the tide in this instance would be
that raw Umbral Arcana.
- Yeah and specifically from where,
if we can figure that out?
- Esther, as you guys share,
this speaks up and she says,
"well, this is something that
I just came across yesterday
in Alejandro's old notes.
The umbral engine,
I was operating under a
misconception from my years
when back when I was just the Proctor
of the Clinton Hill Chantry,
that the umbral engine created
the Umbral Arcana,
that's not actually true.
The Arcana is a naturally
occurring substance within
Nod and the umbral engine
disseminates it and harnesses it
to create what we call the Umbral Arcana
is actually a specialized
network of harnessed raw Arcana
from or I guess like raw
Umbral from the Sixth Borough.
If you saw you visibly saw
it with the naked eye Pete,
Okay,
- Yeah.
- That's not great.
- It went under the subway, it
went deep in somewhere else.
- Obviously there are
ways for the Arcana to get
into the city because we
that's what we use to protect
"The Unsleeping City."
But, if like you're saying there was
enough of a concentration,
A, that it was able to push
through that much anti-populi
to take over that subway
car or that entire subway,
then that, we got to talk to Sofia.
She's been mentioning
stuff like this for awhile.
She's found some stuff at the monastery
that I think might be
worth us looking into.
- She told me about that too,
yeah totally. Yeah, yeah.
- I think you see, she looks
at you Pete and goes like,
I think what we're experiencing
here in the waking world.
We're getting the ripples
of something happening.
Maybe not on this side.
- Definitely.
- We're gonna have to go to Nod.
- I was gonna say, can I
invite Nod here or gray baby?
(laughs)
- Gray Baby.
- Yeah, you see Esther says
maybe it might, Pete
obviously you're free to,
if you wanna head into Nod,
if you have business there,
that's obviously your
prerogative as the Vox Phantasma
for us, for people that might
need to take more precautions
heading there and you see
Esther makes eye contact
with Kingston here.
She goes like, "I think
starting at the monastery
and at the society, it might
be the place to start."
But I think honestly, you
see, she raises her hands.
She was like, this might be
a full court press scenario.
We don't know where
we're we gonna find the,
find bingo here,
but we should probably look
across the board anyway.
So she nods...
Ricky and Cody back in
you guys moves to the forest,
get to the gray edge of the forest here.
You see, it's not really mist.
The delineation is kind of sharp.
The land just sort of falls
away and it's not mist.
It's more like just ambient
gray light, just (pulses).
- I guess I'll cast divine
sense just to, I feel like--
- Yeah I wanna do the same
thing and specifically
mechanically I wanna
kinda do a religion check
and see if I sense any of
the same magic that I sensed
from specifically Cody is
looking to see if Gladiator
has any ties to the supernatural.
- Are you doing a divine sense?
- Yes.
- Each of you guys can
give me either religion,
Arcana or perception if
you want in this moment.
- Would it be, what are your stats?
Would've been more--
- My perceptions, a lot.
- I get, do I still get a
advantage on this perception?
- [DM] Yes you do,
- Okay. Cool
- Oh sweet.
So then I'll just make a religion.
Oh sorry, what did, what kinda
checks did you say were okay?
- Arcana perception and religion,
- [DM] Yeah.
- Oh great.
I'll make religion.
- I got a 18, perception--
- I gotta 15.
- Cool, when you cast
divine sense, you get back
either celestial, undead,
fiendish, or whatever,
or when you cast it,
you will get back like,
this is regular, this is
mundane, but you get a reading,
you get back no reading here.
It's like the difference
between something being
the answer is no, versus just like N/A.
Right? Like not applicable.
- Yeah.
You don't, it's like nothing
comes back out to you
and on an eight on a 15.
Yeah, man you, the feeling you get
in the pit of your stomach
from not receiving information back
from your divine sense Cody,
is the feeling you got,
when the wall in the
mall that used to be full
of like concert posters, became
filled with like Gladiator
campus arriving soon.
You can't tell if that means
they're magically connected.
You feel a connection though,
in terms of that thing of like
reading like a Gladiator advertisement
and just being like N/A.
I don't relate to that at all.
- Right, Yeah.
- It means nothing.
It is nothing.
Ricky, on an 18, if something
were to appear in the mist,
what would Ricky imagine
would appear in the mist?
- What would he imagine appear?
I mean like, it definitely
feels like something
not good to him is out there.
So remembering this
sort of deep, whatever,
I don't know, like probably
a monster of some kind.
- For a moment, you see a
silhouette of Esther in the mist,
and it's just a moment, a silhouette.
And you hear in your
ear, like you're wearing
headphones almost in
terms of it's very loud,
but it's not pulse,
it's not like telepathy
or in your mind or whatever
you hear it but you know
that no one else can hear it.
You hear a click of like
an answering machine
or like clicking into your voicemail
and you hear Esther's voice,
but it's not Esther's voice.
As it speaks to you in
person, it's a recording,
like a voicemail would be,
and you hear Esther's voice say.
"Hey Ricky, it's Esther, we need to talk."
And it ends.
- Oh no (laughs)
- So I'm getting a sense of
kind of just general nothingness,
(laughs)
did you pick up anything?
- I did not pick up anything,
(laughs)
- Sort of also general nothingness.
- So maybe like something is like,
just like swallowing all the stuff,
or like,
- Yeah.
- It's just like a f*cked
up thing, it's just like,
- It feels like maybe we're
maybe not the two best
people out to--
- Interesting.
- Guess what this is.
- No dude we can f*cking figure this out.
Like, let's think about this, okay.
So there's like good like
normally we'd be able
to know if there was
good stuff or bad stuff,
this is just nothing stuff.
- Yeah.
And the nothing stuff is
just like getting all over.
And so, but the, okay, Lemme ask my devil,
Hey, I'll translate for you,
and I'll just kinda say out
loud what the devil is saying.
Hey, what is my devil's name again?
- Bazathrax, yeah.
- Bazathrax.
Dark Lord Bazathrax, are
you getting a reading
from any of this sh*t?
- Ah, dude, I get, what's
going on out there?
I'm stuck in your chest,
can you open your shirt?
- Yes, I pop like this
(laughs)
This was specifically requested,
I'm not just showing
my tattoo to the mist.
- Obviously because
- Okay.
- Oh dude look at that.
What's on there is gray,
but it's like bright
and gray at the same
time, that's crazy yeah.
- Yeah, so are like the
devil's pissed about this too.
Is this like, just like when
you said were renegades before,
are you saying that there's
like people that are on
like monsters that are on another side?
That are just like--
- Oh dude, no renegades is
just like people that either
got out left or were kicked out of hell.
Like some devils are too much as*h*le
and and Lucifer don't wanna
keep them around no more.
And so he's like, get the f*ck outta here.
And then they're in earth,
they're just on earth.
(giggles)
- Okay.
- Anyway,
Anyway dude--
- sh*t still moves everywhere.
- Anyway dude, I sent
those f*cking invites out
to the renegades like you asked me to,
So there's a bunch, like New York,
there's like a bunch like, there's imps,
and there's less devils, but I kinda,
I still see a bunch of people, dude.
So it's all gonna be good.
- Okay, so my devil, I
told you guys a bunch
of stuff before, but I forgot some sh*t.
(giggles)
My devil's super quick acting,
just like a really good,
quick assistant, kind
of CC'd bunch of devils.
So there are devils coming,
but they're minor devils
and they were fired.
Most of them are f*cking fired.
They're not even in hell anymore.
- Cody, what are you talking about?
(group laughs)
- There's, okay, so my devil,
so there's other renegades
that got in to earth, right?
'Cause they got like kicked out of hell,
- Can you start swinging the sword around?
(group laughs)
- Yeah, so they are like around.
There's other renegades which is like,
honestly, if you think about
it, pretty freaking badass,
but there's like other imps
and stuff that are going to
my devil manager said that
they would do my bidding.
But my devil manager also at
one point said he was Lucifer.
(laughs)
So..
- Your devil manager assistant Lucifer.
(group laughs)
- It's super confusing because apparently,
he got fired from hell.
He's not even like Lucifer,
they're not even on good terms.
So there are devils coming, but I don't...
because this mist is the bad guy.
I think that, that's fine.
- Maybe we should--
- If you had asked me.
I think we should have--
(laughs crowds speaker)
- You guys head out of there.
Ana and Amelia come and join up.
And they meet up with you
guys on the balcony again,
after Sofia and Iga have
their tea, they say,
"this castle is awesome, like
this is so f*cking cool."
It's the only castle we've
seen is like Belvedere Castle
or like, it's like this
place f*cking rules.
- Oh yeah, now this is
a real a*s castle.
This is the real deal castle wise.
- So we basically looked and we were,
basically what we were looking for,
was like, is there any infection here,
is there something going on?
We did detect traces
of Umbral Arcana here.
And honestly, like not even
necessarily Umbral Arcana
kind of like raw Umbral, just
sort of here in the castle.
We don't have like permissions
from the wards of this place
to go and dispel that ourselves,
Madam Anastasia, you could grant us that,
but also maybe this is something that
you just wanna handle yourself.
You see they sort of whisper to each other
and they just go like, okay yeah.
And they say also like,
do you super know what the source of
the power in this place is?
- Yes it is the spirits.
- Okay, yeah, for sure awesome.
- The spirits of the castle
they give us the power.
- You see--
- Sometimes leave a little
bowl of milk out for them.
- Oh (mumbles)--
- You know,
- They like the treasure, it seems like,
- Ah, you see Ana and Amelia both--
- We don't hang out, I
don't know what to tell you.
We're not hanging out.
- Speaking of the treasure.
I look at Ricky and
Sofia and then I look at
Madam Anastasia and I
go, there was this sword
and it just seems like
a pretty dumb sword,
So, it was just kind of--
- Okay, that's not how you ask something.
this place is full of family heirlooms,
so don't call any of them dumb.
show some respect young man.
- Madam Anastasia, can I have this sword?
(laughs)
- The umbrella sword?
(laughs)
- It was a regular sword in
an umbrella holder, right?
- Yes it was a regular
sword in an umbrella holder,
- It's just a regular
a*s sword, but it's cool.
- Say something nice about the sword.
- It's cool sword.
(laughs)
- f*ck.
- Can I do, an Arcana check on the sword
to see if it actually does anything.
'Cause if it's just a shitty
a*s sword you can have it.
(laughs)
- Go ahead, yeah, go
ahead and make the check.
Go ahead and make a--
(laughs)
- Yeah, that's a 25 Arcana.
(laughs)
- This is a..
you call it the umbrella sword.
There are legends attached
to the sword of it being
forged for a Knight, who
was a tyrannical Knight
in Medieval Poland,
who basically got it made, hated it,
and like tossed it aside
and got his other Knights,
like burned down the village
where the sword was crafted
and a peasant boy found it, picked it up.
It's sometimes also
called the peasants sword.
And basically took it and
trained with it until like,
he was like a master swordsman,
went and k*lled the Knight
who burned his village down,
who had a requisitioned
the sword to be made.
It works best in the hands of the humble
is the only thing you know about it.
- You know, actually I think
the sword will suit you.
(laughs)
(group laughs)
- But you do owe me a
favor, just to be clear.
This is a pretty big, it was a nice--
- Super appreciate it.
- Yeah, you know, stay humble Cody.
- I don't have money.
(laughs)
- Can I look at the
sword and see if I think
it would be a better fit with Ricky?
- With no rolling necessary.
A million percent would
be a better fit for Ricky.
(group chattering)
- Can I try to look at, can
I try to make eye contact
with Ricky kind of be like,
All right Ricky, by the
way I just wanna say like,
thank you so much for
giving the questing blade
to my deceased husband so that
he could visit me sometimes--
- Oh, yeah, of course.
I just I've noticed your
holster empty ever since.
- Yeah, well, I mean to put it in...
so you know Cody.
Can you stop swinging it?
Can you stop--
- Yeah, what's up?
(laughs)
- I used to have a pretty cool weapon
and then I gave it up when
it felt like I should.
And now I'm not using a
weapon until it feels like
I should use, like until
that weapon finds me.
- You know
- Cool.
- I mean, maybe you try--
- [Cody] Do you want--
- You should try it.
- I'm okay.
(laughs)
Bazathrax goes, "dude,
under no circumstances,
give this f*cking sick a*s sword up there
under no f*cking circumstances."
- Feels exactly the same as real sword.
(group laughs)
- Incredible.
You guys exit from, Iga's
other worldly dimension.
- Thank you so much for a
lovely stay Anastasia that--
- Thank you, no it's nice to have guests,
even under these
unfortunate circumstances.
- As you exit Kingston and
Pete, you see Ana and Amelia
as these are come out of
the chest Ana and Amelia
walk over to Esther to
report to her really quickly
and basically go like,
"we scan the castle and everything,
there's definitely raw Arcana in there"
which is probably not great
until Lowell identifies like the chest,
we won't know all the
wards that are keeping
that dimension in there.
(upbeat music)
I think, look like the
only person who's gonna
be able to really like explore that castle
is gonna be Madam Anastasia.
(upbeat music)
The castle is not the source of the magic.
There's like something in there.
Something like down deeper
in the castle, I think.
And you see that Esther goes, "ah".
Well maybe we have plenty
to deal with as it is.
And Madam Anastasia has made
clear that her involvement
in the city is limited
to what she desires.
I think Kingston and Pete
give me insight checks.
- Ah, Nat 20.
- 20 but not Nat.
- Whooo dirty 20 for Pete.
You guys both call it Kingston you can see
absolutely Esther, all of the
things that are going on here,
like Cody's devil stuff and Iga's box.
You can see Esther in her
head being like, okay,
a kid found a random
infernal book in a mall.
This warlock who'd kind of like,
doesn't give a sh*t about the
rest of the Unsleeping City.
Like has a problem with
her family heirloom.
You can tell the Esther has
been like, these are symptoms.
The disease is the stuff the Voxess,
and Sofia are worried about.
And you can see her kind of in her head
also because she, you can
see that she has just like
a wizardly disdain for
warlock magic and people
that like don't have deep
curiosity about that kind of sh*t
you can both tell that she
possibly like too quickly
writes Iga and Cody off as like,
these are clearly dominoes
that are falling based
on a larger, more primary domino.
She goes, okay, well,
we have Lowell trying to
get Iga on the books.
I think that we can let
her have her privacy
until such time as Lowell becomes available,
there's plenty for us to do.
And you see that she
motions over to you Sofia.
She's like, there's
plenty for us to be doing
in the meantime.
- I think I clock this kind of
like cold scientific attitude
and really try to make up
for it by getting to know
the two of them more or just being like,
Hey, thanks so much for swinging by.
And I really would love
a reading from you Iga.
- Look, you guys have been very nice.
I'll give you all a little
card, one card each.
- Yes please.
- But this is not,
I wouldn't mind a card, honestly.
Here we go, if you want it is a card.
(laughs)
- Thank you and payment in kind
for kindness to me today, okay?
So Sofia, tell me when to cut.
You gotta say it fast--
- Cut.
'cause I'm running out of the cards.
- Oh my goodness the 10 of
Pentacles money and wealth.
- Wow.
- Will come to you soon.
And maybe too little dogs.
Maybe the nice time--
- Okay,
I'm more of a cat person, okay.
(Laughs)
- That's understandable,
they're nice looking dogs.
Pete if you like to tell me when to cut.
- Cut.
- Oh, the nine of cups.
You're a man an you're sitting
here with your nice cups.
You're having a nice time at
a celebration with your cups
is a thing you like to do,
you're drinking and your cups?
- Yeah, there are probably
too many cups around me
at all times.
- Yes.
But see maybe you're ignoring the cups
you having a nice time ignoring
the cups that are behind you
because you don't need them anymore.
- Wow, that's really deep.
I wanna full reading from
you please, I'll come by,
I'll like write down your address.
- Hell yeah, so you guys healed up
in Kingston's hospital room,
successful from the subway battle.
Cody you've reverted to your correct age.
We're gonna move right now
because there's so much arcane
research and stuff to do.
And you guys have a lot
of questions unanswered.
We're gonna move into
a period of downtime,
which is also just because
"The Unsleeping City"
takes place at a place
where you guys all have jobs
and families and work and sh*t.
Your adventures do have to get
squeezed into the schedule
from time to time.
You guys have a little while before Lowell
can take a look at Iga's chest.
During this period of downtime,
we will probably run some scenes here,
but also it's totally fine if
we narrate our way through it,
let's start off over
the period of the next
like week to two weeks.
(upbeat music)
Over through the next
weeks, two weeks before,
while you guys are waiting for Lowell
to sort of examine this chest.
There's a lot of stuff that comes up
about Sofia and the monastery,
Pete had those ideas about Nod
and Metropolitan Museum of dreams.
There's a lot of investigating,
Esther in the Gramercy Occult Society.
(upbeat music)
So everybody go ahead and
think of what you're like
a primary and a secondary
activity during downtime.
And also, for Pete and
Sofia in particular,
I'll need to know your downtime activities
specifically as well.
Does anyone have an idea of the main thing
that I'll be looking
over the next week or two
and the big stuff you
that you have on the plate
in front of you to handle?
- The other is one piece of
housekeeping I have to do,
which is like, I just need
to talk to some of the people
at the monastery, or we don't
have to run it as a scene.
I just need to get the
A OK, 'cause I know that
they have a different relationship.
- I think we absolutely
should run this as a scene.
So the following day Sofia
goes home from Halloween,
you walk into your bedroom
and you see wrapped up on your bed,
a silver gleaming pair
of nunchucks on the bed.
(instrumental music)
(sighs)
- Okay, I go look at them.
- You see, there is a note left on them
that says, "I'm not any good at lying,
and I know that you've
probably caught wise
to what I want to do.
But I would never do anything
without talking to you.
These don't belong to me,
and I've been using them,
to come and see you when
the world and other people
might use them for something
that they need them more for.
(upbeat soft piano music)
I'm sad all the time because
I'm hanging on to you so hard,
(upbeat soft piano music)
and I feel like me doing that
is keeping you from finding
something in your real life.
(upbeat soft piano music)
But I wouldn't just say goodbye
to you in a note either.
Come to Green-wood cemetery
if you wanna talk with me,
and talk about why I feel this way,
but I can't keep doing
what I've been doing
because as happy as it makes
me, I know it's hurting you."
(upbeat soft piano music)
- I don't know if I should
go to Green-wood Cemetery
right now, but I also,
if he asks for it then yeah,
I'll go to Green-wood Cemetery.
(upbeat soft piano music)
(glitching)
(whoosh)
(clinks)
- You go to Green-wood.
You're there at two
o'clock in the morning.
It's like Halloween night still.
You've had the fight earlier in the night.
And you arrive at Dale's
grave that you first visited
with Jackson three years ago,
and you see a, shimmering over it is Dale.
Who's already just fully weeping.
- I guess, I just want to say that
If you were doing this to
try to make me feel better,
I would never let you do it.
The only reason I would
let you do it is because,
I mean, you're in heaven right now
and you deserve to enjoy heaven
as much as you think I
deserve to enjoy where I am.
You deserve to enjoy heaven, I mean,
I can only imagine what
it's like up there' I mean,
(soft instrumental music)
so I really wanna fight you on this,
but I think that,
I think that what you
think you're giving me,
I need to give you,
(soft instrumental music)
but I guess I wanna ask one thing.
If I ever found magic
that could bring you back,
(soft instrumental music)
would you, I just feel like,
I feel like the world
really lost something
when they lost you.
And I feel like the world lost
something when they lost us.
So if I found any of that magic would,
could I use it on you?
(soft instrumental music)
- Dale thinks for a moment,
(soft instrumental music)
and he...
(soft instrumental music)
You look at your husband
and you can see him
wrestling with this.
- You don't have to answer
today 'cause I don't have it.
I don't know where it is.
- He looks at you and says,
"sweetheart, it's a really bitter lesson.
When you realized how much hope hurts.
The idea of you bringing me back
is something I've thought
about every single day.
I got taken away from you,
senselessly, stupidly.
I got close to some bad people
and they got the jump on me.
And that was it.
The only thing that kept
me sane was knowing that
you were gonna find them
and you were going to make it right,
because there's nothing in
this world that you can't do.
(soft instrumental music)
If you find a way to bring me back
and he sees something
snaps in him and he goes,
I didn't beat the out of angels
over the course of three years to stop you
from trying to bring me back,
but you got to promise me something
- Uh huh.
(soft instrumental music)
that you won't let the hope
of that drive you crazy."
- I know, I know and I know
that there is something
I'm supposed to learn by
us not seeing each other
in a way that is unnatural.
And I will figure out what I
need to figure out without you.
But I swear to God, if I
get my hands on something
that can bring you back,
I'm probably gonna use it,
unless you tell me explicitly not to.
(soft instrumental music)
- The things that are possible
in this wild f*cking world,
sweetie, they're endless
and natural, unnatural.
I love you in life and from
beyond always and forever.
And I wouldn't have...
I just realized in the forest
the other day near the deer that just,
I could tell how much
you were counting days.
- I know, but I could also tell it on you.
(soft instrumental music)
- Live life, be happy.
(chuckles)
I know we're each trying
to give the other person
the same gift.
We've always done the same thing.
We've always tried to
be the person lifting
the other person up.
I understand that.
(soft instrumental music)
Only difference is this, is that,
where I am there's no rush.
And there's nothing on the line.
Let me be the one to count days
because there's nothing on this side,
that's demanding my attention
other than how much I love you.
- I know.
(sniffs)
I won't, let my, I won't let, you know.
I won't let it compromise
my judgment, I know that.
What I feel for you doesn't
come first in this world,
but it for sure f*cking come second.
(giggles)
- He smiles, he embraces you.
He says, I like that.
After all, what comes after
is where I'll be waiting.
And this should come first
because what's second
is always gonna be there.
- He kiss--
- Okay.
- He kisses a tear off of your cheek
and smiles and looks...
He has the same look that
you know is on your face
of wanting this so desperately
and knowing that as good as
it is for the other person,
it's also hurting them,
in a way that he can't bear anymore.
And he smiles and fades into light.
(chimes)
- Okay, I think that was
actually good for Sofia though,
because she wanted to know
if she could hypothetically
someday bring him back.
(laughs)
Not that she, I know that
the lesson is not that
she's supposed to focus on that,
but there is an ease to know
that if she found an option.
- Hey Sofia's--
(mumbles)
Hey, Dale will be wrestling with it.
And so will Sofia because hope hurts.
But it's hard to let go of
if you think it might be out there.
- And then I look at these
cool nunchucks, and I say,
wow, I bet these do something
pretty f*cking cool.
And then I just put them in my pocket.
(both laughs)
- You put 'em back there.
Cool, awesome, awesome.
The next day you head over to
the Monastery of the Midnight Sun.
You climb the fire escape
outside of Spaghetti's Bakery,
head up into the monastery.
You see the monastery again
is made out of all sidewalk,
pavement blocks, the walls are sidewalk,
the ceiling's a sidewalk.
And as such people can
walk on any dimension
sort of the MC Escher style,
like everything is floor basically.
You see out in the yard
there's a group of monks
doing training, like
calling out forms and poses.
You see that there are...
you walk into another room,
that has those like
spinning wooden blocks,
where like you strike
them and they spin around
they strike you from the back.
But there's a dude running
with a full pizza through it.
Like (grunts)
(laughs)
you see training that guy
running through with the pizza
is the head instructor of the monastery.
Solomon who waves over at you and goes
"Morning Sofia, how are you doing today?"
- Morning Solomon, I'm good, how are you?
- Good, good, oh Cindy
wanted to talk to you
for a moment, by the way.
- Yeah, yeah, I'll go find her.
How are the recruits looking
strong, fresh, agile?
- This one sucks, but yeah,
the other ones are good
(laughs hysterically)
- For sure.
Seen a guy with the pizza
just full face plants
and Solomon goes, boo, boo that.
(group laughs)
You walk along the hallway coming out of,
one of the live, the
sort of scroll libraries.
And again, unlike the
sort of Occult Society,
you're a scroll, a lot of
your things are just like
long unfolded scrolls that
have, in addition to writing,
like a lot of pictorial stuff,
like anatomy guides, pictures of poses,
the libraries of the
Monastery are all practical.
There's not a lot of waxing poetic here.
A lot of it is like, here's
what we learned works.
Here's how to defend yourself.
Here are the inner practices
and spiritual guidelines
to keep yourself safe
in like realms beyond.
And you see that Nadia
walks out goes like,
"Hey Sofia good to see you back,
- Hey Nadia.
how are doing?"
- I'm okay, how are you doing?
- Good, you've been on
patrol for a minute.
Good to see you back in the monastery.
- Yeah, I started to miss the
books, so I had to come back
and, check out and make
sure they were still here.
- Yeah, she's like, I'm gonna
go see Cindy right now too.
Did you hear what happened?
- No, what happened?
Well, an old first fist of the
order who left a while ago,
back in like the late '80's
to go start a monastery in San Francisco,
he just got back.
and you see, he walks in and says,
yeah, something f*cked up happened.
Like a monastery got destroyed
out in San Francisco.
You walk into this giant chamber
lit by like golden
candle light everywhere.
You see that there are
a couple of other monks
meditating in here, Cindy Wong,
who is the abbess of the Monastery,
who's basically in charge of
the school, the libraries,
the relics and everything like that.
Looks up to you Sofia, as
you enter as the current
first fist of the monastery, she smiles...
She is a very like
plump, wonderful smiling.
Middle-aged Chinese American
woman who has like tons of like
light floral imprints
and like floral slippers,
a true beam of sunshine next to this,
not tall, but like about
honestly about the same height
as you broad shouldered,
thick muscles, tattooed,
older looking monk
who you see, she gets up and says,
come right this way.
Sofia, this is Jackson's predecessor.
This is Tony Simos.
And you see, this guy looks up older eyes.
You see like, honestly,
yeah, like mid late,
like mid to late 50's, but kinda like,
New York, like older Greek guy,
like so Staten Island kind of like
clearly has been to like the Jersey shore
or like Long Island so much
that he is just like baked into leather.
His tattoos are all like
faded into his body.
Thick old man biceps, you
just see a muscular old man.
And you're like, Oh, wow, like, Oh dude
(laughs)
shaved head thick looks,
like sort of peppery salt,
more salt than pepper beard.
He gets up, he's got tears in his eyes
and he gets up and goes.
Huh, holy sh*t
A pleasure and an honor, Miss Lee,
I met Dale once coming back home.
I'm sorry for your loss, I have,
(sniffs)
sorry you caught me
f*ck' emotional out here.
f*ck' being back in
this place is a trip,
- Yeah.
- Pleasure and an honor and...
- It's a pleasure and
an honor to meet you.
What happened in San Francisco?
- He sighs and Cindy sort
of rubs his back as he goes.
(upbeat music)
It's f*cked up w*r of attrition, kind of
over the past, like 15 years, we just lost
a lot of f*cking monks in the monastery.
And,
(upbeat piano music)
a lot of young kids there
weren't as many like kids
from the neighborhood around anymore.
Like we f*ck'...
I went out there to start
the order of the iron heart
We had our monastery, we
were overlooking the Bay.
You could see the bridge, beautiful.
Basically,
(upbeat soft music)
by the end there was only
about dozen of us left.
People had moved, people stopped coming.
We weren't finding as
many worthy candidates.
And
(upbeat piano music)
one night we got attacked by these
I don't know, they were like
shadows or something.
And...
(soft instrumental music)
Monastery cracked in half,
I could've kept fighting,
they didn't have me down,
but the stone just crumbled
and something magical,
and the monastery gave
out and they were gone.
(upbeat music)
He looks at you...
give me an insight check.
- Ah, 15.
(soft instrumental music)
- You can tell that he's
doing the best he can
to tell you what happened.
But there's definitely
a simultaneous thing of,
like all like machismo, it is deep shame.
And there's a ton of
him talking about this,
is hurting him to talk about.
- Oh, well, Hey, you know what?
It's happening everywhere,
that kind of stuff.
- You see, he nods and says, yeah.
- Yeah, that's not on
any monastery shoulders.
I bet you all
were doing a great job.
But there's some sh*t going down,
which is actually why I was
hoping to speak with Cindy
a little bit, but I mean,
you as well, of course.
- You see, he looks and says, yeah,
by all means, go for it yeah.
He says, and honestly,
I'm just honored to be
just to sort of don't have
a home right now, but...
- You do now, especially
if you were once here,
you actually coming home.
(laughs)
- You see, he sees, he smiles and says,
Oh, look at that a little hospitality,
nice to see a Staten
Island girl by the way he says,
(laughs)
I know you're Sofia Lee,
but I knew your old man,
back in neighborhood we grew up together,
not sure what your relationship
is to your family, but.
- My relationship is that
I live with my mother
and I don't see any of the rest of them.
- He's like good, 'cause I tell you what.
Your father Bicicleta,
he was a f*cking punk
then and I bet he's a
f*cking punk now so...
- He's still a f*cking punk yeah,
I guess I wanna make sure Cindy I've,
I think I've taken some liberties
and I need your A OK to
continue in a direction
that I should have consulted you about.
- She says, "by all means
Sofia what's what's going on,
what do you need consulting with?"
- I kinda started reading
some stuff at the library
about some stuff deeper,
about deep dreaming and how like it's,
how there's all these
other monsters out there.
I know that in the past,
the order's been little more adversarial
with the dreaming world,
but I kind of maybe told
Pete a couple things.
Pete's a Vox Phantasma.
- Go ahead and give me like
a Persuasion check here.
- Okay.
(dice rolls)
2661
02:10:27,370 --> 02:10:30,723
- Nadia, and go ahead and
give me Insight check.
(dice rolls)
- Dirty 20.
- Cool.
Nadia has enough like friendship with you
and respect for you that she looks like,
Nadia looks like she doesn't even know why
that would be weird.
Cindy knows why it would be weird
that you didn't mention it before,
but doesn't seem averse to it.
Like she --
- Okay.
She looks like, has a look sort of like,
Oh, that's unfortunate that
you didn't tell us first,
but I don't disagree with your judgment.
- Okay, it wasn't premeditated.
It kinda came up because
some stuff is maybe happening
with a dream world.
So it came up organically, I didn't plan.
- You see Tony looks at you and goes.
"sh*t we got a Vox Phantasma
in the city right now?"
- We got a Vox Populi and a Vox Phantasma.
- Holy sh*t,
- Yeah.
You see, he looks over at Cindy
and shrugs his shoulders and says,
"that spells f*cking trouble huh?"
He says, he points to you and says,
- Trouble?
- Mrs. Lee,
he goes, yeah, you got your
work cut out for your kid.
I got your back, if you need anything.
Vox Phantasma and the city
has always precipitated
huge incursions from the dream world.
Talking about monsters,
beasts, vermians paragons,
sh*t like that, I mean f*cking bad news.
If there's a Vox Phantasma, do
we know where this person is?
- No, I'm friends with the Vox Phantasma.
He's a great kid.
- Oh, okay.
- He's a really good kid,
we had a huge incursion
from the dream world
(finger snaps)
made it go away.
I'm, from where I'm standing
having a Vox Phantasma,
Vox populi at the same time, it's like,
wow this is a rare opportunity.
- And he looks over and says,
"huh, okay, well, yeah, Okay."
You see, Cindy goes,
"all right, well I understand that--
- I'm sorry, what'd you
say your name once again?
- He says, Oh sorry--
- Sorry, I just wanna, am sorry.
- Tony, Tony Simos.
- Tony, right, okay.
- Yeah, yeah, cool yeah.
- You see that Cindy goes,
"Well all right, listen,
have you talked to
Miss. Sinclair about it?"
- Yeah, I have, yeah, yeah
We talked about in, I
guess I wanna to initiate
sort of pooling some
resources with Gramercy
and other folks.
- You see that she looks and says,
you are first fist of the monastery,
if you believe that this is going to keep
the monastery safe, this
is within your purview.
As our lead warrior.
You see that she says,
if Miss SinClair sees some benefit
to pooling resources in this way,
and this feels like a way
to address some issues,
she says, "we haven't
seen you in a few days,
I take it that there's
some dreamworld activity
that is pressing or of concern."
- Can I do an Insight
check on if I should say
what's going on in front of Tony?
- Give me an Insight check.
(dice rolls)
- 17 plus one 18.
Wait, Oh, think I have
plus three D inside.
Yeah plus three, dirty 20.
- Dirty 20
- You're, Tony looks to your
extent rattled right now,
I think on a dirty 20 it's up to Sofia,
there's an awkward situation here.
Tony used to be first
fist of the monastery
and left to go start his own order.
That position does not revert back to him,
but he used to have
Sofia's job in the order.
(giggles)
And there is a degree of,
(laughs)
I don't know, it's up to,
I will let Sofia, I'm gonna give you,
I don't wanna tell you
what you see on Tony
- I know
- With the dirty 20,
but there's a spectrum that
runs from the shallow end
of this guy is old school and rattled
all the way to worse stuff than that.
- Okay, yeah Cindy, we got into a scuffle.
There's actually so much to talk about
that I'm gonna have to catch
up with you later about it.
'Cause I'm meeting up with Esther,
but actually one thing I
would say is we got a kid
who is obsessed with the mall
and he made a deal with a minor devil.
So I think we're gonna focus on that.
That's our big problem right now.
(laughs)
Yeah, so yeah.
- Hell yeah.
- Go ahead and give me Deception.
(breaths heavily)
- Okay,
(dice rolls)
10.
- Cool.
You don't see anything from Tony.
You see Cindy goes,
"all right, well", and she says,
"Nadia, if you could go and help Sofia
with whatever you deem would
be necessary to share."
You see, she looks and says,
"would you, maybe it would
be safer or better for,
the wizards of the Gramercy
Occult Society to come here."
- They're certainly welcome, yeah.
I think it's wherever
they feel most comfortable
getting into their sort
of wizardly concentration.
But I'd love, I would love to like,
show them some of the
bestiaries I was looking at.
- You see she goes,
"very well, absolutely Sofia"
Sofia you walk away from there.
Tony follows you for a moment and he says,
"Hey Sofie, I just wanted to say,
I heard all about Alejandro's passing,
incredible guy.
- Yeah.
And I also heard about what
went down new year's Eve
three years ago.
- Yeah.
Great work, I just wanted to say,
I know that that Dale was looking out for
the day I was sort of chosen one
and congratulations seriously.
The order is lucky to have you."
- Well, thank you very much.
I only hope to serve it as
well as Dale would have.
I'm really looking forward
to working together.
It's great to have another
super powerful person here.
- Yeah he smiles and says,
"Hey, I'm glad that the
rumors precede me, all right.
Hey and if you need a hand,
I'm happy to offer one."
- Absolutely.
(laughs)
- Awesome downtime okay, great.
(both laughs)
Cool, cool, cool.
(laughs)
What are people's downtime activities
that you guys are waiting for Lowell
to kind of get back around to the chest?
- I do think that Iga is
going through the castle,
and one downtime she has
- Cool.
to like, make sure that everything is,
just as sort of doing inventory of like,
what's here, what's not like,
what can I notice that's changed?
- Awesome, go ahead,
there will be plenty of
these downtime periods.
So these are not gonna
be make or break rolls
because there will be many
of these opportunities,
but I'm gonna go ahead
and just sort of set
our DCs here at 20, across the board.
Go ahead and give me an Arcana check
for this first period of downtime.
- Great.
(soft instrumental music)
- Mm, that's an 18, I'm gonna
use a luck point to re-roll.
- Go for it.
(soft instrumental music)
- That is a 25.
- Hell yes, Iga, you notice
as your journey on the castle,
you have never explored the
castle all the way down before,
because a lot of the inherited wisdom
of your mothers and
grandmothers going back is
there are places in the castle that--
- Avoid the darkness.
- Avoid the darkness in the castle,
stay in near places with
windows that can see the sky.
Right?
- Mm-hmm
You stuff continues to
fade within the castle.
It's not happening rapidly,
but those portraits fade a little bit,
some of the color saps out of things
and closer, around like
the week mark or so,
you get into a bit of
a fight with Jessica.
(upbeat music)
And you see that Jess...
you're supposed to have a lesson
'cause she is getting older
to kind of talk about
some of this stuff more.
And she kind of voices like I like,
Hey, I'm like not interested in that.
And it becomes a little bit aggressive.
And you just notice that she,
in the course of the argument,
talking about the stuff
that she's learning,
she forgot the name of
this old Polish fairy tale.
You used to tell her as a kid,
and it just hurts your feelings I think
maybe in like an unexpected way
that she's like forgotten
something that was a very
beloved memory of yours
from her childhood.
She heads off to go hang
out with friends in the city
you, the next time you're in the castle,
there are books about the
character from that fairy tale
that are gone from the library
and those spaces on the
shelf are just empty.
- Hm no, this is not good.
It's very bad, okay.
Can I maybe call up Kingston and be like,
if we can move things along with your guy with the butt
(laughter crowds out speaker)
I would appreciate it
things seem to be rapidly...
- Yeah, of course, it's good
to hear from you when yeah.
I'm texting Lowell every day.
As soon as he's ready,
we'll get things going.
- Thank you and if he needs
some help moving things along,
(laughs)
- Okay
- I do not with,
just financially, not with the butt stuff.
- Oh not with the butt.
No he's he has lubricants
and things that--
- Yeah no, just but like--
(group laughs)
financial bump to bump the chest up--
- It's encouragement, I understand.
You got Iga.
- Yeah, and Iga I think that
seeing those books missing
Iga's point about New York
and how much it changes
and how that's okay.
I think reverberates back to her,
seeing this family heirloom
lose those fairytale books
from this amazing, magical castle.
- Like maybe she was okay
with the city changing
because this was always gonna be the same.
- Yeah, I think so.
Other people doing downtime stuff.
- I feel like Ricky would,
although Pete is watching over Cody,
(group laughs)
want to also be an
influence in Cody's life
with regards to like palette and stuff,
- Yeah.
- Just to like,
he's new to it.
- Yeah, so Ricky's kinda
hanging out, giving Cody a hand
Cody, I think this is
gonna give Cody advantage
on whatever downtime
activity you're taking.
- I think Cody is trying to,
because Cody's not trying to be evil,
he's trying to harness the darkness.
- Yeah.
(laughs)
(group chattering)
- Yes exactly, so Cody,
I think is trying to
find out the nature of this devil book
and these like renegades that
are coming and to see like,
if Cody is trying to
see how bad he f*cked up
or if he can actually do this.
- Awesome, give me...
you can either choose religion
if you are trying to study
or investigate If you are
going to like locations
trying to find sh*t out.
- Hmm I think I'll do
religion is better for me.
- Cool, go for it.
(dice rolls)
- That's a dirty 20.
- That is the DC for
these downtime activities.
- Yeah.
- Hell yeah.
What kind of questions
are you looking for?
- So I think first off,
I'm asking Bazathrax
who did you CC?
- He's just mentioning, he's like
Zagareal, Lenothrax,
Zagabon, Grazel, Grazel--
- Okay cool, and they are under,
are they under you,
or where do they stand?
- Oh dude, well, yeah,
they, I mean, some of them
might've been, but a lot of
them from different departments
the f*cking, I mean the
main thing, dude, it's like,
we're all renegades now, but don't worry.
All these people chill.
And I was basically like, I
was like, only chill people
night Angel is a chill
champion of darkness.
I called you night angel,
I didn't call, 'cause no one
knows your name's Cody dude.
- Very cool, very cool.
Ambassador of the dark Lord is cool too.
- Yeah, I didn't put
that, but I did a bunch.
I did a big CC and I was basically like,
come in, New York is a
f*cking free for all.
We're gonna get rolling,
we're gonna get it in style.
we're gonna get wet.
- All right
- No, alright.
(laughs)
Just shut the f*ck up, okay?
- Get wet? (laughs)
- We need to figure this out.
We're not gonna, we're
going to send of reply all.
- Okay.
- Okay.
Listen to me.
- Yeah.
- Okay, reply all.
- We're gonna send reply all.
We're gonna say,
We're not just f*cking everything up.
We have particular things
that we're gonna f*ck up.
You need to come talk to the night Angel,
the ambassador of the dark lord.
Let's get this sh*t buttoned
up, jackass movie style.
(laughs)
- Dude I f*cking love jackass--
- So funny, so f*cking funny.
- Awesome with the funny.
- We actually have to come
back to this scene in a moment.
So we're gonna handle,
(laughs)
we're gonna 'cause there's something
that it's very good you rolled that 20.
- Holy sh*t.
(laughs)
- I am, I think with
all the talk of places
and spaces and things going away,
I think Kingston is thinking
about the electronic store.
So I think I'm gonna, I'm
gonna bake a dozen muffins,
package them up and little
like a little twosomes.
And then I'm gonna, I would like to go
on like a long walk
around the neighborhood,
delivering muffins to
friends, but then also
looking at properties
that have been bought
or like real estate development,
that's happening in my area.
And if there is a recurring
theme or a name that's coming up
a lot on possible properties
that are being bought up much
like the electronic store.
- Incredible, go ahead and give me either,
this is either Investigation,
if you are really looking
Oh yeah, go for it.
Yeah what'd you get?
- Oh no, is there another option?
- I say Investigation is the first one,
but you also, if downtown,
if it's really about people,
I would let you do Insight as well.
- I mean, well, let's go to the people.
(laughs)
especially 'cause my
Investigation is only plus two.
Insight, we're going big 29.
- Ooh!
- Holy sh*t.
- That's a big 29.
- That's a big 29
- Wall to wall 29.
Yeah, I think as just
what's getting bought up,
Who's buying, who are people selling to?
If there's just,
if there's a recurring name or a group.
- Hell yes,
(soft instrumental music)
- And then the quest of
muffins are also an essential
part of this, this is not just,
this also just a good time to see people.
- Hell yes, you go around
the neighborhood, 29.
Yeah man, on a 29, a lot of
people in the neighborhood
have been approached.
I'm gonna say on a 29, you find out
there is a company called
Excelsior Dynamic Homes.
- That people got hit up,
Reggie gets back to you too.
And it's like, yeah, that's
the company that came for
that store there.
And you get a meeting on the books,
with a guy because there's
a building that is going up.
It's not right on 125th,
it's a little bit buried.
It's like a smaller five.
There's like a five or six
story apartment building.
But it has a nice view kind of, Oh,
you can kind of see 125th street from it.
And a young enterprising real estate agent
agrees to show you some homes
who work for, who works for
this company who agrees to
show you some apartments.
Cool, cool.
- Yeah great.
- He meets you downstairs,
this is like luxury.
It's like a they've renovated
like a luxury condor space.
He goes like, huh, Mr.
Brown, pleasure to meet you.
I'm Devin hi, hello, hello.
- Okay nice to meet you Devin.
- Great, well, why don't you
come on up and we'll show you
some of the units.
- Great.
- He begins to go around,
so central air in all of these obviously
lot of great stuff available.
You can see all the way around
and you see these like--
- Yeah, it's just, oh go ahead
- Expansive apartments.
The price listings here are insane, man.
- Hey Devin, so, I'm of course.
Thank you so much for showing me around.
In terms of this kind of...
you work with Excelsior Dynamic.
You guys do, you guys,
are there other properties
that might be able to check out
in the area that you guys are working on?
- Yes, we have a couple
of other buildings.
This is one of our oldest.
This is the one that we're
really trying to move.
He says, we only actually
have two units left
in the building.
- Oh really?
- Yes Kingston, as he says that
you've been walking down this hallway,
all the doors are open.
All of the apartments are just empty.
So you've walked past
like eight apartments that
like the doors are open,
there's no furniture in them.
There's just like, there's some like,
cleaning equipment and stuff like,
that to keep places clean.
But here he says, yeah,
we only have two units
left in the building.
(laughs)
- Is that it just seems
like they're not many
people actually living here.
- He looks at you and sort
of smiles and goes like,
(chuckles)
of course yeah I mean, most of our---
- Of course what?
- He's like, well, I mean the units,
these units are extremely
appreciable assets
So, most of the people
that own these units are
don't live here.
- So a bunch of people
are buying up property
in this neighborhood
and just choosing actively to not be here?
- Well it's well, yeah I
mean, these are obviously
one could choose to live
in an apartment they owned,
but these are assets are only
going to appreciate in time,
the price of these going up and up and up.
And you this is a I mean, honestly,
this is a better investment
than bonds, I mean.
(laughs)
- Kingston's blood is boiling,
(group laughs)
it's just going to, rather
than fight with Devin,
just be like Devin.
That is one way to see the world.
It is not one that I--
(group laughs)
it is not a lens through
which I choose to view.
Thank you so much for your time.
I have your card, I might give you a call.
This place is great and
it's worth living in.
And I don't get why these people
are having such a hard time seeing it.
A good day, and I head out.
- You head out and walk past the corner
where you see an old Bodega on the corner,
and you just noticed that
it looks a little dusty
and it's still open, still there.
- I move, I hustle to it
and just order a bacon, egg, and cheese,
and just sit out in front of it.
- You see the guy happily makes it for you
and smiles and says,
Hey, thank you so much.
First sandwich I sold today.
And you realize it's like
middle of the afternoon.
And all the people that
would be on this block,
walking past this Bodega aren't here.
(upbeat music)
(claps)
That is Kingston's downtime activity.
(group laughs)
- Kingston is crushed.
(laughs)
Pete downtime activity
from you real quick.
- I would, so I obviously
would love to talk to Nod
or go to the museum of memories,
but I think honestly just what
the memories that I have of Josephina are
so like depressing in that way,
kind of when you like realize
they're like patterns in your
family that you also have,
and you're just kind of
feeling kinda doomed.
So instead I'm gonna go to an NA meeting.
(chuckles)
- Hell, yes.
- Yeah.
you, there is our arcane stuff to do,
but you finally have a
stable living situation
for the first time in a while.
You take--
- Yeah.
- You take two week to get
moved in, get your stuff.
You meet Lugash, out on the
street one morning, he goes,
"Oh, Peter it is so good
to see you, my friend"
and your sponsor, Dr. Lugash,
walks you to your, great meeting.
And it's pretty easy you grab the,
sorry not the (mumbles)
you grab either something
on the yellow line
that takes you down.
And then you grab the G train
going into Greenpoint too
your old Greenpoint meeting spot.
Dr. Lugash is there
and you spend two weeks
really focusing on yourself.
Your sobriety die, moves up to a D six.
- Sweet.
- You are doing better,
than you were a little while ago.
(group claps)
Way to go, Pete.
Hell yeah.
- Hey thank you.
(group chattering)
(laughs)
- Hell yeah.
- Now I've got a little bit of cushion.
(laughs)
Barely.
(group laughs)
- If you're willing to know,
- You know, Pete--
- No chance of rolling a one on a D six.
- Yeah.
(group laughs)
- No chance.
- No chance.
- But again, rolling a one on D six now,
wouldn't mean Pete relapses--
- [Ricky] All right, yeah.
- It would just mean that
he moves to a D four,
so there is even with
that, there is cushion.
Pete's doing way better.
Sofia downtime activities from you here.
- Oh yeah, I think just
doing the research,
helping out with the
Gramercy Occult Society.
I definitely want to like sh**t
off some loving texts to,
honestly, everyone could
probably use a loving text.
But yeah I wanna stay in touch with like
Madam Anastasia and yeah, just,
I think just like going
through these bestiaries
trying to take the practical stuff
that's in the monastery
and then some of more
of the theoretical stuff
in Gramercy Occult Society,
and then seeing where they overlap.
- Copy that, okay, go ahead,
and I'm gonna say too
so that list of stuff
that you're doing there,
you're going ham, keeping
in track of people
and helping with Arcana
and stuff like that.
- Yeah, and then maybe I mean,
I'm also kind of keeping an eye on Tony.
- [Brennan] Cool.
- Like if,
anything else weird comes up with him,
I think I'm gonna try to give
them the benefit of the doubt
if he's ever around I wanna,
remember, tell a story of
like Pete saving the day
or stuff like that.
(upbeat jazz music)
- Incredible yes, absolutely.
I'm gonna go ahead and
say roll your Arcana,
roll either Arcana or Investigation here.
- Okay, they're both plus one.
(laughs)
(dice rolls)
That's an eight.
(laughs)
- Eight, cool.
- but you do, you are
sharing a ton of resources
with the Gramercy Occult Society.
So Esther, I'm actually gonna say,
if you want instead of rolling yourself,
you can give Esther a help action on--
- I will do that.
- Yeah, yeah.
(laughs)
(upbeat jazz music)
- Awesome, Esther gets
started looking into it.
And basically it goes like
arrives at something where she's like,
okay, I think we have enough
that as soon as Pete is free
and able to get back into things,
we have a lot to go on, to get started.
These are incredible resources, Sofia.
You also meet a new person that,
Esther has inducted into
the Gramercy Occult Society.
There's a new wizard in
the Gramercy Occult Society
that you meet Sofia named JJ.
JJ is this person that
she was talking about
back in episode one,
who was like the Columbia math wiz guy.
You see he's wearing, he is a big dude,
he's got a little one up
like video game t-shirt.
and it's sort of amaze...
He's like just been inducted
in the Unsleeping City.
He's like, "Hey, I'm JJ,
super nice to meet you.
This is all wild, this is crazy."
- Yeah, yeah, yeah,
it's really cool, right?
- Yeah, thank you for all
these research materials.
Holy sh*t magic is super f*cking real.
He's like--
- You like video games?
- Yes I actually--
- I have a new friend who
really likes video games.
He talks about them a lot.
- Oh, I can't tell if that's good or bad,
but that's--
(laughs)
- What are the video games that
you keep referencing Murph?
- Soulcalibur and Final Fantasy.
- He loves soul caliber and Final Fantasy.
I'm not sure which one.
- Hell yeah, awesome.
I'm here to keep an eye on this stuff.
You see Esther smiles and says,
JJ is, has done a lot of
research specifically into
physics surrounding time
and so we're really excited.
He's like, yeah, I kinda discovered
this theoretical particle of time.
If that makes sense.
And Esther was like, Hey, that's,
you've discovered magic through science.
So you're kind of a wizard, so wooo.
(chuckles)
- Tell me more.
- You see, he's like, so
basically it seems like New York
has an interesting relationship to time.
We know that time and space
are interrelated, right?
- That sort of relativity
and everything like that.
But he goes on and starts
rattling off to you.
Also Sofia, because you were going ham
in his two week period,
your sobriety die is going
to go down to a D 12.
- Okay.
- Cool.
Yeah, you're just,
you're you're going ham.
(laughs)
Awesome.
As JJ is talking,
Cody, we're gonna come back
to your scene real quick,
you see Bazathrax goes,
"Okay, so we're sending out
the CC reply all great."
(chuckles)
Hey, we might kinda have a problem.
- Why?
(laughs)
(mumbles)
- So, you know--
- We're all on the same side here.
We all embrace the darkness.
Where is the problem?
- So, you know how like,
when you like doing a birthday party email
and you're like, who do I invite--
- No.
(group laughs)
- No we don't do that.
- Hey, I'm sure I forgot somebody.
So if there's anyone I left off,
feel free to bring them along, right?
- Did you not invite somebody
who you should have invited,
or did you invite like some as*h*le devil?
- So I kinda wanted to
keep it New York specific,
but it looks nice to
people outside of New York,
kinda maybe found out and heard
there was gonna be a party
and they're kinda on their way.
They're f*ck' extremely powerful, dude.
They're extremely powerful.
And they're not from the f*cking city.
- So are they, what there're...
f*ck! But they're on our side, right?
- Oh dude I kinda don't
know, I kinda don't know.
This guy is kind of a big deal.
He just kinda--
- Who?
- He kind of found out that I was,
I've been invited everybody to a rager.
These people, don't like
treat places that they go to
on the weekend super well,
- [Pete] No, no.
- Ah sh*t dude.
This is really super bad.
(Sofia gants)
- Are they from New Jersey?
- Yeah, dude it's the Jersey devil.
(group laughs)
I'm super f*cking sorry dude.
I super f*cked up dude.
He's on his way dude.
He's got all his buddies so they--
- Sing
- f*ck!
- And the show.
- You f*cked up.
- They're on their way--
- You f*cked up dude.
- Dude, I just got their Instagram--
- I can't reply all.
(group wrangles)
- We are supposed to be on
the same f*ck' side man.
- f*ck.
(laughs)
Sofia you are with
Esther and JJ right now.
And you see in the Occult Society,
(clangors)
these alarms start going off.
Esther goes, what the hell is that?
JJ starts looking around he goes,
okay did someone forget to
plug something in or something?
You look around and begin to see,
this alarm going off.
Esther goes, that's the city's defenses.
That's the edge of the Umbral Arcana.
Cody and Ricky, what are you guys doing
as this is happening?
- I'm just scrambling to tel--
- I'm saying where am I?
(laughs)
- You're with Cody at this present moment.
And I'm actually gonna say that
Sofia, you see those alarms going off,
Cody and Rick, you guys look
out it is night-time outside
by the Hudson river, you see New Jersey
and storm clouds gathering
on the other side of the Holland tunnel,
as you begin to hear,
(beatboxing)
and a voice bellow from the clouds.
(upbeat music)
That's good f*cked up dudes.
(laughs)
And that's all for this episode
of "The Unsleeping City"
- This is so funny, Murph
summoned New Jersey.
(group laughs)
- Well done Murph.
(claps)
- Well done.
(upbeat music)
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08x04 - We Need to Talk About Cody
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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.