- [Brennan] A list of the topics,
themes, and subject matter
featured in this episode has been included
in this video description.
(spooky scary music)
(spooky music continues)
(spooky music continues)
(spooky music continues)
Hello, one and all!
Welcome back to another thrilling episode
of Dimension 20: Neverafter!
I am your humble Dungeon
Master, Brennan Lee Mulligan.
With me, as always, are
our intrepid heroes!
Say hi, intrepid heroes.
- Hi, intrepid heroes.
- Put it away!
You're welcome.
- Hi, intrepid heroes!
- [Lou] Sorry.
- All right, let's take
that back from the top.
Thank you, everybody.
- What's up, intrepid heroes?
- They don't want you
to see my girlfriend.
- Wow.
- Lou's girlfriend.
- My baby bell.
- My baby bell?
- Why are we bringing
this bit onto the screen?
- Why?
- Bringing it with us.
Last we left off, our intrepid heroes
were deep in the forests of Snowhold
outside of the cottage of the Baba Yaga,
who's floating over them,
suspended in a mortar,
sort of cackling gleefully
after a nat 20 persuasion check
from Pinocchio, the boy of destiny indeed!
Much had happened.
The Golden Goose had been discovered,
and using Timothy's third wish,
got back Mother Goose's
book of nursery rhymes,
which now is in Timothy Goose's hands.
- Yes it is!
- You have come to the Baba Yaga
seeking answers about the
nature of the Stepmother
and some of the knowledge of
this ancient and powerful witch
who seems to have some knowledge
that there's something
strange at work here.
- Ooh!
- The Gander is unleashed and unopposed
within the lands of story,
and it seems as well
that Snow White and her
fellow Daughters of the Crown
already now stride The Lines Between.
Time is of the very essence,
and hovering above you
is none other than the Baba Yaga,
who leers from a hideous face,
cackling as she flies in her mortar.
(Brennan cackling gleefully)
Yes, my little boychik.
It seems you have all been
touched by this corruption.
(Brennan slurping)
Some sort of
magic you carry with you,
a burden that has fallen
on some more than others, I think.
- Indeed. I-
- You two have the least!
- I, yes.
- You are something, I think, very pure.
Not so much a person.
You see she grabs your
cheek and pinches it hard,
peeling it back.
(Zac yelps)
More like a spirit, yes?
- I think that would be
the best way to phrase it!
- Such a cute little kitty cat!
I want to tickle your stomach.
(Zac mewls for mercy)
- I rotate Pib.
- [Ally] Wow.
- You see this long,
nasty, dirt-caked claw.
Ooh, I could eat you!
- Ay yi yi yi!
- Give me a deception check.
- Can I give him the help action?
- [Brennan] Yes.
- [Zac] That is an 18.
- She doesn't even break skin,
but just the sharpness of her claw
causes seven points of damage
as she digs into your stomach.
Goochie goochie goochie goo!
- Ay yi yi! Thank you!
- Little baby!
- Thank you.
- What are you?
You are wooden!
- Yes.
(Brennan cackles)
- What a sad man to carve
you into a little boy.
- His name's Geppetto,
and he's sad sometimes.
- He cannot find anyone to make a child
in the old fashioned way? (cackles)
Well, lucky for him to find a magic log.
You two have the least.
You have the most!
- Yes.
- Why?
Too much magic cast on you?
You been getting into
fights with any fairies?
- Yes, I suppose so.
- Well, very charming and
very polite little boy.
You've come here, you do not care
that you are boy of destiny,
you care only for your sweet father.
That's very kind. I like
a polite little boy.
And no worry about strings to
get caught on anything, eh?
- They're in my hands now.
(Brennan cackling)
(Lou laughing nervously)
(Zac laughing nervously)
(Ally laughing nervously)
- You are witch?
- Why? Why?
- Be brave. Brave.
- (clears throat) Yes.
- Do you think you are witch like me?
- No, I look up to you.
You seem like you have
ancient and powerful magic.
You seem like you have
ancient and powerful magic.
- Oh, this is true, what you say.
Well!
Come inside! (cackles)
You see she flies into the door.
- Tuck my shirt in.
- Henry is just purely crying
and hitting his feet on the welcome mat.
- Henry? I grab him. Henry?
- Is this a shoes off situation?
- Henry, we can do this.
- You see he says, I
love you and I trust you.
- We've done so much together.
- You see that she says,
to take your shoes off?
- Would you like for us
to take our shoes off
when we enter your house?
- You're not worried to catch cold?
- I would rather obey
the rules of your house.
(Brennan cackles)
- Yes, please take off your shoes.
- Okay! I will take off my boots.
- Sorry.
- Now you're just Puss.
- You're so defined by them!
- Now you're just Puss.
- In.
- Puss In.
- Those boots were giving you six inches.
- I'm a lot shorter now.
- You look crazy right now.
- Look, guys, they're lifts, okay?
What do you want me to say?
- Well, you have come a
long way to the forest.
Please, I would worry
for your little footsies,
that you get cold.
Come by the fire, get warm.
She flies over in the mortar, gets out.
She is enormous.
She's probably like eight feet tall,
and moves with these long, bandied arms.
Goes over to a fireplace,
grabs about four or five logs
in one hand, and drops
them into the fireplace
and goes, ha!
(flames whooshing)
And spits fire from her mouth
that billows green and orange
and then finally that deep, ember-y red,
and you see that it's very dark in here.
The windows are quite small,
and the glass is a stained yellow orange.
It was already gray and
dark in the woods outside,
so just the fire illuminates,
but you see that there is a thick fur rug,
a deep couch with old, musty cushions.
You see that there are
some little portraits
and emblems and vases
and little things around.
It's very cluttered in here,
and even from the ceiling,
things are hanging like mobiles
and little works of art,
herbs sort of bound together.
Sit, be warm.
- Thank you.
- Thank you.
- Thank you.
- Thank you.
- We're all... thanks.
- We're all thank you.
- You have come a long way
through the forest to my cottage.
How did you find it?
- I followed the scent of Death.
- Death does follow me!
So it is wise for you to have followed it.
My house does not long dwell in one place.
In fact, ha!
You feel the house...
(wood creaking)
And just, whoom, you feel a rise up,
and start to feel the cottage shake
as it begins to stalk through the woods.
So, long journey to make.
Did you get lost in the forest,
or was following Death the plan all along?
- We had several tasks that
we had to figure out at once.
We made our way here
when we had the chance.
- When the Golden Goose sacrificed herself
so that we could get this book back.
(Brennan gasps)
- The Golden Goose, she gave her life
for the book to come back?
- Mm-hm.
- How was the book lost?
- It was stolen.
- It was stolen from
us through a tight hug
by Rapunzel and all of her hair.
- A liar.
- And a thief.
- Liar, and a thief. (tuts disapprovingly)
If she were here, I would eat her.
You know that young,
castle-born flesh?
When you eat a peasant girl,
their arms are so tough
and stringy from working.
Here you see that she grabs your wrist.
- Okay!
- Be brave!
- So soft.
No work.
- I actually have worked quite hard
in the last six to eight months,
so I'm maybe pretty wiry.
- I ate Death!
And that was delicious.
- You ate Death?
- I was just trying to get the heat off.
(Siobhan mouths, "I
know, thank you, Ylfa.")
Yes, I did. I ate Death.
Which is why I now can boast
this hot form.
- Sorry, what?
- I can now...
Hm, this is a moment where I ask myself,
do I repeat word for word?
- We're doing big thumbs up.
- Or do I try to-
- Yep. Yep.
Boast this hot form.
- She knows what you said.
You just have to say it again.
- Put a little sauce on it.
- Why I can now-
- Want to give me that one more time?
- Put some more sauce.
- I can now boast this...
- [Siobhan] I cast Guidance on Little Red.
- ...hot form.
- [Lou] Yeah!
- Okay.
- [Lou] Yeah, how about that?
- So, you are little girl,
and you turn into wolf,
and for you, that is hot?
- Well, okay. Okay now.
You know, it's something
I'm working through.
Sometimes I feel doomed to it.
Other times I feel amazed
at what I'm becoming.
And isn't that just puberty?
- Well, puberty for me is a long time ago.
So, you have become a monster.
How many monsters do we have here?
- I'm kind of a spirit, I would say.
- I suppose I would consider myself-
- Depends how you define monster.
- Yeah, we've all died,
so we're on our second,
or some of us have died.
- Yes, all of you know.
You know that this all is a story.
- Mm-hm.
- Mm-hm.
- I saw the Authors.
- Shh!
- Arthurs!
- The Arthurs!
- I'm trying to show that I'm brave!
- [Brennan] You say, I saw the authors.
You see she goes... (guffaws)
Yeah. (sniffs)
How they are doing?
- I don't know, I blacked out.
- Why?
- I just felt so empty,
realizing that I was a story.
It was my first time experiencing
it, and yeah, I just...
I fainted.
- You are scared of them?
- I don't want to be, but
I was for that minute.
- I'm not scared of them.
- Whoa. Cool.
- You want to know
something about the Authors?
You said their name. It's fine.
They are eternal, vast, cosmic.
Everything about our world, they create.
Do you want to know something, though?
I've watched countless of them die,
and I'm still here.
Not so bad, these Authors.
- Whoa.
- You're not the first ones
who have come here wondering about them.
She wanders off into the kitchen.
You getting hungry in there?
- I mean, I could eat.
- We'll have some food.
- Absolutely.
- Larder's a little thin.
We're going to have to
think about what to eat.
- We did bring a little
bit of our own treats
to share with you.
I've got a handle here of whiskey.
- It's actually better
than you would think.
- And I've got a couple
of packs of bubblegum.
- If you drink it after he's
drunk it, it really ages up.
- Yes, then I also have a second
bottle of Pinocchio Select.
- [Ally] From the puppet chute.
- I can read the label.
It says from the leg chute.
- [Ally] From the leg chute!
- It's aged in me.
- Sloshed around for a couple of weeks.
- [Siobhan] Filtered through
the finest bubblegum.
- [Lou] It felt wrong
not to bring something.
Okay, Pinocchio Select!
(whiskey glugging)
Make sure you chew the bubblegum.
That's a big part of it.
- [Zac] You just sucked it down.
- [Lou] Okay!
- [Zac] No chewing at all.
- What is this?
- It's a classic combination
of whiskey and bubblegum.
- Tastes like moss and bugs.
- Well, that's the Pinocchio
Select. That's the aging.
Would anyone else like some?
- Actually, I would.
- Sure.
- Is it okay
if we have a sip?
- Thanks.
- [Brennan] Everyone have a
little bit. That's so nice.
- Here you go, Henry.
Henry and I will split one.
- Okay. Look at us.
- I cast Produce Flame on my breath.
- Hey! Little bit of magic.
- Just a little bit.
- Well, if you have come here
because you are afraid of
them and what they might do,
I'd not worry so much.
Yes, of course they are vast, powerful.
They can take their hands
to come in and change something about you.
But if you are strong, you
go back to the way you were.
- Really?
- In this forest,
the Baba Yaga has lived
for generations of Authors.
I am still out here in the woods,
as powerful as I have ever
been, and they are gone,
so I don't worry for Authors.
- There's something
unique about you, though,
because I feel like you exist
even in what's not said about you.
Sometimes what's not said about you
makes you almost stronger.
- It is important,
this place beyond sight
where imagination can do all of it,
all of the great and terrible power.
After all, the part of your lives
that you've had the most control over
is the part in between
what was put down in ink
in a book up above this world.
So much left unsaid in
your stories, and I think,
here she looks at Gerard,
a great deal past Happily Ever After, eh?
- For some.
- I have some business
to attend to of my own.
Is there anything you were coming here
to seek from me specifically?
- A way to The Lines
Between, if you have it.
- Here, her eyes dart over to Pib.
A way to The Lines Between?
I think also there is
something that only I remember.
- A name.
- [Brennan] I remember it.
She's taken a great deal, hasn't she?
Your grandmother.
Your father, though
she has not... (chomps)
A name is a powerful thing to give.
How much would you give for a name?
How much would you give for
a path through the woods?
- A decent amount.
- A pretty good amount, I guess.
- Well!
You already have much to discuss.
We are going to have dinner.
I won't negotiate on an empty stomach.
It should take some
time for you to decide,
because once I give you
what it is that you want,
assuming you can pay the price,
there will be very little time for you.
You'd better think, what's
it going to be in that book?
Because if you don't
know, by the time you get
to where you are going,
I will cut you down
and throw you into the
pages underneath the ink,
and I will let you become something
that you will never recognize
in a thousand years of stories.
Fwah!
You see that she moves up and
crawls through the rafters,
up into another part of the cottage,
leaving you all on the fur
rug in front of the fireplace.
- Honestly, 10 out of 10, everybody.
- First thing, great job, g*ng.
- You guys did a great job.
- Give yourselves a pat on the back.
- You took that poke
like an absolute champ.
- Look at it, it looks hurt.
- It looks immediately infected.
- That's nasty, dude.
- Definitely infected.
- That is nasty.
- Looks really gross.
- Anybody got any-
- I try to put a Goodberry
in it. Does that hurt?
- That hurts. I don't
think that's antiseptic.
- I don't think that's
how it works, I'm sorry.
- Does anyone have any ideas?
- I feel like I could have something
that she might be interested in,
and maybe it would be
enough for all of us.
- No, I can't ask you, a little girl,
to sacrifice for all us.
- I was going to offer my strings.
- Don't, Pinocchio!
- It's got to be something saucy.
- I was going to offer my wolf.
She seems so interested in the wolf
and I don't really know
what that would mean, but-
- You guys, we could start low.
- I was going to offer my book.
- Yeah! Oh, wow.
- I was going to offer my swarm.
- The only thing I have to give is
this one crazy power that I consumed.
- But I do feel, I mean,
if I'm speaking with regard
to our ability to, you know,
accomplish our larger goals,
I think you not having
your power
is bad.
- Am I the only person
that absorbed their book?
- Yeah.
- I'm wondering-
- I haven't opened my book yet. Too scary.
- [Murph] Do I get the sense
that absorbing the book
has made it so that now just
what happens is the story?
- I think that is the feeling you get.
You get the feeling of,
having absorbed that book,
whatever you do becomes
the story of your life.
- I think that seems like a good start,
just getting everyone their books.
- Yeah.
- Then we don't even
have to be asking what's
right for everyone.
- There's also the question of,
not everyone has a book, right?
- Couldn't you just write,
everyone gets their own book?
- Yeah.
- Then it'll be true.
- Once we get the ink, we can write that.
- Everyone had the
opportunity to possess a book
in the style and brand of their choosing.
You know, I feel like we can get into
the specifics of the book.
- What if it was just,
everyone had a chance
to tell their own story?
Because then maybe they
don't want to write it.
They want to speak it,
they want to live it.
- What if every book
broke into as many pieces
as there were characters,
and then each of those people
could absorb that and be in charge
of their own part of that story?
- I guess I'm thinking
about the Auroratory, right?
There's no books up there.
- [Siobhan] Only stories.
- But there is a little bit of piss.
- What's that?
- What?
- Did someone say a little bit of piss?
- Yes, she just said a little bit of-
- [Lou] She said a little bit of piss.
- Where? In my cottage?
- No.
- [Ally] She just sky
fell from the ceiling.
- Thump! Straight out
of a different chimney.
- [Emily] On her back like a c*ck.
- Do you have a bathroom, though?
- It's outside.
- Oh. I can hold it.
- There's a little bit of
piss in the Auroratory.
- Don't I know it.
- Is that how you say you've
pissed in the Auroratory?
- Very rude question.
- He's very brave.
- I message you, let's button it up!
- I piss a little bit wherever I go.
That's my secret, Pinocchio.
I'm always pissing.
- [Ally] Oh, okay. Okay.
Is this kind of like a dominance thing,
or is this like a medical...
- Little from column A.
Little from column B.
It is a dominance thing that
also I medically cannot stop.
- [Zac] You can't stop being dominant.
- Can't stop being dominant!
That's my workout T-shirt!
- [Ally] Can't stop being dominant.
- Stay dominant.
- Stay dominant. We
all become red pillers.
- Full block letter,
never stop being dominant.
- Have you noticed people
just aren't dominant anymore?
- Alpha wolf!
- Alpha wolf on the back.
She comes to you and says, I
need some help with dinner.
- I can help.
- I don't have real hands.
- I helped Grandma in the kitchen a lot,
so if you got raisins to
put somewhere, I'm on it.
- [Lou] Is anyone proficient
with chef's tools?
- You see that the house
sort of lands a little bit.
Boom, rests again.
She says,
out here, through the woods a little way,
there is chicken coop.
Go find something in
there, cut off its head,
and get it ready for dinner.
- Okay.
- You see she looks-
- The trials of Baba Yaga, we are here!
- She looks at you and says, you, frog.
There are nets in the lake near here.
You check them for fish.
- Will do.
- Looks at you and says,
there are a line of snares.
You check for rabbit?
- I will check for rabbits.
- Little boy, so cute.
You do not need to go look for food.
Would you just kindly set the table?
- Yeah, I'd love to.
- You dipping your own candles?
- You see she looks to you and says,
would you do me the favor
to go and pick something from
the garden down the path?
- Sure, just some vegetables?
- Says, just some vegetables.
Something for the stock.
- Got it.
- And you, my sweet little cat.
(Zac meows)
After dinner, the house must continue.
Can you find best path through the forest
for my house to travel?
- Certainly.
- Thank you.
- May I ask a question about that?
- Yes.
- Is there any place
in particular you're trying to go?
- North of the sky.
- Got it.
- Henry turns to go with
you, and you see her claw
kind of wraps over his shoulder and says,
I was hoping to have a little company
while these chores are being done.
Perhaps you and our two
itty bitty little friends,
you see she sort of scrapes
Tom Thumb and Thumbelina over the table.
- Tom!
Be safe!
- [Ally] The bromance of the season.
- Be safe. 5 AM?
- [Siobhan] Absolutely one-sided bromance.
- 5 AM. I'll see you at five.
- See you at five.
- No matter what happens.
- Stay dominant. Stay dominant.
- Stay dominant. Hey, man.
Hey, for real, stay dominant.
- Stay dominant.
- Alpha wolf.
(Lou howls)
- Little Red.
- [Murph] They have such
a good relationship.
What are you doing again?
You're going out to find a hen?
- I'm going to the chicken
coop, and I'm going to, well,
it was sort of vaguely chop
the head off of something.
- And get it ready? Well, good luck.
I give you bardic inspiration.
- Thank you.
- I tug on the back of Gerard's tunic.
Hey, I'm not particularly good on my own.
- Yeah.
- Generally I do better in a group.
It's just me and Henry.
- Oh, well, I think
she's not going to be happy
if we don't do the stuff.
- Okay.
- Tom Thumb's going to be here, okay?
He's super solid, okay?
- Okay.
- You want to listen.
I'm not in a position where
I can give you advice,
but Tom, he's f*cking k*lling it.
He's just absolutely k*lling it.
- Okay.
- His marriage is rock solid.
He wakes up every morning at 5 AM.
- What?
- Every morning at 5 AM to work out,
and we're going to do it
tomorrow, next thing tomorrow.
I didn't make it today, but
g*dd*mn, I'll be there tomorrow.
- So I'll lean on Tom.
- Just lean on Tom if anything's wrong.
- Okay, great.
- I give you three Bless.
You're going to do this, okay?
- I'm blessed?
- No, you're not blessed,
sorry. You're staying here.
I'm giving the people going outside Bless.
Henry can give you help action.
- I'll give you Guidance.
- Thanks.
- That'll at least give you one d4.
- Great, that's perfect. That's bless.
- I'll just give you...
I'll just, I'll just...
Nothing! I run away.
- Were you flirting?
- Was Little Red going
to give me something?
- I don't know, Little
Red's really coming of age.
- Before you guys leave,
Baba Yaga turns to look
at all of you and says,
thank you so much for these chores.
By the way, any of you
were beginning to think
about what to offer me,
I can help you so you
do not waste your time.
There are many things in the
cottage which already I have.
Were there somethings you
are imagining I would like?
- Can I do an insight if
she heard what we said?
- Yeah, give me an insight.
- If she was eaves-peeping?
18 on the dice!
21, to see if she was eaves-peeping.
21 to see if the Baba
Yaga was eaves-peeping.
- [Ally] Say it three more times.
- I'm afraid I may have
been eaves-peeping!
- Why'd you look at me?
I barely said that word.
- You're kind of a
professional eaves-peeper.
- It's kind of your word.
- We all know you peep eaves!
- We all know you're peeping our eaves.
- You call it what you like,
you're peeping eaves all over the place!
- Yeah, you're right.
- You see she looks and
says, I did eaves-peep.
I'm sorry for that.
- It's okay. It's your house.
I assumed you had some kind of nanny cam.
- I would not offer me
wolf to eat.
I just ate one not long ago.
You look down at the rug
that you are standing on.
The head at the dark corner of the room
is a massive Wolf's head.
- [Ally] That we recognize from saving?
- [Brennan] That you
recognize from saving.
- Did we send him here?
- You did.
- Yeah, we were supposed to meet him,
and then follow him here.
- He didn't have to knock on the door.
- Yeah, you're right.
- This really takes the wind
out of my sails, Baba Yaga.
- You thought I would be nicer.
- No, I thought he would be safer.
But I understand. You did what you did.
I guess I slink
the little thing on.
Sorry.
- [Brennan] You wrap yourself up in it,
the familiar smell of the wolf.
It is a shame, you know.
I don't let forest creatures
come and bother me without paying a price.
He asked me to keep my house
where it was for a long time,
until it could be found,
so I kept it there,
and this was the price he paid for that.
It's a shame.
The woods need a big wolf.
- They might still have one.
- [Brennan] Anyway, you have your chores.
- We were talking about, you're
not interested in wolves,
how do you feel about harps?
- You know, with a gift, it
is the thought that counts,
and I like for a gift to hurt to give.
- What if I told you I was
learning to play the harp,
and learned kind of a few songs?
You know what, I'm not even
going to walk down this road.
On to the next one.
- Very good. Dinner must be
served soon, please hurry.
- Can I have taken a short rest?
- [Brennan] Sure, yeah.
Because you got hurt? Yeah, go for it.
- Guess we go off on our things.
- [Siobhan] Ylfa?
Stray from the path, but stray together.
Let's maybe keep each other in eye line.
- Okay, yeah.
- Okay.
- Yeah, okay.
- I put my boots back on.
- I cast Longstrider on myself.
- You put your boots back
on, cast Longstrider.
- I go into a rage.
- [Brennan] Baba Yaga, as
you're all heading out,
Pib, hands you the harp.
I don't wish for this in my house.
- Thank you.
- You all begin to head out.
You have various chores to accomplish here
to satisfy the whims of your host.
As you begin to split up
and go about your chores
in the dark depths of
the forests of Snowhold,
there is a space of quiet,
a chill and solemn sort of despair
that hangs over the darkness
of this forest primeval.
I would like for each of
you to take a moment and,
taking one of these sheets of paper,
write down the thing that
crosses your character's mind,
the thing that would most
dearly be taken from you
that you would still give
to see this thing done,
whatever that means to you,
however you interpret that.
You can hand it back when you're done.
Thank you.
(Brennan and Ally snickering)
- What the hell did you write?
- [Siobhan] Ally.
- The way you get a comedian
is you go three jokes back,
and it gets them by surprise.
But then I wrote a real answer.
- [Brennan] Amazing, as you
all begin to exit to go and do
your various chores,
I'll just ask for a volunteer.
Who would like to go first?
Just simple tasks to
help get dinner ready.
- I can go. Just grabbing
some fish out of a net.
- Brave.
- Brave, courageous.
- So brave.
- Not a run away guy at all.
- [Brennan] Gerard, as you
leave from the cottage,
give me a survival check,
if you'd be so kind.
- [Murph] Oh lord.
- [Ally] Starting off hot.
- Survival? Okay, plus zero.
- [Brennan] DC 15.
- [Zac] You're blessed, right?
- 17.
- Hey!
- [Brennan] Easy.
Move down the path, keeping
your bearing through the forest.
You arrive at a lake,
and you can see some
of the lines coming in.
There are these wicker fish traps.
They sort of are little
baskets that fish swim into
and can't get themselves turned around
to swim back out again,
a couple little clusters
along this icy lake
surrounded by thick conifer trees.
On a 17, you begin to check them.
You see some of them
have some sort of medium
size trout in them.
Flying overhead, you see a white shape,
and landing a little ways along the beach,
you see a heron land.
- How big?
- Are you worried about it
being larger than normal?
- Am I my size?
I'm not scared of herons anymore.
- Give me a wisdom saving throw.
(Emily laughing)
- That's fine, I'm blessed.
I'm sure that'll...
That's a five.
- We don't have the Heroes' Feast, right?
- You don't have the Heroes' Feast.
- Because in the horror campaign,
you didn't want to give us-
- Advantage on wisdom saving throws.
- Immune to being frightened.
- It's pretty big.
- f*ck, f*ck, f*ck!
I hide. I just lay low.
- You lay low, and you can
feel yourself kind of hiding,
and you look around.
You're still something like medium size,
but you see other frogs around
you hiding here by the side.
- You guys got to get
the f*ck out of here.
You see that heron?
I could f*ck it up,
but you guys are toast.
- [Brennan] You hear a voice
of sort of tittering laughter
coming from the water.
Hello, Gerard.
You hear a familiar voice.
Your eyes are big enough
that you can literally turn them down
without having to move your
head to look into the water.
Peering out from the
reflection of the water
is someone who immediately looks
like, from their reflection
in the water, they should be
standing right behind you,
but swiveling your eyes to see,
you see they are just a
reflection in the water.
You see the Princess
Rapunzel looking at you.
You look frightened.
- I'm very frightened.
What are you doing here?
- Spying on you.
You struck me as one of the
less magical of your companions.
- Okay, well, there's
a huge bird over there,
and he's kind of freaking
me out, so go f*ck yourself?
See, I'm hiding from the
bird. I'm spying on the bird.
What you're doing is not spying.
You told me what you're doing.
I don't need to be magical to see you.
- No, I don't believe you do.
Is the bird sort of magical,
or is it doing any spells?
- He's big.
- That was a nice trick,
getting the book away from us.
How much did it cost?
- It cost a new friend.
- You're a prince.
Friends are probably
pretty expendable, right?
How many friends have you
really had, other than Elody?
- I mean, overall, not very many,
but recently,
like, seven or eight?
Including a precious workout buddy.
- That's miraculous.
Your friends seem to really
value you as a person.
I'm sure it's a comfort to know
that they're not just sort
of putting up with you
because you'll tag along
and swing your sword,
prove a little bit useful.
- I like to think that
we have a rapport.
We have snowball fights and whatnot.
- Well, I'm not sure what your plans are.
I was hoping to get an image of you
up to some kind of
scheming rather than hiding
from a bird on the edge of a lake,
but I suppose I can't be too surprised.
I have seen some titanic feats of strength
from my companions, the
Beast, Cinderella, Snow White.
from my companions, the
Beast, Cinderella, Snow White.
Truly impressive acts of heroism.
Truly impressive acts of heroism.
I do not think I have
seen any of my sisters
strain more greatly
than the Princess Elody
to find something kind to say about you.
- Yes.
Feed me to the bird
now. I look at the bird.
I don't...
I don't doubt that.
But I haven't seen the
Princess Elody in a while,
and I think it's telling that
I'm seeing you in this lake
and not her or any of
the other princesses.
I think you're
manipulating people,
or not telling them the full truth.
- Truth. You have a sword
that tells the truth, right?
- I do.
- Why don't you take the sword out
and ask it if Elody still loves you?
- The sword, I don't know
that it works like that.
Fine. I pull out the sword.
- My master!
- My guy.
- You see the heron whips its head around
and starts to walk over.
- I back up bravely.
- Run away guy.
- Okay, Sword of Truth,
settle a bet.
It doesn't have to be, like, you know,
love love,
but does the Princess Elody
love me?
- My master.
- Mm-hm.
- The Princess Elody cares for you deeply.
You hear a sort of chuckle from the water.
Not quite the same thing.
- It's not, but seeing as
the last thing she saw of me
was me running away after
I had already done that,
I'm grateful that she
still cares for me at all.
- The water shimmers, and
looking towards Rapunzel,
you see your reflection.
You are at the most
froglike you have ever been,
and Rapunzel's words become
almost like a hissing
in your ear, and it's
almost like you wonder
if Rapunzel's somehow reading your mind
or there's something deep in here
that she has some ability to know,
or perhaps more frightening,
something that Elody has confided in her.
Gerard, what do you think the odds are
that it got into Elody's head
that the virtuous thing to do
was to fall in love with
a cold and slimy frog,
and that every kindness she
has paid you in your life
has been a testament to her charity
rather than anything about
you that would bring her joy?
- I don't know that I can answer that.
- It doesn't seem very fair
to Elody that you can't.
- I agree.
- As you say, "I agree,"
you feel a sort of quaking
of the Sword of Truth in your hand.
You almost feel some
kind of knightly sorrow
coming from the sword, as though it feels
like it's been manipulated
into hurting you.
You feel the stalking of
this bird coming nearby.
You're looking at your
reflection and just wondering.
You know that the way your
fairy tale is supposed to go
is that love is greater
than all these other things,
and true love comes, and you
don't look like a frog anymore.
You wonder, there's a deep convenience
to the fact that the
moment that the person
looks past your curse,
they are rewarded by you no
longer being under the curse,
and suddenly you're handsome,
and suddenly you're not a frog anymore.
How very convenient that
in the moment of learning
the lesson, you no longer
need to have learned it.
You hear on the wind, and it breaks it up
so that Rapunzel's
connection to you is severed
because the water sort of
ripples across, you hear,
Oh..
the bird is getting very close.
What would you be willing
to give for what you seek,
and would you give it to me?
- I would give it to you.
I would give you my name, my humanity,
for hers, for her name.
- You feel, somewhere within you,
a book moving.
You've accepted your own story.
You don't even have a
name in your own story.
You're just a frog who becomes a prince.
And you feel a change,
and somewhere
out beyond the edges of the Neverafter,
you have asked that Elody's story be hers.
Ribbit.
You become enormous,
split out of your armor,
and the heron, frightened, flaps away.
- I try to snatch it up.
- A whole bird into your
massive froghemoth mouth.
There is just a massive
f*cking bullfrog with a crown,
and you are a frog once more.
(Ally whistles)
- Full frog.
- [Brennan] Amazing. Who
else would like to go?
- I'll go.
- Rosamund, you walk down the path.
Give me a perceptions
check, if you'd be so kind.
- We're in the forest, right?
- Yeah.
- So I can do that with advantage.
- [Brennan] Mm-hm.
- That's a 16. The other die was a one.
- You behold the forest
path branching away.
I think that you have made this promise
to look after Ylfa as long as you can.
- Actually, I might cast Summon Beast
and create another sharp bird,
just so I can send it
up and act as a watcher.
- You summon another bird to take off
and go keep and eye on
Little Red Riding Hood.
As you're holding concentration on that,
you begin to move through the forest.
There's a couple rabbits on the lines.
You know how to trap with snares.
Give me a survival check as well.
- That die has rolled two ones in a row.
- Oh no!
- Dirty 20.
- You move through the forest,
and eventually you realize
that you're safe, you're not
lost, you know how to get back,
but you just notice tall briars,
deep, thick thorns.
There's a path leading away,
and you can hear something
larger than a rabbit
struggling inside of the thorns.
- Hello?
- Hello.
Hello.
- Hello? I run up to the voice.
- You run around a corner,
and another, and another.
Pretty soon, you're
deep into a briar maze.
As you turn a corner,
there is first of all the
rank, rotting smell of death,
of something that has
had an internal organ
burst with maggots and fill
the air with a choking miasma
that's heavy on the tongue
and the back of the sinuses.
That is coming from a dead horse
that is suspended with a royal saddle
that had leapt from the cliff
and had been eviscerated
through the briars as it
landed headfirst into them.
And you see, suspended amongst the briars,
rasping through uneasy breath, pale,
dying from exposure to the
elements and malnourishment
with a crown that has fallen
partially over his head,
draped in rich velvet,
is a handsome prince,
perhaps the most handsome
man you have ever seen,
though he is soiled by
his own blood, as well as,
he must've been riding through
the woods with a sword drawn,
perhaps in combat, and in
diving into the brambles,
has impaled himself
partially on his own blade.
- Let me help you.
- I can't feel my legs or my arms.
- It's okay, it's okay.
You're going to be okay.
- Are you the...
Are you the Princess Rosamund of Reverie?
- Yes.
- Hello.
- Hi.
What's your name?
Okay, wake up. Stay awake.
- I'm Prince Johnathan
of the Kingdom of Apogee.
I heard from a wise woman
that you were in danger in the castle.
As he starts to explain why he has come,
you hear voices, the fluttering
of moth wings around you,
and you hear a voice.
Rosamund. Hello, sweet girl.
As you turn,
fairies begin to descend
into the clearing,
and you see seven of them standing.
- What have you done to him?
- A fairy clad in red, looking beautiful.
Darling Rosamund, I know
that you have not seen me
since the day of your birth.
We have not done this to him.
This is the corruption of the Gander
on the space of the Neverafter.
This is your prince, the
Prince Charming who has come,
and if you help us, we
can set this to right.
(Brennan wheezing)
(blood gushing)
- How can you set this right? He's dying!
- He does not have to die. The book.
The book, Timothy Goose.
You are a princess.
- But...
But...
But then...
But then what? I don't know him.
- I know that you do not know him now,
but he is your true love.
It is written.
It is written in books
older than our world.
You see a fairy in blue
comes up and says, Rosamund,
if you show us where in that other realm
the ink is kept,
and you get either Mother Goose's
or the book of Scheherazade, whomever,
whatever book we can get with blank pages,
we will set all of this to right.
It doesn't have to be this way.
- Exactly, it doesn't have to be this way!
It could be any way!
I want to save this
man. I want to save him.
But I can't let you make it
so that I always have the same story,
because I've seen some of those stories,
and a lot of them aren't very nice,
and in none of them do
I make my own choices.
- You see that a fairy
dressed all in green steps up.
Rosamund, the stories have their sorrows.
They are as good as they can be.
- Don't you think I want to fall in love?
Don't you think I want to fall in love?
- Here's your chance, princess.
(Brennan wheezing)
You see, stepping out from the back,
her face more like a moth's
than a human being's,
fuzzy, insectile antenna,
wide, moth-like body,
the Wicked Fairy steps forward.
He is dying because you
are letting him die.
You wish to fall in love?
It is your duty to accept your destiny.
Why do you feel so worthy
to have your happily ever after
without the sorrows of your own story?
You want only those sweet things
promised to those who suffer.
I won't have it!
- No, you don't understand at all.
And I don't know if I understand, but,
I just think that love
isn't a thing that you earn,
or that love is the last thing.
I think love is a thing that you build
and you choose every day,
and this prince just
winning me by being the best
at getting through briars,
and then that's it,
I don't think that's what love is.
- What you think? What you think?
Your story's already been written.
You hear the briars begin to
move behind you, and hear...
(Brennan wheezing)
- I do want to pull an arrow
and sh**t at the thorns
around this man, because
he also doesn't deserve
the story that he's been given.
- You sh**t an arrow into the thorns.
They land amidst the thorns.
You damage some part of them,
but this thick briar
wall encompasses them.
You see that the Wicked
Fairy puts her hands up,
twists them, and you see that the briars
begin to grab the prince's
head and twist it.
She says, we can also do this
the hard way, Sleeping Beauty.
- You think I don't know
that you're only cruel
to make them look better?
How are you different from them,
and how are they different from you?
- All the fairies turn
to look at each other conspiratorially.
- You think I'm stupid?
- The fairy in red says,
now, darling princess, of
course we are different.
We gave you beauty and grace, virtues all,
and our sister cursed you.
But for our gift, you would
have died on your 18th name day.
- And if she hadn't been excluded?
None of these things are things
that I have gotten to
do, though, do you see?
This is why I want to change my story,
because all of my story
is things happening to me,
and none of my story is me
making choices in my own life.
I might be able to fall in love
with this man, I don't know.
I know nothing about him
except that his name is
Johnathan and he's dying!
- The final fairy speaks up.
You see this is the Fairy
with Turquoise hair,
who you have seen before, and she says,
what if you make your own choices,
and thanks to those
choices, you lead a lonely,
desperate, terrifying, and sorrowful life?
- Then so be it.
I have the gifts that you've given me
to carry me along the way.
- You see the Wicked Fairy
says, enough of this!
And you hear on the wind,
for you to end this story
your own way, then give
it to me, princess.
You see the Wicked Fairy
twisting the briars
more into the prince's body.
You can hear him sort of
wheezing silently in pain.
- I make the choice to be alone,
if that's the choice
that I get to make that is mine.
- You make that choice, to give that up.
You turn to the briars.
You see the prince therein.
- I'm so sorry.
You seem like a good
person who came to save me,
and instead, I needed to save you,
and I don't know if I can.
I'm going to try.
- You feel the power to
let those briars back in
that have k*lled countless people
that have come searching for you.
Do you want to give up
this hope that you could have this
in order that this person would be let go?
- Yes.
- You feel your body become more sallow.
You feel roots once again
spreading from your limbs,
and things growing out from
you, and the briars disobey
the will of the fairies, who
scatter away from this place
as the briars
move the prince
back up to the cliff,
and you see that as the
prince falls into sleep
to recover from his wounds,
the briars, for the first time
in any version of your
story you have seen,
grow around him and
cover his sleeping body.
- Can I send a couple of
the birds from my swarm
to keep him company, so
that when he wakes up,
he'll have a little friend?
- Birds land through the briars,
and you feel
something sever,
some part of your soul or spirit
that had a person made
only and just for you
out there in the world, and now something
stranger and unpromised
hangs over your head.
- Red, are you okay out there?
- I don't know.
- We don't know!
Speaking of which, who
else would like to go?
- I can go.
- Yeah, you can. You got popcorned.
- I know you're looking at all of us,
but it just kind of feels
like you've been teed up.
- Are we going to pop over to the garden?
- You want to check in on me
having fun setting the table,
and then sitting down on the couch?
I pop up on the couch and I'm like, eh!
Where are my friends?
- [Brennan] You walk once more
through the woods on a little path.
What is going through
Red's mind as you approach
to find this little chicken
coop to get some dinner?
- What's going through Little Red's mind
is that she's wearing the skin
of her dinner slash mentor, Death,
and she's thinking,
I sent him on this quest to his own death,
and now there needs to be a Death,
and I kind of have to maybe, like, nut up.
Just a little girl thinking
about how she has to nut up.
- She heard it from a squirrel.
- [Brennan] I got to nut up.
- I think I'm feeling a little bit...
I feel really, really bad about the Wolf,
because even though our relationship
was kind of like a drug trip,
I still feel like he saved my life
and also gave me new purpose in a way,
so I'm feeling really responsible.
- As you move, I have to ask
this first and most important question.
This is a winding path through the woods.
Do you stay on the path?
- There's a part of me that is wearing
this cloak of death and thinking,
come on, Ylfa.
You've got to be focused, laser focused.
But then I think of
Rosamund saying we stray,
but we stray together, and I
look up and I see her bird,
and it almost feels like
an invitation to stray,
so I get a little wacky with my gait.
- With the gait?
- [Brennan] Get a little
wacky with the gait.
She gets a little wacky with the gait.
- I piss a little during my gait.
- I think I get a little rebellious,
but just to feel closer to Rosamund, too.
- [Brennan] You step off the path.
Covered in this fur, you
feel it might be easier
to traverse these thick
woods on all fours.
- That's kind of what I was thinking,
is that paths are made for people,
and every day, I get less so.
- You move on all fours
through the forest,
and you feel as though
out here in the woods,
especially with this
fur wrapped around you,
you just feel like
you're wearing the cloak
of some impossible almost station.
They talk about wearing
the mantle of something,
and you feel in that way
as though you are wearing
the mantle of something,
and that you could be
in any forest in the
world if you so wished.
- In some ways, I feel like a little girl
who's not ready for this
kind of responsibility,
but in most ways, I feel like I did this.
Now I have to figure it out.
- Give me a perception
check with advantage,
if you'd be so kind.
- 22.
- Walking up ahead of you on the path,
you see a little figure in a red cloak.
- Yeah, what about it, Brennan?
- You see a little figure in a red cloak
walking on the path up ahead of you.
- Can I do an insight
check on how she's feeling?
16.
- She has a basket.
You smell some fresh baked home goods.
The vibe you get on a
plus 20 perception check
is that she is woefully ignorant
of how dangerous the woods are.
The young child turns
around, and for a moment,
you're expecting something trippy, maybe,
like it's going to be you
or something like that.
But you see, she looks
very similar to you,
but it's not you.
You see this little girl
turn around, look off,
and see some wildflowers off the path,
and you see her having
a moment of indecision,
of really wanting to go
pick those wildflowers,
but having some reticence, not
born of any internal caution,
but rather a fear of reproach,
of not doing what she's been told to do.
- Can I just use my little Gust cantrip
and kind of blow her on the
path towards the wildflowers?
- You cast Gust, the wind picks up,
and in just sort of adjusting her posture,
she's already taken a step off the path.
You hear her go... (gasps)
You see she walks up,
and already being off the path,
goes and picks some wildflowers,
and they're beautiful.
She puts them in her basket.
You see she looks out and goes, hello?
- Don't freak out. Hi.
(Brennan shrieks)
- You see she looks at you
and goes, ah! You're a wolf!
- Yeah. Are you going to see your grandma?
- I am going to see my grandma.
- Do you need an escort?
- I do. I think I do.
I know the way, if you're
busy, but that's awful nice.
Aren't you going to eat me?
- Me? No, no.
I just had a Goodberry, and
that keeps me full for 24 hours.
- Oh, okay.
My mom warned me that there might...
Well, she didn't warn
me about a giant wolf.
She just said stay on the path.
- Yeah, they don't give
you a lot of context.
They give you a rule, no context,
so that when you do stray from the rule,
you have no context for
what you're up against.
- But the wildflowers looked so good!
- I kind of agree.
I think that my entire life,
I'm supposed to have learned
that that's not true, but even right now,
I watched what you did and I was like,
that was the right call, little one.
- It's nice to meet you. My name's...
You see that she can't say her name.
- Sorry, come again? Where's your name?
- I just told you my name.
- Yeah, but humor an old...
An old preteen.
- She says it again,
and you can't hear it,
but you know why you can't hear it.
You wear the mantle of the god of death,
and to such a being,
the distance between one
forest and the next is the same
as the difference between
the forest of the now
and the forest of the long since past.
You're looking at your grandma.
- My grandma?
- Whose name is your name.
You know that in saying it, whatever magic
the Stepmother has done
has made it so the name
can't be heard, but the little
girl doesn't seem bothered.
She just looks up and smiles at you.
- What's your grandma like?
- She's the best.
She's so fun. She taught us pinochle.
- Pinochle? Wait till she
introduces you to gin rummy.
- I'm not old enough
to play gin rummy yet.
- There's an age limit?
Oh, 'cause all the cursing.
I can understand.
Hey, this is a really weird thing
and I'm just going to go there.
Can I give you a hug?
- Big shaggy wolf!
She wraps her arms around
you and gives you a big hug.
You're so nice. The forest isn't that bad.
- No, no, the forest is
actually incredibly interesting.
You just got to be really smart about it.
- It's a long way and my grandma, well,
she should be feeling better soon,
but I'm bringing her some
stuff to feel better.
If you wanted to come visit her,
I'm sure she'd like to meet you.
- Yeah, do I have time?
- I think as you ask that, the little girl
sort of looks at you and
doesn't seem to, you know.
She's like, well, you're a wolf.
You have as much time as you want.
And you feel that there's no urgency
because you've walked into the past.
You're Death itself right now.
You've come somewhere
that there's no rush.
- Yeah, hold on. Do you
have a reflective surface?
I really need to make myself presentable,
because your grandma's going to freak out
if she sees a wolf come in.
- Oh, wait, my mom was sending
her some clothes and stuff,
and you see puts a bonnet on you,
puts a grandma nightshirt over you,
and you just sort of look like a grandma.
- Awesome. This is great,
and this is perfect, and you-
- She might think you're
part of her pinochle club.
- Honestly, I kind of am.
You wouldn't understand that, but I do.
Yeah, let's go meet your grandma.
- She walks through the woods with you
and just talks about all the little games
that happen at her house.
It sounds like, you know,
her house growing up,
she has learned all
these fun games to play,
all the things that she's going
to teach you later in life.
As you're walking along, you
notice a little chicken coop
by the side of this grandma's house,
and your grandmother Ylfa
opens the door and says,
Grandma, Grandma, I brought a friend!
- Hey, actually, I just
realized I have somewhere to be,
but thank you for walking
and talking with me.
- You're going to leave so soon?
- Yeah, I do. I have to, you
know, I have to say goodbye.
- Okay.
- This is just a wolf thing.
We do this every time we say goodbye.
This is a classic wolf thing.
If you meet another wolf,
they'll do this too.
- You see-
- [Emily] This is how wolves say goodbye!
- She gives you another big hug.
- Nothing out of the ordinary!
- As she does, you hear on the wind,
a rare, rare treasure indeed.
- Yeah.
- The memory of the little girl leaves.
From the door, as you see your
grandmother Ylfa enters in,
there is a woman, a grandmother,
one you don't recognize,
but who smiles at you
warmly, looks like you.
She exits the doorway to greet you,
and you realize that there is
a shape inside in the bedroom.
You hear little Ylfa go,
Grandma?
And the grandma who's here with you goes,
could you do me a favor and
walk me to the edge of the path?
- Yeah.
Here, get under my cloak.
- She gets under your cloak,
and you pad through the forest
and you pad through the forest
and carry this woman with you as she says,
I'm glad for your strength.
This is a long journey to make on my own.
- I'm glad to be strong... ger.
And your granddaughter is, like, awesome.
She's going to go on to become
the coolest person in the world
in the eyes of at least one.
- As she begins to sort of vanish
into the darkness of the
forest, she reaches out a hand
and touches the sort of mane of your coat.
You can feel it through that red cloak.
Your grandmother had a
red cloak just like you,
and the hand that knitted
that touches you and says,
she is as wonderful as you say,
and I know that her eyes fell upon one
that she loved with all her heart as well.
- Yeah, it's just a shame that
that gaze ever has to break.
- It is. It is as sad to lose
as it is wonderful to have.
- Yeah.
(wind howling)
- The memory is something you leave behind
here in the forest, and you return
to the cottage of the Baba
Yaga in the form of a wolf.
Walking back through
fields, it's easy enough
to find a chicken coop with some chickens.
- [Emily] I slaughter them mercilessly.
- Incredible.
- I take more than we need.
Deliver the kind of blow that
they think they can run off,
then I chase them.
- Oh my god.
- Who else?
- I'll go next.
- [Brennan] Pinocchio.
- Roll for setting the
table. All right, who's next?
- Ooh, one fork out of place!
- [Brennan] Pinocchio, you're
setting the dining table.
You hear Baba Yaga
speaking with Henry Hubbard
and with Tom Thumb and
Thumbelina in the other room.
Go ahead and give me a perception check,
if you would be so kind.
(players laughing)
- Goddammit.
- [Siobhan] Not the bad die.
- Perception? 18.
- All right, okay.
- And I'd like to use
Mage Hand to make it sound
like I'm setting the table
as I start to eavesdrop.
- You find a nice little place
to hide and eavesdrop here.
- Excuse me, eaves-peep.
- Eaves-peep, thank you.
Thank you, eaves-peep.
- I'm not eavesdropping,
I'm eaves-peeping.
- We're all eaves-peeping.
You find a little place to eaves-peep,
hiding on a staircase, listening down.
You see a familiar light
coming through a doorway
at the end of the upper landing.
The quality of the light shifts.
You could swear you see
the image of a doorway.
This is the cottage where
it happened, after all,
if you're one for eaves-peeping.
This is the last place where
she was a mortal, a human.
You hear a voice on the
other side of the door say,
come in, Pinocchio.
You've been a rude
and disobedient little boy.
How much more can I hurt your father
before you come to heed my commands?
- I walk up to the door.
I whisper into the keyhole,
you won't have him for much longer.
Me and my friends have
gotten away from you.
We've upset your schemes.
I've taken back my strings.
We're coming for you.
- Pinocchio.
Pinocchio, listen to me.
This is your father.
Do not worry about me.
All you must do is tell the truth.
Do as you are told. Listen to your elders.
All of this will change. You
can be a real little boy again.
- Father, no. That's not the
world we live in anymore.
I can't.
To get you out, to free you,
we have to fight.
We can't stay in line.
We have to stray together.
- You look down, see that the light
at the bottom of the doorway is fading,
like it's being suddenly interrupted,
and you see for a moment,
it's like growing shadow,
but you see it's blood pooling
out from under the doorway.
You hear a sickening crunch and a snap.
What if nothing is waiting
for you, Pinocchio?
You seized your own strings.
You know what the reward for
seizing your own destiny is?
You know what all of
that freedom gives you?
Fear.
Constant shaking, shuddering terror.
The world made for you by
your father was a simple one,
and all you had to do was tell the truth.
Now your reward is pain.
You hear a thud
as something hits the
ground beyond the door.
- I'd like to open the door.
- You open the door. Roll initiative.
(players sighing nervously)
Should've done all my stuff. Only an 11.
- 11 beats a 10.
Pinocchio, you open the door,
see countless pages, your father Geppetto,
and the brightest, strongest
string that you have
connects your heart to Geppetto's heart.
You realize this is not your
string, it's his string.
He made it when he made you,
and he made something
that would be his living
heart outside of his body,
the thing that all of his
love would go towards.
One of his arms bends
at an impossible angle,
having been broken by the Stepmother.
His blood pools out of
his mouth in an open wound
in his chest, and the monster
you saw in The Lines Between
in a door, the background of which
is fluttering, endless pages,
this monster holds onto Geppetto,
and you see her look and behold you,
see the book in your hand and say,
good.
I am going to call them here,
and when they come, I am going to burst
from the world they made
to hold me and k*ll them.
- Pinocchio is terrified.
I think he doesn't have a response.
Pinocchio's not in, like, a f*ck you!
Now that the door is open and
I'm staring at the horror,
I think there is a deep onset
of the idea that that might be true.
- You certainly have
never felt anything speak
with the amount of authority and magic
that this being now speaks
with, and looking up
at the pain and torment behind
the eyes of this monster,
looking at the glassy expression
of your injured father,
you hear wind rattling
throughout the cottage
which you are still in.
You are first to act,
and you hear the voice in your ear
of the Baba Yaga saying,
what would you give?
What would you give for a chance
to write this story a different way?
- I think Pinocchio thinks
back to what he had offered
to the group, which was his destiny.
But I think he realizes that his destiny
wasn't his before, and then he got it.
That's new.
He could go back to a world in which he
wasn't in control of his own life.
That's what he's known, most of it.
But I do think he thinks to the moment
in which he returned to
his form as a puppet,
and the way that his father treated him,
and the look on his face,
and thinks that he would rather have that,
have his father there to
look at him in any way,
than to look on him with love,
and would offer up
any chance he ever had
of being a boy again.
- The string moving
from you to your father
glows incandescently, filling the hallway
and this realm of pages beyond
you with blinding light.
The Stepmother falls back for a moment,
holding Geppetto.
As you offer that up,
you give up the chance
at ever again being a real
boy to wear this curse,
at ever again being a real
boy to wear this curse,
if you want to call it that,
or just this form forever
for a chance at doing
what needs to be done.
And you look
at the man who created you,
the man whose insistence
that you never tell a lie
was the bane of your
life, a man who loved you
and a man who, in many ways,
did not understand the world
to the degree that you know that you do.
You feel a sense of
deep and profound loss.
You feel a sense of
deep and profound loss.
You have your destiny in your hands,
and when the chance at
something goes away,
it doesn't feel like you are a tiny speck
looking at the gods having
decided something for you.
It feels somehow far more personal.
You've decided something about yourself.
It's not going to be that kind of story.
The light glows intensely bright,
and you see Geppetto vanish,
and the string suspends underneath him.
It cat's cradles and weaves
itself into a hammock
in which he can rest, and it ascends him
up and away, away from the Stepmother,
and you feel him move
somewhere in The Lines Between.
The door slams shut,
and your wooden joints
creak as the wind dies down.
- Do I get the sense
the Stepmother is gone?
- The image of the door changes.
The light goes away from behind it.
You can hear her howl of frustration
as she has lost a piece of
leverage, a bargaining chip,
something to dangle in front of you.
But as the light fades,
a single scrap of paper
from The Lines Between
comes through that portal as it vanishes,
floating just in front of you
with a name written on it.
- I pluck it from the air.
- A very common thing, a name.
A string of letters, a
collection of syllables.
You look at the name on the
piece of paper before you,
having never seen it before.
Minerva.
Something so ultimately arbitrary,
the source of so much power.
You feel the draft of
the Baba Yaga's cottage
as you hold this thing
dearly bargained for.
Who else would like to go?
- You guys want to draw straws?
- Yeah.
I'll go.
- [Brennan] You'll go? Okay.
Mother Goose, you walk-
- [Ally] ♪ La la la ♪
- ♪ La la la ♪
- ♪ Walking to the garden ♪
- [Brennan] You walk into
the garden, and as you do so,
you are this time closely guarding,
having dearly bargained for,
you have your book with you there.
Give me a little nature check
as you look through the garden.
- A little nature check?
- [Brennan] A little nature check.
- Nat 20.
- Gorgeous.
- Incredible, perfect.
On a nat 20, you start pulling some stuff.
You get some radishes, rutabagas,
nice little root vegetables
ready for the stew.
There's a weird leafy thing that has
sort of red along the leaves,
but it looks very leafy.
You could get nice, thick,
some kind of root vegetable out of it.
As you pull, there's something
red and leafy underneath it.
Then you realize it's not leafy.
It's a full cloak. Just a cloak.
You pull a little red cloak
out of the ground on a nat 20.
Your book begins to glow brightly.
- Well, I open up the book
and I take the really dirty cloak,
I kind of shake it off,
and I touch it to the
book, the book's page.
- The story of Little
Red Riding Hood appears.
You see there's an
illustration of the girl,
Little Red Riding Hood, tenderly embracing
and hugging the Wolf in the forest.
- Is this a version I've ever heard?
- Not one you've ever heard.
- Is it Ylfa, the little girl?
- Hard to say. Looks
like a cute little girl.
- Is there an end to the story?
- Not yet.
You see there is another
thick stalk, wooden vegetable.
It looks ripe.
As you pull that,
a wooden marionette handle
comes out of the ground.
- What's my book do?
- It glows.
- I turn the page,
I shake off the dirt,
and I touch it to the page.
- You see a little wooden
warlock making a web of magic
to save his father in
a landscape of pages.
- Okay, that's also a
new take on an old fave.
- And the final.
- Uh-huh?
- You see, of course, you already have
Sleeping Beauty's spindle
and Gerard's golden ball
inside of the pages of this book.
The last vegetable you pull,
a thick pair of boots
comes out of the ground.
- Incredible. I shake them off
and I touch them to the page.
- There is an image of Pib
looking up at thunderclouds
surrounded on all sides by giants.
- Does he look happy?
- The illustration does not show his face.
It instead shows him from the back
with the giants charging towards him.
- f*ck.
- This is crazy,
but if I'm looking at
a tiny picture of Pib,
can I give it a bardic inspiration?
- Yeah, I'll let you do that.
- I give the little picture of Pib bardic.
I'm not sure if it goes
through, but I try.
I'm pretty sure that's Pib.
It's just the back of him.
But yeah, no one else
really looks like that.
- You hear a voice in your head.
From one witch to another,
you're very quick to put
everybody's story in your book.
What of your story, Mother Goose?
- That's a great point.
I do fear that if I don't write
my own story, it will
start writing itself.
But every time I try to write it,
words disappear, so I just don't...
Maybe I'm not writing
stuff that's true enough.
- Maybe try to write what is true.
You sit down and start to write.
No roll necessary.
You already have that nat 20 nature check.
You sit, thinking about
that beautiful Golden Goose,
who is now gone, thinking
about the Gander,
who always threatened to
take you off, and you begin
to write Mother Goose,
the actual nursery rhyme.
You let me know if you get
through the whole thing,
or if there is a point where
you would stop writing it.
- Okay.
- You write these,
and the page accepts these
things as being true.
Old Mother Goose, when
he wanted to wander,
would ride through the
air on a very fine Gander.
Mother Goose had a house,
'twas built in a wood,
where an owl at the
door for sentinel stood.
He had a son, Jack, a plain looking lad.
He was not very good, nor yet very bad.
He sent him to market.
A live Goose he bought.
Here, Mother, says he, it
will not go for naught.
Jack's Goose and his
Gander grew very fond.
They'd both eat together
or swim in one pond.
Jack found one morning,
as I have been told,
his Goose had laid him
an egg of pure gold.
Jack rode to his Mother,
the news for to tell.
He called him a good boy
and said it was well.
- I keep all of that.
I don't write any sort of The End,
but that all rings true.
- Mm-hm.
- Except for the fact that he tried to get
more and more gold eggs.
- Your book swims in front of
your eyes, and as it does so,
you look through
and see shadow moving throughout.
You hear the voice of the Goose
from past death in your head.
What brought the times of shadow here?
They come and come again,
cycles of rain and seasons.
What starts them? What brings
the horror to the Neverafter?
And you begin to see all these visions
of, like, when did things go wrong?
When did our fairy tales
start to get so warped?
What happened?
And you begin to see,
in some weird kind of self-fulfilling way,
that the times of shadow start
as fear of the times of shadow starting.
Kings marshaling armies
saying the times of
shadow are approaching.
You see ogres and trolls
and armies and goblins
and demons and things
that begin to appear just as people go,
these things are about to appear.
You see in another place and time,
from the first world
that you traveled from,
Jack, your son.
You see a moment
of some terror or fear
in the corner of his eye
that he is somehow worthless,
some strange internal voice,
the Gander speaking in his heart.
You know old Mother Goose
doesn't find you that good, Jack.
You see the first wish being made.
I wish I could just prove myself,
that I wasn't such a f*ck-up!
And a golden egg appearing.
And the second,
and finally the third wish.
Jack's third wish.
I wish there was a way
for me to not keep letting everyone down.
You feel the presence of the Gander,
not physically here in this space,
but you feel it regaining
its power and potency.
- I try to yell, but he's such a good kid!
- As you yell that out, you hear
the last lines of your poem,
"He called him a good boy
and said it was well,"
which seems to contradict
an earlier part of the poem,
but perhaps there is something
beautiful in your poem
that even within one thing written in ink,
permanent and forever there,
that is has the potential
even within the text itself to change.
You hear a voice saying,
powerful book, Mother Goose.
What would you give to write in it truly?
- My friends and I talked
about somehow finding a way
to shred the book
into so many small pieces
that everyone would receive
a piece and a drop of the true ink.
Before doing that,
I would offer you a full page.
- That's a deal!
And she cackles.
Her arm reaches out through the forest
and snatches a page out
of your book. (cackles)
For this precious thing,
I think I will be coming to
The Lines Between with you.
- I think it's fine!
- Did you see what page she took?
Was it a blank page or
was there something on it?
- Was it a blank page?
- Give me a perception check.
- Okay okay, come on, come on.
Perception? Perception?
That's a 13.
- You didn't see what page she took,
if it had writing on it or not.
- Interesting, I really
should've stipulated
one blank page, because
that's what I meant.
- I feel like it's either
your story or a blank page.
- So, you call out, "He's a good boy!"
And moving from there,
I am going to need a check from ol' Pib.
- Okay.
- Go ahead and give me a stealth
check, if you'd be so kind.
- [Zac] I have my boots?
- With your boots.
- Nice.
- 23.
- 23.
- And I have Bless.
- [Ally] And you have
bardic if you need it.
- 27.
- You begin to move through
the paths away from here.
As you move, this little cat,
you begin to find paths, and you see
some of these cutbacks.
You begin to turn.
There's a tree, and it feels
sort of soft to the touch
as you're looking for a path.
You feel like you could push it.
- I guess I inspect it,
put a paw through it.
- You turn your paw into
the bark of the tree
and begin to turn a page in
physical space in front of you.
You see text saying, in an old forest
in the Kingdom of Snowhold,
there once stood a tree
that waited many a long
year to be discovered
by a creature clever and
cunning enough to step through.
- I step through.
- You are standing, it's insane,
you're looking and you're looking
at words up alongside you,
sort of moving along a page,
and you feel another
seam open in front of you
and feel like you can smell
a new, different forest
somewhere where it's raining.
- I step through once more.
- Move through again. You look around.
You continue to move like this,
through trees and forests and
pages and text, to the point
where it's almost like you can
see whatever you want to see.
You can see a forest path if you want,
or you can see the text
on a page that says,
"There once was a path that
led through the forest."
And it's almost up to you
which form you want it to take.
As you move along, you arrive
underneath the area
that the Stepmother created,
that world with miniature Jack
where the Goose had been hidden
that she'd sort of stitched here.
You arrive at the part of the world
that is actually supposed to be here,
that has been edited over and crushed,
and you feel a deep, draining cold,
something excised and edited
out and scrubbed over.
You immediately hear the buzzing of flies.
In a massive footprint, you
see the mangled, dead body
of a fox that has clearly been
crushed by a giant footfall.
- Can I make a perception check?
- Yes.
- Go for it.
- 22.
26. I'll tell you want I'm thinking.
I don't trust that this
is really a dead fox.
- You look down. You
see the dead fox there.
You see the "dead" fox
moves its eyes to you.
- I remember last time we saw each other.
Where's the net? Is it right there?
- You turn over, and you
see hanging from a snare
is the body of a dead rabbit.
You see that the rabbit,
dead, turns to you and goes,
well, that's no fun at all.
And the mangled body of
the fox looks up and says,
looks like you're one step ahead, Pib.
Just around the corner.
You see rain-soaked mountains and thunder.
You hear booms of what could be thunder
or could be boulders
smashing into the rock side.
- Oh god, I'm so hungry.
Looks that way.
I guess the guideline was
just to find the path towards-
I guess the guideline was
just to find the path towards-
- Just to find a path towards The Lines...
Find a path for the house to travel.
- Okay, I'm just going to walk this way
and see if I see a route.
- On a 26 perception, you turn
around and you see a road.
The road goes up into
the mountains, up up up,
to a gleaming star.
You see, breaking
through the storm clouds,
just a sliver of an opening,
the Wishing Star at the
very top of a tall mountain.
As you squint your eyes,
you can see a castle floating out there.
The Lines Between.
You've found a path
through the Neverafter.
You see these storms are the
edges of the Gander's wings,
and you've found this slim, narrow path
by which the entire cottage of Baba Yaga
could travel back to this
place, and as you do that,
I'm going to need another stealth check.
I'm going to give you the
number you need to beat.
- [Emily] I love that.
- You need to beat a 17.
- Jesus.
Yes!
- 33.
(Brennan and Emily laughing)
- [Brennan] m*therf*cker.
- I saw you rolling that Bless with a 19.
- Oh, okay. Okay.
- You vanish into the shadow as you hear,
who goes there?
Fee, fi, fo, fum.
Fee, fi. Fee, fi.
And the mountains just start moving,
and beings, 100 feet
tall, these are giants...
These are not like D&D giants
that are like 20 feet tall
so that it could be plausibly deniable
that you could fight them.
These are fairy tale giants
that are, you know, skyscrapers.
Where is it? I smell... (sniffs)
Where is it? I smell... (sniffs)
Smells like a slinking,
stinking, stalking cat!
Smells like a slinking,
stinking, stalking cat!
Boom! Mountainside
crumbles and falls apart.
You k*lled our little
brother, didn't you, cat?
Where are you hiding?
The Ogre of Carabas,
turned into a mouse!
Where is the trickster?
- I think Pib will take a little step
out from the shadows.
You looking for me?
- Giants everywhere
turn around to face you.
You see all of them,
again, towering overhead.
Rain. Their heads scrape the storm clouds.
You see lightning strikes, and one of them
bats the lightning bolt away with a hand.
You've stepped out to die, little cat.
- I stepped out to play
Smoke on the Water.
I pull out my harp.
(Zac mimicking an out of tune harp)
- Go ahead and give me
a performance check.
This is going to be setting
the DC that they have to beat,
and I'll tell you right now, you hear,
as they begin to charge at
you, you hear, he's a good kid!
And you feel a sudden realization.
On the path up ahead of you
being guarded by the giants,
you see, hanging from one
of their little gibbets,
there's cages there,
you see Timothy's son.
You see Jack. Go ahead and
give me the performance check.
(Emily whispering indistinctly)
- Hm?
- Yeah.
- Just about as bad as three dice can be.
- Oh my god.
- Oh no.
- That is 11.
- Remember what you
added on your extra dice.
You hear a voice in your ear.
What would you be willing to give
to find the path through this place?
- I think Pib thinks about
what he really has,
because he doesn't really
have that much to give,
and I think he would think of
his story, his book.
- Mm-hm.
- Can I ask you a question?
- You hear thundering
feet. Boom, boom, boom.
Of course, little cat. Ask away.
- Do you know what it's like
to hold your story in your hands?
- There are very few stories
about me, little cat.
I know my place. I am in
other people's stories.
But I do as I will
in anyone's story.
- Well, you know my story, right?
- I do.
- I feel like all I can offer
is that my story is about,
you know, a little cat
that is living in a world
that is not really set
up for him to succeed,
and there's a lot of
rules and expectations
that he has to find a way around,
and I feel like I do that.
So I don't really feel like
this situation is that
different from that.
- Boom, boom, boom.
Plucking out Smoke on
the Water on this harp,
you see you hear in your
head, you know, magic,
it's really just a thing that we have,
witches, fairies, all of us.
It's a way to change the story,
to move it so it is better than
it would have been without.
- Yeah.
- Your story, it is named after you,
even though all you do
is to help other people.
Many stories of spirits
and creatures that give aid
to a charming little boy or girl.
Nice, I think, to have one story
named after the clever
creature that does the helping.
And you feel her taking
your book from you.
As she does so, go ahead,
and she will give you the help action.
(laughs) Is that a nat one?
- No, it's a three.
- That's a three, okay.
- Can I do anything?
- [Brennan] He has advantage,
if you want to give him-
- I mean, I can't see him.
- I'll say in this moment
you can see your friend.
You're in the Baba Yaga's house,
and she suddenly is holding
the book of his story.
- All right.
- Two?
- Yeah.
- [Murph] Get out the
ones, get out the ones.
Get out the ones, get out the ones.
- Right on the board.
- [Siobhan] Get those ones out.
- Got any ones?
- You can do it.
- There's one more.
(Lou blows the last one out)
(all wheezing incredulously)
- [Murph] Jesus Christ.
- [Emily] You blew it in
there! You blew it in there!
- Lou is gone.
- [Brennan] Incredible, incredible. Okay.
- [Lou] I guess you'll use the four, then!
- Incredible.
- [Lou] Everyone left!
- Everyone left.
- [Brennan] Everyone left.
We're going to go ahead and
roll this in front of the board.
- You whispered the one into it!
- [Brennan] What'd you get? You got a 12?
- [Murph] Your first one was a four.
- [Siobhan] 11.
- 11.
- It was an 11, okay.
These guys get a minus one to
their wisdom saving throws.
- [Ally] Okay!
- Hang on a sec, don't you
have the same thing as me,
the Saving Face thing?
- Yeah, but I don't see any allies.
- [Brennan] You can see Jack.
- And you see the fox and the bunny.
- That's three. I'll let you add three.
I'll let you add three
if you want to do Saving
Face and add three.
- I'll do Saving Face.
- All right, that's a DC 14.
They need a 15 or higher on the die.
12!
- Thank god for the ally thing.
- Oh my god.
- A little PC creep.
A little PC creep.
- I was like, they're going to crit.
- Give us this rendition
of Smoke on the Water
if you'd be so kind.
(Zac realistically imitates
a cat playing a harp)
There's a couple of drowsy
steps from the giants
as they're like, what is that?
- I was really confident coming into this.
- I'm watching on my
little screen. Pib, no!
- He's kind of playing with the form.
- I gave Pinocchio a lot of sh*t for this.
- Finally the last giant goes
down, truly inches from you.
Boom! (snoring)
- Okay.
- You look up and see, under the rain,
that sort of hanging gibbet.
You see a shivering figure in that space,
and suddenly, it all comes back to you.
Standing here, yes, giants did attack.
There are giants in this world
that the Queen of Snowhold knew,
and you look up and see Timothy's son
from the illustration in
the book up in this gibbet.
- I'm going to climb up to it.
- Hello?
- Hey there.
It seems a little cold
in this gibbet, huh?
- Hey. You don't have to...
I'm a f*cked up loser.
- No, you're just a guy
who's stuck in sort of a bad situation,
but once we get you in a little
more of a drier situation,
get a little food in your stomach,
you'll be right as rain, my friend.
- You're just going to waltz into my life
and turn my life around?
- That's just what I do, baby.
- He's your new...
- You're going to Littlefinger
him to better himself.
- Chaos is a ladder!
- [Brennan] You get the boy
down from this place and return.
All of you converge back
on the Baba Yaga's cottage.
All of you converge back
on the Baba Yaga's cottage.
- Pinocchio set the table
with his actual hands.
- Wow, what a beautiful table setting.
The napkins, they're beautifully folded.
- Thanks, I thought swans
would be appropriate.
- Yeah, this is intricate.
It looks like it took a lot of time.
- I don't even know if I want to use one.
- I'll take a bowl on the floor, thanks.
- Yeah, me too.
- Two bowls on the-
- I'll also take a bowl on the floor!
- [Lou] Three bowls on the floor, okay.
- Did you guys give anything away?
- What would I remember
of what I gave away?
I gave away the memory
of my grandma, right?
- I think you know you gave
something, and you feel
the pain of its absence, but
you don't know what it was.
- Ooh, freaky.
- I have an emptiness that's
manifesting as hunger.
- Okay.
- Can I give Ylfa some
really deep scritches?
- Who's Ylfa?
- Can I give the Big Bad Wolf
some really big scritches?
- Yeah, that'd be nice.
- Kind of cold in this gibbet.
- Are you a giant frog?
- Yeah, what's my frog
situation right now?
- So yeah, a wolf shows
back up and a straight-up,
I don't know, like a pony-sized
bullfrog with a crown.
- Can you get through the door?
- I can speak, right?
- [Brennan] You can speak.
- Hey!
- [Zac] Hey, Gerard. Is that a...
- Good to see all of you!
- [Ally] Okay!
You look different and good.
Okay.
- Oh that sucks.
- You know, a choice is a choice,
and sometimes that's what you got to do.
- Yeah, it was probably worth it.
- [Siobhan] It was probably
worth it to save the world.
- You guys, some of our
stories were already in here,
but I put the rest of them in here.
I hope that's okay with you all.
- I'm fine with that, because
I don't got mine anymore.
- You see the Baba Yaga comes in,
smashes this giant cauldron of stew
with all of the food you've brought.
She goes... (slurping)
All of your gifts, so
wonderful, tasty good!
The stew has many of the
things you have brought,
a little bit of piss, and that's it.
- Why did you look at
me when you said that?
- A little bit of piss!
The important thing is this.
I think this deal is equitable to me.
My house take us there on path you find,
and I think you all
have what you need, eh?
- I'm Death, I'll eat anything.
I go to town on the piss stew.
- I give you my bowl.
- Henry looks and says, are we
going to have the piss stew?
- Babe, I don't really know.
I guess we have to eat.
- [Siobhan] I just gave it to the dog.
- The first one was courtesy, right?
Courtesy was the first one. Okay.
- Courtesy was the
first one, and honestly,
diligence is going to play into this.
- And a little bit of courage.
- And a little bit of courage.
I take a sip. It's more piss
than I even could have thought.
Okay, it's majority piss.
It's like three quarters, easy.
- I'm just tonguing in,
trying to hit chunks,
but just getting all
piss every time, splat.
- You need some help there, buddy?
- No.
- I brought too many chickens,
and I'm not even tasting them in here.
- You see, so Pinocchio's
been here setting up
the whole time, you're holding that scrap.
- I have the scrap, yeah.
- Have the scrap of paper.
You get back from the garden.
You guys all get back from the forest.
- Do I have Jack with me?
- Pib walks in, and you have
Jack with a cloak around him.
You and Henry turn to see your son.
As he emerges, you realize
the Jack that you fought
was stitched into this world
from some other Once Upon a Time,
which means that as you begin to walk
through this land of giants
that are all sleeping,
Baba Yaga's cottage
begins to walk through,
you suddenly remember that
in this world as well,
there was a Jack, just like in this world
there was a you and a Henry Hubbard.
You look and see this
sleeping Jack Be Nimble,
your son, here on the ground.
- I feel I've met Jacks
now that are still Jack,
but I'm not Dad, so I'm
just going to kind of, like,
hey.
- Dad?
- f*ck!
I'm just so proud of you.
There's nothing you could
do to disappoint me.
- I love you so much.
- I watch you try, and that's important.
- I went to the Land of
Giants to try to get-
- We're both so proud of you.
We're both so proud of you.
- I sold a bunch of your
stuff for magic beans.
- I know, I know, and you know what,
if you think that I haven't
made mistakes, you're wrong.
I sometimes don't clean
as well as I mean to,
so it's kind of like theft.
- Yeah, sometimes your dad
doesn't clean as well as
he means to, sweetheart,
and sometimes, you know,
like, sometimes it's bedtime,
and sometimes, you know,
like, sometimes it's bedtime,
I'm not brushing my teeth,
I'm going straight to bed.
- We all do bad things.
I know you sold some of our
precious family belongings
for magic beans to crush
up and snort, but look-
- Crush up and snort?
- There's nothing you could do
to make us not love you.
- You see he reaches in and hugs you.
His body goes into full shivers.
- Me and Henry are both
holding him like he was a baby.
- You both are holding him.
The path up through the mountains,
the cottage on its chicken
legs begins to move.
You see the nighttime sky
growing, and you begin to see
the shimmer of the Auroratory at its edge.
You are moving into The Lines Between.
As you are about to leave the Neverafter,
you see this special path
Pib found through the worlds.
- Left here.
- Nice.
- Straight.
- You are about to leave the
Neverafter and open yourself up
to where the Gander can see you again,
and whatever's going on
in The Lines Between.
Is there anything you do before you leave
that final terrestrial pathway
headed to The Lines Between?
- I was going to come up to Tim,
and I'll gesticulate to
anyone else who's in the area.
I have the name.
Does it feel more powerful
to put it in your book
before we tarry forth?
Because we do have
Cinderella's story in the book.
- Yeah, you're right. Let's try it.
I take a quill and I
write her name on a page.
- Are you going to take
the scrap from Pinocchio?
- Yeah.
- You see the book glows.
As you press that in, your
book thunders with power.
You feel this incredible surge of power,
and you have a vision
of this plan of yours
to offer every single person
this power of self destiny,
you know, and again, this idea of, like,
by putting this name back in this book,
something that might be anathema
to whatever the Stepmother
has become by virtue of going,
this is your name, and we're
going to try to give you
the ability to write your own story,
to maybe make your life,
for better or for worse,
to have some ownership over
whatever choices were made,
and if your destiny had
the power to be different,
would you even change it?
The name thunders in the
book, and as it does,
you see the illustration change.
The illustration opens up, and you see
Cole and Jack and the
Goose and all these people.
There's them charging, and
you see all of the six of you
in that page, in the
illustration, charging at a figure
of the Stepmother, and you have a feeling
that whatever's happening in
your book is going to weaken
whatever's happening
within The Lines Between
and give you a shot at
doing what you need to do.
- Wow, okay.
Wow, sick.
- Glad it was worth it.
- Looking at that
illustration of pitched battle
outside the village of Hapley,
you see this now powerful
tome that you have here.
- Does the illustration in his book
look like we are heading
into a battle right now?
- The illustration in the
book is almost depicting
this sunshine paradise
coming to its own defense,
because you know that by
putting the Stepmother's name
in this book, part of
her has been put back
into the Neverafter, which
means that whatever part of her
is in The Lines Between is now separated.
- She's fighting two fights.
- She's fighting two fights now.
She's a little less omnipotent.
- I write to Scheherazade,
Scheherazade, are you there?
- You write, Scheherazade, are you there?
12. You don't get a response.
As you're approaching The
Lines Between, do you direct
Baba Yaga to go to one area
or another of the castle?
- God, how do we find any allies?
- I don't know, but I'm
worried about the princesses
getting the ink.
I think maybe that
should be our first stop.
- That makes sense.
- The Canonade.
- Go to the Canonade?
- Yeah.
- Is everyone looking okay?
Do we need to take a rest?
Is Jack okay? Do we have time?
- Jack is very sick and out of commission.
You see Henry looks at
Jack and goes, darling,
if you're going to go fight,
I'm magical enough as things go,
but I probably should stay with Jack,
who's looking not in a good way.
I would be...
I got hit by a wagon. I
got k*lled by a wagon.
- Yeah, but it's because I wasn't there.
Or, no it wasn't, but I just-
- Who was driving it?
- It kind of looked like
a big, cream, suede shoe.
- I think I know who's actually-
- Great guy.
- I liked him.
- He's my best friend.
- Okay, is there a way
for me to heal Jack?
- Yeah, you can heal some hit points.
- I'll give him some heals.
- Cool.
As you hit The Lines Between,
you see that the Baba Yaga's cottage
is stepping through the Auroratory
and perches on the rampart.
What's the first order of business, g*ng?
- Jump down to the library.
- Library, Canonade? Library, Canonade?
- Can I do an insight check?
Because the Baba Yaga
wants to join us now.
I want to know where her eyes are going.
- Can I make a perception check
just for a general sense of the place?
- I would also like to
do a perception check.
- [Emily] 16 to try and clock
what the Baba Yaga's clocking.
- I would like to cast See
Invisibility on myself.
- Okay, you cast See Invisibility.
Any perception or skill
check you're doing right now-
- I would also like to insight Baba Yaga.
- Yeah, I was just curious.
- My god, this guy is retired.
- You're doing insight on the
Baba Yaga? What'd you roll?
- 16.
- 16.
- 11.
- 11.
The Baba Yaga sort of leers gleefully,
looking like she's down for
whatever is about to come.
- She's so cool.
- I can't help but be into her,
especially now that I don't
know what she took from me.
- [Brennan] Did anyone
else beat a 20 on anything?
- No.
- [Brennan] Anyone beat a 15 on anything?
- No.
- Nat 20.
- Okay.
- I read See Invisibility.
It's not what I thought it was,
so I don't want to cast that.
- [Brennan] Gotcha. Are you
doing a perception check?
- Yeah.
- Perception, you hear
noise in The Lines Between.
There is activity near the Canonade.
There is activity further down,
some screams coming from lower down
that sound like they have
to do with the Stepmother.
On a nat 20, I'll tell
you straight-up right now,
the plan to go get
stuff from other parts,
load up more stories, that
will give you more power,
but there are very real prices to pay,
because something's happening
at the Canonade right now.
I will actually allow us to have a roll
to see if you beat other
people to the Canonade or not.
- Ooh!
- It'll be a flat check.
- That's what we want.
- Okay, cool.
- [Brennan] You're
going to go there first?
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
- Okay, flat luck check.
Die versus die to see who
gets to the Canonade first.
- As we're going in, can
I Longstrider myself?
- Yes, you can.
- Okay.
- That's an eight.
Whoever wants to roll for the
table can roll for the table.
- [Siobhan] Let's roll
that blue and silver die.
- You know what, I got this.
(Murph yelps in horror)
- Murph! Murph!
- Every time!
- Every time I go, I'm not going to be
rude and be like, no!
- You're fired!
- [Lou] Murph, that's not okay!
Murph, straight-up, that's not okay!
- We literally-
- Murph, that's not okay, man!
- This is damaging our real friendship.
- Real talk, man, we
have to have a discussion
about boundaries right
now, that is not okay!
That is not okay.
I need a ride home. I need a ride home.
- Some time I have to do
that and it needs to work.
- Yeah, maybe try it for a bit!
- Statistically-
- Not right now!
- It shouldn't happen every
time! He got an eight!
- Oh my god.
- That's not okay.
- [Murph] All I had to do
was roll an eight or a nine!
- This is what I would've rolled. 14.
- This is what I would've rolled.
- [Zac] This is what I would've rolled.
- This is what I would've rolled.
- 10.
- What I would've rolled.
- 12.
- I would've failed.
- [Ally] What'd you get?
- This whole side of
the table would've lost.
- So we got an eight and a five.
- So they're just a
little bit ahead of us.
That's how that works?
- They are three full rounds ahead.
- Oh, it's full rounds!
- Rounds? Are you kidding me?
- I'm going to cast-
(players laughing)
- Banishment!
- I cast Web on Murph.
- I cast Banishment on
the actual man Murph.
- [Emily] I love him!
- Actual guy.
Murph, what are your stats?
- I love him!
- Murph, 14 spells coming.
- Murph has commoner stats,
and that's canon, because he said it.
- You all rush forward.
The doors of the Canonade
are off their hinges.
- f*ck.
- You look and see,
scattered across a pyramid of books,
the ink of the Canonade swirling,
that pyramid covered
in the bloodstained but uninjured forms
of seven princesses that turn to face you.
Snow White, her eyes glowing black,
just sucking light out of the room
into the center of her eyes,
a hand stretching and
touching into the ink itself.
- Counterspell.
- I need everyone here to roll initiative.
And that's all for this
episode of Dimension 20.
Tune in next week as the battle
at the heart of The Lines Between begins.
- Anyone want me to roll for them?
- f*ck you, Murph!
(Brennan cackling)
- Wow, villain mode
activated right up top.
- Turn from this place.
We wish you no harm.
- Guess we got to go, guys.
I think it's time for us to leave.
- They don't wish us any harm?
- Time for us to get out of here.
- We care for the stories.
You can't give up on them.
- I expected no one more
than you to want to live.
- If we pour ink all over everything,
life, death, whole cycle, donezo.
You feel good about that?
- We're not on the same side!
- We could be!
- I didn't say that!
- Step-sis, what are you doing?
I understand, a lot going on.
- An ancient malevolence,
as if to destroy this universe.
- What?
- Oh, goddammit.
- What have you done? What have you done?
- This is the horror part of the campaign.
- What is going on?
- Jesus Christ.
- What are we trying to save?
When you look at your destiny-
- We'll find another way.
- We always will.
- ...and you see that the most
important part of your life
was something that happened to you-
- I can't take another one.
- Me neither.
- ...why would you fight to save that?
- f*ck!
- f*ck me.
- To not die?
- To not die.
- Wait, to not fully die?
(Brennan roars)
- Ew, it's nasty.
(Brennan shrieking)
- Hey, Pinocchio!
- Okay!
- I take it back!
- Enough of this!
(all screaming)
I don't want my story to end here.
(ominous music)
(ominous music continues)
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16x18 - The Trials of Baba Yaga
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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.