Chapter Eight: An Ashen Wonderland | Ten Candles: Eclipse

Summary

Podcast Summary: Critical Role & Sagas of Sundry – Ten Candles: Eclipse: Chapter Eight: An Ashen Wonderland Release Date: May 19, 2025
Host/Author: geekandsundry

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Introduction to the Session

Chapter Eight: An Ashen Wonderland delves deeper into the tragic horror narrative of Ten Candles: Eclipse. The episode features a group of players navigating a world shrouded in perpetual twilight, dominated by towering monoliths and ominous centipede-like creatures. The session emphasizes themes of despair, survival, and the inevitability of doom, aligning with the season's premise of "zero survivors."

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Character Creation

The session begins with Ivan Van Noorthen, the Game Master (GM), guiding players through the creation of their characters by assigning virtues, vices, and specific moments of hope. This foundational step sets the emotional and psychological landscape for each character's journey.

• Virtues Assigned:

  • Jason Charles Miller: Disciplined
    "Jason and Eliza wrote resilient." [07:32]
  • Rachel: Giving
    "Giving and resilient. And resourceful." [07:35]
  • Eliza: Resourceful
    "Resourceful. Yeah. Very practical to have." [07:43]
  • Amy Nicholson: Ravenous
    "I like to be motivated to force everyone in." [10:07]

• Vices Assigned:

  • Jason Charles Miller: Stubborn
    "Stubborn and resilient." [09:23]
  • Rachel: Intense
    "Intense. That's a new one." [09:46]
  • Eliza: Worrisome
    "Resourceful and worrisome." [09:39]
  • Amy Nicholson: Ravenous (Potential overlap or character-specific trait)
    "It's my vice. It's ravenous." [10:07]

• Moments of Hope:

  • Eliza: Hope to kill one of the creatures.
    "I wrote for her, hope I kill one of the creatures." [16:28]
  • Jason Charles Miller: Hope to create a protected shelter.
    "I will find hope when I can create a protected shelter and survive away from the creatures." [17:33]
  • Amy Nicholson: Learn her brother is safe.
    "I will find hope when I learn my brother is safe." [19:16]
  • Rachel: Hear a child laughing.
    "My life's work has been working with and helping and healing children. So I'm gonna find hope when I hear a child laughing." [20:25]

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Setting the Scene

Ivan paints a vivid picture of the world’s dire state:

• Perpetual Twilight: The monoliths block natural sunlight, causing extended day/night cycles.
• Monstrous Creatures: Centipede-like beings with tentacles that once hunted but now appear more docile, singing a grating song that disrupts the characters' peace.
• Environmental Catastrophes: Tidal surges worsen over time, contaminating water sources and bringing debris from across the globe.

"When you look up into the night sky, there is no stars. There's nothing. You see no space. By looking in the night sky, you simply see craters." [10:49]

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Early Conflicts and Survival Efforts

The characters establish their initial shelter atop a hill, crafting improvised shields from sheet metal to defend against the creatures.

• Crafting Shields:
  "I'm gonna say that the ranch home had some steel slats, or maybe not. Yeah, maybe steel, like a thin sheet metal. And we were able to use those to kind of fashion like shields for ourselves." [41:36]

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Catastrophic Event: The Impact

A significant event unfolds as a large red object streaks across the sky, resembling a falling asteroid. This impact triggers a massive tidal surge, leaving the characters scrambling for resources amidst increasing threats.

"Just the most simple way. Pull the stick back and it goes up." [221:20]

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Scavenging on the Container Ship

Seeking vital supplies, the group boards a partially submerged container ship:

• Finding Resources: They discover a substantial supply of MREs, ensuring food security for the group.
• Encounters with Creatures: While scavenging, tensions rise as the creatures exhibit unpredictable behavior, shifting from hunters to indifferent wanderers.

"A band of eight unlikely heroes, find themselves on a quest to save the realm of Exandria from dark magical forces." (Referencing Critical Role Campaign 1, connected to the characters’ motivations.)

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Injuries and Growing Despair

As the group's journey continues, members sustain injuries:

• Eliza's Injury:
  "I grab an ice pack and gauze and clean up her wound." [74:08]

• Rachel's Resolve:
  "I take my flare gun and fire it toward the ceiling directly in front of it to light this room up as bright as possible." [119:16]

Despite their efforts, the relentless environment and sinister creatures take a toll on the group's morale and physical well-being.

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Attempted Escape to the Military Base

Desperate for safety, the characters aim to reach a nearby military base:

• Navigating the Terrain: The journey is fraught with environmental hazards, including falling rocks and ash.
• Plane Crash: Jack attempts to pilot a plane towards the monoliths but crashes, leading to multiple character deaths.

"This is the last step. He points out towards the chasm, or where the chasm should be. Those are the ones who don't deserve to make it to the next stage." [166:21]

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Final Moments and Tragic Conclusion

The session culminates in a series of heartbreaking events:

• Monica's Sacrifice:
  "I have to burn this. They hate light. I don't know. We need to just burn everything." [142:05]

• Rachel's Desperation and Final Act:
  "I want to find a path to that monolith. I need to know if this is the end of the world. I need to know what's causing it. And how am I a part of it. It's time to go." [165:25]

• Ultimate Demise:
  The characters meet their end either through direct confrontation with the creatures or tragic accidents amidst their attempts to flee, perfectly encapsulating the season's theme of "zero survivors."

"I will have to ask you to leave my table." [206:15]
"If you're hearing this, you're alive. And that's amazing." [230:51]

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Notable Quotes and Moments

• On Survival and Despair:
  "It's cathartic. Yeah. I don't know. You sound like you're asking yourself that question just as much." [02:33]
  "We can't stay here. They know we're here. They've breached it." [141:24]

• On Hope and Sacrifice:
  "This is your moment of hope. You would like to find hope win." [15:07]
  "I think we should try to find a way up through the boat." [56:59]

• On Tragic Outcomes:
  "How could you?" [26:25]
  "No, no, no." [01:05]

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Conclusion

Chapter Eight: An Ashen Wonderland serves as a poignant exploration of survival against insurmountable odds, the relentless march of despair, and the ultimate tragedy that befalls each character. Through intense role-playing and emotional depth, the episode underscores the bleak reality of the Ten Candles: Eclipse universe, leaving listeners with a haunting reflection on hope, sacrifice, and the inevitability of fate.

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For more adventures and deep dives into the RPG world, visit Geek & Sundry here.

Transcript

[Ivan Van Noorthen]

Welcome to the realms of Peril and Glory.

[Paul Scheer]

Explore the mechanically magical vistas of Vale.

[Ivan Van Noorthen]

The paranormal mysteries of liminal London, and.

[Paul Scheer]

The cyberpunk chaos of Cyborg. You'll be immersed into unforgettable campaigns and heart pounding one shots. Search realms of peril and glory to find out more.

[Amy Nicholson]

I'm Amy Nicholson, the film critic for the LA Times.

[Paul Scheer]

And I'm Paul Scheer, an actor, writer and director. You might know me from the League, Veep, or my non eligible for Academy.

[Jason Charles Miller]

Award role in Twisters.

[Amy Nicholson]

We come together to host Unspooled, a.

[Eliza]

Podcast where we talk about good movies.

[Paul Scheer]

Critical hits, fan favorites, must sees, and in case you missed ems, we're talking the Home Alone From Grease to the Dark Knight.

[Amy Nicholson]

So if you love movies like we do, come come along on our cinematic adventure.

[Paul Scheer]

Listen to Unschooled wherever you get your.

[Amy Nicholson]

Podcasts, and don't forget to hit the follow button.

[Paul Scheer]

Warning.

[Ivan Van Noorthen]

The program you're about to listen to contains explicit language and descriptions of adult themes and graphic violence that some people may find disturbing. Listener discretion is advised.

[Paul Scheer]

Hello, everybody. Hi.

[Eliza]

Hi.

[Paul Scheer]

Welcome. I am am so sorry. But I am also so happy that I have both old friends and new who have hung out. Cause I don't think we've played at a table yet, Eliza. Have we?

[Eliza]

We haven't.

[Paul Scheer]

I don't know. We've been adjacently playing next to each other for years.

[Eliza]

Yeah.

[Paul Scheer]

So that's probably a great way to introduce you. Hi, Eliza.

[Eliza]

I am adjacent to Ivan.

[Paul Scheer]

Repeatedly adjacent. But now you get to play.

[Eliza]

Yeah, I'm excited. I'm excited.

[Paul Scheer]

I like to do spooky horror times. Wee. And of course, Rachel. Hello.

[Rachel]

Hello.

[Paul Scheer]

You keep coming back. Why?

[Rachel]

I mean, it's fun to cry.

[Paul Scheer]

It's cathartic. Yeah. I don't know. You sound like you're asking yourself that question just as much. Me?

[Rachel]

I just keep stumbling back into it and thinking maybe this time it'll go better for me.

[Paul Scheer]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, no, no.

[Rachel]

This isn't the day for that.

[Paul Scheer]

It's okay. It was still good to have you. Hi, Ash.

[Amy Nicholson]

Hi, Ivan.

[Rachel]

Hey.

[Paul Scheer]

We usually play.

[Amy Nicholson]

That's true. This is the first time with us playing an RPG together.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah.

[Amy Nicholson]

Yeah.

[Paul Scheer]

That is super fun.

[Amy Nicholson]

Yeah.

[Paul Scheer]

Because usually, I mean, you're mostly D and D girl as well too, right?

[Amy Nicholson]

No, actually.

[Paul Scheer]

Oh, really?

[Amy Nicholson]

I'm far more into other story games.

[Paul Scheer]

Okay.

[Amy Nicholson]

You know I love pelgrainfras.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah, no, that's a good point. That's a good point. Yes. So that's great. And now We're. We're doing Steven Dewey's little tromp down Terror Isle, so to speak. Literally an isle. I think we talked about how we're going to do a high elevation in Australia today. That's what we're thinking about. In which Jason, your character, will have some kind of farmland outpost. Right.

[Jason Charles Miller]

Or he did. He did.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah. At some point.

[Jason Charles Miller]

A little too close to the ocean there.

[Paul Scheer]

It's good to see you, buddy. Welcome back to cable.

[Jason Charles Miller]

Thanks.

[Paul Scheer]

You're probably the person who I probably played the most with at a table beyond, like, maybe Xander at this point.

[Jason Charles Miller]

Yeah.

[Paul Scheer]

Like in between. Not only the Foreververse era. Right.

[Jason Charles Miller]

I mean, that went on for like, 14 months, so I don't know. I think I got Xander beat.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah, that's a good point. Xander was in there a bunch, but not as much. So I like to continually say when people are like, wow, foreververse. That was great. And I keep reminding myself that that was like Navy SEAL training camp for GMs.

[Jason Charles Miller]

For. Yeah, yeah. And it still lives on, people and smart TVs everywhere. Exactly.

[Paul Scheer]

Until it's not, so. Well, thank you all for joining me. I think we chatted a little bit about the circumstance and the situation we're in, but we're definitely going to kind of get into character creation here. I've reminded everyone who is watching that we kind of had a discussion about everything that's happening. And since we're at so deep into the storyline at this point and so many things have happened, you have a lot more world knowledge than your predecessors who have suffered prior to you. As a joke, I would lovingly like to give you. Many Bothans have died to give you this information, even though they would never know and you would never know, because the world is what it is to them. Thanks to them.

[Eliza]

Yeah.

[Rachel]

Thanks, Bothans.

[Paul Scheer]

Let's get into it. Let's get into it. Yeah. Oh, my gosh. If only you knew what happened last episode. But I'm not telling you. We have our cards today. Rather than doing the index cards that usually would provide the virtues and vices onto it, instead, we're gonna be using pictures of your faces today so that we can defile them at some point during the show. We will begin by taking your first one and it's gonna go to your right. So pick one of your lovely photos. Yeah. Use one of your own. And I'll pass it over.

[Rachel]

So you just pass this.

[Paul Scheer]

Now pass it to your right. Yes. Yeah. Okay. There you go.

[Rachel]

Thank you.

[Paul Scheer]

Upon this photo, I would love for you to write a Virtue.

[Eliza]

Okay. Write it on the back.

[Paul Scheer]

On the back? Yes. Something that you aspire to be or look up to in someone.

[Eliza]

It can be a phrase, right?

[Paul Scheer]

It should be a descriptive word. Yes. You don't have to do any long soliloquy.

[Amy Nicholson]

Elisa writes a paragraph.

[Paul Scheer]

It's happened.

[Eliza]

There's a lot of things I want to be.

[Amy Nicholson]

And I'm very specific about them.

[Paul Scheer]

What's one descriptive word? It can be something like virtuous or practical, resourceful, honest.

[Rachel]

He steals your word right off the gate. It's just.

[Paul Scheer]

Did I steal your word? Yes. Oh, and I take it. That's fine. These are all examples, so, yeah. Great. Let's pass it back to the left. It goes da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da.

[Amy Nicholson]

Can I read them? I'm so excited.

[Paul Scheer]

Would you tell me who wrote what on yours?

[Amy Nicholson]

Jason Charles Miller wrote, disciplined, disciplined, which is great.

[Paul Scheer]

Okay, you are disciplined for sure. And how about you, Rachel, what did you get?

[Rachel]

Ash told me that I am giving, giving.

[Paul Scheer]

Okay. Resourceful or I already forgot it. Disciplined.

[Eliza]

Yes.

[Paul Scheer]

And forgiving.

[Rachel]

Giving.

[Paul Scheer]

Giving.

[Rachel]

Giving.

[Paul Scheer]

Not for giving. Giving. Disciplined and giving. I need to wake up. Aliza, what did you get?

[Eliza]

Rachel wrote resourceful.

[Paul Scheer]

Resourceful. Yeah. Yeah. Very practical to have.

[Eliza]

Yeah.

[Paul Scheer]

In a practical apocalypse.

[Jason Charles Miller]

Jason and Aliza wrote resilient.

[Paul Scheer]

Resilient. I like that.

[Rachel]

Ours.

[Paul Scheer]

Oh, giving and resilient. And resourceful. This is the R side of the table.

[Jason Charles Miller]

Our side is our side.

[Paul Scheer]

Next, I would like you to take another card and I would like you to pass it to the left. On this, I would love for you to write a vise. Something that creates more problems than it solves. A trait that you maybe wear on your sleeve but also comes back and bites you in the butt often. Rachel's like, done. I know exactly what this is. Here is everyone.

[Eliza]

What's the word for the thing? Know the thing where you.

[G]

That thing.

[Eliza]

You know that thing.

[Rachel]

It's like three syllables.

[Amy Nicholson]

It's got letters in it.

[Eliza]

It's got letters. There's a beginning and an end and a middle. And a middle.

[Paul Scheer]

I'm sure there's a vowel in it at some point.

[Eliza]

Some.

[Rachel]

Probably an E. Statistic is an E.

[Eliza]

There is an E. Two E's.

[Rachel]

Hangman Champion.

[Paul Scheer]

Back to the right. Back to the right.

[Amy Nicholson]

This is so exciting.

[Paul Scheer]

You're gonna wait this time.

[Amy Nicholson]

Okay.

[Paul Scheer]

So excited this time. Jason, we're start with you. What did you put?

[Jason Charles Miller]

I got stubborn.

[Paul Scheer]

Stubborn. Stubborn. And what was the other one?

[Jason Charles Miller]

Resilient.

[Paul Scheer]

Stubborn and resilient. Those were traits together. They would go together pretty well, how about you, Eliza? What did you get?

[Eliza]

Jason wrote worrisome.

[Paul Scheer]

Ooh. Resourceful and worrisome.

[Rachel]

That makes sense.

[Amy Nicholson]

Yeah.

[Jason Charles Miller]

Always worried about your resources.

[Paul Scheer]

Rachel.

[Rachel]

Intense.

[Paul Scheer]

Intense. That's a new one. I haven't heard that one before.

[Amy Nicholson]

You're totally camping.

[Rachel]

I love it.

[Paul Scheer]

And ash. Yes.

[Amy Nicholson]

Ravenous.

[Jason Charles Miller]

Wow.

[Paul Scheer]

Wow. Whoa. All right. That's also a new one.

[Jason Charles Miller]

Yeah, that's not bad.

[Amy Nicholson]

That's fine. You sure?

[Paul Scheer]

You sure you have to decide what you're hungering for?

[Amy Nicholson]

More disciplines, obviously.

[Paul Scheer]

Great. So this is kind of. This is the. I mean, I know we all talked a little bit about what you could be and who you are, but now this is when we really start locking things down with these virtues and vices. This is the world that you live in. Three weeks have gone by. A little shy of three weeks, you know, but the problem is that you don't know. It could have been three months for all you know, because time does not work the way that it did when these monoliths rose out of the ground. Since then, the day and night cycles have been longer. So much longer. And this.

[Rachel]

There is some day.

[Paul Scheer]

There is some day, yes. But you. Very similar to, like, if you were to go north of the equator or far south of the equator, you will have long spans of day and then you'll have long spans of night. Particularly what you've been dealing with in your area on the lowest elevation continents in the entire world has been dealing with tidal surges which have been rampant for the last two weeks, but are slowly getting worse and worse and worse. And not to speak of the elephant in the room, when you look up at the night sky, I want to very vividly describe this for you because even thinking about this in my mind is unsettling. Not to siege you or anything, but when you look up into the night sky, there is no stars. There's nothing. You see no space. You do not see the cold, depth void of what you have used to. By looking in the night sky, you simply see craters. You simply see a large gray rock that is standing up in the sky. It takes up the entire skyline. It is oppressively close as it looms into you. It's the point of where you can see as if you were looking through a microscope all the way to the Earth. And we've all been in a high powered telescope and looked into the moon, really close, right? This is where you see when you look up in the night sky. It takes up the entire horizon. So. And as a result of that, it is still night. Because the moon is blocking the sun, but you are still getting the reflection from the sun. The problem is that it is almost. It is fluorescent in the amount of light that it sheds. And it's one of those things where it is night, but it also feels like day, but it is night. And it's confusing because it's like a full moon where someone cranked it up to 11 as far as the light you're dealing with. So visibility, truthfully, not so much of a big deal. But at the same time, it is still dark. There is no natural sunlight that you have experienced for, on a conscious level for days now. And there's the creatures. You've heard of them, you've maybe even seen shadows of them. At some point when the earthquake started, they started appearing out of the ground. And what's worse is they aren't so much hunting anymore as what they used to be. They used to just pick off anything that was close and around. Now when you see them walking around and they do tend to just skitter about, they look like giant truck sized centipedes with long articulated tentacles that are coming out of its midsection. And they're hard to miss. But they used to just hunt and scatter and grab people when they can. Now they just seem content to walk around and sing up into the moon. It's this grating, screeching almost like nails on a chalkboard. And it is excellent at keeping you up all night in so many occurrences. So this is the world in which you live in. This is the world that you have inherited thanks to the our nearest celestial body. With that said, I'm looking forward to taking another one of your pieces of paper and writing upon it a moment that you hope to accomplish in this story. So something that is absolutely achievable but does have a chance of failing. So what I'm trying to say is no abstract ideas.

[Rachel]

This is our moment of hope.

[Paul Scheer]

This is your moment of hope. You would like to find hope win. You know this. I think in the book it literally describes I will find hope win. And it is a moment that you think is something you'd like to achieve in the storyline. It. Mm, yep. Still. Right.

[Amy Nicholson]

And this can be an achievable specific action. Right? Not like a. I would go so.

[Paul Scheer]

Far as to say it should be. Okay.

[Amy Nicholson]

Great.

[Paul Scheer]

Great. Yes. So, Elisa, let's begin with you first.

[Eliza]

I wrote.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah, one more thing, if you wouldn't mind, let's introduce your character in the same statement. Okay.

[Eliza]

My character is Monica Charles.

[Paul Scheer]

Oh, Monica Charles, yes.

[Eliza]

Notes she is a masseuse who has come to Australia to both visit friends and also go on a bit of a walkabout and just spend time in nature alone.

[Paul Scheer]

Okay.

[Eliza]

There's a lot of nature, lots of nature.

[Rachel]

And.

[Eliza]

I wrote for her, hope I kill one of the creatures.

[Paul Scheer]

Oh, you want to kill one of them?

[Amy Nicholson]

Yep.

[Paul Scheer]

I'm actually surprised it's taken this long to get to that moment, you know. That's great. Cool. How about you, Jason?

[Jason Charles Miller]

My name is Jack Lincoln. Jack. And I'm a farmer originally from New Hope, Pennsylvania. And I had some family in Australia and there was a family farm here. So serving in the military for a few years, I decided to move to Australia and work with my family here.

[Paul Scheer]

Okay, and what moment do you hope to achieve in the storyline, Jack?

[Jason Charles Miller]

I will find hope when I can create a protected shelter and survive away from the creatures.

[Paul Scheer]

So you want a shelter? I would probably say just to make it because that's kind of a two part qualifier. Sure. At this point, make a shelter and survive away from the creatures. We should probably make it. I think a shelter is maybe more achievable. Okay, right, sure.

[Jason Charles Miller]

Like a protected shelter or compound.

[Paul Scheer]

Just feel good about a shelter. Right. Because it's something that you should feel like you have a chance of accomplishing in this story.

[Amy Nicholson]

I like that you said a shelter or a compound.

[Rachel]

The compound makes me feel like there's room for more.

[Paul Scheer]

Right. Yeah. Yeah.

[Jason Charles Miller]

I'm not trying to be a lone wolf. I just want it. Maybe even a community of some sort.

[Paul Scheer]

A lean to will do.

[Jason Charles Miller]

Yeah.

[Rachel]

You know, we'll start there, hold back truck sized creatures. No problem.

[Paul Scheer]

Great. Ash.

[Amy Nicholson]

Oh, yeah.

[Paul Scheer]

Who are you playing today?

[Amy Nicholson]

Oh, yeah, I'm playing Wren. Sagewood Wren. And she was a childhood star. Now turned kind of like B movie action star.

[Paul Scheer]

Oh, man. How did you live this long?

[Amy Nicholson]

She's a method actress is how. And so, as you know, she's disciplined. And so, yeah, all of her terrible, terrible post apocalyptic films are finally paying off.

[Paul Scheer]

Cool. There you go.

[Amy Nicholson]

Inexperience.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah, all this scream queen stuff just working out. So she's not a scream queen? No, not a scream queen.

[Amy Nicholson]

Action star.

[Paul Scheer]

Action star. Action star.

[Rachel]

That's different. It's different.

[Paul Scheer]

They are different. Absolutely, yes. My apologies. Ren, what moment do you hope to create inside of this storyline?

[Amy Nicholson]

I wrote that I will find hope when I learn my brother is safe.

[Paul Scheer]

Oh, okay. So you want to learn about your brother. So. Okay.

[Rachel]

And Rachel, my name is Janae Christensen. I am a phlebotomist in a children's hospital, which means I do blood draws and in the hospital I work on the pediatric cancer ward. So I'm with sick children every day. But I'm a part of the process of making them better. But I have seen tragedy happen over and over and over again. And I think that that's how I found the resilience as night started to get longer and longer. I'm also a part time yoga teacher and I was here in Australia on a beach yoga training retreat. And it didn't end quite as I hoped and I don't really have the clothes that I ought to have because I came for a little sun and surf and now it's cold and stretchy time.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah. Cold and it is bitter. In what moment do you hope to create?

[Rachel]

My life's work has been working with and helping and healing children. So I'm gonna find hope when I hear a child laughing.

[Paul Scheer]

Okay. All right. Woo.

[Rachel]

Would be very hopeful. It would be a bright light. It's a dark night.

[Paul Scheer]

Yes. To hear a child's laugh. Laugh one last time. I hear you.

[Amy Nicholson]

I hear you.

[Paul Scheer]

That's what you wrote, basically. That's what I heard.

[Rachel]

I mean, somebody added one last time.

[Amy Nicholson]

She said a game.

[Paul Scheer]

A game. It's fair. Yeah. You do remember what you're playing, right? Jenae Ren, Jack and Monica. Great. Nice to meet you all. Now we get to do the brinks. So the brinks are the darkest shadow, the echelon of your pinnacle dark moment. And it isn't your moment that you will be writing. Take one of your cards and pass it to your left. And this time we will be participating. Elisa and Rachel and myself, we will all get to have this together. So this is for you. What this means is that you two normally will be riding brinks for each other and for the people who are next to you. But Rachel. And you'll be writing for yours as well too. But Elisa, what you'll be doing is you'll be writing a brink for them. All right? Now, them in the context of this story can be everything from the moon to the monoliths which have come out of the ground. I did mention the monoliths, right? Yes.

[Amy Nicholson]

They came up.

[Paul Scheer]

They came up from the ground, hundred stories high. Yes. Little Empire State building all over the world. But you may write a brink for them in which you give to me and it will become part of the story. Likewise, Rachel, I'm going to write you something that they have seen you do.

[Rachel]

They. They.

[Paul Scheer]

They. That this is a brink in which they. The proverbial they know about you and you know that they know.

[Amy Nicholson]

I just got really anxious just now.

[Eliza]

Yeah. Welcome.

[Rachel]

Okay. All right.

[Paul Scheer]

Yes. Here we are.

[Amy Nicholson]

So. And then how this should be phrased.

[Paul Scheer]

So it should say, in your circumstances, for people who are writing for others. It's just. I have seen you, and it can be. It is a dark moment. In the book, they give a couple of prime examples. Things can be like, I have seen you lose it over this dead dog. You cried for hours. I nearly left you. You know, I've had ones where I have. I have seen you kill a local. You know, so.

[Amy Nicholson]

But does this become something that our character, like my character would.

[Paul Scheer]

Oh, it's about them. Yes.

[Amy Nicholson]

Okay.

[Rachel]

So this is something I know about Ren.

[Paul Scheer]

It is a dark moment that you have seen. Okay. And this is a dark moment that you have seen and your character knows about. So. Yeah. It is a shared knowledge between your. Except for you. Except someone's gonna give you yours. Okay.

[Amy Nicholson]

You don't know anything about anyone.

[Eliza]

Nope.

[Paul Scheer]

You only know about them.

[Eliza]

Yes. A lot. Okay. Can I grab the marker?

[Paul Scheer]

Oh, this is yours. This one's mine.

[Eliza]

Thank you.

[Paul Scheer]

I don't have my pen. Pen? For my notes.

[Amy Nicholson]

Oh, then there's puppies.

[Eliza]

You mean like in the world?

[Amy Nicholson]

No, I was just like kind of. Kind of dark puppies.

[Eliza]

It's not about you.

[Jason Charles Miller]

It's about Jack. It's okay.

[Paul Scheer]

Jack.

[Eliza]

Jack and his puppies.

[Jason Charles Miller]

Yeah. Sorry. Monica.

[Eliza]

You bastard.

[Amy Nicholson]

How could you?

[Rachel]

I'm just saying you should apologize.

[Jason Charles Miller]

How could you?

[Amy Nicholson]

What did I do to you?

[Eliza]

Oh, no. Oh, no.

[Paul Scheer]

What did I do?

[Jason Charles Miller]

We'll find out in a second.

[Amy Nicholson]

I have seen you give me candy. It was not any I liked.

[Jason Charles Miller]

That's pretty mild.

[Rachel]

I don't like anything about that body language. That does not bode well for me at all.

[Amy Nicholson]

Can you pass this over?

[Paul Scheer]

Oh, whoa.

[Rachel]

Please. Part Ivan.

[Paul Scheer]

Thank you.

[Jason Charles Miller]

Thank you. Reading them.

[Paul Scheer]

I like it.

[Eliza]

Cool.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah, I'm into it.

[Eliza]

Oh, can we read them?

[Jason Charles Miller]

Yeah.

[Paul Scheer]

Yes. But not out loud.

[Eliza]

Okay.

[Paul Scheer]

They are for you and for who is next to you only.

[Eliza]

Wow. I didn't think anyone saw that. Jason.

[Paul Scheer]

Clarification.

[Amy Nicholson]

You were there.

[Paul Scheer]

Nope.

[Eliza]

I'm gonna. You know what? I'm.

[Amy Nicholson]

Oh, man.

[Paul Scheer]

Probably. Yeah.

[Eliza]

Yikes.

[Amy Nicholson]

I'm glad you picked up on that.

[Rachel]

And then watching.

[Paul Scheer]

Excellent. So I know the bring story is the best.

[Eliza]

All right. Yeah.

[Paul Scheer]

It gets you in the mood. Now, what we're going to do is we're going to take your stack of cards and you will notice that you have one left over. That's simply for Your character name, your concept, a little cheat sheet for who you are should you wish it otherwise. Please rearrange your hope, your virtue, and your vice on a stack that you might want to activate as the game goes by. What that means. Sorry, go ahead. Yes. Is that if you burn a virtue and a vice in the game, you get to reroll any ones that may have come out as a result of a die roll. So that's what the virtue and vice does. The brink must go at the bottom because it is the last thing that you resort to in the story. You cannot burn your moment, your moment cannot activate or achieve until it is the one on top. Which means that if you haven't burnt a virtue or a vice yet and your moment is still several cards under, then that moment comes and it will pass by. So, yes. So you need to make sure that your stack is the way that you wish it to be. At the same time, if you put your moment on top, then you will not be able to burn a virtue and a vice until your moment is achieved. So stack away.

[Jason Charles Miller]

Would most people put their vice first?

[Paul Scheer]

Most people would do whatever they thought was right, Jason.

[Amy Nicholson]

But you're not most people.

[Paul Scheer]

I love this. I love this game. All right. I love this game.

[Rachel]

Brink has to go last. My identity is just waiting just for you.

[Amy Nicholson]

It bothers me that I'm staring at myself.

[Paul Scheer]

Would you like.

[Eliza]

What would she do? What will she do?

[Rachel]

I'm staring at Ren.

[Paul Scheer]

Would you like a little cover to cover your face? It is definitely an intense stare as it's looking at you. So.

[Eliza]

This order thing is tough.

[Rachel]

I know.

[Paul Scheer]

Choices have to be made, and they need to be made now.

[Eliza]

Okay.

[Rachel]

Okay.

[Paul Scheer]

It's all right.

[Amy Nicholson]

Is that the theme song?

[Paul Scheer]

Huh?

[Amy Nicholson]

Is that the theme song for the show?

[Paul Scheer]

Choices have to be made.

[Rachel]

They need to be made now.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah, I know. Well, I own it because I just.

[Jason Charles Miller]

Because you just sang it. Well, actually.

[Eliza]

Copyright Ivan Van Oven.

[Paul Scheer]

Verbal trademark. They they by Ivan Van Noorthen. All right. Yes. So your story begins.

[Jason Charles Miller]

Let's get depressed on the top of.

[Paul Scheer]

A well, at least when the tidal surges were low, it was a mountain. And we discussed this is not a steep incline. We're not talking about the Appalachians or the Rockies or anything like that. You're looking at a more of an incline leading to a tall hill. Except in this circumstances, the hill's around 5,000ft elevation, which has been enough to rescind the tidal surges as much as it is, I would say. And correct me if I'm wrong, But you've probably been observing these waters coming in and waters coming out, same way that you would watch low and high tide. And you have probably, at this point, established somewhat of a pattern. And it's. It's awful because when the water's in, the water's in, you know, and it's just like watching Waterworld. It's just like lake laid out everywhere. And the things that come in with the tide. Oh, God. Everything from boats that are half tilted and listing in the water to bodies to broken pieces of civilization, it is not clean and pristine water. It is the decrepit dredges of what was once a great civilization now washed up everywhere with the tide.

[Rachel]

Are we seeing evidence of life from other continents already? Are we seeing things washing up from.

[Paul Scheer]

That's interesting. So you would like to, for example, if there's an opportunity in which you're looking out and wanted to see if, like, you saw something from Europe or from the Philippines or from.

[Rachel]

Right. It was something from, like, Micronesia or something that's coming in.

[Paul Scheer]

That sounds very interesting. Why don't you. Oh, no, we're still world building. Let's get a conflict.

[Rachel]

Oh, dear. At least there are lots of. I'm so sorry for all the ones that I'm going to lose.

[Eliza]

Get them out of the way.

[Paul Scheer]

Oh, that is a whole lot of. Only two ones for me.

[Rachel]

That's a lot of sixes, though.

[Paul Scheer]

Bunch of sixes for you. So this is the part in the game in which, first of all, I don't have a right to roll against you, because it's the first roll of the day to try to assume narrative control from you. And with that amount of sixes, there's no way it would have been done anyway. So why don't you tell me, Janae, what you have found observing these tidal surges?

[Rachel]

So as the surges have been coming in, first it was local debris from the dive shops and the dive yachts that were right here off the Great Barrier Reef. But as time has begun to pass, we're starting to see pieces of fishing boats from the Philippines, in Micronesia, some pieces of trees from Papua New Guinea. But there are also intact boats that are starting to come from all of these island nations. And so with those boats, there's the hope of resources and the very remote chance of people.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah. There was even one time in which you saw an entire container ship come inland, and then the water receded quicker than it could come back in, and it just dropped right onto the middle of the Australian coastline.

[Amy Nicholson]

That Was my question is, as the tide goes back out, is there stuff left on the shore that we can then go down and 100%, in fact.

[Paul Scheer]

That'S the only way you've been able to get any food at this point for the last five days, I would say.

[Rachel]

Well, and one of the blessings of this tide as it's been coming in is that this is such a rich part of the ocean and it's so full of life that turtles have been washing to shore and fish and lots of things that at the very least there's food. And with some of these destroyed ships, there's some water reclamation so we can at least make sure that there's some clean water.

[Paul Scheer]

So these trips have been subsiding you and water and food aspects as a result of the tidal searches have been enough that you've been extremely resourceful to make that happen. The problem is that with the tide receding, thus do the creatures come back out of the ground. Almost like out of hibernation. They burrow out of the wet, murky dirt and crop back up in order to sing their song back out to the giant ever present background. And every single time you go down, less people return. The scavenging groups have been getting smaller and smaller and you four are the only ones left. The last group to go down never returned and it has been, I would say a day or two since they left. The tide is coming back out again, so there was no way that they, even if they had not been eaten by the creatures, that they would have been able to deal with the tidal surge. So what do you want to do?

[Eliza]

We really need some food. Obviously someone's got to go down there. All of us or some of us.

[Rachel]

I certainly feel safer if we go together. At least there's the opportunity for someone to have lookout in case they arrive and we can scout and spot for better access to resources as we go.

[Jason Charles Miller]

Somebody gets into trouble, loses footing, we can be there to catch them, pull them out and stay close.

[Amy Nicholson]

About how long does the tide last? Because you said one's coming in now.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah, it's receding now.

[Amy Nicholson]

Oh, it's okay.

[Paul Scheer]

It was, it had come back up, but now it is receding. Yeah. And the, you know, normally high tide, low tide is in the. You know, I might be reality checked on. I apologize. But I think it's anywhere from an hour and a half, ish, 90 minutes or so that it takes for high tide to come in before it goes back. But with the new circumstances of the world, you're looking at Hours, hours for it to come in and out again, but then it is out for a long time. So. Yes. So this sounds like the thing that is most interesting is to get down, climb off of your mountain, so to speak, and go back and look at the flotsam and debris.

[Eliza]

And do we have some type of shelter that we come back to after these. That we're staying in?

[Paul Scheer]

I would think at this point. I mean, it's been weeks, you know, and if you've been historically sitting up on this pier, this top of this hill, you would have to have something. So what do you think?

[Eliza]

Well, I was thinking maybe we found a ranch home that we just took over that was abandoned.

[Paul Scheer]

Okay, then. Thus it is so abandoned ranch home that has been scoured for everything, reinforced for everything you can, and is basically four walls at this point and a roof.

[Rachel]

It's time to go get a little food.

[Paul Scheer]

Go. All right.

[Eliza]

All right.

[Amy Nicholson]

Scavenging is a good. It's a good tactic now, but it's not going to last. We have to come up with something else. I mean, everyone who goes out, they've stopped coming back, so we have to come up with something else.

[Eliza]

Yeah, I mean, I think we can probably guess that they're not coming back because of those creatures. So let's just make sure before we go out we have a plan or just really figure out some type of improvised weapons of some kind.

[Paul Scheer]

At this point. Improvised weapons. I think if you wanted to be armed in 10 counts that explicitly states that. That you have what is on you inside of the actual game to start with. But that doesn't mean that you can't attempt to find something in the game as well, too. So if that's your goal and structure, Monica, then that's something that you can ostensibly roll for if you'd like. This is a conflict. If you're out looking for weapons, then I'd like you. I'd like the dice to tell me a story about how that goes.

[Eliza]

Okay. Please don't let it be a million ones.

[Amy Nicholson]

Please, please, please.

[Eliza]

Or any.

[Amy Nicholson]

Okay, okay, okay.

[Paul Scheer]

No sixes.

[Eliza]

No sixes. Okay, Two ones.

[Paul Scheer]

This scene will end immediately unless you wish to burn a virtue and a vice.

[Eliza]

I do want to burn my vice.

[Paul Scheer]

Worrisome.

[Eliza]

Which is that I'm worrisome. I'm really worried about going out without.

[Paul Scheer]

Some type of weapons because the last group took all the weapons with them. You know, they left you with no weapons.

[Eliza]

Right. So we need. We need some. If they didn't survive with weapons, we.

[Paul Scheer]

Need to have something so re roll those two ones.

[Eliza]

Savvy. And that's reroll the two ones.

[Paul Scheer]

Just the ones.

[Eliza]

Okay.

[Paul Scheer]

As you apply this. Worse.

[Rachel]

Woo.

[Paul Scheer]

So by all means, yes. It is your narrative control. Monica, tell me how you worryingly, worriedly go out and find something, anything that you can use to defend yourself out in this barren world, wilderness that is now what was once, you know, scattered trees, townships, roads, all of that, but now is just marshlands.

[Eliza]

I'm gonna say that the ranch home had some steel slats, or maybe not. Yeah, maybe steel, like a thin sheet metal. And we were able to use those to kind of fashion like shields for ourselves so that we could at least have like some type of battering protection if we get stormed or, you know.

[Paul Scheer]

So basically you made a bunch of reinforced shields that you just made simple arm straps for, just to have some kind of coverage between whatever is out there and you.

[Eliza]

Yeah, because clearly the other weapons didn't work, so we might as well just try to protect ourselves a little bit more. For everyone.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah, for everyone. Okay, great. All right. You begin walking down the hillside with your corrugated sheet metal shields. As you hold onto them, the clanging of them is unfamiliar. And it resonates in a way that feels awkward and loud. It's just the way that it bends and moves as you put each heel into the dirt. And you can feel the soft mud just kind of as the vacuum picks up as this dirt and muck is now just everywhere. And since the tidal surges have recently pulled out, it is leaving mud everywhere. And that's when. That's when you notice something in the sky. A large streak, almost. Something that seems to be like a beam of light, but it's not a streak of light like you would expect. Almost more like a shooting star. But it's large. And you can kind of see it slightly in the atmosphere. And it's like. Like a single red dot that's bright up against the side of the moon. And the reason you can tell is because it is a bright red dot that seems to be highlighted beyond the moon. And you can watch. And it's so easy to see. Cause it's just getting bigger and bigger as you kind of see that something is burning up inside of the atmosphere.

[Amy Nicholson]

Are you guys seeing this?

[Eliza]

Yeah.

[Rachel]

Maybe it's a satellite that's coming down because the orbit's changed. Yeah, maybe it's hole in the ozone layer. It's an asteroid that's gonna change everything.

[Paul Scheer]

And right now it just kind of is there as you kind of look at it. And you continue walking and you keep your eye on it as it is just again, another awkward presence in this sky. And you're trying to keep your. You're keeping your eyes open for both the creatures. But then also just that as it's kind of laid up in there and the creatures are about. You can see them, some of them, especially in this full, bright light of the moon, you can see one that just seems there. And they do this thing, this where they just stand and they just slightly sway as they tilt their little heads back. And you can see these appendages are just moving about and that grating, screeching song. And they don't seem to be paying much attention to you. Like in days past, in days past, if you had seen them, they would have come straight for you. You heard that this has happened from parties that have come back, you know, but it's like they don't mind you walking around at this point, like it doesn't matter. They just want to sing their song.

[Jason Charles Miller]

They can't bode well. They're ignoring us because they don't look at us as a threat anymore.

[Rachel]

Maybe they're sated. Maybe they. Maybe they were just. They were just hungry. It's our time to get food and then get out. Out of here. Maybe they're not everywhere. We don't know how far inland they've gone.

[Paul Scheer]

We.

[Rachel]

We don't know how far south they've gone. If we find enough food, we can get back to the rancho and maybe we can head into someplace completely different where they aren't.

[Paul Scheer]

Time to find food.

[Jason Charles Miller]

It's time. I would like to say. I would think it would be fairly certain that I would have some sort of a knife if I have to roll for that and like to.

[Paul Scheer]

No, I mean, for. That's something that you. I say you would. Would keep on you as part of what you have in your pockets. You know, it's not a 50 cal.

[Jason Charles Miller]

You can keep it on.

[Paul Scheer]

That's okay. Roll for food.

[Jason Charles Miller]

All right.

[Amy Nicholson]

And can we search for things other than food as well?

[Eliza]

Well, food and supplies.

[Paul Scheer]

That is based on what we want to get into with how much we can get into it, because the narration will tell us. But if it's food and supplies, whoa. I say it all comes together in a way away.

[Eliza]

Okay, That's a lot of sixes.

[Jason Charles Miller]

That is four.

[Paul Scheer]

But you only need one. Jack, would you mind taking over the story a little bit about how you find supplies, food, something that makes sense in this fucked up world.

[Jason Charles Miller]

So the container ship that we saw earlier, we didn't approach it before because the creatures were around. And now that the creature's a little bit more docile towards us, we decide to explore the container ship a little bit more thoroughly. And we actually find a large supply of MREs, which the military use for, for long term food. And this could keep us surviving for quite a long time. And maybe we can finally take that trip you're talking about.

[Paul Scheer]

Makes sense. I would even so go so far as to say at this point, this container ship that you're talking about, it clearly has supplies into it, because I'm trying to think of what would be a great way for, for you to get in, although could be a breach.

[Rachel]

I mean, the blessing and the curse of Australia is that basically everything has to be shipped to the continent. So everything that you need to survive comes on a container ship someplace.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah, there is a giant container ship that has a lot of stuff inside of it. So let's do this because this sounds fun, right? Let's have this point be where you see the container ship is untouched. It very clearly has come in. In fact, you can still see it's a, it's a Panamax, you know, which means that it's basically the biggest a ship can get to still go through the Panama Canal. And you can, looking at it, can see that containers have fallen off for sure. Like it's not the stacked rig that you would expect, but you do see several containers that are still inside of it. And conveniently enough, there is a breach that is just big enough on ground level because, you know, Panamax ships, they go deep before you get to anywhere close to the hull line. So you're talking like I'm gonna get reality checked here again, I'm sure as well. But, you know, at least 50, if not 60ft deep. Sure. You know, and so that you have to get into the ship, you have.

[Rachel]

To at least get onto the ship.

[Paul Scheer]

Onto the ship.

[Jason Charles Miller]

Yes.

[Paul Scheer]

And whether you want to climb the 50 or 60ft to go in, you'll probably have to go through some kind of breach on the bulkhead.

[Amy Nicholson]

Does this ship still float when the tide comes in?

[Paul Scheer]

Well, it did when it came in. Whether it does when the tide comes back in is going to be a whole different story.

[Rachel]

But here as the tide is out.

[Jason Charles Miller]

Thinking that could be our new home.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah.

[Rachel]

With the tide out there, is there debris from other structures and other boats and things that have piled up or that we can pile up near it to get to that hull breach or even possibly to climb onto the deck.

[Paul Scheer]

Do you want to start making something in order to climb back up, to climb up onto the ship, so to speak?

[Rachel]

Well, I thought I overheard you saying there was a breach near the shore. I thought maybe I would just secure our exit with some debris that's nearby and go ahead and take advantage of it.

[Paul Scheer]

Okay. All right, so you want to utilize the breach, but you're saying something about securing your exit.

[Rachel]

What does that mean? Just so that there's something else there besides just the earth that we're climbing upon, just piling up what we can drag easily with our hands. There's at least something else outside of that door in case the.

[Amy Nicholson]

There's gotta be rope, right? Let's look for rope.

[Rachel]

There are probably buoy lines hanging down in some places.

[Paul Scheer]

There's a whole bunch of maybe is what's going on here. So let's. There is a quick way to solve all of this and that is to gain narrative control. So. Ooh, one for me, one for you.

[Rachel]

A whole bunch of six for me.

[Paul Scheer]

All right, hold on. No, not as many sixes as you. Okay, so take it away.

[Rachel]

So we noticed this hull breach, and there's a fishing ship that is also listing nearby. And on top of that, on the deck of that fishing vessel, there are crab pots that are easy to stack up like cubes. So we throw some of those crab pots down and grab rope off the deck of that fishing ship and climb into that hole in the breach, bringing the rope. There wasn't a flashlight on the deck, so there's no extra light for inside the hull. But there are hard hooks to pull up the fishing line. So I grab one of those and hand a trident hook off to Jack so that at least we can bang the hall to hear each other and potentially be able to grab things as you go. But it is going to be dark inside.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah, you'll be dark, but at least you'll have some way to sluss it out, so to speak. So as you're doing this work, you're putting it together, and it takes a while. This is not a small 15 minute task you're having to pull out the crates, stack them on. At this point, what you've been wearing is rags made up of whatever you still have left over, like wrapped feet. You've tried to create as much surface area as possible, knowing that the mud has been treacherous every single time you go down. So you look like a bunch of shipwreck survivors working on this giant beast of a metal container ship out in the middle of the you know, middle of the Australian. Well, you're not in the full outback, but you're definitely in a valley dip laid out in the North Eastern territory. So. And at that point, that's when you see that the light, the bright red light is growing brighter and it is getting bigger. And even just in the few minutes of you starting to work, you see a flash of light just come down. And you watch as something hundreds of miles away to be fair, hundred miles away, but just something Ka tum just lands right into the middle of it. And you watch as a dust cloud, almost like an atomic mushroom just comes up far enough in the distance. And you count 1, 1,000, 2 1,000, 3, 1,000, 4, 1,000 as you wait for that inevitable shockwave to come. What do you want it to do?

[Amy Nicholson]

We need to take cover.

[Rachel]

I want to take cover inside the kitchen.

[Amy Nicholson]

We should get inside.

[Eliza]

Yeah, take cover.

[Paul Scheer]

Take cover.

[Rachel]

Is this the first time we've seen something like this strike? The.

[Paul Scheer]

It's huge.

[Eliza]

And did it come from. Is the red. You mean the red dot turned into that? Basically. Okay.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah.

[Amy Nicholson]

Okay.

[Rachel]

Oh, Ren.

[Paul Scheer]

Three ones.

[Rachel]

Ren, you did not make enough.

[Eliza]

You can also burn something too.

[Paul Scheer]

Did you want option to burn three?

[Amy Nicholson]

Yes, two.

[Paul Scheer]

Okay. Would you like what's on top?

[Amy Nicholson]

I. My vice is ravenous.

[Paul Scheer]

Okay.

[Amy Nicholson]

Which I. I.

[Paul Scheer]

How would you apply ravenous in this circumstance?

[Amy Nicholson]

I. Very ravenously. We need to get inside now. Now, now, now. I'm just very, very. Oh, God. I'm very motivated to force everyone in.

[Paul Scheer]

All right, roll those three. Oh, look at that.

[Amy Nicholson]

Well, they're not ones.

[Paul Scheer]

Mitigated ones. Sometimes that's all that matters. It's just to have them not be ones. Great. So tell me the story how you duck and cover before this. Well, I'll tell you just how bad it is once you get behind cover.

[Amy Nicholson]

All right, so we've sort of built up not maybe quite where we wanted to with this pile of things, but enough that it's made a difference. And we just run into the side of the hole. And luckily there's kind of enough light that. That we can see a door almost as we enter it. Yeah. And so we immediately open that up, go on the other side and shut it.

[Paul Scheer]

Water just sloshes out as soon as you open the door. It's like the preferential. The pressure differential just kind of forces out. I wouldn't say like. Well, no, I would say kind of like not a swimming pool amount of water, but like a hot tub sized amount of water just kind of comes out and that's when you can still see on the horizon this kind of mushroom cloud come out. And you can see as this waving, just slow wave of dust as it comes in. You slam the door behind you as you hear the boat. Just as you feel it just tilt for a second second, but it holds into it. But you hear all of your debris, the items that you scattered right outside, it just kind of crackle and shake. And some just kind of. You can't tell if it has all collapsed, but you can hear it as just something just smacks the boat with such force and weight that it sends you all off kilter. But the boat doesn't tip. What do you want to do?

[Amy Nicholson]

We should try to find a way up through the boat.

[Rachel]

We need supplies more now than ever. Whether that was extraterrestrial or an asteroid or a piece of satellite debris. Yeah, this is not gonna stop.

[Eliza]

Did we find. Yeah, we found food.

[Jason Charles Miller]

Right.

[Eliza]

We found some supplies.

[Paul Scheer]

Oh, yeah. You definitely know they're all on the ship, but now it's time to get them. A container ship just wouldn't have random food lying around. They wouldn't eat containers.

[Eliza]

So we've been looking for them. So now we need to just, like, fill our packs and now it's time.

[Paul Scheer]

To get into it. Yeah, I think. I think it's not. I think I want to explore this container ship. If you're into the ship.

[Rachel]

So we're inside the hull of the ship and we've closed the door behind us.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah, we closed the door behind us.

[Rachel]

It is darker now than it has been for the last three weeks. We are inside.

[Paul Scheer]

You're literally in blackness, which is lovely. And I will say that the one last bit about this terrestrial thing that came into the Earth, just to make it very clear, is that it was not. It was definitely. It looked like an asteroid, like, as far as its size. And it definitely impacted with enough force that you could feel the shockwave a couple of hundred miles away. So go ahead.

[Amy Nicholson]

I did a film, which I played. I was a pirate, but it was on a container ship. And in the lower docks, they have a lot of, like, along the walls, first aid K. And things like that. And sometimes you'll have, like, flares or those crackle glow things. Yeah, yeah. We should, like, everyone fool around.

[Rachel]

Yeah.

[Amy Nicholson]

See if maybe you can find something on the side. Or maybe even if we find, like, pipes, we can follow them.

[Rachel]

Right, right, right.

[Amy Nicholson]

Yeah.

[Paul Scheer]

So you start moving your hands around, you lob into it, and you're, you know, again, pitch blackness. This thing Creaks and moans with every step that you make. But eventually you do kind of find some pipeline and you begin following it at least to a ladder that will take you up to a next deck at this point. And you said you're basically looking for flares and looking for anything else that you can use.

[Amy Nicholson]

Less flares and more like flashlights or those like.

[Rachel]

I mean if we find a flare, I'm definitely tucking that in my pocket.

[Paul Scheer]

Well, nothing has happened yet.

[Rachel]

I'm just saying I just don't want.

[Amy Nicholson]

To light flare inside the boat.

[Paul Scheer]

Well, I think that's fine. So what we can I think do is definitely find some of the emergency lighting like the breaking fluorescent ones. And you kind of move around and you feel a box kind of open. And it's one of the very available medkits that exist on every single deck of this ship. And you grasp it and hold onto it. Your in depth knowledge of playing this role has kind of grabbed it and you just immediately feel that satisfying snap and you shake it as you watch as this bright green light now starts to bathe all four of you in this limited, limited movability space. I mean the container ships are tight. It's a big ship, but they're small causeways until you get up onto the top deck.

[Rachel]

So.

[Eliza]

Okay.

[Amy Nicholson]

We also. I bet this ship has a radio room. It might have a working radio.

[Rachel]

Yeah, I don't, I don't think that I want to go looking for, for the office deck where people may have been when we could look for resources first. I mean, there may be a radio, but, but where and how do we find it? We know how to find containers. We need to get to the deck. They'll be there.

[Paul Scheer]

All right.

[Amy Nicholson]

I'm just saying we also like getting food for today is great and all, but we need to start planning. Like this has been going on for I don't even know how long and it's not gonna stop. We have to be able to survive past a day.

[Jason Charles Miller]

Well, if we get to the deck, we can find the, where the crew might have been to. So we can kill two birds with one stone and we can start searching the containers. And you know, if you're squeamish about finding dead bodies or something, I can go there while you look through the containers. Radio would be important. If there's anybody out there, if there's any shelter we need to get to, if there's military somewhere that are creating areas, safe zones, it would be worth it to try to communicate.

[Rachel]

I'm not saying it's not important. I'm just saying. Do you know where it is in the ship? We know how to find one thing, we don't know how to find the other.

[Jason Charles Miller]

Well, I mean, usually it's at the highest point, so we should be able to find it.

[Paul Scheer]

So at this point, the big thing it sounds like is just to get topside, just to get up onto the deck. And you begin slowly kind of climbing up the ladders. And you do see at several points that you're coming up the main deck. And you know, you're hearing the of you climbing up the stoops and you go to reach the door. And mercifully it opens as you pop open one. And you feel as more water slushes down into you. And you pop it open and you get up into the mid deck, which is where you are. And that's when you do start to see the bodies floating face down in the midst of this area. You've displayed place some of the water. But since the boat is listing, there is an area you're all kind of walking on a slant. So you have one hand on a wall while you're basically walking in the corners of each one of the causeways. And towards the end where the ship is, you can see where several pieces of the hull have broken off. And there is. You can't get to them because of how far they have fallen between the breaks in the deck. But there are definitely. There was a crew here, but not anymore. At least these ones aren't alive.

[Rachel]

There's a smell I know all too well of decaying flesh and illness and sickness. And it smells like that here. There is nothing here that is safe. We have to get off this deck as fast as possible.

[Paul Scheer]

So you move up to the next rung to go up to the next mid deck. And you start to climb up and that's when you grab ahold of it again and you start wrenching it and you unlock unlocks. But as you start to try to push it up and push and push, you are. It's not moving. It's not moving at all. It's so much resistance.

[Amy Nicholson]

There's gotta be something blocking it on the other side. Yeah, we have to find another way.

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[Paul Scheer]

C site for details can we get out and around?

[Jason Charles Miller]

I mean, a lot of those have ladders on the outside and.

[Paul Scheer]

Yep.

[Jason Charles Miller]

All right.

[Amy Nicholson]

Roll better than me.

[Paul Scheer]

One, one, two, six sixes. All right, let me see if I can assume narrative control. Two sixes. Ah. I'm so sorry, Jack. The ties go to the gm. You succeed. Let me make this abundantly clear. You do succeed. There is another way around. I just have the pleasure of narrating it versus you. So you jar this thing, attempting to move it up, and you step back down, knowing that there has to just be another way around. This can't be the only way to get up into it. And you find as you are going through this U shaped deck that you found to get to the other side of the ship, the side of which the ship is listing the most. You go down and you see that there is a. A water line that's right laid up in front of you as it goes deeper into the deck. It is black, it is dark. There is no light. But you do know that just based off of the symmetry of this ship, that there has to be a matching ladder going up to the top side on the other side of this ship. And there is. Yeah, that is. That is what I have. So who wants to dive into the depths?

[Amy Nicholson]

I'll do it.

[Jason Charles Miller]

Did you train in swimming in one of your roles?

[Amy Nicholson]

Trained in lots of things, Jack. I'm a very versatile actress.

[Rachel]

Ren, if there's a body, just please try not to to touch it. It can bring all kinds of disease with it if you do.

[Amy Nicholson]

I'm not planning on touching the bodies.

[Rachel]

I'm just asking you to be careful, okay?

[Eliza]

Sometimes the bodies will touch you.

[Paul Scheer]

All right? Okay. Ties go to the GM wren. You kind of strip off whatever extraneous clothes that aren't necessary, at least in this regard, and you kind of get ready for what you know is going to be the shockingly cold water that's going to be approaching you soon.

[Amy Nicholson]

I'm very disciplined.

[Paul Scheer]

Disciplined. And you kind of put your. Start getting your feet in there. Or I mean, I'll add this. Are we going in slow or are we just diving straight in?

[Amy Nicholson]

Just diving.

[Paul Scheer]

All right.

[Amy Nicholson]

Well, I check the temperature first, because if you dive in and it's too much of a difference and your body's not prepared, your heart can stop, you can chop. So I test it first.

[Paul Scheer]

And then freezing cold, but not like polar ice caps cold. Okay, okay. But we're talking like a solid 51, 50 degrees cold. All right, so you kind of winter cold. Winter cold. Yep. So you dive in and you feel as your whole body just tingles, as this kind of bristling needles rise up your body as the cold shocks you and you start to push your hands as you get deeper into the deck. And at that point, that's when you start feeling things colliding into you. And you do see as a moment comes by as you kind of feel more than anything just grime and this weird film kind of come across your body, and you can't tell if it was a fish or another body or something, but it is just leaking up you as you feel like various resistance as you're pushing deeper into the water. And you slowly grab into it. And just about when your lungs are starting to scream, you start to grab and pull yourself up. And that burning sensation, that feeling as you put your hands up into the air and feel, bong, bong, bong, the top of the causeway. And you put your head up and you realize there's no air there. There's just nothing for the moment. So you start moving your hands side to side as much as you possibly can. And finally, for a moment, you just as you feel a little bit of air, as you grasp something in your lungs, you reach around in the dark. It's oppressing. Just nothing. There's nothing there. I mean, as far as you're concerned, you can't even see the hand in front of your face, face. And you're relying solely on touch as you kind of pat your hand around and look for something. And you feel the latch. That's close, but it's in this awkward position where you're going to have to hold onto it. You have to go under the water in order to get both hands into it and rung. One more for me.

[Eliza]

Come on.

[Paul Scheer]

Come on, Wren.

[Amy Nicholson]

It's fine. It's all special effects. It's not real.

[Paul Scheer]

There's a set map.

[Jason Charles Miller]

You do all your own stunts Right.

[Amy Nicholson]

Obviously, we can't afford stunt people.

[Rachel]

There's a rescue diver anywhere nearby.

[Paul Scheer]

Okay. It just gets. I get more dice. But, oh, no, this one's still mine.

[Rachel]

I get one.

[Paul Scheer]

So you wrench open the door and you pull. Pull it as you feel as the weight of whatever was on top of it just comes in. And you feel as this door just slaps you into the side of the head as the weight of pressing it down just kind of gets you. And you can feel for a moment this warm, hot, like, feeling against the top of your skull as you kind of lift your hand around. But you all on the other side just see as bubbles just.

[Rachel]

We gotta hear the sound.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah, yeah. And you hear not only the weight of the door being released, but you do watch. It's like a. And then water just comes up again and kind of rocks back and forth. Ren ryn as you climb in and feel a desperate gasp of air as, like a water bottle that's been turned upside down, it just is glugging out. And you grab a desperate gasp of air as you get in to the upper deck.

[Amy Nicholson]

Okay. And then I'm going to try to find where the other. Where they are and see if I can clear.

[Paul Scheer]

Oh, double back. Yeah, you double back on the U shape. This deck is a lot cleaner. It just seems to have just been washed out more than anything. The lower deck is where it looks like everybody will was when it went down. But this deck seems a lot cleaner. And actually, you get over to the other side and notice that there's nothing obstructing it. Probably the reason that it wasn't opening is because there was so much water sitting on it at that point. And even though you were in an area where there was less air, you could not for the life of you push it up because there was just so much water pressure on top of it. So.

[Eliza]

So no.

[Amy Nicholson]

So I'm gonna open it.

[Rachel]

Yay.

[Paul Scheer]

You open it.

[Amy Nicholson]

Hey, guys.

[Eliza]

Wren.

[Amy Nicholson]

Do you still have that first aid kit?

[Eliza]

Yeah.

[Amy Nicholson]

Okay, cool.

[Eliza]

I want to say I was holding her stuff while she dove, so I have your clothes and pull out their med kit. Phlebotomist. Do you want to help with this?

[Jason Charles Miller]

I'm impressed. Did some Navy seals train you for some movie?

[Eliza]

That was amazing.

[Amy Nicholson]

I've just worked in really gross sets before, so I just kind of pretended that's what was going on.

[Eliza]

I pull out an ice pack and gauze and clean up her wound. Put some ice on it.

[Paul Scheer]

I'm so sorry. There's no ice.

[Eliza]

Okay. Or no there's not an ice pack in the first cave kit.

[Amy Nicholson]

The cracky ones.

[Paul Scheer]

Oh, cracky ones, yes. Crack and shake. Yep. Chemical.

[Eliza]

Chemical.

[Rachel]

And I look at all that, and I look at the slick that is on her body, and I know that that is the decay of human life that has been bleeding into the water. And my first priority is to clean that wound to try and prevent any of that from getting into her system.

[Paul Scheer]

Right? You sit down and you just start.

[Rachel]

Wiping, just ruthlessly with every alcohol wipe I can. No amount of wincing is gonna stop me from getting that clean and clearing as much of that area as possible.

[Paul Scheer]

Ren. Cheese. Cheese. Not kind about cleaning you.

[Amy Nicholson]

That is fine. I appreciate you cleaning this. Please just do not talk about what is on me right now. I don't want to hear about it.

[Paul Scheer]

So it's tough, Janae. It's tough in the pitch darkness that you are in at the moment, but you are doing everything you can using your tactile sense and the glow. And my glow stick and your glow stick that's in there. But you're just.

[Rachel]

And part of it is I just know what that smell is. That smell on. That's not the smell of oil or something.

[Paul Scheer]

That's no. Who knows how long those bodies have been in there.

[Rachel]

And every time you take off a bandage that's been on for a week or 10 days, that's what it smells like underneath.

[Paul Scheer]

It's rancid flesh. So you scrub her as much as you can, knowing that she's been immersed.

[Rachel]

In this for a while, especially nose, mouth, ears, and the wound. All those places that. That can get in there.

[Paul Scheer]

You've been playing Outbreak for so long. Look at you.

[Rachel]

Daphne's scary, man.

[Paul Scheer]

You clean her thoroughly.

[Rachel]

I mean, as thoroughly as I can with handy wipes, essentially. There's not much in here, so I stay really focused on the most important areas. The arms are gonna have to take care of themselves.

[Paul Scheer]

You do what you can, and you do pretty much use up whatever's left inside of the first aid kit at this point. But this. Like I described to Ren earlier, this main deck, this upper deck, is a lot less devoid of the remnants of humans as the lower deck was. So you get up to the next part without a whole lot of extra issues. In fact, this one doesn't even have lock into it. It's probably one of the reasons why there was so much water inside of it is because it just kind of came in and fell into the midline deck. So you get up to the main area, back into the Bathing iridescent moonlight that has been so oppressive. And it was weird. Being even below, like, with anything other than the moon was awful and terrifying, but it was also more familiar.

[Rachel]

It was funny. It reminded me of this yoga retreat we took out in the Mojave Desert where all we had were glow sticks in the middle of the night. And we just did vinyasas by the moonlight with glow sticks. And it's. I mean, it's funny what things can make you feel homesick in the dark.

[Eliza]

Made me think of when I actually would sleep. Like, actually sleep, you know, in darkness without, you know, fear. That old thing.

[Rachel]

Remember blackout curtains and how they were great.

[Eliza]

Yeah.

[Paul Scheer]

Well, you get to the top of the deck and you do see that the container ship, for what it's worth, the top line, there's still a few left on there. And there is the ladder or the steps that lead up into the crew quarters.

[Jason Charles Miller]

And the bridge is up there too.

[Paul Scheer]

In the bridge where the radio might be.

[Rachel]

Thank God you know that.

[Jason Charles Miller]

So, okay, I can go to the bridge and look for the radio while.

[Rachel]

You guys check, see if any of these containers can be opened, right?

[Eliza]

Yeah, look for resources. And you doing a radio.

[Amy Nicholson]

Is this on an exposed top deck or.

[Paul Scheer]

It's an exposed top deck, yeah.

[Amy Nicholson]

Okay, well, you. You shouldn't go alone.

[Rachel]

I'm gonna go two and two.

[Eliza]

I'll go. Yeah, I'll go with you.

[Rachel]

Okay.

[Amy Nicholson]

Okay, I'll go with you.

[Jason Charles Miller]

Okay, great.

[Paul Scheer]

So let's look in some container ships.

[Amy Nicholson]

Let's look in some container ships.

[Paul Scheer]

Let's look in some containers on the container ship.

[Amy Nicholson]

Wow, nice.

[Rachel]

Okay.

[Paul Scheer]

Just killing it, all you kids. Just killing it.

[Rachel]

God bless Australia. And it's desperate need for everything to be shipped here.

[Paul Scheer]

So no ones.

[Jason Charles Miller]

I've got a mechanics question really quick.

[Paul Scheer]

Yes, if I can.

[Jason Charles Miller]

Oh, just like a game.

[Paul Scheer]

Mechanics. Why.

[Jason Charles Miller]

How many die is determined by you.

[Paul Scheer]

So at the beginning of the session, we started with 10 dice, right? Every single time a one is rolled, I pull one out and it goes to me.

[Jason Charles Miller]

Got it?

[Paul Scheer]

And this dice pool will exist until someone rolls a roll that has no sixes inside of it. So as long as sixes continue to be a result, you can keep using this dice pool.

[Rachel]

Oh, so it's not. When we run out, it's no sixes.

[Paul Scheer]

No sixes.

[Amy Nicholson]

So at any point, we could lose.

[Paul Scheer]

So we need these, which is why that roll. But then at the point, what will happen is that after that fails, we will darken a can and then we will refresh with nine dice for the Next scene.

[Eliza]

Oh, okay.

[Paul Scheer]

Oh, look at that. Four sixes.

[Eliza]

How.

[Amy Nicholson]

But you're such a beautiful storyteller.

[Eliza]

And so kind.

[Amy Nicholson]

So kind.

[Paul Scheer]

As you kind of start moving over towards the containers, you can see that a lot of them are. They've been bent and warped and kind of twisted because they're on the top deck. But there are a few that have at least been cracked open enough to where presumably you could slip inside to do a similar deal where you can go unlock it from the inside. A lot of the containers do have just, you know, they're kind of just levers that you pull up and then you slide them out. Only a few of them have taken the extra precaution of actually locking the containers itself. Because the whole point of having a shipping company is they're supposed to ensure the trip, right? Unless literally pirates go and take it over.

[Rachel]

Look, we don't need the electronics, we just need the food, right?

[Paul Scheer]

That is the problem is that a lot of these containers do have just bulk junk inside of it. Toys, electronics, a lot of just goods that are being brought in at the same time. Eventually you do find one that is. Well, at least it. No, it wouldn't be refrigerated and if it did, it wouldn't matter at this point, you do find one that does have some dry goods inside of it. You know, even you find probably more rice than you will ever need in your entire life laid out in an entire container ship. Like 20 pound bags stacked on pallets that fill up an entire container.

[Eliza]

And we brought our fork, Mac.

[Paul Scheer]

Right. As you are watching this though, Janae as like Monica is searching through it and what do think you. Do you say anything when this rice.

[Eliza]

Ugh, jackpot. Okay. All right, we got some rice.

[Rachel]

Look, millions of people all over the world have lived off of rice for thousands of years.

[Eliza]

Yeah, you don't need to tell me why rice is good.

[Rachel]

I'm just so excited.

[Eliza]

I throw her a bag if she's close enough.

[Paul Scheer]

Just a 20 pound bag.

[Eliza]

20 bag.

[Paul Scheer]

It just hits you straight in the body.

[Eliza]

I also do want to grab. Was it in a different container when I found the electronics. I do want to grab some to cords to have his backup rope or something that we could use later.

[Paul Scheer]

You pull up enough, it's just a.

[Eliza]

Few electronics cords, right?

[Paul Scheer]

You had the light of this bit. You have the light of the glow sticks with you, but you just pull whatever at this point, knowing it's useless.

[Eliza]

But you know, only useful as like a, like a tourniquet or something.

[Paul Scheer]

So you grab and mishmash some stuff. And, Janae, as you kind of grab this bag of rice, you start to see that it's snowing. There is snow. There's gray ash kind of coming down around you as you look up and see at this point now there is a gray sky above you. The moon, which was part of the whole process here that you could see so vividly with such a clear sky. And every little pockmark is now hazy as you're watching small snowflakes of ash that seem to be dropping down upon you. Yeah. Get that bag of rice, though.

[Rachel]

I'm going to grab two bags of rice, Throw one over each shoulder.

[Eliza]

Yeah. I'm strapping them to my bags.

[Paul Scheer]

Two bags. Jack and Wren.

[Amy Nicholson]

We should check out the crew quarters. There may be clothes there we can have.

[Jason Charles Miller]

Could be some food there, too, if it's MREs or some sort of preserved food.

[Amy Nicholson]

Yeah. They may have medicine cabinets.

[Jason Charles Miller]

Mm.

[Amy Nicholson]

Might find something to help you sleep.

[Jason Charles Miller]

Maybe. Maybe so. I'd sleep better if I knew there was a place we could go, though. So maybe finding the radio.

[Amy Nicholson]

Yeah.

[Jason Charles Miller]

Is sort of my number one priority. But. Okay, let's search for both.

[Amy Nicholson]

Right.

[Paul Scheer]

All right. Radio. Is that what I'm hearing?

[Jason Charles Miller]

I'm going for radio.

[Paul Scheer]

See how much and what happens. Such a scavenging trip. One, six. No ones. All right.

[Amy Nicholson]

I think we're about to hear an Ivan story.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah. So many Ivan stories. As you get up into the main area, you do. You do absolutely see that the bridge for what it is, is intact. The windows were blown out ages ago, and there's nothing in. And everything is waterlogged at this point. It's just water, or at least the remnants of what was water is there. And this is actually when you can kind of see how dilapidated the building is. The building. The ship. More. You can see that rust is starting to take over the ship. The see, like, corrode. The sea salt is corroding the metal. And it's not ridiculous. But you can definitely see that it's been neglected for definitely a couple of weeks at this point, and at least a week. So as you kind of are going around, you do see a radio is there, but you can see the battery has long, like, the radio is intact, but it is not powered by any stretch of the imagination.

[Jason Charles Miller]

How big is it? Is it something I could unhinge, could probably unhook and then take it with us?

[Paul Scheer]

At least those are meant to be taken apart and replaced, so you can absolutely unscrew it. And now you have radio.

[Jason Charles Miller]

Yeah.

[Paul Scheer]

With your hand.

[Jason Charles Miller]

These are like a backpack or.

[Amy Nicholson]

Oh, yeah. Or like a bag. Somewhere in the room there's gotta be.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah, sure. Let's go. Go for it. You find a cloth satchel and you just shove that thing in there. It's bulky, and you kind of feel its little metal ends prong you because it's just kind of holding out into it. And that's when you start to see the ash coming down as well, too. From the outside.

[Jason Charles Miller]

Do I feel it's from the alleged asteroid that hit?

[Paul Scheer]

Hard to tell.

[Eliza]

True.

[Paul Scheer]

You know, I mean, you definitely know that, like, what was once a clear sky is now filled with ash and dust. Right.

[Amy Nicholson]

You know, we are on the. So we're basically like in the. In the radio room or like in the bridge area.

[Paul Scheer]

The bridge for a container ship. We're just gonna. For the purposes of the story, we're just gonna say they're in the same area. The bridge is where the radio would be. Comms are. And if they aren't, they're literally just up a single deck. Like a single room away in that main area.

[Amy Nicholson]

So I'm going to look around for, like a. A supply closet or something that might have, like, masks.

[Paul Scheer]

Oh, face masks.

[Amy Nicholson]

Face masks, yeah.

[Paul Scheer]

Just.

[Eliza]

I should have looked for batteries in the container.

[Jason Charles Miller]

We can always look now, hopefully.

[Eliza]

Yeah.

[Jason Charles Miller]

Until we die chucking a B.

[Paul Scheer]

No sixes.

[Eliza]

No sixes.

[Paul Scheer]

So can I have the dice, please? You start going through the closets as you're trying to find anything you possibly can, and you begin to kind of move around and looking into it. And that's when you start to hear the. Something is banging metal on metal. Inside of this supply area where you're currently in. Something is trying to get out of one of the lockers. So this is the part of the game. Good news. We go back to nine dice.

[Rachel]

Tiny blessings.

[Paul Scheer]

Tiny blessings.

[Eliza]

It's real good.

[Paul Scheer]

Let me see. 5. Oh, okay. Good to know. But we have to speak nine truths. Nine truths about the story, something moving forward.

[Rachel]

That's still 10 dice.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah, nine dice. So we have nine dice, nine truths that need to be spoken about the story. Moving forward. Now, Ren, you've failed this conflict, which means you get the pleasure of starting with the first truth. Now, remember, whatever you say is true. So moving forward, moving back. As long as it makes for the story. Well, so.

[Amy Nicholson]

So what? I mean, what sort of truth is this?

[Paul Scheer]

Would you like an example? Yes. Would you like me to go first to give you an example?

[Amy Nicholson]

Yes.

[Jason Charles Miller]

So that will be one of the.

[Paul Scheer]

Nine truths that Will be one of the nine truths. All right. First truth, always. The world is dark. That will always stay true. I'll give you an example of the first truth in this next scene. The boat is going to fall over. That is a truth. Now you would speak the next truth.

[Amy Nicholson]

This vessel has lifeboats on it.

[Paul Scheer]

That is the truth. So two, three.

[Rachel]

The cloud of ash begins to thicken and looks from the skyline like it could become suffocating.

[Paul Scheer]

Cool boar.

[Eliza]

Ren finds gas masks for all of us.

[Paul Scheer]

Excellent.

[Jason Charles Miller]

Whatever's banging trying to get in, we will be able to defeat it.

[Paul Scheer]

Okay. It's the truth.

[Jason Charles Miller]

Okay.

[Paul Scheer]

So 1, 2, 3.

[Jason Charles Miller]

That was 5.

[Paul Scheer]

So you spoke the fifth one. Now 6. We'll go back to urine.

[Amy Nicholson]

There's someone still alive on this ship.

[Paul Scheer]

Okay. All right. And then you, Janae.

[Rachel]

As light starts to pierce the thickening cloud, the creatures start to sing louder and louder.

[Paul Scheer]

The creatures are singing louder. Okay, eight.

[Amy Nicholson]

Just make it about kittens.

[Paul Scheer]

The thing that is alive is a cat. You're welcome.

[Amy Nicholson]

Did that to myself.

[Paul Scheer]

You're the last one.

[Eliza]

Okay. The thing that is alive as a cat. Okay. And the singing. The creatures are singing.

[Paul Scheer]

Yes.

[Eliza]

We all find weapons on this ship.

[Paul Scheer]

Nine truths, nine candles. We're gonna open up this scene. Doesn't sound like anyone did any time jumps. So we're gonna open up this scene pretty much right where we left off with banging of something that's coming from inside of this grate right now. And it's hard. All you hear is the banging at this point. And you can.

[Rachel]

Is it a grate or it's a locker?

[Paul Scheer]

It's a locker. Okay. Yeah, it's a locker at this point. So what do you want to do?

[Jason Charles Miller]

I get my knife out. I ready myself.

[Paul Scheer]

Hello.

[Amy Nicholson]

I. I look around for, like a. Like a. I'm assuming I found a weapon. So I have a. Yeah, you did. I have an axe in my hand.

[Paul Scheer]

Oh, yeah.

[Amy Nicholson]

One of the. The safety axes for the wall. Do you want to open it or should I open it or I.

[Jason Charles Miller]

I'll open it.

[Amy Nicholson]

Okay. All right. Okay.

[Paul Scheer]

So, Jack, you won up to it. You kind of put up against to it and you keep your knife out.

[Jason Charles Miller]

And you don't hit me with that.

[Amy Nicholson]

No. Okay.

[Paul Scheer]

All right.

[Jason Charles Miller]

Get over on that side.

[Paul Scheer]

All right.

[Amy Nicholson]

Okay.

[Paul Scheer]

You lift and pull, and you kind of lift it and you feel as something just bangs it right open. And it hits against your arm as the locker kind of comes over. And you hear as you just watch. It's like a small cat. Just like darts from which way in Every single direction possible. And kind of looks around, and you can see there was a cat cradle that was inside of this thing, but then the whole front had just been ripped open over the course of time. And it just smells of piths and fecal matter and everything that is inside of this thing.

[Jason Charles Miller]

Way to make it not cute.

[Paul Scheer]

And you look out and you see this disheveled. Well, what color is it?

[Amy Nicholson]

It's a tabby cat.

[Paul Scheer]

It's a tabby.

[Amy Nicholson]

A gray tabby.

[Paul Scheer]

Gray tabby. As it kind of looks around, and it's disjointed because of the list that the ship is on. So it's kind of more climbing than it is crawling at this point, but it goes right under one of the consoles and just is back against the wall. So. Yeah. What do you do?

[Amy Nicholson]

Well, I put the axe down, and I immediately kind of squat down in the ground and kind of go towards it, and I'm just like, hey. Hey, buddy. Oh, my gosh. Is there another canvas bag somewhere?

[Paul Scheer]

You have his canvas bag that's got the radio inside of it.

[Amy Nicholson]

I'm deserving another one.

[Paul Scheer]

Sure. Yeah.

[Amy Nicholson]

Okay. So I grabbed another canvas bag, and I just basically tried to get the cat, but very quiet.

[Paul Scheer]

Nicely get the cat in the bag. Conflict. I can't think of a better conflict. Right.

[Eliza]

You're wrangling a cat.

[Amy Nicholson]

I. You know, it's tired. It just needs to sleep. It's gonna calm it down.

[Paul Scheer]

Probably eat.

[Rachel]

Popped in a locker.

[Amy Nicholson]

I'm so hungry.

[Paul Scheer]

No sixes. I'm getting one.

[Amy Nicholson]

Okay, well, I have to burn this.

[Paul Scheer]

Yes, you have to. Whatever it is, you have to burn it. Yeah.

[Amy Nicholson]

Oh, man. Okay.

[Paul Scheer]

What is it?

[Amy Nicholson]

It's my hope.

[Paul Scheer]

What's the hope?

[Amy Nicholson]

That I will learn my brother is safe.

[Paul Scheer]

That is not something you can burn.

[Amy Nicholson]

Oh, okay.

[Paul Scheer]

Unfortunately. And it was the one on top. So you cannot burn a dice for this round.

[Amy Nicholson]

So by trying to catch a cat, I've just ended the round.

[Paul Scheer]

You've ended the scene.

[Amy Nicholson]

Oh, my God. Guys, I shouldn't roll anymore.

[Paul Scheer]

Just.

[Amy Nicholson]

Oh, God.

[Paul Scheer]

Eight dice. Eight truths. As you, Ren, are trying to grab this canvas bag and shove it back into a container, of which it has just escaped from a container, you attempt to grab it by the scruff of the neck and push it in, but it takes both of its arms, its little claws, and it just rakes it across the side of your arms, and you can feel these little stings as it just pulls onto your skin. You get to speak the first truth, though.

[Amy Nicholson]

Eventually, the cat calms down.

[Paul Scheer]

All right. Eventually, the cat calms down. Janae.

[Rachel]

Oh, my God. The cat's claws were filthy and her arms are covered in decay. There's no question that she is gonna be infected.

[Amy Nicholson]

Thanks, Janae.

[Paul Scheer]

Even though it didn't transpire in the last scene, as a result, I will benevolently extend my truth to say that the mud that is settling is slowly keeping the boat to a tilt. You haven't noticed it yet, but the angle is getting more and more dramatic as this container ship is sinking into the mud. Wanaka.

[Eliza]

I want to go practical, but also.

[Paul Scheer]

What makes the best story.

[Jason Charles Miller]

We.

[Eliza]

We have to move on from here.

[Paul Scheer]

If you'd like, you can use truths to do things to expedite it. For example, if you wanted to say, we get off the ship. That is a truth. If you'd like it to be. If you don't think that serves the story in the best way, then you don't have to do that. That. But if you're trying to say we need to get off this ship, then you can tell me a truth that makes that. That makes that possible.

[Eliza]

We. Yeah, I guess we get off the ship.

[Paul Scheer]

All right. I want to make sure that's your choice, though. I didn't want to feed that to you, so.

[Eliza]

No, we find another shelter. That's what I want to say. Okay, we find a new shelter.

[Paul Scheer]

Find a new shelter.

[Eliza]

Yeah.

[Paul Scheer]

Okay. Okay, great.

[Jason Charles Miller]

We find batteries that work with the radio.

[Paul Scheer]

Yes, batteries that work with the radio. Okay. You're all being so good to each other. Let's see, that's 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

[Amy Nicholson]

Before we left, we did find clothes in the crew quarters.

[Paul Scheer]

You found some clothes? 6, 7.

[Rachel]

The sound of the creature singing has taken on a round quality. It's not in unison. We can. You can hear an echoing and a passing of each other. They know what's coming.

[Paul Scheer]

This asynchronous harmony that they're creating. As you've left the ship, you realize that they have formed a circle around you. Eight candles, eight truths. The story picks up with Monica, you had spoken that you found a new shelter. You got off of this ship with some clothes, with some food. Wren, as you've been making your way off the ship with this cat, who, as per your truth, has calmed down. You're kind of holding it in this bag. It's wrapped, though, real tight. You are descending, and you can tell that. That your arms are getting really hot. Like it's starting to feel like. You can definitely tell the scratches. They have cut deep. And you. Well, but at the Same time, you're just very happy to have the warmth of another body that's laid so close to you, something so innocent and so pure, something that was just scared as you kept it close to you. You. It's hard not to just want to put your head on this thing and just feel its soft fur pressing against you as you can feel the ash begin to thicken around you. It's gotten bad enough now to where you've all had to put on at least not rebreathers, but you've put on the work masks that are just simple filters over your face, and you now seem to be walking. As you exit the boat, you can see that the container ship has taken on a very obtuse angle. And it is just sliding and thickening in, and it has gone down easily 20ft since when you first boarded this thing together, this blanket, blanket of ash, and is now starting to cover everything around you. What is the shelter, Jack, that you spoke in your truth?

[Jason Charles Miller]

No, it was you.

[Paul Scheer]

Oh, sorry, Monica. What is the shelter you spoke about in your truth?

[Eliza]

We found a new place that was further away from where the blast was.

[Paul Scheer]

Further away.

[Eliza]

Yeah.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah.

[Jason Charles Miller]

And.

[Eliza]

It'S another house that has miraculously unbroken windows. There are some supplies there still. There's some medical supplies, so we can feed that one Tylenol.

[Paul Scheer]

I'm going to probably say that if it was on the bottom, and I apologize. Appreciate you doing everything.

[Eliza]

Oh, not on the bottom. I was thinking back up on the.

[Paul Scheer]

Oh, not on the area that you were in.

[Eliza]

Right out of the valley.

[Paul Scheer]

Okay, that's fine. No, it's perfectly great. However you want to lay into it. So you kind of went up the other part of the hill, not in the area that you were, but you went back up the hill. It took a while. It was not a small walk. It's probably a spent subjectively about half a day making this so that by the time you get to this new shelter, which is, like you said, a house that has unbroken windows and is miraculously abandoned out in the middle of the outback, you're deeper inland than where you were. You get down and you're all exhausted, like, just exhausted to where you basically throw down your bags, you find whatever you can do to curl up and just find some sleep. But it's so hard to find the sleep because the entire time that you've been walking these six hours or so, it's just the screeching. The screeching is just there. And one of the things that I think is probably obvious no Matter where you look on the horizon, there is one of these monoliths. So unless you're literally walking in between two of them, you're always getting close to one of them. So as a result, you have gotten closer to a monolith that is in the area. And as you got closer to this spire, the chittering and the singing has gotten more agitated and more. Well, I think that's the best word for it, agitated. So you try to find some sleep, but it is so hard. This cat is just darting its eyes. It will not leave you at this point. It doesn't know where else to go at this point, but it's not sleeping in. Its constant adjustments in movement also disturb you as you all try to find sleep.

[Amy Nicholson]

Does the first aid kit have earplugs? Many of them do.

[Rachel]

How important are those earplugs to you?

[Amy Nicholson]

They're not, so. Oh, it's fine. It's fine. You had to be fine.

[Paul Scheer]

One, one, two sixes. You find some earplugs, you open this thing up. It's the first thing. You just cut it through and you grab them. And I'm assuming from what you said, you just take them and you just try to get anything in that little kitty cat's ears right now? Yeah, yeah.

[Amy Nicholson]

But also, you know, if there's for them too, right?

[Paul Scheer]

At this point, you're not even looking at earplugs. You're looking at gauze balls that you have tightly packed and taped into your ears.

[Amy Nicholson]

Okay.

[Paul Scheer]

Better than nothing.

[Eliza]

Thank you. Thanks so much.

[Rachel]

I don't want to put them on. I don't want to blinder myself from what's happening outside. I want to keep my senses heightened.

[Paul Scheer]

Okay.

[Rachel]

I find a closet in one of the rooms and I throw it on my 40 pounds of rice that I hauled back on my improvised shield, alternating carrying them over my shoulders or dragging them along on that corrugated tin. I throw those down in the corner and try to make some kind of a pillow, some kind of a cushion.

[Paul Scheer]

Rice are good for cushions.

[Rachel]

But I want to be able to hear. I want to be able to hear what they're saying in case it changes.

[Paul Scheer]

Right? So this you all find restless sleep as you sit into it. Janay, as you have this bags laid up and you have your body towards the door, waiting, just listening as you try to find rest, at least if not sleep, you sit down and you stare at the door as well in the window outside. And you can, if you just continue to adjust your eyes to the darkness and look out through the window. You can see them. They are in a circle. And it is one of those where they have found this movement in this sway. And it is. It's impossible, but they're perfectly in sync. They are just moving with such. It's almost like. Like if you were watching a snake charmer as he's doing his movements and watching these cobras lift side to side. But you can see, at least in the vision in front of you, several of them just in front. And that is the image that you hold onto for hours as the other three try to find sleep. And eventually, one of them does break off, and taking its upper segments up, it lops itself back onto the ground. And you can see as the tiny little chittering legs slowly start to sway as this giant centipede creature soundlessly just slowly starts to approach the main house. And it takes you a second to even process that something different has happened. What do you want to do?

[Rachel]

The weapon that I found on the boat before we left was a flare gun.

[Paul Scheer]

Flare gun. Good.

[Rachel]

And I actually was lucky enough to find four flares.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah. Cool. Yeah, they were loaded into the gun, actually.

[Rachel]

Yeah, they were around the hand. So I load one flare right into the front. As I watch it coming, and looking through the only window. Vantage point that I have, I begin to back toward the door of the room to see whom I can find nearest me without creating a lot of noise.

[Paul Scheer]

Who would you like that to be?

[Rachel]

I'm praying that Jack decided to sleep close by.

[Paul Scheer]

Jack, you kind of feel as someone is just starting to kind of like, grab your coat, grab your shirt, whatever it is.

[Jason Charles Miller]

What's happening?

[Rachel]

One of them is approaching. One of them is coming toward the house. The singing is changed. And one of them is coming toward the house.

[Jason Charles Miller]

Give me the gun.

[Rachel]

Use your own goddamn weapon. This one's mine.

[Jason Charles Miller]

Okay. All I've got is a knife.

[Rachel]

What weapon did you find on the boat? We all looked for things. What did you find? You left without anything.

[Jason Charles Miller]

I already. I already had my knife.

[Rachel]

But I'm definitely not giving you resources that I just found.

[Jason Charles Miller]

And while it's approaching, we're right here. I'm right next to you. I'll give you the gun back. I have training in firearms. Let me fire it at it. I'll hand it back to you.

[Rachel]

I'm not handing over again.

[Paul Scheer]

All right, so Jack and Janay, as you are, having this whispered argument in the middle. It's hard. Whispered and not. I mean, there's not a whole lot of sleep to be had while this omnipresent singing is going on. Wren and Monica, do you hear them as they're having this silent argument? Yeah.

[Eliza]

What's going on?

[Rachel]

One of the creatures is approaching the others. Just look, you can see them. They're dancing. I don't know what that is, but one of them is coming and it's coming here.

[Eliza]

Now, I grab my spear gun and I run to look.

[Paul Scheer]

So you go in, you can see that it's still not making a beeline straight for the house. It's almost as if it just is kind of slowly making this progress as it kind of comes up into the area. And at this point, it's made it about up to the French port level, you know, and it's kind of come about 10, maybe 20ft from your front door at this point. The light's so bright that you can see them in their radius around you. But what's more interesting is just how the ash just kind of gives it this very. It is almost as if they're like figure skaters on an open white lake of snow. And they're just gliding along it in a very steady but persistent pace.

[Rachel]

And there's more than one moving now?

[Paul Scheer]

No, just the one. Just the one. Just the one, yeah. This is what you see, Monica, as you peer up with your loaded spear gun, as you look through, looking at Janae, who's just holding this flare gun, and Jack and Wren. What about you?

[Amy Nicholson]

Can it get in the house? I mean, how big is the closet?

[Paul Scheer]

It's a closet.

[Rachel]

I mean, I was in a closet in the bedroom, so I backed into the room to find Jack.

[Amy Nicholson]

I mean, we shouldn't go out there. We should find somewhere in the house to hide, right?

[Eliza]

They know we're in here, so, yeah, hiding will just slow them down. Maybe. But if they want to grab us, they'll grab us.

[Amy Nicholson]

So what are you suggesting?

[Eliza]

I think we hunker down. We watch the entryways, and if they try to get in, we shoot them.

[Amy Nicholson]

Maybe we should get in the bathroom. Does the bathroom have windows in the bedroom?

[Paul Scheer]

Is that where you all want to go and hole up inside of.

[Eliza]

Hole up with our weapons, maybe some supplies, water, food. Who knows how long could be.

[Paul Scheer]

So you all kind of make your way into the kitchen or, I'm sorry, the bathroom. And it's next to the master bedroom. And you kind of are looking through this house. It looks like someone left. It was, you know, and out back home, it's like a ranchero style or a ranch style home that was out in the middle of nowhere on this mountaintop. But there are definitely remnants of the people who used to live here. Like, you can see a picture frame hanging on the wall of what seems like a very large family. Like 10, 12 kids all laid out with several aunts and uncles, all claiming one of these 10, you know, and it's just. It seems like this home was huge, and it probably fit a large family inside of it at one point. As a result, there's lots of different rooms, but it's a very simple house. And no matter what, there definitely would still be some water damage, even at this stage, just to get into it. But it's surprising, like, when you look above the water line, the water damage line, just how normal it is. As you walk into the master bedroom, the wet, the sheets and the bedding is still made. The bed still looks great. It's damp to the touch. And there's this giant wooden headboard that's lacquered, and it seems to have this painted fish that's moving through space on it. And it's just. And it looks like it was carved out of the 70s. It's just a trip. And you stay in that room and you wait.

[Eliza]

Water line.

[Amy Nicholson]

There's a water line on the walls from the tsunamis.

[Paul Scheer]

You've never been in this home before. Crap.

[Eliza]

Crap.

[Jason Charles Miller]

It's not safe.

[Eliza]

We can't stay here long either. I mean, I guess we kind of knew that, but. Yeah, all right. I guess one problem at a time.

[Jason Charles Miller]

Do we hear the creature getting any closer?

[Paul Scheer]

So that's what's interesting, because when you get into your space, you absolutely. How do I put this? I Absolutely. The creature comes in. But you know how you've been seeing every single terrifying movie in which the creature bangs open the door and it's creeching and it's hissing and it's looking through everything? This one opens the door with the doorknob and slowly creaks it open. You can hear the door is hinging as it opens slightly.

[Rachel]

You said they were the size of a truck. How does it get inside?

[Paul Scheer]

This was a smaller one.

[Amy Nicholson]

I've put the cat in the bathtub, by the way. I just.

[Paul Scheer]

The bigger ones can get huge. But this is one where. And remember, they're like a centipede, right? You know, they're long.

[Amy Nicholson]

Long.

[Rachel]

Not necessarily wide.

[Paul Scheer]

Like, wide. So it doesn't even need to do anything other than. And now, granted, yes, it is a tight fit, but it just. You can hear, actually, as you know, when you take vinyl or rubber together and you rub it together and it makes that Squeaking sound. That's what it sounds like. As you hear each one of it like a pop, just as you can literally almost feel the foundation shake as each segment pops itself into the space. And it just kind of with purpose, but very, very slowly makes itself into the house. And you can hear the. Each little foot as it. We have to block the door as it finds its way into it. And it's still popping through the main door when you can eventually hear it coming around the corner in the first bend as it's making its way into the room of which you are all in.

[Amy Nicholson]

It's making its way into the room.

[Paul Scheer]

It's making its way towards it.

[Rachel]

It's long enough that it's coming in the front door and it's entering the master bedroom at the same time.

[Amy Nicholson]

No, wait, it's coming towards the bedroom. It's not coming in the bedroom.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah, it's coming towards the bedroom. You will tell me if you want to do anything before it enters the bedroom.

[Rachel]

So we can hear this, the feet. We can hear the skittering. We can hear it coming in closer. The only thing that I know about these things so far is that they fear the light. And the only weapon that I have is the brightest light I know.

[Paul Scheer]

Right.

[Rachel]

So I'm not staying in the bathroom.

[Paul Scheer]

Okay. Where? What? Tell me exactly then.

[Rachel]

And I come into the master bedroom, and whatever direction the door swings, I'm behind.

[Paul Scheer]

Oh, behind the door.

[Rachel]

The direction of the door. So that if this thing comes in the door, I'll be able to fire it toward the ceiling directly in front of it to light this room up as bright as possible.

[Paul Scheer]

Got it. Great. Well, that is. This is the idea that you have in your head as you lay yourself back in the door. Because, you know, the door swings in. All right. You know, the door swings in and you're just waiting, hoping beyond hope that it will pass the door by.

[Rachel]

Yes.

[Paul Scheer]

As you kind of continue to hear it as you all three are laid up inside of the bathroom and you. Do you hear that knob? Just. And you feel it just open just so slightly. And you watch as on the top of the door frame, one of its appendages, its long tentacle kind of comes down over the top of the door frame and it just starts doing that. Starts tapping around like an antenna, just feeling around in the room, looking for anything as it slides the door slowly open fire. Your flare gun.

[Eliza]

Oh, gosh.

[Paul Scheer]

Four ones. No sixes.

[Eliza]

You want to. You burn something?

[Rachel]

I'm going to. I'm going to burn my virtue.

[Paul Scheer]

Okay. Giving. Can you tell me how you're applying giving into the circumstances?

[Rachel]

I realize in this moment, we've never been this close to these things before, and we have never had one this size enter our space. And all I know is that if someone has to sacrifice themselves for this group, it's gonna be me. And I fire that flare toward the sky or toward the. The ceiling in this room, hoping that it will maybe hit the ceiling and light and bounce down, and maybe it will. Maybe it will flee. But if it doesn't, I'm there.

[Paul Scheer]

All right, you're there. Roll those four. I know sixes.

[Amy Nicholson]

So you know, at least it wasn't for a cat.

[Paul Scheer]

You take the SVAR gun and you hope. And you can feel the sweat coming down your face as this thing is continuing to poke around. And you pull the trigger and you hear nothing. Seven dice. Seven truths. Janae, you were the one to fail this conflict roll. You do you have the opportunity to speak the first truth in this situation? The flare gun did not go off. Whether it was waterlogged or malfunctioning, whatever it is. What is your truth?

[Rachel]

I am able to load a second flare.

[Paul Scheer]

Right? Okay. The ash is thick enough that you have to have a breather on. Monica.

[Eliza]

I am perched in. I imagine this ranch house has some type of rafters that I can perch in with my speargun.

[Paul Scheer]

You want to be above it. So instead, maybe, do you want your truth to be. I have climbed up to the rafters looking down upon the master bedroom.

[Rachel]

Yes.

[Paul Scheer]

All right. Jack.

[Jason Charles Miller]

Janae Wilson will not die.

[Paul Scheer]

That is actually the one time that you cannot speak a truth. You cannot speak a truth about people not dying because death is always a possibility inside of this game. It's the one. One that I have to unfortunately veto. Okay.

[Jason Charles Miller]

Do I get another one, or is it.

[Paul Scheer]

Yes. Yes, you can speak a new truth.

[Jason Charles Miller]

I'm hidden behind the creature.

[Paul Scheer]

Do you want to say that you've come around the creature from the area?

[Jason Charles Miller]

I'm in the corner. If the creature's coming in, I'm in the corner.

[Paul Scheer]

You climbed out of the. Climbed out of the window and into another one and are behind the creature. Okay, so that's a truth. Rem.

[Amy Nicholson]

It'S so tense. I'm going to say that from where I am, from the vantage point, the tentacle that is feeling around is. Is right in front of the bathroom door. Within. Within.

[Paul Scheer]

So you're saying that you want your truth to be that the tentacle has found its way to the bathroom door.

[Amy Nicholson]

Within ax length's reach.

[Paul Scheer]

That's perfectly fine. That's a truth. Okay. Janae.

[Rachel]

Uh. It can see me.

[Paul Scheer]

Mm. It knows you're there. It's going to take you. It's not. Wait, let me rephrase that. I like to think of these truths as kind of like genie's wishes. You have to be specific because they can definitely be misconstrued. It wants to take you away. Great. Seven candles, seven truths. We begin right where we left off with this thing. It's been probing and looking around inside of this bedroom, you can see the ashes starting to pile higher outside from the one window in the bedroom. And you can start to hear an occasional tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, as if the beginning of a small hailstorm outside. What do you want to do?

[Rachel]

I've loaded that second flare.

[Paul Scheer]

Wind fire again. All right. Yeah. That's an opportunity to shoot the second flare. All right. All sixes. No ones.

[Amy Nicholson]

That went much better.

[Paul Scheer]

I have one dice in which to. Oop. Never mind that. One can stay down there. No way. Take over narrative control, Janae.

[Rachel]

I see it. See me?

[Paul Scheer]

Yes.

[Rachel]

And it is looking right at me. And as the tentacles start to move and reach toward me, this second flare that I've loaded both arms straight out, I fire directly into its face. And the flare strikes that carapace in the face. It screeches, it brightens, and it fills the whole. It's so bright, I can't look at it. But as I look away and turn my face from that chemical fire, I realize that its face has started to retreat. And there's a screech and a skitter as it pulls back. And just those. Those tentacles are still left in the room.

[Paul Scheer]

It just starts writhing as it's trying to pull itself back, and actually it's thrown its head up at this point. You can actually hear as the roof above it starting to crack as it lifts its head up just in those segmented eyes. This is the first time that you have seen it in its eyes. No one has been this close to it. And I want to tell you something, and I'm going to actually write it down for you because. Because it is so important.

[Jason Charles Miller]

Not looking, not looking.

[Eliza]

So, creatures, huh?

[Jason Charles Miller]

Those crazy creatures.

[Amy Nicholson]

So how big is this one?

[Paul Scheer]

This one is. It is. Like I said, truck size is about the max length that they get. But this one, we're talking about this wide. At the very least, door jamb size. It has to move to go through it, but door jamb size for sure. But it's having to Force itself through. And now that this eye, like this flare, has just erupted inside of its face, it rears its head back, and you can hear its shriek. It's so close. It's so piercing. It's not the song, it's just this. It just lifts its head up, and you hear it crack into the top of the building. And you can feel as the whole foundation shakes for a moment. You can hear it as it's trying to pull itself out, but it's cracking the door jam. It's not being subtle now. There's nothing small about it as it's this blinding thing inside of its face, and its tentacles are now waggling everywhere. So it's trying to get away out of this area immediately. So if there was an opportunity for you to take a tentacle, now, now is the time to do it.

[Amy Nicholson]

I'm going to axe it.

[Paul Scheer]

Axe. Oh, man.

[Amy Nicholson]

Cutting more marks.

[Paul Scheer]

All right, take it. Tell me what happens. Yep.

[Amy Nicholson]

So as she has blasted to this flare gun in its face, as you say, I see it as a perfect opportunity to catch it off guard. And I just come out and whack it at the nearest largest tentacle I can see and just lob it off.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah, it just kind of flops and it falls down to the ground. It's wiggling, as you see as this black ichor just starts spraying. And you watch as it decorates the walls. As you see this whole thing, it just shrinks out. It just pulls out. And you watch as it all comes out in one fluid motion as you hear it still whack, whack, whacking the walls as it's attempting to pull itself out. Jack, you can see it's coming out right by you.

[Jason Charles Miller]

You know, I would like to jump on it and with both hands, with my. That's not a knife. This is a knife. Just cut into it.

[Paul Scheer]

Cut into it. Just try to get as much into it as you possibly can.

[Jason Charles Miller]

Like that. Like that.

[Paul Scheer]

All sixes. No ones.

[Rachel]

God bless Australian knives.

[Eliza]

Yeah.

[Paul Scheer]

So I get a chance. There's multiple sixes. There's no way I can take it, Jack. Take it away.

[Jason Charles Miller]

So I'm able to sort of straddle it and jump on it, almost like riding a horse or dragon or something. And I just pull the knife down on its back as far as I can go.

[Paul Scheer]

Okay. And you, as you take this knife in and you pull it straight towards you, you're watching and being aware that you are pulling the knife towards you, but you are cracking this thing, and you, as each One of its carapaces snaps open as if you were just cracking open a lobster, right? And you pull this thing open, and you see faces.

[Amy Nicholson]

Oh, God.

[Paul Scheer]

As you open it forward, you actually watch as human faces writhing, massive human faces are just inside of it. They're screaming, they're pitching. They are the ones that are singing. They are the ones that are opening their mouth and calling out the entire time. And they seem to be in such pain. They seem to be writhing in such awful pain. As you pull this thing open, and you look into what can only be described as a layer of hell as you're peering into this thing. And it is a chorus that just comes up inside as you. As you pull this thing on. And the shock of it just makes you fall off onto the back of this thing. As you can hear it continue to move around and pop out. As it lifts itself right out of the building and just basically crumbles the infrastructure around it. What do you do? It's in there. It's pulled itself out. You can still hear it. You can still see it in your eyes. All right? And it's burned in there forever. But I don't know if anyone else saw it. Jack, I think maybe you were the only one who saw it.

[Jason Charles Miller]

Where is it now?

[Paul Scheer]

It's still pulling itself out. And as it crumbles out into the ash, you see as it's flopping, and it retreats back into this giant circle of its larger compatriots, as it is now just around. But you slowly hear as it rejoins the circle, it's pulling back to the point of where even they fall off into the darkness. And you are left in terrifying, piercing silence.

[Eliza]

I get down from my perch, check on everyone. Is everyone all right? Anyone wounded?

[Amy Nicholson]

What was that noise?

[Jason Charles Miller]

Well, there's no easy way to say this. When I cut into its back, I saw human faces on the inside jacket.

[Rachel]

Looked at me with human eyes.

[Jason Charles Miller]

That's the source of the screaming. It's people or souls screaming out of it.

[Amy Nicholson]

So when people have gone out to scavenge and not come back. They didn't. Oh, my God, they didn't.

[Rachel]

I think they become a part of these things.

[Amy Nicholson]

Can we make a promise? If that thing gets one of us, I don't want to become part of it. That's not how I want to go.

[Rachel]

Same.

[Eliza]

Yeah. Yeah, me too.

[Jason Charles Miller]

Okay.

[Rachel]

We can't stay here. They know that we're here. They've breached it. They can open the goddamn doors.

[Eliza]

We fought one off, but, yeah, they're gonna send More.

[Jason Charles Miller]

We gotta get gone.

[Amy Nicholson]

We have to burn them down.

[Eliza]

We need to burn. They hate light. I don't know. We need to just burn everything.

[Rachel]

Eucalyptus burns.

[Eliza]

Yeah.

[Rachel]

These groves, they could burn.

[Eliza]

Okay.

[Rachel]

These groves could burn. We could set this forest on fire.

[Amy Nicholson]

We could trap them.

[Rachel]

I don't know if the undergrowth is too wet, but maybe if we got to the edge of the forest, we could set the forest on fire. Maybe it would create a break. If we could get to a place where there was no monoliths, if we couldn't see one.

[Paul Scheer]

You can hear as the tinking, tinkling is starting to be heavier now. I'm doing this because of the effect of it. I like the tapping, but it starts to feel almost like again, like these hail storms. You can hear the sheet metal that is making up a part of this roof. It's just clang, clang, clang, clang a little bit. As you are having a discussion about where to go on how to do and what to do in this whole space and definitely the infrastructure of this building has taken a hit for sure.

[Amy Nicholson]

I'm going to look around for matches and lighters and anything that'll burn.

[Jason Charles Miller]

Is it even safe to go outside? What kind of hail is that?

[Rachel]

If we look out, do we actually see hail or are we.

[Paul Scheer]

You go out and look out into it as you see the things that are rocking our rocks.

[Jason Charles Miller]

There are rocks falling, raining rocks.

[Eliza]

How big? Yeah, about an inch.

[Paul Scheer]

Anywhere from marble to about 3,4 of an inch.

[Eliza]

That's going to hurt.

[Rachel]

I've seen hailstones that size dent a car.

[Eliza]

Yeah.

[Jason Charles Miller]

We have our shields, though.

[Eliza]

We have our shields.

[Jason Charles Miller]

We have our shields. Can I like stick a shield out the window just to see if it hits one? If it's how it's going to feel it.

[Paul Scheer]

I mean, it, it's like. I won't say it's like someone took a ball peen hammer and hit your shield with it, but it hits with enough force that you feel it. It's not light, but I mean, it holds up okay. You don't see a large visible dent coming into it. It definitely feels like it's more of a. You can't tell if it's going at terminal velocity or not. These hailstones, I don't think we can.

[Rachel]

Leave while the rocks are falling, but we can light the trees on fire. We can create enough fire in front of us that they won't want to approach the doors. At least for now. Maybe just until the rocks stop falling.

[Eliza]

Okay. Yeah. Maybe just some type of ring of Fire around the house.

[Paul Scheer]

Right. So you're going to go and first find the consumptibles.

[Eliza]

Yeah. Matches.

[Amy Nicholson]

Matches.

[Eliza]

Any types of. Yeah. Lighting fluid.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah, yeah, sounds good to me. I think this is a Monica thing this time around.

[Eliza]

Okay.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah. Get it.

[Eliza]

I hope I have a beautiful roll like you all just did. Okay, well.

[Paul Scheer]

And one.

[Eliza]

Okay.

[Paul Scheer]

It is all you, Monica. So you start digging around. What do you find?

[Amy Nicholson]

Tale of fire. All right.

[Eliza]

The sail of fire. Rand and I are looking around the house for combustibles. We find, like a stash. We find a whole, like, indestructible case under the sink that is actually. The case itself is metal, so it's like made for this to last in times like this. It has matches, it has lighter fluid. It has all the things.

[Paul Scheer]

Right.

[Eliza]

And yeah, we're gonna need some dry wood, which we could take from the house. Since the creature kind of smashed up some of the roof, we could take some of that material to burn.

[Jason Charles Miller]

It's good kiddling.

[Eliza]

Yeah.

[Paul Scheer]

Wren, at this point, as you're helping Monica dig around and look around, you're starting to feel incredibly light headed. In fact, you're starting to feel a little rough around the edges. There's this pounding headache that's starting to slowly creep into your conscious. Not full blown there, but it's there. And you do feel a little nauseous.

[Amy Nicholson]

Okay, I recognize this feeling. And I. I go to search for a medicine cabinet. I need to get some aspirin. I need to douse my arms in alcohol, basically.

[Paul Scheer]

Well, you've used up pretty much the first kit for whatever it's worth. But you do manage to find some aspirin. You find some clean gauze. You just pop a bunch of aspirin to kind of lay into it. And you take, you know, at this point, five, three weeks, the water would not be running unless it's well water. No, no power. Wouldn't Being able to bring the pump up. So, I mean, you do what you can with the clean gauze to kind of get into it. And you put whatever is left of the alcohol on there, as much as you possibly can as well. So.

[Amy Nicholson]

Or is there like Purell anywhere?

[Paul Scheer]

That's basically what alcohol is. Alcohol's ostensibly just jellified.

[Rachel]

It's just ethyl alcohol.

[Paul Scheer]

It's just ethyl alcohol. And you do what you can. But, Monica, yes, you did find all this stuff. So I guess. What is this? Yeah. Is the plan still to make this ring of fire around it?

[Eliza]

Yeah, I think we dig a little ditch around the House.

[Rachel]

I think we should set the eucalyptus trees on fire. I think that the most natural kindling we have are the paper trees outside, and they might be the only things big enough to actually scare them off.

[Amy Nicholson]

So that's to stop the fire from getting to the house?

[Eliza]

Yeah, that's what I'm worried about. If we don't contain it somewhere, then we could lose control of it really easily.

[Paul Scheer]

Well, one thing I will say is that with what is going on outside right now, wherever you do or whatever you do, someone's going to have to be holding something above you.

[Eliza]

Right. Okay.

[Amy Nicholson]

How are the creatures handling the rocks?

[Paul Scheer]

You haven't seen them? They've backed off out of the skyline at this point, back into the dark.

[Amy Nicholson]

I think as long as these rocks are falling, we're safe. They did them anyway.

[Rachel]

They pulled back because of the rocks. They pulled back because of Jack's attack. That's what it seemed like to me. They were falling before.

[Jason Charles Miller]

Unless it's a coincidence. I don't know. I mean, if we want to light the trees on fire, we'll need one lighter and one shielder at the very least. Maybe I put a shield on each arm and then hold it above me. And the lighter.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah. So at this point, Monica, are you taking it? You're the ones with the combustible equipment, right? Now you can make a choice to either go spend more time to dig this trench as you were talking about, or go light the trees, per Jena's idea.

[Jason Charles Miller]

I mean, digging a fireproof trench would take hours or days.

[Amy Nicholson]

Yeah, I just. I don't see the benefit of lighting the fire when they're not even here.

[Jason Charles Miller]

Yeah, well, then let's just keep that as our.

[Eliza]

We can be prepared.

[Jason Charles Miller]

We'll just prep for it. We won't do it until they start.

[Eliza]

To come back, which could be. This could be the time to. We could have both plans. Be ready to light a fire on tree on Light a tree on fire. If they approach the house still, then we can have this trench and light that. We'll see how much.

[Rachel]

I don't think there's a whole lot of benefit in trying to protect this structure. I think we need to get out of here as soon as we stop falling.

[Eliza]

It's not about protecting the structure. It's about protecting us inside it until we can retreat or whatever's next. But if you're saying light a tree and then run in the opposite direction, we could do that.

[Rachel]

I don't think we can run during these rocks.

[Eliza]

Then we're back to the beginning.

[Amy Nicholson]

So we just wait out the rocks?

[Jason Charles Miller]

Yeah, we wait it out.

[Eliza]

Yeah.

[Paul Scheer]

Okay, so you wait.

[Eliza]

I am gonna just start to. I probably we won't get around the whole house, but who knows?

[Amy Nicholson]

Make like a circle of lighter fluid.

[Rachel]

Which will evaporate or.

[Eliza]

Yeah.

[Rachel]

Before we get a chance to light.

[Eliza]

It, it needs like a bed of something. Right. Whether it's the ground or the kindling or whatever it is. So I don't know. Yeah, I just want to start maybe like a ten foot drain.

[Paul Scheer]

Okay.

[Eliza]

So not too deep.

[Paul Scheer]

If I hear you correctly, Monica, are you going outside?

[Eliza]

Yeah.

[Paul Scheer]

Great.

[Eliza]

Who wants to be my cover designer?

[Jason Charles Miller]

I'll be your shield man.

[Paul Scheer]

Go outside.

[Eliza]

This is just to go outside or.

[Paul Scheer]

It'S just to go outside with the hailing rocks that are going.

[Eliza]

Oh, dear. Okay.

[Paul Scheer]

Yes.

[Eliza]

All right. Corrugated steel. Okay.

[Paul Scheer]

Two sixes.

[Eliza]

Two sixes.

[Paul Scheer]

So as you begin to climb outside, you go and you do find a little bit of just down to eucalyptus. It is waterlogged, it is wet. And one of the things you notice as you're going out is you can hear the sounds of eating. You can hear.

[Rachel]

Oh, my God.

[Amy Nicholson]

Okay, can you hear the sounds of what?

[Eliza]

Eating.

[Paul Scheer]

And as you get closer, you pull this branch and Jack, you hear it too. You're close by. Yeah, it's something is. I mean, you can't see it, but it's is there around you somewhere. But the point is, do you investigator. Do you just head straight back?

[Eliza]

I want to light something on fire to scare it.

[Paul Scheer]

You want to light this branch on fire?

[Jason Charles Miller]

Well, you've got your spear gun.

[Eliza]

I have my spear gun.

[Jason Charles Miller]

Let's see what it is.

[Eliza]

You want to investigate it?

[Jason Charles Miller]

Yeah.

[Eliza]

So you pull out my spear gun, have it ready.

[Paul Scheer]

Just light this thing. As you begin to pull it out and you put some of the combustible equipment onto it and you watch as it just slowly catches flame. And it is a paper tree. So you're right in that way, it's good kindling. Then you watch as it slowly stumps up and the aura of flame extends the light around you. And you can see one of the creatures is laid over one, presumably the smaller one that you were talking about, the one that you cut open. And it is pulling it and lifting it up. And it's almost like a snake eating another snake is just kind of wrenching it inside of itself. As you kind of hear this segmented.

[Rachel]

Oh, God.

[Paul Scheer]

As it's pulling the other one and as the light kind of comes by, you can see it's doing this action as it's laid up and it looks towards you and it just vomits it all back out into a single moment. And it just starts.

[Eliza]

I hold the fire out.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah. It comes back. It. You watch as one of its tails slowly starting to come around the other side.

[Jason Charles Miller]

Spear. That thing?

[Eliza]

Yeah, I aim at the. The tail.

[Paul Scheer]

You want to aim at the tail that's coming around?

[Jason Charles Miller]

No, I would.

[Eliza]

What, in the face?

[Paul Scheer]

In the head, I'd say.

[Eliza]

Yeah, the face. Yeah.

[Paul Scheer]

Shoot in the face. Shoot it in the face. Pull into it.

[Rachel]

Did you light the spear gun on fire? Is that what's on fire?

[Eliza]

I think I have a branch holding.

[Paul Scheer]

A flaming branch with the spear gun.

[Eliza]

Spear gun, yeah.

[Paul Scheer]

And fire it, by all means. No, no. Sixes. Three. One.

[Eliza]

Can I. Yeah. Can I burn?

[Paul Scheer]

What is it?

[Eliza]

This is my virtue. It's resourceful.

[Paul Scheer]

I mean, it's a virtue. You can reroll these ones, but you have to tell me how you're being resourceful in the context of this challenge.

[Eliza]

Well, since I do have a lit branch and a speargun, maybe I am putting them together somehow.

[Paul Scheer]

And you were the one who found this material as well, too, the combustion. Yeah, you were the one who found it as well, too. The reason you can do this right now is because you found it. Oh, yeah.

[Amy Nicholson]

Flaming spear to the face.

[Eliza]

Flaming spear to the face.

[Paul Scheer]

Let's see. No, no. Six.

[Eliza]

Or not.

[Paul Scheer]

No, once. Okay, so.

[Eliza]

So that's the. Okay, yes.

[Paul Scheer]

That is the end of this scene as you hold this gun out and you fire the spear. You watch as it unceremoniously just whizzes right by it as it jinks its head to the side and it starts to creep towards you despite the flaming fire in its face. Six candles, six truths. The speargon unceremoniously fired its spear right by its face, as you can see, as the flames are starting to maybe keep the face away. But it is a long, very agile body, and it's only keeping the head away at the moment. But you do get the first truth. Monica.

[Eliza]

I light a tree on fire, so.

[Paul Scheer]

You light the tree on fire. Great. Jack. What is your name? Truth.

[Jason Charles Miller]

I stab it.

[Paul Scheer]

Oh, you stab it. Okay. All right. Wren.

[Amy Nicholson]

The rocks have stopped falling.

[Paul Scheer]

The rocks have stopped falling. Jenae.

[Rachel]

From inside the house, I can hear the sound of some of them starting to come closer as they start to sing again.

[Paul Scheer]

As the rocks have stopped, the singing is starting back again. 5. There is a monolith very close to here. 6. Last truth.

[Eliza]

Oh.

[H]

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[Eliza]

I light this. Both of these, the dead one and the live one on fire.

[Paul Scheer]

So you would like to extend your truth to now saying you're lighting two trees on fire?

[Eliza]

Well, no, I'm sorry, the creatures.

[Paul Scheer]

You light the creature on fire. Yeah, both of them described one at this point.

[Eliza]

Oh, it was eating. One was eating.

[Paul Scheer]

Oh, I see. The other one that vomited out the dead one. So you light them both on fire.

[Eliza]

Yeah, I want to see what happens.

[Paul Scheer]

Great. So that's it. Six candles, six truths. We pick this scenario off Jack. It seems like you while holding onto this thing, you had stabbed it and at this point kept it distracted enough for Monica to basically take the leftover gasoline, whatever gasoline you had and used every last drop of it in order to pull it out on that one and pull it out on the other one and get these trees on fire. And you just. You became overnight arsonists as you just started lighting everything you can. Jack, you came away with singed hair on this because of Monica's just fetish desire to just get everything on here fire. But yes, you did. You got them both. And Ren and Jenae, you watched as this gas explosion almost of just fire, just vomp. And now the burning. As you're watching these languid creatures just slop around and just. And you watch as they scurry off. Not the one that the smaller. In fact, you just continue to hear the screams, the singing and the screams coming from inside. Coming from inside as this thing is slowly burnt. And you watch as it turns to ash and it curls with its insectoid body as it lifts itself up like a spider does when it dies. And you watch as its legs turn into a bit of a ball and it blackens.

[Eliza]

But this.

[Amy Nicholson]

The screams eventually stop.

[Paul Scheer]

No, the screams continue from the body.

[Jason Charles Miller]

From the blackened body.

[Paul Scheer]

You hear the sound as it continues to permeate and is everywhere. It is less coming from the body. It's not like you put your ear up to it and you can hear it. But the singing as Genae spoke and her truth has come back up now that the rocks have stopped falling and you can hear it everywhere again. Now that you know what it is, it's impossible to ignore. What do you want to do?

[Jason Charles Miller]

The rocks have stopped. We gotta get out of here. We gotta get more inland. We gotta get away from the monolith if we can, so that we don't see any.

[Amy Nicholson]

Is there anything still on fire?

[Paul Scheer]

It depends on how long you've waited for the fire to go out. If you just left immediately, then things would absolutely stop.

[Rachel]

I'm not waiting. If the rocks have stopped and there's fire, I want to go.

[Eliza]

You back up and go.

[Amy Nicholson]

Oh, yeah. Because I would have tried to have.

[Eliza]

Spread it more in the forest to spread the fire.

[Amy Nicholson]

I want to burn the floor.

[Jason Charles Miller]

Let's light the house on fire.

[Amy Nicholson]

Yeah, spread the fire.

[Eliza]

Yeah, there is a tree that was set on fire too.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah, there is a tree. Okay, Two for me, one for you. Two for you. No, one for you.

[Amy Nicholson]

So is that a. Oh, that's.

[Paul Scheer]

That's a success.

[Amy Nicholson]

Okay.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah, by all means. You just need 16 to make it work.

[Amy Nicholson]

Okay.

[Rachel]

Do you need a roll?

[Paul Scheer]

It's the first roll of it, so I only roll the ones that I inherited.

[Rachel]

Thank you.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah. Ren. Yeah. Please, by all means, elaborate on this firefighting.

[Amy Nicholson]

I see this explosion happening. You had taken all of the lighter fluid and everything out with you, but there's still kindling and those little starter bricks, matches. And I just grab a bunch and run out to you. And as this one is turning to ash and the other's running away, I just start to light as many trees on fire as possible and take sort of a burning stick and walk back to the house. So that when we're ready to go, we can light that up too.

[Paul Scheer]

Right. So as you all leave the building, you chuck it against the wall and watch as it's slowly starts to climb up the side of the wall and start to pick up. It doesn't go up immediately in the house.

[Amy Nicholson]

Was there any canned food? When we were looking for things, we.

[Rachel]

Said there were some provisions.

[Paul Scheer]

Well, she had spoken that there were some provisions.

[Rachel]

But certainly I'm taking one of those canvas bags, throwing at least one 20 pound bag of rice in it and throwing.

[Paul Scheer]

I think at this point, if you take whatever you have, it's whatever you're gonna be holding onto your back. Yeah. With what you have, you're still lugging this. This radio around and the battery.

[Amy Nicholson]

I would have liked to have grabbed a can of tuna.

[Paul Scheer]

Can of tuna.

[Amy Nicholson]

Canvas bag with Oliver.

[Paul Scheer]

Okay. Oliver. Is that his name? Oliver?

[Amy Nicholson]

It's my cat.

[Rachel]

All right.

[Paul Scheer]

So you grab something for a can for Oliver and you just start getting out. You light this thing up, and you begin walking away from the fire as much as you you can into the wilderness. The dark, lit wilderness. The dark moonlit wilderness. Sorry.

[Amy Nicholson]

I have to say, this does not feel as cool as when I usually walk away from flaming buildings.

[Eliza]

There's no cameras rolling right now, for one.

[Amy Nicholson]

No.

[Paul Scheer]

And Oliver is mew mew from inside of the bag. And it doesn't like being contained very much. So every once in a while, it will attempt to try to pull itself out of its little canvas bag.

[Amy Nicholson]

Open up his little can a bit, give him some food.

[Paul Scheer]

Here's where I get to be cruel.

[Amy Nicholson]

Oh, God.

[Paul Scheer]

It is not a pop can. It requires a can opener.

[Rachel]

Knife.

[Jason Charles Miller]

Knife.

[Rachel]

But I swear to God, if you stop to open a can of tuna for walking, I'm going to keep going. I'm just putting that up there.

[Jason Charles Miller]

We've been not stop. Action. I haven't even had a chance to turn the radio on yet.

[Paul Scheer]

So.

[Rachel]

Yeah, that's all. I'm just putting that out there as a value. I'm going to Keep going.

[Eliza]

Can walk and pop.

[Amy Nicholson]

Yeah.

[Paul Scheer]

So you continue to walk, and the ash is still coming down, but you walk for a while. It's tiring. And you don't hear any of the creatures. At some point, you walked far enough away where the singing wasn't omnipresent in your entire 360 degree senses. It has gotten quieter, but it never really ends. And you don't know if you just can't get it out of your head because there's no other sound except for the crunching of sticks and. And the slopping of mud as you continue to walk across the wilderness. Or if it's just because it's that light everywhere right now, but you walk. And it's only when you're starting to really get exhausted after several hours of walking that you think that it's time that you're maybe safe enough for now to sit down and take a break.

[Eliza]

Is it still ash snowing?

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah.

[Jason Charles Miller]

Do we see any monoliths?

[Paul Scheer]

So as you've gotten closer, the moon would have illuminated, and at this point, it's just. Yeah. I'm honestly still trying to imagine just how much light you would get from the moon being that close and how much it would be like day, but not day. You know what I mean?

[Jason Charles Miller]

Yeah.

[Paul Scheer]

And I think it's easy to see the monolith. Yeah, it's very easy. They're giant.

[Rachel]

And for hours we've been walking, and we're still walking in the direction of one.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah. They're 100 stories high, you know, and they're large bases, and it's one of those things where you had to. Well, actually, at this point, it's 100 stories, I would say for an hour. You're not making a whole lot of progress. Remember, there's a lot of slobbing and going through mud.

[Rachel]

But just to be clear, our intention was to go away from the direction of any visible monolith.

[Paul Scheer]

Okay, so then what would happen then at that point is you'd have to walk in between two monoliths.

[Rachel]

Right.

[Paul Scheer]

And then what would happen is once two have passed you, there would be another one right in front of you on the horizon.

[Jason Charles Miller]

Right.

[Eliza]

But you could at least get between. Yeah. To that center point where you're far enough from all of these.

[Rachel]

We're either far from them all or close to them all.

[Eliza]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Amy Nicholson]

We have to stop. We don't have a goal. We don't have a direction. Have we tried the radio yet?

[Jason Charles Miller]

No, let's try the radio. Let's take a Break. Let's feed your cat and try the radio.

[Paul Scheer]

So you sit on, I don't know, an outcropping of rock that might be in this area. You know, you've long since left the burning eucalyptus behind you and you just kind of sit there. You can still feel the ash at this point. The rebreathers that you've been wearing to kind of protect yourself from inhaling the ash, they're all gray at this point. And you've been walking in it. And so you all look like ghosts covered in ash at this stage. And there's just enough of the outcropping that you can kind of at least get the radio and you take your hands and you just move piles of ash out of the way into it. Then find this tiny little lean to in an otherwise completely exposed and open skyline. And these, you know, ash at this point is thigh deep in some areas.

[Eliza]

Wow.

[Rachel]

Wow.

[Eliza]

And this would normally be. This is the desert we're in.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah. You would technically, if the world was the. If the world was right the way it was, you would be in red desert.

[Rachel]

So we've moved through the eucalyptus forest, through the rainforest, and out toward the red desert where the termites.

[Paul Scheer]

But it's not red, it's white, gray. It's gray ash. And you can see. I mean, at this point there probably would even be a termite mound or two that you would pass potentially. But you're not looking for those. You're looking for anything that could provide at least a month, moderate amount of shelter. There's less ash built out around trees. And like I said, there will occasionally be an outcropping of rock that you can maybe get in there. But you are in exposed land and it's so thick at this point that you don't even dare take the masks off at this point. Yeah, but you put the radio down, sidle it into place and you kind of. It takes. You basically had to. What you managed to get is essentially a small car battery or like a motorcycle battery because you wouldn't be able to do this on any kind of cell batteries or anything like that. So you kind of have this small motorcycle battery and you kind of lay it out and you take your wires that you had earlier and actually connect it from positive and negative and you. And you turn it on and you start searching. You begin searching. Oh, my God. As you turn this radio on, you search through static, Static everywhere. The radio turns on, but you flip through nothing. That's just audio. Snow pierces every single channel as you Go through the dial phase. And you feel this static overwhelm you. And you hope, just for one moment, something, anything can come up as you seek through it. And you check FM, FM, 2, AM radio, ham. You go through the entire circuit of whatever this little radio confined. And you hear nothing. And you feel the hope drain out of you as the trickles of ash continue to fall upon your hat and your head. And it's hard not to think of it as a little bit of a winter wonderland. But you. You hear nothing. Five candles, five truths. First, the world is dark. The world is always dark. But, Jack, you do get the first truth.

[Jason Charles Miller]

We find a structure.

[Paul Scheer]

Another structure.

[Jason Charles Miller]

Yeah.

[Paul Scheer]

Okay. Wren.

[Amy Nicholson]

There's a US military base in the Red Desert. And both Jack and I have spent time there for different reasons. And one of us recognizes that we think we're actually pretty close to it.

[Paul Scheer]

That's a lot of truth. Let's break it down to one.

[Amy Nicholson]

Oh, okay.

[Paul Scheer]

Okay. Give me one.

[Amy Nicholson]

Jack recognizes that we're near a military base.

[Paul Scheer]

Great.

[Amy Nicholson]

The first statement was just a statement of fact. That's fine as a preface.

[Paul Scheer]

It's perfectly fine to have the truth be that you know. And even giving it to Jack, being like. You recognize there's a military base close by. Jenny.

[Rachel]

The deeper the ash gets, the harder it is to move forward. And the slower we move. It's starting to be like powdered snow, where it's harder to move through than wet snow because it keeps falling in on itself.

[Paul Scheer]

The rocks are starting back up again.

[Eliza]

The rocks are not. Sorry. Just kidding.

[Paul Scheer]

Conundrum.

[Eliza]

Is this the last one?

[Paul Scheer]

It's the last one. What's good for the story.

[Eliza]

We find a dead creature in the ash.

[Paul Scheer]

A dead them. Okay.

[Eliza]

Yeah.

[Paul Scheer]

All right. Five candles, five truths. This is the time in which I tell you that things can start happening. Once we're at a certain stage in ten candles, dire consequences start coming into place. And when dire consequences come into place, lives become jeopardized. You can always Heroic sacrifice, should you feel the need to. Which basically means that you snuff out the candle for your own life to save somebody else. But we're at that point now in the story. So, as Jack, you fiddle with this radio for as long as you can. Eventually, well, someone turns it off. I mean, I'm not going to say whether it's you, Jack, or at some point, it's just not enough. You just have to turn it off. You hear and feel nothing. Not even the cicadas chirping, which is so prevalent always in the Landscape like this, there's not even insects. It's just quiet. Just quiet. You at this point, Jack, remember that even with the ashen cover ground, you realize you're far enough inland at this point. You might actually remember that there is a military base of which you've gone to a couple of meet and greets in a different time, in a long different space.

[Jason Charles Miller]

Yeah.

[Paul Scheer]

What would you like to do?

[Jason Charles Miller]

I think I know where we are actually. And there's a military base that's I think, possible for us to get to. You know, obviously the rocks are coming down again.

[Paul Scheer]

We got shields. Oh, yeah.

[Eliza]

So we better.

[Paul Scheer]

But.

[Jason Charles Miller]

I think I can get us there if you guys trust me.

[Amy Nicholson]

Okay.

[Eliza]

All right.

[Rachel]

I've put my canvas bag on my back as some kind of a protection for my back and holding that shield over my head against the rocks. This structure that we're at looks like it might have just been a beekeeper structure or someplace to get out of the sun while. Oh, yeah, collecting things here. But it's not going to stand up to the rocks for long.

[Paul Scheer]

No. You begin to move through and actually, yeah, it'd be impossible to tell. You begin to walk. I mean, Jack, you start leading them towards a direction at some point, knowing, using the landmarks that you have in your mind as best as you can. And you start just hunching down and moving forward. And at first the rocks are light and tapping, but then eventually you start hearing some larger ones just come down and you actually watch as a boulder, a legit boulder, just crumbles. And you watch as it makes its own puff as it just goes.

[Amy Nicholson]

Basketball or like pretty close.

[Paul Scheer]

Pretty close.

[Amy Nicholson]

Like cool, cool, cool. Small volleyball.

[G]

Great.

[Amy Nicholson]

A smally ball.

[Paul Scheer]

A smally ball. And you are just now hoping not one of them doesn't, but it becomes a cascade, like a rain, and it just starts to trickle down upon you. Yeah, Jack, lead them, lead them somewhere. Anywhere that's not out in the open. Yes. Two sixes. No ones.

[Eliza]

Very nice.

[Paul Scheer]

You take narrative control.

[Jason Charles Miller]

Okay. We get to the point to where even throughout all the ash, we see off in the distance. The base.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah. See the fence first more than anything. Just the. And it's hard. Ironically, he can still see the. You know, for authorized access only.

[Jason Charles Miller]

Right. See the signs. You know, we sort of find our way to where the road leading up to it is.

[Paul Scheer]

It's interesting because as you look at it, you would expect like some kind of, you know, refugee symbology, check ins, a check in point, something. None of that is there. In fact, as you look into the base. You can actually see as you're cresting over into it, you don't actually see the base itself yet. You just know that the gate is there and it is intact. And the rain of rocks continues to barrage upon you. What do you want to do?

[Jason Charles Miller]

Let's make our way to the gate.

[Amy Nicholson]

Make a run for it.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah, we'll run for the gate. And you run up to it and you go against the chain link fence. And you can feel, you look up at top and you can see even with the ash over it, and at this point it's piled up a lot more around it than it would be on the other area. But you can see there's barbed wire laid out on the top of it.

[Jason Charles Miller]

Well, let's take refuge in the gatehouse. Oh, you're gonna be on the outside so that then we can sort of formulate our plan from there. The rocks are getting bigger, but at least we can hide in the gatehouse.

[Paul Scheer]

As you double back along the gate to wherever you can get to where the gatehouse is, you suddenly see just a giant boulder just goes. So it just lands right in front of you. And you kind of feel as just a shower of dirt just lifts up in front of you as you're sprayed all across your face with just dust coming, coming down. And you look at it and you look at it and you can see it's gray. It's a large gray rock with tiny pieces of little crater onto it. Small other impacts.

[Rachel]

The fucking moon is falling out of the sky.

[Eliza]

It's the moon. It's the moon.

[Paul Scheer]

And then you step over it as you take a little bit of like you jump off of it as you continue to watch it now, larger rocks and it's just impending. It's almost like an asteroid feel it's just raining down upon you. And you roll across out into where the gatehouse is and you can see it's just ashen covered, just laid across. And you slide that door open as much as you can and you cram yourself in. It's a gatehouse. The four of you fitting in. It is miraculous enough as it is. You cram in there and you here is just the small papal. Small pounding of rocks is continuing to lay out on top of it.

[Amy Nicholson]

I have to get underground. Does this base have underground?

[Jason Charles Miller]

I mean, I wasn't stationed here, I was out of the military when I moved here. But it must range. Yeah, there's gotta be there have to. I've been here.

[Paul Scheer]

But at a minimum, another rock just slams Right in. Monica, see if you can avoid the debris as it's slamming into.

[Eliza]

Okay, well, success.

[Paul Scheer]

One, one. Go for it, Monica. As you basically feel this thing just run into it. It is another one of the. Not the big basketball one that came down, but it was definitely a softball sized boulder. And it just slams through the window. And you feel as it just hits you in the back of the shoulder as you just kind of throw your body forward and you scream out in pain as it cascades down across of you. And it just seemed to have glanced off of you like it didn't take its full weight. It just kind of hit you on the way down. And you kind of feel your shoulder and it doesn't feel torn or broken or anything, but it's bleeding a little bit as you kind of put your hand on into it and. Yeah, I mean, it didn't go through the window, it went through the wall to come.

[Amy Nicholson]

We have to get inside. There's gotta be a manual override for the gate.

[Jason Charles Miller]

Yeah. Are there keys here or something or any kind of. Yeah, there's gotta be a button that'll open the gate if it's still.

[Paul Scheer]

There is a button for the gate and you press it and you hold onto it and nothing.

[Rachel]

There's no electricity. We just gotta go, we gotta go. We gotta climb shoulders. We gotta use our shields to get over the razor wire. Use the canvas bags, whatever we've got. We gotta.

[Amy Nicholson]

There should be a manual override for the gate for when the power goes out. We, we shouldn't have to climb over the razor wire. We're at the gate. We should be able to like find that manual.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah.

[Jason Charles Miller]

Unlock it and then pull it or push.

[Paul Scheer]

Run.

[Amy Nicholson]

I find it.

[Paul Scheer]

You grab and you start looking around, digging everywhere. It is yours.

[Amy Nicholson]

Take over from me in a very determined fashion. Oh, disciplined. In a very disciplined fashion. I, I look for the manual override. There's actually a lever inside the gatehouse that says manual override and has little instructions, you know, with a picture of the gate and the little like guy pushing, you know, like, don't do this sort of thing. And I'm like, okay. And then I point out to how we need to do it and sort of quickly communicate to everybody. We need to do this thing and push it open and we all go.

[Paul Scheer]

So you slide it out as you hit that lever. You watch as everyone comes out and you start grabbing the gate with all of your might and you start just pulling on it and wrenching it. One, two, three. Pulls just enough so that your Bodies can all just slide through. And as you start to hear and feel and just poof, just these craters are just starting to be made around you as it's just like someone, just like a frost giant was hurtling boulders at you. And as you're running for the gate of the keep and you make it through and you start just keeping your head down and the sheet metal is doing a lot in order to take most of the brunts of the hit. And that's when you start to notice as you get closer, the ground in front of you is cracked. And you can see as you moving forward that the split earth is laid out in front and ash is falling into. At first it's piled up enough to where you don't see it, but you slowly see as the ash becomes less and less deep, as a fissure starts to be in front of you as you're running straight towards the base. Yeah.

[Rachel]

Can we tell how wide the fissure is? Is it wide enough that we could lay a shield across it and cross it, or is it.

[Paul Scheer]

Oh, well, right now it's in front of you going towards you, but if you're not at a point where you would need to cross it yet.

[Jason Charles Miller]

So we could just go on one.

[Paul Scheer]

Side or the other. You just pick one side or the.

[Eliza]

Other, which says it's literally directly between us and the base.

[Rachel]

I continue to move along nearby the fissure because there the ash has been falling in and it's not as deep and it's faster to move through. Keeping the shield on the fall off side as I move through the ash.

[Paul Scheer]

Right. Who's still holding shields at this point?

[Jason Charles Miller]

I think we all are, yeah.

[Paul Scheer]

Oh, you all have shields. I mean, you're not shielding each other. Right.

[Jason Charles Miller]

You're just holding, kind of shielding ourselves.

[Paul Scheer]

Okay. So as you begin to kind of run forward, you pick the left side of the fissure or let me know, otherwise it really doesn't matter. At this point, it's all ash. So you kind of head to the left and you start running forward as, as much as you can. And you do see that it definitely looked like the ground had cracked at one point. And you can see as you're looking to the side now, you can actually see the hail of rocks and they aren't coming at an angle like you would expect. They're actually just coming straight down. It literally looks like a direct downpour is coming straight in on these things. And Jack, I need you to avoid a large incoming rock.

[Jason Charles Miller]

All right, One is coming for you.

[Paul Scheer]

One. One One six. All right, so, Jack, as you hold onto it and you're talking with everyone, pick the left side. Move forward as you come across, and you're looking at this downpouring of rocks as you're moving forward towards the base. And you can see as this fissure is growing deeper. And you can actually watch as the rock or the earth is kind of split and this chasm is growing wider and wider. And this is distracting for the moment in which you actually feel a hard rock just boom, like, right against it. And you feel the impact on your arm as kind of it wants to bend for a moment. And that's actually not so much the problem. The problem is that it hit your shield arm so much that it actually exposed you for a second. And you got one of the swords, smaller ones, just right into your head for a second. And you feel this impact, but it didn't stop you enough. It stuns you, but you just keep moving forward. And you can feel a small bit of warmth trickling down your face as you continue to run towards the base. And you finally get into the point where you can see it in the horizon, and you get closer and realize that half of the base has actually been cracked in the middle, and the other part of it has just fallen into this chasm that you've walked into. And you can see that about a third of it is still standing up, but it is precariously poised on the edge of this giant chasm that has split into this part of the land. So let's go to our.

[Jason Charles Miller]

The building that's farthest away from the chasm.

[Rachel]

Yeah.

[Paul Scheer]

Right. And you run up and you get up to the door, and it is locked. Why would it not be?

[Rachel]

Right. You have an axe. There's got to be a window we can start working our way through. Even a reinforced window.

[Amy Nicholson]

What type of handle is it?

[Paul Scheer]

It's one of those. Aha. I see what you're getting. It is one of those electronic security lock ones. So in a no power situation, it would just deadlock, deadbolt.

[Amy Nicholson]

Okay. All right.

[Paul Scheer]

Well, you wouldn't. Maybe you would know that. Maybe not. So, point is, there's no handle.

[Rachel]

Right.

[Amy Nicholson]

Okay, let's find another way in, I guess.

[Jason Charles Miller]

Yeah, let's axe our way in.

[Eliza]

Now, is this the.

[Rachel]

Just to be clear, I say axe to window. That's what I say, right?

[Eliza]

Yeah. This is the half of the building that's not sinking into the chasm.

[Paul Scheer]

Well, think about it like this. The base, there's several. There's a lot of buildings.

[Eliza]

But we're still talking about this one building that we were running towards.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah. This one building is cracked so that all of this is off in the chasm. But there are other buildings around, even like a motor pool, you know? So the issue is, do you want to go to one of the other buildings that's not on the side where the chasm is, or do you want to go to the largest building, which is currently being cut in half by the chasm?

[Eliza]

I don't really want to go into the building that's going to fall into the chasm.

[Paul Scheer]

Great. Okay. So you go to the nearest one that you can find, and you start looking for a window to come in. They have reinforced metal to prevent this kind of attitude going into it. But Wren. Okay, if you're axing, I'll hold your kitty. Yeah.

[Rachel]

And I'm shielding her.

[Amy Nicholson]

I didn't get it.

[Paul Scheer]

Okay.

[Jason Charles Miller]

Don't burn your finger.

[Paul Scheer]

Thank you.

[Amy Nicholson]

Careful. It's fire.

[Paul Scheer]

Okay, Ren. As you take this axe and you just start wailing it against the glass breaks immediately as it does. And you start hitting it against the metal, grating as much as you possibly can. And you. You just start wailing on it and wailing on it and wailing on it. And there's something going through your mind right now. There's something that's overtaking your emotions while you're hitting this thing. What is it?

[Amy Nicholson]

It's about the person that gave their life to save me and how it was for nothing.

[Paul Scheer]

You just want to prove that wrong. You want to live for something so that their life was not in vain. And you think about this, and it is the only thing that takes your mind is you can continue to hit it over and over and over again to the point of where the three of them are watching you. And it's clear you're not making it through the metal. Its sparks are lighting every single time as you hit it. The metal on the axis bending at this point. But you don't stop. You just keep going into it. And you feel your muscles begin to fatigue. And your face is starting to get hot as you're pushing all of this exertion into it. That's when you slip just for a small moment. And you feel as a piece of the glass that you had shattered cut, and it goes right across the top of your arm. Not this way. Not here. I want to make that clear. But it just cuts you right down the front. And you just groan as you drop the axe right in front of you. And you start to feel Hot blood gushing down your arm. It looks like a giant cat scratch. Four candles, four truths. Wren, I'm so sorry I have to give it to you again, but you do get the first truth in this circumstance.

[Amy Nicholson]

We find an open hangar nearby.

[Paul Scheer]

An open hangar? Great. Janae.

[Rachel]

A hissing scream starts to come out of the chasm.

[Paul Scheer]

It the cat jumps out of the bag. Monica.

[Eliza]

We. Someone is alive in this building besides us.

[Paul Scheer]

In the hangar?

[Eliza]

Yeah.

[Paul Scheer]

Or in the building you were trying to break into.

[Eliza]

The hangar.

[Paul Scheer]

The hanger. Four candles, four truths. We'll pick up this scene with all of you running with your shields above your head, beelining it straight for this airline hangar. And as you start to get close to it, you can start to hear this hissing, this giant screeching coming from the chasm. It is loud. It does sound like one of them, but it sounds like the biggest one of them you've ever heard in your life. And you make it for you make it to this airline hangar. And at that point, as soon as that first just huge shriek comes into the place, that's when Oliver, just too much, just takes it and just leaps right out of the bag and heads straight for the direction that you guys are not running towards at this point. What do you do?

[Rachel]

I see cover inside the hangar. The cat can take care of himself.

[Eliza]

Keep running. Yeah.

[Paul Scheer]

Janae, Monica, you run towards the hanger. You see it as it comes by. Ren, are you going to stop to save this thing?

[Amy Nicholson]

I'm going to the hangar.

[Paul Scheer]

You're going to let it and you're going to go to the hangar. You watch as it goes away and you can feel the blood running down your arm. And you just keep moving as much as you can.

[Jason Charles Miller]

Jack, I run towards the hangar and I jokingly say, he's got eight more lives.

[Amy Nicholson]

He's better off without us.

[Eliza]

He probably is gonna find somewhere safer than we are.

[Paul Scheer]

As you make it into the hangar, you can see that there is still an airplane inside of the hangar, but not much else. And you can see that from the wings. Curtains have been drawn down from the wings to make a sheet, so to speak. And there's clearly the signs of some who has been here already. As you come across this four propeller long bomber. And as you make it into this line, you can still hear the screaming, it's so loud. And the earth begins to slowly tremble and quake. And yeah, it's just rumbling at this moment, but something is coming from that chasm. What do you want to do? God, what would I do?

[Jason Charles Miller]

I sort of assess the situation to see if this person's here, if this make to or makeshift dwelling that someone made. Is there some.

[Paul Scheer]

Hello? Hello? You call out and you don't hear anything at first, but you make your way up closer and you put your. You pull back the curtain and you pull back this curtain and you can see that there is a man who is sitting on several cushions in kind of a cross legged position. And he has disheveled hair and he seems to just have a leather jacket on, but no shirt, cut off pants and what appears to just be ripped up shoes. And you can see candy wrappers are just laid out all around him at the moment. And he just seems to just be sitting over something. And now that you're inside, you can see that the inside of the linen has just writing all over it. It's just everywhere, just scrawled, just picturesque versions of the monoliths that are there. And he comes constantly. There's just words like sinners find the light. Redemption in the monolith. Glory to those, to the light. Let him embrace you. These words are all laid out. He pays no attention to you. As you see, he's continuing to write underneath the shelter of this giant weapon of war.

[Amy Nicholson]

I'm going to pull off one of my sleeves and wrap them around my arm and try to stop the bleeding. I'm staring at this guy.

[Paul Scheer]

You're pulling this thing off and it's taking a lot. That run took a lot out of you. And there's a moment in which you actually are in an area that's not chalk filled with ash because of the overhang that's in there. And you actually do take this moment to actually pull it off of your face and just start taking deep labored breaths as you just. You need to sit down. It's bad, it hurts. And you stem the blood.

[Jason Charles Miller]

But we still have the first aid kit, do we not?

[Rachel]

We used all those alcohol wipes ages ago.

[Eliza]

And that was like the second med kit from the house.

[Paul Scheer]

Monica. Something going on. Something's from this chasm. You've seen things at this point with them. It's incredible. What are you thinking right now? Where is your mind at? As you just are hearing something come from this chasm. You saw what they were doing to each other outside. Where are you right now? In your head?

[Eliza]

Yeah, I've seen them not just go after us humans, but go after each other and just tear. Just do disgusting, terrible, scary things.

[Paul Scheer]

Why?

[Eliza]

I don't know, some kind of fervor or desperation for food, for flesh, for Souls, I guess. Now that we know what's inside of them. So they're. It seems like they're in a clamor. They're just fervently clamoring for.

[Paul Scheer]

You've realized that you've seen something collect less collectors, these Reapers of souls who have now started to take every bit. Why do you think. Why do you think it's just you left you four? Why beyond just core survival, do you think that you're still here? I want to know. I really do want to know why you think you're still here.

[Eliza]

Lucky, lucky, lucky. But doomed.

[Paul Scheer]

So, Ren and Jack, you've watched as you pull this man pull these sheets forward. I know, Jack. You actually explicitly said you were the first one to pull it back in there. This man isn't paying any attention to. You can see he's writing something over his hand. What do you want? What do you want to do?

[Jason Charles Miller]

Well, if he's ignoring us, I'm gonna ignore him when I get everybody inside.

[Paul Scheer]

All right, well, you are all in the hangar, and you kind of watch as Jack pulls this curtain back, saying, don't worry about it. You know, we're all. All inside. But Janae, you're seeing Wren. She's sitting at this point, you can hear something outside screeching. There's this giant bomber laid out in front of you. The immediate threat seems to be gone because you're not in a rock of rain right now. Rain of rock. But what's the next step? You've been so good at having some kind of plan, moving forward.

[Rachel]

All I can think is if that sound is coming out of the chasm. And those things used to come out of the ground.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah.

[Rachel]

Where have they been going back to? And this is the biggest space we've seen. We walked right into the den. We walked right into the foundation of where they are. This man survived it. He's still here. So I know Jack closed the curtains. But I wanna know. I wanna know what he knows. I wanna see what he sees. And I have to understand what he's seen.

[Paul Scheer]

So tell me what you want to do. Tell me what you want to ask him.

[Rachel]

So I part the canvas, and I see the writings and the drawings of the monoliths. And as I start to take them in, words come pouring out of my mouth unbidden. I've heard their song. But you know what it is, is what do they sing? Tell me what they say.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah, you've heard their song. Good. Oh, I'm so glad. He kind of stops scratching and turn Turn and goes. There's songs. Their song is beautiful there. You don't realize, do you? Do you know where you are? Do you know why they're here?

[Rachel]

You too?

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah, I do. I do. I do. I hope I do. If I'm not, then we are all damned. Damned for. For eternity. Damned forever. He turns to you and he looks to you, and he has this glass eyes, as if he's been alone a very long time, but maybe not that long. But in his mind, he goes to you and he just says, welcome home. Don't you see? We're home. This is it. This is the last step. He points out towards the chasm, or where the chasm should be. Those are the ones who don't deserve to make it to the next stage. They're unworthy. They didn't make it. They instead were collected. But did they tell you to go to the monolith? Did they sing to you? Did they tell you to go to it? Tell me now. Please tell me. Did they tell you to go to the monoliths?

[Rachel]

I've heard there's some.

[Paul Scheer]

He grabs you by the shoulder and pulls you and says, do you need to go to the monoliths? Yes or no? You've heard their song, but just tell me. Look at me in the eyes.

[Rachel]

I feel the pull.

[Paul Scheer]

And I don't owe you anything. Just go. Go to it. Go to it. It's your only chance. It's your only way of redemption. It's the only way you will pass along into the next world. I looked at it. I looked at it. I saw its light and I spurned it. I turned away and the door closed on me. And I have been trying to get back, and I can't. And I can't. And I'm just waiting for them, but they won't take me. I don't. You see this? It's purgatory. You have a chance. You haven't seen the light yet, but it will be there for you. Go to the monolith and find the next stage. And he kind of just grabs you and shoves you out of the curtain. Goes, just go. Let us all die here and find another world of hell. At least you have a chance. He just goes back into it and starts scrambling. You three are listening to this exchange, this rambling going on around here, and he just begins sobbing inside of his little stage, this little area that he's made for himself right here. And he just begins crying.

[Rachel]

I walked at the door of the hangar, and I look to see if there's anything rising from the horizon that.

[Paul Scheer]

I haven't seen yet from the crater. You see this, them, one of them pulling itself out from the cataclysm from this rift. And it is first accompanied by this whoosh of air that plumes out and it just spirals everywhere. And you watch for a moment the ashes cleared and you can see a cracked, broken moon and this funnel of dust just right above you. And it's with that that you start to see that floating pieces of rock are inside of its low gravity atmosphere. But it's slowly coming down and these red, red iron hot lights are just pulsing through and it's pulling itself up and out. At first it just takes its appendages to pull it up, but it just lifts itself up and like, like a giant worm, like an antlion rising out from its den, it just continues to lift. And the monoliths are large, I've explained that. Hundred feet tall, you know, These bases of 100, 100, 100, you know, long ones that go straight up. But this dwarfs even some of the monoliths you've seen up close. And there is one so next to it. It's laid up on the fissure, just laying into it, in fact, the chasms as this thing has split across, you can see that the monoliths actually go even deeper down into the earth. They've split up through, but they just keep going deeper. And Monica, something grabs your leg.

[Eliza]

Guessing it's not a cat.

[Paul Scheer]

No, no sixes. No ones. Monica. As you look into this image, this crazy, magnificent creature rising out of the ground, and you can see this rock coming into place. You didn't even notice that one of them was right behind you the entire time. And you feel just that first, almost like a soft friend just touching your ankle to wake you up at first. But then it just wraps its appendage around your arm, around your leg, and at the same time pulls you up into your arms. And you feel yourself lifted up off of the ground. And you don't even see as it turns to you and it looks at you and these three are still staring at this magnificent enterprise as you are slowly and with great purpose shoved deep into.

[Eliza]

Ah. I'm screaming as I go down.

[Paul Scheer]

You three hear a loud scream as all of you turn around and see Monica already up to her chest, engulfed. And just like the segmented pops of when it was going through the door frame, she says one last thing before engulfed into the maw of the creature.

[Eliza]

Shoot me in the head. I don't wanna die like this.

[Paul Scheer]

I will. Ren. Janae. Jack. I don't think any of you have a gun. No, I don't think any of you have a means in which to.

[Rachel]

She had a speargun. That was the only.

[Eliza]

Only projectile we had in the creature, probably.

[Paul Scheer]

Now you. This one last witch comes in. I don't. Yeah, well, at this point, did I.

[Jason Charles Miller]

Make it to stab her?

[Rachel]

Oh, no.

[Jason Charles Miller]

Put her out of her misery.

[Amy Nicholson]

You could throw it.

[Jason Charles Miller]

We had a pact.

[Paul Scheer]

This is all I'm trying to respect, is that if there is a chance, if you want to throw your knife and you want to let it go into it, then I want to hear this played out. She SCREAMS Kill me. Shoot me in the head. Do anything, Jack.

[Jason Charles Miller]

I mean, without even thinking, I pull my knife out and I throw it right at her.

[Paul Scheer]

Right? You watch it spin. Monica, you hope. You know, it's so important, it's so important that I'm willing to break the rules of the game to do one last die roll to see if your dying wish is taken.

[Eliza]

Okay.

[Paul Scheer]

One second. You watch as it spirals towards you, and you feel the knife, and you're literally feeling the muscles pulling you down into this thing as its serrated teeth are just grating across your skin. And as you have those last pleading eyes towards Jack. Don't let me die like this. You watch as the knife comes right up, it arcs forward, and in its final downward, just goes right into your neck. And you feel the blood well up from your mouth as you slowly feel the life ebb away from you as one last pulls you in. Alisa, thank you for playing. Thank you so much for joining.

[Eliza]

Thank you for killing me.

[Paul Scheer]

I'm so sorry. I'm gonna have to ask you to leave my table.

[Eliza]

This is very terrifying. All right. Good luck.

[Paul Scheer]

Three candles. Three candles. Three truths. Elisa. Monica would normally be the first one to speak the truth, but since she is no longer here with us, I will instead speak for her. The Collector has no desire to take the rest of you.

[Jason Charles Miller]

I think I can fly that plane.

[Paul Scheer]

Good.

[Amy Nicholson]

Where I've landed, where I've sat, I find a gun. Behind me in a kit.

[Paul Scheer]

You find a gun.

[Amy Nicholson]

Mm.

[Paul Scheer]

Right. Three candles, Three truths. This thing has emerged from the ground, this grand beast. And the rocks are now starting to be so large that they are punching through the holes of the air hangar at this point, at first, it was just large, concaving dents, but now you can feel as they're moving so fast, they're actually piercing through the metal. What do you want to do?

[Jason Charles Miller]

I. I run into the plane, Right? I say come with me.

[Rachel]

You want to fly a plane through an asteroid field?

[Jason Charles Miller]

I'm not giving up.

[Rachel]

And you shouldn't. You shouldn't. But I'm not getting in that plane with you. But, God, do I help you make it. I really do.

[Paul Scheer]

Wren, you've pulled this gun out from where you are. You can feel the heat of the fever is taking you at this point, Jack, you know, she's lying there. She's bleeding. The sleeve that she's taken at this point is covered in blood, and she looks awful.

[Jason Charles Miller]

What do you want to do? I rush over to her.

[Amy Nicholson]

We're not gonna make it. We're. What if. What if he's right and we're already dead and this is hell?

[Jason Charles Miller]

Well, then the regular rules don't apply.

[Amy Nicholson]

But there's no way out. What did you do, Jack? Deserve to be here. I know what I did.

[Jason Charles Miller]

I don't think any of us did anything to deserve to be here.

[Amy Nicholson]

I hope you can. I hope you make it. I hope you fly out of here.

[Paul Scheer]

Janae, you've heard this rambling of a crazy man, and you've heard the rambling from another crazy man. Seems like you have a decision to make right now. One course or the other.

[Rachel]

All we've done is try to flee. It's time to face what's here. I want to find a path to that monolith. I need to know if this is the end of the world. I need to know what's causing it. And how am I a part of it? It's time to go. For me.

[Paul Scheer]

So you take your shield, you hold it above you, and you stand resolutely out in a hailstorm of the moon coming down upon you. And you can see it's doing very little to deter the creature that is in there. In fact, as it uses the monolith almost as a leading post, as it puts itself onto it, it sings its resonant, loud, piercing song straight into the cosmos. Run for the monolith. Is your moment on top.

[Rachel]

In that song? In that song, I start to pick out voices.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah.

[Rachel]

And I realize the sound of terror. And that animal sound is what has been grating at our nerves so much. And I realize that I can start to hear the individual voices of the souls inside of it. And one voice starts to stand out to me. It's small and it's high, and it sounds like a child giggling, like it knows that what it's done is wrong. But, God, was it satisfying. Like when you've opened all of your mother's cupboards and poured everything on the floor. And you're gonna have to live with the consequences. But nothing felt like that at the time. And that sound draws me forward.

[Paul Scheer]

This is a hope dice that comes from the moment being fulfilled. And to have that one damned voice speak out in a symphony of. Of pain. I want you to roll it. It's a five or a six for success. Janae. As you walk forward and you hold this sheet above you, you walk with purpose, knowing that anytime something could hit you and take you. Take you down, but you don't care. As you move forward, knowing that there is a chance to know why. And the why is in front of you. And you take that voice and you start breaking it apart. And as you look towards the monolith, you can see that light. You can see that yellow light. It's right against the ground floor. It's right there. And you begin to run. And you run for it with all of your might. And you get closer. And as you get closer, you start to pull apart the sounds that you're speaking of. And you hear that laughter of that child. And you know. And you say, in your heart, in your mind, you hear that they know they've done something wrong, but they don't care. They've lived it. And at that moment, when that thought comes into your head, the door shuts in front of you. It slams, and you skid to a stop as you look towards this black onyx thing in front of you. You take the sheet metal and you just let. Let it drop to your hand, to the side of you. And you are crushed by the weight of the moon underneath you. Never truly knowing what was on the other side and being so close and finding that one moment of hope that ended up being your damnation. Rachel, thank you so much for playing. I'm going to have to ask you to leave my.

[Rachel]

Fly, Jack. Fly.

[Paul Scheer]

We'll see.

[Eliza]

Good luck.

[Paul Scheer]

Two. Two candles. Two truths. Janae would normally speak the first truth, but I will instead. The airplane starts. Jack.

[Jason Charles Miller]

There's enough Runway in normal circumstances to take off to get airborne.

[Paul Scheer]

Jack and Ren, you watched as Janay ran out to this monolith. And she could only get about 20 or 30ft before both the ash and the rocks just took her from your view and ran near. Laying here, weak, losing blood with a hot fever. And, Jack, you get this plane started. What do you want to do?

[Jason Charles Miller]

I pick up Ren.

[Amy Nicholson]

Wait, Let me. I want to talk to him before. We can't just leave him here. I want to talk to him. Let me.

[Paul Scheer]

What do you want to say to him?

[Amy Nicholson]

So I. I take blood from my arm and I put it on his forehead. Creating a circle like the moon. And I pull out the gun and I put it next to his head. And I say, you will not die alone. But you. You will die in vain. And then I shoot him.

[Paul Scheer]

All right? You pull the trigger. And you watch as all of the exit matter just comes right out. Just red sprays along into the back as his head flings back. And you hear his body just thunk to the ground. You didn't even give him a word to speak. He just fell across. And this pool of blood that begins to form on the bottom just drips into his charcoal drawings of all of the monolith papers around him.

[Amy Nicholson]

Okay.

[Paul Scheer]

Jack, you pick her up.

[Jason Charles Miller]

I pick her up and I take her in the plane, put her in the seat next to.

[Paul Scheer]

The. Propellers start to spin. All four start to go off. It's time for takeoff. 16 and 1 1. Jack, tell me how you get this thing airborne.

[Jason Charles Miller]

I was in the army for four years, and I spent some time as a. An airborne parachute paratrooper. And just from watching the pilots, I. Rudimentary. Just the most simple way.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah.

[Jason Charles Miller]

Pull the stick back and it goes up.

[Paul Scheer]

All right? You get it.

[Jason Charles Miller]

Somehow in this crazy situation, just get it. Get the plane up in the air.

[Paul Scheer]

In the air. And you can hear the rocks are just. Just hitting it the entire time. I know. Clanking through.

[Jason Charles Miller]

And in my mind, I know that it's the most impossible thing to do. But at the same time, I don't want to give up fighting. And even if this is the end, I can't just stop.

[Paul Scheer]

You found your shelter, that's for sure. You literally came into. You found your one last little bit of hope as you pulled this thing up into the air. Ren, you slowly begin to drift into unconsciousness as this last amazing moment. And you. I'm sure you're thinking of something at this point. There's something going on in your fever dream like state that made you want to pull the trigger on that. Is it because of your brother? Or is it because of some. Do you believe him? Do you think this is purgatory?

[Amy Nicholson]

I just wanted him to stop.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah.

[Amy Nicholson]

I didn't want that thing to take him. And if we left him, it would.

[Paul Scheer]

So you gave him that deliverance, at least. Well, Jack, you're flying this plane. I will tell you that as you're flying it. Ren, though strapped in, essentially bleeds into Unconsciousness and slowly falls asleep, probably to a sleep she will not wake up from. You have this plane in the air now, so what do you want to do with it?

[Jason Charles Miller]

What options do I see? The rocks are now sort of floating.

[Paul Scheer]

In zero G, high up in the atmosphere, and the rocks are absolutely coming down. I would say you have two options. You could either fly it out of the rock storm and hope that you can clear whatever gravitational pull is pulling the rock pieces to earth and fly away from it, or you could crash it into the thing, the giant collector. That's up to you. Both are hope in their own way.

[Jason Charles Miller]

Well, with the loss of everyone.

[Paul Scheer]

But.

[Jason Charles Miller]

Not wanting to give up. I'm gonna at least take this thing with me.

[Paul Scheer]

You're gonna crash into it.

[Jason Charles Miller]

Yeah.

[Paul Scheer]

One dice, one ro. Okay, Wren. As you slowly start to trickle into unconsciousness, you see as Jack strapped into his pilot seat, you and the co pilot seat. You can watch as he is slowly beginning to turn the plane to a trajectory straight towards this giant vem that has cursed out from the chasm. Jack, there's a whole lot going in your mind. You've been preaching this gospel of not giving up and not fighting. What do you want to accomplish with this fact? I hope to.

[Jason Charles Miller]

At least take that one out. Whether it's saving the people that we don't know yet or just delaying the inevitable.

[Paul Scheer]

These are the things you think about as you move this thing with all due speed, just gunning the throttle all the way. You can hear the engines turn up even more as you push towards it and just pull straight up just to try to get as close to the mouth as you can. And that's when a piece of rock, not even that big, just size of a softball, not even like the one that crushed genae. It just goes right through the windshield and it goes right into your eyeball and it cracks up your head into the bottom of the seat and you slump down to the floor and the plane tilts and it crashes down into the ground. Wren, you've watched this entire thing happen, but as far as you know, it is a dream. How does your dream end?

[Amy Nicholson]

We're on the ground, still held in my seat belts, but kind of lurched over and I still have the gun in my hand. And I see them coming for us. And I look over at Jack. Jack? Jack, are you Jack? And then with my last ounce of strength, I put the gun in my mouth.

[Paul Scheer]

And thus. Thus does our story end. And thus does the story of Jack and Wren and Monica and Janae end. Thank you, Both. So much for playing. Actually, very rarely do I have two people die in the last scene. So I have this last moment in which I imagine there's two things that could have happened. Everything that Ren described could have been what she hoped happened, or it could have actually happened. The fever is too much really to tell either way, but the plane did crash. And the last things that you would hear as this plane is screaming down into the ground is just this giant, wailing creature with this broken moon laid up in front. And it just is singing its song. And from its mouth, thousands of echoing screams chorus together. I'm gonna have to ask you to leave my table. Oh, actually, it's time to go anyway. So we're good.

[Amy Nicholson]

We're good.

[Paul Scheer]

You're not good, but we're good. Thank you. Actually, I am gonna ask you to leave the table. Cause we have to hear the last remnants of your stories. So thank.

[Amy Nicholson]

You.

[Paul Scheer]

There's only one last thing left to do, and that is listen to the messages of our dearly departed characters. Good night.

[Jason Charles Miller]

This is Jack Lincoln, originally from New Hope, Pennsylvania. And now I'm somewhere in Australia. If you're hearing this, Hope, you're in a better place than me. I don't know who or what is here, but we brought this on ourselves. Too consumed with greed and consumption to pay attention to what was happening. I don't think these things came from anywhere, but from inside ourselves. I hope that if we learn anything from this, it's to be better to each other. So that maybe this never happens again.

[Rachel]

If you're hearing this, this is Janae Christensen from California. California, usa. And I just wanted to say.

[Paul Scheer]

If.

[Rachel]

You'Re hearing this, you're alive. And that's amazing. And I want you to know that whatever you did to get here and to stay here, it's okay. You're okay. I think this is running out. Emma, please. You are our hope. God, I hope I'm here with you. But whatever you did, it's okay.

[Paul Scheer]

You're okay.

[Rachel]

You can make it.

[Paul Scheer]

Hold on.

[Amy Nicholson]

I. I don't know if anyone will find this. I don't know if this sort of stuff matters anymore, but. Hi, this is Ren Sagewood. Well, I guess that's what everyone calls me anyway. I. Nobody knows anyway, so I'm in Australia, and I. I don't know if I'll ever be able to leave Australia. But hoping. When this all first started, I. I just kept thinking, my whole life has been kind of wasted on really useless stuff, like, who cares about movies, you know? But I don't know. I also now I feel like my whole life has been training for this. Like all that dumb stuff I've been learning for those useless movies is the only reason I'm still here. And it's kind of like maybe I'll get through this, you know? I feel like I have to get through this. Too many people have sacrificed themselves to make sure I'm still here, and that can't be for nothing. So I'm gonna get through this.

[Eliza]

All right. I'm thought I would know what to say in case anyone actually gets to listen to this. My name is Monica Charles. I was on a trip by myself visiting friends in Australia and everything went to hell. Quite literally. I had a good life. I hope my family's okay. Or I hope that they died quickly so they wouldn't have to see all of this.

[Rachel]

Just if you're.

[Eliza]

If you're listening, just. I don't know if it's worth surviving.

[Paul Scheer]

Imagine with me as if you were there.

[Jason Charles Miller]

Discover Tales Unrolled A new Dungeons and Dragons actual play series set in a small tropical town called Alma that is.

[Paul Scheer]

Suddenly plagued by a mysterious curse.

[Jason Charles Miller]

Four of the villagers must come together.

[Paul Scheer]

To save their town and the people they love that live there. They will have to face and defeat.

[Jason Charles Miller]

Demons, real and imagined, otherwise they risk.

[Paul Scheer]

Falling victim to the curse.

[Jason Charles Miller]

Watch your listen Tales Unrolled Available as.

[Paul Scheer]

A video series on YouTube and as a podcast wherever you listen. I hope that with you, maybe we can make sense of this together. I don't have much time. I am being transported by the Ecclesiad vessel Merkava to stand trial for heresy of the highest order. But I will not renounce my work. And to my last breath I will speak the truth of this place plague ridden world, that ours is not a loving God and we are not its favored children. The Heresies of Randolph Bundwein Chapter 2. Now available throughout the known world. Can you actually change your personality if you want to? How does peer pressure work and why is it so powerful? Should you ever really trust your gut when you make a big decision? These are just a few of the topics we've recently covered on my podcast, Something youg Should Know. I'm the host, Mike Carruthers, and each episode of Something youg Should Know covers multiple topics that are likely relevant to you. You'll discover things you can use in your life today, right now, like how to have a great conversation, how to be more courageous, the anatomy of the perfect apology, and much, much more. To date, There are over 1000 episodes of something you should know. And we've gotten over 4,000, mostly five star reviews. I invite you to check out something you should know. Look for the bright yellow light bulb on the blue background. Something you should know. Wherever you listen to podcasts.