Chapter Five: Towards the Light | Ten Candles: Eclipse

Summary

Podcast Summary: Critical Role & Sagas of Sundry – Chapter Five: Towards the Light | Ten Candles: Eclipse

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Introduction

In this gripping episode of Critical Role & Sagas of Sundry, hosted by Geek & Sundry, the cast delves deeper into the harrowing narrative of Ten Candles: Eclipse. This tragic horror series places players in a dire situation where 40 individuals, led by one game master, navigate a post-apocalyptic world with zero survivors expected. Chapter Five, titled "Towards the Light," continues the intense journey within an abandoned missile silo as the characters confront dwindling resources, leadership crises, and unimaginable horrors.

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The Setting: Liminal London and the Missile Silo

The session begins with vivid descriptions of the setting, introducing a dark and oppressive environment. The players find themselves nestled within the confines of a former missile silo, repurposed as a fallout shelter. Over the past two weeks, seismic activities and the emergence of mysterious monoliths have plunged the world into chaos, causing earthquakes, tsunamis, and the displacement of terrifying creatures. The once safe haven now feels claustrophobic and uncertain, with resources running perilously low.

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Character Introductions and Motivations

Each player introduces their character, providing insight into their backgrounds and personal quests:

1. Tyler Johnson (Michael) – A cautious software developer burdened by his inability to take risks. "I want to save a companion from despair" – [06:10].

2. Star – A disingenuous social media influencer grappling with authenticity. "I influence someone and find a piece of my own bravery" – [16:28].

3. Michael Stevens (Emily) – A blue-collar handyman seeking redemption and forgiveness from his ex-girlfriend, Hannah Green. "I'm seeking forgiveness for not appreciating what I had" – [17:59].

4. Emily Rose (Whitney) – A privileged student determined to find Mr. Anderson, Eric. "I need to know if he's alive or dead" – [18:49].

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The Struggle for Resources and Leadership

As days pass, the scarcity of supplies becomes palpable. The characters grapple with maintaining their meager rations and the implications of dwindling resources. A pivotal moment arises when Michael proposes a trip to the quartermaster to replenish their dwindling food stores. This decision sparks a debate on leadership and the need for decisive action within the group.

Michael expresses frustration:
"We don't have enough time. We have to move on." – [46:54]

Star counters with a plea for cautious optimism:
"We take care of each other. That has to mean something." – [49:27]

The tension highlights the contrasting personalities and philosophies among the group, setting the stage for future conflicts and alliances.

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The Conflict with Montague

Leadership issues come to a head when Montague, the de facto leader who has been missing, reappears under terrifying circumstances. His sudden aggression and mutilated state reveal the psychological toll the harrowing environment has taken on him.

Montague confronts the group violently:
"What the hell?" – [42:56]
"Shut up!" – [68:18]

Michael's attempt to protect his friends leads to a vicious confrontation where he musters the courage to strike Montague down, sacrificing himself to ensure the group's safety.

Michael declares:
"We can't be here. This place is no better than the place we..." – [83:53]

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The Final Sacrifice and Heroic Endeavor

In an ultimate act of selflessness, Michael sacrifices himself to save the remaining group members. As the group strives to escape the silo amid ongoing seismic tremors and monstrous threats, Michael's actions epitomize the themes of hope and redemption.

Emily reflects on Michael's bravery:
"It was the bravery that got us out." – [210:18]

Star’s poignant acknowledgment:
"Remember to always keep that direction. I don't want to die." – [215:04]

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Conclusion and Messages

The episode culminates in a mix of tragedy and hope. As Michael falls, the remaining characters grapple with loss and the harsh realities of their situation. The session closes with heartfelt messages from the characters to their loved ones, encapsulating the emotional depth and personal stakes of the game.

Emily’s heartfelt apology:
"I'll always love you. Always." – [228:05]

Star's introspective monologue:
"I've spent years selling people lies about astrology... maybe this is a wake-up call to help someone." – [230:17]

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Notable Quotes

• Tyler Johnson (Michael):
  "I want to save a companion from despair." – [06:10]

• Star:
  "I influence someone and find a piece of my own bravery." – [16:28]

• Montague:
  "What the hell?" – [42:56]
  "Shut up!" – [68:18]

• Emily (Whitney):
  "I'm seeking forgiveness for not appreciating what I had." – [17:59]

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Themes and Insights

Chapter Five of Ten Candles: Eclipse delves into themes of leadership, sacrifice, hope, and redemption. The characters' struggles against external monstrosities mirror their internal battles, showcasing the resilience of the human spirit in the face of overwhelming despair. Michael's ultimate sacrifice serves as a testament to the profound bonds formed amidst chaos, highlighting the lengths one will go to protect loved ones and uphold hope.

Final Thoughts

This episode masterfully intertwines character development with intense narrative twists, offering listeners a deeply immersive experience. The blend of personal quests with overarching horror elements solidifies Ten Candles: Eclipse as a compelling saga of survival and humanity.

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About Critical Role & Sagas of Sundry

Geek & Sundry's hub for all things RPG brings together deeply nerdy storytellers each week, taking audiences on epic journeys across multiverses through critically acclaimed actual play podcasts. From the heroic exploits of Vox Machina to the dark quests of Mighty Nein, and the tragic tales of Ten Candles: Eclipse, there's a rich tapestry of stories for every RPG enthusiast.

For more adventures, interviews, and one-shot adventures under the CelebriD&D banner, visit Geek & Sundry.

Transcript

[Tyler]

Nothing is as it seems in liminal London. Hidden amongst everyday people are werewolves.

[Michael]

You'll be the werewolf then.

[Tyler]

Yeah. And Megs. Wizards. Montgomery Archibald Barker at your bloody service. And those cursed by the fey monarchs of the city. Declan Buchanan, PI he has quite a large pair of antlers growing out of his forehead. Join the unlikely misfits of liminal London as they work to take down the powers that claim to rule the city. I think the queen doesn't like you very much. With incredible guest players like Johnny Chiadini.

[Emily]

You say there's sludge?

[Michael]

Yeah. Sludge. Yeah.

[Tyler]

I'm the sludge boy. F ing love. Sludge boy.

[Michael]

No, again, I'm not that sludge boy.

[Tyler]

Grant Howitt. Isaac Newton didn't study in f put new, did he? Who's Isaac? Oh, my God. And Sharmini Bundell. There's a magic community. There is.

[Emily]

Yay.

[Star]

I'm in a magic community.

[Tyler]

Go to realmspod.com or search realms of peril and glory wherever you listen to podcasts to find this mysteriously magical actual play series.

[Ann Foster]

I'm Ann Foster, host of the feminist women's history comedy podcast, Vulgar History. And every week I share the saga of a woman from history whose story you probably didn't already know and you will never forget after you hear it. Sometimes we reexamine well known people like Cleopatra or Pocahontas, sharing the truth behind their legends. Sometimes we look at the scandalous women you'll never find in a history textbook. If you can hear my cat purring, she is often on the podcast as well. Listen to Vulgar History wherever you get your podcasts.

[Tyler]

Warning. 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. Welcome everybody, to a new table of ten candles. Ah. We are halfway through the series. You don't know that because you are currently all here for the first time. That's really just context for me. Hi. Hello to both new faces and old. I am so happy that you all have you come as old friendly faces. How about this? No. I would never ever defy to call you old.

[Michael]

It's too late now.

[Tyler]

Experienced. Aged.

[Michael]

Not making it worse.

[Tyler]

Withered.

[Star]

Distinguished.

[Emily]

That's the word.

[Tyler]

Wow. That is distinguished. Yeah. David, we played it probably like charity events and things before. Yeah.

[Michael]

And like play tests. But never like.

[Tyler]

But never like a horror rpg. No. Hi. Hello. Hello. Welcome. Whitney knows what's up.

[Whitney]

Yes, it's true.

[Tyler]

Yeah.

[Whitney]

I think about that Halloween episode a lot.

[Tyler]

It was so fun.

[Whitney]

We Did a spooky one.

[Tyler]

I actually. I forgot about that. Yeah, that was a good one.

[Whitney]

Yeah, it's fun. Good way to spend Halloween.

[Tyler]

Yeah. Sometimes you just have to survive. So for Halloween, there is. Jasmine. There is. We were talking about this even beforehand, but it has been a long minute. Yeah. I obviously know you've been doing so much cool RPG stuff online.

[Star]

Oh, thank you.

[Tyler]

But I haven't actually sat and we've reversed the roles. Cause you were GMing for me.

[Star]

Yeah. And I mean, what's really crazy is we actually talked about ten Candles when we did our GM roundtable.

[Tyler]

Oh, your memory is amazing.

[Star]

I know. It's like a steel trap. Ta.

[Michael]

Gah.

[Tyler]

Yeah. Okay.

[Star]

And one of the things we discussed is, like, the ten candles game that we would run and.

[Tyler]

What did you say?

[Star]

I know, right?

[Tyler]

Remind me.

[Star]

I know. I remember what you said too. Oh, my gosh. I am insane with this.

[Michael]

You stole the idea from the.

[Star]

No, no, no, it wasn't. You said your ideal setting would be War of the Worlds.

[Tyler]

Oh, that's right. Yeah.

[Star]

That was like a story you wanted to tell.

[Tyler]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Star]

And mine was like Dark Souls, and I was like a dying world. Yeah. And I remember we, like, talked in our, like, how game mechanics influence storytelling. Humble Plug.

[Tyler]

Humble Plug, yeah.

[Star]

Cause we were on Roundtable together.

[Tyler]

That's right.

[Star]

And now we're playing this game, which I've never played. I just knew the premise of it.

[Tyler]

What a way the world comes together in such an interesting way.

[Star]

It's like we put that energy out there and then, like, we manifested it. I put it on my vision board.

[Tyler]

We wrote the proverbial paper and slipped it into our pocket and kept it for a couple years. To marinate.

[Star]

For a couple years, yeah. To marinate.

[Tyler]

Yeah. Cool.

[Star]

I waited until now to drop that tidbit because I wanted to catch you up.

[Tyler]

Well, congratulations. You have done. So now I'm going to be thinking about it. Until now. Okay. I forgot. And Matt, I mean, so my context around this is that your show, Bearded Men used to be right next to foreververse, when foreververse was a thing that was happening. Yeah. Right. So I got to watch a little bit of your show leading up before we went on and sometimes after we were done. And I always watched it, but I never really knew who you were. But now I know who you are.

[Emily]

Yeah. I'm Matt Pitner.

[Tyler]

Thank you, Matt, for joining us.

[Emily]

Yeah, I'm happy to be on the show.

[Tyler]

Yeah. Let's start Virtues and Vices. That's the first thing we go in here. So I would like you to take one of your cards that has your lovely photo. Again, just a reminder for everybody, since we cannot have live fire on this set because fire marshals are a thing. We are not burning your papers as true 10 candles fashions. Instead I'm just ripping your face apart when these are timing to go. So I would like you to take one of your photos and I would like you to pass it to your right. Skipping me.

[Star]

Right?

[Tyler]

Yes. Did everybody get theirs? Great. And on that I would like you to write a virtue.

[Star]

On the back.

[Tyler]

On the back, please. On the back of the card I would like you to write a virtue. Something that you look up to in someone. What is a characteristic or a trait that you aspire to have or look up to in somebody else. Yeah, that mix of words is correct. That's such a nice noise. Satisfying, right? Yeah, yeah. Great. And now we're going to pass it back to our left.

[Michael]

Should we look at it or.

[Tyler]

Yes, please, look at it. Matt, would you start us off? What did you get?

[Emily]

Compassion.

[Tyler]

Compassion, probably. Compassionate? Yes. Compassion. Yes. It's all good. How about you?

[Star]

Kind.

[Tyler]

Kind. Compassionate and kind. What a nice side of the table. Excellent. David.

[Michael]

I got guardian.

[Tyler]

Guardian. That's a powerful virtue.

[Star]

Oh, you gonna die?

[Michael]

The good news is it's not a surprise.

[Tyler]

And Whitney, what did you get?

[Whitney]

Honesty.

[Tyler]

Honesty. Okay, great. Compassionate, kind, guardian and honesty. Okay, okay. Okay, good, cool. Let's take another one of your cards and let's pass it to the. He went right, so now left. You're welcome. Now on this one, look at that long hair. Yeah. On this one, I would like you to write a vice. Something that creates more problems than it solves. A trait that you would not wish upon anybody except for you now are. So we're gonna take our vices and give them back to their owners, which should be to your right. And Whitney, we'll start with you on this time around.

[Whitney]

Cruel.

[Tyler]

Cruel. Okay, excellent. So you have remind me what your virtue is again.

[Whitney]

Honesty.

[Tyler]

Honest and cruel. Woof. Okay, down.

[Star]

Hello, high school.

[Tyler]

Super. Now, how about you, David?

[Michael]

Jealous.

[Tyler]

Jealous. Guardian and jealous. Ooh, these combo bees.

[Michael]

Oh, just like a pile of toxic masculinity here. I'm just gonna leave that right there.

[Tyler]

How about you?

[Star]

Cowardice.

[Tyler]

Cowardice. Okay. Kind and cowardly. Oh, man. All right, you have a Wizard of Oz situation going on here. All right? And then, Matt, I am rage filled. Okay? Raging, Raging. Passionate and rage filled. Yeah, man.

[Emily]

Yeah.

[Tyler]

Compassionate. It's like you knew what the virtues were and you made the perfect complement vices to each one of them. You're all smart. Now let's talk about the situation you're in, the module, or in this circumstance, this particular session. Now, I have emailed it all to you beforehand, but for everyone who's watching at home, who has been keeping up with the show, two weeks ago, these giant black monoliths rose out of the ground, and these spires stand 100ft tall. So you're basically looking at a Empire State Building no matter where you look at in the horizon. And since then, two weeks have gone by and awful things have been happening. Earthquakes, tsunamis. These creatures that you've heard rumors about seem to have been displaced. And now people have been disappearing. First it was people disappearing, honestly. And then you've heard rumors that there are now creatures that as speculation and rumor would have considered are anything from giant demons with angels all the way to tiny little creatures that they bite you and then you die kind of effect. So it's hard to pinpoint. And especially since in your circumstance, we're going to talk about where you've been for two weeks, that would have either given you cause for greater rumor or have had more firsthand personal experience. But first, we're gonna plan your moments. Knowing the context of the scenario that you're in and based on what we kind of talked about before the show a little bit, we've decided. The one thing that we have decided is we're interested in exploring about your characters being underground. We would like to create a moment for your characters that they might fulfill as part of this story. So on your next card, and this is for you only, I'd like for you to write a moment moment that you hope your character could complete in the story. It's something that has to fail or has a chance of failing. And if you complete it in the game, if the moment is fulfilled, you will get a hope dice, which will be as a much stronger dice for conflicts going down the road. So you don't want to make it kind of an easy moment that can complete. But I will also tell you, just for all of you who are interested in trying to complete this moment, it cannot be completed until it is the topmost card on your pile as well too, because we are going to stack this deck in any way you want. So think about a moment that you think your character could complete in the story.

[Whitney]

Question, Given the setting, will we be interacting with outside characters?

[Tyler]

That is just as much on you as it is me. Because as we tell the truths going through the story, you will be able to speak truths and potentially bring other people into the story. But most certainly you will have, at the very least, your fellow survivors in this circumstance. So if you would like your moment to be around other people, you could build it around the group that you're playing with or people that you could bring into the narrative as well.

[Whitney]

Great.

[Star]

How specific should we be? Could I write something like a moment of.

[Tyler]

It could be something like a moment of peace, you know, like finding a moment of peace, but then it should be qualified by something specific, like if you want to find. So in the book. This is a great example. In the book, they say, I find a moment of peace through quiet prayer in a church or something like that, and at least gives a destination or a circumstance in which to build the story around. Because if you just say, I find a moment of peace, that could apply under lots of different circumstances and context. So I'm not saying you have to be super specific, but enough that it will help generate something in the story, if that makes sense. Cool. Great. Thank you.

[Star]

It.

[Tyler]

So now that moments have been created, I would love to meet whoever you're going to be playing today as well as the moment of which they're hoping to create in the story. So, David, why don't we start with you?

[Michael]

Okay. I'm Tyler Johnson.

[Tyler]

Tyler. Okay. Tyler Johnson.

[Michael]

And Tyler is a software developer. And the most regular guy.

[Tyler]

The most regular guy.

[Michael]

He's the guy who has spent his whole life making the safest possible choice.

[Tyler]

Okay.

[Michael]

Wanting a lot for himself but never being able to accomplish it because he won't risk.

[Tyler]

He's a low risk kind of individual.

[Michael]

He makes the safe choice.

[Tyler]

Okay. Okay. And what moment do you hope to create in the story?

[Michael]

I want to. And I picked a moment for myself that will be hard considering the circumstances. I want to save a companion from despair.

[Tyler]

From despair. Okay, great. Jasmine, why don't you begin?

[Star]

Okay. My character goes by Star. She is a social media influencer who focuses on things like astrology, the movements of the moon, and things like that. And she spent her life sort of hawking this, like, faux spirituality on the Internet, but it came from a place of, like, not from an authentic place, if that makes sense.

[Tyler]

I see.

[Star]

Nothing about her is real.

[Tyler]

I see. So they were using their influence in order to basically propagate what she did not believe in at all.

[Star]

Yes.

[Tyler]

But wanted to use for people who were in the space.

[Star]

Yes. She wanted to commoditize it and sell it.

[Tyler]

Commoditize it. Okay, good. All Right. So I can imagine a hotline already at this point. All right. But the hotline is really just a one on one cam session or something. So, you know. Right, that's interesting. And then what moment do you hope to generate as Star?

[Star]

So the moment that I hope to generate is that she influences someone and in doing so, finds a piece of her own bravery by, like influencing somebody when they're scared or frightened and giving them a peace of mind. So almost using that influence for good.

[Tyler]

So she wants to take. I apologize if I'm dripping this down to its most extreme core. They want to finally drop the fraud facade and actually do something decent for someone using the knowledge that they've accumulated, or at least the heart of the knowledge that they've accumulated. And. Yeah, and say, like you said, do something. Create some bravery in them.

[Star]

Yes.

[Tyler]

Okay. All right, great. I love the redeeming factor.

[Michael]

Great.

[Tyler]

Matt, please.

[Emily]

I will be playing the part of Michael Stevens.

[Tyler]

Okay.

[Emily]

And he's like a handyman construction guy.

[Tyler]

Okay.

[Emily]

You know, he's a blue collar worker.

[Tyler]

Yeah, yeah.

[Emily]

And the thing that he wants to accomplish by the end is he's looking for his ex girlfriend and he's seeking forgiveness for just really just being a kind of a shitty guy and not appreciating what he had when he had it.

[Tyler]

Okay. Do you know what that. Do you have a name for that ex girlfriend right now?

[Emily]

Hannah Green.

[Tyler]

Hannah. Okay. Hannah Green. Great. Awesome. Thank you. And last but not least, Whitney.

[Whitney]

Emily Rose.

[Tyler]

Emily Rose.

[Whitney]

And I am a student. Was a student at the high school down the street. Things have been incredibly easy for me, coming from a lot of privilege and also star student. My goal is to find Mr. Anderson, Eric, who was the last person I was interacting with.

[Tyler]

Okay. Is there anything in particular you want to accomplish with Mr. Anderson, or do you just want to know if they're alive or dead?

[Whitney]

Should I put it all out there now?

[Tyler]

Nope, that's up to you. You just want to find them at this point and save it for the story. Yeah, we'll do that. So. Right. Great. Well, thank you so much for those introductions last. We leave the Brinks now. The Brinks are a very interesting thing that happens in Ten Candles, where we basically have a secret and it ties a little bit our characters together, but it also is something I'll be participating in with you two as part of this. So a brink is basically something that someone is capable of that only one other person knows about. This is something terrible or something that your character has seen another character come to the Brink of. Or come to the point of. And it's usually not very great. It could be something as simple. I've seen you lose it on a couple of occasions. Like in the book. They have a specific example of. I once saw you lose it over this dead dog. You were crying for hours. I nearly left you. You know, something like that. Or I've seen you worship them when you don't think I'm looking. I noticed you say a silent prayer to them. Something like that. So the Brinks will always go on the bottom of our deck. And they can be activated several times if there is a success, they can be used for a full reroll, but they'll always be the last thing you resort to. That's why it's called a brink. So it is the last resort kind of a situation. So we're going to take our Brinks and we're going to take one of our cards and we're going to go to the right. I will be participating in this circumstance, though. So if you wouldn't mind giving me one of yours. And then I'll be giving you the. Now, this is important because, Star, I'm going to be writing a brink against you by them. The world has seen you do something and it knows, and it is going to maybe use it against you. Or at least you're going to be aware that it knows. All right? And, David, you need to write me something about them. Something. Your character has seen them occur. And it is an opportunity to expand on the narrative based off the information. You know, it could end up being rumor, but this is something that you've seen them do. All right? And based off the knowledge that you know, in this world, having this two weeks potentially in confinement, it can be either about the proverbial them, it could be about the monoliths, it could be about the world as you know it right now. Okay, great.

[Whitney]

I'm sorry.

[Michael]

Don't be sorry. This is the point.

[Star]

Silence is palpable. I don't like that face.

[Michael]

Like the contemplation to decide, is this horrible enough? Okay, maybe this is horrible.

[Star]

I feel like mine are, like. I don't know if mine's too generic.

[Tyler]

Yeah, sounds good to me. Let's all pass them back.

[Star]

Okay.

[Emily]

Wait for this to start. On fire.

[Whitney]

Don't worry. It's magic. Movie magic. Are we allowed to read these?

[Tyler]

Yes, please. Read them into it. Into it. Does that make sense?

[Star]

Yeah.

[Tyler]

Okay, good.

[Star]

Oh, that's ominous Atrocities.

[Tyler]

Just writing my notes down.

[Michael]

Perfect.

[Tyler]

I love this game because just when I Think I have everything figured out. I don't. That's what makes it so satisfying. Finally, we're going to take our last stage here and arrange our stacks accordingly, which means that your virtual virtues and vices and your moments can be placed in any order you wish on the stacks in front of you. This is important because you can only activate the topmost card first. When using virtues and vices, you may reroll any ones that will come up in the game, because ones, once they're rolled, are discounted from the pool until the scene ends because of a failure. The Brinks will allow you a full reroll of everything with 6s and 1s included. Now, as a reminder for everyone who wants to know the mechanics of the game, when a conflict comes up, you will be rolling a dice pool equal to the number of candles that are currently at the table. You're only looking for sixes, and 16 is all that is necessary in order to succeed. Any ones will be given to me to be held onto to roll against you for narrative control. Ben, anytime you have multiple successes, I will be taking any dice that have pulled out from the previous rolls and roll against you. This is solely just for narrative control. If you succeed and I have narrative control, you still succeed. The conflict goes through. I will just be narrating it rather than you. That's it. This is the core of the game. So questions, comments, concerns. Before we begin, we're writing all these.

[Whitney]

On our pictures, and then there's one left, right? That doesn't.

[Tyler]

The one would be your character concept, your name, who you are. Just a little reference for who you're bringing to the table. So the one thing that we do need to settle upon is where are you? In the beginning of this story, we've established its underground, and that can lead a lot of different options. We could have an abandoned silo. We could have found a cave system that you have all managed to hide out in and have managed to take enough supplies with you to last these two weeks or however many days you have been hiding in said tunnels. I have established already that earthquakes have been wrenching this world apart quite a bit, which can both create cave systems and destroy cave systems under the circumstances of our story. But I feel very comfortable giving you that agency to be able to make that beginning choice. Cause I feel like we can go anywhere with both a populated, maybe no longer populated, silo versus a cave system. What are you all feeling?

[Michael]

So for my character, seeking safety all the time, I feel like seeking a structure that he believes would Be Sound is probably more like him than seeking a cave that was turned open by the earthquakes.

[Tyler]

Okay.

[Michael]

You know, I don't know how you guys feel about.

[Whitney]

Yeah, I feel we talked about how there's the potential of these silos in the Midwest, and that being. That seems plausible for something for me as well.

[Tyler]

Okay. Yeah.

[Emily]

Yeah, I like the sound of that.

[Tyler]

Cool. All right.

[Star]

I feel like wherever I am is probably somewhere that somebody who really likes me took me. So I feel like that would probably be like, I've heard rumors of this. We should go there and probably follow.

[Tyler]

Yes, I see. And just to be abundantly clear, you know, even though I know that at least two of you are looking to find people in this story, this story will begin with you four with very little baggage to carry on your own as far as characters and things items into it, because otherwise it could get messy.

[Michael]

Right.

[Tyler]

But yes, let's start in a silo. Let us basically, for the purposes of the story, say that you have found shelter in an abandoned missile silo in which at some point was being used to hide intercontinental ballistic missiles that have been decommissioned and which has been purchased by a private buyer. This is all I was diving deep into my disaster prep stuff for all of the stupid horror games and survival games that I've played over the years and found that these are legit things like private buyers buying up these silos to then for the strict purposes of turning them into fallout bunkers, shelters, things like that. They're very well hidden. And I'd like to think that all of you at some point either knew someone or found your way to this shelter over the course of the two weeks. You maybe have started with a big group, but that group has slowly dwindled over the days in which now you and a very few select other people who have mostly kept to themselves because this place is so huge. You four are in a sector of this abandoned fallout shelter, and you know that there are several other groups that are in this shelter with you, but they're not in anywhere within shouting distance. You would have to go walk down several levels, then go back into another area. And this is just the default that people do when they find a safe place and immediately want privacy or immediately want to suction themselves off. So this is what I offer to you at the beginning of our story. The four of you are sitting inside of your common room, which is has your sectioned off parts of supplies as well as the, well, the meager amount of amenities that you've had available to you. You because so few people are now a part of this. All have your own rooms and you have your own area. There's, you know, because of that. I want to ask everybody a question real quick. You've been able to bring something sentimental that is part of your decor, something that was part of your pre collapse kind of life that you've brought with you. I'd like to know what that is, if anything at this point. Jasmine or star.

[Star]

Um, I think it would probably be a totem that ties me to the more to who I am and less of my Persona.

[Tyler]

Are we talking like a fetish? Like a small kind of item that you might have in a bag or just keep in your pocket? Okay, great. So stone fetish, maybe wood, Something like that. Okay, great. How about you, Tyler?

[Michael]

I have this stupid hat that Jenny, my wife, who's disappeared, always used to wear. And I hated it. It was stupid. It made her look terrible. It was embarrassing sometimes. And that's what I brought with me.

[Tyler]

You brought it with you? Do you wear it or do you just keep it?

[Michael]

I actually keep it. I don't show it to anybody. It's among my things, but it's not, I'm afraid, even sometimes to take it out and look at it. I just have it.

[Tyler]

Okay, duly noted, Emily.

[Whitney]

I have my backpack, but the only thing that I really care about in it is a poem that I wrote that got a really good grade on it and a really special note. So I just keep that close to my heart.

[Tyler]

Okay, so you have your notebook and your backpack, but that's all a cover to keep this poem in place.

[Whitney]

Yeah.

[Emily]

And, Michael, it's my dad's knife. It's just a knife that he would keep in his jean pocket. And it was mostly used for just like, you know, peeling apples or cutting pieces of string. It was just like. Yeah, a practical tool that he would carry with him.

[Tyler]

Right.

[Emily]

His initials are on it, and I have it with me.

[Tyler]

Okay, so you have a small, practical knife. Great. Well, you were all sitting in this common room over a small metal table that's been bolted to the floor. And you're enjoying lukewarm, reconstituted powdered food at this point. Haven't even bothered, really, to warm it up. No one's really interested in starting a fire in a place like this. And the electricity has never really been anything that's been a part of this. You basically use whatever electricity you can to keep the lights on at this point. But through the dim lighting. And the lighting has gone dimmer over the past couple of days. What was once a fluorescent just bathing of constant light that's been bearing upon you now, now has the meager kind of. It's not the creepy horror film flickering type of attitude, but, you know, it's about what you would expect out of a book light at this stage. And this is what you're able to kind of slowly eat your watered down protein snacks.

[Michael]

I. I acknowledge knowing that we didn't make this effort. I apologize to everyone. I know that I said that I would. That I would heat it up for this meal, and I'm sorry I.

[Whitney]

Didn'T split.

[Michael]

Yeah, yeah, I know. I just.

[Whitney]

It's not much worse than school lunch, so.

[Emily]

Been nice if it was warm.

[Star]

Is there really a big difference between warm goop and cold goop?

[Emily]

Yeah, there is. Warm goop reminds me that maybe we still have hope. Cold goop says, well, might as well just give up.

[Michael]

I'll gather myself next time, our next meal, I promise. This is.

[Tyler]

It actually reminds you at this point that your supplies are running low at this point, and you probably should go back to where the major. Where everyone actually. How do I put this? Aha. Yeah, Here we go. That's what I needed to think about. The quartermaster to go and make sure that you're getting your rations out the way that it is. They don't mind that you keep days worth of supplies inside of there, but they don't let you have everything down there.

[Michael]

Right.

[Tyler]

So, you know, is that something you'd like to put about on yourself?

[Michael]

Yeah. Yeah, I'll take that on.

[Tyler]

Okay.

[Michael]

Let's go get our rations. If anybody's welcome to come with me, but I'll take that on.

[Star]

I'll come with you. You always go by yourself, so this.

[Tyler]

Is a unique situation. Star, normally you let him go by yourself, but today you want to join him?

[Star]

Yes.

[Tyler]

Great. Okay. Michael, Amelie, would you like to wait here with your cold goop? Yeah. Okay. All right. So, Tyler Star, you descend down the staircase, the ominous staircase. It is basically a winding spiral staircase that is along the edge of this giant cylinder that did once hold a giant missile. But now it's just an excuse to walk the, you know, distance here. Distance am I thinking? About 60 to 80 foot diameter that you have to go in order to keep pace. And, you know, the dim lights extend to this area as well too. And the most of the sound that you have for company is the clang, clang, clang of your footfalls as it hits upon the grate. As you continue to wind down. There has been Significant tremors in the last couple of weeks. I'm sorry, in the last couple of weeks. The last couple of days that were. Well, they were startling. But because this system was built so well and it was reinforced to, you know, it was reinforced to hold a rocket coming out. You know, you're talking about feet of concrete on either end. Really. The major repercussion that you have that you have seen as a result of the quakes is that the concrete has definitely split and cracked in lots of different areas, making this place look about a century older than it should. And there has been some underground groundwater leakage in areas, especially in the upper levels. There are some just areas closer to the surface that are completely off limits because they are filled with water and they've been locked with an airlock and taped or marked do not enter flooded kind of an area.

[Michael]

So as we descend, I make sure. I'm checking in with Sara a whole bunch. I don't. I don't necessarily say anything, but I make sure to touch her and push her toward the wall as opposed to toward the railing, knowing the tremors may come again. Stick close to the wall.

[Tyler]

Sure. Which seems a bit unnecessary considering the railing is at least up to chest, if not shoulder level at this point, because who would want to put a low railing with a hundreds of feet descent on either side? So as you continue to walk down, you finally get down to the level that you need, and you go to the airlocked door that, you know, holds the quartermaster and his supplies, and you're surprised to see it is cracked ever so slightly open.

[Michael]

I think you should wait here for a second.

[Star]

Is something wrong?

[Michael]

No. I mean, it's probably just somebody in there, but we don't know everybody who's here. I think the best thing would be for me to just have a peek, but I just feel like it's maybe better if somebody is in there. They don't know you're here.

[Star]

Okay.

[Michael]

Okay, I'm going to go to the door, and first I'm just going to see if I can peek through the crack.

[Tyler]

Peek through the crack. And it's infuriating how dim these lights are because just even a few days ago, the lights were bright enough that you could have gotten a better depth of vision than you could have now. But you do feel like you can distinctly see shadows that seem to be playing against the light through the cracks as you're peeking through the bulkhead looking down the hallway.

[Michael]

How many more days of rations do we have back in our area?

[Tyler]

Is this Worth a day. Like, it's one of those where if, you know, if this was pre collapse and I was looking in my pantry and looking through there, I'd be like, yeah, it's time to go grocery shopping.

[Michael]

Yeah.

[Tyler]

Yeah.

[Michael]

And should something be happening to the stuff in there? We've only got a day's ration, so it's. We have to figure out what's happening here. Okay, I'm going to once again look at Star and just very pointedly.

[Star]

I don't want to be here alone.

[Michael]

And then I'm going to sneak into the room as much as I can. Sneak.

[Tyler]

Yeah, well, you have to open the door more just to get through it. And as you basically pull on the door, you hear the awful grinding of that metal on metal as doors do in this kind of place with this much humidity in the air. And it's as you pull it for a second and you hear someone go, oh, shit. And you. This moment of sneaking has just kind of come in and you hear someone clang, clang, clang, clang, clang. Walk over and you recognize him as the Quartermaster Johnson comes Ghost. Shit. Tyler, what are you doing sneaking around here, man?

[Michael]

I said the door was open. You left the door open?

[Tyler]

Yeah, hitting the pisser, man.

[Michael]

I was worried someone had come in here. I was worried someone was rifling through our food stores. I was worried that maybe you had been injured.

[Tyler]

I appreciate that, man, but no, no, it's just needed to use the bathroom, dude. It's okay.

[Michael]

Maybe there's a sign or something that you could put up next time.

[Tyler]

Sure, yeah, you can always. Hi, Star.

[Star]

Hi.

[Michael]

So what you need, we're down to a day's worth of food, so coming for a few days like normal.

[Tyler]

Okay. So he opens and creaks it open, and at this point when you're talking, he takes you in through. And even though the lights are ostensibly dimmed, you can still see his counter with the rolling shutters that can come down in case of an emergency kind of situation. And he pulls out his jamble of keys and opens up the lock and comes around back to his station and goes, all right, so a few days of supplies, that's fine here. Just. He puts a piece of paper in front of you and puts a pencil down. He goes, just sign in as usual.

[Michael]

I do sign in. I write in the things that we have left, as we usually do or as I usually do, and. And cross off the things I took last time that we've already used.

[Tyler]

Okay.

[Michael]

And then I'm gonna use this as sort of a guide to replenish for us.

[Tyler]

Right. So he kind of checks your list, and you watch as he pulls out a cloth bag and starts filling it with, you know, supplies for the next couple days. And one of the things that you do notice is in this login sheet star, as you're kind of watching Tyler go over it, his ear, you're noticing how very few entries there are compared to usual as what it is like in a day of checkout, you're seeing maybe a quarter of it is filled on this page, which catches you as not weird, but it reminds you of just how few people there are left in this place.

[Michael]

The stores that he's taking from to fill his bag, how do they look to me from the last time I was here? I mean, are they greatly depleted? Are we.

[Tyler]

Oh, the stores that are in there, it definitely. You're hitting it. There is still. If it was just the four of you, you could live years off this ship easily. But because you know that there are more people in this place, you know that it's quite a diminishing return. And there is that thought that strikes you, as does happen when you are dealing with resources every single day, that this can't last forever. Yeah. Yeah.

[Michael]

And that's what I've been on the lookout for, is balancing the relative safety of here and the food with. If things get scarce, do we have to move on?

[Tyler]

Minus the shitty lighting so far. Things are. I mean, this is. You don't. I mean, have you been out? Have any of you been out? Actually, this is a great opportunity for Tyler to have that discussion. And he goes, hey, man, so have you been outside?

[Michael]

Not since I got here. I don't feel like it's worth it. You know, I managed to.

[Tyler]

No, no, I get it. Yeah. No, safe is safe and all that, but I don't know, man. I wonder sometimes. You know, I look at this stuff every day and it haunts me. I look at it and I know that eventually it will be gone. And, you know, what's the point, man? Like, we're just sitting here eating our food in silence, and less people. Less people come every day. Like, I know that we all decided to come and be here together, but I don't know, maybe we should all. Maybe we should all move into a bigger area together.

[Michael]

We do have these food stores coming in here. We knew about the looting outside. We know what it's like on the surface. We know just from our small encounters here before we were able to create this system, what people are potentially capable of doing? We don't know.

[Star]

Those are rumors.

[Michael]

This is an opportunity for us to buy ourselves time to stay healthy and strong in the face of these things. And perhaps things will get better. Perhaps someone will find us. Perhaps we will think of something. But in the meantime, keeping ourselves strong and healthy, that's the most important thing. This moment, right now.

[Tyler]

No, I get that, but it was just so little information about what's up there. We're just gonna be there. And have you seen Montague at all lately? I haven't seen him come in in days. I mean, I know we all don't see each other for days, but you recognize Montague is kind of the de facto leader, if you could call it that. Like, the guy who owned this place disappeared ages ago on a supply run. And Montague was ostensibly like, you know, he wasn't really. He wasn't really looking for a leadership role. He just kind of, like, when people. He's just been here the longest, and when people asked questions, he kind of knew answers. So weak leadership is probably what the best that I could call it, but. Yeah. Have you seen him at all in the last couple of days? I mean, do we even visit each other nowadays?

[Star]

I feel like we all kind of keep to ourselves. I doubt he went outside or there.

[Tyler]

Not after what happened to Bill.

[Michael]

This is also what happens. I mean, Montague's a great guy. This is also what happens when you choose someone for experience instead of someone who wants to lead.

[Tyler]

No, that makes sense. That's true.

[Michael]

If there were somebody in that position who had the thoughtfulness and project planning capabilities to bring us all together to.

[Tyler]

Live, that would be. No one's doing anything to make this place better. All we're doing is we're just eating food, shitting, and living our lives and whatever that means in the result. Well, I'm sorry. It's just I have strong opinions right now, and I don't really get a lot of visitors nowadays, so.

[Star]

But, you know, we haven't torn each other to pieces. I mean, look at how we've come together. That has to mean something.

[Tyler]

No, I agree, Starr, it does. We. God, I can only imagine what's going on up there.

[Star]

You know, we take care of each other. That has to mean something. Even if it's just eating warm or cold, goop in the dark.

[Tyler]

Mm, it does.

[Michael]

But you do agree that if someone would take a stronger leadership hand, maybe we could. We could come to more than just, as you say, eating and shit, we could do.

[Tyler]

Yeah, that would be I mean, Tyler, you seem like you're a practical guy. I mean, I wouldn't mind if someone like you decided to take an opportunity to try to get something done here. Now, I know when you become a leader of a group of scared people, you can paint a target for yourself. But I would appreciate. I would appreciate that effort.

[Michael]

I thank you for that. I know that when we were choosing the new leadership, not everybody felt the same way, but I appreciate knowing that you do.

[Tyler]

Thank you. Well, thanks for stopping by.

[Star]

You should come visit us sometime.

[Tyler]

Yeah, Okay.

[Star]

I think you're always welcome to.

[Tyler]

Great. Well, maybe tonight when I lock up, I'll come and swing by.

[Star]

Can come at your cult group with us?

[Tyler]

Yeah. Yeah, that'd be better. And frankly, the guys that are in my area, I'm getting a little sick of them.

[Star]

I hear you humming sometimes. You have a great singing voice.

[Tyler]

Thanks. I appreciate that. Yeah. He's just. Even the little bit of interaction that you guys have given him have definitely shown that people are good if given the opportunity to be good. And at least in this circumstances, no one has abused this system, which is incredible.

[Michael]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Tyler]

Now, Michael and Emily, you're back up to here at this point, and I know that you're kind of quietly sitting and eating while Star and Tyler have gone on their errand, but what's going through your minds right now? I know, Michael, you were sitting at kind of a low. Just knowing that these amenities that you were used to. Is this a slow decline for you? Spiraling decline, maybe.

[Emily]

Yeah. Every day is worse than the last day. In some way, he finds flaws.

[Tyler]

Yeah.

[Emily]

I feel like I'm sitting there just playing with my food. I strike up a conversation just out of pure boredom.

[Tyler]

About anything.

[Emily]

Yeah. You remember what it tastes like?

[Whitney]

What?

[Emily]

Anything.

[Whitney]

Oh, just like food.

[Emily]

Yeah.

[Whitney]

Oh, yeah. I mean, I don't think that this is the end of food. I think that. I think it's gonna be fine, honestly. I'm supposed to go to Harvard. So did you go to college, or did you go to a trade school? My mom said that people like you go to trade schools.

[Emily]

I didn't go to a trade school. I worked with my dad.

[Whitney]

Mm.

[Emily]

Taught me how to do small woodwork, construction.

[Whitney]

Did you go to school at all?

[Emily]

No.

[Whitney]

Wow. That's crazy.

[Emily]

Do you really think you're going to Harvard still?

[Whitney]

I mean, I don't. It's only been, like, a couple weeks. I don't see why not. Like, somebody's gonna come and, you know, like, somebody's gonna come get us. Probably we're in a good space, we've got food. Like, I don't see why everybody's so stressed out all the time. Like, there's very clearly an end in sight to this. And like, I think it's gonna be fine. You know, maybe they didn't teach this in like construction worker school or whatever, but I think that holding onto hope is something that is drastically. It improves your life and it can change the outcome. You can talk to Star about that. Cause she knows all about it.

[Tyler]

At that point, you actually feel as a small tremor, an aftershock of one of these earthquakes just comes in and this rumbling. At this point, normally you hear just as the lanterns rattle a little bit and any of the loose tie down items just clink together, there is that moment where you wonder if this could go any bigger or if it could be crazy. And it does escalate to a point and it slowly starts to subside. But not before you hear a loud as something seems to just snap inside of the room around you. And you look up and see one of the small air ducts that has been piping in air until you watch as it falls down and you can feel pressurized air. Hot, humid, pressurized air is now just filling inside of your space is you just kind of are washed over a swamp cooler that has been put on a hive, but with no ice in it.

[Whitney]

You gotta fix that.

[Emily]

Grab that end.

[Whitney]

Okay.

[Tyler]

Okay, you guys are gonna push up and try to see if you can navigate it back together.

[Emily]

Yeah, try to put it back together.

[Tyler]

What are you gonna secure it with?

[Emily]

There's a piece of fabric wire. I'm gonna try to tie it back together.

[Tyler]

Okay, do me a favor, fix it up for me.

[Emily]

All right, here we go.

[Tyler]

Awesome. Oh, three ones. Okay, I'm gonna need those ones. Oof. Sorry, guys, but by all means, take narrative control over this situation and tell me how you resolve it.

[Emily]

So I have her grab the end and she's having some trouble with it, so I kind of. I push her out of the way and I started to like, tie it up myself and I shouting at her to grab me something else to secure it with.

[Whitney]

What?

[Emily]

And then. Yeah, and then I just keep tying it up and I get it enough and I go grab it myself and I tie it up and I.

[Whitney]

Well, it's good that you're a construction guy.

[Emily]

Yeah. For your guys sake, it seems like that's pretty true.

[Tyler]

Yeah, that's kind of the point in which Star and Tyler return with the bags of food at this point. You can kind of hear them shouting at each other as you're coming back up through the main area.

[Michael]

I'm gonna run up the last bit of stairs. We just felt the earthquake, making sure everything's okay, and I burst in the room with. Is everybody okay? Is everything okay?

[Whitney]

Yeah, a thing broke, but he did it. He handled it.

[Michael]

What broke?

[Emily]

The air duct burst. There's hot air coming in the room. It's fine now.

[Michael]

I'm gonna go check it out. As though I know what.

[Tyler]

What you're doing.

[Michael]

Which I'm doing. Masking that. I don't. Just kind of see it. Looks like you secured it pretty well, if you had to guess. How long do you think this fix will last? I mean, if you had to guess.

[Emily]

A week maybe.

[Michael]

And was it bad? What was coming out of it when it came down?

[Emily]

I don't know, Tyler. Why don't you tell me?

[Michael]

Well, it looks like. Looks like it's a return duct. Maybe. So. Moisture coming out. Is that right? I mean.

[Emily]

Yeah, we're worried about moisture.

[Michael]

Okay. Yeah, well, it's bad moisture. We don't want moisture.

[Emily]

It's gonna be fine for a week, Tyler. I mean, if you want to get up there and give me your professional opinion.

[Michael]

I'm not saying I can fix it better. I would never say that. You're obviously the best person to fix this. I guess I'm more thinking about, is this gonna be. Is this particular area gonna be the right thing for us to stay at in the long term? I mean, thinking about our protection, our food, keeping it good.

[Emily]

You know, this is something I've been meaning to bring up in the long term. I don't think we should stay here. I don't.

[Michael]

I think I'm in agreement with you. We just learned that nobody's seen Montague for a while and his quarters. Because they should be, because we chose them as a leader. His people's area is very nice. It's possible we don't want this, but it's possible that they're gone. It may be worth checking that out. Maybe we can move into a slightly nicer place here, a slightly safer place.

[Whitney]

Upgrade.

[Star]

Yeah, I mean, it might be worth a shot.

[Michael]

And we do have the great news, is that we've got a solid week because of the good work that you did to figure it out. But this part of it's falling apart. Maybe there is a better part. Maybe there's a better place.

[Star]

And I mean, worst case scenario, we find out what happened to Montague.

[Michael]

Yeah, I mean, it's really? All upside.

[Whitney]

Yeah. I mean, for all we know, we haven't been outside. It could be just, like, totally fine, and we're all just cleaning out here.

[Star]

I don't know about that. I don't think going topside is the good idea, Star.

[Whitney]

Don't you think, though? Okay, settle. We are having a debate, right, Mike? We're having a debate, and I think that keeping hope alive and keeping manifesting in your dreams that everything is gonna be okay will make it. Whereas if you have a negative outlook that it's not gonna be okay, then that's the reality that you're gonna live in.

[Michael]

I think it's important. I think that's what's important, is what you bring to the group in that respect. You know, we can each. We can. We can be practical. We can be hopeful. We can be helpful to each other.

[Star]

We just have to balance it a little bit, you know? I think you could be right, but there's still tremors, and we should just be careful. And I think a big part of keeping sort of that positivity alive is appreciating what we have. And right now, I don't think we should risk what we have on something that we don't.

[Michael]

I don't think we should go to the surface, certainly, if that's what you're pushing at. Yeah, I think that's too risky. I think that you're absolutely right.

[Star]

I mean, the universe gave us this, like, safe space with good people, and we can't.

[Emily]

Yeah, we should all just stay here and be positive.

[Michael]

Well, let's secure. Let's secure something for us, a secure, more secure place, and then we can decide if we want to venture beyond that. But knowing that we've got a fallback position that is strong, and maybe it turns out maybe some Montague's people are still there. Maybe we can become stronger in that respect.

[Tyler]

So what if I'm hearing you. If I'm hearing you correctly, it sounds like minus Mike, who has definitely been having opinions about how things have been going for the last couple of days, that you just want to go at least find out what's going on with Montague, whether he's there or not there and what his space looks like.

[Michael]

And then if we do find him there, we can talk about what leadership tactics might be a better fit for us so that we can push forward and not just sit here. Yes.

[Emily]

Yeah, fine.

[Whitney]

Yeah.

[Tyler]

All right. Well, you begin the arduous task of going down to the bottom of the silo. Now, since this place is huge it is definitely large. It takes a good 15 minutes to 25 minutes just to walk down all the way to the bottom. As you continue your descent and whether it's just from the lack of physical exertion you've had in the last couple of weeks or just anything else, it just starts. Or just the fact that you're getting lower. And with. Even though everyone says that underground is, you know, everyone assumes it's nice and cold underground, that is not the case. It is usually one of the reasons they have to pipe air in because it is so definitely hot. And as you're getting lower, you can feel that heat kind of getting you on top of the exertion of just walking down the 25 minutes of steps that you get to before you get to the bottom of the silo.

[Michael]

I check in with everyone a lot as things start to get, you know, we're okay. We need to rest. We need to rest. Just. It's a little bit further. It's okay. But if you need to rest, we can stop. It's all right. We should. It's potentially dangerous. We should be at our best when we reach the bottom.

[Tyler]

Yes.

[Michael]

Okay.

[Tyler]

So you get down to the bottom and then you see the bulkhead, like so many other bulkheads are there. And in this circumstance there is a two way bulkhead. So you have a wheel on your side as well as the other side.

[Michael]

Is it two doors then or is it just a wheel on both sides?

[Tyler]

A wheel on both sides.

[Michael]

Okay.

[Tyler]

Yeah. So you can go up to the bulkhead and you.

[Michael]

First. I would knock. Is this right into Montague's?

[Tyler]

Yeah, this is into Montague's section.

[Michael]

Section. So I think we would expect someone to knock before they enter ours. So I think it would be only right to.

[Tyler]

So you knock, you kind of bang on the bulkhead with as much effort as you can and you hear the clang, clang, clang, clang, clang. And it hurts your knuckles quite a bit. And you wait and nobody comes to the door.

[Michael]

Well, is it worth. Do you feel like it's worth going in here?

[Whitney]

We walked all this way.

[Emily]

What are we hoping to find?

[Michael]

Well, I mean, it may be that they're here and need help. It may be that they're gone and we get a more secure environment either way, you know.

[Emily]

Is this your professional opinion as our leader?

[Michael]

I. We agreed not to have a specific leader, but I think that it's seems.

[Emily]

Like that's what you're acting like.

[Michael]

I think I've been very.

[Star]

I don't think that at all. I mean, I appreciate that you have a voice here. Mike. We need you and your opinion matters.

[Whitney]

Yeah, you did fix the ac, which was super cool.

[Tyler]

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[Michael]

Would you rather we go back?

[Emily]

No. Yeah, I think we should go forward.

[Michael]

Okay, thank you.

[Tyler]

So who wants to open the door?

[Emily]

I'll open it.

[Tyler]

So, Mike, you come up and you grab the bulkhead and you give it the rigid twist. And you can feel because it's a manual lock. You can actually see the kind of the bars that keep it pressurized and keep it ascent. Just go in as you do this full bulkhead turn and you swing it open. And the first thing that assaults your senses as you open the door is the fresh humidity. Not unfamiliar with what you had to deal with upstairs. But also this rich copper smell that seems to inundate. It's almost like this iron metallic smell that just hits you as if you were to open any pressurized building. It's not full blown nauseating, but it is overwhelming.

[Whitney]

I tasted it on my mouth.

[Emily]

What is that smell?

[Michael]

I was going to ask the same thing. Has anybody smelled this before?

[Star]

I guess nobody's maybe been in or out in a long time.

[Michael]

Well, this is definitely. I mean, we're not wrong, right? This is definitely Montague's section.

[Star]

I feel like I visited with him.

[Michael]

Before and this is where we told him when we agreed for him to be leader. This is where we said he could be the vase. I mean, I feel at this point we have to check it out. We have to continue to check it out.

[Emily]

Yeah, yeah, let smell stop us.

[Tyler]

And Mike, you definitely going into the first part of the bulkhead. You do recognize the familiar dress of what you know to be his quarters. And the few times you've gone down there, occasionally, like a mayor's office, people will go and kind of visit in. But you mostly go and go to common rooms when you meet up. Even though the idea of a community meeting hasn't really happened under his leadership.

[Michael]

Despite us talking about that it should absolutely happen.

[Tyler]

Absolutely. And you kind of walk through. And again through the dimming light in this area, you do definitely see that there are what appears to be dark stains at the end of the hallway. And it seems to be wrapped along the floor. And you can see that there are some dark stains on the wall as well too. As you look straight down this pathway leading to a T section in which you can see these dark stains and some various elements on the wall. It's about 20ft away, 30ft away. So it's not easy to tell with the dim light that you're in what it is.

[Michael]

I'm gonna try to scoot a little bit closer and see if Mike wants to come as well, to check it out. At this point, I'm not saying anything. In fact, I tell everybody to be quiet and see, if you want to.

[Emily]

I'll just look at Tyler and I'll reach down and I'll pull up my dad's pocket knife.

[Tyler]

Right. As you get closer to the T section, the smell starts to normalize a little bit. As you come into this wet, thick, human area, it feels like you're in the swamps of Mississippi more than you are really in the basement of a giant silo at this point. And as you get closer, it is undoubtedly blood. You can see it all across the floor, all along the seatings. You can actually see as there are small pools of it and they seem to be leading both towards the left and the right. It's not a perfect path as you would expect in this kind of terrifying place situation.

[Michael]

If I crouch by just the first bit of blood I see before I try to look around the corner and everything, and I crouch by it and see, is it dry? Is it still wet?

[Tyler]

It is dry.

[Michael]

Okay.

[Tyler]

But it is fresh. Okay. It hasn't oxidized into that black kind of ichor that you expect pools of blood to be when out for a long period, periods of time.

[Whitney]

Are we all seeing this?

[Tyler]

I mean, if you're joining him down the hallway, you can certainly see the stains from the bulkhead. But seeing these two get closer, they're the ones who are confirming what it is at this stage.

[Whitney]

What happened?

[Michael]

I don't know. There's a lot of blood. We haven't peeked around the corners yet.

[Star]

Blood.

[Tyler]

Shh.

[Whitney]

What do you mean, blood?

[Michael]

Just keep it down. Keep it together. We don't know whose blood or why.

[Star]

We should leave.

[Emily]

And go back where?

[Whitney]

Yeah, well, maybe someone needs help.

[Star]

Something happened here.

[Michael]

There could be someone still. I mean, this is a lot of blood. But there were six people down here. It could be we might find someone still.

[Star]

It's not our job.

[Emily]

No, they're right.

[Whitney]

Yeah, they could be. Gotta help them.

[Emily]

We should go back. But I wanna go. I wanna go check it out.

[Michael]

Yeah, nobody's guessing we live here now, given this. But let's make sure. There's nobody who.

[Star]

We need help. You can't leave us here and go down here.

[Michael]

Oh, come with us. It's okay.

[Star]

No, something happened here.

[Whitney]

Star, I'm gonna go with. I think that this is.

[Star]

For what purpose?

[Whitney]

Star, please.

[Michael]

Well, let's see if we can help someone.

[Whitney]

Yeah, I took cpr. I can totally help.

[Tyler]

Cpr.

[Star]

There's Blood all over the floor.

[Whitney]

It could maybe be useful. I just wanna help. So I'm gonna go down.

[Tyler]

I wanna go. I don't wanna go.

[Michael]

Come with us then.

[Emily]

Stay here by yourself, Star.

[Star]

I don't wanna stay here by myself either.

[Emily]

Then come with.

[Michael]

Please, Star. Please come with us. We'll keep you safe. If something bad is around the corner, we'll protect you and let you get out. Okay?

[Star]

These people were kept safe.

[Michael]

Well, these people had Montague with them. You didn't have us.

[Star]

Okay, fine. Fine.

[Tyler]

So Star reluctantly just keeps behind as you three continue to look around. Now, you do know that this T section does is like a.

[Michael]

Okay, gotcha.

[Tyler]

It's kind of like a switchback. So it comes around within four rooms and then rooms and storage along the side. So one will eventually lead to where the other is. As you kind of continue to move around the pathway, let's say to the left, and you start going around the switch, you do notice that there are pockets of which there are no blood. And then there are pockets in which there are clearly drag marks. Every single one of the rooms that make up the island about the switchback that I'm talking about, all the doors have been opened. You can see people's stuff. There are definitely signs in some rooms of a struggle. But there is really the thing that is most pointed to you is the lack of people. There's just no people in here right now.

[Michael]

One of the first rooms that I see open, Do I see anything heavy or sizable that I could put in my hand? All right.

[Tyler]

Two sixes.

[Michael]

Two ones as well.

[Tyler]

Let me roll. You get narrative control. What do you find?

[Michael]

So I push that door open, and it's a. Same as our area. Caught a few scattered things, some empty food packets and stuff. There's not much here. Nothing big like the candlestick or the pipe that I was hoping for. But there's a little chunk of rock almost like a kid's pet rock with a face drawn on it.

[Tyler]

I don't even go so far as to say, oh, you can do a pet rock with a kid's face on it, but also a piece of concrete that may have come off of the wall.

[Michael]

So both in this space. But the pet rock is just the right size to keep in a fist. So it's not like the concrete I would be lugging around. It seems like that's not something that I'm going to be able to control in a moment.

[Tyler]

But the rock, like a piece of granite.

[Michael]

I can have this pet rock painted green with little Eyes on it in my fist. So should something happen.

[Tyler]

You hold onto that as you slowly continue to cautiously peek through doors and investigate. With this dim light, you go into their common area again, an exact mirror of what your common area is. You go into this common area and you see just a bloodbath, a full. There just is blood everywhere, covering the common room. And you can't tell if there's discarded pieces of meat, but there is definitely clothes that are around. And that rich smell is still there as clearly this is the source. The humidity in the air is just activating the blood smell, so rich and thick. You see someone leaning over the table with their back to you at the moment as you come around, and you just see someone with one hand up on the back of their neck and they just seem to be leaning down over the common room table in this room.

[Michael]

Hey. Hey.

[Tyler]

You kind of watch as the head looks up and from what you remember, you can tell from just the hairstyle that it's Montague. He is there and you kind of see as he looks his head up and he.

[Michael]

Lean him back a little.

[Tyler]

Bit, he looks behind and you can see that he has blood all over his mouth. And in his turning, he is holding his hand. And you see he's just clutching a piece of meat in his fist as he gets up very suddenly, very quickly moves and stands there and looks at the four of you.

[Emily]

Oh, shit.

[Michael]

Pushing back into the hallway a little bit. Trying to get myself and maybe beside Mike, but in front of other people. Just filling the hallway as much as I can. Right, Montague, what the hell? The four of you.

[Star]

Yeah, Crabstar, we hold each other, are.

[Tyler]

Just bundled in this hallway. You can just see as Montague is staring at you and you can see that the other hand, the one that's not holding this pile of meat in the moment, is gone. It's just been torn off. And you can see small splinters of bone as blood. You can now hear the dripping of the blood as he looks at you with this arm just missing from his. From the stump of an appendage back to the bulkhead.

[Michael]

Yeah, he's not.

[Emily]

I have my knife out and slowly backing away.

[Michael]

I kind of take a step back too, and push everybody back.

[Tyler]

Is this backing up?

[Michael]

Is he. I don't think he's coming after us. I think he's got what he wants. Is he tracking us? Like he's going to follow us?

[Star]

I run and I probably take Emily by the hand and I'm like full sprint.

[Tyler]

So Star and Emily, as you both two and sprint. This sudden movement like a scared animal, seems to activate.

[Star]

There's no backing away at the seeing this. It's done.

[Tyler]

Go.

[Star]

Yeah.

[Tyler]

And this movement seems to activate him like some just startled animal. And he just starts just sprinting straight towards the four of you as you were just laid out right there in front. And he seems focused on the movement.

[Michael]

Okay, so you guys are running.

[Star]

I'm, like, dragging her behind me almost. It seems like a full spring.

[Michael]

I chucked my pet rock. As soon as he moved, I chucked my pet rock.

[Tyler]

Chuck it at him. Throw that pet rock. And you're chucking it. So you want to hit him, right?

[Michael]

Yeah, just trying to, you know. Yeah, he's coming right at us.

[Tyler]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Go for it. Two ones and no sixes.

[Michael]

Yeah.

[Tyler]

Is this option to virtue or vice?

[Michael]

What I got here? Yeah. I've got my guardian on top, so I'm going to reroll those.

[Tyler]

All right, so you're going to take your guardian. This definitely feels like a guardian movement at this moment, so roll them. No sense.

[Michael]

I am not. I am a guardian, but unfortunately, not athletic. Make that rock.

[Tyler]

So you chuck and startled shock this pet rock. And it's more of a. As you're turning, you move. So the green, tiny piece of granite that has this smiley face just painted onto it just kind of falls off to the other side of it as you hear it unceremoniously crack against the side of the metal. And you can actually see there is a large hole in the wall as well, too, that it clangs against as everyone is now running. And Montague leaps straight towards you, Tyler. Okay, let's establish some truths. Okay, this scene, for what it's worth, is over. Good news. You have nine dice. Again, let's talk about what is happening. The first truth. The world is dark always. But, Tyler, since you failed this role, you have the benefit of being able to establish the first truth.

[Michael]

Um, I'm stronger than I look.

[Tyler]

Great. We're going clockwise, so that would mean you, Emily. The next truth about myself. Oh, well, actually, I just described counterclockwise. It usually goes clockwise, so unfortunately, it is me next. The second truth. There is something else besides Montague in this room. Star.

[Star]

I won't leave them behind. I will not close the bulkhead behind me.

[Tyler]

I think I will not leave them behind is an excellent truth. I think that translates into not closing the bulkhead is perfect.

[Star]

Oh, I wasn't sure if I should clarify.

[Tyler]

Yeah, no, it's fire.

[Emily]

Michael, despite my attitude towards these People. I deeply care about them.

[Tyler]

You care about everyone here. Right, Emily?

[Whitney]

I have hidden skills that I don't know about yet.

[Tyler]

You have hidden skills? Five. Okay, Tyler, back to you with the six.

[Michael]

All right. I. I hate Montague. I hate Montague.

[Tyler]

You hate Montague? Yeah. That's fair.

[Michael]

Not just him now, but in general.

[Tyler]

They feel no pa. Last one star.

[Star]

I wish my fear didn't paralyze me.

[Tyler]

You wish you ran sooner?

[Star]

Yeah.

[Tyler]

Great. Then with that said, since we haven't used any truths to move forward in the situation, we are. Which, to be fair, that's okay. Yeah. It's all about the story. Just know that in the future, you can use truths to resolve conflicts immediately or create whole new conflicts if you wish. But we're going to pick this scene right up where we left off with you all running. And at this point, Tyler, like I had said, Montague had leapt with one bone struck hand. And at this point, you can actually see that the bone appears to be broken. And there is sharp splinters of white gore that just seems to be laden. As you see the blood continue to spurt out. And he leaps on top of you and he has one hand around your top of your neck, and he seems to actually be taking his bone spur and is trying to impale you with his own bone spur at this moment. What do you all want to do?

[Emily]

I would like to grab Montague by the back of the neck and try to take my knife and stab it into his head.

[Tyler]

Into his head?

[Emily]

Yeah.

[Tyler]

Okay. Ha. Two ones. But a six. I have no dice in which to assume narrative control at this moment, so by all means, take it.

[Emily]

Once I see the rock go by and he is leapt upon, like I said, I just take it and stab it in the back of his head. And I just keep stabbing it because I can see that he's not necessarily stopping. He just keeps trying to stab Tyler's character.

[Tyler]

And it's insane as she's just kind of like Tyler is holding this man at bay and just grabbing it. And you can see his head just kind of shoot forward each time as you take. And you're jutting it to the back of his head. And I hope you don't mind if I tell you the human skull is an incredibly well designed piece of architecture. And even taking something as penetrating as a knife, you feel it just impacting against the skull. And it's almost like you're just trying to chisel away a piece of rock with knife at first. And you hit it and you hit it and you hit it again. But your resolve to just save him at this point is stronger than the actual feelings you're getting of stabbing this man in the head. And you finally find a soft plate enough where the bone is thin, and you feel it sink into its skull as you watch him go limp. And even with it in its head, you can see he is fighting, but with not as much resolve anymore as it slops and falls onto Tyler and kind of lays there.

[Michael]

As soon as it happens, as soon as I can, I'm going to scoot out from underneath him, and I want to just scoot back to that doorway because we started running. The doorway where I found the concrete thing before, and I grabbed a piece of concrete, drag it over, and smash his head.

[Tyler]

You smash it, and it is a lot more effective than the knife when it comes to decimating something like a skull. And you just feel it. It's almost like a cantaloupe just splitting as you watch, as matter just lays everywhere.

[Michael]

And I say thank you.

[Whitney]

What was that? What just happened?

[Michael]

We're okay. We're okay.

[Emily]

We can't stay here. This place is no better than the place we.

[Star]

Emily. Emily, we have to.

[Tyler]

We have to. I've never seen anything like. Why are you so calm right now?

[Star]

Because we have to be calm. We have to.

[Tyler]

What happened?

[Michael]

I don't know, but this is.

[Star]

He ate those people?

[Michael]

Yes. We don't have to talk about this.

[Tyler]

Shh.

[Michael]

We don't have to talk about this.

[Emily]

Did you guys hear something?

[Tyler]

And you do hear just the sound of this air duct, this system around you. And it does feel like the metal is screeching and squelching yet again. And you feel as this aftershock, another aftershock, this earthquake comes across. And you hear as the metal of the air system again just seems to be. And more than it bursting. Cause last time you saw, it burst. But you actually watch as the air duct distends. You just kind of see the metal just balloon out. Have you ever had packaged food that has gone past its expiration, but it's been in a film, and you've watched it balloon up. These air ducts have just lifted up. And it happens very suddenly, as you can now hear the hissing of air that is slowly escaping the air ducts above you.

[Michael]

Get everybody out of here. Just push and pull. And we. We don't. We can't be here now.

[Tyler]

Yeah.

[Emily]

Crying or not, we push everyone through.

[Michael]

The door, grabbing and pushing, and this whole thing is.

[Whitney]

It's gonna, like, explode or something. The Same thing happened in our room. It's happening downstairs now. This whole thing, it's like it's gonna like explode or something. And everybody's going crazy. Everybody's crazy right now, so you have.

[Star]

To not be crazy.

[Whitney]

I just want somebody's head to get exploded.

[Tyler]

I have.

[Whitney]

I'm sorry. Not coping well. I have never seen anything.

[Star]

None of us have. We just have to keep our calm around us so that that doesn't happen.

[Michael]

To us because this just happened. It doesn't have to happen again. I don't expect you to be okay with this or to be calm. I just need you to move your feet right now. We're going to go up the ladder here. We got to pass the quartermaster chambers. We'll grab some things that we need and we're not gonna stop until we're out, okay?

[Whitney]

I don't wanna be here anymore.

[Michael]

Neither do we. Neither do we. We're just gonna put one foot in front of the other. We're gonna grab food on the way up and we're gonna leave. We should have listened to Mike in the first place. It seems pretty clear now. And we're gonna resolve that, okay? We're gonna change that. We're gonna make up for that mistake that we made and we're gonna get out of here.

[Tyler]

So you guys start double timing it up the stairs. You just run into it. And the awful thing about stairs is that it is a lot easier to go down than up. You are exhausted and you are winded, and you move, but you move just. With the haunting images of what Montague was and is and happened still lingering in your brain as you continue to just climb up these stairs with as much gusto and energy as you possibly can. Even then, you still have to take a few short winded breaks. But by the time you get up to Johnson's level of the silo, you can see the door is still open.

[Michael]

I'm just going to throw it open and go in. We can't be precious about this, I don't think. Yeah, I'll bang on the bulkhead as.

[Tyler]

I go slam on the bulkhead. And you open it. And the first thing that you hear, even before you start to bang as you go in, you can hear other bangs. You can hear metal on metal. And there's a slight screeching that seems to also just be in this space as well too. Just a sound. As you run into where the quartermaster's areas are. The thing that you see is you notice Johnson seems to be wrestling with something. And it's long and it seems to be this almost like a multi legged snake, like a centipede. And he seems to just be holding it as it's just them are just being slammed back and forth across different parts of the bulkhead as it's throwing itself down. And you're watching as Johnson just seems to be just holding onto something that seems to be around his neck or his mouth or something and he's just holding onto it.

[Michael]

We've got more rations upstairs.

[Tyler]

Out, out, out.

[Michael]

Pushing back out the door.

[Tyler]

Go back out.

[Michael]

We have stuff on our level.

[Star]

I say we have to help him.

[Michael]

No, we don't.

[Star]

He's our friend.

[Michael]

Yeah, he was.

[Emily]

He's dead. He's dead.

[Michael]

We've gotta go.

[Tyler]

So you continue to run up to your side and you get to your bulkhead area, you get to your level and you grab what supplies you can. You toss it all inside of the bags, you grab your backpacks. Where do you go?

[Michael]

What do you do? Up and out, obviously the thing there. We gotta get out.

[Tyler]

You were right.

[Michael]

We gotta.

[Star]

We just leave him.

[Michael]

We have to. We tried. We need to keep each other safe. The most important thing is there's the four of us. We keep each other safe, we get out. Others will be doing the same for their people.

[Tyler]

Okay. Okay. You run. You run up the stairs and you continue, you climb higher than you've ever climbed before. And the humidity does lessen a little bit as you get up. It is not as thick, but you can still feel it as the moisture is filling your lungs, as you are now coughing just from the exertion of getting up this thing as much as you can. And you do get to the main ladder, the rising platform, which has not worked since the day that you, you've gotten here. The loading ladder that comes up, but you do the loading lift. I mean, but then you do take the service ladder that is attached to the platform and you begin the 20 foot climb.

[Michael]

I'm going to stay in the back. Who's going first?

[Emily]

I'll go first and I'll kind of have like tie something that people can hang onto if they need. Well, it'll be tied together.

[Tyler]

Oh, okay. So you're using some leftover cloth or whatever you can in order to.

[Emily]

Yeah, some rope or whatever we can to keep ourselves tight.

[Tyler]

Mike, as you continue to climb up these stairs, I would like you to hold on for dear life, as I'm sure you guessed it. Aftershocks are coming.

[Emily]

All right, I start my ascent up.

[Tyler]

Three ones. No sixes is this option to burn virtual your own vice.

[Emily]

Yeah, I'll burn a vise. I'll use my rage.

[Tyler]

Use your rage. How would you like to invoke your rage in this circumstance?

[Emily]

Well, as I'm trying to pull up, I feel like, you know, Mike is a guy that does construction. He's used to working, you know, and he feels like he's pulling weight and these things are happening. And he's. He's just getting frustrated with the fact that Bevan went down there and that he's not listened to and he knows what to do. At least that's what he feels like. Right. So this is happening and he's just powering through to get to the surface.

[Tyler]

He's feeling muscle strain and he's just hearing as his body is pushing him. He's pushing his body to a limit. He's more dragging these three people up than anyone's really climbing at this point. And it is offsetting the balance at this point. It's almost like having a dog that is pulling its leash too hard just out of sheer tenacity. And it's almost knocking its owners over at this point. Go roll those three ones. Ha. One six. Right. So. Yes. Do you get all those back? Well, they're all yours still, but I'll leave him over here for now. Okay, let me roll to see if I get narrative control. Yes, I do. Wow. Two sixes. This does succeed though, Michael, as you basically pull like a dog against its leash and you feel the strain and the weight of these people below you, you power with each rung. You hear the loud clang, clang, clang. As you are just taking your strong work boots and pushing people up. At this point, either Star or Emily has probably been lifted up so heavy that they are dangling now and slightly spinning from the wire more than they are grasping a hold still, obviously trying to get attached into it. But just the fact that Michael is at the bottom and they've been pulling them up. Someone is off of their rungs at this moment, but you make it to the top and you grasp ahold of the bulkhead and you. And you pull the bulkhead down and you feel rocks start to fall upon you. You just start to feel earth and dirt. First, small pieces of sediment and dirt onto you, but then eventually larger, more strenuous boulders as it trickles down. And you can now this trickle down effect, you can feel dirt is getting into your eyes and you have to instinctually trying to cover your eyes. And occasionally a large rock will come down and throw down on you, Star. Hold on. Wow. One one. No sixes. You do have an option to burn for the 1:1. Or we can end this scene right now.

[Star]

I don't think there's any point. It'd be a Hail Mary.

[Tyler]

The rocks collide with you as you feel this open hatch now descending. What pressure it was holding on to. Press it down upon you. And we end our scene. Eight dice, eight candles. Let's establish some truths first. The world is dark, but, Star, you have the failed roll, so you get to begin with the first truth.

[Star]

Tyler catches me when I fall.

[Tyler]

All right. Great. Michael.

[Emily]

We'Re gonna do things differently now.

[Tyler]

That's the truth. Yeah.

[Emily]

Oh, yeah. Yep. We're gonna do things differently now. That. That works.

[Tyler]

It seems more like a. I wanna be in charge.

[Emily]

Is that truth?

[Tyler]

How about this? Here's the truth. You take charge.

[Emily]

Great.

[Tyler]

That's fair. Emily.

[Whitney]

I know I will be taken care of because I'm the youngest.

[Tyler]

As the youngest, you will be taken care of. Tyler.

[Michael]

I. I know I was right in the first place.

[Tyler]

You knew you were right in the first first place.

[Michael]

It was letting him. Choosing Michael's going outside was wrong. I was right in the first place.

[Tyler]

Right. You cannot get to the surface this way. Mm. Six.

[Star]

I'll put an end to it if anyone starts to lose it, because I won't let what happened to Montague happen to us.

[Tyler]

Yes.

[Emily]

Michael, the air is thinning.

[Tyler]

And seven. Or. I'm sorry, eight. Emily.

[Whitney]

We'Re gonna be betrayed.

[Tyler]

All right. I love it. So we pick up our scene exactly where we left off, with dirt and small rocks pouring down upon Michael. Emily, Star, Tyler, as you are holding on with dear might. Star, you have been dragged up this through sheer determination at this point. And you feel as large rocks are now just hitting upon you, and it dazes you as one of them clips the side of your head. And you could feel a small trickle of warmth come down the side of your face as you fall for a moment and both. Michael, since you know, per the truths that have been spoken, we are going to say that Star and Tyler were tied together. And as you kind of slip from the wrong and lose your weight, you feel all of your muscles just yank and you hold on. Barely. In fact, I would probably say what likely happened is that you lost enough of your footing that you're holding on sheerly by your upper core strength, and you actually hit your chin on a rung for a second. But you can feel her as both of you are now just dangling from your two Strong arms.

[Michael]

Now the truth from the first scene is all apply. I'm stronger than I look.

[Tyler]

Yes.

[Michael]

Okay, so I'm going to loop my elbow around the rung and I'm going to reach down for her hand, all right. And try to pull her up.

[Tyler]

And put her on a rung. And put her on a rung. You are stronger than you look. You are pulling her up with all of your might. Don't worry, it's only a 15 foot drop at this point. Two ones and a six. I have no dice in which to assume narrative control, so please tell me how it happens.

[Michael]

All right, so I am able to grab her with the one hand looped around and I'm going to pull her up and tell her to grab my belt. And then I'm going to reach down and grab the back of her shirt and I'll pull her up a little bit and tell her to put her arm around my shoulders. And then I'm gonna get her close to the rung that I'm on and then I'll grab the rung again.

[Tyler]

And now you're both secured and you're tied into this in a very big way. Michael, you're still feeling most of the loose, impacted dirt has come in the initial spill. And I will be so generous as to. You didn't let go of the hatch as the stuff just started coming down onto it. So really you're looking at only about a 30 or 40, 40 degree angle in which stuff is coming down upon you right now. But what do you want to do?

[Emily]

It's filled. We can't get out this way even a little bit.

[Tyler]

You've been looking at it. You don't even see a shaft of light that could insinuate that there is anything other than potentially miles of sediment. Not miles, but feet of sediment and dirt above you.

[Emily]

This way is barred. Got to go back down.

[Michael]

Can you close the door?

[Emily]

I don't need to. It's sealed by dirt.

[Michael]

Well, if it all falls down in here, it's gonna make things worse. Right.

[Star]

We can't have this conversation right now. We need to go back.

[Tyler]

Yeah. So, Michael, you leave it. And it does look very well impacted. You still occasionally see some settlement as a little bit will trickle out into it. And if I'm being honest, at this point, enough of it has pushed back in that you probably wouldn't even have enough clearance to be able to create any kind of seal anyway as you all descend the ladder and sit upon the loading platform that is right at the entrance. So Close and yet so far away.

[Michael]

I want to pocket a couple of the rocks that fell through again, some fist sized stones.

[Tyler]

I see no reason to create a conflict out of that. Okay, what now?

[Whitney]

I want to go back in there. He's still in there. And we don't know if it might just explode.

[Michael]

What do we do?

[Whitney]

I don't know. How do we get out of here? I don't want to go back.

[Emily]

We have to go back in. We have to get out of here because the air is thinning and we're not going to last much longer down here.

[Star]

Is there another way out?

[Michael]

There's got to be. I mean, it can't just be one hatch, right? I don't know anything about missile silos. Unfortunately.

[Emily]

My best bet would be to follow the air ducts. They should laid out. There should be some emergency air hatch or something.

[Michael]

Yeah, yeah, that sounds right. We should do that.

[Tyler]

So at this point you would like to find the nearest hatch in which to begin exploring?

[Michael]

Well, there was one obviously in our quarters because you patched it up.

[Tyler]

Yeah, yeah.

[Emily]

We could follow some from there. We could see elsewhere.

[Michael]

It leads rather than ducking into places we don't know. That seems the safest start.

[Emily]

I don't think we should go too far back to where that thing was.

[Michael]

Yeah. Are there more hatches near us? There's levels between us and our old quarters. Several levels.

[Tyler]

But I mean this is a collaborative effort.

[Michael]

Yeah, yeah.

[Tyler]

So I'm. I don't see any reason why there couldn't be. This is a huge place. And while your location is very much an option, there are other quarters in which people have either lived in in the past or are currently living in.

[Michael]

And I feel like since we decided that the bottom was the safest, that's where our leader was. It would mean the top levels are probably less. They were less densely populated upper levels.

[Tyler]

As I described earlier, the upper levels are definitely the ones in which have been flooded and locked and sealed with groundwater. Right.

[Michael]

So going just below, wherever we can be, just below the water levels, I guess. Right. The closest level that would have air ducts.

[Emily]

There was a hole in the wall.

[Michael]

There was a hole in the wall, but that was way down in the bottom level.

[Emily]

I don't know of any other way out.

[Star]

Going down seems counterintuitive.

[Emily]

If you want to stay up here, Star, then just stay up here.

[Star]

I don't.

[Michael]

We're not going to leave anyone behind. Star's not staying up here. We'll bring her with us back down.

[Star]

To where he's dead.

[Michael]

It's the one place that we know there isn't a creature. Or there wasn't when we left because.

[Star]

We don't even know that was a creature. It was really dark. It could have been anything.

[Michael]

It was Montague. And he was eating him. Like solidly creature.

[Emily]

Unless. Star, you have a better idea? Where would you take us? In your professional opinion? Where would you take us?

[Whitney]

Don't be mean to her.

[Emily]

I'm not trying to be mean. I'm just trying to get us out of here. Wishes and hopes are not going to keep us alive. Practical knowledge. Falling. A way out.

[Tyler]

A hole in the wall.

[Emily]

That maybe seems like a way out. Do you want to try to go.

[Tyler]

Back up this way?

[Star]

It's a bit strange to go through all a hole that's deeper down when we're trying to get to the surface. You don't think that's just a little bit weird? Was it an access hatch? Was it a hole in a wall?

[Michael]

Let's do this.

[Star]

That man was mad.

[Michael]

Let's try air ducts first.

[Star]

He buried that himself.

[Michael]

Let's try air ducts first. The first place we get to we can see we have an exposed air duct. We know that they're here. Just right inside the hatch, just like in our chambers. Everyone's gonna be the same. We'll get below those flooded levels. We'll look at the air duct. If we can get that open and get inside, we'll try that first, okay?

[Emily]

No, I want to go back down. How long are you going to survive in the air duct?

[Michael]

Well, if we can find a way out through the. The air duct's got to bring air in from somewhere, right? I mean, you are the more mechanically inclined of us.

[Emily]

But, and this is my opinion, I think we should go back down and try to go through that hole.

[Whitney]

That's crazy. We don't know what else is down there. We don't know. It could have been a gas leak.

[Tyler]

That drove him crazy.

[Emily]

I'm going. If you guys want to follow, then talk.

[Star]

Don't do this.

[Whitney]

Is your ego talking?

[Tyler]

So Michael begins walking down these steps, leaving the three of you. Ostensibly. I mean, this is a situation in which Tyler, if you wanted to force him, you could. But it sounds like he has firmly made up his mind about what he feels like is the best option at this point. Shit. I imagine that is exactly what's happening with the three of you.

[Star]

We have to stick together.

[Michael]

Yeah. Protecting these two is most important. Tyler, let's just look at the air ducts. When we see in here first, can we please just see if it's possible for us to fit inside?

[Emily]

Fine.

[Tyler]

Okay, so you're going to go down to your.

[Michael]

The first level below the water where we know it's not blocked off, just to see.

[Tyler]

First level below the water.

[Michael]

Yeah.

[Tyler]

Okay. So ironically, your level is the first level below the water, and you're looking at least two levels that have been ostensibly cleared. Not cleared. Right. There is one that has not been touched that no one has been making because no one has to have wanted to be this close to the surface. So there is one across the way from where you are, and then there is your level. So you can do yours, or you can do one that hasn't been used.

[Michael]

Ours is safest. We've already been in there. We just gathered from there. We know it's safe. Let's just check out ours, see if we can get into the ductwork. Just see if we can get in.

[Tyler]

Right. And you go into the area in which you all are. And you've seen Michael's patch job as he is with the air duct, and it's an automatic familiarity. Maybe an hour, an hour and a half has passed at the very most, but your whole area just seems so distant and alien at this point. Even if it hasn't been, it's not home. You've made it home for two weeks, and it's weird to kind of see it so normal now. This patch job, Michael, it doesn't take long for you to basically take it apart and you pull it the way it was when it had fallen from the aftershock.

[Whitney]

I'll need to grab my backpack.

[Tyler]

You want to grab your backpack? Okay. I'll retrieve your stuff. Your personal effects. Yes. As you pull this, just vent. You feel the hot gust of air yet again. The pressure is not as intense as it was when it actually burst, but you do feel the swarm swampy air just pool at your feet. And you do feel it as you come into it. There is a direct area in which the air is coming from, and then there is the feeding that is currently taking air to.

[Michael]

We need to go where the air is coming from.

[Tyler]

From where the air is coming from. Great. Yes. Yeah. Okay.

[Michael]

Yeah.

[Star]

I pull Emily aside while they're doing this and say, I know you're scared, and I'm scared, too, but men don't take you seriously when you cry. You've got to push it down. You can't be a weak link. You have to be strong.

[Whitney]

I don't.

[Star]

You have to be Strong?

[Whitney]

How are you telling me to be stronger? You saw what I saw.

[Star]

I'm scared, too. God knows what we saw down there, but you've got to bite it down or they'll leave you.

[Whitney]

They're gonna leave me?

[Star]

No, I'm saying you don't want to be left behind. You don't want to look weak.

[Tyler]

Okay.

[Star]

We don't bring anything to the table, so we've gotta change that. Right? Look at me. We gotta change that. We have to bring something to the table. You're smart. We have to be brave. And I reach into my pocket and pull out. I said I had, like, a totem.

[Tyler]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Star]

And I open the pouch, and it's an arrowhead. I say, I got lost when I went hiking once, and I was scared. I was in the woods. I was only a kid, and I didn't know what was gonna happen. And I found this arrowhead, and it told me that I have to have direction. It was like a sign. And I, like, press it into her hand, and I'm like, remember your direction.

[Whitney]

Thank you.

[Tyler]

We have to be.

[Star]

Have to be strong. And I wipe away my tears.

[Tyler]

Yeah.

[Star]

And I rejoin the men, and I'm.

[Tyler]

You're clean. You're composed.

[Whitney]

I am composed, and I'm clutching this arrowhead.

[Tyler]

Is your moment on top?

[Star]

My moment is.

[Tyler]

Your moment is the card that has your moment. Is it currently on top of your deck?

[Star]

No.

[Tyler]

I don't care. Give it to me. Okay. That was amazing.

[Star]

All right, this one.

[Tyler]

That was wonderful. You get a hope die.

[Star]

Okay.

[Tyler]

Yes. You've fulfilled your moment. I find peace in my own bravery by giving someone else hope. Yep. You rejoin with Emily as you sit there, and they are looking at this air duct, and it's large. It has to service a big area like this, but it is not comfortable. I mean, you're going to be 100% crawling with arms forward, not arms to the side, to make this work. So, I mean, for those who are maybe smaller than Tyler, they may have a little more wiggle room, but you're going to be army crawling the entire way.

[Michael]

I think it's best if I go last again. If I get stuck, you guys can go on.

[Emily]

And we will.

[Michael]

I know.

[Tyler]

So, what's the marching order, folk?

[Star]

I don't leave anyone behind.

[Michael]

It's okay. Don't worry about it.

[Emily]

Now, when we get into these air ducts, there's not gonna be any going back. If something comes up behind us, we have to go forward. There's no stopping. There's no waiting. I don't know what that thing was in that room, but it looks small enough to fit inside one of these things. And it's either becoming at me or at Tyler. You ladies will be in the middle.

[Tyler]

So if I'm hearing you correctly, then, Mike, you're going forward.

[Emily]

Yeah.

[Tyler]

All right. I still feel like it's important to establish who is second and third in this equation. So who would like to be second and who would like to be third?

[Whitney]

I'll go second.

[Tyler]

Great. All right, so, Mike, you begin the awkward 45 degree angle climb to get into the point where you feel the air duct. And you do hear the straining of metal as the bolts that are currently attaching this thing to the ceiling at the moment just strain against your weight. But blessedly, you move ahead enough in order to relieve the pressure so that everyone can get up. It is the most unhappy, Tyler, when you get up in there, you know, and as you kind of climb in, you hear it strain, and you actually hear a large metal bong as the metal below you is pressed.

[Michael]

I'm gonna pause and let Star get a little ways further ahead of me.

[Tyler]

Okay.

[Michael]

I want to keep her in sight so I could maybe scoot to her if I need to, but if something breaks and falls, I don't want to.

[Tyler]

Take her with me. There is so much happening in your head right now, Tyler. You are used to a man who is taking the safe route. You are very used to not pushing the envelope if not necessary. Now you are crawling through it like some action hero trying to drop down upon spies. What's going on in your head right now?

[Michael]

I think I played it safe my whole life, and I did all the things that I was supposed to, and I saved the money I was supposed to for my retirement, and I took a job I didn't like, but that paid better.

[Tyler]

And I.

[Michael]

You know, I bought the house I didn't want, but that I could afford to save more money, and I did all of the right things, and none of it mattered in the end.

[Tyler]

None of it mattered in the end.

[Michael]

It's impossible for me to not feel in this moment that all of those decisions that I made that were safe but that weren't what I want, was a waste.

[Tyler]

So you're taking one step away from what was a wasted life.

[Michael]

Yeah. And if I can help here and if I can make a strong choice that maybe isn't safe, but that helps people, maybe some of that will have been worth it.

[Tyler]

Okay. All right. And this is what's going through Your mind as you make the conscious decision to slow down as the three begin a slow and arduous trek through this air duct. Now, there is an interesting thing about being an enclosed spaces. It is not so bad when you have to go in and then you get to go out. Brief moments of deep enclosure are sufferable if not slightly uncomfortable. Being in enclosed space is a long time when you have no idea what's going on around you and you have no idea what's going to happen around you. Next is agonizing. And you can tell from the time that you've been walking that you have been crawling for a while and probably enough to where you have at least gone over what was the original chasm. And you feel like you are now surrounded by bedrock wherever you are. And that is the moment in which you make your first twist your incline as you come to the air duct and see that it is indeed pointing up. So, Mike, you're first. If you see this first, it is not giving you the benefit of light. It is not giving you that hope. But it does go up.

[Emily]

Okay. Just go straight up.

[Tyler]

All right.

[Emily]

There's no handlebars. There's nothing to hang on to. It's just gonna be us getting ourselves out of here.

[Michael]

We can do this. It's small. I'm just yelling from the back. It's small. It's tight. We can do this. I'm in the bottom, too. I can help push, right? We can do this.

[Tyler]

So, Mike, since you are the pathfinder on this air duct adventure, how do you wish to make the ascend? Do you want to press your body up against it? Do you want to use two hands? How do you want to apply the appropriate amount of pressure to make the climb?

[Emily]

Yeah, I press my hands up against.

[Tyler]

And then you do your back. Yep. And you caterpillar up.

[Emily]

Yep.

[Tyler]

All right. Caterpillar away.

[Emily]

I think, as I do, too, I'll give Emily my lighter just so there's light.

[Whitney]

Thank you.

[Emily]

Somewhere in that tunnel.

[Tyler]

One, six and two ones. I'll take those. Mm. It's all yours. Mike, would you give me a description of how you get past the vertical nature of this to find a more stable ground?

[Emily]

As I'm going up, I'm just pressing myself up against. And it's kind of humid in here.

[Tyler]

So it's sticky and wet.

[Emily]

Sticky and wet. And I start to kind of slip.

[Tyler]

Yeah.

[Emily]

And as I'm getting up, I'm kind of just starting to slip down. And as I move my shoulder up, I can find that there Is it goes a little bit to the side. There's a place for us to kind of a cubby. I don't know if it goes any further back, but there's a place to get up and I can manage to hold myself up.

[Tyler]

That's great. Okay. So you basically find a break inside of the twist, which you're right. It could go. It actually kind of feels like it's going back the way you came. And you can feel like the. I'll actually go so far as to say it's a cubby. And with the limited darkvision you have, you can't actually see that the cubby is adjacent or it's like adjacent to as well too. So now in many ways, you're at like a vertical horizontal cross section that you in theory, could go back the way you came up, which is where you're going. And then there's a small cubby that's going farther away from where. Does that make sense or should I do a visual?

[Michael]

No, I agree with that.

[Emily]

Makes sense.

[Tyler]

Okay.

[Emily]

It seems like those would maybe lead to the flooded areas or back to.

[Michael]

The way we came. Probably.

[Tyler]

Yeah. Who knows wherever that might be? But yes. So I guess at this point, this is an intersection which you could make a choice or you could continue to climb.

[Emily]

You think it's about going up.

[Tyler]

But.

[Emily]

Then he thinks that he should. He shouts down and said that there's a covey and he'll help the next person up to help get to that point.

[Tyler]

Okay, so back the way he came or deeper in from once the way you came.

[Emily]

Can we continue to go up anymore?

[Tyler]

You can, absolutely, yes.

[Emily]

Could I get those guys up to where we're at?

[Tyler]

You can. There's not enough space for you to be adjacent to. Like, unless you're literally like next to each other. Like, you could potentially put your feet on both of the cubbies to stand yourself up. I see what you're saying. You could put both of your feet up on the cubbies, bend down to grab people and put them up so that at least whoever is the next one in line, which is Emily, to put their hands on where the cubby is.

[Emily]

I'll do that.

[Tyler]

Okay, great. Emily, I was gonna have to have you roll to get into there, but it's sounds like Michael has at least placed you to where it is. You do feel this intersection of where you are. And maybe I'll pull you up by.

[Emily]

Your backpack or something.

[Whitney]

Yeah. I've got the light in one hand and the arrowhead in the other firmly Clenched in the other.

[Tyler]

Then you're using your elbows to do the caterpillar crawling.

[Whitney]

Once I find footing, I hold the light down so that they can see.

[Tyler]

Oh, I see. So you're there too. Okay. And at this point, you've probably felt like you've done at least a 20 foot vertical climb at this point. And you do kind of see the light and you kind of see this little. You do see this tiny hint of fire and it's waving a little bit. In fact, the first thing you notice is how when in this intersection, you can see the flame just. I mean, it should be out. If it wasn't such a good lighter, it would have gone out, you know, at this point. And you do kind of see them all bundling up at the top here. So forward. Up.

[Emily]

Up. Yeah.

[Tyler]

Great. Then we'll spare you, Michael, for another one of these and. Oh, never mind. This is. No, no, you continue to climb up, continue to climb up and you make this caterpillar walk as you continue to come up this incline. And you do feel another 90 degree turn. This time it is a forced 90 degree turn. You only have one way and it is enough to get you up to it so that you can now doing the crawl. At this point, as you make this 90 degree turn, you can feel hot air just hitting you constantly. And it's almost like you're crawling in a wind at the moment as you can feel this musky hot air wash over you. And it comes in spurts. It's not a consistent flow, as if you would expect a fan to be pushing into it. It just seems to be coming in this. And then it'll. And then you'll just feel it again as it comes down upon you and you begin to crawl. Tyler, you make it up, you come across the line. And as you position yourself into that next level to come across, that's when you feel the shaking again. You feel the quaking aftershock and it begins to rumble. And at this point, being in the position you are, it's just more like a moment of nausea comes upon you more than anything. You just don't really know where you are. But Tyler, you hear and you just sense as metal starts creaking around you and you feel as something presses upon the back of your leg, as something just digs into it. And you don't feel any blood, but you do feel this moment in which something just juts straight into the back of your leg, pinning your leg down into the middle of the vent.

[Michael]

Okay, I'm not going to say anything.

[Tyler]

You're not going to say anything.

[Michael]

I want to reach back. If I can slide my hand back here. And can I feel. Is it the vent pressing on my leg?

[Tyler]

The vent is absolutely pressing on your leg.

[Michael]

All right. I bring my arm back up. I'm still not gonna say anything.

[Tyler]

Okay.

[Michael]

I'm just gonna see if I can. Elbows on both sides. And if I can gently. I'm not trying to yank yet. I'm trying to gently pull. Just to see.

[Tyler]

Look at you being the good spelunker that you are.

[Michael]

Just to see if I can pull.

[Tyler]

Okay. So you feel the aftershock of this A little bit. And it is still shaking as this moment occurs. But it does settle quickly. It stops. You start to pull your leg. One, one. No sixes still at eight candles here. Yeah.

[Michael]

I'm going to let that.

[Tyler]

A quiet man suffers an event as you pull upon this leg and realize it is not just as simple as tugging on it to become free. Seven dice, seven candles, seven truths. Tyler. First, the world is dark, but you get to speak the first truth.

[Michael]

I believe we'll escape. Tyler believes we'll escape.

[Tyler]

Tyler believes you'll escape. Do you want more than just belief?

[Michael]

Tyler knows we'll escape.

[Tyler]

Okay. There is a break in the air duct very soon.

[Star]

Star knows Mike is falling into darkness.

[Tyler]

Or Mike.

[Emily]

Mike is. He's distracted.

[Tyler]

Distracted.

[Emily]

He's thinking about his ex girlfriend, Hannah, who's lost in thought.

[Tyler]

So you're distracted.

[Emily]

Distracted.

[Whitney]

Emily, once we're out, it gets so much worse.

[Tyler]

Once you're out of the duct, yes. Tyler. Seven. Last one. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four, five. Yes. Sorry, you're at five.

[Michael]

This is six, actually.

[Tyler]

Oh, thank you.

[Michael]

I had the first one.

[Tyler]

You did have the first one? Yes. Six.

[Michael]

There are other people using the ducts.

[Tyler]

You will get your leg out of this, but it will cost you. Great. We pick back up. Seven candles, seven truths, seven stories. Tyler, you're currently with your leg jammed, and you can feel as slowly whatever jarred this piece of. Of air duct into the back of your leg. You can feel that it is cold. The metal is cold. Unlike the warmth that you're feeling as going through the duct, you can feel a mounting pressure slowly come across you as the metal seems to be bending slightly, not at a great speed, but you putting your hand there, you can feel coldness as it slowly seems to be ballooning out towards you.

[Michael]

I am going to. I'm going to shout ahead, move. And I'm going to use my other foot if I can to try to push hard as I can to get my foot out. So banging against it, some things there alerting that I'm there. And I'm going to try to yank my other foot at the same time.

[Tyler]

Okay, you're going to yank and pull it while yelling. And you do all three here from behind you. Shortly after this aftershock has subsided, while you hear Tyler yell move as much as you can. One, six.

[Michael]

Two ones.

[Tyler]

Two ones.

[Michael]

I got narrative control yet?

[Tyler]

You do. Because I have no dice in which to take yes. So please, by all means.

[Michael]

So I jam my other foot up into the ceiling just enough to pull. And I'm also wearing slip on shoes that I was able to pull. It pulls the shoe off. Big scrape on my ankle, twists in the ligaments. I don't taking the truth here. I don't know that a bone is broken. I don't think. I hope it's not broken right, but it's.

[Tyler]

Oh, I have a cost for you. Don't worry. You get your foot out fair.

[Michael]

The foot comes free, I lose the shoe. That's what comes free.

[Tyler]

Yes, you lose your shoe, the foot comes free. You feel the scrape. You do feel the trickle of some broken skin as there is some blood. But as you push that foot and you kick and you basically are kicking with everything you got. Cause you feel it move a little bit every single time you kick. And every time you kick, that foot becomes a little bit more free. And finally, as you push your foot through, you feel it go through the air duct and you feel it punch right through that metal as a little bit of liquid slowly starts to trickle into the air duct with you. And you pull your foot free as now you can hear the rushing, the filling, the pooling of water as now it seems to be filling, filling this air duct with you.

[Michael]

And I yell, it's flooding. We punch through the flooding.

[Tyler]

Move, move, move, move, move.

[Emily]

Yeah, we're crawling. I'm yelling at Emily to keep up. Keep up, keep up.

[Tyler]

And you crawl and you move. And all of you and you, Tyler, can start to feel as the water moving at a very gravity and motivated pace. You can feel as if like that's a good comparison. Have you ever been caught unaware and you notice when a high tide comes in and you just watch as just water just occurs. It is going much faster than all of you. Tyler, you feel the water brisk across your knees, then across your chest and then across your chin as it's flowing forward. Star, Emily. Michael. Michael. By the time a few precious Seconds have passed. You can already tell that the water is behind you. And you keep crawling with all of your efforts. And that's why you don't see when the air duct ends abruptly and you fall. Woof.

[Emily]

That one belongs to you.

[Tyler]

Yep, I get these two. You assume narrative control. The conflict ends, but it doesn't end badly. So I have an idea of what happened, but I feel incredibly compelled to hear what you think happened.

[Emily]

Well, I'm crawling as fast as I can. And I said I'm not turning back. I keep repeating that in my head, this mantra. I'm just going, going, going as fast as I can. And when I go out and it ends, I fall out and I fall forward. And wherever I land, I land on my back and the air gets knocked out of my chest.

[Tyler]

In fact, I'll do you one even better. You fall, but it's more like you belly flop directly into a pool of water. And you don't fall far. One, maybe two feet before really. You just more kind of slide into what appears to be a pool of water at this stage right in front of you. And you occasionally feel a hard thing bump you on an occasion. But you seem to just be sitting in this flooded part that's just pure darkness. And you do, Emily, especially since you're second. You do hear the loud sploosh as Michael seems to be falling forward. And you with the lighter, Michael, you can actually see as the small cadence of light comes forward. And you see Emily pop her head forward.

[Whitney]

And I call back, there's an opening.

[Emily]

Be careful. So you don't fall.

[Whitney]

I fall. And light her up.

[Tyler]

Light her up. So you level yourself into the water because you keep your lighter up. All of you, unless you tell me otherwise, presume that you can swim.

[Emily]

How deep is it?

[Tyler]

You cannot touch the bottom right now. Okay. Unless you search through it a little bit. You do occasionally feel a small purchase in which to put your foot onto something. But you do not feel floor.

[Michael]

When I reach the opening before I go in, I'm going to try to reach up and see is it still ceiling above?

[Tyler]

Yeah, there's still ceiling above you. Okay. Okay.

[Michael]

And I go in.

[Tyler]

Okay. You all slip into the water. You bob, and you feel this weird moment of peace, as if you're just like in a. Oh. And the water is cold. I forgot to mention it is freezing cold. Not enough to shock the air out of your lungs, like if you were ice dipping or something like that. But we're talking Pacific Northwest ocean cold. So it is brisk. And you Start to normalize to it a little bit as the prickles on your skin come up and then immediately recede as you feel yourself bobbing. It's oddly peaceful with this one source of light illuminating the dark water that's all around you. Emily, now that you're in, you can actually see that the things that were bumping Michael is coming in are small pieces of chair, you know, furniture. Does it look familiar? It looks very familiar. A lot of your common area, like your common area that is just right there next to you. And it's. The air above you is actually extremely warm. And you can see that there is trickling water that's coming down from the ceiling in not fast, but very consistent, rhythmic drops. As it seems to just be coming from the top of the ceiling. But now you can also see the tiny waterfall that is now coming out of the air duct and pooling into the water that you're in.

[Michael]

This is the common room. We could get down and open the door to get out of here under the water?

[Emily]

Yeah. We don't have much time if this thing fills with water.

[Michael]

Yeah.

[Tyler]

Okay, so someone's going to dive down.

[Michael]

Who is our best swimmer?

[Whitney]

I am.

[Tyler]

Emily, open the bulkhead.

[Whitney]

Swim team Captain awesome, do you take your backpack? No. I hand it to you with your lighter so that you can keep it dry for now.

[Tyler]

As dry as it can get. No sixes, no ones, nothing.

[Star]

Can.

[Tyler]

Yes.

[Star]

I don't. Can I maybe, like, give her a reassuring look like when I earlier said to her, oh, absolutely. They don't. Like, we don't have any skills.

[Tyler]

Right.

[Star]

And give her you cannot give a hope type.

[Whitney]

I'm so sorry.

[Tyler]

As much as I would love something like that, that does not apply for you.

[Star]

Okay, that's fine.

[Tyler]

So we are going to end the scene.

[Whitney]

Okay.

[Tyler]

Because if there was at least one. One I would say go into it. But here we go. Six candles. Six truths first. The world is dark. Emily, what do you want to start us off with?

[Whitney]

Star is gonna be the one to get us out.

[Tyler]

Okay, great. Tyler.

[Michael]

There are five people in the.

[Tyler]

One of them is also in the water. 4.

[Star]

One of us will have to make a difficult decision.

[Tyler]

Okay.

[Emily]

This chamber will fill with water within the hour.

[Tyler]

One more. Emily.

[Whitney]

Someone in the group has something they haven't used yet.

[Tyler]

They haven't used yet. Okay, great. Six candles. So, Emily, I'm actually going to say in this circumstance that it's. The conflict isn't necessarily that you failed to get down to get to the bulkhead. Just that when you Swim down. And it is not a difficult. You're going five or six feet, the, you know, the bottom of basically a pool. And you do feel it once you get closer after things colliding into your face in the dark water. But you do get to the bulkhead after a short and brisk swim. And because the water level is high enough, it's not as if you even had to dive until you got to where you knew the bulkhead would be. Since all common rooms are ostensibly the same, the difference is that no matter how hard you pull and no matter how hard you twist, the water pressure is just too much to open the door. So you swim back.

[Whitney]

I'm not strong enough. I'm sorry.

[Star]

There's a lot of water in this room. You can't. Could be that none of us are strong enough.

[Michael]

So I've been holding onto the lip of this thing because I have pockets full of rocks.

[Tyler]

Yeah, duly noted. Yes.

[Michael]

If everybody takes one or two of these rocks, we could all drop down and try to pull the bulkhead together.

[Tyler]

Okay. Okay.

[Michael]

I hand up my rocks.

[Tyler]

Right? So you hand out rocks to everybody and you swim with the little amount of, you know, one arm moving over. And as you're going through and as you're moving through this water, you can feel the water rising around you. It is just the slow filling of a pool. Someone put a garden hose in there, and it's just coming again. The point you also hear splashing. Just small splashing, just like. Just something hitting the water. You get down to where the bulkhead is, and you all feel. As you sink down to where you are, and you get down to the bulkhead and all of you grab and you pull onto this with all of your might, and you pull and you pull and you pull. And no matter what, you just can't. The water pressure, it's not even about the strengths that you have. It's just the fact that I could even do you one better. You do all of your strength. You do just. You unlock it, you unlatch the bulkhead. But even with all of you putting and you trying to pull on the door to get it open, can't even get it open just smidgen. It's just pressing. You have tons and tons of water that's filling this room just pressing against the spoke head. You'll have to find another way out.

[Whitney]

Is there more vent to climb through.

[Tyler]

If you go back and potentially investigate? Yeah, makes sense. You swim back into the common area in which you first went into this. You see actually something in the water, it just is wiggling as it's moving around inside of the water. And it looks like something is struggling with what you thought was maybe a table before, but now you've looked at it and it's very clearly a dead body that is floating in. In the water. And something is just moving with such ferocity. It's just struggling with it in such a way that it's hard to tell what is going on with your limited darkvision.

[Emily]

We need to get out of the water.

[Michael]

Yeah.

[Emily]

Is there anything that we can climb up on?

[Tyler]

Like I said, there's a small purchase that you can get onto. It's probably close to actually where your bolted down common table was. It's high enough that in theory you could put your feet down regular. And with that you can kind of. Who sells the lighter?

[Whitney]

I haven't give it to you.

[Tyler]

Look. One, one. No sixes. Holy crap. Okay, yes, yes. I know exactly what happens, Michael. As you hold this lighter up, you are swimming. You're looking off the wall anywhere you can, just hoping that you'll catch a glimpse. And then out of nowhere, you. You feel that warmth, breath of hot air just hit you in the face. And you see it in your lighter just as much as you feel it in your face as you continue to scan and look around and you notice the small slits of an air vent that's kind of around you. But at that same moment, you feel something grab your hair at the back of your neck and you pull around and you can see something just the of a small, long, languid creature with tiny, tiny little legs. And it seems to just be forcing itself down this bloated corpse and it just slips down straight into it like it's just scooping a giant snake like noodle just, just pulls right into it. And you watch as it vomits water just in front of you as it comes into it and it grabs the back of your neck and it grabs your throat and begins to pull. That is where we'll end our scene. Five candles, five truths. The world is dark. Michael.

[Emily]

He keeps the lighter up so there's light.

[Tyler]

Even though this is happening, Michael keeps the light on.

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[Tyler]

Despite what's happening. Okay, all right. I hear you, Emily.

[Whitney]

While this is happening, we find the vent.

[Tyler]

Okay, so you find the vent. You go to the vent while he's struggling.

[Whitney]

Yes.

[Tyler]

Okay, so maybe a better truth, if you don't mind me suggesting, is you don't help him. Instead you find the vent. Something like that. All just words. Tyler.

[Michael]

I can't save everyone, Michael.

[Tyler]

This thing is going to try to drown you.

[Star]

Star. Star thinks that this is the personification of the darkness that was growing inside Michael's heart. We see something in her change.

[Tyler]

Okay, so five candles, five truths have been spoken. We pick our scene up immediately. We pick our scene up immediately where we left off. Michael, you've spoken. How you are going to keep this thing above water, come hell or high water, this solitary piece of light that you're holding onto at this stage, that truth is what invokes you into the moment. As you feel this hand grasping your hair, the back of your neck, sink you into the water. And the only thing that now exists, that is you, above this waterline is a hand with this lighter up above you.

[Michael]

And you're at the vent, and I.

[Tyler]

See the vent, and you, with very little difficulty, can just take it off and rip it open. And you can feel the hot air.

[Whitney]

I do that.

[Tyler]

Got it.

[Michael]

I grab Star.

[Star]

Star, you've been grabbed unawares.

[Tyler]

I mean, as far as I'm concerned, for all you know, I'm asking. Yeah, yeah.

[Michael]

I'll say her name as I grab her. Sar. And I grab her. And then I shove her toward the vent, too.

[Star]

Okay. Out of character for a second here. Tyler is stronger than he looks.

[Tyler]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Star]

So I guess that's what I'm asking.

[Tyler]

You could resist this by all, if you have something else. There's two ways to handle this. If you do not want to be white knighted towards events.

[Star]

All right.

[Tyler]

You can obviously tell him no and resist and do what you can and make that a scene in which you go. You basically tell him to stop being an arrogant douche about protecting me. All right. That would be lovely. Or two, I'm perfectly willing to have you turn this into a conflict. And you can make a conflict roll for it 100%. So that is my recommendation. Without giving you any kind of purpose either way. Those are just suggestions.

[Star]

I don't think I would have a conversation with him right now because there's too much going on.

[Tyler]

Too much going on.

[Star]

But I know that his leg was pinned.

[Tyler]

Yeah.

[Star]

So even though we're mostly submerged, I kick at his injured ankle.

[Tyler]

Awesome. Okay.

[Star]

In an attempt to get to maybe shock him.

[Tyler]

Yeah.

[Star]

And I push out towards Mike.

[Tyler]

Okay.

[Star]

Towards that solitary hand that's out of the water.

[Tyler]

I think until this becomes a conflict, we can literally just say, Tyler, you suddenly feel. As Star's foot just lays out against your injured leg. She clearly knows because she went straight forward and shoves out towards Mike.

[Michael]

All right. Tyler grabs at her again.

[Tyler]

Okay. Yeah. Make a fucking conflict out of it. Let's go. Let's do it.

[Star]

All right.

[Tyler]

Character motivations against character motivation. Your motivation.

[Michael]

Whoa.

[Tyler]

That is mine. Unless said otherwise, I'd have no resolve. By all means, take this away.

[Star]

I reach the hand.

[Tyler]

Yeah. So you kick him away, first of all. Yes.

[Star]

And I grab it and I try to lock my feet since he was standing on the table, under the lip of the table, so that I'm not trying to pull him up, but I'm just trying to brace myself, if that makes sense. Like maybe with my legs under the table and just like, holding on to this hand that I'm assuming is slipping under the water. Or is he? I guess I don't have a.

[Tyler]

No, that's fair. And it's a good assessment. I mean, at this point, there is someone definitely pulling.

[Star]

He's underwater.

[Tyler]

And so, yeah, and his hand is up no matter what. But at this point, if you're trying to brace the hand for all of its worth, that is absolutely what you're able to do. And really, I resolve this conflict by seeing this as you get away from Tyler, despite all of his insistences. And then whatever you do when you get to Mike's hand is up to you. And if it's literally keep that hand above water at all costs, then by.

[Star]

All means, I'm just reaching for him and trying to pull him out of the water.

[Tyler]

Pull him out of the water.

[Star]

Yeah. With just everything that's in me.

[Tyler]

Okay. Yeah. Okay. Michael, Star has come to you. You can feel her underneath, but you can also feel this creature on the back of your neck. Star is there, and she is pulling you up with all of your effort, with all her effort into it as this thing is right behind you. You had the gumption, of course, to take a big breath of air before you came in, but your lungs are aching.

[Emily]

Yeah, I'm starting to drown. I can feel someone's hand on this. I try to push my hand with the flame against this person's hand to give them the light. Cause if we can't see this thing, then it will kill us. That least is what I'm thinking in the water as I'm trying to live. So I would try to give this light to this hand.

[Tyler]

Yeah. And I mean, I do not need any other. This is between you two at the moment. Please. If there's something involving this creature that is trying to drown you at the moment, then by all means, confer to me. But this is your scene.

[Star]

I take the lighter, and I press the rock I took from Tyler back into your hand, Almost like taking it from you shakingly and pressing the rock in instead.

[Tyler]

Yep.

[Emily]

And I take.

[Star]

Because I can't see what you're struggling against.

[Emily]

I take the rock, and I take it under the water, and you smash.

[Tyler]

It in the face for all it's worth.

[Emily]

Trying to push it against this thing, push it in its mouth. I don't know what I'm doing. Just pushing it against it.

[Tyler]

Flop, flop, flop. 1. Michael, it is all yours. By all means, take it away.

[Emily]

I take the rock, and I'm trying to hit it against it in the water.

[Tyler]

Yeah.

[Emily]

But it's not doing. Like, I'm underwater. I don't have much leverage. So I come up out of the water, and you can see this thing is, like, wrapped around my neck. I can barely breathe, and I'm Sort of hitting myself with it. And until to try to get it just to unravel itself from my neck.

[Tyler]

Yeah, yeah.

[Emily]

And I rip it off, and I. I guess I rip it off, and I just. I hold it above the water so it can't go back under. Like, I'm holding it upside down if I can. I'm struggling with it above my head.

[Tyler]

Oh, the thing.

[Whitney]

Yeah.

[Emily]

How big is it?

[Tyler]

Oh, okay. I'm so sorry if this wasn't abundantly clear. Let me try this again. The creature, as we watch this serpentine thing, there is a man holding you under the water. They watched as this thing slipped into it, into this man. And now this man is grabbing a hold of you with its dead, bloated, cataract eyes, holding you underwater. All right.

[Emily]

Okay. I'm pulling this guy off of my throat.

[Tyler]

Of your throat, which is. Again, this is just a prying thing, just getting it off. And you do. You gasping for air, lift up. And you were hitting this thing in the head at first, but now you're just taking both of your free hands, and you've pried this thing just off of your neck. As you continue to see, it's off of your neck, but it's grabbing ahold of you, and it sinks its teeth right into your side. It just takes a bite out of you. And you can feel that pinching that then becomes sharp, direct pain as you feel that only the mild thickness of your clothes is prevented any kind of tear, but you have been clamped down upon, and. Yes. So, Star, or I'm sorry, Emily, you reach to the vent and you pull this thing open. Tyler, you're watching Star and Michael struggle with whatever the hell this thing is.

[Michael]

Emily, do I see you calling the vent, or are you.

[Whitney]

I'm waiting at the vent, and I call out, leave him.

[Michael]

I'm going to grab Star again.

[Tyler]

Well, you do see Tyler coming for you, as kind of Michael is still screeching in pain, having pried this thing off, and now ostensibly not at least drowning anymore.

[Michael]

But you know, and I say, this is our moment. Let's go.

[Star]

I say back, you just want to be the hero, and you don't care who dies along the way.

[Michael]

I care who dies, but we don't all have to. Let's go, Star.

[Whitney]

We have a chance. Come on.

[Star]

I don't let go of him.

[Tyler]

Yes. All right.

[Star]

At this point, I'm like. Cause I'm on. Like I'm floating above this table.

[Tyler]

Yeah.

[Star]

I would say, like I'm tugging at him, trying to get him to, like, since he's relinquished the script, trying to get him to leave.

[Tyler]

Right, right, right, right. Okay.

[Star]

But this thing is, like, on him.

[Tyler]

Yeah.

[Star]

So it's like.

[Tyler]

But I'm just pulling between Michael, between you and Star. You pull yourself and grab. Basically swimming really honestly to where Tyler is, but past him. And you are able to kick this thing. Now it's off. But you do feel as you are ripped away from this thing, you do feel a tearing of your own flesh as you now just are. You can just hear. You can just feel it more than anything else, this ripping, just this aching pain. As you all push off. And you can start to see blood in the water. And the little bit of light, Star, that you or Emily that you have as you're holding, flicking up, you can see that other things are starting to through the cracks. And you didn't even notice it up until this point. But the cracks in the ceiling, through little divots that are in the metal parts of the ceiling, you can start to see other of these wriggling worm things with the multi. And you can actually see they have circular mouths with tiny little teeth inside of them. But they're small. They're just about small boa kind of size. They just kind of slop into the water, and it's like something's just pouring them into the water. And you all make it to the vent. You all clamber up into the vent. I mean, Emily, you're first, but who afterwards?

[Michael]

I'm still trying to get Star into the vent.

[Tyler]

Well, they're all there.

[Star]

Oh, we're all there.

[Tyler]

You're all. Yeah. Whether you are pulling onto the mat, Star is holding onto Michael, and she needs very little motivation at this point to take everyone to the vent.

[Michael]

So I'll hang out and hang out. Yeah. And as they go in, I want to see how badly Michael's hurt. As much as I can in the darkness as he crawls past me in the Venture, really try to feel out how badly he's hurt.

[Tyler]

As you lift him up, you can very clearly see blood on the side of his body. And you are hyper aware of the fact that Star also knows about your foot. Or potentially it could have been a lucky kick. Sure. Aware of your foot as well, too, as you, Emily, Star, Michael, Tyler make it into the vent.

[Michael]

The snake things in the water, are they big enough to go through the vent? Do we hold onto the vent cover? Can we pull it back somehow so.

[Tyler]

They'Re absolutely small enough to fit into the vent cover? Well, not the vent Cover. They're definitely small enough to fit in the vent, but there's no way after Emily ripping that thing off, putting it back on is a fool's errand.

[Emily]

Okay, as we get in the vent, I'd like to take that backpack and I'd like to shove it into her chest and go.

[Tyler]

You've got this. It's hard to. I mean, you kind of almost have to. Since you're all in the vent. You kind of almost have to shove it along her back. As now you feel the pressure of this backpack lean down upon you to pull it back. I mean, there is not a lot of room to navigate in this thing.

[Whitney]

Mikey, you declared yourself a leader, so I think that you should do the brave thing and tell us all what you're feeling after being bitten by one of those, because we don't know the effects. You could easily do something like what's his name? Going crazy. He could have been bitten. We don't know. And I think that that's on you.

[Michael]

Everybody, let's get moving. We can talk about this as we move.

[Emily]

What are you implying here?

[Whitney]

That you're gonna go crazy cause you were bitten by a monster and turn on us? You're already unstable.

[Emily]

You already turned on us.

[Whitney]

I didn't turn on us. You said that you would leave any of us behind. You said that. I was just doing what you told me to. I was sucking it up and being an adult.

[Star]

Let's keep moving.

[Emily]

I'm gonna stay in the back.

[Tyler]

You are. You are. Emily Tyler, Michael Starr, you are third at this point through the breakthrough. And you do awkwardly climb for a long time. I mean, for a while, Michael, you occasionally feel light headed, but you do continue to go through it. Star you being in the very end more than once. You can absolutely tell that you are crawling through Michael's blood right now as you're kind of moving through. And you being at the very end, even lifting your arm up and seeing still warm lifeblood of him flowing through it, you all continue and you do climb. You continue to go through as much as you can.

[Michael]

As we're moving, knowing Michael's behind me, I'm going to just try to reassuringly grab Emily's leg just to let her.

[Tyler]

Know it's okay that you're there.

[Michael]

I get it. I understand. It's okay.

[Emily]

As we're climbing through a dose of two stars behind me.

[Tyler]

Yes.

[Emily]

I'd like to ask her, why didn't. Why didn't you just go.

[Star]

Cause there's still. There's still good in you. And I wanted to save it. I think. I think we're all good people, and I need to believe that we're all good people. And we were. Everyone back there was just scared. We were all just scared.

[Emily]

You're one of the first people in my life that I have not successfully pushed away. Thank you. Thank you.

[Star]

We're in this together. We're not leaving anyone behind.

[Tyler]

Now, Emily, as you continue to crawl forward, you can start to feel that the air that you're in is getting hotter. As you continue to move forward through this vent, the heat is starting to get oppressive. It's not just about the humidity anymore. It's the sheer, thick heat blaring down upon you. It's almost like if you've opened a door to the oven and you're just putting your face right into it, it's so hot. And despite that, you keep moving. You press through it with all the determination, with stars voice in your ear. You know that you're in the front, and you know that you cannot stop. And that determination is what guides you through. As you start to feel the heat underneath you, as the metal now appears to be not just warm, but scalding hot. And you start to feel it as she goes through, too. And it stops you almost for a moment, as if you're putting your hand on a hot piece of tin roof or, you know, the dashboard of a very hot car.

[Michael]

Does it sound like there's air below us when we're moving, or is it solid on the other side of the vent?

[Tyler]

Feels like there's air below you. Okay. It feels like it's not solid by any stretch. In fact, that's an excellent point. There is a stance at some point when it starts to get hot, when you feel a difference between the. Excuse me. The difference between when you're moving along bedrock.

[Michael]

Yeah.

[Tyler]

And then when you're moving along open bong, bom, bong, bom, bom. Air.

[Michael]

Yeah.

[Tyler]

Yeah.

[Michael]

I know that the vent is thin enough that I broke through it once before with my foot.

[Tyler]

Yeah.

[Michael]

I want to stop. Yeah, I'm just gonna put one foot back to stop. Michael.

[Tyler]

Yeah.

[Michael]

I'm gonna take that rock that I had in my pocket or something, and I wanna reach out between me and Emily and just really carefully, as carefully as I can, bang a little bit. I don't wanna bang right on the. So open it all up. But on the side here, bang on that a little bit. See if I can punch through.

[Tyler]

Oh, yeah.

[Star]

That's not good.

[Tyler]

That's fine.

[Michael]

Everything's fine, thanks.

[Tyler]

Yes, you do. Absolutely. In this conflict, you carve this open with very little danger to the structural integrity of the vent. It's to the point where you've actually taken a sharp piece of the vent, and you are almost like a saw. You're just taking that.

[Michael]

And I'm just trying to get a little piece of it so I can figure out where the heck we are.

[Tyler]

As you peel it back, as you press into it, you are actually surprised when red light just emanates from it. And you pull it back ever. And you feel a hot gust of air just. Just almost sizzling like a pfft. Just for a hot second.

[Michael]

And is it a flickering fire of the red light, or is it intense and constant?

[Tyler]

Intense and constant.

[Michael]

So this is like a furnace or a boiler or something. I tell everybody, I think we're above the furnace. I think we're above the heater.

[Tyler]

Do you want to peel it back enough to get a better look? I won't make you roll for it.

[Michael]

I'm going to ask the group, assuming my leadership position. Again, I think we're above the furnace. I can peel this back to see more, but I want to make sure that we are. Okay. That everyone is in agreement before we do this.

[Star]

Yeah. Yeah, let's do it.

[Whitney]

Yeah.

[Emily]

Yeah.

[Michael]

Okay, then I'm going to peel a little bit.

[Tyler]

Peel it back enough just to get your pupil. And as you put your eye or as much of your face to look through it, too, it burns. It burns so hot. In fact, you cry out in pain as you feel this intense heat just blast against your eyeball. As it was fine and then it wasn't as you put it right up into it. And it hurts. But in that burn brief moment before your eye just started getting into it, and you have to close it and opening it, and it hurts. Have you ever had an eye surgery done?

[Michael]

I have not.

[Tyler]

You have not. Okay. Have you ever had an eye injury like someone's poked you in the eye? It is that kind of constant screaming, intense pain. It's almost like you got a sunburn on your eyeball as you look into it. But for that brief moment, you saw roiling hot rock below you moving.

[Michael]

Not a furnace at all. Lava, magma. Let's move. Move.

[Tyler]

Tyler, you can't open this eye anymore. It hurts. At least for the moment. Even the stinging pain of just trying to keep your eye open at this point is you just keep it shut occasionally, just holding it for its brief moment. Okay. As you all continue to move through.

[Star]

This now, how hot is the air coming out of there? It's pretty hot enough to heat something?

[Tyler]

Oh, sure. It's hot enough to heat something. It's heating the air. It's heating the air that you're in right now. I don't mean to be crude, but I will say that he has a first degree burn on his eyeball right now. So, yes.

[Star]

I nudge Mike and I just sort of suggest to him, like, if you can heat up your pocket knife, maybe you can cauterize your wound. You're bleeding a lot.

[Emily]

Yeah, that's a really good idea.

[Star]

I don't know how you're still moving.

[Emily]

I need to get out of here. I need.

[Star]

You've gotta stop bleeding first. So it's. You should try to just, you know.

[Emily]

I take my knife out and I set it on the sheet metal.

[Tyler]

Yeah. Actually, because of the order that you're in.

[Michael]

You're right behind me.

[Tyler]

You're right behind Michael. And you technically would have found the spot that he opened up in front of you. So you could take the time. If you wanted to wait and heat up the knife, Star would be right behind you, you know. Great. Yeah.

[Emily]

I heat up the knife and actually, maybe even as I'm going by it.

[Tyler]

It's just that hot. Yeah, it's just that hot.

[Emily]

Just to burn it closed.

[Tyler]

Yeah. Yeah. Let's call it. Let's call it. It's both on the left side. We can make that work for your favor. It does take time, though. And 4. It is enough time that both Emily and Tyler have made significant distance ahead of you. As you both are kind of waiting.

[Michael]

I feel Michael's not behind me.

[Tyler]

Yeah.

[Michael]

I don't tell Emily.

[Tyler]

Right. So it takes a few minutes. And I have to ask you to see how effective the cauterization is. 11 and 1 6.

[Emily]

Eye for an eye.

[Tyler]

We have five. And I have one from this. It's a push. Push goes to the gm. It successfully happens. You close the wound so that it doesn't bleed openly anymore. It hurts so bad. And it's not before. It is actually not necessarily from before, from you just waving over the heat vent. It's definitely from the knife that you had to heat up and then press against it. No matter how tough Michael, you may be and how much you've ground through the pain to move through it, you are definitely going to cry out when hot metal is pressed up against an open wound. It's just going to happen.

[Emily]

Yeah. I picture lots of screaming.

[Tyler]

Yeah. Lots of screaming.

[Emily]

Yeah.

[Tyler]

And you hear it behind you.

[Whitney]

I call back and I say, what's going on?

[Tyler]

You hear nothing because you're so far ahead. The small distance your voice can carry. Nothing comes back. In fact, the screams are distant. Almost as if you're hearing it down an echo chamber.

[Whitney]

Where are they?

[Michael]

They stayed back there. I'm not sure why. I don't know what's happening, but we can't turn around here. There's no turning around. We have to go forward. It's okay. Michael is strong. Star is strong. We have to go forward.

[Whitney]

But they screamed.

[Michael]

They did. But look, we can't turn around in here. Star, they would want us to be going forward. They would want us to be taking care of ourselves. I've got you. I'm right here.

[Whitney]

Still holding the arrowhead?

[Tyler]

Yeah.

[Michael]

We gotta keep going.

[Tyler]

Do you keep going, Emily?

[Whitney]

Yeah. And they don't hear me call out?

[Tyler]

No, they don't. Mostly because Michael's screams are so loud at this point. You cauterize it. You lay into it. Moving is agony, but the agony is different than the lightheadedness of knowing the blood loss you've been suffering at this stage. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Emily]

Is there any places where Star could get ahead of me? Any alcoves or. No, we're just going. All right.

[Tyler]

Straightforward, straightforward. I mean, at this point, if we created a conflict that allowed for narrative control. You could create an alcove if need be. But as far as I view it now, why, there would be no alcove, there would be no bend. It would just keep going. At least now you know the source of the hot heat, the hot, hot air that has been filling this place. So you continue to move and you continue to move until you, Emily, come to another 90 degree bend. That takes you up.

[Whitney]

Okay, this is it.

[Tyler]

I've got you here.

[Michael]

You're not going to fall.

[Whitney]

I wedge myself in, I find purchase and hoist myself over the edge.

[Tyler]

Yeah, you climb. Basically have to climb through. And then you can stand up and you hear the metal just buckle underneath you again. And it's not as hot anymore because the insulation of your shoes is better than the insulation of your arms.

[Michael]

I ask you if the metal is cooler up there.

[Whitney]

It's a little bit cooler.

[Michael]

Cool. Good, good.

[Tyler]

And you.

[Michael]

I'm going to call back down the passageway. It's cooler up here, but I'm not yelling as loud as I could.

[Tyler]

You do hear, distantly sounds though, words at this distance. I mean, it's bouncing so much, it's probably hard to tell what it is. But you do hear Tyler's voice. Far up the ladder. Emily Cline. Ha. 16. I get two nothing. Emily, take over. How do you climb all the way up to. Yeah, to a break inside of the. Inside of the vertical climb.

[Whitney]

Like we discussed earlier, I have been using. I've been holding onto my backpack and sliding along upwards.

[Tyler]

Okay.

[Whitney]

And until I find something, something, I'm just gonna keep doing that.

[Tyler]

You climb up, and then at some point, you do feel a break. Like it is a T section, not unlike what you experienced beforehand. You've definitely climbed another 20ft before this break occurs. So you have a similar choice to what I gave Michael on an intersection earlier. You can continue to go up or you can make a dash.

[Whitney]

Either way, I think this is a good time for me to wait for the rest of the group to catch up.

[Tyler]

Okay, great. Tyler, are you waiting for Michael and Star to catch up, or are you beginning to climb on your own?

[Michael]

What are you doing?

[Whitney]

Well, I found this place that I can comfortably take a break. And if they've heard us, then we can wait here for them. It wasn't too far. One of them probably just got burned.

[Michael]

Do you saw the lighter? Who has the lighter?

[Tyler]

Yeah, Michael still does.

[Michael]

Gotcha. So I can't see how far above us this continues to go, but it is cooler up here than it was before.

[Tyler]

It is cooler for sure.

[Michael]

All right, but we can't wait here forever. Five minutes.

[Whitney]

Okay?

[Michael]

Okay. So I'm going to position myself to where I'm holding on. And.

[Tyler]

Let'S see, it's five minutes enough to definitely catch up. You know what? No, it's not. Five minutes is not enough for them to catch up.

[Whitney]

Is it long enough for them to be within earshot and for us to be within earshot so we can communicate?

[Tyler]

At five minutes, do you yell out?

[Whitney]

Yes.

[Tyler]

Okay. I think so. I think it's definitely enough for you both to hear it. So you do hear Star yell out. At some point.

[Star]

I call back, great.

[Tyler]

So you do hear. I mean, I don't have to mediate between this.

[Whitney]

I say if there's. There's purchase up here, we're going upwards. It's cooler up here. We are waiting for you.

[Star]

We're coming. We just had to stop for a bit. Mike is really hurt, but we're coming.

[Michael]

I yell back, if you can help him get up here, we can help you.

[Tyler]

So, Mike, Star, you do continue to come up in a similar way. You continue to make your climb, your ascent in a way that you did before, and you push your Way up at the moment. At some point. Yeah, yeah. No, at some point, you all kind of clump up together where you are in this cross intersection, and you have come together at this stage. So now it is time for a choice. Emily, do you continue to move forward, or do you take a different intersection?

[Whitney]

I think we should go up. When we deviated from that, it turned out poorly, so.

[Michael]

Agreed.

[Whitney]

Up.

[Michael]

Agreed.

[Star]

Yeah.

[Tyler]

You continue to climb up.

[Michael]

Now we're in a place where. The junction. Where we could redo the order if we wanted to. Yeah, because we can slide into the junction.

[Tyler]

You do have an alcove. Absolutely. This is a time in which, based on where you are, two people could leave and reorder themselves. So what I'm trying to get at is that Star couldn't be in front of Emily, you know, because you're at the first and you're at the bottom. So really, it's just you three that can change orientation, but. Or, Tyler, you could get in front of Emily if you wanted to.

[Michael]

Mm. I think you've been doing a fantastic job leading us.

[Whitney]

You're badly injured.

[Michael]

I'm not perfectly well. Yeah, you've been doing a great job leading us. This was kind of my point. Perhaps it's time now for me to take the rear in case.

[Whitney]

Yeah.

[Star]

I'll go up behind her.

[Tyler]

Behind her?

[Star]

Yeah.

[Tyler]

So it's now Emily Star, Tyler, or Emily Star, Michael and Tyler. Yeah.

[Whitney]

I just grab and I squeeze Star's hand.

[Tyler]

Okay, great.

[Star]

You're doing a good job. And when I pass Tyler in the alcove, I do give him a look.

[Tyler]

As much as you can in the middle of the dark, but.

[Star]

Yes, but it pierces the darkness. There's a pause.

[Tyler]

Yeah. Cool.

[Michael]

I can't hold your gaze.

[Star]

Didn't think so.

[Emily]

As Star passes by me, I want to give her my knife.

[Tyler]

Star. Okay, so, Star, you now have this knife. Yeah. I'm sorry. Any other reorientation discussions?

[Michael]

I think that's it.

[Tyler]

Emily, you continue to ascend, and, oh, boy, is it a climb. But it does seem cooler as you continue to climb up. And you feel the comforting cold of the metal as you continue to slide up 6, 8 inches at a time. As you continue to climb, at that point, you hear something high above you. Clang. Stop. Da dang, dang, dang, dang. And he seems to get closer to the sound of it. Da dang, dang, dang. Seems to be getting closer. Da dang, dang, dang. Suddenly, with such force that it shocks you, you feel something just slap Right on the top of your face as it hits you. And all of you just crest for just a moment as you all slide down. Star, you're the last in line, right?

[Michael]

No, I'm the last.

[Tyler]

Tyler, you're the last in line.

[Michael]

Jamming my elbows down.

[Tyler]

Jamming your elbows. But you feel as something is now on you, Emily, that just smacks you in the face. And Tyler, with the last purchase in the bottom, just feels the weight come out from underneath him. 16 and 1 1. You hold on with all of your.

[Michael]

Might and my conflicting emotions.

[Tyler]

So you jam both elbows in at the moment, and you feel. And you slide and you slide. Feet.

[Michael]

I'm gonna try to jam my feet in there, too, even though I've hurt the one. Jam my feet against the one.

[Tyler]

Oh, God, does it hurt? Just feeling this little bit of broken flesh and bone just pressing up against it. But you know what is below you. Yeah. And you do not want to hit that as hard as you can. Emily. You can hear tiny, tiny, infantile screeching as you feel this languid thing flopping you like a fish out of water as it's slapping and its tiny little claws are just raking across your flesh. As you feel tiny pinpricks, as something is attempting to wrap itself around your head and your neck.

[Michael]

I yell, what's going on? What's happening?

[Whitney]

I have both of my hands free because I'm using my back to scoot upwards. And I immediately try to shake it off and get everything away from.

[Emily]

Oh, my.

[Tyler]

I mean, it was worth a shot. Emily, if you wrestle with this thing with everything you can and you're trying to pull it off, but as you are attempting to grab it, as any reasonable person should to grab it, you're actually feeling as these little tiny needles are pressing into. Into your palms. And you can feel small pinpricks of blood starting to fall down your hand as this thing, startled just as much as you are, is continuing to press and move around you as its shrieks and yours fill this metal hell that you have created for yourself. Four candles. Four truths. Emily, we'll start with you.

[Whitney]

We're close.

[Tyler]

Two.

[Whitney]

Two. A way out.

[Tyler]

Do you mind if I, as an example, extrapolate that further? You're close to the surface. That's fine. You're close to the surface, Tyler.

[Michael]

I'm not gonna be able to walk anymore. I can still pull, but I can't.

[Tyler]

Why is this group so hard? I don't want to contradict you, Tyler. I really don't.

[Michael]

I go Back to excruciating to walk.

[Tyler]

No, excruciating to walk is fine. What I'm trying to avoid is contradicting one of your roles. You successfully managed to hold yourself.

[Michael]

Gotcha.

[Tyler]

And I'm fine with that. And I don't want to contradict.

[Michael]

Okay.

[Tyler]

What I do wanna do, Emily, if you shake this thing off, whoever is below you, it's going to try to force itself into their mouth. And if you hold onto it, it will force itself down your throat.

[Star]

I'm not gonna freeze this time.

[Tyler]

Right. Let me actually make sure that that is not so. I want it to be just as ominous, but not just as anything else. This thing is going to go down someone's throat. That's where we are. And you're not going to freeze this time.

[Star]

I'm not going to freeze this time.

[Tyler]

Great. Four candles, four truths. We are still all in the alcove together. Nothing has moved forward. Emily, you're struggling with this creature who, as I have described in the Truth, now that it has recovered from its shock, knowing where it is, you can feel the tiny tendril as it's attempting to, like a boa constrictor, find purchase against your neck. Right. Now. What do you want to do?

[Whitney]

I say knife.

[Star]

I press it into her hand and.

[Whitney]

I grab it and I. How big? Bigger than my neck.

[Tyler]

It's like this.

[Whitney]

Yeah. I.

[Tyler]

You try to.

[Whitney]

Left hand goes into it. Right hand attempts to throw it off me.

[Tyler]

Yeah. She's next to it. Okay. And Star is next to you. So. Yeah, yeah, stab it. Everything you can. Throw it off of you. 16, 11. You. I'm sorry, you have narrative control.

[Whitney]

Yeah. I wedge. I wedge the knife into its body and I use that as an opportunity to grab it and throw it down.

[Tyler]

Right. So you hear it squeal. It's just. As you take its moment of brief pain as it now tumbles down onto Star, and you feel these tiny little claws rake down upon you as you feel it kind of curl itself. Itself back up like a centipede would as it lifts up. And it's doing everything it can to hold onto your arm as you have it. One arm across, just like your back against the wall. Similar situation.

[Michael]

I yell again, what is happening?

[Star]

There's something in the vent. There's one of them in the vent.

[Tyler]

Right.

[Whitney]

Can I hand the knife down?

[Star]

I have both arms out. Can I reach it so I can see? I could see myself handing one up, but with it struggling on me.

[Tyler]

Yeah. I mean, it would be a roll.

[Star]

If I grabbed it I think I would fall.

[Tyler]

Yeah. I mean, it's certainly worth a roll for sure to see if you get into it. Otherwise, if you just want to deal with this without the knife, by all means. Because now that it's rolled across you, you can see as it's making a B line straight for your shoulder. So. And you've seen what it's done.

[Star]

Okay, I'll try to take it from her or take the knife from her.

[Tyler]

Can't you want to try to take the knife rather than just rip it off? It just determines how the conflict.

[Star]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Tyler]

And we are at a point with the candles.

[Star]

Yeah, I'm gonna take the knife.

[Tyler]

Take the knife.

[Star]

Yeah. It's like comfort.

[Tyler]

It is. It's better to try to stab something than it is to rip it off.

[Star]

Can I use this?

[Tyler]

Yeah. That is what it's for you that succeeds on a five and a six.

[Star]

Ah, yes.

[Tyler]

Six. And I do not get to take a hope dice away. Yes. So you catch the knife, and I get one dice to roll. Tell me what happens.

[Star]

This thing comes skittering down onto my arm. She drops the knife down, and I slip a couple of inches as I grab it.

[Tyler]

Yeah.

[Star]

And then, because I told myself this time I wasn't going to freeze, I stab at this thing haphazardly, slipping a couple of inches every time.

[Tyler]

Oh. Oh, yes. Okay. So you see this thing on your arm as it's wrapping towards you, and you're slipping a little bit, but you take this thing, and like you said, you didn't freeze. So you just start stabbing and in my arm and into your arm. And you can feel it. You can feel it hitting, but you can also feel it. It's hard to tell if it's from the little tiny clips of pain that are onto this thing or if it's into it. But you just hit this thing, and it's squealing as it kind of rears up. But at one point, when you've been lifting it up, you watch as it just slips. Not dead, but it just kind of loses purchase as it clumsily slaps down onto Michael. And you feel this body just kind of like collapse in front of. And it lands upon your lap. And it looks dazed and awful. And you can see of blood just dripping all down your arm. And your hand is starting to shake as you feel the weakness.

[Star]

The adrenaline's wearing off.

[Tyler]

And the adrenaline. Well, no, it's kicking in.

[Star]

Right.

[Tyler]

But literally, the pain is still there. And, Michael, there's an order to things.

[Emily]

Yep.

[Tyler]

This thing Is dazed and fucked up and nasty and doesn't look good, but it is still alive by all accounts. What's the plan?

[Emily]

It's in my lap.

[Tyler]

It's in your lap?

[Emily]

I mean, I guess I would like to throw it down. Like, try to throw it down the shaft.

[Tyler]

Yeah.

[Michael]

Now, do I see this thing fall into his lap now? Because I'm below him. I'm at the bottom.

[Tyler]

I mean, again, it's dark in mine. It's super dark at this point. You see what is above him. But, man, this is one of those circumstances in which the GM could just take a little bit of chance to see if chance factors into this at the moment. But it's all about the best story. So I think this is the best story, Michael. You just like if you had her trying to catch a rock with a skirt, you just open your legs. You just open your legs and you feel this thing just like. But it falls down and it hits Tyler right in the face, and it lands right on top of you. And you can kind of feel as its tiny little legs are trying to scurry as it's lifting itself up, but it is on you and it is screaming. And in fact, you can feel a couple of its tiny little needles are starting to wrap around the side of your mouth.

[Michael]

Okay, well, first I'm gonna try to grab it and throw it away.

[Tyler]

Yeah.

[Michael]

I can't not try to live.

[Tyler]

Yes. You can't not try to live. You always have to have hope, no matter what it's in option.

[Michael]

Yeah. Yes, I am going to try to spend. I have a save, a companion from despair.

[Tyler]

This is your moment.

[Michael]

This is my moment.

[Tyler]

You cannot spend your moment for a Reno.

[Michael]

I can't spend my moment. I can't.

[Tyler]

No, no. You cannot spend your moment for a reroll.

[Michael]

All right, so the thing's on me.

[Tyler]

Yes. In fact. Okay, Our scene ends. But let me tell you how this conflict resolves, Tyler, as you feel this thing fall upon you onto your face at the bottom of the line. You put yourself here. You know you did. You know, you went to the bottom of this, and you feel this creature just kind of skitter. And no one's told you. Well, I guess a few seconds ago, Emily told you that something's in here with it, or Star did, and you feel this thing come across you, and it attempts to just force itself into your mouth. And it's such a guttural. It's such a primal reaction to just pull away from it and hold onto it that you don't Even realize for a moment that you've let your feet slip. And you feel as everything below you just starts to fall. And you hear, and you, more importantly, can feel this above you as you grab this thing and it's attempting to push itself into it as much as you can. And you punch right through the bottom of the air duct. And you feel warm, hot, burning heat around you as you look up and it's this moment where there's darkness above you and you feel this thing grasping a hold of you. And you look down and you feel that impact, that slam as both of your feet hit against the air duct and gives away and you begin to fall. And you can see you're in an open cavern and looking above you into the darkness. Something is going on in your mind. What is it?

[Michael]

I can't help but think that at least this time I tried.

[Tyler]

Those are the last comforting thoughts that you feel as there is pain, but it is oh, so brief as your body just disintegrates into this molten slab of rock below you with an unceremonious boop. As your body comes down. David, thank you so much for playing. Thanks, Ivan. I really appreciate your time. Thank you, man.

[Michael]

Thanks, guys. I believe in you. You got this. You got this.

[Tyler]

Shit. And thus our seat end. Three candles, Three truths. Normally, Tyler would be able to speak the first truth, but since he is no longer with us, I will take the first truth. Star, your arm will not hold out much longer. Is already failing you. You can't get up this spire. It's too many. You. Your arm is failing. Mike. Star.

[Star]

Um, I'm not. I'm not taking Mike with me.

[Tyler]

Right. Michael.

[Emily]

Michael won't let star fall.

[Tyler]

Three Candles, Three truths have been spoken. We pick up immediately where we left off. Michael, you were third in line. And you heard the screeching of this thing as it slapped upon Tyler's face. And then you heard the loud distention of metal as you heard his body tumble, tumble and fall. And then a loud crash as your air vent. That you are all in shakes for just a moment as all of you hold on for all of your might. And some of you do slip down ever so slightly as now. This warm devil's red light now seems to be beaming up from the bottom of this air vent. What do you do?

[Whitney]

Was that Tyler?

[Emily]

Tyler's dead.

[Whitney]

Is everyone okay?

[Star]

I'm slipping.

[Emily]

You're not gonna fall. We have to just keep going. We can't stay here.

[Whitney]

And you're in back, right?

[Emily]

Yes.

[Whitney]

Can I give you My backpack to push upwards in case starts to fall, starts to slip. Is there room for that?

[Tyler]

Yeah, you can hand down your backpack.

[Whitney]

Hand down my backpack.

[Tyler]

So you hand down the backpack, Michael, you grab this sentimental item. And there's something on this backpack, Emily. I mean, it holds precious things inside of it, but there's also something on it that Michael might notice. What is it?

[Whitney]

Oh, it's several buttons, pins in it. One of them you recognize as.

[Tyler]

It'S.

[Whitney]

A Girl Scout, but it's several sharp. Some of them have like, started to not pin backs on them. So.

[Tyler]

Yeah. So you see this bag that has what you would expect a high school girl to have, even with Girl Scouts on it. You take this and you use it as a little bit of a cushion as you continue to prop Star up and you continue to just lift her with as much effort. And Star, you're contributing to it, but every single hand movement just aches in pain. And sometimes you can definitely feel your strength giving away as you are more sticking your lower back out and pressing with your arms. As much as you are doing a comfortable movement, it is not a comfortable ascend anymore.

[Michael]

It is awful.

[Tyler]

You continue to climb. You climb and Michael, your side is pushing through it. The pain is intense. You're now using her weight and you're dealing with your own pressure. In fact, you can start to feel that whatever wound you've cauterized, the skin is splitting. And I need you to hold on for all you can. You're not going to let her fall. But there's only so much a body can do. Two sixes. Get me to the top. Get me to the top.

[Emily]

As I'm starting to slip in my body and this fatigue of this, I again just sort of remember Hannah and remember my will to want to get out of here and apologize to her. And as this is happening, I'm thinking about something Star and how she didn't leave me and how I am not going to let the first person in my life who I felt that I haven't been able to push away, leave me. She didn't leave me back there, and she's not. I'm not going to let her down. So I just push. I just push as much as I can. Even as I'm slipping and there's blood on my hands, I just keep thinking about that if I can just get to the surface that it might be some redemption for the person that I have been pushing people away. And each time that I put my hand on, there is one apology that I am Putting out to the universe to try to reconcile this.

[Tyler]

That sounds. It sounds very much like you're making some redemption for what you hoped was a tough life. And that emotion carries you through. As Emily, you start to see and feel cold air start to brisk down upon you. And you see the glistening white light of something penetrating into the vent right in front of you. And there. There seems to be just enough space. Yeah, yeah. As you get closer and closer, you can go to where this air vent is and. And there is a small ledge, almost like a sewer grate that has a lip laid out into it. You first push through this filter, this mesh, and it's cold to the touch. And you can see through a single piercing stream of light. The moonlight as you come across. And you lift this vent up, this mesh that's supposed to catch leaves and other debris that's not supposed to get down in there. And it's covered in rocks and dirt and foliage, but you shove it to the side as you collapse onto this small 8, 10 inch ledge, just enough for you to roll onto.

[Whitney]

We did it. We're here.

[Tyler]

Michael and Star, you are at this point with bloody hands. And you can feel it down the front. You look as the moonlight starts to get close to you. You can actually see that your entire front is just bathed in your own blood as it's running down. And even the little bit, you can see that Michael's face and his legs and his neck is just covered in your blood as you just move up and you take your one good arm and you roll, roll onto this small breach right there, this tiny, tiny little ledge that you hold onto. And Michael, you. You start to slip. You start to feel it. You start to feel the weight and you grasp a hold of it. But you do not have the strength to pull yourself up. The little bit of help that star that you gave Star to get her over is the last ounce of strength that you have as four bloody fingers grasp ahold of the ledge. And you don't have the strength to make that last effort on your own.

[Whitney]

Are we noticing that he's slipping?

[Tyler]

He hasn't pulled himself up, but he hasn't said it anything either. He just seems to be there, just standing with four fingers on this ledge. What do you want to do?

[Star]

Since I've rolled over, can I roll over and reach down to grasp him?

[Tyler]

Yeah, you can. You can. But he's a lot heavier than you.

[Star]

I know. Do I roll this with it?

[Tyler]

Mm, always roll the hope with it. 6. No ones tell me how you Pull him up. He has no. No strength on his own. So this is all you.

[Star]

Mm. I don't think it's feasible to say I pull him up.

[Tyler]

Okay.

[Star]

I think it would be feasible to say I hold him because I'm laying down, reaching over the edge.

[Tyler]

I like that.

[Star]

That seems to me more reasonable.

[Tyler]

You have this purchase, and if you don't mind, this is the picture that I paint, as you were kind of laying, and it's exhausting. This journey has been exhausting, and you've pushed through it. And Star, the only amount of effort you're able to even give at this point is enough to just take your hand. Your head's still lying on the cool concrete that's there, and you find his hand, and you just grasp it as his weight drops. And now you have this chain that you're holding onto. Apparently, neither of you have done this with anything other than a silent knowing that you're both there and connected to each other. Emily. You hear the sound of slipping and then an adjustment of weight, and it's not hard to see what's happening in the edge of the moonlight.

[Whitney]

I grab onto Star.

[Tyler]

Grab ahold of Star.

[Whitney]

Yeah, I'm up, so.

[Tyler]

And as Star continues to hold, you can see that her body is slipping from the sheer weight that's going onto this. And you get to her as quick as you can. Can't you crawl with every reasonable amount of strength you have, and you just attach yourself to her and you hold on? You're all so tired. The muscle fatigue is now just catching up. No one's no sexes.

[Emily]

I feel at this point that Michael looks into Star's eyes, and he just stares into her eyes, and he smiles at her, and he said, you have similar eyes.

[Tyler]

Thank you.

[Emily]

He lets go.

[Tyler]

In 10 candles. This is what is referred to as a heroic sacrifice, taking a dire consequence and taking it upon yourself. This turns the failed conflict to you. A candle is still darkened, but it is not hers. Star, you're holding on with everything you can, but his weight is just not enough to hold onto your own. And as he says thank you, you just feel as that last. That last bit of skin touch that wet, warm body falls. As you see him hit one side of the darkness, hit one side of the air duct, and hit another. And then he's gone. The blackness envelops him. As Amelie catches your way, catches your and pulls you back to the side, Both of you leaning on this thin lip with the moonlight coming down upon you. Michael, you descend into darkness. You've done Something for Star and Emily here. With this heroic sacrifice, what would you like to give them? What would you like them to know before you fall out of their lives and off this table?

[Emily]

That it was their bravery that got us out.

[Tyler]

And with that, we have two candles left. Thank you so much. I really appreciate you being here.

[Star]

Thank you so much.

[Tyler]

Well done, ma'am. We'll see you soon. Okay. I'm gonna have to ask you to leave the table.

[Emily]

It's a pleasure.

[Whitney]

And they said that we don't have anything to contribute.

[Star]

I said that.

[Whitney]

We'Re here.

[Tyler]

There are two candles. But only two truths can be spoken. Always. The world is dark, and I have to speak the first truth. There's only enough room for one of you to get out. And Star, you have the blessing and the curse of being the last truth.

[Star]

The decision is in Stars to make right. Because we have a new leader now.

[Tyler]

Hours have gone by. Hours of just resting. Just lying there in the cold darkness as the silence around you is just so sweet. Occasionally, you can hear the sounds of something. Chittering, movement. But nothing ever gets close. Nothing knows you're here. And you sit and stay here for a while. It's been hours since your last meal. That familiar gnaw of hunger, which you've been able to stem off for weeks now, is starting to clench into your stomach. And there's this moment in which you wish you were just back eating cold slop back in your common room. But both of you have been staring at this exit. And it's nothing more than a glorified chimney stack. It's positioned in such a way that someone would have to prop them up just to get to the chimney stack, to lift themself up. Because this wide open chamber you're in, which the vent goes into, is tall enough that only one person could crawl through with the help of another.

[Star]

You should go. I've lost a lot of blood.

[Whitney]

I can't be alone.

[Tyler]

I can't.

[Whitney]

What if what's out there is worse than what's in here? I can't be alone. I can't do this. You're a fighter. There's gotta be a way. There's gotta be some.

[Star]

I don't think there is.

[Whitney]

Still in my hand is the arrowhead. And I take it and I put it in your hands. And I say, thank you so much for showing me who I can be. And I won't let you down.

[Star]

Remember to always keep that direction. I don't want to die.

[Whitney]

I don't want you to die. I Don't want you to die.

[Star]

I thought I'd be brave. I don't want to die. But I want you to live. But I don't want to die.

[Whitney]

If there's a way that I find like some rope or something, I won't.

[Star]

Be able to climb up.

[Whitney]

Don't say that you're making the decision to die because you're saying that you can't do it. But if there's a way, if I get up there and maybe there's help.

[Tyler]

Are you going to lift her up? Star?

[Star]

Yeah.

[Tyler]

Boost her.

[Star]

Yeah.

[Tyler]

With your hope Dice. Two sixes. One, one.

[Star]

Yahtzee.

[Michael]

Yup.

[Tyler]

Take it away. Please show. Paint this picture for me. Getting her out.

[Star]

Yeah, I. I sort of like. Cause she's kind of small.

[Tyler]

She's very small. She's just a girl.

[Star]

Yeah. So I kind of give her, like, a hug, and then while I'm hugging her, I put my good hand underneath her foot and just like, boost her up onto my shoulder and then just lean, like, slump against. Yeah. Try to push her up.

[Tyler]

At this point, you have both of your legs straddling akimbo against the gray, which is right there. And the lip is just enough for you to cut their edge on either side.

[Star]

Yeah.

[Tyler]

And you boost her up as high as you can. Emily. She gets you high enough that it's not hard just to get at your waist. And you. I mean, it's what, another two or three feet before the smokestack ends? Just the audacity of just how close you are at this point with how far up you've climbed, just is assailing you. As you grab your arms and you pull yourself up in to the cool night breeze that's waiting for you. You roll over and you tumble to the ground. And it's soft grass and dirt. You seem to be somewhere on a field. You can hear cicadas chirping in the background. And the moon. You can see the moon, its giant face leering down at you. It's being punctuated by a monolith that just stands right in the center of it, its shadow almost cutting it perfectly in half. And it's just ominous. And you know, you know in your heart that there is no way the moon should ever be this big. And in the two weeks since you've seen the surface, it has encompassed the skyline above you as you lay upon the cool grass looking up in the night sky. Star, you've done what you could. You sit back down on. Yeah, whatever ledge you can make. Emily. What do you do? What do you do?

[Whitney]

I'm gonna come back for you. I'm gonna be so brave for you.

[Star]

I just kinda sit quietly, holding my arrowhead.

[Tyler]

Only the story is not done. There are two candles remaining. There's a chance. There's always still hope. Even with two candles, even with one dice, there is hope. What do you want to do?

[Whitney]

I want to find a way to.

[Tyler]

Pull her up from where you are. From where you are?

[Whitney]

Yeah.

[Tyler]

Reaching back into the stack. You loom down and you can put yourself forward and lean in such a way that your hips are preventing you from falling all the way through. And you could put both of your hands down and reasonably, she could jump for it and grab your hand. But you have to convince her to do it.

[Whitney]

I need you. Look, we're so close. We are so, so close. Look, I have you. I'm not injured. I can get you.

[Star]

You could fall into.

[Whitney]

No, I'm pinned. I can't. I. I'm not going back in. Trust me. I can get you or I can. I can. I can use my sweatshirt or my shirt and make it. Make it longer. And you can. You can help. You can help you pull yourself up. You can do it.

[Star]

You're just scared of being alone.

[Whitney]

I need you. I need you here. What am I gonna do? I'm fucking 15 years old.

[Star]

Knowing full well this is probably not going to end well. I just look up at her, stand up on the slip and I look up at her. I'm just like, it's not worth it. You gotta go.

[Whitney]

I wanna leave you. We're so close.

[Tyler]

We're so close.

[Star]

I leap for her into the hole.

[Tyler]

To the hole. Emily Star's face stares up at you as she looks into this moonstruck and eyes. And she brings her legs together. And her dark piercing gaze is the last thing you see as it engulfed into darkness. The ducts below falling into nothing. Jasmine. Thank you.

[Star]

Thank you.

[Tyler]

Thank you so much for playing.

[Whitney]

This is wonderful.

[Tyler]

I really appreciate it. I haven't had a sacrifice that hasn't involved a die roll. I don't know if this ends a scene or if we continue on. How are you feeling?

[Whitney]

Wrecked.

[Tyler]

You watched as your friend disappear into nothing. We can. Emily, we can end this scene now. And we will describe the last scene and I will tell you how it ends. Or we can carry on your story of hope and we can move until you fail a conflict. This is just as much your story as mine.

[Whitney]

I choose hope.

[Tyler]

Then let's go. You watch as Star descends with the arrowhead that you carried with you all the way up these hundreds of feet. Feet. You are so tired. Those few hours of rest have prevented you from exhaustion. But you feel every muscle, every ligament, every bone in your body. And walking is well. I can say that you are completely uninjured, Though, as you get a beat on the area around you, you can see that you are somewhere above, close to the farm that acts as the facade for this underground silo retreat that you've been calling home for so many weeks. What do you want to do?

[Whitney]

Scream? Help.

[Tyler]

You scream for help. And you scream. And your call pierces the night air as you hope someone will answer. One candle, one truth. The world is dark, Emily, as you lift your head up into the sky and cry for help. For all that your lungs can handle you screaming. And it's almost like you're screaming at the moon, this awful thing that is getting so close to you. And you can't help wonder if the monoliths and the moon are somehow related to each other, because only when one came did the other start its slow descent into the skyline. And as you scream yourself hoarse, your call is answered. And you can hear the sound of chittering as motion and serpentine forms encircle around you. Whitney. Whitney. You did so good. Thank you so much for playing.

[Michael]

Thank you.

[Tyler]

And with that, we have one final thing left to do, and that is listen to the messages of our dearly departed characters. Thank you so much for watching.

[Emily]

Hannah. If you're listening to this, I. First, I just want to say I'm sorry. And that I'm. I'm different now. And I'm. And I'm really sorry for the things I said and I did. And I'm working on it. And I wanted the chance to say I'm sorry to you. Sorry for what I did. I hope that you can forgive me. I left you a supply bag in the backyard. It's hidden in our favorite spot. I'll always love you. Always.

[Michael]

When the monoliths came, I was at work. I raced home to find Jenny, but when I got there, she was gone. My first thought was, you know, thank goodness she's safe. She got out. But that's ridiculous. Of course, there was no place to go. She's not safe. She's just gone. It would be harder if I had loved her. This is hard enough.

[Whitney]

Hi. My name is Emily rose. I am 15. I am a student. And I don't know why we're recording these things. I guess I'm supposed to say, tell my family I love them, but I'm sure they've already moved on. In any case, all I really want to know is if Mr. Anderson liked the MCCD I gave him. I wonder if I'll get to talk to him about it when this all blows over.

[Star]

Hey everyone, it's your girl Star coming at you live from the apocalypse. Who am I kidding? The WI fi has been out for days. No one knows when or if it will be back. I can't help but feel this is all some kind of karmic justice. I've spent years selling people lies about astrology, the stars talking about lunar cycles I don't even understand, and now it's like the moon is falling on us. Maybe this is some kind of signal that it's not too late to make amends. I don't know. I can use this as a wake up call to help someone. I mean, it's not like I ever actually hurt anyone though. This can't be divine retribution. And even if it was, there are way worse people than me who probably brought it about. Good night. No one in particular. This is your favorite gal star signing off and saying, reach for the sky and don't forget to like and subscribe before you die.

[Tyler]

On our podcast Good Bad Billionaire, we explain how the world's billionaires made all their money. Pop stars and tech titans, founders and filmmakers, inventors and investors. Investors. We cover them all. And for the first time, we're talking about a video game designer. Yep, we're talking about Marcus Persson, the Swedish coding king who programmed the world's most successful game, Minecraft, all by himself.

[Whitney]

He made a billion.

[Tyler]

But is he good, bad or just another billionaire? Find out on Good Bad Billionaire Listen on the BBC app or wherever you get your podcasts. I don't have much time. I am being transported by the ecclesiad vassal 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 plague ridden world. That ours is not a loving God and we are not its favored children.

[Michael]

The Heresies of Radolph Bantwine Chapter 2.

[Tyler]

Coming May 1st I'm Amy Nicholson, the.

[Star]

Film critic for the LA Times.

[Tyler]

And I'm Paul Scheer, an actor, writer and director. You might know me from the League, Veep or my non eligible for Academy Award role in Twisters. We love movies and we come at them from different perspectives. Yeah, like Amy thinks that, you know, Joe Pesci was miscast in Goodfellas and I don't he's too old. Let's not forget that Paul thinks that.

[Star]

Dune 2 is overrated.

[Tyler]

It is. Anyway, despite this, we come together to host Unspooled, a podcast.

[Star]

We talk about good movies, critical hits.

[Tyler]

Fan favorites, must sees, and in case.

[Star]

You missed ems, we're talking the Home.

[Tyler]

Alone from Grease to the Dark Knight. We've done deep dives on popcorn flicks. We've talked about why Independence Day deserves a second look. And we've talked about horror movies, some that you've never even heard of, like Kanja and Hess.

[Star]

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

[Tyler]

Listen to Unspooled wherever you get your podcasts. And don't forget to hit the follow button. RA.