Chapter Nine: Lake of Fire | Ten Candles: Eclipse

Summary

Podcast Summary: Critical Role & Sagas of Sundry – Chapter Nine: Lake of Fire | Ten Candles: Eclipse

---

Introduction

In Chapter Nine: Lake of Fire of Geek & Sundry's Ten Candles: Eclipse series, a gripping tragic horror tabletop role-playing game unfolds. This penultimate episode brings together a team of four players navigating a world plunged into darkness following the catastrophic eruption of a dormant supervolcano. With only ten candles to symbolize dwindling hope, the characters strive to survive against overwhelming odds, inevitably leading to a harrowing conclusion where zero survivors emerge from the ordeal.

---

1. Character Introductions and Setup [02:00 – 05:00]

The episode begins with the host, Ivan Van Norman, expressing gratitude to the players and introducing the high-stakes nature of the scenario: "40 players, one game master, zero survivors." Each player introduces their character, sharing personal backstories, virtues, and vices that define their roles in the impending disaster.

• Boone (Billy Morris): A survivalist from Arkansas, Boone prides himself on preparation and selflessness. "I like to think of myself as relatively selfless." His virtue is Determination, while his vice is Aggression.

• Eliza Winter: A former Pre-K teacher from Minnesota, Eliza cherishes music and community. "I just love that feeling when you're in just a throng of people... experiencing something together." Her virtue is Joy, and her vice is Manipulation.

• Ethan Daley: An investigative journalist from the East Coast, Ethan is driven by a relentless pursuit of truth. "What I want is to see someone be really honest. I want to see a moment of genuine honesty." His virtue is Inventiveness, and his vice is Selfishness.

---

2. The Catastrophe Strikes [05:00 – 15:00]

The narrative kicks into high gear as the characters find themselves sheltered in the Carlsbad caverns amidst the chaos of a supervolcano eruption. Ivan sets the stage:

"At some point, you felt a large shockwave... shortly after that, you felt the big one come across."

The players react to the immediate threat, dealing with the aftermath of the eruption:

• Billy, embodying his aggressive nature, insists on moving the deceased companion to prevent foul odors from contaminating their limited air supply. "Can't leave that corpse around here. Need to get rid of it."

• Eliza advocates for compassion, suggesting a proper burial. "We should bury him somewhere. Somebody loved him."

• Ethan and Boone grapple with the dire situation, highlighting the group's internal conflicts between aggression and empathy.

---

3. Encounter with the Unknown [15:00 – 35:00]

As the group navigates the affected caverns, they confront mysterious creatures and unsettling phenomena:

• A small, slug-like creature emerges from the deceased man's mouth, prompting Billy to react violently. "Smash it with a rock." Despite his efforts, the creature proves resilient, escalating tensions within the group.

• The Ray Ban Meta Narrator (Ivan) introduces the concept of Moments, Virtues, Vices, and Brinks, deepening the characters' psychological profiles and setting the rules for the impending challenges.

• The characters' exploration leads them to uncover chunks of ancient writing on rocks and walls, suggesting a prehistoric or extraterrestrial presence. "It's pre-Egyptian hieroglyphics."

• Boone's courage and Ethan's determination shine as they attempt to interpret the cryptic messages and seek a path forward.

---

4. Descent into Madness [35:00 – 60:00]

The situation deteriorates as supernatural elements intensify:

• A sulfurous cloud envelops the world, symbolizing the loss of hope and the impending doom.

• Ethan discovers a key card with indecipherable symbols, linking back to the mysterious writings. "The writing on the key card and on the stone are the same. And they are not English."

• The group stumbles upon a research lab with a working computer, revealing layered secrets about the monoliths and the creatures haunting their path.

• Internal conflicts arise as Eliza's joy clashes with Billy's aggression, leading to Emotional breakdowns and physical injuries within the group.

---

5. Confrontation with the Monolith [60:00 – 90:00]

The climax builds as the characters face the ominous monolith:

• Eliza attempts to communicate with the monolith, hoping for salvation. "I want to say, let us out of here. Let us go to safety."

• Boone, driven by his aggressive virtue, confronts the monolith head-on, resulting in a terrifying encounter where he is pulled into the structure, symbolizing the ultimate loss of hope.

• The monolith's influence becomes more palpable, as it absorbs light and exudes an otherworldly presence, leading to the death of Boone and further despair among the remaining characters.

---

6. The Final Struggle and Demise [90:00 – 201:04]

As hope dwindles, the characters make their final efforts to survive:

• Ethan grapples with existential despair, questioning the value of his pursuit for truth amidst annihilation. "The world is dark, and the cavern is coming down around us."

• Eliza, using her remaining strength, attempts to forgather the group, but the monolith's power is overwhelming.

• The culminating moments see all characters succumbing to the darkness, with graphic depictions of death and the absolute triumph of the monolith.

• Notable Quote from Eliza [201:04]: "I just wanted to dance, be surrounded by strangers, feed off their energy... I just want to, see, say..."

---

Conclusion

Chapter Nine: Lake of Fire serves as a poignant exploration of hope, despair, and the human condition when faced with insurmountable darkness. Through intense role-playing, the players vividly portray the tragic downfall of their characters, encapsulating the essence of Ten Candles: Eclipse—a tale where light flickers against an all-consuming void, and survival is a fleeting, often unattainable dream.

---

Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Ivan Van Norman [Intro] (03:15): "I have some of my favorite people with me. So thank you."

• **Eliza Winter [First Death] [04:22]*: "You can't win 10 candles."

• **Billy Morris [Aggression] [06:39]*: "The world is dark. This man died a coward. He brought something back with him."

• *Boone [After Attempting to Help] [33:43]: "This old boy didn't go out alone. There's three or four of them that made it."

• *Eliza Winter [Final Moments] [201:04]: "I just want to dance, be surrounded by strangers... I keep seeing their sweet faces."

---

Final Thoughts

This episode masterfully combines storytelling, character development, and game mechanics to deliver a compelling narrative that resonates with themes of sacrifice, resilience, and the elusive nature of hope. For enthusiasts of horror RPGs and intricate storytelling, Chapter Nine: Lake of Fire stands as a testament to the emotional depths and dramatic tensions that Ten Candles: Eclipse has to offer.

Transcript

[Shopify Narrator]

If you've ever shopped online and let's face it, who hasn't? Chances are you've bought something from a business powered by Shopify. You know that purple shop pay button you see at checkout? The one that makes buying so incredibly easy? That's Shopify. And there's a reason so many businesses sell with it. Because Shopify makes things easier. And not just for shoppers. They make it easy to start and run your business. Shopify is the commerce platform behind 10% of all e commerce in the US from household names like Mattel and Gymshark to brands just getting started. It gives you a leg up from Day dot with hundreds of beautiful ready to go templates to express your brand style so you can get up and running fast. You can tackle your important tasks from inventory to payments to analytics and more all in one place. You can also spread your brand's word with with built in marketing and email tools built for you to find and keep new customers. And remember that iconic purple shop pay button that's used by millions of businesses around the world. It's why Shopify has the best converting checkout on the planet. Your customers already know and love it. If you want to see less carts being abandoned, it's time for you to head over to Shopify. Sign up for your $1 per month trial and start selling today at shopify.com go to shopify.com realm shopify.com realm.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Ray Ban Meta glasses are powered by Meta.

[Ethan]

AI so you can get real time answers.

[Boone]

Hey Meta, how Bougie is Jade Garden?

[Eliza]

It's a trendy spot.

[Boone]

What's a color that pairs with this top?

[Eliza]

Consider dark, earthy colors charcoal or black.

[Boone]

What are some good first date topics?

[Eliza]

Consider discussing favorite travel destinations or your favorite books.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Get suggestions, inspiration and answers from your glasses. Ray Ban Meta Glasses Iconic Style meets Meta AI 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. Hello and welcome my friends. Hello. Episode 9 oh my God, we're at episode nine. You don't this isn't context for you. This is mostly for me. The reason this is important is because so I love all of my children, all of my 32 people who have come before you at this point. But I'm actually really excited about this episode in general. 1 Because it is the penultimate episode right before the finale, but also because I have some of my favorite people with me. So thank you.

[Eliza]

What an insult to everybody who's Come before.

[Ethan]

You know, I wasn't gonna say anything, but now that you mention it.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

No, I'm just really happy to be able to have this select group which people I have played with for many, many years. People who I very recently been enjoying with for many, many years. People I've been playing with for many years. Many years. And one of my favorite DMs. So in your face.

[Boone]

Absorb their DM power.

[Eliza]

I did.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

My spoopy compadres. So we have a story to tell. Ten Candles.

[Eliza]

I don't want to.

[Billy]

This will be my first time actually dying on stream. Like I've survived 100% of things, including things you yourself threw at me today. I ran out of track.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Yeah, spoilers fix that.

[Billy]

I mean, I guess theoretically, I've been dead the entire time.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

And to be fair, you said yes.

[Billy]

I knew what this was.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

I knew what it was.

[Billy]

I'm gonna be the first survivor of ten Candles. That is.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

I think that's true. I think just to remind you, you can't win 10 candles.

[Eliza]

This is also hard for me.

[Boone]

All of us in a different way. I'm showing up for the sadness game. You showing up for can't win. You're showing up for gotta die. What will this break for you?

[Ethan]

Immortality.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Just to feel mortal again.

[Ethan]

It's been so long.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

I think the first thing we need to do is spread some virtues across the world. Can everyone take one of your cards and let's pass it to the right so your right player our pick.

[Eliza]

What's a card?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Oh, I'm sorry. So this is probably important. We're gonna take a photo which will represent your note cards rather than proper note cards. And we're gonna take one of your photos and we're gonna pass it to the right.

[Eliza]

Should it be my favorite?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

It can be whichever one you'd like to have your virtue written upon.

[Billy]

You know what? I'm going blind. I don't. It's gonna be what it is.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Should be that one.

[Billy]

We'll let fate decide.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Yes. Going to the right.

[Billy]

Do I look at the picture or no?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Yes, you can look at the picture. Thank you. Thank you for asking.

[Ethan]

And some examples of great virtues.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Virtues are usually one word descriptions. They can be th things such as perseverance, nobility, tenacity.

[Eliza]

I already spelled it wrong. Literacy.

[Billy]

We all speak Becca.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Yeah, they're just things that you would wish upon someone.

[Billy]

You should play a teacher of some sort. Honestly, I think that'd be very on brand.

[Ethan]

Funnily enough.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Then let's Pass it back to the left to your owner. Okay.

[Ethan]

And look at it. Or not.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Yes. In fact, Jason, Carl, why don't you start us off by reading yours first?

[Ethan]

Ah, this is clever. Inventive.

[Eliza]

Might be handy.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

You're very inventive.

[Ethan]

Inventive.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Excellent.

[Boone]

And Amy, I have determination.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Determination. Or.

[Boone]

Yeah, I'm determined.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

You're determined. There it is. Yes, that's where it is.

[Eliza]

Determination. Did.

[Boone]

Determined.

[Billy]

The most. Determined. Loyalty.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Loyalty. So determined. Loyal.

[Ethan]

Inventive.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Inventive. And Becca, what did you get?

[Eliza]

Jog.

[Billy]

Joy.

[Eliza]

Joy.

[Billy]

I don't have the best handwriting. It is true.

[Ethan]

I thought it said jog, too.

[Billy]

That is clearly a lie.

[Eliza]

S was my first.

[Billy]

Is jog a virtue?

[Eliza]

Apparently.

[Billy]

Maybe it is now.

[Ethan]

You're fast.

[Billy]

I take it all back. You're really fast.

[Ethan]

Aw.

[Eliza]

Well, yeah, that feels right.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

So you have some joy.

[Ethan]

Joyful. Okay.

[Eliza]

And fitting for this photo. Do you want to show the photo?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

It's your photo.

[Eliza]

I don't know.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

You consented.

[Eliza]

Well, my butt looks really good.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

As something a very joyful person would.

[Billy]

Say, my butt looks amazing.

[Ethan]

It's important to be a part.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Let's grab another one of your cards. And now this one is going to go to the person to your left.

[Billy]

I don't even know what it is.

[Eliza]

I imagine it's the opposite of a virtue. So I will give the appropriate photo.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

These are the vices. I'd like you to write something that you would not wish upon someone, but that is more importantly. It is something that creates more problems than it actually solves. Here's my cup.

[Billy]

Does it have to be a single word? I mean, I know it's short, but can you hyphenate?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

I would appreciate a descriptive word, yes. So it can be something such as, you know, you know, vicious, or, you know, spiteful or.

[Billy]

Pretty sure. It's my turn. That I. I think I spelled that wrong this time.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

It's all right.

[Billy]

I do words. Good.

[Eliza]

I did what the photo told me to do.

[Ethan]

They do speak to us. Maybe this is from the past.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Pictures are worth a thousand words. Or in this case, one word. So look at me like that.

[Eliza]

This isn't what we think about each other, right?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Well, you're looking at the photos, but no, this is about who we would like to give to your character, so. Or the character. B. Dave, why don't you start us off? What did you get?

[Billy]

I don't even know what it is. Violent.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Violence of violence. Violent. Loyal and violent.

[Billy]

I mean it. Me.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Ethan]

I'm buying it.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

How about you Amy, what did you get?

[Boone]

I am aggressive.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Violent and aggressive.

[Eliza]

Uh oh, dangerous combination.

[Billy]

Determined and aggressive is how we made it this far.

[Ethan]

I can see how this is gonna go already.

[Billy]

Poorly.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

How about you, Jason, what did you get?

[Ethan]

Selfish.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Ooh, selfish.

[Ethan]

Oh, and how.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

All right.

[Eliza]

And Becca, not only am I jog full, I am also manipulative.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Joyful and manipulative. All right, some good combinations of virtues and vices here. Let me tell you a little bit about the situation that you're in. Now. We did discuss it a little bit beforehand, which is why I'm going to sum it all up in this statement here. We've decided that you are situated underground somewhere in the. Where was it? It was the Carlsbad.

[Ethan]

Carlsbad in the southwest. Right, In New Mexico. The Carlsbad cavern area.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Carlsbad cavern area. So you're basically situated yourself into some natural underground caverns in the Carlsbad area.

[Ethan]

Seemed like a good idea at the time.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Now, at some point you felt, and there have been earthquakes, frequent, you know, small aftershocks and things that have happened. But there was recently what felt like a large shockwave that came across the entire Earth in a sub atmosphere kind of attitude, rather than a two Teutonic plates cracking against each other kind of an attitude. Shortly after that, you felt the big one come across. Now, for many who may not be aware, there in Yellowstone is a super volcano that has been lying dormant for. For centuries.

[Billy]

For like 40,000 years.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Millennia. Yeah, at this stage. And it is all it needed. It had somehow managed to survive not erupting at this point. But now you have generated several hundred atomic bombs worth of energy which have split everything above the ground and have now generated a sulfur cloud that is so thick and so dense that the only reason you know about it is because there were people who were outside when it came down, and the people who are still above ground are not with you. Now, you are the last four situated inside of your cavern at the moment. You've managed to live in this pocket of air that is below the settling, but you have absolutely seen the remnants of what you can. When the sulfur dust has settled, you can very visibly see it making its tiny ashen piles outside. And as a result, the world is dark, shrouded in a cloud of sulfuric gas. And a lot of the entrances that you were usually used to using to get to the surface have all been drastically disrupted, broken apart, and now you don't know where the hell you are in this place. So with that, let's talk about what Moments you would like to generate inside of this scenario. And a moment is simply something that can be achievable, but also has a chance of failure. Something you hope to happen while the story is being told. So we're gonna take another card that has our faces on it, and we will write that on the back of that one. All right, I hear no more scratching, so it sounds like we're all done. In describing these moments, I would also, if you would, do me the kindness. First of all, thank you all for playing, by the way.

[Eliza]

Uh.

[Billy]

Oh, I appreciate that I've evaded you several times, so.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

But I would love to meet whoever you will be playing today while also revealing your moments as well, too. So, Amy, why don't we begin with you?

[Eliza]

All right.

[Boone]

I'm Billy Morris. My DJ name is. Was gonna be either Zinnia or Violet, but I hadn't. I guess all that's pretty far in the past at this point. But there's a lot of stuff I never quite got to do. I used to work a lot of odd jobs and, like, donate plasma and stuff, so I could never. I know it sounds really stupid, but I could never get piercings or have tattoos because I was, you know, volunteering for medical experiments a lot for spare cash. And so, I mean, we're all screwed anyway, right? Um, I wanna get a tattoo.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Okay. Awesome. Professional lab rat, hopeful dj.

[Boone]

Yeah.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Now wanting to just get that last bit of counterculture culture on your skin. Yeah, why not? And how about you, B? Dave? Who you playing today?

[Billy]

My name is Boone.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Boone.

[Billy]

Just Boone. I am a survivalist. I've been preparing for some time for these events, and now I've made my way across a dark and desolate earth to find my way here amongst these people.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

And, Boone, what moment do you hope to generate in this story? Today?

[Billy]

I would like to witness repentance in the midst of the judgment that is being handed down on saint and sinner alike.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Great. You would like to see someone repent?

[Billy]

I would.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Becca.

[Eliza]

I'm Eliza Winter.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Eliza Winter.

[Eliza]

I used to teach Pre K. I really loved it. I also just love music and concerts. It's kind of my thing. I'm just a music fan. I'm not a musician or anything. I just love. Sometimes I travel. I would. Used to, anyway. I just love that feeling when you're in just a throng of people and you're all feeling the same thing and experiencing something together that's touching a deep part of your soul. I mean, not like in the mall, but in a crowd where everyone is one for a moment.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

You want to be part. I see where this is going. This is that moment where you're all experiencing something together and you're all on the same wavelength.

[Eliza]

Yeah, but just with a big group of people. I don't even think that's possible anymore. But I want to be surrounded by a crowd of people one last time.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

You want to be in a crowd? Okay, Mr. Carl.

[Ethan]

My name is Ethan. Ethan Daley. And for most of my adult life, I was a journalist, an investigative reporter most recently. So I told myself that I dedicated my life to the search for truth. And I spent a lot of time in difficult and sometimes dangerous situations, looking for what I thought would be the truth, hoping that people would read about it and it would matter. And what I found in my search for truth is that it's a lot harder to find than anybody thinks, because everybody lies. They lie reflexively. They lie when they don't have to lie, just because the compulsion is so strong to conceal that inner honesty. So what I want is I want to see someone be really honest. I want to see a moment of genuine honesty.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

You want to see some real before.

[Ethan]

This whole thing rips apart.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Got it. All right, well, Ethan, Eliza, Billy, and Boone, the E crowd, and we have the B crowd. This is the final thing we have to touch upon before we dive into our story is the Brinks. The Brinks are. It's okay. You can put that there. That's fine. I'm gonna put that right back there. It's okay. The Brinks are a dark moment. It is something that you have witnessed in someone else that has been the lowest point of which they can achieve. And the book is very clear on a couple of examples on this. There are such things as I saw you kneel down and pray to them. No one thought they were looking, but I saw you. Or it can be something as simple as I watched you kill a local in the area. And it can be something also as esoteric and simple as I've seen you muttering words that were not human. And these are all things that you will take one of your pictures now, and we are going to hand it to the left. So you're going to pass it to your person on your right. Yes. Now, Brinks go left. We're going to pass it to the left. Now, the good news is, for these Brinks, I get to participate.

[Ethan]

Oh, dear.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

This whole process.

[Ethan]

Oh, good.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

So let me hand yours over Boone. I will take yours, and I'm going to write something of which they have seen you. The proverbial them has witnessed something upon you, which I will write to you. At the same time, Ms. Eliza, you will write a truth about them, a brink of which you have gone into. This is an opportunity to expand upon what has already been built in this. And when I say them, I do mean everything from the proverbial creatures. We're talking about the theme that has come up. But this can also result in the moon, the super volcano, these monoliths, these 100 story spires that have pursed out from the ground. They are all on the table for you in which to write as something that you have seen them do or react or say, what has Eliza witnessed in that regard?

[Ethan]

Is it written as I saw you or I saw them?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Well, in your circumstance it can literally be, I have seen you, and in your circumstances, I have seen them. And in mine it is they have seen you.

[Eliza]

So mine's flip. Can you explain what I do? That's different.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

You're going to write something that Eliza has seen them commit.

[Eliza]

The creatures.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

The creatures. The moon, the monoliths, the earth. Whatever you feel like is going to add to the story that you well find interesting.

[Billy]

So they witness me stocking lots of food and ammunition in this very cave.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

That was the easiest one so far.

[Ethan]

I don't think that's necessarily a good thing.

[Billy]

I do not. I do not.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

All right.

[Billy]

I don't mean to be too meta, but is something like that acceptable?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

If you can read my writing, it's totally fine.

[Billy]

Oh, okay.

[Ethan]

More jogging.

[Billy]

Inevitably, it is a virtue. Good cardio.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Great. Let's pass it back.

[Billy]

Let me know if you have trouble reading that. I'll translate it. Well, do we read these?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

You read them. No one else should see them. They are for you. And to be fair, when they wrote them for you, your character has observed this person do this thing.

[Billy]

Yeah, I bet that was easy for you.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Thank you. Excellent. All right. We have our brinks, and we have our moments, and we have our virtues and our vices. The last thing to do is to now create a stack in which your virtues, your vices and your moments can be in any order you wish. But just know that whatever is on top is what you are able to activate first in the game. Your virtues and your vices will allow you to reroll any ones that may come as a result of the dice. Your moment can only occur should your moment be on top, and your brinks, should you get to them, can be used to do an entire reroll of all of the dice. However, should it fail, it will remove any hope dice that you may have earned and it will snuff the candle immediately. However, if you succeed, you may use your brink time and time again.

[Ethan]

Notice that we have one left.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

That is for your name. That is for your concept. That is your character. Cheat sheet, if you wish.

[Billy]

So I shuffled them and let fate decide.

[Boone]

So you said any order, right?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Any order you wish. Virtue's vice and moments.

[Billy]

That was a name concept. And what else? Sorry.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Whatever you need to help you. Remind you who you are and what you are.

[Eliza]

It.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

All right. Where to begin? To begin.

[Billy]

Yes, I apologize. What was written about us, does that also go in the stack or is that just.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

The brink always goes on the bottom. Ah, okay. The brink always must be on the bottom. Okay. It just so happens it was. It is the last desperate attempt.

[Billy]

No, I mean the thing that was written about us, does that go in the stack or is that just something we know?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

This is the brink of which I wrote for you. Oh, that's that.

[Billy]

Okay.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

That's the brink. That goes on the bottom. All right.

[Billy]

Sorry.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Yes. It's all right. So you are all currently laid up inside of a small cave system in the southwestern part of the country. You recently heard several people come back after a large explosion had gone off shortly after a smaller tremor had awoken. I would say it's been a few short hours since the super volcano erupted at this point. And you're actually still nursing one of the men who came back from this explosion at some point. His throat was raw and red from inhaling the sulfuric gas. And slowly these small welts started coming out. And only a few short minutes ago did he asphyxiate and finally succumb to his grievous wounds in this cave structure.

[Boone]

And.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Well, that's all you know for now. What do you want to do?

[Billy]

Can't leave that corpse around here. Need to get rid of it.

[Boone]

Like what? Where?

[Billy]

I mean, look at them. Mocks. We don't know what's wrong with him and he's gonna fester and rot. I don't wanna be smelling that stink in the last pocket of good air and God knows how far.

[Eliza]

We should bury him somewhere. We should give him a proper burial. Somebody loved him.

[Billy]

Stone, darling. Can't dig too deep right here.

[Ethan]

Can we kinda, you know, can we.

[Eliza]

Use the fallen rocks to bury him?

[Ethan]

Oh, man, I said this about a million times already, but this sucks. This really sucks. Can we maybe take him as far as we can go and leave him? I don't know.

[Billy]

Yeah.

[Ethan]

I don't even know how far out of the cave mouth we can get now.

[Billy]

Probably not very, but yeah, let's drag him aways and then miss, we'll make a pile of can to remember him by.

[Eliza]

Okay.

[Boone]

Her name's Eliza.

[Billy]

Ms. Eliza.

[Eliza]

That's what the kids called me.

[Billy]

Will you assist me, sir?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Yeah.

[Ethan]

Let's go.

[Billy]

I do rummage through his pockets for anything of value first. He don't need it no more.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Well, you did know him at one point, and like many of you, it was a bit of a lone heart and I would probably say even one of the last of the festival goers that you were with originally. So he had some cut off cargo shorts and a sleeveless shirt that was good for desert desert fun.

[Eliza]

You think he held me up when I crowd surfed?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Probably. But more importantly, he's dead now. So why don't you rummage through his pockets for me and see if you can find anything of value for all of these. All of them? Yes. All you need is a six. But any ones will become mine. Okay. Wow. No sixes.

[Billy]

And a one.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

And one. One. There is an option to reroll this if you'd like to use your virtues and vices. Otherwise this scene is going to end immediately and we will go to nine candles.

[Eliza]

Reroll.

[Billy]

What are the possible negative repercussions of re rolling? Either we lose a candle now, but if I roll and it goes poorly. What?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

You will still lose a candle. The difference is that if this becomes a six, the scene will still continue and you will not go down to nine dice. You will still continue with ten dice moving forward. Otherwise we end the scene. We will speak nine truths and this story will continue. First roll. I'm amazed. It's going well. So your one is on top. You said violent is the one that's on top, right?

[Billy]

Yes.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

So you would need to tell me how your violent nature applies to this situation. So are you being a little unceremonial with this body at this point?

[Billy]

I mean, he can't feel it no more. So. Yeah, I don't care. Get him by the arm and just yank on the shirt. Get it off of him, man. Like I don't know what he's got hidden in here. I mean, hey, his problems are over, all right?

[Eliza]

Is this what you're gonna do to all of us?

[Boone]

Yeah. Cool it.

[Ethan]

A little respect.

[Billy]

I would expect you to do the same for me.

[Ethan]

Well, you'd be wrong.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

One.

[Ethan]

No more helping Boone.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

So you rummage through him and you find nothing of value. In fact, if anything, you have just defiled this corpse even more since he has recently died. His. Well, let's just say that when people die, they tend to lose all bodily functions and they tend to evacuate their bowels. And that is currently what you are shifting around right now as you're trying to maneuver and manipulate him out of his personal effects.

[Boone]

Jesus.

[Billy]

Damn it.

[Eliza]

This is disgusting.

[Billy]

Jeez.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Nine candles, nine dice, nine truths. So, Boone, just so you know, how this works is you get to speak a truth about the world, about the story. Right now, we don't have a whole lot to go off of at this point, but this is an opportunity for you to decide something that is in this world that is true. The first and always rule is that it is dark. The world is dark. But since you fail this conflict rule, you get the first truth.

[Billy]

Does it have to be objectively true or just something that I myself believe?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

This is both. You can use this to skip ahead in time if you wish to resolve. You can use this to create conflict. You can use this to tell the best story that you think is possible in this circumstance with a single truth.

[Billy]

This old boy didn't go out alone. There's three or four of them that made it. He even got back here. It's because he ran to save his own hide.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

So you're saying. And if I hear the truth correctly, your truth is he died a coward. He died a coward. So that is your truth. This man died a coward. He brought something back with him, Eliza.

[Eliza]

The world is dark. He brought back a piece of one of them.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Okay?

[Eliza]

It's still wriggling in his pocket.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

You brought back a piece of them is what you were truth.

[Eliza]

He did.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

He did. Yes. Great, Ethan. Right? 1, 2, 3, 4.

[Ethan]

The world is dark. This man died a coward. He brought back a piece of them. The piece of them is making noise.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

It's making itself apparent. Right, Billy?

[Boone]

The world is dark. This man died a coward. He brought back a piece of them. It's making itself apparent. And one of the people he left behind is still out there in the caves.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Is in the caves, right, Boone? Seven.

[Billy]

The world is dark. This man died a coward. He brought something back, a piece of them that is making noise. Yet he left someone behind. They followed them back to these caves.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

They did.

[Billy]

They did.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Right? I've never done this before. I like this cascading. The world is dark. This man died a coward. He brought a piece of them back with them. It's making noise. He left people behind. And he has brought Them with them. There is a complex cave system underneath you, leading into the mountains. Eight, Eliza.

[Eliza]

The world is dark. This man died a coward. He brought something back with him. It was a piece of them. That piece is now making noise. And there was someone else that he left behind.

[Billy]

And they have followed them back here.

[Eliza]

Oh, they followed them back here into this complex series of caves that lead to a mountain.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

What is number eight? What is the truth?

[Eliza]

They know we're here and they're taunting us.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

They haven't come in. They're just taunting you, Is that what you're saying?

[Eliza]

Mm.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Great. They're taunting you. Which leaves you with the final one, Ethan.

[Ethan]

The world is dark and this poor man died a coward. He brought back a piece of them, and that piece is making noise, making itself apparent. But he left someone out there behind. And that someone has brought them back with them to this place, which is on top of a complex cave system. They have not entered, but are taunting us.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Right.

[Ethan]

The cave system leads to a lake.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Great. Cave system leads to a lake. Nine candles. Nine truths have been spoken. We pick this scene up. Sounds like pretty much right where we left off, with Boone violently shaking this man who has excavated his bowels at this point. But in the shaking, you actually hear a wet slap. Something falls onto the ground and you see a small, almost banana sized piece, just like a. Like a giant slug, almost, that just kind of falls onto the ground. And you drop him and you drop the man as soon as you lay into it. And you kind of watch as this thing, rather than move slow like a slug, just get up and it starts skittering right onto the body and starts climbing right up into it and lodges itself right into this man's mouth. The fuck.

[Boone]

Mash it with a rock.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Smash it with a rock. Smash it with a rock.

[Billy]

That is very successful.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

I'll take that one. 1. There's no way I can assume narrative control over at this point, so. Billy, take it away.

[Eliza]

That's a lot of sixes.

[Billy]

That is. That is five sixes.

[Boone]

I. With the. Look, what is wrong with you? I scoop up one of the rocks in the corner and it was starting to go in his mouth, right?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

It basically had pried its mouth open with these tiny tendrils that had lifted itself up and it took each one of his gums and started prying his mouth apart and was slipping down into his mouth.

[Boone]

I want to get it like a horrifying golf swing. Try to flop sideways across. Splat it against the cave wall if I can.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

So you whack it. And you kind of hit it slightly sidelong, not smashing this man's face in, but instead just trying to dislodge the creature out of it. And you do. Your putting distance is perfect as you whack it across the side. And you watch as this thing kind of slides out of his mouth. But you see, it takes a huge part of his lip with him as it comes out and rolls onto the cave floor. Wrong. And it's now kind of on its back in kind of like a roly poly. A centipede. It's attempting to curl itself back up.

[Ethan]

Stomp on it, crush it.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Yeah. So, Ethan, you just walk over and just stomp on it. This is true. You stomp on it. Repeated. And you hear it squeals. It's loud for something so small. It just. And you watch as black ichor just.

[Ethan]

Oh, God, die already.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

And it lays still. And actually, you watch it curl up, like when a spider lifts its legs after it's dead, and. And it just sits there and walks over onto its side.

[Boone]

You okay, Elisa?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

What the hell is it, Eliza?

[Eliza]

What is. Okay.

[Billy]

I know a thing or two about the natural world. Does this bear any resemblance to anything I've ever seen?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

No.

[Eliza]

Do you hear that?

[Ethan]

What?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

What you hear. And as you're not terribly close to the cave entrance, but you can definitely hear singing.

[Ethan]

Singing?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

The sound.

[Ethan]

Like it's like music. Like the radio? Like an instrument or.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

No, I mean more like the crying howl of thousands of voices that are erupting into a shrieking chorus.

[Ethan]

Oh, good.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Singing. It sounds like many voices together.

[Billy]

King's echo making a joyful noise unto the Lord.

[Boone]

I don't think that's what they're doing, Boone.

[Eliza]

What are you talking about? There's nothing joyful in this world anymore.

[Billy]

I think it's joyful. This is retribution. Judgment that we brought upon ourselves. And we are here to witness.

[Eliza]

Okay.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Excuse me.

[Boone]

Okay. What's wrong with you?

[Eliza]

Everyone I ever have known is dead. Everyone I've loved, everyone I've taught, everyone. They're all dead.

[Billy]

They were all gonna die eventually anyway. Just. The timeline has been shortened.

[Eliza]

Not like this. Not without living a life.

[Ethan]

Doesn't really matter why. It's not helpful.

[Billy]

Well, perhaps we can agree that maybe we shouldn't stay here before the chorus line arrives.

[Boone]

You wanna tear some more bodies up before we go?

[Billy]

You got any other laying around?

[Ethan]

Awesome. Let's see where this cave goes.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Would you like to go into the cave system? Deeper. So the challenge, but also the boon. Sorry. Of going deeper. Is that the air is clear, it is cleaner, it is not so abrasive as it is this close to the surface, but it is dark. It is, oh, so very dark. And your time up on the surface briefly was actually basked in beautiful, illuminating light. It's hard to call it beautiful when literally the moon takes up the entire horizon, which is what you last saw before the super volcano erupted. But it is dark and the. Well, do you have any kind of lighting instrumentation at this point, or are we stumbling through the cave system black as night?

[Eliza]

I have some glow sticks in my.

[Ethan]

Backpack from the concert from the festival.

[Billy]

I would have had a light in my bug out bag. If I've still got my bug out.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Bag, I'm gonna go with the festival. Glow sticks. That seems so much more poetic.

[Eliza]

I've got the headbands, I've got the wristbands, and then just the sticks.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

So there's a single single head beam which one person can wear. And then you have several chemical fluorescent sticks that can be broken that are one time use. So who is gonna go in front with the head beam?

[Eliza]

Oh, it's an actual head torch.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Yep, we're gonna do a head torch.

[Boone]

I got it.

[Eliza]

Just because I didn't know. Sometimes you have to find the bathroom here. Okay. I've only got four glow sticks.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

That's fine.

[Eliza]

Maybe we should ration them.

[Ethan]

Maybe, per se, one at a time.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Maybe you had a lot more. But it has also been a very long, fraught three weeks filled with death defying adventures.

[Eliza]

Absolutely. Whoever wants to take up the rear should probably take one.

[Ethan]

I'll do it.

[Eliza]

Okay.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Here. So Billy's going in front. Ethan takes the rear.

[Ethan]

Take a glow stick and break it.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

And put it together. What color is it?

[Ethan]

It's about as bright as a half dead firefly. So blue. Blue seems like a color that Eliza might have had.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Right. So you have very cheerful. Right. It has this blueberry neon blue. So it carries you in the back. And almost with the illumination it's providing, it actually almost has this rippling water effect as it hits upon the wet walls of this cave, which is becoming more truncated as you go deeper and deeper into the cave system.

[Boone]

Is it wrong that I think this would be a great spot for a rave?

[Eliza]

Absolutely it would be. We could have a rave.

[Billy]

I think they're already having one back out there.

[Ethan]

Can we still hear that keening that the wailing freakish noise?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

The chorus is dwindling as you get deeper into the cave systems, but it also is starting to just have that odd echo, as if it just is sitting, just ever so slightly in the back of your brain, not quite in that presence of your sense, is picking it up, but it just seems to be there. It's hard to forget.

[Billy]

Does this seem like an equivalent number of voices of our former companions? Or more people?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

I don't know, Boone. What do you think?

[Billy]

I think it's more people.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Okay, then. If it sounds more than what you remember, and to be fair, the festival that you both saw as part of this, that was weeks ago. It's been almost, well, subjectively, about three weeks. You don't actually know how much time has passed because the days and night cycles are so fraught and irregular now. But subjectively, it has been definitely more than a couple of weeks. For sure. Almost a lifetime ago at this point.

[Billy]

Many lifetimes.

[Eliza]

Almost don't remember how it used to be.

[Boone]

It's okay.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

The little food that you have left is what you carry with you as you go into the cave system. And it's mercifully open for a while.

[Eliza]

Can I tell you guys a secret?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Sure.

[Ethan]

What do you want to tell us?

[Eliza]

I'm so hungry that when.

[Ethan]

Not much of a secret. I can hear your stomach growling.

[Eliza]

That's not the secret part.

[Ethan]

Oh, okay.

[Eliza]

I don't want to tell it.

[Billy]

You thought about eating that bug?

[Eliza]

Just for a second.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Not the bug.

[Billy]

Oh, not the bug.

[Eliza]

Anyway, never mind.

[Billy]

Yeah, we might. I don't know, maybe we find something.

[Eliza]

I wouldn't. I would never. I'd sooner die.

[Ethan]

It might come to that. It's crossed my mind it might come to that.

[Eliza]

I wouldn't.

[Billy]

We'll find some bats down here, Cook them up over a campfire.

[Eliza]

Oh, my God, a bat. Meat. Sounds delicious.

[Ethan]

Kind of leathery, crunchy, but, yeah, I'd eat it.

[Eliza]

Yeah, beef jerky. I was vegetarian, but I'd kill for beef jerky.

[Ethan]

Oh, stop talking about food, please.

[Eliza]

Okay.

[Billy]

Nicole, let me. No, by all means, let me ask y' all as we make our way through here. You know where y' all from?

[Eliza]

Phoenix.

[Boone]

Didn't make it far.

[Ethan]

Back east.

[Billy]

Ain't now.

[Ethan]

Don't. Well, how do you know we don't know what's out there? I don't. I mean, for all we know, if we could get out of here and just keep on walking in one direction, we might find anything. Civilization.

[Boone]

Or we could choke to death.

[Ethan]

Or we could choke to death. Yeah, but we don't know is the point. I mean, we don't know where this cave comes out. It might be the other side of the world.

[Billy]

That's true. It's gotta be better than there.

[Eliza]

Wait, you're from the east coast, but what were you doing in New Mexico?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Hmm?

[Ethan]

I was writing a investigative piece on doomsday preppers. People who are preparing for the end.

[Billy]

And rightly so.

[Ethan]

You know, the fact that you're right doesn't make it any better, so enjoy that.

[Billy]

It's the only joy I got.

[Boone]

You were working on this?

[Ethan]

No, not. Not. Not what happened. I mean, I was doing a piece on people who were preparing for, you know, the apocalypse.

[Billy]

People like me.

[Eliza]

The irony. I assume it was a very sarcastic article you were writing.

[Ethan]

Might have won me another prize. And yeah, you're right. The tone I had chosen was a little bit contemptuous. What now, what you kind of hear.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Is a small flutter of bats just finds its way through a duck, all right? And then they kind of come out.

[Eliza]

Duck behind Boone, they go lay eggs in your hair.

[Ethan]

Meals on wings.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

And you kind of. Kind of watch them as they kind of flutter by, and they go out towards the entrance in which you came in at.

[Boone]

But can you really cook those?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

You want to grab one? Now's the time. Because they're coming out.

[Billy]

Give it a shot. You sling a main stone. I mean, they's got meat on them. That means these can be.

[Ethan]

We didn't see any bats there. They had to come from somewhere.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

If you want to go for it, I mean. Billy. By all means, do it.

[Eliza]

Billy. You can do it.

[Boone]

In the mood to hit something anyway.

[Billy]

I believe in you.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Okay. Two ones. No sixes. Wow.

[Billy]

Do you want to reroll?

[Eliza]

I don't think it's worth it.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Sponge in the reroll. Three, two, even.

[Billy]

One.

[Eliza]

Reroll.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

One. No. Okay. Wow. Okay. Belize. You take this rock and you chuck it where you hear the sound where you can be. You kind of hear it against the walls. And you kind of hear as it splits. And you hear as the bass continue to squeak as they make their way down the cave. But you don't hear the telltale sound of anything falling to the ground. And after this moment, of which you hear it clatter, you start to feel the ground begin to shake.

[Ethan]

Another tremor. Hold on.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

After shock. And thus our scene ends. Eight candles.

[Boone]

Should have made an athlete.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Would have been the same. Die pool anyway. That's true.

[Billy]

You burned up all your luck on that first one. Saved us from a zombie thing. So probably, maybe.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Eight candles. Eight truths. Billy, you speak the first truth. Please. First, the world is dark, and I don't know if we need to do the round robins.

[Billy]

Yeah, it takes a while.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

It was fun. It was a fun experiment. But.

[Boone]

The world is dark. And the headlamp definitely flew off while I was trying to catch that bat.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

No. Excellent. All right, Boone.

[Billy]

The world is dark, and there is not enough oxygen in these caves for fall people.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Right. Not long term. At least the lake that this cave system connects to is underneath you. And the tremor will expose it.

[Eliza]

The world is dark, and I push Ethan to get out of the way as the ground starts to open up.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

All right. You shove Ethan out of the way. That is the truth.

[Eliza]

To use his body to propel myself further from the opening.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

That's happening, Ethan.

[Ethan]

So I'm shoved. I stumble, I fall. And my hand strikes something soft and yielding. Body. Someone has been here before us.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Great. Five, six.

[Boone]

Can I. Can the lake have a faint bioluminescent glow or is it violent enough to put light back in the world?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

It is not a huge amount of light. Yeah, it is enough to give it toxicity. Who knows?

[Ethan]

Maybe glowing bad. We don't know.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Give it. Bioluminescence is perfectly fine.

[Eliza]

Oh, maybe there's a little plankton.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Yeah. So that is. That would put us back at six, which means that, Boon, you have number seven.

[Billy]

The world is dark and this body is wearing military fatigues.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Ah, great. Um, I'll take that.

[Mozart]

I do everything to keep my cats happy and healthy, and Pretty Litter has been the best of both worlds. Not only is it the best litter, but it's also a game changer when it comes to helping monitor my cat's health. The color changing litter helps detect abnormalities in my cat's urine by testing acidity and alkalinity levels and showing visible presence of BL blood. Meaning every time I clean my cat's litter, I get an added peace of mind as well as a fresh smell. Not only that, but Pretty Litter ships free right to my door. That's right. No more lugging heavy litter up from the store. It's non toxic, pet safe and household friendly. Plus, it's slow dust, controls odors and lasts for up to one month. My cats have never been happier. And neither have I. Right now. Save 20% on your first order and get a free cat toy at prettylitter.com criticalrole that's prettylitter.com criticalrole to save 20% on your first order and get a free cat toy. Prettylitter.com criticalrole Pretty litter cannot detect every feline health issue or prevent or diagnose diseases. A diagnosis can only come from a licensed veterinarian. Terms and conditions apply. Seaside for details.

[Shopify Narrator]

You chose to hit play on this podcast today. Smart choice. Progressive loves to help people make smart choices. That's why they offer a tool called Auto Quote Explorer that allows you to compare your Progressive car insurance quote with rates from other companies. So you save time on the research and can enjoy savings when you choose the best rate for you. Give it a try after this [e-mail] Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates not available in all states or situations. Prices vary based on how you buy.

[Billy]

Now you have to.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

There's a research lab at the edge of the lake. Eight Candles, eight truths. We move this scene forward immediately. Lisa, you just shove Ethan out of the way. Hey, the lamp. And the lamp kind of clatters and you actually watch it bounce as the light comes down as a crack. Just.

[Billy]

Just clutch on the ground, damn it.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Watch as the earth splits across and you hear as it tumbles down. And you watch for a brief moment as you hear a splash. Just as you look down and see the spiraling light of the headlamp just cascade and swirl down on. Now this broken causeway that is about the size of a panhole.

[Eliza]

Sorry, I think we should go get it. We? Or maybe the person that was wearing it.

[Billy]

Makes as much sense as anything else. I don't know if I can even fit through there.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

As you fall down and you feel this unyielding cushioning thing on top of you and you kind of see in the low amount of blue light that you hold onto it, you can see camo fatigues onto it. And you feel a hand lift itself up and it grabs your shoulder as it pulls, you alter it and you can see this cold white eyes as something is gurgling inside of it. And you can feel him grasping his hands around your throat. You hear Ethan cry out and begin.

[Billy]

To do I still have my knife at this point?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

You mean you had a few things with you I would allow a knife as something that can fit in your pockets.

[Billy]

So, yes, I assume I'm long since out of bullets, but I feel like I would have. This is from my cold, dead hands here, right?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Yeah.

[Billy]

I don't want to desecrate no soldier, but I gotta stab this old boy to save him.

[Boone]

Stab him, stab him, stab him.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Worm.

[Eliza]

Oh, yeah.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Ooh, wow.

[Eliza]

Oh, it hit. It wasn't its original rule.

[Billy]

That's true. It was not its original state, but that's fine.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

It wasn't. But I will take it anyway.

[Billy]

Fate is fate. If it had turned to a Six. I'd have kept it. So that's fate. Is fate. Three sixes.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Yes. And I think at this point, it's the first roll of the scene, so I cannot take narration rights even if I wanted to. Please, Boone, tell me what happens as.

[Billy]

This thing reaches up and grabs my associate. I plunge my knife into his chest, just under the rib. And I feel it. Hidden organ I am not familiar with.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Well, actually, more importantly, what you feel is you put it in there. That organ that you are not familiar with is wiggling inside of its body.

[Billy]

Give it a satisfying twist, and you.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Hear a loud screech kind of emanating from inside of his chest cavity. And you hear it. It's like sound again as you kind of feel this thing wiggle inside of it. It's almost like something's trying to get away from your blade. And as you pull it out, you see the black red of oxidized blood and then a small amount of black ichor as you pull it out. And this man, whoever it had holding onto you, slackens his grip as he pulls it down.

[Eliza]

Are you okay?

[Billy]

Thank you.

[Boone]

I'm so sorry.

[Eliza]

When it opened, I just. I got sick.

[Ethan]

It's all right. It's okay. It's okay. It's okay.

[Boone]

Who was that?

[Eliza]

How did it do that?

[Billy]

I mean, it tried to climb down the other old boy's throat. I guess that's what happens. It's insane.

[Boone]

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm so glad you have that terrifying knife.

[Billy]

Terrifying time sucks.

[Eliza]

Yeah.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Where?

[Eliza]

I'm happy you're here, Boone. As crazy as that is.

[Billy]

I cleaned the knife on the gun guy.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Where the.

[Ethan]

Where the light go? We got this blue thing.

[Boone]

Yeah, I dropped it down the thing.

[Ethan]

Oh, I'm gonna shine the light down there.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

You can actually still see a tiny glisten of the light, but it seems to have dropped all the way down, but. Oh, boy. Is the water clear Water.

[Eliza]

I'm so thirsty. We could maybe refill our canteens.

[Billy]

Oh, I think I'm out of purification tablets, ma' am. I don't know if that's wise.

[Eliza]

How far we're gonna die if we don't get water. Is there a way to. Are there like, rocks Path, maybe?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

So, like I mentioned, it's a manhole. It's kind of there, so there seems to be a small air pocket that's right above it, but you. Basically, it cracked open a hole enough to. Where you could kind of slip in to it if you wanted to, but.

[Eliza]

It'S kind of that far in between us and the water.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

I would say. Oh. From you in the water. Oh, mere feet. Yeah. You could. You could very easily like dip your body down and get water.

[Ethan]

So is the light in the water.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Lights in the water about 10ft down.

[Boone]

Eliza kind of shamed me about it. So I'm gonna start trying to wriggle towards that hole.

[Ethan]

Wait a second, wait a second.

[Boone]

What are you doing? I dropped it in the water. It's right there.

[Ethan]

Well, hang on. Let's make sure we can get you back out.

[Billy]

Yeah.

[Eliza]

Anyone have rope?

[Ethan]

I'm going to take. We don't have any rope, but I'll take my shirt off and somebody give me a shirt and we'll.

[Billy]

I take. I start taking the soldiers fatigues and start knotting that together.

[Ethan]

Together. I saw this.

[Eliza]

Oh my gosh.

[Boone]

I practiced this.

[Eliza]

I. This is what I taught my kids in arts and crafts.

[Billy]

You taught improvised rope making and hellish situations.

[Eliza]

We were sewing. I used to sew all my own clothes. It's a Montessori.

[Boone]

She's got a lot of skills.

[Billy]

A word of warning, ma' am. I don't know how familiar you are with water, but past 10ft it all looks the same. That could be 10ft or 50.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Oh, yeah.

[Ethan]

If you can't grab it at the.

[Eliza]

End of the swim, it's okay, right?

[Ethan]

If you can't grab it at the end of the line, don't.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Yeah.

[Billy]

There's no way down to get it back.

[Boone]

All right.

[Ethan]

Is there anything like nothing else is moving in the water, Right? We don't see anything.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

In the time that you've taken to have this conversation while looking at it, there is a small. Seems to be a glow coming down from there.

[Ethan]

I'll hide the glow stick.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

It's still glowing. There's a tiny little almost. If I may be so bold, have you ever seen those eclectic house shows and which they've had cave swimming pools in there and how they have some of the floodlights that tend to just light up the pool so it gives that iridescent glow.

[Eliza]

It's really pretty.

[Boone]

It is an amazing place for rave.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

And it's more importantly, it's so familiar. It's almost offsetting because it does look like something that you would see in an underground pool.

[Eliza]

I just want to jump in.

[Billy]

Smell. Do you smell anything at all? I mean, chlorine smells, Sulfur did salt, anything? Mildew mold.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Chemical wise beyond the wet smell of the cave you're in. And you can definitely tell at this point where you are. It's hard to tell. There is a hint of sulfur, but it doesn't seem to be coming from the pool. It seems to more be the ambient air that is with you at this stage.

[Billy]

You said just a few feet down.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Mm.

[Billy]

I mean, like, if I laid on my stomach and just like, tried to touch my.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

You laid your stomach down as you put your arm in. It would only take about this far. You could probably get your entire upper arm into the pool just laying down.

[Billy]

I just want to touch it, make sure it's not sulfuric or anything like that.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Put your hand in.

[Billy]

I'm like, I can't believe I'm doing this.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

It's about 50 degrees. It's super cold, but you pull it up with no ill effect. There's no burning beyond the tingling of your flesh from just going straight into place. Cold water.

[Billy]

That water is very cold, and we will not be able to warm you up after. See?

[Boone]

Ah.

[Ethan]

Yeah. If you can't grab it on the first go, you gotta come back up.

[Billy]

It's worth a shot.

[Eliza]

Okay. I mean, we could all cuddle to warm you back up. Is that weird? I mean, you don't have any blankets.

[Boone]

Give me the rope, dad.

[Billy]

Tie it. You know, I'll. I'll be the anchor at the end if you'll help me.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Billy, I see a die roll in your future.

[Ethan]

Will you spot her and make sure that something. Keep her in sight.

[Billy]

See anything swimming, maybe yell.

[Eliza]

Sure.

[Ethan]

Good luck.

[Eliza]

I'll keep a lookout.

[Billy]

We're going to hold on to you, miss.

[Boone]

It's. Honestly, I'm not a miss. I'm not a ma' am. It is the 21st century, sir, but not that either. It's fine.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Two ones for me, but you're. For you.

[Eliza]

I think you should roll on one. Re. Roll on one.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

You do have an option for reroll for this.

[Eliza]

Get it back. Keep it. We need it.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Three, two.

[Eliza]

I reroll.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Okay. What is it?

[Boone]

My aggression.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Would you mind telling me how aggression plays into this circumstance Stance for those two ones.

[Eliza]

I'm.

[Boone]

My eagerness to prove myself. This should be like a bad thing that happens.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

No, I'm just wanting to know how you apply aggressive, your vice into this circumstance. Whether it's just one of those. Screw it. I'm going in like. This is part of your character. This is, in many ways burning. This is one of the most beautiful poetic things I've seen in the rule book, is that this is a part of you that dies now because you're using it to burn for this. So what part of you that is aggressive dies in this moment?

[Boone]

I want to say I am so fired up by what we've just seen, by the zombie guy coming back to life, whatever was going on there, that I throw myself through the hole. And the good news is that, like, I'm actually able to push some of the extra rocks out of the way and widen that gap as I go through.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Right?

[Boone]

But somehow the shock of the cold water as I splash down into it feels like it just knocked something out of me.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Yeah, it was so shocking. Just the pins and needles that happen when you hit cold water like that. It's almost like a part of you. It just sucked the passion out of you. And now we roll those ones. Let's see if you can keep them now.

[Eliza]

Ha.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Great.

[Ethan]

Nicely done.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

So, Billy, you definitely dive down and blissfully. Yeah, you can definitely take it blissfully. You. That's not so deep that you can't grab the light. I would like to tell you one thing that I think you would see while down there. Otherwise, it is all yours. As you dive into this pool and start swimming, and like you said, you can feel these small rocks that you've unlodged around you kind of drip down into you as you're swimming for this light, you actually see another source of light that is shining into the water from off to your. To your right. And as you keep swimming down, you realize that it is direct light. It is direct light. Like there is a bioluminescence that you were talking about, but something is shining a light directly into this pool as you grab it and make your way back up to the surface.

[Boone]

I got it down. Oh, my gosh.

[Shopify Narrator]

You're amazing.

[Eliza]

Amazing, Billy.

[Ethan]

Oh, thanks. Get her back up and get her warm.

[Eliza]

So much.

[Boone]

There's something down there.

[Ethan]

Something down there.

[Boone]

There's a light.

[Ethan]

Another. A what?

[Boone]

There's a light down there.

[Ethan]

A light?

[Billy]

Yeah.

[Eliza]

You got it back.

[Boone]

No, like, a real one.

[Ethan]

A real light.

[Eliza]

What are you talking about? There's no electricity glowing.

[Boone]

I saw what I saw.

[Eliza]

No generator has gas after three weeks. Even if there was something down there.

[Billy]

I mean, this soldier, look how clean he is. He ain't traveled far.

[Ethan]

Yeah, and he had to come from somewhere. And so did the bats. Okay, where'd you see it?

[Boone]

Off to the right down there.

[Eliza]

Are you cold? Here, I wrap my arms around Billy.

[Boone]

Thanks.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Yeah, she's. I mean, her skin's cold, but to be fair, the air is not. It is warm down here.

[Ethan]

You being underground, there's gotta be another Way in then.

[Billy]

Do we swim for it or walk for it? Maybe less zombies through the water.

[Ethan]

You sure?

[Billy]

No.

[Eliza]

Well, you think that the caves lead there?

[Ethan]

Maybe.

[Eliza]

We don't know that last more than.

[Ethan]

A few minutes in that water.

[Boone]

It's really cold.

[Ethan]

All right, let's keep walking. And this is.

[Billy]

Let's get a move on.

[Ethan]

The swan dive is the last resort.

[Eliza]

But the water looks so nice.

[Boone]

How far away was the edge of the water? If I could tell when I was down.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Based on when you were down there. I mean, in pitch blackness, a light is a light and it carries quite.

[Ethan]

Far, so who knows, huh?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

So it's hard to tell whether it was 50ft or 500ft. You just know that it was off to the right.

[Eliza]

So we'd have to swim with only a foot of room to grab a breath. Probably not safe.

[Billy]

Might not unless we have to. Yeah, not unless we have to.

[Ethan]

You're gonna be okay. How do you feel?

[Boone]

Fine.

[Eliza]

Jump up and down. We could do jumping jacks. Sure.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

So you grab the light and Eliza doing jumping jacks anyway.

[Eliza]

One, two, three. One, two.

[Boone]

How hard it leads.

[Eliza]

Come on, do it with her. Don't make her feel dumb.

[Ethan]

Let's just keep moving briskly and maybe that'll help.

[Billy]

We can get our steady state cardio that way, ma' am.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

You hold the lamp and it's disjointed at this point. The cavern that you're falling into, it may have been a more open almost like a magma tube at some point, but really now you're seeing parts in which clearly parts of the cave system have fallen in on each other. And there are several times in which you actually get to. To a small cave in and you're having to move blocks out of the way at this point. Billy, it's cold and it's muggy in here, but you're soaking wet and you're freezing and you are shivering at this point to the point of where your body is doing everything it can to try to fight off the cold.

[Billy]

I mean, if you don't mind, I could.

[Boone]

What do you have magic hand powers?

[Billy]

Hug rub on you a little?

[Boone]

Oh, yeah.

[Eliza]

Thanks.

[Billy]

Yeah, that's all. Sorry.

[Eliza]

Ooh, me too. I see a group hug happening.

[Billy]

All right, fine. Come on in here. Who knows how much time we got?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

And at that point is when you're in this group hug is when the light starts to flicker at this point and it starts to falter. It sticks on, but it starts to look like that maybe some water got inside of it.

[Ethan]

Finally let's keep going.

[Billy]

Yeah.

[Eliza]

Do I have extra batteries in my backpack?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Nope.

[Billy]

While we're still got the blue glow stick. Hold on to it. We don't need to see nothing right now.

[Ethan]

Smurf colored thing, right?

[Eliza]

Yeah. Maybe we save the light. Turn it off.

[Billy]

Yeah, maybe turn it off.

[Eliza]

Dry it out. I open it up and put the pieces in my backpack so that it can dry in separate pieces. Maybe.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

So you continue to move through the darkness at this point. And you continue to walk through. And it seems a while as you keep coming down and it's getting warmer and it's getting warmer. And at some point you just feel the end. You just walk straight into rock in front of you.

[Eliza]

Isn't how caves are supposed to work.

[Billy]

Rock em metal.

[Eliza]

There's got to be a way. Even if it's too small to crawl through. There's gotta be.

[Ethan]

Hold up.

[Eliza]

The caves always have the water has to go somewhere.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

So you're gonna have to probably crack a new one at this point. Because that one's probably run out at this point.

[Eliza]

Has it been hours?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Is it one of those? They last forever.

[Eliza]

They last about six hours.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Okay, great.

[Eliza]

I mean they get dimmer and dimmer.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

I rescind that. And we'll take your blue glow stick. But it has dimmed enough that you have to hold it right up to the rough.

[Ethan]

Is it really rock?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

It is rock. It looks like a more major cave in has hit this point. And as you continue to move across you can see that there might be a way to crawl through. But it would be one of those. You'd have to press your body up against the far end of the rock.

[Ethan]

Wall and then squeeze around.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Squeeze around Through.

[Billy]

I am not built for spelunking.

[Boone]

What?

[Eliza]

I'm.

[Billy]

I'm big.

[Eliza]

I'm like barely five foot. I'm really petite. Maybe I try and squeeze through to do a little reconnaissance.

[Billy]

One quick question before you go through there. You never told us where you were from.

[Eliza]

Oh, well, I was living in Albuquerque, but originally Minnesota.

[Ethan]

Take the glow stick. There's not much left.

[Eliza]

Oh, thanks. Will you hold my backpack?

[Ethan]

Yeah.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Boone, you seem really interested in where people are living at this point. You've had three weeks with these points. Or maybe not. Maybe it's only been a few days.

[Billy]

I know this old boy.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

But you know him. But these two ladies are maybe fresh in your group at this point. What's going through your mind right now? Why such the interest now? And the people that you are with.

[Billy]

I don't think they going to make it out of here. And I'd like to be able to tell their mamas or whoever comes looking who they were.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Right.

[Boone]

That's really sweet.

[Eliza]

Ethan's wearing my backpack in the shape of a unicorn.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Great. It's a unicorn backpack.

[Ethan]

Yeah.

[Billy]

It looks good on you.

[Ethan]

Looks great on me.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Got a single horn.

[Ethan]

I got a horn.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Yeah.

[Billy]

Maybe she let you keep it.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

All right, try it. Alisa. Let's see if. Can you can.

[Eliza]

Okay. I'm shimmying sideways down this narrow part of the cavern, and I'm going to see what's beyond it and report back.

[Billy]

Slow is smooth and smooth is fast.

[Ethan]

Don't go out of earshot.

[Eliza]

1 6. No ones at all.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

No ones. Let's see.

[Boone]

Becca's like, what do you mean you can't win it? 10K.

[Billy]

Does he.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Okay. Ties go to the GM. So you succeed. You succeed. Let me make that clear. But I will take narrative rights in this.

[Eliza]

Got it.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

That's what it means.

[Ethan]

What do you see? Can we get through?

[Eliza]

The stick doesn't have much light left.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

You basically shimmy through as much as you can. And if you were any taller or anything any wider in the hips, you would not be able to make this through. But because you're going in through the side, you basically are lifting your body up to a spire, and you can actually feel the stone pressing upon your chest.

[Eliza]

This doesn't feel good.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

As you kind of hold into it. And there's this moment which you're trying so hard to control your breathing because you know that if you take a deep breath in, the rock's just gonna puncture straight into your flesh and grind your skin against the stone. So you breathe with shallow, controlled movements as you pull yourself out from the stone, only hearing a small amount of cloth ripping as you pull yourself out to the other end and you find yourself on the other cave system. And holy hell, if you don't see a door.

[Eliza]

Door.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

A steel door.

[Eliza]

And run over and pound on it.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

All right. You hear metal pounding.

[Ethan]

What the hell is that?

[Eliza]

There's a door.

[Ethan]

What's that?

[Eliza]

There's a steel door.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

What door?

[Eliza]

There is some. Someone's built something under here.

[Ethan]

Soldier.

[Eliza]

You gotta get through that. We've gotta move rocks or something.

[Billy]

I actually. How far back was the soldier's body?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

I mean, about an hour's walk.

[Billy]

Okay.

[Ethan]

Can we shift any of these rocks without it coming down on us?

[Billy]

I don't know. Can you?

[Ethan]

I'm going to take off the backpack and hand it to Billy. Looks better on you anyway.

[Billy]

I Don't know, man. It's.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Yeah, there's a little.

[Ethan]

I'll start it wherever. I think I can shift some rocks most easily without hitting coming down. Maybe at the top.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

One sixes.

[Ethan]

One one sixes. I will re roll.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

What are you? Selfish.

[Ethan]

Selfish?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

You're burning selfish on this. Tell me, how does selfish apply in this situation?

[Ethan]

My first impulse is to just hurl myself through the little hole I've made and leave the rest of them behind. But I don't, right? I stick it out and I let the rock fall on me.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Great.

[Ethan]

I'll take it then.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Roll that one and let's see how bad that rock is.

[Eliza]

2.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

So, Ethan, you begin getting up to the top and you start pulling those rocks down and you dislodge a larger one. And you kind of feel as you pull it off, it comes out a lot easier than you supposed it would be. And you fall back with the rock as you tumble down onto this small concave. And more importantly, you see a smaller ones tumble down and you are pelted. You are ingrained. And you hear something smell snap underneath you as you lay on the pile of bricks.

[Ethan]

Ah, it hurts.

[Billy]

Can I ask in an out of game thing, the things that we said we saw, you know, the brinks.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Oh, the Brinks.

[Billy]

Oh, no, sorry. The things we say we saw. I don't want to say the wrong parlance. Are those things that it's only up for them to bring into the game or can we bring into the fact that I saw you do black?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

You know, you know that as a truth. If you feel it is important to bring a brink up, that is what it's for.

[Billy]

Got it.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

But at this stage, I will tell you that there are seven candles and seven truths that do need to be spoken. Ethan, since you unfortunately failed the conflict roll, we do get to begin with you first.

[Ethan]

I hear the world is dark. That's what I hear.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

That is the truth.

[Ethan]

Hear these things.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

This is true.

[Ethan]

It's true. The world is dark.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

What else is true?

[Ethan]

The stone I pulled out and it's now crushing some part of me has writing on it.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Copy that. Billy.

[Boone]

You found a key card on that guard when you were taking his fatigues earlier.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

It's a truth boom.

[Billy]

The writing on the key card and on the stone are the same. And they are not English.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Right. The break was a minor bone fracture in your foot.

[Eliza]

There's a key slot. That is a key card next to the steel door.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

There's a key card reader next to the door.

[Eliza]

That's the word?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Yeah. Key card reader.

[Eliza]

There's a key card reader next to the steel door.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Six.

[Ethan]

Six. I know how to splinter bone.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

You know how to splinter bone. And, Billy, you get the last one.

[Boone]

What did you already establish about the other rocks falling down?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

He said that there was writing on.

[Billy]

The stone, and I said it's not English.

[Ethan]

Yeah, but it matches the keycard.

[Billy]

But it matches the key.

[Boone]

I'm curious. Like, did it come away from the impenetrable wall? Is the wall worse or better?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

The cave in? Yeah, the cave in. Well, this is your truth. Why don't you tell me?

[Boone]

Shit.

[Eliza]

I should have said there was more buttons.

[Ethan]

My plan was to make it better, but.

[Billy]

Better was never an option.

[Boone]

Yeah, it's worse.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

The structural integrity is worse. Great. Seven candles, seven truths. We pick up right where we left off. Ethan, you're laying in a bed of rock right now.

[Billy]

Try and get it off of him.

[Eliza]

What happened on that side?

[Billy]

Oh, caveman. Hey, can I see her at all? I know she slid through, but I'm like, if we look down.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

So in one of those situations, pulling the top off, there might be a situation where after you clear it off, if you climb up the cave in, you might be able to see her over the other side.

[Eliza]

Does she have any light?

[Billy]

Do I have any reasonable expectation of being able to get this key to her, to throw it to her or anything? I mean, hand it to her. I got long arms without it being clearly a terrible idea to try and hand the key across.

[Ethan]

No.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

This is a conflict, is what I'm trying to. To ask myself right now, is this a reasonable conflict that's worth rolling? Is there a chance that. There's always a chance that danger could come.

[Boone]

You're welcome for making the structural integrity worse.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Thank you.

[Ethan]

Thanks a lot.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Pass the key card.

[Billy]

I'm like, hey, see if this opens the door, Maybe you can get us some help over there. And I reach out.

[Eliza]

Where'd you get that?

[Billy]

I've offed that old boy back there.

[Boone]

He wasn't using it.

[Billy]

Well, I mean, it's no sixes, but no ones. I don't know is that.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

I don't know what that wants to reroll.

[Ethan]

It wants to reroll.

[Billy]

Just nothing there. Oh, that's how that works.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

The structural integrity has failed. And as you reach forward, you actually disjoint one of the small rocks that was holding up one of the larger rocks, and. And you feel as it doesn't crumble down upon you, but you are now pinned with your arm directly onto the rocks.

[Billy]

Damn it.

[Eliza]

Okay.

[Billy]

Does he at least get the hand?

[Eliza]

Can I see his hand?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Yes.

[Eliza]

Oh, my God, Boone. Thank you. I have to jump up really high. Grab it.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

All right.

[Ethan]

Can you get out of there?

[Billy]

I do not know.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Well, there's time. Because there's now six candles and six truths that need to be exposed in this. So, Boone, the world is dark. Your hand has been caught in this tumbling of rocks. As you put your hand through. All it took was one of them just to slightly move before it went and then pinned your upper shoulder. We're not talking arm. We're in there at this moment. And your shoulder is being crushed now. And it's not pressing to the point of where it's breaking bones, but it is stuck. And you have one arm available to you right now. What is your truth?

[Billy]

I am claustrophobic.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Yay. The sulfur is making its way down the cavern.

[Eliza]

I was just gonna say that.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

I'm glad we're on the same page.

[Eliza]

The floor beneath my side in front of the door. I test my foot on an area I haven't stepped on yet. And a little corner of it starts to crumble away.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

So your side is unstable.

[Eliza]

The floor? Yeah. The ground beneath me.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Okay. 1, 2, 3, 4.

[Ethan]

Somewhere on the other side of the.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Door.

[Ethan]

Is the sound of a very loud splash.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Splash. On the other side of the door. Got it. The metal door.

[Ethan]

The metal door.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Copy that.

[Eliza]

There's another door.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

No, your metal. Your door that you haven't opened yet. 5.

[Boone]

Your hand may be stuck, but it's not. Not your good hand. It seemed easier for reaching, but you've still got your good hand. First.

[Eliza]

Your long hand, not your good hand.

[Billy]

True.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

And you do get the last truth, Boone.

[Billy]

She will absolutely open that door.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

All right. We picked this back up Emiliorate his Boone. You can feel the weight of it on your arm. And there's that part where your body is starting to twist and move because you cannot move your arm. And in your mind, something is pressing down upon you. You are terrified.

[Boone]

I don't know.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Man standing.

[Eliza]

Give him the ass in the unicorn backpack.

[Boone]

That's a great idea.

[Billy]

Just.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

You gotta get me out here.

[Billy]

I can't stand here like this. Open that door. Get help. Move these rocks. I do not care.

[Eliza]

Just put it on his tongue.

[Billy]

Just get me out of here.

[Eliza]

Boo needs to calm down.

[Boone]

You want to be mentally somewhere else?

[Billy]

What? Yes.

[Boone]

Okay.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Oh, man. All right. She lifts you and grabs you a small piece of rice paper. Are you throwing it in?

[Billy]

I will say I do not know. What this is or what its providence is. So it must be a painkiller that I know she has.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Okay, so you just put it in.

[Billy]

I take the painkiller?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Yeah. Okay. And you drop it and put it in.

[Eliza]

I'll try and get help.

[Billy]

Maybe there's help.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

All right.

[Ethan]

So can I move now?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Yeah.

[Ethan]

Do you think?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Yeah. No, I think at this point, you've adjusted. I mean, it hurts to put weight on your foot.

[Ethan]

Well, we're not running any marathons, right? Can I make my way over to the rock pile? And what did you do?

[Billy]

I tried to get the key across. As far as I could tell, I succeeded at a cost.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

All right, do you want to dislodge him?

[Ethan]

Well, we got it. We can't leave him here. We've got to try to move him. All right, Billy, you help me.

[Eliza]

Yeah.

[Ethan]

And let's gently, gently try to move these rocks off him one at a time. Now, I'm kind of balanced up here to keep weight off my foot, so hopefully this doesn't go.

[Boone]

Just, like, focus on happy thoughts, man.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Oh, my God.

[Billy]

Oh, my God. Oh, my God.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

What are you scared of right now? What is about the claustrophobia that is getting you? What is this bearing thought that's coming upon you that is making your brain, which has, by the way, prepared for all of this for your entire life? Why is this triggering you right now?

[Billy]

I've made it so close to the end. I cannot die here. I cannot die like this. I cannot die just in a pile of rocks feet from the door.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Right? Go ahead. Two ones. One, six. Do you want an option to burn? You did succeed.

[Ethan]

You bet. Well, let's see you get the one, though, right?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

I get the ones.

[Ethan]

We'll take this.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Inventive.

[Ethan]

Inventive.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Why don't you tell me how inventive you are in this process?

[Ethan]

That unicorn backpack has straps. We're gonna use those. And we're gonna loop him around the big rock and get some leverage and slide it off him gently and easily.

[Eliza]

Industrial unicorn backpack.

[Ethan]

Saved by the unicorn.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

You feel the weight come up.

[Ethan]

I'm so glad you brought that.

[Eliza]

What are you doing to Corny?

[Boone]

Corny's saving the day.

[Eliza]

It's good.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

And even just the weight of it coming off is like an endorphin rush, which makes the stuff kick in quicker. At this point and at this stage, you're starting to feel good. Like, you are feeling very, very well. You're in a much better mood about.

[Billy]

Things, you know, don't hurt as much as I Thought. Thank you.

[Boone]

Yeah.

[Eliza]

You're gonna. Boone, I think I'm gonna like you a lot better when I see you next. I hope I see him again.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

And at this point, I'll even go so far as to say that the hole that you moved out created at this point is enough where you could all kind of crawl through. Through.

[Eliza]

Careful of the ground. It's sort of. That corner's not very stable.

[Billy]

When I'm dislodged, I go forward rather than back.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

All right, so you go forward instead.

[Billy]

Thank y' all. Thank you.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

And you roll a little bit off of the cave in.

[Eliza]

Oh, sorry.

[Billy]

Not that.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

You kind of roll off of the cave in a little bit and settle in close to where Liza is at the base of it.

[Boone]

And she points out, you're a weirdo, but you're okay.

[Billy]

I take that as a compliment. Hey. I kind of loop my good arm under Ethan's ribs. I'm like, I got two feet. You got two hands. Hey.

[Ethan]

Thanks.

[Boone]

You okay?

[Ethan]

You okay? No.

[Eliza]

Oh, my gosh.

[Ethan]

You're like, I don't know. Something's busted, but you keep going.

[Eliza]

Yeah.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Yeah.

[Ethan]

It's not good.

[Billy]

I don't know what was. What was in that medicine you gave me. I cannot feel a thing.

[Eliza]

You're welcome. Can I.

[Billy]

What's that writing? It's everywhere.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Can't y' all see it?

[Ethan]

It's the same as on the rock we pulled out.

[Boone]

Is it a language?

[Eliza]

That.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

So being that it is not English.

[Billy]

Can I make a suggestion?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

I'm interested in your suggestion.

[Billy]

It is hieroglyphic.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Okay. Into it as the rock kind of dislodges. You do see that there is writing on the wall. That's laid out right before. It is. I mean, you're a learned man, right? Yeah. Ethan, it is, like, it's difficult to tell, but it's pre Egyptian hieroglyphics.

[Ethan]

Something from antiquity.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

It's an antiquity language for sure. Wow.

[Ethan]

Could be. Who knows what's before Egyptian, Babylonian, Sumerian.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Older.

[Boone]

I feel like this is. You guys.

[Billy]

It is biblical.

[Ethan]

Yeah. For all we know. Are you all right? You've been over here a while.

[Eliza]

I mean, are you guys. Do you know, feeling a little short of breath? That smell is getting stronger.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

It definitely is starting to smell like rotten eggs a little bit.

[Eliza]

We should try the door, right?

[Billy]

Yeah.

[Ethan]

We came all this way. You might as well try it.

[Eliza]

Is there just one opening?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

One reader?

[Eliza]

Okay.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Door.

[Eliza]

I scan the key.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

It goes green.

[Boone]

The color's moving.

[Billy]

Colors seem.

[Eliza]

So the door's opening.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

You hear A loud. But the door doesn't open. What?

[Eliza]

I jam the handle as hard as I can.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

You move the handle?

[Eliza]

Mm.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Right. You feel as soon as you hold into it, as soon as you put weight into it, it just dumps right open. It just literally falls right open. As you open up, it stays on its hinge. But the metal door is heavy, so you don't fall face first into it, but you find yourself on a small metal catwalk with grating right below you.

[Boone]

What the heck is this?

[Eliza]

This is help. There could be help in there. This could be military.

[Billy]

Let's get inside and close the door behind us.

[Eliza]

Good call.

[Boone]

Yeah.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

So you all pile through the door, and you wind yourself on the metal catwalk as the door slides behind you, and you hear the metallic of something locking behind you.

[Eliza]

I run ahead about 10ft, so we're spaced out weight wise on this part of the catwalk.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

So you move forward. As you start going through, you realize there's the natural cave system that is to the left of you. But that cave system slowly breaks away into a large open pool area. Unlike the water, which we're close to. That is beautiful, and it is sparkling, Boone. The lights are dancing, and you can actually see these floodlights are shooting into the water. And in the water, you see something. It is. Now, how long have you been underground? Were any of you around when the monoliths rose through the ground?

[Eliza]

No, I've been here a couple days. I think we found it.

[Billy]

I would say the first monolith destroyed my stockpile, so I witnessed it and fled.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

So in the middle of the pool, going through the water and up into the ceiling is one of the monoliths you're seeing.

[Boone]

Heck is that thing?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

One of the bases of the monolith that's emerged in this crater. Crystalline pool of water. And the floodlights are just hitting onto it right now. How wide is it at this point? It is very wide. Like we're talking you're in a large cave system, and this pool is large, but really, you're only seeing a portion of it. A large amount of it is just still hidden in the rock. And you are impressed. Impressed by just how clean this thing has cut through and its fact that there's no rubble laid out around it. It is almost as if someone took a hot needle and pushed it right through and found its way up into the surface. It is insane how cleanly it has pierced the earth's crust.

[Boone]

Anybody here?

[Eliza]

Shh. What if there's one of those things?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Anybody here? Anybody here? Anybody here?

[Billy]

Hey. Somebody replied, that's just.

[Boone]

Brain's starting to process. Sound differently. It's gonna be wonky for a while.

[Billy]

No, I heard you sound just like it. But it was out there somewhere.

[Eliza]

You're right.

[Ethan]

Boone, what kind of a medicine did you give him?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

What kind?

[Billy]

But it works.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

What?

[Billy]

Maybe take it for your foot. Man, I don't feel anything.

[Eliza]

How's your foot? What happened?

[Ethan]

I don't know. I fell backwards when I yanked the rock out, and I think I broke something, but I got it wrapped a little bit. I can't put a lot of weight on it, but I'd rather not mess up my head.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

And you do have a little. The catwalk does have a little bit of.

[Ethan]

It's got a railing so I can pull myself along. Look at this thing. I mean, ancient hieroglyphics. None of this is random. No, this was all intended.

[Eliza]

Do you think the monolith messed up whatever underground building was here, this bunker?

[Billy]

The lights are pointing at the monolith, so I think that might be why.

[Boone]

All feels pretty intentional.

[Billy]

That's why this is here.

[Boone]

Do you want an aspirin? I don't have Manny left, but that.

[Eliza]

Looks like it hurts.

[Ethan]

Is it? Yeah, it's aspirin.

[Eliza]

What is that?

[Boone]

Just aspirin? Yeah.

[Eliza]

Oh, tablet.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Sure, I'll.

[Ethan]

Aspirin can't hurt.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

No. It does, though. As you continue to move forward a little bit, you get again, like I said, past this natural causeway. And you do off to the left, where the big natural cave system is. And the monolith, which has cut through the pool up into the. Of the cave system, it continues to seem to go up. And the pools of light are flooding into it. And you can see that wherever this thing was laid out, the floodlights that are shining into the water, the monolith is very close to it. It's one of the reasons why the pool of light wasn't so bright is because it was still hitting the monolith straight on. And you can see a couple of small. They seem like small containers, almost like tiny, tiny, well, hab. Units, you know, like some kind of underground structures that are laid out along the underground lake front.

[Ethan]

This is what you saw. This is the light.

[Eliza]

Do you think they have food?

[Billy]

I hope they get food.

[Eliza]

Is there a way to get down there? Is there a ladder or stairs or anything?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

If you continue to walk along the causeway, you do eventually see that there is a descending spiral staircase that will take you down.

[Eliza]

The thought of food takes me very quickly down those stairs.

[Mozart]

Oh.

[Eliza]

But then I turn back to see if you need.

[Ethan]

I can make it. I can hop.

[Eliza]

Okay.

[Billy]

I'll go last in case I'm too heavy for any of this stuff because your arm hurt.

[Boone]

You need one of these.

[Ethan]

Thank you, Eliza.

[Billy]

No, whatever you gave me before is doing great.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

So, Boone, as you kind of sit back and wait, you are waiting for everyone to go down, and you take a moment to look at this giant thing that is frankly the cause of everyone's problems. It is a symbol of everything that has happened in these last couple of weeks.

[Eliza]

Can I run up to it and kick it?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Yeah. I mean, once you eventually get down there, if you finally get down, you do. Or you are on the lakefront and you do see the. You could probably walk right up to it, and it is crisp and black, and it is just cut stone, and it's smooth and polished. I mean, it's risen through the ground. You would expect it to be cracked and scraped from all of the surrounding rock, but it is pristine.

[Eliza]

So mad at it. I slap it as hard as I can, but I don't want to break my neck.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Yeah, slap it as hard as you can. And for a brief moment, you felt like you saw something. Like a flash of light, almost like there was a doorway right there.

[Eliza]

I put my hands on it.

[Ethan]

Don't hurt yourself. What are you doing?

[Eliza]

There's something here. Come put your hands on it.

[Boone]

I put my hands on it.

[Billy]

The song we heard.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Yeah.

[Billy]

I start singing the song we heard.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Yeah. Well, it was more of a sound, for sure.

[Billy]

I attempt to duplicate it.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Yeah. As you sing into it, you lay out these harmonious imitations of the sounds and that you've heard. And you place your hands upon it and you feel nothing. It's cold, it's inert. It just is there. That moment before there was a flash, I felt something. It was before the flash you hit. You saw it, but it was kind of as you were bringing your hands down, you saw the light, and then as soon as you hit it, it just blacked out.

[Eliza]

Wait, I saw something happened. I don't.

[Boone]

Boone. Hush, hush.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

At this stage with you singing, Boone, you quiet your voice, but because you've quieted your voice, you can start to hear the chitting.

[Eliza]

I lean my back up against the monolith.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

You look up in the floodlights that are barely a part of this, you can see that outside of the perimeter of the floodlights, the ceiling is moving. What the.

[Eliza]

Oh, my God.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

So many moving, chitinous bodies that are laid up on the Top of the ceiling.

[Boone]

Okay. Fast. Let's go. Let's go. Arms around each other.

[Billy]

I do. Start moving him, and I point at the monolith. Y' all know what that is?

[Boone]

No idea.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

The Earth's teeth.

[Ethan]

The Earth. Come to.

[Eliza]

Teeth. You said there were hab units.

[Ethan]

It doesn't matter.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

They looked like containers, like someone put a container ship.

[Eliza]

You could live in them. Like they're temporary dwellings.

[Ethan]

Let's get down there.

[Eliza]

Let's check for food. Quickly, before we get out of here.

[Billy]

Before we become food.

[Boone]

Who in the earth doesn't have teeth? I know it feels like it does.

[Billy]

Right now, but what do you call it?

[Eliza]

Teeth can break.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Eliza, take the dice and let's see if the key card works for these units.

[Boone]

Oh, okay.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Because it has a magnetic lock just like the other ones. Do.

[Eliza]

I try the key card on the nearest hab? I was thinking the wrong numbers. Let's burn this.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

What's this?

[Eliza]

Manipulative.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

You have two ones into a roll. How do you want to manipulate, Manipulate or be manipulative in this scenario? This is the end of Liza being manipulative in the rest of the world. She's using it for a purpose. And what is that purpose? Right now?

[Eliza]

I'm trying to do something myself instead of making someone else do it. And I know that they could fall on me. I'm bringing attention. I'm making noise. But I give up my need to twist other people into taking action and.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Just do it yourself.

[Eliza]

Do it myself.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

You lean into it.

[Eliza]

Six.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

One. Six. No ones. In fact.

[Eliza]

I told you I could win this game.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

I would actually say at this point that while I apologize for my wording of saying that this is the death of manipulation, but this is truly. I mean, you're laying into a vice in order to make this happen. So you want this food very badly, and you're bringing this key card together. You've already got two wounded people with you. There's something going on in your mind. Something has been driving you since the beginning of this, since you even started this moment with your friends at this festival. What's going on in your mind right now as you're hoping to get into the. This habuna? What are you hoping to find?

[Eliza]

An answer.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

An answer.

[Eliza]

I want to find a home. I want to find someplace where whoever I'm with, we can just lock ourselves away and just live out our days.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Great.

[Eliza]

I just want to find the music in life again.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

And there is literally a place with power. And there's nothing more hopeful than seeing some Power in a very long time. So the key card goes green.

[Eliza]

Yes.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

As you hear the magnetic lock. Hallelujah.

[Ethan]

Let's go. And you walk all inside, shut the door behind us.

[Eliza]

Yeah.

[Billy]

And look up towards the ceiling.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

So you look up and you can continue to see that there are these. I mean, when I say the ceiling is moving, I mean there are hundreds of them.

[Eliza]

It's the same ceiling.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

The same ceiling. It's the ceiling outside. Yes. On the cave ceiling.

[Ethan]

We looked up before we went in the unit, you mean?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Yes. I'm sorry, were you talking about the ceiling?

[Billy]

I wanted to make sure the HAB unit was not crawling.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

No. It is only about a foot taller than you all walking. Maybe even just inches for you. Or you have to hunch over and you see harsh direct fluorescent light and what is otherwise a fairly sterile. If not. It just smells of aluminum and disinfectant. Just smells like a lab.

[Boone]

I start going through stuff that's the.

[Eliza]

Best smell I've ever smelled.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

I look for.

[Ethan]

What are you doing down here?

[Billy]

Any sort of communication equipment, ham radio, anything thing.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Right.

[Ethan]

Let's give it a thorough search.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Let's do that. Looking for supplies. You want the ham radio and you want the goo. So why don't you roll for the goo?

[Boone]

For the what?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

For the stuff. Sorry.

[Billy]

We've had plenty of goo. We're good on goo.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Yeah, it's my colloquial. Whatever. See what you find.

[Boone]

We all word good what there is to find.

[Ethan]

Let's see if there's some loot.

[Eliza]

All right.

[Boone]

Gotta be something in here.

[Billy]

Hey, I see two sixes, but a one.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Two One.

[Boone]

Two ones for me.

[Ethan]

You got anything to burn?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Yeah. All right. Yeah. And there is option in a real.

[Eliza]

That's two dice. Yep.

[Boone]

All right.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Gotta be the top one. Oh, that has to be the top one. Is that your moment?

[Boone]

Yeah. How does it work?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

It doesn't work.

[Boone]

Yeah.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

You have to fulfill your moment before you can burn the knife.

[Boone]

I can't reroll unless I can do this right.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

You have to take whatever's on the top first. I'm so sorry.

[Eliza]

Nope.

[Boone]

Should have remembered that.

[Eliza]

Hey, what happens when you do needles?

[Boone]

Do they have needles?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Well, you will have an opportunity to do the narration at this point. So the dice will still be mine. I just need to see if I can take narrative conn, which I cannot.

[Billy]

What happens if we run out of dice?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

You cannot. They'll either be sixes or ones. That's it.

[Billy]

No, what I mean is every time we get a one, you take dice. What happens if we have no more dice?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

It's actually impossible because even if you're down to one dice, because I've taken everything else that will either be a six or it will be something other than a six. If it's anything other than a six, scene ends. Got it. So if you're down to one dice, it is literally all or nothing. Got it.

[Billy]

No pressure.

[Boone]

Yeah. You said it was a lab, right?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

It is a lab.

[Boone]

What kind of lab?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

It's a research lab. It's a geology lab. Seems like it has maybe a hint of architectural study or archaeological study in it as well too. It's a lot of samples that have been laid out and put into various containers. So there's a working computer even.

[Ethan]

Working computer?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Yeah.

[Ethan]

Are you saying this thing is on? It has juice?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Yeah, I'm saying it has juice.

[Eliza]

I haven't seen lights in so long.

[Boone]

Well, heck, let's just stay here.

[Ethan]

What's the computer doing? Is it. When I hit the enter key, what happens?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

You kind of watch as it slowly boots out of sleep and a login credential comes right up.

[Eliza]

What do we find?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Yeah, what do you find? Supply wise?

[Boone]

We find. We find like a lot of miscellaneous containers. We do find a small cache of like snacks.

[Eliza]

Snacks, foods, needles and water, some water, needles.

[Boone]

And we do. We find some samples of various minerals and some needles from some surgical tools.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

For geology, tools for cleaning materials and things like that. At that point you hear a. What are you doing here? What the fuck?

[Eliza]

What do you mean what the fuck?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Turn around and you see a man who just seems to just be in a disheveled coat with a white shirt that has just been soiled and long kind of slacks and he just is wrecked. You see he has kind of a grizzled kind of beard into him and he's stumbling in the door and he goes, who the hell are you? How did you get down here?

[Billy]

By the grace of God, friend, be easy.

[Boone]

Well, the caves.

[Ethan]

What are you doing here?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

This is my goddamn lab. What it is or was.

[Boone]

Hey, what are you doing? Did you end the world?

[Ethan]

Did you?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

He turns around, doesn't answer your question. And you watch as he turns around. He just grabs a bottle and sits down.

[Boone]

And how much of that do you have?

[Eliza]

Yeah, can we have some?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

He watches, he takes an earbud, looks at you. He goes, take what you want and puts an earbud in. And you watch as he takes a remote. Boop. And you watch as a door slides in front of you.

[Eliza]

I go pound on the door. £ pound pound pound pound open up. What is wrong with you? We haven't seen people in so long.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Good. Let's keep it that way.

[Eliza]

Stop it. How do you have power? Tell us what this place is.

[Ethan]

What did you do? Oh, God.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

So many questions. You don't care. It doesn't matter. Hey.

[Billy]

Interview him. You know what to do Here? Because I. I draw the knife and I'm like, you know what I think?

[Ethan]

Yeah, I know what you think.

[Eliza]

Put that away, Boone.

[Boone]

I mean, don't hurry. Talk to us.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Oh.

[Ethan]

No, please. We got nothing else to do. We'll tell you what we saw.

[Eliza]

Aren't you lonely?

[Ethan]

What we found? Don't you want to know? Watch as the door.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Shh. Opens.

[Ethan]

I'd like to hear what you have to say. We're not here to judge you. It's too late for that.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

What's the point?

[Ethan]

Yeah, I know. I got the same feeling. But.

[Boone]

What'S the point in keeping your secrets?

[Ethan]

If we don't share the story, no one will ever know.

[Billy]

And it was all for nothing.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

He kind of sits up. You can clear that. He looks hungover as hell, you know, but he kind of walks over to a cabinet and grabs glasses and kind of takes it and sits on the bed and puts the four glasses on the floor.

[Boone]

What was his ear? Does he still have his connected to.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

He's still got one earbud in. It seems to be some media player that he's got tucked in his lab coat.

[Eliza]

Do you have music? I haven't heard music in so long. Can I just.

[Boone]

Can I just hear first?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

God, you all look like hell. You all look like fresh hell.

[Ethan]

I wouldn't go pointing any fingers if I were you.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

I'm so sorry.

[Ethan]

Look, just take it easy, Take it slow and pour us a drink.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

And it kind of takes the media player out and kind of puts him. He says, just don't break it. It's probably the last one on earth.

[Eliza]

You only have climbing classical music in here.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

That's all I listen to.

[Eliza]

Can I. I take the earbud out of his ear.

[Billy]

I had a vinyl collection that would have melted yo face in my holdout spot.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

He pours a bunch of liquor laid out and kind of like goes and sits down on the glass and goes. Do you know what that is?

[Ethan]

What's he pointing at?

[Boone]

How the hell would we know what that is?

[Billy]

Maybe a little calmer.

[Ethan]

What's he pointing at?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

He's pointing outside to, presumably, where the monolith is.

[Ethan]

Oh, the big black thing? No, but they're all over the Earth, I think.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Yeah, that makes sense.

[Ethan]

We didn't get a lot of news before it all went black. Dark.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

But none of us do. No one has any idea.

[Ethan]

You don't know what it is?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

No clue. No fucking clue. We've been studying it for years.

[Ethan]

You must have some information.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

We know that it's made of a material that we don't know. We've tried to chip it, we've tried to pull it apart, take samples from it. I don't know if you've noticed, but it accepts every bit of light possible. Nothing can go in it. It doesn't reflect any light back at all. We can't break it off no matter how hard we try. And one day, it just came all the way up. Do you know how deep we are right now?

[Ethan]

Not really deep.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Deep enough. But it doesn't show up on any seismic charts. It didn't show up on anything. We've been monitoring these things for as long as we've been mining in the Earth. They don't show up on radar. They don't show up on a spectrograph. No one knows what the fuck these things are. And he kind of like takes a table and just flips it up and goes, now everyone is gone. Everyone is dead.

[Billy]

Not quite everyone. What's your name, friend?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

I mean, port it. Just fucking drink it. All right, Cheers.

[Billy]

Who we. Cheers.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Into.

[Billy]

What's your name?

[Eliza]

There's Mozart.

[Ethan]

Mozart.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Just call me Mozart.

[Boone]

Thank you for that terrible DJ name.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

He kind of takes a little sip of it and then puts it down. Goes. Are those things still out there?

[Ethan]

Oh, yeah.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Yeah. I hate to tell you, but there's no food in here.

[Boone]

What?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

It's very little water left.

[Ethan]

What have you been living on? Just this stuff.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Basically the last of food. Well, I ate it yesterday. And one last grand feast.

[Billy]

Anybody else here but you?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

No. I'm the only one stupid enough to have stayed, cowardly enough to watch all my associates and friends go out and be taken by those things, all in a desperate attempt to get out.

[Eliza]

Hey, no. That was the smart thing to do. You had to do what you could to survive.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

No, no, no. It's better to just go. At this stage, there's nothing left. You don't understand. The world is done for.

[Ethan]

It is everywhere.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Everywhere.

[Ethan]

How do you know?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Have you been outside?

[Ethan]

Well, yeah, but, I mean, what if we went to, I don't know, Australia? Yeah. Or Shanghai, or the North Pole or.

[Billy]

The goddamn International Space Station.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

I don't know. I don't know what's going on out there, but everything that we've read in here indicates that this is the end. This is it.

[Boone]

Why the hell didn't you tell anyone?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

For the reasons that the government doesn't tell a lot of people about end of world prophecies and end of cycles and end of civilization. Because as soon as you tell everybody, it all becomes chaos and anarchy. Nothing had happened. We didn't know when these things were going to come up. They just one day rose.

[Ethan]

So more secrets, more deception. What do you know about the writing? It looks very old.

[Billy]

Yeah, it looks biblical.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

It's pre biblical. I don't know what the hell it is. I mean, for all we know, it's not even of this world. It's just here. I mean, we literally have no idea why these are planted. But how could there be so many in the earth who could even plant something like this in here? Certainly wasn't us.

[Eliza]

I mean, it's gotta be extraterrestrial, right? There's gotta be so much more than us in the universe.

[Billy]

Or simply divine, maybe. Look, you said they'd been here before we even started digging, right? From back to who knows how long, Right? Well, it was prophesied that this day would come upon all of us. And it is here. Yeah.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

All right, here's the deal. I'm gonna lay down and from everything that I know about this place and the fact that you're all here, I wish you could. I just wish you were here six hours ago. Just six hours ago. Maybe something could have come of it. What are you talking about?

[Ethan]

What happened six hours ago?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

It doesn't matter.

[Boone]

It really matters.

[Billy]

Most important thing possible.

[Eliza]

What's in this? Whiskey?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

He kind of looks towards the side of the bed and that's where you can see several pill bottles are laid out completely empty at this point. Each top kind of popped up at this stage.

[Eliza]

Oh, Mozart, what'd you do? We gotta make him throw up. I stick my finger down his throat.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Conflict here.

[Ethan]

No.

[Eliza]

No, I don't. No. Never. No, I'm sorry. You gotta stick your finger down your throat.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

He kinda puts his hand. It was hours ago then.

[Boone]

You just gotta make yourself vomit.

[Billy]

It was hours.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

It's no point. It's just no point. I just. Why does it always have to be? The fog at the edge of the limits is so close. If I had known anyone was still alive, it would have been fine. It could have gone. We could try. We could make an escape. We could just go for it.

[Billy]

Mozart, you got any way to Talk into the outside world and hear a radio. That computer. Anything.

[Ethan]

What's the computer password?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

The radio died days ago. It was some guy singing on a broadcast. And that was it. This is a one channel out. In order to make sure there's no leak of information. It can only listen. It can't go out. It's the only reason I knew all this shit was happening up there. As far as the password goes, fine. You can go into it. It's just an intranet. It's just a local network. It doesn't go outside.

[Eliza]

What's the password?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

He writes down the password for you? Kind of.

[Ethan]

How many more of these HAB units are there?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

I don't know.

[Ethan]

They might have food as.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

I don't know. I only know about this one. They keep a closed network onto it. We all had Code Black access to this stuff. This is all the shit that you know that's covered up in government budgets. All I know is about this one. They make sure that if we get information out that no one else can figure out. What else is out there?

[Ethan]

Is there anything down here that can help you? First aid aid kit, medicine, something?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

He kind of motions overturner goes. We used it up days ago.

[Billy]

I lean in and I put my hand on him, my good hand, and I say, I'm not gonna try and disturb your rest, friend. You deserve to die with some dignity. But those of us who ain't done fighting, which way would you recommend we go?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Yeah, no, that's a good point. I made my choice.

[Boone]

Well, Dawn, I got some stuff. And I dump out my little bag.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Just keep it. It's for you. I know what to do. I know what to do now. Okay. Here's what we know. They're afraid of the light. They feed off of sorrow and despair. Despair. The monolith calls to those select. I've heard stories of people finding the monolith and getting close to it. And something happens. But it's fickle.

[Eliza]

Something happened to me.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

I'm sorry.

[Eliza]

I don't know what it was.

[Ethan]

You saw something.

[Boone]

Why is she in danger?

[Ethan]

Flash, what did you.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

She's not in danger. But neither is she. Have Anything else? I don't know. Sometimes. Well, one of my associates, one day after it left up, just decided to go to it. And she walked right towards it. And she was there and then she wasn't.

[Ethan]

And that's like she passed through a door.

[Eliza]

Maybe she went into it. Maybe she was taken by whoever put them there.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

I don't know.

[Eliza]

Maybe she was chosen or something. I mean, Boone's crazy, but who knows?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

None of us saw it. Ever. I don't know where she went. I don't know how she got there. She was just there and then she was gone. And none of us have seen it since then. So I don't know what your plan is, how you want to go, but if you want to get out, there is an express elevator that will take you to the surface.

[Billy]

Surface is a no go.

[Eliza]

It's poisonous now.

[Ethan]

Sulfur. Not sure why.

[Billy]

Volcano moon.

[Boone]

Real big.

[Billy]

It's real bad up there.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Yeah, that's awful. I take another drink, this thing coming up. And at the end of the day, Mother Earth wins. Oh, man, I'm so sorry. We should have told everybody. We should have said something. But then what would we have gained by just the mass?

[Eliza]

Hey, man, there's nothing that wouldn't have helped.

[Boone]

It's cool. Be sorry I'm here to tell you.

[Billy]

They wouldn't have done shit. I spent my whole life trying to convince people to prepare and nobody gave a good gu. Goddamn, buddy.

[Eliza]

Well. And what did it help?

[Billy]

I'm still alive.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

I'm sorry. I thought being here alone for so long that I would want to see people again. But now that you're here, I just want to be alone. And I'm so tired.

[Eliza]

Can we tuck you in?

[Boone]

This episode is brought to you by.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Amazon prime from streaming to shopping, prime helps you get more out of your passions. So whether you're a fan of true.

[Boone]

Crime or prefer a nail biting novel from time to time, with services like Prime Video, Amazon Music and fast free.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Delivery, prime makes it easy to get.

[Boone]

More out of whatever you're into or getting into. Visit Amazon.comprime to learn more.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

This Father's Day. Give your dad the Forever Wanted Elixir by Azaro Parfums. An intoxicating fragrance where leather notes merge with the addictive red fruits. Discover the Azara Wanted collection for Father's Day at Macy's. Sure. I mean, sure. Yeah, I just.

[Eliza]

Does he have a cot?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

All of the notes, they're on the laptop. We kept everything we could. All the data is there. For whatever it's worth. You can keep it. I don't care.

[Boone]

Can you have your music?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Make you a promise when I'm not here anymore. You can take whatever you want, but just leave me the last little piece with it that I can have. I mean, I don't deserve it, but just.

[Boone]

That's not what music's for.

[Eliza]

Here.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

It kind of puts both of the earbuds back in and Grows back on his cot, which is just cheat. Too dirty. Just looks like he's been spending most of his time on this thing anyway. And you can kind of see his eyes are starting to flutter as he lays back. And he puts it onto his chest and leans back and goes. So sorry. It's. I hope you find redemption, whatever that means. And just know that some things are better than death. Some fates are worse than death. But we are all going to die. So you choose how you want to live. He just leans his head back and drifts off into a sleep, which he will never wake up from.

[Boone]

I pull the sheet up over him.

[Eliza]

And over his face.

[Billy]

I think we should all be so fortunate.

[Boone]

Boone, you know anything about needles?

[Billy]

Yeah.

[Eliza]

Oh, all you need is some pen ink and just. I mean, even my safety pin would work. I've done it on myself.

[Ethan]

What are you talking.

[Boone]

You have so many amazing kindergarten skills. Yes. Okay.

[Eliza]

Oh, yeah. You've never done the DIY tat?

[Billy]

No, I. I never been to prison.

[Eliza]

Oh. I saw people doing them at the festival. They had a booth, actually. I just.

[Ethan]

You want a tattoo?

[Eliza]

Can I find a pen that I can break open?

[Boone]

I. I've been in a lot of dumb places. Like, there's not secret facilities, but, like, stupid doctor's offices, and they won't take you if you've recently gotten a tattoo or a piercing and. Look, I'm tired of waiting. What am I waiting for?

[Ethan]

No judgment here. Get all the tattoos you want, but.

[Billy]

I think your plasma donation days are over. Yes.

[Eliza]

Okay. Break open a bunch of pens and put them into. Find some sort of little cup or something.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Petri dish.

[Eliza]

Yeah. All you need to do is dip a needle in the ink and then just stab, stab, stab, stab, stab, stab, stab. Little tiny ones. It barely bleeds. What do you want?

[Ethan]

Gross.

[Eliza]

What do you want? Like, a unicorn or heart or. I mean, I could only do, like, a unicorn horn.

[Boone]

No, thanks.

[Eliza]

Like a geometric shape.

[Boone]

If we live, it'll be hilarious.

[Eliza]

All right. This will take a while. And it's kind of. Doesn't hurt that bad. Right.

[Ethan]

While you're doing that, I'm going to try to figure out the laptop.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

So, Ethan. Yeah. At this point, you have the login. And, Boone, you're watching as Billy and Elisa are doing this DIY tattoo.

[Eliza]

Point and stick, baby.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Yeah, go ahead.

[Billy]

I'm actually looking at the monolith. He said it chooses people.

[Eliza]

Yeah.

[Ethan]

Have you done this before?

[Billy]

I don't go doing, but I'm looking at it.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Yeah, well, in your certified teacher, in Your induced state. You stare at this thing and you can still see as the cloud of cloud. Well, it is kind of a cloud movement that's still laid up above. And you kind of sit just cross legged on the steps of this fab. They haven't come down into you. You are bathed in light, but there is darkness laying out in front of you. And the monolith is just absorbing every piece of light that is in there. And you reflect upon this giant structure laid out before you and you find yourself asking it a question. What question do you want to ask it?

[Billy]

Are you the way.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

In this hazed state, you can actually see that when you look into this monolith, you're looking into the void of spirit space. It is accepting no light. And when you look into it, you swear to God you can see the stars in there, these little pricks of light as you just gaze infinitely into this thing. I want to ask you something, Boone. Are you a good person?

[Billy]

Yes.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Why are you a good person?

[Billy]

I really did try to shepherd as many people as I could safely through to the end. That was the point of the preparation. It wasn't for me to live. It was to bring along as many as I could safely. I like to think of myself as relatively selfless.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Ethan. Do you believe that? Do you believe that Boone is a good person?

[Ethan]

Yes, I think he probably is. I think that the dividing line between good and evil is hazy at best on a clear day. But I certainly believe that he thinks he's on the right side of it. And that's good enough for me.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Ethan, as you tap into the password, into this computer, you get up to a. Holy shit. An operating system.

[Ethan]

Oof.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Yeah. And it's ladened with the messiest desktop you've ever seen in your life.

[Eliza]

Wow.

[Ethan]

Guys were slobs.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

And you poke around and you go through things and you find files you do see. There's a lot of data. And it's.

[Ethan]

It's years of this stuff.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Years of this stuff.

[Ethan]

How long were they at this?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

And at a glance you can tell everything that he meant. Spectrometer readings, light readings, material readings. All of these things are coming up and it's all inconclusive.

[Ethan]

Plenty of truth here, but none of it useful, clearly. So he was being. He was honest about it.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Yeah, he was. He was. That is a hope. Dice is your moment on top. That is for you. It succeeds on a five or a six things moving forward. And you find for one brief goddamn moment someone wasn't actually lying to you. Now, to be Fair. He had just taken about two bottles of sleeping pills before laying the truth out to you.

[Ethan]

But the deathbed confession is often the most sincere.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Great.

[Ethan]

When can I use this?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Anytime. Anytime from now until you pass your brink and fail it.

[Eliza]

Great. Only you're rolling from now.

[Ethan]

Only works once, right?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Oh, well, it only. I mean, it works until it doesn't work. Ah. So you do get to keep rolling it until it is no longer a thing. Got it. Boone, there is. There's a lot to digest here. You've spoken and you've asked this thing. Are you the way and many ways. You are talking to it. And you do hear something talking to you back. It doesn't speak in a language that you understand, but it does seem to have this resonant chant as you stay into it. You don't understand what it is saying, but you do understand its meaning. You are. You are on the cusp of being able to move over. But there's just one last thing to do before you can be accepted. Billy. Eliza. Not a bad monolith. Not a bad monolith indeed.

[Eliza]

I've been to a lot of festivals. It's just kind of a thing that happens.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

It's just a simple shape. It's like a trapezoid, but. Oh, sorry. It's like a pyramid, but it's tall and it's connected into it. And she did a pretty good 3D shape onto it.

[Boone]

It's beautiful.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Yeah.

[Boone]

Thanks.

[Eliza]

My pleasure. Anything to make us feel human again.

[Boone]

I mean, fuck it, right?

[Eliza]

Fuck it.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Fuck it.

[Billy]

I go over and I hit the button.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Hope. I just need your moment. Sorry. The moment that's on top that you've fulfilled. And that's now your dice.

[Billy]

I go over to the elevator. He said it went to the surface, but are there any other stops up or down?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Yes, there are.

[Billy]

I'm like, well, y' all, we can't stop. Stay here.

[Eliza]

Wait. I wanna try and do what his co worker did. I mean, what if there's a place we can go? What if, I don't know, something from another planet? Put these here. And if you just ask it, it'll let you in.

[Boone]

Take us with you.

[Eliza]

Let's hold hands.

[Billy]

I mean, he said it spoke to the last person. Have you. You heard it speaking to you?

[Eliza]

Look, I saw a flash of a door right before I hit it. You saw me slap it, right?

[Billy]

I also saw no door up here.

[Ethan]

Yeah, neither did I.

[Boone]

No, but it.

[Eliza]

But it's the idea of a door. I mean, we don't know how these Things work.

[Boone]

Nobody else saw it. I mean, maybe it really.

[Billy]

Come over here with me for a second.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Okay. Come over here.

[Billy]

And I go over towards the window, and I just motion up towards the ceiling.

[Boone]

Oh, yeah.

[Billy]

Like, I would hate to see those things turn somebody as delightful as you into some sort of fucking meat puppet. So maybe hold it together for a little while longer. The monolith ain't going nowhere.

[Eliza]

There's a light shining.

[Billy]

Until it ain't.

[Boone]

Is the elevator in here with us? Or is it outside somewhere?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

You will have to. You'll have to go into the darkness to get to the elevator, man.

[Boone]

We're going out there anyway, right?

[Billy]

Are there any.

[Boone]

We're keeping this guy company forever.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Sorry.

[Boone]

Mozart.

[Billy]

Flashlights and things like that. In here. Sources of light. They were spelunkers. So I would like to reroll.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

With loyalty.

[Billy]

With loyalty.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

You have one. One in which to do so.

[Billy]

Because I cannot let these people stumble blindly to their death. No meaningless sacrifices will be made today.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

As you begin rifling through the area, looking for everything you possibly can, trying to find a flashlight to take you through, you suddenly hear. And what you took previously advantage for was just the light humming of a generator somewhere. And the lights flicker. The floodlights. And then go dark.

[Billy]

We may not have much time left, y' all. So if there's anything you gonna say, make peace with your maker and say it now.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Five dice, five truths. This is the point in the story which dire consequences can come into play place. But that being said, Boone, you do have the first truth. Always. The world is dark.

[Billy]

This was inevitable.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

And it's a truth. This was inevitable. Now that the lights are off, they are coming.

[Eliza]

There's a window, right? One window.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

There was a window in the hab. Yeah.

[Eliza]

They start to tap at it with their teeth.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

They've already made it up to you.

[Ethan]

That was quick.

[Eliza]

The first few just dropped and then swarmed up to the door.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Got it. They just dropped Ethan. Oh, wait. Yes. You're the last truth. No, you're not.

[Ethan]

Not yet.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Right?

[Ethan]

The world is dark. And the monolith is singing that song.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Singing the song, Bill.

[Boone]

But the door Becca saw is real.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Right? Five truths, five candles. This begins with the sound of carapaces just dropping as you watch. Like caterpillars. Pillars falling from a leaf. They just fall down onto the ground. And they bounce a little bit, but some of them just curl up and curl back out as some of them. Some of them are so big. The smaller ones, though, hit first as they drop down, and you start Hearing them and you hear the sound, the singing, the screeching.

[Boone]

I go where Mozart's unconscious. This here, his music thing have a flashlight mode or.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Yes.

[Boone]

I'm sorry, buddy. Yank, yank.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

All right, you pull it out and take the headphones.

[Eliza]

Billy, you're a genius. Yeah, I'm getting as close behind Billy as I possibly can.

[Billy]

I think we need to use these and accept them.

[Boone]

Oh, yes.

[Eliza]

They're in the unicorn in the backpack. Corny.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

You pull all. You light the last three. All cracking, shaking it into it as you can hear as the clicking of their tiny, tiny feet. Just.

[Billy]

Ooh, elevator.

[Eliza]

I want to reassemble the headlamp. And maybe it's got a little bit more juice and maybe that dried out when it was separated, right?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

You turn it on.

[Eliza]

Wait, hold on just a sec. I put it on myself.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

It doesn't turn on for the first few times that you click it as you keep hitting it, and you click and click and click and click. And then finally you click it on once you get a small beam of light. It's dim, but it is something more to light in front of you than it is a direct light of beam.

[Ethan]

Let's check the elevator.

[Billy]

Elevator.

[Ethan]

Does it have an emergency charge?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

So let's find out, shall we? But you're going to have to get out of the hab and go out, out with them in order to get to the elevator.

[Eliza]

Are there any makeshift weapons we can grab on our way? Like, I don't know, anything that's a pole or something like that, Like a leg of a metal table, a knife.

[Ethan]

At this point, leg off his cot, anything.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

If you want weapons, it is a conflict and you will have to get them.

[Eliza]

Not worth it. Let's just go.

[Boone]

Oh, look.

[Eliza]

Billy tries to find you get an additional, and a five or a six succeeds.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

A hope dice. That monolith tattoo one one. No sixes.

[Billy]

Anything left to reroll?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Just that one one. Is that your brink?

[Boone]

No.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

It's up to you.

[Boone]

This is not how we go out.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Determination. You just got this thing and you can roll that one.

[Boone]

Everyone else thinks it's stupid. You get it because we've talked about it before. But I'm clutching the music device in one hand, and that is my whole life. That is the thing that would take you with, that you would take with you to the edge of oblivion, which I get from Mozart. That is everything that we are going to get back to.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

So as you pop in the headphones and lay into this, you start digging, grasping, looking for anything you can to possibly turn this into a weapon. And that is the moment you still keep your hope dice. This is the moment in which suddenly the hab is just ripped apart as something, a tentacle, just flops right in and it grasps you from underneath your arm and it yanks you down onto the bed as it pulls you in. And you can see this lamprey like face opening up with teeth just serrated across as it pulls you up onto the bed. And you barely get your feet onto the side of the wall before it attempts to wrench your body straight into its mouth.

[Billy]

Am I able to attack the tentacle with my knife? Is this an attempt to free her?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

There is truths to speak, and this is the time to do things that. Four truths, four candles. Billy, you can begin. You have failed this conflict now. But what is the truth you wish to speak? This thing has you. It's so close. It's holding onto you. And you have music players. You have this phone in your hand with its flashlight on.

[Boone]

Whatever version of an eye it has is somewhere near that mouth.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

That's the truth.

[Boone]

It's my truth.

[Billy]

The lower level of this facility has not fallen yet. The lower level has not fallen yet.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Okay, that's fine. I'm going to write my truth to you and give it to you.

[Billy]

No spoilers.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

No. The time for secrets is done. I will tell you as you shine the light into this thing's face. It has human eyes.

[Boone]

Do I recognize them?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Next. Truth.

[Eliza]

The world is dark, but when the cot was knocked over that she was dragged across, there was a pistol under the pillow.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

All right. It is the truth. It is spoken. I'm so sorry we cannot make it to you on this one, but we begin this scene with you as you've been frantically looking around, and you put your feet up. The pillow that Mozart was laying on, his body just flung off of the cot. And you see the pillow coming down with it. You see a small pistol laid out right there. What do you want to do? You can hear the metal, the screeching, the terror, and her screams as her feet are laid up against the door.

[Ethan]

Go for the gun.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

You're going for the gun. Going for the. Then you grab it. You just lay onto it, but there are swaying tentacles everywhere. Shoot this thing if you want to free your friend. It's pulling on you. You can feel the tendon slowly being locked, pulled up as your muscle is just straining against the effort of not being pulled into this thing. Three ones.

[Billy]

No anything left.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

It's your brink.

[Ethan]

It's the brink you can use it.

[Eliza]

Do it. Do it. That's a lot of revolver.

[Ethan]

Absolutely. Do it. How many can I reroll?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

You have to reroll everything, including the hope dice. But tell me, what is that, Brink? What is there? You need to activate it.

[Ethan]

I read your notebook. Why did you write? I knew and told no one. The others can't find out.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

So it is time for this brink to come out. What do you want to say to Billy as you pull this gun out and just level it against this creature?

[Ethan]

I shout, I'm so sorry. I knew it was here.

[Eliza]

What the fuck? Ethan.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Roy.

[Eliza]

Yes.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

One for me, but one success.

[Billy]

Excuse me. Does that count as me having witnessed repentance?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Do you consider this repentance?

[Billy]

He said he was sorry and.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Jeez, this is the first game I've had in which three moments have been fulfilled.

[Ethan]

That's my brink. But it's also my last picture.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

You get to keep it. It succeeded, so you get to keep it and continue to activate it. But if it fails, I'm going to darken, take that hope dice away and darken a candle immediately. All right? So you scream, I'm sorry. I knew it was here. As you fired, you just watch as just the clip just pull trigger, trigger, trigger. It's a semi automatic pistol. And you hear it screech as it's screech. And you kind of watch as black ichor just sprays out everywhere. You feel it drip upon you as it lays out, but you feel also the tentacle just release onto it as its head just pulls back. And you watch as its mouth opens for a minute and it sings this song of just screaming. It is more a song of pain and complete misery than it is any kind of choir of angels. And it pulls out, but then you drop to the floor just with a God.

[Eliza]

Get to her side. Lift her head up.

[Billy]

I just scoop her up with my good arm. I don't baby her anything. We gotta go get the stuff.

[Ethan]

Is there anything left? I did not shoot at all.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

No, you didn't shoot at all. You un. Unloaded about half the clip.

[Billy]

I'm like, get that. Get her bag.

[Eliza]

I grabbed the headphones as well.

[Boone]

It's a bunch of weird, miscellaneous. Looks almost like medical supplies, but just pick it up.

[Eliza]

Medical supplies.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

And do you go out the front door where they all are, or do.

[Eliza]

You climb through that bridge?

[Boone]

Let's go.

[Eliza]

The opening that we're right next to.

[Boone]

So sorry, what are you talking about?

[Eliza]

What? We can't talk about it right now.

[Boone]

Okay.

[Billy]

I mean, if not now, when that.

[Boone]

Had looked human, it had people eyes.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

And they were all different colors, but they were all looking at you.

[Ethan]

I knew this place was down here, but I didn't know what they were looking for.

[Eliza]

It just sucks up people.

[Ethan]

That was what I was really looking for. I wasn't interested in preppers or doomsdays or.

[Eliza]

You knew about this place?

[Ethan]

I knew it was down here.

[Eliza]

You didn't even tell us we were looking for it.

[Ethan]

Didn't seem to matter anymore.

[Billy]

That's why you suggested hiding out in goddamn caves when monsters were coming out of the earth. Yeah, well, we made it this far, right?

[Eliza]

Let's go, guys. Honesty so much, yet you couldn't tell the truth to any of us.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

You all climb out through this broken metal and it scrapes and it hurts because the metal is ripped and it's just disjointed. But you get through it. And some of you tumble more than really step out as you land upon the rock on the other side. And you can excellently hear just the sound of whatever is in the front is now. In fact, you can still see the one that you had shot just. It's backing up up to the top of where the possum just coming into a corner where it is. But you run and you make all effort to get to the elevator as quick as you possibly can.

[Boone]

Trying to be patient. I pissed at you, but I'd be dead.

[Eliza]

You know, we slammed the button.

[Billy]

Did you mean. Yeah, I mean. Heading towards the elevator. I'm like. But did you mean that you're sorry? Are you really sorry?

[Ethan]

Of course I'm sorry. Wouldn't you be?

[Billy]

That's good enough for me.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

And you run towards it and you hit the button and you hear it down, down, go down. You want to. Okay, you hit. And you hear as the whirl. The thing begins to descend.

[Eliza]

I hit his finger.

[Ethan]

All I knew was that there was a secret research place. I didn't know what they were looking for. I didn't even connect it until we got down here.

[Billy]

Shit, man. You couldn't have assumed they were studying some ancient goddamn hieroglyphic monolith.

[Eliza]

Hurry. Everybody backs together. We can shine our lights outward.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

So you all and put that light out in this tall. Just little bit of glow coming in. But you see there are so many of them. Dozens that have just dropped. And it seems like a writhing mass. Have you ever seen a. I don't know a. They are singing Eliza. You do.

[Eliza]

I've got something else above it.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

That's okay because this is already happening. As you shining this light forward, you see this writhing mass of bodies that is continuing to move forward. In these.

[Eliza]

I pick up the Mozart and I put it in my ears.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

And you feel as for a moment, the tentacles latch out and they slap onto your hands and they grab ahold of you. Do you resist?

[Eliza]

No.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

You feel them pull you up as you kind of come into it. Just do one roll for me. Just do it. Just one. I want to.

[Eliza]

One and a six.

[Billy]

Is that. Wait, that wasn't enough dice.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

There was three dice.

[Billy]

Yeah, but we're at four, king.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

One dice was already lost. Eliza, you feel as these tentacles latch onto you, and it's this weird moment. You allow yourself to be pulled up into these creatures, and you can actually feel them taking you. And in a weird way, they are passing you along. They seem to be moving you across. And in the music, you can hear the voices speaking to you. There's not just the classical music that you're laid into anymore. Something is speaking to you. And it's saying. It's asking one. One question, one solitary inquiry. Yes or no? Yes.

[Eliza]

Everything in me is just pulsating and writhing. This is a feeling of being alive that I've just felt almost dead for so long.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Almost dead for so long. What memories are coming to you now in this time of which you are sitting on a mass of creatures writhing below you as these hands that are these languid tentacles prop you in the air. You seem almost to be a suspended creature amongst blackness.

[Boone]

I'm just weightless.

[Eliza]

It just feels nothing. Just weightlessness. Just free. Just peacefulness and joy. I see the kids that I used to teach. I see their faces.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Did you love these kids so much?

[Eliza]

But I. Some little part inside me that knows that I need to fight to live just has a moment of realization that this is crazy. I need to survive.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Yes or no?

[Eliza]

No, no, no, no, no. And I start yanking my hands back.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

All right. As you begin yanking and kicking and kicking, and you start pull, pulling this thing apart. I will give you your hope, Dice. Because that was basically about as good as getting in a crowd as can ever possibly be. But you start writhing and kicking and pulling into it as you watch as the three of you continue to see Eliza pull up into the air. And now, at moment, she was blissfully kind of accepting it, but now she's writhing and kicking and moving and screaming, whoa, whoa, whoa.

[Boone]

What the hell, girl?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

What do you want to do?

[Billy]

Is she physically out of our reach?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

I mean, you would have to get.

[Ethan]

She's out in the middle of those things.

[Boone]

I run towards them and put my hand up.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

So you roll in there, but yes, let's go get her. You reach out for her and you.

[Eliza]

I reach back towards you with my other arm that I'm trying to yank it in.

[Billy]

We still have the rope that we made, that we drew her out with. Just try and cast the rope out to her so that we don't all have to.

[Eliza]

Made of the fatigues.

[Billy]

Yeah, the fatigue knotted up rope. You can throw that.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Reach out for her.

[Boone]

There's a weird. This is the worst. But there's a weird, familiar scenario. We've been to so many concerts and you get into so much trouble. So there's this weird. It's almost reflex to be like, what are you doing?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Yes.

[Eliza]

Okay, one more for me.

[Billy]

Unless you can reroll it. Is there anything left?

[Boone]

Just the brink.

[Eliza]

Reroll it. We need it.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

I mean, you have to reroll everything.

[Eliza]

Oh, no, don't reroll it. Don't reroll it.

[Boone]

Keep the success.

[Eliza]

Yeah.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Billy, you hear a voice, the same singing, this choir coming to you, this open invite. And you hear this question again. You hear it. It's the same one. Eliza doesn't know it, but you hear it. Yes or no? Yes. No.

[Boone]

Does it sound. Do the voices sound like the singing or does this sound like something different?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

It's different. It's so different. It's as if something calm and soothing is asking you the inquiry. The singing is just the screams. It's just the wailing, keening screeches of something. And because you're in the mass of this creature, it is just Dante's inferno of wailing and screeching. But this is a dark, soothing voice that seems to punctuate under there as you reach your hand out and you can touch. You can feel Eliza's warm flesh against her cold touch. And it is saying, yes.

[Eliza]

I squeeze your hand as hard as I possibly can.

[Boone]

Yes.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Yes. And you said no.

[Eliza]

I said no.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Billy. Eliza is unwrapped in this process. And you grab and you pull her with all of your might as you wrench her straight out from underneath this crowd. And it seems to let go as it drops Eliza to the ground. But you. It picks you up and it almost as if exchanges you and it pulls you up into its faint, as if you switch a place as you come into it and. And you feel the body start to pull and pull you in. And you are disappearing. You are going deep into the crowd of these creatures. You chose. You chose this Is yours. What do you want to do?

[Eliza]

Is she still on the other end of the rope?

[Ethan]

Do you see her? Does she have the rope?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

She does have the rope and she. She's holding onto it. She's being pulled away.

[Ethan]

We try to pull her back, all three of us.

[Billy]

Did we make it into the elevator?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

The elevator is coming down. And at this point between all of this exchange, it has made its way down. And you can hear the eerie scraping of the metal as the whole door slides open.

[Boone]

Who are you?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Billy is out there, but we have.

[Billy]

The other end of the rope.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Yeah.

[Billy]

I'm like, get on the elevator.

[Eliza]

Yeah.

[Billy]

We back into the elevator, grab the.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Dice and pull her in two.

[Billy]

My intention is for us to escape.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

I understand.

[Eliza]

Six.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Billy. As you feel this thing pass into you, you hear it say it answers your question. I am you. And that's the moment in which the rope tugs ahold of you. And you hear and feel the resistance of the tentacles just pulling against you as it clicks and pops. And you feel something, one of the mouths just grasp ahold of your foot as almost. It's just like something snapped in them and they reached up and they grasp a hold of your foot. And you feel. Feel the tearing of flesh as the teeth are wrung up against your leg. But you pull and you pull and you feel as she comes across and all of the creatures just descend upon all of you just at once. But you pull onto it and you slam the gate in front of you as you hold it up and Billy is laid in. Blood is running down your legs.

[Eliza]

Let's use the rope as a tourniquet.

[Ethan]

Tourniquet.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

And you watch as this thing then starts to go.

[Boone]

Hold on. It spoke to me.

[Eliza]

I know, me.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

And the creatures are laying into there, and you can see they're climbing on top and they are not letting go at this point, in fact, the tentacles are still coming in every once in a while.

[Eliza]

Use your knife.

[Billy]

I'm like, eh, if it gets one of us, you'd be ready with that thing.

[Ethan]

Yeah, okay, fine.

[Billy]

I'm very much like, head down, kind of like near her, but only if.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

One can really sit on top of.

[Ethan]

Her, stop her bleeding.

[Billy]

Yeah, she's doing a tourniquet.

[Boone]

Oh, yeah, yeah. I think there's some gauze in the bag.

[Eliza]

I'm trained in first aid.

[Ethan]

You would be right. Teacher.

[Eliza]

Early childhood education. So it's part of the degree job skills.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

You continue to descend in darkness.

[Boone]

It spoke to me. It said, I'm you. And it asked me a question. What Was the question yes or no?

[Ethan]

What did you ask?

[Eliza]

You asked me that, too.

[Boone]

Well, I said yes, of course I want to know more.

[Ethan]

What did you say?

[Eliza]

I said. I said no. I mean, I almost gave in, but I knew it was survival or just giving up.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Oh. Oh. At this point, one of the tentacles is starting to feel bold enough. And, Eliza, it reaches for you again and tries to grasp of your neck this time and pulls itself as it blanks you back against the grate and starts to choke you with all of its effort.

[Ethan]

I'll empty the gun into it.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Okay, Empty the gun into it. Oh, that's your hope dice? That's my hope dice.

[Ethan]

Let go, let go, let go, let go.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Two sixes. Wow.

[Eliza]

You got to talk to them.

[Ethan]

Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

I mean, I haven't been rolling it for narrative control, but by all means, go ahead, elaborate for me.

[Ethan]

Well, I empty the clip into it.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Okay, let go, let go, let go.

[Ethan]

Let go, let go. No more.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

And you just go until the slide just pulls back. And you. Do you hear anchor out of the way.

[Eliza]

Does the tentacle break off? And I can use it to whip it the other way.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

It just comes up. It just lets up your neck, but not before you come back and you feel just the bruising on your neck at this point as it literally an ichor everywhere. And it's just black and just everywhere around you.

[Ethan]

Sorry.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

And you hear nothing for the moment as you continue to descend down.

[Ethan]

Are you okay?

[Boone]

Yeah.

[Eliza]

Thank you. Thank you so much. You saved my life.

[Billy]

I want to inspect the tentacles. See, like, what. What manner of skin has it got? Is it human flesh? Is it slimy? Is it crocodilian?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Well, he unloaded the gun into it. The tentacle was not. It wasn't like he shot it and shot with a bullet, took the tentacle down. It just went away with the process. There wouldn't be anything to inspect, unfortunately.

[Eliza]

Oh, my God. It's hard to breathe.

[Ethan]

No more bullets. I now have a ridiculously short club. Better than nothing, I guess.

[Billy]

Might find a spare clip for the day.

[Eliza]

Can you see?

[Ethan]

Well, looks bad, but can you breathe?

[Eliza]

Man, those things can squeeze.

[Billy]

I actually want to inspect Billy's wounds. I'm specifically looking for anything like, if there was teeth broken off, signs of venom, any sort of infection, because we've proven they can do something to people. So that's.

[Boone]

Where did you say you come from?

[Billy]

I am trained in the arts of survival.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

I don't tell her.

[Billy]

That's what I'm doing. I'm just surgical.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Well, you look at her leg, I'm gonna notice. If you're inspecting my foot, you can see that she's been flayed. Most of the skin is off at this point.

[Billy]

You're not gonna wanna look at that.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

And it's bleeding.

[Boone]

I look at it.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

The adrenaline is induced. It's just pumping through you right now. But there is not much left on your lower calf right now.

[Boone]

I'm gonna take one of the painkillers.

[Eliza]

Is that a special pain killer or.

[Boone]

That's the regular kind of. We just wanted to calm you down. How you doing?

[Billy]

More than aspirin. Don't worry about me. Your arm's half off, your foot's fucking gone. Take whatever you got in here.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Yeah, it takes.

[Boone]

But seriously, where are you from?

[Billy]

I'm from Arkansas. I came out here to the desert because land was cheap and there was no one to bother us. And I'd been stockpiling things for this exact thing. And like I said, when this monolith, this fucking monolith came up through the ground and destroyed our stockpile on day fucking one of the apocalypse, I got out with what I had in my bag and him in tow. And when he came to the caves, and now I know why. And here we are.

[Boone]

Who was we?

[Billy]

I mean, me and mine, I had my family, my wife, my children, some of my cousins, some just friends of like minded individuals.

[Eliza]

We were all of them, bulma.

[Billy]

The same place all of your kinfolk are now. Nowhere.

[Boone]

Right.

[Eliza]

Sorry.

[Billy]

I just sure as shit hope that's not them out there with them human eyes. Maybe having that thing rip up through our land was the best thing that ever could have happened to our homestead.

[Boone]

Nah, I don't think there's any good news. I think we're all completely screwed.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

And with that, you feel it as it impacts onto the bottom level.

[Billy]

I do. Help her up.

[Eliza]

Thanks.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

You.

[Eliza]

I help you limp because. Still got a broken foot.

[Ethan]

I've still got a broken foot, actually.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Hop along.

[Billy]

Should help her limp. I can't fight anhole.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

You kind of feel at this point actually what you thought was the bottom was actually the fact that the elevator stopped because it ran out of whatever reserve power was still running through on the grating. And as you attempt to open it, you actually look at the ground's at least another 15, at least as far as you can see, maybe 20ft below you.

[Eliza]

And that's where the next door out, the next level is.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Well, it's presumably the bottom where this thing was Going. But it came up short is what.

[Billy]

I'm trying to say. Do I. Is there. I mean, presumably on all sides. There's no way for me to drop anything. Like if I wanted to drop my glow stick to let it go to the rest of the way, could I do that?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Yeah, you could do that.

[Billy]

I'll drop my glow stick.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

All right. So you put your glow stick and you watch it fall 5, 10, 15, 20ft as it impacts. And you kind of see it fall on a concrete platform, but a platform.

[Boone]

Not covered in tentacle y bodies.

[Billy]

No screeching, no running.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

When the new set it kind of falling on rock towards the side. More than just flat concrete as far as the glow is concerned.

[Billy]

I gotta tell you, we gotta get out of here. And right now I think the most qualified climber is you. And this rope ain't 20ft long.

[Eliza]

Okay. Okay. Is there a hatch at the top of the elevator car? Okay. And this. It's all. It's all just a metal grate.

[Billy]

It's like mesh open each other.

[Eliza]

So can I get a boost? Step on his knee or something?

[Billy]

Yeah.

[Eliza]

And I pull myself up.

[Boone]

I work out.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Yeah.

[Eliza]

Is there like some sort of turn crank maybe? I can like manually use it like a pulley.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Well, you look, there is ropes that are pulled up into it, but they just seem to be descending. It's not a manual line. There is four beams that hold the shaft at that point. But there's no ladder that takes it up or down the stage.

[Eliza]

So I can shimmy down a beam or you give me your knife and I cut this rope and we fall 20ft.

[Billy]

Those ain't good odds.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

What's it gonna be?

[Billy]

Hand the knife, flip it around. I'm like, brace yourselves best you can. Probably best to lay on the floor, I guess.

[Eliza]

Yeah. I think you should lay down.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Yeah.

[Ethan]

Hang on tight up there.

[Eliza]

There you guys are gonna go up and then slam back down and it's not gonna feel good.

[Boone]

It's made of grate. Right. Can I hold myself from the ceiling so that I'm hanging?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Absolutely.

[Eliza]

I'm actually going to hold on to one of the beams as I cut with one hand. So I'm not actually on the car. So it'll fall and then I'll presumably climb down if it works out. Six, five and six.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Five and six.

[Eliza]

I got two successes.

[Ethan]

Well done.

[Billy]

Told you we were going to be.

[Eliza]

The first people to survive. Tin candles.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Why did you say that? Who?

[Eliza]

I'll take my hope, please.

[Ethan]

Why did you say that?

[Billy]

There can be no negative repercussions to any of this.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

You begin cutting. Watch as you kind of get into it. And you finally, at some point, snap. And you watch as lifts up.

[Eliza]

Give him a little warning.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

At first, it just kind of onto one side. And then you hear. And then you fall. You fall. And you all, like you said, you feel weightless for a moment as you hold onto it. And you two laying on the ground, just lift up ever so slightly before you all impact onto the ground.

[Eliza]

I'm still hanging onto the thing and.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

You'Re holding onto the. With everything you possibly.

[Eliza]

So I start, you know, just like small shimmies. I'm hugging it. Little shimmies down.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Hurts. Everything is bruised. You just fell straight into it. And it is. Yeah, dust. The weight has just. The air has just been kicked out of you at this point. But you settle for the moment. And it worked. Yeah, it worked.

[Ethan]

How are you up there?

[Eliza]

I'm good. How are you guys down there?

[Ethan]

We're awesome, thanks.

[Billy]

The day's getting better by the mom.

[Eliza]

Careful. What can I say? I've got joy.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Ethan, you look around, and the little light that the stick at this point has to offer is just not giving you much. It's just a little bit, but it is hot down here. It is warm.

[Ethan]

Oh, it must be really deep.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Very deep. Deep. And it is almost suffocatingly warm. But you do.

[Eliza]

I need the keycard to get Sam out.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

I haven't seen you haven't found a door yet.

[Eliza]

Maybe we can close the door.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Well, it's a whole shaft coming down. At this point, I will say I'm just so impressed. Honestly, honestly, I'm just so amazed at how many of these two dice rolls we're making at this stage. Even the six, Even that hope dice didn't matter. It was a five and a six.

[Eliza]

Uh oh, did you hear a voice?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

So, Eliza, as you kind of descend down, you can see light. Red glowing, eerie light that seems to be a roundabout. What you've come is into a small open area where the shaft is, but there are several caverns that peek off in different directions. And one of them seems to have a red glow that seems to be radiating from it.

[Eliza]

That's light. We should go that way.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

And you kind of climb down. It was so good. I'm not gonna make you see, if you fall and slap your face onto the ground, as tempting as that is, you kinda come back and put your feet onto it and you hop down and, yeah, you see your friends all mangled on the bottom of the grate.

[Eliza]

As I help them up.

[Boone]

Thanks.

[Ethan]

Thank you. Nicely done.

[Eliza]

I'm very small, so it's very hard. I pull hard to get them standing.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

It takes everything to take the mangled grate and basically pull it open at this point. And it doesn't really give much, just enough for you to all squeeze through, ever so barely.

[Billy]

You see anything on your climb?

[Eliza]

Did I see anything on my climb?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Just the red glowing light coming from one of the cave entrances.

[Eliza]

I see a way. That looks interesting.

[Boone]

Start limping that way.

[Ethan]

I'm this far. Start hobbling in that direction.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Yeah.

[Billy]

This is the world's worst three legged race.

[Eliza]

I picked to help Billy because the flayed calf is pretty awful. Grotesque. It's Grotex.

[Boone]

Thank you.

[Billy]

Although when I checked, I saw no signs of teeth, poison, anything other than just ripped up meat.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Ripped up meat.

[Eliza]

But now it's got gauze on it.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

As you begin to come around the corner, you are limping through and there's the radiating light and you've got your glow sticks. But you're mostly keeping your head down as you move forward with every last amount of strength you possibly can. And that's when you hear the moaning. Moaning? Just the deep resonant moaning. And as you step forward and you continue to look, you see that the red light is a small river of magma that's pushing through this causeway into it, into the actual mountainside. It's just like a. A small bed of lava that seems to be rolling through. And there is. It's illuminating something above it. You can see a writhing mass of moving flesh. Bodies that are there. Heads lolling, arms reaching out. An amalgamation of bodies all pressed together and reaching out and crying in dismay as they reach out towards you. Ethan. This is when, on your foot, you feel a hand grab your ankle and squeeze the bone underneath you.

[Billy]

I stab at it to free him.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

And you look down and you see the floor. Bodies all over the floor. Yes.

[Ethan]

People, People.

[Billy]

I'm gonna use my last. I'm gonna use my brink.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Okay? Your brink? What is your brink?

[Billy]

They've seen your faith and know it to be a lie. Only sacrificing a sinner will bring redemption. And I know what she has done. He repented. She did not.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Roll.

[Eliza]

Did you write that, Amy?

[Billy]

That's what he wrote for me.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

That's what he wrote. I haven't read it.

[Billy]

Although so dramatically. When I see things pulling at him, I intentionally push her towards them as I'm pulling on him.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Your hope dice is gone. Yes, this is gone.

[Billy]

Oh, yeah, we're losing hope.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

You shove Billy towards. And Ethan, you feel this hand grasping on your leg as it's pulling you down and attempting to move into it. And it's odd. I mean, you were stepping on stone. This is impossible.

[Ethan]

This was rock. This was rock solid earth. I know it was.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Yes, it was.

[Ethan]

This can't be happening.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Yeah, it's not happening. This no point. It must be the fumes or something. Something is affecting your mind, but it is holding onto you with every step and it is pulling you and it is squeezing your bones as it drags both of you. And Boone, Billy, you just fall forward and the hands just lift themselves up and they grasp ahold of you and they caress you and they move your hands across your shoulders and across your desiccated legs, and they rub upon your flayed flesh and you scream. It's so painful. And they seem to languish in your scream as they pull you forward and it drags you and pulls you towards the lava.

[Eliza]

No.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

And Billy, you look towards your friends as you gaze out to them. And Ethan, you kind of see because Billy is laying on the floor and you have your hands around your ankle at the moment. You kind of see Billy just being pulled in. And Billy, there's something like you just saw this boon. This man threw you down.

[Boone]

Why?

[Billy]

No, Billy, as I'm pulling.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Ethan, don't go.

[Billy]

I'm all like, no, you sought forgiveness.

[Ethan]

Let me go.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

And you hold onto it. And Billy, you feel the warmth embrace of the hot magma clasp ahold of your leg as your leg is disseminated and it disintegrates into nothing. Flames start to erupt from the side of your body as you are engulfed into this liquid stream. As all of the bodies around you begin to howl and wail as their arms laid up and they embrace you as they pull you into the earth. Thank you for playing. Oh, my God. Why? How? I have to ask you to leave my table. Sorry. I had to do it.

[Billy]

He made me do it. She has perished in the lake of fire.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Why did you.

[Eliza]

What did you do? What did you do, Boone? What did you do?

[Billy]

This place is hell. This is a place for sinners. It is not a place for you who are redeemed.

[Eliza]

Let's run. Let's run. We have to run.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

You run. There's three truths to speak before this ends, before we get into this next place. There are three candles, three truths that need to be spoken. Normally, Billy would have the first truth, but in this circumstances, I will have to Take it, since she is no longer here. The first truth is the world is dark. The second truth is Boone is overcome by zealous feather and knows what he has to do. Eliza, here. Next. You get the second truth.

[Eliza]

The world is dark and the cavern is starting to crumble a little bit. The one around the lava.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Yeah.

[Eliza]

With all the people and all the lava flowing, starting to crumble behind us.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Got it. Ethan, you have the last one.

[Ethan]

The world is dark, and the cavern is coming down around us.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Yes. But there is another light.

[Billy]

There is another light.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

We pick up this right as Boone is yelling, this is hell. This is redemption. You are the saved. And he, she will, was the sinner. As he runs towards both of you.

[Billy]

Do I know roughly where the monolith must be? Cause I knew where it was. I knew where the elevator was. So roughly where it must be. I go towards the monolith. I'm like, I understand now. I understand why it is here. I understand what we must do. Brother and sister, I understand. You saw it. You saw it. That was the Lake of Fire. I know what we have to do. I know what we have to do.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

And I go towards the monolith, and you run towards.

[Ethan]

He's running towards it.

[Billy]

The monolith. Yeah. I mean, roughly, directly. I don't know how close it.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Where it could be, but, Eliza, Ethan.

[Eliza]

I was already taken off, and I didn't look back when I saw him push my friend. And I saw her go in, and there was no saving her. I just sprinted.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

And I am any direction away from him.

[Eliza]

Uninjured, fast runner away from him, and I think also down the monolith, if that's where the light is. I went towards the light, the other light.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Okay. It would be the same direction that Boone is going if it was the light, where the monolith is.

[Eliza]

I also want to see the monolith again. There. I had things I wanted.

[Billy]

Just my legs are uninjured, and I am trying to bring him along with me. So I'm not trying to leave him.

[Eliza]

I left him.

[Ethan]

I'll let him help me along.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Okay.

[Ethan]

I'm not happy about it, but.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

And he is evoking you.

[Ethan]

Let's see where the light is in. It's easier to go with him than it is to resist right now. So let's see where the light is and see where this goes.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Per your truth. There is another light. And, Eliza, you sprint for it, ahead of Ethan, ahead of Boone. He seems so focused and minded at the moment.

[Eliza]

He's crazy.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

And you run towards it. And you do see in the midst of the cavern, a black sheer face that is laid out in front of you. And right in front of it, two creatures as they just sit there, almost like guardians, protectors of this form. And it stands in front and they don't immediately go for you, but they stare. They turn their head around with their multi segmented human eyes as they look towards you and you can tell you're being judged.

[Eliza]

I don't move, I just wait. I want to see if other commotion heading down the tunnel distracts them.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

And the commotion comes as Boone and Ethan.

[Billy]

Yeah. The entire time I'm like, oh, it is written what my enemies mean. God has turned to my good. You didn't know why you brought us down here, but it was all part of the plan. Don't you see, Ethan? To be delivered for deliverance.

[Eliza]

As soon as they turn their many eyes to him, I start to slink backwards.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Okay. Boom.

[Billy]

When I lay eyes on the monolith, I'm like, ha ha ha. I have done what was asked to have things revealed to me. I have done as was requested. Did I believe I lost that?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

You did lose that.

[Eliza]

Thank you. Don't we get.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

We have three.

[Ethan]

Three. Right.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

You get these two with it.

[Billy]

Okay.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

You speak to it and you say I have done.

[Billy]

Why? Cuz we had lost.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

I thought new scene, new scene and just three dice.

[Billy]

I understand.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Three candles.

[Billy]

Yes. I, I basically as I get close, as I see her, I do sort of let go of you when I'm in ear. Yeah. I don't. Because I'm like. You will all bear witness to the revelation that apparently is not coming.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

So you funny that you scream, this is the revelation. I have done what it needs to be redeemed. And you hear a voice pierce into your mind as you come closer and you see the creatures who have turned their eyes away from you, but now turn towards you and they look at you and they gaze upon you and they say, Boone, you have been tested and you have done as requested. And again this whole time you hear this English speaking towards you, but in the background it is this.

[Ethan]

Do we hear anything? Or is it speaking only to him and only he can hear.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

And he is lowing forward and moving towards these crowds.

[Billy]

Creatures draw my weapon and I drop it because I will not need it anymore.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Right. I pick it up and you, you come forward and you hear it as the voice. You have done as we've requested. And your faith has been tested. You failed. And you feel as the arms lip around you and grab a wall.

[Billy]

You didn't.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

And they lift you up.

[Billy]

It was meant to be. This entire time.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Righteousness is not sacrifice of others. Your choice has been made. Now bathe. And you feel as both of them grab ahold of you. And one of them clasps upon your head and slowly starts to pull you in to its maw as each muscle beheld.

[Billy]

Right on a pale horse in a lake of fire.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

And you are consumed. In front of both Eliza and Ethan. You watch as Boone is basically lifted up. And one seems to be forcing its maw into the other as your body is just collapsed inside and p. Dave, thank you so much. I appreciate. I'm gonna have to ask you to leave my table. You wanna go to him? Yeah. Okay. Come here. Two candles. Two truths. The world is dark. Boone normally would have the first, but I will instead speak. The cave that you discussed starting to collapse. Behind you, a boulder has crumbled and is now blocking your only exit. There is one way forward.

[Eliza]

The boulder that fell, blocking the exit is also pinning the tail of one of the. The two creatures.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Excellent. Two truths.

[Eliza]

Oh, that's two.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Two dice. Eliza, as you mentioned, one of the rocks, the rock that is blocking your pathway has ostensibly fallen upon this creature. And you hear as it. Its carapace cracks. As you watch, its black ichor split. But it doesn't seem to care. It doesn't scream in pain like when you shine the light on it or when anything else. It's more just like a defeated cry of a dying creature. Something that has starved itself for years and is now finally deciding that it's okay to let go as it lays upon the grasping ground, not dead, but not moving.

[Ethan]

Ethan, you said there was one path forward. Which direction is that? Toward the monolith.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

There is a world in which, if you want to try to get back out through the boulder, it could be another spelunking adventure.

[Ethan]

Let's go.

[Eliza]

I have to try something first.

[Mozart]

I want.

[Eliza]

I want to try and get to the door that. I want to see if the monolith is its own way out. I grab Ethan and I pull him towards it. And I go to slam it. And then I stop my hand right before. And I. I think about envisioning what's inside of the monolith.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

As you begin to speak to it, you open your mind up and you begin to picture what's inside of it. And you hold on to him and you hear something in your mind. And it says simply, such hatred. Such joy. But such hatred. Roll, Roland. Be judged. Tell me What? You wish to tell it back?

[Eliza]

I wish to say, let us out of here. Let us go to safety. I know you can. Why have you brought this judgment upon us? We are pure of heart. That's not Sixes.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

So selfish, so trite. No, you are not.

[Ethan]

What's happening?

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Worthy you may have been, but no longer. And you feel your hand pressed into the monolith. In fact, you feel your whole arm lay up into the whole shoulder. And you feel as your arm gets stuck. And you attempt to pull on it, but it's like solid stone and you can't move. There's nothing. Everything is laid out. In fact, you feel this pull slowly start to crack. And then you hear your bones begin to break as your body is mashed. And slowly, pieces of yourself you can pull on her. You can. You pull on her with all of your might. You attempt to wrench her out, but the forces are so strong, and each miniscule millimeter by millimeter pulls it in until your chest begins to collapse. And you feel your weight crush as you fall limp. Ethan. You watch as her body now her heart and her body crushed. And you can hear the cracking of each bone as her body is slowly pulled into the monolith and finally is pulled in. And you stand there, and these things are just looking at you. You don't seem to have any emotion, but they just seem to be staring. Maybe it's pity, maybe it's righteousness, but they don't do anything other than watch you and the bloodied, broken pile of blood that is now on the floor in front of the monolith. Eliza, Becca, thank you so much. Good job.

[Eliza]

I almost made it. I almost was the first one to win.

[Ethan]

Leave me here.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

One candle. One truth. This is the final scene, Ethan. You were miles under the ground. You tried to do something good for the world, and instead you watched as everyone in front of you was consumed and killed and crushed in front of you. These things are not going after you, but nor do you see any indication that the monolith is doing anything but just being there. What is going on in your mind? What are you thinking?

[Ethan]

It was all for nothing. I couldn't have stopped this even if I had known the truth. Trying to find the answer didn't get us anywhere. Truth is not in and of itself the point.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

But it did get you here.

[Ethan]

Maybe it's the looking that's the important part, not the actual finding of the truth. Maybe it's how we conduct ourselves on the search rather than what we do at the end.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Of it. These are the thoughts that stay with you as you find your final hours buried deep under the earth with the Company of Monsters. Thank you so much for playing. That is the one of our story. Thank you, friend. Thank you. I'm gonna have to ask you to leave in the Company of Monsters. It's a good episode title. I think there's only one last thing left to do, and that is to listen to the messages of our departed characters. Good night.

[Boone]

Hey, hey. Hey. This is Zinnia. DJ Violet. My name is Billy Morris. And this has been a weird time. You know, after everything that happened at the concert, we just went on the run. We're doing good though. I made it. Eliza made it. Man, talking to Mike's is like the only thing I'm supposed to be good at. Yeah, I guess we just all wish we had more time, right? Some things we all wanted to do, but the moon looks crazy. How about that, huh? I think if we could just find some more people. Just some good people.

[Eliza]

I don't know.

[Boone]

You miss my equipment. Whoever's listening to this, pretend it sounded really cool, okay?

[Eliza]

Bye.

[Ethan]

If you can hear this, then I'm probably dead. When I was alive, my name was Ethan Daley. And I spent my life as a journalist searching for trees. I won prizes for it.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Awards.

[Ethan]

I patted myself on the back for my ingenuity in matching fidelity to fact. And now I know that it didn't matter that there is no truth. Or even if there is, it can't save us.

[Billy]

My name is Boone. Just Boone. I've been preparing my whole life to be here. To witness this glorious conclusion of humanity. This divine retribution that we have all brought on our own heads. Satan, sinner alike. I want you to know, though, that I was right. My daddy and his daddy were right. And when the end came, I was prepared. And I survived. And I will continue to survive until there is no more. But old brother, sister. Who hears this, I call upon you to repent. Because if you have survived to this point, it is on your head to help shepherd. In a new and better world free from vanity and greed and pollution and hatred, I go out to greet the end with a smile.

[Eliza]

When it started, there were 400 people all around me who were all dancing and enjoying ourselves and each other and substances. And many of those people were my friends. They're all dead now. There's so many beautiful souls with so much light and energy to share. And I watched them all sucked underground before my eyes. I used to teach Pre K. Freaking loved those kids. So much and I can't imagine a single one of those sweet little babes made it through the first night. Four years old, I keep seeing their sweet faces. I wanted to inspire them, inspire their young minds to be full of light and laughter and life. I wanted to shape future leaders and future givers and healers and believers in things greater than themselves. I just wanted to dance, be surrounded by strangers, feed off their energy and I don't know if I'll ever see more than a few people ever again. Again. Everyone is dead. All hope is lost.

[Ray Ban Meta Narrator]

Legendary Stories, Awe inspiring sound and endless Adventure welcome to the Realms of Peril and Glory. Explore the mechanically magical vistas of Vale, the paranormal mysteries of liminal London, and the cyberpunk chaos of Cyborg. With breathtaking sound design and enchanting original music, you'll be immersed into unforgettable campaigns and heart pounding one shots Ignite your imagination and discover the realms of peril and glory today. Go to realmspod.com or search realms of Peril and Glory Wherever you listen to podcasts.

[Narrator]

American history is full of infamous tales that continue to captivate audiences decades or even hundreds of years after they happened. On the Infamous America podcast, you'll hear the true stories of the Salem witch trials and the escape attempts from Alcatraz, of bank robbers like John Dillinger and Pretty Boy Floyd, of killers like Lizzie Borden and Charles Starkweather, of mysteries like the Black Dahlia and D.B. cooper, and of events that inspired movies like Goodfellas, Killers of the Flower Moon, Zodiac, Eight Men out, and many more. I'm Chris Wimmer. Join me as we crisscross the country from the Miami drug wars and Dixie Mafia in the south, to mobsters in Chicago and New York, to arsonists, kidnappers and killers in California, to unsolved mysteries in the heartland and in remote corners of Alaska. Every episode features narrative writing and cinematic music, and there are hundreds of episodes available to binge find infamous America wherever you get your podcasts. The Old west is an iconic period of American history and full of legendary figures whose names still resonate today like Jesse James, Billy the Kid and Butch and Sundance, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse and Geronimo, Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson and Bass, Reeves, Buffalo Bill Cody, Wild Bill Hickok, the Texas Rangers and many more. Hear all their stories on the Legends of the Old west podcast will take you to Tombstone, Deadwood and Dodge City, to the plains, mountains and deserts for battles between the U.S. army and native American warriors, to dark corners for the disaster of the Donner Party and Shining Summits for achievements like the Transcontinental Railroad. We'll go back to the earliest days of explorers and mountain men and head up through notorious Pinkerton agents and gunmen like Tom Horn. Every episode features narrative writing and cinematic music, and there are hundreds of episodes available to binge. I'm Chris Wimmer. Find Legends of the Old west wherever you're listening now.