It's here! The Prophecy has come full circle! And it's not looking good for the party. After enduring an utterly gruelling battle with the Whip-Poor-Will, leaving some characters more dead than they realised, our heroes now face their final challenge. They have their answers, they've pooled all their resources, now all that's left is to face Mathers head on
This is the first instalment of our 3-part finale.
Unifier protect us all...
Starring:
Jasper William Cartwright as Duncan Dullahan (he/him)
- Dhampir Tabaxi Pugelist - Hand Of Dread
Candace the Magnificent as Hecatae 'Heck' Hopewell (they/she)
- Shadar Kai Elf Shadow Sorcerer
Jonathan Charles as Officer Bilwop Wunkle (he/him)
- Forest Gnome Swarmkeeper Ranger
Olivia 'Liv' Kennedy as Angela Crawford (she/her)
Caldwell Tanner as Ozrik 'Rik' Johnson (he/him)
- Grave Cleric, Custom Lineage
Jeremy Cobb as your not-so-neighbourhood Dungeon Master
Sponsored by Heroforge Minis - visit www.heroforge.com
Series art by Kyle Crompton and Val Babayants
Post-production by Daniel Ramos
Produced by 12 Sided Studios
But wait... there's more...
Our very first official campaign setting module, City of the Black Rose: A Dark Metropolis Campaign Setting, set in non-other than Mavros, will be launching on April 7th 2025! Finally, a date! Be sure to be among the first notified of its launch, as we'll have tiers and goals featuring limited edition merch (which you can get a sneak peak at over on the Patreon!)
Follow the halflings! Jasper William Cartwright: @JW_Cartwright, Jeremy Cobb: @JeremyCobb1 Liv Kennedy: @doesdarkmagic
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This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever find yourself playing the budgeting game? Well, with a name your price tool from Progressive, you can find options that fit your budget and potentially lower your bills. Try it at Progressive.com, Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates, pricing coverage matched limited by state law, not available in all states. The Hulu Original series could American Family premieres March 19th streaming on Hulu. Hello Halflings! Before the episode starts, we just wanted to highlight that this is a gothic horror series with strong noir elements, and as such, there are series-wide content warnings for suspense, death, graphic violence, gore, body horror, systemic corruption, classism, and capitalism. With that, kick off your shoes, turn the lights down low, and get ready to enter the world of Mavros, the City of the Black Rose. Thank you. [Music] [Music] The next hour or so is a blur. A blur of gathering Duncan up, checking his wounds, realizing that he is, in fact, missing two and a half fingers from both hands, as well as a significant portion of his tongue and a significant portion of his ear. It does not take long to realize that he has seemingly swallowed each of those appendages, and the wounds appear to be self-inflicted. The blood that was inscribed on the ground, writing the message to you all, was, in fact, his blood, and you realize, I think, very quickly that, while it is theoretically possible to regrow these appendages, if you would need a regeneration spell, which you would not be able to have access to out here, you could theoretically find a powerful healer in the city who might be able to do it, but in Gerstily right now, the best you can do is dress his wounds and bundle him up. I think, for his part, Duncan is kind of only semi-responsive to anyone actually speaking to him. Duncan absolutely looks like he's in some sort of sunken place. He doesn't seem to be paying much attention. If someone asks him a very direct question like, "Are you still alive?" He might give you a nod, but that's probably about it. Semi-catatonic, I think, is the best way to describe it. Where have you put Duncan? Because Duncan is in his position where it's like, "You're not going to be able to help him any more than just dressing his wounds." Where have you bundled him up? Imagine if he would have insisted, like you put him in, probably in the guest bedroom? Hecate would suggest a room that does not have any windows. You got to lay him on his side. You got to make sure that he's got open passageways, can breathe easily, you know, he's not going to swallow any more of his tongue, stuff like that. So I put a glass of water near his face. Effian Billop worked together to remove approximately 30 throw pillows from the guest bed, removed the delicate arrangement there, and pulled back the three floral sheets with different floral patterns to bundle him in there. Duncan's just smearing a bloody hand over all the throw pillows, sort of absentmindedly. Kind of a nice design. Just like seeping through the bandages. So for the rest of you, at this point it's getting kind of late for all of you and you're going to need full rest if you're going to follow through with all these plans for tomorrow. Is there anything anyone wants to take care of before going to bed? Alright, so as all of you are lying down for bed or getting ready for bed, Duncan, we're going to throw it over to you, deep inside your mind palace. Can you please describe what it looks like in there right now? Duncan stands, if you remember the last time we were in his mind palace, there was a large floor to ceiling windows that would overlook a sort of rainy exterior of Mavros. Duncan's mind palace does not currently contain walls. He stands as if on a rooftop of a skyscraper there is no stairs leading down. There is no ladder. There is nothing. It is just, he has just stood on top of this sort of platform essentially and there is no nearby rooftops or anything like that. I think that like rain and smog is sort of driving hard and he sort of stood motionless in the centre just staring I think down into Mavros but it is like everything around him is the epitome of turbulence. It's like the city itself there is screams and shouts and you know all kinds of like alarms and things going off maybe explosions, rain swirling, wind whipping and he is just the epitome of stillness. I think in that chaos is also shadow with all the loud noises you can hear sort of this bellowing roar as shadow is saying never still move the motionless, eat the bread and running back and forth on this roof through the driving pounding rain, his manes soaking and even the wispy smokiness of his form seeming to be seemingly way down and whipped this way in that in the gale and he absolutely reflects the turbulence but deep within him I think you feel that same sense of stillness even though outside outwardly he's reflecting the chaos I think inwardly he is in concert with you. I think that Duncan will look down and he's missing the same fingers even in this and they're like dripping blood onto the floor and it's just sort of playing around with his hand cast his eyes towards shadow and just say, what's the point? The point of what survival yeah what has it ever done for us? It's just pain shadow it's just it's just pain that's all that exists in the world the only thing that's true in the world is just pain. Yes, this is what I've been trying to tell you pain the pain of violence the pain of hunger the pain of fear that's why we inflicted on others we do not let it inflict we do not let others inflict it on us pain let me tell you is better than oblivion. I feel like we're staring into oblivion right now like in our group we have this task I don't fully understand it and if we fail it's oblivion probably or worse but I just don't know like we're fighting so hard to save this fucking place look at it this is awful look at the place you came from I mean Jesus shadow this is horrendous the whole everything about it is just a nightmare yeah and you see that shadow pushes himself up he rears back up onto his hind legs and steps forward shakily at first on his hind legs but then a bit more confidently as he stands bipedally next to you looking out down at the city and as you stand there sort of fiddling with your your missing fingers you feel him also moving his claws and and digits against each other sort of flexing his claws and pulling them back in and feeling the strength in his paws as you can feel the muscles in your own wiry frame and he looks down at the city and he says it's assessment yeah it is and you know what shadow I feel like all of both of our lives we just feel and have been at the whims of these people that do whatever they wish without thinking of a consequence for anybody else and part of me wonders what's the point of worrying about the consequences for anybody else whether it's us that kills them or do they get hit by a car like it just it's all pointless right there's a pause and he says me wob hecate pins Rick Angela what do we make of them and hurt us the way the others have but how long until they do I've I didn't even know I had parents but properly I didn't know what happened to them and then probably the most the clearest memory I have of my parents is them telling me that I should mutilate myself and I kind of feel like they have a point you know like I have seen an evil and I've perpetrated evil on a horrific scale am I supposed to just get away with that is that is that how this works maybe maybe I'm fine with it honestly maybe I don't maybe I don't care about any of them do you really I care about you the rest chaff in the wind yeah ready for the slaughter we protected some sheep from the wolves but the sheep they're just wolves in sheep's clothing yeah I know what cost on us at any point yes I mean look at what hecate did I mean it wasn't kind of hecate but it kind of was and I don't know I felt a touch slower sever since Bill Wob came in you know we haven't been as proactive you know as we used to be because Bill Wob told us that this thing was bad or that thing was bad but I just don't get what the fucking point is Bill Wob everyone here is trying to steal and lie and cheat and kill each other and the only difference is is that every single time we choose not to do that we end up getting fucking hurt the ones with the power are the ones who hurt indiscriminately yeah and to be honest part of me just thinks if you get in our way then you were in the wrong place at the wrong time I know we have been most of our lives but we've just been strong enough to come through it and I don't know that I'm strong enough to go through this bullshit again I want to find whatever that thing was that did that and made my parents say those things and shadow I don't just want to kill it I want to make an example out of it that if anything crosses Duncan and shadow ever again they should run and never stop running because we will find them and we will tear them inside and out we will drink their blood we will eat their muscle and we will crunch their bones now you're speaking my language so what do we do about this rose thing do we wanna I feel like having seen your place I kind of like we know my first right like we know it if we're gonna it's our territory if we're gonna mold it yeah may be in our image I feel like it being completely enough they altered or taken to a different plane of existence is a slight disadvantage I don't set our plan back a little ways I am a bit worried so well what just bill up and everyone they just have such particular ways of doing things like we just need to fucking do it just whoever it is we just need to kill them and I think about it yeah like I guarantee if we get there there'll be a situation where Bill wants to try and fucking arrest Mathers and it's quite clear that this dude is completely fucking irredeemable so let's just eat him and get it over with yes and so done shadow I'm so done allowing everybody else to decide what happens to us and who gets to tell us what is right and what is wrong when it doesn't feel wrong every single time we do this stuff we make a difference it feels really really good this is our city no one tells us how to behave in our city yeah mothers must fall all who stand beside him must fall all who would stand between us and him must fall and you see that shadows features as you've been saying this have you as you've been having this conversation have continued to shift until at this point he looks almost more humanoid than bestial you can see he's still a very leonine form but he's standing there confidently like a man with a huge mane that is billowing in the wind as the rain pours down and his eyes burn with hunger and fury and a lust for violence I think as this is happening to shadow Duncan holds his hand aloft and I think you can see as where the two digits are missing we just see these like sort of tendrils of shadow start to like leak out of the wound and he feels his kind of hand become slightly whole again and he turns and as he turns around now what was just like a barren rooftop on the rooftop now there sits this like very dramatic black and gold chair like throne and I think he goes slowly he sits on it and then as he turns back around wise he's kind of sits and looks back over I think that instead of this chaotic sort of chaos filled and and broiling maverose we see this almost like structured ordered version of maverose with these I think the gold that sort of drips off of the chair is almost like running these like these lines all over the city almost a bit like a like an underground map it's just sort of you can see all these little kind of threads of gold kind of going down the sides of buildings and and across and running through the city and I think that he if you'll allow me where his ear is missing instead of being replaced by a another like a smoky ear you just see this kind of like cocked to one side shadowy crown appear just on the side of his head yes and I think that the shadow that this chair is casting is sort of consuming like a good chunk of maverose it's almost as like the main source of light is pointed at Duncan and it's causing this shadow to be cast across sort of everything behind him and I think that in that shadow almost like the inverse of what we normally see the shadow I think we can see like eyes and the mouth of shadow kind of their kind of opening in clearing away the shadow and I think that this is probably the first time that Duncan is going to truly allow himself to be one with with shadow I think he's always felt not nervous but he's always felt like you know he always been aware this is a you know a sort of entity from a different place and it's like you know it has this bloodlust and you know all these reasons as to why he wouldn't open himself completely to it and I think now in this moment where I think honestly any sort of shred of humanity that he was desperately clinging on to really desperately and I think in the same way that he was clinging on to this sort of youthful appearance and almost like childlike innocence and quality is just completely melted away that whatever happened to him in sort of seeing his parents do that and do that to him like you know and him having even the ability to do that to himself I think has chastened away the last sort of yes vestiges of humanity and certainly kind of the bit that I think Bill Watford done a very good job of cultivating since their time together I think is almost completely dead and Duncan looks sort of out kind of slumped in the chair you know probably puts like a leg on that you know doing like probably sitting in a chair the way that like he might have been tied up for you know yeah his past kind of thing he's kind of purposely rounding and just looks out and across and just says yeah well we'll start with the hotel it's a good source of money and from there will slowly surely take over this place it will be ours soon enough and as the pair of you sit there I think the words never still move the motionless eat the bad I think those words change I think I think what remains is never never motionless eat and like this sense of hunger the idea that if you eat they can't be eating you if you devour them they can't hurt you this city you're swallowing it into your own shadow never motionless eat and I think as this happens on the inside my question to you is is there any change physically is any of this visible from the outside of Duncan yeah I think so I think that I think that Duncan like looks probably looks a bit more kind of like filled out like I think he looks I felt like he's always kind of looked a little emaciated kind of thing and part of it might just be kind of a posture thing or whatever but I think he stands taller I think he keeps the crown I think it's sort of like a he's almost like a and then I think like around his neck where he sort of his head would sort of typically like disappear you know and that and the sort of billowing smoke would be for smoking had some it's sort of like almost like he's he wears you know like a I'm almost imagining it like a mayor's you know like the really impressive kind of like mayor's like necklace you know it's almost like that he's kind of like wreathed in smoke and and yeah I think his his fingers as well I've been replaced his tongue as well yes yeah I think as tongue as well I think as you see it in your throne and you feel your influence spreading over the city in your mind palace and you feel this sense of resolution within yourself I think you start to regain sensation of you from your body as you feel that same sense of resoluteness permeate your physical form as well I think that um Duncan sort of sort of gets up still obviously in physical pain but sort of almost enjoys the sensation is going to walk over to the window shadow yes I think it's about time that the two of us see the world in the same way Duncan's going to reach up he's going to extend three calls out of his remaining fingers and he's going to dig them into his right eye and pull and even as as you lose that sense of vision in your eye that sensation even as that eye closes forever you feel a new vision take its place as shadows swirl into that gap and you it is replaced by a glowing white shadowy eye with bits of grayscale smokey flesh surrounding it yeah and I think it kind of uh it almost has this sort of like permanently weeping thing where like it looks as though it's kind of comp like smoke is kind of constantly kind of pouring out of it like dry ice um almost like a monocle in some ways yeah well no I think actually no not like a monocle at all no not like a monocle and uh and I'll rip out your eyes uh if you uh bring bring off a monocle again um but uh but I think that like if you'll uh yeah I it might in my sort of in my mind I'm almost imagining that this is sort of representing like of him and shadow truly becoming a sort of joint entity um I think shadows definitely still you know will take on a physical sort of shadowy form and uh in the same way but um but the two are like forever sort of bonded that there would be it would be impossible essentially at this point to separate the two without just killing them you know killing one or the other um and uh yeah Duncan's gonna sort of catch him like he sort of very much focused on looking out of the window and I think it's a moment where um you know he sort of sees his reflection you know he kind of comes his attention kind of comes back to that circle of awareness and I think he's like well do you think they're gonna freak out no I'm sure it'll be fine and as as shadow finishes speaking F.E. comes into the room looks over to go and happens above uh and drops the tray of tea that she was holding uh colliders to the ground um and we can cut down there Duncan's gonna look at F.E. sort of uh his sort of narrow his eyes and says time to eat and he dives down and eats the food that's on the floor the rest of you are alerted by F.E.'s screams of shock uh and and and and I guess like what are you all right oh no uh comes running everyone I think we might need to um we may have a bit of a problem well all right okay okay no problems got it sadly the guest room does in fact have a window it's it's a cottage you know there's only so much you can do uh but yeah as you all run in uh Duncan what do they see uh so Duncan is now stood free of any bandages yeah Duncan's just gonna look up at you uh what time were we at have people had a long rest or oh no no it's the night it's the night people haven't even gone to sleep yet okay cool um I think Duncan is going to just sort of look towards you all and say um some things have changed and I don't know if I want to wait around too long so i'm just gonna take my leave if that's okay where are you gonna go i'm going to the hotel if you want to join me you can but it's probably gonna suck so you want us to hold on every can we get a top aware for this eyeball he's probably gonna want that eyeball later you want to put that in the fridge or something son good i i don't need yep you can eat it if you want to imagine it'll be nutritious could be good for a ritual or something i don't know if you want to hold on to it yeah no sure you can pull a ritual a bit that's fine it's a thought that counts as well so thank you for that she wants some sandwiches for the journey i mean what are you gonna do over there um i don't know yet just kind of got a hunch you know well right i was bringing you evening tea um and she every sort of steps forward and takes a small bowl that has like ice in it and like places the eye gently in the bowl ice uh sets that down and picks up like the the small array of like like uh scones and and sandwiches that she was bringing in tea uh and can i think she's the comparison of like the fact that this is like a group of hobbits from the shire trying to stop david inside of punk edge runners like towards right at the end it's all i can think of it's pointless beside my edge runners oh my god she says just just give me a moment and she rushes out of the room and seconds later returns with the food that she had brought you packaged up and holds it out uh i don't really eat that uh but don't can like still remembering the tiniest like it's just like wait there's like a one small part of his brain kind of saying well what would say was rude not to take the food and feel it be appreciative so i think he takes it sort of stuff sitting in the pocket um and then i think he is going to just turn to bill what really quickly and say bill up uh what's happened please whatever happens don't try and stop me okay what are you gonna do what are you gonna do danken i'm gonna change it and danken is gonna dive out of the window oh i think oh did you open the window no you'll allow me to be respectful i would love to be able to disappear in shadows and reappear on the other side since we're in darkness thank you maybe actually danken's gonna do that bamf through and then just hunt for hold on the window anyway oh god that wasn't necessary why i always knew that boy wasn't going to go right have the right influences oh bill i'm worried oh oh ify oh well we don't think we can stop him now we need to rest we've got a pretty big day tomorrow lots of stuff to do right well hopefully you'll run into him again your paths will cross and you know maybe there's still time i just hope he eats enough of whatever he eats humans probably maybe some elves i hope he doesn't eat anything at all there's a time in every boy's life when they gotta go out and they got to do their own thing you know happened to any of you terrible sons most of them have left at one point or another the less i know about it the better i hear about it on the news uh and that's you know that's more than enough honestly but danken i feel like he's got his heart in the right place if he's still got a heart that is i hope so hecate doesn't say anything they watch all of this and they're kind of just pacing in them in place um but because shadow heck is now part of them i'd like to reach out with that common thread since shadow and shadow heck and danken have spent time together all danken hears in his mind is the voice of shadow heck do what you must do it your best we won't try to stop you i'll see you soon very soon and danken rushes off into the night the rest of you uh bed down i assume it's it's a relatively small cottage so it's not built to accommodate this many people but Effie finds a way uh and manages to arrange enough throw pillows to create uh cushions and beds for each of you to sleep on my eyes are so wide as i'm like curled up just like my huge almost luminescent in the dark staring mid-distance yeah i think this is one of those situations where you are uh i think especially for Angela who's really been through the ringer today but i think for everybody as you lie down uh with maybe the exception of rick for whom this is a bit closer to your normal day-to-day uh rick rick puts on some hell golf and falls asleep in front of the couch the rest of you you i think there's a sense of like your your nerves and everything is so alive like there's so much tension there's so much trepidation there's so much fear there's so much worry but the exhaustion kicks in and i think as you're sitting there eyes wide open at some point you realize you're asleep as you all are slumbering you once again have a dream you see maverose already partly split with two huge vines the city of maverose and the you see these vines extend out even into the burbs and the boonies it looks like the nation state of maverose is under threat not just the city itself although you can see both of these these roots uh converge on the city and you can see a section of earth uh where the city seems to be bulging up it's like as if uh you can see a third root is about to emerge and once again you hear the words of the prophecy playing in your minds as you hear the words each element starts to slot into place a doom grows in the city a great doom it twists and forces its way through the cracks crawling through the flaws in the stone shattering the very foundations doom for both the minuscule and the mighty the time of shadows approaches it's herald and at this you witness walking through the city damian mathers himself its herald begins his journey three revelations three apocalypses shall he receive you watch as mathers walks over to the first of the two roots that have exposed themselves and he reaches down and plucks a section up of the root that you and as he lifts it you can see it resembles a pedal you see him walk over to the next one reaches down but is unable to grasp the pedal and then you see him look at the third the third raised portion the where it looks like a third root is going to emerge and he simply walks over next to it and crouches on top of it looking ready three revelations three apocalypses shall he receive they bear gifts fallen stolen long hidden and as you see him uh as i will say as those words echo you see him uh he does not pick up one for fallen but he does pick up one for stolen and he does pick up one for long hidden the first of course uh is stolen the second is long hidden the herald must gather the gifts and return them to their rightful place challengers shall rise to overthrow him opposition and i think each of you see yourselves like each of you including Duncan who is not dreaming currently but i think Duncan you are witnessing this as a vision as you travel through the night and all of you can see each other standing there looking at this scene together they shall battle at the place where light and dark clash and there shall they decide the course of fate chaos order equilibrium all hang in the balance and with this you see mathers walking along the length of this raised area towards a point that seems to be rising up in the center of the city it's rising up and you see the city started the buildings crumbling being torn asunder something is growing through and you can see you can just make out the bloom of a rose at the top of this mound as this thing threatens to completely tear the city apart and as mathers stands nearly having summited this great mound that has emerged and destroyed the city you hear two gifts have been revealed one claimed by the herald the other by the challengers the third and final gift draws nigh beware the scepter of the emperor and the following morning you all wake up i wasn't sleeping i wasn't i'm up i was sleeping but it was a shit sleep real bad as asra quakes up you see hecate next to the murder board by where you've been sleeping and they're like already darting around adding stuff from the dream to fv's murder board oh scepter of the emperor yeah of course we did yes good well his uh still in the same position he was when he went to sleep he is the small spoon to fv's big spoon possibly for the last time he believes fv is normally very much like a time to get up let's go kind of person this morning she is not left we both know we're awake and we kind of just lie there together for a couple of minutes just kind of she reaches up and gently strokes your face she doesn't say anything but i think with just that gentle touch she says everything she needs to say i lean into her for a bit before finally pulling myself out of bed as you leave she gets up as well and immediately sets about getting breakfast ready getting tea ready i think everybody is kind of getting up at this point um we're gonna jump over to angela first because as fv is in the kitchen uh there's a point where she looks out and she says oh uh angela yes hi you said your friend was coming right you had a friend who is gonna be visiting oh shit no and then i like scramble pushing fv out of the way just ever so slightly oh sorry but i'm scrambling looking out the window and who do i see uh you see that mona seems to have arrived uh she you see her like walking up the hill towards uh towards the house looking for all like she is looking around wide-eyed at the setting that she's okay okay okay i pull fv back in and like do i look okay i i do not let's be clear um i look uh haggard um the carefully um a designed like skin and a root and just beauty routine that i have has not been a tattoo and so she looks a mess and so she's just like do i look okay uh fv licks her thumb reaches up and swipes away a small corner of blood um and was still losing from one of your many wounds that have not fully healed uh and she says you look beautiful thank you give her tap on the face gently and then i turn around like all right all right and i'm gonna head out the door as you exit you see staring out on the at the town is mona uh she's facing away she looks like she's just gazing out i think even from behind there's like a sense of wonder uh she looks kind of i think her her she looks tired physically she looks tired but as she's looking out there you can see her she's breathing deeply in a way that i think you've only ever seen her breathe when she first opens a book hmm uh i think this is there's something real magical about this yeah i think this moment yeah Angela definitely clocks that and kind of has a feeling of like affection but she just kind of watches to do that yeah um but yeah i think she will slowly make her way over and just because things have been so dangerous recently she will make herself known before like you know like a few feet away she'll be like hey mona does not turn uh she just says hey it's it's really beautiful isn't it Angela like looks at her for a moment and then looks out at the town and says yeah it is it is um have you ever it reminds you it reminds you um what we're fighting for what what we're fighting she turns back to you and says i you would like as she turns you can see that she is tired like she has like bags under her eyes and she says i um i need to be honest with you because i want you to be honest with me and i realize that i can't ask for honesty unless i show that i'm willing to give it and so do you want to walk with me um sure where where are you thinking she just gestures to like the the countryside sure sorry i i i uh weird stuff happened in the woods last night so i'm kind of did i want to stay away from that area but uh but do you anywhere anywhere else is fine oh yeah no you never you never go into the into the woods in the boonies unless you've got protection yeah they're always haunted i didn't i didn't go in there it was someone it's a it's a whole thing she kind of looks she has like a she stays into the mid-distance for a while and reliving and then it's like yeah let's let's walk as you begin to walk uh i think Mona slides off sort of her ornamental hoof coverings uh and starts to feel uh so she can feel the the dewy earth uh and grass underneath her hooves uh and like even that seems to like it brings a sort of piece as she says can i quickly jump in with um i think uh Angela will be like oh those are beautiful um uh kind of reminded me of of these and she'll gesture to the earrings that she's wearing um you know my favorites um i uh took me a lot to get these you know uh put them in the back yeah about that um so i should start by telling the truth truth number one is i know how you got those earrings in the sale it wasn't a sale Angela fine it was full price no Angela she's like trembling like she's like gone now Angela i know that you killed people to get those earrings i know that you're the angel and before you say anything else i am night hawk okay okay what are you serious Angela this isn't this isn't a good time to laugh i don't think it's ever really a good time to why would you make a joke like that it's my question i'm night hawk when i was when i was a child i i was employed as a sweeper we had to to clean out uh big big machinery and stuff and it was really dangerous and it was filthy and it was it would cause harm like it was it was caustic and they said that there was a spell that we could learn that would help clean better called press to digitation i'd heard about it but nobody i knew knew how to do it and i was only a little kid and they told me that you could learn about it in books and so one day i ran away from the business and i snuck into a bookstore and well there's a magic to books Angela there's a magic a magic sometimes it's wonderful and sometimes it's terrifying and i've known magic ever since that day i'm night hawk and she summons like a little moat of flame i do the same like well you know we can all do that can't we so uh she lifts her like she begins to fly she just and begins to lift up into the air okay well if i had my wit shit no i mean i she passes uh a hand over her face and as she does so you see uh a red a mask of the red death bird mask come over her features as the just sort of materializing around her uh she summons the costume of night hawk and she floats in front of you and says see Angela like stays for like a long long while and it's just nodding slowly over and over again she's just it's just been it today's been a lot today and yesterday have been a lot um part of her wonders if this is like some kind of you know what happened to Duncan the hallucination thing what if this is a similar thing happening to her but she just allows herself to suspend her disbelief for a moment you see Mona lowers herself back down uh and then lifts her hand as though she lifts the entire costume off of herself uh and it seems to just recede in as much as it like sort of materialized around her almost like flaming shadows it just and the black embers die down as she lands in front of you and she says i know this is a lot to take in i i have more to say okay before you say anything else Angela mm-hmm i really really like you okay i like you a lot and i think i'm more than just like you okay um i think i'm i think i think i maybe um i think i maybe love you and look i i know this is probably the first time i saw you i thought oh she's beautiful but then i thought oh but she's she's rich she's an uppy uh but then but then i saw how you felt about the books and and you're you're not just like other uppies you care about knowledge and learning and and you weren't you weren't rude to me you were nice to me you and not just nice you cared about me you cared about us you cared about learning and i thought maybe she understands how unfair things are and how wrong things are in this city and i'm gonna be honest when you told me your name and you kept coming in and you're this rich person we don't normally get people that are real rich in our story we don't normally get uppies uh in our in our in our library we i did a little bit of research and i know i know that you're not originally Angela Crawford okay i know who your family is i know who your mother was and i thought hey maybe this is a sign that she doesn't want to be like that anymore maybe that's why she's changed your name maybe that's why she's acting like this maybe she's rejected all of that maybe she really maybe she doesn't want to be Maya anymore but then i find out that you're angel and that shows me but you haven't left Maya behind you want all the perks of being Maya and you just don't want people to hate you for it but you're well aware that your your riches are built on the backs of millions of poor people who are suffering you don't how do you think i made the costume how do you think i made i made my arm i needed the funds i need the money that's why i do these things because because i want to help people but i i can't do it on my own i i need i need the backing that's that's why i don't you right i don't want to be i'm not i'm not Maya anymore i'm not uh i you brought down a criminal syndicate not because you had a problem with the criminal syndicate but because you wanted their earrings i thought two birds went stone then you know what take them down bad people and then also i'll just grab any time you chose that day because that was when she'd bought the earrings yes that put her on my radar yes yes and that's not the only time you've done something like that i like what you do but it's i recognize it's for bad reasons you don't act like you care about people you care about yourself you wish you care about myself nobody else is going to care about me i care about you Angela the paper cuts we have funds we have resources we've pulled our resources and we worked hard to raise funds we try to help people we're trying to change things in this city if if you had come to us and said i have this idea we would have helped you get the materials we know arcanists in the city we have arcanists as part of the organization we would have helped you get the metal we would have helped you get access to the ore we would have helped you with all of it everyone i everyone i turn to they they always it's always it's always an ulterior motive or you know i can't trust anyone because they go they go into ultimately turn around and stab me in the back there wasn't a clear way for me to go to the paper cuts because because why would you want why would you want Angela i went by your place i know where you live fuck i don't mean that as a threat okay i was hoping to see you there i know what kind of luxury you live in you would not be able to fund that lifestyle without doing what you do and i did a little bit of snooping and not all of that money is just coming from your exploits as angel is it what do you mean i mean you may not use the name hildebrandt anymore but you're living off of hildebrandt money i yes yes i am with it i don't want look i'm i want to be clear if that's how you want to live your life that's okay i don't want to be here just to lecture you i know i kind of am and i apologize i i just want us to be honest if that's you if that's who you want to be then okay you can be that who do you want me to be i want you to use that brilliant mind of yours that genius that you have to help people to help not just help yourself in helping people is a byproduct i want you to actually put the needs of the city first ahead of your own i want you to acknowledge that all this money that you're getting from your family it's tainted your your mother your was corrupt she was involved in all stories i know what she was i've never wanted to be here and look if i if i if i didn't care about the people would i be doing everything that i'm doing yeah i i've been with this group of i mean miss i'm a misfit as well so we're all misfits and and and we've been if i didn't care about the city i would have i wouldn't have be i wouldn't be doing this i i i almost died so many times i i i have lost count yeah i was gonna say you you i i i'm not looking good no um do you you you you don't look the best physically or emotionally and i don't mean that as like a oh you look bad i mean like you look like people tried to kill you a lot yesterday yeah but i do also look bad i don't i haven't had time to to do it i have my my whole routine is out of whack and i haven't had it right also i want to say i'm really happy to see you up and walking around that battle against maria or whatever that was that was terrifying and hearing the crunching as as the vines worked their way into your suit um that was haunting oh yeah really happy that you are okay thank you i was in a frog earlier i'm sorry i was in a big frog you had another date no what no no it was big frog fake bitch that i i had to chase down and then and then and then this is this is a different thing almost died it's just i've just okay i'm making excuses and i'm going to no no no it's okay i'm she just steps forward and gives you a hug um yeah she frees Angela frees us up like she she hugs you for a moment and then when she feels you not returning it she steps back she she she she she holds her oh still i care about you a lot and i just i just want us to be honest if you want to keep being this person i'm not going to try and make you change i am not saying that you have to change who you are if you want to be this person then that's that's your choice all i'm saying is that i think that you could be someone greater and the person that you're choosing to be right now is not somebody that i can choose to be with going forward i'm not trying to give you an ultimatum i'm just letting you know where my value stand i stand with the people of maveras i would lay my life down for them and i have many times i want to see real change in the city i don't want people like your family to to be able to do what they've done neither do i well then maybe we could work together it's so it's so fucking scary leaving it behind it it's it's to safety now i i nothing else protects me like like like the money does even when it comes to life and death i how do you do it one day at a time what can you do today to change i think she that's when she looks up into her eyes and she very slowly so that she can like step away if she would like to she slowly leans in and kind of like the let's say lips like brush gently uh i think as as you begin to as your lips begin to brush hers i think uh she leans into it and pulls you in closer uh not just in a romantic hold an romantic embrace but i think a comforting embrace a safe embrace she cradles you as you stand there with the sun coming up over the hills of ghostly uh in a long and deep kiss yeah she reciprocates um i think yeah this is this is a feeling i think that she's never truly known because a lot of a lot of the time people refer back to you know being protected as like a child and wanting that complete feeling of like of parental protect protection but she's never really had that um so i think this kind of this love that she feels for her it's just completely new and she's just never felt protected by anyone so this is a message from sponsor into it turbo tax taxes was dealing with piles of paperwork and frustrating forms and then waiting wondering and worrying if you were gonna get any money back now taxes is easily uploading your forms to a turbo tax expert who's matched to your unique tax situation an expert who's backed by the latest technology which cross checks millions of data points for a hundred percent accuracy while they work on your taxes you get real-time updates on their progress and you get the most money back guaranteed all while you just go about your day 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in as fast as 30 minutes plus enjoy zero dollar delivery fees on your first three orders excludes restaurant orders service fees in terms apply it's kind of jarring and i think that she's like kind of like trembling a little bit but yeah she pulls back a little bit as you release the kiss uh she looks down at you and she says um i think i think we need to start by nipping this in the bud um everything that's been going on in the city we've been trying to stop it we've been working on it but i think this is the last stand okay okay um i don't think that there will be a map for us to change for if we don't do this now so okay um give me the give me the the rundown and and i have calls i can make um and uh yeah do you basically just tell her oh yeah big spiel yeah i think she's kind of like kind of like she's felt very uncomfortable but like you know like you know hopeful and like you know like this is something that she could get used to but this moving on to like kind of business in a way she feels much more comfortable with so she like yeah starts rattling off what's happened um who's involved um what they're planning to do now you get you reach the end of that and Mona says okay okay we can start there um i'll contact the other paper cuts uh and we'll see if we can mobilize something um i've been traveling all night so i haven't really been in contact so i don't know exactly what's been happening in the city i did hear i did hear the about the way you're describing there with the in the in the in the in the lowers that was wild i didn't realize that was you yeah yeah that's wow i'm glad you're okay thank you yeah it's been a lot's been happening um also hey uh you're gorgeous and beautiful and that kiss was amazing uh and i my whole body is tingling can we do it again yeah absolutely i would love i would love that you are also yeah my vision of it uh yep then she goes and kisses her uh just uh an abrupt full make-out session you have been uh also for gristally uh as people are like opening their shutters until i like lifts their hand like i'm telling them to close closing there's like a little kid who like peeks out like oh no give them privacy now um very like uh very tame visionifiable to like melt the glass and the kids looking for it no uh as as you guys as you guys finish uh mona is like okay we didn't do much walking but i am really out of breath um i uh i'm gonna go make some calls cool uh come come with come with come uh you've been uh walking all night come come here come with yes two okay a place yes a safe place yeah it's a safe fish yeah yeah all right uh as as the pair of you start walking uh you feel a familiar buzz uh you feel familiar buzz of your sending stone daddy is messaging daddy no and you you hear uh do you pick up uh he's messaging or he's calling he's essentially trying to contact you okay um yeah i kind of like look at my stone for a minute and i'm like um will you go on ahead to um the house if you don't mind say that i sent you um and i'll be with you in a second okay uh she walks and sort of leans against the door for a moment and looks at you because you seem concerned she'll like stay here if you want it's okay i have to i have to do this it's it's um she holds up the stone like it's it's my father so i have to do the thing yeah yeah yeah okay uh and she heads on in uh thought i would have it like a little rest in between no okay uh she just by simple and just um answers the stone hello oh finally you pick up honey sweetie pie smooky kittens i have been contacting you all night that's actually not accurate i contacted you multiple times yesterday afternoon and then after you didn't answer i got upset i am sorry you were upset um what is it you need to see you we had a deal sweetie i went to the hospital to visit you all the way down in the lowers and you weren't there they said that you had left so i had to foot the bill and of course had to foot the bill for the resurrection hmm thank you for that um your welcome i it was it was an emergency i i had to leave further quickly well sweetie you didn't hold up your end of the deal and there are consequences for that i'm going to cut your allowance in half for the next three months trying so hard not to laugh okay i'm back and back i mean to be fair that is losing thousands of gold pieces oh no absolutely it is you're like it in the in the world in Angela's will this is devastating but like in my world it's like hey daddy daddy couldn't be allowed to know okay why don't you just cut it by one hundred percent i i just just don't worry about it i beg your pardon is this a tantrum are you are you throwing i'm not are you throwing a fit i'm not throwing a fit are you would be able to tell if i was throwing a fit now is this a stop now it's a drop drop debt you are not being stopped at i'm not stripping no wait um i look i can't do this anymore i can't i can't i'm a grown woman and i can't keep living off of your money especially knowing where it's come from i don't want to be like mother and i never have and i should stop acting like it so it is a stop what is this some 30-year-old rebellion yeah yes it is mire you have been content to live under you live off of those those funds to live off of that money knowing full well where it comes from for decades now and now i'm stopping so don't worry about having to put the bill anymore this is like when you tried to get everyone to call you Angela isn't it i i succeeded so yes it is and i'm gonna hang up the phone you immediately calls back furiously just angry buzzing starts i think sending like the equivalent of text messages that you can choose to not respond to but essentially they just project into your head that says i will not be hung up on in that manner young lady that does it i'm cutting your whole allowance for the next three months okay good i don't know um yeah Angela i think Angela's like is like breathing quite hard like on the verge maybe hyperventilation because she's like just like realizing what she's done um it's just kind of like she i think she just takes a seat on the grass it just feels it and kind of tries to ground herself like okay okay it's fine it's fine i might not even make it out of this alive so i would have to worry about money then so it's fine okay great okay okay uh and here's a question before we before we end this do you want to not just like talk to your dad but say that you like had gone through and canceled whatever else you know what i mean like do you want to do that or do you want to do that after you want to like postpone and then if you survive i think i think she just needs to commit to it i think she just kind of she's like you know if she survives the altercation that they're going to go into what if she changes her mind so she just kind of goes through and just kind of like deletes all of the the channels through which her father might send her money or contact her at all yeah um yeah and uh feels bereft afterwards is just kind of feels it like it's taking a physical toll but she knows it's one that will be worth it in the long run but for now she is stricken yeah so i think she does um go ahead and find Mona and like uh wants to wants to be cradled once again i think she's gotten she she's excited by the cradling and wants more of it and yeah she will get used to that quite quickly i think uh while that happens um hecate you had also i think had something that you wanted to take care of i head into the kitchen trying to find a safe place to take the conversation that'll be private but also like not alone i think um hecate is not a person who is super in touch with the mushy feelings so much like you have to be a little reserved to be a coroner and a mortician and this is a place where like they're already feeling tender um so i think the warmth of the kitchen i'm hearing the you know cheerful sounds coming out of it she knows that Effie will give her privacy but also will be there if she needs her yeah i think as you go in there and start uh start doing what you're doing Effie just sort of hums louder to try and she she keeps about her business but she does not interfere she just uh keeps focusing on the process of cooking i think hecate kind of closes her eyes and steadies themselves for a moment and then tries to make that connection like to reach out okay and here's a question are you uh are you trying to use a stone or are you just like using your the power are you trying to access like some pedal power essentially uh because i assume you're not trying to cast sending are you trying to like establish a remote telepathic connection between yourself and auntie jennings i think it's a way to kind of test how this feels and try to control it um especially because she knows that if like they use their sending stone right which they do have one um but that's just voice but they would like to try and like put a little extra into it so that there's like maybe not a visual like a video output or something like that of them talking but at least like an image like something to comfort her knowing that like the reality of what happened to herald is pretty grim okay go ahead um i will i won't make you use any of your special powers uh so i would say go ahead and as you reach out and make that connection um you feel the room that auntie jennings is in you feel her sitting room you feel i think the tears that have that have slipped down the fur on her face you feel her presence you can you can feel the draft in that room and the the heat from the radiator in there and i think as you feel that you also feel you sense her feeling the room that you're in the smell of this delicious breakfast uh the sizzling of the bacon and the other other things that are being cooked the smell of hot coffee uh that is being heat that is currently being brewed as well as tea they're brewing all sorts here uh in the wankle household and you can feel like she feels the warmth of the room that you're in because the room you're in is very warm and uh as you make that connection you feel her start uh and and sort of look around and i think you get an image sort of a half impression like of of her sitting in that chair that she always sits in in the sitting room by herself um looking at old photos of her and her son and also uh not just that but also of her her son and of her son and you aunty aunty sorry it's it's it's hecate hi uh hecate i've i've got some uh some some new skills i'm practicing what how are you all right dear i was worried i i went by the house you you were there you never came by again i i heard terrible things about what was happening in in central of the expo and then they're saying that there was another disaster last night i i could i could feel the ground shake i could feel the ground shake it wasn't near here but something something's not right i was so worried yeah i i i i'm sorry i worried you i i don't even i don't want aunty aunty it was bad all of this is kind of bad and can you promise me you'll stay in the lowers i feel like that might be the last place this kind of comes is down by you uh just make sure you stay home don't do any what errands or what do you mean what's coming dear there were people here there were people stopping by your place they were swooping around yes uh just just let them do what they're doing don't try to stop them um aunty this is going to be very sensitive but um you know the little thing you were in with my parents that i'm probably not supposed to know about uh the club that you were the nightshade lounge situation oh we don't have to get into it uh because i i don't know about that i don't want to it you know i know it was a time in your life you were doing thought you you were doing things you thought was a good idea uh anyway it doesn't matter uh when you were doing that it kind of got out of control and my parents left and you left and gosh it was right on time that's that's where the explosion came from last night from the lounge from the from the cult in the lounge you mean and you can feel her like looking this way in that you get the impression like when she was telling there have been people here like she means like strange people invested i think she even i think gets she suspects that they might have tried to come into her house she didn't say this because she didn't want to worry you but she suspects i think you get like the impression of her thoughts uh and she looks back and forth uh to make sure nobody's listening she says you mean the children of the flower and she what's interesting she's actually like as she's saying this telepathically she is also saying it out loud but she's just whispering it out loud as well yeah auntie it's nothing to worry about please don't it's okay you're not there might be some people out there that know that you used to be a part of it but you should be safe i have herald's diary now i have the all all the information that kind of implicates those folks um i'm gonna stay away if that's all right the children of the flower they're the ones who hurt herald no it's they were kind of tricked into hurting herald they're part of the people who hurt herald it's i don't want to tell you auntie the more you know the more in danger you are i oh you sound like your parents now they didn't want to talk about that group very much i i was i was never really a part of it i i spent time in the lounge of course and i spent time with your parents but they they were they were the ones involved and well when they left i i'd gotten bad feelings about that place before and when when your parents left the way they did and i suppose hid the way they did i thought it best to follow suit and well sweetheart i understand that there are things that you cannot talk about i am so sorry for involving you in this i i didn't think it would come to this i didn't i didn't think it would bring you back in connection with those people no no no no auntie please no um i i i read through herald stuff it would have come to me anyway he was gonna come to me so don't worry about it i i would have known regardless honestly i think i was always kind of meant to stop this help these people stop it i i'm part of a really good team you don't have to worry um we've got a really tough fighter i mean he's a pugilist he's awesome you should see him in action he's got this cool smoke monster thing it's anyway um we've got a really upstanding police officer bill wiggle he's amazing yeah you might have heard a snuggle his program he's he's amazing um we've we've got uh honestly the fanciest lady you ever did see um Angela Crawford she's really something else she's got a really cool suit and she's really powerful and strong and you know we've got we've even got somebody from the other side it's hard for me to the other side of maveras yeah you could say that yep yep ozric's from the other side of maveras yes he is uh yeah so you know i'm i'm in good hands and you don't have to worry about me and how about this how about herald's diary is hand delivered to you after uh this one last altercation i have to go take care of does does that sound like you know a fair trade you'll get all the information oh dear there's there's no need for a trade i i said thank you for offering i i would very much appreciate if that his his you said his things his his did you say it was his diary yeah he has he had a journal that he kept both about personal and work things um so i i you know i would have that shared with you um yes i might even be able to come deliver it myself well dear that's that's the part that worries me i i would love to receive that journal thank you i i would be i would be wonderful but dear are you in danger hecatei kind of like shifts their weight back and forth and like kind of looks over their shoulder um at f he with like this look of like oh no like what do like i don't want to lie but this feels like one of those times that you should probably lie do i lie like just this very like help me have you have you been speaking out loud as well because i know that i know oh you just being out loud definitely okay f he is uh she's humming she looks up and i assume she has not heard the other side of the conversation no because unless you're also repeating that out loud so i think she looks up at you sees that you look visibly uncomfortable and she stops what she doing she walks over she hands you some tea she grabs uh some of the freshly brewed tea and hands it to you and looks at you and says you know what to do just do what's in your heart dear it's brought you this far and she squeezes your cheek uh and kisses you on the forehead and goes back to cooking hecatei kind of nods takes in a deep breath lets it out and sips the tea well auntie genings you know um i do think i'm in danger yes but all of maverose is in danger and i don't think that you are my parents or herald i mean herald died trying to make things right i don't think that it would be very becoming of me to give up in the face of something so big he didn't think much of himself and what he was doing it seemed important but he also felt like maybe he was being entrusted with too much power in having that knowledge he felt like i don't know feeble maybe but he was actually really brave and i think i want to try to be brave too i won't do anything stupid you know me but i gotta help people you know you know dear i always thought that your parents were brave for leaving the way they did but now i wonder if if maybe maybe we all could have been a bit more brave we could have helped make a world where you and your new friends wouldn't have to deal with this wouldn't have to to clean up our mess i don't know the details and i suppose i don't need to but i want you to know dear i'm proud of you i'm so very proud of you and i know that wherever they are your parents are proud of you and herald is proud of you too they all love you very much i don't know if you've heard but you actually you actually have a sibling and well i don't know where they are but your parents told me about them or what what they would have become and i'm sure that that they're proud of you too i love you very much dear and whatever happens i look forward to seeing you again soon in this life or the next thank you thank you for being brave where we couldn't heckete like takes the deepest breath and clears our throat thank you auntie jennings um i love you very much too and uh that means the world to me i don't worry we've got it and i end the connection the second that like hecate's hand kind of wipes in front of her face to like physically like remove the like she she like wipes her hands in front of her face to like remove the image um and then like looks at herself like you didn't have to do that um and immediately just kind of like falls into like this embarrassed crying um they their hands are shaking the tea is kind of sloshing you can hear the clink of the of the tea cup um and the spoon inside of it and she just kind of like is it almost feels like she's looking at herself from the outside in seeing them seeing themselves fall apart like they see themselves put the cup down and try to find a seat and try to sit down and making this horrible clattering racket the whole way down um oh i think you're being helped with all of that by by by Effie Wunkle who has been in the room and i think i think has been like watching you out of the corner of her eye and as soon as like i think she was watching your face during that last bit and as soon as the call is over she sweeps over it as like your hands are shaking she takes like she steadies your hands takes the cup sets it down helps you over to a seat uh and just holds you i think she holds you presses your head against her chest and just holds you there and it's a i would should say it's a gnome sized stool so you are in a very deep sit right now but she she pulls your head down probably onto her shoulder not onto her chest uh and holds you there and says they're there they're there dear it will be all right you've done very very well uh and is rocking you back and forth and starts humming that song again as she cradles you there like as the camera would pan out i think from this room um book the sobs get kind of further and further apart um and as she kind of calms they find that sense of power again and go to rejoin the others billwap and rip while the other two were off dealing with personal things were either of you doing anything um the first thing i want to do is check on Sergio see how he's doing Sergio has been convalescing he was uh pretty badly injured but he looks like he's made a recovery enough that he can absolutely like he can absolutely move around he's he's in good enough shape to potentially help out today uh so as you check on check in with him he says oh bill bill uh are you all right you're in a bad way i i um i've been better i've been better but um well you're talking you're up yeah yeah what happened thank you no thank you i'm i wouldn't say i'm okay but i i'll i'll do my best to manage well take it easy bud we've all got your back um you can tell just with your insight that he is not he's not just referring to his physicality when he says he's not really okay uh he he means like emotionally he's not doing well somebody is is there anything you want to get off your chest before we go you don't have to come with us this is going to be pretty dangerous so i understand if you want to sit this one out you like we'll take this one if that's what you want bill bill i i have to go i have to come with you you have to yeah i um it wouldn't be it wouldn't be right if i didn't i don't bill i i had a meeting i had a meeting with the chief and um i can't i have to come with you it's not safe what do you mean i wish i could say bill bill there's something very wrong going on in the city and i i wouldn't be able to live with myself if i didn't try and take a stand against it all right sir do you well i don't really feel like i can trust anybody at the moment but i do feel like i can trust you yeah i mean you see like a moment i think in his eyes a moment of finality uh like and resignation that passes across his eyes he says yeah yeah you can trust me i'll be there till the end with you enjoy with you buddy uh he stands up gingerly uh and holds out his hand to you for a firm handshake shake hands do you want to crump it yes yes please i love i would love a crumpet please and he goes in with you to go go chow down uh while you guys are doing that rick was there anything you wanted to do um i think i'm just like looking over my my handbook uh replenishing trying to remember some of the the the spells and abilities that i've got that could be helpful here you know um i probably do my morning face time with go gotha and the kids uh you know kind of try and help get them out the door as best as possible um and you know probably helping the fv in the in the kitchen you know tidy up a little bit um yeah but then yeah i guess like as ever who who's in the house currently who who's well currently while this is happening everybody except for duncan and angela are in the house okay all right um so i'm thinking you know i've got this uh i've got a bunch of abilities i can i can hopefully dole out i think i'm gonna go over to uh i want to go over to the angela i'm sorry i'm gonna go over to hecate um and i'm going to just kind of uh just like lean over and see what they're doing uh and uh just kind of pat them on the back and as i do i want to give them a warding bond which is uh an ability that will boost boost their ac a little bit uh i just say you know uh get things are gonna be crazy out there and uh i've only got so many tricks up my sleeve but uh they should help a little bit i could say breathes in deep the second that the spell hits them uh it's a little dramatic but they're like oh thanks uh rick this is i was really scared i wasn't gonna be um enough and this is um gosh thank you so much the kind of beam up at you as they take you through what they've added to the board excitedly look at that huh same dream huh exact same dream right i mean the others were not nearly as excited about that as i was so i'm glad that you think it's cool should we go over the details specifically because like for a little bit there i had snakes for fingers and i don't know if that was just me or if everyone had the snakes for fingers for a second was that was that it was that just me you know what it wasn't just you i also had some pretty wild thoughts but let me um let's start with the monsters i have a whole pathology on them and she just like launches into this long winded approach to how these these creatures act and what they do and all this information that she has yeah rick rick sips the biggest Stanley cup of coffee you've ever seen and it's like so heavy and so infernal and black and it's just like it kind of like screams as he sips from it and just like nods knowingly and thoughtfully with the kind of like a proud glint in his eye is watching hecate work and i will say the other thing that is worth mentioning about warding bond it doesn't just give you a plus one bonus to ac uh you also have a plus one bonus to all saving throws and resistance to all damage oh yeah yeah that's pretty it's pretty huge yeah this is very important to remember now of course it's also important to remember that every time you take damage uh rick will take the save amount of damage oh right oh no i will be so careful not gonna spicy at the end but also each remaining 60 feet of each other uh all right okay so yeah but it's not concentration you know it's it works it's absolutely there it's great it's a great survivability spell but yeah it is just a buddy system yeah exactly it's a really dangerous buddy system yeah i think i get us matching Stanley cups thank you beautiful uh so uh and of course hecate you've had your conversation i think this lifts your spirits even more after that encounter uh and i think this uh these interactions are interrupted by uh Angela walking in with uh Mona Mona and Boio i don't think any of you have ever met Mona uh but uh Angela walks in or excuse me i think Mona may have come in earlier Mona walks in earlier uh so this is actually interrupted by the arrival of a minotaur that none of you have ever met she walks in says hi everybody my name is Mona and Boio i am uh i was gonna say i'm Angela's friend i don't i think we might be dating now a girlfriend yeah can i just call i'm outside i'm on my sending stone i'm just like yes we uh yep yep yep yep you didn't tell us you had a girlfriend this is like really important information i just i just did it it just happened it said uh my bat though oh my god we were all here for it yeah what a time to find love eh Effie we're gonna need a new thing for the board it needs to be minotaur shaped can you get that going uh you see her already she has the the scissors out cutting out like a new a new minotaur shaped uh section a section of peat paper but yeah Mona introduces herself to each of you she she explains uh yeah i um i don't really know exactly what's going on here uh and she looks at the board and says oh interesting uh sorry i have experience with the sort of thing i work with an organization called the paper cuts you may have heard of us those of you who are maveroseans have all heard of the paper cuts uh rick has not but the rest of you would have heard of the map of the paper cuts uh in fact um i yeah the paper cuts are basically an activist group who promote education and uh and also uh workers rights they advocate for education workers rights etc they're basically a workers rights group who does that through education often centered around reading and libraries and that sort of thing uh but she she explains yeah i have i have experience dealing with these sorts of things and wow this is this is quite a board and you see her like looking over the like drawing some of the connections looking at like wow this is fascinating and she turns to you hecate can you explain this to me when oh say so this is damey and maverse is involved with this oh yeah we think he's the herald from the prophecy um here's the prophecy hecate honestly and like scroll yeah she's looking it over so as you guys bring her up to speed then angela comes back in you are all together uh and i think it's only a few minutes to uh Mona's Mona quick picks things up pretty darn quick so she's up to speed you guys are together you got all the stuff uh Effie looks at you all and says right any any last minute preparations before you all go oh uh yeah i'm gonna put a little uh oh yeah i got one last thing i'm gonna just drop a little bit of this in everyone's tea and if you don't mind drinking that uh and boom everyone is death-warded oh just gotta burn through all those fourth-level slots sure that won't be a problem uh so yeah uh hecate is this though what flavor is this tea what is what is it is it good oh that's gonna be yeah what flavor oh well i regardless of what flavor it was before uh it's gonna taste uh like uh uh it's gonna taste like a night root now happy on the picture core this is delicious yeah it's like mints that is so sharp that it clears your sinuses you're suddenly regular everything is fine yeah as soon as you ignore ignore the uh the smoke will look a little like uh skulls laughing at you as it just billows out of the cup just ignore that that's that's a side effect it's fine the the skulls do have dunken's laugh bill what takes about 25 minutes to finish his it's too strong for him as a good time as if the skulls are now coming up they're like come on bill what you're all having to like massage bill shoulders yeah it's okay buddy you can do a champ so death-ward for the record means that for all of you the first time that you drop to zero hit points from taking damage you instead drop to one hit point yeah cool and if if you are subjected to an effect that would kill you instantaneously without dealing damage the effect is negated and the spell ends why do you mention that that's part of the spell that was about that's part of this crazy world we live in yeah so with that uh your preparations are complete you're already were there any last-minute things anybody wanted to take care of before you leave uh i will remind you just out of character goes to the bathroom for uh 45 minutes uh just wondering if it is now a good time to check in with happy about yeah go for it um yeah cool i'd like to whip up my um whip up my uh stone my smart stone and be like yeah giv uh yeah she says hello happy how are you doing oh i've been i haven't slept uncle i've been very very busy i've i've managed to create a a machine a device that can pick up uh sort the the energy similar to what was inside of maria oh you blooming genius oh pardon me i've wrote in um oh that's absolutely incredible where are you i'm still in my workshop but i thought rather than because of how big the sea is rather than make something that would be uh mobile and it would be short range i would rather just reach out and then try and and decode the data whoa so it's so the effect will work anywhere well yes i've got it going right now it's kind of big i've been i've had it operating now for several hours trying to keep track of where the largest sources of of of this uh this energy are and have you found anywhere uh yes actually uh there there are two sorry my accents i'm excited and i start talking like i'm from gursally again and then i switch back to central mouth rosy and it's a real problem so right you've spent some time in the city i don't blame you it happens to everyone that said yes there are two places as far as i can tell that seem to have the highest concentration both of i'm gonna put you on speaker stone so everyone can hear all right there we go oh wow very impressed hey i'm feeling a bad game you know i did it with one button you press figure it's cracked open uh she continues so as far as i can tell the two biggest sources are in into the halls of government and what looks to be the hotel amaranth of course right well one of them we knew about well one of them we suspected for sure uh the other one city hall hmm well Duncan was going to the hotel right so Duncan we may already be at the hotel do we do we follow in there i mean he told us not to get in his way should we go there and see if we can help him or we uh we were going there anyway you know we're not following him we were going to ourselves anyway so if we wanted to say like we wanted to go before it was cool yeah can heckitate like peek in and see if they can access like rate like radar as to like where Duncan is or like what's going on wherever oh you want to try and locate Duncan like just i think Duncan's Duncan's like are you in the hotel i think Duncan's essentially left the channel open and i think uh Duncan's probably still running i assume oh yeah Duncan's quite all night cool okay i think you see actually Duncan's fully asleep um and he's essentially bounding like a ragdoll as basically shadow is just sort of picking him up and throwing him across great distances but he's fully asleep he's like a shark you know where they like close off half their brain and his sort of his eyes are still vaguely open but he's just fully like crashing into a building Duncan is currently like on the outskirts of the city like he's he's been just sprinting basically all night and he's on the outskirts of the city so you imagine he could make it to the hotel amaran in like a couple of hours so heckitate just kind of keeps that or less the hacker take keeps that to themselves just recognizing he's not already there and just kind of nods like mm-hmm and doesn't say anything about the connection so i will say this billwop um and anyone else who cares uh to be figure try and put two and two together here so there are two different locations that we've established here that have the greatest concentrations of energy one is the hotel amaran to the other is the halls of government there uh you can i will say uh let me see who has the oh wow several of you have very high passive insights okay billwop i think this is something that occurs to you i think it's something that occurs to heckitate i think it's something that occurs to Rick not so much Angela no no but the rest of the all the three of you it occurs there has been an ongoing suspicion about the police hmm the police chief the headquarters for the entire judicial system in maverose are in the halls of government and it's pretty much guaranteed at this point that commissioner reagan west is involved in this that high commissioner reagan west is somehow involved in all of this yes so it would appear that one of the what of the centers is in fact in the halls of government uh and you it would follow then that it may somehow be connected with the department of with the justice department or even with the police directly hmm heckitate pipes up um so bill you remember when i told you about uh leaving the police force and uh didn't want to stick around part of that corruption it seems like things are no good there and if they have all that control and they can make all the police forget like what happened when we went to go try to view the body of herald that would probably require a lot of power that they otherwise wouldn't have and she like taps her chest yeah to insinuate like the pedal it all makes sense mmm wow do you think maybe the hotel is the place where light and dark meat with all of their portals and their weird access to things maybe that's the time's short should we should we try and get the pedal i mean it would give us a big advantage if we were able to to snatch it from out the clause of the high commissioner yeah that's got to be the scepter of the emperor that would be too against one right i think so yeah i mean right now what we stand to gain is also what we stand to lose if we don't get the pedal mathers is going to get it he already has one just like we do yeah i can't let that happen really can we i'm going to turn to sergeo and be like what do you think bud do you think uh do you think we're we'd be going on a suicide mission trying to get into the halls of government sergeo looks around and says we need to be outside we need to be outside for this it's not safe in here all right he said that hackitate hackitate follow oh yeah for it straight right yeah sure uh as you guys exit sergeo looks at you all and he says look i um i didn't want to have to i thought maybe we could do this in the city maybe i could help um bill wap i the police and take a deep breath the mpd is compromised it's always been compromised from the very beginning everything was snuggle it didn't matter bill bill bill i saw the board i saw the board you have this pedal thing i think they have it the commissioner the commissioner she's working she's working with mathers if she has the pedal that he is good as has it bill listen to me he grabs you and you feel something poking into you like his fingers are digging into you but not just his fingers you can feel something poking into you from his fingers and he starts choking his bill it was the oath it was in the oath mathers he as good as has and you see his eyes surf as as thorns burst through his eye sockets you see his skin start to stand and like be torn apart as if it's tissue paper as from his body emerges a mass of thorns and vines and they they snake and you feel impressing into your flesh the thing that we felt piercing you bill wap those were thorns uh you feel impressing into you and i think those are shuttering uh you just hear him say uh uh in he tries i think he he struggles and i think the last thing he does with before he completely fades is he holds out to you a photo of him and his family oh and it just holds it out to you as you see his face completes my heart oh he stands before you a rose bush and bill i think a few things occur to you in that moment first things first the oath you made note of this all the way back in episode one at the at the graduation there's something weird about that oath because it's different from the oath than that you took when you joined the gurst elite constabulary or rather when you became the constable of gurst elite i will repeat it for you i state your name do solemnly swear and affirm and i think as you're as this is like running if you have a mind that i am hereby impelled and invagled to well and truly serve and support the powers and laws of the land of maveras both outward and arcane to which i am bound in the solemn and loyal role of officer of the law that i will bear amaranthine faith and allegiance to the same defending the land and its people against enemies foreign and domestic and that i will to the best of my skill and knowledge discharge all the duties thereof faithfully and impartially without respect to persons so help me gods gods and that's the first thing that recurs to you is that there's a number of words in that that jump out but before you can think about that the second thing that occurs to you i'm around theme you have seen this this shape that he has achieved that he has become rather transformed into you've seen that before to the park there's dozens of no every precinct has dozens of these humanoid shaped rose bushes in a park right nearby they were they were all over the park where you had the ceremony that's where the descendants were and i think that's the last thing that passes through your mind before what used to be Sergio attacks and i need you all to roll in there you've been listening to city of the black rose herald of shadows episode 10 the final judgment part one starring Jonathan Charles as Bill Wopwankle Jasper William Cartwright as Duncan Doolahan candis the magnificent as hecate Hopewell Olivia Kennedy as Angela Crawford Coldwell Tanner as Ozric Johnson and Jeremy Cobb as your dungeon master sponsored by hero forge and made possible by the incredible three black halflings patreon supporters this will be the final episode of this series but remember you can head over to rolledandplaypress.com forward slash black rose to be among the first notified of the city of the black rose campaign setting launch on kickstarter on april 7th 2025 this has been a 12 sided studios production thank you for listening that was a hit down podcast [BLANK_AUDIO]
It's here! The Prophecy has come full circle! And it's not looking good for the party. After enduring an utterly gruelling battle with the Whip-Poor-Will, leaving some characters more dead than they realised, our heroes now face their final challenge. They have their answers, they've pooled all their resources, now all that's left is to face Mathers head on ... This is the first instalment of our 3-part finale.
