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Episode 235: It's Spooky Season
118 Plays3 months ago
Welcome back Podwalkers to a thrilling, chilling, and spine... something(?) episode of the Goblin Lore Podcast! On Today's Episode Alex and Taya break down the Duskmourn Story. There are rumors that every line by Tyvar is carefully recounted
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As promised, we keep Mental Health Links available every episode. But For general Mental Health the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) has great resources for people struggling with mental health concerns as well as their families. We also want to draw attention to this article on stigma from NAMI's site.
If you’re thinking about suicide or just need someone to talk to right now, you can get support from any of the resources below.
- National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988
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- International suicide hotlines: A comprehensive resource list for people outside the US.
- IMAlive: Click Chat Now to access a live online network of volunteers through instant messaging.
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- Trans Lifeline (US): (877) 565-8860
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Opening and closing music by Wintergatan (@wintergatan). Logo art by Steven Raffael (@SteveRaffle)
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Hosts
00:00:03
Speaker
are
00:00:29
Speaker
Hello Podwalkers and welcome to another episode of the Goblin Lore podcast.
Duskmorn Story and Opening Fun Question
00:00:34
Speaker
We are here tonight to talk to you about story because we have a new set that has new story that's all out and we can talk about it. Before we get too deep in, I just want to say Hobbs is still taking a break so he is not here tonight but Tay and myself both are. And I will introduce myself because I'm Done this again where I start opening start the opening and I've said everyone's names except my own. So I'm Alex on Twitter at Mel underscore chronicler. ah My pronouns are he, him.
00:01:04
Speaker
And it's an appropriate question that Taya thought up for this episode for the whole Duskmorn story, which we'll get more into the story. But our opening question is, you what would lure us into a spooky doorway?
Hobbies and Duskmorn Lure
00:01:20
Speaker
um Which is just a wonderful question for this set. And for myself, I think right now- Yeah, I didn't want to caveat that on, not a person. Yeah, because it'd be easy to pick a family member.
00:01:32
Speaker
Yes, and and and For a goofy, fun question that has just a hint of spookiness to it, less entertaining. Yeah. I think it's a little more entertaining. Yeah, if it's it's not a person, it's just what what kind of thing would get you to go into a doorway. um and And for me, where I'm at with my hobbies these days, I have, like many, many people in the last few years, ah started ah collecting retro video games and rebuying some systems I had when I was a kid. and
00:02:04
Speaker
some of the same games and starting to explore some game libraries that I couldn't go as deep on historically. I think I basically have the same systems, though. I suppose I did recently pick up a Wii U, which wasn't around when I was a kid, but going back to some of the old systems. But even there, I didn't have the money to buy as many Nintendo 64 games, PlayStation 2 games, to go as deep into some of those. So I'm doing some of that now, though, with the expense of some of these things.
00:02:32
Speaker
some of that is harder to go to. So what I'm very slowly, awkwardly building towards is, for me, my first answer was probably something in that sort of realm. There's there's a bunch of games that I'd love to own that are.
00:02:45
Speaker
wildly expensive um currently games that i'm I'm actually slowly picking up are the Xenosaga trilogy, which are oh yeah games from PlayStation 2 RPGs that actually kind of have some story tie into the Xenoblade Chronicles, which were um the first one was released on Wii, the second two were released on the Switch.
00:03:10
Speaker
It's made by the same folks, the DLC for three. I have played all three and I love this series. I got into the Xenoblade Chronicles series through a weird avenue. I played the third one first, then went back and played the other two and I really love them. But apparently the DLC like actually name drops a character from this PS2 trilogy. Oh, wow. It's like ties the story together in some way. And I really want to go down like YouTube rabbit holes and watch three hour four hour long videos about these games, but I haven't played the PS two ones. So that's probably where I'm at right now. I think if if there was those games and and the first and second are terribly expensive. The third is much more expensive. So
00:03:51
Speaker
just games that came out at the end of that series, at the end of that console's lifespan, so they didn't sell too many copies. And now all of a sudden, everyone who has played the Xenoblade, well, not everyone, but a large number of people who have played this more modern and accessible trilogy of games.
00:04:08
Speaker
are like myself going back to try to pick up some of these. So I think that's
Dustborn Story Introduction and Horror Theme
00:04:13
Speaker
probably the easiest way for ah for a spooky doorway in a spooky house on a plane that's also spooky to to get me to run into a ah room that would be unwise to run into without my group. and Not much stuff. All right. Hey, well, I'm Taya. Taya transons on Blue Sky, pronouns are she, her, they, them. and um You know, I would just say I'm going to go with the same caveat, and not a person, but also not a pet, because I would say if they took my cat, I'd be going John Wick on them. Yeah. But if if it's something that is not a living creature,
00:04:56
Speaker
um I would probably have to go with, ah you know, some of my some rare, really rare magic card or something that ah the collector and me would just feel like, oh, that's shiny. So I want old school artist proofs that are hard to find these days. Oh, yeah, something like that. artist Who hasn't done magic for 30 years or 20 years or something. Yeah. ah You know, it'd be really easy to get my attention with something rare or unusual like
00:05:31
Speaker
you know or a one of a kind piece with a character that I'm interested in. ah Yeah, a painted artist proof for ah something like that would definitely get my attention um and be a good way to lure me into a haunted house. Although I'm not sure any physical or any um material object could really lure me through a speak big door because I'm very lazy.
00:06:03
Speaker
That's fair. And, you know, going exploring for stuff is something I'd rather pay someone else to do than do it myself. Yeah. and see I would be niv-mizzed in this story. I'm not going through the door, but I'm going to get some suckers to do it for me.
00:06:22
Speaker
Yeah, and and like it would take a little bit more effort from it was just like the game sitting there. I'd be I'd be yeah suspicious. But it was like, is there like a retro game con in this weird house? There's just like booths. I'm gonna go check that out. That that would probably get me. Yeah.
00:06:40
Speaker
Oh, but, uh, yeah, so Dustborne story. Um, the whole story is out now. It is written by Mira Grant, which is the pseudonym of, uh, our good friend, Seanan McGuire, uh, that she uses when she's writing her horror, um, stories, uh, which I was introduced, um, to buy the story into the Drowning Deep, which is a really good, um, you know, kind of, uh,
00:07:11
Speaker
science fictiony, a horror story that takes place in the middle of the ocean and has some lesbian romance in it. Great book. Highly recommend it. um I have not read that one. I'll have to read. I've read most of Shannon's stuff, though I have not gone before. Is it my genre? So I haven't read a lot of her mirror stuff, but I did read there. is a She has a zombie trilogy that I read. Yeah. Newsflesh. Yes. Yep. Starting with the book Feed.
00:07:39
Speaker
which is a fun pun, both on the zombie thing and the fact that the people are bloggers. Yeah. I've never read it, but I am familiar with it. um But yeah, so we've got we've got actually six stories and six side stories all by the same author, and we're going to be talking to her next week. So we'll get into that more with her. But I'm pretty sure this is the first time that all the stories and side stories have been written by the same person.
00:08:05
Speaker
Yeah, I think so. At least I can't recall. And this is the most story we've had in a while. Yeah, 12 episodes is a a lot of story. um And it was it was really enjoyable because this this is a very different plane from anything else in Magic. It even feels completely different from Innistrad, which is our other horror themed plane. They made it feel like completely um unrelated and or completely different yeah feeling than Innistrad has. Yeah. Yeah. And a lot of in a lot of different ways, the monsters are are almost all different. the you yeah it's it's a Despite both being horror, they they do it in different ways. Yeah.
00:08:56
Speaker
ah So, you know, kind of get started into it and we're going to focus on the main set stories today. um The side stories are really good too. I highly recommend them. Go read all of them. ah Click the links. Go read the DVD extras that Seanan has on her blog because they're really funny and provide a lot of behind the scenes yeah view of what's going on and and what the motivations of the characters are and everything. ah and And I also love the that one of one of the side stories. I don't want to talk about them too much. though There's some good details, but the the first one was Welcome Home is fun in that it is written in a second person point of view, yeah which is neat. It's funny. I read that whole story in like a Vincent Price monologue voice. And I think it just lined up perfectly with that story. Yeah, that was that was cool.
00:09:55
Speaker
Um, so, um, of course, you know, we start with the first story is, you know, what, what happened on this plane to even become dust morning and nowhere do they say what the original name of this plane was that's been lost to history.
Dustborn Plane History and Society
00:10:12
Speaker
You know, Sean and talks about it in her blog. Is that something they purposely did not put anywhere was the original name of this plane.
00:10:19
Speaker
because now the entire plane is just one haunted house, essentially, that has consumed everything, including the suns. Yes. ah Which one of the side stories talks about, and it is kind of interesting how it did. Yeah, and and I think for me that that side story might be one of the most, the most haunting pieces of this story. I mean, there's a lot of haunting things. That's the point of this. But the the main story,
00:10:50
Speaker
The way it just works, it I don't know, it didn't grab me in the same way that that particular side story did. Yeah. So we get kind of a view into this plane and what it was like. It's basically, you know, so ah it's magic and tech based planes. So they had some of both. ah You know, the the they powered a lot of their tech with essentially summoned demons ah that were used to power things. yeah So, you know, nothing could go um nothing could possibly go wrong with summoning things to power things. Oh, no. But yeah, and I love the opening bit of the first episode.
00:11:35
Speaker
really it captures there's a horseless carriage and so there's a little bit of that deck that you're talking about but it and this is a genre that isn't as nearly as familiar to me but the way that first bits was setting up the house in the city that it was in felt very 80s horror movie, felt very suburban setting horror film. Yeah, it was very, very much a suburbia ah situation here where there's the one creepy house on the block, everything else is super conformative. And then there's the one creepy house on the block. So and we're introduced to Marina who is
00:12:18
Speaker
um she She shows up twice in the story, but basically she is the cause of dust morn in a lot of ways ah because she ends up feeding this demon that lives under her house, a four of her ah high school bullies. Yes. And i mean i that kickstart his whole ability to start consuming everything else on the plane. He can't leave the house. He's imprisoned in the house. So he just keeps making the house big. Yep.
00:12:51
Speaker
And that's how he was basically able to escape his prison, is just consuming everything that wasn't his prison. Yeah, you just take the prison and make everything the prison. Just consume it all. Yeah, it's kind of like that episode of Futurama where their Amazon clone takes over the whole universe and basically becomes the universe. If you haven't seen it, it's a pretty good episode.
00:13:17
Speaker
I have not seen that one. i thought It was in the it was in the those the new season they released on Hulu ah last year, earlier this year. I forget when it was. But ah yeah, it was their Amazon analog basically takes over the whole universe. it is It's quite a good episode. Seems about right.
00:13:37
Speaker
um So. That's where we kind of get started and then then it skips to present day. ah We don't know exactly how much time has passed since that all occurred. ah That's another thing that's kept purposefully um obfuscated in the story. yeah It just sets up many years ago is the best we get. And there's there's a couple other little clues later in some of the side stories, but it's never we're never given a precise amount of time, which
00:14:08
Speaker
Yeah, we know it's been generations, though generations have been raised inside this house.
The Wanderer and Kaido's Mission
00:14:14
Speaker
Yep. ah But ah so we start we we get it, we get to start on Kamagawa and Kaido is mid robbery when the Wanderer shows up. Good time to show up, you know, friend and and she even brought her dog with her. Yoshimaru is with her while she's interrupting Kaido mid robbery. Yep.
00:14:36
Speaker
And um she's there to recruit him to go find Nashi because he's gone missing. who ah And basically she wants him, since he is still a planeswalker and she is not, ah wants him to go out and recruit other people to be part of the team to go rescue Nashi. So where does he go? Well, he had his friend Tybar on the Phyrexia assault team.
00:15:05
Speaker
And he goes and meets up with Tyvar because this is a Shannen story. So of course Tyvar is going to be in it. yep um you As soon as I saw the yeah the poster with Tyvar and the rest of the team on it, that was when I was like, I knew they gave the story to Shannen. I'm going to talk to her about it next week. But when I when i saw it, I already had the horror.
00:15:29
Speaker
you know, aspect going. And then when I saw that Tyvar was a part of it, that was when I was just like, they gave the story. Yeah, that's, I think that's, that's a good question of, at what point did Tyvar enter the story? Yeah. Like, behind the scenes. But yeah, it's, so this is fun. and And honestly, for me, this was a lot of fun, because I wasn't really reading story around Keldheim. And I haven't read the phyrexian stuff so this is i think the first time i've like read story with tyvar in it so what do you think of tyvar as a character it's such a great i love tyfar for all the reasons that i understand other folks have have loved tyvar as a character yeah he is such a himbo he is yes
00:16:15
Speaker
um As usual, he's wearing no shirt. That's an important part of his backstory is that he does not wear clothing. Seanan has talked about that. sure He doesn't wear shirts. He's in the middle of ah soloing a wolf that is way too big for him when ah Kaido shows up yeah think and calls him a dog catcher with you. Oh, yeah. And I also love how the fight is almost off screen. I mean, I i guess it's not. He just knocks it into the snow and it's fine. Yeah. And the fight is over. Like there isn't a big fight about it even just because I mean, it's Tifar. It's a giant wolf. It's no match for Tifar.
00:16:59
Speaker
So kata Keto basically says, hey, look, i'm goingnna and we're assembling a team to go into this completely unknown space with unknown dangers. And Tyvar is just like, I'm in. I'm totally in. This sounds great. Yes. He doesn't even ask for any more questions. He's just like, this sounds like fun. Yeah, he needs no details. Yeah. um And then he's like, well, I know someone else we can recruit.
00:17:25
Speaker
And poor Nico Aeris is still stuck on Kaldheim because he's no longer up or they're no longer a planeswalker either. yeahp ah you know They have been stuck on Kaldheim, they were stuck there during the invasion, or they stayed there during the invasion because they're avoiding going home to Theros because they still have a god that is very angry at them.
00:17:45
Speaker
e um So they are hanging out in Kaldheim and decided to tag along as well because they're probably tired of taking the locals on Kaldheim for all their money in ah um bar contests. Yep. Need something else to do. Yeah. ah So.
00:18:11
Speaker
ah We get them all together.
Team Assembly on Ravnica
00:18:13
Speaker
um They go to Ravnica, which is the meeting point ah that the Wanderer established, and immediately run into our good friend Zamone from Strixhaven, who is doing her graduate work ah studying with the Izzet now. Since you can walk between lanes,
00:18:35
Speaker
Yeah, which oh, I just love it. I'm going to take a moment because A, I love that Strixhaven has graduate programs on Raftika because that's yeah just from a fiction standpoint, like when the whole Omen Path story started, like that was not i I doubt that it was a specific that we called out, but that was the exact kind of thing that we were talking about, like hoping for. Yeah, exactly what I was hoping for, seeing these legendary characters get mixed together and but you The quandrix having a graduate program with the is it is exactly the kind of thing we want out of that. And and the other thing and that I think is so cool about that too is notice it's the quandrix who are mechanically the blue-green guild has their graduate program with the blue-red is it not the simic
00:19:27
Speaker
who are also blue-green, but that's because the quandrix and the simic, as we talked about a lot in the strict saving story, are different types of blue-green. They're very different, yeah. And so it makes sense, particularly for what Zamone is doing, what she's interested in. Yeah, she's studying theoretical interplanar spaces, which... Yeah.
00:19:50
Speaker
The Cimic is not going to know anything about, but the is it? um Definitely do. Oh, yeah. They love messing with physics and yeah studying it and breaking it. And like, you know, there are probably quandary students who would be doing things with the Cimic, but it's like, I love that it's not just automatic blue-green with the blue-green folks. Like, no, no. there Because they're such a different representations of that color pie,
00:20:14
Speaker
There's going to be folks like Zamone, who it makes a lot more sense. She's very mathematical. It makes sense for her to go talk to the wild engineers in the Izzet and work with them for some of their stuff. Yeah. um So apparently she's been working directly with Niv Mizzet, who is um very intrigued by this mysterious door that just appeared on Ravnica. Of course he is.
00:20:41
Speaker
ah He's been studying the Omen Path since they showed up ah and has a project to basically map any of them that have anything to do with Ravnica so he can control them. yep And this thing that isn't really an Omen Path but still points off plane shows up. So of course that gets his interest too. But he's an ancient dragon who uses students to do his research for him. He's just like any other academic.
00:21:11
Speaker
Yep. um So, ah yeah, he just he puts his name on the paper, but doesn't actually do any of the work. Yep. Yeah, it's, it's fun. Again, this is this is kind of what we were hoping for with these omen paths, just the team in general, you have this, this group of wildly disconnected folks, some of whom used to be planeswalkers, one of whom still is and some who never were.
Fate-Rewriting Trinkets
00:21:37
Speaker
Uh, and then waiting there is a small child as well. And this is the first time we get any story at all with Amanatu it. Yep. Um, she's had a planeswalker card since like 2018 or so around there. Yeah. Um, yeah, I think it was 2018. He's 2017 was the tribal or typo, um, set.
00:22:01
Speaker
Yes. So yeah, I'm pretty sure it was the 2018 commanders that had the planeswalker commanders. um But we had no story for her. We just knew that her magic involved twisting fate. And she's such a cool looking character. um And she's one of the ah the yeah commander lead cards for the set as well and I've shown new art for which is really cool because now we have art that isn't from Seth McKinnon.
00:22:34
Speaker
ah but ah she's basically like, you know, i I can't go with you because the entity that's on the other side of this would do disgusting things with my power, but I can give you these little fake trinkets, which will basically give you ah pretty much like a one-time save point where if something bad happens, you can rewind a little bit and change what you did.
00:23:03
Speaker
ah Which basically gives Mira the leeway to write grisly deaths for all of the characters and then rewind them. Yes, which helps to really build the the flavor of this world, too, and it's some of the the ways that some of these things happen. Yeah, the the scene we're talking about, like, Nico getting stabbed through the skull is just like needlessly, you're not needlessly, but it is ah full of details, the extra details about how they feel while they're getting stabbed through the head. Yes, extravagantly detailed, perhaps. yeah
00:23:45
Speaker
That was the word I was looking for, something like that. All of them, I think, at least several of them definitely get these. Yeah, um all of the characters and then they send one for Nashi too. yes they Yes, they all get one of those. I'm thinking of the the scenes, but yeah. yeah they all get one toke They all get a token from... ah We get a brief scene with... ah Atrata and Prof as well before they go through the portal, because of course, Seanan would bring them back. And Atrata is basically talking back to Niv-Mizzet, which I love. ah but She's not even remotely cares that she's talking to the ah living guild pact. Who is also a dragon, just in general. Also a 20,000 year old dragon. Yeah.
00:24:41
Speaker
ah And there's a little bit and they said, you know, they show them to the door and there's signs declaring danger and keep out in dozens of languages. So I like how the is it have actually labeled this for once instead of just leaving. Yes, even the is it are like, this is weird. This this is a danger. Yeah.
00:25:02
Speaker
but I also love just some of the the writing and this is where just sometimes little bits of description can be so impactful for description of characters and why mechanically it's so interesting to me how like short stories are written but anyway you just have in
Entering the Spooky Doorway
00:25:15
Speaker
this sentence did miss it gestures grandly to the door this is why we're here he said with sonorous importance yeah it's like Tyvar is just like this it's just a door yeah so yes um Tyvar is being Tyvar already we love Tyvar um Oh yeah. Well, and then you get, uh, at that point and then, uh, um, and not to like recoils and pulls them all away and is like, it hears us. If we talk in, it's, you know, if we talk too close to the door, it will know our plans. It's like, okay, this is a good way to set up the story.
00:25:49
Speaker
Yeah, so that pretty much wraps up Episode 1. They basically um step up to, they they step through the door and then it slams shut behind them. ah they They leave Yoshimura with Amanatu, bringing ah a dog with you to a haunted house is probably a bad idea. yeah ah And then we get the key arc for the set, which is the the team of the Wanderer, Niko, Tyvar, Kaido, and Simone all.
00:26:23
Speaker
Uh, so that, that is the end of episode one and we we kind of get set up. Um, we're going to have to move through the rest of these a little quicker because there was just so much flavor to talk about, you know, early on. Yeah. Um,
00:26:40
Speaker
So the thing that I'm going to have to say about the the door listening to them plays out really quick because they're like talking about their plan is like, oh, we better stick together. Don't split up. Everybody keep an eye on each other. And the first thing the house does is split everybody up. Yep. It sucks. Kaido into a hole.
00:27:03
Speaker
it It fabricates some screaming sound that gets Tyvar to run off. Tyvar run and Simon follows Tyvar and then the Wanderer and Nico are left together.
00:27:15
Speaker
ah And so, yeah, first thing they do, the episode title is Don't Split
Character Development Through Challenges
00:27:22
Speaker
the Party. And the first thing they do is ah have the party split because the... Yes.
00:27:29
Speaker
ah And then there's another Tyvar line, which I absolutely love. ah cato Kaido, and Nico, very pleasant swordswoman without a name. Can you hear us? Yes. There's all of the lines I wrote down our lines from or around Tyvar. Like like the the the the first thing that Simone says when she sees Tyvar is, why isn't that man wearing a shirt? Oh, right. Yeah.
00:27:55
Speaker
just because it's Tyvar. It's fine, don't worry about it. oh Yeah, so Tyvar, we get a little scene following Tyvar and Simone as they explore, and then they find a library, which of course, Simone is immediately entranced by, yeahp ah and she wants to start doing research right away.
00:28:19
Speaker
Yep. And, and kind of those two end up being kind of the explaining as much of the backstory as we learn. Yeah. Stories at least is kind of through their research here and some of the stuff that they run into later. Yeah. And we do get a little scene with Tyvar that I wanted to mention where he's going through a hallway and there's a bunch of photos with a body horror on them. And he's just thinking back to Phyrexia, which, you know, is,
00:28:49
Speaker
ah He's basically is having a real issue with the body horror after seeing what the Frexians did to people. Which shows that even Tyvar can have some things that ah it came out a little bit. um He's usually he doesn't have a whole lot of thinking going on and just more doing.
00:29:10
Speaker
Yeah, speaking of of the doing there is one scene that I just I had to stop I had to pause I was listening to the audio on this one Which I really am glad the last few sets at least they've done this the main story all six episodes of the main story have audio that you can just listen to the the sides don't but so I was listening to this and I had to just pause it because I'm like I need to stop for a moment because there was a moment where after doing some research in the library and Um, I, and I can't even remember what the rest of this where it kind of led, but Tybar decided, well, if the house can rearrange and put walls down and things, what if we just go through the wall? And so yeah I didn't even mention that. Yeah. And, and there's a line from Simone where she was going to like, well, I'm going to go, I'm going to do some research and I can kind of hear him. So we're still in each other's presence. And so it's okay. But there was a line or something like, she should probably stay and watch him fight the wall, but I'm going to go do some research instead. But the line.
00:30:06
Speaker
watch him fight the wall is in the story, in but that order. And I i love it so much. I just love that line so much. Yeah. Well, Tyvar is basically like, I have an idea. I'm going to fight the wall. or And then Zomona is like, what's your idea? And he's like, I'm going to fight the wall. And she's just like, oh, it's violence. Yeah, that's right. That's right. Because there's a moment from her too. Oh, yeah, violence. Fair enough. Yeah.
00:30:35
Speaker
um Yeah. Yeah, that is a good scene that I skipped over, but it's very Tybar. If the house can do it, he's going to do it to the house. Yeah. And then we switch our our viewpoint to the Wanderer and Nico, and they have this really touching scene about Tamio's death. And the Wanderer is blaming herself for Tamio's death because she is the one who killed Frex and I's Tamio.
00:31:02
Speaker
But Niko points out, and they you know they have a point, it's like, well, if you didn't, ah you didn't kill her, Phyrexia did. And if you hadn't done what you did, then Kamagawa might not exist anymore. So they are you know trying to help the wanderer deal with some of the self blaming that they've been, they've had going on since the Phyrexian invasion.
00:31:27
Speaker
Uh, which is kind of like the whole big reason that she put the team together to go after Nashi is because she feels responsible for him. Yeah. I mean, and that's a conversation she had with Kaido too, where both of them are like, they feel responsible for Nashi, but neither of them have checked in with him for a while. Cause she said, Oh, he's been missing for this long period of time. And he's like, how couple a mom be missing yeah, I'll be missing that long. And it's like, when was the last time you talked to him? Couple of months ago. Cause they both feel guilty for, for Tamio's death.
00:31:58
Speaker
Yeah. And he doesn't really want to talk to them because the court, he blames. Yes. And that's fair to that. He actually blames them for it. Yeah. Uh, because his point of view is like, well, you know, and the wanderer kind of feels the same way as like the wanderer is like, well, other people were saved from Phyrexia. You know, maybe she could have been too if I hadn't chopped her head off. Yeah. Um, like, like when she was talking to Neil and said, uh, Nico and said, if I had been slower,
00:32:27
Speaker
in my defense, less determined she might be with us now, and that's when Niko responds with, or Kamagawa might be gone. Yeah, because when they, when the wanderer finished her, she was in the middle of reading one of her ironbound scrolls. e So, you know, those are like plain ending spells. Yeah. ah So she could have been casting anything.
The Wanderer and Niko's Emotional Conversation
00:32:52
Speaker
Yeah, that that one of those was,
00:32:55
Speaker
used to put Emmerkull in the moon, right? Yeah, which was originally the story of ah the collapsing of Sarah's realm. And then Emmerkull rewrote the story. That's right. ah Yeah. um Yeah, Emmerkull took control of Tamio and rewrote the story as it was being told.
00:33:18
Speaker
um So yeah, so impactful things that could not, should not have been finished. Yes. ah And then we get um ah Niko and the Wanderer ah basically end up in a meat locker and run into one of the slasher creatures, the Razorkin, which are like your typical or your kind of standard, like Freddy Krueger or Jason Slasher.
00:33:52
Speaker
antagonist and they are saved by a survivor called Winter um who it basically tells them ah there is nothing else. The house is the world, the world is the house, and there is nowhere to go, and ah you belong to Duskworn now. So they don't have a very Um, high opinion of actually leaving the house at any time soon. Uh, and they're trying to convince Nico and the launderer that that's the way it is. Yep. Uh, and that, that's also where, you know, episode three picks up is they're spending time with winter and he's explaining to them about how the.
00:34:39
Speaker
um survivors live and how Duskmorn like splits up your friends and gets you isolated and afraid because the more afraid you are the better you taste to the demon um and ah basically just goes and says you know you're not going to um enjoy this or this is not going to end well for any of you if you don't get that through your head And then ah as they're going, all of a sudden, ah a small glowing version of Kaido appears, which is the soul of Kamagawa.
Kaido and Jace's Reunion
00:35:21
Speaker
And ah it is what is called a glimmer on this plane, which is like a manifestation of your hopes until they get extinguished by the house. ah And that starts leading them on.
00:35:37
Speaker
um you know, the ah wanderer asks it to take them to Naishi and they start following the glimmer. So that's kind of where we're left off with the wanderer and Niko. And then it switches to Kaido's point of view, who is the one person who's stuck completely on his own. ah But he's also the only one who can just planes walk away when he Well, he's not completely on his own. He has Simoto. He has his little commie robot Tanuki with him. Yep. For a little while, and then there's someone else there. Yeah, and then he runs into Chase, which...
00:36:25
Speaker
um ah before he manages to punch him yep punches him right in the face immediately uh possibly breaks his nose um because the last time they saw each other uh chase was basically trying to detonate the silox and blow a hole through the multiverse to everything that realm breaker was connected to um before being uh completely phyrexianized so they did not have a bad good parting at all yep
00:36:56
Speaker
They they hash out just a little bit of that. Yeah, it's a little. And and you might, you know, that was another story that Seanan wrote, the phyrexian strike spot. Yeah, that's right. OK, so, you know, we're getting a little bit of that replayed. You know, and then Jason's like, I don't think my nose is broken, if that matters to you and Kaido's like, want me to try again? Yeah.
00:37:27
Speaker
And then they get interrupted by the house being creepy and weird. Yeah, and then they're just like, fight later. And it kind of says, fight later, ah but we are going to fight. Yeah, that's that's a great bet. And then it cuts to Zamone and Tyvar again. Yeah. It's just a great line. Yes, this line, I was going to read it. The library had remained a library to Zamone's delight and Tyvar's disappointment.
00:37:57
Speaker
The only thing in this house that hasn't changed on them yet. Yep. One thing he can't like profitably punch. Yeah. So, um, and then there's another line a little bit down, further down. Tyvar Kell was not a man well suited to an academic setting. Every inch of him screamed that they're in the middle of a grand, terrible adventure filled with danger and the chance for glory.
00:38:23
Speaker
Uh, but what is this place and how is this happening? We're enemies. He could punch. Yep. And then there's another line where something actually shows up that he might need to punch. Um, and he says, and Simone is so distracted until he's, he says some line like your college education is not preparing you for proper properly for survival. Yeah. just a great lie Yeah. Uh,
00:38:53
Speaker
but And then there's also there's another line in here I wanted to bring up.
Discoveries in the Library and Magical Threats
00:38:58
Speaker
Simone finds a book um with a bunch of notes written in the margin that is all occultism and described as the kind of magic that makes professor best recommend you rethink your academic goals. Yes.
00:39:17
Speaker
Uh, and I absolutely love that one. That is a great line. Does it get referred to as like questionable academic goals later or something like that? Questionable, uh, questionable. Um, uh, and then, uh, Tiber S it's bad magic and, and, uh, Simone says magic isn't inherently good or bad anymore than a mathematical equation is. Some of it is based on weapon, uh, entropy and weaponized obligation. That bad magic is probably the best way to describe it.
00:39:47
Speaker
So yes. Oh, here we go. Yeah. Do you think this, and this is Tyvar like trying to understand, he's like, do you think this pause academically unpleasant magic? The reason the house is behaving in its current manner. I love that. I think that's the line that comes up later academically unpleasant magic. Um, so, and then because they, they've had this relatively peaceful time in the library, of course, a, uh,
00:40:17
Speaker
a monster shows up. That's when you get the line from Tyvar you already mentioned. yep
00:40:23
Speaker
And this monster turned out to be something that even Tyvar can't really punch ah because Tyvar beats it completely into um a bloody pulp and then it just regenerates.
00:40:40
Speaker
so And then he makes a new discovery, I think, maybe the right word for it, where he realizes if he converts himself and Zamone into the material of the house, then the house can't see them.
00:40:57
Speaker
Right. But that before that, there's a line. Simone says maybe we should run. And Tyvar is like, yeah, brave deeds and only carry honor when recounted. And that's what they write. Oh, maybe what I'm talking about is in the next episode. that It's a little, yeah, it comes in the next episode. But ah that's where it ah it in it picks back up with the Wanderer, Winter and Nico again.
00:41:23
Speaker
ah continued and to explore the creepy, creepy house ah and then a one of the glitch ghosts appears ah because Nico was staring into a mirror and they trapped this glitch ghost inside one of their shards ah which they're notoriously difficult to defeat ah so winter is kind of impressed that they were able to do that. Yeah.
00:41:51
Speaker
um And they talk a little bit about how the house works and that is, you know, how it's everything. And the one or so someone must have built this place. They can't have done that if they're already trapped inside it, which is actually what better girl completely did. He was trapped inside the house and still.
00:42:11
Speaker
just kept expanding it. Yes. Yeah, that that's true. That is basically I mean, someone built the physical structure of the house. so And then originally, but that isn't what did this. It was the demon. Yeah, it in the basement. ah Because everybody should keep an elder demon in their basement. Yep.
00:42:31
Speaker
Which gives an another hint to how old this is, is the fact that he did the creature which was just revealed this weekend ah for Valinoff is an Elder Demon. So, um this Dustborn has been like this for a very long time. Yeah.
00:42:50
Speaker
ah And then they find ah they find a clearing in a wood-like place, but it's still indoors. So it just makes it extra creepy that um with some rat folk trapped in cages, so that they found Nashi, they got what they asked for from their glimmer, ah from ah but it's surrounded by um these wicker folk creatures, which are basically wicker men that go around trapping people and turning them into more wicker men.
00:43:21
Speaker
And they noticed that some of the ones are smaller and have tails, so they've already converted some of the rat people ah into one. And then they do another one, ah that they grab one out of the cage and convert another one. Yeah. And some interesting, I don't know, weirdly interesting, but the wanderer noticed, or was the only one who recognized that this rat person who was converted, it was green Kamigawan bamboo.
00:43:51
Speaker
Yeah. So they were, it was the the trees of their native home, basically, turning them into a wicker doll. And then we get the first time that the, you know, the foreshadowed fate shifters come into place is, of course, the wanderer jumps right in to say as soon as she sees Nashi jumps in and tries to solo all the wicker people and gets brutally murdered. Mm hmm. And converted.
00:44:19
Speaker
and converted. Yeah. um And then it snaps back to before she jumped in and she's like, Oh, that wasn't a very good idea. Yeah, so that they take a moment to actually plan what they're going to do. And ah Nikko pulls his meat trick where once they um started distracting the wi wicker men, they throw one of their shards through the cage, ah which traps ah Nashi and keeps traveling through the other side and sticks into a tree, I think, so that they can retrieve him without actually having to um open the cage or get to the cage.
00:44:57
Speaker
a Uh, oh, and the way they distract the wicker people is releasing that, uh, that ghost that, um, Nico had captured earlier. Yep. Um, so that, um, so they, they managed to rescue Nashi. Uh,
Encounter with the Cult and Nashi's Rescue
00:45:17
Speaker
and we get back to, um, we get back to Kaido and Jason's view, uh, and they're fighting in nightmare, which.
00:45:27
Speaker
Kaido can't really do anything at all about. um And eventually, Jay saves their asses by ah kind of popping the brains on the nightmare. It has like a bunch of individual little heads, and in he releases them from their torment, which ends up letting the nightmare um dissipate.
00:45:53
Speaker
um And then he talks about that he'd been traveling with Vraska and their new companion and they're somewhere in the house and he's looking for them.
00:46:04
Speaker
ah
00:46:08
Speaker
so And then there's actually a good line from Jace. They need me, so if you could stop hitting me, we could work together to find all our missing friends. yeahp And Kaido was like, after what happened on New Phyrexia, we're still not friends, Jace.
00:46:24
Speaker
Yeah, and then his response. I can live with that, but that means we both have to live. Yeah, it's pretty good response. Yeah, and then it switches back to the moan and Tyvar and.
00:46:38
Speaker
um You know we. Oh. and get a basically a ghost of Zamon. He's a ghost of one of the deans that had been converted by Phyrexia. And ah you know of course, it's one of the creatures of the house trying to trap them.
00:47:00
Speaker
ah ah And this is ah you know another time when Tyvar attacking it really doesn't do anything because it's ah um And we get a ah wonderful scene, another one of these wonderfully described scenes like you meant of Tyvar basically getting slashed open across the middle and his guts spilling out. And then we get another fate stitcher rewind.
00:47:33
Speaker
ah which Which gives Tyvar the edge in the fight because there were there were aspects of the creature he didn't know and now Yeah. Having seen that, he's able to fight it more effectively. Yeah. um And he still can't really fight it, though. All he can do is kind of push it away. And this is when he figures out how to ah hide from the house by becoming the the house itself. That's right. Using his transmutation magic. Yep. And then he's able to do that to Zimone so that the two of them become invisible to the house. Yeah.
00:48:13
Speaker
And ah in you know we get some ah foreshadowing here where she asked Tybar how long he can keep it up. And he's like, oh, I feel like I could keep this up forever um right there. And then we get Zamone's death scene where they stay transformed too long and she gets consumed by the
Escape Attempt and Magical Traps
00:48:38
Speaker
house.
00:48:38
Speaker
ah And then they, you know, got she's like, Oh, we've got to drop this. We can't stay in this form or we will be, um, we will lose ourselves to it. Yeah. Well, and, and but they, they walked on a hallway and see all these doors. Yeah. They have carvings that are subtly different that have carvings from different, different planes. Like she identifies Ravnica, something from quandrix study wing Tyvar says, this looks like my brother's feasting hall.
00:49:06
Speaker
So they're seeing these doors that likely lead to these other planes. Yeah. um So, oh, the one thing to mention here is that the the door to Zendikar is blocked off. Yes, yes, that's right. um Even the house doesn't want to mess with Zendikar. Yeah.
00:49:31
Speaker
Yeah.
00:49:35
Speaker
like the door, um like this door among them all was not permitted to open. It's like, no, no, no, we'll just leave that place over there. Yeah, you know, it has boards hammered across it. And ah And and they're they're still, this is before um they realize they're being transformed. Tyvar has the thought Zendikar might be on the other side. Dangerous, delicious Zendikar waiting to be devoured. So he's thinking like the house.
00:50:07
Speaker
um And ah so we get that in and then then this is the one and they're like, okay, we can't use the camouflage all the time. Let's find something else that might hide us. And Simone convinces Tyvar to put a vest on. So he actually has something he's wearing.
00:50:28
Speaker
ah Which I don't think actually helps them hide at all, but they managed to manage to get another joke in there about Tyvar not wearing shirt by convincing them to wear a vest. Yeah, you have someone looked at him, his chest and midriff still exposed and swallowed a sigh. It's great. Let's just keep going. Yeah. ah Then we switch back to the wanderer winter and.
00:50:56
Speaker
ah Niko and they now have Nashi with them and some of Nashi's friends ah who don't get named because they're not going to live very long. ah And Nashi is ah basically like, I didn't ask you to show up. You know, I don't really um ah want to deal with you. And he kind of ignores them.
00:51:24
Speaker
ah Yeah. And and he insists that he was he came here looking for his mom and that's he's that's what he's still doing. Yeah, ah because they stole his sp scroll, which had the basically recording living recording of his mother's stories in it, ah which gave him basically a spirit mom. ah And then we switch back to Jason Kaido's viewpoint and ah they get trapped in like a slime pit.
00:52:00
Speaker
ah Sounds like it's like right out of an anime ah and then they try to climb up the outside or try to climb up out of this pit and ah that's a trap too because as soon as they try climbing up it shackles them to the wall.
00:52:17
Speaker
ah So Kaido has Himoto open Jace's shackles, and Jace just takes off.
Demon's Empowerment Reveal
00:52:30
Speaker
yeahp Because he sees Vraska and Lew above them. And he's like, well, Kaido, gotta to go. And before Kaido gets eaten, he planeswalk off the plane.
00:52:46
Speaker
Yep. And with the thought, I'm so sorry, my friends, I should have broken his nose when I had the chance. Yeah. And then boys will expect a Ravnic. Uh, so we once again see that Jace doesn't care about anything except for Raskin loot. Uh, even if it means, uh, somebody he knows is about to get devoured by a slime yep monster.
00:53:11
Speaker
And so he just said he was going to help and then immediately it's like, eh, you know what, I'm going this way instead. Yeah. Yeah. Um, so we're still, we're, we're absolutely still on Jason's villainy arc, uh, which is going to carry through this whole three year arc. I think before we get any resolution to what's going on there. Yeah.
00:53:36
Speaker
Um, and, and there's a little bit at the end, which could be interesting set up for short or long-term payoff. We're not sure. We'll, we'll have to see, but yeah, but that's the end of that episode and and leads us into five. Uh, and we switched back with, yeah, Tiver and Simone again, and they are basically using Tiver's transmutation trick, uh, to move as much as they can before they have to drop it, uh, to before they lose themselves.
00:54:06
Speaker
um and just move through a bunch of impossible house rooms. And then they end up finding a area that looks completely normal and like there's sunlight coming in and everything looks like a peaceful afternoon. ah There are no strange smells or unlikely shadows, no blood stains or nightmares. It was just pleasant.
00:54:30
Speaker
Uh, and they see a woman there and Simone is like, wait a minute. I saw her in a photo when they first walked in, but that was really old. And she's still really young. So, uh, and she's like, uses us this, is it the device she has to scan the area and there's no time magic going on.
00:54:52
Speaker
Yeah. And Tyvar is just like, well, maybe she's a ghost. And then we get the great line. It's like, uh, maybe she's a ghost, suggested Tyvar, a spirit of some sort. She doesn't seem to be aware of our presence and even wrapped in the body of this house. so I am difficult to overlook. And then of course you get, Simone looks at him, unbelievably. Are you bragging about how hot you are? Like right now, I'm simply stating facts.
00:55:19
Speaker
I've already. It's just great. So they dropped their camouflage and then she finally notices them but she's of course freaked out because two people just appeared on it nowhere and um she's like what are you doing in my house and they're like oh we're wandering trying not to get eaten and and she's just like confused because um she doesn't ah know what's going on. She's like, oh, if you're here to kill me, I'm going to run outside and scream for the watch. So this is, you know, it's it's Marina, the girl from the very beginning of the story, but she has no idea what's going out and on outside of her little bubble. And there's this absolutely amazing Magali piece of art of her in her little bubble where everything looks beautiful.
00:56:11
Speaker
Yeah. And then just immediately outside, it is not beautiful. Yes. Uh, Migali nailing, um, this piece of art as she always does. Um, so they, they try to talk to her, they try to find out, um, they find out that she was the one who was writing the, um, notes in the book. Uh, and.
00:56:37
Speaker
um she's still talking about her mom and her dad and ah Everything that's going on, you know and in acting like it like no time has passed at all And you know, she's still her teenage self Yep So And then they're like ah Um, Zymone asked about the, you know, that kind of magic is dangerous. Can you be seriously hurt or worse? If you use anything like that, did you use something like that? Is that what happened in the house? And that just freaks her out. Uh, and she starts on like, you're not real and you're not real. Uh, and the house basically comes into defend her. Yep.
00:57:22
Speaker
and ah Yeah. Chases them. Yeah. Uh, but not before Zymone steals her diary. Yep. uh, which they go through. And, um, this is where we finally get the backstory of what happened. And, um, basically she has no friends. She meets the demon in the basement and thinks they're friends and the demon, you know, she talks about being bullied and like the de the demon is like, well, I can do something about your bullies. If you just bring them over.
00:57:56
Speaker
And she brings them over, ah from ah girls in her necrobiology class, which which talk you a little bit more about what this world was like where they had magic and technology. yeah ah And of course, um he eats them. And like I said before, this is when he starts to be able to expand his ah control because he was fed all this new energy, ah which then lets him eat more people and expand more until he's the whole plane.
00:58:29
Speaker
ye Yeah.
Confronting the Cult and Winter's Betrayal
00:58:32
Speaker
And also one of the little motifs that shows up a lot here too in her diary, she talks about, you know, making some joke or, you know, some, some self deprecating joke about I primed to be the social butterfly of a new scholastic environment and says, I'm more of a social moth. Stick to the shadows. Stay out of the way. Hope I don't get swatted before I can emulate myself on a lantern. Well, there's a lot of moth motifs.
00:58:55
Speaker
throughout this whole thing that doesn't really get connected more than just that. But that is interesting to me that that well, Valganoff is a moth. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's he's a moth demon.
00:59:09
Speaker
um So yeah, it's kind of this whole thing over there. And then at the very end of the ah book, she realizes that And you know, um, she basically triggered this and he started eating the world and she's like, I can't go on. I have to talk about this. I have to save myself and my parents. Maybe I can't save the world, but do I have to be an entirely a monster? Do I? And so it doesn't explain how she kind of got lost and how she's been there the whole time, but you know, she, uh,
00:59:46
Speaker
Um, she basically, she realized what was going on and now she's kind of like in this delusional state, but she's, you know, after all these years that have passed, she's still a teenager who's like the world is normal to her.
01:00:00
Speaker
So she's as trapped in this house as anybody else's. and Just operating in this bubble. Yeah. For some way. And and the house is protecting her. For some reason. We don't. reason We never find out why Valgavoth is keeping her alive or protecting her. You know, as far as we know, they don't actually have a pact or anything, but Valgavoth, you know, keeps her around for whatever reason.
01:00:30
Speaker
ah
01:00:33
Speaker
And this is when Simone finally realizes that there is no plane left outside the house. Yep. ah line I think at this point, mathematically speaking, Belgovov is all. Yeah. and Then we switch back to the Wanderers group. ah And now she's like, my mother's been calling me in this direction. You know, I know it's the right place.
01:01:00
Speaker
ah You know, they find this kind of, this area that looks kind of idealistic, but not too bad. And then, you know, they're like, well, this is weirdly unusual. and And they're like, well, winter tells them, well, this is where the cult of Belgenov live, which are the survivors that have basically sold their souls to Belgenov and now help capture other people and convert them. ah there's There's a bit about them in the planes walkers guide.
01:01:29
Speaker
um and it's basically like as long as they keep feeding him they're safe.
01:01:40
Speaker
no um ah So we get a little bit more after that um and ah we also get a little hint here is ah winter at the end of the section winter refers to They're inevitable in Dustborn. They like their devouring father everywhere. So he lets slip something that nobody notices here.
01:02:08
Speaker
ah he uses um He uses kind of deferential title for Valganoth.
01:02:20
Speaker
ah And then we get back to, um, it just skipped forward. We're still following with the same, um, place. And then, um, you know, it's, they finally run into some of the cult figures about a dozen of them. Uh, and.
01:02:41
Speaker
Nico notices immediately that their clothes are actually clean and mended, unlike any of the other, like the survivor like winter or anything. So, you know, they obviously have access to things that other people don't have. um And they get, ah they get to walk in right as some injured survivors are basically being given the choice to convert or be forced into conversion.
01:03:13
Speaker
ah And one of them is like, yes, just take the fear away. I'll
Winter's Fate and Team Reunification
01:03:18
Speaker
do whatever you want. And this is, um and then they get, Niko yells out to leave her alone. And that's when um they basically the whole cult knows they're there and they all get,
01:03:37
Speaker
um Uh, pretty much, uh, subdued immediately and winter and they're like, Oh, you'll be most favored in winters. Like at this point, I better be. So obviously winter was a set up from the cult the whole time to bring them, uh, things to sacrifice of. among
01:04:01
Speaker
ah And then they they start a fight, everybody's fighting, and then the leader just um basically blows a layer of dust over everybody and puts them to sleep.
01:04:15
Speaker
And then they are very well tied up afterwards. The wanderer wakes up first because they have some resistance to um mental attacks because of all their self-control from when they were trying to keep themselves from planes walking randomly around the ah multiverse.
01:04:33
Speaker
ah And then I see
01:04:37
Speaker
ah She sees Cameo's spirit scroll, and the cultists have been basically eating stories from the scroll.
01:04:50
Speaker
um um And this is where they talk about, Valganoth has no interest in leaving Duskborn. He wants food to come to him.
01:05:03
Speaker
Yeah. But then talks about how the the space outside the walls has changed recently. And now he can spread his blessings further to more and more worlds. He no longer needs to strain with all his mic to open a door. All he needs to know is that they exist. Yeah. Probably talking about the most recent metaphysical change in the multiverse. Suddenly making it easier for a thing like this to to spread its influence. Yeah.
01:05:29
Speaker
Then we cut back to Kaido on Ravnica, and we get a little bit of scene, or he mentions Jace, and in live that gets Niv misses attention. ah Yep.
01:05:44
Speaker
ah And he left and then they're like and prof is like I have an idea. um Oh when they got out Nikko or not Nikko Kaido had a piece of wood from dust morn Stuck in his hand from when he was trying to crawl crawl up the walls to escape the pit ah So and profs like I have an idea and then we start the last episode episode six ah which um we pick up at the beginning from Niko's point of view um and they are watching the wanderer struggle and ah they're trying to get they're trying to free themselves
01:06:31
Speaker
ah You know, they see Nashi, they're trying to use one of their shards to free themselves. They try to talk to the wanderer and really be quiet. um And this is when they've realized that the ah the friends that Nashi brought with them are all gone now.
01:06:53
Speaker
um
01:06:56
Speaker
So, of course, Nashi is blaming himself for their deaths and and Nico is like, well, they chose to follow you. Yeah. Like that gives them some autonomy, but at the same time, he's still feeling the the burden of of that because he was going to, he was going to come here one way or another. They just decided they didn't want him to go on his own.
01:07:24
Speaker
other So they they have a nice discussion, but then there's their back and forth then gets the cultists attention that they're awake and they start on cultist monologues. Yeah. um And the cultists basically say they're going to, the the house is going to eat them because they are all planeswalkers or former planeswalkers that have knowledge of the multiverse that the house would love to devour and ah that they can basically be the house's guide ah to expand across the multiverse.
Battle with the Demon and Tamiyo's Farewell
01:07:59
Speaker
ah and um And while they're in the middle of this, ah you know, talking about what's going on, Belgenov himself shows up and um Winter's like, I want what was promised to me. ah And Belgenov is like, I promised you what your heart's desire is and summons him a door. um So that's apparently what Winter wanted out of this whole sacrifice thing was um a way out of Duskmorn, which isn't really a bad thing to ask for.
01:08:43
Speaker
ah But they realized that Winter had also previously sacrificed their best friend that they had been talking about the whole time. ah and
01:08:57
Speaker
ah Winter's like, you'd do anything to escape Duskmorn. And Belgenoth is just enjoying them, basically tearing to each other. tearing each other ah And summons the door, and and Winter's like, I can go, you promise? And what else? I keep my word. um And Winter tries to rush to the door and falls over. ah But Belgenoth and the cultists don't help him. they'rere They're like, you can wee, but we're not going to help you. um And this is when Tyvar shows up.
01:09:28
Speaker
Uh, and the bad form to start the battle without us. And then the very next line, a cultist flew past Nico to smash into the wall. could Clearly haven't been flung across the room.
01:09:40
Speaker
but Yeah, and then and then this is when they also see um a terrible ah figure appear next to him. It was shaped like Simone, but unlike Simone, its skin made of water-damaged flintered wood and rusting nails in place of teeth. So it describes for the first time what they really look like with the house camouflage on, and it's not pretty. Yeah.
01:10:04
Speaker
Um, and she lets Nico, uh, or starts on letting Nico go. And then as soon as Nico has their hands free, they use some of their shards to cut the wanderer free. Yep. Um, and the whole time Tybar is just punching the crap out of the cultist and Nico's like, well, at least someone's having a good day.
01:10:29
Speaker
Yeah. And as Amone replies, I don't think he knows how to have a bad day for very long. Yep, yep. Which you probably don't know. it um Or if you remember from the call time story, which you said you didn't really pay too much attention to.
01:10:53
Speaker
um Tybalt tried to cause basically delusions of inadequacy or, ah you know um you know, and they did not work on Tyvar whatsoever. no and They tracked Kaya, but they had no effect on Tyvar. Of course not, because it's Tyvar. That is awesome. That is fantastic.
01:11:20
Speaker
um Yeah, ah Tybalt tried using his mind magic on Tyvar, which basically plays off of your weaknesses and your fears and Tyvar just doesn't have any. Yeah.
01:11:34
Speaker
ah Yes. So um everybody gets free, they start fighting. um Winter tries to get to the door and Nikko shards them, ah so Winter doesn't get away um as much as they want to. And um ah the Wanderer gives Nashi their fates spinner or whatever they're called.
01:12:08
Speaker
and um One of the things with Tyvar's abilities is when he transmutes somebody, it turns their magic off. So Ximon couldn't cast anything until Tyvar removes her camouflage. ah But then she basically buffs Tyvar and... um Which, with one of my favorite lines from Ximon, she's had a lot of great ones. I was like, I was top of my class in theoretical combat math. Yeah.
01:12:40
Speaker
just And then we get we get the best line in the whole story. After Tyvar takes a blow, which ah would have hit him, ah Tyvar blinked and beamed. Behold the power of math, he proclaimed, turning and punching the cult of square in the face. And i love I love the squarely in the face being part of the description. yeah Talking about the power of math. It's it's ah so beautiful. It's wonderful.
01:13:08
Speaker
ah So then it was cut to Nashi and the scroll of Tamio and Tamio's spirit is like, um basically they've stripped, they've stripped her bear. The only thing left is him. um You know, she can't be removed from the container she's in or she'll be lost.
01:13:31
Speaker
and asks Nashi to let her go. And we have some more beautiful art from Miranda Meeks showing Tamiyo's spirit form holding Nashi's face.
01:13:46
Speaker
um and ah basically the um And then asks Nashi to let her go. Yeah.
01:13:59
Speaker
and and Just the heartbreaking line, too. They still have stories they could steal from me. Please, love, please, let me go. So the work of my life, the work that was my life, won't be turned to evil any longer.
01:14:15
Speaker
Which is resonant with not just this story, but the recent Phyrexian storyline, too. Yeah. um So Tyvar's...
01:14:29
Speaker
Just Niko's fighting, Tyvar's fighting, Niko has to like crawl over the um incapacitated cultist that Tyvar has already knocked out. ah Zamone is buffing him because if you have, you know, it just reminds me of my days of playing Team Fortress with a medic following the heavy because you know you just want to keep your heavy active.
01:14:57
Speaker
And so you have the smart one following the the the not the brightest one. um But ah Tyvar has to eventually transmute her back into the house material because ah so she doesn't get hurt, so she can't cast matt spells anymore.
01:15:19
Speaker
ah And but um the Wanderer was trying to fight Balgavoth, but Balgavoth is a 9-9 with Ward sacrifice three nonland permanents. So it's not going too well for the Wanderer. And ah she is...
01:15:44
Speaker
um almost trapped and Nikko tries to go free her and this is when Nikko gets stabbed through the head and and we get that lovely description and that the the last thing they think about is that they're dying so far from Theros they never see the afterlife. ah So you know it shows how much as much as they're worried about going home to them that that is still where they want to finish out their life.
01:16:12
Speaker
Um, and then of course they get their rewind and, uh, dalgama is, raba is continuing to, um, starts to basically pull themselves more and more out of the wall. So they have more, um, to fight the wanderer with and, um, knocks her down with a wing and knocks her sword away. Uh,
01:16:37
Speaker
And this is where we get one of the best lines from it is, I will swallow everything you are and I will unmake your world in my own image. You lose. And Nashi says so to you and pulls Tamio's scroll free. She smiled at him, tears running down her translucent face before she dissolved into moonlight and was gone. And Velga and I was like, eh.
01:17:02
Speaker
I don't need her anymore, I have all of you. ah And seems pretty happy with that situation until a sword appears through his chest, a katana specifically.
Escape and Return to Ravnica
01:17:15
Speaker
And behind him is Kaito ah having come through, one thing I forgot to mention before is Kaito tried the plane to walk back to Dustmorn, but the plane wouldn't let him in. um So, but this time he has come through a blue and white glowing door.
01:17:33
Speaker
Yes, that he hurriedly gets the group to run it through. Yes, he's basically like, this isn't going to be there for a long. Prof appeared in the entryway, adjusting violently through here. I can't hold this for long. Nikko grabs a Wanderer's Sword, uses it to cut her free, um and then everybody runs through the door.
01:17:54
Speaker
um And Kaito saves Tyvar ah right before um Tyvar loses his head. Tivar grabs the moan and just carries her through the door. Yep, just just jumps right through and then slams behind him. Then we get a little bit of an explanation with proffed in the space.
01:18:16
Speaker
trying to hurry them through when they're asking what it is. and like that it's It's an ah an artificial omen path, said Kaito. My spark proffed my magic, Amanatu's fate weaving, and a piece of the house I took with me when my planes walked away allowed us to, and as soon as proffed lets it go, it'll dissolve back in the blind eternities. So it was like, it took a lot of things for them to just get this- Yeah, so do they establish in this the sentence that you can't just make an artificial omen path normally. You have to have a whole lot going on together. So we're not going to have, you know, Phyrexian style, ah old Phyrexia style portals all over. Yeah. that This, this is a relatively unique, not, not unreplicatable, but not easily replicate a full process. yes
01:19:09
Speaker
um And so, Nashi releases the empty scroll. um It's like, youre but um your on Kamigawa with us, but your spirit belongs to the blind internities. I know that. I hope you can rest now. I hope you know you did the right thing. Your story's done, but mine's just starting. I love you. And he puts the scroll down on the hallway floor and then runs after the others into Ravnica. And knowing that this is being in the artificial Roman path. like
01:19:40
Speaker
Kaito mentioned at one point, like we need to move or we'll be lost. It'll, when it dissolves back into the blind eternity. So he's, now she's kind of letting, yeah letting go and letting that return.
01:19:53
Speaker
Mm-hmm, and then we get we get You can put me down now said Simone. Sorry said Tyvar unrepentant lean Tyvar. What are you wearing ass Kaido Tyvar looked at his vest and shrug Simon said it would help me hide within the house But there's no need for hiding now and he struck out but he got like he got the vest off as soon as he possibly Yes and then And then this line too, it seems all has been revealed, said Tyvar, almost philosophically, after taking the vest off and revealing the rest of his chest. yeah Did not catch that the first time I went through this story. And then we get a little cut scene back to Duskmorn with Valgano bleeding from his chest.
01:20:40
Speaker
ah and um knows that he's going to need to go cocoon up and heal. um yeah ah But not before we get a cutscene of him having a, ah not all of his prizes had escaped him. He reached into the attic above him, wrapping a tendril around a squirming, shivering bundle of orange fur and pulling it down in the view. ah So Valinoth has the loot. I'm sure nothing bad is going to happen with a you know multi um a ah multiverse wide map in Valinoth.
01:21:16
Speaker
Yeah, that's not going to be worse than any of the people that just escaped him from the multiverse. and and Yes. Because the notice there's no mention of Jason Rasca in there. They're probably still somewhere in the house. um but But then it says, soon enough, right now he needed to stem the bleeding. He looked around the chamber, seeking a cultist with even a flicker of life remain, and paused at the site of winter, huddled up against the wall where the door to the cursed moon's blighted land had been opened the night land had been open and abandoned. The moot man was loose somehow and unarmed. He would do well.
01:21:55
Speaker
ah So the last thing that ah winter happens to winter is he gets eaten by the demon who promised those freedom. And Valgano was like, I'll give you freedom of a kind. And basically just stuffed winter into the hole in his chest.
01:22:13
Speaker
And this is where Niels on the Discord mentioned ah winter was a healing potion for Belch, which I found rather entertaining. Yeah, he basically just uses him as a healing potion. Yeah, yeah, he does. um And then we get a little after story where Nashi is basically warning ah kids not to go through any weird doors. ah Tyvar and Niko had gone back to Strixhaven with
01:22:44
Speaker
ah Simone, because they heard of this game called Mage Tower, ah which um definitely sounds like something Tybar and Nico would want to play.
01:22:56
Speaker
and we get a very short cutscene with Nifmizzet's mapping project finished, ah Omen Pass largely secured, Prof and Trotter had been returned to their normal duties, ah and Prof is in his mental, his little mindscape that he can create and a doorway opened into his mind ah and um engraved with moss seeming to glare at him.
01:23:25
Speaker
ah and blew a cold wind through his minescape office. So he he opened a door to Duskmorn, but it also has a door to him. So we get some more foreshadowing of something that could happen ah there with Proft and Proft is some really unique magic. So that could be troublesome as well. Yep.
01:23:47
Speaker
And that's the whole story in, ah what, ah but almost an hour and a half. This was definitely a longer episode, but we you we had six six ah episodes of story to get through. Yeah, and there's there's some some side stuff too, if there's other stuff, if you haven't read it yet. and Yeah, the side stories are really good. ah you know You get a lot more background about the plane and how the survivors live and um some good tone setting, atmospheric storytelling. yeah So definitely read the side stories as well.
01:24:27
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. And and it's it's interesting. yeah like we We were talking, you know kind of wondering, conjecturing when when we were getting the um this big story shift and we talking about like what's goingnna what do we think is going to happen and you know kind of the the general arc of West Wizard's plans. And like this is definitely setting up whether Duskmorn is relevant, obviously with loot there, it might be ah relevant to the this current arc of story, because we know there's this three year arc that we're most of the way through one year of. We're a year and a half into the three year arc now. That's right. yeah So so we're're we're still a chunk into it, and so Duskmorn may or may not be relevant for the rest of the story.
Story's Impact and Future Speculations
01:25:09
Speaker
But if it isn't, like it seems one of the things I was wondering, you know, go back, but 15 years at this point, you know, we had we had three sets kind of walking into sort of the modern magic story where they set up the phyrexians, they set up the So, big titans on Zendikar, Eldrazi, and set up, what was the other big threat? Volus. Volus, yes, thank you. In three blocks, set up these... How could you forget Volus? I don't know. It's a good thing that Octos isn't here to be incensed with me, but so these three big threats were set up, and it took them
01:25:50
Speaker
more than a decade basically to work through the storyline for all of those. And it was kind of like, okay, are we going to start to see some of that again? And they're setting this up as a potential multiversal threat. Yeah. ah So we'll see we'll see what Duskmorn holds for the rest of this storyline, like it may or may not be part of the you know the the last resolving bits. I mean, something is going to have to happen with loot. So we know for something there some yeah something is going to have to happen in the short term with ah
01:26:22
Speaker
yeah the um with dusk worn Yeah, that's that's true, but we'll we'll see and we'll see if that resolves because there's a lot of a lot of questions here. There's a lot of ah a lot more that could happen with this story, which is interesting to kind of see this being set up.
01:26:41
Speaker
Yeah, look forward to it. ah Like I said, next week we'll be talking to Seanan about the story. ah There's obviously a lot to talk about. I definitely want to bring up some of those ah key lines we talked about today.
01:26:54
Speaker
um It's ah always love to have Seanan on talking about her story. And like I said, but at the beginning of the episode, even if you don't read the stories, go click on the links. Let Wizards know we appreciate the story. That is how they you know tell that there's interest and they keep hiring people like Seanan to write the stories for us. Yeah. and And if it's something that, you know, you don't want to really read for for any various reasons, there's embedded audio links in the articles. And there's also YouTube.
01:27:26
Speaker
I watch videos on there, so I assume they have them on their actual YouTube channel. I'm guessing it's audio only. It's audio with art in the background. Okay, yeah, I just used a little embedded audio on the article. Yeah, I had watched some of the Bloomberg story on the YouTube channel. Yeah, so I just want to remind folks that that is an option as well if you are interested in the story, at least for the main six stories.
01:27:54
Speaker
You can go just listen to it, pull it up on YouTube, pull it up on the Wizards website. Either way, just get some extra traffic there. If it's something you're interested in and it like, like they said, it it helps show that there's interest. This is marketing budget for them. And it's, we love it. We love, this is a, so we talk about story all the time on this show. It's a thing that we love. And so if if it's something that you like to show that support, show Wizards, it's worth paying writers and paying a team to to maintain this stuff.
01:28:23
Speaker
Yeah, and you know, we, this episode's already gone in an hour and a half. We don't have time to get into kind of the real world tie-in, but there were a lot of discussions of um grief and handling grief and um dealing with um the problems and then dealing with like the the trauma of the body horror phyrexia. So there there was a lot of things we could talk about, maybe we'll talk about in a future episode, ah but there definitely was a lot of real world tie-ins that we could discuss related to this story.
01:28:55
Speaker
And that's our show for today. You can find all of the hosts on Twitter for now. Hobbs can be found at HobbsQ, Tay can be found at Tayatransends, and Alex can be found at Mel underscore chronicler. Feel free to send us any questions, comments, thoughts, hopes, and dreams to the Goblin War Pod on Twitter, or email us at goblinwarpodcast at gmail.com.
01:29:17
Speaker
If you would like to support your friendly neighborhood gobsugs, our link tray can be found on our Twitter account and in the description of today's show. This has everything from various discount codes to the link from our Patreon. The music for today's show was by Wintergotten, who can be found at vintergotten at bandcamp dot.com. The art was done by Steven Raphael, who can be found at stevereffel on Twitter. Goblin Lore is proud to be presented by Hipsters of the Coast as part of their growing Vorthos content.
01:29:45
Speaker
Check them out on Twitter at hipsters MTG or online at hipstersofthecoast.com. Thank you for listening and remember goblins like snowflakes are only dangerous in numbers.