Transcript
Speaker: We actually we went and bought we went and bought some Irish whiskey tomorrow and and we're watching The Departed to celebrate because we are very respectful Irish, very respectful Irish Americans.
Speaker: I'm not a cop.
Speaker: We respect the Irish.
Speaker: We're no fucking cops.
Speaker: We're no fucking cops.
Speaker: We're no we're not a cop.
Speaker: But you know, we are.
Speaker: But you know, we are.
Speaker: Hey there, everybody.
Speaker: Welcome back to Pixel It.
Speaker: We're not cops.
Speaker: We're not cops.
Speaker: You almost got me with that one, Kevin.
Speaker: You almost got me that time.
Speaker: I almost got you that time.
Speaker: For those of you just, you know, well, those of you who haven't been sitting here for the last 25 minutes, so Kevin and I, we always start these things by just, you know, turning on the microphone and chatting a little bit and that kind of thing.
Speaker: And I actually almost got, we just had a nice leisurely conversation and I almost got to the point where I forgot that.
Speaker: We're recording a pixel.
Speaker: Yeah, we're recording.
Speaker: Hey, it's a pixel.
Speaker: It's a pixel.
Speaker: As our friend Mario would say, it's been a minute since we've recorded a Diablo episode.
Speaker: We obviously for you fine folks at home.
Speaker: We released episode one last week and you're listening to episode two right now.
Speaker: But in between, there was like three weeks of other shit that we were doing.
Speaker: All of the things happened.
Speaker: All of the things happened.
Speaker: We had we had interviews going on, which you guys have listened to by now.
Speaker: We're actually talking to authors now and that there's something about interviewing the authors that makes you go,
Speaker: I don't know if I want to do another episode this week.
Speaker: That was just so much goodness and I'm exhausted.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: The author interviews, they're so fun.
Speaker: But they hype me up too much.
Speaker: I get too wound up and I can't focus.
Speaker: Well, I think it also spoils us because we don't have to do as much homework for those.
Speaker: That's true.
Speaker: For the author interviews, we- We don't have to read like a quarter of a book.
Speaker: We toss them a question and they talk for a half an hour and we don't have to say anything.
Speaker: It's beautiful.
Speaker: It's a beautiful thing.
Speaker: It's a beautiful system.
Speaker: It's really wonderful.
Speaker: Bless their heart with-
Speaker: Seth was like, I'm just sitting here talking.
Speaker: I'm like, that's kind of why we had you on, man.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: We want to hear you talk.
Speaker: We hear enough of us talking.
Speaker: People get enough of us talking.
Speaker: You talk for a little while.
Speaker: Take the pressure off.
Speaker: You give that a shot.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So for those, for those of you listening, only a week has passed by.
Speaker: It's it's the usual time period that's passed, but it's it's been off and on for me and Kevin here.
Speaker: So we're going to be a couple of weeks, using our way back into Diablo.
Speaker: Let's ease our way back in Diablo.
Speaker: And we left off at Chapter six.
Speaker: That's right.
Speaker: Chapter six.
Speaker: And we're with Norik and he's on the Hawks fire and shit is just happening.
Speaker: Norik is in his head.
Speaker: He's basically just thinking about the past.
Speaker: He is a wistful.
Speaker: We are recording this on the eve of St.
Speaker: Patrick's Day.
Speaker: He is, he is a wistful Irishman basically in this scene.
Speaker: Just, just looking back, you know?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You know, just having terrible nightmares, which I'm, I'm assuming most Irish deal with on a regular basis.
Speaker: One, for one reason or another.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And yeah, seeing, seeing, uh, uh, old dead friends.
Speaker: Yeah, Sadun and Faustin, his buddies from the past who got their necks broken and ripped out respectively, I believe.
Speaker: But that is all interrupted by the fact that the Hawksfire is being rained upon with a terrific...
Speaker: old school, terrific, terrible storm.
Speaker: Just a classic, just a classic sea shanty from hell kind of situation.
Speaker: The mast comes, it's coming down.
Speaker: It's like being held together by, you know, the occasional one sailor who can, you know, just push at it like that's doing any goddamn difference.
Speaker: It isn't.
Speaker: Uh, it is not good.
Speaker: The crew, by the way, is not exactly thrilled about, they seem to know that something's wrong with Norik.
Speaker: So like Costco, the, uh, the, the captain of the ship, basically any time Norik sticks his head out, Costco's like, get back inside.
Speaker: Get outta here.
Speaker: We don't want you here.
Speaker: We don't want you here.
Speaker: Get outta here.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Punk.
Speaker: And, and, and Costco's right.
Speaker: He is correct that
Speaker: Norik is cursed, but in this situation, it turns out that that's probably a good thing for most of them.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: So the gauntlets decide to basically summon summon some like
Speaker: creatures they're slug e-type things that kind of like slither down the mast the cracks of the mast and their trails of slime fill in the cracks and harden the mast it just all right we've talked before about how these demons go about everything in the most roundabout like
Speaker: extra point a to point X kind of a way.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: They, and this is an, this has to be my favorite example so far though, you know, like this guy could have, you know, the author could have, uh, Richard knack could have said, all right, you still need demons to, you want demons to like fix the mass.
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: Fine.
Speaker: Then maybe you get like some demon, uh,
Speaker: hold on to it or an octopus tentacle to spin around it and it's healed.
Speaker: No, you get giant, horrifying sea slugs that their mucus like slides in between the cracks and hardens and just cements it.
Speaker: Silly putties the shit back together.
Speaker: Yeah, it's great.
Speaker: It's really gross.
Speaker: That's gross.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Richard neck has a, has a way with, with just picking,
Speaker: these really weird demon formations to solve the problem.
Speaker: If you recall last week, there was the cavalcade of demons that paraded out just to cook some rabbit.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: You know, he is in a cursed suit of armor that can summer summon money and weapons from nothing, but it can't just produce a sandwich.
Speaker: It has to bring pig demons from the bowels of the earth to go and hunt for you.
Speaker: It doesn't even like help him hunt.
Speaker: It would almost make the armor was like, because it helps him fight.
Speaker: Why wouldn't it just like chase down a rabbit for him or something?
Speaker: No, that it's beneath the armor.
Speaker: I guess so.
Speaker: This armor is fancy.
Speaker: This is fancy armor.
Speaker: It's fancy blue-blooded armor.
Speaker: So Norik basically just returns to his cabin and is like, well, that happened.
Speaker: Hopefully the crew doesn't try to kill me in their sleep.
Speaker: In my sleep.
Speaker: Dear diary.
Speaker: Dear diary, I summon sea slugs from the bowels of hell.
Speaker: Why won't Jenny go out with me?
Speaker: Hail Satan.
Speaker: Hail Satan.
Speaker: Norik.
Speaker: Meanwhile.
Speaker: Meanwhile.
Speaker: Kara is stuck in a tree.
Speaker: She is stuck in a tree.
Speaker: Bless her heart.
Speaker: Bless her heart.
Speaker: She's inside of a tree.
Speaker: She's the wrong class for this.
Speaker: She's not a druid, to remind you.
Speaker: She's a necromancer.
Speaker: Necromancers can't do shit with trees.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: If she had rolled a necron... Well, if she rolled a druid, she'd be fine.
Speaker: This wouldn't be an issue.
Speaker: But she's basically...
Speaker: been unconscious for like, what is it?
Speaker: Is it two days?
Speaker: It's two days that she's been gone.
Speaker: And is just kind of waiting to die in the hollow of this tree.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And then, well, and then she wakes up and she, she basically explodes the tree.
Speaker: She magics her way out.
Speaker: She magics her way out.
Speaker: There's no, not much description other than her eyes glow and the tree explodes.
Speaker: Sometimes they're very specific on the magic.
Speaker: And sometimes it's just, boom, magic.
Speaker: Come on.
Speaker: Come on.
Speaker: I gave you fucking sea slugs in the previous chapter.
Speaker: You don't need any more other than magic.
Speaker: Yeah, the rubber cement snails were enough for anybody.
Speaker: Magic lady magics.
Speaker: Magic lady magics.
Speaker: Press X to magic.
Speaker: Press X to-
Speaker: She pressed F to pay respects to that tree.
Speaker: Yeah, that tree is gone.
Speaker: That tree is gone.
Speaker: So yeah, Captain Jaren finds her, lets her know.
Speaker: Yeah, she's been trapped for like two days and she wants to know why is this guy so attached to her?
Speaker: Like she doesn't sense any ulterior motive from him, but she's genuinely curious.
Speaker: Why is this guy so nice to her?
Speaker: And why do you think it is?
Speaker: You're right.
Speaker: It's a daughter.
Speaker: You remind me of me, daughter.
Speaker: Yarr, yarr, you remind me of my own lass.
Speaker: That's exactly it.
Speaker: That's literally word for word.
Speaker: Word for word, voice for voice.
Speaker: Voice for voice.
Speaker: He yeah, she reminds him of his daughter who a while back he had just moved on the story.
Speaker: He had just moved to town with his daughter.
Speaker: And, you know, life is good.
Speaker: It's just him and his daughter.
Speaker: Things are great.
Speaker: And then his daughter goes missing.
Speaker: Oh, sure.
Speaker: He's he and a search party goes out, can't find her.
Speaker: Days pass.
Speaker: And then he hears his daughter calling out in his sleep, which is never a thing.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So he follows the voice, wakes up, follows the voice.
Speaker: And oh, wouldn't you know it's his daughter.
Speaker: Is a vampire.
Speaker: And he kills his own daughter with his sword because his captain's sword is not only is it a weapon, it's ceremonial.
Speaker: So it's it's clad in silver.
Speaker: So it's able to just slice right through his daughter and and enter demonic.
Speaker: afterlife so to speak and uh he's a big old sad captain about that yeah because he had to kill his daughter and you know that's not something you generally just limp away from that's that's uh that's definitely that's generally uh something that just kind of like that stays with you you know it it sticks in your craw if you will
Speaker: No one forgets killing their first daughter.
Speaker: No, no one forgets that.
Speaker: It is craw, and that's not a craw that you can put into a boil.
Speaker: This is not crawdads.
Speaker: No, not a dad, not a craw mom.
Speaker: Not a craw mom.
Speaker: This is a craw daughter.
Speaker: Not even a craw uncle.
Speaker: We might be a little rusty.
Speaker: It's a craw...
Speaker: Kronk, stepdad.
Speaker: Anyway, they move on.
Speaker: They basically talk about, she's like, well, we got to get to the place.
Speaker: We got to get to Luke Golane.
Speaker: And because they figure out that there was only one ship that departed.
Speaker: in between her abduction and her exploding and exiting a tree.
Speaker: And that was the Hawksfire.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: And then he's like, he does that, that knowing nod thing where he's like, Oh, I might know a captain.
Speaker: Oh yes.
Speaker: Like I might know one.
Speaker: I might know one.
Speaker: He might told me a favor or two.
Speaker: And she's like, oh, you sure?
Speaker: The captain will be fine.
Speaker: I think she'll be fine.
Speaker: I have a feeling he's going to be very supportive.
Speaker: You're a captain.
Speaker: We get it.
Speaker: It's your boat, right?
Speaker: I think that this boat might be very close by.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: So it's right around there.
Speaker: I think that you'll find I know this boat very well.
Speaker: And she's like, God damn it.
Speaker: And then the chapter ends.
Speaker: And he just keeps winking.
Speaker: The chapter, it's like the chapter ends with, and he continues in this manner.
Speaker: Fade to black.
Speaker: Fade to black.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Next chapter, we fade up on Captain Jerron saying, I think the vote is it.
Speaker: No, in chapter seven.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And Kara's slapping him.
Speaker: Just stop it.
Speaker: Stop it.
Speaker: We get Galeona.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Who is breasting boobily.
Speaker: She sure is.
Speaker: Sure is.
Speaker: If there's anyone in this book who is, that's Galeona.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: She's talking to the general and she's basically like, hey, I can do some magic and try to figure out where this stuff is.
Speaker: And the general's like, well, what do you need?
Speaker: And she's like, sacrifice.
Speaker: Who's your worst dude?
Speaker: Who's your worst dude?
Speaker: And general's like, oh, I know.
Speaker: I got a guy.
Speaker: kind of hilarious too.
Speaker: Cause like, he's so down, like immediately.
Speaker: She's like, she's like, you know, who's your, who's your shittiest, uh, whatever.
Speaker: And he's like, Oh yeah.
Speaker: Like there's, it's great to know that even among the officers of your army, there's always at least one that they're like, Oh, I would totally kill this guy.
Speaker: I would totally have him sacrifice to a demon.
Speaker: So Captain Tolos draws the,
Speaker: The short stick.
Speaker: He sure does.
Speaker: He sure does.
Speaker: Shouldn't have made a pass to the boss's daughter at the Christmas party, Tolos.
Speaker: What were you thinking?
Speaker: God damn it, Tolos.
Speaker: Anyway, they, yeah, they bring Tolos in and they sacrifice the shit out of him.
Speaker: They sacrifice the ever-loving shit out of it.
Speaker: Like, she comes on to him asking, like, oh, yes, Tolos, blah, blah, blah.
Speaker: And then she, like, Zazak's basically kills him.
Speaker: He goes into his true form.
Speaker: His true form, which is a mantis form.
Speaker: And skewers him, skewers him like delicious crawdads.
Speaker: Like a fish, he says.
Speaker: Or a crawdad.
Speaker: Or a crawdad.
Speaker: Or a crawmom.
Speaker: Mom.
Speaker: Or a craw step uncle.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: One of those still not working.
Speaker: So they start now we'll try it again.
Speaker: We'll try it again.
Speaker: It'll be fine.
Speaker: It'll be fine.
Speaker: It'll be fine.
Speaker: We're going to have something funny to say about crawl eventually.
Speaker: So they end up prepping the body for a ritual.
Speaker: They're drawing patterns on it in blood.
Speaker: And it's, I mean, it's, it brings us back to the thing that I really do love the most about Diablo as a universe in general,
Speaker: It is so satanic panic level.
Speaker: Oh God.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Evil demons and all that.
Speaker: It's not, they don't, they don't go any, they don't need to, they don't go any further in their, their mythology than good old fashioned Judeo Christian demons.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: And, and like, this is the stuff they do with these demons is everything that the preachers were telling you was going to happen.
Speaker: If you played D and D and the, this is the shit that Michelle remembered.
Speaker: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: Oh, I love that reference.
Speaker: Thank you, sir.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So they do this ritual with his, this, this dead officer and it summons a deformed demon to them, which, uh, this is just a sleepy boy.
Speaker: He is.
Speaker: He's just, he's clearly just woken up.
Speaker: It's good to know that Neiman demons also nap.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Uh, because he's just like, what the fuck man?
Speaker: It's a, it's a dreamer, which is, uh,
Speaker: Even the demons are a little bit afraid of the dreamers because the dreamers are way more powerful than the demons, except for the fact that they're always asleep, like little sleepy boys.
Speaker: So you don't have to worry about them unless you wake them up.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So they summon a dreamer and be like, ha ha, you're ours.
Speaker: And also we brought you a snack and it's the dead body.
Speaker: Like, oh, okay, cool.
Speaker: Because when you're, when you're woken up, you know, abruptly, the least you can do is offer people a sandwich.
Speaker: Just a little munchie munch.
Speaker: A little something.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: A little something.
Speaker: Um, so yeah, they, they, they got, uh, Galeona is now seeing the vessel.
Speaker: She is seeing Norik, um,
Speaker: And she starts talking, getting Norik to speak in his sleep.
Speaker: And before he finishes saying Luke Ghoulain, she gets pulled out of the dream.
Speaker: Yeah, because, you know, she's asking him questions.
Speaker: What's your name?
Speaker: What's the name of the ship?
Speaker: Where are you?
Speaker: He's starting to tell her the location.
Speaker: And then Zazax fucks it up.
Speaker: Zazax fucks it up.
Speaker: He just like she like it's they literally describe it as just his presence, kind of like the shadow of him washing over the unconscious form of Norik.
Speaker: And and and Norik wakes up and basically pulls like, what the fuck?
Speaker: Like,
Speaker: Like, you ever woke up and you were holding your breath in your sleep?
Speaker: And you just go, ugh!
Speaker: Yeah, that's exactly what just happened in Ork.
Speaker: That's, yeah.
Speaker: And he was talking.
Speaker: And Zazak's like, ah, I was gonna stab him a little bit, you know?
Speaker: Yeah, I thought I could help.
Speaker: I thought this was a team project.
Speaker: I thought this was a team project.
Speaker: And Galeona's pissed.
Speaker: She is furious.
Speaker: Oh, man.
Speaker: They're out of the dream sequence.
Speaker: And wouldn't you know it, the dreamer has taken the body for a little snack.
Speaker: And it mentioned, Zazax mentions, this Captain Tolos will suffer a terrible after death.
Speaker: And like...
Speaker: I don't know what he's going to do to him, but he's going to do it to him forever.
Speaker: And it's probably not going to be, it's probably not good.
Speaker: All because it is, he's going to, yeah, it's, it's, it's kind of unfair, really.
Speaker: You know, you're like, Tullus is like, Hey, I just kind of sucked as an officer.
Speaker: Does that,
Speaker: I didn't do any hell worthy shit.
Speaker: Did I like it?
Speaker: It doesn't matter.
Speaker: It doesn't matter.
Speaker: You're going to hell.
Speaker: We need you to go to hell.
Speaker: Um, so, uh, it's, it's really, it's, it's, it's pretty fucked up.
Speaker: It is fucked up because it's like, it's like they didn't get what they wanted.
Speaker: And this, this guy.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Is in hell forever.
Speaker: Just with the dreamer.
Speaker: Yeah, it's not, it's, he's like, I didn't ask.
Speaker: Oh, God damn it.
Speaker: Like it's so unfair.
Speaker: Galeona puts together the puzzle that loot can only mean Luke Galane after a few moments of being worried that she couldn't figure out that really hard puzzle.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Sherlock Holmes was not required to fit, to put these pieces together.
Speaker: Let's just say, let's just say that it's, it's the town with that begins with loot is the place that they're going.
Speaker: You're going to remember.
Speaker: It's like saying it's like, you know, in a final moment, someone says is Stan.
Speaker: and cuts off, and you're like, could it be Istanbul?
Speaker: Possibly Istanbul?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I know it's not Constantinople.
Speaker: Nobody's business but the Turks.
Speaker: That's what it comes down to.
Speaker: So...
Speaker: So this is, this is, but this is good news that it's Luke Golane in particular because she knows that the general wants both the armor and that city.
Speaker: Like it's pretty clear that he wants.
Speaker: This is a good twofer right here.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: But but she knows and it's even better for her because she knows that it's not likely that he's going to survive an attack on Luke O'Laine.
Speaker: It is like the city.
Speaker: It is it is it is a giant, well protected metropolis.
Speaker: And so she's like, OK, cool, we're going to get the armor location.
Speaker: We'll basically get an escort inside the city.
Speaker: And this guy, I don't have to fuck this guy anymore.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Win, win, win.
Speaker: Win, win, win.
Speaker: It's only how many ladies can can we not relate?
Speaker: Are you with me?
Speaker: Are you with?
Speaker: Are you with them?
Speaker: Come on.
Speaker: Please say you're with me.
Speaker: Hold on.
Speaker: Hold on.
Speaker: Hold on.
Speaker: Here we go.
Speaker: There it is.
Speaker: Feminist of the Year.
Speaker: It's coming back.
Speaker: It's even louder now.
Speaker: And then I decided to come back.
Speaker: Ally of the Year, Phil Keeling.
Speaker: So, so Galeona leaves Zazac's alone, which always seems like a bad idea, really.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Cause that gives him time to think.
Speaker: And, uh, so he starts thinking of, uh, the advantage of,
Speaker: to getting rid of Galeona.
Speaker: Like basically, like, we know where the armor is, so what if the armor doesn't make it to the city?
Speaker: So he's got a plan in mind.
Speaker: He has a plan.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Don't like that.
Speaker: Anyway, Norik wakes up and he's like, oh, what the heck was that?
Speaker: That was a hot lady in a shadow.
Speaker: There's a hot lady in a shadow.
Speaker: It's usually just the shadow.
Speaker: Fucks up with my dreams lately.
Speaker: So he exits and he's like, you know, stretching himself out as much as he can.
Speaker: He gets out on the deck and whoops, wouldn't you know it?
Speaker: The crew has abandoned ship.
Speaker: Yeah, the crew is gone.
Speaker: I love this detail.
Speaker: They took one look at the silly putty sea slugs and they were like, absolutely not.
Speaker: Not doing it.
Speaker: Under no circumstances.
Speaker: And yeah, poor Casco is just like, has to man the ship by himself.
Speaker: By himself.
Speaker: I know what you guys are thinking.
Speaker: Not everyone is a sailor or anything like that, but I'm sure a lot of you are thinking, can you...
Speaker: sail an entire ship all by yourself without a crew?
Speaker: No, you can't.
Speaker: The answer is really can't.
Speaker: Absolutely not.
Speaker: You cannot do that.
Speaker: Absolutely not.
Speaker: So they're basically just kind of like there's nothing to it.
Speaker: There's nothing for them at this point.
Speaker: You know, it's fully empty.
Speaker: Everyone's left.
Speaker: And so just so Casco like refers to him as the demon man, which I wonder how he got that nickname.
Speaker: Yeah, it's clever Casco.
Speaker: Yeah, the the sailors basically made it clear that they would rather die at sea than deal with your satanic ass.
Speaker: And now I've got to somehow get this ship somewhere where I'm not dead.
Speaker: Like, that's the whole plan.
Speaker: Somewhere else, even though Casco is is like a stiff breeze away from being a skeleton himself.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: He's not Casco's never doing well.
Speaker: Like Casco is always doing well of doing badly.
Speaker: And then and then so they're basically debating the merits of whether you can sail a ship by yourself when a giant monstrosity from the deep attacks the ship.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: And I know what you guys are thinking.
Speaker: You guys are thinking, wait, wasn't Zazak's just hoping that something would maybe happen.
Speaker: This armor to the bottom of the sea.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: He did.
Speaker: I wonder if these two things are related.
Speaker: It couldn't possibly be.
Speaker: No, not at all.
Speaker: Sometimes, Kevin, in life, sometimes things just happen.
Speaker: Sometimes things just happen.
Speaker: Norik had never seen or heard tales of any creature akin to this ungodly abomination.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Basically, the way it's kind of described is like it's just got a shit ton of tentacles and a red sphere in the center.
Speaker: And I just think of like a biblically accurate angel.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: The only thing is missing is just like eyeballs everywhere.
Speaker: It's eyeballs everywhere.
Speaker: And it's saying, be not afraid.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Why doesn't anyone ever listen to my advice about not being afraid?
Speaker: Do I have not enough warmth in my voice?
Speaker: Do I have something in my teeth?
Speaker: Right?
Speaker: Oh, wait.
Speaker: Maybe it's the teeth, actually.
Speaker: It might be the teeth.
Speaker: My teeth of eyeballs.
Speaker: I have eyeballs on my teeth.
Speaker: I feel like eyeballs shouldn't be sharp.
Speaker: That feels wrong.
Speaker: Sharp eyeball.
Speaker: Something to ponder as you go to sleep tonight.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Enjoy that one.
Speaker: Enjoy that one.
Speaker: Take that one to bed with you.
Speaker: So basically they have to fight it.
Speaker: They have to fight the thing.
Speaker: And Norik basically starts casting lightning bolts at it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, without meaning to, of course, because nothing is in his control.
Speaker: Nothing is.
Speaker: The armor basically starts doing some stuff because the armor doesn't want to end up at the bottom of the sea because then it loses all of its agency because Norik dies.
Speaker: And the literal plot armor will be gone from the literal plot armor.
Speaker: Well, the armor will lose its plot armor and the armor.
Speaker: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker: And we cannot, we cannot have that.
Speaker: Um, but we get left off on a cliffhanger as Norik basically, uh, he, he gets dropped by the beast and is heading, uh, straight down into the deck of the ship.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: Does he bring it down first?
Speaker: Like, does it, does it?
Speaker: Yes, it's, it's dead.
Speaker: Um, the horrific behemoth shattered.
Speaker: Um, uh, yeah, he struck it and struck it in the eye with lightning.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: There we go.
Speaker: So that's,
Speaker: That's a thing.
Speaker: So yeah, he's falling, falling, falling.
Speaker: Chapter eight.
Speaker: Chapter eight.
Speaker: Hope you liked that one.
Speaker: On to the next one.
Speaker: And then we get our good friend, Captain Geronin, starting this.
Speaker: And he's like, looks like a lifeboat's off in the distance.
Speaker: At this point, this is the first thing he said that isn't related to casually hinting
Speaker: That he is the captain of the ship.
Speaker: He's the captain of a ship.
Speaker: That they are currently out now on.
Speaker: They're out.
Speaker: They're out to sea.
Speaker: And he's like, there's a lifeboat over there.
Speaker: By the way, I know the ship's owner.
Speaker: Wink, wink, wink.
Speaker: And then that's the end of that chapter.
Speaker: That's in chapter nine is.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So they, yeah, they find a lifeboat.
Speaker: They find a lifeboat.
Speaker: They pull up the lifeboat and, uh, there is, uh, there is a dead body and he is, it is a desiccated husk of a dead body that they pull up from the lifeboat.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: And they think it's from the Hawks fire, but it's like it.
Speaker: We're only like two days behind the Hawks fire or we're not that far from the Hawks fire.
Speaker: This person could not have dried out and decayed this much in a couple of days.
Speaker: So Kara, being a necromancer,
Speaker: Thank goodness for that.
Speaker: Necromancers, you know, dead bodies, they are a hammer and dead bodies are just nails.
Speaker: You know what I mean?
Speaker: Pretty much.
Speaker: And we're like, well, gotta resurrect him.
Speaker: Gotta do what we gotta do, I suppose.
Speaker: Captain Geronin's like, yeah, I'll stick around and watch this.
Speaker: And every time she does something... Seems interesting.
Speaker: He's like, it seems interesting.
Speaker: But then every time she does something, he's like,
Speaker: Oh, whoa, whoa.
Speaker: What are you doing there, Les?
Speaker: And she's like, shut the fuck up, old man.
Speaker: Yeah, she he really does kind of like he's he's they make it abundantly clear by now that he is that he's good people like he's he's you know, it's it's she's lucky to have found him.
Speaker: He's a nice guy, but he does.
Speaker: She's a necromancer.
Speaker: Like this is literally her job.
Speaker: And he kind of questions her a lot here.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: He is necromance mansplain.
Speaker: Necromance planning.
Speaker: Necromance planning.
Speaker: There it is.
Speaker: Oh, I'm so glad you found that.
Speaker: It was right there.
Speaker: Beautiful.
Speaker: Just love it.
Speaker: Captain's your own necromance planes.
Speaker: Necromance planes.
Speaker: So what they get out of the corpse was that first the demon attacks the lifeboat.
Speaker: the tentacle demon attacked the lifeboat and sucked the life out of this dude to figure out where the actual Hawksfire is
Speaker: Which is weird because you'd think that the Hawksfire would be easier to find first as a bigger boat than a lifeboat rowing across the ocean.
Speaker: Yeah, you'd think it would be a little, yeah, but apparently not.
Speaker: Apparently not.
Speaker: So they get confirmation that the armor, Bartok's armor, the red armor is on the boat.
Speaker: And Kara basically...
Speaker: gets into the last living moments of this guy.
Speaker: She basically does the Obra Dinn.
Speaker: See, basically, Memento Mori.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: She does the Memento Mori, and then she's trying to Obra Dinn this scene.
Speaker: Yeah, and she Obra Dinn's this with about a quarter as much equal parts frustration and awe as the time I played through Obra Dinn.
Speaker: I swear to God, I don't know if you guys have played over, but I've never played a game that I absolutely adored and was fascinated by and hated in such equal passion.
Speaker: And it was not and I wasn't even hating over dinner.
Speaker: I'm being honest.
Speaker: I hated myself.
Speaker: So much tougher than it should have been.
Speaker: It was by design.
Speaker: It was meant it's, it's a, it's just a hard fucking game.
Speaker: It is a hard game.
Speaker: And Kara plays it really quickly in this scene.
Speaker: She plays it real quick.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Um, and she, she figures out, uh,
Speaker: what happens to the crew and all that stuff.
Speaker: And the guy's name that she is, Obra Dining is Kalkos.
Speaker: And once they get their answer, she hands the body over to Geronin to give him a proper burial at sea.
Speaker: because this guy earned it yeah oh to say the very least he's seen some shit killed by a demon then resurrected briefly by a necromancer give that guy a nice burial yeah to say the very least he's earned it yeah the next section we're back with Galeona and she shouts Zazax as if she is Skeletor shouting for one of her henchmen
Speaker: It's like, it's like the scene in Braveheart where Robert the Bruce realizes his father has like betrayed him and he opens up the tower and just screams father up the, up the, uh, is that, that just my reference?
Speaker: Okay, that's fine.
Speaker: That one, that one was for me.
Speaker: Sometimes you just do it for yourself.
Speaker: Sometimes you do it for yourself.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: God damn it.
Speaker: I love that movie.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So she's, she's, she is a, it is not a good thing to not know where Zazak is.
Speaker: Basically.
Speaker: You do not want to know where Zazak is at any given time.
Speaker: It's problematic to, for Zazak to be missing.
Speaker: If he's, if he's missing something's wrong, something bad has almost certainly happened.
Speaker: So it's, uh, it's not so great.
Speaker: So she opens a chest.
Speaker: It is.
Speaker: It is basically a chest of holding.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I didn't get a clear.
Speaker: Does it do they hide from us?
Speaker: Like basically what's inside or did I just miss something?
Speaker: I feel like I missed something.
Speaker: I think it's just she packs everything into this chest.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: It's just she's doing that.
Speaker: And Zazax finally slinks back into the tent.
Speaker: And he's suspiciously quiet.
Speaker: Yeah, he is suspiciously quiet.
Speaker: And she's like, what the what has gotten into you, buddy?
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And and she she she might as well say that word for word.
Speaker: What has gotten into you, buddy?
Speaker: Hey, buddy, what are you?
Speaker: What's in your mouth?
Speaker: What's in your mouth?
Speaker: Hey, buddy.
Speaker: What you doing?
Speaker: Get out.
Speaker: Let go.
Speaker: Let go.
Speaker: Let go.
Speaker: So Zazax is in a bad mood, clearly, because his what Galeona doesn't know is that his little tentacle monster ploy did not work.
Speaker: No, he is not thrilled.
Speaker: He is.
Speaker: He is pissed off.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And he and she she gets really in his face about like, where were you?
Speaker: What was going on?
Speaker: And he kind of threatens her with his claws like he doesn't he doesn't do anything, but he really, you know, brings these claws to bear and kind of scares the shit out of her.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: She's like, what the hell is up with this guy?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Cause he's never done that.
Speaker: Cause then basically we get a little look into their lives.
Speaker: They have this pact essentially.
Speaker: And they, they can't, they, they can't hurt each other essentially, not directly during that pact.
Speaker: But it's clear that both of them want out at this point.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: They're both clearly thinking they need a divorce.
Speaker: They need a sorceress demon divorce.
Speaker: They need a, they need a, a, yeah.
Speaker: A demon counselor of some kind to get them through this.
Speaker: I agree.
Speaker: And, uh, yeah.
Speaker: And, and we're left with Galeona wondering, uh, you know, she's never seen him like this.
Speaker: He's normally so like lighthearted and cheery and friendly and friendly.
Speaker: Just, just, just a peach of a man.
Speaker: Uh, so she's, she's really concerned.
Speaker: Like, cause if, if Zazax is, is freaked out by something, then they might really have a problem ahead of them.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: In chapter nine, we're now in chapter nine and Norik wakes up from falling to the deck.
Speaker: And basically Casco is like, well, you know, we're stuck kind of.
Speaker: The ship is damaged, but the ship is always damaged.
Speaker: It can still sail.
Speaker: Can't do much with just the two of us.
Speaker: And then the plot armor plot armors the ship.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: The it's it's kind of I actually really love this because it really is the moment where you kind of expect Norik to like throw his hat down and go, come on, because, yeah, Norik's not dead.
Speaker: He wakes in the cabin.
Speaker: The captain's still alive.
Speaker: They're like, well,
Speaker: what can we possibly do?
Speaker: The only thing at this point without a, you know, without someone to steer and other people to take care of the sales, we're just going to go in circles until we dehydrate or whatever.
Speaker: Uh, and so they go out, they check the helm of the ship and the wheel is turning itself like an invisible sailor.
Speaker: And yeah, the, the plot armor, uh,
Speaker: is also put a few points in sailing.
Speaker: It put a couple points in sailing.
Speaker: It didn't think it would need it.
Speaker: That's why it hired the crew.
Speaker: But it's really glad that it did on that character sheet.
Speaker: It's good to be safe.
Speaker: It's good to be safe.
Speaker: It's good to, it's good to, you know, min-maxing only gets you so far.
Speaker: You have to have some, some random skills in there too.
Speaker: Uh, for situations just like this.
Speaker: If only for flavor.
Speaker: If only for flavor.
Speaker: You know, if you min-max, let me tell you, min-maxers,
Speaker: are lame like oh so lame it just like get have have some random skills in there you know just just like put put a write down on your character sheet that your your character has a thing and has some points in baking you know well yeah exactly shit like that
Speaker: What's a more fun character?
Speaker: I ask you, look, we all love your dwarven fist fighting pugilist, you know, you know, straight up fighter boxing legend.
Speaker: We all think he's the coolest, but what's more interesting, that guy or that guy who also moonlights as a florist?
Speaker: Huh?
Speaker: The answer is the ladder.
Speaker: Always go with florist, florist, baker, dancer.
Speaker: Just throw some of these skills in there.
Speaker: You're going to have yourself a good time.
Speaker: Way more fun.
Speaker: Way more fun.
Speaker: Um, and, and,
Speaker: One more thing, min-maxing only goes as far as your DM will allow it.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: Because if you min-max in one of my games, I swear to God, you're going to be relying on those mins more than those maxes.
Speaker: I'll tell you what, man.
Speaker: I think about that every now and then.
Speaker: I think we're lucky in the sense that we don't really have those kinds of friends.
Speaker: Yeah, that's true.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: We don't run with that kind of a crowd.
Speaker: So yeah, go, you know, listen, all I'm saying is slap your local munchkin gamer, right?
Speaker: Uh, slap them and tell them, tell them Phil sent you.
Speaker: Don't explain any further.
Speaker: So basically, Norik is talking to shadows.
Speaker: He thinks he sees Faustin and Sadun.
Speaker: And they're there, maybe?
Speaker: Probably.
Speaker: Yeah, they're looking, and we get the appropriately dramatic lightning.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And they disappear.
Speaker: They disappear.
Speaker: And Cas goes like, who are you talking to?
Speaker: What's going on back there?
Speaker: Shut up.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's actually, yeah, he's not joking, ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker: Like, it really does go down like that.
Speaker: Like, he starts calling out for them.
Speaker: He's like, Faust and Seidou, and like, he's calling out for them.
Speaker: Kaskin has no patience left.
Speaker: He's just like, I am done with you.
Speaker: Shut up.
Speaker: It's when we first meet Casco, he's this scummy pirate, you know, smuggler piece of shit, dude.
Speaker: But by now it's just like, oh no, I'm on his side.
Speaker: 100%.
Speaker: There's no getting around it.
Speaker: He doesn't deserve this.
Speaker: He's having a very he's having a very bad week.
Speaker: So so Nora asks him, you know, he doesn't want to go near his cabin now at this point.
Speaker: He's kind of freaked out.
Speaker: And so he says, is there downstairs?
Speaker: That's like that's where.
Speaker: The sailors were sleeping at one point, right?
Speaker: And Casco's like, yeah, he says, I think I'm going to sleep down there instead.
Speaker: So he just abandons his cabin because it's haunted, apparently.
Speaker: And, uh, and yeah, and heads down to the cruise bunks and, and, uh, and, and in the final moments there, as he, as he heads down, he starts to wonder because in the moment that he saw, um, the, the figures, the visions of his dead friends, he had kind of, he had almost convinced himself that, uh, that this was just, uh, his imagination.
Speaker: But then he remembers that the gauntlets on his armor glowed when they appeared.
Speaker: So he's basically got a bit of a hint here that this might not be all in his head.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: We get a scene change and Galeona and and big bad evil man, General Augustus Malevolent.
Speaker: Malevolent.
Speaker: I can't get enough of that.
Speaker: I'm never going to get over that name.
Speaker: It just...
Speaker: That is a perfect name for a book with the subtitle Legacy of Blood.
Speaker: I'll say that.
Speaker: General evil McBad dude.
Speaker: Evil McBad dude.
Speaker: It's like, just cut straight to the chase, goddammit.
Speaker: It's about as obvious as it gets.
Speaker: He was born vile McFartface, but he changed his name to Evil McBad.
Speaker: Yeah, well, you know, sometimes you want something with a little more subtle.
Speaker: What was that joke from Robin Hood Men in Tights?
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: Your name's Latrine?
Speaker: Yeah, used to be Shithouse.
Speaker: It's a good change.
Speaker: Good change.
Speaker: I was just thinking of that movie today.
Speaker: Oh my God.
Speaker: god bless you brooks you've saved us all so general general shithouse mcnasty uh he's leading the army uh towards lute galane presumably while wearing bartook's helmet yep which i'm sure there are gonna be no side effects there are that whatsoever there are no side effects of wearing bartook's helmet bartook's helmet no do not look directly at bartook's helmet
Speaker: Do not mock Bartuk's helmet.
Speaker: Not good.
Speaker: Not good.
Speaker: So basically he starts talking as if he is Bartuk and Galeon is like, eh.
Speaker: this might not be so great.
Speaker: And he actually starts barking about, uh, another city's name.
Speaker: And, uh, he's, you know, they're not going to the city.
Speaker: He says, uh, this time, this June will fall.
Speaker: And she gets viz June her.
Speaker: She blurted her tone and credulous.
Speaker: She knew that he had never been to the fabled.
Speaker: Uh, I don't know how it,
Speaker: Kajistani Temple City had never yet been across the sea to that land.
Speaker: In addition, Augustus Malavin had been an only child, and he mentioned a brother that betrayed him, and an unwanted bastard at that.
Speaker: Yet, someone else Galeona knew of had not only been to Fable Bizjun, but had sought to conquer it, to destroy it, only to be thwarted in the end by his own brother, Pee-wee Hermit.
Speaker: No, it's Bartuk.
Speaker: Bartuk did it.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: So clearly, you know, something's he's losing track of his own life, essentially.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Yeah, he is.
Speaker: And meanwhile, I I feel like I missed a sentence here.
Speaker: Why does her ring start to melt?
Speaker: Ah, OK, so she starts getting she starts being suspicious, obviously, of the helmet that he's wearing.
Speaker: She's like, well, the only thing that's really different from normal.
Speaker: He's always been a freak.
Speaker: But the only thing that's different from normal, the normal freaky, you know, atrocious Mick humongous that I know and love is he's wearing the helmet.
Speaker: So she uses this magic ring of hers
Speaker: to basically in the magic verse, sends out these ten tendrils that are meant.
Speaker: Basically, she's kind of casting identified.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: On the helmet.
Speaker: You know, she assumes it's a cursed armor piece and she's trying to cast identify.
Speaker: However,
Speaker: the helmet has like this built in security system, essentially that like for all intents and purposes, swats her tendrils away and locates her ring and melts it like her, the, the, her ring.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: The ring is melted down to slag and the gem that she'd been using, which is clearly the magical part of the ring, basically just goes black and burns out.
Speaker: So there's a security system built into this cursed armor piece.
Speaker: And so she she's got a real sense of like, oh, fuck.
Speaker: Bartuk might be trying to come back from the dead.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Bartuk is like, everybody has these designs on this armor and nobody's asking what Bartuk wants.
Speaker: No.
Speaker: That's where they go wrong, my friend.
Speaker: You've got to ask.
Speaker: What about Bartuk?
Speaker: Galeona says, I consent.
Speaker: Malevolent says, I consent.
Speaker: Isn't there somebody you're forgetting to ask?
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: What are you thinking?
Speaker: A little selfish, a little, little self-involved here.
Speaker: And Bartuk, Bartuk's like, no one's going to forget about Bartuk.
Speaker: help melt your nicest ring and you'll never forget me.
Speaker: Uh, so yeah, it's, uh, shit's getting real.
Speaker: Shit is getting real.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's starting to look like, uh, Galeona might start be actually realizing, Oh, I might not be able to be fully in control of this whole situation.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Um, meanwhile, meanwhile, um, over in chapter 10, over in chapter 10, uh,
Speaker: All the way over there.
Speaker: All the way over there in the sea.
Speaker: The King's Shield enter the storm late into its fifth day out to get cool.
Speaker: So basically the King's Shield is being... We need an entire audio track of you just reading the entire book in that voice.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: and need a lot of water.
Speaker: Need a lot of water.
Speaker: Kara, I'd hope that the foul weather would break it up before they confronted it.
Speaker: So they ran into the same storm that the Hawksfire basically had to deal with.
Speaker: And Kara is just kind of like hanging out on the deck.
Speaker: And everybody's just like, you should not be up on the deck during a storm.
Speaker: And she's like, I'm fine.
Speaker: I'm Kara.
Speaker: I'm the protagonist.
Speaker: Nothing's going to happen to me right now.
Speaker: I'm literally the only person here that's like, has even a semblance of being a good guy.
Speaker: So...
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I'm the only hero at the moment.
Speaker: So I think I'm fine.
Speaker: You know, I think I'll be all right.
Speaker: I think I'll be a okay.
Speaker: There's a really interesting part here where we, cause you know, there, I think, I think the thing Richard Knack is doing really, really well in this is the, uh,
Speaker: expository information on the religion and the world around us.
Speaker: He doesn't give us like giant blocks of text, uh, related to the stuff he drip feeds it.
Speaker: And, um, I, he's doing it very effectively and we get a little look into the general idea on what a necromancer is supposed to, how they're supposed to
Speaker: live their lives.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And she's starting to realize that like her fear of she's looking out for the Leviathan that she saw.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: In her spell.
Speaker: You know, she's trying to keep an eye out for that kind of not aware that it's been destroyed.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: She has no idea.
Speaker: So she's keeping an eye out for this thing.
Speaker: And she surprises herself because she realizes she's kind of afraid to die.
Speaker: Uh, at this point she's, she doesn't, or she wants to live more than anything really.
Speaker: And that kind of disturbs her, uh, because her whole thing as a necromancer and as a servant of Rathma is that they recognize that, uh, death is just, just a part of life.
Speaker: another part of life.
Speaker: And so there, as a, and you would think, uh, that not just as a necromancer, but as like a holy religious necromancer, uh, that that person would have zero fear of death, right?
Speaker: That it's like, Oh God, no, there's just another stage of life that you go through, you know?
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: There's, there's nothing to be afraid of.
Speaker: Uh, but she surprises herself in thinking, Oh, I'm actually, and, and she, I think her understanding of it is that she says, you know, this is, this is, uh,
Speaker: This proves that I'm probably on the right track.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: You know, that she's doing the right thing.
Speaker: I found that to be a really interesting bit of writing.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: It's good.
Speaker: The amount of stuff he fits in in between moments is really neat.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: Which, you know, obviously, because here's the thing.
Speaker: I've played Diablo a number of times, and I'm never entirely sure about the lore of it.
Speaker: It's just I press the button.
Speaker: and kill things.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You got all the reading and the little audio logs and everything, but yeah, they're a little disjointed at times.
Speaker: You're like, I don't, I just, I just need a new helmet for my character.
Speaker: So I think I'm just going to keep moving.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: so uh they're they're basically they're just sailing there's the uh they're basically having some they're having some trouble with the waves somebody falls over uh and we do get a glimpse at the idea that the sailors are being very respectful of her yep they make a point of saying that that like one guy kind of hit on her in like
Speaker: It's kind of embarrassing the way they describe it.
Speaker: It's kind of like he hits on her, but it's kind of in a in a very mild mannered sort of way.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, aren't you a looker?
Speaker: You know, right?
Speaker: And she just kind of very calmly, you know, says, no, thank you.
Speaker: And he and he backs off.
Speaker: And that's how all the sailors are.
Speaker: They make a point of saying, like, OK, look, I think we all know what the stereotype with sailors are, but these sailors are very nice.
Speaker: So it's it's an interesting detail they throw in there.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: So they get through the rough waters and basically Mr. Draco just keeps saying, hey, could you get away from the railing, please?
Speaker: And she's like, I'll be all right.
Speaker: This happens like three times in this chapter.
Speaker: And he's like, okay.
Speaker: And in his mind, I can just imagine he's like, this is not how the fucking sea works, lady.
Speaker: Snot me up, lady, this isn't good.
Speaker: Please.
Speaker: Just get away from the railing.
Speaker: begging you.
Speaker: So, yeah, she eventually returns to her cabin and let's see, she...
Speaker: She finds, she wakes up, and she is greeted by, finally, the two revenants, Faustin and Saiden, are here, and they have, I don't know why they changed ships, but they're here now, they're with Kara, and they're flashing her dagger at her.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Yeah, they literally, and they don't do much at this point.
Speaker: They literally just show up and leer at her, show her that they got her knife and say, it's good to see you again.
Speaker: And that's it.
Speaker: That's it.
Speaker: And that's the end of that section of the chapter.
Speaker: Norik, meanwhile, finally, they finally arrive in Luke Galeen.
Speaker: And there's no, I love the old man.
Speaker: The old man who's sitting on the dock says, oh, the Hawks fire tricks its fate once again, as if people are sitting there taking bets on it, you know?
Speaker: Oh, I'm sure they are.
Speaker: They are basically used to the idea that this thing is going to be a piece of shit coming in.
Speaker: It's clearly going to have barely made it by the skin of its teeth.
Speaker: And so when this thing shows up with no crew,
Speaker: And just, and it's like, oh, so you had to call on the snail demons to hold the mass together again.
Speaker: Did like, I wouldn't be surprised if that part, they were even like seeing it, seeing it, seeing it, no big deal.
Speaker: That's happened before.
Speaker: Um, so,
Speaker: Norik decides he's like, I'm out.
Speaker: Thanks for everything.
Speaker: And he tries to be nice.
Speaker: Like he tries to like shake Casco's hand and I'll hit Casco in in in no and no, no words necessary.
Speaker: But basically he's like, fuck off.
Speaker: Casca just like, just please go away.
Speaker: I curse the day I met you.
Speaker: I curse the day you were born.
Speaker: I curse the day your grandfather met your grandmother.
Speaker: Please leave me alone.
Speaker: I'm going to drink myself to death over the course of the next three days.
Speaker: And I do not want you here.
Speaker: So it's amazing.
Speaker: I think that's a wrap on.
Speaker: I think we can assume that's a wrap on.
Speaker: Let's assume that that's Casco's.
Speaker: And what a what a wrap it is.
Speaker: He gets he gets he gets a solid 60 or so pages of of action.
Speaker: And he's he's like, you know what?
Speaker: I am self-selecting right out of this book.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: He's like, I'm good.
Speaker: Thank you so much for your time.
Speaker: Piss off all of you.
Speaker: So Norik basically wanders over to a bar that he is told of.
Speaker: And in the intervening pages, we get a lot of like stuff about the types of buildings that Luke Galane, that there's dungeons with with gold, all that, all that good stuff.
Speaker: And Norik basically has control over himself as he's walking over to this, this list, this drinking establishment.
Speaker: Yeah, it's he and he's kind of surprised to, you know, because he's, you know, first off, this the city is is this, you know, it's it's Constantinople.
Speaker: We made the joke before.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But it's like this is it's it's this highly metropolitan area.
Speaker: Merchants are coming out and he's kind of admiring it all.
Speaker: And yeah, and marveling at the idea of, hey, I'm just walking right now.
Speaker: The armor is not trying to do anything.
Speaker: It's not trying to lead me anywhere.
Speaker: So he starts thinking, I should maybe find a sorcerer or someone else who can help me get rid of this armor because clearly I'm, I'm cursed, uh, in a very big way.
Speaker: And so maybe, maybe someone,
Speaker: will be able to help me out here.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: Basically, they, so he orders some food.
Speaker: I like that scene because he orders some food and like the armor doesn't pay right away.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Oh, I love this scene.
Speaker: Oh, this scene was freaking hilarious.
Speaker: He's like, he's like, he ordered some food, the girl brings it back and is like waiting for him to pay.
Speaker: And he's like, he's like, keeps opening his hands, hoping that the money falls.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And she's like, hold on, wait, it worked last time.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And she's like going to go over and like get security.
Speaker: And then finally, like a pile of coins falls out of his palm.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And it's fantastic.
Speaker: And he basically realizes that the armor is reminding him who's boss.
Speaker: Yes, exactly.
Speaker: You know, or some sort of like, you know, long winded examination.
Speaker: And this is what you get when you rely on armor welfare.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: It just, it's.
Speaker: Yeah, it's a really funny moment.
Speaker: And it's made even better by the fact that like, Knack is very good.
Speaker: It's very evocative description of like, clearly he hasn't had like a good meal in a long time.
Speaker: And the meal looks incredibly good.
Speaker: Like the food smells good.
Speaker: It looks good.
Speaker: It is a wonderful restaurant.
Speaker: All that good stuff.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's, it's this, he has this little brief moment of comfort.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You know, a little like literal comfort food in front of him and the armor is like, oh yeah.
Speaker: How are you going to pay for it?
Speaker: Was, oh, oh, was I expected to pay for that for you?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Oh, very convenient.
Speaker: That's nice.
Speaker: So,
Speaker: After that, and this is hilarious because this is I don't maybe I read too much into it.
Speaker: But before he was talking about needing a sorcerer and then after the armor basically fucks with him, he's eating his food and thinking, actually, maybe I need a priest.
Speaker: I start speculating on maybe a holy man is what I need.
Speaker: And so he asks the waitress about like, what's what's around here?
Speaker: What are the sites?
Speaker: And she starts listing off, you know, the palace and this museum and all that shit.
Speaker: And then she mentions this cathedral, like a giant cathedral.
Speaker: And he, and you can tell he's like, ah, aha, that might be the one actually.
Speaker: That's our, that's, that's the place to go.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So he, um, he eats his meal, he leaves and he continues on.
Speaker: Um, he, well, he doesn't, he, he, he, he gets, he, he, a bunch of guards walk in.
Speaker: Right, right, right.
Speaker: And kind of start giving them the hairy eyeball and, uh, he's not feeling really great about that.
Speaker: So he ever so casually asks the waitress, do you have a back way?
Speaker: And she went, yeah, right over there.
Speaker: And he keeps like tipping her at this point.
Speaker: He just keeps tipping her every time she does something.
Speaker: And I suspect that this money is illusions, by the way.
Speaker: So I feel kind of bad for her because he like it keeps giving her like the biggest coins that he has.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: She's clearly just really impressed and thrilled at all this money he's giving her.
Speaker: And I can't help but think that like in an hour that money is just going to disappear.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Just imagine her going home to her husband and being like, we're good.
Speaker: We can, we can get a new home.
Speaker: We're going to get out of this shit, splat down.
Speaker: And then like with what, what, where did it go?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Just starts freaking out.
Speaker: So he gets, um, he tries to get, uh, basically he tries to get away and, uh, oh, the guards take him.
Speaker: Uh, yeah, they are, they are, uh, pretty interested in whatever the hell he's got going on.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: They're like, and, and basically the armor's like, yeah, we can work.
Speaker: We're going to allow this, you know?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Armor doesn't do shit.
Speaker: Armor's been killing people in the past.
Speaker: Killing people for less.
Speaker: For way less.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: Won't let them, won't let them touch him.
Speaker: The armor killed somebody who had disengaged from the fight, ran away.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: The armor then summoned a demon to go get the guy.
Speaker: Like, yeah.
Speaker: And now he's like being led by the arm by these guards and the arm is like, oh, this seems intriguing.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: I wonder.
Speaker: I wonder what happens next.
Speaker: I wonder what happens next.
Speaker: So basically he gets brought to a Vajerai, like basically like Faustin, a Vajerai.
Speaker: And basically this Vajerai had cast a spell on the guards.
Speaker: The guards walk away, not not remembering everything.
Speaker: And basically, we get left off with a threat.
Speaker: The Vajerai threatening Norik.
Speaker: If you hope to live, Westerner, you too will do as I desire.
Speaker: Exactly as I desire.
Speaker: And that ends chapter 10.
Speaker: So we have a new dude in the mix.
Speaker: New dude in the mix.
Speaker: We got some serious cliffhangers going on in here, too.
Speaker: I feel like every chapter has ended on some sort of a cliffhanger.
Speaker: It's been pretty good.
Speaker: Pretty good shit.
Speaker: Pretty robust in terms of cliffhangers.
Speaker: So we are now at the end of chapter 10.
Speaker: What page are we on?
Speaker: We're almost halfway through the book.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: Well, actually, you know what?
Speaker: We're pretty much solidly halfway through the book.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So I think we got...
Speaker: We got a couple of episodes left here.
Speaker: Yeah, this book, you know what's funny is this book is, it's pretty, overall it's pretty long.
Speaker: It's got a lot of stuff going on, but it moves at a pretty quick pace.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: There's not a lot of fat in it.
Speaker: And when there is, it's all laying down.
Speaker: laying the groundwork for like just context and like, oh, this is a little bit about the history of the town.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So yeah.
Speaker: You get a little bit of that.
Speaker: A little bit of that flavor because you don't want it totally lean.
Speaker: You need a little fat.
Speaker: That's my writing advice is you do, you don't want to trim all of the fat.
Speaker: You need to keep some of the fat for flavoring.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: There it is.
Speaker: I'm hungry.
Speaker: damn it kevin you did it again uh so what do you uh what do you think so far how do you how do you we're about halfway point what are you thinking i like it i like it so far i think it has a lot of threads uh and i think i said this last episode it has a lot of threads and it kind of i feel like it opened even more threads um
Speaker: The next.
Speaker: Yeah, he's not.
Speaker: He hasn't he hasn't closed any.
Speaker: Nothing's been closed.
Speaker: Everything.
Speaker: It's just more have been opened.
Speaker: And so I'm curious as to what that's going to entail, like over the next, you know, the second half of the book.
Speaker: How are things going to be tied off in the end?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I imagine it's going to be relatively easy to do so because he has done the right thing and everybody is going to one spot.
Speaker: So there's no.
Speaker: They all want the same.
Speaker: They all want the same MacGuffin and they are all headed to the same location.
Speaker: Norik is just the first one there.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: He is.
Speaker: He has arrived first and everybody else is on their way.
Speaker: So I have a feeling that, you know, we're probably going to get some big, some big bad showdowns in the second half of the book.
Speaker: And I'm excited to see how it turns out.
Speaker: Yeah, I feel the same way.
Speaker: I feel like we've been on the roller coaster ticking up and up and up.
Speaker: It's still going up.
Speaker: There's been a couple of little dips, but we still have not hit the big drop yet.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So I'm excited.
Speaker: Yeah, me too.
Speaker: Me too.
Speaker: Because it's all been laid out really pretty.
Speaker: It's all been laid out in a really solid way.
Speaker: So we're going to see how well it all ties up, how well he sews it all up in the end.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I'm looking forward to that.
Speaker: So it'll do it for this episode.
Speaker: If you can, if you can, if you have the social media wherewithal to do so.
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Speaker: I think that's a great idea.
Speaker: Let's start reading them.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So give us a five star review.
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Speaker: of choice check out our website pixelitpod.com there you'll find a link to our discord where you can join in on conversations about episodes and I think that's about it you can follow our Instagram pixelitpod we got stuff on there it's good stuff it is good stuff and I think that'll wrap us up what's that you Phil yeah yeah
Speaker: All right.
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