Transcript
Speaker: And you're like, well, not a lot of my questions are unanswered, but at least I figured out the fly thing that the fly thing makes sense.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: THC, not THC, whatever that L.C., whatever the company that made all those.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: I know what you're talking about.
Speaker: It's not THC, not THC.
Speaker: You know what else is THC?
Speaker: What's that?
Speaker: Hey there, everybody.
Speaker: Welcome back to Pixlet.
Speaker: My name is Kevin.
Speaker: With me as always is Phil.
Speaker: And on today's show, we are finishing up the infernal city of the place in Elder Scrolls.
Speaker: It's a floating city powered by ghost farts.
Speaker: I mean, yeah, actually.
Speaker: Actually, yeah.
Speaker: I mean, we more or less find that out.
Speaker: Oh, God.
Speaker: Soul flatulence is how it's... And, you know, this book, be forewarned, not going to have a satisfying ending.
Speaker: Clearly leads into a part two.
Speaker: Are we going to read that part two?
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: Part one wasn't very good, so we'll see.
Speaker: But...
Speaker: I actually own the paperback of part two just because I saw it at a used bookstore for like 50 cents.
Speaker: And I was like, so yeah, we'll probably read it, but we won't be happy about it.
Speaker: God damn it.
Speaker: We won't be happy about it.
Speaker: Books that are under a dollar are catnip to fill.
Speaker: I mean, it's hard to say no.
Speaker: You know, it's hard to say no.
Speaker: You're giving up.
Speaker: You're giving a home to a good boy.
Speaker: The good boys in my life are mostly books.
Speaker: Books.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: They're there.
Speaker: We're actually going to be.
Speaker: I thought originally this area here was going to be for those of you just listening.
Speaker: I'm in my new house in the basement in the Hobbit hole we're making.
Speaker: And originally this was going to be the library.
Speaker: Emily wants to make this the entertainment room and that kind of thing and make the little living room upstairs into that so we're going to be building some shelves and shit.
Speaker: Yeah, it's going to be cool.
Speaker: Yeah, this is not a good book.
Speaker: It's hard to say.
Speaker: I hate to spoil the ending, but this is not a good book.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Every theory I've come up with, I'm now fully convinced I am correct on.
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: And we'll get to it.
Speaker: But there's a way that you can have...
Speaker: a what do you call it a cliffhanger ending and it still be a satisfying story 100% this did not do this is not that this is not that before we dive too far into the book I just want to say there's a wonderful website
Speaker: It's called Patriot, patreon.com slash pixel at pod.
Speaker: And you too could go to this website and you can follow us for free on there.
Speaker: Or you can give us $1 or $5 or $10 and become a patron of ours.
Speaker: And $1 gets you the ad free version of the episode.
Speaker: $5 gets you the bonus episode that we record before each full episode.
Speaker: And $10 gets your name shouted out.
Speaker: in each episode.
Speaker: And to that end, I want to thank Jesus Loves You, Kyle Seaman, Ruthless Mudder, Middle of Things, Sigma Sal, Sanguine, Flatulence, Chut Beaks, Dumb and Thick, and Friendly Friend.
Speaker: Thank you so much for being a friend.
Speaker: Patreon.com slash PixletPod.
Speaker: So, yeah.
Speaker: Let's just go ahead and put this body, this book, this body in the Black Marsh.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: Oh, God.
Speaker: I can't even...
Speaker: It was right there.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: God damn it.
Speaker: When I tell you to dump a body in the marsh, you dump them in the marsh.
Speaker: Kevin, you, as always, it's your attention to detail.
Speaker: It's my attention to detail that really that really keeps the show top of the charts, as some might say, as some might say, they're all saying it charts.
Speaker: They're all out there saying they're all saying it.
Speaker: So many people.
Speaker: Tremendous.
Speaker: The most powerful people in the world are most powerful people are saying.
Speaker: So it's hey, pixelate is so powerful that you shouldn't let pregnant women listen to it.
Speaker: That's true.
Speaker: It's pixelate and Tylenol.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Those two things cause autism.
Speaker: What's interesting though is when you, if you listen to, it's the sultry tones of our voices, you run the risk of becoming double pregnant.
Speaker: Double pregnant.
Speaker: Oh boy.
Speaker: That's no fun because if you're, let's say for example, you're six months pregnant and then you listen to me and Kevin's sultry voices.
Speaker: Sultry voices.
Speaker: Sultry.
Speaker: And then you get pregnant.
Speaker: That means-
Speaker: You have a six month fetus in there.
Speaker: You got three months to go and then another six months to go.
Speaker: And another six months after that.
Speaker: What?
Speaker: The stitches are barely healed.
Speaker: Like, how are you?
Speaker: That's not fun.
Speaker: Don't do it.
Speaker: The mucus plug is.
Speaker: Oh, Lord.
Speaker: It's a fresh one.
Speaker: It's brand new.
Speaker: It's brand new.
Speaker: Your bloody show is showing.
Speaker: And it's speaking as a husband who witnessed a C-section.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: I was front row center for the birth of my son, which we had discussed and had said, uh,
Speaker: my wife had said, I, you don't have to do that.
Speaker: And I had kind of sensed that maybe that was her saying, I'm not fully comfortable with it.
Speaker: And I was like, well, I can be in the room though.
Speaker: And she's like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker: But you don't have to like,
Speaker: be in there and uh our midwife literally looked at me and went dad grab a leg and i was like okay so it was it was yeah there's kind of like a there's kind of like a flow of like it doesn't really matter what your your position is on the matter it's like you're just being dressed suddenly in scrubs yeah and like told to get ready to get in there um doesn't yeah
Speaker: It's your, and at that point it's, it's, it's the day of birth and you're like, okay, I'm here.
Speaker: You're, you're flabbergasted.
Speaker: I don't remember half of the shit.
Speaker: You know what I do remember?
Speaker: One thing I remember is she asked,
Speaker: She said out loud, when was the last time you ate?
Speaker: And I said, I don't know, five, six.
Speaker: And she's like, I'm talking to your wife.
Speaker: I'm like, of course you are.
Speaker: Why the fuck would you give a shit when the last time I ate was?
Speaker: Not talking to you.
Speaker: No one's talking to you, Dad.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And no one ever will at this point.
Speaker: It's okay.
Speaker: Just shut up.
Speaker: Shut up, grab a leg, and...
Speaker: Grab a leg and be encouraging.
Speaker: Be encouraging.
Speaker: That was a wild.
Speaker: This is a record.
Speaker: This is a record.
Speaker: We are off topic.
Speaker: Didn't even get to the book.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: We put the body in the marsh.
Speaker: Didn't get.
Speaker: And then we just didn't do the book.
Speaker: What are you drinking there?
Speaker: Oh, we got.
Speaker: I got a little fall variety pack from Sam Adams.
Speaker: Oh.
Speaker: This is their October 5th, which is always good.
Speaker: It's always really, really good for just kind of your, you know, mainstream craft beer kind of shit.
Speaker: Sam Adams always does some good shit.
Speaker: Can you push your volume up a little?
Speaker: I think you just knocked it down somehow.
Speaker: Oh, hold on.
Speaker: Any better?
Speaker: Oh, that's better.
Speaker: Okay, good, good, good, good.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Anyway, the book.
Speaker: The book.
Speaker: Yeah, let's go ahead and get into the book.
Speaker: Let's do it.
Speaker: So we're at part three, chapter one.
Speaker: We open with Glimm, with our Argonian friend.
Speaker: He is working in the sump.
Speaker: If you remember, he basically is put in there because he's the only person they've ever met who doesn't have to breathe when he swims underwater.
Speaker: And he likes it.
Speaker: He actually likes this job because it's quiet and he's left alone for pretty much the whole time.
Speaker: And he's like going and gathering the right babies and stuff because that's where their babies come from.
Speaker: So we were on topic technically.
Speaker: Cause we were helping context on where babies context.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I, um, by the way, the thing that reminds me of, uh, why I keep thinking of the sump like in laughing is because, and this is, this is Josh, Josh, uh, uh, with parentheses, uh, mentioned something about, um, the, the, the Tim Heidecker, uh, pie video, uh,
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker: Where he goes pumpkin.
Speaker: You got to get that pumpkin.
Speaker: So every time I hear the word sump, I'm just going to get that.
Speaker: You got to get that fresh soap, not that canned soap.
Speaker: I thought of you the other day because me and my wife were talking and I pointed out that Graham, despite the fact that he was born in South Carolina, he has lived in Virginia a larger portion of his life than any of us.
Speaker: It's almost entirely.
Speaker: And Emily...
Speaker: Just said, that's right.
Speaker: He's a Virginian.
Speaker: And I was like, oh, Kevin would be pleased.
Speaker: Virginia.
Speaker: Virginia.
Speaker: So we got a little, we're raising a little Virginian.
Speaker: So yeah, he, he, he likes it's quiet and they leave him alone.
Speaker: And I feel that I wrote that down.
Speaker: I was like, I feel that that is the best kind of job.
Speaker: That's, that's the kind of job I have now.
Speaker: And I love it.
Speaker: Um, he finds an area with a bunch of trees and the trees have a similarity to the hist, which we haven't spoken of in about 200 pages.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: Yeah, sure.
Speaker: But whatever, I guess that's relevant again.
Speaker: We haven't talked about that in a long time, but he kind of touches them.
Speaker: They're not exactly like the hiss, but he can hear like voices pulsing through them.
Speaker: It's like hissed cousin, you know?
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: There's something similar there.
Speaker: While he's there, he meets what appears to be a Dunmer, a dark elf.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: They have a conversation and she basically says that she's never questioned about where she lives until she could see the black marsh below.
Speaker: And he tells her that, well, that's where I'm from.
Speaker: And it kind of blows her mind.
Speaker: She's having an existential meltdown because she can see down for once.
Speaker: Um, so he, uh, asks, she's, they talk about the kitchens for some reason.
Speaker: She brings up the kitchens and he, he says, you know, someone I know works out there.
Speaker: Can you pass, would you be able to pass a message, uh, to her?
Speaker: And she says, yeah, I can do that, but I want something in exchange and Jesus Christ, we don't have time for this.
Speaker: We don't, we don't have time for side quests.
Speaker: We are two-thirds of the way through this.
Speaker: We do not have time for it.
Speaker: Now, he will handle it okay, but it didn't need to be in there at all.
Speaker: But she says she wants some orchid shrimp from the sump because they never get them.
Speaker: So he heads back into the sump.
Speaker: He sees the- Gotta get that fresh sump shrimp.
Speaker: That fresh orchid shrimp.
Speaker: That does sound like a southern dish, doesn't it?
Speaker: Orchid shrimp.
Speaker: Orchid shrimp.
Speaker: Delicious orchid shrimp.
Speaker: Certainly doesn't sound like something that comes from the sump.
Speaker: Spice it up.
Speaker: I love it.
Speaker: Read it down.
Speaker: This is we're just going to turn it into Louisiana.
Speaker: Like that's just that's what the sump is.
Speaker: It's just the swaps.
Speaker: It's just just, you know, fucking around with Tim Heidecker's, you know, accent in that video.
Speaker: He's so good.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So in the sump, he sees a the corpse of an eggs old chef.
Speaker: The I think it was keen.
Speaker: And he finds an eggs locket.
Speaker: And and so he pockets that and he gets back and basically gets into an argument with management that he's taking too long.
Speaker: He's valuable, but there's also the impression you get that his boss kind of wants to put him in his place.
Speaker: That kind of thing.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So he gets an argument management, whatever.
Speaker: Chapter two, an egg and slim.
Speaker: They wake up in what appear to be steam vents.
Speaker: If you remember from last episode, they were their their chef and their whole team was murdered and they were kidnapped by a competing chef, which, as I said back then, is such a fun idea.
Speaker: I like that.
Speaker: Yeah, it was like they they were working.
Speaker: They were on the bear and then they got kidnapped by the crew from the menu.
Speaker: Right, right.
Speaker: It's a whole other thing.
Speaker: It's fantastic.
Speaker: What a fun idea.
Speaker: But don't worry.
Speaker: Not a lot comes in.
Speaker: So they wake up in these steam vents.
Speaker: They're getting steamed like crabs.
Speaker: And Selina's sure they're about to die.
Speaker: And an egg points out, well, actually, I think they're cleaning us.
Speaker: because it's not so hot that we're going to die.
Speaker: It's actually kind of pleasant if you think about it.
Speaker: And, and, and they discuss their new boss.
Speaker: A neg remembers that she's got this kind of blade bracelet, but she got off keen.
Speaker: And that's going to be a thing that comes up, I guess.
Speaker: She wonders how to use it.
Speaker: Cause it's, it's this bracelet.
Speaker: That's kind of a gummy sort of thing.
Speaker: And,
Speaker: Keen was able to make a blade shoot out of it.
Speaker: And there's no clear way of for an egg to be able to do that while they're discussing all this.
Speaker: Suddenly the vents go from like hot to like ice cold.
Speaker: They get blasted with cold air for a while and then back again.
Speaker: And so it's like going hot, cold, hot, cold.
Speaker: They try to leave and they're forced back into it by a little frog creature.
Speaker: I wanted a little frog.
Speaker: I want to learn more about the frog creature.
Speaker: He looked cool.
Speaker: Yeah, he sounded like a humanoid like poison dart frog.
Speaker: And I'm all about that.
Speaker: That sounds great.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: They're forced back in.
Speaker: They're put up.
Speaker: They end up being put up in some sort of like it's kind of a luxury condo together that they're sharing.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Right off the bat, you realize the chef that picked them up is like high end shit.
Speaker: This is this is a way better quality.
Speaker: And it's being reflected in literally Ralph Fiennes in the menu.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: He, that's what I thought of too.
Speaker: I can watch that movie again.
Speaker: That movie is so fucking good.
Speaker: So, and, and that's when she realizes for the first time that her amulet is missing.
Speaker: And this is where I wrote in my notes.
Speaker: This feels like first act stuff.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: This feels like stuff like that's going to get set up early on.
Speaker: And we're going to.
Speaker: Feels like we've just been in a long first act.
Speaker: Right, right.
Speaker: And that's how it's going to feel right up until the last 15% of this book, if I'm being generous, which I always am.
Speaker: So they're getting primped and preened.
Speaker: Very generous.
Speaker: Yes, that's me.
Speaker: He's a very generous reader and lover.
Speaker: And lover.
Speaker: Never forget it, ladies.
Speaker: Ladies.
Speaker: I just want you to know you'll never get to find out for yourself.
Speaker: Wouldn't you like to know?
Speaker: So they're getting primped in preens like they're getting they they were being steamed to clean them.
Speaker: They're they're convinced that they are like contaminated shit.
Speaker: And they were they're getting steamed and frozen for like 22 hours or something like that.
Speaker: And now they're getting their hair is getting done.
Speaker: They're getting oiled up like they're they're really getting.
Speaker: You know, put through the spa treatment.
Speaker: And that's where they start to see where they are.
Speaker: And and an egg is like shocked at how beautiful it is where they are, because all an egg has ever known is like the underbelly of this world.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Where they are is actually quite beautiful.
Speaker: So this is where they meet Toll again for the first for the second time.
Speaker: Is this where an egg gets gets dressed in like a in like a dress?
Speaker: And there's like mention how the dress the dress is like clinging to her curves or something like that.
Speaker: She's uncomfortable with how it's clinging to her curves.
Speaker: And she breasts boobily.
Speaker: She breasts boobily for a second.
Speaker: Didn't think we'd get there, but we got there.
Speaker: We got I will say for the character that we have been presented with as an egg, I kind of I understand the idea that she might be uncomfortable with wearing a dress because she's been very tomboy.
Speaker: She's up.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But and we'll get to it.
Speaker: But like it's the shit later on that I'm like, this doesn't make any sense.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So they're talking with toll who is the chef there who, who kidnapped them.
Speaker: And he is kind of a dandy, kind of a very foppy Marquis de Sade, almost kind of a character, very libertine.
Speaker: So they start to, they have a discussion of home and emotions and shit.
Speaker: Like they're having, he he's, he's very curious about an egg and, um,
Speaker: And he's fascinated at how gestation works because down in Umbriel, everyone is born of the sump.
Speaker: And the idea, like she says, like, well, you know, she's like, well, my father.
Speaker: And he goes, that's great.
Speaker: What is that?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: What's a father?
Speaker: What's a mother?
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: He doesn't know any of that.
Speaker: That's wild.
Speaker: He's like condescendingly charged.
Speaker: This book is one long treatise on would you love me if I was a worm?
Speaker: That's amazing.
Speaker: Everybody in this on the city is a worm.
Speaker: Everyone kind of in weird human shape.
Speaker: But yeah, an egg is like, it's, you know, you do the sex and then and he's like, oh, yes, the copulating.
Speaker: We do that for entertainment.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's all it means to them.
Speaker: They're like, oh, yeah, we do that for fun.
Speaker: We don't we don't have no idea.
Speaker: It had real demolition man vibes here.
Speaker: Yes, absolutely.
Speaker: It's like doesn't know what the what the seashells are for.
Speaker: Yeah, it's definitely it's it's very that.
Speaker: Um, my favorite thing that he says to her is she says, uh, you know, my, my mom, I was inside my mom and then I came out of my mom and he goes, wow, that's great.
Speaker: So how did you kill her when you came out?
Speaker: Like, how was that?
Speaker: How long did the, she's like, well, she didn't die.
Speaker: And he's like, that's fucking mental.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: I like, okay.
Speaker: You are you are my new pet.
Speaker: He's very charmed by her.
Speaker: He points out to her that if she claims that if she ever leaves Umbriel, that she's going to die.
Speaker: It's the same as the rest of them, that he'll die if he leaves Umbriel.
Speaker: Anybody who's from Umbriel will die.
Speaker: say die exactly but just like demolecularize you know right um and he says yeah that'll happen to you too and she said well i'm not from here and he goes eh not yet not yet not yet um so that pin is put in um chapter three uh we get uh etrobus and soul and
Speaker: They are being accosted by a bunch of cops, a bunch of cops, a bunch of caps.
Speaker: Yeah, because they've got moon sugar and the cops say, you know, we got you dead to ride.
Speaker: You're about to give that moon.
Speaker: It's typical fucking cop shit.
Speaker: If they had waited five fucking minutes, they would actually have had a case.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: But as as Etrobus points out, you have no case.
Speaker: We didn't do anything for all, you know, we're just hanging out with these Khajiit and, and, and then before the head guard can tell him to, to stop resisting, Etrobus uses his royal Dick swinging to get them out of this jam.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: He's like, look at my face.
Speaker: Who do you think I am?
Speaker: Who do you think?
Speaker: And the cop is finally like, fine.
Speaker: Oh, shit.
Speaker: Oh, shit.
Speaker: I recognize you.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It dawns on him.
Speaker: And so the Khajiit are very grateful and they basically swear to
Speaker: you know, a life whatever Han Solo.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: They just did every fuzzy creature in.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Every fuzzy creature in genre fiction swears life debts.
Speaker: That's what they do.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So they're, they're part of his crew now.
Speaker: You have gained several hundred followers.
Speaker: So,
Speaker: Sewell admits that he's after somebody named Wuhan.
Speaker: He tells them that this basically tells them in Vivek City, there was a moon.
Speaker: The moon was going to crash into the city and they created an invention that would keep the moon in place.
Speaker: And that that device exploded.
Speaker: because of Wuhan and created a volcanic eruption that killed his family.
Speaker: So we get a little... He's told us about 50% of that.
Speaker: Now we get a little more of a story.
Speaker: He says that he is currently after a sword.
Speaker: This sword is going to be the thing that could bring this guy to his knees.
Speaker: We get a lot of Daedric lore here, which...
Speaker: might honestly on its own be really cool if I wasn't rapidly losing interest and just wanting to.
Speaker: It's I like this kind of lore, but at this point I'm like, just move it along.
Speaker: Yeah, move it along, move it along.
Speaker: There's some interesting stuff in there.
Speaker: I will admit it involves a lot of the, the Daedric princes that you may have encountered in any number of the elder Scrolls games.
Speaker: Uh, that's worth a look if you're interested in that kind of thing.
Speaker: Um, chapter four, we cut back to, uh, uh, a toll who is doting on an egg quite a bit.
Speaker: So basically, she doesn't have to do anything.
Speaker: She just hangs out with him while Slim and the others do the actual grunt work in the kitchens, which they don't love.
Speaker: So we find that they're making these.
Speaker: They do the same kind of thing.
Speaker: They're making recipes and stuff.
Speaker: But most of the kitchen is used to feed these trees that are used for tree wine and other.
Speaker: It's a huge ingredient in what they use.
Speaker: Awesome detail.
Speaker: Really liked that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Wish there was more of that.
Speaker: There is not.
Speaker: Now, while she's there, she's going through the ingredients and she finds a jar of a potion called Ikor of Winged Twilight.
Speaker: And she realizes this is what she needs.
Speaker: This is the potion that she needs to be able to get off this island.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So she sneaks off with it.
Speaker: She steals it.
Speaker: Toll wants to make her into like this great chef.
Speaker: He wants to he wants to use.
Speaker: She's a project for him.
Speaker: He wants to turn her into this big goddamn deal.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And then he points out he's not sure he cares for Slim, though.
Speaker: He only kept Slim around because, you know, it's it's, you know.
Speaker: She came with you as a package deal, but I'm not really sure about it.
Speaker: It's a very I don't care for Job.
Speaker: I don't care for Job.
Speaker: Yeah, that's that's very much it.
Speaker: And we also find out that he very, very clearly wants to fuck an egg.
Speaker: He's very.
Speaker: direct uh let's say uh as someone who back in my single days was pretty direct game respect game and that man is direct very direct so yeah um and she's all kind of a flutter about it uh she doesn't quite know how to handle this uh chapter five
Speaker: Sewell and Etrobus are on the edge of a town.
Speaker: Sewell has said, stay here.
Speaker: I've got to go in there and do something.
Speaker: Stay here.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: And Etrobus being the wise, seasoned warrior that he is, just lets himself in.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: He finds a representative, Florius, who no, no, sorry, this is jumping ahead.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: He finds a representative who knows who he is, Florius, and he's apparently thought to be dead.
Speaker: And he points out the floors.
Speaker: They're like childhood friends.
Speaker: And he says, you know, I know the truth about my life up until this point that it's been a big lie.
Speaker: And I'm not going to let you guys take me to the emperor, which I know you guys have been.
Speaker: uh, ordered to do.
Speaker: Uh, I have this quest I've got to do.
Speaker: Uh, I, I need your help.
Speaker: And so Flory is after a lot of convincing, uh, uh, it's too much.
Speaker: In fact, it's like, yeah, it's Flory.
Speaker: He's like, you gotta come with me.
Speaker: And he's like, no, man, I'll, the emperor will kill me.
Speaker: It goes, well, I'm the emperor's kid.
Speaker: I'll tell him.
Speaker: And he's like, yeah, but then my career's over.
Speaker: He goes, yeah, but I'll do it.
Speaker: It's that, uh, for a while.
Speaker: Uh,
Speaker: And so finally, Florius agrees to join him.
Speaker: Next comes a detail that might be my favorite thing in the entire book.
Speaker: He goes to a bar and he writes two letters to his biographers.
Speaker: It's like when you're looking to tell the story of my life.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's exactly what he does.
Speaker: This is never spoken of again.
Speaker: I love this detail.
Speaker: It's something you don't hear about a lot in, in, in fiction when, uh,
Speaker: Somebody is this piece of royalty or fame or something like that.
Speaker: And he's like, well, I like these two biographers.
Speaker: They do a good job.
Speaker: So I'm going to give them the skinny.
Speaker: And that's it.
Speaker: So he sends off a couple of letters.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Um, while he's in the bar, uh, the place gets attacked by a bunch of masked men.
Speaker: Um, and, uh, they're clearly going for him and the Khajiit come in and save his ass.
Speaker: Um, uh, which he's surprised because he thought the Khajiit were going to leave.
Speaker: Cause he'd said, you guys do not need to do this.
Speaker: And they went, but they swore the blood oath.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And they started like packing up.
Speaker: And so he assumed that meant, okay, good.
Speaker: They're, they're leaving.
Speaker: Um, but they, they stuck around.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: Yeah, they he runs back to Flores's office 200 yards away, as they point out, and Flores is dead.
Speaker: He's been killed.
Speaker: So he and Sue take a minute to wonder what the hell is going on in terms of who's trying to kill him so bad and why.
Speaker: And then Sewell uses some sort of portal ritual magic thing to have them travel planeswalk basically right through oblivion to where they're going to go.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So, OK, it's great.
Speaker: It's good stuff.
Speaker: It's great.
Speaker: It's good stuff.
Speaker: Chapter six, Glimm meets back up with the Dunmer girl and gives her the shrimp and a history lesson.
Speaker: Basically teaches her about scramps.
Speaker: Here's some scramps.
Speaker: And here's the story of my people.
Speaker: It's it's this is a way more entertaining book.
Speaker: If you imagine the Argonian specifically as Cajun.
Speaker: You just got these lizard men going, oh, let me tell you.
Speaker: Oh, yes.
Speaker: I'll tell you.
Speaker: Let me tell you about that.
Speaker: Oh, down to have I that by you.
Speaker: It would be alligator people.
Speaker: That would be fun.
Speaker: I'd play a shit out of a Cajun alligator person in a D&D game.
Speaker: That would be fun.
Speaker: A cleric, would you say?
Speaker: Oh, that could be fun.
Speaker: I think barbarians too obvious, right?
Speaker: Too obvious.
Speaker: Too obvious.
Speaker: Druids too obvious.
Speaker: Yeah, I think cleric could be fun.
Speaker: I got that healing word.
Speaker: The Lord Jesus Christ.
Speaker: I got to touch you and I'm going to put my healing touch on you.
Speaker: My healing hands, lay some healing and speak the healing word.
Speaker: Lordy, lordy.
Speaker: Like also got that necrotic touch.
Speaker: I got that necrotic touch in the hippie and my claw.
Speaker: And I got that too, so don't piss me off.
Speaker: Dosa.
Speaker: No.
Speaker: So he gives her a history lesson of his people.
Speaker: And Eddie, she tells him about, oh, she's like, oh, by the way, your girlfriend and egg.
Speaker: I got to I got to talk to her and she knows she knows where she is.
Speaker: Your girlfriend.
Speaker: Your girlfriend.
Speaker: That's the thing.
Speaker: The whole thing.
Speaker: It's like, yes, they're childhood friends.
Speaker: Come on.
Speaker: They're totally... Come on.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So Glim returns to work to find... Oh, by the way, he kisses her, the Dunmer girl, on the cheek.
Speaker: And she's like, why would you do that?
Speaker: Are we going to copulate now?
Speaker: And he's like, no.
Speaker: It was just to thank you.
Speaker: Just to thank you.
Speaker: Some people do.
Speaker: And he literally goes...
Speaker: She's like, would you want to?
Speaker: And he's like, I got to go.
Speaker: Yeah, that's literally it.
Speaker: He's like, actually, I should probably go.
Speaker: And she goes, well, she says, could we?
Speaker: Which is the question all the readers are asking, by the way.
Speaker: They're like, I don't know how the...
Speaker: The reproduction of Argonian goes, although I do, I guess they are eggs.
Speaker: So they could probably.
Speaker: I mean, there's an entire series of books called The Lusty Argonian Maid.
Speaker: That's true.
Speaker: That's true.
Speaker: A very popular series.
Speaker: A very popular series.
Speaker: That will have to be a stream or something.
Speaker: We'll find all the lusty Argonian maids and read through those or something.
Speaker: That could be fun as shit.
Speaker: I wish we had done that instead of this.
Speaker: So he comes back to work.
Speaker: He goes back to the other people who have been dealing with the vapors and stuff.
Speaker: And he finds that just by standing up to the boss that he's basically sowed the seeds of a union.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: The guy, they're like, he's like, you never thought that your life could be better.
Speaker: And they're like, nope, not until you mentioned it.
Speaker: Not once.
Speaker: Never occurred to us.
Speaker: It's like, so you got to lead us.
Speaker: He's I don't want to lead a revolution.
Speaker: They're like, but you gotta, but you gotta, um, it's a fun idea that we will never, uh, uh, revisit, uh, in this book anyway.
Speaker: I mean, yeah.
Speaker: And this book at least.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And this book anyway.
Speaker: Chapter seven, Sewell and company.
Speaker: They have their little plane walk and it's interrupted by here scene, who is a Daedric Prince whose posse hunts them.
Speaker: And here scene is known as this hunter who will hunt people.
Speaker: And he's the, it's, it's, it's the most dangerous game all the time for him.
Speaker: He interrupts them.
Speaker: We have 50 pages left in this book.
Speaker: We do not have fucking time for this, but anyway, they avoid a stampede.
Speaker: And then there's Hirsene and oh, geez, they're running and the Khajiit sacrifice themselves to buy them some time.
Speaker: And then they run through the portal.
Speaker: It's just it's it's that scene.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: The Khajiit sacrifice themselves and.
Speaker: Boy, that's what they wanted to do.
Speaker: They really liked this guy.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: Khajiit are all dead.
Speaker: Khajiit are all dead.
Speaker: Great.
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: Chapter eight.
Speaker: Aneg is basically a Michelin star chef now.
Speaker: She's like, she's not, she's like trying to, cause the, the, the person that they serve like really wants weird eclectic stuff.
Speaker: So she's like trying to come up with the weirdest shit possible, which seems, you know, redundant where they are.
Speaker: She gets a message from Glim and her locket.
Speaker: He has hidden it in like a bucket full of, you know,
Speaker: crabs and shit like that.
Speaker: And, uh, whatever seafood, I guess that they eat down there.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And so she's got her locket back and she knows that Glimm is okay.
Speaker: Uh, and that she can contact him.
Speaker: Uh, while she's thinking about all this, uh, slim, uh, uh, poisons her, uh, basically does the old taste this.
Speaker: How does this taste?
Speaker: Is this,
Speaker: this is good, right?
Speaker: And she goes, yeah, that's good.
Speaker: It'll go well on this.
Speaker: I thought so.
Speaker: And, uh, walks away and then she goes, Oh Jesus Christ.
Speaker: And, and she starts scrambling to try and find some sort of antidote that she can use.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: She wakes up in Toll's bed.
Speaker: Naked.
Speaker: Unhappily.
Speaker: Naked.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Unhappily realizing that she's nude for some reason.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: And he points out that she, in the last second, she succeeded at making a stabilizer that kept her alive for long enough for them to help get the poison pumped out of her system.
Speaker: And he asks her, well, you know, how should we kill Slim?
Speaker: You know, I'm not I was slurred, slur, slur.
Speaker: Sorry, slur.
Speaker: I really didn't care for slur and, and, uh, and now you certainly don't.
Speaker: So how are we going to execute her?
Speaker: And, and she's pissed, but she says, no, no, she's scared and freaked out.
Speaker: And yeah, we all are.
Speaker: And she's jealous and all that shit.
Speaker: And so let's leave her alone.
Speaker: And toll says, well, she's still going to be your assistant.
Speaker: So that might be awkward.
Speaker: And she goes, I know it's fine.
Speaker: And so they bring in slur and he says, look, uh,
Speaker: And he actually really respects her because he's like, you know, you're pretty ambitious.
Speaker: I was like, you took a shot.
Speaker: Didn't work, but you know, but, but I respect it.
Speaker: And, and he says, you know, so, but if, if anything happens to her, to an egg,
Speaker: You're dead.
Speaker: I don't care if you're responsible for it or not.
Speaker: If anything happens to her, I'm taking you out.
Speaker: It's basically the godfather, you know, scene where he's like, if anything should happen to my son, to my son, you know, if he's struck by a bolt of lightning.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: It's exactly that.
Speaker: And and and then, you know, he points out how impressed he is by her moxie and fucks her.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Takes her up to his bed and she's stoked because that's what she's wanted this entire time.
Speaker: That's all she wanted.
Speaker: That's all she wanted.
Speaker: It was a little little toll dick, little toll pole.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You gotta pay the toll poll.
Speaker: You gotta pay the toll, the toll tax, the toll tax, the toll toll, the toll toll.
Speaker: If you want to get in that toll hole.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So that's it's everything's very weird in this world.
Speaker: Chapter nine, a neg and Glim have been passing notes back and forth like middle school, and they plan to meet that night to leave.
Speaker: Finally, um,
Speaker: We cut to Etrobus and Seul there in Vivek City.
Speaker: Apparently the sword is supposed to be there and Seul is going to go get it.
Speaker: I keep forgetting about the sword, which we never really get a full full actual explanation of it.
Speaker: Like he threw a sword.
Speaker: Must be important.
Speaker: Must be important.
Speaker: A lot of that shit happens like that must be important.
Speaker: Oh, no.
Speaker: OK, fine.
Speaker: Fuck you, I guess.
Speaker: Excuse me.
Speaker: So it's there.
Speaker: Sewell's going to go get it.
Speaker: And he's like, Etrobus, he's like, you're going to stay here this time.
Speaker: Stay here.
Speaker: So Etrobus, he gets a coup alarm.
Speaker: And it's an egg.
Speaker: She has her locket again.
Speaker: And an egg basically gets him up to speed.
Speaker: on everything that's happening.
Speaker: And for some reason he's crushing.
Speaker: He's, he's like sweet on her by the end.
Speaker: He's like, Oh, I had no idea how much I missed her.
Speaker: My goodness gracious.
Speaker: My, I've grown accustomed to her face.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: She almost makes the day begin.
Speaker: It's, it's, this is where I start going.
Speaker: Why, why is everyone so,
Speaker: lusty for an egg like she's right interesting i heard it yeah yeah yeah i mean yes it's the natural progression of this because it starts out as a joke and then you start really going her because this is the second guy who's like crazy lusting after her yeah in the space of like 50 pages yep and it's like why like she's she's not
Speaker: She's an interesting character when you can hear her internal monologue, but I imagine meeting her in person, she doesn't sound like she'd be that interesting.
Speaker: In fact, one of the first things she does when she gets on the horn with Etrobus is just start sobbing.
Speaker: Because she's so happy they're about to get out of there.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Which that's not a judgment call, but still it's like, she's not, she's not cool or aloof or sexy or anything like that.
Speaker: She, from, and we're never, she's just a snag, just nag.
Speaker: So whatever.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: Everyone wants a piece of an egg.
Speaker: Everyone wants a bite of that egg.
Speaker: Everybody wants that egg.
Speaker: Everyone wants that egg.
Speaker: Soft boiled, hard boiled.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Soft in the middle, hard on the outside.
Speaker: Hard on the outside.
Speaker: Over easy.
Speaker: Is there any other over?
Speaker: Side up.
Speaker: You know what I mean.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: I'm right there with you.
Speaker: So Sewell finds an excavation place where the sword is supposed to be.
Speaker: It should be there.
Speaker: It is not there.
Speaker: He ghost talks with his wife, which is a Dunmer thing.
Speaker: I'd forgotten this.
Speaker: The Dunmer have this kind of
Speaker: ancestor worship kind of thing, which they can get in contact with people.
Speaker: Over the course of this conversation, she's telling him, like, yeah, somebody took it.
Speaker: And it's heavily suggested that the sword is either in, like, Skyrim or Solstheim or something like that.
Speaker: It's gone because the person who stole it had a Draugr on a ring, which... Draugr are excellent bad guys and everything like that.
Speaker: I like them.
Speaker: But...
Speaker: you suppose that that design is on a ring?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You know, like the face of one or like, is it just a face of a, of a size?
Speaker: Is it the whole thing?
Speaker: It's a weird thing to say, but because they don't, I need more description.
Speaker: Right, right.
Speaker: I need more than that.
Speaker: I need more information.
Speaker: Uh, because it,
Speaker: If they said like it's in the shape of a drug or like wrapped around your finger.
Speaker: Okay, sure, fine.
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: It has an image of a drug on it.
Speaker: And I've just I it was this little thing that really stopped me in my tracks, which is frustrating when you're trying to tear through a book.
Speaker: So anyway, it's suggested the sword is somewhere up north.
Speaker: Um, and while he's doing this, Etrobus finally sees there.
Speaker: They weren't expecting, uh, uh, Umbriel to show up at this point, but there it is.
Speaker: The island starts, uh, floating islands coming out of the, uh, clouds.
Speaker: Here it comes.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Here it comes.
Speaker: And things start, uh, crawling out of the sea.
Speaker: And so he and Sue will have to rush back to where the portal that they came out of was.
Speaker: And they're going to have to rush through all these monsters to get to it.
Speaker: This is where I had forgotten why.
Speaker: except for Sewell's motivation, I'd forgotten why this floating island was such a bad thing.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Everyone hates it and wants it gone.
Speaker: And I had completely forgotten why, because we are not because it, and then I run, Oh, right.
Speaker: We're given that one moment where we're shown that the souls are stolen and it creates zombies and all that shit like that.
Speaker: And that's, that's a good reason.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But it's like in the first 50 pages and we don't see it do anything of the sort.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Until now.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's it's it's not a constant looming threat so much.
Speaker: So even the emperor is like, we'll get to it.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: It's not exactly.
Speaker: It's the Death Star.
Speaker: It ain't.
Speaker: And they're trying to they're trying to tell you that it is, but they don't show you.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And this is because this is only the second time in the entire book that we're reminded of the awesome power of this battle station.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It sucks the souls out of people.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: I completely forgotten about that, which is not good.
Speaker: Chapter 10.
Speaker: Colin.
Speaker: You remember Colin, Kevin?
Speaker: Yeah, he's back.
Speaker: I like Colin.
Speaker: He's back.
Speaker: He follows a woman.
Speaker: uh, who he thinks is going to be a lead, uh, for the extroperate case.
Speaker: And then, then he's done.
Speaker: That's, that's the end of his part.
Speaker: I, uh, he was my favorite character.
Speaker: Boy, howdy, have they given him a lot to do?
Speaker: Um, uh, so we cut to a, a, an egg and, and slur and they have a moment.
Speaker: Uh, uh, she, cause she's like, you're going to kill me.
Speaker: Right?
Speaker: Like,
Speaker: Because I thought because I thought maybe you spared me so you could do it yourself.
Speaker: And she goes, no, I don't want to fucking kill you.
Speaker: But then she starts to get really angry and she's like, maybe I do want to fucking kill her.
Speaker: And that's when the knife from the little knife bracelet, that's when it shoots out.
Speaker: And she realizes that you have to actually want to kill somebody.
Speaker: You have to have killing intent to draw it.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And that's, and that's what's happened.
Speaker: So he, he, she's like, Oh, I, Oh, I don't want to do this.
Speaker: I don't want to do this.
Speaker: So she's like literally trying to do like dragon breaths and like breathing in and out, like to in through the nose, out through the mouth to like calm herself down.
Speaker: So she doesn't kill this woman.
Speaker: And, and she said, you know, just leave me be, she goes, unless we have to work directly on something, just leave me alone.
Speaker: I don't want to, I don't want to talk to you.
Speaker: Cause otherwise I might kill you.
Speaker: A neg has in this moment, she and she's about to go find Glim and they're about to leave.
Speaker: And she has what I can only describe as her breaking bad season finale moment.
Speaker: She's like walking around the kitchen kind of and like tapping things.
Speaker: And God, I did good, didn't I?
Speaker: Yeah, I cooked that meth.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: It's that moment.
Speaker: It's like she has, she's like, you know, a lot of memories made here.
Speaker: A lot of memories.
Speaker: It's weird.
Speaker: So she meets Glynn and they take their potions and they fly off the island.
Speaker: Hooray.
Speaker: Hooray.
Speaker: Hooray.
Speaker: We cut to Etrobus and Seul.
Speaker: They're being attacked.
Speaker: by this legion of walking dead.
Speaker: They're both taken down and as they're expecting to be, you know, eaten alive or something like that.
Speaker: Instead, they are lifted up and they're teleported somewhere.
Speaker: Colin.
Speaker: Oh, good.
Speaker: Colin's here.
Speaker: I'm sure they'll give him something fun to do.
Speaker: He's listening in on a couple of people who are working in the underground.
Speaker: He's got some hints that maybe they have something to do with, like, the people who want people to think that Atribus is dead and maybe still actually want him to be dead.
Speaker: The people who, like, kicked off the whole thing with getting, like, kidnapping Atribus...
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: That plot is still being kind of resolved, even though Etrobus himself is no longer within in that plot.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: As like he left that plot.
Speaker: And now we have Colin investigating it.
Speaker: To what end?
Speaker: We'll find out, I guess, later in another book.
Speaker: Next year.
Speaker: Next year.
Speaker: Next year.
Speaker: And then there's something fucking weird, like this horrible screeching presence that's like filling his head and driving him mad exists.
Speaker: And he starts to realize that something crazy just showed up.
Speaker: Uh, uh, uh, there's something crazy in the house, some crazy in the house.
Speaker: And it's, it's never clear to me.
Speaker: Um, soul and atrocious find themselves back in Umbriel.
Speaker: They are now in Umbriel and they are with, uh, uh, uh, Wuhan or Bohan or whatever it is.
Speaker: We get so much explanation and exposition as to their, uh,
Speaker: Background and their beef.
Speaker: And I'm going to be honest, I really tuned out here.
Speaker: It's it's it's kind of like the Daedric Prince shit.
Speaker: Like it's like there's a lot of interesting stuff in here on its own.
Speaker: But at this point, I'm like, why are it's like the longest James Bond villain speech of all time?
Speaker: Just like you had you blew up the thing.
Speaker: You were sucking the soul out of my girlfriend.
Speaker: Like, well, it wouldn't have killed her right away.
Speaker: And be like, well, that's it doesn't matter.
Speaker: I was still trying to save her anyway.
Speaker: And Bohan's like, well, I guess you have a point there.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Several moments like that.
Speaker: It's.
Speaker: Long story short, Sewell's not as innocent as he claims in this whole thing.
Speaker: Sewell was the one who is like more or less responsible for blowing up the is it the Imaginarium or whatever the Imaginarium, whatever's keeping the moon at bay, whatever kept the moon at bay.
Speaker: He's responsible for that, but he only did it because he was trying to get his girlfriend's.
Speaker: away from Dr. Fred and the mind sucking machine and Maniac Mansion.
Speaker: Literally what it is.
Speaker: It's yeah, it's yeah.
Speaker: It's the same inciting incident as Maniac Mansion.
Speaker: It is.
Speaker: It is.
Speaker: And I feel like we need a tie in here.
Speaker: It's yeah.
Speaker: And Wuhan admits that he's been trying to kill Etrobus.
Speaker: He wants he basically wants Etrabus to convince his dad, the emperor, to let them enter the Imperial City.
Speaker: There's a magic tower there.
Speaker: He says, I want you guys to not resist me.
Speaker: I want you, in fact, to evacuate.
Speaker: And Etrabus is horrified because his dad has spent the entire time trying to bring the Imperial City back together.
Speaker: And now he's just going to try and collapse it again.
Speaker: So he's not too big on that.
Speaker: And the whole idea is that if I can do that, then Umbria will be self-sustaining or something and I can take the island somewhere and it'll be in its own place and we won't wander anymore and won't suck any more souls.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: Something like that.
Speaker: We cut to an egg and she and Glim are flying through space and she realizes that they are all, they are both going all Avengers end game.
Speaker: They're, they're dissolving and she's not happy about it.
Speaker: A bunch of dramatic shit happens on the tower that Collins basically listening in on and by the, it like,
Speaker: collapses and by the end of it he still doesn't know more than he did before he just has questions right like it's very unclear it's this mystery is more mysterious now that's exactly what it is it's like well i think we've just scratched the surface no don't say that
Speaker: Don't say that at the end of this book.
Speaker: Don't say that.
Speaker: We got a final fight between Zul and Zohan and Etrobus, and Zul's brought some sort of demon into Umbriel.
Speaker: The island is falling, question mark.
Speaker: They blink out of existence, question mark.
Speaker: The fuck, question mark.
Speaker: Um...
Speaker: And then we got an epilogue epilogue.
Speaker: And it's just an egg and Glenn being like, we're sad that we can't go back home.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: They realize that they are now part of Umbriel and like they've been warned, like people who are from here dissolve when they leave.
Speaker: And so she's like, I'm going to find out how to fix it.
Speaker: And I'm like, okay.
Speaker: That's the end of the book.
Speaker: It's the end of the book.
Speaker: That's the end of the book.
Speaker: The pacing's all over this fucking book.
Speaker: My God.
Speaker: It's like we got... It's... Like how much we're dedicating to certain characters.
Speaker: And you had mentioned at some point in the second book, second part of this, and you're like, yeah, it's supposed to lead into another book.
Speaker: And I was like, all right, well, I'm expecting...
Speaker: this not to end satisfactorily based on where we are, because, you know, there will be another book to do all that.
Speaker: But the part of my issue is like, I just feel like there there's nothing.
Speaker: There's nothing really urging me to keep going.
Speaker: Like, I don't care anymore.
Speaker: You know, they don't give you anything at the end.
Speaker: And that's that's what I was saying at the beginning of the episode.
Speaker: There's no like, oh, my God moment at the end.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: I thought of the thing that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: No, go ahead.
Speaker: Go on.
Speaker: The thing that they kept saying was going to happen to Glimm and an egg happens.
Speaker: Like, yeah, they're like, oh, yeah, if you're here too long, you're going to dissipate when you get down to the surface.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And that's what happened.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: How anybody knew that, by the way.
Speaker: Yeah, because they spend so much time talking about how, oh, we don't know anything about where you're from.
Speaker: Yeah, we don't know anything about you.
Speaker: We don't know anything about where you're from, but we're certain...
Speaker: That you can't leave for some reason.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Everyone's so certain about it.
Speaker: And they're right.
Speaker: And how does that even fucking work, man?
Speaker: It's dumb.
Speaker: And it got me to thinking about Empire Strikes Back, which infamously ends with a lot of loose ends.
Speaker: Not infamously, famously ends with a lot of loose ends on a bummer note.
Speaker: Your heroes are at their lowest.
Speaker: And you are nothing but pumped at the end of Empire.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: A glorious film.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And it's because you were also given a lot of shit.
Speaker: You were also given a lot of resolutions.
Speaker: That's where Luke, I am your father happens.
Speaker: That's where Han, in a roundabout way, finally tells Leia he loves her.
Speaker: You are given...
Speaker: A lot of stuff.
Speaker: So much is resolved.
Speaker: And the same is, honestly, the same as A New Hope.
Speaker: It's the same kind of thing.
Speaker: You've got questions, but you still got your medal ceremony at the end.
Speaker: You still got, you've got all kinds of stuff.
Speaker: There's still reason to celebrate.
Speaker: And there's nothing like that here.
Speaker: Nothing is resolved.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Not even, there's got to be
Speaker: some carrot here, something to reward you by the end of it.
Speaker: But it's like, no, no one gets what they want.
Speaker: Nothing good is happening.
Speaker: Or if not, it's not even nothing good is happening.
Speaker: It's just nothing's happening.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: We don't know where,
Speaker: etrobus and zeul and all them are we don't know we just don't yeah they just kind of blink out of existence right you know and and an egg and glam we do get the epilogue yeah which is that kind of makes me nervous that it's an epilogue uh because it's kind of like a second that's like oh by the way we we will tell you a little bit about what's happening here
Speaker: It's just, it's just, and this is, this is where I, my, my theory on this whole thing being a very long novel.
Speaker: Now that I realized fully that this is a, you know, this, because if you read the back of the novel, it does say that this is part one of two.
Speaker: They, they, they go into it being honest with you that this is part one of two.
Speaker: So there are no surprises there theoretically.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But the way, because you said, like you said, the pacing is so weird.
Speaker: The way this is set up, it feels like this was a much, much longer book.
Speaker: And it was just busted up in the least satisfactory way.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I think Greg Keyes is a very good writer.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Um, sure.
Speaker: If anything, and that's the thing I say this, Mr. Keys, if you're listening, uh, uh, I, I say this in frustration for him because there's so much, there's, there's like all these little world building hints and all these little things that really, really ought to work or, or could be really interesting.
Speaker: There's something here.
Speaker: And I feel like someone cut them off at the knees.
Speaker: Uh, that's my optimistic viewpoint on it at least.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: What about you, Kevin?
Speaker: And what are your thoughts?
Speaker: I mean, I agree.
Speaker: I agree with a lot of it.
Speaker: I feel like there's a lot of like, there's, there's a lot of interesting moments in this that are also then undercut by the fact that the description of what exactly is happening can be, can sometimes random, be like muddled or incomplete.
Speaker: Like we said in the first episode, just stuff comes down, you know, it's, it,
Speaker: I don't get a complete sense of time and place in the book at really any point.
Speaker: Everything feels transient and we're just kind of flowing along a river of regret.
Speaker: No.
Speaker: A wonderful, wonderful poem.
Speaker: Oh my God.
Speaker: My life is a swirling river of regrets.
Speaker: What was his name?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: John Tottenham.
Speaker: John Tottenham.
Speaker: Great, great poet.
Speaker: If you ever get a chance, just funny fucking dude.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I think that's calling this transient is a very good way of putting it.
Speaker: I think.
Speaker: It's yeah, it doesn't have much ground under it, does it?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And maybe that's like maybe that's intentional because it's a floating city.
Speaker: But also it's like it just feels like it feels like we're trying to grab on to more meat.
Speaker: But every time we do, it's actually sand and it's slipping through our fingers.
Speaker: It's true.
Speaker: It's true.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Um, it's very frustrating, uh, which is something we keep running into, uh, with a lot of these novels, which, um, honestly it's a, that's a good problem to have theoretically.
Speaker: Uh, you, cause you see that there's potential there.
Speaker: Uh, uh, so at least there's something it's, it's very rare that we actually run into something that's just dog shit.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So that's good.
Speaker: I guess.
Speaker: But yeah, I can't leave this unfinished.
Speaker: We'll be reading this next year.
Speaker: We'll finish it up.
Speaker: Hopefully, maybe part two will answer all of our questions.
Speaker: And that's the thing.
Speaker: I don't even have that.
Speaker: I don't have enough energy for questions.
Speaker: No, no, no.
Speaker: Why would you?
Speaker: But Five Nights at Freddy's really surprised us.
Speaker: Five Nights at Freddy's did surprise us.
Speaker: And that was a trilogy of Dead Space did not surprise us.
Speaker: No, they were both bad.
Speaker: No, it was so bad.
Speaker: The second one was so bad.
Speaker: It was out of print when we tried to read it.
Speaker: So, oh man.
Speaker: So, well, that's, that's, that's pretty much it.
Speaker: So we got a new book coming out next week.
Speaker: But in the meantime, in between time.
Speaker: Oh, and we, we also, it's, we might be, we're, we're actually going to be recording with a special guest.
Speaker: Oh, yes.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: First before the new.
Speaker: So that guest will be it'll be a world's power book.
Speaker: So light, light listening.
Speaker: And then then we jump into Death Stranding.
Speaker: Volume one.
Speaker: I'm excited.
Speaker: That's what I wrote on the calendar, right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's, that's what it is.
Speaker: I'm excited about this book.
Speaker: I'm excited about our special guests.
Speaker: It's, it's going to be a good month ahead.
Speaker: So with that level of positivity in mind, Kevin, what are you reading?
Speaker: Reading?
Speaker: Reading.
Speaker: No, I've been doing a bunch of what are you reading things, so I'm totally fucked now.
Speaker: What are you playing?
Speaker: What am I playing?
Speaker: I'm playing Hollow Knight Silksong.
Speaker: Oh, sure.
Speaker: God damn it.
Speaker: I put too many hours into this game.
Speaker: And it's not like it's weird.
Speaker: Like I've been taking my time with it.
Speaker: You can beat the game 100% at like, I want to say 35 hours, right?
Speaker: But I've just been slow playing it so much.
Speaker: And I think part of my problem is I play it a lot when I'm just sitting watching TV.
Speaker: So I'm not like totally locked in on the boss battles.
Speaker: So but I'm at like 60 hours and I still haven't finished the game.
Speaker: So and that's probably just me thing.
Speaker: That's probably just like I'm not taking your time.
Speaker: I'm taking my time.
Speaker: I'm not really rushing through it.
Speaker: So that's kind of it.
Speaker: But I do want to finish it up soon.
Speaker: Technically, I rolled credits already.
Speaker: There is a way you beat the game and then you can go back and pick it up.
Speaker: You open up the save file again and you have like an Act 3 that you can play through.
Speaker: which basically is a, you know, turns the game on its head where you have like a lot of rough, tougher enemies and all that stuff.
Speaker: But that's where I'm at right now.
Speaker: I would like to finish it soon only because the next thing up is Silent Hill F. Yes.
Speaker: I'm really excited for this.
Speaker: Sputnik just posted a meme.
Speaker: It's the Vince McMahon meme.
Speaker: The Vince McMahon one?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It says, New Silent Hill.
Speaker: And he's doing the...
Speaker: face and then it says legitimately scary is doing the face and then the combat sucks and he's doing the face and then ign gave it a seven out of ten his eyes are laser beams
Speaker: Yeah, I'm looking forward to it.
Speaker: That looks like it'll be.
Speaker: I think that'll be it'll be interesting to say the very least.
Speaker: It'll be interesting.
Speaker: Yeah, I'm really excited about it.
Speaker: I have it like it's like pre-installed.
Speaker: I'm ready to go on it.
Speaker: So when does it release again?
Speaker: For everybody, it releases on the 25th for if you paid the extra ten dollars for digital deluxe, it releases tonight at midnight.
Speaker: Ah, gotcha, gotcha.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Okay, cool.
Speaker: So I'm really excited to get into it.
Speaker: And I have like a game that I want to play that I still need to get back around to, and that's Hell Is Us.
Speaker: Yes, that looks pretty good.
Speaker: Yeah, it looks it looks interesting.
Speaker: So I got so that's like that.
Speaker: And, you know, there's just so much.
Speaker: There's too many games, Phil.
Speaker: There's too many games.
Speaker: They need to they need to slow down the games, but also pay the game devs more and give them health care and stop firing them so much.
Speaker: For God's sake.
Speaker: For God's sake.
Speaker: Being fired on a regular basis and then rehired
Speaker: should not be a regular part of your business strategy.
Speaker: It just shouldn't be part of it.
Speaker: It's fucked up and fucked up.
Speaker: And it's people who ironically people who bring us joy, people who who bring us something that we really, really love, that we really
Speaker: Just the absolute purest joy.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And this is how they're treated.
Speaker: Anyway.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And we got, you know, we got a there's a bunch of other games coming out.
Speaker: I mean, fuck.
Speaker: And in October, I got you got Dispatch.
Speaker: Did you play the demo for Dispatch?
Speaker: Loved it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Really liked that one.
Speaker: That was clever.
Speaker: Very, very clean animation style.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And Alana Pierce is one of the voices in it.
Speaker: So that's awesome.
Speaker: You got Tormented Souls 2 coming out the day after Dispatch releases.
Speaker: A week later, you got Outer Worlds 2.
Speaker: And that's not... I forgot that the day before Dispatch, Bloodlines 2 comes out, which is...
Speaker: Solidly middling reviews for that.
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: Which is better than I expected.
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: If I'm being completely honest.
Speaker: So.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So a lot of a lot of good stuff coming out.
Speaker: A lot of a lot of stuff I'm looking forward to.
Speaker: But right now it's all silk silk songing it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Phil.
Speaker: What are you playing?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Oh, well, I, you know, in the moving process and that sort of thing, I have actually and this has been happening before the moving process, but I'm I'm slowly moving myself back into analog games, specifically, you know, Warhammer and shit like that.
Speaker: I've been doing a lot of painting.
Speaker: There is a game store.
Speaker: about like a 15 minute drive from here that will be my local game store.
Speaker: So I, me and Graham went there just to say hello and see what the, what the games are.
Speaker: What do people play and everything like that.
Speaker: And they were saying that they don't have much of that.
Speaker: They haven't in the past had a huge,
Speaker: I'm not sure if you're a fan of the game, but I'm not sure if you're a fan of the game.
Speaker: I'm not sure if you're a fan of the game.
Speaker: I'm not sure if you're a fan of the game.
Speaker: I'm not sure if you're a fan of the game.
Speaker: I'm not sure if you're a fan of the game.
Speaker: I'm not sure if you're a fan of the game.
Speaker: I'm not sure if you're a fan of the game.
Speaker: I'm not sure if you're a fan of the game.
Speaker: the pre-order stuff and and cool may have put my name on a death core of krig control that's coming up around my birthday uh so yeah i'm i've been doing that a lot uh my desk is covered with minis that i i i need to paint what you got there are those is that an orc that you got there is that roll uh okay
Speaker: I'm not sure if you're a good player.
Speaker: I'm not sure if you're a good player.
Speaker: I'm not sure if you're a good player.
Speaker: I'm not sure if you're a good player.
Speaker: I'm not sure if you're a good player.
Speaker: I'm not sure if you're a good player.
Speaker: I'm not sure if you're a good player.
Speaker: I'm not sure if you're a good player.
Speaker: I'm not sure if you're a good player.
Speaker: I'm not sure if you're a good player.
Speaker: I'm not sure if you're a good player.
Speaker: I'm not sure if you're a good player.
Speaker: I'm not sure if you're a good player.
Speaker: I'm not sure if you're a good player.
Speaker: I'm not sure if you're a good player.
Speaker: I'm not sure if you're a good player.
Speaker: I'm not sure if you're a good player.
Speaker: I'm not sure if you're a good player.
Speaker: And that's how you you can you can finish.
Speaker: And you can finish.
Speaker: And you can finish.
Speaker: with because you've got the four stacks you want to fill like it being a solitaire for each suit.
Speaker: And you can finish with none of them.
Speaker: You can still beat the level, but you just don't find the clue.
Speaker: I don't find the secret.
Speaker: You can do it from one to three in the middle, or you can get all of them right.
Speaker: And each one of them have a different ending because each puzzle has a tarot card and a corresponding like hinted at
Speaker: murder story or something horrifying underneath.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And you find out more about it by beating it.
Speaker: The atmosphere is really good.
Speaker: It's a very
Speaker: simple idea because sure, like solitaire and it's it's it's like it's like Bellatro and like a lot of other games like this where you take a real simple idea and it's executed really, really well.
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: And I've never seen a game like this that had kind of a horror vibe to it.
Speaker: And right.
Speaker: It's impressive.
Speaker: It's pretty good.
Speaker: I put a few hours into it.
Speaker: I'm really enjoying it.
Speaker: Definitely, definitely worth a look.
Speaker: So, yeah, that's me.
Speaker: That's what I've been playing.
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: Thank you so much, everyone, for listening to us get through the Elder Scrolls, Infernal City.
Speaker: This Infernal book, I'll tell you.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Follow us on social media.
Speaker: Blue Sky, Instagram, Patreon.com slash Pixelipod, if you will.
Speaker: And Phil, I don't have a question for you tonight, but I was wondering, have you ever...
Speaker: Have you ever played solitaire so long that you went backwards in time?
Speaker: Like you're trying to play it to pass time, but then it reverses.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And you end up adding more time.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's ironic, right?
Speaker: Like, that's some weird shit.
Speaker: If you're if you I have found something that helps, it doesn't like fully solve it, but it slows it down a little bit.
Speaker: So instead of going like two times fast into the past, you're only going like one and a half.
Speaker: uh it's not perfect but it helps um if you can you go to like find one of those old pharmacies not cvs not walgreens nothing like that finally you know the old-fashioned with the rx yeah yeah exactly exactly sometimes they still have like the soda pop stands and shit um you want to go to the proper apothecary kind of style pharmacy um
Speaker: The older the the person at the register, the better.
Speaker: It's real simple.
Speaker: You head into the back, past the contraceptives, past the hemorrhoid cream, past the Tums, and you and you go and at the very, very back.
