The show you were about to listen to was originally a live stream actual play
on twitch dot tv slash Onmade Gaming. Rise Minions, and welcome to this
unmade gaming production. Join us on our adventures as we take a jump to
the left, a step to the right, and time warp beyond the veil
to find out exactly what happens when you take the path less traveled in this
original Tails and the Loop actual play Atari Twilight Age of Always. Thank you
very much, my friends. Hi everybody, I'm Greg grim Jack two on
five oh two. I will be your game master for this evening, for
our little journey here in Atari Twilight Age of Always, Episode four, to
Live and Die in. My friends, we have a lot going on,
and if you're joining us, either live or via vod, this is the
one we're training where rubber meets the road so to speak, or rubber meets
the eternity road, so to speak. So I don't have a lot of
time now, I've got a long way to go, and I have four
I mean, I have three keystones that need to get from here to there
and back again. So, my friends, as we always do, let's
talk to our players and quickly begin our game, Melissa, who are you?
Who will you be playing? And do you believe your character is ready
and has been trained enough for the tasks ahead? Let's see who am i?
I'm Melissa Meyer Draftier. I am playing Heather Jones. Who is our
weirdo? Is she ready? Is she trained in? Well? I don't
think that she's seen any glimpse of magic just yet, but I think she
is certainly more centered. So in terms of her emotional capabilities, I think
that she is more ready, though who knows if she has the power to
overcome any particular challenge. Fantastic, fantastic. Okay, So with that being
said, same questions, who are you? Who will you be playing?
And are they ready? And let's go over to Chris. Chris, what
do you think? Bud? Hey, Greg? I'm Chris aka Neck and
I am playing Ricky Lewis. Ricky Lewis is of the class Jock used to
be Classick and is he ready? And you truly be ready if you haven't
been tested yet? Oh that's a lovely question. I like the way that
you're thinking. I think I share a similar thought process and direction of development.
And last but not least normally, I would have four people to go
to, but I don't have three this time. Gee, same questions as
before in time's a ticken. Yeah, Hi, I'm g the friendly neighborhood
lightning evoker. I'm playing Scarlet Blake today. She is also a jock of
the group. And is she ready? I'm ready for her and wherever that
journey takes her. I think she feels like she's ready, but I whether
or not that's actually the case, I'm we're not sure yet, and I
as we realize that JD is no longer with us, Heather's now the smart
one of the group. So that's gonna be interesting with only with our second
smart person gone. So yeah, I'm looking forward to it. Okay,
okay, okay, Well, everybody that's on screen right now, just just
don't listen to the next couple of parts. Audience very different answers, a
spectrum of whether or not their readiness is something that will be a positive or
at least a questionable experience. I'm here to tell you those questions will be
answered at some point, because now is the time for tests for passing or
failing and for rambling on. So, my friends, before we start,
just to let you know we are playing free Leagues Tales from the loop system.
This is normally a system that is set in the eighties that never was,
and that's where our story began. We have a sister show in Atari
Twilight. We've had several seasons where these kids and several others have ventured forth
through the age of the eighties, the age of pop culture, where the
different creatures and the different characters of our youth or of the eighties that never
was, walk the streets and walk beside them. Optimist Prime could be someone
that would rub You could rub shoulders with anybody from music to song, to
TV to movies, it all, it all breathes and lives. But now
now we are away from this normal, this known, this eighties. Now
we are in the age of Always where if you are a fan of the
movies of youth, this would be the never ending story Alice in Wonderland segment
of the tale. And so, my friends, as we always do,
with the eighties and a decade built upon the music that was created during that
time, please go to your Spotify playlist and if you would, the very
top selection is by the Scorpions Wind of Change. And if you could just
put that one on. I really wish I could, but my song isn't
working, my audio isn't worker. So I'll just picture it in my head
and you all listen. On the Age of Always calls us. Can you
hear? It? Sings a song from our youth, one that we love,
but one that we've long since forgotten. But still it sings, calling
us again to a world of adventure, calling us to return to our friends.
Ricky Heather Scarlet and Just Scarlet JD. One of the founders of the
Keystones, an original band member, has gone his own way for his own
reasons, but all is not lost and help comes in many shapes and forms.
Van Halen, their fateful bandmate, the cowardly Lion otherwise known as Big
Perr, stands beside them. Randall Flagg, Villain wizard night Teacher. Has
he turned over a new leaf, or perhaps an old one? They are
all there, right where we left them, And so the forgotten song is
remembered word by word, line by line, the memory of a tune forms.
It's time for us to sing our way back to the Age of Always.
So lift your eyes and your voices for today today we are with our
friends and we sing a song for good in youth, because today, at
least for me, today is a good day. Welcome again, one and
all to Atari Twilight, the Age of Always, Episode four, to Live
and to Die in ec My friends, a moment ago you bore witness to
the fourth member of your quartet, JD, stepping upon the entity, well
let's just call it a road. So with the road, the asphalt and
lined blacktop, weaving itself through this magical land eternity road, JD stepped upon
it, and with that separated himself from you all. Randall Flagg, your
mentor, held you back, preventing you from stepping upon the road too.
Because once joined, once a journey has started along the road, it cannot
be stopped. And if an undertaking is to be take, and you must
do so together, and you must be ready. Which has a lot of
questions for what happened to JD and why he decided to go ahead without you
all, But that is a question that cannot be answered at this moment.
At this moment, Randall Flagg holds you back. Van Halen, your friend,
also holds you back, and Randall flag Upon smelling in the wind that
you all bore witness to this smell of tobacco and leather, gunpowder and sweat.
He turned in the direction of the west when the wind blew, carrying
those scents, and he said, he's coming Roland. And with that,
my friends, chaos ensues. Randal turns to all of you a look of
panic for anybody that can divine anything. Behind his sunglasses. It's nighttime,
yet as we know, Randall is still wearing his sunglasses. He's still wearing
his black cowboy hat. But the wild flashing behind the sunglasses is something new.
It's fear. And he turns to you all. We have to move.
I thought we'd have it at least a year. Okay, Ricky,
I hope you know what You and the road are getting along because we need
to skidattle, do whatever it takes to get the road to hear you.
Scarlet, go to the perennial, make them hear you. We need a
gun slinger, and we need one stat Heather, go to the waterfall.
Give it all you've got, grab everything you can, and meet at the
cabin. Roland will be here by morning, and we need to be on
the road before and Randall collapses. There's no poignant moment. There's no last
words unless you consider the litany of instructions he gave you to be his final
epitaph. But instead he hits the ground, his hat rolls off, his
glasses knocked to the dirt. Everybody, go to your Spotify playlist and please
put on hazy shade of Winter. My friends, you each have a second
to do something. Here. I'm going to allow you to personally act when
you see Randall fall. You cannot converse with one another. This is simply
a moment of daring. This is a moment of In this brief heartbeat Scarlet,
Heather, Ricky, you have one second to do something. What do
you do with anything? I think? As he's rambling on about what we
need to do, she would be like, we have we have to go
after and then she as she turns and looks and sees him collaps, she's
like shocked, and then she runs to his side. Ricky. Ricky would
try and catch him as he starts to drop. He would have been quiet
through the whole speech from Randall, but yeah, he would try and catch
him. Karen hits the ground. At least roll me a move, Melissa.
What does Heather do as Randall was talking fantastic as Heather, or as
Randall was talking, Heather was not giving him her attention. She was looking
down the road in the direction that JD was headed, and then as as
there's a commotion behind her, she turns to watch him collapse without any clear
intention or motion to go assist. Okay, so with three successes, you
only needed one to cut the short distance and catch Randall before he fell,
So a bit of a retcon. Instead of actually hitting the dirt, his
hat and glasses still go askew, but Ricky is able to kind of slide
under neath him and kind of catch him at the moment before his head and
the upper half or any any vital place would smash into the ground. And
with culminating with this collapse, and so Ricky you're able to get underneath him
and catch him. You have two additional successes, and for this episode,
instead of being able to bank them for yourself, I'm going to allow you
to give one of them to one of your other players. You may also
give one of them to any of the NPCs that I've mentioned, Van Handlin
or Big Per who are the cowardly Lione who are happened to be with you
right now. But whenever I ask you to do this, I need you
to make the decision now. And that person that you gift this to needs
to remember to they have this so they can inform me because I will forget.
Okay. So the two successes, So one to a player scholars,
yeah, you only have one yeah, and then one to an NPC pleks
correct, yes if you have a com bonus of two. Yeah to Van
Halen. Okay. So Van Hanlin has a successful move roll should she need
it, and again a successful move roll. At this moment, when you
all have that second to react, as you look as you watching the direction
of JD as you catch Randall flag, Van Hanlin turns towards the forest that
you are all kind of. You're edged up to Eternity Road. You're along
the side, the shoulder of the road, if you will. But just
behind you the dense forest that will eventually lead you back to the waterfall in
the cabin from which you have been living these past several days. The forest
is still dark, the forest is still dense. It is the night time
here in the age of Always, and though beautiful and a spectacle to behold
with a brilliant moon above, and stars that are nearly as bright, casting
a more of a dusk or a twilight. If you will, you're able
to see, but not to the same extent that you would during the daytime.
Van Halen turns towards these woods and she raises her arms, aware of
something that the rest of you do not see, aren't privy to, and
she screams in a manner that you've only heard her, with a tone and
a seriousness that you've only heard once before, and that was at the time
of the tree lighting. And as she turns, she yells out, no,
I am in service to the Queen, and I speak for her Majesty
who sits upon the mobius thrown, and I swear to the gods that walk
you will not have them. As she throws her hands up, you see
a blue mist smoke that comes from the forest. It may have been there
advancing that you didn't see until her arms came up. It wraps around her.
It probes the space to either side of van Halen, but you see,
all of you witness to a dull purple glow that comes from van Halen
and the blue that seems to hit it coming from the forrest washes against it
like waves against a rock, but each time it kind of probes and presses.
You see it going an inch or true farther, creeping over her shoulder,
kind of reaching towards the three of you, and then pulling back these
tendrils of bluish smoke as they stretch like fingers towards each of you. And
then you see van Halen move her back to you as these she can physically
push these blue tendrils back to their place in front of her. My friends,
you have another second to do something. Do you do anything? There?
Will? I imagine this all in slow motion. She'll walk towards van
Halen and rest her hand on van Halen's shoulder, and then she is going
to think back to the waterfall and that moment that she was dancing with the
water and the freeness of spirit that she felt at the time. Okay,
then anybody else do anything? As Heather moves forward and places a hand on
van Halen's shoulder, supportive you know, the rock, the the backup that
is needed in this moment. What else go? Ricky? Ricky is going
to try and lift Randall. He doesn't want to leave him the floor.
So he's he's going to with all his might try and lift him Scarlet.
Scarlett will help, if that's okay with you. She'll take one side,
take the other. Let's do. This is a many many extended trouble.
Each of you roll force. This isn't an aid. You're not aiding one
another. This is just basically both of you taking a moment to one for
acky one. For sure, you're both able to get Randall up off the
ground as you're holding him almost stretcher like, you know, one person has
the legs in the you know, up around the thighs holding and the other
person underneath the shoulders. As you're able to get him off the ground.
He is way heavier than you expected him. He is dead weight. You're
guessing he's around like two fifteen, two twenty maybe's like he he is.
And again, this is probably the first time that I can remember that you
all have had extended physical contact with Randall. Flag It's not you know,
he's not a big hugger, so there hasn't been the opportunity when you actually
like beneath the denim of his jeans and uh, you know, whoever's wrapping
their hands around his chest. I mean, for lack of a better description,
Randall's built like a brick shit house like he is, absolutely sure.
You feel your fingers just press up against almost stone like muscle, and that
kind of leads itself, either psychologically or literally to damn. This guy's heavy.
As you both kind of pull him up and get him off the ground,
his hands dangle underneath him. He is one hundred percents inert. Is
he breathing. I'm gonna give it to you for free. He is,
and you can see that it's a very It's not a labored breathing. It's
an odd breathing. You see as he exhales, his lips almost punched the
air out. He's interesting. Who would have known it was a mouth breather?
Randall, wake up? And she's like kind of like buncing him a
little bit, like are you kidding me? Right now? And as Scarlett
is screaming, you know, Randall, wake up, Heather, you feel
as you hold on to van Halen, you feel her whole body start to
convulse. You feel her arms and her legs begin to start, the muscles
begin to fire. You see that her head it's almost like a macabre version
of how she would enjoy music from her namesake if she was listening to a
song by the band van Halen as her head begins to rock back and forth
in this parody of you know, headbanging or something. But for a moment,
you know the visual is linked because you've seen van Halen do these things
before and play and fun in a positive manner. But now it's become much
more dire as she just shakes and you can tell that she has no control
over her body, and much like the other two have felt like the musculature
of Randall Flagg, you feel the same thing beneath your hand. But van
Halen is tensing to cause this type of tightness, this type of just absolute
rigidness that's almost affecting her. And as she's doing this, you hear her
not whisper grit through her teeth to you. Because you're still kind of behind
her as you're holding onto you can't really she can't turn to look, and
this is a profile at best shot. She's using the word I can't fight
him, and as she's spasming, you see just the corner of her eyes
probably the only thing that she can still control Heather as she looks in the
corners back to you, and she says, sister, help me. I'm
not strong enough, trying to make you all sleep. And then she says
something to whomever you can feel is attacking or the adversary, not again.
You won't take them from me again. And you see the blood coming out
of the corner of her eye as she is fighting something this smoke, but
you don't know the source. And that's when you feel yourself being pulled back.
You're unexpected. You your hand pulls away from van Halen's shoulder as the
jaws of the cowardly lion sink into the cloth of your pants and begin to
pull you away. As the cat is saying, Peter, we must run
away, Peter, we must run away. Stop lions stop and uh and
she'll she'll she'll hauler back at him over her shoulder and then try to yank
her her leg free, and then facing forward as she's doing that, she'll
stay. She'll yell, similarly, stop at what a whatever's out there?
So, my friends, in this moment of chaos, with Randall trying to
be tended to as the screams for his uh just to become privy to the
situation around to bring him back to the land of the living, Heather yelling
at the cowardly lion to stop pulling her away from the scene of danger,
and then the defiance in the scream to whatever the source is coming from the
woods. Presumably you all your I'll give you a chance to do some roles
here. Please let me know what you would like to do, and I
will tell you what is needed to do. So Grey, can I ask
a question for a story to break immersion a little bit? Here? Do
we hear the scarlet and rocky? Do we hear what VH said to Heather?
Yes, she has no control over the volume. But this is more
of an absolute roar a shout than anything else. And I'm just curious,
does this blue smoke? Does the blue look familiar like? Is it like
a certain type of blue that we would have seen before. It's funny you
should mention that scarlet as you. I want you to roll for me,
m H. I want you to roll contact for me because this is a
memory. Oh good, come on, roll twenty Yes one success. You
stand there and you stare and that smoke for a moment, the glow of
it as dim as it is is reflected in Scarlet's eyes, and we see
a different Scarlet's face, slightly younger, the same glow, only brighter,
reflected in her eyes as we pan away and flash back to see an area
beneath the trailer where there are glowing bricks of Enerjohn It floats slowly down to
a hand as you throw it in the air, that same glow, that
same hue if we were picking it up, you know, the same alphanumerics
that indicate this particular color are a perfect match. And then the eyes again
we see as come back to the age of all ways, and you recognize
it for what it is, at least what it appears to be. Oh
yeah, she just looks at her She looks at Ricky's like, we have
to get out of here, and she's still shaking Roland trying to get him.
I'm not rolling, I'm sorry, Randal trying to wake him up.
Chris and Ricky both have a bad idea. I love bad ideas. He
looks across to h and Heather and she says, the only way out of
here is on the road. They can't follow us on the road. Told
me that they can't get to us, and he's gonna start trying to drag
Randall to the edge of the road. She'll go with him. Heather,
hearing that, will holler back at the lion, help me take her,
and she will try to move forward. Hope he lets go of her leg
and wrap her arms around VH and begin to pull her backwards. You're able
to pull free. You're not sure if the lion has released or you pulled
free from the lion. It could be a mixture of both, but you're
able to get back to VH. And she's still spasming, and at this
point she is her teeth are gritting. You can see that she's just fighting
with everything she has. And when you actually get more than just the profile
shot of her, when you get more of you know, the full look
that she has as the full side of her face, you can see that
blood is coming from her eyes, from her nose, corners of her mouth,
through her ears as she's sitting there, just back and forth, stuck
in this area. And when you try to start pulling her, she can't
move. It's almost as if she's like her tree now rooted to this particular
spot in the age of Always, and that's when you see the cowardly lion,
and you hear before you see the explosion of fur to your left,
you hear as he bounds forward and charges towards the forest, tears of his
own coming from his eyes, and you hear him say you're not gonna get
him, You're not gonna get him. No, I'm here. And he
jumps into the woods, and you hear the leaves from his massive weight,
but you can also hear him crying the way a child would. That is
trying to convince themselves that the Boogeyman is not in the closet and goes into
the dark room but is still so terribly afraid, And the cowardly lion charges.
Lion. We can't go, Riggy, I can't pull her. We
can't go. We have to stay. We'll fight it. We'll fight it
here. Okay he needed to try and oh man, he's gonna try and
put down Randall. That's easy enough. Yes, Scarlett would let him go
to it. Does Ricky have his bow? Greg? Oh, yeah,
I'm gonna. I assume, just like with Scarlett's guns, that if there's
ever situation that would require you know, if there's an emergency, I don't
think you are running out without the things, the weapons of the paperback exchange.
So, yes, the bow of Robin of Locksley is still very much
with you. Then he will he will pull the bow around, knock an
arrow and if he can, yes, at least best case, wherever this
blue glow fog is coming from, he's going to fire an arrow at that.
All right, let's see here, what do we want successes, greg,
we want successes? Yes, I do. I do too, want
you to succeed. Let's do. I'm going to give you two options here
because normally what I would do for it would be a force move for the
bow. But because you're kind of probing with this, I will allow you
to either roll force or investigate as you kind of move the bow. You
know you can more by ear than by I. You know, you're you're
listening for something. You're any type of disturbance, some target that would lend
itself to this. You know you hear the crashing of the lion. But
again, this is Ricky in his element, so to speak. This is
Ricky in the woods. This is Ricky trying to tune everything out except for
the sound of his prey. Let's go with horse, Greg gotcha on success.
You pull the bow back and it's this you know, normally the pounds
per square ange to pool this bad boy back would be something that would hinder
quite a few grown adults. But Ricky is able to pull the bow back
to his cheek with a fluid motion as if he's done it thousands of times,
because as Cryst will tell you, he has. And he fires the
shot true into the woods, and there is a scream, and the blue
mist stops and van Halen drops to the ground. We'll try to hold her.
She has her hand around her waist. You're already there. Yeah,
you can easily collect her. It's not even a move that requires a role.
You're just able to just get underneath her as she falls down. She
is out, and you all hear from the forest not your friend East,
I'm gonna leave you here. Did leave him for Roland, Be on your
way. And Scarlet pulled out her gun and eight means it at the forest
chosen fire. But she's just on guard. Heather will, after making sure
that the h is comfortably on the ground, will run forward to find Lion
towards the ice and will be pulling her sword as she runs, She'll say,
Lion, I'm keeping the line till your own way. You will not,
Lion, Scarlet will keep running forward. The darkness just awaits you.
As my friends, you are entering what is called extended trouble. Now,
my friends, for those of you unfamiliar with the tails from the loop system,
extended trouble is something that requires everybody. And what this will be is
I will tell you all what the stakes are or extended trouble. You well
you can achieve or what you can fail. I will tell you all the
threat level, meaning the number of successes that you will have to mechanically best.
It's extended trouble. You'll tell me your plan, will work through the
scenes, and we'll make a roll. We'll see what happens. My friends,
Flag is insourceab apparently the very least sleep Lion is unknown what the circumstances
are for the lion. But my friends, if you wish to break the
spell that is currently on Flag, you must catch Donovan, who is in
the woods yelling to you. Donovan knows everything about these woods, about the
age of Always. You will need ten successes to catch him if you decide
to challenge him. If you decide to go after him. However, if
you opt to leave, if Donovan is a man of his word, he
says he'll let the lion go. You can roll to see if you trust
that, or you can tell me you intend to go after him, at
which case I will tell you what is needed, and we will see what
the Keystones minus one are able to do in this moment. But there's a
breath, and there's no response from Donovan. In the woods, the blue
smoke mist is gone. Van Halen has collapsed into the arms of Heather.
There's a brief moment of quiet, just a few rustlings and snap of twigs
from the forest. Certainly not the chaos that Lieon created when he ran in
there. Those sounds of pursuit are gone. The forest is dominant again.
But the first time in a long long time, the NPCs of the Keystones
are gone. It's just you. What do you do? I think?
When as soon as Heather rushes and draws her sword and runs towards the forest,
the Scarlet sprints after her with her guns one gun drawn for now,
and she will break into the forest mashly. The first couple of steps as
the canopy of overhead kind of blots out elements of the shining moon and the
brilliant nebula of stars. You don't see anything thing, But that's not to
say there isn't anything there at this moment though. You're just into the edge
of the forest. Ricky Heather as the as they enter the forest and it's
dark and they no longer have the guidance of sound to direct them, Heather
will pull out her book light with her other hand, and she is going
to peer into the darkness, turning on the light with an investigate to see
if she can find and spot him. Absolutely, if this is are you
all going after them or after Donnie. If you are, then we are
going to enter extended trouble and these will be the roles. You each get
to make a role for him right here. I need ten successes and then
we will play out the scenes so that if that is it. Investigate is
Heather's role. The rest of you let's book plus the book gives you your
bonus. The rest of you, what would you like to do to either
aid this role? And it can be the same thing, it can be
investigated, can be whatever you would like. But we're going to play out
how each of these work. Because extended trouble piques an extended period of time.
It won't be resolved in six seconds. Nothing outside of D and D
ever is Ricky, do you know what you want to do? Yeah,
Ricky, Ricky knew where he shot before with his bow and he's going to
make a slight adjustment or where that was, expecting that Donovan would have moved
to a side, and he's going to fire again before he runs into the
forest after everyone else. Roll me another Force then, as if that's what
you elect to deal you can. I still give you the option for investigate.
But Force is also one of those films success. Hey, the shot
goes into the woods again and you don't hear a yelp of pain, but
much farther away than you would expect, as the sound carries to all of
you, almost as if this is coming from a quarter mile away, not
a shot like that. And I'm not giving you your friend back. That's
it, you mean, I'll make my role just one success? You got
eight Scarlet. I don't know well what she's going to be doing since the
Heather has her book light out and she's kind of she's like the be a
target. Scarlett is going to move, try and get around the periphery and
try and get behind, like, get to flank him. Hopefully you have
a free success correct another one? Yeah, So I'm going to move.
So I'm going to roll move and I'm going to use the bonus dice that
Ricky gave me. Or is it dice or is it a success? It's
a success success gifted success. Yeah, just one shoot. So we're at
four. Do we have another round? You know? But you do have
ways to pad the stats here. I am going to allow the following if
somebody would like to roll for lead. We haven't done this a while,
but because we've had Brando around and people like that, if someone would like
to roll for lead, I will let you kind of retcon a bank of
those if you want to give out extra dice, but you have to succeed
on the lead roll. Is there anybody would like to do that? I
nominate Heather, but I will do it. I can. I don't know
if at this point you or I as better at this, but I could.
I have two and I have two in lead with a total of seven.
Yea have a total of six. So do you want me to roll
all right, so leadership one success. Okay. So with that success that
that gives you two dice that you may give to your friends. You can't
keep them for yourselves. But what we'll do is both Heather and Ricky can
roll one additional d six to see if another success can be gleaned from this
leadership that Scarlett provides. Nop Here's where things get fun. We stand at
four correct, okay, So with the four that you have accumulated, there's
a couple other ways that we can buy successes here in the system. One,
if you want to use your pride, you know that gives you an
automatic success. If you wanted to push the roles that you already made,
you may do so, and it'll keep the one success that you have rolling
the other ones and give yourself a condition that may or may not work.
However, if you want to just cut out the middleman and give me a
condition, oh, I'll give you success. I finally have a character that
I'm not being riddled by conditions. So I don't know, I'll take a
condition, Greg, I'll jump in before g does this time. She snaked
from me last time. That okay? A condition to Ricky. Ricky let's
give you upset. I don't know if Ricky is upset, but let's give
you upset because of the situation, all this chaos. It's not necessarily like
upset, but there's just an upset frame of mind, what the hell is
going on type of chaos in kind of inundating Ricky. But that gives you
another success and takes you to five. Is there any other barters that we
would like to get closer to ten? Heather will use her luck again and
take a condition, but she we're gonna gamble and see if she can get
additional points. Got cha, Well, with your luck, you just get
the auto reroll, so you don't have to take a condition. Oh right,
because you've used your luck, you just get a reroll. You don't
have to Oh great, great, okay, yeah nice, all right?
So two and then she she has a good mind, and as she is
running and she is still not seeing him, she she knows that if she
tries hard enough, she can overcome. She can use her mind to overcome
challenges like these, just like the heroes in the books too, So she'll
use her pride another one. Does that take us to eight? Then,
because of the two extra generated or yeah, okay, yeah there's second or
eight. I just gave three more. Okay, so eight then, and
I had one from before. Okay, So, my friends, you're at
eight right now. I will let you know because it's only fair of me
to do so, that a zero to five is an utter failure, a
five to nine is a partial success, which by its very definition is too
positive for me, so I will call it a partial failure, and a
ten or over is a success. So, my friends, right now you
sit it in eight, you are on the down words slope for success.
But I I use my pride last episode, so I cannot use that.
But I'm going to spend my luck, my one luck, and I'm going
to reroll my move role uh no successes, dam and I spend my luck
as well. Greg, you sure can. Would you like to push ge
can take a condition? I know you have a pristine character condition free,
but no, I will I Well, also, if if you want to
spend your luck, you can. I'll spend my luck and then I will
push another success. Okay, and then I am pushing yeah nine Nope,
and she is upset. Oh lord, I think that's all I can do.
Right? You could see it. Victory is just give me a condition,
Greg. Before you do that, G I can spend my pride.
Oh well, it's up to you. Lies Okay. No matter how bigs
they are well directed force, they will fall. I like that one,
okay. And this is a tactical situation. So we're going to make sure
we keep that pride in mind whenever we play this out, so that will
give you your ten so as a recap success As aside, who is currently
rocking a condition? And Ricky, do you have two? No, you
have just like one with a pride, yeah, okay. So with that
in mind, I'm going to tell you this that to catch or get close
to Donovan is going to take you the better part of an hour and a
half ninety minutes. Shit, he is moving, but you all with the
help of each of your roles, with the book light, with the concentration,
with the movement of flanking kind of kind of almost like hurting or dogg
and Donovan in a particular path that he might not necessarily want to go as
Scarlet kind of leads off to the side, and Ricky kind of tactically harrowing
maybe an arrow every once in a while to kind of, you know,
give a ping of a sonar type of thing. You all will need to
make a decision here because to chase Donovan you can't do so from the side
of Eternity Road. I remind you too that when flag went down, he
did say that Roland would be here soon, and he did not seem happy
and or calm about that particular development. And he also before he went down,
asked each of you to basically go back to the tasks that you had
had the perennial for Scarlet to the waterfall, for Heather, to the road,
for Ricky to I guess, make one more attempt to kind of batten
down the hatches and get yourself set away for this. But right now you
have van Halen who is out. You have Randall Flagg who is out.
They are lying beside the blacktop of Eternity Road, and the three of you
really alone have a target in sight. But a decision must be made go
after do something different. You will succeed if you go after him. Well.
Scarlett would vote to push on, and g would say, we spent
all this, all all of our stuff to do this, so if we
don't, if we don't continue on, to catch Donovan, then we wasted
all of our mechanical resources for nothing. As a fair and benevolent GM too.
Sorry interrupt, Melissa. I will let you know that if you ought
to go away from that, I'll take away conditions. And shit, I'm
not that big a dick, but you know I wanted you all to know
as players that sharing the success is guaranteed. But the decision has to be
made. Do you leave these people? But deal, I honestly think the
real question is do we leave Lion because we can in theory take take VH
and Flag with us, but we don't have Lion with us, So I'll
take them with them the chase. It's the chase that's going to leave them
alone. Yeah, can't hear you, Melissa, What did you say?
Sorry, Chris, Sorry, it's the chase. We can't take VH and
Randle with us as we do the chase for ninety minutes, right, so
they will be alone. One of them is going to be left as soon
it's it's clear that they're going to have to chase. Heatheryll turned back to
the other two and say, I have to go. I have to I
have to go find Lion. But Ricky, maybe you want to go back
to the h She said she needed help. She asked me for help,
but I gotta go get Lion. We can't. We can't split up.
You can't take on Donovan by yourself. I im and then she draws her
sword. I can try. I can come with you. And then she
looks at Ricky and we know where these two are going to be. He
said this time before bleeding. Ricky, I don't think you noticed. She
was bleeding from everything, everything, her ears, her nose, her eyes.
Guys. It needs help. Guys. It was just like at the
tree lighting. Did you hear what she said and that blue smoke? We
gotta go. I'm sorry, I gotta go. Ricky. You go back,
and Heather will run, run through the trees. Heather is off,
Scarlet will wait out a moment. It's up to you. I think they
need to be protected, but someone needs to cover Heather. He Patha's safe,
and Ricky's gonna go back to where VH and Randola, and then Heather
will spin on her heel and chase after Heather. So Heather hits the forest.
Scarlet a few beats later, follows the same path of broken branches kind
of rushing through into the woods. We're gonna stick with our buddy, Ricky.
Everybody could go to your Spotify playlist if you would queue up a little
Live to Tell by Madonna Ricky. Where you have Randalls situated is really right
beside Eternity Road, because you all were going to get on the road when
you dropped him. Are a few paces away? Is van Halen maybe ten
feet? Did you want to kind of put them together or did you want
to, you know, make it an easier protection type of thing. Yeah,
Ricky's gonna stop getting ready. His plan is to make not quite a
stretcher, but it's like an A frame that you can at least put someone
and drag them. He's going to stop preparing two of those A frames ready
to move them. And the whole time that he's getting them ready, he's
moved the h next to Randall, And the whole time he's as he comes
back towards the road, just keeps talking to the road. You've let JD
on. He's my friend. I've told you all about JD. Just keep
him safe and he comes back. You got to keep us safe. We
might need your help soon. And he's literally just back and forth talking to
the road as he brings through bits and bobs to get ready for being able
to move both of these people. Okay, so yeah, it's easy.
I mean, this is something that you particularly told me in the backstory or
the revised backstory of Ricky that this falls exactly into his wheelhouse. You're creating
a litter basically for these two as you have like the draglines and everything set
up. This is something that would take Ricky forty five of the potential ninety
minutes of chase just to kind of get these You know, this is absolutely
a specialty of Ricky. So it's not something that's going to take you an
extended period of time or even require a role. You've got the time you're
going to succeed. It's not something that needs to be done in five minutes.
As you're doing this and talking to the road, kind of keeping that
conversation, keeping that dialogue going as you're kind of tying and using some vindage
and maybe even like Randall's belt to kind of get that one lynch pin area
you know, done, and make sure that it's sturdy enough to hold Randall
and Vh's respective weight as you kind of work through this thing. You hear
from the road, and when you look over, you see that broken yellow
line in the middle of the road moving as it seems to be almost like
a like a bit of Morse code like and these dots are moving like a
like a people mover. The asphalt itself is the same, but the paint,
the yellow broken line is moving along the road and it gets faster.
Only a contact ricky co boo no successes reminds you of something, But you
this fantastical moment with injured friends. You've got other things to do than reminisce.
And as the it gets faster and faster and faster, you see the
yellow line turn into a light blue and it slowly lifts off the road,
and it's almost like one of those animated books that you get and you flip
through them to see a stick figure running through a forest, or you know,
you see an astronaut jump out into space, you know, drawn over
a stretch of a hundred pages to create some rudimentary animation. You see that
type of almost like AHA's take on me this sketch. As it lifts and
you see a shape, a humanoid shape begin to form from these broken lines,
kind of whisked and torn with this smear of blue, the bit of
the yellow still in from the line, and you see a ghostly female form
rise up in the middle of the road, and it seems familiar, but
this is no time for reminiscing the form. Faceless, featureless, but there's
something fucking familiar about it walks over to you, its feet not touching the
asphalt. It's part of the road, but not on the road, and
it walks just to the edge of the black top. What are you doing?
Ricky stops whatever he was doing, whatever he was dragging, and slowly
walks between Randall and VH and this person and just stops and stares at them.
They regard you back. They are about a foot taller than you,
and again, featureless. You can tell where I should be. There's a
kind of an intense glow where the eye should be, where the mouth should
be, and it's almost like your mind is filling in the details for you,
but it's not really there. You're just kind of oh, that's tears,
that's you know, just your mind just making some type of rational sense
out of what this constructed entity is. And you hear from this entity.
My guide is dead. I need a new guide. He borrows his brow
and just you can't take them. He doesn't understand what they're asking. I
do not want them. I need a guide, someone to walk the way.
I can't leave my friends. You can guide them without leaving them.
Yes, but he nods, I will require service, but I will help
if you help me, and you can keep us safe when the others return.
We can get away from here. If I help, I will hold
you clothes while you walk the way. Ricky slowly nods, Okay, we
can help each other. Figure in front of you reaches out and you actually
see now that this this form is getting closer to you. You can see
millions of dotted lines like the one that runs over through the middle of Eternity
Road, now shaded blue as they make up. The fingers thick, three
dimensional, but they're all made and woven of these helixes of lines. And
the hand reaches for you and goes to cup your face. Do you allow
it? Yeah? Ricky doesn't move, and you feel as these fingers touched
the side of Ricky's face heat like the kind you would feel coming off a
road. My friend smiles, What color is. I know you're wearing it,
but what color is Ricky's father's hat that was gifted to him before his
adventures. It would be a dark brown, like a every old, old
leather brown that he would have been wearing for twenty years. It's a shame
there is no one around to bear witness to it turning white. We cut
into the woods, Scarlet. You are charging after Heather. Heather is moving.
You're not sure you've ever seen her or anyone run that fast. You
can keep up with her. I mean you're not losing sight of her.
You can with sound and with just the flash of this and that you're able
to see her book light as she's moving through, and that kind of offers
you more of a guide than anything else, just following that light. And
as you're running, you realize that you are heading towards the perennial, towards
the glade where you have practiced all of this time, And you realize that
if Randall was honest with you, which he seemed to have been ever since
you all got to the age of always, and he took his magic from
him, and people tend to be a lot more honest when they don't have
their ability to trick you with magic as part of their repertoire. But as
you're running towards this area, if you are to remember, this is the
part where he told you that Donovan lives around here, and it seems that
if that was the case, you don't know exactly where that is, but
it seems like he's going the ground. He's going back to his haunts,
if you will. The other day yesterday when she was sitting in the perennial
and she just sat there, she wasn't she wasn't practicing, and she noticed
him. Now that she realizes, she thinks she knows who that guy was
who was watching her through the trees. She's been in that for she knows
it pretty well. Can she go to that spot where he had been watching
her from? Absolutely? I will say this though, If you do that,
Heather's not headed in that direction. You know, you're kind of you're
kind of cutting, like you're taking a shortcut. Yeah, okay, but
you'll lose sight of Heather. If that's okay with you. This is again,
you've already rolled in major successes. This is part of the narrative that
these successes kind of lend to us and so as part of the move role
that you had, this could easily be you know, Scarlet dictating this path
is the right direction to go to get to that point where I saw him,
But there goes Heather doesn't know that spot and is following in a direction
that is not the same as yours. Yeah, she's going to Would Heather
know where the glade is? Is she going towards the glade? And I
mean Melissa's right here, but Heather, Yeah, Melissa, Heather would know
where each everybody kind of went to do their thing. You would know about,
you know, a part of the road where Ricky would go to the
where jd you know you saw that mostly because you were in the same area,
and you would know the direction that that Scarlet went to, and probably
even saw the glade at some point. It wasn't you know, you've been
here long enough that you would have, you know, seen it in passing.
So yeah, yeah, she would know vaguely. But she's also busy,
single mindedly focused on following, so she may not be necessarily paying attention
to the fact that. Yeah, so I think she would. She would
say too, she she she doesn't want to scream or shadow, but she's
going to say loudly so Heather can hear. She's like, Heather, head
to the glade. I got your back, and she's going to veer off.
Okay, So as you veer off and quickly the light off to your
left disappears, just an other part of the darkness of the forest. We're
going to stick with Heather. Heather, as you're running, you know,
straight as the crow flies, basically following this path of kind of that you're
identifying. And again with the successful roles that you had, you know,
you can see where lion has been taken through this area. It's very different.
Lions a big animal, and it's very difficult to kind of no matter
what you're using to move lion, so to speak. This is a lot
of kind of broken branches and messed up leaves and stuff. And so you're
able to track in a really successful and positive manner through this. But you
hear, whether or not you recognize it, the sound of Scarlet's voice does
get to Heather. But as you kind of break through the forest, one
last kind of row of bushes, you break through some like rhododendron. As
you smash through, you see the waterfall in front of you as it's hitting
the lake and kind of spreading out from around the epicenter of the falls.
And for a moment, you're at this place that you have been training,
and you remember that Randall did say something about going back to this spot.
But the path leads around the water as it should, taking you away from
the waterfall. But for a moment you're there. You try anything, you
do anything in this moment where you're in your classroom. I think she pauses
a moment and she thinks, you know, Heather. Heather considers herself a
planner and pauses there at the edge of the lake, and I think she
does she considers that if this can be the one final time, that maybe
that will help them get lyon back. And so she sheaths her vorpal blade
and tucks her little booklight back into her backpack, shoves that off to the
ground, and dives in right underneath the waterfall. And I think as she
dives into the waterfall, it's not like a high height as she has done
in the past, but she doesn't have time for more than this. I
think that you know, every day after the water first danced with her,
she's gone back and she has thought about the bullies, you know, and
those experiences, and she was sad and afraid and she released that right,
she let it go. She thought back to her adopted father and her sister,
and she like, let it go, and she forgave and she moved
on. But the thing that she's been struggling with, the remaining stain on
her soul, has been Randall Flagg, right, this man who terrorized her
for months, and who haunted her dreams, and who threatened her friends,
and who admitted himself that he was the one who tore her away from the
people that she loved and left her for ten years. And so she's been
struggling with that one piece. And so she takes that time and she thinks
back to him collapsing on the ground and being helpless there, and she tries
also to let that go. Roll anything you would like, this is just
flavor. We will roll empathize one Heather, you dive into the water,
these thoughts, these it's acceptance sort of in your heart, is the ability
to let things go. Everybody, if you could go to your Spotify playlist,
if you would please, and go to the very last song that I
just added this morning. Click on that Heather. As you dive in,
thinking these things, you were told that the waterfall would wash away the taint
of the world without magic, and once gone, magic would be open to
you. Started to feel a little bit of that. The water danced with
you. It started to seem like it was starting a relationship, you know,
getting to know Wheel, much like the road was getting to know Ricky.
And again, just like nobody saw the hat turn white, nobody sees
Heather lift from the lake into the waterfall, wing in the opposite direction,
fighting gravity. And as you feel yourself lifted into the falling and rushing waters,
it goes around you. You begin to twirl again in the dance.
And it certainly is a shame that nobody can see that Heather is now dressed
in a brilliant gown. But this is not the gown of a princess or
a damsel in distress. This is a gown that is woven with plates of
steel, of pauldrons of metal and diamond, of a skirt of chain mail
and fire forged steel. The sword that you have is still prominent on your
back, and as the water dances and spins with you, and the skirt
billows around you, despite being battered by this water. As you move,
and as you spin Ricky from the lips of van Halen, who is still
very very asleep, you hear and the age of always will honor an annoint
one for each way a mortal can point. And at that moment you fall
back into the water. But this is not a rush that you have become
accustomed to. This entrance from a great height through water and splashing down.
This is the gentle light of a butterfly to a flower. As you are
eased into the water, and when you come up on the other side,
kind of into the silty, sandy soil that makes up the bank. The
gown is gone, your sword is not. And I'll leave it up to
you whether or not the acceptance has gotten hold, whether or not how their
soul was clear. I don't think she's gonna know. At this moment,
she feels peace. She takes a pause, but that's all she has time
for, and she grabs her backpack and she runs back, and she continues
to follow the trail. As you're running, we go back over to Scarlet.
Scarlet. You enter the perennial. You can see that you are either
ahead or right on the heels of Donovan. But here in the perennial,
you can see that the four like we've always said, the four seasons,
are very evident, They're very pronounced. There's snow blowing over here, There's
you know, the chirp of birds over in this area. There's the colorful
leaves of autumn in this area, and for a moment, you are there.
In a moment, you are passing through the perennial, but from a
different direction than you normally are used to. You're coming in from the side,
and normally you would go like south to north and north to south.
You're coming in from like the east of the glade. A different perspective,
a different way. But this is a walk through the perennial. Do you
want to do anything as you go through? I will let you know that
shooting your gun is certainly a tell that you're close. And so if you're
trying to be sneaky, mm hmm, yeah, she is. She's not
a sneaky person, but she definitely does not want to telegraph her moves ahead
of time. So I do feel that Donovan knows that she's here, because
he knows he knows the forest better than she does. I think she would
take She'll take out the gun and she will stop like dead center in the
middle of the perennial and she will shoot a shot into the air, and
she will who's that shot for? Don't mean to interrupt you, but is
that just for you? No, She's shooting it for her version of the
queen in her mind, because she she's I'm sure, I'm sure the girl.
A lot of the kids have had conversations during their downtime about why they're
here and who they serve and stuff like that. But Scarlett doesn't know who
this queen is, and she can't. She has trouble giving loyalty to someone
who who she has no face too, right, she has absolutely no loyalty
to the queen, And in her mind, the queen doesn't really have hasn't
really done anything but to earn it, right, But her friends have earned
it more so, Yeah, she fires it for Heather. Everyone would hear
the shot, given the silence of the nature of the evening here in the
age of Always. I mean we talked about it before that, you know,
Randall Flag would fire shots into the middle of the night, and because
it was so subtle that it was difficult for people that were sleeping to be,
you know, kind of roused by it. But this is a shot
not from Randall's gun. This is a shot from Scarlet's guns of the Gunslinger.
This is the metal forged from fabled ex caliber itself, and thus the
shots are distinct, and so everyone would hear it maybe is ricky, maybe
a whiff of sandalwood in the air. And you said your version of the
queen. That's that's for Scarlet. You know, this isn't blind allegiance.
Scarlet has principles. You know. She doesn't bend the knee for anybody that
she just that is and I don't really and she it's not really to say,
like to throw a little finger to the Queen or anything like that.
It is just yeah, she's just you gotta earn it for me, right
right, I'm with you. So with that, the idea of and this
is what's going through Scarlett's mind as you've described she her version of the Queen.
I'm gonna paraphrase, but this would be somebody that Scarlet would bend the
knee too, or take orders from, or be able to work for,
as opposed to the queen, whatever the hell that is you know or you
know, fantastic, roll me whatever you would like. She's gonna roll charm
one success. I love where this is going fantastic. As you fire the
shot into the air, you hear directly in your ear and you feel someone
directly behind you. You hear repeat after me. Do not aim with your
hand. She who aims with her hand has forgotten the face of her father.
Aim with your eye. She wants you to. The female voice wants
you to repeat the last part. Aim with your eye. She grips the
the uh, the sandal wood, and she goes, I aim with my
eye. You can almost feel the nod. Do not shoot with your hand.
She who shoots with her hand has forgotten the face of her father.
Shoot with your mind again that last part, I shoot with my mind.
Do not kill with your gun. She who kills with her gun has forgotten
the face of her father. Kill with your heart. I kill with my
heart. Do not kill for the will of others. She who kills for
others has forgotten the face of her father. Kill for yourself. I kill
for myself, Old strong scarlet. Do you turn around yep? As you
turn around, the moonlight gathers spotlight, if you will, the two figures
in the middle of the perennial Scarlet. As you stare into the face of
yourself in ten years, you see a patch over your left eye, a
smile on your face. You see that there are elements of leather and armor
that gift the denim jacket that you have. You think for a second it
might even be Randall's jacket. You see slung on your own hips the sandwood
metal guns of the gunslinger. They are worn a bit looser, a bit
more comfortable, and they seem so right. And look down at your own
guns, and they look the same, old strong scarlet, and you are
alone in the perennial. My friends, Ricky, when I ask you to
roll anything that has to do with the road, you'll roll me a D
twelve. Melissa, when I ask you to roll me anything for magic,
you will roll me a D twelve. Gee. When I ask you to
roll anything that has to do with those guns, you roll me a D
twelve. Yes, six or higher is a success, ten or higher two
Successeshither you come into the perennial, and you see Scarlet standing in the middle
of the glade. Scarlett. I think they're going this way. She turns,
she points, she points towards the path. I think he's trying to
go to ground. And she will motion towards the tree that she had spied
spied him. Spy had spied him spying on her over there. I think,
does the path lead that direction? Greg? It does? Do?
I see how there's outfit. I think I'm back, I'm dressed normally.
You both look the same. It's a shame. H okay, well,
mh. We gotta go. And she keeps. She heads towards the yea.
She bolts that what both guns in her hand. It doesn't take you
long. You come upon what looks like a hut brutally made. Nothing like
the cabin. This is a mud and clay hut with a thatched roof,
its door, its entrance is even kind of off kilter, like it was
poorly created and never repaired or you know, no alterations made to make it
look symmetrical. It was just just a very rudimentary structure. And lying on
the ground just in front of it is the cowardly lion, sleeping and propped
up against the door, a fletched arrow sticking from his shoulder is donovan Is
beard matted with blood on the one side that it's coming from the wound.
He's alive, breathing, but he's breathing heavy. I just want to go
home. How dare you? She runs other runs to the lion and kneels
down and checks him, checks it every bit of him, runs her hands
over his mane, over his body, makes sure that he's okay. It
looks like he's been drug for a mile and a half, two miles through
the forest. You know, you see sticks broken off in him. He
has scrapes and abrasions all over his like his shoulders and the side. No
big injuries, at least outwardly, it doesn't appear that there's anything wrong.
He's breathing. It is again that kind of very deep breathing of somebody in
a artificial sleep. This is something that you might see somebody that had a
a coma induced on them. You know that that odd forced sleep. But
he's fine, just sleeping. She looks up from the lion at Donovan,
glares at him. You're a terrible, selfish man. If you needed help,
you should have just asked. Scarlet raises her gun at him. Release
them for whatever spell you have them under, can you take me home?
She walks forward and she's going to she's going to lower her gun guns a
polster them, and she's going to look at the arrow in his shoulder.
Hell, the shot. Heather's right, Why didn't you ask us for help?
Because it's never worked. He told me he'd take me back, right
when he took me the same moment, Flags Weeping Flag said he would take
you back, and he didn't. He left me here. He said,
I couldn't learn. We would have still helped you. You know, we
would have helped you. We're not under Flag's thumb. We would have helped
you if you just asked. You know what, Scarlet, He's right,
you know. One of my dreams, scar Scarlet, Flag's not so great.
In one of my dreams, he had some kids behind him, you
know, and I don't know what their names were, but I remember those
boys. They were from the high school. This is the first time that
he's brought kids here, I think, Scarlet. Scarlet shoots a glance at
Heather. I think we're a little too late to regret or to back up
on trusting him. I never trusted him, Scarlett, not even once.
So I never said that we should. But you and JD. She pauses
heavy on that name. You were the ones who wanted to come here to
follow him, and I followed you so so far, And she glares at
Donovan. He may have been bad before, but so far, he's the
only one who hasn't lied to us that we know of, or done anything
to overtly hurt us since Flag Flag, since we've been here. I don't
know what he's done to you, Heather, but I know you were afraid
of him, and that's okay. But back in back in the Ricky's kitchen,
you guys were JD said it was all a test. I don't know
what to believe anymore, but yeah, she looks. She looks back at
Donovan. Where are you from from New York? If you won't take me,
would you take a message to my wife? Yes? Tell her I
love her and I'm sorry. When when did you come from New York?
Last time I went back, it was eighteen ninety two. I don't I
don't think we can help you. When is it it's nineteen ninety everyone's gone.
She looks at at Heather. But what if there's different worlds than just
ours, or maybe maybe Ricky can have the road help us get him to
another time, or maybe back to his own time. That's what I meant.
I can't use the road. It won't let me, even with someone
who knows how to walk it. He's shaking his head, Well, what
did you do to it? No one would ever guide me. I couldn't
go. I couldn't learn, he said. I had to stay here because
I couldn't learn learn. I couldn't learn the word. I couldn't learn magic.
I couldn't learn about the people. I couldn't learn about fighting. I
couldn't learn about the road. None of it, None of it stuck,
rick Wake up our friends, Wake them up, Ricky. Ricky might be
able to help you, but you know you got to start talking. You
got to What he've done is terrible. I just wanted to go home.
Wake them up. Roland told me he'd take me home. Will take you
home? Do you promise, Scarleton nods promise. We'll do our best.
We won't leave you here, We'll do our best. Okay, let's let
them wake up. Please just let them wake up. And the cowardly lion
yawns. M lion Peter, who time is it? I don't know.
It's the middle of the night. How is my back hurt? You see
it's particularly large grape along its back. Hey, we did, We've just
had a little adventure. You were, you were very brave. You were
you were the hero lion it charged into the woods. Did you see me?
I did? You were so brave? Scarlet will give him a scratch.
We got to get back now, can you come, sir? What
is your name? You walk? When you look back? Donovan is dead?
What he's just staring blankly ahead? The arrow wound does not seem to
be what caused it. Oh she's Scarlett. Wait, wake him up,
Scarlet, wake him up? Well, hey, hey, hey hey,
And she's gonna like pat him on the cheek and she's gonna shame. He's
like, oh, wake up, wake up. And she's gonna try try
doing this like CPR on him when you're gonna step back right, Scarlet,
because you know CPR your your father taught you that. When you touch his
cheek. And I don't know if Scarlet's ever touched a corpse before, but
this is somebody that hasn't just died. He is very cold, His cheek
is very rigid and his eyes are completely milked over. It's as if he's
been sitting here for two three days. God of God, wake him up,
Scarlett, wake him up. She just shakes her head. She doesn't
say anything. Ricky, maybe we can bring him with shakes. As this
is happening around the body of Donovan, Ricky van Halen, and Randall.
Flag will begin to stir at your location, and the hand pulls away from
your cheek and the heat with it, and you see the lines begin to
turn yellow again and sink back down into the road until it is just of
the broken line in the middle, until finally, yeah, yeah, it
stops. As the hand slowly pulls away from his face, he just says,
look off to JD. We get the feeling that the road will try.
He turns to Van Halen as he hears her waking up. You okay,
the others have gone to get whoever to this. She's still shaking.
It's kind of like a residual. It's like she's just getting out of that
a moment ago her body was so tense and now she's shaking and she looks
up at you. We need to go. This is we shouldn't be here,
I know, tap into your hat. He pulls it off his head.
I don't know the road maybe, and he puts it back on.
She stand for the road and she looks at you. What did you do,
Ricky? What I needed to? Can you stand? She tries to
help her up, weeping, She comes to her feet with your assistance.
Again she again van Halen is not human. Uh. And whenever you kind
of, you know, help her up, you're reminded of that because she
again, like Flag is built like a brick shit house, just dense musculature.
But she is still trembling from these muscle spasms, and she is weeping,
and she wraps you in a hug if you allow it. Yeah,
he would have been hugging her as he lifted her up, and as Randall
Flagg waking up like an old man, which I can tell you isn't instantaneous.
Is on the ground my hat what huh? It's a lot of huhs,
whats and pats looking for cigarettes on. That's is, you know,
just an absolute nightmare, not a morning person. One Randall Flag cut back
to the hut. We can't can't take him, We can't carry him all
the way back. Yeah, it's she's gonna she's gonna just reach up and
close his eyes. But well, he has to come with us, so
we can take him to New York. She's gonna go inside the hut and
she's gonna take a look around. Is there anything in there that seems very
personal? Everything seems very personal in there. You see along the walls,
much like cave drawings. You see in it's a colorful chalk, not like
pastels or anything, but just you know, a lighter white or a gray
or something kind of offset against the brown of the area. Half carvings,
half chalk filled in of what can only be a poorly drawn family. You
see what can only be Donovan, a female figure and three smaller figures.
And it's everywhere, even in the ceiling. You know, anything that was
holding up the thatched roof, you know, the wood has carvings in it,
and without a roll. I'll let you know this. You see a
mason jar and a bullet inside it. She's gonna tilt her head curiously and
pick it up. It's been opened. The seal, the wax seal around
the top of the mason jar has been cracked, whether you pull it out
or actually look through the glass at it. You can see and you are
super unfamiliar with these bullets. You know, the exact caliber and everything is
what you use in your guns. And as you roll it around, you
see that the unspent cartridge, the unspent casing of the bullet has flag written
across it. She will and before she exits, there's no like photos or
anything like a journal or anything like that. Now she's not even any clothing.
Yeah, okay, she will come back out and she will show Heather
the jar. I think this is what Flag was upset about what JD took.
We recognize it from the hut, Greg for the from the cabin,
the mantle. Yep, this is the it's at least the Mason jar.
I mean, nobody really spent a lot of time examining it other than JD.
But this looks to you all from your recollections, that this was what
was on the mantle, and you all of you recall Randall being very upset
about something missing. Yeah, so yeah, yeah it was it was above
the fireplace. Yeah we ah, she points, so she points at the
bullet. It's a bullet of a gun's linger. Okay, I don't know
what's going to put it in her bank? There's a looking everywhere, but
it Donovan. We really should go if he vh wasn't good. Yeah,
and she's she's gonna lie. Donna pull Donovan into his uh, his hut
just so he's not out in the open. Absolutely, and he weighs nothing.
He's very thin, I mean he's probably Yeah, he's literally like half
a randall. So you're able to easily, you know, get him where
you need to go, and you put him to rest in there. His
body is rigid, but you're able to kind of lay him on his side
because he was in a seated position. Do you do anything with the arrow
since that's really the only distinguishing she'll remove it. I don't. I don't
think she's going to take a whisper though. I think that might be a
little too morbid for her. I don't know. He just kind of pull
it out and leave it all there. Right, Yeah, okay, you're
able to do so. There's no blanket or anything like that. She would
cover him up if she could, but yeah, she will go back to
Heather and Kitty. Let's go all right, let's go and we'll run back.
I think guys, they're running back. At some point, Heather will
after some period of silence, Heather, We'll say to Scarlet, is he
dead? Scarlet? Did he die? Don't him? Donovan? Yeah,
I think he he died. I think he died before we got here.
I don't know, I don't know how that works, but it was very
old. Yeah, but inside the hut there's nothing about where he lived or
there were some pictures of his family, but like stick people drawings. She
nods, Yeah, he will, He'll tell us. We'll make him tell
us, Ricky, it'll probably be yeah, like like twenty twenty five minutes
after the you know you holding van Halen, Heather and Scarlet would show back
up. Randall has now pulled himself up and he has his hat and glasses
back on, and he's smoking, but he's shaking his head as you all
walk up. Van Halen hasn't said anything. She's still very close to you,
Ricky, but she's not engaging in conversation. And so for a moment,
all of you are back together, you three, Randall, van Halen
and cowardly lyon be side Eternity road. I think, what, Heather,
I'm sorry, what Scarlet would do first is as they break out of the
trees and they see that they're awake. She will hurry to van Halen if
and will give her a hug if she lets her. She does, I'm
so glad you're okay. She pulls back and looks strangely at you. I
don't what. And she raises her right hand and she goes like this and
covers your left eye, and with a start kind of pulls back and she
spins and looks at Heather, and you see her face fall and she stays
quiet. Heather walks forward and gives her a hug. She returns it.
But there's deliberately little strength in it. Not enthusiasm. Is little strength you
need to get you back to the cabin. You're I'm god, you're awake.
I'm so sorry. I couldn't help Figs shaking his head. Roland's coming.
Is the tabin safe? No, he's using the word. Time has
passed a month or two. He's catching up, learn new tricks, a
month or two? What? Yes, this is a long night. I
feel it? Do you all feel it? You guys feel the same.
Your friend Donovan, he's dead, don't even't my friend? But I hate
to hear it, he'd be mostly affected by it. Scarlet cuts her eyes
at him. He said, you betrayed him. That's what he thought.
You brought him here and you left him here. You'd have died if you
left you got him here? Why did you here? Hell? A long
time ago, I wasn't I didn't know what needed to be done. I
didn't know that adults couldn't see it is a mistake. How many kids you
bring here? Flag a lot? What cowmanism? Died Tom? That's why
I had to make it right with all you. I had to get it
right. How many times until you How many times are you going to try
to get it right? This was it? So you said each time.
No, I was different back then. I thought if I did it enough,
it would work. But didn't. What why why do you say that
you were different this time? Why do you say that use the magic?
I did the work. You did the work. You did the work,
so you just tried harder. That's what you mean. It didn't change any
changed everything I brought you all together. I didn't made the experiment is seamless
as it could be. Everything was taken into consideration. I I did the
work, I don't know what to say to you. We need to,
we need to We need to stop talking about this. We need to get
van Halen somewhere where she can rest, and Lion's not feeling so great either,
and we need to figure out why we're here and do it, and
then we need to get back home. We got to take the road to
where no. I wanted to spend a year or two here training, getting
you all ready, but wouldn't let me. Now we ain't had enough time.
I thought you said you were ready. What was the next part of
the plan? Get you all ready, get you, get you trained,
get you and then what? And then what? Can we find out?
Who's then we find out who's minute nulating everything, who's changing everything? At
me? You've meddled with one? How many kids' lives? They're meddling in
everybody's lives. We're the only ones that can stop it. I agree with
you on that, but it's time to be honest, the whole truth,
Nods. I can't remember a lot of what we need to do when I
gave up my magic for good. I this is the first time you've given
up your magine? Yeah it not I've done it before, but just for
moments, not as long. I don't know where we go. You said
that we would be the ones to help you see the difference, the things
that needed to be changing. I tried to be a leader the last couple
of times. I tried to point in order and say, go here,
do this, do that, you kill this person, let's save this person.
But I couldn't see at all. I wasn't only saw what I thought
was right. I was wrong so much. I need you all to right
me when i'm wrong, keep me straight before a keen, keep me in
check. I think I went too far. Yeah, thank yes, He
just shakes his head. Jad left us. Oh, And she reaches into
her bag and pulls out the jar and hands it to him. It's broken.
Sorry, it's for the best. And he looks up. You see
him his back straightened. Leave me what? Leave me here? You go
on ahead. That's what's different. Yeah, that's exactly right. You're the
one thing, the one thing that was the same thing each time he tried.
We need to leave him here. He's no use to us, he
never has been. Ricky shakes his head. What he joined our band?
He did not, he never joined our band. We agreed he was in
the band. We did not agree that he was in the band. We
agreed van Halen was in the band. Van Halen was always in the band.
I never agreed to let him join the band. We can't leave someone
behind in his house. We can't let someone leave someone behind in his house
and go fix the problems he made. If Roland is coming to kill him,
we are leaving him to his death. I can't. If Roland is
coming to kill him, he might finally be accountable for his actions. Roland's
not the bad guy. Randall's eyebrows go up just slightly at that state.
Ricky looks down at Randall. Can you trouble the road? Not by myself?
Not anymore? Leaving him here is a death sentence. I will not
have that on my hands. Randall. Is it a death sentence? I
can try talking to him, maybe cut a deal. I'm not gonna make
anybody wrong. He's lying. It's a dead son, but he's not part
of the band. He looks at Ricky. It's all right, son,
you don't have to protect me. Everyone needs protecting at times. Tony fair
Wind blows. We can't leave him here, Heather. We want to leave
him say, if you want to leave him somewhere else, we can,
but I can't good faith leave him here. I said it's fine, he
can come along, and then she repeats, he's not a member of the
band. Ricky just looks. It's called it And then back at Heather.
The wind blows again, and this time you can all smell sweat, leather,
gunpowder. He's here it ago. She stands up, come online,
right with you, heat her. Ricky walks to the road, downs at
the edge, whites for on us. She offers her hand to Randle.
He takes it, and he is very weak. He's clutching the mason jar
to his side and putting a pretty hefty amount of his substantial weight on you,
Scarlet. As you help him to the road. You gotta get on
first, Ricky. I hope this I hope this thing likes you. He
steps on, Dan Helen steps on everybody else. Yeah, Heather will be
the last until Ricky, who are them? Kitty will step on until it's
just Heather and Ricky in the dirt. I trust your Ricky, and she
steps on. Ricky steps on whenever each of you stepped onto the road,
Very similar to with JD. Felt. You feel that pool of gravity like
it's been increased by a factor of two. You feel twice as heavy and
scarlet for you all of a sudden, for a brief beat, flag feels
twice as heavy, and for a second you're like, oh, I'm gonna
fall over. And then everything seems to regulate as the road kind of gets
that wobbly effect in the corners of the lens that as everything settles in,
the wind blows and you are on Eternity Road. Where are you going?
Everybody by playlist and play Ramble one, Section two or track too. The
only place that Ricky has heard of in the age of Always is easy that
as the only person who he's spoken to here that hasn't been a bad person,
So he thoughts to hit the road. So with Ricky and the lead,
as you begin to walk along Eternity Road, the first time anybody of
your band, the exception of Randall, has set foot along this road,
you realize that as soon as you take one step, the landscape on either
side begins to blur, so you can't make out trees, you can't make
out hills or fields when you stop. If you stop, it all kind
of slows back down. But for every step that you take, if you
look back, you've gone a hundred paces. As the road seems to augment
your travel speed, making it easier. As the road embraces a traveler,
and as you're walking with led Zeppelin taking us with a little bit of a
ramble on, you are quickly over hills and through fields. No grandmother's house
awaits you. On the other side, you come through a field of poppies
seem to stretch forever, and as you crest the top of a small hill,
you see before you a brilliant city of green. But it isn't the
city, or more so the creation of the city, the composition of the
city that rings familiar for scarlet, for heather, and for Ricky, because
when you look you see buildings of green kind of at the outskirts of this
walled city, but in the middle, almost like a castle on a hill.
It's not a castle, though it's a very familiar profile of large stacks
of exhaust towers. As you see the loop staring back at you, only
brilliant green and dotted along the road. The last expanse to Emerald City,
you see predominantly displayed a wanted poster and it says wanted for murder, most
foul Walter o'dim, Randall Flagg, Jackie Emroc, Jesse Davis, the Walking
Dude, and beneath it is a picture of JD. And that, my
friends, is where we will end our session of Atari Twilight. Please join
us next time for a Tari Twilight Age of Always, Episode five, Flag
of Our Fathers. Fuck Don Don dun no, oh no, no,
oh, my god, so welcome. Atari Twilight is an Unmade gaming production
and a proud member of the Unmade Gaming podcast Network. If you'd like to
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past, and we'll see you next time on Atari Twilight.