Speaker 1: This is an Unspoiled Network podcast. This is spoil Me
Speaker 1: covering Dungeon Crawler Carl Book two, Carl's Doomsday Scenario chapters
Speaker 1: five through seven. In these chapters, Carl actually says we
Speaker 1: don't risk our lives for our pets, to the pet
Speaker 1: that I am so sorry, but he definitely risked his
Speaker 1: life for right, like right, he did that shit. I know,
Speaker 1: like lots of other stuff happens in these chapters, but
Speaker 1: come on, Welcome to spoil Me. Welcome to the show everyone.
Speaker 1: I am Natasha. Thank you very much to Michael for
Speaker 1: commissioning this episode. Michael is here in the chat today,
Speaker 1: delighted to Hattie, delighted to be back. It was so
Speaker 1: funny because when I came back to recording last week,
Speaker 1: I thought I was going to get another one of these,
Speaker 1: and I was dismayed to see that it wasn't until
Speaker 1: the week after. So very very pleased, you guys. This
Speaker 1: world is wild. I really think it was okay. So
Speaker 1: I was about to say that a certain thing was
Speaker 1: a really good idea, but I kind of want to
Speaker 1: take it back, because like every time I start to
Speaker 1: really give the author total credit for certain things, I
Speaker 1: have to remember that it's highly likely this is something
Speaker 1: that was done in a video game, and that actually
Speaker 1: it's not originally his idea because it's so heavily based
Speaker 1: on video games. And I just want to be very
Speaker 1: clear that this is not me being like, oh, if
Speaker 1: you didn't come up with a completely original idea, then
Speaker 1: it doesn't count and it's not yours, because I don't
Speaker 1: mean that at all, Like I am a firm believer
Speaker 1: in that there are no new ideas, so it's fine,
Speaker 1: you know. But what I had been going to say
Speaker 1: was the overall like I don't know if I want
Speaker 1: to say dynamic, but that every three floors things like
Speaker 1: change up in a certain way, and that there is
Speaker 1: a pattern to them, but one that might be difficult
Speaker 1: to detect if you don't if you're not informed of
Speaker 1: it beforehand, or if you're not keeping track. I think
Speaker 1: it's a really nice way to keep things interesting, to
Speaker 1: keep us engaged, and a little bit like looking forward
Speaker 1: to the next level. We're always going to want to
Speaker 1: be like, well, I want to see what's next. I
Speaker 1: want to find out where we're going. Like that's always
Speaker 1: going to be an aspect of just a floor that
Speaker 1: we have not yet explored for sure. But the difference
Speaker 1: is that when you have an idea of what a
Speaker 1: floor might be, like a little bit of a hint,
Speaker 1: it really makes you that much more invested overall. And anyway,
Speaker 1: this world that we have been dumped into has just
Speaker 1: got so a whole different vibe than the previous Dungeon
Speaker 1: levels did, and I couldn't help but be like almost
Speaker 1: overwhelmed by it. You know, there's just so much going on.
Speaker 1: There are so many new things. There are so many
Speaker 1: I honestly want to like stop and think about what
Speaker 1: it might be like if we were going to enter
Speaker 1: this level without the help that Mordecai gives them, and
Speaker 1: whatever future help he winds up giving in addition to
Speaker 1: what he gives here, even though, as Carl does point out,
Speaker 1: he's very very late and should have chimed in with
Speaker 1: some advice earlier on, except he got fucked up. So
Speaker 1: I just like I feel like Mordecai is so instrumental.
Speaker 1: I cannot help but feel a little bit like anybody
Speaker 1: who doesn't have a Mordecai right now is they've got
Speaker 1: to be, if not out right straight up screwed, they've
Speaker 1: got to be at such a disadvantage that they've been
Speaker 1: given some other way of getting information, right, Like, I
Speaker 1: just can't imagine trying to navigate all of this without
Speaker 1: especially considering the dangers in some of the things that
Speaker 1: Mordecai told him in the previous section where he's explaining, like,
Speaker 1: you don't want to be in certain places at night.
Speaker 1: This place might be even more dangerous than the other
Speaker 1: area is during the night. You know, like there's there's
Speaker 1: it seems like a much higher level of risk in
Speaker 1: all of this. And if you don't have anybody coming
Speaker 1: through and warning, you know, you're just going to get
Speaker 1: absolutely flattened almost instantly. I would think. It's Uh, I'm
Speaker 1: just wondering if there are other means that have been
Speaker 1: implemented via the game to give people some of this information.
Speaker 1: So anyway, chapter five begins with Mango almost doubling in size,
Speaker 1: and I am so excited to see exactly how big
Speaker 1: he's going to get. My assumption because he says that
Speaker 1: they he obviously can see Mango has been based on
Speaker 1: the raptors in Jurassic Park, So my assumption is that
Speaker 1: he's going to wind up like around eight feet tall,
Speaker 1: nine feet tall, I'm not sure if that's like I'm
Speaker 1: sort of estimating based on my memory in Jurassic Park,
Speaker 1: because they were definitely taller than the people and they
Speaker 1: sort of walked with a weird like their heads low
Speaker 1: to the ground. So it's difficult to say, but I
Speaker 1: feel like they were taller. Not that much taller, though.
Speaker 1: But Mongo's progression in all of this is so adorable
Speaker 1: and so like charming because he trusts Doughnut so much
Speaker 1: and is this is what leads to this whole thing here.
Speaker 1: So first we get a new achievement. It's elementary. My
Speaker 1: dear crawler, You've received a quest, puzzles and intrigues and mysteries.
Speaker 1: Oh my. If you want to survive in this world,
Speaker 1: you're gonna need to be more than just a pretty
Speaker 1: sword swinging barbarian. Some quests require brute strength, yes, but
Speaker 1: sometimes you also got to use your noggin. So Donut
Speaker 1: gets an earth Hobby potion. Per Subsection twelve fifty sixty
Speaker 1: of the Indigenous Species Protection Act, this particular reward is
Speaker 1: required by the Syndicate government to be awarded to all
Speaker 1: crawlers who have chosen a domestic class. Taking this potion
Speaker 1: is optimal. However, it may not be sold or transferred
Speaker 1: to other crawlers or entities. Upon drinking this, you will
Speaker 1: immediately obtain a level three scalability in a unique Earth
Speaker 1: based hobby. The benefit is chosen at random. However, you
Speaker 1: will not receive a skill that you currently have. This
Speaker 1: could be something like parkour, jiu jitsu, or you could
Speaker 1: get fucked and receive some useless crap like stamp collecting
Speaker 1: or kombucha brewing. Don't get your hopes up. The fact
Speaker 1: your planet was filled with so many boring assholes with
Speaker 1: inan ridiculous hobbies tips the scale way out of your favor,
Speaker 1: and Carl laughs and says, was this some bureaucratic attempt
Speaker 1: at preserving Earth culture? It didn't make sense, yet at
Speaker 1: the same time reminded me of some bullshit the military
Speaker 1: would enact. And I found that concept really really interesting,
Speaker 1: that it's like required to be given to a certain class,
Speaker 1: a domestic class, and that it's like, like, I don't
Speaker 1: I can't imagine why that would be. And his explanation
Speaker 1: is the best that I can think of. I mean,
Speaker 1: I feel like it can't be that, but I also
Speaker 1: feel like, how else would you explain it, you know,
Speaker 1: Michael says, everyone else has their own game guys. We
Speaker 1: don't know how good they are compared to Mordecai. That
Speaker 1: we can guess he's a step above based on Odette,
Speaker 1: But for general info about a level and well known
Speaker 1: danger spots, most decent game guys should be able to
Speaker 1: give that info. The non manager game guides also have
Speaker 1: access to the Dungeon newsletter, which Mordecai lost and he
Speaker 1: became a manager. If you'll recall, yeah, I did forget
Speaker 1: about that, the Dungeon newsletter. I don't really remember how
Speaker 1: much he used that. I'm sure it's a disadvantage to
Speaker 1: not have access to it, but I have I've forgotten
Speaker 1: if that, it's been mentioned very much by him. So
Speaker 1: this uh, when she Mordecai not Mordecai, sorry, Carl, he
Speaker 1: is thinking this over. Donut gets a caller for Mango,
Speaker 1: so that shows up him as an orange dot on
Speaker 1: the map. And then she finds a spell a spell
Speaker 1: it's her spell book in a mailbox. I swear to God, Donut,
Speaker 1: you better have read the description first. Oh, relaxed, Carl.
Speaker 1: Watch she waved her paw and Mongo, who was currently
Speaker 1: running in circles around the prone form of Mordecai suddenly
Speaker 1: split into three. Now there were three of them running
Speaker 1: in circles. One of the forms squeaked in concern, jumped
Speaker 1: upon the counter and started growling at the other two forms.
Speaker 1: A moment later, the other two also jumped on the table.
Speaker 1: The first one cried out in fear and ran, running
Speaker 1: to hide behind Donut. The other two looked at one another,
Speaker 1: then jumped down and resumed circling Mordecai like a pair
Speaker 1: of sharks. Please tell me that's an illusion. They're real,
Speaker 1: Donut said, Isn't it great? They only last for a minute.
Speaker 1: It's an expensive spell too, it costs twenty six points.
Speaker 1: It's called clockwork triplicate. I can only cast it on
Speaker 1: spells and minions though, so no clockwork Carl and we
Speaker 1: get her levels here, which I had noticed in the
Speaker 1: kindle book were highlighted by a lot of people, and
Speaker 1: it occurred to me as a really good idea for
Speaker 1: being able to go and check that, So I went
Speaker 1: ahead and highlighted it as well, because I'm a follower.
Speaker 1: So Dona in the previous section had gotten a cat tree,
Speaker 1: and she asks him to put it together and light
Speaker 1: her candle, and he does not feel like putting it together,
Speaker 1: and he puts it off, and I kept I'm gonna
Speaker 1: it would be very funny to me if this book
Speaker 1: ends and he still hasn't assembled it, because like that
Speaker 1: would be accurate to life in my experience. I am
Speaker 1: actually I normally can be pretty good about that stuff.
Speaker 1: But I will say that two weekends ago, I finally
Speaker 1: decided to get out this set of drawers that I
Speaker 1: had bought that they're just plain white rolling drawers that
Speaker 1: slide under a desk. I ordered these, I think in
Speaker 1: August of last year, but when I went to look
Speaker 1: up the assembly, I was so overwhelmed by how complicated
Speaker 1: it was. And when I read the reviews it had
Speaker 1: so many people being like assembly fucking sucked and took
Speaker 1: me forever that I kept putting it off. I finally
Speaker 1: pulled it out in two weekends ago, and I was like,
Speaker 1: I'm going to do it. And one of the reviews
Speaker 1: was like, it did take me a couple of hours
Speaker 1: to do, and I'm like, all right, I can do that,
Speaker 1: my friends, it took me five hours. It took me
Speaker 1: so much longer than I even expected. I thought, I'm
Speaker 1: going to put this together and it won't even be
Speaker 1: that bad, and I'm going to feel like a real
Speaker 1: idiot for putting it off or so on. No, no,
Speaker 1: you know what I was right to do, so I
Speaker 1: was very right and valid to not do it sooner.
Speaker 1: And it's great to have these drawers and I love them,
Speaker 1: but oh my god, I went through an entire season
Speaker 1: of this procedural I was watching just putting it together.
Speaker 1: It was insane. Anyway, So he opens his box and
Speaker 1: he has a hobby potion and we wind up seeing
Speaker 1: what they've gotten later and she gets scutellophilly. I don't
Speaker 1: know if I'm saying that right, which we find out
Speaker 1: eventually is badge collecting or no, we don't find out eventually.
Speaker 1: I looked it up. That's what it was. It's badge collecting,
Speaker 1: So who knows if that's going to be useful in
Speaker 1: any way. And Carl gets the Sesta Punta skill, which
Speaker 1: I looked up Sessa Punta, and it is a sport
Speaker 1: that's sort of like reminding me in pictures of lacrosse
Speaker 1: combined with cricket. It's a weird like basket like contraption
Speaker 1: that you throw the ball with almost like a baseball
Speaker 1: kind of vibe. But that's why I'm going with cricket,
Speaker 1: because cricket also as a vaguely, weirdly baseball vibe. Anyway,
Speaker 1: I have to assume that the systapunta skill is going
Speaker 1: to come in a lot more handy than the badge
Speaker 1: collecting skill. But you know, I am interested in seeing
Speaker 1: how these things happen, Michael says, Natasha spoiling herself. You know,
Speaker 1: it didn't even occur to me that I was spoiling myself.
Speaker 1: I didn't even like question it looking it up. But
Speaker 1: you might be right, Michael, maybe I shouldn't have Maybe
Speaker 1: I shouldn't have done it. When I finally get to
Speaker 1: this part in the books with my husband, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: ask him if he wants me to tell him and
Speaker 1: see how he responds, because like, yeah, I just I
Speaker 1: in my kindle, I literally can highlight the uh scpitalithhally word.
Speaker 1: I can just press on it and it just pops
Speaker 1: up with a definition.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: So it was just like so easy to do that
Speaker 1: I just didn't even consider. But you might not do
Speaker 1: that next time. So let's see, I'm trying to see
Speaker 1: what oh, right, right, right. He gets a cactus plant
Speaker 1: and a clay pot, which we don't really get any
Speaker 1: attachment of significance to that exactly here, but it is
Speaker 1: mentioned that it was four dollars from home depot. The
Speaker 1: second item was a shrink wrapped set of small paperback books.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, I said, turning the pack over in my hands.
Speaker 1: It was a collection of Louis Lemore books Westerns. My
Speaker 1: dad had an entire shelf of them. As a kid,
Speaker 1: I'd sneak one here and there and read the entire
Speaker 1: book in one night, hiding under the covers with a flashlight.
Speaker 1: This was a pack of eighteen books, all from the
Speaker 1: same series, the Sacket Family saga. I hadn't read any
Speaker 1: of these. I put the books into my inventory. My
Speaker 1: hands were shaking, realized, and I wasn't sure why. I
Speaker 1: am so curious about this, guys. I am curious both
Speaker 1: about whether there's any significance to these gifts or if
Speaker 1: they are random. I am curious if his hands are
Speaker 1: shaking simply because this, like it brought up a memory
Speaker 1: of his father, and he's clearly got a lot like
Speaker 1: there's triggers galore in his memories of his dad. I
Speaker 1: am wondering if it's possible that maybe the fact that
Speaker 1: this machine that distributes gifts apparently knows enough about you
Speaker 1: to give you something that your parent had when you
Speaker 1: were a kid, maybe that's just a little unnerving, because
Speaker 1: I feel like that would freak me out a little bit.
Speaker 1: It's not even really like at this stage, I don't
Speaker 1: know if this would even bother Carl, because you know,
Speaker 1: you're in here to the death, and it knows like
Speaker 1: it's gotten to know a lot about you and exploited
Speaker 1: you in so many ways that perhaps this wouldn't phase
Speaker 1: you at all.
Speaker 2: But I feel like the I feel like the AI
Speaker 2: knowing about something that personal specifically is a really.
Speaker 1: Different vibe than you know, like you can get a
Speaker 1: sense of somebody's personality, which it clearly has with Donut
Speaker 1: and has decided to give her stuff that's like cute
Speaker 1: and purple and you know, a cat treat because she's
Speaker 1: a cat. And I don't know if the candle is
Speaker 1: because Beatrice had candles and because she mentions that, or
Speaker 1: if it's just like, well, we want something that feels
Speaker 1: sort of luxurious and this fits the bill, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean the fact that they both got something
Speaker 1: that somebody close to them had, though I feel like
Speaker 1: it has to be on perp, you know. I am
Speaker 1: She's getting a candle which her owner, Miss Beatrice, had
Speaker 1: all over the place, and Carl is getting like a
Speaker 1: book series that his father had. I feel like that's
Speaker 1: got to be significant somehow. But I'm really very very
Speaker 1: curious about how all of this, like if it means
Speaker 1: anything or not. So Donnut. She has managed to get
Speaker 1: to a point where her manna is refilling one point
Speaker 1: per twenty seconds, which is pretty quick, and so she
Speaker 1: keeps casting this clockwork spell, but it's not going up
Speaker 1: in experience, and they begin to think that maybe it's
Speaker 1: just because they're in a safe room and it doesn't count,
Speaker 1: which I think makes a lot of sense. Honestly, it's
Speaker 1: a little bit cheating to just chill in a safe
Speaker 1: room and play with your spell repeatedly until you level up,
Speaker 1: Like that would be a very annoying bug or exploit pet,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, something that they would have
Speaker 1: to patch, probably, So he decides that he's going to
Speaker 1: go play around with explosives for a little while. I
Speaker 1: moved my examination to my stash of goblin smoke bombs.
Speaker 1: The apple sized bombs were just a bit too big
Speaker 1: for my slingshot, and their design didn't really allow me
Speaker 1: to break them down. I wondered if I should switch
Speaker 1: to a sling Frustrated, I put it all away. I
Speaker 1: had a lot of random chemicals and a load of
Speaker 1: black powder, but with my limited knowledge in chemistry, I
Speaker 1: didn't have the correct combination of items to make what
Speaker 1: was in my head. I needed to seek out a
Speaker 1: store that sold explosive supplies, or, better yet, find a
Speaker 1: village of hobgoblins and raid their stash. It seemed they
Speaker 1: had higher quality stuff than the goblins. We were supposed
Speaker 1: to make our way to that larger settlement before it
Speaker 1: got dark, but I made the executive's decision to stay
Speaker 1: in the area and explore. I wasn't certain when night
Speaker 1: would descend, but we still had several hours before the
Speaker 1: next recap episode. Michael says, I was mostly kidding. I
Speaker 1: was too lazy to highlight the word and look it
Speaker 1: up myself. No, I really didn't take it as like
Speaker 1: a criticism, really, but it was just sort of it
Speaker 1: just I didn't even think about it, you know, So
Speaker 1: It's an interesting question, and I wonder how many people
Speaker 1: read the book and didn't look it up right away,
Speaker 1: because I have to assume that this author was probably
Speaker 1: figuring people would look it up right away. So I
Speaker 1: don't know whether I'm going to be interested to see
Speaker 1: how this pays off, and whether or not it's something
Speaker 1: that I would have enjoyed the payoff more had I
Speaker 1: not known. You know, We'll have to see. And then
Speaker 1: Michael says, gamers don't call it cheating. We call it
Speaker 1: utilizing the system to its and being smart, you know,
Speaker 1: in terms of what the player the gamers are actually doing.
Speaker 1: If a game is designed to make it so that
Speaker 1: you can do a thing, I don't fault you for
Speaker 1: using it, just to be clear, like I think it
Speaker 1: does sort of defeat the purpose of playing a game
Speaker 1: is to have a good time, and to me, the
Speaker 1: idea of just sitting in a safe room and doing
Speaker 1: a thing over and over until you level up, it
Speaker 1: doesn't sound fun to me. So I would argue that
Speaker 1: it's just not really in the spirit of why I
Speaker 1: would want to be playing a game. But I also
Speaker 1: know a lot of people don't approach approach gaming like that,
Speaker 1: and in Carls's scenario here his Doom'sday scenario. He is,
Speaker 1: you know, this is a life or death situation that
Speaker 1: is meant for entertainment, and it wouldn't make any sense
Speaker 1: for them to make this any easier or to make
Speaker 1: it that boring to watch. So I'm just saying in
Speaker 1: terms of like thinking of the design from that standpoint. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So Mango is the one when they decide to go
Speaker 1: out and hunt some clowns, he is the one who
Speaker 1: clocks this weird Lemur thing. And I was so pleased
Speaker 1: that Mango's like able to zero win and be useful
Speaker 1: almost instantly. These things had some sort of stealth ability.
Speaker 1: The moment I saw him, his dot appeared on my map.
Speaker 1: He was overlooking the street with the dead crawlers, his
Speaker 1: back to us a trap. I could only see one Lemur,
Speaker 1: but I had no doubt there were more. So they
Speaker 1: decide to go back and try and sneak up on him,
Speaker 1: and he don't. It's like, I'll take him out, and
Speaker 1: he says, do it silently, and then she just jumps out.
Speaker 1: She crossed the roof walking low. Huh. I thought she'd
Speaker 1: managed to be a lot quieter than I thought she
Speaker 1: could be considering her. She jumped to the center ceiling
Speaker 1: beam and landed right behind the Leamur. Even from here
Speaker 1: I could hear the little charm on her collar jingle
Speaker 1: as she landed on the roof. In this silence, it
Speaker 1: was as loud as a damn church bell. Her backside
Speaker 1: armor also clinked loudly onto the beam. Mango, deciding he
Speaker 1: wanted in on the fund, screeched loudly. The Leamur turned
Speaker 1: looking over his shoulder just as Doughnut pounced. She somehow
Speaker 1: managed not to fall off the edge and into the
Speaker 1: street below. So she slashes this thing open and it falls,
Speaker 1: and then Mango jumps on it and begins to feed
Speaker 1: on him, and Doughnut jumps down, and it's just like, hey,
Speaker 1: well it took care of that, didn't I, And like,
Speaker 1: honestly she did. Even though the thing she made noise
Speaker 1: at the end, it doesn't seem like it really mattered
Speaker 1: all that much. And he said, we're gonna need to
Speaker 1: do something about that bell of yours. If you want
Speaker 1: to be stealthy, you're too fragile to do stuff like
Speaker 1: that without planning it out. I need to make a
Speaker 1: good example, for my child, Carl. He's not your child, Donut,
Speaker 1: He's a pet. We don't put our lives in danger
Speaker 1: for our pets. I regretted it. The moment the words
Speaker 1: came out of my mouth, Donut looked as if I'd
Speaker 1: slapped her. I suddenly felt like an enormous asshole. Mongo
Speaker 1: ripped off the painted skull, revealed the dead Leamur's own skull,
Speaker 1: ew Donut said, looking horrified. The look of hurt had
Speaker 1: disappeared just as quickly as it had come. Carl, do
Speaker 1: you see that? It's disgusting? Yeah, that's really gross, I said,
Speaker 1: happy for the quick change of subject. The human skull
Speaker 1: hat covered a secondary skull with a pair of baldous,
Speaker 1: bloodshot eyes. The thing had no fur or skin on
Speaker 1: its head at all. It looked even more scary without
Speaker 1: the skull hat than it did with it. So this
Speaker 1: moment is so odd because he says something that clearly
Speaker 1: hurt her, and then they immediately are distracted, and it
Speaker 1: feels like purposely distracted, Like there's a sense for me
Speaker 1: almost of her trying to smooth things over by distracting
Speaker 1: him and mentioning like do you see that I don't
Speaker 1: know if I'm giving her the credit here when it
Speaker 1: really is just her being a little bit add and
Speaker 1: just like, you know, getting immediately noticing this thing and
Speaker 1: having no choice but to say out loud, look at that,
Speaker 1: that's crazy. But you know, a part of me did
Speaker 1: sort of wonder, like this is something that I have
Speaker 1: been kind of bad about in my past, where somebody
Speaker 1: will have said something shitty and I will know that
Speaker 1: they didn't really mean it, and I will dance right
Speaker 1: past it almost like it didn't happen, And it doesn't
Speaker 1: really work to like settle anything, because it festers. I
Speaker 1: remember what they said. It's not like it me doing
Speaker 1: that erases that they said it. But it does smooth
Speaker 1: over a potentially awkward moment, which is all I'm immediately
Speaker 1: concerned about, is like I would like to not be
Speaker 1: uncomfortable right now. I would like to not be awkward
Speaker 1: with this person. And you know, this is part of.
Speaker 2: It.
Speaker 1: Would fit very much with her being so high charisma
Speaker 1: that she would just keep the conversation flow and keep
Speaker 1: things okay between the two of them, And I just
Speaker 1: wonder about whether or not that was on purpose, or
Speaker 1: or even if it was on purpose, but like not
Speaker 1: on purpose, on purpose, if that makes sense either way.
Speaker 1: I really there's a moment later where he calls her partner,
Speaker 1: and it feels like a real moment where they are
Speaker 1: like making eye contact and okay, partner, you know, and
Speaker 1: it's sort of supposed to be I think a bit
Speaker 1: of a bomb to, you know, to make up for
Speaker 1: this moment here. I don't know if it does, if
Speaker 1: she understands. It's just very funny because like, he definitely
Speaker 1: risked his life for Donut a lot, and she is
Speaker 1: a pet, but she's not anymore, you know. I feel
Speaker 1: like he would have risked his life for Donut even
Speaker 1: if she hadn't been made to talk and become a
Speaker 1: full fledged member of his crew. I think he would
Speaker 1: have risked his life for Dona anyway. I just think
Speaker 1: he would. I don't even know that it would be
Speaker 1: a choice. I feel like it would just be this
Speaker 1: instinctive move on his part. And I often think about,
Speaker 1: like what kind of scenario it would take for me
Speaker 1: to decide, like I didn't want to take the risk
Speaker 1: if it came to saving Pippin. And it's like a
Speaker 1: really difficult call because that if something were to happen
Speaker 1: to him, I would be so devastated. I genuinely don't
Speaker 1: know what i'd do. So I feel like, because I
Speaker 1: know so deep in my guts that it would kill
Speaker 1: me to lose him, I probably would risk my life
Speaker 1: because it feels like it's risking my life either way.
Speaker 1: Does that make sense? So anyway, Carl, you're wrong and
Speaker 1: a liar, and you guys need to talk about this.
Speaker 1: And when he says it was true, wasn't it? Don't
Speaker 1: know what was different? She was more than a pet.
Speaker 1: I don't know if she knows that, though, Like you
Speaker 1: may want to say that to her and be like,
Speaker 1: I'm not categorizing you in that, and you know that right,
Speaker 1: because I'm not so certain that she gets that the
Speaker 1: way that things are right now, you know, she definitely
Speaker 1: has a little bit of trouble fully understanding their current situation.
Speaker 1: And there has been so many like I'll say, so
Speaker 1: far in this book, it hasn't happened. But in the
Speaker 1: previous book there was a lot of talk of like
Speaker 1: once we see Beatrice again, or once we go home,
Speaker 1: or you know, as if all of this were just
Speaker 1: a temporary thing. So I'm not sure she does know that,
Speaker 1: according to him, she really isn't a pet anymore. Michaels
Speaker 1: in the chat and says, to quote Stephanie Beatrice from
Speaker 1: Brooklyn nine, that's rosa. Everybody. I've only had this dog
Speaker 1: for a day, but if anything happened to him, I
Speaker 1: would kill myself. It was, yeah, I would kill everybody
Speaker 1: else in this room and then myself, I'm pretty sure.
Speaker 1: Is how the quote goes. Which accurate. Yes, accurate. And
Speaker 1: that is one of my favorite like turnarounds because at
Speaker 1: the beginning of that episode, a friend of hers pet
Speaker 1: had died and she didn't get why he was so
Speaker 1: upset and was like, it's just a dog, what's the
Speaker 1: big deal? And he was horrified that she didn't get it.
Speaker 1: And then she winds up with this puppy for like
Speaker 1: an hour, and then immediately it's like, oh, oh, I
Speaker 1: see what was going on there? Yeah, no, I am
Speaker 1: so sorry. That is tragic. So let's say let's see
Speaker 1: this shit, okay. So we have the closing in on
Speaker 1: a lot of these Lemurs. They come across the corpse
Speaker 1: of Grace Bautista, killed by former circus Lemur, and there
Speaker 1: are three in total, and one of them is a
Speaker 1: treeish creature. All of them appeared Asian, maybe Filipino, all
Speaker 1: had the same last name, all were level eight, all
Speaker 1: killed by lemurs. None of them had any inventory, meaning
Speaker 1: some of their group were probably still alive. So he
Speaker 1: yanks this anklet off. Whoever had Whatever had transpired here
Speaker 1: had happened quickly. These three were sisters or close family members,
Speaker 1: and all three had died at the same time. I
Speaker 1: shook my head, fuck this game, and let's see. Her
Speaker 1: facial features remained human, but she'd been bent over and hunchbacked,
Speaker 1: with an extra set of limbs erupting from her back.
Speaker 1: I am so curious what advantage this gave for her
Speaker 1: to choose it, you know, like I'm just a lot
Speaker 1: of questions about I'm looking forward to meeting another crawler
Speaker 1: of weird races and finding out the reasoning behind why
Speaker 1: they chose what they chose. But anyway, so I love
Speaker 1: this enchanted anklet of the fallen oak. And one would
Speaker 1: think anklets enhance the beauty of feet like toe rings do,
Speaker 1: but they are excessive, jangly distractions that make you look
Speaker 1: too garish. And when I say it this way, I'm
Speaker 1: delivering it in what I remember from the audio book,
Speaker 1: one would think anklets enhance the beauty, but they are
Speaker 1: jangly distractions. It's delivered in a very much like the
Speaker 1: AI is just let you know, please don't put it on.
Speaker 1: And I found that very funny at turning out that
Speaker 1: like he's got a very specific taste and he, you know,
Speaker 1: he's I'm saying it wants a certain like sleek aesthetic.
Speaker 1: I kind of get why you wouldn't like a jangly,
Speaker 1: garish distraction. I understand this. So there's another one, and
Speaker 1: I would let's see it has a constitution buff. You
Speaker 1: need it, I'll put it on my back legs so
Speaker 1: nobody will see it. It appeared in a blink, forming
Speaker 1: around her rear left ankle. It was a fourth the
Speaker 1: size of that it was before, and remain hidden in
Speaker 1: the tufts of fur. She shook her leg a few
Speaker 1: times with distaste. Thankfully, the little beads barely made any noise.
Speaker 1: If we kept her hair brush buff active, her constitution
Speaker 1: was now seven. It was still much too low for
Speaker 1: my tastes, and she gets a skilled double tap. If
Speaker 1: I hit the monster twice with the same attack, the
Speaker 1: second hit might do critical damage and they kill a
Speaker 1: bunch of lemurs as they crossed the street and head out,
Speaker 1: and they're looking out over the circus, and there's a
Speaker 1: sign Grimaldi's World of Freaks Admission one gold coin, No
Speaker 1: children or those with weak constitutions allowed. A line of
Speaker 1: illustrated ten foot tall images stood on either side, showing
Speaker 1: the freaks and other attractions. One of them was the
Speaker 1: Ogre creature, with the Overcity's strongest citizen written above it,
Speaker 1: the over City's fattest woman, Garth, a two headed chrogolodite,
Speaker 1: and Tiny the amazing fire breathing knoll, which I have
Speaker 1: to assume we are going to meet all of these guys.
Speaker 1: There was one peculiarity, a tall l like horned woman
Speaker 1: covered head to toe and tattoos, sarena signet and her
Speaker 1: amazing battle squad. But someone had painted a large circle
Speaker 1: around the poster, crossing out the image. Wanted trader was
Speaker 1: written above the sign. As we watch, one of the
Speaker 1: clowns walked by, pushing a wheelbarrow that appeared to be
Speaker 1: filled with animal skins. He paused at the sign, stripped
Speaker 1: down his pants and urinated on the poster. Well, damn,
Speaker 1: so this is when they are finally able to get
Speaker 1: in touch with Mordecai and he's just like, did you
Speaker 1: guys get to that other town yet? And they're like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: about that, we didn't go there. And he's like, okay,
Speaker 1: you guys, you are not ready for a quest. You
Speaker 1: have got to get the fuck out. Go to the
Speaker 1: safe room. You are over your head. Once you get back,
Speaker 1: I will explain to you what a bad situation this is.
Speaker 1: And Carl is like, well, we were gonna head back anyway,
Speaker 1: but also maybe we wouldn't have done this if you
Speaker 1: hadn't passed out in your own puke. And it's clear
Speaker 1: like he does not remember this. Carl asked, you remember
Speaker 1: anything from today? Donut says you were drunk and molested.
Speaker 1: Someone's grandma and I love her always being in all caps.
Speaker 1: She's a lot. So they're about they turn around and
Speaker 1: they're going to start heading back. When they realize that
Speaker 1: they are being boxed in. There are some other creatures here,
Speaker 1: and I think they're clowns. I'm trying to find the
Speaker 1: exact So dozens of lemurs and stilt clowns appear, that's right,
Speaker 1: and then a draft they start coming and it's like
Speaker 1: me thinking we're gearing up for all of these guys
Speaker 1: to attack our friends. No, they're passing the like he
Speaker 1: calls it a steady progression. There had to be a
Speaker 1: thousand of them, and they're setting up barbed wire fences
Speaker 1: and like it's an organized thing that they are getting
Speaker 1: ready for. We're let's see. Uh here it is the
Speaker 1: animal cages that they placed at the edge of the walls.
Speaker 1: Roars and traills shook the massive pens. I was reminded
Speaker 1: of the craik Hairen boss we'd fought earlier. Yeah, fuck this,
Speaker 1: we're out of here. Let's go. I looted a second
Speaker 1: big top ticket and hunk of clown meat. I'd eyed
Speaker 1: a group of ten limes one street over. They howled
Speaker 1: and pointed, but didn't move to pursue. Run, I said,
Speaker 1: We turned and bolted down the street, not bothering with
Speaker 1: the alleys. The safe room was only four blocks over.
Speaker 1: Did you see my magic missile can set things on fire?
Speaker 1: Now now my spell? My spell hit level wham. Half
Speaker 1: the street where we've just been standing exploded, sending us
Speaker 1: both flying forward and he Later on, when it doesn't
Speaker 1: look like they're being pursued, it is like, I think
Speaker 1: they just assume that had to have killed us, which
Speaker 1: makes sense. And I'm also curious exactly what it is
Speaker 1: they're attacking with because he calls the magical mortars, But
Speaker 1: I'm like, is this something that he could make? Like
Speaker 1: does magical mean that only somebody with magic abilities can
Speaker 1: fuck with it? Or can only somebody with magical abilities
Speaker 1: take it apart? Maybe only somebody with magical abilities could
Speaker 1: build it from scratch, but even if you don't have
Speaker 1: those abilities, you could still use them. I'm just thinking
Speaker 1: because he is just you know, so the whole thing
Speaker 1: with his explosions skills feels like he's leaned into that
Speaker 1: a lot, and this might be something that he could
Speaker 1: uh take advantage of. So they have fallen into this
Speaker 1: weird basement and at one point, Doughnut hops up because
Speaker 1: she's like, I need to get line of sight, so
Speaker 1: I need to make this whole a little bit bigger
Speaker 1: in order to get us out by using our or
Speaker 1: using my puddle jumper spell. And when she jumps out,
Speaker 1: she spots uh signet Now real quick, I just want
Speaker 1: to talk about Miss Beatrice's tramp stamp as it's called
Speaker 1: tramp stamp. I do not care for this turn of phrase.
Speaker 1: I don't like this term. But it's just an something
Speaker 1: that when you say tramp stamp, everybody knows immediately where
Speaker 1: you mean, because saying something is on your lower back
Speaker 1: doesn't quite fully capture because a tram stamp is like
Speaker 1: more than just lower back. It is also directly above
Speaker 1: your ass crack. That's how I imagine it. Bee's tattoo
Speaker 1: was a faded Persian cat on her lower back, surrounded
Speaker 1: by weird, uneven wisps. The cat it was based on
Speaker 1: was Princess chonk, a Lot Donut's long dead grandmother and
Speaker 1: Bee's childhood cat. The awful tattoo looked like a stoned ewalk.
Speaker 1: I never understood why she'd gotten a tattoo in a
Speaker 1: place where the only ones you'd see it were people
Speaker 1: smashing her from behind. I've made the error of jokingly
Speaker 1: mentioning that once and the e walk part, Yeah, that
Speaker 1: had been a mistake. This is the sort of thing that, like,
Speaker 1: I get why wondering about the placement, Like sometimes people
Speaker 1: place it because nobody's going to see it there. You
Speaker 1: know it's there and you like having it, but you
Speaker 1: also work at a job where maybe you aren't allowed
Speaker 1: to have tattoos or whatever, you know, so it's a
Speaker 1: good like secret area. I personally wouldn't want a tattoo
Speaker 1: somewhere that it would be that difficult for me to
Speaker 1: see it because and I say this with experience, because
Speaker 1: I have a tattoo behind my ear and it's a
Speaker 1: crescent moon that curves around the back of my ear,
Speaker 1: and I can't see it, and I forget it's there
Speaker 1: all the time until people mention it to me. So anyway,
Speaker 1: I just really now, if I were to make a choice,
Speaker 1: I would not pick somewhere that I couldn't even see.
Speaker 1: But also, it being a cat like a memorial tramp
Speaker 1: stamp is just a weird combo. I do kind of
Speaker 1: like the more information that we get about b and
Speaker 1: her personality, the more it just seems like she is
Speaker 1: a person who does not understand different boundaries and why
Speaker 1: people don't crisscross them in certain ways. She's just she
Speaker 1: really just does seem like kind of a weirdo, and
Speaker 1: I'm sort of into it, even though she seems like
Speaker 1: a bad person. Anyway, So they get teleported up and
Speaker 1: we get the introduction Serena signet half Niad, half high
Speaker 1: Elf Summinar level sixty. This is an elite. The high
Speaker 1: Elf King Finnian, leader of the Leana sector of the
Speaker 1: hunting grounds, was such a horty bastard. It was said
Speaker 1: he betted women from over five thousand different races. Most
Speaker 1: scholars agree this has to be an exaggeration, considering his
Speaker 1: hair lip and obsession with knitting, but nonetheless, at least
Speaker 1: one of these twists did take place, resulting in the
Speaker 1: unique combination of half Naiad half high Elf. Considering the
Speaker 1: Niad Confederacy's tendency to drown outsiders and the high ELFs
Speaker 1: inclination to hunt down and murder any mongrel child of
Speaker 1: the late king, signet here has probably had its tough life.
Speaker 1: This is a fairy class NPC. Creatures of this class
Speaker 1: inflict twenty percent more damage against you due to your
Speaker 1: goblin pass, and we get a description of elites. I
Speaker 1: won't get into that because I like that was pretty obvious.
Speaker 1: And as Karl is looking at her, he realizes that
Speaker 1: he is getting a boner and starting to fantasize and
Speaker 1: instantly contacts Mordecai and is like, shit, what do I do,
Speaker 1: she's charming me, and Mordecai is like, she's not charming
Speaker 1: you if you can talk to me about it, but
Speaker 1: break your pinky, just don't rip your finger off, and
Speaker 1: do it as fast as you can and o negate
Speaker 1: the effect, which does work. When he says she's a
Speaker 1: Naiad or a sucubyss, Donut is like, no, she's not.
Speaker 1: It says she's half nye Ad, an elf, and that
Speaker 1: she's an elite, and Mordecai, holy fuck, get the hell
Speaker 1: out of there. Do not get involved in whatever she's
Speaker 1: trying to rope you into. We're sorry to have bothered you,
Speaker 1: I said, while Donut and Mordecai talked in the chat.
Speaker 1: We need to head back now. So what winds up
Speaker 1: happening here is she wants to get them pulled into
Speaker 1: this thing between her and her former family, and she
Speaker 1: can still sort of charm. It doesn't work on Donut,
Speaker 1: but it does work at first on Mango, and he
Speaker 1: reacts well to her trying to pet him, until Donut hisses,
Speaker 1: and then Mongo reacts and hisses as well, growls as well,
Speaker 1: my bad, not a hiss, and she says, be it, dear,
Speaker 1: Sir Carl, you seem like a strapping lad. Please keep
Speaker 1: those mold lions off of me while I organize my
Speaker 1: battle squad. I usually have this part done before I
Speaker 1: have to face them. Your presence distracted me, so it's
Speaker 1: only fair. Besides, if you run, they will take you down. Now,
Speaker 1: we find out a little bit later that like the
Speaker 1: hold that she had over him, prom would have resulted
Speaker 1: in him sacrificing his life because she basically said, protect
Speaker 1: me from them. And also he was intended to be
Speaker 1: a sacrifice because she needed his blood to create this
Speaker 1: little like summoned army that she uses. So the fact
Speaker 1: that this she can only cast it one time and
Speaker 1: it doesn't work, means that, oh it's canceled for tonight entirely,
Speaker 1: which really must suck. So this is when we meet
Speaker 1: the mold lions, and there were there was a fun
Speaker 1: plan in place here where what he does is he
Speaker 1: gets Donut to use her confusing fog, he uses protective shell,
Speaker 1: and then he has her used second chance. So the
Speaker 1: confusing fog messes with the sight of the lions. When
Speaker 1: he makes the protective shell, it's like a hard surface
Speaker 1: that jams back the lions and like pins them, and
Speaker 1: then second chance, after he kills one of them by
Speaker 1: literally yanking its heart out by the way, she is
Speaker 1: able to reanimate it and get it to kill the
Speaker 1: other ones along with Mongo. He's trying. He's not as
Speaker 1: much help as he thinks, but you know, it's good practice,
Speaker 1: I guess. And then she uses clockwork triplicate on the
Speaker 1: new zombie and honestly, it's just awesome. It's really really cool.
Speaker 1: I loved this whole fight, and it's like just just
Speaker 1: intricate enough to feel like a really great concept and
Speaker 1: just simple enough that I didn't glaze over as it
Speaker 1: was happening and just sort of tune out like I
Speaker 1: sometimes do when it comes to fights. So yeah, I
Speaker 1: just I really really liked this whole thing. He and
Speaker 1: Doughnut both level up. And let's see. She says, my
Speaker 1: spells are blood magic. They require a proper sacrifice to work.
Speaker 1: I choose the sacrifice to cast a spell, and my lovelies,
Speaker 1: take the blood and form. You've got blood right here.
Speaker 1: I indicated the six dead lions and I was like, nah, bro,
Speaker 1: it was you, and he clocks that pretty quickly. So
Speaker 1: let's see, I usually catch something, catch something. The bigger
Speaker 1: the better. I'm not allowed to bleed the sacrifice myself,
Speaker 1: otherwise I just would have killed you. I have to
Speaker 1: capture something and then capture a second different something and
Speaker 1: put them together so they fight, guess which one is
Speaker 1: going to lose, and then cast my spell on the
Speaker 1: loser before they receive their first injury. The moment they're dead,
Speaker 1: battle squad arises. How powerful they are depends wholly on
Speaker 1: the quality of the blood. And I found that really
Speaker 1: really interesting that like, depending on who it is affects everything.
Speaker 1: It's like we got to work with good ingredients here. Oh,
Speaker 1: Michael says in all caps, Yes, that is so important.
Speaker 1: When fights get too complex, I tend to tune out too.
Speaker 1: Matt Dinneman, Will White, and Brando Sando are some of
Speaker 1: the best at writing interesting fights. Would I will agree
Speaker 1: with this with the caveat that Will White did start
Speaker 1: to lose me in that final book because the fights
Speaker 1: went on a long time and I did start to
Speaker 1: kind of be like, all right, Bud, And I don't
Speaker 1: know if there was really a way around that, But
Speaker 1: for the most part, yes, I don't think. Have I
Speaker 1: read Matt Dinneman, I don't remember if I have, and
Speaker 1: Brando Sando's fight scenes are a weird. I'm like, I go,
Speaker 1: I'm so hot and cold on Brando Sando. Sometimes I
Speaker 1: feel like it hits just right, and sometimes I'm sort
Speaker 1: of like, what are you doing? And that was kind
Speaker 1: of how I reacted to a fight at the end
Speaker 1: of Lost Metal, which I just finished covering with Miles
Speaker 1: a few months ago. It just it was a fight
Speaker 1: that felt like there was no excitement to it, even
Speaker 1: though it should have been exciting and impressive. It felt
Speaker 1: very like inert and lifeless. Oh my god, Matt Deneman
Speaker 1: writes the book your covering, says Michael with a laugh, EMOJI. Hi,
Speaker 1: I'm Natasha and I'm very smart and professional. Welcome to
Speaker 1: my show anyway, moving on, I only have seven minutes left,
Speaker 1: so let's see. Why are you attacking them? I asked.
Speaker 1: My home is over there. I moved in because it's
Speaker 1: close to the vine and the circus can no longer
Speaker 1: move from their spot. I have refreshments. If you'd like
Speaker 1: to join me for an evening drink, I will regale
Speaker 1: you with the sad tale of Signet the Bastard and
Speaker 1: Grimaldi the Man. She loved. I would love to talk
Speaker 1: more about this with you later, but only if you
Speaker 1: promise not to try to sacrifice us, and she says, well,
Speaker 1: you guys have thought so well that I'd actually rather
Speaker 1: you help me than anything else. I'll meet you right
Speaker 1: here an hour after sundown tomorrow night. So they go
Speaker 1: back into their safe room and Mordecai yells them about
Speaker 1: being suicidal idiots. Carl is like, dude, you were fucked
Speaker 1: up and like completely bailed on us, and it seemed
Speaker 1: like we were kind of under a constraint here with
Speaker 1: the quest. We didn't really know how to handle it.
Speaker 1: Mordecai apologizes and is like, but I still would have
Speaker 1: told you too, and he's like, well, would have done
Speaker 1: doesn't really help us since she fucking didn't. After I
Speaker 1: was coaching, I told you to stay away from the elite,
Speaker 1: but did you listen. No, you made a fucking date
Speaker 1: with her. And this is when he brings up something
Speaker 1: that's very, very fascinating to me. There are thousands and
Speaker 1: they can and do freely travel between the urban floors.
Speaker 1: There's also a more scripted aspect. Think of it as
Speaker 1: a soap opera or cereal. All of these stories activated
Speaker 1: with the opening of the third floor. Every season, they
Speaker 1: have multiple storylines pop up at once, like in September
Speaker 1: when all the new shows that come out on television.
Speaker 1: There are also a few running stories that have been
Speaker 1: spanning multiple seasons, but that's all on the ninth floor.
Speaker 1: Elites are never naturals. They are designed, printed, and then
Speaker 1: imprinted with the memories needed for them to act out
Speaker 1: their drama. As far as they're concerned, this is their
Speaker 1: real world. But that's how it is most of the
Speaker 1: other mobs. No regular mobs are autonomous. Once they're set loose,
Speaker 1: what they do is up to chance. Elites, your quest
Speaker 1: with this circus and this signet woman is a storyline,
Speaker 1: a drama created for the viewers by a team of writers.
Speaker 1: It will play itself out whether or not you get involved.
Speaker 1: It will have its own show and team working on it,
Speaker 1: and they will be protective. And basically what he says
Speaker 1: is if you get involved in a storyline and start
Speaker 1: to fuck it up for them, they will not hesitate
Speaker 1: to take you the fuck out to preserve their story
Speaker 1: because they have put all kinds of work into this
Speaker 1: and this is their job, and you just wander in
Speaker 1: like a fucking idiot and decide to like mow everybody
Speaker 1: down or you know, something, to be impressive and level
Speaker 1: yourself up really quickly. Like you think of yourself as
Speaker 1: the reason that this game is on camera. They are
Speaker 1: here to see you. But when you are in one
Speaker 1: of those people's orbit, you're not the main anymore. They
Speaker 1: are and you're the red shirt. So all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: it's much more dangerous for you unless you are able
Speaker 1: to like stay within the lines of their drama and
Speaker 1: make it way more interesting and do something, which is
Speaker 1: what I expect is going to wind up happening. That
Speaker 1: they will get involved, but they will also like amp
Speaker 1: it up, and they are going to have to keep
Speaker 1: that into consideration to get the drama juicy enough that
Speaker 1: even though maybe things aren't going quite according to plan,
Speaker 1: it's so compelling that they'll be left alone. You know.
Speaker 1: That's what I'm sort of looking forward to potentially. I
Speaker 1: love the Donut. It's just like, wait, so when we
Speaker 1: talked to her, we're on a whole other TV show,
Speaker 1: and I love for Mordecai just being like I cannot
Speaker 1: believe everything I just said, and that's what you zero
Speaker 1: went on and I'm like, Loki, that's all I heard.
Speaker 1: Also like I get what he's saying, and honestly, all
Speaker 1: of that is very pot but like I did definitely
Speaker 1: go oh, that's an opportunity. Huh. And then here comes
Speaker 1: Donut with the same takeaway basically, and let's see, that's
Speaker 1: part of the fun for the viewers, seeing how Crawlers
Speaker 1: crap all over the producer's hard work. It's like taking
Speaker 1: Jason from a Friday the Thirteenth movie and tossing him
Speaker 1: into a late season episode of Jane the Virgin just
Speaker 1: to see what happens, which absolutely laid me out because
Speaker 1: I am covering Jane the Virgin for or another spoil
Speaker 1: me show. And honestly, the idea of Jason showing up
Speaker 1: and that is hilarious. There goes a real soap opera
Speaker 1: type show. It is such a blast, and it's really
Speaker 1: really funny. Highly recommend So Carl's like, well, if we're
Speaker 1: aiding the narrative, they might actually help us, and Mordicai's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: but it's such a risk. Why would you fucking even
Speaker 1: do it? And I was like, you know why, you
Speaker 1: know why, because they can't resist. They're already in it,
Speaker 1: it's too late, so we get then an update on
Speaker 1: a bunch of the other crawlers. The TV shows up
Speaker 1: and the hecla of Brunhild's daughters chooses an Amazon, which
Speaker 1: she's basically just way more muscular, wider and taller and
Speaker 1: looks like a professional bodybuilder. And let's see the next
Speaker 1: few groups of crawlers I didn't recognize, and a few
Speaker 1: groups aren't done with their selection, the announcer said, but
Speaker 1: just about eighty percent of the crawlers have opted to
Speaker 1: remain human, and I, as well as Carl, was very surprised.
Speaker 1: And we find out that actually most human beings do
Speaker 1: not change most of the time. And when he stops
Speaker 1: to think about it, he's like, yeah, I guess that
Speaker 1: makes sense, because like you're giving up something of yourself,
Speaker 1: especially when the whole world is over. It feels like
Speaker 1: you're like, this is all you've got left of your life,
Speaker 1: you know, is this body that you brought with you.
Speaker 1: So I could really understand that. I feel like I
Speaker 1: definitely change it up, just because I've been dissatisfied with
Speaker 1: my body since I was like eight years old, and
Speaker 1: so I just I probably would, you know, But I
Speaker 1: could see it, but anyway, Oh, let's see. Uh they prayed,
Speaker 1: played a brief history of the primal race and showed
Speaker 1: another human from many seasons ago who'd chosen the same race.
Speaker 1: They showed him flying through the air with white, wispy
Speaker 1: angel wings, wielding a massive sword made of lightning as
Speaker 1: he charged a humanoid demon the size of a goddamned
Speaker 1: football stadium standing knee deep in a lake of fire.
Speaker 1: What the hell is that that? My boy is a
Speaker 1: divine guardian, a country boss. He's guarding a firegate, an
Speaker 1: entrance to the thirteenth floor. Holy fuck? Yeah, is that
Speaker 1: the guy who made it to the thirteenth floor? No,
Speaker 1: but he was a famous crawler. He's from before my time.
Speaker 1: He died a minute later. The next time you're with
Speaker 1: your friend Odette, you should ask her about him. I
Speaker 1: couldn't help but wonder about that. Felt like he was
Speaker 1: sort of laying that at her feet a little bit
Speaker 1: h interesting. So Carl has this moment of just like,
Speaker 1: I do not know how the fuck we're ever going
Speaker 1: to face something like that, And to that, I say,
Speaker 1: shut up, Carl and stop thinking ahead. This was just
Speaker 1: one of the prime examples of just like you don't
Speaker 1: need to know how you're gonna do it, because that's
Speaker 1: not your concern, that's none of your business focus. You
Speaker 1: are here right now. And Lucia, the one with the
Speaker 1: two dogs, they stay dogs. She turns into this monster
Speaker 1: and she becomes during the day, a human who is
Speaker 1: let's see, I'm trying to find that a cleric magic
Speaker 1: user warrior combo called black Inquisitor General. Let's see here
Speaker 1: it is. While she was in her woman form, her
Speaker 1: magic ability was doubled. Spells cost half as much, but
Speaker 1: her strength was cut in half. While she was sporting
Speaker 1: herd de holy shit face, it was the opposite. Spells
Speaker 1: cost more, but she was twice as strong. She also
Speaker 1: now walks with a limp, no more running on walls
Speaker 1: for her her right leg, and just her right leg
Speaker 1: had transformed from a human limb to that of a
Speaker 1: hairy goat, to complete with a cloven hoof. As she
Speaker 1: emerged from the Guildhall clumping on her new leg, even
Speaker 1: her two dogs look freaked out by the transformation. And
Speaker 1: I was kind of wondering, like, doesn't that seem like
Speaker 1: it would alienate viewers, And Mordecai says I don't know.
Speaker 1: I bet she's got more power than anybody in the
Speaker 1: game right now, because there's a bunch of fine print
Speaker 1: that makes that a real, the really strong choice. So
Speaker 1: I'm moving forward to eventually meeting Lucia. Lucia, however you
Speaker 1: want to say it. So then we get the welcome
Speaker 1: to the third floor. A couple announcements. Bathroom penalties have
Speaker 1: been removed, but there are restrooms everywhere, so please fucking don't.
Speaker 1: We are already seeing much interest in the sponsorship program,
Speaker 1: and while the program doesn't officially get underway until the
Speaker 1: fourth floor, potential sponsors now have the ability to put
Speaker 1: in early bids. Therefore, remember to be as entertaining as possible. Finally,
Speaker 1: many of you are discovering new abilities and spells and
Speaker 1: wish to try them out. We urge you to do so.
Speaker 1: But this is just a general warning that any attempt
Speaker 1: of violence against non combatant NPCs should be avoided. While
Speaker 1: this practice is technically not against the rules, the Barrent
Speaker 1: Corporation wishes to keep the citizenry as safe as possible.
Speaker 1: As a result, we have a else did the experience
Speaker 1: counter for citizens down to zero? In addition, city guards
Speaker 1: have been given a slight boost in stats, and Carl
Speaker 1: asks about, like, what's the deal with the NPC warning,
Speaker 1: And I couldn't help but think, like, is it possible
Speaker 1: that the NPCs are I just keep thinking about the
Speaker 1: fact that they're clearly having budget issues this time around,
Speaker 1: and that maybe they're doing this to protect people who
Speaker 1: like hadn't originally been going to be part of things,
Speaker 1: and they had to convince them no, no, no, we
Speaker 1: need bodies in the towns, We need this to look
Speaker 1: more populated, and we don't have the money to just
Speaker 1: keep making people. So if we promise nobody's gonna hurt you,
Speaker 1: will you just fucking come and sit at the bar
Speaker 1: and like tell him about the quest for the letter
Speaker 1: from your boyfriend or something I don't know, I don't know,
Speaker 1: just to throwing something at the wall and then let's see.
Speaker 1: We spent some time talking about the day and some
Speaker 1: of the things Signet had said. She'd mentioned Grimaldi had
Speaker 1: turned into something called a vinev, which led to a long,
Speaker 1: yawn inducing conversation about plants and parasites and mind control.
Speaker 1: Mordecai counted on his fingers, giving me and Dona a
Speaker 1: long list of ways to deal with each kind of
Speaker 1: plant based monster. This apparently was a subject of great
Speaker 1: interest to Mordecai, not apparently to Carl, and I'm worried
Speaker 1: that later on he's going to regret not paying closer
Speaker 1: attention to that. But you know, it's hard to say.
Speaker 1: He calls it yaw inducing, but that doesn't necessarily mean
Speaker 1: that he wasn't paying attention. So I'm going to give
Speaker 1: him the benefit of the doubt. And then Mordecai is like,
Speaker 1: go to sleep and get up early because it's a
Speaker 1: big day tomorrow, a day for the history books. It'll
Speaker 1: be the first time you two do exactly what I
Speaker 1: I tell you to do. And that is how the
Speaker 1: chapter ends, which is pretty great. All right, everybody, I
Speaker 1: have to wrap this up. Thank you again so much
Speaker 1: Michael for commissioning this. This has been super fun. No
Speaker 1: idea what it is that Mordecai is going to tell
Speaker 1: them to do, but looking forward to it, and I
Speaker 1: will see you on Thursday with a new episode. Until then,
Speaker 1: to the Loo, motherfuckers. That was an unspoiled Network podcast.