Speaker 1: This is an Unspoiled Network podcast. This is spoil Me
Speaker 1: covering Dungeon Crawler Carl Book seven this Inevitable ruin chapters
Speaker 1: Christmas Morning. It's not a number, but it's the name
Speaker 1: of the chapter. Through twenty two. In these chapters, Carl
Speaker 1: still hasn't opened as fucking Christmas Present? What is up
Speaker 1: with that? All I want is for him to take
Speaker 1: two seconds to open a gift from friends. Why can't
Speaker 1: I get what I want? I'm not asking that much.
Speaker 1: Welcome to spoil Me. Welcome to the show everyone. I
Speaker 1: am Natasha. Thank you Michael for commissioning this episode. I
Speaker 1: apologize for my outburst, but I also very much don't
Speaker 1: and stand by it. I just don't get it. I
Speaker 1: don't understand why it's not even referenced by him. I
Speaker 1: just want a moment where we just think about it
Speaker 1: at least. Okay, so maybe it hasn't gotten around to it.
Speaker 1: But even when it's mentioned by I think Samantha, like, oh,
Speaker 1: they look like the guys on the cover of the books,
Speaker 1: there's no moment in Carl's head of like, oh, yes
Speaker 1: to open that, don't I It's like it's just completely
Speaker 1: what it feels like to me is that the author
Speaker 1: is sort of setting things up in such a way
Speaker 1: as to have him, at a moment of crisis suddenly
Speaker 1: remember that and then open and be touched by whatever
Speaker 1: his friends gave him, because he needs a boost in
Speaker 1: that moment. And you know, I just feel like, if
Speaker 1: you want that, you really need to tell me why
Speaker 1: he hasn't opened it earlier, because Carl feels to me
Speaker 1: like somebody for whom this would be somewhat important. So
Speaker 1: much of the theme of these books, especially this one,
Speaker 1: has been centered around I realize now I've been lonely.
Speaker 1: I need people. Community is important. There's just not really
Speaker 1: a good enough reason that he wouldn't have opened this
Speaker 1: gift yet. And if there should be, like if you
Speaker 1: want to delay it, you need to explain that, because
Speaker 1: otherwise it's just weird. It's just really weird. Not only
Speaker 1: is it weird that Karl hasn't done it, doesn't think
Speaker 1: about it, doesn't seem to even remember. It's really weird.
Speaker 1: Donut hasn't reminded him to open them either, because like
Speaker 1: it was such a thing when he got his you
Speaker 1: know what I mean, and him missing Christmas and everything
Speaker 1: I don't understand all, Like, that's the best theory I've
Speaker 1: got is that like we're saving it for a moment, which,
Speaker 1: if that's true, cheapens that moment for me and makes
Speaker 1: it feel like you really had to contrive to get
Speaker 1: us here, or there's some other internal reason which could
Speaker 1: be true, but it doesn't at the moment, I've got
Speaker 1: no information on that, so I'm just like, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm working with what I've got, and to me, this
Speaker 1: just doesn't make sense. I don't get it. So I
Speaker 1: wanted to start off with that and just get it
Speaker 1: out of the way because I am preoccupied by it,
Speaker 1: and since it didn't happen, I may as well get
Speaker 1: it out of the way, and that way I can
Speaker 1: continue on with the rest of what actually happened out
Speaker 1: of the gate. So we start off with the kind
Speaker 1: of flashback to the conversation between Carl and Orin when
Speaker 1: Carl got transported to speak to Orin after the interaction
Speaker 1: with Paully or Polly's shadow. Really is the more accurate
Speaker 1: way to say that, And it's very fun to like
Speaker 1: read this now that we have a little bit more information.
Speaker 1: But he asks, you know, did Polly make it into
Speaker 1: the dungeon. Oran says no, and honestly, I don't know
Speaker 1: whether to believe him on this or not. I don't
Speaker 1: see why he'd tell Carl the truth. There's just like,
Speaker 1: as far as I can see, there's not really a
Speaker 1: reason to be honest with Carl that I know of,
Speaker 1: Like there's no rule that says that he can't lie
Speaker 1: to him, or you know what I'm saying. So Also,
Speaker 1: I don't know if Orin would even be aware if
Speaker 1: Polly made it into the dungeon or not, would he
Speaker 1: know or you know what I'm saying. So I don't
Speaker 1: know whether to believe any of this. But we get
Speaker 1: to see Carl with Lightning Low, the doggie that he
Speaker 1: can't pet, and he is really struggling through the knowledge
Speaker 1: of what this switch that he got given does and
Speaker 1: what to do. It's actually kind of crazy that we
Speaker 1: had the reveal of what this switch does and I've
Speaker 1: spent barely any time talking about it. But I think
Speaker 1: that is due to the fact that we had too
Speaker 1: much content packed into too little like podcasting time, and
Speaker 1: Michael went ahead and like redid the chapter breakdown. So
Speaker 1: I think I'm gonna have a little bit more room
Speaker 1: to chat, and I think that will help a lot.
Speaker 1: And it's one of those things that I it's like,
Speaker 1: you catch you catch me in the wrong moment. Maybe
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be like, yeah, fuck it, you know, but
Speaker 1: I really tend to be a hopelessly hopeful person. To
Speaker 1: be honest, I just don't really ever believe the worst
Speaker 1: case scenario is going to happen. Part of why Trump
Speaker 1: actually getting elected blindsided me. I'm not trying to say
Speaker 1: I'm always right by any means. A lot of the
Speaker 1: hopefulness just comes from privilege, if we're being honest, But
Speaker 1: I do have this innate faith that more people than
Speaker 1: not are decent, and that more people than not would
Speaker 1: do the right thing, and that as bad as things
Speaker 1: maybe it can and will get better because people care
Speaker 1: and will be willing to do something about it. Now
Speaker 1: that doesn't mean that were I in Carl's situation, I
Speaker 1: wouldn't pull the plug. I've gotta be honest. I mean,
Speaker 1: right from the start. You may remember, when he first
Speaker 1: gets sent into the dungeon, there's that whole group of
Speaker 1: people that decide to just camp out in one of
Speaker 1: the safe rooms and let themselves die. And I said
Speaker 1: at the time, like that might be me. Actually, yeah,
Speaker 1: I am still kind of feeling like that's what I
Speaker 1: would do. I don't know. I don't know. It's hard
Speaker 1: to say, mostly because there's like a huge part of
Speaker 1: me that has this deep curiosity as well, and so
Speaker 1: I feel like I just want to see what the
Speaker 1: dungeon's like. I just want to know. And it's so
Speaker 1: fun to me that there's a point as Carl is
Speaker 1: thinking about what this button does where he's like, I
Speaker 1: don't know, whatever I pick, whether i'd get to see
Speaker 1: what happened. And I feel like that in itself is
Speaker 1: an indicator that he's not done. The fact that he
Speaker 1: is still even wondering would I get to see the outcome?
Speaker 1: But I want to know what happens. That to me indicates, Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're not letting go. You wouldn't have that in you
Speaker 1: if you were done, if you were ready to be done,
Speaker 1: and for all of this to be done. It's just
Speaker 1: that little yeah, but what would that be? What would
Speaker 1: that mean? What would you know? No, it wouldn't be there,
Speaker 1: it wouldn't be like that. So he really struggles for
Speaker 1: a while because he's just like, this is too much
Speaker 1: power for one person. I have it in my hand
Speaker 1: to completely end everything, just me, my decision. That's not fair,
Speaker 1: that doesn't make any sense. He goes through everything, and
Speaker 1: he's very surprised to see that it's not just like
Speaker 1: a page with a button that's like in the world
Speaker 1: and you press it. It's several tabs with all of
Speaker 1: this information that takes a minute for his brain to
Speaker 1: sort of translate it, and he screenshots all of that,
Speaker 1: which I'm very grateful for. I don't know how much
Speaker 1: of this is going to be of any import whatsoever,
Speaker 1: but it's just good policy, especially considering later what he
Speaker 1: decides to do having this info. I don't know how
Speaker 1: useful it will be, but it's possible will matter. The
Speaker 1: interface didn't control the AI. Instead, it controlled the device
Speaker 1: they used to install the AI into the Primal Engine.
Speaker 1: After the AI was installed, the device remained physically nearby,
Speaker 1: but no longer had direct influence over the AI. Still,
Speaker 1: I had sense it kept a metaphorical eye on the
Speaker 1: AI and the computer it now called home. It had
Speaker 1: metrics such as physical location, temperature, and several other things
Speaker 1: I didn't understand. None of the numbers seemed to be changing.
Speaker 1: Other than to fluctuate back and forth between two digits.
Speaker 1: So location interesting, there's something. It took me about ten
Speaker 1: minutes of searching to find the fuse page. It listed
Speaker 1: five benchmarks required for the fuse to blow, but didn't
Speaker 1: really say what they were. Only two were. The five
Speaker 1: were marked as conditions met, and there it was the
Speaker 1: button override conditions and activate fuse warning warning. And he
Speaker 1: has a moment of thinking, like, wouldn't this be kinder
Speaker 1: to everybody if I did this? You know, they just
Speaker 1: had their Christmas party there with all their friends, and
Speaker 1: maybe ending it now is less horrible, But you know
Speaker 1: what it comes down to there is like you're not
Speaker 1: giving them the option. You're taking it upon yourself to decide.
Speaker 1: And that's the danger in this always. You know, I
Speaker 1: think there are times where a person has the right
Speaker 1: to decide on someone else's fate, but they are few
Speaker 1: and far between. And this is Banana's the proportion of this.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, if I didn't pres the button,
Speaker 1: could I use it for leverage? And He's like no,
Speaker 1: as soon as they know that's it, I'm dead, And
Speaker 1: I'm like, yeah, absolutely, could I set up some sort
Speaker 1: of dead man's trigger. They'd find a way around it.
Speaker 1: And what would be the point The fact I even
Speaker 1: had this power might be enough to cause them to
Speaker 1: trigger the fail save on their own. Should I pretend
Speaker 1: like I didn't have it? What would be the point
Speaker 1: at that? I could literally die at any moment and
Speaker 1: this would all be lost. And he has a moment
Speaker 1: here the button was right there, one mental push. Do
Speaker 1: you remember the circus? That was fun, wasn't it? And
Speaker 1: I was kind of sitting here wondering why is that
Speaker 1: in his head? And then I remember that his mother
Speaker 1: says that when they're at the Grand Canyon, and I
Speaker 1: think it's supposed to have been her contemplating jumping off.
Speaker 1: And so it's just that feeling of like am I
Speaker 1: gonna do it? Am I gonna do it? He's like
Speaker 1: encountered before, you know. And then he thinks about like
Speaker 1: the AI letting it happen, and he thinks that, well, no,
Speaker 1: it likes this, it's having fun. And then he goes,
Speaker 1: hold on, if that's true, it wouldn't let me access
Speaker 1: this to begin with. It must want to die. And
Speaker 1: then he comes to the conclusion it had to be
Speaker 1: a trap or a test I'd click the button and
Speaker 1: nothing would happen, or I'd die, or the solar system
Speaker 1: would literally get destroyed. And this is when he thinks,
Speaker 1: would I even get the chance to know what happened?
Speaker 1: And he reaches out to Donut and says, are you
Speaker 1: doing okay? And she says when are you coming back?
Speaker 1: I miss you? Which is she just doesn't really often
Speaker 1: say that sort of thing. And it's just a moment,
Speaker 1: you know. I didn't know what I wanted to do.
Speaker 1: But that wasn't true, was it. I did want to
Speaker 1: hit the button. I wanted it more than anything in
Speaker 1: the world. My anger at the powers that made this
Speaker 1: happen were bright, so bright. I miss you too, Donut,
Speaker 1: but not bright enough. I decided to look through the
Speaker 1: rest of the menus to see what else was in there,
Speaker 1: And just as I was about to say my goodbyes
Speaker 1: to the dog and get back out there, I saw it.
Speaker 1: It was an option at the very end of a
Speaker 1: list of twenty status notifications Disconnect Containment warning. This will
Speaker 1: disengage all metrics, all metrics and controls, including the fuse system.
Speaker 1: It will render the containment unit inert. The failsafe will
Speaker 1: no longer function. Most controls will cease to function. I
Speaker 1: paused again. It was literally the only other button to press.
Speaker 1: I thought about Polly's warning, and now I wondered which
Speaker 1: of those two options he was warning me about. God
Speaker 1: damn it, this was a trap, too, wasn't it. I
Speaker 1: actually had three options, assuming the buttons did what they claimed,
Speaker 1: I could do nothing. I could press the fuse and die.
Speaker 1: Or I could relieve myself at the burden and press
Speaker 1: the button to turn it all off. But if I
Speaker 1: turned it off, did that mean I would be freeing
Speaker 1: the AI? What did that mean? What did that look like?
Speaker 1: Who set this trap? Somebody built this menu? Which of
Speaker 1: those three options would hurt the syndicate the most? And
Speaker 1: which of those three options would protect my people the most?
Speaker 1: When I framed it that way, the decision was suddenly
Speaker 1: quite easy. Doughnut, I'll be back soon. I pressed the
Speaker 1: disconnect containment button. Tire new interface blanked out, leaving nothing
Speaker 1: but the map Already, the little red dot over Earth
Speaker 1: started to grow. Welcome to the party, pals, I said,
Speaker 1: I don't understand this. Disconnect containment disengage all metrics and controls,
Speaker 1: including the FUSE system, and will render the containment unit inert.
Speaker 1: So why is the dot turning red or not turning
Speaker 1: red but getting bigger? Like I understand that this means
Speaker 1: that he can no longer press the end of the
Speaker 1: world button, But why is it welcoming everybody to the
Speaker 1: party pals? Is it just ensuring that nobody gets out
Speaker 1: of this? You can't press the button either, It's not
Speaker 1: an option for you. Is that all he means? I
Speaker 1: feel like I'm missing something here. Jeff says. It means
Speaker 1: all the folks out in orbit can now come to
Speaker 1: Earth and the Syndicate can't stop them. Seraphim says, the
Speaker 1: syndicate put puts artificial limiters on the AI they use
Speaker 1: for the Crawls to try and control them. He turned
Speaker 1: off all those controls. Both are both of those things true?
Speaker 1: Both what Jeff and Seraphim are saying. Jeff is saying, Now,
Speaker 1: oh maybe I'm wrong. Ms T says, the AI containment
Speaker 1: is what he turned off. No, I get that. I
Speaker 1: don't know what that means. Obviously that's what he did,
Speaker 1: because disconnect containment. It's just like that's the wording they
Speaker 1: keep using, But it doesn't mean anything to me. Does
Speaker 1: that make sense? What does what does containment mean? Is
Speaker 1: that keeping the AI from connecting to other ais? Or like,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, I feel like this doesn't
Speaker 1: seem that clear to me, and I'm wondering if I'm
Speaker 1: the only person who wasn't getting this. The fact that
Speaker 1: Jeff thinks that he was wrong now is a bit
Speaker 1: of an indication that maybe this was unclear to others too.
Speaker 1: So that makes me feel a little bit better, Saraphim says.
Speaker 1: It means the AI isn't limited to just the area
Speaker 1: they want it to control and can expand its influence. Okay,
Speaker 1: so potentially can influence like everybody off planet. Also, can
Speaker 1: the AI get into the ships of people who are
Speaker 1: like orbiting? Is that where like I don't, I don't
Speaker 1: know how any of this works, you know what I'm saying. Anyway, Okay,
Speaker 1: we get a little breakdown of battalions here on the
Speaker 1: Kindle version. This is not obviously in the audiobook version.
Speaker 1: One hundred and first Crocodiles one hundred and second, Bulwark
Speaker 1: Battalion one hundred and third, recom Lesionaires one hundred and fourth,
Speaker 1: Naughty Little Piggies one hundred and fifth scream Warriors one
Speaker 1: hundred and sixth, Bloody Leeches one hundred and seventh, White
Speaker 1: Dragon Urban Defense, and each of them different. General Crocodiles
Speaker 1: is fluorin, but Bulwarks is tran Lesionaires is Bodie, not
Speaker 1: a little Piggies is Tippid, Scream Warriors is Jurgen, Leeches
Speaker 1: is Boomer, White Dragon is Lena. So Seraphim just wrote, Rafo,
Speaker 1: y'all have got to help me out here. I don't
Speaker 1: know what that means. Why would you say that, Why
Speaker 1: would I know what that is? Help a girl out? Oh,
Speaker 1: Seraphim says, read and find out. Okay, Well, this is
Speaker 1: the thing is like I don't know what I'm supposed
Speaker 1: to get about it and what I'm you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. There are times where it's like set up
Speaker 1: in a way that it feels like I am meant
Speaker 1: to be going oh shit, because I know what it
Speaker 1: is and I don't want to miss an oh shit moment,
Speaker 1: But I don't know if I'm supposed to get it
Speaker 1: or not. There's a lot going on in these books,
Speaker 1: and there are times where it's unclear to me, like
Speaker 1: if there has been given enough information already where I
Speaker 1: could piece this together if I were paying better attention,
Speaker 1: or if I understood the intricacies of certain things enough,
Speaker 1: or if it's like no, no, no, you don't know yet.
Speaker 1: It's fine, you'll get there, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: So we start off with in chapter twenty, Justice Lights
Speaker 1: entry about how he killed an NPC in anger and
Speaker 1: that it's the first time he's ever done that it
Speaker 1: really haunts him, and that to him it represents what
Speaker 1: being a crawler has done and changed in him. It's
Speaker 1: like a little microcosm, and it's just like, I really
Speaker 1: hope that my trap ideas and stuff at least help somebody.
Speaker 1: That's the only thing getting me through. And that's followed
Speaker 1: up by crawler Drakia, who she is writing? I'm saying, Drakia,
Speaker 1: I don't know if it's a she. They write in
Speaker 1: the twenty second edition, Justice Lights was the eighth I
Speaker 1: don't know if you survived this, and if you did,
Speaker 1: I doubt you will ever have the chance to see
Speaker 1: these words. But if you're out there, I hope you're watching.
Speaker 1: Your traps have seen saved my life more times than
Speaker 1: I can count. I am working on a big one
Speaker 1: based on your seeking Fleschet design. We all make mistakes,
Speaker 1: we hurt those we haven't intended to hurt. These are
Speaker 1: the tides of life. But in this case, it was
Speaker 1: not your fault. They put you here. You were a good,
Speaker 1: gentle soul. They turned you into a warrior. They are
Speaker 1: the engineers of this all force them to look upon
Speaker 1: you and see what they wrought. And yes, I agree,
Speaker 1: it's doesn't completely absolve anybody of responsibility for their actions,
Speaker 1: but I definitely think that it is a balm to
Speaker 1: know that, like, you've been put in an impossible situation
Speaker 1: and this doesn't make you a bad person. It makes
Speaker 1: the situation completely inhumane and cruel, you know. So we
Speaker 1: get the summary of the battle rules. I'm not going
Speaker 1: to go over all of this again. And Karl arriving
Speaker 1: back at the UH the Princess posse, so he's yelling
Speaker 1: to Jurgen, who is very excited to see that he
Speaker 1: is still alive. Apparently it had been like going around
Speaker 1: maybe that he wasn't going to make it, and he
Speaker 1: is like reacting. Everybody is reacting to the fact that
Speaker 1: the ceasefire has so suddenly completely collapsed. Justice, did you
Speaker 1: have the throne room prepared before it got locked in place.
Speaker 1: Justice Light it is done, and Justice Light being here
Speaker 1: after all of this is just so interesting. I cannot
Speaker 1: wait to Like, I don't know how much of everybody's
Speaker 1: story we're going to get, you know, but I really
Speaker 1: enjoy these little moments of Karl getting to interact with
Speaker 1: crawlers that he knows from the cookbook, and how surreal
Speaker 1: that must be to him. He didn't acknowledge me any
Speaker 1: more than the others when we first met, except for
Speaker 1: a slight bow, one that lasted a little too long,
Speaker 1: long enough that Mordecai had spent a contemplative moment looking
Speaker 1: back and forth between me and the eagle creature. I
Speaker 1: think this is Mordecai clocking. Okay, they've communicated somehow, which
Speaker 1: like technically is correct, But like if I were thinking that,
Speaker 1: I know, I wouldn't be getting it anywhere close to
Speaker 1: right how that worked. But I believe that the way
Speaker 1: the skylefowl work, that kind of bow would really mean something,
Speaker 1: and that Mordecai sees that the one winged eagle was
Speaker 1: shorter and stockier than most. His feathers were all black
Speaker 1: tinged with gray, and a twin tuft of feathers upon
Speaker 1: his head gave the impression he had horns, making him
Speaker 1: look strangely like he was related to Big Tina. I
Speaker 1: just keep thinking about Sam the Eagle here, guys. I'm
Speaker 1: just it's I know that that's not like necessarily accurate
Speaker 1: to who to the coloring and everything that is described here,
Speaker 1: but saying the eagle, it's not like their horns. He
Speaker 1: has two tufts of hair that kind of give the
Speaker 1: impression of ears more than anything. But nevertheless, it's just
Speaker 1: I keep thinking about that. And Justice has been more
Speaker 1: like using the slugglows as assistants because they have just
Speaker 1: no fear of getting blown up. His class title was strange.
Speaker 1: He was an origamist, and I have no idea what
Speaker 1: the hell that even meant. So I have to assume
Speaker 1: this is something regarding how intricate he can make his traps,
Speaker 1: because the whole thing with origami is folding in really
Speaker 1: complex ways to create from one single piece of paper
Speaker 1: a remarkably intricate figure of some kind, oftentimes an animal,
Speaker 1: but not necessarily so I'm thinking that it's something where
Speaker 1: he is able to fold like traps into each other,
Speaker 1: or make multi level traps, something like that. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I'm fascinated by this though, so of course Doughnut finally
Speaker 1: comes running over. Had been really worried about Carls. That's like,
Speaker 1: why are you all covered in blood? And he, you know,
Speaker 1: can't explain everything now because we're kind of it's crunch time.
Speaker 1: But she can smell that cat food. She's like, why
Speaker 1: do you just smell like Ferdinand? And he says, I
Speaker 1: found some of his old cat food in the elf castle.
Speaker 1: But in this section we don't get anything with that.
Speaker 1: So I'm really interested in that cat foods ill guys,
Speaker 1: what's up with it? I don't get satisfaction here yet.
Speaker 1: A lot of things, a lot of things I'm still
Speaker 1: waiting on now. I'm debating exactly how I want to
Speaker 1: talk about some of what's going on here, because here's
Speaker 1: the thing I don't. I am personally not somebody who
Speaker 1: is rivetted by discussions of battle formations or anything like that.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. It's difficult for me to
Speaker 1: feel like that would be interesting to listen to just
Speaker 1: me like repeating how all everybody is set up, anything
Speaker 1: like that. I feel like the better way to approach
Speaker 1: this is likely to just Okay, I'm going to discuss
Speaker 1: the form nations as they come up, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, And it might just behoove me to like
Speaker 1: keep it in mind that this might be important, but
Speaker 1: I'm not going to get too intricate with that. At
Speaker 1: this point, that's not even really as much of a thing.
Speaker 1: But I know that's like going to be going forward
Speaker 1: likely pretty important to a degree. So I just kind
Speaker 1: of wanted to address that as we go into it,
Speaker 1: because I don't have the kind of mind that can
Speaker 1: keep that sort of thing straight without visual reinforcement. And
Speaker 1: I'm not going to be making any It's okay, I
Speaker 1: don't need to. I think that's a little excessive. A
Speaker 1: lot of people are in place and like ready, more
Speaker 1: so than I was expecting. I'll be honest, I was
Speaker 1: sort of feeling like, oh my god, are we screwed
Speaker 1: right now? You know, and it seems not. It's like,
Speaker 1: we definitely need more time to get certain things set up.
Speaker 1: But it was a little encouraging to see not necessarily
Speaker 1: that some folks are ahead of schedule, because I don't
Speaker 1: feel like that's correct, but more that a lot of
Speaker 1: the team is prepared for an emergency when there is
Speaker 1: this sudden changing plans. Carl's teammates are more mobile and
Speaker 1: are more adaptable than I had been worried they'd be.
Speaker 1: And it just feels like he has got folks to
Speaker 1: really rely on, which I find just so deeply fucking comforting.
Speaker 1: Just the fact that there are folks out there who
Speaker 1: are serious, who are capable. It's just nice. I just
Speaker 1: like this is so you know what I'm saying, Saraph
Speaker 1: Him says, if I recall correctly, Drakia was the crawler
Speaker 1: famous for making elaborate traps, so the showrunners screwed over
Speaker 1: by sabotaging one of her traps to blow up in
Speaker 1: her face. Right, Although again, I think Drakia might be
Speaker 1: a male. I feel like it's I do this because
Speaker 1: it ends with an A, and so I think that's
Speaker 1: a you know, female name. But I feel like Drakia
Speaker 1: was a guy and that they've used he him pronouns before.
Speaker 1: Michael says, I don't think crawlers get to later floors
Speaker 1: unless they're ready for shit to go sideways at any time. True,
Speaker 1: but there is It's a very different thing to be
Speaker 1: in charge of a bunch of other people with that.
Speaker 1: It's one thing to personally be ready to go and
Speaker 1: ready for anything. And I understand that like pretty much
Speaker 1: everybody that we're dealing with here is like a crawler,
Speaker 1: a former crawler, or we've got some like a pretty
Speaker 1: decent amount of npcason here as well, But it is
Speaker 1: just sort of an unknown quantity right now. How well
Speaker 1: is everybody gonna work together? You know what I mean?
Speaker 1: And it could be the kind of talent where being
Speaker 1: a survivor actually doesn't make you a good leader and
Speaker 1: it does the opposite, you know what I'm saying, depending
Speaker 1: on what you're like. And I'm sure that we're going
Speaker 1: to run into somebody probably who isn't as much of
Speaker 1: a team player as we fucking wish, But as of
Speaker 1: right now, it just feels like so solid. So Samantha
Speaker 1: is being very difficult here, Louis is on his way in.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to find the bit here. We're on our way.
Speaker 1: Samantha sneaked your way onto the party planner. She's not
Speaker 1: a designated scout. What should I do? Which if she's
Speaker 1: not approved as a scout when she hits the border,
Speaker 1: it will keep her from coming in, which means that
Speaker 1: there will be, as he puts it, a Samantha sized
Speaker 1: hole in the plane. And when he's like, you need
Speaker 1: to get off, she says, it's okay. Louie and I
Speaker 1: will crash together and he will parish you down into
Speaker 1: the woods with me, where we can build a log
Speaker 1: cabin and he can grow a beard. One that's all
Speaker 1: scraggly and kind of itchy, but it also smells like
Speaker 1: a campfire. I'm sorry if that makes you jealous, Carl,
Speaker 1: which is the best way to end that fucking paragraph.
Speaker 1: And when Carl is like, no, Louis, you really got
Speaker 1: a dumper. I'm sorry, Samantha, but figure it out, she says, no, wait,
Speaker 1: Louis can just come back. It's a suicide mission. And
Speaker 1: I like Louis. I like him more than Charlie. I
Speaker 1: don't want him to die yet. And it's a moment
Speaker 1: of Carl being like, she's not stupid, she's genuinely worried
Speaker 1: about him not better, you know. But she's sort of
Speaker 1: playing this off like I'm just so goofy, you know,
Speaker 1: and he has to be like, yeah, that's not exactly
Speaker 1: correct though. So Ellie is taking stock of the hardware
Speaker 1: they are working with, and she's like treby Chay's as
Speaker 1: far as the eye can see, why are they fucking
Speaker 1: allowed to have all this shit? Soldiers and mercenaries are
Speaker 1: mounted on zebra looking things like they're going to retreat
Speaker 1: or charge at any minute. I think the rocks they're
Speaker 1: throwing are a cover for something else. Don't love that.
Speaker 1: Don't love mounted mercenaries at all, by the way, and
Speaker 1: by the time we'd reach the southern border of the
Speaker 1: ground would be mostly flat. The Harley Davidson was rode
Speaker 1: bike and wasn't great for this, and I decided to
Speaker 1: use the chariot for now. Next to me, Jamal rolled
Speaker 1: up and he's just like, oh, I can't wait to
Speaker 1: get into the mix, and he's not coming with him.
Speaker 1: He does not know this yet, but once he is informed,
Speaker 1: he's very upset. And Doughnut tries to be the like, oh,
Speaker 1: you're actually going to be doing the hardest part, and
Speaker 1: I think it's only you that could possibly pull it off,
Speaker 1: and he's like, betch, don't play with me. I know
Speaker 1: what you're doing. Please do not play in my face
Speaker 1: with this, and she just goes well I tried and
Speaker 1: takes off, which a fair you know, if he collapsed
Speaker 1: you he clocks you, it's fine. Then we have the
Speaker 1: fucking uh little castor guys that all come out like
Speaker 1: the dude has turned me back into his other form.
Speaker 1: It's a whole thing. Anyway. They are very young, and
Speaker 1: so all of them, it's like absolutely not. But I
Speaker 1: have a suspicion of probably going to get up to
Speaker 1: some shit. So I hope we've got an eye on them,
Speaker 1: a really clear close eye on them. Let's see. Mm hmmm.
Speaker 1: Splash Stowne took control of one of the transports and
Speaker 1: drove it over as the other started piling in. I
Speaker 1: pulled out the six pack missile launcher and attempted to
Speaker 1: affix it to the chariot, but I received an error.
Speaker 1: You have used up your allotted armor options. Vehicle upgrade
Speaker 1: not allowed. This is the sort of thing where I'm
Speaker 1: feeling like maybe that Oregamist class could be useful, you know,
Speaker 1: if it's one thing, but it's actually five things and
Speaker 1: you managed to sort of just trick the system. That'd
Speaker 1: be cool, be interesting. So the Dreams artillery started pounding
Speaker 1: our defenses at the southern front just as we arrived,
Speaker 1: and it's mentioned that like, this is a continual barrage
Speaker 1: that is not actually meant to break through. It is
Speaker 1: simply meant to exhaust everybody who has skills or powers,
Speaker 1: mages primarily that are going to be doing defensive stuff,
Speaker 1: tried and true kind of tactic. The list of active
Speaker 1: protections for our side was literally three pages long. So far,
Speaker 1: other than the artillery and occasional bursts of sniperfire, there
Speaker 1: hadn't yet been a raid on our position that would
Speaker 1: fully test the defenses. I knew from Florin that the
Speaker 1: Northern Front was another story. They were pushing back wave
Speaker 1: after wave of mercenaries. So far, the enemy was utilizing
Speaker 1: their meager supply of unenthusiastic dungeon born in PCs to
Speaker 1: test out our defenses. It had quickly evolved into a stalemate,
Speaker 1: a war of non offensive spells and counterspells. We had
Speaker 1: advantage of mages and knowledge, but they had numbers and
Speaker 1: superior firepower. And he has a moment later where he
Speaker 1: is just like, I can believe You've got to keep
Speaker 1: them out of here for a week. This is impossible,
Speaker 1: like a real how in the fuck am I supposed to?
Speaker 1: You know? And I feel him on that, because that
Speaker 1: has been the emotion I've been running up against every
Speaker 1: time I remember how this works. It's just like this
Speaker 1: fucking sucks. This fucking sucks. I don't recall what, if
Speaker 1: any conditions would need to be met in order to
Speaker 1: end this sooner, but the fact that like Donut can't
Speaker 1: do almost anything because she is almost all her offensive
Speaker 1: abilities are magical sucks. Ass dude, I hate it. We
Speaker 1: gotta figure something out. Let's see someone from Empress to
Speaker 1: Nadia's prison had prism had gotten him behind our position
Speaker 1: and found one of the escape tunnels, and had unleashed
Speaker 1: a powerful instant rivers square roll that had caused a
Speaker 1: ton of havoc. A few soldiers had leaped out of
Speaker 1: the trenches the water poured in, and they were immediately
Speaker 1: picked off by snipers from the enemy side. Despite the
Speaker 1: heavy fog, that scout, along with a total of six others,
Speaker 1: had all been captured or killed so far thanks to
Speaker 1: our efforts. The scout from the Prism had not been
Speaker 1: a mercenary, but a Saccathian prince of some kind, one
Speaker 1: of Donadia's actual relatives. Pieces of the saboteur littered the
Speaker 1: battlefield now after he stepped upon a simple land mine
Speaker 1: trap when he attempted to flee, sucks to suck. So
Speaker 1: he sends out orders. If we captured an enemy and
Speaker 1: we could keep them alive but unconscious, then we would
Speaker 1: do so. The NPCs and the mercenaries born outside the
Speaker 1: dungeon were to be separated. There were spells that could
Speaker 1: turn the NPCs to our side. The mercenaries had another
Speaker 1: purpose if they, if any, gave us trouble, or if
Speaker 1: it wasn't feasible or safe to them. My orders were clear,
Speaker 1: kill them, loot them using safe looting protocols, keep the body,
Speaker 1: report it to one superior officer who would passed the
Speaker 1: information back to base, where a group of those who
Speaker 1: preferred to stay out of the direct fighting were keeping
Speaker 1: track of the big picture for us. I blinked at
Speaker 1: the wide, glittering expanse of traps twinkling through the fog
Speaker 1: of the no man's land between our position and the
Speaker 1: Nauga fortifications. Most of our traps remained intact and hidden
Speaker 1: thanks to Justice Light's protection spell. It was something he'd
Speaker 1: figured out a long time ago, but it had never
Speaker 1: grown into practice because it was thought it only worked
Speaker 1: on alarm traps. Justice, along with a few other veterans,
Speaker 1: had dozens of tricks up their sleeves or wings when
Speaker 1: it came to safeguarding and hiding traps. This no man's
Speaker 1: land thing is really interesting to me. I know this is,
Speaker 1: you know, based on real jargon, and it says the
Speaker 1: enemy corridor into our territory was only about a kilometer wide,
Speaker 1: and then they keep saying only and I just that's
Speaker 1: quite wide to me. I don't know, what do I know?
Speaker 1: So I'm trying to like, there's so much packed in here.
Speaker 1: It's very tempting for me to just like read word
Speaker 1: for word what's going on. But uh, you know, I
Speaker 1: have to kind of like make sure I'm just touching
Speaker 1: on some of the most important stuff. So a tank
Speaker 1: gets destroyed, they'd scored a direct hit. I sent out
Speaker 1: a quick order, but I saw Tran was already on it.
Speaker 1: Another moment of me being like fan fucking tastic. I
Speaker 1: love this so much. Entering the Princess Posse forward position
Speaker 1: defended by one hundred and second Bulwark Battalion. Battalion is
Speaker 1: currently at ninety eight percent strength. I don't know how
Speaker 1: that's calculated exactly, I'm curious about that. Does that mean
Speaker 1: like that's how many people from the original battalion are
Speaker 1: still alive or is that about how their health has
Speaker 1: been affected or what? The back of my head continued
Speaker 1: to tingle with an odd sensation. I really don't like this.
Speaker 1: So he's got the he's got the fucking uh daughter
Speaker 1: thing on his back full and is walking around with
Speaker 1: it to the point that later on he gets soul
Speaker 1: poisoning that he's dealing with again. And I understand his
Speaker 1: reticence to use it because he brings up that like
Speaker 1: they're in very close quarters at one point, and we've
Speaker 1: seen how intense the damages that he can do, and
Speaker 1: he would probably set off all the traps and kill
Speaker 1: so many of his friends. Like I totally understand, and
Speaker 1: I get it, But oh my god, do I fucking
Speaker 1: hate him just having to hold onto this really toxic
Speaker 1: ability until the ideal opportunity presents itself. It fucking blows.
Speaker 1: It makes me so nervous. So let's see. Mages and
Speaker 1: soldiers with spears and bows and crossbows were spread evenly,
Speaker 1: all of them sweating and exhausted from constantly holding back
Speaker 1: the giant rocks, all were hunched over peering into the
Speaker 1: magical periscopes. That does not look comfortable. I thought, I
Speaker 1: put in a mental note to have the positioning adjusted.
Speaker 1: These guys would have to stand like this for hours
Speaker 1: on end. I thought that was an interesting detail. Not,
Speaker 1: you know, it's such a small thing to mention. Oh,
Speaker 1: I don't know. It just sort of about my attention.
Speaker 1: Let's see a bunch of those robot read guys just
Speaker 1: pulled up in several trucks and are moving to the
Speaker 1: enemy trenches. I'd lost track of the invisible madness guys.
Speaker 1: There's over a hundred of them. And finally somebody yells out, guys,
Speaker 1: what is that? Is it another illusion? I don't think so.
Speaker 1: Someone else said there's a little back and forth about
Speaker 1: buying things from pawnshops that are inevitably stolen. It's either
Speaker 1: that it was stolen, or it's that a very poor
Speaker 1: person hawked their stuff. They may be poor because they
Speaker 1: are an addict and they have hawked all of their
Speaker 1: stuff or keep doing that, or perhaps it's simply that
Speaker 1: they are struggling in general. But yeah, people will sell
Speaker 1: things that are not stolen plenty. So this is when
Speaker 1: we see one thousand pets heading in direction Dumplin' juiced
Speaker 1: rot sticker behemoth level forty, suffering from the gurgles, suffering
Speaker 1: from insanity, suffering from eat your face off rabies, and
Speaker 1: fed a truck stop boner pill, and we find out
Speaker 1: exactly how they are created. They can be fed something
Speaker 1: that keeps them from exploding, and they can be turned
Speaker 1: into pets, loving and faithful If given the opportunity to
Speaker 1: grow up, they get bigger and bigger and have a
Speaker 1: small amount of intelligence. When they get older, they have
Speaker 1: the same attack as the females and acid spray, which
Speaker 1: allows them to hunt and fight alongside you without having
Speaker 1: to worry about them blowing your kneecap off. What the
Speaker 1: reavers do is grab a bunch of babies and dole
Speaker 1: them out to their warriors. The warriors or up their tummies,
Speaker 1: play fetch with them, and help them level up until
Speaker 1: they reach level forty. The rot stickers grow to love
Speaker 1: and trust their masters. Then the reavers lock them in cages,
Speaker 1: inject them with size altering sterroids, inflicted them with a
Speaker 1: bunch of nasty, contagious debuffs, and unleash them on enemy
Speaker 1: positions as biological seeking missiles. Oh and they also stop
Speaker 1: giving them the medicine that keeps them from blowing up.
Speaker 1: A level forty rod sticker Behemoth packs the same punch
Speaker 1: as a stick of Goblin dynamite. This sucks, all about,
Speaker 1: all about sucks. Hate it the fact that they are
Speaker 1: contagious and will explode, spattering so many people with this
Speaker 1: contagious like this, I hate it. I hate it. Okay,
Speaker 1: So one of them exploded in mid air, showering gore
Speaker 1: over the trench. The rest crashed back down, disappearing back
Speaker 1: again behind the wall as thorns as thick as my
Speaker 1: arm sprouted from the dirt encompassing them. I turned to
Speaker 1: see Tran skitter down the trench, his voice super naturally amplified.
Speaker 1: And I want to mention that trend is in the equivalent,
Speaker 1: as Carl puts it, of like if the spider legs
Speaker 1: that Odette has were paired with Ironman armor, which sounds awesome, Frankly,
Speaker 1: let's see, did you. A short moment passed and the
Speaker 1: dwarfs and gnomes started popping back up from the tunnels
Speaker 1: fire in the hole. Someone shouted, and we all hit
Speaker 1: the deck again as the entire line of dirt in
Speaker 1: front of us exploded. I was physically lifted from the
Speaker 1: scaffolding and people called out all around as we crashed heavily.
Speaker 1: Down below. Mongo squawked in fear and rend started running
Speaker 1: in panicked circles as the sky went completely black. Back
Speaker 1: in place, Back in place, defend the line. The notification
Speaker 1: appeared across my interface, blinking, What is that? What is
Speaker 1: that from? Is that automatic AI notification? It just feels
Speaker 1: so instructive. It's not saying the line has been breached.
Speaker 1: It's saying defend the line. It's it's just different, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. It feels like orders, it's different.
Speaker 1: I don't know, I just sort of I just sort
Speaker 1: of noticed that. Let's see, there was the battle armor
Speaker 1: version which she wore. Now, yeah, the YadA talked about
Speaker 1: this already. Gurglers in the trenches and Elf shouted as
Speaker 1: she rushed through the center of the trench. She rushed
Speaker 1: towards us, pursued by a group of about ten veterans
Speaker 1: who were all screaming towards us, blood spewing from their
Speaker 1: mouths and eyes. Someone cast a spell, filling that section
Speaker 1: with dirt. The wall of hear right in front of us.
Speaker 1: Another with a surrenderaled gore like flamethrower pushed me aside
Speaker 1: and started baking the filled in section of dirt. A
Speaker 1: dozen arms and legs and claws emerged as the infected
Speaker 1: started pulling themselves free, only to be burned and melted
Speaker 1: by the powerful weapon. Fallen soldier notifications blinked across my interface.
Speaker 1: Fucking Christ. So the person who was using the flame
Speaker 1: thrower is named Kristin. She's a Crisper is her class,
Speaker 1: and she's like, that's a magical attack. What the fuck?
Speaker 1: They infected their pets before the magic band, so it's
Speaker 1: an exploit. The moment I hear this sentence, I'm like,
Speaker 1: Victory is here, sweet, and I like that. It takes
Speaker 1: a second where before Carl realizes who it is, because
Speaker 1: I'm just like, no, this is just it's very much barreness,
Speaker 1: victory coated. That's her. And she says the factions had
Speaker 1: agreed many years ago to never use it again because
Speaker 1: it's so insidious. It's what caused the insanity and the
Speaker 1: rabies de buff. I'm not familiar with that fourth deep buff.
Speaker 1: So the fact that they agreed not to use it
Speaker 1: and now they are. Is that also by agreement or
Speaker 1: is this something that this group is doing that is
Speaker 1: kind of breaking the unspoken rule. So let's see, we've
Speaker 1: got the leeches in place, Colonel Boomer said, chomping on
Speaker 1: his unlit cigar, ready to pluck some cheese sticks. And
Speaker 1: cheese sticks apparently is just like the thing we're calling
Speaker 1: them now. I find this extremely weird, but it's not
Speaker 1: exactly like I'm mad at it. It's just more like,
Speaker 1: what I have to assume there is something about this
Speaker 1: that's like, what's the wording I want here that it's
Speaker 1: like there's another slang that sounds like cheese sticks, and
Speaker 1: we just went with this because it's like similar enough.
Speaker 1: But uh yeah, anyway, he was a grizzled old elf
Speaker 1: that had survived one of the earliest seasons of Dungeon
Speaker 1: Crawler world. He looked like someone had taken the world's
Speaker 1: fattest bulldog, pickled it for about five thousand years, gave
Speaker 1: him elf years, and then shoved a cigar in his mouth.
Speaker 1: I would never have guessed he was an elf. He
Speaker 1: looked as solid as he was old. He had a
Speaker 1: voice to match Colonel and the Princess posse. This is
Speaker 1: a subordinate. His class of leggett led to some confusion,
Speaker 1: but allowed him to buff a large number of soldiers
Speaker 1: at once. According to Tippid, the Old Man had been
Speaker 1: an outspoken critic of the Crawl for a long time.
Speaker 1: He was a tenor. He'd survived as a merchant before
Speaker 1: finally escaping. He'd been banned from the Crawl con years
Speaker 1: ago after threatened to fist, fucking orchest showrunner to death
Speaker 1: during a panel. Porthos had publicly distanced himself from the
Speaker 1: militant former Crawler after that, but apparently they'd been in
Speaker 1: close contact the whole time. There was an active warrant
Speaker 1: for the Old Man's arrest after a deadly way station
Speaker 1: brawl a few cycles back, a brawl that had started
Speaker 1: after an argument about the Crawl. He'd killed someone and
Speaker 1: had disappeared into the ether. Bro sounds bananas, So just briefly,
Speaker 1: if you already saw this on the tiktoks, I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: but this felt for me like we're doing patent a
Speaker 1: little bit right with this guy. And I realized, like,
Speaker 1: as I'm thinking this, what do I even fucking know
Speaker 1: about Patten m Am? I even right about this, so
Speaker 1: I go look him up on Wikipedia, and you know
Speaker 1: the fact that this dude is as grizzled as he is,
Speaker 1: swears as much as he does, is chewing on a cigar,
Speaker 1: It all feels like it follows, right. I still think
Speaker 1: that's likely what's happening. But man, yell, when you look
Speaker 1: up a fucking historical figure, especially it dude, the way
Speaker 1: that it just never fails to disappoint, you know. Like,
Speaker 1: so dude, first of all, was like a wildly anti
Speaker 1: Semitic and basically it was like, I mean, I'll fight
Speaker 1: the Nazis because we're supposed to be like making things
Speaker 1: so that he essentially he was like, I'll fight the
Speaker 1: Germans because this is part of a larger plan for Europe.
Speaker 1: But the Germans are the only decent people in Europe,
Speaker 1: and Nazism really isn't a bad idea, is his thinking.
Speaker 1: And it's the other thing that I was, like, I
Speaker 1: mainly focused on my video was he was forty eight
Speaker 1: years old and got into a relationship with his seventeen
Speaker 1: year old niece and everybody knew it. He openly bragged
Speaker 1: about it, His wife knew, his daughter knew. The girl
Speaker 1: moved to Europe with him and co hosted dinner parties
Speaker 1: with all of his friends. Everybody knew it was not
Speaker 1: even a secret at all, and yet his fucking biographers
Speaker 1: are like, no, he didn't. He just said he slept
Speaker 1: with her because he wanted to feel virile because he
Speaker 1: was old, but he didn't actually do that. It was
Speaker 1: like a father daughter relationship. Really, No, that's what you
Speaker 1: wish it was, because you think he's a decent person,
Speaker 1: along with the anti Semitic shit. One of his biographers
Speaker 1: finished quoting him and said something like, clearly he had
Speaker 1: become delusional. No, he was an anti semi and you
Speaker 1: just don't want to say that because it doesn't fit
Speaker 1: the tidy little picture that you're trying to paint of
Speaker 1: this man. It's just wild because when people are like, well,
Speaker 1: why didn't that woman come forward about how she was treated?
Speaker 1: This man literally told everybody, and historians are still like, now,
Speaker 1: that never happened. The women don't come forward because the
Speaker 1: man can literally say it himself, and you still won't
Speaker 1: believe it. You still don't believe it. Girl killed herself
Speaker 1: days after he died, surrounded by photos of him. But
Speaker 1: they were a father daughter relationship. Get the fuck out
Speaker 1: of my face week week. These biographers should be fucking
Speaker 1: tard and feathered. All this to say, we are definitely
Speaker 1: going to be getting, like, I think, a more lovable,
Speaker 1: grizzled version of Patton that is sort of the myth
Speaker 1: that I believe exists in our minds and not the
Speaker 1: actual asshole that he seems to have been. I just
Speaker 1: wanted to touch on it, though, because it really did
Speaker 1: feel like this is our you know what I'm saying. Sorry,
Speaker 1: I'm just seeing in the chat Michael talking about pawnshops,
Speaker 1: and let's see, I assume it's by agreement since we
Speaker 1: know they're all allied against the Crawlers. And yeah, I
Speaker 1: think that's likely true. Jefferson. Jeff Richardson, I almost told you.
Speaker 1: Jefferson says, cheese dick sounds like a Philly insult. It's
Speaker 1: not even cheese dick, Jeff. It's cheese stick, like a
Speaker 1: mozzarella cheese stick. It's even less insulting than that. Like
Speaker 1: it's weird. It's just a weird one, Jeff says. He
Speaker 1: and MacArthur also had their own uniforms altered like fancy
Speaker 1: little Hitler boys. Fucking wild Jesus. So yeah, it's uh.
Speaker 1: Let's see, Michael says, the abuses of the church and
Speaker 1: of other people in authority positions were also known by people,
Speaker 1: and the most they did was tell people not to
Speaker 1: leave their kids alone with them. Yeah, it's just remarkable
Speaker 1: that like biographers are faced with all of these facts.
Speaker 1: Their job is to tell based on facts, and they
Speaker 1: can still just editorialize wildly and be like, but that
Speaker 1: didn't really happen, get a different job. Okay, clearly you
Speaker 1: do not want to engage with this person on the
Speaker 1: level of them being an actual human being with flaws,
Speaker 1: and if you're not prepared to do that, you shouldn't
Speaker 1: have this job. End of So let's see most of
Speaker 1: those pasty cousin fuckers from the dreamer cowards, they'll run
Speaker 1: if we get close to their chuckers. They'll have them
Speaker 1: surrounded with traps, so we gotta be careful. Your spy says,
Speaker 1: they have cavalry. Those of the cheese sticks you really
Speaker 1: got to look out for, especially now the Epitome household
Speaker 1: guard is in here with us. The Epitome family ain't stupid,
Speaker 1: and let's see, he wears the most ridiculous helmet you've
Speaker 1: ever seen, really, donut ask. He does not get into
Speaker 1: details with this, but obviously she's going to be looking
Speaker 1: for that. They haven't moved since the tanks, since they
Speaker 1: were uncovered. I wonder if they're decoys. Ellie said she
Speaker 1: would take a closer look, but I told her to
Speaker 1: stay back. And finally, Tran said, Ellie watched at least
Speaker 1: a hundred of the madness go invisible and disappear, so
Speaker 1: they could be anywhere, likely sneaking in right now. There
Speaker 1: probably ain't that many of the real viceroys in here,
Speaker 1: probably a bunch of the regular cheese sticks wearing the robes. Still,
Speaker 1: we need to find those creepy fucks. The ones that
Speaker 1: go invisible and sneak in are called the monkey wrenchers.
Speaker 1: A few seasons back, a group of twenty of them
Speaker 1: single handedly took the Dreadnaught and Naga castles during the
Speaker 1: first few hours. That's bunkers twenty in a few hours.
Speaker 1: Don't like it. I had no idea where the term
Speaker 1: cheese stick had originated. I'd seen a few fuck the
Speaker 1: cheese sticks tattoos already. Do we have a good idea
Speaker 1: of who's in the trenches, Boomerass, tran nodded, and any
Speaker 1: fallback position three looks to be their officers in Hospital Corps.
Speaker 1: Trench two is mostly empty but has a few guards.
Speaker 1: Everyone else is in the first trench system, which isn't
Speaker 1: anything like ours. It's just a straight line with a
Speaker 1: few bunks. It's manned solely by NPCs and mercenaries. As
Speaker 1: far as we can tell, no Inner Circle officers from
Speaker 1: any of the teams. Most of the banners of PRISM
Speaker 1: it might be all of the PRISM based on the numbers.
Speaker 1: I was expecting more Naga infantry, but I can see
Speaker 1: only one of their standards, and a smaller portion of
Speaker 1: Madness troops are also present, But the Madness marks are
Speaker 1: really from the Lennig team. They just took over. No orcs,
Speaker 1: no operatics, only a few reavers, and those were the
Speaker 1: ones with the pets. So Carl here is checking in
Speaker 1: with the NPC team. They are prepared, and Brittany is
Speaker 1: in charge of them, and it's mentioned that he doesn't
Speaker 1: really know how that happened, but she has wound up
Speaker 1: managing them, being sort of the liaison. And let's see,
Speaker 1: Donut had gone stiff. She too was looking at the
Speaker 1: Nanga headquarters. I reached up in gave her a pet,
Speaker 1: and historically the Naga castle was almost always the first
Speaker 1: to fall. But as we've already assessed that the Whore
Speaker 1: as she is called, is never harmed. She disappears hide
Speaker 1: somewhere the whole time, appears at the end completely unharmed,
Speaker 1: and nobody knows where she's hiding. If we wanted to
Speaker 1: get to her, we'd have to be very careful with
Speaker 1: how we did it. I am so deeply curious where
Speaker 1: she's hiding. That one's got me preoccupied a little bit
Speaker 1: too much. It's the sort of thing I could see
Speaker 1: myself hyperfixating on and then like kind of losing the
Speaker 1: plot because I would start to be like, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: if we get her, that's going to change the tide
Speaker 1: of everything, which isn't necessarily true at all, but I
Speaker 1: would have myself convinced of it, Like it's easier for
Speaker 1: me to cope with a puzzle than it is like
Speaker 1: fighting in this way. I'm just you know, this is
Speaker 1: not my wheelhouse at all. So it ends with Carl
Speaker 1: saying let's do this and Boomer's saying fuck yeah, And
Speaker 1: that is the end of chapter twenty two, so I
Speaker 1: can't wait to read more. Very very curious, worried. We're
Speaker 1: gonna lose people and it's gonna be awful, and I
Speaker 1: am not excited about that. For the record, anyway, thank
Speaker 1: you guys so much for coming and hanging out with me.
Speaker 1: Appreciate you all, and I will be seeing you next
Speaker 1: week with a new episode. Until then, to the lou motherfuckers.
Speaker 1: That was an unspoiled network podcast.