Ep. 43 - Templeton Unspooled (feat. Cai Gwilym Pritchard)
Content Warning for Scary Animatronics- An animatronic of the Zoo's mascot turns on and jumpscares Timoth, and then he has a flashback of it scaring him as a kid (~33:30-36:15)
The Line Bulls of the Pride of Duskwall have been led into the open mouth of a nearly dead Leviathan. Even after being mined of flesh and blood, the skeletal creature's life continues though it's body is still. The inside too, teems with life of a different kind as this creature's skeleton was further used to house a now abandoned Zoo. The Bulls must ponder the reasons they were sent here, while avoiding their very likely deaths in this forgotten ecosystem. Pip learns an unspeakable truth. Timoth finally breaks. Andrel and Drix bust the whole thing wide open.
Find special guest Cai Gwilym Pritchard on their podcast, Chain of Being!
Listen to Disc Space on Spotify, or wherever you get podcasts!
We created the Zoo on a Bonus Episode with @OneShotRPG, using his book The Ultimate RPG Game Master's Worldbuilding Guide that you can purchase here or wherever books are sold!
Ghost Lines by John Harper. Music by Sebastian Black and TJ Woods. Art by Yoshiko Agresta.
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Transcript
Greg 0:00
Content warning for scary animatronics. Check the description for details and timestamps.
Andrel 0:07
Previously on Ghosts on a Train...
Greg 0:09
You don't know all the legalese, but it looks like this judge has been denying requests to move the lightning barrier to enclose the zoo.
Captain Gemstone 0:20
Leviathan spawn pop up around the dunes here. Leviation spawn are born from leviathans. The closest leviathan would be a dead one by the old zoo.
Greg 0:29
Timoth, the explosive squib on your suit goes off and you weren't quite ready for it, so you fall off of the Best Friend of Thorn, ruining the shot.
Timoth 0:41
How was the performance? Obviously, I, up until that point. Was it, was it okay? I mean, you know, it's just been a lifelong dream to, you know, play a Line Bull, I mean, you know.
Greg 0:49
You've got to have that spark of a leader. And I'm not getting it from you. Do you remember the old zoo? Had that little mascot, Levi the Leviathan?
Timoth 0:58
He used to give me nightmares when I was younger.
Galina 1:00
I've managed to get some real Line Bulls.
Timoth 1:03
Wow, that's proper method acting!
Galina 1:05
Exactly, exactly.
Drix 1:07
Laudius is gonna be the death of me. Grab your ghost gear. Now they're blackmailing both me and him.
Andrel 1:14
Aren't the ghosts usually not on the train? Why are we -
Radio Announcer Greg 1:18
Sogmoroth, The Baleful Orphan, was born of the Sorrowful Sea. Before time could be recorded, the leviathan came into the world in the shape of the baleen whale. The ocean was their mother and their father, and it blessed them with many eyes, so they could see all their siblings and never be alone. Leviathans like Sogmoroth are deathless, even beyond most demons, perhaps because they spend their lives submerged in the love of the sea. But by the Emperor's hand, that love was spoiled, turned ink-dark and dreadful. In grief, Sogmoroth, now the Baleful Orphan, flung itself from the water's dead embrace and beached upon Thorny Severosi shores. When discovered by humanity, the great demon was docile enough to stripped, then mined, and later filled, then abandoned. Eight centuries have left the leviathan without flesh, and yet the Baleful Orphan's heart beats. Eight centuries have left the leviathan without eyes, and yet Sogmoroth weeps.
Greg 2:47
Hello, welcome back to Ghosts on a Train. This is a podcast where we play Ghost Lines, an RPG by John Harper. I'm your conductor, Greg, and I say welcome back because we're in the middle of a line! Or, rather, not a, not a line, but a ghost job.
Hannah 2:59
I'm Hannah, I play Andrel Anderson, the real girlboss of the podcast. Someone else gonna talk?
Guy 3:14
I'm Guy and I'm losing my mind. But we're here!
Greg 3:20
What do you do on the podcast, though, besides lose your mind?
Guy 3:23
Yeah, I mean, we lose a podcast where I lose my mind. That's it. That's what we're doing. That's what we're doing today. I play Pip. He's usually drunk. He's not today. He's at a zoo. He's about to get fucked up.
Hannah 3:37
We're all about to get fucked up, buddy.
Hannah 3:39
Same.
Stefen 3:40
Yeah.
Guy 3:40
I don't know what I meant by that.
Stefen 3:44
Well, I mean, the optics aren't great considering tentacles are coming towards us at the moment.
Hannah 3:51
Hate that. I'm a baby!
Cai 3:51
Uh-oh.
Stefen 3:58
That's fair. That's fair. I'm Stefen, I play Drix and I'm about to protect the shit out of Andrel with my Voldronai my barrier.
Greg 4:09
Oh, and our special guest.
Cai 4:10
I'm Cai. I'm playing Timoth, badge name Templeton, blonde bimbo of a man. And, there, fuck it. Yeah, that's, let's go with that.
Greg 4:20
Yeah, yeah. Cai is the creator of the Chain of Being podcast, also on the Faustian Nonsense network, so definitely give that a listen.
Cai 4:29
It's really, really good, and brilliant, and you should listen to it.
Greg 4:32
It's so good and brilliant.
Stefen 4:34
Yeah, real talk, it's so good.
Greg 4:35
Listen with headphones, because Cai is an amazing sound designer.
Cai 4:39
I was listening to one of the episodes with my parents and we were driving in the car, and they were like, no, let's listen to it, let's listen to it. It's like, not on these fucking car speakers. I put a lot of effort into the sound design spatialization, and it's like, we're driving on a loud motorway. It's not gonna sound good. You're just gonna hear the dialogue. But yes, yeah.
Greg 4:56
If you enjoyed how Hecla being fucking vaporized sounded, or perhaps how, related to this line, how Gafou was saved, you have Cai to thank for that.
Cai 5:06
You're welcome.
Greg 5:06
Cai gives life and they take it away.
Cai 5:09
Yeah, absolutely. I don't know if you, if you tweeted this out, but I didn't name the file for Hecla dying just Heclafuckingdies.wav. Because I couldn't think of, I don't share naming files, so I just meme my way out of things.
Greg 5:25
Oh, gosh. Speaking of fucking dying. So, currently you are in the zoo, a 20, 30 year abandoned zoo, that was a leviathan mine, a fossilized leviathan that had reached ashore, stripped for its body parts and turned into a zoo that was then summarily abandoned. Our Line Bulls - currently, Andrel and Drix are near the front entrance inside the skull, watching on in horror as some coral tendrils begin moving and thrashing about, coral that was keeping the platform for a bungee jump mostly stable. Pippin McKeel, their comrade and friend, is currently looking unsteady on top of the no longer stabilized bungee platform. But even worse, Templeton, Timoth, who had just bungee jumped down, is perhaps falling to his doom, as just as the bungee began to lift back up, the movement of the coral snapped the cord. Who should we, who should we meet up with first, do you think? The fate of Templeton?
Cai 6:32
I don't mind going last. Yeah.
Hannah 6:34
It'd be really funny if Templeton dies and Cai just has to hang out here.
Cai 6:39
Honestly, I'm happy. I'm happy to just -
Greg 6:40
Let's instead start with the three Line Bulls that are around. Who, which one of you three is going to lead against the supernatural? Because consider Templeton not quite into this fight yet.
Hannah 6:50
I say Drix. This is, this is his fucking operation.
Stefen 6:53
Yeah, I, I'm also down for Drix. I think Drix, I think Drix is down to, like, lead 'em along on this one. Let's go.
Greg 7:01
Okay, you've completed your apprenticeship, so that's a plus one. You don't have the support of another gang. You do have an anchor. Do you have a Bull in every other role? I kind of want to fuck you over here.
Guy 7:13
Kind of?
Hannah 7:14
Because Cai's down a fucking...?
Greg 7:17
But only - yeah, yeah, yeah, I think, I think we, we're not going to count Cai in here. So you do not have a Bull in every other role for this engagement.
Stefen 7:23
Fair enough.
Guy 7:24
Whee!
Greg 7:25
Do the other Bulls, you two, swear to follow his orders without hesitation?
Guy 7:29
Mm-hmm.
Hannah 7:29
Uh, I mean, Drix? Yeah, sure.
Greg 7:32
Cool, cool. So that's, so, flat number. Have you worked this line area before? No. Minus one. Roll 2d6 with a minus one.
Stefen 7:41
Okay. All right.
Guy 7:43
You've got it, Stefen.
Hannah 7:44
Godspeed. Stefen never has it.
Stefen 7:46
Ooh!
Greg 7:47
Stefen's never got it.
Stefen 7:48
That's a real good call, Hannah. Stefen got a one and a two.
Hannah 7:52
Yep! Yep! That's how it goes!
Greg 8:00
Okay!
Stefen 8:01
Speak it into existence, why don't you.
Greg 8:03
So you don't get to do any of the fancy against-the-supernatural things, but you do get to make the opening move.
Stefen 8:09
Okay.
Greg 8:10
As this thing seizes up, the bumpy platform is beginning to crumble and Pippin McKeel is looking unsteady up top. The tendrils are reaching towards you, and up top the brain coral cluster is throbbing in a similar way to the single big throb that went through the whole leviathan.
Stefen 8:28
Okay.
Greg 8:28
So yeah, what's your opening move?
Stefen 8:30
First, firstly, he's going to unhook the lasso from his belt, and he's going to swing it over his head and throw it to Pip. And while he does that, he's going to activate his Voldronai barrier and try and get in front of Andrel.
Greg 8:43
Okay, so you're trying to, like, lasso to grab Pip?
Stefen 8:46
I'm throwing him the lasso.
Greg 8:48
Oh, so he can use it, okay. Go ahead and roll me a finesse.
Stefen 8:52
All right.
Guy 8:54
Oh, boy. I don't know how to use a lasso.
Stefen 8:56
It's okay! You've been watching Drix and Andrel do it all season.
Guy 9:00
Season?
Stefen 9:01
I don't know. It's, all podcast.
Hannah 9:03
All podcast.
Greg 9:04
All campaign.
Guy 9:06
We've been going for, like, over a year, so.
Stefen 9:09
That's true.
Hannah 9:09
Yeah, we've definitely done more than one season. I don't know. I guess if we count where the breaks are this is season three.
Stefen 9:15
That makes sense. That makes sense.
Greg 9:17
Oh, that's when shows get serious.
Hannah 9:18
Yeah.
Greg 9:19
One of you guys is gonna die.
Stefen and Hannah 9:20
Yeah!
Stefen 9:23
All right. That would be a nine for finesse. We're not having a good rolling day already.
Greg 9:28
Okay. Which is the one that you want to do?
Hannah 9:31
That's not awful.
Greg 9:31
Which is the one that you want to do?
Stefen 9:33
Avoid trouble, compromise, or cost. He wants to save his friend more than anything.
Hannah 9:37
Actually, wait a sec, can I help him? Can that be my thing?
Greg 9:40
Yeah, sure. What's your, yeah, what are you going to roll?
Hannah 9:43
I'll do my own finesse. This will be Andrel jumping behind the barrier herself, so he doesn't need to worry about her quite as much.
Greg 9:51
Okay.
Hannah 9:54
Um, that's a 10, baby.
Greg 9:57
Nice, nice.
Stefen 9:58
Hell yeah.
Greg 9:58
So what are the two you want? Well, or rather, one of them is going to assisting.
Greg:Yeah. What's the other one? Like, how do you want your assist to go?
Greg:I'll do it quickly.
Greg:Okay, plus two to your roll.
Hannah:So he can do another thing now.
Greg:Yeah, what's the other thing you want to do, Drix?
Stefen:For my other thing, so compromise or cost, I want to do it quickly. Time is of the essence here. Cai's character is dropping and if he dies we are screwed.
Greg:So, you toss the lasso to Pip perfectly. Don't worry, that roll, it's gonna go to you, no trouble compromise or cost, you, you've caught it, Pip. He's practically lassoed you with it.
Guy:Cool.
Greg:As that happens, Andrel zips behind Drix, who slams down his Voldronai barrier just in time, as this thing swings with the force of a deadly weapon. It takes one harm upon striking the barrier. There is not any sort of scream, but there is the sound of, like, weird biological processes inside of this coral that causes to twitch and stuff, in some modicum of pain. And you see up there in the little brain cluster, the throbbing takes on a bit of a squeaky tone with this feedback, so the damage is reduced by one, further reduced for Andrel. So Andrel, take one harm, Drix, take two harm.
Hannah:Kay.
Greg:I'll say it whipped you with the tentacle, so you guys are both knocked back a bit. So the tentacle's, like, not still within the barrier. So if it were to strike you again, it would take another harm. With that, let's go to... Pip, are you going to do something that will involve Templeton?
Guy:I'm going to try?
Greg:Sure. So Templeton, you're lifting up. You grab what you assume is the spectrogulum. Even through the gloves you can tell it's, like, sticky and gross.
Cai:Nice.
Cai:Yummy.
Greg:However, not sticky enough, perhaps, because as you're lifting up, you hear that snapping noise. You're thrown off course as you go back up. You know you're not going to make it all the way back up to the top of the bungee platform, and the, the squishy spectrogulum flies from your hands into the the darkness of this lower area surrounding the pit. You are presently in midair. You're presently in midair, when you have your wits about you and can maybe act. This wasn't supposed to happen, but, like -
Cai:Yeah, no, yeah.
Greg:This sounds like a situation that, like, you, you should be prepared for.
Cai:Yeah.
Hannah:This seems like something that would happen.
Greg:This seems like something that would happened. So yeah, Pippin or Templeton, if you want to do something.
Guy:Pip has the lasso.
Greg:Pip has the lasso, but the platform is unsteady.
Guy:The platform is unsteady. The rope snapped on the way up.
Greg:Mm hmm. You see Templeton being yeeted towards you.
Guy:Yeah. So Templeton is coming closer. I have one shot.
Cai:Yeah. Is it possible to just to, like, just, like, prepare to land on my feet, maybe? Or is that, is it, like, this is leg breaking height? Or is this, like...
Greg:Uh, okay, so this could be leg breaking height depending on how one falls.
Cai:Okay. Right. Well, I don't know that I'm going to be lassoed, so I'm going to try and, I guess that would be finesse? To just trying to land as best I can where it'll hurt, but I don't...
Hannah:Fall on your ass! Fall on your ass!
Greg:Alright, sure. Sure. You can, you can prepare with - I'll tell you what, we'll, we'll let Pip, so what are you going to try to do? You're gonna try to lasso, right?
Guy:I mean, I have the lasso. It's basically just rope.
Greg:Let's let PIp try first and see how it goes from there. And that'll inform your roll.
Guy:I would like to toss you the lasso while I'm holding the other end, and it's got that kind of tightening knots. And, like, you can grab that and I'll try and keep you steady. But basically, like, THIS IS THE ONE SHOT.
Cai:Sure.
Greg:So what are you, what are you rolling for that, you think?
Guy:I feel like this is finesse.
Greg:Roll it.
Hannah:Praying for you.
Timoth:I did tell Greg I was fine to die literally whenever, so.
Guy:I would like to doff a lightning oil.
Greg:How do you think that'll work?
Guy:I think, so, because the ghost grabbing gloves are mechanical.
Greg:Ooh, okay. Yes.
Guy:I'm using the lightning oil to basically, like, this is going to enhance them.
Greg:Yes, the nimbleness of the fingers. Like, the, the delay, any delay that there is between, like, your finger movement and the gloves moving.
Guy:Yeah, maybe even, like, a little too much.
Greg:Yeah, reduced a little too much. But you're right.
Guy:I have an idea on, like, how I can sort of, like, basically, like, take backlash from this.
Greg:Sure.
Guy:This is gonna hurt either way. For one or both of us. I can use multiple, right?
Greg:Yeah, you can use as many lightning oils as you want. But you only have four.
Guy:Yeah, I'm gonna use three.
Greg:Unless you're the Owl.
Guy:Oh, boy. Three, and I got a plus one in finesse.
Greg:Okay.
Guy:I'm not the spider, so.
Greg:Gonna save the hell out of Cai.
Guy:Ooh, that is double three on the dice, plus one, seven, because I got the three, that is a ten. Phew.
Stefen:Nice!
Guy:Okay, what's the one you don't want to do? I would like to... this is gonna give you a lot of knives, Greg, but -
Greg:I don't like that word, knives. Like I'm going to use them to stab you.
Hannah:You are going to use them to stab us, though.
Guy:I think I do it quickly and I think I do it to greater effect. I think, like, I think this rope goes, like, goes straight to you, you can grab it, like, this is no sweat.
Greg:Oh yeah, greater effect, yeah. Temp, you got Templeton. Templeton, you are -
Guy:You're not going to die.
Greg:You're getting ready to land and then you're caught just as you were, like, starting to fall. You feel yourself secured. With your feet, you're able to sort of hit, like, the wall below the platform where you're, like, you see, actually, see some of the lights that you thought were on, you see from here that they're very clearly, like, chipped and broken. There's no way they could have lit up. There's, like, no electricity to them. Your legs make contact with the platform and you are showered in debris as the platform begins to crumble.
Guy:Whee!
Greg:Pippin McKeel, you are safely sliding down the remains of this platform, but you're going to be on the lower level, separated from Andrel and Drix.
Guy:That's fine. As long as no one gets fucking Star Wars-ed.
Greg:Templeton, it's your opportunity to act. As you land you know you've lost the spectrogulum, but you know it didn't go down the pit, so it's somewhere around here. It's very dark, of course, outside of a light on your -
Cai:Sorry, just to clarify, I'm up where I jumped from? Or am I on a different platform, did you say?
Greg:You are now on the lower level. So it was, like, um, there's, there's the entrance?
Cai:Yeah.
Greg:And then above the entrance, there's the big platform where you bungee jump. From the entrance you could also go down to a lower level that circles a pit.
Cai:I see. Sorry, okay.
Greg:And the pit, you bungee jump from that top level down past the entrance, down past the lower level surrounding the pit, into the pit, and then you snap back up you are now on the lower level.
Cai:Okay, cool.
Greg:You do also see the coral tentacles sort of whipping around, but doesn't look like they can very easily reach down here.
Guy:Can I describe my action first? Because I forgot to do that.
Greg:Oh, I was describing the rope side of it, Templeton's end of it.
Guy:The ropes I, like, threw down, Templeton, like, you have it, you're secure. This platform I'm on breaks and I just start sliding down. I think Pip, with the other hand, does the very metal thing of just, like, grabs the wall and just, like, is making a little, like, long streak as he's just, like, sliding down, like, on his back against it just, like, rubble, debris. There's just, like, dust getting kicked up. It's making this terrible racket, maybe, like, a little bit less of a din over everything else that's going on, but it is definitely not quiet. Do I take any harm or trauma from that?
Greg:No, no, no. But actually, Cai, Templeton, go ahead and take one harm.
Cai:Cool.
Greg:As this shower of debris comes down. You're wearing the Owl suit, which is not reinforced in the slightest.
Cai:Sure.
Greg:You've gotten some welts. And you're like, damn. Damn, that really hurts.
Cai:Yeah.
Timoth:Is that, was, was that, was that part of the... is everything okay up there? Was that part of it? Sorry. Sorry to break, but was that? Was that alright? It feels like that shouldn't have happened.
Greg:Only Pip just heard what you said there.
Cai:Okay.
Greg:We're gonna cut back up, as the the coral whips out. I think the coral is going to lash out at you two. In order to be within the Voldronai barrier, Andrel, you're, like, right up next to Drix, so it lashes out at both of you, taking one harm as it hits the barrier. But it is going to wrap around you two. It has you in its grip. What do you do?
Hannah:I would like to finesse to wriggle my way out?
Greg:Sure.
Hannah:Great. Gonna switch my dice rolling hand. Um, that's a 10.
Greg:Cool. What's the one you don't want to do?
Hannah:Greater effect.
Greg:Okay, you alone quickly wriggle out.
Hannah:God damn. Aw, fuck. Sorry.
Stefen:It's cool, it's cool.
Greg:Drix. What are you doing?
Hannah:Can I change to quickly?
Greg:Can you change to quickly?
Hannah:Can I change to quickly?
Greg:So coral wraps around you, you begin to wriggle out. You notice Drix is maybe not quite as quick to escape, you begin helping pulls Drix along, and as it whips you guys upwards, intending to slam you into the ceiling, you both spill out, falling onto the debris of that platform. Drix, you and Andrel are probably going to slide and fall, perhaps painfully, down this debris. What do you do?
Stefen:Oh, real quick, one question. When the coral came and tried to wrap itself around us, that, was that one harm before or after armor?
Greg:It doesn't - oh no, you didn't take one harm. It takes one harm.
Stefen:Okay, gotcha. Gotcha. Gotcha. Gotcha.
Greg:You just took that two originally from, from the first whipping. You, but, you're in danger of perhaps taking more harm, as you're about to slide down this debris.
Stefen:Yeah, yeah. Okay, here's what I think I'm gonna try and do. We're on, like, the falling platform, right?
Greg:The crumbling remnants of it.
Stefen:Okay, I think what Drix is going to try to do is he's going to look around, scan, scan the platform, kinda, like, go, alright, if I stomp here, I can make, like, a surfboard and ride it down.
Greg:Would you like to roll insight to scan for that? Because you don't have a lot of time.
Stefen:Okay, all right. All right. Can I use a lightning oil?
Hannah:It might be easier for you to take a different approach, bud.
Stefen:That's fair. That's fair. We're gonna...
Cai:Should've let him Legolas.
Hannah:I don't, not to make you think of something else, but I am sorry, I have no faith in your abilities to roll a successful insight check.
Stefen:No, that's valid. That's entirely fair.
Guy:Yeah...
Stefen:All right. All right. How can I get this to be force? Let's see. Let's see. Let's see. Okay. All right. All right. All right. All right.
Greg:Okay.
Stefen:Is there any part of the structure that, like, is bent in a way that once ripped open we could crawl inside to, like, have a little cocoon for when we fall?
Greg:Sure.
Stefen:Bet.
Greg:Sure, sure. Not, like, it's not like you're being like, oh, let me sit and look for a piece, you just, like, there's a lot of pieces of the structure and you just grab, grab a piece of metal and try to bend it. Okay. Well roll force.
Stefen:Jesus, I am rolling so bad today. Oh, well, that's a failure. That's, that's a six. Uh...
Greg:Okay. You go to grab you go to grab a piece... sorry, I'm just checking, checking a little something.
Cai:That's never a good sign.
Guy:Is this how Drix dies?
Guy:So -
Cai:Can't believe I was here for that.
Greg:I mean, maybe. I'll tell you what.
Guy:I don't like that.
Greg:You kind of make this worse for you and Andrel.
Hannah:God damn.
Cai:This is how Andrel dies.
Greg:Yeah, you two, you two are falling by debris. You go to, you go to pull a spike and bend it, and instead you end up dragging more debris. So not only are you, like, skipping along with these, like, hard rocks and pieces of building, but now there's stuff on top of you hitting you. We're going to upgrade the harm that you would have both taken from one before armor to two before armor, so Andrel takes one harm, Drix...
Hannah:Halfway full already, kids.
Greg:Cai, Guy. Do you think the Voldronai barrier should protect Drix?
Guy:For falling?
Cai:Don't ask me! I'm a guest!
Greg:From, from, yeah.
Hannah:I think that makes sense, personally.
Stefen:It's, like, a coating of Earth. I would, uh...
Greg:Yeah, go ahead and take, go ahead and take one harm, Drix.
Stefen:Okay.
Guy:I would've said no. Like.
Cai:Yeah, I would've said no as well. I'm kidding.
Guy:Here's the thing. It's, it's a coating of Earth.
Greg:I imagine it shreds up some of the falling debris a little bit.
Cai:Yeah.
Guy:It would shred up the debris but I don't think it helps you with your landing at all.
Greg:Oh, yeah. The land, that's, that's what it is. The landing's the one harm. You both land, the coral is whipping around and yet cannot reach down here, and it eventually stills. It is a plant. But yes, you two land in front of Pip and Timoth.
Andrel:Hey.
Timoth:Wow, that was a hell of a stunt. You guys all right?
Pip:Yeah, we're, we're all right at improvisation.
Timoth:Yeah, no, it went really well, though. That was really good. Well done. I seem to have dropped it somewhere down there. So we'll just head down there unless somebody needs to do anything else. You know, maybe taking a little bit longer than I expected, but we're all, we're all good?
Andrel:If I had to describe my physical state, by picturing it as a circle that gets full, I would say my circle is about half full right now.
Timoth:What a strangely specific way to phrase that. But it makes total sense to me!
Cai:I went, I went Australian there, Jesus.
Drix:Well, if that's how we're doing it, I think my circle would be about three quarters full.
Hannah:Full is bad, by the way.
Drix:Yeah.
Pip:Maybe you should, maybe you should let me take a couple more of the hits.
Drix:Boy, I sure wish you were up here to do that.
Guy:Pip is struggling a little to bit to remove the left glove from, like, embedded within the cliff face.
Greg:So as you're just struggling to get that, emerging from the darkness, your heart skips a beat, Pip, for a second, as a shadow bigger than Andrel moves towards you and extends a hairless paw. It's Ji'mani, who, with a single paw and mouth just goes -
Ji'mani:Yorp yorp yorp yorp!
Greg:And tries really badly to help dig you out.
Andrel:Oh, good boy!
Stefen:So, Greg, occasionally on the line, you extend us the option to have a flashback where we purchased specialty gear.
Greg:Don't worry, sure, sure. Yeah.
Hannah:Do you want healing potions, Stefen?
Stefen:Uh, yeah. Yeah, I want some healing potions.
Greg:Yeah, yeah. If you, if you spend the favor for it.
Stefen:Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. How many things I need for custom gear? We're gonna...
Greg:Specialty gear.
Stefen:Yeah. Oh, no, but for custom gear I need to save three. Okay. Yeah. Can I get three? What are they called again?
Greg:Crimson elixirs.
Stefen:Crimson elixirs, yes.
Guy:Violet remedy's the other one.
Greg:Named that way after Piero's remedy and Sokolov's elixir in Dishonored.
Guy:I can't believe Greg got Dishonored pilled.
Greg:Did you know the favors are probably also named after Daud's favor options that he can purchase before his missions in the DLC?
Cai:I did not! Are you on, are you on the sequel yet? Or are you still doing DLC?
Greg:I am on the sequel. I'm more than halfway through.
Hannah:Okay, I'm gonna take a break while you guys -
Greg:No, Hannah, come back! Come back, Hannah!
Stefen:So yeah, I'm gonna, I'm gonna down one of those crimson elixirs real quick.
Greg:Yes, drinking but one crimson elixir, you could feel your body's healing processes being stimulated. You probably did get at least a little bit of a cut on the inside of your suit, from that bad fall. It scabs over quickly, unnaturally quick.
Drix:Never like how those feel.
Greg:Congratulations, guys! You got past my plant monster puzzle.
Hannah:Yay.
Greg:Pippin and Timoth are in the lower section of the middle of the zoo. The ground here is like a cracked riverbed and there's, like, maybe in some places the suggestion of, like, fading paint that would have directed you to different sections of the zoo. As you can see there's, like, oblong tunnels all around this place, but this seems to be the central area. Drix and Andrel, you're, like, about midway between the top entrance area and the bottom where they are. You could comfortably sort of stumble through that debris that has now made a little bit of a slope down to where they are.
Guy:If you so desired.
Hannah:Yeah, I suppose we will.
Greg:So you guys are down there, just the lights from your suits illuminating.
Andrel:Hey guys, how you doing?
Timoth:Yeah, not bad. I got a little bit of an injury here and there. This, this suit's not a super protective, but I think, I think it'll be fine. I think that's within the, hope the, you know, union doesn't have too much to say about that. But I think it'll be fine.
Andrel:Wait a second, we have a union?!
Timoth:I know I do. I don't know whether it's available to you guys as well. Maybe there's a different one for you. This is not supposed to be happening. Anyway.
Andrel:Guys, we should have a union. We should fucking unionize.
Stefen:Nothing gets, no one gets from town to town without us.
Andrel:Uh huh!
Cai:Sorry, Greg, for deciding things about the world. You can just, you can retcon shit.
Greg:No, no, no, no, no listen, you're correct.
Hannah:There's a master libe bull union.
Timoth:Well, the way I see it, we still got a job to do. So let's, let's go team! Let's go get this spectrum, spectro, spectrologum. I'm gonna need to rehearse that one. I think it would -
Cai:Can I try and figure out where it, where it fell? Is there some sort of...
Greg:Oh, sure. If you want to do some sort of insight roll.
Cai:Yeah, I think an insight roll would be good. Let's do that.
Stefen:Glad someone can make em.
Cai:5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12.
Hannah:Cai's good at insight! This has never happened before!
Greg:Cai, what's, what's your insight, for the, for the listeners?
Timoth:My insight is a three.
Hannah:We've never had anyone get above a one before!
Greg:All right.
Stefen:Cai's changing the game.
Hannah:42 episodes of this podcast to get a smart person.
Greg:Yeah. Okay. So we were using that as the roll to sort of, like, find the thing, but also on a 12 plus, you get to hold three insight questions.
Guy:God damn.
Greg:So if you'd like, you could ask one to three questions from that list on the first page on the bottom left.
Hannah:Oh, so he has sly, then, as well?
Greg:No, just on a 12 plus you get three.
Hannah:Oh, okay. No, I'm wrong. I've simply never gotten a 12 plus, so.
Guy:You have gotten two hold though.
Hannah:Yes. And I have sly which lets me hold three.
Cai:This is the one where I have to do them here and now, right?
Greg:You don't have to do them right now. You got, you got the hold one, so you can hold on to them. You've got up to three. If you want you could ask any one of them. I'm opening the door to you before I start describing things.
Cai:I'm not feeling like I'm in danger.
Greg:Sure, sure.
Cai:Did not fully expected this but, like, we're fine. So I don't think I'm gonna, I'm gonna just wait and then I'll ask these at a later date. Does one of the questions have to be spent on finding it or do I just get it and then I get to do these another time?
Greg:You know what, I think for completeness' sake, yeah, we'll spend one, we'll spend one to find it.
Cai:Okay. Sounds good. So I guess what's the best way to find the spectrologum? Spectrum? I don't know how to say it.
Greg:So, Templeton puts on the Owl goggles. The Owl goggles are cool as hell. You are seeing now not, like, night vision, but you're seeing into the Ghost Field with a clarity that used to belong only to -
Hannah:Severosi ghost hunting horses.
Greg:Yeah, yeah, yeah. Severosi ghost hunting horses or, like, old mad sorcerers who, like, opened their minds and never fully returned. But thanks to the marvel of technology, you can safely gaze this way.
Cai:Awesome.
Greg:This whole place is teeming with life. You understand now that a leviathan can never truly be dead. But not only that, but there's other organisms, or not organisms, other spirits, that are floating about within this zoo. You walk towards where you get the vibe of the spectrogulum. Feels about that size and shape and that consistency.
Cai:Sure.
Greg:The amorphous just sort of comes through. Everybody following Templeton?
Hannah:Yep.
Guy:Yeah.
Stefen:Yeah, um.
Guy:Pip is gonna follow. He's following where he's looking. But he's also, Pip is going to be cautious.
Hannah:Yeah, I think Andrel is still taking her cues from her grownups.
Greg:Andrel, you begin to follow, but Ji'mani, the hairs on his tail and the hairs of the handlebar mustache are sort of standing up on end.
Hannah:Ji'mani is the most important grownup.
Andrel:Guys, I think Ji'mani, I think he's seeing something.
Guy:Pip gets ready. En guarde.
Greg:You hear a low growling noise that at first you think is coming from Ji'mani. But you see that Ji'mani is far too frightened. The sound comes from the darkness, not in the direction that Templeton is looking. There is a fuzzy shadow. It's far enough away that you're really seeing it at, like, the edge of your flashlight, and you can make out what looks like two front claws and teeth breaking up the fuzziness of the shadow. The growl continues some, but suddenly, simultaneously, the shadow jumps away and Templeton, take one trauma as you are jumpscared! A flash of light directly into your eyes! Several lights in an array, there's a sound rusty from a speaker of...
Distorted Speaker:He's Levi the friendly Leviathan, and he's only got eyes for his special friend. He says keep your hands out of the cages or you might lose them. But he hopes that you love the zoo...
Greg:As this is playing you sense the throb, but the sound of it is drowned out.
Distorted Speaker:...He's always watching, he's Levi the Leviathan!
Stefen:Drix downs the crimson elixir immediately.
Greg:You, actually take two trauma, Cai. Everybody else takes one trauma.
Hannah:You know what? Fair.
Greg:The throb subsides, the music subsides.
Hannah:I think I just took trauma in real life from seeing how your eyes fucking got when you did that song.
Greg:I have already sent the lyrics to Sebastian.
Timoth:Oh, that's so good. I'm so excited.
Greg:You must not have been able to hear it before, but it seems so perfectly timed that perhaps this jingle is meant to drown out whatever that throbbing is.
Hannah:Jesus fucking Christ.
Greg:Yeah, you see the lights that blinded you, Templeton, belong to this rusty animatronic statue of Levi the Leviathan. I think another reason why you take two trauma is, we flashback to young Timoth, who did go to go to the zoo in the final, in the final days of it when shit was really bad. And perhaps, perhaps Timoth's parents -
Hannah:His family!
Greg:His family wanted him to take a picture at the photo booth with Levi the Leviathan. The statue wasn't rusted then, but the whole thing is still horrifying. He's got too many cartoon eyes and features that a normal whale shouldn't have and he's so, he's so tall, he's so big compared to little Timoth.
Timoth:I mean, if we're doing, like, a sort of, like, shots-type thing, like, there's just a shot of, like, looking up, like, this tiny little toddler just looking up, and then a shot looking up at this horrible creature, and just an absolute, like, yeah, expression of abject horror on little Timoth's face. And this has unlocked something that was pushed away into the sort of, into the subconscious of Timoth has now become unlocked.
Hannah:Deranged.
Greg:Yeah, you see, you see for a moment a Templeton, you can't clearly see his face between the mask and the Owl goggles, but Timoth was, like, staring agog at the statue. You three are all creeped out as well, but.
Andrel:Uh, Timoth, we should, we should move it.
Timoth:Yeah, yeah, no, that's, yeah, you're right. Well, which, which, which direction were we going again?
Greg:You hear from up above -
Crow:Got a good one again! See the look on your face, eh!
Andrel:What?
Timoth:Who is that, was that? I thought it was just meant to be us here.
Greg:Looking up with the Owl goggles, you can see more clearly than everybody else, who only gets a vague shape. There is a crow perched on a side of the wall. It flaps a bit as it speaks, and you see it's got four wings, and reflecting off the flashlight you see it has a single eye and it's centered. And it laughs like -
Crow:Old whale scared you right proper, didn't it?
Greg:As it turns to talk to you you see, clutched in one of its claws, the sticky webbing of the spectrogulum.
Timoth:Uh, it's, uh, yeah. You give that back you... crece critter!
Crow:Oi, a critter, am I?
Hannah:We can, we can all, we can all hear it, right?
Greg:Yeah, you can all, you can all hear it.
Hannah:Okay.
Drix:I think you may want to try and reason with it.
Andrel:Definitionally, yeah.
Drix:No, Mr. Bird Person. You, you're, you're a valid individual, and we could reason with each other.
Pip:This just sounds patronizing.
Crow:Reason with each other for what? For me to stop mocking you? Because I ain't gonna do that!
Pip:I'd like to propose a barter.
Crow:Oh, a barter!
Pip:If you are amenable.
Crow:For what, mate? What you got that I want?
Guy:Pip reaches into the, he kind of, like, unzips the the Anchor suit a little bit and reaches into his pocket, and pulls out some very shiny that he picked up on the last bit over by the mermaids, some broken sea glass that has been kind of, like, strung together a little bit. So it's very shiny but it's got that kind of, like, dull edge. Very pretty.
Crow:Pretty nice shiny, it is. I suppose I could give you something special for it. What you want from me?
Timoth:The spectrogulum, you - yeah, got it right! The spectrogulum you have in your, in your wing, wing there. We want it.
Crow:Spectrogulum? The bloody hell is that, mate?
Andrel:The thing you have.
Pip:The sticky thing you got there.
Crow:Oh, sticky thing. No, no, that's far too precious.
Andrel:You don't even know what it is.
Crow:Oh, you're right. But you clearly want it.
Pip:What if I, what if I sweeten the pot a little bit?
Guy:And Pip reaches into his pocket once again, and pulls out a slightly stale end bit of bread. Nice and crusty.
Greg:Oh, that looks lovely, doesn't it?
Pip:It's a bargain, it is.
Andrel:Yeah, this is really good bread.
Pip:You'd be doing one over on me.
Crow:Right? Like you'd be cutting your own throat, wouldn't it?
Pip:I wouldn't go that far. It's a different world, it is.
Andrel:Look, dude, the thing you have is -
Crow:I tell you what. Yeah, yeah, toss, tos the break down. Toss the bread down, let me examine the goods.
Andrel:Hey, no, how do we know you're not just gonna eat it?
Crow:I'll tell you what, I'll peck it. And then I'll give you the first half.
Andrel:The first half?
Crow:First half of the payment.
Andrel:No, don't, don't break it.
Crow:All right, then I'll tell you what. I'll test the bread and I'll give you the payment. Break me off a crust. Give it here, love.
Guy:Pip does exactly that.
Stefen:Drix got his lasso back from Pip, right?
Greg:Yeah.
Hannah:Wait a second, this might work.
Stefen:Yeah, I know, I know, just, just in case. He's, you know, hand on his hip.
Greg:It goes on its four wings. It takes the sticky thing, puts it in its claws, and flaps down on its four wings to where you toss the bread.
Guy:It does a little little raven hop that they do the ground.
Greg:Yeah, little raven hop. On one leg because it's holding the sticky thing. It pecks at it a little bit.
Crow:All right. This is pretty good. Pretty good, mate, real, real quality stuff. I don't think it's quite worth the sticky thing. I think it's worth something, some one better. Something only I can give you, eh!
Andrel:It feels like you're getting at something.
Timoth:Yeah. Do you, do you, do you want us to say something specific? I feel like...
Andrel:Also, I think you're overestimating the value of the sticky thing. We don't want it that much.
Crow:Alright then, then you'll like this better! Here you go, mate! The hour of your death! In the month of -
Greg:There's a horrid ringing noise as, Pip, you gain four trauma, as you know deep in your heart that right now you are having described to you the hour of your death.
Guy:I'd like to suffer a horror, please.
Greg:Andrel and Drix, take two trauma as you now know when Pip will perish, your friend Pip.
Guy:Yeah, I'm gonna suffer a horror for that one.
Andrel:We didn't want that!
Crow:You said you didn't want the sticky thing that much, so I'll be going! Thanks for the bread, love!
Andrel:No!
Cai:No, we didn't -
Spirit (Crowl):Toss the rest!
Stefen:I'm lassoing the sticky thing. I'm taking it.
Greg:Go for it. Roll finesse.
Stefen:All right. Let's, let's do this.
Guy:I was, I was trying to do the thing that you do with dogs, where if you want them to drop something you give them something else to hold.
Stefen:Nine plus 2, 11 baby, let's go!
Greg:What's the one you don't want to do?
Stefen:I want to avoid trouble, compromise, or cost, and I want to do it to greater effect.
Greg:Hell yes. You lasso. The bird flaps with its four wings very quickly. You lasso around its legs and the spectrogulum, its legs sort of squished together, and in desperation it kicks one leg out. There's a weird, fibrous biological, ripping noise as a spectrogulum tears in half. The whole bird with, carrying one half, is dragged to you, Drix, the other half flies down one of the tunnels.
Hannah:Didn't he avoid trouble, compromise, or cost?
Greg:He didn't do it quickly enough. He got the thing. In greater effect he got the bird.
Crow:What's all this then?
Pip:I had it! I had it! So close!
Andrel:You did not have it.
Crow:What's going on? Trying to fleece me out of everything I own? I can do the rest of you if you want!
Andrel:No, don't!
Stefen:Stuff the bread in his mouth.
Cai:I was gonna close his beak with my hand.
Stefen:We'll be taking the spectrogulum.
Crow:*muffled*
Drix:Whatever. Now, if you promise to shut the hell up...
Timoth:I was meant to get the whole thing! I mean, we're done here now, right? I mean, we can just go, like, is this... do you think she'll take...
Andrel:Yeah, I guess.
Greg:Well the, you know the, the other half of the spectrogulum is down the tunnel.
Timoth:To be fair, I don't know what she wanted it for, so she might have just wanted it for, like, ingredients in something.
Andrel:Okay, you definitely should have asked what she wanted it for. That's important information.
Crow:What she wants what for?
Andrel:Shut the fuck up!
Cai:I just want to shake him but that'd probably kill him. I don't know, crows are fragile. Not that I know that from experience, but.
Timoth:I mean, she, you know, she's always done right by me. I just kind of do what she says. It's usually just how things work out. I guess we'll get the other half. Do I keep him? Do I let him go?
Crow:I say we let him go!
Drix:If we let you go are you going to tell us how we die?
Crow:Like I'd give that away for free!
Andrel:Toss him. I say toss him.
Timoth:Like, into the pit?
Pip:Do you know where the other one way?
Crow:The other half?
Hannah:Why would he know that?
Crow:Reptile tank, most likely.
Cai:Fuck.
Crow:That's down that tunnel. Don't much like it there.
Pip:If you don't like it much why'd you fling it that way? It just seems, seems like poor planning, it is.
Hannah:Oh my god, I don't want to talk to this guy anymore. Can we go?
Crow:You're not great conversation either, love.
Pip:I feel an odd sort of kinship. It's hard to explain.
Cai:I guess I let him go? I just open my palm and...
Timoth:Bye, I guess? This is so weird. I've never had anything like this before. Bye.
Pip:Never?
Crow:Don't worry. You'll have something like this again.
Hannah:Shut up.
Greg:And it flaps away with all four of its wings.
Cai:All right.
Andrel:Timoth, I have a question for you as we walk.
Timoth:Yeah, sure. Shoot.
Hannah:Yeah, why do you trust this lady so implicitly? Because she, like, made no secret to us that she was, like, not very nice.
Timoth:This, see, this doesn't align with what I know about, about Gal. She's usually been really sweet to me. I wouldn't be in the position I am without her. Really, I mean, I wouldn't be here at all.
Andrel:Did she, like, save your life or something? Like, is there, is this, I feel like there's something we're missing here.
Timoth:Is this... is this still part of the thing? Are you asking out of... is this out of character?
Andrel:What? No, I'm, I'm -
Hannah:This is Hannah. No, sorry, this is Andrel. Andrel is having a conversation with you.
Greg:Yeah, that was in character.
Hannah:What? Oh.
Greg:Templeton asked that.
Andrel:Out of character?
Stefen:Oh my god.
Timoth:But, no, but am I, am I replying as, as Templeton? Or am I replying as Timoth? Sorry. It's, this has been off plan and I'm not, I'm not supposed to break character to you guys, but it's a little bit confusing, and I wasn't sure, the crow freaked me out -
Andrel:Wait a second, wait a second.
Timoth:What?
Andrel:Wait a second.
Timoth:What?
Andrel:Are you not a Line Bull? Are you not Templeton?
Timoth:I mean, I'm Templeton in, in character. I'm, I thought this was part of the agreement, was that we all pretend that this is just a real mission?
Andrel:What?
Pip:Pretend?
Timoth:I'm sorry. What what do you think I am?
Hannah:This is a real mission!
Timoth:I know, like, a real mission, you know, like, it's, you know, a real mission.
Andrel:No, no, I don't -
Timoth:Like, I know we're all, we're all method, I understand -
Andrel:No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, I don't know what you're talking about right now! This is - we are Line Bulls. We were hired to go to a ghost zoo and get this -
Timoth:Yeah.
Andrel:This is a real mission -
Timoth:Yeah.
Andrel:And we can really die on it. This is, this is really happening. I, whatever you are doing, we were not aware of it.
Timoth:I'm really sorry. Okay, I'm just gonna start, I know, I don't know if I get in trouble for this. From my perspective, I'm, I'm an actor. My name is, my name is Timoth, but I'm playing Templeton in a new film. And I was told that in order to become more, you know, convincingly a Line Bull, that I would be put with some Line Bulls who knew what was happening. Gal's my agent and I was just told to get this spectrogulum thing, which I kind of didn't really understand at the time, but I've never really questioned her before, but - is this not, is this real?
Pip:Yeah, bud. This is, this is happening.
Andrel:We are not actors and we were not told that you were an actor.
Pip:You nearly died, like, 10 minutes ago.
Timoth:When? What, with the, but the bungee ropes were, they were new! I mean, of course it was safe!
Andrel:No.
Timoth:I nearly died?
Andrel:Yeah.
Pip:That snapped on the way up.
Greg:Uh, hey, Timoth, Timoth, can you roll steel for me?
Cai:Oh, the stat I have a minus two in? Yeah, sure.
Hannah:This is our high insight guy?!
Greg:What's your, what's your, what's your - gotta be insightful to be an actor. What's your, what's the one thing you don't want to do?
Cai:Let me - oh, do I decide before I roll?
Greg:Yeah, before you roll. What you, what you don't want to do.
Cai:I don't know, fuck.
Guy:Might I recommend suffer more trauma or harm?
Timoth:Yeah, I don't want to, I don't, yeah, that's, I think that's a good one. Okay, cool. That is, sorry, that's a seven with my minus two, so,
Greg:Okay, so you, you do a different one. You freeze up. Timoth, you could have died. You could have died. I think, Timoth, unconsciously you sort of drop onto your butt, clutching your knees
Timoth:Sort of sit and, like, eyes, like, sort of this kind of thousand yard stare, kind of breathing, slightly under my breath just going huh, huh, huh, huh.
Hannah:That's why you have a union! I - of course Line Bulls don't have unions! What was I thinking?!
Stefen:If we had a union we wouldn't die so often.
Pegasus:No! Of course - we should have a union.
Timoth:So, so Gal was actually blackmailing you?
Andrel:YES!
Timoth:Like, genuinely blackmailing you?
Andrel:YES!
Timoth:And threatening you with Hollowing? I thought that was part of a script!
Andrel:NO!
Timoth:Look!
Cai:And he gets out, like, a piece of paper.
Timoth:This is, like, the list of things that was meant, this is the itinerary. I mean, this is, you know, like, show up at eight in the green room, and then, with all the list of things I'd asked for, then we'd go to the zoo and meet you guys and then I do the bungee cord, but then the the falling and the breaking wasn't part of it. I thought something was up, but I guess they were just, I thought they were testing my, like, improv and, like, really getting me to believe it but... can we go home? I don't, I'm done here. I don't want to...
Pip:Who are you expecting to be here?
Timoth:I mean, I knew, I was told you guys would be Line Bulls, but I was told that you'd be, like, you know, there to make sure I wouldn't, like, die or anything. I thought, you know, I thought I was safe.
Hannah:No.
Pip:You certainly tried hard.
Stefen:I do want to dispel a, an illusion that you seem to be aware of. Being with a Line Bull is almost never safe.
Andrel:Yeah.
Pip:If we're here it's because it is dangerous.
Andrel:Your chances are worse with us, if anything.
Guy:I, wouldn't go that far.
Andrel:Okay, alright. So I assumed that this lady needed the spectrogulum for something, but it appears that we have been drafted into a fucking improv exercise. So yeah, maybe half of it is good enough.
Greg:Well, looking close the spectrogulum, there is something very real about it. There's been something very real about -
Hannah:No, obviously it's a real spectrogulum.
Greg:- everything else in here.
Hannah:That, yeah, no, I'm not doubting that.
Greg:So if you go back with half of it, are you ready for - perhaps, perhaps Drix is thinking, Drix, are you ready for the consequences, potentially, if you don't come back with the whole thing?
Drix:Crap.
Greg:You know, you know something fucked up is up.
Stefen:Yeah!
Greg:Pippin, the people that use this capital-C Correspondence, they've been saying a lot of ominous shit to you.
Guy:Yeah.
Greg:And a spectrogulum is a strange, supernatural thing. A leviathan spectrogulum, what could that be like?
Pip:Listen, Timoth. I feel you've been unknowingly drafted into, into helping some elites accomplish something very untoward.
Andrel:Why in God's name would they send an actor with us?
Drix:Because they're trying to kill us.
Andrel:No, well, there are easier ways to do that!
Drix:Yeah...
Andrel:Like, okay, here are the goals, here are the possible goals I can see. One, maybe they're trying to kill us - easier ways to do that. Or, like, just don't send anyone at all. Two, this is an actor exercise, in which case, why would we be in a real leviathan zoo? Or three, the spectrogulum is important for some reason, in which case, why did they send an actor with us?
Timoth:I don't know why you're looking at me like I have answers! I'm on the same level as you! I'm sorry!
Andrel:No, I'm not looking at you! I'm not looking at you. I, listen -
Timoth:It just feels like everyone's angry, everyone's shouting, and I want to go home.
Hannah:I'm not mad at you anymore.
Drix:Look, you, look, you can call me Drix. It's...
Timoth:Thank you, thank you Drix.
Andrel:We are unfortunately, a family now. You're in this with us.
Timoth:I don't, I don't believe that! I, that, that was just part of the character! I don't know you people!
Andrel:Well too FUCKING bad!
Drix:Yeah, I'm gonna need you to get right back into that method acting mode.
Pip:The only way we're getting out of this successfully, is doing it together. If any of us panics, loses it, goes on a row...
Andrel:Oh, we're well past that.
Timoth:So, I don't feel comfortable leading us anymore. Does somebody want to take the goggles away from me, and I'll just do whatever anybody says?
Pegasus:No, you should keep the goggles. None of us are great at using them anyway.
Drix:If you can see what you can see with the goggles and at least point stuff out to us, then you'd at least be a help.
Timoth:Okay. Okay, I can, I can do that.
Andrel:Like, weirdly, you've been doing fine.
Pip:You are, as of current moment, the director. Point out what we need do and we will go do it.
Timoth:Okay. I guess, I could...
Pip:But we need your eyes.
Timoth:Onward to the to the lizard den. Can I go in the middle?
Andrel:Yeah.
Timoth:I don't want to go at the - okay, thank you.
Andrel:No, I think that's a good idea.
Guy:I think Pip's gonna take the lead on that. Despite being the Anchor. Haha.
Stefen:Drix leans over to Andrew.
Drix:Hey, so, um, that crow was pretty weird, right?
Andrel:Oh, yeah. You mean when it told us the exact hour of Pip's death? I would call that weird.
Stefen:Yeah. Do you... do you think every animal in this place is fucked up like that?
Hannah:I think. That if not every. I doubt that was the only one.
Drix:Gotcha. Understood.
Andrel:Yeah.
Drix:Okay. Thank -
Andrel:Let's just, let's just get through this.
Greg:Timoth, as you're there in the middle, you feel something slide up on your leg.
Timoth:Uh, uh, there's a thing here!
Greg:It's the wet nose of a dorg.
Timoth:Aw.
Andrel:Yeah, that's Ji'mani. He's a very good boy.
Greg:Ji'mani gives you a little -
Ji'mani:Yorp? Yorp yorp yorp.
Greg:Trying to put on a brave face for you.
Cai:Can I, can I pet his mustache?
Greg:Of course.
Cai:I'm sure that's how you pet them.
Greg:Yeah, you pet the mustache. And you see Ji'mani's tail still mostly between his legs, but it does get a little bit out and starts a little wagging.
Timoth:This is fine. I can do this. This is fine.
Greg:Ji'mani gives a yorp as if Ji'mani's also telling himself yes, I can do this, this is fine.
Drix:Focus on the support dorg.
Andrel:Good boy, Ji'mani.
Drix:All right. All right. Well.
Andrel:You know, I don't think this is the most dangerous situation we've ever been in. However, it's definitely the stupidest.
Pip:Probably the most fucked up.
Drix:It's by far the dumbest. But...
Greg:Are you saying this as you're heading towards the reptiles?
Hannah:Yeah.
Greg:So you guys get in. You see there's some crude, washed-over paint, there's a picture of Levi draping a snake around his neck, like, friendly-like. The snake's giving him a little kiss on one of his eyeballs.
Hannah:I'm sorry, you kind of broke my will as a player today.
Cai:Sorry!
Hannah:Like, I don't know what to do now.
Cai:I, we, I was, when we were doing the cold open I was asking if this was the first non, like, competent person that's joined you guys. Like, I picked specifically on the horror to give myself, because I had to choose one horror, to give myself minus one steel, just because I wanted to be incompetent and it's worked out so well.
Greg:That's why, that's why he's got minus two steel. He was not prepared for this.
Stefen:You know what, you know what? Man, now, now Drix is gonna feel bad about using you as a meat shield if we do it.
Greg:You begin to approach. There are crow feathers sort of strewn out with some old blood. The feathers are old, or the blood is dried. You can see why that four-winged crow didn't like coming here. There's open cages here. You don't see any animals. Maybe they're in there. That's horrifying.
Pip:Oh, I don't like that.
Greg:There is some sticky residue that comes up on the Owl goggles, as though the half-spectrogulum bounced a couple times. But it's definitely around here somewhere.
Timoth:Yeah, it's, this, you know, seems like it's around here.
Greg:I'll let you find it if you expend one of those holds.
Cai:Oh, sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah, go ahead.
Greg:You have one left, one left.
Cai:Cool.
Greg:And yeah -
Timoth:Well, actually, okay. Am I just, can I spend the other one?
Greg:Sure.
Timoth:Would what's really going on here pertain to anything I could glean from what I know that Galina would want? Because I wanna know why Galina - who has thus far been really nice to me and has got me my career up to this point, you know, I wouldn't be anywhere without her -
Hannah:Yeah, what the fuck is happening?
Greg:Yeah, yeah.
Cai:Why the fuck is she trying to kill me?
Greg:Yeah, you know, you're, you're, as you're, you're, you're traveling through here thinking, like, why is she trying to do this? What is this thing? You have always done everything Gal tells you, and it's always worked out for you. You know, and you, you, you got picked up as her client. She's not an agent you had heard a lot about, but around Thorn especially, like, you wanted anything, you've got it. Stage combat workshops, top of the class. You know, stylists, personal trainer. There's even, even even a couple of times where a bluecoat probably should have given you a ticket for something minor, the judge always deferred to Gal. Or not deferred to Gal, but, uh, but, but made it go away for Gal. Now that you think about it, it's not that you're at the center of this, but it's almost as if through Gal, the entire town conspires to, well, conspires together, and part of that conspiracy seems to be your career doing fine, which is a benefit you didn't expect. As far as this thing, these Line Bulls didn't even know what you were looking for.
Cai:Yeah.
Greg:So maybe she just doesn't trust them? And you didn't break for a while. You broke, but only because you thought the others were breaking. You didn't even stop for a minute to think that you were in any real danger. Unfortunately, it seems when it comes to Gal, you're a bit of a zealot.
Cai:Interesting, cool.
Hannah:Can I make an insight roll to see if I can get any... because I think Andrel is also trying to figure this fucking thing out.
Greg:Sure. What are you trying to figure out? Or, you know, I'll let you roll and then you can get insight questions.
Hannah:Hey, that is a nine. So I hold two. Um...
Greg:Because of sly.
Hannah:And so I'm gonna, I'm gonna think out loud before I ask my questions. I, here's what Andrel knows. There's a very sketchy woman who wanted a spectrogulum for something who blackmailed us to get it. And also, she sent an actor with us. So I think what she is trying to reconcile is those two things, the spectrogulum and Timoth's presence. With regards to Gal, what are they really feeling, what do they want?
Greg:That spectrogulum, more than anything.
Hannah:So why would she send an actor with us if that's so important?
Guy:Probably because she trusted him to get it.
Hannah:Maybe. I'm gonna save my next question.
Stefen:Can Drix roll an insight roll?
Hannah:We're all rolling insight!
Greg:We're all rolling insight.
Stefen:Nevermind.
Hannah:You got one!
Greg:You get one immediately.
Stefen:That is a two.
Greg:Ask us your one immediately.
Stefen:I think what's really going on here in regard to, what could this actor possibly have that makes them valuable to this mission?
Cai:I think we're all ragging on, on Timoth a little bit.
Hannah:Listen...
Greg:Oh, but I'm glad you asked. You didn't bring Owl goggles. These are Timoth's Owl goggles. But Timoth's not a real Line Bull, so really they must be Gal's Owl goggles.
Stefen:Oh.
Greg:You wondered how you can trust Gal to not blackmail you, and you realize that it kind of goes both ways. How could Galina trust you to actually go through with this and not just skip town? Owl goggles are an amazing piece of machinery that you don't fully understand.
Hannah:Oh.
Greg:And this is a film actor.
Hannah:Ohh.
Stefen:Oh!
Greg:Drix, you're pretty sure that she's getting some sort of feed or recording from the Owl goggles.
Stefen:Gotcha.
Hannah:Ooh!
Stefen:Gotcha. Gotcha.
Greg:So you come to this revelation, you could do something if you'd like. At the same time, Andrel's coming her, like, thought. You're idly thinking, Templeton, but you're also, you're following, like, the imprints of the spectrogulum in the ghost field to get to it.
Drix:Hey, Andrel?
Greg:Drix you want to do anything? As Templeton is reaching - what are you doing, Drix?
Drix:Hey, Andrel, can I show you some rope tricks real quick?
Andrel:Sure.
Timoth:Oh, rope tricks. I love rope tricks. Can I see? Or?
Drix:Oh, yeah, absolutely. By all means. I do warn you, I am a professional. This may be a little quick for your eyes to keep up with.
Timoth:Sure.
Cai:So looking very intently.
Stefen:So Drix is going to in rope make a secret message. He's going to actually, he's going to spell out the letters backwards in rope.
Greg:Okay, you don't, like, since you're not hiding this or anything, and we've established this as a bit of your, your kit. Yeah, what do you, what do you, what do you write?
Stefen:He writes, "being watched goggles."
Greg:As you write that off, neat rope tricks. You're, you're turning and looking at that, you're not paying attention to your outstretched hands, Templeton, as, to the rest of you, almost out of nothing, out of the ether, the spectral form of a rope wraps around it, and then it does the impossible - turning from spectral to flesh, as a snake wraps around Templeton's arm, and several more snakes seem to phase in, first from the ghost field of spirits and then bursting into reality as flesh! We'll face them next time on Ghosts on a Train!
All:*cheering*
Hannah:Jesus fuck.
Greg:Yeah, that was a good twist, huh?
Timoth:Oh man, I'm so, I was, I honestly thought you'd have got it, because I said so much shit.
Hannah:NO! WHY WOULD WE THINK OF THAT?!
Radio Announcer Greg:Pride of Duskwall is now arriving. Please allow all passengers to exit the train before boarding. This has been Ghosts on a Train, a podcast with the Faustian Nonsense network, where we've played Ghost Lines, an RPG written and designed by John Harper. Music by Sebastian Black and TJ Woods. Our cover art is by Yoshiko Agresta. Your Line Bulls for this trip were:
Timoth:Timoth, badge name Templeton, played by me, Cai Gwilym Pritchard.
Hannah:Andrel Anderson, badge name Dunvill, played by me, Hannah Levin.
Stefen:Adric, AKA Drix, badge name Colburn, played by me, Stefen Lewis.
Guy:Pippin "Pip" McKeel, badge name McKeel, played by me, Guy Zwiebel.
Radio Announcer Greg:And I have been your conductor, Greg Carrobis. For bonus contents as well as behind the scenes, become a patron of the Faustian Nonsense Patreon. Your support will help our podcast as well as the others on the network, and in lieu of monetary support, a review on your favorite podcatcher will help Ghosts on a Train maintain visibility. If you have any questions about the Pride of Duskwall or additions to suggest for the train, please email them to ghosttrainpod@gmail.com, or contact us on Twitter @ghosts_train, and I'll have Candace bring them to the Line Bulls. Thank you for riding with us, and please consider traveling with us again next time.
Guy:Put on, like, some socks or something. I would take the, I would relish the opportunity to take, like, 30 seconds.
Greg:Oh, yeah, I mean you can put on socks. I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna make you stand there sockless
Cai:Sock break.
Guy:It's fucking cold, alright?
Greg:Yeah, go for it. Go grab, grab some socks.
Cai:Sorry, I'm just laughing at Guy, like, slowly lowering out of the camera. Sorry.
Greg:No, it's very good.
Guy:I am nothing if not on brand.
Greg:Congratulations, guys! You got past my plant monster puzzle.
Hannah:Ah!
Greg:Woah!
Hannah:Guy! Guy's dead.
Cai:Collapsed.
Hannah:We lost him.
Greg:RIP in piss.
Stefen:Gone too soon.
Hannah:Oh my God. Look at his pants.
Greg:I do, I do love those.
Hannah:They're so colorful.
Timoth:It looks like a Where's Wally picture from a distance.
Stefen:Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Do you guys call them, do you guys call them Where's Wally?
Greg:No, hey, no, no no, Stefen, the entire world calls it Where's Wally. Except for America, where we call it Where's Waldo. Like, Canadians call it Where's Wally.
Stefen:Oh, no way.
Cai:Yeah.
Stefen:You're kidding me.
Greg:I don't know why we call it Waldo.
Stefen:Why is it just us?
Cai:Wally's also an insult here, but we still didn't change it.
Hannah:Oh, wait, Guy, are the m&ms sexy? Or are they the new not sexy m&ms?
Cai:It's important. It's so important.
Guy:They're the eating m&ms. So whatever you feel about them.
Hannah:Okay, so the old sexy ones I guess.
Greg:You heard it here first, folks. Hannah says the m&ms are sexy, the way they used to be. She takes a stand. She doesn't, she doesn't agree with this political correctness. Being used to cover up the child slavery lawsuit that is currently for Hershey and Nestle.
Hannah:Yeah. I do want to clarify, I have no problem with the m&ms not being sexy. I'm not saying that as a value judgment. I just, that's, that's what it is now. Also, yes, the child slavery lawsuit, probably more important than my current, my personal stance on the sexiness of the m&ms.
Cai:Yeah. My stance is that they should make the rest of them sexy. I think we should all be sexy. I think they should all be a little bit sloppy. That's my opinion.
Greg:Listen, are you telling me yellow already isn't a himbo?
Cai:You know what, you got me there. We need a DILF m&m right now.
Guy:It's wild to me that yellow m&m has been, since the beginning, fucking Jay Jonah Jameson Cave Johnson.
Stefen:JK Simmons?
Guy:JK Simmons.
Greg:Did not know that.
Guy:Yeah, since, like, the 90s.
Hannah:I think an underreported part of the m&m stuff, other than the child slavery lawsuit, is that orange is going to be dealing with his anxiety, whatever the fuck that means.
Greg:Yeah, I don't know.
Stefen:Wait, what?
Hannah:Yeah, no, the green m&m is no longer sexy, and the orange m&m is going to quote "deal with his anxiety." And I don't know what that means.
Greg:Congratulations, orange m&m is neurodivergent.
Hannah:Diversity win!
Stefen:Wait, orange m&m is pretzel boy, right? So we did win.
Greg:Orange m&m? Who cares? Who cares about any that aren't red, yellow, and green? What are the other, what are the other aspects?
Cai:Do you guys have m&m world over there? Is there an m&m world anywhere in it?
Hannah:Yes. Well, there's an m&m store.
Cai:It's sickening. It makes me feel ill.
Stefen:Well, I don't think there's an m&m world specifically, but there is Hershey Park, which I'm sure has an m&m center.
Greg:There is Hershey Park in actual Hershey, yeah.
Stefen:Yeah. Having been there I don't remember an m&m section, but I feel like there must be.
Cai:Yeah.
Guy:I mean, there's the, I don't know if it's, like, m&m world, but, like, they have the m&m store in New York.
Cai:It's probably similar. It's just we, you know, it's big for us. This, this shop.
Greg:And you know what we have in Thorn? We have the zoo.
Cai:Sorry.
Greg:Let's go back there.
Cai:I think we should keep talking about m&ms.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
