Eternal Lies 32: Audience

0:00 Daniel's Dread Tales is a show for grown-ups. It may contain adult language and adult themes. Please check the episode description for content warnings. Last time on eternal lies. Making their way at last to the sight of Teaching Jewel, alleged sight of a weapon to combat the liar from beyond. The investigators discovered the remains of the cult expedition as they explored the ruin. The unsettling events, mounted bodies, warriors out of time, and an unseen creature watching from the jungle drove our faltering team to the structure dominating the area. A great stepped pyramid.

0:41 The die is cast, The pact is sealed. May God have mercy on our souls. It's Daniel's Tread tales. Yeah, yeah, the monstrated dude. We heard a terrifying roar and we all started hooking it towards the pyramid. After we were attacked by Kochman. Nick Luke is OK. Rick Luke. Glitch Ever. And I convinced him to stay. You convinced him to stay, right? We did do that. We did do that.

1:24 Great. I regretted it. Even though I wasn't the one who did it, I regretted it. So you are running up the stairs of the pyramid then? Yeah, towards the top. Yeah, sure. Unless there's any reason not to, no. I'm just just want to be clear of what's going on. I'm running last. Do you want to like, try to observe the pyramid as you run up with any sort of observation Y skills or anything? I know that we are probably in runaway from the horrible monster sounds of the forest. Oh, by the way, now you're hearing footsteps.

2:05 Who's all steps? Does it sound like footsteps on 2 legs or 4 legs? Oh, it's probably just your footsteps. You're right. Yeah. No, it's just you running. That's fine. Can I look back and check? The forest seems to be moving. The forest seems to be. Moving. All of the trees are moving around, stuff like that. As in like. As if something is in there moving it. OK, got it. Good Sir. Fuck. Holy fuck. Holy. Fuck. OK, so JB is fully disassociating and is going to be like as he's running for his life go huh? The archaeology of this is quite fascinating and I'm gonna use my archaeology and architecture skills. Nice. Yeah, I was thinking archaeology as well. The pyramid is made out of solid stonework. The steps are steep.

2:51 You are noticing that and your knowledge of these sort of things means that there's actually not usually a ton inside of one of these things. There's usually a little bit of chambers inside, but mostly what's going on is at the top and it's just solid stonework on the inside and. If there's anything we know about Lovecraft stories, it's that everything is usual. Exactly. Also, there are glyphs all over it and it seems like the glyphs have constantly changed back and forth between Mayan and Jewel and Mayan again as they go back and forth. I speak Mayan. What do they say?

3:32 They label this as the Pyramid of the Sorcerer. Yeah, Zinch. And it says that it is a nest or a cage made that so gulks Amal could see the pyramid. Yeah, I think Kearns is dissociating a little bit as well. And as we're running, I'm just in dialogue with JB and like, huh, yes, the these, these glyphs here. Quite fascinating. Yes, really fascinating that they they say it's a nest or something. Huh, interesting. One of them says the pyramid is both young and old. The pyramid is both young and old. I don't know how to interpret that.

4:12 Galschmal can see the pyramid because of the nest or cage or something. Huh. Anyway, as you run up the side of the pyramid, as you reach the top, you're not quite to the top, but you see that there are at least on the side you're on. You're on the West side because that was the side closest to the Plaza. There are big slits that allow you to see inside the pyramid, or honestly, it's kind of hard to see inside. It's kind of dark. Maybe it's more designed to see outside of the pyramid. Would you like to interact with these or continue to run to the top?

4:53 We have a flashlight, right? Pretty sure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, we have flashlights. I'm going to stop for just like a couple seconds and shine a light in there. You are a bit surprised when you see a man standing inside. Yeah, alive. It's hard for the not alive ones to stand. Yes, he is looking worse for wear. He looks emaciated, as if he is underfed, malnourished. He also as you peek your head in there, he says stay away and pulls out a gun and aims through the slit towards you. Hey, there's a fella down there. Huh. Like is he speaking English?

5:33 He is like white. He actually says that in Spanish. Oh, do you speak Spanish actually? I do, babe. You do speak, yeah, One of our Spanish speakers, yeah. Yeah, and I, I tell my compatriots that there's a fella inside and then I look at him and go in Spanish. I say what if I don't? He shoots OK. That's what, yeah, that's how you'd get shot. Ow. He rolled A6 so he hits you. Ow. Now I need you to say odd or even. I'm making another roll. Odd fuck. You were hit by a bullet. You've been shot. Ouch. OK. The bullet itself looked weird as it was flying towards you in a way that first of all you noticed it flying towards you, which seems a little odd, like it seemed to be moving slowly and quickly.

6:21 At the same time, it reminds you a little bit of the Mayan ghosts that were attacking you earlier. He's a. Ghost. Too. OK, you got shot with a ghost gun. And for the record, I am using the term ghost that you guys use. I also would say that they are not Mayans. Those would be Jewel that were chasing after you and they weren't these early ghosts. They were maybe some other phenomenon, but I'm I'm using the terminology that you used all of this to say I'm going to roll AD 6 + 1 because you just got shot. I. Please don't roll high 3. OK, OK. That was pretty. Loud. What did you think was going to happen when he was waving the gun around and telling you to stay away? I don't know a civilized conversation. He got a gun.

7:07 And I fire back into the the slit. He has taken cover inside his hip. Threshold is 6. Preparedness to have a grenade on me. Oh my God. I don't think a grenade can fit through the slit. Oh, it's very thin, OK. OK, so he basically shot my ear off or something. So. You know what bucket I'm a spend 2 points firearm. I do want to say these slits do not run up the entirety of the pyramid. You can't just run up the stairs past these slits, but you also could shoot the guy, which is what you're doing. Yeah, I mean, he shot one of my traveling companions. Fair. I'm not saying that this is not the right thing to do.

7:50 I am. You're just implying it. Go, go Gadget. I roll. I hit. Roll your damage. Oh no. First, roll an athletics check to not go flying off the pyramid with your elephant gun. You know what? I'm just gonna spend the two this time. Yeah, yeah, that, that would have been real bad. This is the time just to do the spend now. What range bracket is this guy at? Short, close then. I'm sorry. close. Yeah, Not short. Close. So it's only a + 2 to mine. Is that all? Three. He takes three damage from my elephant gun. All right. I would assume that he would try to be deafened too because like stick the barrel in, but that's all that's loud. I need you to tell me odd or even. I'm a pick even.

8:38 OK, I rolled it even. Every time he's asked us odd or evens and this would happen the last session too. Every time he's rolled the two. Blame roll 20 for that. Fucking roll 20. Hey, I chose right so I'm OK with it in this case. The bullet flies through the big gas bullet flies through, hits him in the side and he goes down. He then sort of stumbles to his feet, clutching his side and saying escape, escape, escape, and you see his whole body begin to quiver and twitch. Uh. Oh, what's going on down there? Colin shouts from the top of the pyramid. Yeah. I mean, I'm, I'm probably sitting on my ass on the on one of the steps of the pyramid, just clutching at my bleeding ear.

9:25 I shot the guy that shot your boyfriend. Thank you. Please come back to running with us. OK, let's go. You see him if you're trying to look through the slit at him, are you? Do you keep an eye? On the board, you just run. Yeah, I I'm curious at this point. OK, Mr. Smalls. Dr. Smalls. You. I'm sorry, Doctor Smalls. That's very rude of me. You didn't go to college to not be called Doctor Smalls. Exactly. So what's my stability check? Let me tell you what you see first, OK? But you're not denying that there is one. He runs forward, reaching his arms towards you through the slit to reach reach you, and as he does that he screams in pain as he keeps saying escape, escape and his body disappears.

10:24 All that's left are two ragged stumps of arm sticking through the slits. That's a something you don't see every day. Well actually the way his body disappeared, it's similar to how the jewel that were attacking you disappeared as they phased in and out of you being able to see them. However, in this situation, it didn't seem like all of him fazed at once. Yeah. I need you to make a possible loss of four difficulty 5 mythos. Check for stability. Oh. To meet those checks. If I fail this, I lose sanity. If it brings you down to the negatives. Oh, OK, yeah. And it's only a loss of four.

11:07 Yeah, bow rolls. What's the worst that could happen? I succeed. Boom. Barely. I'm. Genuinely surprised. So so am I. All right. Meanwhile, at the top of the pyramid, for the people that were actually running for their lives, by the way, JB and Colin, you've reached the top of the pyramid. It is A at the top, there is like a little bit of a roof above you. It's sort of an enclosed structure where an altar exists. You step through an open air doorway from the West side where you were running up the stairs. You see that there is a stairwell leading downwards in this room. And well, I guess I should describe the altar that you see without doing any additional research. It is dominating the entire room. It's a big stone altar at a large Redstone disk in the floor at the base.

12:03 The rest of the chamber is undecorated stone. The only light that comes through is that that comes through the doorway, and the altar depicts a large man in warrior garb on his hands and knees, grimacing in pain with a bowl set upon his back. Can I use some anthropology here? Absolutely. You recognize this as an interesting sort of inversion of a classical Chuck Wool figure, which is where they are on their back. They're like reclining and the bowl is on their belly. This is sort of the opposite of that. You also recognize this as an altar that would very much be used for human sacrifices.

12:47 All right, JB, no time to explain. Get your knife out. I do not do that. Yeah, I think we got nothing else we could do up here. Then wait for the others. I assumed they catch up. Yeah. And I wasn't sure if I understood, is there an entrance to the pyramid up here at all or? There are stairs going downward into the pyramid. OK, that is why we're here. Put as much between US and the open sky as we can. Yeah, big time. Let's go. Yeah, let's let's get down. Blop blop blop blop blop. I lost a shoe. You're going to need that if we're going to run for our lives, which, you know, fair, fair. Probably as you move towards the stairs, you see that there is a trap door right next to the altar leading directly down. As you sort of think about it, you realize that would lead down theoretically to the room where the guy was. Should we check out this guy room I. Do love me a good guy room?

13:47 I guess that's the answer, isn't? Curtis blushes. Y'all know what I meant? Yeah. I've never been to the guy room. That's OK, there's no shame in that. And the trapdoor. I open it. You'd love to open a trapdoor. The opening trapdoors is super cool. If you can't do it, you can't open it. I say trapdoor. I suppose that's a missed over. I guess we could call it a hatch. It's not a door that when you step on it, you fall down. It is a hatch not unable to open. Unable. Is it just like jammed or? There seems to be a lock mechanism. Mr. Caine. Interesting. What kind of lock mechanism doesn't need a code? Who has locksmith? 4815162342. No, it seems like it is blocked via like metal bars that are blocking it, which would make it completely inaccessible, so that can't be right.

14:37 So there must be some way to open it from this side. As you're looking around around, if you want to keep looking around with your locksmith skill, certainly you notice that this whole trapdoor is connected to holes in the floor underneath where the altar is. You see, there's like sort of underground sort of tubes maybe coming from the altar to this trapdoor. Tubes is where liquids go. Yeah. You don't think? No, it's nothing like that. JBI think it's blood. That's what I was. What do you think of me as a person, Colin? Well, Colin, you would know this. Well, maybe you wouldn't with your mental state. It wouldn't necessarily have to be blood. If this was triggered by blood, it could theoretically be triggered by any sort of.

15:26 Liquid. I did think of that, but also, you know, there's weird stuff going on. Kerns and zips. No. Honestly as the player I had a similar thought. Colin unzips. Stop unzipping. PJPP like your life depends on it. Do you pie on the altar? Oh my God this is so wrong. Yes. Are we running for our lives like 20 seconds ago? Should we keep running please? Where's the monster? I can't stop midstream. I don't know. You don't hear anything. You don't hear anything chasing you.

16:06 When in Rome, malls will pee on the altar. OK, I guess we're doing this. I think in some cultures this means we're married. We actually do. We just joking. OK, so how much of A stream do you? They scared the piss out of a Stan do. You have 3 liters of fluid between the four of you. Oh, OK, hold on. I can't breathe. I'll let it pass. Yay. Thanks, Dan. I I look, I look at everybody and they so.

16:48 Sorry. I look everybody in the eye and I go. We can never tell anyone about this. Oh yeah, this is. You neither, Rick. Oh yeah, Rick by. The way Rick pulled out his pants and pissed off that's. Fine, perfect. Of course he did. Of course he did. That's. With that, you hear a metal scraping and the trap door is unlocked. Rick just says for a second, hold on, hold on, hold on. Listen, it's quiet now. I thought I heard something chasing us, but I don't hear anything are. The trees still moving. Well, so Rick turns around and looks back down the pyramid and he falls backwards and screams a little bit.

17:32 Do you look at what Rick Luke is going to look at? Sure, I was wondering about the trees already. Mr. Kern. Doctor Smalls, what's up you? Mind seeing what he's making such a fuss about? Sure. Sitting at the bottom of the stairs of the pyramid is a thing. How to describe this thing? It's a sort of like a toad skin Jaguar, yeah. Those are two words that should not go together. Nope. And it's about the size of a small car. It has crumpled bat wings on its back and a mouthful of Jaguar teeth. And it has a long Serpentine tongue that it's using to like, sort of like just sort of wiggle around. There's a big mangy cat down there with wings. It's use and it's time to go well. So if you look at it, you're going to need to make stability checks.

18:35 I was going to say yeah, bring I I didn't look at it. I see Rick Luke panic and immediately I'm like OK, time to time to go and I start opening the Hatch. All right, it looks like he's going to be a three foot drop. Yeah, I follow suit. That's totally survivable. If you do it right. What's the difficulty? This is going to be a potential loss of four difficulty 4. OK. Yeah, sure. No. Now as I'm shaking, is that a higher difficulty? I forget. Oh yeah, one more difficulty for you, yeah. All right, I failed. Everybody failed. I am shaken. I am blasted.

19:16 How about Rick Luke? Rick has fallen backwards and is I'm not going to roll his stability. I've got an idea of where his stability is going to go so. Huh. That bad, huh? However, this thing is not going up the stairs. As in it won't or it can't. I don't know its huge yellow eyes are looking up at but it is not able or willing at least to climb up the temple. You guys coming down the hall? Yeah, Yeah, I think we're good for now. Colin is blasted and runs down the stairs. No, no, wait. Which stairs, Colin?

19:57 The ones inside. OK. Oh thank God. Holy shit I oh shit. All right, the people who jumped down the hole already are going to have some difficulty getting out of it. But you're running down the stairs. Let's, let's see what you see as you run down the stairs. OK? You run down the stairs a little bit, and you find yourself in an underground passage. Well, not underground, under pyramid. You you haven't got deep enough that you're underground. An interior space. Yeah, you are beneath the pyramid and you see a hallway in front of you. The hallway seems to be about 10 feet wide, and it seems to just go deep into the pyramid. Are there any skills?

20:41 I guess you're just running, right? You're just running. Fleeing into the darkness. OK, as you flee into the darkness. Oh yeah, I guess you can't see any of this, right? Or did you bring a light with you? I'd probably have some sort of light. All right as you step on the ground here. Should I be going with you, do you think? Oh, no idea. OK, I'm in the Hatch, Colin's in the stairs. I'm in the Hatch. OK, Rick is in the Hatch. OK, Rick is in the Hatch. I guess I'll probably go after Colin, OK? I don't think we should be alone. OK. Yeah. Yeah, that's a good call. Yeah, I'm gonna go after. Group of two, group of three. That's yeah. All right. OK, I need both of you to make fleeing or athletics checks and see which one is better to see if one of you outpaces the other.

21:26 I only have one in athletics remaining so. Probably best to just roll that straight and save that one for a lucky day, yeah? I spent a point to fleeing on that we tied. Mm hmm. You're tied. OK. What's your overall fleeing total? 6. My athletics is 10. That means Kearns is going to be able to keep up with you. Oh. Well, you don't want me. To, I don't know, curious what would happen. Don't sound disappointed, this could save your life. So you are just, I'm not saying that they overcome you, but they sort of keep up with you. They're like sort of right behind you as you run down this corridor and you feel the entire chamber begin to move underneath your feet.

22:11 Promising. Holy fuck, what is going on? Kearns, as you look at it, you have a better way to see what's going on 'cause you didn't run into the room. Big stone cubes make up the floor of this room. It's. Fucking trap, isn't it? It's like they're a bunch of cubes that are suspended there without any mortar, and as Colin steps on them he's sort of standing on 2 cubes and they begin to rotate forwards. You've all played this level. You start to lose your footing. Call it I need you to make a Difficulty 3 athletics check. OK, and this is +1 or +2 since I'm blasted.

22:52 Oh, let's double check that. Well, I'm not sure I can spend points on it either. I actually believe that is the case like. Which means I should have lost that last one outright. Anyway. I have failed my athletics by a substantial margin. OK, you begin to fall between the crushing stones. Dang. First, you take damage from the stones crushing you. Oh no. Seven damage. Are you alive? Yes, because death is not that quick. I know. But where does health is okay? I'm not even down. Okay, okay. Okay, if you drop everything in your hands right now, you could catch yourself from falling beneath the stones.

23:39 And as you look down, you know what? I know it's kind of dark, so maybe you shouldn't be able to tell, but you see just spikes, just so many spikes down there. Well, the thing I have in my hand happens to be my light source, so I would see that, wouldn't I? You would see that, yeah, it sort of falls down. I also said what you should need to drop what's in your hands, but of course you only got one of those at the moment. Yeah. Can I reach in and catch him? You can, yes. I would make him make some rolls to try to escape, but with you there you were able to pull him back, no roll required. Son of. A gun. Well, thanks for that, Cairns. I don't know. I don't know what got into me there. Well, back in Ethiopia I would call it the fear of God. Here, I don't even fucking know.

24:30 They got weird gods here and into Ethiopia. Maybe gods are just weird. Yeah, I think so. OK, so they are the three went down the Hatch. They were eaten. Not that hatch, the Hatch we peed on. Do you want to go go find them or do you want to proceed here? Oh God, I I don't think I should be in charge of decisions right now. Yeah, fair enough. What's what all is there Game master other than shifty rocks? You see, it looks like there's passages going to the left and right a little ways down the corridor and some stairs that lead further down at the end of the corridor. OK, but we have to get past the rocks to get to them. The shifty stones, yes.

25:13 If you have Craft or mechanical repair, they might be able to give you a suggestion of what to do. I have both of those things all right. So you realize that the stones seem to only go forward, at least the ones that Colin was on. They don't shift in different directions. They only go in One Direction. So if you were to, like, shimmy yourself along the side of the walls and not the center of the cubes, you could, with a athletics difficulty of two, make your way down the hallway without falling into the trap. What are you saying Mr. Caine? Are you up for a little ball shimming? I don't see why not. Difficulty 2 would be what, 4 for you?

25:56 Three, but I can't spend points 5. OK, there we go. Why would you make that roll? You're crazy. Don't make that roll. I mean, maybe you want to get sucked into the trap, which is fine. I'm still blasted. Yeah, I know, I know, I know. You are crazy, of course. I succeed as well. All right. You make your way carefully, slowly down the hall, and you reach the sort of intersection and you see one leads to a dead end and the other leads to some dilapidated prison cells. Let's see what's going on in that chamber underneath the altar. You have landed in this chamber. There are symbols all over the walls.

26:38 There are two arms that have fallen out of a slit that are just sitting on the ground. And you notice that the slits lookout to the West, the north and the South. They do not lookout to the east. Is Ghost Man's gun still there? Ghost Man's gun is there. It's a heavy pistol. It's a revolver. We'll pick up Ghost Man's heavy pistol. As you're getting his heavy pistol, you also find nearby a book that he seems to maybe have been writing in a journal of sorts. Against the players better judgement, Dr. Smalls will read. Actually, no, JB, you can have that I'm going after. Yeah, I'll take that one. You want to read it? I do. It's written in Spanish.

27:19 Perfect. Fuck, does Rick Luke speak Spanish? Weirdly enough, no. No, he speaks Spanish. He loves Mexico. He might be changing his mind on that to be perfectly honest, but he loves Mexico. Formerly. He's going to have to start looking through it. He's going to spend a point of library use to read it quickly. He is going to gain a point of Cthulhu. Bethos and Beverly lose a point of sanity. Good for you, Rick. He really is part of the team, isn't he? Yeah, yeah, What I'm telling ya, if JB dies, Rick's my backup character. Yeah, but it's gonna take him some time to to digest what's in there so you guys could look around a little bit more like the runes or anything else in there before Rick starts spouting horrible prophetic shit.

28:05 Welcome to the lower. Hole, Yeah. JB, please don't die. I'm gonna try my damnedest not to. For now, though, look around. Yeah. What does archaeology? Archaeology is not giving you too much outside of this is a Mayan created thing. Actually the thing it's giving you is this appears to be similar to like some of the the symbols that you see on the walls. There's a billion symbols. We'll get to some of the more upsetting ones later. This seems similar to a Mayan observatory to like be looking at the stars. However, this is not how you would look at the stars. Like you're under a trapdoor with only little slits that look out. Like you want to make it observatory. You just put at the top of the pyramids. You just look up at the stars.

28:54 The stars are all wrong. I don't know. Also, you notice that the whole place is lined with a weird Redstone. Oh, that Minecraft info is coming in handy now. Yeah, chemistry probably wouldn't let me recognize what kind of stone it is. No geology would. I have it. I have it. Well, I have. I have good news and bad news about that. You are absolutely sure that this stone exists nowhere else on Earth. You've never seen anything like it. Cool. It could maybe. Huh, it might be a meteorite. Also, the walls are covered in glyphs. Put it in your mouth, JB. Stop.

29:35 I will put nothing in my mouth. The wall. He's going to put the wall in his mouth. No, just some of the rock. The rock is the wall. Lick it. Yeah, somebody once put something in my mouth and I've been suffering the consequences of that for this whole campaign. Nothing goes in JB's mouth except Kearns there. You go. Fair enough. I was going to make a joke, but you, you beat me to it. I know my audience. Welcome to Horny for Cthulhu. Do you want to try to examine the glyphs, or are we afraid of looking at anything that looks magical? Little of both.

30:17 I mean, I do have a cold, so maybe, maybe I can glean something from the glyphs. Yeah. Hey there, remember our April Fools episode where we were horses? In the interest of keeping our already kind of jumbled feed tidy and on topic, the second part is going to be a free drop on our Patriot. Alternatively, you can check out both parts on the Friendship Factory feed where you'll hear stuff like this. Welcome back to the magical land of Equestria. Come on everybody, let's go to the murder Forest. How? Why? I don't care. I guess I don't know if you're built like a truck. We're strong, but that doesn't actually mean you're built. I believe the expression is hung like a horse. Stop trying to give people with your delicious. Pony flesh have.

30:59 Fun editing that. Is this a transparent ploy to direct people to the Patreon or our French show? Maybe, Who's to say, but it's still free either way over at patreon.com/dread Tails. So while these are made with sort of mining glyphs, you realize that this is not some sort of Mayan language thing that's going on. This is not a story or a narrative. These are spells of protection. Oh. All of the wall is full of spells of protection with a lot of astronomical like symbols and terminology. You also note that on the floor of this room and in fact on the trapdoor, we got so busy pissing on the trapdoor. I did actually describe this. That symbol of Gulk Shamal, the sort of eye with the mouth and the fangs on it.

31:48 The thing that you saw on the top of the stellae back of the stone statue that it sort of broke it off and all that stuff that is that was on the trapdoor and described on the floor here as well. It's it's an observatory, but not for this guy, Rick says, muttering as he's reading the notes. It's, it's to let you view more, to view everything before more happens in this room. We need to get the other players back to this room because this room might do some crazy shit and the other players should try to get back to it. So we're gonna get back to those other players. I'm not saying that they have to go back to it immediately because there's some cool prison cells they just found. Now I'm gonna, I'm gonna go fight the cat. What?

32:38 The cat? The mangy cat outside. No. Don't fight the mangy cat. No, OK, fine. Besides, I've got a plan. Now that I know things I I have a plan for the mangy cat. OK, sure. It's like my JB sense is tingling. I mean, JB is smart. He'll probably figure something out about that cat. If not, I'll just shoot it. Standing at the end of the corridor in a prison cell is. A guy with no arms. No, it is not a dude with no arms. It is a dude with well his hair is very shaggy at this point, is growing long, and he also is unshaven. But you could tell that before that he had a very large mustache that has also continued to grow.

33:23 Like compared to everything else, everything has gotten messier, but the mustache must have been a lot busier as well. Nietzsche. Esposito. Friedrich Nietzsche. No, not necessarily. Stalin. Is it Stalin? He did say mustache. It is not Stalin. He looks. He is a European, but probably Hispanic. He might be or maybe just a Spaniard. It's a little hard to tell and it's kind of dark in here. And I feel like saying anything more about how he looks to describe a race to him is while keeping in Lovecraft feels kind of racist. So and he he looks at you with wild eyes. I'm assuming we'll look at him right back with this similar kind of disposition. Mania, yeah.

34:09 Hey, there's a fella there. Fight him. And he yells at Spanish Be gone, devil me not. Not again. As you look at him, he is wearing shreds of fine Spanish attire, but old tiny Spanish attire. Oh, is he a specter? Knight of Malta. Do you say this in Spanish 'cause he's not gonna respond to it unless it's in Spanish? Of course, in Spanish I speak that. Yeah. And German. Not Malta. My name is Francisco de Bella Cazar. It's that guy that that guy told us about. He did come back. I do not know what you say. This place where I am is not where you are. They touch, but they are far apart. This guy here is always night and filled with strange orbs. Do you know where I am?

34:59 Can I come back? Sure thing friend, and I let him out. You open the prison cell and he reaches forward and grasps on to bars that are not there. It says I still cannot escape. Well, I tried. Do I recognize the name? It was previously mentioned the name. Della Vega's ancestor Oh. The Conquistador. Oh, this guy. Not wearing a helmet, by the way. Not wearing a helmet. He's got plot armor. No, what I've been like his helmet did this. Did De la Vega have his helmet in the in his house? No, wait, it was a sword. No, I remember saying cool. So it could have been both. Oh, it was a helmet and the sword. Yeah, sure, whatever.

35:40 Yeah, OK. Oh yeah, your grandson has your helmet and sword. What? You are not a proper Spaniard, are you? I sort of look down at myself and back up at him. How'd you guess? I was adopted. If you cannot help me escape, you must flee this horrible place. My men are all gone. They they are the lucky ones. They are in heaven now. Through ugly means, I'll never be free of this place. Well, we could try and help you out. What's a cult? Give me mythos. Meltskill. Meltskill. Physics might give you something. Oh, don't have that. I have theology.

36:20 You if you're trying to talk about theology, he says. Their God is real. It is not a true God, I think, but it hungers for flesh and the petty attention. That's flattery. What's their God look like? It is a beast of 1 gigantic maw filled with tongues and sharpness like a frog. It's the size of this pyramid. Not our guy. Let's go, Cairns. Yeah, that doesn't sound like. Our guy, huh? He will never have me, you damnable monster, He yells at the ceiling. It is petty.

37:01 Beware. It is not worthy of praise, but it thinks that it is. Noted. Yeah, that's. All gods, good thing you're not there. This guy was a very devout Catholic. He's still kind of surprisingly. Oh, Papist. I should just note you're looking at this guy right here. There's also just a big old lever to the left of the cell. What's that do? Crank. Oh God. You hear the floor start rumbling in the trapped area that you walked through earlier. Maybe we won't have to she me back. Well, I guess that either that disarmed the trap or made it 1000 times worse and there's fire now. Oh good, I've been jonesing for a smoke. Oh, you can have one of my oh, I dropped it in the pit. That's OK, I give him a cigarillo. You must find a way out of this place and if you could come to where I am, take me with you.

37:58 How about we will try. Can't really guarantee anything. Some more hope that I've had. There you go. I give him a cigarillo too. It doesn't. Work. No. No, you know what it does there? You. Go weirdly, it does. It's sort of like shimmers a little bit and he takes it and he takes the smoke. Fortunately, you can't light it for him that didn't. Work. Yeah. He tries to take a smoke, and he realizes, no, there's no fire. All right, I think we're done with this guy. Unless you have any other ideas. Nah. Always more ideas, usually not helpful. No. What's going on with the trap? Though as you look, you see that the cubes have locked into place all right, it is safe to cross now.

38:42 Awesome. Well, should we check out the other way or head back to the Hatch? Wasn't the other way a dead end? There's a dead end, but then there's also something that leads to stairs that go further down, but those would go even further down, like for a ways, and take a long time going down there. And maybe it would be more interesting if you joined up with the rest of the crew. For AI, can't imagine that's the case. Down the stairs we go. Do do do do. No, hang on, hang on. Something's telling me that would be more interesting for the plot if we joined back with the crew. All right, well for the plot then. Yeah, JB is rubbing off on me. Meanwhile, back there, Rick is saying, no, I, there's a there's a way to do this, he says as he starts looking around, touching some of the ruins and muttering to himself. There's a, there's a path.

39:31 Mr. Luke, what are you trying to do? This observatory is a vehicle. It's on a track and this is a way to navigate the track, I think. What do I do? What do I do? Are we talking about tracks? I know about trains. As you guys drop in. Oh, is this like Stargate with flying pyramids? Nothing. The host survives and all that. I would prefer to be lex. What? The giant flying penis. Galactica all. Right, it was supposed to be a dragonfly. Rick is now muttering something and carving numbers into the ground.

40:13 It's like, yes, yes, I see it, I see it and the whole chamber begins to rumble. Can I help him out with accounting? Yes. No, actually you need physics or astronomy. I have astronomy. I might as. Well, I have physics. Great. His stability, his stability check will be less difficult. OK, that's good. Are you casting a spell? Oh, he's casting a spell. Wait. What are you trying to do? Physics. And astronomy. This sounds like a spell we're familiar with. Yeah, this is the this is a spell we know. We're coming for you, Reggie. Oh boy, no. Well, Yolo it is I guess.

40:55 And in an instant, a hole does not open up in reality for you to teleport somewhere with some sort of hyperspace gate. However, the chamber itself begins to rumble and move. Rick, he's not quite sure how the spell works. So the first time we're going to roll AD 6 to figure out where you end up. You know what? I'll let one of you roll the D6. Who wants to roll AD? Six. I'll roll it. I'm feeling but I rolled A1. OK, that's either really good or really bad. Could just be a list of locations. Are we in hell? Dan's gone quiet, so I'm real scared. It'd be hilarious if we just didn't move. I I have chosen the form of our destroyer Dan. You are given a glimpse of something through the slits here. It is not the jungle that you were on before. Would you like to look through the slits to understand where you are?

41:47 Yes. OK, Yeah. Nah. Yeah, I know your your stability is pretty bad. You look out and see. I swear to God if we see like as a Thoth. A ruined version of Chichen Zhu. But the sky is dominated by a cloudy brown planet and it's roiling with storms. Craters pock the earth. Ash seems to have taken over most everything. Everything is covered in a layer of ash. The foliage is blood red.

42:27 You do not appear to be on Earth anymore. Looking out the West, is the frog leopard thing still there? No, Something worse. Oh boy. Oh. Fun. Something lies half buried in the ashes. You realize that its mouth is giving off steam in the cold. Oh no, it's Jeffrey. Stop. I don't know what that means. No worm. Yes, you do. I did forget about that, actually. It's related to Jeffrey, actually. It actually. Is. You actually see some Jeffrey worms tunneling around in. Ash No, we're in Beetlejuice.

43:14 Does that mean they're in Jeffrey's tubes? But what is worse is the fatty frog like thing with too many tails gathered under its tattered black wings. Now that may remind you a little bit of the thing that you saw before, but this one, as it shakes and moves out of the ash, it stands up and it is taller than the pyramid that you are in. It looks to be their God. It is slurping up ashes and bones with its serpent headed tongues. Smaller versions of the same creature cling to its body like suckling bats.

43:58 You were going to need to make a hell of a stability test because it opens its eyes and looks through the slot and knows that you are there. I'm not going to give you the damage because we're going to see you have to roll against the worst thing that happens and that might be worse after this conversation occurs. Oh, oh, fun. Colin, of course, did not look outside, is not aware any of this is happening, is licking the wall. OK, you do that shit. Am I looking outside? It doesn't matter. It looks at all of you. Yeah, fair enough. And you find yourself how to describe this. This is truly like nothing any mortal has ever experienced. You are communicated with through visions by a Titanic God like monster.

44:55 It's kind of a big deal. Yeah, very much. Count yourself lucky and you hear a voice, loud but almost amused, in all of your heads. JB what's the worst thing you've ever done? The absolute worst, most heinous evil thing that you have ever done. JB remembers. He was like 16. Yeah, around there. His, his mom was really sick, had been for a while, right? So as she lay there suffering, the camera just kind of lasts on JB grabbing a pillow and fades.

45:45 No, it doesn't. It doesn't fade, JB. You wanted to fucking fade. What do you think this is? You feel every moment of it. You remember every little bit of killing the woman who gave birth to you. And you know what? Everyone else in this room feels the exact same thing that you're feeling. They feel what the pillow felt like. They hear the the muffled sleep flying. Blood. Scratched me on the cheek. It healed eventually. Colin, what's the worst thing you ever did? Through a haze of gin fumes and repression, my last memory of Tom focuses for the first time.

46:28 I started celebrating him, finally passing the exam for his investigator's license a little early, but he failed again. I missed it. Or, well, it wasn't clear at the time. Nothing is when you're that deep in the sauce, you're good for nothing. Bomb, bomb sauce there, we're going to mount to anything. He starts to stammer, reply, and I shove him. He falls, we both fall. By the time I make it back to my feet, he's gone, and I slink back to the smoky mirror for more gin. You killed your friend, you know it Curtains. What's the worst thing you ever did? It was the most vicious dogfight I've ever been in. Two Jerry's against one of me, zippings, getting machines, screaming.

47:19 We wounded animals. I came out on top and made both of them catapult and that should have been it. They were done. I should have just looped around and headed to the base. But as I watched their parachutes open, I imagine them returning home, maybe getting a slap on the wrist and then a new machine to bomb American trenches with. I imagine going up against an albatross and seeing their ugly faces in the crosshairs again, Small bits of what 30 seconds ago was a human being sticking to my windshield like bugs on the highway, tatters of their parachutes sailing to the ground like right bottom leaves.

48:11 There was nothing left to bury, so they never left. I've been haunting my knit nurse for 20 years. At least until recently. When? You feel that moment again and again and again. Everyone else here feels it as well. Smalls, what's the worst thing you ever did? Excuse me, Doctor Smalls. It was the last year of university before Smalls got his doctor the final dissertation that he had to do. He. Stole the work. Essentially plagiarized the from his biggest rival in school. Not only that, but he set them up to be arrested for some crime he doesn't even remember what, but the last thing he remembers was that this person, because of Smalls's own breed and ambition, ended up spending the rest of their natural life behind bars. You say you don't remember now.

49:30 You remember you accused him of having mob ties. You remember every bit of it. You were not getting away with, oh, I don't remember anymore. You remember. You remember how you destroyed this person's life and took their life work and took it for yourself. And Rick, you see him running through the jungle and somebody shouting for help and he is just running, running away from everybody that he let die. He doesn't know what killed them. Was it the animals? Was it the bandits? Was it the quicksand? But he made it out alive. Wait, is it just me or is Rick seeing into the future? You have all seen each other's most horrible things. And also when you say that, and I don't care if that's a meta thing or not, because this thing that's speaking to you is beyond that.

50:22 It screams in your head a deafening challenge. You are realizing now, and I want to put this very clear, this horrible God thing is in your head and it is petty and vindictive. Be very, very careful what you say and do going forward. I want to make that very clear. We are in a very dangerous situation. I don't want anybody saying, Daniel, what the hell? Why did this thing happen to my character? This is the most dangerous situation you have ever been in. Anyway, you get the feeling that this thing has held you up to a light to examine you closely, and it feels satisfied and you hear a voice in your head and it sounds like, well, first it sounds like Winston Rogers. So you found me.

51:25 What? The truth of the liar from beyond. And a way to end it. You're sitting in a theatre. Broadway show lights up on stage. You're all sitting in the front row and there is a thing on stage. It's this thing that's speaking to you, this toad. Thing. But as you look closer, you realize it's holding a mask of itself. And the mask slips for just a moment, and you see beyond it. A thing of horrible mouths and nectar.

52:10 And then there's another mask, this one squid face with tentacles. And now there are worshippers bowing down to this thing with tentacles on its face. If you have the Cthulhu Mythos, this is the guy, the titular guy, Cthulhu. There are those that worship it, but the mask slips. And again, behind it you see this thing with 1000 mouths, the liar from beyond. You see a new mask, this one of a black pharaoh. They are worshipping it. But again, it is a mask.

52:51 Behind it is the thing with 1000 mouths. The liar from beyond. Do you see? Says Winston Rogers, who is now sitting next to you in the audience. Do you understand? I'm just slack jog because I do not understand. I don't have the brains for this methos stuff so I'm just frozen gaping at it A. Liar wears many masks to keep itself safe. Yes, it is the defiler.

53:33 As this is happening, the Winston Rogers is becoming more and more evil sounding, of course. It clicked with me like 30 seconds before you said that, and I finally realized, wait a minute, that's what we've been dealing with this whole time. The Defiler, Lovecraftian God of carnal evil. Well, it fits the bill, yeah. That was the most tasteful way I could think of to put it. Oh, I see. What's a less tasteful way? All of you who keep making jokes, your brains begin to shake. I must stress I am taking this completely seriously. It says as the Winston Rogers begins to float upwards and also turn into the symbol of this being. We intend, Roy, that would be a great boon to you. Not.

55:06 No, I learned a spell from this wet book. Shut. Russell. Creepy old man. You see, the creepy old man is on stage. It is a task. Behind it is Yolganach. Well, shit. This is kind of why we're here, Mighty One, we. Came here hoping to learn how to destroy it.

55:48 Yeah, OK. Yeah, of course, Collinwood. Yeah, of course, Collinwood. I was about, I was about to ask what does that entail? Like how? Yeah, I don't question it. God, just get with the program. And just it, right, right. Assess honesty. It doesn't fucking work. Yeah, that tracks.

56:34 You feel the spell fly into your head. Now learn the spell Summon aspect of Golgaroth. And you know what? While you're at it, you also get the Hyperspace Skate spell. OK, Yeah. I'm assuming it's just column that gets the OR everybody. Everybody who's open to it. You know what, honestly, before Russell jumped in and said something I was going to offer myself so. Why not? You learn it too, yeah. All right, Yeah, I suppose it's mechanically better if two people know that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I'm glad it's not me or JB though. Yes. Don't kill off the gays, please. No, of course not.

57:19 And Rick's voice chimes in. Oh God, Rick. And he says what happens when you come? Will you stay? And Rick's head explodes. I was about to ask that. Yeah, I was too, actually. So thank you. Damn it. I should have let one of your heads explode. It would have been awesome. OK. Don't think about birds. Don't think about birds. Safe passage. That is, that is a very good point. Yes, please. Save passage back to our plane, not assailed by the creature in the forest or any of your followers here.

58:10 So we can enact. So that the so that we can. The plan? Yes. Thank you. Understood. Thank you. You don't get a chance to say that as you are hurled back into the observatory. You find yourself all there except for a dead Luke on the ground with no head. OK, now that we're out of that, I guess he wasn't an eternal guy after all. Chucks. All right, stability checks, stability checks. As the entire chamber begins to shake and you're going to be thrown to the next location on the path of the observatory, it's time to make some checks.

59:03 For talking. To a God. So like difficulty six loss of infinite. Well. More like difficulty 16. It's an 8 point stability test. Difficulty. 4. No, that's not too bad. Oh, wait, no, I'm sorry. It's five of. Course. It's a 60 and I can't spend points. I'm just gonna spend 4 stability. Can you? You can spend into negative stability, right? You can, yes. I am going to also spend 4 stability. Going in there, you are going to lose sanity for reaching negative stability from this encounter, but you know, that's just how that goes. I reached negative stability from the cat. Do I lose the of sanity or no?

59:48 Actually, yes, because that is an aspect of SO. 3 Sanity. I'm at 8. And -2 stability. All right. Are we rolling? Did anybody roll or are you all spending points to not have to roll? Is that what's happening? Here I would very much like to spend a point because I need to roll A6 to pass this and if I go down 8 that puts me in -16 please. Don't do that. Which is dead. You're dead. 15 Sorry. Yeah, that's go out in a blaze. That's. Dead right? Parrot hurry right there. Let me check. You might be able to spend it even when you're blasted. Let me let me double check. OK, I have so many stupid things left to do. Yeah, like kill a God. I'm going to summon them and make them fight. Like Pok��mon?

1:00:32 Yeah, Golgorath, I choose you. What's your drive, Colin? Bad. Luck. What was the difficulty again? 5. OK, I passed. I spent 3 points. By the skinnier fucking teeth. You might be fucked. Unless I roll A6. You could roll A6. I'm just trying to look through here. There's God, I don't know if there's AI. Think you're in trouble. Yeah. Can you please keep him alive? I want to. I want to see he. Won't be dead. He won't be dead. Just incurably insane. But he'll be out. I don't want him out. And Rick Luke's head just exploded.

1:01:13 OK, here's what is going to work. Now. We have rarely used our drives in this game. We probably should have been using our drives. You could declare that you're using one of your drives to gain a little bit of stability back. However, your drive is bad luck, and bad luck is not something you choose. It's something that I choose. And my friend, you have had some bad luck recently. Yeah, sometimes I make it myself. Ain't that the God's truth? Therefore, I will give you some stability from following your drive of bad luck. Fair enough. Gain 2 stability points all.

1:01:55 Right, put me in -5. So you. Can spend OK, I will spend 3 points which will push me into blasted then yeah. Oh my God. Oh my God. 634360 My God. Yes, Now here's the thing my friend, we're going to be giving you a mental illness from this. This is that's great beggars. And also, look, we all know that Lovecraft. For care.

1:02:57 Mr. Caine, I wanted to continue our conversations that we were having. Can you tell me what's the last thing you remember? Thanks for listening. Daniel is our GM, Renee plays Franklin Kearns, Damien plays Donovan Smalls, Nathan plays JB Falk, and Russell plays Colin Kane, in addition to mixing, mastering and music in the episodes. Our album art is by Trinity the Tea Time Witch, and our main theme is by Claire LW.

1:03:45 We have a Patreon at patreon.com/dread Tails and we do a live stream the last Sunday of the month. You can find links to these and other things on the link tree in the show notes. Again, thanks for listening and until next time. JB killed his fucking mom. Dan put me on the spot. What was that bullshit about library books?