The party and Jersey defeated the headless automaton, which progressively shattered into impossibly many smaller automatons as it took more damage.
The automaton, and all its smaller pieces, seemed to be selecting targets based on whose heartbeat was the fastest / loudest.
During the fight, Kesmet started a fire among the boxes storing much of the party's as-yet-unused furniture.
As the rest of the party worked quickly to put out the fire to mitigate their losses, Grogery resurrected Mot the "cheap" way.
While trying to dash around to put out the fire, Marvin suddenly seemed to grow weary, moving more slowly and finding it much more difficult to carry the weight of the buckets of water.
The party hasn't yet discussed how this resurrection fits into Grogery's new system for handling the cost of resurrections.
Marvin offered to modify Mot's memory so he would forget that he died, but he refused, pointing out that it's important to be able to remember your mistakes in order to avoid making them in the future.
Mot mentioned something about "losing the shop", which he perhaps would have elaborated on if that conversation had taken place before... you know...
The party split up for the rest of the afternoon.
Kesmet finished writing down his story of what had happened during the time that he had forgotten.
Dwardazik lost to Marvin in an arm-wrestling contest.
At the start of the evening, Dazki invited the equal members of the team, excluding Barry, to join him in a meditation session.
The intent was to help Dwardazik and Grogery deal with their Turmoil situation, but the others were free to join as well. And I'm sure that Barry would have been welcome to join too. If he had been invited.
During the meditation, Kesmet had a vision of the Red Desert, experiencing an unusual scene through someone else's eyes. There was a call asking for him to "give me the sequence", some cryptic nonsense from the disembodied Red Desert voices, six beams of light, taunting from a sinister voice, and then his character (and Kesmet himself) saying "You can suck my nads, Prime! I have confidence in the Damsel's choices!" — so, from Kesmet's perspective, nothing out of the ordinary, other than the fact that it was just him.
Kesmet (unerringly, still) recalled this vision to the rest of the party.
The "corpse" of the headless automaton rearranges itself into a usable form. It's ticking. And aggressive.
Combat Summary: Phase 1
Dwardazik rushed in first, almost instinctively, unleashing his usual flurry of strikes at the machine. On the last one, a particularly well-timed hit, the extra power was diverted; instead, his hands grew dry and cold.
Each time that the machine would get hit, parts of it would reconfigure themselves internally to accommodate the damage, making it difficult for the party to gauge how much more they would have to do.
Grogery dragged Mot's corpse away in an attempt to keep it from getting mangled in a way that would complicate a Revivify spell, and Dazki ordered Jersey to protect the body, so he dragged it even further.
Rather than attacking immediately, Dazki took some time to analyze what was going on with it. (Arcana 16) It's still working as if by nonsense. Bits occasionally fall off of it, other bits occasionally reattach themselves into the ever-shifting interface. It's still obviously headless, though it seems to be able to sense something in the room, even if it's not using sight.
Kesmet was fairly limited with his abilities: the combat took place in the drawing room, which is where the as-yet-unused furniture was being stored in boxes, so stray flames could be costly.
A flurry of attacks from Dwardazik triggered another major detonation reminiscent of the one that killed Mot, huge chunks spraying all over. The blast was partially contained by Marvin's shimmering hand that had been grasping it, so Dwardazik and Marvin were shielded from it.
The enemies all immediately swarmed Kesmet, who used a Shield spell to avoid the majority of the attacks.
As the largest spiderlike entity moved past Dwardazik, the dwarf tried to take an attack of opportunity, but he missed badly enough that his warhammer got lodged in the floor. He would later run up and just punch it, which triggered a Vampiric Touch spell on the target from his hands (with no effect, of course).
Jersey continued following Dazki's orders to attack the largest entity with his nonmagical axe. It did some damage, but he probably would have been more effective with a magical weapon.
Marvin, thinking that the enemies were selecting their targets using thermal vision, used his Pyroconverger to light the fireplace. (Perception 17) This didn't do what he had hoped it would. The smaller ones would tick to the beat of something, not necessarily their pseudo-leader.
Once he had gotten swarmed, Kesmet decided that he had had enough and used a fireball to incinerate the small ones, heavily damage the large one, ... and light a bunch of their furniture boxes on fire.
Dwardazik's fists caused the largest remnant to do another explosion, which spawned additional small swarming mechanical spiders.
Combat Summary: Phase 3
This time, the spiders started swarming around Dazki. One of them is ticking...
Grogery cast Spirit Guardians, which ultimately was what finished them off.
Jersey was ordered to drag Mot away from the fire, which he did.
Dazki (Perception 23) quickly pinpointed which one was ticking and jabbed it with his rapier, terminating it and causing it to do a minor explosion, which he handily evaded.
Dwardazik punched out another, but then ran to the kitchen to start getting some water to put out the raging fire. Marvin cast Fly on himself and the dwarf as he passed.
Out of the Fire...
Once the enemies are neutralized, Grogery goes to raise Mot while Dazki coordinates the work of extinguishing the fire. Kesmet also casts Fly on himself and Dazki to speed their parts up. As Marvin tries to dash around to quickly put out the fire, he suddenly finds himself unable to do so, beginning to move extra slowly. Dazki reassigns the work to accommodate this. Once the fire is put out, Dwardazik retrieves his warhammer.
Mot wakes up from death with a hollow gasp.
Dazki: Well, at least we figured out what those things do to find their targets.
Dwardazik: OK, so, are we just going to ignore the fact that this thing fucking came alive?!
Grogery: Was it sound, then?
Dazki: They were following our heartbeats. Whoever was the most emotionally charged — whoever had the fastest heartbeat at the time — that's who they went for.
Grogery: That makes sense.
Dwardazik: EXCUSE ME! I called that this thing was going to turn into an enemy and try and kill us! And guess who was right! The dwarf. I just want it to be known that I called this.
Dazki: You did. You did. Good job, Dwardazik.
Dwardazik: And Mot basically, — is Mot even alive over there?
Mot sits there, weakly coughing, dazed about what happened to him.
Dwardazik: Look. Dazki, I know you have the best intentions for everyone in mind here, but you're not so perfect that you can't make a mistake every once in a while, all right? Your willingness to just take your tools and go digging, straight into something you don't even fully understand — and then it explodes and kills your companion — ... ... ... I'm just saying, you need to take things a little bit more carefully!
Kesmet: It was gonna explode eventually, with our luck. The fact that it happened to be timed right when Dazki was tinkering with it, it's not really... you know. You know.
Dwardazik: We have to be careful. We can't keep getting lucky like this!
Dazki: I agree with you, Dwardazik.
Dwardazik: ... ... we should've brought it outside.
Kesmet: Wouldn't the little bugs have just gotten away or something, then?
Dazki: I don't know. We can learn for next time.
Grogery: By the way! Just for future reference, I have a spell that will supplement you with healing magics if your body is going to undergo something that would normally kill you. You'll hurt afterwards, but you won't die. So if we are going to do something that's THAT dangerous, just understand that that kind of ward is on the table.
Dwardazik: I should've known better. I should've pushed something. Maybe built a wall around it.
Dazki: We also can't be afraid of everything. We also can't fear the unknown constantly. Especially with all this Turmoil stuff coming after us, we need to know what we're dealing with. Admittedly, this may have been a risk that is too far. But we still need to be able to walk, eyes open, into risky and possibly unknown situations.
Kesmet: We need bold strokes.
Dazki: You're right, this may have been too much, Dwardazik. I acquiesce to that. We still need to be able to look forward — and move forward — even if there is something unknown and dangerous in that direction.
Dwardazik: So what you're really sayin' — (He looks around at everyone else) — is we need some fuckin' battle plans!
Kesmet: We did kinda just get caught off-guard with that... we're pretty good at battle plans! I remember when we went into that one fuckin' room and I turned everyone invisible, and it was all tactical and shit!
Dwardazik: Mot. Are you at least all right?
Mot:
Dwardazik walks away, picking up the playing cards that he and Grogery had just started into before the battle, as Dazki finds a cloak to wrap Mot in. Kesmet uses his spice box to flavor some hot water as "tea" and offers it to Mot.
Jersey speaks up, bowing deeply.
Jersey: My apologies, lord. I could not keep the area safe.
Dazki: It caught us all off guard, Jersey. You did a great job. You helped protect Mot when he needed it, you did the right thing, and you did well. You should be proud of yourself.
Kesmet also makes Jersey a cup of "tea". Jersey accepts and starts drinking it.
Dwardazik and Dazki begin sorting through the furniture boxes that were near the fire blast to figure out what's still salvageable, while Grogery keeps an eye on Mot to make sure he's OK mentally.
An impossible amount of shiny metal bits and shattered ceramic litter the entire room. There seems to be no way that all of this debris could have possibly come from an automaton of that size, and yet... here it is. Dwardazik also focuses on gathering the debris into a pile.
Dazki: You still gonna be good to try to figure out some of the stuff about that creature inside of you later tonight, Dwardazik?
Dwardazik: Hmm? Oh? Oh. Yeah. That plan still stands.
Dazki: Cool. And, like I said, you were right. Bringing that thing here was a bit too much. I'm sorry.
Dwardazik: Look, I'm not even mad that we ended up fighting it. Because I suspected it. What I'm mad about is that NONE of us thought to have a battle plan for IF it tried to attack us. Stupid on our part.
Dazki: That's fair.
Dwardazik: THAT'S what I'm mad about.
Dazki: It's completely fair.
Dwardazik: We have to be smarter. RRGH. (He starts furiously throwing more debris into the pile.)
Dazki: It starts with calming down and having a controlled idea of our situation.
Grogery, calling out from across the room: For every setback, there is another sunrise!
Dwardazik, loudly enough for everyone to tell that he's addressing everyone: So what are you thinkin', guys? What's the next plan? We should probably let Mot recover for a bit, but — well, shit, we can't sell that now! Are we just straight-up free? Do we go get a boat?
Dazki: We could still probably sell it for scrap. We might not be able to get as much, but we could still sell some of it, probably. Did Kerro have anything on him worth selling?
Dwardazik: Uh, did he? That's right! I had actually forgotten about all that stuff, with all of us running around so much.
Dwardazik takes out a really fancy pocketwatch and sets it on a table. (Editor's note: I had it written down in Session 96 that Dwardazik had hastily handed the pocketwatch to Grogery, which explains why he didn't have it written down... the player was beating himself up over it a little, so I figured I'd chime in here.)
Kesmet: Hey, I also picked up a pocketwatch back when we were lootingBaxton's hotel room.
Dazki: All right, well, do you want it? Or do you want to see what we can get for it?
Kesmet: I'm not too interested in it. Baxton's a bastard, and his whole part of this mystery has kind-of been solved. Unless this is somehow his weird phylactery where, in the event that the ring breaks, he can transfer his soul to this?
Dazki: ...all right...
Dwardazik: This pocketwatch has no significance or meaning to me. Better off selling it and using the gold for resources for our journey.
Grogery: Well, is it magical?
Dwardazik: I dunno, I just — maybe Kerro Schene and his whole — (he simply points to the pocketwatch).
Dazki uses a charge of the Wand of Detect Magic. Neither pocketwatch is magical.
Dwardazik: All I can tell you about this is that — judging by the craftsmanship, the material, and the design — I'm not 100% sure about its exact mechanical value, but I would wager that this would be worth something around 2500 gold, in a working state. So it's a very expensive watch, and it could definitely fund our expedition over towards the wall, if we need to.
Dazki: If it were working.
Grogery: Luckily, we have a crack inventor over here who might be able to help, if he feels up to it?
Mot: ...I think mother was right... I think it is"my funeral"...
Marvin, whispering to Dazki and Grogery: Do you think it would be wise to make him forget that he died?
Dazki: Ohhh... that's a hard one...
Grogery: ...you could always ask him?
Marvin: ...well, I would also need to make him forget that I asked him, but... yeah...
Editor's note: I really tried to move this part somewhere else, to avoid the double shot of Mood Whiplash going from "how do we deal with guy who just experienced the actual trauma of death on account of our negligence" to "oh, we still have some more items to identify, neat!" and then right back to "oh yeah, the not-dead-anymore guy", but I couldn't find a believable spot for it.
Dwardazik also offers up the three (apparent) healing potions he looted from Kerro for Dazki to take a look at them. (Arcana 23) They all smell like healing potions, but each one's bottle is labeled with beads of distinctly different textures, so it seems highly unlikely that they all actually are. They're labeled such that — if someone were to, say, need to grab one quickly out of their pouch without looking — they could tell which is which just by feeling the beads on the bottle, because they smell and look identical.
Dazki: They smell like healing potions, but I don't think they're all the same based on the vials they're in. See how the texture makes it so you can tell them apart?
Dwardazik: Hm. You think an alchemist would be able to identify these?
Dazki: Maybe. I'll spend some more time tonight seeing what I can do as well.
Dwardazik: All right, well, be careful. For all we know, they might explode!
Dazki, chuckling: I'm not gonna go drinking any of 'em, I promise.
Dwardazik: All right, no lockpicking 'em, either!
Dazki: You have my word.
Marvin shifts around uncomfortably, still muttering to himself about what he can do about the fact that asking Mot if he wants to remember that he died is, itself, a memory that might also need to be modified if Mot is to completely forget that he died.
Dwardazik: Marvin. Let him know.
Marvin: Just saying, the implication of... maybe just knowing that he died is the problem, and not the actual memory of death itself? I dunno what it was like to die!
Grogery: Well... Dwardazik, what was it like? Your soul is literally outside of your body for some amount of time, I imagine it's probably not a clean transition.
Dwardazik: I would suggest... that you keep practicing your healing arts, Grogery.
Marvin: OK, I can ask him. If he says "no", then I guess it's a moot point. (He turns to Mot.) Hey, Mot, I know you're not doing too hot right now. I know you went through quite a bit just now. Would you prefer if you didn't remember what just happened?
Mot: ...what? What do you mean?
Marvin: I can replace what just happened to you with anything you want! You could remember that you were just knocked out and that you came back to just feeling like shit. Would you prefer that?
Mot: I... ... ... why?
Marvin: You seem pretty distressed. If you don't want to, I'll totally understand.
Mot: Of course I'm distressed, I fucking died!
Marvin: I know, man!
Mot: Wouldn't it be a problem if I wasn't distressed about being dead?!
Marvin: I'm just saying, you could maybe not remember that —
Mot: I still would've died, though! And then, if I didn't remember, then I would probably die again later from the same mistake!
Grogery: Hmm...
Marvin: This one? Uh, as long as you avoid, you know, this buster over here — (He points to Dazki) — as long as you avoid him for a little while, I think you'll be fine.
Grogery: There's also a philosophical question of, if he is uncareful in a similar manner, then it might only be a matter of time until a similar thing — not this exact circumstance! — would happen.
Marvin: I wouldn't make you forget what you did to trigger the action, I would just make you forget that, like... that's the thing, that's why I'm asking.
Grogery: I suppose we could leave enough context for you to know that you died, but any particularly traumatic or painful memories that are hard to live with after the fact could be removed.
Mot staggers to his feet, weakly, rising to meet the eye level of Grogery and Marvin. He wanders over to Marvin and puts a hand on his shoulder.
Mot: Life is lived for the mistakes, man. If you don't encounter mistakes, how can you even say that you've ever lived? ...even... even if you've died?
Marvin: I totally agree. And I see your point. You want to learn from this mistake — even though I don't see it as a mistake, this was something unavoidable (you obviously see it differently) — that's why I wanted to ask. Like you say, the fact that you did die is the depressing thing, right? Not the actual specific memory of the event?
Mot: Hey, man, don't tell me how I feel.
Marvin: No, so —
Dwardazik, walking over: Hey, Marvin, he clearly doesn't care for it, all right?
Marvin: Sorry! That wasn't my intent, to tell you how you feel, I'm sorry!
Mot: It's just a lot, OK?
Marvin: It is a lot, man. Can I get you something to eat?
Mot: You halflings are so weirdly optimistic.
Marvin: We gotta be. Can I get you something to eat, man?
Mot: I think I'm just gonna go home. It's been a really bad day, between losing the shop and actually dying, —
Dazki: ...wait a minute...
Mot: — and I think I just wanna go.
Dazki: What's that about the shop? Is there something we can do to help? ...although, we've probably "helped" enough, haven't we...
Mot: I mean, I dunno, man. I don't think all of your wealth is gonna really buy us outta this one.
Dwardazik: Wait, what happened?
Mot: ...we gonna talk about this now?
Dazki: No, no, sorry.
Dwardazik: ...all right! Hey Jer, would you be willing to escort him, through a taxi?
Mot:
Dwardazik: Just wanna make sure you get home all right. You seem kinda outta it.
Mot: ...I'm good. I'm good. You know what, you halflings might be lucky, but we gnomes, we thrive in... unfortunate... situations. ...yeah. Yeah!
Dwardazik: Suit yourself.
Marvin: My whole life is an "unfortunate situation"...
Dwardazik, jokingly: Look, what's death, right? Not that big of a deal! Get the hell outta here, go back home!
Dazki: Mot, if you ever need a place for a little bit, or anything like that, you're always welcome in our home.
Mot: No. No, I don't think that's right. Nuh-uh. Nope, I've got my life outside of all this ridiculousness.
Dazki: Fair. Just wanna let you know, the offer is open, and we're here to be your friends and support you, should you want us.
Mot: Don't get me wrong, I'm still very interested in the business ventures, but maybe later.
Dazki: Absolutely. Now is not a good time. For what it's worth, I'm sorry.
Mot: You gotta tinker better, man. Next time, you're gonna get us both killed!
Dazki: Yeah, I definitely still need some practice.
Mot, weakly: That's... that's why you hire, the best!... ... ... I'm gonna... go. Now.
Dazki: Yeah. Be safe on your way back.
Mot: Maybe I'll go to a bar. I've never done that before. Do they still take money at a bar?
Dazki: Yeah.
Mot: Yeah. I'm gonna do that. I'm gonna go to a tavern. I'm not gonna go home.
Grogery: Well, enjoy your night out!
Mot, uncomfortably: OK, you too!
(Mot leaves.)
Marvin, sarcastically enthusiastically: We're the fuckin' heroes, guys! Man, look at that happy customer, walking away from our services!
Jersey, leaning down to Dwardazik: ...you still want me to follow him?
Grogery: I think he's fine.
Dwardazik: Nah. I think you'll be fine. How you doin', eh, Jersey? You didn't get hit by that whole monstrosity, did ya?
Jersey: I'm afraid I was rather ineffective at protecting your house from intruders.
Marvin: Well, to be fair, we brought that one in ourselves.
Dwardazik: You know what we need to do? We need to get you an axe with a little more oomph to it. Might go a long way.
Jersey: I don't see how that aids the situation, but you do know best.
Dwardazik: Uh... I don't really know if I like that attitude. I know a lot of things, but I don't necessarily know "best".
Jersey: My apologies, lord, which attitude would you rather have? I can try.
Dwardazik, holding up his hand: I'm not playing this game. You're doin' fine. Whatever. I need an ale.
Dazki: Just be yourself, Jersey. We're all friends, and we're all equals here, all right? You're here because we trust you and we have faith in you. It's OK to speak your mind.
Grogery: We were the stupid ones who brought that inside. Kind-of our fault when it exploded on us. Maybe we would have been more careful if there had been more voices saying "hey, maybe we shouldn't have that thing be inside".
Jersey: You are my lords, and I have been hired to serve you. We are not equals.
Dazki: ...all right, well, how's this: I respect your opinions and your thoughts, and I wish to hear them unfiltered, whenever possible. I promise that we will not be angry or unhappy for that in any way, shape, or form. You're here because we have faith in you and because we respect you and your opinions.
Dwardazik: Jersey. What's your favorite drink?
Jersey: The tea was kinda nice...
Dwardazik: You've failed me, Jersey. (He starts walking away.)
Grogery: No-no-no! Don't take that seriously!
Jersey: My lord!
Jersey runs after Dwardazik, and they have a short side conversation in the hall, just barely out of earshot of the others.
Marvin: Hey, Dazki, where the fuck is Barry?
Dwardazik: When anyone asks you your favorite drink, you respond with "dwarven ale"!
Dazki: He's probably upstairs. Rosalin went upstairs too, she's probably still there.
Kesmet: They heard that whole ruckus.
Grogery: Does Rosalin know the situation with Barry? I think she does...
Marvin: Did he even make it back after putting that thing in the post?
Dwardazik: Dwarven. Ale.
Dazki: We can go check his room.
Marvin: Yeah, let's make sure they're here.
Grogery: Make sure Barry got back OK. Heaven forbid he goes missing for a week again.
Marvin: That happened before?
Grogery: He got kidnapped by The Hounds Guild. Or, not really "kidnapped", but...
They go upstairs to check on Barry. Barry is still here. Dazki lets Rosalin know what happened. Marvin goes back downstairs, walking in on Dwardazik still laying into Jersey about proper etiquette.
Dwardazik: When someone insults your honor, you challenge them to an arm wrestling contest, and when someone asks your favorite drink, you say "dwarven ale"!
Jersey: OK, my lord.
Marvin: I didn't hear enough enthusiasm in that!
Jersey: OK!
Marvin: Hell yeah!
Jersey: HELL YEAH!
Dwardazik: Hey! Marvin! Arm wrestling contest, now!
Marvin: All right!
They arm wrestle. (Strength 6) Dwardazik flops, and (Strength 18) Marvin beats him handily.
Dwardazik: HE'S SO STROOOOOOONG!!!
Marvin: Are you OK, man?
Dwardazik, rubbing his elbow: Yeah, yeah, uh, I had to punch some of those gears... punching metal isn't exactly something that...
Marvin: Yeah, don't do that.
Dwardazik: Nah, it's fine, it's fine, I just wanted to show that Jersey, uh, stood a chance, you know? We should try a drinking contest some other time!
Marvin: Oh boy...
They have a bit of downtime for the remainder of the afternoon into the evening. Kesmet is in his room, busy jotting down everything he remembers about the lost time in his journal, while he still can. He finishes with that.
Prescription Meditations
In the evening, Dazki invites the entire party (minus Barry) to the conservatory, for a meditation session. Dazki, Dwardazik, Marvin, Grogery, and Kesmet are all here.
(Editor's note: some suggested background music here...)
Dazki: All right. So, this is going to be to hopefully focus on finding the things inside of those of us that have them, that may not necessarily belong there. So, first thing we're going to do — and this might take a few attempts, and that's OK — we're going to close our eyes. Just block out the rest of the world. Only focus on my voice and your own breathing.
Dazki (cont'd): Take all of the stresses you feel, visualize them in your mind as some sort of a handheld object. A ball, a cup, anything like that. Compress them — all of the negative emotions — in your hand. Take a deep breath, exhale through your mouth. Watch all of those worries and concerns just blow away in the dust. You might not get all of them the first try, and that's OK. Just take a few minutes, breathe in, out. Watch your worries float away.
...
...
Dazki (cont'd): Now that we have all of our concerns gone, we're going to take everything else. All of our other feelings. Anything that is not you. That is not the core essence of who you are. Bring that to your hand as well. Another object — it can be the same, it can be different, doesn't matter.
Dazki (cont'd): Breathe in, breathe out. Watch it blow away. Gently fluttering off in the wind. So that all you're left with...
Dazki (cont'd): ...is you.
Dazki (cont'd): Now, look inside. Focus. See if you can find anything that's not you, inside. Radiate your calm into that void. Let your essence slowly move towards it and fill it. Let it become you. Push all of your feelings, all of your... you-ness... into that. Just focus on radiating calm into it.
He keeps going along these lines for about another half-hour. While deep into the meditation, Kesmet (and only Kesmet) is suddenly transported to the Red Desert. (Editor's note: he relays this to the party after-the-fact, and since he's still attuned to the Rotor of Return, it's a perfect recollection, so it's not marked as a secret or anything)
You are stunned, not in control of your own body, only capable of observing your haphazard machine. You blow red sand out of the crunching gears in your device.The device, nailed to a damaged shipping crate, is a mess of carved bone, scrap metal, worn wood — anything you could scavenge from the desert. The centerpiece of it all is a tall, thin rod, acting as an antenna. Violently rotating around it is a large, complicated-looking flat ring. Levitating and unstable, it bashes against the antenna.Cranking the side of the mechanism is unhelpful, and in frustration — in desperation! — you feel yourself slap the side of the machine's face. Sounds of crinkling paper or metal emanate from the machine. A voice comes through — as if far away, at first, but it comes closer — "Can you hear? Time is ours! We need to send NOW! Give me the sequence!"Voices respond on the wind, familiar: d̰̎es̼͗p͉͊e͙̚rat̨̔io̡͆na͖n̥x͖i̘e͟t͔y͇c̽ö́m͆p̋l̐ȉăn͗c̓e͘.From the twilit sky, six laser-like beams of colored light strike the ring. A sinister voice responds from behind: "Taking a chance, then? You grant me strength in my connection. I thrive in your poor choices."A voice comes from you, now. You speak, but the voice is not your own: "You can suck my nads, Prime! I have confidence in the Damsel's choices!"
Snap Back to Reality
Kesmet, yelling out: You can suck my nads, Prime! I have confidence in the Damsel's choices!
Dazki: ...it's OK, Kesmet. Whatever that was, let it be. Take a deep breath, close your eyes, and push past it.
Kesmet: ...holy shit. Wait, were you guys just in the Red Desert?
Dazki: ...no?
Grogery: No.
Kesmet: I was just there. It was weird — I mean, weirder than usual.
Dazki: Shit, what happened?
Kesmet: Well, there was a...
Kesmet describes exactly what had happened, of course referring to the voice as "a salesman". He also writes it down in his notebook, appending it after his Chronicles of Overlook.
Dazki: All right, then. Well, I've got a feeling that meditation is done for the evening.
Marvin: So... you weren't intending for that to happen, were you, Dazki?
Dazki: No...
Marvin: OK. I thought you'd learned some tricks from the book, considering how convinced Kesmet was of all that.
Dazki: No.
Dwardazik, trying to remain calm: We all understand. We've been to the Red Desert. We've all been touched by the insanity. To think that just slowing down for a moment — just trying to feel what's going on — can cause a reaction like this?
Marvin: It's unsettling, to say the least.
Dazki: I'd say it's probably more of a good thing.
Marvin: How do you figure that?
Dwardazik, muttering to himself: "Can you hear"... "time is ours"... Hmm, "sequence": a series of events? Series of numbers? Series of actions? Past, present, future? "Time is ours, we need to send now, give me the sequence"... "Can you hear"...
Dwardazik, with a shrug: I got nothing, guys.
Grogery: SIX laser-like beams?
Dazki: Yeah...
Grogery: Not four. Not five.
Dazki: They did say there was the other one, the other being that we saw, a traveler like us.
Grogery: But he hasn't had the laser lights like we did.
Dazki: Maybe not that we've seen, maybe not in the same time and situation as us.
Grogery: ...there is another group of six...
Dazki: Maybe. But I think the sixth is that other traveler, who I suspect is Marvin's father.
Marvin: Still confused on all that!
Dazki: Not saying it isn't confusing.
Dwardazik: Why do you think it's his father, again?
Dazki: Alfalfa, and the being we were shown was a halfling that looked similar.
Dwardazik: Gotcha. Did anyone else have a "vision"?
Grogery: Nothing like that. It could be placebic, it could be spiritual experiences.
Dazki: What about you? Were you able to feel the thing inside of you, Dwardazik?
Dwardazik: What I can tell you is that, as I truly tried to feel out my own self, it's like a tightness in your chest perhaps getting just a little bit less tight. I don't know.
Dazki: That's a good start. A really good start.
Dwardazik: Maybe it was simply the stress from the fight we just had. (He chuckles.) Maybe I just need to stretch a little bit more! But it felt relaxing, at least.
Dazki: This is stretching in a different kind of way. If there was a tightness, I think this is a good stretching to do. I think we'll probably try continuing with this and using the book to research what's going on. We can alternate days, and we'll probably have plenty of time on the boat.
Dwardazik: Ahh, yeah.
Dazki: You did good, Dwardazik. Thank you for indulging me and letting me help with this.
Dwardazik: What, sitting around? The only thing this is missing is a bunch of booths! ... ...yeah... ... yeah, I know.
Dazki: All right, well, with that, I think we should probably have dinner...
Dazki (cont'd): ...and worry about when Queen is gonna show up.
