Original subtitles

TALIESIN: Those that rise from the trenches

only to boldly dive into the catacombs of the Fairelands

are few and far between.

Any investigator,

be they soldier or civilian,

will eventually find themselves forced

to abandon what is right for what must be done.

The scars of war are deep and timeless.

Those who survive must balance on a delicate thread

of ever-fraying purpose,

for to stare too deeply into the chasm of the past

is to see nothing but a reflection of terror.

When retribution crawls from the darkness,

our inner fortitude is put to the test.

The Circle of Needle & Thread.

Assignment #533: Eye for an Eye.

(tense mysterious music)

SPENSER: We open on a man

in his 40s

laying in bed.

We're above, looking down.

He's staring up at us.

His eyes seem lost somewhere else.

We push in slowly on him from above.

Moving closer

and closer.

We see he's laying on one side,

the left side, an empty side on the right.

As we get just into

his face,

we hear

a knock.

He starts up

and smiles.

We see a child

silhouetted in the doorway, about five years old.

The child's holding a teddy bear.

It's so long that it's scraping the ground

where he stands.

The boy says,

"Dad, I think I heard something in my room.

"Can you come check?"

The man smiles,

gets up out of bed, and as he does,

we see him pass by our frame, out of frame,

and we land on the nightstand,

where we see a photograph,

a rare thing in this world, but nonetheless.

It's of him

holding a baby,

and a woman standing next to him,

arm in arm.

We linger on the empty side of the bed.

We cut to

the man in the child's room.

There's a bed in the center,

clothes and toys strewn about on the floor.

The father walks over to the closet.

The boy says, "I think I heard it in there."

He confidently grabs the doorknob,

pulls open the closet door.

Inside, we see

clothes and toys.

Nothing here.

We cut to the underside of the bed.

The man flops down onto his stomach

and looks left and right.

There's a ball, a shoe. Nothing here.

He walks over to the boy and says,

"It's all clear, bud."

Little boy salutes him. He salutes him back.

The boy looks down, sad

and says, "I miss Mom."

The father stares off

for a moment, gathers himself, ruffles

the hair of the child and says, "You need to go to bed.

"You have school in the morning."

The boy runs to the bed,

dives underneath the covers.

Turns over.

The man blows out the candle on his nightstand,

moves out to the threshold of the door,

gives one last look back at the boy,

and then closes the door behind him.

We see hanging

on the back of the door

a coat.

It's just a coat.

TRAVIS: (laughs)

MARISHA: Stressed already?

BRENNAN: Travis, it's been three minutes.

(laughter)

SPENSER: The man continues down the hallway,

moves into his room,

takes a deep breath,

closes the door just slightly, and lays down on the bed.

He stares at the photograph on his bedside table.

The woman's face is happy.

Her eyes closed in smiles.

And

he takes a snuffer and snuffs out the candle

on his nightstand as well.

Just like the child, he rolls over

and closes his eyes.

We sit in this shot of the man

in the foreground laying towards us.

In the background,

his closet

sits still.

We sit in this shot for too long.

Until,

ever so slightly, we start to push in.

As that happens,

the closet door

opens just a little bit.

We see a shadowy, long hand

reach around the door,

push it farther open, and then disappear.

A face

comes into view,

breaking the threshold of the door here.

It's a ghostly white face, pale blue skin,

as if it's floating

out of the closet.

Eyes are closed. Mouth, agape.

It moves forward towards the man.

This woman looks familiar to us.

As it gets closer and closer,

the man twitches in his sleep.

We get a shot of the photograph on the nightstand.

Then a shot of the face floating towards him.

They are of the same woman.

He turns,

eyes opening for just a moment,

and sees her face above him.

He says,

"Allison?

"Allison, what are you--

"What are you--" and he starts to sit up

and as that happens, the face snaps back.

As it does, it reveals a jagged set of teeth.

At that time a hand, same dark hand that was over the closet,

covers the mouth of the man.

He screams and we see chromatic

light pouring up the hand of this creature.

It starts to shake

and twitch, starting at its wrist

and then moving up into its shoulder.

As that happens, the man also starts

to writhe and twitch.

The creature takes its other clawed hand

and sticks its thumb, the nail on its thumb,

into the lowest part of the neck.

You know this part right here that's super soft?

Sticks the thumbnail right into there

and then slices straight down,

fileting the man wide open.

As that happens,

the candle

(rekindling)

comes back to life.

The creature takes the hand off of the man's mouth,

who's now in shock, looking down at his body.

The creature reaches into-- TRAVIS: (laughs nervously)

SPENSER:-- the body of this man

and parts it

wide open, breaking the rib cage.

We see a pulsing heart within.

That's when we see a crack of light

in the doorway.

MARISHA: (gasps)

Oh no. SPENSER: There's an eye

looking into the room.

ZEHRA: No.

SPENSER: The little boy stands outside the door,

holding the teddy bear, staring into the room.

He drops the bear

and runs.

MARISHA: Yeah, smart kid.

SPENSER: That's where we're going to cut to all of you.

TRAVIS: Fudge

maker.

(laughter)

MARISHA: That it was. SPENSER: (laughs)

ZEHRA: Just a little thoracic surgery.

LUIS: Oh my gosh, right? MARISHA: Yeah.

SPENSER: That's where we're cutting into all of you.

You are all finishing up a mission,

an assignment that you've been sent on

Where your job was to intercept a package,

a device that EONS was transporting

from the Bridleborne Mountains

to Newfaire.

You know that it is coming on a train.

So we know that all of you have gathered on the train.

There have already been a number

of incidents that have occurred here.

We will get into those very shortly.

But your goal is to find

and take this device

that Candela has told you is very dangerous

in order to keep EONS from getting their hands on it.

EONS, so that you know,

is the Esoteric Order of New Sciences.

They are essentially like if Tesla

and Edison got together with magick

and made bad magick shit.

Basically, using magick as a form of science,

trying to utilize its power

in ways that help them to make money.

It's capitalism. LUIS: (laughs)

SPENSER: So, that is the information

that we start with here at the end of this mission.

We start on a shot of the Bridleborne Mountains,

moving into the Scarlet Woods.

The Scarlet Woods are bright red,

Scarlet Wood, rather,

bright red trees

that fill the bottom of our frame

like a pool of blood.

We see, just in the distance,

the smallest trail of smoke here.

As we zoom into that, we get a shot of a steam engine

that is moving very quickly down the side of a mountain

through the Scarlet Wood here.

It is almost on a vertical incline.

So it is going down the mountain at an extreme speed

and we hear the blow of the horn

as it's blaring past us,

the trees whipping in its wake.

From there,

we land on a man

who is cradling the device

that you all know

you're supposed to be getting.

In the other hand, he has a gun.

He's dressed in a burgundy suit.

He has a very--

What's that, pencil thin mustache?

TRAVIS: Mm-hmm.

SPENSER: You see that he is on top of the train,

about four cars back from the engine car.

MARISHA: What kind of fucked Tom Cruise shit is this?

SPENSER: Uh-huh! (laughter)

SPENSER: On top of the train, about four cars

back from the front.

He is holding onto the device with one hand.

He's flat against the car so that he does not blow off

of the car, and his other arm reaches back

with the gun to take a shot.

We hear the crack

of the gun go off.

We see the smoke almost paralleling the smoke

from the steam engine

coming off of the gun as this happens

and we see the person he is shooting at.

Who is it?

BRENNAN: Me! SPENSER: It's you. Okay.

(laughs) I love that.

MARISHA: Secret robber hands.

SPENSER: (laughs) LUIS: Yes.

SPENSER: Just stepping in first. BRENNAN: I didn't see anyone else

jumping up. (laughter)

SPENSER: Love that. Jumping right in.

So we see the gun raised, we see the crack--

Or we hear the crack, we see the smoke,

and we get a shot of you.

Sean, do you want to describe for us

what you look like here as you are on

the back of the train as well?

BRENNAN: (New York accent) I want you to picture how I look

sitting at the table right now, but with way more fucking

pine needles in my face.

(laughter)

BRENNAN: We are rocketing down this hillside.

I look uncomfortable.

I got a coat. I think the second I heard the first crack,

I jumped in between two cars, grabbed onto the ladder

and I'm reaching for a piece in my jacket

to come up over the top and get this guy.

SPENSER: I love that. TRAVIS: Yeah!

SPENSER: We hear the first crack go off.

We see you leap down,

pull yourself up as you're grabbing the gun.

Mark that you have a hand weapon,

since that's what you're taking there.

Then we see you lift yourself up over the train.

You're about two cars back from him

at this point, about the sixth car back.

As you peek your head up,

you see the barrel pointed at you again.

The trigger's being pulled.

You're going to get another shot fired at you.

What do you want to do here?

BRENNAN: This guy's a scientist.

Do we assume or do I know that he's a soldier?

SPENSER: Assume that he's a--

You would make the assumption, given his outfit,

that he is a scientist.

BRENNAN: Then I think this guy, firing from prone

on top of a moving train

is not going to be able to hit the side of a barn

and I'm going to let him fire wildly

in reverse while I steady my shot.

SPENSER: I love that. Okay, that sounds good.

So we see you

pulling yourself up, you're going to steady your shot.

I'm going to have you make a Control roll here.

I will set the expectations here for this,

that this is one, a high stakes roll

and two, on a mixed success or a miss here,

you will take some body marks from getting shot.

BRENNAN: On a mixed success.

So a six would help me not get shot, right?

SPENSER: Yes, correct.

(laughter) LUIS: Crap.

BRENNAN: I know the rules!

SPENSER: A mixed success would not be as bad as a miss here,

but you are just letting him shoot at you.

BRENNAN: Yes, that's correct.

I'm going to spend a Nerve--

SPENSER: Okay. BRENNAN:-- drive

because I have Sharpshooter.

"When you want to make a ranged attack with a weapon,

"you may spend one Nerve to

"steady your aim before shooting

"and add plus two dice

"to your next shot at this target."

SPENSER: So are you just popping up and shooting at him

while he's shooting at you?

Is that kind of the thought?

BRENNAN: I'm in between two cars.

SPENSER: Yeah. BRENNAN: I'm going to put

just my eyes--

I'm giving him just the top of my head to aim at

on a moving train,

arm over the side, steadied on the ground,

and I'm going to take my shot at him.

SPENSER: Okay. BRENNAN: I'm going to let

him fire wildly.

If this guy can clip the top of my cranium

on a moving train, he deserves it.

(laughter)

SPENSER: Great, so you're making a Control roll here.

BRENNAN: I'm going to Control here.

I'll go ahead, actually,

and throw another drive on there

for an extra die. SPENSER: Okay, sounds good.

BRENNAN: Okay.

TRAVIS: Everybody's dead. LUIS: (laughs)

BRENNAN: That's a mixed success. That's a five.

SPENSER: That's a five? Okay, it's a mixed success.

So, here's what happens here.

You shoot. He shoots.

You're a better shot than he is.

You know this.

But as the sound of the bullet traveling

out of the barrel of your gun reverberates in your ears,

you feel a kickback like you're not used to from this gun.

Then suddenly you feel searing pain on your hand.

At that same time, you see him (grunts) get hit

in the shoulder from him leaning up,

the back of the shoulder, and go down.

His arm looks as though it-- The arm that had the gun,

it looks as though it's being covered in blood here,

but as you look down at your own hand,

you see that there is--

The bullet probably hit the gun.

Your gun is completely out of use now.

BRENNAN: Gotcha. SPENSER: And your hand

is just covered in blood.

You can take a body mark for me.

LUIS: However, I see it coming.

SPENSER: (laughs)

Okay. LUIS: So right under Sean--

SPENSER: Uh-huh. LUIS:-- is Marion.

As soon as I see you drop down

and I see you moving up the ladder,

your old buddy Marion is there right beside you.

As I see him go over the side to take aim,

I'm right underneath him, and I steady myself.

I close my eyes and as soon as I have this premonition

of what you just described flashing through my mind,

you feel a tug behind you

and you hear me say: Drop the gun!

BRENNAN: I unthinkingly drop the gun and toss it.

SPENSER: Yeah. LUIS: I'll try to catch it

with my vest, I'll catch it to protect myself

from the heat a little bit. SPENSER: Love that.

LUIS: So I used an ability called Premonition

where I have momentary visions of the future.

When an ally is about to take one or more marks,

I burn an Intuition resistance

to warn them about the coming danger, and then I soak--

SPENSER: So cool. LUIS:-- one of these marks.

SPENSER: Great, so you take that body.

You do not take that body.

You soak that body, and instead you pull him down.

This guy is still shot, but you're able to pull the gun

in time to make sure that he was not able

to hit Sean in return.

What happens here? LUIS: Hot potato, hot potato,

hot potato! Here, here, here! BRENNAN: Oh, I got it.

I'm going to throw it into my jacket

and look to you and say: Good eye, Marion.

I'm going to clap you on the arm.

I'm going to kick the door to the train car in

to move through the train towards the car

that that guy's on. SPENSER: Love that. We see

the door fly open.

This is a passenger car that you are bursting into

so you get eyes on you as this happens.

We're going to cut away from that.

BRENNAN: Great.

SPENSER: We are going to cut to the EONS tech train car

where they're keeping all of their equipment

that they're transporting back and forth.

We get the crackle of electricity

as some of the devices work.

We see sine waves on the rudimentary displays

on some of these devices,

the smell of ozone is in the air.

As that happens we see one figure silhouetted

by the lights, the bulbs that are lining this room

that are surging as the electricity from, as the wires

that are traveling down the side of that car

and to the wheels that are powering

the lights in this room

surge and crackle.

We watch as this person silhouetted

is facing off

against two large individuals.

They are rising a head above them,

and they roll up their sleeves.

We can tell from their movement

that they have just entered the train car

where this person was.

This person who is now facing down two EONS security members

is going to have to fight them off.

Who do we want that to be? Who is that?

TRAVIS: I guess it could be me!

(laughter)

TRAVIS: Unless, you know! (laughs)

Oh, no, I'll-- SPENSER: Yeah? Okay.

TRAVIS: That's me!

SPENSER: Sounds good to me.

Great, so we get the shot of you standing.

Will you describe your character for me?

TRAVIS: Yes, Nathaniel Trapp stands there

in his shirt and vest,

pocket watch loosely hanging out.

He was hoping to use his words more in this situation,

but seems to have found the car

with the two big fucks in it. (laughter)

TRAVIS: And is instead looking up

and trying to wonder how he got in this situation

and why he didn't bring a gun as well.

SPENSER: (laughs) Yeah, as you stare up at these two,

you hear one of them yell,

"Hey, what are you doing here?"

TRAVIS: Oh, I'm so sorry. Is this not the dining car?

SPENSER: We see one of them reach into their vest pocket

and pull out a knife.

As they do, we see a cord

that is wrapping around their arm down their vest.

They flip a switch and (energy pulsing)

a crackle of electricity comes over the top of it.

This is like a switchblade, but it's electrified.

They say, "Get on the ground!"

TRAVIS: Oh, absolutely.

Actually, I reach in my breast pocket

and I pull out a notepad and I say:

This is exactly what I was looking for.

I did not think the circus was coming to town,

but if you would be open to answering a few questions,

I would love to figure out what that is.

(laughter)

SPENSER: We cut away from that.

We cut away from that over to the last train car.

We sit for a moment

on the face

of Jean here,

looking up at her.

Her arm seems to be extended out.

As we pull back from that,

it's revealed that she is holding a gun in her hand.

Now, you don't need to mark it

because this was given to you. ZEHRA: Hmm.

SPENSER: We see a face appear over your shoulder,

a face that you know well.

This is Violet Boucher.

She is a mentor, a friend.

An enemy might be too strong of a word,

but maybe also that.

She smiles at you.

"It's time for you to prove yourself, Jean."

We pull out a little bit farther

and we see a person on their knees in front of you.

"It should be easy, Jean.

"It should be easy."

We hear the (clanking) of a train door opening,

a railroad car door opening, and we get the wind,

(wind blasting) whip in to the cabin here.

As that happens, we see the passing red trees

in front of you.

Silhouetted against those red trees

is a figure wearing tacked together clothing.

Beatrix.

MARISHA: Ah yes, you see good old Auntie Bee

stumble into the back of the car.

She looks a little disoriented

and, oh my goodness, is this not?

Is this not the express to the Red Lamp?

I, I just had-- TRAVIS: (laughs)

I fear I may have gotten on the wrong train.

SPENSER: (laughs) As you say that, we see

that you're patting your hands down

and Violet grabs your shoulder

and then slaps you across the face.

MARISHA: Ah! Did you just smack an old woman?

SPENSER: "Yes," she says and releases your shoulder.

Now, and for the first time we get a full shot of you, Jean.

Will you describe yourself for us?

ZEHRA: Jean is wearing standard-issue EONS clothing

that would be issued to an EONS doctor.

Normally, she is quite composed and put-together,

but in this moment there is ever so slight a tremble

in the hand that holds the gun.

She is not accustomed to holding a firearm.

In her eyes is a steely, cold reserve

that at this moment is threatening to shatter

as she weighs her options.

Surely, Dr. Boucher, there is another way.

SPENSER: "Ah," Violet says,

bows her head a little bit.

"You know, if you were not

"somebody who split their time

"between two organizations the way that you do,

"I would never ask a loyalty check like this.

"But it seems to me," and she looks over

to the corner of the car.

"It seems to me

"that there's been correspondence behind my back

"instead of the agreed-upon method of communication."

She pulls a letter out of her pocket.

"I found this.

"It was going to be sent."

She wanders over to the back of the car

as she's doing this.

"You know, this could have ruined everything,

"but she isn't as sly as she thinks she is."

She tucks the letter into her pocket

and she opens up a cabinetry

that would normally hold beakers and vials and things,

but it's been cleared out and inside is a figure,

a woman with dark hair, grabs her, pulls her up

and drags her up to sit kneeled down next to you.

This is Avery Choi, somebody that you know well.

Somebody that all of you would know as well.

Avery Choi is a liaison between EONS and Candela,

oftentimes providing services much like Jean does here.

She says, "See, I am loyal to EONS,

"so this--"

She lets go of the rope.

We see Avery

with a piece of tape over her mouth

trying to yell.

"This makes this whole situation

"rather easy for me."

She pulls out a gun.

"So, you first?"

ZEHRA: So to clarify. SPENSER: Mm-hmm.

ZEHRA: In front of me are kneeling Ms. Monroe

and Dr. Avery Choi. SPENSER: Mm-hmm.

ZEHRA: (sighs) Dr. Boucher wants me to shoot them.

SPENSER: Violet, Dr. Boucher, is holding the gun at Avery.

ZEHRA: I also have a gun. SPENSER: And you have the gun.

ZEHRA: (sighs) Is there a way

I can turn the gun on Dr. Boucher?

SPENSER: Definitely.

As she waits for a moment,

watching you nervously hold the gun--

Do you whip it over?

Do you slowly move it? What's the play here?

ZEHRA: (sighs)

I think--

I exchange glances nervously with Ms. Monroe.

I think perhaps we have talked

about if a situation like this were to occur.

MARISHA: Yes, we--

ZEHRA: Some sort of distraction.

MARISHA: We Saw This Coming.

(laughter)

MARISHA: Which is one of my abilities.

LUIS: (gasps)

MARISHA: So three times per assignment,

you may add a dice to your roll.

ZEHRA: Excellent.

MARISHA: Because of course we knew

Violet was going to be here and of course we knew

that we were going to be using Jean over here as bait.

So, Beatrix just takes the easy way

and almost looks like she's going to go to run,

but in this process knocks Violet,

shoulder checks her

out of the way. SPENSER: Oh, so good.

Yeah, so we see you get up to run.

You're not taking the shot.

ZEHRA: Yes, I take that opportunity

when I see Violet slightly knocked off course

to whip the gun on her.

SPENSER: Great, the gun is on her.

She whips the gun back onto you,

and now you're holding-- ZEHRA: Mm-hmm.

SPENSER:-- guns at one another.

ZEHRA: Mm-hmm.

I am a doctor and I am very skilled

about what part of my body can be injured without--

SPENSER: As you're saying this, she pulls the trigger.

ZEHRA: Oh! LUIS and TRAVIS: (gasp)

TRAVIS: Oh!

SPENSER: What do you want to do?

ZEHRA: I turn away from my heart--

LUIS and TRAVIS: (laugh) ZEHRA:-- so that the gun

strikes me in my right shoulder.

SPENSER: Okay. So you're going to make a Move roll for me.

ZEHRA: Okay. SPENSER: I will say,

in the very least you're going to take a body mark.

ZEHRA: Mm-hmm.

SPENSER: Could take more.

MARISHA: And add a dice-- ZEHRA: Add a dice.

MARISHA:-- from where we Saw This Coming.

SPENSER: Yep. ZEHRA: Thank you.

TRAVIS: Try to get skinny. SPENSER: A critical success

you will not take any damage. LUIS: That's your--

MARISHA: That's my-- LUIS: And it's called that.

ZEHRA: I'm also going to burn a Nerve drive.

SPENSER: Okay.

ZEHRA: Here we go.

Oh!

SPENSER: (laughs) It's okay, those gloves are--

ZEHRA: Oh! LUIS: Ooh!

TRAVIS: (laughs) ZEHRA: Six.

SPENSER: Six? MARISHA and TRAVIS: (laugh)

SPENSER: That's a full success.

She pulls the trigger. We see you turn sideways.

You feel (air whooshing) across your shoulder.

ZEHRA: Mm-hmm. SPENSER: Across

where your sleeve is, your arm,

(air whooshing) a cutting, searing pain,

but way less than it would have been.

You dive out of the way here.

She cries out, grabs Avery,

and holds Avery as a shield in front of her.

MARISHA: May I-- SPENSER: Yeah.

MARISHA: Look around, do a Survey check of this car.

SPENSER: Mm-hmm.

MARISHA: A lot of times these old cabooses--

And this isn't the car with the goods.

SPENSER: This isn't the car with the goods.

This is an empty train car--

MARISHA: Because I'm standing by the gate in between

and normally there's a lever that can detach the cars.

SPENSER: (chuckles) Uh-huh.

MARISHA: Can I look and see if I see anything like this?

SPENSER: Yeah, so you've made a run for it.

They're now standing face to face here.

You're going out the back of the car

or the front of the car?

You're going towards the engine

or away from the engine? MARISHA: Towards the--

SPENSER: Towards the engine, great.

So you're headed out that way.

Yeah, you're able to pry the doors open,

and you see there is the thing that would detach

if you were to try and separate cars.

It normally takes tools to do that.

You can't just pull the lever and do it.

MARISHA: Yeah. SPENSER: But that doesn't mean

that you couldn't try and force it, if you want to.

MARISHA: All right.

Uh--

Sure, I'm going to try and do it.

TRAVIS: Holy shit! (laughter)

SPENSER: So you're trying to detach the car?

TRAVIS: We're literally on the fucking train.

MARISHA: May-- Be ready. (laughter)

MARISHA: I look up and I'm like: Jeanie.

Time to go.

ZEHRA: Already hanging onto my shoulder.

Hanging onto the side. LUIS: Oh my god!

MARISHA: Can we say that maybe I have like

a little bit of a tiny little dagger,

or a blade, or something?

SPENSER: Yes, you should have a hand weapon on there

as an option. MARISHA: Yeah, all right.

I'll take a hand weapon that I try to use to help lever.

SPENSER: Great, normally without anything it would be

basically impossible to try and pry this apart.

But because you're using a weapon I'll say

that it is more effective because of that.

All of these, by the way, high stakes rolls, right?

That's why we're rolling environment damage.

All of these are high stakes rolls.

So you're reaching down trying to pry off the,

or pry open the mechanism to be able

to separate the cars.

Yeah, that's the plan?

Okay, what are you using?

Do you have a dagger?

MARISHA: Yeah, I have a little blade

or something like that. SPENSER: Great, love that.

Okay, that sounds good.

Go ahead and make that roll for me.

That's a Control?

MARISHA: Okay. SPENSER: Control or Strike.

I would give you one of the two.

MARISHA: I'll do Control. SPENSER: Okay.

MARISHA: Okay, and I just have one in it?

SPENSER: Yep, so you can spend drive.

You could spend Nerve, if you'd like to add more.

MARISHA: This feels important.

TRAVIS: I'd assist you, but, you know.

We're busy. ZEHRA: Could I assist you?

How would I assist you?

SPENSER: Yeah, you could.

ZEHRA: Oh, I would have to do it with a Nerve drive?

SPENSER: A Nerve drive. ZEHRA: I don't have any left.

I'm sorry! You can do this, Miss Monroe.

MARISHA: I'm doing it. I spent a Nerve.

Ugh, I stopped doing pilates about five years ago.

All right, I'll take a five.

SPENSER: That's a five. That's a mixed success.

Are you standing on the car that's being separated

or are you standing on the car that is--

MARISHA: I want to stay on the car that is detached

and try and get Jeanie to do a little train jump.

SPENSER: Got it, okay.

So you're staying on the car that Jean is on?

MARISHA: No, I want to get on the one

that's going to keep going

and I want this one that they're on to go away.

SPENSER: So, here's what happens.

You, well, describe for me how this works for you very well.

How do you do this?

MARISHA: I get up and I slip a little bit on my coat

as I shove Violet out of the way.

I'm trying to reach and I'm a little bit torn

to try and reach for Jean at the same time

as I'm trying to go and use what little strength

of my 55-year-old self I have left to yank it

and hopefully hope this fucking

harebrained idea works. SPENSER: We see you

drive the dagger into the mechanism

and then pop it open.

At that point, in order to get that leverage,

you had to be on the opposite train car,

the one that is still attached

to the rest of the train to do it.

As you do, the train, woo, separates by about two feet.

It's getting wider and wider and wider

every moment that you are not keeping it together.

MARISHA: Jean is more spry than I,

so I'm going to take my opportunity.

SPENSER: Okay.

MARISHA: Before it gets too crazy.

SPENSER: Yeah, so you actually had to get unto

the other side.

So are you jumping back? MARISHA: Right.

So now I'm going to.

I'm staying on the one that's still going.

SPENSER: Staying on the one that's still going, okay.

The gap is widening with every moment.

ZEHRA: I sprint past Violet and Avery

and my final words as I leap to the other car:

Consider this my resignation!

SPENSER: Ho, ho, ho! So good. LUIS: (laughs)

SPENSER: Okay, I'm going to have you

make a Move roll again for me here

because you are trying to sprint by them.

What I will say, high stakes roll.

She's holding a gun still.

Things could go bad on a mixed success.

Things won't go that bad, but just setting

the expectations that this is very dangerous

what you're about to do. ZEHRA: Believe that.

SPENSER: Cool.

So it's one die?

ZEHRA: One die.

Four, mixed success. LUIS: Oof.

SPENSER: Four, that's a mixed success.

So, we see you sprint by Violet.

She yells, "No!" and pushes Avery out the car door.

You have an opportunity here.

You can save Avery from falling out the train door,

or you can continue onto the other train safely.

What do you want to do here?

ZEHRA: I think to myself in that split second

when I have to make this decision.

Avery has been my confidant.

They've been the one that has helped me

connect with Candela.

How could I let?

I do no harm.

How could I let harm come to Avery?

And yet, that gap is growing wider and wider and wider.

I make the leap to the other car.

SPENSER: Okay, we see you take that second,

one second to contemplate.

Avery tumbles over the threshold

and disappears out the door as you leap across.

MARISHA: I try to grab her

with what little bit I have to steady her balance.

SPENSER: The train cars start to separate more.

If it had been one moment longer,

they would have been too far.

Violet stands at the doors watching

the cars start to separate.

Her hair whipping in the wind.

From there we cut back to the two of you.

We never got your description.

We focus in on you here, as Sean is recovering.

Do you want to give us your description?

LUIS: Well, as soon as I hear a shot come from the back

you see my attention go from my buddy Sean,

immediately whipping back because I know

that she's in the back at one of those last cars.

What you see is a man, Marion Collodi,

about 5'9", so he is, you know, the tall end of short

or the short end of average.

SPENSER: Right.

LUIS: Medium-slim build, dark hair, dark beard.

He's got

this intense look in his eyes.

He's focused on what's happening around him,

but he's also focused on another layer

of what's happening around him

that the naked eye cannot see.

SPENSER: Mm.

LUIS: I am whipping back and forth.

I'm seeing, I hear the gunshot, I whip back,

I go back to where you are.

Sean, there's trouble in the back.

BRENNAN: We got to go.

I am walking.

The guy we're chasing,

is he moving to the front of the train or the back?

SPENSER: Moving to the front of the train.

Towards the engine.

Towards the, yeah.

BRENNAN: Did you say trouble in the back?

I'm going to go-- LUIS: There's trouble

in the front.

BRENNAN: I'm going to say like.

I look at you and I'm like:

Hey, trouble everywhere, right?

(laughter)

BRENNAN: I'm going to say:

You need to go get Auntie Bee and Jean?

LUIS: Yeah. BRENNAN: All right,

hey, thanks for the heads up.

I'm going to start to run through the train.

SPENSER: Yeah.

SPENSER: After the dude that I know is going to the front.

SPENSER: Yeah, you're sprinting towards--

BRENNAN: Do I happen to know where

Nathaniel is in the train?

SPENSER: So Nathaniel would be behind you.

BRENNAN: So everyone's behind me and I'm running forward.

SPENSER: You're like four cars from the front,

which is where all the passenger trains are.

BRENNAN: Okay, cool. I'm going to start to, that guy is,

did I see that guy really hoofing it on the roof

or was he struggling to make progress?

SPENSER: Oh, it's hard up on the roof.

BRENNAN: So, I'm not going to run.

I'm going to move my gun around in my jacket

and walk politely nodding

to people through the passenger car.

TRAVIS: As they hear (heavy impacts).

BRENNAN: Yeah, as to not arouse suspicion.

I'll start to walk through.

If anyone grills me anymore about it,

I'll do something.

But the best defense is not opening

your fucking mouth in the first place.

SPENSER: I love that.

Go ahead and make a Hide roll for me

as you do this, because there are people onboard

that are, you know potentially people onboard here

that are EONS members as well,

that are looking out for people that they are not with.

BRENNAN: That's a three.

SPENSER: It's a three.

You continue forward.

Nobody seems to bother you here

as you move to the next car,

but as soon as those doors close,

you take a look back and see one person

get up from their seat and move

towards the doors behind you.

BRENNAN: Okay, so they're in the car I just left.

SPENSER: They are.

BRENNAN: They picked up my tail.

I am going to, is there anything here

in between the cars like a bolt

that you would lift up to lock a door?

Or anything else like that,

that I see in the area.

I assume there's chains and things

attaching the two cars together.

Is there anything physically

that's like a bar out here?

SPENSER: Yeah, in the immediate there doesn't look

to be anything that will detach quickly.

But make a Survey roll for me,

because that's to give a more thorough look

at what's around. Maybe there's something underneath

the carriage of the train or something.

BRENNAN: A three. SPENSER: A three. Yeah.

There does not appear to be anything around here

and you notice the person getting closer

and closer to you.

BRENNAN: I'm going to lean back

as I see them approaching me

and I'm going to light a cigarette to look like

I'm just smoking out here in between cars.

SPENSER: I love that.

They lock eyes with you and you see them reach

into their lapel.

We cut away from them, over to you.

BRENNAN: Ha!

SPENSER: They, what position have you taken here?

If you are okay--

If you are okay with them doing whatever they want

they are going to lay you flat on the ground.

If you are not, then I would like to know.

TRAVIS: I'm going down to my knees

and I still have my notepad out.

Gentleman has the lightning dagger,

or whatever the fuck that is.

Then the other one, I assume, as well.

As I am doing that, can I survey the room real quick

and see like, any liquids of any kind in this place?

SPENSER: Yeah, absolutely.

Go ahead and make a Survey roll for me.

TRAVIS: Okay.

SPENSER: Only because this is high stakes,

if you were in this room by yourself

and there was no time pressure

it wouldn't be a big deal.

But you're looking around in a hurry to do this, so.

TRAVIS: That's a five.

SPENSER: That's a five, okay.

It's a mixed success.

So, what you see here is there are,

there's actually what looks like a set

of bunsen burners that have

a liquid inside of them that are boiling.

They are being held by metal clamps so that

in the vertical descent of the train

where the liquid-- Actually, at this point,

the liquid is pushing up against

sort of like this, right. TRAVIS: Mm-hmm.

SPENSER: It's pushing up against

the side of the burner.

As that's happening, they're being held

in place by a metal device that has a--

What's that thing called?

That steady cams use?

BRENNAN: Gyro? SPENSER: The gyroscope?

Like a gyroscope that keeps them level

as the train moves so that they don't actually get hurt.

Or they don't spill.

They are being lit on fire,

essentially, from below, boiling.

One of them is a dark liquid

and the other one is a clear liquid.

Both of them are not within an arm's reach,

but you could make a sprint to grab one.

TRAVIS: Excellent. So because it's on the side

and there are two of them,

I know if at least I move to one of their flanks,

I'll put them in a single line.

They can't both reach me with the same amount of speed.

SPENSER: Sure. TRAVIS: So I'll say:

That actually looks fascinating.

I'll move towards the beaker.

As I pulled out the notepad, there is a pair

of brass knuckles that's underneath the notepad.

MARISHA: Oh shit! TRAVIS: I have it in my hand.

I'll loop it, try to-- SPENSER: Uh-huh.

TRAVIS:-- loop behind the beaker.

Incredible!

I'll try and fling it towards

the one that's closest to me. SPENSER: So good.

So, I'm going to say this is either

a Strike or Control roll here to do this.

TRAVIS: God, both of those suck.

SPENSER: I'm sorry. (laughs)

TRAVIS: No, that's okay.

Oh, a three! SPENSER: That's a three?

So, you go to put your hand on the back of the beaker.

Are you a scientist?

TRAVIS: I am not.

MARISHA and ZEHRA: (laugh)

SPENSER: So what you realize-- Not being a scientist,

it wouldn't have come to you maybe as easily.

But now that you've wrapped the brass knuckles

around the super hot glass, you realize

those knuckles conduct heat.

TRAVIS: Fuck. ZEHRA and LUIS: (gasp)

SPENSER: So you put your hand around one of those

and suddenly the whole inside of your knuckles

just light up on fire.

Go ahead and take a body mark

for me as this happens. TRAVIS: Yep, yep.

SPENSER: You go to fling it and the vial goes--

Because of the burn, the vial goes wide left.

TRAVIS: Fuck. SPENSER: Smashes

against the door, and you see the vial,

the dark one is the one that you flung.

It starts to eat away corrosively at the metal

of the train car.

TRAVIS: That would have worked so well.

SPENSER: (laughs)

They both move towards you,

the other one now pulling out

a electrified switch blade as well.

They take a swing at you.

What do you want to do here?

TRAVIS: Well, you know,

if you're going to get in a knife fight

you're going to get cut.

Sometimes the fastest way to the end

is to just keep going.

So I'm actually going to keep my arms up in front of me

and try and wait until one of them does move forward,

knowing that I will get cut and try and use leverage

to swing them into the other

to try and make use of the momentum in the car.

SPENSER: That's so cool. What do you want

to use here to do that?

That sounds like there's a couple of things

that might work.

TRAVIS: Yes, yes, yes, yes.

SPENSER: What are we looking at?

TRAVIS: Boy. I could have used more stuff

in this non-talky shit.

(laughter)

TRAVIS: You know what? I will--

I'm going to make a Read on one of the two in the room.

Is one of the other more aggressive

than the other one is?

SPENSER: Yeah, so the first one to pull out

the switch blade is definitely the aggressor.

The other one looks as though

they are answering to the first one.

TRAVIS: Great, so I'm going to make my move towards

the aggressor and I'm going to offer my left side.

Just this whole side,

to try and capture an arm and know

that I'll probably take it.

Then I'm going to try and use that motion

to bring him around into the other one, if I can.

SPENSER: Yeah, so what I'll actually ask you for here,

if you're okay with it, because you're trying

to convince him to do that, I would say Sway

is probably what that falls under.

Is that okay? TRAVIS: Oh yeah.

SPENSER: Okay, great.

So you're trying to convince him to hit you.

I will say you will take some body marks here

for this. TRAVIS: I am counting on it.

I entered a knife fight with no knife.

SPENSER: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

TRAVIS: I'm going to burn two drive.

SPENSER: We'll see, maybe some brain too because

this is a stressful situation that you're in.

SPENSER: So I'm setting those, depending what the roll is--

TRAVIS: Where the fuck is Sean?

SPENSER: (laughs) TRAVIS: That's a five.

SPENSER: That's a five. Okay, that's a mixed success.

You're going to get what you want, but describe for me

how the blade makes its way

into your side so successfully.

TRAVIS: Yeah, so it does take the flank,

but it goes off of my lat,

off of my rib, and I can feel the warmth

immediately start to pour down the side.

But the natural instinct to trap the arm

is also made by the need to protect all of the organs

inside of that ribcage. SPENSER: Sure. (laughs)

TRAVIS: So I trap the arm and I will turn

with everything that I have

and try and whip him around into the guy behind him.

SPENSER: I love that.

We get the shot of it slicing the side of your body.

Blood pouring down.

Go ahead and take a body and a bleed for me,

because the stress of this situation is so much.

TRAVIS: I'm coloring in a lot of slots, you guys.

ZEHRA: I'll be there soon! SPENSER: But with that five,

you get the success here.

You trap the arm underneath.

You spin and throw this one

security officer into the other.

Then letting go of the arm,

they fall into one another,

giving you an opportunity here to break free.

TRAVIS: You would think I would run,

but I'm not going to.

I'm actually going to follow on the guy

that I threw him and try and keep that arm

with the electric dagger and try and put it

into one or two of either of them.

SPENSER: I love that. What are we using here to do that?

TRAVIS: Just blunt luck.

I'm just going to roll for it.

SPENSER: Okay, what action are you taking?

TRAVIS: Can I do-- I'm going to do a Strike.

SPENSER: Okay, sounds good. That's a Strike roll.

You run over, grab the dagger.

TRAVIS: Ugh! It's a two.

LUIS: Oh no!

TRAVIS: (laughs)

SPENSER: You grab the dagger.

MARISHA: Oh, when the GM has to pause.

TRAVIS: Uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh.

SPENSER: You grab the dagger and you push it.

Describe for me what you're trying to do

so we get the visual of how this might work.

TRAVIS: They've slammed into each other

and I imagine either the dagger is still in his hand

or it's hanging from that electrode wire under his arm.

SPENSER: Uh-huh. TRAVIS: I'm trying to

grab it and still pin the first guy against the second

and try and move that current into him or the other one.

But it seems like probably grabbing a swinging dagger

from a hanging electrical wire is going to be tricky

in a moving train car.

SPENSER: You grab the dagger, but you grab the wrong end.

ZEHRA: (gasps) LUIS: (sharply inhales)

SPENSER: It slips through your hand.

Go ahead and take another body and a bleed here

as you realize that this thing is being powered

by some kind of magick as well as electricity.

What does bleed feel like for you?

TRAVIS: Well, in this moment, the dagger is familiar.

That hurts, but the ache,

the throb that comes with the pain is unnatural.

It almost burns, but the pervasive travel

of that numb feeling as it moves up towards my shoulders

is almost as if you've lost blood flow to an area,

as if it's on pins and needles.

SPENSER: Yeah. TRAVIS: Your arms,

my arms feel heavy, and luckily,

there is a little bit of redness from the knife,

and if I can, I'm going to try and flick my fingers

to get anything I can

in their eyes. SPENSER: I love that.

TRAVIS: I'm going to turn and run!

SPENSER: Yeah, we see the blood

flick out from your hand

covered in both the blood of the knife cut

and also the singed skin of the electricity,

and maybe something else from the bleed,

from the magick that's flowing through it.

We see you bolt. As that happens--

TRAVIS: It's not a cool run, by the way.

My arms are just like--

SPENSER: (laughs) MARISHA: (laughs)

SPENSER: As that happens, we cut back to the two of you.

You both are in a train car. You've made it across.

The other car is getting farther and farther away.

You know that up ahead of you is where Nathaniel

was supposed to be exploring

what EONS had to offer here,

what else they had to offer here as part of the mission.

What do you all want to do?

MARISHA: You did wonderfully, dear.

ZEHRA: I-- I--

MARISHA: And you still look fabulous.

ZEHRA: Well thank you, Ms. Monroe, but I--

I promised I would do no harm, and I let Dr. Choi die.

MARISHA: She is a

very efficient, very intelligent woman.

She will figure it out.

You can't put all of this on you.

And please, call me Auntie Bee.

Come on, let's try and catch up with the boys.

ZEHRA: Okay, Ms. Monroe. Auntie Bee.

SPENSER: You move forward through the train here.

As you enter, these train cars that you're in,

these ones back here are just storing crates.

As you move into the next one, you hear the scuttle of feet.

For a moment, you think that there might be somebody here.

As you look over, you realize that it's a crate of chickens

that are all sitting, looking up at you,

pecking at the ground.

These are simply holding supplies

that are coming down from the Bridleborne Mountains.

MARISHA: Before we move into the next car--

SPENSER: Yeah? MARISHA: Can I

look forward and see,

just keep wanting to scout ahead of us

and make sure we're not walking into a shitstorm.

SPENSER: Great, make a Survey roll for me.

MARISHA: All right.

"To make a Survey roll, you may spend a drive--"

I'm going to do a straight Survey.

I don't want to spend a drive for this.

But this one's gilded. All right.

Four on the gilded die.

SPENSER: Four on the gilded die.

The train cars ahead seem as though,

the train car right ahead of you, the one that you can see,

seems as though it's carrying

the same sort of set of supplies, right?

It has crates of apples and other fruits and vegetables.

It doesn't appear as though there's anything nefarious

in the train car ahead of you.

ZEHRA: Before-- SPENSER: That was a five?

MARISHA: It was a four. SPENSER: It was a four.

Sorry, okay.

ZEHRA: Before we move forward, could I take a moment

to see if I can Survey, Focus on these chickens?

SPENSER: (laughs) Sure. ZEHRA: See if there's anything

to be gained from their beady eyes?

MARISHA: (laughs) SPENSER: Sure, yep.

Actually, may I have you roll--

Yeah, you can roll, Survey would be looking

at a general place. BRENNAN: These are chickens!

SPENSER: If you want to Focus on them,

that's probably what it is. ZEHRA: Great.

Great.

I'm great.

BRENNAN: (gasps) ZEHRA: Six.

SPENSER: That's a six.

LUIS: Those are two sixes. ZEHRA: Oh, it's two sixes!

I thought it was a one!

BRENNAN: That's a super success.

There's guns in the chickens.

(laughter)

SPENSER: The chickens are holding guns!

LUIS: They're under my command now!

BRENNAN: (clucking)

ZEHRA: Good on me! LUIS: Yes, yes, yes.

ZEHRA: Bawk bawk, motherfucker.

BRENNAN: What do you want to know here about this?

ZEHRA: I want to know why-- LUIS: Are they delicious?

ZEHRA: I worked for EONS recently, and I want to know,

why are there chickens on board?

This was not part of the item list.

SPENSER: Oh sure, yeah.

As you come down to inspect them,

you notice that there is,

the waddle that's down below their chin,

they have waddles, right?

MARISHA: Sure. ZEHRA: Roosters do.

SPENSER: Roosters? Okay. TRAVIS: These chickens.

SPENSER: These chickens have waddles.

As that happens, you notice

that they're just slightly glowing.

Something's not quite right.

ZEHRA: I do believe these animals

were the subject of an experiment.

Perhaps it's related to--

MARISHA: Can they be used as a weapon? Distraction?

ZEHRA: I would like to take a crate of chickens.

(laughter)

SPENSER: We see you grab, it's a large crate.

We see you dragging a crate of chickens behind you.

BRENNAN: This is not video game rules

where it's a crate of chickens and

it goes, boop! SPENSER: It just disappears

into your inventory.

BRENNAN: In your inventory. ZEHRA: In my skirt.

SPENSER: We see you pulling

this crate of chickens forward.

ZEHRA: With my shoulder that's not--

SPENSER: Oh yeah, with your other shoulder. Yeah.

ZEHRA: Did I take a body, by the way?

Or I missed it enough, the gunshot?

SPENSER: Oh yeah, you would've taken a body. Thank you.

ZEHRA: I'm glad I asked.

SPENSER: Yeah, thank you for the reminder.

No, it's good, it's good.

It's in line with the fiction, right? That's our goal.

Great, we're jumping back over to you here.

What do you want to do? LUIS: I mean, so I'm hoping

that I was actually close enough to their car

to hear the gunshot that got my attention,

because I'm worried about them.

SPENSER: Yeah.

LUIS: Seeing Sean go ahead, I'm going back.

SPENSER: As you're running through

the train the opposite direction,

you see ahead of you a struggle happening.

One guy, a large man, gets tossed into another man,

and they hit the wall of the train car and collapse,

and then you hear commotion from in there,

the scene that we just described.

LUIS: Great, so as I'm approaching that,

I'm going to keep going in that direction.

If I see you looking rough,

I'm going to pull out a hand weapon, a retractable baton.

SPENSER: So cool.

LUIS: I guess it's more like (unfurling)

TRAVIS: I'm an asshole. (unfurling)

LUIS: I'm moving in, because if I see you messed up,

then I'm coming in for backup. SPENSER: Yeah, I love that.

As you move into the train car,

what does Marion see here as they enter?

TRAVIS: Yes, you see a very well made suit,

but it is covered in dark crimson down the left side.

My arms are draping and I'm a little pale in the face.

My eyes are telling the story. I'm like:

(shouts) Help!

LUIS: I'm rushing in

and I'm clobbering the guy that's nearest him.

SPENSER: Great. Two of them are on the ground.

LUIS: Don't care. Hitting them.

I fight dirty! SPENSER: Just framing for you.

You see both of them on the ground.

One of them has an electrified dagger,

switchblade, in their hand.

The other one is coming to their feet and has dropped it.

LUIS: The one then that's recovering?

SPENSER: Yeah. LUIS: Pop!

SPENSER: Right over the side.

Go ahead and make a Strike roll for me.

LUIS: Okay, I'm going to use a drive.

SPENSER: High stakes roll.

LUIS: Four.

SPENSER: Four. That is a mixed success here.

We see you clobber this guy.

Describe for me what this looks like

as you hit him with this baton.

LUIS: So as soon as I see the look in Nathaniel's eyes

and I track everything that's happening,

the sort of training from being a soldier in the war

kicks in, and I've already retracted the baton,

and I swoop in and use the momentum of my run

and basically backhand this guy, pop,

in the direction that he's getting up,

hopefully to spin him away from the other two figures

that are on the ground, Nathaniel being one of them.

SPENSER: I love that. We get the

baton swipe across his face.

He goes flying backwards,

your training from being a soldier

kicking in, your strength coming out here.

As that happens, you finish that upstroke on him,

and then you feel a searing pain with that five?

Four? Four. LUIS: It was a four.

SPENSER: With that four, you feel a searing pain

in the back of your calf.

This guy has driven into your calf

the dagger, the switchblade,

and is starting to carve down your calf with it.

Go ahead and take a body and a brain here.

LUIS: Oh my god.

MARISHA: Jesus Christ, goddamn.

That gets sympathy pain. LUIS: (painful scream)

I thought you took one of them out!

They're both still up?

SPENSER and TRAVIS: (laugh)

TRAVIS: No, no!

SPENSER: What do you want to do?

TRAVIS: Now that Marion has run past me,

do I see anyone else coming?

Do I see Sean? Do I see--

SPENSER: You can see through the train cars,

when the doors open,

you can see Sean moving through the passenger cars,

but disappeared very quickly as the doors closed.

TRAVIS: From where we are,

do we know that if we're in the middle of the cars

and Sean is further up north--

SPENSER: Sean is further up towards the engine.

TRAVIS: Then-- SPENSER: Then back behind you

is where these two are. TRAVIS: Shit, right, okay.

I'm going to grab Marion and say: We should try and--

We should try and regroup!

Let's meet up with Sean!

At least we'll have numbers, then!

SPENSER: We cut to Sean as this is happening.

What do you want to do?

BRENNAN: How close are these two guys?

SPENSER: These guys are about two cars back.

BRENNAN: No, no, I mean the guys,

you said that I was made and that people are coming.

SPENSER: There's one guy, he's heading straight for you

as you're smoking the cigarette.

He's coming towards the train car

where the doors would open.

BRENNAN: Are the doors

sliding doors? SPENSER: Yeah, uh-huh.

BRENNAN: So you need to open them all the way

to be able to walk through. SPENSER: Correct, yeah.

BRENNAN: I'm going to give myself

another piece of equipment.

SPENSER: Love it. BRENNAN: I reach in

for a pair of handcuffs for the scientist.

I say: Buddy, you're going to be knocked out.

I'm going to handcuff the handle to one of the chains

on the outside of the car. SPENSER: Love that.

BRENNAN: So that you can't open the door.

SPENSER: Uh-huh. BRENNAN: So lock it,

and I'm going to look at the guy who's walking towards me

and go: Hey, fuck you!

(laughter)

SPENSER: He grabs the door and tries to pull it,

and it is locked, and his hand immediately pulls out,

his other hand pulls out of his lapel

and he grabs the back end of a gun

and starts to try and break the glass

that is separating.

BRENNAN: I'm up the ladder, after the scientist.

SPENSER: Love that. Up on top of the car.

You see the scientist pulling himself along,

still two cars ahead of you.

What do you want to do?

BRENNAN: This motherfucker, all right.

I'm going to say: Hey!

Be reasonable!

TRAVIS and SPENSER: (laugh)

BRENNAN: You're crawling on a moving train!

Have some self respect!

We gotcha!

SPENSER: He turns around.

He's holding the device in his hands.

You see it now. This is what it looks like.

He has it in his hand, and he threatens it

over the side of the train and points the gun at you.

What do you want to do?

BRENNAN: I am going to--

He's holding this thing over the side of the train.

SPENSER: Uh-huh. BRENNAN: Holds the gun at me.

I am going to attempt to shoot the gun out of his hand.

SPENSER: Yeah, okay, so what I will say

is that on a mixed success, this thing will go rolling.

BRENNAN: Okay.

SPENSER: It will not immediately fall off,

but it will put it in danger of being lost.

BRENNAN: I would love to

come to these woods some other night

when I'm not being shot at and look for that fucking thing.

SPENSER: Sounds great.

BRENNAN: This piece of his super science--

SPENSER: Uh-huh.

BRENNAN:-- I'm going to assume that he likes

a lot more than I do, so, you know, it's like--

SPENSER: Yeah, the assignment from Candela was to get it,

but it's like, at what cost, right?

BRENNAN: Yeah, buddy, I hate to tell you,

they're not going to give that thing to me

when we bring it back, so priority more for you than me.

SPENSER: Great.

BRENNAN: I'm going to burn just a whole bunch of Nerve.

Let's go one. I'll burn one for Sharpshooter.

SPENSER: Okay.

BRENNAN: Then I'll burn two more for four,

so I'm going to be rolling with six.

SPENSER: Damn, that's the most you can roll with.

BRENNAN: The most I can roll with.

TRAVIS: We're up there. MARISHA: Wow.

BRENNAN: Actually, sorry, there's one,

two, three, four, five.

Sorry, it's just, yeah,

I only have to burn that many to get six.

SPENSER: Right, because of Sharpshooter.

BRENNAN: Because of Sharpshooter.

I'm going to shoot the gun out of his hand

and be ready for a dead sprint afterwards.

SPENSER: Yeah, so good.

BRENNAN: Okay, we roll.

That's a five, and what I'm going to do here

is I'm actually going to spend a resistance--

SPENSER: Okay.

BRENNAN:-- to reroll two of the die as well.

No sixes, that's a mixed success.

SPENSER: Mixed success.

LUIS: That's okay, that's all right.

SPENSER: So, here's what happens.

You shoot. The gun goes flying out of his hand.

It clamors along the train and then falls off the edge.

He, with the device still in his hand,

falls backwards in between the train cars.

You hear a click, and suddenly your train car

is falling back behind the engine.

He's at the engine car. You're one train car behind it.

MARISHA: Does that mean that we--

Do the rest of us feel a jolt?

SPENSER: It's so subtle when these train cars separate

that you definitely can't tell immediately,

but if someone were to look out the front window,

you'd see the steam engine of the train

moving further away from the actual train itself.

TRAVIS: What would you say our speed is? 12 trees a second?

SPENSER: Probably 25 trees. You're almost on a complete--

TRAVIS: We are on a descent,

that's right. SPENSER: Descent, yeah.

It's very bad.

LUIS: So we're still going fast

because of gravity. SPENSER: You're still going

very fast. TRAVIS: Away from the brakes,

currently.

SPENSER: Away from the brakes. What do you want to do?

BRENNAN: This guy has fallen. I hear a click.

He's still got the device.

His gun has flown off into the things.

Everybody's got to make it hard!

I'm going to start running,

and I'm going to run and leap onto the engine.

SPENSER: Yeah. BRENNAN: As fast as I can.

SPENSER: Sounds like a Move roll for me. Make that roll.

BRENNAN: Okay. (laughs) We're--

We're going to burn

all the rest of the Nerve drive down to the bone.

SPENSER: Down to the bone. First hour, down to the bone.

BRENNAN: Here we go.

Okay, that's a six.

SPENSER: That's a six. BRENNAN: That's a six.

SPENSER: Describe for me how you get this thing from him.

BRENNAN: He's in the engine. SPENSER: He is.

BRENNAN: I still have my gun.

As the cars start to move apart,

you hear (thumping) whoosh!

Leap, and I grab the lintel of the roof

and double foot kick him in the chest

through the engine car.

SPENSER: He goes flying backwards.

BRENNAN: The thing spins up in the air and I catch it midair.

SPENSER: So good. ZEHRA: That's cool.

BRENNAN: You don't got to be a fucking prick about it.

Running around like this, making me jump over trains.

All right, and I'm going to grab the thing,

and I'm going to go stand over his prostrate body.

SPENSER: Yeah, he's like, "Oh god! Oh!"

BRENNAN: Now, your friend made me lose the handcuffs,

which is why this has to happen.

I'm going to stomp on his head and knock him unconscious.

SPENSER: Yeah, you stomp on his head

and knock him unconscious.

As we see the foot come down onto his head,

we cut back to the two of you, I think.

MARISHA: Was that on your gilded die

that you got the six? BRENNAN: Oh, it was.

MARISHA and SPENSER: You get that drive back.

BRENNAN: Thanks, Auntie Bee.

MARISHA: I'm just looking out for you, Sean.

SPENSER: Will you describe what we did so that people know?

BRENNAN: So I rolled all these dice,

my gilded die,

because my Strike is gilded,

on that die, I replenish one of my Nerve drive,

which means all these resources I'm burning,

a little bit come back to me. LUIS: Little bit come back.

SPENSER: Great, great, great.

Wonderful. We cut back to the two of you.

What are we doing here? We're dragging a chicken crate?

ZEHRA: Dragging a crate of chickens.

MARISHA: Crate of chickens.

SPENSER: (laughs) ZEHRA: How far away--

MARISHA: Where are these damn boys?

ZEHRA: Yeah, are the boys anywhere up ahead

within earshot? SPENSER: Yeah.

So I think that, at this point,

the two of you, have you left the train car yet?

No. You're still in-- LUIS: We are in process of--

SPENSER: Of leaving. LUIS: Following through

with whatever that moment was.

TRAVIS: We were going to go catch up with Sean.

SPENSER: Oh yes! That's right! That's what you said.

Go catch up with Sean. TRAVIS: Who has moved on.

(laughter)

SPENSER: I love that!

The train cars open.

As you're saying, "Go catch up with Sean,"

you hear the doors opening in the train car,

not the train car that you're in,

but the one behind it, to see what's beyond.

Basically, the train car that you all are in,

opening those doors, and then through the window

you see the face of these two behind you.

What the four of you want to do?

Because now you're all in the same scene

with the two security officers still in this train car with you.

LUIS: Is the one that I clobbered, is he out?

SPENSER: He's down.

LUIS: Uh-huh. SPENSER: But he's not

like, out-out.

This was a mixed success.

So he took some pain, but it wasn't--

MARISHA: Are both of them down,

or is it just the one?

SPENSER: So one of them is down,

the other one was the one--

LUIS: I get it now.

SPENSER:-- was that stabbed you in the leg.

LUIS: Yeah! (grunts) MARISHA: So we're walking

into a situation. SPENSER: Mm-hmm.

You're walking into a situation.

MARISHA: With a crate of chickens.

SPENSER: Uh-huh! MARISHA: All right.

Fantastic! SPENSER: (laughs)

MARISHA: This is going great.

TRAVIS: Yeah, we look across the car

and we see a crate of chickens.

LUIS: Huh. TRAVIS: What?!

SPENSER: (laughs) ZEHRA: You don't look good,

Mr. Trapp. TRAVIS: No, no.

MARISHA: So now we're

all in the car together?

TRAVIS: We're literally on opposite sides.

SPENSER: You're literally on opposite sides of the car

and between you two are the two security.

LUIS: Where's the shock knife stick thing

that the other one had? SPENSER: Still on the ground.

Still on the ground. LUIS: I'm picking that up

and I'm stabbing the guy that just stabbed me.

He's right there. SPENSER: Yeah. Uh-huh.

LUIS: That looks nice. I want that weapon now.

SPENSER: As you pull on it,

you notice the line,

what's it called, the wire,

is attached to the man that you clobbered.

LUIS: Okay. SPENSER: So you're not able

to go that far.

Make a Strike roll for me

against the guy who's got one dug into your calf.

LUIS: Okay.

Yeah, I got to--

(laughing) I'm burning a drive.

I'm burning a Nerve drive because

this is very scary!

TRAVIS: (laughs)

LUIS: Five. SPENSER: That's a five.

It's a mixed success. LUIS: Mm-hmm.

SPENSER: So describe for me how you--

Well, actually, here's what happens.

LUIS: Yeah.

SPENSER: You lunge forward with the knife.

LUIS: Yes. SPENSER: It doesn't quite go

as far as you want it to.

You go to stab and get pulled back by the wire.

LUIS: Because the cord is still attached--

SPENSER: The cord is still attached.

Yeah, it dis-attaches so it's no longer electrified,

but the knife sinks into the man.

LUIS: That's good enough for me.

SPENSER: He wails out in pain

and then, as it's pulled out,

he starts to bleed.

We see the-- LUIS: Help!

SPENSER:-- three of you. What do we do?

MARISHA: I see you boys have been making some friends.

TRAVIS: (strained) Yeah. LUIS: Like we do.

TRAVIS: Some better than others.

MARISHA: What can we do? TRAVIS: I'll run up as well

and I think we'll try and give some jaw kicks

to the gents that are down. LUIS: Make sure they're out.

TRAVIS: We really should try

and catch up with Mr. Finnerty.

MARISHA: I'm actually-- With that, I'm going to try

and poke my head

ut of the train window. SPENSER: Uh-huh.

MARISHA: See if I can see any sign

of what the hell is going on.

SPENSER: Yeah, you see the steam engine pulling ahead

of the rest of the train. LUIS: Oh no.

MARISHA: I have a feeling I know where Sean is.

SPENSER: (laughs) TRAVIS: Where?

MARISHA: There he goes.

SPENSER: (laughs)

TRAVIS: Shit! BRENNAN: Can I see--

SPENSER: Yeah. Uh-huh. BRENNAN: Let me see that

real quick. SPENSER: Yeah.

Do you want to pass that? BRENNAN: Sorry.

LUIS: Yes. SPENSER: Sorry.

We'll pass it down. LUIS: Ooh! Oh no!

ZEHRA: Oh no! LUIS: It's-- (laughs)

ZEHRA: Oh no. BRENNAN: If you're seeing

me from far away,

it's just me in the back of the engine going--

SPENSER and TRAVIS: (laugh)

MARISHA: What? Oh yeah!

No, I see him.

It looks like it got the thingy, though.

TRAVIS: Right. So, a simple point to make.

The engine not only controls the acceleration of the train,

but also in charge of the braking.

MARISHA: It's how we stop. That is correct.

TRAVIS: We should probably think about getting off.

ZEHRA: Would these chickens be of any service?

I hold up the crate.

LUIS: Oh man! SPENSER: (laughs)

TRAVIS: How do you mean?

ZEHRA: They possess magick in some of--

TRAVIS: You found magick chickens?

SPENSER: We cut from that to Sean.

(laughter) BRENNAN: All right.

I'm going to turn to look.

The guy's unconscious, I've got this thing,

and I'm looking and I'm like--

SPENSER: There's a-- What's it called?

A driver of the train?

BRENNAN: Oh, engineer! SPENSER: There's an engineer,

and he's like, "The fuck is going on here?"

BRENNAN: Buddy, it's a long story.

BRENNAN: "What's that in your hand?"

BRENNAN: If I knew--

Listen. MARISHA: (laughs)

BRENNAN: You should slow this train down

because we've just come undone

from the whole rest of the train.

SPENSER: "Oh shit!" he says, and grabs the brake

and starts to-- LUIS and ZEHRA: Oh, oh!

SPENSER:-- slow the steam engine down.

As that happens, you see that they're starting

to come back together here.

MARISHA: Boys, I have a feeling

we should brace for impact.

LUIS: Uh-oh!

BRENNAN: I'm going to look at the guy and say: All right,

I'm going to tell you when they're about to touch, okay?

SPENSER: (laughs) BRENNAN: I assume

I just put the bolt back in through holes?

SPENSER: He goes, "I don't do that part!"

BRENNAN: What do you mean, you don't do that part?

SPENSER: "I don't do that part!"

BRENNAN: Well, I do all the other parts either!

I have some awareness!

(laughter)

TRAVIS: Can I leap out of the train car

and look in between the cars

and see if there's any sort of emergency brake

or anything that could be pulled?

SPENSER: Are you doing this

from the train car that you're in?

TRAVIS: Yes. Yeah.

SPENSER: No, there's not. Not here.

TRAVIS: Cool! SPENSER: That's not

the way that they're built.

But what you do see is the other train cars

starting to slow,

the steam engine starting to slow down.

TRAVIS: Okay! Okay. We can work with that!

SPENSER: As that happens, you hear commotion

coming from the passenger train.

People are starting to realize

that there is shit going on here.

TRAVIS: Yeah. SPENSER: Going down.

LUIS: Uh-oh!

So hearing one more time

my former lieutenant

not necessarily issue a command,

but give a directive.

We got to get back to Sean.

So looking down at these guys

that I just stabbed and clobbered,

I follow that same instinct and follow you back

to the front of the train,

but still looking back because I don't trust these two.

SPENSER: So you guys are running towards

the front of the train? LUIS: Yeah.

I'm basically right on his heels,

trying to figure out what to do about this next thing

with these trains.

SPENSER: Are we collectively doing this?

So are we all moving towards the front of the train?

TRAVIS: I think we would be trying to move

towards the front of the train,

at least if a re-attachment moment happens,

and also scanning outside to see if there are any,

you know, hay bales or creeks or rivers

that we might be going over, just in case we need to ditch.

SPENSER: I love that!

Yeah, go ahead. ZEHRA: I'm looking at

the crate of chickens that

I've inexplicably brought with me this far

and I'm wondering, are there wooden or metal dowels

on the cage that-- SPENSER: Oh, for sure!

ZEHRA:--potentially could be. SPENSER: There's metal dowels.

Yeah.

ZEHRA: What if we were to take one of these metal dowels,

and I pry it and pull it-- SPENSER: Mm-hmm.

ZEHRA:-- and use this to fasten,

now that we've slowed down a fair amount?

TRAVIS: That's an excellent idea!

LUIS: We can try to use that.

Okay. ZEHRA: I move to do so.

SPENSER: So we are going to make a group action here

between the four of you.

So one person's going to lead

and then anybody else can spend drive if they want to.

They don't need to.

But one person will roll for everybody, essentially.

Who wants to lead that action?

Sounds like you were--

LUIS: I was moving forward. Yeah

MARISHA: What kind of roll

is this going to be? TRAVIS: We're in a passenger--

SPENSER: A Move roll. MARISHA: A Move roll.

TRAVIS: We're in a passenger car as well?

SPENSER: So you're in the EONS technology car right now,

but you're going to be moving

through the passenger cars to do this.

TRAVIS: I will help by trying to say: Ladies and gentlemen,

as you see, things have kind of gone shitty bananas.

We need you to stay in your seats

or find a bracing position, please.

Everything is fine!

(whispering) We're lying. LUIS: Uh-huh. I'm running.

SPENSER: Okay.

LUIS: I start to run and then take the cue

and I calm myself down, sort of,

and really, really, with urgency,

move as fast as possible--

SPENSER: Great. LUIS:-- towards the front.

SPENSER: So we're going to make that Move roll here

to get to the front. LUIS: Okay.

SPENSER: Go ahead and roll. We're going to roll with Move.

Anybody who wants to spend drive can,

but you don't need to. ZEHRA: I don't have any drive.

LUIS: Move. SPENSER: It will be

all four of you moving,

you helping to keep everybody calm.

It's going to be very effective. TRAVIS: Do we want to use

one of these?

ZEHRA: Oh! MARISHA: Oh!

SPENSER: You could use a gilded die, yeah.

So you guys have Stamina Training.

ZEHRA: Yes! Yes! LUIS: Yes, we do.

SPENSER: So you have three gilded die at the beginning

of every assignment that you can use.

LUIS: My Move is already gilded,

so I can roll with two gilded

because of that. SPENSER: Yes. Correct.

LUIS: All right. Come on!

Six on the gilded die. SPENSER: Six on the gilded!

So go ahead and take that Nerve back.

ZEHRA: Yes! BRENNAN: Woo!

LUIS: Then this goes away--

SPENSER: That goes away for good.

TRAVIS: Just for the assignment.

SPENSER: Just for the assignment.

Great!

You all make your way towards the front of the train,

and as the steam engine slows down,

you see Sean across in the engine room

with the engineer

and the two cars slam together.

But in that moment, you're able to drive the metal pole

into the area where they meet

and keep the two trains from parting once again.

From there, we pull out of the train

and we pan over to the city of Newfaire

where the train is headed.

BRENNAN: I was going to say-- SPENSER: Yeah, please.

BRENNAN: I look at you and say:

That's some quick thinking, doc, way to go!

Hey, did you pass a guy

trying to break through a handcuff on the way here?

ZEHRA: Did we? BRENNAN: No?

MARISHA: No, it was a broken window

that we saw. ZEHRA: Yeah.

BRENNAN: I'm going to whip my gun up and shoot straight up.

SPENSER: Yeah!

You hear (grunts) and then a guy falls over.

MARISHA: Yes! TRAVIS: (laughs)

LUIS: Amazing!

MARISHA: Should've known that broken window was suspicious!

BRENNAN: Smart guy. That guy was smart.

I mean he's dead now, but he was smart.

SPENSER: We get a shot wide of the train

as a man falls off the top

and the train continues into--

MARISHA: What are the pass- engers doing at this point?

SPENSER: The passengers are all--

You were able to keep them calm with that six.

It was kept calm and we're pulling out to the city

and that's where we're going to cut

into your home base in Hallowharbor.

MARISHA: Can I, real quick, before we go.

SPENSER: Sure. Please.

MARISHA: Auntie Bee wants to move through the passenger car

and say: Surprise!

That was a surprise performance

from the Red Lamp Renegades.

ZEHRA: (sparse clapping) SPENSER: There's some claps.

MARISHA: Thank you.

We do take tips, by the way.

She goes through and she takes off her little hat

that she has adorned with faded silk flowers

and goes through. Tips for the performance.

SPENSER: Make a Sway roll for me.

LUIS: Oh my god. MARISHA: All right.

(laughter)

MARISHA: Five. SPENSER: Five! Yeah!

It's a mixed success!

You get a couple

of pieces into your hat. MARISHA: Thank you. Thank you.

It goes to support an old lady.

SPENSER and TRAVIS: (laugh) ZEHRA: (laughs)

SPENSER: I love that!

As that happens, we land on the exterior

of your chapter house in Hallowharbor.

What do we think this looks like?

What does the chapter house,

what's the exterior of the chapter house here look like?

TRAVIS: Hallowharbor is

a beautiful area just off the water.

It's fairly nondescript, but after having been in there,

we've done our best to spruce it up a little bit,

wood, a little bit of stone working goes a long way.

At Marion's insistence,

we actually had a little half window,

a little half dome of stained glass put in

above the of the doorway of his favorite flower.

SPENSER: I love that! LUIS: It is!

It is a midnight--

No, a starry night petunia, actually.

ZEHRA: (awed) Oh! SPENSER: Starry night petunia.

So good. LUIS: A burgundy

starry night petunia!

So it's actually got red

and these white spots that look like stars.

SPENSER: So we sit on that

stained glass window for a moment

and we see a figure pass by.

As we do, we cut into

the inside of the chapter house here.

All of you are collected in various seating arrangements,

and in front of you stands a man

that you all know.

His name is Draven Kingsley.

He's your Lightkeeper.

Your Lightkeeper is the person who assigns you

to the different missions that you're supposed to go on.

He eyes you

with the device in your hand.

"Interesting," he says.

BRENNAN: Yeah, I'll say.

SPENSER: "Do we know what it is?"

BRENNAN: No, I don't know what it is,

but I named the little guy Johnny.

MARISHA: (laughs)

SPENSER: "Johnny?"

MARISHA: Is it moving in there?

SPENSER: Yeah. Uh-huh. MARISHA: What is it?

All right.

SPENSER: It's like a purple little worm thing.

ZEHRA: If I may,

Johnny looks like something I may have seen before.

BRENNAN: Oh.

ZEHRA: It's a creature known as androphage.

LUIS: Androphage? MARISHA: Androphage.

ZEHRA: Used possibly in an individual

to induce a state of euphoria.

BRENNAN: Euphoria? ZEHRA: Temporary euphoria.

TRAVIS: Yeah. ZEHRA: Before, of course,

the creature takes over their entire body

and bloats them to death.

LUIS: So it's like a parasite?

ZEHRA: In a sense.

LUIS: But it gives you euphoria before it kills you?

ZEHRA: Exactly.

EONS would often use it as an anesthesia of sorts.

MARISHA: They've heard of bourbon, right?

We've got bourbon.

MARISHA: Why would you need that?

What's that?

LUIS: It's less deadly. MARISHA: I'm sorry,

I'm a little-- LUIS: A little less deadly

than the thing that kills you. MARISHA: It was loud on the train.

Oh, it's less deadly.

LUIS: Yeah, yeah. MARISHA: Yeah. Sorry

ZEHRA: I don't think I've seen a purple one before.

BRENNAN: How many people know about a thing like this?

I mean, how common are these things?

ZEHRA: Mm...

It's not in common practice to use on patients,

certainly not in the medical field.

I'd say it's for those seeking more of an experience.

BRENNAN: I feel like the least a guy could do

is buy you dinner first, right?

TRAVIS: Recreational androphage.

MARISHA: Hmm. TRAVIS: Hmm.

SPENSER: Draven reaches out his hand.

BRENNAN: Here you go. SPENSER: Pass it.

BRENNAN: So the device, that's like a little cage

or a prison or something like that?

SPENSER: Yes!

He shows the the device

and he clicks it and the thing pops down.

LUIS: It's to contain it.

SPENSER: "Correct.

"I've seen a container like this before.

"Keeps bleed from getting out,

"but

"seems dangerous.

"Thank you."

LUIS: What do you think they were going to use with that?

I mean, it seems--

SPENSER: "Well, we're not sure,

"but this is all part of an investigation.

"EONS has been after strange creatures like this

"to harvest for use in things like drug dens before.

"I've heard of phage dens.

"I'd never seen one, but--"

ZEHRA: If I may, that is a small one.

It is not yet fed.

They tend to grow in size inside the human host

once they begin eating.

SPENSER: "Understood. Thank you."

TRAVIS: How big?

ZEHRA: How tall are you, Mr. Trapp?

TRAVIS: It's a tall androphage.

SPENSER: He takes the device and moves over to an armoire,

opens it up, and then touches one of the shelving units

on the inside, pulls it out.

As that happens, you see the back slides down

and reveals a hidden compartment.

He slides the device back into that hidden compartment,

pushes the shelving back, and then closes the door.

This is where you know they often keep

items like this for safe keeping

until they're transported back.

LUIS: While he's turned his back towards us,

I lean into Sean.

Are we going to tell him about the chickens?

BRENNAN: Wait, chickens? LUIS: We got the chickens.

The chickens that she-- BRENNAN: I missed

the whole chickens conversation.

What happened with the chickens?

TRAVIS: Yeah, they're worth mentioning.

I go over and grab a chair and sit back, cross my legs.

LUIS: We got to patch you up. MARISHA: Oh, sorry.

TRAVIS: No, I'm fine. I'm fine.

MARISHA: Are we going to tell him about--

ZEHRA: We will patch you up.

MARISHA: Tell him about Avery?

Feels like we should, right?

BRENNAN: Yeah, probably, right?

MARISHA: Avery's been loyal. ZEHRA: There was one

noted casualty in the mission.

MARISHA: We don't know that. We don't know that she's dead.

LUIS: There should be a search and

rescue, at least. ZEHRA: No one could've

survived, not even Sean.

Sorry, but you couldn't have.

LUIS: It might be worth confirming the fatality.

MARISHA: Or at least a recovery.

It was Avery, Avery Troy.

ZEHRA: Dr. Avery Choi.

SPENSER: "Oh, god.

"I'm sorry for your loss.

"I know you two were close."

ZEHRA: Jean says nothing.

SPENSER: "Well, sacrifices are made,"

and you see the man,

Draven Kingsley, he turns, he's a taller man

with the sides of his hair buzzed

and tops a little bit longer, swooped over to the right,

and as he turns you see a scar that goes

from the corner of his head

all the way down around his ear,

down to his neck, and then you see it reemerge

on his shoulder, down to his hand,

and then to his fingertip.

He puts his hand up on his neck and readjusts.

"I'm sorry, we have to ask you

"to go back out in the field so quickly.

"I know that this was an assignment that was

"not as easily accomplished

"as it could've been, but

"(sighs)

"we have a situation

"that I think

"requires you as part of it."

MARISHA: Draven, with all due respect,

you know we're always happy to volunteer our services--

SPENSER: "Thank you." MARISHA:-- to Candela,

but as you can see here, Nathaniel is quite injured.

The doctor's been shot. We're pretty banged up.

SPENSER: "I understand. We've..."

Turns to you.

"We've had a death close to home.

"I don't foresee you wanting to let

"somebody else handle this.

"It was

"a gruesome scene.

"We only have reports from--" And turns.

You hear a pitter-patter of feet

as a child runs out from around the corner.

Sort of peeks through the door

and then comes running towards Draven's side.

From this one, a caretaker for the child

also makes their way through the door.

The child runs over and grabs Draven's leg, holds on.

He's about five years old,

dark black hair, big brown eyes.

"Antonio Suarez was taken from us.

"Antonio was somebody we were hoping we could take care of

"in the aftermath of his wife's incident."

Looks to you again.

"But it seems something decided to take revenge.

"It's interesting," he says.

"These creatures from beyond the flare,

"we're not quite sure what their motives are.

"Still seems enigmatic to us, the way in which they operate

"but we've seen them express vengeance

"in a way that tells us there's intelligence

"we don't quite understand.

"I've put in your," and motions to the folders

that you see sitting,

scattered around the space here.

"In your dossier, the information

"for this assignment,

"whatever it is that killed him, we need it stopped

"before it continues to hunt down the others

"that were involved in that incident."

He looks somber.

"I, in the meantime," ruffles the hair of the child,

"will continue to take care of this one,

"but I don't want more to end up like him."

TRAVIS: Mr. Kingsley.

SPENSER: "Yes, sir."

TRAVIS: You can count on me to answer this call.

I look to the boy.

SPENSER: He averts his eyes

and then slowly looks back up at you.

TRAVIS: What's your name?

SPENSER: He looks scared. Draven pushes him.

He says "Lucas."

TRAVIS: Lucas, that's a strong name.

SPENSER: He stiffens up,

straightens his shoulders back.

TRAVIS: I can see a lot of bravery in you.

I knew your mother very, very briefly.

SPENSER: His eyes go wide.

TRAVIS: If your father

was as fierce an individual as she was,

you come from very, very strong stock.

I promise you will be looked out for.

SPENSER: "I miss her."

TRAVIS: I imagine.

You know the thing about people that leave us,

they can always see what we do, remember that.

SPENSER: He smiles

and hides himself a little bit behind Draven.

(Draven) "Thank you, Nathaniel.

"Again, apologies for the quick turn,

"but I have some people to alert

"and some security to put in place

"for the rest of the team that was there that night."

BRENNAN: What'd we stop?

SPENSER: "Sorry, will you say that again?"

BRENNAN: Johnny, little guy, androphage?

SPENSER: "Yeah." ZEHRA: Androphage.

BRENNAN: What'd we stop?

What were they going to use him for?

SPENSER: "It's a great question.

"Could be for one of the dens.

"Could be for some sort of attack.

"Unclear, but I will say that the people of Newfaire

"and the Fairelands are safer

"because you brought that to us."

BRENNAN: Sure.

Minus Dr. Choi, of course, but the rest, absolutely.

SPENSER: "Yes, minus Dr. Choi.

"Any questions?"

He says and he starts to shuffle some papers

and look as though he's about to return.

MARISHA: Honestly, I have a great deal many,

but I have a feeling that by the look in these boys' eyes

that they can answer them for me.

LUIS: Everything we need to know

is in these folders, right?

SPENSER: "Sure is."

LUIS: You sure about this?

You're not looking so good.

TRAVIS: Oh, I

would need some care from the doctor if you--

ZEHRA: Yes, may we have a moment

to take care of Mr. Trapp?

MARISHA: Draven, you mentioned you've seen more devices

like the one that that little bugger's in.

You haven't got access to any more of those

because that could be good

if we're containing a bunch of bleed.

SPENSER: He says "Yes, if you'd like." Shuffles through.

He actually opens up the armoire again,

pulls out the shelving unit and looks back,

moves some things out of the way

and grabs an additional bleed containment vial.

You can put it on your circle gear.

That would be on your circle sheet here.

So it'd be on that one, yeah, yeah.

So that's a thing that all of you can use.

If there's more things you need to contain,

you can place them inside of there.

LUIS: A bleed containment vial?

SPENSER: Bleed containment vial.

You all have one available to you during the mission

but if you need an additional one, you got that.

He says, "I'll give you all a minute to recoup,

"but then," and then slides a little note card forward,

"the address for the Suarez family.

"That's the best place to start."

BRENNAN: What would we normally do with

a captured EONS scientist?

Like the one we had in the engine of the train?

Would we have dropped him off somewhere?

SPENSER: So generally, Candela Obscura will come in

to clean up messes like that, so they probably took them.

BRENNAN: Gotcha.

SPENSER: So yeah, that's not something

that you would have to worry about.

BRENNAN: I'm going to look at Draven before,

as he slides the address over I'm going to say:

These whatever, these worm dens

where people do these worms recreationally,

do they have them in Newfaire,

or is this something that's only going on in--

SPENSER: "I've heard rumor of

"these kinds of dens around here, yes.

"Usually for those who are wishing

"to get some sort of high out of it."

BRENNAN: You got fiends running around

looking to get this worm inside their body?

All right, I understand, thank you.

TRAVIS: Mr. Kingsley, one more thing.

I know it's not my place to ask.

Has Allison been made aware?

SPENSER: He looks down at the child,

looks over at the caretaker, and says "Go."

The caretaker shaved head, thin, lithe body,

reaches out their hand and takes the child

and they disappear.

"Mr. Trapp, as far as the child knows,

"Allison is no longer with us."

TRAVIS: You've told the child that her mother is--

SPENSER: "And Nathaniel, I'm sorry, and--"

TRAVIS: Antonio? SPENSER: "Antonio.

"Allison is not in a place to return home.

"I'm sorry,

"we're doing all we can, but

"she's not going home."

TRAVIS: And that's a decision you've made,

that Candela Obscura has made?

We're collecting these creatures.

We don't even fully understand them.

There could be things that we discover

a day, a week, or a month from now,

and you've told this boy that his mother is unsavable?

SPENSER: "It is a decision made above my head."

TRAVIS: Above your head.

Shit always rolls down, doesn't it?

SPENSER: Straightens his back up.

TRAVIS: Understood.

If you'll give us a bit with these documents,

I'm sure we'll have more questions.

SPENSER: As that happens, are you going to Patch Up?

ZEHRA: Mr. Trapp, I'm ready for you now.

TRAVIS: Thank you.

SPENSER: We see you cross the room.

As that happens, we sit

on the stained glass window from inside.

We cut to outside the chapter house

and pull away from the stained glass window.

And that's where we're going to take our break.

MARISHA and BRENNAN: (thudding)

LUIS: Wow. TRAVIS: Jeez!

MARISHA: So many questions. LUIS: Me too.

MARISHA: What the fuck? What the fuck?

TRAVIS: Just a nice little gentle entry.

(laughter) MARISHA: Oh my god.

TRAVIS: Spenser, what the hell, man?

SPENSER: Okay, we'll be right back.

SPENSER: And welcome back.

We find ourselves in a carriage

on its way to the Suarez home.

We have a little bit of time here,

so, now that we're not in the heat of the moment,

we're going to go around and do character descriptions

for everybody.

What we see here, as you're sitting in the carriage

on your way to your next assignment.

So, we'll move around the table.

But before we do that, because we're on a new assignment,

I'm going to refresh your stamina.

TRAVIS: Yeah! LUIS: Nice!

MARISHA: Stamina Training. TRAVIS: Training ability.

SPENSER: Great, that's refreshed.

Then anybody that has an assignment thing

can also refresh that.

So I know you have three times per assignment

you can do a thing. MARISHA: Saw This Coming.

SPENSER: Saw This Coming.

Anybody who has gear marked, you can unmark that gear

because the next assignment you will have

three pieces of gear that you can take.

ZEHRA: Great. TRAVIS: Nice.

SPENSER: I know that you were talking about you had a gun.

You have the option of having a hand weapon there.

So if you ever want to mark

that you have a hand weapon during play,

you can declare that you have that gun,

that it was given to you.

ZEHRA: Great.

SPENSER: Great, so I think we start outside the carriage.

We see it being pulled by horse out of Hallowharbor.

Into the roads that are towards

the Suarez home which is in Groundswell.

Not that far away.

As we jump inside, let's start left

and go right here.

So you want to give us a little more

in this moment of quiet, what you look like,

what you're doing here.

TRAVIS: Sure.

You see Nathaniel Trapp being tended to,

thank you, by the doctor.

A jacket off to the side.

He has very well made clothes that look like

they come from money, as much as he tries to hide it.

A pocket watch in his breast pocket

and strangely enough now, he's brought with him holsters.

They have wear on them.

They seem like they've seen years of some sort of action,

but they are strangely unoccupied.

He holds his brass knuckles

and puts it back into his pocket

and tries to smooth down his smexy facial hair.

And gather himself knowing that he watched

the men that he served with so many years

save his ass once again.

SPENSER: I love that.

As we pan across you and over to our wonderful

Auntie Bee here, will you describe yourself for us?

MARISHA: Yes! You're now looking at Beatrix,

AKA Auntie Bee, Monroe.

She's currently helping the doctor holding

some bandages and handkerchiefs,

just trying to be a second hand.

As we go over a bump she: Ah!

Jeez, my fucking back.

SPENSER: (laughs)

MARISHA: My lower back.

You see she's got,

her clothing is threadbare and worn.

Not necessarily dirty, but clear that she has

to wash it a lot.

Indication that she probably doesn't own many garments.

Stains on a lavender, button-down shirt

with an overcoat made out of patchwork quilt

that is clear that she probably repurposed it

from a blanket that she once had for many, many years.

Under a little pillbox,

oversized pillbox hat with ratty,

sun faded silk flowers

that she for sure decorated herself.

You see very frizzy salt and pepper hair

that she has made some sort of half-hearted attempt

to pin, but also cares little about the physical appearance.

Similarly her face, you see she's trying

to hide wind burn and sunspots

with way too much blush, and probably

a blush palette that she has owned for a decade now.

Maybe taken a little bit of that same blush palette

and patted it on her lips to try and still hold on

to some sort of shard of femininity and youth.

Even though she knows that it is fleeting.

On top of her ratty clothes

that are falling apart, you see standing out against

that backdrop a few select pieces of nice jewelry

that stands out and has an appearance

that probably has some sort of nostalgic

sentimental value in order for her

to have held unto it and not pawned it

after all of these years.

SPENSER: Yeah, the juxtaposition between

the very nice jewelry and the--

MARISHA: The completely torn up coat

and clothing underneath. SPENSER: So interesting.

TRAVIS: Forgive me, I should have said

Nathaniel Trapp, he/him.

SPENSER: He/him pronouns.

MARISHA: Auntie Bee, she/her.

SPENSER: She/her, great, thank you so much.

BRENNAN: Sean Finnerty, he/him.

Sean is a,

well, he's a younger soldier.

He enlisted in the war previously,

illegally when he was like 16 or 17.

So even though it's been many years

since the end of the war, he's still only

in like mid-20s.

He's got, any article of clothing

that is hard to replace is filthy.

Anything that's easy to replace is clean.

ALL: Mm!

BRENNAN: So, the suspenders and the shoes, ooh brother,

have seen better days.

(laughter)

BRENNAN: Shirt and the pants are fine.

Minus a hole or two, but.

I think Sean looks about as--

I think to the average observer Sean looks

like a healthy, fit, hale and hearty guy.

But all the telltale signs of grooming

and clothing around that are of someone

who doesn't go home to anybody.

SPENSER: Mm.

I like that. We pan over from Sean.

ZEHRA: To Dr. Jean Basar, she/her.

A young woman focused intently

on healing the wounds in front of her, of Nathan.

Nathaniel.

There's a focus behind her eyes

that never leaves her face

despite how she moves through the world,

there's a steel focus that is always present

in her dark eyes.

Dark, mirroring her dark, jet-black hair

that almost gleans a midnight blue in the sun.

Everything about this woman

on first glance is cold, cool, steady.

But beneath that cold surface

there is an inherent warmth through that focus of care

and this very clear,

noticeable to only those closest to her,

a sense of balance trying to walk a very firm center line.

Her clothes are pristine.

She wears a long, pale, green peacoat

with pastel pink underneath.

Pristine white gloves with very skilled fingers

that at the moment,

are ever so unsteady

as she reflects on the events that just passed on the train.

They do not, however, interfere with the focus

and the adeptness with which she renders

the human body whole.

A very skilled surgeon.

Skill that was gained on the fields of war.

A single bead of sweat falls from her forehead

as she continues to patch up Mr. Trapp.

SPENSER: Make that roll for me, for Patch Up.

ZEHRA: All right.

SPENSER: I'll come over to you.

ZEHRA: I'm going to use my ability

as a doctor of Patch Up.

"When you have a few moments of calm,

"you can make a Focus roll to heal an ally one body mark."

TRAVIS: Thank you.

ZEHRA: That's what I'm here for.

So, I'm going to take two Focus.

I'm going to use one of my,

I'm going to use a gilded.

BRENNAN: Can I assist? SPENSER: Yeah.

ZEHRA: If you would like, certainly, Mr. Finnerty.

Seeing as you did not take

a single body damage during our ordeal.

BRENNAN: The champ is undefeated.

TRAVIS: It's not a competition.

It's not a competition. LUIS: Inevitably.

BRENNAN: (laughs)

ZEHRA: So with the assist I take an additional die?

SPENSER: Yeah, and you'll spend a drive to do that.

ZEHRA: Thank you.

SPENSER: You're using Focus, so you'd spend an

Intuition. BRENNAN: Intuition, yeah.

ZEHRA: Four.

SPENSER: Four is the highest?

ZEHRA: Is the highest. SPENSER: Great, so

what's the move say?

ZEHRA: So the move says, "on a four to five,

"spend two Intuition to do this."

MARISHA: Mm!

ZEHRA: If it were a six, I would've spent one Intuition,

and if it were a three, a failure,

I would have marked a brain mark to take

the four or five results instead.

But this is a four, it is a mixed result.

SPENSER: Great, so you'll mark two Intuition

if you want to do that, to be able to heal.

ZEHRA: Yes, I think Mr. Trapp needs it desperately.

SPENSER: As we see you stitching into the body,

we watch as the needle pierces the skin.

TRAVIS: (groans)

SPENSER: And gets pulled through.

MARISHA: Oy.

SPENSER: As we land on our last member.

LUIS: I'm Marion Collodi, he/him.

Once again, stands about 5'9"

which we all know is the short side of average.

Or the tall side of short.

Dark hair and a dark beard.

He's wearing an olive, light brown, olive shirt.

Very much like what I have right now,

with these small flower patterns.

He's wearing a vest that looks nice

for a working class man.

A hand-me-down from his father.

Trousers are typical worn, working class trousers.

But he is, unlike his good friend Sean,

does take care of his appearance.

He does have his hair well kept,

and he does take care of his beard.

He has no one to come home to,

but he cares to try to make whatever he can look nice.

Right now, he's finishing up a Ritual,

which is an ability that I have.

When I have a few minutes to prepare,

I can take a bleed mark to perform

a ritual on myself or someone else.

In this case I'm performing a ritual on myself

to regain the spent resistance that I used earlier

to activate my Premonition for Sean.

SPENSER: What does this Ritual look like?

LUIS: So I am, whether we are already in the carriage--

The patching up is happening in the carriage.

Initially, I started watching Jean at work.

I find the artistry of the--

her finger work, her focus

to be familiar, even though I'm not a surgeon.

And it is hypnotic.

After a few moments of watching her focus,

I lean back on the carriage and close my eyes

and take a deep breath and start to concentrate on

what happens in those premonitions is like a collage

of images hitting me.

I start to piece them together to have that premonition,

the vision of what was to come.

It sort of is that in rewind.

It's that unspooling

and then settling and grounding.

It feels hypnotic, in its own way.

I have a scar on my chest.

As I'm leaning back you see my shirt,

it's unbuttoned halfway down and opens up a little.

You see that on Marion's chest is already

a scar that looks like a starburst.

As I take the bleed mark by doing this Ritual,

almost imperceptibly, a tiny pulse moves through it.

Kind of bluish, veiny swirl.

Then that settles as well.

SPENSER: As that happens we hear the snip of scissors.

As the needle and thread are pulled up and removed.

We see them dangling in the air.

The Circle of Needle & Thread,

and they're put away.

You all have a moment here before you arrive.

What would you like to do?

TRAVIS: I think I might take this opportunity

to answer the expressions on my friend's faces.

to answer the expressions on my friends' faces.

SPENSER: Yeah.

TRAVIS: Obviously, we still have to review the documents,

but I felt it might be wise to read you in a bit on

who this Suarez family is to me, at the very least.

We all have our introductions to Candela,

one way or another, but mine involved investigating

my own family's railroad operations

and some dark dealings that were happening there.

Allison Suarez was an investigator

that I came across.

She saved me in a moment of need.

Sacrificed herself.

Putting herself between a very dark entity.

And it transformed her horribly.

I was led away from the scene before I could

extend my thanks or even check up on her,

and I've been trying to do that ever since.

Mr. Kingsley has not allowed me to do that.

She is not dead.

She is poorly.

I admit, I found myself a bit peeved

that they would just deem her death

something that could be so easily communicated

to her own child.

And now it seems that the boy's father, Antonio,

has been befelled by something.

I can only hope it was not the same sort

of thing that I encountered underneath.

So forgive me if I am a bit unsettled by all of this.

BRENNAN: You and Allison,

she was an investigator for Candela?

TRAVIS: She was. BRENNAN: All right.

ZEHRA: And you were close?

TRAVIS: No, afterwards I was taken out of the metro station

underneath The Steam and I was given a pin.

Much like we all were, and an address.

Said if I had any questions,

I could try and receive some answers.

I only had one.

How she was doing, what could I do.

I was never allowed to see her.

I had hoped that by working with Candela,

in addition to making a difference,

I might be able to repay that debt in some kind.

We know how important that is.

MARISHA: And what exactly happened on this mission?

What were the horrors that you saw?

TRAVIS: It's hard to explain.

There was a, almost a shadowy creature

that moved as if on its front limbs, its appendages.

There was a lean to it.

I came down into a metro station

and I saw across the way a young man trying to hide.

He was telling me to run,

but the sound that he made gave his position away

and this creature moved on him

and stood up to an incredible height

and picked this fellow up as though he was made of paper.

When he did, his form began to shift

and undulate and there was a horrible screeching sound.

I, uh--

I ran.

I wasn't armed.

I wasn't prepared for anything like that.

Before I could reach the street level,

the creature had caught up with me

and was about to do the same to me as well,

before Allison showed up.

A lantern in one hand and a large mirror in the other.

She jumped in front of me and holding up the mirror,

I saw this creature that had the same expression,

almost as if it had taken the face of the man

down below,

but its body contorted in horrible,

physically impossible ways.

It started trying to mimic Allison's face,

but its gaze shifted between her face and the mirror,

almost as if it couldn't decide what form to take.

Locked in some sort of limbo.

Anyway, it was just enough time for her fellows to arrive

and throw a Molotov cocktail at its feet,

and set it ablaze.

But I think the time close spent to that creature,

I saw her hair start to turn white

and her face began to age and her shoulder began to swell

to disproportionate amounts.

I was pulled away before I could see anything else.

I just remember

her screams.

BRENNAN: You think they got her locked up

in that Fourth Pharos over there?

TRAVIS: I hope.

MARISHA: GM, would I have heard any stories

of an Allison that was sent to the grays?

SPENSER: Not to Grayslate, no.

Your instincts of somebody like that

being sent to the Fourth Pharos,

which is an area beyond our world

in the Flare where they take these artifacts, creatures,

maybe people, as sort of a vault.

That's probably the most likely outcome

for somebody like Allison.

They'd be taken somewhere like that.

Or not somewhere like that,

they would be taken to that place and kept there.

BRENNAN: They told the kid she was dead?

TRAVIS: Yes.

BRENNAN: How sick do you got to be where you go,

"Hey, we got to break it to the kid soft.

"Just tell them she's dead."

LUIS: Right?

I guess there's things worse than dead.

I guess.

Well, clearly we know there's things

that are worse than dying, but.

TRAVIS: I know there's an amount of trust

we all have with this organization.

We see what we're fighting against.

We know what sort of evil there is in the world,

not just the kind that we make.

But--

LUIS: But they withhold a lot.

TRAVIS: It feels that way.

LUIS: It is that way.

Would you have risked everything we did

for what they explained was in that container?

A creature that's used to get people high?

That's all there is to that.

ZEHRA: There-- Marion, if I may, there may be--

It's deeply disappointing to understand

that money seems to move

a lot of these organizations through the world.

There may have been monetary gain

that Candela was trying to prevent

by stopping the androphage transfer.

There are certain groups that would pay a great sum for it.

All I'm saying is maybe Candela isn't immune

to some of these capital gains.

MARISHA: Well, look.

Any institution, even an institution

that stands up against institutions,

well, I mean they're not immune

from their own organizational flaws.

However, I would still like to believe

that out of all of the other

capitalistic and governmental factions

that rule our day-to-day lives

that hopefully we're choosing

the one lesser evil.

TRAVIS: Ms. Monroe.

Beatrix.

You've been with the organization longer than any,

and I've looped my men into this

with a certain amount of trust.

Have you ever seen anyone marked by bleed changed?

Have you ever seen them made whole, amended?

MARISHA: I tend to find sometimes the best route

is to just keep your mouth shut and your eyes open.

Oftentimes you'll learn far more

than what people can tell you.

We've all been touched by bleed,

whether we want to accept that or not.

No, I guess, to answer your question,

not to, what it sounds,

the severity of Allison's level was.

But I would still like to believe

that that's why we're fighting.

You certainly had no problems

standing up and calling out the organization

to Mr. Kingsley.

Which is a little bit surprising,

I got to say, Nathaniel,

for someone who's quite the institutional man himself.

TRAVIS: Force of habit, I'm afraid.

ZEHRA: Well, speaking of Mr. Kingsley,

what did he mean when he said it was someone above his head

who made the decision to tell Lucas, was it, the boy?

TRAVIS: Lucas.

ZEHRA: That his mother was dead?

Someone above a Lightkeeper's head.

LUIS: Everybody answers to somebody else.

BRENNAN: I don't know if that's true.

I guess there's got to be a few people

don't answer to anybody.

I'm going to open the folder and look in at the papers.

SPENSER: Yeah. You see a description

of the opening scene that we went through

from the child's point of view.

Is there anything in there

that you'd like to ask a question about?

BRENNAN: I'm going to hand it over to Dr. Jean

and I'm going to look up and say:

Kid says he saw his ma in a room,

not exactly herself.

Seems like Candela Obscura feels like

they have her under their protection

and yet she's appearing, according to Lucas,

in this room in some kind of spectral form.

MARISHA: Sounds awfully familiar to that smoke monster

you were just describing.

TRAVIS: Whatever it was, smoke, ichor,

seemed to lift and drip all at the same time.

It was so dark that--

You've lost trust in your own eyes before, yes?

ZEHRA: Yes.

MARISHA: Dr. Jean, I can't help but notice

this scar that they drew on here.

It almost looks like an autopsy.

ZEHRA: Yes.

Could I Focus on the photo--

SPENSER: Sure. ZEHRA:-- of the body,

and see if I can learn anything from it?

SPENSER: Yeah. Great.

Go ahead and make a Focus roll for me.

ZEHRA: Four. SPENSER: A four.

What are you trying to learn here?

What are you looking for?

ZEHRA: I'm looking at this photo of the body,

the crime scene, so to speak, with the,

as Bee noted, a scar, a slice,

an incision on the body. SPENSER: A slice

down the center of the stomach, yeah.

ZEHRA: A slice down.

SPENSER: It's from the neck,

the bottom of the neck down to the navel.

ZEHRA: The thoracic cavity.

SPENSER: Yeah. ZEHRA: Yes, I'm trying to see.

Was this surgical, was this bleed,

do I see any evidence of surgical touch

or is it more of a violent?

SPENSER: So with a four, two things happen.

ZEHRA: Mm-hmm. SPENSER: One,

you can tell from the photograph

that the slice was by something sharp,

but was not scalpel sharp.

It was serrated in some way.

It's not a clean cut. ZEHRA: Mm-hmm.

SPENSER: It doesn't look--

On the surface, even though it appears

to maybe be surgical in direction,

what you can tell is the intent

appeared to be to open up the body.

ZEHRA: Mm-hmm, rib cage and all.

SPENSER: Yes, to get deeper into the body.

That was just the method of parting the curtain,

that is skin. ZEHRA: Mm-hmm.

MARISHA: Parting the curtain. SPENSER: Right?

LUIS: Yeah. MARISHA: God. God!

SPENSER: (laughs)

But the other thing that happens here,

is you're staring at the picture of a dead man.

MARISHA: Mm-hmm.

SPENSER: Your eyes, for a minute, shift--

ZEHRA: Mm-hmm.

SPENSER:-- and you're staring at a picture of Avery.

ZEHRA: (starts)

I slam the folder shut.

SPENSER: Take a brain mark for me,

as the trauma starts to set in. TRAVIS: Oof.

ZEHRA: I can see Avery's face--

LUIS: What do you mean? ZEHRA:-- in my head,

as they tumbled beneath the train.

It is clear that a fair amount of violence

and force was used to open Mr. Suarez up.

It was not done by a tool, a knife, as far as I can tell.

Looks a bit more organic.

It's hard to determine,

but it split his bones

all the way through cleanly.

Singular.

SPENSER: As you say that, you feel the carriage

lurch to a stop.

MARISHA: Aw jeez, this hernia.

(laughter)

BRENNAN: Auntie Bee, what happened to the little pillow?

MARISHA: (moans and groans) TRAVIS: (laughs)

MARISHA: Oh, I should get a little pillow.

LUIS: You're not doing your stretches.

I thought we talked about you doing your stretches.

MARISHA: This journey has been real--

That train ride really messed me up, you guys.

BRENNAN: Oh, hernia.

I'm thinking hemorrhoids.

LUIS: Oh, I was thinking something else.

MARISHA: I mean, a little lumbar support

might not be bad, though.

BRENNAN: No, that makes sense. TRAVIS: (laughs)

LUIS: I don't know if you can stretch a hernia.

ZEHRA: You can, but you don't want to know how.

BRENNAN: Yeah. Oh yeah.

Listen, if you got hemorrhoids,

you don't want to do stretches.

Let me tell you that right now.

LUIS: Yeah, I'm also, I'm looking through the folder

as this moment lightens us up for a second.

BRENNAN: I'll give you a hand out of the carriage.

MARISHA: Thank you, sweet boy. SPENSER: Yeah.

Door opens. MARISHA: (moans)

SPENSER: Light pours over the folder you're looking at.

LUIS: The first thing I want to know.

I'm searching, searching, searching.

We know that this creature is violent.

I don't know if it was feeding maybe, or what,

but I want to know if they've documented

any kind of weakness

or any kind of weapon that can be used.

I have a hunch based on the story you told.

SPENSER: Totally. So the account is from a child.

So the amount of information you have,

based on what's in the folder is just that,

just that, that you've been told.

The thing I will say is that they have noted

that it is similar to an attack

that happened previously.

So the nature of the attack,

the brutality of the attack,

is not unlike other attacks that happened

around a similar time

as when Allison was hurt.

What I will say is that they note that there was a period,

a gap of time, where those attacks stopped.

LUIS: Okay. SPENSER: Now suddenly,

something has happened again here that is similar

to the attacks that were occurring before.

LUIS: Does it say how long that break was?

SPENSER: Yeah, so after the attack on Allison,

which I think we talked about was a couple of months ago.

TRAVIS: Mm-hmm.

MARISHA: Wow. SPENSER: Yeah.

The cases ceased very shortly after that.

I think maybe there was one or two

other attacks reported that were similar.

Then those stopped

and then this was a similar attack

that happened as of last night.

ZEHRA: Hmm.

LUIS: Okay. MARISHA: Did they assume

that they stopped it?

Does the organization think that they stopped it

or did it just like,

oh, just stopped one day.

Fuck it. SPENSER: The notes only say

that the attacks ceased

and that it seems as though this might be--

LUIS: A continuation of that.

This is the gap in between those incidents.

SPENSER: Exactly.

ZEHRA: I'm sorry, how long was the gap again?

Two months? Couple months. LUIS: Couple months.

MARISHA: That's not that long.

TRAVIS: I mean, this is just the initial report.

I'm (throat clear)

sure we'll be able to glean something additional inside.

LUIS: Well, we'll be able to know, hopefully,

whether the presence of whatever this creature is

is still there.

If it's not there, then we know it's probably

moving on to one of the other members.

They've stationed security there.

BRENNAN: We're talking about vengeance, right?

LUIS: It's vengeance. BRENNAN: Yeah.

LUIS: That's what they said.

BRENNAN: Well, let's stop

this creature in seeking vengeance.

TRAVIS: Outside the house, is anyone positioned

outside of the residence, the door,

any sort of guard or sentry?

SPENSER: As the door opens

you see there's one older gentleman in a suit.

He is standing outside on the porch.

This is somebody that is clearly

standing guard outside the house.

They wear a Candela pin on their lapel.

As you all exit the carriage,

they nod at all of you and turn the corner.

TRAVIS: Well, it's safe to assume

that it should be relatively secure

but we know that's worth fuck all in our job.

LUIS: Right.

TRAVIS: Sean, Marion.

Shall we?

LUIS: Looks like it, yeah.

SPENSER: Great, we cut from there

to the front door opening,

the light spreading across the hardwood floors here.

One thing I'll note is that this is within

the district of Groundswell.

So this place has been built into the ruins of Oldfaire.

So the architecture here is very brutalist

in its design. The interior of the house

appears as though it was slightly renovated,

not to the point of being extravagant,

just to the point of infrastructure.

There's beams on the ceiling

that are holding old stone

that form the walls here.

As you move deeper in,

you see available to you, the house

and the bedroom on your left hand side.

You can smell, immediately, the waft of death.

What do you all want to do?

BRENNAN: Is the old man in the suit coming in with us or no?

SPENSER: Oh, when he saw you all arrive,

he turned the corner and disappeared.

BRENNAN: Gotcha. TRAVIS: Left his post.

BRENNAN: I'm going to look around and say:

Always nice to get a warm welcome.

And I'm going to take a shotgun out of my coat.

TRAVIS: Eyy!

BRENNAN: I like when there's not,

what do you call them? Bystanders.

I'm going to take lead

and move around the corner with a shotgun.

TRAVIS: Not shy, Mr. Finnerty.

LUIS: I'm going to take out the weapon that I acquired.

SPENSER: Ooh, yeah.

LUIS: So the knife that I had pulled,

the knife that was attached with the cord

to some sort of a shocking device.

I pulled it off of it,

but I would've liked to have tried to see

if there was any way to repair it,

or any way to make it--

I mean, I'm going to have a knife on me, at least.

SPENSER: Sure. LUIS: But any way

to see if there's something

to make it functional in that regard.

SPENSER: Great, write down that you have a phase knife.

LUIS: Okay.

MARISHA and TRAVIS: Phase knife!

LUIS: Hell yeah. BRENNAN: (sneezes)

ZEHRA: Phase. MARISHA: Let's go.

SPENSER: Go ahead and

make a Focus roll-- BRENNAN: (sneezes)

MARISHA: Bless you. SPENSER:-- for me. Bless you.

TRAVIS: Stop it. SPENSER: Go ahead and make a

Focus roll for me

to see if they're able to-- BRENNAN: You stop that!

SPENSER:-- figure out what it needs,

how it needs to be hooked up.

LUIS: Okay. BRENNAN: Shame on you.

LUIS: I will use a drive.

SPENSER: Great. LUIS: I can use more than one.

SPENSER: You can.

LUIS: Yeah, I'm going to use two.

Oh, that's a gilded die.

Okay, come on.

Come on, baby, I want this cool-ass weapon.

Five is my highest number.

SPENSER: Five is the highest. Great.

Yeah, so you have it hooked up.

What I will say is that it is very experimental.

You have like a-- It's just hooked up.

You were able to pull the device

off of the coat of the EONS member before you left.

You rewired it back together, but when you turn it on

you notice it sparks at the wire.

LUIS: Yikes.

SPENSER: So it is not super safe for you to use,

but it does exist here for you.

LUIS: Okay, I have that as an option.

SPENSER: Mm-hmm, you do have it as an option.

As you-- Yeah, go ahead.

BRENNAN: How big is the house, roughly?

When we were approaching--

SPENSER: Sure, yeah, it's a townhouse, so--

BRENNAN: It's pretty small? LUIS: Two stories?

SPENSER: So it's pretty small. Two story,

but probably you would guess

it's about a three bedroom.

BRENNAN: I'm going to, if it's a small house

and the guy leaves and I'm like:

The dossier didn't say that there'd be anybody

in the house that we're trying to rescue. Right?

TRAVIS: Shouldn't be, but we should check.

BRENNAN: All right, listen up!

If there's anybody in here who's human,

make a noise saying I'm human right now.

If you don't and you feel confused or conflicted,

understand you got a 10-second window

before your only greeting is two barrels in the chest.

SPENSER: Make a Sway roll for me.

LUIS: (laughs)

TRAVIS: I would assist you, but I-- (laughs)

SPENSER: I don't think you need it.

TRAVIS: What he said.

BRENNAN: It's a two. SPENSER: It's a two.

LUIS: Oy. ZEHRA: Oh, you got a five.

BRENNAN: I don't have any dots in it, so it's a two.

SPENSER: When you don't have any dots in it,

you roll two, and take the lowest.

ZEHRA: Oh. BRENNAN: Yeah.

It's more for the moral, it's the moral--

SPENSER: I love it.

BRENNAN: Because I'm not, I'm trying, you know--

This is what's going on.

You have the information you need.

I'm not necessarily trying to persuade

any of these monsters.

It's more about if you're human--

LUIS: You're doing your due diligence.

BRENNAN: Due diligence, this is a due diligence.

SPENSER: Yeah, roll due diligence.

(laughter)

ZEHRA: I have the beginning of what is a migraine

from Mr. Finnerty's quite loud proclamation.

But the migraine lingers

and I maybe see something cloudy in my periphery.

I would like to see if I can sense anything.

SPENSER: Ooh. Okay.

Yeah, so nobody responds to you,

but as you walk closer to the bedroom,

yeah, you definitely can make a Sense roll here.

ZEHRA: Six! MARISHA: Ooh!

SPENSER: Six is a full success.

What does it feel like for you?

What does bleed feel like for you, in specific?

ZEHRA: It's like the beginning of a headache,

pinprick of an intense pain,

but the pain doesn't continue.

It gets my attention.

Sometimes, I see something in my periphery

and then I look and there's nothing there.

Sometimes when that pin prick happens,

it's not even a visual.

It's a sense and then a sensation washes over me

and I instinctively know. SPENSER: Mm-hmm.

ZEHRA: That's correct?

SPENSER: Yeah, your eyes fall to the bedroom

and you feel an emanation of bleed,

not so much that it would hurt any of you by walking in,

but enough to say there is remnant bleed there

from the attack that occurred, for sure.

As that happens, I think we see a gathering of flies

that are starting to swirl around your head.

MARISHA: No. Nope, nope.

Hate that!

TRAVIS: What?

LUIS: Do you feel like it's a--

TRAVIS: No, no, no. MARISHA: No.

LUIS: Don't shoot the flies! (laughter)

ZEHRA: Please, don't shoot the flies!

LUIS: Don't shoot the flies.

BRENNAN: You don't think I can hit them?

LUIS: You can--

TRAVIS: I have every confidence--

LUIS: You'll hit everything.

ZEHRA: Be careful in the bedroom, but

w-w-what is happening?

I--

SPENSER: (buzzes)

TRAVIS: Doctor?

MARISHA: Perhaps you should sit down, dear.

LUIS: Step behind me, actually.

I want to get in front of you.

ZEHRA: I do so. SPENSER: As you do,

the flies make their way back to the bedroom

and they all fly up almost like,

you know how birds fly in patterns--

MARISHA and TRAVIS: Mm-hmm. SPENSER:-- and create images?

You see it's a collection of flies

that are all doing that same sort of patterning work.

Then, they land on the wall of the bedroom.

TRAVIS: Is the bedroom on the first floor or--

SPENSER: This bedroom's on the first floor.

Correct. ZEHRA: The door is open?

We could see in? SPENSER: The door is

cracked open.

LUIS: Ah-- MARISHA: Is there--

Oh, sorry?

LUIS: Well, because we did get a lot of information,

I think, from what you recounted,

are there any mirrors around here?

MARISHA: That's what I was going to say.

SPENSER: Go make a Survey roll for me.

MARISHA: Can I assist him in that?

SPENSER: I would love that. TRAVIS: Can I assist as well

or is it a single assist? SPENSER: Yeah.

That's a group action roll.

Yeah, so both of you can assist.

You would be making a roll.

You would take a number of d6

extra equal to drive. MARISHA: We spend a drive

for that, correct?

SPENSER: Yeah. So if you want to spend drive

and you want to spend drive, you can.

I want to be clear before you do this,

you can also assist without spending drive

by declaring you're assisting.

It will potentially change how effective a roll is.

But all you do is spend the drive

to mechanically add dice to the bowl.

LUIS: Okay.

SPENSER: So you have how many dice to start with?

LUIS: I start with one.

SPENSER: You start with one.

You're going to spend a drive.

So you'd spend Intuition.

LUIS: Uh-huh. MARISHA: Mm-hmm.

SPENSER: Then you could spend Intuition,

if you'd like as well.

TRAVIS: Yeah, let's do that. SPENSER: Okay, great.

So you'll spend one. LUIS: A total of three dice.

SPENSER: Total of three dice. MARISHA: Then wasn't there a

situation where, if he succeeds,

we get a drive back?

SPENSER: That's only when,

I think it was one of the circle abilities

from last chapter. ZEHRA: Oh!

MARISHA: That's right. That's right.

SPENSER: When somebody fails,

you get that back. TRAVIS: In This Together.

Yeah. MARISHA: That's right.

SPENSER: So you'll roll three dice.

LUIS: Got it.

I got two sixes out of that.

SPENSER: Amazing!

TRAVIS: Let's go!

LUIS: Got two sixes and a one.

MARISHA: 50 mirrors!

LUIS and TRAVIS: Yes! TRAVIS and SPENSER: (laugh)

MARISHA: I found this disco ball!

LUIS: Do we find phase mirrors?

SPENSER: Phase mirrors!

No. So here's what you find.

LUIS: Ask for phase weapons every time.

SPENSER: (laughs)

On the first floor,

you find with, with a double six,

with the critical success,

you walk into the bathroom,

the first place you go to look for the mirror,

and you see that the mirror there has been shattered.

ZEHRA: (gasps)

LUIS: Okay.

SPENSER: Going up to the second floor,

you find a mirror on the wall,

hung on the wall in the bathroom,

the bathroom there for the two bedrooms.

LUIS: Okay.

SPENSER: And that one is still intact.

You're able to pull it off.

LUIS: I'm opening drawers

to see if there's any hand mirrors

or anything. SPENSER: Yeah.

There's one additional hand mirror.

So if we want to put that on the circle gear,

you can put mirrors.

TRAVIS: Hand mirror.

SPENSER: Yeah, hand mirror.

TRAVIS: But enough for--

SPENSER: Enough for, yeah. TRAVIS: Got it.

MARISHA: I'll follow after--

SPENSER: Yeah.

MARISHA:-- after Marion mentions the broken mirror,

I'm going to peek my head in.

Does it look like the mirror is shattered

like something shattered out of it,

or is there an impact? LUIS: Ooh. Impact.

MARISHA: Like I can see the source of ground zero,

if it were, of where it--

SPENSER: Go and make a Focus roll for me.

MARISHA: Okay.

Which is ♪ gilded! ♪

SPENSER: I will say, this house

is affected by bleed, at this point.

So you would be in danger

of taking some bleed by doing this.

MARISHA: (grimaces)

Three on my gilded die.

SPENSER: Three on the gilded,

so you can earn back one of your drive.

It's really hard to tell

because the mirror itself is no longer on the wall.

The pieces of the mirror are scattered

all over the bedroom.

As you walk in to observe this,

you look down and see a thousand reflections

of yourself.

As you look at yourself

in a thousand different ways here,

I want you to tell me what you used to look like.

MARISHA: (exhales)

Right out of the gate, Spenser,

with the fucking emotions!

SPENSER: (whispers) I'm sorry.

MARISHA: Yeah, I think the glittering of the glass

reminds Beatrix of the glittering of the Glass Sea

and her life that she had

very happily with her husband,

living in a little cottage in Seasway.

As she starts to lose focus

and it all starts to blur,

and at first it seems like the ocean,

and then she can see elements of her happy

in her youth

with bright, strawberry blonde hair

and just happy,

and simple clothing,

but still nice

and she's still presentable

and ever so slightly, in the corner,

it's almost like she can see images

of her husband again as well,

almost as if they're arm and arm again.

SPENSER: Yeah.

Each piece of glass reflecting a different memory

from the life you had before this,

then suddenly, with a start,

it's back to reflecting you as you are now.

I'm going to have you take a brain and a bleed

for that failure. MARISHA: (gasps)

LUIS: (groans)

Are you in the room with me?

SPENSER: No. MARISHA: You went upstairs

and I followed in after you.

LUIS: My Premonitions? SPENSER: Mm-hmm.

LUIS: How far or how near do they need to be?

SPENSER: You can try and pull her out of this reverie

before it does that. LUIS: Yes.

While you are there,

everything that you just described starts to flash

inside of my mind as I have a vision--

SPENSER: Mm-hmm.

LUIS: And as tempting as it is

to get sucked into it myself,

a brief window into who you once were, something

I don't know very much about so far, long ago,

my memories of that were that of child.

You hear, hopefully loud enough,

me shout down to you:

(forcefully) Come back!

MARISHA: Hearing Marion's voice,

at first, it sounds like the Marion I knew

when he was a young adolescent man

as it starts to morph into Marion's voice today

of a grown man, of a soldier,

has, yeah, Auntie Bee is shaken out of it

and she puts on a good face

and pinches her cheeks,

get a little bit of that rouge,

and steals herself as she walks back out.

TRAVIS: Do we all hear that shout?

SPENSER: 100% hear that shout.

Go ahead and erase the brain mark that you took.

LUIS: The other one stays.

SPENSER: The other one stays.

LUIS: It's only one mark.

SPENSER: It's only one mark, correct.

You all hear the-- MARISHA: Just close that door.

I look to the others and I say: Don't go in there.

TRAVIS: Are we okay?

MARISHA: We're all right.

LUIS: Is she okay?

Are you okay? MARISHA: I'm all right!

You sweet boy.

LUIS: Hmm.

TRAVIS: What time of day is it, by the way?

SPENSER: It's getting to sunset.

TRAVIS: Okay.

The lights in the house,

are there lights in the house?

SPENSER: Candles.

TRAVIS: Candles.

One thing to note,

it messes with light,

or it doesn't like it or it does.

I couldn't tell.

It caused it to flare

and then retract.

So keep an eye on the lights.

BRENNAN: Do you think we should go around

and try to light them before the sun gets too low

in the sky?

TRAVIS: I'm generally a fan of

more light in darkness, so yeah,

that's a great idea. MARISHA: The candles?

BRENNAN: Yeah.

Let's light them up.

SPENSER: Great.

We get (blows) as the candles on the wall take light.

There's a couple of oil lamps as well throughout the house.

BRENNAN: You said Allison the first time you saw her,

before she actually got taken by the monster--

TRAVIS: Right. BRENNAN: She ran in

and she had a mirror, a larger than average mirror

in her hand that she was using to fight with.

That rooms got broken mirrors in it.

Is this monster that, you know,

talking about light, mirrors reflect light.

I'm putting pieces together

and my conclusion's always going to be,

you figured it out,

smash every mirror.

I don't know if that's helpful though.

TRAVIS: Right.

It seemed like the mirror impeded

this creature's ability to do what it does

to adapt or absorb the person

that they were focused on.

The light, I--

BRENNAN: When you were looking

at the broken mirror in that room,

did it look, and I know it's not easy to tell,

but did it look like it happened recently

or a long time ago?

MARISHA: I didn't get a sense of when.

TRAVIS: Was there blood on the ground,

any sort of markings?

MARISHA: No.

TRAVIS: Clean?

MARISHA: I will say, though,

it seemed far more scattered

than any type of other localized mirror glass shatter

that you would expect.

There were pieces all over

in every corner of that damn room!

ZEHRA: Hmm.

LUIS: I think the mirrors are going to be something

that we'll need to use on it, I think.

ZEHRA: And the lanterns-- MARISHA: Can I just...

Yeah, I was going to say, can I actually dislodge

maybe a couple of the lanterns,

of the gas lanterns, so we have them

as a mobile light? SPENSER: Sure.

Yep. MARISHA: Okay.

ZEHRA: You said Allison had a lantern with her.

TRAVIS: She did.

BRENNAN: Well, maybe we want a mirror of our own.

TRAVIS: Yep.

LUIS: We got the hand mirror that we found earlier--

MARISHA: We have, what, two mirrors?

SPENSER: Yeah. Two mirrors. LUIS: So those come off?

SPENSER: You got a big mirror, you got a hand mirror.

LUIS: Those are the two mirrors that we have?

SPENSER: Mm-hmm. LUIS: Well--

TRAVIS: We have the second mirror.

Who would like to?

Ladies? ZEHRA: I'll take it.

TRAVIS: Auntie Bee?

MARISHA: Oh, all right.

I've got my tiny blush compact.

SPENSER: (laughs)

LUIS: Look--

BRENNAN: You know, between that and the shotgun,

I just got it.

(laughter)

BRENNAN: You know, we got so many mirrors.

This feels like this is hedging our bets

because it's like this thing

might have a specific vulnerability to mirrors,

but I think most things

have a broad vulnerability to shotguns.

ZEHRA: If there is a corporeal body,

your shotgun could come in handy.

LUIS: You will be able to shoot that.

BRENNAN: Great. LUIS: At this thing.

BRENNAN: Let's go.

ZEHRA: If I may, the flies that manifested around my head

and are now parked on the wall in that room--

SPENSER: Yes.

That is a sentence you just said.

(laughter)

ZEHRA: I feel like that warrants further investigation

now that we are armed with some tools.

SPENSER: Yeah.

Pushing into the room, the door creaks open

and you see the body of Antonio Suarez still there,

fileted open on the bed, blood caked along the sheets

and having poured out onto the ground below.

The closet door still sits open, as described.

The candle on the nightstand

has melted entirely down,

just leaving wax residue.

That wax residue has poured off of the candelabra

or the candle holder, I guess,

and has actually covered up the face of Antonio Suarez

on the photograph, leaving just Allison showing.

ZEHRA: Hmm! Hmm!

Hmm.

Where are the flies?

SPENSER: Still on the wall.

ZEHRA: Are they in a certain formation of any kind?

SPENSER: They're all parked on either side of the threshold.

BRENNAN: There's a dead body in the room

and the flies are all parked on the wall.

SPENSER: Uh-huh. ZEHRA: Mm-hmm.

BRENNAN: I'm going to look down and be like:

Oh, customers don't like the sirloin, huh?

LUIS: Mm-hmm.

TRAVIS: (muffled laughter)

LUIS: I would like to pull out a bleed detector.

SPENSER: Mm-hmm. MARISHA: Yeah.

ZEHRA: I know that bleed is going to be everywhere--

SPENSER: Yeah, yeah, yeah. LUIS: But I want to see

specifically if those flies ping.

SPENSER: Mm-hmm. Okay.

ZEHRA: Like the chickens.

SPENSER: Yeah. LUIS: The chickens!

SPENSER: Yeah. Go ahead and mark that.

As you start to wave it over them, you notice as...

Well, first of all,

what's the bleed detector look like?

What does it look like for you?

LUIS: Mine looks like,

it almost looks like a light.

SPENSER: Mm. LUIS: It's got a handle to it

and then it's like a fluorescent tube--

SPENSER: Yeah.

LUIS: But it's emanating a really soft,

almost no light.

But what you know is, as you scan with it,

anything with bleed is going to ping.

SPENSER: Yeah.

Yeah, so as you take it over the top of the flies,

they scatter as you do

and it goes absolutely crazy.

The flies then start to resettle

along the wall,

and as you turn the bleed detector

into the room itself,

it obviously pings on where the body is, too.

LUIS: So the flies are glowing?

SPENSER: The flies are reacting

to your bleed detector. LUIS: To the bleed detector.

SPENSER: Totally.

LUIS: Okay. Wow!

TRAVIS: Can I move into the bedroom a bit,

I'll pull out from behind me a very small camera

with replaceable flash bulbs,

and I'll move ever so carefully towards the closet.

SPENSER: Mm-hmm.

TRAVIS: Is the door open or--

SPENSER: The door is still ajar,

as it was described.

One of the door, it's a double door closet,

so one of them is ajar and the other one's still closed.

TRAVIS: Can I move to open the doors fully?

SPENSER: Yeah. TRAVIS: I'd like to step back

and take a picture with a flash.

SPENSER: Yeah.

Both the doors wide open,

we see (shutter snaps)

the flash of light

inside of the closet.

This is not an immediate development.

But we can track from that.

As the light flashes on the closet,

you see clothes that appear as though they've been melted

and fallen off of their hangers.

ZEHRA: Mm.

TRAVIS: Just a thought.

As I step back from taking the picture.

In the photographs in the file,

were there any mirrors visible in the pictures?

SPENSER: In the photographs from Candela?

TRAVIS: Yes. Yeah.

SPENSER: No photos of mirrors.

ZEHRA: Hmm.

BRENNAN: Wait a minute.

You mean the photos Candela took of the crime scene

didn't have any mirrors in them?

The photographs Candela Obscura

took of the crime scene didn't have any mirrors in them.

TRAVIS: Doesn't look like it.

LUIS: We still have the file on us, right?

BRENNAN: So, what?

Antonio Suarez gets murdered

the day before the interior decorator gets here?

SPENSER: Oh, there aren't photos of the bathroom.

It's just photos of the bedroom.

TRAVIS: Right, and there are no mirrors in this room?

SPENSER: There's no mirrors in the bedroom.

BRENNAN: So the mirrors we got from other rooms in the house?

SPENSER: Yes. BRENNAN: Okay, gotcha.

Cool, cool, cool.

MARISHA: I'm going to--

SPENSER: That was upstairs that you got those from.

BRENNAN: Gotcha. LUIS: Oh, we're downstairs.

Because their main bedroom is downstairs.

SPENSER: Their main bedroom is downstairs.

MARISHA: I'm going to shuffle over to Lucas' room.

SPENSER: Uh-huh. Yeah.

MARISHA: Since the boy said he--

LUIS: I'm right behind you.

TRAVIS: The clothes melted

off the hangers. MARISHA: He said he

saw it first.

I imagine it would've been in the file

that it had mentioned monsters in the closet?

SPENSER: Yeah. MARISHA: Type of a thing.

SPENSER: Yeah, totally.

We see you go up the ramp to the second floor

and the bedroom is there.

MARISHA: Okay, she's going to,

got her skirt all hiked up

and she's just taking it one step at a time.

Yeah, any type of indication

of also melted clothes in the closet?

Were there any mirrors

or reflective surfaces in the boy's room?

SPENSER: Go ahead and make a Survey roll for me here.

MARISHA: Okay, great.

Street Smarts!

May spend any drive instead of using my--

I'm going to-- Yeah, why not?

I'm going to spend a drive

and hopefully get it back. SPENSER: Okay.

MARISHA: Spend a Cunning.

Ooh, well, it's a six.

I don't get the drive back, though.

SPENSER: That's a six. MARISHA: That's a six.

SPENSER: So, surveying Lucas' room,

you see that

that room in particular

does not appear as though

it's been disheveled in any way.

ZEHRA: Hmm. MARISHA: Hmm.

SPENSER: It was left completely

as it was in the photographs

and as you would assume it was

in its state before the attack happened.

It seems-- MARISHA: Are there any mirrors

in his room that would dissuade this guy?

SPENSER: There is a dresser with a mirror.

MARISHA: A mirrored dresser.

Okay. I'll report that to the others.

SPENSER: Yeah, the three drawers with the mirror.

You know what I'm talking about?

MARISHA: 100%. BRENNAN: Can you see--

I'm going to shout out to Auntie Bee.

You don't see a teddy bear

in there anywhere, do you?

I saw one in the photo in the dossier.

MARISHA: Any teddy bear?

SPENSER: Oh, so the teddy bear was--

There were actually photographs of it

in the dossier

because it was left in the hallway

outside of the bedroom. ZEHRA: Oh.

LUIS: That's where he dropped it.

SPENSER: That's where he dropped it, correct.

It's no longer there. It's been taken.

MARISHA: Okay. BRENNAN: Okay.

MARISHA: They must have confiscated it.

BRENNAN: Confiscated the poor kid's teddy bear.

What kind of heroes are we?

MARISHA: Poor child. LUIS: Right.

MARISHA: Seeing all of this, too, I mean.

Just imagining.

No five-year-old should see anything like this.

BRENNAN: Yeah. MARISHA: (heavy sigh)

LUIS: It seems like he saw the whole thing.

BRENNAN: So this thing, right,

how many phenomena are we aware of

in the house right now?

These flies on the wall,

they won't touch the dead body.

LUIS: No.

Well, maybe they already touched the dead body,

which is how they got the bleed on them.

Now they want

nothing to do with it. MARISHA: They're like, "Bleh."

Yeah.

BRENNAN: And now,

we know this thing won't appear in a room

with mirrors in it.

LUIS: Doesn't seem like it.

I want to know if it's left.

I want to start to scan

to see if I can follow a trail.

Because if it is on the hunt and

it's trying to satiate its vengeance--

TRAVIS: What did it take?

Does the body look similar

to the ones down in the metro station?

Does the physical appearance remain the same?

Or has the face gone gaunt

and sallow and--

SPENSER: Yeah.

It appears as though it has taken

its life force.

It split it open

and sucked it dry.

Are you looking deeper?

Are you looking more

closely at the body here? TRAVIS: I'm going to fall back

on old habits and start to approach the corpse

and actually peer into the chest cavity and

see what's in there. SPENSER: Sounds great.

Yeah, make a Focus roll. ZEHRA: I would

like to follow behind to assist you

because I would like

to examine the body myself as well.

SPENSER: Great. Okay, so both of you are--

MARISHA: Please don't touch it.

Please. SPENSER: Go ahead and make

a Focus roll for me. TRAVIS: (groans)

MARISHA: (laughs) LUIS: (laughs)

What's it taste like? ZEHRA: I'm going to burn

an Intuition to assist you.

TRAVIS: Awesome.

SPENSER: So both of you are looking?

Go ahead and make the roll. TRAVIS: Yeah.

Five, two fives.

SPENSER: That's two fives, great.

So here's what you see.

Two things looking at the body.

One is that the

area where the body was flayed open,

it appears as though the skin was parted

and the insides were exsanguinated,

that all the liquid was taken out of there.

MARISHA: Oh, jesus.

SPENSER: But you also-- (laughs)

You also see where the heart is,

something glinting white--

TRAVIS: Oh. SPENSER:-- upon it.

Hard to tell with the staining of blood,

but something strange on the heart.

As you see that,

you also see the rest of the body.

The intestines aren't where they should be.

They're shriveled up

and more in the upper right side of the body.

It's almost as if

the spleen is growing fuzz or fur upon it.

TRAVIS: (laughs) That's really fucked up.

BRENNAN: Hey man, this is nasty.

(laughter)

SPENSER: You're welcome. BRENNAN: Man, it's real nasty, okay?

SPENSER: You're welcome. MARISHA: What?!

ZEHRA: Two thoughts spring to my mind.

The first is a memory

of crouching over a young woman

in the Red Lamp district,

Ms. Monroe to my side.

Both of us are looking into the chest cavity

of this young woman who is underneath anesthesia.

There's inside her beautiful,

perfectly formed heart

is what appears to be a human eyeball.

That's the first thought that comes

as I gaze upon this. MARISHA: Oh yeah,

I remember that. ZEHRA: The second that--

MARISHA: That was crazy. ZEHRA:-- comes upon me--

TRAVIS: Oh!

ZEHRA: I'm curious if the anthrophage

from earlier,

do I see any evidence of anthrophage activity

in the way the organs are moved about?

SPENSER: No, no, this doesn't appear to be anthrophage.

The anthrophage would chest burst.

This appears as though there was an incision made.

ZEHRA: Yeah. SPENSER: Cut down and opened.

ZEHRA: The organ movement isn't--

SPENSER: The organ movement is strange, but--

ZEHRA: Does it remind me of anything

I've seen before? SPENSER: No.

The closest thing is that heart

that you found with an eye in it.

The other thing that you find

as you see the body laying there is that

the clothing, the man still has on

a night dress shirt,

or a night shirt, I should say,

and a pair of pants

as if he just laid in bed

after, you know, after coming home.

You see sticking out of the corner of his pocket,

a little tab, a little piece of paper.

The shirt obviously has been torn open

but the pants remain intact.

TRAVIS: Wow. SPENSER: You see the corner

of something there.

With that five, both of you

take bleed marks as well. ZEHRA: Ooh.

MARISHA: Doctor,

have any forceps in that medical kit of yours?

Tweezers? Something of the like?

ZEHRA: Let me check.

I open up my medical gear. SPENSER: Mm-hmm.

ZEHRA: It's a beautiful pale green bag.

From out of it, I pull out

a pristine pair of tweezers.

Will these suffice?

MARISHA: Mind if they get a little gunky?

ZEHRA: Not at all. SPENSER: (laughs) Gross.

MARISHA: I will start with the paper

before I maybe let the surgeon

go for whatever might be in the heart.

SPENSER: Great, I love that.

MARISHA: We'll start with the paper.

SPENSER: Make a Control roll for me.

As you're getting this close to the body,

what does bleed feel like for you?

MARISHA: I've been thinking about this a lot.

Similarly, already foreshadowed this

with what Beatrix's saw in the bathroom,

in the broken glass. SPENSER: Oh, cool.

ZEHRA: Oh, cool. MARISHA: She gets

that taste of salt water in her mouth

like when salt water is in the air,

starts to feel almost a little bit of that,

rushing water sound in her ears.

It's probably just from blood

and being overwhelmed.

But she interprets it as the waves

and almost as if a light breeze

is hitting her face.

It reminds her

of the happiest times in her life,

which is why it is the most painful.

So she gets probably

a little teary-eyed as she tries to--

She probably even says under her breath:

It's not real, Beatrix.

She pulls out.

SPENSER: Great, make that Control roll for me.

I will warn you that a consequence

might be taking bleed here.

MARISHA: Mm.

Okay.

(thoughtful tongue clicking)

I'm going to save it.

I only have one drive left.

Two! LUIS: Oh.

SPENSER: It's a two. MARISHA: Yeah.

SPENSER: So, the forceps reach in,

they grab ahold of the paper.

The difficulty is not getting the paper out.

The difficulty is doing it

without putting yourself in danger.

You feel

your hand

clasp around the tweezers.

As you start to pull,

the paper sliding out of the pocket

takes on a form of tendons

and ligaments.

As you take it out,

slowly starting to pull it,

and you see that it becomes--

It goes from being a piece of parchment

to being a flap of skin

that's being pulled out.

It's slimy and covered in black ichor.

As you pull that out,

you see a hand start to reach out,

and try and grab it back from you,

and pull it. TRAVIS: What?!

BRENNAN: Sorry, a hand

from the body? ZEHRA: From the pocket?

SPENSER: From in the pocket.

None of you see this. MARISHA: Is it,

this is in her head? SPENSER: Only you.

LUIS: It's all in her head. ZEHRA: Ooh.

SPENSER: A hand reaches out, tries to grab it back.

There's a moment where

you think it might pull the flap of skin

with tendons attached to it back into the pocket

and take you with it.

ZEHRA: (gasps)

SPENSER: And then you're clear,

and you're holding a piece of paper

in your hand in front of you.

You're going to take a bleed

and a brain here for that failure.

MARISHA: Okay. SPENSER: But you do get this.

LUIS: Whoa. ZEHRA: Ooh!

MARISHA: They all see Beatrix

for sure, the look on her face of

sheer terror as she lets out a yelp.

LUIS: Fuck.

MARISHA: I think would actually almost drop this

towards Sean's direction.

BRENNAN: Auntie Bee, you all right?

MARISHA: Did you see that?

ZEHRA: I take your arm and steady you.

Are you all right, Ms. Monroe?

MARISHA: It's not--

It's not covered in--

It's fine, right? It's fine.

What's it say?

BRENNAN: So your family used to work

with a railroad company, right?

TRAVIS: Yes, they were in very early

in the railroad business in Newfaire.

SPENSER: Trapp Transit.

MARISHA: It's a train ticket?

LUIS: Oh.

TRAVIS: "Departing Steel Work Station.

"Arriving Groundswell Station."

SPENSER: As you say Groundwell Station,

or sorry, Groundswell Station,

something clicks for you.

There's the newest station

of your family subway

that has just opened here two days ago.

TRAVIS: Groundswell is the newest station in Newfaire.

MARISHA: I know you said you first

encountered this beast in the train station.

TRAVIS: Yes, it was months ago, but...

BRENNAN: All right, Groundswell Station.

That ticket got punched, right?

I mean, we know his ticket did.

SPENSER: (laughs softly)

MARISHA: You know, it seems this,

whatever this beast is,

it prefers darkness and the shadows, and

subway tunnels are real dark.

BRENNAN: Summer 12, 1907.

How many days ago was that?

SPENSER: That was last night.

BRENNAN: Is that when the murder happened?

SPENSER: Mm-hmm. BRENNAN: Okay.

All right.

ZEHRA: Did something follow him home

from the train station?

BRENNAN: Quite possibly. But I think

we ought to go check out Groundswell.

LUIS: Yeah, that's where we need to go.

ZEHRA: I'd like to take a closer look at the heart

before we leave. SPENSER: Sure.

MARISHA: I hand over the forceps.

SPENSER: Great. You have a bleed containment vial

if you'd like to-- LUIS: Right.

MARISHA: Doctor. SPENSER:-- try and do that.

ZEHRA: Great. I pull it out.

It's a pale pink in color.

It's quite pretty.

It has ornate carvings on the sides.

Hate to give this one up. (sighs)

TRAVIS: (laughs) SPENSER: (laughs)

MARISHA: I bedazzled this one.

(laughter)

LUIS: This one's quite fancy. SPENSER: It's really fancy.

BRENNAN: Once we contain bleed,

we get those back, right? ZEHRA: It's my special vial.

MARISHA: Yeah. (laughter)

TRAVIS: I'd love to go to the Fourth Pharos forever.

MARISHA: Yeah. (laughter)

BRENNAN: Is it like a big tank,

you just pour it in,

and you wash and bring it back.

TRAVIS: Just re-wash it.

SPENSER: Yeah, it goes in one of those tubes from the bank

that takes the-- TRAVIS: Sandblaster.

MARISHA: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPENSER: Hopping around, yeah. 100%

ZEHRA: I would like to, as if playing

a skilled game of Operation. LUIS: (laughs)

ZEHRA: From a distance-- MARISHA: That's exactly

what it feels like. SPENSER: Dude, yeah.

MARISHA: Yeah. ZEHRA: Reach in

and see if I can pluck

the glinting object-- SPENSER: Yeah.

ZEHRA:-- out of the heart. MARISHA: Worst game ever,

by the way. TRAVIS: That horseshoe, dude.

That horseshoe is a bitch!

SPENSER: Make a Control roll

for me, yeah. ZEHRA: Control.

MARISHA: (laughs) TRAVIS: Yep.

BRENNAN: That's how I learned surgery.

MARISHA: Yeah. (laughs) TRAVIS: If you play Operation,

you can perform on somebody.

LUIS: Oh wow.

Whoa, nice! SPENSER: That's a six!

BRENNAN: Woo!

ZEHRA: I am an excellent surgeon.

(laughter) SPENSER: So you feel the bleed

emanating towards you in doing this.

What does bleed feel like for you?

ZEHRA: Bleed,

much like the things I sense,

starts as a sharp prick at the side of my head.

It pulses in images that I can barely make out.

It's like a cloudiness in front of my eyes.

But I see,

I see a man holding a book

and rising it to the sky, pulsating images.

And I see a girl

clutching something in her hand.

Bundle of greens? Plants?

The image gets paler

and paler until it's flashing white.

It's a white agony in my head.

SPENSER: You're able to stave that off here.

The white fading into the reality before you,

the white object that you pulled from the heart.

As you turn it over, you see

it's looking at you.

ZEHRA: Hello, there.

I place the object,

turning the ornate lid of my bleed containment.

Drop it in, seal it.

MARISHA: It's looking at her

like an eyeball! SPENSER: An eyeball

rolls around in your bleed containment.

MARISHA: What the fuck.

LUIS: You pulled out of where the heart was.

ZEHRA: Give it a couple shakes for good measure

before putting it back.

SPENSER: It rolls around

and then goes into your pocket.

LUIS: Oof. ZEHRA: (clears throat)

SPENSER: From there,

we cut to the sound of carriage hooves

as the door opens

and you all emerge at the station,

the newest station,

the Groundswell Station. TRAVIS: Groundswell.

SPENSER: There is a grand opening sign

still above the entrance

to a station down below.

If you imagine Paris,

the Paris art nouveau, art deco,

metropolitan thing. TRAVIS: Yeah.

SPENSER: It's like that with a grand opening sign above it.

There are people flooding out of the station.

It is right about the time

people get off work normally.

So there are lots of people exiting here as you

observe the entrance.

TRAVIS: Has night fallen by this point?

SPENSER: Night is just about to fall.

The sun has crossed the threshold.

It's starting to go dark.

TRAVIS: Well, we did our best.

Time to head home. (laughter)

MARISHA: Nathaniel, come on.

LUIS: I have that mirror.

SPENSER: Yeah. LUIS: I brought it with me.

SPENSER: Great. TRAVIS: Oh yes.

ZEHRA: Yes, I have it with me.

SPENSER: We see it underneath your arm, yeah?

LUIS: Yeah, I'm carrying it. MARISHA: We have the lanterns.

SPENSER: And the lanterns.

TRAVIS: This will be a target-rich environment.

I would say we should spread out,

but it feels like there might be safety

more in numbers?

LUIS: I think we should stay together.

TRAVIS: Fair.

LUIS: But I have a hunch, I don't know.

I just want to run it past you all.

It seemed like of all of the targets

that it could have had last night,

it chose someone that seemed to be familiar?

Maybe there's some sort of something

to say about that.

But if anything, you're familiar.

It already targeted you once.

ZEHRA: If it's seeking vengeance,

it wants to finish the job.

LUIS: It already maybe marked you as someone

that disturbed wherever, its lair, I guess.

Where it seems to want to live.

TRAVIS: (gags) God, I hate even having the thought of--

LUIS: Being bait? TRAVIS: Yeah.

LUIS: Me too.

BRENNAN: Don't worry, LT.

We'll get a turkey baster and baste you up.

Put a little garnish on top. LUIS: We're going to make him

real delicious? BRENNAN: Put some parsley

on the edge. LUIS: (laughs)

TRAVIS: See, this is why I keep you around.

SPENSER and ZEHRA: (laugh)

TRAVIS: You just know how to brighten everyone's day.

BRENNAN: Hey, you know. What's the worst

that could happen? LUIS: Are you just hungry?

Is that what's up?

TRAVIS: From the fellow back at the house.

I mean, I could just be--

BRENNAN: But at least the flies won't eat you.

ZEHRA: Well, given your current state,

I was able to heal you up a little bit.

But you still do have significant injuries.

I am worried about putting him out

as a bait of sorts.

Is there another way?

LUIS: I don't know.

I think we got to be strategic about it.

TRAVIS: I have three bleed, so.

LUIS: I'm going to be right there with you.

I'll try to be as out of

sight as possible. TRAVIS: Yep, yep, yep.

BRENNAN: I'm not saying we should use him as bait.

I'm saying if we go in this train station,

he's already bait. LUIS: Right.

He is the bait. TRAVIS: Yeah, fair. Fair.

ZEHRA: I guess that's unavoidable.

TRAVIS: I am not afraid.

I have led people into battle before.

MARISHA: Yes, you have. TRAVIS: Nothing different

about this moment right here.

Plus, my family owns this station.

We're on favored terrain, friends.

ZEHRA: That's true. Home court advantage.

BRENNAN: You know, you should explain that to the monster.

TRAVIS: Yeah. BRENNAN: You say, you know,

you're trespassing right now?

SPENSER: (laughs) LUIS: Yeah, right?

BRENNAN: Maybe it doesn't know.

LUIS: Did it pay its fare? I mean, it owes you money.

BRENNAN: Oh, skipped the turnstile.

We got to get the police in here.

LUIS: Sure do. MARISHA: Are you saying

you think the monster hates nepotism?

TRAVIS: (sighs)

I head down the stairs. SPENSER: (laughs)

LUIS: Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

I need a moment before we get too carried away.

I'll go up to Auntie Bee.

I'm sorry, I saw what happened to you.

I saw what happened to you earlier

and I saw that it started to happen again.

But I can't--

I can't stop it every time and I'm sorry.

MARISHA: You've always been a sweet, kindhearted boy.

You know that?

I have a fair warning for you.

Groundswell. You've seen this architecture.

It touches the fringes of Oldfaire.

It's highly likely the Trapps

dug a little too deep.

LUIS: Huh.

MARISHA: Watch yourself with whatever you've got going on.

LUIS: Okay.

I'm going to take a couple more moments.

I quiet down, my breath slows.

My eyes close, and again, I start getting flashes

of some premonitions that I've had and they start

to go in reverse slowly.

I'm taking another bleed.

I'm going to get back my--

I'm using, again, my Ritual.

SPENSER: Great.

LUIS: I need to have enough resistance to try to keep

you alive if you're the bait.

So I'm getting my resistance back

and I'm taking a bleed. TRAVIS: Would we know

if the metro closes at a certain time?

SPENSER: Yeah, so the metro will run until about midnight.

TRAVIS: Hours before that, though.

It's still early night.

SPENSER: Still active, yeah. TRAVIS: Okay.

SPENSER: It's probably about 7:00 to 8:00pm right now.

So you have some time.

TRAVIS: Plenty of time

to set our trap(p).

Ah?

BRENNAN: Ah! TRAVIS: Ah?

SPENSER: (laughs) MARISHA: Eh. (laughs weakly)

BRENNAN: You know. All right,

someone's having fun. MARISHA: I was late.

BRENNAN: We're having fun again.

TRAVIS: Needle & Thread, best circle ever.

SPENSER and MARISHA: (laugh)

SPENSER: With that, we cut into the subway station below.

The last passengers are

getting onto a train

or getting onto a subway across the way.

That subway takes off

into the darkness of the tunnel.

You hear the sound of another approaching car.

As you all enter, you feel the rush of wind

across your face

as the impending train pushes the air

into the station as it does.

What would you all like to do?

BRENNAN: I'm going to be slow going down the steps

and hang back to walk with Marion

as he finishes his Ritual.

Be like:

Hey, pal, quick on the draw

on this last couple assignments, huh?

Good looking out.

LUIS: Thank you, Sean.

Guess I had a little practice.

BRENNAN: Got a question for you.

LUIS: Okay.

BRENNAN: We never really--

We never really talk about

what you can do.

You ever seen anything

that you didn't want to stop?

LUIS: I think I can get a sense

that something is starting.

Then I think it's a bit of a--

Sometimes I feel like I can choose.

Sometimes I don't. Sometimes it just happens.

BRENNAN: Well, just, you know, I remember that--

I remember that time back in Echo Company

when we had to fall back.

Point of egress was compromised.

Making our way through all those trenches

and you were just calling out to me,

"Left, right, stop."

You know, you just knew, and then

a mortar would go off.

LUIS: I didn't know that I could do that

until then, Sean.

I didn't know what was going on.

That was my first time.

But I just felt like I needed to--

I don't know, I just saw stuff happening in my head

to you and I saw a bullet

go clean right through you.

I had a millisecond to

recognize that it wasn't real,

that it wasn't happening, but it was about to happen.

And I don't know. I mean, it freaked me out.

Now I know a little bit more about it

and I hope that our time together in Candela,

I hope that it helps me understand that a little more.

BRENNAN: I just think you should always be

really careful

about who you tell

that you can do that.

LUIS: I just think only the people here know.

No one outside of Candela.

BRENNAN: That's how it should stay.

LUIS: Are you okay?

BRENNAN: If I wasn't, you'd be able to tell, right?

LUIS: Sometimes.

If you weren't, would you tell me?

BRENNAN: Fuck out of here, come on. Let's go.

LUIS: I let him walk ahead and I watch him.

SPENSER: There's a moment.

We sit on you.

Alone.

And then you walk by us.

You find yourselves in a

fairly empty subway station.

A couple people sit around the fringes,

waiting for the next train to come through.

You hear it approach.

As it pulls into the station,

you see something flip up

along the windows.

Something that was wasn't on the trains before.

Passengers load in.

As you're standing there looking at the subway,

as you hear the last call

and the doors close,

the windows shutter

with mirrored panes,

and the subway disappears into the tunnels beyond.

You're left with the remnants of that look at yourselves,

all standing together in the station.

MARISHA: What?

TRAVIS: That's not--

That's not an addition standard for the metro cars.

It's new.

That means that someone working on these tunnels

has outfitted the trains to

provide a defensive mechanism against

whatever is in there.

That means they know. MARISHA: Your family knew?

SPENSER: You hear the screeching

of subway trains.

TRAVIS: In that moment, can I look along

the track, the deck--

SPENSER: Mm-hmm. TRAVIS:-- and just

take a deep breath and scan faces.

Is anyone watching us? I'm looking for eyes.

SPENSER: Make a roll.

TRAVIS: (exhales) MARISHA: (sighs)

TRAVIS: Okay.

(calculating hums)

Can I use--

Can I use Lie Detector to roll,

to attempt to figure out a person

telling the truth? SPENSER: Oh, sure.

Yeah, if anybody's trying to keep themselves from--

TRAVIS: To hide their-- SPENSER: Yeah, I love that.

LUIS: Oh!

SPENSER: That's a great use of that.

TRAVIS: Okay, and what am I rolling?

SPENSER: Survey or Read. TRAVIS: Survey.

SPENSER: Read, actually, would probably be more apt

because you're looking to see

if people are staring at you.

TRAVIS: Great, I'm going to burn a drive.

TRAVIS: Aw. Oh!

A six, but it's not a gilded die.

SPENSER: But we'll take the six.

TRAVIS: Yeah, we'll take the six.

SPENSER: You look around.

Those who are left here in the station

appear to be minding their own business.

You are alone.

MARISHA: When is the last train running?

SPENSER: Midnight.

MARISHA: Do we know how much time we have?

SPENSER: It's about four hours.

TRAVIS: You mean in between trains?

SPENSER: How long you have in between trains?

Is that what you're asking? MARISHA: Yeah.

SPENSER: Yeah, it's about five minutes in between

the train that came before and the train that came now.

I would say, you would estimate

it's anywhere between five to 25 minutes,

depending on where the train is coming from.

TRAVIS: The reason I had been going down into the stations

for the Civil Tribune was because we had heard

that the tunnels were interfering with the remnants

of Oldfaire underneath the city,

disturbing things, and people were being

affected or going missing or taking off of work

and not reporting back in.

The tunnels are where we should go.

LUIS: But we can't do it out here with anybody watching

because we know

what other organizations will do to those that witnessed.

BRENNAN: If you say it's the tunnels, LT,

let's go to the tunnels.

ZEHRA: We certainly have enough light.

MARISHA: Does there appear to be any type of a--

A lot of times these subway tunnels

are equipped with fire escapes

or other type of mining tunnels

that we can maybe quickly run

and tuck into a side tunnel?

SPENSER: Make a Survey roll for me.

LUIS: Repair tunnels or something?

MARISHA: Yeah.

TRAVIS: I'll assist you by burning a drive.

MARISHA: Okay.

LUIS: Can I make a bid for a roll,

a different type of roll?

SPENSER: Sure.

LUIS: I'll turn to you while they're surveying,

because I know you sense things too.

ZEHRA: If you could call it that, yes.

MARISHA: Three.

LUIS: Three, okay. MARISHA: Two ones and a three

on the gilded,

so I get it back. SPENSER: Take the drive.

LUIS: I want to see if I can sense the creature.

ZEHRA: Mm. SPENSER: Yeah.

I love that.

What direction?

LUIS: If there is a tunnel that we found,

a maintenance tunnel or something? Did we find--

SPENSER: So there's no maintenance tunnel.

You look around, you don't find any maintenance tunnel

but you do know within--

You know within there's probably areas

for workers to be

in case things break down. TRAVIS: Enclaves and--

SPENSER: It's not immediately apparent.

It's not like there's a clean tunnel to go down

where no subways will be there.

But you know that there are outlets

for you to be able to move through.

But nothing safe because of that three.

What I will say is that with that Sense roll,

if you were going to roll Sense to do that--

LUIS: Yeah, I'm going to roll Sense.

SPENSER:-- the two of you, that you would be able to tell

which direction from the station you should head here

and maybe how close it is depending on how well

the roll goes.

ZEHRA: So would we both roll?

SPENSER: So if you want to help, one of you will roll.

One of you can spend Intuition to do that.

LUIS: I want to see what happens if we both--

I'm going to take that way.

I imagine us going back to back.

ZEHRA: I'll take the other way.

LUIS: Yeah. SPENSER: Great.

MARISHA: You guys are on the train tracks?

SPENSER: So only one person would roll,

the other person could spend Intuition to help them.

ZEHRA: To assist. All right. LUIS: Oh, copy that. Okay.

ZEHRA: I'll assist. LUIS: Okay.

SPENSER: So you'll take another die.

LUIS: Got it.

I mean, do I need to go onto the train tracks to do it?

SPENSER: No, you can do it from here.

LUIS: The idea of stepping onto train tracks, just like--

(laughs) MARISHA: Terrifying.

LUIS: Yes. SPENSER: Yeah.

TRAVIS: Warm it up. SPENSER: So for right now,

you're okay from here. Here's what I will say.

LUIS: Yeah.

SPENSER: If you want to step out on the train tracks,

it will be more effective of a roll.

I will give you better information

if you decide to do that. LUIS: Five minutes?

MARISHA: You have five minutes.

ZEHRA: Are they electrified, the rails?

BRENNAN: I'm going to jump into the train tracks.

SPENSER: Great. ZEHRA: Oh!

BRENNAN: Come on.

You think me and Tony and Jimmy

weren't down here all the time?

LUIS: Yeah, well, it always takes one of you

to do it first for me to do it, okay?

BRENNAN: I know! LUIS: Okay!

BRENNAN: You're still playing tag-along

all these years later. Come on.

LUIS: (grunts) I jump in and I start to turn red.

SPENSER: Great, I love that. Make that roll.

LUIS: A two, a three, a four, and a four.

I'll take the gilded four. SPENSER: Great.

A four, a gilded four is great.

LUIS: Did you give, actually,

give me that? ZEHRA: I did.

Wait, did I? LUIS: I don't know.

SPENSER: You're trying to sense where this is from.

Describe for me what it's like as you reach out,

as you both reach out to forces beyond yourself.

LUIS: Oh my gosh.

I'm still newish at this, but--

ZEHRA: I've placed my hand gently on Marion's forearm.

The way I am assisting this is--

Through that act of touch, I feel

a pulsating in my temple that's star shaped.

It's like the star on his chest almost,

and that's the image of white, that pulses.

[rumbling]

ZEHRA: And then I see what it is I see.

[rumbling]

LUIS: I close my eyes and I start to reach out into

what I describe as

seeing past the things that are

for your eyes, I guess.

And sort of feel

with a different set of eyes.

As soon as I feel her hand on my forearm,

I immediately grab it

and hold it as tight as I can

and sort of lean forward.

[rumbling]

SPENSER: What you see

is

a dark trail.

Black ichor.

Almost as though it's snaking its way through the tunnels.

It passes by you,

and out up the stairs,

but you see where its trail came from.

To the left, down the far tunnel.

The one where the train is coming towards you, not away.

LUIS: And this feels like a trail

that it's just left.

SPENSER: This feels as though it's a trail

of where it came from. LUIS: Got it.

SPENSER: Where it's come from before.

You're seeing the tracks of where--

The tracks that it left behind.

You can also feel

an undulating in your sternum,

right where your scar is, you feel an undulating

and as you turn towards that entrance,

you feel it get stronger.

You can tell that this, whatever this is, it's not far

from here. LUIS: And I know the way.

At least I feel like I know the way.

As I turn to face that direction

and I open my eyes and I drop your hand.

It's that way.

ZEHRA: I remove my hand, blushing ever so slightly.

Yes, that way.

TRAVIS: I hop down into the tracks as well.

MARISHA: Oh, before you go-- TRAVIS: Oh.

MARISHA: I grab Nathaniel real quick.

There's still people in this train station, right?

SPENSER: Just a few.

MARISHA: All right. You got some identification on you?

TRAVIS: I do.

MARISHA: Says your last damn name?

TRAVIS: Yes, my press credentials and--

MARISHA: Oh, come here.

We go to the handful of people that are still there.

Sorry, gentlemen, ma'am, everybody here.

Trapp Management. We got to close this place down.

TRAVIS: Yes, we apologize for the--

MARISHA: Inconvenience. Sorry. TRAVIS: Inconvenience,

terrible maintenance this late

in the day. MARISHA: Maintenance issue.

Don't want anyone getting hurt, you understand?

So get the fuck out.

SPENSER: (laughs)

TRAVIS: Your rides will be compensated at the front desk.

MARISHA: Yes.

TRAVIS: (whispers) Thought you were doing it.

BRENNAN: Front desk, do you even ride the metro?

(laughter)

BRENNAN: In all the place, you were riding it?

SPENSER: We see a couple of people confused--

BRENNAN: A front desk,

the concierge.

Where do you live?

TRAVIS and MARISHA: (laugh)

SPENSER: They fuck off and leave.

TRAVIS: (laughs)

SPENSER: That's great.

We get a shot from within the tunnel

as we see the five of you moving into the darkness here.

Lanterns lighting up your faces.

As you're traversing in,

I'm going to have somebody make a Move

or Control roll to help move or navigate you all

in the right direction. BRENNAN: I will

make a Move roll.

MARISHA: Come on! SPENSER: Great.

So anybody that wants to help can. You don't have to.

I will say this is a roll for all of you.

It's a group action. TRAVIS: I can't.

SPENSER: So all of you are doing

this together but this will determine the macro

of what this is. BRENNAN: I'll do Control.

SPENSER: You'll do Control, okay.

MARISHA: I'll say:

We Saw This Coming.

You know, Bee gave a little bit of a heads up.

She knows her way around the tunnels

of the under city and brought those lanterns.

So I'm going to give you an extra die.

SPENSER: Amazing. That sounds good.

BRENNAN: Do we want to use one of, how critical is this roll?

Do we want to use one-- SPENSER: Yeah.

BRENNAN:-- for gilded die? SPENSER: So what I will say is

that this will determine how difficult the path

towards whatever you felt is.

LUIS: I mean, we got three of them.

BRENNAN: We use one, or we could save them up for later.

But-- TRAVIS: Let's use one.

ZEHRA: Let's use one, yeah. LUIS: Use one,

save two for when-- MARISHA: I think it's good.

LUIS:-- it tries to kill us.

MARISHA: I feel this is the pinnacle moment.

BRENNAN: I will take the four on a gilded--

SPENSER: Great. BRENNAN:-- to

get a drive back. LUIS: Nice.

BRENNAN: Of course.

SPENSER: Love that.

On a four.

BRENNAN: Oh no, that's gone.

SPENSER: Yeah, you can just, I'll take it.

BRENNAN: You're gone forever.

SPENSER: Yeah. Perfect. LUIS: Bye.

TRAVIS: You rolled a six.

(laughter)

SPENSER: You saved it.

MARISHA: (laughs) LUIS: Damn you.

SPENSER: As you all make your way through the tunnel,

you feel in your individual ways,

the forces of bleed pressing onto you.

You feel the wind blowing in your hair.

The trains are moving quickly down here.

You find a maintenance

sort of offshoot in one of the tunnels.

With that mixed success, you wait

for the subway to come by.

As it does, you hear the surge of electricity pass.

And you hear the screams

of a creature.

(creepily squawks)

You know the path is forward,

but that direction is also

where you heard this cry come from.

What would you all like to do?

TRAVIS: My first inclination is to hide or sneak,

but we have light.

MARISHA: And we have mirrors.

TRAVIS: I'll actually take out a Zippo lighter and

(ignition scratches).

SPENSER: It surges unnaturally here.

TRAVIS: I filled it up a lot before we--

SPENSER: (laughs)

BRENNAN: I'll unholster the shotgun.

SPENSER: Yeah.

LUIS: I am going to stay close

about two feet behind Nathaniel

and I have the mirror in my hand.

ZEHRA: This preacher,

how did we know it was a preacher's particular scream?

SPENSER: It sounded otherworldly.

It didn't sound as though it was human.

BRENNAN: I'm going to look around everyone

with the mirrors and light, ready my shotgun.

♪ Take me out to ♪ the ball game ♪

I'm going to shoulder it

and start singing as I walk down the tunnel

looking for the creature. SPENSER: I love that.

We get a super wide shot here

of you leading out front your--

ZEHRA: He's a preacher? SPENSER: Creature.

ZEHRA: Sorry. I was like, a holy man is screaming.

How do we know this? SPENSER: A creature.

MARISHA: Oh, that makes sense. LUIS: A preacher.

BRENNAN: A preacher. SPENSER: That makes

so much sense now. BRENNAN: I love it.

You're like, "Why a preacher?"

And Spenser goes, "Other worldly."

And you're like, "Got it." SPENSER: Got it.

LUIS: And then I was like, ah.

I'm like, ah... yeah.

ZEHRA: Hallelujah. SPENSER: Hallelujah

We get a super wide shot here

of you leading out front with the shotgun being illuminated

by the lanterns, as you hold a mirror,

you all hold fire moving forward through this tunnel.

MARISHA: After the train passes,

Aunt Bee is going to start a--

It's going to be rough and dirty.

It's not going to be exact, but a little bit

of a second count in her brain

as she tries to count the minutes between the trains.

SPENSER: I love that.

[clock ticking]

MARISHA: Oh, Jesus Christ.

BRENNAN: Now that's prepared.

(laughter)

BRENNAN: That's prepared.

SPENSER: We hear the seconds ticking down.

Another train.

Five minutes? 10 minutes?

You have the chance to move out of safety here,

out of this maintenance outlet

and continue on.

As you do, as you push forward,

you hear rustling in the darkness in front of you.

As you push on further, that rustling seems to get closer

until you are seeing the glint

of metal before you.

At first it feels as though it might be a train,

but it's not.

Where it looks like there once was

another maintenance outlet

or maybe another direction

for the subways to branch off to,

there is what stands maybe 25 feet at its tallest,

a massive metal steel plate

that's plugged a hole

in the caves here.

At the very top,

the metal has been flayed open,

burst through.

As you get closer,

you see the reflection of four eyes collected

in the same space staring at you from that hole above.

You also feel the wind on your faces, on your neck

and you hear the distant sound of a train coming.

What would you all like to do?

LUIS: Get out of the way of the train.

ZEHRA: Priority one.

BRENNAN: Are we on the tracks right now?

SPENSER: On the tracks right now,

what used to be a maintenance outlet

or maybe another hole has been blocked off by this metal.

BRENNAN: We see eyes up in the--

SPENSER: You see eyes up where the only entrance in.

TRAVIS: I'm going to take out a small

glass flask of whiskey,

that I keep on me, unscrew it, take a swig

and take a handkerchief and I'm going to shove it

in the mouth of that bottle, turn it upside down

and (clicks) (whooshes).

And prepare a fiery bottle. SPENSER: As that happens,

the light grows unnaturally

in your hand and then recedes again.

You get a look at this creature

for the briefest moment.

It has four eyes that are positioned

on the top and bottom with a mouth in the center.

It sort of recedes as it sees you.

Its clawed hands digging into the metal, twisting it

now that it's already bent.

ZEHRA: I see the eyes of this creature.

SPENSER: Two and two.

ZEHRA: Do they look anything like the eyeball I plucked

out of the heart?

SPENSER: No, no. These appear to be dark.

You're only seeing the reflection of light in them.

They're sort of-- ZEHRA: All pupils.

SPENSER: Yeah, all pupils.

BRENNAN: This is the creature.

LUIS: Yep.

SPENSER: This is a creature. It looks--

BRENNAN: Not like what was described in the kid's book.

SPENSER: No, it has a beak sort of face,

a beak mouth out the center and then two eyes on the top,

two eyes on the bottom.

Not the description you all saw.

TRAVIS: Still a beak. ZEHRA: It's a Furby.

TRAVIS: Still a problem.

LUIS: When you first saw this thing,

I mean, a train is coming, so we better move.

BRENNAN: Yeah.

Bee, how much time we got on this train?

MARISHA: I've been counting. We're at about--

BRENNAN: How many? SPENSER: Couple minutes.

LUIS: Couple minutes? MARISHA: Three minutes maybe.

Maybe four. TRAVIS: It doesn't remind me

of the thing I saw in my pre, yes.

SPENSER: No. It reminds you of it in concept.

TRAVIS: Yes. Yeah. SPENSER: But it is not

the thing that you faced, no. TRAVIS: Right.

ZEHRA: Is there a thin platform

such that if we were to flush ourselves against the wall

there would be any hope

of the train passing without crushing us?

Or is there no platform?

SPENSER: No.

ZEHRA: There's only this tunnel.

BRENNAN: Yeah. SPENSER: It's right up

against the railway. ZEHRA: Okay.

SPENSER: You would assume that the train

almost scrapes it. LUIS: Smash.

BRENNAN: I'm going to look at this thing

and you know, as Brennan,

I see a creature hiding in a hole and I go,

"Aw, little guy."

Sean lives in a world of only eldritch horror.

So he goes, oh got it, blam!

(laughter)

BRENNAN: Just going to shoot in attempt to kill this.

SPENSER: Great. I love that.

Make a Control roll for me

as you shoot at this thing.

ZEHRA: Handy to have a gun around.

BRENNAN: We'll burn a drive.

Use Sharpshooter. SPENSER: Yep, love it.

BRENNAN: That's double sixes!

SPENSER: Double sixes, a critical success.

TRAVIS: There we go.

There we go. BRENNAN: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPENSER: Describe for me what this thing looks like

as you take it down, it's going to fall towards you,

so you get the chance to look at it.

It's going to die.

BRENNAN: Sean looks around,

looks at you light the Molotov, says:

How many minutes do we have?

And goes bam!

And before the creature falls, Sean,

before the creature falls and hits the ground,

I'm already unholstering rope

because that problem is solved

and I don't need to look at it

and I'm going to throw a rope up into the hole

to get us into the tunnel.

SPENSER: I love that. TRAVIS: Yeah.

SPENSER: We see the explosion of light in the tunnel

and it recedes just as quickly and a body flops

to the ground.

It's splayed out.

It has six limbs that are all moved out

in unnatural directions.

It's pulsing with chromatic light and then

immediately goes dark upon hitting the ground.

TRAVIS: As quick as I can from the hip,

I'll take a shot with the camera.

SPENSER and TRAVIS: (click)

BRENNAN: Hey Doc,

you think I'm bad for the scientific community?

I'm going to throw the grappling hook up into the--

SPENSER: With full success, the rope stays

on one of the curls of metal.

It's not difficult to get it to hold.

BRENNAN: Cool. I'm going to help whoever needs help

to get out. SPENSER: Great.

ZEHRA: You could help me first,

this dress is very full.

BRENNAN: Doc. I promise I'll help preserve your modesty.

Nobody look!

I help get the doctor up the rope

into the tunnel. SPENSER: Yeah,

you start making your way up the rope.

I'm going to have you make a roll for me here.

I would give you either Move

or Control to make this whatever you'd prefer.

ZEHRA: I am going to Move.

SPENSER: Great.

BRENNAN: If it's possible for me to,

I don't have to-- ZEHRA: You don't have to spend

anything to help--

BRENNAN: I can help. SPENSER:-- but you can say,

narratively, you're going to help here.

ZEHRA: As I'm making my way up the rope.

SPENSER: Exactly. So it would be--

LUIS: Oh. ZEHRA: One.

SPENSER: So.

LUIS: (laughs)

SPENSER: You will make your way.

BRENNAN: Okay, does helping do anything for her?

SPENSER: It does, narratively,

it affects the expectations

of the roll.

So by you helping, what I'm going to say here is

that you are going to make it up the rope.

ZEHRA: Okay. SPENSER: You make it up

to the top.

And you peer through.

TRAVIS: Oh shit.

SPENSER: As you do,

you hear the sound of the train getting closer.

You all see the light.

Now, it's far, but not that far.

It's coming very quickly

and you're going to have to get up.

But you are distracted by what you see beyond here

because as the light starts to reflect

off of the sheet of metal,

off of the steel plate that you are braced against,

you see the outline of something large

and structural like a building that is hanging

almost upside down.

Like it's fallen.

It has been trapped against the wall of the caves here.

As you peer in closer, you see this is a lighthouse.

LUIS: Oh no.

SPENSER: A lighthouse that has fallen

through during an excavation.

ZEHRA: Oh no.

BRENNAN: A lighthouse of Candela?

SPENSER: Of Candela Obscura.

It looks old, it looks ancient.

LUIS: An old light-- Oh no.

ZEHRA: I tell the others what I see.

SPENSER: All of you hear that as a train.

You're hearing it over the train blaring

its horn as it's approaching.

ZEHRA: I rustle, I hurry up.

Oh, skirts sort of get caught over the jagged metal edge,

but I fling myself over and land on the ground

with a bit of a thud. SPENSER: What I will say is,

it's a 25-foot drop down.

ZEHRA Oh! SPENSER: So it is 25 feet up.

It is 25 feet down off of the metal steel plate.

ZEHRA: I don't drop. SPENSER: I'm just clarifying

the expectations here.

BRENNAN: I'm going to get the back half of the rope,

and I'm going to toss the other end

up to you and say: Just hold on,

brace your feet against the back of the wall.

And just feed her down the--

SPENSER: Great. We see you

slowly repel down as you land safely on the earth below you,

you feel your feet sink in about three inches or so.

As you pull them up, you feel it's like mucus on your feet.

MARISHA: Auntie Bee is almost in a daze staring

down the tunnel and she's just still,

she starts 30, 29. TRAVIS: You're up next.

Come on, you're up. MARISHA: 28.

TRAVIS: Go, go, go.

SPENSER: Great, make a Control or a Move roll for me here.

MARISHA: Please, boy. Yes. My hernia.

Four, it's not bad.

SPENSER: Yeah? MARISHA: Today.

SPENSER: That's a mixed success.

You start the next wave of getting them up and over.

But the train is getting closer.

I'm starting, officially starting a countdown die.

Which means when this ends, the train will hit.

LUIS: Okay.

SPENSER: Any misses will tick it down by two.

Any mixed success will tick it down by one.

It is currently at three.

LUIS: Oh no!

BRENNAN: Okay.

TRAVIS: (laughs)

BRENNAN: I am going to, who has good Move

between us? LUIS: Me.

BRENNAN: You have good Move? LUIS: I do.

BRENNAN: I'm going to say: Marion, get over there quick.

Get ready to pull on the other side.

LUIS: Okay.

BRENNAN: Yeah, I'll help as well.

LUIS: Okay. So are you helping with the thing?

Do I get another die to help?

SPENSER: Not mechanically,

not die wise. LUIS: Okay. Okay.

SPENSER: But you are helping to do this.

So you're going to get over and then that

could effectively make this countdown

not go as quickly, so. LUIS: Okay.

ZEHRA: Is it worth using a gilded?

BRENNAN: We have two more people to get through this.

LUIS: No, no, no, I'm good. I'm good.

ZEHRA: Okay. LUIS: I'm good.

I'm going to burn one of my own drives.

BRENNAN: Okay. LUIS: So now I have

one drive left.

I have two in Move and it's gilded so I should be okay.

SPENSER: Okay. LUIS: I hope!

Four. SPENSER: That's a four.

That's a mixed success, it's going to tick down one to two.

LUIS: Okay. But I get over.

BRENNAN: With you pulling on the other side.

I'm going, yeah, I'll say: LT.

TRAVIS: No, you've got to go first.

It has to be you to go first.

BRENNAN: I don't like to spend time arguing

with a train on the way.

(laughter)

BRENNAN: I'm going to go through.

LUIS: Come on!

BRENNAN: I can follow orders.

TRAVIS: You got the shotgun, use it!

Remember me!

BRENNAN: Remember me! (laughs)

I've got pre lit Molotovs staring in their faces.

TRAVIS: Oh! (laughs)

BRENNAN: Okay, I'm going to jump through.

I got Move. I got two dice here.

Ba-ba-ba. We got another gilded.

We do have these more. TRAVIS: Two more, yeah.

There's two of us. BRENNAN: All right.

There's two of us.

You take a gilded. TRAVIS: Yep.

BRENNAN: Good. All right.

Oh, I'm going to burn a resistance

to reroll two. ZEHRA: Yes.

LUIS: Okay. Okay.

BRENNAN: I'm going to burn a resistance to reroll two.

SPENSER: Hear the train coming.

LUIS: Oh my god.

MARISHA: Oh! SPENSER: What is it?

MARISHA: Oh! LUIS: Miss?

BRENNAN: I make it through. It's a three.

SPENSER: It's a three. So that ticks down to nothing.

The two of you are left as the train is approaching you.

What do you want to do in this moment?

TRAVIS: The train is approaching.

SPENSER: The train is like moments away.

BRENNAN: I'm going to,

so I've used two of my items, correct?

SPENSER: You can use one more.

BRENNAN: I can use one more?

I'm going to say: LT, I didn't want to do this.

I'm going to take a grenade,

throw it on the side, and push you up.

The last couple seconds before the train hits,

I'm going to blow up the steel container.

And say: Everybody inside, step back!

LUIS: What?!

TRAVIS: (shouts) You found a grenade?!

BRENNAN: I've been holding on to it.

LUIS: Oh my god.

BRENNAN: But explosives are one of the things--

SPENSER: Explosives. You have those, yep.

Go ahead and make that roll.

It's going to be a Control roll or a Strike roll,

one of the two.

TRAVIS: As he throws it, I'm going to use In The Trenches.

I've done enough dangerous journalism work

to know to keep ourselves safe.

I also know the metro tunnels,

and in between where the wall and the ground hits,

there is a

very narrow margin-- ZEHRA: I knew it!

TRAVIS:-- where if you hug it,

it is just enough an angle between the wheels

and the bottom of the train where there is a maybe space.

SPENSER: Right, you will not die. That is the idea.

TRAVIS: It might potato peel us a little bit.

I don't know. MARISHA: Ugh!

BRENNAN: Okay, that is a five.

SPENSER: That's a five. That's a mixed success.

So describe for me what this scene is like

as the grenade blows out part of the steel here.

LUIS: Oh my god.

BRENNAN: I get us all the way back because we need distance

from the grenade for this to work,

which means that we are going to have to run

right in front of the train-- LUIS: Oh, what!

BRENNAN:-- right before it's about.

So I'm going to and I'm like: Don't worry,

I did this with my brothers all the time down here.

All right. Three, two, one.

(laughter) BRENNAN: Boom!

I'm going to grab the back of your shirt

and leap right in front of the train

to get through the hole in the wall.

SPENSER: Amazing. MARISHA: You just hear

Auntie Bee on the other side just scream: Sean!

TRAVIS: (laughs)

SPENSER: There's an explosion.

Shrapnel of steel flies towards all three of you

on the other side.

Everybody's taking a body because of that.

The two of you barely make it through in time.

You're both going to take brain for this

because the stress of seeing literally a train

about to strike you. LUIS: Oh man.

SPENSER: As you just

if it was a tenth of a second longer,

you would not have made it through,

but your heel clears the wall

just as the train comes by and you're on the other side.

TRAVIS: I feel like we need to catalog

everything that's on your person.

Also, thank you.

BRENNAN: That was pretty fun. SPENSER: (laughs)

BRENNAN: That was pretty fun.

TRAVIS: You and your brothers lived a very different life

than the one that I had.

LUIS: It's not fun, Sean! TRAVIS: Holy shit.

LUIS: It's not fun!

BRENNAN: It's a little fun.

MARISHA: It is at this point,

because Auntie Bee is not laughing.

She's not having fun.

And Auntie Bee grabs Sean by the arm

and pushes him up against the tunnel

with a little bit of like, oh fuck, Auntie Bee still got,

we didn't expect this from an old lady.

SPENSER: Sure. TRAVIS: Old lady strength.

MARISHA: Old lady strength out of nowhere.

I'll look at you down in the eye and I say:

I made your mother a promise that I would keep you safe.

Don't, don't do that again.

Please.

Give me a goddamn heart attack, all right.

Let's go.

BRENNAN: (quietly) You got it, Auntie Bee.

SPENSER: You push forward seeing the hanging lighthouse

as though it fell through some excavation

that was being done here to create another tunnel,

caught itself on the corner of the wall.

What you all know about lighthouses,

just as a reminder,

is that Candela Obscura builds them around thinnings.

Where creatures like what you've seen

have been able to pierce through the Flare

where the Flare is thin enough and escape into our world.

When one of these thinnings needs to be maintained.

they will build a lighthouse

and put within it an astrolabe.

This kind of astrolabe

that magickally seals shut that thinning.

When that astrolabe is turning, when it's powered,

there's light that's emitted

from the top of the lighthouse that spins,

just like the device,

warning people away.

That is the lore within the Fairelands

and anywhere that Candela Obscura is.

People stay away from lighthouses.

All of you know what it truly means.

This lighthouse sits dim.

Unmoving.

It's a good a hundred yards in front of you.

Probably a good 30 feet above you,

sitting as though it were almost upside down.

And having fallen through the ground above.

LUIS: Has it been toppled over?

SPENSER: Yeah, like they were drilling underneath it,

the ground gave way,

it fell and got trapped in the tunnels.

ZEHRA: Trapp ed.

SPENSER: What would you all like to do?

TRAVIS: I'll first of all take the fucking handkerchief

out of the bottle of booze.

Stamp it on the ground. SPENSER: Yeah.

BRENNAN: Wow.

TRAVIS: Yeah, it's good shit.

BRENNAN: You got to get worse shit

if you're going to make molotovs out of the thing.

TRAVIS: I didn't think.

LUIS: Ooh, ooh, pass that over here, too.

TRAVIS: Just what was available.

ZEHRA: Wiping the blood. BRENNAN: Also, just because

we're showcasing the game, I have Adrenaline Rush,

which means for each mark I take,

I immediately refresh a drive point of my choice.

So that brain mark, so literally taking marks.

That train thing, I am invigorated.

I'm doing better.

ZEHRA: Was that the first mark you took?

BRENNAN: First mark I've taken.

ZEHRA: Holy crap. LUIS: Wow, what the hell?

SPENSER: What did you refresh?

What drive did you-- BRENNAN: Always Nerve.

SPENSER: Nerve. BRENNAN: Nerve.

SPENSER: And Nerve every time, baby.

BRENNAN: You don't even have to check, baby.

It's Nerve every time.

TRAVIS: I'm going to use my In The Trenches

to once per assignment,

you may burn one Cunning resistance

to soak a body mark.

SPENSER: Oh yeah.

LUIS: That's once per assignment?

SPENSER: Oh, so a soak would happen

as you take the body mark.

TRAVIS: As I take the body mark.

All right, I'll wait. SPENSER: Correct.

So if you take another body mark,

you'll be able to use that ability,

which essentially does exactly what you just did,

just happens in the moment.

Yeah, keeps it clean.

TRAVIS: Trying to get all preemptive.

SPENSER: Love that.

ZEHRA: I take a moment to wipe the blood out of my eyes

that the very shrapnel

has carved delicate incisions onto my face.

TRAVIS: Oh no.

ZEHRA: Just sort of wipe that out, and I turned to Marion.

Are you all right?

There's blood on him as well. LUIS: Yeah, yeah, I got some.

ZEHRA: I start sort of,

my pristine gloves stain crimson

as I sort of wipe it out of-- a drop

that's about to fall into his eye.

(sighs)

LUIS: Are we really doing this?

This isn't,

I mean, this is a broken lighthouse.

TRAVIS: Yes, it is.

BRENNAN: Marion, if we go back and tell somebody,

who do you think they're going to send?

We're already here.

MARISHA: He's got a point.

LUIS: They'll just send us right back.

BRENNAN: Okay.

At least maybe we'll get some answers.

ZEHRA: Would certainly explain why this place

has fallen vulnerable to creatures.

MARISHA: How are we going to get up in that thing?

LUIS: Well...

maybe we don't have to get up in it

because whatever was in it has already come out.

Looking at it hanging upside down,

there's no clear path to get in there?

SPENSER: So the lowest most point

of where the lighthouse sits

is the top where the beacon would be.

You see that that area has been shattered,

but it is essentially a cage, right?

A metal cage that sits on top with glass around it.

So, that's maybe 20 feet up in the air.

It's closer than that hole was.

So there is a place to be able to climb up and in.

You will be walking through an upside down lighthouse

to get there.

ZEHRA: Very M.C. Escher. LUIS: Oh gosh.

SPENSER: As that happens,

as you're observing this about the lighthouse,

you hear a reverberating,

a thumping happening in the ground

or in your core, you're not sure which.

This reminds you of what you felt

when you first came into the tunnels here.

It's a pulsating happening in your chest.

Something, something big is here.

What do you all want to do?

LUIS: Oh my god.

Go home.

(laughter)

MARISHA: So we got to get the rope up and in there?

Is that what we're talking about?

BRENNAN: (whooshes) Up in the cage.

SPENSER: So about a hundred yards to go

before you get there as you move forward

swinging the rope around.

Have you ever been to the Everglades?

ALL: Mm-hmm. LUIS: Yeah.

SPENSER: Okay, have you ever shined a flashlight

out at the water at night?

TRAVIS: (pew pew pew) LUIS: Oh.

TRAVIS: Snipe hunting. MARISHA: Mm-hmm.

BRENNAN: So many alligator eyes.

SPENSER: As you move forward,

the lanterns reflect off so many eyes.

LUIS: Oh my god.

BRENNAN: You hear the snarl

of

20, 30 creatures before you.

As your light gets closer to them,

or they move closer, it's hard to tell which,

you see

what look like canine figures,

but the latter half of their body is,

is morphed, changed,

or maybe has always existed this way,

as tendrils.

These are what all of you lovingly refer to

as squid dogs. MARISHA: Squid dogs. (laughs)

SPENSER: Standing guard over the thinning.

MARISHA: Oh my god.

SPENSER: What would you all like to do?

LUIS: How many?

BRENNAN: 20, 30.

LUIS: Oh my god. TRAVIS: I also just want to--

SPENSER: They're small, to be clear.

They're like the size of dogs.

TRAVIS: I just want to ask.

You don't happen to have a claymore

tucked in between your ass cheeks or anything, do you?

BRENNAN: I'm going to look around, and I'm like:

You know, that would be great if we got that.

Put some kibble on top.

LUIS: That's a good idea.

BRENNAN: Arm full.

MARISHA: You know, that's actually not a bad idea.

You know, I'm living at the beach and whatnot.

I love feeding all the ducks and the seagulls,

and as one of the items that I'm going to pull out

that I'm going to decide I have right now

is little bag of feed.

TRAVIS: (laughs)

Yes! SPENSER: Oh, it's so good.

MARISHA: Little pouches out of my bag.

SPENSER: Uh-huh. LUIS: Oh!

SPENSER: Are you going to throw it to them

to try and get them distracted?

MARISHA: Yeah. LUIS: Wait, wait.

BRENNAN: Or yeah, away.

SPENSER: Away. LUIS: But wait,

what do we know these things eat?

TRAVIS: We don't. MARISHA: We don't.

LUIS: So I'm going to take the fresh blood

that was trickling on me from what has happened,

and I'm going to squeeze a little bit on there

and maybe we can shake it up.

ZEHRA: I'll do that as well.

MARISHA: I got a little shrapnel as well

and squeeze it into the bag. SPENSER: I love that.

TRAVIS: And just before we do this,

I don't want to speak for all of us,

does anyone have any particular knowledge

about restarting or repairing ancient lighthouses?

MARISHA: No, not at all.

ZEHRA: I do have a relevant textbook.

LUIS: You do? BRENNAN: You brought a book

down here? ZEHRA: I always have

a book with me, Mr. Finnerty.

TRAVIS: I just wanted to make sure we had something

before we, you know.

ZEHRA: I pull open the book,

and I flip to see if there's--

SPENSER: So this is a book from EONS.

They were studying

what Candela was doing with lighthouses.

They were trying to siphon the power from lighthouses,

but in that, it also details how they actually work.

How they function. ZEHRA: How an astrolabe moves.

SPENSER: Yep, correct.

What needs to be done for it to exist.

MARISHA: Well, let's get up in there first.

TRAVIS: Yeah, good book.

At least we'll have something to use.

BRENNAN: All right. TRAVIS: Kibble bum.

BRENNAN: Stepping up.

Bottom of the ninth.

Beatrix Monroe pitching for the South Soffit Sidewinders.

LUIS: All right.

TRAVIS: Cinderella Story. BRENNAN: Let's do it.

MARISHA: Like the--

TRAVIS: Crowd on its feet here.

MARISHA: Like the bird lady from "Home Alone 2,"

I'm going to start shuffling through,

and I go: ♪ Take me out to the ball ♪

(laughter)

MARISHA: ♪ Take me out to-- ♪

SPENSER: There's snarls that come in your way

as you start to throw this feed.

Go ahead and make a Sway roll for me here

to see how well you're able to convince them

to follow that kibble.

MARISHA: I'm going to use a drive.

SPENSER: Love that.

MARISHA: That feels-- SPENSER: Important.

MARISHA:-- importante.

LUIS: I feel like everything is.

MARISHA: Double sixes. BRENNAN: Oh!

TRAVIS: Ooh! MARISHA: Let's go!

LUIS: You befriend them?

BRENNAN: So now do we have squid dogs?

MARISHA: Come here, my squid hounds.

TRAVIS: We have packs, platoons of squid dogs.

We are the squid dogs.

SPENSER: We are all squid dogs.

LUIS: They teach us their language.

SPENSER: Today, we are all squid dogs.

TRAVIS: (howls) BRENNAN: All right, Octo-Fido.

You're going over there. (laughter)

SPENSER: So good.

No, here's what happens.

You throw the kibble, and they pounce on it.

The fresh blood calls to them.

So you have a moment as the dogs start snarling, growling,

biting at each other to get to this food.

They are clamoring to get to the kibble

that you've thrown out.

You see a clear pathway forward.

You have a few moments here while they're distracted.

What do you want to do?

BRENNAN: (whooshes) MARISHA: I'm just going to.

TRAVIS: We're booking ass. BRENNAN: As fast as possible.

SPENSER: Great, I love that.

We get the dogs snapping.

They turn to see, you see the rope,

but the kibble was too enticing for them.

The blood is really what's enticing to them.

They are digging at the ground now,

hoping to get more.

You throw more their way as the rope goes up.

Make a Control roll for me

since it's under pressure to do this.

It's about 20, 25 feet up in the air.

TRAVIS: ♪ Under pressure ♪

SPENSER and MARISHA: ♪ ("Under Pressure") ♪

BRENNAN: Oh, that's a four.

SPENSER: That's a four. Great.

The rope catches on the lighthouse.

At that point, the dogs turn.

Couple of them see all of you gathered at the base

and start sniffing your direction,

leaving behind the food that has now run out.

What would you all like to do?

MARISHA: Where we at, Sean?

BRENNAN: I'm going to take the bullets out of my shotgun,

the one that I have loaded,

and I'm going to hold it by the barrel

with the butt on the end of it.

Say: All right.

I'm not going to waste bullets on fucking squid dogs.

Let's get up there. (laughter)

TRAVIS: You're going to bat right now, Finnerty?

BRENNAN: Coming up to the plate,

young Sean Michael Finnerty.

South Soffit's own.

SPENSER: There's two, three, four of these squid dogs

coming towards you.

Like when wolves get down on their hind,

is it on their front paws?

They start to move towards you.

We see them starting to descend

on you as you hold that

as the rest of you start your way up.

What I will say is if you are holding them off,

we can make a group roll for all four of you

to get up together.

It will be a Control or a Move roll,

whoever wants to lead that.

But you will be defending.

I will also have you make a Strike roll to keep them safe.

ZEHRA: Could I assist? SPENSER: Totally.

ZEHRA: My gloves have blood on them.

I can ball them off

and toss them. SPENSER: Throw them.

Great, yeah. TRAVIS: Not your gloves!

ZEHRA: I'll get new ones.

SPENSER: We see the gloves go flying.

A couple of the squid dogs peel off

and start to devour the gloves.

Their mouths open

and you see for the first time the mechanism.

They have inside their mouths the beaks of squids

instead of teeth, and it extends out xenomorph style,

and then devours the gloves. TRAVIS: All right.

Come on now. SPENSER: Their head turns up

and starts to swallow the gloves.

ZEHRA: Those were my most expensive pair.

LUIS: Oh my.

SPENSER: Who wants to make the Control or Move roll here?

You're making a Strike roll.

MARISHA: I reach out to Marion.

I grab him, and I just say: Sweet boy,

it's been a long time since I was in physical education

and did one of these.

I may need your help. LUIS: Got you.

I got you. SPENSER: Leading it.

Anybody else helping mechanically?

MARISHA: Can I, well.

Oh, it's a group roll. SPENSER: It's a group roll.

So you can spend drive to help here.

You can spend Nerve to be able to help here.

MARISHA: I will spend-- fuck.

I'm going to spend my last Nerve drive

to help Marion. SPENSER: Okay, sounds good.

MARISHA: Hopefully haul my ass up this rope.

TRAVIS: Use this last gilded.

ZEHRA: Oh, that's right because--

LUIS: Because it blew up before.

SPENSER: So as they are starting to climb up,

I'm going to have you make that Strike roll for me.

LUIS: Keep that.

BRENNAN: That is a five.

SPENSER: That's a five.

So describe the scene for me

as these dogs start descending upon you

and you start going to bat.

BRENNAN: I start to--

TRAVIS: That's so "Evil Dead."

BRENNAN: I walk in, and I think it starts funny

and starts to get a little,

it's like: Stepping up to the plate,

number one pitcher squid dog coming in.

Red Lamp Raiders.

Oh, it's out of the park!

God, god!

And slamming into the dog over and over again

and just like truly.

SPENSER: The more you start hitting them,

the more they start descending until you're going left

and right and forward and back and forward and back

and hitting as they come,

more and more descending upon you.

As the squid dogs start,

their own blood starting to pour,

the dogs themselves start tearing apart

their own counterparts. ZEHRA: Oh!

LUIS: Wow! TRAVIS: It's a feeding frenzy.

SPENSER: Eating them, a feeding frenzy happening.

As two of them leap towards you, you hit one,

but one grabs onto your arm with that five.

It beaks down onto your arm, and then you feel the piercing

of the beak tearing into your flesh.

You're going to take a body

and a bleed here as that happens,

but you're able to shake that off,

blood pouring down your arm as we see you

still holding true as all of you are going to roll--

LUIS: We're going to.

SPENSER: You're going to roll. Let's do it.

LUIS: I got my two, one's gilded.

I got an extra one

from a drive that I'm using--

and then an extra gilded from the pile.

MARISHA: Those comic books, what were those?

BRENNAN: (laughs) MARISHA: Those damn comics.

LUIS: I got a six on the gilded.

SPENSER: Yes! That's amazing! ZEHRA: Yes!

SPENSER: A six on the gilded.

So as that happens, you see Sean,

all of you make your way up the rope together,

climb into the top of this lighthouse

and you see Sean down below,

a dog on his arm. TRAVIS: Finnerty, up the rope!

SPENSER: (laughs)

BRENNAN: The ump's nowhere to be found!

It's chaos out here, folks!

(laughter) LUIS: Oh wow.

SPENSER: I'm going to have you make a Move roll

to get to that rope in time. TRAVIS: Move it! Move it!

SPENSER: Are you trying to get to the rope in time?

Is that what you're trying to do here?

What do you want to do?

I don't mean to overstep. BRENNAN: With LT--

I think with my lieutenant yelling, "Move it, move it."

Something autonomic, my spine moves

of so many drills over and over again.

SPENSER: Yeah. BRENNAN: But I think

without him there, I don't go for the rope.

I just stay here fighting dogs until I'm dead.

LUIS: To slaughter those-- SPENSER: Okay.

TRAVIS: That's an order, Finnerty, up the rope!

BRENNAN: You got it, LT! SPENSER: (laughs)

We see the turn as you run towards the rope.

The scene here that all of you are watching from above

is all of the dogs, a wave of dogs descending upon

Finnerty here, nipping at his heels.

He's running as fast as he can to grab the rope

and climb up it.

Make that Move or Control roll for me,

whichever you prefer.

BRENNAN: Let's do Control. SPENSER: Okay.

TRAVIS: Roll well, roll well, roll well.

BRENNAN: Here we go.

That is a six.

SPENSER: That's a six. That's a full

success here. MARISHA: That's right.

SPENSER: You grab the rope and you start pulling yourself up.

As you do, the dogs descend

and clamber on top of each other

trying to get to you.

You feel their beaks at your feet, and as you do,

you watch as the rope below you gets devoured.

LUIS: What? BRENNAN: Wow.

SPENSER: As they chase you, almost like piranha.

You pull yourself just out of range of them.

You pull your feet up and you're swinging by the rope,

but the dogs are leaping up to get you.

You finally pull yourself all the way back up

and you're standing with the rest of your circle in the top

that is now the bottom of the lighthouse,

and the pulsing gets worse.

BRENNAN: (panting)

What a bunch of bums.

They got no batters, they got no pitching.

TRAVIS: You did good, Finnerty.

ZEHRA: Well done. TRAVIS: Very good.

ZEHRA: I'll see what I can do for you later.

TRAVIS: Five for five, batting 1,000.

ZEHRA: Taking care of that--

BRENNAN: What's that? ZEHRA:-- arm.

BRENNAN: What arm?

MARISHA: Aw, Sean. BRENNAN: Oh, that's them?

ZEHRA: Did you even feel it?

BRENNAN: (laughs)

That was good.

MARISHA: I rip a piece of the bottom of my frayed hemline

on my apron off and I just do a real quick wrap of his arm.

BRENNAN: No, not your nice dress.

MARISHA: Oh, this old thing?

BRENNAN: (laughs)

MARISHA: All right. Come on.

Let's figure out how to turn

this damn thing on. BRENNAN: I'm going to reload

and shoulder the shotgun.

All right.

LUIS: I'll go up to Sean as he starts moving forward.

You know, if you need me to pee on it to disinfect it,

I'm happy to do that.

BRENNAN: Why do you keep asking to pee on us?

MARISHA: (laughs)

SPENSER: We cut out of there to all of you moving forward

into the lighthouse.

(laughter)

MARISHA: Just over a decade

this randomly comes up sometimes.

SPENSER: We see the inverted-- BRENNAN: I can't tell

if it's a bit. SPENSER:-- structure.

BRENNAN: I can't tell if you need to go!

TRAVIS: Why do you want to pee on it?

LUIS: Just let me do it once.

Just once. Come on! BRENNAN: That's jellyfish

and they kind of think it's not even jellyfish anymore.

SPENSER: We see the inverted structure.

What once was a stairway going up is now a stairway

going the opposite direction.

Down because, well, it's technically up for you

but it used to be going up the other direction.

BRENNAN: I don't want to criticize the omniscient voice

but stairways do go both directions.

(laughter) SPENSER: Right.

BRENNAN: Kind of generally. SPENSER: It's kind of general.

No, but it's upside down, so what it requires

is you to climb it.

MARISHA: Yeah, it's a little weird, okay.

SPENSER: Right, because of the way that it's set up.

It's upside down. MARISHA: Okay.

SPENSER: So we see you pulling yourselves

up the staircase here.

I don't if that's the physics of what we're doing,

but it sounds cool so we're going to do it.

TRAVIS: It's like M.C. Escher shit.

SPENSER: Yeah, M.C. Escher shit. Right.

ZEHRA: Upper body strength.

SPENSER: Yeah.

We see you pulling your way towards the center.

You feel the pulsing getting heavier and heavier

as you approach. What do you all want to do?

ZEHRA: I want to fall behind a bit before I go up to center

because the astrolabe is at the top

of the lighthouse, right?

SPENSER: The astrolabe is within

the core of the lighthouse

and the light at the top just indicates

whether it's moving or not.

ZEHRA: Okay, so the center is where the astrolabe is.

SPENSER: Correct. ZEHRA: Then in that case,

I want to continue to the core

because my focus is what can I do to get this astrolabe

back and running. SPENSER: Right.

So, you all push forward into--

Or you at least push forward

in the group, right?

Knowing that that's there.

MARISHA: Can I do a Survey and just check my surroundings

for any shadow monsters?

SPENSER: 100%.

Go ahead and make a Survey roll for me here.

MARISHA: All right.

SPENSER: What I will say is that this is high stakes.

MARISHA: ♪ Then I will-- ♪

SPENSER: You are within the belly of the beast.

MARISHA: ♪-- spend a drive ♪

Oh shit.

Tits.

LUIS: (laughs)

Oh shit tits. BRENNAN: Shit, tits, ass.

MARISHA: Two on a gilded,

so I guess I get my drive back.

SPENSER: Great. So, here's what happens.

You look around.

You see a glint of shimmer

in the distance.

It's clear here around you that black ichor

has been left behind by creatures.

Currently, from what you've noticed,

they don't seem to be here in the lighthouse any longer.

But as the two of you lead the pack forward,

you find yourselves standing,

almost too late,

before a rift in reality--

LUIS: Oh. MARISHA: (exhales)

SPENSER:-- where the astrolabe sits

in the interdimensional space

that would exist both behind and in front of the astrolabe,

you see a tear

in the fabric of space time itself.

It is 15 feet tall

and it's wafting like a veil

in an invisible breeze.

That's not the part that scares you the most here.

It's the movement you see through it.

The large movement.

As something, some entity

puts its hands on each side

of the veil, and like a curtain of skin

opens it and looks through.

You are looking at a massive beast,

almost incomprehensible in its shape.

Its jaw is open,

but farther than it ever should be.

It has human-like features on its face,

but it's gaunt,

that chromatic light permeating through it.

It's got stringy black tendrils as hair.

Its hands, its fingers are long and curled.

This is far bigger

than what attacked anybody else so far.

As its jaw (dry creaking) closes,

it smiles wide at you.

Everybody's going to take two bleed.

LUIS: (gasps)

MARISHA: Two bleed?

Well, I can't.

I take one bleed and then...

TRAVIS: I-I-I--

LUIS: I will drop.

TRAVIS: I drop. MARISHA: Take a scar.

TRAVIS: I take a scar. LUIS: I

will do one thing.

I can still have a Premonition as I'm falling.

So I have a vision of this happening,

and as I'm starting to

take this mark and take a scar,

are we losing consciousness as we take bleed?

SPENSER: You're getting lost in the bleed

so we're going to go through and see what happens

to everybody here who is dropping.

LUIS: I push you out of the way.

MARISHA: Okay.

SPENSER: So you get one of those--

MARISHA: It's a full on bleed. SPENSER: Full on bleed.

But you also drop.

LUIS: I do.

MARISHA: I know-- Aunt Bee knows what he's doing

and she just, with the last moment of consciousness

tries to tell him to not do this.

But she knows it's futile, he's going to do it anyway.

SPENSER: As that's happening, you are staring into the face

of terror here.

What memory from your childhood plays?

TRAVIS: I remember being nine years old

and seeing my older brother,

the one that my family loved, lauded,

prepared to take the helm of our family name

into the future, as he waded out into a river

to get a toy of mine,

and the waves pulled him under.

As he reached for me and cried out,

I found instead of going

towards the water to try and help

I froze and watched him dip beneath the waves.

Never came back up.

SPENSER: You hear the ripples

of a river running through your head.

They get louder and louder and louder,

until you lose consciousness,

and the finger of that creature

through the veil plucks.

You all watch as a strange blue

begins to emanate out from your chest.

Just a ball

that starts to be pulled as the creature,

like pulling on thread,

its needle-like fingers

inch it closer to it.

You see this happen, push her out of the way,

feel yourself fall.

LUIS: Mm-hmm.

SPENSER: Another finger reaches out

and plucks at the string

to pull at you, and it pulls and it pulls

and there's nothing to pull and it snaps!

Its face grows wide and it says,

(spectral, hollow) "Ah."

"A vessel already prepared." MARISHA: (gasps)

LUIS: (gasps)

SPENSER: What do the three of you do?

MARISHA: I watch as the two boys go down

and I just grab Jean and I go:

We've got to get to the orrery immediately!

That's how we help them.

BRENNAN: You have the book with the astrolabe, right?

ZEHRA: I do, with the instructions on how to, yes.

BRENNAN: I'm just going to look at you and go--

All the humor has faded from me and I go: Run!

I'm just going to rush forward

and fire into this thing's face.

SPENSER: I love it. Make a Strike roll for me.

As that happens, you two are running towards.

You're going to have to run towards the rift,

which is towards the creature

because that's where the astrolabe is.

MARISHA: I just tell her: Don't look at it, just run.

BRENNAN: Question for you. SPENSER: Yeah?

BRENNAN: Can Sharpshooter be used more than once

in a single action? SPENSER: Yes.

BRENNAN: Great. Okay, then we're going to do that.

All right, rolling six dice.

SPENSER: Great.

It's a high stakes roll.

MARISHA: Ooh. BRENNAN: Double sixes!

SPENSER: Double sixes! TRAVIS: Come on!

SPENSER: Amazing. BRENNAN: Double sixes.

LUIS: Oh my god! TRAVIS: Come on!

MARISHA: Hell yeah.

SPENSER: Baby! TRAVIS: (laughs)

SPENSER: What does it look like here as you line up?

So give me, in this moment,

you've seen something like this

before in your time with the Echo or with the...

BRENNAN: NoMAD. SPENSER: Yeah, with NoMAD,

with the Ghost Platoon?

Is that what it was called?

BRENNAN: Yeah. LUIS: Ghost Platoon.

SPENSER: Describe for me

what moment you've had like this before

that prepared you for this moment.

BRENNAN: I hadn't seen Marion

in over a year.

[sirens wailing]

BRENNAN: My two brothers were already dead

and I didn't know.

We were way behind enemy lines.

I moved in under the cover of night.

We knew,

Dr. Nero said some kind of intelligence came back.

There was a weapon.

Something with bleed in it on the side of the Flare.

Had to move in quick, burn that place to the ground.

Only problem is one of the doors weren't locked.

I saw what we were doing there.

They had gotten out through a back window and I found them.

I don't know how young they were,

but they were what we were there to destroy.

One after the other.

No escapes, no survivors.

We were told they were dangerous,

otherworldly horrors.

Their faces look perfectly human.

I've seen this thing before because when I looked up

to make sure my job was done

this was the face staring at me out of the mirror.

SPENSER: You let it fire.

As that happens,

the creature drops the thread on you.

Your soul comes back into your body.

You find yourself awakened, on the ground.

Clear your bleed marks.

You've already taken a scar, but you're back up.

TRAVIS: Does that leave me with one in the new

because it was two bleed, or does it just clear the bleed?

SPENSER: So you already had three,

you took one as your fourth

and then it gives you an additional one.

TRAVIS: Yeah, okay.

SPENSER: Great, thank you.

You see your lieutenant's eyes light up.

Flit open because of this shot.

The creature stumbles backwards,

the folds of the Flare

close for just a moment

as it stumbles to get its bearings,

not expecting shots in its direction,

not having encountered something like this before.

But you are staring at your own reflection.

How you see yourself.

The two of you are making your way towards this astrolabe

as quickly as possible.

MARISHA: Yeah.

SPENSER: What are we doing here?

ZEHRA: I'm flustered turning the pages trying to find

the relevant section. MARISHA: Sweet dear.

ZEHRA: Yeah.

MARISHA: If you're going to do this,

you have to have a sense of calm about you.

Calm down.

Mistakes happen when you rush.

We've got to do this right.

I've given her this pep talk before.

I've given it in the VA hospitals.

I've given it when we've been dragging survivors

from the war back behind our front lines.

We've Seen This Coming many times,

so I'm going to assist you.

Breathe.

You know this.

ZEHRA: It's just surgery.

MARISHA: It's just surgery.

SPENSER: You see in front of you

the perfect precision cut

in the fabric of reality,

and you realize,

you heal cuts like this all the time.

It's your thing.

MARISHA: Circle of the Needle & Thread.

SPENSER: Circle of the Needle & Thread.

MARISHA: Let's patch him up.

SPENSER: Go ahead and roll either Focus or Sense for me

as you flip through that book. ZEHRA: I'm going

to roll Focus.

MARISHA: This is just to find the book,

or is this the moment?

You Saw This Coming, so for sure take another die.

ZEHRA: Yeah. Okay, great. I'm going to burn a drive.

This is a pretty critical moment, right?

SPENSER: You have the book open in front of you,

and you see the shape that must be drawn with your hands

in order to make this, activate this magick.

ZEHRA: My hands are the needle & thread.

SPENSER: Your hands are the needle & thread.

BRENNAN: Burning a drive to add to you.

SPENSER: Amazing. Shooting again,

keeping this thing at bay.

ZEHRA: Okay. I have two Focus.

I have one assist, it's gilded,

and I'm also burning one of my own Intuition drives.

MARISHA: And you have an extra die from me.

BRENNAN: So that should be six.

SPENSER: Six dice.

As that happens,

we see a hand reach out from the veil.

As it starts to try and push its way through once again,

it puts its sights on you.

Its hand-- Even with the shots coming at it,

the hand comes over almost like a cage

down on top of you.

This is a high stakes roll.

This individual's life hangs in the balance of this roll.

Setting the consequences. ZEHRA: (anxious sigh)

ZEHRA: I hear Auntie Bee's voice in my head

telling me to breathe. I take a breath.

LUIS: Wow. ZEHRA: Gilded six.

LUIS: Two sixes. ZEHRA: Two sixes!

SPENSER: Two sixes! BRENNAN: Sixes! Hoo-ee!

SPENSER: Describe how this happens here.

How do you needle & thread this?

ZEHRA: As if a mist, a fog, has been over my eyes,

in an instant, it clears.

I reach my hands out,

and the instruments made out of space appear.

Without even thinking, my hands move

at a record speed with precise stability

to quickly sew the rift

in reality firmly closed.

I would daresay it's my finest work.

BRENNAN and TRAVIS: (laugh)

MARISHA: And that's why she's my muse.

SPENSER: As you say that, you hear a voice in your head.

"That's my girl."

BRENNAN: (gasps)

SPENSER: You realize, you left Violet,

the person who was keeping your father alive,

you left her in that train car.

You told her that was your resignation.

But he's here with you, holding your arms,

teaching you to sew

like he always wished he could.

You feel a kiss on the back of your head, on your neck,

and he lets you go.

And there's quiet here.

The rift has closed.

The severed hand of this creature sits above you

like a cage, dripping black ichor.

LUIS: Am I awake, or am I still out?

SPENSER: Your eyes open

as danger has passed. LUIS: (gasping breath)

BRENNAN: I go over and roll the hand off and drop down

to lie down, hold him. LUIS: (gasping continues)

BRENNAN: Marion, are you--

LUIS: No, no, no, no, no! BRENNAN: Hey, hey, hey, hey!

LUIS: There's nothing wrong with me!

(sobbing)

There's nothing wrong with me!

SPENSER: We pull out of the lighthouse here.

As we move out of the inverted structure,

the light at the top

glows once again.

The light sweeps across the landscape.

The squid dogs (squelching) eviscerate into nothing.

All is quiet here.

And that's where we're going to end our session today.

LUIS and BRENNAN: (heavy breath)

SPENSER: Great work, everybody.

TRAVIS: (laughs)

SPENSER: Are we okay?

LUIS: Oh, yeah. SPENSER: Okay, good.

BRENNAN: (laughs) TRAVIS: Holy--

SPENSER: Just checking in.

BRENNAN: What a Hollywood-esque--

SPENSER: (laughs)

BRENNAN: Comes in here weeping.

Yeah, I'm fine, dude!

LUIS: I love it!

BRENNAN: Yeah, I'm fucking fine, guy.

ZEHRA: (sighing) Oh. LUIS: (laughs)

MARISHA: We got traumatized a bunch.

TRAVIS: We're in it now. SPENSER: Great work. Okay.

We have one last thing to do,

two last things to do, before we say goodbye.

I want to talk about what our scars are that we took.

TRAVIS: Yeah. ZEHRA: Oof.

SPENSER: So let's start here.

TRAVIS: Staring into that horrible memory

that I've always tried to forget,

Nathan Trapp has piercing blue eyes, but his right eye

fades to white-- SPENSER: Oh shit.

TRAVIS:-- as it just glosses over completely.

MARISHA: That's cool!

TRAVIS: Almost burned out.

LUIS: So the starburst scar that I have is--

You can't tell exactly what it is.

It looks like scar tissue,

but it had these sort of small blue veins.

But on the outside of it, the starburst grows,

and it's absolutely bleed-based.

LUIS: Taking over your body. LUIS: Absolutely.

These blue veins almost looking like tendrils

extending across my chest,

and now a little bit up my neck.

SPENSER: The other part about scars

that we should talk about

is you move one action point

from one of your action ratings to another.

TRAVIS: Oh, right. SPENSER: So you erase one

and move it to somewhere else

that's because of the scar that you took.

TRAVIS: Yeah, it would have to be something

that is around my perception,

so I'll take one from Read.

LUIS: Can it move something beyond two at this point?

SPENSER: It can. ZEHRA: Oh!

SPENSER: It can. LUIS: Okay.

BRENNAN: Is there a...

Does any part of the scar become visible on Marion?

LUIS: It starts to move up my neck,

just little bits of it, little veins.

BRENNAN: I'll wait until your breathing slows down,

to the point where it's just--

Adrenaline has to crash

and it has to come down a little bit.

I think I'm holding--

I'm moving a thumb across your head

and holding you so that you have someone there.

LUIS: I bury myself into your chest.

BRENNAN: I'm going to wait a long time

until I can feel that your adrenaline has come down.

The first time you look at it

and see that I can see it, too,

I'm going to hold you really close and look at you and go:

You want me to pee on it?

LUIS: Would you? BRENNAN: If you asked.

And I'm going to hug you so close.

ZEHRA: Mm. TRAVIS: (laughs)

LUIS: I squeeze the hardest squeeze

I think you've ever, ever felt.

BRENNAN: I got you, bud.

LUIS: Would you do it in front of everyone else?

BRENNAN: I get shy.

TRAVIS, SPENSER, and LUIS: (laugh)

LUIS: I hate you. BRENNAN: (laughs)

LUIS: But I love you. BRENNAN: But I love you.

SPENSER: Oh god.

BRENNAN: I'm going to help him get up and get out of here.

SPENSER: You're moving one from--

LUIS: I'm moving one from-- You feel my body--

BRENNAN: Mm-hmm.

LUIS:-- less strong. BRENNAN: Okay.

LUIS: I'm moving one from Strike.

SPENSER: Into Sense.

LUIS: And I'm moving it to Sense. I am all up.

Three in Sense.

SPENSER: What are we thinking over here?

TRAVIS: I moved one from Read into Strike.

I'm going to have to use my hands more than my eyes now.

SPENSER: Damn. I love that.

MARISHA: Also, to put a button on all that.

SPENSER: Yeah. MARISHA: Bee looks--

SPENSER: Oh yeah. MARISHA:-- over at Jean

as we're seeing our men

have these horrible, traumatic flashback moments

that we've seen many times before,

and deep down inside know

that's the one wound you can't really heal.

But even still the same, we just wait it out.

I look at Jinnah and I just give her

a good squeeze of her hand.

You did damn good.

You did damn good. You should be proud.

ZEHRA: I'm afraid I have a funeral to plan.

MARISHA: I think I know.

Auntie Bee is really good with flowers,

if you need anything. ZEHRA: Thank you.

(sighs) I look-- SPENSER: We cut-- Go ahead.

ZEHRA:-- at the light that's emanating

from the lighthouse,

take it in, and say under my breath so no one can hear me:

Goodbye, Daddy.

SPENSER: We cut to your chapter house.

You all sit in silence here for a moment.

Draven is talking to you, but it's silent.

He excuses you. It's still silent.

Suddenly, you realize all of you are alone here.

Not alone, but alone.

Going your separate ways until the next mission calls you.

You have the chance to heal up your wounds,

refresh yourself,

train to make yourselves better for the future.

You have on your circle sheet nine resources available,

three stitch, three refresh, three train.

I will note for those who are playing the game

that are not at this table

that that is because we are only playing three sessions,

which means we get two downtime times

to use those resources, which means we are only using half,

because normally a cycle is about four commissions,

four assignments. So you have three in each to use.

Stitch will allow you to clear all of your marks;

refresh will allow you to refresh

all of your drives and your resistances;

and train will allow you to take a d6

that at the beginning of the next assignment,

you can put on your character sheet

and you can use on any roll that you'd like.

Now, those nine resources,

they will not--

MARISHA: Regenerate? SPENSER:-- regenerate.

TRAVIS: Mm-hmm. SPENSER: So this

is what you have for our adventures together.

What would you all like to use?

LUIS: Wow. So my bleed is now at zero because I took a scar.

SPENSER: Great.

LUIS: Because I barely went over the threshold.

I still have two body and one brain,

but we have ways to take care of some of that.

So if someone else needs--

SPENSER: Stitch? LUIS:-- stitch, I will--

TRAVIS: I would take a stitch to clear my two bodies.

I would need refresh or train after that.

SPENSER: Stitch will clear all of your marks.

TRAVIS: All of them? SPENSER: Yes, correct.

TRAVIS: I would love that. MARISHA: I also might.

LUIS: But this is for the whole thing,

so after the next session,

whatever we deplete here, we won't--

SPENSER: You won't have it. LUIS: That doesn't come back.

SPENSER: So you have three available.

BRENNAN: Does anybody have an ability

to get rid of bleed or no?

MARISHA: No. LUIS: No.

BRENNAN: Because I have a body,

a brain, and three bleed right now.

MARISHA: I'm in the same boat. ZEHRA: Yeah, same.

I have two body, a brain, and three bleed.

BRENNAN: Yeah. TRAVIS: Oh yeah.

MARISHA: I'm good on refresh, because I have ways

to regenerate my drives. SPENSER: Mm-hmm.

I didn't use any of my resistances.

LUIS: You guys need-- MARISHA: But I would take--

ZEHRA: Oh, refresh.

MARISHA: I wouldn't mind taking a stitch.

TRAVIS: I can get rid of a body. I don't need a stitch.

I have a way to do that. BRENNAN: Okay.

ZEHRA: I can also do Patch Up on body next time

to anybody who needs body help.

MARISHA: Okay. TRAVIS: You want that stitch?

You said you were up in the threes.

Somebody else was at three bleed.

MARISHA: Me and him are the same.

ZEHRA: I'm up at three bleed.

MARISHA: Oh, we're all the same.

BRENNAN: I think, actually, you have more than I do.

You have two, one, three, and I have one, one, three.

You have three bleed as well?

MARISHA: Yeah. BRENNAN: Okay.

MARISHA: I'm also one, one, three.

TRAVIS: Refresh gives back all your drives?

SPENSER: And resistances.

TRAVIS and ZEHRA: And resistances.

ZEHRA: I mean, I kind of want to refresh my one Nerve.

(laughs) TRAVIS: (laughs)

LUIS: Do we also get other--

Isn't there other stuff that we get to choose?

SPENSER: So those are your options

in between assignments.

TRAVIS: Train gives a d6.

SPENSER: We're going to potentially advance circles.

Before next time, we'll talk about what that looks like

if we want to do that, but we'll do that offline,

and if we end up doing that,

it would not refresh your resources anyways

because of the way we're playing.

I might just allow you to advance

because we're only playing three sessions,

but I will say that,

given the parameters,

this is the difficult part.

ZEHRA: Yeah. BRENNAN: Does it make sense,

I hate to use them all right now,

but we're only going to be able to do this twice,

so does it make sense for the three of us

to all just refresh, because we're all at three?

One bleed for any of us-- SPENSER: Or stitch.

MARISHA: Stitch, yeah.

BRENNAN: Or stitch for the three of us.

SPENSER: I will remind you, you have four.

You only are gone on your fourth scar,

so taking another bleed, you take a scar,

but then you'd have three more chances

to take scars before you are gone.

It's really a way your character changes,

not that your character is dying.

I don't want to keep you from doing anything,

but I want to make sure that you all know

the way in which the mechanics work.

If you take another bleed, you're knocked out.

BRENNAN: You get incapacitated when you get a scar.

SPENSER: Exactly, yeah.

You go down until it's safe, in that scene.

LUIS: Gotcha.

TRAVIS: 12 bleed, 12 body, 12 brain to go (blows raspberry).

BRENNAN: I'm good to hang out on a stitch, I think.

MARISHA: I'm good on a stitch as well.

ZEHRA: I think I'm good, too.

I would love to take a refresh, though,

so I'm full up on Intuition for the next time.

SPENSER: Spend a refresh.

MARISHA: You're not going to take a stitch?

Is that what you're saying?

BRENNAN: You know what?

I don't want to get knocked out in a scene.

MARISHA: That's my thing, too.

ZEHRA: You're far too valuable.

MARISHA: You're so valuable.

TRAVIS: They're here to take, man.

Otherwise, nobody's taking a stitch.

BRENNAN: If no one's taking a stitch, I'll take a stitch.

LUIS: Pick one.

We should at least save one, maybe,

for down the road, or two.

I already got two scars.

TRAVIS: Because you came in with one.

LUIS: I came with one. ZEHRA: Right.

LUIS: So now I got two. I can take one more.

SPENSER: You can take, technically, yeah,

you can take one more, and then the one after that.

TRAVIS: It's that fourth scar.

ZEHRA: I'm going to heal your body next time.

MARISHA: Would everyone be cool

if I took a stitch, cleared my shit?

LUIS: Stay up. MARISHA: Stay up.

ZEHRA: So there's two stitches being taken and one refresh?

TRAVIS: Yep. SPENSER: Correct,

and that will leave you with--

TRAVIS: One stitch, two refresh, three train.

SPENSER: So anybody wants to take train, can.

LUIS: Train is just an extra die, right?

SPENSER: Yeah, correct.

LUIS: That you just get to use once.

SPENSER: Yeah, you just get to use it on your--

TRAVIS: We already got Stamina Training.

So we get these three guys.

SPENSER: You do have three already,

so that would give you each an additional one,

which is great.

TRAVIS: We'll gain an additional circle ability

on the next--

SPENSER: We'll talk about advancement,

if we want to do that this time,

or if we want to wait until the next episode.

We'll talk about where we're at,

what we're looking at, what we learned offline on that.

We'll come back next episode,

and whether we do it that episode

or at the end of the next episode,

that's sort of on us to decide.

MARISHA: Anyone want to train,

or do we hold it and frontload it for the next one?

SPENSER: Frontload? MARISHA: I think so too, yeah.

SPENSER: Okay.

LUIS: We did two assignments today, so.

That's why it was harder. MARISHA: That is true.

SPENSER: You did. You did do two assignments.

ZEHRA: Very true.

SPENSER: Great. ZEHRA: Oh gosh.

MARISHA: Wowzers.

SPENSER: With that, I think we are finished

with our session for tonight.

Before we go, because of the madness of a new campaign,

a new chapter of Candela Obscura,

I want to do one more pass around the table

and have everybody say their names

and what character they're playing

so that when we come back next time,

it's all available for everybody.

So Travis, let's start with you.

TRAVIS: Yes, I'm Travis Willingham.

I'm playing Nathaniel Trapp.

MARISHA: And I'm Marisha Ray, playing Beatrix Monroe.

BRENNAN: I'm Brennan Lee Mulligan,

and I'm playing Sean Finnerty.

ZEHRA: I'm Zehra Fazal, and I'm playing Dr. Jean Basar.

LUIS: I'm Luis Carazo, and I'm playing Marion Collodi.

SPENSER: My name is Spenser Starke.

I've been your Game Master. Thanks so much.

TRAVIS: Yeah, man! (cheering)