Hello and welcome to the post-season metacast of Rusty Cool Gaming. You can't do this. Don't do this. We don't know what's happened yet. Welcome to RQG218 of the Rusty Cool Gaming Podcast. I'm your host and GM, Alex Newell, and with me today I have... Ben Meredith. Bryn Munro. Lydia Nicholas. And Helen Gould. And who are you playing? Hamid Salah Harun-El-Tahan. Sells. High bottom. Wow, okay. I was... Okay, self is unconscious, Helen, that's why I didn't say anything. Okay, okay, but like he might be... He might be... Yeah, he might be. On the live. Maybe.
We just don't know. I have to say, new listener, this is actually a genuinely really good jumping on point, you know, for a nice self-contained. New listener, quite frankly, you f***ed it because this is big spoilers. Leave it in bleep it. Anyway, as is here too, we think. Understood. Wherever here is. Everyone ready? All right. In that case then, I'm going to start with Zolf.
So the last thing that Zulf remembers is white. And a noise so loud that it stops being a noise and starts being a physical force on you. Yeah, it's fire. Yeah. So from that white noise, it slowly starts to settle. At some point, Zulf realises it's settling into the sounds of waves on a beach. And he is fetal, seemingly upon some sand, with his eyes closed. Well, I guess I'll open my eyes. Do I still have Babbage? Good question. You feel for Babbage on your back? No.
Oh, God damn it. Am I bloody dead? I think you're dead. Classic Zolf. So, you open your eyes, yeah? Yeah. I have a long description for you, so please bear with it. You find yourself upon an island, seemingly. Little more than a sand spar. And as you open your eyes, the first thing you see is that you're looking out upon the ocean. However, the ocean's far too reflective. It seems to be either dawn or dusk, something around that time. You can't tell. Normally you're good at telling that. And the starlight in the sky is reflected so clearly in the starlight of the water that you're struggling to see a horizon.
but the waves are lapping up on the beach. Looking around, you notice that you're seemingly dressed in the clothes that you were before. And as you look down, sort of look upon yourself, firstly, I have to ask a question of you. Is Zolf more comfortable with missing limbs returned or with them not returned, which is more comfy? Yeah, not returned. Cool. Looking down, they're not returned. They are as they were when you sort of whited out. But you notice that there are patterns carved into the sand that you'll lay upon, even though it seems to be a natural beach. Think Zen bloodism, that kind of thing. You know, the traced lines, the contours.
And as you're looking, you see it glints slightly iridescently. And I think I'll limit the description there. You're currently sat on a beach looking out to something that doesn't seem to have a horizon. There's nothing to say. As you look around, you notice behind you what appears to be a tree root or something. And as you sort of follow it and your eyes follow it, you see that it's iridescent itself. Specifically, though, it seems to have quite a strong blue colouring to it. And as you trace the root along the sand, the root looks inappropriate, more like a coniferous tree almost or something similar, like the kind of thing you wouldn't expect on the sand. As you trace that root... Do I have my weapon? No, you do not.
As you trace the root with your eyes, you see it leads to, directly behind you, a huge tree. It appears to be an old English oak or similar. It's massive. There's no possible way it could be on an island naturally like this. And each of the leaves appears to be iridescent. And as you look at the sort of specific blue root, it seems to lead in towards the tree proper. And then that is lost amongst the other colours. It's full of foliage, although it's quite confusing to the eyes, difficult to look at. It's quite hard to see where the ends of the branches are. It seems to branch and branch and then keep branching in such a way that it kind of deteriorates a little bit.
and you see that there is a small figure sat in a crook beneath the tree. You can't make out more than they are quite small, and they are seemingly wearing white and have white hair. Walks walls and be like, all right then, what the hell's going on? As you approach the figure, they look up, and it's very difficult to make out age. It's very difficult to make out like they're quite androgynous looking. Their features don't quite settle to the eye properly. They speak to you gently, but with many voices.
Greetings, Zolf. Is it Zolf? Yes, come on. Enough of the, you know, I'm not impressed by this stuff, just what's happening? I've already dumped a god. The creature smiles. We are Myriad. Welcome. To what? Actually, hang on a minute. Are you the pisser who's been mucking up the world? Bloody Myriad. Bloody gestalt, bloody bull****. Going out with it, are you the bloody plant?
Yes. Oh, piss off then. And I will leave and start to walk into the sea. Sure. I'm having none of this. None of your rubbish. So you start walking into the sea. Yeah. And, you know, have you ever been on one of those beaches, you don't really get them in the UK, where it's a very, very slow, there's no real drop-off. So, you know, it's like half deep for like half a mile kind of thing. Yeah. It's that. You find yourself wading out to sea. Give me a perception check, please. Also, I could not be happier that you're the person having this conversation, by the way. Could not be happier. Bend the law. Yep. 24.
So, first things that you notice, you don't seem to be making as much progress as you feel you should, and the stars that are reflected in the water aren't reflected in the water, they're within the water and they're swirling around you. You seem to be slowing despite not moving any slower. Blooming dream logic. Fine, fine. I'll have your stupid conversation. Yeah, you can try and recruit me to your rubbish. What do you want? Just hurry up. If I'm dead, just let me bloody die. To be clear, you're yelling this from a decent distance out. This is now me. I've turned around. I'm waving my arms around. I'm splashing back towards the island just shouting this. Just really irritated. Not drowning, but angry. This is amazing. Not waving. Bloody furious. I'm absolutely livid. I've had enough of evil things trying to do bloody... See, I'll wander back to Myriad, I guess.
The figure's still sat beneath the tree. The figure doesn't seem particularly upset by you being annoyed or anything, or amused. It just seems kind of quite calm there. Oh, yeah, well, it's a gestalt entity on a higher plane of existence, so it doesn't have need for things like emotions, Zolf thinks. We must confess we're surprised. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Which hasn't been happening much. Go on, then. What do you want? Well, what is it that you wish for? You are the one who has come here. Yeah, I was bloody sent here by Dragonfire, okay? So...
I don't know, maybe I've been pushed into... Hang on, I'm going to roll knowledge planes, because it's likely I've been pushed into the plane, which is where this actual thing exists. Sure. Rolled a natural one, so that's good. This isn't ringing any bells. Also, you're fairly certain that being fire-breathed, normally the only plane you go to is afterlife. I don't know, I didn't come here on purpose. So what are you doing sitting on your bloody island in your stupid tree? I love myself so much. Myriad seems fascinated, just fascinated with the question, but it doesn't seem to be offering much.
Look, you've got about, I don't know, 20 seconds before I start to throttle the bloody life out of you, or at least start trying. Because, quite frankly, you said, oh, I'm the plurrent. Okay, great. But do you know how many people you've heard? Billions? Millions? I don't know how many people there are on the Earth. I've never really counted, but lots. Which Earth? Oh, great, of course. Bloody interplanar entities. Like, all this rubbish. The one I come from that I care quite a lot about. Would you like to return? Yes, with the corollary that you also piss off out of it. Myriad seems to be giving that some due consideration.
We don't believe what you request is possible. Yeah, well, then we'll make it possible. If we were to ask you to not be, how would you go about doing so? Are you really... Of course, you're not mortal. That's a stupid bloody question. Yes. No, as in I can think of loads of ways, but I'm not actually keen in discussing that. You seem distressed. Right, that's it. I'm going to beat you to death of the bloody tree branch.
This is the clearest problem I've had. At least I can see you now instead of you being a bloody... I'm going to try and beat the absolute crap out of this thing. Understood. I'm not going to require attack rolls. Would you like the good news or the bad news? I mean, I'm going to have to have both eventually. It gives lots of satisfying feeling of force and connection with no effect to you or them, although they seem increasingly concerned. Let us help. No, no, no, no. What do you mean? Let us help.
You seem distressed. Yeah, okay, okay. As a creature who has consistently taken over the minds of others and are now puppeting around the... I don't know. You probably don't even care if cities, continents, whatever. You have taken people and had it to do your bloody fractal tree, but they have no will of their own. You've completely, like, consumed them, and I ain't going down like that. Why not? Because you've... Look, okay, let me guess. You're one of these people who are like, oh, I'm going to take over everybody's bloody minds because I know better than them, and I'll give them a much better thing. Oh, we're all going to work towards some grand central project. Right? That whole deal? Again, Miriam seems confused by the question.
Yes. Oh, brilliant. So I'm just trapped in a psychic island with a t***. Oh, God. You wish us to perform an action that we are unable to perform? Uh-huh, yeah, great, because you're a predator, right? You're a predator and you've eaten your prey. And then you're like, oh, well, you know, I can't do anything about that because it's just my nature. Oh, no, not that. If we were to cease to be, we would return without intention. All right.
Well then, whatever. There are two eventual states. Us. I'm the whole metaverse or oblivion, right? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Yes. You are so tiresome. Right, so where do we go from here then? I ain't taking any of your bloody help. I obviously can't kill you, so you're going to kill me? Or release me from this stupid place? You wish us to release your world, as you put it. Yeah, that's why I asked it.
Yes, when we offer to help, you ask us not to. No, no, no, no, no. When you offer to help, what you mean is I can add you to the collective. Isn't it? No, not at all. Uh-huh. All right, what is it then? Be specific. We would bring you counsel to ease your concerns. What? All right, so you're just going to parade a bunch of puppeted idiots to try and convince me that you're doing the right thing? Myriad casts a hand across the beach, and Azu, Sel, and Hamid specifically...
awaken on the beach in a similar situation to Zulf when he awoke. However, to be clear, I will give you all a collective memory to work from as a final instinct, if you will. Sure. Think of it more as a tableau as opposed to you did this thing. You all distinctly remember seeing the dragon breath consume Babbage, etc. You have a very clear memory of the edges of the tower being, even with all of your efforts, beginning to be completely overwhelmed. And the tower itself starting to collapse. And then you were here. God, this is hard because I am very much on the side of Zulf catch these hands, Smith. But Azu is not.
Oh, bloody hell, you're all here as well. Are you real? Or are you some bloody construction? Actually, that's an extremely interesting question, which I have reflected on at length. We're real? Azu pats herself down. You feel real. I've concluded that really, in actuality, we are all ongoing constructions, and the reality of any particular appearance or being that we have at any moment isn't really consistent and should not be... Where's everyone else? Zolf is pinching the bridge of his nose. Where's Kiko and Emiko and Einstein? Where are we? Oh, yeah, let me introduce you to the problem.
I'll say, pointing at... This is Myriad. Myriad's a great big fractal tree that spreads throughout universes or worlds or whatever and doesn't have a conception of individual ones. We've been having a lovely conversation about how they suck. Ah, hello.
Right, yeah. Azu's going to get up and approach. Oh, by the way, you can't punch him. Am I still 12 foot 12? No. Am I still wearing the armour? Do I have any weapons? So here's an interesting one. I would say for Azu that you're probably still wearing your armour, but you won't have your axe with you. Damn, because that's very useful against Tree. Is Cell still beastified? No. And presumably Hammond's wings have retracted again? Yes. So that's 25 on Knowledge Arcana. You get the impression that you're gone somewhere, other people ain't gone? I think Knowledge Planes might get you something. I don't think Knowledge Arcana will get you anything. Rolling.
Ooh, that's a 35. Ooh. So if you think of the planes as plates on a table, you get the distinct impression that you stood on the table. Ooh. Sal has, in fact, used exactly that as a demonstration while having a conversation with Jasper about how planes are. In fact, it's probably quite important. If you survive the entire experience, it'll be useful because there's been lots of people saying there is only the planes all the way down. So it'd be really helpful to be able to describe some stuff. This is actually extremely interesting for some theoretical work I was doing on the interaction of planes and what exactly they are. Is this relevant now?
Because what this means, what this means, right, ultimately is that we just lost, right? Because we're all here, Babbage ain't here, and we're with that. Right. So it's over. Pretty much, I guess. I'm going to roll knowledge religion, and this is going to be to represent Azu's instinctive looking around for whether Aphrodite is here. Sure, sure. That is a 16.
Can I feel Aphrodite in any way? Yes, but it feels very wrong. It doesn't feel corrupted. The shape of the feeling is very, very different and it feels very, very weak. Very distant. Right. So are we dead, do we think? I don't know. I don't know if that fire should have killed me. But whatever, I don't feel dead. And if I'm here with you, then... Well, maybe it's a memory of me or some sort of bloody psychic, you know, moment in time. You know what I mean.
Seems likely. The last thing I remember is the dragon breath in the tower starting to crumble and then everything was white. Yeah, but if we're dead, we probably shouldn't be together. Yes, I shouldn't be here. Yeah, we'd all go to a different bloody plane, wouldn't we? Or something. I turn and address the figure. Did you bring us here? We brought you, Hamid, you, Azu, and you, Sel, to this place. Yes, we did not bring Zulf to this place. Well, I'm glad you did.
No idea. So, Myriad, buddy, are you able to A, stop mind-controlling all of the people in our world and potentially others, and possibly as a corollary of that, send us back there? Happy and healthy. Let me get this one. Let me get this one. Oh, could you ask me not to be? Is the answer you're going to bloody get. Well, all right. Myriad, what are you doing? Seems like a good starting point. Sitting.
That is not what I mean, and I think you know that. Can you tell why I am so furious right now? Oh, it's this. It's all this. What were you doing on the plane that we were on before we were here?
We do wish you all well. We just struggle. We don't care. Your intentions are meaningless if your actions result in harm. You should put that on a poster. Well, I mean, I guess it's more complicated than that. That's a simplification, but... Why does your stomach grumble? Why do you not stop it? We're hungry, and you can stop it by deciding to eat. But it's also a base instinct that can be controlled with a sentient thought. You can't stop your stomach from grumbling, but you can eat, or you can choose not to eat, because you don't have to follow your instincts if it's going to cause harm to other beings. You've been extending your consciousness into our world.
collecting the consciousness of other peoples, and that has done irreparable harm to them and to those who you haven't. I believe you can choose to stop. You clearly exist here, outside our world. You clearly have the ability to withdraw your consciousness from our world. That's what I would ask you to do. We understand. We could remove ourselves from your world, and in so doing, leave it shattered. In what way? Myriad again seems to be struggling to articulate.
London Bridge would fall down, leaving you fragments to shore against your ruin? Look, I'm not good at philosophy. I'm not good at this fancy verbiage. Are you saying that if you leave our world, everybody that you have infected will die? Do you mean that? We don't know. Well, what good are you? Good question. I am not expecting this to work, but I'm going to attempt to cast Searing Light. Afraid not? Yeah, so I throw my hand out in front of myself and nothing happens. Can Sel make bombs in this environment? Sel can try. What do you want? You must have some desires. You're clearly a sentient being.
To be? To grow? To learn? Is that what you're using us for? Is that why you want to accumulate minds? To learn? We do not want to accumulate minds.
We accumulate lines. But you're a thinking enough being that you could stop that process if you chose to. By not choosing to stop, you are actively choosing to continue. I think the trick is it doesn't bloody care. If we were to cease to be, all the worlds that we have touched would collapse. Would they? What do you mean by collapse? Explain in more detail. Do you mean that the bonds holding physical objects together would cease to work? Do you mean that there would be massive earthquakes? Be more specific.
When the tree grows, it moves the earth that it moves through. This is the thing. This is the whole bloody thing. This is a too-big-to-fail situation, right? Because nobody with the power thinks anything can exist after they go. Meritocrats thought the same thing. Rome thought the same thing. Everybody thinks the same bloody thing. And the mistake you can make is listening to those institutions. And that right there is one of the biggest bloody institutions I've ever seen. Would you prefer to take our place? Oh, no. Piss off. Wait, we can take your place? If you would. Absolutely not, Hamid. Absolutely bloody not. Did you take something else's place? Yes, we did. There was someone else here before you. What was here before?
Myriad. Right, yeah, sure. I mean, is Babbage? Would Babbage still be up for it? Wait, are you Babbage? No, but we shouldn't... Nobody should take its bloody place, because it's just the same problem. You don't think it would make a different decision? Yeah. Do you think we wouldn't keep any willpower? Yeah, pretty sure. Either this bloody thing might have decided, or this bloody thing came here expecting to do so and failed. Did you have a name except Myriad before you took the place of the Myriad that was here previously? Yes. What was it?
Nathaniel. Nathaniel. Well... Okay, so it's not Babbage. Where were you from? Where did you live? Mia thinks for a while and then looks up at the tree and points to a bit of the tree up near the top. Do the branches represent different planes? Do the leaves represent different planes? I understand that probably this entire place is a construct designed to represent concepts which my mind could not actually conceive of in a way that is understandable, but I still feel like it should be possible to explain at least some of the metaphorical baggage underpinning the perceptions we're having. Was it a nice world?
And I'll take a break there. And welcome back. So you asked a couple of questions. I'll try and get through those. So Myriad takes a moment considering both. We are the tree. The leaves are, in some ways, the plains that you think of. Though there are other places than this. And no, it was not at the end. It is now. Ah, so you think it was improved by...
by Myriad before coming in and taking control of all of the living beings' wills and so on and controlling them and... You all keep speaking of control. Yeah, we do, because you control things. That's what you're doing. Your function, it seems, is to control other beings. That seems to be what it is. We are the sum of other beings. Can we just have a quick huddle, maybe just away from that? Sure. Yes, yes. I'm pretty sure it can hear everything in this movie. Might as well try. Yes, yes. Sure, sure. I love that Selney and so on is like, no, sometimes people need a huddle, even if it's... The huddle's about the huddle, it's not about the hearing. It serves a psychological purpose. So I kind of lead people over to the furthest place on the island, like possible. Look.
The problem we've got is that anything it says, right? Like, we're here to murder it. We are. Or Babbage was going to, like, cut its arm off or something like that. So, like, it's not going to give us any helpful information. We can't solve the problem by asking it nicely and, like, getting it to give us information because it's going to lie, right? Well, no, I don't think it is. I don't necessarily trust its answers because it seems to have a really warped perspective on everything, but also we're completely in its power. I mean, I don't think it has any reason to lie to us because we can't affect it. We can't do anything. There's no...
It doesn't seem to have motivation to lie. I just don't think it understands reality the same way we do. That's what I mean. Unless there's a way that we can affect it and we haven't worked it out yet and it doesn't want us to work it out. Well, there's some holes in its logic, I have to say. The fact that it seems to be equating being with controlling all of these worlds when actually that's... I mean, you know, there's a lot of things that we think we can't live without that we can actually live without and often power is one of those things. I just wonder if... I don't know if there's anything to lose by my trying to...
talk it through, the idea that there are many ways to be, and a lot of them might be difficult to recognise, but very happy and fulfilling, even if you're a multi-planar. Yeah, great. Look, if you can persuade it to give up control of all of these worlds, then be my guest, but it ain't going to work, but, you know, fine, give it a go. We should try. Sure. I mean, are we ignoring the fact that... I mean, my understanding of Babbage's plan was that...
He would attempt to place his consciousness at the centre, and this being, Lathaniel, is at the centre. No, no, no, no, not at all. No, because Babbage was going to do it on our plane, not replacing the whole bloody tree. He was going to cut off a branch. He was cutting off the... I don't think that's... If he was aware, I'm pretty sure he would step up to... And I think he would have told us. Yeah, and I bet bloody Lathaniel thought he was doing the exact same thing when they took over, right? You're just... Any of us who takes over is just going to become that thing again. I think that's right. Maybe, but the question is how long. How long that process takes.
Babbage thought he would have enough seconds to make the decision and to take the action. And what if you can't? But did he know about this? I don't think so. Almost certainly not. No? Do any of us? But if we've got no other way to affect it, shouldn't we try? I mean, if one of us becomes that thing...
then there's a chance, however small, that we take the correct decision. But then there's also the only other outcome is we're in the exact same situation. And then we have a more familiar face to murder. Yeah, I don't think it will help. Absolutely not. Like, everybody who wants to bloody take power thinks, oh, I'll do a better job with this huge amount of power. They never bloody do. They never do. It's not about taking the power. It's about releasing it. Because you then have the power to do that, right? But in those, like, microseconds, maybe you decide against it. Maybe again, Nathaniel thought, oh, I'll release everybody. Well, actually, this is good. Or maybe your mind is overwritten, given it is a mind-overwriting entity. That's what I'm thinking. What if you sit in it and you have all the best intentions, but there's some deeper impulse that then takes...
you over you're a vessel you're a channel to a bloody collective consciousness that apparently wants to keep itself going yes i don't think it will work that way yes charles and ada and nicola thought there was a chance they would retain enough of themselves long enough and and summit neil agreed with that plan and they and their community seemed to understand the plants and the planes better than than we did maybe they had some awareness of of the way that nobody has any awareness of this did you have any awareness of this thing well i i mean you're easily the smartest person i know you had no it was a multi-planar entity we knew that there was some sort of consciousness Behind it? Babbage was talking about releasing everybody on our world. He didn't know about all these other things. We didn't know about the people on the other worlds. Well, then they didn't know how it bloody worked, did they?
I don't know what you're trying to argue for. Not becoming the thing that has ruined our world and countless others is what I'm arguing against. You're arguing against, but what are you arguing for? Grab it out of this bloody tree, drag it over to the lake and drown it. Do you even think that's possible? I don't know. I don't think that's going to work. I don't know if we have the ability to affect it in that way. I know, I know, but it's better than becoming it. Why don't we get some more information? Because we're working on very little. And I know it's unreliable, but... Yeah, go talk to it. Fine.
It seemed to be listening to a degree. Yeah. Who knows? It's sentient and it can think, so there's always hope. While the awkward conversation kind of continues, Stella's just going to back away with two thumbs up, grinning, like, looking over their shoulder at Miriam so they don't step up and then, like, turn around.
Hey, buddy. So I just wondered if I could unpick a bit of your logic. I'm sure that you speak many languages and have many different kind of brain structures, so we may have misunderstood. But you seem to equate having control of all of these different worlds with the fact of you continuing to exist, when clearly, since at one point you didn't control all of them and the amount of them that you control is changing over time, you are and were and will be able to survive very happily without eating minds. And I just wondered if you had...
Like, what it feels like to you to have more minds. Like, is it that it feels good to eat brains? Is it something that you want at a deep level? Or is it something that is an option, you know? Why are you doing it? Yes. We grow because there is room to grow. It's not a desire. It's a result. If we were to...
Without us, all these worlds would die eventually. Well, yes, but there are cycles in nature, right? And you can stop things at any one point. Like a caterpillar eats lots of grass or cabbages. They always ate my cabbages. And then it becomes a chrysalis. And then it becomes a butterfly. And then it, you know, finds other butterflies, has its way, lays some eggs, and then it dies. And you can, at any point in that process, stick a pin in that butterfly and, like, keep it in that beautiful, perfect state.
for like a long time. You can encase it in resin. You can glue it to something so it stays there, but it's dead, right? It's not gonna... The cycle has stopped and it might look nice, you know, and it's much more convenient than having your cabbages continually eaten every year, but it's definitely dead. It's not the same. It's not as good. You see what I mean? That you... These worlds may die eventually, but...
while they're in the process of doing that, they will live, right? Your existence is clearly vast. Your conception of eventually maybe very different to ours. If you're talking about the fact that worlds eventually end, if there is space for millions or billions of lives to be lived before then, that's enough. Yeah, do you think you're better than me?
Look at one of the people that you will make better, like me, right, using a specific example. Do you think you're better than me? Do you think that I deserve to be taken over by you? Deserve? No. Do you think that my personhood is less valid than your personhood, given that we are here, we are talking, we can have a conversation? It would seem not. So if you consumed my personhood, and I ceased to be, I've died. It doesn't matter that you're in my head, moving me about to some grander purpose. I am dead. You have killed me. You would not be dead. You would be us, and we would be you. Can I have any new experiences? Me, Zolf. Zolf Smith. No.
So I have ceased to, you know, have new experiences, right? I've stopped living. It's the butterfly pinned to the table, right? Like, it looks good and you've got a nice collection. It's a very pretty collection. But the butterflies are definitely dead. Even if they still exist in your pretty arrangement. Yeah. They're dead and they will, you know, they may survive a lot longer in their frozen state. The end of someone's personhood is a death of a kind as well. Yeah. Can you see my memories? No. We can see the memories of all those who you've known.
Oh. Zulf and I faced a similar situation before. We met a man named Francois Henry. Yes, he was eaten by the machine. His personhood was removed because he no longer had the ability to live. He just walked around like a robot. His...
individuality had been consumed by a greater entity in much the same way you're consuming the personhoods of the people if you are causing harm to every single one of these sentient beings and you said that withdrawing your consciousness withdrawing your control would cause harm but you you haven't been able to quantify that you haven't been able to explain that and it feels very much like you're saying that your absence would be the harm yes that the eventual death of these worlds would be the harm yes but that's not harm in the same way life is about change and growth and learning and progress and sometimes things end, but that's still part of life and that's not, taking that away is not an improvement if you're removing people's personhood while you're doing it. And let's take this from a metaplanar perspective, right? When people die, they don't go away, they move on to other places within whatever you want to call it, the metaverse, right? You're stopping them from doing that. You've trapped them. You're keeping a prisoner inside yourself. I return to the butterfly thing, which again, I'm very proud of, I have to say. It's a good one. It's a very good one. Thank you, Azu. They're sticking there.
But, you know, that butterfly should migrate. OK, maybe the butterfly thing is getting a little strained. No, no, no. I think you're right. You should let the butterfly flutter about and do its business instead of locking it away where only you can look at it. Exactly. And even if it flies, maybe it'll be eaten by a predator. You know, maybe it will. That's not ideal for the butterfly, but it's a fact of life and the predator is happy about it. And the butterfly did get to be free and it got to make decisions before. I don't know exactly how many decisions butterflies make. Maybe lots of them. But anyway. I don't know how many of the people, Myriad, that you've met, you've talked to.
I don't know how the four of us have ended up here and how we're the ones communicating with you in this way, but you've got four examples of people here. Sure, we know each other, we're friends, but we're very different. There's a lot that the four of us disagree on. But all four of us, individuals with different perspectives, all of us would choose to live and to die in an imperfect, unstable world, getting to make our own choices rather than be subsumed into you. If the other consciousnesses that you have access to are also there, ask them. Ask them how many would make that choice.
If all four of us, different perspectives on so many other things would make that choice, if all those other people would as well, then you see the harm you've done and then you see the reason to withdraw. Please wait a moment. Myriad sort of settles into literally a meditative pose beneath the tree. I've got to say, that went a bit better than I expected, so fair enough. I do wonder what a moment is to an interplanet creature. You know, we could be here a very long time. So I'm going to jump ahead two to three heat deaths of the universe. OK, eventually, and by eventually, it is a meaningless statement. It doesn't feel like forever. It doesn't feel like too long. It feels like the right amount of time. Myriad opens their eyes. We feel that if Nathaniel had compatriots at the time of decision, they would have made a different decision. Oh.
We could release the worlds and let them fall as they may. And we understand that in so doing we will change. And the worlds that are, some may flourish and some may die. And you understand. but we would not be in control of whatever happens next. That's the point. Yes, exactly. Give everyone a chance. Life is living, and it might suck sometimes, but it's a life. And you know, what you've got here is very beautiful. You could watch the sea forever if you wanted. Myriad looks out to the water for a moment. We could try to make another. Eventually, it's your turn in the initiative order, and you just have to roll that dice. That's another level of metaplanar. We are all but dreams and numbers. In which case, then, Myriad looks up, and all of you realise that though it hasn't been stifling, there's been no breeze.
And a slow breeze starts to move through the air. It's gentle at first and it rustles the, he uses the word leaves with bunny ears. It rustles the leaves and then just one from near the top sort of blows out into the air and starts heading out over the waters. And Myriad looks at him and begins to smile. It seems to be a very sincere reaction. Pleasant surprise as opposed to puzzlements or anything like that. And then you see another one detach and then another one. Thank you, Myriad. Yes. Good luck. Hamid sort of instinctively reaches for Azu's hand just to hold it. Oh yeah, Azu's hand is right there.
Myriad, are you interested in hugs at all? Is that a... Myriad sort of takes a moment, seems to be thinking what you mean, then sort of offers arms open as a like... Cell crouches down because you said they were very small. Yeah, as like a sort of like quite a short child. And I think leans in and gives him a very tight hug. I assume as like beautiful leaves swirl around, you know. Yeah, it feels real for what it's worth to all meaning of the word. And eventually sort of Myriad releases you, I guess. You can carry on hugging should you wish though. No, no. But leaves do start pouring.
From the tree. And by pouring, I mean more than you would fit on a tree, because those branches get very small towards the top, if you see what I mean. Oh, that's so many people. Just don't forget you have a chance, right? You've done an awful lot of harm, but at least you've taken some steps to undo it, so... I don't know. Just live your life well, OK? Yeah. Miriam doesn't seem to react beyond just another sort of benign, I guess, smile. Hamid reaches out his other hand towards Zulf and Sel. Yep, grabs. Nope. Well, Hamid's only got one other hand, so... Holding Az's hand and Sel's hand, that's fine.
So as leaves begin to pour from the tree, increasing an impossible amount, to be clear, it seems to never run dry, it starts to begin obscuring the vision slightly. There's a moment of sort of, not stillness because of the action, but a moment of calm, let's call it, because it's like white noise visually almost. And the last thing you hear me, I'd say, is an echo of the words earlier, just best of luck, best of luck. And then it starts to sort of dissolve a little bit visually. It starts to become just the colours themselves, until eventually all of you find yourselves back on the battle map. Azu. Yes. You become aware of birdsong.
Not much. And it's not close, but you definitely become aware of birdsong and you realise that at some point the sort of white noise wind that you were hearing has started to reform into more like the wind of a high place. Okay, I open my eyes. You're seemingly stood on what's left of Big Ben. Oh! The pieces are everywhere. You're not atop the top. It has sort of come down slightly. Am I lying down? You are, yes. Can I roll a perception check to see if... Yes, give me a perception check. Yes, I want to see if everyone else is there. That's 21. I'm going to say that you stand up for the sake of it, if I may. Yes. So standing up, you see everyone who was at the tower with you are around you. For a moment, you fear the worst as all of them are laid down.
but you see that they're all asleep. You see that rather less pleasantly, there's quite a lot of remains around the place from what presumably used to be the sort of guardians of the plant, at which point you notice that the plant itself isn't there. Not dead, just is not there. There is a large hole where it used to be, but it is not there. And you see that the looking around, you see a few more figures seem to be dotted around the place, seemingly sleeping. As he yells, wake up, wake up right now. Everybody up, up, up, up, up we go. I think we've done it. Get up.
Everyone in here and all of the NPCs we have been discussing previously atop start to do so. I was unconscious. True. So, you also awake. How many hit points am I on? I'll give you a guess. We'll see the max of one. It's one. It's one. I look for...
I look around to a certain... Oh, wait, no, you've already said everyone's there. In which case, I'm going to first look for Hamid and see if he's waking up okay? Yeah, he's there, waking up. Okay, then Kiko and Emeka, and they're all coming to all right. Everyone's coming to. Everyone's very confused because everyone clearly was mid-doing a thing and now waking up. Okay, I'm going to sit next to Kiko while she wakes up. I start looking around to assess the wider situation. London's still a mess from the fight, but you can see quite down low at street level.
Beneath the sort of remains that are littering the place, and now that it's just the remains, it's actually not spreading as much as you think. It's not like a sea or anything. There are a few people seemingly waking up and looking around quite confused at street level. Is Cell still mutagened? No. Oh. How long has it been? More than an hour. Three deaths of the universe, according to that. Yeah, I suppose. Yeah, I don't think I've got just fly as a thing. Oh, I can, though. I can beast shape into a hawk. Okay, nice. A hawk can see. You do that via a potion drink, right? Yep. Okay, cool. So, you drink your potion as normal? Mm-hmm.
Nothing happens. Oh. Oh my gosh, have we removed magic from the world? Interesting. Surely not. Hamid attempts to bring out his wings? Nope. He's going to try and cast fly? Nope. Okay, so we've removed magic from the world.
Hamid is going to run over to the collapsed building where Skark was. He's pretty slow now, and it was a fair way away, but he's still heading in that direction. I'll return to Hamid in a second, then. Also, just losing all bonuses from magical items, too. I'm afraid so. They haven't ceased to exist. It's not like you're all naked now or anything. That's an extra element that, thankfully, I don't have to deal with. And anything in a bag of holding will no longer exist, one would assume. Or all empty out at once. Yeah, or just vomits itself out, yeah. Good thing I got rid of all those marbles, eh?
Azu, is there anything you're wanting to do now that you've established that everyone in your immediate presence is waking up? Azu says to Kiko, are you all right? Yeah, yeah, I am, yeah. Confused, but... Wonderful. Let me just, because you probably fell or something, and Azu's going to attempt to cast Lay on Hands on Kiko. Azu can attempt that. It won't work, but you can attempt it. Azu says, oh no. What's wrong? The gods aren't there. Topaz! Oh no! He's not there.
Uh, uh, oh, Kiko, something is... Well, something went right, but I think we've had a side effect. Oh dear, okay, all right. Solve, what are you up to? Uh, realising that my legs don't work? Yeah, fair, that'll happen. Little help here, anyone? Bloody legs are broken. Wild, Wild comes over. Oh yeah. Well, I think we did it. Wild seems very... shell-shocked. Is this one of those times where I should be ecstatic and you're just, you know, keeping it back? Or is this one of those things where there's an enormous and terrifying butt?
No, I think we did it. My legs are off, broken. Can't use them. So that's great. Wild starts to cry. Oh, come on. Like, properly starts to cry. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He drops down next to you and then sort of just envelops you in a hug. All right, yeah, yeah, okay.
He's not going to be particularly helpful for a little while, I don't think. I'll just give him a pat on the back. Sel is going to check for Barnes and check that he's corporeal because they're a fan of him being corporeal. Barnes is corporeal, very much so. You can tell because he's currently shoving Carter off and just looking around trying to figure out what's happening. Hey, so it seems like we saved the world, but we also broke it, so...
I think that your practical skills, which are not reliant on magic, will be in very high demand in the reconstruction of the world. Just flagging that up. I think there's going to be quite a lot of rebuilding to do. I don't know if anyone got injured in the fight, or we should probably go and help some of the people that have just woken up from... I have to ask, what's happened to Brutor? Is he just an ordinary Pugwiler again? Oh, yeah. So, I'm going to have to jump to that. Sel, as you're saying that, you hear a gentle sort of...
Coming from inside an enormous set of plate armour. Cell goes over to check inside the armour. There is a small, very confused-looking pugwiler looking up at you from inside what, from his perspective, is an enormous metal cave. Cell grabs the dog and holds it awkwardly. Hello, buddy. Thanks for your help in the battle up there. Oh, I don't know. Do you have a name? Yeah, I... Wuff, wuff. Okay. I used to be able to turn into animals and then understand much more. I could call you... I could call you... From the hug. Hang on a minute. Is that bloody Brutal? What the hell is Brutal doing here? I'm going to use that to cut to Hamid, if I may. Hamid is, yeah, examining the rubble, trying to start to shift it, calling out Skrark's name. He probably keeps trying to cast magic or use his claws and nothing's working and he's having very little impact on the rubble. Give me a perception check.
I think if I haven't miscalculated my bonuses, that is still 31 somehow. Without magic. I mean, skill points exist. I mean, they're just skill points, right? Hey, hey, it's all good. What did you roll on the dice? A 16. Yeah, that's feasible. I think that's feasible. So you're looking around for a little while and you're starting to despair because you aren't going to be able to move an entire building. You're just not. Where do you even start? And as you take a moment to straighten your back and just look around, you see Skrark is sat atop what used to be a chunk of the roof, a little way off. He hasn't noticed you and he's looking out at the city. Oh, thank the gods. I'll scramble up there to join him.
Oh, Skrark hears you at that point, turns around. Skrark looks worse for wear. Skrark looks like he's been through the ringer a couple of times, but... Are you okay, Skrark? Did we win? I think so. For some definition. Then yeah. That was easy. Good. Good. What happens now, then? And I think I might close the campaign there.
Alex, why did you have to leave up with it? Why add this extra cruelty? Like, you're just like, oh, you know what? What's going to happen is joy and ecstaticness. And how can I complicate that? I suppose that is life, isn't it? Change happens. Yeah, it does. It does. I will say there will be some epilogue content where we'll find out a bit more. And I'm just going to leave you all like, oh, no, what's happened? But, yeah. And that was erasing the line, which you all did. Well.
Shout out to James Ross. Since he's not here. I feel like we should all go get shawarma. Yeah. Or very, very drunk. Well, while we all do that, we'll be here next week with, I promise, with some epilogue content. But for the last time as part of the campaign... An awkward outro. An awkward outro. Bye. Bye.
While the awkward conversation kind of continues, Stella's just going to back away with two thumbs up, grinning, like looking over their shoulder at me as they don't step up and then like turn around. Hey, buddy.
sorry sorry no no it's cool because in this universe there are gods and gods are technically a smaller scale almost in some ways hey buddy is just hey little buddy dragons liches interdimensional entities every interdimensional parasitic creature is just a friend you haven't made yet little buddy is a state of mind not a state of being