BlackwaterDnD

Em:
Welcome to BlackwaterDnD, where good friends tell better stories. This series, Afterlight, is a miniseries using Blades in the Dark, and is proudly sponsored by Evil Hat Productions and Bookwyrm Games. As this game falls within a post-apocalyptic horror genre, it may contain themes and depictions that are triggering for some listeners. Please take care of yourself and access safe support as you see fit.

Content warnings for this episode include: complex family dynamics & interpersonal conflict // apocalypse & societal collapse // darkness and shadow // guns as weapons // knives as weapons // blood and gore // body horror // visions and mind control // violence // grief & loss // death of family members & loved ones // being chased // bugs and insects // hallucinations // tight and enclosed spaces // severe injury // allusions to suicide

So get comfortable, listeners, and keep the lights on. Welcome to Afterlight.

Chapter 6: Reunions

Si:
You crawl and crawl, and feel the skin on your knees and elbows and stomachs getting scraped and cut. Hard and knotty roots dig into you from all sides as you squeeze through whatever gaps you can find to keep moving forward. There's almost no air down here, and you hear the creaking of shifting earth above you. It feels like everything could cave in at any moment, and if it did, you would be instantly buried. The tunnel goes on and on, and it feels like there's never going to be an end to it. You feel grime, dust and dirt collecting on your skin and on your clothes, and sweat is matting your hair against your foreheads. You've definitely left the hotel behind at this point, but the platform of twisted vines and roots continues underneath you, like some subterranean path. And you can feel yourselves descending deeper underground, crawling downwards. It smells of wet dirt. After a while, you start to notice again, a low humming noise, like a subtle buzzing. Not massively different to the sound you're used to hearing all over the Safe Zone. But in this moment you could not feel further away from that place and its bright lights and its people. And as you crawl in the dark, helpless questions cycle through your minds. Why am I doing this? Why did I volunteer? Is this all for nothing? Will they send another group out to look for us? This was not part of the plan. You have no idea if you are underneath the park, underneath another building, or heading somewhere else entirely. But you can't go back.

Evlan, you can feel subtle vibrations in the roots beneath you and above you. There's an energy flowing through them, and you can feel the pull of something ahead of you. You feel it deep within your chest, like a magnet drawing you in. It’s not something you can see or hear, but something you recognize all the same. It's the same feeling you got when you saw Deckard back in the library. That same connection. And you know that this is the right direction. Unexpectedly you start thinking about Maria, back in the Safe Zone. Maria, with her endless positivity and cute smile. Her shiny hair, her love of baggy t-shirts. You think about Maria practicing origami to impress you, looking for you in random corners of the Safe Zone, hoping to show off her new attempts. She saw something in you that she thought was worth coming back to, over and over, even if you didn't quite know how to deal with it. And you think about what's happening to you right now. What you are now. And wonder what Maria might think if she saw you. Just like at the underpass, the darkness of this tunnel forces you into those places in your mind. Flashes of your last moment with Deckard, the isolation of the Safe Zone. Luce’s lifeless body. Does Evlan have any regrets?

Amelia:
You know that feeling when you stand up too quick, and there's that black static that forms the side of your vision, you feel like you're just about to pass out, and your mind feels numb for a moment before it coalesces back to consciousness. I think Evlan finds that instead of that purchase that you get, where you've grounded yourself in thought, when you've caught yourself on your chair, or sat back down and found a relief. It's just that numbness swaying back and forth through all of these emotions. And I think a lot about this phrase I once heard, ‘There's nothing I’d take back, but it's hard to say there's nothing I regret.’ And I think to Evlan, every decision that they have had control over led them here. Deckard pushing them out of the way is not what they wanted to happen, but yeah, they wish they could go back and undo it, but they also didn't want it to happen in the first place, whereas leaving the Safe Zone is something that Evlan, I think in a way, knew the risks more than other people, the constant brushes with death, and I think there's a part of them that just feels like an end like this was inevitable. It's either this or, I don't know, maybe we turn the lights on and we spend some time in the Safe Zone, but nothing was ever going to feel right. I think the main thing is Evlan regrets not staying back with Luce, being a little bit reckless when they came to. And I think when Evlan thinks about what Maria would think if she saw them, it's mostly just worry because Maria is always looking for the light in everything, and if she saw Evlan, she would come out to try and fix them. And even before Evlan was transforming into whatever this is, I think even before the the world went wrong, before they got kicked out of their parents house… Evlan has always just felt like there's just something deep inside of them that is a little bit wrong, and can't be fixed. And they've just spent a lot of their life, not even running away with it, but just accepting it, and trying not to think about that.

Si:
Is there anything they would change, if they could?

Amelia:
They would do anything to get Luce back. They would do anything to get Deckard back.

Si:
As you crawl forward you realize that the skin on your forearms has split in a few places, and you can see some kind of dark bony growth underneath. And with every movement there's a sharp pain in your torso on the left side, where you were flung into the wall, your ribs almost certainly broken, but you know it doesn't hurt as much as it should, and you can make it so that it won't slow you down at all. But you will need to make a resistance roll.

Amelia:
Okay. And that is?

Si:
This will be with prowess.

Amelia:
[dice rolling] That is a six, a three, and a four.

Si:
Evlan takes no stress at all as they think about the damage and the injury. At this point it is trifling. Minimal. Barely more than a distraction. Please mark broken ribs as a low harm on your character sheet.

Amelia:
Happily. I think Evlan is just doing what they always do and just pushing through to ignore any pain.

Si:
Danny, the last thing you saw before you pulled yourself into the next section of this tunnel and started dragging yourself along, were the faces of Pen and Evlan, their eyes both jet black. The skin on Evlan's face started to look scaly in patches. And the way they were able to pick up Luce's body and leap across that gap was inhuman. You are leading the way, crawling through this tiniest of spaces, with no knowledge of what transformations they might yet be going through behind you. Can you even still say for certain that they are your friends and allies? That their motives are still the same? Who knows what Pen might do now? And Evlan is something else entirely… But amidst those worries, a memory begins to creep into your mind. It scratches at you and claws its way to the forefront of your brain. It has been some time since you have remembered anything so vivid. In the memory you are standing with Sue, in line at the bakery. She's laughing at something, and showing you some pictures on her phone that she took. She seems happy and relaxed, and she's teasing you a little, in a way that's making the other customers around you laugh. You're next in line, and Sue is trying to pull you towards the counter, but you're stuck, and you can't figure out why you're stuck. You can hear Sue's voice calling out to you, and you get the overwhelming feeling that you have an opportunity to take that step and join her. And it fills you with a love that you haven't felt for so long. She's just a step away, waiting for you. But something is holding you back. Something is keeping you here. Does Danny welcome the memory?

Sean:
I don't think Danny has enough strength in him to push something like that away. I think, in this moment, trying to do right by Sue is the only thing that keeps him going forward.

Si:
How was your relationship with your daughter the last time you saw her?

Sean:
It's really difficult to know that the relationship is better than it was, and not because of the work that you've done. We, um, we were getting on better than we had when she was younger. Because I think she decided to, and the fact that I could never figure out what to be or what to do, or how to fix it... I think she stopped thinking about me as a dad, and maybe I was just a guy who was a bit of fun to spend time with sometimes, but, maybe that was just the best we had, but, it is better than how it was.

Si:
Your leg is in agony. It is definitely broken. You're dragging it behind you as you crawl, but it's bumping against the uneven roots, weaving in and out of each other, and it's taking everything you have to push through the pain and keep moving. You can't be far now, and once you get there, you can finally rest. Surely. I need a resistance roll from Danny to push through the pain, and please also mark a broken leg as a moderate harm on your character sheet.

Sean:
Alrighty, only had one to begin with. [dice rolling] That's a two.

Si:
So it's four points of stress. As the pressure of the world continues to weigh down on you, what is going through Danny's mind right now?

Sean:
This was supposed to be the one thing I was good at. Is fixing things. Is keeping the lights on. Keeping things running how they should and, and I'm not even gonna be able to do that. Danny didn't think of getting hurt. He never thought what it'd be like to have to crawl knowing that he wouldn't be able to walk afterwards, and that it's not gonna be enough. I guess all he can do right now is crawl so he can get out of the way for the other two.

Si:
Pen. You feel like you are trapped in a living nightmare. Every crawl forward feels like you're moving further and further away from yourself, from your life. Leaving it behind. That version of Pen you try to keep hold of, even after the world fell apart. But it's like the thing, crawling forward now is something else. You can feel wet blood sticking to your shirt from the cuts you sustained scrambling across the ballroom. But everything is numb. Nothing feels real anymore. How can it be? How can Luce be gone? How can Luce be gone and you still be here? And what can you even be certain of anymore, in this place? Your vision is warping and distorting and changing, going from seeing wisps of air in the heavy dark, to getting flashes of bright light as visions and dreams battle at the edges of your consciousness, to get an audience. Voices drift in and out of your head, and there is constant noise all around you in the tunnel. It is all so relentless that you begin to lose grasp of what is real and what is not. Danny is ahead of you, Evlan behind, all of you crawling forward in this tiny space. Your clothes and skin being scratched and torn by the vines. Your eardrums being assaulted by these bassy reverberations and inexplicable noises in the ground beneath you and the city above. Pen, I'm going to need two resistance rolls from you. The first is with prowess, to deal with the cuts and lacerations that are bleeding through your clothes. Would you do that one first, please?

Gina:
I have nothing in prowess, so I roll two at disadvantage?

Si:
Yeah.

Gina:
[dice rolling] I rolled a one and a two.

Si:
You take five points of stress.

Gina:
Yeah, that brings me to eight.

Si:
The second resistance roll is with your resolve, as the worst thing you could imagine has happened, and the image of it has burned into your mind so deeply that it feels like a splitting headache, and because of that I'm going to ask you to subtract a d6 from this roll.

Gina:
[dice rolling] I rolled two ones.

Si:
And so you take another five points of stress, which means Pen takes another trauma condition. What is happening to Pen, in this moment?

Gina:
I think it's funny the things that come back to you when someone you love… I'm just flooded with the most benign memories. Of her cutting the curling brush out of my hair when I got it stuck in the second crate. Of her helping me cover my math book with the comic section of the newspaper. Sneaking into her room in the middle of the night because I'd had a nightmare, and she always complained, but she never kicked me out. Listening to her mom fight in the dining room, and dad yelling, and everyone yelling, and watching her leave without saying goodbye. And never coming back. And how I knew it was them, I knew it was because of them, but why wasn't I enough to keep me… What did I do? Why wasn't I enough? And I remember the first person that I lied to about her, some girl at school, I don't even remember who she was. She doesn't matter, but she asked me about my family and it was so small, but it felt like maybe if I say it enough, it can be true. Even if it's just for a little while. And that's the thing about lying, there comes a time when you just can't anymore. When you're too tired, or your body or your face or your eyes betray you and now I- I don't think I can lie anymore. I think, I think after seeing Francis, and how he was, what he became… It was still him. Deep down he was still in there. Maybe they would have let him back in? They would have, they of course, they would have if they could just see that it was still him and I… I think the trauma that I take here, now… I think about Luce. I keep thinking I'm gonna hear her voice, that she's right behind me. I think what kind of an Allen sister would I be if one of us weren't reckless. All I think is I have to go back. We have to go back.

Si:
The humming noise is getting louder the further you go, and it hits you in waves. Dense low pulses that cut through everything and make your bones hurt. There's an almost mechanical feel to it. It's rhythmic and powerful and intense. In this tunnel underground it is all you can hear, and it's getting louder like you are crawling towards the source of the noise. You can feel it ahead of you. And keep crawling and crawling, until eventually the space opens up a little into a passageway big enough for you to crouch in, almost high enough to stand if you dug down a little, and for the first time since you scrambled into this subterranean tunnel, you see the hazy grey of the outside world again. A little further ahead of you, a faint source of light in the distance that flickers. With the chaos of the hotel now firmly behind you, you have a moment to take a breath.

Amelia (as Evlan):
“Are you okay?”

Gina (as Pen):
“No. Are you?”

Amelia (as Evlan):
“No. Do you need help?”

Amelia:
I say looking down at your leg, Danny.

Sean (as Danny):
“I think I could use a shoulder, yeah. I wanna keep going. I think Luce would want us to keep going. I actually think they'd be kinda pissed off if we got sad about them.”

Amelia (as Evlan):
“Yeah, well. Pissing Luce off is kind of my specialty.”

Sean (as Danny):
“I'm so sorry, Pen.”

Gina (as Pen):
“Thanks. But what if she's…”

Gina:
I look back to you, Evlan, and I see...

Gina (as Pen):
“What if she's gonna be okay? What if you're feeling better, right? You're- you're- you're okay. You're gonna be okay. What if she's gonna… What if she wakes up and she doesn't know where we went? What if she tries to follow us and doesn't know where we are?”

Amelia (as Evlan):
“Pen, I don't know how life and death work here, but Luce died. If she comes back, if she does, in whatever form that is, they're gonna come to the power station. And we can't go back through there.”

Gina (as Pen):
“But we're gonna go back and get her, right? That's what we said. We, we promised we were gonna go back and bring her back.”

Amelia (as Evlan):
“Once, once we get the lights on. We cannot pull her back through there, and we don't have the energy. Danny's leg is fucked. We have to continue.”

Gina:
I look down at Danny's leg, I think for the first time really realizing how hurt he is.

Sean (as Danny):
“Hey Pen, you still got that frog?”

Gina:
And I have a flash in my mind of tucking it under Luce's arm.

Gina (as Pen):
“No, no, I… Luce has it, she's holding onto it for me.”

Sean (as Danny):
“Oh… Damn, damn, you got something else soft? I just, I know if you gotta keep going, when it hurts, it helps to hang on to something soft and I figure you're the person to talk to about that.”

Gina (as Pen):
“Yeah, I think I have. I gotta have something…”

Gina:
And I kind of half-mindedly swing my backpack in front of me and I unzip it and I root around for a second, and I pull out a t-shirt. And it has a little cartoon of a frog on it and it says, ‘Stay Hoppy’ on it.

Sean (as Danny):
“I don't know if I've been hoppy before, but I think this will help me be hoppy now. Thank you.”

Gina:
And they hand it to you.

Sean (as Danny):
“That's good.”

Gina:
I look around, Si, is there anything around us that I could use maybe as a, some sort of splint or something that I can maybe use to help Danny's leg?

Si:
All around the passageway, all around the tunnels, on the ground, above you, on the walls are endless rows of roots, endless rows of vines, all dead and a little brittle.

Amelia:
Evlan’s just going to kind of, given a task or a task has been named, is going to sort of look around for anything that looks like it's about the right size. Could break it off, or maybe something on the ground.

Si:
I think you can get your knife in, and break off some pieces of the thick roots and bind them to Danny's leg as best as possible.

Amelia:
As Evlan is cutting through the some of the roots or the vines, they just say,

Amelia (as Evlan):
“I think I've seen this place before.”

Gina (as Pen):
“How do you mean?”

Amelia (as Evlan):
“The night before… Oh my god, has it only been a day? Last night, I saw this place in a dream, and I don't know where it ends but it felt like it was pulling me there, and the entire time we've been moving, I felt that again.”

Amelia:
They like, cut off a branch, and kind of present it to you, Pen. They're not as familiar with first aid in this sense.

Gina:
I take the piece that you cut off and I hold it, and I look down at it, then I look back up at you.

Gina (as Pen):
“You mean you feel that pull again?”

Amelia (as Evlan):
“Yeah, like a kind of magnetism, almost. We're going the right way. I can, I can feel it. Whatever we're going to, that's where the power station is and maybe something else. I don't know.”

Sean (as Danny):
“I think one way or another we're going in the right direction.”

Sean:
And I'll follow your lead.

Gina:
I move back to Danny and I take the piece of vine, and I crouch down in front of you, Danny. Before I put my hands on your leg, I just say,

Gina (as Pen):
“This is probably gonna hurt really bad, okay?”

Sean (as Danny):
“I got my t-shirt.”

Sean:
And he squeezes it in his hands, and closes his eyes. He knows what's coming.

Gina:
As quickly and with as much decisive force as I can, I try and pop whatever I can back into place and re-tie it, with the crowbar on one side and the vine on the other. As close to a splint as I can get.

Sean:
Danny's had a lot of broken bones and stubbed toes and whatnot through his life but that... that... that hurt.

Gina (as Pen):
“I’m sorry.”

Sean (as Danny):
“No, no, no, it's okay. Just a bit of house building talk…”

Sean:
As he lets out a string of curses. This hum, it reminds me of the Safe Zone, the hum of the lights, is this, is this the power? Si, does it, could this be the sound of power moving? Is that what I’m hearing or is it something else?

Si:
It’s something else, but at the same time there is a striking similarity from when you left the Safe Zone not that long ago, stepping out into the dark, all of those noises around you changed so dramatically after a year of non-stop buzzing. But, crawling through this tunnel, there is a familiarity about the noise, a familiarity about the reverberations, the vibrations, as it seems like it must be more than just coincidence.

Sean (as Danny):
“Well, we're burning daylight. Shall we?”

Amelia:
Yeah, before we head out, Evlan like looks down at Pen as she's getting up, and for a moment where they see the fear, and they see their younger brother from when the lights first went out, and you just get a wordless hug.

Gina:
She hugs you back instantly. And it's really tight, it's probably too tight.

Amelia:
Evlan winces as their broken ribs are further compressed.

Gina:
I pull back.

Gina (as Pen):
“Let's go turn on the lights, yeah?”

Amelia (as Evlan):
“Yeah.”

Amelia:
We start walking.

Gina (as Pen):
“Hey, you guys?”

Amelia (as Evlan):
“Hm?”

Sean (as Danny):
“Yeah?”

Gina (as Pen):
“I'm really glad I'm here with you.”

Amelia (as Evlan):
“Me too.”

Sean (as Danny):
“Me too.”

Si:
You push on towards the opening in the tunnel ahead of you. As you get closer to the opening and get a glimpse of what's beyond, it stops you in your tracks. The tunnel eventually emerges into an enormous muddy crater dug deep into the earth. At least fifty feet below the surface, it is massive. Maybe a hundred and fifty feet across, carved out like some huge excavated hole, or the result of impact from a giant meteor slammed into the ground. The grey vines from the tunnel spill out into the crater and wind themselves around the edge and along the ground, joining with other vines, all impossibly long. They stretch around and above you, weaving in and out of each other, connecting like a web all the way up to the surface. The humming sound here is incredibly loud, coming from all around you, and above you the sky is alive with energy. A swirling tornado of cloud and shadow, of fire and dark matter. It is both life and death. Creation and destruction. As you look up and around, you can see the thick concrete of the road, of the surface above you, has completely broken away at the edges of this crater, and you stare in disbelief as you realize what else you can see above you. Suspended on thick weaves of vines and roots, and held in place in the air above the crater, is the electrical substation, fully deconstructed, pulled apart into its components, and the ground beneath it has completely gone. Collapsed, destroyed, removed, disappeared somehow, and instead the components are suspended in the air by vines, meticulously arranged to take their weight, like a spider web. You see chunky metal units with panels bent and broken off. You see coils and pipes and cables, large power transformers and steel casing. It is all here, all the parts from the diagram you were given. And there are random chunks of broken off concrete floating around them in the sky above you, held in place in this tangled network.

A ladder has got wrapped in the vines and hangs beneath the cluster of units suspended a little off the ground, and power cables run high above you, and out as far as you can see. And throughout the crater, thick clouds of swirling shadow surround everything. The opening you've reached at the end of this tunnel opens halfway up the wall of the crater. There is a huge drop below you into a vast muddy pit, thick with roots, and a steep wall of earth above you up to the street. Long vines stretch across the crater at different angles, weaving in and out of each other, some almost within reach. But Pen, you freeze for a second as you notice something move out of the corner of your eye. There is a person sat on a ledge near this opening, just a few feet away from you. Their legs dangling over the edge of the long drop below. They turn to you as you look over, and your breath catches in your throat as you see Luce, her face serious, but with that usual little smirk. Her eyes meet yours and you suddenly feel lighter and warmer. Things around you don't seem so dark as the sky above glows with a radiant light. She is uninjured and she's wearing the jacket you made, fully intact.

Gina (as Pen):
“Luce? You're okay?”

Gina:
And I start to move towards her.

Amelia:
I grab Pen's arm.

Gina (as Pen):
“What are you doing? She's here!”

Amelia (as Evlan):
“Pen…”

Em (as Luce):
“They're gonna try and hold you back from coming to see me, but you can come. It's okay.”

Gina (as Pen):
“Can't you see her? She's right, she’s right there!”

Gina:
And I point in the direction where she is.

Amelia:
Do I see Luce?

Si:
There's nothing there, it's just a narrow ledge, just a bit of rock that's sticking out.

Amelia (as Evlan):
“Pen, when I separated from you in the library, I thought I saw someone too.”

Sean (as Danny):
“Pen, does she have the frog? Because you left her with the frog, didn't you? Does she have the frog?”

Gina:
I look. Does she have the frog?

Si:
Em, I'll leave that to you.

Em:
Oh, goodness… Can I hear what Evlan and Danny have said?

Si:
Yes, you can.

Em:
Luce would just tap a breast pocket and not say anything else.

Gina (as Pen):
“She's got it, she's got it, she's got it for safekeeping, of course she would!”

Em (as Luce):
“I wouldn't leave that behind.”

Amelia (as Evlan):
“Pen, we can't see her.”

Gina (as Pen):
“What do you mean?”

Sean (as Danny):
“Pen, how's she look? How's she look? She look alright?”

Gina (as Pen):
“She looks like Luce. She's wearing my jacket, she’s, it's, it’s her!”

Gina:
And I hug a little bit on Evlan's grasp.

Amelia:
And it does not loosen.

Gina (as Pen):
“What are you doing? She, you said if she was gonna meet us here, she would meet us here. She's here!”

Sean (as Danny):
“Pen, I need your help because I can't see her but I'd like to. Can you walk me through it? What she look like? So, she's got the frog. Is she holding it in her hand? What, how's the frog doing?”

Gina (as Pen):
“No, no, it's in her jacket! I put lots of pockets in there so she could get…”

Amelia:
I'm looking around to see if there's anything moving toward us or Pen.

Si:
There's currently no movement that you can see. The crater is eerily still, but the sky above is moving as always, and that noise is coming in pulses surrounding you.

Gina (as Pen):
“Come on, Luce, we have to turn on the lights.”

Em (as Luce):
“Yeah, yeah, that's important. And they can do, they can do that. You don't have to.”

Gina (as Pen):
“How did you get here before us?”

Em (as Luce):
“It wasn't hard, actually. I, uh, just kept moving. Right? I wasn't gonna let anything slow me down. I'm resourceful, you know that.”

Gina (as Pen):
“Well, now that you're back, can... Can I have my frog back? I think Danny really wants to... Could really use it. If you're feeling better?”

Em (as Luce):
“Come sit with me. I wanna talk to you about something. I should've talked to you about it so long ago, and I don't necessarily wanna have this conversation in front of Evlan and Danny. Not right now, but it feels like one we really should have. So come on up here, and I can give it back to you then. I can't reach you from here. I might slip or something. So just come sit with me.”

Gina:
And hearing Luce say, come sit with me… And for the first time in a long time, really invite her in. And ask to spend time with her, and think there is a look of real joy on her face, that I don't think Evlan or Danny has seen, if at all, a really long time. Genuine happiness.

Gina (as Pen):
“Yeah, I'll come sit with you. Let me just find a way to get up there.”

Amelia (as Evlan):
“Pen!”

Gina (as Pen):
“I'm just going to be a second! Don't-”

Amelia (as Evlan):
“What version of Luce would expect you to risk your life to scramble up a ledge, instead of jumping down herself? When we were in the library-”

Gina (as Pen):
“Maybe she's tired!”

Amelia (as Evlan):
“When we were in the library, I saw Deckard and I've seen hallucinations out here before. I know the ones that are real and aren't real, and that one felt real and it still ended with me getting stabbed in the chest.”

Gina (as Pen):
“But what if it is her?”

Amelia (as Evlan):
“Please. If it is her, she can come down here. And she can wait.”

Em (as Luce):
“I've never known Evlan to be this cautious before. It's not like them.”

Sean (as Danny):
“Can I tell y'all a secret? I see Sue everywhere. It's, it's, it, it actually makes it kind of hard to look at, well, the two of yous, but you especially, Pen, you really… Sometimes out of the corner of my eye, I'm so sure she's here. Then when I realize it's just you. It's all I can do not to break apart. And I know she's gone, but that doesn't stop it from feeling real. And I'm sorry that I maybe wasn't the right kind of way here, but I'd appreciate if you stuck around with us, Pen, I'd appreciate that an awful lot.”

Em (as Luce):
“I know we haven't had a lot of time to talk, and there's a lot of things that I really want to say, so just come sit with me. Please. Are you gonna make your sister beg?”

Amelia (as Evlan):
“Pen, what’s she saying?”

Gina (as Pen):
“How do I know it's really you? I wanna believe it's you.”

Em (as Luce):
“Thanksgiving. You were… Nine. I would have been sixteen. Mom burnt the turkey and somehow it was my fault. We got into a yelling match and I went upstairs, and dad yelled after me that I didn't deserve to have dinner with any of you anyway. And after they'd gone to bed, you brought me a full plate of dinner that you had warmed up. Not even in the microwave. You'd warmed it up on the stove for me, because you said that microwaves never made it taste this good. It's me, Pen.”

Gina (as Pen):
“I’m coming!”

Gina:
And I want to try and break away from Evlan.

Amelia:
Yeah, Evlan is not going to hurt you, but is not going to go without a fight.

Gina (as Pen):
“She’s right there!”

Amelia:
Evlan braces against you.

Amelia (as Evlan):
“Look. I'm not going to fight you, Pen, and I can't do this all the way to the power station. But we came here with one goal that Luce died to pursue. If you have to go to that ledge, I am going with you.”

Gina (as Pen):
“Why can't you see her? Luce, come down!”

Amelia (as Evlan):
“Probably the same reason you can't see Deckard. We don't know how anything works. We don't know how death works or consciousness, or what is on the other side of every mirror, or why everything is dark, and why the power station is fucking hanging in the sky. None of this makes any sense. So maybe that is Luce. But just because it's Luce doesn't mean that it's safe.”

Gina:
I think you feel Pen, you feel Pen's body relax just a hair when you say that. ‘Just because it's Luce doesn't mean it's safe.’

Amelia:
Evlan also eases up a bit.

Em (as Luce):
“Look, I'm not gonna try and cause trouble between the two of you. If you gotta go with them, go with them.”

Gina (as Pen):
“What do you mean, come with us?”

Em (as Luce):
“I'm gonna sit for a little bit and if you wanna come join me, great, I'd love that. But if I know you've gotta move forward, I know you've gotta hit the switch, we all do. So I get it. It's okay. Don't worry. But it doesn’t hurt over here, Pen. I’m doing pretty good right where I am, so if you wanna come sit, come sit. If Evlan has to come, then fine.”

Gina:
I look back to Evlan and to Danny.

Amelia:
Evlan just kind of releases and looks at you expectantly.

Gina (as Pen):
“I know you see them and it... And you know it's not them, but... If there was a chance that it could be… Wouldn't you take it?”

Amelia:
And Evlan looks at you in a moment of a kind of realization, and an almost surrender of the idea that we can kind of control, that we can take actions or make decisions that will save other people, there’s just this inevitability that this was always going to end however it ends, and just takes a step back to allow you to do whatever it is that you’re going to do.

Gina (as Pen):
“Thank you.”

Gina:
And I go up to the ledge.

Si:
Pen, the closer you move towards Luce, the lighter you feel. The comfort and warmth and love surrounds you. The pain from your wounds goes away. The shadows surrounding this place lift. It’s like a wave of endorphins just rushing through you, and you feel better than you did even in the Safe Zone. No aches and pains, no tiredness, no sadness. With every step closer, it gets better and better.

Sean:
Danny is just gonna, he can't go very far very fast, so real slowly start making his way towards the edge. Danny, Danny doubts his ability to climb out of this fuckin' canyon, let alone the monkey bars of vines up to that service station, so he figures this is the best thing he can do right now, and he'll make his way out to the ledge. And if nothing jumps out and bites him, he's gonna sit down where he assumes is next to Luce, and let his legs sort of dangle.

Sean (as Danny):
“Nice spot, see why you picked it.”

Em (as Luce):
“Danny looks like he's seen better days, hey? His leg looks really messed up.”

Gina (as Pen):
“Yeah, he broke it.”

Em (as Luce):
“It's a shame. How are you feeling?”

Gina (as Pen):
“Just knowing that you're okay, I feel great. Luce, I was so scared. I…”

Em (as Luce):
“I know. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I should have protected you better.”

Gina (as Pen):
“No!”

Em (as Luce):
“From all of it. Not just this, from all of it. I shouldn't have left. I just… I couldn't take you with me. When we were younger, I just couldn't take you with me. And I'm sorry for that.”

Gina (as Pen):
“I didn't understand it then, but I- I- I do now. It's okay.”

Em (as Luce):
“I know. Well, it's not okay, but I appreciate the understanding.”

Gina (as Pen):
“I should have stood up for you more. I should have tried harder to find you when you left. I should have…”

Em (as Luce):
“You did what you could. And that's okay.”

Gina (as Pen):
“No, I didn't. I didn't.”

Em (as Luce):
“It's okay. I don't hurt anymore. Nothing hurts right now. Everything's… Everything’s okay. And I want that for you. You carry so much on your shoulders. Not just from the shit that's happened in the Safe Zone, but from everything that you've ever been through in life. You carry it around like that backpack. And you don't have to. I see how lonely it makes you. I think I've always seen that, and it's because you feel like you have to hide it. You don't want anyone to see you're struggling. I get that. I do that too. You can let all that go. You've been carrying the weight of whatever shit went on between us for years. And I don't want you to have to carry that anymore. I've let it go, and you can too. I want to protect you. I want to be the big sister I didn't get to be for you, I couldn't be for you because of my own shit. But now I can. I can, I can, I can really look out for you. You don't have to keep up all of that anymore if you don't want to. You can just let go. You can let go of everything, and maybe we can give it another try, and be better. I can be better than I was. I want to have that opportunity to be better than I was. The sister you deserved, not the one that you got.”

Gina (as Pen):
“Can we start over?”

Em (as Luce):
“You gotta let go to do that.”

Gina (as Pen):
“How do I do that? I'm so tired.”

Em (as Luce):
“I know. I know you are.”

Gina (as Pen):
“We have to turn the power back on before I can…”

Em (as Luce):
“You've done enough.”

Gina (as Pen):
“The people are counting on us.”

Em (as Luce):
“Let Danny and Evlan do it. You've done enough. Even though you've been so essential to this journey, this mission, you have done enough. You can let them do the rest.”

Gina (as Pen):
“Where would we go?”

Em (as Luce):
“I don't know. We can figure that out on the way. But I'll look out for you. I won't let anything bad happen to you. That's my job, right? I'm your big sister.”

Gina (as Pen):
“You're my best friend.”

Em (as Luce):
“I'd like the opportunity to earn that. I'm not in pain. No stress. The rest of the world doesn't matter, it's just you. There's finally a real way that I can look out for you.”

Gina:
There have been so many moments when Pen has imagined conversations between the two of them that feel like this. Where she feels connected to her. Where she feels loved. Where she feels forgiven. And I think that there's a part of her that knows that this probably isn't real. But if you believe something enough, maybe it can be. And I want to try and hug my sister. What happens when I do that?

Si:
As you reach out for Luce you feel your hand pass through something that kind of envelops your arm. A gentle pressure and a warmth. It feels like something tangible but it isn't what you expect. And Luce, just stays there, sat next to you, smiling at you. I think to Pen it's clear that this isn't Luce in the way she was before. But in every other sense, it is.

Gina (as Pen):
“I love you so much.”

Em (as Luce):
“I love you too. A lot. And I'm really fucking proud of you.”

Si:
For the rest of you, this surreal moment plays out with Pen out on this narrow ledge, with the drop below, and above you the sky swirls as it always does, burning black fire and crackles of lightning shoot throughout, and the thick clusters of shadows and particles drift and roll across the space, the vast opening of the crater. And this substation, or what's left of it, just hovers there above as you stand just frozen, unsure what to do. You seen Pen talking and you see her reaching out. You see her smiling.

Amelia:
Is there any... I know there are things that are hanging and suspended, and ladders and things, toward the center or the central pieces of the substation. Is there a path from the tunnel we're at to there?

Si:
It is a jump. There are vines almost within reach.

Amelia:
As soon as Pen started making her way to that ledge with Luce, I think Evlan kind of resigning themselves to that decision, and also on the off chance that that is really Luce, know that's not their conversation, or at least that Luce would appreciate the privacy, is just going to stay on task and make a bid for that jump.

Si:
It is a leap across a gap, and then you need to be able to successfully grab hold of the vines in the air to not go crashing down to the dirt below. It is going to need an action roll to do it. Do you say anything to Danny before you try to jump across?

Amelia:
No. I think the, again the closest thing I have that makes sense would be, I guess prowl.

Si:
That sounds good.

Amelia:
And I think it's worth it to take some stress because I still haven't been traumatized yet. So, might as well give it the old college try in the last episode. So, that'll bring me up to 3d6. [dice rolling] That is a two, a six, and a four.

Si:
Danny, you look over and see Evlan on the edge. What are you doing in this moment?

Sean:
I'm sitting on the ledge next to Pen, just hearing half a conversation and hearing a lot of things that I wish I could have said. I'm sorry, I love you so much. He's just here with Pen, that's the best that he can do right now.

Si:
Okay.

Em:
Seeing Danny's, that internal struggle, I think Luce would kind of clock that Evlan is going, and not paid any mind, and look at Pen.

Em (as Luce):
“He can be free of that, too. If he wants. You all can. You can just let it go.”

Gina (as Pen):
“Just tell me what to do.”

Em (as Luce):
“I can't. I can't make that choice for you. You can either go and make sure everyone doesn't fall. You can stay here with me. I don't think it can be both. Unfortunately.”

Gina:
I look over to Danny.

Sean (as Danny):
“I'm not making that jump. Maybe if I had a fuckin' ramp I could get up there, but... I think this is it for me.”

Gina (as Pen):
“She says we can just let go.”

Sean (as Danny):
“Do you wanna let go?”

Gina (as Pen):
“I just want rest. And I want to be with her. Do you want to come with us?”

Sean (as Danny):
“No, I want to turn on the lights, but I figured I'd sit here with you in case you needed any of my help.”

Gina:
And I reach over and I lay my hand on top of yours. And I give it a squeeze.

Gina (as Pen):
“I know you miss Sue. I'm sorry I remind you of her.”

Sean (as Danny):
“Nah, it's the best part of my day. You know, it's, you just miss him so much that, just to get that feeling, just for a second, it's… It’s good. I don’t know. There's one time, when she was in her teens, I got a call from the hospital. And you never want to get that call, and she was in a bad way and... You know, she’d, uh, she'd taken, um, some stuff from the medicine cabinet and… I was such a goddamn fool. Because I was just so scared that I got mad at her. And... What I couldn't say is that I just… I just wish that I could have been there. With her. I don't think I was ever able to change her mind about anything. But if she was gonna go, I'd wanna be there with her, just so she wasn't alone. And so if you gotta go, you gotta go, but I'm... I'm gonna be here.”

Gina:
I squeeze your hand again.

Gina (as Pen):
“You were a really good dad.”

Sean (as Danny):
“Thank you. Wanna stay with me and just see what it's like to see when the lights come on? I mean, we made it this far. Nothing's gonna stop Evlan, so I figure we wait around a little bit. We might see some fireworks here. Wait a while. Let's see what happens.”

Gina (as Pen):
“Yeah, I'll sit with you. I don't think I'd be able to get up there either.”

Sean (as Danny):
“You give yourself too little credit.”

Sean:
I give your hand a big squeeze right back.

Gina (as Pen):
“You know, for what it's worth. We would have been really lucky to have a dad like you.”

Em (as Luce):
“Agreed.”

Gina (as Pen):
“Did you hear that? Luce agrees.”

Sean (as Danny):
“Yeah, but she's got bad taste.”

Gina (as Pen):
“It’s true though.”

Sean:
And I think Danny just like, leans into you and you, just putting his shoulder sort of, giving his weight to you, just feel him kind of melt a bit, and kind of all the fight that's left in him just sort of just turns to mush.

Gina:
And you hear Pen just really softly say,

Gina (as Pen):
“There is something in this world that only I can do, and only you can do, and Evlan, and Luce, only we can do, and that's why we're here.”

Gina:
And I just rest my head on yours and look out and see if Evlan can turn these lights on.

Si:
Evlan, you jump off the ledge with this big drop beneath you and reach for the vines closest to you. You grasp hold as tightly as you can hoping they will take your weight, and your body swings suspended in the air for a moment before you grab hold of another, and pull yourself across so you can put your feet down on one and begin to climb. It is a tangled web of vines above you like some twisted nightmare playground. And you start pulling yourself up, climbing higher and higher as you find a way through. Pushing past broken concrete blocks, dead trees, broken steel girders. Above you, the deconstructed components of the substation hover, and you start pulling yourself up onto metal platforms and heavy grey units, shimmying across thick metal cables, and balancing on narrow beams all impossibly suspended in the air by this web of dark vines. The intensity of the pulses of energy only increases, and your whole body is getting shaken and battered by the force of it. And you feel vibrations throughout this whole place. Travelling down each vine, you feel them deep in your bones. You look up and see about ten feet above you, a large box shaped unit encased in a metal shell. Half a dozen large coils are attached to the roof out of which thick cables extend and climb up and away, getting entangled in dense clusters of the vines and disappearing into thick clouds of particles and shadow. The front panel of the unit has broken off, and within it you can see at long last, the exact thing you are here for. Amongst a dense collection of components, there is a row of levers, just like the diagram you were given in the Safe Zone. The circuit breakers. It's here. But there is a thick band of vines coiled tightly around the unit like they are trying to protect it somehow, and you can get to the switches, but you're going to have to get through the vines in order to flip them.

Amelia:
Yeah, I think Evlan, just seeing the very thing that we're looking for, suspended in vines being like, choked out just, perfectly just floating in the air, just,

Amelia (as Evlan):
“Sure, why the fuck not? God fucking damn it.”

Amelia:
And just pulls out their knife. Kept it with them all those times. One of the few things that they've managed to hold on to, or cared enough to hold on to. And...

Amelia (as Evlan):
“Here goes fucking nothing, I guess.”

Amelia:
And it just starts cutting through and pulling the vines apart.

Si:
Okay, awesome. I'm gonna ask for another action roll to basically determine how quickly Evlan's able to do this. I'll let you choose what skill you'd to apply here.

Amelia:
I don't suppose the attune makes sense. I guess, I guess wreck actually makes the most sense.

Si:
Yeah, that sounds good.

Amelia:
And I will push myself, which will inflict a trauma, but we'll wait to see the outcome of this roll to see before I commit to what that is. So that will give me 2d6. [dice rolling] That is a four and a five.

Si:
A partial success, and pushing yourself to make this roll means Evlan takes two more points of stress. As you realize you are now doing this by yourself, climbing higher and higher, and glancing back down as Danny and Pen just sat on the ledge resting, you suddenly start to feel the pressure of responsibility in a way that perhaps hadn't hit you before, when you were in a team. With Pen wanting to stay with Luce, and with Danny's injury to his leg, you're not sure if either of them could even make it up here, and so this has fallen to you. There is a whole community of survivors desperate for the chance to live, for some kind of hope that they can do that, and this is how they get that chance, but it all falls to you, and the stress eats away at you. Bit by bit. And so with those last two stress points, Evlan takes a trauma condition. You are hacking at these vines as fast as you can, and trying to tear them away, but it takes longer than you would have hoped, as they almost seem to fight back, moving and tensing, slipping in your grasp. And as soon as you start to cut them, there is a crash of heavy lightning above you and a swell of pressure in the air like a static charge, and you feel that electricity like tiny stabs of pain all over your body, and the ground begins to tremble and there is a chorus of noise that erupts from all across the city, from every corner of this darkened hellscape. An explosion of concrete and earth, like a demolition charge, rises up. Gone off all at the same time, and huge clouds of dust and debris rise up in immense shadows begin to darken the streets in the distance. But you do your best to cut through the vines and clear the way. In your periphery you can see the mass of dark shadow getting bigger, and getting closer, like a tidal wave approaching the shore, and it steals your focus for a moment. As the vines split, there are spurts of black ooze that drip from within them, and there are strange sinewy tendons inside the hard casing of the vines that stretch and snap in unsettling ways, almost like flesh, but they break back, wither and withdraw, curling backwards and shrinking, and within moments you have your hand on the first lever, but with this tidal wave of darkness approaching you from all around the city. What is it you do?

Amelia:
I think with the weight of everything literally coming down upon them. Evlan thinks about the fact that they're tied to whatever this is, and it turns on the lights, what happens to them. And the pressure of everyone's survival doesn't even register in the same way. Evlan is turning on the lights because we came here to turn on the lights. They don't, in this moment, really feel like they're a hero or that they're saving people or that this will work or buy time. They've spent their whole life feeling like they were just broken, not in an interesting or artistic, clever way. And there are these moments whenever they would leave the Safe Zone, whenever they could attune to whatever this is, where Evlan thought that maybe if I can just figure this out, I can be something more. I won't just be forgotten. And now they realize it doesn't even matter. There's no way for them to figure out what is actually going on here. The bullshit of going through the tunnel of the monsters, of the mirrors, of what does it mean if our loved ones are just haunting us. Where are they? And there's even a part of Evlan that, for a moment, is just frustrated if maybe that's what they're supposed to do. Maybe they're supposed to die and go to the other side, and that's another thing Deckard figured out before they could. And as they hold this lever in their hand, they're not thinking, ‘oh, we've done it’. Every feeling that they have, all of the stress, evaporates and they don't care what happens next. They feel cold. They feel nothing. And they're doing this because it's in their hand. And I guess in a very real sense, there is something in this world that only Evlan can do. And I don't know if it even fucking matters. And so as the shadows start closing in, in more ways than one, and that pull, that static magnetism that feels like pressing a bruise where it feels good for a moment, until the pain sets in, with each reverberation of the waves moving through them, their bones, through the sinew through the ichor of the vines and in their skin. And they can't even think of anything clever to say or do, they just flip the switch.

[thunks and whirs of the substation powering up]

Si:
Holding on tight with one hand and bracing yourself, hoping you don't fall. You pull each of the switches down, and there is a surge of power that courses through you. You hear the noise of electricity powering up, and with a burst of light so dramatic in the darkness it nearly causes you to let go, the first new light in the city behind you beams out. Then another and another. Street lights, apartment blocks, office towers, shopfronts, more and more, more beams, white and yellow and golden light into the sky above, blinding and beautiful. As the burst of light shoot upwards above the city there is an almost deafening crack as the eruption splits the dimensional rift in the sky in half, causing an explosion of burning black fire to cascade across it. A shower of sparks of light and darkness fall from the sky like shooting stars, and cracks and fissures begin to appear sucking in energy around them like a vortex. Part of the sky is collapsing. And the lights return like a wildfire, spreading through the city from block to block, illuminating the decimated landscape that had been concealed within the darkness. As the glow gets closer and closer, you can hear the screeches and growls and screams of the monsters descending on your location. A wildfire of light on one side, and a tidal wave of shadow on the other. You see some of the creatures in the distance are consumed by the light, and they dissolve and disintegrate in an instant, unable to escape. And you watch as the light within the library turn on with a satisfying thud, and an incredible beam of the purest light erupts through the broken dome in the center of the ceiling like a spotlight, shining powerful and true towards the heavens. You squeeze your eyes shut and brace for the impact of the lights around you coming back on, for that feeling of artificial warmth and safety… But it doesn't come. The crater remains in darkness. The surge of electrical noise flowing through the substation eases into a more steady buzz. A huge new part of the city is now glowing with glorious light and energy, by some miracle you have done it. And maybe there is hope for the survivors yet. But as you open your eyes back up, you realize this substation is not within the power grid it regulates. It sits just outside it. And there is a rumble of terrifying sound approaching from the parts of the city still in darkness, as an army of creatures scuttles towards your location with frenzied intensity, and the first of them begin pouring over the edge of the crater from the north side like a waterfall of pure chaotic darkness, scrambling effortlessly down the sheer edges as their spider-like legs dig and scrape into the hard earth. For Pen and Danny back on the ledge, you can just about see Evlan through this network of vines. And you hear the thud of power surging through the substation and surging through the cables. And you can see in the sky above a new light begins to glow and gets brighter and brighter, and you wait in anticipation, ready for the light to come and cover you, but it doesn't. And you look across to the other side of the crater as intensely dark spots, intensely dark patches begin to move down the wall. And it just takes that moment of adjusting your vision to realize that those dark patches are creatures, monsters, and there are dozens of them pouring into the bottom of the crater and heading in your direction. So what do you all do?

Em:
I think Luce would look to Pen as the first wave begins to crest over the edge after we hear the power come on.

Em (as Luce):
“Look, you're not gonna have much time. There's a lot of ways that I can look out for you. There's a lot of ways that I can care for you. And if you want to stay with me, I love nothing more than that. But if you're gonna go, and it's okay if you do, you gotta take Danny and you gotta go. Now. I'll stay with Evlan. We'll figure it out. They were never gonna let us back inside, anyway.”

Gina (as Pen):
“I’m not gonna leave you again.”

Em (as Luce):
“You're not. You never did. I was always the one that did the leaving. You take him, if you're going to go, and you go. Or you stay here with me.”

Si:
Evlan, from your vantage point, at the top of this network, seeing the lights come on in the city, but seeing this army of creatures charge across the land. You can see that you are holding on, suspended on these platforms in the air above the crater, all held together by this imposing network of vines and cables, and you look across at the illuminated part of the city, glorious and shining. The lights start a few hundred feet away. To get across this crater from where you are you would have to clamber across the spider's web of vines, and leap to solid ground, and then run as fast as you can to the safety of the light, before something can rip you to shreds trying. But as you see the beaming bright lights transform the city and fill the sky above, it burns your eyes to look directly at it, and this immense electric light seems to erupt to beat back the darkness, but with that explosion of light you get this almost violent reaction from within you that builds up and up, and this otherworldly screech involuntarily escapes from your lungs, and you scream into the sky. And as that happens, you start to see the air around you shimmer like the surface of water, like the boundary between this world and the next has suddenly become very visible and tangible to you. It's like you crossed a threshold somehow, and you feel a pure connectedness to all things in this world. Thousands of voices all at once in your head. You hear the heartbeat of every single survivor in the Safe Zone, and the warped screams of every single monster roaming in the dark, and you hear the joy and laughter of your own memories, and Deckard's reassuring voice coming from the other world beyond the shimmer. And I think, in this moment, as Evlan pushes beyond stress, and the trauma causes them to feel cold and emotionless… All of that clicks into place, and you realize you have a choice in this moment. Almost oblivious to whatever Pen and Danny might be doing, you realize you don't care at this point, because you feel at home in this world, in the dark, but also you understand you could leave this form, leave this body and move into the next. A place where you can reconnect with those memories and reconnect with your brother.

Amelia:
I look toward the Safe Zone until all of the building lights blur into just a dull pain, and as the shadows begin to swarm, and I feel the boundary thinning, I think despite the trauma and the cold, there is still always a lingering fear of the unknown. Evlan just kind of looks down at their hands, and thinks about what it would even mean to go to the other side. The conversation, however brief, of them saying they don't feel like they're that lucky. And as the monsters rush into the crater, I think Evlan looks away from the city and just starts making their way to the other side. And if the creatures eat them or kill them, I don't think they really care.

Em:
You would hear Luce's voice sound as if it was right next to you, right behind you on those vines that you're perched precariously on as you're making this decision.

Em (as Luce):
“I'm not gonna let you go alone this time. I'm here.”

Amelia (as Evlan):
“Oh, so now you're going to talk.”

Em (as Luce):
“You weren't close enough before. You are now.”

Amelia:
I think Evlan instinctively turns in the direction of the voice. And as they move toward it, I think just sort of shifts through that veil into whatever is on the other side.

Em:
The second you pass through, you'd feel Luce’s hand in yours, holding you very tightly. And Pen would probably notice that Luce is gone.

Si:
Pen and Danny. As the lights come back on, looking up, you see Evlan screams into the sky, and it reverberates out, echoing off the sides of this enormous crater, and you see their shape begin to change as a cloud of shadow grows around Evlan and begins to swirl, sticking close to their body. And you see movement from behind them as several dark tentacles slowly uncoil themselves from somewhere inside Evlan's back, and begin delicately swaying through the air. And glittering shimmer forms in the air around them, and the shadows that swirl get deeper and darker and more intense, until they fully subsume Evlan's form. And in a flash, this cloud of shadow drifts away, and Evlan is no longer there. They've disappeared. And the rumbling and the shaking in the ground of the crater becomes more and more intense as you are suddenly snapped back to what is happening immediately ahead of you, and down in the crater as more and more of these creatures are filling the bottom of it like water rising up. You look above to the possibility of light in the city, and know that to get there you would have to climb up the tangled web of vines. Behind you is the dark narrow tunnel that leads to a dead end where the hotel collapsed in, and you know that one way or another. This is going to be resolved in a matter of moments. What do you both do?

Sean:
Danny is not a brave man, but he's got a problem that he can fix with his hands. His hands reach for the pistol and his crowbar, and he's gonna get to his feet, and he's gonna look at Pen and he's gonna say,

Sean (as Danny):
“I'm proud of you.”

Sean:
And he's gonna fire at the creatures, and when the gun is empty he's gonna try to jump down to lead them away into the pit. Because maybe they don't know she's here.

Si:
You aim as best as you can at the movement of darkness below you. It is relentless, fearless, seemingly unstoppable. You see some kind of reaction as some of the bullets land, but more and more of them come, and do your best to kind of lower yourself off the edge but you have to let go and you fall, letting gravity do the rest and you hit the muddy base of the crater with the thud, an immense burst of pain shoots up from your leg. You can see on the ground as you put your hands in the mud to stand up there are these small, slick black tentacles, just these thin little snake-like things that are pushing through and weaving in the air. Some of them slide across your hands and your legs and try and hold you in place, but you can push them off and stand up and your feet shake from the stampede of death that is headed towards you, and you do your best to move.

Pen, Danny gets to his feet and is trying to fight them off, as impossible as it may seem, and it's very clear what he is trying to do. To get their attention or distract them and buy whatever tiny amount of time he can, and you look back across to your left at the ledge, and Luce isn't there anymore. Above you the sky is erupting in new ways, a battle of light and dark, and it's like stars are falling out of the sky. But Evlan is gone. Danny is down in the shadow beneath you, and you look back over your shoulder at the dark tunnel you came from where you left Luce's body. Pen, what do you do?

Gina (as Pen):
I know that Danny still has the dog tags, and I know that my sister is gone. And that I'm not made for this. I can't do this. I'm not gonna be able to run fast enough to… Then I look back to the tunnel. Then all I can think about is being with my sister one more time. I promised her I would come back. And I think if she had still been here on this ledge with me, I would have stayed. If Danny had stayed with me, I would have stayed. But I'm all by myself again, and I'm scared, so I'm gonna run back to the tunnel and try and find my sister. Because without those dog tags, I can't go back. They wouldn't let me in anyway, I know that. I finally can admit that to myself. I can't go back. So I'm gonna go find my sister. And I run in the direction of the tunnel.

Si:
Danny, down in the crater below you move as fast as you can, limping heavily. Just doing whatever you can to prolong whatever might happen above you, and an immense force hits you in the back and sends you flying across the ground, and you land face first in the mud just as you begin to push yourself up, you feel a flash of burning hot pain in the back of your neck for just a moment, but then it's gone, and you feel weightless, hovering at the very edges of consciousness. Like that moment right before you fall asleep, and you know your body has gone, but there are connections firing in your brain, sparks about to fade. Where does Danny's mind go in his final moment?

Sean:
We're in the pastry shop. She's showing me something dumb on her phone, and then it's our time to go up to the till, and she steps forward and she looks back to see if I'm gonna come, and I take her hand and I walk forward with her.

Si:
Pen, you return to the darkness and squeeze into the tiny tunnel, pushing yourself through, letting the roots scratch and graze your skin as you do. There is a cacophony of noise behind you from the crater. You can feel the rumblings on the ground. But the deeper you go, the quieter that noise becomes, until it fades right into the background, and you crawl and crawl as the darkness envelops you, until you reach the little opening where you left your sister. And you find Luce's body still there. Just as you left her.

Gina:
I move in close and I curl up next to her again, and I position her arm so it's around me, and I lay my head on her shoulder. And I hug her, and I just say,

Gina (as Pen):
“I told you I'd come back. You're not gonna be alone.”

Em:
You’d feel a slight pressure around your shoulders, kind of pulling you in closer.

Gina (as Pen):
“We did it.”

Si:
You get that warm feeling again of comfort and love as the exhaustion and pain fades. There are bits of dust and debris that crumble for this tiny tunnel above you, as the tremors in the earth continue to shake. But you feel, you feel like you are where you need to be.

Em (as Luce):
“I got you. It’s okay.”

Gina (as Pen):
“I love you.”

Em (as Luce):
“I love you too.”

Em:
Afterlight is performed by Amelia Som as Evlan, Em Carlson as Luce, Gina Susanna as Pen, Sean Depner as Danny, and Si Rutherford as our Game Master. Special thanks to our campaign artists. Hannah Harder, who did our cover design, and Lesly Oh, who did our character portraits. Editing, sound design and original music by Si Rutherford. For more stories, come follow us everywhere at @blackwaterdnd, and make sure you check out our Main Campaign on Monday nights at 8pm PST at twitch.tv/blackwaterdnd, as well as our library of campaigns on both youtube and your favourite podcast platform. This show is made possible by our sponsors, who really should have reminded us to bring a torch for this journey out into the endless dark. We are grateful to be sponsored by Evil Hat Productions, publishers of Blades in the Dark, along with other incredible titles such as Monster of the Week, Thirsty Sword Lesbians, Scum & Villainy, Girl by Moonlight, and so many more. With compelling mechanics, stunning art, and rich lore for whatever world you choose to bring towards the apocalypse, head on over to evilhat.com to shed some light on new games to bring to your table. This show is also sponsored by Bookwyrm Games, a Canadian tabletop company bringing you the finest in gaming essentials and accessories. Activate your senses with candles, tea, and coffee to help set the scene in your campaign, ensure your party is rolling with stellar dice at a custom table, or leave the adventure to them with their series of Quest Chests and Quest Coins. Whatever you need to bring your table to the next level, Chester the Dragon and the folks at Bookwrym have you covered. Check them out over at bookwyrmgames.com and let them know Blackwater sent you. Finally, we’re thankful for our Patrons for joining us on this journey outside the Safe Zone. You too can come join us on Patreon, where you can check out behind the scenes info, our talkbacks, exclusive Afterlight content and so much more. Head on over to patreon.com/blackwaterdnd for all the info. See you next time, and keep the lights on!