The Magnus Archives - MAG Twilight Abyss - Part 2

Episode Date: December 17, 2020

The second instalment of Jonny's improvised horror roleplay game sees Gavin Crumble, Freddie & Ms. Pledge head down into the pump room of Slyde World to asses the equipment and inspect the inner w...orkings of the Hell Fall.Content warningsInnuendoBody horrorMentions of: death, human/animal remains, mild child peril, violence, floodingEdited this week by Lowri Ann Davies, Tessa Vroom, Jeffrey Nils-Gardner & Alexander J Newall.Produced by Lowri Ann DaviesCheck out our merchandise available at https://www.redbubble.com/people/RustyQuill/shop and https://www.teepublic.com/stores/rusty-quill.You can subscribe to this podcast using your podcast software of choice, or by visiting www.rustyquill.com/subscribePlease rate and review on your software of choice, it really helps us to spread the podcast to new listeners, so share the fear.Join our community:WEBSITE: rustyquill.comFACEBOOK: facebook.com/therustyquillTWITTER: @therustyquillREDDIT: reddit.com/r/RustyQuillEMAIL: mail@rustyquill.comThe Magnus Archives is a podcast distributed by Rusty Quill Ltd. and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Sharealike 4.0 International Licence Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Starting point is 00:00:43 Hello, it's still Johnny. And welcome back to the second part of the Magnus Season 5 Second Hiatus Gaming Podcast Episode 2. Nailed it. I am joined. Johnny having a nice normal one over there. I have nothing but normal ones I am normal ones through and through Joining me just then was the voice
Starting point is 00:01:13 of Ben Meredith Hello Ben I introduced myself last time so you should listen to the first episode of this sub-arc Honestly if you haven't listened to the first episode of this three part bit of hiatus nonsense, I am personally disgusted. This is high-quality content, Jonny.
Starting point is 00:01:28 I do it. This isn't nonsense. No, I'm not saying that, like, obviously they should listen because this is great fun. We're having a good time. It's triple-distilled nonsense, though. You know, it's the highest shelf nonsense. The finest nonsense. But they should listen to the first one first.
Starting point is 00:01:41 Yeah. Because otherwise we'll be like... A remix, you know? It might be an interesting experiment to listen to the second one and then go back i don't know this is this is the future johnny the youth into remix culture they're gonna be using and sampling and uh they're gonna they're gonna sample me saying all sorts of nonsense they're gonna sample me saying i'm having a normal one yeah well for you crazy cats out there who started listening episode two um we also do podcasts called rustic gaming and stellar firmer go listen to those god damn it ben desperately
Starting point is 00:02:14 wants you to to listen to his other his other creations where he does he does other voices it's not just a sexy boss yeah Nah. I'm a sexy dwarf. I'm a sexy goblin. I'm a sexy clone. It's great. Sexy archaeologist at one point, right? Okay, let's leave Ben's raw, unfiltered sexuality and eroticism behind for just a moment.
Starting point is 00:02:39 Oh, I guess. To make sure that our listeners do know the other speakers. So who's that voice roasting Ben? Me and Lowry both pause because it's like, hey, everyone roasts Ben. Yeah, I'm Lydia Nicholas. I'm Melanie in Magnus and also in Rusty Cool Gaming. You're not Melanie in Rusty Cool Gaming.
Starting point is 00:03:04 No, I'm other characters. Could be. We're giving this company's naming conventions. Yes, true. Miss Pledge's first name is actually Sasha. Yes, it is. Canon. Sasha Pledge. That's a good name. Speaking of... Hello!
Starting point is 00:03:20 Who are you? I'm Laurie and I produce the Magnus Archives and I do vocal cut editing for Rusty Quill Gaming and I listen to Stella Firma. So that means you should just listen to them all. And I am also a Sasha. Right, so when last we left, we were at Slide World, a water park.
Starting point is 00:03:42 This adventure has had the random title generated of Before the Twilight of the Blind Abyss. And health inspector Gavin Crumble, himbo lifeguard Freddy, and park caretaker Ms Pledge were all about to descend down into the pump room to, well, basically to help Gavin just do some checks, some very normal checks on the very normal water in this park.
Starting point is 00:04:11 On the very normal, opaque water of the very normal ride, Hellfall. The Hellfall is, it's fine. It's, you know, it's just good, clean fun. It's very clean. I clean it daily. Yeah. Just by pouring bleach in there. Yeah. How else?
Starting point is 00:04:29 Yeah. And there's, like, I mean, there's at most one bone a day. Yeah. You know? They erode eventually. Or the bleach. Yeah. What does that?
Starting point is 00:04:40 I don't know where, like, what level of canonicity these mumbles have, just the idea that you kind of pour lime into a particular tray, put that in and then be like, there's no bones clogging the outlet now. We've boiled them all off. There are occasional, like, you do sometimes find bones in the hellfall, but it's fine. It's very, I mean, it's not very rare, but it hasn't happened today.
Starting point is 00:05:03 Yeah, there's some open stretches, so animals could get in overnight. Yeah, like obviously it's generally, like you assume it's animal bones. Yeah, like deer, wolves, big, big, big dogs. Yeah. Maybe a cow. Yeah. Somehow. Some sort of bonobo.
Starting point is 00:05:22 Yeah. Yeah. Well, this is in Dorset, so we're right next to Monkey World. And once we had a tank drive in. I'm from Dorset and I love Monkey World. Monkey World's amazing. I was talking about Monkey World yesterday. That's so weird.
Starting point is 00:05:38 It's a great day out, mate. It's a great day out. Go to Monkey World. Everyone, obviously this doesn't apply to, like, Americans don't fly internationally. No, do. And then travel to dorset specifically to go to monkey world because i think you will be a little bit disappointed but if you're in the south of england and you are also in a beautiful future uh where you can go outside go to monkey world it's great cool and yes it is right next to the tank museum which is uh and in this universe right
Starting point is 00:06:05 also right next to and also right next to slide world slide world yeah that's in in this this is a parallel universe very similar to our own they call it the triangle of fun yeah you never leave they say dorset's triangle of fun. You'll never want to leave. Anyway, you're still standing at the top of these stairs. So I don't want to. This is obviously your facility, but it looks like that is a that is a lock that needs a key, not a not a swipe card. No, it's been opened. Mr. Couser opened it for you.
Starting point is 00:06:40 Oh, thanks, Mr. Couser. Yes, I forgot about him. He just he just slides off. It's fine. I'm already gone, though. Oh, Mr. Cous... Yes, I forgot about him. He just slides off the memory. This is fine, I'm already gone, though! Uh, yes, Mr. Cousfer is a very observant and helpful boss. He'll often just turn up
Starting point is 00:06:53 with very little warning. Just when you need him, or just when you're about to, like, go through a door that says, keep out, or sometimes when it's just dark. So he very much sees the safety of the workforce obviously first after the safety of uh the park uh guests there's there's a lot of safety yes mr couch for carries in his head that and the safety of the water thank you freddie helps
Starting point is 00:07:20 i was the safety of us and the safety of the guests. I would rather look at the machines instead of hearing the sales pitch. Thank you very much. Also, as Freddie goes down the stairs, also the safety of the food in the CAF. He also oversees the safety of that. I am a water safety inspector. The food safety inspector will be along next week. All people can drink water in the CAF. No, so I don't look at potable water.
Starting point is 00:07:48 Oh, right. I see. And I really do hope that you do not stock your swimming pools with potable water because that will have bacteria. You don't just pour tap water into the swimming pools, do you, Freddie? I don't, no. So someone does. That's not my job. Are you on record as saying
Starting point is 00:08:10 someone just pours tap water into the pool? You've reached the bottom of the stairs. Congratulations. As far as I know, there's not a record. What? Right, yes. Gavin Crumble makes a note. Freddie is terrified.
Starting point is 00:08:26 You arrive at the bottom of the stairs. It is a large room with eight big pumping machines, like very strong chemical bleach smell. The Hellfall slide doesn't get pumped through from this room. It has its own separate room down a narrow kind of, you know, it's in slight disrepair, like a lot of cobwebs, some like weird stains, just like down a long narrow corridor off to one side.
Starting point is 00:08:55 So this is the pumps. You can see there are eight. We have eight rides as useful, the flutterbys with the little ones. There was also another one, which I mentioned. I think you would quite like... The flume, boy, the flume! The log flume, which, as I've said, is very safe. You can walk along, should you so wish.
Starting point is 00:09:17 There is also the jungle ride. Yes, the toilet bowl! The toilet bowl, which is not the same as the jungle ride i believe the spinning top was one of them as well the the spinning top does also do that hold on i want to i'll just go back a second i just want to just dial back splashy splash time and ask uh ask lori uh could you could you describe the toilet bowl water slide absolutely you very subtly pitched there absolutely boy have you never
Starting point is 00:09:48 been on one of those ones where you go in and it's like a big bowl and you spin round and round and round
Starting point is 00:09:52 and round and then it shoots you out is the gimmick here you get like a really long brown inflatable
Starting point is 00:09:58 that you just lie down in and you spin around it's funny that you'd say that because they weren't originally brown
Starting point is 00:10:05 but they are now. Oh my god. Just from use. Gavin Crumble makes a note. It's just because of how the plastic changes colour as it ages. Yeah, it's just a UV night. It's the friction against the soft plastic
Starting point is 00:10:22 and the hard plastic. The jungle ride which takes advantage of the fact that we are next to Monkey World. And so sometimes you can glimpse the monkeys over the side of the pool, which does not illegally go over the land of Monkey World. It does not. That has been measured and checked.
Starting point is 00:10:43 Also, there's the swirly-whirly-whirl. There's the whirly-whirly-swirl, which is different. And there is also... Laurie, what's the last one? The shark slide. The shark slide. Yeah. Which, contrary to opinion, does not actually put sharks down the slide.
Starting point is 00:11:00 No, the sharks are at the bottom. They're in the aquarium. Yeah. Gavin Crumble makes a note. By which I assume you mean that there are, like, there's a sort of kind of sub, a slightly dropped level with, like, a big sort of aquarium-style shark tank
Starting point is 00:11:14 like swimming around the edges of the pool. Yes. So it feels like you're swimming with sharks. Yes. But actually there's some glass between, which is probably very thick. It's probably very thick. They're also really,
Starting point is 00:11:25 they're just dogfish, really. Sharks are quite expensive. Waterpark and shark aquarium. Yes. To be fair, I think that would be a great pool to be swimming around. You're swimming and
Starting point is 00:11:43 you're kind of swimming with the... Tiny, tiny sharks. Yeah, tiny sharks. Are the sharks tiny or are you giant? Yeah, who can say? Freddy pokes the machines. Yeah, they're working. They're fine. Look, this machine, as you can see, is working.
Starting point is 00:11:59 Do you want to make a roll there, Ben? I will, I will. I'm looking at the pumps. Yeah, I'm guessing analytics is helping me out here. Yeah. So can we just... So if I'm applying a benefit, what is the exact effect of that?
Starting point is 00:12:12 So it'll be lowering the target number by two. Oh, OK, OK, OK. Something is just targeting it, so we'll target the number base. Cool. Well, I rolled a nine. Yep, that's great. These are, like...
Starting point is 00:12:21 Everything seems pretty much as you'd expect it. A few of them could probably do with having some of the chlorine chemical levels uh topped up a bit but they're all within within acceptable safety standards they all seem to be working they're all just rumbling along okay like you know spend a good 15 minutes looking around making sure it's all in order make a couple of recommendations but no citations what a what are you doing while this investigation is taking place
Starting point is 00:12:51 I'm tailing and just if there's something that maybe isn't as it should be I'm trying to get there I'm using my knowledge of this room which is deep to get ahead. I'm using my knowledge of this room, which is deep, to get
Starting point is 00:13:06 ahead of Gavin Crumble. Okay. Maybe if, like, oh, tank four, we really meant to put chlorine in that. Just put a bit more in before he gets there. And, you know, a bone... Oh! Chuck it into the tank where you can't see it. A bone in the filter. Get rid of that.
Starting point is 00:13:22 Yeah, okay. Make me a roll. I think you have... You've got resourceful, so I'll give you... I'll say you need a six. Yeah, that is... Ten. Ten.
Starting point is 00:13:35 Nice. Yeah, no, you're like... Every time Gavin is looking at one machine, Ms Pledge is just sort of all over the one, immediately opposite topping things up, polishing twisting, it turns out Ben that maybe
Starting point is 00:13:51 all of these machines were not yet doing quite so well before you arrived and weirdly you actually return to the twirly whirl, you got confused you did the whirly twirl twice and so when you return to the twirly whirl you got confused you did the whirly twirl twice and so when you return to the twirly whirl
Starting point is 00:14:07 it seems to actually be working better the second time I do that sort of like tap on the valve kind of thing that people do just to make sure and then I'll remove one of those citations so that's
Starting point is 00:14:23 pumps all seem good so um what about that uh particularly spooky corridor oh um well as you see uh the thematic decorations extend throughout the uh the park because uh mr calcifer is an extremely detail oriented uh manager he in fact uh inspects everything, every day, some of them all the time. He is somehow there whenever you are looking at it. It's extremely impressive and diligent. And so this is the treatment for the hellfall,
Starting point is 00:15:00 which is one of our star attractions. Yes, the one with the opaque black water. It's an extremely scary ride. I can think of many ways in which I find it scary. Now let's go to the pump room and make sure it's all in order. Yes, Mr Crumble, Sir Mister, yes. Sir will do. You head down the long corridor,
Starting point is 00:15:24 your steps seeming to echo that much more as you approach the door this one reads caution, hellfall pump secret also just a detail
Starting point is 00:15:38 classified I'm definitely having to don't enter but I'm definitely going to... Don't enter. But I'm definitely going to have to... Careful now. But I'm definitely going to have to... Signed, Mr. Calcifer. But I'm definitely going to have to stoop down this corridor.
Starting point is 00:15:57 Oh, yeah, it is... How tall did you say you were? Six foot five. It's six foot four. Okay. Somehow, Freddy goes ahead of you down the corridor, and despite being not that much shorter than Mr. Crumble, he doesn't get any cobwebs in his hair,
Starting point is 00:16:16 but there are cobwebs at face level just all the way as Mr. Crumble goes in. That's because Miss Pledge is dusting them out of your way as you go. Ah, I see. Very invested in you looking good. So you both come at the end of it looking fine. I come out looking like an absolute nightmare. I look like the thing that's left at the back of the Halloween display
Starting point is 00:16:38 of a store in late November. Yeah. You look like if someone took a Halloween scarecrow and then just covered it in fake cobwebs I'm just shaking them off my clipboard The door is not actually locked Clearly Mr. Cowspur felt the sign was enough Right this way Mr. Sir Crumble Sir
Starting point is 00:16:56 Yeah very good The pump room for the hell dive Is it the hell diveive or the Hellfall? It's the Hellfall, except when you describe it. Well, I thought that last episode I said Hellfall and you said Helldive. No, no. You said Helldive and then I tried to improv patchwork it by saying that the Helldive was the spookiest bit of the Hellfall ride.
Starting point is 00:17:23 Lydia, yes, and she collaborated with yeah thank you it's a thing people do johnny no it's no no but no no no no but no no fin yeah i don't have to explain myself to you people. Just no. Anyway, so as you enter the room containing the pump for the Hellfall, it's a square room with completely blank concrete walls. The pipes come in from the ceiling. They're just big, completely closed off iron pipes and go back out up the ceiling. And in the centre is a black metal box that is sat there completely silent.
Starting point is 00:18:12 How big is the box? It is about, say, 15 foot by 15 foot. It's like a 15 foot cube. I see. So this is the pumping mechanism for the Hellfall. Yes, Mr. Sucrumbled, sir. It does all the mod cons of the ride, keeping it clean and safe.
Starting point is 00:18:36 And it is very modern. Seeming almost to draw your eye in it. It's extremely modern and safe. It manages the safety of the ride as though it were waiting. And of the riders. Right. Well, this is obviously, this is a model that I'm not
Starting point is 00:18:53 familiar with. It's very modern. Looks sort of like the monolith from 2001 A Space Odyssey. Is that an old film? I am very young, as has been established. But mature. Okay, but film is a recorded medium. You can watch it.
Starting point is 00:19:09 It's quite a famous... Stanley Kubrick, have you heard of... The Shining, Clockwork Orange... I don't have much time to watch media... The box looms impatiently. Because I pick things up and put them down so often. Right. God, the youth today.
Starting point is 00:19:25 Right, well, how do you open this thing? Can I have a look at some of the readouts? There's no readouts on the outside. If you have a look, there is essentially a hatch on the side. About halfway up, there's a small set of metal stairs that lead up to a hatch which sort of lifts up. It's about, I'd say maybe five foot up of the wall, like it lifts. It's about big enough that if you wanted to climb inside, you could,
Starting point is 00:19:52 but, you know, you'd need to like have a bit of a squeeze. If you would like to inspect the inside of the mechanism inside of the mechanism here, sir, you can see this handy hatch. Yeah, well, I'm not really a mechanical engineer. I'm just more asking, so all of the readouts are inside the machine? That would make sense. Right, OK. I will walk up and open the hatch.
Starting point is 00:20:17 Just to be clear, neither Ms Pledge nor Freddie have ever actually seen this before. But Freddie, wide-eyed, himbo innocence-eyed himbo innocence so are you heading up to the hatch yeah i'm gonna i'm expecting to see pipes and valves and things okay so you pull the hatch up and the inside it's very dark it takes you you are a few moments for your eyes to adjust. You're still stood outside. The water comes up just below where the hatch is. So from where
Starting point is 00:20:53 you're standing you can see sort of just still water inside just kind of sitting there. You're not entirely sure how it would... There doesn't seem to be any machines, any mechanism for actually pumping it back out. Although you can see it going out if you look outside the machine at the pipes. I know I said that they were completely opaque, but I've decided there's probably a little window where you can see water going up.
Starting point is 00:21:14 Yeah, the occasional bubble going past. Yeah, just a little bubble. But as your eyes adjust, you can see that there appears to be a figure standing in the water um i'm sorry is this some kind of joke and i'll kind of look to the the other they are tall and thin and pale and seem to be wearing some sort of dark apron they are facing away from you and their head appears to be completely bald are they moving, or is this Miss... They are completely still. Yeah, okay.
Starting point is 00:21:47 Are you calling out? Well, no, so I'm looking at this sort of confused, and then I turn my head to Freddy and Miss Pidge. Just glowing with innocence. I'm sorry, is this some kind of joke? Somebody put some sort of shot mannequin in here to try and, I don't know, scare me? I'm not finding this very amusing at all and i'm going to have to write this up and i start making a note in my way when you turn back
Starting point is 00:22:10 uh after having spoken it has it has moved it is now facing towards you and you can see it has it has very rudimentary features but where it where its eyes would normally be, two large holes leak this dark black fluid down into the water. It seems to be looking towards you, but not actually at you. I will get up abruptly and, sort of, using a veneer of anger to cover my obvious discomfort, be like, no, this is absolutely unacceptable. If you're playing some kind of practical... i have a roll from you yes in case you potentially take some hit point damage from the horror i i think i would actually like to to maybe ask if bureaucrat
Starting point is 00:22:57 is applicable here because i am using sort of the the the veneer of process in order to try and like okay i'll allow that. I think it would be a target number of 10, though, because it's pretty scary. So that'll lower it back down to an 8. And I rolled a 6, so that's unfortunate. So I'm going to give you two hit points of fear. Okay.
Starting point is 00:23:19 Oh, no. As you start to talk, you can see that it is walking through the water towards you, ripples lapping away. I back off, slam the hatch down, back off, and I'm like, yeah, sort of pseudo-angrily blustering at Freddy and Miss Pledge. Was a chemical level incorrect, Mr. Crumble, sir? We can absolutely fix that. There's absolutely no need to write anything down on your notepad no this is this is ridiculous you left it leaking in there
Starting point is 00:23:51 there's some sort of why would you do that there's some sort of break the mechanism no you you go go look go look you're obviously playing some kind of practical joke this isn't funny at all where are the cameras i absolutely will have a check you broken our machine, and this will need to be reported to someone. Someone will need to know about this. You coming in here trying to mess with Mr. Calcifer, just breaking our equipment. Freddie will go over and be like, hello, and begin to unscrew.
Starting point is 00:24:21 Just actually properly remove the hatch, not just open it. Oh, no, open it. Oh, no, open it. Oh, no, open it. Sorry, I thought weirdly like a porthole, so you have to screw it, but anyway. No, it's very much just like it's got a handle. You just kind of lift it up.
Starting point is 00:24:32 Okay, so it's a relatively obvious mechanism. Freddie will not mess this one up. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's not a recurring thing that he struggles with. If you imagine the sort of hatch one might use to potentially, I don't know, throw some meat into a pool of dark water to feed something that lurks inside? It's that sort of hatch.
Starting point is 00:24:51 Right, sure. Heavy, strong, stop any demonic stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Just theoretically, that's what it would be. You lift it up and the face still leaking that pitch black fluid is about six inches from yours. Oh, my goodness! There's a person stuck in here! You trapped a person in here! Oh, why would... This is an outrage!
Starting point is 00:25:14 As you start to cry out, it lunges at you. I think Freddy will try and headbutt it. Brilliant, OK. will try and headbutt it. Brilliant. Okay. I'll probably call that a himbo roll then. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:25:31 You only need a six because it's lunging towards you and it's not. Yeah, there we go. There's a six. That's a six. Okay. Just about managed to headbutt the demon. So yeah, it crunches in and it's like headbutting a water balloon oh like it's kind of
Starting point is 00:25:50 yields and it does stagger backwards but as it does so your face is covered in this black fluid uh freddy screams yep uh you're going to be taking probably two hit point damage. You find yourself staring out at an unknowable, huge, impossible void. Distant stars twinkling as though your face is very cold. Oh dear. As though it is in the spaces between galaxies. Terrible. As you turn towards Ms. Pledge and Gavin Crumble they will see that where the liquid has
Starting point is 00:26:28 splashed on your face you can see stars and space as though Freddy's face had become a hole in the universe Freddy boy! and then the liquid sort of flows off and you like
Starting point is 00:26:43 Freddy is screaming and clawing at his face, pulling the liquid off. As the liquid goes off, your face returns. Oh, that's very reassuring. I'm quite keen on my face. A lot of people are. As are many people. I'm going to say you probably staggered down the small staircase while that was happening. The thing is crawling now. Oh dear. It's crawling out the hole. I would say you probably staggered down the small staircase while that was happening. The thing is crawling now.
Starting point is 00:27:07 Oh, dear. It's crawling out of the hole? Yeah, it's kind of flopped out of the hole and is currently getting itself to its feet. Miss Pledge is going to leap forward with her mop to try and push it back into the tank. Ready, boy, run! Very heroic. I would like to use loyal.
Starting point is 00:27:23 Yeah, no, that makes absolute sense like it's going to be a bit tricky because this thing is it's it's very tall and long and like shoving it back through the hatches is going to be a little bit tricky so it would be a 10 that's reduced to an 8 you could also take a devil's bargain if you wanted to make it a little bit easier you have to negotiate a bad consequence yeah so a devil's bargain is where we agree a negative consequence which will happen regardless of whether you succeed or fail. Okay. So you could say, well,
Starting point is 00:27:51 alright, but even if I succeed, this negative consequence happens. Yeah. And in return, I make the roll slightly easier. Miss Pledge will make the devil's bargain for Freddy. She's very invested in him. I guess losing the mop isn't enough. It's a very good mop. She's very invested in him. I guess losing the mop isn't enough. It's a very good mop.
Starting point is 00:28:08 She's had it for... You know what? No, you know what? Yeah, you lose the mop. I'll say that you can lose the mop. If you lose the mop, maybe you also lose your ability to clean or one of those things.
Starting point is 00:28:18 No, no, no. It's not that you lose the mop. It's that this thing, regardless of whether or not you succeed in driving it back into the tank, it will have the mop. Oh, no. Which, I mean, that's probably fine. What damage could something like this do with a mop?
Starting point is 00:28:34 Having a long stick in a horror situation. Right. So what am I aiming for? Six. So you're looking for a six. I got a nine. A nine. Brilliant.
Starting point is 00:28:43 You just sort of charge forward and start pushing it. Ready, set, go! You shove the mop into its face so that the very absorbent... What are they called? Moppers? You know, the tendrils of a mop. The mop tentacles. The mop tentacles start to sort of soak in this darkness
Starting point is 00:29:02 as you sort of shove it. You literally are just jabbing it back through the hole but it grips the mop very tightly and you can't pull it back so instead you shove the mop in and slam down the hatch yeah what what what is going on i do you have broken the machine. You have broken Mr. Calcifer's lovely machine. How could you do something so terrible? There is a scary man inside that machine. There's a piece of...
Starting point is 00:29:32 What? That is impossible. Therefore, it must be a piece of equipment. Freddy boy, I'd heard. I'd heard of this. You'd heard what? What? No!
Starting point is 00:29:42 No! There's a reason. Yeah, Laurie, what legends does Slideworld have about this? Nothing very specific, but there have been rumours that a bargain was made because, you know, Slideworld was struggling for a while, boy. What? No! Slideworld has always been the place where dreams are made. Boy, this was before your time. I've been around. I'm... No, Slideworld has always been the place where dreams are made. Boy, this was before your time.
Starting point is 00:30:08 I've been around. Well, frankly, I'm old as balls. It was before Freddie's time, so like two years ago. You are very mature for your age, Freddie. I could take on a lot of different tasks, including basic admin. But there was a time, there was a time, Freddie, before the hell drop, dive, fall. It's rebranded a lot over the years. It does have so many names. It does.
Starting point is 00:30:35 It is mysterious sometimes. It's ever-changing. It's hard to do the admin. It's strange how people can't quite remember what it's called. I've heard when it gets shut down every time, it comes back with a new name. I have also heard that. Possibly for legal reasons. Possibly, boy, possibly. Also, some people say
Starting point is 00:30:54 they say not everyone who goes down the hellfall actually comes out the other end. And to be fair, some people have counted and that is technically true. But legally speaking, it's not true. Yeah. Statistically, we're fine. It's a rounding error. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.
Starting point is 00:31:10 Like because fundamentally, statistically, it's a statistically negligible number. Yeah. And also, if you ask anyone for names of people who went missing, they couldn't give you any. Yeah. Well, this is the thing. This is the thing. If you if you count up, if you count up the number of people who go in and the number of people who come out definitely fewer people come out but no one remembers no one's no one's gone missing you know everyone who anyone remembers coming into the park leaves the park yeah i don't i don't think mr Calcifer would have stood for anything so unrespectable. It's, no, it just must be a broken mechanism. Boy, listen to me.
Starting point is 00:31:50 Mr. Calcifer, he's done a lot for me. He's done a lot for this park. But there's a reason I want you to follow in my footsteps and not his. What? A role of that level of responsibility? So the pipe, the exit pipe exit pipe where you know the little window that you could see the the water flowing back out the water's no longer flowing back out as though the exit pipe were blocked with something so during this misplagiarized sort of revelation i've been furiously scribbling notes trying to get a preliminary report down and at this point
Starting point is 00:32:20 i'm like right well deal with dark force that that that is quite enough um this is very much out of my remit i will be leaving now and filing a full report with we need to get a specialist team in here obviously something very disturbing is going on right here and i will make to go away you do that you can't you can't betray mr calcifer like that i know it must be a surprise to you that I have suddenly appeared because you haven't been able to see me until now, Gavin, but I choose to speak to you. You must debrief with Mr. Calcifer.
Starting point is 00:32:53 He will want this, I know. Absolutely not. My responsibility... Also, you have, just to be clear... Oh, yeah, no, I was fully aware of that. Oh, yeah, absolutely. I absolutely will not. I am an unbiased observer and it's my response my legal duty to to report this kind of things to the governmental authority
Starting point is 00:33:10 can i try and convince gavin to stay you can't really do roles on other player characters like oh yeah fair also i don't feel like hey the health, ignore the spooky man and don't report it is not a... Let's all just not report what's happened here. Mr. Crumble, sir, I will agree with you. It is your duty to report this and I think you should first and foremost report this to Mr. Calcifer so he can take swift action. Absolutely.
Starting point is 00:33:44 I will just try and leave at this point. There are some weird noises coming from the pipe that comes from the hell fort. Yeah, I will just try and leave. Cool. Freddy is going to follow Mr. Crumble though. I will show you the way out.
Starting point is 00:34:00 No, I know where it is. It's down that corridor and up the stairs. I would like to use my ability which is back of my hand, to get to the end of the corridor before Mr. Grumble does to stop him. Okay, yeah, you can do that. There's definitely a secret passage down here that you know of. Yeah, absolutely. So at the bottom of the stairs, Miss Pledge is just waiting for you already.
Starting point is 00:34:18 I can't believe that the other two player characters are part of the horror as well. Yeah, I'll be honest. I did not expect this to be like I was expecting Johnny to have to prevent me from leaving in some way not the other people who were like, it's fine I'll be honest I really didn't expect two
Starting point is 00:34:36 of the three player characters to side with the monster I don't think it's fine but you will not shut down this park. He's given us employment opportunities in a very struggling area. He gave me a zero-hour contract. Freddie is about to go full-time. Freddie is going to blow his whistle.
Starting point is 00:34:59 I just got a whistle. I haven't used it yet. That's pretty loud. It hurts your ears a little bit In fact Ben and Laurie you can take a hit point damage From the loud whistle in a confined space Because it's very loud I'm now sandwiched between Freddy and Miss Pledge
Starting point is 00:35:17 At the other end of this Small corridor With one of them either side of you Neither of them have actually Taken any physical action to stop you leaving, but they are standing there. Oh, no, we wouldn't. I just think that we need to report to Mr. Calcifer. And I'm sure that Miss Pledge knows a short way there.
Starting point is 00:35:36 It is very easy for us to get there. Freddie, you're facing towards the stairs at the moment, right? Mm-hmm, yep. You notice... I absolutely couldn't see anything behind me. You notice... No, you notice trickling down the stairs from the moment right yep you notice absolutely couldn't see anything behind me you notice no you notice trickling down the stairs from the top a very thin but gradually getting stronger flow of dark black water uh um i actually uh think uh maybe i'm i'm an expert in uh leaks and i have a little bit of a concern
Starting point is 00:36:05 that there is a leak occurring above you so we should definitely go and report that to Mr Calcifer or people will be in danger and I know a shortcut follow me excellent so Laurie are you taking them up up and out of the pump room
Starting point is 00:36:21 yes okay I want to find Mr Calcifer sure so there's also a ladder that leads up to like the top of the building that houses the pump room. Yes. Okay. I want to find Mr. Calcifer. Sure. So there's also a ladder that leads up to, like, the top of the building that houses the pump room stairs. So you can lead them up the ladder and it comes out on, like, a sort of first-story rooftop.
Starting point is 00:36:35 As you open... Like, it's technically, by your watch, it should only be about 4pm. But as you open the hatch at the top of the stairs, the sky above you is a grim twilight. And as you look around, the floor of the entire park
Starting point is 00:36:54 is now covered with a thin layer of dark black water, the twilight sky above almost reflecting the encroaching darkness. You can see in the distance that while the actual slide for the Hellfall has stopped working, there's no water flow down, the water level in the actual pool has just gradually kept rising
Starting point is 00:37:13 and has now flowed out all over the park below you. As you watch a woman in a bathing costume, sort of holding a baby, let's say, is sort of wading through looking around and suddenly she seems to put a foot through something and she just disappears the water's only maybe an inch deep but she falls and disappears i'll say she puts the baby on like a park bench next to her okay the baby's okay baby's okay for now, but potentially... Oh no. ...in peril as the water levels continue to gradually rise. But that's something you can deal with next episode.
Starting point is 00:37:54 Oh good. Yay! As you stare out over the flooded, sinister water park. I'm sure the baby will be fine. Let's find Mr. Calcifer. Yeah, it's fine. It's fine. What could possibly go wrong? So thank you all for joining us for this very second episode of, I mean,
Starting point is 00:38:11 some nonsense. How dare you? Terrifying nonsense. Terrifying nonsense. I'll have you know. Terrifying nonsense. TM. And the final part of Before the Twilight of the Blind Abyss will be next week. Although we're very much during the Twilight of the Blind Abyss will be next week. Although we're very much during the Twilight of the Blind Abyss.
Starting point is 00:38:27 The final part of this Blind Abyss Twilight. The situation will resolve next week. For good or spooky. Or both. Spooky or both.
Starting point is 00:38:44 So, bye! Bye! This episode is distributed by Rusty Quill and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution non-commercial share alike 4.0 international license. For more information, visit RustyQuill.com, tweet us at TheRustyQuill, visit us on Facebook,
Starting point is 00:39:08 or email us at mail at RustyQuill.com. Thanks for listening. Hello, it's Kareem, the voice of Simon Fairchard from the Magnus Archives, letting you know about our sponsor, Audible. For fans of heart-racing, bone-chilling, and mind-bending stories, Audible has everything you need. Audible is the leader in audiobooks, so you'll always find the best and freshest selection of mysteries and thrillers to choose from. Sometimes you just want to get lost in a
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