[0.0s] Dumbgeons and Dragons will begin in a moment.
[2.8s] Let's go to the basement. Maybe there's a dragon.
[5.0s] If that's what she thinks down there, let's head on down.
[8.0s] Absolutely. Well.
[11.3s] I feel like we should like just try a couple more things in this room before we go.
[15.4s] Yeah, right. We move some things around.
[17.1s] Yeah, that did some stuff.
[19.5s] And then we'll do like the rapid fire round, just see if anything takes.
[24.1s] Yeah, OK. Look, look, look.
[26.3s] And I open up the ledger and I say,
[30.1s] this one, this one, nobody signed it.
[34.1s] Is there a pen or do you have a pen in your bucket
[37.4s] in the bottom with some mints and stuff?
[39.4s] I gave you some writing utensils that should be in there.
[42.5s] OK, who wants to sign it?
[43.9s] I don't know if anything I sign is legally binding.
[47.6s] That's a great point.
[49.2s] I feel like you also maybe are a student.
[52.8s] Because of the thing with the pending to the present, maybe I'll sign.
[56.4s] Hold on. Hold on. Hold on.
[57.8s] Wait, wait, hold on. Is it finished?
[59.7s] It's penned. What do you mean?
[62.3s] Look at the other pages.
[63.4s] Did they finish the day?
[65.2s] I flip through.
[66.5s] It's the same, right? It just isn't signed.
[68.5s] It says attendance complete, dismissal complete, transition complete,
[72.4s] continuity maintained on every other page.
[74.8s] You see that continuity is also complete.
[79.0s] Oh, but this one says continuity maintained.
[81.8s] Oh, no, I guess that is different.
[84.5s] So do we need to complete continuity?
[88.8s] How do you? I don't know.
[91.2s] OK, maybe we sign this at the end.
[94.8s] Oh, God, do we have to do a school? OK.
[97.5s] Well, we're in a school continuity.
[100.2s] She gives him a look like, I'm just going to sign it.
[102.6s] Let's see what happens.
[103.8s] I mean, we don't know what it even means.
[105.9s] I'm going to try to sign it.
[107.0s] You sign the page, try to sign it.
[108.7s] Yeah, you take your pen, put it to paper, you sign your signature.
[112.3s] It's on the page.
[113.5s] You hear from the basement
[116.8s] that low grumble, the low rumble again.
[119.7s] OK, the heavier gears that you don't hear those.
[123.6s] It's just that same kind of comes up and then down.
[127.0s] OK, so we got some kind of reaction there, and that's something.
[130.6s] That's information.
[132.1s] What else should we do in here?
[134.0s] Oh, let's write on the chalkboard.
[137.2s] Oh, sometimes when it's cold outside,
[140.3s] our teachers would let us draw pictures and stuff.
[142.6s] So me first.
[144.5s] And I draw a picture.
[146.6s] I write, Hi, my name is Alydin.
[151.3s] And then I draw some hearts and the flower and then a sleeping guy.
[155.7s] Is that supposed to be me? Yeah.
[157.6s] Oh, the likeness is uncanny, especially the Z's above his head.
[162.6s] That's how I that's I figure that's how I knew.
[164.8s] It's evocative. It's very good.
[167.0s] Uh, nothing happens to the board.
[170.4s] Nothing happens.
[172.5s] OK, any other ideas?
[174.6s] Anything else we want to like poke or prod or?
[177.8s] I'm looking around. I don't see anything.
[179.8s] Door. The door that.
[181.7s] Yeah. Joe went into Joe 2.0.
[184.2s] This is not the same Joe.
[186.6s] Our Joe is nice.
[187.9s] Everybody had starts heading back into the attendance room.
[192.6s] And Alydin, you place the chalk back down.
[195.0s] And as you take a step,
[196.0s] you see that your writing begins to erase on the board.
[199.3s] Ah, rude.
[202.7s] That's rude.
[204.2s] Yeah, this place is just kind of rude.
[206.7s] Joe's rude. The chalkboard's rude.
[210.6s] The names keep, I guess I'm just going putting getting putting back. Yeah.
[215.5s] Well, maybe that's because that's what I'm supposed to.
[217.7s] I'm just going to rudely walk into this door.
[220.1s] It's possible.
[221.6s] The educational philosophy here is more self-encouraged,
[225.1s] so maybe we just need to step up and start doing shit.
[230.0s] Bizarre things is like a Montessori school.
[232.9s] Like you really need to be self-motivated to do this one.
[236.7s] Everyone goes at their own pace.
[238.4s] It's interest based learning.
[240.6s] Let's explore.
[242.6s] Dumbgeons and Dragons is a D&D actual play podcast,
[246.2s] and I'm your dungeon master, Russ More, he him.
[249.0s] Also with me today is Amy More as Alydin, she her.
[252.3s] Super rude. You're putting me back into a classroom during summer break.
[255.1s] Carla Maxted as Bonwyn Everbane, she her.
[258.0s] Let's go find him. He never forgets.
[259.8s] Tom Laird as Kavlaran Goldweave, he him.
[262.7s] Pop that floorboard up.
[264.0s] And Kyle Claset as Bizard the Wizard, he him.
[267.0s] I think somebody's maintaining it back there,
[268.8s] so we don't have to worry about that shit.
[270.2s] Dumbgeons and Dragons is a Patreon supported show made possible by listeners like you.
[275.6s] Join us today at patreon.com slash Dumb Dragon Cast
[279.0s] and get a free seven day trial to try everything out over there.
[282.6s] And now, fuck it, let's play.
[286.3s] Well, let's try both doors.
[289.4s] What if it was just a random click?
[291.8s] I run to an exact door that Joe 2.0 went through.
[296.2s] There you go to open that door and it is locked.
[299.3s] Kind of just jerk, hit into it.
[301.6s] Let's let's try the other one.
[303.3s] It opens and cav as you're following behind.
[308.1s] So the door opens into another room.
[310.3s] I'll describe that in a moment.
[312.4s] But cav, you're looking at the wall and.
[317.4s] For a brief moment, this entire wall.
[321.4s] It to you resembles a complete record
[325.0s] rather than a collection of names, which you guys can kind of move
[328.3s] any things around as you reach for the door.
[331.1s] You hear that same soft click.
[333.8s] And as you turn the handle, you feel like it's unlocking
[337.2s] as you're going through above the doorway,
[340.6s] a freshly polished brass plaque
[344.6s] almost appears out of nowhere, cav.
[347.1s] And as you're kind of following in behind, you see it.
[350.7s] It reads observation.
[354.6s] Just observation.
[355.8s] Observation. Just observation. Just observation. OK.
[360.2s] It's just when we go in, it's just like a wall of TV screens
[363.5s] with security cameras showing everywhere in Vindersmith.
[367.2s] And it is creepy as fuck.
[369.7s] Pretty startling for.
[371.3s] Yeah, like it's it's creepy and also kind of breathtaking.
[375.4s] So we've never seen anything like this.
[378.6s] Could be Janelle's office.
[380.8s] Hmm.
[383.8s] That sunlight again spills through tall classroom windows.
[389.6s] Every desk in this room has been carefully aligned.
[393.9s] Slate tablets, sharpened pencils and neatly stacked lesson books
[398.3s] remain exactly where their students previously left them.
[403.5s] Across a chalkboard in the room, someone has written
[408.0s] Observe before concluding.
[411.3s] Record before judging.
[414.7s] Maintain before repairing.
[418.2s] Children's drawings cover nearly every wall in this room.
[422.9s] At first, they all appear to depict this very classroom.
[427.5s] But at second glance,
[429.5s] there's something different about every single drawing.
[435.1s] Each drawing appears ordinary until you get close to it,
[439.6s] and every child appears to have noticed something different.
[443.9s] The windows, a simple drawing of the classroom windows
[447.2s] written beneath it, say Mrs.
[449.7s] Vail says sunlight changes first.
[453.4s] The shadows in this drawing no longer match the room.
[457.0s] Instead, they point toward the floor beneath the teacher's desk.
[463.1s] The floorboards.
[464.5s] One child carefully shaded a single floorboard darker than the others.
[470.4s] Nothing about it appears remarkable.
[473.0s] Also, in this room, you see
[478.1s] there's a homework basket filled with observation journals.
[482.4s] You see all of these student drawings.
[485.6s] You see the teacher's desk neatly organized rather than abandoned.
[492.0s] And the classroom, as previously mentioned, is perfectly preserved.
[496.8s] No dust or decay.
[499.7s] And then the writing on the chalkboard.
[502.5s] I want to go look at the the homework hand in bin.
[506.8s] Also, Amy would just like to say super rude.
[509.4s] You're putting me back into a classroom during summer break.
[515.0s] Look, Alydin moved from holes in the ground to classrooms.
[518.1s] OK. Right.
[520.8s] Step up, I guess. Step up.
[522.7s] Yeah, no, I mean, it's a pretty big step.
[524.4s] I mean, yeah, from a we're just going to end up in the basement anyway,
[528.5s] which is essentially a hole. Yeah.
[531.4s] But I would like to check out like the
[533.3s] sure the notebooks or journals or whatever they're in the homework
[537.8s] basket with all of these journals.
[540.1s] Each assignment begins with the same instructions.
[544.8s] Instructions are observe something adults overlook
[549.8s] as you begin to flip through them.
[552.9s] You see one that says, Mr.
[555.3s] Hollow counts every loaf twice.
[558.2s] Another says Mrs.
[559.6s] Vail checks the weather before opening every window.
[563.3s] Another the hall monitor says goodbye to every classroom.
[567.4s] Another says the hinges squeak every Tuesday.
[571.6s] A final one that you open says, I think the lake moved.
[576.9s] The teacher's response beside the final entry simply reads,
[580.5s] continue observing, tell no one until you are certain.
[584.8s] What's the name on the book?
[586.0s] Whose book is it?
[586.9s] Is it Janelle's book?
[589.6s] That one is is Janelle's.
[592.7s] We are in the observation room and exactly.
[596.0s] She was the observation person.
[598.7s] Janelle observed.
[600.4s] Can I flip in her book to see other observations that Janelle has done?
[605.0s] Most of them, as you kind of flip back through appear rather mundane.
[611.4s] More like the loaves of bread one.
[614.7s] You know, this is Becky picks flowers from her garden bed on Wednesdays.
[620.5s] Yeah, that's the I mean, there's the hinges squeak every Tuesday.
[624.8s] I think the lake moved is the one that stands out the most.
[629.2s] You said that we saw pictures on the walls.
[633.3s] Yeah. I want to go
[637.4s] back to the one that has a floorboard colored a different color,
[641.2s] and I want to see if that's in this room.
[643.6s] Is there a floorboard that is slightly darker or lighter?
[647.3s] Does this correspond to something? Yeah.
[649.4s] Sure. I was going to look over that as well.
[651.6s] We have the same idea that had a name of a student on it or not.
[655.0s] Oh, smart.
[656.9s] None of the none of the images do have names on them, but
[663.2s] the floorboard.
[664.4s] So again, again, the floorboard one one child carefully shaded
[667.8s] a single floorboard darker than the others.
[671.4s] Nothing about it in the image appears remarkable.
[675.8s] As you examine it closer and you begin to look around the room,
[683.0s] you look back at the picture and it appears that
[687.2s] they've tried to depict that perhaps it was lifted or replaced.
[692.2s] And as you look to the same place in the room,
[695.3s] you do see a singular floorboard that does appear darker than the rest.
[701.7s] I'm going down there with like the screwdriver in my bucket.
[705.3s] And I'm like, pop that floor.
[707.5s] I'm trying to pop that floorboard up.
[709.6s] Anybody else with a bucket and a screwdriver would have done the same.
[712.6s] Totally.
[713.4s] Everybody sees Alydin rush over to this one floorboard,
[716.8s] which does appear slightly different than the entire entirety of the room.
[722.6s] You get your your wedge or your driver
[725.4s] and like cracks as you kind of pull it up.
[729.2s] And you my wedger, my driver, my golfing.
[731.4s] Yeah. OK. Nice thinking.
[733.6s] I was like, wow, we're really throwing around the golfing terms.
[735.9s] Hey, those are the two.
[737.3s] This is the only two close.
[739.2s] Oh, you know, Potter is true.
[741.2s] I know Potter.
[742.7s] Wood. That's one.
[744.3s] Yeah. Yeah. Iron.
[746.1s] Wait, that's not all these.
[747.6s] Just put a number in front of iron.
[749.1s] And I think you're good. Yeah, you're right.
[751.4s] You hear the kind of seam on the floorboard crack as it pulls up.
[757.6s] There's no hollow space beneath it.
[760.3s] The inference you can make is that the child simply noticed a repair.
[764.0s] No one else saw.
[765.4s] I want to look on the underside of the board.
[767.6s] It looks like the underside of a hardwood plank.
[769.9s] Son of a bitch.
[773.9s] I put it back down
[776.0s] and like hammer the nails back down with the end of the screwdriver, like
[780.5s] whiff, whiff, whiff, whiff, whiff, whiff.
[784.8s] Not me ripping up the flooring in this very nicely cared for school.
[789.2s] OK, not not all ideas are good ones, but how do you know till you do it?
[793.4s] Right. Could have been a stairway under there.
[795.0s] We didn't know. Could have been a tiny stairway.
[797.2s] I wonder what happened to that piece of wood that needed it to be repaired.
[802.2s] Because according to the mantra, maintain before repairing
[807.0s] something drastic had to happen for it to be needed to be repaired.
[812.0s] That's my understanding.
[813.6s] I look up at the ceiling directly above.
[816.2s] Is there water damage?
[817.6s] Is it to do just have a leaky roof?
[820.2s] No. Are we focusing on the wrong thing?
[822.0s] No, absolutely not.
[823.4s] There's there doesn't appear to be any water damage in the room.
[826.9s] If it looks, you know, it looks well-worn, but nothing out there.
[832.6s] There isn't like a hole in the ceiling directly above
[835.5s] that would explain why it needed to be fixed.
[837.8s] Yep. Mentioned there's stacks of sorry, stacks of paper
[840.9s] and writing utensils and that sort of thing.
[843.5s] Desks, too, like the whole setup.
[845.3s] All right.
[846.1s] I'm going to take a couple pieces of paper
[848.5s] and sit down at a desk with some colored pencils and
[851.9s] and I just sit there for a second because I can't think of what to draw.
[855.2s] As Alydin does that to everybody else looking around,
[857.7s] there are a few more drawings that stand out to others.
[861.4s] There's a sketch of the Academy Bell Tower.
[866.3s] Written underneath it is the phrase, I think bells remember.
[872.5s] There's a teacher response on this one that reads,
[875.7s] Excellent observation.
[877.7s] Continue watching.
[879.6s] You notice that several children drew a corridor outside.
[885.6s] Each picture includes a tall mechanical figure
[889.2s] standing patiently near the classroom doors.
[892.9s] You can presume that it's the hall monitor.
[895.4s] The one that you've seen.
[896.7s] And one student added, He always says goodbye.
[901.7s] And another simply wrote, He never forgets.
[908.2s] There's one final drawing.
[912.1s] Zarden, Bonwyn, you kind of come to it at the same time.
[917.0s] And it does not depict the classroom at all.
[921.0s] Instead, it shows the Academy from directly above.
[925.1s] Beneath the building, hidden below the classroom,
[928.8s] someone has carefully illustrated a network of corridors
[932.9s] surrounding a large circular chamber.
[936.7s] A staircase descends from somewhere near an eastern hallway.
[943.0s] Written in careful handwriting says,
[945.5s] Teacher says we help downstairs after transition.
[950.1s] The teacher's reply is, Excellent observation.
[954.0s] Please wait until your lessons are complete.
[957.6s] Meanwhile, I have drawn an elephant like a paper elephant,
[963.7s] like a mockery of the hall monitor with a clipboard.
[968.2s] Like, it's very obviously him.
[970.5s] I have written Joe 2.0 on him.
[973.8s] And then he's got a speech bubble that says, I never forget.
[979.2s] Sorry. It's my drawing.
[981.8s] Russ, is there a bell tower at the school still?
[985.4s] I didn't remember that.
[986.6s] Yes. Yeah. Describing walking up.
[989.9s] OK. I can give you that description.
[993.0s] That was in February. We walked up to the building.
[995.0s] I can't remember. Yeah, fair.
[998.0s] There is a bell tower, but the bell itself looked like it was tied up.
[1007.8s] Like rope wrapped around it kind of thing.
[1010.3s] Mm hmm. OK.
[1012.1s] Yeah. Well, those are doing something, so.
[1022.8s] OK. I had a thing, a Patreon name.
[1027.8s] It's over here somewhere.
[1028.9s] Because when you're a Patreon member, a middle is dedicated to you.
[1032.3s] And that's how this middle is starting out.
[1034.2s] We're starting with.
[1035.8s] We're starting with the in-media res.
[1038.4s] The old Reverso.
[1040.4s] Oh, that's right. I like it, Kyle.
[1043.0s] I mean, maybe we should maybe we should do the old flip, flip the script.
[1048.0s] You know, that way you get more episode actually dedicated to you.
[1052.5s] It's not. That's a very good point.
[1054.0s] It's not really your time code.
[1055.8s] More episode. Right. Exactly.
[1057.4s] OK. Are we making people listen to see?
[1060.4s] Is it me? Is it me?
[1062.1s] Or are they just turning it off?
[1063.6s] They can't just ride that 15 second skip button.
[1066.0s] No, no, no, no.
[1067.8s] Yeah, you can't do that. Not that you would do.
[1069.5s] No, they would never. Why would you do that?
[1071.6s] Why would you go to Spotify and skip ads like you can't?
[1075.4s] Yeah, you should. You shouldn't do that.
[1077.8s] No, it's funny is we've taken a long time to even reveal who it is.
[1081.8s] So we're kind of at the same point.
[1083.8s] Yeah, we're doing the same thing as we were before.
[1086.0s] Yeah, maybe this episode's
[1089.3s] patron can let us know if they liked it when we pretended
[1093.4s] we were going to say their name right away
[1095.0s] or when we do what we normally do.
[1096.7s] Oh, yeah. A little bait and switch.
[1099.1s] Hit us up. Yeah.
[1100.6s] Blank or us say name now.
[1103.0s] Colin Murray.
[1105.1s] Colin Murray. Thank you so much.
[1107.5s] Thank you, Colin.
[1108.7s] Colin Murray pays in pounds.
[1110.8s] So I'm only assuming that they are from across the pond.
[1114.9s] Oh, no, sorry. That's OK. I like that.
[1118.5s] He wasn't specific.
[1120.2s] No, I mean, I did.
[1121.7s] I, you know, assumed that we were talking currency.
[1125.7s] Yes. You should have said great.
[1127.5s] I still am. Great for you.
[1129.4s] That old J.B.P.
[1131.4s] Then Macaub Amy leaning into spooky season
[1136.2s] wouldn't have immediately made it crazy.
[1138.8s] I have a spooky heart. I can't.
[1140.2s] It's a great way to kick off spooky season.
[1142.4s] You know what? It's also a great way to kick off spooky season.
[1144.9s] What? Redo in the Patreon with new
[1148.6s] tears and things you can see.
[1150.8s] We're mixing it up. Yes.
[1152.5s] We're mixing it up.
[1153.6s] So you get the episode dedication, but we also have new entry points.
[1157.6s] We've got a lovely if you just want to come join,
[1161.1s] toss a little support to the show.
[1162.8s] But you don't care about nothing else going on over here
[1165.3s] that we've been talking about ad nauseam for years.
[1168.1s] We've got to support us here for just two dollars.
[1171.6s] That's like I don't want any of your nonsense,
[1173.5s] but I want you to keep nonsenses.
[1174.9s] Yeah, I don't. Yeah, I don't want to.
[1178.1s] It's just to set it and forget it.
[1180.2s] I like your primary nonsense.
[1182.6s] Keep doing that primary nonsense.
[1184.2s] If that if this helps that, which it does.
[1186.6s] It always does.
[1187.5s] Always does. Absolutely.
[1189.2s] Now and forever.
[1190.1s] And we appreciate you till the end of time.
[1193.8s] But if you do want to support at a higher tier,
[1196.7s] we've got bonus audio, we've extracurricular nonsense.
[1202.1s] Yes, that's off the books.
[1204.9s] After hours, nonsense.
[1207.0s] That's right.
[1208.1s] We've got backstage shenanigans.
[1209.9s] World input.
[1212.6s] I we're bringing that back.
[1214.7s] NPC names.
[1216.8s] We've got Discord channels opening up for
[1221.5s] actual back and forth,
[1222.8s] talking about the lore of the world that we live in,
[1226.4s] which I have written down somewhere,
[1228.8s] what the name of the world is, but I don't have it at the.
[1231.8s] That's in a Google doc.
[1233.1s] It is in a Google. It survives in a Google doc.
[1236.0s] I just.
[1236.7s] What email address is it attached to?
[1239.0s] Who knows?
[1240.6s] This is what we need your help for.
[1242.4s] So Patreon.com slash Dumb Dragoncast.
[1244.5s] Join today. Get a seven day free trial.
[1246.4s] And we hope to see you over there.
[1247.6s] OK, I love you. Bye.
[1250.4s] Love you. Bye. Bye.
[1251.8s] Especially Colin.
[1255.7s] Bonwyn, do you think this looks probably similar
[1258.2s] to what the layout would look like going down to
[1261.2s] Joe's room back in Vindersmith?
[1264.6s] Yeah, maybe.
[1265.7s] I mean, I didn't spend as much time down there as y'all,
[1268.8s] but it seems so we would know exactly where to go
[1272.3s] if that were the case.
[1273.9s] Yeah, so I think maybe we just go ahead and.
[1277.2s] Well, why don't you take the picture?
[1278.3s] Go find him. He never forgets.
[1280.1s] Take the picture off the wall.
[1281.2s] It's a map. You're right.
[1283.2s] I write at the bottom of my picture.
[1285.4s] Joe 2.0 is not as nice as Joe.
[1290.2s] 1.0 and I put it in the hand
[1292.7s] and then in the homework bin.
[1295.6s] Good observation. Keep watching.
[1300.6s] Cap, what are you doing?
[1301.8s] I mean, not much at the moment.
[1304.8s] There is also the teacher's desk.
[1307.8s] Alistair seems to be just examining the pictures,
[1312.6s] all the drawings along the wall.
[1316.4s] You can see that he's like doing one of these
[1318.5s] like red string kind of mentality things,
[1321.0s] like trying to piece things together.
[1322.4s] But really getting nowhere at this moment.
[1324.7s] But yeah, there is the teacher's desk
[1327.2s] also in the room.
[1328.3s] Sure, I'll take a look at that.
[1330.0s] The top of the desk has the homework bin,
[1332.9s] stacks of books, some notepads,
[1334.8s] nothing really out of the ordinary.
[1337.1s] Off the top, there's a couple drawers.
[1339.0s] And as you pull those open,
[1341.4s] there's one folded letter inside an envelope.
[1345.3s] And the envelope, it's titled,
[1348.0s] written on the envelope,
[1349.7s] is municipal continuity office.
[1352.6s] It's right up his alley.
[1353.4s] Oh, I'm gonna have to read this.
[1355.9s] You pull it open and pull out the paper.
[1360.0s] And it says, teachers,
[1362.4s] continue encouraging documentation.
[1365.5s] Discourage assumptions.
[1367.9s] Prepare students for transition day.
[1371.0s] Observation remains our greatest defense
[1374.2s] against forgetting.
[1377.0s] The document ends without any explanation
[1380.4s] or signature.
[1381.2s] Forgetting what?
[1384.0s] I read it out to the crew.
[1385.6s] So it seems like they realized
[1387.0s] something crazy was going on, right?
[1389.5s] Absolutely.
[1390.7s] Yeah, so they knew.
[1392.8s] Don't people just write history books
[1395.7s] about stuff instead of training children?
[1400.5s] But sometimes those things aren't as,
[1403.5s] they're smaller things in the personal life
[1405.6s] that's more important.
[1407.0s] Looking back on Banh Nguyen,
[1409.1s] your situation with the forge.
[1412.6s] Yeah, yeah, I mean, you're right.
[1417.6s] Alydin, you come to a bit of a realization.
[1421.8s] A lot of the notes from the teacher,
[1424.5s] a lot of the notes that the students have written,
[1427.3s] you see anywhere where there's seemingly praise
[1431.0s] given to the students,
[1432.2s] that they're never praised for cleverness
[1435.7s] in any of their notes.
[1437.7s] They are always praised for paying attention.
[1441.2s] This is not how June is running the school back home.
[1446.6s] All this stuff is really obvious stuff.
[1449.5s] Yeah.
[1450.9s] Like these kids are getting gold stars
[1452.7s] for saying, you know,
[1454.7s] Jimothy has his shoelaces tied every day.
[1459.4s] That's so stupid.
[1461.2s] But what happens the day where Jimothy shows up
[1464.6s] and doesn't have his shoelaces tied?
[1467.1s] Maybe that's what they're watching for.
[1469.0s] Like the lake moving.
[1471.3s] That was a change.
[1472.4s] It's like same, same, same.
[1473.9s] Well, I think shoelaces and lake are...
[1476.6s] Oh, I agree.
[1477.4s] The scale of the change of those two things
[1479.6s] is quite different.
[1481.3s] But is there a copy of Portals, Portals,
[1484.8s] Portals on the desk?
[1486.0s] Are there any pictures or anything
[1487.8s] that have like negative feedback?
[1492.5s] Like, I think you've missed the mark on this one.
[1495.8s] Try again.
[1498.6s] No, where there is...
[1500.8s] Just poor.
[1503.4s] You idiot.
[1506.0s] Musta rolled a one.
[1507.5s] No, you see anywhere where there's a teacher
[1510.4s] who's written a note to the student,
[1512.8s] it is positive in the instance of good observation,
[1518.0s] excellent attention, you know,
[1519.4s] keep watching, that sort of thing.
[1522.0s] Anywhere where they've written something
[1523.6s] that doesn't seem to align with that sort of thought,
[1528.6s] it's just left blank or there's no comment left.
[1534.2s] This is a Montessori school.
[1535.6s] It's so positive.
[1537.2s] Is there another door in this classroom
[1539.0s] to like continue further?
[1540.8s] No, just the door you entered.
[1542.8s] I think we should find a way down to the basement,
[1545.5s] see if there is that passageway behind a bookshelf
[1549.4s] and get to the bottom of this.
[1555.0s] Cause we're going to the basement.
[1556.3s] Yeah.
[1557.1s] Good one.
[1558.0s] Yeah.
[1560.8s] Is there anything to indicate which desks
[1563.6s] belong to which students,
[1564.7s] or they are all like totally clean and pristine without?
[1569.2s] You're thinking nameplates?
[1570.3s] Personal effects.
[1571.4s] Yeah, yes, no nameplates.
[1573.8s] You see, you know, there's books and papers
[1576.7s] and that sort of thing.
[1577.5s] There are some names.
[1579.4s] Of the ones that you recognized before,
[1581.6s] you see kind of scattered throughout this room.
[1585.0s] No real assignments on their desk.
[1587.0s] Everything's either been handed in
[1588.5s] or is up on the wall at this moment.
[1590.3s] Okay.
[1591.5s] See what other crazy observations Janelle's making,
[1595.0s] but I guess she already shared them all
[1597.3s] with the teacher.
[1598.2s] There's no inside of the desks?
[1600.4s] No inside of the desks.
[1603.4s] Okay.
[1604.2s] I was ready to rifle.
[1605.6s] Yeah, no, me too.
[1607.6s] Let's see what these kids got going on.
[1608.9s] Look at these desks.
[1610.8s] I agree, Bizard.
[1611.6s] Like, let's go find Joe 2.0.
[1616.6s] See if we can find that room if it's the same.
[1618.9s] Yeah, as you finish examining the room
[1620.8s] and you begin to head out,
[1622.2s] what's everybody's passive perception?
[1624.0s] I'm just gonna write that down.
[1624.8s] 10.
[1625.6s] 12.
[1626.5s] 10.
[1627.3s] 15.
[1628.2s] Damn.
[1629.0s] All right.
[1629.8s] Fuck.
[1630.7s] Yeah.
[1631.5s] I got one of you.
[1632.4s] I'm so quiet.
[1633.5s] He's just looking.
[1634.3s] I want one of you with me.
[1635.2s] Smart, but lots of wisdom.
[1637.1s] Kav, do you take the letter with you?
[1639.1s] Do you leave it there?
[1640.4s] I'll take it with me.
[1642.1s] Okay.
[1643.2s] You're putting the letter back in the envelope
[1646.0s] and following behind your friends.
[1647.2s] And as a couple of them filter out,
[1650.2s] you think you hear water dripping somewhere below.
[1657.3s] You hear it once, then again.
[1661.1s] Sound is echoing up through the floorboards.
[1668.5s] And at nearly the same moment,
[1670.4s] that final drawing I described,
[1672.6s] the one with the bird's eye view of the school.
[1679.9s] Bon, when you took that one,
[1681.2s] is that what I heard or did you leave it?
[1683.1s] Yeah, because it kind of seemed like it was mappish.
[1685.8s] Mappish, yeah.
[1686.9s] Kav, as you hear this water,
[1689.4s] do you do anything to notify your friends or call out?
[1693.4s] I try to pry up some floorboards
[1695.5s] to see if I can get a visual on it before I call out.
[1700.4s] Okay, so.
[1701.5s] Action Jackson over here.
[1703.7s] Right.
[1704.5s] Perhaps you go to the floorboard
[1707.0s] that Alydin had started to pull up, easier access.
[1712.4s] You hear wood creaking behind you, everybody else.
[1716.9s] What do you do?
[1717.7s] Turn around.
[1718.6s] Yeah.
[1719.8s] You turn around and you see Kav pulling
[1722.0s] at the floorboards.
[1723.8s] What are you doing?
[1725.2s] You okay, buddy?
[1726.3s] What's going on?
[1727.6s] Oh yeah, totally fine.
[1729.4s] I just, I could hear some water down there
[1732.0s] and I just wanted to see if I could like get eyes on it.
[1735.5s] Immediately as a child would drop to the ground.
[1738.2s] I know, I was like, I pause and open my eyes.
[1739.6s] My floor's against the ear.
[1741.5s] Really wide.
[1744.1s] I hear floors against the ear.
[1746.6s] Everybody's ears to the floor.
[1748.0s] Okay, have you maybe stop just for a moment
[1749.8s] to give them a little silence to hear over top.
[1752.2s] You begin hearing that.
[1753.3s] And Bon, when you have this map,
[1756.0s] map like drawing in your hand
[1758.5s] and you see it begin to change before your eyes.
[1762.8s] The faded blue lake surrounding the archive entrance
[1766.7s] has almost completely disappeared.
[1770.2s] The stone doorway now stands exposed
[1773.1s] within the dried basin.
[1775.4s] The water's outline flickers.
[1778.2s] One corner fades entirely before slowly returning.
[1783.2s] Guys, the map's changing.
[1786.6s] Cool, cool, cool, cool.
[1789.0s] Like that.
[1790.5s] So it shows us what's going on with the door?
[1793.6s] I guess.
[1794.7s] So the lake on the map is disappearing
[1800.1s] or sorry, appearing.
[1801.4s] So it was previously, it looked like a lake
[1804.2s] and it transitioned and faded from a blue lake
[1807.4s] to the dry lake bed that you see
[1810.0s] and like the actual doorway location is now,
[1814.9s] what did I say?
[1815.7s] Fades entirely before slowly returning.
[1818.6s] So it's doing what you've experienced
[1822.0s] out there in the real world outside.
[1824.4s] Gotcha.
[1825.2s] Well, that's neat.
[1827.4s] Not as good, it means we have a way to keep track
[1830.5s] of if we're like hot or cold.
[1832.7s] Yeah.
[1834.5s] Yeah, between this and like your little
[1836.7s] string-a-ling-a-ding-dong,
[1838.2s] we got all kinds of signs telling us
[1841.0s] we should probably keep exploring this school
[1842.8s] and not worry about the portal.
[1844.5s] I look hopefully at my friends,
[1846.4s] but they know I don't really mean it.
[1850.3s] Alydin's on board with this.
[1851.8s] For now at least, yeah.
[1853.4s] For now.
[1855.2s] For now.
[1856.6s] For now.
[1857.4s] So the dripping sound is,
[1861.0s] can I see the lake from the window in the classroom?
[1864.0s] Okay, I just wanna go and take a little peeky peek.
[1866.9s] You see the doorway and it is actually
[1870.9s] much more visible than you saw it before
[1874.3s] and it's holding it a lot longer than it did before,
[1876.7s] but its edges you can see are wavering.
[1880.4s] They appear to be noticeably less stable.
[1884.4s] When it did fade in and out like it was,
[1886.6s] it felt to you like visibly it was a solid piece,
[1891.2s] but now like there's this wavering
[1892.9s] that's happening to the stone archway.
[1894.9s] Remind me, the double doors went into the attendance room
[1898.1s] or they went into the classroom?
[1899.4s] Double doors are into the attendance room.
[1901.6s] So you came in,
[1902.6s] double doors went into the attendance room.
[1904.8s] You went into the right door,
[1907.0s] which is now this room that you're in.
[1909.8s] And the left door was locked.
[1911.0s] And the left door,
[1912.0s] which is where the Joe figure went in,
[1914.4s] but it was locked when you tried it
[1916.2s] at this kind of the same time.
[1917.8s] Great.
[1918.7s] I can open a locked door.
[1919.9s] I can certainly try.
[1921.2s] Same.
[1922.0s] I wanna keep going.
[1923.8s] Yeah, sure.
[1924.9s] Yeah, should we unlock that door?
[1927.0s] I think we have to, right?
[1929.6s] I mean, you're enrolled here.
[1933.1s] You should get to go into the rooms that you learn in.
[1936.0s] That's true.
[1936.8s] We have to learn what's back there.
[1937.6s] You try the door.
[1938.5s] We have to observe what's back there.
[1940.0s] Yes.
[1940.8s] We need to observe before concluding
[1942.6s] that there's nothing of worth back there.
[1946.4s] And then we can record it before we're judging.
[1947.4s] Is it actually worth it?
[1948.7s] Someone read the school brochure.
[1950.7s] I think somebody's maintaining it back there,
[1952.5s] so we don't have to worry about that shit.
[1954.2s] Okay.
[1956.5s] I go back up to the door and I try it again
[1959.0s] and I assume it's locked.
[1960.5s] As you all leave the classroom,
[1961.9s] you're the first to kind of head out there.
[1963.7s] Everybody hears like a ruffle of the pages in the room,
[1968.4s] like the drawings on the walls.
[1970.6s] You look and it's like a small gust of wind
[1975.2s] came through the room and like resettled everything.
[1978.4s] If it was a skew, it's now back in place.
[1980.9s] Does it rip the page out of my hand
[1982.6s] that I took down off the wall or I still have that?
[1985.2s] Does not, you still have that.
[1986.4s] Okay.
[1987.2s] Oh my God.
[1988.1s] And as you step out into this room
[1989.3s] and as you move towards that door, Alydin,
[1991.3s] you hear that same gear, mechanical sound
[1995.2s] coming from below you.
[1997.4s] This time, however, they don't appear to be stopping.
[2001.8s] Above the next doorway across the room
[2005.3s] where the Joe hall monitor went,
[2008.2s] where the hall monitor went,
[2009.2s] cause it's not Joe.
[2011.4s] The next doorway hangs another polished brass plaque
[2016.1s] that says, memory.
[2019.6s] You hear a soft click as you go to reach for the door
[2023.0s] before you open it.
[2025.9s] Oh, I open it.
[2027.4s] It swings open and the room smells faintly of dried flowers,
[2031.7s] old paper and polished cedar.
[2035.2s] Rows of desks face a chalkboard
[2038.0s] covered in careful handwriting.
[2041.0s] Above it are three simple lessons.
[2045.1s] Remember accurately, share generously,
[2049.7s] forget only with purpose.
[2053.0s] Shit, that last one.
[2056.0s] Amy.
[2058.3s] Cannot.
[2060.0s] Each student.
[2062.8s] I would excel with that middle one.
[2067.1s] That is where I would excel.
[2068.2s] I would not be accepted to this school.
[2070.2s] I would not.
[2072.0s] Each student's desk contains
[2073.7s] a small wooden keepsake box engraved with a name.
[2078.7s] Hundreds of tiny glass bottles hang from the ceiling.
[2084.0s] Inside every bottle rests a single folded slip of paper.
[2089.1s] Well, I want one of those.
[2090.6s] Right?
[2091.7s] Like, are they reachable or are they like up high?
[2096.8s] Can I just go up to Cav and be like, upy, upy.
[2098.8s] I was gonna say,
[2099.9s] Cav or Bizard could likely reach them.
[2105.2s] You can reach them.
[2106.9s] I see you looking.
[2107.7s] You have the ability to reach them.
[2109.0s] You just need to magic hand it.
[2113.8s] Oh.
[2115.8s] She like hates that he's turning this
[2117.6s] into a lesson right now.
[2119.5s] I'm already at school and you're making it school?
[2122.8s] Oh.
[2123.6s] God damn it, Magic Daddy.
[2125.4s] Okay.
[2126.4s] All right.
[2127.2s] Nobody look at me.
[2128.0s] Don't look at me.
[2129.3s] Okay, I'm gonna start looking for names I recognize
[2131.8s] on the desks while very obviously not looking at Alydin.
[2136.5s] That's right.
[2137.3s] Everybody look busy.
[2139.2s] Okay.
[2141.4s] And I reach my hand out and I like screw my face up
[2147.5s] and I'm concentrating the shit out of this thing
[2149.9s] to cast Mage Hand to grasp,
[2155.5s] I don't know, a blue bottle
[2157.8s] that I see hanging from the ceiling nearest me.
[2161.1s] Mage Hand flickers into existence
[2165.0s] and it begins slowly moving up towards the bottle
[2167.9s] as Bon, when you're examining the desks and the boxes
[2171.4s] and some names that jump out to you are Janelle Foisen,
[2176.2s] Heron Linger,
[2178.5s] Malin Everbane.
[2180.8s] There's one that stands out because there is no name
[2184.6s] but it appears still that whatever the activity was
[2188.8s] has been completed at this desk.
[2190.8s] There's an open empty box
[2193.1s] with a single folded card in front of it.
[2196.1s] Got it, got it, got it, got it, got it, got it.
[2198.1s] Your hand unhooks from the string
[2202.0s] that's kind of holding it up there
[2203.5s] and you pull it down and pop the top off
[2206.0s] and pull out a note inside.
[2211.2s] And the note says,
[2213.7s] we all waved goodbye to the hall monitor today.
[2217.3s] She's having a hard time,
[2218.2s] not like just like, ugh, rolling, rolling her eyes.
[2222.9s] Like I worked so hard for that.
[2228.2s] Bon, when do you go for any one in particular
[2230.4s] of the names I listed?
[2231.2s] I'm gonna go the one that's open
[2233.2s] with the card in front of it and see what that says.
[2237.2s] Sure.
[2238.3s] You go again, the box is empty,
[2242.0s] it bears no name on it and this folded card,
[2245.4s] you open it up and it says,
[2248.6s] some memories are still being written.
[2253.6s] Dumbgeons and Dragons, season four, episode 64.
[2257.2s] Starring Amy More as Alydin,
[2259.3s] Carla Maxted as Bonwyn Everbane,
[2261.6s] Tom Laird as Kavlaran Goldweave,
[2263.8s] Kyle Claset as Bizard the Wizard,
[2266.3s] and Russ More as your dungeon master.
[2268.9s] Dialogue, editing and sound design
[2270.6s] of today's episode is by Russ More.
[2272.8s] Our community manager is Jessica Babyok.
[2275.2s] Music is from Epidemic Sound
[2277.1s] and sound effects are from Epidemic Sound,
[2279.2s] Boom Library and Sound Ideas.
[2281.4s] Our amazing cover art is by Matt Garba.
[2284.1s] A huge thank you to our supporting producers,
[2286.5s] Gabriel Lynch, Jessica Babyok,
[2288.8s] Angaron Kierzen, Perry Matey,
[2290.8s] Cat Waterflame, Jacob Madden,
[2293.0s] Old School Gamer D, Craig Zeiss and L.A. Branton.
[2296.7s] Dumbgeons and Dragons is a Patreon-supported show
[2299.2s] and because of our Patreon supporters,
[2301.6s] we get to keep telling bigger, weirder,
[2304.0s] more heartfelt stories in this world we love.
[2307.1s] And honestly, that's something
[2309.0s] we will never take for granted.
[2311.0s] Join us today at patreon.com slash dumb dragon cast
[2314.1s] and help us tell the stories that you want to hear.
[2317.5s] We hope to see you over there.
[2319.2s] Have a great week and we'll talk to you soon.
[2322.1s] A cogsworth, crackleton dragon.
[2326.1s] I don't know.
[2328.2s] I hate that you did this to me.
[2330.0s] Oh, I'm gonna fight now.
[2333.2s] Why are we in the fight?
[2334.2s] Cause I'm too hot to pick up where I left off
[2336.2s] and I don't listen to me.
[2337.5s] Well, you did it, it's fine.
[2339.3s] I was just waiting for anybody else to respond to you.
[2342.8s] Dumbgeons and Dragons is a Dumb Dragons production.