Your search for the perfect Thanksgiving entree ends with ButcherBox.Take the stress out of holiday meal prep with your choice of humanely raised whole turkey, turkey breast, or ham, free in your first order.
Plus, get $20 off when you go to butcherbox.com slash midst and enter the code midst at checkout.Sign up today and get ready for your easiest Thanksgiving yet, delivered right to your door.
Order by November 19th to guarantee delivery by Thanksgiving.Butcher Box offers everything from organic chicken and pork raised crate-free to grass-fed and finished beef and wild-caught seafood.
Shipping is always free and you can select your favorite proteins in your box every month so you can always have your freezer conveniently stocked without having to make a trip to the butcher or the grocery store.
Go to butcherbox.com slash mittst and enter the code mittst at checkout to get this offer plus $20 off your first box today.
Welcome to Moonward, a Midst role-playing story.
In this four-part miniseries, Midst co-creators Matt Rowan, Sarah Weil, and Zen will be joining Marisha Ray and Liam O'Brien from Critical Role on a standalone improvisational adventure to seek the destroyed moon of Midst.
Together, our crew will weave a tale without any defined gaming system, other than the power of imagination, and give you all a front-row seat to the way we craft our podcast.
Now, let's begin this episode of Moonward. Spooky.Welcome back to episode four of Moonward, a mid-stroll playing story.I am Zen, the guide narrator of this story, and I am joined once again by Marisha Ray, Matt Rowan, Sarah Weil, and Liam O'Brien.
It's gonna be fine.Everything's gonna be fine.Everyone will survive. Or will they?We're about to find out.In the grand finale of our story, down here in the depths, in the moon, in the mooner abyss, I almost said.I like it.
Yes, yes, yes.It's time to follow the doorways.It's time to sojourn through the corridors and see where this story takes us.You ready to bring this one home? What happened last time?What happened last time?A very good question.
Our friends, frenemies, protagonists, antagonists, who can say, have descended to Midst's fallen moon, investigated its strange accursed warped remains, finding many... accursed things.Accursed is the word of the day.
You have found your way to the very core of Midst's dark moon, where you have encountered old friends, new friends, old enemies.New enemies.New enemies.And things are about to get real.Are we ready to see what happens?Yes.
Without further ado, once again, Moonward. Everyone moves instantly.Swords at the ready.Baxford's men.Kurushu's troops.Attack. Your hand is up.
Yeah, okay.I don't know how far this thing Jacob and I have has developed, but can I, without speaking, suggest to him that he should pull some fireworks out of Vesta's bag and set them off right now?
Yes. You don't have to ask for permission.It's your idea.Take it away.
Okay, I've never tried this before.I try sending a thought down because I don't think people will necessarily know how our body works or be expecting him to do that.
No, Tomasi is quite surprised.Tell us how it happens.
Okay, I suggest, I recommend for Jacob to sort of lunge forward, because I'm not really sure where Vesta's loyalties lie at this moment, and I just want to make sure the fireworks go off.
He grabs two of the bottle rockets, lights them, and I guess lets them explode out of his hands.
Vespa is not anticipating having Jacob lunge towards her, so she lunges backwards herself and slips onto the ground, some contents of her bag filling out, including the fireworks, pills, syringes.
Immediately, Karushu's men move. coming straight towards you with swords drawn.Vesta, they're coming straight towards you.Dusty, they're coming straight towards you.A flashing blade in the dark coming straight at you.Vesta, move now.
I move.After being knocked over on the ground, she just kind of rolls instinctively out of the way as the sword comes falling down.
Dusty, three men are coming straight at you.Weapons drawn.
Turning from Tomasi, I pull the mica jackhammer off of my shoulder and with a swing, Just like wham them.
Seeing now that Jacob was not trying to attack me and seeing that he holds the fireworks, I reach into my bag and I toss a thing of matches to Jacob and Fiona.
I catch them out of the air, strike one, and in a coordinated movement, as Jacob holds the fireworks up, I hold the matches down, and they light.
An immediate explosion.Come off.Fold safe?
No.I don't think so.These were specifically not fold safe for exactly this reason.
There is an immediate swirling maelstrom of movement, light, sound, fire, explosions, soldiers falling back in fear as a whirling dark madness erupts in the core of the moon around you.
Soldiers scrambling, Kurushu shouting instructions, Baxford Wainian shouting, nice.His men are spreading out around you, protecting you, defending you as Kurushu's soldiers are stepping in trying to find openings
Swords going into armored chinks between soldiers' plate protections.
So they're fighting each other.
They're fighting each other.Baxford is trying to hold them back.Mother Trauma is getting into position behind all of you, trying to stay out of the frame.
Oh yeah. I just, since I am next to Fiona, who keeps giving me this shitty look.I just don't know where to stand, girl.I'm still on the ground and I look up and I just say, we gotta go, now.
And start trying to crawl out from the fray, using this as a distraction.
Alton's just taking it all in.This like, an immediate eruption that goes and goes and goes, is it? A short spell?
It is a swirling maelstrom of confused darkness, flashing and convolving in front of you as doorways in the hallway slam open, shut, strange creatures skitter around the walls of the chamber, appearing, disappearing, half remembered, half forgotten, there one moment, gone the next.
very much not fold safe.A terror spawning in the air.Thankfully the fireworks are relatively small.This is very different than an entire colossal moon falling into the fold.
Also the thing is, I don't think I'm scared of terrors anymore. Not like I used to be, at least.Not as much as I'm scared of all the other things going on in here.
So I throw out my hand towards Tomasi, and I say, come on, come with me, we gotta get out of here now.
Bodies falling all around you, swords scattering across the ground, flying towards your vicinity.The survivors are moving, trying to position themselves advantageously around the room, but the soldiers are cutting off your exit.
Dusty is holding the jackhammer aloft, like, follow Vesta, go, we gotta get back down the hallway, you guys.
Yeah, back the way we came.
Get us out of here!Backstreet's men are trying to sabre their way through Karushu's associates.Momentarily, an aperture opens in the battling fray, pointing straight out into the hallway, the hallway of doors.
Jay and Suresh sprint across the gap, and Dusty is like, approaches Karushu and the rest of the crew and is like, you get in our way if you stop us.
I'm shepherding the miners through.Go, go, go, go.
They're trying to move as fast as they can through between bodies out into the hallway.Karushu is shouting orders.No, you can't get out of here like that.
We had a deal.The deal was we save the miners, you get the moon.We don't give a fuck what you wanna do with it.
Let us go.The deal goes out the window and you associate with Bexford Wainian.We do not deal with dark barons and their friends.
I didn't know, I didn't know.
Wainian is storming through the crowd, throwing bodies aside, his sword coming out, walking straight toward Karushu, who's drawing her saber as well.
Mother Trauma is moving behind you as well. Where are you, friend?
He's still... I'm vamping here.He is still groggy, he's still woozy from what happened, and he's just watching it all unfold, and he's keeping tabs on... I know that I've been quiet.I am keeping tabs on Baxford and Kurushu.
So that's it for now for me.
I look over at Walden, trying to make eye contact.
You coming or you staying?
I'll be right behind you.
Have we got all the miners through the door?
You got everybody.Everybody's trying to move.Jay, Suresh, the other miners, Tomasi is totally bewildered.He is trying to grapple with one of Karushu's soldiers who has him pinned against a mica wall.
So Fiona has the stilt that I mentioned can telescope. I'm going to have it retracted.I don't even think I need to speak aloud to Jacob anymore.I just kind of tell him, hold us steady.
And I lean back and hold my right foot out, sole pointed towards this other soldier's head.And I un-telescope the stilt, aiming for the soldier's face.Amazing.
A body goes flying.Tell us about it.
It probably ends up a little bit more gory than I expected or intended, but there's a crunch, there's bruising, there's a collapse as the soldier goes limp and slumps down against the wall, but Tomasi is free, he's unpinned, and I hold my hand back out to him, I guess down at an angle.
Come on, come on, run.He's coming with you.Karushu is looking straight at you and one of her dead men lying at your feet.
Oh, did I kill him?You know, run.I think to Jacob to grab the dead guy's sword.
He reaches down, scrambles.I don't know how to use it.He's handing it up to you.
All right.I can do this.You can do this. Baxford is locked in one-on-one combat with Commissioner Karushu.They are battling to the death, a knife against her throat, a sword negotiating between his defenses.Enemies to the last breath.
They are distracted.The soldiers are coming for you.Several of Karushu's men are coming straight for you, Walden.All right, now's the moment.
I pull... I've still got eyes on Baxford and Karushu, and I pull out the full burst. and I throw it directly at my feet, and it erupts shadow like 300 feet in every direction.
So it is a blind box in here now, and I close my eyes and start moving through the soldiers running in my direction and slowly navigating my way through, and then I start to circle around these two who are locked to the death,
and the blades are flying out, so it is dangerous as hell.I pull out the wrench, and I take a swing at the back of Karushu's head.Does it connect?It does connect.Unfortunately, not as hard as I want.She turns, her sword is whipping towards you.
Which goes into my shoulder.Direct hit. and is jammed there.So, Karushu knows where I am because Karushu can feel me the way that I can feel Karushu.
Can the rest of us see this happening?
I think I, at this point, have gone, I'm hurtling into the hallway, shepherding Tomasi, so whatever's going on in the room behind, I'm not facing it.So, it's on you two, if you wanna help.
I'm gonna shout out... Baxford. If you can, try to get my people out of here.
And I skitter back a few feet, feel the blade come out, and instantly feel blood gushing, not from my heart, but from the shoulder blade right above, and it's just welling up.
Karush, who's looking at you wide-eyed, almost astonished at what she has done, I told you not to do this.Why did you do this?I warned you this would happen. She does not look happy.She did not want this.
She told you not to do this, and yet here you are.I just start laughing.Baxford is not laughing as his sword goes straight through Kirushi's chest.
He spears her straight through the torso, pulling her in, eyes flaming red, bright, shining into her face. No, you don't, he says.You don't hurt my people.You've hurt us enough already.Never again!He twists the knife.
Kurushu blood spurting from her mouth is falling back.He throws her body aside.He reaches a hand to you.Walden, come with me.The rest of you, keep moving.His men are nailing Kurushu's soldiers left and right.His soldiers are elite killers.
Does anyone see anything?Because I have thrown a bomb of darkness for at least a temporary moment.
Yes, a swirling darkness is engulfing the scene.Black fog whirling around you as the explosion from the firework is beginning to gnaw the walls, dissipating, chewing grooves to the floor. Does Karushu make a noise?She is bleeding out.She's not dead.
She's on the ground, clinging to her chest, trying to pull aside her jacket.There's an armored vest underneath her suit coat.But the blade has gone straight through.
I just scream out, not confused, standing.I know that Fiona has gone ahead.I imagine I'm maybe still there with Dusty as he's trying to get the last of the survivors out.
And I'm just looking into the darkness, blinking hard my eyes and focusing, trying to look through the chaos and just screaming, Walden!
You're on the ground.Me?Baxford's got my hand.He's trying to hoist you.I'm clutching my chest.I'm moving, but I am bent over a lot.I'm scanning with my eyes shut.I can't see people.That's not how my shit works, but I am trying to get a sense.
Like, I don't have any detail in that sense.Where was the last place I saw the miners and my new friends were? moving towards the passage we came in through, right?
Exiting the core of the moon.
Is there still a crowd there?I think I can see rough detail with movement that way.
Yes.They are in the doorway, heading out of the core of the moon.Tomasi is trying to find, where's the hit with the goggles?The goggles, what? Dude, he's clearly talking about Walden with the goggles on his head.
Just keep running.Keep running.We got to keep moving into this weird hallway.We go spilling through into the hallway with the doors.I imagine there's this concentrated fold from the fold burst just spilling through like fog, coiling along the floor.
Is the hallway, A, still there?It is.
Full of doors.The paintings have moved.The doors have changed.The creatures on the walls are all turning to face you. The elevators are just ahead.The hallway is telescoping, shortening, tunneling towards you.Doors disappearing one by one.Okay.
I grip... Oh, sorry.You go.
I try to keep the miners in view ahead of me, but I am running fast.
I'm just trying to, like... Jay Suresh pelting through the tunnels.Dusty is, like, fireman's line style, like, guiding people to the hallway.Like, we've got to go, we've got to go, making sure that the miners are, like, getting in there.
Don't look at the paintings.Do not look at the paintings.Do not go through a door.Tomas looks at the paintings.
I cover his eyes and turn his face forward and keep pushing him.
Down the hallway, toward the escape.Karushu's men, trying to follow you, but are seized by Walden's men, being pulled back into the room, throats cut, bodies falling.Karushu is on the ground, reaching after you.Vesta, she's calling you.
Walden is standing above her, plunges a sword straight down to the ground.You do not see her again.
Excuse me, Baxford.Baxford.
Baxford just stabs the fuck out of Kurushu?
Yes, on the ground.A sword in, out.Never again, he says.Again, into the ground.His eyes flaming red with pure hate.
As soon as he's not paying attention to me, I actually skulk away in this dissipating, probably at this point, dark, but I've still got my eyes closed and I'm dragging my wrench along the ground.
trying to follow after where I can just barely make out the exit.I'm trying to catch up.
Mother Trauma is at your side, trying to follow you.Passing by Baxford as well.Come with me, Walton.It's time to go.He's trying to lift you up.Do you still have the knife?I still have it.Soldiers are trying to come towards you.
Hey, I'm going to smash one across the face with my wrench.And when I do it, I feel the wound tear further and start bleeding a little more profusely.
Now that everything is starting to clear and I can finally see the scene a little bit better, I see Walden.
Another soldier is coming out and Vesta turns and she just grabs a piece of broken dark mica on the floor and stabs it into one of the soldier's neck, trying to clear a path.You pick it up with your bare hand.
I pick it up with my bare hand and sure enough,
Tell us about your horrific new injury in your legs.
So I'm just, I see a path, I see Walden finally trying to stumble forward.Another soldier leaps forward as I take the mica shard and plunge it into his neck.It does go deep, but just that sheer force and the sharpness slices Fess' palm wide open.
Is it your silver hand?It would be the silver hand.
A squirming, black ichor begins to spread into the cut, beginning to consume your blood.
Come on, come on, let's go.I just realized the miners might not know the elevator is fixed, so I shout down the hallway, we fixed the elevator!The elevator shaft is operational!
Thank you, it's time to go!
We have a ship waiting there.
It'd be nice if you could get to the ship. Unfortunately, Dark Sonya shows up.Uh-oh.
Absolute, insane, rolling darkness consumes absolutely everything!Pure, consuming evil!
You are in a hall of doors.There is a figure coming towards you.A tall, black figure with red, glowing eyes.As tall as the grandmother.In fact, very similar to the grandmother.In fact, it might be the grandmother.
But you said Dark Sonia.I heard you say that.I did say that.What?
It's not quite the grandmother.Why, it looks sort of like a cursed, bad grandmother.Someone who might once have been a grandmother, but who now is not just not quite human, but absolutely not human at all. at all.
Okay, um, the door that is my door that I cut to fit my head?That's my door back at home?
Do I see it?You do.It's at the end of the hallway beyond the figure that is gliding straight towards you slowly.Whatever it is is taking its time.Okay.It is coming towards you very slowly, unhurried.Behind you,
The aperture leading to the core of the moon is still open, and the chambers beyond, the caverns beyond are still visible.
There, hovering inside that cracked, broken, dark cavern, still hangs the large lunar shard that is the core of the moon, the broken, arrowhead-like, tall, knife-like fragment, slowly turning in the air.Baxford Wainian is still within.
Still standing with his sword driven straight into Kurushu's chest, he is not moving.But he is looking straight at you with his coal red eyes.I'm very sorry about this, Walden, he says.You brought them right to us.
The figure is gliding toward you, blocking your escape.
Mother Trauma is directly behind you.He steps between your ranks, stepping between you and the specter gliding towards you down the collapsing telescoping corridor. Sonia, Mother Trauma.And you.Us.Baxford.Yes.There's one way out.
There might be multiple.In fact, there are many ways out of this.Not all of them good.Mother Trauma turns to you all.
I told you you were under my protection.You are.This moon is a place of safety and danger. More so danger, but now safety.I will make it so.You are under my protection until the end.I wish you all well, and I hope you make it home.
He raises a hand, and the dark, towering, arrowhead-like shard behind you begins to glow an eerie, heart-beating purple, a strange luminescence. A wave of feeling washes over you all as you feel a warding power, a strange safety.
For a moment, you feel that same warmth that Jacob has projected in the past, a feeling of belonging, a feeling of acceptance.It briefly surges within you all and then is gone.Mother trauma has protected you. but he can only do so much.
As he turns away from Sonya to face you all, two red eyes shining forth from behind his veil.I start walking backwards.You're mine, he says to you all, coming towards you. Oh my, a hand is coming out to you.
A black ichor is spreading across his face, consuming his veil, the fabric of his mask melting away.You see broken teeth and jawbone underneath.He is reaching for you.
Vessa just looks at her hand.
A black scarification spreading through your veins, spreading of your arm.A black squirming ichor turning your veins black.It's reached your elbow.
Is this, is this what happens?Is this how you became you?
Am I to become the monster that you are?
Walden, the knife in your possession is tremoring. Mother Trauma is walking toward you.
I am pulling on Tomasi's shoulders.Anyone else I can reach just walking backwards, retreating back down the hallway.
Walden, Mother Trauma is coming straight towards you.Tell me, Walden, do you The knife is in your hand.Mother trauma is coming toward you.
I let mother fall on me and embrace and grab and stab it in from behind as he's on me.
With no hesitation?No. Immediately, a shuddering wave of sorrow and pain and fear overcomes you as a bony hand claws the back of your head.
You see a dripping, weeping face with dark, matted fabric hanging to a bony countenance inside the veiled mantle as mother trauma leans against you. He's falling into your embrace.He's shaking, the red eyes going dark.
You did the right thing, says Mother Trauma as he dies. You are under Mother Trauma's protection as Dark Sonya glides slowly toward you.And a voice, whispering, begins to resonate in the hallway.A strange, unearthly summons
as a powerful, incalculable presence comes toward you.Dark Sonya stands before you now.Hello again.
Who says, come here.The voice that whispers from within.So you never feel alone. I watch you while you sleep. One by one by one.And I have come to take you next. The guilt that carves you like a knife.
The darkness is coming toward you.Red eyes locked on each and every one of you in turn.I... The soldiers are not under Mother Trauma's protection.The remainder of Karushu's phalanx and the remainder of Baxford's.
They all stand at attention in their various positions, watching. Staring, waiting, red pinprick eyes shining at you in the dark.You alone have been warded.You alone are safe for now.
Vista reaches over, grabs Walden by the collar, shoves Walden mother trauma off of him.
His limp skeletal body has lost all definition and feeling.Husk loose bones and desiccated remains clatter and rustle away as limp fingers and clawed remains scatter across the floor.There's nothing left.An ancient mummy in a black shroud.
I am physically yanking Walden and I'm grabbing him and I shove Walden up against the wall. Someone has to drive the fucking ship.
He's got to be new.They're with Fiona.And I take and I reach in my medical bag as I'm continuing to grab him.I take just a wall of gauze.I'm not even going to unroll it.There's no time for that.
I shove it into your sword wound and I take another syringe.This is just like a quick medical basically morphine, to try and shove it in your wound to stop the coagulation, or start coagulation.Have the miners been warded?
Are they with us?Are they biddable, or are they frozen in place?
That's a great question.I did just say that you are all protected, and I will stand by that.They are outside the immediate bubble of your protection.Tomasi and the others stand just beyond you, here in the hall, between you,
and Sonia, who is approaching from behind them.Tomasi and Jay.The protection is vocal to us.It's like an aura.It would seem to be the case.Tomasi and the others stand still, gazing at you in the darkness, their eyes shining red pinpricks.
They are not moving. Dark Sonya is taking her time.You belong to her, after all, it would seem.She doesn't need to hurry.
Dusty is in the hallway, and he steps forward, attempting to put himself between the miners and Dark Sonya with Jack Hammer over his shoulder.
A darkness is spreading rapidly throughout the room.A spectral sheet is coming toward you, moving slowly through the dark.The walls are beginning to dim.The walls are beginning to go dark.The paintings, the doors are disappearing one by one.
One more time for clarification, Sonya is between us and our exit?That's correct.Us and that exit.
That's correct.This moon is full of holes.
There are many ways off this moon, some more optimal than others.
While the other three look back to approaching doom, and after that adrenaline shot in my chest, I kind of get up on one knee and take the moment to hoist my wrench out, and I see a dark crystal on the ground.I don't touch it, but I...
I get the wrench on top of it, and I weakly tighten it, and lift the wrench that was now holding a hunk of crystal in its grasp, and I try to stand up, hold onto Jacob's shoulder.
Vesta, the black scarification has reached your shoulder.
MARISHA and especially as I am holding Walden up against the wall and Dusty standing next to me, you see it starts with the silver filigree first as it turns to black and begins to swirl following the pattern before the rest of it begins to creep up like water level rising in a sinking ship.
It reaches her right eye, and it begins to glow a familiar red tint.
I'll help you for as long as I can.
You should probably see a doctor.
I take one step after Dusty, I don't know how this protection thing works, but I try to extend its field of effect over the miners, over Tomasi, and I reach for it and I grab his shoulder and I say, hey, you forgot our fucking anniversary.
You are gonna come home, and we're gonna have a fight, and I don't think we should get married, but I don't want you to die.Tomasi?
stands before you.Clearly, his eyes are red, but not with spectral evil, but with tears.Maybe I should have waited.I know, he says.And I'm really sorry.Fiona, I've been so scared. I thought I'd never see you again.
I thought, I thought we were gonna die down here, and all I can think about is how, how much I fucked up.I don't know who this guy is, but he seems a lot better for you than me, so I agree.I think you should just let me go.
No, no, that's not what I said.You, you are important to me.You, You were the first step towards Stationery Hill feeling like home to me, and I felt like as long as you wanted to marry me, then maybe I was okay.Maybe I was worth something.
But listen, we don't have to be each other's everything or one and only, but I still care about you.But what if you are?
I tell the guys on the moon all the time at work how wonderful you are, how excited I am to be with you.
Why didn't you ever tell me that?Let's go home so we can fight about this at home.
Come on, just come.This is Jacob, by the way.
You're extending a hand to him, it would seem.Yeah.The moment you do so, His eyes turn red.And again, this is actually the supernatural red this time, not the sad, emotional red.Jacob's too naive to know that you're worthless and mediocre.
It's only a matter of time till he finds out, you know.Till he thinks you're a burden.He'll resent you, you know. He probably already does.You want to go home and fight about that?
I do.I want to give him that time to figure out that I'm a mediocre piece of shit.
I'll take that bet. says Dark Sonja.She is passing through the ranks of the miners.She is not far from you now.
You have the jackhammer.Make an exit.
So Dusty is holding the jackhammer aloft, like a bit loaded.And as Dark Sonja approaches, looks her dead in those eyes and says, you are just one more barrier to getting these people out.And I am not letting you stop me.
And with a flick, click, and a stab, and a practiced hand, Dusty jams that jackhammer into the mica floor of the dark moon hallway between Dark Sonya and the Miners, and Fiona, and Vesta, and Walden. and I press it down.Tell us what happened.
At first, the mica bit sparks the way mica bits do.And being in the fold, A terror occurs.A couple of smaller jackhammers roll out onto the floor, just sort of rattling.And... Dusty presses.And the jackhammer goes further in.The light within the mica
flashing out around, through the hallway, down the hallway, behind the paintings, through the doors.And with a guttural yell, jams it down, floor cracking asunder.
I stagger as I feel this shockwave run through the floor, this vibration.Dusty?There are fault lines running out.
Go into mother... Dusty.Who are you?Myself. like pressing the jackhammer down, hauls himself over the fissure toward Dark Sonya.
What's happened to the miners?What's happened to Tamasi?Are they still frozen?Can they move?Are they responding to any of this?
They are.Tomasi, in particular, at the front of them, having spoken to you, you can see the emotion still within him.You can see him struggling.You've connected with him, but Dark Sonja's grasp on his consciousness is mighty indeed.
He wants to come with you.The pain in him is real.The eyes glow red with incandescent, strange power, but his face and his body demonstrate total anguish. He doesn't want this.
He does want to come home with you, not to fight, he wants to be your husband.But other things have to come first.
As the fissures in the ground begin to further crack, I see what Dusty is doing. And I just drop my foot with the fold beginning to create this pulsing strength, that feeling, that weight.Is this how my sister feels?Is this how the mothers feel?
A strange heaviness is spreading through you, arm first, as the scarification begins to consume the side of your torso.Is this how Dark Sonja feels? It doesn't feel good, let's put it that way.
And with the weight that I feel as everything is beginning to coagulate, to transmute into this foreign material that my body is slowly becoming, I take my heavy fist and I just smash it to the ground, shattering through the floor, finally cracking it open.
An exit has revealed itself.Indeed one has.
One of the miners was in a very inopportune place and slips and tumbles through the crack in the floor.An unfortunate casualty.
Speaking of unfortunate casualties, Baxford Wainian is approaching from behind. I'm very sorry about this, Walden.The moon already belongs to Dark Sonya.His red eyes lock on you.It's nothing personal.You've always been an outstanding lieutenant.
I wish you nothing but the best, and I applaud you for all your service.And I salute you for everything you've been through.You are a good man.You were a good man.What happens to the moon? The moon comes with us, he says.
He says to you, the moon comes with you.
What about the U.B.?You were always gonna use it to hurt the U.B.
Baxford would have, but Baxford's not really here anymore.Dark Sonya lives within him.A dark, squirming ichor is crawling under Baxford's skin, his red eyes glowing, dimming, going black, black, black.I'm sorry, Walden. Doc Sonia has one.
You said you opened up an exit in the floor?Yeah, in the floor.Is there something to jump onto or is it just a drop?What do you see down there?
I think you see a very precarious scaffolding open up to the abyss.It is at an angle.It is possible to land on it.
With appropriate speed and maneuvering, one could almost take that scaffolding back up to where the slug awaits, potentially.
One more time, I reach a hand out to Tomasi.Are you coming?
says Dark Sonia.Tomasi wants to come.You could make him come.You could bring him with you.But Tomasi isn't really Tomasi anymore.Black, slithering darkness is beginning to grow across his face, across his neck.
The sorrow, the pain is clear in his eyes.You could bring him with you now if you want.But Tomasi doesn't belong to you anymore. He hasn't for a while.He wants to belong to you.He really does.Will you take him with you?
Not if he's not gonna make the effort.
He's trying.He's trying in there. But that's just her opinion, right?Maybe something can be done about this.If you really want it.
If you get out of his influence, if you get out of this sphere of influence, he'll probably come back.
but you have to go now.We're running out of time.Okay, um, Jacob, grab him.
And at the same time, we step back and we fall down.
Plummeting through the fissure?
And I reach down and I hook Tomasi under the arms, leaving Jacob's hands free, and I just hope that he's gonna catch us on that scaffolding.I know he can do it.I know he can do it.
We are seeing terrible shit down here.But I keep coming back to one thing, which is that a terror made Jacob.And it's kind of the best thing that ever happened to me.
He sticks the landing.Down, on the ground, immediately.Fiona, Jacob, and Tomasi are what's left of him.Land below.You see them fall.You see them clank onto the scaffold below the aperture.It tilts and creaks.You're sliding.
Dark Sonya is simply waiting.
Is Jay and Suresh still here as well?
They're standing. at a slight distance, accompanying Dark Sonja, standing at her side.I have a couple clarification questions for the table.
One is Baxford making any attempt to stop me, prevent me?Do I get that sense?Or is this ward that we've been discussing creating some sort of a, I don't know, cancellation?
The sensation swirling throughout your bodies feels to you like a waning protection.Mother Trauma Sacrifice has allowed you to evade instantaneous consumption by Dark Sonja, but the barriers are weakening.It's only a matter of time.
Perhaps that's why she's so unhurried.She simply stands before you now.She's just running out the clock.Awaiting your assimilation.
Next question.You described your eye going red, so how similar are we talking about to Red Sonja?
This is different.The influence from... Rusty.
The chainmail bikini glinting in the light.
The influence from Sonya is external for the time being.This is creeping folds inside Vesta's veins.She is not consumed by Sonya, but the similarities are undeniable. Vesta reaches over, grabs Jay with her strength that is consuming her.
And tosses him down.Jacob, catch!And like, kind of monkey swings him.
Our body's coming down towards you.Jacob lands it again.
We do have four arms.Advantageous.Body comes down.
Someone has to get the fuck out of here and fly the ship.
I throw my hand on your shoulder and get my head right.Our noses are almost touching.Mm-hmm.Follow after if you can.And as I chuck myself down the hole, I have shoved the homing beacon that's been in my pocket into hers, and I fall down the hole.
as I once again kind of monkey swing him across.It is strong, but he is heavy.It dislocates my shoulder.You just see a pop.Asbestos.Gah!
Down you go.Most of you are on the scaffold below now.Sonya looms, red eyes watching, waiting.Jump down.
Dusty is in the hallway facing Dark Sonya.Toe to toe.And Suresh is here still.That's right.And even though this guilt is eating him, and Dusty grabs Suresh from beside Dark Sonya.
Fucking hauls it back, tipping through the hole, dragging Suresh with, so two, one barbarian-like fellow evading Sonya and Suresh fall.
You both plummet through the hole, through the aperture, the crevasse.We try to spot you, but are you able to catch yourself?That is the question.Are you able to catch yourself?And in this freefall, Dusty holding Suresh is like,
diggers forever, right?And, like, using his weight, fucking heaves Suresh in the direction of the rest.
Seeing this liner slung towards us, we do our best to catch him.
But because of this, the equal and opposite reaction, Dusty falls. and he keeps falling into the void.
Red eyes watch you from above as the darkness engulfs you.
If you consent to meet the void, the others may go free.
Do you fall willingly and with readiness and acceptance Or do you fall with fear, guilt, and regret for what might have been?
Knowing that he did what he could.And knowing Well, that without much other recourse, a choice is being offered.Dusty releases the fight. You always knew mica mining was dangerous.That falling through the air was a risk.
That safety was a good preventative.But it was always a job. And with jobs, you did the best that you could.So knowing that he'd made the effort, that he made the journey, that he found the crew, still alive, well, for now, and knowing that a path
has been opened.Dusty accepts.He surrenders to the fall.
Tell us what we see before Dusty disappears.
Looking down this shaft, the large form of Dusty, once big and imposing, seems sort of dwarfed and small. cast against this backdrop of infinite darkness stretching down who knows how far and as he sort of slowly turns and looks up he salutes
and disappears into the dark.
With your final binding agreement, the Fold will now comply.I take this one and bid the others
Dusty Rivers is gone.Am I correct that the rest of you are now below on the gantry way, beneath the core of the Moon Mine?
I think Vesta is still the only one in the hallway, finishing the last of the miners, helping them down.She just watched Dusty plunge.
You saw him go, and you heard his final agreement.Dark Sonya stands before you, a former grandmother transformed by the darkest truths of the Fold.The embodiment of all the pain and loss and fear that the Fold has ever felt.
for as long as it has ever touched human minds.Do you belong to her as well?Dark scars have covered most of your upper body.One of your eyes has turned a crimson red.
As an extraordinary pain, both literal and metaphorical, spreads throughout your body and throughout your consciousness. fear and loss, a sense of not belonging, a sense of not mattering, a sense of no one really knowing you, of knowing your worth.
It will not be a glad acceptance.But the opportunity still stands.Two red eyes watch as the spectral figure awaits your decision.
Not a glad acceptance, no.But in this moment, Vesta feels vindicated.Vindicated in her distrust of the mothers.Vindicated in the choices that she's made.
Relinquishing her selfishness.
All she wanted to do was matter.To be recognized.To burden this expectation that was put upon her and her sister, and then to solely rise to the occasion, and she always just fell a little short.But in this moment, she matters.
And she is granted that recognition.No attention is bad attention.And getting it from Dark Sonya feels oddly rewarding.And you see her other eye go. And with the last bit of humanity that she still holds, she looks down at the crew.
And she looks, she looks at Fiona specifically.And out As the eyes begin to turn that glowing arcane red, you see a tear fall from the corner.I'm gonna go see my sister.And Vesta turns and looks for her door to her family estate.
And as the rest of the black fold covers her body, she goes home.
And Dark Sonya is gone.Into the void.Vesta Sterling.Dusty Rivers. are gone.As on the gantry below, the remaining survivors stand free. Help me up these fucking stairs.Come on.All right, Dusty.Er... He looks wide-eyed.Then he looks sad.
Then he looks into the abyss.Walden.Sorry.Get these people up.It doesn't matter.Tomasi's eyes and the eyes of the other survivors are once again human.Tomasi looks absolutely shell-shocked.
Baxford, waning above in the crevasse on high, looking down at you, takes one last look at you and nods in appreciation, in recognition, in farewell.
And with a flash and a blink of those red eyes, a fathomless darkness gleaming behind them, he turns and is gone as well.
Walden holds the gaze, but he is so fucking angry.He is so fucking angry.Nothing.He came here for us, panned out.Almost nothing.And he shoves Jacob and Fiona ahead of him as he limps, bleeding along this catwalk.Go.Go.Go.I'm coming.
I don't know how to deal with any of that or medicine, but I do know how to modify clothes.And I take all the extra mining suits that we brought with and I buckle them together.I buckle them into each other, making
supports making slings, trying to help Walden and help these miners who are probably weakened, just giving them the support that they need as we climb up.
And then Jacob and I, like a beast of burden, like an ox, just kind of lean into this network of tied together and buckled together suits and just take it one step at a time. and I reach down and I hold Jacob's hand.
He holds it back.Tomasi watches.He looks at Jacob, he looks at you.He looks scared and he looks sad, but he looks ready.Let's go home, he says.In the crevice above,
Strange, half-remembered, half-invisible, half-forgotten, dark figures climb the walls, flitting between crevices, appearing and disappearing.There are two of them that, for a moment, you could almost say seem slightly different than the others.
Do they linger?How do they move?What do we see? A momentary appearance, perhaps a farewell.Do they watch?Do they go?Do they seem at peace?
In the shadow of the crevice, In the substrate of the moon.A figure looms.At home.At work.At peace.The sort of dark umbra of what maybe could be a beard, what could be tousled brown hair, but for now is just full shadow.
Gazes after his once-companions before sliding into the dark mica. squirming between the molecules, sliding into the strange transformed crystal of the moon, and is gone.
There are two, side by side if I'm not mistaken, similar, almost a family resemblance, Perhaps once they were sisters.
I think the only remaining remnants that you might possibly catch a glimpse of Vesta and henceforth Sophie Sterling, a webbing vein, a flash of vine growth,
of a silver filigree that spiders across the dark mica crystal, and then as quickly as it appeared, fades.
It's not a long walk back up to the scaffolding.Winding, strange, scenic, if it weren't for the fact that it is also terrifying.
If you didn't feel kind of like shit, like you'd been through an emotional, surrealist, psychedelic meat grinder, it might almost be described as peaceful.
In fact, I will venture to describe it as peaceful, as our remaining survivors approach the Dark Moon's dock.
and I get there first, and then it's just a matter of helping everyone else up, and... Yeah.
Okay.How do you open it again?Okay.
The doors hiss open in the darkness.The slug is intact.A twittering sound emanates from within as, take one guess who, wriggles excitedly in his cage. You know, come on.Give me a minute.
Not as quick as I used to be.I limp over to the bar.Everybody makes themselves comfortable.
I grab a puffer fish.The miners.Survivors coming in.Tomasi, gratefully, but with some guilt, accepts the puffer fish.It's clear there's a lot on his mind.He feels bad.He feels lost.You've seen the look in his eye before.
He's afraid that he's the villain.He doesn't want to be.He hasn't been making eye contact with you very much.Or with Jacob.Especially not with Jacob.As you all board the ship and prepare to make your departure.
I get the doors shut and I reach a hand out to Fiona.
I... Tomasi's trying to help, too.Come on, Walden.Look after the guests.
You're a first mate now.I'll be up front.You take care of them, okay?You take care of them.
You, uh, call over the intercom if you need anything.
Otherwise, I'll just... It's not as bad as it looks.Then he takes his booze up to the front of the cockpit.That's funny.He turns back and says, It's slime time.He hits a button and the door shuts.
And I head into the cockpit and I open up the birdcage and I scoop up Horace and I pop him on my head and I can feel him.I know, I miss you too, buddy.
He burrows into your hair, gets all bunched up and starts wiggling in.
Okay, so I kick off a flip-flops and by sight take the slug up and then swoop down close to the scaffolding where we left.And I fucking know it's futile, I fucking know it.But I flick on the screen that will show me where that tracker is.
I kid myself into thinking it's gonna work.Five or six seconds, I can see a little... Then it goes screwy.Then it goes dark.
And the moon, hovering in the void as you begin your departure, is no longer there.
I'm looking at it out the porthole as this happened.Does it just vanish?
It begins to descend, begins to sink, begins to drop, and disappears quickly into the darkness.
You all hear over that.And then it's gone.Intercom, again, over radio crackle. Slime time.Take us home, Waldo.I close my eyes and begin to take us on the not-too-long journey home.
My sensory abilities are hanging on by a thread, but they are there, and I can see as it's confused and faltering, but works.Bodies passing by.
Hours into the journey, at one point, I feel something coming up on our side, and I judge the distance and veer us out of the way, but I'm wrong, and everyone feels something scrape along one side of the slug.But we scratch on through.
I'm making ramen for the minors.Good choice.Passing out the hot cups.
Let me know anything you want to do above table, because I'm just heading for Stationery Hill.
You do hear a little tap on the closed door of your cockpit.All done?
You'd say if you wouldn't, if you weren't okay, right?Of course.I let him have that.
The journey home is not as long as it should have been by your charts, conveniently.The same distance it took you to get down is, indeed, thankfully, Blessedly, the same distance back up.
You've heard of people in your stories of full navigation who only seem to go a short distance and end up having to go home.Impossible, fathomless leagues back.Thankfully, this is not one of those stories.
Sequester soon is apparent to you in your consciousness.And soon beyond that, you begin to feel the mass of midst.
And as you feel the presence of midst itself, Walden, you feel the terminus of the median beyond which your echolocative consciousness does not stretch.The surface of the fold lies just above.And quite soon indeed, the dark underbelly of
The Islet of Midst becomes visible to you as it hangs from the underside of the surface of the Fold.So Stationary Hill is still Fold side.Okay.You can come in for a landing in your Fold mercifully.You see the lights of the town.
I start with the greater topography.As we get closer, I can make out spires and buildings and familiar rock formations.
I see them out the window, too.
Closer still, I can feel the contours of the shipyard.And I, um, bring us down.I see a familiar pair of, well, a tree and sort of a middle.
radio tower with a hammock swinging in the middle and I bring the slug down next to it in the shape of the dragonfly and you all feel touchdown as the slug's bottom makes contact with solid midst
You are home.And just in time, too, as night turns into day, as the islet of midst rotates on the median, and from your vantage here on the surface of the islet,
What seems to be a vertical wall of foggy darkness translates at about the rate of speed of a slow walk through the shipyard, passing through the slug, passing over you as day and unlight once again returns.
Or I might expect a cheer to go up from the miners.Instead, there's just kind of this collective sigh.It is an extraordinary relief.Upon seeing something they never thought they'd see again.
Perhaps fathoms below who can say the relief is felt as well. A sensation of success, accomplishment.A certain recognition, you might say.A nod to certain accomplishments, to certain sacrifices.Strong and brave choices having been made.Take us out.
Joe. in the company of other townspeople is coming towards the shipyard.He's got one of those house arrest bracelet things on.
We have those in Mid-State.
Listen, the United Baronies has prisons.Certain other people in the cosmos don't have prisons, but that's spoilers.You'll have to listen to a certain podcast to learn more about that.
Joe is coming toward you, with others in the town, with excitement, wonderment in their eyes.
And behind them, at a distance, a variety of black-clad mothers, here amidst, as usual, to offer their aid, as they have been doing for the past month since the moon fell out of the sky.And at the back of their ranks, one very tall horned figure.
with a unhooded face, black eyes watching you with a knowing.
For a moment, I want to flag them down to come inside to check on Walden.I've kind of been leaving him alone up there in the cockpit, trying not to bother him until it's absolutely necessary.But I just don't know how I feel about them right now.
So with everybody safely disembarked from the slug, I go, we go, Jacob and I go, and knock on the door of the cockpit one more time.
Walden?Walden?You in there?Jacob asks.
I turn it off. Um, Jacob, could you, could you look?Okay, Fiona.He says.I push it open and turn away.
Walden is in his seat.There's a little crumpled up sketch of what looks like a small industrial town. on a rocky landscape on the console in front of him.There's flip-flops tossed off to the side.Empty puffer fish.
And Boris nested into the hair of Walton's head.His eyes are closed.
And I ask Jacob, is he breathing?
No, he's not.Walden held on as long as he could and let go moments ago.
He got us all?This is Jacob.And so did you.
I guess I did.I love you, by the way.
Tomasi doesn't look... He's out, he's out.He's outside.He didn't notice that.That's fine, he didn't see that.That's a conversation for another time.
That's really fair.It's okay, you don't have to... You can just think about that.
It's okay, Jacob says, you didn't have to tell me.I can feel it. Okay, um... Uh, yeah.
I reach over to Walden's head and just offer my fingers to the little bird.He probably doesn't want to move.
Not really.It's a comfy head.But yeah, he comes.
Doesn't fight, doesn't peck, none of that.
No.He understands.It's okay.It's time to go.
We'll come back and give him a proper burial.
Joe and the others are waiting outside for you.Gathering with the survivors, rejoicing.Somewhat more jovial than you are at the moment.Glad to see you, against all odds.Asking a lot of very, very loud and excited questions.
It's a strange hubbub that you don't really hear. I dare say your attention is a little more inward at the moment.
I let their excitement wash over me.It does feel good, even if I profoundly cannot engage with it at the moment.
Tomasi turns to look at you with a incredible thanks, appreciation, wonder, and also some confusion about your sentient leg, apparent in his eyes.You and me both, dude.
As the rest of the town comes toward you to embrace you, Fiona Jo says, welcome home. Can I say I love you all?What a touching and profound story.
I'm honored to have created this with not a Dyson sight, just beautiful decisions, bold choices, and fucking touching Characters, I praise you all.Marisha Ray, Matt, Rowan, Sarah Weil, Liam O'Brien.
They're tears of happiness, folks, and sadness, and wonderment.What can we say other than thank you for watching? We appreciate you joining us.
If you would like to dive further into the Midst cosmos, you can listen to all three seasons of the original Midst podcast wherever you get your podcasts.
Do you want this to hurt worse?Why not add some context?
Curious about what happened in the month between the moon falling and this happening?We've got three seasons of information for you.We also have a ton of added bonus content, music downloads, artwork, and a lot more for subscribers at midzt.co.
And, get this, on August 14th, you can get your hands on the very first issue of our new comic series with Dark Horse, Midzt. Address Unknown in a comic shop near you.
Address Unknown features siblings Rowan and Ogden Shearwater as they attempt to make a fresh start on the strange new island of Midst after their postal ship Unexpectedly lands, crashes on the Isle of Mids.
It is an entirely new Mids tale, so you can jump right in and check it out for yourself.So, we will see you out there in the cosmos.Bye. Thanks for listening to Moonward, a Midst role-playing story.
If you enjoyed the story, please rate and review to help someone new discover the cosmos.
To stay up to date on what's next in the cosmos, sign up for our newsletter on midst.co or find us on social media at midstpodcast.
Who knows what stories are left to unfold?
Sign in
