Episode Transcript
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0:07
Welcome, Dumbheads, to to the Mega Dumbcast. In
0:10
this series, In this series, we're
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examining every single page of page of
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of God, an of God, an from
0:16
story from the scenario book, Gehenna,
0:18
to determine what is the
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dumbest thing on each page. page.
0:23
Every episode is one page, page,
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every episode is short. is short. The
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Crucible of God was published in
0:29
2003 in 2003 by White Wolf. Tonight
0:34
we're discussing page page of We're in
0:36
In The Crucible Of God
0:38
God scenario. last time Drama
0:40
Club took a a trip to Las Vegas. It
0:42
was all supposed to be so simple. to be so We
0:44
made this new made this new friend a
0:46
powerful, magical vampire, and on top
0:48
of that, she's nice. We've met
0:50
some powerful vampires. powerful vampires. ones as
0:52
well. Rarely have we met a
0:54
nice vampire, but we a a nice vampire. but This could
0:57
be the start of a paranormal romance. could be the
0:59
start of a the fiction right now,
1:01
it's 2009. within the... We're We're at the
1:03
height of twilight fever. Fever. Everybody's about nice vampires
1:05
right now. I used to work with a
1:07
woman. Her name was work with a smart. name She
1:09
was very into twilight. She was young at
1:11
the time, but into not young enough to
1:13
say that without some embarrassment. like, I was asking
1:15
her about it, to say do you get into
1:17
about the story? Cause at the time I had
1:20
read And I was and she said it was because
1:22
Edward is a do you which further confused me. Because
1:24
at it that he carries you around? The First All
1:26
the time, that extension. was because
1:28
Edward is a there might be a puddle
1:30
which just in case me. Hop board. But
1:33
But anyway, we met a nice vampire. Her
1:35
name was Her name was we met her in Alaska
1:37
while we were searching for some nukes. for
1:39
some was like, And let's go hunt
1:41
down hey, let's That'll be fun. a And
1:43
Marcus is like, I know one in Vancouver.
1:45
He's called the was like, I know want to eat something
1:47
that's big and asleep? She was the and
1:49
it was great. We went to Vancouver and we ate that guy. or
1:52
she ate that guy. a sleep? She because that
1:54
went so well, it was date, she's like.
1:56
to Let's go we ate else.
1:58
You pick. that guy. whom do you
2:00
wanna eat? to like, And got some friends
2:02
in Las Vegas. I hear they're being
2:04
oppressed by an in Las Let's go hear
2:07
an Angioluvian. She's like, great. So we
2:09
go to Las Vegas. anted expecting it once again,
2:11
we're going to hide out. Make our plan. She's
2:14
raid on great. So we go to Las
2:16
of our three nights of investigation
2:18
trying to find and the again, we're the
2:20
hide and we're busted. plan, do come, drag
2:22
us out of our haven during the But then,
2:24
night now, here we are. nights
2:26
of investigation. as as
2:29
the plot of this story prepares
2:31
to happen in front of us. We
2:33
are, after all the protagonists, this
2:35
is how it goes. That's what it
2:37
means, what meaning forward in front of, forward,
2:39
in to the contest. the contest, In this
2:41
case, meaning the drama, the person in front
2:43
of whom the action happens. drama, the as they
2:45
hang their chained of the the you know. So
2:47
here we are, the their chained up. The up, waiting
2:49
for the action to happen in front of
2:52
us. I'm gonna read you now from the
2:54
text. I'm paraphrasing slightly. in I'm
2:56
going to avoid spoilers, and I'm
2:58
going to replace us. Absamillard with Arecale.
3:00
You'll remember, Absamillard was the the antediluvian of
3:02
the Nosfrautu He's the one who's supposed
3:04
to have kidnapped us here by
3:06
default, us but. default, but this podcast
3:08
version of of we already dragged him
3:10
out of his his and beat his
3:13
ass. beat So his ass, so it's Arackel instead. But different
3:15
vibe. of the the prettiest of the
3:17
vampires instead of the ugliest of the vampires,
3:19
but to as needed that the text instructs
3:21
me to do in the event that Absemillard
3:23
is not available. Aracel or you can replace
3:25
or with or whoever. or or whoever. whoever. Here's
3:28
what happens. happens. Quote, for this climactic
3:30
scene, the storyteller might want
3:32
to create a horrifically a haven
3:34
for baroque haven such as an art
3:36
such as an station subway with staked
3:38
and with hanging from chains, or
3:40
a church now entirely or a with
3:42
human bones. with human very stylish and not
3:44
at all silly. and That's the kind
3:46
of style Arachel has. of style poser
3:48
to the fucking to the fucking Been
3:50
around since ancient since ancient mess up of
3:52
fakintemia. in the modern age. And
3:54
she's like, like... Where I make
3:56
my haven? my I know. I know. A
3:59
church. But with bones, though. Quote,
4:01
the Antediluvian has great power now, and
4:03
it takes its time torturing the characters
4:05
in between the questions. Quite possibly the
4:07
ancient has disciplines that could force the
4:09
characters to tell everything they know. The
4:12
torture is just for fun. At
4:14
last, the Antediluvian forces the Coterie
4:16
to speak of Sarah. So
4:18
Vampire Drama Club being tortured by
4:20
Aracel just for fun really. Obviously she
4:22
has the presence, she has the
4:24
dominate, she has the aspects. And so
4:26
eventually of course we tell her
4:28
about Sarah. This cool vampire we
4:31
just met, friendly vampire. And
4:33
don't, by the way, don't judge Vampire Drama
4:35
Club for writing her out. She's not really
4:37
a, like we don't really know her. It's
4:39
just, you know. sometimes you meet
4:41
somebody and they want the same thing you
4:43
want. They get it. It's just
4:45
a copacetic relationship. It's like
4:47
my daughter's kindergarten teacher. Mrs... I
4:51
was gonna say, Mrs. Shenandoah. Yeah, I probably could
4:53
call her by her first name here in the privacy
4:55
of my podcast. It just feels weird with elementary
4:57
school teachers. I don't know. It's like
4:59
if Ms. Frizzle took the
5:01
kids on an adventure somewhere and
5:03
for some reason they had occasion to
5:05
like, go into a smoky bar. which
5:08
I know they're kids, but like it's Frizzle,
5:10
she would do that shit. And then
5:12
they walk in and they're learning about fermentation
5:14
or whatever. And then there's like, This
5:16
bearded man over in the corner who looks
5:18
at Ms. Frizzle over his bourbon through the smoke
5:20
and is like. Valerie and
5:23
nods to her. wistfully. It's
5:25
weird, although, you know what, It's
5:28
It's hot. Of course, it's going to be
5:30
hot. It's Ms. Frizzle. My digressive point is
5:32
just that it feels weird to call an
5:34
elementary school teacher by her first name. And
5:36
my real point is we don't really know
5:38
Sarah like that. So it's fine. Like we're
5:40
being, we're being tortured. We're being plied with
5:42
presence. Of course, we spill everything. Sarah is
5:44
not going to hold it against us, especially
5:46
because Aracel being a real dick Quote, Their
5:49
captor laughs. That silly
5:51
girl. I haven't heard anything about
5:53
her in 5 ,000 years. What'll
5:55
she do? Throw pots at me? Threaten
5:57
to redecorate my haven? I assume that
5:59
underthr... - of torture. none of us of us
6:01
ventures to mention that you a incapacitate a
6:03
toridor by redecorating clan It's the clan
6:05
weakness. is too pretty, If a room is too
6:07
pretty, they go into shock. burn
6:09
on Sarah, it's a misguided burn on because but
6:11
a burn nonetheless, because here's what happens next. when
6:13
the building when the building starts to
6:16
shake and rattle. Every mechanical device in
6:18
the building dismantles itself. pop out of pop
6:20
out of girders, bolts unscrew themselves,
6:22
furniture slowly pulls and everything slowly pulls itself
6:24
apart from whatever it's connected to. to.
6:26
The The entire building becomes a loose
6:28
web of girders, bricks, and slabs
6:30
hovering in slabs Then, with a tremendous
6:33
boom, with a the fragments of the building
6:35
burst into the air and rain
6:37
down over the city. burst into comes rained down
6:39
over the city. She mentally pops the chains off
6:41
of us, wraps them around pops the The two
6:43
of them fight. us, And what do we do?
6:45
around matters, but thank you for asking. and what
6:48
The characters don't have to fight the ancients'
6:50
minions, who sensibly flee. Instead, they
6:52
must dodge and run themselves to avoid being
6:54
crushed. See, we get to run to avoid
6:56
being crushed. flee. We're here, we're doing Anyway, the two
6:58
of them end up in a crater after
7:00
a big fight. end up in a her fangs into
7:02
a big then she drops her and laughs.
7:04
her fangs into done it, she says.
7:07
she drops her and laughs. a way
7:09
out. done I don't have to be
7:11
what my sire made me, I can
7:13
be a god, a way out. this city,
7:15
my be what my And then it says
7:17
made her hand be the ruins of
7:19
Las Vegas my up and And then it
7:22
walls and domes of her hand less
7:24
creative than actual Las Vegas. But
7:26
she's tired, she just she's a big thing. a
7:28
big fine. It's fine. Quote, can
7:30
change you you my loyal loyal servants.
7:33
calls to the characters as her own body
7:35
begins to glitter. See what I tell you
7:37
about fucking See, when I Actually, the book was published
7:39
in 2003. This is, it's just a coincidence.
7:41
was And I don't fucking want her to
7:43
be our Edward is just a Our Valerie, maybe. And I
7:45
I don't know. want Do you have a bus? Where are you going to take
7:47
me? Our sorry to disrupt the
7:49
know. Do a She's in the middle
7:51
of the crater, she's glittering. me? Anyway. I
7:53
can change you all, no
7:55
more vampires, no more curse! Then,
7:58
the ground ground beneath molds into a... enormous
8:00
mouth and eats her whole.
8:02
whole. The reign of The first the
8:04
first gang has has begun. So she
8:06
got eaten by a big mouth and
8:08
that's it for Sarah. Big round of of applause
8:10
for Sarah. Thanks for for showing up. What
8:12
the fuck was the point of this
8:14
story this story Why even do this? do this? dumbest
8:16
thing on this page is, and it's
8:19
and it's a culmination of a
8:21
dumb thing that's been happening. been
8:23
We're out minding our own
8:25
business. our Here comes this
8:27
random, nice, extremely powerful elder named
8:29
Fucking Sarah, befriends us, us. seeming with no
8:31
strings with no strings attached. make
8:33
any doesn't really make any sense to do anything
8:35
hang around with her in this fucking so we do
8:37
so we do, from place to place. She eats some
8:40
vampires that we lead her to. She to, of
8:42
does all the work. all the work, us in the
8:44
plans, which is nice, which is great. But we're
8:46
we're just kind of along for the ride
8:48
in her adventure. Then she's like, take me to
8:50
an me to an So we take her there. We
8:52
get kidnapped, we chained up to the wall and
8:54
we get to watch while she kills the
8:56
antediluvian. And then a giant mouth eats her and
8:59
that's it. mouth Who the fuck is it. Who the
9:01
What? is Sarah? I mean, I we'll hear a
9:03
little more about this, but not enough for
9:05
it to really make sense. make I don't
9:07
understand why Sarah is in this story. In
9:09
the story as written, we don't really
9:11
talk about about Arakeel. We don't was inserted about
9:13
because we already took on talk about Arakel. In
9:15
a story that doesn't have room
9:18
for the have room for the Toyota of the
9:20
Antediluvians. and a we need a
9:22
Sarah segment? did why the a is
9:24
her name segment? And why does bother me.
9:26
Sarah? It - really does bother You don't...
9:28
And okay, a little time left in the
9:30
episode. time kind of a short one. Feels
9:32
like, kind of a you. Feels You give up. what
9:35
you know about you give up what then know
9:37
says, And then girl, I haven't
9:39
heard anything about her in 5 ,000
9:41
years. Did she used to go by years.
9:43
Did Is that like to real? Sarah? name? Because
9:45
else has, has, like, Arukel is
9:47
is named and and she's
9:50
alternately known as like the deity Ishtar.
9:52
And as I And as I
9:54
mentioned days ago, like, Absimiliard,
9:56
Malcav, it's just it's just weird to
9:58
have Sarah in the mix who already was
10:00
as Sarah five ,000 years ago when Arkel
10:02
apparently had some kind of
10:04
beef with her over pottery
10:06
or interior decorating or something.
10:08
or Arkel even remember? remember like one
10:10
person named Sarah? I mean I guess maybe
10:12
she I guess maybe she recognizes her
10:14
from her powers. the But if that's
10:16
the case, this implies that these
10:19
powers were singular thousand ,000 years ago, which
10:21
only further makes it strange that
10:23
we've got the one special, magical, nice
10:25
vampire in the world world with took who took
10:27
a to us. us so to us to speak.
10:29
speak. Not a a glitter joke. I don't know. I just,
10:31
know. I don't like I don't like Sarah's presence in
10:33
this story. Her role is role is pointless is
10:35
a as a character she just seems
10:37
kind of basic. basic. If you're years old
10:39
and immensely powerful and the of
10:41
the of the has personal beef with you,
10:43
you should not be should not be a You
10:45
should be You should be a Valerie. But alas,
10:47
they rarely come along. along. And Vampire Club now
10:50
has more important things to deal with. then
10:52
reflecting on their brief friendship with
10:54
their friendship vampire. the friendly magical.
10:56
The floor turned into a mouth and a trying to eat them.
10:59
Join me next time for that Join
11:01
me next time for that on MDC, the Mega Dumbcast.
11:03
This has been Mega has
11:05
been Mega episodes New episodes
11:07
drop every day except for
11:09
Sundays, when all the week's
11:11
previous episodes drop in in one big
11:13
Megasode the the patron's only RSS feed. If
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If you'd like to access
11:17
that feed and support the
11:19
show, the visit patreon .com/Mega Dumbcast. This
11:21
theme song is song is Yeti
11:24
Music, Yeti work you can
11:26
find at work .io. at U -P -P
11:28
-B -A -T B-A-T-I-O. Dumbheads, I will I
11:30
will catch you next time. time.
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