4.01 - Escaping the Loop

SPEAKER_1 (0:01)

Welcome back to Jesters of Ravenloft, where group of comedians tried to escape the horrors of the Mists. The troupe finally solved the riddle of the realm. New Rogue made a deal for the Genie to honor the intention of their wishes and set him free. Shadow Nemesis was delighted when the prince was finally sausages and executed by Del. And Del was horrified to discover that she had caused a cataclysm by killing two Dark Lords herself. To prevent catastrophe, Tyler was forced to execute Del's patron and girlfriend, the succubus Lucretia, only to leave them trapped in the nightmare of Lucretia's final moments as they both became Dark Lords. Can the rest of the troupe free them from their hell loop and escape back to Earth? I doubt it.

Ryan LaPlante (0:46)

After a tragic loss, anyone thinks back on that moment. Anyone would, wondering what if they had done something different, wanting to relive that last hug, that last kiss. But to do that requires you to relive that loss again and again and again, because in Ravenloft, your realm is your hell. So Del, you keep looping through this experience, having the conversation, having the hug, having the kiss, receiving the letter, watching Lucretia be struck down, and time keeps freezing for you to have this conversation with Severian Wolf, the evil genie again, and then you start the journey over. And there is this moment of lucidity at the start of that journey, where you remember not only have you done this before, but you're doing it again, and you're doing it again, and there's a part of you that just wants that moment, wants that kiss, wants that hug, and once the cycle starts, you're not able to change it, you're just experiencing that moment all over again, that horror and that last desperate moment of connection. But Tyler, we didn't really explore what this was like for you in your internal life.

Tyler Hewitt (2:02)

We don't have to.

Ryan LaPlante (2:03)

That's fine, right? In those scenes. But this is also your hell.

Tyler Hewitt (2:08)

Yeah.

Ryan LaPlante (2:09)

So what are you feeling as you play through this loop, as you play through this scene?

Tyler Hewitt (2:18)

Immense, profound guilt. You know, this is happening by my hand. There's a feeling of, you know, watching this terrible thing happen to someone who you've really like looked up to during all of these like difficult trials and things like that, that we've all kind of been through. You know, from Tyler's perspective, Del has weathered all of this kind of the best.

And to see her lose so much as sort of collateral, as sort of the result of someone else's machinations, in this case, the genie wanting to just twist that knife and kind of hurt the group, which would be my assumption. Again, I don't know the conversations that the genie is having with people, but this is what happens when you get this genie to grant your wishes. There's always something fucked up about it that happens. But even broader than that, I think there's a bitterness toward Ezra building here, of like, he brought us here to do this shit to begin with. We're doing our best to just get ourselves home. And, you know, he's not now, he's panicking and pulling Del's, like, essence apart and dividing her and, you know, the person that she's been, like, magically bonded to into two halves of a former whole, and then forcing them to kill each other, or forcing me to kill one of them, and do that over and over again. So I think there's a lot of guilt and kind of bitterness building in me as I kill a different, extremely attractive person with every kind of fall of the sword.

Ryan LaPlante (4:20)

And you're feeling that guilt abstractly, and you're able to have that moment of outrage before you're once more thrust into that desperate circumstance where you have to do the horrible thing as this cycle keeps looping again and again. But outside that cycle, some of your party are not caught up in the loop. Shadow Nemesis, New Rogue, Jack Magnum, Ddx, Rumpelforskin, you are all looking from the battlements onto this battlefield, seeing this loop happen.

What do you say to each other? What do you do?

Adam McNamara (4:58)

So we're seeing Tyler slay Lucretia over and over and over again.

Ryan LaPlante (5:01)

We're seeing them ride out on horseback to go to meet Lucretia, and the same scene happens. She appears, they have a conversation. She and Del hug, she gives Del a letter, she kneels down, talks to where you were standing when you were there, and Tyler decapitates her in an execution. Time freezes, glitches, and starts over, but you are watching it as an audience. You are standing on the battlements, the army around you is frozen, but you can see this loop happening.