Critical Role & Sagas of Sundry - C2E18 Whispers of War

Episode Date: January 28, 2022

The end of the Harvest Close Festival brings a victory overshadowed by the bigger problems of the Empire...  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Before we're going to be in tonight, we have a few announcements. We want to get through. First up, we have a birthday today. We have my wonderful wife, Marisha. It's her birthday today! Thank you to my mother who birthed me. She should really be the one who's getting thanked. She really should.

Yes. Still alive, mom. Reenacted for us. That's a... Meeh! I'll leave that to Laura in a couple months. Yeah. Hi, I've heard.

I come. Thanks. Next up, we have our two sponsors this evening. First, yes. Two? Two. I only prepared one. What's happening?

I'm doing the second one, you're fine. But our first sponsor to the evening is our returning friends at D&D Beyond. Oh, DanD Beyond, everybody. It's me. Matt's, so D&D Beyond is our fabulous sponsor. They're here every week. They put these things on our iPad, I mean our tablet

devices that help us track our stats and stuff. And they wanted us to let you know that this week, Matt Mercer's Gunslinger Fighter subclass is now available on D&D Beyond. And the character builder, Critters can begin creating their version of Percy right now on D&D Beyond. Pretty tight. That's pretty cool.

And they actually already have started creating their own versions of Percy and loading it with the features that we've come to love about Percy. So I've compiled a list. It's the top 10 list of Percy features being added on D&D. Everyone, just a little light drum roll, if you could. Okay, go. Number 10, extra long pompous names.

Number nine, skin's so white it claps on the ones and threes. Number eight, bags containing gunpowder and victor fingers. Number seven, that feat where your dice always roll 20s, even though they're not cursed by a demonic ritual. I was wondering if they're going to put that in. Number six, blue hair dye. Number five, steampunk bifocals. Lots of gears.

Number four, giant bath tubs that comfortably hold a female half elf under the water for 15 minutes. You can add these features to your Percy. Number three, throat bubbles. Wow. Oh, fucking gone. Stop.

Number two, wit and tact, and the number one thing, wit and tact. And the number one thing being added to the gunslinger class, knives. Thank you, Sam. Is that you guys use the gunslinger fighter archetype, as well as a new feat that goes along with you that's on there as well. Which anyone can take to learn firearms, be better with firearms even if you're not a gunslinger. So check it out on the app. Thank you guys at D&D Beyond for being awesome and for you for supporting them and us And of course our second sponsor tonight returning our fun friends at Obsidian with pillars of eternity to dead fire which is finally out Oh, it's so exciting. It's so pretty. It sounds so good. It's really good. It looks so good. It plays so good. I'm very behind

I'm very behind I got it working That was the best response I can move my god Oh my god I was never already got that text He's going to be. Oh my God.

I looked it up on Google first. See, and it's already a step above most people on the internet. But yeah, so Dead Fire is out. Super excited. The voice sets and portraits of Voxmocking are in the game for free, DLC on it, for PC. It'll be out for Consolated this year. If Metacritic doesn't lie, it's at a 90 in climbing, so I love it. I love it.

I'm so excited. I'm so glad that people enjoy it. and I'm so glad that we can be a part of it. I played it today and I just got my first dose of Kaiju God Talosan, not regular God Talism, but Kaiju God Talism? Yeah. I'm so excited. I haven't gotten any of it, yeah.

Oh, that's good. Laura's character and Murcha's character in my party are starting to flirt and I'm like, hmm. I don't know how I feel about this. That's good. That's good. Of course, I made Gilmore and so Murch's character was flirting with me at first and I was like, nah, I got to shut this down.

Gilmore's not interested. That's fair. So at least need to her. That's fair. Just wait for the other guys. Yeah, I was like, mm-mm. They're good enough for this in real life. Have your thing?

Also, we are heading back to GenCon guys. Genco. So our tickets went on sale earlier this week for the live show in Indianapolis. You can find a ticket master. Also the official Jen call panel, GenCon panel is sold out. But keep an eye on the GenCon website as tickets that are relinquished may become available as it goes on

So they keep cycling through and as things become available they'll update it So keep an eye We'll try to update you as soon as we hear anything beyond that But holy shit Yeah and if there are balcony seats for the live show do not be afraid of them because that balcony crew is ruckus Just being in that room while the live madness is going on is something to behold So even if it's the back you want to go go It was a really fun group

Yeah in the audience left I'm gonna hide some stuff up there. Oh, I like that. We'll just hide some stuff for them to find. What does it smell so funky back here? What is it? Silly string coming out of the balcony.

Scanlan strikes again. So yeah, looking forward to seeing a bunch of you guys at Gen Cod. In the past four weeks in our 826 initiative, we have raised over $50,000 from the community, which is then doubled by Fantastic Mark K. We've made over $100,000. $826. So we cannot thank you guys enough for your amazing support. Huge thanks to Critter Mark Quiro, of course, for being our counter support for this and being such an amazing member of the community. So thank you. Thanks to Wormwood Gaming and

our friends at D&D for being D&D Beyond for the amazing support for the campaign to get us where we are now. If you still like to donate, you can go to 826LA.org slash Critical Role. We'll have more information soon about the scheduling for my fireside chat, as well as the production crew edit AMA and Marisha's Honeyheist soon. So stay tuned. That is they're planning. Indeed.

Oh, man. Don't forget Twitch Prime. If you have Amazon Prime, you can make it on your Twitch and subscribe to a channel for free. There you go. Thank you. That was a good jinkle, actually. I'll remember it never.

And of course, critical recap is available for those who missed it before the episode and you're watching this now and didn't see the last episode. But if you need to, real fast, pause this later, go and watch Critic Rehab now, which our fantastic Danny Carr gets you up to speed of what happened. Last week's episode, it's up on YouTube right now. Of course, talks Machina's every Tuesday at 7 p.m. Pacific where our fantastic Brian W. Foster hosts our sit-down chat with us, members of the cast.

This last week, apparently, was off the chain between Ashley and Marisha. Good times. Good times. Yeah. When everyone cries from laughing, it's a good night, apparently. No, baby. Yes. I've never seen Foster just sprout tears like that. Oh, that was amazing. We know you got him when he has just projectile tears.

So good. So good. Special shout out to our friend Pullout King from that episode. Hello King, thanks for the last. Father of five. All right, and we have the new D20s of restog or something. They're not new, but they're older D20s, they're the... They're used D20s.

I'm pretty sure they're the special edition ones. I haven't looked at the store, they're the red set, I think. Oh, like the rare ones. Yeah, it was that were available at our live shows before. Super rare. Yeah. Laura, would you consider selling used dice that ended up in the jail too often? Just being offloaded some of that shit.

I don't think the store can handle that many. I think if the dice know that they could go to a kind or gentler home they may be able. I think I may have enough dice to go to each and one for each and every critter. It's funny if you go and try to pet her dice, they like shrink back, they shy away. You can always, they're like particles. Next charity drive we have, you can just auction to you. I was going to. I was like, Parko!

I was excited. Guys, the birthday girl's trying to talk. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, never mind. It's best. No, I was saying you can auction them off for charity next time. Next charity drive. I mean, yeah, charity.

What? Start some home. And I believe that's the last of our announcements of the evening. So, let's go ahead and... What can troll you guys. Bring it in tonight's episode of... of Critical Role. Welcome back.

Oh my God. So welcome back. Last we left off, the Mighty Nine, upon clearing their names, making some new friendships in the city and taking some time for themselves, some preparation for the coming Harvest Close Festival, found themselves wandering through the streets of celebration. They partook a number of various games of chance and skill,

Got some fine snacks and foods, challenged themselves, got thrown by their other party members, won some trinkets and toys, and then ended up signing up to the victory pit for the grand tournament that ends the Harvest Clothes Festival, where you had managed to catch a bit of a few phrases off at the side of the initial lounge you were signing up in, where you had discovered that apparently war had been declared by the king on the eastern region of Jorhas. and that information was to be held back until the festival was over. Upon which you were held below with the other competing teams, and then one by one, you were each presented into the center of the Victory Pit Tournament,

where each of you has to battle some sort of a challenge of a creature or creatures in a three-tier structure. Whoever survives all three bouts gets to share in the final pot prize. Currently, two of the other teams have been knocked out, and it only remains to be you and one other. and you guys are up first. As you were pulled into the center and announced as the Mighty Nine's final round,

knowing the stubborn stock is watching from behind the distant doorways that lead into the central arena. You all scattered about the sands as the sun begins to get close to dusk, shouting out your various plans and then abandoning them last minute. You found places just as this heaping,

this heaping heavy thuds, start quaking the ground and arrival before the door swings open and out from behind it, roaring a frenzied, angry hill giant, complete with what looks to be pierced thorns jamming each side of the body to drive it to a point of absolute anger and fury, comes bashing into the center of the arena, knocks over one of the large pillars, and this is where it begin. I need everyone to roll in, and she is. Let's try and talk to it. Just wear them now. Yeah, let's try and talk to them. Oh, I almost imagine 20.

Almost. I'm sorry. Good. Good. It's a mile adequate. All righty. So 25 to 20? 23.

20. 20. All right. 20 to 15? 19. All right. No, we're far too cold. 15 to 10?

14. 14. Which one I want to go first? I'll take it. All right. Oh. I'll actually take it just because for now. Molly will take it.

All right, so Molly will make your life a little easier. Okay. Because I can keep disadvantage. Sure. Yes. Yes. All right, there we go. Six.

Oh, yes. Oh, yeah. Oh, my God. All righty, friends. So, with that, as it finishes slamming the large pillar into the ground and It wields its giant club over one's shoulder, its other hand kind of reaching out for something and kind of glancing over the field to see what its quarry is. Not, you're at first.

Is the giant in male, like, do I, would I get sneak attack damage or no, right? Because he's not engaged with anybody right now. Right now Ford, you're hiding back there, I think I've shifted. Yeah. You're all hiding in this session. So no, he is not currently engaged. Okay, well then I will, I will shriek. And I will run towards Bo, full sprint.

Oh, God. We're just right in it already, we're just right in it. By the way, guys, this is the help, this finally came in today. What is that? North East, West. So you know where the North's singing you said. Shut up. That's so cool.

Which way is North by the by? Towards one way. Okay, thank you. The people who do campaign coins make the North Pole. How awesome is that? And our friend, Evan Rue, who did our map for the show. She's the one who designed it. Nice.

So anyway, so that's a point for you guys to be ever, like, or want to make, shout directions at me of where you want to run. That's helpful. I love it. Okay. So you ran both sprint towards Jester. Snick attack damage is so good, but I can't, I can't. That thing can see me. I'm scared. I'm scared, guys.

It's okay. It's okay. I'm gonna fire my crossbow. All right. I got a two. It misses. I'm super scared. It goes, shh.

Arksop, you hear this distant? in the audience, like way away. I was gonna say, what was the number? Because that thing's gotta have a low AC. Oh, yeah, probably. I just was the actual number. Oh, eight? Yeah, no.

He's got thick skin, I think. Yeah, it's a pretty hardy physicality, even if it's a broad target to hit. Oh, that was. Wait a little bit of something. And then I will run back the way I can. Oh, yeah. Same place you were before?

No, like, behind Yasha, behind that pillar over there. or that wall. Right there? Yeah. And you said that's north? This is north here. Towards you. North always points to the stone.

Oh, well it's not. Oh. Caleb, you're up. I see this giant behemoth, and I start backing up to go west around the stone. Under my breath singing, we are the mighty nine, the mighty nine, the mighty nine, and fire off just a firebowlake. as I sneak behind it. All right, so as you're darting around the side. And soon we will be jelly.

No, that is no good. That is a 13. 13 just hits. Oh, okay. Not too hard to hit. Okay. It's a big target, but it's pretty hardy. That is a one.

One point of fire date. Yeah. We are off to start. It hits and goes, it's less of a fire Baltimore. more of a fire. But you see there's a patch and it's rather furry belly that no longer has hair and it's very glaring. Yeah, and I'm leaning crouching against that stone, hands on the wall, just listening and working on keeping my gourd from icing. Okay, got to know. Jester, you're up.

Go for it. Really? Yeah, you want to, you so badly want to. You've been talking about it since she sat down. I mean, I want you so bad. They want to use my spiritual weapon. Yes. Okay, well I will.

I'm going to hold my, you know, symbol in my hand and do like this, because I've seen Caleb do fancy things and then I'm gonna make it. Where's like, place it? Right above his face. So, I would say, 30 is where you can make it up here. Really close to his face. Let me see what the ranges on it. What's the range on the spell?

One hundred feet. Yeah. I'm looking 60. 60. You can do it right over. Directly in front of his face. Right there. Flash side facing.

facing him and then just, poof. Go for an attack, go for it. Come on. As Jester releases her grip, you watch as this giant, heavy-looking but gorgeous, glittering lollipop just apparates out of the air, shrieking down towards the goblin's face. Lollipop! The goblin, the ogre's giant's face.

It's been a week. 16. 16 hits, roll damage. Oh, no. Mee-me-me-b-b-br-br-br-mm. That slipped out of my hand. It doesn't count if it slips out of you. Ten points of damage.

Ten points of damage. Nice. That's my bonus for my actual thing. Can I do a cantrip? Yes, you can. Yeah, I'm gonna sacred flame him. All right. So he's got a roll dexterity over 14.

He rolled a 14, but is minus one decks. Oh! Oh, look at you, you're a killer. I'm a monster! Eighth! Eighth! Yeah! Wounded!

All right, that finishes your turn, Jester. Yes. All righty. And the spiritual weapon's just like right here, like on his face. You can't see. You got it. He's blinded now. So now is the giant's turn.

Oh, fuck, okay. Who, after being slammed in the face with this lollipop and the flame suddenly and is like, Mrrh-r-r-r-h-h-ducks out of the way as it slams down on its head, grabs the side of the pillar, which breaks. The pillar as it fell over, kind of shattered into four or five pieces. Grabbs and picks up a single piece. And the only one that it paid attention to right now was the one that lit its stomach on fire.

And it takes this thing and just lobs it in your direction. I'm behind the stone, pressed to the back of it, though. Presently correct? You do have cover because of this. That is what I asked, yes. So it's three quarters cover. So what's your armor class currently? It is at 14 at the moment.

Oh, great, that adds plus five to your AC. So it's 19 on, yeah. Helping you out there. It's still the 21 to hit, though, so it still hits you. Oh, damn. Still hits. 13 plus 8, sorry. Bring it on, here we go.

All righty. So as this chunk of the pillar goes flying across the arena towards you, it hits the top of the wall, which breaks, like, a good foot and a half section. It just shatters as it slams into your chest. Did it do it to 19? I can do a reaction, can't I? You can? Cast shield.

All right. There you go. So as you see it, slam into the wall above you and go swinging, you throw up the shield and all of a sudden there's a spark of arcane energy as it gets deflected inches off of the top of Caleb's head before slamming into the side of the actual tournament arena, hitting the stone causing it to crack in people in the front area, kind of, ugh. But to be good boy, what did he roll? 21. 21. Oh, really? Yeah, because that only gets me up to 19.

No, you're 19 plus 5. You were 19 because you have three quarters cover. Oh, because I had three quarters. Oh, I didn't get that. Yeah, you're right on the wall. You had 14 plus 5 because you're behind you. Okay. So yeah, that works.

Okay. So at this moment, like the absolute fear kind of kicks into his eyes. The entity's going to go ahead and charge forward. And then right at that point, it stops and turns and sees out of the corner of a its eye Ford hiding behind the wall and just kind of, and that's gonna be its turn. Turn into water. Surprise, bitches.

Okay. Who's up? I'm up. How dumb do I feel like being? Oh, I feel like I'm already sweating. All right, let's... I forgot to go to the bath. I don't know.

I'm wiggling. You should just... That's Yasha. If it's turned towards Ford. We have our catheter bags and anything. If it's turned towards forward, then I'm going to, oh God, I'm going to run around to the opposite side of it. Okay. Okay.

Are you there? For flanking bonus? Okay. And I'm going to take two slices into his leg. Go for it. Two shots and his leg. Two shots. See, I didn't do it, and then you just went ahead and did it. I'm working so hard not to do it.

What's the flaking bonus, by the way? We've used it occasionally, but it works against you guys as well. Because if you manage to be directly across from a creature with an ally, In melee, you get advantage in the attack. Oh, I guess so this is advantage on the . You were arranged last campaigns, so didn't come into flavor out. No, not very off. I was trying to remember.

You know, I'm not feeling good about that one. There we are. First one is, oh, that's a 25 to hit. That hits. Yes. And I assume I don't get the extra bonus for Radiant. The Radiant, he's not in dead. That's a big man in jammer.

That's four, five, six, seven, eight points of damage. Eight points of damage to the first strike. And then the next one. A as a natural 20. Nice. So that's, that's all right, that's 10, 12, 13, 14 points of damage. 14 points of damage. So as the first strike you carve up alongside it's kind of blubbery thick belly that's

kind of flipping over this piece of cloth that it has matted around its midsection. As you cut through, it buckles a little bit on that one side of the leg and you use that moment to cut behind its thigh. Like right kind of down below where the Achilles tendon is and shh, lets you carve across, blood can us. spatters across the sand and, All right. Answer, adjourned? Yeah, now I'm holding. All right, he's gonna go and use legendary action.

Oh, what? A legendary, he's legendary. We're not ready for those yet. He's a frenzied solo, yeah. He's a frenzied solo? What's that mean? He's gonna go ahead and use his Furious Smash. Is he going to use Furious?

He's gonna attack me? He's going to attack you. I'm definitely using Blood Maladick then at full use. So I'm, yep, that was not good, that was bad. Oh, I thought that was good. All right, that's right. Okay, so he has disadvantaged in the attack. Yeah, and the next one.

And the next one. Yeah, it's still a 13 plus eight. Yeah, that hits. Okay. So with that, as you slam and slice with the back of the leg, angrily turns back and swings down towards you, and while his eyes go black, and there's a brief shake, it's still just a massive club,

and you try and move out of the way, but it's too fast, slamming on to you, knocking you, knocking you onto the ground, your wind is knocked out of you, and your whole world just goes dazed and white for a moment. This is going to be 26 points of bludgeoning damage. I'm out. What? Whoa, fuck. Oh, yes. Over. You want to? I underestimated the amount of damage he would do to us. That was a really good damage roll.

Yeah, when the lower lip comes down, we're in trouble. in trouble. So yeah, you watch as it reactively slams into Molly with the club and Molly, as the dust settles, Molly is just not moving on the ground, probably pushed about an inch or to two inches into the dirt and sand. And there's a crater where the head of the club had impacted and Molly is not moving. That really hurt Charlie. Yeah.

Tony. His name is Charlie. Oh, okay. I feel like this just changed the plan that I had. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Don't you do it. Her plan was to hit Molly. It was very weird.

That was a good plan. He has disadvantage on his next attack as well. Ford, I feel like I should get up there. I'm just saying this is the last man standing kind of thing. You're the only one there. That's okay. Big of the team! All right, just this one time, though.

I'm going to throw a throwing star. You're going to throw a throwing star? Yeah. Okay, go ahead. Natural 20. Oh! All right. Happy birthday to me, Henry.

Perfect. Well, that was the world's shittiest die roll, though. No, wait, I only get one D4, right? It's just a D4 plus my bonus. It's one D4 times two plus your bonus. Okay, sorry, sorry, sorry. That's a better roll, that's a better roll. So six plus ten damage?

Okay, ten damage. I'm way too happy about that, ten damage. Do I get it? I don't get another one, right? It's just one action. Well, no, his arm attacks for the outside, yeah. Okay, and I'm going to move. As long as I make it to my turn. As you throw one of these kind of spinnily jagged star darts in the side, you throw it, it kind of, to the air, and just sinks into its stomach.

You don't even see where it impacted, except for a small red line or it's you need to bleed from where it carved into its belly. I had them! And then that's it. That's my turn. You're going to stay there? Let us stay there. All right. That finishes, Bose turn, Ford, you're up.

Yeah, right. I'm going to use my bonus action to cast Hex Blades Curse on this giant. Blides, Cull. On his troll. And I'm going to summon my waisthunter falchin, two-handed, and I'm going to cut into his, cut into his thigh. Is it your HEC still up from the last game, two? No. It's not?

It was up till the second round. Also, does that mean his reaction has been burned by the legendary action? Is the legendary action a separate thing from a... Legendary action is different from reaction. All right, so it's got a reaction. Just checking. 25. That hits.

Nice. So as the large fouchon appears, like curved and jagged, you can see this kind of splash of sea water across the side of the giant as its eyes are now like set back on Ford. At this point, the curse sets in. You watch as kind of the blood spatters on the ground kind of being to come up into these black forms and adhere to its legs. A 13 points of damage plus two for the Hexblades curse. 15, nice. With my speed, I'm gonna run to the north as far as 30 will carry me. Alright.

I know, he's gonna hit me next turn anyway. 30, he'll get you there and he gets an attack of opportunity against you. I'll take it. As you strike it inside, and you go to run. You get a fair distance, but the reach with that club is just far enough where he doesn't necessarily need it. And as you go charging forward, he has disadvantage. advantage because of that. Thank you.

That was the last one. That makes it a 13. Armor class 15! No! Justice is to attack. So you hear the from behind as it slams into the ground. The Earth like leaves your foot for a second and you land again. You make your way to the edge.

All right. Holy shit. Well done. That ends your turn. Thank you. All right, that brings us to Yasha. Okay. Okay. So I'm going to.

I'm gonna... Can I make it over to his... Over east? Let's go east. Over east. Kind of near his butt. How far can I get? Can get there. Okay.

Um... Hit him in his butt! I'm gonna hit him in the arse. Go for it. With the... Magicians judge. Oh, that's the new sword. Reckless. Go for it.

Okay. Uh, 15. 15 hits. So. Right. Is that means he's gonna get advantage of it? on you now. Yeah.

Oh no, Yoshin. Oh no. But wait, you get to dispel magic. Don't you? Oh, shit. That's so bad. So bad. Double ones.

Are they really? Yeah. Double Uno's? Five points of damage. Five points of damage. As you go rushing by out of the corner of your eye, you weren't paying attention for the last impact and you see out of the corner of your eye, Molly in the ground, jammed in an unconscious bleeding out.

And that's just enough from being. being not in a enraged state to kind of viscerally affect you and shakes you just enough for you swing and the blade hits the leg but it kind of it wasn't enough actual impact to carve into the flesh. Okay. That ends your turn, Yasha. Not you're up. Do we heal or do we get this guy? You can't get within reach. Fuck Molly.

All right. I'll clock around the corner and fire off a shot. Yes, potentially three rounds. I love Molly, but fuck. I don't. A 20 to hit? That hits, you go to damage. And he is adjacent to Tasha, so the sneak attack damage. Oh, terrible.

Oh, God! What's with these rules? We're gonna die. No, no, I don't say it. Nine points of damage. Hey, it adds up, guys, that's cool. So as you dug on the holder, you release the bolt and you watch as it kind of sinks into the chest area and looks around in the direction to try and find you, you still have 20 feet of movement.

Do you have, you don't have a heel marty? No, I'm not. That's not. It's not a rogue thing, unfortunately. You can perform one in the system. I know. Control the hand. Fuck.

Okay. I can't cast a mage hand as a bonus action with ledger mane or whatever, right? I can only use it. Okay. Then I will fire again. Why not? Okay. Natural 20.

Yay! So casual. That's a good. And does that double my dice? Yeah! That's 16 points of dine. points of damage. Nice!

Okay, okay, okay. So in that moment of like the first one hit and he starts growling and looks right in your direction, you go, ah! Fire a second moment and he goes right into one of his eyes and just roaring. It gets right cut up inside. It doesn't quite pierce the eyeball, but it gets up into the socket. Oh, that would suck so hard. And it's like scratching at his face angrily.

Good thing he's already friends. And then movement to clock right back around to that corner of the structure, yeah, yeah, right there. Okay, well done. That's your turn, not? Caleb, you're up. Yeah. I was considering going out there, but I'm not going to do it. I'm just going to bend around the side and fire off another firebolt.

All right. At it. Charlie. That is a 12 to hit. That does not hit, unfortunately. It just misses. As you see, once again, Molly on the ground, and Yasha barely making an impact. Knock gets a couple good hits off and you try and fire, but unfortunately, as he pulls back to grab.

He pulls back to grasp the face. The fireball just kind of goes wide past where the head previously was. Yeah. I'm going to use my movement to back up behind that column. Yeah. All right. Okay, we'll put you about there. All right.

That's your turn, Caleb? Yeah. Jester, you're up. Okay. Molly, I will get you as soon as he moves, okay, so that he doesn't hit me, okay? I'm dead. I'm going to bring my spiritual weapon around, and I'm going to... use the this side and I'm gonna smack them right in this funny bone. Okay, so as the hands like grasping it were, got shot in the eye, he goes right for the back of the elbow. Yeah, that hits. And then one D8 plus four.

That's cocked. That's cocked. Ah, 12 points of damage! Yes! Yes! As it hits, g-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h. It's like shaking the hand as it's going numb. The one eye's like kind of half shut, going,

while he's shaking it off, I'm going to use my bonus action to toll that dead at it. You mean your action? You already use your bonus action. I'm going to use my action to toll the dead dead. Okay. So he's got a role of wisdom of 14. Wisdom of 14. National 19.

Sorry. Too wild and crazy clinics. Bullshit. So he saw me. So I'm going to jump down. jump down behind the north side, northwest side, right in the corner there. All right. And I'm going to go, eh.

I'm going to try to not get hit. All right, that ends your turn. It's now the Giants' turn. As Yasha has just torn into the side, it's going to turn back to you and just going to double club attack you. It has advantage on each. Both of them? Because she did reckless.

Because I did reckless, like a day off. Oh, no. So every attack against you is, is advantage of you. So the first one is a 25. I think that hits. That definitely hits. I'm probably gonna be unconscious. Natural 20.

Okay. Oh. Oh. So the first hit is. I don't know why I did reckless of learning. I should have waited. 23 points of damage, bludging damage from the first hit. Okay.

Whack! And you put your hands up, you put the blade up to catch it, and it slams into the and it slams into it and actually kind of pulls your shoulder out of the socket and pushes you down into the dirt. As you push off, the club goes up once more and then whack. Not the critical? She could be like a permade. No. All right, so that's, I've rolled an 8, 7, and a 5. So that's, that's 43 points of damage. How many? 43. Okay.

What's your total? What's your max? She's got 40 something hit points. You have to go to negative your max score. Which you do not do. Which you do not do. So you're just unconscious. No, because it's negative . Just super duper unconscious. You're super unconscious.

Pretty close, I think. Yeah. Okay. I think so. Whoa. You're out. So with the second slam, you watch as Yasha kind of like personally deflux the first impact and then vanishes the second one.

And then right there next to Mali as the dust clears, you see Yasha unmoving, her legs kind of up in the air as the rest of her torso was pushed down into the dirt. And the rest of the ground is kind of covered over. You can just see the back of her shoulders and the back of her head and the rest of it just like dust settling and she's not moving either. Can you close to permanent? Yeah, but did not. That might, that almost. Oh. J-E-L-L-L-O. You're watching you can be squashed in front of me. Freaking Killbox.

And. Yikes. Were you still big, too? No. No. Oh, okay. I think at this point. Yeah, because you're the one who shot it twice in the eye and it saw you duck behind.

Five, ten, fifteen, twenty, twenty-five. And it's, you watch as it just steps over the wall. Tchemy! Like after the smashy's Yasha, I just doesn't even care anymore. And just this little bit of foam at the corner of the mouth and it's like, the blood's trailing down its face from where the bolt entered. That's going to end the Giants' turn, Molly. Molly?

Molly. Molly. Tau. Molly. Yeah. Oh, I don't have to. I'm just, I get shocked from the chest, the heart not locket sparks and- Oh, that's right.

What? You got that locket. Oh my God, that's right. What? What effects the locket again? What? Ready for this? It's really cool.

Oh, age paper. No, it's when you wear this pendant, you stabilize whenever you are dying at the start of your turn. In addition, whenever you roll hit dice to regain hit points, the number of hit points. So you stabilize. You're still unconscious. I'm unconscious. But you're not bleeding out. There you go.

There you go. All right. Bo, your turn. He's looking at knot pretty hard. Yeah. He's not ready to smash the little goblin. Okay, Bo is going to run in flank with kind of knot over here on this, also the northwest side. Over there?

North West side. I have to be on the opposite side. No, I'll just, I want to go kind of in front of him where I can get his attention, so the northwest side. Yeah. It's way expensive. And I'm going to point at his dick, and I'm going to go, tiny thing! And then for my action, I'm going to take the Dodge action. Okay, so your bonus action is to say tiny thing.

Yeah, really good. Huh? So your bonus action is to say tiny thing towards his dick. Yeah, so tiny thing! You tiny thing! No! Go ahead and make an intimidation check. Whoa!

To insult his penis size? That is exactly what you're doing. There's no great . Okay. You have to insinitate his dick. Oh. That didn't know. It landed.

It landed. Well, it's a natural one. Okay. Or the second one was one. First one was an eight. No, neither were good. He seems to think you're agreeing with him. Fogne in regards to not.

I know. Time is seen. So I didn't get his attention? No. That's your turn. Ford, you're up. All right. field, you see both Yasha and Molly just crushed into the ground as little live hops like

in the air behind. Lovely. Yeah, I'm gonna use Eldridge Blast shoot across the arena, 120 feet, try to hit him. So you can move into the space here or you can see him up the wall. That is 16 plus 6.22. Battle hit, go to and roll damage. Oh, please. That is 12 plus 2, 14 points of Eldridge Blast damage. Nice! That's a good hit. All right. Off the side of the shoulder you can watch, like where the section where the skin used to be is now just exposed muscle, where it's kind of burned off the outer layer of the body.

Can I use the rest of my speed to move behind the column so that I'm hiding behind the column? Sure. Was that with the hex? With the additional hex damage, right? Hacks damage. Travis? That was with the additional damage from the end. Hats, course, damage.

All right, so that ends fourth's turn. Yasha, I need to make a death saving throw. Oh, God. Okay. Yes. Do I add anything? Nope. Seven.

That's a fail. So you failed your first death saving throw. Okay. Tap on the end. At the end of Yasha's turn, the giant's going to use his legendary action. He has one legendary action to try and do a club attack against you not. No. You don't have one extra legendary action for the whole fight?

For one, once every round. Oh, God. So that's a 19. What's your arm, class? All right? I'm sorry. I should have been more explicit about insulting his penis size. I might. 19 points of bludgeoning damage.

Yikes. As it slams down, it hits you and actually pushes you into the wall, and you're flattened against the stone, which kind of quakes. You can see on the opposite side of it. It kind of cracks and dust off the back, and you just hear this kind of squeak sound as not is crushed between the club and the wall. I'll kill him! No, no.

You have to hit the confirm button. Damn it. Okay, that's not good. It's your turn. My turn. Yes. I will look up at the giant man who just hit me. And I will say, I will take out a tiny piece of pastry and let it crumble to the ground.

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why don't, why don't why don't go? Dublin's eat court jesters, because the taste funny. He looks very confused in the middle of his like foaming frenzy. From behind the wall I start laughing. And I will cast Tasha's hideous laughter. Oh shit. Come on.

All right, what's the save on that? 13. But was it, was it wisdom? Yeah. It's a natural 17 minus 1, 16. Oh, sorry. He's rolling well. He's rolling really well.

I'm going to roll really well. I'm so sorry, guys. Can I please get the changes to take? Yes, okay. Okay, that sucks, so I will bonus action disengage! Yay! Yes! Run away really far!

I will run away just the maximum amount of running away I can do, which is only 30 feet, towards Caleb to the north. towards Caleb to the north, and then like if I can get behind that pillar. Don't group, don't group. You can get there. Don't group up. Other side, possibly? Okay.

If you wanted to go around that way, you could. So we'll say, yeah, we'll actually do that. Okay. That ends your turn. Caleb, you're up. This is a long shot, but I have no way of damaging him, so I am going to pull some sand out of my pocket and mutter a few arcane words and just trail it in front of me and cast sleep. back behind him here, so it does not touch Bowling out.

Go ahead and roll your, it's a 5D8. Yeah, go for it. So it's... I'm not what the total is. Yeah, I know. This is probably not going to work, but it's, I can't hurt him. I'm going better. 23.

23. You watch as the large giant. What? What? What? Kind of steps back and hits the pillar behind, and just cracks and, like, tilts to the side. Catches him.

Falls to both knees and then eventually kind of hits the ground. This loud, heavy snore. Just unconscious. Yeah, but the eye on the room. You shout this out? Huh? You're shouting this out as it's happening? Yeah.

Do we win? They're all kind of waiting for a moment. Go heel. Go heel yasha. Oh, we have to wait. It's like turns. No one's called the match yet. Fuck!

Go he yel yasha! It's my turn now, so. It is your turn nice. Okay. Correct. Touch the Giant. Any moving, Caleb? Yeah.

I will start moving towards Molly and Yasha. All righty. As far as I can get. And I call out medium volume, not to the crop, but to my friends. That wasn't even supposed to work. Sand. Did it good, Sam, man. It's so good.

Arty, Jester, you're up. I'm gonna run over to Yasha. Oh. I held my action. 30. Shit, could I have reached Molly? You could have reached Molly. Okay, then I'll go to Molly first, sorry.

And I'm going to... Oh, she's going to... Oh, she's here. You could have gotten there. I could have gotten to Yasha? Okay, then I'm going to, because she's dying. I'm going to use cure wounds on her. My last spell, y'all.

Oh, no. And that is one, the eight. That's all right, you're going to wake up and you're going to fucking go anxious. Ten points of healing for you. I'll take it. Oh, thank you. You're awake. I just add that here.

And you're up. And then for my bonus action, I'm going to send my spiritual... Oh no. You can't do whatever you know. If you touch him, he wakes up. But I can get it over there. Okay, I'm going to bring my spiritual weapon over to me. So you can move a 20 feet there.

I can move at 60. Well, the range is 60p, because bonus action of which 20. Yeah, that's why I was like getting close to me. Alright. So next to the Giants turn, it just stays unconscious for the duration and less something like that. Until we touch it. So we need to get in a goodfellar circle around it to decide who's going to beat the shit out of him and don't touch it before that moment.

So we have a whole minute? Caleb says. All right, yeah. So potentially... Potentially, guys, here, just like, figure out what your plan is until someone touches it. So I can heal Molly. I can heal Molly while that's going on then. Okay, I'm going to give Molly a healing potion.

He doesn't roll to wake up or anything? No, he doesn't. He stabilizes. Do we want to? I'm going to move back by where Ford is right now behind that, Colin. Me and you take the head. Maybe we can. Moving which one?

Fastening. Stand me by Ford to the north. Yeah. Yeah. Points. I'm going to take a healing potion. Okay. Two G4.

I think I roll it. Does she roll the peeling potion if I take it or do I roll? It doesn't matter who rolls it, really. Because I was curious if my locket gives me, let's because it doesn't count my hit dice or no. Well, Haley impression is a hit dice. Hit dice is only when you're taking a long, short rest. Oh, that's good.

Seven plus two, so nine points of here, right? Okay. Thank you, Jester. Thank you. Oh, you. Oh, you. I'm sorry, it's kind of a weak thing. I give her an awkward side hug.

Thank you. I'll give you a big waste hug back. I'm, yeah, I'm going to crawl behind there, and like, I can keep at a big, At the very least, I can call behind where? Yeah, to the west behind that rock right there. So I can at the very least keep trying to give him disadvantage on least one attack. I'm going to go northeast.

Where are like over here? Yeah. All right. Anybody else? Yasha and I are going to flank his head. Okay, so you're going here, and Yasha's going here? Is that kind of what you're doing? Yeah, we want to both kind of try and get him in the head.

I want to put points down on his... We can't both go for the head if you're flanking. Either you can both get by the head. That's what I'm saying. We flink his head. Sorry. I use poor language. We're both by his head.

All right. I'll just rock around the other side of the pillar, so I get a good clean shot. Am I within 30 feet? I want to be within 30 feet. Go ahead. Oh, God. All right.

Ready to go. He's taking the first shot. And then as soon as his eyes are open, start to flutter open night. Or if it's big, hit first. Or also, whoever, yeah, because he'll get the one legendary, But other than that, it's whatever we can get the fullest round.

Yeah, before you keep it. Whoever can do the most damage with one go first. Who's the tag first? Who's going in? Yasha or Bo? Do it. Go, Bo. Okay, okay, okay.

I look at Yasha and I'll go down first. Right after me. Are you ready? And I'm going to aim right for his other eye socket, the other one that not hit and just come down right in the middle. All right, go forward. It's a melee attack. You have advantage because he's unconscious.

Please don't fuck up on a sleeping guy. 14 and a 15. So not a crit, she's unconscious. No, no, okay, okay, okay. Those with your staff. Oh, God, it's a one. So two damage plus... Two damage plus four, so six damage.

That sucks. So as you slam down, it hits, it hits like right off the ocular socket and skids off the skull and kind of like shoots open. The other one is still kind of swollen from the shot earlier opens well. I take my bonus action and go,

Three stooges style and go poke right at his high. He's still prone. He's still at an actual 18. Oh, okay, let me see if I get that crit. No, 18. That would that be great? That would be great. God, one again, so five damage.

Five damage. Five damage rolls. Are we... Pulled right to the eye. The eye kind of closes instinctually and the arms begin to flails. Are we allowed to attack or no? No, because that's the end of... That's the end of Beau's turn, now it's Ford's turn.

Right. At the end of Bo's turn, he's going to go ahead and use this recovered legendary action to... Can you run it before he can get an opportunity of attack on you? Technically, he hasn't... Oh, no, he did, because we... It's a whole round... It's been a whole... A number of rounds.

I'm working every bloody angle I can make it. We weren't holding our action for when they were... I guess we never said it. We didn't declare it. We were. We were done. We were there waiting for it to wake up. Who's going to attack first?

We were going to attack first. We were going to do that. Okay, well from now on, if you're going to hold your action, please specify that. Okay. So the bones who were nearby needed to hold an action. That'd be you, Molly. Can I then move and try and jump over him so then I then kind of flink him with Yasha? Can I use my movement to get to the other side?

No, because if you're guys holding your action to the trigger of you attacking, then they're all going before you do that. Okay. Cool. All right, so take your turns. I'm just going to go ahead and just say, you're going to go ahead and just say, you're going to the face for the piece of a lollipop and just put him. I'm going to attempt to do four psychic damage and give it.

That's a 15. 16 minus one, yeah. Okay. Do you roll under 15 eventually? I know, I'm really pretty well tonight. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. You gave them the die.

I know. It's also a DC 10, but yeah. All right. 23 to hit. You have disadvantage because he's prone. 22 to hit. Okay, still it. That is 13 points of damage.

How do you want to do this? I will try not to hit Yasha or Bo. I would love the bolts to just go through its belly as far as he can go. Right in the belly button. Right in the belly button. So it begins to thrash about and it's like one hand hits the ground, kicking up all this dust and sand, the other club comes back, using it to get up off its feet. It looks like it's ready to swing out towards Yasha and Bo, who's just finished, like, slamming into

the creature. At that moment, you see the exposed belly that already has gashes in it from the wound, and you wait and release right for the opening as it sinks in it stands up anyway, and you watch just blood begins to pour out, and you hit something major, and it's just starting to bleed out. I do not expect that to happen! Takes a swing and at this point there's already blood draining out and the swing goes wide, hits the ground, falls back onto its butt, and then just proceeds to slowly go back to sleep forever. Forever.

Forever. Forever. Forever. Oh, go sleep. Oh, do we wait yet? At which point, there's a pause, this awkward quiet before the entire audience. goes, I use my tom and georgie to start chanting, not, not, not, not, not. No, I'm trying to make such it to me. No, don't see me, no.

Look over Caleb's day, no big deal, right? I just pulled my hoarder. The cheers continue as the large Goliath steps out again with his tattoos and spiked the armory, and goes, and there we have it, the third round completion of the mighty nine. But one more fight stands. Stubborn Sturr. Congratulations. You guys are then led over to the holding area off at the side as you pass your friends of the stubborn sock.

I grab my spiritual weapon as we're leaving and drag the giant lollipop out. Is you leaving this large groove in the sand behind you? As you guys walk by, you see the team begins like, this slow motion almost like opposing Little League base. opposing Little League baseball teams passing each other. Good game. You see Darrow, of course, who kind of gives us this, Not too bad, well played. Kind of gives a smile as he continues past.

You see the Dwarven kind of crossbow ranger kind of gives a grin with this kind of big, scruffy poof beard. There's the half-elf woman with like two war hammers that she's kind of just spinning on the leather straps in the end. You see this really like fucking old guy, this like wrinkly, just like,

Like old prospector looking eyes through these wrinkled slits like... Great description. The fuck is a old. I've no other way to describe him. Old is bald. His hair is like long or short? His hair's like long past his shoulders, but it's super bald skull out on top. And you see that there's a tattooed halfling who's kind of chin in the air, kind of grin, and give you like a show.

And then there's the human archer that has a long bow that's kind of just a little. at the ready, and they both just, all of them walk by, all six of them in the center of the arena. As we walk by, can I try to untie the old guy's shoelace? Make a slight a hand check. 20? He does not notice. But it's not a shoe lace, unfortunately.

There's a boot lace. So you untie, you don't know how much of an effect it'll have. Check, great. You just feel that old. Well done. All right. They looked pretty cool. Do you think we looked at cool?

I like tell the archer was just like walking around ready, and all the time. Maybe we should do that. Yeah. Not always keep your cross below then. But how will I drink? As you guys make your way into the holding area, the doors closed once more. As the Goliath, Jeremiah Cull, shouts out, for the final match of the tournament and the final round,

the stubborn stock. Stalk, audience, ha, big shouts, screams, hands in the air. Then silence. The gates in the side open as they all kind of circle around and look ready, not able to really ascertain the direction. All the gates open, and then barreling through at the far side, you see what looks to be some sort of large, 20-foot dragonoid type creature with a long snout,

wings that have been carved and cut to where it can fly and it's lumbering forward without its flight. No arms, just the wings, giant clawed legs and a long tail with a large poisonous stinger at the end. This is a wyvern, a wyvern that's been prevented flight and comes barreling straight to the center. They immediately go into a formation to accept the creature as it goes. You watch as Darrow rushes up with this battle axe and starts just cutting into the creature.

You see this divine energy flicker off the arc as it slothed. and it slams into the side of this, this flash of radiant energy off of his battle axe as he pulls away, his like long black ponytail kind of switching behind from the arc of the blow. As he ducks out of the way, the tail swings and he ducks underneath it. You watch as the archer pulls back an arrow

and the arrow flashes this bright kind of blue-green energy before it strikes and bursts into arcane energy on the side of this wyvern. It turns around and grabs the dwarf by the head and begins to thrash around with him in its jaws, throwing about 10 feet, he skips at the ground, falls unconscious in the first round. He's like you, Molly.

You watch as the old, old armored guy pulls up a symbol from his chest and begins to chant in the wrong direction. Before the halfling kind of grabs him and spins him this way, and he goes, right, right, and continues his chance. You watch as another weapon, a spiritual weapon, appears and apparates, but it looks like a large just club of stone that begins to slam. The Weirman spins around and its tail managed to impact the belly of the old guy as he finishes his chants. and you watch him just go limp and fall to the ground. Guys, I feel like we got the better end of the deal on the straw. I'm glad I'm not fighting this thing. At this point, the halfling with the tattoos, like tears his shirt down

and exposes all these tattoos on his chest, and he slaps them and he gets to chant, and almost a Haka-style chant. As he's doing this chant, you watch all of his allies that are standing and begin to get revved up before he rushes in the halfling and pulls a blade and strikes at the wyver and carving into it. side. You watch. You should do that. We should just rip off these guys' aesthetic completely. I just like the idea of the formation. You watch as the Dwarven crossbow Ranger rushes up and brings the cleric back to health. The cleric kind of comes to

consciousness and then brings through a quick casting of a spell off to the side the what was the one there was the was the old guy the cleric? The old guy's willing it down. and the, the dwarf, the dwarf you thought was down, actually gets back up. He wasn't unconscious, just knocked really hard. He gets up, make sure the cleric is up, the cleric goes ahead and heals some people around them,

they begin to kind of curl around it. They continue to strike and back and forth, the audience is like breathless at moments. The Wyburn jumps up on top of one of the walls. It stinger spins around and jams into Darrow. You see Darrow, the leader, all of a sudden takes the blow to the chest, and he goes unconscious in the ground before the wyvern pounces on him and starts tearing into the body.

Yeah. The halfling who's still kind of continuing this chant, rushes forward, leaps onto its back and begins carving at the back of its neck. You can see the elderly cleric begins approaching, still chanting in his mind, and he's just unleashing heel spells and occasionally like throwing it looks like a bolt, like a bolt of energy it looks like. Some sort of electrical, divine bolt of energy just strikes the side of the Weaver. You see as the Dwar Ranger just unleashes strike after strike of the crossbow and the Weissons

Wyvern's just hitting whatever comes near it. You watch just two more members go unconscious, and it gets down to just three on their side before they manage to continue to stab into its side. Like a long-running bullfighting ring, both sides are exhausted at this point. You see three of the six are down, and the Wyvern's still standing.

At this point, Darrow has gotten back up and is breathing hard. He kind of backs around the side, and they've all surrounded the Wyvern, who's just feeling kind of cornered at this point, blood pouring from different wounds on its body. He gives another loud streak. It turns around towards the elderly cleric and charges him and with a giant sweep of its jaw

sends him about 10, 15 feet in the air before he lands and rolls, unconscious in the ground. There's two left. The boot does dislodge and mark an additional 10 feet before resting away from the... With that, the two standing members, which are Darrow and the half-ling. Both charge in. At this point, the half-ling gives a pat on Darrow's shoulder and shouts out a phrase in a language you don't understand. Darrow seems to embolden his muscles,

rushes in for a strike, and carves down with his battle axe into the back of the neck after it just slammed into the cleric. As the blade sinks in about five or six inches, the large battle cry that it gave shrinks back into this... This weird, withering screech. As it whips around, Darrow pulls his battle axe out and backs away a few steps.

The Wyvern falls to its knees, and with that, Darrow spins the battle axe in his hand and carves off the rest of its head with two, three, four strikes before it collapses. And with that, the audience. The g-2 say in the audience, the mighty non are cooler still. The cheers are deafening at this point. The gates open in front of you as the MC-1-1-4. walks out once more and goes, An incredible fight by the stubborn stock.

Bring out our other winners, the mighty nine. Let's go! The audience goes into loud cheers. You guys step out into the arena. You see the same crews coming out and dragging the body of the Wyvern off down into the depths of where it was originally unleashed and the doors closed behind. The clerics rush out and bring to consciousness

the other members of the stubborn stock. They all eventually rise, beaten and bruised in as winded, There's a lot of you look. They give you a look as you approach. It's kind of a well done smile, wordless, but a nod of respect. And then you to the right side of Jermay Kull, them to the left.

Raise your arms, for today on this harvest close. You are the victors. The crowd goes crazy once more. Flowers and bits of rice grain and all sorts of things were thrown into the center of the ring and part of the celebration. Throw some money instead. There are copper flung from the audience from the row, at which point you guys take that moment.

Well, it's frustrating to share it, maybe. You made it. At this point, you see one of the gates on the opposite side opens up. And at this point, a group of seven individuals we can do approach in various shrubs. You recognize a lot of them as people that were in the lounge earlier. Before you entered this actual arena, they're carrying a small chest of iron, in Darkset Wood, and as they placed it on the ground, they began to pull out sacks of money. And they're presenting you the divided prize. So that's three rounds for each, or for the group,

and each round was 200 gold. So that's 600 gold, that you guys get to divide. And then the final pot was 2,000 divided amongst the two teams, so an additional thousand to your team. So 1,600 gold. Yeah. Not bad. Yeah.

As the money's delivered and you acquire your reward, There's a final burst of cheers in the audience, and you're escorted back into the holding area where the other groups have already left. They closed the doors behind, and it seems that the fanfare is over, the attention on you, momentarily is faded, and it's just you guys, the clerics, and the other group, stubborn stock. Did you say all the politicians have already left as well? Well, you haven't seen, they're less you saw they were up in the stands. Oh, okay. Okay.

You guys have just got back to the holding area. Okay. Going to take in a breath for yourself. Well, suppose there's a... Is there a heel spell on the house? Oh! Dero goes... That's a pretty good question.

Clerics? And the clerics say, we've used most of them, but I can offer a couple, and they kind of come up and they give you a heel. You heal, it's eight hit points. That helps. He'll yasha, too. She's really low. Yasha, you go ahead and get one, and then that's a ten. Oh, that's a 10, you'll 10.

And then two other spells are delivered to the opposing side, the other team. Yeah, because they have a lot more people that fell, actually. So they probably need it really bad. That was very well thought. Impressive. I appreciate that. I said the same to your team.

That was no small feat. I mean, literally, it was a very large feat on that gentleman. But the very tiny dick, as was pointed out by our... As I heard that from across the way. Apparently, he doesn't catch nuance, though, so. That's okay. Good to know for next time. Yeah.

Apparently, giants do not suffer the same insecurities that most people in this town does. What happens now? Do we just go home after this, or is there some sort of swaree afterwards, or? Oh, there is, in the lounge area. Come, come, come. Who is invited to the party?

Well, the winners, of course. Is there free booze? Most likely. All right. Come on, come on. I need a drink. And then the dwarf behind he was like, oh, hey, go on with that one too.

It's like holding his back. The half elf who had the two Warhammers goes, oh, don't worry, honey, kind of scrubs his hair. And he's like, oh, stop it. He puts his arm around her waist and the two of them kind of walk off together. They're cute together. You're led back to the lounge where you had originally signed up for this, also the same place where you had overheard the conversation with Storoste. As you enter now, it's still that kind of low-lit interior with the fine furniture, the cushions. The food spread has been refilled. The drinks are poured.

The servants are going around with their trays to make sure that everyone has opportunity to eat and drink as you go. Inside, however, it is a little busier than last time you recall. The Strosa, Wyatt is there as well. Currently entertaining a few guests in there. It looks like there's a couple of maybe

well-dressed merchants that look like they're dressed in the same way that many of the travelers from the Menagerie Coast are. There's one of them who looks like they're wearing clothing that's a little more exotic than you're familiar with. You do also see within this area, you see Lawmaster Arendha Stongrass. There with her gray curled hair, the older Dwarven lawmaster of Zadash.

Oh, she's the one that we talked to before. Briefly, yeah. You had one encounter with. Alongside her is Dolan Thrym, and looks to be two other people you haven't met. With Dolan. Our Dome. Our Dome. And are they totally visible to us? What are their physical appearance? Oh, but the people that are with Dolan, what do they look like? Oh, they both appear to be wearing similar kind of dull gold robes as to what you've seen members of the King's Hallware.

But they're a little more casual. They're not quite as presentory or in the office mode. The individuals that are in the more exotic clothing than we're used to, what can we see of them? What do they look like? Well, there's two people that you see dressed in, merchant garb that you see, the colors and the silks and the kind of the billowing pants, and the jewelry is very reminiscent of Menagerie Coast, where it has a lot of, like, finger chains that attach to rings, and it's this very kind of presentory jewelry.

It isn't classic European in visual aesthetic. You've seen it around town where you grew up, so you immediately gathered these people are probably from Menagerie Coast folk. The one who looks very exotic has very, very light kind of, linen outfit that is like a dull, like an eggshell white, but then has trim that is gold and purple. The pants themselves are a deep blue and short black hair, dark skin, bright smile, but you don't notice any other cultural touchstones that you have any previous experience with. Have I ever seen an outfit like that before?

You may have seen things similar to it passing through. near your town from a distance or from your mom's place of business, but nothing that you would necessarily know. A real history check, actually. So those are history. 19? Actually. You'd get the sense that this is probably Marquesian. It's probably a travel from Marquette, which is a long way away. Very rare that you find people coming all the way from Marquette to the empire especially.

Like, Managerie coasts a little more often, but this is something different. But as you approach and enter, one, the stubborn stock just immediately scattered the food and drink. And Thoreauce to Wyatt, who you had seen briefly been not actually engaged with before, stands up as tall as a halfling can as you approach, with this curly, matted hair and the shocks of white and gray on the sides. He's arms open, he goes, congratulations. I just had to come and tell you personally a fantastic display. Come, come, come closer, please. I want to meet all of you. He starts putting hands out to meet you. What's your name? Hello, I am Yasha. Yasha, pleasure to meet you. Fantastic.

You're a mighty warrior. Really impressed. Thank you very much. You are? Molly Charmed. Molly Charmed. Good, pleasure to meet you. I'll do. Fantastic. You miss? Lady Fancy Pants McGee. That's a curious name. Pleasure to meet you as well. All right. Pants are rather fancy. Well done. You there, little missy.

Hi, I'm just... Pam. Pam. Pleasure. Shy. That's okay. That's allowed. What's your name? Caleb. Caleb, pleasure. Pleasure to meet you. You are? Bo. Bo.

All right. Well, pleasure to meet you is well. And you, sir. No, Ford. It's been an honor fighting in your victory pit. I will tell you, a brilliant display of skill, and precisely the kind of showmanship, the fine people of Zedashnik right now. So I appreciate your being a part of this. It's well-earned victory.

Was this person in the conversation? in the conversation I was spying on before? Yes, he was the one who was being notified. This is the throast of Zadash. Okay. You have tensions eased in the city a bit since, you know, the incident? The incident.

Well, in the tower with the, yeah. Oh, right. Well, we've taken care of that for the time being. Repairs have been made, the towers back where it was. The individuals you probably want to talk to about that are over there in the corner, and you see over, they were faced away from you when you first entered, But looking out from the far window that leads to the outside,

you see two figures faced away looking, outward holding glasses of wine. It looks to be the two figures that you saw when you first entered the ring. Ormitt, Haas, the headmaster of the... Oh, shit. Of the... The Zobrasbire.

Or the Halls of Irudition. And then the dude in the white robes? Oh, shit. Oh, shit. Oh, shit. And those were just pointed out to all of those. Yes. We're just like facing away from you guys off of the barrens.

So if you want to inquire the specifics, they be the ones to talk to. The master of the . I will say, I've recently been notified by Stonegrasp. He kind of points over to the law master who's over in the conversation on the side with her own people. That you had already completed some dangerous contract work for the city. Is that correct? That's indeed true, yeah. We found ourselves in harm's way.

We're always looking for the next bit of adventure to put some coin in our pockets and do the city some good. That's fantastic. I need a spider. That's the one she mentioned. That thing had been in problem for some time, I hear, so it's greatly appreciate. You've already done twice now great service for this city. Well, this evening is yours to celebrate.

But things shifting as they are, we may have need of upstanding and skilled citizens of the empire such as yourselves in the near future. Should you be interested, that is? Is everything okay, Starrosto? You seem rather stressed. I'm good at spotting these things. I appreciate that.

My position here comes with a number of responsibilities. So at any given point in time, I'm probably, am very visibly stretched, but I'm doing the best I can. I appreciate that. Where might we contact you? Should we be so interested? Well, we're frequently at the Leaky Tap. The Leaky Tap Tavern.

Okay. Frequently, not always. Right. Sometimes we stay at the pillow drove, you know. Sometimes we're out and about. Mm-hmm. All right, well, good to know. Should we have need of you? We'll know where to come and find you.

Actually, on the pillow trove, you know, sometimes we, people don't quite know the services we do for this city. It sure would help if we had some sort of a slip or some sort of badge that would allow us to move more freely, you know. To the gates. Oh, well, that's not a worry, I don't think. Simon kind of like hits the side of the chair and you watch as one of the crowns guard comes up, but a more decorated crowns guard.

It looks like he holds more status. He goes, yesterosta, and he kind of looks up at him, says, Can we just ensure that the rest of your body of soldiers understand that these fine champions of this year's Harvest Clothes Festival are allowed entry and exit from our fine tri spires? Yes, yes, sir. We will make sure that the Crowns Guard are aware of the Mighty Nine and their ability to pass in and out, and impeded.

Most gracious of you. Thank you, so much. What is your name? Oh, I am Jeremiah. I'm Jeremiah, Captain Jeremiah. Anyway, I, well done, well fought. And he kind of takes a step back out of the conversation, and you get the sense that there's like a little bit of a hierarchy there

where the Starost, not meaning to, but there's a very much, I should not be part of this conversation, and he just kind of steps out of it. So well, very well. Enjoy your well-earned evening of revelry as much as you can. I have a sense there are some stressful days ahead. stressful days ahead, so enjoy it, rest well. It takes his glass and drinks to you and takes a sip and...

You are better tomorrow! Indeed, young girl. He turns around and sets up onto the couch and re-engages in conversation with one of his various guests. He certainly seems stressed. He's gonna die tomorrow in war. What? We all are. What are you talking about?

Didn't I tell you guys there's a war starting tomorrow? Did you? I hardly overheard them. Yes. She did tell us. We're all going to die. We should leave more. We're not going to die.

The war is very far away from us still. I can't believe I find myself agreeing with not here. I think we should get out of town while it's still possible. Really? I mean, we're just starting to climb our way up through this thing. You leave the table when you've got the pot. You don't wait for everything to go back to the dealer. You know, I think for a day or two, everyone here is going to be very preoccupied in the city,

so if there was anything you are thinking of doing, it would be a good time to do it. So we should steal everything. And at some point they're going to start looking for people to fight this war, and I'm not sure I want to be around for it, because boy, they know who we are now. So what I'm suggesting is a compromise,

not leaving immediately, but soon. I need time to go back to the pillow throw of you guys. DM, you're mommy, what time of day it is? It's past dusk now. It's probably at this point, 9 o'clock in the evening. And on past days, has Pumontz place been open this late? It has been you.

Okay. So I still do have a giant tapestry over my shoulder. I have been walking around like kind of... I like you did the entire fight with it though. I put it down to the fight. I would explain some of my... Anyone else pick up on those two individuals over in the corner? Well, he pointed them out.

We should go talk to them. Yeah, it looked familiar. What should we say? Oh boy. Do you want me to do the talking? Yes. I was kidding. No, you should. You weren't with us the night that all this went down, and so they would not suspect you for a

name. Come home. That's actually true. It is. Outside your boundaries. Here you go. Let's go. Fjord, can you come? Well, we're all going to go, right? Sure, yeah. I'll join you. Jester. You want me to come to you? Yeah. I actually think maybe it should be her and Bo, because that they won't recognize her and human faces tend to start to blend into the crowd, whereas we do not.

I can listen to this the roast. Fair enough. I'm already hanging out by the door to this place. Okay. So you're just by the door away from the day? Yeah, I left 30 seconds ago. Okay. Wait, but I was actually kidding. I'm not.

You'll be great, Yasha. Just ask them about what happened the other night and the crick that they killed. No, don't bring that up. How do we talk about getting you out in the road more? And then we said you didn't want to, and then we said that you're going to have to do it anyway? Don't say, I know, but I don't know. This is those times.

I'm sorry. Okay. Come on, let's go back. Megas is out of ourselves. We'll take care of you. Ask about the Jorhossian that they fought, and then ask them how they do so much cool magic, and then ask them.

Who they work for? Well, we know who they work for, so what do we need from them? You'll be... What are they worried about? Who's coming? Are they going to roll out people? How do they fly? Ask them how they fly. Why don't she just act like you know more than you do? Like, whoa, I hear wars coming tomorrow. What about that?

Don't do that. If we're going to help the city, the more we know the better. Let's not even start making vague promises. Just be yourself and you'll be fine. You're ready to come. Just be anybody but yourself and you'll be fine. It's going to be great. Is that about making promises?

As they start walking over, I'm going to wide front. wide flank to the left, just hug. Wait, so who's going where? We and Yasha are gonna go talk to the wizards. Bo and Yasha are there? The guy's going to go to GOOGY. That's fun. These two, are you?

Oh, geez. Not the else. I'm going to constantly stay within a few feet of the Starrosa, but not in like a weird way. I just want to like overhear his conversations and see if he's talking about war and stuff. It's going to be a weird way. I would like to flank to the left and keep eye on a crowd to see who, if any, somebody pays attention to two strangers approaching that.

Okay. It seems that the cluster of merchants that you originally mentioned are keeping pretty close, these quest to the Starost. It looks like they're probably in the business of discussing future transactions and business. You gather probably more on the Storost and maybe making connections in preparation for what's about to transpire. Is it really crowded, isn't you? Are there a lot of people? There's about 20 or so people in the chamber, and the chamber's maybe about 40 feet by 40 feet, so it's fairly packed. I'm going to send Frumpkin dancing around people's feet

to get within 10 or 15 feet of these, to follow Yashanba. And take a seat on a chair on the side of the rooms close to the door as possible. Yeah, you find a chair. Everyone seems to be standing and conversing, so. It's okay. Ford's been teaching me how to talk to people. Oh, good.

Do you want to take the lead? Sure. I walk up to Ornid House. Ormit. Ormid, all right. They're both faced away, and they're looking out kind of into the, there's a window that's open that leads out into the main victory pit,

and then there's the sky, which is mostly clouds. Occasionally you see a break, some stars, and they're kind of just in the middle of a conversation, but it's hushed. I kind of grab Yasha behind, like, on the small of her back, and kind of walk her up to the window, and I'm like, yeah, and there's actually a really great view. They both immediately stop and, like, turn over.

Just look at you. So, I can't even imagine The beauty, right? Isn't it? It's just such a great view. Over there is the cobalt's soul. But then we hope. The Cobalt... And you glance over and you can see, Ormette Haas, at first glance. Squat, maybe like five foot three, but a wide body. It's like Wolverine proportions. Very, very, very dark, ruddy brown skin with eyes that are black like obsidian. That kind of almost sparkle when you look at them. The hair is very short and curled. And there's this kind of,

kind of very, very strongly inset dimple wrinkle when he smiles with these teeth that are almost a dull gray in color. There's something not quite human about him, but also very welcoming. As he turns towards you, there's almost like a bit of dust kind of just is loosened from the edges of his ears, kind of just pf, almost like a, it's a strange phenomenon. But these long, kind of reddish gold robes. His arms are kind of folded in the sleeve. where you can't see them. I apologize, we're taking time away from the window. And the other gentleman turns towards you.

You can see it now very close. And older gentleman, probably like 70s or so, skin slightly kind of jaundiced or yellowed in color versus the usual pigmentation here. He seems to be... Bald on top, but like kind of longer gray-white hair that goes past the shoulders, the same white and gold robes. He smiles, but he looks like he's not enjoying the pleasantries of the space, but then puts

on a face immediately as soon as he notices your arrival and just gives a nod. I recognize both of you. You were part of this fight earlier, the Mighty Nine, correct? We were. Yes. You're, I recognize you too. I feel like we met before. Maybe at a gala? Previously. It's possible. I do not recall. But if so, it is good to see you again. I'm sorry. Bo. I am an Ormid Haas. I am the headmaster of the Holus of Erodition.

This is my compatriot. Master Trent Ikethon. Trent Echethon. Trent Echethon. Trent Echethon. Trent Echethon. Sure it is. And he turns and goes, he goes, it is a pleasure to meet you. I saw what you did today as well, and it was a very majestic display of skills, quite.

Thank you very much. Majestic is my middle name. So we saw the other day you guys fighting off those invaders. That was very impressive. Thank you so much for your service to the city. Orm, it goes to race his hand and turn it goes, Oh, so you were present during the attack outside of Zazabaspire, yeah?

Well, I mean, it was pretty public. It's true. Well, it was an unfortunate incident. It was that thankfully we were present, both of us to take care of it before it grew too dangerous. What were you fighting? That seemed to be assassins sent by the Kreen dynasty. Terrible cricks that had attempted to steal something

that should not fall into their hands. The Kine dynasty, do you, they are from Northern Shorehouse? That is correct. He kind of gives you a look over, like he's inspecting you with a very, very rapid and very, detailed intake of your features, and he goes, where are you from, if I might ask? I am from.

Where did you grow up? Uh, Rhaas. How long have you lived here on the Empire? Not very long. About, uh, maybe like eight months or something. Oh, I wish. It doesn't look good. No.

But. Fascinating. She's a, she traveled and has helped. Trent isn't even looking at you. He's just completely focused on Russia. But I travel, I left. I don't, I'm, I chose not to live there anymore, so. Back at your beef?

I just, you know, it's not a great place to live. It's awful. It's marsh and, and, you know, it's not a comfortable place to live. Make a wisdom of saving threat for me real fast. Oh, wow. What's you doing? What's you doing? What's you doing? Wow, that was cocked.

Super cock. Super cock. That's... Oh, seven. Oh, yeah. Negative. As you're talking, it's weird. Like he's staring at you, but for a moment you feel like, almost like there's an illusion over his mouth and his fingers.

They're still not moving, but it's almost like your eyes catch something shifting unseen beneath them, almost like you've layered two images over each other for a brief second, and then they're gone. Nish goes, huh. Well, very happy to have you fighting on our side. Yes, I most definitely am. I can assure you I don't, you know, stand for anything bad from the Jorhaz and I am here to help. Funn of you. Yeah.

Yeah. And maintain that, please. Okay. You and your friends seem to be very helpful, and a lot of help may be needed. And should you ever stray from that path, it has been a pleasure. Thank you. Your share. Yes, that's me.

And he reaches out and shakes your hand once more. I would like very much to talk to you sometime in the future. You're intriguing. Well, you have to go through me because I'm her booker. So that's actually a conversation that, you and the rest of the 9 can have. You're a cobalt soul, aren't you? And Omigas, please stop this interrogation. I apologize.

My friend is very studious. No, I am cobalt soul. Yeah. Superbrow the work we're doing over there. You've done much great work and have aided us on many occasions. And everyone at the Colbalt's soul feels the same about you all at the Halls of of your edition. Ormond Haas is actually like, he goes,

he goes, I snort's a good touch. I know that it's, I don't that there have been tensions in the past, but complete honesty. Like, I really appreciate what you do over there. Thank you. Thank you. Anyway, we must be off.

The evening has grown late. Isn't that correct? And Trent goes, yes, that is correct. It's been a pleasure. And I look forward to her pets crossing again. Great. Same here, because this was great conversation. A really, really question, Ormeid. The Cobalt Soul has been talking about moving to the front line.

Do you have any idea if we're going to get the same support from the Hall of your edition? You know, just because I know you're a fan of our work, and we're just such a mutual fan of yours. To the front line of work. You know. We train a good number of war majors, yes. And some of our finest will be present at Blade Garden and beyond. Should things escalate any further, I'm sure a number of our circle will also join where is necessary. Beautiful.

You have my word and the word of the assembly. Cobalt souls got your back too. But to be clear, do you know what you're fighting? They both kind of have a knowing, look at each other and look back to you and Trent, Nessisphorges. We have been studying for quite some time, as is the nature of protecting our people here, yes, but there are still many mysteries beyond the boundaries.

Why, is there something you know that we don't? Just if you're fighting, I just wanted to know if you are fighting the Kreen. Very much so. They have killed many of our people. The skies to the east darken. And we'd want to keep that darkness from spreading. We wish the sun to continue to rise on this empire. And currently it is not over the Ashkeeper peaks. You're the best of luck. Thank you. If you have any recantrium, fine me. I'd like to continue this conversation. Omerman Hath speaks up and goes, all right. Well, anyway, a wonderful night to you. All rest well, congratulations. and Wilfort.

Diem. Can I ask, is his name Trichotick-Tick-Ting-Tong? What was his name? Trent Eichathon. T-E-A-O-N. Okay, I-K-H-O-N. Oh, I spelled right! You're welcome. I ran a half-Ikathon once.

You get a mouth? Wait, where did you say we can use that? Does it just cast or so? Rexentum. Rexent, Tremia. We're just where the soldiers is. This is the Ulster Socrombi. So they exit and you watch his Ornus,

halfway through the room as he has like his arms folded, he goes, oh my goodness, look at you. And it gets down and starts going towards Frumkin. And he's like, this is how long, where did you get in here? Oh my goodness, he begins this reaching for the. Hasse or Akhton? It's brilliant.

No, no, Ormit Hasse. Immediately just goes down and it's like, goes from like this completely well, like, established presentary kind of persona to this like childlike wonder of this cat. It's like, come here. Please, I'd like to touch on you. I'm taking all this in first person.

Yep. Yes, yep, yep. Let's remember this for later. Oh, no whiskers. That's all I can take. I cut out of it. Okay, you pull out of it and you watch as Ormid can, as Ormid actually picks up Frumkin and kind of like holds him in his hand and starts just petting and like, oh, and they both continue to walk towards the exit.

Uh, uh, I, uh, lean forward. forward and look at the ground. Okay. As they exit the chamber, Ormidd outside, goes ahead and sets Frumpkin down and kind of pets his head for a moment and goes, go, go on, don't get stuck inside. Oh my goodness. And they both leave and exit into the night. How to go? That looked like it went well. How bad was it?

What information did you clean? Man, Yasha's super honest. Wow, what happened? Super forthcoming. I figured it's like, you know, one of the things. You know, one of those things that if you're going to get caught, you might as well tell the truth, because it's just, you know, easier to remember. I don't know, I panicked.

Well, did you say anything you didn't want to? I don't think so. Did I say anything that was bad? I don't think so. Maybe just where you are from and how short a time you have been here. Oh. Oh, I said both of those things. You said both of those things? Yes, you did.

Yeah, definitely made it seem like she could be a Jorhossian spy, definitely there to potentially kill them. In fact, I think that's exactly what they thought might have been happening. Yeah, but you know you also kind of dropped a horse apple in front of them as well. Yeah, it was kind of great. What did she mentioned a little insight on the pending war when no one knows about the pending war. I think they're going to look at you as a good resource. I think that's what you just wrote yourself as. You know, they think that I am a jojahsian assassin and I am not.

What the fuck is the Green, though? That's Leigh Léilis. The Queen is the kingdom over there. It's the Queen dynasty. Oh, the Queen. Leila's Green is the Empress of the Drau, you guys. The green is something else. I'm not here. I'm next to Storrosda.

It didn't evolve into a punching fest. Is this the Rosas still here? No, I... Okay, I'm still for man. No, I'm still an improvement. Make a perception, show. I was envisioning a big evil monster. 20.

Okay. You overhear the gist of the conversation best you can without catching too much attention to yourself. And over the next like 20 minutes or so, you catch what amounts to them discussing possible future difficulty and crossing border boundaries between the empire, banagery coast, and import the necessity of them, but having to make sure they go through very stringent processes

and doing so with the promise of coming conflict. He doesn't outright say that they're at war yet, but the Stros does essentially laying the groundwork for maintaining trade lines through the Wuyun Gorge, across the Sirius Mountains, wanting to make sure that the port towns of the Menagerie coasts still have access to get the necessary goods to the empire, not only just to maintain their people, but to get them as quickly as possible. to the front to the east. Right. And yeah, they're trying to basically establish

what initially seemed like it may have been just a pleasantry-based arrival on their part. They've been kind of pulled into this conversation of the Strosa out of necessity from his standpoint. And you can sense just a bit of desperation in his voice. He's generally trying to do best job he can and feels overwhelmed in the moment, and it's trying to as best he can to cover it.

Yasha, just so we know and, can, I trust you. But, you know, if there's anything that we need to know, and that would be a good time to tell us so that we are not in danger. Are you a Jorhasian spy come here to do bad things to the Empire? No. Oh my God, you've discovered why she's been with my circus all this time, working as a bouncer.

Why are you here then? Why did you flee? Well, I don't know if that is any of your business at this time now. Well, I just want to know in case they're going to come try to kill you and kill me by accident. Well, if they try and kill you to get answers, then you don't know anything. So then you're really just not worth anything. Pallible to my ability. Plausible to my ability. There was an M in there that wasn't supposed to be.

Plausible to my ability. See an emin. See an enemy. See an enemy. That's right. I just want to know if you're on their side or the Jorahsian side so that when this war comes, that we're not caught in the crossfire, that's all. What side are you on?

I'm on my side. Exactly. Exactly. I'm not on any side, but I do think what we are fighting is something very, very terrible. You mean what they're fighting? In Jorahs? Yeah. The queen? They're, yeah. I mean, I, I, I, we heard about them in the north, and they're mostly dark elves that settled in a massive ruin that was completely forbidden for us to travel to.

Did they do bad things to your people? Not the ones that went there. They do keep their skies dark, and it's some kind of dark magic that we don't know of that keeps the sun away. And they've enslaved men and beasts and demons under their banner. That sucks!

Have you seen the dark skies? I've never been... I've never been there, because hard to get there, and it's not some point. place I would want to go alone. Did you know anyone who went? I heard stories, but never anybody personally. Are you interested in going there? I've always been curious, just to see with my own eyes,

but they've done so many bad things that I would be want to fight them. I think Molly's right. I think Molly and Nott are right. I think they're gonna try and start enlisting soldiers here. Are they doing the same where you're from? I don't know. During this whole talk, can I look in and see where my cat is? Yeah, Frumkin is maybe 20 feet outside the door and is just waiting for you guys to exit.

I know, okay, well I tell him to wait there from. Okay. Well, if we're really going to be pulling out of the city that fast, ha ha, maybe we should take advantage of these new badges we have and hit up the tri-spire. Just finish the evening off right. I'll honestly say I would even, I'd like to get out of here as soon as possible so they don't think we're running from the new news we get out of here before the news hits. Fair enough. All it wants or... Where do we go?

I don't care. I'm just... I'm happier moving than staying still. How quickly are you thinking? If I were, if it were just the two of us, I'd say leave tonight, but... How about 24 hours from now? See if we can make it faster, but 24 hours is not terrifying. I'd... No later than dusk tomorrow. No later than dusk. I'd like to get out before news starts to spread. before they decide to start locking down the holes. Yeah, one more day.

Just to be safe. Just to, you know, get supplies and be ready for the road again. That's a fair point. Should we divide up the money? Yes. Well, that feels better. I believe that's 228 gold each. Great.

As you guys are in the process of finishing this up and people are starting to leave from the lounge area and they're starting to close down, Darrow comes up with his troop. There are ways into their cups, and he's like, ah, friends, before we shove off and probably never meet again, I just wanted to say it's been an absolute pleasure

to get to meet you, to watch you fight, for you to watch us fight, and all the luck in your future endeavors. Same to you, it was very, very impressive. Where does fate take you after this night? Well, as far as I know, we're probably heading back up to Nugvarat and continuing with our contract of sitting around and being paid for nothing. Does that remind me again, North are here, northwest?

Northeast is. Yeah, east of Rexentrine. That's already been stationed for the past six or seven months or so, and there's a few jobs there and there. Just a contract that keeps on going, or is there any set in-date for you guys? No, not until they cancel it. Man, that is rough.

We've been hearing little murmurs of action. What direction is it? East of here. Oh, like over on the border with Shoraz. Indeed, trouble stirring up. You hear anything about that? I mean, other than the fact that there's just been incursions and kidnappings and stuff.

It's all been very small localized and in the borders, but I mean, Blade Guard is there for a reason and Talenstad, but... Since you're familiar with that trek back and forth, anything you would recommend us, you know, checking out just in case we decided to wander for a bit? What are you looking for? I don't know, good time, a little bit of adventure,

maybe a bit of both. Hmm, good time. I mean, to be perfectly honest, if you're looking for whining, dining, and the various nightly pleasures, my faith does not allow for that, so I'm a very bad source. But he turns around.

Sure. What my friend is talking about is, can you recommend any good ways to get into trouble? Oh, legal trouble? Or illegal trouble? If you want to go illegal, you can actually go just beyond the boundaries of the empire to Sheddy Creek Run,

entire haven for murderers, thieves, and all sorts of strange people. And maybe if it's not so gnarly? There is a diastat to the west, as well as Camorda. It's quite good drink in Camorda. There's Pride's Call if you like the Jovial Dwarfoke there, much less dark and intense as grim Goliere, because they're right on there on the boundary,

and most of them are fighting for the war as well. But personally, I mean, Rexentrim's got it all. We hear that. Sultras Academy is located there as well. Yeah, yeah, that it is. You know anybody that's graduated from that academy? Not privately, no. Like I said, I've only been here for a little over half a year.

But me, it's not been too bad. Fair enough. Well, I wish you the best. It was well, my friends. Drink deep. Play hard. Indeed. Same to you. I want to stop the Storozda before he leaves their room. Okay. You do notice as Darrow leaves, he does have a medallion around his neck that previously

was kind of hidden in his armor, and it is a symbol of the dawn father. The legal thing after, oh no, it's not. Donfather's legal here? The Donfather's legal. And as the rest of the folk are exiting out, you guys have basically waited to close down the party. Most of the servants are cleaning up and finishing up the space. his Therosa begins to leave and make his way out there with his companions and they're kind of chatting. I drink all the leftover drinks that people left behind. All right. All right. It's good.

I have. Limitless alcohol. May I have a limit? You're a limitless? Oh, yeah. Of course. Jester. No, no, no, no. You told him it was fancy pants. Yes. Fancy Pants McGee. Yes. This episode is brought to you by Netflix. Most valuable promotions in Netflix are hosting a blockbuster triple headliner Saturday, May 16th. Rhonda Rousey returns to face fellow woman's MMA pioneer Gina Carano in the main event. Plus co-main's Nate Diaz versus Mike Perry.

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every Thursday night at 8 p.m. Eastern on YouTube.com slash the Glass Cannon with the podcast version dropping the next day. See what everybody's talking about and join us in the dark. Right, right, yes. My friends call me Jester. Ah, fair enough.

What can it do for you? Well, I couldn't help but notice your body posture, for this whole party has been rather tense. I don't know if you noticed, but I am a bit of a healer. And you know, I'm from the Menagerie Coast, where I did a lot of mental healing as well as body healing. So if there's anything you need to relieve your stress, I am very good at this.

This is why I came here. He kind of gives the, goes, he looks back and forth to his opinions, and he goes like, but what are you insinuating? I'm talking about somebody to talk to. Right, right. You will leave your mind of your stress. Right.

I really appreciate that offer, genuinely. Just her fancy pants. Meek. However, such is my life. I know you have people that work for you. Maybe in a week. Give me some time. A lot of stuff percolating right now, but...

Leaky tap, right? Or the pillow trove. Or the pillow drove. All right. Well, I may have use of your services soon. Not at the moment, but soon. Okay. I can help your mind.

If you just relieve that stress, it's somebody to talk to. It's very helpful. I appreciate that. Soon. Soon. You kind of like, is trying desperately to not get the wrong impression to his friend.

since he kind of darts off with them into the night. Are you drinking every random cup, or you just pouring them all into one cup? A suicide or one at a time? No, no, just finishing the ones that are left behind. It is an atrocity to leave alcohol on a table. Make a Constitution saving throw. Yeah.

One of those was full of dip spit. Fords work. Yook. Ding. Yeah. Mim-em-em-hm-a-h-17. Iron stomach. Beauregard over here.

when the Greenlow cut. You're going to have the shits later. You're probably. You're a trash person. I'm going to walk over and take your last drink and drink it and salute. You're a... I know. Oh man, you guys, I was really trying to get this throws to talk to me.

Well, you offer you, it's... I would have said yes if a strange psychoanalyst walked up to me. I know, but I'm going to look. I'm a really good healer. Did you tell him that he has to give you a dollar to engage your services? No, I told him I didn't give him a price, actually. See, that's even shiftyer. That means I'm really good, is what that means. Do you charge for all these services? Not for friends.

I'm actually really shied at giving advice, but don't have me here. I don't agree, I feel like you would be very good at it, you know. Well, anytime you have any problems, Yasha, you just come to me, okay? Okay. Okay. Are we talking about rolling at a little bit of pink on my own? Oh, we are we talking about rolling at the pillow trove this evening? Is that what I'm picking up on?

I need to go by there anyway. How long has it been since we've been in town? Since she's been in town? Yeah. In fact, it's probably been a week and a half to two weeks. I mean, by this point, my mom has probably got the package here, so. Well, by all means, let's stop by there, and then let's see if there's a fancy place for us to, you know. We have fucking money to burn.

We need some healing potions and things. Yes, I bet there's places. We could go to the Silken Terrace. What's the Silken Terrace? At this point now, like seven, eight, nine? Oh no, right now it's probably like 10, 30, 11 o'clock. Plus, like, there's always one of those Pumats around. Okay.

What's the mission for tonight, though? Try Spire, Pillow, get Jester's package, get turked up, get some healing potions. Wait, we're getting turned up before we go to Pumontz. Why not? Yeah. You think Pumat's going to be open at turn tomorrow? No, they go tomorrow. The more you drink, the more you spend.

Why do we need to go now? We don't. It's late. Yes. We did a lot today. We did a lot today. Oh my God, I'm so tired. This place.

It's okay. That's probably because you just drank like. like 15 drinks. We don't have to move on things quickly, but. Lead the way, Jester. Up early in the morning. All right. Up early in the morning.

Are we staying at the Pilotrov? Pillow drove? Yes. Yeah, we'll crash out. That's fine. Did you guys divide the money up? Yes. What did I get?

228. And five silver. Woo! All right. So, as you guys exit from the forum, the victory pit, out into the night, which is the event is still going on, though it's most of the big.

People have flittered out. Everyone who remains is either pretty tossed or is in the process of closing down their various carts and established places of sale. The pentamarket is closing. The festival kind of pushed it a little bit for some establishments. But you make your way walking towards the Tri Spires.

And that's where we'll go ahead and take our break. We're going to break. Yep, take a break. It's an A-50. It's still your birthday. It's a birthday. So we'll be right back. We'll be right back.

However, we do have our one-wood giveaway. Oh, yes. So tonight we have the quilted maple dice tray. This main bridge of the device. With our leather interior. That's really cool. Yeah, you may touch it. Now, no way is it.

Not only do you win it, but you win it touched by Laura Bailey. Oh, wow, look at that. The price just went up by about 20% on the worth of it. So the Colton Maple one will go to one of your lucky winners in the US or Canada, excluding Quebec. Dangerous. But to come into the Twitch chat, and tonight's term is victory. Victory!

Go ahead and put in the word victory in the chat to be entered only once, more than once, and you'll be disqualified. And we'll come back at the end of the break to announce the winner. So we'll see you guys there in a little bit. And welcome back, everybody. So before we jump back into the game, we have our winner of our fantastic dice box from Wormwood. It is Deadlight Carrying. Deadlight Carrying.

Deadlight Carian. Deadlight Carian. We'll get your information, we'll get that sent out to you, ACP, but Well done. And thank you Paul for getting us all ice cream. Yes. We had break ice cream. It's delicious.

Nobody tell my trainer. Yes, yes. I had the pro yo because it's healthier. All righty-. So, as you guys are leaving the pentamarket in the late hours of the evening, making your way towards the tris buyers, As you approach the outskirts of the outer wall, the gates open, the guards there are posted, there are three there waiting, they begin to approach as your troop begins to arrive. One of them steps up, who's, um, hold please, if, oh, right, right, um, please, you may

continue? Yeah, we're there. Very obviously holding and petting my cat and looking at all three of them. as we want. And one of them is the guy that kicked him originally. He's not the one that interfaced with you, but he's standing by the side there, just kind of waiting, and he watches you, approach as you walk by, and he goes, Goethe, don't ruin this.

Guten Abund. Just swallows and doesn't respond. It just kind of looks off in the distance. Hello, what did you say? Good night. Yeah. Hello?

Gluten almonds. Have a pleasant evening. Gluten almonds. Good almonds. So, where are we going? I mean, we're going to the pillow trove. I support you, Jester. But I mean, what are we-

I support you too in all of your endeavors. Okay, then let's go there. All right, as you guys make your way through the streets of the Tri-Spyre. Apologies. I pulled both backward by the arm. Okay. And make out.

And no. And long enough till we're fall back a bit so that then wait to see that the group is not paying attention. Okay. Yeah? As you get me into that library tomorrow? Yeah. I told you a fucking secret, though.

I also kind of told Yasha the secret. So you and Yasha know the secret. Okay. It's not really that much of a secret. Okay. But the library is a thing that we can do before we leave this city. Yeah. As long as something crazy happens, I'm assuming. Yeah. I'm just hoping to look at books. Is that all right? I know. I know exactly what you want to do. Yeah, it should be all right. Good, great. What are you looking for? Just more spells?

Anything else in particular? No, I mean spells you can find, you know, digging in a thousand-year-old laboratories. I want to learn. I want what is not readily available to all. Okay. I don't know if that is something that I would be allowed to look at. What kind of clearance do you have? They're not going to let you see the super secretive weird shit in the back. History? There's history. Yeah, there's tons of history, man. I mean, it forced history down my throat. Oh.

Okay, this is good. Hey, hey, wait though. Oh, that's two times I've tried to be a lot of this conversation. I know, I know. We're real good at it. Why are you afraid of fire? Segway. Uh, well.

I'm just saying, you know, I just want to know, because I want to be taking you around books and your relationship with fires, you know. Are you going to set the books on fire? Are you going to set the books on fire? Are you going to set the books on fire? I'm going to read them. I'll take you in the library if you tell me why you're afraid of fire.

One secret traded for another. It's a fair price, I think. Is there anyone around? There's the group ahead of you, maybe about 15 or so feet, and you're approaching the exterior of the pillow trove. I'm giving Yasha a piggyback ride. All right. You know where to find me when you're ready?

Do you consent this piggyback ride? Yeah, I have my feet linked so I can, like, monkey piggyback ride. That's amazing. Just doesn't hold on. The Zobber Spire, glistening and lit from beneath, assembled, no longer, you know, akimbo. As you guys approach the exterior, the pillow trove, there's the steps that ascend to the entryway, the kind of arched door frame, and you enter the beautiful... As soon as I get my payment. Drinks!

We're out in public and we're in front of a hotel. I'm inside the hotel has drinks. I like that you have a handle on your mug, but you don't use the handle. Well, it's a little like, unbalanced. You know, I kind of have to like choose. If I'm gonna commit to the handle, or if I'm gonna commit to that.

Maybe do the thing you just did. This is like, it's not bad. But your handle gets to, I mean, I do the same thing with this guy. I grab it by this, like this the whole thing. So as you make your way into the, how do you do it, Sam? Yep. The Pillardrobin is beautiful Marvel presentation there awaits you as you come into the well-lit

interior. There's the number of candles that are kind of hanging on small hooks in the walls. They're just kind of dangled there and the flames flicker to light the archway and the inside. There you see sitting at the table what looks like is going through some sort of stack of parchment is Madame Luena. You had briefly seen before. this beautiful red dress. She's two, I was trying to look like that night. Do you remember when we were at the, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well kept kind of almost bouncy Burnett hair and golden eyes.

She smiles as you went to, Hello, how might I help you this evening? Hi, do you remember me I was here before? I do remember, yes, good to see you. You too. Did you know we just won in the Victory Pit? I did not. I did not attend that portion of the festival,

but congratulations. Thank you. We're kind of fame. That's wonderful. We think we may stay here tonight to you, because you know, we thought it would be nice for the Pilotrope to have famous people staying here for you. But of course, we have, is that a room for each of you? She's an Instagram model. It depends on what you want to offer us as the victories of the Victoroy Pit.

Well, I'm happy to offer you rooms at the discounted rate of the charging price we... charging price we give to it. It's still an establishment of... Of course, yes, but we would tell everybody we stayed here all the time. Well, we... It doesn't work that way, my dear. I'm really bad at persuading people today, apparently. Do you want me to try? I'm doing a really bad job. I have a package probably here anyway, so I'm going to check on that.

I'll let everybody else talk to you about how famous we are now. How many rooms would you like? I think two will do just fine. Two rooms, all right. However many can bunk together, I guess. Okay. So two rooms purchased for the night. I've ever called for today, push around four gold.

She wanted to charge me before. No, oh, were there. I'm just going to leave it, though, because I'm walked away. I'm not the kind of bad. Four gold for two rooms. For each room. For each room. I'll cover the fellow's room.

Here's four gold. Yeah. Here's four more for me. This was her seating to the victory pit, victory and return customer price. Jessica, what are you doing? I'm going to save my packages here for my mom. Okay, so you head to where you went previously, which is a little side chamber and then. there's a young woman there waiting who's kind of falling asleep at the desk.

Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't see you there. Can I help you? I blend in with my environment very often. It's common. Well, very, very well done. I have a package here, probably. Name? Jester. Just, hold on just a second, and she gets up and walks out of the room and minute passes, two minutes pass. Anything on the desk of value? On the desk this woman who's currently left.

It looks to be a small lantern, like an oil lantern that's set there that's kind of flickering. It's well made. Nice pan or anything? No, let's say she took it with her. I'll keep wait. About five minutes passed before she enters, with it looks like a small parcel of some kind under her arm, and goes, I believe this is to you, Jester, correct?

It's a small box about that big. It says Jester written in nice handwriting on the edge. Oh, yes, that would be the one that I'm expecting. Thank you so much. It came. It came, I guess. See, I told you my mom is really cool, you guys. Sorry, I doubted you.

Oh my gosh. We're all going to be here to see this open, right? We should probably, it's like a lot of money, So we should probably open it up in the room. Yeah, that's fair. That's very fair. Yes. Yeah, thank you for your help.

We'll retire for the evening. You typically tip when someone? Oh, that's right. She does have her hand open. Oh, here, of course, of course, of course. Here's two gold for you. Two gold. I'm very well enough.

Thank you very much, Madame. Have a wonderful night and stay here at the pillow trove. Thank you. She's bothering you. Now we don't have to worry about things Any more, you guys? All right. As you guys head back, the keys are given out to both of you, and the madam leads you up to your chambers. And on your way up, she goes, are there any other services that you would require while you're staying here this evening to celebrate?

What services are available? What kind of services? What? Service? Wine can be delivered? Okay. Companionship can be provided. Oh shit.

Massage. Hossi. Nothing. What kind of companion? What's companionship? Do you have here available? Well, whatever. You see her kind of trying to find the words for it. She goes, likely the best kind of companionship you could find this.

Not the best kind. The best available. Okay. You don't have to work with the Ruby of the Sea, do you? No, I know of her. She has a reputation. But we have fine companions here as well to... She has the best reputation, you know. She has a great reputation, yes.

But she works outside of the empire. Should you be interested, we have a number of individuals across the spectrum who would be happy to lend you an ear and help ease your mind. Jester does that too. Who does that? Lindenier. For advice.

I do use people's minds. That's how it sounded before, too. Yasha, if you were to partake of a companion, what kind of companion are you interested in? Is it like a beast type of thing? Like a tall one or a short one? I don't know, just one that I... Maybe lots?

Like what color I see? What color eyes do you like the most? What color eyes do you like the most? Do you want people with one color eye and the other color eye like you have? How about you just come and find me when you've decided whether or not? I think that's fair. Is there like a... Never mind.

Juster, shall we? Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Can I ask an out-of-character question? Sure. As a citizen of the empire, Yes. How much does Caleb already know about the Cobalt folk? Cobalt so?

I mean, you know of them in the way that you know of the people at City Hall that keep all the records of the building structures. Like, you know it exists. Everyone knows it's part of the structure, but nobody really pays much attention because it's a place of learning beyond what the usual learning process is. So certain people. It's a dying public libraries of today. Right, you're a librarian. I mean, it has... The Huffington? Kind of, yeah.

Like, people know it exists, but not... But the few people that really take an interest in it either end up pursuing it or adjacently to it. And those people end up acquiring more knowledge and becoming more prominent in this society. So it's almost an unused resource, unfortunately. And their political affiliation? I mean, within the empire? Yeah. They're one of the many sanctioned places of worship for the Nguyen mistress.

But they're with the empire. Okay. Like they function within the empire, and they have the, you know, the individuals that run each archive are appointed by the crown. As with all places of worship in the kingdom, whoever helms those locations, the high priests, the high archivists, whatever they are, they're appointed by the crown and worked directly for the empire. Okay. Yeah, all religion here is employed by the empire at the highest point.

As long as there's a Cobalt Soul Scholastic Fair, I think I'm really... I know. Scary stories to tell the day. Yes. I want my pencil set? That's after winter, unfortunately. You have to wait for spring for those to come around again. God, I miss those.

Those are the best. Everybody got their gifts brought to like the room. Oh, my God. Felt like a festival inside your school. Yeah. Scro's amazing. Yes, I do. Yes, I do.

Let's make more for adults. Guys, sorry. Reading's cool. That's cool. My fault. No, legitimately it is. Support 8-26-L-N. And thank you to those who did.

There you go. So, you have your rooms at the Pillow Trove. Well, what did you get? Oh, okay, okay. When we get the money, we should all go out and buy new outfits, and we should go have a feast. And maybe we can buy new clothes for the horses too, because I bet they would really like them. But you don't need to give us your money. It's for everyone.

They open up the box. Okay. That says my name right on it. It says it right here, my name. All right, so first off, the package, as you kind of shake it a bit, it has various objects inside of it and it kind of rattles a bit. It's not as heavy as I expected it to be, but maybe it's a check. That's probably what it is. I have no idea what that is.

It's about eight to ten pounds, maybe. As you open the package and unwrap it, and it's pretty well wrapped, you open the parcel and on the inside there is a bag of coin, about that big there. It's probably platinum, because it's light, or you know. There is a small bundle that's kind of wrapped with twine, and there's a letter. I, do, do, do, do, do, do. Beautiful handwriting. Yes, she's really amazing.

Do you mean to read it out loud? Yes, of course. You don't mind. Okay. My darling, Jester, that's me. Oh, she loves you. I do so hope your journeys have been safe. fruitful and wondrous.

I've always wished you to see the beauty of the world around us, and while these circumstances perhaps were not the most favorable, it has allowed you the freedom to become your own woman. That's nice. I spent a lot of time inside it, I told you this, yeah. Yeah. Okay.

To show all of Wildemount and beyond the gifts you have to offer and the joys you have to give. My sweet girl, how I miss you, I miss her too so much. Your laughter, your energy. I've been sick in your absence, oh, because I'm such a healer, you know, and I took care of her, so that makes me so sad.

But it is the trial any mother must endure, I suppose. You're on your own now, and while I will always miss that little girl, I'm equally eager to see the woman you will become. Tensions here are less but not absent. Given time, I hope things will vanish into the past, and you may come to see me once more. Until then, I've included a small trifle.

Some things to keep you comfortable, creating, and free. I love you. You're Ruby. My mama. Marion Lovore. She doesn't tell many people her real name, you know. Marion, it's a beautiful name. Isn't it? I love my mom so much. It looks like she loves you for you.

very much too. Let's see what she sent us, okay? And they open the little package. Okay, the package contains a vial about that vague what looks to be kind of like some dark liquid, just kind of shake it there. Do I recognize it? Have I seen it before? You do, and she keeps it usually by her materials.

It's a bottle of her lavender perfume. Oh, Shandau! That's what I said. She's really nice. Everybody really likes this now. It's a smell that's very much affiliated with her, and you know, it's this, you smell it, and it's a wave of nostalgia that comes over you. Your childhood flashes through you again. And within that bundle as well, you see there is five small ink vials in there of different colors. There's a red ink, there's a blue ink, there's a green ink, and then two black.

The color frame of it. Magenta, Siam. I was saying. This is so I can be painting. Of course. I used up a lot of the paint that I had at the festival. And 200 gold in the pouch she sent. 200 gold.

That's a lot of money. For all of us. That is, that is a really good amount of money. 200 gold is a lot of money, you guys. I am I expected more? I mean when we love it. I had a lot more than that, but it's because, you know, I'm growing up, and we probably are learning about how to spend money better, so she's teaching me probably that 5,000 gold is not needed every time. She gave you 5,000 gold before?

I really thought there was going to be more money in here. Maybe she, did you tell her that you were out of money? I did, I did tell her that. This is all she sent. But you know what? That's totally fine. 200 gold is really generous of her. Maybe, and I don't know your mother,

maybe she was testing the postal system. Sending a small amount as a test, you can write back and say, Got it safely, feel free to send more. That's a really good idea. Maybe that was it, because I wouldn't want to send 5,000 gold over the mail, system with there's people out there who steal the mail. You know what?

Whosh! It's true. An incredibly excellent point. It is so easy to defraud the mail. That's a lot of money. Two hundred gold is a lot of money. That's more than I pretty much have right now. More than we used to make in a year.

Easily. A birthday card. Never. Caleb? What? I'm really sorry about that one time when you were talking about money with me, okay? Oh, that's fine. The most important thing is that she loves and cares for you and wants to support you from afar.

That is really great. And she sent my favorite colors, red and blue and green and black. Those are the most... Absolutely most, basic. You can mix them. She knew I had a lot of words. We knew I had a lot of white already on me, so I can make lots of colors. Mostly paper is white, too. Well, it doesn't work like that.

I don't know how it. Okay. So are we going back out, or are we turning in? I mean, some of those kind of beat shit. Do you guys want to split up the 200? Juster, we're not. I'm not going to keep that too. It's your money.

We just kicked ass and made 200. We'll do it again tomorrow. That is true. Yeah. I'm going to put this in a special. special places so that we have it in case we need it. Sure. The emergency fund. Righty day fund.

This will be Mom's Emergency Fund. Sure. Okay. I'm gonna paint that on the bag. Mom's emergency fund. All right, well, I'm getting kind of tired. I'm gonna turn into the other room. Anybody feels like joining. Congratulations, Jester. That's very exciting.

How deep of a sleeper are you? I don't know. I feel after a day like today, Pretty fucking deep. Cool, find out. I'm gonna go downstairs. Okay. So is he, all right, so you head downstairs. Oh boy.

I'm going to at least need the best masseuse they have, who's also willing to do other interesting things, and someone to feed me and talk to me as the entire thing is going on. So, so. Well, I can definitely provide those requests. That sounds like a two-company request.

I would imagine so. Wait, just so I'm clear. No, I'm so happy. You're gonna get a full release massage while you're eating a steak or something? A full muscle. Fruit, don't be crass. That's just weird. Preference.

Male, female in between? Best hands, best conversationalist. I just surprise me. Very well. That will run you 20. I don't pay it and you better sleep. You can sleep through it or not if you. or not, if you like.

I'm going to be turned with my face to the wall. That's a college man. College room. So as the rest of you are turning in for the evening to relax, you all eventually kind of get yourself comfortable. Caleb, you're reading through your book, and then at the door of the mail room, it opens up, and there you see a young man and a young woman both enter in nice silk robes. Oh, it's like in the room?

Oh, yes. How do you not put that together yet? Both human. We got two rooms. Yeah. All right, so who requested the service? Excellent, and I'm just, are you on the bed? Not anymore.

Okay, I'm just going to take the bed and I'm just going to take my full massage and otherwise. And otherwise? And otherwise. If you would also like some food, I'm sure they'd be willing to do it. They bring in a small platter of grapes and other fruit. Sure cooterie. I'll take an apple and say, Godspeed. And I will leave the room.

Caleb? Yeah, I leave the room and actually run downstairs and ask the front desk if they have another room. Yes, of course. Another room can be provided. How much is that? For your troops, it would be four gold for a third. Excellent, yeah. Here you go. All right, here's your key. Thank you.

It's two doors down from the... Of course, I always think. One on the left that you originally purchased with your friends. So is it the four ladies in a room? I'm doing the college hallway sit. Oh. It's outside the door. That's my room.

There. Howison feels your pain. Can we hear, are we next door to this room? Can we hear what's happening? Make a perception, show. Oh, I'm sure at the very least I knocked on the door and just said, I'm having fruit if anyone wants anything. I rolled a 14.

I rolled a 7. I rolled a 16 plus. Wait, what's my present? Oh, 19? 18. I rolled the 1, so are we done taking donations or? Taking donations? You know, for 8 to 6.

That's all done now, right? Oh, I think so, yeah. So now they're just straight up bad. Man, in context, that was weird as fuck. I know I was like. It's just last week we're cheating. I rolled a 19. It's mostly ridiculous conversation

through this whole thing, so. Can we hear anything? All you hear are giggles. Yeah. I poke my head out. Do I see Ford? You see Ford in the hall, yeah. Pist.

Hey, how's it, how are you doing? You're in the most expensive. an expensive hotel in a million, and not like a hundred miles, and you're in the hallway. It's real fucking funny. And Molly got a guy and a girl walked in with food. Do you wanna come in our room, so you're not in the hall? Do you have people in there with food?

I have Knott and Jester, and I think Jester has pastries. And Yasha's in here too. We can order room service. Do you want to come in and order room service? Yeah, it sounds fine. Let's do that. We order room service. All right.

About when this is how much. happening. I pulled the wire out of my coat and hold it into my pond hands and message to knot. Not. Would you find an excuse to bring Beauregard and yourself to my room that you saw me go into? Message received. What? Nothing. I didn't say anything. He said message received. I was practicing a new catchphrase. It's weird.

That's why I'm practicing. You should try out different. Yeah. I kind of like it. I don't know. You like, hit someone. You're like, message received. Yeah, that's great.

I've got to be it. Yeah. It's a little heavy. Yeah, yeah. You get the back of the moment. Hey, you know what? Did you order the room service yet? Yeah. I...

Wait, how we called down? I think the phone's broken, so maybe me and Bo should go deliver the order downstairs. Oh, okay. I mean, yeah. Yes, tell them we want cookies and milk for sure. Orette... Oh! We didn't eat our rats yet.

Well, we can get them here and save those when we're traveling. I mean, they'll die. Although, yeah, the rats are currently back at the other, the leaky tap. Oh, that's right. Well, no, you haven't, yes. No, no, you still have them, you still have them, you haven't gone back. That's right. Should we toast now?

Well, yeah. Well, yeah. Well, but Yasha likes to cook hers, remember? Oh, you don't like to cook yours? No. Not that's so. It's crazy. I mean, I'll try it, but I feel like it's much.

Do you want me to have them cook it? Have you ever had it cooked? No. With a little salt, little pepper? No? I don't know they will cook rats here though. No? Most of the places that charge a lot of money for rooms

don't usually cook the rats, but they do have other animals that they'll cook for you. What do they have? Probably like a cow or like a deer or like an owl bear or something. Just give us the chef's choice. The giggling gets louder from the other room. Like the... Oh, God.

I can't tell who that's coming from. Oh, God, come on, let's go. Yeah, give me your rat and I'll have them cook it and bring it back for you. We're spending enough money on this place. I won't eat your rat. Do you promise me. Do you promise not to kill me in my sleep because you're a Jorhasian spy? If I don't eat your rat, you can't kill me in my sleep because you're a Zoroastin spy.

Okay. Let's you pull it away. All right, let's go order some food. Okay. Can you make you ready to kill him? Yes, as soon as we get out of the room, I say, I was told to bring you to Caleb. I don't know why.

Can we go order food first and then we'll go hit Caleb because it's going to take them like 45 to 16 minutes to deliver it? It just take a while to deliver. All right, we'll go order food. All right, you go order food. For the breath of the evening meals, it costs, we'll say one gold, five silver for food for everybody. What do you guys want to do in the room? Is price it here.

No. I'm going to send a few messages out. Caleb, what room are you in? Caleb, what room are you in? Caleb, what room? If I eventually catch it, I give not the room, no. Okay. He's in room six.

All right, you guys make your way to Caleb's room. Oh, Jesus. Come on, come in. I brought the monk. Are we discussing some escape plans? Potentially. You know, we're leaving soon, and Boregarde has an inn at one of the bigger libraries in the city, and I want to go there before we leave.

Excellent, let's go. Tomorrow, right, when they're open? Yes, but Boregarde has given me a condition. She had some questions for me, and I would like to answer them, but I don't feel right telling her and not telling her. you, so I would love for you to stay here for a few minutes. Sure, yes, whatever you want, Caleb? It sounds serious. Um, Boregard, may I ask you a question to start? Yeah. How do you feel about the Empire?

Oh, man. Are you in favor of how things are going here? No, but I'm not in favor of many things. I don't like law. of things. Can I have a problem with like authority and they're like the epitome of authority? I watch my father sacrifice a lot to try and impress those people, so I'm not sure what it was for. Seems like a lot. Are you comfortable with business as usual?

What? What? How do you mean? Do you approve of how the empire is going? No, I mean, I'm not like super invested in the political... spectrum, I just don't want any part of it, so no, I think it could be better. No. Is she lying to me about being not invested? I mean, it's up to you if you want to. No. As far as I know, yeah, she's being pretty forthright. Do I have to shout inside check or? No, no, I'm, I'm, it's up to her whether or not she decides if she needs to or not.

Marisha is telling you, Bo is being genuine. Yeah. Oh, not super invested about how they're not. super-invested about how the Empire is going? I think. Everybody's lying. I have no investment in their success or failure. I think most of them tend to be scumbags who want

monetary and influential gain. And I think they treat their poor pretty shitty, and they treat their elite pretty great. And I think that's sucky. Yeah, I think they're very. Yeah, I think they're garbage people, but Molly thinks I'm a garbage person. Trash person. Sorry, a trash person. So if they're garbage people, I'm their rare cousin, the trash person. And I would like to, my reading on if that is genuine or not. Yeah? Yeah. Yeah. Okay, so Liam asking a question, and this is your choice.

This is an idea that popped in my head. Could I request it everybody but Sam and Marisha leave the same? You could. Yeah. Yeah. Whoa. Everybody else but salmon with her. Bitch. I didn't want to listen anyway, bitch. That means you too, Matt. Oh, shit.

Well then. Yeah, I watched my father's sacrifice a lot to get where he was, and I'm not sure if it was fucking worth it. worth it. So the empire doesn't lean favorably in my spectrum, but I also don't care if they really live or die or whatever. Well, I really want to get to the library tomorrow. Yeah. And this may be a very stupid decision of mine. Yeah. What does she want from you? Should be willing to leave with me tomorrow if I asked you to? Of course. Just the two of us.

Absolutely. Right away, whatever you want. But why? Is this secret that valuable? I am going to tell you the story of how I murdered my mother and father. When I was younger, I grew up in a small... township outside of Wrexentrum called Blumenthal. My mother's name was Una.

My father's name was Leophrig. Everyone was very excited about me when I was young. I was bright. People used to say that I glided through life and everything just worked for me. And as I got older, it became clear that I had a knack for the arcane. King. Everyone talked about the Solstress Academy. Maybe I would go there someday.

It's the way they do things at that academy. They don't take all comers. They look for the diamond and the rough, and you know, every couple of years they find one. But when I was a young man, adolescent really, they found three of us. Another boy and a girl. And a girl. And a From your town? Yeah, from Fingenthal. And we were accepted. How old were you? What's young?

Teenager. Yeah. Anyway, we went there. I studied for a year. I worked so hard. It came easier to me than the other two, but they were also very accomplished. There were others.

There were other students from other parts of the empire there. And a little over a year of learning all they had to impart, I met a man. Trent Ikefan, he became our teacher. Why didn't you say anything earlier? Earlier when? Earlier tonight? A week ago, what do you mean? When we were talking to Trent.

You know we were talking to Trent. So, after a year of studying in the main school, Trent, our handpicked all three of us again. And we left the school proper and went with him to a homer in the countryside where he trained us. And it was a good, it was a good time. We believed in the empire. We were going to keep it strong.

He was cruel. He hurt him. us a lot. It made us go through extreme circumstances. I also fell in love, but that's another story. One of the other students. So we rose through the ranks and it was the empire overall and eventually he wanted to test our allegiance and so strangers were brought in traitors, disgusting people, traitors to this empire and we killed them. Just students? Mm-hmm.

He made you executioners. We wanted to be. Caleb, that's deeply fucked up. You know that, right? Yeah. So a few months of this, of studying, of a little bit of torture, a little bit of murdering dissidents and traitors and deviance. And then one day your parents were brought in his traitors,

Now? We were ready to graduate. And the last test of our allegiance was, I had myself. You know, I went home. I went on a trip home and visited my parents. And when I was there, in the middle of the night, I awoke and overheard them talking and went to the stair and listened to them talk about revolution and tearing the empire down. down. And I felt disgraced and shame for my family. My mother and my father were so wonderful

to me when I was a child and was so happy for me to go to the academy and believed in the empire so much. And I went back to the school. And the three of us were summoned and told what was expected of us. I knew what had to be done. We went to this, uh, a, you know, other boys home first, Eardwolf. And we stood by as he killed his parents. And we went to, had dinner with them. And she poisoned them. And then we went to my home, and we grabbed a horse cart,

and in the middle of the night, placed it against the door to the home, and I set it on fire. And you had to do this to graduate. approve your loyalty. Well, yeah. But it didn't exactly go according to that plan because as soon as I heard my mother and father screaming inside, I was so sure,

I was so sure until I wasn't and it broke a bit. Did you go in after them? No, I went to an asylum. an asylum for a number of years. I broke. Remember so well what happened to me there. It was quite a number of years. And years later, I was there.

Another patient, and she put hands on me. And she took the clouds away. She took it all away. And not just my. madness, but fake memories that Ikeithun put in my head of my parents. Fake memories? Wanting to, but yes. Wait, there was a false memory?

He tricked you? Into hearing their talks against the empire. Yes, yes. Yes, but it doesn't matter because I still wanted to do it when I did it. But you didn't know what you would do it. So what? You were brainwashed. So what?

Programmed. Doesn't matter. I should have... I'm a disgusting person. It doesn't matter. Anyway, all that gone. Just like that. And I ran.

Not right away. I pretended like nothing had changed for several weeks. She was stark raving mad 15 minutes later, herself, the woman who helped me. I... killed one of Trent's people there and took this, and I pull out in a necklace. And this has been keeping me hidden for years.

For five years. What do you mean hidden? They can find out. They would really like to get into that library because I would. Like to run again. Huh? No.

No, I like you all. You were just talking with naught about running Tomorrow. Well, it all depends on you, Borek. If I don't let you in. Hey, Lube, I'm gonna keep him secrets. You heard us talking to Trent. You know he wants Yasha.

And you're the only person who knows the atrocities that this man, who utterly gave me the creeps, by the way, so I'm feeling a little bit validated in the fact that I think I, you know, read him pretty well. I don't think it's... Anyway. I'm just saying you have a responsibility now. Which is?

Keep this guy from hurting more people. This library. You want to take down Trent? Is that your, is that what you're doing all this? You want to take down Trent? What are you hoping to find? Anybody can make lights. Anybody could send a message through a wire.

I want to bend reality to my will. Caleb, you don't, though. No one wants that amount of power and responsibility. Yeah, well, I told you why I am afraid of fire. You did. So you are going to bring me to that library. Don't worry, I'll take you to the library. There are two options here.

You could selfishly try and go after this guy for your own vendetta, or you can use your motives to keep others from getting hurt. A very similar way. Both of those are appealing to me. All right. I know you just make dancing lights. Or at least you can feel like you just make dancing lights.

But those dancing lights make sure that I can punch people in the fucking face whenever I can't see shit. A little bit of teamwork goes a long way. Okay, good. You know, I think Nott and I are going to retire now. Maybe you can go get that fruit for the others. Cool, man. Cool. I get it. Yep, alright.

I mean, you know, you just dump some heavy-ass shit like that and then ask me to leave no, I get it's fine. All right, I'll leave. But you don't have to leave the table. No. I'm not asking the table. I'll keep your secret. We'll keep all this a secret. I don't think it's anything to be ashamed of, though.

Figure it out at the time. Good night, Borough God. Caleb. Not. Good evening. Good evening. I have a charcutory board coming to the girls' room, if anybody wants any. I just go over and I just throw my arms around him and hug him.

I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. It wasn't you. It's not your fault. It wasn't you. You are... You know that feeling when you hear one interesting thing, and suddenly you want to know more. Well, that's the idea behind my podcast, something you should know. episode starts with a question you've probably never thought to ask, like why people do or don't like you, why certain habits stick, or what everyday advice is actually wrong. I'm Mike Carruthers, and I talk with scientists, authors, and experts, and I keep it practical, surprising, and fun to listen to. If you've got a curious brain, come try one episode of something you should know on the podcast app you're listening to right now. Welcome to Mick Unplugged, the number one

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Let's get started. We're made to do it. It's not your fault. It's not your fault. I know you don't realize that now, but you will. This pain that you have, you wear all over you like a mask. It's just that, and you can take it off someday. I know it hurts, but it wasn't your fault.

And I'm just going to keep telling you that until you believe me. Are you and I good? What you did was awful, terrible, despicable, and unforgivable, until you can forgive it. At some point, you'll have to do that. And I swear to you that I will be at your side until you do. Take a lot of hard work. A lot of books. I'm in.

Whatever you need. Just tell me. And I'll get it for you. out the silver thread. And I might start putting it around the room. Go over some notes. I have some ideas already. Some ideas I had.

And I will stay up another hour or two before going to bed. All right, can we retrieve the rest of the group, please? Back to the table. Fart jokes! We've got a Caleb Lord dump. We've got a Caleb Lord dump. So as you find yourselves, Find yourselves reading for a bit eventually.

The knock comes at the door and a little bit of snacks are brought over from the side in the girls' room if you want some. The food arrives. I do a guy's room. The knock does come at your room, Molly. And as the food arrives, the door opens and the two. Oh, is the food arriving? The food has arrived as the companions and you have completed your evening.

I am, okay. In that case, yeah, I am going to enter. You're cleaning up. Oh, no. Oh no, I am, I've thought about this. I had time to think while watching things outside. Not you guys. I've got the remnants of the fruit.

I'm coming in with the food into their room, and I'm just wearing nothing but my tapestry. I'm your God. Long may I reign. Each of my fruits. I just ordered another fruit platter. It's good. I got through a lot of this. But long may he rain.

All right. Haza. Are we still pre-sleepy time? If you've something else you want to do. No, I want to go to the bathroom. All right, then you may go to the bathroom if you'd like. And we're going to come back to the morning. Whenever the rest of our group returns.

Laura and Charles went home. They have... Yeah, date line was on. 16 minutes. Well, until they get here. No, Ashley's gone now. So it's just us. It's just us. Perfect.

So if anybody had any questions, I want to... I don't know. I'm not even... I'm not even with you guys. Gotcha, yeah, no worries. Pregnancy. I was just looking forward to wearing a giant platinum dragon. That's really...

The tapestry to the chamber. All right. That's all I wanted. So the evening draws to a close. You all get, probably the finest dress you've had in a while here in the Pillow Trow. It is extravagant rooms. The interchambers are well decorated. The morning window, just as the drapery is left open, the sun comes through in like golden beams. Oh, now we missed our stuff. It's the morning. Fine, it's the morning time. You guys come to consciousness.

So you get a long run. We're gonna play some truth. Well, it's fine. We did. We totally did. So you gather yourselves. What are you guys doing with the day? Well, I guess we should go back to it at the leaky tap there and... Can't ask for everybody to leave the room except for...

All right. We have a cart. Oh yeah, we can load it up. Where are we going for our errands? Or after our errands? That's the destination. We get the map. Oh, the map. Are we all back together again?

I guess we're sitting. Yeah, you guys have all woken up and gotten together again. We'll say for the purposes of this that breakfast is provided, like brought to your room as part of the staying over, but as you finish your morning. Yeah, continental or like French toast? Upper end continental. Oh, nice. You guys totally missed it. We had the best time in the room while you guys were gone for a very long time. There you go.

Jordan just turned out. We had a crazy orgy in our room and you guys didn't even be part of it. Inside check. I'm happy to move in whatever direction anybody likes. Oh, you know lie. I wrote two because that's part of the lie. Think she's lying. You're backing her up.

Did you roll shit too? Yeah, I rolled the four. Yeah. Go lying to the Tud. I mean... Before we leave, shouldn't we just get a lay of the land? I mean, I trust my own ears. They're very large, but I've barely heard half of a conversation.

I don't even know really what's happening other than I heard there's a war happening. So what's the good side of this then? What's your best case scenario? Well, maybe we should just do some snooping around town and find out if there indeed is a war before we just leave town. So if they lock the gates or start, you know, conscripting. Will they do that? I don't know what they do. All I know is I don't want to hang out.

And obviously we've made a bit of a reputation for our way. But then any city we go into, won't they lock us in that city? We also have allies here. We have the gentleman and we have... He's an ally now. You know what we should do? You guys! Why don't we talk to Dolan about it?

He would tell us. Dolan, we haven't even checked in with him here. Oh shit. We forgot to check in with him. He was with that really cool. He's our allies. We have a bunch of allies. We can't just up and leave without at least saying like, we're out.

Let's go talk to Dolan. Have you literally never left to town without telling everybody just because, you know, there's a possibility you're going to get conscripted to go fight a war? I have never had allies before. Let's go talk to Dolan and then we'll leave and we'll go to Haparad and then we'll go to Nogverat. Because those are funny sounding names? No, because Hopertuk is a funny sound sound. Okosofanis sounding name.

And then Nagvarot is where our friends from the other mercenary group live. It's also where there was a string of kidnappings. Yeah. See, that sounds like our speed, not conscripting into fighting on the front line. I agree. We could disguise you as a kid, and they could kidnap you,

and then you could fight them from the inside. I don't like this idea. How about we go say hi to Dolan? We'll run by the gentleman, let them know that we're thinking about bouncing, and then we'll be on our way. May I take a look at that map? Of course, yeah.

Does anyone know who funds the victories pit? I'm sure it's the city, right? Probably. Ask Dolin about that too. Yeah. Don't think they don't know our names now. Can I say that while we were, it was last night, I painted a picture with the new paint for my mom. Sure.

And I'm going to ask their front desk if they will send it to her back to our house in the measure. Yeah. Yeah. They're less paints and more colored inks. So you can purchase paints wherever you want to, but these are like- And I have paints, I guess. But you have paints to do, so you can't do that. Yeah, I'll paint it with the stuff. So you paint her a little picture.

Ooh, colored inks? I didn't realize that. That's your hands. Postage for sending it off is simple enough for the size to be about five silver from here to Nicodranes. Okay. I just think we should be careful, because the longer we're in town, the more people we talk to, the more people might decide that they're invested in us staying.

Fair enough. We'll keep our eyes open. To Dolans then, yeah? To Dolans first? Yeah. You guys go to Dolans. You want to take a field trip? Yeah. Where are you all going? We have to take a trip to Pumontz for some supplies and then... Insight check.

Just kidding. I'm good. All right, so who's going where? I just go wherever Caleb goes. Me too. Pumet Library. The rest of you guys are going to Dolans? To Dolans. We'll meet up at Pumont. We'll meet up and pull up. Okay, that sounds good. You guys, do Dolans. Dollins. Do you go library first. Yeah, and then we'll do Pots.

Then we'll Pallmat. We'll Pullmat. Yeah, Pumet. So as you guys... Hey, you got your chocolate and my peanut butter. So as you guys exit the Pillow Trove, and you make your way outside of the tris spires, the first thing you've noticed, the tone and mood of the city has shifted dramatically. Fuck.

It's a more festive atmosphere? Why you're up? No, first things first. The skies are gray. Little bits of sunlight came through the last day have completely absconded. Wow. I'm entirely left and the sky's just covered in gray, nearly storming clouds.

There is an air of stress and question in the streets as you start seeing righteous brand groups making their way through. And as you make your way toward, through the north side of the Pentamarket, one of the town criers comes by shouting, war declared on the cream by the king in retribution of attack on eastern garrisons! Another one a few moments later, further down the way, shouts out, Righteous Brand mobilizing East to defend our families! Spare what provisions you can to ensure victory and support our defenders!

At this point, you can see now there are clusters of Righteous Brand groups of the full armored military outside of the Cignt Wall that have come into the streets and are basically picking up provisions, asking for donations for anyone who can spare things for this scenario. They're grabbing horses from nearby stable. and it seems like since the close of the festival through the night and into the morning, preparations have already kicked in on the military side. Maybe not to Dolan's then. Why?

Because we gotta get the fuck out of here. Well, but are we still all together or are we already split up? You're already split up. There's no way we'll be able to get out of here before. Before months. We're gonna do our best, but we're gonna see how it's gonna be. Did we hear that though? I'm assuming we all heard it as we split.

You've heard bits of it if you split off. You guys heard a bit. It says, Crick incursion threatening empirical borders. The Sorosta recommends armed escorts for travel across the valley. You see a lot of these righteous brand soldiers are also saying goodbye to their families. And you see there's a lot of people like in big embraces with their children. with their children or with their parents.

And there's very much kind of the air of the morning before the big shift begins. The crowns guard themselves, you know, are doing the best to kind of keep the peace and inform people and not keep individuals from freaking out as much, but you do see a few arguments breaking out on the streets and there's that general tension of like what's happening, what's going on, how bad is this?

But everything seems relatively under control. The cingit wall, which is kind of to the north side of the city, which is where all the military is usually situated. You don't have a view beyond the wall, of course, but you can see that's where a large part of the righteous brain is emerging into the city from. So yeah, there is a definite building presence and tension in the city in preparation for the shift eastward. You guys are heading to Dolan still? Are we still? What are you doing?

I mean, it's kind of obvious where at war now. There's not much to talk to him about, huh? That's what I mean. Maybe we should see if we should be some armed guards for some rich people going across the valley before so that we have, you know. It's a thought to check the board. Also get our stuff from the Leaky Tap. Yeah, that's what we can do while they're the library.

Yeah. That's a good idea. Skis' guys are heading back to the Leaky Tap. We're going to go by the board first. Oh, the task board. The task board. to see about being armed guards, and then we're going to the... Armed escorts. Private escort.

Private escorts. Either north or... Might be the best way out. The town, actually. Yeah. That's a good idea. Okay. So you guys head to the task board outside of the Kings Hall, the four of you.

You see there's the original posting for seeking paying for any information on myriad or unlawful activity within the city. There's the reward on rebel gatherings and anti-crown rhetoric. Those are some you've seen. There is a shift to the recent righteous brand, kind of convincing letter, shit there where it says, war is found our doorstep. Defend your family from those Rojasian hordes by sword or shield.

Good paid, adventurous living is a soldier of the righteous brand. Steechley uphold Wandsdiker at the Mero Keep in the Signate Hall. He's in it wall. Then the other proof of others, worship of radical gods paid in gold. You don't see any immediate posting

for armed guards, but those are probably done privately through the merchant guilds. However, there is, as you're looking at the board, your voice goes, oh, well, that, ah, that's perfect. And you see Voluschen, the keeper of the hall, who previously you had interfaced with when you did your job in the sewers, comes out in his robes. It says, we'd actually sent a page to look for you, but I must have missed you. The law master wishes to speak with you. Would you come with me? Of course. Yeah, of course we will.

Sure. Providence is. Enter, please. Leads you inside the hall of the king, and there are the two archways between the kind of the clerks center there, and there is the lawbearer's small kind of shrine within the chamber. Leads you down the right hallway past two sets of doors, and there's a third door on the right that is partially, ajar. As you enter it, you see what is spacious, if rather minimalistic chamber.

This, it's a bare chamber beyond a bookcase, the desk with a long bench in front of it, and a series of three small windows where the sunlight comes through or the light, not really sunlight at the moment because of the weather. Beyond that, it's just white marble and fairly empty. And there at the desk you see her arms kind of sprawled and looking down over clusters of parchments of the law master or enth of stone grass. Her kind of gray hairs tumble past her shoulders and the bangsman pulled back like a natural circlet, kind of keeping it out of her eyes. And as he kind of pushes you in the chamber, she has a dark brown fur robe on the cold morning air, makes the room, especially the dark marble, very cold, and she kind of keeps it on for warmth. She looks up from the papers and kind of greets you with a smile and goes, Thank you for coming. That was a mighty fast.

Well, have a seat if you don't mind. Thank you, Balasian. Close the door if you could. Of course, my dear. Closes the door, leaves you in there. I wasn't expecting such a rapid response, but I appreciate your expediency. We're right to your Sal. That's fantastic. Please have a seat. I'd like to discuss it. a few things with you if you don't mind. First off, congratulations yesterday. That was quite a display and a fantastic victory. Uh, well... Are we going to do war?

I see you are aware of the shifts in our current imperial state of affairs. We haven't had war in generations, and I'm hopeful that the conflict is swift, but I leave that concern to those of the right expertise. I'm tasked with keeping my people safe here. not on the front here. Now, wartime puts us in an unfortunate scenario. Zadash effectively governs the southern half of the empire, and most of our military might is now leaving us. Our crowns guard will be stretched thin across keeping the peace and dealing with unrest and worry, and protecting these walls from whatever pushes

through the lines of battle and the general things that wander from beyond our boundaries. Now, money isn't an issue, but personnel is, They're outlined threats and criminals we no longer have the manpower for. As such, the Crown has approved and expanded mercenary budget. Now, you've already proven your ability, to me twice. Most recent your skills in the victory pit, showing you capable and loyal to the king. I know not your interest, but if you would come under contract under my office as legionnaires

of the Empire. You would be responsible for protecting the lives of many, many innocent people. Now, under contract, you would receive 15 gold a week per person just as a stipend, whether or not you were on contract or not. It could be your leisure. Months at a time with no work and you still get paid no matter what you do. Each assignment rewards its own bounty, of course, case by case. The work I would be presenting would largely involve the hunting of outstanding criminals, the acquisition of resources that may benefit the Empire in this time of war, and sometimes the extermination of dangerous creatures that threaten life away from the front lines. You'd all have credentials within the Empire. I'll grant you access to supplies, pro bono,

access to empirical halls and individuals otherwise restricted to the genial populace. Would you get healing potions? When they're available, those supplies are a bit stretching. thin and put towards the front lines, but we could probably muster what we can. Could I hope for your help on this? This is quite the offer. Seemed to be opening up the whole kit and caboodle for us here.

Dyer times make for dire circumstances, and we don't take lightly the ask that we're given here. We can understand your position. Unfortunately, you find us in a precarious time. As you can see, we don't have all of our fellows here with us, and this morning's news caught us unawares. We'd need a fair bit of time to consider your offer, I'm afraid. I can't give you a yes or a no right now. I understand. That's fine. She smiles brightly, kind of via crow's nest in her eyes,

folding in a bit, and I hold no grudge against you should you decline. That's all. We do appreciate the offer, and we can't wait to talk to our friends. about it though. Okay. In search. Well, should you be interested, the first contract I can discuss if you choose to sign with us, but it does offer a 10,000 gold bounty. I can't tell you until you sign the contract. Why not, but it sounds like a lot of money for something, though.

Yes. We have sympathy for your situation. Will you be here in a few hours? We need to return. Oh, I have no choice. I'm in the process and she's kind of. of gestures the papers below her and you can see there's just a stack of approval letters and reports that have to be put out there. She's kind of dividing what forces that she can allow to go to the Eastern Front and sticking her feet in the sand on what things she needs to maintain order in the city. The very least you have our deep in sympathies at your position. This is obviously going

to be a very difficult time. Well the issue here is many of our Finest investigators and hunters will be sent to the east, and as such, many of the criminals and individuals that we were in the process of finding and bringing to justice will now go free or return and run rampant, so. If only my friend were here, me and my friend

not are really good at solving crimes. We're the best investigators. Well, consider what I'm saying, at the very least. come back and notify me. No harm, no foul otherwise. And she kind of leans forward and goes, look, I understand. People are as varied as they are selfish.

I believe in the empire. I definitely don't believe with all the people that run it. I do what I do, because I feel if I don't, a lot of good people will be crushed under the boot of those that misuse their power. But there are good people here, and we do what we can. I've seen the good. that we can do.

That's why I'm here. I wish to fight for this land that I call home to protect those who cannot protect themselves and combat the destructiveness and selfishness of anarchy. Utopia is impossible. I know that. But I do what I can to make life as livable as possible. Anyway, go speak with your friends,

and I'll be here if you need me. The war will make it all the way here? War makes it. here than we're in far more trouble than I anticipate. Fair enough, your asks are fair. We'll return quickly. Thank you. She'd get back to work, and she kind of rubs her hands

and gets back down to the paper, and the door opens behind him, Voluschen leads you back out of the King's Hall. If you ever need anyone to talk to, because you feel really stressed out. I'm here. I'm a good healer mentally. She kind of gives a nod and a wave.

We turn and leave. You guys are escorted out of King's Hall, left back out of the streets. Whoa, that was crazy. That's a lot. 10,000 gold. What do you think it is? Do you think it's like a dragon or something crazy like that? I think it's a gentleman. I do too.

I think I'm going to get out of here. Something just to sinister. I wonder if there's any way to find out somehow what it is before, excepting. I feel like the gentleman probably would. works with the city, you guys. I feel like $10,000 means 10,000 gold is buying an awful lot of cooperation. More cooperation than I think I'm capable of. Well, let's find the others and get our story straight. Back to the Leaky Tap then, get our stuff together? Yeah. And then we'll meet them at the shop. As you guys get the Leaky Tap, you see

near the front door it looks to be a young page wearing similar the simpler robes as to the volition and members of the King's Hall, who approaches goes, oh, hi, I'm sorry, I was sent to give you this summons from the lawmaster. We already have already. Very well. And then runs off. So you guys gather your supplies and start making the way back towards the pentamarket.

The three of you, where are you going? The library. Marie. All right, you make your way to you make your way towards the archive of the Cobalt Soul here in Zadash. The same beautiful building with the kind of large, steepled tower top. Button up. I turn to not, do I have any like, make, do I, do I, how do I look? Do I have any makeup running?

Do you wear makeup? Like once a week? I think it's worn off. All right, good. Let's go. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Should I be like, oh, that's, that's. Do you think I should be like more of a normie for this? I'm going to do the same thing that I did the other day. I'm going to cast disguise self and make the gigantic glasses and change my cloak to a similar shade of blue. What's that thing you guys do? Mother's Love? What's that situation? That's like a, that's where we steal things.

I pretend to be his baby and he pretends to be my mama. Right, you think that they'd be on that being the live at. They're looking at the cute baby, he steals something. Right. You could go with like the first half of that plan, but without the second half that involves the stealing. They want you to, they would let you bring a mother and her baby into the library to do, to... I'll just be like a dwarf assumption. I'm more concerned about bringing in a man and a goblin. But you...

I can disguise myself as well. All right. Yeah. Normally when we do mother's love, not stabs people. Sure. You do not. know how to adjust in certain circumstances, though, right? You do know how to improv based on the current surroundings, though, right? Hey, this city's under lockdown. Can we go into the library? Yeah, let's go.

I'll pass the sky's self and just be a little halfling girl. Okay, that's good. All right. As you guys make your way to the front archway of the entrance of the archive, there is the main sign-in bench, which has the large tone that's on a small pedestal. on a small pedestal where you sign in to enter the facility, and then you're greeted by one of the archivists who approaches, their name is,

you recognize this individual as Madir, as kind of an olive-colored skin, short, dark hair approaches the smile. Ah, a bodegaard, you come with companions. I do, spread that coal-balt love. Fantastic. Well, what is it you seek this day? Interested in the history of the greatest archonists. History can be done. Orcanists can be done. Please do sign in here.

Oh, guest. That's your name. And your friend? Beth. I'm in Beth. No surname, very well. I will be escorting you as well. Come. And Medea leads you. into the library, which for the first time you guys seeing it, it is overwhelming.

Just the interior, strange, for as much as the, there's a very, almost cathedral-like structure on the exterior, the interior, the chambers have almost a curved, almost organic feel to the way it's situated and organized. The bookshelves kind of wrap around these walls, these separate kind of antechambers that are broken up like ventricles of a heart almost. In each one, it is just floor to maybe 15-foot ceiling of filled books with large shifting ladders that glide across poles and wheels. You can see there are a number of tables and small nooks for individuals are in the process of taking notes or reading through. It's not super crowded. There's maybe eight other people in the facility at this time. Obviously, the city is very

occupied with other things at the moment. And you know, there isn't a huge constant need for this, and the people that are in here are usually regulars. A lot of older folks, people that tend to spend their later life just wanting to read and learn. Memberships. You are led to a section. You watch as Medea kind of reads through, brings in the...

Arcanists you say, historically, are we talking age of arcana? I am looking for histories, accounts of people who pushed the boundaries of what can be done over the ages, the firsts. All right. I am interested in more than what is typical, at least as much as can be known. Do you follow me? I believe so. He's a magic fan, you know? Yeah. That is true, I am a magic fan.

All right. Like really heavy-handed. A few tomes are retrieved. This here is a recollection of what elements of historical significance could be pulled from the remnants of the Age of Arcannum, pre-calamity. There are a great number of mages out there, though many of them be felt darker interests, but here are those books. If you're looking for more modern mages, we have historical information on the past 200 years

of empirical magecraft and powerful wizards in that realm. What about the unexplained? Explain what you mean by unexplained, please. I said you were already being too heavy-handed. Questions. There is a certain amount of knowledge in the schools of this empire,

and then there are questions. Theorizing, philosophy of the arcane. Those would be the purview of... That would be more sultrous academy material. They do lay claim to most of those theoretical discussions and research. In the Subarus Assembly would be the keepers of those research endeavors.

Excellent, I shall go there next. But I have a book here on the service assembly, that would be interesting. Yes. And so these tomes are presented to you. You can spend time to read if you'd like. Yeah, yeah. Madeer just watches the entire time, like a hawk.

I just start reading. Okay, which book do you go through first? I will start with the first of the oldest. Okay. Are you absorbing it, or are you skimming through? This one, I am absorbing it. I will read it cover to cover. Cover to cover will take you the better part of the day. I'm a speed reader, and an average novel takes like an hour to an hour and a half for a speed reader to read.

You're a speed reader, but this is also very dense material. Okay. And it is essentially a, it's a historical, like theorizing on historical elements that they've been able to piece together. I'd say, by the time you've gotten here, it'd be about noon in the day? I'm holding three tones, correct? Yes, and I'd say you'd finish this book by about

3 o'clock, I'd say. If I take a moment to skim, you know, like 10 minutes through each one, and get the barest idea of what I would find inside each. Okay, okay. So you'd want me to just tell you all the history? No, no, no, no, no, I'm just trying to figure out like if I were to look at a couple of pages of one

three different books. Like, you have to give me something to go on here, Otherwise, it's gonna turn into an hour and a half of me telling you about the history of the Age of Arcandum. I want the furthest extent of transmutation and changing reality. Okay. That, there are discussions about transmutation on a powerful level. Yes. It involves the creation of turning mountains into mobile clouds. It speaks of an age of arcanum. There were floating cities. There were there was arcane technology utilized in that period,

which was kind of like this magical utopia, but a lot of that was lost in the war, partially because a lot of these mages, when they had developed magic to this point, they weren't satiated with their mortal capabilities, and that was when they were easily corruptible by the betrayer gods. Then it goes into discussion of the calamity.

Magics that can alter the fabric of reality exist out there. Some of them appear to be myth. Some have been wiped from time and history because they've been voted too dangerous and they're supposed to under lock and key in other places the world, if not completely eradicated because it was not fit to leave them in the hands of mortals. This was in one of these stones.

Yes. Then I will focus on that because I'm interested in that. It speaks on theories and manipulations of if you're looking for things, Reality-based, I mean, reality is a big scope. Yeah. Transmutation specifically, most of what you can glean from this discuss is the idea of turning from one creature to another, turning from one substance to another, how they would be able to build fortresses out of stone and then turn it to diamond for extra protective elements.

And those were like the great palaces of the, that And you know my main interest, do I find anything of that in here? You find some discussion of it. You find some discussion of the manipulation of time. But what minor manipulation is capable for magic is merely to slow or expedite what happens. Accelerating time to a certain degree becomes very dangerous. And there is talk of some mages that have attempted to reverse time in short stints, and that process is both very taxing and in the past has completely annihilated those who toyed with that power.

It speaks specifically of two different mages that believe that they could possibly alter choices, the alter elements of their past to benefit their future, their gaining of power and influence, and one was turned to dust, the other was never seen again. I spent all my time with that, okay. Let's say, hey, my dear, so, how's it been? It has been...

How's it gone? Frustrating. Yeah. But fine. Well, fucking Zinoth, am I right? Senoth is a great friend. No, he's a great friend, great guy. Great guy.

Bad Zinoth. Has Diron left? I've not seen her this morning, but I don't know if she's left or not. Cool, cool, cool, cool. All right, so you read the that tone. It's about three in the afternoon now. Hey, Caleb. Not going I, you know.

You know, conquer the world and library visit. Can you give me two more hours? No, I cannot give you two more hours. I can't. I will gouge my eyes out with a fucking pencil if I give you two more hours. How about one more hour? We'll all compromise.

What about 30 more minutes? Do you have something in your never-ending flask? Of course. Would you like a drink? Is it, are we allowed to drink in here? Why are you carrying around a cup? Yeah, skim the book on the Cerberus Assembly. Okay, it has a breakdown of previous members who passed away. It's basically like the historical dialogue of how it was established.

The name was actually a reference to a group that existed in the Age of Arcannon. It talks about how there was a war of mage houses 150 years ago within the empire that nearly destroyed part of the the capital of Wrexentrum, and as part of the ceasefire and the arrest of all these mage houses that were at war, as opposed to imprisoning them, they agreed to basically bind themselves to the empire and work for them. And that's what the Serberus Assembly was established as a power under rule of the king. And since then has flourished. It's helped the kingdom raise the power to help them conquer the Jewelist dominion, and they work with and under the king.

Okay. But it talks of all the members and talks out what they do. Trent is in there. As is Master Trent Ikethon, who is the archmajor of civil influence. And he basically is the, yeah, civil influence is the title. And it talks about how he's essentially the propagandist and the construct of the face of the empire in upper echelon circles. It speaks of Martinet Ludinus Dalleth,

who is the archmage of domestic protections, who is the oldest in the original member of the assembly that still lives, was there when it was built and currently kind of considered the leader of the assembly. It speaks of Marquis Jenna Erisor, who's the archmajor of the archmajor of the Archmajor of the Archmajor of the Army. It's one of the younger members of the assembly. There is Master Doolin Tversky, who is the archmage of Dysology. D-Y-S-O-L-O-G-Y. I'm reading these things out loud?

I could say I'm muttering it under my breath. There's Lord Athesius Uludan, who is the Archmage of Diplomatic Union. There is Lady Ves-Diragna, who is the Archmage of Antiquity. Oh, man. I'll send you these later. It's fine, I'll send you an email. The rival shopping episode. That's called the library.

Library episodes. There's Headmaster, Zivan Margolyn, who's the archmajor of conscription. And then there's Headmaster or Midhas, who's the archmajor of cultivation. So those are the eight members current. I mean, I have to, I have to get a small golf clap. I mean, yeah.

I mean, it's similar. Oh, there's a lot more information. Caleb, when you were muttering there, Did you say Dolan Tversky? Doolan. Not Dolan, similar name. There's nothing in this. You handed it back, but there's nothing in this.

Okay, I will say that I got my fail, I can feel this one's like radiating. Yeah, just burrowing vision into your neck. So I want to stay for 17 more hours, but I'm ready to go. That's all right. I'm good, I'm done. Thank you.

All right. Thank you. Thank you. Of course. Thanks, dear. Good day. Good to see you, Boda God. This squirts you out of the archive.

And Caleb just looks at the thousands of books that he did not read. There's a whole second level above the spiral stair care. You know, you're not going to find any answers in any of those books. We've already left the city. They're in a different campaign. What do you mean? What do you mean it's been 17 years, Roomont? What do you mean?

So you guys, what are you up to in this time? Is this been a number of it? Anything. We ate like three shepherds pies. We killed the guy and we hit him in the room. We stuck him next to the Skellington. Yes, yes. It was great.

We did our taxes. Molly told all of our fortunes. You got it all your materials. You went and checked in your cart, which is now currently... We just pushed the giant rotting head out of it and left it on the street. Okay. That is... It's a nasty fucking manorne.

It's basically a pool. Yeah, like the Fletcher's slown off at this point. Yeah, it's pretty rough. Deep November. Yeah. But yeah, you save your cart. The horses are still there. The horses you had at least.

Hey, you guys, I never used my fate thingy yesterday because I'm stupid. Did you guys want to use it today? Or what? Oh, did I not tell you about this thing? Oh my gosh, you guys, you know the weird little thing that we stole? Uh-huh. Well, it gives you this, this, okay, so you focus on it, and you go to this, like, place, and you can see it, and there's this little gray ball, and it goes, touch me, and then you go, okay.

And then it comes out, and it goes in your chest, and you get control of your fate for one time in a day. Wow. What do you mean you get control of your fate? Like, basically, like if you fuck up or something like that, then you get to like fix it maybe. Can you go back and... No, it's kind of like, it's like all of a sudden you feel a little lucky, maybe. Do you want to try it? Yeah, sure. Why not?

Let's hide next to the body that we just killed. We can try it in the cellar so that nobody sees, because we should probably be careful pulling this thing. I would imagine right now especially. Yeah. Just focus on it, Ford. I'll protect you. I should just look at it. I think you just focus.

I'll do both. Okay. You're doing it too? I'm going in? No, it can only one person in a day. Oh, really? But we'll pass it around the group, so if you want it today for it, then Yasha you can do it tomorrow. Okay.

Sure. As you focus on it, there's nothing really there until your hand touches it, and then there's like a momentary connection. You feel the thrumming of the object, kind of like this dull heartbeat. Your vision goes like tunnel and touch. until all of a sudden you're pulled into the space of light and stars and distant gases and colors. There you see, on this brief journey, this kind of sense of self-dissipating.

And at the moment where it gets a little scary and you begin to kind of lose a sense of personal identity, you see this tiny gray mode of energy before you that's also pulsing with that same pattern. You kind of instinctually reach out and feel as you absorb it into yourself. And there, the fragment of the fragment of, did he say anything when he said anything?

when he touched it, like Caleb did. Did you say anything? Did you say anything? Now you're silent the whole time. And your vision has come back to you and you feel kind of like this... I'm a half-sea monster. Was I supposed to say something? No, it's just when Caleb did it, he was like, oh, I love you mom and dad. And then he started crying. Oh, no, it's a crazy trip though. Yeah? Yeah. Do you feel like you have control over your fate?

Hello? Do you feel lucky? Do you? I don't know. I close up the locks and put it back in the bag. Let's go to Pimonts and let's get the rest of them together, I'm sure by now. We'll ride the cart. Do you guys really think we probably shouldn't become legionnaires then, huh? No. No. We should leave town. I think we should get out of town all again. It's good.

That lady's real nice though. She's like a grandma. She's very nice. It's very gold. I mean, shit. 10,000 is a lot of money. Wouldn't mind earning 10,000 and then bouncing. We're gonna go to Pumontz as well. You're conscripted once you start earning that 10,000.

That's true. You're conscripted as long as you stay in town. I wonder how the contract works. I bet it's like a magical contract or something like that where you sign it and then they have like your soul. Or you sign it and then the next time you come across some soldiers of the empire, they have you executed for treason and for running off on it. That would be bad. that. Yeah, we should explore this idea, but maybe. Let's go to Puma.

We're doing government work. All right, so we'll save with the expediency and you guys kind of lolling around a little bit shrank itch up, you all arrive at Pumat soles in roughly the same time period in the pentamarket. As you enter the interior of the chamber, you can see the three Pumats are kind of dusting and staring off because there's no other people currently making purchases inside. Most of the business and chaos is people dealing with the initial shock and preparation stage of this coming scuffle with the East. And as you enter, you can see the first Pumont glances over in your direction. Oh, hello there. It's a real interested morning

times. What can I do for you? I had a bit of a tussle. Guess what we're back for? I bet you doesn't have any more yet. Healing potions, do you have any? Unfortunately, you guys have pretty much cleaned me out, and what little bits I had were snatched up right and early this morning by the righteous brand. Some earlier. Do you know if anyone else that would have some? I generally don't like to, you know, plug rival purveyors here in the city. How you don't have any inventory?

There is Grace of the Wilds, which is on the southern side of the Penta Market. You can go ahead and have Jasna Bree maybe help you there if the Army hasn't gotten to her first. But I digress. Respectfully, it's going to be real difficult this time of year. They get healing potions? Because we're at war. This time of year? Like it happens every year?

No, but I mean it's that time of year right now, apparently where war happens. Are you going to go to War Pumat? I know. But you're such a powerful person. Don't you think you would be helpful? I don't think that's any of our fates right now. Isn't that right, boys? And they're like, yeah, no, it's not help.

No, warfare is not my thing. I know we were in here very recently. Haven't gotten the overnight special deliveries of anything. Interesting, yeah. Unfortunately, you've kind of, you've taken the bulk of what was there other than a few odds and ends that you couldn't afford previously. Do you have any of that paper that I've been purchasing so much of? We've got a little more paper, yeah. Could I purchase, say, 200 gold worth of it?

Certainly, that can be provided. We still have that little pearl thing, and we got them bracelets, but that's all we got at the moment. Mr. Prime back there is hard to work, and he turns back, and he hears voice take, yeah, yeah, I have got a lot of stock to kick up now. You kind of cleared me out for a while, which, thanks for that.

Me, you're welcome. What was the pearl again? Oh, this here's a pearl that allows you to go ahead and utilize your magical capabilities. Let's see here. Yeah, you use a command word and it allows you to kind of regain one of your spells. How much was it?

How much was that? This one runs you roughly about 350 gold pieces. I would like to buy that, please. Thank you. Alrighty, by all means, here. Is it one use only and then it's gone forever? Once per day. And what was that other item you had?

That's huge. Here you are, if you'd like it. Is it the pearl of power? There's this enchanted shield here, which we discussed previously, that has a... That has an enchantment to its deflection capabilities. It'll help improve your chances of avoiding dangerous physical contact via weaponry and other sources. And then these here, this pair of bracers, are kind of able to do a similar scenario,

given you don't have too many types of hide or metal in the way to prevent the enchantment from protecting you. Did it work with medium armor? Well, uh, that only works if you don't have any armor or shield. Oh, what does it do? Any, no, not, no, armor, not even light armor? Yeah, sorry. Do you wear armor a yasha? No.

Oh. Beauregard does not eat that. How much of those? That one will run you back about 1,200 gold. Oh, yeah, maybe not. Forget that. Well, I don't know. We'll come back for another day.

Do you have any enchanted crossbow bolts? You know? Let me go ahead and check there for a second. Those are generally smaller scale here. Pumat 3, if you don't, my answer. I got it. I already listening to you. Don't worry. And he goes up a small ladder in the far corner

into an attic place, and you hear some rustling around. The other Pumatsu there just patiently watching. So yeah, crazy war times, huh? How much for that shield? Oh, this year, Enchanted Shield will run you about 550 gold pieces. I think I'm all right. Fair enough. About five minutes pass, and the Pumont comes down,

and he's got a small, like, bound cluster of bolts. He goes, hey, so I, it's all we got, but we got a batch here of 10 enchanted crossbow bolts. This, upon fire, and should offer a small batch of fury impact on whatever you strike with him. How much are they? For each of these, it's 50 gold per bolt. I'll take two bolts, please.

Two bolts, here you go. Thank you. Passes them over to you. So these bolts, upon impact, do an additional 1D8 fire damage. Nice. You have two of them. And it's one use only. Okay.

1D8 fire damage. Great. You may have a chance of recovering them, depending, but... Okay, cool. What did we decide? Are we leaving town or are we doing something else? We got an offer to work for the city, to be legionaires, protect it. Well, its troops and hunters and mercenaries are going to the front lines.

There are bounties of up to 10,000 gold and reward if we stay. Caleb, do we want to stay? Are there things here that you need? I defer to the group. I think we work well together and, you know, we don't know. whatever you think is best. 10,000 gold. 10,000 gold is a lot of money.

That's, it wants someone really important it, is what it sounds like to me. Yeah. Sounds like an expensive enemy to make. Another option being fleeing the city. There were no postings for... We only pushed the nasty head out of our wagon. Oh. Should have done that like a week ago.

Good call. Yeah. I am legitimately happy to go in any direction far away from the front line. Personally. Is joining the city joining the war? Is that what they made it sound like? I don't believe so. I think it's a slippery slope.

Joining the city is protecting the city more than it is joining the war. It's conscription. City is a part of the empire? But you're under contract for 15 gold a week. What about your interests in the halls of erudition here and the academy? Oh, the sultras? Yeah. Yeah, I'd like to see it, but I guess I'm not in a terrible rush.

The big ones in Rex and Tram anyway. Mm-hmm. I think we'll make gold wherever we go. I agree. Does this say there's kids disappearing up north? If we stop by the Merchants Guild, we may still be able to be armored escorts for people. Or we could just leave. Or we could just go.

Check by the Merchant's Guild, see our options, and then make decisions from there? Sure. All right. You're not coasting. It's not a bad idea either. There's not as massive a gain, but there is not as higher risk for whatever this 10,000 gold target is. Yeah, let's not do that one. Could play it safe. And just be armored guards. This means we're staying together, though. Oh, I thought yes, that was a given, right? I mean, we all work so well together. Yeah. I like it. We make really good roommates. We do make such good roommates.

Well, Bo, do you want us to stay together? I think we make a good team. I think there's more to be had here. All right. It might run out, who knows. I'm not an optimist, but I think there's still more to be had. Do we make a polite exit at the least, or do we just bugger out? She seemed pretty hard-filled. I think a polite exit would be thoughtful. I'm fair for that.

I'm fair for that. Merchant's Guild, then polite exit? Yeah, maybe we'll rustle up W.C. Lou, John Crapper, and chitter, and toilet. Oh my goodness, that's right, our horsies. Yeah. Any other business you wanted to do before you decide to leave the city? Did you want to swing by and see if just, can we pop into the, yeah, the other shop? Yeah.

give the old grace of the wilds and see if they have any healing potions just to check out. Okay. Yeah. Just in case, because we are... In the interest of time. Yeah. The interest of time. Do they have it?

In the interest of time, Jasnyberry, who's rather eccentric woman with wildly kind of red, not red, black hair, and kind of a slightly hard-to-follow disposition, greets you in. It's like, hi, hi, welcome. I thought you can make it. Ah, you're healing potions, healing potions. Yes, yes. Unfortunately, kind of already cleared out. I'm so sorry. Give me a week. I will have a fresh patch available and happy to help.

Definitely buy back in a week. Wait, wait, wait. Do you have any herbalism kits? I do, I do, I do. Oh, great, could I buy some of... Four. How much? For each the other than kids, let me check, let me check.

She goes into her ledger to search the various materials. DM's fine. Yeah, it works out well. Would they be able to make potions of healing with this? With herbalism kits? I believe you would, yes. Okay. You can make potions of healing?

Correct. It is five gold per. Oh, great. Take them all. How many do you have? Four. With the proficiency with it to make a potion of healing. Are you proficient with herbalism kit?

I don't know how I would tell. It would be under your proficiencies. Oh, then no. Oh, no. I only have proficiency with a forgery. kit and a disguise kit. Sorry. No, then fuck it, I don't want that shit.

You know, I'm going to go back to Pumats. I'm going to buy that damn shield. Okay. Mm-hmm. So there you go. If she has the materials to make acid, I'll buy it from her. Yeah, she easily has materials and it's easy to sell them to. I couldn't make potions with alchemist supplies, could I?

Not potions. You can make poisons, acid, various, like, alchemists. chemical constructs, but that's the case of it. Does she have any badass weapons, any badass sticks? No, she's purely a purveer of salves and natural remedies. She's got lightness. Yeah. Can I ask a question?

With a healer's kit, can you heal people when you're not in combat with it, or is it just for stabilizing? I can't. The healers kit usually can be used to stabilize somebody. There's a feat you can take that allows you to spend an action to heal someone with it in combat. It's called the healer feet. Oh, okay, okay. Which is actually pretty cool. Yeah, I'll look at that.

Turns anybody to know combat healer. Yeah. But yeah. Okay. So. You can go say goodbye to somebody and leave? Are we checking the merchant? Merchants to see if there's any armed escort requests, the merchants?

Who's helming that? Guilt. Fjord! Not me. I'll do it. I'll come with you. An investigation check. I'm coming with her.

I'm coming with her. I hope you. Us three. Oh, that's perhaps. Whoa. Terrible. Well, she's helping you with its advantage on you. Your old doesn't count.

Oh, good. That's a lot. Oh, no. Slightly better. Oh, good. That's even possible. Five. Five.

You gather that the knowledge of the knowledge of the of this war has blindsided most of the merchant guilds in Zadash. And the best you can tell, most of them are in the process of getting ready to figure out what their next endeavor is. Those that would be leaving won't be leaving for a few days. But if you hang around, you may be able to pick up that kind of work. Okay. Okay. That's something.

I think we'd have to wait, so maybe we should just go. Can we say our goodbyes to Grandma? Orlanta? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Go and say, sorry we are declining. All right. As you guys make your way back to the King's Hall, you are escorted back into Ornitha Stonegrip's office. As you enter, she's, I see you've returned, I appreciate your expediency and getting back to me.

Her kind of crackling southern drawl breaking through with her bright, dwarven smile. So, considering what we've discussed, what have you have you? What have you come to a conclusion on? We are probably not going to be able to help out right now. I understand. It's not you. It's us. It's us.

We're not ready for that kind of commitment. I understand, that's all right. You're gonna make an adventuring party very happy someday. I hope so. We'll send someone else after the hawker. After the what? The hawker. That was, I believe we were gonna...

The hawker? What's a hawker? They don't worry about it. But that's not... Can anyone know what a hawker is? No, I don't know how much spelling are you using for that word? No. A-W-K or O-C-K?

No, H-A-W-K. Yeah. Like a monster or something? No, no. He actually was a Legion there for us about five years back, but then went rogue and... we believe had ties with the myriad and became a powerful tent pole here in the Merrow Valley.

We had them cornered in Diazok about three months ago by a team of Crowns Guard under the leadership of Carlos Ventuga. But this hawker slew Carlos and fled south the Wiyun Gorge and disappeared into the Menagerie coast, and we're having to send whatever we can to try and retrieve and bring them back alive.

From the Menagerie Coast? Yes. It's the opposite direction. The Menagerie Coast is really freaking cool, you guys. So many choices! Oh shit, that sounds really cool! If you need more time, that's fine. What do you guys think? Hold up. Can we talk about this?

Quick cuddl. Quick cuddled. Proz and cons! I'm happy just to leave the city. This isn't... We'd get to visit the Menagerie Coast, which is really cool. really cool. Pro 10,000 gold. Pro 10,000 gold. Do we have a time limit on when we'd be able to get him? No, but the longer it takes the easier he probably has vanishing into the south. Makes sense. I mean, we sent a troop after him about eight weeks ago and I fear they may not be coming back at this point.

So we intended to send some of our top investigators from the Capitol after this bounty. He's not. Do we're not? That's what they're doing. We're really good at it. An unsupervised trip to the Missouri Coast. It's 10,000 gold alive, 5,000 dead. How many of these triple is that from here?

What if we just were like, let's go after this guy, and then after that we'll talk about being under contract. Like this can be a tester sort of situation. Unfortunately, for these to happen, I need you under contract. Do you need some tea or something? I'm good. I appreciate your conscientiousness. A lozenge. I'm all right, but thank you. I appreciate that. I don't. I just said, I feel bad.

It's fine. What does the contract entail? Well, retrieving this man, bringing him back here for justice. And how long are we in contract with you just for this, or? Well, the contract has you as a legionaire. As part of that, you just... Well, until we decide to mutually end your service. Mutually.

Well, if you wish out of it, we can discuss it. That's fine. But I mean, as opposed to deserting is a problem. Yeah. So you want to hire more legionnaires to go kill an ex-legionaire who wasn't legionary enough for you? No, he ran away when he was a legionaire. He ran away and then allied himself, we believe,

with the Miri had, and then has since, Upon attempting to bring him in, has murdered some of our finest men. Right. So we did some scary stuff, you guys. We happen to bring him in even if we weren't under contract. Part of the bounty would still apply, I'm sure. How much of the bounty?

Probably half. We're part of the contract, and we would get access to a bunch of stuff. Think about it. Thank you about it. Can we discern, can we talk about it? Huddl up again. You guys can discuss this over the next week,

if you want. You don't need to decide this. Yeah. All right. Too tired to make proper to see. Yeah, exactly. Return when you have an idea. And as you're led outside and kind of start making way back to the Leaky Tap to discuss your plan of action.

Uh-huh. They are waiting. I'm sorry we hit the save point. I know. I don't know what to do. As you guys head back to the Leaky Tap, the Righteous brand. are making their way through the city. They're kind of, it's kind of a weirdly solemn,

unexpected military parade essentially, as they're just gathering supplies, making their way through. And it's kind of a show of strength and to help rise the spirits of people that seem confused and worried about this coming conflict. So it does tend to calm nerves, and a lot of the children seem excited to see them down the streets on their horses,

and their armaments and display, while you're kind of watching and go by, a voice kind of whispers up next to you, and you turn and you see hood up. Kara. Sorry, I mean to bother you. If you have a moment, things are getting strange around here, and gentlemen may have a bit of work for you.

Oh, Jesus. Oh, we're the prettiest girl in town. She's not in the middle of the goddamn night. We'll pick it from there next one. You got from the middle of the god that night. You guys made quite a display last night in the victory fit. You just made it three times as complicated in seven seconds. Yeah, I know.

I knew it was coming. However, you guys do level up. You hit level five. What? What does that mean? Level five. That means it's all rolls and hit points to finish off the evening here. Right now.

Oh gosh, oh gosh. Oh, boy, okay, okay. So we'll start over here. We'll go in order. 10 or a camera? Oh, yes. So what did you get, Bo? I roll an eight.

I rolled a seven plus three. There you go. Wait, right? Whatever your Constitution modifier is. Plus three. Yeah. Yes, 10 extra hit points to Bo. Would you get it not?

I mean, I roll a D. I got a D. I got a seven. Nice. No. No, it's a. No, everybody rolls a D. No.

No. So for you, I believe for Warlock, it's also D8. You add your message right, but you roll. That's like two. Caleb rolls at D6, he's going, and he's going, I think he's the one. It should automatically do it. The Warlock is D8.

I rolled have four. It adds the plus. It does. What did you get? No, four plus I have a constitution and modifier. How do you? Do you? D8, yeah.

Six plus four. Tens. Nice. Actually, hit points. Oh, I'm rolling an eighth as well. You are as a clericist. Five. Five.

Okay. D-10 for you. D-10 for me. Six. You guys are all rolling above average. Nice. D-12 for you. Nice.

Eleven. Whoa! Shit, you guys rolled really good this time. Well done. Plus two. It'll add whatever. It'll be your constitution modifier. See, it'd be a plus two to that.

So add a extra 15 points. So add 11, and it should give you... Oh, it'll go here. Let me... Over on... This side, you can do your... Yeah, you can manage your levels. So for...

Ndibiont. For Molly, Bo and Yasha, that means your attack action now does two attacks. Yes. That's cool. You get an extra key point. Casters all get level three spells. That's pretty great.

Oh, my God. And your proficiency bonus goes up by one. Wow. So all of your proficient skills and your proficient attacks, and your spell DCs and spell attack modifiers, all go up by one. I think it's all gonna be included in there already in the app.

Oh, shit. Oh, my stuff just went up a lot. So I add six to the roll HP? Correct. What's everybody's hip points at? What are the new totals? And then it'll go up. Bow also gets stunning strike.

44. Hit points are super low, you guys. What's uncanny Dodge? The best thing. You got uncanny dodge. Oh my god, we're level five. Sneak attack bonus 3D6? Yep.

For efficiency bonus, that's... Oh, shit! Oh, the dice! This is my favorite part, watching people realize what they give when they level up. Okay, and Dodge, starting a fifth level to an attacker that you can see. Oh wait, I can have a bunch of weird... You can use your reaction to have the attacks damage against you? Yep.

Holy shit! I would stop a boy! That's part of the reason that VAC survived so much in the last campaign. I think I get Revivify now. Oh, shit. Can I use that once a day? Once around? No, it's just your reaction.

Once around. Once around? Once around? Holy shit. Shit. I think I get a new blood curse. I'm a golden god. Oh, I can't wait.

I want to have a conversation about that before we go into that. You, yes you do, you get into the blood curse, you get to choose. This spell magic. I have to spell magic, you guys. So does Yasha, no big deal. No, that's a big deal. And then you get, of course, third level spells.

and you get into their vocation. You'll mess with it later. And where we're leaving off, are we going to come back, because it's the end of the day, are we going to come back at the end of the day, or are we going to come back the end? It's like late afternoon at this point. It's not the end of the day. It's like late afternoon at this point. Okay, cool.

Yeah, and you guys are coming back right as you met with Kara there. Great, so you can go back to the library next time. Level five. Yeah. Level five. Level five. Level five. And Yasha, your speed increases by ten, which is now.

book-obsessed pair. Got some fun stuff. All righty. We'll leave it there and we'll pick up next week in the middle of this pre-worked layout. All right guys, thank you so much for hanging with us. I hope you had a good time. We had a good time.

We'll be back next Thursday. See where this goes as choices, paths, avenues, and possibilities all begin to arise. Too many options! Look at this. They're engrossed in leveling. This is so... Joy of tensions is drag. I love it.

I love, I'm like, oh man, I'm so excited to see what. Oh, fast movement. My proficiency bonus? Oh, did it automatically? Yeah, automatically puts it up. Oh, shit, you have so many hip points. Yeah. I want to talk about the last 45 minutes on my birthday.

Okay, let's do it. Happy birthday. For a five birthday. I love you. We're gonna get Taco Bell. That is the best birthday meal. I think so. All right, guys.

Thank you so much. See you next week. We love you and is a Thursday yet? Welcome to Mick Unplugged, the number one podcast for self-improvement and modern leadership. I'm Mick Hunt, your host, and I'm here to challenge your why and fuel your because. This is where leaders, entrepreneurs, and go-getters come to level up. Each week, I bring you unfiltered conversations, game-changing strategies, and the kind of motivation that transforms lives and legacies.

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