Critical Role & Sagas of Sundry - C2E2 A Show of Scrutiny

Episode Date: January 12, 2022

The newly formed party delves into their own investigation of the events at the carnival, while still wondering if they can trust the company they've found themselves in... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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The same embarrassment to feel about us, the one that we're telling about you now. What? The fuck was that! We are currently playing dozens and records. Oh my God. Welcome. We're already loopy. What could possibly go wrong? So yes, welcome. Before we get up in tonight's game,

we have some announcements to get through real fast, so hold tight for just a moment. First and foremost, continuing tonight's sponsorship with our friends at D&D Beyond. Our now long-term partner, super excited to be working with them for the foreseeable future for the time being with the show. Sam, you have some words, I believe. To plug our good friends at D&D Beyond,

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Yay! That's right in studio audio. Thank you so much, Sam. And thank you, Didi Beyond, for being our partners for this new campaign. For Richard. Cool. Good for you.

I did. It was a little complacent, but I gave him one. Yeah. Good job. It's really terrifying. Oh, man. All right, let's see. Talks Machina, of course, our after talk

about this episode will be on next Tuesday as it is every Tuesday after the show at 7 p.m. Pacific time here at Twitch and Alpha, Project Alpha, with our host Brian W. Foster. All right is Burp and I say his name. I wonder what that says about him. What is that? I don't know why. It's that. It's that. It's a cabbage.

Yeah. So check that out. Merch, Laura, if you got any of things. So, you know, we talked about those posters last week. So they're still in the store on pre-order. Some of them are getting shipped out. Some of them are getting shipped out like now. So you should be getting them soon. Yay!

And then we're gonna leave them on pre-order until Monday night. So if you're watching this on YouTube after it's been aired live, you've got until midnight to put in that order. Yay! And then they're gonna be gone. Well, we might have a small overage

that remains in the store, but the pre-order's done and then they'll be gone, you know what I mean. And then hey, check out that other stuff, like shirts and hats. and dice. And we should be getting some more Vaxmack into D20s. I know a lot of people have been asking about them. They're gonna be restocked, hopefully within the next week. And then more will be coming soon if those sell out. You know how it goes. Great. Thank you, Laura. Let's see. Podcast. The episode one of this campaign is already up. Hello! So if those of you following in a podcast form, we'll have friends who've been waiting to just listen to the podcast on their commute. It is available the first episode. And exactly, and every Thursday morning we'll have the campaign

the episode of the previous week available, and we're keeping those up consistently as the campaign progresses. And we also have the entire story of Oxmachina currently available on podcast. So it makes me happy. Also, once again, we are firmly in support for our longtime charity partners, 826LA. They do awesome work, teaching creative writing classes

for children who normally wouldn't have the opportunity to get involved. And they do phenomenal work. I recommend you to research them And if you can either help the donation or actually you can donate your time as well to help teach and be part of the program if one's near you.

So go check it out. You were talking to one of the heads at 826 LA over the break, Joel, and he was saying that they would love to do D&D, but no one on their staff knows how to DM or do D&D. And so like if there's an A26 in your area and you're like, I know I'll start a D&D Club. I'm sure they'll be open to it, just go talk to them.

Yeah, yeah. Go teach kids D&D. Yeah. We're on a game for a bunch of cool teenagers and show them how awesome this game is. Or cool eight-year-olds who are equally amazing. Or dorky eight-year-olds or teenagers. Those are the same? Same thing. Nerd is chic now, man.

I'd like to think I was always cool. No, it's not true at all. Oh, no. We've seen pictures. We're trying to get there. All right, cool. Let's see. Appearances. Lauren Travis will be at Emerald City Comic-Con in Seattle, March 2nd to the 4th.

So up in the area, go over and say hi to them. I will be at Lexington Comic and ToyCon in Lexington, Kentucky, March 9th to the 11th, as well as Odafest in Calgary, up in Canada, May 18th, the 20th, and Acon in Texas, June 7th to the 10th. Calgary is like the Kentucky of Canada, so you're... Hey, is it? I don't know. I don't know.

I'll take that as a compliment. I am also going to back anime, not to be confused with SAC anime, on February 3rd and 4th. That's good. That's real soon. That's real soon. So I'll be there. Nice. Yeah.

Beautiful. And I believe. Wait. What? What? Oh, right. That was the course. Comic book.

Issue 4. Issue 4. On the 24th, I believe it is, right? By far is the most fourth of all of these books. It's easily the most fourth. I'd agree with you on that, actually. The length of the new. That's true.

Thank you. This is new. Just just went for this. It's going to slowly darken over time. into pure shadow. It's gonna be key-changed and like photoshopped, I'm aware. This is like what I was doing. Oh, please.

The imitation is there, folks. ScreenCatman Photoshop. Yeah, I've already been told that it's gonna happen. Pro-Wad-Adro. They're like, we're already on it. I love it. All right, cool. That's awesome. On that note, that concludes our announcements.

Thank you for your patience. And I believe it's time for us to begin tonight's episode of Critical Role. Last we left off, Our slowly gathering band of adventurers had begun to have their stories intertwined in the city of Trostenwalt on the southern reaches of Western White and Deer on the continent of Wildland. Here we had Nott and Caleb who had been traveling southward, coming and meeting in the center of the tavern of the nestled Nook Inn with Jester Beauregard and Ford. Upon which they were invited to a nearby carnival that had begun preparing for their performances later that evening in which they met Yasha and Molly. After swapping some stories, earning and losing some gold, they began to gather at the outskirts of the Oostalak, the lake right on the eastern edge of Trostenwald for the

first opening performance of the Fletlinglingurop Carnival Curiosity. Traveling Carnival Curiosity's. Traveling Carnival Curacies. Upon entering the tent, they saw A number of performances. However, during a musical performance by this young Dwarven girl, his voice was this mysterious, magically enchanting experience, a member of the audience rose up and began to transform into a terrible sort of undead creature that began to just lash out, killing another member of the audience, who then began to become one of these same creatures. You all, grabbing your weapons from Yasha, who had been keeping them stashed away, leapt into the The fray slaughtered both of these terrible beasts just in time for the Crown's Guard to rush in

and ask you what the hell happened. After information had been gathered of who was immediately available and responsible for this carnival, Gustav, Beau the Breaker, and Molly were marked to be arrested. One of the guards was escorted outside of the tent by Yasha, who was going to show him where this young dwarven girl was currently resting, and upon being led astray to the wrong tent, she just ran into the distant hills and vanished. And that is where we left off. So we're still at the car. You're still in the tent. With the crown scard and with watchmaster, a josephiat. At which point the crown guard that had left not but a moment before comes rushing in, his breath huffing, sweat dripping from his brow, his eyes kind of wild.

He goes, watchmaster, the woman, the big woman, she's gone. She's, at which point the watchmaster turns out and says, You're three, go with him, search for her. They all immediately run out, back the exit performer's flap, and he turns to the rest of you in the group. Shackle and drag those three down to the stockade. About five guards approach and begin to press Gustav, Bo and Molly to the ground,

and begin to put chains and shackles on them. I'd like to make a counteroffer? He's like in mid-speech, as he says. The rest of you, keep an eye on the performers here. Ask around, see what you can find. As for the others, don't go far. The innocent patrons, you mean? You may be innocent, in which case you have nothing to worry about.

However, we have an investigation to complete. So, I would ask that you stay within the city, and wait until you're called him. You will be questioned, and when this investigation is completed, regardless of how long it may take, you are not to be trusted. If I could just contribute one word, the 40 or so people who are outside, and the rest of us will vouch for this one, the colorful one, he saved many people's lives. Don't take my word for it, there's everyone outside. Kind of all the rest of the Crown's guard glanced at each other, he goes,

Well, unfortunately, that is not for me to decide. the lawmaster would have to be appealed to. If you wish to come with us, we can bring you along with us to the stockade and you could speak with her. Then perhaps she may grant you leniency, but I can give you no guarantee. Why don't you just question us right now? I'm confused and why you don't, you know, just do that now. Well, we could do that instead. We'll have you arrested, put you away in the stockade as we question the rest of you. No, let's go to the stockade. Yeah, we'll do it one place. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah. Jails are not my favorite terrain. I just want to point that out. Not this go-round. No. Good to know. I would have guessed that about you. No gales. Don't. Not really comfortable with that. So, we're leaving. The rest of you stay in here, watch over the performers, make sure nobody leaves. Come if you wish, otherwise we'll be in touch. And the watchmaster gathers alongside the other five crowns. guards, lifting up the shackles of the three that had been arrested, and began to drag them outside of the tent into the night air. I sent Frumkin to follow.

Okay. Can I double back into the performance area and see if I can find that little girl that they're looking for before they do? You may if you want to. All right, so you send Frumkin just to follow them. You guys are staying behind them. Are there three regular Crowns Guard that are going with Molly? Or is the watchmaster going with them?

The watchmaster is going with them, or at least he's exiting the tent with them at the It looks like there are five Crowns guard attending the three of them that are shackled. I'll go out the front exit of the tent just to see if the watchmaster goes with Folly. Okay. I'll follow four. Okay, so the two of you are following anybody with them? Curlain's you two and Frumpkin. Are we going with them or not?

Should we stay here? This is not our affair, right? I don't know. I am having second thoughts about being here at all. You sent the kitty, didn't you? The kitty, didn't you? Yes, and we're not going to leave without him. Why don't we just follow behind a bit?

That's right. Okay. Sounds good. All right, so as you guys exit and can keep a pace behind watching the Crown's Guard, guiding the current prisoners towards the actual city, from keeping kind of a zigzagging distance behind and following, D.M. Yes. Is it possible for me if not is holding my hand and leading me to go full third eye and walk blind and deaf here looking through Frumkins centers? I would say yes, but you are purely like this all you're doing is walking forward and you need someone to guide you. Right.

You can communicate to me either, so. Well, no, you can't hear you, but I can't hear you. I can talk and I can hold her hand so she can stop me from preponder hands up. Yes. But you can talk? Sure. He can talk, but he can't. I can't hear it.

Got it. Okay. Great. Great. But we've done this before, so you know to squeeze my hand really hard if I should pipe down. Sure. All right. So first off, photo guard.

Yeah. As you back out of the performer's exit of the tent into the center of their encampment, the immediate exit, there are already four Crowns Guard that are currently searching around and kind of setting up a watch perimeter around the different tents. They're gathering and making sure that none of the other performers have fled

and a lot of them are being kind of brought out into an area where there's a number of tents all facing towards a large campfire in the center. There's a couple of chairs set up there. It's kind of a common area for the performers, the carnival. And it looks like they're all just kind of being put out there so they can get a beat on it and make sure they know where everyone else is. I'm going to try and be aloof kind of stealth a little bit. I don't want to make myself completely known.

Are you trying to like stealth out of sight, or just trying to not draw attention? No, just trying not to draw attention. Okay, all right. Go ahead and make a stealth check just to see if the gauging. Did we just all ditch Marisha? She just walked out. She ditched you guys.

That's cocked. That's better. That's better. 17. 17, okay. As you kind of dark, through the flap of the tent and move behind one of the large carts that currently is still affixed to a horse that is currently just chewing on an apple and you hear the crunch

in its teeth. You glance over past the edge of the immediate near tent and you can see this group gathering there and it appears that no one's immediately aware of your presence. Do I see the little girl whose name was, what was her name? Toya. Toyah? You do not see her yet. The guard just got out there and they're just beginning to pull people out. You do see The fire dancer brought out there. You then see the two, the Knot sisters are brought out and kind of pushed out there. And they're all kind of looking at first- Are people being amicable? Yeah, they're just, they're not like shoving them around, but they're just calling them out to the front so they know where they are.

Okay, I want to look around. Do you see any type of movement in the shadows? Anyone looking suspicious? Make perception check. Oh yeah. Natural 18, 20. 21. 21. Okay, as you glance about, you don't see anything lurking in the shadows. What you do notice, though, is one of them bring Toya out of one of the tent that's on the southern side. And as he brings her out, there's a heavy thud sound. And you see coming up from behind the tent the large form of, you heard the name Kauri once, the devil toad, the obese, the obese

Lizard Man who's kind of like stomping up behind. Is he like a dude or is he like a creature? It looks like a lizard folk, lizard man, so like scaled, humanoid, but extremely like thick, kind of bulbous belly, large, almost frog-like legs. Bipetal? Bipetal or on all fours? Due to the size of his form, mostly all fours and kind of lumbering forward on all of them, but sits back on kind of a bipedal situation. So they're bringing the both of them out? Well, the toad is kind of hiding behind the tent,

and as soon as Toya comes out, comes up to the guard and kind of puffs up its chest, and guard spins around and kind of goes through the blade and kind of pulls it out just carefully. Am I still next to that horse? Am I still next to the horse? The horse is currently still up on the cart, but is about maybe three feet from you.

I think of... Beast shape. I'm gonna take my staff and just give a really nice whack to the horse to get it to run. You know what, let's go ahead and make an animal handling check on that. We never get to make those. I know. Three last last. First of the show.

Was my. The animal handling survival. Oh my god, I'm so nervous right now. You're good, you're good. That's not great. Not terrible. Eleven is fine. 11 will do.

but it was more knowing where to hit it to where it would cause it to bolt versus just get angry. Get pissed. Sure. Kick me. The anus. So going for, you know, not to actually like hurt the creature, but just enough to spook it, you hit it a right place towards the back of its of its hind quarters to cause it to suddenly grow up, and go into a sprint the cart. Begins to this like bounce and smash onto the ground. You can see the wheels kind of clattering into the rocks and the stone between the bits of... I want to bolt in the opposite direction and try and loop around. to the south side.

Make a new the south check, please. Big dice, big dice. Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. The nightie. Okay. You dart around the north side of these tents, and you're pretty sure you weren't seen, as far as you know. But as the carp begins to bolt off behind this horse,

you see all the Crowns Guard turn. The one that was currently staring at the Devil Toad kind of glances off to the side. As he glances off, the Devil Toad kind of takes Toya and just pulls her to him protectively. protectively. And the guard kind of puts a sword away and check, points at them, and then bolts off to go after the horse. The other three stay, kind of watching over the group. Okay, can I loop around and kind of come up behind them?

I mean, they're scattered a bit, but there's... The devil-toed and toya. Oh yeah, make it on the stealth check. You're running through open areas each time you do this. Yep, yep, yep, yep. Watch that happen. T-0-4, 10. That's a bastard die right now. That's a tease. Laura put over the dice jail. I don't get my george out yet.

It's okay. As you come up around the back of the Devil Toad, the guard that runs past, doesn't immediately notice you because he's focused on where this card is running off. You can see another guard that was far away from this encampment. That's circling back with him, and the two of them are now bolting in the direction as the cart begins to slow. It's not just going for it forever, but it's spooked and it's starting to slow down. I'm just going to inspect it. However, as you can kind of slink up behind, the Devil Toad,

Head kind of like curls back towards you and you hear this deep guttural. Toya? Let's get out of here. Let's go. At which point of voice says, Excuse me? And you can see like the three guards are there just staring at you. You didn't see there were fucking guards. I didn't say there were three guards watching them. I thought that you said they left.

Well, one of them left. One of them left. One of them left. So wait. Oh, shit. Bad stealth check, I'm sorry. But there's now three crowns guard right there. And they're like, can I help you?

Time to go to jail. Kill them all. This is so exciting. Kill them all. Hey. I was actually just looking for the loo. The guard is closest to you, kind of glances at the other guys. It goes, so she was with the group, right?

They recognize you. And they kind of look at each other. You're going to the stockade, my God. No. And the three guards slowly approach, and they begin to take out chains and man will call you up. In an effort not to go to jail. You went to jail. I'm trying to get the girl.

Trying to free the damn girl. I'm like, shit. So you're shackled and begin to be dragged toward the stockade. Are the two guards, like it's just the two guards? It's just the two guards, right? It's the two guards now. As you're being brought back, you can see more guards are coming from the city to the carnival.

They're keeping it under surveillance. So are they taking me away while? They're taking you to the city, yeah. What are they doing with Toya? Anything? And they leaving them behind? They're leaving them behind currently with the guards that are there. Like they're not arresting anybody from the carnival, but they're not letting them leave. They're keeping them there.

Um, okay. I'm going to just do a quick. Kill them all. I'm in shackles. You are. Okay, I'm going to do some monk shit here. I'm going to elbow one of the guards. This is terrible.

Right in the ribs and take the other one and bash the other one in the face, and I'm going to turn to Toya and I'm going to say, run, go, run! Well. Okay. Go ahead and... Make all kinds of roles. First, go ahead and make an athletics check. I can't why.

This is a terrible idea. To see if you... I like to not drag any attention towards her. You are completely shoving her into the limelight. I'm trying to just to distract these fucking assholes. That's just so... I'm so excited about this. So, as you go back to elbow, you get halfway there before your chains go taut.

And they're both kind of holding the chain at each side, and you can see the tension. of it, you can't even get him from behind. So you're like, before you're halfway, you imagine in your head. You go over it two or three times. As you go through it, the first step, doesn't go anywhere. You tried to do the Sherlock Holmes pre-fight. Mm-hmm. Do you at least get the run out to Doyle? No. I'm sorry. Is she just standing there, like, waiting for another guard?

No. She seems you're having a seizure in the chain. She's... Is she running? No, she... Honestly, like the devil toad and her, like, seem pretty close. Like he's grabbing her in a protective manner, and she seemed comfortable. No, they can both run. Right.

Run for your life. Fine, whatever. I don't know. She was here at rest, at this point. Sorry. Two bad rules in a row, I know. Oh, very, but... I know, level two.

Seriously. I go join my friends. You will, sure. ahead of her. Along the way Gustav is just quiet. Bo the Breaker, Boeson, as you know, his full name, is kind of grumbling under his breath and just kind of trying to out loud piece together thoughts on what may have transpired saying things like, you know. I don't know, I have to... You think it's done in the inside or is this somebody trying to sabotage it? I don't know, I think maybe it has nothing to do with us. I think maybe we were just caught

in the crossfire. It's probably possible. Sorry, sir. I'm trying to get my mouth shut. And at which point one of the guards just kind of tugs a little bit of boot-through chains is, quiet now, save it for the law master. They bring you in towards the, you go in through the locksward into the hills ward, which is the southern portion of Trostenwald, and you are brought to the outside of the stockade, which is a large, single story, though tall, building of large stones and masonry. It's built for function. It's not a very beautiful building, but it's defensible, and it seems fairly well made. However, there are the banners of the Crown's Guard marking the double door entrance. And as you brought within, you can

already see there's two central chairs where two current watch sit just watching the front gates, or the front door. Beyond the right you see is an office that you guys are dragged to, and the rest you eventually catch up to the group, and you're all brought inside this kind of darkened office. Inside, relatively simple. This isn't a library-type study office. This is very much for function. There's a couple of small crates that contain materials that are kind of in too far and shadow to see the details of it. It looked at pieces of paper, probably gathered evidence or weapons that have been reclaimed. There is a stone desk on the far, and there you can see, within this office, already accompanied by a messenger dressed for immediate travel, is a tough-looking Dwarven Woman,

woman in her middle years, rapidly scrolling on parchment. You can see her black hair is streaked with silver, kind of tumbling past her red and gray leather armor. She finishes writing on this parchment, rolls it up and hands it to the messenger, who immediately dart out of the room without a word past you guy, kind of giving you a brief look as he continues on whatever his business is. As soon as your eyes kind of pass off of the messenger, you hear a loud slam! And you glance back, and you can see that she's kind of put her hands on the table and she glances up, all right, what sort of riffraff have you brought in to me this stay, at which point the watchmaster kind of takes the chains of the three of you, and

kind of pulls you towards the front of the crew, and says, oh, I'm sorry to be a bother, but we have three individuals arrested in connection with the, as you've heard so far, deaths at the carnival performance this evening. She kind of rolls her eyes. All right, bring him forward. Let me go ahead and pull the chains up, the watchmaster. We're going to bows his head and then leaves the room and leaves it. She steps forward and goes, I am Norda, and it's my job to keep this city safe and to keep shite like what happened tonight from happening. I approved your second time on the outskirts of our town, and you've killed two of my people. So, what have you say about yourselves?

Exactly how did we kill them exactly? She glances over at you, glances over at Gustav. I've been told by my guard that you give a performance. And as part of this performance, you released two beasts into the midst of the population. Part of the performance, technically he was saving everyone, technically. Thank you, yes. Well, you see, we actually had nothing to do... Gustav interrupts you and says, I'm so sorry, my liege.

Please, I take full responsibility for what happened this evening on myself. These people around me had nothing to do with this. They are not part of the carnival. They were just merely helping. It is my carnival. And whatever judgment there lies, I take upon myself and my head. At which point, Beau, the half-forke steps forward, kind of gets to chains and goes, Gustav, what are you doing?

He's like, shut up. Please, whatever judgment there is, put it upon me. And he bows his head low. Is that the case? See you the only one? He shakes a good, hard look at you and Bo the Breaker. Oh, you're waiting for me to speak. Yes, he's the only one.

Make persuasion check. Now's 20. About fucking time, you little shit. She gives you a look. Looks over at Bo the Breaker. It shakes her head. Keep these two downstairs. This one let go.

Let go. He seems to be free. We'll be talking to you very soon. At which point the crowns guard dragged the chains back and Gustav gives you a quick look under his eye and goes, As they pulled out of the room, out of sight, she glances to you, well, you're out to chains, that's great. Doesn't mean you're absolved the investigation. So, where are you staying? You and your compatriots? Oh, well, technically we just all met technically. Well, technically. Well, Technically, as far as I'm concerned, you're all together as part of this investigation. We're a group, you guys.

So, we're going to have our investigators come to wherever you're staying, which, and she looks at some papers here, looks to be the nistled nook. That's correct. All right. Don't leave the city. They'll be in touch. Great. I really like it here, so that's good. that we get to stay so long. Do you have something to say? No.

Just shocked to have seen someone die in front of me, not more than stuff. I can assure you we're here to cause no trouble. We will be as compliant as we possibly can be. Good. Dismissed. She's about the edge of the table. The remaining Crowns Guard, who just kind of left there to keep a watch, escorts you out of the stock cave.

you out of the stockade, escorts you under the street. Her accent is really, really strong. It's hard to not match her accent. No, it's a street right. So one accent I really have trouble with one. Would you call it infectious? It is really. Sorry.

The one, the one that we know is a problem. I'm going to call my kett back to me and I drop the telepathy and I just start tugging you back. to the nestled nook. Come on, we have to talk about this. We have to decide what we're going to do. Right, right, right. Excuse me. They're not here. Oh, I thought you were behind it.

My cat was in there, behind. Yeah, well, you've had to stay within 100 feet to maintain that. Well, we would have walked up to the building. The cat would have scurried around, if possible. So... So I'd like to think that I heard all that, which is why I just said... You did hear all that, yeah. Okay, and I'd say, as they're making their way out, yeah, you could probably duck around without them seeing you as they... Fast walk back to the car time.

Yeah, you can do that. So, you guys are jettison into the street. It's now probably just past midnight. Mawleymock, I don't mean to pry into your business, but has this ever happened to you before? This is never, anything like this has ever happened before. And thank you, for the record I don't owe you. Any of you anything?

Oh, I don't know about that. I swear, but thank you. And I'm ready to help with this. Do you think it was the little girl? No. No, that's that's. That's an act. That's not anything. It's just a show. Right, the large toad that was with the girl. What's the story there?

Oh, my God, precious. It's nothing special. It's just a guy making a buck, all right? He's fine. He's fine. At this point, you hear the footfalls of guards approach and a rattle of chains as you see Boer Guard. By the way, where's the obnoxious one? I haven't seen it loud. I suppose the rest of you who are like gingerly brought up, you see Boerogra Guard. You see Beauregard being pulled forward, but now the chains around her are being pulled taught on two sides. She's being brought forward like a wild animal almost, and she's just being led

towards the stockade. What's happened? Help, help, help, help, help, help, help, help, help, help, help, help, help, help, help, help, help. I'm with you, I'm with you, help. Oh, I thought you didn't like jails. Help. Help. This is part of the show, by the way, I was just curious.

Which is the last thing you see is she's yanked into the stockade and out of sight. I'm going to be very helpful and not go in there with the two of you while you try and get her out. So should we go in and try to get her out? Yeah. Okay, okay, okay, okay. I'll stand guard. Okay, we'll follow her in. Leave.

I have nowhere to go. All right, you guys walk in behind her. You watch her being pulled to the stairs. She's bypassing the office of the lawmaster right now and is being brought. seemingly to incarceration before being questioned. They bring her to the stairs and what looks to be a torchlit subterranean basement area. And as you begin to approach and follow behind,

you can see one of the guards who's currently on watch, who sees you guys just exit and then walk back in and follow another prisoner. Can I stand something? He goes, I'm sorry, where are you going? It was a busy day for us. Unfortunately, we're partially responsible for this one as well. Bad luck. He was also helping to save a lot of people, big misunderstanding.

Well, see you're in or a cell, then please exit the vicinity. Fair enough. Appreciate that. And it kind of like follows behind you guys. They're kind of on a high alert and they're bit scattered. You get the sense right now that they have a lot of their initial stock of guards are kind of off-site right now. And so they're doing the best they can to hold on to what they currently have in the stockade. To the side I say, do gesture I say, this does not really fall in. with keeping a low profile. We talked about this. I know, isn't it so weird?

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Yeah, it is. It is. You guys, follow down to the basement portion of this, which there's a heavy locked door immediately that is opened from the opposite side. You hear a couple of keys turn and the shifting of wood against metal before the door opens and reveals the rest of what appears to be a long hallway that is flanked by two rows of cells, iron bars about maybe two inches apart, going across the entirety of this long hallway. You can't quite see the end of it until you step down to where the door frame is. And there's probably

a total of 10 cells to each side. As you kind of walk through, you can see in kind of the offshadows in the corners a few kind of huddled bodies hunched or asleep, kind of keeping to the shadows and out of the light. The smell of mildewed, wet, compost, and piss hits your nose like a wall. Smells like Caleb down here. You get about five cells in where you can see the people that were previously in there, or the guard that were previously there, just finished closing off the cell that contains both Gustav and Bo the breaker.

And they move to the cell just beyond that. Open that cell and then go ahead and put Beauregard into that one. Are they not going to take her to see the lawmaker? I know. Why doesn't she get to talk to the lawmaster? As he closes it and locks it? I don't know to talk to the lawmaster. Because she decided. decided not to come, hopefully.

What do you mean? Oh, no, you misunderstood. See, that was just I have this spasm that kind of has this kind of twitch, you know? It's just, it's, it was an injury from like a childhood thing. Oh no, are you guys making fun of her because of her spasm? Yeah, that's actually, it's, it was very sensitive for me. I had a really tough childhood. And I was just trying to find a bathroom.

The three guard walk away, not caring. Who were there previously. Spasm shaming. At this point, a man who is in the far end of the hall walks up. And you can see him, he's a man with like a kind of heavy bushy beard that obscures a lot of, it looks to be a dark leather mantle over general cloth tunic. But he's burly arms, heavy torso, super scrawny legs, kind of a widow's peak and he looks to be the jailer. And he kind of walks up and puts his head on the bars

and goes, oh, well, if you want to be patient, I'm sure the lawmaster will be here sometime in the morning, and you can discuss whatever this business is. But if you want to say goodbye, now's the time. Actually, we were just upstairs, and it would really help us if we could perhaps expedite the process. Perhaps there's an arrangement we could come to if she could see the lawmaster now. Yeah, I'm like a kind of injured man. Like, no, like, seriously, I can show my eight hit points of damage.

How many kittens is that again? That's... 16 kittens. Yeah. They're having to hit points. I don't think kittens are more than that's eight fronkins. An audience is, oh we're asking for. No favors.

Yeah, this is just a mis- like a wrong time, wrong place thing. Make persuasion check. Use it. God bless. Bless. 16. It kind of gives you a look, Miss. All right, but if she gets angry, it's not on me.

I understand. Thank you for your understanding. She's a very common person. She very rarely, I've never seen her angry ever. I'm going to give the whistle. I'm so glad I'm not there right now. Another crownsguard comes up in a park soon and goes like, I'm sorry, could you go and fetch the law master.

They are requesting an audience. She gets angry. Just added to this one sentence. The guard exits and brief time by, You can hear the slight muddled cursing of a Dwarven female descending the stairs. You can see she has like an overcoat on, was like halfway out of the stockades, finishing up her evening in her office. Bob, remember your little sister.

So as the lawmaster approaches now, kind of pulling the coat over herself, because, Okay, so you've returned, apparently, needing to poke into what business now before I go off and get some food? I do hate to trouble you again twice in the same evening. I hate being troubled twice in the same evening. If we may, this sweet girl here was also part of our party, and she is quite the protective one. I'm afraid that she was also providing aid to our fellows in that tent. I'm afraid her younger sister was attacked in a similar way. I feel it's only prudent to acknowledge that she was

trying to protect this young Dwarven girl that performed in the circus. She means no harm. an adoptive sister. I practically raised her. It's a sensitive subject. Okay, I would like a deception check. 24. Cowboy. Yeah. Modified by other answers. I was helping. I knew with this, don't fuck it up. She gives kind of a narrow look. A narrow Look through her eyes, looks to one of the other guards that you see standing in the back. Familiar one to you, Bowen goes, Is this true?

She goes, it appeared to us that she was attempting to escape upon us trying to bring calm to a very tense situation, but I leave it in your realm, lawmaster. She looks back. So your sister, apparently, is part of this now as well. adopted sister. Okay. Well, your sister's in their investigation. Saying at the same place that we are.

Indeed. We can be found at any hour. The nestled Nook Inn is where we are. And I'm more than willing to be complained with the investigation. In fact, you can see the injury, the beast left on my ribs. So if you want to test it, you know, for any type of specimen samples, feel free.

It's very painful, but I'm willing to do it for the cause. Do you need me to hear it? No, for the cause. To her, for the cause. She looks to you now and goes, Are you saying you might have been infected by this beast? No, it's a separate issue. There was like, there was two things going on. There was like the big angry toad beast,

and you've got to swipe at me. And then there are people who were getting attacked. And she looks over to the jailer. He goes, hey. Could you have a look at this wound for me real fast? I want to make sure this isn't something that's going to A great idea, indeed. And thankfully there was no flesh-to-flesh contact.

Nope. The big zombie beast especially was using a lot of sticks and stuff to attack people more than any kind of mouth. The jailer feeds, takes a quick look at the wounding, goes, No, it appears to mainly be just bludgeoning. I mean, we'll keep a close eye on her. You can see now the law master is kind of rubbing her eyes and frustration, I just want to sleep. Give us no greater pleasure than to get out of your hair.

Then we'll have guards posted at the outside of the inn. You're not to leave until this investigation is complete. It may take days. So we find out who's responsible for these deaths and bring him to justice. You are not to leave the tavern. Understood. Like at all during the day, even? Just a question, if we want to do shop or something.

Not okay? Not until this is done. Cool. Because otherwise, you're welcome to stay here instead. It is really beautiful here, but I think I'd rather stay at the inn? Indeed we would. This is most gracious of you, Lawmaster Norda. Get them the fuck out.

And she turns around and she turns around. and kind of just sighs heavily as she stomps out of the chamber. The jailer kind of opens the cell door and allows Beauregard back out. He looks a bit confused but amused at the same time. And you guys, the guards that had originally arrested you escorts you out, not leaving any element of their sight off of you.

They escort you guys to the actual inn itself to the bottom floor of the Nessled Nook Inn, watch you enter, and then post step right outside of the main entrance to the tavern. You should have spasmed a couple times on the way here. Oh, shit. Yeah. Opportunity missed.

Yep, my little sister, what the, what the what? She's a dwarf. She's not, she's human. What? No, I was trying to say she had a little sister that had a similar incident and that made you try to protect toy. I was trying to throw you a bone.

You didn't make that. clear at all. Are you guys up in your room or are you in the top? We're kind of under watch. I was just trying to go with what you said. Yeah. Yeah. You did all right. All right. I mean it kind of worked. It's, I would, but you're not entirely wrong. I was trying to go get the stupid little girls who seem to be stupid. Did you see anything? I tried to save her. I was like, do you get the hint? What's going on? Why would you say if she turned those people into zombies? I, I... We don't know that. I mean, she could have.

She looked. She didn't. Oh, hi. You're here. Yeah, if anything, we should be looking at this guy. Like, I don't, why are we, why are we putting our neck out from you? Like, what a... You're putting your neck out for Tonya for some strange reason, and I don't know why she's perfectly capable of handling herself.

Have you been to this town before? Not that I can remember. I don't know, they all looked the same after a while. They've come through once, but that was a while back and you weren't really... Really paying attention. And you've never seen conditions like this. Nothing like this. Nothing like this.

Hundreds. Possibly thousands of shows. No, yeah, thousands of shows. Nothing. Never. It's not us. So great. We're stuck in a city that has zombie issues, that's all.

Where are the other two? They, which other two? The stinky one and the little ones. Oh, your friends. Yeah. Can we look around? to see if we spot Caleb and... Call them stinky and the little one, right?

You spot around the interior of the tavern, they don't appear to be nearby. I wonder if they came back. I'll go up and ask the tavern keeper. Yeah, Yorta. Oh, hi. Hi. Hi. Everything all right. You had a few bruiser types leading you in here,

some of the crowns bear. Oh, my gosh, there was this big trouble at the carnival. Did you go? I heard about that. I didn't go in there saying... Somebody turned into a zombie and then go... Yeah, yeah. Yeah, and then we roll under investigation

because we saved them. These guards are weird. Hey, did you see the wizard guy, the stinky guy, and the little, the halfling? Yeah, they came in a few minutes before you did. They went upstairs. Oh, great, they're here. They are?

Yeah. Good. Meanwhile, the two of you are upstairs in your own chambers. During all of that, I would have dragged you back here, brought you upstairs, and I whip up there. And I whip off my raddy coat, throw it on the bed, and sit down on the ground so that I'm eye level with you. Uh, not. Right? Not we.

You and I have to make some decisions right now, okay? Wow. Yes. Why? Well, I know why we said we were coming here. Get some booze, get some books, find a little, a little taste of civilization, maybe some better food. Yeah. I didn't say, I also had the idea, you know, you and I,

meeting and teaming up has been a good thing. Oh, yes, very good. I know everyone else makes fun of your smell, but I don't smell nothing. That's what I like about you. I have been thinking, and yesterday just furtheres that thinking that I don't think you and I are enough, and I had the idea that we would come

here maybe and find others that we could tag along with or meet up the way you and I did. But now I think that is a terrible idea. The people we spent the day with are lunatics. I don't think that we can do this. I've changed my mind entirely. And I think we should go, but we can't now because we are stuck here for the moment. Under sort of holding arrest or something, we can't leave the city. No. But I was thinking. thinking about this. The people we met down there and spent the day with, they are lunatics,

but they draw a lot of attention to themselves, leaving us free to sort of slink back into the shadows a little bit. It might be sort of the perfect camouflage. No one's going to be looking for a little goblin girl anymore because they'll be looking at the crazy people, the teaflings running around smashing shit. You know, I had not thought of it quite in that way, and that is a good point, but I'm not convinced. I'm not convinced, and perhaps we're better off. Maybe I was too ambitious.

Well, let's give it a day, and maybe we can, if things seem a little bit, you know, skinky duty tomorrow, we can fritter away in the middle of the day. day or something. All right, well we'll wait and see. While we're here, one thing, okay? No money pot. No rat food. None of those plays.

I have silver. We don't need it right now. But we need to replenish the healing potion you used. If we don't have that, then what happens the next time you get, you know, in trouble? The entire town, we're sealed here and they're watching. We're with a couple of teethlings, a little person in a day. person in a doll mask and a dirty ginger. We've got people staring at us every second of the day. We need to dial it back a little bit. All right, but how on earth are we... Is that ginger? Maybe we...

All right. We can cool it with the cons for a couple of days. I'm gonna feel very sorry. But I can't promise that I won't get the itch again. You just talk to me. You hold a pumpkin. Just keep your hands for a fron, okay? Hold my cat, okay? All right. And then this is going to blow over because we didn't do anything. We did something. No, I didn't do nothing. We just went to a show.

That's right. It's a pretty good show. Up until, you know, the dead people part. No, but it was a good show, wasn't it? Yeah. Yeah. Well, we'll lay low. Should we pretend that we're still friends with these people?

I was going to suggest the same thing. In fact, I think we should go downstairs. They're going to be coming back. We don't want to cause a stir with them either. We just want to leave if that's what we're going to do. Don't worry. I'll turn on the charm. Okay. Let's get a drink. Thank God's.

As you guys head down, you get to the bottom of the stairs just in time to see Jester, Beauregard, Molly, and Ford looking across the tavern, making their way in your direction, and you guys noticed them meeting you in the tavern room as well. We're having all here. Oh, thank God you're here and safe. All of you are here. We missed you. Where did you go? Where did you go?

Oh. That happens, yes. Can I inside check them? Sure. Her. Sam. Natural 20. I'm lying!

I'm lying! You guys piece out pretty quickly. piece out pretty quickly. We did. I did not come to Trostewald to go to jail. Mm-hmm. What did you come to Trostovall for? Well, we're tired. We've been traveling a long time. We wanted to, we've been saving. We wanted to take it easy for a few days. Sure, yeah, I'm not trying to pry. I was just curious where you were going.

Yeah, I'm just curious why you have a mask. Oh God, if I'm going to be listening to somebody's life story, I'm going to eat a drink. You, gorgeous, what's your name? You look over and see kind of a woman with darker hair as the other general bar made. Adling? Adeline, I would like a round for all of these terrible people and one for myself, and what's the difference

between these three beers? I really, honestly, I've got to admit, I can't actually, I don't know what, they all taste the same to me. Go with the Von Brant. It's got a round of Von Brant for everybody. Actually, if it's all the same, I'm not really an ale fan. Do you have any fire whiskey? We can get you some liquor, yeah.

Can I have some milk? Two, please. All right. She walks away and gets some... She heard that I wanted milk. I don't know. I'm going to ask for one of each of these beers because I want to have a tasting competition, and I'm not going to be drinking alone, so... I wander away from these two with their questions and I sit down with Molly.

Caleb, you want to see something cool? Yes, I would love to see something cool. I show Caleb where I etched the dick in the table. the dick in the table a couple nights ago? Oh, yeah. Bringing it back. That's pretty good. Did you actually deck in the table?

It's a dick. Oh. Have you always been an artist? I have actually. I've been an artist since I was little. You think that's what they look like? I can tell. That is what they look like.

I've seen a lot of this, okay? That is what most of them look like. I'm already in my cups. What? No. No. So, where do you two come from? Us two?

Yes, you two with the horns? Well, I don't know where he comes from. You think we all come from the same place? That's not what I said. Feel free to bounce a second. We're really inconsiderate. No, you are very different. That's very clear.

He's purple. She's like blue. Yeah. Which is pretty rare, okay? He's kind of every color. It's very true. I'm from a... I'm from, uh, I'm from, uh,

so casual. Nicodranus. Yeah, I remember when we started the first campaign and all those places just came in a split second, and you know, all that history. I'll show you how he's this one. I'm from Srebman Chicago. So up, down.

There you go. Oh, yes. I'm from the circus. So you're a traveler then. Oh, yeah, quite a while. Since a child? Oh, long as I can reasonably remember, at the very least.

It's been a while. Okay. But yeah, it's nice. I like it. Good people. Work hard. You have a lot of scars. Yeah, that's a very funny story, actually.

I like funny stories. Mm. Me too. You did some crazy shit with that sort. What are yours? Oh, thank you. I've actually, these swords, well, you buy a drink and we'll see. You polish off that one already?

Oh, wow. That's a lot of you, okay. Yes. We get another round for the... Let me know what I owe you for the first round, my boy. Well, they're keeping a tally at the table. Froncann scruples up onto Naut's shoulder. Hi, hi, Frumpy. Nice to see you again.

Mother always told me, never give away a story for free. Watch words. My mother said don't give away other things for free. I already like your mother. My mother always said nothing in life is free. Yeah, I can tell. None of this absolves the dodgy goblin who slinked past that first question where I'm

Where are you from? What are you traveling from? Why the masks? Well, because we seem to find ourselves, and quite the predicament. Oh, we're just a couple of friends strolling around the countryside looking for adventure. Sure. Sure you are. You see many goblins walking around cities here? Oh, it has something to do with that. People moving from place to place very frequently tend to have other stories as to why they're doing it, so I'm just curious. Let me make it clear. Goblins are not typically welcome in any cities. That is why the mask.

You're going back to the goblin thing. I'm more curious about the travel thing. We have a string of bad luck. We tend to get in trouble in places for various reasons. Some of which is my fault. Most of which is my fault. I have sticky fingers. I can't help myself sometimes. I just I'm fascinated by little Bob and fancy pieces of jewelry. And I love trinkets so much. And I just have to just take them and have them with me and take them and put them in my pockets. And it's got us in a few scrapes a couple times.

And Caleb, he's fantastic, very patient with me, understands. But really, it's my fault. It's not him. He's a smart, smart man. smart man and a brilliant magician. Have you seen some of his tricks are phenomenal, really? Oh, we love to. I feel bad too because we never stay in one place long enough for him to have a decent shower. That is a moving story.

I immediately check my pockets after after that and see if Knott has lifted anything. Is everything still there? On my coin. Make an investigation check. Okay. I'm going to join you on this one. on this one. Snorri. It's not agreed at all. Six.

Sixteen. Everything seems to be in order. For you? No, wait, that was a 15. Right? That was the dice are rolled. So, 16. Okay. Everything seems to be in order.

Okay. Okay. Anyway, that's the long and short of it. What do you do with the things once you steal them? Well, the nice ones I keep, I... I have a little. Do you have a collection? I collect a lot of things, but in the last place we hunkered down, it was all taken from me.

We were in one of those prisons before. Am I sharing too much? I'm sharing too much, aren't I? We were in a prison. They took all of our belongings, and I lost all of my collections. I had a lovely rock collection. I had a rare coin collection. I had a stick collection. Oh, okay. Yeah, it's all gone now. What about shiny things though? I love them.

I just don't have any right now. Because I think if you have sticky fingers for sticks and rocks, I don't think that will get you in trouble. True. True. But they were like people's canes and things. Oh! I mean, I call them sticks because I don't need them, but I suppose they needed, they really needed them. Yeah. That makes sense.

Yeah. We only one way to find out in there. So we, I'm sorry, I just, I think I need clarification. Me too. If sticks mean things like valuable canes, what do rocks mean to you? You know, those rocks that humans wear on their fingers and around their necks and stuff. They're really nice rocks. We don't have many of those at the moment.

Must be hard to get them off. Would it be fair to say the more that someone desires something, the more your interest increases? Oh, I don't care about the people who have them. I just like pretty things. Anything, right? Yeah. Toys?

Anything really? Toys. I'll keep an eye out for things that you would like. Okay. Yeah. Can you help with that? I mean I can if you want me to, or I can point it out. That would be right.

Well, everything away is the joy in taking the things, or do you just like gifts? Oh, it's the collecting. Oh, so. It's kind of like a nervous tick a little bit. And are you good at it? Like your spasm. Do you get caught very often? Well, that must have a demonstration.

Yes. Yes. Now, Jester, if I may. We are already in a little bit of a pickle. Steal something from me. Do you want me to close my eyes? Sure, that'd make it really easy. Oh.

Are they closed? All right. To practice here, I'm going to do a shot. Crack my knuckles. Just, oh, don't take the thing on my waist because he'll be pissed. That's the one thing you said. He'll be pissed.

He'll be pissed. What? Yeah. He? Yeah. What's on your waist? I'm looking at her waist. What's on her waist?

What's on your waist? My symbol to the traveler. Oh. All right, I'll go to her left butt cheek pocket and fish around. I mean a dress. I don't have a pocket on my butt cheek. But you can try. What pockets do you have?

I would have, I guess, pockets in my pockets in my chest. I'll have pockets in the front on my dress, and maybe like a little pouch on my hip. I'll do the hip pocket. All right, go and make a slight a hand check. Three. You close your eyes and feel a tug and a shake. Plus eight. Oh.

What's your passive perception? I'm going to guess 10. No, it's 13. Yeah, so yeah, you totally feel. You're doing great! Well, this is not happening it. What is that? What is that?

I feel, this is embarrassing, really. I have the one skill and I failed at it. It's okay. You can keep practicing, okay? Thank you. There is that one magic trick that you're able to do. Would you like to show them the magic trick you do? I pull out a small red clay, like a ceramic bowl,

and then I pull out a copper piece. There, you know the trick. Oh. Right? Yes, I know the trick. Takes a little bit of time, doesn't it? You're good. Okay.

I do know one piece of magic. Feast your eyes. Take one step back. On the sacred money pot of school. Ooh, if you place a copper piece into this pot and say the magic words, what are the magic words again? Fibulous. Fibulous. It will turn into a silver piece. Do, should they say it? I want to hear you say it anyway.

Only I can say it. For everyone has their own magic word, and it won't work with you. Hmm, oh, rah, na, na, na, nah, nah, nah, By the ancient order of the school. It's that as a silver coin right there. Wait a minute. Does this mean the silver I want from you was actually copper?

No, it only works up. The silver piece. We weren't giving you the silver piece just showing you a bit of magic. And this pot is actually quite powerful. It can do that once a day. So if you'd like to purchase it. Can you turn this into a little?

The gold piece? It only works once a day. Well tomorrow can you make it gold? I think it only does the copper to silver. The magic is not that we've talked about this. It's not that strong. It's a mild magic pot. But if you'd like to purchase it for us, we can sell it to you for five gold.

Five gold for one silver a day that doesn't add up. Well, by the end of the week you made your money back. No. No. Well, by the end of... Well, a discount for friends. Three gold. Three gold.

And for that, we'll teach you your own magic word. It's pretty good. 40 days. 40 days? You do it once a day forever. You haven't for the rest of your life. Yeah, but I have lots of money. I don't need it. But this is free money that you don't have to work for.

to work for. I don't know. They basically helped us out today. You could do it for one, for them. All right, one gold. One gold. That's a really good deal. Did you hear how much he gave me a deal?

Mm. Okay. You give him a gold? Yes, I'll give him a gold piece. Hold on, let me make sure I have it. Where's my... You go, it's the second button. Oh, currency.

Yeah. Gold. Okay. It's there. down. Thank you. There you go. What's my magic word?

Perception check. I'll joke. Yeah, I know. I want to let this one go. It can be whatever you want it to be. You have to agree upon it and you have to focus on that word. It's going to be one full day while you're in possession of the pot. Okay.

You watch that copper piece become silver. How about stinky do? Stinky do these? That is unique. Yes. I'm sure no one else has possession of that arcane power word, so I'll just. power work, so I could consider it yours if you focus on it all day tomorrow. Okay. But you really have to focus. Okay, okay. I will, I will.

Super a lot of focus. Skinky duty. Thank you for this. It's a pleasure doing business with you. Does that answer your questions? I've got some for you. That's very kind of you. Yeah, you have questions for me. Support the arts. Yes. Okay. How does a, how does someone You're like you, a human, right? Yeah. How do you come by learning Halfling? My parents were in the winery business,

and the wine making business. And Halflings really like wine. Everyone likes wine. That's true. That's true. Some people more than others. Some halflings just deal in wine a lot, and a lot did in the town that I'm from, and my parents wanted me to keep up with the books

and all that stuff, so it kind of forced me to learn half-ling that was around a lot. What town was that, then? It's close by here, right? It's a few, it's a bit of waste. It's a commorta. Haven't heard of it. Yeah, it's a small farming town. It's no big deal. It's whatever. Nothing shady there! Nope.

Is it really a wandering traveler, just like the rest of y'all? Well, I mean, I was really impressed with the little trick. I sure would like to see a big trick. I used tomotogy to open all the windows. Oh, you. Being about one o'clock in the morning at this time, and the energy of the tavern has kind of come to a quiet crawl. Those who are deep in their cups are either snoring or in the process preparing to go to sleep.

You watch as Adeline, the barmaid, is walking around cleaning up tables, and suddenly all the windows in the room, slam open with a heavy impact, and there's a burst of wind that comes through. And you watch us as the two Crownsguard that were outside flanking the opening doorway, suddenly rush and look in, and look about a lot of you. Sorry, drinking. Drinking. I have two extra. I did order two extra. Two extra? And they both just slowly curl back to their perimeter. You're no fun. Yeah, circus.

Woo! Circus. It's a... Jester, I meant a trick from. Caleb. Oh. You want to see a trick? I would love one. I am well into my second trust at this point.

I can show you a trick. Young lady, if you would assist me, please. step up onto the table? Absolutely. Don't break anything. Just your minds. And I begin to weave my hands in a slow, one hand, a slow circle around the other, and a globe of golden light

proofs out and floats out. I put my hands and feet out sort of in a kimbo sort of pose. And a second little globular light. I feel it coming. Hit me! Then two more at the same time, come out of my hand, and then they amass upon my little companion

and form a similar-sized little humanoid of light that then coincides with my little friend, and she is glowing golden on a table in the middle of the Nesufnuch. The goblight, ladies and gentlemen, the goblight. Thank you. Thank you. That's incredible. When clas in the back roams, see him one of the drunken gentlemen has come to semi-consciousness

and goes, that's impressive. And then passes back out on the table. How did you learn to do that? Well, that was, I mean, I could always do that a little bit as a kid. You know, I was always good with magic. I had a neck for it. That one's easy. That one's easy.

It's impressive. Oh, thank you. Oh, buddy. Maybe you can beat you how to do that. Is it something that can be taught to others? Are you trying to learn magic? It's not a thing? Well, I'm just a little curious about how people use their magic.

I've seen you have a few tricks up your sleeve. You seem like you're not totally magic-knept. No. It's relatively new for me, though, so I'm just trying to learn. Are you reading a lot? No. I wonder if maybe I should be. Well, it could be helpful. Although, I mean, I'm a bit of an amateur teacher.

I've been, I taught not the one trick you saw, but other things we've been working together. I suppose I could try to help you. Have you had these magic abilities your whole life like a kid? No, no, no, no, again, barely recently. Something happened? Yeah, yeah. Oh, I'm sorry, do you two not know each other super well?

It seemed like you do. Oh, we got a good, you know, 24, 48 hours on the rest of you? Yeah, we're not super deep. Uh-huh. Nope. Oh, where did you come from then? Well, I came up from the town of Port DeMalley. That's where we met.

Yeah, I met Jester a while back. After I left town coming up to the northeast, I ran across her. I'd seen her do some of her magic before, and that's what I'm trying to learn about. If you need any more displays, you just let me know, because actually. Actually.

We've seen that with a couple times, that's good. Can I request a display on, I think, I have a broken red. Oh, yeah. So. It might be getting more purple. I mean, I can ask, but I think I'm kind of tapped. Oh, I'll sleep it off.

Yeah. I can try. I'll put my hand out. And I'll try to cast a... I can sleep it off. I got shit. I got nothing. It's not that evening.

Well, it's past midnight. No. Oh, no, I got to sleep. No. You concentrate for a moment. Make a medicine check. Okay. Oh.

Natural 12. That's 17. You focus on the bruised area, kind of exposed out of her monk robes, and you watch as the slight bruising suddenly turns like a sickly, green. Is that good? In a very unhealthy way. Oh, no. That doesn't look.

You know what? I think this might be worse than just like a bruised rib. Can I poke at it? Does it seem like infected? Does it hurt? I'm not going to poke at it with my finger, though. I'm going to poke at it with like a fork. Do I get a fork?

Don't poke at me with a fork? Don't have a fork. You're out of it at all either. Right now she's inspecting out. You take a fork off the table and take a fork off the table. No, don't. No, no. Use the blood then. Don't be such a baby.

She pushes and it kind of bruise hurts a bit. You watch as this kind of sickly pus, like liquid begins to pour out, like with a thick viscosity and a lot of it. And you all of a sudden feel like you punctured a balloon that's beginning to erupt, and you you feel awful and then you blink a few times, and it's just a bruise. Oh, what? You just listen. Oh, motherfucker, he's such a dick.

What? Who? What? What? What? What's going on? My bruise is in the shape of a dick? What? That would be really cool. That would be fun. Yeah. I'm just going to make sure I'm gonna push on it a bit more. I think it's okay, you're fine.

All right. I think I need some sleep, you guys. It's Gustav, the person who runs your circus. Are you friends? Are you friends? Are you family? He's family. We take care of each other.

He's a good man. So what's your play tomorrow? Well, they have all my things. They have all my family. I'm going to figure out what is going on. Try and find out what's actually doing this. I assume since it's my things. It's not us, it's going to happen again.

It's inevitable. But how can't, because we can't leave this tavern? Well, I... Were Caleb and I not instructed to not leave the tavern? We received no formal instruction. No, the rest of you were told him to leave the tavern until further notice. I'm sure if we sleep one night, we'll think of something. You and I could leave in the morning the same way we got in.

That's true. Okay. How did you get in? I would show you now, but I'm out of spell. The fork trick wasn't very fun, was it? No, I was making sure she wasn't a zombie, I thought she might be. Oh, that's fair. Yeah. She got a clod, right?

A bit, yeah. All right. Hey, bitches, I'm gonna go to bed. Where exactly am I gonna be sleeping, by the way? I mean, I can sleep down here, but it might be nice. Molly, if you would like to share my room, you can. Excellent. You don't mind, and I'm going to pull the swords off finally and just sort of start, you know,

getting comfortable out of the performance clothes. I'm in Jester's room, still, I think. All right. Sleeping on the floor, I come to my bedroom. As she starts to go to sleep, I want to draw in my sketchbook and tell the traveler all about the cool things that I saw for the day. I'm going to draw the red-faced card as I pretended I was a zombie.

And I'm going to draw Molly's horns, all full of jewels and stuff. And I'm going to draw the stack of books. The monster attack? And I'm going to draw, oh, and I'm going to draw like a zombie, but like as an old man. And then, like, as he's biting, his dentures fall out and he's got no teeth.

All right. Fairly decent sketches, actually. Yeah. All right. And you eventually find yourself to sleep the rest of you, go to your respective rooms, and find yourself falling into a night's rest. As the evening comes to a close in the morning brings you to consciousness, you are rested, so you're healed up, your spells are restored. We can use the long rest feature of D&DBN. That's pretty. You hit a button. Oh, so, where's that button? And I'll miss spells a back.

There's a button first. Whoa, nothing changed. I have no spells. All right. Ah, I lost 10 hit points. What the fuck? I've done something terribly wrong. See you, I'll go, and they're going, fuck you not.

Wait, no, you're putting temporary hit points on. What are you doing? We'll work on this during the break. Self-destruct in 10, 9, 10. It just throws the iPad. All right, so, how many consciousness in your respective rooms? Cold morning air, it's a bit frosty. The windows to each of your rooms have a bit of that kind of curled bit of frost in the outskirts.

The glass. It's probably eight or nine in the morning at this point in time, and the day is yours. What do you wish to do? As I wake up, I sit up and go, Chester, Were you like laughing to yourself last night? Just got up here and giggling. I was kind of obnoxious. Sorry.

Just get ready. All right. As a note, too, for all the drinks you guys drank last night, I'd probably put you back about one and a half gold. Molly, that's your tab, right? All but the one you bought me? Yeah, except for that one. To be fair, I didn't give you that story.

It's true. I very carefully start unfolding my robe and has my swords very carefully laid out in there. From the closet, I do a little prayer, put everything back on. Are you braying over your swords? Yeah, of course. Is that part of your thing? You seem honest. Try to be.

Swords are magic. They are, according to my mom, go back in our family generations to a very unusual, rare line of Tiefling that came from a demon of ice that lived inside a volcano. And our family, and I take this with a grain of salt, were royal guards, were entrusted with these magic swords, and these swords can only be activated by the blood. of the royal family, and so in honor of any fighting I ever do with them, I make sure that my blood is at least drawn once. That's quite the story. Can I insight check? Yes, you may.

Sure. 15. What do I am fighting against? Let's be deception. Be deception? Yep. I'm lying like a motherfather. Well, thank you for sharing that honest story with me. It means a lot. All right, walk downstairs.

All right. Can I go knock on Ford's door? Sure. Hey, oh, hey, good morning. She's a morning person too. A.O.A. Your cellars. She's the worst. Hey, do you want to get out of here?

Yeah, we said we were going to do that, didn't we? Yeah, yeah, yeah. What'd you have in mind? Well, we sneak out, and then then we'd just. And then we go find out why they're zombies. It's a detailed blend. Yes. I like it.

Are we taking anybody with it? Well, if they can make themselves not look like themselves, then sure. Fair enough. Do you want to ask any of them? Uh, hey, Bo. Do you have any kind of thing you can do to make yourself not look like you? I take my robes, I kind of flip them inside out, and take some dirt, dirty it up a little bit, and take my hair down. I take my hair down and steal a scarf off of Jester stuff,

and I kind of do like a bandana around my head. No, you look like you with like a bandana around your head. Yeah, it's not gonna cut it. Not quite what we hadn't by. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What's you guys doing? You guys fuckin leaving? You're not leaving without me, aren't you? Oh, of course, we're coming back.

You skip in town? No. Oh, shh. Although we could. She's right here. Can you want to skip town? We'll be back. Let's see if Caleb and his little friend are downstairs first.

Okay, okay, okay, okay. He has tricks after all. Right. Okay, the two of you come to consciousness. What are you up to? Get some breakfast, I guess. Yeah, we're already down that. We've already gone down there.

We've already gone. I'm having breakfast. I'm leaving a note with the barkeep for Yasha if she comes back. Okay. I guess I go down and have breakfast as well. As you guys wonder, down, you find Caleb and Knott already at table and Molly Mock was returning from the bar after delivering that note.

Y'all are down straight. I saw one of them. Can I try to take a piece of bacon off your plate? Oh, show for you. Thanks, thank you. Like a little dog, a little back foot, grieves up. If we could, we could, did you just fucking shit? We were thinking of maybe finding our way outside of them for a bit.

I don't want to presume anything, but do you have the ability to change the way you look? To change the way I look. Yeah, you know. To leave the inn? Yeah, assume a different form. Why would I do that to leave the inn? So we can find out why they're zombies. Why wouldn't I just walk out of the inn?

Oh, well, because we were told we can't leave the inn. We weren't told that. Right. Ah, well, that's convenient. But I can change my appearance. Wow. I would never know it was you. I'm a totally different person.

Yeah. Yeah. Molly, what about you? Well, I mean, look at me, but I go into my bag, I do have a disguise kit. Don't I? I think I do. It's so weird to just have things now. Yeah, I have a disguise kit. Fair enough. What does that mean? You can use it to try to disguise himself.

Hide features. It'd be a little tricky for me. I'd look like what I'm going to look like. But the rest of you could do a little work. little work. Bo, I don't want to leave you behind, but I... It's true. I have a disguise kit, too. I could help you out. Can you... Can you... Do you? Will you do my makeup for me? I'm really good at makeup. Are you?

Yeah? Let's do that. I'm really shit at makeup. I can just shower this one, that'd be enough. He can leave, better least. Yeah, we could. But not town. We were told to stay in town. No, no. We're going to stay in town. What do we do? What are we doing again? We have to find out why there's zombies so that we don't get arrested for being zombies. Oh, so we solve the case to clear our own name.

We can go get a bunch of evidence. Why shouldn't we just wait for it all to blow over? We didn't do anything. I tend to find these things don't blow over necessarily as more they just eventually decide someone's guilty and take their revenge on them. Do you find yourself in situations like this often? Not this particular one, but... I mean, look at them. No offense or anything. None taken, really.

A little taken, but that's fine. He makes a point. I think the sooner we find the cause of this, the sooner we can get out of here. She's right, immediately the two of us are gonna get hit with this. If we solve the case, we would be absolved. It's not a terrible plan.

And you're so concerned with your goblin friends. I mean, he's kind of in the same boat as the Tieflings, people on Tee. That's a girl. I know it's hard to tell us sometimes. I said your goblin friend. You said he. You said he.

Whatever. Listen, we've all had a rough night. I know that my features aren't necessarily the most feminine among goblin kind. I understand. Unless she's weird, darling. Yes. It's hard to tell. I can tell.

Thank you. Everybody can tell. Yeah. Yes. She takes it. I'm working on it. Let's get out of here. Can I walk back into, I guess, sort of a privy washroom area? Yeah, upstairs at the very end of the hall is the communal washroom.

Can I use my mask of many faces to cast disguise? Sure, what form do you want to take? An older white-haired with a beard, just very simple peasant's clothes, maybe a bit of a farmer or a land worker. Okay, easily enough. Yeah, like the bar of the fields. Okay, basic browns and tans and general farm workers' tunic and supplies. Smudges, dirt on the fingernails. Yeah, easy enough.

I'm going to help Bo. Oh, you know what I'm going to do for you? Yeah. I'm going to use my disguise kit. I'm going to give you a beard. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Awesome.

And I'm going to turn you into like a dude. Okay. Because that's like, yeah, that's a good disguise, right? Yeah. Yeah. And the mustache. Okay. Yeah.

And a hat. Love it. Cool. You really have to sell it, though, and act like a dude. I think I can do that. Oh, yes. All right, I would like you to... I go a step further. I take down my boobs. Like bandage them down all the way, you know, wrap them. Stuff my crotch a little bit. All right.

Go ahead and make a dexterity check. Does you want assistance with us? Was he helping me? If he wants, you want to ask for up? Yeah, sure. Sure. So you'd get with advantage. Okay.

The advantage? Next day or the 15. 15, okay. You actually managed to sell a decent disguise. Yeah, so five o'clock, like shadow stubble. Yeah. At a distance of about three or four feet would be passable and walking quickly by, but you know, Clonclose inspection, and you can see through it.

Those old kids' toys, we use the magnet to pull the little filings up. More or less. Mr. Woolie? A suit, like a medieval version of that, yeah. Hellwooli. But impressive, using the kid and using whatever scraps of clothing you can find in a mask,

you managed to get a relatively kind of, I don't know, top-not silver lake hobo version of bow, functionally ready to go. Top-nots. Silver Lake, a bobo. Good, it's good. Wait a harder. How do you sound? This episode is brought to you by Netflix.

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chooses someone else tonight. But in the shadow dark, the darkness always wins. This is old-school adventuring at its most cruel. Your torch ticks down in real time. And when that flame dies, something else rises to finish the job. This is a brutal rules-light nightmare with a story that emerges organically based on the decisions that the characters make. This is what it felt like to play RPGs in the 80s, and man, it is so good to be back.

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Perfect. I got nuts. I got nuts. The stage was right. I'll cast the sky self on myself as well. Okay. And turn myself into a human with blonde hair.

and she's going to be very clean-looking. Angeline. With big lips. Pink horse. And yeah, and like a couple like jewels on their fingers. Okay, okay. Just double checking here. The sky self lasts for, is it an hour? I thought I thought it was a hour.

Take it out. So while they're doing that, are you putting using your disguise kit in himself? I mean, can I get myself? I assume I've just got like some very basic black robe that just, and then something that's... Yeah, with the cloak and hood and with makeup you could probably pass for human as long as you keep the hood up and, you know, keep most of your more ostentatious dog. I'm sure I've got a set, so I'm gonna, yeah. Go ahead and make a dixte over your sky's kit. Do you want help?

Yes, please. This is a lot of work. Oh, this is... Ah, it's a natural 20, I'll do it. All right. Between kind of making your skin tone more of a natural kind of a, kind of a, a tan, kind of peach humanoid color. Bring the hood up. You actually pull some of your hair forward and adhere it a bit around the horns,

so it looks almost like a bit of a cluster of hair in the front. You manage to tuck in and tie your robe behind you or your usual clothing, and then using an overrope to hide most material, and you kind of just look like a dude passing through. So with that, your disguises are complete, your spells are cast. Is that your human face? While I'd do all that, I'd want to stroll outside and see if there's Crown Guard outside

or what, I'm just going to get a breath of fresh air and see what's on the street outside of this place. Okay. As you exit, there are two gentlemen in full Crowns Guard gear that are both, one is standing outside, the other is currently sitting in a chair, and as soon as you watch it pass, they're both just kind of scan you up and down, continue to watch you pass by. And there's only just the two of the door? Just the two that you can see at the front, yes.

Okay. All right. So I just take a minute or two. back inside. Okay. Okay, and sort of on knot's shoulder and say, well, good. Yeah, I think we're good. Excellent. Should we, should we try to do this then? Yeah, two's. We're same. Yeah, of course. Not all at the same time. That's obvious. Level two, trying to get out of a fucking end. I'm so hard. I should have, and then I'm kicking myself. What? So anxiety can't do

any. Is any, just, yeah, no, never mind. I didn't do it at the time. I can't do it No, no reccombing, never mind. Oh, I'm gonna scott down over with you privately. Hmm. I still think that this is a bad idea, but I can tell that you want to. Well, it's just that, listen, there's no offense, but I enjoy our talks and your schooling and everything, but I haven't talked to this openly and freely with other people in months. It's kind of amazing. It's pretty nice, isn't it?

Yes. Still, if this goes south, we leave. We're the first ones out the door. Easily. Yeah. They'll never know who we were. Caleb and not. Well, don't say that too much. I mean, yes, they do know that we're Caleb and not, yes.

All right. Okay. So we're doing this. Yeah, let's just go with. Yeah. See where it leads. Can I walk up to nod? No. No. Yes, we weren't talking.

Do you like my outfit? Oh, shit. What are you? Oh, God. I'm just a young girl from the village. No, I'm just a young girl from town. I don't know anything. I should go get my father.

No, you're worried. It's me. I know. This is how good I am in magic. Check me out. Oh my God. Are we leaving here or not? Well, are you afraid you'll be propositioned on the street?

I am really attractive right now. Those lips are very very very. I came over here to give you the blessing. What does that do? It helps you with your stealthy thing. Oh, the stealthy thing, yes, thank you so much. You're welcome. Okay, that's it.

But I'll see you outside at some point, okay? Don't be scared. Come up to me. Okay. Okay, what order are you leaving? Should I go first? Sure! Are we going out in bears? Like you said.

Are we going on bears? Has Adeline noticed any of this? I imagine you guys have been using your disguise kits in your own rooms and chambers. Yeah, yeah. Other than that, no one immediately seems to be noticed to make a perception check. Thank you. Not command ops of the Tebranol. Yeah. Let's call that a...

14. 14. Thank you. You do see Yorda, the bar keep. It's currently kind of in the process of wiping out some glasses at the end. It's just kind of occasionally given a glance over to you guys as you're walking around. Want to come with? Uh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

All right. Don't do anything stupid. Mouth shut. Eyes forward. Show me how you walk. Maybe a little less. That's nice. I also assume a little limp. Slip.

All right. John, please. I'll stay for the purpose of this. Each of you make a performance check. Oh, God. No. Oh, good. Oh, my God.

Shit. Oh, no. 20. 16. Okay. The both of you exit out, holding your breath. At a peripheral you can see the kind of deep reds and golds of the crowns guard armor flanking you as you breach the outer porch of the tavern, stepping down into the dust to the main street, curve to the left, and

and see or hear any reaction from either of them. Just keep moving to the other side of the street. I go just a little bit after. Okay. And I rolled a natural 20. Is it three for the night? Yep. What color does that die?

It's gold now. It seems to be iron like my will. All righty. It may not have been the snitch after all, you asshole. Me and my magic swords? Magic swords. Apparently. All right. You saunter by, without an issue. By saunter, I mean you stumble through. You hear a cough at one point. It kind of just causes you a moment, but you just continue on without notice. No, everybody's leaving and I didn't have a partner.

It's fine. Don't worry about it. You can come with us if you bike. But I feel like you guys are kind of noticeable, and why would I be this really beautiful woman leaving with a stinky guy? It's quickly becoming canon that you just have shit smeared. Oh, the diarrhea is crazy is original. Okay, okay, okay. You could travel with me. Yes, and.

I could be your daughter. You're my daughter. Yes, and we're a couple and he's our god or something. I don't know. You leave after us, Caleb okay? Isn't it simpler for you to walk on yourself like a beautiful woman? No, me and not are going to go together. Okay, come on.

Okay. I'm sorry. She's just very, she's very for one. Sweetie, let's go. Yes, not me. Go play. Okay. And we walk out.

All right, you guys don't have to make a performance check because you've exited before and you are completely visually a different. Yay! So you guys passed her without an issue. And then Caleb, you can follow up behind as you are not currently under direct guard in the tavern. They do notice you exit. and they're aware of your presence, but you were not confined to the tavern. All right, so you guys all managed to slowly come together a few blocks down and out of the sight of the Crown's Guard, guarding the Ineslnook Inn, and where are you off to?

We did it. Where should we go? Let's just keep walking for now. Okay. Should we walk towards the carnival? Where the zombies were? Who was he? Would be my question. Oh, right. We should find out where he's from. How do we do that? Should we ask around and say, hey, The one who died, you mean? Anybody know where the old guy came from that turned into a zombie?

That's a good point. It seems to be the most appropriate thing to ask at this point. Well, we could find some public places and just gossip a bit, see if anybody's heard of him, if their friend has died at the circus last night. I mean, you mentioned no sick people if he was sick. Sometimes that word gets around. Maybe there was a morgue. Maybe they recognize them from his belongings.

These small towns, most everyone knows everybody else. Let's go to, like, is there a market area? Yeah, let's find a market, exactly. Yeah, they don't have like a large bazaar, but there is an area that is generally where a lot of the simple wares and vegetables and meats and people who sell small things that they craft their own at, so it's a small market.

If you want to make an investigation check. By going around and asking questions and inquiring and trying to prod people to just talk about what transpired the night before, the information you gather involves that the man who passed away. His name is Enon Brinje. Enon Gringe. Brinjee. Brinjee. Brinjee. He's a standard human being in his early 80s. He is old, but healthy, it seemed. Was in good health or he? Seemed to be in good health for his age.

I mean, so our war against the old continues. Apparently. They're the Logan's run of D. That's, he seemed to have been retired for quite some time, but I've been making little bits here and there, just kind of helping either fish He moved fish to and from the outside of the lake. He wasn't really well known.

The reason people are talking about him now is because the word has gotten around the gossip about. But for the most part, he was kind of one of the many faceless people that lived in the town and a handful knew his name. Retired fisherman? He was retired. He's helping with. Do we know what he was retired from and where he was staying,

maybe where he was drinking? I'm sure, I mean, he had to go somewhere. he was known often to be drinking at the old Mudhole Tavern. Travis's favorite place. Is that with the weird ye spelling? No, just old. I'm always fan. I know. Ye oldie. Ye oldie. It's pronounced thee. It is pronounced thee. It is pronounced thee. You see the ye. And then. I should point out this is the second sort of connection to the Oostalak. The what?

Well, before we met up with you two, we fought off a wicked sea, like water snake. It came about with the lake for some reason. Is this a metaphor or was this actually a real thing? No, it really happened. I almost back. A snake snake? I punched a snake to death. Really, really big.

They weren't there snakes in the circus last night, but that wasn't related to the attack, I suppose. It's a little different. How long a snake are we talking about? Oh, it was a big, like a sea, like a lake like a giant water snake and the locals were complaining about more and more instances of these snakes coming out of the lake. And this fellow who died was a fish or worked with the fisherman in the lake? He took some jobs with them. Do we know, did anybody see him the day of the carnival?

Was he working with anyone that day? You don't find any of that information. That would be kind of a tense sophistication thing. You have to go beyond just asking questions around a market for. Is the lake within the city limits? I mean, it's technically considered part of the old city. It might not be any sure. We could go back over there and talk to. Where's the oldy mud hole tavern at? The mud hole tavern you've been to before.

Because I was doing my rounds. Yep, when you first entered the city. The lockboard? Is that what we're talking about? The lockboard is where the old mud hole would be. The lake is. The lockboard is to the eastern side of the entire city. The lockboard is like the central one. The woods board of the lake.

Love a good snake. All right, so you make your way to the old mud hole. Entering inside, this is, it is a dark dive of a bar. You've been there once before. It smells heavily of old, wet wood, ale stain, and peanut. On the four, it's a very small area. And of the four tables that are there, they're mostly empty, except for one old man who's sitting there in the process.

I gave a solid tear with his cards, and what looks to be a man in his 30s thumbing through a book. It would be the bar keep if there were more patrons at the moment. He's kind of just flipping through and glances up and gives you a look as you enter. He's like, can I help you? Are you looking for drinks? Can I get you anything? Yeah, I would really love a drink. And I sit down next to him. What do you have? I need something heavier than a trost. I've had enough trusts to last me a lifetime. Well, we have liquor. I will take your liquor.

I'll get some whiskey for you, then. Whiskey? Everyone? Sure. Two, please. Sure. It's okay. She's my daughter. She loves whiskey. I can remember what voice I was doing. Make a deception check.

I have any whiskey she wants. Oh, that's pretty good. That's really good. That's pretty good. 17. This is my daughter. All right. We've been doing a pub crawl.

It goes and lines up a few small containers, fills whiskey for all of you. All right, around the bat's that'll be about eight silver for the batch. I have that, I have that. Pull out eight silver, my... Oh, wait, silver did you say? I don't have eight silver. It's okay. I have it. You do?

Sure. I mean, sure. Takes us over. Whoever puts it away, slides the drinks to the rest of you, and goes back to his book and just starts flumming through again. Honestly, he's been a terrible 24 hours. We were at the circus last night, and God, I did not know him well, but old men, Brinche. Phil.

He looked saffiness. He none. Sad to see him go. Many of us were wandering when day it was going to be. What did you know him? Well, he came in here almost every day to drink, yeah? He's a lonely man. It was a terrible way to go.

Well. I'm sorry. Doesn't bother me one way or the other. Just that to lose a patron. Did you know who he was talking to the day of the carnival? I don't recall. Sometimes he would tell stories. Trevor was willing to listen and not more so willing to listen.

Was he here that day? Yesterday? Yeah. I think he came in briefly for a drink before the carnival, but that was it. You know we should drink to an old story as a Brim Jays. I damned my shot. What did the man drink? How to carry out? What was his final drink? I'm a bit of a macaw person myself.

So it's very whiskey you just had. I'll take one more, and I'll get one of my own. I heard he was sick, too. I don't believe he was ill. I hope not. I hope not. It just seemed to be rather wasting a way. Shouldn't be doing so much manual labor at that age, but... What labor was he doing? He'd just carry stuff around for small tasks.

Down at the docks? Docks, up at the northward. It carried crates, boxes. He was just odd jobs. He has to get by until the end of his days, which now that they've come, may he rest, and not have to do odd jobs yet ever again. again. He goes and pours his own beer whiskey. Do you know who he was doing odd jobs for that day?

Your lady voice is worse than mine. To be honest, if he did, I wasn't paying attention. I'm sure his family will miss him very much. Nobody nearby. He had a son about 35 years ago, but him and got married and went up north. Did he work for any of the particular breweries around? I don't know. Maybe. Lasky.

Ill Lasky. Where did he sit in here? It points over to another table the guy is playing solitaire, but an empty table to the right of him. Usually right there in the corner. I go sit in the corner. Check it protects. Yeah, I'm going to look for anything I can find that looks like an old man was touching it. touching it.

Okay. Make an investigation check. Okay. I'm really good at these investigations. Twelve. Well, it looks like probably old person touching has been all over here. Old person touching. Yes. The table is very old and warped in places, stains all over it. It's not a very good table. It's seen some rough days. If we were to go down to the docks and ask after a few people that he'd worked with, is there anyone you know that we should speak to or familiar he is?

I apologize. I served him drinks and pretended to listen to him many times, but I wasn't really paying attention. I understand that. Was there anyone who did? That wasn't hypothetical. Maybe. I apologize. I spend most of my days reading. You're going to lips the book. What's the book? What's a book? Hey. What's a book?

You read? Suttled guys. We've got to read. I'm going to, while they're doing this, I'm going to saunter over to the card player. Oh no. Can I see what's on the spine of that book from where I am? At a glance at it, it's in Zemnian, which you can read. But it says, the translation would come about to the

Rose D'Embrace. The romance novel. Probably. Yeah. Is Fabio on the cover? How's your trashy novel? It's a good one. I don't, no judgment.

So trashy, it's very tasteful. Oh no, I mean I am fluent in Zimni and I've read all his works. Have you? Mutual fan. I did not realize there was another Samuel fan in here. Which is your favorite? What's your favorite? I love the Fathers and Brace.

I haven't read that one. It's an early one. He actually did it under a pseudonym. He did a whole series under that pseudonym, short stories most of it. And he goes over and grabs a piece of chalk up from the back thing and starts like running out. What was, it was? The Fathers and Grace. Yes.

Oh, my God, I did not know about this. No. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. I have to sign up to Zedash and see if we can find out. if we can find some of those books. Thank you. You're a big reader or just Samuel? Oh, just recently, Samuel.

I read an occasion. It depends on what you can find. Oh, I read a lot, but all I've been able to find in this town is that parchment place. The parkish place is good for trash. We're looking for unique stuff. There's a few places you can go instead. Here in town?

You're in town, yeah. If you're having a hard time finding a specific book, I would recommend going to burnished biblos. Bernish Biblis. Which ward is that in? Oh, that's in the north ward. Just on the outskirts of the main market street, it's kind of a bit of a cluttered mess, but Oglin will be happy to help you there. Oglin? Oglin. Oglin?

That is good to know. Thank you. Not to worry. Those are hard to find. The farthing's embrace. Oh, right, I'd imagine so. I can't be that bad. Well, he wasn't as proud of them, you know, early work and all that. Of course. But I have a contact in Lexington, probably. If I cannot find it in the dash, I'll get it from Lexington. That would be the place. What's your name?

Oh, my name is Caleb. Caleb. Yeah, pleasure to meet you. I'm Basner. Vastner. Pleasure. Thank you for the drink, Varsner. I'll be taking my leave now. Of course. If anybody else is a reader as well, some of you will come by and talk some time. Not there at all. This has been quite a day.

Is there pictures? Is there pictures? I mean, pictures are up in here. Oh. It beat me to it. Sounds exciting. It can't be, yeah. I sneak my undrunk whiskey to not

to not... I take out my flask from my leg, unscrew it and pour it in. Okay. All righty. What do you guys think should we stay here or should we go somewhere else? We gotta get Molly. So I just sat down for a moment with the Solitaire player. Correct.

They say Solitaire is the game for the death obsessed. There's inevitability to every hand. Most of them are doomed from the start no matter what you do. Any interest to buck fate and... buck fate and just try her hand in an opponent for once. No money, just friendly. I slide the rest of my whiskey over. Are you a devil?

I've been called worse. I don't play with devils. Just a man who saw another man die. Yesterday has been heavy on my conscience, and I just wonder if there's anything you could tell me about Enon. Eon, wanted to go to that bloody circus. I'm regarding it myself. Told him not to go. Stupid it is. For the common folk and the young, he's always had his head in the clouds.

Has he? It's not what other people have said. Other people are stupid. Why do you think he went? Why do you think that happened to him? He's lonely. Don't trust the carnival. Nothing but spooks and magicians and things I want to take your love. life and take your money, take your family, whiskey away. Fuck the circus. Fuck the circus. Fuck the circus. So, that's what you think happened to him then. I feel like there's something evil afoot. Says the devil? Hmm. Again, I've been called worse. I'm sure you have in your time as well. He takes the drinks, is it? Don't come around here no more. I'll take my cup back, down it. I love small towns.

Shit. We head outside. All right. Well, that was revealing. Well, we learned a few things, actually. He is a prime target for perfect victim, perfect candidate. No one really paid attention to him. No family. He had no family. His son is gone. Offly convenient. Awfully convenient.

convenient. Still awfully convenient that your little old circus doesn't allow the elderly, which you never fully explained and he happened to be one of the oldest people in that circus. Where did that rule come from? The sick makes sense. I asked you that before, but why elderly? That rule has been around for as long as I can remember because it makes people think the show's dangerous. Gives him a thrill. I'm having a heart attack or something. We're not having a heart attack or something. We're not We're not really worried about people having a heart attack. We want people to be worried about having a heart attack because then they're more excited to come see the show. It's, this is how these shows work.

Do you know who implemented that rule? Before my time. In his defense, every carnival I've gone to, I said no sick people, no older people. It's a... It's a boilerplate. Still a good candidate and a good... If you were trying to hide doing something to someone, it's a great candidate. If I was trying to get away with something,

something terrible idea. Or if you were trying to frame someone, seems to be a lot of pretty bigoted people in this town who don't like teaflings and other strange lots. Jester, you actually think said one of the smartest things of the of the knight, which is... You did. Yeah. Which is, guards really weird. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Wait, what? The guards are really weird.

Crown guards. The crown guards. As you were saying, what are used to lock? Like, you know, they, what kind of weird? Well, they seem to be the one through line, the one connecting through line. And also, what's her name? Norda? Mention that she didn't want to let you lot in, but made an exception.

I don't know. I'm saying, if I wanted to do something and if I already knew a bunch of people were upset and angry at a circumstance and strange people coming in, it's easy framing, in my opinion. She makes a valid point. Oh, like if people are scared of carnivals, they won't want them in the future. That? Or if you're up to no good and you don't want to get caught, blame it on the easy frame. The weirdos who just rolled into town. Great, so we just need to investigate the guards.

That might be harder to do. Maybe we go down to the lock walls. Let's start at the docks, but I'll keep that in mind. I don't know, it might not be the guard. There might be another through line that we're missing. Do we need to question the guards? That sounds terrible. Maybe we should tell them they can't leave town.

That's a good idea, yeah. Maybe when they question us, we can... We can... Yeah. I like that. I was about, no, never mind. What? I was just about to be very impressed, but I'd take it back. Oh.

How far is it from? Not where we are to the lock ward. You guys are technically in the lock board. So it's a quick jaunt over to the edge of the Oostaloc. Yeah, so the Oostalak was the, is the docks. It's what they call the wall. It's the giant lake that the docks are against. The city is built against this giant kidney bean.

What does Ooster mean? What does Osta come from? Do you speak Zemnian? Oster. I do speak Zemnian. Yes. What does Oster mean? It means. Do you know?

Upper? Do I know? I'm just going to fuck with you. It's been a while that Oster thinks it's raised. It means lake. Oster Lough? No, it's not lake, lake. Osta. Essentially it just means an east lake.

East Lake. I wasn't going to hide. All right. That's very good. Not too complicated. complicated. All right. Well, I'd like to avoid the guards for as long as possible.

Let's head down at the dock. All right. Keeping an eye out for the guard. All right. So as you guys make your way towards the Oostalak and the dock ward there, we'll go and take a break. We'll go and take a break. We continue to unveil this mystery. This is exciting. Gripping. Indeed.

I suppose. A little low-level mystery here. We'll see where this goes. All right, guys. We're back here in a few minutes. We're going to take a quick restroom break. Pick it up from here. We have video at the break for this week's contest. So if you're watching on Twitch, feel free to go ahead and pay attention to get the password and enter this contest. And we'll have the victor at the end of the break. So we'll be back here in a few minutes, and we'll see you then. Welcome back, everyone. So before we dive in real fast, we do have a winner in the chat.

No, you're right. Thanks, Sam. Congratulations to Abilene Rain. Abilin Rain. In the Twitch chat, you won the awesome wormwood prize package. The Nobel will be in contact with you to get your contact information and get that sent out to you. So, congratulations. I love that we just went through every rain song.

Yeah, yeah. Most of them. We'll get a few of them. All right, so as you guys make your way across the streets of the Lock Ward, you find yourself to the DECD, you find yourself to the Dund. docks, which are about five or six main dock structures that protrude anywhere from 10 to 30 or so feet into the lock itself. There are no major ships. The biggest river that exits the lock heads towards the mountain, so there is no direct path to the inlet. So all the

boats in here are small fishermen's boats. They're designed specifically for the lake and for freshwater fishing and whatever needs to be transferred from bank to bank. As you approach, you can see a good amount of the boats are still out in the water. You can look out and see the outline of them against the horizon. You see a couple of small land masses just in the center of the lock. They're just barely out of you. You approach the first couple of fishermen that walk past you both look to be hardened in their years. Their skin is very battered by the sun. It's wrinkled and dark from constant beating of the sky upon them, and they kind of glance over at this unique-looking troop as they approach. I'm just going to stop and don't say anything. They just look at you.

Like, what are you doing here? Do we still have the sky spell up or? You have it for maybe ten more minutes. Oh, shit. I'm sorry, do we see any King's Guard? Crownsguard? Crownsguard? Make perception check. Eleven. Eleven. Same.

All right. Glancing about you don't see any crowns guard in the immediate vicinity of the lockboard. You've seen them. They patrolled the town and walked through word to word, but you don't see it at the moment, no. Looks like we're ahead of them in the investigation. Hey, hey, Jester. What? Do you happen to remember the name of that guy whose daughter we saved from the snake? Yeah.

Let's see if I wrote it down in my sketchbook. Yeah, because I didn't write it down. King Bertrand? No. Okay. What about? No, I know that guy. Um, no, I didn't.

Damn it. You remember where he lives mostly because you were there. Oh, that's true. We could go by there. We could go by. He seems to like us. You worked out there, right? Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. All right. You guys make your way along the edge of the lock to the outside of the of the fisherman's house. The house is currently being repaired. You can see in the main doorway, the door is off the hinges, and there's a large pile of ruined furniture

and cabinets that have just been shifted out of the building. You can also see what appears to be a long, serpentine body that is currently being skinned by a younger man, like 14 or 15, is in the process of carving the skin off of it. This thing was about 20 to 25 feet long. That's the snake I punched. That's your work.

That's impressive. You took it all by yourself. Well, no, I mean, they help me. I'm not an egomaniac. They fucking help me. But I saw your guns last night. You probably took the lead. Just they help.

Give credit to the whole damn group. Move on. Um. What flattered? Comphemy. I'm comparing the snake to the snake this tattooed on my hand to try and get the heads to be the exact same size. Okay.

We have been in the woods for too long. I've forgotten how to talk to be. The game is really suffering. Thanks for the damn compliment. Okay. As you approach, the young man is currently trying to, this large, large, sharpened knife. It's almost been, it looks like it may have been a butchering knife, like a heavy butchering knife that's been kind of using currently to flay and pull the skin off the snake.

looks back at you guys and just doesn't know what's going on. You hear a voice go, hey, hey. And you look up and you see the fisherman that you saw before, the one who came to you guys in the tavern. He's up on top of the roof, and he's currently boarding some portions of it. It looks like a part of the roof had been damaged in the fray. And he goes, hold on.

Gets up and comes down the ladder on the side and approaches. You can see some sweating. It's like, I am so sorry. I didn't know you were coming. What can I do for you? Sorry for dropping in. Did we look like ourselves yet? No.

No, actually, he looks in... Actually, this is an interesting point. Yeah. Oh, damn it. Wait, none of you look the same. That's right, no, thank you for mind of me. So he comes down and goes... So he comes down and he goes,

how can I help you? Oh, please, not that music. That music gives me nightmares from my childhood. Could we get something a little bit lighter? Some lighter music here. Are you a fan of true crime TV shows? And what about Unsolved Mysteries? The show that Jump Started

all of our love of true crime. I'm Ellen Marsh. And I'm Joey Taranto. And we host I Think Not, a True Crime comedy podcast covering some of the wildest stories from your favorite true crime campy TV shows all the way to Unsolved Mysteries. Baby, you will laugh, you will cry, you'll think about true crime in a whole new way, and you'll also ask yourself, who gave these people, mics? New episodes of I Think Not are released every Wednesday with bonus episodes out every Thursday on Patreon.

And every Monday you can listen to our true crime rundown where we go over the top true crime headlines of the week. So come and join us wherever you listen to your podcast. Look, there are a lot of celebrity interview podcasts out there, but there's only one happy, sad, confused. I'm Josh Horowitz, and yeah, I'm the host of the show, so I'm a little biased, but truly happy, sad, confused is the place for nerdy and intimate conversations with all your favorite actors and filmmakers. From Andrew Garfield and Scarlett Johansson to Christopher Nolan, casting what-ifs, backstage stories, and much more. Listen to Happy Say I Confused on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Yeah, it's me. I kind of pull the hat off and I'm like, and pull my hair up.

I'm like, it's Borger. We killed your snake. Pretend that I don't talk. Pretend that I don't talk like this. Oh, fuck it. I dropped this guy's self. The form he goes, huh. I'm sorry to deceive you. I'm very confused.

Oh no, we're just... Don't worry about it. What was your name, friend? Rinald. That's what it was. I knew who was in our thing. Okay, Renault. This snake that was in your house is not the only strange occurrence.

It's been happening. I've been trying to find out the cause of it. Have you seen anything else like this in the time that's passed? No, we've just been doing repairs in the house and getting everything underway. I mean, this is the first thing that's come on this side. Most of them live towards the center of the lake and stander water.

It's been like two in the past few months that have come up. It's a bit of a nuisance. Have you seen any zombies coming out of the lake? Zombies. What are you talking about? We're asking after a man that helped down at the docks named Anon.

Have you heard of him? Enon. Yeah, I've worked with them a couple times. He comes through, looking for work, just asking to see what's available. You obviously have not heard the news from the traveling circus in town from last night. No, no, that's the big blue tent, right? That's correct. No, what's going on?

Enon turned into a zombie. What? Enon turned into a zombie. What? I'm sorry to hear that. That's terrible. Wow, that's really terrible. I'm sorry. We were trying to see if he might have worked with people that might have known what he was doing that day earlier.

I haven't seen with the docks in a while, not for a week at least. Really? Is there anything out of the ordinary from the past week or two? If it comes to mind, anything off about the run of the mill? I mean, other than a giant fucking snake rooting my house, but not that comes to mind, no.

Circus. Circus coming into town, that's a little weird. I see your skin in the beast. Can I ask why? I'm not gonna let it go to waste. That's some good meat, some good skin. And you mentioned the circus coming to town is weird? Why?

Because there's a circus in town. You just means out of the ordinary, yeah? Yeah. If you don't get any shows and travel and fog, we, I mean, last time this was here a year ago, and came and went in a week. You said you hadn't seen this. Hi.

Hi. You said you hadn't seen this person in a week? Was that unusual? No, I mean, I didn't keep up with him. He just kind of came through every now and then, and so I had a little cash and needed some help hauling things through town. I'd ask for his assistance. He was an old fellow, and less that he was helpful and more that we just wanted to help when we could, but, you know. If we went down to the docks where he worked, is there anyone that we should ask for to speak to that might have known him better? I guess it's as good as mine. To be fair, although we're a community, we're also relatively competitive, so you understand. I do. Can you think of anyone who would have wanted him to harm in some way?

I don't think so. I mean, he's an old man. I don't see him able to hurt anyone. The disposition seemed positive enough if a little sad and lonely, but If you think of anything or if you hear anyone speak about him, you can find us at the nestled nook end. We'd appreciate anything if it happens to reach your ears. Of course, I'll, uh... Let me finish up here at the roof and I'll ask around and see if anything comes up. How's your little girl doing? How's your little girl doing? Sorry. I kind of cover my...

It just wasn't expected. Sorry. No, she's doing great. She's doing great. She's been a little spooked, but she's He slept well last night and just she's doing fine. Thank you again for what you guys did for me. You're welcome. What? For what? Oh. We saved a little girl. Oh, yes, that's right. That's right. If no one has anything else, I think we don't care. If you see any zombies, please let us know.

I will. You were so kind to help me when I saw a snake. I figured if I see a zombie, you'd also be helpful. We would definitely do. We already killed a zombie too. Just a little bit more like a vague, yeah. She's a big weird snake. This is just a big weird snake I'm looking at. It's just big, it's weird. I know I've been looking at the snake this entire time. Oh, we have one of its fangs. I pulled it out. Make a nature check. Don't do those much either. I think I have a fang too, right? I think I have a fang too, right?

Uh, nine. Nine? He don't know much about snake biology. It's hard to tell if it's out of the ordinary. It's just a big snake. Looks like mine. Only bigger. Much bigger. Much bigger. Shall we?

Fuck, sure. We are the best detectives ever. I feel like we are really doing bad at this detective thing. We should probably wrap up whatever we're doing. I imagine they're going to come by the end soon and try and speak with us. We didn't leave any sort of like Ferris Bueller-y thing. No stuffed beds. No recordings on the old VHS.

What are you guys doing? Is there anywhere else that we need to inspect? The carnival or the more dock stuff? Well, I feel like going back to the carnival is probably a bad idea. I'd say the docks or his home if we could figure out where he lived. Where was last scene? It was last seen at the circus. Renault!

Yeah? You know where... You know where a non lives? The circus. I can't say I do. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. My apologies. I wish I could be of more help. Yeah. It's okay. You don't have to know what happened to his son by any chance.

I didn't even know we had a son. We have seen. We're better investigators than this guy. He's not trying to. I take the compliment. I'm putting it in my pocket. I'm keeping it from there. He climbs back up the ladder to the roof. I think that following a non-story isn't necessarily going to lead us here. here. He seems like a random victim. Hey, 14-year-old kid. He got him. It was kind of this puffy red fro going on. He looks a bit pale, fresh to this, scrawny, and he's still kind of just stuck

in the middle of, he stopped drawing his blade across the sink. Yeah? Do you live here? No, no, I live about three houses up. Did you go to the carnival? Last night, yeah, I was there. Okay, where were you at the carnival? I actually snuck in under the ten after it had started. That's a good thing. Okay. Were you close to In the show? Were you on that side or were you on the other side?

Did you see the zombie? I saw a little bit. He was a bit in the front. I had people in front of me, but I think I saw some of it. It was pretty cool. It was kind of crazy, right? Have you heard any ghost stories around town? town lately about scary things happening?

My grandma told me a ghost store years ago about there are these these like giant badger creatures that live on the hills of the ash keeper that can stand up on their hind legs and they come down and they eat kids that don't go to bed in time. Oh shit! Those guys are scary. I've heard of them. You should be really careful. Have you heard anything about zombies? No, not since that. What's up? Caleb has seen some shit.

I have to finish the... Hey, listen, if you hear any other ghost stories, you come and find us, okay? Okay. All right. Are you just going from person to person in the town telling them to come find us? He's so kidding. Terrible at this. She's making friends with everybody. I don't see. Any of you making friends? I'm a little concerned that we've been gone for a while.

Yeah, maybe we should get back. And maybe let these two that aren't under house arrest. Continue the investigation. We'll go back. No, continue. All right. I mean, if you're up for it. Yeah, yeah, we'll be a regular.

Yeah, we've done nothing wrong. We're not sweating it. Sure. I'm not sweating. Yeah, I believe you completely. That was very believable. We may come knocking, we're not there. We're going to give you another blessing before we're going, okay?

Thank you. What are you talking about? None of us did anything. None of us. We protected the people of this town. It's true. It is true. I know. That's easy. Let's go solve a mystery, not. All right. Are you being sarcastic? Oh, no, you weren't. Okay. Catching up on that. So kids don't know anything about this. Old people don't know anything about this. Tavern keeper doesn't know anything about this. Only the pure of heart make their answer I riddles. Back to the tavern.

Go to the tavern. But pure part, still going back to the guards thing, back to the tavern, let's go. Were we just on the docks? Yeah, you guys were at the docks. We came up at the box. We didn't ask anybody. We went straight to the house. We'll walk around the docks and look for a...

We'll see you back in the... Later tonight. All right. Should we run back or should we saunter back? You're gonna, probably, you know, poof. How much time does she have? A second, about a minute. Yeah, like it's about to fade.

Yeah, I figured it had already happened, like, probably midway talking through the kids. Probably. Poof. Yeah. Maybe super stealthily back. All right. I put my hood up.

And I can maybe put a rope through the window. That's my, that's a good idea. Yeah. Perhaps. Is it a two stories? Is it a two stories? You guys are from the second story. Let's do that, yeah.

We'll sneak around the back of the end and try to climb up the upstairs window. I can keep you busy at the front door. I'll go through the front like a proper person. Oh, because you can disguise yourself again. Yeah, I like that. All right. So you guys are setting up a rope to climb up the back? Well, I'm going to...

You go on your own, up to the top. You put a rope through. It's distracting. Okay. In the front, and then we're going to try to sneak up. All right. And then I'm going to drop some of the rope out the back window. Okay, easy enough to do so. So those of you who want to wait and can take the rope up, you're

wait for a moment where nobody's watching and climb your way up into the inn safely and get to your rooms. You two, what are you? It's a standard. Hey, Kito, do you want to piggyback? Sure, that sounds like a good idea. Scrabble up, let's go talk to some people. All right, I'll jump on Caleb's back. All right.

So I'll wander down to where people are working, where people are moving crates around. He's on Caleb's back. Yeah. Okay. That would be probably closer to the northward. Okay. So that's the plan is to look for people moving crap around the same way that Enah is said to have. So that's what we'll do.

Okay. Make an investigation check. All right. Shall I help or no? If you want to great. What does it tell? You aiding him would give him advantage in the world, I'm supposed to have been back. Oh.

That didn't help. Well, you brought. How you brought? 12 for me. You take a couple hours wandering through the northward, asking questions, and most of the information you get is they have no idea who that is. Or like, oh, he died. It's about time. And there's no point even asking questions, because we've asked them all for two hours, yeah?

I'd say yeah, based on that role. Like you just, you know. Okay, well that's a big zero. You want to go book shopping with me? Sure. Okay. I believe that they said, that gentleman said that the burnished biblios was in the North Ward, correct?

I believe you are correct. Yeah, it's on the southern portion of the northward by where it borders the lockword. Okay, so I'll start asking questions to get us there. Easily enough, you eventually are led to it. And you come to what looks like a closet that's affixed to another building. It looks, the materials, the wood used are almost driftwood. and heavily weathered, and the front door is closed as you approach. It looks almost like a glorified storage shed that has been bolted or bolted and put up against

another structure. Okay, a storage shed pushed up against another structure. All right, well, I will walk up to the door and knock on it. Okay. No response. Is there any breaks in the door in the building or cracks that Frumpkin, called into? A visual glance, it looks like there's about that space beneath the door.

Probably not enough for a cat to slip through. Are there any windows or anything, or is it all a big, dirty, dingy mess? There are windows, but if you look at the back of the windows, all you see is scraps of material, stacks of books, piles of boxes and crates. It's literally blocked out with what looks to be things stacked up against from the interior. How busy is this, the front of this place? Not busy at all. the two of you right now standing at the front door.

No one's coming to the door? Around the door. It's not on the main street, it's a little pushed back, kind of recessed about 10 or 15 feet from the main road, so there's nobody immediately around you, but there are people like walking back and forth along the road behind, but you're not out in the open, per se. And no one's coming to the door?

No one's coming to the door yet, no. Want me to break in? Yes, no. Okay. A moment passes, and you're here. Hold on, no long. Fuck. The door opens.

It was open. Oh. That's right. And the door opens, and there's the sound of a couple of what sounds like heavy sacks, going to the interior of it, and you glance about and hear the voice go, and I have you. Uh, hello? You look down, and there's this kind of crotchy-looking, scronny old gnome who's just sitting there in the doorway.

He's got this, like, vibrant puff. They're like a cotton ball of hair around his head, but it's just this perfect you have balled on top. No glasses, his eyes are very, very small and beady. He has this kind of bulbous round nose at the front with this little bit of a tuft of chin white hair that matches the cotton ball tough from the sides. He's sitting there kind of clutching the top of the knob

on the inside, which is actually a fixed smaller or shorter on the door, and he goes, Oh, come in? Yes, please, you're open for business, I take it. Always open, come on in. All right. turns around and kind of musters his way inside. As soon as you step into the door and look around,

this place looks like an episode of hoarders. It is just floor to ceiling, wall to wall stacks of anything and everything, knick-knacks, small stuffed animals, toys, books, glasses, and goblets. It is the biggest crammed flea market into a small shed-like space you've seen. I start unscrewing my flask. Frumpkin climbs back onto Knott's shoulder and snessles in.

Roger Ravamy. Ah. I am scouting the city for books. I'm staffed for books. We've got books here. Yes, sir. I'm sorry. What is your name? Oglin, Oglin hornsblower.

Oglin hornsblower. And welcome to my collection. Do you want to buy something let me know? Well, I see you sell great many things in here, books included. This is just things you've collected throughout your lifetime. Right, button, traded for, found. I don't know any, I don't understand what you just said, but I am interested in books, particularly in the arcane, realm, but any kind of book. Do you have anything that you just outright know is out of the ordinary?

I'm sure I've got a few. Look around. See what you find? Oh, okay. It's half the fun. Half the journey. All right. Friends, let's... Can you... I am, I am, it is like, it is like Winter's Crest's Morning for me, and I start scanning the shelves. Make an investigation check. Oh my God. Are you helping them? Can you give me?

me something to look for to distract me and give me a mission to go on, please. Yes, you want to find some sort of tool that helps you do what you do best. All right. Investigation check. That is 21. 21? All right. Thank you so much. I rolled a, oh, a 21 investigation check. All right. I'm just looking for bables to steal.

All right. In thumbing through, there are plenty of books that, within a first glance, like this is not of interest in me, and so you're having to move things out of the way and push things aside. The smell in there is just dusty and moldy. And you do find there is like some subtle water damage and some mildew growing in one far corner, and you're like, ugh, put that back. However, he rolls really high. Two things catch your eye. One, there appears to be the remnants of some sort of a note of a note, A sketchbook that is written in a language you do not understand. What languages do you know?

Well, off the bat, I don't know where that is in D&D Beyond yet. But if I open up my binder, I bet I have a paper version that I can verify with. The character details. I speak sylvan, common, and celestial, and I also can comprehend language as a ritual spell. But I think that takes some time. It does take 10 minutes. Ten minutes for... But you glance through the book, and while you cannot read the text, you do recognize

that there are elements in the back of the book that have a hint of arcane nature. That's one of two books you find with that role. It's like the adult section for him. I know. The second book you find is written in Zemnian, which you can read. The title translates to fiends of folklore. I'm so happy. You have quite a shop here.

I know I do. You have some real treasures. I'm particularly interested in both of these books. Good choices, good choices. I don't know though. I don't think that I... I mean, I'm rather tight on coin at the moment, so... That's too bad. Maybe my eyes are too bad for my stomach.

Well, how much are you... How much would you part with these four? Ah! He holds up the Fiends of Folklore book? Yeah. Three gold pieces. This one. Oh, hmm.

Ten gold pieces. Which one is which? The Fiends of Folklor is the three, the other term. Arcane weird one. But you're not quite sure what's in it. Okay. Mm. Would you have any interest in a

A magic cat. I'm shoddy? Frumkin disappears from on Knott's shoulder, reappears next to the little man. Okay. He throws the books and grabs nearby this large sack, and he's like, Nudge!

So it's like, Aik the cat. I'll take that as a no, I'll take that as a no. Child, a cat, destroy. He does hit Frumkin. Oh my God. That's terrible. Prumpkin takes one point of bludgeoning damage.

That might be it. I don't really know. No, it's toast. It's one to three. I don't really know. I didn't think that this would happen so quickly. Based on their own mortality. What a... Oh, please. Frumkin point two.

You're trying to get to do now. Yeah, he updates overnight as long as he's plugged in, right? Hold on, I have to see it. I have to see if Frumpkin is still here. Must be plugged and connected to one. Type in your passcode if you agreed to the terms. Oh, he's... One head point of damage? Yes. He's still here.

There you go. Fronkin immediately, like, darts off, jumps in your shoulder, and turns around him... It's like... So you don't like cats, I understand that. Sorry, it caught me off guard. Well, I was trying to sample the merchandise for you because if it was just a cat, it was just a cat,

but this one changes to my other. the shoulder. He's a magic cat. Okay. You can roll him in mud. He comes back clean. He disappears. He reappears. He brings you things. Can you make him go away? Gone. Thank you. Now we can continue to talk money. All right. Here's what I propose. I do not have ten gold at the moment. But it doesn't feel like you get a lot of thoroughfare here. So I'm going to come back to purchase this later. That's it, that's the end of my spiel, that's all I've got. But I am interested, and thank you for giving me the time.

Of course, sorry about your cat, friend. That's okay. That's okay. Have I heard all of this conversation? You've been hearing all of it, but you've also found amongst the chaos what looks to be a brass baby bottle. That's fairly dented, but it's very shiny, it polished. You can already see on the inside. Oh, boy.

You're right. You find a new flask, actually. That appears to be made of a... It's very tarnished, but you kind of spit and rub it a little bit, and it looks to be made of very, very fine metallic material. You're not entirely sure you'd have to clean it, but it looks to be a very nice quality material. All right.

I will try to trade my flask with that flask. That flask. Okay, make a slightly handshake. You'd be in a joke, though. Uh, 22. Oh, how. Wait. More.

No, that's right. 22. Now your flask, which still has liquor in it. It's fine. Allcom. For the empty flask that you receive, however, without an instance of anyone even paying attention, it is yours. Great.

You can write in your inventory you now are the owner of a platinum flask. Oh, oh, shit. Shit. Okay, okay, I'll see that in a second. The baby bottle, it's a baby bottle, or maybe rattle, what'd you say? It's a baby bottle. It looks like it was used as like a bottle for a very, very upper-class.

I know. I can't, I can't resist. I'll try to take one more look and just kind of pocket that as well. Let me go outside of hand check, please. 20. 20. It just vanishes into your clothes. It's the craziest thing. It was there and it's gone. Pooh.

Yes. Oh. Ah. Are we going to leave now? Should we leave? I think we should leave? I think we should leave. Maybe we should go. Did you need some money? I could lend you some money if you want. Maybe we'll come back tomorrow. All right. Yeah.

Lovely place you got here. Piggy back. Yes, please. Oh, these books for you. Come back when you can. I will. in the week, I promise. Oh, I'm sure. All right.

Have a good day, little girl! You guys take it to the building. I'm sorry. I did it again. I couldn't help it. I took some things. Do you think he noticed? Do you think we're in trouble?

Maybe we should hurry back. I think he signed. All right. Are you cross with me? Just wait one moment, okay? Wait for me here. Okay. I heard you talking about money, by the way.

I could lend you some if you'd like. Wait right here. here. And I cast Detect Magic just before I walk back into the store. Okay. And I look all around. What are your hours here? As I look to see if there is anything. Anything besides that book, that book, anything. Okay. You glanced throughout the interior and you don't sense anything magical, unfortunately, within the piles of rubble. Besides the book that he put down? The book does not radiate any magical aura, per se. But he answers, he's going to say, oh, all hours. You don't really close. I don't really sleep.

Middle of the night, even. Sure. All right, business is business. Thank you. No worries. See you then. Bishpeter. Peas smiter. That guy does not spinz in here. No, he does not. Let's go back to the hotel, shall we?

Let's do it. All right. While there away, you guys wait there for a bit, kind of getting stir crazy in the process of just waiting in your room for Jester and Beauregard. This is a knock at your door. Oh. God. Hello? Please open. It's crowns god. Whoa. Hold on, I'm naked. I'm closed off. Is there anything? Did you say that because you wanted to tell me something? No, I just wanted to make them wait. Okay. I like that. It's very like, we're giving them a varieg

We already got the upper hand. Okay, okay. It's a power of fright. Do we invite them in, or are we going to invite? You open the door, I'm going to sit on assuming on the bed. Sit. All right. Come in, please.

Oh. The door opens, and there are two Crowns guard there standing. She kind of shields at the side. Oh, hello, I wasn't expecting you. Oh, yeah. Hi. We have to notify you that the investigation is ongoing. You will not be needed today. Please remain in your premises. Be back tomorrow.

Okay, okay. Jury-a-P. It's just the same. Bollishth! Sorry, doing the shit. God damn it. We are at D&D jury duty. Yes, you are. Yes, you are. Oh, damn. $7 a date? What is the shit?

Can I ask you a question before you leave? Yes, what is your question? Are you guys going to be the same people coming back tomorrow? Possibly. What is your names? They look at each other, look back at you. I am Jonas. The guy's pipes up, he looks a little younger, goes, I am Lucas.

Jonas and Lucas, very good names. You guys should start like a band, like a boy band or something like. Yeah, it'd be good. Girls would go crazy. With this project. If you guys want to play some games tomorrow, we'll just be here. I'm here. Very well. Have a good day. They look at each other like, what?

Should you close the door. I shouldn't have offered the game thing. What if we want to leave and then they want to take us up on the game thing? I thought you enjoyed games. No, I love games. Sure. But what if we leave and then they want to play games? Okay. On to Ford's door. I'm sitting playing with the cards.

I open it. Same two guards there. Lucas and Jonah. Jonas. Jonas and Lucas. Hello. The investigation is ongoing. You will not be needed for today. We will return tomorrow. I shut the door. Any progress? I just pause and you hear like the subtle shifting of grieves against the wooden floor as they slowly walk away. Go take that game in the other room, why don't you? That was the power move right there. Thank you. You guys return to the end.

Yes, we do. Yes, you do. All right, well. Well, that was terrible. No one found out anything. It was a waste of a day. We're all terrible at this. Good night. Yeah, we...

What time is it? That's not true. I still say that some of the best information that you can get can be in the information that you don't find. That is nonsense. What the fuck does that mean? I'm just saying it. Sometimes the lack of information can be a process of elimination.

Sure. It's broad. It's super broad. No, you know what? I'm going to take it. I'm going to take it. I'm going to take it. I'm trying to be fucking silver lining so I don't feel like a piece of shit for a waste

a day. You guys are kind of shitting on that, but it's fine. You found nothing at the docks. He's zip, zero. We spent hours there. No one knew anything about the old man. It's about the dust-ish. See?

No one knew anything about him. That means prime candidate. Someone's little experiment, a little Frankenstein. I'm telling you. I don't really understand what she's saying. I don't do that. I'm going to run up and down the stairs for a while. She's not.

Do-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D. How long have you known this one? Who you talking to? Anybody who's watching this happen. About 24 hours longer than you have. It explains a lot. At one point Adeline the barma comes up and goes, I'm sorry, can you please stop?

Okay. Thank you. Hey, Dungeon Master, Yes. The other night when Not was out, carousing a bit while Caleb was asleep. He saw some figures in cloaks dashed by. Was there any distinctive anything about these three figures that dashed by? Not that you noticed, unfortunately.

Damn it. I will share that information with the group. I saw some weirdos running around. Like... When? The other night when he was asleep. How late? What kind of weird? Two in the morning.

Ooh. You're out that late. Sorry. Maybe we should go out at 2 o'clock in the morning and see if we can find them. That's a good idea. Follow them. You guys notice that it's weird that no one's actually really talking about this? I mean, this is a small town.

I come from a small town. Small town people gossip. I feel like there should be some more gossip than there is. It's very true. If someone is talking about this, we just haven't found him yet. Two a young field trip. We can always leave through the window. This time.

Mm-hmm. I like that. I could be down for that. I'll leave the rope tied in here. We'll use your cat, reel it back up in, so there's no trace of us until we need to get back there. Are you asking for my cat to hold up a rope? No, I'm telling you that your cat's going to hold up a rope. How is a cat going to lift up a rope?

It's not that heavy of a rope, it's just hemp. Hemp rope could be pretty heavy. Well, if I throw it back up there, then I imagine your cat can knock it back down at the very there, that could work maybe. Well. Oh, is you like an asshole cat? Well, he likes. I assume he can't have out.

All cats, asshole cats. This is true. This is true. It might be down before we come back, is the thing. I assume he's going to... Oh, that's fair. Where were you when you saw these cloaked figures? I had gone out to

do some window shopping. At 2 a.m.? Yes, I wasn't very successful. I had walked by the general store. Oh, we went there. Yeah, we did. I passed by a place called Natural Remedies, herbs and medicinal things. I went by a spot named Jackal Ware. It's a Smithies. Okay, but where do you see the quote guys? It was between... I don't remember. It was one block north of the natural remedies. Natural sewed, natural remedies. What was the other one? Jackalware.

I think that was what I was called. Jackalware Smiths. What fuck is a natural remedy? Jackalware. We could do a little steak out. Good. That's true. How do people send messages in this town?

Have we figured that out? Probably by foot or by a horse, right? By a horse, right? It's not that big of a town. Should someone stay up? Well, I was thinking someone should keep a lookout on the roof of the end in case someone comes for us while everyone else is out. How would we let anybody know?

I don't know. Can you conjure those golden orbs up into the air as like a signal? It's a pretty limited, they don't go that far. Hmm. Maybe we just risk it. Let's risk it. It's 2 a.m. I'm sure everybody will be asleep. Let's risk it. Hmm.

I am going to, before we, before we leave, is there a window in the hole or are there only windows in our bedrooms? There is no window in the hall, only in the rooms. Okay, that's fine. On our side of the room, if you have three rooms, but there are three rooms and they all have windows. windows. Correct. All right. On our side of the door, I'm going to take out my... I'm going to take out my healers kit. Do I have bandages or medical tape or anything like that? Not medical tape, but there's, there are, you know, clean strips of cloth and some

adhesive, yeah, bandages, basic general... No tape? No tape. I know, I need to tape. I'm going to tie like a bandage just ever so lightly, like around one side of the handle onto something on the other side of the door. If there's like a lamp or like some sort of pipe or something that I can... So that we'll know if somebody tried to come in the room?

Correct. Okay. You can pull one bandage out and affix it to one of the chair legs nearby. You could do that. Oh, for God's sakes, I just pull out a big thing of string. Okay. Yeah. I'll take some string and just kind of like some twine. Okay. And what are we going to do? Like leave through the outer window? Yeah. To their window?

Well, I figure they're on this, we're on the same room at this point. Wait, what? What are you trying to do? I'm trying to make sure that if someone tries to come in our room, we'll know if they've come in. I can take care of it. Oh, well, then I'm taking my string back. What can he do? I have some magic for that. Which is?

He has a magical spell that alerts you when someone tries to brave in your room. That is correct. Yeah. That's convenient. I can take a moment to do that and it will let me know. That part is it doesn't alert him when I sneak in or out. That you know of. Wait.

One mile of the watered area. That's better. Let's do that. I just need 10 minutes and I pull out a little spool of silver thread and stretch it out. And where did you want this over the window? Well, I was going to say in the door, but if you're like, if there's maybe even a place in the hall in case some... But then people might be walking by. Well, I can do the entire room, really. I can go door knob to, yeah. Yeah, this thread.

Funny thing about this thread, there's no end to it. So I start looping it all the way around the room and tie it off and take out one of my books from the holster, the one on the left side, and I open it up and you guys watch as I spend 10 minutes referring to the book and tracing symbols on the floor along underneath the thread. And in about 10 minutes of time, nothing happens, but that's taken care of. Nice! Yeah. See, he's really good. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Didn't really look like much. Yeah, either that or I'm really bullshitting you and nothing. Yeah.

Either way, I like it. I'll take it. Let's go. I'll sneak out. I'm going to do one last thing before we leave, which is just tussle the room of it so it looks like it's been robbed, just in taste they do come in. Interesting.

So you toss the room a bit, muddle up the space, and you guys, when I one, climb out the back of the window, down the rope, and into the alley behind the inn. looking about. You're waiting until about, like post-midnight, you said? Yeah. Okay, so it's dark. The various lanterns that dangle on the hook poles at different intersections

of the street are lit. Other than that, you have a faint bit of moonlight that's coming through the sky. There are some clouds, they're a bit broken up, so every now and then the moon cover can vanish and then return, but for now you have moonlight in the city. Where are you Where are you guys going? Towards the north end where the... That'll be leading the way, I reckon. Yeah. I'll go to where I saw the weird, I guess they weren't that weird, but the three cloaked figures. Little ways north of natural remedies?

Okay. I'd like everybody make a stealth check, please. Do we still have a blessing? No. No, you don't. But I can do it to everybody one by one if we get to like an open area. 21. Oh.

15. All right. 19. All right. 17. Good. 21. All right.

Four to, twelve. Okay. Forty-two. You guys following not, dodge between alleys. There are a few patrols of the Crown's Guard that you see passing by, and you wait for them to just cross path and then move on. Eventually finding your way to natural remedies, seemingly unseen. It's quiet. You can hear the sound of crickets in the distance. The cold night air is causing your breath to show every time you exhale.

You walk in up under your cloaks as you move on. The moonlight fades a bit and things get darker, but you follow Knott's lead and travel from place to place. You finally get to the outskirts from Natural Remedies and to the northern alleyway where you had originally seen those figures pass. So, you're there. Should we fan out a bit? Cover a couple corners so we can still see each other. Good idea. Yeah. I'm going to spread out of it.

Let's not go spread out too far out. Are you two like an item? What? You in Ford. Are you like a thing? Why are you interested in him? No, oh, no. You travel together and you always go.

He's a good friend. Okay. Yeah. He watches out for me. I watch out for him. You know. We're a good team. All right.

Like you and Caleb. Not at all like that, but yes, all right. All right. So as you guys fan out a little bit, everyone make perception check? Muscle show, I'm coming to... Natural one. I'm coming with you.

Stealth 19. Natural one? Oh, no. Perception. Perception? 12. All right. 9.

18. 10. Okay. So all of you, except for Jester, managed to get a clear view of your vicinity jester. You somehow get like an eyelash caught in your eye and you spend the next hour like trying to get it out but it's like in the eyelid and you can't, like you try to. Can you see it? Look up. Look up. Yep.

Yeah. Into the left. Let me get. No, no, no. Okay, okay, okay. Occasionally, you can hear the crowns guard approaching and they carry their torches with them, and you can see the light crawling forward so you all kind of duck out of the way and let them pass. But an hour passes. Two hours pass.

About the third hour, you get the sensation that whatever you saw the other night is not arriving on a clockwork time or not arriving at all. at all. Let's see, about three in the morning in the center of the city by yourself. What do you wish to do? Three in the morning? Yeah. I turn to Caleb. Any tingling from your alarm system? No, I would have burnt it up if something had happened. That's a good point. Yeah? I'm going to just try and meditate on the strange death and just sort of see if I can feel anything. Okay. Make an intelligence check. All right.

Let's just see how this goes. Meditation check. 17. 17? I'm kind of pouring over the details of what's transpired and what you guys have done so far to find information. You know,

there are still things to inquire about. There are still things to wonder and discover, and there's been a few places you haven't been to, a few places you haven't returned to. Like what? A few people that you haven't even inquired. about that might be closer to the investigation. Toya?

Yeah. Toya. Let's go wake her ass up. Toya. Is she under arrest? We don't know. Maybe we have to go back to the circus. Maybe it was Yasha.

It's early enough. Maybe we should just... Have a few more hours and the cover of darkness. Let's go wake her ass up. Maybe we should go back to the circus. You know the crime, that whole thing? I hate to admit it, but maybe. It's not us, but...

Who's real, real stealthy? I'm all right. Maybe we don't all need to go. Maybe just a few. And we'll others are hanging back. Hang back close by, though, right? Yeah. If something goes bad.

If you still see something. How far are we currently from our hotel, or from the inn? From the inn? About a 15-minute jog. So we can go to the circus? Mile and a half. While we've been figuring this out, I'm going to take out my painter's kit and draw like a little piece of poop on the side of the...

The tagging? That's good. A little tagger. Is it a mound of poop or like a single word? No, it's like a bound of poop. It's like an emoji. Make a performance check. Poop paint.

Oh, I wrote really love on this one. Four. Four. It takes a little convincing. to have them see the poop in the drawing. And you can see it, but like, you've seen better. It's a worm? It's a snake.

It's a snake. It's poop. I should have drawn the pile of poop. I draw a pile of poop next to it. It helps, but. That's a triangle. Yeah, I thought it was like chocolate frozen yogurt. This is math.

It's dark, okay? I can usually paint much better than this. It's really dark and my hair. hands feel a little numb. Well, let's move then. Let's go. Who's going where? What are you guys doing? We're all doing to circus. Check out the circus. Stealthily over to the circus. All right, I'd like you ought to roll those stealthily. Is no one staying behind? Not. Some are staying away from the tents, right? Yeah, going in danger close. Oh, not great.

Nine. Nine. Seven. Ten. Nineteen. Fifteen. Thirteen. Okay. You guys make your way through most of the Ducks ward on your way to the large blue tent that still stands ominously in the distance. Thankfully the moon has come

out and kind of cast this rim light against the structure so it's easy to see. As you guys are making your way outside of the lock ward, you immediately see the approaching torchlight of Crown's Guard and one of them you just faintly hear the 40 or 50 feet ahead of you go, who goes there? Is it one guard? It's two guards. These watches, they patrol in Paris. Are we like in an alleyway or in the street?

You guys are keeping off the side. You're all on the outskirts to the lake. You're almost made your way out of the city towards where the... What's going on? I cast a disguise self. No, no, no. Okay. And I turn it into a crowns guard.

Okay. You do as well? Yeah. All right, so you both become crowns guard. You all of a sudden are adorned in the the kind of goldish brass and red armor. Oh, God. Oh, God.

All right? I'm in my black hood. I've got my hood up. Anywhere to hide? Yeah, anywhere to hide. There are like some small alcobs, but you guys are kind of out in the open now. They've seen you. All of us?

Well, you don't know. They've seen you. They've called to you, and then both of you guys change their parents. I'm letting the talk to talk. I'm just thinking about. I walk into the lake and crouched out. Jester walks out, wades around six inches of water and just shh-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h.

Doing her best duck impression. I will take off my mask and start attacking Caleb in a convincing fashion. Not like to draw a real, but yeah. A deception check? Yes. Ooh. Is it? Can I start going, oh, oh, attack.

Get off your little beast to help with the illusion. Sure, make a deception check. My deception check was a three minus three. But roll it advantage. Roll it advantage. I'm helping you. You little seven minus three. Okay.

So as soon as these two crowns guards see this, they go, shit. They pull their blades and they start charging towards you not to try and protect their other crowns guard. I take knot and slam her into all as hard as I can. Say, down, you beast! All right, as they rush up, kind of in a jog, blades drawn. One of them's going to go ahead and attempt to strike.

Oh, God! Sure. That is going to be a 14 to hit. Miss. So you manage to like, just narrowly dodge the blade as it strikes through the back of your cloak and pins it to the side of it looks to be a wooden pole that, currently is on the outside of what looks to be an overhang where some of the fish are being left out to dry and turn into fish jerky. And as you're going to hold you in

place and you're kind of snarling and looking scared, the other guy pulls at this blade and goes, where did this thing come from? I have it, and I punch knot right in the face. All right. You take one point of bloods and you damage not. Okay, great. And blood just begins to from the nose. I have this. We're taking these people across to Dale. Indeed, stay your blade. Please, obviously he can handle this. Don't you fucking move, you little green piece of filth. Right in your face. Incredible.

This one is mine, thank you. Peter within an inch of a life. Well, you didn't make a deception to check on that one. We are just the worst. This is just terrible. Natural 20. Yes! We practiced this before.

Thank God, thank God, thank you. We got this routine down. You see a look at this appointment and come across the two Crowns Guard faces, the inability now to help you skewer this small, feral creature. They both kind of put the blades away. All right. If you see anything else, give a shot. And they both continue their walk past the rest of you. The rest of you lot fall in line. I drag the little one off. Hippico Verne, the tea thing partially crouched in the old.

She's taking a shit. Hey, hey, hey, hey. Not in the oestalock. Oh my god. Okay. You know, I stand up and slowly dred. Your legs are soaked from, you know, thigh to foot. They both kind of eye-wearily.

eye-warily and slowly walk past. It's real cold out. Have they cleared the way? Eventually they pass beyond a point where you feel absolute dreaded their presence. Is that a natural thing for you guys to just attack each other in moments of stress? Are you all right? I'm so very sorry.

No, I'm fine. That was good acting. You were perfect. I panicked. I didn't know what to do. I was trying to create some sort of distraction. Let me see your teeth. Okay. They just... They look all right. They're all over the place.

They're all over the place. I can't until they got worse about it. Ooh, you pissed him a bit. Okay. Who wants to go to the circus? Yay. All right. You guys make the rest of the path to the outskirts of the circus.

And you can see at the very, very front flap of it, there is a crowned guard who's like, I'm sitting there, kind of his arms crossed in the front, just keeping an eye out. He's doing the late shift. You do see the faint, distant, flickering glow of firelight from the back side of the circus. What is that? Why do you guys have like a... That's where we can't. Yeah. You saw it earlier. You saw the campfire. Oh, sure. Oh. If you want to make your ways around, I could distract him for a moment. Have a conversation. Do they still look like the king's, or crownscar?

Yes. For an hour. Okay. Sure. You want to go with them. I will go with him. Yeah? Sure. But will you be watching me now? You don't have to. Fronkin will go with you. All right. So we'll go. I'll go with you and... Who else is going? Are you stealthy? Yeah. We'll take care of you. Don't worry.

They're not going to talk to you without me, so I'm coming to... The girls are going. I'm a little jittery. You want to be a frontman for a little while. Sure, I got it. Okay. Yeah. All right. So what are the groups here? The girls and the boys. And Molly, Molly's coming with us. And whatever Molly is. Whatever Molly is.

Thank you. Fabulous. We're going with it. I'm going with the girls because the circus kids won't talk to them without me. Okay. All right. So the three of you are going forward as you. So what are you doing? I guess I should ask. Welcome to the garden. It's a late night. Not much action this evening. Seen anything unusual?

Nothing yet. I hate this. I wish this whole fucking circus would go. I need to sleep. Regular hours. Yeah, have you heard? How long are they supposed to be here? Until they finish this fucking investigation. Keep bugging, picking people for information, but they're all just clammed up, but not saying shit. At least you're by the tent. They've had us walking the perimeter at the lake the entire time. That's bullshit. I wish they'd just go ahead and execute that. It was a carnival master or whatever get it over with.

Did they find anything inside today? I mean, tell me something interesting. Please. I think investigated the corpses and found nothing yet. Still in there if you want to take a look at it. Would you mind if we popped in? I mean, I suppose so. Make a deception check. Yeah, little, whoa, whoa. Some good, something good? No. It's got this. Where is it? Jesus. Oh, 13. 13? 13. 13? Okay, you was thinking. I suppose so. I'm going in. We'll be quick, super fast.

Please, get it over with. You pop in. He said, he was like, if there's any way I could expedite this, if he can't pin it on any of them, we'd just kill him and take care of it. I mean, we should just, I mean, should we look around for stuff or what? Oh, well, let's, uh...

Yes. Yes. You are very... You are very good with voices. Yeah, I'm gonna do a little mimicry here and there. We should look, come on, check the grounds. Maybe we can find where the bodies were laid. Yeah, yeah, let's have they look around if that's true. You guys look inside.

The tent is dark. There's no light inside. I take a rag out of my side satchel, and I cast one, what the hell is it called? Because I've only been a wizard for a short time. One dancing light underneath the rack, so it's very dim. It's a dull one. All right, cool. So you have this kind of almost self-made hooded lantern with the cloth you have made. Yeah. Okay. Okay.

And not you're going with them? I'm with the girls. Oh, sorry. Where did the bodies fall? Over there, didn't they? That's right, yeah. Let's search the ground. Okay. All right. Make your way, and smell is pretty bad. You can smell like the flesh being to decay. And they moved the bodies? And the body's still on there? With a bit of look, the bodies are still what they left. Oh, shit. They've not moved. You can see what looked to be like a couple of remnants of notes, like sheets of

have been kind of crumpled and thrown down, but the bodies have been left where they are. Can we check the bodies for anything? Is there anything arcane? Do I, from all my studies, does anything here ring any bell? I have a photographic memory. Go and make a religion check. All right. That is ten. Ten. Unfortunately, you don't have a lot of research in the undead or whatever might be the essence of this creature's creation. And the more you look at it, you're like, this is not my specialty.

Okay, what about the perimeters of here where all the people, where there were a swarm of people, spend five minutes just seeing if anything was dropped of interest? Make an investigation check, both of you. Yes, the twins. 16. 16. Big 10.

Okay. Glancing about, you can see the track marks, number one, fleeing. You can see this batters of blood. You can see the place where the transformation occurred, and there is like a horrible, like, shedding. of certain layers of flesh. You can see what looks to be like almost previously existing layers of flesh and muscle that were kind of shed it as this, wherever this undead thing was, kind of fell to the ground.

But once again, you make a religion check as well. Shedding flesh. Alright. 10. 10. That's about down. Yeah, this is not your specialty. They have a little experience with the undead and this type of magic. We can't spend that long in here.

Maybe we just take a bit of it with us. Do you have like a pocket? I have many pockets, of course. Like a jar. I got no pockets, man. You decided a character with no pockets? Why would you do that? I might, but I'll have to check.

He's just in a blue man group of Unitar and Matt's it. Bob Liefeld just got a nosebleed. He was a little bit. All right on him. I'm going to be able to a pocket. All right, so this dead thing is here in front of me? Two of them. There's the main one, there's the ground zero one,

which is what you're putting on with attention on. There's the woman who was transformed as part of the first. Okay, so I will take my dagger, and I will slice a little bit off of the woman, and then I will, it's gonna get dark in here. I snuff out the orb of light, and I use the rag to roll it up. And I put that little piece into my packet.

Okay. Ew. It was right. A squishy sound you place it within your... Let's get out of you. I'm going to be sick. Agreed. All righty.

The four of you, I need you to roll stuff checks, please. Yes. Not that one. Not that one. I don't feel good about that. I don't feel good about it. Oh, not bad, not bad, not bad. 21.

17. 18. Yes. 25. Without issue, you guys quickly dart around the side of the tent and make your way right towards the central area where the multitude of tents to this back encampment is placed. There is a single campfire that is, the embers are burning out.

It has not been kept up. You do see two crowns guard that are currently just keeping watch. One of them is slumped in a chair across from the fire and is kind of like nodding off. And the other one is just doing like a basic patrol and looking around. Other than that, you don't hear any sounds. You don't see anybody else. Just the two crowns guard. Which of the tents is currently occupied?

There are four main tents. There are two very large ones, one that contains, generally contains, Toya and Kaori, the Devil Toad. That's in the south side. There's the north large, like the largest tent. This one contains the Not Sisters and Orna. And there's a very, very small tent to the south side that contains, or would be both the Breaker's tent,

but he's not here. And then there is kind of a medium-sized tent on the north side. That one, let's see who would be in that one. That one would be. Would I imagine a problem, I mean, it wouldn't be, to yeah, Toy and Carrey shared tent, that's right. Be Desmond? Desmond would be the other one.

And it would be Gustav staying there as well. Gustav changes from the tent to the actual cart. The cart? No, the wagon. The wagon. Molly, I have a question. What made you guys set up your tent here? We were told to set it up here, if I recall. Yeah, no, we were told. Like in this specific area?

That sounds right, yeah. If I recall, we were specifically told to set up tent right here. And it's by the lake, right? I mean, it's like maybe 150, 20, and 200 feet away from it. Oh, God, that's pretty close to a lake. Wait a second. What did they set up their tent on like a cursed land? It's the lake is coming. I'm going to just, can we, what's the easiest tent to get to without?

Well, do you want to go to the north side or the south side of the main? I want to go whatever's further away from the ours. Should we just go to the Toya tent? Toya tent is in the south side. It's the opposite side. You guys would have come in from the north end probably. What's the easiest to get to without? That would be the one that contains Orna and the Nautis's. I'm just going to sort of go to the north side.

go back there and do our traditional. Okay. There's actually no response. I don't know. It's close. I got Mona and Loe. I got Mona and Lena. Like telephone. Maybe slowly.

Yule. Yuley. Yuley. Okay. We're going to try one of the other tents. Is it, is it, I mean, like, are we getting, am I getting the sense that that, that, that, that, that, Any of them are in, or is it, or is it? Look over here!

Over here! Over here! The other tent you get to and you make the same sound? This would be the one that Desmond usually comes into. And there's a pause and you hear a very faint. I'm going to very gently lift the back of the tent up and not go in through the front. And just, okay. You glanced inside and you can see, like, leaning up from a bedroll, Desmond, who's

like half awake and kind of glanced sofa and sees you out of outfit, out of the makeup, gives a knob. They assume we're whispering this is a bullshit. Yeah. How is it? What's happened? They've come around and ask a few questions. We're trying to figure it out ourselves. Are you okay? I could be worse. How's Gustav? In Bosun. They couldn't be worse. Yasha, Yashad. Did, I don't know, did Toya see anything? Did she say anything? Trying to figure this out ourselves. Are you alone? No, I've picked up a few Scraglers. They're idiots, but they're helping.

I'll bring them in, bring them in. We come in. Okay, you guys all enter the tent and you see, Desmond, previously you saw in these very colorful outfits with like the frilled neck piece and the full facial makeup. Now you see what looks to be a man in his late 30s with a very scarred left side of his face. It looks like it was shredded at one point in his youth that the makeup hid during the performance. As soon as you enter, even upon greeting his, He kind of has a very, kind of, I don't know, a sad presence to him. And even though you're all kind of undercover of night and

this conspiratorial conversation, he just kind of has this melancholy about him that permeates the space inside the tent. He says, well, so you were all the ones that helped earlier. Thank you. It would have been far worse if you hadn't. No problem. What do they think happen? What are they asking? They're thinking something about the show. I'm thinking Gustav made this happen. I don't think it's Gustav.

He's a good man. He makes poor choices. He makes poor choices. It's plagued him his whole life. You can see it in his brow. But good intentions have grave consequences. And when that good comes out of Shady Creek run without some mistakes behind him,

but I don't see him. Don't see him doing this. Has it ever happened like this before? No. Anything weird ever happened before? Oh, weird things all the time. We're a bunch of weird folk. Work with a lot of weird people.

A bunch of strange. Strange freaks gathered to this show. Is there anyone new here recently that you haven't worked for us a lot? Yeah, she barely ran off. Josh is the newest, but... What about? She can be flighty. What about?

What about? Mona and Yulee. The sisters are bitter. The sisters are bitter, but it's no fault of theirs. Why are they bitter? Because the world is cruel. You never met it, well, never mind. I wish I could help them, but...

The world is... why do... Why is the war, what happened to him? Are you drunk? What's going on? No, I'm trying... I'm trying to hear and whisper all the same time. You can talk you the normal volume. Yeah, we're all. Okay. Tragical Whisper, Cautical Whisper.

Cone of Whisper. Matt, cone of whisper. Oh, God, that's a new thing now. What did they say? Why do they think that? Why is the world shitty? Have you been around? Have you traveled to see anything? Yeah, yeah.

She's a bit dim. Listen, the world all has its own brand of shitty depending on whose eyes are looking at it, right? So what is their brand of shitty? Circus shitty. I don't know. Ask them. All right. Where are they?

Time to over anything. They don't seem to take much of a liking to me anyway, so I can't really tell you myself. I'm sorry. They don't like you. Why? There's a lot of people that don't like me. So why? What you do?

I like you. Kind of looks at you and goes, The same reason folks probably don't like you. You're different. Is everybody still here? They're not taking anyone away other than most of everyone else is here. We're just keeping under watch until they're investigating. completion's complete.

Molly, why did you laugh when I asked about the sisters? We're carnival people, we're all little, we've all got our issues. You don't end up here if you're not a little weird. Can I try something? I want to try to detect good and evil. Mm, okay. Great. On?

On the area, but it lasts up to 10 minutes, so it's within 30 feet of me. You ever cast this before? No. First cast. First cast. First blood. Okay. So you cast it.

You concentrate. You reach down and kind of grasp the bottom of your symbol that hangs around your belt. And there's a faint rush of divine force given to your consciousness. You don't sense within 30 feet of you and you fiendish or celestial or a fay. or undead or aberration. Nothing that's been desecrated. Nothing from this tent and then 30 feet. Does it follow her? Yes, it's a radial thing. That's pretty cool. Let's keep going in. Maybe we'll see something. Can we head? Can we close to the edge of the main tent? Are all these?

The two tents to the north, which is there's like a bigger one and a medium one. The one the one that you're in right now is the larger one to the north. And this one contains, actually no, the one that you're You guys are the smaller, the medium one, the one that contains him. The large one contains both of the sisters and Orma. Okay. And then they're closer to the big tent. Where's the big tent? The big tent is about 10, 15 feet from the one you're in right now.

Okay, cool, cool. Yeah, let's leave. All right. I'll get up to the edge of the big tent and they want to see if I can feel anything weird in that area. Okay. Is everyone else staying inside? Are you going for? We're all.

We're going with, but before we leave, I'll ask Desmond from one out. cast to another. Are there any questions that are bugging you about all this? Give me thanks for a second. I just don't want this all to follow in Gustav. He's done a lot of good for all of us, and the way they're talking about the investigation, they're looking to make a scapego to this. Well, thank you. That's how they talk to each other. We're working on it. We're working on it.

That's how carnival folk talk to each other. I'm doing my best. Thank you. I'm going to quietly sneak out the back of the tent again and sneak into the... ...the stealth check, my friends. Oh, God, I hate all of this. Who should I... I'm going to give Molly a blessing so you get advantage. Oh. 21!

13. Okay. Not great. 13. Roll the trick. With advantage. Okay. Twelve.

up to the edge of the tent. I'm not gonna make the noise, I'm just gonna. Right, as you make your way over to the edge of the tent where the scissors and orna are, you focus and concentrate, nothing, no radial thing. One of the guard who's still standing up and kind of making a patrol kind of looks over right as you guys duck behind and you hear like a,

huh? The tent. I'm gonna go in the tent. We'll duck under the tent. and go and acting like we're sleeping. You guys all dogged into the tent, just as the guard begins to pass around, you hear the foot steps around.

As you step in, you watch as the two Knot sisters kind of both curl into like ball and stay really quiet. And all of a sudden, Sheena kind of comes to consciousness and the foot steps finish a circle, and then go back towards where the fire is. She runs in and goes like, okay, what's going on? That's what I'm trying to figure out. What the fuck is going on?

There with me, it's been coming. complicated. Gustav's in deep. Bo's in, you know, deep. Tell us, you know something. What do you want to know? What did you see? I don't know. Who did this? What was it? Oh yeah, now you knew it again. You're talking to Orna? I don't know. I looked and I saw what you saw.

Oh, Shana? This is Orna, I assume. This is Orna, yeah. Orna's the fire dancer. Right. Okay. Okay. For fuck sake. They're gonna kill every last fucking one of us unless we figure this out. Right. What do you think? Well, the fucking... The sisters over here think it's a hit job, but no there's no hit job with zombies?

Are you fucking kidding me? A hit job. I think, I don't know. I think that they're trying to cover something. It's not surprising. Can I inside check the sisters? What are they doing right now? They're both just quietly kind of called in watching you guys talk. They're not saying anything, though? Not yet, if you want to ask them something again.

Do they look nervous or they're just being shipping? Make an inside check to find out. Yeah. While she's doing that, I'm going to try to sneak out the underside of the tent again and go to the big tent. Okay. I'll go with her. All right, this is a bit of a leap. This goes about 25, 30 feet south of where you are.

No problem. Around the campfire that's open. No problem. White. So go ahead and make yourself check, guys. guys. God. I miss. Pass without a trace. 23. I know. Oh, no. That's a number. On Sam's lower teeth show, you're in trouble.

Nine. Oh. Okay. You had it. So, what was your insight check? 15. 15. They both look nervous, but just untrusting of the scenario. You can't read anything deeper than that. There is definitely kind of a Hmm. But you can't quite get a full beat on them. You guys, as you curl around the outside, there's the one guard that's sitting in the chair

with the fire, it goes like, and kind of opens his eyes a little bit and looks over in your direction, Jester. And there's like a brief moment where he's just kind of looking right at you. Do you do anything? I freeze. Stands up. Can I use a shot?

I'm going shitballs, shit, balls, shit. I'm just kind of tucking around, getting ready. You're around, you don't see anything. Oh, I don't see this? I'm going to, sorry, he doesn't see you. Oh, okay. Yeah, I know, I'm just getting ready for. I'm going to cast Charm Person on the guard that sees me.

Okay. So, as he stands up, he kind of goes towards you and kind of goes for his blade and has to make a saving throw. Oh boy. Which he does not make. Oh, I don't think so. It's like a six. But he remembers. No, it's like 13 or something.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So he gets me, he's like, make a persuasion check. That's so good. Yeah, yeah. Oh, it's so close. This is so bad. Five.

He doesn't seem to buy the dream thing, but he's like, Did it be a dream? He doesn't go to sleep, but he just knows you're there, and he's keeping an eye. He doesn't do anything. Okay, well it's good enough, I guess. Let's keep going. Definitely aware that you're there.

It's okay. All right. I'm going to go towards the big tent just so I can see if I can sense any evil. Okay, really quickly. Just to check because it's, oh, that's right. It's a, that's right, Charm Person is not. It's not, yes. Okay, it's at this point that you turn your attention to the tent and focus,

and there is a, hefty, radiating, warm fiendish source from the inside of that large tent. But if it's bad, that's bad. What if it's just a dead thing? Oh God. What, we have to fight a dead thing? Shouldn't we get some help? I turn to Caleb's cat and I say, go, go get Caleb, shoot, away. Shh, go.

I can't speak cat. Go away. I kind of like, go away, go tell Caleb we're here. Turns around and it kind of sprays you and then keeps walking. Okay, yep. I've set for help. Okay, let's go into the tent. All right, let's go. Okay, you guys carefully maneuver under the tent.

As soon as you curl into the interior, the interior of the tent, you hear a very heavy... This is the big tent that you guys were just in? No. No, it's the one in the south side of it. Yeah, this is a different one. Oh. Tomey! This the far toe man, yeah.

And you see the slowly expanding and contracting form of Kauri from the back side. You just see this giant, scaly, somewhat kind of oily exterior of the body. Just a fiend. I don't know, you detect you. Is he still sleeping? We can wake him up and ask. And ask if he's good or bad. Yeah.

Is anyone else in the tent? Make an investigation. Oh, sorry, it's a perception check. Percephersions. One. Oh, no. We suck at this. Okay, okay.

Everything. 17. Okay, that's better. You just stare right at the body of this toad going, It looks really, making scary. You glance and see just like a faint bit of like kind of a whitish material in the crook of the arm. And you kind of take a few steps forward and glance around the side, and you can see asleep cradled in his large.

in his large lizard man arms, Toya, dwarf girl, who's just kind of curled up in asleep peacefully. We should talk to her, but if we wake her up, he's gonna be mad, and I guess we have no choice. We should talk to her. Okay. She's a dwarf? She's dwarf.

Do you speak dwarish? No, no, we don't. Maybe she speaks common. We'll be fine. She's a circus person, it's carnival. We'll speak comments. Huh? Yeah, no, I'm not there.

He's out there. I'm sure we'll be fine. I have that ability to let you know exactly where the thing is. Which of those things is the fiend? Which of these things is the fiend? No, it's the large source. It's definitely the large fiend. It could have easily been the little girl.

It could have been, yeah. It's the big guy. Let's wake her up. The radiance is around the large. Toya. Toya. Singing, singing dwarf. Let's sit down on the ground and look non-threatening at all, okay?

All right. So we sit down like cross-legged. Okay, just like casual. Just like casual. Yes. Like we're having a deep bucket. Put down my hand. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And then we go. Wakey, wakey. The breathing stops and there's the stillness and the interior of the tent. We should light a light or something. Otherwise it's just, we're just in the dark. You hear this like faint sound of squeaking as somewhat lubricated folds of lizard man flesh twist over each other as the devil Devil Toad's head kind of curls back to look at you quietly. The mouth's slightly ajar. You can see rows of teeth and this little bit of drool dripping down the edge of the chin come

onto the ground. We're here to Dr. Toya. Which point the little girl kind of... And like rotates in his space. He takes up almost the entirety of this tent and slowly rotates around inside. It's surprisingly quiet for his larger creature as he is. And still clutching Toya, Toya kind of sits up and, she's like, What's happening? Hi. Sorry to disturb your slumber.

She takes her braids and kind of holds them with her hands. It's almost like a safety blanket. She kind of curls them to herself. She looks about, maybe like 11 or 12. I'm this close, you can see. She looks younger than she did from that distance before. Remember be the presence or the mature voice, but she seems pretty young. But not like, she's not childlike. Okay. Um, hey, what's going on?

Well, um... Do you recognize us from the other night? Last night? Last night? Last night? Last night? I don't remember. I got scared. It was scary. You have a really pretty voice. Thank you.

Um, did you notice how when you sang that a dude turned into a zombie? She kind of kissed a chuckle. And the big token of... I did. It was really scary. I didn't like it at all. I didn't do that, did I? Probably not. Has it happened before or is that? No, no. The guards were saying I probably did that. They're saying I might have done that. It's interesting. You notice now listening to her, she has this beautiful voice, but her speaking voice is very crackly. It sounds almost damaged.

Do you sing all the time, Toya? I sing a lot. It does it. It's what keeps me alive. It's what gets me money. Right. I understand that. Was that the same song you always sing? Yeah. It's the one song I know. Did it feel the same coming out of you, or was it different? Felt the same. What language is it?

It's an old dwarf in tune. My mother taught it to me before she passed. What does it mean? It's a tale of the angels and how they came from the realms beyond of the gods. They granted each to us our sparks of life. Granted sparks of life. Does that sound like a familiar story that they've heard before? It sounds vaguely religious, but...

When you were singing, did you hear any other sounds or what? words that someone else was saying? No, not beyond the ordinary. And I saw that poor man just start tearing through people, and I got scared, and Cowry helped me. And she kind of puts her arm up and packs them. How did you in Caldry meet? They brought me into the circus.

I was up in a city north of here, up very far north of the Merrill Valley. and I was just on the street singing. And this carnival came by, and I met Gustav, and he invited me to join. That's where I met Kowrie, and I met all those wonderful people. Has anyone new come around and talk to you?

No. I asked you to do anything. It's so strange. Man, we suck at this. No, we're really good. No, no. What are the most people we've had? Mollymok and Yasha.

They're new? Well, comparatively. Mollymok's been here for, you know, almost two years now. Oh, okay. I mean, but, you know, he came after I did. You both kind of found our voice together. I was very scared and he wasn't talking.

And together we kind of helped each other, learn to, you know, fun again. And yesterday before the show you didn't notice anything weird, anyone creeping around the carnival, setting up anything? No. Snoop it around. Anybody in weird cloaks? Cloaks, cloaks! I didn't see anything. I'm going to be blind for a second.

Give me a little slap if anything goes wrong. And I tune in to Crumpkin. Okay. At this point in time, you notice at this point, you notice at this point, Not going, shoo! Go find help! Then you hear, yeah. Yeah. And then what? Frumkin takes off?

Thumkin starts heading back around towards you. Oh, okay, so I'm looking at myself after a moment. Briefly, as you keep concentrating eventually, Frumkin finds this way under the tent and comes up to you. Go ahead. Is there anyone you think would want to destroy the carnival or hurt Gustav? Gustav, does Gustav have any enemies? I hope not. I know him in Orna argue a lot, but... Him in order? Order? It's Oana. Order?

Order's the one. Thanks very much, we're out of here. I can see that. Yeah. All right. And you guys... Let's go. Let's go. We've got, we solved the case. I have a little... I'm going to have a little... just a tiny bit of conversation. Yeah, so while they're gone, the two of you are in the tent with the sisters in Orna. I would like to talk to the sisters. Okay.

Well, that was going on. Both kind of sit in their knees, tuck to their chest? I just kind of go and I just sit down next to him, kind of put my knees up to, you know. Just kind of, this whole thing's really messed up, right? Yeah, you're telling us. Yeah.

Man. Like, why would we do anything like that? You know, I mean, where I feel like we're like we're We're all being like, needlessly persecuted. I'm sorry, who are you? Oh, sorry. I'm bow. The other bow, but I helped fight the zombies the other night.

I'm kind of under, like, house. We're under the same situation, just kind of separately. Not really, I don't want to compare myself to you, because that would be rude. But, you know. The two Affling twins kind of look at each other, and back at you, and like, Her name's Bo. She's helping. She's awful. You have a lot in common.

Okay, well, I mean, whatever you want to know. He's such a dick. Why is he such a dick? Well, he's great. Why are you such a dick? Reversal! Oh, sorry, he's just, he's been talking shit about you like this whole time. I don't know. Make a deception check on the... Ooh. Stir in the pot.

Okay, it's okay. 15. I'm gonna walk by the two twins because I'm I'm just sort of circling the tent, just trying to get it like, I've absolutely been talking shit. You're both terrible, give them both a kiss on the head and keep walking. Okay. You both kind of. All right, so what are you trying to do? Am I trying to do? I'm trying to figure out who's behind all of this so that we can keep moving on with our lives. All right, well, get it over with. Since this is done, we're out.

They may not let us leave. They may be killing us all. They're not going to kill us. They're not going to kill us. They're not going to kill us all. They're weird out there. They're very weird out there. Your guys' performance was amazing, by the way. Thanks. We're stelting over to that tent, by the way. I thought we were stelting over to the big, the main tent.

The one with the orna in it. Orna's in the tent with us. Are you guys going to the main tent? I wanted to get to the main tent to see if I sent any evil in the big main tent. Oh, we want to swoop by the main tent? But if it's really far away, Not too far away from you were because you're kind of backing up the side of it. So you can go ahead and stealth around making yourself check both of you guys one please no whammies no whammy's Big money big money big money big money I'm fine

Hey Nice and what you get 22? Yeah the two of you without issue make your way around Towards the large tents without being seen However an evil? I'm sentencing Nothing No fucking evil We know we know who we know who the killer is while you're talking to the twins I'll be talking to Orna so Oh, for fuck, sake.

To be honest, if it's any easier, it's probably Gustav. Really? It's not fucking ghost off. It probably is, you shut off. Polly. I'm, we're having a trick. He doesn't know what he's doing. He's going to run this hard car to go onto the ground.

What are you going to fall for? We all get away on this. No. No. No. No. No. No.

I'll wait. Do it. Do it. eats and shoots the same way. Yeah. So wait, it's probably Gustav. What makes you say that? Because he's in prison. He's the leader.

He's fucked this whole thing by letting this happen. Oh. Wow. You have interesting perspectives. Hey, weird question. How do you guys come up with your acts? Is that something that you guys create yourselves? Or do you guys like workshop it? She's never experienced boredom. It's very weird. Yeah, it's impressive.

The Orna? Yeah, Orno's. Yes? I mean, I know your feelings on all this. What do you think? Yeah, I see, Boson's a stand-up guy. A bit of a self-absorbed dick at times. We all knew Gustav was gonna shit the bed sooner or later.

I mean, this is his karma. She don't know how or why I can guarantee you. If this was my carnival, this shit would have happened. I think this is karma? Mm-hmm. What exactly would you have done? First off, I would have made sure that we had better support from the guard before this all happens. Nobody else got killed.

They were useless. Secondly, I would have made sure that the... There wouldn't have been any old folks that made it in to fucking turn into shit. Oh, that's on me and... That's on me. You feel the same way, not sisters? This is Karma and Gustav. They would.

At which point, the flat back of the flap ten opens up and it's gesture. It's all right. You have a lot of explaining to do. A lot of explaining to do. Shut up. We talked to Toya. She knows it's you who did this.

You're the one behind the whole lot. You did it. The two knotsers, immediately go. Ornett, is it you? Did you kill that guy? I was like, I don't know what you're talking about. What the fuck is this? Who did you turn that guy into a zombie?

Who do you work for? Orna. Inside check on the non-sisters. Go for it. They've got Nazi in their name. No. Not sisters. Not sisters.

No. Natural 20. Yes. The problem. But my stats are so neat because of the DND beyond tonight. There's no pencil smudges. No, I know, I know right now.

I've got 14 to 15 hit points. It opens, it closes, you can see your spells. It is pretty small. You need to see the ones. I've got a little iPad button on the back of my pen. It's quite nice so I can. Start talking, or this gnome. Nope, gobbling.

Starts biting. To be perfectly honest, I have no idea what's going on. Y'all just came in here, started throwing accusations at me. Gustav got arrested, Bozhen got arrested, Molly got arrested, and I'm glad you got off that. But to be perfectly honest, it's all things that shit show. The circus is probably not going to be the same after this. Inside check on...

Inside check on. My cat is on control because we've been standing with our dicks in our hands for a long time. Yeah, I'm sorry. No, I'm not complaining, but I would have sent the cat out. Kind of hard to read. She seems generally frustrated and cut off guard by this. Orna, you might as well come clean. This is classic you.

She can't appreciate it. Molly. I'm just trying to. Fuck you. Oh, fuck you too. It's no secret that Orna and Gustav have their differences, but this is ridiculous. I mean, she knows damn well that half the circus would leave if he fucking got arrested and Are you real worried about this?

They're... Do you really think? Who could be? Let's beg. Gustav, he's an idiot. But he's not a murderer. Bozen? Bit of a dick. But he's a stand-up fella.

Toya? Absolute daughter. Could not fly. Moni. They're cunts. But they're not gonna kill anyone. Desmond's a weird fella. There's something dark in his past.

You can see it in his... Melancholy. This is not his style. Yes, Desmond. Let's go to his tent! I just grab it. And there's some... There's some untrustworthy intelligence in those lizard eyes of that devil. I'd get a very evil kind of vibe of him. What do you mean evil kind of vibe?

He's a devil. He's a fiend. He's a what? The devil-toed guy. He's a fiend. That's just a name. It's not actually like a real... real thing. That's just, I mean, he's a, he's a, well. You guys know he's a fiend, right? There's like this moment of silence, like, he's supposed to be lizard-funky. What do you?

I grab, I grab, and just push you down into the ground and hold you. You guys, what are you doing? What, in this case? What are you doing? I mean, just because we were standing here so long, I would have been gotten nervous and again held onto this guy's big bicep and sent the cat out. Okay. Why are you going all catatotonic on me? So as...

That's nice. As the cat darts under the tent and makes its way through, glances over to the fire and sees a large, dark shape, step out from one of the tents. And you watch as one of the guards who's kind of sitting in the chair kind of like stands up, and crumbles under the ground without a sound. And you see the other guard kind of look over, go over and run up to him and start checking on him, saying his name. You guys mean to hear a voice in the back to start saying, Damon? Damon?

Damon? He's just guard. The guard. Fort, fjord. Something that is happening. You watch as the figure, the dark, the dark, the dark figure kind of spins, and there's this kind of flash. Two flashes of red in the shadow nearby. And you watch as the other guards suddenly like grabs his head and, like, grasped at his chest and falls under the back as his legs kind of curl up.

What the fuck? Do I know where in relation to Fort and I this is? It is to the east of you by about 150 feet. Can you talk to me when you're looking through the cat? Yeah. I can talk, but I can't hear anything when I'm doing this. Correct. You watches the shadow then bounds like a giant frog.

Frog is on the move. Frog is on the move. Northward. Away from us. But I don't know where the others are. You guys hear the name calling, and then silence once more. Sure. You guys go ahead and muscle underneath and you look just as you watch as the guard on the ground is like, oh, I hear it. And just stops moving. You see all the veins bulging? I run up to the guard and check his pulse. Is he still alive or is he just paralyzed? As you kind of come out of the tent, you watch as the flesh on his neck and throat splits, and a very familiar transformation against to take place. Back in the tent!

Back in the tent! Oh no, no, no. You have to fight them. Yes, but in the tent, we get them got the throat. They're zombies. And I start running towards the tent that I saw a jester peek out from Anto. Okay, as you guys rush underneath the large blue tent. You watch is the two guards that are slowly, quickly bulging and mutating bits of their flesh

kind of dislodging from their body and falling. And you watch now up close, similar to the last time, but now they're looking intently for this transformation you could see where instead there should be blood. It's almost like dust and sand, the kind of things to spill from the wounds. Something that you had noticed a little bit in the body of the old man before, but you didn't know if it was decomposition or just general dirt. Girls, we're not supposed to be there. Here, can you help us handle this? You watch the two halfling, it was like,

We're gonna do what we can, when in doubt. If something goes wrong, just nudity, it usually works. Fuck up! The two mutated guards now, their armor, like, bulging and broken in places, start... Turn towards the noises in the tent where you guys are. Are we all in the same tent, or are we in two different tent? You guys are all in one tent.

You guys are all in one tent. You're all jammed in the space. The two of you make your way outside of the large tent as you watch these two bulging, zombie-fied creatures making their way towards a tent and that's where we're gonna pick up. Oh, that's a bad. Oh, that's a bad. Because it is 11 or not. It is 11 or not. It is 11.

We're gonna get afraid for it. Yeah, we can't, exactly. We can't get afraid. Can I just say that? If I say that we find. No. No. And I busted the case of the case. We solve the case.

Party boys. Easy. Totally. Which one's Nancy? Which one's Drew? Couple inquisitions, couple little, following the clues. Just one more question. Bad count.

When that demon frog leapt, when that demon frog leapt, how high and how far approximately did it look like it went? It looks like it leapt about 20 to 20. 45 feet in the air. Oh, damn. And traveled about 40 feet with a leap. It was a large arc. Definitely can't fight that thing. Sure we can.

Oh, my God. Oh, God. You saw an escape northward from where you walk. And did it look like the same figure? It's the direction of Yasharan, like Yasha ran north, northeast. This is just straight north from where you are, which is towards the Ustah. It is towards the Ustah. It is a fucking lake.

Towards the Ustah Lohsah. It's a fucking Blake. It's a complete leg. I just like this is good, dude. Super duper. Oh man, this is good, dude. Oh, see, here's my thing. Does anyone else notice that the zombie transformations kind of seem like a serpent shedding its skin?

Because they always slough off their skin. It's also done without any contact. Wait, what? It's done without any contact. He never touches them. Yeah, huh, he touched them, didn't he? No. I thought he did.

No, they just suddenly began to a rough. Hey, bonus news though, the charm spell guy isn't that it's right. Look at that silver lining. The season got dark. The season got dark. Whoa. Tight, tight, tight to tight. Good shit, man. All righty, guys.

Little damaged voice. Fuck yeah. I won't make it fun. I wanted to cough for her. We'll pick up there next week. About the chase is on, apparently. Man. Thank you guys so much for being awesome.

Thank you guys for coming along and watch with us. We'll pick this up next Thursday, where we left off, right in the middle of this campsite. Until then, a wonderful week. We'll see you guys then, and is it Thursday yet? Good night. Ever open up your podcast app, scroll forever, and still not know what to listen. to. And there are millions of podcasts, and most of them, they just don't grab you. That's why I created something you should know. Every episode is built around surprising, useful, and fascinating ideas.

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