Critical Role & Sagas of Sundry - Vox Machina Ep. 36 - Winter‘s Crest in Whitestone

Episode Date: November 30, 2021

It's time for the Winter's Crest festival in Whitestone! Contests, prizes, and revelry abound as we wrap up our year with a nice bow.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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five years ago. Most of his family did a role as being murdered in the process. The Briarwoods who had taken the town rather quickly, pardon, and covertly held it for five years had now been building towards some sort of a ritual, some sort of event that the party was investigating. They incited a rebellion within the city of Whitestone, gathering the remaining members to take up arms and fight against this undead scourge that had kept them locked down for so long, impressed for so long. After managing to take out some of the various operatives under the Briarwood's regime, they made their way into the Castle Whitestone itself, saved Percy's

sister Cassandra, thought dead for a long time. got vengeance upon a number of individuals that were on his list, except for Ripley who got away, fought their way down underneath the city of White Stone, fell into an acid-based trap, made their way to the ziggurot, this construct beneath the city of White Stone, where some ritual was attempting to be completed by Lady Delilah Breyerwood. It was discovered that it seems the patron that they spoke of, the whispered one, has been in the previous bits of history spoken as the very Beckna, a powerful litch of ancient history that had attempted to ascend to Godhood at some point in the past.

I'm going to write a little this way for you, too. I just realized that's off. They managed to tackle the Briar Woods, destroy Silas, defeat Delilah, and dragging them back, decided to interrogate. In the process of trying to extract information, Percy's dark harbinger, his dark passenger, if you will, who was a tongue-wagging dog for a moment. I know what was doing. I was making an evil shadow. Okay, there we go. I see.

Evil shadow. Kill them all, party. Kill them on. Pressured to incite the vengeance that apparently the pact he made with this entity required. Upon fighting its will, it was jettisoned from his form, and the party battled this deranged greater smoke demon-like entity in the center of this cavern.

During this fight, Lady Breyer Wood attempted to escape, however, found a dagger in the middle of her back, thanks to Max over there. Good job. Yeah, not bad. Stripped of her possessions, and then Cassandra dragging her into the nearby acid bats, tossing her body within to leave her story to a definite conclusion. Scanlan being very astute, apparently, and some observations, and as convincing as he can be, managed to wrestle Percy's

weapon, his list, his pepper box from his grip, and toss it into the very acid pits, destroying his greatest creation and in doing so seemingly breaking whatever hold this shadow demon had on Percy's soul. It's the way of the gun. You can't even look at you. The quick in the dead. A couple of weeks in detox and you'll be fine. Yeah, it's true. It was an intervention, Percy.

It had to be done. Upon returning to the city of Whitestone, they found the rebellion was successful. The undead hordes have fall into the blades of the surviving rallied warriors of White Stone. Keeper, Yenan, who currently was the essentially leader of the rebellion while you guys were going into the castle, met with you. You guys were brought to the center of town where you began to see the rest of White Stone emerge. The families, the children, the people that have been too scared to go outside finally came out to celebrate victory, the first real breath of free air they've had in five years since the Briarwoods took the city.

Some justice was doled to a few survivors of the Briarwoods regime, and you were asked to stay behind to help rebuild and prepare for the coming Winter's Crest Festival, of which you agreed. A few awkward moments and a few delightful bits of interpersonal comedy brought you guys to this point, and now we begin tonight's session of critical role. So, to start off, leading up to this Winter's V-O., or Winter's Crest Festival, about a two-week period, what would you guys like to individually do in this time and prepare for the festival?

We have two weeks? Yeah, essentially, the two-week period. We're doing a bit of a time jump here, so if there's anything particular you want to do or attempt in this time period, now is the time to do so before we get to the actual event. I had a question. Yes.

Could I go around lifting up various wagons and maybe ponies and like working out to try and increase my straight? Or just randomly picking shit up and not having an excuse for it, that was good too. I mean, the towns and tatters, you could just be productive with picking things up. Clean things. Clean things. And you're helping to rebuild. It's like Rocky Four. Yeah. Yeah. And a brilliant holiday montage as the cold weather finds its way into the Valley of Whitestone. Grog goes around aiding many of the groups repairing and reassembling the glory of White Stone, finding the structures that are broken and destroyed and trying to clean them and prepare for new building properties.

You come by eagerly lifting, carrying, dropping, slamming, and holding in place extremely heavy pieces of stone and masonry. In some cases, kind of putting few of the local strong men to shame, and some of the local ladies very, very, blushworthy in your presence. You are very happy with your presence. Go ahead and make stack of it. Go ahead and make three strength checks for me. Oh shit, three. Okay. That's a good one. That's a 24. Okay, second one. That's a 22. Nice. Yeah. Yep. Oh, 22. Wow. 24, 22, 22, 22. Through the process of these two weeks, not only have you managed to surprise the local

denizens of the city with your feats of strength and masculine physique, physique as when Grog is building, Grog does so shirtless. He does everything shirtless. He does everything. But we'll get a show out of it. In doing so, one, some of the local innocents pull some cash to the side, and to thank you for your efforts, you find at the end of the week you're granted a small pouch which contains 315 gold pieces as a thanks of the locals for all to help both in the rebellion. in the ring of White Stone and for your feats of magnificent, must of the church.

I don't feel like I should take this. It's... You should take it. It's a lot of money. You should take it. How about you refill my cask of ale instead? Aww. Aw.

And you give me one gold piece so Vex doesn't kill me. The crowd look amongst themselves, and one of the lead architects for this whole endeavor, nods to you. Sounds like a fair trade. If you're certain, sir. I'm a very, very stringent business man. Do hurry before I change my mind.

Gold piece is in your hand faster than you have a chance to. You chip a tooth, but it seems- I don't understand this practice. It tastes like shit. It tastes fucking horrible. But two casks of the freshness, they all rolled up to the base of your foot. Two?

Two. One for each arm, eh? All right, the one that I have, I'm not stopping till it's completely empty. Bring your goblets in gaps. It's time to get fucked up. Fantastic. All right. Vex.

Well, I got the ring and the braziers that I need to get checked out and see what they are. The mysterious items. And the robe who had the robin? Huh? I have the robe. No, I threw it down, though. You picked it up. Yeah.

You picked it up. I have the robe, too. Okay. We left her naked. as we did. You kind of did, actually. Like proper things. Like proper things.

Yeah, like probably. Yeah, so. Okay. A few things here, actually. Oh, Vex, I made gold. Oh, wow. Thank you. That's amazing, Grog.

Where did you find this piece of gold? Oh, I got it for fixing a bunch of shit around town. Are you going to taste it? No. No, I'm not. It's already got a lot of drool on it, actually. But how do you know if it's gold if you don't taste it? I'm just gonna put it in with the rest of the gold.

I'm gonna pull one over on her one of these days. Can you make things look like they're gold? I can actually. You can? Yes. All right. I've had my thought for the day. There's nothing happening.

When you have the punchline, let me know. It's that standby TV symbol right now. That's all I got. So, as you take some time, first off, I want you to go ahead and roll an investigation check. Oh, man, I got to roll for this. this. I'm going to roll one of my new dots. Oh, shit. Mm-hmm. Well, it's for...

Wow. What does that sound? It was exciting. 24. 24. Okay. So as you begin pulling out the items and begin kind of separating it before you do the initial inspection, as you're pulling the robe out, you find there's a slight poke. There's something thin and...

Feel a little poke coming through. No. Not that kind of poke. Oh. It's one of nice. of unravel part of the robe and you find there's a long deep pocket on the inside of the robe and inside there is a long gnarled piece of kind of deep, deep maroon wood that is carved into a wand shape.

Oh. What kind of a wand? That's exciting. It's a ticket to find the actual item card here. Found it. There we go. Hey. I knew I had it. I want it.

Oh my god. I want it. Oh, did you find it? Did you find it in the room? Did you find it in the room? Are you even standing me right now as I'm seeing this one? Of course I am. Are you?

I'm always with you. How do you know I'm not doing it like in my room? Are you? What's you wearing right now? Why am I in your room? Yeah, we get out of here, I'm naked. Oh, I know. I came in here to ask you something. Where's my wand?

I've got to look at this. I've got to look at this a bit more before I give this to you, because it is very, very good. It is a wand of fireballs, by the way, people. It has seven charges. While holding it, you can use an action to expend one or more of its charges to cast the fireball spell, DZ, a 15, one charge,

you cast third level version of. There's so many words, I don't even understand what you're saying. That's pretty good. But it's a good one. Fan art of this moment, please. But also. You recall, actually, is, As you went over to the top of the initial battle with Lady Briway, that was what she pulled out and managed to blast all of you with at once when you were on the top of the temple.

Nice. I'm just going to put this in my pocket. You know, Percy could do something like that. The robe. I put it in my pocket that I'm about to put on. I'm good. I'm good. And then the ring and the braces?

I'll get those right now. There you go. Wait, grog, don't sit down. This is why it's Christmas. Where's my ring? What's the ring do? Oh my God. I found so many amazing things, you guys.

Binds you to a house with children. I love these ears. Bracers. Those are mine. Those are mine. I found those. God will believe whatever you say. Thank you for being the only person who heard that.

No, no. Thank you. I'm reading them all they're mine. Ring of lightning resistance. Who wants a ring of... Who wants a ring of lightning resistance? Uh, you... You...

Bracers of defense. Who needs extra defense? You're really weak. You're really weak. It is. Bracers' defense technically will only really benefit anybody who's not wearing armor. Not wearing armor? Correct.

Like monks? Like monks or? Or, Barb, there you go. Thank goodness because he is a blushing flower in the wind. You currently have a, I believe it's an amlet that helps your armor? We'll go through your AC, we'll find out it doesn't overlap with any other benefits. I do have the amulet of armor. Right, so basically that would replace that and you would have now an amulet slot open for any sort of future enchanting stuff.

I'll take the ammo. Is it to say amulet stocking? You could give it to anybody else if you want to. He'll never give it to me. What is it? I think he was willing to do it until you gave him the idea to not do it. That's fine. It's fine.

Can't remind me. Okay, a robe of shielding shadows. Does this robe, can it be worn with armor? No. Oh, man. It's just a robe. It's like her dress, basically, and it gives you a resistance to piercing damage. You know what you can do with that?

What? I can sell it. Oh, give it to me. You have armor, dude. Oh, okay. It takes an armor sword. And it's a woman's robe. He doesn't care about that.

I can make that work. Yeah, you totally could. Can we take the fabric and sew it into like a nice Afghan or something? Maybe a nice, a nice clothes. It would probably ruin the enchantment. It would just destroy it. Oh, it would ruin the enchantment and the line.

Really. Close too long. It's, it's. What if we don't cut into it, you know, we just like put a few. What if we fold it? What if we just tie the dress around our neck? Just maybe put your arms through it

and then like right behind you like a cake. It's like one of those wear nine different ways dresses. Yeah. You can wear it however you want and you will discover one way or another if it actually gives it a effect. Well I'm just gonna pocket this because we may sell it. How about that? I'm so glad our lives aren't in danger right now.

And then a ring of lightning resistance. Anybody want it? How many rings can we wear it one time? Two, one on each hand. I would not say no to a ring of lightning resistance. Pass that over to proceed. I've got plans. And at the moment, it's the only way to charge my gloves.

Right, and this wand to fireball. Oh, that's a good idea. I'll take it. I feel like Scanlon needs it more than anything about it. I already have a wand that shoots things. Yeah, but you couldn't have a different wand of shooting. Oh, and the only one who can use it? Yes.

I'll take it then. How hard could it be? Yeah. Yeah. I know how you work. Swish and flick. Fireball. Swish and heat.

What could possibly go wrong? Yeah. What if a non-spell caster uses a wand? Nothing, right? No, no, no, anybody can use this. Should we try it? No. Yes, you should try it.

I have a walk and crash test, I think we should try it. Pretty fine. My favorite. Mindset. Mostly for the rest of the time, keep to myself and shrink it, and I'm going to help the townspeople rebuild a bit. rebuild a bit and... All right. Wonders.

Ah, thanks. I am also going to keep to myself and I'm going to talk to the people in town see what businesses are open or trying to open and see what they need and I would like to talk to Percy

since I don't know anyone here about who I could talk to about getting messages to Iman and I would like to get a message to Gilmore to see if he can fill any need here, if trade is so ruined here, that Gilmore could be a help. And Gilmore gets another front, another place to do business, and actually do good in a place that meets it. Gilmore's Glory's Books.

That's right. I like it. I'd say over a bit of period of discussion, for the most part, any sort of non-official courier service has been negated in the town. However, there is now a glut of people that are, you know, after the devastation, especially of the ensuing rebellion, folks that need work and need coin. And there are many individuals that would be more than willing to, you know, for a handful of gold coins, make the journey to Amman to deliver any messages you like. Well, I will. I will write a message to Gilly and ask for, to say that they're hurting here. they need trade, they need all the supplies that he's able to supply and tell him that this town is about to explode and is definitely a good place for his wares. Great. Okay. Are you gonna break up with him over the letter too? Are you going to tell him that you're going to break his heart as soon as he writes you back?

I'm sorry I'm just I'm just looking at a letter as you're writing it. No, because I've been avoiding her as well. I've been avoiding everybody except for Percival who I've been asking advice for. Okay. Did you also have the cloak? Did you take the cloak? I have the cloak, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Dibs on that. The fine pickings off the corpses of the two major villains of your previous arc. I've got more corpse-picking to do.

Exactly. Do we? Oh yeah. All right. What? You have so many cloaks, though. Why do you need another one? He's opening a cloak back. Yeah. Gilmore's glorious cloaks. There's cloak hoarding over here. What did you get?

All right, Scanlan. I wanted to do four things. Yeah. One, I composed an epic poem to commemorate the rebels rising up against the empire that had kept them down for so long sort of a force that had awakened.

I call it resident evil. I don't know why. Because there's residents and there was evil. I couldn't call up with another name for it. They're residents of the town and there was an evil. Right, totally. Yeah, that's all I, so I'm looking for a publisher. Okay, good, good.

There may be a grand opportunity at the Winter's Crust Festival to perform this, so. Colt. Disney and Capcom will be calling you. I also wanted to make sure that we were using the Treasury, coordinating with Percy to open a library for the people to help them rebuild their place, which sounds like Vax is already on. I also commissioned a portrait of myself. I don't know if you, I found a young artisan in town and I paid him some coin to paint me

something that could possibly hang and keep a gray skull in the dining room. Okay, you do find you, after asking around for a few days, you managed to discover that there is a budding local artist who doesn't really believe in his artwork. He currently works in the stables on the far southwest side of town. But people have seen some of his work and trying to bolster him, so you're sent in his direction. And as you get there, you can see him. He's currently in the process of actually cutting through one of his recent works he wasn't happy with, and he's kind of violently tearing through it. And as you step into the staple, he kind of stops and puts it off to the side.

Sorry, sir, can I help you? Hello. My name is Scanlan Shortwald. I was the leader of the rebellion that just defeated Lord and Lady Briarwood. Oh, well, the pleasure was mine. He was now burning his gaze and almost bowing his head like your royalty. He seems very flustered and flushed by the sudden appearance. I hear you are a budding artist, and I'm, if nothing else, a supporter of the arts. I have my talents are far unrefined and nowhere near. powerful or decent enough for your intentions.

Well, I believe in you, and I need you for a very important commission. I, uh, took... A great good has been done here by the rebels, by the townspeople, uh, with the help of Voxmachina and, of course, with the help of Voxmogna. Greetings, adventurers. Spring has sprung here in Los Angeles, and that means it's a brief period where it's only 75 degrees instead of 95. degrees, I'll take it. And that means I've been outside a lot more. Walking around, occasionally galloping after a toddler hopped up on juice boxes, traveling a bit. You know the vibe.

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...marking his leader myself, and therefore I'm here to commission a humble portrait of myself. You may not know him, but there was a folk hero in my town growing up. His name was Fabio. He would frequently pose with wind-blown hair and an open shirt on a horse. I was thinking something like that, and also I have this figure of Pike. She's a friend of mine. I'd like her on the back of the horse, arms around my waist, looking just super hot. That's possible. Make a persuasion check.

Only because he's so down on his own skills. 33. As you're telling this tale, as you're telling this tale, he goes from bashful and meek to staring off in the distance. The artistic inspiration kind of rolling through his head. Oh, sorry. 31. 31. I was wrong. Unchanged. He begins finishing your sentences as you're describing scenery and extrapolating on it. You can see the artistic mind is definitely spinning. He looks to you and it was, it would be my honor. Please, and he reaches forward and kind of takes your gnomish hand, and you know, you're about two and a half feet shorter than him, but he's like still very humble. Niels down and says, I would be honored to do this portrait. No charge. Please, I insist. I must give you something for your troubles. Whatever you deem fit, sir, gnome, but I, uh...

What's your name, youngster? Jameson. Jameson. Jameson. Jameson. I like him. I like this guy. Everybody does. Until they don't. I will, how about in return? I will sing your praises. Far and wide is the greatest artist in, where are we?

White Stone. White Hart. White Hart. Brow. Browstone. Hartwood. In making that mention, his openness suddenly closes off and he withdraws. You see this fear in his eyes and he kind of shakes and going,

that that would be. That would be untrue and would... I am but a simple stablehead. I can do this for you, but please, if you could keep this between us. All right. I'm aware that some people like to be discreet about things, and that's all right with me too. Then I'll just...

I'll pay you the going rate for portraits of me. Certainly. How large would you like it? How big is the wall at Greystone? It depends on which area. Some of the ceilings go... The ceiling is going on the dining room wall. That's about...

That's like a 16 chapel. Yeah, the dining area is probably about 12 to 15 feet high the ceiling. I? Okay. And wide? A wide... I'd say it's off the top of my head, somewhere between 40, 15 feet. Well, I'd like to leave room for other artwork as well. So we'll say 20 by 6. 20 by six. Well, it's half and half.

His eyes... 20 wide, six high. His eyes go wide and he kind of nods and says, this is a challenge. But I believe I do know someone who could I could order such a grand canvas from. This can be done. This can be done.

And you see you smiles for a minute. It kind of takes your hand once again. Oh, my God. This can be done. Thank you, sir. Jameson was it? Jameson, yes. You have done...

noble deed for your people and for the rebel forces. Eclipse by the deeds you have done, Sir Gnome. Oh, that is true. He rushes off to prepare himself. And then one last thing. On a serious note, I do some research to see if me or anyone in my party could, over time and with great effort, learn the skills required to utilize a teleportation circle. Circle.

Okay. Go ahead and make an Arconic check. Not great. Arcana? 11. Yeah. What little you know of teleportation-based magics, which is not your forte in your Bartic experiences, but what you've heard and what you've seen, while you're traveling with Tiberius and you've come across other individuals that use the arcane spells that cause transport, Telepitation circles themselves is a very specific ritual. It is a spell that comes from, you know,

within the arcane castors capabilities. If you yourself to not have that, you're not going to be able to utilize it, drop up a hat. You also asking around, find that there was once a teleportation destination circle in Castle Whitestone that was part of the network of Tal'Dorei in Imon, but has since been destroyed and sundered and has been for quite some time. You imagine probably when the Briar Woods came, it was deemed a dangerous little loose thread. So over the period of the next week or so, best you get ascertain is that type of transportation here is going to be probably not likely, at least not with the resources you have at your disposal.

It's not a skill I can learn. It's a spell you could learn, but that would be something you have to swap out as you level up or choose as your spell progression down the road. I find it's better to travel the world rather than use fast travel. I agree. You see so much more of it. You miss everything. Get to all the artistic.

The little bits in the world. Every little nook and cranny, yeah. But you do, as part of the group discussions throughout the week, to discover that Keelith does have long transport capabilities. Oh, hello, Keyleth. You'd like to explain? Why to explain what you can do? I have teleport via plants, so I can bamf through the sun tree.

We can all. I can be like, hey. We can all? We can all. Through it like a big plant? It opens for six seconds. As long as we, or one round. for one round, I can be like, this tree is a portal, and we walk through the tree, and it goes to another tree,

as long as I know of that tree's existence. And it's the same size, right? It has to be something of the same size, or it can be any tree. It has to be, like, walkable body size. A large or a larger tree as far as, like, Trinket-Grug-size trees. That sounds like it would be the quickest root to go. Oh, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.

That's just, how us remember. Is there a tree in your garden back at Graysfield? There is. Ha-ha. I made sure that there was a nice... Big old fatty tree. Big old, fatty oak tree, I think. Way to go out in the middle.

Big old fatty old tree. It's quite, there's two large trees, if I believe, in the Serran Ray. Temple. In our garden. I forgot to see what else I wanted to do. What else you want to do? Well, because of that flying potion, I wanted to try to do some research and see how much flying potions are, or if there's any kind of items that can make you fly whenever you want.

She liked it, I think. I really liked it. First taste is free. I know. I know the carpet's gone, but maybe there's like an individual sort of item that's less expensive than a flying car, but I don't know. Just wondering.

Do you still have the flying potion? They downed it. Right, do you have the card I gave you for it? Because that would contain a cost of that particular particular one. Oh. 5250. And you have a rogue.

You have a row. Well, but I want a bunch of them, though. Which you can have made or possibly look around and have purchased. This town is pretty thin as far as... Of the magic stuff. Most of anything of worth of an arcane nature was confiscated and utilized or essentially melted down for its residual components as part of the, you know, the creation of the ziggurat in preparation for the ritual.

So other than the items that you were given when you first arrived here, you're hard for us to find anything in this town of that type. But asking around, there are enchantments that can gift flight, but they're pretty rare. I don't think you'll want to be a person to talk about that. You good, Scanlon? Oh, I'm good. All right. Keyleth.

Well, Keyleth is very confused as to why everyone seems to be avoiding each other. It's odd. Everyone's so to standoffish here lately. Anyway, Keelith is going to go help the farmers and try and maybe help revitalize some of the land and help with planting crops. Okay. And helping out there. She also wants to make sure that all the local kids are taking care of. If any kids lost their parents in the rebellion, kind of leave the charge of making sure kids are taken care of. Okay.

At least half. Yes. Yeah. Now, going around, there were a number of casualties in the town as part of the rebellion. Unfortunately, it happens in warfare, regardless of how noble cause it may be. And there are a few families that were much fatherless and motherless, as there was quite a share of the sexes raising up for this battle. So the children that, you know, no one that you know have lost both parents, in most part,

part, there was the intent that if there were a parental unit, that at least one had to stay in case of such an occurrence to keep raising the children. But you go on and you meet with some of the families and make sure that they're taken care of. Some of the homes that were destroyed as part of the rebellion, you and Grog both work together to help make sure that the process of rebuilding and restricting goes well. You do also help the farmers begin to write their crops and revitalize the land, which had been drained by the necromanic essence of the briarwood presence and whatever the ziggurat was pulling from the land itself and he seems to have released its hold on the immediate vicinity. So through your aid specifically, being a druid of your

nature, you prepare this for probably one of the finest harvests that White Stones had in quite a long time. Even though it is deep winter, they're already seeing like early spring growth through your aid. Dope. And, you know, vegetable. Climate change. I know, it's crazy. Such a bitch. But we're talking vegetation and vegetables that are withstanding and still able to grow through the frost in the mornings.

The cold weather is coming from the winter. So you're raising quite a strong crop. So well done. Good job. Do you get good Thanksgiving in about nine months. There you go. Food and orphans, man. Percival.

Okay. I'm going to spend most of my time organizing. the affairs of the castle and the local government and making sure that there's institutions in place, getting rid of anybody who might still have sympathies towards the Briarwoods, helping reestablish the zenith in the ladies' chamber, and spending some time with my sister. On that note, before we continue, there is no current institution in place. anyone of any political power outside of Archibald, You and Cassandra, has been slaughtered long past. So in these discussions, you talk with Kieber Yenin, you talk with Cassandra, and there is an air of an understanding that right now there is this period of peace, this period of calm, but there has to eventually be established and put in a place some sort of political head to oversee the rebuilding of the city and the continued growth and survival of this town process.

Cassandra confides in you multiple times that she is nervous, that she, especially given recent circumstances and her kind of recovery of her Stockholm syndrome with the Briarwoods is not confident that she would be able to lead on her own. There is a moment where she apologizes extensively to Archibald. Archibald, who did survive and was her direct contact in the castle is, takes a few days before he will even face Cassandra when he's told that she essentially had been leading him astray and, you know, spearheading the death of the previous rebellion. And you also discovered the reason that the various new nobles that were prepared for your ambushes were because Cassandra had gotten information about that from Archibald and

then fed it to the Briar Woods. But you do sense a very, very deep, seated regret and an urge to make amends from her. And because of that circumstance, she doesn't feel like the people of Whitestone who would have this information, which you haven't told anyone. There is no, like, large-scale announcement. The only people that know about Cassandra's current situation with the Briarwoods are you guys, Keeper Yanin and Archibald. Archibald's still around? He is. Have he betrayed us?

No. No, no, no. Cassandra betrayed him. Cassandra played everybody. Thank you, glorious leader. Thank you. One of the team, guys. So that is an ongoing discussion. As far as establishing the structure here, there's been many talks, but nothing has been fine-tuned, and that may play itself out as part of the festival. So. I have two items that I would like to look at. I have three items that I would like to look at. Silas's sword and his amulet.

Okay. The brooch they left behind. Brooch. Oh, oh. Travis's got you. Billy Travis? He's our... The runner. Is it? Oh, ho, ho, ho, and all of that. What is it? What is it? Damn.

Is it amazing? Standing like guile before a street fight match. He hasn't heard of that character. No. What is it? What do you have? What do you have? It's Sam, really, I don't know, it's a piece of paper. That's really cool.

It's pretty cool. It's basically, it's called a broach of living essence, and it basically masks the wearer's alignment, essence, whether they're good or evil, they can't be seen by detect magic spells. That's the worst thing for you. Not anymore. Is it? Is it? I'm unsure.

It's hard to tell. You gather that this item in particular was used by Silas to travel through, you know, magically protected areas without giving up his undead essence or being read for his true intentions. It's pretty cool. Interesting. Interesting. It's for a shifty bastard. Right. It's definitely a shifty bastard thing. Oh, me. My alignment's good. Yeah, but it could be good if you want to pretend to be evil. I was, it was either this a vass. This is This would be an interesting thing for you. It doesn't protect you against, like,

detect magic spells, where it protects you against as detect good or evil spells and magic spells that reveal your true nature. Mm. True nature. It would be good for me. So you could pretend to be bad. So if we wanna have him pretend.

What do you have in your brooch? My brooch? It's in the next lot. Next slot. Oh, it's amazing. Nothing. Nothing in your next slot. Did you take that in yet?

That sounds so disgusting. My next lock. I don't know, Percy. What have I got in my next slot? You took the brooch and slowly pressed it into his next slot. God. Don't turn that in any fan fiction, please. Don't say that.

Percy, what else? The sword? The sword. It's a big piece of paper. That's for a brother. It's a big piece of sword. A sword of ball set. Sort of.

Sort of trolle. Ripple's Gun. Ripple's Gun. Oh. Okay, well first, as you take the sword in your hands, the large, thick obsidian kind of onyx black blade, you take a while to, to, not necessarily attuned to it, but enough, you know, put enough of your attention towards it where you sense its magical capabilities. Oh. Oh. Okay.

As it begins to clarify. Okay. Where one voice before was not there, a new voice peeked in and says, wait, wait, wait, wait. This is important. This is important. You are you my new wielder. He's got a tuck and sword.

What's with you and fucking weapons, man? Shh, shush, shh, shh. Be strong buzzing. You're not here, here. No. Then leave me to one worthy. me till one worthy lifts this blade. I'm going to gently put it down.

Okay. This is a sword that has a name. It's got like a name. I don't know what to do about this. This is really disturbing. As you step away from the blade, you can feel the air nearby is just generally colder in its presence, and where previously it was just a weapon,

you can almost feel like there's something looking at you. Like there is a presence just bent towards bent towards you expectantly. That is creepy. I can go on. We don't need an evil grog? We need it. I can tame it.

Wow. His name is Bain. It's the Bainsaw. Bain, Bainsaw. What does it say? What does it say? I don't think I should tell any of you. Why?

He's in his room. He's just talking to a cursing. The Blades just sits there on the ground where you leave it. Whatever you wish to do with it. Just staring at you like. Put in the bag? God, you've given me so much to think about. It's really unfortunate.

I'm definitely going to take at least a week of our two weeks to think about the sword. Okay. What are you going to do with in the meantime? Sleep on top of it. Sleep on top of it. It's in my room. You don't want it in the bag?

No. So for each evening, as you lay down to sleep, you can feel the voice creep back in and say, and just say, why would you sleep my door? The voice is inquisitive. I'm useless left here. I seek the thrill of battle. I'm hungry.

Other evenings that comes to you almost pleading. Why have you forsaken me? Oh. You took me as a trophy. What purpose is a blade that goes unused? Why you gotta be like that girl? I remember this. And then it's fall silent after a few days.

Oh. The silent truth. It's sulking. It's baiting. Was it a two-handed sword or one-handed? It's a great sword. It's two-handed, big old, fatty, Falun Fantasy Seven sword. God damn it.

Can we turn a medieval? This is the thing that's fucked up. Yeah, I know. Which is why I shouldn't have given him that brooch. God damn it. What? I may ask for that brooch back. You can certainly try.

God damn it. Oh! Whoa! So, as you think on it, on it. The Weeks Pass. Oh, I had a, I... Oh, anything else wanted to do? I also wanted to work on Ripley's gun.

Right. The gun itself is essentially a baseline pistol. If you look in your archetype for your fighter class as the guns singer, the pistol mechanics all apply to that weapon. Beyond that, nothing in particular. It's just her first successful intent at recreating a firearm. Okay. I may start to, I'm going to start making some ammo for it,

ammo for it and I'm going to work on it to improve it. Bursie, whenever you get a chance, could you maybe, how hard are those exploding heroes to make? Super-duper hard? Not terribly difficult. I don't think it's in two weeks, but when we go home, I'll work on it for me. I know, I like them too. I'm, hmm, I hate you. You're a terrible person. You picked up the sword, man. Percy, how's that sword working out?

It's a little big, actually. Is it, look, I have this one-handed dragon slayer long sword if you want to get used to like a bit of badassery before you move up to the big leagues. I know you've got that dinky piece of shit you've been using this whole time. Just as a note too, a great sword is a strength-based melee weapon.

Dex does not play into it. Oh, which is, yeah. Hmm. Based on whatever your strength is, what's your strength, Percy? Strength is 12. You would probably, not do very well with that.

Which is why I was thinking about having it cut down and melted down into something more useful, but, hmm. This was also viable if you wanted to try? Um, can I always, you know, 3d6. You know, this is actually pretty bad.

The war is over and both sides lost. Kingdoms were reduced to cinders, an army scattered like bones in the dust. Now the survivors claw to what's left of a broken world, praying. The darkness 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. Join the Glass Cannon podcast as we plunge into the Shadow Dark every Thursday night at 8 p.m. Eastern on YouTube.com slash the glass cannon with the podcast version dropping the next day. See what everybody's talking about and join us in the dark. Welcome to Mick Unplugged, the number one podcast for self-improvement and modern leadership.

I'm Mick Hunt, your host, and I'm here to challenge your why and fuel your because. This is where leaders, entrepreneurs, and go-getters, come to level up. Each week, I bring you unfiltered conversations, game-changing strategies, and the kind of motivation that transforms lives and legacies. I've learned from legends like Les Brown, Damon John, and Robert Irvine. And now, I'm bringing their lessons, along with mine, straight to you. From modern leadership tips to creating unstoppable momentum, this is the podcast that redefines what's possible. Hit play, subscribe, and join the million who've made Mick Unplug their go-to source for growth and greatness,

because your next breakthrough is just one episode away. This is Mick Unplug, the voice and face of modern leadership entrepreneur and self-improvement. Let's get started. I asked if I did give it to cry. I'm going to, yeah, I'll trade. Jesus Christ, and he's not even going to say anything about it. You're a terrible person.

You're a terrible person. Not Matt. You are. He gave you the device and you used it. You've been playing D&D for years. You know what this means. I'm gonna let you know we should keep an eye on him just in case. Brog, as you take up the blade in your hands, you hear coming out of the... Here we go again. Coming out of the ether, a gentle, low, velvet voice caresses the inside of your head saying,

You are you to be my wielder. What the shit? Speak your name, warrior. Grog. Warrior Grog. Warrior Grog, have you taken up the blade of Craven Edge? Is that what this is? Do you have a female setting?

You hear a long, drawn-out sigh. That's amazing. Do you accept my power? There's a power that comes with you? What kind of power? Do you enjoy drinking the strength of your foes, watching them beaten before you, and have that very power become your own?

Sounds pretty good. You wish the shadows to encase your form and grant you resilience and anger, forcing those to kneel before you in fear. The shadow? Do you accept Grog? Fuck yeah. Then it is done. Together we will accomplish great things.

Oh my God. Do you have a name? Like, do I call upon you? Can I call you bacon? You call me bacon and this blade will cut the very hand you hold. My name is Craven Edge. It will do you well to remember that. Right, yep, was totally kidding about the bacon cream and edge. Well, I'm excited about this partnership. Clearly we will be a force to be reckoned with, by the way, can other people hear you? Silence. He will kill me first.

It is an amazing sword, to be fair. I haven't even read it yet. You haven't read it yet? You are prepared. I can't read. I wouldn't read it so bad. No, don't let anybody. It's so magical.

Give me a bear cookie. You've gotten a- You've gotten a- Bear cookie too. You have a clue as to what it can do based on when it was used against you by silence. Yeah, it was badass. Thank you.

So, anything else we want to accomplish before we're closing out the rest of the week? I had a question. Yes. Did we assemble a team of magic people to take care of the things? That was the last thing. That was the last name.

We need all take care of that. The Marble of Death? So throughout the week, Keeper Yenen, a few of the low-level archinists that exist here. Didn't we send for Escalorandarian? You sent for it, but information right now travels at the speed of whatever it is. A mule. Yeah, of speed of mule. The speed of mounds as it continues forward.

You get word back from, nothing from Allura Vysorin-Yet. Eskell does respond, saying that he is currently finishing up some personal business, but will make his way towards White Stone within a couple weeks with some of his compatriots who may also be of aid. So information has been gotten across, but it won't be until probably after this festival for them to begin their investigation. However, in the meantime, Kibri Yen and a few of the smaller local Orkanists do make a couple trips down to inspect the Zagratt themselves. When they return, Yeninen and is at a loss, and most of them don't quite understand the nature of the magic there.

It seems to be immobile. It seems to be completely negating, consuming, or preventing any sort of magical force within a specific radius of it. So a lot of their normal arcane methods of inspecting, or divine methods of inspecting this site are not functional. This is going to be more of like a, you know, bring old tomes and research historical records of things that may be similar to this. So when you bring up that you would reach out to Esco Rindarian with the information you had, you get that that'll probably be a much more fruitful endeavor. But as of right now, no one has any clue what this is. And we didn't, and we searched the Briar Woods Library that they had gathered together to see anything about?

Yeah. Okay. You also, in some of the information that you had acquired from Scalind's memory and a little bit of research into Vecna. Very little information really exists, but as the keeper of secrets, you get the sense that most anything of importance in dealing with this ritual has been destroyed as part of its preparation because secrets are meant to be kept and hoarded. So yeah, not such luck in that regard, unfortunately. However, as the second week draws to a close, the winter's crest day comes forward. As the morning crests into the proper winter's crest festival, you all awaken the Castle

Whitestone to an unusually cold morning, and as you look out, there is a fresh dusting of white snow that has gently caressed the entirety of this valley and the entire city itself. You all get yourselves ready, gather your belongings, and preparing for the festival, even helping get ready this entire week, you walk down towards White Stone itself. As you get to the outskirts of the city, you can already hear in the distance music beginning to play. Blue and white ribbons are hung up all throughout the town on the outside of buildings, outside of taverns, outside of even the remaining wreckage that's only partially built. It seems that overnight people just went through the town and decorated whatever

needed to be decorated to wipe clean the memory of the recent trials and difficulty that everyone's undergone. You begin to make your way towards the center of the town, to the town square where the sentry is. And as you approach, you now see the source of the music as a number of individuals in the town have brought out their instruments. And they're playing some more discordant than others, but overall, you know, a sense of joy as people for the first time in a long time are truly embracing this positive atmosphere. You see children laughing and running through the streets. You can smell fresh cooked pies and various other bakery items just filling

the air around you, looking over as you approach the center. You can see where one's bodies hung from its boughs. There now are strings of blue and white ribbons that are intertwined with each other, braided and set across from branch to branch. You can see fine little glass structures that have been hand-blown and left to drape from them to be part of the festivities. As you begin to make your way up there, immediately people begin to notice your presence. And you can see people in the streets begin to gather up and begin cheering. You hear voices mutter off, Fox Marketer, Hans! People run up, some start reaching out and shaking your hands, thank you so much, thank you, and you're kind of taken it back by the attention.

It's reminding you a little bit of the awkwardness you had with the last winter's crest in Iman. You're on the lookout for eggs, giant frosty-looking egg. Crystal eggs. You make your way towards the Sun Tree, and there you see Keeper Yeninin is in the process of speaking with a few of the people that helped him with this entire rebellion and setting up this event, and he greets you all as you approach. Oh, my friends, how wondrous. I'm glad to see your awakening ready and well-rested, I assume. Yes. Glorious.

Well, this is a day of celebration. We've taken the time and morning shall continue as needed, but today, today is to embrace what it means to be alive, to thwart the darkness and the evils that press upon the free folk of these lands, and, of course, to eat and drink till you are full and drunk. That's shit, brother. Cheers to that. It'll be a little bit before we get to the actual celebration speech.

But in the meantime, go free yourselves, drink, be merry. There are a few events going on around you, and he kind of points in a few directions, and you can see around you there are tables set up, there are individuals playing games. Immediately to the left, you can see there are two long tables set up and a stack of pies set off to one side. It looks like an eating contest. Oh, no. I haven't eaten for a full day.

In preparation? Yeah. You do see what looks to be a gentleman with a high box with a very, very fine waxed mustache that is currently doing parlor tricks and magical presentations for people who are trading coins to be astounded with his illusions. You can see what looks to be a series of tables behind the Sun Tree kind of towards the southeast side of it. You recognize better than anyone. These are central table, relatively small, with a chair on each side. Arm wrestling!

Craven, I think, oh wait, now I'm wrestling, go to sleep. The sigh's getting more and more impatient. It's good to be getting used to that. So this is the three first events that you come across, just immediate vicinity. What would any of you guys like to partake in? I see the magic tricks and go, and run over without saying anything to anybody else. I tag along.

Okay. Oh, I'll go in for this one as well. Okay. As you guys rush forward, you come to the box. It's a relatively high box. It looks like it hasn't seen some use in a while. The gentleman sitting in there with longish hair, parted in the center and kind of combs outward. He's got his waxed mustache.

He's wearing a kind of a dusty, presentational robes, and he has, on the top of it, a series of small boxes, and looks like various tricks that he has at the ready. There are three children off to the side with their either their keeper or their parents behind. behind, he goes, now watch, if you will, as this simple ball transports itself between the cups, and yet find your eyes unable to follow. And he swims the cups around for a moment. Where is the ball, little one?

And the kids kind of deliberate, deliberate, and one goes, that one. Are you sure? They all shake their heads. Oh, I'm sorry, the ball has escaped your vision. Once again, and they all kind of like, ah, they cheer. Lips the other one, and it's gone. The middle one.

Are you a wizard? We've met a few wizards. You're a wizard. No. Are you a sorcerer? Because you don't look like a druid. This doesn't look like natural magic. I am what you refer to as an illusionist.

And I can play tricks on your mind. Your mind. No! No! God, we've been three ways too much of that here lately. Oh, God. It's entertaining. Playful, playful illusions, not against.

It's just a game. It's good, it's good. It's good. Keep her in check, please, you're scaring the children. It's not real. It's just, it's a game, it's a game. It's going to be fine. So.

Okay. Don't worry. Percy will take the first turn. I'm also a diviner. I can look into your eyes and see your very future. Not really, it's okay. For a simple gold piece, you can test your skills against the transference of this etheree

ball or for five I can look into your fate. I'll do both actually. All right. Takes the gold piece. I kind of grab them by the scruff and I say, if you hurt him. Jesus. You don't know what he's been through, okay?

It's fine. It's all right. Don't be fine. Are you working with the Briarwoods? You please get her off of me. I pull it back. I pull it back. It's okay.

Hey, kids, kid, this is why you shouldn't drink during the daytime. Anyway. Your magic. To do your way. So, sir. Takes one gold piece off, sets it aside. Now, the ethereal ball, this was taken

from the far realms themselves, crafted in the ivy-covered hills in the far north end. The Fayewild itself. How could you follow this with but your simple vision? He places one cup over it, two cups to the side, and begins shifting and shifting. Go ahead make a perception check. I'll know him.

Okay. 20. You see now there's a couple moments where the ball shifts between cups, and you can see. You get a really close idea of exactly how this works. And when he finishes, he looks to you, Ha, now, where is the Fayeball? I would say it's to you right, right there. That one?

Are you sure? It could be anywhere on this table. It could. But it's there. Because it's not anywhere else, I'm not so sure about that, Percy. Well, you're welcome to go in, if you can. I choose the one on the left. You have to give him a gold coin there. Sure. Takes a gold coin. Do you wish to choose for this one instead then?

No, no, I'm choosing on the right. Takes the gold piece. And with that? You found it, yay. He gives you five gold. I kind of lean into Percy and I say, this guy's not a threat. He's okay. Well, I am a dark and evil demonic creature, so, you know.

You're so funny, Percy. As he gives you the five gold. As he gives you the five gold, he immediately takes it back and goes, But you wanted to know your fate. Yes. Step forward. Forward, young, what's your name? Um, just Percy.

Percy, please present your face. Just Percy. As he reaches out, he begins to feel the bumps on your head. He begins to touch the outside of your face and closes his eyes. Yes, yes, I can see into the very nature of your existence. You, you, young... Percy? Percy, Percy, Percy.

Yeah. Percy, you, you have. You have hardworking hands. You've seen a lifetime of hard, hard work in the fields. But you wish to make your father proud, as does every son. And you will, as one day you will become a well-celebrated smith of horseshoes. Yes! Yes, glory to Percy! Amazing, so accurate. So accurate. So accurate. So accurate. He's gonna lean in and says, I can tell by the black powder on your hands that you've worked with a few pieces of iron in your time. Very astute, very astute.

Thank you so much. So who's next? Children start rushing up and you guys wish to continue with this guy? No. All right, we'll leave. I've seen enough. Okay, who's doing what now? Do you, does anyone want to get out on the pie contest?

I thought I might arm wrestle first. I think you should arm wrestling. Arm wrestling. Oh yeah. I would say it is. I'd like to arm wrestle in case I need to eat my way out of sadness with pies. Turn your sadness in a victory. I will also enter the arm wrestling competition.

All right. Yes. Okay, okay. So as you guys step up, you can see there's a woman dressed in a rather simple barmaid outfit, you know, a little other apron around her side, and she's pretty, She's pretty, you know, thick and rough and tumble with her timbre. She has her hair pulled up into a very tight button in the back, and she's got a little smudger on her chin.

She's kind of, All who wish to enter the contest, please step right here, pay your entry fee. Graciously prove your might and your strength. Show that you yourself are responsible for the rebellion succeeding. It sees you. You? You wish to be part of this, yes?

Yeah, I do. Very well. Very well. Entry fee, and she kind of leans in, gets kind of real with you for a second. Entry fees, 25 gold pieces each winner gets free drinks. And the pot. I slapped down 25 gold on behalf of grog. You're paying for his entry. I'm paying for his entry, sure.

And mine as well? Your... No. Pay, too, not yours. Food man. I would also like to compete. I would also like to compete. Hey.

Sorry. 25 gold then. There you go. Is it? I mean, no offense. I just, I would, it's a cute bray. Other individuals come and enter. Cute.

And you can see, as you guys are preparing for this event, you hear the rattling of chains nearby. And you can see two of the guards are stepping up with the Goren Gawain. With the Goren Vedmire, who is, you know, you can see. who is, you've seen the Duke. The Duke? Yeah, no longer Duke, unduked. That's Duke? Yeah.

Once you duke something, you can't unduke it, Matt. No, he's been thoroughly unduked. Trust me. The Duke who is formerly known as. Duke-Go-Nad. Duke-Go-Nad. Duke. He's brought by two of the guards, and the guards kind of whispered each other.

They bring out their own 25 gold pieces, and they pop it into the pot, and they're like, He's entering as our proxy. He kind of looks around. Yes. What they said? She kind of nods, I don't see why not, I suppose. All right, other people end up gathering their change in.

She goes over a sheet with one of her compatriots, and they end up breaking off into the teams, and there are four tables set up, and for this round, at least, this part of the festival, they break up the different parts. She calls out to one table. All right, we have a Jasper Lear to go against a Scanlan short halt at this table.

That's me. Scalynne! Yes, Kemp! Yes, guys are you getting ready. You see a, it looks like a farmer-type individual. Clean and as dressed as he could be in relatively ragged clothes, but he looks like he's trying to be presentory for the festival. Gray beard, kind of longish shoulder-length, tossing hair, and he kind of walks up, pulling his wrist back, and he's got some good muscles. It looks like he's definitely been working a lot of heavy farm work for most of his life.

and he sits down on the table across from you, kind of gives you a look over. Well, shall we begin? Sure. Can I ever so covertly say to him, you don't want to be to gnome. You don't want to be to gnome. And I'm casting suggestion on him. Hmm. Uh, I will say, go ahead and make a sleight of hand check. Oh, I'm my worst.

13. What does it mean? The eyebrows! I know. Who knows? We'll find out when my arm gets red-drawn. He's looking at Jasper's stats, I can tell. What, no, what are you talking about?

He's checking Twitter. Yeah, I'm going to respond to fuck old things guys. Give me a second. There we go. All right. So he kind of has his hand out for any. He kind of has his hand up for any. He looks you over with the look of intensity for a second.

Would your hand up? Yes, sir. Claffed, and his fingers wrap entirely around your hand at this point. At which, as intensity mounts and the crowd gathers around, everyone begins cheering. The barmaid steps up again. Scamberg. All right, the two of you, hands together.

And prove your strength. No! Go and make a strength check. Strength check. You guys stand there for a second. His arm begins to push on yours, it begins to bend back a little bit. You reflex your might and begin to send him back up to the center. You've reached a standstill once again, back towards the center. And his expression on his face looks frustrated and surprised. What expecting this, were you? Neither is I.

Take another string check. Not as good. Not as good. Eleven. Eleven. At this point, as you say, that, he kind of tenses in his body. Forces bowing your hands now right at the three-quarters to the table. Make up the strength check. Oh, God, I think he's a man. 16. 16. Got to touch the Michaels. What is going on? I had this has never happened before. He's now keeping his hand at the side. He's like, he's trying not to grasp the edge of the table, which is

headway against the rules. But he's like, looking around and everyone watching and realizes the sheer amount of attention that's put on the fact that this tiny little gnome is now keeping him at a standstill. I shout out from the crowd. Scarlene! Scarlene! Pike is here! She's astrally projected in! Natural one. With that moment of distraction, you look around for,

wham! Your knuckles hit the table. Cheers go on, everyone shots happily, you're an idiot! All the blood rush somewhere else, that's not my face. My friend. I do. He lives up his tankard on the side and someone's pouring ale into it.

He shouts his victory out and everyone cheers. Some people come and smack in the back and be like, you did good, you did good. That was, that was really? I don't need your pity. Grug, kick this motherfucker's ass. Two more events go by, or two more gentlemen showed down in this. Actually, on this one actually, it's a woman and a man, this woman who's a woman who's, who's a pretty tough-looking warrior, probably one of the guards of the Castle White Sohn.

She, still partial armor, has been guarding the event, has taken her helmet off to be part of this event, kind of taking a moment to be relaxing. She goes up against, looks to be another merchant in the town, and just destroys him. The next bout is a man who, the way he's dressed appears to be a blacksmith. He still has this, like, leather gauntlets on. He takes him off at the table, takes off his other incestive side, gets down and ready, and looks around for his opponent, and the two guards bring up the chained Bedmire, who then sits down at the table, the chains hitting against the sides of the wooden tabletop and coasting to the ground as they adjust. He puts his arm on the table with a thud and has to kind of bend over to even reach the other guy's grasp. You can see the look on his face immediately just pale as he realizes who he's

up against. Yeah, it's not, it's two rounds in. Maybe 20 seconds tops before Medmire just slams it so hard you could see part of the tabletop splinters inward and the guy brings his hand back with bleeding knuckles as he kind of leeches over and puts his hand out expectantly. The Verman kind of hands him tankard full of alien, just kind of downs it and one gulp slams it on the table and stands back up again.

Lances over to you and steps back into the crowd. The second round of events go in, you, are paired up with the gentleman who defeated Scanlan. Kick his ass, grog! Yeah. Put him in a bunny man. I sit down and I say, Give him the chair.

I feel really bad for you, mate. You know my friend, he's got hand herpes. It's true. Make it for, make it step from choice. 20, 19 plus one. Natural one on his part. He looks genuinely frightened and is about to back up and kind of looks like he's about to get the attention.

of the barmaid is running this event, but then sees the crowd around. I mean, you're a former, right? You handle food. Bits in his hand, puts it out, and grabs your... Adam! That I'm sorry! The barmaid once again, and prove your strength! Roll strength check. He has disadvantage.

That's just sad. 21. 16 in a natural one. Oh, shit! Already he's straining in his back of his knuckles or nearly scraping against the wood. You can see fear in his eyes, and he's like gripping. but he's also like trying to move his fingers to make sure he doesn't make too much contact with your hand. Go ahead and roll on the strength 11. At which point he sees the grin on your face and gets his will back behind him and forces you back up with the center. Make another strength check.

Oh shit, seven. A neutral 20. Oh no! He slams you right over on the edge of the table. Make another check. Come on, go, go, go on. Oh, go on. Uh-huh. 20. Yes.

Three. 19. Back up to the center, stand still. You can see now the veins bulging in his neck. You can see now his face is turning red from the strain. He's breathing heavily as he pushes it again. Make him the strength. Come on, Grog!

Eight. Eight. You both stay there in the cell, hold the fore. Keeping you right there in the middle. I hold up my hand, and I use minor illusion to make it all dotted with with always. Yes. Yes.

Yeah, no, he glances, he glances, side long, at your hand, and, So I'm gonna get a disadvantage on this one. Mm. All right, what did you get? Oh, uh, 17. 17? With the disadvantage, you got at six. The hand goes up to three-quarter view. He's now looking at you, looking at scounder hand, looking at you, looking at his own hand, is really worried, making another strength jack.

It gets slippery when the poor start to see. No. That's a one. No. No. This is epic. Yeah, we've been at the advantage it gets two. The center, you guys, are in the middle again.

Oh my God. A big struggle. 22. 22? Yeah, he got a disadvantage again because of that. The disadvantage is fading at this point. He got a 12. Now he's back down on the door.

Come on, finish it. 22. He got a seven. You, looks at the hand, looks at you again, and you can see in his face the sudden look of acceptance. as you stop playing with him and Wax! Slam it really hard on the wood, you can see he pulls away Ah!

Wash it! Wash it, please! Somebody wash it! You know, the cure for that is actually a marman vax's groin. It's very magical. He slowly backs into the crowd looking very disturbed and disgusted as everyone else is cheering for you and chankered slown before you, filled with ale. The barman is like, drink up, you've earned it, champion.

I look at GONAD over at the side. I drink it, chug it down, and hold up the finger at the same time. You can't sit there and just tenses for a second with a grin. As you see, he kind of growls, you know, his cold breath and the cold winter crest air kind of dissipates up above him, and you get this kind of nod, this slow look of warrior intensity, but respect. You can see he's looking forward to hopefully this as much as you are, but he still has a battle to do himself. I've spent the last 10 minutes while he's kicking that guy's ass to find a soldier of somebody in the crowd to bet.

A young boy. I'm not you. That's more of his port. 200 gold on grog. Oh, shit. Somebody in the crowd. Make a persuasion check. All right.

Zub-z-z-z-z-z-a-z-go. 14. Going around, you're hard pressed to find somebody who at this moment in time is interesting. interested in betting any money against the Goliath that helped save the city. You find one gentleman who seems a little interested and gives you this side-long, sleazy grin, he goes, tell you what, not 200 gold, but I put 50 down. That's not worth it. 75 gold? Step away, halfling.

Oh, I heard it. I know. He doesn't need to cross the table. He's too focused on the current about at hand, in which at this table you can now see Vedmire and the woman guard sits down. She, yeah. Someone says like, oh, oh, Trisha is wrestling. Oh, her name's Tricia. Tricia.

Trish the dish. Bedmier gets on again, the chains against the wood as he sits down with a smile. Kind of just gives her grin and a nod. She's just intensity towards him the whole time. You can see there's a little bit of intensity to win, but you also see spite in that look. Look, you see that she kind of knows what he's done and means this is, this victory means more to her than otherwise. Two of them, get to, first match, she pushes and gets the upper hand, forcing her the three-quarter view perspective. She's tensing herself, you hear

the muscle tensing beneath the armor itself and the metal creaking as her whole upper torso begins to kind of push into it. Ah, she begins to push it. Yeah! Tresh the dish! Trish the dish! Trish the dish! Trish the dish! Trees the dish! As you guys are shouting this and keeping it going, she gets pushed back again into a defensive position. You can see the blood rushing to her face, but he himself is starting to really intense, and he can see the surprise in his face from the battle she's giving. She pushes it back into the center, this back and forth. The crowd's starting to get really intense, and you can see the shouting and the cheering.

It gets really quiet as everyone's now just kind of breathlessly watching this bout. She pushes a head back in three-quarter position. Come on, girl. He goes, and he gets to rally his own strength. But it's not enough as she BOR. Yes! On to the table, as she kind of released it, goes,

You deserve that and much more. She gets up and walks away. The tanker is held out for, and she just kind of pushes it aside and kind of cracks her knuckles and she steps away. Vedmire's kind of there staring at his hand and Fiddle. It's a real pity I was looking forward to fighting you. I'll get used to disappointment, shithead. At which point it's chains are tightened and the guards lift him up again off of his seat and he kind of gets led off back into the ground.

Yeah, walk away, you beardless, bastard! As everyone's gathering now and you can now see more discussions are happening, people are starting to really place bets down now on the outcome of this circumstance. circumstance, the barmaid comes up again and says, You, Champion Grog, sit down. And you, champion Trisha, sit down, as the final round of this show of majestic might happens now. Hands clasp, please?

If I may, thank you for your service to this city. That last round was a true pleasure to watch. Her face goes from Hardin and softens for a minute, and she reaches out and clasps you, not hand in hand, but forearm to forearm. gives you like a solid shaking. I've done so little. You've done far more, but we all must do our part to keep the city safe.

I'm right now I'm going to have to destroy you. I kind of love Trish the dish. I know I really like her too. Her crasp on your farm slides back into a, you know, kicking your hand. Both you kind of tense muscles, you know, we're talking predator, shorts, snake, or her style. Yeah, what's the matter, Dylan? Father Dylan, CIA, got you pushing too many pencils. Just like that.

Where you go on microphone? I was saying at 900,000. Yeah. And as the crowd begins to shout different names, you can see people going, chish, chish, chish, chish, grog, grog. Grog the... The world of Sonic the Hedgehog has been thrust into a not-so-dark,

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You can see now between her very, very tightly bundled dark brunette hair, you can see these green eyes piercing through that are looking straight into yours and there's a little bit of a sly smirk on the side of her face. You can see a little bit of a scar on the outside of her face. It's a long time healed and you can see she's definitely seen her share of battle just from the complexion and the intensity in her face. Oh, yes she is. She's just one of us. For the final round, let this show of might begin! Strength J.

Eight. At the moment of tension hits, you can sense there's definitely a balance. There's a balance. Both of you are keeping it bane. You kind of, fox her head curiously, and forces you down to the three-quarterback position on you. Go and make another strength check. Come on, Grog! Oh my God.

Six. That sword's influence. Yeah, it's laughing in the back of holding. She brings you right down to the edge of the table, and you can see in her face, there's this genuine look of surprise. Like she probably could have finished you, but she feels like there's a trick or there's something to it,

that she can't be beating you this easy. I'm so surprised by what's happening. I use intimidating presents on her. Oh, shit. Okay, go and make an intimidation check. Does this have to be during her age? 12, I'll go into a rage for it. Oh!

This is funny, it's may have to be, let's see. Why weren't you raging the whole time? Actually, no, this is not have to be. I was hoping I wouldn't need it. Yeah, you don't have to be in a rage for it, but you can choose to if you want to. It doesn't add anything to my strange rolls, right? A 12 to her invitation?

Yeah. Okay, with that, as, what do you want to do to try intimidate her? She's about to finish you off on this table. I'm like, oh, hey, huh, and I bite down on my tongue and blood just starts to pour out of the corner of my mouth. Oh, she sees this and immediately her eyes go wide for a second, and she pulls back, and for a brief moment, you feel her grip loosened ever so slightly. Go ahead and make your next strength check with the advantage. That's unreal. Eleven. The other one was one.

Oh, well, I'm glad you had advantage in that. She rolled a five. So you do manage to force her back up. You're still in a bad place, but you've managed to pull out of that circle, and you can see now her intensity. hits, and she realizes she's not going to go soft on you at all going forward. But, you know, as the blood kind of pulls down your chin, you can feel the irony taste, wishing around in your mouth. And you can see there's a little bit of quiver to her. She still is kind of spooked by this whole circumstance, but she's trying her best key base. So go ahead and make another strength check. She's battle worn. 19.

It's good. It's good. Good. She has disadvantage on these because of the fright. I'm giving her that. But even still, she still wrote a 17. Would you roll a total? Would you roll a total? Uh, 19. You guys keep it. She's still holding you there. You're not able to gain any ground, and she's keep, you're really impressed by this,

this place she's giving you. Roll again. Do I have advantage? No. No. 12. Okay. She forces you back down.

Oh my god. Oh my great base of this. I step forward and I sing a song of inspiration. What are you saying? What help? I sing, uh, let's go raging now. Everybody's learning how. Come on.

Come on on a rampage with me. Come on on a rampage with me. All right, take a ticket to 10 inspiration. As you hear the song, break through the intensity, and you know that Scanlan's presence alone in itself, and his fine ditties means that you can do this. Fine ditties. Those like those fine ditties.

Wow. Show us your ditties. Okay. 16. 16? With the 10. With the 10 inspiration. Okay.

It's good you did that. You force are back up. Back up in the corner view, she starts like really pushing into it, and you can see now the sweat stripping off the front of her brow. Her eyes are kind of quivering as attention happens. Make them in the check. How long is that last? Seven. Seven. You can't switch. You should.

You should switch. Grog, what are you doing? I don't know. They're so low. You see how long the intimidating present? There was all those three roles during the two weeks or above 20. Oh my god, do you really have hand herpes? Okay. Yeah.

Yeah. God, I do know where I'd be. Would you roll? Seven. Seven. Yeah, she still beats you. All the five. So at this point, you're pushing down, down. She gives you this look.

This is unreal. Yeah. Of intense anger and push. And then her face softens, and she gives you a nod of respect. Boom! So, yeah. Releases the grip and she pulls away. Trish, Trish, Trish, Trish, Trish, Trish,

She raises her hands up. Trish, Trish, Drish, Gras. The drink is slamming in front of her, you know, the ale swishing and spilling over the side. She takes it one hand and slides it forward and hands it in front of you. Oh, she's a good lady. You are a true warrior,

and I hope you will continue to protect this city with that strength. I intend to. She kind of gives you just a nod and walk. walks around, accepts her coin purse and steps back into the rest of the celebration. I walk away, coughing, trying not to cry. I take my tank and I splash it on my face. Oh, it's just ale. It's just hell. It's okay, Groh. It's okay. It's going to get you drunk.

As this is happening, a courier comes up dressed in... that are reminiscent of the courier service that travels through Amman, through Western. There's a certain type of overcoat they wear that gives you the inclination that they've traveled from nearby civilization. Steps up with a rolled-up sequence of letters and a small box that is wrapped up. Oh, look, the young boy you ordered Scanlan. That's always... He's his mid-20s. It's old for you, apparently.

Stretching for you. It's asking around, looking for a Percival and a Vox Machina, Percival. I'm Percival. You're Percival. Yes. I'm deliver this to you. He hands you the small box. And says, I have here two small letters and handles them over both to you. There's a small, thin one that is actually written to Percival.

Oh, you're rolling. And there is one addressed to Vox Machina. You can just go ahead and take that there. I was going to sit here and watch you wrong. Presentations lost. That's fine. Just notice Delsen's outfit, by the way. Disadventage.

We were supposed to wear pajamas. And I wore my pajamas. No. Yeah, my Muppet pajamas. Yeah, the week got busy and we forgot pajamas. You don't want me in my pajamas. Because they're a rock. That notes to you.

The other one is Tuvok's Machina. Is that a birthday seat? Yeah. Letters. Oh. Oh, this is quite interesting. Interesting. Voxmachina, a little bird tells me you have been playing the heroes again.

Keep this up and the whole world will end up indebted to you. Please accept the small gift in the spirit of Winter's crest as a token of my enduring gratitude. Perhaps it will prove useful in a difficult moment. In the meantime, I look forward to a fuller account of your deeds reaching us in Vasselheim. a joyous crest to you all. It seems that you have earned it. Lilith.

P.S. Zara sends her greetings. Oh! Zara. The teetlings. Oh, I love that so much. We've had quite a night together. Just braiding each other's hair.

Oh, sure, sure. I tucked the private note away and put it in my pocket. All right? She said it was a to, yeah, it was another one, right? And there's a box. There's a box, yes. Oh, is it big enough to hold a giant carpet? It's up.

You beat too, ready? Or perhaps a small ice egg. It's about that big in your hands. So we open the box. Open the gift. Inside there are two. Check it for traps! Make a reflex it, no.

The P.G. As you open it, you see inside there are two crystalline stones that both identically look like that. Okay. It's been a while since a visual aid. Yeah. It's kind of nice when you have a really good artist, apparently. But the two stones like this, if you may inquire these, they're called gate stones. Gate stones? Gate stones.

Gate stones. The two stones are essentially linked. One is placed wherever you like, and the other is kept with you. A single individual, just an individual, an individual can take a minute to concentrate on one stone and be instantly transported to where the other stone is with the stone. Bad ass. So a one-way ticket. Essentially, yeah. Yeah, you take it with you and then you can zoom back to wherever you left. Yeah.

So it has limited use for situationally... Yeah, but they're the two that are linked. A person or linked? No. There is a single set. So this is like a get out of jail-free card. Or a Bampfin pipe card. It's like Skyhook. There's multiple, you know, situational uses for it depending.

But apparently this has been painstakingly either enchanted construct. and sent by Lilith for you. This is lovely. These are all from Lilith? Yeah, the letters and those two stones. And she didn't keep the other ones. And Zahre, both of them essentially. Yeah, Lilith doesn't have the other stone.

For a little arcane booty cold. I don't know what you're talking about. Please. Please? No. I don't think I've ever seen Percy giggled before. Are you blushing? No, it's cold.

It's a new demon, isn't it? The blushing demon. She was great, wasn't she? Milleth is a true friend. Zara as well. Zara is great as well. You hear murmurous now, people mentioning the piting contest starting soon. Fletch, Max, Facts, Facts, Facts.

All right. All right. I'll give me to go. So you guys are making me over there. We're going to go to our break. Those who are going towards the piding contest. You start pushing through the crowd making your way towards the two long tables that are set up. up. At this, you can see there are a pair of bakers that are standing there with just stacks

and stacks of various pies of various flavors that they're preparing all different colors and shapes just kind of pushed into a pile as people are gathered around excitedly sitting at the tables. Is Trinket allowed to join in the pie any contest here? You can ask. I do. Okay, you walk up to one of the bakers who sit in there. He's like, all right, all right, so sit there, everyone's got table. We have room for about four more.

Oh. Right here. All right, three more. Two more. And a bear. Is there room for a bear? A bear? Like a bear.

Yeah, but a very human acting bear. Oh, sure. Bring him in. Yeah? No, it's a bear. Two more room for two more. Do want me to join. Now I'm getting drunk.

Transmography, drink it quickly. I'm getting drunk. Anybody? Can you polymore trinket, Keylet? Into what? A human. Man. To a lumberjack.

Into a lumberjack of a man. I don't think it works that. Try it. It's commercial. Make it happen. You can certainly try it. I try it. Winter's quest magic. I believe.

I believe in the spirit of winter. Hold on. Pull on. Can you probably move Trinket into a man? Sure. Zalakadoo, a magic abo. Scanlan says he can. Go get a man to see you.

I think Scanlan actually might have a better chance with Semi. Or see me or see me or see me. Can you probably more people? Like, can you polymore people? Yeah, ridiculous. Technically, I think you could. I can. Technically.

They do not taste like that. Sure. I'll talk. Let's see. Yeah, I'm gonna make them real beefy. He's got pecks that can lift semi-trucks. All right. Okay.

So, rushing off at the side. Fur, fur, just like kind of like a fur. Oh, God. Fury belly. What is that? Like a blue belt? Why are you saying for? Like that guy in the beginning of Barabella.

So you turned your bear into a bear. Brian Blessed. Yes. Okay. Into a bear. No. Here's my bear right here. Yes.

He's got love handles. So you rush off and you come back with Trinket. As you can see, is walking a little strange and... Like Brian Blessed. Trinket? Rinket. Rolls up and kind of brushes his scrinket. Oh.

roughy man beard against the side of your face. You gather polymorph does not affect the intellect of whatever you transform. I grab a mug of veil and be like, ah, another one, right? Yeah. He's had so many. He's so drunk this guy.

Wait, wait, wait. Broke, do we still have that helmet, that pot that you wore on your head in the bag of holding? Yeah. Can we have that real quick? Yeah, okay, so I'll reach out the big bronze. Put the pot on his head. Why?

He has a helmet head. So the pot, which covers Trinket's head now, drinking his head. He does not need the pot on his head. Trinket, have a seat in this chair like a normal human. You can get that back to me. I keep giving you mail. Okay. What is going on?

So at this time you guys have people gather around now. You guys all take your places at the table of gather around now. your places at the table, you have to kind of, you know, put your feet planted, everyone kind of pushing elbow to elbow. You guys sit down amongst yourselves in a cluster, and you eventually guide over as your fourth at the end of your group, your polymorphed bear friend who's still like kind of... messing with his manly ham hands. To eat. I do not have much confidence. You have always eaten more than me, always.

No! No! No! Evan, just face first, arms behind you, just tearing through these pies. Just... Blackberry, strawberry, all forms of berries are just being tossed everywhere. There's even a couple chicken pies there to a few people's unfortunate... No hands! No hands!

No hands! No hands! No hands! No hands! No boss! No boss! No boss! No boss!

No boss! I'm gonna use message. To communicate to girl. To communicate to Grog, if there was ever time for a prank, now is it. Oh, shit. As you all tear through your first large pie smeared across the faces, you'd be with your mind off the side, you glance over. Everyone go ahead and make a Constitution saving plan.

I knew it was a Constitution. Oh, he's going to bark. Oh, he's going to bark. 20 natural 20. You rattled the table. It was 15, but it went over. Oh, sorry, Charlie. Seven for me, because he rattled the damn table, because he's an asshole. And for Trinette?

And then Trinket rolled a hat. A 21. All right, girl? Oh, I'm not eating. Oh, you didn't go any eating? I thought it was a shoot, too, guys. It was a drink. And Trink.

Okay, so the three of you tearing through, you're... So the three of you tearing through, you finished the first pie, the second pie slammed down. pie slammed down, you all looked out, you have a little moment. Close, but not too bad. You gather yourself and dive into a second round of pies, splashing all over the table. Now you can see... Elbow my sister and then dive into the pie.

Trinket is having a hard time keeping the hands at the behind, and you can see one of the baker said me come by and hold the hands back and... He's really drunk. Don't touch him too much. No hands trinket. He lost half his family in the attack on Whiteson-Law. I'm not so sad. I'm so sad. I'm so sad.

More pie crust being tossed aside. The table is a mess. You see the bakers are starting to scoop off whatever outside of kind of, you know, left over and spill off the side into buckets. As you finish the second pie, make another custom saving throw with the DC increasing with each progressive pie. Oh. Each progressive. Wow.

Natural one for me. Woo! Oh boy. I got a big six. All right. No, drink it. No, drink it. Yes. Thank you, Scanner.

I got a big seven. I'm 14 for drink it. Did you really? Oh, seven. She rolled a one. Yeah. Okay, so as you both finish your secondary pie, you both sit up and look at each other with just, you know,

dark purple berry filling down the side of your face. You both make icon at the same time as you both go and just release your freshly and payload into the paper. payload into the pans before you. Baker comes by, same means the hand down. Disqualified! You're looking on the side, you aren't the only ones. A number of other individuals have dropped out now, and you're down to five people at the table that are still eating, one of which is Trinkett, who finishes the second pie. Go Trinket! It's like kind of smearing it across the face, getting all in the beard, and some of it

strumbled down into the chest hair. It's pretty terrifying sight. Third pies are slammed down to the table. These last five individuals in Trinket, have Trinket roll another constitution On Trank. I'm on Trank. You want to inspire him? Get that Trank. Oh, yeah. You're adding your modifier, right?

Oh, almost, that's one of them. 13. You're adding the modifier, right? What modifier? This Constitution on party. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. It's three point one of four.

All right, so, Nice. Thank you. This time, everyone finishes this last pie. Two of the individuals end up having to just stop, just duck out and have to run off out of the crowd. Three of them make it through, Trinket just barely finished. The third pie is like, oh.

It gives you that look of like, buddy. You can keep doing it. I'll give you. Food? Yeah. I know. I got nothing.

You'll get a nice nap. You can have the bed tonight and I'll sleep on the floor. Looks over and another pie is sitting down the fourth round of pies go down. The last three. And drink it, go into it. Like another constitution saving there, but drink it. Okay, okay, okay. What was it almost?

It was almost a fucking 15. 15? A 15? Yeah. Total? Oh no. The set of pies finish. Two of the remaining three end up getting up partway through the pie and one of them just

vomits off the side. The other one just stops and walks away going, and spitz out wet. It's left in his mountainous hands and he's re-examining his life. examining his life. I don't know. I'm quit. The other remaining gentleman finishes the pie and is like sweat down his face.

You see what little bit of a chin strap beard he has is just covered and various bits of crust. It's an awful appearance and Trinket finishes with the last bits of the pie. I'm... I feel so guilty right now! Why is he so good at being sad here? I know. Don't be sad there. Three hundred gold. Three hundred gold.

It's just one hundred gold. Make a persuasion check. Oh, a persuasion check to shrink it? Yeah. So he'll keep eating. Oh, buddy. 15. Trinette looks to you and it's like,

You're like a toddler's a Tiar's mom right now. I know. I'm the worst mom. I'm the worst mom. I'm the worst mom. Across the table, the gentleman who is also there scoots over right and frotting and goes, may the best man win I. Trinke goes,

Ruhrh. Get angry. Eat angry. And you're back for a second, with a bit of pies just spattering across him from the growl. Trinke make an intimidation. Two pies,

brought down in front. These are not fruit pies. These are meat pies. Oh, that's so wrong. You're sadistic master. That's okay. Trinikin likes meat way more than fruit. The man goes,

does he? Does he? Is it a salmon pie? He likes fish. Yes. Constitution saving throw. With advantage good meat? Because it's salmon.

It's a salmon pie and he loves salmon. Hold on. There do appear to be hints of fish inside. I'll grant you advantage on this saving throw. Okay, okay, okay. Fucking bald, mother bitch. Wow. Advantage.

Advantage? I did roll it with advantage. Eleven. Eleven? Okay. Both of them dive into their pies. into their pies, coasting through. At a certain point, turning it kind of stops and breathes heavily in the pie. You can see bits of it kind of over the edge just from the

nostril flare. Looks up at you. It's okay, buddy. It's okay. I instinctively move behind that. The gentleman across the way, looks up as well, and it's like, they both dive into the pies together again, slowly try to make their way through, and then at a moment they both kind of look up at each other in the eyes and they make a connection to the two of them is a look of sudden fear and realization hits both of them. They both sit up, and with but a moment's notice, the two bakers set down two pails to their side as both of them simultaneously just buckets losing simultaneously, at which point both of them kind of raised their other hand

amidstulsion going, we have a tie from a victory! Okay! Our both winners lasted quite a ways! Splitting the pot, that's 50 gold each, everyone cheers. Good job Trinkey! It kind of gets up, like, Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, whee. Anything else if you don't want to. Okay. No, you get to sleep on the bed.

You get to sleep on the bed, and I will sleep on the damn floor. Trinke kind of steps up and pushes away from the guy and goes running towards you on his hands. Oh, yeah. Evan kind of goes like, oh, let someone by and starts nuzzling you. Oh, this guy. This guy is so drunk. drunk. Like there was some mold on those fives.

Sillacidin. Baker runs up and hands you in a sack of golden for your friend. Thank you. And he's feeling better. My favorite kind of pie. I come over to my sister with two big mugs of ale and hand one to her and say, here, don't swallow the first one, just swish it around and speed it out. Then the rest.

That's a good one. A good one. At this point, you can now hear voices start to race, and people going, oh, the keeper's going to speak. And people start gathering towards the center of town where the sun tree is. As you all begin to gather for this central moment of the festival, Keeper Yunnan steps up. Cassandra steps up with him, and you can see he's looking over the crowd, eventually meeting Percy's gaze and leads you up onto the stage. The three of you stand out amongst the rest of the crowd as everyone kind of gathers. The children are sitting in the front kind of expectantly

with their hands under their legs, kind of looking up with big smiles, some of like covered in candy and whatever else they've managed to acquire throughout the festival. The music begins to slow die down until silence hits in a small, cold breeze begins to blow through. As you see, a couple of fresh flakes of snow begin to fall from the sky above White Stone. The keeper looks out over the crowd as the hush takes the rest of the group. Friends, families, brave soldiers and defenders of this wondrous city. We gather today to celebrate for the first time in many years,

our own Winter's Crest Festival. And shout clapping against the travel of Jesus. It is on this day that we remember centuries ago, when Erevan, the Ice King, keeper of the far realm of ice in the elemental plains, attempted to tear his way into Caldore, was kept at bay and sent back packing from whence he came. There are, some cheers come from the crowd. As in this, we also are reminded of family, reminded of friendship,

and the bonds that we as a people keep ourselves and our families safe, that we rise up to the occasion to show true heroism, to stand by our beliefs, and not let the darkness swallow our hope. And by that, we're able to bring to you this day the surviving members of the Dorolo family, Cassandra, and Percival, They hear some whistles from the crowd and some cheers swell up again. Some shouts, Dirolo!

Some yells come from the crowd. Keeper, Yenan puts his arms out and slows us. These two, among friends, box mocking the intrepid adventurer of Riemann, spearheaded our freedom from the terrible tyrant ruin that the Briwoods had set us upon. But today we celebrate not just our joint friendships, we celebrate true heroism, and give thanks that there are still looking to you, Percy, people who will do whatever it takes to rise to the good of this land. Most to Cassandra, who in the long run know the right choices to make, and amongst the darkness

still choose sight of the light. May us all raise our glasses to the prosperous future of this city amongst the Alabaster Sierra's and to the continued future of the Dorolo family. Everyone raise the glasses up, cheers and everyone drinks in, the music swells again, people begin to cheer and scatter and Keep Rien and leads you guys off of the stage. The rest of you kind of gather up as some people come up and shake hands and express their gratitude and thanks. As the crowd begins to die off a little bit, Kieber Yenna and kind of gives you all a look and kind of beckons you over. He says, if you wouldn't mind a moment of your time, I think there are a few

things we need to discuss. Of course. Cassandra? She comes as well. And you all step off out of the festival for a while. A few folks tend to follow to see what's going on in some of the guards can usher them away and you guys are led into an empty building. It looks to have been a home of some kind that has long since been abandoned. As you step inside, it's cold and still in here, very low light. There's been a little oil lantern that's been lit by one of the guards as you stepped inside. The door closes behind and keeping you in turns around and goes, There is no real way that we can show our appreciation of what you've done for our people. But first and foremost, there are funds within the Dorolo family treasury left behind by

the Briar Woods that we hope could help compensate for some of your expenditures and hardships you've undergone. So many, just so many. Understood. This is, of course, at the behest of the Drorlo family who are the inheritors of this fortune. Oh. Thanks, Percy. First of all, you're looking very attractive today.

I know. Okay. Now, we've had a few weeks of peace and recovery, of rebuilding and reforging the real bonds of this society here in White Stone. But going forward, there needs to be a governing force. I would like to ask of your wisdom and guidance all of you in deciding on what is to become the future of this city. We have many options to our disposal. I'm overseeing a myriad of things throughout the town, and as a man of religious importance, given the history,

people have recommended it does not behoove me to take any sort of position of ruling in this town. It would be natural, of course, for the people to, without question, follow anyone of the existing bloodline. He looks both to Cassandra and Percival. Have you any thoughts on this matter? Any of you? Of our members, only this one human over here on his hands and knees is expendable of our group. At which point the strange, burly man on all four is that at this point brother didn't really notice goes, is that your bear? Is that your bear? Strange folk.

I don't think any of us would, well, Percy, if you'd like to stay in rule, This is everything you've worked toward. This is your birthright and you've earned it. It was really not my birthright. I was not raised to rule. But you would be a fantastic ruler. And also sometimes those birth rights are thrust upon us. I still have work to do outside the city.

Ripley is still on the loose. I know far too much. And I feel more than a little responsible for her. and what she may do. Honestly, Cassandra had a better upbringing than I did for this sort of work. Which point Cassandra can I pay to lose? Well, I understand what you're saying, brother, but I've... I'm still rediscovering who I am.

If the people of this town knew what I had done, what I was responsible for all these years. You mean surviving being held hostage? Surviving an ambush and being pelted with arrows? They expect better of us. I know. I understand this. We are held to a different standard. And it's difficult. Perhaps it's time for a council. Perhaps it's time for shared rule. There should always be a de rollo in Whitestone, but perhaps we could share the weight. We could. I could. I could.

Yennan, would you be comfortable sharing some of this burden? I was taking it back from the things, yes. Well, in the sense of a council that you're recommending, I... That would be certainly a more comfortable position for one such as myself. There are a number of community leaders that have really stepped up and shown their true quality. Yes, yeah, this... This could be done. We'd have to ask the people, of course, of the city and make sure that that would be all right with the folks. But I think given the way things have been, that shouldn't be too hard of us, oh.

Do the Dorolo still stay in the giant castle? Or does that go to somebody else, then? I think the Dorolos keep the castle, but I think we use the castle to... I like this, pan. Wait, would you be on this council? And who would they be Counseling? Is there no superior, primate? Is there no... There's no... I believe what he's suggesting is that we make decisions by council. By votes. A triumvirate. If you will. Quintunvalent.

Oh, four people? Five. Five. Five. A flattity splat. A flivity gibbet. A religious leader, someone from the farming community, someone from the economic community. Someone from a trade community and someone from the known community. from the citizen. From the known community. From the citizen community.

From some known community, yes. I accept. Interests will be thought of and there will always be a noble to be a tiebreaker when necessary and to judge from a place of greater good. Cassandra. She stepped back at this point. and she looks, her hands kind of shaking visibly,

and she looks up to you and steps forward and kind of reaches up and puts her hands on the side of your face and looks to you with a piercing honesty and fear. And she, lower lip quivering whispers to you, Percy, can I be trusted? Do you trust me? Are things considered, I think, that you're more trustworthy than I am at this point. Let's not forget that I was the one who let you down first.

you down first. I'm going to give for one of the stones. Wait, but wait, no, that was the whole group. That was to the whole group, Percival. What is this? It's done. Leave it alone. I was going to save your fucking life later. You're going to be so happy when we have instant access to the Treasury. All right. If you need, if anything bad should happen, if there's any need of, if there's any need of,

quick retreat or quick communication. This is a one-way trip to us. And in return, this is a one-way trip for us to you in case of emergency. She can clasps it in her hand and holds it to her chest and... We're born for this. You were instructed in how to do this where I never was. And now you've got four other people keeping an eye on you. She kind of smiles and closes her eyes from us. What you say is true. I think she kind of looks over to each member of your group

and looks back to a keeper, you know. If it so pleases this intended council, it would be my honor to represent the Dorola Bloodline and keeping this town safe. And so be it. I shall inquire the people of this town. We will forge a council voted by the greater people of this place. And we shall restore White Stone to its former glory. Go. Enjoy the rest of your festival.

What was that, uh, cash prize? You had mentioned some sort of a... We'll talk with Percival. That would be... I will organize. Oh, you have to give it to it. It's like it has to come from you. That feels shady. It's like a... Let's not forget that within, I think we want to say within six hours of meeting each other, I think, I want to say within six hours of meeting each other, I I ended up handing over an enormous sum of money to you. It was actually like 500 gold. It was quite a bit of gold, if I recall.

You have it written down, don't you? It's so endearing. Is it? Very well. Enjoy your festival. You've earned it. Go out. Be merry.

Let us all remember this time of year. The bonds that we carry, the loyalties that we hold to and the heroism you stand for. Now go. At which point the guards open the door and he steps out, the cold air kind of rushes in, and you can see now quite a bit of soft snowfall is now coming upon the center of the town. I'm sorry, is there a washroom here? My sister's a little drunk and managed to yak him here a bit, and I would really love to wash up a bit. Anywhere nearby? Points off to the side, and there's a small bucket of cold water that's set by the side. Okay, I use it.

Okay, you get it off. Yeah, you managed to, you know, dampen your outfit at the point to get it off, although it is a bit cold when you step outside now, because you have the wet leather against your torso. Can I follow him for a moment? Sure. Um, so I haven't talked to you very much lately. Um, you seem a bit off.

Yeah. What's going on? Nothing. I'm tired. You can relax for the first time in weeks. I noticed your girlfriend isn't talking to you. Did you do something? I will tell you just about everything, but I don't think I want to talk about that.

I'll leave as well. All right. As the rest of the party joins, you all step out into the cold afternoon air as you are immediately greeted by the sound of music, laughter and cheer, The rest of the festival continues on into dusk, and can't help it find the joy in the air infectious. Percy. Yes. I actually have a present for you.

Comes with a story. Alright. You're the only one I... Should we go get drinks? Maybe we should go get drinks first. Let's go get drinks and then I'll give you your present. All right. In that case, Alcohol makes everything better. Alcohol does make everything bad.

Speaking of presents, even though you're being kind of a dick. Wow, you ran fast to catch up with me. I was going to buy you something, but then I realized sometimes old is better than new. It's an old person. Kill it. Kill it. Kill it. It's already dead.

It's a hundred old person. Do you know what that is? Oh. As you open the package you see before, you have familiar belt of leather with a coiled snake on the buckle. Oh, did you get that? I've got ways. It was in Uriel's palace, wasn't it? I'm a really good winker if you haven't noticed.

Yes. Did you wink somebody for that? You slutty little thing. Hello, Simon. Oh, no, it's just a real snake, it's fighting you! Revenge achieved! I am too embarrassed to look her in the eye, stare for a moment, but then finally, still not looking at her because she's fucking freaking me out. Pull her into hug and say, I love you stubby.

I'm never going to leave your side. I'm always going to be there. You can always be a pain in the ass like you are. I love you. Always have always well. And then I slap him across the face. What the fuck was that for? I love you too. Um, okay, so when I was helping me,

When I was helping the farmers clean up, I had this strange moment where I was walking through the field and saw a dead raven. Here it is. More or less. And caught my attention. It just kind of made me think about the past several weeks we've been through and everything. and I don't know. Who knows? It probably died, actually, in the rebellion.

Maybe my ice storm, like, killed it or something. You're doing very well. Thanks. So I was looking at it, and it reminded me of everything. And I feel like I was instantly trying to forget about everything. because I don't want to remember, but we should. And I don't want to remember you the way you were, because it was scary, and I didn't like it.

And I like you now. So I took the dead bird and cleaned it, kept its skull, and put it in this box for you. as sort of a reminder of what you could have become. Guess what any of us could have become really at any time. Because we shouldn't forget. Thank you. It's a little macabre, and I would have bought things, but we are out of money.

So... I won't forget. I'm glad that's not you. I can't even think of what the revenge felt like anymore. It's not. It doesn't weigh on me. Just regret. Regret?

How much better I could have been. Thank you. I will try to be better. You know, better than you could have been. There's still a lot to come, you know? That's my plan. I think we all wish we were better than we could have been. Seeing that bird, I'm sure the bird felt the same way. But, fuck it, he's dead now.

How strange, you know that. I know. No, sorry. No, we like it, don't change. I'm glad you didn't change. I've got you an Amazon gift card. It's a forest called the Amazon. And you can go there and get a gift.

Is it far? Oh, really far. You'll never use it. It takes about three days. Free gift. Well, guys, Voxmachina is now free and clear of all evil influence. No shadowy demons. Feels good.

It was good. With that, Vox Machina continues to enjoy the joyous affair that is the Winter's Crest Festival. Snowfall, slowly covering the night's sky as the sun comes to dusk. You withdraw to tell stories, sing songs, and drink merrily as the friends you are. Looking forward to the next chapter in your adventure. during your adventure. And with that, we're going to go ahead and close the Winter's Crest episode of our adventure to leave you guys to the holiday break. Welcome to Mick Unplugged, the number one

podcast for self-improvement and modern leadership. I'm Mick Hunt, your host, and I'm here to challenge your why and fuel your because. This is where leaders, entrepreneurs, and go-getters come to level up. Each week, I bring you unfiltered conversations, game-changing strategies, and kind of motivation that transforms lives and legacies. I've learned from legends like Les Brown, Damon John, and Robert Irvine. And now, I'm bringing their lessons, along with mine, straight to you. From modern leadership tips to creating unstoppable momentum, this is the podcast that redefines what's possible.

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