D&D is For Nerds - Barovia IV #19 Strange Bedfellows

Episode Date: December 14, 2025

I do not understand how these individuals have survived so long without me. They should be commended. Like when a small child learns to walk. It is something they need to do and should come naturally to ensure its survival. Myself- I was walking almost the moment I was born but I am to understand not everyone is as gifted. There is something to be commended about the Great General Pip Manadarin, even though he understands how to walk, he will still crawl to give himself, I presume, some sort of tactical advantage. No matter how shameful or dishonourable it might appear from the outside looking in. He truly is a dragonborn that doesn’t care what people think of him, which must be a great relief to himself and those that he surrounds himself with. ...Because no one thinks very highly of the man you see.If you're still wanting to pledge for the Jarren's Outpost Board Game you can right here! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Oi, lads, did you miss out on the Jaron's Outpost Kickstarter and wish you weren't such a big doofus? Well, fear not. Late pledges are now open and they'll be open for a little while, so just head to Kickstarter search for D&D for Nerds or Jaron's Outpost and slam that late pledge button. While your feeble mind cannot comprehend it, you struggle vainly against the misty walls of this place. Trapped in a nightmare you cannot.

wake from, but it will not matter. It will never matter. Nothing will matter again. For I, Agogash the terrible, are your jailer, and soon your executioner. Your only escape will be death. A go-gash plants his feet very firmly on the floor, and then he points down at the ground, drags his finger up, and as he does so, it's like he's tearing a hole in the fabric of reality. He pulls it apart and offers for the three of you to step through. I do so. Iona, Muriel, follow you, and then a Gogh steps behind. Hector. You're in a corridor. You can see it stretches off a little ways, then ends it a crossroads, and then there's a T intersection beyond that. So two intersections, one are crossroads of two corridors, and then a T intersection.

Okay, I guess I need to go down before I can get out. Is it all just like wooden, like we're in a tree? Yeah, it's like you're inside a tree, yeah. All right, I will. If it weren't the malevolent aura that exists here, it would be like you were, it would feel like you were in a scene out of Lord of the Rings, in Riven, not Rivendale, in, what's that first Elven City they go to? The one where Galadriel is.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. In the Merkwood. Yeah, in the Merkwood, yeah. Yeah, yeah. All right, can I just, yeah, very, like, stoutily, try to be stouther as possible if I can, just, like, look it around. I'm like, all right, let's try and make my way

kind of anywhere at this point. Doesn't really matter. The first one that comes across. Be like, all right, just head towards a direction. How's always? Let's go. Nice. As you approach that first intersection,

you hear something, heavy, walking from left to right. One of the big bruises comes into view. Okay. It stops, looks at you, and then keeps walking. I'm guessing got something to do with the heart. Yeah. Maybe.

Or he's just like, oh yeah, another Frankenstein. Yeah. He's doing his job. I'm doing mine. How much do I look like one of them? You look exactly like one of them. Am I tall? You, you, your height probably has changed, yeah. You, yeah, I would tell you're taller.

Jesus. You're not as big as one of the bruises, but you're not as, you're bigger than what you used to be, yeah. I don't hide. Okay. I try to navigate this area, but with a bit more confidence, I haven't looked in a, there's no reflective surface, was there? You can, if you look down where the bruiser came from, you can see a dining. hall. Oh no. No, you don't go that direction. Well, I'm assuming if it's the dining

hall, then there's a good chance. It looks empty right now. You can see from here that it looks empty. I mean, apart from more of these automaton's. No. Does it look? My goal is to try to go down. Okay. The goal is right now to find Gretchen. So I'm going to try to navigate some of this. If that, if that looks like it's winding or feeling like it's going upwards, I would not be going that direction. Okay. That makes sense. Um, yes, it's weird. to what would be like, I want to go down and like, I don't know, it's like, how do you navigate? How do you navigate?

But you can kind of feel like if the, if it is uneven in a weird way. Yeah, yeah, you can kind of, you're looking for slopes and stairs and ladders. Yeah. That brings me past the dining room, okay? Yeah, but if that doesn't, also, okay. Yeah, you're not seeking out your reflection. If anything, I'm almost actively doing your reflection. Okay.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, you. I don't want to know No, dude I don't want to know Oh, I get a bad boy card Oh, that's wonderful

That's a real shame You spend some time Wandering around You see room upon room Upon room upon room This place is big It's very big You get an idea

Of what the space Quote unquote looks like It's five huge rooms In the center of this tree You can tell that these, when I say huge rooms, I mean, what is that, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 50, 60, 80 feet by like 160 feet. Like huge rooms. And there's a bunch of smaller rooms all around them. This place is laid out like a maze.

Anytime you encounter those automaton's, they act like you're just part of the furniture. Okay. And you encounter no one else. And it feels like a castle right now. Okay. The automaton, do they have also pants? Are they also just like bits out or do they have pants and stuff? Some of them wear like basic loincloths.

There are ones that are quite clearly meant as like service stuff and they wear full-on uniforms. All right, all right, all right, all right. Okay. I see knowing it, no one else. You find that space that you started in, that fireplace, the kind of entry, like an entertaining room. almost, where someone would sit and be allowed to just like enjoy a drink and a book while they were

waiting to be seen by Ivana. Okay. All right. Is there I guess two, no, I want to be stealthy. Never mind. Is there any, if I found anything going down. No, you haven't found anything going down.

Outside. You don't, you're not 100% sure if there is a method of going downstairs on this level. You see four ways of going up upstairs, but no way of going downstairs. You don't even know if you've done a comprehensive look of this level yet. All right. I don't want to go up.

Once you go up to go down? No. Yeah, maybe. Maybe. I'll do another search of this level, or at least... Another search of this level. Yeah, this level to try and find a way down. Okay.

This time, as you're searching around, you realize you missed one corridor, and missing that one corridor, like, reveals an entire extra section of this floor. And in this section, you find that there is a staircase going down. Highs or lows? Let's go with lows. Lows, you sure? No, highs. Hyes?

Yeah. You sure? Yeah. Sticking with highs? Yeah. Stick with it. I was joking before. Go back to lows.

Oh, okay. Then lows. Loz? All right. As you move towards that staircase going down, a gust of air blows from down up, and you feel something. pressing you don't see you just feel a sharp sensation against your throat can i close my eyes and then i guess think back to a lot of childhood can i open them and uh and using a blind sight

can i see this thing in front of me using blind sight you are aware of an entity standing behind you with a dagger at your throat. It's vaguely humanoid-sized, but with blind sight, you actually can't see it. You just are aware of it. Hello again. Hello. You are not supposed to be here. No, I am not supposed to be here. You still are looking for a way out? What way out do you know? Well, as you have said, I am not supposed to be here. You feel a hand-clothed. roaring at the hole in your chest. You should be dead. I should be, but as you can see, I am resourceful.

How did you do this? Why would I tell you? I'm listening. I want to know where Gretchen is, the woman that was with me. I can take you to her. I will do my best to try to find a way to get you out of you. You feel the point of the dagger press a little bit tighter into your neck. You will try.

I can try to lead you to Gretchen. Well, that would be nice. That does not make us successful. Would you rather I blow hot air up your tuccas? Or would you prefer me to be honest with you? I would prefer your honesty. Then I would do my best to get you out of here. You need to have some.

level of trust I will not risk my life on trust of someone I do not know well then why don't you just pretend like you never saw me the dagger you feel it retract I will give you 10 minutes and I will try to find a way to get you No matter how long it takes me. Damn. I start walking. You hear calling from the top of the stairs as you make your way down. I start walking, but if I'm out of eyesight, a little bit of a job.

You walk at first to seem cool, then, yeah, it becomes a full-on sprint. All right, you get downstairs into what is a dungeon. Immediately wood becomes stone. This place does not feel like it was grown out of a tree. This feels like an old-fashioned medieval-ass dungeon. All righty. You're lucky. You immediately find Gretchen.

She's there. There's a bunch of people in cells. You can see some of them are still intact, but a lot of people have had parts already harvested. It looks like they're being kept alive possibly for more parts to be harvested. All right. Okay. Gretchen, mercifully, is whole.

As you approach, she's behind, you know, like in an old-fashioned jail. Not, like, don't imagine bars. Imagine a wooden door with a metal grate set into it so that you can see inside. When you approach that, Gretchen looks over at you. She's in a cell on her own. She stands up in shock and she rushes over to you. Gretchen, Hector. Yes, yes, yes.

Are you okay? What happened to you? It's been months. I do not, I do not know. Are you okay? Are you okay? Did you have the, I, I, I, I'm fine. Do you have a device? No, she says she lifts her shirt to show you. Um, okay. Uh, uh, can I just break that, though? Sure.

Can I just, uh, grab all over just like the spear, just like. You lift your hand. to break the door, and then the door opens, as if commanded by your action. Well, that is very strange. Looking around, the other people in here are all of,

if I was to be like, I'm a set everyone free. Because that's... Not everyone can ambulate. Well, that's also, am I just out of the frying pad into the fire? Is he going to get eaten by mutants? Or, no, more to be, are they going to be in a a worse fate

question mark question mark it's pretty it's pretty dire anyway okay well I look around and you encountered enough people on the upper level to know that if you staged a jail break

they if you don't know exactly what would happen like how the automaton's would react but there's more than enough Frankenstein's monsters to contain this jail break pretty easily I um was there any body are you okay are you okay we need to get out of you she nods yes i'm i'm okay what about she looks at the others there is a lot of frankenstein's upstairs um as any of them

able fighters we will fight our way out gretchen says any of them able fighters did you meet these some she says some i i feel this might be a thing where we need to save as many as we can and then we have to recuperate and maybe come back for the rest. Gretchen, upon seeing you say that, you see something that was just knitting back a little bit, you see something breaks again inside of her. Yes, she says, we can come back. You have convinced her to leave.

but she seems as confident that the others are being saved as you are. I could probably... Oh, sorry, it's something I completely neglected to do. When the door opens and Gretchen sees more than just your face, she pauses, and you see terror in her eyes. I give her a moment. Hector, is that you? Yes, it is me.

What have they done to you? I honestly don't know. Because I haven't been able to see my reflection. When the guards were leading the prisoners anywhere, was there a maximum number of people that a singular guard would lead? Two of the big ones would come, and they would take people away one at a time. Two guards for one prisoner. Yes.

That is unfortunate. I look around the other cells. Is there anyone who is, like, maybe an ex-fighter or anything like that would have been... You could see a few people, yeah, would be adventurous. It's so futile. Hmm. Yeah. We can...

I guess I can open up the... Guess I could open up the doors. To get a full account of who's here would take quite a while, and you are... A part of... You got here very quickly, but you're running out of time. I'm like, I could open up all the doors, but... I feel that there we are less than 10 minutes until something really bad happens and comes this way. Let's go.

Gretchen nods. You can see, she offered like a brief, for a brief moment, she was prepared to stand, fight, and maybe die, maybe for these people here. But seeing you decide to flee with what you can. to take what wins you can. She has, she just copies you immediately. Something inside, Hector, breaks a little bit. If it's just the two of you, and it is just the two of you, you actually have, because you, of your search before, you know an exit,

the two of you, without any hassle, leave. Get in front of me, follow my lead. You spill out from, it is a, so you step up. out and you are, you were in a tree. The root network of this tree, it's as large as a tree blight, but it's not a tree blight. You can see it's not a sentient creature. It's obviously not a sentient creature. The roots of this, of this tree are like tank treads rolling along and the, the tree was moving. You can see that there isn't, you are in an army. There is a army's worth of Frankenstein's monsters, and you can tell that you, as soon as you step out, through the fogs, you can see

they are marching on Borovia. Oh, well, suns and stars. It is automaton upon automaton, upon automaton, these Frankenstein creatures. You see the spider ones that captured you. You see bruises, like the big ones that held you in place back in the tree. You see big bruisers, made of ogre and giant. huge motherfuckers who would hurl boulders as a catapult might

you could see small ones big ones you can see ones quite clearly made out of wizards capable of casting spells some of them appear to have a higher level of sentience and some of them you could see where those the like little metal shields that indicate that they are being controlled maybe unwillingly

you are able to, without any effort, slink through and among and escape. No one pays much attention to you. You look like you belong here. And even though Gretchen does not necessarily, they can see that Gretchen is obviously with you. And most of these creatures, especially the less sentient ones, they just don't question you. You look like you belong so they treat you as if you're allowed to do what you're doing. Okay, how do we get home? Home slash Tuberovia.

Is you in the mists right now? No, you're not in the mists. You're in a land you are unfamiliar with. You can tell that you're still in the, as Emmanuel would describe it, you're still in the dark places, but you're in a different dark place. This one has a very different vibe. Imagine a sinister eco-punk universe. Okay.

There you see. You can tell, though, that there are the mists of the dark places ahead of you, and you can see the mists. It feels like they're thin a little bit here. So Mount Baratok is just outside of Borovia. It's just to the north of Borovia. you can tell you are on Mount Baratok making your way down into Barovia

or the army is at least and because of the thinning of those mists there's some but not there's some mist but not a lot of mist you can just barely see through to Valakai to the valley which Barovia the town of Barovia sits in and you can even see Mount Gacchus

on the other side of that valley okay all right you know from this thinning You actually know the direction you need to head. Oh, okay. I was going to ask, is there maybe some Vistani parts that I could then use to navigate the mists? You, I mean, you could consult with Gretchen to confirm this, but you, this thinning of the mists might be a result of Vistani parts inside you. You're not sure.

All right. Can you see, I point to where, like, Valakai is that kind of, like, that way. Can you see through that? I think a little bit she says So in the mist am I seeing like A place for Valakai As in where Pip would be a place that's Or is it at different points of Borovia

What you're saying? Yeah you can see most You can't see Kutri Because it's too high up on Mount You couldn't see Kutri from Valakai Honestly, it's obscured by Mount Gakas But you can see Valakai You can see the township

This is maybe the first good view you get Of the township of Barovia itself You can see Castle Ravenloft. You can see Exathandris Tower. You could even see, I would say you could see Creswick out to the west. Huh. It's been months

or not. Hell, you could see the hill that Pip's little shack is on. You can't see the shack, but you can see the hill. Hold my hand and do not let go. Do not let go. And I make a a, I could see most of Barovia. Let's, I'll go like a

B-line to Exotanters tower. Back where you last met, back where you lost sore, I should say, Rahadin. Yeah. I know it's been months, but at the same time, has it? Yeah. Has it been months for Borovia? You can move faster than the army, so you quickly outpace it, making your way towards the, where you basically left Barovia. As you make your way through the mists, you see a figure making

their way north towards you. Tall, imposing, and extruding a power and energy. As the mists reveal them, you realize who it is. There is no one else that it could be. The hard angular jaw, the wicked, but right now, soft eyes and the deep, commanding voice. You feel, Hector, you feel as if you should be kneeling right now. Count Strad von Zarovich appears before you. His arms outstretched, Hector, my child, I am so sorry.

What? He looks you up and down. What has she done to you? I pull in Gretchen close to me and a little bit behind me. I'm not sure, but she took me apart. Come, Hector, let me put you back together again. Pip, yes. You are as prepared as you can be.

You have with you a Gogash, Muriel, and Iona. The swirling snowball, snowball, the swirling... Snowglob, thank you. The swirling snow globe of Valakai sprawls before you. You are at the western gate currently. Now, Jackson, do you remember much about the layout of Valakai? Cozy, cosy. It's like a bunch of sprawling streets with possibly some kind of central square.

The AI generate this response. I would wager. So you know that there are three gates to Valakai. There is a northern gate, a western gate, and an eastern gate. There is no gate to the south, but you do know, so Valakai has a, I don't know how you would describe this. I guess it's not really a half circle, but it is vaguely a half circle shape. With the Blue Water Inn being just to the west of South. center, the church being quite west of the center, the Berger Master's Manor being a bit north

of center, and then the blacksmithy being pretty much dead center. Cool. So, going in through a gate puts you about as far from your goal as possible, but the Westgate specifically allows you access to the blue water in to see if anyone's, and sorry, the church to see if anyone's taking refuge there. They might be safe points on your way. You have been told by Muriel. Muriel would have explained this to you as part of your preparations that they have lost contact with the...

Blue Water Inn. Yeah, with the Blue Water Inn. So they don't really know what's going on inside. And a go-gash for saying he wanted to head to the blacksmith. Yeah, the blacksmith would be his first point of call. As the crow flies, to steal a phrase... Or the raven. There's the raven or crow flies. Right, good of fun.

You got to have a bit of a feather, dude. You got to make yourself laugh. As the raven flies. You got to make yourself laugh. Got to make yourself laugh because no one else is. Yeah. As the raven flies, the fastest way to get to the blacksmithy would be to scale the southern wall. Oh, okay.

But that would, well, you don't know, I guess, is, uh... You don't know the, you don't know the, you don't know how dangerous or not that is. And was I given any indication from Keening as to where he was specifically? I don't think so. He told you nothing of his location. Okay. And did a Gogash tell me why he wanted to go to the blacksmith? Yes. So the blacksmith is where they summoned. Oh, that's right. Yeah, okay, I remember that. Yeah. Father Lemick. So a gogash who is aware that Keeneing is searching for Father Lemick's self.

Figures that that would probably be where he might be. All right, then I, is this kind of, we're having like a discussion about what our point of ingress will be. I was just trying to bring up a map so at least you can see. I hope that explanation for anyone else gives them a vague idea. So I assume we're like on the outskirts of Valakai, but still within the snowstorm. Yeah. The, as soon as you pierce the veil, it's like stepping into a snowstorm. It's blizzarding all around you.

It's, I mean, it was already cold in Borovia, but now is exceptionally cold. the quickest way to the blacksmith would be over the wall but I don't know if we have such as a grappling hook or anything like that maybe we'll have to go through the gate and then make our way through the streets possibly stopping at the Blue Water Inn or the church on the way if we can kind of take that detour just to see if anybody's surviving inside and they might have information as to how everyone's doing or there might be survivors I don't know it would be

not too difficult for me to scale the wall. He gestures, I should say, sorry, something I neglected to mention, there is a gate here, but it is shut. Okay, yeah, I think it would be. I gestures to the gate and says, I should say it would be no trouble at all for me to scale the gate and then unlock it from the inside. Should you desire that entrance?

Well, I mean, you know, we're going to get in somehow, so yeah, let's do that. Very well. A go gash walks up to the gate, leaps, lands halfway up the wall, and with one solid throw of himself, scales the wall entirely. He moves frighteningly fast. I briefly think about him sitting in a glade playing chess and how much he's changed since then. Muriel steps forward. She'd been a step behind you. She steps forward.

she has a cloak, which she is currently very tightly wrapped around herself. For a brief moment, the cloak almost looks like wings, though, to your eyes, just in the corner of your eyes. But when you look at her, it is just a regular cloak. Yeah. Looking at you, and then we discover the source of this and fix this. We fight that. Yeah, Muriel, I guess so. I mean, it's not my first choice either.

I mean, you could try and kill him now and fight both at the same time. Is it not possible somehow to let our enemies kill each other? Muriel says more of a, not really, yeah, not an actual... Not a suggestion. Yeah, just, uh, wouldn't that be nice? Yeah.

Look, you know, war, which I suppose this is, in a way, makes strange bedfellows, Muriel. Like I said, I'm not happy about it either. Slowly, but surely, the portcullis begins retracting up and then the doors themselves open a go-gash is standing at the other side. You can see

in one hand he is holding or with one hand he pushes the door open and with another hand he has a villager someone by the neck he's lifted them up into the air they're struggling and kicking at him you can see there's a wild frenzy

to this person. Hey we have allegiances I say to the peasant well what to the villager what what who do you who do you serve they turn to you and you immediately see as they turn around it's like ice has blasted half of their face one the eye that you could not see as go gosh was holding them that eye is a solid black and when it stares at you you feel a pit welling in your stomach okay awesome answered a go gash with a simple maneuver snaps the person's neck.

Oh, they die just like anyone else. That's comforting. Unless that required a Herculean effort, an Elfuelian effort from your Gogash. I assume they're known as Elfulees in this realm. Depends who you are. Nomeyles by the nomish. Borfulees, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, elfulees by everyone else. Okay, well, that makes sense.

Although the gnomes sometimes refer to him as elfew, sorry, nomuomulus. Yeah, of course. Gnomu, gnomia long nominus. Trying to get as many gnomes in there as they feasibly can. Nom you, nomu, nom, you knowms. Okay. Is there any other, like, danger on the... Because I assume we move forward through the portcullis and the gate

into Valakai properly. Valachi has been ravaged. It's been... It really has been, like, one catastrophe after another. You can see the damage from the tree blight. They didn't have... There hasn't been enough. There hasn't been enough time to fix that.

Is the tree blight, like, the corpse of it, effectively just still kind of like... The corpse is gone. Yeah, okay. Well, oh, good question, actually. I hadn't really considered this, but it would be mostly, but not entirely gone. Yeah, okay. The corpse of the tree blight, parts of it are still here, and it looks a little bit... It looks like you ever seen whale bones at the bottom of the sea?

Okay. It was sort of a whale fall situation where it crashed into valichion for a brief period of time. they kind of piraned it skeletonized it you can see the skeleton if you will of the tree blight stretches up

Main Street Main Street Valachi the tree blight stretches up that it has crushed several houses and large buildings you take a point of cold damage We need to get inside Is there a building nearby we can duck in

Absolutely As we duck in can I try and think about, is there anything that you could harvest from the tree blight that it's bad for a peasant to have? Well, I was thinking, like, you'd probably have, like, that's some good firewood. Well, that's true. It is cold. It's been used for, yeah.

Well, you can see a lot of houses have been repaired with tree blight wood as well. That's probably not good, but that's a problem for the future, you know? Maybe it's good. You would say that is absolutely bad for you. Yeah. It would probably be also pretty bad to burn tree blight. Yeah, I don't want to inhale whatever the tree blight's going to be exuding. All right, well, we'll duck into a nearby house and try and warm up.

Maybe there's, like, some part of your training where... So you use a very basic, simplified alchemy that can only really do simple results. But, you know, if you were properly trained in alchemy, the smoke from a tree blight's corpse is a very powerful reagent. In it of itself, an ingredient. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What they are doing is essentially, this is the modern day, trying to think of some terrible economic, sorry, ecological disaster. This is essentially the equivalent of the ExxonMobil pipeline disaster. Do it real bad.

Do I think that, like, some of the cultists will have been knocked out by burning the tree blight to make fuel? Or is it more likely that the cultists can withstand the cold and it's been the good folk of Valichai. trying to survive, who have accidentally smoked themselves to death. That's probably a mix. Yeah, well, I reflected in the brief second as I duck inside this building. All right. So just the first building? Yeah, honestly, just the first building we find.

We just got to get out of the cold. And then we can start to plan a kind of path. We can start to make a path through the city. You stumble into a empty building. Okay. Great. You can see the people here probably left in a rush. It's a three, it's not a very big building.

It's like three. rooms total a kitchen a bedroom and a quote unquote entryway there is the air of people escaped you can see the that it's not like ransacking it's everything's been pulled out to search for what they wanted to pack yeah okay um maybe among the items on the floor you see a teddy bear a grotesque teddy bear with fangs and evil looking eyes and a little tag that says is no blinsey is no fun. This fucking place. I'm trying to see if I have any

alchemical ingredient that will provide us with any kind of resistance to the weather. While you do that, I'm going to apply one point of cold damage to Muriel and to Iona. Okay, I really don't. I don't even have anything that makes fire at the moment, which is annoying. I've got somebody that can give me cold damage,

but that I do not think will help us. Oh, well, okay. I would like to combine some ghoulinids, some let's call it quaggoth veins and some dragon scales

to try and make a resistance to cold. So the ghoulinids provide fire. The quaggoth veins provide immunity to poison, but I want to use the immunity to cold. Okay. So apply the immunity to the... Quite a strained variation. Yeah, and then the dragon scales

are for resistance to energy. You... Okay. Odds or evens? Odds. Odds? Yeah. All right.

You create an immunity to something potion, but it doesn't look right. Okay. Well, you know... It was supposed to turn like an icy white, but it turns blue instead. Can I drink it? If you want, you can drink a portion of it to get only a portion of the result. Yeah. If it does work.

that reduces the efficacy of the potion. Yeah. So, if you can imagine, you could imagine drinking a potion that lasts for an hour, say. Drinking it in one quarter pieces does not provide you 15 minutes at a time. It provides you 10 minutes at a time instead. Does that make sense? Yeah, yeah.

Well, I think it's just worth the risk, so I know. Oh, sorry, the question being, how much of the potion do you drink? Oh, just a portion. Just a portion? Just a portion? Yeah. All right. I just want to check.

To see what I've made. You take four points of cold damage. Okay. A portion of enhanced cold damage. Well, hey, that's something. And now I know what it does, at least. It's going to make it a lot worse when I step outside into the cold. You are cold inside and outside now.

Okay, great. Good. Do I know what building out of the church, the blacksmith, and the blue water in we are closest to? You'd be closest to the church, if any. All right, well, I reckon after we recuperate a little bit in this empty building, we barrel outside. Before you'd barrel outside, as you're finishing up the potion, it's okay. You hear distantly over the blizzard, and it is a feat in of itself to be heard over the blizzard. You hear, bann, dun, bum, done, bum, done.

you also notice that there has been this entire time you thought at first when you first opened the door that it was just the blizzard that had spilled into this building but you realize that there is a fog that will not leave which is maybe you also realize as well that's not really the feature of a flea feature of a blizzard no no no no no

okay I whip out Emmanuel to the undead section which doesn't really exist because that's not how they're organized They're organized by when you will encounter them. Yeah, exactly. But maybe I find the tab that I've stuck in there that has undered. God, I love this book. Yeah. I feel like it's one of those words where it was like, well, Emmanuel, when he entrapsed.

Well, he encountered them this way. It's his order. It's not my order. Although, maybe it was the order that people sent in that he's just taking credit for. Yeah. Undead screeching, I say, standing up. screeching screamers howling is yelling undead areth oft seen as a symbol of the demise of one in their lineage the closer truth would be more that it is indeed correct the screeching is a bearer of death when one of immaculate beautiful appearance cares for nothing else it is possible for their death to result in this vile being i like look around at everyone to try figure out who it could not among us but who it could be coming for the screeching relieves its life moment relives its life moment by moment and will oft be seeneth reciting and reacting theseeth times upon the moors and places of its death.

The screeching will refuse to transpose thyselfth for more than roughly five miles from where it lies. It shall have been noted by thy savvy hunter that a mist, I point to the mist, not dissimilar to one found from more, more, would be spotted around, and within the huntering grounds of the screeching, and that at night one can hear the soft but scarifying sounds of music. I like stop so we can hear the ding, ding, ding, the screeching undead should be mostly avoided

in the touching and in the viewing for these are its two greatest weaponseth. These being what one in life would have wanted of such a creature of beautifications which have now become its weapons. Thine screeching undead can witheth a touch

drain thy vitality, using it to fuel thine selves or they can force thy unsavvy hunter into silence so still as to stop even the weave of magic. Or with a look, thine screeching undead can chill thy Savi Hunter.

For once again, he goes on to the core and cause thy Savi Hunter to flee. Should thy Savvy Hunter face this? He became very interested in the phrase Savi Hunter in this particular entry, clearly. He might have had it bound to Old Zazade, I think.

Yes. The screeching undead within its sphere of influences, and thy my certainly shell for the creek cannot travel five miles from the corpse, then become thine creature's foggy attacks as well. The final, the most terrifying effect, a screeching can use upon mortals as its fearsome wail, which wantseth thy has heard, then thy hunter shall have but a day to slay the creature, lest thy and all thy inheritors become dead. Even before this death, though the hunter shall from here to be referred to as thy unlucky and unskilled hunter, for thy screeching's voice, shall have placed

thy under a curse God damn curses the best method to fight this is to deafen thyself great

really useful Emmanuel Thine screeching on dead shall also be noted to slowly recovereth from any and all damages that

they hunter can inflict in it so long as it hasn't seen its reflection I like click around Has anybody got a mirror

You look at two women Yeah and you start snapping for a mirror Anybody got a mirror I'm snapping at a

go gash too. Oh, I forgot he's still with you. You finish reading. I've got something. Which the screeching hates above all else and will see to destroy. Though it is not compelled and thy hunter will note, yes, yes, yes. Even once destroyed thine screeching will not be truly rededified and shall return continue to destroy within a matter of days unless thy savvy hunter should drive a god damn it. Golden dagger into the very heart of thine screeching's corpse.

Thy screeching is immuneeth. This is important. Listen up. to coldeth, necroticeth, poisoneth, and non-magical weaponry. It iseth, notedeth to be of the resistentheth to acid, fire, lightning, and siking. Like all soft undead, it can resist, or is rather immune to many conditions that would normally affect it thy savvy hunter and thy savvy friends. That's you guys. Well, sort of. Aside from that, the screeching only relives the worstest moments of its own being

and refuses to acknowledge its own faults with them in them, possibly by appealing to the screeching's desire to seem like the good guy in arguments by flattering the screeching with tales of thine's beauty, they may distract the screeching. Well, this is going to be fucking awful, and I close Emmanuel. Mirrors, golden daggers.

My condolences to you, but I fear I shall have to continue without you. What do you mean? If you make it to the blacksmithy, I will meet you there. Okay. Well, I guess you've done your job of getting us in, so...

He nods. I would assume that you will perish in this effort, but if you succeed, I will be very impressed and would, of course, still accept your assistance. That's very magnanimous of you, Agaegesh. No, thank you. Agagash puts one of his giant, meaty hands on your shoulder, and you are shocked at how close. cold he is despite the cold inside and outside you you are shocked at the cold of him

I never got to show this to you before I died I brace myself for an insult goodbye yeah so long so long Oga Gash turns and with a

whoop he pops out of existence and you assume he has entered the ethereal I turned to Muriel and Iona Well I don't think we should deafen ourselves That's probably not smart But if we can block our ears, that's useful Blocking our sight

We'll fuck us immensely So let's not do that Does it sound like it's coming closer Muriel shrugs And with a no Iona Shrugs Iona shrugs and with a sense of dry width Maybe

Are you sure that we should not Dethen blind Maybe we shall cut out our tongues as well. Yeah, very good idea. Surely the banshee cannot hurt us if we kill ourselves. Does it sound like it's coming closer to us? No, it doesn't sound like it's getting

closer. I mean, we may be able to avoid it if we can find out where it is. It doesn't move within five miles of it. I hate that I am the one to say this. I hate thinking this, but perhaps our lives will become easier if we find who it is

and then maybe we will get a clue to where the body is. That's not a bad idea. Can we get... Is this a one-story building? Yeah. Okay. Is it possible to get on the roof?

You could, yeah. Okay. Do I think... I mean, I guess I don't know. But, all right, maybe I like, hoop, hoop, and I climb onto the roof to try and get a better vantage point with my fingers in my ears

to see where the banshee is. You climb up one of the poles inside the building, and you can get your way into the thatch roof so that you don't technically actually even leave the building. And you, with your clawed hands, you push the fatching aside to get a look outside. You scan around and see nothing but blizzard. You can't even see the building next to you.

Okay. Yeah, the blizzard's making it pretty difficult to pinpoint exactly where it is. Look, I clamber back down. we're going to have to keep moving forward one way or the other and we're probably going to encounter it one way or the other but I say we stay out of its way as much as possible and if we can get an ID on who exactly we're looking at I'm racking my brains but I didn't really know the hoi-polloy

of Valachi in my time you're having like Hunter's Mark or something you can kind of like you do an eagle eye type thing you can kind of try and see I don't really think so I think Hunter's Mark relies on me seeing it unfortunately I'm not sure I'll have a look I think it does

Yep You can see within range And mystically mark it As your quarry I can detect poison Muriel Thanks for a second What sort of

A person Becomes a banshee Did you say Somebody obsessed with beauty I believe Let me find it Oh my God Such a long entry

Well I mean I know of one person only who the way of the feather we keep an eye on or we tried to as best as we could keep an eye on goods coming in and out of Borovia

only one person in Valakai ordered makeup well that is probably going to be it who? Lady Watcher she was the only one wealthy enough to do so I remember Lady Watcher sort of Do I know, did she, because she was quite wealthy, she had like a big, big house.

She has a, yeah, you know where she lives. Did, from memory, someone tried to break in. Yeah, yeah. Does she, was there like a graveyard attached or does, no, no graveyard attached? Does Valichai have its own internal graveyard? Valikai does have two graveyards, I think. There's one near the church and then there's one in the north. Okay.

Do I think she would, if there's two cemeteries, do I think she would have been buried I guess I just don't know if she died You don't know if she's been buried Yeah there's like enough of time for burial Okay well I say this Look I know where her house is And that's about it

Whether that's where she died Who can say She could have been killed in the street For all we know So the nearest What do you call it? Landmark Is the Church of St. Andrel

Okay Then is the Berger Master's house Then the Blue Water Inn then probably the blacksmithy then watch your house okay um all right I lay out on like maybe is there like a table in this room

sure yeah and maybe I'll lay out with some like wooden mugs and cups and cutlery we're like right this is I think probably the best path that we can take hitting as many landmarks as we can and avoiding some others I put down like a fork we head to the church

obviously you know if there's survivors there that's great but more we're looking for allies We had people in Valakai before this that were at least aligned with Hector and maybe that means aligned with us. So see if there's anybody there. From there, skip the Burjermaster's house, I say. Muriel and Iona, not.

Sagerly, they both not. We don't need that right now. Okay? We head to the Blue Water Inn after that. See if Danica and Irwin or any remnants of the way of the feather maybe are still there. then after that I think we had hit the blacksmith up I think look if we stop this

I gesture to the blizzard then you know that seems like more of a priority than the Banshee you know so don't worry about Lady Watch's house straight away obviously things might change as we're making away through Valachi but for the moment I think that's a good plan

I look to Muriel and I don't know they nod Muriel says I I would like to yes I guess all I've wanted to make sure was that we checked on the blue water in I think we need as many people as possible

so yeah let's check on it I will tell you from the outset that depending on the situation that they blew water in I may or may not continue to progress with you my primary goal I think at this point is to make sure that people get out

yeah did I give her the Taraka card that represented her? I'm not sure. I think I might still have that. I don't take it out or anything. Pips just like, yeah, of course. Of course.

You know, a micro expression across his face where he goes, if I was Hector, she'd be with this the whole time. But now that Pips got the grasp of destiny, it's rotten on the vine. But anyway, that's just a brief expression

across Pips face. Yeah, of course. Do what you have to. All right, maybe I open the door, like an inch and look outside into the street to just see if there's any heat out there. Well, there's definitely no heat. You, Pip, for a brief second,

you think that you catch sight of a figure in the snow, but then either they step away or they were never there. All right, I think we're good, and then I'll whip out under the street and start rushing. All right, next building. Nice. You burst Pip into the next room. And as you burst in, you see this room, this building is similar to the one before.

It's not much bigger, maybe still three rooms, but a larger floor space. Yeah. You see that the table here still had food on it. There are rats on the table squabbling over the food. They seem to be ignoring. Yeah, I was going to say, if they turned to, they're just normal rats. Yeah. Then I don't even pay them any mind.

They do the same. Honestly, yeah. We ignore the rats, move through this building. And then, good luck, rats. Yeah, me, me, me, me, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Barrel at the next door and then keep moving. As you...

Am I going to get an attack of op from the rat? No. Hang on, I roll the five feet of the rat. As you move to the next door to barrel to the next part, you see Muriel has stopped and diverted to the table. She leans over the table and you hear her, meem, me, me, me, me. She's talking to the rat.

rats. One of the rats stops and looks back and returns. Muriel looks at you Pip. Well, you can also talk to the rats. Oh, that's true. Well, I have beast bond.

I can bond with the rats. That's true. That's true. What would we like to know? The rats see all. Okay. Big question. Well, maybe where the banshee is so we can avoid it. Meem, me, me, me, me, me.

the rats say that it seems to make its nest somewhere in the center of town that would be near watcher house but it's also near the blacksmith it is also near the blacksmith well we may have to figure out a detour next how many people are there in the blue water in and in the church the rat is like on its on its leg gestures gesturing with its little hands that's awesome Muriel gets really excited, and she kind of forgets to relay what's being said to you. She just starts talking rapid-fire rat. Okay. Finally, she realizes you're in the room again. She turns to you and says, the Blue Water Inn and the church still stand. They seem to be safe.

Okay. Okay, great. Briefly glanced at I own her, and then back at Muriel. Keening and Elenio and Krivid. the rat it's hard to say because it's a rat but the rat looks confused for a second

and then you see Muriel takes a step back Mime's having a cowboy hat and then goes she gets down on her knees imagines or mimes having a big beret with a huge feather in it and then Mimes playing the dog

and then what does that look like? But you know. We all know what it looks like. And then Muriel gestures as if she has pointy ears and is pregnant. Yeah, okay, okay. The rat brings one of its

little paws to its chin. Strokes its chin for a second. These are these rats are becoming less normal. Mee, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me. Muriel looks at the two of you. The rats, I've seen such

people also near the center of town, but they were traveling. They do not know where they are now. Right. Okay. That is the last that they saw of them. There was with them... Oh, she also would have gestured Mark Willett, the extra elf,

with them. Okay, well, we've got to keep moving. Thank the rats, and we'll get out of here. The rat returns to its food. Okay, great. Slam, out into the freezing cold street again, and then if we've got to hit another house before the church,

great, or bright into the church, whatever we're closest to. You make your way, house to house. To the church. Thank you.