D&D is For Nerds - Barovia IV #38 The Threshold

Episode Date: April 25, 2026

this one has discovered what this one likes to call ‘the-heroes-journey.’ this one believes that this ones new invention will revolutionize the science of storytelling. as important as previous story-inventions such as creative-liberties, fore-shadowing, and the-ticking-clock. possibly the most important element of a the-heroes-journey is what this one calls ‘crossing-the-threshold’ or ‘getting-to-the-good-stuff.’ perhaps that one would like if this one draws a diagram in exchange for payment? this one would accept payment in form of egg.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. Let this one tell that one a tale. The story of great heroes marooned without a sea, stranded in a place of night. nightmares called Barovia, the antagonist, a creature known as Strad von Zarovich.

As all great epics, someone must die, either Strad or our heroes. Henrik, you seem upset. What's the problem? Good business for you. Adventures are dying all the time. Perhaps we should to lift people's spirits, some sort of talent show. We will need to raise morale, though, because the city's in shambles and no one's happy. I mean, that's normal. I know this is Borovia, but we can get everybody from, you know, fuck-ass depressed to just sort of mildly bummed. And that's kind of your baseline.

One of the downsides of bringing adventures into your town is that adventurers, like I said, they need a purpose. And if they are without one, they're liable to fight one another and kill each other with spears and axes and spells. They will need to be corralled. I could look after this for. a fee. Ah, yes, you will look after the adventurers, Izzyk. And then, of course, once they are loyal to you, once they are following your orders, an argument breaks out. Okay. I use this time to think. I just let them sniper each other while I start thinking about... Blinsky leansky leans over. He's been getting closer and closer to you this entire time. Please, Birchamaster, you cannot let them fight like this.

Not the Birger, Master Blitzky, I'm thinking, I'm thinking, shut up. Okay, I like slap my hands together and try and get everybody paying attention. Okay, it takes a couple goes. Hey! Enough! Shut the fuck up! Here's the problem, okay? The problem is that we, well, you, and I suppose may, exist within BROvia.

Okay? And Brovia is one big downward spiral to evil. Okay, so that's the thing you're going to have to avoid. Oh, Isaac, we could give you the task of running some kind of police force of corraling the adventurers. But you know what's going to happen if we do that? You're going to become even more evil than you are now, okay? And you're going to start leveraging that power for a better position on the council. And then, oh, guess what?

All of a sudden, you're some other adventurers problem. 10 years down the line. And we can't have that happen. Same thing if I give that responsibility to Yvgeny and Saldar. Okay, if we give it to you guys, I'm sure you're nice. You seem very tough and intimidating. But again, this is a downward spiral. The arc of history in Borovia tends toward evil. We can't avoid that. Even Blinsky here. Can you imagine? It's not going to be good. The Berger Master's right. No one person should have control. It should be part of the council. obviously at the Berger Master's discretion, they should have ultimate power. But then the council.

This is the kind of shit I'm talking about, okay? Pointing to Blinsky. Okay. That's this kind of toadying, no good, no good people. Okay, any of you, Kazmia, even the coffin man, if I gave it to any of you. Okay, even Henrik, one ounce of power here can be devastating. So we're going to have to share it equally. And that's going to mean a lot of arguments.

And that's going to mean a lot of fighting. But for God's sakes, if you want to have any kind of future in Borovia, any kind of pleasant happiness, any kind of joy, you're going to need to learn to get along and work together. Now, in my stead, I will be leaving Danica and Claudia in my position. And I don't even necessarily mean that they will take the role of Bergermaster. We might chuck out the role of Burjimaster entirely. Okay, that's not a good title. That's putting somebody above everybody else. Evil, evil, evil, evil, evil, evil, okay?

And Claudia and Denick are nice people. I like them. But guess what? Give them power for 10 years. Sorry, evil. So, we're going to try and have an equal share. Spread the darkness amongst everybody here at the table. Probably that's not going to be to everybody's tastes.

But if it's my decision, that's the... decision I'm making. No one person in charge of anything. Blinsky, with his overturned mug, starts slamming it on the table. Here, here, here, here. I swear to God, Blinsky, I will make you leave this meeting. I know it's your house. But I've headed up to here. I am very sorry. Okay. I look to everybody else. Some people, you know, still seem a bit grumpy, but no one's voicing discontent. Well, no one's voicing disagreement. Okay. So what that means

is that if somebody is correlling the adventurers and the rest of you decide they are not correlling them in a way that you like, that means a meeting and perhaps a change of position, okay? You have to be checks and balances, people, checks and balances. But that's a future problem.

When I'm not here, that's a future problem. It's not for now. Right now, the main thing will be importing adventurers from Coutary and opening discussions with them regarding food. The same with Creswick. And before the adventurers get here, because you're not really going to be able to start building these wineries and chopping on the trees, there are plenty of houses here that are effectively, you know, nobody's going to live in them, you've got more houses than people. And a lot of them are pretty demolished already.

So until you reach a point where you can use, you know, strong, sturdy trees from the various forests that surround Velikai, I suggest taking some of the logs and the walls and the walls and the the buildings that we have already and sort of cannibalizing them to build the walls surrounding Valakai, just as a stopgap until you can get something sturdier. You might as well.

With that, crib it. Maybe there's like a final round. There's like some small quibbles here and there that need to be dealt with as well. But nothing really of substance. Just like tiny issues with maybe stuff like sanitation or housing piece. Some groups of people who know.

need a place to be housed. Most of that, though, for most of that, the council works on autopilot. And you notice, as it continues, people stop talking about the Berger Master and start talking about the council. And you watch as this idea of the Valakai Council kind of gains a bit of momentum. Am I, do I have like a, not a moment of privacy with Kribut, but like, could I say something to Kribut that kind of only he would hear, because everybody else is in the middle of the discussion?

I like lean down to him and I say kind of conspiratorially. I mean, of course, Cribbitt, you know, by sharing the evil, there's always a chance that the same thing will happen if you give power to one person. It'll just take longer. That's always a risk. You know, you can have such thing as an evil counsel. We just have to hope that the people that we've picked or the people that, you know, sort of fate is picked for us never reached that point. Cribut thinks about your words for a moment. Yes.

Yes. This is definitely threshold. You, he says, and with his huge feathered pen, he touches the feathered end to your chest. Cannot go back now. How many thresholds does a fella get, Cribbett? If they're lucky, they only need one. I sit back up. Have I got to stop talking to Cribbutt.

Okay. Yeah, I should have said that to someone else. Oh, well. Okay. You see him flip through notes that quite clearly are marked Pip Mandarin character study. And he goes back... He flips to a page,

Times Pips was mean to me and does Italian. Times Pipp was mean to me. That would be so fucking funny. He's got one for everyone. He flips back to the council meeting. The minutes for the council meeting. Okay. Yeah, I wait for like all of the...

as the kind of council decides, you know, stuff. Yeah, as the decisions are finalized, people start getting up and saying their goodbyes. Okay, well, I hope, you know, I want Valica to do well. And I hope that this meeting was the beginning of that. I guess we're stronger together, as hard as it is to believe that. The little speech that you're giving, as you turn from person to person, you can see the council seems kind of like receptive to what you're saying in the moment. Even Henrik, he's not, like, got that grumpy silence that he usually has.

But then you get to Blinsky and you're a little bit thrown as you see him, like, silently crying. Come on, Blinsky. Grow up. I don't say that to him, but I say it under my breath. Bones above. Come on. Okay. Second pressing appointment.

I say to crib it, because I guess everybody else is going to stay. and then we'll head to the rest of the party. As you become the last, you and Kriv and Kriv and Kriv and Kriv and Blinsky, well, when you realize the only other person there is Krippit and Blinsky, I suppose you very quickly decide to stop leave. Yeah. You got to get, like, you got to leave before it is just,

Blinsky's the last one. You don't want to because then you stop chatting to him for hours. And you go, I got to leave and he goes, I come with. Where are we going? Can't be having that. No. Yeah. You decide now would be a very good time to leave, Hector.

You have much to do today. Yes. It's a new day. It's a brand new day. Oh, cool. Oh, in a town that loves me. Yeah. When do town love you?

Yeah. My face when? Yeah. My face. Thanks for often, Jack. It was funny. You're kind. Well, um, oh, there's a lot.

still that cursed house that people are in trouble there. There's at least a ghost in danger. I deal with that. Yeah. You don't have to do everything today, Hector. The ghost's not... That's character development. Hector being like, I'm too tired. Yeah.

Got a meat. So I had two thoughts. I was like, well, I could burn the feather. Get Muriel down here and be like, we'd just sort this out. But I feel like I'd get scolded. Yeah. She might be like, I don't know how relevant is this, pal. I don't know if we should be doing that. Yeah. Could then maybe talk to the guy who hates me and thinks I'm like, you know, responsible for bringing death and destruction wherever I go. And I'll be like, no, I'm not.

By the way, your priest is dead. Yeah. And don't worry, so is his son. Don't worry, so is his son. But also, your son is his son was a vampire. Yeah. Having escaped to the lions then, Hector, you went back for your house. Oh, it's all not good.

Speaking of the church, I guess, where is the church located in terms of the town? Do I need to go through the town to leave the town? No, you don't need to go through the town to leave the town. That's good. That's good to his. Leave a note. Sorry about your priest. Now, I don't say this to be a big bitch.

Yes. But it just is. where the house is, as you leave Borovia, one of the last things that you see, is that house where the two children or whatever's left of them resides. Fair enough, fair enough, fair enough. So you see that.

I'm just curious, it's like, would have to go through everything. No. All right, so before we leave, I guess, yeah, it's all probably hitting Hector at this moment where, you know, it's, okay, this is a pretty, it, Barovia socks.

Yeah. Not just the town. The realm. The realm. and I'm realizing Gretchen is kind of only really here now because of me so

I guess over the fireplace before we're heading out I guess in that early morning we're breaking down I agree we won't really attend or anything like that but like repacking everything up and I'm guessing are you hungry

Gretchen she maybe has already been feeding herself like you can yeah you can see she's like food had been made yeah she's tucking into some hot Rations. Okay. All right. I mean hard tack.

Hot rations. Hot rations is an entirely different thing. It's been by Gruyrogs. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I won't that offer to make a breakfast. Right. I've realized probably should have this conversation with you a bit earlier. But I think having this conversation, I don't know.

But I think, honestly, fighting a spider vampire is easier for me than having this conversation. there is something I should I don't know if you want to know I don't know if you would like to know but about I guess the future it does concern you do you want to know a truth that might be hard

to accept I guess she says not knowing anything about the truth I suppose yes I would like to know so you're God Galliver yeah in by my time he is the only

a god that is known as a dead god around i don't even really remember the exact time frame but around i think it is centuries after your time there was i believe i think he was immortal and he took on a mission to to kill a god uh to become a believer god and he succeeded in killing uh galva This now God is his name of Gaz, he's an evil god that is worshipped by a lot of assassins. I'm telling you this, not because there was the moment it happened, by all reports, all of his followers went mad. They, the severing of the divine snapped. Something happened to all his followers. followers and I believe they just call it the maddening. I can send you back to our home. I just don't know when you will arrive. I've realized they probably should have done this before we

came here. I'm sorry, I didn't, I don't know why. But I can send you back. I was the meeting with Strad, I've given a little bit of that decision making, but I don't know when you'll go. back. And if you go back in my time, I'm a little bit afraid that you will snap because you will have been severed from the divine. There is a chance

of course you'll go back to your own time. I give you the option. What would you like to do? Gretchen sits down and she sat down as you were explaining this to her. Heck the that's a pretty

huge thing to know. I cannot comprehend the death of a god. Yes. There was the moment before we went to Bortchard, there was a moment where I thought maybe if you were trapped in here, you might have bought a sliver of Gulliver with you. There was a moment where you were, where you almost cast a miracle. I thought maybe there was a sliver of him in here. I am not a philosopher. I do not know. And I'm sorry to be the one to tell you. I, um, Hector, I'm starting to think that I'm here for a reason. And if, if Gulliver, um, people say that they find their god in things, but that's not strictly true. Gulliver isn't a god of the roads. Gulliver is the roads. They are his body. Dead or not, a stretch of Gulliver runs from the township of Borovia out to Creswick

and to Couture. And so long as it is there, and so long as it is dangerous, I am needed here. I reckon, I will not bring it up again. She nods. I don't know that Gulliver sent me here, but I know that there is a job for me to do here in Gulliver's name. Hell, if there is one guard that is placed and does need. Protection where we travel is definitely needed. She stands back up. We better get going. We'll travel these roads.

All right, you set off? Yep. You're bushbashing it, right? Yeah, yeah. We're avoiding the town. Yeah. Fair enough, dude. You're avoiding the town, sticking to the town. sticking to the woods.

Now... Was there a direct... Because, yeah, I'm remembering, like, because the map in my head, I'm like, all right, we got to get to this sort of like meeting place, as it were, to Argonvostalt.

Yeah, is it a direct path would be through the woods, or is there a path I can take... Forgive me, sorry. I, in my mind, I had your next destination is Argan Vostalt, but actually you're going to meet up with everyone and that needs to be done along the road.

While you could... while if both of you had your knowledge, you could meet up in the woods, just making a beeline for each other, you know that they are going to be taking the road because they don't have your knowledge, so you will also be taking the road down. Okay, we'll take the road then.

Yeah, all right. Heading along the road? It, uh, no, never mind, actually. It's snowing, yeah. Yes, oh, it is. Sorry, yeah, forgive me. As you set off, you can see that a fresh layer of snow has blanketed all of Borovia and your companion, Brechen,

appears to be definitely feeling the cold. As you step out, you see that she immediately, like a shiver runs through her, and you can see that the breath coming from the horses and from her is forming this heavy mist in front. Okay. Was there anything in the church or anything like that that we could demean? All right, because we would have...

She's already wearing several of his... I was like, we would have... prepared for, at least, you know, going forward. And the winter, is that like, was that like a sudden thing of like, oh, no one expected this? Or was it like, you'll expect some like winter to be coming soon? You, winter is coming. Reference. You, thanks for a lot.

Very nice. Very nice, my friend. Very nice. You, um, this would, this isn't like seriously unexpected, but this is, no one probably told you to prepare extra hard for this. This is a sudden change in the weather. Okay. A sudden, but not unexpected change. Okay.

Like, do we, do I think that we have, like, do I think that we have enough for her and the horses to be okay for the trek? Um, Hector. Mm-hmm. you noticed something for the first time. You can't tell. You... That's funny. For two different reasons,

both your... Two different forces right now have disconnected you somewhat from humanity and looking at the horses and at Gretchen, you realize you have no concept of if a regular human being can survive in this weather. Gretchen, did you ever get...

I mean, this cold, have you been around this sort of weather before where you're from? It snows sometimes in Kandor. Yes, but I don't, did you ever get this cold? This feels like something else, yeah. Do you think that we have enough for yourself, the horses? Do you think they will... I give like the rough idea of how long we're going to be traveling for? Probably, she says.

I mean, you know, let's not dawdle, but probably. Yes, I just don't want to doodle, but I don't want to... I don't even know where we get extra supplies right now. I think it perhaps if you went into town without me, you might find somebody, but I don't know what is there. I... I think it's best if we just hit the road, she says. I think you're right.

Anyways, here. Take my jacket. She takes your jacket. I look at the horses. The horse. are incapable of voicing protests. Yeah, but do they look like they're having a... Are they shivering?

Yeah, the horses are shivering. Like, we don't have cold weather for the horses. No, you, that would have, that definitely... Rape doesn't Ravela would have provided it? Yeah, while the weather change is sudden, it is not entirely unexpected, you do have like a blanket to throw over the horses. It does not feel like it should be enough. Look, um, look, I'll just want to be.

Look, I'll just wait here with one of the horses. We got like a meagra and a gold. Just to be like, look, do not bring up my name, do not bring up. But if you can go to town, see if you can buy anything for warmth. Please don't be way late too long. You know, like a bad act, you know, however long it's going to take an hour or something. Clearly, my name is mud here. So do not mention me.

Just try to get some supplies. Extra blankets, anything warm. I'll see what I can find, she says. Yeah, all right. I'll wait here. She turns her horse and sets off at a trot. Is there anything you do while you wait? Kind of just like scan the horizon really.

Sure. I just sort of mutter to myself of just like, what the fuck? Is everywhere I go death and destruction? I mean, I went to exhalence of a priest. I mean, it was violence upon me, but he's dead. And then his son, I mean, I'm not responsible for that, but I am responsible for killing him. Does it matter?

A while later? Well, no, actually. Not too long later, Gretchen comes back in a huff. You can see visibly she has no extra equipment. She throws you the coin purse. You can see she is like, she's red in the face. She looks quite visibly upset. What happened?

The trader down there, he was requesting quite an inflated price. I shrug, we have the coin, don't we not? I would rather not. I would rather die. Oh, okay. What happened? Just the price point? He, well, he was a very unpleasant man who was charging an exorbitant rate for not much. You sure? It is I mean the coin we have

It is fine It's not really going to use it for anything else If I go back there I might Punch him in the face I do not think I need to Do I need to go down there Do I need to go back to the town No

But I just feel that we're going to die Oh Yeah you're down any second In any point in Borovia Dude What the wind's gonna kill you Okay Let's go

You set off with Gratchez on the horses. Okay. You're an idiot. You should have gone down there. You idiot, you fool. No, he's drinking you, dude. You can light a fucking fire.

This is better than the Monty Hall problem. I'll tell you not much. You can drink a potion of warm belly. Drink a potion of warm belly. That's what they should call a potion of injure elements. I agree. Actually, yeah, it was Canada. I'm not drink a potion of warm belly,

but warm belly. That sounds weird to say. Yeah, not drink a potion of warm belly, but can I light a torch? And, like, can we do that at least? I mean, it's not going to do a lot of warmth. Yeah, but it might warm your hand underneath the torch. Well, I don't care. The horse.

It's poor. The horse is going to die. You can light a torch, but a torch doesn't last terribly long. Yeah, it's, it will provide some heat, but the amount of heat it provides, you would rather have that light at night. Okay. Let's keep going and I will pay attention to Gretchen and the horses for signs of hypothermia. You pay extra attention to both, realizing how disconnected you feel.

I just am like, I can't feel shit. Yeah. Yeah. Are you managing okay? Yeah. Let me know if you need to stop for it. And genuinely, if we need to stop, we're not in a hurry. We can stop at any moment.

It's, yes. If we stop moving, we might not be able to start again. Look at the horses. Right. It's a diastrates, my friend. This feels very cold. Yeah. What else do we have slash Ken go?

Do you have body heat anymore? I doubt it. I don't think so. Kent, I was like, I want to like flex a muscle. To just see what he's out there, to see if there's any traveling, like... Can you flex them also sort of warm it up where you are? I don't know. Strad is the land.

That's all I'm saying. Stratt is the land. Strad is the land. Okay. Two things. Are you... Because it's a very different scenario plays out, depending on which option you're picking here.

Are you searching for what's nearby, or are you changing the temperature? I was going to search for what. nearby because I'm aware also that time still goes. Sure. So I don't want to go on like a complete trance and then fall off my horse. That would be fine. Yeah, and also not be.

So again, you're being watched. Yeah, right. You realize immediately, it's the same connection that you felt to the priest's boy, something is following you. Something is watching. Uh-oh. Yeah, you're right, Gretchen, we need to move. If we stop, we won't probably be hard to move again.

Gretchen is about to reply when you hear a soft, low sound from the woods to your north. What the fuck is that? Whistling vampires now? They make a whistle and vampires now. They make a whistle and vampires. Let's pick up the pace. I say as I... Like, kick the horse.

I'm thinking maybe if we run, increased body heat. Yeah, smart. Good move. We run where. North is not where we're going. You're heading west. Excellent.

Actually, no, sorry, you would have been heading north and the noise you would have heard from the east. Okay, well, and east, where's east is from, back where we came from? East is kind of back the way you came, yeah. Brovia story. So the road. I'm just wondering is like the tune,

is that a familiar tune? A jaunty familiar Not familiar at all Okay Not to you No Not to you So from the village of Barovia

The trail The road Head south-west And then curls back In a northward direction You're at the point Where it begins Curling back northward

So you're currently kind of Facing North But the noise you're hearing Is east Which is vaguely The direction of Borovia The Village

Which is vaguely The direction of Castle Rover Ravenloft? Yes. Okay. Now the noise.

Oh, no, Ravenloft would be dead north at this point. You're kind of heading towards it in a vague way. Connected to me, you say, in a way. Yeah. That was connected to the... Look, I'm not going to beat around the bush on this one. It's a vampire. I'm aware.

I'm just wondering, like, I think I've added... I think I've picked it all up together in my head here. Is it a certain, like, is it maybe... Is it mimicking a sort of jaunty tune that I might have heard before? We're doing like a joint weird, we're running. Yeah. Using the horses to run. Yeah.

We are running. I'm like, fuck off trumpets. When you start, fuck off. When you move fast. Not now. Not now. When you move fast, the noise matches you. We doth her in a river, dude.

Can I, um. We chained her up and threw her in a river. She got out. That connection that I have. Yeah. What if I flex it a little? What are you trying to do? Fuck off.

Hot dog. Not now. Not now. Go, leave me alone. What is this? And then it goes away. That's bad news. Trump, it's got out.

Fuck. You told me about... Oh, absolutely. A long time ago when a Gogh got to it. Oh, yeah, I got it's like... Yeah, you know what? They're not coming back. You got to tie them up in chains and dump them in a coffin in the river.

It did not work. Off the fucking Dingus Bridge or whatever it is. Oh, yeah, maybe under the, like, yeah, under my breath. Like, yeah. Half measures, pip. Half measures. He doesn't know what he's talking about. He doesn't know what he's not to, you know.

Guess who hasn't had to deal with trumpets again? Yeah, yeah. Fuck. Guess who's problem that isn't? If you tied up trumpets, chucked them in a river, wouldn't be your problem anymore either. You go, she's not coming back, right? Keenan goes, I don't think so.

And then you move on. I don't think Keening was part of that plan. I suppose that was more like Pimp came back to camp. It was like, there's a trumpet problem dealt with. Yeah. She's not coming back. Don't worry about it, Keenig. She's just fine.

Pretty sure. You feel that sensation. You feel it withdrawal from you. Yep. It doesn't feel like it's a... It doesn't feel like this is a permanent solution. That's fine. Yeah.

But it feels like... When you say it on a permanent solution, do you mean it like a permanent solution problem for me? It's like, imagine... Okay. All right. Imagine it's one of the studio cats. Okay. And you see, she's eyeing off the door.

She wants to get out. Okay. And you have been like, ah, scare, scramm, get out of here. And the cat has turned around and wandered away. Okay. But you know that it's just going to, she's just going to try a new angle of attack later. I've closed the door, though. Yeah.

The doors, yeah. Okay, well, okay, okay, I understand, yeah. But, you know, next time you through this area, this might be a problem again. Next time you open the door again. Well, yeah. Yeah. You feel like, you feel like, with a lot less effort, you solved this in the same way that Pips solved this. Took you less effort, but...

A lot less effort. A lot less dead men. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I don't... Yeah. The only other vampire I've dealt with has seen someone who tried to kill me.

Yeah. And maybe that was just... They were hungry. Yeah. And I don't know if... Speaking of, actually... Yeah. Sorry.

What trumpet's motivation is? Well, they also want. You know what I mean? Anyway. Sing. You had 37 hit points. Oh, yes. You had...

Sorry, I think I currently have 21 hit points, yes. 21, oh, forgive me. 21 hit points? How many hit dice would you have liked to have used last night? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. A good chunk of them. So you've got 60, 10, and 48. Let's do the...

God, I wish I was any good at math. I just say stuff when you said this. Yeah, dude. Yeah, I go... Yeah, I use them all. And Adam says, are you sure? And I go, no, use three of them. Let me tell you, man, I'm not really thinking.

Let's go, use 4D6. Yeah, okay. A 48, sorry. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 48. I do it 48. Do I get short rest off back or long? Yeah.

This is a long rest, but you get short rest. No, sorry. Oh, no, yeah, you get short rest up. Just remind me again, what are we doing? Yeah, you get a short rest. You get a short rest. Yeah. Okay. 10 15 hit points back.

You're on a healthy 36. Nice. Nice. Brother. Could I have last night? Uh-huh. Uh, no, that's a long rest. No.

It sucks to suck, I guess. Yeah, it really does. Oh, I've got to got nine hit points from the death of old mate. Oh, yeah, true. Okay. I think. Are those hit points or temp hit points? Yeah, hit points.

Okay. He died. Yeah, you staked him. Yeah, you staked him. I'm just remembering all my beautiful abilities while I'm here. 45 then. Yeah. currently at 45. And you know what? Maybe after my good friend, Gretchen, it's like I'm here

for a reason. They're like, yeah. And I do an inspirational 10-minute speech by the two of us. We'll pump ourselves up together. So we both get 15 temporary hit points. Nice. Brother, congratulations. Thank you. You got those abilities. You might as well use them. Yeah, true. Oh, my God. And while I'm here, Uh-huh. It's a second wind. You can do that once every short route. May as well.

You're not going to... Just in case. You recover a further... Just in case, dude. Because, you know, bit by bit, inch by inch, work your way up to full hip points. If I don't get attacked on the road or a vampire is like... You know what?

Yeah. Hey, at least... Whatever. It's all built. Exactly. You're up to 59. 59's pretty good. It's respectable.

Truly. Anything else? Any of the little powers? Okay, just checking. I don't mean to sound insulting. I'm just checking. No, I'm just skeed. Yeah, you should be. I am. They're going to shred you in Agon Vostel, dude. You're going to shred me everywhere. I don't think you guys nor.

Peering you bitch. Hector, you head west. As Pip, you head east. Okay. You're riding with... I mean, you're taking all of the combatants, shall we say? Cribbits, woken, tiny, muriel, Iona. Is there anyone else? I think that's it.

Is the unicorn coming? Oh. Astrial? Thank you. Yes. Dastrial. Who am I riding with, I guess, Keening. Yeah. Because I can't ride off.

I was like, everyone. No, I got to, I don't know how to ride a horse. Yes, I remember this. I got my arms wrapped around Keening's strong barrel chest. Keeneing. is riding next to Thastriel, and they're having, like, a conversation. You can hear them kind of telepathically, because they're not trying to hide it from anyone. You can hear the conversation.

It's very in-depth. Keening is asking Thastriel a bunch of, kind of, like, specific magical questions. He's very curious about her ability to, her ability specifically to move the Dusk elves to a new homeland. He, as a Plainswalker himself, is very curious about Thastriol. methods of accessing different planes of reality are very different, alien he is, and he's very curious to learn.

Iona and Elaniel are... Oh, is Elaniel? No, yes, she should be here, but I don't have her character sheet up. Iona and Elaniel are riding kind of up the back together. They're also sharing a horse. Elaniel is...

Iona, Elaniel seems to be in a similar position as you, Pip, where Elaniel probably can ride a horse but she's not nearly as confident as Iona. And then Tiny and Cribut Tiny can't ride a house. I imagine Tiny, this is not

probably what he does, but I picture him rolling into a ball like a butcher boy just rolling alongside. No, I'd fortunately. Yeah, cribbets like on his shoulders but then he gets into a ball. Oh no. Oh, cribut.

It has to like running him like a barrel. Yeah, you're telling me that Krivitz start running on him like a circus like performer running on the ball? No, Tiny. Wrecked the game. Tiny with his smaller inner arms makes like a little cradle

that Krivet lies in like a baby. That's pretty cute. Tiny moves at a slower clip. Well, technically he moves just as fast as the horses. But what happens is Tiny walks slow, but every now and then his beetle shell cracks open and huge wings send him flying in a huge leap forward. He keeps pace with the horses,

but he walks slower. Fair, fair. Like the first few times the horses just... Everyone's like, what the fuck? Oh, just tiny flying. I don't say anything. I just kind of like listen to Keening and theastrial conversing. Yeah.

Kribut is, you can hear he's composing a song. Hmm. Does Tiny seem like he's in? enjoying it? Tiny does not react. Tiny has an insect's face. Ah. Yes. So the noise of your travel

is just in front of you, Thastriel and Woken, having a deep, an in-depth, very cerebral chat about accessing broadly speaking the weave of magic, but then also accessing other realms

of creation. And then from behind you And then he sings And then And then Beada da da da da da da da Dada Dada

So you're getting like One half of a philosophical Like discussion about magic And then The beating of Beetlewings from behind To

You're access The harmonized Chris Pibbba da Dhaberda Bha It's probably gonna send Pipp to sleep

honestly it's something kind of relaxing about it you know yeah okay well in that case then you're riding like that for a while unwoken shoulders if it weren't you

it would be a very comfortable ride then if it weren't for the fact that it is so fucking cold there's no wind there's no falling snow it is a still cold

it's someone has turned the temperature way down. I've been so cold in the last, like, three weeks. Or like, not even, in the last week. You know, I went to the cold dimensions and other places. What are you talking about? Nothing, Keening. Continue a conversation. Uh-oh.

Uh-oh. It's been a while since I've had a random encounter I've been doing a lot of Politicking Yeah, real politicking What? That's the word Politicking?

No, not organizational Municipal I've been doing a lot of municipal work Yeah It's been a while since Governing, governing, governor Governor, governor, governor PIP

Governor PIP Governor Mandererian Interesting Interesting What a grave Encounter What a grave encounter Shut up

Shah. Boo. I had to view, Pip. Yeah. You see a grave. Adam. I know that's what you're reading in your little book. But let me tell you, Pip doesn't.

Okay. Pip's so used to the fabric of Borovia that a grave does not register for me. Yeah. Okay. Why would someone dig it up? Jesus. I don't care. There's a million, billion things.

Barovia that could dig up a grave. Oh, that's why. Million things. Million, billion things that it could be. Lows. Lose? Okay. Oh, intact.

Okay. Not going to give him the Monty Paul. No, no. I don't get the Monty Hall problem. Well, it's a separate thing. It doesn't matter actually which way you... Oh. Is the correct answer here?

Okay. Okay. Sure. The... As you approach, you can see that the grave has been disturbed. It's just a... It looks like...

a roadside grave. Like some, some travelers took a loss and kept moving. Sure. There's a little stone marker for the grave, but the dirt itself has been completely upended. That's pretty typical, yeah? No. This is like, I'm guessing they just didn't dispose the body correctly, and now you've got some hard undead or whatever you call it. Yeah, I like, like, I like log, you know, notice it and then I maybe tap keening in the shoulder. Sorry to interrupt. Just everybody, keep your eye out for dry bog men. Disturbed grave.

Or ghouls. And then I'll lie back down on Keening shoulders. Elaniel and Iona ride a bit. On the left-hand side, they ride around the group up ahead. And Elaniel hops off the horse and you see she does a little check around the grave. All good? She looks over at you and you can see her. first impulse was to say something mean. But then she bites that back. Um, perhaps something crawled

its way out. Yeah, probably a bog man, I would say. Bogman dry. Um, any tracks? I'll hop off the horse. Pip is never grace graceful getting off a horse. I imagine it's like, yeah, like one foot in the stirrup and then I slide down on my hip in the mud and the snow and it's got one foot on the ground, but one foot still in the stooping up. The horse hasn't stopped moving. And I'm freaking out. And I'm freaking out. And doing that thing where like my foot doesn't come out,

but it like curves around in the stirrups. No, no. Oh, God. Hang on. Oh my God. Oh, my ankle. My ankle. Okay.

I'm off. And then I'll look for tracks. You hop off as well and you look around with elaniel. Elaniel, both you and Elaniel spot in among the, so there wasn't a coffin in here, but you see where the body was. The mud here, because of the snow, the ground is hard, and you can see a lot of the grave is still intact.

It's, Elaniel is correct. Something has from inside, from under the dirt, has clawed and crawled its way out. You see two things of interest to you. First off, maybe three things, actually. Hang on. I can imagine that it was fine. But then it got cold.

It was like, oh. Oh, yeah. I need to get some of a wall. You see three things, shall we say, of interest. First off, there is some stuff still left in the grave from the previous tenant, shall we say. Just like some bits of pieces and odds and ends. But you also see it's no longer attached, but essentially a full head of hair. Well, that is curious.

In addition to that, you can see claw marks. The thing that crawled its way out, the dug its way out, wasn't using human. in hands. And then finally, the third thing is when you're mushing, when you're pushing the dirt apart, you can see little green, whether the claw marks were digging, you can see little green lines of liquid. It looks like some sort of venom. The clumps of hair, is that like where the head would have been? Yeah. Okay. Eat everything but the hair. Check for pubs. No, the thing that was inside this grave did not get eaten, it clawed its way out and its hair fell out. So whatever was transformed, leaving its hair.

Okay, that's interesting. I like sit back, like, not sit on the ground, but like stand back up, pull out Emmanuel and start flipping through it. Probably a bog man could be a ghoul. Explosive, I say. Turn to look at everybody else. The explosive ghoul is identical in nearly every manner to their regular cousins, but with several notable exceptions. Abyssal energies.

What has been identified to power the ghouls has been supercharged extensively to such a point that the explosive ghoul gains its name and upon destruction will, and this is not surprising, combust and release said energies at high degree in far reach. this can clearlyeth be seeneth on thine explosive ghoul in its somewhat bloated its stomach and through itzeth iseth, which will instead of being white, show through to the plain's abyssal, red as it is speculated that the colour of thine abyss are on the average. One should be well away lest they become caught in the fiery and venomous, as the normal ghoul is, whicheth to speak that the...

Don't worry about that. Unfortunately, dear reader and Savvy Hunter, I must confess that I was lying to you at the beginning of this here entry. do that. Why would they do that? As the explosive ghoul is not terribly similar to thine regular ghoul as thine explosive ghoul also should be known to be rather tougher.

Well, that's not surprising than its counterpart. And also that it can belch the very fires, poisonous of the abyss at thy savvy hunter which have all the treacherous just... Oh my God. Well, look,

I will say this. You are interrupted. as you hear a scream from further along the road. Never mind. I whip around to try and see where the scream is coming from. I mean, I can put two and two together, but... Yeah, wow. You scan, but see nothing. Okay.

Exploding ghoul, be careful. It's not a human scream, right? Yeah, it's like a woman's scream. Okay, so, but I know that the ghoul would sound different to this. Yeah, the ghoul would absolutely sound different. The ghoul, if you'll recall, when it screams, it screams with abyssal energy. This sounds like just a human. Interesting.

I feel like I'd let you know if it sounded ambiscible. I believe you would too. All right. I'll gesture, I guess, in the direction that it came from and be like, I'm guessing the exploding ghoul is in that direction. And then we'll start huffing. Does it sound far enough way that it would be worthwhile getting back on the horses? Probably, yes. All right.

We'll get back on the horses. We'll just, we gotta make sure this person's okay, I guess. So we'll get back on the horses and go and try and help. Dripping with concern. You ride further down the road, and as you ride, you... You didn't roll particularly well, but that's okay, because... I'm not really riding the horse. Well, sorry?

I'm not really riding the horse. I'm just on the back. Oh, I mean the royal view, I guess. Your party, forgive me. Are we fighting? your party rides further down the road and as you get closer to the source of the scream you don't get a great look at exactly where this happens

but you see as a small mushroom cloud appears over the tree line and then a what do you call it the the fallout? No, not the fallout, the shell of the shockwave Oh, yeah. As that rattles through the trees and then buffets your party. Okay.

It's not strong enough to, you know, knock a person over, but you do feel the shockwave. It rattles you for a brief moment. Is Adam, what, is he doing nukes? Yeah, he's made nukes in this game. Yeah, I'm inserting my anti-nuclear message into even the fantasy games that we do. I'm just reading about the ghoul. Okay. Abyssal attack.

Venomous attacks. Okay, and it's got the same strengths and weaknesses as a regular ghoul. Fire is good, I say, fire and bronze, if you have it. Don't get hit. I mean, it's like any ghoul. If you fought a ghoul, this is exactly the same who just explodes, all right?

That's the only difference. You see as your party pats themselves down for bronze weapons, Elaniel, pulls some bronze arrows. Oh, amazing, incredible. Yeah. She's the only one that found any bronze weapons.

wrong. Yeah, the rest is going to work for everything else, so that's fine. You see, Cribb is just holding a bunch of coins. Hey, it'll burn it. That's not, it's not, you know, could be worse. You're continuing to get closer? You get close enough that you're, you're at where you would need to dismount and go into the tree line if you wanted to get closer at this point. At this part of the road, you can see that the trees here are a little bent away from the detonation, and you can see that there's a bit of, it's not like, a forest fire, well, it probably will eventually become a forest fire, but you can see that

they're smoldering flames in some of the trees. It's not a hazard, once again, yet, but you can see a fiery detonation happened here. Can I still hear the peep, the person? No, you can't hear the person. There's a very good chance they are dead. It seems quite plausible, yeah. They've been exploded, okay. Getting closer, the first thing that you notice is a stream of Vistani coming out of the trees. You can see they're wounded. Some of them have burn marks. Some of them are bloodied.

Can I, as one of them streams past me? Can I, like, grab one and be like, what's going on? What are we looking at? The Vistani, she looks back at you, and she says, wha. Pip, they're in shock. Yeah, I'm not even going to roll yet. You can see they are in shock.

Ah. I'll push him out of the way and keep moving forward, then. That's true. Stratriel stops immediately. She gives you a stricken look. Like she... I give her like a... Thastriol, what are we...

Not at you. Oh, right. I thought she was mad at me. Thastriol says, Not everything is your fault. Not everything is about you, Pip. Thastrial, you don't even need to exchange words.

She, there's maybe 10, 15 Vistani here. She is collecting them, rounding them all up. and she is tending to their wounds as you move deeper. The soft glow of fastriol slowly recedes as you get a bit further into the trees. It feels like... Like she's going to look after the... Yeah, yeah.

Okay, yeah. Yeah, she's looking after these wounded. It feels like, though... It feels like her warm, comforting presence leaves you too quickly. Fair enough. Well, we'll kind of fan out, I think, and, like, kind of around the point of explosion. and start to trace our way in. You, I got a bad boycott.

You, you dismount with Iona, Elaniel, Cribut. God, my handwriting. Quite the party here. Yeah. Tiny Cribut, Keening, and Muriel. Tiny Cribut. You dismount with Crivet, tiny cribbit. Tiny Cribit, why, he'd sound a little something like this.

It's me. I'm tiny cribbit. I really like him, madam. I hope we see him again. Joel, are you having fun? Yeah, bad. Yeah. All right, you dismount with your party and fan out in search of anything, really.

Pip, you, as you're getting closer to, there's a small crater where the detonation was, as you get closer to that, the foliage becomes more and more sparse as it has been just completely blub. bastard away. And you get close enough that you can stand, if you want, at the lip and look down into the little crater. Okay, I pull my crossbow, I'd directs crossbow, and I flip it to fire, and then I, like, holding it out, like, at the ready, peer over the lip and down. You peer over the lip, down into the center of the crater, aiming your crossbow,

then immediately you... Go on. I'm listening. Then you swear. You swear... Language. Gretchen says to you. Sorry, I thought I saw, um, yes, you're right.

I apologize. Why did I swear, Adam? Yeah, Adam. Because you saw a mushroom cloud in the distance. Oh, okay. All right, you know what? Fair enough.