D&D is For Nerds - Barovia V #7 Control

Episode Date: August 29, 2026

I had no ambition to be remembered. All I knew is that I wanted a desk eventually. Somewhere dry and quiet. A place where my boots didn't end the day caked in mud and dirt. I did not care for the frontline. I did not care for battle. I did not care that my wife always worried whenever I went on a campaign. I was not, and will never be, what you'd call a hero. Someone history bent around. That was for other people. To happen elsewhere, while I stayed comfortable at its edges. I was happy with that arraignment. He arrived unannounced, in the middle of the night, from somewhere I still don't fully understand. He was forthright with any questions I had. A deeply honest man. There were rumours about the man responsible for making all of what we do possible, the majority of which I didn't understand. What I did understand, however, was that the man across from me, looking at drilling contracts and charters of accounts didn't understand any of it. But unlike most men of consequence I've dealt with, he was honest about that. In the end he said he'd rather be honestly ignorant in front of one man than dishonestly confident in front of a hundred, and would I be that man.He has had many names and titles throughout history, both his own and mine. Some flattering. Some true to the man I knew. Others I still can't reconcile with him at all, atrocities I have no answer for and have stopped trying to find one. But before he was anything to anyone, he was a stranger asking me to be as honest with him as he was with me. For that I will always respect him and I will always call him a friend.- From the memoirs of Lord Warden Forsyth of the Sand MarchesIf you supported the Jarren's Outpost Board Game, check your emails to manage your pledge manager! Of course you can still grab a copy right here and we insist you do xx o. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hey, did you know that Plumbing the Death Star is touring the UK this September, as in next month? That's right, starting September 2nd and finishing September 11th, never forget, plumbing the Death Star is going to be performing alive. It has been seven years since the three of us have set foot on your Godforsaken country. So come to see our Godforsaken shows. Go to Sanspansradio.com forward slash events. Plumbing the Death Star cannot buy a tour.

Go grab a ticket and get some freaking... That's right. That's right. Cannot buy tour. Please. come join us when we make fun of our good friend for his slightest mistakes and we call him the biggest fuck we're alive. What a dig head.

St. Pontradier forward slash and then a backslash why not. Our friend's an idiot. Though you may not see water for miles around, you can consider yourself trapped. The mists that encircle us are like prison walls.

And who is the warden of this prison, you ask? None other than the wonderful, the terrible, the powerful, Baron Strad von Zarovich. And the only way to leave this place is to kill him or die. The engineer opens you up. You can hear tinkering noises as the engineer slowly removes pieces of metal. What cowboy did this? Pip's sister.

Now that is the scariest thing I've ever heard. So you designed the device. Madam Baritzie asked for such a device and I supplied it. So what does it do exactly from your point of view? From my point of view, it forces unwilling participants to comply with Madam Baritzie's orders, lest she killed them, as she asked. Right. And can people go against her wishes with a device on?

And what happens if they try? If a creature has this device planted within them, they will have free will. There's no point otherwise. The idea being, presumably the creature doesn't want to die. So it is less about magically compelling and more coercing by. fear of death. The device can administer pain, which I'm sure Madame Baritzie uses to her advantage, but its primary function is to kill the implanted subject. Did everybody that under her command have it installed? Anyone who Madame Baritzie thought might defy her. Right. Did you

have one? No. Did, um, no Pip's sister has one, yes? I wouldn't know. I wouldn't know about that. Did you ever meet a Pip sister? No. I described the Cobold. Pip's sister is a cobald? Yes, Pep. Well, then I have met her. Briefly. I kind of have a pause and I'm like, you know, as if someone was to keep going.

Yeah, yeah. There's like more to that story. Realize, oh, there is, oh, um, what was, did you, was, how did you meet her? Was she already under? No. She arrived at Madame Baritzie's court. But the chaos was such that I was able to leave. Right. So when she arrived, you left? Yes.

Our ten years didn't really cross over. I was bored, I suppose, of constructing devices for Madam Barice. And I was looking for further education elsewhere. Right. I was going to table that one. How many devices did you make? I supplied her perhaps no more than 10 to 20,000. I'd like 10, 20.

Okay, 1,000. She does have the design documents then, though, or a copy of the design documents. I'm sure she'd be able to construct more should she want. That was my next question. Would there be a reason? I gesture to like myself with like the construct she makes. Would there be reasons to put the device into them? The device can be repurposed.

It has a passive channeling magic secondary feature, I suppose. It's essentially the device acts mostly as a receiver with a, if we would cut it down to its bare bones, I suppose. It is a radio and magical receiver with a knife attached to the end. Let me assure you a very simplified explanation of this device. good. But one could swap the knife out for something else. I would assume Madam Baritzie

has, if she's implanting it in golems, such as yourself, very plausibly she is using it as a method of long distance control. Right, right. I had a brief moment of Wanda, but then I'm like, no, no, it's out of me, so she can't control me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's literally, it's completely out of you now. Is there, um, you said it's like a receiver? Is there a way that we could shut it down?

Well, theoretically, suppose it's just a game of whoever sends the strongest signal. And is there a way of shutting it down without... Side unseen, it'd be hard to determine how much energy we would need. But, very plausibly, we could. All right, Dave. And is it possible to shut him down without killing the person wearing the device? Well, what you're describing would be very... difficult.

I was kind of assuming it was all right if we could destroy anyone wearing such a device. A frequency that just overwhelms commands, that's easy to do, but such a frequency would essentially burn out the device, probably

killing anyone wearing it. A more complicated signal could be possible, but would require a bit more effort on our part. Tell me what is that effort? Well, first off, I'd need to find out whatever frequency

Madame Baritzie is using. After that, then we'd need to find out if she has been smart enough. And you see, the corners of his mouth curl a second time. With your very basic assessment, do you think that she

would be smart enough to do that? Or do you think that she would be smarter than you? It is possible. She has figured out some way of sending coded signals through this system. I doubt that. But if I'm wrong, and I have been wrong in the past, it'd be a messy death rather than a quick one, which I'm assuming is undesirable. Undesirable, yes. Well, then you'll probably want to take the precaution and we'll need to figure out if,

If she has any sort of coding to her commands, and if she has such a coding, we'll need to match that. But theoretically, if you wanted to, you could at that point supplant her commands with yours. What if we simply just got something in the interim where we just got them to stop? Without killing anybody, just to stop. And then once she's out of the picture, then we shift to the... rescue. Well, that is a possibility. I am making you aware, though, for a sentient creature, this will probably be not too much effort. A sentient creature, once given a stop command, would probably not be hostile to you, but her innate creations are still infused with her own

magic. That I can't help you with. And if given a stop command, they'll revert to their own which would still be in her favor, just not organized. Right. What is the quickest and, I guess, safest way that we could implement something to cause the least amount of death to the people who are wearing these devices? Well, first off, we'll need to capture one alive, preferably. Right. Second off, I will need to ask you here and now,

as I feel I have a good enough understanding of your nature, even if it is not sentient, do you care if it experiences pain? I would prefer if it did not experience pain. How much would you prefer? On a scale, say, of one to ten, knowing that the pain by default would be excruciating, but that the creature, if non-sentient, would not be sentient. How much do you care? if it is the matter of if it can be avoided great if it cannot be avoided we need to be able to do the least amount of harm to the most amount of people

well if i were to prevent any harm to come to an entity once captured alive it would take that stage alone would take two weeks To construct the device would take probably another two weeks. On top of that, we would need to find an adequate power source. I think I can probably provide the power source, or at least know where we can go for that. And if I didn't care about the pain? Two weeks. Still two weeks. Total.

How can we make that faster? Well, if I had maybe an assistant, someone dedicated to assisting me, and then if I didn't have to, unfortunately, travel, if I was able to find one central place with someone intelligent enough to assist me. I think back to Elf, she didn't have a device on her. No. Did she? No.

That's how they escaped. They weren't implanted yet. Okay. I'm trying to think, is there any device still around that I can think of that is either the easily accessible. Unless you want to reverse and. engineer what the remains of your device, but I don't think it's quite enough. Then otherwise, not really. Not in Brovia.

Okay. Right. Do you have anybody in mind of an assistant to help you? I have worked amicably in the past with Cavendish. He has assisted me in some basic tasks. I would say he probably could be up to snuff. Aside from him, Pyrin strikes me as clever. maybe Pip if you know anyone

mechanically inclined that sounds like me hinting it's not if you do think of someone neat but I don't I'm not trying to hint yeah perhaps someone from the

the candle camp maybe they know of somebody that's probably the place to go at least they'd have power well power and contemporaneous technology um

to uh right could I how far are we from that camp We're on that side of Borovia, aren't we? Because we're heading towards... You're closer to that. It's near the township of Borovia and Castle Ravenloft.

Yeah, I know what I can do. And I don't want to do it. But I could do it, I think. If Adam will allow me... Yeah. You're going to do a little bit of a Hector Fast travel? Open up the map, click the location, watch a loading screen. Yep.

Maybe you just grab... Right. Orovia can kill you. It's like every time you fast traveled in Skyrim, a random event happened and you weren't in your character to do it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It just happens in a, on a course. Yeah, yeah. Okay. So, Arnold, your name is Arnold, right?

Yes. Arnold. What about a device that would simply just shut everything down? ideally I want to keep everyone alive but just to shut them down as brief as it would be two weeks is I need something built yesterday

if we can stop them he shakes his head sadly I am a mechanic not a miracle worker he's seeing the things he's built seeing the things I've seen are the cantony is more advanced um

I'd have to say the the canadies would at least be more advanced than you are at the time you came for. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. It's genuinely, it's really honestly hard to say.

It feels like more advanced is not the right terminology. It feels more like the engineer is capable of things that they can't do, and they can do things that he can't do. Okay. It feels more like two tracks of technological advancement. Yeah, because again, the things that I was like seeing was more like, Like when, like, the industrial age meets magic a bit. Yeah.

Whereas he, the engineer Arnold, is he's making more just, like, fully tech-based stuff. Yeah. He doesn't seem to use magic, whereas they've married, magic has been married a little bit for them. Okay. And he's just used, like, yeah, a wizard skull, and that's about it. Yeah, yeah. What if I got you into a situation, what have I got you into a camp

where there are people there who have more advanced ideas and access? to a lot of power. Well, I can't speak to what would happen if you gave me people who are experienced in things I'm not experienced in. I can only speculate on what I know. Okay. I need to look around for Cavendish. I'm like, Cavendish is not here. Is not here, yeah. Right. I just, if I leave you there with these people, I need you to not tell them

too much. I need you to keep things I just don't know how they will use you but I need to use you to stop what is coming. He looks at you I wouldn't blankly feels wrong to say

but it is in kind of a emotional. It's like expressionless Yes, emotion expressionless. I don't know what you want but can you do me this favor? Whatever you build from here on out I need you to put in a failsafe that we can stop it.

And I want you to tell myself and Pip how to stop these things, whatever it is that you make from here on out. Hector, you did pretty well on this role. The engineer, looking at you, says, I'll put in a fail safe. And you think about how quickly he's shifted alliances in the past. And you just, it's not like, he's trying to lie to you, you don't think he cares.

Oh, I know. Yeah. When he was helping Madame Baritzie, you don't think he cared. When he was helping in Couturee, you don't think he cared. When he's helping you now, you don't think he cares. And when he helps the Cantonese, you don't think he'll care. Do I think, though, he will put in a failsafe, not because of, like, altruistic reasons or whatever, simply because I've asked him to and told him to, like, to do this. So he'll just do it anyway and not even tell.

So the Cantonese decides like, oh, well, this guy is very smart. They're going to use him in a way. He'll still just put it in a fail safe because it's kind of whatever, like, that might be a prior programming, basically, that no one is overridden. Maybe. Maybe. That's good enough for me. If you hope, Hector, if you hope it's true, then maybe it will be. Maybe it will.

God damn. And Hector, if there's nothing else I know about you. He's a hopeful fella. God damn. God damn it. God damn it, Hector. Right. Hip lying and bad in his tent.

I don't know why. I just suddenly had a shot to go over my body. What do you need from here? He looks around. My Mac. That's it? I suppose. Right.

You see, like, his... He has a tent. Yeah. He doesn't. He gets up, the arm he was working on, which he has the leather cloth thrown over, he scoops that up, puts it in the mech, and then he stands as if he's waiting. As if he knows what's about to happen. Let's see if this will work. I tap into Borovia, Adam, and I want to transport myself and Arnold and his mech to the outskirts of the Cantonese camp.

Okay. Yeah. Pip. Yeah. Well, I imagine I've just gone to my tent. Yeah. No, sorry. I know. You went to bed. Just a moment ago, when you had that shiver, you mentioned you were in bed. The next morning rolls around, and everyone in camp is a little confused, because Arnold and Hector are gone. And Hector never explained. I thought it would be instant. I thought it would be instant. Yeah. But may I remind you, you stopped being...

human at all for a little bit. Yeah. And that can really stretch out. Do I wake up and it's like everyone in camp is wondering where they've gone? When was the last time anybody saw them? Oh, who would have been the last person? Cavendish was purposely, for unknown reasons, was purposely avoiding that area. He definitely doesn't know.

Elaniel and Iona had both fallen asleep by that point. Astrial isn't in the camp. Yeah. Woken's not here Muriel's not here Gretchen's not here Tiny was obviously with you Cribut was in his tent

Any of the druids? No one fuck No one knows Jesus Christ Okay That's incredible genuinely no one knows There was no watch or anything set up Around the big bonfire

No one spotted them leaving the camp There was definitely a perimeter set up God dear But no one saw you walk past the perimeter In speaking to everybody, do I find out from Cavendish that he was speaking to them by the camp bonfire? That's the last time anyone sees them. What? It was just you and, you and, so Arnold, I don't know his name, or at least I don't care.

Yeah. So the engineer and Hector will buy the bonfire. Yes. I was speaking with Hector. Right. Then the rain, the land squall came in. Sorry? They didn't retire.

No, not that I saw Okay, that was the last They were by the bonfire Did you see Were they speaking to each other or? No, I didn't see I was too busy He's being evasive about something

Do I think he would He doesn't seem guilty No, he does seem guilty He seems guilty and he seems like he's being evasive If you know something Kevin ish Just say I really don't

Do I believe him? No. He's full, Kavndish is lying to you. Cavendish, I mean, it doesn't matter. I mean, like it does. It could be life or death. But, but I mean, you're not going to get it. Like, is this some...

He looks around. The camp is a flurry of activity. Everyone's awake. It's the morning. And everybody's kind of getting ready to move on. Yeah, yeah. There is no privacy to be had in the camp right now. Is the thing I want to impress upon you.

Cavendish looks around and you can see he seems uneasy. by the lack of privacy as well. And he says, can I, do you mind just stuffing away a little bit? Fine, yes. Can you, I apologize, can we lose the muscle? I lean in,

I don't know. I can try. I turn around, Tiny. Can you give us five? Tiny sits cross-legged on the ground. Looks like we can. All right, we'll head to like away from the camp

so that we're in private. If this is some plan. You get a little bit, you're still within view, just out of like, earshot of the camp. Can we can we go a little further? Fine.

Cavendish still seems just really uneasy. If this is some fucking plan of Hector that he's instigated about telling anybody else, I mean like I will be annoyed. Well, I don't know exactly what happened with Hector, but I suppose there's something I need to

tell you, Pip. Okay. You start walking a little bit further away and you don't know exactly when it happened. Pip, but the energy shifts. Cavendish doesn't feel uncomfortable anymore. He feels distant and cold. His demeanor shifted at some point and you lost,

you didn't notice when exactly it happened. You see, as you're walking, he just keeps walking. It doesn't look like he's going to stop. And you can see he's facing away from you. He refuses to look back or acknowledge your presence at all. Okay. I, with my skills in the world of monster hunting, I just check the scenario for like a shape shift or like possession or that kind of thing. I like run back through the conversation I've had and try and, you know, think if I've seen any telltale signs.

You looking around. Yeah. So two things. You notice two things. The first thing you notice when you look around is obviously Borovia doesn't get a lot of sun. Yeah. It's always dark. And the entire morning it was like the rain had not properly stopped.

So it's still just like spinning down. Yeah. So it was already overcast, but it's become even darker than overcast. It feels like it's nighttime again. That's the first thing you notice. The second thing you notice, when you turn back, Cavendish is gone. Okay. Can I just...

I swivel on the spot. Am I dreaming again? It sounds like it's coming from all directions at once. Am I dreaming? Why do I get carving this fucking... dream. Yes. Boris's life-filled corpse stalks out of the bush.

Rip! Mandarin! I've had this dream so many times that I would like to... I mean, I'm a dragonborn, so my skin isn't really what you might say, called pinchable. I would like to try and wake up under the assumption that I'm dreaming. You wake up in your tent. It's nighttime.

You can tell. There's not enough light. Even in Borovia, you can tell there's not enough light. still nighttime. Okay. So, so was my, was that like a prophetic vision? Like, like, if I, was, did I wake up to find Hector gone and then fell asleep? Or, Pip, you're still waking up, you're confused, you don't know what was real about that. I like, opened the, like, the flap of my tent and, like, look outside to just try and gauge where I am, sort of. You're in the camp. You're, You can see, you know, it's night.

It's like very late at night. There are still people about, but nowhere near you. Okay. Still raining or? Yeah, still raining? Yeah, lightly. Lightly raining. You left me!

Grabs you from behind. Fuck. You wake up a second time. Fuck. It's the exact same as the first time. It's late at night. You tell that. It's still lightly raining.

I slap myself in the face. You're pretty confident your awake this stuff. For God's sake. You're getting haunted by like the god of dreams or some shit. I like open the tent again. And then I look behind me just in case. You watch as Hector. Describe how you take the engineer.

I guess it is something like just by gesturing, opening up like a zip in reality. Yeah. Like a zip of in nothing in the air. and then just like parting it to reveal, I guess, in the distance, it'd be like the Candonese, like, potentially if you'd winters, like, you'd see, like, the Candidese camp and then just gesturing for Arnold to, like, to walk in. You watch that. And then I... What the fuck? Do I hear the what the fuck?

Yeah. He calls it out of... You presumably call it out across the camp. You want him to be... You want it to be heard. Yeah, yeah. It'll be back in a minute. What are you doing?

No. I... Hector, to use, to access this, you have... have to step outside of humanity for a little bit. Yeah. You are, you probably feel a little, like your emotions feel a bit dead. Okay. I get, I love...

Where are you going? What are you doing? You can't just do this, Hector. We're in the middle of something. Or at least if you're going to do that, you've got to tell us what your fucking plan is. Right. Right. I'm trying to save a lot of people.

Oh, I... Yeah, I'm sure, Hector. Arnold here... Oh, like, get out of my time. I said, like... Arnold, here, you'd like to let me finish. I start walking in. Hector, what?

Would you like to let me? Sure. Okay. Arnold here, he's the one that invented the device that is controlling the army of Bortchard. If he goes to the Canaanese camp, he can start building a device. Do you trust the Canaanese? I trust them more than I trust Bortier. Yeah, okay.

So we're going to give this fella here, Arnold. Arnold? You're going to give Arnold. Fine. You come with us. I grab Pip? No, I'm not going. Don't take me.

Don't take me. Oh, my God. Are you resisting? Yes, absolutely. I make the door bigger. Hector, I'll give you advantage to this check, but I feel like you still do need to roll. Yep. You do pretty well.

Pip, yeah. Pip, you try to step away from the door, but Hector makes it so big. The door opens, the reality splits faster than you can get away from the door. Do I have any good boy cards? I don't know. Give me some good boy cards. I don't want to go. Did anybody succeed on an athletics check within the last minute?

He did. Did he? Well, then yeah, I'll take it, dude. I succeed on the same skill check. On a tie, he wins. Fuck! No, you win. You're the defendant.

You idiot. Oh, I thought that he was out of it. No, no, on a tie, you win as the defender. I duck out of the... You don't get to decide that for me, Hector. Okay? Would you like to babysit him? No, I don't want you to say.

him at all. The one guy that we have in our party who is completely unaligned. The one guy who only need somebody to send him in a direction and he'll go in that direction, you're going to give to some people that you kind of trust? What if they say,

oh, don't build this device that Hector wants or whatever. Build a device for us. He'll just do it. Then I guess I won't be back quickly. For God's sakes. Yeah. I'm about to live. Well, which is it, Pip? Do you want to go or do you want me to go? I look around like the camp, like, is there anyone here you trust?

I look back at the camp and then I look back at you and I say, one of us has to be responsible. And then I'm going to step back and gesture for you to go. Yes, one of us does need to be responsible. And I leave with the engineer. For God's sake. You, the engineer looks from one of you to the other one. It's very funny that he's just been standing. I know, we're talking truly about him.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He doesn't care. You step through with the engineer and you appear, from your description, it sounds like you don't want to appear right outside. Correct. Because that might get a shot on site. Fair enough. You are within a very short travel from the fort.

Still, like, you know, it's dark as well, so it is still a little eerie. Like I wanted to be, you know, like a very short travel from the fort. to be, you know, like a 10-minute walk, not like, you know, a three-day walk. Well, you are within a 10-minute walk. Did something, does he black out when he arrives? I already rolled for that. You were able to keep yourself together. Oh, nice.

I don't like that. That's a roll these days. This is why, anyway, it's fine. It's fine. Um, has my, no, where, where's that humanity, uh, a situation out of? You have exactly three out of seven human, no. Okay, okay, okay. Um, if you want...

Is it still... Am I still a bit cold or am I kind of a little bit back to my warmer self? No, no. Oh, well, when you zip it up, you kind of become... Sorry, I see what you're asking. When you close the gap, you kind of become back to... You come back to yourself properly. But you...

You, it's like a slow thing. You can tell, you are aware that whenever you access this power, you surrender yourself to do that. And it's easy for Hector to choose to surrender it, but for whoever you become to choose to become Hector again, that doesn't feel as a certain. Don't like that as a phrase. Okay. Okay. I'm looking toward, I guess I just start marching.

I guess, yeah, I just start marching towards the, the Canaanese encampment. But I guess as we're marching, that march becomes a bit more of a casual. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, you approach the fort. I was about to call it by its name. I guess you don't know its name, actually. But you, no, I'm an idiot.

I do know the name because, like, yeah, I'm basically like their, aren't I like, they're kind of their benefactor, basically. Benefactor slash representative at Stroud's court. Yeah. The fort is made. Well, yeah, oh, no, no. I mean, like, oh, I don't know. It doesn't matter.

There's a big, I was about to say. It doesn't matter anyway. Whether you know it through being part of Stroud's court now, whether you know it because you kind of are part of the land, or whether you know it because there's a big sign over the gate. It's irrelevant. You see Fort Sand written boldly and proudly as you approach. Who goes there? Hector, your lightbringer. Hector, lightbringer. Oh, yes. Forgive me. You are expected. Good. I walk. the gates open for you as you approach. You can see a lot of people there, it's like a million Cavendish in a direction. Whoa.

Is Arnold in his mek or is he just walking with a mech? The mecks behind, yeah. Yeah, cool, good, cool, good, good, right. Yeah, but I just walk right in. You see, I mean, like, I joke, but it, obviously they're not all, you know, carbon copies of Cavendish. But, I mean, they move a lot like Cavendish. does. They're dressed in a very similar manner to Cavendish. They all have those weird spears that he has.

You can see these people are muddier and they definitely aren't as high-born as Cavendish is, but it does kind of feel like you're in a Cavendish clone facility. Okay. Excellent. Right. Is there anyone that's come to address me? Yeah, as soon as you step in, the man who was speaking to you from the gate comes over. Pleasure to meet you, Hector Lightbringer, and your companion? This is Arnold Rimpler. Excellent, excellent. The captain has been obviously not at a specific time or place, but we have been expecting you.

Yes, take me to them. All right. He takes you through the camp to what is quite clearly the officer's barracks. And as you approach, it appears that your coming has been foretold. You can see the officer's barracks. which is, you wouldn't describe it as fancy abodes, but it is definitely the nicest building inside the fort. And as you approach, this nicest building has a veranda.

Is that term going to translate overseas? Yeah, porch. You could say? The officer's quarters, sorry? It's much of much of watchness, really. The officer's quarters has a veranda or porch, if you will. And on that porch, as you approach, in a half state of dress, but getting himself dressed,

you see what is quite obviously the captain of the camp. Okay, cool. I was semi-expecting Pyrrion, but that's fine. I just start walking towards the captain. A pleasure, Hector Lakebringer. I am Captain Forsyth.

Nice to meet you, Captain Forsyth. He reaches over to shake your hand. I shake his hand. I must admit, I have many questions for you. I was told that we must make you welcome should you arrive. You are, of course,

our benefactor and a co-owner, I suppose, in a perhaps very limited sense of the entity, the enterprise that we are engaging in here. He gestures over to, now deeper in the camp, you can see the huge fucking mining drills. No, sorry, they're not mining drills anymore. They've bored into the earth. You can see the huge fucking pumps slowly funneling,

Not slowly. God, I'm so incorrect. You can see the two huge pumps at an enormous volume siphoning oil out of Borovia and through the gateway. The Canaanese, it was made out of, it was at first reinforced with wood.

It was then propped up even further with stone. You can see metal inlay. The Candonies, this portal, they, as far as they're concerned, that's permanent. They do not look like they look like they're making themselves at home Well, fair enough Well, I hope it pays off in lots of residuals and dividends for me

Well, of course, we have put it in a bank account under your name And of course, some things must be hand-waved As your name is not We did not know if you had people back in Kandor or anything like that Actually, we had some business that we must attend to a two we must, you have a trust we have established for you. And this trust must have, if you are not directly to be in control of the trust, we must, of course, appoint guardian of some sort.

That of course. Unfortunately, no way of transporting that trust back in time, huh? Captain Forsyth. Captain Forsyth really is thrown by that. No, I do not think we can. sends that back in time. Pity. Yes.

Yes. Do you have an engineer's workshop? Yes. We have Cadre, a engineer, the engineering core, both a military one

and then also for the Borovian Electric Company. They work in unison. Right. I just turn to Arnold. What would be the best for you? He shrugs. Where's your foreman? The foreman.

Zee Foreman, he gestures back to the barracks that he just came out of. He was back in Zayr. He is asleep, but I can wake him. Yes. It would be best if I spoke to him now. Before, if I, yeah, I guess he cut me off interrupting of yes as well. Mm, yes. All right.

I will arrange this. I will have you speak to Zerforsman. Monsieur, may I, he says, talking to you now, Hector, may I speak to you, have a few questions that we must clean up first with the trust, but then also my soldiers, they have been. shall I say, disquiet and I must allay some terrible rumours. Yes, I would like to... I don't want to leave Arnold Rimp a... I don't want to leave Arnold by himself. So he hasn't chuffed off...

No, he hasn't walked away. Yeah, cool, cool, cool, cool. Yes, it does. Captain Forsyth, there's like a small cadre of AIDS all around him, and he sends them off to do various things. There's apparently, there's two conference rooms, and one is being prepped. For the engineer and the foreman, and another is being prepped for you and Captain Forsyth.

You and Captain Forsyth sit down in one of the conference rooms. Are you comfortable with them being in conference room, too? If we could have it as one conference room. I suppose we could do this. If you are comfortable, there will be private matters, financial. That is fine. Do you have legal representation? Do I have legal representation?

Hmm. Well, I... Pyrin or Cavendish really was my legal representation, I believe. No sooner had you thought that. Then stepping next to you, yes, he does. It would be me. Pyrin, you see, standing next to you. Pyrryn, attorney at law.

Pyrn, attorney at law. He says leaning over and shaking Captain Fawcite sound. Yes, Pyrn, my lawyer. Very well, then. Well, I suppose we should get a seat. The foreman and your man can quietly chat at the other end, I suppose. He says looking at the foreman. A very, a dwarf who looks heaps so much like he's really mad that you woke him up at 1 a.m.

Yeah, fair, fair, fair, fair. Interesting. Yeah, crazy that. Got it. Anything to the engineer, proud a lot of trying to stay awake. Right, okay. So you all go into conference room one. The engineer and the foreman stood at one end of the table.

And you see, sure enough, this surly dwarf, like, has to stop himself from nodding off as the engineer with, like, a bunch of schematics is pointing at different things. Okay. You sit at the other end. Captain Forsyth has, like, six lawyers on his side. And you sit on your side with Piran, who you can feel sweating. What does he matter that need to be taken care of? Well, first we must, as I said, you must appoint a legal guardian.

to look after your side of the trust, it would not do well to not have your money be managed by someone. Even if the person you pick is not necessarily a family member, but instead perhaps, I don't know, someone just with legal expertise. I could obviously recommend many different legal firms that you could use if you wanted to, but also if you have a name,

I would be happy to engage this for you. Okay. Okay, now to think of the future. The only person I know would be Cavendish. He did say his father was a titan of industry. That's true. That's true. Also, I wonder if the church that you used to belong to has legal representation of some kind well into the future.

I guess I could ask that. Yes, two names spring to mind. One is the church of Pena. How are they like... Captain Forsyth, when you say that, he laughs and then he realizes you're serious. What is the current, I guess, situation with the Church of Pena? Does it still exist or... Oh, is, of course, yes.

The gods are still worshipped widely, he says. You can hear in his voice, they worshipped widely, not by him. Oh, of course. What is the... Do I care about the church? Tricky fashion. I don't know. I even asked that question.

I don't have asked that question. I guess one name brings to mind. Cavendish. The Cavendish family? Yes, the Cavendish family. What can you tell me of them? You must understand I am not from your time. Of course.

He's not aware of like... He doesn't seem to be. Clearly not aware. I am not from... I am from your distant past. The people that you know are not the people that I know. This was going to be a question that I would come up with later.

Okay, okay. Well, anyway, yes, so I... The King Road is not been paved yet. I... What do you wish to know about Zy Cavendish families? They do not engage in accountancy as far as I'm aware. No, Zicavndishers are... What kind of industry are they in? Where they own factories. Factories.

Many factories. Dealing with many, turning raw resources into refined goods, so, you know, such as turning... raw iron into usable steel, turning something like, I do not know, turning something like cotton into cotton the plant, into cotton the material, turning many things into more refined states, I suppose. As a captain of this establishment, what is your stake in this, I guess, the company? Do you have a stake in the company? I work for the state, but in the next five years I plan to return.

And when I retire, I have been promised a position that's the Brovian electric company, something upper-middle management. Right. So, do you know how much I technically own? No, I do not know. You would be. I do not know if you are aware of this, but the materials we are, that you are supplying, worth more than gold. Oh, I'm aware.

Your fraction of the company would not be big, I do not think. But you would still be a very rich man if you are not already aware of this. I had an inclination. Tell me, if I was to give you a fraction of that fraction, a percentage, that would set you up quite well, quite comfortably. Oh, one moment. He looks over at his counsel. He looks over at his counsel.

He gives him a little shooing motion. His counsel get up and leave. I must inform you that I am still technically an agent of this state. And it would be highly illegal for me to barter with state's resources like this. True. What did you have in mind? Well, if I was to give you a percentage of this fraction you say I have, well, I would simply ask you for the advice of, well, if you were in my position, who would you hire?

Well, if you were to do such a thing and you wanted me to give you good advice, I would have to admit, I suppose, that my understanding is limited. But I would not want anyone save a external financial company that I had selected to look after my money. But you must understand that your money is not worth a lot in these lands. You would need to go home. Okay, so it is returning. Another question. Yes, you would need to be in, not just candle, but I mean, all of Ognot, your money is worth a lot.

But here in Borovia, it is not worth much. There is no economy here. No, it is really not. Shares in the company are only really worth what someone will pay for them. Okay, well, to be honest, there's never much of the... accounting finance person. If you wanted to give me a share of your trust, then I would become your agent, in a way.

I would be happy to manage that for you. I look over it, Pyrrion. Pyrrion looks back at you, and he, describe this expression. A man out of depth. Yeah, he is just... A man who's used to, like, money being exchanged in sacks.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. When they think of a trust, it's like a treasure chamber. Yeah. Rather than like some numbers in a book. Yeah. Yes, yeah, you could be my agent. I, unfortunately,

I must first tell you that I can do this for you, but my service is not up for review until a few months from now, and at which time then I could retire even earlier than I was planning to. Instead of yourself a very lucky individual.

Do you know if you have an heir or family? No, I do not. No. You, I do not know the, um, I do not know how much longer you plan on living.

The alabasters. Are they? Sorry? Alabaster. I believe way back in the day, Cavendish was like, yeah, the alabasters are in the own. Hector the beautiful, I believe. Yeah.

Oh, okay. So the hands are like, brother, yeah, you're making it now. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Alabaster, the name alabaster. It was a small, I guess. If you can give me the location of your family, I can see if anyone still lives in Cessaria.

Right. I give him that information, like the details of my family. Perhaps, or perhaps there was a paladin. The name was Hector the beautiful. He pauses for a moment. Oh, like from the tales.

Suppose from the tales. With, what's his name? Sir Grace. Sir Grace. That is right. I remember the tales. Anyone who wanted to be a knight as a child was raised on many tales, but the rise and fall of Sir Grace, of course.

Yes, like the tales. I don't want to copy that book. Yeah. That's not for me right now. Yeah. So if there's any descendants from that or any truth to that story, I guess if you could find that out. I will look for the ancestors

of Hector's Alabaster, the great, beautiful, many names. They were all this same person. And that person was you. That is amusing. And I guess if you cannot find an ancestor of that.

Perhaps a Tiffany Grace. It's a daughter. He makes a note of that. Perhaps she has descendants. Yeah. I will search for this. Any other questions you said you had? No.

That's pretty much answers. Well, all the professional ones. So I had a few questions. First and most importantly, the wood that we collect here. It bleeds. Is it cursed? Valid question.

Valid question. Because of the bleeding, yeah? Was that? And then also some of the soldiers, we actually pretty, as I tell you this story, you'll understand why we stopped this, but we used to let them go

to the township of Borovia when they had time off. But then they started coming back tales of little puppets who could swap bodies. I involuntarily shudder and maybe you go Oh so that is real

Okay He writes that down Yes I do not So I need to tell you Yes If you come across a puppet

If it strikes you With a pin You will swap minds That explains He writes that You see him Underlining what he just Rit down

That explains a lot Okay good So you need to make sure That you DT2D Destroy every puppet You see Like

If you to move slightly. You need to... I just like go into just too much like detail of... The time thing, that... What else? People have mentioned

that there are creature, people who can control the forests. Druids, I think we call them. You don't have druids anymore. We used to have druids, he says, with like a little bit of a surprise in his

voice. I guess that would like Because, yeah, that would make sense. Yeah, after being oil, you can... And, like, Cavendish has also been very, very, like, surprised at Druids. So this is, like, a ranger, but with magic. I suppose so. So I understand, so not even in... Not just in candle, but in everywhere else, the druids are...

I did not know. I thought it was, like, dragons, fairy tales for children. So you don't... No dragons, either. He puts his pen down. He puts his pen down and he runs his fingers through his... hair. I guess a lot has changed in hundreds of years.

I wonder if they're still Dragonborn. And if there are people like, what are dragon born? Yeah. Somebody in our world being like, yeah, I'm a fair old or whatever. Like,

well, that's not real. Yeah. Like, you have dragon born, correct? Yes. Yes. And,

well, I did not think that was literal. I know, I just, I'm like, there, you're going with... Dragon born,

you know, like in the same way as the elves are like, oh, you know, One time we came from the fairies. Of course, of course. A fairies real?

I mean, the fay wilds and the fay, like, huh. He gives you a really blank expression. Right. So the magic use. Well, yes, magic, of course. He gestures out the window to the huge portal. By the way, I know, yeah, no, you look at the sun for the first time in a while.

Nice. I mean, ah, it burns. Not unless you step through. Oh, no. Oh, no. I guess it does not better. So what was the question? Well, I guess I have a lot of questions about my wealth now.

Yeah, so, yes, Druids. They control the trees and they can turn into animals as well. They can, what? It goes like this for quite some time. It's between contracts, contract negotiations, and questions. about this. It's not until like the morning that you finally leave. Right. Before I leave, if I am, is a small favor as well, if you can. These sticks that they see your offices, your men have, I have a companion who also has these

things. He points at it and it. The muskets rifles, yes. How quickly can you teach me how to use them and how many can you spare?