D&D is For Nerds - State of Grace #7 Ser Grace Interrupted

Episode Date: June 21, 2025

In the dungeons beneath Fairburn Point Ser Grace, the realms most celebrated adventurer, was forcefully bonded with an entity beyond mortal comprehension. For some such an incident would spell tragedy, for Ser Grace, however, he saw only opportunity. Now the wheels are in motion for something big, something terrifying. A thousand plans, two thousand eyes, and all requiring a personal touch.Such is the State of Grace.To find out how Ser Grace bonded with the Inky Black check out Search for A’Helm. To learn the history of Ser Grace you can listen to the Fall from Grace Trilogy: The Hag, The City, The Dungeon as well as the Tieffany and Pop campaign Return to Grace. Ser Grace last appeared in The Adventures of the Greyhill Free Company and to hear more about the happenings on at Fairburn Point you can listen to Cult & Worship and The Lonely Tower. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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The stories of famous names, their lesser-known rejections, and the insights those rejections provide. We regret to inform you the Rejection Podcast. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. Acast helps creators launch, grow, and monetize their podcasts everywhere. Acast.com. Blink, so grace the resistance leader, standing up to tyrants, sowing dissent, picking targets. Blink, so grace the city guard, waving travelers in and out of Fairburn point keeping tabs making sure links are grace the adjudicator Making decisions so others don't have to guiding the people blink

2,000 eyes a thousand plans and all requiring a personal touch This is the state of grace you feel so grace as the mirror entity begins Communicating not with you, but with the inky black. I guess I just try and send the ink back. I just try and send the inky black into the mirror creature. And if I have to, Adam, kill some like entire, like a bandit camp that I'm constructing, or like a little town has to just suck back into the sort of the main inky black so that I can use its power to affect the mirror person I will. You concentrate very hard. This is something you've not really done.

Oh yeah, this is absolutely. So this takes a lot of concentration and effort. You hear a million different voices. You hear all of them go quiet as anyone who is just goo Stops what they're doing while you're focusing on this great you can hear yeah all of those voices quiet But then you hear a bunch of other Slightly more distant voices of people who are very surprised Yeah, when a bunch of people just stop and stand perfectly still that's fine. That's fine It feels like the mirror person is trying to affect the entity at its core,

and I will not be having that. You try to spit back at the mirror, at this mirror entity, but you are, for the first time in a little while, Sir Grace, you are made to feel very small. The mirror entity retracts a hand, and using your face looking at you, it says, how banal. To my 25 true faithful, destroy them. All right. We'll go to a combat. Yeah, we'll go to an issue. Yes, we will, Adam. The mirror entity that you're standing in front of, it brings both of its hands up and tries to clap them on either side of your head.

That's a critical hit. Oh, God. Right in the shins, you cannot take the dash action. Ha ha. No! For two rounds! No! My dash! My dash!

You can't double move for two rounds! I'm ruined! You've been fucked! And you take ten points of damage. Okay, well that is bad. That's not great, yeah. It slams on both sides of your head, you hear that dull ringing, and then it is going to try and trip you. Okay.

You manage to stay standing. Yes. The mirror, yeah, the mirror, its legs, shh, stick pointy at all directions, and it tries to basically kneecap you, but you are, as a tendril entity, you are, it's your goo moves to put, to make perfect gaps where all the jagged shards of its legs try to hit you. And then it is

your 25's turn. They, with a, oh wait, no, you've gooed them all, yeah, they wordlessly attack. Beautiful. And then, Sir Grace, it's your turn. I would like to hit this, the one that I'm sort of like face to face with, with the javelin that I have. Okay. Spin it around and jam it into the glass.

You succeed jamming the javelin into the glass. It's a it's a ranged weapon. So it works a little weird. It doesn't it doesn't hold right in your hands But the effect is nonetheless impressive as you deal five points of damage Cracking your attack cracks the surface of the the largest surface of glass on this entity's chest. As that cracks, you see your own reflection shatter a million times, and a million more yous are now looking at you. You take... Oh, fuck.

You take five points of damage. Fuck, dude. Are you kidding me? And then it's his 12's turn. Okay, fuck. The two groups slam into each other and blow upon blow is being landed by ink and by mirror alike. At first, it looks like your ink entities, your true believers, are going to be easily overwhelmed. As you see huge spurts of black

ink flying everywhere as they, it feels like throwing a water balloon at a cement block. Yeah. Yeah. But after their initial charge is blunted, you can see cracks figuratively and literally begin to form in many of these defenders. It does seem like every time one of them is destroyed, it kind of corresponds with a reflected inky black true believer being destroyed. You get the impression that... At the end of this, I'm gonna lose 12 inky black soldiers. Yeah, pretty much. And you also get the impression that a similar thing could happen to you if you destroy this mirror entity.

Okay. Then it is the mirror entity's turn again. It is going to use its javelin to stab you in the chest. It uses a very familiar looking javelin, and it jams it into your belly dealing Six points of damage to you. I I just want to make it very explicitly clear that it is using your attack Yes, yes. Yes, I can tell I can tell I can tell okay

I'm just fucking what do I can see my cheeky smile, but the people at home cannot. Yeah, that's true. That's true Okay, and then it is your 25 Ooh, Grace, it's your turn Okay, do I think that it works like as long as I'm reflected I will be taking damage Very well if if I were to no longer be reflected in it But I could still cause damage to it, would it still hurt me? Or do I just not know?

Sir Grace, you don't know, but the inky black does. And for the first time ever, it communicates very directly with you. It informs you that yes, if the mirror does not reflect you for whatever reason, then it will not hurt you. Okay. Is there anywhere I could get to in this arena where I would be able to attack like from a range with a ranged weapon and not be reflected in its mirror? If you backed up, yes.

Okay. I will do that. I will back up. Do you want to take the disengage? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I'll disengage Get a distance between us so that I'm no longer reflected in its in its mirrors You won't be able to attack this time, but you can do that

You It looks like you're gonna be losing more than 25 attackers as a few ink entities are destroyed you lose a total of Seven so you're down to 18. They have not lost a single defender yet. Okay Yeah, you it's the churning the slow churning of combat is Really turning against you the defenders are pushing you back and you see corpse after corpse after corpse fall. It is the mirror's turn. Actually, wait, no, before the mirror happens, are you informing Sir Lyca Silvery Moon of what's going on?

Yes, I imagine I'm giving him a constant sitrap. I'm imagining the ink version of you that's still on the boat. Yeah. You and him are pouring over like a battle map. Absolutely. Discussing strategy and whatnot. So Lyca Silverymoon is going to give you a little bonus this turn. As he- Thank God. Turning to the ink version of you that's still outside of the Lonely Tower.

If I may, sir. Yes. I would like to suggest a slightly altered course of action perhaps if you deploy forces more in a more of a flanking maneuver perhaps Yes, let's let's see to it you you detect Cuz you yeah, what's your patient? Yes? Yes, I have so like a silver there is an edge of So like a silver moon would never mock you and he is a very mostly emotionless person, but you can see he is a bit ticked off that you

have just launched a frontal assault without any strategy. When he recommends a flanking maneuver, it's like day one. It's day one planning. Before I agree, then I leave a beat where I just look at him. Okay. All right. Then it is the mirror entities turn. The mirror entity uses the disengage action and runs backwards. And it is your 18 who we're going to get a bonus this turn Can I still see the the mirror that I'm facing yeah, you're twice as far as you thought you would be though, okay

Nevertheless, I'll pull out my long bow and I'll fire an arrow at him. All right. Oh Nevertheless, I'll pull out my longbow and I'll fire an arrow at him. Alright. Oh, nice. Hit. Hell yeah. You strike the mirror entity. Your arrow, oh, it's a pretty glancing blow, but your arrow does, it strikes or it catches some of the damage that you did previously, and you can see more chips of Mirror flake off

and fall away. Unfortunately, the Mirror entity you were fighting was near some of your own people who were reflected in that. You lose another, god, this one's gonna really stink. Okay, no, okay, actually it didn't. It could have been a lot worse. You lose another three.

It's still bad. You still outnumber them, but you have not down. Yes Yeah, dude, and Then it is so like a silvery moon is still giving he like I said He would never mock or anything like that even before what's going on currently so like a silvery moon is a very Emotionless person. Yeah, probably what drew you to him in the first place. Absolutely. He's continuing to strategize with you,

and he's helping you redeploy your troops. It's not an easy thing, because you've already engaged. But maybe you lost the reason you lost a few of these entities, these ink entities, is as he is sacrificing them to allow you to pull other troops back. It's the mirror entity's turn. It fires a longbow at you. It misses. Okay, thank God. The arrow flies the exact same path that yours did.

So I could kind of duck out of the way. Yeah, you know where it's going to be okay, and then it is oh, it's your It's your 15. Okay. All right. All right some Mirror There is a gonna break. Okay bad luck grace. It's your turn. I have a new strategy, but maybe it's insane Yeah, I think I'm kind of using moon logic on this one, but maybe that's the kind of logic that's required This is my plan. I'll just lay it out for you. You can tell me how feasible you think this is. I would like to get myself between two of these mirror entities and then when one swings for me to duck. Cause if a mirror destroys a mirror, it'll destroy every mirror in the line. You know,

when you get two mirrors facing each other, you get that reflection of a reflection. And if a reflection of a reflection destroys a reflection, maybe it'll destroy all the reflections. That's kind of my logic. Okay, alright. I will make that. That'll be a pretty difficult deception check, which you're not great at. But I like the logic, if I'm being honest.

Okay, it works. Oh, fuck yeah. So you, lowering your bow, you see two mirror entities very close to each other, and you sprint. You, it's not as graceful as you want it to be, but you, attracting the ire of one of them, you continue to run and maybe add like a little bit of a duck and a roll Into your movement and the mirror entity accidentally It's not really a very bad blow But it does swing and it cracks into the other mirror entity and that sets off a chain reaction. Oh, yeah

They'll you can see there's some some part of this mirror this mirror slash moon logic Yeah works very well in your favor as the other mirror entity mirrors what just happened to it punching back and then they're just wailing on each other. They destroy each other. Okay, fuck yes. Fuck yes. You're down to ten mirror entities and then it is the Mirror Entities turn.

Under the careful guidance of Solyka Silverymoon, you manage to destroy five Mirror Entities, only taking two losses in the process. Pretty good. So you're down to 13, they're down to five. Your fortune has changed pretty quickly. Pretty dramatically, yeah, yeah. It is the mirror entity, the main one, it's turn again. It sprints in between two of your ink people.

Perfect. It does basically the same thing, but it doesn't destroy any of your entities. Yeah, they're just wetly slapping each other. Yeah, they cause damage to each other as sword meets ink But because the equipment that they carry is yeah. Yeah for sure for sure as sword meets ink There it does some damage, but it doesn't cause a cascade Yes, did with the mirror entities you see that this mirror creature is kind of just, well, mirroring. It's imitating your actions based on some level of logic that you cannot comprehend. You think it will literally repeat everything you do. Whether or not it intends on winning

this fight by imitating you, or whether or not it would not be hostile if you stopped attacking, you're not really sure of the rules. Cool. It is your 13th turn. Okay. All right. All right. So, Grace, it's your turn. Um, okay. This is what I'm going to do. Given that my body is made of ink. Yes. I place a hand on either side of my head and I tear it off.

I hate that, but okay. And then I hold it aloft and that's all I do. Staring across the battlefield at the main mirror man. Okay, okay. That is, that is your turn Sir Grace. Then it's their five. Okay, yes. Once again, Salaika Silverymoon has come to the rescue, although now the battle's

kinda, it feels like the battle is very heavily weighted in your favor now. Yeah, sure. So much so that Solyka Silverymoon, while he's still nominally in command, you're kind of using him to process the battlefield. He's just telling you what to do so you don't have to think about what- Cool, so I can fight on a one-to-one level fight this mirror. Yeah, you destroy two glass entities Yeah, no mirror. Sorry you destroy two mirror entities taking no losses. Thankful. Oh hell. Yeah. Yes and Then it is the mirror creatures turn the mirror creature

Can it do this? It can't the mirror creature tears its own this. It can't. The mirror creature tears its own head off and then falls forwards, shattering itself. Fuck yes. Okay. Alright, it's out of the fight. It's your 13's turn. Oh good, fight over.

Oh fuck yeah. You win. Oh, fuck yeah, you win as the last of your your your inky black Soldiers destroy the last of the mirror entities Okay, I look is it just shards of mirror everywhere yep, let's ascend the stairs all right you're not waiting for backup Oh, hmm you can if you want hmm There are other this is the main prong of your attack, but there are other prongs that you will maybe be able to reunite with depending on how this place is laid out.

How many people do I have left? You have 13 fighters left. Okay. How long do I think backup will take? I jump around to try and find where that backup is. They're coming out of, do you remember there's a fort that you established here? They're coming into the fort now, which means judging on how long it took you to get here, might be a couple hours.

I get the sense that staying in one place that's not fortified for any period of time here is dangerous. So we are going to, knowing that that backup is coming behind us, we're going to push forward at the stairs. It takes a long time, Sir Grace. It takes a long time to climb an infinite staircase, an infinite amount of time, some might say. It takes a long time to go up and it takes a long time to go down. But you feel like it would probably be a little bit easier if Viscount Ignatius Puglese shut the fuck up sometimes. He definitely is delaying you as well because every now and then he doesn't really say anything. You just hear a tsk tsk tsk tsk and you'll turn around to see him putting like a finger on a windowsill, dragging it along and coming up with dust.

You really just want to get to the boat. Yes, yeah, yeah. He is causing such a fucking delay right now. I have to assume that perhaps these people simply got lost on their way to war. I would really like to find out. Okay. Puglancy.

It was, I just worry about you. Of course, the pause that you took moments ago, it was I just worry about you of course with the pause that you know moments ago It seemed I'm distracted of course. I'm not sick. Are you? Maybe that's it. I would one could catch mummy rot in the surroundings as this mm-hmm mm-hmm If you'll allow me I need to go and check on the the nature of the boat from Blue Beach You understand is there is there somewhere that you would like to set up while I'm while I'm busy Yes, this throne room would do well for me. Mm-hmm Now

The throne room. Yeah, the throne room, which is full of jewels Now. The throne room, yeah. A throne room which is full of jewels and magic artifacts. And a goo dragon. And a goo dragon. I'm afraid the throne room is under construction currently. Under construction? Yes.

This is very well then. But I'm sure we can find you lodgings equally. Well perhaps instead as you look to the boat, as you look to the boat, perhaps while you do this, I can do a tour of the local garrison myself. Sure. Excuse me. And then I would like to... Yeah.

You get to the gates to the castle, and at the gates, the patrician is already there. What the fuck? I know Nothing yet The ship has not docked but is flagging for permission to do so a Ship of war an invasion does not begin with permission to dock Mm-hmm. This is all I know so far. We are have someone currently looking into the flags. Hopefully there will be records of who captains the ship here, but I would not hold out hope for that. My predecessor was—

SIDDUS The patrician pauses for a second. WILL Not very diligent. You know, Vaelin Otfoss is a man for details. Yeah, sure. The Puglaze was trying to get in the throne room. I told him it was under construction. I'm extremely distracted right now. Uh, Otfoss. I have also, uh, as, as we said, as you discussed my liege, we are working on the

excuses for the ballista. Yes and what not but Ada is requesting some very sensitive documents and There is only so much delaying that can be done. Uh-huh Unfortunately, I don't Have an answer for this. Well, the way I see it, we have two options. We either take her into the fold, so to speak.

It's not what I would want either. She will be requested back at Highdale, and it will be very difficult to cover what has happened. Or she dies on the way back, unrelated to us. Yes, plausible. Yeah. Might become difficult to arrange. I think my informants at Highdale are telling me that there is a possibility that the Viscount will be making a trip to Jaren's

outpost after this. The only logical way to get there would be by boat. Which would be harder for us to contrive an accident. Yes, but not impossible. Not impossible. I will work on Yes, but not impossible. Not impossible. I will work on something with pirates. And I will also try to delay as much as I can. Do you intend to handle the boat directly? Yes, yes, I'll take care of it. The gate guard will serve you there.

Okay. See to it, Artfos, I say. And then I'm gonna head down to the gate guard. As you're traveling, I'm sure you have eyes in port as well. Oh, absolutely. As you're traveling, your eyes in port are just watching the ship. You can see, not Cantonese specifically, Blue Beach, Blue Beachian sailors and marines are walking about on deck. They seem somewhat relaxed, like you're not at war.

Well, that's good to see. Yeah. You see in addition there is, standing on deck, there is a familiar, somewhat familiar face. Oh, okay. A man by the name of John Cutter. Huh. You've worked with the Cutter family before.

Okay. They're big names. The Cutter name is very big in Blue Beach. They often form or their family is very highly placed within the command structure of the Blue Beachian Navy and just the court in general. Never one sitting in the throne, as it were, but always kind of nearby. Do I get the sense that maybe they're here because they're just interested in the shifting power?

Well, you're not sure. So you have interacted with John Cutter before. He is currently the patriarch of the Cutter family. The, quote unquote, not that their family really has ranks, although he has a rank, but not in his family. No, no, he has a rank in the Navy. He has a rank Yep, yep. He John cutter is yeah, the highest quote-unquote ranked within the cutter family You've engaged with him before you've always found him with a lot of the cutters. You found him to be very

Power minded he's always looking to increase his station and increase the power of the Cutter family, but he's very big on soft power rather than hard power. So he's very big at making alliances and having things to hold above people. Cool. Yeah, you've probably worked with him a few times before. Anytime you needed a boat or ships or anything like that, you might have interacted with him. Could be useful. Well, I'll go out onto the dock to greet the ship.

Do you give them docking access? Yeah. Yeah, all right. Some of the gate guard waving flags give them permission to dock. The boat slowly comes in, ropes are thrown across, and the ship is bound to the dock. And as a gangplank is lowered, you see John Cutter give you a big warm smile. I... Fighting again. My brain is a million places right now.

Yeah. But I center it on myself and I turn my face into a smiling face as well. John! To what do I owe the pleasure? He stepping off the ship. Well, can I not say hello to an old friend? Well, of course. Of course you can, John. I just, maybe a letter next time, you know? I would have loved to have sent a letter,

but in these trying times, who's to say if it would have come and if someone might have, if prying eyes might have read it. I always prefer to do things in person, he says. He reaches out for a handshake. I shake his hand I I'm given that your regent now in Furbohm Point. Yeah, I know Who'd have ever thought I? May I he gestures to the castle, please?

Please a bunch of Marines step off with him in their smart blue uniforms You can see they're very highly drilled trained soldiers. I don't know if we we are Currently in a sort of rebuilding phase. I don't know if we'll have the lodgings for all of your soldiers At the moment. How many would you say you have lodgings for? Perhaps a quarter a quarter? A quarter? You can handle that, the rest can stay on the ship I suppose. Fantastic.

Couple of high ranking officers, just some, not that I don't trust you Jordan, you just understand in times like these... Trying times. Mmm, yes. Of course. And I mean, I hope you don't mind, I assume while you can't, you don't have lodgings. I'm assuming you have the space to accommodate a few soldiers just to keep things civil. You understand?

I would never try anything. I just... Acast powers the world's best podcasts. Here's a show that we recommend. Lisa Kudrow was fired from the set of Frasier. Charles Schultz was told he'd never make a living scribbling. Missy Elliott was dropped by her label. And Rita Moreno couldn't land a role of substance for seven years after West Side Story. The stories of famous names, their lesser known rejections,

and the insights those rejections provide. We regret to inform you the Rejection Podcast. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. Acast helps creators launch, grow, and monetize their podcasts everywhere. Acast.com. Well, I know you were always very good friends of the king. You don't trust me, John? After all we've been through?

He gives you a wiry smile and he says, trust but verify. How long do you intend to stay? Well, hopefully not long. Hopefully our discussion is very fruitful. I obviously I'm here in relation to the conflict, but I come not as a representative of Blue Beach, but as representative of just the Cutter family. A thought's just occurred to me. Do I think that if he finds out that I have Puglazee and Ada,

members of Candanese officials in the castle, that will be a problem? It might be. Okay. But obviously he understands that I'm currently within Kandini's territory. Carter, I have to let you know, I say, and maybe I'll put an arm around his shoulder and begin walking him up the docks toward the keep. The soldiers step in line behind you, and I'm assuming you're getting the gate guard to follow as well, yeah.

I'm currently actually in the middle of a visit from a V accountant an accountant from Candle, right? Yeah, is this in relation to I an absolute headache? Yes, I understand He gives a little chuckle at that. He thinks that's funny. I understand and I apologize for Presumably you've only recently found out yourself, that Linus passed. Yes, yes. It is related to that. They just want to make sure everything's ship shape, I suppose. Right, of course. I'm terribly sorry. I know you were old friends. We were close, I say. We were close.

You actually feel sad about his death? Yeah, I think Sir Grace does in some sense. I think Sir Grace feels sad about his death the same way that somebody might... I don't think Sir Grace feels so sad about the person dying, but the loss of the institution I think is probably what upsets him. Okay, interesting. And the purpose that came with that. But it's very vague and nebulous these days. Yeah. Yeah. Yes, he was an old friend. It's very sad that he's gone. But hopefully I can, you know, as a, as regent, um, lunch, lunch would be delightful. I've been dining on nothing much except rum and fish for the last few days. I'd greatly appreciate chicken, anything to lighten it up.

I'm sure we can organize that. All right. You take it to the castle? Mm-hmm. Okay. Oh, I was about to go Heysel Lowe's. You are a bunch of people throughout town. You ensure that Puglase and Cudder did not interact. I make sure that they stay. If Puglase seems like he's leaving the battlements and stuff, I have somebody say, oh, like somebody previously, you know, Puglazi is facing one direction

and this person is just slumped, not active. And then the moment he turns around, they pipe up again. And they're like, oh, let me show you how the ballast there works and some such, to just keep him as occupied as humanly possible. It's very frustrating that you are still dealing with the Viscount who is being very impolite to anyone.

It's killing me, dude. He's honestly, he's more polite to Grace than he is to anyone else. He does so much explaining of things that the person he's talking to knows. If one of the true faithful says, let me explain the ballast day, he says, oh, I know you must have this kind of ballast day and acts as though he's the expert. And does the worst possible thing. He gets it wrong. Yeah, oh, of course.

But then when you say that's incorrect, he says, no, I don't think so. He's a go-to fallback that he must think is very clever is is he keeps dropping on, oh, well, I suppose this is here on the outlands how you do things. But, you know, in Highdale, and then whatever mistake he made, he insists that it's better when it's like what he says. Yes, one eye of mine is twitching as I chat to John Carter.

For many reasons, both eyes are probably twitching. Honestly, let's be honest. A problem occurs as Sir Grace, you're crossing the threshold, the walls around the castle, you're crossing that threshold as a servant bringing Ada some food, opens her door, steps in, and Ada is not there.

You don't know where she is. Jesus Christ. Jon, I'm so sorry. Something has just occurred to me. I need to take care of something. Can I meet you? I'll have one of my servants deliver you to a dining hall and I will be there in 15 minutes, I assure you.

No, Raj. Whatever. It takes the time it takes, of course. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Viscount, there's a lot more response. It's a lot harder than slaying goblins, you know? Oh, I...

The goblin slaying has never really been my forte, but I understand the nightmare that is logistics. Killing a goblin is so easy. It's cracking a skull in the ass. Yeah. Of course. Give me 15. I'm going to try and track down Oddfoss.

You find Patricia Oddfoss, he's in his office, he's ordering around some people who probably aren't you, just ordering some. He has like maybe a set of staff that just, it's easier for him. There's a smattering of real staff here. Sure, yeah, yeah, yeah. The true faithful and those who have been good.

His staff would be mostly Non-good just because you need that autonomy. Yes, absolutely look after them for sure. I'll keep them in line Aida is missing She's gone. I don't know where she is. I will wait Starts flipping through some papers Could it be possible that Ada was not just an accountant?

I hope not. He starts filing through papers. We need Radora, the master of masks. Yeah, I don't know. I've probably not informed you of this, for us, but that particular section of my day is you've got no idea. Radora would know better than I, but- I hold up a finger like this, like a single finger,

like give me a second, and I'm gonna close my eyes and go into Radora. Alright, you're in Radora, standing on the deck of the Stormcaller, you watch as the Gallant Rider is getting away. The second everything happened with Punchinello, the Gallant Rider just began freaking leggin' it. Back briefly in the office of Art Voss, fuck! Hahahaha!

And then I'll be in R'hador again and... Oh, and Pachonello's fucking cut off! The ship, the Stormcaller, you are scouring it for your earning. No one has found him yet. God damn it. You don't know where he is or what he's doing. Okay You are this crew by the way is mostly independent Mm-hmm, you can if you want jump into a few of them, but these people this crew is not they're friendly to you

They're your allies, but if you start doing they're not gonna be happy. Yeah. Yeah Yeah, that'll be its own kind of combat if that happens. Now remind me, the Stormcaller way faster than us, yeah? Yeah, oh no, sorry. You are the Stormcaller. The Gallant Rider is way faster than you. It's getting away. There's not a lot that you can do about that right now.

Okay, and Punchinello is completely locked off from me, right? Punchinello is locked off from me. Punchinello is, when you're doing the character select, Punchinello is completely locked off from me, right? Punchinello is locked off from me. Punchinello is, when you're doing the character select, Punchinello is grayed out. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, this is annoying. Now, in relation to the Lonely Tower, where is the Stormcaller?

The Stormcaller is- As it flees, Ah! Is it gonna go past me again? I see what you mean. Yes. Okay, okay. Now, a ship full of goo people,

of true faithful is going to be sent out from the Lonely Tower to intercept. Okay. It has to be done. Now, most of the ships there are fishing trawlers Yeah, they will not be able to catch the the second the gallant rider knows what's going on They might not even need to run because a fishing trawler will just be destroyed The gallant rider could just literally sail into it and destroy it. They wouldn't even need to fire a shot But would they stop they might stop depend you could yet so

But would they stop? They might stop, depend, you could, yeah, so secrecy or surreptitiousness is the game here. You need them to let you willingly board. Well, what I'm thinking is if I send a fishing vessel to be crushed by their ship, hopefully they have good enough hearts that they will be like, Uh-oh, we need to stop our boat, giving us a chance to catch up in the Gallant Rider. You can, yes, you can try. Okay, that's the plan. All right, you send the ship off like that, and then you're there, Asradora, she's so important,

and so, such a great, useful resource, and is now completely disconnected from this. Fuck dude, that's so annoying. But can I at least get her information, her knowledge? Yes, you can do that. As I'm using her as a conduit to understand what's happening with the stormcaller, to get the fishing vessel to stop the stormcaller so the gallop rider can catch up, at the same time I say, hey, do you think Ada could have been a spy or some such?

So you have to, it's very frustrating that you have to on purpose access. It's like, it's like having all of the files in front of you, but you have to actually go over and open the file to know the information. Had you at any point been in Redora and thought, let me just check Ada and Puglisi. Open the file. Oh, Ada is a spy. Okay, fuck. She is a very highly well-trained,

highly positioned spy in Kandor. She is one of the master ofks in Highdale, the Master of Masters in Masks, the like, spy master of spy masters, is like her right-hand agent. Ada is a very dangerous individual. She is... you ever seen the movie the accountant? Okay Okay, she not only is she Incredible as a forensic accountant, but she is a lethal assassin. Okay Hmm, and she's loose somewhere in the castle. This also means this locks you out of turning her completely

Yeah, you the second she gets turned. I won't Go back to highdale. They'll be okay Fuck me Now I'll give you one more piece of information. Okay. I don't know if this is necessarily gonna be helpful to you This is just something that you would know. The Viscount doesn't know this. Okay. Okay. Redora knows this because of her connections, her knowledge, but Ada's true identity would

be a very closely guarded secret. Now do I lock down the castle? Cutters inside the castle right now and Puglase is doing a tour but he's gonna be coming back at some point yes yeah yeah but if I lock down the entire what if I locked down Fairburn point you could do that you have that power I know I know so okay locking down Fairburn point though the bigger the lockdown the more gaps there are. Yeah, yep, yep.

Locking down the castle is easier than locking down the city. If I, and I'm assuming I've already done this, but if I do a big scan, I look through every eye I have, I can't see Aider anywhere. You can do that, but that takes a while. So you'd need to do nothing for a little bit but that. I don't have the time to do nothing, Adam.

You can, yeah, it just takes time. Okay. Okay. Once again, like with the lockdown thing, you can do a small search, like if you searched maybe a couple levels on the castle, you could do that a lot faster than searching the entire castle or the entire city. The problem is you have no idea where to start looking right now. Well, where, if somebody, what would Kandor be looking for?

Well, you're not sure. You, well, they've already spotted irregularities in your finances. Yeah. So it would not be implausible that they might be trying to gather evidence. The implausibilities in my, or the inconsistencies in my finances, what were they again? in my finances, what were they again? The three ones that they've flagged so far are smaller settlements around Fairburn Point that have been emptied for manpower purposes, records of comings and goings of ships, fishing and trade, which you've been also hollowing out.

You've been using a lot of the ships for your own personal purposes. So any records that exist are very fucking suspicious. That is if you've even been keeping records. Yeah, sure, sure. Also the ballista on the walls, which needed to be contributed to the war effort. You are fabricating currently why you still have ballista, but that fabrication has not been finished the Fabrication was by the way. It was nulls and bandits. Yeah. Yeah, they were needed for banditry and for null attacks

Okay now Just spitballing. Mm-hmm an alliance with Blue Beach. Would that be an act of war? Would that be an act of war? Fairbairn Point allying itself with another region of Kandor, which is an open revolt. Mm. To describe that as an act of war would be... accurate. Okay. Okay. But John Cutter said that he wasn't here representing Blue Beach, he's here representing the Cutter family.

Mm, yes. But John Cutter said that he wasn't here representing Blue Beach. He's here representing the Cutter family Mmm, yeah, you don't think that's I mean you could ask but you don't think that's what he's here for if that's what if that's What you were thinking? No, I was more thinking if I go to him and I say we have a can and he's spy in our midst What would that do? Wow, that's certainly an interesting. Yes. It's definitely on my mind. Yeah, definitely on my mind Fuck, okay Who am I? I'm Rudora currently. Yeah, okay. Just had to center myself. I was Askew for a moment. Okay. I know later as a spy. Okay, I return to myself and I

Am going to lock down the castle. Okay. And then I'm gonna go to John Carter. John Carter is, oh wait, no, you sent him to- To a dining hall or something, yeah. So he probably hasn't noticed yet that the lockdown is happening by the time you arrive. But it's gonna be pretty obvious pretty soon.

That's okay. Here's some, some of the officers that he's brought are sitting there and they're eating with him. They're maybe, you know, they're not getting drunk, but they've got wine in front of them. Yeah, sure. They're having a good time. Just having a good time.

His soldiers, his personal bodyguard are not engaging in the food or drinks and they will not be doing that. They're standing, well, guard, their bodyguards. You notice one of them is a taster, essentially. Anytime he, anytime John Cutter's about to have something, he passes it off to someone else who tastes it first. Fair. Sorry about that.

It's been a very busy day. Not at all. I join him at the table. Well, would you prefer brass tacks? Yes, please. Yeah, like I said, I'm under the pump. Blue Beach has a powerful navy, but our army has never been, well, up to snuff compared to the rest of the country. Sure.

And so, very foolish to start a war with a country that you share a land border with, I feel. Mm-hmm. Delays have obviously been dealt to the Candidates Army, but it is only delays. The inevitable is that Blue Beach will fall and then be reintegrated back into the fold. When that happens, there will probably be a lot of, like musical chairs, changing of the seats, you understand. I wish to ensure that when the seats are changed, the Qatar family, well, retains the seats that it has, but potentially there might be opportunities for more seats. I come to you with a simple proposition.

If that were to happen, if Blue Beach were to fall a little bit closer under Qatar control, well, you obviously is regent here. Your mandate is to find an heir to take over. But what if that didn't happen? What if an heir couldn't be found? What if Sir Grace remains regent indefinitely? Now what I'm proposing is not necessarily, I understand you might hear that this sounds a little bit like insurrection.

I have no interest in that. Right. But Fairburn Point and Blue Beach are the naval cities within Kandor. Perhaps only rivaled by Appleville, but mostly a trade city more than it is really a naval power. What I'm proposing is instead a monopoly. I see. we would control all Fishing trade mm-hmm. We could set the price to be whatever we wanted it to be Okay, could I is as part of the agreement be like kill eight You could try. Yeah, but is, do I think... John Cutter does not seem to be a true believer in Blue Beach independence.

Yes, cause here's my thinking. Yeah. If Ada, a spy for Kandor, is killed by somebody from Blue Beach... Right. Fairburn Point and Sir Grace remain innocent. But she's out of the picture for now. I have a problem, I say. Not with the plan, personally. The accountant, Ada, is looking where she shouldn't be.

Right. Now it would be bad form, obviously, for me or my men to do anything about it. However, and then I just let that sit. Right. This Ada character, an accountant, you said? Yes. Well, he looks over at his personal retin revenue. I think we can handle an accountant.

Hopefully. Yeah. Unfortunately, she's currently missing. I believe she's somewhere in the castle or at worst Fairburn point at large. Right. But if she were gotten rid of, I could absolutely see my way to acquiescing to your request. This is a pretty big favour. You're not asking for me to just kill a woman. You're also asking for justification as to why we were even here. Yes. Sure, we can kill her, but what does that achieve if you tell people, oh, the representative of blue beach killed her in my castle. This is a big fabrication.

I mean, obviously I can do it, but how much do you trust me? I don't trust people. I trust money. Well, I mean, money I can get you. Well, that's a good step one, I suppose. Money's easy, Cudder. You gotta understand, money is the simplest thing in the world. On this we agree. Mom, Roron, it's a dragon with a horde. Horde currently unattended. I can give you the location. Jordan, Jordan, Jordan. I'm not an adventurer. I don't go into dungeons.

You've got soldiers? No, no, no. I have marines. Different. Right. I... I have no interest in delving after a dragon's horde. But if you have money, I'll take money. What would be your price?

He looks you up and down, and he does a frustratingly good job of assessing how pressed you are right now. Yep. Five million gold coins. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do it. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do it. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do it. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do it. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do it. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do it.

I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do it. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do it. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do it. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do it. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do it. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do it. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do it. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do it. Acast powers the world's best podcasts. Here's a show that we recommend.

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