Dice Shame - 101 | 'Starve A Fever'

Episode Date: September 16, 2021

Darkness falls across the small down of Pella's Want as the party confronts a terrible truth... Comedy, action and a whole lot of shaming come together in Dice Shame, an Actual Play Podcast of Storm King's Thunder by Wizards of the Coast! Join our GM Jo; her partner Harlan, his brother Alex & their best friends Justin and Rob as they tackle the daunting world of Faerun in this legendary adventure module! Dice Shame is a podcast that welcomes its audience to the gaming table. Like the games they play at home, they try not to take themselves too seriously. The show aims to be entertaining, inclusive, and irreverent, while still taking the rules (somewhat) seriously. Join us every Thursday morning for brand new episodes available on all major platforms including; Spotify, iTunes, Google Play and more! If you haven't checked it out yet... what are you waiting for?!? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We can rule out owl bears because they've got bees. He just wants to get out of here. Are you sure you didn't pull the head off that sheep? Wait, the spell slot. I know we're outsiders here. That door there. Do you normally keep it locked? I'm not arguing with you. None of us think you did anything to have these sheep.

He's just so likable. You're going to have to pull this one out of your ass. Oh, the guy knew my dad. You have all been taken advantage of. That's a really annoying trait that I know nobles fall into a lot. And I, seeing it being on the receiving end of it, you know, I get it. and I'm sorry. I'm sure I've done that in the past. Welcome back to Dyshame. This is episode 101, Starve a Fever.

MVP this week is our new friend Michelle, aka Susie Q, who left us a glowing review on iTunes. She and her hubby, longtime fan follower and friend Doug, are getting caught up as a a couple. Thanks so much, Michelle. Appreciate you both so much. Thanks for joining us. Godess is an audio fantasy written by Mark Harris and co-directed by our own Harlan Guthrie. The story of goddess follows Zarka on a path of redemption, recovery, and honor. It deals with modern day issues in a fantastical setting. Check it out now. It's available wherever you listen to podcasts. Or at goddess zarca.com. That's Z-A-R-Q-A. All right. Shall we get down to business? Yeah, let's do it. So I'm looking at my character sheet, and I've got an alignment written down for Jack.

Do you guys want to guess what it is? Oh, God. Oh, I do. I do. Lawful, neutral? No, I'm going to say it's... Neutral good. No, what's the word?

It's the... Chaotic? Chaotic good. That is what's written down. I don't know if it's right. Aha! I knew it. Nice, Alex.

I knew it. Do you want to guess what Reds is? Lawful. It's not lawful good. There's no way. Chaotic neutral. Lawful neutral. Chaotic good.

It's also chaotic good. Is it chaotic good? The true feeling of chaotic good. Mine's definitely wrong though, I think, right? I think mine's wrong too. I think mine should be chaotic neutral. I don't think so. Oh, I buy that 100%.

I think, honestly, Rob, yours is chaotic neutral. I could see neutral good or lawful good. I think red is chaotic neutral. Yeah. And I think Jack is probably neutral good. I would say chaotic good. Yeah, I would say law. I think he throws too much out there at times.

I think he loves and respects the rules, though, and tradition and the place he came from. He values all of those things. You do value them, but I think you act in a chaotic way. I mean, he doesn't always, yeah, play to them. So what's Kralath got written on his forehead? Well, I have, I have the tattoos. Yeah, I got lawful good written on my forehead. Just on the knuckles, right?

Just lawful good. Oh, those would be good enough. Actually, that is a good idea. A few more fingers, but... We can grow those in the lab. Just so am I. Just grow up in the lab. It's for aesthetics.

Justin, what's Kirk Curiloff? After playing him for a while, I think he's lawful neutral. Yeah, yeah. Because he's all about maintaining the balance. Agreed, agreed. Yeah, you're right. Yep. Doran.

I'll give you one guess. Chaotic evil. Lawful good. It is lawful good. Yeah. I think he plays him pretty well. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Yeah, it's the easiest one to play. He has a lot of, like, you know, regret. Look at my buff arms. He's so quiet in the back of, like, this parts where he's sort of misstepped. Yeah. I just got distracted by my own biceps. Did you just be distracted by your own? I was like, oh, look at that.

Joe's gassing herself in the mirror. Shut up, everybody. Look at my guns. Joe's on meathead now. She's been boxing. She's like, look at my guns. Roll for initiative, babies. All right.

Let's play some D&D. Hey, D&D. Let's do it. Yes, I'm ready. I'm ready. Let's change our alignments. Here we go. Do a flip.

The swinging lantern casts moving shadows around the sheep barn at the edge of the lurkwood, wind whistling through the cracks in the wall. You stand before a large man who holds the skull of a sheep in his bloody hands. The straw all around him stained a deep red. And you've just been deputized by the mayor, Kirshed Breacher, to detain this man, Firth, and not let him out of your sight. What do you do? The door looks kicked in. Does the door look kicked in, or is it?

You said it's off its hinge. No, it's, the door is ajar. Oh, no, it doesn't. I think I walk up to Firth, first and foremost. Does this guy look like a threat? I sort of, I say in a passionate way, these were found dead? You didn't do this, did you?

No. And I'll roll insight just to make sure. Oh, yeah, that's a 24. Hey, nice. You believe him. Yeah. Is Firth a human? He's a big boy.

He's like as big as Kralath, and he's still holding this sheep's skull. His forehead is creased in a worried frown. He's wearing a pair of filthy overalls. looks like he hasn't shaved in about a week. And he's got a big dent in his forehead that looks like it's a very old injury. Doran asks the same question again. Are you sure you didn't pull the head off that sheep? No, I didn't.

Why don't you just sit and make yourself comfortable for a minute? Is Firth covered in blood commensurate with slaughtering a bunch of sheep? Just like on his physical person, do we think the blood he's in lines up with killing these sheep? I rolled an insight, Jack. There's no way he did it. Well, you could absolutely roll some checks to look at him at the barn. Yeah, I'd love to investigate the blood that's on him. How old is it compared to the story of when the guy said it was a couple hours ago?

All of that like CSI kind of shit, Jack would like to wander around. Roll a CSI check. I'd love to. Investigation works great. Perfect. 23. His hands are bloody commensurate. with handling a bloody flayed sheep's head,

which he is currently doing. Yeah. But not commiserate with ripping a head off of a sheep. You also notice that there are many patches of dried blood spread around the room, which would suggest to you that animals had been butchered here previously, potentially more than the current three skulls would suggest. Were the animals killed with a weapon? Like, were they torn apart?

Why don't you make a medicine or a survival check looking at these skulls? Yeah. That's what Kralov is kind of looking into as well. You can roll that as well, then Krala. There's skulls enough for all. Yeah, so Kralath kneels down next to one of these sheep and sees Doren do the same thing across the barn. Yeah.

It should be clear. Sheep heads, no bodies. Yeah. Enflayed. too, right? Correct. Okay. What do you mean by flayed?

Parts of its skin have been peeled off. Okay. Kralov kneels down next to one of these sheep's head and sees Doren looking at the same thing, and he's going to see what happened here. That's an 18. Nice. Kralath, you see that the skulls are marred with bite marks. Oh.

They were made by a wide jaw of large teeth, canines, incisors and molars. To you, this suggests whatever brutalized these sheep was an omnivore and large, maybe bear-sized or giant badger. We'd seen owl bears

before. Do they have molars? Nope, they got beaks. Yeah. We can rule out owl bears because they've got beaks. I am going to bring the guy outside. And I'm going to walk him to a stump And as I sit him down, do I get the impression that maybe he had some sort of connection with this sheep or he's just in awe? Yeah, he brings the sheep's head with him and he's looking into these sheep's eyes.

Yeah, he seemed a little, and I think I just sit next to him and I'm kind of like, is everything all right? Were these sheep close to you? Yeah, I'm just checking to see if this is Blackie. His eyes look kind of like Blackie's eyes. Oh, well, I'm sorry to hear that. And I think I maybe create a minor illusion over top of the skull to sort of have a little bit more youthful look instead of this like ravaged flayed. You know, maybe it looks like blacky in my mind. Like I have some black fur and stuff.

I want you to roll deception. Sure. 15. He's startled for a minute. He almost drops the head. And then he kind of suses out. what's going on a little bit. I want to make it clear that I like don't do it shockingly.

Like slowly it sort of washes over it. Like it's meant to be comforting because obviously he's in shock from losing something he might have cared for. And he turns towards you and you see he's got, he's like a little misty-eyed and he says, friend. Yeah. I have a friend too, Stephen. And like out from the bush, Stephen just walks up and Red starts like petting him and he's like, if you'd like you can pet my friend Stephen. No, you. You're my friend. And he starts petting you. Oh, well, well, it's a bit, it's a bit offensive. Okay, not so hard. Not so hard.

He's like cutting your fur. Yeah. All right. Well, okay, I'm uncomfortable, but I'll let this happen for a moment. You didn't happen to see anybody harassing these sheep before all this happened, did you? You must be pretty familiar with them and around here. Maybe something big from the woods. And he stops petting you and scratches his forehead. No. You don't happen to know who would do something like this. Do you? I would not pull off a sheephead or peel a skin from the sheephead. No, of course not, friend. None of us think you did anything to hurt these sheep.

Promise. Craigloth turns to Jack. What do you see? Jack smiles at a minute as Team Corpse Inspectors is looking at the two other sheep skulls left here and a bloody crime scene and sort of says, Well, here's what I've gathered so far. There is three dozen sheep missing, minus three heads. One of the missing sheep is Blackie.

Firth's favorite sheep. For some reason, Brownie. Oh, sorry. How do you feel about Blackie? Brownie was nice to me, and always let me pet her. Thank you, Firth. One day, Brownie was gone. Was that today or was that earlier?

He's still talking. He's still talking. Petting Red? No, he's stopped pet this bloody skull, because it's got the impression of being a sheep's out. And Stephen's just staying there in like horror. Like, horror. And I'm like, go, go, Steve.

Go back, go back, come on. Kralath casually, as Jack is running through the report, I guess, Krayloth is going to do a survival check, looking for any prints, going to the front door and seeing if there's any imprint in the hay and mud. Yeah, the yard is kind of a mess of footprints. That is a 16 for survival. Okay, you find footprints of humans, you find sheep hoof prints, I suppose.

I'm not seeing anything out of the ordinary, but there's got to be more here. It's kind of hard with this lighting. I'm wondering a couple of things. Figuring out why they feed sheep and murder sheep in the same spot, I don't know much. I'm not a farmer, but it seems off to me. Given all the sheep blood we've seen in here before, is it in any particular spot? Does it look like it's done in the same way or ritualistically or layer upon layer of it over time? Or is it sort of random and chaotic and nothing more to be gained from studying it?

In the course of your investigation, you determined that there are many patches of blood spread throughout the room. Some of it is on the walls. Some of it is on the floor. and you determined that the pools of blood were made at varying times, probably throughout the past few weeks, not all at once. Perfect. So Jack takes his time doing that and keeps his ear out to what's happening outside. So Kralath and Doren, you guys finished investigating these skulls.

You found some tooth marks. Kraloth found that there are human and sheep footprints around this hut. this is clearly kind of a high traffic area. Would that be to say if there were giant footprints, may not be able to see them anyways? You have not detected any giant footprints. Do you kill your sheep's here as well? Or is it just a place that you keep them?

No. There's a butcher. A laser? There's a few weeks of blood on the walls in there, I think. Is there a reason why so much blood would be all over the place? old and new? I don't know. Who's in charge of this place?

Me. Zafri helps sometimes. All right. Just sit here, friend. We're going to get to the bottom of this. And Red's going to go around the back towards the woods. Okay. Kralov walks over and Krayloff had stepped out of the barn and was looking up at this door.

And he takes a couple steps back and with his arms crossed turns to, Firth and asks, that door there, do you normally keep it locked? No. Anybody could go in? I guess so. Huh. Red's around back, and he's going to look

at the edge of the forest in the snow for any footprints, bare feet or larger footprints, and then after that, he's also going to do primal awareness to see if he can sense any giants within a five-mile radius. Sure. And he got a natural one in his survival. Oh, fuck all that.

Bummer. He's really distracted, I think. And you also detect no giants within a five-mile radius. Yeah, I kind of pictured that. He'll still take a few steps into the edge of the woods and just kind of feel the nature around him and see what kind of areas someone could approach from. You know, get a real sense of the area around.

As you move into the woods, your keen ears pick up the sound of voices raised in anger and maybe a door being kicked down. You hear Kershid's raised voice. Clearly, like, the mayor is starting to go around to the villagers trying to get answers. You know what I mean? Like, people are having arguments.

The village is, like, getting raised. And Red sort of heads back and says as much to Kralath. Seems like they're kicking down doors. Look, he wanted us to shackle this man. I don't think he did anything wrong. But at this point in time, it might make sense to at the very least take him. into custody so that the optics are there.

They will want someone to blame. And I don't think we want to send him off into the woods on his own. Oh, I suppose so, but we are his deputies now. We are able to make this call ourselves. We didn't say yes. He just threw money at us and thought he'd get his way. And that's a really annoying trait that I know nobles fall into a lot. And you're seeing it, being on the receiving end of it, you know, I get it now and I'm sorry.

I'm sure I've done that in the past. All I mean to say is that if people do point a finger at him, it would be more safe for him to be in our care. Yeah. Because if someone needs a finger to point, no offense, but this man doesn't seem altogether there. They might just want to point to blame. At Red pushing, Krayloff gets a sense that Red knows something that Krayloff doesn't. And yeah, maybe if they are getting down on the villagers, it would be in our best. interest to just keep him safely in custody.

Yeah. He doesn't seem to be too worried about it either. I don't think he ate those sheep and they're certainly not around here, so... No, but the people in the town, if Wood gets out, won't care if they need someone to blame. I'm not arguing with you. So Red reaches in the bag of holding and pulls out a set of manacles and he'll put them on Firth. And Kralath will go stand beside him.

Sort of very kindly be like, we're going to have to put these. on for a second. Is that all right? You can have to make a persuasion check. Sure. You can make it with advantage because he has deemed you friend. Happily. Kralath puts a hand on Red's shoulder and casts guidance on him and says, uh, we got your best interests at Hartford. These are dark times. Hey, 24. Thanks, buddy. As you clasp the manacles to his wrists, like this is a big guy. They barely fit him. He says, He says I take care of the sheep

I make sure they stay in the pen I fix the fence I fetch water It's okay Everything's gonna be all right Firth All right buddy here I'm gonna put these on you And I'll put you somewhere safe

Hey Kralath I couldn't see anything in the woods But if you have a better eye than me Maybe check out back there Well I don't know if I have a better eye but and Kralov walks off and as he does

he turns back and says back here, Red? Yeah, over there. And he's going to grasp his holy symbol and he's going to do a survival check but the kind of survival check that he's looking for signs from Kallumvore looking for

something that is divine in nature, some sort of omen. It's a 19. You walk the perimeter of the hut and do you think you've done a fairly good job, but all you find are sheep footprints and human footprints.

And Kralov comes back around and says, nothing but sheep and human. So either it's a cannibal sheep or it's a human. Did you see any magic? Yeah, good question. And Krayloff... Waste the spell slot. Waste the spell slot.

Do it. Do it. Yeah, he's just going to use a spell slot. He's not going to wait 10 minutes. because he's got this sense. He just wants to get out of here. So Kralath reaches into his reagent pouch, and he pulls out some salt,

and he grasps his holy symbol in one hand and the salt in the other. And then as he feels his hands get warm, he sprinkles the salt into the air. And there's a mystical twinkling. Cool. You detect magic coming from our manacles, prisoner, Firth, he has something underneath his shirt. You can't see it. You don't know

what it is, but there's a small, magical emanation coming from sort of the center of his chest. Hmm. And Red's just saying next to him like, why are you looking at us, bud? Kralov gets a quizzical look on his face and he steps up next to Red and says, Hey, Firth, do you happen to have anything on under your shirt? Yeah? What do you hurt, if you don't mind me asking? He kind of clutches his manacled hands to his chest, like, possessively. Nothing?

It's okay. It's okay, Firth. We have no intention of taking anything from you. We're just looking for information so that we can find out who killed Blackie and Brownie. And any information you have could be something that you're wearing is helpful in this investigation. Friend, Firth, I'm a friend, remember? Yeah, roll persuasion. That would be 27. Nice.

He regretfully kind of rummages around underneath his shirt and pulls out of velvet bag that is around his neck on a cord. It's like small green velvet. And he holds it and he says, treasures. Where did you find these treasures? Firth? Are I in trouble? No, no. No, no, of course not.

We say to the shackled man. Around town, my dad, and I make one. Hmm. When did you find these? When did you start wearing them? When I was a little boy. Oh. Yeah, he's worried that you're going to take them from him.

He wants to keep it. We're not going to take them. We promise. Probably. It really depends on what of this. Did you say probably? it depends on what it is, frankly. No.

I'll say this. If this is dangerous, then no one should have them. But tell us what they are and be honest. And if they're harmless and they're good, there's nothing we're going to do to them at all. And that's honest. He opens the bag, and it's kind of adorable, the way like a little kid shows you the stuff

that they, like, have collected in their pockets over the course of a day. He pulls them out into his hands one by one. the manacles around his wrists clinking. And it's clear that he does not intend to relinquish these treasures to you. There is a small soapstone statuette that's carved into the crude likeness of a woman. There's a little piece of blue silk that looks like maybe it came from a dress. There's a straight razor that's in a leather case and a linen. envelope. And Krayloth, the magical aura is coming from something within the envelope, which is

unopened. It's got a seal on the back of it. I have to ask the obvious question in this case. That little stupstone object. Is it an art object more than a century old? God damn you, Rob. No. It was whittled by our fine friend here and is clearly something that men used to look at and imagine naked ladies. It's kind of like childish. That letter you've got there. His face changes. He's like, this is for my dad. Oh, from whom?

I don't know. Can you turn it over? The envelope is addressed to Raynard Tyrick of Pella's Want in a fine looping script. Um, this came a few days ago. I can't read, so... I'm keeping it in case my dad comes back.

Your dad is Raynard. Yeah. And he went missing? Daddy went away. I think he's in the dirt. Oh. Can you walk us through what you did today since you woke up? Well, uh, the fence is broken.

So today I go to get stones and fix the fence. All day. I'm getting stones back and forth all day long. And that's it. Yeah. And then when you came back, they were all dead. Mm-hmm. Can I look at where the fence is broken?

Yeah, the fence is not broken particularly. He's just piled a bunch of stones beside the fence. Who told you to fix this fence? Renzo. Renzo? Renzo said the stone fence is broken. Does he often give you busy work like this? Renzo has lots of work for me.

Can we see the sheep from here? Like the pen? Yeah. No. Now, this is very important. Does Renzo ever ask you to do busy work like this on days that the sheep go missing? Um, uh, I don't know. Renzo always has work for me.

Something seems off here, guys. You might have been to distract him from something else going on. Definitely worth looking into it. Perth, I imagine we're throwing a lot of things at you today. It's been an awful day, and I'm sure you just want to get some rest. But I love words and letters, especially reading them to people who can't read. Do you want to know, if you ever wanted to know what that message to your dad said, I would love to read it to you.

Don't have to do it now whenever you're ready, but if you ever wanted to know, I'd love to read it to you. No. And then he tucks the soapstone and the scrap of cloth and the letter and everything back in the velvet purse and puts it back inside his shirt. And he says, I'm tired. Can we go home? Yeah.

Let's take you home. Let's get you comfortable. These manacles suck. I think once we're inside, nobody can bug us. You can get comfortable, do what you normally do. They're really for show anyway. Yeah. Okay.

And maybe Kieran will walk beside him, sort of give his leg a rub, and, you know, stay pretty close to him just to give warning if anybody gets on his case. I think I'll hand the manacles off to like Doren for a second And then I want to hang back with Jack and maybe even Crayloth But specifically Jack and just say Look I don't like the idea of stealing from him He seems like a nice guy

However If there's something bigger going on We don't know what could be involved I don't know how important that letter he's holding is But I'm assuming based on your line of questioning Crayloth It was the magic item that you were interested in correct Yeah there was some sort of magic item in there, maybe a ring or an amulet?

Is it worthwhile to find a way to swap it out in some way? I don't think we should do that. I mean, the chances of it being connected to some greater scheme are very slim. We're not going to let this town shank this guy for something he didn't do. No, of course. And we've got to make sure the town doesn't starve, I think. Now that we're here and their sheep are missing, I don't really care about the taxes. I feel like it's been a hard year. Giants, I hit a lot of people. that argument about we just don't have it,

I think we can make that case later, whatever. We just got to make sure they've got food now. And we can do that. Well, Renzo seems to be more of an issue here. If he was doing what I suspect he was doing and trying to keep this man distracted, then what nefarious purpose was on his mind. All I mean to say is this.

A letter that came to his father, who's now missing, could be of import. Maybe not specific to this case, but perhaps something about this Renzo fellow, perhaps something about something going on in this town. And I'm not proposing taking it, but reading it and then maybe even putting it back so that at least we're in the know. We made the offer that we'll happy to read it with him any time. And I think we just get him to trust us and try and get him interested in reading it.

I'm with you, Jack. I get you. Accountability. Don't worry. I won't say anything. Wink. I got it. Don't read.

Red, stop. This guy likes his dad. And that's rare. I'm with yet. Don't worry. In my experience. Oh, I loved my dad. Oh, good for you.

I'm really happy for you. I don't think I knew my dad. Me neither. As you walk through the town, you hear a few animals bleeding in distress, voices raised in anger, and some of the cottages, lights are coming on. So people are lighting more candles and lanterns. Hold on. Did you say bleeding in distress?

Like, are there... Bleeding. Are the sheep just around town? Bleeding. animal, like a goat is like, ah. No, so not the missing sheep. No, just for atmosphere. Oh, there they are.

Damn. Easy. They were just over there. You come to a well-built two-story home that is larger than many of the other homes in the village. The front door is hung with a tile showing a straight razor crossed with a sprig of some herb.

Who was your dad, Firth? What did he do? Um, my dad was the healer and the barber. Oh, he's got a fine place. You grew up here? Yeah, this is my house. Wow, it's very nice.

On entering the house, you are immediately met with a stink of rotting flesh. The ground floor is comprised of three rooms, a common dining room, a kitchen, and a workroom. The workroom contains a barber's chick. many sharp knives, a bucket of dead leeches, a skull screw, and a few anatomical drawings tacked to the wall showing where the humors can be extracted from a humanoid body. Stairs lead upstairs from the common room to a pair of bedrooms upstairs, and throughout the downstairs rooms, almost a dozen sheep skulls sit haphazardly on the floor under a chair seemingly at random.

So, Firf, did you bring these skulls back? No, no. All right, let's get you out of here as soon as possible. And I turn to do this and I say, this reeks of a setup. I think somebody is trying to frame this man for exactly what they want him to be framed for. Through the window, you catch sight of torches approaching the house. Hold it.

All right, stay here. And I'm going to walk out to the front door. A mob has formed. Almost a hundred people strong, led by Renzo Addy, the tax collector. The mob jeers and hollers, waving sticks and tools aloft. Renzo looks ugly in the firelight, bags under his eyes prominent, his skin sickly and gray. You and I scrape by in our cold homes while this simpleton eats mutton he hasn't earned. And what are we going to do about it, I ask you?

The proof is in there. He's too stupid to even think to hide the evidence of his own naked greed. Should he be loud? Hold up. Yes. Have you been in the house, Renzo? Yes, I was in the house. He hasn't been.

And there's something in there. You were the last one in there. Did you put it there? Ridiculous accusation. And Krayloth leans back and kind of peers out the window at the much brighter area outside with all the porches. And the mob outside is being whipped up into a frenzy at Renzo's hand. He continues, should he be allowed to grow fat while your children starve? The city will punish all of you equally for your poverty.

And here sits Firth, unbothered, by concern for any of you. I know we're outsiders here. I know maybe you trust Renzo, even though he's given me the slimyest of opinions ever since he suggested killing the sick among you earlier at dinner. But let's put that all aside

because you're standing in front of Jack Page, a wizard from the House of Wands of Waterdeep, and I can promise you on my name, you won't starve this winter, and you're a good town full of good people. You will not murder a lovely simple man because of something he didn't do. I know you're scared.

It's a scary time everywhere in the north. There are giants rampaging. You're not the only ones like this. We've met lots like you. But you're better than this. You don't need to listen to mob justice. You can believe in tear. You can see the light of lethander coming.

This isn't the way. We've been deputized by the mayor of this town, and I promise you the Nightstone 4 will get to the bottom of this and make sure nobody starves. We got it in with the bakers. We'll make sure you get back. I like that. I like that a lot. Some random dude in the middle of the mob just says kill the thief. I want you to make a persuasion check Jack. Can I have advantage because I made a

good speech? Yeah sure. You did a great speech. Thank you. Nice. Thank you. How do you like a natural one and an eight? Oh no. So that's a two and a nine. Another voice joins from the back of the crowd, make him pay. Jack, you hear a clatter as a rock is thrown at you and it gets the door behind you. And then another one goes through the window. I snap my fingers and a big green line appears in front of me just in the five feet in front of me in an illusion. Nobody will cross this line. Yeah, the crowd does not seem to give a shit about your line. Jack sees the mob turn on him. They're throwing shit left, right and center. He takes one of the Salamorn berries out of his pouch and rushes into the house and puts it in Firth's mouth and gets him to chew it and

so he's invisible. Cool. I like that. Very good. And ties the manacles to some piece of Kieran's leash just so that Kieran and Furth are together. This is a floating leash just like tied. Yeah, just a floating leash. You also don't want to lose track of this guy who's like, you know, sub-average intelligence

in the middle of a mob and he's invisible. So that's fair. I like that. Kieran, keep track of him. Rob, I'd like to give you inspiration for that inspired. Use of one of your Salaimor theories. Very nice. Good job.

Kralath says it's getting bad out there. Red, you're going to have to pull this one out of your ass. Jack's play is right. We aren't deputies, but I think it's too much of a switch to try to turn a mob into an anti-mob. We've got to get a mob into a non-violent mob that's

still seeking justice. To me, that's a much easier play. Okay, well, I trust you. You take the lead. You're going to do all the talking. And Krayloth is going to cast Enhance on red and use Eagle's Splendor

which is going to give you advantage to charisma checks. Red exits the house. Ladies and gentlemen, listen, you have all been taken advantage of.

The tax collector is wanting to stir you into a frenzy to point your finger at somebody who has done none of you any harm. And he looks them

each in the eyes he said it. Firf is a questionable man, but never one of questionable character. He has never heard a single one of you. He is kind and gentle, kind spirited, and thoughtful. He looked after the sheep as they were his friends, Brownie and Blackie, and you all know this in your heart. The tax collector and other nefarious interests

have stirred you into this mob. For what we do not know? Use your mind to think this through and trust the words that I am telling you. And I'm going to try to persuade them to calm the fuck down. All right. Make a persuasion check. With advantage. Uh, 22. Hey.

He's just so likable. Someone in the middle of the crowd says, First, Tyric is a dangerous man. And then someone says, no, he's not. No, he is not. He's never struck up arms against any of you, and to say otherwise is a blatant lie. And where is Renzo amongst you, may I ask?

The man who whipped you into a fervor. And I scanned the crowd. He's gone. Gone, it seems. Interesting that a man of his interests, money, and wealth seems to take us, poor independent people, and whip us into this frenzy to do his bidding? No, we are smarter than that. We will not take it.

Hmm, I like that. There's some more muttering around in the crowd, and you watch Red as a couple of villagers kind of start shuffling away. At the edges of the mob. And a few people drop the pitchforks that they had been brandished. And I will tell you this. Those of you who know Renzo was behind this, those of you who had Renzo come to them to ask them to join this,

I ask upon you, bring him here. Let his accusations come directly to me, for I would like to speak with him. Cool. So the mob starts to kind of dissipate at it. It's ragged edges. Some people are standing around, still holding torches, unsure of what to do now. But most of them are sort of just talking amongst themselves.

And I'll push it because I feel like redirecting a mob is the right way to deal with the mob. So to say, go find Renzo actually is like a tactically smart way to try to get a month. Because to disperse the mob is very tough. To be like, go do this to like change their action. to be like, bring Renzo back, not in an angry way, but to make them be like, wait, Renzo was the one who brought me here. I'll say this. You hear some of the villagers saying Renzo's name as they leave.

That's all I, because I do feel like that's a smarter way to do it just to be like, go focus on this. Inside, Firth is standing there, invisible, shackled, hanging out with Kieran. Red turns around and enters again and turns to Jack. And he says, that was a good play, Jack. I think these people were just whipped up into a frenzy. I mean, you got away with words, that's for sure.

Good job, Rudd. Yeah, for sure you do. It's because I'm likable and cute. I look like a kitty. Everybody loves a cute animal and... And Rob, fuck. And Jack kneels down to pet Kieran and say, isn't that right boy?

You hear a voice from kind of the middle of the room. Friend. Friend's. And I put my hands on everybody. And you feel an invisible hand. kind of grope for your hand, Red. And I hold his hand. And he put something into your hand.

And he says, thank you. Of course. Oh, is it the fucking letter? It's the whole purse. Now let's find out why Renzo hates you so much. A terrible scream shatters the night. Kralath runs to the window. You see Elet running through the middle of town.

She's holding a tattered, bloody body. in her arms and through the whistling wind you hear her say it's here it's here it's here something is very wrong in this town thank you once again to our wonderful patreon supporters Christopher Ryan Evans Merlin Mitchell Cadwell Ashley and J.B Colin Burkart Daniel Doug Jessica Orrett Jonah Goldman Katie Orrett and Mary Kineski. See you soon.