Dice Shame - 130 | 'Lay Bare'

Episode Date: April 7, 2022

After a near-death experience the group reacts quickly to the new threat... 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?!? Content Warning: swearing, violence, horror, mental illness and suicide. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

No, no public places, let's just go home. Frankly, that surprises me. Oh, shit, it fell in the hole, okay. Thanks for having us. Doran yells from the other room. I didn't get the vibe that they were ready to move on. Trinieros and I had a disagreement. Jack's looking Kralath up and down.

Oh, I don't know. The dawn glow lasts until morning. You got some gall, Doran. I guess it's something to think about. By the hammer of Moradin. You've never seen him do it before, but he does it like instinctively. What's Jack's acronym for the... The B-B-B-B-E-G-G-G-R-S-T.

Oh, yes, that easy-to-remember acronym. Oh, yeah. But good, good, this is a good-teeat. Right there. Welcome back to Die Shame. This is episode 130, Lay Bear. MVP this week is Catherine, or at Egalateria, on Twitter, who've been. 120 episodes in a month.

Holy crap. Thank you for joining us, Catherine. We hereby declare that you are an honorary to Baxi. This week's shout out goes to Tales Yet Told, an incredible actual play podcast dedicated to telling weird and fun stories full of imagination, thoughtful characterization, and inclusivity. We had the chance to talk to GM Kendrick Smith last weekend as part of Invictus Kahn's AP panel,

so if you're interested in some behind-the-screen goodness, go check that out too. You can find tales yet told anywhere you listen to podcasts. All right, shall we do this? Yeah, let's play some D&D. Yeah. So the Nightstone 4 is huddled in this alley around this body. Some of you injured, some of you concerned.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, confused. Confused, concerned. Who would want to kill us? Behind you, the marketplace is a buzz of activity. and silver-armored guards move through the market stalls asking questions of shoppers and trying to assess the damage

and where the aggressors went. Red snaps his attention to Kralath. He's like, we need to get out of here before the guards come. Come on, let's go. What? Let's just leave. All right. Come on, Doran, Jack.

Oh, why, why? Listen, the last thing you want to be is locked in a cell with someone who claims to be a guard. Look, let's just go. And Red talks about this with sort of an informed certainty. Ah, you make a good point. Let's just get out of here.

Come on, let's go back. Dorn kind of clings to Red's arm and shuffles off with him. Kralov leaves briskly down the alleyways and starts making towards, maybe one of the taverns. No, no public places. Let's just go home.

Let's go back to Jack's Moms. Yeah. Sure. And we make our way there. Yeah. I hope Toran made it back, okay. I'm sure he's fine. You actually see Torrin's face looking out the window with a worried expression on his face,

and relief just washes over him as he spots you making your way down the street towards Camaras. Happy to run to him when we get here just to make sure, are you in one piece? I'm fine. Oh, thank God. You're hurt. Doren. Yeah. It's sort of an odd situation there.

I wasn't expecting that in a local market right out in the open like that. My body's still a little buzzing. And you look at his hand and you can see it's like my veins are all really inflamed. You can see the veins in my body. Although I'm resistant to poison, it's still poisonous. You know, I took some poison damage there. So it's like I'm jittering from it. What happened?

Oh, I don't know. Sit down and take some rest. All right? We're all going to take a break here, one hour at least. And Doran, as he walks towards the sitting area again, he grabs a bottle of wine off the sideboard and cracks it open and drinks from the bottle. I feel like Kamara smart enough to like buy some cheap shit overnight and have it like strategically in place. He's going to have to go to the liquor store later.

It made it an illusion to look like it's the fancy stuff. Yeah. Like Doran's checking. And he takes heavy swigs of it. and looks at the bottle with almost disgusted face and then shrugs and continues to drink it. Knowing that it ain't the good stuff, but... Jack, what happened?

I don't know. Assassins of some kind. It looked like they were after Doran and Red. What? Maybe they just didn't get a chance to come after the rest of us. We haven't really talked about it yet. I think it was just bad luck. Doran and I pissed off a few people last night.

Maybe that was it. Look, we need to get out of town after maybe resting for an hour, as Kralath said. Is there, is there an insight role there? Go for it. One could make just to see if, if Red really thinks it's bad luck? Versus my deception. Yeah.

Known for my, 19. Hey, that's not bad. Whoa. Ooh, versus 13. Yeah, so you can tell that Red doesn't think this was about last night. Mm-hmm. Definitely we got to get moving. Whatever those things were, and Kralov interrupts Jack and steps towards Torin,

they could change their appearance. And a look of suspicion crosses Kraloth's face. as he eyes Torin. Jack, you know Torin better than anybody? Why don't you ask him something only Toran would know? I mean... I don't think that's going to be an issue. They can't change shape unless they've seen them before.

And you made him invisible immediately, right? Yes. You know, Red? It would make me feel much more comfortable if Jack just did as a Kralath asked. Presumably they've been stalking us for a while, Red. I don't think so. But sure, yeah.

Let's see. Torin, why don't you tell them who you're the new business partner? for the copper cup is. We haven't talked about that. Yeah, well, so I spoke with Masker about the copper cup and some of the issues that we had with, well, Briggins coming in and Jack's father is going to be helping me with the business. It's just as a part owner. I'm still retaining ownership of anyway. Jack kind of nods and puts an arm around Toran and says Nobody here should know that.

We'd only talked about it just yesterday. It's proof enough for me. Plus, he would have to have taken Torn's clothes. Kralop nods satisfied and moves over to the balcony and steps outside and begins looking down the street. I think Red is moving around the place, collecting the things that we've kind of kept there over the last night, picking up the odd boots that Doren kicked off when we first arrived, putting his baby Bjorn with shale right around his waist and stuff. really itching to go. Do we even have a plan of where we're going? Great question. Yeah, I suppose we want to head south, right? To the last burial mound. And Red pulls out a projection of a map

with minor illusion, which again is excellent. He's not thinking about putting it on. So it's just a normal map with the minor illusion. He's like, I believe the last one was around this direction, wasn't it? And he sort of circles the woods to the south. What is this tribe called or this location. What's Jack's acronym for the... The BBB-E-G-G-G-R-S-T-T. Oh, yes, that's easy to remember acronym. Oh, yeah. It's just how my brain works, you know.

And Red says, look, we head south. Now that we have the portable hole, we can collect the last implement, put it in there, and then maybe head back to Everland and travel, travel to Mirabah, and then back up to the spine of the world. How many days until we're supposed to meet with our friend? He said he was happy to just chill out there. He thought it would be a great place to ambush giants as potentially they would come into the temple to pay respects, try to visit the Oracle, and that he was happy to just, you know, lay and wait for them, kill them as they come to the doorstep, and just wait for you guys to come back. So he's happy there.

We're not under any clock right now necessarily, but I do think we should leave Silvery Moon as soon as possible. Understood. Sure. I'm done here. Yeah, well, this whole thing has kind of got me thinking that maybe I should do something about this flimsy little chain mail. You have magic armor. It's mythril. I know, I know.

Yeah, but that's really funny. It's so like Dora to say, flimsy little. But as I'm doing that, I'm kind of pulling that little pieces. After that encounter, I feel like I would be wiser to have a little bit of, you know, something thick. Put it this way. Next town. I want to keep it on my mind. And Red, maybe pass me some of my gold coin.

I owe Kralas five gold coin there. Six gold coin, Doran. It was six. Oh, sure. Yeah. Red hands in whatever, a gold pouch with whatever amount he wants. Mm-hmm. I'm sorry we've got to leave so soon, Toran.

I was hoping we got to spend a little bit longer. Didn't expect to get ambushed on the first day of the year. Yeah, I mean, well, when you think about it, really, this whole me. meeting was not planned. So it feels like even though it was cut a little short maybe, it still feels like kind of a present. And I don't care what the vision said. I'll be there on greengrass. We can have a little party together. Well, yeah. You said it yourself. You don't know how to divine shit. I'm real bad at it. So we don't have to trust nothing. It won't be long. We need to get you a pamphlet, divination for beginners. And he like goes through.

your pocket and finds the flute music and sort of taps you on the chest with it. We'll see how this does. I'll write you a song maybe. Oh, you don't have to do that. No, probably for the best. And he embraces you and you guys share a few minutes saying your goodbyes. Krayloff steps up to Torin and as everyone's by the door getting ready to leave, he gives him a serious look and says, be careful out there. There are people that will look like anybody, and maybe even Jack. And you've experienced someone taking the place of Kieran before. I wouldn't want your trust to be damaged like that again. So be careful.

Thank you for the reminder. That's fair. I'll keep my wits about me. Let's just do this to be careful. And Red looks towards just the five of us in the room. And he says, the dawn glow lasts until morning. That's a phrase that only the five of us will know. So, you can ask any one of us to repeat that phrase.

Okay. The phrase, the oath or the sign, the pact, just a code. It's just a way to make sure that we know it's us. Harlan, do you have inspiration? I do. Would you like to give inspiration to another player? Yeah. It's fucking smart.

Thank you. I'll give inspiration. I think we all have inspiration. Yeah. I didn't get to you. Torin has inspiration now. I'll take it emotionally. And again, it's interesting that Red comes with that quickly.

There's very little debate in his mind that that phrase is a way to decipher any information. Obviously, tell it to no one. And he looks dead at Torin very seriously and says, no one. Anyway, do you think your mom can get Torin home? Oh, I'm certain. Maybe I'll just go say goodbye quick, and then we can head out. Jack, you know, walks up to his mom's office and gives her, like, the 30-second recap of, like, we got to go. The market sucked this morning.

Didn't have the fruit I want. Understatement of the century. Yeah. Doran died, Red died. They're okay now, but. They got better. Go better. Just a flesh wound.

I'll try and come visit more often. This was nice. Thank you for coming, Eve. She holds you tightly and her hand makes circles on your back. Just for a minute, she says, you're never too old to be helped by your mother. Thanks for having us. Doren yells from the other room.

There's just a crash as another table breaks. It's not clear. All the weight of the stuff on it, just like, I'll just set the shield and mask out here while I set up the portable hole and oh shit, it fell in the hole, okay. I already put the stuff in the hole. And Red has kept that in mind too

to head to the waterfront to grab the bold. Mm-hmm. You retrieve your artifacts without any issue and leave the city of Silvery Moon behind you, traveling this time by foot on land, the Southern Road. You're not the only people. to be leaving

Silvery Moon on this road. Obviously, there are many travelers, merchant caravans. Yeah, Red's trying to make sure that no one's following them. And, like, eventually he'll be carving off the main path to try to head south. We'll be kind of taking some of the back roads.

I'm a ranger, so I feel like when we're in the woods, I can be trying to decipher trails, maybe hunting trails and things like that. And then when we get to a point where it makes sense that no one would be following us, he'll spend a good long time watching to see if.

anyone has followed. Interesting. I was on a hike last weekend with my family and I was pulling up the rear and I was thinking about my position as Doran in our podcast and how I do always bring up the rear, you know, just kind of how I, an anchor. Yeah. And where I'm going with this is yeah. So I'm walking in the back now and I do constantly kind of keep my eye behind me, you know, and aware of stuff. Awesome. Cool. Bringing up the rear. You don't. observe anyone following you. Red and Doran, both of you combined.

Are we watching for someone specific? Just want to make sure none of the assassins are on our tail. Yeah, I mean, it would be weird if they were if it was a random act like you were saying, or from stuff you kicked up last night. Yeah.

Anybody want an apple? Oh, I love one. Yeah, thank you. Yep. Thank you. And eventually Reds sort of nods and starts taking the lead again as we head south. We're eating apples and walking on snow. Double crunch.

You know what everyone loves most about our podcast is the sound of people eating. For fuck's sake. Jack ends up kicking his feet a little bit down the road. And so I guess Everland's next. next ahead of us, right? We could probably break east from there back to Jalenthaar and then head south to the corner of the woods if we wanted. Yeah,

I never got to buy any health potions, so I wouldn't mind stepping in, Evelyn and getting some. Plus, checking on, I suppose, the bakery we set up. Yeah, it'd be good to know that Kliopi made it or not. Maybe we'll run into her on the road. Are there stronger potions you can buy? Yeah, well,

when I was at the apothecary, he was telling us, there's some greater healing potions and some superior healing potions. At the very least, I think we're done with the first tier, and I want to at least carry only greater from here on out. I mean, there is something to the fact that we've got that hole there. It's not impossible for us to set up a little apparatus in there. Perhaps we could figure out how to distill those healing potions into something stronger ourselves. You know, with some time, if we'd pass that along, it might be... I wouldn't mind buying some sooner. Oh, no, I understand. I'm

just dreaming for the future. I like the breadth of your thought. You have those abilities, Jack? You ever do potion crafting, alchemy? It's just following a recipe. Oh, maybe I'll take a crack at it. Yeah, I mean, it's a little more complicated than that. But yeah, I'm sure we could figure it out if we found all the right pieces. All right.

We can make them taste good, too. Because the current potions, they don't taste very good. It tastes awful. In fact, they're disgusting. That is your specialty. And as night draws on, you begin to try to find a place to camp safely. I imagine that there's a river that runs south along this road, the road being on one side. I think we've crossed when the stream was shallow, and we're sort of walking along the far bank within the edge of the woods.

And every once in a while, Red sort of cuts back towards the tree line, which can view the road to make sure there's no one's sort of keeping pace with us, kind of coming out of the trees and looking at the road that's on the other side of the river and then heading back in so that the stream actually is between them and the road. Right. He's very on edge about everything. Yeah. And Krayloff, as the sun goes down, Krayloth's demeanor kind of changes as well, where during the day he was relatively jovial at night. He seems to, it seems that the day is kind of catching up with him, and he's more subdued and quieter.

Doran's pretty quiet along this trek, too. He's got a lot on his mind with going back into Everland and being reminded because of this close proximity to Jalanthar being reminded of the dwarves there in Captain Chaos Hammer You know We never really did follow up with Captain Chaos Hammer

And the dwarves in Jalanthar About that citadel We were supposed to I don't know I feel Other things came up It happens We're not paid messengers for the dwarves or Chaos Hammer We're not

We have other duties This is just other things that It's not our responsibility Doheron. You can't beat yourself up over that. You didn't know. We dropped in. We dropped out. Not a big deal. As Doran's making the fire, maybe Jack's setting up Liamon's tiny hut, sort of giving us this cozy, safe space to spend the night just on the edge of the woods. You know, I think he's relatively unburdened compared to the rest of the year for a change. For once. He's got the hunt lord mark off him, so. Right. I think it's cool. I see Jack putting up a hut. And then like,

thinking it's like this beautiful you know kind of quaint hut and then he snaps his fingers and then it changed to like an elven themed style and he like tilts his head and he snaps his finger and it changes again i mean it's all about trying to figure out what color scheme do you put on it now he's getting a little bit of artistic with it it's uh you know hazely pattern yeah which you know there's there's a little bit of camouflage in that but also there's some artistry some design he's he's thinking about going to the copper cup sometime it's just having kind of a nice humming along to himself for a moment, as everybody else is grimly looking at a fire. Well, Kraloth is lying on his bedroll.

He's got his arms back, and he's not really helping with the campfire. He's not cooking anything. He's just kind of chewing on some jerky, and Jackson is next to him eating a little bit of jerky as well. And he's got thaumaturgy going, and thaumaturgy is playing some music from back in the Copper Cup that we heard, you know, ages ago. It's just kind of like a radio. Nice.

I like that. That is nice. So Doran gets the fire going small at first, and then he drags out some massive logs from the woods. And you guys are still on that other side of the river right now, right? Correct, yeah. And Red, while everyone's doing this, he's sort of just perched, you know, sort of on the outside,

so the light of the fire doesn't obfuscate his view, and he's just kind of watching the woods for a while. Feels like everyone's kind of doing their own separate stuff. Yeah. It's a bit awkward. Wish I could play the flute like that, Jack says, to Kralong. as the music plays across. That Waterdeep's really got a style, you know?

Maybe you should take lessons for more, and he could probably teach you a thing or two. Oh, man, I'd love to go to the Hamprat House now that we're not worried about being followed. God, we could use a vacation. I hear that. Red walking back to the fire, like, kind of chimes, and he's like, yeah, I'd like that too. Maybe when we're back from delivering these things to the Oracle,

taking much-needed break. I don't want a hashtag to think we forgot about him. That's when Doreen kind of sits down next to the fire. It's now constructed and burning nicely. And he's pulled out some stumps for you guys to sit on. Like, you know, this is like, Doren's sort of not just built a fire, but built a setting for us to relax for an evening just the four of us for once. And Krayloff looks over, sees the stumps,

and kind of reluctantly rolls over. snaps his fingers, the music stops and goes over and sits next to the fire, warming his hands. It's a nice looking fire, Dorn. Not too big this time. You know, we never did get around to going to visit the Citadel in the...

Yeah, you were mentioning on the walk down. I think it'd be worthwhile of us to go and check on the sound of the Jalanthar. I mean, who knows? Maybe the dwarves have done their own thing. Maybe they've moved on. and maybe everything's fine without us touching it, but I didn't get the vibe that they were ready to move on, unfortunately.

Well, no, it did I, but that was a couple weeks ago, and we told them that we'd be back in about a month. You know, I wouldn't be surprised if, well... What? What do you mean? Clearly, those assassins were after me in silvery mood. I mean, who's to say I would... Why were they after you? Well, you know, I'm just saying I was the only one that really...

that was attacked right on the onset. They sought me out, and there's something there. I'm not really sure why, but... Why would someone want to kill you, Doren? Is there some reason that people would have it out for you? Well, I mean, I hate to say it, but, you know, dwarves aren't exactly always aligned in the most friendly way, and those Dwarves and Jallinth are Captain Chaos Hammer and his...

Just tell them, Doren. Have some... They should know. When we were in Jalen Thar, well, the dwarves, they tried to blackmail me saying that they were going to bring up, you know, my past, my, my faults with the various situations I've been in. Well, you know that. I've told you about that and people have died. Well, anyways, they wanted me to sign a document on behalf of the Nightstone Four, admitting that we were, we were there supporting them and what they were doing. And I, and I tore it up and I threw in their faces. Of course, it's insulting, but again, I don't think. You threw it in chaos

Haber's face? Well, yeah, I mean... You know, this dwarf doesn't exactly take it lying down, Craylon. I'll tell you that. We were surrounded by enemy dwarves. There were about 25 or 30 of them, all easily, equally as strong as we are,

and Chaos Hammer, who is a legend, and you threw it in the motherfucker's face. That's what you're telling us. Well, yeah, I mean, you put it like that, It doesn't sound so smart. You got some gall, Doran. Some gall.

Well, we walked out, all right. Oh, Doran, Doran, Doran, Doran. You just made my night. Oh, I'm glad. I'm glad. Finally, someone has a laugh around here, I mean. And so you're thinking that we should go back to Jalenthar. We should all just go back to Jalenthar and say, hey, it's no big deal. It's all right.

Yeah, sure, I insulted you terribly. And maybe you sent assassins out for us, but it's all right. Right. We're all friends, right? Let's not worry about this. Oh, and you've had lots of time to prepare your defenses and forces. Oh, that's looking real good. You mind if we stay the night. Doren crosses his arms looking a little bit shocked almost and that he's been put on the spot like this. Yeah, well, at least I'm not dead, right?

What's that feel like? Obviously, you have no soul anymore. A devious grin crosses Kralas face and kind of a darkness over. He overtakes him, and he looks Doran in the eyes, and he says, Doren, it's all just a big joke. I got something for you all. And Kralath stands up, and he goes back over to his bedroll, opens his bag, and brings it next to the fire and places it by his feet.

And he says, Doren, you deserve a gift for all of your ridiculous pride and bravery, I suppose. is what I would call it. And he reaches into his bag and he pulls out a stone. And Doren, you recognize it as the stone that

that he picked up from the quarry. And it's a beautiful just kind of jagged geode type of thing. And it's got this neon these neon veins, the kind of glow

when the light reflects it a certain way. And he passes it over to you, and it's surprisingly light and soft. Do you know what that is, Doren kind of looks at it, as if he doesn't really care. He's a little bit taken aback by the whole situation. And I don't know what it is. What am I looking at here? I know where you got it, I can tell you that much. All right, well, I'll tell you.

This is a piece of what they call Eldridge Soapstone. I'd never heard of it before this morning. But it is a really nice stone that is very soft and easy to carve. And he reaches into his bag and he pulls out that little stone carving knife and tosses up the dorm. Since you're away from your forge, I figured you might need to do something with your hands and create something. So I wanted to get you this. And I hope you like it. You bought this for me?

Yes, I bought it for you. Jack Kralath reaches into the bag again and he pulls out a little bundle I was going to get it wrapped for you but here and he hands it over and it's a notebook

and it's on a really nice animal vellum and it's completely empty inside and he says it's pretty rare I think it's called a Drake skin vellum notebook

I know you've got tons of them so it's just another one to add your collection, but maybe this one's just a little nicer to write on or something. Can never have too many. Thank you. And then Kralov reaches in one last time and he looks at Red and his tone

kind of gets serious for a second. He says, Red, I got you something too. Yeah? And he pulls out this package and he hands it to you, this wrapped package. Red takes it and before you talk to him, Red was still sort of scanning the edge of the woods and he sort of snaps back.

You know, despite the sincerity and the seriousness of the conversation, especially between you and Dore and Red still sort of trying to keep an eye on the trees. And he's like, oh, oh, thanks. Thanks, but, uh, what is it? And he unwraps it. And inside there is this really ornate, beautiful glass knife that's clearly done in Elvin style. And you can see through it. The, the, the blade is kind of a translucent milky white. Cool. And Krayaluth says, it's a sylvan ghost knife is what they call it and no magical properties or anything like that but if you catch a rabbit or any animal for that matter and decide to skin it it should take the

skin off like butter wow cradle that's uh and red holds the dagger and like spins it in his palm and catches it again you know how like really cool people do those knife tricks you've never seen him do it before but he does it like instinctively It's perfectly balanced. Wow. Krayloff, this really meant a lot. You didn't have to spend all your gold on buying us presents. I mean, that's...

I didn't realize that's what you wanted. I'm sorry, I give you a hard time for it. Hey, don't worry about it. And Kralov stands up, and he says it in a way that's kind of like... He just really brushes that off as like a... It's not a concern at all. And he stands up and he says, listen, guys, you all know this. But when that demon came through whatever tear there was in the veil, the shadow fell,

that demon came through, it killed me. It legitimately killed me. I didn't understand why I came back to life. And things have been different for me. I don't know exactly how to put this, but Kellenvour has abandoned me. Jeez. It's almost a look of recognition in Jack's eyes like he'd been suspecting or something. But it's not all bad.

It's not all bad I may be done with Kalimvore But some really interesting things have happened since then And Red You do me a favor Yeah Stand up Kralov takes Red and kind of positions him

Kind of next to the fire Yeah sure And he stands in front of Red And says Whatever changed me has granted me with some I guess interesting abilities He holds out Red's hand with the knife very gently

he brings the blade into his stomach I think Red fights him at first he's like no Kralov what do you do? Stop! Stop! Let me show you and he pulls the blade and it sinks into his gut but Kralov doesn't flinch

and then he brings it out and you hold this knife in your hand that has no blood on it whatsoever. Oh what the hell happened? By the hammer of Moradus. Is this the ghost knife?

Is this what it does? No, it's not the knife, Red. It's me. Red immediately starts stabbing Doren to test. Hey, get away here. Like that. Like those trick knives where the blade goes back into the handle when you stab. Red, Doran, Jack, I'm undead.

Yeah. Kralath, I, I, listen, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to say it. Look, I... It's all right, Doran. I wasn't expecting an apology right off the bat, but I wanted to tell you guys as soon as I knew

and decide whether or not you want to continue with me. Well, what does this mean? Of course we're going to continue with you. You're still Kralath. I just, I don't understand. I mean, uh,

frankly, that surprises me. Um, but yeah. And when Red says so surely, that he's going to continue on. Kralov looks confused, but he says, well, I can answer any questions you might have

about how it happened. For starters, this shield, and Kralov walks over to his bedroll and picks up his Phoenix shield. There is an ability on it that that would bring me back from the dead. You saw that.

This magical item was able to do that. Well, what we didn't know is, that it was cursed. The way it brought me back was, it brought me back like this. My God. There's so many facets to this world.

I just, I'm flabbergasted, quite frankly. How do you know that Kellamvort just turned its back on you? How does your... For days now, I've tried to reach out to him. After my demise, I prayed any chance I got.

And I know what it is like to be connected. with my god that's where i draw my powers from and he was no longer present and i spoke with my captain about it um at that red looks towards kreeloth's hand does he see the ring oh the ring is gone yeah and i think red almost subconsciously paused the ring that he found on the street that's in his pocket now he just rubs his hand on the outside of his pants thoughtfully. Treneiros and I had a disagreement.

While I still intend to complete my mission and free the souls of my squad, I'm no longer serving under the Captain Treneros or under Cullumvore. For, to them, I am an abomination. And the wild thing is that a week ago, I would have been an abomination to myself as well. Well, look, nothing's going to change the way I feel about you, or Doran. Jack's looking Kralath up and down, and he's not actively taking notes in his brand new Drake'skin notebook, but you can see him organizing information into lists and sorting it in his mind. Like, he's certainly weighing things up and down.

Jack throws it on the fire and walks away. Kralath, who do you serve? That's a good question, Jack. And a smirk forms on Kralov's mouth. Frankly, I am surprised that y'all are taking it this way. I was certain that we were going to have to part ways. I was more than ready to move out on my own, even though it's much less convenient. But, and Kralath sits back down, learning that one of your compatriots is a monster is, well.

Well, look, Krayloth, I wouldn't call you a monster. You're still yourself. You're still our friend. You're still my friend. If you feel like at the end of the day, this would change the way you act towards us or about us, then maybe that's a different conversation. but from what I can tell, this doesn't change anything. I just have one question. Are we to trust you?

What do you mean trust, of course we can trust Kralov? Why even ask that? That's Doren, he's still Kraloth. You don't need to ask for his trust. He's done nothing, nothing to us to imply that he's not got our back still, right? And Kralath turns to red. and unseen to the rest of the group he grips his mace and a smirk forms on his face

and he looks red in the eye and he smiles and nods and then he turns to jack and says her name is raelle she is the goddess of broken things one of which i am she takes souls who are lost forgotten battered bruised and brings them back, helps them find purpose when the only purpose they had known has been lost. How does she feel about fixing things? I don't know. You'd have to ask her yourself. How do you feel about fixing things? Why do you ask? It's a strange question.

We're trying to fix a whole bunch of broken things. Is that something that the God of broken things is going to stand against? Is your purpose it crossed with ours now? no i don't think so i think that taking broken things and finding uses for them finding purpose for them as broken things makes them unbroken does it not doran looks down at the piece of soap gem stone thing that he's holding i guess it's something to think about jack's in his list in his head certainly not having enough information, I think he's trying not to make a hasty decision about anything or decide how he feels too quickly. Kralov jumps to the occasion a little bit, and seeing that Jack is a little bit hesitant,

he says, look, Rayel took me when I was at my worst. I had just found out that to my god, Kalimvor, the one who I had served for my entire life, I was an abomination and that I should end my existence. Rayelle came and told me that I still had a place in Veyroux. She told me that I am still worthy, and she gave things back to me. My appetite, some of the things that I love about this world that we live in. Now, maybe that's not fixing things, but it definitely makes life feel much more colorful.

And I think that's something worth celebrating. I'm glad you're suffering less. Well, if that's all, I'd like to turn in and get some rest. Yeah, I think I'll take one more walk around the perimeter to make sure that no one's following us, but I think that's probably a smart thing to do. Hey, thank you guys for not abandoning me, like my god did. thank you for your honesty. And again,

Doren's looking down at the piece of gemstone that's been given to him and he's recalling how Kraylath had stolen a bunch of stuff from us weeks ago and given it to an imp. Yeah, good connection. But he doesn't bring it up though.

He's like, that's better left unsaid. And Red stands up and dusts off his pants. All right, I'll catch up with you guys in a little bit. And he starts walking off to the darkness. Maybe I'll join you for a perimeter walk, Red. Sure. Jack's sitting up around the fire, thinking for a little bit longer,

but his bed rolls not far. He's kind of got Kieran's head in his lap, just kind of pondering his new undead friend. as Jack is sitting with Kieran and watching the fire you see behind him Kralath on the bed roll and one of Kralath's eyes opens just a crack and looks at Jack as he's sitting there just watches him for a moment Red and Doren are walking the perimeter

and you can see Red's distracted but not for the reason he was before and he's sort of looking around the woods as Doran sort of trods on along beside him. What do you make of all that with Kralov? Well, I mean, it's pretty heavy news. I've never ever really known someone that's been undead before. Hell, I barely know anybody that's been magical.

And now I've been thrown into all this. So, like you say, it's still Kralh, we can still trust him. I mean, he almost seems, he almost seems, I don't know, more trustworthy now. That's what makes me nervous. I don't know, he always seems so straightforward, but there's something behind those eyes, a deviousness that I just, I don't know how to place.

I can't tell if it's him experimenting with how he truly feels or what, but you nailed it, and Jack did. We don't know enough about this. And to my mind, and he reaches into his pocket and pulls up the ring, there's only one person that I think might know more about this. Hey, is that... That's the ring that you found. Did you notice Crayloth wasn't wearing his?

It's not. Don't tell me that's Crayalth's ring. I'd like to check with one other source. And he slips on the ring. Thank you once again to our wonderful Patreon supporters. Christopher Ryan Evans, Alexander Reed, Merlin, Mitchell Cadwell, Michael and Brianna Weber, Brian Blas,

Heather Nichols, Colin Burckhardt, Daniel, Terrismith, Blass, Doug, Gray, Jackie and Rain, Jessica Orrett, Jonah Goldman, Melanie Schian, Lars, and Mari Kineski. See you soon. Jack, that's at a big fart. He's like, oh, thank God I've been holding that until the guy's left. I did not want to do that. Finally a private moment. Smells do not permeate Liam in's tiny hut. No.

Thank you.