Dice Shame - 140 | 'Eat Your Heart Out'

Episode Date: June 16, 2022

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.

I could have spent an age at each one. Smells interesting in here. It was like a month ago, not even. In fact, I think Evelyn could step up and do more. We're the Nightstone Four. Everybody's here. Frankly, it made you a point very justified in asking. And you know, Mirabar is such an industrial city.

No door, and that door is for you. I'm extremely hungry. Whoa. Oh. The Doormakers Guild is very strong in Mirabar. This door was here first. What's your favorite dish? Well, a comet coming to Earth.

Yeah, and I accidentally killed my ex-wife. What? It's zone of compulsive truth now. Doran. What the hell? Welcome back to Dice Shane. This is episode 140. Eat your heart out.

MVP this week is MJ Gamer who wrote, This is my best friend Red and my best friend Jack and my best friend Doran and my best friend Krayloff. along with some very complimentary things about our little show as a review on Pod Chaser. Thank you so much for the review, MJ. We really appreciate it. If you're loving the show, go ahead and leave a review or rating on your podcasting client of choice. Do you love awesome smells? How about helping out small businesses?

Oasis Sense is a small company out of New Zealand that specializes in cold processed soaps and candles, all based around their favorite books, TV shows, and other amazingly nerdy creations. We've recently received some lovely custom canons. named Red-Handed Robin and Honeybee of the Meadow. If you're looking for a fun, good-smelling gift, check them out at oasiscense.co.n.z. Or at oasis- underscore sense on social media. Support small businesses and give the gift of a good smell.

All right, should we get down to business? Yeah, let's do it. Yeah. So my dad, recently. recently said that he wants to try Dungeons and Dragons. Oh, yeah. We were out to dinner, and he's kind of like... He doesn't really.

We were just talking about a cottage weekend to get away and being like, oh, yeah, you know, we're going to do some nerdy stuff, maybe play some D&D. And he's like, you know, if you ever do a low level, you know, one shot, blah, blah, blah. You know, I'd be interested. And I think he meant low level isn't like low interest level. Yeah. But Joe, adorably, is like, oh, yeah, like, it's always low, low, blah, blah. level, like one, one, level one or two. And I'm like, I don't, he doesn't know that, he doesn't even

know that much about anything. Like, oh, that's great. So I sent him a video the other day of like Steve Colbert. Right. Playing D&D. Because you got to get people, you know, meet him where they're at, right? Meet people where they are. Oh, he looks like me and he's doing it. Therefore. Yeah, exactly. For real. That's my dad's, that's my dad's like limit. But do any of your parents, Rob, I could see, I don't think your parents would play, but. So, yeah. In grade 10, our English teacher, halfway through the year, went on sabbatical. We had, like, a whole bunch of different people come through the thing. So my English, I'd somehow tricked my English project was I'd reading the Robert Jordan books.

The Wheel of Time role-playing game just came out. And I decided, you know what, somehow for my grade 10 project, I'm going to just run the wheel of time role-playing game and then write down what happens and hand that in as my project. And I got a pretty great on it. Before that, I needed people who had read these books, and my mom was one of them. So I think I'd recruited her to, like, play in this game as one of the, one of the people. But did she actually, so she actually played? Yeah, oh, yeah.

She was, she was a good sport. Did she like it? I don't, that's the part I don't remember. Man, that was a long time ago. I don't, I don't remember, I can remember where I was sitting, but not like anything that happened. But, like, I think it went well. I remember getting a, that was a very Alex story. This should happen.

I don't remember what happened. But, like, you know, it happened. The bigger trick was somehow I got to play a role-playing game and handed in as a grade 10 English project and got a good markup. That's pretty cute. It was good. What about Dorsey and Issa, Justin? You know what? I've never attempted to, I've never asked them to play.

My mom would. My mom, she would be like, okay, yeah, let's try this out. And she would be into it and stuff. She'd play something small. Yeah. Like a goblin or an elf or, I just immediately I know she'd play something small. My dad, though, my dad would be like, he would crack jokes about it. whatever, but at a certain point, my dad would be more in it, more in it than anybody else,

and he would be so freaking good at it. Yeah? Because he's, he's like a, um, he studies and sculpts mythology, mythological creatures from, you know, North, Norse mythology. Oh, cool. Mythology. He'd love all of the, the, the monsters that we're fighting. He's like, he, I could totally see him playing like a, like a, a Jack-esque, um,

Archaeologist or like a painter or something. Like a druid. And it'd be like, ah, yes, I know of the Wivern and blah, blah, blah. Your dad would get so into the lore. The lore. He would read about the lore and he would be like, oh, no, no. And correct the dungeon master. Yeah.

I'd be like, actually this. No, you have to roll intelligence. Patreon exclusive parents episodes. Ooh. I like that. We tried to play D&D very casually when Harlan and I were visiting my parents with Henry just to kind of show them that Henry likes playing the dungeon master. And my dad did not take it seriously whatsoever.

I think he named his character like grampy poopy pants or something. Yeah, yeah, yeah. See, the problem is, well, your parents, your parents wouldn't, yeah, because I think there has to be a kernel of like, okay, I want to try this. I never, you never want to play with D&D with anybody that you're just entirely twisting their arm. It's never going to go well. There has to be a kernel of like, okay, I would be interested in trying that. And if your parents, either of them ever, ever for some reason read something or just felt a kernel of that, absolutely, I think they would have a blast at least trying.

But you got to get that first little like, I would see what this is because otherwise they're just going to mock the whole thing. Rightfully so, because it's very silly. It is silly. Well, what's interesting is so after this conversation with my dad, he even reminds. reminded me, and Alex knows this, that our dad owned the original red box. Like, we had it at our

house, and he was like, he was, he's like, of course I tried. He's like, I even bought the Dungeons and Dragons when it came out. And I don't know if you remember Alex, that red box that we had. Of course I do. I played it for years, yeah. Yeah, but do you have it? I don't know where it went. No. I have the dice from it because I think

we pulled them out at one. He's just literally looking around him right now. Is it here? On the shelf behind him and never really had to think. Right beside it. Because I can picture it. But I have the dice from it because I think we pulled it out and we used it on other games.

I have them in like a little box. The original paint the numbers blue red box dice. Which is interesting because I think I've talked about my dad on this show before and been like, yeah, I know he would never be interested about it. I see my dad as I'm talking to my brother.

Alex, what are your dad? Yeah, my dad's really like I think my dad would our dad. I think in reality, he would get bored of it real quick. Like my dad has such low. we talked to this before. My dad fast forward through the credits of a movie.

Like, even he'll fast forward through the credits that have storyline built into it. I'm like, what the fuck? Come on. But here's the difference. And I think this is why it would be interesting to play with him. Because D&D is about your story.

Which means, dad would fast forward through other players at the table in terms of like turning off. It's one of those players. But if you made a story that was centric around him, or rather, when you put the camera on him. See, I think dad would be more flustered by not understanding the rules completely. I would put money on him not even getting through your introduction paragraph. He'd be like, no, you know what? I'll just sit back. You guys play. You guys play. But here's what I mean.

But that's if a DM has an intro paragraph. I think you can cater it to your players. I think you'd be like, okay, Ryan, fair enough. You pull at your sword as a goblin runs towards you. What do you do? Like, you, you know, you trim it down. Like, you don't make it about the... Put it in media res. A good DM runs it for their players. Yeah, totally. Put it this way.

The challenge is yours. Regardless, I like what Rob was saying. Patreon, exclusive, all the parents sitting around. We got Dorsey, Ryan. I don't know which of your parents... Lori. Lori.

Yeah, probably... Yes, get my mom in there. She's going to need a handler. Oh, my God, a cardinal. She's going to be a cleric of Jesus. Jesus. For sure. And also she needs someone to assist her because she doesn't know any of the rules.

And the ones that she's explained, she will forget immediately. Oh, that was so bad. We tried playing Betray on House on the Hill and just could she could not wrap her around, like, movement being three. It was like, no, but you can move three times. Like, what's move? How many times you can move? How many squares?

It's your speed. What speed? It's the movement that you have. It's listed right here. Got it, got it, got it. So how many squares can I move? Anyway, different strokes for different folks. And who knows, one day we will try.

Maybe he'll be on the podcast. But that is not this day. No, it is not. What are we doing this day? We're playing daishamé. A dashame sauce sounds very delicious. I know what that is. Before we get back into it, I feel like last episode we had sort of a weird red moment,

and I want to talk about it. where Red, where Kraloth stole the potion, but Red put it back. And I feel like a lot of listeners aren't going to understand that logic. My gut feel is that it's not necessarily a thing Red is inherently opposed to. He just doesn't like how this one happened. He wasn't expecting to steal it from this guy. And so this one felt bad. But in another situation, he might.

No, I don't think, I don't think, I think Red would take things like from people, you know, like if there was a gym that someone had on their. shelf in their house he'd be like oh i can take that but if they were like that gem is worth this amount of money i think he would see that as stealing for some weird reason like i think it's because it's like well they don't have a value of that there's there's money attached to that therefore they deserve that much or therefore they're asking that much and he might be outraged by that amount that does make sense in a very childish logic way that's kind of where i'm going from i think it's the childishness of it that he's kind of like oh like i would take this candle from someone's house because

you know what do they need it for? Like Henry takes like fancy rocks off the side of someone's laneway all the time and we're like well you can't take all those rocks buddy. You know what and actually it's so funny you mention that because I think I'm thinking of a kid like Henry will come home from school with like taking a Lego man or something

because they play with Lego and stuff and I'll be like you took this and he'd be like yeah you know they're in my pocket or whatever like that's stealing but he would never go into a store and take like a bouncy ball from like a $5 bin or whatever because he would know, he'd be like, oh, no, that's stealing. So it's like, there's obviously a childish division where they don't, you know,

where, like, there's a way to, to see a certain thing. And he's definitely got a taste of what the consequences could be for this one, right? Like, the whole... I think Red always knew the consequences, for sure. But there's a difference between knowing them and experiencing that bit of it. Like, the being observed part of it. No, I think he would know that, too. I don't think it's about him being like, oh, wow, hoisted by Mo and Petard.

I think it's definitely about seeing the value of something differently based on a price point attached to it versus just something that someone hasn't explicitly said, don't take that. That's important to me. I would love to see this come to fruition in character. Well, this is what I'm saying. I don't think Red would be like, Krayloth, you shouldn't have stolen that. Like, I don't think that's how he'd be. And that goes back to, I think, the conversation with Jack the other day about how

self-aware red is or isn't, I definitely think he would put this back, but would he be able to articulate why? No, and that's what I mean. I don't, I don't think, but even if he could, it would be more along those lines, which is sort of more nebulous to be like, well, it's okay to take things from someone's house. It's not okay to take someone, something off of someone's venda table. Like, that doesn't make sense, but that's... I think Krala's thinking here isn't that he stole it, is that he got 50% off of two greater

healing potions. Yeah, yeah. the atmosphere in croin valherro's study is stuffy in contrast to the bright late afternoon outside he has probably a hundred candles guttering in rivulets on tall candle holders all around the room in candelabras and it looks like maybe you were interrupting him in the middle of performing some kinds of experiments. His alchemy equipment is merrily bubbling away off to one side. He pierces you with his intelligent blue eyes as he admits you into his study. Good evening. Crowlin, it's good to see you. Yes, well, the Nightstone Four has not been a name that was

welcomed here in Everland as of late, and yet, things change quickly in the north. Dorn sort of bumbles in, you could say. He, he's like, and I will. He's not graceful. And he's like knocking stuff and not off, but like, you know, the door kind of bangs and he trips over the threshold. A couple of old ghosts. Hits a cat.

And he says, well, it smells interesting in here. You're not cooking food, I hope. That smells like, smells like it should be a potion you're cooking. Or like pie. A weird gross pie Yeah Yeah Hi, I'm Doran Iron Fist

You've met before I know we've met We met before Doran meets We came to see this guy I thought you looked familiar It was like a month ago Not even A couple of old ghosts came back to haunt us

Looks like they Real tarnished our name Around here while we were gone Yeah that wasn't us by the way We were the good guys In the Nightstone Ford debacle So I've heard Chaos Hammer

was just here in Ireland. He's cleared your name to the Hall of Elders. Excellent. The High captain sent a retinue of guards to accompany him back to Citadel Adbar. What King Harneth does with him is dwarven business now. The king has offered to help pay for some of the damages wrought by the dwarves.

Wow. That's very good of him. You sound surprised. That's pretty noble. We're noble people. I believe it is mostly his pride. You know, there's a lot of people who can use a lot of help rebuilding in the area, so whether it comes from pride or a sense of duty or whatever, every gold piece helps.

Well, the dwarves do have deep pockets, if you'll excuse my saying. Oh, endurance staying there with his hands in his pockets, he's pushing them down. Buried up to the elbow. In gold. Tell me, last we spoke, you were on an. errand from the dragon old gnaw bones, and you were keen on killing as many giants as possible. What have you learned since then? Well, we've made it actually to the eye of the Allfather, and had a fascinating experience

with a giant oracle, which has led us on a quest to recover some ancient giant relics, and hopefully we'll get a vision to help us rewrite, reset, help the ordaining come back together in the near future. It's been quite a trip to many sacred Uthgard spaces in... Yeah, I could have spent an age at each one really documenting the people in their culture. It's so fascinating. But I can see I'm losing red, and so it might be time to head to Mirabar and make our way back to the spine of the world. He makes his way back to the alchemy table, hold.

up a long slender pale finger and attends to some experiment that he was in the middle of something just about to boil over. He adds a chemical reagent and one of the flasks changes to a bright purple color and there's a flash of smoke. He picks up a beaker, agitates it, sets it back down and then using his wand he taps something and a small fire ignites beneath it and then he comes back to you tell me jack why should you be permitted the use of the teleportation circle for all i know you are dragon spies taking advantage of recent chaos to sow the seeds of subterfuge do not lie to me oh you got conspiratorial all of a sudden no i i i can understand your your concern a lot we did end up accepting the help of Klaus for a hot minute

and then promptly got his airship destroyed by giants, in which case probably not in that Dragon's good books for the time being. So for sure, certainly could see us as a security risk in that front. I think it's just, I guess, weighing whether we think dragons view Giants is a greater threat to the big stability than it is your network or not. We're all pawns in their great games on some level. We're just trying to make the best of our fate

and help people get by. Also, we're not working with the dragons. I feel like Jack didn't mention that, but we're not working with them. Just want to make that crystal clear because he sort of answered it long-windedly and it sounded very... Frankly, it made your point very justified in asking,

but no, we are not working with dragons, 100%. You're right, but also we've had advice and help from at least two, so we're... Right, the more you talk, the more anxious they get. Let's just be clear. We don't want to work with dragons. Full stop. Endurance steps forward.

And plus, we're the Nightstone four. We're not... You know where our alliance lies. I mean, here, we're protecting this city. Come on. I know this is something that is not often reserved for polite company. But if you'll permit me the casting, Crowen points his wand at you and casts a zone of truth on your part.

Oh. Sure. What is it supposed to do? So everyone, please, has to make a charisma save, please. Oh, charisma. Mm-hmm. I have negative one for charisma. How did you do?

I got a 10. 21. Five. Negative nine. So, Red, you are unaffected by this. I'll still pretend to be. Whoa. Oh.

Ah. Do you count yourselves among the faithful for the dragon cloth? or the one known as old gnawones. Oh, hell no. What does that question mean? Dewey. So the truth works, but only if they understand what the question is. Are you indebted to these dragons in any way?

Oh, no, no, no. I think the dragons might feel differently about that, but I don't feel any. They're a tool of convenience to accomplish our tasks, which is save as many lives as possible. Yeah, and I accidentally killed my ex-wife. What is what hell what's going on here? It's zone of compulsive truth now. Daring. I don't know what's going on.

It's also true. I'm extremely hungry, and I don't want to go back to the Great Peak Mountains. And last night in the tent, it was me who farted. It wasn't Kieran. That's great. Did you have anything to do? with the refugees in Jallanthar. Yeah, we saved them.

We gave a bunch of money to the bakery here to try and help them get set up, and we had directed a few people to Everland to try and get a new start in life, and we donated some resources there, but certainly condemned at every opportunity that the folks creating more refugees. In fact, I think Everland could step up and do more to help protect people from becoming refugees. All right, Jack. Yes, I understand. And I'll say yes. What do you know of the goals of the Harper organization?

Let me answer this one, guys. Nothing. I forget what the Harper organization is. Isn't he part of the Harper's? Jack, you know, you know you're not part of it. No, I, I, the portal in water deep is the Harper's, right? Yes, the whole portal system is the Harper Network. I've always secretly wanted to be one, but I just never thought I could.

Do you say that out loud? Jack admits, like, he's compelsed. It's truth. So there's a point of like he's, I've always secretly wanted to be one, you know, the shadow thief of Waterdeep is kind of coded to be Harper-esque, even though he's not really a Harper. But I think that's what Torrin really loves about him is that like good guy spy thing. And so I, I've always kind of admired that, but it's the only, Jack stops. Valharo, he disperses the zone of truth and turns his back to you

he wanders over to the fireplace where there's this merry blaze and looks deep into it again you'll have to accept my apologies I was directed to be certain by who by the harpers

they are marking your progress now with this new set of developments and it looks suspicious, as you can see. But from what I can tell right now, there's no reason that you shouldn't continue to use the network. Do not give me cause to regret that decision. Are you kidding? Jack wants to be a harper. Why would he try to betray them?

We do appreciate the help that the harpers are providing us. This is not something that is offered to every adventurer. Certainly not. It might make sense to set up a pass. here as well, knowing that we've had some encounters with shape-shifting assassins of late, you know, there could be a, you know... Are you saying this meta or is Jack? Well, I think that was Jack saying it, but it, I think it makes...

Oh, no. Unless you were, but I was waiting for Red to respond, but if you thought I was... Red would just like, shoot, look at you immediately, like, just take it said. I am unconcerned with the ability of being able to... assess creatures and discern their true nature. That is very good to know. Hmm. Hmm.

Well, um... Shall we? Yes, please. Yeah, let's do it. We shall. Please, because we'd like to be on our way. Valhara leads you to the teleportation circle room. You see your friend flow in,

who gives door in the side eyes you enter the room, and he blushes slightly, but he gives like no other indication. that he's seen you recently. Obviously, he doesn't recognize red because you were dressed up like... Kevin Costner. Kevin Costor. Kevin Costor.

And then candles lit, invocations murmured, the teleportation circle flares to life with blinding blue-white light, and you are drawn inside as reality dissolves into oblivion. You are dumped out on the other side of the portal into a pile of hay in the dim hayloft of Mirabar.

A horse in the stable below winnie's nervously in response to your jumble of bodies heavily thumping on the floorboards. It doesn't seem like there's anyone else inside the stable. The attendant must be elsewhere at the moment. And freezing air works its way

in through the slats of the barn. You can tell it is desperately cold outside. But this place you are in now, this barn is cozy, full of the sweet smell of straw and the warm breath of animals. You think by now we'd be able to do this without falling onto the floor. Hmm.

You'd think they'd set it up to be a little bit nicer in here. You're like a cushion down here or something. I mean, the straw's lovely, but... Can you pass my furs, Red? Yeah, what? My furs. I thought you said your purse. You know, our cold weather clothing.

Red, just deadpan, looks to everyone in the group. What are you talking about? What cold weather... Oh! Oh, the... The furs, right. Yeah. I hawked those. What?

You what them? I hawk them. Well, hawk them up. I made screveen, take them up really, really high, and I dropped them. Blood honked. But I can find something. Red reaches into the bag holding and gives everybody their cold weather clothing back. All right.

Yeah, you sure feel how much further north we are. Even inside here, just the wind's howling. All right. Can we get out of here? I get, I get kind of nervous around these horses. Hold on, Dorn. Listen to those sound effects. The wind's howling.

Wait, do you hear that horse in the distance? Listen, you can hear, you can hear a dog bark in the distance. Wow, what rich sound effects. Uh-huh. Very impressive. Yeah, sound effects. Interesting. Is that music?

You're a little bit of like a low, like, some sort of string instrument. Well, let's step outside. Then there's going to be really good music. Oh, a comet coming to Earth. Listen to the sound of it. Oh, great. A dinosaur? Hey.

You know, Mirabar is such a business. You've got all of this machinery going under real. Listen to the steel look. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, let's go outside. Red walks outside to Mirabah. Yeah, Jack follows.

It is coming up on evening. Okay. Though the wind pierces you with the cold, the streets of Mirabar are still busy. with people of all kinds bundled up against the snow. You know, it always amazes me that people are out and about in this sort of cold weather. Like, I don't know how they do it.

I'd just be inside all the time. They wear jackets and stuff. Hmm. They probably get used to it too, you know. Like living underground for a long time, I imagine as a dwarf, if you really get used to the darkness. Yeah, true, true, true. Yeah.

Hey, Shale, this is where you were born. Aw. So. Shows the shape around. Yeah. Do we want to find some place to sleep for the last evening in a bed in a while and then start hiking up a mountain tomorrow morning? Hey, not a bad idea. But let's not stay at the place we did last time because we destroyed the bed and I think they'd remember.

We did? The royal we. As you're standing around in front of the stable deciding what to do next, you hear a voice that you recognize. Krayloth. Krayloth. Krayloth Shale's saying your name. Hmm. And Kralath looks around.

There's a woman making her way towards you dressed in a white fur coat. Hmm. She's got her hood pulled up and tall boots on and she's being tailed by another shorter woman. And Kralov, like, thinks about all the people he knows. And he counts Doran, Jack, red. Oh, everybody's here. Who could it be? And just waits.

There's like an awkward wait. She's like running through the stuff. As she gets close enough, you recognize this beautiful woman's face. Marina Cindergather has appeared before you somehow. Crayloff. Oh, sorry. As soon as Crayloth sees her face, just this like this kind of blushing, cold, beautiful porcelain skin, like close up. he's immediately thrown off completely and he has this moment where he just kind of stares and his face drops

and he's immediately very uncomfortable. Oh, Kralath, what a surprise to see you here. I come to Mirabar now and then and just, what are you doing here? Oh, oh, um, yes, uh, Lady, Lady, Lady, Lady Cindergather. Um, of course, you remember Red, uh, Doran. I don't believe you've met my friend Jack, Jack Page, um, House of Wands. Jack, this is Lady Cindergather. Lovely to meet you. Charmed, I'm sure. Hey, Marina. Hi, Red. Hello again. Listen, let's, let, let, what do we get out of the cold here? Um, um, uh, I'd love to hear about how things have been. And wonderful idea.

Maybe we could find somewhere to have some dinner. Actually, I know a wonderful place nearby. Unless you have plans elsewhere, of course. We don't have plans anywhere, Red says, stepping forward. We'd love to have a little bit of grub in the... And he, like, looks at her face and looks at Kralath's face. I mean, we actually have other plans, but... We have to leave in the morning.

But, of course, I would... Let's, let's, yes, let's, um, and Krayloth is, Kralov fumbles around until his hand reaches the pommel of his mace. And all of a sudden, his demeanor changes. He says, yes, of course. Ladies Sindergather, please lead the way. Well, you know, we got plans, not, not Kralath, but Doren and Jack and I do. So maybe, you know, we can find something else to keep ourselves busy. Well, dinner sounds good.

Cranl, no, no, no, please, please, join, join, come on. It's, it's all right. Can I roll insight on Marina to see if she is, like, happy that we're busy or? Yeah, 12. She seems very welcoming. Okay. Well, I mean, if we're not imposing. Of course not.

I insist. Yes, and I insist too. We'd love to. Come, show us where you, you, show us your. spot that you've got in mind. Of course. And as she walks, she takes, she takes your arm, Kralov. So you're walking elbow and elbow. And Kralov stiffens a bit. I so enjoyed the letter that you sent me, Kralov. Thank you for thinking of me. I made the blueberry scone recipe that you gave, though I was unable to find any fresh blueberries. So I used

dried currants instead. Still very much in the spirit of the recipe. Yes, of course. You didn't happened to bring any, did you? I didn't. I wasn't expecting to see you. Oh. She leads you down the street towards one of these subterranean entrances into the Dwarven under city.

You remember, you've been here before, these residential caverns superheeded by forges that are just constantly pumping out, the products of the mines that are all around the city of Mirabar. And she leads you through this dimly

lit hot cavern to a restaurant. It's got an entrance for taller people and an entrance for shorter people. So, of course, she gestures to the taller door. Yeah. And unhooks her arm from you, Kralath. Well, we're here. I've been here once before. It's wonderful. Talk about hospitality. No, Doran. That door is for you. Oh, I know. You go through that door. Doran's going through the smaller door and he's peeling off his winter clothing now in the sort of like the warm under depths of this

And Red just stands at the door and just like, why not make one big door? Why bother with the second door? A small person could walk through a big door and a big person could walk through a big door why two doors? I don't get it. Marina holds up

a hand and sort of looks around she's like because it's a place built by dwarves but also meant to accommodate larger folk if they so desire. Right, so just cut a bigger door around the small door they originally put in and then everyone walks through the same door. Like a cat door?

No, just a big door. Like, Dooring doesn't feel weird about walking through a big door. Have you ever asked him? He just walks through the door. It's such a waste of wall space. Doin stands there looking at red with like a blank stare on his face

and he just points at the smaller door. He says, this door was here first. Ha! Like that! And then he walks through I think the Doormakers Guild is very strong in Mirabar I feel like they're laundering money

through this place Oh, we need to have another door bullshit Look at the craftsmanship on it You don't see that kind of like strong, clean, dwarven forged lines in any other door It's so good

I mean it's literally every door in this city, Jack But fair enough Doors are very important to dwarves I mean our friend was named after one Door in Door in. And door out. You should meet my cousin, door out.

This is a nice restaurant. It's pretty fancy. There are waiters and menus and kind of accoutrema that you're not used to seeing necessarily in... What is it, a fork? Well, what I mean to say is it's not a coarse place in any way, although a lot of the Dwarven Fair and honestly some of the culture that we've been experiencing, lately from dwarves has been a little bit barbaric, right? Single-handed combat, blood sport, all that stuff. This is like a fancy upscale type place. And Marina asks that we sit at a table for medium-sized creatures and not small-sized creatures just to accommodate the majority of the

party and everyone is seated. So tell me, you were talking about your quest. It sounds like you're all very capable adventurers, and I must say, Jack Page, although you were not there at the Manor, your friends really handily managed some of the terrible creatures that befell my party. Yeah, I heard all about it and saw a little bit of them. It sounded quite harrowing. It was. I hope Pella's Want has been able to do all right for the rest of the winter, got their situation with Mirabar sorted out. Largely, yes. And they speak. speak fondly of you in Pella's want, though I must say, we found Raynard's body with some help.

It provided some closure for Firth and me. Sorry. He resides at my home now, but he makes a lovely companion. He's a good kid. Shall we eat? Yes. Yes, yes. This menu, some of these dishes, I've never.

seen before, uh, it's heavy on the, the mushrooms. This seems to be kind of a fungus-based restaurant. The hell's a shit act. It's a type of mushroom. What? Why would I want to eat a mushroom called shit act? What do they grow them in shit? Well, actually, it's not just any shit either. Oh my god. They've got groglin stew i'm getting that and he turns and he says groglin stew groglin stew the waiter crowglins stew here and a brew all the way across the restaurant it's like the far the waiter's on the far

there's a movie and the waiters on the far far side it's just like yelling and the waiter's like i'll tell your server as good as it gets with jack nicholson he like yells across the restaurant two crabs da-da-da and the waiter's just like i'll tell your server it's so good What's your favorite dish here, ladies in together? Oh, well, they do a vegetarian dish, a steamed brown rice with the Mizuna greens. As I understand, the Mizuna grows deep in the underdark. It's a kind of phosphorescent, I'm sorry, I don't mean to explain it to you.

I'm sure you've been all over the world. No, no, actually, you can explain away. I just like to hear your take on it, even though I might have heard of it. Well, it is quite spicy. The Mizuna lends a sharp kick to the dish, but it's delicate in its spice. I think you'll really like it. I remember my mother always making Mizuna soup. Mazuna soup, Mazuna steaks, Mazuna pie.

I'll tell you, it gets tired quickly. And that phosphorus stuff, it's not as good as they all say. If you trust me, you got to get what I'm getting, which is the, the, the, stew. Do your teeth really glow after you eat it though? Like is that, is that, I've always heard that, but I've never been able to. Oh yeah. Yeah. It dies for a little while, you know, until you wash it down with a brew, with a brew, a brew too. Darn, you just don't want for me. I don't know. Whatever. Red just like tosses the menu aside. And so you spend a lovely evening together, dining on exotic cuisine and enjoying each other's company in the Dwarven City of Mirabar.

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