Dice Shame - 2-40 | 'Kettle of Fish'

Episode Date: June 1, 2023

Imagine your best game of D&D. The shocks, the twists and turns, the moments that can’t be caught because you just had to be there. That’s Dice Shame.Join our DM Jo, her husband Harlan, their brother Alex & their best friends Rob and Alex as they experience those unmissable, gut-wrenching, heart-aching, joy-filled moments.This legendary AP releases a brand new episode every Thursday morning at 1:20 am!Content Warning: swearing, violence.Part of the Rusty Quill Network Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We're here to help with the stone giant problem. They're doing amazing things here. She has with several pastries in her hand. Wow, Gothic. Well, hello, uh... Deadstone cleft is generally what brought us to the area. Here be dragons. We're happy to answer any questions.

Get the eyeball. Get the eyeball. The giant-sized poles. We've got this abel. I don't need anything unless it's got seven layers of butter in it. Well, let me tell you, sit down. But they're pretty tart. Rhonda, let me talk to you for a second.

Come over here. To this dark alley. Let's, let's start here. Mari and Jack are the kind of people who would go, well how'd you get these fish and where'd they come from Dorn and Red are they kind of would go Fish Welcome back to Diceame

This is Season 2 episode 40 Kettle of Fish MVP this week is AJG Whiz who is chewing through the backlog and coming in hot on season two Thank you so much AJ, and I hope you're excited to be up to date.

Beyond the Dark Productions features a variety of awesome audio fiction by Mark R. Healy. If you enjoy audio dramas, you might want to check out the OG Beyond the Dark, as well as the strata, or the most recent Road of Shadows. Each of these shows has high-quality editing, acting, and writing, and are amongst some of the best productions out there right now. Give them a listen at The Road of Shadows.com, and don't miss your next great story. All right, should we play some D&D? Yeah, let's do it. all right we've seen on the internet that sort of gif or the scene or maybe you've seen the movie of the never-ending story and you see that horse being eaten by the fucking mud swamp and he's pulling it he's pulling it and yeah i've never seen that movie it's always the like the thumbnail of

if you had childhood trauma this is the scene that did it to you and that's fair and maybe true for many people But I'm wondering, maybe apart from that, if you have seen it, what from your childhood scarred you? What stayed with you? What was something that maybe you shouldn't have seen? Maybe you snuck downstairs around Christmas time and you saw something on the TV that you shouldn't have seen, Harlan, and it's stuck with you for a long, long time. Maybe you couldn't sleep.

I don't know, but what's stuck with you from your childhood that, you know, obviously maybe it doesn't bother you to this day or maybe it does, but just kind of keeps coming back up. I know yours, Harlan. You know mine? It's when in the Lord of the Flies. I think Dad let us watch that. I was probably 12 and you would have been like nine. And, you know, they, I don't know if you guys know the premise

of the movie, it's like, you know, the society and everybody's read the book. Anyways, in the movie, it was really well done in the movie in the 80s, not the black and white one, but the one that was done in the 80s of the 90s. They like drop that rock on Piggy's head and it just like crushes his skull and it's very like visual and he just and he and piggy dies and I remember Harlan he's like bawling but I remember dad stopped the movie yeah I remember he put on like a remember it was like a dancer like a flamenco dancer like probably just what was on TV you

know that's what I mean it was on TV like he just turned it off and it went to like PBS or TVO or something and it was just like this flamenco dancer and I remember being like that was the image that got scarred in my head. I don't remember that image. That's definitely one of them. Funnily enough, that wasn't the one I was thinking of. And Joe mentioned another one, which was Willow, which also scarred me when they turned into wart hogs at the end. But that wasn't the one I was thinking of either. The one I was thinking of, which all of these are true, by the way. But the other one I was thinking of is I remember one time, the Cabrells were over, our family friends. It was around Christmas time.

And I snuck downstairs and they were watching TV. And they were watching a, you know, spoof of Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, the claymation one. Now, Mad TV did a spoof, and they kind of mocked the mafia. And it was all shot up and stuff like that. And I've watched it, and I don't think that's it. But it's the only one that makes sense, because they wouldn't do two spoofs of this sort of high-quality claymation joke. But anyway, what it is is that Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer claymation thing,

but it's like super gory and bloody. And I remember seeing it from the top of the stairs. And this was a video that I'd watched since I was like, you know, five. and I must have been like seven, like, or six, like really young. And I saw, you know, the elf and the ranger getting their heads cut off and, like, killed. And I, it, because, and the reason that came to mind is because, like, more so than Piggy with, from Lord of the Rings, which I, like, bawled in. This was one I was, like, wide-eyed, blood-drained face, like, oh, my God, and backed up. Because, like, I don't think I had seen or realized that, like, horror or gory.

movies existed because there's a point right when you just like you know and i guess for us it was or for me it was a bit older when it was just like oh okay so gore exists in the world like i hadn't read a book i hadn't seen a tv show it was just there and it was my like childhood claymation christmas memories being eviscerated and it like totally stuck with me and i was like oh my god not totally scarred me and i don't think i ever told any about that either so huh and now you love horror movies more than anything. I really thought I had nothing for this. And then as you were talking,

I came up with three different pieces of media. You was funny, but I didn't either. And then as I was explaining it, I was like, oh, wait a minute, wait a minute. That's, yeah. I've never loved horror or jump scares or anything like that.

It's just not my scene. And for whatever reason, like I remember at the Scholastic Book Fair, there was this like horror book that was a knockoff of Kujo. I just know there was an evil dog in it. I don't really know any. anything else about this book. But I can, I know where I was. I know what van I was sitting in. I know where we were. It was an animorphs. It wasn't an animorphs. It would never do that to me.

Listen, I'll listen to those weird alien shapeshifters fight fascist slugs any day. But no, there was this book. I don't have anything more than this impression of like being terrified of dogs for like the hot minute after reading this book about them. Because we didn't have dogs growing up. It was just like this whole thing that was a moment. But then as I was thinking about that, there was another book that, I don't know, I'm going to say it scarred me,

but left a huge impression. When I read The Bridge to Terabithia for the first time, I fucking bawled my eyes out. I was thinking about that book. You know, I think it's the first book where I was like, oh, this connected to something in me

and I was not ready for something sensitive to be poked. I remember watching My Girl, too, and a similar vibe. Yeah. McCulley Culkin get stung to death or whatever. Yeah. Same kind of thing where you get the wind knocked out of you. That was my bridge to terributhia because I never read

because we didn't read in our house. That was a very devastating book. I remember very specifically the description of the teacher and yeah, very traumatic. Yeah. Yeah, something about going back there afterwards and everything. Just, I don't know. I was moved in a way I had never been before.

It was the first time. It was like, art can do this. Take this gut punch. And yeah, it was, it was something. I also have a book that I read when I was probably far too young. I'm going to say maybe fifth grade. I can't really remember the name of it or the author. I want to say it's like a Christopher Pike vibe. So it's young adult fiction that's horror. And two adult for a 10 year old. But I was a voracious reader. And I was really into goosebumps. And so I thought that that was kind of like analogous. I remember reading this one scene. And I really hope that someone in the Discord will let me know what book I'm thinking of where the protagonist is trying to escape a house fire. And so he or she ends up filling up a wetsuit with water like hoses themselves down inside of a wetsuit to try to like move through the blaze. and they talk very descriptively about the flames burning the suit to their skin

as they're like trying to battle their way through the burning house. It was terrible. Christopher Pike's chain letter was another one. I don't know why I read that. It fucked me up forever. I read a lot of Christopher Pike, so I feel you on that.

Also, probably too young. It's a rough choice for an elementary school library. I'm just going to say it. They did it. There's a whole shelf of them. So I'm going to just in grade. I was in grade four. Okay. And I remember there's this guy. I'm going to say his name because I still know him kind of. And he is throwing messages at me in little balls of paper. And then I was writing them back. And I actually don't even remember writing them back. But the teacher found one, it was like, fuck you, bitch. And like that was like, you know, that was like the context of the conversation between us.

I remember this. I remember you getting so much trouble. And they suspended me. They suspended me from school for like three or four days or something like that. And then I was sent home and I was made to my discipline was to stay in my room, even though it was beautiful. It was a summer break, like coming up into the summer, I had to stay in my room and read. And I remember I read the children's version of Moby Dick and there was a couple other children's novels of these. and it was speaking of reading,

but that's not the part that scarred me. It was the whole fact that... Having to stay inside on a beautiful day. But when I came back to school, I had this sense, right? Like before I was suspended, I had the sense of what it meant to get in trouble. And then after I was suspended,

I was like, well, now I've gotten in trouble and I see that it's really not so bad. So in a way, it kind of pushed that envelope for me, and in a way I'm kind of doing air quotes here in a way it kind of scarred me in the sense that it allowed me to continue to know oh I can push the envelope a little bit more and what's the worst that's going to happen

you know like what are they going to arrest me no they're not going to arrest me I might get suspended from school and oh I'm going to have to stay home and read oh that's really interesting though I like that so it's a different angle of how to look at it thing was more powerful. Well, I remember when dad used to threaten to send us to military school, that scared the

shit out of me. That scarred me. I was talking to Joe the other day actually. I was being like, because again, I had totally forgotten about that. I was like, oh shit, dad used to do that all the time. And it scared the fuck out of me. Yeah, me too. Yeah. But he never actually sent us.

Yay. Just a weirdly manipulative power move that parents can do to their kids, I guess. Yeah, looking back now, it's pretty fucked up. That's a thing that happens. I have three things. One is when I was a kid, I used to go to a neighbor's place after school and they had just, I just show up, knock, knock, knock. Hi. No, I used to go there and hang out there, like their daughter with, they had two daughters. One was about my age and one was a little older. And I'd wait there until my mom got home.

And the older daughter one time, it was around Halloween and she was watching the Tales from the Dark Side movie, which is an anthology series, which is like the framing of it is that there's like a witch and she has a little boy and she's going to eat him, like serving for dinner, she's going to cook him. And he's telling her stories to get her to like stall or whatever. And I was young. And at the time I was like really, really into like ancient Greece, ancient Rome, like ancient Egypt, like that kind of like history shit that like eight year olds get super into with like the horrible history books. 100%

As long as you show me a bisected pyramid I'm in hell yes and I loved ancient Egypt and one of the stories was about a mummy coming to life

and being sent on a revenge mission to kill all these people and I'm like maybe nine years old and I'm in their basement and this thing comes on and I remember so clearly

having this moment where I'm like so scared and there's a part where like the mummy takes like a coat hook and it goes up to one of the people and it like grabs them and it jams it up their nose and pulls their brain out and like a close up yikes and it just scared the ever loving shit out of me as a kid i think carlin just uncovered a memory i remember that i was also in that basement with sophy do we go on each other forever i remember um that yeah i remember

I don't think I saw it, but I remember hearing about it. You literally did just unlock a memory. Yeah, yeah. That scared the hell out of me. The second one was I loved The Simpsons growing up, and I remember watching. I loved the Halloween specials, but I remember it was Halloween special. It was the fifth one. I would have been seven or eight years old, and I watched it.

And it is the scene where Groundskeeper Willie burns. And when the skeleton showed up, for some reason, that triggered something in my brain. That scene where, like, he, like, it cuts to, like, the burned skeleton. And, like, it's not scary, but, like, eight-year-old, seven-year-old me. Yeah, yeah. Was, like, just, it just scared the absolute bejesus out of me as well. And the last one is the, the, the, on the topic of the books, which is when I read

the amber spyglass for the first time. Oh, fuck yeah. When I got to the end of that, I must have been 12 when I read it, which is, like, the perfect time to read that book. I'm not going to say what, I won't spoil the ending of it in case somebody is going to get spoiled about this book that's like 30 years old now

or whatever, but I read the ending of that and I fucking cried, it's so hard. That was like the first one, like a book like broke my heart. And, yeah, yeah. Because yeah, as like, yeah, Joe, I was also a voracious reader. I read everything and that was the first book

that like really got me. All of this conversation unlocked another one for me. I got to share it real quick because this one actually has a weird I like tracked it down so I read this book when I was a kid

big into the scary books unlike Rob and there was this book called it was Bruce Covill's book of monsters and there was a bunch of monster stories in it it was like a scholastic one anyway I read all of them all the stories and the last story

in the book and the first one is called Timmer and the Furnest Troll and I remember it because I have it had a little opening it says because he kind of comments on all the stories. They're all like from different authors. He's like, I have to tell you this story is sick. I don't suppose it's going to stop you from reading it, but don't say I didn't warn you. And at the time, I was like, ha ha ha. And it tells the story of a little elf who, as part of

his like school, you know, it's like Harry Potter type shit where he like has to, you know, he's in this magic school for elves. And he has to be a part of the furnace troll's like rotation. He gets sort of the end of the line. So the troll is the one who shovels the coal and the furnaces and all that kind of stuff. Everyone else gets better job placements. He kind of gets this one. And the troll, like, takes them on this journey and shows him how cool it is to be a troll. And he, like, reveals to him. He's like, well, you can be a troll too. And this elf like is crying. Timmer is like, I don't fit in with my elves. Everyone bullies me. And he's like, well, you know how to do it, don't you? And the final scene of the book is Timmer and the

furnace troll killing everyone in this class and eating them. Whoa. Literally, I remember, I read this line over and over and over again because I didn't understand what I was reading. He wrote, then the Furnace Troll leapt forward and grabbed Mrs. Dossent, which is the teacher, by her wrists and ankles, stretching her out like an accordion until you could hear all the bones in her spine pop and bit the middle right out of her, gobbling down the pieces that remained in each hand as he moved towards the exit. Then the girl he likes, who's like at the beginning of the story, like his crush, she's like, please don't kill me. And with a pitchfork, he rams it through her. I feel like I've read it. It's so fucked up. And it absolutely scarred me to the point that maybe about 10 years ago, this started cycling around my brain.

And I was like, oh my God, I've heard this. I was like, what is this? Where is this? What book was this? And I found the PDF. And I have it. I've definitely read that. It's so fucked up.

But anyway, that's killing trolls, which is a pretty nice segue, straight into... They're a type of giant. Actually, killing elves, I should say. It's killing elves, which is even better because I can die this episode. Oh, God. Shall we? Play some TV. All right, let's do this.

All right, let's do it. Red, Doran, the two of you leave the barracks, followed by veranda and flycatcher. And you move through the town. You notice that a surprisingly high percentage of villagers are clothed in the now familiar uniform of the town guard. Looks like a lot of people are employed in the protection of this town. You move past a block of residential buildings and your eyes catch on a battery of coops with poultry nesting. Looks like probably the people who live here also cultivate their food right here. here in the town.

Hey, that makes sense. Look, they get your own eggs and meat and everything. Obviously, if they're secluded from the outside world, I guess they're going to have to make that stuff. Doran, you notice that this town is using similar materials to what you saw in Zosanbafel, the doorknobs, the paving stones. Everything looks kind of similar to the gnomish city, but made in a size to fit the humans that live here.

So you're noticing those kinds of details. Yeah, and as I look around, you know, Hey, Red, I don't know if you notice, but take a look at all the little details of the stonework, the metal trinkets and ornaments on the, all the handles and the doors. Wow, Gothic. No. What? Nomish. Oh, that makes more sense.

Yeah, yeah, nomish. So, I mean, it would make sense if they had this symbiotic relationship with the gnomes. I'm sure the nobes probably helped build this place. I mean, look at the artistry. I mean, it's hard that they didn't realize the gnomes had died out, eh? You'd think they would have at least had some sort of knowledge that these supplies one day just sort of stopped. I would be surprised if both of these civilizations died out, then maybe people came back to this one because they just saw it, the gnomish civilizations hidden, you know?

Maybe it's not the same ancestral bloodline that's been living here the whole time. Maybe not. Anyway, let's head to the bar so we can see if we can talk to some people about the gossip. in town, figure out what they're doing. It looks like everyone's ready for war. Look, everyone's gobbed out and the gods out. Yeah, well, even before we get to the pub, I mean, I feel like maybe there's, like, eyes on us. Of course.

Yeah, you guys are attracting a ton of attention. There are no dwarves in town. There are no tabaxies. Hi. I picture that all of a sudden we stop and all eyes are on us and everybody's listening to our conversation. Yeah, like at the end of that conversation. Well, I don't know about that, but I do know that. Hey, well, well, hello.

we're visitors and Pebe said to make ourselves welcoming. Yeah, but we were just trying to move, I mean, you know, we're happy to answer any questions. We're normally called the Nightstone. We're here to help with the stone giant problem, that's why. Yeah, we're here to help with the stone giant problem, and boy, do you

have a big problem. A couple of laughs from a group of people. They're like the song and dance, Doran. Now we're doing stand-up. Let's put on the old skit. So we came from gun hugs Dwarves walk like this And to Baxi We walk like

Find a soapbox immediately I don't know where it comes over We're just gonna go to the pub now And Red like grabs Doran's hand And like pushes through the crowd And then when he's out of ears He says like I want to talk to you about veranda She's acting weird

I think we should confront her about it I don't think she got any sleep last night Did you look at her? God No Mari now we're talking to her And she's been Well we're talking to fly catcher really, and said that she has bad dreams.

But I also get a weird vibe from that cat. I kind of want to... I don't know. Don't tell me you want to eat it. Talk to... No, I don't want to eat the cat. Why don't I want to eat the cat? Have you ever seen me eat a cat?

I don't know. Well, you said, I kind of want to, and then you stopped your sentence, so I... Because I was... Red, I mean, come on. You said some pretty old-lantic things before. I... All right, a little part of me wants to eat the cat. Okay, fine.

A tiny part of me. But not enough to articulate it. You can't eat the cat. Red elf-handed, Robin. Look, a part of me wants to speak to Varanda away from the cat. We spoke to the cat away from Veranda. I'm curious, I don't know. I feel like she's looking over her shoulder.

Yeah. But there's no one around here. She doesn't know anybody here. I'll distract the cat. You go and talk to Veranda. Okay, cool. Hey, there's a fishmonger over there. Go grab some of the fish.

Oh, I saw it right out of the core of my eye. Say, I'll meet you over there just as soon as you're done talking. Make it quick. You know, these flying cats. They never want to stay still. Yeah. Red licks his lips. Meanwhile, Mari and Jack, where do you make your way?

I like to imagine we're just leaving the bakery because we've been to a bakery and Mari is excitedly explaining some baked goods to Jack. Yeah. This is bread. Well, she has like several pastries in her hand. She's like, what did you think of the goldenberry crumpet? I mean, I don't see golden berries very often, but they're only grown in moonlight, so it kind of makes sense you could grow them here.

But they're pretty tart. I hadn't thought about that. My mind was really trying to crunch the math on where they put all the fields that they're defending to get the grains to grow them. But they're doing amazing things here. And if they've got all the stuff like Zosenbuffle had, do they have underground places where they grow food? Like, it's not crazy to think that. We just saw that yesterday. I mean, they might.

But there's also a lot of things with custard. So when she has this thing called a custard bloom, which, like, where you press on it, like custard comes out of it, like it blooms out of it. Oh, but it's very tasty. I should have got one of those. Yeah, no, it's good. It's good. I highly recommend it. We get the chance, but...

Yeah. Torrin would love that one. But, uh... We should probably find someone in town to talk to, though. That... Yeah, no. I just... I was just excited to see some good food.

Listen, it's so easy to get excited about pastry. Let me tell you. Hey, did you... Did you notice that Doran seemed a little off last night as well? Yeah, I... I'm sure, it sure felt like he and Red were having some kind of conversation. Feels like a night for it. Yeah.

Just kind of waiting around to see who else is stopping by the bakery to get their treats heading on to shift or something. Yeah, of course. You guys are like standing around outside. Yeah. Eating your, eating your pastry. I know I just had oatmeal, but I can't say no to this. Getting all crumbly and covered in powdered sugar. The local pastry, you're absolutely going to.

Yeah. I love this fucking like military town and some asshole in the morning. like fresh galettes and rolled pastries it's like you find your joy wherever you can there's a regional galette I have to try it every morning I go to my post I don't eat anything unless it's got seven layers of butter in it that's the only thing that fuels these fucking soldiers is like fine pastry you gotta find joy somewhere is a musical being filmed I mean that's why I figured there's going to be a pub yeah these are pretty

good hey for sure so Jack as you and Mari are talking a couple of soldiers do enter this, this pastry shop, this bakery, and load up just fucking arms full of Danishes. Makes the morning worth getting up for, doesn't it? Oh, yeah, certainly does. Certainly does. You're new in town. I might die today.

Yeah, we're, we were sort of heading to Deadstone cleft is generally what brought us to the area, and then happened upon this well-fortified place. And listen, anywhere with a roof like that over your head, well, you know, means, you're not worrying about boulders falling on it so yeah it's it's served us well although some of the roofs really do need a good repair since the last fight listen cap and baby gave us a briefing this morning about what you guys are planning to do for us and i think i can speak for everyone here to say we really respect your sacrifice i mean it's pure serendipity honestly it's uh if we can help you we're glad to do it on the way not liking that word sacrifice

Have you guys ever had scouts out that way? Someone who looks impossibly skinny considering the number of muffins they have. They're just cramming into a bag. He's like, yeah, yeah. I've actually been there a couple of times, Deadstone cleft. Oh, yeah? I'm a scout for Captain Baby, yeah. Oh, amazing.

You don't think you could sort of show us the path on a map, do you? I mean, I could tell you about it. Yeah, yeah. Let's start here. And Jack takes two steps outside the shot before he conjures up an illusory map of sort of the area as he's understood it so far definitely so you know this valley yeah basically where you exited slate fell yeah and that you headed east in this this pine forested valley to make your way towards slate fell not not a lot of details outside of that

you're imagining it's like as it builds out there's like a sketchy sound as it's like it's like the magic isn't as strong and it's just like doodled it's like doodled in and it's like here there here be dragons. Well, if this is Slate Fell, then, yeah, there's a dead-ended canyon, not too far from here, maybe two hours hike to the east until you get to the river, and then you follow that upstream away. And as he's describing, he's sort of like gesturing to your illusory map, like a squiggly river, sort of an approximation of where that might go.

Yeah, and as he's talking, I'm trying to keep adding more. details as they become apparent. Does that look right? Does that feel? Yeah, it looks pretty good. Like a dusting of crumbs from the muffinies eating sort of fall through the illusion as he's gesturing to the map. The canyon walls, I think when you get to about here, there are these holes and doorways. They're like openings of some kind. And you'll see stone bridges that just span the canyon. And that's where the giants come and go from. So they're, their giant. sized holes. I didn't get close enough to really get a feel for it, but I think so. Okay. Listen, if you go out there, you're going to want to keep an eye on the sky, okay?

Why is that? I don't know if you, I mean, you're not familiar with this area, but there are these huge birds in the land that we call rocks that will pick you up and eat you while they're flying. Yikes. And slate folk know to take cover when you see a shadow past, over. So just take my advice. And this time of year, especially, they're ravenous from the wintertime. They'll peck anything that moves. I've had enough scary encounters with regular sized griffins or a legendary-sized Perryton once. I'm done with dangers in the sky. Let me tell you. Have you ever seen one? Yeah, a few times. You just got to get close to the ground under a tree and Stay still.

All right. That sounds threatening. And then the guy with the Danish's is like, there's barbarians on the mountain, too. So. Of course there are. Be careful. They are not friendly to slate folks, so best keep out of their way. Uthgert?

I don't know what that word means. Well, let me tell you. Sit down and I'll start my class. Oh, here we go. God, pan away, pan away. Please, God. Yeah, so you've gained some map, some recon. Doran, Red, you're at a fishmonger?

Where are the fish coming from? I guess there's a river. Oh, yeah. The fish are coming from a well deep within the ground. Oh, they're well fish. I love that. I mean, there are subterranean lakes full of white eyeless fish. I mean, in the under dark, there are, I don't know where.

know how the fish got there. Maybe there's a traveler. It's like a combination of really, really... See, listen, Mari and Jack are the kind of people who would go, well, how'd you get these fish? Where'd they come from? Dorn and Red are they kind of would go, fish. Hey, uh, here.

And Dorn reaches and he grabs a copper shilling of, I'm sure he has something. And he gives it to the fish mugger and he takes a fish head. Not even like a worthy piece of fish. And he's like... Sure. And the fishmonger's like, thank you. He leads down and he kind of pushes the eyeball and makes it kind of, you know, look at the cat. And he's playing around with it.

And he tries to get the cat to come to. Cats love it when you mess with fish eyeballs. Yeah. They love this one trick. Does he? Yeah, great. Flycatcher is into it. Flycatcher loves a fish head.

Like the eyeball pops out and all of a sudden it's an eyeball and a long, stringy, optical cord. Get more descriptive, Alex. Right, come here. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Get the eyeball. Get the eyeball. Oh, you can't get it, can you? Oh, come up here.

Oh, you can fly. I forgot you can fly. Veranda, veranda, let me talk to you for a second. Come over here, to this dark alley. She follows you. What's going on with you? You're all tired. Looks like you didn't sleep last night.

Have a bad dreams? Something like that. Look, cut the bullshit. I know what you are. He continued to bluff. Bluffingly. Bluffingly. Why don't you go ahead and roll a deception for me?

Oh, okay. Dice in my DNA? I know who you are. What scares you? Where are the drugs heading? That is 11. Reuss of me. Deception?

Oh, not great. 14. Okay. I know I said I was going to leave last night, but I wasn't expecting that we would find a town. here. I told you that I was well-traveled, right? That I knew every innkeeper from

here to Belliard. But I've never seen this place before. Right. Well, that's fine. None of us have. But why is that such a problem? What's going on? And is it to do with that damn cat? Red says and points the door and distracting it. And in the background, this cat's like fly around chasing an eyeball. She nods.

Is that why you don't want to talk? She nods again. All right, look, there are many ways that we can communicate that don't require it being in person. Look, tell me what I need to know as quickly as possible. She looks around, and then she pulls out your bag of holding. Sure. Steels it. She takes it, and she fucking runs.

No, she, like, rifles through until she finds a piece of parchment and a quill, and she starts scratching down some words for you. Yes. I can even speak trachonic or... Speak all these things, but I can't read. Damn it. I can speak elvish, traconic, or giant, if that helps. She shakes her head and she writes down, trouble is coming.

And he folds it up and puts in his pocket. Well, of course, trouble's coming. The giants are meant to attack any day. And then we need to head to Denstone cleft. I don't know if you're coming with us or what. No, but I need to be... What? No, you don't understand.

This is why I can't talk to you. I'm trying to understand. Look, look, fine. Trouble is coming, and it's not the Giants. Is there anything I can do? Is there anything we can do to prepare? Um... I'm here. I'm happy to help you, Veranda.

Look, I know what you are. Fine if you don't want to leave, but... You hear the sound that you heard yesterday. The gates to the city are opening. Jack and Mari, you're closer to the center of town. And you watch as three covered wagons pulled by horses creak into the town square. The sides of the wagons painted with bright colors and the words, Midnight Carnival. Thank you once again to our wonderful Patreon supporters.

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Yay! That's right. Come and see my dancing puppet. Zulkin, you bastard.