Dice Shame - 2-74 | 'Good Grief'

Episode Date: January 25, 2024

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: animal death, swearing, violence, claustrophobiaPart of the Rusty Quill Network Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You sound full of shit I've never been as unshitted as I am now My big breakfast went quickly What are you guys talking about? Let's give it a couple of days Before we talk about it too much, alright? Oh god damn I roll my mom a letter last night

They say the stone makes it look smaller The Mari fan club is constantly in touch Mari just pats right on the back Um yeah I've been holding back thoughts I mean at this point Doran I have a score to settle with your mother There's far too many secrets being kept among us How about next time we just decide that

If a letter needs to be talked about, we just talk about it. All right. And Marty sort of stalks ahead a bit. Easy for her to see. She ain't got no fucking lettuce. It's all her friends died. That's the end. No one's writing you, honey.

Welcome back to Dice Shame. This is Season 2, Episode 74. Good Grief. MVP this week is Apechaggy, who left us a five-style review on Apple Podcasts. They wrote so good. I started listening to the show because I wanted to hear what other tables sounded like and get some hints on how to run a better campaign, but I fell in love and can't wait for each new episode. Thank you so much, Appachaggy. You all this week's MVP. Should we do this? Yeah, let's do it. Ow! Does everyone have a good intro?

I'm ready. That's not what I have. Go, Joe. Good. Hashtag doubt. Someone have a good interest. I have to doubt. Yes.

I went through a couple of articles today that were, you know, conversation starters. Whoa. I love this. I'm dying now. No, this is the intro. Just tell us. Give us the example topics.

Let's start off with Alex. That sounds great. Alex, take us away. Set us on a high. If you could make up a holiday, what would it celebrate? Wow. That's a good one. Hi, Alex.

Nice to see you today. Nice to see you guys too. Oh. Okay. Great question. Great question. If you could make up a holiday. What would it celebrate?

But I mean, aren't we? Here comes in Rob. Are we always making up holidays anyways? Like don't you just in life have like, here's this date. Oh, it's my anniversary. I want to celebrate that. Oh, it's the, it's this other thing. You're like, people are, you can celebrate anything you want in the world.

I guess it's a question of. You were ruining the spirit of the question. Do you want everybody to celebrate with you? Let's say that it's an internationally recognized day by all. Something we should all stop and pay attention to. No, I'm decreeing it because I am Lord of the Earth. Yeah. And you must celebrate.

There ought to be. Tell us what your holiday is. Okay, okay, okay, I got, I got one. My hall, oh, okay, sorry, Rob. I thought you were just complaining more. No, no, I, I'm going to go. I would pick a holiday, and it would sort of be a little bit vague, but what it would be is like when a certain video game,

regardless of console, sells a certain amount of copies, it is declared its release day as a national holiday that year. And that way, for all the people who are gamers, is I have to work that day. It's like, oh, did you hear? GTA 6 just sold 600 million copies. Looks like you don't have to come in Monday. Everyone have a great weekend.

It's GTA 6 day. And this is why it's a little bit more like it's not a straight up, you know, because you don't say, you didn't say the holiday has to be the same day. To me, the holiday becomes a holiday when a video game of, you know, enough people supporting it comes out. Because I know, personally, I have taken off work in the past because, of a video game release. I think anyone who's a gamer probably has done something.

What game? For me? Yeah. Oh, man. Fallout 4. I called in sick. Wee sports. E sports.

Did you literally call in sick or did you call in Fallout 4? We sports. Like in a bowl. What do you tell your boss these days when you're like, I don't want to work today? It's time for Balders game. Yeah, no, I took off for Fallout 4. took off for Diablo four, I believe, or the two that come to mind. I did more, but those were the two biggies. But that would be my holiday, because I remember working at Blockbuster

especially and being like, oh, this comes off Friday. And with Blockbuster knowing when the releases are, they're like, okay, everyone makes sure they come in Friday, even though this comes out. And it's great idea. But I find there's one little small problem. Eventually, you just have every day off. How is that a problem? How is that a problem? Yeah, I don't, I don't, I, well, it's It only lasts for that year. It's not perpetual. You don't get to... Yeah, no.

Yeah, yeah. I think... No, no, I'm not saying that next year you get the anniversary date of Diablo 4's release on. Yeah, you do. I think we should. That's what you're saying. Well, that wasn't my argument.

Every five years, it falls off the calendar. So you get five years to celebrate Diablo 2 coming here. My point was that whatever day, you know, I don't know, GTA 6 comes out, because it sold so many copies becomes a holiday. Yeah. And then, you know, whatever. I mean, there's not. that many over 500 million

copies games anymore. Then you get into the problem with pre-sales. Yeah, pre-sales are part of it. Anyway, whatever. That's my holiday. Can't game it for holidays. I love it. Great holiday, Harlan. Thank you. I got one. Very nice.

International Hangout with Cool People Day. All right. That's just every time I'm around. The hardest part about like getting a big group of cool friends together is coordinating everybody's schedules to get the time off. So fucking true. One long weekend a year. is set aside for everybody.

Fuck it. We're all going to go do a thing this weekend. You sort of get your group of folks, and this is the long weekend. Everybody's schedule is coordinated nationally, internationally. It's declared bank holiday. How would you celebrate?

I mean, I'm sort of doing that this summer. We're going to Drumheller for hot dinosaur summer to try and get all the friends from... Whoa. We're not invited. I guess we don't make... Wait, I was just about to say. What?

Well, I mean... Rob's talking about like... Friendsgiving type vibe, but he's like, by the way, the four people I know, you're not even why you don't know told about this? The thing that had it top of mind is there's friends I've seen all in the same place, not once in the last decade. Or like it's, oh, it's at somebody's wedding. Well, everybody's got a lot of shit to do that weekend.

Yeah. Like, it's just one of the, like. All right, we'll come to Drum Heller. So long as there's dinosaurs. Let's do it. There will be dinosaurs. I saw that movie with Daniel Day Lewis. That's right.

There will be dinosaurs. He plays a philosophy. I'm finished oh I have a holiday bring it on babe it is reinvention day whoa reinvention day this is a day that promotes reinvention of the self so if you've been thinking about trying out a new haircut and you want to join legions of other people trying new haircuts on a day you choose reinvention day if you want to have a clothing swing Whop, which I did a couple of times in my 20s, and it's fucking awesome. You call your similarly sized friends, and y'all just share clothes, give away clothes

that you don't wear anymore. Sounds a little new agey to me. I don't know. Everybody has, like, half of their closet is clothes that they don't wear, but they hang on to for no reason. You just take all those clothes away. You give them to someone else, and then you take on someone else's clothes. So it's a clothes-centric holiday.

No. It's also the perfect day. Do you guys remember being like a teenager and you would switch around all of the furniture in your room and be like, whoa, new room, new me? I do love that feeling. Not even just as a teenager. Reinvention Day is the day for that. Yeah. Okay.

Okay. Okay. Okay. That was so motherly. Okay. Are you guys listening? Is it going forward then? Like, okay, you reinvent yourself from this point on, you're now this person.

No, if you hate it, you can go back. I was going to say, can I propose a, like a duality of the day? Sure. So it's a reinvention day. I think that's brilliant. I love that. But I also think there might be two personality types. Because for me, the idea of changing my whole wardrobe and moving around my furniture

wouldn't be as much as a, oh, yeah, as much as a fuck. I don't want to do any of this. Well, the next weekend is go back to who you were. Before day. No, but maybe it can be a dual day of like reinvent yourself day for those who want that fresh change and also like reaffirm yourself if you dig who you are and what you're doing right now. Double down. To me, that could be a separate holiday.

Even if you're not personally going to celebrate it, you could help somebody else move the furniture around their room. There's a small piece of your life that could use a refresh room. Oh, I don't celebrate that date, but I'll help you. I do not observe. I don't observe refurb. Yeah, I like that. See, I like the version. I feel like there needs to be like a granular version,

which is like the reinvention day where you go get a new haircut. And then the following day where you go buy a wig because you've just made the mistake of getting a new haircut and you gain it. That's regret day. Yeah. Ooh, regret day. That's my holiday. I like it.

I think it's a great idea. Yeah, I mean, I would be helping move furniture. I'm not saying I would help. Is that your day? Furniture day? I don't know. If everybody in my life is cutting their hair or moving their furniture. Hair salons are going to be very busy.

I feel very anxious, I think. I feel anxious about my holiday. Just sitting there nervously being like, should I remove my furniture? I don't know. Am I not good enough? I feel weird. National furniture swap day.

Fuck, I don't want to do this. It's like a good day to watch a new genre of movie that you don't typically watch. To take that drawer full of crap and dump it out and put it all in its proper place. What? I think you, now Rob is just describing spring cleaning. But just one thing.

I think reinvention day happens in the spring. I feel like Joe's got a clear idea, which I'm with, and then there's like this gray, like, work, like, where it's like, let's clean the garage on Reinvention Day. It's like, no, Rob, that's not, no, it's like, okay. But also, let's go get the tires changed and also let's clear it. I'm reinventing the car. Dust under the dresser. We're going to reinvent the car. The car's better now.

See, in my mind, there's some of those things clearly go in one slot in my mind and others. I think, you missed it entirely. I think Rob has some fair comments in that. I mean, you know, cleaning the drawer thing. A lot of holidays are vague enough that you can just kind of say, no, well, you take Christmas, for example. Like, what? Well, some people. It's the celebration of Jesus Christ.

Listen, who? I think Reinvention Day is less about getting the tires changed and more about being like, am I the kind of person that could rock a pair of fuzzy dice? Let's try it out. Can I rock a pair of truck nuts? Normally, I... Yeah. with a really time of here's a holiday the purge truck nut day normally i would take my tires in to get them switched over today but you know what it's reinvention day so i'm going to change my

own wheels you know i'm going to decide that i'm going to be a mechanic try to that's right i got a new holiday welding day i'm going to learn to welds i won't come out to the street with their welding gear i nurse saul what's your day um i i i care not for reinventing myself or anything, because I'm perfect as is. I got a foot there. No, I'm a mess, but I could probably stand to make some changes. But what I would like to celebrate is I would like a celebration of obscure and forgotten punctuation.

Like, that's what I want. I want a day where we all remember things like the interrobang and the certitude point and the acclamation point and the irony point. All these things that like don't exist, but I really want to point out three of them. You just want a homework day. Yeah. Do some reading. I'm crossing my own. No.

That's an acclamation point. Like basically, like they sound, some of these points, like the love point and stuff are basically been, or basically just emojis now. Like the love point was basically a way to like, you know, rate a sentence and be like, so glad to see you. This isn't your holiday right now. Why are you, I don't have to hear all this if it's not your holiday in yourself. No, right. You've got to hear it. I have the floor. I have the big talking stick. It's this bat. Irony mark after that one.

Yes. No, the three, this is just because I want people to understand punctuation and also because I have an entero-bang tattooed on my arm. It's a question mark and exclamation point combined. It's great for if you're like, you did what? But I also want to bring up the doubt point, which looks like kind of like a weird Zed crossed with an exclamation point, which is for when you have a statement in which you want to really show that you have doubt.

And the exclamation comma, for when you've really. really want to be excited mid-sentence. How do we celebrate this day? Like, is there a... You go to the old lady on the corner that's yelling about it. And you say, we're paying attention to you. No, there will be decorations. Imagine beautiful commas hanging from like little garlands.

The parade. It's a parade. The whole issue is one holiday and your holiday no longer becomes necessary because they're no longer obscure. I want a reason to have a cake that has like a bunch of like semicolons on it. I don't know about you. Yeah, yeah, but, but, but, but, but, but, By three holidays, it's no longer obscure.

Got it. It's calm and punctuation. Yes, exactly. And then it becomes like, this is, this is the underlying. Then you have a holiday of obscure holidays and they're like, wait, what are we celebrating? You're like, there was this weird fucking holiday. The old lady on the corner was screaming about about punctuation that we use now. Who are you calling old?

I think we should be celebrating more obscure garbage from our paths. And if I have a reason to pull out the interrobang more, then so be it. This is what I want. Yeah. Give it two weeks and someone's going to be like, hey, did you know the Interrobang is actually super racist? The colonial history. Everything from the past is just fucked.

She wants the obscure punctuation holiday and that's what she's going to get it. Angrier. More confused. What about you, Alex? You never said your house. Yeah, what's your one? Mine is super corny. Oh, I want to hear it.

Horny. Holy shit. It's corn day. Super horny holiday. It's like Valentine's Day, but it's way horny. It's just fucking. It's called fuck Mountain Day. Orgy Day. It's pretty self-explanatory.

No, it's just like, you know, Christmas reminded me that, you know, there's this time of year where we all come together. And I was watching this corny movie. I can't remember exactly. The person was like, this is the day. where you know you kind of realize that um you can set aside your differences and whatever be be so essentially it would be not christmas or laid tied to any religion per se but just a

a holiday where you are super kind to everybody like you actually make an effort to like you know you feel like ripping that person's head off but you're like listen it's kindness day so i really i'm going to send you some flowers this is like the reverse purge yeah that's actually great i like that almost like forgiveness day like what if there was one day a year where all grievances have to be forgiven yeah like Jerry could go in to get soup on that day he's like oh

okay oh yeah yeah soup for you today but you know what I mean like like you're like oh shit I had a I had a fight in March but you know what two months is forgiveness day we'll be fine I just won't talk to until every lawyer's like shit forgiveness day is coming up we gotta do this case like all trials are closed that day

Like, because they're like, no, fuck. Yeah. We can't go to court. I do kind of like that, though. A day of like mandatory forgiveness, well, not mandatory forgiveness, but like a day where you're like in. Mandatory forgiveness. More like kindness.

Not necessarily forgiveness. Like, you know, let's say you're banned from a store because you're a total asshole. But you, that's the one day you can like go back in and be like mug them. So long as you're acting in good faith. If it's just your day to go back in there and be an asshole again. Of course. Yeah. You have to be observing the day in order for the day to observe you.

One would hope so. Whoa. Yeah. He just blew my mind. Oh, my neighbor, total asshole today. He just actually, he just gave me the finger. You have to go back to work. You have to go back to work.

I'm telling, I'm telling. Kindness Day police. Little kids on the street with whistles. Again, I told you it's the reverse purge. Back to work. Back to work. I was just imagining our next door neighbor, like, leaf flowing our lawn for us on kindness day.

Instead of just standing there blowing leaves on our lawn. In fact, maybe just breaking them up so they don't blow everywhere. I would be doing that because that's what he accused me of doing and then he called the police.

In fact, we could combine the two Alex's holidays and say it's kindness day with a certitude point at the very end. That means you say it with unwavering conviction. See, Alex gets it.

He supports punctuation. Someone has to. That's right. Well, today is Dungeons and Dragons Day. Hey, that should be a holiday. A day where you get to play RPGs with your friends. That is this day. Similar to Rob's on.

And you have to play it all day long. Good morning. Shane to a chair. All right. I'm a druid now. Okay. Just in character all day. All right.

All right. Let's do it. Let's do it. Woo. The tunnel roads. leading to Scarborough's necropolis weave through the roots of the Grey Peak Mountains.

Mari's kind of, she's kind of hanging back sort of close to Elister, sort of trying to find a way to chat awkwardly as her, as her she sort of cools off from the frustration at breakfast.

Red is actually at the very back, by himself, maybe with Stephen beside him. And he has this letter from last night still and he's got it within the pages of the open dwarven to common dictionary and he's like going word by word trying to frantically finish this thing but he's kind of hanging back until he can kind of finish reading it so I guess I'm up front with Doran then Doran and Jack what are you talking about so Doran I think we got enough space here man did

go to your say something that scared you off I know there's the plague sounds pretty pretty intimidating but hopefully you know Jack like I to say over breakfast. It's like I've had a moment of clarity and and I got to say, I feel like the gloves are off now. I'm just going to come out and say it.

I'm done hiding. There's a lot of conversation we need to have, my friend, and he puts his hand on your shoulder. You sound full of shit. What did Goethe tell you? I'm not full of shit. In fact, I've never been less full of shit. My big breakfast went quickly.

Straight through you. I've never been as unshitted as I am now. I coffee helped. Because I don't think, I think Mari suspects that Rock's like his fake. She suspects it because Doran's the only one who knows it. Yeah. Doran turns to Jack and then he kind of opens up turning almost towards everybody else that's walking along. Saying it loud enough so that even you've read trailing behind can hear what he's saying.

With his nose in a book, oddly. Listen, I've been holding back thoughts from you people, and Gautier said to me that there is no rock plague. And in fact, they were told to watch out for me and to turn me away from the city's borders because my mother does not want to see me. So she gets to have the whole city to herself? Yeah. I think it's besides the point. there's nothing here for me Jack could we enter the city

sure I think the reason why I came here was to try and settle things with my mother and it's come to me now that I realize maybe things are already settled with my mother and I just need to accept it Goetier lied to all of us

you heard from your cousin your mom was sick Gocher's the only one who said no no no rock plague's fake your mom's not sick she just doesn't want to see you if you trust this man who's lied to us a bunch. Sure. Agreed. You've come to some revelation. Are you sure he's not lying to you about this? Are you sure he's not? There's some other reason he doesn't want you to see your mother. What else does he lied about? Fucking rock plague. He lied about the rock plague. It's all the same. It's all part of the same lie. I mean, it's a one lie. I mean, at this point,

Doran, I have a score to settle with your mother. Hey, look, you know what? People make their decisions. I wrote my mom a letter last night. I kind of accepted the fact that she doesn't want seem, have anything to do with me. I feel like Red runs into the back of Elister after like the train is stopped and he's kind of like, oh, what? Yeah, go to you. You shouldn't trust him, Doran. I'm with Jack

on this one. Look, I found this letter last night. And I know you don't want me snooping on your cousin. And my intentions were pure. Lee motivated by money and interest. But I did find this letter

and it had your mother's name. on it. And I spent all last night trying to translate it. Listen to this, Doran. And I pull out the letter, having finally sort of translated all of it. And it says, this letter is not an easy one to write, but it's important for you to know that the candidate Gautier Bright Helm is not fit to be Chancellor of Scarborough. A city needs a leader who has its citizens' best interest at heart. Gautier is not that dwarf. Gautier is my nephew, and I have a long known him to be, uh, I think, I think this word is selfish, maybe, untrustworthy, greedy. Give me this. Give me this. And, and I think Doran grabs the letter from you. Furthermore, I have

reason to suspect that Chancellor, Dust Grip's death was no accident. Please take my warning seriously, Doreen Iron Fist. It makes perfect sense. Look, if this guy doesn't, doesn't, doesn't trust your mother. Why would he want you to, to speak? Who is the letter addressed to? The council of Skamborough. Well, that could mean anything, really. I mean, read, look, this isn't helpful, at least not right now, but here I'm about to write my mother a letter that writes her off.

Maybe I shouldn't be so quick to judge my mother's actions. And he rips it, right there. And he shoves it back in his pocket. I don't want it to be fan. I don't want it to be fan. We're not going to litter. We're not a fan of it. Murray is like, how dare you.

A little murder fine, but... There's a sign on the tunnels. It says, keep the tunnels clean. I don't want to be, I don't want to be being found. You know what I mean? Don't mess with Scarborough. Leave only footprints, take only memories. In fact, maybe Doran does that.

He dangles it over the ground. Then he goes, no, no, no. Why don't we talk to you go to her when we get back? Why would you keep this from us, Red? I mean, come on. There's far too many secrets being kept among us. Red, why didn't you tell me about it when you had this letter? Well, look, I saw it was your mother's name, and I didn't know if it was something worse.

Imagine that letter said something like, I don't want you to let Doran see me. If it was going to be a hurt to you, I wouldn't want to share it with you. Doran puts his hand on your shoulder, and he says, listen, I'm so glad that you just, you told me about this. I don't think we should be keeping secrets from each other. We trust each other. More or less? Doran sort of looks around at this point nodding Yeah

Jack says more or less Ellister's nodding I love this man He is all in to everything he does in life There is no thing where he doesn't push all his chips to the middle And just be like fuck it we're doing this Mari just puts her hands in her pockets Yeah

But you know if I had Told you that letter and it was a negative one Then you would have been even more sure not to see your mom today. I was just trying to be sensitive with the information that I had on hand to save you from being hurt. And Red's eyes flick to Jacks for like a second. And in truth, that this is maybe the first safe time Reds had to tell you about the letter because of where we've been. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Because it's come up. Maybe. But I guess what I'm saying is, If you know something, I think it's just better to say it

than it is to keep it to yourself, regardless of the timing. I have a crush on Mari. Oh, God damn it. Thank you for your honesty, buddy. I mean, it's not much of a secret. I'm sorry, I just thought we were coming out with our secrets. We'll talk about this later. This is a safe place, right?

I mean, technically, no. Well, we were told it wasn't safe. In fact, let's keep moving to the graveyard just while we're talking. but emotionally like yeah no harm no foul what are you what are you wait are we talking about the same thing giving a side eye to jack are we talking about crushes what who do i have a crush on i do need to get my hair done so we're we're halfway to a slumber party mar yeah marie's just been watching this and aside from uh elister's incredibly awkward declaration she's just in the back of her ignores it she's just she's just she sure to shoots him a look and then it's just like

Sorry, I'm sorry. It's all right. Hey, don't worry, buddy, you shot. You shot. The worst thing she can do is say, oh, God, like she did. So you've hit, you've hit the bottom. On the other hand, she went to the other side of life and death to pull you back, so. Yeah.

Well, that's kind of what I was thinking about when I was falling asleep last night in your arms, Jack, who said, Ari and I have been through some stuff together. It's trauma bonding, so it's not super healthy. But anyway, we'll see where it all goes. Let's give it a couple of days before we talk about it too much. You're right? That was like yesterday. Yeah. It was 12 hours ago.

How about we do this? We all pretend Elister didn't just say that. Agreed? Agreed. Yes. But what if the letter did really hurt you, Doran? What if it really made you upset? Wouldn't you want to keep it? Red, I'd rather know the truth than to be lied to by a friend.

I'd just rather know. It's a lie of omission. What? What? What? What? Well, but this letter was written, this letter wasn't written to Gautier. It's not like it had an intended audience that you were stooping on it.

Clearly is something he must have intercepted. It wasn't like it was a personal communication between two people that absolutely should be able to have conversations because they're just people who know each other through whatever life circumstances. This is like clandestine, you know, life and death stuff. Very different. I guess. And if knowing that, only... hurts your friend's feelings, then really what you're doing is protecting your friend,

not hurting him through a lie, or her, or them. What are you guys talking about? Mari just pat's right on the back, sort of just like, they're there, all right, let it out, buddy. My brain's hurting. You know what? I think we should figure out what we're going to do in the here and now. How about next time we just decide that if a letter needs to be talked about, we just Just talk about it, all right? And Mari sort of stalks ahead a bit.

Easy for her to see. She ain't got no fucking lettuce. It's all her friends died. That's the end. Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. Oh, no. It's right in you, honey. Ow.

Marry, cute and Marry just looking into the distance. waiting for a pigeon to come. I like to imagine you look at her bag filled with letters. Her family's been writing her with this whole time. The Mari fan club is constantly in touch. That's good. I don't know. I had to jet.

Jack had to invent a spell. There's apparently a whole web of pigeons just delivering mail. No problem. All right. Before long, you are at the mouth of a cavern lit by strange, violet fog. The floor of the cavern is uneven, humped with stalagmites and slabs of rock, and worn paths made by hundreds of dwarven feet over many years work their way between the formations. As you approach the cemetery, the rocky formations on the floor

of the cavern are, on closer inspection, the worked entrances to noble mausoleums. Purple mist shimmers underfoot and between these houses of the dead, as you may your way deeper. Wow. We've never been to a place like this where someone we know has loved ones here. It's quite a different feeling than, you know, some of the ancient graveyards we've been to. Yeah, that definitely makes it different. As we stand here at the gates of this cemetery, Doran turns to the rest of the party.

He says, you guys talk amongst yourselves. Give me a few minutes. And he enters on his own. Doran takes the long, silent walk on his own through the cemetery. Almost as if he's got a map in his mind, he remembers exactly where the gravestones for his brothers are and where his father is buried. Doren arrives at the three gravestones

and he looks down to the graves and he says Well hello gentlemen It's been a while Dad You know I tried to fall on your footsteps And I think I did a pretty damn good job I've had my opportunity to beat myself up too Just like you

I remember. Oh, I remember. But, uh, hell, we all make mistakes, and I've learned that I have to forgive myself for those mistakes. And you two, Lauren and Gorin, the way you shaped my character. I thought I'd come here. pay my respects and then never come back because

I think you'll all agree that it's kind of useless talking to a couple of gravestones but what really matters is what we do with our lives and how we treat ourselves and we treat those around us

so I'm not going to beat myself up any longer and I'm going to do better going forward Doran snips three tufts of his beard hair and ties them into a ceremonial style these like specialized knots that he's created three of them now out of his beard hair in the in the short time that he's kneeling in front of the graves and he places each one down and he stands up and he turns around only to see the four of you standing behind him hey and dory kind of stands there with his hands open and he says look we all pay our respects in different ways all right oh do what you need to do everybody grieves in their own way honors the dead in their own way it's all it's all good dorin well hell if we're here and red like steps up and walks past say hi mr

Doran, my name is Redd. This is my best friend, your son, Doran, and my best friend, Mary, and my best friend Jack, and hell, my best friend, Elister. We've heard not much about you, but I heard a lot about you, too. Red points the two, like, smaller tombstones. You're his brothers, you know? You're his brothers, you know, and we're kind of his brothers, you know, too.

And it's nice to meet you, finally, Gorin, and Red taps Gorin's thing. And you, Lauren, and Red touches the top of Lauren's. I just wanted to meet them officially, Doran, and Red steps back with the others. And on the way out, I'll point out some of the more famous grapes, if you'd like. Oh. Jackson! Red comes back over, and she's like, I missed what the names were.

What are their names? Lauren, Gorin. And I didn't get the father's name, but I just call them Papa Doran. Actually, I have her written down somewhere. I'll tell you. I don't have your dad's name Boren Faron Fondin

Dwallin Dwalin Dwalin I like that because Doren's mom's name is Doreen That all the names are Dried from her And that's cool

My father's name is Dwalin Dwaran Iron Fist Excellent Dwalin Yeah and as they're sort of starting To head away Mari just sort of reaches Into her bag

And there's like a little Like leather pocket and she puts in it there's just a little thing of these herbs and she sprinkles some of them onto the grave just as a little tiny bit of offering it's a little oregano yeah it turns out it's just parsley and like dried onions but ceremonial grade no it's like the fuck are you doing we like it bland it's it's it's amaranth it's amaranth and and uh rosemary in her mind she's thinking about, you know, again, being so recently in that space between life and death, and it

feels closer here. Now you're in a space with so much, like, death, even though it's old death, there's a, her understanding of this has changed a bit. Cool. It's very nice, Mari. And she just gives Red a little smile and just keeps walking. And if you look over there, that was the same. See that, you know, Jack? Bill four.

I'm going to point it out. Oh, no way. And I can see, like, it's almost a different style of gravestone. And it must be another generation older, right? And look how tall it is. Jack, you're pointing at a mushroom. No, the tall one right over there, the one that's very, very tall with the statue of a dwarf on top. That was the founder of.

The one that looks like a mushroom. Of Scarborough. Wow. And his name. Is he nude? What is that? Well, he is. It's a very organic form for sure.

You know, that's just the old. Artistic style. They used to draw them naked with little, little, little Geigeress. Penises. I'm brutalist. Trust me, they don't all look that small. It was cold the day they were carving it, I guess. The stylized mushroom is what I'm hearing. Doran's bum blush. I'm picturing like a dwarven statue of David. They say the stone makes it look smaller. Well, yeah. The stone takes away a few inches.

Chipped it off and stolen in. Yeah. So are we going to go into 10? or wait for... Red... Something moves inside of your bag. Oh! Red sort of hangs back for a second and pulls up his bag

and reaches in. The warm furry body of Stevie hops into your hand. Oh, hey, Stevie. How you doing, little buddy? Stevie is squeaking as fast as his little squeaks can squeak. Oh, what's wrong?

And his little whiskers are going like crazy. Hey, guys, take a look at Stevie. Is he dancing? He's doing a funny little dance. Is he, is he? Well, but isn't that his, like... All at once.

A great and terrible cracking sound echoes from the entrance to the cemetery, followed by the crash of rocks splitting apart and following in a massive cave in. Huge plumes of dust shoot through the air as boulders and rock slabs violently fall into a pile at the cavern entrance. It would seem. that you all are trapped. Thank you to our wonderful patrons, Adam Fry, Afflicted Adina, Aizu Youkai, Allison Wrights, Alistair, Anne, Atholagov, Axel,

Barry Ginette Casey Cetel Lee Wilson Sherry Rose Anderson Christopher Colin Burckhart Crow Daniel

Dippity Flynn Gareth Bradshaw Haley Haley Hap of the Mox J.D Joy Robinson

Julie Holderman Jury K R K M Cade Lizania Last Ruth on the left Leader J

Liz Lorelei Feldman Mander Pants Merrick's Moon Matilda Rushing Melinda Curley Moon Oakland

Quill Bennett Regan Wren Scottie Shannon Waldner Sray 96 Tegan T kettle

Tony Pepperoni Trin Waffle 427 Zanda Morning Dove Zuckhaus and Zephyrus Thank you so much

Woo!