Dice Shame - 2-84 | 'The Prodigal Son'

Episode Date: April 4, 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.

We know he's already tried to kill us a couple of times. That's the old family homestead. That's where I grew up. Two feet. You've been holding your eye in so original. Where'd you come up with that? Could have given you the key to the front door? Do you want to make it harder for them to get close to the house?

I've been waiting so long to use this. What a horror show. Go to bed. Is he holding it by the blade? Oh shit? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hey, you know, the plumbing is it's real fucked in this place. You really are as sick as I...

As, as I thought you were, oh, oh, dear. Welcome back to Dice Shame. This is Season 2, Episode 84, The Prodigal Son. MVP this week is Drac Kelly or Dratchelie, who just joined us on Discord. Dratchelie writes that they binge their way through. malevolent and divisor and are happily making their way through dice shame they also enjoy our spooky streams ah yeah thanks so much for hanging out with us you are this week's mbp all right should we play some d and d yeah let's do it woo when it comes to warhammer i don't know anything

about it but i know the lore is like amazing and expansive i've heard like really Like tidbits, I played a bunch of Warhammer, like, video games, so I'm not naive to it. And I have to say, the idea of the game, you know, being in charge of these armies does appeal to me. Because I do really enjoy, you know, I have that very, very big part of, you know, a certain type of people that love, like, oh, I love World War II tactics and stuff like that. Like, I do enjoy being like, oh, they flank them on the ridge. I downloaded, that part does appeal to do. Total War, Warhammer, whatever the three or whatever the latest one is recently, and been playing

that, and it's pretty fun. Yeah, but I'm right there with you. I have zero skill at painting, and I don't really have any interest in painting, and I have zero skill at assembling minis, and I don't really have any interest in assembling minis. Yeah, that's all I want to do. I found a YouTube channel where they paint and assemble minis,

and I love it. I'm fascinated by it. I'm like, whoa, that's so cool. Oh, the stuff people can do is crazy. See? and that's, I'm the opposite. I'm like, I didn't really, I don't really care. Like, sure, the game is kind of cool, but like, to me, to have a full setup in my basement where, you know, you spend 20 years curating like this scene and these miniatures and just like.

You're going to be a train set guy later on. That's funny. Someone had this miniature, like, train set in their basement. And I just thought, wouldn't that be cool if. you had, you know, a train set and a Warhammer set and like a miniature, like it was all kind of combined? That side of it appeals to me too. What I mean

to say is like commandeering an army and like yeah, like seeing all the gorgeously painted minis and the tanks and shit and like having them and playing with them that way, I would really like that. But yeah, no, I would hate assembling and I don't know. If, who knows, maybe at some

point in the far far future if I'm like, you know, oh this could be something. I want to get really granular. Rich and bored. rich and bored for real I was always saying to Joe because I was watching these videos and she's like you're not interested and I was like no God no

but if we ever had so much money that we had a literal spare room in our house I would dedicate that to wargaming yeah totally totally that could be the war gaming also the kids would have to be gone no kids would be in on NRK

Marie would be like tiny hands could hold stuff I was seeing a guy at one point who decided to play Warhammer but you didn't want to paint minis so you just spray painted them all silver and said they were Terminators. Beautiful.

Whoa. That's like shortcuts. I don't think that's allowed. It's so funny, but at the same time, so lame. We play Mansions of Madness with unpainted minis. Well, and it's funny because I was like, man, again, I wish, I wish I cared to paint them. Because I'd love to paint those little Lovecraftian minis. They'd be so cool.

I just want to paint minis. I don't want to play. I just want to paint things. I would love to paint them. Like, Ritchie's really good at it. And she, every once in a while, she'll buy. minis or whatever and paint them or she's doing some other garage kid stuff and like it just it blows me away the stuff that's like oh how did you get that eyeball on there with like a pupil and everything

nice i would love to do that stuff but i would just need the fucking time well that's the thing right the other side of well that's what i'm saying with the kids right if i was like well that minis over kids we're yeah kids are minis they're just adults oh yeah let's paint our kids Every Halloween you get to trot them out And there's Storm Trooper armor and away you go Speaking of painted children I had this scene So I was trying to put my daughter down

To sleep Thanks for clarifying And of course I was just I was conveying to you guys how You know last night And Monday night I had no plans afterwards And of course she's like

You know I finished my book And she turns over and falls right to sleep No problem And then tonight it's like I have something and it's like, just go to sleep. And, of course, the tone of my voice caused her to, you know, cry and get a little upset.

I'm like, which just extends it longer. So I'm like, okay, I wasn't yelling at you. I was just saying you need some sleep because you're going to be tired. You know, I'm like going on like this. And then I'm coming upstairs to meet you guys in record. And I'm thinking it would be a hilarious scene to have Doreen. Be like, just go to sleep, Doreen. Why don't you fucking kids ever sleep

Quit forging under the bed sheets and go to sleep Foraging Forage he's a blacksmith I was like what is he foraging foraging for I don't know It's in the blood Berries from the night before Crumbs You never know what you might find in there

Go to bed I'm sorry mom I'm just foraging under the covers I can smell Oh, my God. Forge with the light off. Oh. Yeah. Shall we do this?

Let's do it. The venting stalactite is a monstrous thing that hangs thickly from the ceiling of the cavern, connected by copper piping to individual dwellings in an orderly system. Similar stalactites hang in the distance over other neighborhoods, while various statues and other structures pierce upwards. giving the town the feeling of a mouth full of clenched teeth. At the stalactites pointed bottom, an access door is open about six inches, permitting the party inside a view of Doran's childhood home.

Doran's mother lives on the base level of a neighborhood complex and staircases carved from stone running up and over one side of it. There's a channel of river water running alongside that. It's a lovely home from the outside with a central front door and two large rooms clearly on either side, each sporting some glass windows looking out into the street. So it's kind of like an apartment complex, but the layers are all staggered. It's like a collapsing cake, but way more precisely engineered. Whoa.

Kind of vibe. A collapsing cake? Yeah, I picture kind of like labyrinthine, M.C. Escher type. Like, there are staircases that go up and over someone's home to reach the next house that's on top, but it's set backaways and there's like a courtyard on top. Like playing with the organic shapes of the stone that was there. Wait, did you say Escher or Geiger? How organic are we talking?

Doran's mom lives on the, like, street level, essentially. You wouldn't really be able to, like, scale up on top of it because there's another dwelling up there as well. The party is at the point of this. stalactite looking through the door at the house. Darn, is that it? It's such a house. Yeah, yeah, that's, uh, that's the old family homestead. That's where I grew up.

It seems like the street is quiet for the moment. Yeah. Red leans away from the side of the stalagin tight. Uh, and he was doing his primeval awareness to kind of wait for a lull in the movement of the street. Seems like it's as quiet as it's going to get. Just a point of order before we jump up there. I don't know what to expect

But I know I'm pretty cooked From that explosion earlier I don't know if anybody else Still singed It could get dicey All right Well I guess I don't need a healing Jack, do you need a healing?

Oh my God, your eye is droopy Yeah, I've been holding it in You've been holding your eye in? Well, it's, I don't think the dust in there Did it any favors He has like finger in a hole Has been spurting blood this whole time It's like a water balloon

It was just shrapnel I didn't know until it was too late, and then when you pull it out, you bleed a little bit and you push it. It's horrible. Yeah. They could follow the trail. I've been cleaning blood off my outfit this whole time. All right, well, heal up. Let's be smart about this.

Yeah, somebody patch this boy up. I can change into starry form, and that might help a bit. Oh, the bright, starry, dazzly, beautiful form you take? It makes an impression. It makes a big impression. Here's the thing, I think. If we're just going to walk in, then I want Gautier to be dazzled. Is that the plan, though?

We're just going to walk. Wait, hold on. Why do you want to go? It doesn't matter. Well, moments before I hit him with a starry arrow or something, but. I mean, look, Doren, you said, you know, back at the tavern that you wanted to kill Gautier. Is that our plan, everybody? I mean, are we just going to ice this guy?

Oh. Well, I made a promise to, uh, garram that I wouldn't kill anybody. I mean, I don't think we want to snipe through the windows and just take, go tear out cold. I think we need to confront him, though. And I think if we're going to confront him, we better be as ready for a fight as we're going to be because we know he's already tried to kill us a couple of times. I agree with you. And not only that, but smash him in the face doesn't necessarily mean I'm going to kill him. No. But I'm going to smash him in the face. I'll tell you that much. I can't wait to see it. Doran, he's like an important guy, right?

Yeah, like you can't just walk in there without proof or evidence. Watch me. And Doree starts to stand up. Hold on. Hold on, don't, darn, darn, darn. Just hear me out for a second. All right. I think Ellis has got a point.

I mean, look, this is the chancellor of Scarborough. You know, we know from my little mushroom friend. Hi, by the way. Red reaches over to Jack's pocket and taps him on the head. Hey, buddy. He just reaches a tiny, my coned hand out and just gives everyone a little wave, like, I'm still here. You know, we know from him, you know, what's really happened. But, I mean, I don't know if that's going to hold up in the court of law.

I mean, look, anything that happens to the chancellor right now, I think he has a degree of plausible deniability around it. Look at it this way. We have a letter from Doreen stating her concerns. We need to get her the witness to his crimes away from him and into a safe place. That's got to be the mission, right? Right. I think that makes sense, yeah.

Look, but that means probably then stealthy, right? Because if we go in there, it's possible that we don't even get to Doreen if Why don't Why don't you sneak over there and get a lay of the land and come back? And then maybe that gives us more information to make a decision.

Abidi, abdi, abda, abda, abda, abda, me? What other reason would he have to be inside of my mother's house unless, of course, he's confronting her about these letters? I mean, there's, there's a good reason why

he would be in there and it's probably not to go for a visit. Wait, are you saying why would he be in the house? Yeah, yeah. Why would he be in the house? You got to think like you're, pray, Doran, right? Gautier at this point knows that we

didn't die. There's a wanted poster in the tavern, right? Right. Logically, if he's going to put himself in your shoes, he knows that you, more than anything, want to visit your mom. It's a good chance that

he's planned for us to arrive here. And Red kind of like sits back and thinks for a second. He already knew you were coming to see her. Right. Um, what other reason does he have to block me from coming and to see my mother?

Well, Doran, we've killed some dwarves. I think between the two parties, we're the ones that would be killed on site. Well, I don't think that's the possibility. I mean, why wouldn't it be? The guards know that were wanted for murder. They already tried to kill us once. Why wouldn't they do it again? Look, if Goetia has a blind setup, if this is hunting.

How do we outsmart him? Is there a back way into your mom's house? I don't think so, actually. There's another option here, then. I mean, Doren is being sought by Gautier, but it's entirely plausible that the rest of us just get addled. I can go invisible for a very brief amount of time. It's possible that we do our little holy trick again,

provided that there aren't too many stacks of books in the portable hole. We could fit. Maybe the four of us or all of us get in the house through the upstairs window. You all jump in the hole. I scamper up the side invisible line. going through a window and get in through the top floor, let you out before you suffocate and die, and then we have, at the very least,

entered the abode without notifying anyone. Red, why don't you sneak up to the window and peer inside and see if you see anybody? Okay. I mean, that's what the logical soldier in me would think. All right, go and take a look. I was thinking about breaking into the attic. Well, there isn't an attic.

There's an apartment up there. It's somebody, like think condos. Yeah, I know. Hey, lady, we've got to get in through your basement. Where's your shitter? Red and fucking Doran show up as plumbers. Hey, you know, the plumbing is it's real fucked in this place. Italian dwarves.

Well, then before healing and turning into anything, Glowy, I'll go check the window like Doran suggested. I'll be right back. And red slunks out, like the Grinch. You're a mean one. Red. So the street is clear? Yeah, there are a couple of. people passing here and there, but you still have your Pass Without Trace active, correct?

Yeah. It's an hour. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I do. Well. Yeah.

You've got about three, two, one. Oh, no. It's gone. Oh, damn. I already did it. I already did it. Across the street. Already fucking did it. Red, this neighborhood is clearly far. away than the street festival that you'd seen earlier, but there are a couple of people wandering around on the streets. Why don't you give me a perception check?

All right. 14. Yeah, you actually see a member of the guards just down the street. He seems to be kind of posted up. Ah, red comes back in. I don't know, guys. I saw a guard down the street, kind of post it up. Give me one more second, and red kind of goes back out. and Cairo, insight on that guard? Sure. What are you hoping to glean?

I'm hoping to glean whether they are just on a regular patrol or if they're watching the house. All right. Waka, waka. That's Red's new catchphrase, by the way. I love it. So original. Where'd you come up with that?

Yeah, never. Shut up, Rob. 19 plus 7. 26 insight on that stupid guard. With the well-used high roll for this extremely important detail. Don't undermine my role. You can tell, by the way, he's fingering the haft of his axe. Please, he's like the Bee Gees.

Whoa. You can't tell by the way he's... What? He's figuring his axle? Who's axole is he fingering right at us? Just gripping the shaft of his weapon. He's ready for... This is Gautier?

No. Shut the foot? It's a guard, it's a guard A little ways down the street Goethe's just taking a smoke break outside You can tell by the way his hands are tightened In anticipation On the handle of his axe

That he's ready for you He knows you guys are coming Uh-oh, Red comes back in Uh, no go, Dorn I can't go sneak up to that house Because I'm telling you, that god down there He's waiting for us Might not be the only one

That means it's being locked down Look, I go invisible, you all jump in portable hole. I get us in there. Bing bang boozy. No one sees us. Flusis. Do we want to make it harder for them to get close to the house? Because I have an option. Pitch it here. And this is a spell haven't gotten to use yet, which is spike growth, which is an area of effect spell, which basically turns to the ground into spikes. I like it. I like it. My hesitancy is that they would immediately know that we're going towards the house because spikes would pop up and but I like what your head's at

I think I'm trying to I'm trying to Marri's just trying to sort of keep people back in a non-lethal way I think you should do that I think what we should do

though is I think Reds got a good idea and we'll jump in the portable hole get inside the house and then Mari if you stand by the front door or keep a peer out

and look for anybody approaching then if you see anybody any guards, you know, put up a bunch of spikes around the house. It'll just stop them all from coming in. I think that's a great idea. Well, it'll stop them for a bit. It makes it difficult terrain, so. Yeah.

It'll stop them, and it hurt, but it does hurt. So, um. I'm wondering tactically if that's really well positioned in a hallway inside this house to prevent people from coming down it to get us if we're in a room with Doreen. Let I have this, Jack. Spikey gross. Jack, you also know that if all of you were. to hop in the portable hole, something's going to have to happen with these

bags of holding that you guys have because you can't bring them with you. Oh, no, 100%. It's already in my head that we're going to have to give all the bags of holding to reds and then, right, like, Mari can't... Hold on, what do you mean give all the bags of holding to red? I already have one. I just hold on the marries for five minutes. That's what I'm saying.

For six seconds. That's all I'm talking about. For 12 seconds. Don't want to rift in the astral plane. If this is key, that would really wreck our day. Picks out losers. We're going to spin. bass.

All right, Mary, I take your bag of holding. Jack, you, Mari, Elister, and Little Doran here all hop in the... Little. I mean, presuming that there's not too many books in there. There's lots of room in the portable hole, Red. Is this safe?

Well, it's risky. Define safe. Survivable. Define survivable. It's been done before, and Red and Doran lived to tell the tale. From what I've heard about portable holes, you can't breathe in them, right? It's not...

There is air, it's just a finite amount of air. Yeah, like in the cave-in, remember? When one of us freaked out, no one remembers who. When Red did really good in a tight and closed space. Hey. Oh, boy. Well done, Red, you survived. I'm used to the big freedom of the above land.

It's probably squeezing her hair out, getting ready. Jack is pulling out the portable hole and starts to unfold it on the ground of this space, looks up and Mari we better make sure we don't take that bag into the portable hole it's a riff to the astral realm kind of problem we don't need today

no no I think we've got enough problems right now and she hands it over to red there's like key chains it's like dangling off of it at some point she's like made one of those little beaded geckos oh my gosh on at some point today you've done so much to this in so little time she's been doing it sort of absent mindedly

like as just safety pin on the side and you're like working on a friendship bracelet. I think if we're hidden in this hole, it makes perfect sense to enter your starry form now because you're... Oh, yeah. And see if we can, you know, get everybody filled up with that chalice and then away we go. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I got singed up in the fireball, remember?

Yeah. I'm all black and burny. You smell terrible, red. I don't smell terrible. The burnt hair. I don't smell anything. Oh, no. That's not a good sign.

My arm is numb. Redd? Oh, no. Oh, right. Oh, no. There's like a huge laceration on the back of his head. Oh, you have a concussion? This explains a lot.

It happened in the cave in, actually. A big stone fell in his head. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We just haven't noticed that Red's, like, terribly concussed. He fell from the top of the cave roof, so he's, uh... That must have been it. Yeah, and, uh, and as Mari hands the bag over to Red, she closes her eyes for a minute and these stars start to form out from the middle of her chest

and spread out across her body and into her hand this shape of a chalice comes in forms. And once it's at its full glowing form, she takes it and she sort of tosses it into the air and where the light falls, it turns into this shimmering mist and it falls over red and jack and red, you heal 15 points and jack, you heal 35. Nice. Freshly healed burns on Jack's body now taking care of. He steps down into the portable hole and starts kind of shuffling things around to make sure all the books are not going to get like stepped on or sat on. He, you know, has them in a nice safe trunk that he sits on just so that nobody gets into it.

And then there's, you know, a nice big six foot diameter by 10 foot deep hole for us all to spend some time in. Have fun in the void. Oh, boy. and red light helps everyone down Mari takes a big deep breath You look nervous Doren looks up at Mari Yeah a little bit

I just want to say That was really impressive That's a really beautiful Magic trick you did there And it worked really nicely on Dorn let's just get in the hole But you get in last And that way you spend the least amount of time

You could be the first one out Dorn kind of tucks his arms in and, like, does a little hop straight into the hole. Alistair does a cannonball and, like, hurts his tailbone really bad at the bottom. Oh, boy. Yeah. Mari just sort of, like, carefully slides in, not jumping. On the upside, it's going to be bright in here because of starry form.

True. So it's not going to be... We can watch ourselves suffocate. Yeah. Sort of bright. Reds like standing over the hole looking down. All right, guys. And I just want to say, everything.

It's going to be fine. Don't be worried. Take a deep breath. And I'm really resisting the urge to fart before closing this thing. Yeah, that's not funny. Red, I swear to God. What are you going to do? In the moment when Red is pulling up the hole and closing it,

Jack closes his eyes and channels that bit of void that he was in when he was stuck inside a stone. Skin turns granite-like and protective. He sort of like figures out where his dagger is because his magic sir not going to help him. Cool. Yeah, and Red like, I kind of, for some, some reason imagine it like a drawstring like he's like getting smaller and right before it closes he's like just in case be ready to fight when I open this thing

I don't know what's coming and he closes it man that must be like such a clean and tidy way of committing murder just tricking someone to go into a portable hole and closing it red taps it's not the first time either enjoy the skeletons no red picks it up flicks it like a coin puts it in this pocket and peeks out silently again looking at the street waiting for his moment. He's about to cast invisibility when he notices that none of the windows are open

and the door is shut and he kind of sits back, huh. And this is the part of the movie where people would be like, oh my God, Red move. They're suffocating, but he's just like, think, think, think, Red, think, think, think. Finally, some quiet. Now that it's quiet in here. I need time for my novel. And he kind of looks out again, and he sees running along the side of the house the sewage trench. Yeah, so there's a channel of water from the river, and then beside that, you would presume...

Do I dare to crawl in the poopie of Doreen? The poop chute. Wouldn't be the first time I'd be an iron fist shit. So much power, Red Lake flicks the thing in his hand again. All right, time to muscle up. Wonder what they're doing in there. I bet Doran Fadden. Anyway, focus, Red.

You can do this. Okay, I don't want to smell that poopy, though. And Red casts icy mantle on himself, which, again, canonically, covers him in like a half inch thick of just ice. So he's basically got an ice condom on right now in his mind, because it doesn't get destroyed until he breaks it with an action or one minute. So basically, that's just going to keep all the shit off of him, so long as he closes his own. mouth. And as long as it's not like roiling hot shit that will melt through your eyes. Only physical damage breaks it. So it could be the hottest shit. It could be the fucking hottest shit in the land, yo. As long as you don't stub your toe and you go into it and

strips and it explodes off. What a fucking hero's stubbing his toe like that. I love the idea. Yeah, red light gets all this ready and then he walks out and trips a immediate on the street. Becomes visible. Portable hole falls out. Everyone spills out like assholes. Oh, my God, I want that reality so badly. But not in this reality. Red is a hunter. He casts the icy mantle, and then he casts invisibility, and with 90 feet to his name using all of his abilities,

he slinks out of this stalactite, dives into the sewage trench, crawling over all the dukies from all the iron fist clans that I've gotten stuck for years and years. Handy, knees, he zit all the way. Right up into Doran's pooper. And his head just slowly peeks over the bowl of Doran's pooper. What a horror show.

Just an icy fox face. Covered out of the shit. Slowly materializes and becomes visible as he's just dripping and liquid shit. He's in the reading without a magazine. You see your reflection in the mirror. He has to be having a guard shitting there right now. And he's like, uh-oh. I've got a problem here.

It's a cold. Oh, God. Splash up. And Red crawls out and he throws the portable hole in the wall to bathroom, which I have to assume is a private room because it's a bathroom. And when the four in the hole kind of are greeted by the light of the bathroom, they just see fucking Red in the tub scrubbing himself off with like a little bit of water. Hey, guys. Hey. What happened?

You don't want to know. You got us right inside, right into the bat. Oh, no. Oh, my God. And Red just, like, glances over to the toilet. Shitty ice shards in the bathtub. Mario's cast Druidcraft to put that little, like, bubble of vanilla over her head again, because all she can smell is, like, whatever has come out of the toilet.

Alistair puts his hand on your shoulder, Red, and he goes, You didn't what you had to do. I saw things. God, they eat a lot of corn here. Our whole life is corn. You know what, Red? I'm sorry you had to do that. We should have discussed about it earlier, but...

What'd you say about disgusting? I could have given you the key to the front door. Doran, like, reaches into his breast pocket and kind of holds up a key and then puts... No, no, no, it wasn't about it being shut. I didn't want the door or the window or anything to open. I realized once you guys were in the hole, that kind of would negate the invisibility if they could just see something. At least we weren't. The only one's in the hole. We're sort of on a clock until someone in the house needs to use the washroom.

Hey, don't worry, there's two bathrooms. Oh, good. I saw two shit trenches. Someone's in here. Just hanging out of order sign on this. There's like this muffled conversation coming from the bathroom. All right, we're going to have to keep it down. Agreed.

But I don't want to play the whole game whispering. But I do cast a pass without trace. Additionally, it leaves behind no tracks or other traces of its passage, which means we don't only have to worry about dripping water or anything like that. Just shitsmears everywhere. All of the poopie just disappears. Agreed. You guys are being stealthy, but not talking in whisper voices for the sake of the podcast.

Podcast is a character now. Yeah, that's right. It's the deity to which we all pray. I love this idea that Red's like, okay, Mari, your starry form, we're ready. Jack, excellent. Okay, you got your dagger drawn, Dorn. You know what you're doing? Oh, fuck, Elester.

I forgot you're here. I'm here for moral support. Dorn gave me this stagger, so... Okay. And you'll make good use of it, too. Thanks. Hold it up and look threatening, all right? Like that?

Oh, my God, we're fucked. He takes it and he turns it around you. You're not gonna... Is he holding it by the blade? You want to... He's holding him by the blade. Oh, this hurts. Not like this.

This makes so much more sense. Yeah. God, I caught myself. All right, Dorn. Where is Doreen's room? You know, from this place. Like I was saying. out this door

and I think we just kind of keep an eye open but it's through the front hallway back through the dining room and then it's the first bedroom once we get into the hallway there wait it's on the other side of this wall uh yeah yeah

huh Red kind of walks up to the wall Doran how thick are these walls do you think how thick are the walls yeah How thick are the walls How thick are the walls I really need to know

Because I have a little weird idea And I need to know Can you tell me if they're thick They're like two feet thick Interesting Two feet Yeah doors don't fuck around Yeah

Oh my God This is rock man Huh How much wasted spaces in this giant house Yeah how much Two feet is fine Two feet is fine I'm not a builder

But this is a... Two feet, it's fine. It's fine for what? I have an idea. Sure. Red walks up to the wall that is against Doreen's room.

And he's like, you're sure it's on the other side of this wall, right, Dorn? Yeah. All right. Red peels off a patch from his robe of useful items. Oh shit! Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And he places on the wall Yes. A four-fold. foot, two foot wide window. This is so clutch. Yes. Wow. I've been waiting so long to use this.

Oh, that's cool. Red places the window on the wall. And it's almost like Jack's sticker hole thing that wasn't real, except this goes on flat, like he like sticks it on and stretches it like wallpaper. And then suddenly there's just this window into Doreen's room. And Red kind of does a little, this bathroom is not private anymore but that's fine red i love your ingenuity and i dislike your interior design philosophy why you don't want to poop while having someone stare at the back

your head doesn't matter let's go through dorin elbows his way in front of red and sticks his head into the bedroom mother are you in here dorin as you look into this room you're met with again all this nostalgia, just waves of it. The same bed spread is on the bed that she used to have 30, 40 years ago. On the wall across from the bed, you see a piece of art that you and your brothers had made for her, three little dwarven handprints embedded in some clay, and underneath the three of your names scratched, Lauren, Doran, and Gorin. The first hammer that you ever used, you know, used at a forge, maybe in school or something like this, is sitting on top of a placard over her night table.

And in bed is this little, frail old woman looking impossibly small to you. Her hair plastered damply to her head. And she doesn't even really look up to acknowledge you. Oh, Mom. you you really are as sick as I as I thought you were

oh dear and he climbs right through the window and he rushes to her bedside yeah and he grabs her hand and he says Mom

Mom I think Red quietly climbs through as well Mom it's it's me Doran I'm sorry it's I'm sorry it's been so long. I'm... Her hand is surprisingly frail in yours.

The muscles wasted away somewhat, and her clouded eyes turned towards you and her mouth works to produce a word, a sound. Doran? Yeah. Yeah. it's me you recognize my voice

still and she leans her head back against the wall in exhaustion mom I'm sorry I've been away because I was ashamed I have always

felt guilty about my brothers I've always taken the blame and of course I was responsible for them but you know I'm just sorry that we I'm sorry that I'm only here now through great effort the elderly woman reaches her hand out towards you Doran and cups your face her fingers kind of entwine in your dirty beard a little bit she just tries again to look up at you.

She doesn't say anything. Doran takes his mother's hand and places it on his cheek and then leans in and embraces his mother in the bed wrapping his arms around her and his head next to hers

and you guys see this burly dwarf turn into this sobbing individual. Aw, Doran. Can't do that to me. Inspiration.

Sweet. Nice. Well then. Excellent. Thank you. Now squeeze it more. Yeah, I'm going to. Mama.

It's me widow Darwin. No, no, no. Too far. Too far. Dial it back. Dial it back. I'm a little baby again. See, I thought it was going to go

Dysame Babies where it was just all of us then you see him sit up and he looks up to see his hammer on her shelf and his companions standing around in the room and almost like he realizes where he is and he remembers what's going on and he comes to his senses and he says where where is he? Where is Gautier? Is he here? Is he here in the building? Sitting next to your hammer, Doran on the shelf is a backpack you don't recognize and he points to it who's standing closest i guess is that red i don't know yeah i am here i am what was that that was me who's it who got in there red are you possessed yeah i'm just tired i crawled through a lot of shit today observing this backpack is there anything

that gives me any reason to believe that it's not hers is it worse to get the rat whoa you you went That's kind of where my brain went, too. This guy's been known to blow shit up. Really? That there's a bomb in here? No, you kind of, you recognize it from your vision with the Myconid. This is the backpack that Gautier put down in the room when he came to visit her this morning. This is Gautier's bag.

Red. That's Gautier's bag. Oh, cool. It's not bad. I mean, I like, oh, shit, you're right. Rifle through it. Oh, speaking of, here, Mari, you can take your bag back. Oh, thank you.

And Red goes to open it. As Red sort of goes towards the bag, Marie grabs him by the shoulder, and she's like, Please don't hit me with your hair. No, no, not this time. Oh, good. That was the bag that we saw in the vision from Myconad, that Gautier put down. Yeah. Maybe you should get Stevie to give it a little sniff first.

Yeah. And Red reaches into the bag holding and pulls out Stevie. Stevie, give it a sniffy. And Red holds out Stevie to sniff the bag. Nah, Stevie turns around and gives you rat thumbs up. Okay. All right, well, let's see what's in this. Red still tentatively, because it could be a trap, opens Gautier's bag.

Inside of this bag, Red, you find some rations. You find food and water, probably enough that would last you about 10 days. You find a small sack of gold pieces, 25 gold inside. and you find a small piece of parchment folded up way in the bottom, like shoved underneath everything. Red delicately takes the piece of parchment out and then hands it to Doran. As you go to hand the parchment to Doran, your eye catches on a detail of this folded parchment.

Wait, wait, wait, and Red Lake pulls it back. And when you recognize what it is, your blood runs cold. there is a broken seal on the paper that is a black wax stamp in the shape of a rolling wave oh shit spit it out red um well uh remember how i um told you that i was an assassin yes This is This is their mark The Dark Tide Thank you to our

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