Dice Shame - 88 | 'A New Leaf'

Episode Date: June 17, 2021

Things at the tower cool off as the party continues their search for whatever secrets this tower may hold... Comedy, action and a whole lot of shaming come together in Dice Shame, an Actual Play Podcast of Storm King's Thunder by Wizards of the Coast! Join our GM Jo; her partner Harlan, his brother Alex & their best friends Justin and Rob as they tackle the daunting world of Faerun in this legendary adventure module! Dice Shame is a podcast that welcomes its audience to the gaming table. Like the games they play at home, they try not to take themselves too seriously. The show aims to be entertaining, inclusive, and irreverent, while still taking the rules (somewhat) seriously. Join us every Thursday morning for brand new episodes available on all major platforms including; Spotify, iTunes, Google Play and more! If you haven't checked it out yet... what are you waiting for?!? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Doran grabs your chest and pulls you back. Yeah, I was joking, too. I got it. No, I wasn't complaining. A moment of peace for the lost ones. It's all right. It's no worse than the berries. I didn't even look up. Doors don't go out around Doran. Why haven't you responded?

Whatever. Fine. If you don't want to answer, you don't have to. I'm done with this relationship. I'm like almost out of gas, but I've got just enough time. It's tough losing somebody, you know. Well, don't give me too much credit. All right. Welcome back to Dyshame. This is episode 88 and New Leaf.

This week's MVP is Jason Burroughs, who's been selflessly promoting us on Twitter. Every time you tell someone to listen to Dyshame, Red eats another piece of rabbit jerky. Sigil Entertainment is an art production studio that works with some of the top brand, in the tabletop gaming world, and they're launching a superhero-themed D&D 5E companion Kickstarter at the end of June. To celebrate this high-octane mutant, we will be collaborating

with Sigil Entertainment to bring you a brand-new, live-streamed actual play series. Harlan's going to take the DMC. I'm going to be playing a hero named Bloom, and we'll be joined by our friends Ahmed, Erica, and Gary to round out the team. We'll be going live on Monday, June 28th at 8 p.m., so check us out on Sigel Entertainment's Twitch and YouTube channels. It's going to be fun. All right, ready to get down to business. Let's do it. So, I found something interesting in the house the other day.

It's not mine. I board it from Justin. It is, he let that board. Henry had hidden all components of his beloved Batman outfit underneath his bed and carefully draped a blanket on top of it so that we wouldn't find it. because I think he wanted to make sure that he knew where it was at all times, maybe? No, I think he just wanted to keep it out. You've got to be prepared. You've got to have your secret costume in your secret base.

It's in his back cave. It was underneath the bed, just with a little blanket on top of it. I mean, I saw him do it. The funniest part, though, is he had a little pair of undies under there, too. In case. It was like a full outfit. Top to bottom. Yeah, it wasn't just like suit goes on what I'm wearing.

He got, like, down to socks. Listen, you never leave the house. with dirty underwear. You don't know. If you get hit by a bus, who's going to find you? You don't know, right? That's right. So if you get dressed as Batman, you got to put on clean undies. Although, I did ask him if they were clean and the answer was questionable. Oh, no. He kind of hemmed and hot about it. I said, did you use those? He's like, yeah. I'm like, but are they dirty? He's like, no. I was like, but were you wearing them? He's like, I wear underwear all the time. I was like, all right. That's some, that's some slick question game performance right

there. He certainly got a nail down. He learns it. Do you guys ever find it from you? Especially with you, Alex, do you ever find anything in your house that you had hidden or that Liam maybe hid from you that you discover secrets? Secret candy. No, you know what's funny is, is I don't find stuff that anybody else is hidden, but I find stuff that I have hidden. What do you hide? From yourself? Yeah. Well, I don't really. Is it alcohol? No. Do we need to stage and intervention. It's the smoking stuff, right? So what I'll do is I'll buy. It's legal now.

You're good. I know. I'll buy a little cannabis and then I'll hide some of it so that I have some for later. And then you'll smoke so much that you forget where you hit it. Well, I don't even have to smoke it because months later I'm like, oh, oh, what's this? There's like a wrapper at the bottom of this toolbox. Oh my God. There's a bunch of weed in here.

Toolbox weed. Yeah. Or like wherever I. For when you're doing like heavy duty house repair is. That's where I found it last. It sounds like long-grown habits that are hard to break, I'm imagining after a while. It's just like, this needs to be stashed somewhere or else. You know what's going to happen.

You know, your son's going to be 18 years old. You're going to open it to a box and Liam is smoking. You get in here right now. And then halfway through the argument, it's going to be like, but dad, I never, you go to your room. Dad, that's 25. Wait a minute. This is mine. This is mine from last week.

Wait a minute He smokes my brand I hide stuff on myself too Like supplies Supplies It makes it sound like What kind of supplies You hide?

Like you know, water and No but like toilet paper And stuff Like you know Because here's the thing No wonder it's so fucking Hard to find anything Around this house

Because there's a culture of hiding What's going on here So but no No because no one wants To be on the toilet To find your out of toilet paper So what I'll do Is all like

Stash one at the way, way back, right? Because what happens is, inevitably, there'll be a point in the future where I'm like, oh, my God, what? And then I'm like, clawing and trying to find something. And then I'll go, oh, thank God, I did this, and they'll find it. And I absolutely have done that multiple times. I could just picture her running around the house, poop hanging out of his butt.

And he's like, I knew I hid the paper towel here, or the toilet paper here somewhere. I'm definitely in that, like, well, I'll just, oh, yeah, I'll need that. I'll just buy one every time. And then it'll be, like, build up and be like, oh, You got 17 sticks of deodorant? Where the hell I got to find a space for it just because it's, you know, yeah, lots of deodorant just because I use it. It's going to definitely get used.

You know, I'm pretty sure I don't need one, but just in case, it should have an expert. Yeah. Oh, definitely like that with like diapers for Henry or paper towel. You know, every time it's like, well, we get paper towel. Everyone needs paper towel. And then you get like 17 rolls of paper towel. Marlon squirrels like empty jam jars around the place, too. Oh, listen, you never know when you're going to need a jam jar.

You never know when you're going to need a jar. You never know when you're going to need a jar. needed jam job. Do you guys see that fucking meme where it's Bilbo Baggins and he's like, after all, why shouldn't I keep it? But he's looking at a jar. That's Harlan. Yeah, that's me. Definitely with my jars. What about Justin? Do you hide

anything, Justin? Yeah, Justin. Or do you find hidden things? Do you find shit that your roommate hides? No. No. I mean, I'm normal. Yeah, it's not normal for things to be hidden around. I don't hide things. I lose things. It's not like Harlan and Joe's household. What do you lose?

glasses, camping equipment, it's just, it all disappears. Because we've got a lot of, especially camping equipment. We've got, uh, between Sean and I, mostly Sean, yeah, 99% Sean, one percent me, between Sean and me, we have, uh, I have a pot. A lot of camping gear. But I lose that pot every day. So mine gets, uh, swept up in his stuff and, uh, I don't know where a lot of it is, but, uh, definitely not intentionally hiding it. No. Have, have none of you hidden money on yourself, though? Yes, that's a good thinking. That's the other one I've done. Because I've definitely hid money on myself.

Whenever I put a winter coat away, I used to leave a bill in the pocket. Yeah. So that when you pull it out the next season, you're like, oh, that's why I go through all your coats. Shut up. You do now. You know what? I mean, there have been times, though, where I'm like, oh, I pull out a book and there's like $100, like, stopped into it. I'm like, you put money in books?

Absolutely. You know I do. I got two literally. literally two books with money in them. Or I like come home from making a deposit about this or that. And I'm like a serious stack of cash. Or maybe going on a trip or something. You come back with like a stack of cash.

Yeah, you just put it away. So Alex, what's your dress so that people who want to find a bunch of weed and money can just I mean, it does sound like a whole house to go through, right? Like just to like check out all the nooks and crannies up just while you were there. You know what? Maybe that's part of it.

Because I do think maybe this is a family thing because I remember like being at grandpa's house or something, you know, and like opening drawers and you see there's little thing stashed in there where they're just, it's just like secrets upon secrets upon secrets of like,

you open a random box and it's just filled with guns and you're like, whoa. My grandfather was a locksmith and when he passed away I got this cool like lockbox and I like teenage me like put all my treasures in there,

whatever that was. But then I lost the key and moved this box around with me for like 20 years until a friend of mine recently maybe recently like a year ago I got them to pick the lock for me because she's pretty handy with that kind of stuff.

And it was like all of this weird like, oh, here's a cool ring that looks like a lion. And here's a bunch of shiny rocks. And here's, like, true ice. And here's a letter opener that looks like a dagger. And it was just like... You were a magpie. It was definitely all of those like, oh, these are definitely things 13-year-old me thought were so cool. That's awesome.

Oh, I still have stuff like that. And I still think they're cool. I have a box. I just now have this time capsule moment of like, oh, yeah. I forgot about this stuff. I want to do that. Barry a time capsule. Did you cry?

I probably would have cried if I got to go through some. It was a pretty cool moment. moment. There was a, it was a little bit delayed because I'd left it with them and so I got a bunch of pictures of it before like the actual unveiling and getting to hold all the stuff at the same time. It ruined it. You know, couldn't quite be that. I think squirling away is a very human tendency. No, it's a squirrel tendency. It's a very squirrel tendency. Squirrels call it humaning away. We should play some Dungeons and Dragons. You don't know to play some Dungeons and Dragons? Yeah. Do you guys want to find some treasures? Yeah. Maybe. Maybe this episode will have some treasures. The real treasure is the adventure we had along the way. Ain't that the truth. I get his share. I'm taking your inspiration away. So, the heat of battle subsides, and the rush of wind from the elementals settles.

And we are all standing in this great hall in the tower in the canyon. And Zolkin is shocked. He lays Kela's burned out. body down on the floor and then sits back heavily leaning on his hands just kind of staring vacantly into space i was i was waiting for her in yarder i thought i might run into her there on the docks one day a new recruit for the hand or something we had a habit of crossing pass i was assumed things would turn out differently for me and her stupid me stupid her you fell in with the wrong crowd again darling

standing right next to Zolkin, just puts a hand on his shoulder and says, well, thank you. When Push came to shove, you really showed you metal. We appreciate that, so tremendously. It was nothing. He stands up and sort of brushes himself off. We're in this together right now, right? I think at that point, Doren kind of comes striding across the room, sheathing his axe, and dusting his hands off on one another. You know what? That to, to, Take a lot of guts there, Zolkin. I'm sorry that you, you know, she may not have been your best friend or, you know.

But it's tough losing somebody, you know. Well, don't give me too much credit. All right. Anyway. No, so we broke out in this room. We didn't really look around. Are there any other doors off this main room? What does it look like again now in this shambled state?

remind you, yes. So this great hall spans the eastern half of this tower. There are also some broken down stone walls that indicate there were a couple of rooms to the south that are now sort of part of this one large room. There are some mounted heads of griffins, wyverns, owl bears, as mantacores, decorating. A few of them still hang from their places around the room looking down over this great hall. There's a partially burned and covered in Greece, a feasting table that occupies the majority of the eastern side of the room. And of course, there's a spiral staircase that pierces through the middle of this tower, which you ascended to attain this height. There are two more rooms here that you have not invested.

just to the north and northwest. Well, I suppose the first thing we do is loot the bodies and see if Navon and his team have anything of value. Not a bad choice. Doring kind of walks around the room, and as he's walking by Rob, or as he's walking by Jack. John? Hey, Jeff. He says, uh, wow, you were tossed down the stairs there a few times. You're doing all right. That, that stone skin seems to have, uh,

Protected you pretty well. Well, I got in my steps for the day. Jack's kind of still head ringing, climbing off his ass on the ground, trying to get his bearings, just sort of looking around. Yeah, thanks for looking in on me. It's a pretty good trick. I'd say. Kralath is collecting bodies and bringing them all next to one another as Red is going through the pockets.

Do you find anything there, Red? Red, you find that each of the air cultists has a belt pouch that contains some gold and platinum pieces. Once you go through all six pouches, you find 112 gold and 44 platinum. The body of Navan has a gold signet ring on his hand. And the other wizard, she's got a silver necklace on with a sapphire pendant. And I think red removes the gold signet ring and just goes, Jack, heads up, tosses it.

He definitely catches it, fumbles a little bit. I think it's one of those. It flies through the air, and it's, you know, just bouncing from one hand to the other until he finally gets it right before he goes down the stairs with him almost tumbling down beside it. Doren grabs your chest and pulls you back. Manages to get a good look at the face of the signet ring

just to see, do I recognize what it signifies? You don't recognize the inscription, though it's very curious to you. It is an inverted triangle with a V on the top it's it's kind of an abstract ruin jack would appraise it to be worth about 200 gold pieces to the right buyer and is the silver necklace worth anything this one is probably just decorative it doesn't have any sort of inscription that's kind of what i thought and red tucks it away do i know roughly how much it would be worth yeah it's about 250 gold all right do they have any of those masks oh yes

so a couple of them had been wearing their helmets when they were fighting you some of the other helmets are actually on top of the table where they had been removed, probably when they were speaking with each other. They pulled them off. So altogether, you account for one helmet for each person you slayed. Nice. Good thinking, Kralath. And I take the helmets off as well and put them in the bag of holding. We'll need these for the Griffins. If we want to take them back to Yada, might be an easier way than taking the boat. The vultures? What'll I say? Griffins. Whatever. That's okay. It's one of those up there. It's right in front. I can see how you get confused. What, that vulture on the wall?

And I point to the Griffin head. No, no, it's a Griffin. You can see because the... Jack, that's a Wivin. We fought one, that grud. No, no, no. The Wivrens are the... No, no, no. The one's downstairs. Doesn't matter. It's okay.

Anyway, I figured we could take them back to Yata if he wanted to. Kralath clears his throat, and he's got an old sheet that had been covering some crates in the corner, and he flaps it out and then lays it across the line of bodies that have been placed there. And he turns to... Zulkin and says, a moment of peace for the lost ones. Of course. Zulkin nods at you Kralov. If you don't mind, I think I'd like to take Keller's body down to the river.

Oh, of course. That's preferable to me, actually. Would you like some help? He shakes his head and lifts up her charred corpse and sort of like fireman, Kerry, like, slings her over his shoulder. And he's like, well, don't do much looting without me. but I'll be back, and he starts to take the stairs down. May she rest well, Zulcum.

As this is all happening, Dorn's kind of wandering around, and maybe he's reached the door to one of the rooms, said the north room, and he kind of puts his ear up to the door, just kind of like inquisitive about what might be behind it. Does he hear anything? No, you don't hear anything. Don't come in. Yeah, you hear a goblin going like, no one's here.

Yeah, once Zulkin's gone, Jack might sort of walk back into the room and say kind of thoughtfully, you know, poor guy, I feel kind of bad for him. Do you think somebody set him up? I don't think he expected to see Keller here, but what are the odds? I don't know. It definitely didn't sound like it.

Well, he said he came to Yara to try to search for her because of that hand, that all-female Assassin's Guild or whatever they're called. Yeah, but how do you get the map to hear? Well, he said he pilfered off of someone. Put it this way. By the way, he looked surprised when he walked in the door, I don't think he was expecting to see her. Well, that's what I'm saying.

Like, I expected him to have expected to see her, right? Like, I thought, and maybe that's shame on me. I didn't expect him to be so surprised. Jack, you did bad. We should have thought, no, I agree. I thought the same thing. No, I thought the same thing. I'm surprised at what Zulkin did.

But I'm glad. And I don't know, maybe we can ask him more on the way back. And I think at this moment, Doren, having listened to the door or not hearing anything, he opens it. or at least tries the handle. It's unlocked. And so he swings the door inward, slowly, peering into the room. No, it swings out. Oh, yeah, sorry.

Okay, so he swings the door in with much force because Doren kicks the door in, and that's one thing we know. Doors don't go out around Doren. You break the hinges. This chamber contains the shattered and moldering remains of two beds, two chests, It's a defaced tapestry and a fireplace. All of them are moldering with disrepair. And also, it's filled with a shallow pool of murky water.

Gross. And it's at this point when Doran leans in and smells the water. And then dips his fingers in and tastes the water. Dying to taste this water. Finally, I got to do it. Inspiration It tastes gross Last time I did it

I got a spell Maybe this time It's terrible Ester egg unlocked Whatever was on the floor here Achievement unlocked Do the impossible Gross weirdo achievement

No you taste the weird water It doesn't taste like anything Except for like old stone Oh let me get real descriptive about this Doran, you taste this gross, weird water, and it reminds you of being underground. It reminds you of water that sit on old stone for too long. It's stale and unpleasant. And a little bit of poop in it.

There's maybe some old vulture poop. This tastes like Griffin poop. The base level of a goblin stronghold. Descriptive. And then after opening that door and tasting the water, Doran walks down to the south door and opens that door. Let's see if there's more water. I think Red goes to help him because he wants to see Doren drink water again.

Sure, yeah. This room is very similar to the previous room in terms of furnishings. It's relatively untouched, but there are a couple of holes in the stone wall, about two feet in diameter and the wind whistles through them. Doren walks in and peers out the hole in the wall. Your little dwarf face just sits neatly inside one of the holes. and... Boom.

Dorn, as you look out the window, you notice it's starting to get dark out. It's starting to get dark out. Kralath, you put a sheet over these bodies. Are you just going to leave them here for now? Yeah, I think so. Krayloth's tendency when it comes to dealing with humans is to torch it. But he's not in Berovia anymore. And there have been several times where he didn't torch the bodies because the chances of

of them turning aren't as likely as in Borovia. So it's uncomfortable for him, but he settles the tarp on top of them, and then he's fine with that and mutters a prayer to Kellenvore. I wonder if there isn't a bit of a rhythm to this like we've done before. After Kralath has looked at the corpses and put the sheet over them, Jack might sort of come over and give like the team corpse inspector kind of nod, and should we go dig some graves? Yeah, I suppose so.

Let Red and Doran take care of the looting. You're less team corpse inspectors and more team corpse management. It's all part of the job. So maybe the two of you take the corpses downstairs to dig some graves. I feel like Red looks out the window and he says, you know, you could bring them all the way downstairs or you could just... Oh, no! I mean...

Smash cut the... It would be quicker since they're dead and you're just going down anyway. I mean, Keller was talking about throwing you guys off the roof of this place herself. And they're all like... falling into the pit that he's dug, like it's perfect from a distance of 30 feet away and lower them in a grade from 30 feet above. I love the idea, too, that it's like arrow slits and like red and Creeloth are like trying to shove them through a little bit, you know, like, squeezing, squeezing the bodies through

and being like, come on. The reverence for these dead bodies is just very temporary. Yeah, Krayloff is not a fan of this idea. He just shakes his head and say, the dead must be respected, even if they were our enemies. Oh, of course. I respected that too, Red says, as he's picking the hairs out of the helmet that he took. There is maybe on the walk down the stairs. You know, Kralath, they were air cultists.

I wonder if being thrown out a window is more befitting for them. One last journey. Especially because Jack is the one carrying them with you. He's like, you know. Red did have a point. I just wanted to throw that out there. I'm not a religious, you know, I don't quite know all the ways. Didn't think they were that heavy.

We're almost a thing. Here, Jack, come on. I got it. No, I wasn't complaining. I just wanted to put all the options on the table. Hey, Doran, maybe we should check upstairs then while they're doing that. Check upstairs further? Well, I mean, this is a tower.

We're only on level, what, two? Oh, I thought we... I didn't even look up. The staircase does continue up. I did not realize that. I thought that we were at the top. Red heads up to the next floor. Well, then yeah, let's go.

The spiral staircase continues up above you. I should make that clear. However, on this landing, there are four doors, one leading off to the northeast, southeast, southwest, and northwest. Hey, Doran, pick a number. That one. And Red opens the door. Red, as you open the door, I want you to make a constitution saving thing. Oh, traps, traps, traps, traps, traps.

Oh, 17. Nicely done. Well, good constitution. Eight poison damage. as this door handle sticks a needle into the flesh of your palm as you turn it. Doran, oh. Hey, and I turn around and like I got a little blood on my palm and like, oh, God, I just got stuck with a little poison needle.

Here, let me see that. And Doran grabs your hand and starts sucking the poison out of that woman. It's all right. It's no worse than the berries. Ew. Doran, make a constitution saving throw as you ingest this poison. It's a Dwarven rite of passage. Uh, 27.

Nice. Holy shit. Okay, Doran, so you succeed on your saving throw, so you're going to take one quarter of this damage. Uh, oof, two hundred. Five damage. I love the idea that maybe like, Zolkin comes back up while Doran is sucking my palm, and Red is like, oh, ow, ow, ow! And Doran's like, I got it.

Oh, hey, Zalkin. I got a little prick on me. Not that little. Zulkin's like, uh, is everything. everything okay here. Yeah, we're just checking stuff out. Poison bricks, you know? Checking. Watch out. Crayal's off. We'll be back in a second, so we're just scouting ahead. You open the door, this lately trapped door, to reveal a larger chamber than the one on the floor below. It contains the remains of ancient furniture, some articles of which are surprisingly

well preserved. Some appear to have borne the aggression of some creature long ago and are shattered to pieces. Whoa. Anything of any particular value? Yeah, it's possible. You, you, You see two different beds. It seems like there are kind of two rooms here that are like smushed into one that could have been divided at one point by like a tapestry or curtain. So there's two wardrobes, two chests, two beds. I think red eyes the room with his observant trait, giving his passive perception at natural 20 and just sort of sees if he can eye any details.

Yeah, just rummage through drawers. Yeah, we rummage. That's what we do best. Red, concealed in the drawer of a desk, you find a gold and ivory tube that extends itself in your hands into a spyglass. Oh, cool! It's etched with a flying quail and pointed leaves. You also find a leather-bound book with a silver clasp and a locket. Doran, you know what this is?

And I hold up the spyglass to Doran. Um, no. What is it? I think it makes things really, really small. And he puts it backwards and he looks at it. door. See, now you're like tiny, look! And I give it to door in the opposite way as well.

Holy moly, you are way out there. Yeah! How did you move so fast? I'm guessing that this is to trick opponents to think that they're not as big as they are. It's perfect for giants. Jack's going to love this. I like the way you think. That's got to be it. Yeah. That's for sure it. Yes.

And then accidentally they look through it the other way. Oh, wow, it makes things big too. It's a cool secondary benefit, but... It's all blur. I can't see anything. And after he gives the spyglass to Doran, Red just flips through the book. Yeah, unfortunately, the paper is so aged

that it sticks to itself, it's illegible. Jack will probably like it anyway, and I put it away. And then the locket, is there any insignia or image in it? Yeah, you open it up. Of course. Make a con, no, I'm just kidding.

Fuck. Ah, Doran, I need you to suck me again. Poison locket. No, you find a tiny illustration of a human woman inside. Oh, and I think for a weird moment as red is in the room alone, he just has this like a little bit of heartbreak. Maybe she is reminiscent of B or something. You know, maybe her eyes are just a little more soul-filled than he expected. But there's this odd moment of humanity that washes over red as he sort of stares at this little locket. Maybe it's interrupted by

Kraloth and Jack coming back up. Yeah, Zolkin comes in and he's like, so how much do you figure that I'll be worth red. Oh, I don't know. This one might not be worth very much. And he kind of tucks it into his own personal little pocket. Zolkin's like, we are keeping a tally, right? Of course, we're keeping a tally, Zulkin. Don't worry. We're not going to stiff you. You sided with us, bud. Oh, yeah. And I slap him on the back and I say, you earned at least one sixth or whatever you wanted. Zulkin's like counting on his fingers. Like one, two, three. Doren, as you continue to explore these upper chambers, you find that most of them look all the same, kind of a replica of this first room essentially, except for the room, again, above that which you found the pool of water

in. You find that this room was overgrown with mold. Thanks to some water lying stagnant on the floor, the greenish-gray mold covers everything in this room in a matte, fuzzy coating. And there are a few more holes in the stone wall that show the light again is fading more and night draws on outside. Knew it. Mold! Doren does enter the room. In fact, he touches the mold.

Good. Great. That's it. You touch that mold. Roll a mold check. Roll in it. Get it all over your body. Fucking weird dwarf.

Well, there's a bunch of mold in there. Yeah? And now I'm guessing probably timewise, Kralath and... Yep. So Kralath and Jack are done with their corpse dealings. Yeah. Graves were dug with magic,

bodies laid to rest, I'm sure. Yep. Kulamvore is satisfied with how we did that. Thank you for your help. We can super cut all the people we've had to bury in this campaign. It's just all of the sound of

bodies being dropped into graves, just thwump, thwump, thwom. Before we buried the wizardy lady, I wrote down that she had a flute last time. Is it possible Jack could have picked up the flute that was on this wizard and is sort of keeping it with him? Unfortunately, as you're

hand grazes this flute inquisitively. You don't detect any of the familiar buzz of magic. This seems to be a mundane flute, but it is beautifully wrought. I think that's almost, Jack's almost relieved that it's mundane. I think there's a part of him that's

looking for like a new outlet, and he's sort of been thinking about, what if I tried to learn music? That might be a thing. So I think he's almost like, oh, great, this isn't magical, this isn't treasure, it's just a nice instrument. It's just a nice flute.

And so he's got that sort of tucked away in his backpack. Mm-hmm. And Jack, as you ascend these stairs back maybe into the Great Hall to see where your friends have gotten up to, you recognize that, like, the touches on these furnishings destroyed as they may be definitely reminiscent of Waterdavian style of them. Maybe like the placards behind the taxidermied heads. are reminiscent of some of like the coats of arms that maybe could have been part of noble families

from hundreds of years ago. Like this tower essentially was certainly Water Davian in Make initially. It should be put in a museum. This whole tower? It's not beyond the realm of possibility. When Red sees Jack, he's like, oh, I got something for you.

And he reaches into his bag and gives him the tattered diary, assuming it's a diary, because it looked handwritten. And he says, This is not legible to me, but maybe you'll like it. And also, I gave Doran a cool glass that lets you see things really tiny, which you might like to have a look at. A microscope?

Yeah. Awesome. Yeah, Jack Gingerly takes the book and just sort of gives it this like, oh, it looks pretty beat up. I wonder what's in here. But maybe sets it aside to examine thoroughly later. Who doesn't love a good puzzle project? Book restoration on the campfire seems right up his alley.

For sure. So the stairway still goes up from this third floor. Doran is peering out one of these holes with the spyglass and realizing now exactly what it is. And playing it off, he comes back in to the staircase and he's about to head up. He says, uh, uh, yeah, yeah, you know that thing that you see really small with? Well, I mean, come on, you're just joking, right? Because it lets you see really far. Yeah.

Of course I'm joking. I know what a thing is. I was joking, too. What do you think I'm an idiot? We both exchanging. No, it's cool. I really like it. It's really cool.

Here, Jack, and he passes it to Jack. Well, show it to Jack first. Hold on. Doran, I bet you've never, I mean, dwarves, of course you wouldn't. Why would you ever have any, like, there's just this whole moment of like, of course Dwaran would have no idea what this is. Dwarves live underground. There isn't a lot of like, no, no, let's get up to the top of this tower, Dorn.

You can do some really cool cartography with this thing. Oh, really? This is one of the primo cartographer tools out there. Maybe with that being said, Doran kind of clutches it and dashes up the stairs. I do love this like ready to offer it and then like, wait a minute. Wait, this is cool? And like a kid, he brings it back in and immediately charges up the stairs thinking that, you know, there's going to be a point of this tower that you can just look out for miles. In my own head cannon, you know, like Red is the scout and logically I think this would be a useful tool.

But in my head cannon, he shoots at 700 feet plus without disadvantage. So even though it's not mechanically that he has like zoomed in eyesight, I think he has absolutely fantastic eyesight from an amazing distance, which is also one of the reasons why I don't think Red would have ever used this because I kind of feel like that's almost like a Tabaxi Hunter trait. You know, it's something that they do and have. So you didn't even think about using a thing that helps augment your eyesight. No, I genuinely think that.

Seize that far already. Exactly. I genuinely think this is something that Red and Doran wouldn't have experienced before. Yeah, maybe on the ship over, but even so, it would have been like for a few minutes. Maybe it's like Red looks out and he sees like, you know, this vast valley and cliffs and like, it's just seeing so so far and he holds the spy glass up and it doesn't change. It's just like the exact same distance somehow. No, it's like just a tiny bit bigger. It's like, ah, cool, it's a little bit bigger. Anyway, and I head upstairs too. at the apex of the tower the stairs terminate at a round gazebo that continues upward in a minaret beyond this enclosure a dry planted rooftop is crusted in snow four paths paved with white stones peak through the frost pointing in the cardinal directions each path ending in a pointed stone crenellation the sun has set the canyon carves a dark line to the east

and west of your position, and the first stars glitter in the deepening sky. Look up there, Doran. So look how clearly you can see the stars and the moons around saloon there. The top of this tower is essentially in line with the top of the canyon. Right. So the tower is entirely hidden, but given that you are suspended over the space of this empty canyon, a flying animal would have space to throw themselves into the void and gain purchase in the air. Wow.

Makes total sense why the cult of Jansibin would seek it out as a fort so many years later, you know? So cool. What a cool slice of history. No, no, what am I looking at? A star, oh, stars are right. Look up at the moon there at Saloon. You can see, look at how clear the craters are going to be. Wow.

Up here, Red is just going to, you know, do a search. I think he's going to sort of go back through this floor and the floor below and just see if we missed anything. With that treasure chest being buried in the planter, I'm sort of interested if there's any other loot stashed away. You know what I mean? Because it seemed odd.

Like candy. Yeah, like secret candy. Secret candy. And I guess what Doran's thinking is, what the hell is with this mold? Where is the mold from? I know that you have a natural 20 essentially on your perception. Yeah. So you don't find anything through your thorough search.

of the rest of the rooms in this tower until you get down to the stables. Oh. Because, Red, you came down here briefly, but you did not peek into each and every one of these stalls. I think you interacted with one of the giant vultures, and Kralath did a lot of the extra searches. Yeah, I'll poke ahead into each of them. You do so. Look at these pretty griffins. I love this tower.

The whole concept is just kind of neat. Hidden underneath a substantial pile of ancient straw and kind of in between some animal droppings, you do see the glimmer of the side of a chest kind of poking out. Nice. Yeah, Red's just sort of, he's at the bottom of his search now, kind of giving up. He's just like, ah, he's poking in each one.

And he kind of sees this odd-looking, pile. And he's like, well, why would a pile be so large in a stall? I mean, there's piles out here in the whole way. And he just kind of walks in and like, I feel like he kicks it a bit with his foot and feels that like thunk of a chest. Oh!

And he uncovers it. Yeah, you find a substantial feeling, like a heavy feeling, a wooden chest that's bound with iron. Ah, fool me once, he says. And he is going to check for traps. This is not trapped, but it is

locked. I'll probably go get Zokin. Yeah, cool. So, okay, and I need you help. He comes down, he's happy to help you out. And I think while we have that moment, you're just like, and I am really sorry about Keller. I know we give you a hard time because, well, frankly, it's funny, and you're kind of a douchebag at times. But, you know, at the end of the day,

we are glad you're on our side, and I see some good in you. I think you have a bigger part of this story in you yet. Well, Red, I appreciate your sentiments. We'll see, I suppose. What are who you calling our wussy, Red says, and puts his fists up. What I mean to say is, honestly, Red, and he's, like, bent over the lock here, getting his tools ready, inserting them into the hole and sort of fiddling around.

I'm not really sure where I'm going to be going next. I don't think I'm back to Yarder. And if you guys don't mind maybe when morning rolls around, and I don't have to worry about any mantichores picking me off in the night, I wouldn't mind taking a vulture myself and seeing where it takes me. Hey, you've earned it. But I want you to trust yourself. And I kneel down next to him for a second and just say,

Zulkin, I really do mean, I think you have more in you. You don't have to live this life. You could lead people. You could be in charge of maybe a party like ours, maybe a group of people that need help. You have it within you to help in a meaningful way. You should consider that. With a click of the lock,

He turns to you with a smile and he says, Red, I don't think there's ever been quite a party like you guys. Anyway, let's take a look. What do we got here? Rubs his hands together. Inside of this lockbox, you find a large brass mug with jade inlay all along the top of it. It's heavy. Looks like maybe something that Doran would be seen drinking out of one of his fest halls of his youth.

You also find a leather pouch that feels full of something, as well as a small pile of gold pieces. Dibs, Zulkin, dibs. And Zulkin's like, well, we are splitting the loot. Yeah, but you don't understand how dibs works. I'll explain it to you when we go back upstairs, and Red scoops up all the loot and starts walking upstairs. So you've got 750 gold here.

Wow. Yeah. So substantial finding. You also, well, we'll let Jack appraise. the mug. This one makes them happy. Inside of the leather pouch, you find six bloodstone. Whoa, that sounds cool.

These are dark gray rocks with red flex in that. Red loves that. As he's like walking upstairs, he just pulls them out, and he's like, what the hell are these? This is the coolest thing I've ever seen. I gotta ask Doran about this. And heading back upstairs, he hands the Jade mug to Jack and says, Here, check this out, but Doran!

And he runs over to Doran. What the hell of these stones? Doran, how familiar are you with gems? Well, I'll take a look. You never know. That's a 15. Hey. Hey.

You know that blood stones are fairly valuable. Ones like this will probably fetch about 50 gold pieces each if you can pry them from Red's hands. And you know that certain dwarves like to use them in jewelry because they are said to to heighten intuition and creativity. So people who are like artsy-farty, kind of like these stones because they're... Airudite dwarves. Yeah, they're said to be like channelers of creative spirits.

Hey, these are bloodstones. Very interesting stuff here, Red. I knew a couple growing up that they would carry these around with them while doing their blacksmithing. It helped influence and inspire their work. And let me tell you, I mean, I do some beautiful stuff, But, you know, I never really was a believer of these bloodstones. But, you know, now that I see them up close,

would you want to give me one of these? Yeah, I think we should all keep one unless you want to sell it. I don't care. Yeah. And, yeah, give one a door and keep one for myself. Cool. I can just sell them if anybody doesn't want them. Yeah, I'll definitely take one of those.

You say it enhances creativity? Maybe this will help me in the kitchen. You're creative enough. If anything, you could use a little less. and red taps his belly and burps. Yeah, you're perfect. I was just trying to add flavor. Just like you do in the kitchen.

Wow. Yeah. Oh, I only found a mug. There you go, Jack. Oh, yeah, a mug. I'm good at these. What is it? What are we looking at?

This is certainly an art piece that is more than 100 years old. This is probably made by the artisan Michos called Wellie. of the Storm Breath called Wellies. The Caldwellies. Hello, we are the Cadwellies. They're Italian.

I like it. Done in the Dwarven style, but not by Dwarven hands, you realize. Oh, interesting. Admirators. Where are the Storm Breath called Wellies from? Hailing largely from Mirabar. Are they Dragonborn?

Yes. Cool. I don't know about you guys, but I'm feeling pretty tired. I have about 11 hit points left. Oh, no. I'm wondering. Red, if you go down to zero, I'll heal you then,

because then it'll be maximum efficiency. I just need a good night's sleep. I'm wondering if we can throw off the tent and maybe camp, I don't know, up here. Under the night sky could be kind of fun. Yeah, I'm up for that. It is quite beautiful tonight. That sounds like a nice idea.

Especially if we have the tent up. And you can do that as a ritual, right? So you don't have to worry about your zero spell slots? Yeah, yeah. No, I'm not too worried. I'm like almost out of gas, but I've got just enough time to do that. put this beautiful white dome on top of the tower.

It sort of blends in with the snow that was up here before, just barely cresting over the edge of the landscape and, you know, inside the snow melts. It becomes like a really lovely warm temperature, perfect for sleeping in on a crisp night under the stars and the moon. Yeah, yeah. And I think Red rolls out his bed, roll and climbs into his bed and with his back to the others, he pulls out that locket again

and just looks at the young woman in the photo and sort of just stares at her longingly, a little sad and a little curious and then tries to fall asleep. I like that. As you're all lying around this campfire, sort of thinking your own thoughts, Zolkin speaks up.

It's a gambling chip. That coin, by the way. Red wakes right back up and rolls over. Still lying down, but looking. I feel like Doran kind of turns over and he listens into this as well. From a ship called the Grand Dame. It's a private riverboat that docks in yarder every morning and departs a dusk each night. I've seen it working on the docks enough to know that that's its schedule every day no matter what.

Where does it go? Why would a ship along to a river? Let's all ask at the same time. Everyone at once, please. Where does it go? That I don't know, Doran. Only its crew and the wealthiest patrons in Yarder seem to be allowed aboard. Invitation only, chap.

And I've never been invited on, not myself. Well, what about this coin? We've got this coin. Would that be enough to get us on board? I doubt it very much. And I find it hard to believe that you have with yourselves an original. Those chips are not allowed to leave the boat. It's only a sleight of hand that would see one inland.

Maybe some thief such as myself or a daring noble, perhaps, brought one back as a souvenir. Yeah, it was pretty well protected when we found it. I don't think people would go through that level of effort for a forgery. I'd be pretty confident in its authenticity. So I don't understand that people get on this with these chips, and we're missing something. What are the chips for? It's a gambling boat, of course. So here's what I do know.

The boat is owned by one Caspar Dreiland. He's an extravagant Yarder Noble, nose in the air. Political aspirations is what I've heard. And he invites those other nobles aboard that he wants to impress or maybe convince. I don't know. The workings of people with money. Jack would know better than I. Ironic, that dryland goes on the river.

That's good, actually. That's how they get you. Want you to underestimate them. That's right. I'm afraid I don't know much more, but that's your coin, and that's what you need to know. Is there a denomination on the coin? Duck. No, it's just a goose.

We have one goose. And it's wooden. Why do you say it's not an original, just because they're difficult to come off? Yeah, well, I mean, I've seen my share of forgeries of different kinds of currency. I wouldn't be surprised, but then again, who knows? Maybe it is original. Well, here, and I reach and I give it to him, because he never actually saw the original. He turns it over in his hands and gives a low whistle.

Well, it looks good. I mean, I would... Are you guys going to break onto this boat? Because I want in. Yeah, probably. And Red takes the coin back. I mean, if we're going to break on to anything, why not a boat? It seems cool.

It might be a good distraction from all this. Maybe not until we know a little bit more about why we would need to go on the boat, but ultimately, this... this coin has larger implications to the mission we're on, I say with wide eyes towards the other three. Implications. And Doran kind of turns onto his back and stares up at the sky, going quiet. We found this at the Hempirut house, right?

I wonder if Hempirat has any connections. Might be worth asking Thalus. B and Oren are back there. We could send them a letter and see if they could ask them. Yeah. Might be a little more personal than just a letter. asking them. I get the sense it might be nice to just to send B and or in a letter anyways that they could respond with. You know, just, just for the hell of it. We got a great excuse.

You know, it might be nice to. Well, it's been like a day. Yeah, it's been, it's been, this will be the second night since. I don't want to be needy, Jack. They might not even be there yet. Yeah, they're probably not there yet. They show up. There's like five letters waiting for them. And a care package. Hi, how you doing? Miss you. Hope you come on tune. Bunch of Kralath scones. Why haven't you responded? Kay, I'm just going to bed. Whatever, fine. If you don't want to answer, you don't have to.

I'm done with this relationship. Hey, you up? You still there? Just kidding. Yeah, I mean, it might be interesting to look at the hamperate house ledgers to see if it's clear how much they paid to get on the gambling boat or took with them or what they had to buy in just to see if there was any. Well, we did look through all those ledges and we couldn't make sense of them at the time. Maybe with the grand dame name we might be able to put more together? Why not pretend like you're a hamper at?

to get on the boat. Maybe they don't know the face. Well, if these coins aren't meant to come off the boat and they stole them, then maybe there wasn't a great relationship there. Look, regardless, we have a name, and I think following up on that, as well as whatever Jack might know about this dry land fellow, might help paint a picture.

Dry Lund, by the way, L-U-N-D. Yeah, mine was funnier, though. I know, it is. It's very funny. I mean, we nobles don't all know each other, Red. All those nobles look alike to you. I get it. I see how it is. To back-sies. Anyone who's not a cat. If he's got political aspirations, maybe there's some sort of leverage that we as adventurers

who have been all around, we know what's going on in the world, maybe there's something we can offer him. Jack goes into politics. I mean, we want to first be careful about where we throw the name Nightstone Four around. We don't want to support the wrong people. Red says, like, without looking at Doran, he just sort of like, his glance goes over to that direction and then back and then says, additionally, I don't know, Zulkin might have a beat on this. He said that sneaking on might be the way to go.

If this is an exclusive thing, the way that you seem it is, maybe no level of nobility connections would get us on. All I know is that when people board this boat, they're checked against a list. It's invitation only, darling. Right. Well, I like the sub-difuge option personally,

and I think, end of the day, if we needed to get on it, me disguising myself with my... My new tattoo could be pretty fun. And he uses disguised self. And in front of your eyes, I like change to Zulkin. Yeah. I suddenly look exactly like Zulkin.

Zulkin's like, what the fuck? Yeah, it's magic. And he snaps his fingers. That's your once per day. Yeah, I'm about to go to sleep. I'm fine with it. Cool. Jack's mind went immediately to like five pieces of criticism to how he could tell the two apart

just to like give Red a heads up, but they like stops himself before he gives any of the notes and be like, It's not appropriate right now. That's not what this is about. First love, you're lying on Red's bed. Second up, I saw you do it. I'm very smart. Did you know how smart I am?

But no, I think sneaking on could be really cool. But we have the name, we have the information. You've held up your bargain. Maybe you could do a little bit more research on this grand dame while you're around yard or if you're planning on staying around there. No, I don't think so. I don't think I will stay. No?

You're welcome to. None of us have the level of expertise in places that you tend to travel. It's a hole we lack on the Nightstone. I look around for a minute five. He gives you kind of a wry smile. He's like, I'll think about it. All right. No pressure. We run India. We run India. But you're also welcome to travel back with us, safer in numbers, you know. That's not wrong. Anyway, we should get some shut-eye. All right. Sleep on it. I'm exhausted. Same.

Good night, Kreloth. Good night, Red. Good night. Doran continues to stare into the night sky. Good night, Jack. Good night, Red. Zulkin. Good night, boys.

Typical Zulkin. I always needs the last word. Thank you once again to our wonderful Patreon supporters. Christopher Ryan Evans, Colin Burkart, Daniel, Doug, Jessica Orrett, Mari Kaneski, Katie Orrett, Perrin Karishti, and Merlin. See you soon!