High Rollers DnD - High Rollers: Aerois #163 | Veiled in Vortinssar (Part 1)

Episode Date: November 1, 2022

The Genasi Gang enter the Vortinssar checkpoint to test out their new identities! Support the High Rollers and get early access to podcast episodes and Studio updates on our Patreon: www.patreon.com/HighRollers Grab some High Rollers merch: https://freshmerch.fm/collections/high-rollers Music courtesy of Epidemic Sound & TCT Adventures (Solasta: Crown of the Magisters) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello and welcome to Erois. Last time, our heroes have journeyed to the city of Vortensar, seeking to help out a group known as the Seekers, as well as their own ally, Norfyr, also known as Nanny Norfyr, in infiltrating the city to locate this planar teleportation device that might one day threaten the entire city, but will supposedly transport it back to the plain of Gnas at the bequest of Harmony, the leader of Vortensar, as well as Shansara, this sort of propaganda agent of the Valkyrian Empire who seemingly has gone rogue

from Calus's wishes. The party, having met with a specialist called Kay, began to craft some disguises and personas in order to infiltrate the city as a number of Ganassi, in order to blend in and not raise suspicions without having to cause any sort of incident. They began forging these new identities. Much debate and discussion was had over whom would be what and how they would be presented. But eventually they made their way on their airship and they now have only a few days remaining to try and stop Shansara and Harmony's plans.

That is pretty much where we are going to be jumping back in today welcome hello welcome to the halloween episode uh we're all dressed up yes if you're listening to the podcast this is one of those ones where it's always good just go and have a look on the youtube you don't have to watch the whole thing but come see everyone's costumes so make it more spooky yeah if there's something that doesn't make sense it's because we're all laughing at someone's costume. Yeah, there you go. There's extra rustling and stuff today, apologies for that.

Yeah, that's a flame skull. That's a flame skull, sorry about that. Spooky. Perfect, spooky, ooh. Got control of the lights again. Watch out, boys, watch out ghouls, it's your boy. All right, spooky lighting, perfect. It's not a particularly spooky episode uh but

we can make it spooky um no sorry dan housing you can't uh did you know that cultry right now and vorten sar it is the equivalent of halloween it is sam heine so there are jack o'lantern decorations okay i know that you wrote the city and like it's your crate you don't get to just decide things i do i do also for podcast listeners dan harrison hasn't joined us today that's what i have okay uh the one we have one slight sort of like flashbacky retconny thing to do which is because katie wasn't here for the few episodes, whilst things like Ganassi were being created and decisions about what to do with magical weapons

and magical items was being decided, we need to establish a few things for Ayla. So to kind of catch you up to speed, Katie, you have this changeling with you called Kay Avalon, and Kay is able to use a mixture of magic and physical disguises as well as tailoring and costume to help you forge these kind of new personas. So far, all of the gang have created this Ganassi person

that they are going to pretend to be and characterize themselves as. And I think we all kind of agreed that you would be pretty much on board with being a fire Ganassi with all the red, but we didn't wanna come up with a name or like, you know, the guys have come up with like, you know, like what their jobs are or what their sort of like character is going to be.

And yeah, so we need to kind of briefly establish that because I don't want to throw, because the next thing you're going to be doing is you are about to arrive at the city gates and will need to pass through basically immigration to get inside. And there are a number of mechanics uh of which oh boy my board here to remind me um we have a number of mechanics

uh detailing things like countdown of how long you have until the plan kind of goes into effect uh each day has a kind of like tracker and you also have something called an incognito score which will determine how well hidden and disguised you all are yeah um i'm gonna pop that down there for now i feel like we're in our disguises because we're wearing costumes good perfect okay that's not what you decided last time to give you a bit more time to think we're gonna recap because i need a recap because i've had a very busy weekend and i'm very mentally tired uh So we're going to have a recap on whom is who and what you are sort of claiming and pretending to be.

So Tom, remind us of whom Quill is pretending to be. Tom, tell us who Quill is pretending to be. Flame Skull. Yeah, Flame Skull, who is Tom. Who's Flame Quill, who's disguised as Wisp, the Eganasi, who is an old, aged, decrepit man who stinks a little bit. That's right. And no one wants to go near him, mainly because his illusions won't necessarily cover up his wings and feathers and extremities. extremities. So yeah, just a the old, crazy, learned, stinky old man, air ganassi, wisp.

Perfect. Kim? Dan Housen, who is Kim, who is playing Nova, who is Nova being? I am Spritz, aka Julien. Julien is my page name, for I am a journalist, a food journalist, mixed air and water, gonna see, because, you know, why change that up? I'm also a man, and I have been physically altered to reflect such with a little beard that I can stroke. Oh, yes. You know, a kind of more masculine chest,

you know, broad shoulders, flat chest. And I have a penis. Okay. Make sure you write that down, Katie. I didn't write that down. No, it's part of the notes. Write it down. Trot's written it down.

I wrote that he was stinky. Trot's actually drawn it. Write down weenus. Weenus. That is true. Kate provided you with a sort of alchemical potion elixir that provides a temporary physical changes in a person's sex. Yeah, perfect.

All right. That's Spritz. Uno Wildcard, who is Chris Brock, who is playing Lucius. Whom is Lucius pretending to be? Lucius is playing a thespian who has gone on his journeys. His name is? Azure. Azure.

But the E has a little... It's fancy. A little flicky. A little flick on the end. A little bit of a flick. Azure. I'm an air ganassi. I have shorter, white, glowing hair,

and I requested that my wibbly bits be removed, just to see what it's like. Yeah. Because I think they're annoying. He Ken-dolling it. Cool. I'm Ken-dolling it. And, yes, I am a thespian,

and I believe with Vort and Saar, the culture is to go out, particularly the younger generations, to seek out new stories and... New civilizations. Yes, reinvigorate the culture from the old, tired... Pentable. You know, traditional ones.

Find your new stories. Find your new stories. So that's what Azuray is doing. That's kind of like the story that you're going to tell of why you've not been in the city. And I'm bringing it back to the city. Perfect. All right, perfect.

That's Azuray or Azur. And then Devil Baby. All right. Perfect, that's Azure or Azure. And then Devil Baby. Yeah, that's right, Devil Baby. Rhiannon, who is Sentry. Whom is Sentry pretending to be? Are you here, though? Sentry is pretending to be a Urfganasi

called Krag, Boulder Dash. They are a player of the famous game called Battle of the Elemental Mountain, which is a game where you have to destroy or remove ceramic plates from the backs of other players, I believe. So she's gonna make the most of her big physique and yeah, just act as if she's playing,

as if she's come back to Vortensar to train for upcoming games. Well, I think we said that there was like there was a lot of physical scarring to the face to mask that Sentry's expression never changes. So you have a physical mask, like a bandana-y mask, but then also these physical scars and things like that. And she's wearing a very loose green tunic and trousers with little flippy-floppy shoes on that expose her tootsies.

It's very strange to Sentry. But she likes it, it's comfy. I get big Earthbender vibes from that. The boulder. The boulder. The boulder. The boulder. The boulder. The boulder.

The boulder. The boulder. The boulder. The boulder. The boulder. The boulder. The boulder. The boulder. The boulder. The boulder. give you some ideas of what the rest of the party's doing yeah um and this is definitely going to be a uh kind of thing that we should establish now before you have to talk um yeah the other thing i think i can't remember if i mentioned it um the other there's like another

mechanic which we have in place um which i mentioned to these guys this is the clocks mechanic uh no this is the did i mention this or did i remove it this is the clocks mechanic. No, this is the... Did I mention this or did I remove it? This is the problem. My brain is like mush right now. You told us about the clocks mechanic. I told you about flashbacks. Yes, yes, you did, yeah. So, yeah, flashback points basically can be used to kind of...

Rather than doing this thing that we often do when we do like heists or like making plans to like sneak into places and stuff like that, the idea is that these flashback points you can cash in to say oh well it's a good job that we made these preparations to do this and then you can like have an item that you need or have like a certain thing or have made a contact like there are ways to basically kind of within reason yeah within reason good thing we killed all the guards yeah Yeah, you can't quite do that. But you could be like, yeah, but this particular building,

we made sure there were no guards around by bribing them all earlier in the day or whatever. And that you can earn those by basically sacrificing time to prepare those ahead of time and stuff. And you might earn them from other ways as well. Yeah. All right. So what's the plan for Wanda, a Katie, aka Ayla, aka Ganassi? Fire Ganassi.

You can ask the guys, you can ask for help, you don't have to come up with it yourself. So I suggested to Santry to go the kind of sports route, because both of your physiques match. You know, kind of like, so battle for Elemental Mountain, there's like a player position called, what did I call it? Guard. Guard, literally guard. Where you kind of help block your plate carrier. So there'll be a Ganassi carrying a ceramic plate,

but you help defend them and block them from attack. Yeah. And that's what Sentry is kind of going for. But with your physique, with Aayla's physique, I think that would be,

or a plate carrier yourself. Or like an attacker or something. Yeah, yeah. I like the guard idea. Yeah, yeah. Guard sounds good. I think, yeah, we could go with guard

and then I can kind of go with Sentry and also, I don't know, maybe like Spark or Inferno for a name. Yeah, because you could be teammates as well on the same team because it's not elementally locked. Yeah. It's called Battle for Elemental Mountain but that's because it's different,

the mountain has different terrains. And that's the reason why Sentry was out. So we decided that we all met at Imiksan taking a ship to Vortensar. And so Sentry was training at Imoksan taking a ship to Vortensar and so Sentry was training at Imoksan climbing mountains so you could have been training as well together cool okay that works so what name should we name? Spark or Inferno? Maybe Spark? Spark.

Spark. Spark. Spark. Spark. Spark. Spark. Spark. Spark.

Spark. Spark. Spark. Spark. Spark. Spark. Spark. Spark. Spark. Spark. Spark. Oh, Kiri. Nope. That's a dumb name. I sent you some notes on Discord in the DM on Elemental Mountain if you wanna. Is that like a full game that you've created? No. No? I would say it's like, you came up with like, pretty much what Kim just explained there.

You kind of came up with the baseline and I took it up. Yeah, I mean, it's just that that's the main concept. Like, you know, the concept is pretty much what it is. Yeah. What was the name of the game? Battle of Elemental Mountain. Yeah, if you check your Discord DMs from me, I sent you a thing about it. If you catch a bird, you get 1,000 points, and then the whole game is pointless.

Wonderful. The golden orb. Plate. The bowl. The golden bowl. So dumb. Anyway, the other thing to think about is obviously any kind of actual cosmetic elements. So, you know, Aayla obviously has big red hair anyway.

Kay would have probably, you know, suggested using, because what Kay, sorry, they are using is a mixture of physical disguise with the seeming spell which creates like an illusion like a disguise self over everyone so that won't hold up to like physical inspection but it provides a more illusory thing so he might have oh sorry they might have recommended that they sculpt your hair into like big kind of like spikes or something like that and then they would make it look like it's like you know flames or fiery or something like that um on top of the

actual physical hair itself um because like obviously ganassi will have these elemental hair uh so like you know do they have elemental hair that's just like flows yeah yeah absolutely like i was thinking of just making it what she has but it's all straightened up like yeah just like flows outwards because it's her hair is quite big because there's a lot of it. Did she have it tied up? I can't remember. Not currently, no, not anymore. It's sort of got braids through it, but it's not tied up as such. But it's quite big. There's a lot of it.

It's like... So I think they would probably suggest like maybe taking out the braids because the braids would be hard to disguise as the flames, which would add even more waves of volume but then yeah they would shape it the illusion to make it look like this roiling mass of like smoldering kind of like embers and flames and probably like make it look mostly like hair but like the the tips are on fire and smoldering and then it's all black and then going into the red kind of almost almost like it's kind of, you know, flaming, kind of like that. Yeah.

And then yeah, like would provide you, I mean your outfit is predominantly red anyway, right? So. Pretty much. Yeah, so they probably wouldn't need to change too much with Aayla. Just anything that would signify you as a wild elf, you would need to store and hide away temporarily.

I think it's just tartan, the, probably the furs that she wears, she would take those off. Take those off, yeah. And her lightning scars would probably be like... They can be like... Yeah, Kay can make those... If they could be like, flamey instead. Yeah, they can make those... Kay would probably suggest something like making them look like lava cracks

or something like that, like glowing, glowing parts and stuff. Like that, probably. And then she'd probably be, yeah, still in a pretty low key outfit. The last question then is, what do you wanna do about the hammer? We temporarily, in case you weren't back before it became relevant, we were gonna suggest like,

leaving it with Azariah to get upgraded and then get sent to you uh but you can also just be like no i'd want to have a hammer with me the only promise is going into the city if you have powerful magical items they either need to be masked which k can only do i think one more time yeah um or they need to be stored in like the back like your uh your backpack the the hand does have its hack. Because obviously having a powerful magic weapon, if anybody does detect magic, that would throw up questions of why do you have this incredibly powerful magic or hammer? Yeah.

But I think there's one mask left on magic hammers. Would be good to have it because Aayla doesn't really have anything else. There's no other ability. Raw strength. Well, raw strength and the hammer is all she has, so she can't do spells or anything. Kay can provide you with a mundane weapon,

like any mundane weapon you want. Yeah, I think what... Yeah. So it can provide you with a standard hammer or axe or something like that as a temporary weapon. But it's also... If they mask it, would it be... It's risky because it can be...

If a very powerful creature were to like use true seeing or something they can see through that illusion but generally like it will just it will fool things like detect magic or like identify spells and stuff like that so it's like it's pretty good it's a good way of hiding stuff until unless there's like okay no this person's really powerful so it's kind of got a risk to it but it means that you can have it on you for most of the time i don't know what do you think um it's hard so i've masked tian gong but because tian gong can shapeshift they're like they've become a small dagger um i could always put the howling tempest in my haversack yeah and then the mundane weapon yeah and then the ruling i've said is that anything in the backpack

basically will take an action for you to get out, basically. So you'll have to spend your action to do that. What other attuned magical things? Nothing that's a weapon. Okay. But you have other attuned, because you've got the belt and stuff, don't you? Yeah, the belt. So again, those either need to come off and be stored away

or they would need to be masked. I would like the belt to be masked, then. Sure. Oh, is that the giant? Yeah,. I would like the belt to be masked, then. Sure, okay. Oh, is that the giant? Yeah, that's the thing that gives it, like, the crazy big strength. Yeah, definitely mask that. So is it just the belt, or do you have anything else?

I've got... another thing. So cute. But yeah, I think everyone else has kind of pretty much got their main weapons. Crystal card... card crystal of electricityacrity. So that's your plus, that gives you a bit of a dex boost.

So again, that would either, that would probably need to be taken off. If you want to keep the belt, then you'd need to remove that temporarily. That's annoying. Okay, I'll take that off, I guess. Yeah, because I think pretty much everybody's either taken off their magic items or masked their one main thing. So I think, which did you mask, Tom? Was it the spear or was it the Wayfinder's Guide? The spear.

And then Wayfinder's Guide is in the backpack. Wayfinder's in the haversack, yeah, and the spear looks like a walking stick. Walking stick, that's right. And then Tiangong's been masked, and I think Lucius has stored pretty much all of his items. Have you unequipped all of your items, by the way, as well? I will do that, yeah.

Make sure you unequip them. But my gauntlet is masked, right? That's right, yeah. So it was. I will do that, yeah. Make sure you unequip them. But my gauntlet is masked, right? That's right, yeah. So it's one, two, three. And then sentry stuff is all in the backpack. How much were we allowed to mask? There's one more item. So if Katie's going to mask the belt, then no more. So you've got to remove any other items.

So do I need to remove my amethyst lodestone? Yes, anything magical that you have. What about messenger rings? Yes, they're all magical. Sent yep anything magical that you have messenger rings yes they're all magical century's the only one with stuff yeah and then if you want to add any mundane weapon same for you century as well like just add it from the inventory and beyond just go in and pick a weapon and add it my uh stats aren't updating that's all right i'll just i can fix this i don't think it'll matter too much. I have this issue where whenever I...

It's the stat boosting items. Yeah, the item doesn't... That's fine. Well, the belts... The strength's not going to change, and I think your dex would only go down by two anyway, so we just... Yeah, it is only two.

It's just minus one then. Yeah. And it's just... It's one less. All right. Cool. All right. In that case, you are all prepared then.

Yeah. Well... You have... If you guys want to have a chat and like, this is probably your last chance before you arrive at the gates, you are maybe like, there are three more people in front of you that are going to go through the security, so if you want to have a hushed, whispered conversation before you pass through, now is the time. Don't forget, Nanny Norfear, she's in Coal Smoke Street, and we need to look for the spicy rabbit sign. And we need to order the Banton mix, Sky Elf style.

Bantow mix. Bantow, oh I did write that, yes, it's just smudged on my hand. Yeah, you probably don't want them to see the writing on your hand. So I won't do this. Quite suspicious, yeah. Okay.

Yeah. Has everyone got that? Yes. Have you got that? Yes. Have you got that? Yes. Spritz? Yes. Azurae.

Oh, you betcha. Old man. Wisp. Wisp, yes, that's my name. Yes, thank you, Azurae. Spark and Krag. Krag. Spark and Krag.

Yes. Both know each other. Athletes in the... Battle of Elemental Mantis. Craig. Spark and Craig. Yes. Both know each other. Athletes in the... Battle of Elmantle Mountain. Yes. Atmon. Bem, for short. I don't know if you guys know this,

but I'm really bad at, like, lying to people and getting through places. Just, um, oh. You know? It's okay. So I met some of the sports team from my moron brother and my idiot sister. Just grunt.

Honestly, like, yeah. Oh, so just be me? Yeah, just grunt and scratch yourself. That seems to be what they do a lot. Maybe not swear at them, though. No, no. Craig can speak for you and say that you were punched in the larynx or something in the last game.

Yeah, you were recovering from a throat injury. We both had a really hard loss. My face got all smashed and- Cracked up. Yeah, yeah. Your larynx got punched. Yeah, punched and- Injury. It was rough, but it was great.

Better than the other team. Yeah. Oh, yes. You should have seen the other guy. Yeah. They sucked, they were terrible. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, saw that sport and-

Do we need a team name? Mm, well, my sister plays for the Tectonic Titans. Tectonic Titans. That's a great name. TT. Exactly how popular are the Tectonic Titans? Yeah. They're one of the leading teams at the Atlas Academy.

Probably not a good idea. They'll know all the players. Maybe an up and coming team then. Volcanic Victors. Ooh, that's good. That's a good one. Victor as in victory. Victor, you win.

I'm really getting into this character. Yes, the character. If Aayla's smarter, you've got an issue here. Character, yeah. But you believed it, though. I mean, his character that Quill is playing is also meant to be quite intelligent and wise. Yeah, you're a professor. But I'm old as balls.

That doesn't mean you're dumb as shit. I didn't say dumb as shit. I knew a Victor once. It was my first association with the word Victor. Sue me. So as you are having this conversation, the three older Ganassi that had been sort of talking to you whilst you were in the queue last time,

they get called up ahead of you. The guards kind of pull them aside and begin sort of questioning them and things like that. And it's not long before a guard, and you can see that the Ganassi, they're all Ganassi. This one will probably be, there's probably a couple of earth Ganassi, a water Ganassi, and then a kind of mixture of other Ganassi kind of like, you know, further in the distance. But these three seem to be the ones who are interacting with the actual visitors and things like that you can see that one of them carries a kind of ledger-like book um it's got some sort of um very minor sort of enchanted pen that's kind of like a ever running quill like it doesn't need an ink pot it just writes um and uh

she looks over you uh and says uh are you all together or are you individual groups? Kind of like looking. Oh, yes, we are together. Sort of like, oh, very eclectic looking group. All right. And she sort of like takes a couple of notes down and says, all right, well, if you can follow this way, we'll just conduct the interviews over here.

And she gestures to a small kind of like courtyard almost, like this kind of just beyond the gates. It's kind of like a sectioned off area, not quite in the city itself yet. Almost like a guard's room that's been sort of emptied out and opened up just where they can have chats with people. And there's like some chairs and tables and stuff in there, all very plain wooden things, but just where you're basically meant to take a seat. And you can see that there are a few other guards and stuff positioned there. You do notice that in the vicinity, there are a few of these Valkyrian riflemen who have got the kind of the more magitek looking weapons and armor

who are kind of patrolling around. And they seem to be conversing with a much more, you couldn't see them from when you were outside, but now that you're kind of inside this area, kind of going into this waiting section, you can see that there is one much more senior-looking Valkyrian officer. They're not wearing armor. They're wearing almost like an Imperial officer's uniform from Star Wars, the kind of gray suit with sort of like belted tunic, very regal-looking collar. Looks much more magical, but they seem to be taking orders.

And they're in the background. They're not really paying attention to much things, but they're just kind of like chatting with some of the officers and feel the ganassi. But yeah, this woman sort of says, yeah, and take, in that case, if you're all together, and she kind of points to a room on the side. And you are meant to follow, head in?

Yeah, I'm going to follow up. All right, okay. You step inside, and then shortly after, two Ganassi, the two Earth Ganassi, will step inside, and they'll be like, oh, good morning, good morning. Welcome. If you could please just take a seat.

This shouldn't take you too long. Oh, a seat, finally. Yep. Been in this queue for so long. Yeah, we apologize for the wait. It felt like weeks. We just have to make sure that everyone coming in, we've got a few questions we need to ask.

Would any of you like water or anything like that? We can have some. Oh yes, very parched. Yes, of course, yes, yes. And they'll sort of like gesture to somebody outside and they'll just count how many of you are, six of you, and then they'll gesture and sort of say, six, can we get some six cups of water brought in?

They'll say, yeah, please take a seat. Just give us a moment here. We just need to do a couple of things. Oh, yeah, please take your time. And they'll sort of step to the door. You can see the two of them sort of have a hushed conversation between the two of them. One of them steps outside for a minute,

comes back a few minutes later. They kind of keep you waiting for like another five minutes in this room, like not really engaging with you and sort of like making apologies. Oh, sorry, we just need to check a few things. What do you, how are you guys acting in those kind of like five minutes? Like what do you guys do during those?

Oh, I am stroking my beard. Just sort of like there. I'm like doing a manly pose and stroking my beard. Trying to stay in character, but definitely like noticeably agitated. Okay. Bouncing leg, that sort of thing. Crossing my arms and then changing positions.

I'm manspreading in my chair. Just looking like I don't know what's going on in the world. Mouth open, slight bit of drool. Real dumb. Okay, nice. Cintra's just leaning against the wall, just crossed arms, just trying to look tough.

Just trying to be imposing. What, Wyss? It's been a long time since I last came to Fortinstar, but the checkpoints, they weren't so serious. You used to be able to walk right in. Walk right in and pick up whatever you want and walk right out. It's all changed now, isn't it? Change! Change is happening all the time, but it keeps your blood pumping. That's what I always say. Is that some more water?

What? A lot more. Take sips a lot. I am taking sips. Frequently. Fantastic. Seeing as you're doing pretty much the only one who's actually talking,

this is Lucius and Quill, can you both make deception checks? Well, son of a bitch. You're there spouting off all this stuff. That is definitely deception. Back in my day. Come on. They're 100% listening off all this stuff. Like that is definitely deception. Back in my day. Come on. They're 100% listening.

Oh no. Nine. Is that the total? No. With your deception bonus? My deception's not good. Okay. And then for Quill?

Eight. All right. Rolled badly. Another sort of, maybe another ten minutes, I would say, goes past. Eight. All right. Okay, good to know. Rolled badly. Another sort of, maybe another 10 minutes, I would say, goes past, but eventually this other Ganassi guard returns, and they're like, so, so sorry. Just had to sort out some other things.

So sorry to keep you waiting. We've just got a few very simple questions. We're just gonna go round. You said that you are all traveling together, is that correct? Yes. Only by chance and round. You said that you are all travelling together. Is that correct? Yes. Only by chance and coincidence. You're not related?

Oh, no, no, no, no. We all met on the same airship from Imgzhan and struck up a friendship on the way here. Ah, I see. Are any of you... So none of you are colleagues or family or anything like that? Colleague. Yes, we train together.

Can I get some decisions can she get advantage um no it's just uh well i'll let you it can either be deception or performance i don't think it will matter no i don't think it will matter either does everybody not have good deception no no it's just me right or what Deception or what? Deception or performance. I don't think it will make it. It'll be the same, because they're both charisma. Yeah. It's just if you have training in one of the other ones.

Five. So five and? Eight. Eight, excellent. I have a plus nothing. So just to check, it was a nine, an eight, another eight, and a five. The nine was the highest, yeah.

I'm just gonna add those. You're gonna jilt. Ha ha, well there's. You're going to jilt. Whenever we have to do anything stealth or deception, it just does not work. It's fine. It's a good thing. It's not like you make one roll and it's an immediate fail. You make four and it's a fail. I'm just keeping track.

One hour before this, we actually managed to get through. I actually flirted with the guard. You don't have any flashback tokens yet. You don't have any yet. You haven't earned any. All right. So you guys are saying that you guys know each other. Is anybody else claiming that they knew each other or they're connected to each other before they met on this airship? Just all airship meeting.

All right. In that case... Convenience for me. In that case, the guy's like, oh, so sorry. Bit of a misunderstanding then. We need to, obviously, if you didn't know each other before you met on this airship, we need to have a chat with you individually.

We'll start with the two that came together then. If the three of you could just wait just outside of the four of you, sorry, indicating K as well. Come on, I'll help him up. Come on, Grandad, yeah. Yeah, and yeah, you will have to be interviewed separately.

Brilliant. Good luck, guys. Well, you guys have been to immigration, like, you know, if you're not family or if you're not directly travelling with your brother. There was that time, though, Kate and I went through together because the guy recognised her and waved me over

and was like, oh, come on! Yeah, well, that's, yeah, these guys don't recognise you, so. That's when we went to Seattle, remember? All right. Do you want us to leave the room? Oh, that's a great idea, that's a really good idea brilliant idea because then you won't know what questions are coming yeah Tom what a great idea

thank you very much it'll be a real interview a little uh immigration interview welcome yeah you can get a little mini roll just plug your ears just bug your ears i just like to use this to point out i'm wearing my big goth boots as well okay great and some down houses get out all right Get out. And bat trousers. Oop! Get out. All right. Let me know when you, are you in outside?

All right, they're outside. They're gone. All right, so these guards will look at the two of you and just say, yep, we shouldn't keep you long. Now that we've kind of got that sorted out, it shouldn't be too much. Can I get your names, please? My name is Crag.

Crag? Crag Balderdash. Crag Balderdash, okay, brilliant, thank you. And you? Miss? Spark. Spark. Spark, theyash, okay, brilliant, thank you. And you, Miss? Spark. Spark, Spark, they write it down. Okay, excellent. And what do you both do?

I am a plate carrier for the Volcanic Victors, you might have heard of us. Volcanic Victors, Battle of the Elemental Mountain Team? Yeah. Okay, Battle of the Elemental Mountain Team. And what about yourself? I'm a guard for the team. Guard for the team, Same team? Mm.

Your colleagues. Okay, excellent. Well, I kind of take some more notes and things like that. And where are you coming from? Imigzán. Imigzán? From the same place? Yes.

You were there together? Yeah, the training grounds there are phenomenal. Climbing mountains. Climbing mountains. Oh, very good. How long have you been away from Vortensar, roughly, do you think? I'd say about maybe like a year.

About there, maybe. How do you reckon? Couldn't be honest with you, mate. I don't really remember much in terms of dates. We've taken a lot of bashes to the head. But you'd say around a year or so. About a year, yeah. Okay, okay, fantastic, thank you.

Thank you very much. It's all right. Not too many more questions. Just going to get through things. Do you have any family or people in the city that you are coming to see or that you already know? We're just coming to look at the training grounds here and have a go at training for the upcoming tournaments.

Oh, just for coming for the tournaments? Just for tournaments, yeah. You are aware of what's happening in the city? Oh, just for coming for the tournaments? Just for tournaments, yeah. You are aware of what's happening in the city? Oh, yes, yes. The big thing. Yes, yes, of course. Yeah, the trip back home. Yes. Yes, good. So obviously you're aware that, you know, once you come in... Oh, yes.

...in a few days that that's it. Very excited about it. Okay, very good, very good. Do you have somewhere that you're staying in the city? Do you have a place of residence or do you have the address of where you'll be staying? I think we just- Lean in. I think we're just gonna take it easy,

just see if we can find an inn or somewhere until we get a more permanent residence settled. It's been a while. We don't have a permanent residence here. Okay, well we will need somewhere that we know that we can find you and contact you. What we've been doing for, because we've had a few travelers

who have had the same issue, who don't know the city very well or may not have gone back. I mean, if you were here a year ago, can you think of a tavern or something that you used to frequent or visit when you were back in the city last time? The Spicy Rabbit, rings of bells.

Spicy rabbit. Oh, it's not one I know, but I can't say I know every inn in the city. So do you think that that's where you might stay? Maybe. We'll probably look for the cheapest place that we can, to be honest. We don't have that much money.

No. Okay, spicy rabbit or cheapest available. Okay, well in that- But the person who was on the ship, he looked like he had money. Yeah, he did, the old man. Maybe an old man from the ship, okay. Old man from the ship.

He might help us find a place. So if he has a place where he's staying, we can use the same location possibly for- I'd just say honestly, put the cheapest inn down. Yeah. Well in that case, what we've been saying for folks in your situation, and if the spicy rabbit,

you're not able to stay there, he gives you a sort of written out piece of parchment, which has the address of an inn, a large inn. He's like, this is a sort of traveler's hostel inn.

They have a large amount of rooms and things like that. We have a relationship with them. We would request that if you don't have somewhere to tell us, you stay here. He'll give you the card. Do they serve alcohol?

Yes, yes, yes. There's drinking establishments and things like that. But yeah, we would request that you stay here. And the name of this place is just called, it's called the Fire Pot. The Fire Pot? That sounds cozy. But they serve alcohol. It's here in this district. It's in the fire pot. The fire pot? That sounds cozy. Mm-hmm.

But there's no fire pot. It's here in this district. It's in the fire district. Okay. So we could come back and tell you if we couldn't get a room if it was full. Sure. We've been telling people it might be full now. No, I mean, we keep...

That's one of the things that me and my companion were talking about. We have a number of these places around the city. We run constant checks to make sure that there's available space. Most people who are coming back are staying with family or have other places to be, but we're gonna have that. All right, well, I think this kind of wraps it up for my questions. Thank you very much.

I now need you both to make one last deception. Oh no. I don't have any. Deception or persuasion. There's none. I know, I know there's none. So it's just, you know, you got to base it on the rolls. No, 14?

14, okay. So far, deception or persuasion? Yeah, deception, I would say in this case, deception or persuasion because... Persuasion? No, because you did actively like make stuff up. So I'm gonna say it's gonna have to Deception, I think, unfortunately. 20. 20? Okay. So, yeah, just straight 20?

Natural 20, yeah. Natural 20 for Deception? Yeah. Wow, okay. Deception's a plus three. Oh, you actually have a plus three in it because you're Charisma, right? Oh, yeah, that's true. All right, so, yeah, okay.

Good to know. Yeah, this guard kind of is like, okay, well, thank you very much both for your time. They will also give you kind of little leather, almost like a wallet. It's very cheap, like a piece of scrap leather kind of folded in half and pressed stitch seams with another piece of parchment in it, and they stamp it, and they hand this each to you. Just this will recognize you that you've been approved by the gate team.

If you meet any other guards, they might ask to see your immigration seal. Just provide this with them. Keep this on us at all times. This is a new thing that we've introduced because of the upcoming event and because of our relationship with the Valkyrian Empire and these Erosians who we're worried that they're going to try and stop people from coming home.

We've already had some trouble in the city. So if a guard asks, just show them that. What kind guard asks just show them that nothing for you to worry about just they've not been attacking citizens or anything like that causing trouble with the guards causing trouble with some of the services but nothing to worry about we've well got it in hand we just want to make sure that anybody coming into the city isn't going to be causing trouble so just keep these on you okay and if anybody asks make sure you show them all right okay thank you very much thanks for your time thank you very much thank you if you could just let my colleague on the outside know to send in

the next individual I think because the rest yeah enjoy your day thanks thank you very much do we do you want us to leave the room well though this absolutely and could you send one of them in because none of them claim to be in another group, so they've got to come in individually. Drink with me. Toodles. Mm-hmm.

Well, this is exciting, isn't it, chat? Isn't this fun? One at a time, please. Yeah, it is on. Tom coming in, he's gotta leave. It is on. You can get a drink and then you leave. Gemhausen. Okay, go.

You gone? Yeah. Okay, he's gone. So, you see Crag and Spark leave. How are they looking? I think that they look okay. I mean, you don't get a big look at them. It's like literally in passing.

And as they leave, the guard who's been outside with you is like, okay, yeah, if you could take the next step, please, sir, and sends you in, basically. You go inside. The other Earth Ganassi, a man, kind of wearing a guard's uniform, maybe a little bit more senior, is sat down. He's like, oh, please take a seat, sir. Thanks very much for this.

I'm so sorry about the misunderstanding about your group and things like that. That's my dad's voice. Hold on. That's okay dad's voice. Hold on. That's okay. Oh, no, pleasure. If you could take a seat and very quick, just a few questions just to get you through. Could I have your name, please, sir? My name is Spritz.

You may know me by my pen name, Julienne. Okay. I am afraid I don't, sir, but Spritz is your given name? Yes. Okay, Spritz. And your occupation, please, sir? Food journalist. Food journalist. Do you write for a particular paper or is this for books or...?

I used to write for the main magazine in the city. However, I have since leaving and travelling around rowis i've been releasing my own uh fancy not fancy zine you may have heard of it i haven't you say you used to write for one of the main ones in the city what one was that oh the the the main one i definitely wrote it down. I would love to know. The Four Corners Cuisine. Four Corners Cuisine. He writes it down you can see that I'm making notes Four Corners Cuisine and

your pen name is Julian you said? Julian. Okay thank you very much Julian. A couple more questions. Where are you coming from? Imixan. Imixan. Imixan. And how long, roughly, were you in Imixan, and what were you doing? I was there for a few weeks, but I've been travelling around Eros. I was sampling the local cuisine of Imixan, writing a few notes, and, yeah, that's about it.

In that case, so you said that you had been in other places around Eros before Imik Xan. How long do you think it's been since you were last in Vortensar? Must be a few years. A few years? Could you be a bit more specific? Narrow it down a little? Well, how do dates work in Eros again?

It's the same as Earth. Okay. But like months in that one? Yeah, it's pretty much the same can i like try and give a kind of months in a year like but in a rowist time oh i think he's more like how many years like rather than a few years like you say like two two years three years longer uh i would say probably one year and ten months so let's say two years, almost. Two years away. Okay, fantastic. And do you have anyone in the city that you... Like, any family or people that you're going to be staying with

or, you know, people that you're returning for or... Sadly, my family passed away before I left. Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that. It's one of the reasons why I decided to go and see the world. Hmm. So you don't have anyone in the city that you're going to be staying with or? I'm not sure, I was going to try and reconnect with a great-great-grandmother but I'm not sure if she's still around.

But yeah, I thought I would, after meeting my companions on the airship, I thought I might, you know, follow them for a little bit while I try and make some connections. So, see who's around, who's not. Excellent. What's your great-great-grandmother's name? As you were going to reconnect with her. Splash. Splash. Excellent.

I'm assuming a water ganassi. Champion cook. Champion cook. Interesting. Thank you for giving me more details. I didn't ask for... I mean, champion is that she's an excellent cook, not that she's...

You know, she hasn't taken partaking in the... Famous. No, I did not say famous. I said she's a great cook. That is what inspired my love for culinary arts. And so if you're unable to connect with this great-great-grandmother, do you know where you're going to be staying in the city?

Oh, I was going to see where everyone else was staying just for the night while I try and send out some messages and... So you don't have a place in mind that you're going to be staying at? Well, look, can we not simply check ourselves into Intel? You absolutely can, but we here at the Gate, the Gate team, we need to know when we register a new visitor

or somebody returning to the city where they're going to be located in case we need to contact you. So, you know, many travelers, they already have somewhere in mind, or if they're returning to the city, they have family that they'll be staying with, an address they can give us.

In your case, as you don't have an address, we have a couple of options. If you don't have a particular inn in mind and they will pull out a little piece of parchment, we would ask that you stay here. It's the address of an inn called the Fire Pot. It's here in the Fire District. And we've made sure that we know

that there are rooms available there. It's sort of a kind of a traveller's hostel. There's food and drink available as well, but this way we know where you are if we need to contact you. If you choose to stay somewhere else, we would ask that you either come and tell us or you send word to us to inform us of where you're going to be located. Why is all the security upped?

We never had any of this in the... No, it's all to do with... I mean, I'm sure, you know, returning to Vortensar, you must be aware of the call that was sent out and the upcoming event that's going to be happening. Oh, yeah, I heard rumours about it, yes. So, because of this, there have been some minor incidents with troublemakers, Erosians,

but also some people in the city. We just want to make sure that everyone coming in is, you know, who they say they are and that they've got good intentions. We want to make sure that this big event, which is so important to the city, does not have any disruptions. And all of these restrictions will be lifted

once we're happily returned to Gannes. But it's just a temporary measure, I'm afraid. Okay, understandable. Excellent, all right. The thing that I now need from Kim, the player, is a deception check. Right, let's go, come on. Do I use the new dice?

No, because they might be terrible. Curse them! Dan Howzen cursed them. Yeah. 16 plus five, 21. 21. The soldier's kind of just like, all right, everything seems in order.

They pull out, they kind of have like this big pouch and they pull out a very cheap sort of leather wallet, like a kind of piece of leather folded over and stitched round. In it is a piece of parchment. He writes down like your name, your occupation, roughly where you can be located and then he stamps it with a kind of parchment. He writes down your name, your occupation, roughly where you can be located, and then he stamps it with a kind of seal. It does look like there's some element of magic.

You kind of recognize maybe a very faint glow to it, and then he hands it back to you and says, this is just your immigration seal. If another guard or any members of the Valkyrian Empire ask, we do ask that you present that to them immediately without question, just so that they know you've passed our initial kind of test. All right, thank you very much for your time.

If you can just let my colleague to send the next one. Sure, I will. Any food recommendations? I've been away for a while, so... Oh, I mean... Where do you eat? I mean, I don't...

I've only got a very meagre salary, sir, but, you know, I love to eat here in the district, in the fire district. I've lived and worked here most of my life, so I have a big favour for the cuisine. There's an excellent food market on Coalsmoke Street. A lot of people tend to go there. It's lots of smaller independent places,

but I do a lot of home cooking, so. Good, good on you. Good on you. Thank you very much. Just let my colleague to send the next one in, please. Thank you very much. Just let my colleague to send the next one in, please. Take my, take my. Thank you very much.

Next! Oh, chat. This is a dream. It's a DM's dream. Just making them all answer questions and none of them have any idea what they've said. Where would you like me to sit? Ah, come in, thank you, sir. Please take a seat here.

I'd like to sit over here, please. You can sit wherever you would like, sir. Ooh, this is different. Can we just check in with the security team that that's all right? Yes, it seems to be okay. Oh, oh God, okay. Hello, sir.

Hello. Just getting comfortable. Just making sure Sam is okay when you sit. Yeah, that's okay, it's all fine. Hello. The guard will greet you and say, oh, please come in. So sorry about this misunderstanding with your group, sir.

I'm going to keep you waiting a little bit longer. Hopefully I won't need to keep you too much longer. We just have some sort of routine questions to ask you before we continue. Oh, it's our mistake. We were travelling since Imexan, but, well, we were kind of a group, but not quite, you see. It was more a travel of convenience for me. Exactly, yes.

See, I'm quite old and frail, and sometimes I get a little bit exhausted, a lot more than I used to, and they would just hurry me along or give me drinks and water and such. It's a very useful group. Lovely fellows, lovely. But not ones you've known long?

Oh, no. No, as I said, we met in the mix and. Well, if I can come back to that, sir, if I could just first get your name, please. Well, my name is. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Well, my name is Wisp. Wisp.

Wisp, that's right. Note a little something down Wisp. Wisp. Wisp, that's right. So note a little something down there. Oh, okay, Wisp, all right. And what's your occupation, Wisp? What do you do? Well, I'm retired, have been for many years now. Oh, in that case, what did you used to do? Oh, well, I was a librarian in Cali's Rest.

I'm not sure if you've been there. Lovely little place. A librarian in, where did you say, Cali's Rest? Cali's Rest. That'm not sure if you've been there. Lovely little place. Librarian? In where did you say? Cally's Rest? Cally's Rest. That's somewhere in Arroas. I'm afraid I've never been outside the city. Oh, I imagined you'd be quite travelled, but no, it's in Suvona. Suvona. I was a librarian sorting books, taking requests from people, suggesting classics to any that would like to come on in and would

want to be wiser. Excellent. Well, a very good profession, it seems. And you've already mentioned this, and apologies for asking the same question. You were coming from Imikzan, you said? Yes. Oh, interesting. So, and how close is this to Juwona and Kallisrest to Imikzan? Why did you travel from there to Imikzan? So, Vortensar is like north-west, right? It's very, very far south-west. South-west, whereas Svona is kind of in the middle. I thought it was way off to the east. Svona is kind of more central.

It's like one of the more central continents and then it makes that is the far west um so so so i understand that you are a librarian in cali's rest i i'll come back to that then you traveled to imexan and then you now you're coming back to vortensar. Yes, well, I was on a delivery request to begin with. I was in Imexan for a few months, you see, initially to pick up a long-requested tome that someone had requested, and they sent me for God knows what reason. Yes, it would be strange to send such an older, venerable librarian.

Retired librarian, yes, you're right. Do they not have younger apprentices to send or anything like that? You see, the library I worked in in Calley's Rest, not too long ago, it burned down, and they lost many a tome and many a scroll. It was more a volunteering job, since I loved the place so much, and I figured I owed it so much more time than I'd already given it, so I wanted to help out as much as I could.

That's very kind of you. But it wasn't a paid job? You weren't paid for your services? No, no, no. They paid my way through my entire life. Oh, I see. So they covered things like food and accommodation. They covered the travel, and I just wanted to see a little more of the world in my twilight years, you see. Ah, I see. And so you arrive in Amixan and is that where you then decided to come back to Vortensar? It was when I then heard the call. Ah, I see, okay.

And I sent many messages back, letting them know. Who did you send messages back to? This would have been to the dean of the library in Callie's Rest. I see, so you contacted them to let them know you wouldn't be returning. I wouldn't be returning. Also that I was not able to locate the requested materials. I see. So, not all lost.

How long then would you say, if you spent some time in Kelly's Rest and then you travelled to Wimick Sandingham, how long has it been since you were last in Vortensark? You must have been born here, I assume, and then you decided to travel out many years ago. Yes, well, yes. How long do you think it's been since you were last in the city? Why, it must be upwards of 60 years, I'd say.

60 years? Yes. You've not been back in 60 years? No'd say. 60 years? Yes. You've not been back in 60 years? No, no. It was very young when I decided to leave and then spent most of my time travelling from place to place in Savona before I made my roots, I suppose, in Cali's Rest. And that's where I stayed for many of my wonder years

and now here I am back again. And it is so lovely to see the place once more. I'd forgotten so much of it. Yeah, I imagine in 60 years you must have done. And obviously you mentioned that you heard the course, you were aware of the upcoming events and things like that. One last question. Do you have any family in the city,

people that you're going to be staying with? Do you have family here that you're going to be staying with? Do you have family here that you're returning to? My closest family was all in Caddy's Rest, but unfortunately have since passed away, and I have no heirs or anything like that. No other connections, no brothers or sisters that would have had families? Only distant and extended family would have stayed for so long. Distant and extended.

But you don't know who they are? It's been such a long time, I haven't made contact with them. No, that's understandable. In that case, do you know where you're going to be staying then, sir? Do you have a place in mind? It's been so long, I imagine not. I was hoping... Well, I was going to ask you, to be honest. Oh, well, that's perfect.

We have a system in place. It hands you a piece of parchment, which has got the address of a tavern written down for it. It's called the Brazen Pit. And it says this is a sort of travelling hostel, and we hand these out for people who don't have

a specific place. They say, we know where you are, because we need a point of contact and address that we know where you are because we need a point of contact and address that we can reach you. Understood, and is this far? No, it's here in the fire district. It's just sort of closest to the Earth District. It's kind of in between, it's near the gate that leads to the Earth District.

But yeah, the brazen pit gives you a piece of parchment with that address on it. And yes, if you can just make sure that if you do choose to stay somewhere else, you need to come and tell us and let us know where you'll be staying. Or there are fines or there could be some trouble because we need to keep an eye on who's coming into the city. So I'd have to come back all the way here? Well, you could send somebody.

There are messengers and couriers who can deliver a message for us. But it's your responsibility to update us on where we can find you. Okay, understood. I don't imagine I'll be travelling can find you. Okay. All right? Understood. All right. I don't imagine I'll be traveling far. No, no. Well, hopefully not. Hopefully not.

And there'll be great celebrations in the next few days. Now I need Tom Hazel to roll a deception check for me. Okay. I know. Why did I sit over here? I don't know. That's a great question. I love that you did it.

I just wanted a change of... Yeah. No, I love it. It made some great moments. I am also going to impose disadvantage on this, by the way. Why? Because of your terrible, terrible... You forgot your own name.

You have this bizarre story of being in Cali's Rest. You did a good job, but this is what the deception gives you. It was intricate. It is, but that's why I'm giving you disadvantage. You've weaved a complex tale. exactly a long life leg yeah okay all right fine well the first one okay the second one we'll say we're disadvantaged wow 18 twice okay so i got a 19. Is that on the new High Rollers dice? That is. There you go. Glitter dice. So, okay. 19.

Okay. Eat that. Eat that. Perfect. All right. He will sort of nonce. Okay, that's great. Thank you, sir.

He hands you a leather wallet kind of folded in half, stitched around the outside. And when you open it, there's a piece of parchment there. And he writes down your name. He writes down retired librarian, writes down some information, what tavern you'll be staying at. And then he open it, there's a piece of parchment there. And he writes down your name. He writes down retired librarian, writes down some information, what tavern you'll be staying at. And then he stamps it. And you can tell that there's a very minor piece of magic

in the stamp. And he closes it up and says, this is your immigration seal. If any of the Ganassi guards or any of our friends from the Valkyrian Empire ask to see your identification, you must present this to them. It's very important that you do that, all right?

And yeah, we've got you on record now enjoy the city and and look forward to things and thank you very much for your time if you can just let my colleague know to send the next one in of course yes absolutely has it been a long day for you I know no it's I'm happy happy to keep the safe good okay thank you very much get the next. Thank you very much. I'll just get the next one. Thank you very much, sir. I won't be long. Oh, come on in, please. Just grab my phone, I'm gonna go pee.

Sorry. Shit. Take one, I'm gonna go pee. Ah, hello there, sir. If you could, can we, sorry, my colleague, could you shut the door, please? I'm sorry. Thank you. Right away.

Excellent. Thank you so much. So sorry to keep you waiting. Oh, yes. And sort of this mix up with your group and the... Not ideal circumstances, but needs must, I assume. Absolutely, absolutely. Just a couple of very quick questions.

Sure. Just setting up a couple of basic things, and then we can get you on your way. Is it sir? Yes, sir yes sir um can i get your name please then as a ray azure okay excellent the click on the if you wouldn't mind azure like you said yes i've sort of yeah i've made a note of the explanation sorry it's important stage name and all that i was going to say well because i asked what'd you do then so stage name a musician a performer i'm a performer yes on the stage uh looking to create new stories and bring them back to vort and tsar it's about time the younger generation had a impact on tradition brilliant marvelous and what perfect opportunity absolutely so you're aware of everything that's happening in the city then and you know about the events

coming up. Oh, very excited. Very good, very good. Excellent. Where are you coming from then Mr. Azuray? Oh, I've come from all over. I've been traveling for the entire journey. Oh, okay. Well, let's start with where was you before you arrived here in Vortenshaal? Where was your last destination? My mistake. Absolutely. So, obviously, I boarded the airship with everybody else at... It's... Oh, it was that little port I'd been travelling for so long.

Hmm. Hmm. Cayley's Rest, was it? No. Imexan. Imexan. That's the one. So, you were last in Imexan?

Imexan, yes. Mm-hmm. You mentioned Cayley's That's the one. So you were last in Imiqsan? Imiqsan, yes. You mentioned Kayleigh's Rest. Is that somewhere that you've been before? I think it's just the old man keeps saying that in his sleep or something. I see. Okay. All right. And then you mentioned that you sort of travelled around a lot before then as well. Yes, just trying to gain inspiration, I'll be honest. Okay. I'm a young thespian of the arts and sometimes the local produce wires the brain wrongly and I indulge.

Oh I see. Yes and I forget where I've been. That's fine, we're not here to judge, just ask some questions. Could I assume then that you were in an exam for performance related matters, as you said, sort of learning these stories and things? It was sort of my last stop actually, because I heard, obviously everyone heard, the news that Vought and Sauer was returning

and we had the image that projected and I had to immediately return home because my job needs to finish. Excellent. When was the last time you were in the city uh if you've been traveling around for a while could you give me a rough just in years or months or however long it's been six years six years very confidently said six years so the last time you were here in vonsal was six years okay excellent yeah and you said that you've been traveling around oros um during that time. Yes. And Im Exam was your last port of call.

Living like a nomad. Okay. Living life every day as it comes. That's fine. On the edge. Do you have any family in the city? Do you have any people that you're coming home to? No, I certainly hope not.

Oh, you hope not? I did have family here, yes. You did? But I'd fallen out of contact with them. They didn't want me to pursue my career, shall we say we say i see well i i understand it's obviously a very difficult personal thing but could i i will need their name okay amulet amulet is that uh mother father mother mother are you in contact with any other members of your family no no no, just the mother then?

I'm the black sheep. I see. Alright, so Amelie. But you're not in contact with them now? You don't intend to stay with them or visit them or anything like that? No, I hope to avoid them. Okay, alright. Do you know where you're going to be staying in the city? Do you have anything planned? I'll be in the air quarter likely.

I will need a specific address if you have, like, an inn that you know of that you're going to be staying at, or a friend's house, or... Oh, of course, yes, it's likely I'm going to be staying at Coalsmoke Street, roughly. The Spicy Rabbit. Coalsmoke Street, interesting. But you said you were staying in the air quarter.

Oh, is that not there? I was definitely given directions to that. Interesting. Well, I'm afraid, no, I'm afraid that the Coalsmoke Street is here in the fire district, so it's actually a favorite location of mine, so. That's where the theater is. It should be near it, right?

No, no, Coalsmoke is a food district. It's a food market. No theaters, no inns, really. Bloody miscreant. Oh, I'm sorry, sir. Well, luckily, we do have a system in play. What we do is, for folks, because we need to have a point of contact for, we need to know where we can reach you, what we do is we arrange for places for you to stay.

We have a, you know, if you don't have somewhere already, he hands you a parchment which has the address of an inn. I wasn't told about this. No, that's all right. I've already paid rent on this place. On what place? I think I've been swindled. I think you have, sir.

So luckily, I mean, I'm sure if you mention it to the proprietor of the brazen pit, they will be able to like at least give you maybe some sort of discount. What star rating is this place? I mean, it's a traveler's rest. It's, you know, it's comfortable rooms, but it will be slightly busy.

But we ask you, if you do change your plans, if you find out where this place that you're supposed to be staying or if you choose somewhere else, it's your responsibility to tell us. There are fines and there could be further charges if you don't update us on the location. If I somehow like this situation, I don't need to update you? No, no. If you're happy with the brazen pit

then obviously you can just stay there and we have that on record for you right all right um excellent the last thing I need from Chris Trott is a deception check with disadvantage please because of that absolute fuck up with the the way you were staying uh no yes you named you said air quarter and then you named a place in the fire district. Shit. So, yeah, that's got this guy's, like, he's suspicious. 15. Oh, with disadvantage.

With disadvantage, please. Come on. Bless me, blessing dice. 12. 12? Okay. All right. He'll sort of, like, nod and nod and sort of like write some things down.

And he pulls out a leather sort of wallet, sort of folded in half, very roughly stitched. Inside is a piece of parchment. He writes on it your name, your occupation, where you can be located, this brazen pit. And then he stamps it. And you can tell that there's a very slight magic to the stamp. He hands it to you, says, this is your immigration seal. If any other guards or our friends in the Valkyrian Empire ask to see it, please do show them that. Show them that you've been approved by the gate team.

Like I said, do keep us updated on your current location. And if there's any issues, we'll contact you. We'll try and find you in the city to let you know if there's any other problems. But as far as I'm concerned, we're done here today. Thank you very much. I think there's just one more from your team who we'll deal with from your sort of travelling group.

And then, yeah, but you're happy to head into the city, sir. Thank you very much. I've got a question. Yes, of course. Security here. Are we safe? Because there's a war. Absolutely, absolutely.

There have been some very minor incidents, sir, but you don't have to worry. They've not targeted any of the public services or streets. It's mainly been focused on military, our friends from the Valkyrian Empire. These sort of... I hate to use the word, but these sort of... They're young upstarts.

I wouldn't even call them... Some people call them terrorists, but really that makes them sound so much more scary than they do. What in Vorten, sir? They're young rebels. I was talking about outside. Oh, outside. I mean... But tell me about what's young rebels. I was talking about outside. Oh, outside. I mean, no.

But tell me about what's going on inside. I mean, outside, you're perfectly safe. I mean, that's why we've got our friends here. They're protecting us. Right.

No, there's a very small group of young rebels who are just sort of trying to cause trouble. But they're not, you won't have to worry about them. It might make a good story. Yeah, perhaps,

perhaps one day. But yeah, enjoy the time. If you're a performer, I'm sure that you'll be checking out our guiding star. Of course. Her performances are amazing. Please do go and see them if you get the chance. What an inspiration.

Absolutely. But yeah, thank you very much for your time. Thank you. You can just bring everyone else in now, yeah. Because it's only Kay. You may come in now! It's only Kay left and I can handle that, so. We broke in through the back hello yeah hello

you still in character or no no you're all right now you're peeing right now yeah are we are peeing i need to know uh so when rihanna gets in your chair uh because we the first thing is once we've got everyone it's we're all in jail well i brought you back in to basically go, it's time for a break. We needed to bring everyone back in to kind of round it all off. But what we'll say, before we go to break, I'll set the scene.

You guys, where you were sort of passed through the gate team, you received your new immigration seals. Everyone did. You are led through and you arrive out into the city and you sort of wait around.

It takes, you know, what, like 15, 20 minutes as each of you have these brief interviews and then eventually you are all reunited on the other side. But yeah, go ahead, Tron. I was gonna do a little look at this seal and do a arcana check to check what type of magic it is. Yeah, absolutely, yeah, please do. That's a three, so nine.

You would need more investigative magic, yeah, like detect magic or identify. Identify is what you would need. See if it's magical. Yeah, but you know it's magical. I mean, a few of you kind of spotted that. But yeah, you all kind of sync up afterwards and you meet out on the street.

We did. You guys, say we can do like, because we were a little bit late, Stein, you can have like 10 minutes to quickly chat amongst yourselves and then we'll go on break. I think we did it. Can I roll an insight check to like,

so my post-interview, like how did I feel that went with the interviewer? Yeah, sure, you can make a post-insight check, sure. That's a 10. A 10. I mean, as far as you're aware, like, yeah, it seems like the fact that they didn't hold you for any longer, they let you pass through,

you got your seal, like, yeah, everything seems okay. Yeah, did everyone get their seals? I got my seal. Where have you got to go? He's like, yes, yes, not a problem for me. I have to go to a tavern here in the fire district. What's the name?zen pit yes sorry i i sat so far away from my notes for some reason he literally he chose to sat in trot seat

and he was like well also tom do you want to tell them what else you forgot we heard i heard you shout it through the door i forgot my my fucking name. He was like reaching over. I was like, no, no, no, no, no. You sat there. You don't get to look at your notes. But it's okay because we're through now. And now we have to go to the brazen pit. That's the one.

I remember that. I got told a different place. Oh, shit. We got told the fire. The fire part. Yeah, we got told the fire. I got told the fire part. What about you?

Kay? Brazen pit. Where did Kay get, Kay? Kay, Kay, you, the three of you, yeah, he would've got the Brazen Pit as well. Or they would've got the Brazen Pit, because, no, she would've got the Brazen Pit because she's currently a female fire ganassi, I think.

So she's just like, yeah, it's Brazen Pit for me. We don't have to go there, right? Did they describe it to you, like what it looked like, what it was for? No. I was informed that it was for security reasons, and if we are to travel anywhere other than the assigned locations, we would need to inform a guard. Yes, they said that it was our responsibility to inform them if we changed place. They mentioned

a fine, perhaps some criminal charges if... Oh, I didn't get told that. Oh, I didn't get told that. Oh, we didn't get told that. Strange. Yeah, we were told the fire pot was like a hostel kind of thing. And it serves alcohol. Oh, I got told about the food.

Oh, food and alcohol. I'd like to make an insight check to remember where the hell I was meant to go. I mean, you don't need to make a check for that you you i mean yeah you you have the piece of paper you have the little address oh it actually has it on the okay it has the address on it um and yeah it's two different taverns like the the the groups got like the the the first two got told to go to the fire pot okay and then the second the the next three so the first three effectively got told to go to the fire pot and then the next three got told to go to the brazen pit.

Maybe it's just a capacity issue. Perhaps. We could ask when we're there. How about we check in just to make sure everything's kosher, and then... What's kosher? Kosher. Everything's all good. Oh, I've never heard that expression before. Yeah, strange.

In this world. Well, that's kosher. Let's go to our respective places and have a meeting point okay because we're allowed to leave we have to tell them though no no as in we can just go about town there's no we're locked in our confines it's just where we stay right we don't really need to go there right now. I'm just saying it might be worthwhile if there's a security check. This is magical in nature.

It might be waiting for it to arrive at its destination first to know that we've gone there. Can this thing hear us? Can I alcanut check this card? Oh, God. No, because it would be basically repeating exactly what Lucius did.

This now needs an identifier. Well, because it would be basically repeating exactly what Lucius did. This now needs an Identify spell. Well, I was going to... Yeah. I mean, how many guards are around? How many people are around? As long as you're not doing something that is flashy and bright and explosive, an Identify spell you can do relatively subtly. You can just...

The others can crowd around you and hide you from doing it. If it was more loud and and like, you know, it was a bigger powerful spell, then you would have to make checks to try and avoid being noticed doing it. But I'd say for an identify spell, you don't need to. Like, that's an easy one you can get away with without doing anything too much.

And also, whilst Tom is doing that. No! A quadrant. Inconvenient. Your morning has been spent doing these checks at the gate because they had to split you up whilst Tom is doing that. No! A quadrant incognito. Your morning has been spent doing these checks at the gate because they had to split you up and it had to take some additional time. Obviously it only took like 15, 20 minutes

for us in real life. In game it would have taken like most of the morning. Right, yeah, it was a lot of waiting around. Also, your incognito score has been set to 21. I have no idea what that was. You have no idea what that, no, exactly. What was it before, or? No, that was. You have no idea what that... No, exactly. What was it before? That was that set hit.

That is the last time you get to see that score unless you spend time to find out what it is. If there are any changes to that score now, they will be done in secret. Okay. I mean, 21 sounds good. If it's a 21 in terms of, like, the dice roll... That's pretty good

what if 1000 is incognito and 21 is not incognito though I don't know so before we go on break

what is the decision where are you going what do you want to do next I think we're all going to go to our respective taverns yeah

I think yeah I would like to identify as well. All right. In that case, we'll end it on as Kul completes the identify spell. You learn that it's a very minor enchantment. In of itself, it's divination in nature.

In of itself, it can't scry on you. It's not listening in, but it will react to other magic. Its purpose is to be like a like an ident like a like a ping like a kind of like a mark right G tower kind of yeah like basically you know if you go to somewhere and somebody costs maybe a certain types of spells or uses a certain item it might like register that that emblem. And you suspect as well that the information presented on it

is tied to that as well. So somebody will basically be able to scan your ID or flag and be like, so and so just arrived at this place and stuff like that. Did they microchip us? Basically, yes. But you can ditch it, you can throw it away. But if you don't have it, then you suspect

that will probably be a problem if you were asked for one. Does that mean we can go through cat doors now? Yes, yeah, you can throw it away, but if you don't have it, then you suspect that will probably be a problem if you were asked for one. Does that mean we can go through cat doors now? Yes, yeah, you can get through cat doors. Fuck yeah! But that's pretty much it. And it's like, on its own, as long as you don't go to a place

that's going to check it, and Quill, you would know that the magic required for this is it's not going to be every location in the city, but I would say Quill's wisdom is high enough and the fact that they've given you these two different taverns and they were like, oh yeah, we've got this system that if you don't have somewhere to stay, here's where you should go stay and we're gonna write

this down now, you suspect that both of these places will probably have some sort of like ping, like yep, this person just arrived, they're here now they've left what times that kind of thing it will track that kind of information so okay all right okay and on that we're gonna take a break that's the end of part one thanks for joining everyone yeah what that was communicated to everyone what you just said that yeah there you go yeah i mean yeah i assume that that's always great time yeah that's it Yeah, that's it. End of part one. We'll see you for part two on our special Halloween episode.

Thanks for joining us. We'll see you in part two in a minute. See you. See you.