Legends of Avantris - Beneath Dark Wings | Ep. 11 | The Enemy Within: Part 1

Episode Date: August 21, 2024

After stopping dark rituals in a vile labyrinth, the party has followed a tunnel that leads directly inside the great walls of Zentra. Now they prepare for the battle ahead.   Gain access to an exclusive campaign, Shroud Over Saltmarsh, over on Patreon: https://legendsofavantris.com/patreon The Crooked Moon, a folk horror supplement for 5e, is available for preorder! Get the Crooked Moon at: https://thecrookedmoon.com/ Watch more D&D adventures in the world of Avantris live on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/legendsofavantris Check out our merch store: https://shop.legendsofavantris.com  Join our community on Discord: https://legendsofavantris.com/discord Watch our many campaigns on YouTube: https://legendsofavantris.com/youtube  All other links: https://linktr.ee/legendsofavantris   Watch the full episode here: https://youtu.be/wps9WXZ5ckU?si=EyDdg-UkAFNPy3fo

Welcome to Legends of Evantris. I'm Iris and you're listening to Beneath Dark Wings. Here's what happened last time. You've done nothing. He was not strong enough for the cult. You tied him up very intent. I think that if this guy's gonna wake up in the near future, then we should ask him what he's up to, why he's here, what he's doing in this dark, deep, weird den full of traps.

I think that there's a lot of questions we could ask. You hear a faint language. You're gonna... We brought you the Platons for these machines. We demand what we were promised. These look like designs for very vague machines. We are the cult of the horn king. We give glory to our horn god.

We are calling the army. Power of the nine hells, join with the power of the abyss. I know the dark prodigy she is our quest. I agree. I think that we can, if they're doing some terrible, ritual, burning things, we try to stop it. The sound of... a fussy infant. Oh, Jesus.

I mean, we already know they're sacrificing children. This isn't the first, we've seen this. Quiet settles over the room, except for the crying of the baby. Ball's next to the second way to get out, even if we don't leave right now. All right, if you hear my agonizing death, then just leave.

As soon as he turns the corner, I'm like, ha ha ha, ha. Tell us, someone's coming. You all prepare to do what it takes to keep the people of Korovakian's Trigod the world to keep their freedom. As you throw the hatch open, and all of a sudden, hay, kind of starts to knock down bables of hay,

as straw starts to kind of hit your face, and you look, and you finally get your bearings, the very faint light of being in a stable with several bulls. And as the door swings open, you see a bustling city street of Zentra. You are all standing in a small barn. There are a number of cows kind of like looking at you sideways.

They're trying to back away into the corner of their stalls. And they're just all kind of, you hear kind of the soft braying of a goat. You look over, you see a pair of white goats. And then you hear the bang of a donkey. And you look over and you see a donkey. So there's a number of these livestock that are in this barn. As you're all standing, there's piles of hay. and shelving with all sorts of different tools

all over the place. It seemed to be empty, save for the seven of you. As you see Ravali standing holding the door open to, it's a little bit down to an alley. You see a bustling street not too far from where you are. And his eyes are wide. What are you doing? Ravali, are you all right?

Is this Zentra? Yes, this is Zentra. I'm gonna immediately burst past everyone. Oh dear God, this is disgusting. Baby Thomas, if you're going to be in the sands, we can't be hanging out in stables, and I'm gonna walk out into the street. Okay, I'll follow.

It's a city, come on, guy civilization, let's go! All right, let's go. Wait, Felix, how are they gonna recognize you you've been here before? Listen, I've got a few tricks up my sleeve like I mentioned before and we'll do what we can. If I have this bag in my pack, I'll put it over your face.

With that help, I need to be able to be able to. Like a little smiley? Yeah, gotta be able to see, buddy. I'm just, we've never been looking at a big city like this before. We could just put holes in it. I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, just, just trust, all right. He's notorious for not removing the tags after he's bought stuff.

Captain Freeway, you mentioned, you mentioned, you know people here, less than savory characters. Do you have any idea where we're headed? He, uh, is kind of looking around. His eyes are a lot wider than you've seen before. As he's scanning the streets and looking all up to the, rooftops and he says yes I have a place we can go we need to go right now even if you come back we cannot be seen coming out of this place and so he immediately starts he kind of reaches a hand a hand behind the door and does something with it and then

shuts it and he gives it a test and it's locked and he immediately grabs this green cloak I'm gonna see him do this and like basically pull my hat down lower over my face and like pot my collar up all my jacket and like follow close behind him. Okay. So he looks around and as you guys make your way into the street, I would imagine that we kept up to you unless you're like trying to. No, I was literally just stepping outside of it. I just refused

to be on a stable. And I'm standing next to her singing. Okay. And I just want to put, like, I'm sure I have just like some really non-distrip cloak. I just want to cover like all of myself if I can and crouch a little bit so I don't look so tall. Make a performance check and a deception check, please. What did he says? Natural. Got to do it out.

The first official role of the day. The first unofficial role was also a natural Tony. It was. That'd be pretty horribly. Yeah. We're fucked. It was 21. Okay.

The deception is... You are wearing like next to no clothing, right? You're selling like leathers and stuff. But you're not leathers and like a... He has like a skirt. Yeah, a skirt. But like you're not wearing like... Boing cloth.

Well, no. So I want to like get just a... I would think that I would have had gotten like a There's some kind of raddy or like, you know, brown cloak or something in my travels. Yeah, that's fine, sure. So you throw over a ratty brown cloak all along. We did a lot of stealing.

Yeah, you guys stole a lot of clothes. And so you... I thought you were borrowing it, Felix. We are. We are stealing, we are. No, we left money. We left them money, remember? I've been looking forward to returning all of these hundreds of things.

We basically bought it. We left them coin, remember? Oh, sweet to mine. We'll just feel a bit anyway. We literally. left to their money. I know, but what if it wasn't quite with it? What if, like, even if it was on sale,

we still didn't leave them enough? I think we were pretty generous if my mind were all session zero. You've been leaving the tags on the . Is I want to have a tag on that one? Yep. That was. Literally, no one's going to get there.

All the deep cut of answers fans will get that little bit of winged wing. Oh, that's fine. I don't feel bad anymore, but I'm just, I was looking for a grand adventure across trigger was returning all the shittles. Sunday. Okay, one day. Sunday.

All right. Okay. So you managed to do that. You managed to somehow kind of crouch in. He doesn't look as inconspicuous with a 20, whatever that was. Well, 21 and then a four for deception. Just so you know. I would say that the 24 one will affect the DC.

24 total. That's good. There you go. There you go. So as you're making your way through the streets, looks around to everyone just be inconspicuous. you look very out of place. I'm the best at being inconspicuous.

Nobody will see me, I promise. Why do I look inconspicuous? I stopped singing and dancing. Put that away. I mean, I can. I just, I mean, I'm a deep leg. I belong in the city like this. Are you sure that I look conspicuous?

Look around, smart guy. And he says, like, he points around the whole crowd. And there are. You look around and you see just throngs of people. You, I would say probably most of you have never been in a city close to the size. You're trying to realize the huge buildings, multiple stories that are surrounding you. And you've been in a larger city of Gulf County. But you're used to a colorful, vibrant city with people of every sort of creed and race.

And this you're seeing almost very close to exclusively humans. and the occasional of the more the more common races, like the occasional elf, dwarf, half-length. But you do immediately see no Tifans. And really, the rest of you don't see, you see the occasional dwarf, but Tabaxi, Janossi, Goliath,

and Tifflin you do not see. So he says, like, I'm just how it is, and it's, you're not going to get turned away. Are we going to get where we need to go and listen an hour? because I can always shaboop myself into a ho-man. I don't know what that means. I need a shirt that says to boot myself into a ho-man.

I'm going to write that one down. I don't know what that is. Whatever you think we do. I would like to repeat. Welcome to our family. I would say you in Luffy, or you Lifty and Iris will look to the most apples. Hmm.

Does anyone want to look like a HOO-Man for the next hour? Not particularly, no. Yeah. Well, you know, I've never been a human. A human? A human. A human. Yeah, okay.

Do it. And I used this guy's self to turn her into an elderly man. Oh. Oh. Well, honestly, it's quite a lot better than what you were dealing with before. Good job. I didn't quite mean it in that way. I just meant.

Yeah, but I take it as a man, however, I choose. Thomas starts crying. I hate that noise. I'm going over here now. It's okay. You can be my missing dad. That's weird, but I'll go a visit. So where do we go from here, Robb-Rabari?

And you can call me a captain-freeway. Or the freedom. Are you a captain? I am captain. Oh. In the sense that the concave has titles. How long have to come? Can I call you a cap?

You can call me whatever you want. Please, let's just go. And so he kind of pulls the hood type. around his face and says this is fine we shouldn't get cold out as long as we're not causing any trouble but let's just the fewer eyes on us near this barn to bed and so he he starts walking he's uh winding through the streets and he's uh he's looking around he kind of breeze a sigh of relief and he's kind of making notes of some of the street names and he sighs and he just oh thank the gods were in the seven heavens and he roots around into his bag and he pulls out and he pulls out

a scrolled piece of parchment. And he hands it to whoever's closest. And he comes it over here and he says, this is central. We are here in the seven heavens. Oh, that's a map? It's a map. It's a map.

Map time. Map time. Map time. Which of these districts would I have been to? You would have been. Let me see. Should have been. You would have been in the Black Rose District. That's the only one.

Yes. Oh, wow. Okay. So I'll just read some of these for our viewers if you can't read. So we have... If you can't read... Rood! We don't just run it.

Oh, my God, Ray. Nothing looks like a dick. Yeah. That's because he didn't draw. He's using incarnate now, so we can't find dicks and everything he draws. So this is Zentra. It seems to be kind of... He plurbed off.

If you know what I mean. So we're in the Seven Heavens. but then we also got what we got? We got the Garrison Quarter. We have Memories Rest. You got the Black Rose District. We have, what is this, Sky Reach? Right, three years old, I can't read.

The Four Winds. We have a Flots Roost, and we have the Conquest Ward. Oh, and then the Citadel of the Queens Conflate. That sounds ominous. I don't want to go to the Conquest. It's like a gigantic Citadel. Look at that. OK.

I want to go to the Conquest Ward. Yeah. You're not even Busters. Yeah. So as you all make your way. through, you're starting to kind of, you're looking at the map and you're seeing that everything is kind of is labeled. And it points to you or where you're at, like, you know, seven heavens, these are the slums of the city. Like, thank goodness we're here, because this is the lowest police

and military presence in the entire city. This is where I grew up. You have no idea how we were dead with Barnes here. Why would they call it the seven heavens? I thought heavens was supposed to be like a good positive thing. I guess the poor, or here have a sense of humor. Well, we're going to get along just fine. Is it like ironic? Probably too. But it makes complete sense

that that door would be in the slums of the city. If it's the least police, that means it's going to be less noticeable when people use that hatch. Hmm. So Felix, which district have you been in? Well, I've ever been here. The only one that I know of is the Black Rose district.

I mean, the city is enormous and I just didn't have a lot of time to explore. I was here for a very specific purpose and there wasn't much time. Yeah, and so you would know that the Black, um, the Black Rose district is the Magic District. And that's where all like the Magic Academies are. And when you enroll in the magic academies, they escort you into the city. You have a curfew. You have limited breaks in order to kind of explore the town and getting through with like, you know, getting around the different districts. It takes a bit, it was a hassle. Even though you were going in school and the black rose,

you never left. I was here to learn. There really wasn't much time for anything else. Well, maybe we can go back. Well, no, we shouldn't go back in recent because they'll recognize you of meeting and forget I said anything. Well, there are things there of interest.

Yes, I agree with you. Getting in and out of there would be very tough. It's very regimented. Is where we're going in this district? Yes, it is. It's where I grew up. It's not the nicest, but we'll be safe there if no one's watching us right now.

And as... Are we walking and talking? Yeah, we're walking and talking. As you're passing around the map, I think everyone kind of is like, oh, look this. As you are winding through the streets, they're all very narrow. Multiple-level buildings are rising up all around you.

And beyond that, you kind of realize that the elevation is all kind of sloping up towards the center of the city. And then rising beyond those buildings, you see the massive outer walls of the cities. And then these smaller walls that separate all of the eight districts. And then rising up above you, almost on a spiraling cleft in the middle of these,

and in this kind of like Rocky Moreland, is a massive walled citadel. that seems to be, seems to take up almost the size of a full district itself, but it's one colossal fortress. And everyone who's been to Zentra knows that that is the citadel of the Queens conclave. That is where the High General of Corvacia says. And rules the country. So would we know that the High General is the leader of the entire country? I would say that that would be something that would be commonly known. Okay.

Yeah. If you're heading to Korovacia, you would know that the High General is the one that rules. And you see all around you that it seems as if every single side of this octagonal city is heavily prepared for war. There's these massive ramparts. Every single connecting point along the tall walls, there's a bastion. and there are heavy fortifications. And it seems as if that it is probably the most heavily fortified city that may, probably in the entire world, at least that you'd be aware of.

Does it look like it's like they're just constantly prepared, or is it something that's like a newer construction? I would say that kind of on the general history of what Felix had read about in the book and what you guys would know from being from Gorvacia, that basically that life for humanoids was very horrible and dangerous and savage. And basically with the founding of Zentra, and then the expansion and conquest from that

is what basically allowed them to basically fight out a, carve out a huge country. Been around for very long. Yes. And so it's been around for hundreds of years. Okay. So it was like a terrible, horrible, like, monster-ridden land.

And the government, like, keeps everybody safe and like fights back the monsters. Yes, it's basically the idea. Oh, should be. Or so they say. So. Can I be in the back of the group just like melding towards away from eyesight

and just like taking out rations and like cracking a breadcrum trail behind me? What? Okay. I just want to be like whistling and trying to be like in. Feel it's always what a dund. And 25 people behind you birds are just

immediately. Yeah. Fucking. Oh, maybe. Can you, uh, can you, uh, Can you make a sleight of handshake? Yes. I'm just gonna be walking around like in an old man gate

kind of, but being like, ha, because I look human. Like. Sorry, sorry, sorry, yeah. Make a performance check with advantage because you are old manified. So while everybody's kind of doing their thing, looking at the map or whatever, I want to lean over to tell him and basically quietly say to him,

listen, take this and I hand him the ring. This is a ring that home part gave me, okay? When you have time, what I want you to do is wear it and focus on the magical energy within it. All right? All right? All right? All right? It's for protection.

Is it going to tune me into something? It will have that ability. Something terrible? No, something, whatever you want, it's going to help you blend in. Forever? Temporarily. And I try to put it on and it doesn't fit on my pinky. Yeah.

I'm like, oh. Maybe we'll just turn it into a necklace for you or something, big guy. It's magic. It's like, like, tach. That's a great question. When you would too do it, it would. So just hang on to it. It'll do this weird weird.

I got a 10 for your side of hand. OK. So thank you. Look, to you are looking like the greatest old man. It's very believable. As you're all walking through, you're very stealthily, taking your ashes and kind of breaking them. And then suddenly, you guys hear, like the flapping of wings.

You see like a black. black feathers. In the corner, you realize her beneath dark wings, and you hear, and then a, just like, five ravens swoop down from the,

from the rooftop. I've gotten started. It's good. Sound effects, Derek. What the hell's happening back there? And so you, like, leave a trail, and within 30 seconds, Ravens have swooped down.

So are there tons of ravens all over the place? Oh, it's the make a perception check. Now that you know, now that you've seen that. Oh, cool, that's a new feature. D&D Beyond. Did you just like swipe? 10, you can swipe back and forth, apparently. Oh, that is new.

It's not new. It's not new. That's not new. That's not new. The only word you know how to do D&D Beyond everybody. Well, I've definitely been using this for more than six months. He has had to do everything. So I can't swipe.

It's weird. We swipe like this. Me too. So you look around, Toa, all of you look around, and it is not hard to see. The rooftops are, it's like fucking Alfred Hitchcock's the birds. Alfred Hitchcots. Cox the birds. Just cock the bird, babe.

This is why I clep. Please don't put up. Sorry. We're getting warmed up. Oh, my God. Yeah, we're getting warmed up. We didn't do our mouth warm. up smoke away. Oh yeah.

Oh now, brown, brown. There are ravens along almost every ramper, the tops of most of the buildings. And as you look up ahead of the citadel of the Queen's conclave, you see it almost looks like there's a low black cloud as a swarm of ravens or fly all around it, and then you just see ravens flying out in all the Russians. And so you make your way through the streets. I'm looking at the storefronts or the resident are in a residential or commercial neighborhood. Does it appear to be interspersed with like there might be a shop and then a lot of like ins or something like that's so they're all there's a lot of residential and so you look

around and in this area a lot of houses are kind of worn down. It's a bit of a contrast from how built up and polished the fortifications and the military structures are, all of the houses in this district are kind of worn down. Some of them are small. You see broken railings on some of the buildings. And you see a lot of people kind of going about their day. There is a little bit of just kind of slowness. The people have these have just kind of, there are a lot of them are just kind of looking down at the ground. There's a bit of, of, there's almost a drag to it. It's like Le Miserables at the end of the day. Kind of is the gist. And that's my team for the rest of it. It's not that bad, but basically looking around, everyone's pretty dirty. It's not great. It's not great.

And so you're looking for. You're lucky to be in a job, Warren. Is there any sense, like, I know that we're kind of outside of this, but like from the community feel like, is there any interaction between the people that live here and the humans that live here? Or is it really just like down-trodden and like people are going about their own business? So people seem to be going about their own business. You see the occasional groups of people kind of chatting.

There are a few storefronts that are open. And as you kind of start to move your way through the Seven Heavens, kind of away from where you were in the, near the barn that you came out of, the things start to pick up a little bit. It starts to get toward the center of the district. And you realize that as you kind of turn a corner, there's a large, main road and you can see all the way down, sloping downwards to the gates of the city, and then all the way up to the inner gate leading up into the citadel. And the buildings along this side are a little bit more built up. It's still kind of ratty and worn down. And

Rivali stops you and he says, hold on. And then he pulled all of you in ducks behind an alley and you hear the of marching footsteps and you can sort of see flags pass as I step in front of Felix to block as much as I can. And then I'll step in front of Toa

being so much smaller and just like pick my teeth or something like I'm like this. And so you all got behind and you see rows and rows of regimented soldiers walking up the main street heading up towards the citadel. Oh shit.

I don't have a minigame. We have to get in the last row at the last second. Perfect timing. Oh, and- They're going to fuck up my bread crumbs. As soon as they, they croaked and the ravens swoop down and eat the rest of your breadcrums.

And as soon as they pass, Rivali's hand is still up. As he looks down and he kind of peeks out and he gives you the motion to go forward and leads you across the main thoroughfare. thoroughfare and then into the other side of the city you go through winding streets and you go down towards a dark alley and there are a couple of establishments that have these red candles that are lit and they're burning down you see a couple of the more more people younger women

on the streets kind of in various states of dress kind of leaning up against poles and pillars and some sketchy establishments that all seem inviting and there are some women some kind of missing teeth but others look okay

a lot of them kind of still covered in soot as they're all kind of like hanging out of their clothes and like kind of beckoning towards you as you're all walking through as as Vervali looks and turns to all of you says ignore them let's keep going and leads you through down until you turn a corner

and he slows down as he looks up and you see a sign that seemed to be one of the nicer buildings in the districts that you've seen. Still not great. A little bit of run down this weathered gold, fake gold and kind of pink sign

with a very plump, curvaceous, almost humanoid bee. And with a large crowd. I would be not what I was expecting. You're just saying. I was like, oh. And it says the Queen Bee. Did I understand that we went past the red candle establishments

and that he was like, nah, just, uh. No, you're still, there are red candles and you look up ahead there are red curtains and red candles hanging on either side. But he was very explicit in saying ignore their. Ignore all them. And then you see a couple of, and you see one younger woman

that's hanging out on the side. And, uh, Rivali walks up to her and she says like, Hey baby, looking for a good time? And Rivalry... I can't handle this, guys. Rivaldi goes up to her and says, is Madame Delphino in?

And she kind of grimaces it and says, honey, she doesn't see... She doesn't see, gentleman, and he kind of grits his teeth and He puts his hand out and says, is she in? And he pulls out a gold coin. If you tell me and tell me the truth, it's yours. And she immediately snatches that out of his hand and pockets it.

And points out as like, yeah, no, she's in, she's upstairs in her course. And he takes off his hood. And he says, his face kind of lightens up. And he smiled and says, thank you. As Ravali walks up several steps, you see a large double door. It's all painted and kind of that same fake gold and pink, magenta, reddish pink.

As he turns around and waves an arm and says, well, this is it. Did you bring up to a brothel? This is no place for Thomas. God bless you and I walk right here. I just follow, I follow, I just kind of look at Tone and I go, hmm, and I follow Caprice right in. I might not follow closely behind you.

And, well, yeah, of course, the men are going to go in first. Yeah, Vivius. True. Daniel! Amazing. That was perfect. And all of the former men and the two ladies enter. And the baby.

And the baby. With a tabaxi holding a baby all kind of enter this motley crew as you step inside and you're you're greeted with a two-floor establishment that seems to be mostly circular on the interior with several kind of worn plush lounge seating stations with tables you actually see a bar to the back there is a gentleman standing there with kind of a filthy apron and a handlebar mustache and these very kind of thick small spectacles on his nose he's kind of cleaning a glass and you see that there are a number of girls on the balconies of these you see four major

major doors all around you on either side and four on each level so there's going to be eight primary rooms and there's a hallway that leads up on the second balcony with a staircase that goes up about two flights and as revolving looks around as you all enter you have see a few you see a few women that are kind of all like waving down and you like oh hey welcome to the the Queen Pea we don't get many tea flings around here hey sweetheart how you doing I'm gonna as you all kind of they all calling down to you and I'm going to have to prepare to remove curse and And

And I'm going to cast Some of an SDD at the night SDI. Yeah, come on. SDI. And it's like, is that something you can do? Just go with it. Just go with it. And

you want to say, oh, just have a seat, have a drink until you're ready. We're all here. And you can have your pick. It's a slow day. And as Rivalia immediately starts making his way up the stairs as a lot of these girls look younger and the woman that that had been waving at you, she's a little bit, probably middle-aged. Her eyes wider and she looks at Rivali, oh my god, it's little Rivali!

And Ravali looks at her and he says, it's great to see you. It's truly great to see you, but I need to speak to you. to the mat. And she gives him a little kind of half love tap on the cheek. As she grabs around his neck. It says, oh, she's going to be so happy to see you. And she turns around and gives him a snack on the butt as he grimaces and tenses up and says,

can, he really like that. We'll catch up later. And he walks down the hallway that's going off on the second floor. And you hear a knock, the door opens and then shuts. And you're all left to grab a table and discuss amongst yourselves. He left us. He went upstairs and then walked off and entered a room. Oh, dear.

What are we going to do about Thomas? Tamus should not be seeing all this. look, Thomas needs to understand what happens in the lower areas of a city because he needs to realize this is not the type of woman that I will be allowing him to marry.

Well, that makes me feel so much better. Holy shit. Toa, I know this isn't usually me, but I think I'm going to have a drink if we're going to be here for a while. We've been through a lot. You're going to drink in front of Thomas. Everybody else already is,

and I just walk over towards the bar. Okay. So you see the gentleman who's cleaning the glass and he looks at you and points to several bottles of the cheapest whiskey and wine beer that you could imagine and he he speaks to you and says, what do you have? Just a whiskey, please. Good, we only got one. He grabs the bottle, uncorks it.

That's a pretty decent four. three copper I take out slide it over and I say I've never been picky he well I hope no I walk over can you break a gold piece this guy silver company brandy I'm sorry

we got wine I'll just do the whiskey but I'm sorry to do this to you I never like to do this the smoke. He takes the gold piece and he like pulls out the tail and he's rooting through all these points and he breaks the gold piece. It's brilliant. Slides you. The same whiskey.

Cheers. That's hope. Do you think Thomas is hungry? Should we try to get some milk maybe? I'm not quite, I don't know how to take care of a human child. But I don't want him going anywhere near the teeth of the women in this establishment. Well, sure. I wouldn't either, honestly.

Did you have fertile teeth? I'm not sure about dwarves. Well, I actually haven't checked, but probably not. Well, if you could check, maybe in private. I don't have. Feeleix drinks faster. Squeeze my boots on my hand down my shirt. No, actually, they're not working.

I'm not sure to do. Honestly, I was hoping that we would be able to find some place where I could purchase him some milk or something. something before we found our way into a brothel. Well, let me ask them for you. I don't really want the snagletoothed one to provide milk for my child. No, I understand.

But just let me know if Thomas needs anything. I'd be happy to go look around. I think he'll be fine for now. I wish we thought of this when we were in the stable. We could have gotten cows milk or goat's milk or one of the other bea-eatheal milk. It's true. He was a donkey there, perhaps?

I don't think donkey milk is the way to go. No. Well, I'm just saying the. that was another beast in the stable, but I mean, what's the difference of milk between a donkey and the cow and the sheep and the goat? Isn't it all just milk? I think the difference is that donkeys can't produce milk. Aren't they gender specifically male? That's a good question.

Yeah. We'll take it with a moment. Do we need to think here at the table until... You need a Google on. One minute. If we make it to the Black Rose District, they've got a point live... I think I'm thinking of a mute. by the way, I'm probably mistaken about that.

So do we have to wait for Ravali to come back, or can we just sort of go about our business? What's the deal? I would suggest we don't leave this establishment without him, but as long as you're staying here. Then, yeah, feel free. Obviously, the problem, we'll find you. I mean, you can't go far, right?

I'm, like, narrowing my area. I'm sorry, jeezing. Go on to police and report back. Oh, Jim. Who here gets around the most? What I mean is, like, who travels the most, like, inns or taverns around in the neighborhood? I mean, answer the question.

Felix, like, pulls his hat down lower and slumps down into his seat, like, closer to tell him. You see a very heavily chested one that is basically spilling out as a very simple white dress, and she points at you and says, oh, come up, honey. Okay, that's perfect.

My name is Florine. Before he goes up, sorry. Before you, just check the fertility. Fertility, oh, you mean? No, fertility, I mean, that would be. I would normally... She wants you to scruff her. I would like you to milk the hooker, please.

I wouldn't normally do that, but I'll do it for you, all right? Thomas. You owe me. It's a good album name. She's critically. I feel she's visibly sweating. Do you want Thomas owe me or do you want you to owe me? Tomlitz is my charge, I will owe you, but you're doing it for Thomas, not for me.

Very good. I have no need of her milk. I'll be back. Flory? That's right. Hold on, hold on. What does she look like appear to be what kind of creature? She's a human.

So all of the girls in this establishment are human, and she has kind of these all like big, like a frizzy mane of this orangeish hair. And she seems to be maybe in her like late 30s. as she grabs your hand as you make your way upstairs and says, we're gonna go into the lover's room. Just fine. Can sound travel through the walls very easily? Yeah, they're papered then. I prefer a room where the, you know,

if I have to pay a little extra, I'd prefer a room where, you know, a little more soundproof, that's all the day. Do you want me to hold your bags? Here, you can hold down to my entertainer's pack, but I'm going to keep on a whole not. Are you sure you're not going to need that for any entertainment? I'm not even religious. Okay.

Well, I'll hang on to it for you so she doesn't steal anything. Well, if you're going to pay extra, we can go to the Queen's room. That'd be fine, as long as it's a little more quiet in there. Well, it's further away. Yeah, I guess so. Okay, so I follow her. Okay. When we get there, we do not do business in the normal prostituti way.

I pay her for her time to listen to songs that I've been composing over the last three weeks and just, like, get her sense of, like, how well they might play in the city because I asked how well she knew, like, other inns and taverns. She'd know the music of the name of her. As you start doing this, she, like, puts her chin in her hand, and she just looks like the most disappointed you've ever seen. And she's like, is this performance anxiety? How I'm buying your time, sweetheart.

I swear this never happened. Yeah, it's okay. All right. Just let me know how they sound. Zantra, zantra, let us in. Are you aware the shape I'm... Again, we don't do. Caprice leaves for at least an hour, however long he would like to pay.

How much is that? I would say that's probably with the queen's room and with how many hours do you want. Let's just do an hour show. We'll say it's two silver pieces. Oh, wow. Okay. Fantastic. If it's a queen's room, it's pretty expensive.

We don't want to last more than four hours. To go see. Your erection last one with four hours. Call more women. Do you... Do you attempt to milk the hooker? I ask if she... Yeah, I'll ask. I'll ask. I promise that I'm at.

Good night, guys. I don't do any of them, but I do ask for... Holy shit. Just another day. Practicing milky consent. Okay, yeah. So... Does she consent?

She says... Whoa! Leapy! I believe that is. I think, oh, we're going to be in this brawl for eight hours. I got a tan for animal hand with. She's very offended. And you're like, you really are a weirdo.

Where are you from? I'm from Gophika. Yeah, I'm not surprised. I know, no, but I think Dolly, she just had a baby not too long ago, if that's your thing. Oh, that's very helpful. Thank you kindly. and you continue that'll be how I spend that hour

Yeah So while that's going on, we'll be at a table discussing Yeah Did he say when he'd be back? It's been at least ten minutes I'm getting a bit concerned Toa, are you aware of what he's doing in there?

Caprice No, I don't mean Caprice he can do it I think, I can assume what he's doing What do you think it is, Toa? I don't want to say it sounds indecent. I don't think he has any idea what Caprice is doing. It's really adorable. Oh, you're talking about Freewind?

Freewing. Freewing. FreeWood. Free word. Is his name Freebird? Freeword is appropriate. Is it pronounced Leonard or Leonard? I've always wondered because there's that one out in you.

Let me take a cam. Because I mean, it sounds like this is a very dangerous. It's a very dangerous place despite in the scenery. I'm just a bit worried that he's just in there by himself. It did appear that Ravali knew some of these women, so it's not

like he's a stranger here. They knew who he was. I suppose that's right. I just... I'm for milking. I love it. Sorry. I'm just a bit worried that... Put your hand down. We've seen it. We just saw military

people march a few streets. What if you're just... soldier walks right in and wants to pay for some services. Yeah, we need to be on our guard here. I mean, I've never spent a lot of time in this district, but I don't think Ravali would take us to a place where we're going to just be sitting ducks. There's a very good chance that maybe the military steers clear at this place.

I mean, we don't have a choice other than to really trust him at the moment, and I'm just going to sip on my drink and try to, I guess, take the edge off. So what exactly is our plan? Just going to enjoy the city and do what? I don't think we have a plan. I mean, I guess we have to alert somebody of what's going on here, but I don't know. I'm hoping Ravali will come back with some sort of a plan.

Well, I think that we were supposed to tell someone in the city that there's a terrible force of demon bull giant attacks attacking, but if the tunnel leads here, then... Toe is getting there on his chair. They probably know it's happening, but why will they want to attack their own city? I mean, it doesn't make any sense. We're here to find some answers.

That's the bottom line. I hope. I'll just follow along and just make sure that you don't get seen, and if you do get seen, I'll do the thing. But the thing, the thing. Yeah, well, just, yeah, all right. As you were all discussing Lifty, you start to feel your form shift,

And you now, instead of a crotchy old man, you see a tiny little genocene girl. Do I know that I've changed? Do I just don't know. Does anyone notice? So I'm like, still hunched over and like. No, probably not. Oh, damn. All right.

No one really, no one really notices that. I'm kind of straighten up and be like, oh. As soon as, as you're all as that happens, you hear the door that you remember hearing a revolve. Ravali go through. And you hear two pairs of footsteps. One seems to be that same measured, calm, boot steps of Rivali. And the other one is the very quickly moving,

shuffling clacks of a sounds like hydeus. And emergent from down the hallway is Rivali, who his hair is kind of like all ruffled, and his clothes are all ruffled, and a woman. She seems to be in her probably late 50s, early 60s. She is short, even shorter than Rivali, very wide with this long, this long flowing mane of brown hair, almost down towards her waist that is tied off into halfway down into two separate twin tails. She's all very heavily made up, and she looks down, all. all of you. And you can kind of see that a lot of the wrinkles, that there are, it's kind of a sloppy job and the makeup that she got was probably very cheap.

And the wrinkles aren't being hit very well. And she was going to, so you're the ones that are responsible for keeping my little Rivali safe. Um, uh, he's, no, he's been the one keeping us safe. He said quite the opposite. No, he's the cool guy. He's so cool. I can't express it enough. He's kept us very safe. And as she's leaning over, Rovali looks at you and says, like, oh, no, no, I mean, I mean, we've been keeping him safe.

Yes, yes. Never mind. No, yeah. We're like all of his bodyguards together. We're all one bodyguard. Yeah, we have two ones. He, mainly us to. And then.

Uh, he's like, kind of like, Walk it back. Walk it back. And he puts... I mean around her. He puts his hand on her shoulder and he says, I, yes, they saved my life on multiple occasions. All of you I'd like to meet Madame Delphina, basically my mother. She is the one that raised me.

And she interrupts him. interrupts him, and he's about to say when she interrupts. And she starts kind of shuffling down. And immediately, you see, she goes for toe of her first. Like, oh, you're such a tall one. And she dodges past your arm and gives you a huge top and pulls you into her ample bosom, and immediately gives each of you a crushing.

She swats your hand away. Thanks. Oh. Am I back? No, you're still in there. And so, oh, you need something to eat. Uh, if you've got it. Yeah, I mean, it's not good, but it's a, oh, we'll get you something to eat.

And she immediately goes around and gives me a heart. No, I have an infant. I'm sorry. I can't do one of those mama bear hugs, please. What a babina? I saw it's so cute. What's his name? Thomas. Beautiful name for a beautiful baby. You wouldn't happen to have any milk. Like, baby.

Human milk? Well, Dolly, you just had the baby, maybe if you ask her. I'm not sure who she is Would she, if I gave you a couple of gold Could you ask her if I could milk? Well, if someone else could milk her, please. Free of charge, free of charge, but poor baby, please. Needs to eat.

And I'm going to like root around in my pack for like a jug or something. If you could just fill this up for me, that would be. I'm taking out my drinking horn and I'm just like emptying it and also offering that as an option to just trying to be helpful. She passes your drinking horn. Still got some beer in the pot. And grabs the jar. Sicker milk.

We'll work up a battle for Dilletou. It's lovely, thank you. Thank you so much. And Rivali has spoken so highly of you. And it is a great honor to have you beneath my roof. Welcome to the Queen Bee. I cannot provide our services for free, but we can do a one cup of discount.

Thanks. So feel free. We have the most beautiful women in the quarter. And... Oh! Never mind. Well, it'll be very disappointed. You are a handsome young man.

Uh, uh, mm-uh. No, Tom, stop it, man. I mean, she's being supplied. You offered you a one cup of discount. Where else are you going to get a discount? So, um, um, uh, immediately she turned like, well, I'm going to go off in the shop. I will have a Brewster here, uh, prepare you some, some, some stew. and you're at home

and Rivali he knows where you're staying and it was wonderful meeting and you can kind of see now why Ravali is all messed up as she goes she takes her hands ruffles up his hair clutches his skull and gives him like

20 kisses on his cheeks and smacks him a few times and says don't wait so long before coming to visit again and she turns around and just shuffles off outside and Ravali is kind of shaking up and he sighs and says, well, at least we have a place to stay.

We appreciate you. You doing this for us. I'm going to reach up and pinch his cheek and say, where are we going? Please don't do that ever again. No, okay. Think about it. Do we have a room here in this? Yeah, no.

I got two rooms. We should be able to fit. We'll separate the men and the least. I'm not sure if everyone else is going to fit in one room. Thomas and I obviously need our privacy. Well, I'm sorry. This is the best I can do. Oh, Lufty, and Herr, I'm so sorry.

But you'll fit well with the boys. Sleep on Toa. Oh, how to tell. Can I sleep on you if you're sleeping on Tijuana? I'm just not sure what everyone means, Bob, there's a lot of sarcasm and I'm in the city. I don't know how to handle it. Oh, right, that's fine.

I'll sleep in the room. You're probably going to need somebody to, like, stay and watch at the front, right? Like, just in case anybody comes in, not can't. I feel like we would be just out of the way. I'd sleep on the floor. I mean, Lufu could sleep on me. It's really not a big deal. Just make sure that you and Thomas are safe.

No. But, so anyway. No, I really insist. I really insist. I think you'd be really be a little. It's really adorable that you would insist, but no. So with that, that doesn't tell us. I'm a question.

What on earth is our plan? We can sleep here tonight, and Thomas now is milk from Bertha, whatever her name was. Dali. I thought it was Betty. Dali. No, Thomas,

Thomas doesn't need a doll. He needs milk. Okay. But what is our plan? Let's discuss that in our rooms, privately. Well, we're going to have to wait for Caprice. I think he is. Yeah, where is he?

He's horned deep in other business. My goodness. That's good. They give me a giggles, sir. Is that when his horns are full? Oh, Lord, tell us. Oh, sweet. Sorry.

You come with me and I'll explain the birds and the bees for you. That is so fucked up. We are in the Queen Bee. This is the place to explain there. Yeah, see, but halfway there. And then I can tell you how lambskin condoms are made, because we're pretty good at that back home. The Alex has already taught me all about birds, some bees, I think.

You've said quite some things, Toa, but this really takes the cake. I'm just confused. I'm just going to grab him by the arm and kind of gently pet him as we walk. So this time, you guys wait a little bit. Stu is brought out for you. It is serviceable.

It's hot meat. And so you guys have been traveling in the wilderness, basically eating rations and whatever you could cook by a fire for almost a month. So it's actually pretty good to have a home-cooked meal. as Caprice eventually rejoins you back at the table. Hey everybody, how's it going? You've all gone. Pretty long time, I've been blessed.

Thanks, thanks. I actually found some milk for you. This woman named Dolly, it's gonna be some of that classic organic omega-3 action. You'll be able to find some milk with her. Well, thank you, but thanks to Prebird, His lady friend is sent off for Bertha to be milked. Oh, fantastic. Oh, did you say it was from Dali? Exactly right.

Oh, okay. Well, that's the same person. She just keeps calling her first. No, Thomas does not want a doll. Bertha is going to make, it doesn't matter. So let's talk about the plans. Did you find someone else? The milk is addressed. We're going to have double dollies.

What are we going to do now? My pleasure. What did you have to do for that? Did you pay her? I think it was far out like a package deal. You know what I'm saying? Do you need to? No, I don't.

included in the prize? Did you get like a menu? I mean, how does it? Yeah, was it a la carte? I'll be honest. You guys probably assumed that I was doing a dirty thing, and that's not the case. I was actually rehearsing to try to get a sense

of what kind of music folks like in this neighborhood so that if we happen to have to impress them folks, I've been just bombing at every tavern that I... So instead of just playing a jolly gig here for free, for all of the hookers that are just wandering around the hallway, you paid money to have someone lie to you. Because you know once you paid her she was going to save whatever you wanted to get.

That's not the case. Did she say she liked all of your songs? No, she did not. She gave me some very good feedback. What was the feedback? Well, less of this and a little more of that. I'm not going to go into my set right now. You're going to have to wait.

If you need some backup, just let me know the core progression. I'll teach you a few things. That's fine. This sounds like she exchanged safe words with you too? No, no, no, no, safe words. Okay. As interesting is this all is, we still have not figured

out what we're going to do. And that is what we'll discuss as let's go to the rooms. And Ravali means all of you. I'll grab a whiskey on the way up. You got some other cup or whatever I said of it. And you make your way back

and there are two rooms that and Rivali just kind of waits and then knocks and the knocks. and he turned back and said, these are the, they're called the cheap skate rooms. They're the cheap ones, but they're beds.

It'll be serviceable. It'll be fine. Again, we just appreciate it. Thank you. And the door opens, and you see very kind of quaint, small room, nothing but a tiny little foot locker and two separate beds in each room. And once all of you kind of crowd into one room,

it probably shuts the door. and he stands and looks at all of you and says, something doesn't add up about all of this. If I had originally thought that if it was connected by the Zenithry and military, why would they need to have it go to some random barn in the slums? But now that we know that it does, who owns that place? I try leaving breadcrumbs, but I think they got demolished by the, Kravakia military that came stomping by, which good eye for that actually getting us out of the way that was premo.

My sharp eye has saved my life on multiple occasions. The thing that we need to figure out is who we can trust and who we need to tell. And I don't know if that is going to be something that we just need to investigate. And we're going to have to lay low as quick as much as we can. But we need to start getting answers because who knows how much time we have. When I escaped barely with my life to join you in a labyrinth, they seem to have been setting their eyes in this direction. Do you know anyone in the military that is remotely trustworthy? Yeah. No, the reason why I probably survived my upbringing was because Madame Delphina wouldn't let me talk to them.

she knew that she tends not to serve them unless she has to. Have you used the tunnel that we used to get here before? No. I had no idea that exists. Well, does anyone know that exists? Because we just bypass the whole, like, barricaded wall and any, uh, you know, if the beasts were to find that, they would be able to come right in without any problem. I'm sure there's several people who know exactly where that, that leads and comes from. We came in and came in and...

Is the other district? I wouldn't doubt it. I have no idea. What is the other districts like? Can we go there? It will be, we can try, for sure. I think that there's, I know a guy that can get us some forged papers. It may take a bit, but we can probably work something out.

And that's what we'll need in order to get from district to district. But the main question that I have is, who okay building that tunnel that goes in there? I mean, that, who, who, someone knew about that? And so, is there a way that we can work backwards and find out where that trail leads? And that, I think, might be our next course of action, unless anyone else has any of better ideas.

Are you suggesting we go back to the bond and look around and try to find out who goes there, who uses it? I, that's exactly, you know, who owns all the cows, that might be a good place to start. That's actually not a bad idea. I like that idea very much. He is looking over his own car. He's looking over the map and he is pointing out where the barn was. So they, those holes that we passed through were big enough for the biggest

minotaurs that I had seen in the Horn and Legion to pass through. The only creatures that could not pass through those hallways would be the giants. And if they're already wreaking havoc inside, these walls will do nothing. Do I recall? Sorry, go ahead. Do I recall just from my stone-cutting ability if I felt that the walls were newer, like this was a freshly made tunnel, or if this was a recent with all the goings-on of the... I would say, make a whatever check that would be, maybe a history shack with ad efficiency.

Double fish. Double first. Double. 13. I'm sorry. Plus four. History checks. So double version of Z, which is six, int is one.

So seven. So that's actually 16. 16. I would say that you could probably tell that this wasn't some like ancient tunnel. This is relatively newer. And it's hard to tell exactly when, but definitely not some like ancient fixture of the six. So like hundreds of years old. Yeah.

Yeah. It's definitely seems a lot. newer than the age of the city. And does that kind of be what he said about the biggest minotauros that he had seen could fit through? Does that kind of match with what we saw as well, like everything that we saw in the Labyrinth could have fit through that tunnel? Yes. So he is looking over this and so he looks at all of you and says, I think it may be up to us. So I share the stone thing with the group. Okay. If these are the tunnels, that means that they're being undetected when they're built right well I wouldn't be surprised if maybe some members of the Corvacian military don't even know about some of these maybe this

specific one obviously I could only speak to the one that I've had it but I just have a feeling like if someone's down there like chisling out stones somebody has to have heads up yeah I mean like we were able to find it hidden in the wall in that one like ceremonial weird fucking callassus room when you had you know that that was fucking weird so I'm just saying like My old neighbor used to walk around really loud, and I heard that all the time. So if they were, like, chiseling out stone, you feel like somebody underneath of me. Exactly how you feel. If anyone from the military is aware, it's going to be very few people.

The average person in the military is not going to have any idea that this is happening, just like I didn't. I mean, it could be the very opposite. I mean, what if the military has installed tunnels going out of all of the eight districts so that when the hordes have actually arrived at the walls, the military men can sneak behind them and poop them from the back? But do they know about the ceremonial room that we came across where we found? No, the labyrinth leaves a little bit of mystery to my idea there, but I'm just not ready to jump to any conclusion.

Again, it's like Captain Freewing has said, something just doesn't quite add up. There's a piece that's missing here. I just think that there's no, what's the point of all these walls and these sands, these ramparts or whatever, in all these defenses if they're tunnels leading directly into the city? it seems to defeat the entire purpose. You're right. It does. It really depends on who knows what information, right?

And do you know anyone that could help us at all that not know about the military? Do you have any kind of connections? I mean, all of my connections are a bunch of scoundrels in the seven heavens. I was taught from a very young age not to trust the military and anyone who might feel like they...

one point would be willing to go against the interests of the military and the high general would could very well get re-educated and read out anyone that they've been talking to. It had happened many times for people that were too trusted. Would it be a terrible idea for us to seek an audience with somebody? I mean, not you, but like, you know, somebody in the military that we could like just sort of leave a package on their doorway. It's like, hey, in case you didn't know, maybe you should think about looking at this tunnel, but if you already know, God bless. But who else? Felix, because you're at T. Fling, and I look at his horns and look like, Do I notice you in looking at my horns in this way?

Yeah, it would be very obvious. Hey, welcome, welcome. Welcome, the Adventist fan, Oxley. Oh, welcome. Oh, welcome. Oxalie. Or zero zoli? I'm just worried that, how can we get an audience if everyone in the town is human?

If any of them realize, I mean, maybe Hoosier, she's a dwarf, I think I saw a few dwarfs. strike. Yeah, you could turn you could turn lofty here, not my dad. Albe. We've been trillion and give her for like over a month. I was like, fuck. You could turn

annual, fuck, lofty here back into my dad and we could try and go find some. Yeah, I've been there, done that. It's wrinkly and it's too much skin, you know. I don't want to ruin your plans, but the last two people you want talking to anyone of importance are going to be these two. And I'm also a little biased, but I think that we shouldn't talk to the military if at all possible.

We can do this without talking to anybody. We just set a fire in the barn and people will be like, oh, wait, there's a door here. Oh my gosh, there's a tunnel. Let's talk about this to the military. Then we'll work just totally out. Yeah, and so I was having a thought, as you do. So Delphina, she said that, or you said that her haws, excuse me, is that rude? What do they like to be called?

That's whatever, whatever you want to. It seems to pay enough. Did it too? You call them lady. You said that they don't serve the military if they can help it. But somebody has to be serving somebody. So who

witch hors are serving them? Maybe they have more information because, you know, men, they get to talking when they're feeling loosey-goosey. Plenty of establishments in this area. That's not a bad idea. You wouldn't believe some of the things people have told me. Yeah, like when you're asking for milk

and, you know, for him to milk a hooker. Mm-hmm. And not hook a milker. Yeah, which was where I was... Totally different thing, but it's common. Common mistake. It's a dwarfing. Huka milker.

That's the big oopta. That's the big oopta. Huka milker. Sorry, go ahead. Uh-huh. Well, it's really good. Yeah, so is there like camaraderie among the halls, would she maybe know?

He may be able to find an establishment of show, or that they do some military, and I believe that, it has looked down upon to visit these establishments. As you would know, that it's not like they endorse, like, many countries' militaries

to go spend their free time frequenting hornhouses. It might cost us a little bit, though, to get any information out of some people. It might not be cheap. I'm not worried about getting information out of the horse. I mean, it would only cost me too silver. At this rate, I could buy

3,730 hours of them. So I agree. I have a great idea. Why doesn't Capricci just become our pimp? We're all his hookers. You and I dress up. Iris, you're welcome to join tool, but I feel like with Thomas.

I know you like really want to take care of it. I'm going to stop you. She's going to get mad. Okay. And it shuts us. All right. I'm just going to stop there. So we could dress up.

I don't know what I could fit into and I slot my thighs very loudly. Whoa. But I'll take 40 for us. I believe I'm called Disson and Whispers. I don't have to talk. You're like, what I always say, like, we don't have to talk. Like, we'd like Caprici do all the talking. We're just, like, standing behind them, like, backup dancers, like doing our thing.

So you're like, jiggling our dance. I have to say that I am no man's backup dancer. Look. Well, are you proposing that a pimp and two hookers walk in to try to talk to the main captain of the city? I feel like this one. How's the time again? I feel like it ends with all of you dying. or being thrown in jail.

I like Iris' sense of humor. It's joking. It wasn't humor, but it works for you. Oh my God, Thomas is crying. I'm so sorry, Thomas. It's fine. Hold on. I'll keep my voice.

Keep your voices. I'm sorry. To clarify, I think a priest was suggesting that we, they put this ruse up and then go visit another establishment. Not necessarily the general of the Kovacian military, but just another one of the flops. Personally, I don't think you're going to get these girls and I don't know much about ladies of the night, but my experience with them

and heroms of the like in Necabet is that you're going to get far more out of them with coin if they think they're pleasing someone. See, now you're onto it. That's exactly my experience. I used to do this all the time in Galtica. We just go in, you pay... We have three men. You throw them on a little extra coin. You all take a woman. We have two men. We have two men. you won't take a woman how near you about did she mean me you I don't think

Toa knows how to handle a woman I don't like where this is going and you try to get information at you don't have to penetrate them oh I feel like that's a little like flush like uh uh uh I don't change color

I don't make it I don't understand why the talk of the birds and the bees That's exactly what I just did. We don't need the details, Caprice. I mean, I checked myself earlier if I was lactating and I wasn't, so I'm okay with it. You know, I'm just going to... I'm going to go to my room and I'm going to lay Thomas down from now. We don't have to take anyone in any room.

I mean, I don't know how many girls are out there, but we could give them each a silver piece just to ask an answer a simple question. Do you sleep with the military? Do you sleep with the military? I think we'd be better off finding another establishment. That's the point. Oh, I get a little leisure. I agree. And just for the safety of everyone here and for who's essentially my mother,

I would rather not get that involved in the military. I agree. I don't want to endanger anyone. Your hospitality has been more than we could have asked for. I mean, we're all in this together at this point, and I think that we're on the right track here. Iris, I like your idea. I think that if we send the three of you as the highest chance, of it being believable.

So we're calculating that chance at like 3% then? Well, with tow, I'm going to say two. Oh, two is better than zero. You're not very possessive. Exactly, yes. Maybe we can go. Honestly, why wouldn't we be able to pay for services? As someone who is slept in the same room.

Well, that's not true. As someone has slept in the same room, Lufty actually might do a very good job at this. She has a way of convincing all types of, of people to do what she wants. Yeah. There's no reason why she couldn't join us, especially if you can manify her again.

No, I think she should go as she is. Well, that's fine too. Whatever you think is best, I'm open to ideas. I mean, I'm not being. But having another person, in addition to us might just increase our chances from two to, well, maybe ten. Now, my next suggestion is that I know that time is of the essence, but I do not believe we should be acting on this tonight. I agree, I'm not tapped out.

I cannot come with you tonight. I'm pretty tight. I need to wait until the morning to contact my father. about Thomas. There may be some tricks up my sleeve that I can prepare as well. He is not. Your father, he is my father.

I know, I know, I know. But just don't like me. He doesn't like you very much. I think you're wrong. He doesn't like you very much. He likes me far more than he likes you. I believe that because you're so lovable. You think so?

Do you usually think he really loves me? Of course. When he was spending time with him, Lufty, he talked about me a lot of time. He loves you. Far more than he talked about you. Yeah, he doesn't even talk about me. Did you talk about getting me new jewels, Lufty?

Always. Did you talk about I was his favorite daughter, Lufty? Always. Oh, my God. I love it. Charlie a braz-law, I said hi to. Oh. I'm going to go to my room.

And I'm immediately going to walk out and go to my room. Now we've all got spicy on. Yeah, I'm spicy. So as you're all discussing, Captain Free Wing is kind of, his eyes are going to, darting around, seeing the calculations. And he nods and says,

I agree that we should not do anything tonight. We should rest up. We deserve it. We are lucky that we made it out of that labyrinth with our lives. We should reflect on everything that you told me, because you told him everything, right?

That you just encountered in the labyrinth? Yeah, I think so. We didn't hold anything back. We need to discuss why it was a labyrinth. Why minotors? why who is the horn king? Why the fire of the Ashen ball?

Why devil, why are devils and demons dealing with us? Why is Entra? And maybe we have no way of figuring that out. But I think that we also need to figure out who owns that bar. Oh, yeah. That's a good point. I don't want to change the subject, but does this establishment have any kind of security or safety measures? I have some ways that we can set some more.

alarms just in case we're worried anybody might have spotted us coming in here. Brewster outside is a pretty rough guy. I wouldn't want to mess with him. Is it the punky-looking man? He's the only man in the staff. I'm glad you got that. I was trying to find a way to work in punky. Oh, I get it.

For the older, footwork. Yes. For the older, foot. Yeah. For almost 30-year-old. Yeah, all of us boomers here. I can always. on you.

And frankly, Delphina is good in his scrap. There have been some people that have not been able to leave this establishment walking after messing with her. Well, I imagine. Messing with her girls. Is it also here that prevents the military

from closing down establishments like this? I mean, you said that they're looked down upon them. But why are they allowed to exist in the first place? Why don't the military just march right in here and shut things down? Central is a pretty big place. Isn't that legal all that? I mean, they've just got bigger fish to fry? It's also just not against the law.

It's beneath them. They don't care. I see. So it's like, okay. No, I got it. All right. It's not worth their time. It's there with the wars on all sides.

And, you know, most of the men that would be a trouble are all drafted and sent off at a young age. Hmm. And they're all on the front lines. And the ones that are sticking around, they care far more about the nobles. and go ahead. No, no, sorry, I'll let you finish. Nobles and Skyreach, or the merchants and the four winds, or the priests and flocks roost, or the memories rest.

How far apart are the two doors in the front of our room? Like the two adjoining rooms? I would say it's probably five feet. Okay, then what I'm going to do is just, again, I don't want to upset anyone here, but I can at least alarm our doors, and that way if anybody were to approach that we don't want, we would be awoken from our sleep.

That would be great. So then I'm going to cast alarm in a 20-foot cube in front of the two rooms, basically. So if anybody were to approach the doors, I can designate anybody who would hear the alarms in our heads. That would be all of us. And I can also designate creatures that can pass through it and not set the alarm off. So that'll be all of the women and the madam. So we can pass through those? Yes, we can.

That's good enough. So I'm going to take it as a ritual and take 10 minutes to set it up. Phoenix, that's so sweet. I love it when a man takes care. Uh, sure? And I just keep focusing. I'll just stare while he's casting. You've looked to the right page,

and you see him kind of tracing these magical symbols with his finger, and suddenly, every 10 minutes, it feels as if they're a kind of an arcane hum comes across the room. And it lasts eight hours, so I'm going to do it, like, before we go to bed. Yeah. Oh, okay, yeah.

But I assume we're getting ready to go to things like that. It's late. It's super late at this point. What's the like out like temperament outside kind of after dark? Uh, is, edie. Are you asking in character or out character? Yeah, what's the temperament like outside after talk? I don't think anyone would mess with us, I guess.

I think that if we did want to go outside, I think that now that we're in here, we should be very careful about where we show our face and where we don't. Okay. And I think that most of the commoners and the, and the, the people here are not going to mess with us even if they were rough customers. But I'm worried more about any of the city police or the military, catching a glimpse of us and just asking some questions that we're not ready to answer. Do you think that like other patrons coming in are going to give me some side-eye or like any of our other friends?

We didn't see a whole lot of other people like us in the streets. fortunate that it was a slow night, but there may be some gentlemen coming in. It isn't about that time. Well, I don't know about you guys, but I don't intend to leave my room. I'm not gonna risk it. I'm not scared, but I'm also going to stay in my room.

Just in case I had a few more song ideas, you know, it goes. At the same time, I feel like tomorrow, we gotta figure out who owns that barn and that requires us to actually leave this establishment. We're gonna go talk to, we're gonna go find another establishment like this, and execute on our plan. We're just gonna have to start questioning people.

I mean, I'm more than happy to inquire about the barn, especially now that I have a steed, I haven't told you guys about, because you haven't seen her yet. You're probably the best candidate for this purpose, and that's just because you're the only person besides Felix who looks like they're meant to be here. I mean, none of us really fit in,

and he can't fit in. Yeah, I love rest on my shoulders. Hmm? Who can't speak? Do you mean me or him? Both of us. All of us. Except for her.

And being a dwarf, she's the only one who might get the least side by side eye here. Well, I have this new ring that Felix gave me. Oh. And I think this might help. I'm gonna try it out. What does it do? And I'm going to channel it and cast this guy's self. And I'm gonna be like a six foot five human as wide as I can make it so I can be like hopefully almost as wide as me.

as wide as me look a big, like kind of just look similar to kind of a slummy looking, but a large human. Like big mutton chops maybe. It works. And, uh, Artholm did it. I'm sorry. Do I look, do I look like it fit in?

Yeah, you might have to work on your accent a little bit, but that's fine. I don't think about it. It doesn't, it doesn't change my accent, does it? No. How bad this? Do I sound like I'm from the slums? It sounds a little fourth. Zintra. How does that say? I think if you talk slower, maybe it will be more...

Oh, that's a good idea. Oh, yeah. You feel like spices to kind of a stifle a little bit of like big-like. Do I feel like no one's gonna miss with me? That's perfect, Toa. I wouldn't, I wouldn't miss with me. Not in a million, yes, you thought. Oh, I'm gonna tell you're very scary.

I'm gonna use this tomorrow. I'm gonna use this tomorrow. Good one. I'm gonna be... I'm gonna be... You know, that teenage aged out. Just get it out. That was good, buddy.

Keep working on it. I wonder if any of the ladies here would have some, like, powder, I could maybe... What's that? You know, sometimes it's, like, ground up chalk or, like... Kind of, like dirt? Yeah, kind of, but it's like... like like for what to make me a little less blue so I fitted don't you still have white hair blue bluish white hair yeah but do you know

I guess it could just be like a fashion statement I'm trying I have never found out of place before this is a new thing for me I might have something but hold up for me your actual what are you digging for A pocket joke. Oh, my God. A talk. A job. So, I am going to take a, I'm going to take the evening to catch up with Delphina and see what the word is and see if I can get any additional information.

We, our conversation was less productive than I was hoping, but she was very excited to see me. Hopefully it's worn off a little bit in a novelty and we'll be able to have a frank conversation. Is she happy we're here? I really didn't get a chance to meet her. Oh, she is. She wants to meet the rest of you. I lied a little bit and said that you did a little bit more in saving my life, but I was very clear that the six of you and myself are on a very important mission. And we would appreciate all the help we could get.

Does she need any compensation for the rooms? I mean, these are rooms that they could be using for the purposes of, you know. Oh, God, they do that in here, too? Yeah. Nobody's got a black light We're gonna find a way to pay you back in this establishment tenfold. We will. We don't want to put anyone in danger

and we know that we're putting you guys out. When it gets to the time if you can convince her to accept it, I will... Even if it's not money, we'll find a way. Well, let's save the city, shall we? And that's be a conversation. Agreed. Done.

He stands up and he goes to the door. and opens it and says, well, everyone have a good night. Gentlemen, I'll be coming back in an hour or so. Sleep well. And he closed the door behind him. It's just six of you. And you can do whatever you'd like for the rest of the evening. I'll probably just retire.

Yeah, I'm going to look at the map and inspect the Four Winds District to see, like, can I see anything beyond? There's a district called the Four Winds District on the map itself. So this is a very light map. It's just kind of basically laying out the general district and the layout and some of the road structure. You do get the sense, though, however, that the four wins that there is a general, it's the marketplace. It is the general hub of commerce of the city, and so there are some larger markets. A lot of the banking is in that area, and it seems like, though, the four wins, it's probably referenced it just people kind of coming in from all over.

I'm going to, as Toa said, just retire. I guess there's only two beds for the four of us. Yeah, for Volley's going to stay with us. Yeah. Tully, you don't think we can both squeeze in this bed, do you? I'll be fine on the ground. No, no, you take the bed. No, I'm going to be fine.

Trust me. I mean, you stay in a cave for a night, way back and day. I still feel like I haven't made it up to you. Oh, yeah. Thanks for all. Well, you did get me some off-supine Sundays. You take the bed, you take the bed this time. I'll sleep on the floor.

I am going to have Beatrice. watch though. This podcast is brought to you by our Patreon. Become a patron today at patreon.com slash legends of avatrous and gain access to tons of exclusive perks, including a monthly movie night and a weekly Patreon exclusive campaign set on the high seas, shroud over salt marsh. You can also go to the crooked moon.com to pick up your own copy of our first published supplement, The Crooked Moon, a folk horror tone for Dungeons and Dragons fifth edition. Don't forget to snag all the extra goodies,

like dice, miniatures, plushies, a tarot deck, and more. Thank you. You all enjoyed a short rest. Oh, did I do? Long rest. And long rest, college, a long rest. As you were all kind of drifting off to sleep, Rivali had snuck back into the room,

not triggering the alarm or whatever you did. You did your thing, the room was protected. You kind of made sure that none of the girls or Brewster or anyone would trigger it. you all awake feeling refreshed. Iris, and probably the other ladies, all awake to Thomas crying in the room. No, they're not in my room.

Yeah. We got them out of the room. Yeah. I pushed the two beds together and slept on it with Thomas. Okay, so you're a pile on top of each other. All, all six of you. Snuggling in the men's right. Snugly.

Snugly. Rivali is just sitting in a corner, kind of with his arm folded, just tilting off his head to the side. And you all awake, you enjoy a long rest, feeling all refreshed. Iris, you awake to Thomas crying. And it is morning of Zentra. The very, very small windows that are curtained and the lights kind of shining through.

It's another gloomy day in Koravakia. It's not, it's really nothing out of the ordinary. And what are you guys doing? Well, I'm going to need some time to take some time to prepare for the day, but I think what we should do, Ravali, is try to find which of these establishments were most likely to host members of the military on the down low.

And I think that it's probably going to be one of the establishments that's out of the way and lesser known. I don't know if maybe some of the ladies can help us with that. I'll talk to the matter. And I think that

I'm going to oppose this to the group. We should get Iris' input as well. And Iris, you hear a knock at the door as Rivali kind of gives a light now. I'll be ready in one hour. Before all of that, I was like, sorry, I was just doing my spells.

I want to wake up in the morning and cast sending. And essentially just, I'll just do it for brevity, letting my father know that I have, I've come into possession of a charge. And that I've given him a name and a tabaxy name as well, and I let him know what both of those are.

And that I am in the city of Zentra, if he has any contacts to let me know who they are and to beseech him to allow me to utilize them to get Thomas to Siket. You look when a mama kitty like nurses, puppies that have been abandoned? Exactly. I apologize that I do not know this. But for you were particularly out of your family worshipping a nubis heavily more so than everyone else.

Okay. Good. So you get a response back where your father says thank Osiris that you are alive. And you probably knew that that would irritate you. And to thank Osir that you were alive, he knows no one in Zentra, but he will see if he can find someone who does to contact him again when you can. not able to cast sending. Or is that correct? And I will contact him in the evening. OK.

And so you know that your father is working on that. And that he gives, he parts, I will say that he parts the sending with a warning that just says, try not to just keep an eye out in Zentra and make sure not to, you know, to make sure not to, get involved with the military or not to interfere with the plans of the High General or the Six Eyes of the Raven. Six Eyes of the Redmond. I will note of that and wonder what that.

I will not, he knows about that stuff. Six Eyes of the Raven. Okay. God love news. And then that's what I would say as he's a ruler that would at least know of, he's no people. He would know of like the general kind of geopolitical business. Yeah, of course. Got.

Okay. Um, after you finish that, you kind of, uh, Thomas is, is fed. Uh, he finishes all the milk in his bottle. I'm gonna take like a bit of the linen that I have and make myself, uh, a kitty Bjorn. Okay. And I don't have it so that way Thomas can be right here. My hands are free.

I'd say you did very effortlessly. And so you get a kiddie Bjorn and then you hear the knock from Rivali. And he, he cracked the door open and says, uh, we're discussing our plans. I mean, we like your input. Of course. I'll be on my way. Okay. Um, can you send a message?

to have Bertha Philip the milk canister for Thomas? Her name is Dolly. No, he doesn't want a toy. I'll get it taken care of him. Thank you. And he closes it and eventually you're all joining into the same room. And Iris arrives with Tom as you see in the little Bjork, Bjorn. Bjork?

Be York! Baby, Bjork. Baby, Bjork. Baby, Bjork. It is shaped like a swan and it's just wrapped around. And so you all ride in the same room. It's a little tight. He's still fairly awake.

He shut the door. And Rivali's gone for a bit, and then he comes back. He comes back with a tray of tin cups that are all kind of steaming. And as soon as he walks in, he hands each of you and says, Brewster makes really good coffee. So that's one thing. Man, you're going to spoil us. We've been out on the road forever.

Yeah, I know. Oh. It's really good. I wouldn't have expected it for a place like this. I mean, this may be the last, the last comforts we have in a long time, so I'm going to fully enjoy my home as things like that. And he says, Toa, like this. Don't you have giant stone fingers?

I don't know anything about Goliath geology. Do they desensitized the nerves in my fingertips? You know, this, this reminds me of a coffee place. that we have back home in Valsstad in the base of the Grizzled Paw Mountains called Caribou Coffee, not Spons. Cute, Maya. I don't know caribou coffee.

I'm just going to say that right now. My husband's from Minnesota. Best hot chocolate. Is it from Minnesota? I think it's like Minnesota, Wisconsin. Like one of the two. I can't remember. You thought it was good.

I hear the caribou hunting in the Grizzly Paul Mountains is excellent. It is. Okay, sorry to try. So, I've done some thinking. And I think that I won't speak with the madam. And I think that our best bet was, is to find a brothel that is closest to the barn. That's a good idea.

Any workers that were on it. It's right. May have been able to slip away on a lunch break. We might be able to find out who paid them. I think instead of all this going into one broth, that might be a bit suspicious. So maybe the three people that we already talked about going in goes in, and then the rest of the stand outside,

God, looking really scary and all human-like. And I just shipped into my human form. Now? I mean, I'll ship that. I'm just getting ready. I've got to put myself up. Can you do that indefinitely all day? I think so.

I'm pretty much. Is that one? You don't know. It's a hat of the sky. What was the name of the Ravens thing? Yeah, I didn't have. The same size of the ring. D and D beyond, but it's like at will.

It's a ring that's had this guy. Yeah, okay. Cool. It's at will. Okay. Yeah. I'm admiring his mutton chops that have now suddenly appeared on his face.

Hmm. What is? I'm admiring your mutton drop. Do you have? Like as normal? Yes, I do. I have, I have like, kind of long black hair. Okay.

It's sort of like down. Think about Maui from. Uh, okay. I thought you were balls. Maybe not that crew. All right. No, he's not that kind of very. There's a picture right there too.

I just never realized. Yeah, she's kind of like that in the picture. So maybe some braids or whatever. A picture of having seamy for some reason. I don't know why. Like, seaweed dreads. Yeah, kind of. Yeah.

So you, uh, so the Sixthies of the Raven. Perfect. And, uh, uh, uh, Rivali looks at you and toe on and says, I, I'm fine with that. I think that some, most of it's going to take that. can stand watch and be ready to act if anything goes south. All right, I'm ready to get some of the now. Well, I spoke with my father this morning. You did?

I told you I was going to do that yesterday. Did you tell him as a pillow? Of course, I did not. Okay. Did you tell him that she didn't want to say hi to your brother? Hesha, do not push me today. I just wanted to sit. Got the love with a screaming baby, all night.

You have? No. Oh my God. Oh no, I can sleep through anything. He probably had a terrible night, but it's fine. He was very hungry this morning. I wonder if that's why. Yeah, I seems you have to like feed them.

Are you supposed to wake up when they cry? God, I thought not as well to tell. Oh no. I am not fit to be a mother, but he's fine. Aren't you Thomas? Good thing he's just a judge. Cool. Tasslav, am I right?

I don't want to talk about that. However, I spoke to my father, and I am working currently to have Thomas transported to Siket. which is the city I come from, where he will be taken care of at the palace. Wow. He will be well taken care of. So Papa's hands is okay with it?

And under my protection, yes. Do you remember what I just said to Hersia? Don't push me today. I mean, I didn't touch him. He cried all night long, and I didn't realize I was supposed to do anything about it, so he didn't stop. Well, we're learning.

We're learning. I mean, next time, you know, you're supposed to... Yeah, now we know. You cross his arms across his chest like this, and then hold his butt and to sort of rock him back and forth like this. It's called the baby hold. It's a real thing.

I'm not fucking right. I'm not quite sure. I don't know why, but this makes me feel just so nice. Do you have a kid? I'm a large family. I know how to take care of kids. That's wonderful. But it is besides the point, if you just let me get to it,

why are you all so crazy all of the time? Yeah. So my father wrote back to me and he said that he is going to find somebody in Zentra who will be able to take Thomas and deliver him to Siquette. So once that happens, we'll be able to deliver him safely somewhere. But he said something at the very end that he made me slightly uncomfortable. He told me not to get in the way of the High General, which is fine.

I'm sure he doesn't want any negative interactions between the Pharaoh of Siket and Zentra. But he also mentioned the six-side raven, the six eyes of the raven. Is that anything that I would have ever heard before? Or me? I would say you wouldn't. Okay. I would say that you would... I would say that you would...

That you would... That you would... That you would know that basically beneath the high general is the council of his six generals, the six top generals, beneath the high general. Or the six eyes of the ring. And those are the only generals that are... allowed to operate from Zancha, besides the High General.

Every other lieutenant general and the like needs to be out with the troops on the front lines. So there are other generals, but those six are in the capital. And they operate independent, they can operate independently. Like they have the ground, the grand. So you know that each of them is responsible for a different aspect of advising to the High General and giving advice and counseling

the High General on a different aspect of... I will explain that to everyone. Do I know what I know their names or what they're responsible for? Is that the length of the information that I'd know? I would say that... Make an intelligent or a history check. Proficient in that. I am.

Hooray! Yay! Yeah! Hey! Oh! Okay! I'm gonna give you a lot more. Natural play.

Not comic and powerful. Right. The 20 thing is probably. The 20 thing is probably. Probably. I am going to give you more than I would have. You're pretty smart. 28.

So you know that the high general's name is High General Virgil Zern. Virgil Zern. What a name. And then there's the six eyes of the Raven. There is the eye of order who's involved in keeping order internally running the military police.

And that is General Grossk Chumley. Gross chumly? Yep. Gross chumny. Gross chutney, I got it. Chutney, chutney, yep, yep, yep. General gross chummy. There is the Eye of Wrath.

Wraff. Damn. Which is involved with the external, with giving advice on all of the military offenses. And that's General Bradley Furman. Then there's the eye of fate, Bradley Furman. Bradley Furman. The eye of fate is the general that is responsible for consulting on all religious matters

and the church of the raiding. And that is general Portia Paradiso. Oh. Paradiso? Paradiso. There's the Eye of Secrets. The Eye of Secrets is the general that's responsible. the general that's responsible for consulting on basically the spy network of the

organization of the country as well as controlling information that goes in public so seeking and distributing information info and that's general Diamante Cujata I'm gonna need that one again Diomante Cujat a D I A M-A-M-A-M-A-D-A-M-A-M-T-Diamante K-U-Jata K-U-J-J-J-J-E J-A-A-T-A. And is Portia, like Shakespeare-style portion? Yeah.

There's two more. The I is silver. This is a general that is responsible for advising on matters of the economy. And comments. That makes sense. And that's General. Ina Eisenbaum.

I-A-I-N-A-I-N-A-I-N-A-I-N-A-I-N-A-I-N-Bon. Apologies, I-N-N-B-E-S-N-M-B-E. B-A-U-M. B-A-H-M. Oh. And then, Icauldron show me of papers. And then, finally, the Eye of Law. Ooh.

This is the one that's supposed to discuss things like, like history and scholastics and education. And staying true to the traditions of Striga and Koropje. And that is General Miko Arbor. M-I-C-O-R-G-R. So apologies for that info down by. you know. Okay. What was the high general thing?

High general is Virgil Zern. Virgil Zurn. Virgil Zirr. Excuse me. Virgil Z. Registered nurse. Shut the fuck. I'm okay.

So is there any other tidbits of information about them that I would have known to be factual? You would know, you would only know that their names. And you know that the High General has been the ruler of Koravakia for decades and has led into like the current state of like the greatness and pushing back all the other countries. And you and you know basically the rules of the eyes of the Raven and all of those generals. But basically you know that like they are so far above your station that they were so far above your station that you would never like that you would never like a thought with that.

Right. Right. Right. Okay. So they're, I mean, do I get the vibe that they're like a bunch of bad dudes or they're just, they're just high up? Maybe not bad dudes, but you know that you wouldn't follow them. There is a reason that they were promoted in one of the largest military forces.

All right. This is kind of out of character, but like just being that it's like the queen's conclave, but I know that there's an actual, like, is that the Raven, like, queen or is that, okay, there's not a queen. Yes. So that's a reference to the Raven Queen. I think that's pretty obvious that basically, that the Queen's conclave is basically the inner war kings of the government.

Okay, cool. Just checking. So whenever they say Queen, they probably are referring to the ring. Yeah. I would have taken a few minutes, 10.20 minutes to explain all of that. And, you know, I know that was long-winded, and I apologize, but it's probably for the best for all on the same page. Thank you, that.

I mean, is there anything else we should know about the military rank and order and file and all this other history stuff? If time permits and we have some chance to sit down and talk maybe we can, but for now I think we need to focus on the brothel thing. But if we get some time maybe tonight, before we go to bed, I can try to answer your questions to the best of my ability. My pleasure. He, um, uh, Rbaly nods and he turns to Iris.

He says, Iris, do you think that your father would know anyone that could get us an audience with, I mean, we don't know who we could trust, but would he know anyone connected to any of the eyes of any of those top generals. My guess is more than likely if he told me not to deal with that. But because of his warning, I'm not sure if that would be a good... I can ask him. I think that may be a good idea the next time you communicate. Would you like me to do it now?

I think we should try to get the information and see where... I don't know your relationship with your father. Well, I'm his daughter. He's my father. He loves me very much. and probably one of his most prized possessions. Yeah. And he would do anything for me.

It's awful. He would sacrifice Luffy to whatever God necessary to make sure I was well taken care of. Yeah. But he's a sweet piece, so he won't. If you do not think that it would jeopardize any kind of political standing of Siquet, it might be worthwhile.

Well, I would ask him first. And if he said, no, it is fine. you can meet up with so-and-so or you can go and say you're my daughter, then I will do that. If he says no, then I will not do that. It is fairly matured you. What is? Yeah, no, just that. He's my, he's my papa.

I don't. Why are you taking on my accent? Because it's just so lovely. Are you just to me? Oh, probably born town. Oh, no. I'm actually moving out for sure. I think of her.

Poking falloofi. I'm trying that to do. Do you make me to do your accent? Getty, damn it! Something about beer, beer, beer. I'm going to turn into a English man with a gigantic orange mustache, as a large nose,

and talk like this. Rivali thinks for a moment, and he says, perhaps, the more I think about it, If there are involvement of any of the eyes of the Raven, we would not want to jeopardize anyone's safety. So maybe we should find out if you can get any kind of leads.

They will then inform our request. But I defer to your judgment on that. Do you guys think there's any connection between the Raven Queen, all of these like courts, eyes of sorts, and all the little temples that are kind of hidden under all these things? cities that are being protected, like the one that just got bombarded back at the hunting lodge? They're all, most certainly all apart of the same religion, for sure. I apologize if I didn't make that clear.

Even though this is a military capital, they are all very open in their worship of the Raven Queen. But everything we found on the ground was all related to bulls and stuff. We didn't see a single raven motif, did we? Are you talking about the temples that we saw in the town? like Mr. Crow's crossing, or are you talking about the labyrinth? Because those are two completely separate. I was talking about the thing under the, where the bird thing came crashing through the ground

and like fuck shit up and the lodge. No, I don't think. So the only, out of character, I think the only church that we saw was where we found the children. And that was a church of the Raven Queen. Other than that, the things that we've encountered have all been Horned Legion stuff. Or the lodge, which was its own thing.

with his own thing. The lodge, the thing that they're protecting the sigil thing, is separate from Raven Queen and separate. We don't actually know, yeah, we're not sure. But we can make the assumption. I don't know. I could do like a religion check to see if I would know any connection between. I mean, I don't even know what the seals are, though.

I would think that my learnings of the Raven Queen, I would not know. I would say, yeah, from what anything that you could roll, when basically, I can't do it. Any of the teachings that I've learned about this religion, there didn't seem to be any connection to those seals. Well, because they kept calling it the chain gun. and that they were responsible for for protecting of keeping the chain

god sealed I guess or chained as it were I guess that's maybe that's why he's named the chain god. What was his name before he was chained? The unchained god obviously. I just wasn't sure if that was another name for like the Raven Queen if she was being

chained somehow or not to my knowledge. Or hours or something like that or even if it was Horn Legion related I just feel like these may have some connection. Nope. I I don't see a connection, but there might be one. I wrote a song about it, but aside from that. Oh.

Would you like to perform it for us? Yeah. Hmm? Do you want to perform it? Is that why you brought it up? Oh, I'm still drinking my coffee, no. Thank you. Not any of this one.

Do not disturb. So do we have any names of any of the brothels near that barn? Well, I just wanted to flip the idea and I'll go talk to the madam. Yeah, I think that's fine. It's a good idea. Okay. To hear your songs, do I have to procure snagletooth in a foul stench? I'm not trying to say any meaning.

Do I have to become a hooker? Oh, no, no, no. I mean, I want to perform on a stage, but like, I mean, I was just, I only have like a little riff. It's like, uh, in the chain, the God in the chain. That kind of thing. That's a good star. That was a good thing. It was good.

It was pretty good. Was that so raw? Comprehate it. That was a really good. Take a a critiquing her myself. You see Travelli get off and he says, well, that action was pretty good.

I'm going to go talk to Delphina and I'll let you know if you have your recommendation. We'll be ready to mobilize in a moment's notice. Because steal yourselves. We may run into trouble. Leaving you alone. Doesn't he like to discuss in private away from him?

No, I think we'll just wait and get ready. I'll just like suit up, make sure that I have all my stuff ready to go. So I have the ability to do what these guys can do and disguise myself pretty convincingly, if I do say so myself, but I'm gonna try to save it if at all possible. So even though we're going into one of these brothels that may have been frequented by military members, I'm gonna try to peek inside and see if there aren't any there first before I go wasting energy needlessly. Yeah.

But if, I guess if any point in time, if I have to change at a moment's notice, just try to roll with it and don't bring attention to it, is all I'm saying. Oh, what should we call you? We don't need to call me anything. Just don't say anything. No, but that's a good question,

no, there is no need. We are not engaging with anyone. This is strictly to escape. That's it. But if they engage with us, we should know what to call you. You don't have to call me. You don't know me. That's the point.

There is no engagement. You don't know who I am. I will leave, I will escape, and we will reconvene at a later moment. So if they ask, they're like, who's that guy? You'll be like, I'm not going in together. We're not going to be seen together. It's going to be fine. Okay, okay.

Well, does it, do you know if they, oh, he- We are not going to dig ourselves into any deeper holes than we already have. There's no need. I mean, I'll do whatever you think is beast. Although I have this, uh, if anybody asks, his name is Morris. I'm not going to talk to any of you or answer to any of your,

it's not going to happen. And that's perfectly fine, but so that we're not all giving different names. Thank you. disguise kit you can use the makeup in there to kind of de-bluify yourself oh thank you I mean I feel a little conflicted because I really like you know my hue but I like your natural glow I know thank you it's good yeah it's it's blue it's it's blue it's dappit it's blue sorry I'm blue yeah okay just a minute so you have the disguise kit and he walks back and he uh

probably another 20 minutes past. And he closed the door behind him and says, well, she says that the brothel that is probably the most trustworthy. And she stressed that that wasn't saying much. It's a place called the well-rounded nights. The well-rounded nights. The well-rounded nights.

Is it with a K or an N? An M. Oh, very good. So I'm going to take the, disguise kit and how long that's just a disguise it doesn't like wear off right no okay so before we leave I'm just going to use the kit to make myself um like darken my hair so it's not like blue and then you know I'll make myself pretty pale with like some kind of like cheesy flush on my cheeks and like try to make myself look human but like kind of crappy

Check. Makes a next year and check. Okay. What I, like how I view humans, which is kind of like boring and gross and weird. Oh, that's bad too. So it's going to be really, really just how I want it. I knew it got out. What is you know?

Next. Oh, Dex. I'm sorry. 10. 10. You see Lifty Finish and they're like patches of blue coming through, but you're mostly, you're mostly covered up. Seven, I'm sorry. Oh, seven.

Even better. Yeah, no, it's patchy. Felix gets alternate universe flashbacks of PTSD. Do I see that she looks kind of patchy or am I convinced? I would say, no, it's definitely patched. Can I, even though I'm not proficient in the tool that is disguise kit, can I try to go in and patch things up seeing that she doesn't look that great?

Or would that just add a character? I would say that you could like bump it up a little bit, like, you know, smidge smidge here. And I would just say that would affect DC's in that. Please do. You know, she looks like a Shao Zee with this guy. I knew from back home. And I do one of these.

and I'm just going to go under the eyebrow. Oh, it's getting in there. Oh, it's close. It's kind of really slimy and really like shiny, but it'll make you look a little bit more human. I kind of smell like you now, too, so. No, but that's good. That's convincing.

It is. I smell like women. You don't, you... What? Hulmans? Women's? You look more human. I can't really tell the difference between all of them.

I'm a dwarf. I don't want to say. You just have my backup. You know what that is. It's a great thing out of here. So okay, I made her look a little bit more convincing. What do you guys think? I kind of arch the eyebrows a little bit more.

I foofed her hair. I mean, she looks always surprised, but that's okay. She looks absolutely atrocious. But you always say that, though. That's fair. But compared to everybody in this place, you fit in. Yeah, basically, do I look like a hole? A what?

A hole? A hole. A hole? A hole. A hole. A hole. I am not quite sure what you're trying to ask. Does she look like a prostitute?

Is that so weird? Why didn't you say that? Yes, actually quite. Somehow that seemed more difficult. I think you could use to lose a couple more teeth. I use minor illusion, all of her teeth are gone now. Oh, yeah. Oh, perfect.

You'll make a lot of money with that smooth mouth. I don't know what came over me. Breaking it in. Breaking it in with a new. So I think she probably can go, man. Yeah, and Rivali is just like, Okay. He's like, you realize what the hell

have I got myself into? Yes. And he sighs and says, everyone's going to be fine. Keep your hood up. Just walk. Naturally. Quickly, but naturally.

I'm actually on, do we know where we're going? Like, would he have told us all we're going? I'm going to be leading us. Then I'm going to basically knowing this, walk in the direction and be able to be visible from people, but I'm not walking next to anybody. I want to, like, keep my hood,

my collar up, my hat, and just kind of casually walk through the crowds in the direction that everybody else is going, but I don't want to be with the others. Okay, and I'll disguise myself as the- What should I be doing? Should I try to go and make a show here? Should I just hang out in front? Well, actually, I think that if things get rough,

you could cause a distraction outside or around. I mean, you're a bar, you're great with music. I think that... And I feel like, really, like, down in the dumps here. Maybe you would bring a little... But I'm talking like Plan D here, if we need to get out. It's attached to. Just to say, I like that idea.

It's a good option. All right, well, if I see things going really, really badly, I'll jump in somehow. So am I staying here to help with bodyguarding of the Thomas and of the iris? I didn't know what you're talking about. I have my baby Bjork. I'm going to be walking through the streets with Thomas. Okay, well, I'll be with you then because it sounds like this is a man's job. I feel like it would be wonderful if you were somewhere useful.

You're the only one if it's in the city kind of sort of. I feel like you might have a job at the broth. Why don't you go to the stables? Yeah, why don't you and I go to the stables? Perfect. You three can go to the brothel and then you could, I guess, hold the baby. Yeah, obviously. It's fine.

Is that good? Yeah, I'll go with you then. I like that in the work you got there. I think I crafted it myself this morning. I'm glad you didn't have to roll for it because the baby had dropped out of that all of sudden for no reason. Not a bit of my hand on his tiny and I shall have it. unless otherwise meet it. All right, we'll make our way to the brothel.

Okay, let's go. We'll make our way to this table. I'm walking naturally. So everyone make just a general stealth check to see how incognity. Let's all go to the lobby. Let's all go to the lobby. Let's all go to the lobby.

Yay! And I got a natural one. I'm not. 18 for me. 18, okay. 24. 24? 14.

14. Okay. Eight and you get plus two to saving throws because you're within 10 feet of me. 26, but I'm actually gonna stay at the brothel. So. 10, okay. So as you all are-

Can I walk around trying to find some kind of baby shop to buy Thomas cute clothes? I would say you definitely spend time. I'm gonna be purchasing things for Thomas. That's cute. As you're leaving, as you're getting ready to leave, you see the same girl, Dolly, arrive, with a fresh bottle of milk.

And she says, Ah, um, um, Delfina said, I should do this every morning. I would greatly appreciate it. End in the evening as well, and I flip her a gold coin. Oh, good.

She looks at her eyes are wide. And she goes, oh, thank you very much. Absolutely, I'll do that, yes. And she handed to you, you have a fresh bottle? Have you seen any other babies in the brothel? No.

That's very sad. Do you happen to know Where I could go to find baby things. I think there might be a shop on the main thoroughfare. And your little one. I don't have a little one. I'm going to cry. I'm darling.

May I hug you? If you like? I'm a little hairy. Cat and I hugged. That's nice. If you'd like to talk about it. I'm here. Anubis.

It is my God, and he is, I am, and he is very familiar with the passing of life. I don't know anything about Nudis, but it's comforting to know he's with the Raven Queen. I will pray for your little one. Thank you, Miss. Appreciate it. And with that, do you happen to know I could buy baby clothes for this little one. For sale, baby shoes, never used. Oh, my God. That's the...

She's gonna cry. He's gonna cry. He's gonna cry. And Jesus Christ. Jesus. And... Not your stream. She says...

Star themes. There's, um... The brass bottle by the main third fare. It's a bit of a walk, though. I'm perfectly happy to take it. Thank you very much. You're welcome.

Good luck with him. If you need anything else, you let me know. And if you would like to, if you're motherly at all, and you'd like to help out, I could use a hand with someone who knows a little more than I do. Well, slow morning,

if you need help, I could. You gave me a whole gold piece. Well, why don't, is, can you check with the lady of the establishment? And I'll give her 10 gold pieces for 10 hours of your time. I'm just going to see it. And you can accompany me. And we'll spend the afternoon together.

Thank you. And we can talk and go baby shopping. And you can hold Thomas. He's, are your teeth as we speak? I'm used to that. But he has better intentions. Oh my God, Mikey.

Why? He said I'm used to that. I'm sorry. I apologize. I apologize. Magistichita. Rage down. Rated out.

Ratured. Rage it up for mature. I'll ask her right away. Of course. If you're able to accompany me, I'll wait here. You just let me know what she says, and we will go along together if you can. Of course, of course.

She zips out, and she comes back and we'll say she worked out something with the madam, and she joins you and accompanies you. She's able to take Thomas and you all are venturing off to go by baby clothing. Perfect. That's nice. And so as that's happening, you all are making your way

from the city. Both of you, Hersia and Toa, you're going to the stables, correct? Correct. So you make your way to a local stable and doesn't even have names the horseshoe. And are you going to with a stable that you went to previously? Yes. The one that we came out of the labyrinth. Okay. The stable. So it's near the brothable, we're just going to kind of like stake it out and just keep an eye on it while they're doing it. I'm going to need just a general perception check for both of you. Okay. Almost so good. Eleven. Which is my also my passive perception. 10, which is not my passive.

Okay. So you are all looking around walking through the streets, and you see, I'll just say the whole group of you, including UIRS, you would notice that there are papers, a lot, like a heavy number of just general, like newspapers, like news bulletins. They're kind of stapled onto sides of buildings and posts, and you see a large headline that says,

a rise of strangers in Zentra that says be wary of strangers with ill intentions. And that's weird. And there is another headline that you see of

that it's the most quiet season that the clockwood has ever experienced. And that while the fronts of the war are heating up that Korobakia internally has never been safer.

Damn you, Diamente. And with that, you all stake out the place. And so the rest of you are heading to the problem. So as you are making your way through the streets, you see a sign of a crudely, a crudely painted round table with a number of like half-dressed knights all around it. And it says well-rounded nights.

And with that, you see a number of girls kind of hanging off the balcony. And this seems to be about the same level of niceness as the queen be. And it's probably only three, four blocks away from where these two are, through the, by the barn the stable that you guys came in. And so you are all standing outside, what are you guys doing? Rivali, Moulton, all of you. and says, I'm gonna keep an eye out for trouble. If there is anything, you still have my sigill, right?

You guys have the thing that beat, that beats him? Okay, if they're just the one? You have one and he has one. I forget who we gave it to, but I do remember him giving it to us. I think you have it. I think you have. I don't have it. I didn't have my note slap from last session.

I had my books. Okay. I think you have it. I'll say that you did this, you have it. And so you press that, and you also. away from mine and if that starts, if that rings out, you have to get out there. Okay, all right. Am I going in with you guys? I thought, if you're going to stay out here, I'll go in, but I... Yeah, I think we should, I think we should all try to question as many

people as possible. Okay. Again, it's going to cost us a little bit, but we gotta do what we got to do. That's fine. I mean, we found a lot of gold in that labyrinth. Let's go. Okay. So he pulls a foot up even, even tighter and just kind of zips out behind an alley and you see him start to kind of chat his side of a building and see you can kind of find purchase and climb up on a side. And as you're doing that, you make your way up, the steps into this brothel. And this is a similar designed lobby, but most of the girls are also spread out on the ground floor.

They're all kind of sitting on chairs. It's pretty populated. You see a number of men, a couple of workmen, in varying states of dirtiness or cleanliness. And someone kind of have, like, one has an arm around each girl, and he's grinning and he's missing a number of teeth. And you just kind of see a C, probably, probably like six available girls and maybe like four Jones.

For what? General. I'm immediately looking for... John's. I said John's. I said John's is Lingot. I'm immediately just standing. the crowd, even though it's very early,

for any military personnel. I'll do the same. Make a perception check, both of you? 20. I'm sorry, you said you're looking for. Military personnel. I wouldn't be doing the same. Okay, making it.

20. That's the perception. Ooh. 17? 17. I would say you scan the area and you see one of the four seems to be definitely better dressed. Fuck. But does it not seem to be in any kind of uniform.

So it is, it's, it does seem to be a little bit out of place, but that he's trying to kind of act, he's kind of occasionally darting his eyes around, he's trying to seem incognito. And that's, I think, probably all you know this. All right, I'm just gonna, again, I've got my collar up, my hat pulled down. I'm just trying, very unassuming,

I'm gonna, I'm gonna make my way in and just see if there are any women who are not occupied. Okay. I would say you see that of the six women, that four are unoccupied. One is starting to kind of go towards the well-dressed gentleman. And you see one seems to be kind of bored. She's probably in her late 20s-ish.

She has this long dark hair that flows down. She's in a very long, very long, low-cut top and a very tight skirt. And she's kind of just sitting on the edge of the bar and just kind of looking bored, tapping on the bar the bar top. I'm going to make

my way over to her. Okay? Easy picket. And she looks at you. She looks up and down at you and says so what's your offering? Hi, my name is

We probably shouldn't do names. I'd like to purchase some of your time. Is this crying? Could you make a persuasion, Jack? Of course. Of course. Oh, boy. You said persuasion?

Yes. Twelve. Twelve. As soon as you say that, she bursts out laughing. Perfuse, like, something. Is this your first time, boy? No, of course not.

How much are you charging? It's for you, one silver of an hour. Oh, okay, and I take out a silver, and I hand it to her, and can you leave the way? I have a feeling like I'm going to have to. Neither here or there. Just please leave the way. I feel like we should turn on the... transition just so we can watch Andy burning.

Oh my God. Oh, my God. That's a feel like that. That's called a good RP. You know, the Cleveland. So get on my level. Thank you. Yep.

That's what it's called. Method acting. Yeah, the whole point. Oh, God. So she grins, she seems to be good nature. You enter into the silver peas. Yep. She sticks it into her cleavage.

And she grabs your hand, and it feels like pretty soft. And she smells pretty good. And she smells pretty good. And as pretty good, as she leads you through, leads you upstairs and to one of the doors, and it's unlocked. She leads you inside, and the lights are very low. There's just one candle kind of burning off to the side,

and she closes the door behind her. And as she turned, she's immediately undoing her up. Nope, nope, no, no, stop. That's not why we're here. I'm not trying to lie to you. I have some questions for you. I mean, I told you I bleeds away. Not like that.

I'm willing to pay you for information. Oh, it's one of these things, huh? Yes. I had a feeling you don't. This was your first time. And she walks over and she sits down and she crosses her leg. And she...

She... She... She buys you up and down. And she says, How much are you going to pay me? I'll give you two more silver pieces, but you've got to answer my questions. Three more silver pieces, and it depends on the question.

Fine. I take out the three silver, and I slide it across the table. She grabs it, sticks it back in her cleavage, and she says, Okay, what do you want to know? How often do you service members of the military here? military

does they come in maybe one or two every couple days what do you know about the unassuming barn that's next door the barn

why do you ask it just seems like there may be live stock in there and we've never seen anyone come or go and we didn't know if maybe you saw anyone coming in and out of there regularly she thinks I

remember that it was having some workdown There was a... There was one Amnostic gentleman who For the nonsense scene Was coming in every Every other day He seemed quite pleased with himself, sometimes he was hammered

But He was working on it for a very long time Doing construction I don't know how that piece of junk What renovations they could have done Can you describe what this man looked like? How much syllable do you have, boy? If you give me a good enough answer, I might be able to get you some more.

Let's see. I take one more silver piece and I put it on the table. Only six. Only six. Only six. Ba, ba, ba, ba, ba. Ba, ba. It's up to you guys.

Guaranteed. It's not guaranteed. No, it's not. Thank you, followers. Thank you. Thank you. Oh, oh. Does that count?

14. Better? 14. Okay. Much better. She seems hesitant at first. Thanks for her. It almost feels as if the gods of faith. Change her mind as she grabs

the coin. You definitely seem to have dressed to be here. But can you mind me a question unless I apologize? I was asking her to describe the obnoxious gentleman, but also as a reminder I'm not dressed well. I'm like in like shitty fisherman's clothes that I stole. Oh, that's true.

So I'm not like overly dressed. You're not overly I'm just wearing like a coat. You're not wearing a rag. But I'm also not like a peasant, I guess. I'm like in like, you know, blue collar working clothes. You seem like you're not from Central. Anyways. He was short and squat.

He was a balding. He had a very bulbous nose. He was very pleased to have gotten, been on the payroll for better than most of the people in the Seven Heavens. I was impressed with how much he was spending. Spends most people when they can afford the coins with this sort of service. They... As they blow it, this maybe once a year.

Was he human? Oh, of course. Is he the only person that you saw coming in and out of that shack? I only knew he was... I don't watch his shitty barn in the towers and all that. I just know that he would not stop talking about how he had a very veilsy employer and how he was on a great payroll. Sorry, I'm shredding. Who is juicy?

All right, listen, I appreciate your help and if you could, and I pull out a gold piece and I flick it to her, I say, forget what I look like, and I leave the room. She grabs it. And as you're leaving, make a persuasion try. Where's Vandras when you need him? when you need him. Hey, he's good. She looks at the coin.

I was right, hold on. She stands up and she press, puts her hand on yours. You're cute, boy. Oh. And you're generous. Don't you want to know who his employer is? Well, if you know, absolutely.

He wouldn't shut the fuck up about it. He was getting paid by Zhe Weylin Gailstrom. newspaper company One more time Wyland Gailstrom Newspaper company So W-E-I-L-A-N-D G-A-L-E-S-T-R-O-M

The one who gives us the fair and unbiased news of the Zentra Banner Why a newspaper man is paying for that I do not know But

I know you have coin in that I don't know what you're doing now. I'm bored. She, her hand lingers and kind of like squeeze a little bit on yours. I take my hand, Owen. I say, no, I've got to be going. And I didn't mean to cut the conversation short and I appreciate the extra information.

I hope I paid you well for this time and I'll see myself out. I love a man on a mission, so have fun. Boy, he'll find the right one. It could have been me. I'll be better than she would be. Ooh. Awesome.

I kind of just like, thanks. And I leave. And she kind of just slumps back onto the bed, like in frustration as you leave. And the door closes and you walk out. I'm gonna make my way down to, I assume, they have a bar.

Yeah. And I'm gonna sit at the bar, but I'm not gonna like acknowledge Caprice. And I'm just gonna maybe get a drink and not really drink it, but look like I have Okay. So while Felix is up in the room doing that, what are you going to do? So I would have seen the guy that you said was a little bit nicer dressed.

Yeah. And did he have girls around him? Like what was... He looked to be kind of like keeping an eye on things and there was a girl that was heading in his direction. So I would just kind of walk towards him and like quietly elbow her and like just kind of like walk and kind of sit behind him, kind of perched and like start rubbing his shoulders. and oh, why's so tense? My goodness.

You kind of stiffs up. And I said, don't worry, babies. This is on the house. I look over and I'm like, and I give her a Bartik Inspiration. I need you to make a persuasion check. What do I do with Bartik Inspiration? You can add a D8 anytime in the next 10 minutes to any roll. Can I like make a roll and be like, oh, that's suck and then add a D8? Yes.

I'm going to slip that up there. Okay. You said persuasion? Yep. Who is it? I would have. What is it? Oh, yeah. I'm going to use my bargaining for a reason. Yeah, it's good time.

Okay. Okay. Now it's 20. Okay. So as a 20, so as you do that, it looks like he's kind of trying to try and he tenses up. And the girl just looked at you and she huffs away. I'm going to like kind of be like crazy eyes and be like, nah. Intimidation check, please. Step off. Intimination check, please. Okay.

Oh, my God. You don't have your part of inspiration? That's 12. Okay. So it's just kind of like an eyebrow get stuck up there and I'm like, okay. Oh my gosh. So.

He is slightly less erect now. Oh. So, I'm the bill. The bill, go, face. Yeah. I'm not doing that. I'm not doing it. I don't know if that much.

I'm not that for me. Okay. So you do that. He tends it up, and he's kind of stepping up, and then as soon as you kind of hit some of the knots in his shoulders, he like, uh-huh. Melt's like butter, because that's what I'm going. Yeah, he melts like butter.

Like he, uh, he kind of stretches and he says, okay, pretty of charge, eh? Yeah, yeah, you know, I can tell. Oh, these big shoulders, you've been working hard, huh? I have. Tell me what you do? Blacksmith, maybe? I don't know. You're so strong. Yeah, that sounds good, not blacksmith.

What do you make? Weapons. And what kind? Where did they go? What do you do? Tell me more. I'm so intrigued. Military bison. Oh, that sounds pretty intense. You must be, you know, pretty good at your job if the military wants you. And as soon as you see it, I mean persuasion check,

Oh, my music is a been cut out. Oh, shit, that's terrible. It's a five. It's a five. It's a five. Twist those funny. And... Can I twist a fade?

Can I get a group vote? We have two votes yay. I will vote yay to break the tie. They can vote now. It doesn't matter. Do it do it? Okay, I'm twisted fading. Do I...

Oh, they're all in 20. Well, you're in Erjiananasi, so I feel like the blue would probably... Yeah, yeah, yeah. The blue balls is what you're telling you to go for? I mean, we're in a brothel, so no. That's so bad. It's been worse. It's found to happen.

You don't have to use that then, right? No. Or is it... It's an advantage. I'm saying she doesn't have to take that number. No, no. It's just you have the option of between the two. Okay, so it's a fair.

I was just asking how mechanically we were treating it. So I'm being very non-persuasive. A little bit of my makeup's like rubbing off on his shoulder. And you feel him towns up again and he says, okay, what's... You should have any questions? No, I just...

you know, I'm in here all day and it's like, you know, poke and run, poke and run. And it's just sometimes, you know, you see a man and he's just, you can tell he's brains and blonde, and you want to get a little bit more from him. Somewhere Iris is coughing up a hairball. I am. I'll come here

so I don't got to get asked a lot of questions. Oh, you get, yeah, okay. I could see that. You know, it seems like you're busy all day long and the last thing you need is someone nagging on you. Before I start, yes. Get enough of that from your wife. Yeah, you know, who needs one, huh?

You can come here or have any wife you want for an hour. And you said free charge. Yeah, I'm feeling very generous today. Well... So tell me, if you want to, you know, let me be someone to unburden you, your mind, your muscles, I work you out. Work you out a little bit more later if you want. But you know, it's, you know, nobody wants to start that when you're so tense.

Let it go. That's when I like to stop that. I'm sorry. Her eye chees me. I'll give her another bar again. Thank you. Yeah. She's just feeling so inspired.

Where are we going to do that then? Second. Where are we going to do that then? Any way you want. You're the one that's coming to me, love. That's true. So I'll, would I have seen any, like, doors that look cracked or, like, vacant? I mean, you know that all the doors are unlocked, and so you can try to sneak in with this gentleman.

Okay, so I'll grab him by the hand and start leading him down the hallway and open a door. Oh, shit, sorry. Look, this is going to be a shot by a pin. Probably. So I'll go down the hallway until I find a vacant room. Okay. I would like you to make a stealth check to see how inconspicuous you're being. This one's been fucking me, so let's go free.

There we go. It's pretty good. 21. 21. Okay. So no one really seems to notice you fit right in with all the other ladies and they assume that you're, yeah, they're assuming. As you manage to slip into a room and he follows you and there's a bed and he just kind

trudges over to it and he sits down and says, okay, I'm waiting. Okay, so I'll sit down on the floor and just untie his boots and start, you know, working on his feet a little bit. and just tell me, tell me, you know, what, what has you so tense today? What would the questions make persuasion shop? Oh, Jesus. Wrong dice. Wrong dice, wrong dice, yeah. Fuck you.

Yeah, dice, yeah. Dice jail. It's going to roll a one. Would you say persuasion? Presuasion. 13. Two ones. We get the 11.

13. That happened. Tiration, don't forget. 20. So he, oh, that was the, that was our inspiration. Okay. Yeah. So as he's saying that he is kind of looking down,

as you're kind of leaning forward and doing that, he's kind of looking down your business there. And he's like, oh, it kind of like perks up a little bit. He gets a little bit excited. And he says, oh, well, I've been, business ain't been too great lately. No? No.

Why's that? Is it a seasonal thing? I mean, I don't know how this works. You tell me, I'm just dumb. You'd be used to supplying weapons for the town guard. Lately, you've paid well. Used to live. I can dress like this.

Not much, but better than most of the people. That's it looks pretty good on you. Thanks. Better even off. So. Lately. saying all the garrison soldiers they don't need long they don't need the weapons things are quiet around here no do you do you feel that way I mean well I know

what the paper says paper says things are quiet I'm used to I've been a lot of long time I'm used to all sorts of dangers beasties war Oh very experienced mm-hmm but I know what the paper says Seems to fall in. Hmm. What I want to ask here carefully. This is about when Felix would join, Caprice. Yeah, I understand that he's sitting at the other end of the bar.

Oh, that's right, but he already got back. Yeah, I'm just, he probably saw me approach, but we're not acknowledging. I would have gone up to the bartender and probably had a conversation, but okay. However we want to do that. Okay. I don't really know what to ask here. I think you're about to make two silver, from what I can tell.

Yeah, I don't know. I might have jumped the sugar. So, hmm. So you said they're not buying the weapons anymore. You think everything's safe. I just, I don't know, you know. I walk around at night and things don't feel safe to me. Everybody seems on edge and I just don't know,

I don't know why that would be. Well, when you're worried about getting bed on the table, everyone's on edge. Mm. That's true. That's true. Bread comes with my keep, so not something I have to worry about. No, as many people are that lucky. Some people don't turn to your own work. Yeah, that's, it's true. You know, it's not the thing I would have chosen for myself. I could be the wife of a strong man like you, if you'd have me. But I'm just a whole... I already cost me off. It was a big mistake. And actually...

I'm gonna keep moving up. I can't wait to see how you're gonna get the fuck out of this one. I don't know. Me too. I'll like roll up his, his pant leg and just very fingertipy, like. Work the calf, work the calf. Make a dexterity check. So, dexterous.

You slip and find your way to his bullsack. You know. That is quite the feather. Like deep tissue, like certified sports massage. 20 plus 24. I'm like hot stones I'm pulling out of nowhere. So I would say he starts to get impatient. And as you're working up his like calves and his thighs,

he's looking expectantly, he starts to see his eyes kind of droop. And just you can kind of see this weariness and then he just kind of falls back onto the bed. Oh. And he passes off. This happens all the time. Um, shake him when you can't ask him more question. I'm gonna like climb up onto the bed and kind of lean next to him and sort of like just tickle on his chest until he's just kind of flickers awake and then I'm gonna use um pocket fan um I'm going to use my my glasses and charm person.

Okay. So you put on your glasses and you kind of nudge him away and he does and then and he has to roll what? What's the DC? What's your DC? You want you to put his at my... Fingers in his ass. No. That's going to be up to.

You guys. You stopped him. How do you know that? I'm not putting a price on or anything, but at least a goal. At least. Okay. Not speaking from experience either.

Del see DC 13. Is that right? Okay. Yeah, I guess you take the item. Yes, I'll save. Okay. Chah! Roll for a shot.

So I'm going to. I'm going to do that and it's a spell save DC-13 and I'm just going to say, you silly man, tell me everything that I want to know about this military and what they're doing. He fails. And his eyes kind of like, he's like, oh, you're very pretty. Pretty than I thought for a girl who hangs out around here. It's true. I'll make the weapons.

Yeah. What do you make? They bought the weapons. Are they anything special? Any fat pipes, short swords, things would be good. Some of the bolts for the, the tips of the bolts for the ballisters. Things would be good for a siege. And where do you send them? I'll send them to the garrison.

There's the ones that buys it and they ain't buying no more of mewears or a lot less than they used to. Seed remain ain't there no more. Things that, older ones that got contrary. got contracts to do stuff for the front they're the ones making all the money for the front yeah would I know what that means oh oh it's like all the front okay cool and so I mean that's weird though where you know do you hear any gossip where is they getting these weapons from now you know what is they doing now I have plenty of cons um plenty of contracts

for whatever reason garrison don't need don't They have not worried about Zensha getting attacked. So long, no. I don't ask questions. Is the garrison, I'm sorry, an out of character. Is the garrison one of any of the people that, like, I don't know what that means. Is the garrisoned? It's garrisoned soldiers in Zentra to defend the city in case it attacked.

Okay. And so the idea would be that, that he's saying that basically that they used to, he used to be making a lot more money. and that recently that they're just saying that there's not a needle that things are disabled So who controls the Garrison? I mean, I don't know who controls the garrison

I'll know that that the whole defense is that I have order and I mean, I don't deal with them I'll just deal with me contact. Who's your contact? My contact is Reiner

Softbreaker. And where might I find this wine a softbreaker? He comes to me. From where do you meet him? He comes to my shop. Oh, okay, okay. And where is your shop? My shop is over in the Conquest, quarter.

Ward. Okay. But you're so sweet and so sleepy, and I'll let you go now. You're gonna try to put him to sleep again. I'm just gonna tickle. I'll say with the roll, you continue, and he's eye, go back in the Charm Person, it's easy for him to go back to sleep.

And I'm gonna leave. Okay? You seek out. Caprice, you're gonna talk to the part of it. I'm gonna dry even the way and walk it back down there. I want to go ahead and the ladies, I'll just, I'll be like, hey, whiskey please, what's your name? Yeah, my, my name is, uh, Alprey.

Ophrey, it's still fellow. Pleasure to meet you. How much for the whiskey? Whiskey will be full comp pieces. Very good. Those are my last comment. No. Out of curiosity, do you know who owns the barn next door? Which farm?

The stable. Oh, a couple blocks away. I don't know. Oh, okay. Thank you. I'm just going to sip on my whiskey. I'm going to step on my whiskey. Eventually, Lifting comes out.

I thought the table was literally adjacent. No, it was like a number of blocks. Oh, my question. Yeah, I said the same thing, so I made that mistake. All right, well, there is. And then I see him sit down, and I sort of, like, give a nod over to where Luffy has disappeared to for such a long time, and I'll use minor allusion to, like, you hear my voice in your ear,

just be, like, telling that's where Luthy is, keep, like, listen out for danger, and all this sort of, like, quietly look around and then be fun. Okay, okay. And I'll just, like, hearing this, I guess I'll just, like, nod into my drink, like, not really looking at anybody, but like understanding. Okay.

And so as soon as, basically, Lofty eventually comes out and joins the, or joins, yeah, so I'll sidle up like, I'm propositioning and, giggles, giggles, what did you find out? I'll laugh and, oh, you know, I thought that maybe the bartender would have more knowledge and you didn't know anything. Did you find anything out? No, I know.

That guy sucked. I have to touch is nasty. feet. Oh, that's all you touched though. Yeah, no, I went to like the calf and then I just couldn't anymore. Oh yeah, no, it's a tough job, I understand. You really have to go through the... I know, I just want to like hug everybody and like also not touch any of them. I understand the paradox. Let me buy you a whiskey and then... Please. Ugh.

We're just drinking at the bar. So, uh, Toa and Hersia. So basically, this stable is about four blocks away from the brothel. And you were used to, so there's a number of different alleyways that kind of all lead from it, and there's a couple of barrels. So you're just kind of staking it out and watching it. Yeah, I just want to be like literally, be able to keep my eyes on it and just nonchalantly be hanging out there with. How do you make percent and check? I got a 17.

17, okay, 17 and 12. I would say that you hear a, as you're both, taking this out, things are taking a bit longer than you thought, you hear a, like bird call, and you look over and you see very subtly Ravali hang on the balcony in one of these buildings nearby, and you see them kind of points over. And you see that the very top of, by the barn,

behind a number of barrels and boxes, that you see the very top of a hood with a quiver full of arrows, kind of skulking, pops up, kind of... Not his head, not his head. A different guy. He's pointing out this, That's, oh shit.

You see a head pop up with Rivali's guidance. By bitis. And it's a hood and it's kind of in the shape of, it's sewn in with there's metal bits along the side. Almost like a hood in the shape of like a raven's head. Oh yeah, that ain't good. That's not good. That's a big oof.

As it is, it kind of scans the area, his eyes are towards the barn. And then it kind of, you can kind of see little bit of the quiver on its back, and you see that there's a bow slung alongside that as well. And then it kind of dips back down. And I see that. Only he sees that?

You roll the, I rolled the 12. 15 or 16. Yeah. I just want to kind of like, just as nonchalantly as it can, look around and see if I can see any other people I perched around. Make one more check, because I'm a check. 13. 13, you do not see it.

The two. Um, I'll, uh, are we, we're probably kind of close together, right? We're standing together. Yeah, you're just saying, we're right next to the shooting like waiting, waiting to see if anything comes out of her. Well, uh, hey, here, uh, who's ya? Yeah. Yeah, this.

Keep an eye at the, uh, see we're up in that thing to the, was the left or where, what, to the left? Okay. To the left. But I describe it in perfect detail of exactly what I'm looking at. Oh, yeah, yeah. Um, I think there's some kind of guy with a raven hood. Sure.

Watching the bar and I don't know if he suspects us, but they're definitely keeping an eye on it. Hmm. How's my voice, by the way? I sound like a human. Sounds real good. He hurts my voice to do this, so I'm like... No, you should continue. I too will try to tax, slow.

and more saved, like, the whole bad. You sound the same to me, but you're a dwarf, so that's okay. Well, great. I'm just trying to sound like a human. No, you sound great, toy. Just keep it up. Oh, right. Well, anyways, if you get shot with an arrow, you know, whatever, just let me know it's out there.

I won't. It's okay. Do I, so he describes exactly where he's seeing this person. Do, if I, like, dart my eyes over there, do I happen to see anything? So, the hood has popped back down. down and is out of sight now. Okay. Yeah. Did you see if it like moved away or is it still over there?

Should we go inspect it? Well, I don't want to draw any attention to us. I think we should just wait right here until the others are done and see if anyone comes in and has an inner wrap of the barn. Okay. Dolly noted, I will keep a lookout and I will be very vigilant now in that area to see if anything pops back up. As soon as you say that, you hear a voice suddenly behind you.

And it says, The personnel kid. We should get out of here. And should I pay it. Oh, Jesus. Take it easy, take it easy. And are you guys leaving the brothel now? I was going to just wait until

either the free wing signal goes off or until a lengthy amount of time has passed where we can all just kind of not walk out together. I was just observing. Just trying to see it was going to happen or until free wing buzzed us. So I would say that as you're enjoying your drink, it's a bit, you suddenly hear a voice behind you.

You join the whiskey. Let's get out of here. He's in two places who was. He's left. He's left and he's brought you guys so I'm trying it outside. Okay. So then as soon as he says that, I'm going to wait until the two of them get up and leave, and I'll leave like a minute after, just so we're not all leaving at the same time.

Okay. So, are you guys all heading out? Yeah. Okay. So in this time, Iris, you have left and you've joined, you've joined, oh my God, dolly. Dolly along through the main thoroughfare of the Seven Heavens. And you eventually, oh, I think it's, I think it's this way. And she guides you and you see this very quaint shop. It's all wood, and you see that there's this kind of fire etched symbol. The sign is fire etched, and I'm kind of hammered in with the cheapest brass that you could find, in the shape of this vague bottle.

And it says just the brass bottle on it, and it's very quaint. And as you enter with Dolly behind you, it seems like she's not the greatest conversationless. She responds to everything you say. I mean, her eyes are kind of wide. She kind of seems, you get the sex, I would say, that like someone who has, like, that much gold and wearing that much gold and jewelry is like something that she didn't even think was, like, possible, or something from fairy tales, basically to be to that extent.

And so she is kind of like just very agreeable unless you, like, a prine or whatever. I would say just generally as you're walking. Yeah, so there are a couple of questions that I would have wanted to ask her. So yeah. Dolly, darling, why do you work at the establishment? Oh, well, I mean, I was an orphan very early, and this was the only line of work that I could get when I was hungry, and it pays well, and Madam Delphina treats us very well.

Do you have a debt that's owed to her of any kind? No, no, I don't. So if you were offered a new position, one that paid more and allowed you to wear nicer things, is that something you'd be interested in? Oh, I don't think I'd be able to get a position like that. I mean, it's very difficult to get much more than this for someone like me. How old are you, Dolly? I'm 19.

Darling, I'm going to communicate with my father. Are you aware of what a pharaoh is? What? He's like a king. Oh, a king. Yes. That's like the Hygienerable. Similar, yes, but we come from Necbet, deserts.

Lovely. Um, how familiar are you with taking care of children? Oh, I didn't have mine for long, but I always liked helping out when, you know, girls had their own kids. I just didn't work out with me. Well, Dolly, you have, it is because of you and your milk that Thomas has been able to survive. this long. He is going to have a long journey ahead of him to Siket. It is my homeland and neckbed. He is going to need a nanny. He's going to need someone that can care for him and communicate with me when I write letters, someone that I can trust to make sure that at the court that

people are kind to him and that he goes to his classes and he learns. And so I would be happy to communicate with my father and see if you could accompany him back to Skaet as his nanny. for as long as you would need. You'd be paid well. You would have a roof over your head. You would be staying at the palace. We'd have a room with Thomas. And I would need to make sure that you could tend to him for me.

Is that something you think he would be interested in? Her eyes go wide. I mention this. I mean, I live in a castle with the king on me. Well, it's a darling. It's not like a castle. Our temples are open to the air And in neckbed, the air is

Sweet and Warm And we let the breeze Touch our skin all night long But you would have You would have a room, you would have a plush bed With bedding and curtains To shield you from the outside And some privacy for yourself

And potentially you can find a husband At some point and create a life of your own And maybe one day should you be able to, you could also sire a child of your own. You could grow up with Thomas, they could be friends. Is, I mean, no offence, miss?

Is everyone there a big cat? Well, in Sir Kett, yes. It's not common there to be people of a different nature, but you see, that's part of the allure to having you as Thomas's nanny. He will be the only person in the castle that is a human,

and it would be nice for him to have someone to grow up, up and along with you could teach him the ways of being human and my father is the Pharaoh and he wouldn't make sure that you were treated well you'd be an employee of mine her eyes go wise oh it's so it's so different from what I know make persuasion with the band please to use my thesis oh god you gotta use your deces your deacis your deacis um persuasion you said oh my good oh my good Flesian, 25. Nice.

Okay. So she looks petrified, but you can see that there is a glimmer in her eye that you haven't seen since you had first met her. And there's this kind of glen, a bit of hope as here, her eyes kind of gloss over. And you get the sense that she's probably imagining what it's like, probably very incorrectly, about what a castle in the, in the desert would look like surrounded by what you cat people. And her eyes are kind of like, it's almost like a girl who's a small girl who's hearing about a tale in a fairy tale book. And she kind of gets a smile and she kind of looks down at, at, at York and Thomas in the little thing that you have, your Bjork and Bjorn. And my baby Bjork, and your baby Bjork, and and looking down and she kind of smells like, well, I mean, it would be very different in

scary but I mean if you think if you're not you're not like messing with me are you not at all we need to stop by if this is something that you believe I will think about it of course I believe will only be around

for a couple of days so I would need an answer soon but if you're going to potentially take up the job as Thomas's nanny then we need to stop by a shop and get you something nice to wear a couple of outfits that will get you through to Sackett get you cleaned up a little bit Lufdi, she is the

blue one that is with us. She's a little brash, but she'll grow on you, and I think with her help and maybe even the strange dwarf, that we should be able to clean you up a little bit and put a little rouge back into your face, and then when father sends for Thomas, you

could accompany them along. I've been able to afford rouge, rouge, or spell rouge. That's perfectly fine. Most people spell it like rogue. Oh, you know, no. of those. Hey, may I hold him?

I would love it. Thomas, do you give consent for Dolly's own to? He gurgles. He gurgles and laughs happily. Look, he's taken to you already. And she's kind of holding him. You can kind of see there's a little bit of sadness, but some happiness in there.

It's like a tear rolls down her face. And she takes it and says, oh, I don't know what to say. Thank you so. my arm around her. Do not thank me. It is the will of Anubis that I believe

that we found ourselves. I came across a child and I'm not in a place to take care of one, but I am in a place to help you take care of one. It will never make up for the loss that you've experienced.

But if at 19 I can bring some kind of hope to the rest of your life, then I hope that the scales weigh in your favor. Well, Nubis sounds very nice. I look forward to meeting him when I get there.

Not when you get there, darling. Would you want to meet the Raven Queen when you got there? Oh, yes, very much so. Okay, well, that's not a good analogy. Anubis you would meet him death, darling. Oh, well. So may you meet him many hundreds of years from now. However long humans live.

I'm not quite doing it. Well, whatever you say, that sounds wonderful. She's very excited and kind of playing with Thomas a little bit. And then for the sake of brevity, we just want to go into the shop. I'm going to get him like a little basket, a couple of outfits and some cloth diapers, and then get her one like really nice dress, not really nice dress, but like a dress that doesn't look like a rag. I would say all of that would probably cost you five silver pieces. Really? That's it? Cool. I mean, in a place like the Seven Heavens, yeah, I would probably be.

Okay, well, then I'll get her three dresses. So let's say one gold piece for everything. You guys splurge. Yeah. You guys splurge for one bowl piece. What's your question? And I will say for the sake of gravity, there's anything else anyone else anyone else to discuss outside of the Queen Bee? Okay.

Have we made it back to the Queen Bee? Then I would say that you all arrive about back at the same time. And you're just to see that there are a couple of gentlemen now. It's probably afternoon at this point. And you get back to the Queen Bee. And it seems to be hitting kind of an afternoon rush. Some craftsmen are kind of stopping in and taking a break from work and the like. And...

Is this like a bar as well? It's a bar and brothel. Okay. a bar to keep people like to get them to spend more money on. Got it, got it, got it. It kind of- Playing any music though, right? What?

No one's playing music now. It seems like, you know, they would probably have music if they could afford it. It reminds you, oh, this is not prime, so it does not remind you of the, of Sedge's place. So, but the gist there was basically, like, it was primarily, it was a bar and a saloon, but like, it was generally to get people to get drunk and to spend more money on it. And so you all arrive back to the Queen Bee. There's a few people, more people than you saw than night previous, honestly.

And people are kind of like they're kind of like these rough looking dirtier, during your people. They're kind of like taking a second at last like, what? As they see like a T-flin and a dwarf and its backseat walk in. But they're just like, p-p-

And they'll go back to it. If I pick their eye, I like point it might be all like, and they seem generally amicable. They honestly seem like they're not giving you like a rough, like a rough look down, like a lot of the people in, you know, in more uniform people were giving you.

And they just seem to be good, better nature people, just enjoying a drink and the embrace of a strange woman, I would imagine. Sure. And so, and you're able to meet wherever you would enjoy in the brothel or do whatever you play. What are you doing? Hurja, how'd you fare?

Is everything all right, Herja? Did you guys do okay? I feel like we did alright, but I don't know if I want to talk about it, like right now, now. Oh, okay. Well, we can wait until we get into our room. Yeah, I think we should do that immediately.

Yeah. All right, let's head up. Toa, Lutti, let's go. And so as you say that, Revali, looks at all of you say, yeah, we need to discuss our planet attack here. And as you're walking in, you hear the door open from upstairs and the shuffling of feet.

He's like, like, Rivala, like, stop. And then you see Madame Delphina appear like, Oh, Rivali, how is you? Hold on, I'll be right up, I'll be right. We need to have to discuss with my new friends. And oh, I have fun. He's like, kind of brings all of you. Let's go, let's go, let's go.

Mom. Yeah. And I'm hanging out of my friends, Mom. And he ushers you back into the room, shuts the door. Make some pizza rolls. Ma'amila! Of course. And he ushers you all back into the room and close the second.

Close the door. Well, I know we had a bit of a moment. I didn't see what happened. I think Toa sound a bit. Well, not like a romantic moment, feelings. This is a dark times for romantic moments. But Toa. Tor, you all right?

No, it was fun. and it was Rivali that tipped me off to it. I mean, Captain Frewing, he was Captain Freeman that tipped me off to. Thank you, sir. And, I mean, you might have some more information, but it seems like what you pointed out to me, I saw men with the hood just the very top of the hood

and a quiver on his back as he was peering over and looking down, just keeping an eye on the barn. Oh, so it's being monitored. He's being watched. So I'm worried, did someone see us as we lift? The labs. How were they dressed? They were, I mean, did you get a better look?

You did a kind of a heart of interest. I did. He looked, I've, I've known that there are operatives of the military police that are stealthier. And they take out people when they need you and they are on high profile cases. And I, I believe that this was one of the people. I know that they utilize special arrows that just completely tear through, tear through people that they want to take out. Oh, why? But all I saw, I didn't even see him show up.

I just saw his head pop up for a second. And that's when I alerted both Tohom and Herzia. But I didn't even, and I have a pretty dark good eyesight. And he got the, gave me the run around. Did it seem like he was looking at us, or was he only looking at the barn? So he didn't recognize us. I was watching, we seem to be incognito enough. But if he was looking for us, I'm sure he would have found us.

I mean, we weren't really trying to hide, Tua and I were just kind of keeping an eye on the barn. So it sounds like if he would have needed, if he was looking for us, he would have easily spotted us and perhaps try to attack us. If he had reasoned him hurt us, he could have very easily. Very easily. So it doesn't sound like they saw us leave that barn then.

Well, or they saw something with the barn and they were seeing that if someone would come back. to the scene of the crime. That was my next question. I mean, if they saw us come out of the barn, we need to leave right away, or Madame Delphina and the whole house is under surveillance.

They would have followed them. I would think, and again, I'm just assuming here, but if they had seen us leave and they wanted us dead, we'd probably be dead already, or we'd at least have a fight on our hands. I don't think that we would have gotten

as far as we did if they already wanted us dead. Well, that's fair point. I mean, we didn't, we did sleep the whole night through without issue, so maybe we got through a gap of... We may have got lucky. Yeah, we may have got lucky.

Yeah, we may have got. I'm lucky on the surveillance there. That's, that's all right. I think if it weren't for the captain, we wouldn't have gotten through undetected, for sure. It's also very possible that we didn't hide our tracks very well at the labyrinth. So there may not have been a watch yesterday,

but after knowing that we had taken that panel, which I'm sure they do know that, there's now a watch there to make sure that we don't go back into it. I'm sure someone showed up at some point to take a look at that statue we'd knocked over and destroyed it and were like there's a gaping hole in the wall now. I mean, that's a big point. We tore that place apart. Yeah. We felt just about everything in there.

Yeah. So they must know that someone came through this tunnel. Agreed. And I think that that's, I think that's, I think that point is, makes the most sense that, I mean, obviously they would know just from what you told me about, the damage that you did to their operations down there. that they would have known that if they were, I don't know how close they were behind me, but if they showed up right after me and we never came back out,

who knows if maybe this tunnel was the only exit beyond the one that we went in. So I think I concur that if they wanted us dead, we'd have at least a fight on our hands right now. This century guy, you said he can really, up a dude if you wanted to, right? Is he an independent actor here,

or is he part of the military? It's part of them. I mean, every operative in Korovaki is part of the military. I didn't know if he was like a mercenary or if he was a random fire. There are no mercenaries. That's good to know. Everyone goes through the

if you are involved with official Korovakian business, you are part of their military. And I believe it's part of the military. police. For what's worth, I may have gotten us our next lead. Well, what is it?

So I had a conversation with one of the ladies there at that establishment, and she mentioned that there was a gentleman who was coming in pretty regularly and spending an obscene amount of money, especially for this area. He was loud and obnoxious, and he mentioned his employer, and that he was very well-paid, and he had a lot of money to throw around. I'd be happy to get into details, and, you know, he was... And I described what she said, that he was a short squat, balding, baldest nose. He was a human spending a lot of money.

He just kept talking about how they were doing renovations on this barn that we all came out of. And obviously, she didn't pay much attention to it because that's not her job. But this guy must have been pretty much a loudmouth and couldn't keep his trap shut. But he, you know, his employer is the Wayland-Gaelstrom news source. Am I pronouncing that correctly? Does that sound familiar? Oh, actually, that leads me to a point. point. I noticed walking around today when I was shopping that the post is not speaking of any of the things that are happening in town. It's as if it's propaganda. They're trying to convince the people in town that there's nothing happening, which leads me to believe that whatever is happening out there, they know about it and they either want to keep it hush-hush because they're either involved or because they don't want an outbreak of panic in the city. But I'm leaning more towards the involved.

I think that's probably the right choice. And the guys that I talk to, he makes weapons, but he says that nobody, the government's not buying anymore. He keeps saying that the paper says everything's safe, and nobody needs the weapons. So, again, the news source, did I pronounce that correctly? The Wyland Gailstra. Newspaper company.

Yes, that's it. I mean, yeah, I've been by their headquarters. I mean, it's, I don't know why, why Gailstrom would would be paying for contractors to work I mean it's clearly not renovation whatever it is

and those tunnels were relatively fresh that's what you said yeah no yeah I noticed that the tunnel was definitely carved out and built up way after the city was built out now it's not fresh brand spanking no it's definitely been set up that way. You know, it could have been a repurposed tunnel and the labyrinth might have been new. I don't remember if the labyrinth felt more new than the tunnel itself.

It felt, it felt older, but it didn't feel ancient. So the labyrinth felt older than the tunnel. The labyrinth felt older than the tunnel. Oh, so maybe the tunnel was put in there after the labyrinth was already set up as that connection. So no one, maybe no one really knew that the labyrinth was being built at the time. They knew that they had to get minotard size. creatures through the tunnel and then once everything was in place, set up with a, you know, that little ritual room that they had with a little stack, with a big statue, I shouldn't say little. But, and then they put the tunnel in between them maybe to look not as suspicious as,

you, I'm going to build a tunnel first and then a ritual room. That would be really weird. About how many hours would you say we all spent out doing our job? I would say that was probably about with walking and all of that, like three to four hours. During, during like the three to four hours that you guys were watching a stable. Did you guys see the animals in there? Were they just hanging around? No one came and fed them or let a goat out or let a goat in? Nothing like that? We didn't see anything. No one came in there. I mean, I specifically asked this lady if there were people who came and gone regularly and this was the only person that she mentioned. I mean, I couldn't get a name and even if we could, it probably wouldn't be a real one. But, you know,

it doesn't sound like there's anybody coming and going regularly. Who's handling the animals? It's a great question. Well, we got there after the morning. That's fair. I mean, if someone, if this is just for appearances, maybe someone just swings by in the morning, takes care of the animals and then just leaves until the next morning. Well, I'd be happy to take an early night

and get up early maybe with tour or someone else just so that we're not alone or not alone. And then we can take a look and see if anyone's coming by. It might be the same shady person that was peeking over, you know, just like indifferent garb. We need more information on this newspaper company, too. I think that that may be the right course of action. Do we want to, is it wise for us to head back to the barn now that we know that it's being watched?

I don't think we should miss with it, but they can kill us in like a single area. What if we, like, went at night and we just kind of snuck around, so like there's a barn, and this is the outside of the barn, and then it's like the outside, outside of the barn. What if we just stayed out there? Is it possible that, uh... I could go in sort of, you know, without appearance, invisible style. Oh. If we have reason to, then I think that's fine,

but I think we should minimize contact with the barn. My personal opinion on it is that we would be wasting time. All signs point to the newspaper company, and I think that's where we should be directing our focus. We know what is hiding at the barn. And we know that there's connection with the newspaper company. And we also know that they're litting about with propaganda. And whether they're in ties with the military,

and the military is trying to keep the peoples of Zentra ignorant, or whether it is the newspaper company themselves who are trying to keep the military ignorant so that they do not have arms available when an attack happens. Either way, we know that our next step is the paper. I think the paper's a good step. I just have a bad feeling about that barn, you guys. I just don't feel good about whatever it might be coming through there.

People might be getting hurt. I just want to know who is taking after those animals, too. I kind of feel for them in a bit, but... How long does that alarm last? That one that you set up last night? Roughly eight hours. Eight hours. That's very interesting.

So I could invisible you. You could go over and set an alarm on the door. And would we know if the alarm went off regardless of distance? Or would everyone know, right? Or is it make a big noise? I can choose who would know. It's all mental. That's pretty good.

If there's no range on that, mother, then that might be an interesting way to at least just make sure the stable's safe before we go to the newspaper. Or at least know if anyone's coming and going through that entrance, then we don't have to be there. You'd also have to make sure. One mile. You'd also have to make sure that it doesn't produce any kind of noise. Right. And then on top of that, we don't know who has access to the barn.

So Felix may cast it, and it could quite literally be just some random. person stumbling. True. That's true. And that's then going to alarm us when we could be in the middle of something very important. Well, would a random person know about that secret door and stumble into a tunnel that goes to a Minotaur Labyrinth? We did. We were also inside the Labyrinth.

How far out of character, roughly, is the barn from where we're staying? I think it probably would take you, like, let's a 45-minute walk. So it must have a mile. More than a mile. Probably a little bit more than a mile. 30 minutes a walk for a mile. It was a big city.

All right, forget it. Let's go to the newspaper. Hey, I thought the idea was great. I mean, I'm just trying to think creatively here. I say we go to the newspaper. We convince whoever we need to convince that the propaganda is terrible. And if they're evil, then we, you know, you got your neck breaking hands on, right? Well, I'm really, they might have to do that. That's like a last resort.

Like, they know, like, we try everything else. There's no other option. All right. Well, the first resort is that I just talked to him and he agrees. You could turn into Big Daddy handlebars and then choke him out. It sounds like you've experienced. with big daddy handlebars. Oh yeah, I have a safe word.

Anyway, why? I've heard a lot about Dwarven women. The only thing I would say is that if we do go with a more direct approach when it comes to this newspaper company, we need to be careful. This man that I've described,

if we see him, we don't want him knowing we're looking for him because loose lips are generally silenced for good. And we don't want to kill off our only lead. No. And I think that we need to do this under the cover of night. I'm fine with it.

Do you think we need to take on any disguises too? Anything that we can. I am going to have to go to my contact and get us faulty forge papers. Can you do that? But to not. I we're just to get over there and stake out. I think I need to give him

tonight. I'll pick it up in the morning. I'll have to pay a rush fee, for sure. Does anything join the short rest, by the way? Yeah, totally sure. If there's anything we can do to chip in to help, let us know. I have a lot of gold saved up. If you want to chip it a few pieces, I wouldn't turn you down. I'd be happy to.

I hand him 10 gold. Oh, and I'll I'll do the same. Thank you. No, why not? I have money. Wow. We all got a shitload of money from the labyrinth.

Yeah. Have you been Gibbytrak? In D&D Beyond? In D&D Beyond? It makes it so easy. With a single, you too can control your gold. I'll give them a couple gold. Or you could be like,

Aaron and I, where we're... So he collects all the gold, however much gold you guys want to get everybody. And with that, he collects it. He, he, he, Handler error. He grabs a pack and he slings it over his shoulder and he puts all the gold in there. And he said, I appreciate that. He just, he's not cheap.

With this much gold, we should be able to get it by tomorrow morning and then get over to the headquarters. And it's going to be, we're going to have to look as, as nice as we can because the headquarters is our, headquartered R in Skyreach, which is the predominantly noble district. I have a set of fine clothes. I'll be just fine on that front. Okay, then I'll go to my guy right now and I'll see what I can do.

And I'll let you, I'll be back and I'll let you know how it goes. Great. Everyone stay safe. You too. He heads out, close the door behind it. You are now free to do. whatever we want for the evening. And we're all back at the

brothel? Yeah. Okay. Well, ladies, I might have offered a position to Dolly. It's not a toy, actually. I was confused about it. So not Bertha. What? You were calling her Bertha. No, actually. They sent

another lady who's also producing milk, whose name is Dolly. He's very kind of fun. So many milk producing women at this establishment. And I may, she's 19, she's very sweet. I don't really want to get into it much. But I, um, I'm trying to get her to escort Thomas back to Sackett.

I purchased her a couple of outfits today so that she looks presentable as she is travelling and for when she gets there to meet her. But she could really use a hand in the hair and makeup department. So would you like to come to the room with me tonight and help doll her up a little bit? I'm used to having people doll me up so I'm not. not quite dolly and doll her up. Oh my god, I'm so funny. Oh, that's hilarious. Laugh. Ha! Ha! Ha ha ha ha. Thank you. Oh my god. You have to be quicker, but yeah, no, no, no. Anyway, as I was saying, would you like to do her makeup?

Yeah, I mean, look at those lovely stuff I did today. It's so good, huh? So are you... Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Oh, see z, like that. Are you sick? No, you're trying to laugh. I cast less a restration on her. Oh, I feel real good. I'm not tired. Lousy, goosey now. So anyway, I would like to do that

because I don't really want to spend time with them, to be quite honest. I spent a lot of time with the boys today. I could use a little girl time. Yeah, and especially with, like, everything. I went shopping today, so I'm in a really good mood. And spending time with Felix always makes me feel like a cloud is hanging over me. Oh.

It's okay. I don't know why, but I feel a little of it. I just thought we had fun together. Yeah, I think we have fun. I mean, sometimes when we get really serious, we need to get really serious. To be fair, our lives are kind of in danger. To me, it seems like an unfortunate necessity

of just living in this dangerous land. I mean, you know, it's... Well, I'm hoping that maybe one of these days... I'm glad to have you, buddy. You can accompany me to Siket. I think you could do well with the sun in the sand. Oh, no. I'd agree with that.

Yeah. It would be lovely. Thank you for inviting me. We could go to parties. It'd be a nice change of pace. You could try the alcohol and all of the sense of the city. The music. Oh, you would love the music.

It would be great inspiration for you. Someday. Yeah, that'd be my pleasure. If we survive this, if you all survive. It's a party. I've been there, I know. It's good times. You can next bed on it.

Bobo. Laugh. Ha! I can't blast your frustration. Well, it sounds like they have plans. What are you guys in the ground, ladies? Well, anyways, Caprice. Now's the perfect note to rehearse,

and then we can play like an impromptu show in the brothel and make some tips. Oh, well, that makes sense to me. And maybe we could teach Felix to, like, sing a little bit. No, I don't think I'm going to sing. No, here, you can play this triangle. Or maybe, like, you can do a rhythm section, like, do any kind of rhythm? Actually, here, I've got this baby. that we found in the first vision.

You can just shake that for percussion. Caprice, that's really dark, man. I don't know. It didn't necessarily belong. Maybe I found it on the ground. No, no, no. And I just find it back to you. As we're walking out of the room, Thomas starts crying.

It's fine, Thomas. I got you a better one. Are you already out of the room? Yeah. Oh. I haven't thought of that. It's for me, it's percussion. I mean, we could use it as percussion, with both of them are.

Maybe you could do percussion and sing. It's really hard to do... And kind of... Well, you can't do... You don't have three hands. I mean, if I had a mage hand, but, you know, I would... I don't have any way to do it. I have a spell scroll, but I'm going to save it for later,

if you know what I'm saying. Well, just next time... I guess you don't need percussion. Felix, would you like to, uh, perhaps just hang out? Yeah, I'm happy to support both of you in your musical endeavors. Let's just play some cards, all right? Sure. I mean, we can rehearse any time, but I...

I'd rather just have a game. Can you teach me any kind of new game? I mean, absolutely. And I will sit down and I'll teach them the D&D equivalent of Bonanza. What is the human equivalent of Panza? Bonanza. Oh, that's a fantastic card game of trading. Ooh.

That's cool. Anyways. Later. Later. Later. One day. One day. So we play cards into the night.

Okay? So you play cards. At some point, just we don't have to RP up for the sake of brevity. I want to go talk to the lady of the establishment and just talk to her about what I'd offered to Dolly and that, you know, I know that it affects her business, but that, you know, I see how she cares about revile and that she's 19 and that if anyone can help her to have a life after the loss of her child that, you know, I would hope that she would understand that and that she would allow me to. I'd be fine our being that if you'd like to or if you would rather just take a remedy. No, we can just do it for the thing about me. Okay, I would say just make a general persuasion check with an advantage. Natural 20.

Wow. Okay. That is 20. I would say you have a very, you have a long conversation. It's filled with tears. And then she's invited you to her private quarters. I'm going to say it's plans a little bit. And so you are in the only one of the party members who's been who's seen the madame's private quarters.

and you know they're the all of the makeup that she has and all of the perfumes that she has takes up like most of the space of the room or her collection and then her wardrobe is absolutely massive all the varieties of dresses and so there's tears when you're convincing her and as soon as you finish like oh please come here can she heaves you up she's surprisingly strong for rage and her science and she gives you a big hug like you you are not from here and you are the most kind and generous person in this cold country. Come, give a hug. And so, of course, Dolly can go.

Of course. Just make sure she's safe and okay. I will definitely do that. She would be very good for Thomas. I agree. And I think he will be very good for her. It was a very sad time when we lost her. If you don't mind, the wounds are still fresh with her and I didn't want to pry,

How did she lose her little one? It was just sickness. A fever that took him three days. It was nothing we could do. Well, I don't plan to bring it up with her, but I wanted to know what she must be going through to make sure that my interaction with her and that of those she'll be traveling with, that their understanding of her situation. situation and that they make sure to be as gentle with her as possible.

It was a rough couple of weeks for sure and I thank you so much for your generosity. Of course. And anything you need from me, you've done so much for my little, my little Ravard. He's also done much for us. He's a you've raised him well. His mother was so kind. I wish he had the chance to meet her. He's Anyways, if there's anything you need, let me know. And use what. And she gives you another big hub. I will just take it and accept it.

Yeah. And so you leave. I'd say that you join the rest of the group and there's anything you wanted you guys do before bed. I'm going to send sending to my dad again and just basically say, oh, not only the baby, but you have to deal with her. She is going to be my nanny.

Surprise. Please let me know when you can pick them up, as I don't want either of them to die. Lufty would be absolutely horrified and in pain forever if they died. And I'm gonna set the alarm. You said the alarm, he responds back to you. I was like, I'll leave the tire to be collecting

all sorts of pets, but he'll be awaiting their arrival and they'll be well taken care of. I pay one of the prostitutes to take a letter to the nearest post, sending it back to Galtica to let my dad know where I am and give him an update in my life. Oh, you guys are so. nice. I wish I knew where my dad was.

Yes, perhaps we should be talking about that. Me too. You meet a lovely young lady that you haven't really converse with much named Sapphire, and she takes your letter, and she gives you, you know, peck on the cheeks. He seems to take a liking to you. And she heads out and delivers a lover. Mary? She's very grateful for the extra coin. And so you all enjoy...

Rivali gets back late, and he says that his guy really fleeced him, but that he was able, he promised to have, to have all of the papers that he needed that you guys needed by the following morning. Thank you so much for listening to the Legends of Aventra's podcast. We hope you enjoyed the session. If you want even more campaigns to listen to, become a member of our Patreon at the Pearl Dolphin Tier or Higher to unlock Shroud over Saltmarsh, a patron exclusive. campaign set on the high seas.

You can find that at patreon.com slash legends of Evantris. If you want to chat about the episode with the avantris community, join us on Discord at Legendsofaventras.com slash discord. We also post content nearly every day on YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram.

So make sure you follow our socials at Legendsofaventris.com slash social. And make sure you check out the Crooked Moon so you can terrify your friends with a folk horror fifth edition supplement published by us. Get your own copy at the crooked moon.com.

Thanks again and we'll see you next time.