Legends of Avantris - Icebound | Ep. 26 | Icebreakers

Episode Date: March 14, 2025

Our heroes emerge from the shadows of the underground into chaos. They stand at the precipice of conflict with powers that dwarf their own, and they must navigate the new treacherous political landscape of Argentholme. Will their cunning and courage be enough?   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/lL-W_Hyfj_E?si=CyMFDypa5GXZgcy0

It is legends of Aventress. I am called your near, and you are listening to Icebound. Here is what happened last time. The sound of like a bow. Tripwire? Yes, you do hear a trip wire. All around you, the floor had been covered in some kind of thick, oily substance as it itself ignites, and you realize that the sled that you are on is on fire.

And all of a sudden, scrim and arrow hits the side of your leg, and you look down. There's an arrow in your leg. It's not. And therefore we'll take a question. We come from the frozen wastes. The wizard lands. You come from the south. We have met your kind before, and they were kind to us.

on our journey. You know, the clan of the Frosthammer? The Frosthammer, yes. Yoy. Hudget home, is that where you're from? That is our home, yes. It's a city, grand city, where we all live together, under the princess.

Some greater threat coming, attacked the princess was, by some metal creature. Oh, that's gotta be a signal, slower down. Boop. You, uh, boop and the handle snap. off. Was that supposed to happen? What is it?

Sled broken. Sledge broken. Scrimms said that that was supposed to happen. I expand into a giant right now. Do the rest of us die? A formed body of yornyer crashes and crumbles to the front of it. You're all rumbling and riding. All of a sudden it starts to tip.

Crashes and spills in all directions. You are crushing through houses now. through houses now. One after the other, after the other, after the other. You can see creatures jumping to each side until you come to a screaming, uh, uh, hull. Sledge you ride, an ancient behemoth of speed accelerates and collides with a massive wooden gate

at the end of its path and the world erupts into chaos. The air, biting and cold, is suddenly filled with a cacophony of splintering wood, shattering ice, and the sudden startled cries of the creatures on the other side. Bright morning light blinds you momentarily as you hurdle uncontrollably into and through a bustling market. Around you, structures of dark timber and fur-lined pavilions sail past you. Those in your path are quickly demolished and their contents, a riot of colors and smells,

scatter in the wake of your passage. The faces of those you pass are a blur of shock and dismay at the spectacle you've become. The sled booms forward, unyielding. You plow through the heart of this market, smashing through stalls and narrowly avoiding fleeing people. Clattering metal, shattering pottery, screams! With a final devastating impact, you crash through the wall of a building at the end of the street. The structure crumbles around you and your companions buried under a jumbled mess. What warmth there was is snuffed out in an instant,

replaced by the chill of the outside air and the snow that gently drifts in through the gaping wound in the tavern side. As the initial shock fades, the sounds of the market begin to rise once more. What happens next is up to you after you roll 4D10 and take that amount of bludgeoning damage. Out of the gate! 4010? This could you destroy my life. T.B.K.S. Some fact, I did the math, and there's a 1 in 27,306 chance that this will TPK you.

We are not... We're not doing massive damage. No, yeah, fuck no. Yeah. I took 23. Jeez, Louise, I'm hanging on by a thread. Oh, boy. 4D10.

9. 4D10. Wow. I took 18 points. I actually rolled pretty well. I got 23. 18. You would think I would pull up my character sheet as at the beginning and not literally mid-play.

I welcome max damage. Here we go. It's 3 or 4D-10? 4D-10. Only 22. I took the most because the, what's the other name? What's the other name? Tuck. Tack. He landed on me and I took 23 points of damage.

Tack crushed every bone in my body. I have three hit points. Yeah, I'm not looking so hot either, brother. You all collide with this wall and crashing around your timber beams slammed down. You can hear glass shattering, you can hear the murmured, the excited, It's shout for people outside. What are you all doing? Oh.

Is anybody dead? Tech alive. I need to check my hit points real quick to make sure. It feels that way. We don't think so. What happened? I don't think we're in the cave anymore. What was a little little look around?

Right now, you are a little team up at what's clearly appears to be a tavern. The sledge has clearly crushed into the side of it. And you can still hear the whimpering, sort of whistling sound of the dragon still attempting to blow, but you're not progressing with momentum anymore. You are lodged in the side of this launch. And one beam that seems to be holding up much of the center structure

has cracked at one side and is just holding on to the side of the sledge above you. but everything around you, it's hard to see behind you because the wall has essentially caved in on this side of the building. This part of the intrusion, we made a wrong turn previous. It is early morning, so there aren't a huge number of patrons inside of this tavern. As you start to push material off of yourself and start to get up and find order in your body, you're looking at forward and there only seems to be one person. Very far at the end of the tavern.

You see looking up, blinking someone who's seemingly just woken, a older human man with gray hair like a comb over, nearly balding, wearing thick robes, and he's... He picks up a flagon and he starts to walk over to the bar to apparently make himself some more ale. Is everyone okay? Her elbow. Somebody check on Queenie. I've heard from her.

Oh, I'm fine. I'm just laying here under some rubble thinking. I'm a lot of choices. Oh. I'll look up at the man and I'll say, where are we? I'll use my staff to pick myself up. You're in Argent home.

I'll sort of kind of strain my eyes. Is this where we intended to go? No, you don't know. Is this the silver dragon-born capital? Yeah, it is, it is. Yes, uh, that's what you were intending to go to. You've found the right place. I'm gonna be honest.

I didn't expect to see a human here. The only one in the capital city. What? I found myself very much like yourself, sort of crashing into the place. And you just never left? There's not much out there. I figured I'd stay here. That's probably a good sign, right?

They welcomed an outsider, and we're all outside. Sorry about the wall, by the way. First time with a sledge. He's not my tavern, and he starts to pour himself an ale and, uh, gingerly sit at the top. I will loose myself from the wreckage, like holding my ribs and like shuffle over to the bar. And when I get up to him, I'm gonna look right up at him,

pick up my hand, place a gold coin on the counter, and say, I'll take one too. Gold. You should be very careful showing gold around here. Really? Why? Something the princess covets. Okay, well, I. It's just one and I didn't want to steal it.

No. I'm turning into Monty. Of course, you don't understand. The appearance of gold in Arjohnholm is, it's not something that's seen. It's mined up by the dwarves, of course, but it's not.

This would be like flashing a thousand gold pieces here. So I should put it back. Well, I'm about to pay for my drink, and he puts five copper down on the top of the bar. I don't have any change. Hold on to that. You'll be in some trouble for the damage you've cost, and this might be able to smooth things over. Okay. So how about for now you just spot me some copper, and I'll get you back.

I'll spot you as much copper as I have for... A gold piece? Look, I'm really trying to be a better person here and not steal the alcohol. I'll throw us over him, too. Who's saver is it? This is a... You found yourself in the whispering hearth, a man named Maugh, White Cobol knows it. There is nothing that can be done.

We do not possess the time or ability to repair this. And we are pilgrims, we have no coin. Well, maybe how much pride did he take in the establishment? How well he had it put together. Most white cobalds join the enforcers. Ma built this place with his two hands. It is his way of honoring the princess, a place where peoples of all the tribes can gather before they head to the market.

Look, I know I only have the one, but we'll just give him the gold coin and we'll fix, we'll make it all better, all right. We only have one coin? Yes, we only have one coin. If you do it in private, perhaps, that would be best. People knowing you have gold around here could be quite dangerous. Ah, no worries. I don't mind.

I mean, let's be fair. I've been hanging out of that gold coin. It's my lucky coin for a long time. It hasn't done us any good on the rest of your car. That may you do it. Yeah, I can hear him now. And you hear a voice from outside. What the fuck?

Oh no. I'm gonna very quickly heal myself in case there's any trouble. The door is kicked in and a flurry of snowflakes breeze in, and you can see an enraged white cobald older than the other enforcers that you've met. Walk in. What has happened? What has happened to my beautiful tavern? We made a minor miscalculation. Who are you? What are you?

No offense was... I'm like leaning on my anchor very horribly. My femur is like snapping and my leg is like holding on. I'm just dredged in blood instead of seawater. Do you know these people? No, no, of course. No, not me. He takes another sip of the veil.

This Cobold looks at each of you and looks at you up and down and sees that you you are not a familiar species to him. He looks at the broken sledge and all of the damage, and you can immediately tell, without even having to discern without much insight, that he is starting to look to head to the door to call for help. Hold on, hold on, hold on.

It was an honest, it was an honest accident. We lost control of the sledge, and we ended up in the side of your tavern. If there's any way that we can fix it, We can fix it. What the hell were you thinking? We weren't. We are simple travelers.

Our shit was ice-bound south of the waste. We found the tunnel in the mountain, and we found the sledge, sled. And did not know how to operate it. We did not know that it emptied out into a tavern seemingly. Look, what do you think it would cost to repair it? Just, you know, speaking frankly. It could take months and hundreds of gold, uh, silver pieces worth of work. It took me all my savings just to build this place.

All right, well, let's let's all just calm down. And maybe we can come to a solution. You left quite a scene out there. Was anyone killed? I didn't see anyone killed, no. I will make sure. I want to sort of walk, pat. It's like through the carnage and just see if anyone's like lying there dead or wounded.

When you peek out through the door and turn, you can see the two rudder, runner like sledge rails that led through the town. It's straightened as an arrow eventually coming to this spot in the chaos of everything that unfolded. And as you guys were pulled through, it wasn't as though the doors were here and the tavern was, you know, just outside and in front of the door. You went hundreds of feet. And so you crash through stalls. You can see people picking things up.

Make a perception check for it. 26. 26. 26. You can see that most people who are getting up and dusting themselves off, you don't see any of the signs of someone looking over a body or screams of someone having lost their friend or anything like that.

It seems that mostly you're staring at angry vendors who are picking their things up and looking at following the line of the railing, the rail tracks, and seeing they're starting to pick themselves up and come your way. A crowd is gathering. We should leave right away. I'll also add with the 26 that you see a mix of different peoples. This is not all cobalts. You see many cobalts.

That is clearly the dominant, at least in this marketplace, race in this particular section of the city. But you also see really massive, bald, gray-skinned creatures, Goliaths. You see shorter, dwarven people with massive braided beards. You see, you see orcs. You see even a tall minotaur, taller than you, 10, 11, 12 feet tall, hulking and and shambling in all direction. They seem to have come here for not unique or exotic goods.

This was a marketplace for butchery and for raw goods and these sorts of things. So even though ceramic pots and things lay crash open and stuff like that, it's as though this was a place where people were buying their morning produce or looking to haggle. Yon, I'm making this right. I don't want him to call the guard. I don't want to end up in jail again. All right, please. Let's divide and conquer.

Maybe you guys just deal with the crowd and let me talk to him privately. Just for five minutes. Ooi, aye, ooy. Where's the nearest healer? I'll stumble over to you. I can try to help. And I'll use cure wounds on you as well.

How's Queenie looking in Tyshen? I'm pretty, I'm pretty, well. I have, I think, three hit points. I'm fucked up. I have three. I only look slightly better than Barnabot. Yon, we just destroyed his entire establishment. We can't just leave. Trust me, I can fix this. I stared directly at you. That's like three feet to you, right?

10 to you and 13 to you. Yes. You can give me the 13. What do you say? It's second level, first level. Uh, yes, do what you need to and I will help. Also cast cures. Then my name's Mr. Yornear? I'll stay exactly where you are.

Don't move a muscle. We're not going anywhere. I didn't catch your name. My name is Scrimm Stavisgatch. Ma. Ma, it's a pleasure to meet you. He doesn't take your hand. Oh, okay.

Do you have an office or a back room somewhere we can talk privately? We, I live upstairs. We would be able to speak there, but I would be able to speak there. But fear might crash down upon us at any moment. Why don't you pull a couple of ails? me and you and we'll have a quick chat. I think we can fix this. Come to some kind of agreement. Does the pillar that's wobbling but holding things up, does it look like it could be stabilized with, like, honey, web? Um, the, what would have been like a large center beam has cracked it completely in two.

So one side is completely flattened against the floor of this. I don't know what we're listening to. I'm going to switch over. You know what? Why not? It has completely flattened against the floor, and the top side, you just happen to collide fast enough that it didn't collapse in this way. So in order to put it together, you'd have to find some way to get underneath it and get the sledge out from underneath it. I don't know if Honey would be able to hold those two big things together. We could find out, depending on what you're mechanically attempting to do. Oh, no, it's okay.

I was picturing it. Okay, I just wanted to make sure that was clear. Thank you. Make a persuasion check. Perhaps the rest of us can get this sled thing out of here. Pack will help. 18. 18.

Of course, a mail before the rest get here and we'll have a quick chat. Great, lead the way. He sidles around, he immediately goes into bartender mode, amazingly pulling out two flagon, filling them out with ale and slamming down the drink. And I'm hoping that there's just enough privacy to talk to him so that the other patron,

that elder gentleman doesn't hear what we're talking about. The elder gentleman seemed to have picked up already on what you were doing. Savi, and he has sort of walked over and is sort of looking through the cracks of the destruction at the street outside as people are assembled. Listen, I'm gonna be honest with you. Just like Bonnebo said,

We've been here in Jakar for a long time. Our, our, our, we were stuck in the ice. Our ship got stuck in the ice. It went down. We've been trekking, pilgrimaging for months. It's been a long time. We came here with a lot of gold, and we very quickly learned that it didn't do us any good,

so we got rid of all of it. There was nothing to do with it. But where did you get rid of it? Various points in the ice, the water. We did the sea. Dumped it into river. It's scattered in the depths. Near, near Ardenome.

No, hundreds and hundreds of miles away. On the other side of the spine? Oh, easily. There, other places here, there, you know, wherever we've been, right? It was too heavy to carry. There was nothing we could do. We needed to carry food. But kept two gold coins. They're my lucky coins. And I'd be willing to part with them if we could make all of this just go away. I have under the impression that gold's pretty valuable around here. It's the last of it.

And you think about the gold that's on your person. These coins are maybe so big, right? Maybe a little bit larger, like a silver dollar in our world. And you're thinking about them jingling around in your pouch. And the way that he responds physically, emotionally, to just, you know, in your corn person, I have 93 of them. I know. You're thinking about all of them. And the way that he responds to two,

he looks around and you can already feel with your intuition that that might already have swayed him. Reasonable, right? I don't have any use for them. Like I said, they're just lucky. I was only holding on to them for sentimentality. Two gold bases.

But this all goes away. This all goes away. But you can't... We don't want to talk about it, right? Just keep it between you and me. It's a sign of good faith. It was an accident and I feel bad. It's just the kind of person I am. Scream, scabascotch. You have a deal. Okay. And then I go into my jacket to make it look like I am, like, cutting a seam to get them out of where I might have sewn them into my clothing. Nice, nice. So if I need to make a sleight of hand check, I'll happily do that.

You need to make a slide of hand check because I'm presuming that these pieces of gold were with other pieces of gold. Yes. Yeah, very much so. So it is not just a question of where did this gold come from, but endeavoring to keep silent. I would like to bolster my already incredible sleight of hand a little bit. What do you guess, think? Yeah. Reasonable?

Yeah. Can I add three to my rule? Let's add three. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. That will be a 26. Oh.

It is. So I almost like reach in and then And then I like make them basically appear of nowhere His eyes are glazed over You realize that you almost didn't need to go through the effort As long as it had been muffled His eyes are already looking at the transformation in his life Like this is bigger than the tavern to someone like mom

And before you know it you know that you have two coins in your hand Without distraction And then I will quietly slide them to him and say Remember, they're lucky. As soon as you reveal your hand and pull your hand away and he sees the two gold pieces, he hides them away. And it's good to doing business with you, Scrim.

You said you came from afar, from somewhere else? With all this gold, where did you come from? Entirely different continent. I mean, we are all from different places, other continents other than Dracar, you know. Well, you're always welcome to have the whispering half once I get these repairs done. Awesome. Thanks for the ale.

He puts his ale down, and then he immediately, like, goes and grabs a broom, and it's like almost as if he's in a trance, picturing some other life. He's starting to put the tavern back together again. All righty, and then I'll return to the rest of the group. I think we're all right. Ma's not such a bad guy, after all, eh? Huh? He's okay with the tavern?

Yeah. Fixed it all up. Well, great. There's an angry crowd descending upon us. Well... We have mere moments. We can get away, but... Let's get out of here.

Yeah, let's slip away, but Ma, you know, he doesn't hate us. So, you know... ...s have the sledge out, though. And I have my palms firmly pressed against the side of the wall. Tack will help. Tag be alive and give us a near. Um... Make an intelligence check, anyone pushing the sledge.

Not me. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Six. 11. 19. Taishan, as you are pushing, Tach at one side, Barnabose, Yornear at the other,

you're starting to push the sledge back and out, and you are the one who notices that the beam that is holding up most of the center and roof of this tavern starts these grind against the top of the top of the, the sledge, should the sledge be pushed out from underneath it, you suspect that perhaps more building will come down upon you. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. We have to leave the sledge where it is.

It's keeping the building up. TAC will push! No, no! No! TAC, no! TAC, no! TAC will not push. That sounds better.

If we move the sledge, the whole building will come down, maybe. I'm no architect. Well, let's... If there is an angry mall coming, we'll let a mall explain the whole thing. away, we'll find some place to lay low. Yeah, this isn't our problem anymore. Get our barren, soon as speak. This isn't our problem anymore.

The problem's been taken care of. Let's go. Let's go. Let's get out of here. Let's go with what you're saying. Let's leave. All right. I will, I guess, can I just peek out, like, behind the sledge and just sort of see what the situation looks like. And the time that has passed during Shrem's conversation and everyone endeavoring to work the sledge,

the crowd has assembled. You can see that people are looking, whispering angrily to each other. There are vendors who are holding what's left of perhaps what they brought for the day against their chest, and shops are starting to emerge. The only reason that they haven't stampeded into the tavern is because of a lone Tobol, standing there. I will figure it out. I will figure out what the problem is.

We'll figure out why this sledge crashed into if there really is anyone in there, even. And this spear-wielding cobald will start to trot around the side, sort of placating the mob for but a moment long. Does it look like he's a guard, like a town, some sort of law enforcement? Very much. Okay. And how tall are these cobalds, roughly?

I would say that it varies. Someone like Ma might be about the same height as Scrim. Others might be slightly taller. This one seems to be on the taller side and it seems to wear like a small cape and some armor with a sense of authority. And have I seen any dragon born at all? No, you've not seen a single dragon born. I agree we should leave. We have mere moments. Hey Ma! We need a bit of smoke out of that. Is there a back exit? Can we get out of here? We slip out the back? This is a back exit this way.

Alright, you heard the man, let's go. You missed your fireblossom. All nod, and all follows grim. We hustle and we slip out the back. You hear another voice and Tack is stomping behind you. You really have no idea. What? You really have no idea. idea what you're doing, do you guys? And it's the poet. This

gray-haired balding gentleman has finished his ale, and he's calling at you just one more time before you leave. Nope. And we were never here. See ya. There's a smaller, well, okay, goodbye. And you start to head

out. As you press through the back door, you come across a not foggy sight, but there is very much a sort of icy sheet that hugs the ground, almost like thin clouds that stick to the ground, this aura of cold in all directions. And the back of the side, you can see that there are more market buildings on your left, on your right.

This is very much a back alley. But from this vantage point, you can see that it continues to swim down to a massive lake. And at the center of that lake, just in the distance where visibility ends, you can see a huge huge island upon which there is very evidently a large keep or castle. Where do you guys go? And this is all underground. You are, no, no, no. You burst through the doors, you are above ground. The moment that you burst through the doors, you crash out of the equivalent of the gate portal that would have been on the other side of the mountain.

You are the spine. If you turned around and you were able to look up, you would see mountains. Oh wow I did not make that clear We need to find a place to lay low To come up with a plan To see where we are and what the danger is Yeah, agreed You should also try and blend in

Maybe some clothes or something We should pull up our hoods and Remain inconspicuous If we can What? I don't wear much clothing We don't have anything He's barely got pants pick my tent

and I throw you my tent I'll grab it I'll take a take a rope and tie it around I look like my fucking Sarnang's costume all

billowy and sleeves with the hood I will sort of pull up a hood and well we all have like winter clothes right

like I think at least most of us and I would try to sort of keep it low covering my face and scramble just sort of out of view to get a lay of the town or city. Why don't I draw a map? Yeah, let's do it.

Ooh. Oh. Oh. Take a quick minute while you're doing. The blue pen of indication. All right. Um. Wow.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Thank you. This is the lake. Yeah. Nice. I also do have three silver pieces just.

No way. What you did was you crashed through a gate and headed down and crashed into a tavern here through what was very much a marketplace like so right and so when you are so aside from this building here you are looking at the back now at this massive lake and it seems to sort of go upwards in its... Oh god. I'm looking for, I can't think of any of this anymore. It seems to be going... A slope?

Yeah, it slopes upwards. So even though this goes down, if you were to come down here, you'd actually meet the lake, there's almost like rising cliffs that get taller and taller and taller. Oh wow. You can see about here to a large keep that is at the center of this island. center of this island and you can see all the way up to that visibility that

there are perhaps huge districts that would all around here making these making a city I have just one question it's been called Arjuncta is your favorite painter Georgia Keith that's very funny so it's sort of like so the chief is on the lake yeah exactly right very cool very cool um do we feel like we're in a valley, like a caldera, like a... Oh, okay. Careful the camera, there. I'm getting very nervous.

What's that? Careful the camera. Ah, ha. Looking south, you suspect that there is probably a forested area in this direction, and you can see very, you can't see very far behind, like, buildings and everything. It's unclear if this is flat tundra or anything along those lines. anything along those lines. What you do know is that the spine,

the mountains are directly behind you. And what about over here? The visibility stops here. This would all be in- Oh, I see, like cliff. Yeah, I see. Exactly right. Oh.

Um. If we need to find like an inn or something where you know, I got a little extra coin, you know, that I can throw around a little bit here. And if his gold is as valuable as we think it is, especially the way old Maul reacted. I don't have these idiots eating out of my hand and like a,

Six hours. It's gonna be crazy. We should find some place to rest for the night. You're not worried about word getting around, that you're giving gold out to multiple people. No, nope, nope, because Ma thinks that I gave him the last two pieces. Right, but if someone else comes in with gold and they say they got it from the little green fella. Nope, nope, nope, nope, I got a plan. I have many plans. Oh boy. Oh boy, I can't wait. and you guys made fun of me for holding on to all of them.

What's your plan, though? I'm going to come up with them as we go. Oh. You ready? Okay. Those are the best scrim plans. Boy, those are quite the good plans, eh? It's like the old days.

Well, we have two ways to get up to the keep. We could take the... Do we know which way is north and south? I guess I would know which way is north or south. You or innately north. You or innately north. that Mesa's north. That's what I thought.

Um, yeah. If we intend to parlay with the queen, we need to get up there once we are rested and ready. To get there, we need to go either on the north side or the south side of the lake. Based on what we can see, do you have a sense of which side might be more hospitable? Or perhaps you, Taishan? Giant step. Oh yeah, I was gonna ask her a friend Tack. How long have you lived in this city?

Short time. Like a few hours, right? That's right. Good lad? Good lad? I like that. I'm like that. But what is Giant Step?

He points out, and he's pointing at the most northern district there. This one. Oh. That's the name of that area. Oger's taken there. Oh. Oh. Is it nice?

Is it nice? Is it nice? Is it nice? Ah, he doesn't think thrilled. Is it hospitable or is it the prison district? Are the humans there too? The vassals? Don't know where vassals went.

Are you saying that boy what that gentleman said, that would imply that the vassals never made it to original? Yeah, that guy said that he's the only human. human. Is he lying? He said he was the only one who lived here. Maybe he didn't mean the vassals. Or maybe they took them elsewhere. They arrived recently.

When TAC brought here, all went to Giant Step. Then we are split up. And I go to caves with Cobold. But most stay behind with Goli.

I'm saying this is the right direction we go. We should rest in Giant Stepp. We find any more of those little sniveling cowards that we encountered in the tunnel. We should get ready to cave their skulls in. I don't want to call the scene, but... I don't think we should be caving any by skulls in inside of a city. Yeah, we can't go back to jail. Ah, well, that's what we were just preventing. Well, if you got gold in your pocket, Mr. Steb at

Which I don't. But if... I'm very confused. Do you have gold or not? Do you not have gold? You need to keep your voice down, Barnabon. Nobody has any gold. It's crazy rare here, Barnabos.

I didn't realize he threw away all the gold pieces. I was going to be saying good thinking. You watched me throw them all away. I had a change in growth of character. I turned over a new leaf, you big buffoon? We should listen to Queenie and stop speaking about this. I'll be staring. and scramming the little puffs of smoke.

I'll be like, and I'll be like, hey, that's true, Mr. Stapmaska, Joey did see you throw it all in the lake. It's all on the bottom of the ocean. The lake, or the ocean. Whatever, river. It's a, it's a new, it's a large, vast body of water. Only the bikes will be enjoying that gold.

Jack, like gold. Ah. Gold, gold, gold. A lot of people like it. It's, you know, it's a popular thing. Crazy. I'm concerned about Ty Shenz appearance here. Oh, no, he's like made of gold.

Oh, wouldn't it be crazy? They ripped him apart. Oh, oh, wow. Oh, oh, wow. Oh, wow. This is your sadness got... I mean that he's a dragon born. What is they would say?

No, I actually think scrim's got a point. What if they think that each one of your scales is plated in gold and they start ripping all your scales at them? Wow! That would be awful. Watch. What if they do? What do you mean awful to watch?

You wouldn't step in? Torn pieces to piece. I don't want to get torn to pieces. Well, so that's actually faces a very valid point. Mr. Fireblok- Does it? Is, oh, you know that you have golden scales, but is it actually literally gold

or it has the appearance? Is it more of a draconic high that you have? And that they wouldn't be tempted to flay you alive and trade your skin as a great treasure lord. Well, Barnabos, I've never taken my skin to a jeweler and asked them what the value of it was. Your scales are not made of stone. It is flesh. It is the appearance of gold.

But if they have a problem with Dragonborn, given the history of what we know about this city, there could be a problem. We needed a sky. Yes. What do the cobalds look like? White cobalds, they have draconic-like features. They're not, they're a little more gangly than the gold dragonborn that you remember from home. They have these sort of long faces. They're almost like if you could put a Tyrannosaurus rex head onto a skeletal body.

Do they have skills? Let me answer that lorily. Oh. Oh. Yeah, morally. Morally. Thin, thin, uh, scale, skin. They do have scales, friend.

These are the frosty kind. I also have a question once I should ask questions. Do they, last question. Do they shed the scales? Sure. Yeah, why not? You may not ask you for it. How many of us, and I won't speak for anybody else, so Scrim, I guess, would Scrim have any knowledge

about dragons in general and the, their colors and what that means, metallic versus. I would say make a history check. Yeah. I'm expecting the answer to be no, but I wanted to ask. Scrims me around. Oh, it's an in check. 18.

Ooh. With my plus one, it pros. Impros. Even if it's just a little bit, like, you know, may have heard something, right? I wouldn't say his vast knowledge or anything. No, not intimately vast, but you do get a, uh, uh, remember, um, a tavern tale that you heard once, and the claims obviously every time you hear a story about dragons,

it's one of creatures of tremendous power. Even at a young age, they're formidable. But the idea that there are different types of dragons in that, the ones in sort of the metallic direction, and the ones that go in the more chromatic direction, being more akin to it in aligned with good, versus akin to the line to evil, was something that was suggested.

And it was been partly reinforced because often, and this isn't always the case, that perception of dragons gets applied to dragon bore, perhaps unfairly. I'm smiling, kind of giggling to myself, picturing Tyshen be plucked

for all of his scales, and then I say, oh, no, I get it. When you're saying he's a metallic dragon, these are white gold bolts, I understand. Yes. Oh, we do have a problem. Yes.

Aye, that's true. What, how do we give you a bit of a disguise, Mr. Fuller Blossom? Oh, that would be so cool if we can't paint him silver. White, nah. I can't keep all this straight. Yeah. Oh, you don't think? Oh, you don't have any paint?

Well, neither do I. And even then, if there was just like a white dragon born walking around, he was the only one, he'd stick out like a sore thumb. That's true. Well, I could hunch a little. hunch a little and keep my hood up and maybe they think I was a Cobold. You hear a sudden loud, shouting voice, and it seems to be coming at the door that you just exited. Hey, Mala, you fucking liar, there are five people right back here. They're clearing the game!

Oh no! Giant step? James! I have to change them! They sprint! And I'm, like, pulling you on tack till I get them to, like, follow us and run. They're away! I just sprint. Okay, you guys start dashing and you start making your way. But with no sense of knowledge of this district,

it would be like being dropped into the middle of a city and making arbitrary choices. Do you go left? Do you go right? Who's leading the way making these arbitrary choices and trying to decide whether they are going down in the first alley that you happen to turn from or the second? My thought is that if there's building, buildings and alleys and we sort of can't get our bearings very easily, I would probably

be leading. Just trying to kind of triangulate, you know, like if you're driving in the city that is really shitty roads, but you roughly know you need to get over there. Yeah, yeah. I'm just trying to take all the turns that I can to head. And you have an innate sense of what North is, right? So you start to head down and down and down. And yeah, I need you all to make, go ahead. If it's possible, if we feel like things are tight and like, things or people need to be moved. I would be like following the Ornir's lead, but I would, if there's like a crowded thing,

I will barrel through, not trying to cause any damage, but like if there's crowds or whatever, we're not gonna get stopped by like a crowd, like, oh wow, look at his paw, does it really nice. Like, I will make sure that I am elbowing or shoulder him our way through the crowd, but making sure that Your Honor is able to guide us. It is not in any of the alleys that you run,

into a crown and yornear, I would imagine, endeavors not to lead you into one of the walking streets where there would be a group of people. Go ahead and make, what would be a good, you're being maybe chased and you are endeavoring to get away skill check? Acrobatics? Maybe like a stealth, a survival, and... Acrobatics or athletics as far as how quickly we're getting Yeah. Or like getting through the city. I'm just thinking of like a lab and running through the streets. And then deception, if you want to do that kind of a skill challenge thing, if it's just one role.

Let's go ahead and do a, let's start with a survival and a stealth check. Group? Yeah, let's go group. All right, my survival's going to be this guy. My stealth is going to be this guy. I'm going to use my two best dice because I don't want us to fuck up. We don't have any fucking twist. This is rough. I should have...

Yeah. Okay. This matters now. Holy hell. Survival is not good. But stealth's okay. I have a huge plus to survival, but... Yeah, I don't. Oh, good. Eleven on survival. Two, threes. Oh, God, that's bad.

My stealth is... Fuck, we're gonna go. Come on. Six for stealth. Uh, good. Good. I have 15 on survival and 21 on stealth. I have five on survival and 15 on stealth.

And 19 on survival and 12 on stealth. Five on survival, 15 on stealth. 12 survival, 14 stealth. Okay. That's everyone. Oh wow. You have mine? No. That's everyone. I don't know yours.

Oh no, no, no, no, I got yours right at the beginning. Six and eleven. Yeah, yeah, yeah, six and eleven. To check it. Those were the two X's that I made first. Yep. Yikes. Oh, no.

You all start to follow your near, and you are making your way farther and farther to the east. And he is trying, he's trying to find that northern passage, the way to get perhaps cut through. And you turn, you turn down one hour, and you can see people walking back and forth, perhaps a little bit farther down.

You turn around, you guys don't bump into each other, endeavoring to keep up, just stomping back behind you. You turn down another street, and you continue for a little farther until you finally turn left. And there again, you see in front of you a group of people carrying baskets, having wagons being drawn through this busy, full city.

And it doesn't seem that you are finding any past, You're just continuing to get closer and closer and closer down to the lake. As you do, you are all noticing that the buildings are in not worse and worse shape, but not as kept up. What would have been the top of the market was clearly where the nicest of taverns are. You're getting into the worser and worser neighborhoods. And there's this stench that starts to hit you. As you get closer and closer to the lake, it's this, almost burned smell, this sort of like eggy smell, almost like sulfur hits you, but it's

sour in a way that tells you that it's not directly sulfur. But you do not find a way to get north. You just continue down in this path and you can get a sense that you may have, for now, lost to the people who you initially dashed away from, given your immediate jumping into sprint mode, but you were still very much alone and isolated in the back alleys of this market area. While we're doing this, we're singing a show tune. We each have a verse, but we all join in for the chorus, and there's not enough runtime for TAC, so he doesn't get a person. He has like a comedic one-liner here and there. That's too bad.

We just met you. You're very disposable, tag. It's at this point that you've essentially reached a dead end. You know that you would have to reach the actual edge of the lake and perhaps go across the ice if it was frozen, or dig into one of these buildings and go through that way or find some way to hide because none of the alleys have been fruitful in your search to try and get out of this neighborhood in the immediate.

Do any of the buildings look abandoned? Make a perception check. Okay. Good call. I got an aide. You can try a shitty guess and just burst through the back door of one of these residences, marketplace vendors. You're not sure.

It's hard to tell from them back. We've got to find some place to lay about. We've all been saying it. Just a place to hide. Without breaking any local laws, if we could find some kind of inn or tavern around here and get a few rooms. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Do you want, so is it, does it feel like there's this, like, very intentional, like, wall between the... That's what we can't find out of me through?

No, I mean there's delineations to give you a sense that they're, like, clearly, like, you're in the market district, and then there's a district over here. The actual, it's not like there are walls that would be out. Okay. What you've been doing is avoiding large groups of people. If you want to just chance it and just walk right out into the street, sort of to do that. I see. I've got enough silver where I think we can just, you know, it won't draw suspicion. It's not the cold.

And then we just use the silver, we can get to a couple of rooms, you know? And then we'll be good. We'll lay low. It's all right. But we just got to find one. Well, do we just knock on doors and say, hey, we're weary travelers, and we need a place the layer heads down. Have we seen any signages we're running through this,

and is it all in draconic, or is it in common? Good question. The few times that you've seen signs peering into the sort of more populated area of this market, the signs both have a common, a traconic, and a symbol indicating that this might be a blacksmith, or this might be a ceramic person or a glassboard. Look for one with a bed. Look for one with a bed?

Wait, would it be a bed? It's a little on the nose, Mr. Stappascox. Yeah, I'd saw him with a hammer and over the hand, but I was putting on the nose, Mr. Dreadlake. I ain't fair. It's ain't true. We will look, or I will look, for either, like, anything would be several stories,

presuming, like, providing an end. So anything that would, like, if it has, like, a flag in or, like, you can get a drink here, if it has multiple stories, I'd consider that perhaps an opportunity of having BNN. It takes you five or ten minutes. It takes you five or ten minutes.

Make a survival check for me. Me? Mm-hmm. Clock. That's pretty good. Oh, 23. Oh, shit. Wow.

I forgot. I forgot. It's really. You have stopped running. It's been a long enough time that you think perhaps you've lost to the people who immediately hurt by your entrance to the city and you walk sort of down one of the alleys to one of the streets and you peek down and out and you look for a two-story building and sure enough just a few buildings down there is one that looks more

like an inn to you than a tavern and this you can see the sign out front does in fact have a bed on it, but it is pierced with a feather quill, and underneath it says the quiet quill. And you envision that that is probably a place where you would be able to find a place to rest for the night. You're right, Mr. Sabinskosh, it is a bed. Right over here, right over here. All right, quick, I mean, over here. And let me just do the talking, all right? All right.

All right. I will. I still have the giant anger. like on my back and I just try to wrap it in like I get you have a pretty big tent I'll try to cover it in the I'll like I'll be like a horrible like hooded abomination as I walk a very like awkwardly shaped as I'll walk I'll be behind I'll pull my wear clothes around as well and try as hard as I can to not let any of my golden scales show um I would need a group performance check to walk across the

street to see how noticeable you are oh boy Well, you know what? Or deception. Oh. Either way, it's not even close. I'm good. I got a plus eight instead, so I'm going to take that. 22 for me. 23.

Oh. 11. 13. Three. Uh-oh. There's no hubbub, but you feel eyes on you as you walk across the street and make your way on to the street. and make your way onto the equivalent of a sign walk in the city,

and you start to walk forward. You start to walk down, and you can feel the eyes are not just on you, but also on tack. That's right. You get to the entrance of the quiet quill when you hear a voice. What do you bring an ogre here for? And you turn, and you can see. This massive Goliath is looking at the backs of the five of you and pointing, clearly referencing tack.

Oh, what did we bring the ogre? Oh, the ogre. Oh, yeah, he's... Do you turn to face him? Yeah, he's lost. What creature are you? I'm a goblin. This goblin in the city? Why... What is a goblin?

You're never gonna believe it. I'm lost too. I will approach him and step in front of Scrim, and I will lift my hood, and you will see that instead of orange hair and like a blue fur, I now appear to have gray skin with black hair that is now breaded similarly, with tattoos similar in his style, using my innate Faye ancestry to cast disguise self.

Okay. And I'm going to appear as a Goliath, And in giant, I will say, these are my employees. What is goblin? It is an exotic creature that I have found in my many travels. I am a traveler, a pilgrim, through much of the car, and this ogre was gifted to me. You come from tribe, from beyond Argento? Yes, I do from very far and I have collected a band of

travelers and mercenaries you could say. You found them from outside of city. Yes, I did. And why are you here with them with an ogre? He should be in training camps, should he not? I have connections inside the city and I needed additional muscle as you can see and I'll certain point it's Scrib and Queenie. We can't understand it, so I was like smiling like, yeah, yeah, I mean.

Uh-huh, uh-huh. Hey, I pulled some strings, and I was able to call in a favor. Uh, and so we are here on important business that I cannot elaborate on. What is your name? Um, what would I know of, of either Goliath names or in general giant,

giant cultures. Make at disadvantage because you are unfamiliar with, what you know of Goliath in the North may be very different than it is in Southern Bricar. And so your idea of what a Goliath might name itself or others in a tribe, from your experience might be very different. So, yeah, make a history check at disadvantage.

Oh, let's fucking go. Who needs twists? I rolled an 18 and a 19. So I'm plus one, that's a 19. Bravo. You, what was the full number? 19. Okay, let's go.

That in Giant, most folks refer to Goliath with by the sound of the giant can name. So in giant it would be something really badass sounding like grim blood or rumble fist. But at the end of the day,

what people in common would call them would be something like Grimgar or Torval or something along those lines. I had a name in mind before you even open your mouth, I'm going to stick to it. I love that. My name is Grimir. He

make a deception check at advantage. Well done. That's pretty good. At advantage? Yeah, that's pretty good. And notch it up to a 15 if you're not there. I should have called the twist, but it's too late. Wait, we can call it, right?

Or we have to call it before we roll? That's what we discussed. That's what I did. I thought it was just before we knew it was the decrees. Before we knew it was pass or fails. Oh. Like advantage. That's a little easier.

Like it's a little easier. It's a bit easier. It's a different. Regardless, I believe it is a... Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't think it's a plus zero. Yeah, it's gonna be 12. Why?

Yeah, use three. So if you were gonna allow me to use three twists, I will. Otherwise, I should have called it before. Yeah, do you want us to call it before we roll? I will allow it this time because we hadn't made that super clear. Yes. But I would like it to be called before because otherwise you can be like, what's the next divisible by 5 DC thing?

Oh, that's fair. and it becomes this weird game. That's true. So, yeah. I will pull, I think, what do you think? Should we use them? Okay, that's pretty bad. That's really good.

You deserve it. You're just trying. Yeah, yeah, come on. This one time. Yeah, yeah. Hey, Chad. Yeah. Sometimes chat tells the story, you know what I mean?

Yeah, exactly, right. Heard that. Yeah. So you get a total of 15? 15. 15. One moment. I feel good about that number.

Me too. It was 33 unit. Oh my god! You know what inside is? Grimeneer was my cousin's name. Uh, you... I am Dorval. It's...

Strange creatures you have in your company, I understand. Why you did not bring them to the giant step, but when you get back to the Legion, you'll find me at the Grubbshack. And we talk about what you have seen. beyond the laws. We can eat together. Is that new the hub?

Is that a little grub place? Is this a place for little grubs? He holds his hand out like this in some sort of a gesture of brotherhood or camaraderie. I'll do the most obviously like strong, macho, badass thing that I can think of the response. I'll like grab his hand or, you know, whatever, like, Whatever, like, whatever I think I would do based on the position of his hand.

Make an inside check. That's pretty good. That's fucking good. You're on fire. It's the scene from the Predator. Oh, yeah. 100% of the best. Dylan.

23. Yeah. This is with the time. 23. You start to go into clasp his hand and feel his hand start to go to the wrist. And in that moment, you realize that you need to do one of these. Easy. Easy.

Easy. With that tense social situation cleared, he pushes through and passed TAC and sort of gives him a hard look, as though he isn't where he should be before leaving the six of you alone there in front of the quiet quill. Holy crap! What happened? Let's get inside. Okay, alright.

Come on, come on. I am Grimnir from now on, do you understand? Okay, Drimier. Got it. And we usher everyone into the quiet quill. It's only one syllable difference, easy to remember. Is that right, TAC? What?

I think we gotta kill up. Bad news, guys. We gotta kill the other. I don't say that. I don't say that. I look very concerned at Scrib directly. And let go ahead. You walk inside end?

As we're going inside, I'm gonna make an effort to actually separate the gold from the silver. because I'm always three silver pieces. Okay. And because I know I'm hopefully going to only need to use maybe one or two silver, right, to get some runes, we'll see. I don't know. I'm right here.

You do that. And I think that it wouldn't be difficult because once you enter, you can see that this is very dark space that you enter. The light coming in through the windows doesn't illuminate very much. And they're clearly having been any fires lit or candles. It's quite cold. And so you walk in. and this space seems to be totally empty. There are a few tables.

And for what looks like an eatery, some sort of a place where you'd be able to get a meal, but it doesn't seem like a place where breakfast is served. So without anyone to greet you, you walk into a completely silent space. You work for me. Oh, sure, of course. I mean, I basically do anyway.

Let's be real. But if you take the lead, just let them know that we have some silver. And try to, you know, talk them down as low as you can. And if, you know, get them to speak common and I'm happy to, like, you know, pretend like, just order me around. I'll do whatever. Cut. You have tea.

You do the talking. Just let them know that I am in charge. And like, you'll look up and like, my piece is super grim. And like, I'm, like, I, this appearance, I'm totally missing the eye and I have a really exaggerated scar on my right eye. And I'm going to sort of have my hood up and look very brooding, like strider style and kind of look serious. And then I'm sending one of my minions to Guinness rooms. You said there's nobody here. Not on this floor.

Um, ah, hello. Hello, we're looking for lodging. My employer is very impatient. You hear. That'll bedwest to me. You hear the sound of footsteps creaking on the floorboards above you before you hear a voice. Cosimos? Potentially, yes. We're hoping.

And you hear. And what confronts you in this moment is from a morning of strange images, the strangest one that you've seen yet. But around the corner is a completely bald, heavily tattooed elf with extremely like ivory white skin with these contrasting colors of inked patterns all over this person. And they turn and sort of creepily like... Ah! Oh, hi! Hi! Hello.

Welcome to the quiet queen. Can I help you? I hope so. We're looking for some rooms, potentially. Well, well, we're looking for some rooms, potentially. We have rooms. Okay, how much? How can I be of service?

We can, we can accommodate all six of you and an ogre? Yes, that would be the case, yes. We work for this guy. Look at him. Terrified. B. Seeked it on my business. This is not a man that you want to piss off.

Let me tell you. See. Yes. I, I, we can absolutely accommodate you. Would you be staying for just the one night or two? Not potentially just the one, but maybe with, you know, a little option to extend it. Depends on your prices. For perhaps, uh, 20 copper for the night?

Look, I look up my employer. I nod. They are very nice rooms. I, I, that would be for the suite. I think maybe we're looking more like 10. I'll do it for you. I need as many customers as I can get, to be honest. Thank you.

We appreciate your service. Perhaps you will show us to our rooms, and I will issue payment promptly. Upstairs, upstairs. He starts to sing and jauntily makes his way up through the stairs, leading you past one or two rooms before he swings the door open. And you can see that this is actually

quite a luxurious little place that you found for yourself. There's a wide, comfy bed and a nice window view of the street downstairs, down out front of the... I look to my employer. Hmm? Mm. Mm. Mm.

Mm. All right, everybody inside. I will issue payment promptly to the gentleman. Please. Don't hesitate to call if you need anything. All right. Look, we've been traveling through Drakar for a long time. We don't have a lot of coin left, but we've got enough for tonight.

So I'm going to give you my lucky coin. Traveling in Drakar? Oh, yeah, it's crazy. That's my wild story. I love to tell these times. No time. Here, take this, and I hand him a single silver piece. He's suddenly, like, dawning on him that he's, like, looking at creatures that seem extremely alien.

Yes, yes, I know. I'm a horrific abomination. Focus, focus. You hand him a silver piece? He makes change and hands you the remaining copper year-old, and the door, I imagine, closes as he's, like, sort of giving you this quizzical look. Don't hesitate to call.

I'll be dust downstairs. Shouldn't be any change. Why not? Ten copper pieces, one silver piece? Oh, you already... I hand him one silver piece. Oh, I'm doing the 100 to... Should be 10, right?

10. He has you 80 copper pieces is what... is how I would do it in my brain. But no, he, you get your, you get your no change. Scrim runs a change scam. Yeah, I actually need change for this back. Sorry, I always saw conversion up where I go one to one. Now it's all good.

And then as he's like leaving, I'm like, thank you, we'll be in touch it. If there's anywhere like lock the door, is there any kind of like mechanism to? Yeah, in the back there's a simple turnkey. It has like a, my illusion will probably at the last minute fade as it only lasts in 10 minutes. Oh shit.

Oh, all right, the good news is, for now, he won't be suspicious of much. But like Queenie said, it's only a matter of time before they start talking about all of us that look crazy. There's this creaking sound as TAC sits on the bed. And he sort of like sits down, Tack tired. That makes five of us, buddy. Yeah. Ah, we did. All right.

We've got... ourselves some time. I cannot do that again until I rest. Well, do we think we're safe for tonight? Do you think you'll come back and check on us? No, I don't think you'll bother us. We paid him quite well. Who is it? I was wondering if you'd like some snacks.

Well. Are they free? Flat me in the ass and call me Bessie. I just know the kitchen is closed in the morning, so I didn't know if you wanted any snacks. I put my book up and turn away from the door. I'm not at Scrim. Click.

We do want snacks though, Scrim. How much for the snacks? And I'm like, I'm like barely sticking like my nose in one eye out. Ask him if he has any tea. Just a few copper pieces. We have brought fruits and vegetables. Oh, what about tea? You have any tea?

They've got fruits and vegetables. You guys feel about fruits and vegetables? Like fruits and vegetables kind of suck. Do they have any? No, no. Fruits and vegetables are great. Do they have any carrots? Do you have any carrots?

Carrots galore. Oh my god, can you get just a bunch? We'll get some carrots. What else but I'll put out like you guys? Oh, do you have apples? Fish. Apples, some, you have meat, you have any meat to? Ask them if there, yes.

Oh yeah, we don't serve any. Oh, yeah, do you have any pineapples? I like the way to make my tummy. No, me what I've got a pineapple. I've never even heard of the pineapple. I don't know what that is either. He's never heard of the pineapple. What's his favorite thing on the menu?

We have apples. What's your favorite snack? Blurdy. No. No, no. He, um. Our elven loaves are to die for. The what?

Elven loaves. Okay, we'll take a few of those. You didn't answer the tea question. You have oranges. Oranges. Oranges? We have tea. All right.

Carrots, oranges, elven loaves. All right. Any fish? No, he doesn't have any meat. Stop asking, Bonobos. Fish, you might not consider fish meat. You have any fished? No.

Fuck. Bonapagos, shut out. Fish is meat. That's what I said. Bonobos isn't the brightest wolf. You have to kill for fish. Anyway, the things I mentioned, carrots, apples. Carrots, apples, tea?

The loaves, the loaves, the tea. The loaves, yeah, yeah, yeah. Do you have any cookies? Pastries, besides the elven, books. Biscuits? We could, I could throw some sweets in there as well. Yeah, throw some sweets. He's got to throw some sweets in.

Okay, nice. Does he have any cream for that tea? Do you have any cream for the tea? Uh, no. You have any milk? No. You have any dairy of any kind of cheese? No, it's no.

It's just fruits and vegetables and some tea. And some sweet. And some, probably some, you know, does he have any nice salts for a warm and coming bath? No, no, he definitely, I'm not gonna ask that type. But can you ask though? Oh. I'll ask for Queenie's.

Please roll the, do you any salts for the bath? Uh, I have salt. That's not, he just has regular salt. That could work. I don't think it's the same thing, Queenie. Are you sure? I'm not sure, but I'm pretty sure. How much this is gonna cost?

We have four copper pieces. Oh, wait, hold on. Bang! Give me the change. Stick out your hand. And bang, change. Thank you for patronizing. Just sleeping outside of the door.

Then sleep outside the door. Gahman's blessing, and then he turns around and you hear him go down. I'm sorry, what did he say? This boy, he sounds like a fucking different. Did you clearly understand it? You've heard it very muffled. He said something about, I don't know if you know what this means. Gehenna's Blessings, that's.

I don't know, but she sounds nice. Ghenna's blessings. Is that traconic? Does that sound familiar? Perhaps he's godess. Yeah. Doesn't sound draconic to me. No, kind of. No, but it's a pretty name.

Hey. I don't know what's just, there are not many elves in Mahmuth. I do not know much of their culture. Did you see that his face? Oh, did you see the crap out of me? when he first came around that corner. Well, it wasn't his face that scared me. It was the way you went.

Yeah, it was his general energy. I like creeped around. I think it would turn black and white. Turned in a nose for a sudden. What are we going to do? I don't know, but I like the idea of getting a tattoo. You all ever thought about getting one? I did get one.

No, I've never had a tattoo. And then it vanished. Do you actually have tattoo? I'm covered in a tattoo. Is there art coming in a tattoo? Yeah. Oh, from here you just look woo. He's got a fucking bunch of shit and...

Have any y'all ever thought about getting tattoos, Barnabobos? There's very freshest one is the sea bird right here on me chest. I had like a crazy one and it was like it was cold. You had one? It vanished. I thought it was gonna stick around and it didn't. It's from the ghosts. Yeah.

It's like a ghost tattoo. We did the cheese rolling? Oh yeah. Didn't you take it? Oh, he did the Saint Elmo's fire on it. on you with the lightning bolts. Rom-law. Oh, that's my right!

Look at that. What are you in the target? The bolt of St. Elmo! There it is. Oh, you like to bring about. Good luck. Don't you recall? What about you, Tashan? You ever thought about tattooing and care?

I was some fine work on I did. No, I don't know that it sits very well on my scales. But you can have your scale tattooed individually, it'd be kind of cool. Well, I don't know. I don't like pain. That's fair. What about you, Yornear? I'm sorry, Grimnor.

Grimnir. Oh, isn't that what I said? No. It's not that. He said Grimnor. No, I'm sorry. My bad. Have you ever thought about a tattooed Grimnor?

No, I have not. All right. With my forehead, it wouldn't show. What about you, TAC? Tack like tattoo. You have any? You don't like a tattoo for good luck to ward off evil spirits.

We think I'll give you a fine cloud batterman. I'm sorry, a what? He's surrounded by Goebbels. I mean, he's wearing very little, but you don't see any tattoos on his body. No, tack, no, I have tattoo. Do you want one? If I ever go get a tattoo, tack,

Will you come with me? We can be tattoo buddies. Yes. All right. Tack would like that very much. I forgot to ask Tack what he wanted for snacks. We'll share. We'll make it work.

Snacks? Yeah. Are there snacks? They're coming. They're not here yet, buddy. Tack hungry. Yeah, we didn't take into account though. It's only gonna be a little bit.

Do you like carrots? What carrot? Oh, Tack. Tack! You're gonna be a little bit. They're like about eight inches long. They're thick towards the base. They get thin towards the tip.

They're really sweet. You just stick them in your mouth. I do have to describe them like that. That's, I have got it. I haven't heard of someone describe breakfast in that way. That was specific. It was like a baseball bat. It's a fleshy, carriage meat.

Well, I mean, they don't have any meat here. Well, no, but for a vegetable, it's quite meaty. Oh, that's true. It is quite meaning. You know, now that you mention it, he did make an off comment about having to kill the fish to serve meat, almost like he was, you know, against it. Maybe.

Vow of nonviolence, perhaps. We wouldn't be against it. I don't know. Maybe that's something to do with that Gahenna goddess. Oh, God. I thought I was just saying meat is, you have to kill to make meat. So if you have to kill fish, it's meat. Right, but I just got the impression that he seemed to be seemed like he didn't want to.

Like he wouldn't have wanted to do that. That guy looked like he had no trouble killing people. When he came around the door, I was going there with a school for a tree. I must sit my pants. I was sure we were dead. That guy was a stone cold widow. Oh yeah. No, are you kidding me?

None of us. I'm seriously. None of us leave this room without the body system. Not when that perver almost left. You hear you hear you. You can't get us out of the door. You hear, you hear, I move the floor, voice, there it is. You hear voices rise up from the mud outside.

You can hear this sort of swell of sound, cheers, chants almost. You can hear, princess, princess, princess, and it gets louder and louder, and like a wave, it swings past and through the street, and there's a brief moment where the light coming through the window flickers, as you imagine that a shadow quickly passes overhead,

and then it fades. Do you want to hear any, who? Yeah. That is pretty cool. Yeah, if you hear a, I'll leave the tray outside the door. Good, go away! Thank you for the quiet, do you need anything

Go, go away! No, no, but we need more stuff because of tap. Oh, damn it. Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-oh. Oh, yes. We need more snacks. We, wait, wait, how many? We have a fully stocked kitchen.

We have an ogre in here. I can cook something in the life. Daze-a-stoked? He doesn't have any mean or fish in it. No, the opposite of fully-stocked. It did, I don't know. Ask him what kind of things we can make. What are you are?

What are you fully prepared? Damn. Stu. Oh, yeah. Tell, how do you make a stew without meat in it? How do you make a stew without meat in it? You just don't put meat in it. Isn't it?

That makes it a soup. I mean, the best of the chowler. It's like a chili. You can't make a... Wait, how you make it chili without meat? We're getting off topic. All right, we'll take some of the soup. We'll take some of the soup.

You can make some of the soup. You can make some of the meat. All right, hold on. Wait, just give me a minute. Here, start giving those up. All right, we'll take some of the soup. Extra large portion, though, he's an ogre. He's a big, he's a...

Okay. Didn't he say that the kitchen was closed? Can you ask him... He says it's close in the morning. Can you ask him if he can make... It's called dynamite beef. So basically what you're going to do is... It's like you're making Mongolian beef,

but instead of Mongolian sauce, you're going to sub in for dynamite sauce? You said beef. He doesn't have any beef. Okay, we'll just ask him anyway. Oh, what is... And so then what you're going to need to do, though, because because you're near Barnabot's and TAC, while and Tachshan, they've got, they've got stomachs for days.

The soup bowls, like the big ones, the communal soup bowls, I need you to get four of those. Fill those full of rice, one for each of them, okay? They have a lot of money. And then instead of, like, the little caress that you would use for the sauce, you're not going to do those. Tell me get, like, coffee mugs or something. Fill it full of the dynamite sauce.

Get one for each of them as well, okay? I'm just going to need a little bowl of white rice on the side for me. and then if you could go light on the green onions on mine. I can hear the lady. Just bring us a lot of soup. How much is that going to cost? I'm going to make some of the soup and I'm going to make the dynamite beef,

but I'm going to make it with black beans and jackfruit. You'll love it. I'd rather start. This is a place. This is hell. This is a godless place. That man is a deranged man. You must be stopped.

We got to kill the innkeeper. So, I think that we never got his name, but I think that his, I think his name is the supervert. When he comes back, when he goes back, don't distract me. I have some questions. I'll get his name. All right, we'll get the soup. Oh, we haven't asked his name yet.

Oh, he's the soup pervert. Well, that's what we call him by in his back. I know, I know we haven't eaten, like, normal food in eight months, but I really hope he brings the soup in bread bowl. Oh my God, we didn't ask him to do that. Can you call him back, Scrim? I'm not calling him back. I don't interact with him.

It's an irreparable establishment. Could you go downstairs by yourself? No. Did you miss the conversation? I said, well, no one leaves this room without the body system. When you want me to come with you, we have to buy him. Absolutely not. If I'm leaving him, he'll snap that guy in two.

He can't leave the room, though, with that tattoo. Oh, sniff him if they do. Someone who's using their head. You know what you could do? You can wear shirts long enough to cover up your tramp stamps, ground. You know, I just like to feel the air on my middress.

You know, when you suggested the tickle me elbows fire, I really shouldn't have obliged you. Not about it's kidding. All of that is canon. Uh, all right. I'm happy to snap the suit pervert in half tomorrow.

Well, you're not feeling well even after the great healing that Mr. Firebloss over Mr. Yorn here. You're going to get a good grimmie here. We're going to wait for the soup. We're all going to relax. We're not leaving this room unless we absolutely have to. And I can't think of a single reason why we would need to. All right? I really want to ask if we can get that soup in a brimble.

It's too late. I'll go. I'm not scared. Nope. I'll walk down there by myself. No one is leaving this room. Please, talk some sense of them. Really quick.

I was just having too much. much fun doing the soup scene. When the shadowy winds flew by, I would have run to the window. I would have run to the window to look out the window. Oh, okay. You immediately sprint and you glance out, and you look down the street, but following the voices out in this direction, heading towards the west,

towards the spine, you can see this gliding, massive dragon. One you've seen twice before, once. in a storm out on a flat sheet of ice. And again, when you were having perhaps one of the most intense experiences of your life fighting an elder brain on a nautloid ship as it climbed its way up the hull and then eventually disappeared with an artifact that you know you are all seeking. It is very much the same drag. Is she going to the...

Is she flying to the... Seemingly towards the gate that you crashed through. towards the gate that we crashed there? Yes. Oh. Wow, that's not good. Oh. So she's not going to this place.

She's going to the gate. She's headed. Probably from the keep to the, the, the commotion. Oh, shit. It's like smog. Yep, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, no. Deep shit.

You were here, you landed here. I would say that at this point, you're sort of like here. Oh, that's only in the way. It's like, oh, yeah. This place is enormous. Enormous. Yeah, yeah. There are tens of thousands of citizens in this place.

Just based on the half of it that you have seen. This is a huge, huge city. Is Dungeon Master, for my visualization, as everyone's calling the princess, does suddenly the window start to ice up a little bit as she gets in some before? And the temperature in the room drops, like, does that happen?

No to noticeably. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, geez. I mean, it's snowing outside, right? But even with the snow, it's like when the Dementors are outside of the Hogwarts Express.

I was just gonna say that. This is what happens. For the witch is flat on my asshole. This is why? Sorry, I love doing that. Can we get a time save on that so I can say to Jesse? You, wait. It seems that the soup and the dynamite beef,

beef. Take some time for them to actually heat up a cauldron and get cooking and get the kitchen online. So quite a large amount of time passes. Perhaps 45 minutes to an hour before you start to hear footsteps coming up the stairs again. But you have that time and your company to enjoy talking about whatever you want to talk about this mid-morning of the day. Does that count as a short rest? I would say it counts as a short rest. I am going to use all my fucking shit.

If needed, I have D12s, to be fair. Yeah, let's take a look. I'll probably do it. Rest, and then one, two, three, four. Where do you see it again? Four's probably one. I manage. Manage.

Manage. Oh, I guess I will mold them until I am fault. 10. Where my D12s. And it's plus two on every roll, right? Whatever your complex. Your common motto's. Yeah.

Okay. Three. 11. That's pretty good. I'll use one more. I'm just... Jesus Christ. 11. Another 10.

Alright. One, two, three, four. I used five. Take short rest. Six. I will probably only... Well, no, I'll use two more. Eleven. It's riveting content here, fellas.

Yeah. All right. I'm good. I'm good. I'm feeling good. As good as I can. I use it six. Short rest, one, two, three, four, five, six. I rolled pretty hot on my, uh.

I rolled okay. I used five as well. I'm using all of them. Fuck it. And eventually. Definitely holds me, thank God. How are you doing the snacks? They're fine. Here, give me what you brought. Asked me if you brought the soup in a bripple.

It didn't bring the soup in a bread. It's on a cart. Okay, all right. I'm gonna have to wheel it in. No, no, no, no, no. No, no, no, no. I'm going to open the door. I'm going to wheel it in. I'll give you your cart back. You're very pushy, strange green man. Not into the room. Don't let him in a video.

I'm not going to let him. All right, just making sure. All right, just stand, just stand there. I understand. I'm going to wheel the cart in. You guys take the stuff off. All right, while they're taking the stuff on, I have a couple questions for you. What is your name? Nimrodel.

Nimrodel. Oh, my name is Albert. Albert? Well, if you want, there's a guest book. You can sign your name and you can leave a message. I'll do so. Number two, what was that thing about, you said something about Gehenna's blessing earlier? What does that mean?

Is that your God? Is that the religion that you worship? Ghanes blessing? Oh, yes, yes. Yes, every one of the cabal worships. The, the, the cabal? Yes, I mean Alderl's here in Archenholm. Oh, there's more of you.

Not as many as perhaps the cabalds than the others, but yes. The cabal. Okay, that's concerning. Oh, yeah, the last thing. You said something about having to kill for the meat. Do you not eat meat? I wouldn't. No, I would never kill or want a creature to be killed. I knew it. Stupid, Tishin. When you're sensitive to the second veil as I am.

The second veil. What is that like? The afterlife to death itself. Oh, all right. You don't know very much about... people to you. What was that? Here's your tray. Take this. Get the card out of here. Oh, thank you. Thank you. Get out of you. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Oh, wait. How much? Another eight copper. Son of him. Okay, hold on.

Bang. Here's another silver piece. I need change. Thanks. Go away. You hear him departing down the hallway and you feel that he is left. Suddenly there is a gray heron gone. Similar size to Queenie. It's eating a you won't even love it cares. What a Nimrod. Who is this?

What's up, Dad! That's hilarious. What was his name? I've already forgot it. Nimrodel. Nimrodel. His name is Nimrodel. He is opposed to killing

because he's very sensitive to someone. about the second veil beyond the other worlds. He's sensitive to death itself. And, oh, the Gahanna thing was his religion. Yeah, well, who would it do you? I mean, I guess we guessed it. We figured it out. Well, I guess that means we're safe here tonight.

No, he also mentioned something about all of the elves in this town being part of a cabal, whatever that means. Oh, I'd love to go to a cabal. Yeah, I don't think it's like that. Oh. It sounded a lot more menacing when he said it. He was like, the cabal. I think everything sounds menacing when he said.

says it though. That's true. That's fair. That's very fair. Is it really a cabal. When he said hi, he was like, that's a very good impression. Yeah, it was really uncomfortable. Eat up, Tech. What are you doing in here? We told you leave. S. Oh my God, they don't get that. He like comes out of the mattress. Tech, it doesn't care for the dynamite beef.

No, I'm going to take whatever, like, you know, food, oranges or bread with butter. I don't even think he's a fucking butter. And I'll sit below the large painting with the two eyeballs cut out. And I'll just like eat. It's hard. The room warms with the temperature of your bodies as you all stay in there and starts to get cozier and cozier. And you start to relax and relax as you take what. nourishment you can from what snacks you prefer.

And it strikes you how this is the first time in a long time where you haven't felt the pressure of danger from any direction. Even though you know that just outside the door, there are thousands of people who will think of you as strangers as perhaps a threat that might want answers regarding your origins, answers regarding the fact that you attack with him, and that almost certainly the wheels are turning. As time progresses,

what the princess was doing, heading towards the same place that you crashed, starts to put an idea in your head that there is that rumors are spreading, information is spreading. The all, pushing those thoughts aside, however, you find yourselves able to relax for a moment.

You no longer, in a tunnel, underneath perhaps tens of thousands of tons of rock underneath the mountains traveling in an ice troll, civilization, for lack of a better term. You're no longer in the very southern wastes of Drakar. on the ocean even. You're no longer in the strange space that you found yourself at that lighthouse.

This is a, this is for lack of a better word, is civilization. It feels like almost something that you've been missing, something you're familiar with, with the exception of a strange, obviously, experience that you had in the fake city of Okart. We should rest. We do not know when we will get another opportunity.

And I think it would be like one of those things where you're so exhausted, and you can stay up so long that all of a sudden your body realizes, okay, I can rest, and just catches up with you. With adrenaline, it kind of is out of your body. Had you push yourself another half day, I would have had exhaustion rolls for everyone ready to go. And so I would, I don't know how many beds are in this single room. You said it was a sweet.

I would try to find, you know, one of the beds that would fit my height. and settle it. It definitely feels like you could have bought two rooms. There are two beds. They are large, but it will require folks to sort of sleep on some of the chairs and the couches just off to the side. There is your own personal on-sweet bathroom that you can use. There's not hot water, but definitely cold water that's warm enough not be. ice that you can use to freshen up these kinds of luxuries.

If I feel like there's any nails or if the wood is sturdy enough, I would probably try to just take the tent or whatever I have and just make a hammock. I'm fine just hammering in nails into the walls or if there's sconces. The craftsmanship here is good. This doesn't feel like a very new building. It feels very old and yet it is still standing and so you are able to make make a hammock in one of the corners of the room, and you feel almost like on a ship, though,

lacks that nice waving motion. I don't feel quite right not sleeping in a hammock, so you all can take the bed, and I'll fashion myself a hammock. I'll eat whatever I feel until I'm full, if there is enough food, and then I'll just pass out. Oh, I'll sit up, as soon as I get my hammock, I'll say, well, I suppose that we really should keep a wall.

even though we are in an end we still don't fully trust Nimrod the Super yeah it probably couldn't hurt did he say his name was Nimrodel or Nim Podel Nymn't know don't ask questions you don't want to answer to you on here all right I'll take first watch I'm not tired yet I'll take last watch and get a head starter I guess I'm not cooking breakfast I have to ask he said that the kitchen was closed in the morning. I'd be happy to take a watch after Skrim.

Then wake me up. We'll take my watch. You're going to sleep? Yeah, we're tired. Noon. Well, it's been a very long time for us. Before we met you, we went through a lot. I'm pretty sure I could sleep a full 24 hours, so.

Aye, say true. What's wrong, TAC? TEC, not tired. Well, that's okay, because one of us is gonna stay up the entire time, so you have something to talk to. Okay. We can even play games when it's my turn. Okay.

Oh, you'll teach you liars dice. I'm sure you'll be quite good at it. Okay. You need to find some dice first, anyway. Good night, everyone. Good night, screw him. And you endeavor to enjoy a long rest. Who takes first watch?

Me. Okay. It is Boop. Boop, Tyshen. And I play a game with Tachan. You're on your, Tyshan. For my watch, I play a game with TAC called Sit in front of the door and don't anyone.

Wow, you're winning, Tats. He's so much dead than me in the game. I can't believe it. I can't believe it. So, no one can get in. Okay, scrim. Everyone is either snoring or sleeping very loudly. And Tack is, um,

aggressively endeavoring to win. What do you do with your hour plus time? Do we have a window? We've got a window. Go windows. I would probably like peek out the window, see what's going on. I'd probably, I probably wouldn't be able to get that guy out of my head. He'd be my head right. And I'd be, I'd just be thinking about the things he said and like, you know, wondering about the cabal. You don't see any of these other elves creatures walk up and down the street. The occasional times you start people watching more and more as the hour gets longer and longer, but you do see contingents of cobalds running up and down the streets every once in a while. You do see the occasional Goliath or a pair of Goliath moving forward, clearly heading to market for some reason, or perhaps coming to this district for a meal or something along those lines. You do see dwarves walking back and forth. And the dwarves strike you as very strange. Whatever dwarves you've experienced in your life,

these have many of the same characteristics in terms of their dress and in terms of their statured in terms of their berated big bushy beards. But you can plainly see that there's almost this like deep blue or dark purple skin to them. What you can see, like a big knobby nose on the front of their face. It almost looks like they've gotten very cold, very, very cold. But watching them go by, you also see these very strange orc creatures, unlike any that you've ever seen, not adorned in huge metallic armor or carrying huge weapons, but themselves with tall staffs that have hanging ropes and trinkets and these variety of things, almost like if Yornear were an ork. And you take in these details and sort of start to saturate yourself in the culture of the city. Those are but the races that you see in these few tribes and clans.

And then I wake up whoever's charges. I go sleep. You wake up your near. Hey, wake up. When you get some time, take a look outside. There's some weird looking people out there. Yes, I will. Also, I made up a game with TAC called Sit in front of the door and don't let anybody in.

So just keep playing with him. Tell him he's winning. You won't move. All right. Can I? Back, all-time champion. Well done, Tuck. You stay right there.

And I'll look at the window. And you take in these same fresh details. You seem to be across the street from a... I have it right here. You do seem to be across from a delicacy shop. A storefront that seems to have breads and cheeses and all sorts of exotic mushrooms hanging, drying in the window. But just as I described to Andy,

what Scrim observed, you would see the same kind of foot traffic moving up and down the street. And the hour or so passes on eventually, however long we divide up a six to eight hours period of time depending on over an hour and a half of each. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think in order to ensure that everyone got like a long rest, you could still say that you sleep for 24 hours

and if you want to wake up tomorrow morning, that's fine. But for these first essential hours of sleep, you wait. And then maybe like 15 or 30 minutes before my watch ends. I'm going to just sort of like attack. May you move aside just very briefly? He like sits up. He's been sitting almost cross-legged like a big baby. And he gets up his, he has to lean down in order to not collide with the ceiling,

even as high as it is, and then gets out of your way. And as he does this, that I'm just going to basically like very quickly open the door and look outside. You do that and you look outside and back and forth and then... I hope still over my head by the way. There doesn't appear to be anyone in the hallway. Stay right here. I'm gonna just slowly walk down the stairs, keep my hood over my head and just try to get a sense of like keep my head shadow but to take a look. I want to see if I can find this this Nimrodel guy. Nimrodel guy.

You come downstairs, and now that it is afternoon and the kitchen is open, you actually see that if you made it to the first floor, that there would be patrons. A handful of creatures have walked into the store, and Nimrodel is with an eagerness that is very strange, making sure that they are all enjoying his newest recipe, dynamite jackfruit. With beans. With black beans. I would have taken a... Nightmare. Um... I would have taken a...

Do I have some money at all? You would have to tell me. I didn't track your inventory to that. I can't get my equipment real quick. I know I certainly have no gold. No coin. Um... I do not.

I would have, if you think that I would be able to get into... I vaguely recall that you and... that you and Queenie might have had platinum pieces. And I gave that to Scrim, which I, I don't know what you did with. I don't recall having platinum pieces, because the last I had, I had 200 pieces of gold, I dumped 100 of them in a recent session and kept the other hundred.

Because some of my materials, some of my spells require gold for components. I don't remember, I mean, I remember you offering me the platinum, but I don't, I don't have my book on me. I don't ever remember writing it down in my book. I see. Like I can picture my inventory in my mind and I don't, I never wrote down one platinum. Because it would have taken up a different slot. Like the 100, each 100 gold pieces took up a slot.

Right. And so to hold extra food, I dumped the 100 gold, and another, you know, a single platinum would have taken up. Um, I would walk down and I would try to, uh, find, I will try to sort of motion to Nimrodale with my face still covered. Uh, if you have a moment, Just one. He finishes taking the orders. I'll be with you in one flash of a second. Please. And he runs over.

Yes, how can I be of service? Is everything up to standard? Yes, I wanted to thank you for your hospitality earlier. Given my eclectic band of misfits, so to speak. And just hopefully understanding is you are your own member of a cabal, I hear. Discretion is key for men like you and me, is it not? Oh, yes. Well, again, thank you, and I wanted to give you a blessing.

Make a Hannah's blessing be with you. I want to pass him something. I don't know if he would reach out his hand. He would instantly, very graciously. I would sort of grab his hand and put a stone in his hand. And when I grab his hand, I'd like to cast second sight on him. Second sight. It's an ice-bound spell.

It's a charisma saving throw. Rich. They say I have your gold. And so I just checked and I do. Yeah. I do. 18. I think 18 passes.

Wow. Wow. What a second thing is it? Can you read it off? Yeah, what does it do? You touch a creature and attempt to use another creature's vision in addition to your own. An unwilling creature may attempt a charisma saving throw to resist the spell. While this spell gives you no control over the subject,

each time you can basically transfer it, I can basically, I could have seen through his eyes for an hour. An unwilling creature, maybe he likes warriorism. Yeah, I don't know. Would he be unwilling? Does he know that it's being cast? Does he know that it's being cast? I would not... I would not...

I don't think he would... Well, he feels a blessing is coming, so if he's expecting a blessing... He knows I'm giving him a blessing, and I'm placing a stone with a ruin that's risted into it in his hand. Okay. Just as a... from one holy man to another. With that idea, make a deception check,

and we'll see if he willingly accepts this. That's a good. That's a good. Do you want to add twists? Five? Let's add five. Oh my God. Yeah.

Yeah. Thank you for the twists. This system is pretty neat. I really like that. It's like a Mormon. Shoot, where was it going? Five twists. Thank you so much for the bits.

What is it? Oh. Thank God you used the five twists. Sorry, let me just quickly. What's the max amount of twists you can use? I mean, all probably. Oh, probably. I don't know if you have a cap. We decided not to set a cap initially because the idea is that it'll force scarcity.

And like we just won't have a bunch to use. Yeah. Gotcha. But if we feel that we need to add a cap, we certainly can. Should have been plus 20. Um... I was hoping I get lucky, you know. Oh yeah, we did it.

With a 13, I'm gonna re-roll. Okay. And it's... Is it? It's just somatic. So what do you say to cast the spell? I would say, um, I would say, um, What did I say?

The blessing. Blessing of Gehenna. Blessing of you with him. Boney. I'm basically trying to rhyme back the blessing that he said to us. What they want the bliss. As he left. He accepts the stone and you feel the magic pass from your skin into his, and suddenly

you are looking at your own hood as the second sight spell takes an effect. And he... Seemingly unknowing the nature of the blessing... Thank you. Thank you. What is, uh, may I ask? Is this Gahena's blessing, or is it... From one holy man to the other, the land blesses you, as Gahena does. And without a word, without another word, I'm going to basically try and turn it leave.

I'm going to bring you some more dynamite jackfruit later on. Thank you, thank you, sir. And I'll go up the stairs and I will wake up who would be next? Barnabost maybe, or no, Taichshan. Taishan. I'm gonna wake up Taishan without saying anything and I would go to sleep, but as I lay there, I'm not actually sleeping.

I use my action, my eye is glowing, and I'm just watching for the next hour. You are just watching. We'll describe what you see momentarily. Tyshan, you are grongly woken by I'm gonna be scarred forever. By Yornear, and you find yourself for the hours or two, stuck with tack, having to while away the time

to make sure that your companion's slumber goes undisturbed. I think the first thing I would do is I would go to the wash basin with the water that's not quite warm, but not cold. And I think like that first shower after a day of travel, you just kind of feel like you have this layer of a road on you. I'd go to the wash basin and just take my tunic off. You have the unusual privilege of being able to hold the side of the basin and warm the water even. So instead of what most folks would have, which is the very low room temperature water, almost cold,

you would be able to actually get it to the point where you could see the steam rising off the slick surface and I'd rub it in my hands across my face. Maybe even from not having fully healed yet as I start to wash my arms, a little, the water would start to turn mildly red as streaks of blood would wash off of me. And then I'd take just a washcloth and put it,

if there's a washcloth. on the back of my neck, and maybe for the first time since we've been in Dracar feel, like, internally warm, shattering just a little bit of the cold that has probably really deeply set within me. And just kind of trying to retain or get to a space of comfort again. Do you do that? did you do anything else with your time? Before you wake, I can't remember with Barnabos or Queenie, but... Barnabon's last.

He's last. I would also go to the window, but I would try and look towards the... I would be thinking about the path of the Princess of Wrath and try and look towards the gate. And just kind of like, not even necessarily looking to, like, try and see if I say... see anything over there, but just wondering. What comes next? It's mid-afternoon now, and you can see

very plainly the sun hitting the water. This extremely reflective surface almost creates a double image of the island and its reverse. The keep above it,

it's many, many spires. You can see it's starting to clear up the fog of morning and you can see in a live city all these different buildings of different shapes all across the way from your vantage point what limited sight you can see and you just sort of take in the horizon I would spend the remainder of my time just looking out surveying and thinking deep and thought attack doesn't bother you he seems extremely fixated by the

door for some reason until finally you Who do you wake? Queenie. Queenie? During this, the first hour of your time, you're near. You enter an almost meditative state. It's still restful. You're not moving or using many calories, let's say,

what few you got from the vegetables and snacks. But you are experiencing the life of the ultimate host. A person who seems, eager to please, eager to please, and then some. And they are taking orders. They are rushing back, making sure that the food is just perfect in their mind, making sure that everyone feels heard, never, never, never faltering or taking a break. And you are just starting to feel like the spell is wearing off,

wishing that you could hear. any of the conversations during that, you were feeling that it was just beginning to fade. As the person goes back and seemingly takes their first break, they go not just pass through the kitchen, but into a back room. And in there, there's a myriad of candles, all of which burn with almost a black light. And in the center of a desk, adorned with the usual managerial tools that would be required. required to run on the inn or a lodge. In the center there seems to be a thick tome.

And on top, the totem or sculpture, a very heavy, dark stone creature, it is very evidently of some sort of a hound or dog. And you see, watch as the hand of the elf reaches and grabs that figure and moves it aside and you watch as he flips open through pages of written notes. notes, entry, long entry, entry, entry, entry, until finally finding an empty blank space, not very far into the book, perhaps the third of the way through. And the hand writes in elvish.

Do you speak elvish? Oh my God, please. Please. There's no way. Please speak elish? I mean, I'll see. Unlikely. But my own.

It's not skills. No, it's under languages and provisionsies. Oh. There's no way. Unless a... Common, druidic, dwarish, elvish, and giant. And you see the script written out and help somebody with their order.

Clarified a point. They seem to be writing down everything that they assisted people with in excruciating data. Interesting. Until the hand sort of stops and sort of rests. And when the ink seemingly has dried, It turns the pages all the way to the very end, and you can see that the last entry,

as opposed to all of these empty lines where more and more presumably of these favors would have been written out in detail, the last line simply reads the end. And the book closes. You see the figure get put back on there, and then turning and almost at a sprint to rush to find the next person,

to serve that vision fades. This podcast is brought to you by our Patreon. Become a patron today at patreon.com slash legends of Avantress and gain access to tons of exclusive perks, including a monthly movie night and a weekly Patreon exclusive campaign set on the high seas. Shrout over Saltmarsh. 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 tome for Dungeons & Dragons fifth edition.

And don't forget to snag all of the extra goodies like dice, miniatures, flushes, a tarot deck, and more. Thank you. Most of you are asleep. Yornyer you are perplexed by what you've seen, but you drift off back into a slumber. And Tyshen, you wake Queenie and take your position, her position, in bed, swapping spaces as tight as this sweet is, given that there are six of you. and find yourself quickly passing out after your refreshing time on watch. Queenie, you have the watch to spend.

I'll head straight over to Tech. Tech, what are you doing? Playing game. What game are you playing? Watch Door. Who told you about this game? Skirm. Skirm did?

Close. Skirm and Williams. Pardardor. That sounds like something... That does sound like something skirm would do. You want to spend some time with me because we don't need to play watch a door anymore. You won.

Skirm's asleep. He lost. Yeah, you won. I'm really proud of you, tech. Tech, we know all games. Yeah, well, you want to spend some time together, get to know each other? Yes.

All right. Well, you tell me if you think. about yourself. What do you like to do in your free time tack? All right, you want this apple? And I'll throw him an apple. Oh, you're just gonna, oh, she's just gonna swallow that whole, okay. It's, it sounds like a walnut pretty, you've watched like the entire apple get on his nose. Um, he, uh, you can hear one crushing chew and then he's well, um, apple, acceptable. All right, well, let's just, let's just spend some time together and I'm just gonna spend the hour just asking him random questions. him and teach him out of braid hair.

He talks about his time in the city. He remembers vaguely the details of what would have been a life of endeavoring to climb the social ladder, the things that were so important to him when they were big brain ogres, and how even though he misses some of that life and the luxuries that came with it, he feels happy and free. You do play some games with him. it's very difficult to teach him. I teach him like rock paper scissors.

Right, right, right. And I just let him win every time regardless. Go on go or? So rock paper scissors, shoot, and then on shoot, you're going to do either rock paper or scissors with your hands. All right, you ready? Rock paper, scissors, shoot. You won.

You want to go again? Yes. Rock paper, scissors, shoot. You won. You won. It's attack expert, mastermind. And you play games until you realize that enough time has probably passed for Barnabos to take final life. I have to go wake up Barnabos.

He's really, well, thank you. TAC's nice. You, Baramos is really good at Watchdor. Don't let anyone in. And he will tell Sturm if you're not vigilant. You know what vigilant means? I have had sex. You're not in the meme with that guy? All right. Maybe there's something you can teach.

No, thank you. Well, we need it. In the meantime, why don't you go ahead and take a seat in front of that door and you play that game and make sure you beat Barnabos, all right? Okay. All right, I believe anybody.

I'm going to pat him on the bed. back and then I'm gonna walk over and wake up Barnabose. Tack, fuck. My name is Tack. Tacks like Christian Gray. Fuh. He's like Christian Gray and 50 shades of gray. I don't make love.

I'm like I fuck. I'm so glad. Give me, give Tack the cat, dh. Yikes. Oh no. Oh, no. Oh, no. Barnabos, you feel a paw-like hand to wake you up,

and you're swinging in a hammock. It almost feels like you're back on a ship as you stare up at a dark wood ceiling, and suddenly you realize and remember where you are. Good morning, Barnabos. I'm having an incredibly pleasant dream, and I look very peaceful, and I'm muttering to myself, and suddenly I kind of jolt up.

Alright. Good morning. No one tried to break in. No. Tacks playing a game that skirm. The goblin taught him how to play. It's called Watch Door, don't let anyone in. As long as you tell him he's winning, he'll keep doing it.

All right. Thank you, Miss March. Good night. Get some sleep. I'm just going to go back to bed. You do? I'll crawl into the hammock. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I can picture the hammock like this. with like one ear flopped over like this and like you can see some toes on the other side thank all you suppose i'll join you in your game i'll sit down next to him cross my legs i win you know you lose i don't know about that tack i've been around a lot longer than you have lad i've watched many a door many a horizon that you can beat old barnard mo's dread wake Well, we wait, Jack. Have you ever heard the tale of the seven voyages of Trothack with Shark Punch? Who? Oh, well, you have it then. Well, allow me to elaborate in extreme detail. I will go and I will

I will elaborately tell him about all seven voyages of Trothack the Shottokhack the Shotton. Oh, you've never heard of the Gear Wars? Boy, do I envy you? He's actually struggling to win, watch the door, by the second tale. Very quickly, you enrap him in this fantastical tale. I am confident that Barnabose would be a terrific storyteller. And with all of your embellishments being what it is, the hour passers very quickly, and you were able to go from Sea Voyage to Sea Voyage. And that final Emerald Streak, Truth Act, the Shark Puncher,

joined his ancestors on the fiddler's green. It's time to wake everyone up. Good story. By the way, you lose. I saw you gaze off to the corner of the room while I haven't kept my eyes off the door. He kills us all in a pit of room. He's just a little bit of room.

He's like a fucking! He's just bricked to you. He's like crazy. He's like fucking, he's like, fucking, Mr. Hyde and fucking think of extraordinary gentlemen. He's the picking of people fucking puny-dreaten. No, TEC actually gets up,

you can see he's disgruntled. He kicks the bed, which slides across the... You're all awoken by his screams of failure, and he pulls a sheet over himself and slumps into the bed. Tack, who hurt you?

Tack, lose a swatch storm. Well, wait, but you... No talk about it. You got second place, buddy. Oh, yeah, that's right. That's the next one behind first. That's really good. Scrimm always says the second place is the first loser. Shut up.

Well, I may have said that, but what I also say too is that it wouldn't be fun if you won every time. Oh, yeah, that's true. Otherwise, why gamble to play games? That way in every game. All right. Well, cow, it's so close.

And you can hear very loud snoring coming from him minutes later. He probably needed to sleep, though, to be fair, skirt mat at him looking at that door for a good 10 hours. And it's night. Nighttime has emerged. And looking out the window, you can see the lit

lanterns and lights that adorn this city, much less foot traffic, this close to the lake. And that strange eggs like smell still pervades the air. Even in your room, though it is muted. But you can see, just as Daugène was

looking sort of across the lake, the sparkling lights of many other dwellings and buildings and structures, and you can see lights in the windows of the keep and its many spires. Five of you are all there confronting what do you do next. Scream. Yes. Produce your coin. Why? The lucky one. I would like to see it. What are you going to do with it? You can just tell me to do stuff. I'd like to examine it. Are you sure you want to The last guy who touched it, he's been horrifically cooked for the rest of time.

It's me. Yes, I would like to see it. All right. Mm. Last dance. I just take my hand out. Yeah. I examine it.

I want to see if this bears any resemblance to anything I saw in the book or the totem on top of the book. if the aesthetic feels similar because just because it's a hound doesn't necessarily mean it's the same hound, right? Like, you know. It could be any hounds.

A lot of hounds in the world, you know what I mean? Good a bit any soup prefer. One moment. Rees and pieces with a two. Bottle cap best. I don't have the description immediately available to me.

So I'll tell you what I remember from memory. And if it's inconsistent with earlier descriptions, I apologize. That's fine. However, on one side, it is perfectly smooth. Rather than having a face on it, like the sides of gold coin might have on both, one side is smoothed almost like a blade or like a mirror, something that you'd be able to look into

and see your own reflection. You can see your golden reflection when you look at that side. And flipping it to the other side, you see the image of a very strange creature. Almost a demonic creature. That's what I remember as well. Here you are. Thank you. The soup part of earth worship some kind of dog.

I thought I should let you know. What do you mean worship some kind of dog? I appeared through his eyes last night or I guess earlier today. And in his back room, he has a large tome written in Elvish with some sort of logbook. On top of it sat a stone idol or totem of some kind of dark hound. Perhaps not unsimilar from your friend. That's concerning.

So if you wish to sneak back there and steal it, I would not stop you, but... Why would you think that I want to steal that? Well, you won't steal most things. Yeah, but I don't want to steal that. Why not? No value to me. Plus, I don't want to touch any of that stuff with a 40-foot pole. I'm already cursed to hell and back.

Six ways of Sunday. All nine levels of it. Gotta be. Come on. Or maybe to get Helena and back. What is going to place and not a person? I don't know. They keep mentioning it. He said it was his religion. At the end of the book, it said the end, very ominously.

Well, that's what the end of every book says. Most books have endings, right? This is not some kind of story book. What going in the book was it, Mr. Yornear? It was some Eldridge tone. It looked... It's... Frankly, his entire back room looked a bit like Spencer's gifts.

Or even the electric orb, hey? You remember him reaching out and being just charging out and they were the normal lamp, right? I even saw the penis thrall. There was one of those spin displays like, oh, I'm 40 now. Over the hell. That's actually... That was one of those poster catalog things that were metal frames that you could flip.

Oh, God, there's no one here is old to remember the fucking poster. Fucking face, holy shit. Is that no longer universal? I don't think so. No way! There's no way! There's no way! Fuck, so posters anymore.

All right, let's assume for a second that it's related. Why would you think stealing it would have any good outcome? You could learn more about the nature of your curse if you care to. Or could put me in some of the bad graces of some real. really bad people. This is also true. It is a risk. I wanted to let you know and be up front about what I saw. This is all. No, you're right. I appreciate it. I'm just not sure what we can do about it. Tricky... To be fair, even if we wanted to steal it, night would be the time to do it. But if that's his light quarters, you know, I'm not going to get in that. You think he's a Dracula? No, I just think he sleeps in there in that creepy Spencer's gift room.

He hangs upside down by his feet. Maybe. I hope I'd judge. Lots of mnomes and mushrooms and stales and noot-food. That's the sailors that I would sail with. We usually call those kinds of places specialty establishments, if you catch my meaning. Ah. They charge a premium. So you're saying that he was logging what he was doing to help.

And then at the end of the book, it said, The End. But there was blank. until that point. You think that means when he's done cataloging all of his good deeds he dies? That was my guess, Queenie. Or maybe he is similarly cursed

and he's released from it. Why would it say the end, though? Wouldn't it say like, you're free? The end of your curse. Feels more like the end of your life. Especially because it's coupled with him looking behind a door like this.

You know what I mean? He seems so excited to help, to add more into the book. Would he be rushing towards his death? Maybe. I think about it like this. If you had been cursed to provide services to people for year after year after year, and you've been doing it for thousands of years, maybe, wouldn't you welcome the sweet embrace of death? Not if it was serving tea.

That's fair. All right, I don't know that. I wasn't on board until you suggested there might be a way out of this curse. The problem is I'm not going to spend the rest of my life helping people. That's pathetic. I don't think you should steal the books, Scrim. Tricking the figure out of the coin is how you were cursed in the first place. You're right.

You're right. Stealing the book could double curse you. Would you like me to do it? No, no. I think that's only going to make things worse for me. You think maybe we should just talk to him and ask him? I was thinking about it. But then he's going to be like, how'd you know about my creepy Spencer's gift room?

I'm going to be like, well, I don't really know. I don't have a good way to explain this. Were you spying? No, no, no, I got it. I got it. You tell him it came to you in a dream, that you two must be connected. Because you also have a dog. That's not a bad idea.

I don't know how much I want to tell this guy about how cursed I really am. You don't have to. You can just say you've seen a dog stalking you for a while. and you happen to have a dream and you think they're connected and see what he'll tell you. I might just tell him about a dream and make that up and not even tell him about the dog yet unless there's a reason to. All right. I mean, what if he kidnaps me and does some horrific cabal experiments on me? And the next thing you know, I get turned into a leather book, if you know what I'm saying.

Well, at least he's not an alien. He's not an alien? No. Because with that tattoo on your bag, they'd know exactly where to probe you. That's well. That's right. That's right. I don't know. I don't know about this, guys.

No, neither do I. I really don't want to talk to that guy anymore. Well, it's inevitable. I think he'll check on us before he turns in for the night. I could tell him I had the dream. I should probably do it. No, I agree. But I mean, if you're feeling cowardly about it,

I'd be happy to do it. No, it's just kind of the way things are. I know. We could also just move through the districts under the cover of darkness. We could also just not find out anything about it at all. Just pretend like you don't know. You know, avoidance. Is the thing.

Yeah. Tyshen makes a good point. It's only a matter of time before they find us, especially the queen. And then princess, and then we're in trouble. We're in real trouble. I thought we wanted to go see her. I don't know. We want what she has.

The hexature armament. I think we were trying to avoid detection. Well, I don't know if this is the sort of place, but I've gotten surely at strange ports with sorcerers and priests having chokers and bangles with gems that could change their person. I think they would have anything like that here that we could preach. Robicure so we don't have to worry about sneaking around like vermin. Ill drafts and instead perhaps walk about like Delius or dwarves or not else, uh, or cobalds and the light so we don't have to be so terrified. Yeah, I agree.

I do want to go back to your point though. I think he was the first person who saw us and didn't immediately freak out about it. That's true. Oh, did you like at him? Oh. But that's my point. He probably deals with something similar to us.

So, talking to him about the dream you had, you could maybe get him on our side and maybe he knows some kind of, if they're having some underground cabal, maybe he knows secret tunnels or ways to go about unnoticed or different ways we could sneak around, maybe it could be helpful for our subterfuge. I know, I know you don't like when I make a good point, scrim. I just don't want to talk to him. It's because his breast smells. It's everything about him. It's just a vibe. It's a whole thing, you know. It's just, it's a whole thing. It is. It is true. If he truly worships the, the creature that stalks you, he might think that you have some relation to that. He might, he might seek to become an acolyte of yours. That sounds like a nightmare.

I do not need a guy like that followed me around. I have enough problems as it is. Might not be bad if we had some kind of cabal that responded to you. All right. Are you saying that he might be able to be brought in as some sort of prophesize savior or some sort of one who was foretold, blessed by the god that's the dog that they worship and serve and might be able to control the cabal?

All of this feels like a very, very, very, very, very short. cut to sacrifice. Ah. I don't hate that idea, Mr. Firehouse. If anybody could spin that tail, it would be Scrim. All right. Nice, ain't true. I'm leaving up to you and you.

Talk to the guy, we leave under the cover of darkness. I care not. Great. It is your curse, Scrim. Yeah, well, if it was my choice, I'd say we'd let's shake a leg and get out of this place. Then we will do justice. I think that our only shot here. The only thing.

that we have, tax, no help, no offense, time, is this supervert? All right, can we stop calling him the soup pervert? At this certain point,

it's just like we're projecting a lot, you know? We got to tone it back on the soup on the be a pervert. While y'all were sleeping, Tack told me he's had sex before. Oh my God.

All right. He's a strapping young lad, I suppose. Anyway, this is a surprise to you. Well, no, it's not a surprise to me. I just, I asked him if he knew what a certain word meant, and he said, well, I've had sex.

We have to talk about TAC having sex. I don't think we have to. We definitely have to talk about perverts. I feel like we should get it all out there. Tech's clearly a pervert. And loud fart emanates from where Tacks is sleeping. All right, I'm gonna go knock on the store. That's it.

I think that's a good idea, Mr. Suss. I can't stay here. And ask about perhaps magical trinkets and relics and things that can have magical properties where the sorceresses and dark Do you want us come with you? If you want. All right, I'll come.

Here we go. We'll go knock on his door. We'll try to go find his living quarters. And you're not going to come with you as well. You should stay here. We're going to do dog knocks on his doors. We're going to try to find his living quarters. You should stay here.

Along with tap. You. Stay with Tack and Barnabot's Queenie and Scrim. You are the one. I'm staying, yeah. I don't have a lot of stuff. Because I'm staying with your Nair. Because Yornear is Grimeneer.

And also, and Tysha is fully hidden that he's actually a Golden Dragon. That's a good point, too. So we don't, we don't can't let anyone see their faces. And Tack will not be helpful. That's a good point. So the three of us who don't have to like desperately hide, we'll go.

You start to, you open the door and you make your way down the hall to the stairs and you start to make your way and you are about a quarter maybe a third of the way down the stairs when you hear voices it's it's 10 11 at night and you can hear the murmur of the room the people who are wrapping up dinner enjoying the last remnants of their drinks that sort of thing just engaged in casual conversation but you're close enough to the front entrance that you can hear the voice of Nimrodel. I would walk up to him and say,

Nimrodel. Before you reach Nimrodel, you hear him say, no, no, no, no, no one of that description. I mean, oh, as soon as I hear that, I'm like, I would like back up and like put my arm to like, the, I'm just completely frank, like, go on Barnaboses and Quinny's names. and basically like,

No, no, I haven't seen anyone that matches those descriptions. I see all of that then. And they had an ogre with them, you say? I see. I'm afraid I can't be of any help. I'll be sure to alert one of the frost hammers if I see anyone.

Very good. Good night. And he closes the door. and turns, and you can hear him sort of stop at the front podium, sort of doing whatever business he needs to do. And you have a sense that if you wanted to go out now before he started attending to the other patrons, you'd be able to.

I would like poke my like just my face ever so slightly around the corner and be like, pst, of course, yes. And he gets up, walks over. Do you need more snacks? No, anything I can do for you at all. Nimrodel. I feel bad now. I owe you an apology.

Oh, you all. No, you don't wrong, I haven't wrong me in the least, no. That you're aware of. We've been rather rude and cold. I disagree. They were calling you a soup perverse. Oh, no. We all called you a soup pervert, and it was completely unwarranted.

Why? We're immature. We're mean. We're weary from the travel. We haven't learned. Who the hell puts beef, beans in dynamite beef? Travel Deliria. We don't have any beef I was trying to be

as accommodating as I could. Who calls a meatless soup a stew? If it was not appreciated, then I'd say. No, it was great to actually believe. We're sorry. No, no, it was really good. We heard what you did for us. Just now.

We heard what you did for us just now, and we can, we can't, there's nothing we can do to repay you. You've helped us out and, and, and, You know, I came here to ask you some questions because I'm having a hard time. And I, we heard, we overheard what you did for us. And we're extremely grateful.

He looks at those eating and he says, let's quiet ourselves upstairs for a moment. Just, just very quickly. Sure. There's a lot of rumors all around town about a gang of individuals who crashed a sledge into a tavern. Yep.

Yeah, it was an accident. That they had gold. Well, that's not, yeah, that's not really. true anymore. That they had an ogre that was supposed to be there under the mountain. Guarding against the trolls. That's him. I'm not here to ask any questions, but it seems that you are in the need of assistance. In all reality, we are just passing through.

And we think we might have been led to this end by divine prophecy. You see, Scrim had a dream. We don't know if it's true or not, but we believe in these kinds of things and you seem like the type that might believe in this kind of stuff too scrimm, go ahead and take it away. Just wanted to learn a little bit more about your religion. Ever since you mentioned it to me, I've been a little off and I don't know why. Long history, we elves, we here on Dracar, we aren't well suited to the ice and the snow, but making our way eventually We became, unfortunately, due to an encounter, well, to put it mildly, cursed.

And to keep the curse at bay, we have our little worships and our little prayers and our little blessings. And my way of serving that greater purpose is running this in. So in my best to be the best servant I can so that I've been. might petition the princess to finally allow me to pass on. Okay, let me, one thing at time. So all the elves are cursed here. Our entire lineage, yes. Is this why you formed a cabal?

Yes, it's the name that we give ourselves, the shadow veil cabal. Oh, God. You are doing these, these acts of kindness to hold off the curse. Does it help? No. No, no, no. And we don't do, we don't all do acts of kindness. We're both for two here. You see, it is a, it is, you have to understand, I'm very old. I am going to turn 30 next year. 30? Like 3.0? Oh, yes. Yes. 30, can you believe it?

I want to die. Oh, he isn't that quite young for an elf? If we were allowed to just live on, it could be, centuries of life, yes. Explain. 30 is not that old. 30 is like, is the new... Even in human years, 30 ain't that old.

30 is like 17, just normally. Like, you're barely an adult. For us, 30 years old. We try to gift our years to Gahena, to that lower plane. Who is she? It is a place. It is a realm, a plain, a domain.

It is an evil place. But if we failed to continue gifting our many centuries of life to sustain it in whatever purpose it chose to curse us with, we would all pass into oblivion. So you are quite literally giving your time to this place and it shortens your life. It is a sacrifice I make. badly. And I am hoping to do the most good I can. It is my bucket list. The way that I will

celebrate this life, as short as it is. All right. And then the last question is, you need permission to pass on from the princess. Well, you see, the method of our departure involves a bit of nasty business and unfortunately, the princess holds the keys. Okay, all right, all right. What What does that mean? Are you sure you want to hear all of this? Yeah, yeah, I'm pretty sure now. Yeah, I'm pretty sure. Well, the nature of our curse is each of us is stocked by a very shadowy hound-like figures,

actually almost like a companion. And when it is time for us to move on, we are devoured. And we killed our soul sent to this lower plane for whatever nefarious purpose. This plane of Gehenna. Exactly right. How were you all cursed? You'd have to ask the elders. How old are they, like 24?

Well, one. Yes, I understand close to a thousand. Oh, wow. So that person just hasn't given up the... She lives her sacrifice to keep the knowledge and to keep the traditions passing down. Like a grandfather or a grandmother, Great, great, I have no idea.

All right. You know, I was going to try to avoid it. But here we are. I have a feeling that yours truly has the exact same curse. What makes you think that? Seems impossible. It seems impossible? We've never heard of anyone other than the elves here under Carr,

the shadow veils, no. Well, it's a big world out there, and sometimes dumb people do stupid things. What did you do? I signed a contract I couldn't read. Well, there's a little bit more to that as well, but I tricked a man out of a gold coin. He wasn't very happy about it. He more or less forced me under duress to sign the contract.

Which, to be fair, when a lot of places would make that thing null and void, but here we are. That doesn't line up with what I understand about our curse at all. Well... A gold coin? A gold coin? And I can tell you that I'm stalked. And I can't give the gold coin away, so don't get excited about the gold coin. gold. I've tried. Every time I give the coin away, it comes right back.

Well, the princess is not going to be very happy about that. Well, you know what? Neither am I. You know how many times I've spent that gold coin, though? It's the only good thing that come out of this curse. Do you need any more dynamite... No, no. Bins? No, we don't need dynamite beans. What I need... What can I do for you, really? More answers? Maybe to meet these elders, maybe to

learn a bit more about this place. You should go to the It's a bit on the nose The Cursed Glade The district Just on the south east there You'd be able to find our people there And do you learn as much as you do?

Do you happen to have a way you think Well, as you know, we are high profile In the city right now? Do you happen to know of any way We could safely travel around the city Without being noticed? Perhaps we're not trying to cause any trouble. We're just trying to make our way in Drakar, and if there's a way where we could perhaps disguise our persons and appear as humble inhabitants of this great city, that would make our lives much easier if there's any sort of magical relics or trinkets that might allow for some such effect.

The solution is actually simple. You need to return the ogre. That is... the Goliaths by right, the princess made them a gift. And that is her word, as she says. But the princess is the only one who could grant you safe passage. I know no other way. You can't sneak or deceive. This can be a very violent city if you don't know your way around. I mean, we can't give the ogre back. What we could do is perhaps chat with the princess, if that seems to be. We can parlay, and we can work out some sort of arrangement. Would you like me to facilitate?

I feel a little strange calling upon the princess, but... If you think you could. Well, maybe we should talk to Grimnar. Oh, yeah, that's right. Grim here. You should... Oh, yeah. to do with his infinite wisdom. We should talk to our leader and find out

if it's a good idea for us to be calling on the princess just yet. But if that's the route we wanted to go, we could beseech you to call upon her for us, potentially. Or I could hide the ogre here while you go do whatever it is you need to do and find the princess that way. Or I could go and perhaps talk to my brethren and see if they have a solution. Anything, anything at all to help, really.

I think that that's a much better idea. If you could just keep our friend tact nice and safe and sound and hidden, we can initiate a parlay ourselves and set the terms in a way that is not perhaps colored by the opinions or influences on you or your organization. It's a pretty big risk for me, but... I see. perhaps a page of entries. I'm going to ask this question, even though I already know the answer to this one. I'm guessing nobody's ever figured out a way to break the curse.

If we had found out a way over thousands of years, we would have broken it. Thousands of years. Oh, that doesn't sound good at all. You know, it does not. People like me are a bit strange. I don't know if you've noticed. But most... They try to, in as few years as possible, do as many great things that they would want to do in their whole lives if they had those centuries.

They have families. They get married. They do great works of art. They spend those few precious moments, those tiny years in comparison to the true scope of what our lives should be so that our tribe can live on. All right. we should go talk to the others. And if you need any apples or carrots or anything at all, I have tea, you've done more than enough. We appreciate it.

Ghanes' blessing. And he turns and he starts to make his way down the hallway. And as he does, you see a figure stomping up the same stairs. And you see a huge, human man start to pass him. They cross paths, but he stumbles blind drunk past the three of you and opens a door across the way, finding and stumbling into his own room, seemingly, before. Do you recognize him? Yes, you recognize him as the same man that you first saw after crashing into the tavern as he stumbles into a room and closes and locks the door behind him.

The three of you make your way back, opening the door. Taishen, Yorneer, Tank, are all three there. How would it have you spent the time if you have been doing anything that you want to at that time? Through the door, maybe while they were out there, you might overhear very faintly, that's done nuts looking, creepy boys have an old-ass looking, black light using, old as super... That's super... That's super...

That's not, man. Soup pervert. I probably tried to kill us. That's great funny. And then the door opens and you see your three companions. Allies, walk into the room. You survived. How did they go?

Well, Nimrodell is actually a really nice guy. What? Yeah, no, I feel. We shouldn't call him a suit pervert anymore. The pervert? No, don't call him a suit pervert anymore. We put that upon him. It's not even true. We stumbled downstairs and we saw him at the door. Someone had come a looking for us.

And he pretended like he had never seen us. He protected us. And he had no reason to. He could have gotten himself in a lot of trouble if he'd been found out. But he kept our cover. He's a good guy. I don't understand. He's offered to call the princess.

for us, set up a meeting if we wanted to. He even offered to house attack for us and to keep him safe and protected so we don't have to give him back. The also, apparently the Goliaths have been given the ogres by the princess. This is unthinkable.

The Goliaths that I've known of leaving freedom and will never accept that. These people are strange. If we want to find Daisy and see where she may be, we will need to go into giant fist. The giant step. The giant step district. It is better if the ogre stays here. Also, all the elves, they're all cursed, horrible curse, same gross as me.

That is a place. Lower plane. Is this the... You told us about your experience getting transported, right? Yeah, but I don't know where it went. Is this the place that you were transported to? I don't know. I mean, where I went was awful.

And he said that place was pretty awful. If I'm doomed to be hunted down and consumed, and then my soul sent to Gehenna, and that ogre thought he was sending me to ogre heaven, which we know isn't a real thing. Maybe I'm already claimed. And where I briefly went was... Gehanna.

Did you ask him about the horrible vision that you saw? Of the legs? I didn't want to get into it. Well, this is fine. The point is, they're all cursed. There's no way to break it. They donate their years! They just want to die.

Forever! They donate their life to Gehenna. The guy's only 30. He thinks that's ancient. They donate their life. Spam. Yes. And they said there's an elder who's like a thousand years old maybe and she's like the keeper of the stories.

It might be the only person who has any idea of any of this stuff. And they're the district before the giant step. So I mean, if we got to go all the way around anyway, we could stop and swing through. And you can let them know we're coming. The good people. To just give you a quick orientation,

this is the giant step. Southeast is where the Thurston Blitz. Damn it, it's not even close. I thought that one was giant stuff. I promised to have a drawn map for you next time. I just... Either way. Well, it's not even close.

So, I don't know. He offered to watch TAC. Tack will be safe. I'm going to pay him back anyway. Got to make up for all the awful things we said and all the stuff he did for us. But I don't know how we're going to get all the way over to... He called it the accursed glade.

Ah! Like, we won't even go there. But they're all good people and... Just as screwed as I am. Well, the good news is that if they have not found a way to break the curse, perhaps you can be at ease. That there's not more you can be doing. It doesn't seem like there is.

Come to terms. And if you do not choose to give the rest of your years, perhaps there is no further curse. I wouldn't even know how to go about doing that. Well, and if there's an elder that's lived for thousands of years, maybe it won't come for you before your natural time. Yeah, maybe. What a nightmare, huh?

Yeah, it sucks. We need a plan. Giant step, learn what has come of the vassals and the ogres. They could be an ally in our parley if it turns to violence. Remember that the triad told us three paths, all of which could be our fate. We should keep an open mind to all of them. So under the cover of dark, I think we should go. All from a head up.

You should move quickly. I must keep in mind that all of this happens with Secundus on his way. I will look a little bit like, kind of distracted and sullen, and I'll just nod as I'm kind of like fidgeting with the shell. I'll kind of be holding up in my hand, and I'll just nod and say, hi. To the Golaeus. All right, I need five minutes before we go, as we're preparing, all right, everybody's. to get ready give me five minutes yes um and what i would like to do is find take just a knife a dagger whatever um and maybe find some like spare cloth or whatever and cut out you know a a large enough

square where i could create like a make shift like sack um and uh put 25 gold coins in it and wrap it up tight and make it look like it's just a you know a cloth wrapped up thing um and bind it with something, you know, and just keep it all together and put that in my pocket separately. Okay. All right, I'm ready when you are. We should let Nimrodel leave. No, we're leaving before we head out. Is there anything else we need to do before we go?

Let's pack more we are leaving. Yeah. I don't know if we mentioned. He did mention that we're going to have to return the ogre, and which obviously we're not okay with, but it's the princess's orders and what she says goes. So there's a chance that... We might not come back here. There's a chance that we don't see Tack again.

We need to be prepared for that. And I... I know we met him 12 hours ago. Perhaps less. I feel a kinship with him, though. What? I feel a kinship with him. He will be better off here,

being helped by this generous soul, then being thrown back in chains with the Goliath. I just... We got to make sure he's up. All right. You all feel a certain kinship with TAC, and it feels, though you might not know it, in your heart, you feel the weight of the ogre people in him, the symbolic representation of everything that you experienced in those people's lives that you were suddenly thrust into and engaged

with. In many ways, TAC is a representation of everything that you experienced in your first true settlement of Rhaqar. And with a heavy heart, you start to make your way out of unless there's anything else you want to do. I would just want to tell NIMRodal that we're leaving and make sure he knows that we're heading out. And have just a moment to say goodbye. He has two final customers that he is finishing and he gives you a hand before five. finally, finishing, attending to theirs, he picks up a few plates, and then holding them still.

Yes. We're gonna head out. Tach's upstairs. He's asleep. Is there anything else we can do before we go? No, no. Do you, how can I take care of TAC? What should I tell him when he wakes up? Just let him know that we're gonna go check things out.

He's gotta stay quiet. He's gotta stay hidden. Right? And hopefully we'll be back. You don't look like anyone else. here in the city. You must not be found. Noted.

And I just wanted to thank you for everything and apologize again for the way that we treated you. It was wrong. And whatever you do, don't let anyone find this. And I slip the 25 gold coins wrapped up in cloth into his pocket while his hands are full.

I just put them in his pocket. Don't let anyone find them. What is it? Open it later. Very good. Um, when you get to the giant step, uh, you'll see, uh, uh, and halls and they, they are, uh, a bad day for them as one that doesn't have spilled blood. They are fighters, understand? Uh, I guess so.

Are you, uh, what will you do when you get there? We're looking for someone. If you know what you're looking for, then I won't get in your way. The humans that they brought from the ogre town. We understand that they were taken perhaps to the giant step before being moved elsewhere in the city. Only the ogres came. There were no more humans that came but arrived.

The only human I know is asleep upstairs in one of my smaller rooms. he doesn't earn very much as a poet. Would she have taken, if she had taken humans? She gifted ogres to the Goliath, would she gifted humans to someone else, somewhere else? I think news travels quickly here in Argentholm. I imagine we would all know if another group of humans had arrived. But perhaps.

What about, does anyone ever, see her her hoard where she has all of her gold where she would take anything that she has. Only those special cobalds, the ivory clutch. They live in the biting bastion all alone with her. What is? The biting bastion. It is not a place for guests. There's an assembly yard where we occasionally come together as a city. And she has her way with words, but no, no one's seen her hoard. I imagine that she is still trying to gather as much gold as she can. Is there anything other than gold that she values as highly or higher?

She would tell you the defense of Dracar. She would tell you that she only cares about. this land and that she is trying to unite us, all of us, together here and across the whole continent, north, south, east, and west to, uh, ready for some coming threat. All right. This is useful, thank you. We should not waste any more time. Let us go. Thank you. Again. I can prepare some dynamite jackfruit. No, no, no, no, please. No, it's not necessary. You've done. Plenty. Very good.

I'll get his blessing. He turns and he starts to make his way back to the kitchen with the emptied plates and no sound emerges from his pocket as he disappears from view. You walk out and the cold blowing wind and snow hits you no longer in the warmth of the lively, not lively but running tavern and in. walk out and the street is effectively empty. Looking up and down you can see that you might have to dodge a few body or two, but you can, you would, as long as you keep your eyes open, be able to see a figure coming from almost any distance now that it is a clear night with only a few small flecks of snow drifting through the air, seemingly blown up from the wind. I would, I think, just turn.

and start to head towards where I think the giant step is now that the streets and allies are clear. With my hood up and sort of low, you know, if we can look like five little superiors. With trench coats. Turns out we were the superiors all along. Slinking through the streets. You endeavor to all hide your forms as much as possible

with what you have on you. You prepared for it inside and you start to make your way north. The five of you, disguised as best you can, are walking and you see your footsteps in the snow on the sort of almost cobblestone. It's not quite cobblestone. It doesn't have that same rounded texture, but the streets here have been worn by centuries of footfall, it seems. So it's a very smooth path. and avoiding the ice as much as you can, you start to make your way down through the streets.

And you realize pretty quickly that if you follow the main streets, it could be a pretty direct path to a way up. The Giants step being a district that seems to be a higher elevation than the marketplace, or at least where you're coming from in the marketplace, as close to the lake as you were. And very quickly, the cold air and the breeze blows away that smell that pervades this lower neighborhood, the sort of poorer marketplace.

And you see a few figures start to approach, and you realize very quickly that these are frost hammered cobbles. And they are walking directly in your direction. They don't seem to have noticed you just yet. What are you all doing? I think as soon as we see someone, we would duck into an alley and try to cut and like take a different path. Yeah. Just trying to be as like stealthy as possible, basically, but not looking like we're fucking Scooby-Doo creep. Yeah, we're trying to remain outside. Okay. You get to the next small alley and you turn and duck in.

It is fortunate that the cobalds are on the other side of the street, missing your footsteps in the snow or perhaps observing them and not making any, taking any care. But they walk by and you have a few hushed moments of silence and tension as you continue to make your way eventually waiting for them to pass once they're out of sight. You get back onto the, onto the street. And there is a shift, a change in what was these much older buildings to a district that seems to have been remade, remade in the image of these tribesmen. Instead of these larger, more traditional housing, you see huge, what are they called?

Like watchtowers, almost. There are towers that seem to dot along all up and down this district. You can see that there are walls that surround buildings. This district seems very much to be a reflect. of the Goliath's temperament, and they have remade it with their own people, their own culture in mind. As you start to approach, you realize there are only main streets thoroughfares that go into this space. There are no alleys. It looks like you would have to either send a wall in order to perhaps escape a detection or approach what are very clearly Goliath sentries.

No, this is a dead end? Are we stuck? Can you get us through? I could try. But then are we trapped? We're not getting out. It will not be as easy as the last time. We got to make sure we really want to go in there before we do, because there might not be any turning around. I can get us through. Hey, this is where we are going, and we mean to...

Find the survivors from Ogerton. There's only one path forward. There's no turning back now. You'll see me shift. My height really won't change, but I'll go from blue to gray, and I will take that same grim near appearance. Okay. With the aggressive scar and tattoos.

You all watch as his features shift and morph and reshape and in almost a blink of an eye, Grimeneer stands before you. Just look grim and determined. Okay, easy. Hail! As I approach the sentries. You walk up and they are, they had been standing alert, but you hear the call back to and response.

Who goes there? My name is grim near the pilgrim. I have come from far off lands to offer my services to the princess. You come from homeland? Many years ago, yes. But it has been centuries since I have returned. You have not been with Thribe this whole time?

Yes, I have been wandering. I've been blessed with the gift of second sight and unnaturally long. life and they call me Grimnear the Pilgrim. They both sort of look at each other in confusion and your companions. They are my companions from far offlands as it is hopefully evident to you. Step closer into the torchlight. And this would have all been in giant, by the way. So I don't know they're responding in kind. Yes, they are responding in giant. If you said hail and giant, then they would have been speaking to you in their native tongue. And then in common, I'll switch. Let us approach.

I would listen to Yornear and follow. The four of you follow Yornear, Grimnir, up to the two, up to the two centuries standing there. We are, I am Garvex. This is Farval. What brings you so late at night? We have important business that we must attend to. I can not elaborate any further. And if you must know, as a powerful sorcerer,

my strength is greatest at night. When the moon is high in the sky. It is just a few days to half moon. And the night is high in the sky, shedding its light down through the occasional cloud that drifts overhead. The sky is filled with brilliant stars. And they look at the sky and they look at you. Sorcery. Magic. There are rumors spread.

around the city of this a group of foreigners who have come to the city are you then we have only just arrived it is unlikely that word of our arrival has spread there are many travelers across the land of their car how did you come into the city not through the marketplace I think I told you that I have great sorcery do you think I need paths or tunnels to get into this land to enter this city one wave of my staff and I can bring my party wherever I need make an intimidation check that's exactly the right call there very wonderful Oh, uh, uh, uh, uh, Twitter, twit, twitts, right?

Yes. What's your, what's your current plus? Zero. It's right. It's right. It's charisma. Yeah. Um, five.

Five. Yeah, plus five. Yeah, plus five. That's advantage. Five is reasonable. I think, I feel really good about this role. Five twists. Thank you, chat.

We're going to run out of a two quickly. Natural fucking 20. Grand total of 25. 25. The air crackles. Around your ear. near. Gorvax turns to Tharval and they look at each other and warriors as fierce as this,

no muscle, but it is the insinuation of the powerful magics that you wield that causes them to hesitate. Fumbling with his horn on one side, he releases it and grips the end of a great battle axe instead, just out of a just-in-case maneuver. And what are you here for the Giants? What brings you to our tribe? As I mentioned before, there is business that we are on in the various districts of the city that we cannot elaborate upon.

And if you wish to avoid that the princess's wrath, I suggest you let us through. He leans over and whispers for a moment into Thorball's ear, and he turns and whispers back. You could be bringing danger. You could be bringing violence. You could be bringing death. You could be bringing assassination. We cannot trust you to walk alone. As a proud Goliath, you fear violence, you fear death, you fear death, you. Do you fear danger? What kind of Goliath are you?

I cut my own eye out to gain great sorcery, and you stand here guarding a gate with an axe? We would not leave our tribe unprotected. We would... We cannot let you pass. We will follow. This is fine, as long as you let us in. He makes a gesture and the two sort of step to the side and you can see this long, these extremely wide,

much wider than the paths in the marketplace to accommodate their great size and their need for open space. And you, torches light the way. If you know where you are going, then go. Touche. I will say in common, let us proceed. Where are we planning to go specifically?

I think we would be looking for wherever the ogres are being held or where they're located. I can't help. Move aside. You may enter. And I'll start walking, like doing that Gandalf walk with purpose, you know what I mean, like sure to speedwalking.

And I'm going to just start walking into the district. Like, I know where I'm going with purpose. They give you a birth of about 50 feet before you feel that they are starting to walk behind you and follow you into the giant step. And walking past the buildings, you can see that many of them are here forging weapons. There are many eateries, cafeterias almost, for these groups. to assemble and talk after training. And there is indeed training grounds.

Wide open spaces where you can imagine during the day would be filled with the sounds of clashing metal and the sounds of sweat as they undergo whatever harsh training a Goliath like this, a tribe like this, would see fit for its own. Walking deeper, make a perception check for me. Mm. 21.

Nice. 21, it doesn't take you very long for you to figure out that you are on one of the spokes of a hub. This district is almost like a large circle with a number of paths that lead to a central building, and that very likely you are headed directly towards the center of governance or authority in this particular district. As I walk through, I'll say, do not delay, let us keep up. And I am going to, with trying to almost make a show of it, they'll see, if they're behind me, and it's dark, they'll see from my hood, like a blue glow, sort of expand and then reduce as my eye glows and I cast locate creature.

Bad ass. For the next hour, within a thousand feet, I am looking for a named person or the closest type of creature to that person. So I'm looking for manias or an ogre of any kind. But let me just tell you exactly how it's worded. Pelkin located a specific creature known to you or the nearest creature of a specific kind. So basically that creature or...

What's the duration? An hour. An hour. And picking up what you're putting down, as soon as you're like your sorcery flashes, I'll probably like, I mostly like this hooded figure, you hear as like the crab legs will like scuttle out from under my robe.

And I'm like, I'll use a charge of rage to like have a crab claw kind of snap out like I'm some like chaos mutant. Okay. That has been mutated by Grim Neer as one of these strange, mysterious other foreign foreign entities. Scrim, Tyshen, Queenie, what are you doing in these moments now that you've crossed the threshold into this district?

I would very much be trying to just follow Yornear in a way that is very, like, clear that I work for him, right? Like, you know, like subservience almost, right? Like, whether I'm at his side trying to act like I'm, you know, helping him or ready to assist him. It would very much be like, I'm not, I don't spoken less spoken to, I'm speaking less spoken to,

and try to look like, you know, I'm in awe and fear of this, this man. Um, I should. Uh, I would be following Yorner closely as well. And as we, in, like, very much the night, uh, as we approach any type of like torchlight.

And I'd be, pulled up also like hooded. I'd be trying very hard to not let any of the light hit my scales. And as we approach any form of torchlight, I would be very carefully and subtly manipulating the edge of the flame to not reach out and end right before it touches. This creates a slight effect where as you are walking, there's almost a darkening around the five of you. The flames are framed. Yeah. The flames tremble in our These guys are gonna need serious therapy. Yeah, let's fucking go!

I will send the bees ahead of us almost as kind of like a, almost like a red carpet. They just kind of light the way, just following along with where Yornear's looking and seeing what he's doing, to figure out where they need to go, so it almost looks as if I am helping to keep his path clear for him. These effects all combine, and you glance behind you to keep keep tabs on the following guards.

And you see not two figures now, but five. They seemingly are sort of doing this to other centuries that you're passing along the way as you're walking farther and farther down the street and now whispering to more and more guards as they are watching these strange magics unfurl. And their steps slow and then sort of catch back up. You can feel the fear in these Goliath's hearts as you look back, and they are endeavoring to pump up their numbers. You get another 15 minutes, 20 minutes forward before you locate a creature.

You suddenly feel that not directly ahead of you, but just to the side, there is a building or some kind of encampment where you would be able to find, Manny specifically. Shit. Without a work, I'll just continue on and I'll head to that building. With a preternatural sense of where to go, and you almost sense in yor-near that shift where you were walking straight and all of a sudden it's like

the pace already fast doubles, and you start to turn, and you make your way around a few buildings before eventually seeing this large, huge, almost domed building that is the at the center of this district you see a structure almost looks like a large barn it has two huge open entrances to it and you start to walk directly towards it you know you're near as you approach this massive building this huge structure that this that Manius is within but you're struck by the fact that you don't see just Manny

when you walk in through the doors. The torchlight illuminates, and you can see hundreds of ogres are within this space. They are all almost in pens, waiting, sleeping, just almost like cattle in this large space, not in a dormitory or something along those lines, but clearly being treated as lesser.

And you know that at the very far end, these ogres on either side is manning. Um, as we walk into the barn, I will bring everyone inside. And if they've been training as like a far ways back. I would say they're now like 75 feet back, but there are a dozen of them having spent so much time walking and them pulling more and more to their ranks.

Are there any more, are there any eagles inside this barn? No. I will shut the door and bar it if I can or lock it. Behind us. As soon as they realize what you're doing, you see their pace pickup to a jog, but you are all inside and you watch your near closing one door, and it does not take very much for the other four of you to help and slam it closed. There doesn't appear to be any interior locking mechanism,

but you are able to close it. It's not like there's one of the beams that can land in one of the holders or anything. holders or anything along those lines. But you close it and you feel a click. All right. And at this point, I'm presumably I'm not disguised. So I look like a fear bog. All right. So we need to either get out of here on scene or try to lose them or Unleash the ogres on these Goliaths. Oh, you say we unleash all the ogres on them. If we do that, we're putting their lives at risk. They might be injured or wounded or

certainly killed. how we can do it and we get definitely escaping the chaos, but what are we gonna do then? Then what? What would the princess's response be then as well? What if she gave them as a gift, and if they get out of line, she just swoops in and thinks they're not worth the concern?

And we have no reason to believe that the ogres are going to attack and fight. They could, they could cower and be afraid. I mean, think about how tack is. He doesn't always resort to violence. He's a gentle soul. and they could just barge in here and just slaughter them. All because we unlock their cages.

Barnabos, keep an eye on the door, make sure no one gets through. If anyone enjoys it get through, they're going to get an anchor into their fucking skull. I'm very clearly, like, extremely enraged and, like, my veins are bulging. My skin is kind of, like, shifting underneath and, like, and gyrating. And I'm doing everything I can to keep my calm, the best I can. And I will walk across the barn to where Manny is. Manny, it is good to see you. Your near?

Yes. It is us. What happened? Where are the others? Where are the humans? Your near is back. Yes. What happened to you?

We... We're taken away, but we are back now. Is, is, where, where, where, where, where did the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the vessels, where are they go, where are they? In princess's house. Is this where all, how many ogres are left? Is this all of you? Are there more? A few dozen went, a few dozen, a few dozen went to other tribes, but most are here. and they are keeping you in these pens? Yes.

Are you happy here? Do you want to leave? Not very comfortable. We could let you out. Would you like to be let out? Would you fight for your freedom? Yes. That I say we call the princess here right now.

Let us claim the freedom of these are. and we as all tribesmen of them to be held up equally at the right hand of this Princess of Wrath and we can demand a trial by battle and we will slay anyone who gets in our way she will respect that high I know we saw it She will respect a show of mighty show of strength Let us join forces with all of these souls Start releasing them do we have what like From the outside, is it openable, or would we have to break them out somehow?

Oh, it seems that the ogres, it's not like they're in cages, right? They're in like the equivalent of like... Like stalls. Stables. Yeah, stables, like stalls, right? And so they hadn't taken the time to open and try to escape. They'd just been told that they were gonna sleep here and are sleeping here. I love that.

Poor bastards! You do notice, and I think all of you would notice this, that they have cuts bruises from some kind of injuries. I will look around to see if anything in this area has heavy things that could be used as clubs. Or spiked, like, makeshift clubs, makeshift sledges. Make an investigation check. Ugh.

For the ogres. That's pretty good. Oh! That's pretty good. Oh. Investigation. Oh, shit. Skills.

Skills, skills, skills, skills, skills, skills. Skill, skill, skills. 19. With a 19, you look at the walls and you're hoping for metal anything. You're looking around and you're looking for clubs, anything. I'm looking for.

But you have a sudden solution. appears to you as you look at the pens themselves, and these are not pens that have been with thin two-by-fours or anything along those lines. These are hammered together what clearly once were straight branches from massive pine trees. And even though no medium creature

would be able to wrap their hand around the girth of each one of these logs, essentially, the large hand of an ogre would be able to wield such a thing as a weapon if you were to start pulling this timber apart. As soon as I realize that my anchor will drop from the netting and I'll pull it up and I will smash the pens. I'll attempt to basically smash it to pieces and I will try to basically dismember all the logs break apart and I will attempt to start doing that. It'll take me some time, I presume.

All right, it looks like we're doing this. Open all of the pens. Okay. All right, my friends, my crew, those survivors of Ogerton, all you have to do is claim the freedom yourselves, grab these logs, find any metal you can,

pick them up, wheel them and use your strengths, and it's quite simple, you smash them with the heavy end. And I'm going to try to basically smash apart all of the pens, find the lumber,

and start passing things out to every single ogre that's there, and anyone who doesn't understand how to use it, I will show them with my anchor and anything else and just let's show them how to swing and how to basically any kind of like Goliaths yes they are clearly if they the you're when you make these motions some of them almost seem like oh yeah no we've been doing this for weeks and the um some are

wiping the sleep from their eyes but immediately your rousing voice is getting them to their feet and very quickly you're all standing looking at the the towering army of of ogres that you is now in your contingent. As Mannyus looks to each of you, we go from town, from city, we leave. Brought here we were. You do not belong in these pens. Do you remember what I taught you about the triad?

Yes. But on the old, Denver car. We are going to fight for ogre man and the land. You don't have to wait for an answer. behind Manny is carved into his pen's wall, the symbol that you taught him. Pretty cool, pretty cool. I will, as I see, as I'm done handing out

all of the things, they're helping however I can, I'll have my anchor and I'll grip it very tightly looking at the door and I'll just kind of say to myself, are you here, my love? That's what you would do. We will fight! And I am going to, basically look at your near and basically wait for like the go-ahead to

basically smash the doors open and like demand a parley are they we're trying to get in like like are the do we feel like they're just sort of waiting for us to do our business you haven't heard anything since you close the doors you haven't heard a horn blow and there's been more than enough time for the Goliath and a jog to have reached the doors and entered is there a window we can look out of like near the doors or anything any way to see outside? Yeah, you'd be able to make your way up some of the ladders

and look down from the sort of like top areas. There aren't any windows on this particular floor, just like a stable. I think I would have gone to a window while Barnabos is like cracking, like, wood and building a... Handle over hand, you make your way up. And as you're hearing Barnabos, essentially equipping this

platoon, you are hearing Yornear's voice talking to Manny and getting a sense of understanding of what's been happening in the months that have passed since you last saw him and you walk up. What are the two of you doing as this unfolds? I would have just been following, you know, directions from Barnabos and you're near at this point,

like trying to rouse to the ogres that might have been asleep and open up the pens and basically be like, okay, go to Barnabos, get your standard issue weapon, go ahead, go to here, go show you what to do, Go ahead, come on, go up this way, this way. Yep, come on, you too, come. And like, basically trying to just rouse them and point them in the direction

of where Barnabos is rallying people. Okay, you are doing that. Queenie would be helping Barnabos, as he would pry, like, one of the clubs out. The bees would grab it and deliver it to an ogre. So that way Barnabos doesn't have to keep moving too much and can just keep crying. As strong as your form is now,

you're breaking them apart like Pop, obstacle sticks. Just immediately the swarm can go in and take what would normally be like 15 or so of these logs and they just splinter into perfect clubs and they each one go to Barnabos or to an ochre. When you reach the top, Tyshen, you peek over the side and you see hundreds of torches. There are an assembly of clearly the Goliaths have been doing the same work. waking their brothers, their sisters, and you're looking down at hundreds of shining bald heads that have assembled outside of the main building and into the street, going into the alleys, clearly waiting for something, but they are all standing there, each one of them equipped with a

metal weapon at hand, some of them a brutal mace, others swords, spears of all shapes and sizes, halberds and battle axes. Everybody, we're going to have one heck of a... fight on our hands. There's hundreds of them out there. They're amassing right outside the gate. I let them come. May not turn to bloodshed yet, but if it does, we will die well. Once I feel like all the ogres are armed and free, I would walk up and I would have Mannyus stand beside me. And I'll turn to Barnumost, I'll say, you may open the doors.

Hey, Mr. Grimeneer! And with one massive swing of my anchor, I'd be said to splinter the doors open. Make an attack roll. Imagine I got a natural one here. Can you attack recklessly? I can. Yeah, I can.

Oh! Natural 20. The dice tell the story, folks. Natural 20, folks. I got to trust the dice. Unbelievable. Off of its hinges, both of these fly out like playing cards. They simply flap out, and they nearly reach the assembled crowd that had just been standing outside of the door.

A few of the Goliath have to step back in order to get out of the way of the fragmented wreckage of these doors as they splinter into the snowy ground. You see all of you on the bottom floor the faces of all of these Goliaths looking curious, furious, full of energy, warlike energy. And Tyshen, just as you see the doors get blown off and into the street, you see a part, almost like a dark bulb start to make its way, as the torches start to part and reclose, as some figure continues to make its way towards the front line.

And out walks very clearly, one of the larger, Goliaths. He has a huge shoulder, a piece of armor on one side, a battle axe that is twice the size of any other, and clearly has a tremendous number of scars over his chest. And he looks up. He is also missing an eye. And he stares out and into the, towards the bar, and you hear him cry out, in there you. You will... I'm not gonna... hold on. Come out, you cowards. Come out and fight if you want to. We will take you down and kill all of you. Kolovak, the Unbroken, challenges you to this fight.

I will walk out of the barn. Hopefully with Mannyus beside me. I don't know how close they are. But... Uh... I will... Now just be, my hood's down. I'm my full fearball itself.

I'm walking out there with him. My eye is glowing. Only him steps forward to meet you at the halfway point. I am grim near the pilgrim, the prophet of Dracar. We are the defenders of this land, and you will step aside. Magic or no, you have tried to take from us. You are trying to take what is rightfully ours. These ogres are not rightfully yours.

They are part of our tribe. I claim them the responsibility for them. I train them to fight, to be like the other Goliaths. I will be fuming with rage, and I will move to step in between Grimeneer and this Goliath. as I'm probably shorter than that's Goliath. He matches Yorneur's height. Yeah.

I'm looking up and I will, I'll scan the crowd and look back at him and say, I'm with the princess of wrath. They are not part of your tribe. We are the tribe of Ogerton and we demand equal place in this horde of wrath that she has called forth here. So be it. He reaches down and pulls his own horn out. We wait. And we will see what the princess has to say about her own decision to grant us these lives. And he spits on the ground and turns. And there's an unsettling amount of time not knowing what to look at or what to expect. I'll step forward and stand next to Barnabos. I'm clearly taller than this ogre.

So I'll look down at him. That's all. The ogres have sort of rushed to the door and are waiting for any motion from you. But there's this terrible still quiet. Only the sound of the flickering torches and the shuffle of feet as this standoff between you and this wall of Goliath

continues to progress. 10, 15 minutes. Do you do anything with this time? I'll give everybody else a chance, but... I will... As I scan the crowd, do I see any female Goliaths? Yes. Does anything...

Would anything kind of spark any kind of memory? Not as to someone that looks familiar, but perhaps remind anything from my... Make a history check at advantage. Interesting. Interesting. 13. That'll be a 14.

14. You're looking into these eyes and only seeing fear and distrust and hate. And it's those emotions, those negative emotions looking into their faces that tickles something in the back of your mind, but the door does not open. I will just simply nod to myself. as I sit and I wait, still angry, still tense, but a slight calm has come over me. I know you are with me, my love. Stand aside. We will not parlay here in a barn. We will go to her own keep.

We will not let you go, and with this horn, she is already on her way. And she points up, and she points up, and she will go. You can see this half moon floating in the sky, these thin trails of clouds just in front of it, and you see this massive winged creature sail over them and down and around. You are watching, and it is impossible to make out any of these features.

You only see the predatory silhouette of the creature that you have come to know as the Princess of Wrath, and she starts to dive bomb directly towards the street that you find yourself on at an impossible speed, a speed that feels insane to you. And just as you think that she's about to collide, her wingspan opens out to slow her speed. And she transforms just 30 feet above the ground

into a humanoid creature, a human platinum blonde hair. She lands in the ground in front of you between you and the Goliaths. Massive, tall, a lithe, muscular, almost as though she's been chiseled from ice. And with her back to you, she looks at the war chief. She starts to turn and you see her cold, pale, blue eyes look upon you. Cold, pale blue lips, her beautiful features as she turns and takes you in.

And that is where we'll call tonight's session. But we're not done. Oh first of all you are all level nine We finally remember to say it on stream Oh no she's hard Oh my level nine And we're the story is going to continue for a moment that's the end of tonight's session But the story is going to continue

Oh, geez What was it mean, me? Did we long rest? Yeah Yeah, yeah we did for sure No that was a good check as I also didn't Yeah, you're right I just said something. In the cold embrace of Dracar's wilderness, Sigdis lived a life marked by the unrelenting cadence of survival.

The human Norveld tribe, her people, carved their existence from the frozen earth. Their days a testament to endurance against the harsh realm, the hungry beasts that prowl in the dark and their isolated existence. Sigdis, with plain features, auburn hair, and caring eyes, was like any other in her tribe. Since childhood, her presence among the Norveld peoples

had been as unremarkable as the snow underfoot. She grew, and her world rarely changed under the gray skies of Dracar until the day that Kostan entered her life. Kostan had been born misshapen, his form a cruel jest of nature. His appearance so grotesquely exaggerated earned him the scornful moniker of giant,

an insult that cut deeper each time it was uttered, for the giants were despised enemies of the Norveld. It became a constant reminder of his otherness, fueling a bitterness that no warmth could thaw. Sigdus heard the whispers, saw the disdain in the eyes of her kinsmen. He was quick to anger, given the insult so frequently hurled his way, and Sigdus knew that despite his physical strength, he was viewed as a shame and a burden, even by his family.

The first meeting was a stark reflection of the harsh realities of Dracar. Sigdus found herself dangerously outmatched by a pack of dire wolves. It was Kostan who emerged from the wilderness then. His monstrous strength was a spectacle of raw power, and he dispatched the beasts with bloody efficiency. Sigdis watched, her heart caught between terror and awe as he stood defiant in the blood-stained snow. In that moment, a connection stirred between.

them, born of shared survival and unspoken understanding. Life in the tribe, dredged onward, slow and unyielding like the icy rivers of the land they lived on. Until the day that Sigdus would become an unwilling participant in a tragedy that unfolded within Costan's family. Lured by the sounds of shouting in the mad light of growing flames, Sigdus found herself running to Costan's homestead. Costan's father, a man as large and as barbaric as the,

as barbaric as the frozen wilderness itself, his gray hair, a testament to his survival and a land that spared few, stood before their burning home, casting blame upon his wife and daughter. The building, it would seem, had caught a blaze from a careless, knocked-over brazier. Costan's father faulted his wife and daughter for the accident and commanded Costan to end both of their lives there and then. The rageful command to Kostan was unthinkable, yet Kostan had always been caught by the relentless grip of his father's will. Sigdis watched in shock as he carried out the deed with a heart as cold as ice,

crushing the lives out of his mother and sister with a massive mining hammer pulled from the neighboring toolshed. The aftermath was a tragic tableau of blood and fire, the two bodies lying broken against the snow. Kostan's resolve was shattered, and this time it was Sigdis who emerged from the wild. Her voice, barely more than a whisper, became the catalyst for his vengeance. Your father, she implored. He is the one. You have to, you have the strength. Free yourself from him. Her words ignited a rage within Kostan that would persist evermore,

easily dwarfing the blaze that consumed his home. Sigdis, her heart heavy with the weight. of what was unfolding watched the blur of motion and emotion as the two men clashed and fought. Their struggle was not brief, nearly caving in the adjacent shed, smearing it with their blood, splintering the wood and violence. When Kostan finally slayed the embodiment of his torment, wrath found its voice. You made me do this! He roared.

Again and again he brought the hammer down, with anger and sorrow and release. He shouted the words again, You made me do this! his father's skull was but matted gray hair. Sigdis saw in Kostan then, not a monster, but a man tormented by forces beyond his control, even himself. Their bond, forged by that fateful night,

was a complex mingling of suffering and empathy. Their union was not celebrated with songs or with feasts, but by the intimidated whispers of the horrors that had transpired. Their wedding, a somber pact, would become a prelude not a saga of romance or dreams, but one of mutual survival. Thank you so much for listening to the Legends of Aventures podcast. We hope you enjoyed the session. If you want even more campaigns to listen to, become a member of our Patreon at the

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