Legends of Avantris - Icebound | Ep. 6 | Steel & Silence

Episode Date: July 19, 2024

Our heroes' path intersects with a gang calling themselves the Frost Hammer clan, and attempt to calm the situation so they might find safe passage.   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/tGIR8CRFqX8?si=XmJEDQoTezUH75Um

Uh, welcome to Legends of Adventress. I'm Scrimmed Stabbiscotch, and you're listening to Icebound. Here's what happened last time. The doorframe glows brilliant blow, and he recognized the color right away. It's the fools who run from their past. They're the ones who wither and die. What kind of gold piece is that? I just found it here in my pocket.

Well, you've taken all of my corny. Oh, I mean, I won that fair and square. You have won something else. The right to sign this. I sign this, and you let me go. Right? Deal? Deal. Done.

I sign my name. This is when you see the eyes. It is breathing in your face heavily, ready to bark, ready to bite, ready to pounce, ready to do something. Before any of you can move, it is pulled, launched free by some other force above you. A raging woolly rhino has come in and with its horn smashed into the side of this creature.

Kids better not run out into the forest, Unless the bear will get you, eat ya. I could just get some soil and bring it back. I could fix the land for paw. There's a cottage on one end of the glave. Stay out of my garden, girl. Just go, little one. And if this fixes my family's problem,

this won't be the last you see in me. Don't let your sorrow stop you from traveling the way it stopped me. We live in on in you. The carved object is different. Is it a woolly right now? It is. It's hard to find a word to describe jade-shell village other than paradise.

The serenity will always be open for those who need it. This isn't right. Fujiao. Fujau appeared now and gave me the strength to find Mali. I went back home. She was there, waiting for me. I reached the circle of stone, but I was late. I knew I was late. What I found was that

the dose of my order that came there that same day, They were all dead. A whole woolly rhino bursts forward through the blizzard and gores your face with a tower. What of this fish? I saw perfection. I saw beasts dying of corruption. I saw mountains crumbling and flattening themselves.

You see a gang of cobalts. It's the first sentient life you've seen in... It is the 18th day of the 11th month. and you have endured. In the past few weeks, you've trekked further northward, not just seeking warmer climbs, but also to find some semblance of civilization or refuge or asylum, anything that might help you ease the coming burdens of deep winter.

And until these past few weeks, you've found little more than desolation and ice. The many miles you've traveled together and labored to survive have finally taken you beyond the tremendous ice sheet of southern Rekar, and though it may often be covered in snow, the crunch of real soil and ground under your feet brings a feeling of progress and triumph that is both shared and difficult to put into words. You find yourselves now, having followed a great river running northeast,

in part because of the occasional supply of fish it provides, but also in search of the crew that abandoned you so many long months ago. Instead of finding them, or the ancient ice sled they commandeered, you stare now at a very strange sight. A band of cobalds, marching across the frigid hardpack, singing. Their voices echo out over the snow-covered terrain as they approach the other side of this frozen river. You can spy the flags that adorn the points of their spears, black cloths, with a stark symbol of a great warhammer that flutters in the wind.

This small cadre of reptilian humanoids also pull behind them a sizable sled and are clearly making their way to the bank to cross. The first sign of sentient life you've come across since being visited upon by an enormous ice dragon in the dead of night, so many, many weeks ago. The morning is bright. The day is young. Your stomachs are full, your minds are clear, and the morning light faintly warms your skin as you look east towards these cobalds.

What happens next is up to you. I just have a couple of questions, since it's been so long. Roughly how far away from the camp that we set out and caught all those fish at, are we? From the original like village village? No, like from where we were just catching all those fish and getting that

little reprieve, we set out from that area. So like how long has it been? We actually need to do a little housekeeping, actually. 28 days of travel actually went by from the time that you left that village where you initially found the

first fish and found the candles. So rather than simulate all 28 of those, days, I would ask that whatever rations you have in your inventory, quarter them. You've been able to eat the cured pike that Barnabos prepared. You've been able to find additional fish. There have been meager offerings in the form of other small critters and creatures and more and more life as you have been turning northward. So, crank your rations down just to represent, you know, the ebb and flow

of that sort of thing, and then we'll pick up there. And then my other question is, who actually signed the note that we found that said don't come looking for us? There was no signature. There was no signature. It was just the crew's like general dagger into the side of the

wooden ship side. I just didn't know if there was like one person who took the lead essentially and signed it. There was the letter that we found in the hut. Well, it's right here. Let me go grab. by that. Which, no, not that letter. Because there were two letters.

The letter that we found in the village was the quartermaster, I think. The younger... That sounds right. Oh, you're thinking of the drawing that you found. There was an illustration drawn by the cabin boy Roland. The cabin boy rolling. Okay. And that illustration was on the hearth

of the place that you guys stayed at, presumably because the crew had passed through those same areas. Right. Got it. Thank you. I am on the same page now. Diorner is managing the sledge. Correct. So we just quarter what we have on our rations on hand.

Correct. Got it. And then the only other thing I have to do is the candles. That's right. You gave me, do you still have that, the bin team? The bin team. I should have asked you at the end of the last session to write down how many we had left. So I don't think we used any until we were ready to set out because we had firewood that we had salvaged from The huts. So that was untapped

Entacted entirely discussed you know however many days passed I would do the mat to figure out Let's quickly do that math. It should be pretty easy, but I just forget what the total was in the in the in the team bin Team Ben, Bain. Wait, how many rations did we choose? What am I removing? I was going to say, I was able to hold a decent amount of rations.

36, eight-hour chunks was how I was defining it, because it would be 36 nights because you probably wouldn't be burning them during the day. We absolutely had to for the reason. So I would say that you ran out of fuel probably five to seven days into your journey.

So it's been 28. Let's subtract 21, let's say. Did you eat my whole burger? I did. I think that's very recent. Round up or down? Fifteen. Oh, I'm at .5, so let's round up. Okay. Let's round up. Okay. So I have three rations left on Barnabos. We had 15 hour chunks left. 15, eight hour chunks left of bonfire. It's pretty good. Queen doesn't carry rations. And so we quartered everything on the sledge too or everything on the sledge is going? Everything on the sledge is just quartered.

So you still have whatever you had on the sledge divided by four. I had to eat fish rations. That's what I read. By and it blasts. And you're probably done to two. Two? Okay. Yeah.

Divide by four. And then round it. Right. Okay. If it's an odd number or an odd number or a non-hole number. Sorry. I got five on the sledge. It's has snowed relatively recently.

It's clear this particular morning, but there is, you know, a layer of three to six inches of snow that you're trudging through, underneath which is soil, hard pack, that sort of thing. But it's white in all directions. You can see this frozen river, some, you know, 500, 700 feet away, and on the other side, this very small band of cobalds who are starting to, position the sled as if to cross. What do you do? And you said we can hear them singing?

Yes. Oh my gosh, do you... I don't believe my ears. There's no way. Is that singing? So I haven't gone mad. Well, I'm seeing as real. You all see that, too?

Well, we're all going mad and we're having the same hallucination. I wouldn't put that past the realm of possibility. Well, to be fair, we've all had the same hallucination of force. Exactly right. That's actually a very valid point. Multiple times. Do we think they mean us hard? Well, they're singing, so they gotta be happy.

Their voices are quite beautiful. And they're like easily half my height, so we'll crush them if we need to. You can hear this echoing out. It's not like they're singing like opera or something along those lines. That's what I imagine. There's a specific cadence to it. It's almost like something to march to. That's sort of like, who?

That sort of like calling response as they're starting to make their way through the snow. I'm feeling invigorated, listen to it. Who, ha, ha. Well, you got to say it back. Ha, ha, who. You know, we'll work on it. Okay. For all the shanties we've done, Toy Shen.

Oh, that's the best you can do. I thought it was pretty good. Whoa, ha, ha. Huah Ha ha You know It's getting better The shanties were easier

There was I know I am a pretty good lead When it comes to a shanty or two It's true You got me in my drum Keep the beat So are we gonna go talk to them Or are we just gonna

I guess the question we should answer Here for what purpose Well what are they Because they're the first people We've seen it all Since we got here Not even people life Except for the dragon

And they sound happy They must have come from somewhere, but the questions are alive, which means they've got stuff to survive on to stay alive in a climate like this. But we do need to be careful because if they're running out and they see that we have stuff, that might not be the most friendly encounter. Do we have a way to communicate with them? Can they understand their language? Well, all they're saying right now is who a ha-ha, and that doesn't mean anything to me. So we're not able to make out any words. Do we know what they are? You make a perception check, couldn't?

I ain't never seen anything quite like that before. I'll make a perception check. and anyone who would like to help me can do the same. What language do you think they speak? I'm going to look at him a little harder. I don't think I've seen anything like that. 17. I'll see if I can perceive them.

In between hoo-ah-ha-ha-ha-o-a-o, you are getting specific words, but it's in a language that you do not understand. Probably. Have I ever seen it? I would assume. Have I ever seen a cobald before? That's a good question.

That's a good question. that would be a Mikey setting question actually based on where you've been in your life I got a 24 that's very high I speak yeah probably nothing that they would speak 24 no I would say that you probably also do not recognize the words but the as you're listening you the music the music the singing comes to a hall it seems now that they're now like looking around and and waving to each other pointing in all directions you can't hear them talking because of the distance between you and them, but they've stopped pulling the sled well before they're reaching the actual bank of the river, and it sees that they're turning their

head and they seem to have spotted you at this point. They are aware of your existence and the singing is. Um. Oh, hey! Oh, hey! Well, now they definitely know we're here. Hi! Hello, friends!

Hi! Gnomish, goblin, halfling, Sylvan. You know what, I'm gonna try something, and I'm gonna talk to my peon. and I'm going to send them up in the air to write out the words, Hi, we come in peace in common. This swarm of bees makes a word in the sky. It's a little lazy and it kind of drifts a little bit. They're not used to it.

It's not like a spell like skywriting or something along those lines, unfortunately. But you feel like they're doing a pretty good job. Well, from my angle, it looks like it, from their angle, maybe not. You can see that the cobalds are huddling together and they're looking up. looking up and they're pointing at the swarm and then they're continuing to whisper amongst themselves. They don't seem to be getting any

closer or coming to you. Well, it doesn't look like they're aggressive, but since they saw us, there's no point not saying hi. We don't want to think, we don't want them to think we're aggressive. How many are there? Well, in my swarm, probably like, I don't know, 200 maybe.

That's a big number. It's a natural 20. Let's go. Oh, the blue has... Sorry, I should have pulled my character. But I know for a fact that it is 20 plus 5 plus 3. No, you don't know that. With the 28, you spy with your yore and your eye. 16, Cobol's in this gang.

Two, three, four. I'm not exactly good in math, but... 16. Those odds are very good. Odds of what? Survival, if they decide to eat us? Oh. Well, we don't have to necessarily...

fight and we could just wrong. That is an option. But I agree that we should try to learn where they're coming from. They're coming from the way that we're headed, right? They're coming from if

you go dead east from where you're standing, you're going to hit that mountain range. Right. So there's that slope. And you've been getting closer and closer. The river seems to be edging its way towards this mountain range. Certainly that's where rivers come from.

If you had to guess based on when you initially saw them, you'd say that they were coming from the north, heading southwest towards you, and now you've intersected at this river destination. Well, no time like the present, right? For what? To go say hi, like you said. Oh, I was figuring we'd wait and see if they approached us. I think that we... You do you? Oh, sorry.

Approach as friends. Yeah. But we need to remember that in any survival situation like this, it's just better odds to kill whoever you see. Wait, well, I'm sorry, I stopped listening halfway through that. You want us to kill him, just... We should assume that they're thinking that exact same thing. He means prepare for the worst. That's what he's trying to say.

Is this your philosophy? Does this work for you? Yeah, because I'm feeling like that's a little bit negative. I've heard stories of ice-bound ways. Whalers up by Mamute, and they make their way on the ice, they run into folk. And it's a question of life and death for them or the others. First Strike always has a higher chance. I heard a story about whalers out on the sea once.

It was a tale about a whale called Moby Rich. What does that supposed to mean? Well, that was the name of the whale, was Moby Rich. What an odd name for a creature? Yeah, I don't know why. gave him that name, but I do know that all the people died and they started eating each other and stuff.

Oh yeah, I've heard the tale of Moby-Retch. It's a legendary tale. I'm not sure it's real. He's a highly aggressive gigantic white whale according to the book. Regardless of whether or not you agree with his personal philosophy, I think he's being safe.

And it certainly doesn't hurt to stay on guard. I feel like if they were going to try and fight us, though, don't you think that they would have already started making their way over here? Like, I waved and I sent bees. You can answer as you make this comment over, and you can now see that there are two deviating from the pack and starting to cross the loop towards you.

They've probably been having the exact same conversation. We're having everybody look tight. No, well, they're sending two over, so should we designate two people to be our, definitely not Barnabos. So out of the four of us, should we designate two people to be our envoy or our, there's a word for it. Oh, I think Mr. Fireblossom should do it.

looks like these little fellers. It was like little mini... Don't you think he might be a little, I don't know, daunting, like them walking up to... No, I'm saying because you're so tall. Well, no, my second vote was going to be your neighbor because he could crush them if he has to. Well, I was thinking you and I could go because we're roughly about the same size. You want us to go? Yeah. Ty Shen used to go in case there's a language barrier that he could solve.

I could make a pot of tea so we could have an offering of peace. Well, then you need to go with either me. Or with scrim. Go with scrim. Why? I wrote Queenie. Why, Scrim? You don't think I can do this?

I think she's very capable. Looking at those things, they seem more alike to him than to you. What is that about to him? I would say, Scrim is known for fantastic plans, so if something happens in the moment... And I'm not? You don't want to hang out with me and whatever those things are. I didn't want to say this in front of Scrim,

but I just think that you're more valuable, so if things are... go south. I don't think that's a kind thing to say about scream. I just want to go on the record and let you know Queenie I was a hundred percent in your corner the entire time. My feelings are hurt. Mine too. I actually agree and this may be grim and morbid of me. Oh, I don't even say it, Barnabos. I think that the person who's most valuable at range is Miss March here. I heard what you did or what you said hair. I didn't, but that is actually quite good. I wish I had. I think that if you have your bow at already, I think that you could draw it. I think that you could be ready to.

If you could perhaps save Scrim or Tysha's life. Hey, you already got here. Nice to meet you. I'm just kidding. They've just crossed the river bank and are probably 150 to 200 feet away. I can't believe this. I can't believe this.

Tyshan, are we ready? Oh, it's going to be fun. Let's go. If you're giving the order, I'm staying and they're going. Boy would suggest you keep an eye on them and be ready to put an arrow through their head if they seem aggressive. Whoa. That seems like I don't want to kill Scrim. Don't kill me.

Kill them. Kill them. Right now? No, no, only if we have to. Tai Shan, you go first. I don't want to have to try to through the snow. Should we have a signal? I don't want her to shoot you in the head with an arrow.

No, the signal is go. Just go. And I start pushing Tai Shan from behind. if I can, just even though he's taller than me, and I'm trying to, like, hold my hat as I do big steps through the snow behind him. Okay. I would say the three of you who are staying, by the time you guys get, let's say, you know, 50 feet away from these cobalds, by the time that happens, you guys will be about 100 feet away. So just trying to establish some distances just in case.

What is the range of a bow? That's a good question. 300. 300? 300. I will try to give Queenie as much cover as I can to be to get ready stealthily, if she cares to. As we're approaching, I'm trudging through the snow behind Tai Shan. I'm gonna, all right, Tyshend, I didn't want to seem like a crazed lunatic back there, but Barnabos is right.

If this goes south, you better be ready to just incinerate all of them, all right? And I'll start hacking into the bits. What? It's just these two lovely. Creatures in front of them. Consider them warm up. Warma. For what? Warm up for what? Warm up, so that we don't get eaten.

Hack them to bits. We've made it this far. I'm not going to get eaten today. Oh, you don't think that's going to happen, do you? I can't. I can't know for sure, but I would bet about 99% yet. I don't know. 99%? I'm very, I'm very certain. I mean, I didn't get to happen, but I'm about 99%. That seems quite likely. Just look alive, all right? Be ready for anything.

Oh. At this point, you hear one of them cry out. and I need you both to make perception rules. Oh my God. 18. Nice. 10. With a 10, I will say that you, you see both of these cobalts.

They are wearing very much. For how freezing it is, they are actually covered in loose furs, but their arms aren't covered in material. They do appear to have, like, boots, but you can still see their actual skin of their knees poking out from underneath these shorts, almost. They've got big, wide, thick belts. They're winged. These creatures have pretty short but tall on their back.

White horned wings that poke over both shoulder like so. And they're wearing very familiar-looking goggles. As they look out at you with these thin slips, they remind you with the bones of the elemental that you killed while crossing the ice sheet. Yes, a winged coal bolts. Within 18, you are very confident that you do not understand a single word that's being spoken. Even with a 10, I will say it's easy for you to hear in Draconic. The words shouted out. Easy. Keep your distance.

I can't understand anything that they're saying. Come on, Tyshen. Tell me you know what they're saying. Really deep trouble. They're speaking draconic. Oh, that is, that's fantastic. What do you say? They seem incredibly friendly.

However, they are saying easy, keep your distance. What? Your reaction and being sort of like skittery, every time you like make a large movement or something like that, you see the like points of their spears come down just a little bit. Okay, all right. This is very, so they're weapons strong. This is like a tense situation. How far are they from us? At this point, I would say that they're about 50.

50 feet away. All right, all right. There's no need for that. I shouldn't make sure you're just repeating what I'm saying here. All right, we're going to work together as a team. There's no need for that. The sharp pointy things, just keep them up. We're not coming any closer. Hello. Hello, friends. How are you? At this point, the one who looks a little older than his companion speaks in common and is able to shout to both of you. Keep your weapons at your side. Oh, thank goodness. You speak common. And that's gonna make this way easier. Look, I don't even have any weapons. And I'll like lift up my coat and my furs and I got nothing. I put my hands up. This is no weapon. This is a teapot. He's telling the truth. I know that sounds really bizarre. What banner are you? Oh, uh, uh, what? What clan? What? What? Do we have a sailing crew? Do we have a name for our sailing crew? We're on the ship of the more bound, but I don't think we have like a I don't know what kind of banner? No, we don't have a banner. We were on a ship, and we got, we got shipwrecked.

Coming from it, Luke, we're heading towards the direction. It seems as though you've come from. That's not of your business. Oh. Well, that's fine. That's fair. Worst case scenario, if this starts to go a little south, we can just pass like two ships in the night. Strais. What?

Oh, no, no, no clan, no banner. Well, I mean, we're friends. Yeah, I mean, we sailed on the north. The more abound. Is that what you mean? I'll look down at Queenie. Dude, this is not going well. They put their spears up and sort of stare at a,

and then you see the hand motion that they indicate that they want you to come closer to them. All right, touch. Oh, excellent. I'm going to lean in a tight. Lean in. All right, you go first. Keep up the friendly act. If things get south, I'll slug their throats.

All right, get ready. Here we go. We're coming. You really need to just take it easy. No, no, Hornerbo's just right. We have to always be ready. We can be ready, but I thought maybe we'd serve them some tea. We'd figure out where they're coming from.

Slitting their throat seems extreme. All right, we'll make that plan. C. Okay, you know, maybe further like into the age. We're coming. We're coming. Hey, hang out. Hold on. Yes, no, we're on our way.

Give us a minute. My legs are short. We'll approach them further. Sure, and I'll make sure that my music is working properly. How far away are they from their crew? Like 400 feet. They've walked quite a distance to reach you here. I'm going to very intentionally stay outside of spearing range. So a good 15, 20 feet so I can't get jabbed in the ribs when they're like, no, I'm not looking. Yeah, and they're a little taller.

little taller. How tall are you? Oh, that's bullshit. They're a little taller. I'm six and a half feet tall. I wait a hundred eight pounds. They're also six feet of eight feet tall. This is bullshit. They're six feet seven inches tall. I can't be a hundred and eighty five pounds.

What are the chances? My clan of gigantic gold bulbs. Maybe between the hat and then it's the same. That's fine. The taller than me. I'll deal with it. Where did you say you're from? I mean, we're from. a really far away place.

I mean, we're actually, all of us are all from all over, but we were on this boat called the Morabound. It was a ship, and we got shipwrecked. That's it. We're old friends. We're on a traveling voyage. We were having a great time. We were singing sea shanties.

You may know some. Quiet. Oh. Shipwrecked where? Uh, I mean, days and days and weeks of our way. Uh, south, I guess. I'm not very good with directions. Ha-ha.

Probably at least, like, several days in that direction. Make a persuasion check, both of you. The more I think about it, the more we talk. The more this only solidifies the fact that I shouldn't have been the one to get sent over here. The one who knows all the directions, the one who knows about the ship, they decided to stay behind. Unbelievable. I got a 15.

We have very little information. It's true. This is a nightmare. Are they, like, dragon people at all? These are white cobalts. So they have kind of draconic features, but I really like to think of them more like mini-torexes in terms of like the head shape, because they have like this long, like, snout almost. It's very reptilian-esque. They don't remind you of the dragon that you've seen where it has like that obviously more draconic-like face, and they don't look dragon-born. They are their cobalts. They're distant cousins. This is double my proficiency when I'm trying to persuade dragons. So. Oh.

If it's dragon character, are Cobol's dragon? I say, are they descendant from dragons? Is that how that works? Are they like an offshoot? I think it really depends on the setting and it depends on the cobal type. It can depend on a variety effect. Too-sha. Probably just DM Fiaf.

Yeah. I got a 15. I don't know what Tyshen got. Well, if it's double, it's 31. Holy hell! If it's not double, it's like . Look at this guy. Yeah.

You look like you've had a hard journey. Oh, please, yeah. Oh. time you got. I'd say you wouldn't believe, but it looks like you have the sunglasses. I mean, we ran out of liquor like day one. Yeah, and there was that. We have tea, though. Would you like some tea? You look maybe like you're cold, or maybe you're not. You're wearing shorts. Maybe you're very accustomed to this climate. Indeed. We are the frost hammer. Frost hammer. That is the name of our banner, yes. Wow. That's cool. And you can see fluttering in the wind, that same warhammer shape on the tip of their spears.

It's brilliantly white against a black cloth. I don't mean to pry, but we are obviously strangers in a strange land here. You're... Strange. The way that you seem to talk about this, like there's a bunch of other clans and banners. Many? Many all across Trakar. Like, what's...

How many? What are your names? Cobalt friends. My name is Hacks. I really didn't want to make it that person. This is going to get messy. What do you mean? Well, you start to make friends with people.

People, you know, this is a harsh place. People go and they come. Everything. You see that when we were in that bear cave, tried to kill us. The wolves tried to kill us. The elementals definitely tried to kill us. And you don't think hacks here might not try to kill us. Hacks is really friendly.

Hacks is from the Frost Emmer Klan. They lower their spears. All right, all right. Now, see, that's not necessary. We've told you the truth thus far. Everything, everything we've said has been true. We're just, we're very tired. We're very sober.

It's just been a very long journey. Friend, we've run. What are your names? My name is Grimm. And my name, I bow. Is Ty Shen Fire Blossom. I'm not going to bow. I bow.

Make a perception check for me as one of them whispers again into the ear of this hacks character. He's been doing all the talking. What's he saying? I got to eat. Oh, no. Whispers in draconic. It happens so fast in. quietly, it gets lost in the wind. You don't quite miss it, but he turns, no, no, no.

That was long ago. You didn't happen to maybe run into any other strange people in this strange land, did you? There were people who were also on the more abound, who bailed way before we did, and were many days ahead of us. No. Oh, well, they were just, you know, humanoids and random collection of peoples, and, okay, I just thought maybe you might have seen them. We only just came here to the Witherd lands. Oh, wait, like, what are the Withered Lands?

You mean, all of Jakaa, is that what you call the Withered Lans? You called J'Gar that? No, the western coast. The side of the mountain, the spine. Okay, I hope you're remembering all of this to tell them, because I'm not going to remember that. I was just going to say, Hacks, if we could, I'd love to offer you a delicious cup of tea. It's warm, it's cold out here, as frost is everywhere, and you're in shorts, for goodness sakes. I think this would warm up your creaky knees.

Not that they're creaky, but just I've noticed that they're exposed into the winter lens, because they're in shorts, for goodness sakes. You haven't offered them anything, except that thing you said before, I won't repeat, because it was unkind.

However, hacks... Tai Shen. If I could, I'd like some tea and I'd like to invite my friends to come over. If that is okay with you, please. I'm just gonna say, I'm just saying, because if I were there,

If I were in their shoes, I'd be thinking, well, this guy's gonna come up and me off for me tea. The first thing he's gonna do is poison it. What shoes? They're not wearing shoes. It's a turn of phrase. What are you meant a turn of a phrase? It's an expression.

They're in the frozen wastelands in the Wuthering land, please. We make him. We trade. We have tea. We have tea. That's what we've got. We've got tea. We've got tea and we've got really great stories.

You're near the, well, actually he's a moose. But it's not a moose over there. He's got really, he is a really wild teller of stories, and I think you would quite enjoy one or two. And Barnables, he looks like maybe, you know, he picked up a barnacle or two in the sea. Queenie's very easily the nicest of all of us. You'll like her the best, I promise.

Absolutely. Maybe not after you've tried the tea, but. Make one final persuasion checks for me. Damn it, I got a six. 19. Yeah, that's all Tai Chen. I will say he's surprisingly warm to Tai Shan. They keep giving you very strange, like, aggressive looks, let's say.

Especially the unnamed companion, who you've yet to learn this one's name. But he's like almost like ready to stab the air. the air, just looking at both of you. That makes two of us. And Hax puts a hand on his companion's shoulder, whispers one last time, and yes, we will make a camp. We will trade stories, information, perhaps goods. We will then go our separate ways, fine.

That sounds amenable. This is fantastic. This isn't at all how we thought this would go. No, we actually planned exactly for this to happen. Thank you so much for your time. We'll be right back with our, we'll bring our friends to the camp. When we see you're getting ready. You wait.

You wait here. We wait here. Well, we'll just wave them over. I mean, they're just right there. Yeah, that sounds like a plan. We'll make some tea while we wait. You know what? Yes.

We'll brew some tea. I'll brew two cups, whip them up really quick. And we'll wait for you right here. Go speak to your allies. Oh, okay. We'll just walk over there, then. We will return and share this news. Oh, okay.

Miss Mark's killed the one on the lead first. I'm going to turn around as they start to walk away and just like try to weave them down. I'm going to aim my arrow for Scrim's head. I'm just waving. Hey, guys, guys, come here! We're just gonna, because we're killing him, we're gonna stop calling him Scrim and start calling him the one on the left. No, no, no, I knew the anyone. Did you hear what noise that moose is naked?

Guys! The two cobalds back up. I'm waving my head. And then once they feel they're a safe distance, they turn and start to scurry back towards the rest of the Frosthammer tribe, the clan that you've become aware of. Good news, everyone. And in a very short distance, you are able to return to the party.

I'll, like, finally tense, and, like, I've been, like, clutching my anchor, and, like, getting ready for a sprint pose, and I'll finally relax once they're far away. I couldn't have gone any better than it possibly did. It really couldn't have. I mean, they could have given us rations and maybe hugged me and enjoyed my tea. Well, we'll get there.

There's still time. Yeah, I mean, I'm just saying it could have gone slightly better. So they're going to set up camp. They want to meet everyone. We met the one's name was Hax. He seemed, you know, they seem a little on edge. You'll never guess what clan they're from.

Well, I knew you'd never guess. It's the frog. Hammer clan. If you'd given me a million guesses, I never would have guessed that. What, that frosty hammer on their banners over there? A million guesses? He wouldn't have just sent the icon of their flag? I hate guessing games.

Tashi, can I ask you a question? You may. Do you think if we're going to be in this land, we're going to need to have our own flag? Well... It's very possible. They seem to assume that we were from a clan? They called us, uh, what, some sort of bannerless name. I, I've already forgotten.

I told you to remember these things. I knew I wasn't going to remember these things. You're remembering them. I don't want to be bannerless. Do you think I could design the flag? I think that would be very cool. Because I had this idea of a black flag with a white cat covered in blood.

Oh. There's also, they insinuated that there are many, many, many clans across your car. They also called this one the waste some or other. And we could call ourselves the blood cats. Yeah. Well, that one over there with the eye patch, that's hacks.

The one that's horrifically scarred with the spear pointed at us right now. We didn't get his name, but he seems like maybe the designer of the bunch. Do you think his name is Slash? Ooh. I'd certainly possible. I think that was the one on the left. He's one on left.

Oh, so you didn't want me to kill Scrim. What? No, Scrim! There's some serious allegations. No, I was going to kill the one that was pointing out spurious. After all we were. I was always going to say, hey, Queenie, why didn't you just do it? Oh, I had my arrow aimed at the back of Scrim's head.

Oh, goodness. I'm really. I'm glad you didn't give me the go ahead. Well, this would a lot better than it could have. I just don't even know what to think anymore. I wonder what would have happened. They said they wanted to trade with us. What are we going to give them? We need our fish.

Well, I told them that Yorne here was a very good storyteller, and we would brew them tea, and that seemed to be something that excited them. We don't even know what they have to offer. In this time, the cobalds have returned to their sled, and you can see that they're now pulling tarps off pulling out large poles, starting to set up, like, tents almost like a, not just a camp, but a makeshift little town, being able to hang fabrics and stuff. They are actually like setting up to stay based on the fact that they've encountered the youth, this group. Apologies if this was sad and I miss it.

Do they not have a beast of burden of any kind? It does not appear to be, no. No. You can just see the cobalds, and I will say before they came to a halt and spied you, you would have seen that all of them had been pulling these giant flags. Oh, okay. So probably the sense if they were singing a shoving song or a heading song. Yeah, marching case.

Marching, yeah. Roger that. The important part is that we are not a clap. We shouldn't. We're a crew. That's right. We can have a name for our crew with a flag? Oh, yeah.

But can we use my flag idea of the... We can hoist whatever colors you get to. The black flag with the white cat with blood covering it? And the flag idea is kind of... I like that, but specifically, I think maybe there's a little work we can do because that's, you know... Maybe does that send the right message? I ain't doing it with saying something kind of important.

Because everyone should be afraid of cats. Not only is it possible you could be allergic to them, which is a fate worse than death, but they also have... laws and they can scratch you and draw blood. But do we want to communicate fear? Do we want to communicate openness? No, it's not about communicating fear.

It's about telling them beware cats. What about us represent is represented by a cat? Nothing. It's a good point. Nothing. Your name is that we should not represent ourselves as a clan or any kind of group. Why? What does that have to do with my friends?

What does that have to do with my flag idea? Because if we raise our own colors, then we are inviting violence. No, we're going to raise a black flag. I'm pretty sure that's a color. I think black is actually all colors. Combined into what? Colors is the name for raising a flag. You hoist the colors.

What I am trying to say. But if you're only raising one or, well, I guess, well, white's not technically well read is. So all right, that's, that makes do. All right. The moment you represent yourself in some kind of group, humanoids are weak-minded creatures or inviting violence, competition, bloodshed.

We're not thinking that about them. Oh, I was absolutely thinking that the entire time. We were walking over there. I mean, that's why I asked how many clans are out there and there are apparently hundreds. But Scrim has such a strong mind that even though that was his thought, he didn't act upon it. I was very close.

And my question is, are you sure, it's because they were raising colors or because they're wearing koolots. What? I didn't catch that last part. Coolots, you know, they're not quite shorts, but they're not quite pants either. Everyone's something here today. Well, we always call those shants. Oh, that.

What? That's, I've never heard that either. Yeah, no, back home, we gotta. That's got a whole different meaning. There's one fella on a ship really served in one, we called them shant. It's gonna solely war. If you were a bad kid, you had to wash Grandpa's chance. Oh, my goodness.

That's atrocious. That's horrific. My goodness. Well, new friends are setting up what seems to be a very warm camp. With cloth, at least. Well, we should figure out what we're going to trade with them, because I have a feeling that even though you said tea and story time, that the moment we pull our swedge or whatever it's called on up to them filled with pack,

they're going to take our fish. Well, they can certainly try. But it may not come to that. There's 20-something of them compared to us. 16, I think I counted. Yeah, okay, so there are more. I am going... There are definitely more than us.

I'm going to offer them. Well, it's up to you, Mr. Stavis, gosh. I think that they might be able to actually make use of the fishing tackle. What? You want to take away my job after all we've been through together? Oh, I mean, oh you just- Past 28 days we have fished together and I thought we had some good times. But if I have to give all my fishing- All-I-I'm just trying to think about what is valuable to an all-

No, you're right, you're right. I will be the bigger goblin and I will give up my fishing tackle. Ah, I can't believe I'm out of a trial. Oh no, no, it's okay. I'm gonna like go over to him. Are you watching this? Yes. I didn't mean nothing by it I didn't mean nothing by it I didn't mean it

I think scrims got a crush on Barnabow You think Do you see how upset he is He might not be able to go off alone with him I had never thought of it before But now that I reflect upon it They're quite the handsome bearing This is starting to make so much sense

I was wondering when I was holding on to that tackle So tightly he doesn't like to work at all It's because he gets his main quality time of Barnabos I'm surprised. Oh, no, Scrim. No, why don't, we can trade other things. It's fine.

We have actual gold in the LTA. I take a tackle out of my bag and I just take it. Oh my God, just taking. Just take. Literally breaking his poor God when I can't stand to look at it any longer. You know what, Scrim. We can't let you get rid of that. Oh.

It clearly means too much to you. Oh, well, I mean, if you mean it. I do. Right. Yes, yes. No, we mean it. You should keep your quality time with your love. Fishing, fishing. With your love of fishing. Oh, that's right.

Oh, I love spending quality time with my love. A fission. I shouldn't. You're exactly right. It is my love. What he meant to say was his love of fission, right? Um, yes. Do they speak common? Cannot communicate with them. How armed by they?

Can you shut up? No, maybe. Yeah, no, they were very quick with the weapons. That's what I was gonna say. They're a little jumpy. We gotta be extra careful. They were just moving. He was going for my ribs.

He walked out, he was the one time. I thought the spear tickle my ribs a little bit. No, that was nothing. That was potentially enough. Can you keep a secret? Yes. Then do it.

Well, I know many secrets. The one we found out about the fishing. It's scrimed, secretly. Scrib. Anyway, secretly. I'm a hundred feet of people. They start to walk, and at this point, they're still making camp. It's an elaborate process of unpacking this sled and settling down, it seems, for these cobalds.

But they've already got a fire going. Out of nowhere, you can see right at the edge of the river bed that one in particular is just doing this sort of motion, and a bonfire has emerged out of nothingness. right there at the end of the water. The smoke and smell of burning wood starts to get stronger and stronger as you start to approach. And it looks like people are bringing down cooking implements and pans and these kinds of things, other small satchels.

I would have passed on all of the information that we gathered to the best of my ability. Okay. You know, because your only was very... I would say a good amount of time passes as well before you feel comfortable to approach. even you, you're in here after listening to this ridiculousness. I would have passed on information as well,

but it would have been very likely just incorrect. But we'll say that you're all equipped with the basic knowledge that you wouldn't have overheard when they went and had the initial conversation. And so it's not like a campfire, it is a bonfire. This is a massive, yeah, yeah, yeah. This looks like something that 16 cobalts could comfortably warm themselves around with room for five more. I hope you have 16 cobalt names prepared.

I mean, Derek, of course he fucking got me. Dolly, Sprague, Ovex, Mipo, Kurik, Ukvok, Gekly, Zibank, Dattri, Dendik, Zix, Moss, Skarek, Vogs, and Iglu. Vog! I was really hoping for a iglox. I want to mean Mipo. That's who I want to meet. I want Dota. Yorner, you're making your way, and the four of you realize that you've been chattering amongst yourselves when he's, you know, about 60, 75, 100 feet away.

I'm sorry, Mr. Yorne here, hold on, hold on. And I'll start doing like a light jaw. And I'd say the morning is almost faded. It's now midday by the time all of this, these pieces have occurred. And you reach the other side of the river. Crossing as carefully as you can, the actual ice, very slippery surface of this frozen river.

It said baby. What about baby? potentially prompted by the fact that you said ice ice ice uh... I'm trying to DM brain um start the music

oh yeah yeah yeah uh that can actually go we won't do that one anymore and we'll do this one chukukuk chukuk churro Chagg, chagg, chagg. All right, you eventually approach,

and you can see that they've all kept their weapons very close by. Some of them are still holding spears, but hacks, by as lonesome, walks up. Scrim. Yes, that's my name. It's good to see you again. And Tachshend.

Oh, fun scrap. From my say. Ha! Why the little squirrel's always trying to get his acre. Have we made our way to them? I would say it. At this point, you have crossed the river, and unless you want to do something en route crossing the river, you're 30, 60 feet away from the camp, and Hax's is standing right

in front of you. Hello, friend Hacks! When we get within 10 feet, I'm just going to rush up to him. Okay. You, I would say that you do that. He nods to Scrim and Tyshen, and just as he's about to ask, what are your friend's names? You run up at it. Hey, are you a hugger because I am,

and I'm going to give him a big old hug. Okay. As soon as you start to rush at him, as soon as you start to rush at him, he screams and goes onto his back foot. He puts a spear in between you and him. I scream. If you continue running,

you run into a pole with a blade on you. I do. Okay, I'll roll for damage. What are you doing? Stop. Well, this escalating, click, click. about this. What's your IC? 15. You take four points of piercing damage as he

attempts to stop you. He screams, and all of the cobalds immediately jump to attention and start to run across the ice onto this river towards the five of you. Stop, what are you doing? He pushes you back and you can feel this thing as it digs into your hip. That smarts like the dickens. I'm coiny, March, I just want you, you're not a hugger, are you then?

Is that you were attacking me? What are you doing? If I was attacking you, don't you think I'd be doing it now? You've wounded my gut. I want to fight you. I just wanted to give you a hug. You look cold in your culops. He pulls his spear back and down. Thank God it's this cold while my blood's turned into icicles. This is a dangerous world. There's no, there's no knowing that we're just meeting the first time. That doesn't make any fucking sense. Well, if you ever come to Yona, it'll start to make sense. Don't stab a hugger.

Shit. I got to say, though, that was pretty good aim. He heals something else. You recognize it to be the phrase halt. What did you say to him? I said, that was pretty good aim. I wasn't expecting it at all. Been a hunter for many years.

I'm going to have to learn from you. I got a bow on my back. I can shoot pretty far. Queenie. Yeah, Queenie. March, nice to meet you. Miss March if you're nasty. Am I nasty, Delicia?

I think yes, but I don't know how that applies to this. Mark Mark, Mose, if you have to ask her. Do you happen to have a piece of cloth I can put on my gut wound? I'm starting to feel light-headed a little bit. You're on your own. I... Yeah, I made a grievous mistake. I was just going to defend myself. We... We want you

just come and sit around in the fire it's not. Yeah, no, I do too. I just wanted a hug. It's been a long time since I've seen anyone, but these chuckle fucks. Well, there's no better way to relieve tension than with a nice cup of tea. Yeah, and a bloody wound where

you know we don't retaliate, so yes, there's that. It's kind of of your own making butt. Do you need help with that? You know, yeah. Yeah, no, I do. Gut wound. Oh, wow, I feel like that. It's waters of down shabbing.

Oh, my God, Jesus. Oh, wow. That's gonna leave quite the scorn. You won't arrest it, right? You just woke up. You two. What are your names? They call me your near?

Your near. And if you or your companions need any services, aid, alien, let me know. Oh, he's quite good at it. He is. And you? My name is Barnabos. Folks have called me the dreadway, but you can call me Barnabose. Which is fine.

Barnabose. If you need cooking services, if you need some, I have all sorts of spice. I don't know what kind of cuisine you, Cobaltz, enjoy, but I could probably tinnate your taste buds. Spice is good. That's a great word, titillate. Oh, yeah. Oh, you picked it up, like some fancy folk in Briegel. Wait, wait here.

I will explain what just happened, and we can sit. He turns, and he starts to make his way back to the group, and immediately you can hear a dozen voices all talking one over another, all endriconic. You're getting little snippets of this conversation. Do we trust these strays? It looks like they have magic. Should we attack?

How did they get here? All these questions and more are. are overwhelming hacks, and he's continuing to sort of calm them down until after a few minutes of conversation, the chatter dies down and he turns, come and then sit. We will parlay and then talk. Yeah, sure thing. Just no sudden movements. We've been, it's been a dangerous few weeks. All right, I do just want to say that I make sudden movements. I am a hair and gone, as you can see. I like to hug.

Oh, you should call you a hug and gong. Oh, that's a good one, Barnabh. Hug today, gun. Oh, I should hope not. Yeah, because of what happened just now, when I was almost good at my heart. Your guns were on the snow. Yeah, yeah, if it wasn't from Mr. York.

I think I left a chunk of my liver out there. Oh, yeah, there's a chunk. It'll be good in a stew anyways. You approach the fire, and we might as well use these ongoingly whenever we're around fire, so. The five of you stand now on the surface of an icy frozen river, but 30 feet away from a roaring bonfire. You can already sort of feel its heat. You can feel the activity of the cobales having settled down, Hacks having calmed them,

and they are starting to go a little bit more about their business. Hacks turns and motions. This may be stupid meta-conversations. so feel free to shut it down, or it needs to be a Mikey judgment. Do we get the sense that if we've just woken up and if we want to send a whole day not moving north, do we feel like that's going to fuck us getting caught by weather-wise?

Getting caught by winter. I don't know if Barnabos would think that, but Mikey is very aware that we're trying to outrun winter and we're not going to be able to. You were probably... Oh, you're right now. That's true. That's true.

So anyway, something for Richie did. think about from a meta perspective. Because I don't know if Barnabos would be thinking too much about that. I would say it would be very hard, even for Yorneur. You're free to make a nature check if you want to try to exceed the DC. But it would be very hard to make a guesstimate as to whether or not a day or two or a week of rest would mean a serious problem long term. I'm sure I fail. It's a...

It's how I feel when I wake up in the morning. I'd like to make a nature check. It's a nine. The climate is getting colder, but you know that the changing weather conditions of whatever local environment you're in is probably more important. Is there suddenly a storm or a blizzard

or something like that is going to be more impactful than the steady decline of the temperature, even though that's winter. Yeah, I mean, one day won't make a huge difference. Yeah, right? At this point, though, We kind of know, like, maybe we're not like super in tune with it, but we are more or less, even at a basic sense, would know we're kind of like, the direction the cobalds are heading in is what I'm thinking about. We know they're going deeper into like exponentially they're going to cross into cold. Something to think about when you have your conversation with the cobalts. Yeah, okay.

He hacks, uh, are you free to join us. Yeah, I'll tentatively, like, just, you know, cautiously, as disarmingly as possible, walk towards the bonfire. He gestures over, uh, this is Dolly, our firebringer. Scrant. Doli? Uh, and, uh, uh, uh, Doli is, um, doing, uh, this sort of like occasional sort of rhythm, uh, with the hands, doing gestures, uh, muttering under his breath. Um, just sort of, uh, keeping the fire alive. When he does this, you know, you see this burst and, and, and fuel almost emerges from nothing. It's like the coals become their own logs again.

and then continue to inflame. Totally. I love your work. How do you do this? Magics. I understand a bit of what you're dealing in. Is there anything I can pick up from you? This seems like an incredibly powerful talent you have

to produce such a bonfire. I myself. You can breathe flames out of your face, can't you? Well, and I can, well, I can produce it with my hands as well. But you, with the movements, you dance like the water itself. If I may, I don't want to be too forward. And magic has common in our family.

We often go with groups such as this in order to keep everyone warm and to cook. And speaking of cooking, And he looks over and you can already see crates and small barrels are being brought over. Two of the unnamed cobbles are walking up and they have what is clearly a large tub of some kind, almost like a bucket. They have jars that they start to open up and they start putting pans down and around the bonfire. And pretty soon, as you guys are talking, they're putting in what looked like handful of wormy grubs into one. And then there's another with, there's another with...

Ice worms. Why do I have... This is what I get for not printing out my sheet beforehand. I have to follow up in a town. Seven. Two, two. Welcome. A number of berries go into another pan. And you can, they pull out these long, like, tentacle-y things.

clearly cut from some sort of creature with suckers on the side, and they look very much like octopus arms that have been shriveled or preserved in this fermented juice, dropping those into the skillet, the juices of these like cranberry or grape-like berries popping, and pretty soon your senses are hit by a wave of decently smelling things, and you can see very quickly They're producing handholds or bowls and just saying, eat, eat. Dungeon Master? Yes, please.

Can I request that you roleplay as the tentacle going into the frying paper? Yes, please. It's my birthday on Sunday. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, I'm sorry. That was the last time I'm going to ask.

That's why the last time I'm going to ask. I'll take a bowl and look at it. But I'm, oh, wait, no, it looks smell like garbage. Um, it's pickled octopus, uh, some form of berry. Oh, it's smelled way better than garbage. Uh, and like grubs, like mealworms, but big. I am a hundred percent okay with this, this meal. Same. As I take it, though, I will, I want to address the, the firemancer, this person

tending the fire. Dolly? Yes. I don't want to, I don't want to overstep my bounds, but I, you've made it sound like you're family is maybe spread out amongst different groups of, of, uh, people's under different banners, or are you all under the same banner? We are under the banner of the Frosthammer. Oh, so your family works for many different groups of Frosthammer banners? Many cobalts across Dracar, all Frosthammer. Oh, wow. That's, uh, that's, that's pretty amazing. Oh, thank, thank you for the food.

Compliments to the chef as I-Hs, times in. Yes, uh, uh, there, there are many banners in Chakar, but soon all of them will be under Frosthammer. I'm just like shoveling this food into my mouth. There's like grubs, you know. Oh, yeah, they were totally alive when they hit the pan. Some of them are still twitching. What do you mean? Everyone will be under the ice-ramed bear.

Oh, great. They're coming to join you. Our leader is uniting the tribes. Oh. That sounds like a lot of work. Is this hacks that we're talking to? Yeah. Well, you're not the leader, man.

Mr. Axe. No, no. Everyone laughs. Quite, quite literally, no, no, no. We serve a great, great master. We serve the white dragon. You have seen her. Oh, you have a doctor.

Yeah, she like said some real nice things about me because I wasn't afraid to go out and meet her. We're actually not on terrible terms with her compared to everyone else. I mean, I almost beat my back, but it was wild. She said we were strong and that we could survive this leg. Yeah, right after killing a man right in front of us. But the rest of the interaction was pretty fair, he did break his leg and we were trying to keep him alive. I mean, he was kind of an asshole anyway. He deserved it.

What was his name again? Captain. Oh, he was? So we called him. Cap. Oh. To be if we barely deserved it. The princess believes in strength.

She is bringing us together. We are two seasons, two seasons away from a great gathering. Oh, you have a princess also. Or is that the dragon? That was going to be my question. Why not queen? You would have to ask her. She has yet to unite the tribe, perhaps.

She's very old. Check's out for me. Oh, why that isn't? All you don't know about the hierarchical hierarchical monarchist structures of dragon folk. I can say that ten times fast. Couldn't even say it one time slow. I couldn't. That's what I'm saying.

One of the cobales in the back, seeing that you guys are enjoying this sort of like an appetizer of sorts, has brought over a number of eggs. And you can see that in-war. one of the cages attached to the side of this sled. There's this bird that's sort of like quacking and squawking and squeaking and squeaching. What does a gucking sound like? It's sort of like a creak, creak,

like that sort of sound, but much higher pitch than I can do with it. Oh, yes, please. You grab one of those eggs and try to crack it open. Let's see what happens. As soon as you try to grab it, this particular COBOL pulls away for a moment. Ah, ah. I just want an egg.

Hacks, if you, uh, contributed a little. We would share more food. Oh, I'm sorry. Where are my manners? I don't know. You want to give him something. They are new to the car. Let them make. Give him something so I can have an egg. Mr. Uh, Mr. Hax, do you and your clan, do you smoke? No. Well, if you don't smoke, something. Perhaps if you just haven't had the opportunity and I will, uh, this is morally, we're in autumn, right still? That's right. Yeah, this is Morley Flake. Uh, it's, uh, very Multi-vanillae maple, you probably don't know.

Here, try it. And I'll hand in my pipe. Bonapest, are you going to kill him? No, I know it's fine. He's doing a lot better than some of the cabin boys who've smoked it. It's nice and mellow. Very strange breeze, fire smoke. But did you like it?

You like it? There's plenty more where that came from. Can I have an egg now? At this point, some of the eggs have been wrapped into the pan, but you've gotten... your whole egg has been entertained to you. I'm really, I'll see the shell.

It's very, very good. A little tart for an egg, which I'd probably like even more. I would belts loudly and say, ah, that was delicious. The scrim is the sarned eggs. I was kidding. And the egg shell was exquisite.

I'm presuming that you are also adding to... The threshold of getting the egg was that you put some fish down or some sort of one of your own rationalism. I would probably do a whole... I realize that extra. I wouldn't give them my pouch, but I'd basically take a whole pouch worth of handful, and I would like maybe grab some, if I had extra cloth, wrap it and that for them and then hand it to hacks. Of my, of Morley Flake.

Of Morley Flake. Oh, oh, oh. Yeah. Thank you. This is good stuff where I come from. We have many items for trade. We can trade food. We can, yeah, come over.

And one of the younger Kobols walks over, they roll out a blanket, and inside you can see a variety of goods. They're showing you precious stones. They're showing you. There's actual, like, mitts and boots and at least material that could be sewn into such. There are those same eye goggles that you see. There's obsidian rock. And you can see that there's some food in there as well. There's like little jars of tallow.

There's walnuts, like very literally like cracked nuts that you could secure. There are a variety of feathers. And then vials of what looks like some sort of material, several of them, in fact. One looks like it's sort of gelatinous and oil-like. Others are just empty vials. that is itself worthy of trade. And finally, six potions, very clearly magical, swirling with and thrumming with some sort of essence like that,

they've brought out their merchant, and they present these goods thusly as you're all enjoying the meal around the fire. Do you have any mistletoe or stray dog fur? I do not know what this mistletoe is. have any kind of herbs or herbs or plants of any kind of medicinal or... We have these berries. They're eating. They themselves are medicinal and quality. And you can actually see these look like good berries. And these are the good berries. These grow on bushes here, on trees. Oh, let me tell you, this is delicious. And if you didn't have your maxage,

at this time, you'd be getting one HP per... I feel very healthy. Oh, you're healed. Do they last a long time? Yes. We have a few handfuls. Would you like to trade some fish for some berries? Yes. How much fish do you have?

I have a little backing contribute. I have three portions myself. I have four. Four fish. Four pieces. Do you like gold? Do you like gold? Is your clan the fan of gold, or are you more a bartering type? I might have a single gold coin on me.

Gold? We take a tribute to the princess. Oh. Oh. Oh, perhaps the coinage that we've... You want a hundred gold pieces for some of them, Berries? Oh. Damn it, we shouldn't tell them.

That's quite a bit of them. For a hundred gold pieces, I fetch a high price. What will you do for these 100 gold pieces? We will gladly hear your offer. One moment. Eat, eat, eat. Well, how old, tin. Queen, the first thing you have to know is you don't start with the top.

You start by saying, oh, I only have a single gold coin on me. Oh, well, I didn't start from the top, because I also have 20 platinum pieces. Well, don't tell the any of you. Okay, all right, we tell them that we only have 100 gold pieces. And if we need to go higher, we'll go higher. All right, well, that's what I was doing, because if I can get rid of this sack of gold pieces, which let's be realistic here, there's not going to be any place here that's going to take this coin.

Well, it sounds like the dragon will take the coin. Right, and we need that ourselves. And you think the dragon's going to be like, well, come to my dragon marketplace. Here, would you like to buy a magical atom, friend? No, but it could just be used as a way to not get eaten. next time we run into her. Or we just be brave. I thought that may have been what she would say,

but the way that you asked me that question made me think that you seem like that's ridiculous. So now, no, I don't think that's what you would say. Oh, well, that's good. I'm glad. So I'm thinking we just get rid of this sack of 100 gold pieces because if those berries are what Yornear thinks those berries are, and I could tell, by the way his eyes got, and so if they are what Yornear thinks they are, because Yornear knows they are what he thinks.

they are, and so they are that, then I think 100 gold pieces is worthwhile to have them. To have some berries? They grow freely on the bushes and trees? Have you seen any bushes or... I'm sorry. Have you seen any bushes

or trees around here? No, but maybe they just came from bushes and trees. I think... Hold on. Can I get on top of your shoulders? Sure. No. We have our offer ready. Oh, perfect. Have you heard? I heard the saying, Toyshan, is that one clam in the hand is worth two in the mudbank. We had many sayings where I'm from, but none were of clams.

Us knowing that there are bushes somewhere, someplace, is absolutely useless compared to the berries that I have. Oh, no, never mind. Okay. You were saying, sir, for a hundred of your gold pieces, we offer you 15 of our good berries, a satchel full. And you can have one of these potions. This one can help you heal yourself. And you can see he's held up one of a set of five. And it's glowing with sort of a red perolescence.

Very fermented, fermented of the berries, delicious and also magical. And in the other, able to move very quickly, vertically, climbing. That is kind of cool. It's kind of cool. and it seems super generous. I would, however, like to barter a little bit. Barter, yes. I would also like a hug,

one in which I am not stabbed through the gut, to teach you my customs. And perhaps more than just one potion, maybe five? 500 gold pieces for the set. Oh, well, we only unfortunately... I think the one is good enough as long as you include the hug. perhaps one potion

of the climbing variety to throw in there in case that becomes a useful for it. Wait, so were you originally saying we got 15 good berries, one potion and one climbing potion, all for 100? Your choice. 15 good berries and one of the potions. Perhaps one of each.

Is that fair? How often do you find a hoard of gold in this? In the Wither Lines of all places? Exactly, 101 gold pieces. What are the chances? Make a persasion check. One of you had advantage for everyone's...

Two, scrim! We're helping. Scrimmed! We're helping. Scrib the 20. 20 is my high roll. We'll give you 10 good berries in both potions for 101 gold pieces.

I think we just climbing a potion, we just get rid of it. Could you do 20 good berries and the one potion? Because you see, there are five of us, and 20 is a really great number for five. Oh, hold on there. You already gave us this smoking leaf. We could do that, yes. Oh, okay, good.

I was clear, and I found another gold piece in my pocket, but never mind. You'll let me teach you how to hook. I'm gonna approach you now, all right? Can you put your spear on the ground? Make a restoration check. Promise me, natural 20. Well, then whatever my He hands it to his companion.

He goes like this. All right. He doesn't know what a hug is. Now, what this is Pails is I'm going to walk straight up to you. I'm going to put my arms around you. Watch, you know what? I'm going to touch in. Did you like to help me demonstrate a hug?

I would love to help you. Watch this. See? It's very nice. Did you see that? We're going to try that. And I'm going to walk up and I'm going to hug him. Do you feel how warm this?

This is. This is the first time I've done this with a clothes on. Oh, wow, that got dark quick. You know, it can be done without your clothes on. That is true. But I think you'd be a little bit closer than we are now. It's nice. It's warm, isn't it?

You're very soft. Oh, thank you. Oh, well, that's my tail. Oh, whoa, whoa. Hey, hey. Thank you. You're welcome. He, like, releases you, and he's like, that hug, good.

See, it was nice. That's a fair trade. A hug? You stabbed me over that. I thought you were going to try to kill me. Oh, he is a fair point. And we're in the withered lands, miss me. Is it the withered lands? The withered lands.

Why? It is forbidden for most to go here. We were chosen to make an open-jaw trail south, north, north around again, before we pass through the mountains back, back to the main. land, but only very few are allowed by the princess. I mean, that, that could have gone really differently then, I guess. So what you're saying is that you all come from some great city or gathering where the princess lives.

A region, a great land in the center of Trachar. It is where we are gathering in two seasons. For what purpose do you know? The tribes have all been asked. to come together. The princess has demanded it, commanded it. Do the tribes

all get alone, or is there potential that you could get hurt if you go to this? There will be fighting. But big clans can, even as big as they are, enjoy their pockets of the world.

Isolated, quiet. Very rare for war. I don't want anything to happen to you. So you be careful. Thank you. Speaking of being careful, you can't help but notice you're heading into much colder climbs in the direction you're having. How do you plan?

We just came from there. We seem to be just a step ahead of very, very cold temperatures. How do you plan to stay? warm. We are very tough, resilient against the cold, and we have blankets and fire. Oh, boy, that'll do it.

If you don't mind me asking, Mr. Hax, for the tribes, are they all creatures such as yourself? Or there are other races and species in the great, grander clan that serves the princess?

Some are great horned, hairy beasts with hooved feet. Others are very short with great beards

and blue skin. Others. Let me just quickly make sure that I'm doing this the right way. Blue skin like myself, Scaly. No. Great beards like myself, green. Short, stout.

I'm I'm stout, but not sure. You speak of dwarves? Do you dwarves? Yes. I've never seen that. Does that make me think of Dweigar, or is something different? Something along those lines.

I don't know if that exists in Mammut, or if that would be something that you make a connection to. That's a good point. Now, at a meta level, that is a very reasonable conclusion to come to. I would think you're near would at least hear stories if he hasn't met one or seven. We do have a lot of questions. I know that time is precious out here because the weather can change pretty quickly and we certainly don't want to keep you. Did we make a deal? Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, so you guys got one potion of climbing, one healing potion and 20 good berries, which I would say is, in terms of the size of it, the potions are potions. 20 good berries looks like something you could comfortably help in one hand, so small, one slot. I will put the good... Oh, do you want to keep up? Do you want them?

No, I mean, I just got rid of, I had 100 gold pieces in one slot. So I know a free slot. Repeat your question. One of you had a question. Oh, I've got a lot of them. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. This place is fucked up.

It's a harsh. Slat as I. I guess. Fine not to say I. See, true. Take your time, X. We're just, we'll wait. Sorry, I needed to give some good berry juice. No, I know. Your back teeth are flogged. It's all good.

Do you have a shithole? He gestures and one of the other cobalds runs up. We'll show you where the back. Oh, no, not for me, just for, we all ate. It's around the backside of the sled. All right. I'm still, I've been too enthralled in conversation. I'm going to finally take a bite.

How does it taste? I would say that if you enjoyed something like sour seafood, this is like a, not sour, is not the right word, but like seafood? Like vinegared seafood. It's like if you... fermented almost? Yeah, like pickled.

Like a pickled, like a pickled. octopus and berry type combination. It's citrusy and a little rubbery and texture, but it's very nourishing. At least that's the case for those two items, the mealworms, these like grubs

or whatever, that they have a tremendous amount of in this bucket. And they're just eating them by the handful, it's alive and all. They are that's the word I'm looking for. Mealy? Yeah. Bainee?

That's great. They taste like dirt almost. There's a very turmeric quality to them. I think this can be improved like most things can by ancient estuary. What do you mean this is nearly perfect? I'm going to open up my spice box and pull a pinch of ancient estuary and drop it and the stir it up and start eating it. It makes everything better. Is that like wall spice?

What is that actually? What's all day? No. I get it! I get it! Well done! Well done! That was a real thing.

You're just very good. I just, I put it, it just makes everything better. Well, I can't disagree with that. I don't know about it now. But I do have a couple of questions about, uh, this place. Have you ever, it makes me kind of sick to even think about it? to think about it, wandered too close to one of those tall black towers made of stone.

We do not go all the way south very frequently, but we have heard of a tower. Just one? There's only one of them. It is, to the best of my knowledge, the case. Oh, I was so hard. I thought there might be more. That's almost frightening thing I've ever seen in my life. You were very far. I'm surprised you were able to make it. this far north, to be honest. Wow, we got a few lucky breaks, didn't we? Ha ha ha!

You were very strong, the five of you. Thanks for noticing. We should enjoy the rest of the evening, but I have a... Another deal I'd like to make with you. Another proposal, perhaps. We are very open to proposals, seeing how our primary goal is survival and supplies, especially if it happens to be several seeds of any moon feed

plant in a piece of opalescent feldspar a piece of what? Obelvesant feldspar whenever the like that is. You're in here, why are you always talking about all this weird combo jumbo.

I've never even heard of openescent felds bar. They're minerals, Tyshen. They're minerals. It's a mineral collector. I can only speak for myself, but I'm not interested in a proposal. I don't plan on getting married. I feel I enjoyed that hug and even the tail tug was nice for a while, but it's just not in the cards for me. So I'm sorry if I gave off the wrong impression. It's all right. We all have families, wives. You have a wife? Yes. Am I going to have to talk to his wife? Why would you have to talk to? Why would you have to talk to?

to his wife. Wait, he was tugging on my tail. Should I tell her? Is that not allowed? I don't want to break up a family. Why did you break up a family? How did she? I've done something horrible.

Or perhaps a gilded of acorn. $200 gold pieces. You mean one covered in gold? Yes. What kind of an inkorn is that? I'm going here. It doesn't even make me sense. It's not a lot of the wild.

I'm not. Looking at the rocks that have been unfolded in the piece while you're describing these things, you do see that there are what appear to be some volcanic rocks. We would call them agate rocks. There appears to be the obsidian I mentioned before quite a bit of it. There's a yellow sort of crumbly rock that even from here you can smell has a very egg-like quality. And there does appear to be gray or a silver or red. Rosie, four stones in particular look like Micah.

With that powder, you can make some really nice eye shadow. Do any of those sound like opalus and feldspar? No. Opelette and feldspar is not a thing. It's mica. Oh. Okay. Well, I was wrong. I take it back. I can admit when I'm wrong. They would make some really pretty eye shadow. I'm going to kind of walk over to where, are they like just throwing their garbage onto the ground when they're cracking the eggs?

No. They are actually being very respectful of the lamp. And so you're noticing that they are taking the things that they can't just throw into the fire and see incinerated and disintegrated by that fire. Those things, they're probably putting into a compost bucket or finding a... Yeah, or they're burying it. Or putting into the shithole. I'd like me looking for the eggshells. Just make sure when you're finished with those, you smash them and throw them in the fire. That's how you get witches. What? I mean, I eat those all the time. Are you saying that witches are going to just like...

How long have we been traveling together that if you don't smash your eggshells, it brings witches? I've been eating them for months. Oh, there you go. It gets smashed all your teeth. Do you think that's why what happened in the graveyard happened? No, no, I had absolutely nothing to do with eggs. Did you eat eggs before that? Probably, but he, like he said, I smashed my teeth.

Oh, my God. I smashed them with my teeth. We have to smash the eggshells. Unsmashed eggshells will bring witches, certain every time. Well, it's a good thing why eat them then? That's good to know. They seem to be taken care of it, too. So I just want to make sure we are witch-free. We have plenty of other problems. You know, I learned something new every day that we hang out. Oh, I've said this many times over our journey. Just not... Well, all right, I'll admit. You're right. There are a lot of times. I'm just not paying any attention. Tashy, do you see the way that scrimms smiling at all. I do.

With all of his teeth exposed. I know. Yes. It's like a horrific, it's like a horrific, like sharp. You are strong. You are strong. Since emerging from the mountains, we've been terrorized a bit by a flying creature. If you were to dispatch the creature, we would be willing to take you back.

That sounds like a lot of work. Take us back where? Through the mountains. Back to the princess, to the clan of the Frosthammer, where we would be able to see the winter through and then see the gathering tribes together. That would be like, heaven, we'd be saved. We wouldn't have to starve to death. And you would provide sulfur and agate and agate?

You are lost strays Here in the withered lands Are you not? Yeah, that's what it sounds like Well, not all who wander are lost. We're heading north. Not all. It's incredibly insightful.

But we're very lost. We are offering. We will transport you to the other side of the mountains. Through one of the great gates, we will be able to Go and pledge allegiance to the princess of wrath, and together we will be able to unite the tribes

all together as one. What's the weather like over there? It's about the same. That's unfortunate. Well, you know, beggars can't be choosers as they say. But there's more warmth in the northern lands. Why don't you tell us about the creature? That's awfully vague, and I certainly don't want to be eaten alive.

Usually these winged beasts are in the mountains, but For whatever reason, perhaps the lack of food It's been trying to attack and steal us for feeding. Be very careful. It can fly, and if you look into its eyes, It will charm you, and you will give up. You will give up and let yourself be taken away and eat something. This creature, it prefers to keep its prey alive as long as possible.

Sometimes days. Our poor friend is probably still enjoying that torment now. What's this friend's name? Eagrant. Like the bird? Shorebird? Yes. Make good eats.

I don't think it's spelled that way, but yes. Weird how that happens. They can be hard to track, but they can be attracted if you find a gray brush with yellow flowers on top. It'll have a citrusy smell to it, rubbery. If you make that into a mash, you can attract the beast. If you bring it down and you bring us its head, we will show you through the mountain. And how will we find you again? Are you just going to stay here and wait for us?

We're turning around, having found you lot. I would propose that we meet at the arch. At the end of this river, northeast, we can cross in and through a great monument, go into the mountains, and pass under and through them. I don't hate that idea. Yeah, I would like to try and save Eagrid if we can. Is it warm around the ground?

Yes. We won't spend much time there. It's very fast. Oh, well, that's unfortunate again. But you know what? Pegas can't be chooses. I think that if there's anyone that you would have stumbled across, it could bring down such a wing in peace. It is the five of us. But I think we would need to discuss it in private, if you wouldn't mind, for such a generous offer. You can go about your business. Dolly needs to continue with the fire, so... So he will He's going to listen to or talking If you want a private

conversation, we need to keep the Vaughnfire going I think we just step like 10 feet to the left And the fire's real warm We think that we can perhaps Go off to the edge of hell Dolly can't hear

Dolly, you're trustworthy right? Yes Well, there you go Oh, I'm sold Certainly he can't lie to us Dolly, do you know how to lie No I'd like to discern whether or not

duly knows how to lie. I mean, it's a check of advantage. Is the bonfire on, is the bonfire I was presumably on like wood and stuff like that? It's stuff like lit up. No, it's bonfire out of nowhere. You know that spell.

Create bomb fire. I didn't take that spell. Create bonfire? You don't have it? Not, create bonfire. Eventually, this, this cobald, mechanically speaking, at the middle level. This cobald is taking every minute

is casting the can'trip create bonfire. And it is literally just a bonfire that emerges out of nothing. What was your score? I got a 19. Yeah, obviously Dolie knows that a lot. I think we should just do what Ty Shenzhen said and take ten steps this way. Just, you know. Well, it'll be very quick conversation.

All right, fine, I'll do it, but you have to let me tell you a story. That's fine. All right. That sounds like a deal. And I walk 10 feet away from the campfire. I'll follow. Our path does not lead us to where this dragon is. We should not be trying to gain its favor.

Oh, thank God you said that, because the first thing I was gonna say is that I'm out. I'm not interested in getting charmed in Eden. I'm not against killing this beast. Perhaps we can barred for more beets. This author, maybe. Well, no, hold on, I'm very against fighting the beast. I don't want to get charmed in Eden.

I want to fight the beast. I want to try and save Eagrid if we can. I think about it this way, right? If one of us were taken by a beast and we met a Co-Bol clan afterwards and we had the ability to send the Co-Bol clan out to rescue scrim or something, wouldn't you want us to? You told me you almost shot me in the back of the head.

Because Barnabose told me to! I haven't having a hard time believing that you'd come and save me. He was calling you the one on the left. I thought he'd given you up for dead. Well, all it takes is one charm and he took the one on the left. He's charmed and he's charmed and he's seen. We can't save him. If Barnabos told you to jump off a breeze, can you do it?

Oh, for sure. I mean, if I had to. Well, in Queenie's defense, I did want to make him the captain. He's very trustworthy. Look at him. If I said no to him, he could step on me and I'd be mash. You could get away quite easily. I just got stabbed in the stomach because I tried to hug a Colvold, so I think that my chance of survival

against Barnabos is pretty slim. The point being... Oh, pretty scrimmed. That'd be funny. I was pretty good. I should just say that instead. Oh, next time. Same for next time.

We'll all pretend like we forgot it and we'll laugh. It'll be good. All right. I, we came here for different reasons. We crashed in this land, but I think we can all agree that something's happening here. Beyond our expectation, you're near yourself. You had a vision of something happening to this land. Maybe we do need to meet this dragon and gain its boon, its blessing, its protection.

There may be more here to do than just survive. This land may need our help. So the question is, if our purpose to be here and our North Star that we're following is preventing from whatever you saw in your vision, in your eye. Yes. From what you discern, would the dragon help or harm that purpose? I must consult the ears. I love it when he says that.

All right, let's do it. I'm gonna sit down next one. I'm ready. How long does it take for you to do this? I'm a camera, I'm a couple for us, man. Yeah. I think 10 minutes. All right, well that's the perfect amount of time for me to tell my story.

Yes, thank your story. You promised. There once was a man named Horie Boulder. It's not spelled like you think it's famous. Oh, wow. I don't believe it when I see it. And actually, I don't even remember what the rest of the story was. I think I just found his name comical.

Anyway, what are we going to do for the next nine minutes and 30 seconds? I would say, time moves quickly when you RP. It's actually been 20 minutes. He has the answer already. The sun has crossed the sky. I mean, little snippets of these conversations, how long it would have taken you to trade could take an hour. You know, getting everyone to warm up could take a long time, waiting for the camp to get set up, eating.

All of these things would have taken much longer. So at this point, it's late afternoon, and the sun is starting to darken the sky instead of bright. And with that, ten minutes go by, and the ruins are cast. The ruins. The ruins. I'm going to ask. and I'll sort of weave my staff over

and, you know, do some shaman-y things. And I will say you move away Y-wise me sound. If you don't want a knuckle sandwich, you tell me what to do. I'm divining here.

You're going to be hurting more than Vinnie down on 40 seconds, fruit. Why that? I'll be old saying. Follow these beings through the gates and under the mountain. What will be our fate? What we appear into the weird, what we see?

I will open my eyes, but I'll sort of unfocus my normal one and my, my sort of scar-up eye will glow blue. And I will try to peer into the weird. You attempt to look through the veil, focusing on your spirit to harness the magic that's necessary for this communication, for this commune, and you look deep. What do you have to do? Is this just a casting of augury? Yeah, so we'll wow and woe or nothing. Results that are particularly good or bad. And your question was, what will happen if we go with these cold weather?

bolts through the mountain. Through the gate under the mountain. If you focus very hard, you can feel that it's starting at night is approaching. If these 10 minutes you try to, almost in a meditative way, you try to make a connection. And each time you do, the answer that comes back is nothing. You don't get a sense of a positive or a negative, uh, a negative, uh, uh, a answer. divination and instead boy it doesn't it doesn't seem that there's an answer that would fall cleanly into any of the three obvious categories it's like when

you're completely in the dark if you expect to touch a wall and instead your hand continues to swipe it there this is not good oh I don't like you when you say that did not get an answer that was a woman but we don't get good sense either. It does not mean that there will be good and bad. I just did not, I did not see. Are you saying it didn't work? It worked in the sense that our fate is unclear. Did I distract you for the first 30 seconds of your ritual spell? Perhaps he ruined the whole thing. Maybe cut off my connection to the real. That's what I wanted to tell you. Horne Boulder fucked everything up all the time.

Would it not have been helpful if she ruined the whole thing? Oh, I mean, that doesn't help at all. Well, I mean, it doesn't help not at all at all, but I mean, you know, we still have to make a decision on our own. Sounds to me like just means our fate has yet to be written. We have to keep hope. I like the way you think, Tashu. Oh, thank you. I think.

You know, you're kind of like the dawn, and Barnabos is kind of like the dark. Kind of like the light. Barnabos is kind of like the dark. Like the dusk, or... You're kind of like the sun, and Barnabos is kind of like the dark. Maybe like the sunset, you know? My Barnabos like the dark.

Because he's just a downer about everything, witches and shit. Oh, well. Do you want us to have a witch problem here, Miss March? Do you know on witches here, do you? No. I don't. I'm going to be quite honest with you and tell you, I don't even know what a witch is.

That's because we smash all our eggs. Well, he's right, but the data provided it does seem to be working. How do we know that a witch is it's something that's good for us? We don't. We just know that we don't. have any. Out of the sky, out of the sky, a stereotypical green-skinned hat-wearing witch zooms down to the world,

smacks the back of the screen's hand. And then, and then disappears. We love smoke shows unsmashed. That doesn't happen. Do you see that tornado? There's a house in it. I think that we can provide great value at the very least to barter whether or not we go with him and pledge our allegiance to the dragon. We kill this beast and perhaps we just say we need supplies for our own

adventure, our journey north. It sounds like we're, well, the majority of us want to kill this thing. It could be useful if we could gain some more supplies for our journey. It just sounds like such a lot of work. And I believe that there may be some benefit to learn how to learn how to do you know, how these gates look. I was gonna say, you know, it would be really funny, but then as I was gonna say that,

I realized it wouldn't be funny at all. What? If they were just sending us off in the wilderness to die, and they weren't actually gonna meet up with us at all or help us out. That's what we would call the Long Kong. Yeah.

I knew the fella named Long Kong Silver ones. Really? Was he friends with someone named Horrible? You had the worst look of anyone you've ever met? Oh, I knew a fellow named Fatty Bulger. I don't want to interrupt. No, that was Fatty Badger, and I knew that bastard. No, no, I don't know.

It must be a different battery. I don't mean to interrupt, but Queenie, are you saying hoary, Boulder? I just, I want to make, I know you have a bit of an accent. I do too. I'm not, I'm not complaining. I just want to make sure you're saying hoary, Boulder. Yeah.

All right, we're on the same page then. That's good enough for me. I also... He had a son named Wide Crag. I think that... They were minors. It's very reasonable for us to be concerned about the intention of these folk.

But I think that at this point, I'm confident in the fight of us. Are you sure it wasn't Fatty Badger? Now I was certain it was Bulger. That just seems too close to be coincident. I actually don't think it seems quite reasonable. I mean they're going to get an easy way to get the nickname. You got her.

You're dead. Oh my gosh. Holy shit. Oh my gosh. Holy shit. Okay. We have been travel. We left.

left that village a month ago. And if we can make her away with this caravan, we don't have to worry about fuel for fire. We don't have to worry about getting their food with magical berries and their worms with a little bit of ancient estuary. You'll make that very edible. And their safety in numbers from the beasts

that are clearly becoming more numerous the further away we get from the withered lions. Resources are running low. That's what I'm saying, Mr. Fire Blossom. What could they have to gain from nefarious intentions towards us? They can wear our skins for extra warmth. What? I mean, it's not the first thing. They get in my mind.

I am no expert on Cobold or other tight dragon folk, Mr. Fireblosson, perhaps you can correct me. But if they're white cobalds, they share similar blood to the princess that they serve. That seems to make sense. Voices in their blood. They don't need us for warmth. They're wearing coulogs. They're wearing chants. That does not mean what you think is.

There is the power of Shantz, Miss Murch. Oh, actually, Shantz Bulger was Fattie's cousin. That's strange that they both came up. Those lines. Yeah, I don't think that, I don't think Fatti had a cousin named Shantz Badger. Oh, so, Louis. Information that they both. They're two different people then.

I'm glad we solved that mystery. What the fuck are you talking about? But you didn't have a brother named Fatty Dumplin. I actually did know a fellow named Fatty Dumlin. Anyways. I think that, Mr. Yorne here, you are, our wilderness guide. You know the lands of lace and snow better than any of us. It doesn't hurt to help.

It suits our skills up. And if we could gain favor by helping one of them, then we can. This is not out of what I used to do. This is the first time we've met anyone we can converse with. Maybe the longer we stay with them, the more we can learn about this land. You know what I just thought about? No. Well, there was poison in that food.

That's what I told Tyshen. He wanted to make them tea, and I was like, they're not going to take the tea. Because if it were me in the shoes, then he was like, well, they're not, wearing any shoes. They're not wearing any shoes. And I was like, I know it's just a saying. It was like, what's the saying? And I was like, well, you know, they think we're trying to poison them. Why would you say they were wearing shoes, though, if they weren't? Why would they think that my tea is a poison? Why wouldn't they think they're tea is a poison? It was a ludicrous thing to say after you said that they were wearing shoes when they clearly weren't.

But you keep, never mind. Why don't we ask if there's a princess, why isn't there a bigger, maybe there's a bigger, maybe there's a bigger dragon? I think Mr. Staviskovs already did and they were quite. They didn't seem to understand what I was asking, or, or, or, or, or. or that maybe it was a big reposeate for uniting the clans. Well, and I think that we're also assuming that their hierarchies or whatever are the same as ours. Like, just because, you know, we know things of kings and queens doesn't mean that a princess isn't the highest thing that they've got. That's true.

We are definitely making assumptions. And we don't even know how it's spelled. What if it's spelled like P-R-I-N-T-S? And they make newspapers, you don't know. Princess? Yeah. All right. So it sounds like we're in agreement

that we have to kill this thing. We just don't know whether or not we're going to go back to their city. I think we should let them know that we will at least travel with them for some time and that we will perhaps gain any potions or some other supplies. When the time comes, we can always slip a coin.

And I think that regardless, we can say that wherever we part ways, it will be his friends. Provided they don't kill us friends. I'm going to say, the native folk here have been four more hospitable, kind, and welcoming than the lot that fucked off north from Arshap. And to be true. To be fair, if they're going to take anyone's skin, you're going to be the last one they take. And I mean this with all due respect.

Why are you looking? You should be happy. I'm saying what I'm trying to say is, look at how big Barnabose is. It's true. If you're going to skin someone, you're going to skin the biggest one. You're at least two inches shorter than they are. They never fit inside you. I would make a lovely pair of shoes.

Thank you very much, which you were so very adamant about pointing out that they don't have. Yeah, okay. That's a good point. I could see that. And if they wanted to make shoes, they would skin me so that they could furlite those boots. Yeah, you're right. That's true. That's fair.

I think you'd make a great hat, scrim. Maybe I'm biased because you have a very large hat that I just wore my mind is going. But see, that's the thing. If I were going to make a hat out of one of us, I'd make the hat out of Tyshed. because he would make a nice dragon leather hat. What? I think he'd make more of a great set of luggage. Oh.

You could get a full set all in the same color. Oh, exactly right, yeah. That would be nice. Carry things around. Practical and helpful. Yeah. Can I make a point that please?

We're so mad at our dungeon next. It's playing the heist mini-game in chat. Yeah. The signs of punching up our eyes in. Well, I guess that means we're just listening. answer. I guess we'll hunt this thing. I'm suggesting we get all of this fucking ice. All right, we gotta go find the plant.

We gotta go, maybe they can poison the direction and make the next to the next. I was gonna be the bathroom, but. Dude, I'm certainly knitting. I'm gonna practice my close-up magic. Slight of hand. All right, well, Mr. Whoever someone go tell them that we will do it,

we can, if they think it will, if they think it will, we go off at night, and we'll go right away. I'd be happy to tell them. Um, well, Barnabas, you want to go tell me? Oh, well. Oh, I suppose I could. We could go together.

Well, Barnabos doesn't speak common or draconic. I think he speaks common. Oh. How would we be talking right now? Oh, you're right. I was homeschooled. Oh, okay. That would have to blow my mind if we were actually speaking common right now.

We're speaking elemental this whole time. Holy shit. Actually, yeah. I mean, my main language at this point is common. I'm a little bit rusty in what I was raised on. Oh, what language is that? It's a dialect of primordial. Huh?

Aquin. What? Never mind. A chew. Anyway. I just think every time you try and talk to them, you get distracted by your teeth. So I think Barnabot should go do it. I'm in front of hacks.

This would be used to words. Point this in the right direction. and then I see ingredients to bring it to us. You'll need to travel north to attract it, I think. Perhaps it will just come upon you, but in general it'll need to go up north past the arch to the great forest to find the plant I described. There you can get what you need

and make your way back south to us to the arch. We'll wait three weeks. And there's a forest of actual plants? Yes. There's the tundra we're on now. It ends very soon. That'll be the most vegetation we've since then we got here. Oh, that's really concerned.

What's that? Global warming. Oh, I don't really know what that means, but... I've never read in a newspaper once. I think... I think... Yes. Yeah.

We would gladly slay this beast. for you. But I think that we don't really have the provisions to make that long journey there and back. So would you be willing to share your food and fuel so that we can make that journey? Make a persuasion check. You got it.

Go ahead and inspiration. No, we have to twist. No, we kiss too late. Is it? No, you don't have to do it before you roll. You just have to determine whether you want to use one or two twists. I would like to twist. Yeah, you just have to do it before I say what happens. Yes, I like to twist.

You have to pick. So one or two. Okay. One. I think one's one. It's fine. If I fail, it wasn't. I'm going to use this dye.

It's slightly better? Six. Oh, boy. This is a test of strength. This is a test of your abilities to survive. This is a test of your abilities to confront the monsters of Tricar. We haven't proven that already? Oh, I didn't think this was a test.

I thought we were helping you get a friend back. Almost certainly Our friend is dead Oh, you just said that they were probably Keeping your friend alive for a few more days And throw tortures Well, it's three It's been a few days

You'd have to find its nest It's been a few days You'd have to go into the mountains So Ebert is most definitely dead As strong as we are Even we do not cross over the spine of Drak So there's no chance to get any of Erit back we have already said far well

then we will go so why are we going then if eagrids already did because we can use their supplies and perhaps use the knowledge that they will provide for us and he's only presumed dead I think also would ensure safe passage to the north if we kill the monster

but if we die on our way to the monster because we can't eat or keep ourselves warm it's only like a week to the forest isn't that in the opposite direction of the way we were headed and we're going to go north though yeah it's well i'll go wherever you want me to i'm just very confused what i would say is that but did they say that they were going back north anyway? No. The insinuation that Hacks made earlier was that they were originally going to probably go from cairn to cairn and very southward until they decided to turn north, making an open jaw journey probably into or to the forest and then back to their original destination. So they emerged from this arch. They said they were going to go south and make a trail north and around in a big circle.

a pilgrimage. Yeah, I would say that you're not sure exactly all of the purposes why they're here. You haven't asked them like, hey, why are you here? But. And if we're heading, we've already seen a bunch of voles and falcons and things, right? So we can this hunt along the way. And if we're going to a forest, there's plenty of fuel. Is this one of the friends you meant, this, uh, these other people that you said? Is this one of your friends here? What? And pointing across the river probably somehow 60 feet away.

And the sun is setting, so the sky is still bright enough to illuminate. But you've all been so engaged in talking that you hadn't heard this silent creature. You can see it. It's where, here I'll read it. On the horizon, you see that. You see the profile of a man atop a strange steed, not made of flesh and bone. The figure dismounts and turns to face you in the band of cobalds. This creature stands nearly ten feet, nine feet tall, with a slender body of sculpted metal, polished to a mirror-like sheen.

It appears obviously artificial, and yet horribly organic in the same instant. steel like silver or platinum, almost like a seamless suit of armor in which no living being could possibly fit. In one of its two arms, a gauntlet-like hand grips an imposing, unyielding glave equal in height to its owner, with a pointed blade that tapers to an unthinkable edge. Apart from being made of impossibly smooth metal, its arms and legs seem normal, fixed with joints to an elegant torso. Its head is tall and narrow, looking more like a lantern wearing a helmet than a head. Two glowing, pupil-less yellow eyes stare out from its face, and where its mouth should be,

and opening gray dimly burns with that same yellow energy. A glow as though trapped behind a set of prison bars. Its every movement is impossibly silent, yet it clearly thrums with power and strength. In each step, thin paths of yellow light trail its movements like shooting stars. Walking forward from its similarly constructed steed, the creature raises its free hand and speaks aloud to the group. Greetings, citizens of Dracar. What the fuck is that?

And I'm going to get behind barbers. This is what I'm sanderines. You, what, you, you described that? This, it was not exactly this, but. Do I get the sense that, like, seeing this... In fact, even against the horizon, you get the same light that you saw in your vision. This not quite tool person,

you immediately make that same connection. Citizens of Dracar, put down your weapons. I seek the hexature armament. Give it up now, and you will survive. What is he talking about? We're not even citizens of Dakar. And we'll have some hexamen... Come, cobblubber.

Well, then he's obviously not talking to us. Someone should negotiate with him. What? What do you mean? Back, stay back, you strange creature. This isn't what, you don't know this creature. No, we don't know him. No.

We don't know him. No. No. You've never seen anything like that before? I don't know. I don't know what that is. Nobody's referencing? To arms, arms, arms.

No, we don't know. All the hobbles immediately jump up and grab their grab their spears, they form a line at the edge of the river. You're all screaming, no? Yeah, bro. No! No! You don't know what the thing is.

Be cool, everybody! This creature has left its steed on the surface of the frozen river and is walking forward, just completely confidently and steadily, it's not stopping. It has its hand up. Show me everything that you have. What? Give up your goods. Give up the hexature armament.

We don't know what you're talking about. We swear! We have no idea. idea what that thing you're talking about is. I'm gonna start taking my clothes off. I really hate having to do this. You start to do that and in the meantime, hacks. Stay, stay back.

There are rules here. There are a reason we keep a distance. Stay back. What banner are you? I am from Nirvana. You are. Your reactions just give me, I'm sorry. Because this is fucking crazy.

You are hiding the hexature. You cannot stop me from my goal, my quest. We don't know what that is. Come on, everyone. They start to advance in a line, starting to form a circle around this. We're not going to stop. As they start to, like,

and I don't, yeah, just put my hands in my head. Like, I don't know what to do. Or they're going to get slaughtered. This is, this is their battle, Mr. Staviscault. Has anyone heard of this? I have not seen anything. I don't know. That is all.

I got to this place the same day you did. Sir from Nirvana? The guy? This isn't a Wendy's. It keeps its eyes on the approaching spear wielding cobalts, but you hear its voice. Yes, speak. Why do you think we have this?

The artifact is. here. I know it. Do not conceal it from me. Can you at least tell us what it looks like? That's an interesting question. The hexature armament is six-sided. It is like a prison. It is the size of a, uh, that I could hold in my hand. Reveal it now. Your hand is considerably bigger than mine. We don't have it. Stay back. What color is? Yeah, does his description remind us of anything that we've come across at this point? It doesn't.

I would say if you wanted to make an intelligence check, it would be very easy even with a five to know that you have not heard or seen an artifact with six sides that you could hold in one hand that could be considered something that this creature could be seeking. I don't even want to suggest this because it sounds really cowardly, because it is really cowardly. But if that things are slaughtering all of them, then we can't help. We got to get out of here. your weapons now.

They're not listening to him. I think that we treat this fellow, whatever this thing is right here, like the White Dragon. We do what it says. And if they don't, and their blood is shed, we will comply. Well, can we not just let him search the camp? He says he knows that it's here. If they won't let him, we can't stop them.

If we find this for you, when you leave these cobalds alone. He continues to keep his eyes on the Kobols, who are continuing to move around him and ignores your question. Stop, or I will be forced to defend myself. He's trying to take our things. Join us. We have to fight this creature. Please, friends, don't do this.

We don't want to see bloodshed. Make a persuasion check. Or, yeah, persuasion check. I got a... I'm going to use... Two, let's use two. That's my vote. Are you sure?

Yes. This is extremely important. I used to. I used to. I got two. How does it work where I interrupt this with a twisted thread? You can't interrupt a twist with a twister dread. At least I can't.

Yeah, that's not my whole. Is it like keepsies where like the person who says the twist first? Yeah. I would say that if we roll it and then I guess, yeah, I guess it depends. We haven't really decided. Yeah. Oh shit, that was a roll. Because like the twist of dread is already powerful enough,

but to be able to negate twists. personally for my campaigns. I think that's unfair to chat and I'm gonna put that table, but you can do you. Oh, no, no. I was bound as not edge of midnight, so. Better. 17.

17. Look, look at the size of him. He's gonna kill us. What do you expect us to do? He's gonna murder us all. Let's just let him search for whatever he's looking for. And then there doesn't have to be any bloodshed. And if he only takes the one thing,

you keep your lives and you keep everything else. Isn't that more important than being slaughtered? and losing everything anyway. Yeah, exactly. What would the princess want us to do? They all start to, they're no longer advancing. They're no longer advancing on this creature. But it is continuing to walk forward.

And at this point, it is 30, 20, 15 feet away from you and the gang, now all standing in a line just on the shore of the river. What are you all doing? I would like lean into hats. If I could, I'd just say, do you know what he's talking about? Tell me the truth. I know not of this artifact. I can't know.

Then let him search. What do you, what do you suggest? Just tell him he can search. Say, if you know where it is and you can find it, you can have it. Just touch nothing else. Or take nothing else. Normally we would fight in times like this. But what do your princess have you do?

We are to you. You will not unite if you are all killed. That's exactly right. Everyone on your spears. They start to set your spears down, their spears down. And the next 15, 20, 30 minutes are a blur almost. As this creature very, very steadily goes through each one of you and all of the the cobalds and the sled and make sure that every single item is taken out.

Every single thing that can be open is opened. And you do have to actually show open your clothes and pull your pockets out. He does a complete audit of everything that is on your person and all of the cobalds, all while just silently scanning and watching each of you holding this glave, keeping a hand on this impossible, uh, oh, that's badass. And, um... What fuck is that? I'd like to know what that is, too, but...

It's a sperm whale. The, um, uh, audit having been completed, uh, just as the sun goes down, you all, um, you all, uh, stand, uh, as he starts to walk and make his way back to, back to the speed. Uh, uh, basically all of your things are like scattered around you. The sled has been completely. unpacked and all of those things have been laid out in a row based on the barking orders of this extremely strange nine-foot construct for a little bitter foot work yeah as he starts to walk away I'm gonna be like you're gonna trip in hey

you said you know it was here it's not here what it was all is about the armament is on dracar I have already said that this asshole what can we call you friend we run into you again or run across the armin in our travels here in this line. I am Secundus, and he jumps on his speed, and they start to immediately ride, crossing past the camp and towards and into the mountain range. And for a shot minute, everyone stands silently breathing. The bonfire had gone out for a moment, and reemerges as the firebringer

puts the heat back on, essentially, and you were all bathed in the warmth of this strange, this strange encounter. That nine hells was that? That is a powerful being. I do not know what it is. I've never seen anything like that. I've lived many decades.

I've seen all sorts of monsters, but nothing. As cool as lifeless as that thing. Where do you think Nirvana is? Not, though, but I think. he is an agent of what we saw. Anyone else think he smelt like teen spirit? The visions that we saw of flattened mountains. The perfect order in this land.

It seems in line with what he's doing. It's like with whatever horrible stuff's happening in this land? It just seems to be searching for something so far. Yeah, well, anything called an armament can't be good. Some kind of weapon. It was not natural. natural. That was not a living creature.

This is not a life. Well, if he's if he lost like something that belonged to him, let him take it back. I don't see why there's any problem with that. Probably better it's with him than with someone who doesn't know how to use it. What if the intention

is to make this land more like himself? Does that sound like what you saw in your vision, Mr. Yornear? saw corruption that was symmetrical. Surfaces of snowflakes, everything, forest, mountains, snow touch are perfectly in order, perfectly symmetrical.

And how do you know that's not what Nirvana looks like? It might be, this is my point. Perhaps Nirvana is the state that he, or they, whoever he is, whatever they are. he's hoping to achieve. Well, you're assuming that place you saw is what they want to turn to car into. And what I'm saying is, do we even have proof of that? How do we know that what you saw wasn't just the place they came from?

There were animals dead, flat plains. All right. Well, then how do we know that that's not what's going to happen if that weird armatron stays in your car? What if this entity thing is trying to take that back? to nirvana so that it doesn't cause that problem. We don't really have any information here's all I'm saying. When I saw the vision the last sentence to like that was that it was perfect order. This was this is my articulating that correctly. There was a a sickening order almost. The like a tree branch that

you know it might be beautiful and have its arches and fingers in an organic way would suddenly straighten and become impossibly perfect in that way and even though that might not strike you as on its surface something that is particularly evil you were filled with a sense of dread from somewhere almost like drowning all right so what I'm trying to say is this you are assuming that this entity is heralding this change in the car what I'm saying is I got weird strange obelisk vibes from this guy. Am I right?

Does everyone else feel that way? I certainly felt some dread. So what I'm thinking is what if he is not here to usher in that changing of your car, but he's here to remove that thing? What if it's like, you know, how if you put a bag of holding into one of them holes and just everything explodes? What if that thing, that armament, if it gets too close to that obelisk, it could create something like this. And so he's trying to get it out of the car.

And if we get in his way, we're actually going to usher in that horrible age. You know what I'm saying? We just don't know. We don't have the information. And what I do know is history is wrong. I know what I saw. And what I know is that we were cold here by that rhino. by the spirit, and if there was some man of metal and light, that big looking for it,

and he was going to save this land, why would we be called here? Hax has walked up at this point. He's been working with the other cobales to put things back together, to calm them down to attempt to bring some order and peace back into things, as Knight finally fully submerges, and he turns to the five of you. Thank you. We perhaps owe you some thanks.

I'm really sorry about all that. I just... Did you see that thing? I've never seen anything like that before my life, and we've survived this long. There's just no reason to just throw our lives away. Nothing like that, no. It's more important that ever that we get back to the mainland.

I, perhaps you can tell your princess about what you saw. Sikundas, you got a name out of him. Maybe she knows this fellow. Perhaps we would be punished severely for not, for not having asked you to go through the ritual of finding this beast, bringing us the head. Are you willing to join us? Who wants you to be punished?

I certainly don't want that either. Good. Or even. Also killed a monster in a long time, and I just kind of would like to do it. You will find us at the arts. Sure. We'll find this creature and meet you there. We'll take you as far as we can, and then you can make it to the forest,

where you'll find the plant that you need. Yeah, we just crush it up into pulp and leave it out for this thing to come get. Miss March will be able to track it down, no problem. This is why, this is what she's good at. perhaps we'd head out in the morning. Yeah. Given that, oh, I wasn't expecting to run into a strange man of metal and light. What if there's more of them?

What if he's not the only one? Oh, then we're probably going to die. Well, he didn't hurt us. Yet? He just searched our stuff and left very reasonably. I guess he knows we... I wouldn't exactly say that was reasonable, but he knows we don't have it. Well, it felt like you could have killed us all and searched our stuff.

And instead, he just didn't do that. That is a fair point. None of that is reasonable. I know. He did it in an orderly way. He is a slave to it. He's a slave to order. Is that not square with the natural order?

Well, I for one, believe in change the sea and the sky. Not whatever that thing was. There's no order to it. The rest of your evening is uneasy. what was a cross-pollination of strangers in a strange land and these cobalts and their ways and cultures, there's a pall that quiets much of the rest of the evening. And eventually you find yourselves asleep, sleeping nearby the camp of cobalds, and you enjoy the benefits of a long rest.

I refuse to sleep. That's fine. I'm just kidding. You don't refuse to sleep. Do you want to tell us about your way? So, yeah, you would have seen that I would have been reluctant to take this large, and you may have seen it like me, like, taking it out, but like to present. Barnabose does this is? Yeah, Barnabose.

I didn't know you had a big whale on you. Yeah, it's my, it's what my flask is. Oh. And so, basically, it's a large cork that's like a large wooden cork that's in it, and he sloshes with some kind of lit. I was just, I was going to ask us, we don't know what's in. No, no. We know you gave up drinking. Yes, exactly.

And so I would basically kind of present this unwillingly, and I would definitely not let him touch the, like, more precious about the shell, but also about this. And you also have, like, a specific vessel from water, like separate vessel. Yeah, yeah. So we just have no idea what to that. Is it seawater? Tashi.

I think I know it's in that wild. Oh. Well, I only just noticed that he presented that well. type of whale that is? A large whale? It's called sperm whale. I don't know too much about whales. What's relevant of that?

Do you know what sperm is? No. Is it in the sea? Is that an aquatic life? This podcast is brought to you by our Patreon. Become a patron today at patreon.com slash legends of avatrous and gain access to tons of exclusive perks, including a monthly movie night and a monthly movie night and a podcast.

weekly Patreon exclusive campaign set on the high seas, shroud 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 and Dragons 5th edition. And don't forget to snag all of the extra goodies like dice, miniatures, plushies, a tarot deck, and more. Thank you. You wake up and it is now starting to flurry.

The clear skies of yesterday have transformed into a overcast and large flakes start to drift down. That's very distracting. Thank you, Ivan, for the big. Thank you so much. Without a twist, and without those, the party certainly would have had a very different experience just now. We're helping with my horrific persuasion roles. Thank you, I know. I like you wanted them to die.

Really? I honestly just wanted to see Yeah, I wanted to see what the goodness could You know, like one leash, I wanted to see in my Unchained. I wanted that kind of gated power of a hole Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But hit me. Hit them.

Hit them. Yeah, I like them. Yeah, Scrim didn't want to see that bloodshed. Yeah. And you, you wake, and the party, the Uol, and the Frost cameras, Journey North along the river. And it is, day goes by, two days

goes by, three days go by, and very quickly you are able to see that this is where the river actually turns and makes its way into the mountain range. And in the wall on the cliff face of this mountain, you see another one of these arches. And it is almost identical. to the one that you have seen before.

It has been similarly sundered. The statues on the side have been crushed, and you see that there is a wall of stone just beyond the archway itself. However, this is where you and the cobalds part ways. Hax comes to you. We will make camp here, and we will remain for as long as we can. We will stay until you retrieve the head of this flying creature.

Hopefully it won't be that long. Well, make sure, here, and I'll open up my spice box and put a little pouch of ancient estuary. Wait, give this to Mipo, will you? He's really grown fond of the stuff. He's really grown fond of the stuff. Why, Mipo, I'll miss you most of all. We'll be coming right back. Mipo's fashion of his own pipe having had a few nights to whittle

Oh no you don't smother Whatever you want to do Mipo He's his own crab claw I'll reckon for a dream montage Of last night It's a little crab rave Follow this river To the next

Ruins And beyond that Another week's travel You'll reach the edge of the forest Man that is daunting But I must be better get started I never thought I'd be happy to see trains But first time for anything

Do you have any rations we can take with us? Rations are in the river. You must do this for yourselves, or we will not be able to protect you when you join the black, the frost hammers. Black frost hammers? Who are they? That's the consequence of a DM changing the name at the last second.

Not spoilers. I was like, you're evil cousins. Which, if you go back in the fucking It feels this really quickly Coffee us. There's this great moment in Edge of Midnight where you're talking about fucking Anya.

I was re-watching it to catch myself up and you were like, and then Hold on, I was going to call her something else. No. You didn't tell me that. I'm like, oh. I didn't pick up on it at all when I was playing. Do you remember what I said? Rewatching it.

It was like the second before. The penultimate episode. Okay, okay, so it wasn't like super earlier anything. Two episodes ago. Wow. I love that. I just wanted to call you out

because I saw it later. That's so good. I love that shit. I thought it later at the time. No, no, no. I can't believe I didn't make that connection. Anyway, that's not what happened here.

Funny you would draw a parallel between that moment and this one. Who are these cobalds? The evil sneaky cobalds. No. The cobbles who are very much trying to change their ways, bid you farewell. This is a journey that you have to take on yourself.

I think that's fair. Have we been eating their rations? They've shared. They've shared food. They've shared their eggs. They have almost a regular supply from this Arctic turn. I've been laying eggs because it's that time of the year. I'll also add, I'll also add, you might actually even recognize this.

These are migratory, this bird. These are migratory birds who probably go all the way to Mahmout and then back again to like go to breed during summer and then come back here. So it's surprising, like you don't know the journey that this bird has been on, but these cobalts keep it and they're one of them in particular, one cobald in particular, like really cares for this like a pet and like a loved one and nurtures it and make sure that its eggs are good and that sort of thing. You also recognize A lot of the food stuff that they don't waste goes to the like rot grub bucket

And they continue to grow and then they get fed down And they continue to grow and they get fed down You learn quite a bit about their ways But it's all living off the land It's all pretty savage but They do what they need to to survive And having journeyed along with them You could probably call them friends now

I'm glad they didn't they'll die, hurry specifically. Especially, Mipo. He just loves the ancient estuary. Goodbye, friends. Goodbye. We'll meet you back here in two weeks. Hax gives Queenie a hug. Goodbye. And you find yourself making that trek. I just really feel bad. I feel like I should have told his wife. We spent a lot of time together her and I. I don't know why I you're laughing. I'm trying to confide in you, Tashi. Is his wife here? He said she was. I thought he said she was backy with the princess.

Did he ever even mention his wife? Yeah, he did. I don't even know. I said that. I didn't think there was a wife. Yeah, I asked him after he was groping me if he had a wife and he said, yeah. But I think that she is not the... I think it's probably different cultural norms for a lot of time. That wasn't his wife?

Which one? Mipo? I thought Mipo was just the cook. Oh, I thought Mipo was his I don't think so. No, I think me, but it was a very, uh, it was a very slow lap. I don't know why you think he was his wife. I don't know. Anyways, I'll come out of sperm eggs.

I know you like them so much. Oh, I did. Thank you. Speaking of eggs, we should finish our, uh, our lesson about the sperm whale. Oh. You have three days to complete your lesson. as you continue to progress northward. Yes.

Every day that we have to fish, I volunteer for that to be my job. I volunteer to fish every day with our animals. And almost every day I catch nothing. Almost certainly. And I have just basically fucked off every day and not contribute or lifted a single hand under the guise of fishing with partners.

So scram. I was fishing today. Oh, never better. I love fishing. It's so much fun. It's relaxing. Very stressful. relieving you know get a lot off your chest and when things are really tight

this is awful stress it's tight you get wound up real tight but then you go fishing and you are smooth sailing for the rest of the day so you sleep like a baby on the days you go fishing I do I do you know I never really thought of it before but now that you mention it I sleep much better after a very hard-fought day of fishing with Barnabos with Barnabas is there anyone else you'd rather go fishing with no Barnabos is the perfect fishing partner. I'm really happy for you, screw.

Thank you. I, you know, I just, I feel like I finally have a purpose in life. I, you know, I thought that, you know, I just think, I think fishing's good for you. Thank you. Me too. Me too. It really builds some strong muscles, especially in the legs. I bet it does. Well, good night.

Oh, were you going to say something? Well, I was just going to ask how it builds strong muscles in the legs. Don't you use your arms to fish? Well, you use your whole body. Let me show you. Specifically, when you're on the bank and there's... Everybody clip this. There's a lot of fish and pike in the area.

You might start by, with the arms, but then quite often you have to get the legs in with it too. You know? This is a lot of, a lot of soreness. When you're not used to the motions of fishing. And Barnabos taught you how to do all that? Yes, he did. It's easy because he's a lot bigger than me.

So he's able to put me in the right positions, if you will. He's very strong. I bet. He looks. And you look like you're getting stronger every day, too. Well, you know, I didn't want to say anything, but thank you. Barthos does most of the work, doesn't he? He really does.

He's a very hard worker. You know, we'd all be dead without him. and you're feeling more alive because of him. Well, I guess you could say that, yeah. Good night, cleaning. Good night. It's on the third day that you find another somewhat larger village, similarly ruined.

You've seen it before once at the place where you finally were able to catch fish and to enjoy respite during your strength. experience with the lights. And it's here that you find an image that you've only ever seen two-dimensionally.

There is an ice sled parked at the docks here at the village. seemingly this being the terminal point of the northern voyage that the crew must have taken who knows days, weeks

months ago, on their journey. And there's evidence. There's evidence of fire. There's evidence of empty crates thrown and littered about. Quite literally, like, trash almost. Garbage. They're frozen, lifeless bodies? You do not find any bodies. Damn.

You do not find any bodies. You do not find any blood. You do find in the hearth of one of the more together buildings. Again, these are all stone structures. You do find small bones. If you wanted to investigate those bones, I'd be happy to let you make a roll for this purpose. Oh, yeah.

I'll get some bones. Survival, I think. That sounds not right to me. A roll. Solid roll. 21. It was like bones. Small bones.

This is definitely bones of some small carnivorous mammal. But you guys have been having the occasional luck with Queenie's bow, catching Arctic foxes. I keep wanting to say ermine, that's correct, right? Ermin or Ermin, I think they're both acceptable. Yeah, I think they're both acceptable. They're like Arctic weasels.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's why I said they're often confused with me. Oh. These bones don't immediately suggest either of those creatures. And as you are, as you are pushing your way through the ash. Was that funny? Yeah. It's like fucking disobeying the pronunciation.

The type of animal can't it's nothing. I want to say, is this the correct pronunciation? I want to say this. Oh, good. Yeah. Well, it doesn't matter. Well, that's because I'm setting up the fact that he pushes the ashes. You find his fucking cap skull in there.

Oh, what's it? Oh no! The what? The one crewman had a cat. They ate the cat. This goes to show that I was right in my flag design. To be fair, that cat was kind of a dick. What cat is?

I mean, I... What was that cat's name again? Like, Havapaino or something? Chubacca. I talked to the cat. Yeah, I know. Yeah, it did not like you. No, indeed. It was not very helpful.

You followed it around for quite a bit? I did. Who did it dislike the most? I think me. Sort of the... There was no question. Wasn't that Mr. Stonebridge's cat? I think so.

God, it feels like it was years ago at this point. There was no question. I mean, I guess survival, survival. How much, especially after starving for as long, if it survived, it would have been no fat on it? There must have been a bite for each the crew members, if that. Well, it was probably... A fight to the death.

Desperate man will do desperate things. No, I'm thinking more. The cat probably scratched someone. They probably got into some kind of argument. And whoever it was, had to fight the cat to the death. And in this case, the cat faked. I think that if they are still alive, I mean, the cat wounds are in real,

really bad sorts. They have to be doing way worse than we are. Certainly be itchy. I'm sure they're bleeding out. And if they had an allergy, they have succumbed. Speaking of cum. It's pronounced cumes. We look around for anything of note

before proceeding north to kill the big bird. You do find a few more illustrations. You find a few more drawings. Again, similarly signed by the cabin boy, Roland. And he is drawing

images on the slabs. you see a really beautiful landscape of the mountains. And you can even tell that the light had hit it in the same way during your confrontation with the strange mechanical man, that you see the Alpin glow, just as the sun is about to set when it turns great and bright red, orange and yellow before shrinking into blue.

This illustration is extremely well rendered. And you see, images of the men, a tableau of everyone hunkered around on the ice sled. It looks like it must have been day, perhaps it was something that he was drawing as they were riding the wind across this frozen river. Do you have any questions or want to know more about the illustrations? I would like to know, staring from using my memory of who I would have expected to still be in the crow, or who would have left in the crow, and how many people are present in the illustration? Does it look like there's fewer men that made it to this point?

Does it look like any of them succumbed to cat women? Cat scratch fever is just about to say that. You can see in this illustration that, though they're more poorly rendered in the background, There do appear to be seven figures in this drawing. He really focused on one in particular because they were probably sitting still, but there do appear to be folks sitting around or working the sale or something like that.

It seems to be I'm drawing what I see kind of a rendition. So there would have been eight. Is that considerably fewer than I would be doing? Two have left. Is it what I'm trying to do so? Maybe they aren't included in the illustration, but you would know that there were 11 who would have abandoned the ship, minus the one that they killed and left behind.

So it definitely seems like they fit into their rings. By three, potentially. He may not have drawn them, but at least... I'll point that out. If Roland dies and they bury him at sea, he would be a Roland in the deep. That's an Adele joke. She is my favorite bard.

If we don't find anything else of note, if we can look at maybe look for Trout. to see where they went. But beyond that, I think we'd want to go kill that. And I apologize if this was stated or just obviously went down. Did they abandon the sled because it doesn't look like there's anywhere like to rate for it to go on because we're so close to the forest now? It does look like they abandon it because the river narrows considerably. It just seems that this was the last port of call, so to speak, on the river sea. And the sled still looks iceworthy, for lack of a better term.

But it had no more use for it. Had no more use for it. And after spending perhaps a day or two here, based on the amount of debris, they continued wherever they continued. Oh, I need to subtract candles? I would say that you need to start subtracting candles for... It's been three days. So that's another three hours time. It was three days and then to get to the arch, and another three days to get to the village.

So five, six days have passed in total. So six eight-hour chunks? Six-eight-hour chunks. So we're down to nine eight-hour chunks. You are down to nine eight-hour chunks, but it's here that you can fill up completely on rations, whatever you have in your inventory for this purpose because you are able to have a successful vision day. Sweet. Okay.

I would like to, if there's any kind of shelter, that I could drag this windboat under, like I don't know, like if it's by cliffs or like inside a building or something just to kind of keep it protected in case for whatever reason it'll help get us back to that. This windboat is massive and there aren't trees yet. There aren't coverings or anything. The dock has not been equipped in that way. But you can tell it's been built in such a way to survive the elements. Who knows how many decades or maybe centuries this wooden structure has existed here.

But just moving it would require you to unfurl the sails and actually like man it. Got it. I'm thinking, I'm envisioning, uh, uh, maybe not quite this size, but the, the ship that Kevin Costner has in fucking waterworld. Yeah. Like that wide, yeah, that wide and that kind of shape is about the size of this ice sled. So the illustration didn't actually do the scale very justice. Is there enough, like, spare wood in the ruins to collect firewood until you get to the forest? Just to sort of make that.

Make an investigation check. I think that's a 10. Yeah. There's fewer wood stockpiles here in the form of broken down. doors or that sort of thing. You actually see that a lot has been picked through already. Yeah. But you are able to get some bundles. I would say that you have the ability to balance against your rations, another six, seven days worth of fires in addition to the candles that you have. Okay. So we got like 15 days, 16 days. So I would want to

any repairs to the sledge that I think I would need. Just while we're here with the extra wood and then take the six or seven, if that works. On the sled itself. And I'll smoke whatever fish that we can carry on the sledge. Yeah, so basically I'll smoke a bunch of fish. You fill up on resources, and pretty quickly you are making your way again northward. It's here that the tundra starts to reveal itself. there are small shrubs.

You are starting to find plants. There are occasionally you are seeing these very large fern-like trees that are themselves matted down with snow. It's almost like a

field of standing tall, frozen giants just that you have to trek past because even though they are far apart, they are still and crushed with the icing of snow that holds down their bows and their limbs. The journey is long, but you have the rations that you've kept from the fish. You have the ability to stay warm at night.

And for these reasons, you're not mechanically required to roll against exhaustion. You're able to keep your spirits up by moving during the day and at night able to keep warm through either burning real food. fuel or the magical bonfire fire candles that you have. And things are getting steeper. Instead of the flat ice sheet or the reasonably flat surface of the riverside, it's getting rockier, hills and swells and occasional rifts in the earth itself that you have to go around in order to travel north.

It starts to get rockier in its terrain. And on the eighth day of your travel from the village, you see the forest edge, this wide expanse. You remember now as you were traveling southward, this was what felt like the very northern crown of Dracar. As you were heading south on the ship, the more abound, you remember there was a great lush green forest a beautiful deep green of spruce

and of spruce is fine fern trees you were able to see all of those details on the landscape a great giant massive forest perhaps this is the southern edge of that same and what are you all doing?

The plant that they described was like a yellow or like a bright bush Yellow flowers with grayish stalks. I think as we go into the forest, we just keep an eye out for... Make a nature check. 15.

With a 15. Do you remember that you had a more extended conversation with hacks at some point, just sort of making sure that you understood exactly the nature of this plant? If it had any other applications, sharing knowledge with him the way that you used to with your druidic order. And he explained that, though it does occasionally show up in the actual tundra fields that you're now crossing,

that it's pretty deep in the forest that you'll have to actually get in order to see it. You're still keeping your eye out, but even with a 15, you're fairly confident that you're going to have to get a little farther into the heart of these woods before you actually stumble across or can get the scent of the citrusy plant. Okay. So you continue to make your way. I'm just to keep an eye out for any kind of danger. With my danger sense feature in the barbarian.

It's on the next day. This is we're going into a forest. Yeah, yeah. Oh, and actually, for the purposes of this, let's forest it up. What? Look at that. Oh, that's cool.

You find yourselves now walking through these large trunks, them getting narrower and narrower. You can see that the sledge that you have only very narrowly fits through this space. You wonder how those copals would have been able to navigate this space, given how dense and thick this forest is starting to get as you make your journey in and through and towards the heart of this forest. It's on this day that Queenie, you actually pick up on tracks. Looking down at the snow and into the earth,

you actually see these large hoof prints of what is very clearly a caribou, similar to what Yorneur transformed into just before the captain broke his leg. Do you care about a caribou? Or do you care boot a caribou? Who are you asking? Well, I was looking at Barobos, Bramaskin, everyone.

I don't have any special connection to a caribou. I'm assuming they're edible. As long as that one... I can't prepare it. I mean, it means that there is food to... Does anyone hear that? I think there's a computer booting up somewhere in this forest. I heard that too, and I hate this fucking World of Warcraft song for that.

One reason. How dare you speak ill in this song? You have to admit that sounds exactly like that part. Everything else about it is fucking banger. Right. But that one part always takes me out. That's fair. Thank you for that.

Yeah, you definitely think that you're close to a caribou-like creature. And having so many days have passed, your stock of fish has dwindled considerably. So we need to cross off. So how many days total was that? It was six to the edge of the forest, and I just said that another nine went by. Three. In the forest?

Four. Are we seeing any, like, good berries in the forest or anything? Like, goodberry bushes or anything like that? I do not think you would come across any good berries, but the ones that you still have on your person are good berries. being magical, still almost as fresh as the day that you were handed them. I was going to say that amount of time, too, is enough for us to burn through the... So we have 15, so that's 15 days. We have 20. Good memories.

And I was saying 15 days or 50 or 60 days of wood as well. Okay, so I have one, two, I have seven days of wood. Okay, so I have nine days of candles, right? So I'm going to take off seven. And we're at what? You said 15, so we got two less? You're starting to feel a little less pressure about the wood, whether or not you to keep it on your sledge or in your inventory or burn any of the bonfire fire cameras. Now that you are in a forest, you are able to always find ranch the knot off or just make the effort to your near fuel as opposed to the harsh Arctic Southern lands.

Thank you for that. So that's still 15 rations. 15 days of rations. How many? Do you have one you? I had 10. I have eight, so I can take someone out of mine. Okay. I already burned all mine. So, but I have I have one, two, three, four, five left to on the sledge. Well, then we should be good.

Oh, no, wait, I'm sorry. No, we need 15 times four. That's 15 days. I mean, I, oh, shit. What happened we eat every other day? You'd be okay. I mean, technically, if you really want to cheese it. No, I don't want to cheese it,

but I don't think eating every other days are reasonable. You could figure out who has, like, if you're playing like Grognard, D&D, you could figure out who has the least constitution, in order to save and then you only eat just before that person becomes exhausted and like the longest possible I think we'd all just be trying to eat every day like that sounds like something we'd be no I would agree with then I ran out seven well here then I'll take off one two because I had to eat on my first I had 10 on my person I told you I don't have any rations on me you've no rations on you get here I'll give you these five at five 15 times four six days I need 60 rations Yeah, well, I've eaten.

I had eight. So can we have been hunting and fishing along the way? No fishing, but can you absolutely could be hunting? This is the first big game that you've spotted. Would Queenie be able to go hunt, perhaps, with her bow, similar to how I've been fishing every day, and perhaps rolls your Bible check to see if we've been able to catch bowls or shit? That would be up to Queenie.

Yeah, I just don't really want to feed people. That's not, like, that's not in my head canon for how Queenie you guys. Bodder. Yeah, I'm not like, I'm not like a hunter or a ranger. No. Yeah. Do you go off by yourself or do you do it? I'm more like a bunny.

Do you do it with your group or do you go off by yourself? Oh, I do it with a group. Gross. What? Huh? Huh? Spirm whale? Moby rich.

Fatty. Fatty rich. Fatty boulder. Faddy badger. Faddy badger. If you go decide how you're doing it. Tell me how you're doing it. And then I'll let you roll.

survival to see how much. I would say every night I would go off with Tishan and I would hunt while also trying to explain to Tichan in the sperm is. Okay. And it is never effective. No. My explanations are horrible. I don't want to be vulgar. I talk about birds and bees. It doesn't work. This is the first time and I will say it's hard to explore their forest at night, especially during this time of the month. I'm saying more like in the evening, I guess. I wouldn't even do like dead of night. Okay.

But like as things are going out to get their eats, before they settle down for the night. We're approaching the darkest night of the month. It is the seventh day of the 12th month now. And that means that you are one, two, three, four, five, six, seven days from winter. And you are finally able to find, like, a trail that looks like it leads to a real kill, a caribou, something that could feed the group of you for days, maybe weeks to come. And you and Tyshen go out into the forest to see if you can find this creature.

Trying to strike that golden hour when you have enough light to really track, but it's dark enough that the caribou is probably not going out. A little more adventurous. Exactly. It's settling down so that you can catch up to it or something along those lines. And sure enough, we'll survive. Is she assisted by Tyshe? Tai Shen, how do you assist Queenie?

I listen very intently to your stories about spring. At attempt to make tea and talk about tea. Yeah. You probably talk about tea a little bit. Would you provide light, perhaps? Crow, pro-ho. Yeah. So, yeah, I guess I would attempt to assist in whatever way she would direct me.

Um, potentially if that's like, I would assume, I don't know, you can't use a twist of fate? Yeah. Absolutely, you may. Yeah. Nice. Nice. This trail, you are able to make your way through the trees, and after a few hours, I'm a few hours, you tell Kai Chan to be quiet because you can tell you can tell that just around

this hill, these tracks are so fresh, this caribou, you can almost smell it. You're able to creep around and behind one of the trees you can see its antlers poking out and then looking a little farther as quiet as a mouse, it's a rabbit perhaps. You are able to see the full body of this thing and it's it's nibbling on a branch let's say at carrot room that's old seed sandals see torns or whatever it is I'm not from here

where that dumb shit is see them they're big that thing's old it's days away from death it's nibbling on that branch probably the last branch it's never been seen why I know why Roll the attack. If it's not like 20, we should.

I don't know how to play by... Are you advantaged? Oh, yeah, I am unseen. That's true. So I'm at advantage. Is that how that works? You got an arranger thing? No, it's just combat.

It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. Bad ass. That's why you like eye between around. Learn something new every day. Unseen attacker. 19? 19 hits.

That's a lot. lovely. I don't know a previous character. I'm quite slum for you in. I'm Twitter-painted. Nice.

Good number. Yeah. 13 damage. And my bees finish it on. My bees are going to swear his body.

Oh my God. It's like And it's gonna take I roll max damage for both my deck. Holy shit. Six points of piercing damage. Of B damage. And that's, how much total?

Oh, eight. Should be eight plus at least five. Yeah. So 13 plus 19 points of damage. According, should I do anything? Juni thing? What are your bees looking like, by the way? Are they classic Oh, they all turn into wasps and they just fuck this guy. Are they classic black and yellow in terms of their?

Yeah, they're bumblebees. Are they the regular size? Are they big boys? They're chonkers. They're like they look like they've had like a couple of like moon pies. There are a variety of Arctic bees, obviously because I do all my fucking homework, right? There are a variety of Arctic Beats, so if you wanted them to have blue for, you can. I don't know, yeah. Yeah, they're yellow. Just checking. Like cartoon, classic cartoons.

Like classic cartoons. This caribou, right through the back of the neck, this arrow sticks, and then immediately the bees are on it. And what you watch is a nightmare. But you're not able to pay full attention because as this caribou goes down, and you're grateful that it had such a quick end, A second arrow. It's swollen, but you see, the thing is it's dead, so it can't feel it.

The second arrow hits the tree that it was nibbling on. As if it had fired just moments after you had made your attack from just often to the right. Was that you? I was going to say that. Was that you? I'm going to immediately

ears up like a satellite or something. Thank you. And I'm listening. You triangulate and you listen And you're able to sense that Probably if you Doesn't feet in this direction

There's another person with a bow Who had fired that shot How smart am I? What's your aim? I was in what your aim's score? I may not be I ain't smart but I ain't do 15

That's pretty good Yeah, that's way smarter than a scrim Yeah She's a dumbass I'm gonna try something Tashi if it's anything like what you do that I care of you. I'm going to take an arrow and I'm going to fire in the direction that I think that the arrow came from and then I'm going to immediately say duck and duck. No, actually I'm going to fire back in the tree.

So you fire back to hit the same arrow or to... Just somewhere on the tree. Somewhere in the tree. I will say you're able to hit a tree usually. I'm not going to even to make you roll forward. He just and it hits. And you hear the sound of movement very faintly from the side, moving towards the caribou

and around. You look through the trees and I'll ask you both to make a perception time. I'm heavily paranoid. I post you a comic, an old gem comic in the Icebound Discord that shows exactly what these bees look like. I also want a note that caribou was placed by Nicholas Gage.

Oh, God. It's as a banter's canon as the god of the world. I'm allowed to sit there. 21. 21. Um, nine. Nine. Kaishen, it's because of your height

that you're able to see over a bush, um, the, uh, and spy this hunter first. But what you see is, um, It's Queenie's I want to see it, but I'm DMA. Just look at it. Here, I'll pass you a picture. Just keep going.

What you see is the head of Willie the worm was transformed. That's Billy the Bates. All right, so over the top of one of these bushes or shrubs that are adjacent to one of these trees, you see Auburn hair, long. long Auburn hair and you see a quiver of arrows. You see what looks like thick furs, arctic furs,

and you see the bow. This person's moving very quickly, circling around, trying not just to get to the caribou, but also to figure out where you are. But they haven't looked or spotted you. You're still unseen. Queenie, you don't see any of this because there's leaves them way and shit.

Queen, I can see. Quinny, I can see it looks like someone potentially who fired that arrow is over there stalking the caribou. They don't seem to notice us yet. You tell them not to take our fucking kill?

Well, maybe we could just walk over. I'm in the right. I can look at them. We can just walk over them and just tell them together. Why don't you go over there? Okay, I'll go over there. That seems reasonable. And I'll stay back behind this log. Okay. And if they try and kill you, I will try to kill them first. You think they're going to try and

kill me? No, probably not. Okay, well, that seems very reasonable. All right, cool. I'll stay back behind this log then. And you just say, hey, we shop first. Okay, that's it. That's ours. Hello!

Hello? Do it over. Do it over there so they don't see me. Hello? You hear a shuffle, like the sound of a body hitting up against the tree. Hey, I see you over there. Don't be shy. Did you shoot that arrow? You missed.

My friend who's over behind that log, she hit it first. It was a good shot, though, but she was better. How are you? You see a face turn, hair switching to one side, and a woman, a human woman.

I would be towards the character. Hot dog. You're a goblin. Yeah, and she's going to love me. Just like Marnibus. Probably exactly like that. In her mid-20s or early 30s. You get a glimpse of eyes and then

Well, she has them. That looks scared and alert and alarm before it darks back behind the tree. Do you stay in place or do you... I'm walking towards the caribou as I'm calling out. As you get 10, 15 feet away from the caribou, you hear this woman immediately jump out from behind the caribou jump out from behind that same tree and

Look honey, I will shoot you through your head before you can shoot my friend. Oh my gosh, oh, this is escalating. You'll see my ears poke up over the down blog. Hello, I'm Quaney March. Miss March if you're nasty. Miss, other miss with the arrow, not Miss March, not if you're nasty. And I'm aiming my arrow at her as well.

I know this might seem like, like an arrow to an arrow some sort of face off and we're at a bit of a draconic standoff here. However, did you see the bees? Did you see the fact that I killed that caribou before you did? It was horrible. That's what I thought.

Well, she starts to gesture very quickly. She's not making a sound, but she is using her hands very quickly to attempt to communicate with you before. My God, I think the horror of those bees is driven into some sort of seizure. Maybe she doesn't want us to speak, or maybe she doesn't want to speak. Maybe she can't speak.

Are there bushes around? Yeah, they're larger and larger shrubs have you gotten farther and farther into the heart of this wharf. Try speaking in Intraconic. What? Okay. Hey, don't shoot, but Indracomic.

Right. And then spit fire immediately afterwards. You say this in Griconic. She shakes her head. She continues to... Okay, okay. I would like to... Like, effectively, mechanically firebolt a bush, but not, like, super threateningly.

Like, if I can... I'm a god! I'd like to... like in flint, I'd like to hold my hands up, and then like, you know, like, yeah, hey, be cool. And then kind of just like, what if the damage of firebolt? A D-10? Do you have a plus the digitation?

What is it? But that just, like, cleans me off. There was this one time when I was cleaning. Oh, you can create a harmless sensory effect. I had a sensor, I had a zippo once, and I didn't know how to fill it with fuel because I was with a baby with it at the time, and I filled it to the point where I accidentally put a whole. lot in the cap and then I tested it and then I decided that I was gonna be super cool

and flicked it closed and like a small but very serious stream of fire came out you just threw a ball can kill a person I couldn't do that with that it was very alarming I see what you're saying I see what you're saying instead of fireball I like to use precedeitation to gently light this bush on fire and then quick as I can I'd like to like in the smoke that's coming off the bush, use control flames to create, like, what would look like, I don't know, peaceful, like, peaceful objects. A peace sign.

Yeah, maybe like, you know, like, we come in peace. Which looks like this. Or written out in common. Yeah. That's definitely the hand-fisher she is. Oh, she's a better. Yeah. I don't think of it.

You're like it looks like this. No, I mean this. Narconic death correct. Okay, so you do the correct hand gestures. I don't know if it's verbal, somatic, or anything, but I think it's just semantic. Regardless, the rest of the decision's verbal and semantic. Okay, okay, so you speak the words.

You do the hand gestures and the side of the bush starts to glow with embers and smoke. And then the smoke itself, you are, are shaping with your magical abilities, your innate abilities granted to you by your patron, let's say, and you are trying to communicate. And all you see is the emerging expression of fear on this woman's face. This woman is horrified to see that you are able to produce magic out of nowhere,

to produce fire, to be able to control. It's very evident that you are controlling and creating this image. and she's gesturing faster and faster and faster and faster and starting to back up 5, 10, 15 feet. She's no longer threatening you with her bow, but she just seems completely alarmed by your entire situation. Queenie, I used to be good with people. I think I've lost my touch.

She seems very afraid. I put up the peace sign and everything. That wasn't the piece sign. What did I put up? The middle finger. What does that mean? means fuck off. Oh, no.

Oh. Who taught you that with the peace sign? I'm Scrinner said that this is the universal sign of acceptance. Whoever back we are, I'm like, you'll never believe what I talked about. He said if ever I couldn't communicate in the same language to just do this. Well, you do need two fingers for a piece sign, but you want them on the same hand. Oh, no. You're sitting.

You can't fight wherever we are with this foot up, and they're going to just at the fire. I'm over the fire to find something with my season pan. And you'll never guess that I told him that this means we come in peace. What a fool. I'm sure that won't come to this might us. I've also seen Mr. Bean. And she is making intelligence check.

Both of you. I told you. Natural toormy. Oh. That's good money. So 24. 19. Can I use a twist?

You may? You can't? 24 and 18. 24 and 18. You both start to put pieces together very quickly. She's repeating the same gesture over and over. This, here, this. Putting her lips to her hand, like so.

She's communicating, I can't speak. How are you speaking? Fuck. So you can hear us. But you can't speak. She shows her neck like this. And you can see a cut.

Oh! You can see another cut. You can see a diagonal like this. Oh, you poor thing. You can take that caribou. Whoa. What?

This person is trying to shoot me. That person can't speak. Someone took their voice. Well, I'm not going to eat very well with that cut. wrote as I'm saying, but... We could share some of it. We could, well, yeah, we could.

You want to take one of the caribou's haunches? We're new here. You're pregnant? Oh, you're already full. You don't need the caribou. You've eaten a lot. Tashin and myself. Eating strong.

Oh, maybe we're so strong with magical powers because we eat and she doesn't eat? Wow, that's what I think. You speak. She... Can you come over here and we'll right in the dirt with this stick? And I pull up a stick. She puts the arrow into her quiver and pitches her bow over her shoulder.

And slowly and carefully starts to make her way towards the two of you, edging towards the caribble. And then waits to see what you do with this. I will take it and I will toss it to her. Can you write what you want us to know in the dirt? All right. Are you hungry? Are you safe?

Are you... Are you by yourself or do you have friends or family? One, is it your child? Family? Do you live in the forest? We mean you no harm. We have three other friends that are with, us, we were hunting to feed ourselves.

This could take longer than we thought. Do you want to come back with us and we'll eat together? We'll become friends. You and your family can become part of our family. She starts to do this gesture and she's understanding now that she needs to be very explicit

with her gesturing. And after a few minutes of her walking through and you making a few additional guesses, you ascertain that the person that she is trying to get back to with food is a sister and that they have found some sort of habitat or home or safety. You can't quite make that out. But that you are, that she could take another day because they need more food. And if you're willing to share that friendship would be well. All right.

You come back with us. We'll share the caribou. And then tomorrow I'll help you hunt some more and you can take, we'll split it and you can take it back to your sister. Have you seen any? She was trying to gesture. Would you come with me to help?

But you say? Have you seen any bushes here? with yellow flowers at the end in the forest. That's what we came here to find. Do you know what we're looking for? I haven't been here very long, but I have seen yellow flowers. They're at the house, the shelter,

that I'm staying in now. Well, that's perfect. This is a very fortuitous meeting. So we'll, you can come back with us to where our friends are, and we'll all come back at, well, the three of us will get the caribou back there. We can cut it all up and, you know,

do what we need to, and then we can go with you to your shelter and meet your sister. Well, let's collect my arrows. Yeah, okay. I'll collect one bloody arrow. I'll get the other from the tree. Very, very quickly, you're able to put together the caribou into something that you can drag

or perhaps carry even with that shen truck. sling it over my shoulders? I don't know how much your air capacity is, but almost certainly you have no issue with it. Well, we are playing by a set of rules, let's say. What's your inventory capacity at right now?

Total is... Yeah, this is going to be... This is going to be probably four or a five on the... Total is 19, and if we use any rations, I don't have. We used to bunch.

Yeah. I'd have like six slots. Oh, yeah. Okay. So you absolutely are able to, like, get it over your shoulders. And even though it's slow going, and you have to make your way through some trees every once in a while, you and this unnamed woman are able to make your way back to camp. Before we return, what have you guys been up to for the last three, four hours? It's dust when they leave, right?

That's when you want her to go hunt. I would say I would probably help by collecting firewood, just, you know, fallen branches and things, trying to collect firewood and keep myself busy, and I would do whatever these two basically tell me to do. And I would gripe about it. You guys are starting to find the cadence and a rhythm. You've been doing this for weeks and months now, and it's always with the griping. Absolutely, but yeah. You were near, barn abodes?

I would be, like, if there were any, like, small voles or things that Queenie just able to pick off, I would basically would have skinned them and be frying them up in some kind of stew, and then getting my deep pan ready for whatever meat that they bring back, and seasoning it and getting maybe just some foraging, you know, if we have, like, different things that we forged for a hardy stew. I would be just sitting silently, staring into the fire, sitting next to it on the ground, And every, you know, 10 minutes or so or 15 minutes, I'd throw, you know, a little bit warm fires.

And you reflect and think. Sure, sure, sure. And in the time that passes, it's now past dinner time. But only just very, very quickly, you hear the sound of movement in the brush. And you have to ready for anything. But when you see Tichan emerge with the... three or four hundred pound caribou on his

shoulders pushing his way through and into the yeah that's outrageous actually but whatever it's fucking read the Indian Comberance Rules for real he is able to walk into the interview you see just at his knee height

that's where he arrives go next Queenie and then behind a strange feminine figure a woman a long straight brown hair, very beautifully silky in its quality. Very pretty features, fair complexion. Covered in furs and a bow over one shoulder, you're able to see, she's trailing behind perhaps a little timidly, but she locks eyes with each one of you, and then sees the fire,

sees the food that you are already preparing, and walks in perhaps a little more equal. Holy hells you found a person. I scrimmed. We just need to calm down a little bit. Honey, can I call you, honey? Because you're sweetest pie. This is Honey. We found her out in the woods.

We were both hunting the same game. And Honey can't speak. And it's a little bit shocked that we can. Something has happened to Honey where her ability to speak has been stolen from her. and she has family. They have shelter, and around that shelter are actually the bushes that we're looking for.

So we offer for Honey to come back and spend the evening with us. She's going to take us to her shelter to meet her sister and hopefully to be able to find those bushes. And that is a situation that Tashan has gotten us into. And most importantly of all, she almost shot me in the head. because I lit a bush on fire and showed her the peace sign. Oh, no, you did. You did not show her the piece sign.

You told me if I ran into a stranger. That was the universal symbol. I can't believe you felt for that. For displaying peace and friendship. That's the oldest trick in the book. Oh, gosh. You see what I'm working with here, I was the man on the left.

That's true. Now you know how it feels. I don't like it. Would you like something to eat? Barnabos is a great cook. He's got some phenomenal seasoning. It's called something about like, what is it?

Ancient estuary. Young lady, my name is Barnabose. It's very nice to make your acquaintance. Why don't you have a seat? Rest your legs and have a nice hot meal. She walks up and from her satchel, she pulls out a small wooden bowl and serves herself. No, no.

allow me, you're our honored guest here. She doesn't let you. She puts it into her own bowl, she sort of shakes her head. If you care to, it's not poison. Unless you're allergic to ancient estuary. What a terrible fate that would be.

And delicious taste. My God, dearie. She's fine. She drinks a few timid sips initially, and then very quickly you can tell how hungry she was. As hot as it is, she just downs the ball and is relishing every bite.

She loves it. Have you been here? Has she lived here long? No. Not that we could figure. Yeah, she said she hasn't really been in the area alone. Well, I mean, what does that even mean? It's just like a whole continent.

How does she just find herself here? You want some more, honey? You want some more food? Barnboast, can you give her my portion for tonight? Yeah. Are you sure? I'm sure. Right on.

Please, eat your fill. Eat your fill. I've had enough. I've been eating that for every night for a while. We don't need portions. Well, you brought this. Oh, yeah, I got this caribou. Nice job.

Thank you. Are you going to clean it? We've got this. Always do. Well, if you want to get started, I can get something frying it right away. Perfect. Thanks. Except remembering the caribou, a second bowl of this food. She can't speak.

She only communicates in gestures. We've gotten it down to a pretty good communication format, so. It's really quite beautiful. Why don't you have a way to communicate liquid more deeply? No, I don't. I wish I did.

I don't. I knew a fella, a former pirate who wasn't able to speak as a cat and wanted everyone to be quiet, cut off his tongue. Train his parrot out to talk for him, though. Crazy. Because I couldn't believe he did it. I mean, I can kind of like sometimes get a good could look at somebody and really like peer into their mind,

but I don't want to freak her out. Does she do any kind of magic? No, she seemed kind of, I mean, you can ask her, she can respond to you, but she seemed a little concerned when Tashi here was able to light that bush on fire and then flipped her off twice. Yeah, I definitely shouldn't like peer into her brain and that might not be good.

You could ask her. It's a little intrusive. Yeah, and it might not even tell us that much. Does your sister speak? Is it very easy to see the scars you had described earlier? I would say unless you rolled less than a five at this distance next to a campfire, you would notice.

So go ahead and roll a perception check and almost certainly. As long as I don't get a one. I guess I have plus four. Oh, so you can't fail. Oh, okay, no, you're right. I've been very bad at math. I literally can't fail. So yeah.

At a certain point, you look under her chin, and especially when she's communicating about language, she's touching the spot on her neck. Is it visible scarring or some other, you know what I mean? Like, does it look like a visible, like, surgical scar? It looks extremely clean. Scar or surgical would be right, but it's very thin. It's almost like somebody made a white tattoo with white it.

So it's like this very thin, like the pen, like, thin drawing. It's three lines. Yeah, it's three lines. Do I recognize, does any of it ring a bell as far as, what you said it was like this, this, and then that? Yeah. Yeah. Does that ring any bells, any rungs that I know, or any kind of sigils at all?

No. Make a history check. It's pronounced Sigel. Yep, yeah, yeah. That is a 15? With a 15, you're looking at this shape, generally speaking. and it feels runish to you, but with a 15, you feel that's coincidental, because the run doesn't have any context. It would normally go.

How did you, it takes a few minutes for you all to start to catch up to the way that she gestures when she continues to have to frustratingly slow herself down and say, on yourself. How did you find yourself here? and we've only been here for two moons. Like two days? Like months. Well, we were on a shipwreck. Yeah, we were on this boat called Moorbound,

and it was a moor, a ground, is really what happened, so. Icebound. Yeah, we were icebound, and we have been traveling through this perilous land. We came across some cobalts, and they are hopefully going to meet us

and help us on this journey, but ideally I would like to get out of this place at some point. It's been months. Yeah. A ship? Yeah. And you were stopped in the ocean?

Yep. By the ice. Yeah. Have you, you escape from whoever did this to you? Rescue. Who did this to you? She starts to gesture, starts to try to describe a father who came back, who had great risk, was able to pull her free from,

she's referencing this, like, chest or belly motion. some city of these bellies or chests that she'd been imprisoned in with her sister and with many others that she starts to weave this kale and I need everyone to make a group in belly

for you. Interesting. Five. We need them in class. I would like to cast idea. Whoa. That's a classic. And so while she's describing this story, I will think about my night in the graveyard with that horrific creature that made me sign that contract.

I will feel this fiendish energy of this hound. And I will whisper just something to myself like, how can I help me on just this one time? and I will flip a single gold coin from my pouch into the air, and it will vanish as a cast idea. And if I may, I can get a plus five bonus to Arcana History Insight Investigation. Oh, God, tell me it doesn't say intelligence. It doesn't say intelligence. So I take it all back.

Aww. Yeah. Okay. Doesn't help me with it. Those are all in checks, right? Yeah, most of the... Well, I thought I had to roll a straight intelligence check. Well, you can describe your problem and you only get a plus five if I make you roll one or more of those scrolls.

Based on the spell description, the intended meaning when I put the spell fucking together, is that you still can get some sense of an idea of if it requires a role that you could succeed or fail at, it might be one of those. I was hoping that the magic of idea and my patron would essentially, help me to interpret what this woman is trying to say without using words and might give me more of a magical sense of what she's trying to convey. Let's resolve that momentarily. Yeah.

Indeligence? Seven. Seven. Two. Nice. Five. Five. Five.

Five. Good grief. Tyshen, you're going to put this together at about the same time on your own without the magical requirements of a idea, but you go through the ritual of casting

the spell and focusing on those questions. Redefine the question for me one more time just to make sure that I have it explicitly. So you say she's using hand motions to just try to tell a story, try to leave a story. I am hoping that by you know, expending this gold coin

almost a tribute to my patron that the magic that my patron can lend me might help me to magically decipher what she's trying to say in some way or give me an edge. Where she came from, who imprisoned her? That she's like. Yeah, make a history check.

Okay. I'm hoping to put together the patterns of what she's mimicking and trying to understand better what she's saying. Hmm. Twist. Yep. Let me see what my pluses. Oh, to history?

Oh, yeah. That's not good. I'll steal a twist. Thank you. I'll just, just the one. Oh my God. Well, I got an 11 total because of the plus 5.

So, an 11 total. Better than 10. It is better than 10, but it's certainly not good. You don't know what this gesture is, chest or bellies. You don't, this is a strange, you're a stranger in a strange lamp. You don't have any of the tools

to put together, these additional elements that she starts describing this in this of a city of a of a of her captors of what her life has been like so far she's going too quickly but she is coming back to her rescue work over and over again and it's at the same time

that you both start to put together the way she's talking about this father figure reminds you of the forest and the sea and the ship and you put together Could this have been myelin? Would this have been the person who escaped the mute on the boat that you sailed south with that had stolen the cockboat as soon as Dracar came under view? Could this have been that person on a mission on a quest?

She's continuing to tell the story and she tells the story of this rescue or this father and gesturing over and over and over again. Those pieces seem clean and like you can connect the dots in that way. Did you have any visually distinguishing features? That would have been my question. I'm with you. I'm backing you up. And I would say that...

Like, what we remember is a scar... There's a visual resemblance in the straightness of the nose, especially, between this girl and the myelin. Would we have ever noticed... any markings on his throat? No. But you will recall that he always wore a fur chief.

Yup. Okay. It seems like from what you're describing this man you speak of did bears a certain resemblance. Did he wear a, he wasn't always with you. Did he come recently?

You wear a a cloth around his neck. I think potentially she was rescued by myelin when he left the ship. Now that would make sense that he wasn't actually abandoning the crew. He was on his own mission. I mean, he's still abandoned the crew, but... Well, but not to save himself to save them.

One other question. Do I think that this gesture, Do I think by any means would it come to me that I think she might be referencing a horde? Or just definitely belly your chest. She definitely thinks that there are a lot of these chests. It's not one chest. It's captors, plural. There's a group of these beings that held her and her sister.

Isn't what you can see. In Barnabos's travels, would I put together any kind of species where that defining creature would be like the belly or the, the barrel chest. I think make a just a straight history or an intelligence check your choice. Sometimes it's the same.

I think history, yeah, it's the same for me, but I like to give the natural won't. I'm going to twist that. Let's do one twist it. I'll do one twist. We'll do one twist. 18. Much better. 18. 18? She's trying to unpack this for you

and maybe you ask a few clarifying questions, but all you you can get from it is strong like giant large it actually almost feels like she's describing you

in some ways like there's a she's coming back to this sort of like belly thing I'm a little sensitive she's the ancient estuary you definitely get a sense of the fact that there's this

town or settlement or village that's inhabited by these creatures and that folks like her are not just still captive there but that she was freed by Myelin

this father or father figure it's difficult to pantomime or charades this kind of level giant folk or some kind of giant folk and you start to get that yes from her over and over like yes yes

How far from your shelter were you being held captive? Two weeks, three? Oh, I mean, that's certainly not close, but, I mean, these things are somewhere out there. We've been traveling for two weeks just to meet the Cobaltz. What was Mylan's last name? He only had it for him. Okay, that's what, okay, that makes sense. Or at least, if he had a last name, it was never made clear to you by him, certainly,

because he was always just gesturing and doing work, or he was only referred to as that by the captain and the rest of the group. How tall were these captains of yours? Captains. Thank you. That's actually a really good question, and I want to make sure I give you an accurate answer. Actually, you can represent, right?

And also, did your father, we know him as Moylan, if Mr. Fireblossom here is pretty, putting it together correctly. I'm sure of it. It seems so likely. If he's not with you and your sister, did he not survive the rescue mission? She's in the process of

explaining nine feet. And then as she is finishing nine feet, you say, did he not survive? And you see the crestfallen look on her face. She turns

and stares into the bottom of her now again empty second helping of food and tears well up in her eyes. You can see that she's distraught. Sorry. For your loss. Your father was a good man. Hard, hard worker, very capable seaman. Obviously very brave. At least he saved you and your sister. I'm sure you would have given anything for that. Have your captors been looking for you? I know you said they're almost two weeks out, but it's not that far, I guess. We don't think that we're being looked after. Right now we're just trying to survive and get enough food for winter.

Right. Did they speak like this? And I want to say that in. Go ahead. Oh. Oh, damn. How did you say that? Why are you all able to speak?

Have you never been able to speak? Never? Only the ones who speak like him speak. Do I knowing what I know about giants, worshipping their god and all that, do I know that hill giants are nine feet, ish? Like what I know hearing nine feet,

would I have a rough guess of what kind of giant that might be? Do you more with 11-ish. Let me actually make sure that I just didn't give you ridiculous information. Okay, no, we're okay. And, and, I think hill giants are like 11 to 12. Hill giant,

how much experience in Mahmuth would you have had with Hill Giant or the stories they're in, I guess, to know the specific height of a hill giant? I would... I just want to justify that you would know this. Well, given that I am a basically giant kid, and that the triad of the old faith, one of those gods, is on them, the god of the giant. Oh, so familiar.

And so probably pretty familiar. Right? So like, we. How tall are you? I'm like seven, eight almost. I'd say seven in change. Seven. All right.

Two yorny are standing on one standing on the shoulders would be Hill Giantite. So taller than nine feet. Oh yeah. Okay. So these are smaller. Oh, okay. Well, holy shit.

I mean, if they have a big, in their giant, Ken. Are you saying Mikey as the Barnabos doesn't? Get out of my swamp is what I'm thinking. Oh, Siamis'I's crimson. There's nothing. No, yeah, nor do I, not. Do you wouldn't even know anything about ogres?

I don't know. Why don't we find out with the roll of a dice? Yeah, well, it. It's almost as if we're playing Dungeons and Dragons. What do we go? I guess history. Yeah, I think history. I know this has been a big history.

scene. Can I add my proficiency? Is that like a given my maybe not? No words. No, I don't think that you can add your proficiency in this instance. 19. 19 is enough. Every time as you come back to

this gesture of the belly, you start to think of an old story you heard maybe 100 years ago that starts to ring true. And yeah, you start to think this is a troll or this is an ogre city of some kind that clearly is keeping people like this young woman.

So then what I will do is, I will say, do not be alarmed, but... Just make sure that I can do that. So you got some crazy runic magic that can solve this problem. Do they look like this? And you'll see me shimmer

and I will transform myself to look like a, and oaker. Nice. And you can do that because it's like within a certain feet. Well, I'm making myself one foot taller. So it's just quite there. Yeah.

Pretty damn close. Yes. And no. Oh, shit. I mean, we're getting closer. And I'll immediately dispel. What was that? You've seen me turn into

Hugh here before. No, I just mean, what was that form? That was an ogre. I've known a few of them. Nasty lot. I've seen anything like that in my life. It is a giant kin. They are distant relatives of my race.

So clearly it's maybe something related to an ogre. Perhaps a troll, there are many trolls in the midst. There's all sorts of types of ogres, right? So perhaps the Dracari and ogres are a little different. What's interesting to me is the more that we learn, where we were, where we've landed and where we've walked, clearly had to have been this wasting lands they were talking about. There's life everywhere else, and we didn't see anyone for months. This city is hidden. It would be impossible to find. I couldn't find it now if I wanted. I wonder if it's hidden by magic? Or just cleverly disguised? I don't care.

Damn. Fair enough. Nor should you. You and your sister are out. Your father made a noble sacrifice, and you're safe now. Can we go back to the lodge where my sister is? Yes, is it close?

A few days walk. What we'll do is we'll sleep here tonight because it's late. Miss Marcher, I think, is just about finishing up, cleaning that caribou. I'll cook us up a nice dinner, and we'll get some rest, head out right in the morning. We'll have plenty of food for the journey, and then we can potentially find what we're looking for as well. And it's just the six of you. She points, and this is your friend? Oh, God, it's succumbus!

And you turn, expecting perhaps to see a nine-foot-tall construct of a man, but instead... I'm gonna shit my pants. You see a young man approaching manhood. A boy. Withered, in dire shape, blood running down from his ears. Chewed hands. This is very evidently the captain boy, Roland. Mr. Stambray?

He's stumbling forward through the trees. in the dark trying to reach the camp. He sees the five of you, falls into the snow. And that is where we'll end tonight session. Whoa! Oh my god.

What the hell? Oh, this is bad. How many times are you going to be six of us? Right? I'm like, wait. So my first guess. Yeah, I was literally like, wait a second. I'm not counting. My, whatever guess that, my second guess, my second guess for the first second time. First time.

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