Legends of Avantris - Vagabond's Heart: A Dimwood Tale | Ep. 2 | Mines of Madness

Episode Date: September 19, 2024

The vagabonds strike a deal with the powerful mining magnate to investigate the mysterious mine that's been causing miners to go crazy...   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/6aEtyV5TO9M?si=IXTJCIRxkfgQ8Z_i

This is Mikey Gilder, and you're listening to Vagabond's Heart, a dimwood tale. Here's what happened last time. The dimwood is populated by a huge variety of woodland creatures, and four of these creatures sit around a campfire. But let me tell you a story of when I was shit a deputy bumby. When I was just a young little raccoon back in the, the Monkabet Creek, and there's a lot that I haven't seen, and there's a lot of people I haven't met, and there's a lot of persons that eat to you like. I wish you hadn't said pie.

That's all I can think about. Every pie I ever ate. Yeah, I guess I could tell you my story. There's not really much to tell you, no. I've got a really made one shot what you've all seen. Got a lot of things they've got to collect. I've got an entire booklet here of all of things. What I want to find?

I am running from the eerie. I, ah, they, they won't be here soon. They are coming. They are after me. Five, it will seem to be eerie soldiers flying through the woods in your direction. Have you been traveling with an owl? I didn't see no owl and frog. It ain't me.

Uh, I think he's getting away, sir. I don't think this frog has anything for us. You four strangers, I will tell you where the ruins are. and you arrive to a Rekinwitur Rich? Well, well, well, this is quite the sight to be holed. Yeah, this is a lot bigger than anywhere I've been. Why are you poking your nose in the business of the smiles of mighty company? I need there's a 100% chance you'd kill them out.

Fuck battle, they beat the shit out of you. This gang of Tennessee live. Allow? You know, I guess kind of like it's up in debate. That you're involved in this whole revolt thing. they were preferring to in that back alley. I hear your man has been messing with my business. Crossbows hit the side of the end of the balcony,

and the party went out, and they saw Levi Smiles himself, the cat, standing with flanked by Skinkerton, all armed with crossbows. And so you all stand there after the larger gray cat wearing the nice, brown coat and slacks with his leather hat stand there looking smugly up as he's flanked by his bodyguards. As he says, I hear that your man has been interfering with my interests. What do you do? Who is that? And you see as Seljan looks over the railing as he stares down.

And he's like, that's fucking smiles. Um, um, are you going to say anything? He looks down and says, maybe I should. If I save the wrong thing to that motherfucker. Well, I don't want to press anything, but maybe it's best we just, uh, let this one be. I don't really know this guy. And it seems like you guys are quite, uh, have quite the contention. I certainly don't want to cause any stirring up a pot.

And, uh, you see Selden walk over to the balcony. What the fuck do you want smiles? And the cat smugly looks up as all of the skinks in their dark clothes are all looking up with their crossbows aimed. And they all have these sly smiles on their faces as Levi looks up. And he lets out a chuckle and says, Well, I hear that the person trying to organize the workers in my minds and start confusion and chaos and disrupt my business was actually in your employ and an informant for you.

And I hear that the work of my skinkertens has been interrupted. I would hope that you would return him to me, and there does not need to be any blood shed. And... Yeah, but you know, that would imply that blood hadn't already been shed. and I gotta tell you what you've been doing, skinks. You see Levi blink a little bit as he looks up at you and he says, Are you supposed to be...

I'm a frog, you know, you can just look at me and say it. Frog and you ain't no skink. Are you supposed to be the analog to my skinkertons? I don't think you're quite up to the task. No, no, no, no, no, nope. We're just passing through, friend. We don't know anybody in this town. We just happen to be in here.

You're assuming a whole lot that we were some sort of, of, of, I don't know what they are, but we're not here to fight anybody. We're just passing through. We're looking for a good drink. Does Marquise know that you're doing this? Doing what? They endorse my operation, son. They, they do?

Yeah, but you know, they may endorse the operation, but do they endorse you beating people up? because you think they're doing bad things? Because, you know, I don't think it's fair. He's not getting the trial. You can't just go around punching people in the face is all I'm saying. Any means necessary in a lawless, wild place like this on the edge of the dim wood, there must be precautions taken. You must use unorthodox tactics.

But I did not come here to talk philosophy with vagabond as I can see that you. now are. You know, I prefer that we call the frog of bond, but you know, we're talking semantics. Scamantics? Yeah, she's a frogabond. Are you a frogabond? No, I just made that up in the moment. She's a, she's not a frogabond.

Wait, are you? It's going to be okay, grumbly. I think you're a little bit nervous about the whole connection with the Marquis A. I think you just got to jill out. I don't know what to do or feel very conflicted about it. Yeah, you know, I think if you just rub your butt on the ground a little bit, you'll feel a lot better. know if I would go that far, but perhaps I would. Yeah, you just get down and just scoge.

Oh, right. I'm not, well. Uh, as that is happening, uh, Seljin, uh, Seljin, uh, and, uh, he's glowering at this, uh, this cat. It's just, uh, smiling smugly at him. And, uh, he, uh, he, uh, is gripping the ring. You see his large badger claws almost digging into the wood of the reeling as he says, so what the fuck are you going to do, smiles?

We both know you're not burning down this joint yet. And are you here to parlay? How would you come inside and have a fucking drink? And maybe we can talk about how we can resolve this without you murdering my man. That sounds like a fantastic idea, as that is why we are here as well. And we heard that this place has the greatest drinks in all of Reconoida Ridge. That's right. Yes

Why don't You're trying to persuade an NPC Yeah, happy to do it Do we have the cheese sheet Oh, is this it? No, that's weapon move Character move Character creation, okay I just, is it a...

If you can tell me, I'm assuming it's charm, right? It's charm, you're wrong with it again. I got a nine If anyone would like to assist me Is it one exhaustion or is it one? One exhaustion? If you'd like to exist, I will mark one exhaustion. I'll put a 10.

So we can get into this a little bit again, is that there is a set, a set success and miss. One to six is a miss. Seven to nine is a partial success. Ten and up is the success. So I will say, Mr. Smiles, you seem like a very reasonable, powerful man. And as I said, we're simply passing through for drinks. Why don't you come in and do the same? And he looks, and I believe with persuading, a strong motive and a reasonable bribe, yep, you absolutely got it.

He thinks for a moment, and you see kind of the graying of his whiskers as his nose ruffles, as he nods and said, well, I am a civilized man, and I do not wish to burn down this entire camp. So I will hear what you all have to say. I will allow you to bring your four vagabonds, and I will bring four of my skinkertains. Do you find this amenable? And you see Seljan as he's gritting his teeth, almost like foaming at the mouth as he nods and says, yeah, give me a second and I'll get the place nice for you.

And he begins to turn away. And he looks at all of you in waves and says, well, come on, hurry the fuck up. And what are you guys going to do? You know, you really rude to somebody who, you know, we've been nothing but nice to with all I'm going to say about it. You keep cursing at us, and I don't think we deserve it. And I've given you a lot of gold. Yeah, because we're going to do something for you.

Don't try and make it out like you did it to be nice. Mr. Alabaster, I got it. I gotta say, you know, we're, this smiles guy, he's treating us like we're some kind of, you know, personal thugs or something, and I'm, I gotta let you know, I didn't really sign up for this, I'm gonna help you, but we gotta do a little bit more covert behind the shadows thing, which, by the way, I'm worried he already might be, be catching on to, you know, my whole idea of trying to devalue the mind, it sounds like he's already caught wind of that. Well, I figure he already knows what all, what we all look like. He already has all of our,

Identities? Is that going to be an issue? Is he going to try to murder us too? No one who wants to do with that cat? I think if we can convince him, figure out a way, get to get him something he wants. Maybe he'll let us go without any bloodshed today and we can figure the fuck out what we're going to do. All right, well, playing ball sounds good.

We don't want any fighting. For now, especially in your establishment. It's a very nice place. Thank you. I'm going to have the girls fix up the place. I'm going to collect my thoughts. You guys figure out what you're going to do. You're vagabonds, and he's not going to fuck with that.

Burma. Yes. For everyone. Well, you know, the parties included. Not your free patriots. You're running a business here. Trust me, I understand. Is that included in our wages for what you're asking us to do?

I think it should be. Wrongly, that's a fantastic point. What do you think, Mr. Alabaster? For this situation, yes, but no other things. free drinks. Fair enough. I will have a dream. Well, at the very least we'll convince you that we've earned them. Like him away. Gather yourselves, get down here in five minutes. Done. And he walks off. What are you guys doing before you go to?

You know, I don't like either one of them, to be honest with you. I don't like this weird, I guess he's not a baboon. What is he? A possum. He's a badger. Yeah, sure. I don't like badges. I don't like this one specifically. And you know, and I don't like that weird guy out there hanging out with all those skinks. What's wrong with Badgers? Well, nothing. I just don't like this one. He's so that he keeps cussing at us.

He's like, really mean? What? I kind of like his style. He's not going to give his shit. I mean, he paid us a lot of money. Because we're going to do something for him. Of course. Of course we are.

We're going to earn the money we got you. We're going to, we're passing through. And yes, again, besides the foul tongue, he seems like a relatively stand-up guy. Now, that smiles individual. One of his, what is what they call him, skinkered into him or shot me in the chest. He didn't have fired his thing.

It was close. You see him pointed out of me. It was unbelievable. I think they mean to kill. I don't want to brush the death. I said that far again. Often they mean to kill that poor fuck's guy we saved. I didn't sign up for this. No, obviously they meant to kill him.

We lit, I mean, we saw him fighting, you know? Like, I had to pull him away. And by pulling him away, I mean, I shot him with some weird shit that I got off of a spider, and I don't know what was going to happen to the guy. Let's reserve judgment until we understand. understand a little bit more about these two individuals, and then we get the hell out of this place. I just think that, you know, it might be a good idea if we'd just be honest about things. You're saying, like, look, you know, we don't really care who you are, how many stinks you've got in your

on point. You're not going to kill this fox. Hey. Kind of bottom line, you know. You just made me think of something. That guy may be dead. You've got a need. Can you come here real quick?

All right. I'm going to fold up his little pub nose fold, and I'm going to clean it. You got some compier from breakfast. I know you hate it, but you got to let me get away from me. Come on. You got to let me. I'm not getting it out. It was just hanging, man.

It was weird. Well, thank you. I guess. I just don't want to pick a fight with this guy. I got to be honest. I'm not real formal. Look, he's picking a fight with us regardless of whether we want one or not. Like, you don't show up.

Why don't we just see what he wants? You know what he wants. He wants the Fox guy so we can kill him. Like, let's not play like we're stupid. None of us is stupid. I'm not going to give up that fox guy. I'll kill the cat if I have to. You heard what Alabaster said.

We might be able to seat his need for bloodlust in the short term. Okay, but I'm just telling you that I'm not playing this game of doing nice things for evil people just because it's what he wants. If he's a bad dude and he's going to try and kill us, I'm not going to give him extra things just so he won't kill a fox. We're not going to let him know. We're not going to let you compromise your morals. I'm just going to, and I flex and I have absolutely no muscles and tiny little frog arms. not really strong

up here. Wait, we're gonna see, let's just see what you want. I'm really strong, but not so much up there, just, you know, strong regular ways. I'll never understand how we just saw through that calm. Anyway, should we head downstairs?

Oh, yeah, I'll follow you. Oh, I'd be happy to, and I'll make my way back downstairs. We've already been. Yep, we've had a drink, and I'll position myself at the bar, waiting for Alabaster, sorry, Selgin Alabaster. So you look and you see that there is,

the tavern, the Pearl Saloon, has been rearranged, and there have been two long tables pushed together in a long row, and there are five chairs on one side and five chairs on another side. As you're all making your way down, you see that Levi-Smiles steps into the saloon and looks around followed by his four skinkertons, and he makes his way and sits down in the center chair on one side as the skinkertons fill the other seats.

And you see that the young bartender, that Hazel had tripped the previous night is passing out glasses and pouring bourbon as the table is set. And alabaster calls you over, and as well, have a seat. You're my muscle now. Oh, that is not what I wanted to hear, Mr. Solt.

I'm quite literally just finished telling him, I ain't got any muscles. Oh, I do. We'll shish you down. Let's see what happens. Keep an open mind, Peggy, you're wrong? Yeah, I'm just going to work on one of my toys. Mr. Alvaston, we're just talking tonight.

Nobody's throwing down or roughing anybody else up. That's fine. And our guest, well, I'm sure will be more than fucking. reasonable. And he steps over and he sits in the center chair as you all flank him. And as both the badger and the cat settle in, they stare daggers

at each other. Is the tension uncomfortable? The tension is very uncomfortable. I'm going to lean forward and look up and down the table and say, you wouldn't happen have any beaches, would you? And you see smiles as he looks at you. And, and then just for a moment and he looks back at Seljan

and a large cat smile peers on his faces. Now that sounds delightful. I love peaches. My favorite dessert is a peach cobbler. And you must have some canned peaches somewhere, Selger. Please, we are your honored guests, are we not? Oh, I don't mean to put anybody out. It was just a suggestion to help lighten the mood a little bit.

Well, suppose if you have some, I wouldn't say no. Selvin looks at you and glares and looks at you and glares and just, darling, fucking canned peaches! And you see one of the Fox girls shuffle off and

comes back with these canned peaches that she's opened and pours into bowls and spreads out on the table along amidst the bourbon. You see there's four bottles out on the table for anyone to refill. Well, this is lovely, Mr. Alabaster. I appreciate you having us

for the evening as we are just passing through Reconoida Ridge. And while they're doing this, I'm just pulling some bits of bamboo and some string out of my pack, and I'm just crafting. Okay, so... Like, completely not even making eye contact. I'm just tinkering. You're tinkering, and you see that all of the skinks, of the skinkertons, not the pankertons, are all eyeing you. Yeah, and I'm like, I'll occasionally look up and make eye contact with each one of them.

And then I continue to take it. And then you hear, like, you see them, and then like two of them that are on the far side of Levi, kind of one nodges, and he points at you, like, very subtly. And he whispers, but it's pretty easy for you all to hear. He says, that's the one that took out Phil. As, uh, as, uh, and his eyes kind of widened, and then like, uh, he, he narrows his eyes, and it's a little bit of hesitating. I kind of look, I look between them and I go, and I continue to tinker Okay, you do that

As As the peaches are served And alabaster Looks at him and says Now, you and I both know You're not going to burn down its place And you and I both know That you are not going to get basil

So If there's anything else you want, if you want us to promise to be very nice, or I don't know, to bend the knee and kiss your ring, I don't fucking know, but you're not getting Basel. You've already killed

enough of my guys, and you're disgusting lizard friends. This stinks actually, you know. Disgusting lizard friend. All right, everyone, let's just take a deep breath here. I think that what Mr. Alabaster is saying is that we don't eat any more bloodshed, which is very, very

true. Isn't that right, Mr. Smiles? I agree with what he said. I too. Smiles leans back in his chair as he takes a spoon and as he eats it, a huge mouthful of peaches. As he, as he leans back, he looks at all of you and says, well, no, I don't believe there's any need for bloodshed at this very present moment,

but I think you greatly underestimate my unwillingness to burn down this place and the entire camp. Should it serve the need of my interests and the interests of the Marquis 8, I have the full backing of the Marquis and her forces. I remind you that I'm from very far away. I have a great nose, a great eye and a great heart for the iron. The earth speaks to me. And you are very upset that you have lost your stranglehold. Now I understand a bunch of badgers digging around in the dirt.

But civilization is coming to Reckanoit a Ridge. It is here, and you can't stop it. You know, I would beg the diff, I'm just still tinkering. Civilized people don't kill each other, so I don't think civilized. He looks at you, sir. He looks at you and says, sometimes you must make difficult choices

in order to bring progress. I would assume a tinker, it seems, such as yourself, would know that. Yeah, you know, I make difficult choices all the time, you know? Do I want to use this moss

or do I want to use that rock? You know, it's always hard to do, but I don't kill anyone in the process. Do you want to use yarn or not, right? Okay, you know, that's a really soft subject for me. Because every time I think about yawn, somebody claims they have some and they don't. I'm saying it's a difficult choice whether or not you have yarn. I look over.

Yeah. And I just continue to tinker. And he says, and as I was, as it is confirmed, as I'm sure that you know, and so now your vagabonds know. And let me just, as an aside, say, Selgin, I did not think you a man to sink low enough to employ vagabonds. And Selden says,

well, at least I'm not fucking low enough to employ skinned it's. And Levius ignores them. Unfortunately, your man has done unbelievable damage. He has helped spread the word of the danger and the minds that we have uncovered. And we have still not been able to figure out. I have my top geologists on the situation.

And I cannot figure it out. But in the interim, my workers are very nervous. It's dangerous enough as it is. And your man, Basil, is the one that is causing the most discord. You understand. What's so wrong? We're telling them about if there's danger, why not warn them? We have to continue operation.

I am running an operation here, some. But innocent people may die. These people are just miners. They don't have money today. And you're going to force them to work and maybe die? That is what they signed up for. They came to our recruitment tents. They picked up their mining pits.

But at the time, did you tell right? But at the time, did you tell them there was a chance that death could be involved? Anyone who steps into a mine understands that there are risks. But until I can figure out what has happened in these strange ramblings of the miners that go too deep, as if we uncovered a chamber and we can't go further, until I figure that out, I cannot afford any other disruptions. That sounds like a personal business. this problem and not like anybody else's problem. Sounds like when you start a business, you're taking on those kind of risks.

Don't you think? Same way the miners are taking on risks when they step into a mine? Seems smart to me. They are business risks, but I could never have accounted for strained almost supernatural witchcraft. And I don't think the miners could either when they decide to step into those mines. So it sounds like, you know, one for one. So we'll look Why don't we go take a look then?

How does that sound? Whoa, whoa, whoa, don't problem. Let's all just take a peggy, please. Let's just take one little step. We're going to take a peggy? Please don't take a me. Let's all just take one step back, sir, Mr. Smiles.

You said something about babbling and rambling on, and then you said witchcraft. Those are things that I don't know anything about and concern me just a little bit. Do you mind expanding upon that just a little? well, because I know that your employer knows and you will know in due time, I'll put my cards on the tape. About a week and a half ago, we board through a wall searching for a great note of iron and uncovered a large cavernous chamber.

all of the miners that went in to investigate either didn't come out or came out rambling, muttering. They are still in our medical tense. There's no care. Not that we know of. There is a some sort of bewitchment almost.

Now I don't believe in folklore, but it seems like nothing that our doctors can explain. Well, I gotta be honest. Just by hearing the things that you're saying, it sounds that this mine might not be of any use to you in the end game anyway. Well, that may be so, but I know for a fact that there are great iron deposits in that same chamber. The biggest of all of Reckanoida Ridge. And I intend fully to mine that and chip that iron back to the Marquis 8. I will not let

If this camp falls to the Erie's hands I will not let them get that mine and exploit that for their own weapons and armor That's a fair point I'll agree So how about this We're gonna go, we'll make the mine safe And then you don't have to kill Basil And then the rest of the miners can also be safe

How are we gonna do that, Drumley? I don't know, we've even seen it yet We don't know, it might be something we can handle We're vagabonds You're a little harder than the regular minor folk, don't you think? I am at least. I'm just literally staring at him wide-eyed with my like raccoon mask. For the first time, I kind of look up from what I'm doing and stare directly at you.

My lazy eye goes off and calculates what one person's doing, then it's back to you. Is you net Rod? Can I read him? Can I read, uh... This is a tense situation. We have not done that yet. So you can roll with cunning. You can read a tense situation and you can get some answers.

Oh, basic moves. Oh, sorry, I meant to figure someone out. Oh, you can do that, okay? Yeah, because I want to figure him out. You can figure him out. So we have run, we have rolled that. That is a move. So there are moves in this game.

One of them is figure out. So roll with charm. I got a seven, so I barely succeeded. So I get to hold one. Yes. Yeah, which means you get to basically just ask one question. I will ask, what does Smiles wish that I would do? Yeah.

After you say that, you read him as he stared at you, you see his cat ears perk out, the gray fur is kind of bristling. And you get the sense that he is intrigued. And you would probably get the sense that bagabonds are a thing in this world. That's just the context. and they delve into unknown places. You get the sense that he's curious about your offer. And if you can help him get to those iron nodes,

that seems like something that he might be interested in. What do you do? Well, let me ask the rest of my vagabond friends. How do you feel about doing that? Perhaps if you also promised payment as well, because surely that iron deposit is worth a pretty penny. Well, we don't do anything for free, right?

Look, so this is what I'll say. We'll go in and do this for you, but you got to do a couple of things. You don't kill Basil. You stop killing anyone for anything. If they're not doing a good enough job, you don't pay them anymore, and they don't work for you and you let them go do whatever the hell they want to,

but you stop killing people because that's not cool. That's not how civilization works, okay? You got it? On top of that, when we get in there, we make sure you get the iron, but anything else that's in there is ours. Pagy doesn't mess around here. No. There are probably some cool things in there. I could make like, oh, I've always wanted a hammock.

And Seljan even kind of looks impressed, like, that is amenable to me. And make a persuaded NPC check. I am ready to help if you don't hit this. Where's the things? I can see what that happens. And Twist of Fate in this game works like a, works as a three-assessed. Eight. Eight. I'm going to assist.

What are you going to, I can assist? I will also assist. Basically, what I'll do is, you know, try to bolster up her argument and say, you know, give rational points as to, you know, these are very reasonable things that she's suggesting. I mean, it sounds like there is anybody in this camp that's able to have been going there unscathed. and we're offering to lay down our lives, as I girt my teeth along, and roll my eyes, to see what's down there for you and the betterment of this camp.

So I suggest you take the offer that Peggy's laying down. It's very reasonable. We don't do anything for free, and I know a man like you understands where I'm coming from. Grumley, how are you helping? Well, I guess I would like most of the help to be the original offer that I gave. Yeah.

But I'll also say, and I'll think if we could at least save the lives of you, minors, then you won't have to find new ones and that should save you some money as well. You all make interesting arguments. Now, I think I could give you a week to figure out this situation. Every day that goes by, however, is a day where I am losing money. but you can allow us passage into this treasure trove, this bonanza, can indeed provide some payment from the Smiles Mining Company. And I will let Basil hang on until I have proof that it is safe.

That's like not at all what I asked you to do. No killing people. No killing Bazzle. We get whatever else is in that cave that's not I am. Should you complete your quest? Absolutely. Okay. Well, then we're good. I'm good. I sound fond of me. Seljan, you can tell that he would talk more, but he's just so overcome with rage, that he just can't even bring himself to honor smiles with a word as he loves to,

well, reckon what a ridge is coming together, at least for a tiny fucking and he reaches out his paw and it clasps with Levi's and they shake and with that as soon as he finishes the shake Levi scoops back and he stands up and he pats his stomach and he points down at the table

I think I'll take one of these bowls to go and he leans down and picks up a bowl of peaches and he tips his hat to the group and he says meet my associates down at the Comstock claim

dawn tomorrow we'll have it ready for you as he steps out and you see all of the skinkertins their eyes linger especially on you Peggy

I'm like oh God Phil I hope he's okay as they all make their way I don't think he's okay they all make their way and then the saloon doors clatter shut Secretly, I want to try to whip my tongue out and eat all the peaches without him noticing.

So when it gets outside, the bowl of peaches is completely empty. That would be in a temperilghish feats. Here we go. Roll with finesse. E! Seven! Oh! Seven.

So you need to pick two of these options here. You don't have a clear pad of escape. That doesn't really make sense. So it would be the latter too. I'll mark a decay. I have to pick two of them. So mark a decay, yep. Yes, I mark it's a mark a key.

Oh, and I definitely leave evidence of my roguery behind. There's tons of slime. There's tons of slime all over, all over the bowl. And as he walks forward... We just don't want him to notice until he's outside. He does not notice at all. As you manage to snap him all up, there's a ton of slime. And as you're leaning forward, in order to make sure you get it just right,

you take out of your pocket and really kind of... give your tongue a little bit actually sticky. You have some sticky grease. Use some gripper grab. Some tree-out grip. Some good old gripe grab. It's the pink stuff in that little container. If anyone's worked up with paper and a print shop,

and you slather that all on, it's consuming a resource, and you manage to get it as he walks out and then the saloon doors clatter. And then as I'm sure he's gone, I will, like... You know, he didn't pay for that, so I didn't think it'd be okay if you took it. I don't know if you want to do anything with it. I'm not a fan of peaches.

That was a pretty shi-st-y-moval. on his part. I don't really know where this guy's endgame is. I gotta be honest, Mr. Alabaster, I really, really was thinking we might be able to steal that mine off the money on either of them, but it seems like he was already on to whatever your man was trying to do and devalue the mines. I think he was saying it was a very valuable mind. Yeah, I was just hoping maybe we could turn the tides and hit him where it really hurt in his pocket. It seemed like everybody was already aware of what was your man doing for you. I'd have to piss these guys off to rough him Mali is talking to the miners, telling him about the danger, telling him not to go in, telling

him not to go to work, telling him to fucking leave Reconoid or Rich. And then when they don't have bodies to mine the iron, every single day he's losing money that son of a bitch, and then all the days where he's losing money is the angrier and angrier that the Marquise gets with him. Well, it sounds like you're already way ahead of me when I came in here. I'm sorry I wasn't more help, sir. Wait, so are you saying, is there a way we could turn the marquise against him to him? Well, if you figure out a way to get all of these hoop-all heads to fucking strike and walk out, they can't kill all of them,

another way, you could, I prefer you don't burn down the place. This is still my home. There's a lot of different ways. but I haven't been able to figure it out. At the end of the day, though, we still have to judge whether or not Mr. Smiles was serious about burning this whole place down like you're worried about.

Because if he is, then there's nothing we can really do. If he really does mean business and he wants to set this whole place of place, I don't know if we'll be able to stop him. I think that greedy son of a bitch cares about golden iron more than anything else. And I think that he would only do it as a last resort. I think he's bluffing.

I don't think he's going to risk his whole operation. Do you think that the Marquis would be pleased to hear that he, in a bout of raids, burned down the entire fucking clearing? I can't imagine they would want anything less than his head. That's true. I'll think whatever we do, as long as we're protecting these miners,

it's a right thing you do. And we might get paid. We better get paid. I can find a lot of really cool things in that mine. That could be really good for my tinkering. And that might be the ruin. It's absolutely. Obviously, it is.

What are the money for? You know, you got to get, you got to get just a step. Wait, was that? Was it obvious everybody else? Yeah, that's why I said we're going to take everything else that was in that room. Oh, because we wouldn't take hold of ruining stuff. Yeah, because we don't want to let him in there, get him in there safely. And then he goes, oh, I'm going to take everything that's in you.

You want to make sure the only thing you get to feel here. What I am concerned about is the condition of these minors that Mr. Smiles has been talking about. So this is my next point is I think that we're going to need. I'm going to need your help. We've got to go on. We've got to collect some things. I'm going to try and make us some masks. I think that's a fantastic idea because I'm not...

I think it's probably something we breathe in. That's my guess. Well, at the very least, what I was going to say is that I'm not so sure about this whole magic thing, but it very well could be some kind of airborne disease. And so, well, that's the only thing I can really protect again. So if it's anything other than that, then we're screwed. But I'm going to at least try and make some masks we can put over our faces. And then we can go in there and hopefully we'll be able to breathe and we can look around and we can do what we need to do.

Is there a bug you're trying to smash? Because you really shouldn't kill bugs. Nope. Peggy, I was going to say that's a fantastic idea. Oh, no. That was a gnat. Oh. I'm so sorry, my son.

Well, what do you do? Off what you eat gnats? At the end of the day, my point is, I don't want to put any stock in this whole magic business. Because if you're willing to just put your faith in magic business, And I've got some waterfront land. I'd like to sell you in the middle of the Grizzapal Mountains. Wait, is it affordable? Is it a timeshare or is it like legit?

Oh, Jeremy, you and I can talk later, because I do have some waterfront property in the Grizzapal Mountains. I would like to sell you. I'm glad that I brought it up. Well, we can talk later. We can talk later. But wait, so, so then what's the plan?

We're gonna, we're just gonna hope that we don't bring this stuff in and then just hopefully not. go crazy. If anybody can solve it. So we're going to need to get some sinew. So we're probably going to have to kill something to get some sinew, a sinew, a sinew, or whatever you're going to call it. It doesn't really matter. And then we're going to have to get some leather, God rest of souls. And then I'm going to put together masks and probably a piece of glass, because I think we should cover eyes.

So we're going to have to get some glass. We can make some glasses into it. And we're going to look like a hog that's traveled a road, a roadhog. If anybody can solve this problem, it's begging. Yeah. If anyone can screw up this whole thing, it's Peggy said. Either way, you tell me what to do and I'll do it. If you need me to lift heavy things or smash something,

or slash something with my sword, Mr. Alabaster may be able to get us some of these materials as well. Yeah, you got any of those? Consider it on keeping the piece fee. I can get you glass and leather, but I sign you. I don't even know what the fuck that is. Yeah, it's like that stuff that's in people and things. you know what I'm talking about

and it's like a really really really good thread string tended yeah if you will like dried out tended can you get that from bugs or should we kill somebody you know spider silk might actually work pretty well

are there any big spiders around here we could get some spider silk from I mean have a little bit in my pack but I really want to use that I got plans some some loggers when missing I think they got wrapped up and by the giant spiders in the forest outside,

but that's really fucking dangerous. Yeah, I mean, we don't actually want to get anywhere near the spiders. We just want to go to where the webs are and just take some of that. I think just east of the camp. There could be some of it's... I could cut your leg open and take some of yours if you're... No, I'd rather. That's what I thought.

How about this? Like you said, you get what you can, and we'll go after the wedding. Yeah. Deal? Meet back here at sundown. Meet back here at sundown. All right. All right.

I think it's amenable. Drink your hand. How much time do we have? A little bit of better. You have enough time. A beverage waiting for us. Perhaps. And the hot meal,

because that was really, really frustrating that all you gave us was peaches. Yeah, and to be fair, it was Peggy that convinced them to, you know, not kill anybody. You didn't even have any cinnamon.

Do I look like I have fucking cinnamon? I don't know. You look like you know what you're doing around you. Oh, if anyone had asked me, I've got some cinnamon. Damn it. I didn't think about it at the time. I didn't think a little pepper cream.

I was like a little pepper cream. You see. you see Seljin slide over a can of Peaches fucking take one to go. That son of a bitch you tried to. Peaches and cinnamon, I authorize that. Dualy notion. Shall we get moving?

All right next go. Yeah. Big the way. So, you all leave and you make your way out through the town. You see that the presence of the cat soldiers is, the presence of the cat soldiers is still about as loose as it was, but you do notice that there are more skin-co-tens looking around.

And they're all starting to kind of slither around corners and keep an eye out. You see some walking along the tops of roofs in some of these buildings. And as you make your way through, you actually get closer to some of these mines off to the size of the clear end. And you see that there are, one miner is walking back on. hobbling back on crushes, his whole leg seemingly crushed. You see another one with bandit of the head covering his eye. There's dirt and soot all over his face.

Both of them foxes. As you pass all of these haggard individuals, you eventually make your way to the clearing, toward the edge of the clearing, and you begin to step through the tree line, through the trees. And you make your way through, and you are walking for about an hour until you start to see off in the distance the stringy webbed strands off to the side.

You see that this isn't just like a little spider web in the corner of a window. These are massive strands, seemingly very thick and sturdy and sinewy as you look up ahead and then some trees, but as you look closer, you see movement, and you see that there are no fewer than three massive limbs, moving shapes, eight limbs, rows of ruby red eyes, cheering fangs dripping with venom, as they seem to be going around, as they seem to have a large cocooned figure all wrapped up or not large, but basically a humanoid

or critter side that seems to be struggling. You know we're going to have to save that, goree. Oh, what? What is he supposed to do not? What do you mean? It's Wickeling like that, you know, there's someone in there is trying to get out.

We can save him? We're going to have to try it. All right, I want to, and I just, I want to bash through every time. No! No! No! No! Look at the trap! Go! I'm sorry, I should have started with, but hold on first.

And so you just charge through the woods, and you see that two of these spiders, these massive spiders have skittered away. But there is one directly in front of you in this strange, eerie den, as these massive strand spiderwebs, they're all around connecting through the trees. You see there are some cocoons that are not moving. Some are partially open, and you see bones, skulls, rib cages, peering through, some that still have flesh but totally drained of all of their vitality with massive puncture wounds from these fangs. Grumly, you just charge in, and I'll say you just immediately barrel through.

What are you doing? You see this one spider that has a attached, to its rear end, connected to a strand, a large, a struggling cocoon. So there's one guy struggling? Yes, there's one. You see other cocoons, but they're moving. But we saw three moving masses of darkness and spider people. So one that's closer to you, there's a large spider that has this one.

But you see the other movements through the trees. You're not sure if they've noticed you yet, but this one certainly has heard you coming as you barrel through. I would like to, that's not going to be too good. I think I'm just going to come in, and I'm going to just hack at him in the abdomen, hopefully where, sort of where near the webbing is, but not like at the webbing,

I want to try to damage the beast fighter. Okay. So do, what is it, clash weapons? I don't have the weapon moves in front of me. Ingaze sword disorder. Oh, yeah, that'd be great. A few, few don't mind. Hey, we've got a couple copies.

Yeah. You're going to engage sword a sword. Now, why don't you roll an attack roll? I am going to arc a decay on my great sword to inflict terrible harm, even on the mist. Got it. And that's my intention of at least in the slash, if I can either cut him free or make him drop it or something like that. Yeah. 10. 10.

That's a success. So I get to pick three. I get to pick three. So I want to inflict serious harm. Damn. I want to suffer. little harm, right? Because you have a great sword? So I did one, and then I did inflict serious harm, which is two injury, and then my

great sword is the third injury. So I got three injury in a slice. And then I saw whatever he does back to me, I will hopefully reduce that by one. And then I am going to try to frighten my, or dismay my foe. I guess what will make more sense for, I'll leave it up to you, frighten or dismay depending on what makes sense in the narrative for what I'm doing. I would say frighten because it's an animal. as you rush in and tear through, you smash through the chitinous armor as slices in,

and as this icker spills out everywhere, as this chittering, its eyes are wide, it is, however frightened of you, the sudden pug with an armor, clangs forward and is wrecks it. Are you a more frightened? However, it is then going to sink its fangs into you, and it pierces through your armor,

which would normally do two injuries, and one exhaustion. And so you can reduce that if you would like to. I guess you do reduce that. Can I reduce the exhaustion? Is that how that works? I don't know.

Yes, injury, yep. Oh, no, it's harm, right? Yeah. So it sounds like the exhaustion would stay, but reduce. You can choose. You can choose either exhaustion or injury. I would like to reduce the exhaustion

because I'm pretty tired. But you're going to take two injuries instead? And then the injury, I will take one injury and I'll move one injury to my plate armor. Oh, okay. Having seen this spider butt grumly after his massive attack, I'm going to look for a rock to throw at the spider and yell like,

Hey, hey, come on, pick on somebody your own size. Well, I mean, it's grumbly, but I'm coming, grumly. Make an improvised weapon. Is that a weapon thing? It is a weapon thing. You just told me what I have to. You just roll to. It's cunning.

It's cunning. It's cunning. Okay. Oh, dear God. I got a five. Six. A six. A six.

Oh, boy. So you, so how to, so what happens? So basically you don't make a weapon with your rock. Basically, I can't find, I can't find one. You can't find a rock. You look around, there's no rock big enough where you think you can do that.

Oh, damn it, Brumley, I'm trying. I'm fine. Becky, what do you do? Oh, think he should have. We should save him. I'm going to run up and I, yeah, fuck it, I'm grappling the spider again.

And I'm going to attach on to onto his, I'm just going to climb up this spider and I'm going to grapple him. Okay, make grapple attack. You get this guy out of here. I'm going to use my leather armor to do it. So I'm marching in exhaustion on my leather, or, uh, decoan on my leather armor. When I grapple with someone, I mark exhaustion. So you don't, I'm just going to do that.

I think you mark the exhaustion on the armor itself. Oh, no, I thought that was a deco- Yeah, yeah, no. I think that's a special ability of a leather armor. Yes, it is. So then grapple, where the- So, what you do is your old mite. Oh. Yeah, we just got to share those

because I gave the extra on the mic. So your old mic. Four. Four. So as you lash out your tongue and you try to grapple, you see that you just barely misses the spider, even though it's afraid,

slams down with two of its legs on top of you and you take one injury. Well, no, because with leather armor, I ignore the first choice they make. No, that's ignoring the first choice is basically, you basically go back and forth. If you succeed on a grapple, that's when that comes into play. All it just says is when you grapple with someone. So it's right, so you did it even grapple.

So you attempted to grapple, yes. So and that's just ignoring the back-to-back choices of the grapple mechanic. Gotcha. So and then two, and then it slams down on you. So wait, what do I do then? You just mark one and drink. So having not been able to find a rock and seeing my teammates rush into the fray, I'm going to run to this wriggling mass of spider webbing. Okay.

And I guess attempt to try, start pulling it away. Okay. Because I'm useless otherwise. I couldn't find a weapon and my friends are laying their lives on the line. So Booker is going to see this objective Brumley's, you know, persistence. and go after it. So yeah, I'll say that with Peggy and Grumly distracting it, you rush forward and you start tearing open.

And as you rip, you see a bit of yellow feathers pop out. As you start to pull and you start to un-start unraveling as a wing pops out as you pull it down. You see that there is a brown coat as you're managing to almost get this bird. Hang on, friend. I'm going to get you out of there. Vumman, what are you doing? Um, I am going to, uh...

Ooh, actually, hold on. Hold on. Uh, where weapon moves? Uh... You had... Oh, no. We've only got one copy of everything, so we got a shot to share. No, there should be right here. Yeah. So, I gave you like the extra copy of weapon moves.

Oh, I don't want to do that actually, because that would be... No, I'm not going to do that. So yeah, I'm just going to basically swing in again. Okay. So I'm going to go sword to sword, and I'm going to give the... to give the old splicey dicey here. Oh, what you got? Oh, boy.

Oh, boy, he said. So I barely make a seven, which is still fine. Yeah, okay? Still fine. And so what I will do is instead of, I am going to suffer little harm. So it's only gonna do one damage. Okay, so one harm, right?

One harm. So yeah, so as it sinks in, once again, it is two injury and one exhaustion. I'm going to block the exhaustion. Okay. Once again, pierces in. And you feel this venom exhausting you as it's as it's as it's as it's as it's as it's as it's as it's as it's as it's as it's as it's as it's as it's a seeping in. Peggy, what are you doing? I'm going to try and grapple it again.

Okay. No. Okay. Okay. So as you try to leap up and grapple it, you see that it starts to, uh, once again, it's it's a, it's again, It manages to dodge out of the way. It's so focused on grumly as it... Wait, how much harm did it do, by the way?

One. One. It's looking rough as it's slicing in. There's acre covering grumly. He has two puncture wounds. And you once again leap forward. And as that happens, once again, another two leg slammed down. One injury on you.

And one harm. Or injury, injury is correct. Boehner, what are you doing? Am I? I'm closer? You're close, and you rip out and you finally pull apart. You see this birdhead and these yellow feathers and you're, what the fuck?

Am I alive? Am I dead? I, while I, once I've recognized that they're speaking, I say, I can't stay, but you're going to be all right.

I'll be right back. And I'll run towards the fray and see if I can get in front of the spider to throw dirt in his eyes. And pocket sand. And go to shut up. You do that. You attempt to do that. I definitely don't fucking hit

Yeah, it's just Just to fail It's just a fail Just to fail Yeah I miss Because it only only anything happens If I get at least a seven Right

So I just don't I don't hit with the pocket sand I suck So as it's engaged You throw up in the pocket sand Fails and it then notices you And two more massive legs Slam down on you

You take one injury I've made a grimace mistake Um Peggy girl Oh, no, no, no, no, no. Hold on. Hold on. I'm going to mark one exhaustion and take a blow meant for them. Don't why? Oh, my Lord. So I don't take any damage? You're like any damage.

That is the dumbest thing you've ever done as wrong. So you run over as he's grappling and growing. You let me take two injury. It's because of our connection. Oh. Because of that, as you run in the way and the spider like slams down. You absolutely are peeing fool. No.

And you. And you. So now that I did that, I have plus one ongoing weapon for the rest of the scene. So now I add a- Do it on us. So I'm gonna fucking go in and hopefully finish this guy. Dremously wounded this bastard. And then we have two more than a- He's looking rough.

I think I'm good. I think I'm good. Oh, big hit. Oh, big hit. Uh, 13. Okay, yeah. How does that, what are you choosing? So I am choosing, I take a little damage or take a little injury.

And just in case, just in case I'm going to inflict serious harm, and I am going to shift my range to far if I can sort of maybe dodge his last, assuming it, or if it killed, basically no matter what I do, because I'm kind of weak, I want to go in and then use my,

basically shift my range to far to back out. Okay. So you slice your sword and unless it's as it chitters, as it, as is as it's mass massive death throw, and it tries to lunge forward for one last hit. And because you're able to back out of the way, it slams down forward as this green venom that seems to be similar to the one that you'd harvest previously,

but far more almost irradiated and goopy is spreading out. And with that, the forest seems to settle as the two larger shapes in the back seem to be. in the back seem to have been skittering away towards something else. You see moving off to the back, but it's too far for you to really notice what it is, and they seem to be drawn in that direction. I am going to immediately start collecting some of that disgusting stuff.

Okay, okay. Out of its fangs. So Peggy immediately goes to work, and this massive spider is, there is a ton. As Peggy, you're able to, even using a little knife that you have, kind of carve in and find its venom sac, and it's pretty hefty. I'll say that you get probably

five full jars of the spider's venom. Five full jars of the spider's venom. So what happened to those two forms? So you saw them, but there seemed to be movement off in the forest rustling in the trees and they started skittering away

on their webbing up towards the trees. I'm gonna run back to the cocoon that I broke free to see if this gentleman I'm sorry, friend. I didn't catch your name. I was trying to make sure my friends were all right. My name is Booker. Are you all right?

I'm fine. Get away from me. You know, strange. Why are there two raccoons in the forest? Two. I mean, there's just one. I mean, I'm sure there are more raccoons in this forest, but it's just me.

Booker is the one raccoon's standing before you. Got me, you fucking bourbon? On me? Uh, well, I... No, I have none of that. No, absolutely not. I can't believe you even suggest something like that. He does.

He's always asking everybody for burbit, so I think he's just, he's always out of it. So unfortunately, he doesn't have any. Thank you, brother. I don't think I do either. But are you all right? You look half dead. Well, I mean, part of that is the whiskey, but the other part is a spider. And you see this yellow feathered bird, it seems to be a canary,

steps out of the webbing and kicks it off. And it seems to be a female. As there's a large brown coat. And she's like, I was just hanging out by the creek drinking, and then suddenly I got covered in webs. I thought I was gone her, but you all are, you all are something else. I can't believe. Am I actually dead?

I'm just going to run up to her and pull out 10 of her feathers really quickly and then run back to the spider. I will say that you don't even need to roll Rogish feet because she is drunk. You just sprint over. And just run up behind. Well, ten, and then run it over. Not the funeral there. Do you live and reckon order rich? Yeah, well, live, wander.

I lay my head down in the trees with all the other bird folk. Wait, so you don't work for the earring, do you? Well, I don't work for anybody but myself. What's your name? My name's Grumley. Mary, Mary Glittergultz. Mary Glittergote, well, it's a pleasure to meet you, Mary. Um, can we, do you have any companions that were killed?

Are you, are you all right? Well, I don't make friends very fucking easily. You're on account that I'm probably fucking drunk. Tushay, my friend. But I appreciate you. Sometimes the cat, the cat bastard puts me to work in the mines, but finding new tunnels and stuff, but I figure, I, Mary Canary Words for No man.

Or cat. Brumman, if you would, please. I don't mean to command you, but maybe see if Peggy needs help harvesting this spider web material. Oh, yeah. In this point, you see that I'm already. I'm just kidding. Peggy's the fastest and the west of spider silk.

Or the east, considering one reconnoit a ridge. That's right. We're running east side of the dimwood. That's, yes. Are you from the dimwood? Yeah, I'm from here. I'm living here. I'm delivered here my whole life.

I'm gonna get to the bottom of things. We're heading back to Reconnoida Ridge. You're welcome to come with us if you want, but we're not gonna take you anywhere you don't want to go. Well, I guess I could come back and join you, get myself a drink. They broke my bottle of whiskey once I got, when I got snuck up, huh?

It's not fair. For shame. Those spiders need to learn proper rules of engagement as far as I'm fucking concerned. Peggy, do you have everything you need? I would like to take both of the spider's fangs. Got it? Yeah.

So you managed to joint those out. The fangs are there. Do these large, shiny black fangs of a similar chitinous material to hide beneath all of the shaggy fur. I'm going to turn around holding both of the fangs. I think that we're good. Whatever you say, Peggy, I believe you. You're the brains of the operation.

Yes. I have an idea of what I can do with these. You're holding them kind of like daggers, like knives. I knew you were smarter than you looked grumbling. Is that what you mean? Are you going to kill somebody with it? No. But if we do need to, don't let anyone think that Peggy's not ready to deal the final blow. Whoa, wait. How about this?

I'm kidding. I'm kidding. Hold on. How about next time we encounter a spider, some other kind of danger, you take one of those, and you take the other one, And then you can both help me next time. It should have me just killing it. What do you mean? Didn't you see me looking for a rock? And then I threw some sand in the beast's face.

Okay, I want to show you something, okay? All right. Do you see this? That's a spider bite. Okay, it hurts a lot. I got one of them, too. He came down off. You know what?

And then... All of two of them. Okay. And look at this one. That's the second one that I took. Trying to help you off. I don't think you got bit. I'll think you just got leg attack.

This is in a contest. Ladies and gentlemen, we're working together. that, look at what I'm doing. Do you want a mask tomorrow, Grimley? Do you want to go into that mind and breathe in all the stuff that's going to make you go crazy? I do. Okay, then why don't you not pick on the frog, okay? I'm not trying to pick. I'm just trying to help you with some advice, which maybe's an idea or two. I don't know. I'm ardea. Who's going to clean out your nose the next time you get stuff stuck under that weird little fold? I'm fine. I don't need to clean that. You think Book is going to do it? Because I promise you book is not going to do it.

There's not enough gold in the world. I don't need him to do nothing for me. Who's going to expel your anal gland. That's disgusting. I've never even heard of an anal gland before. What is that? Like to roll for instant death. No, but in all seriousness, Grumley is,

how does a point? Do you think you could turn those things into weapons? No, that's exactly what I'm going to try and do. I was thinking more like, like knuckle weapons, a fist weapon, where you slide your hand through and go, and what would be really cool, if they've got this little,

this little cabin in them, right? So like, if I could put something out of the back, I might be able to put some poison And then it would be poisonous weapons too, which could be pretty cool. So I'm going to try. I'm certainly not the expert, but there's anything I can do to help you. You just want one of them. That's the only reason I want to help.

And that's okay, because one of them has got your name on it. I'm going to carve your name and I'm going to carve grumly's name. Wow. I don't need that. No, I don't need that at all necessarily. I wasn't say I was going to give it to you. I was going to use it on you if you have a mean to me other again. Oh, gee.

I'm not big. I can. I would never do that to you. And I look at him like I totally would. I would never. Can I Can I figure her out? Yeah, you can figure her out.

Roll with, what are you rolling with, Rich? Charm, Charm. With Charm. Figures someone out. And Charm is my second best stat. Oh, you crossed it. So that's 11. So I get to do...

So I get to ask you three questions. Okay. And the player has to answer. Truthfully. Or you can just say, like, no, I won't. Yeah, or something. Anyway, but... It's almost like a zone of truth.

Or it might be like, there's nothing that I wouldn't do. So, like, for instance, what does your character wish I'd do? What does my character wish you'd do? I don't know. I don't think my character wishes you would do anything. That's a good, great answer. Yeah, it's perfectly valid. Okay.

What is your character really feeling? Frustration that she's got to make these gas masks and do all this stuff when all she wants to do is continue to chase down spiders and gain more of this poison stuff, but she also knows she would die. She did it on her own. Is her character really telling the truth that she would stab Grumley with a poison spider thing?

She's a lie completely. She... Her name of him. My character would never hurt Grumley. There you go. There you go. Perfect. So those are the three.

You used to figure someone out. Oh, well, all right. Well, thank you for making us those masks. I just wanted to say. I think we'll be fun going to those caves even if there is some danger. And let's hope to, the heavens above that there is no such thing as actual magic.

I've never seen magic. I just think it's got to be some kind of like mine gas or like earth gas. I mean, if that's what Peggy thinks that I'm all on board, again, she's the brains of this operation. I don't know what I think. I don't have enough information to make a calculated decision one way or the other. But you're looking forward to explore it. I can tell.

No, yes I am. I cannot wait. Let's go to bed. Let's get back. Let's get back and see if there's anything else Alabaster needs from us. If not, I'll see if there's anything I need to help expedite the process for tomorrow. Booker is at your service? Oh, good, because I'm going to put you both to work. All right.

Just you tell me what you do, and I'll do it. And I'd prefer not to die. So if there's anything I knew to help prevent that, I'm in. Cool. All right, we'll let's get back. We head back to... So, as you're all talking, you hear Mary exclaim. Oh, hey, I found some fucking whiskey.

Oh, it looks like they got old soapy. Rest and peace. And she stumbles over and you see that there's like a half-webbed, like gritty-looking fox. It looks like a fresh kill. It's still been drained. And you see a crate, a crate spilled off to the side with a bunch of soap. And on the crate it says soap with the prize inside soap. On one side.

And then the other side, there's another crate. and it has these large green bottles with a logo with a snake on the You know, I would just say maybe don't drink that just yet because what if it's poison?

Wait, it's just stuff. We can take this stuff because we kill the spider. No, yeah, of course you can take this stuff. While they're arguing, I want to walk over the crate of soap with prize inside and like see how much I can stuff in my sack. I say

you could probably, to fit comfortable, you could probably take half of the of the soap. I want as much like a possibly carry. Now, now to just put in perspective, mighty kid is sitting at three. Do I see him doing this? I'm not trying to hide it at all. I'm going to come over to the crate and I'm going to use spider silk

to kind of bind the crate back together and then make him a makeshift backpack to carry the entire crate of soap with a prize inside. Or at the very least allow me to drag it. That would be awesome. Oh, just let me carry all with it. No, no, no, no. Please. Please. Peggy has done enough. This is my burden to bear, if you

will. I do want to say that right now, I'm sitting at minus my bag of coins with two to K, which I haven't used it all. I'm sitting at three decay. I have three Xs out of my four. Yeah. I don't know if this counts as grabbing something. You can say no. I would say mark a box of

soap. Box of soapy soapies. All right. I have, under my items I will make, I will mark it equipment. This box of soapy soapy's. Soapies. So. And why don't we do three to K on that? Done. I think that's great.

And so, Peggy, you're easily able to fashion a makeshift backpack. It's a little heavy, and it's kind of, the strands get stuck to you, Booker, but it actually feels like you can make the trek in this. All right. And I'm going to, like, you know, drag basically. Yeah, carry the shit back out of me help because I don't want. Brumley helping you. Why did you jump in front of me when the spider went?

Grumley, you're as thick head as easy as your armor. I mean, what are you going to do? Spineers don't tell people. I've been a bit all right, all right? Look, we made it this far. Just do me a favor of. I appreciate you looking out for me, but you've got to look out for yourself once in a while.

I'm fine. I'm all right. That's like the book is number one rule. Look out for yourself every once in a while. I'll just need a good night. That's all. So speaking of that, so my defender thing, I clear my exhaustion track when I defend someone

who can not defend themselves from a dire threat. Would my charging in with it, could I clear my exhaustion? Yeah, I would say that would be, that would definitely do that. Awesome. And you see there's actually four bottles of, there's four of these green bottles that have survived. A lot of it has shattered across the forest floor. Can I sniff it? Can I just get a sense of what it might smell like or am I of me of?

Yeah, smell it and I would say, I would say read a 10 situation. Yeah, I think that that would be, you know, it's a 10 situation because you're trying to detect it's deadly or not. Tim. You're rolling with cunning. 10, so you can ask three questions. What is, most of you don't make sense, but what should I be on a lookout for? Do you only have to ask those three questions or can ask any three questions?

I'll say for the situation because, like, you know, I would say you sell it. I roll the 10, you give me whatever information you feel. You smell this, and you look up and you see the bottle, and it says, Soapies, almost, in quotes, magical, also in quotes, elixir of the serpent. And you smell it, and it smells like a, almost like mouthwash or something, like, not as there's mouthwash here. So it's not fermented, like, booze. No, it's not fermented like booze, but there's some kind of strange, It smells like some kind of tonic.

And it's some kind of medicinal thing, but it does not smell poison. You can get the sense that it's not poisoned at all. Peggy, could you use these? No, but I can put them in my pack and see you later. I mean, might as well as you sit in here and he's dead. Back to Booker's number one rule about sometimes looking out for yourself, Peggy, you might be able to make use of this.

Yeah, I'll take them. I have a good on Mary Canary's word that soapy. ain't going to be using this any time soon. Nah, he's fucking dead. May heavens, rest and peace, and all that, goodness. I'm shocked you didn't get killed by the town's folk on all of what he was blowing. And so you get, we'll just say, mark four elixirs down as your equipment? Mary Kendra.

I'm sorry. What was Sophie up to that would cause people problems? Oh, yeah, he was scamming him with all of his tricks and trying to get him to swim them out of coin. Interesting. All of these hoopel heads are really easy to fucking part with your gold. Interesting, you say. I say interesting. My friend, Mary Canary, I think you need to lead us back to Canada.

Goodergles. A. Canary. Oh, I thought you said your name was Mary Canary. Mary the Canary. Well, I'm Mary the Canary. That is an accurate. Is that not the official title?

Is that it rude of me to call you Mary the Canary? No, Mary Glittergles. I ever say Mary the Canary? No, I'll think you introduce yourself. as Mary Glittigote. I heard Mary the Canary want... A lot of people make it fucking rhymes. I get it.

I apologize, Mary, my friend. We will lead you back to camp. Thank you for all that you've done for us. I haven't done shit. You guys did all the work, but I appreciate it. And she flaps up into the air.

And it's like, whoa, okay, I should probably... She almost slams into a tree until she lands. I think I'm going to hoof it for a little bit. Out of character, you 110% submit. of the canary. Oh, did I? Yeah, he said Mary Greta. Oh, sorry. Swear to God. Sorry, sorry. No, it's fine. I just didn't want to lie.

I want to make sure I'm imagining. No, I heard you. I may have said it. Yeah, so Mary Littergulch, she's the canary. And then with that, you all... No. I sit down at the base of the tree, and I take one of the little spider's legs, and I just start carving into the tree. Okay. What do you garmin? Schematics. Okay.

And I just do this. And I keep doing it, and they're all just standing there watching me. And I'm going to attempt to clear my exhaustion track when I sacrifice others' interests to complete a project of craft. Hey, come on, what are you doing? Yeah, I'm just, I'm busy. I'm just going to, because I am actually making schematics on the tree for something. Mary, I apologize. Or maybe the mask?

For the masks and for something else. For something else? But I haven't decided how I'm going to do it yet. Mary, I apologize. Sometimes our good friend, Becky here, does this, and we just have to kind of suck it up. because she's the brains of the operations, I've said more than once. Well, I guess I'll have a seat and sit on next old soapy, share a drink. You want some soapy?

Well, soapy can't oblige, but I'd like to. Here you go. Thank you, cheers. Don't use a cup. Good. And then I'm going to finish it up. What are you all waiting for? Come on, we've got things to do.

And I'm going to just start walking out of the board. Just like Peggy, follow our leave. And knock our ways, here we go. And you all make your way through. and... Let me go first. Gramily, we wouldn't have it any other way. And I just lead us back,

probably slower than we need to go, but I just want to, like, sniff around. I might, like, go over to a tree and sniff there for a while. And I'll go back. As you, as in this time, however, you would have been able to find out, I'll just say the properties of the elixir. If you drink it, it restores to exhaustion.

Holy shit. So, you know, how many of them is for? But she's got all of them for now, but you guys can distribute it. That's fine. It's potentially one for each or whatever. That's fine. And so I will say because you guys moved into the forest and out,

this should, we'll just do a role now for forest travel to see what happens. Okay. So we choose someone. So you can choose to, anyone can do it, and you need to mark exhaustion on what resources are going to go in and out. I've been rolling like garbage, but I will tell you from, are we in love to talk about? Yeah. I have plenty of exhaustion to spare so I can spare at least.

DeK. Oh. I only have one decay to spare. Because I'm assuming I can't decay from my items for this. My decay, I've already offered up multiple levels of decay for travel. I'm at three out of my four decay. I only have one decay left. Right.

Because I don't know how to play around myself. That's where I'm at. So I'm going to try to basically, my plan is, in Game Mashed, please tell me if I'm wrong. I'm basically going to try to sheister people with Soapy Soap to, like, declare my dick. and like trade, you know, basically this garbage soap for gold and try to clear my decay. Well, if we can't get, especially without, we only need a mark three, but I only have two left.

So why don't we just risk it? Let's use as few supplies as we can. I agree, Grumly, we're a bit of supplies here. Let's roll the dice. You rolled the first one. And I will say that I've been rolling like garbage all night. I feel like Peggy's got the magic touch. We haven't rolled in like garbage too, so yeah, that's a seven. No, that's, that's, that's not a fad. It's a lot of fad.

What do we got, DM, we're on traveling through the woods. Do you have, do you have advice? So I might be able to bop that up. I just want to know what the rules, character creation is not following. You cannot assess because it's just a group role. We know, oh, we have to choose to offer it before the role. Before the role. Yeah.

Well, then Peggy, it couldn't have been as bad as my role. I'll drink that. So, we run a foul. of one of the myriad danger to the forest and we must deal with it before you continue. That's gonna be a yikes from me, Rumley. Here we go. So, as you continue to make your way through the forest, you realize that you're not quite in the area where you thought that you were. It's not the same path way back. As you make your way and you realize that as you approach this one part of the forest,

you see that you are suddenly, you get closer and closer, and the only way back that you can see are these massive mushrooms are all surrounding you. And they are these huge toadstools. that are spotted and they're green and purple. And occasionally they puff out spores. And it's clearing, it's covering the entire pathway that you know to lead directly back to Brumley. I don't mean to be offensive here,

but we didn't see this on the way out, so why are we seeing this on the way back? I mean, we're in the middle of the woods. There's trees every two feet. It's not like we're taking the exact path, Beth. Grumly, my question stands. Whatever you let us? I don't know where we are.

I think we're getting close. We just got to keep going. With these, so there's just mushrooms. There's massive mushrooms. It seems to be like a feel almost kind of ensconcing you, but you know directly ahead is this feel of these kind of floating spores and these large mushrooms. And you know that if you try to go around them,

it'll take you well. past sunset when you're supposed to me, Selger. All right, Gromily, I'm trusting you, my friend. I'm not, I'm not, I'm not so worried about where we are is where we're going.

We got to get back in time. Mr. Alabaster's waiting for us. I would like to sniff. Eh, there's not really not. I guess, what, do I, so they feel very poisonous. They feel very poisonous. Remember, trust fate is a role for anything

that you, you know, we think that There isn't that matches, but we think that we need a roll for it. I am going to, well, I guess I'll just leave this fruit and stay behind me, and I'll just smash, I'll just smash us a path through the woods. Just stay behind me. So have these mushrooms you're describing, have we, any of us, have a better question, have I seen anything like this with fruit? I would say no.

you've heard of the, you know, you've heard beware of the forest mushrooms. So I would understand that this is a dangerous situation having never seen these in before. And it could be quite poisonous. Brumley, uh, I may have, excuse my raccoon ears,

but you said something about smash? Well, I can just cut, I can cut through. Let me hold you, stop right then, all right. I don't know anything about this other than what I've heard and that there's some danger afoot, my friend. And maybe we don't want to just go cotton and swinging and smashing.

Is there any way we can get through easily? Be careful about where we step. Well, being careful is not more special. He said, that's something. What are you two? Oh, when are you free? Well, it's interesting because... I know, I was careful. She stumbles and almost like steps into cloud of spores before she commits back.

We're so wrong about mushrooms. And I'm going to, like, move away from everybody. I almost want to chop. Just like a machete style, right? But I have my great sword. Oh, my God. Bromley has asbestos. I just want to test it, right? Like, mesothia! What's so wrong about cutting some mushrooms? Yeah.

So you cut into a mushroom, it burst a cloud spores in your face. You start coughing and it feels terrible. You take too exhaustion. Oh, uh, uh, uh, Booker's the camera says, if you were a loved one, has mesothelioma. Yeah. Are you all right, my- Please, no, we can't do that.

We can't. We can't do what? Go around hacking things like I told you not. Do you? No, we can. just needed to make sure we would have saved so much time if we could. Let us all take our... If only we had the mess, it seems like a perfect time.

Yeah, but we don't, so... We're gonna have to take our time and go slow. Understood? You, understood. I'm not. I guess we'll try too slowly at a disgustingly slow pace. Just the highest luck. Mine is... When I leveled up, I took plus.

one in luck, so mine is currently plus one. I didn't take anything when I level now. Oh, pick either a move down here, a weapon move, or a step... Yeah, I took a stat. I don't know what to do. I took a stat improvement in luck, so mine is currently plus one. I don't know what else is. What's yours?

We're playing like she's not here. And luck plus zero. Well, Fuku water you lead the way. All right, grumly. I gotta be honest with you. I'm a little concerned about this, carrying all this soap. He's probably poisoned out. You should definitely not show that to anyone when we get back.

Says you. And then I proceed to walk into the market. Okay, I trust fate. And that is just a walk roll? Yeah. So it's a three. What? What?

I'm sorry. I choose to die. Here we go. I can't wait. Yeah. Tries to lead you. You all are occasionally. knocking in, stumbling into these mushrooms.

I've been rolling so bad that. These horrible these horrible clouds of spores all fill your lungs and you all take two exhaustion. Why are we taking exhaustion for him? Oh, I didn't know we were all doing it. It's two?

Yep. Well, so what are the rules when you take, when you don't have any left for exhaustion. What are the rules? You take injury? No, you don't take injury. I think basically what happens is...

Oh, you die. Okay, Grumley's out of the game. I don't. Nicky and I can keep playing. No, basically what happens, I believe, is that I'm, like, so exhausted that... I'll look it up. I'll look it up.

So, Grumble is say, we'll say for this, Grumley passes out in the middle as he's coughing, and you have to drag him through the rest of... of this field of mushrooms, as you spill out on the other side, and you manage to smack him awake once you get to the other side of these mushrooms, and you spill out onto the edge of the clearing as the sun is setting in the sky, you're at Reckanoid original. Oh my goodness gracious.

I'm, everyone, I'm sorry. I did what I could, but I've never seen anything like that before. Well, I don't say that the forest isn't a good place to hang out, where I can get away from all these simple-minded credence. Is there any way we can just get Grumley back to the Pearl? Yeah. The Pearl. I think that Mr. Albaaster might have a place for us to stay.

I've given them enough goal. I'm sure you can spare some accommodations. And Grummelley, you're able to wake up. You're very, very, very tired. So let me just read what happens. Yeah, I want to know. You don't immediately pass out, but you could if it works for the fiction. I think that's funny if you pass out.

I think that's great. They are too exhausted to be effective at anything. If they're over-exhausted, every move they make is treated as it misses. So I would fail everything when I did. But we were dragging them anyway. Yeah, yeah. And so, basically, I clear one exhaustion a day. You need you sleep?

So if you sleep, you would clear one exhaustion. Oh. I'm going to walk over to him once we're out, and I'm going to pour one of these spider elixirs. Okay. You pour it out, you pour it in his mouth as he suddenly, you sputter, you feel actually a lot more revitalized. Holy hell!

Grumly, are you all right? What was that? That actually worked. That's not snake oil. You know, there's a snake oil. It restores to exhaustion. Oh, my God. I can't believe it actually did something.

Thank you, Peggy. I don't know why you think of me, I found it in the forest with you guys. Oh, well, Sophie's just doing good from the grave. And you all continue. You eventually make your way back by sunset to the Pearl. Cold August's Ritz Grumby 2019 to 2019. As you make your way back and you all settle in,

the bartender tells you that Selgin is actually out on business, but there is a large crate of supplies, filled with leather and glass and additional scraps of metal. What do you do? We're going to take it up to the room and start making maps. Okay. Well, Peggy, if there's anything I do to help you, please let me know.

Otherwise, I'm going to get some shot, but don't hesitate to wake me up. Booker is in your employee. Yeah, you're not going to sleep, actually. Come over here. I start teaching him how to, like, punch the holes for the stuff. I don't know. I was being nice.

And I'm going to need you to cut all these pieces out. So I'm going to give him my big shears and have him cut the leather. And you're going to punch the holes and I'm going to put everything together. And, uh, so it's up to you. Do we get any sleep that night? Oh, yeah. It's early.

Yeah. I don't know if you were like straight up like Peggy working through the night. No, no. Okay. All right. And, uh, and, uh, as that has like, well, what did he's, what, and you see that, uh, and you see that, uh, Mary has kind of wandered up. to the room as you're working on.

It's like, what are these, these masks? You're just like a costume party? I'm not another. Don't even take another step and touch that. What you could do is get us some more bourbon though. Okay, that's... Just make sure it's on the house, because we're helping with being so very hopeful.

I mean, Mr. Alabaster already said that it was. So if Basil might be down there alive and well... Well, no, he said that last drink was the last one, but this time... Except for when we came back, when I said we went back, He said we wanted warm food and I said we would like some nice bourbon. Just go ahead and get it. It'll be fine.

I think that was really fine. Exhaustion rules at the time. It's all right. It's all right. Mary, please. Yeah, just bring up around. We're working hard. Let's understand.

You all, and so, Merman, you all eventually have a set of four masks as you use your tinkering abilities in order to do that. And they look like, when you all put them on, they're all specially made for each of the, the type of animal you are, as the one for Booker is to go out quite far, and the one for Peggy is very flat, bespoke. It's totally... So was Grumley's. Yeah, Grumley is a lot. Just barely a little... And same with, yeah, same with Hazel. Well, Peggys look absolutely fantastic, and I know, I know, they're going to work.

Yeah, we'll see. I don't know. I got a lot of faith. I've seen the things you can do. I got a lot of faith. I spent a lot of time weaving together this spider silk, so. I think when so set and done, we should go back to the workshop, and maybe you could give me an old tuna. Yeah, no, when all is said and done, I think that's 100% what we should be doing, because... I've been a long time since we've been back to your workshop.

And all of my things are really tired. At the end of the day, we got one week. That was a weird turn of phrase, but you know what I'm trying to say? Mr. Smiles gave us one... You've been at the end of the week, we've lived through a little. another week? No, I think that's one of those idioms he always used. So tunes and frames. Nobody calls you an idiom, grommily.

No, no, that's idiots. No, you call me an idiom or too young. I would never say that to you. I tried to say, because I've been tapping into the bourbon a little too much. My point is... Did you say bourbon, because that's a little bit different. Bourbon. Bourbon, like the fermented alcohol.

Wait, is tapping into a bourbon? Is that a euphemism? It's nothing like a bird omper. Don't even start going there. We already, we covered it, we've gone, we moved on. The point is we have one week. Mr. Smiles said we have one week. We don't want to let Mr. Alamaster down.

If we can solve this from one week, we can right back to Peggy's workshop. Agreed? I agree. It's been too long as you've been. Let's do it. Let's get some sleep. Good night. So, I'm all for that.

And Peggy, actually, after that you're done, you realize that there's enough extra supplies in here for everyone to enjoy plus one decay, as that you're able to... One is that you're able to... So, yeah, whatever, yeah, whatever it is. Don't mark it. So basically you have an empty, whatever. We remove one. You remove one.

You remove one. Yes, because I was at three of four, I'll go to two of four. So the morning, the morning comes. Gross. And, uh, you all enjoy a long rest. So you mark one, uh, exhaust. Or remove it exhaustive. No, you know, what I?

I mean, there's no long rest. You sleep, so you mark, you remove one exhaust. As did we, did we agree to be anywhere in the morning? Yeah, we've got to go meet up with, uh, what's his fucking... Alabaster at the rendezvous point, which is, okay, that's what I'm on making sure. Fuck, fine. Done. I continue on with the agreed upon adventure.

And... You just wanted to sell soap. Yes, I have to. Are you kidding me? Well, look, look, you know it's late... So I will say that you have the morning to resupply. And so when you resupply, you can basically take your gold from your pack and add decay, and then remove decay from your overall.

Does that make sense? So we only have two coins. Yes. But then if I do that, the only thing I want to do then is basically if I sell soap, I want to get more coins. You know what I'm saying? Yes. It's my thought process.

Yes. So you don't have to remove that then if you're trying to like con people. So the idea is that my understanding, right, is that you're basically transforming the soap bars into gold. Yes. That's exactly what I'm trying to do. Right. Okay.

So what I'm going to do is I'm going to remove two decay. Yeah. Which puts me in zero decay. And I'm going to mark my bag of coins with two to get. Yeah. And then if there's time, I would like to get up early and go out to the third layer. If there's time. If we're on time today, I can wait.

I would say that you could probably wake up at like the crack of dawn. Yeah, I mean, yeah. When people are looking to be themselves. Yes, that's exactly what I would like to do. All the filthy miners. Yeah. So you make your way down quickly to the bath house as this shaggy. Can I help him on these things?

You can more than welcome to join him if that's what you want to do. Up to you? I don't want to help you. All right. So I'm thinking, because he gave us extra metal, I want to try and craft like a metal showerhead with like a wire hose and take a bucket and like demonstrate showers to these people. Okay. But I'm not actually going to give people showers, but I'll basically be under them like washing myself as a way to like promote his product. Okay.

So what do you intend to do? So what I'd like to do is drag this box of soapy soapy soap. basically out in the thoroughfare and we don't really have like a like a setup or anything other than what peggy has brought down to help promote and i'm going to basically stand upon the box of box of soapy's soap and stand and say ladies and gentlemen people of the thoroughfare welcome welcome welcome my name is booker and i have a deal for you anyone who is oh by the bright dawn of day looking to a fresh, clean start. Make sure you stop right here by one and only,

Booker's prize in a soap. That's right, Bookers. You may have heard of soapies of the past, but he's long gone Skip Town, gone on to Cheyenne. The point is that Booker is here to stay. There's a soap hole that needs to be filled. That's the wrong word, but Booker's here to fill it. I'm Michael if you want to be a looker, buy your soap from Booker.

If you want to. And I will spend a decay to give her a goalie. 110%. I am not going to advertise for free. My friends, if you want to be a looker, buy your soap from Booker. Yes, I will take a decay to take one away from her. Yeah. I'm on my back on the floor.

I'll take one of my decay away. That's pretty good. I'll put another quote. That is so fucking brilliant. I can't even begin. So, with this, like, this stage prop of, like, a shower. So, basically, I have, like, a circular piece that I've punched, like, rudimentary holes into. Yeah.

And kind of fashioned it. And basically, towards the back, I just have, like, a little bag of water that I just keep squeezing. So, like, some water pumps out of it. It's, like, very rudimentary shower. Like, the easiest shower anyone could make. Yeah. Okay. So it's very rudimentary.

and like all of these unwashed miners show up and they're like, oh, yeah, that's easy. They immediately see it, and then all of a sudden, Bookers start shouting, and you have a crowd of a good number of, ladies and gentlemen, the bottom line is that you need soap. Everyone needs soap, and you may be asking yourselves, why is Booker's soap so expensive? And the answer is, my friend, you may triple, no, quadruple your money.

by buying one of my soaps. And at the end of the day, you'll smell better than any mine has ever smelled in his or her entire life. Not to be confused with smelting, but, uh, oh, sorry. Thank you, no, my lovely, lovely business partner, Peggy, who came up with a brilliant, brilliant phrase. More water comes out. That is one gold piece, one gold piece.

No, no, please, sir, do not stop at the price, because again, you may quadruple. And, uh, do you try. tricking the NBC. So that's a charm roll. It's a calming roll. Cunning roll. Please, I just, I need to roll higher than a set in one time.

Could that be persuaded? Oh, actually, no. Well, I would say it is a very blatant trick. Okay. I am blatantly lying and I know for a fact that you're tricking that this is bullshit. I don't care what's it. I'm lying. I am very much lying. I want to do the thing and help him.

I got a nine, so if you want to help me, I want to get an extened. So I just mark an exhaustion. And with that, and with that, the slogan, all if they take the bait and do what we want, the crowd immediately starts swimming. Oh, give me a so, oh, I want a sober. That's a pretty fucking, I'm gonna be, I'm gonna be so clear.

I'm gonna be a looker, book, looker, looker, looker. They all start chattering. And they buy, they buy all. Give me it on top. They buy all of the soap, and you can transfer all of those all three soaps to three coins. I'm going to put two in my coin bag. Okay. And one, I will remove the decay that I paid for paying.

Sounds good. So basically, I am full. I'm back to clean. Got it. Got it. So you do that. And they all walk away, and some of them are like, oh, this is so good. I'll skip a bath today.

As they So I'll be basically like, you know, like thumbing through all the gold we made and giving Peggy her share and basically as you walk back to the inn I'll say, wow, unbelievable. That poor, poor Sophie died, but not in vain. Not in vain, my friends,

because we've made some gold on his name that sounded wrong. Let's head back to the pearl. Yeah, job. Well done, Peggy. Thank you for your help. If they will live on feather in your calm. So let's go.

Unbelievable. Absolutely fantastic. We get better with those every single day. You know, could or not allow you, my friend. It's great. It's always an opportunity for me to try out some of my new tools. What is your decay at? My decay was at four out of technically six because I can't take one away. I have five normally because I have big pockets. And Mike gave us a decay.

So what did you have? Well, all I did was add a bag of coins because I didn't think, I didn't think I didn't think understood what you were doing. So I'm assuming you took away one of my day. Yes, so basically what I did was that I basically took on a decay to give you a coin to basically heal you of one of your decay. Okay, probably. Then I have a then I have three decays instead of two left. Okay, all right, cool. Got it. Well, so you want to lower your decay. So I think just as we think about this, as you're filling it up, they determine this injury, exhaustion, and decay is what things you don't

want, right? So you are taking a decay to remove your decay. Right. So you want to lower it, because that, usually when you're, when you're at zero is when you're at four. So I was essentially paying her gold coin, and then I made three. Right. Was the idea. So you net two and you net one. Correct. Got it.

Take one away. Yes, exactly. Exactly. Take one. Yes, you remove one together. Yes, I did. Right. I am three.

She did. She did. I don't know. And so, if you would like to take the time to resupply with the coins that you have, you can basically swap, swap decay up to from the coin peppers. Because now I have, I have coins. in my bag that I can spend on whatever I mean. So I'm good.

I'm like back to doing Booker things. We can do this for, can I, I just want to swing by a blacksmith shop. Okay. If possible, I'm assuming that there may be. Yeah, there's blacksmith. Yeah, you see a fox swing and a hammer at the blacksmith. If I can use my coin purse to remove one decay,

and then how much would it call, Would it be one to K per box of repair? Oh, yes. Yes. Okay, so I just want to repair one of them on my plate armor. Okay. So you pay a blacksmith. The fox, oh, you can't afford to get a four pair,

but he manages to hammer out a good amount of repair. So I spend my advance entirely, because there were two, right? Yeah. So basically having a tinker is like insanely good, because it's like really to see if you're interested in playing this I recommend having a tinker because I think eventually

clearing clearing damage on your weapons is very very good and important and expensive so okay cool so I bought a wetstone was the first decay

and then I maybe they like just patched up a strap or something to pay whatever coin you have you're tapped out you all eventually meet And you're ready to head to the mine, the Comstock claim. Yes, yes. Okay.

Are you guys ready to go? But as ready as I can be. Why were you guys up so early? May soapy rest in peace, it's all I would say. Yeah. No, I made the makeshift, like, portable washing thing, and I helped the booker sell a bunch of just horrible soap. No, my dear, you are way too modest.

Peggy is the greatest marketer known to this planet. Wait, you guys sold that soap. Oh, yeah. That Com Man Soap, you ran a car? Oh, yeah, we sold the entire thing. We sold every... I think every last... I think we sold out, right?

All right. But you know, the good thing is, is I think I've learned out how to make it, so I was hoping maybe we can make some old sucks in the future. And my accent completely changed. Peggy, my dear... Yeah. That sounds like a lovely, lovely, lovely, lovely idea.

Yeah, I lived one of the same. of the boss before he gave it to the guy. I think you have an idea of what was in it. It's not good stuff. I'm not even sure it was actually soap. This sounds like an opportunity to improve upon a product that has already breached to the market.

Yeah. Yeah. Are we going into business? Oh, my friend. Wash a hooker, soap from Booker. And then we can sell it to what's his fuck downstairs. That is a lovely idea. I will definitely run that by management, which is me, and we will work on it.

Cool. I'm just trying to think of all the words to rhyme with Booker. You are way, way ahead of me on this, and again, as always, you are the brains. You are the brains. Shall we head downstairs? Who we took up? Soap from Booker. No? No, that's not do that one. No, no, that is not really on. As they say in the business, it doesn't really sound on brang.

But we'll work on it. We're not married to the idea. the idea. That's all I'm saying. Grumley, my friend, do you want to leave us downstairs? I would. If you're ready to go. Now they've distracted you from the idea of soap. I don't know. Anyway, let's go. Like, totally, yeah, and I'll just... Make your way downstairs.

You see that Mary is passed out on, slumped up against a table, and Selgin is waiting for you. And down at the ground floor, and he looks like 12. Was the supplies work out? It's all my guys could find. Oh, no, it was great. We're all going to look like a bunch of road hogs.

I don't know what that is, but... It's a hog on the road. It's nothing special. Have you ever seen a hog on the road? Nope, just making it up. I drew one once in my notebook, though. That sounds dangerous if we were to run into a hog on the road. Yeah, because they've got those tusks.

They could kill you really fast. Yeah, and they mean business. They wanted to do these animals? I didn't know they did business. You might want to consider that going into business with some hogs. They're one of the deadliest animals in the Timwood. Haven't you seen the statistics? If there's money to be made, then absolutely.

I'm willing to work with whoever can provide me with the best coin. Yeah. You were saying. Well, be careful around... I thought you were going to say be Yancy. Whatever. I knew a guy named Yancy once. Yikes from me, don't.

This was like, Nikki honestly, thought Mikey was going to say be Yancey. Always be Yancey. Watch any hoopel head that... He may try to send with you as a guide down there. Oh, no. Don't trust them. Wait, wait, wait, wait. You mean to say that Mr. Smiles is going to send some of those skinketins with us?

Well, you don't know the mines at all. You're going to need a guide, so he's probably going to supply one for you. And what you're saying is it won't look great if we come back and all the skinketons are dead. I'm saying that they may try to get the jump on you. Just keep on. Wait, wait, we know somebody that knows the minds? What if we bring a guide and... And they have their guide and then we at least have two guys.

Who the hell is going to be our guide, Grumley? Neri the Caneer. We freed that miner that new to mines. Oh, dear Lord, you mean the drunk? Yeah. Haven't you ever heard of a canary mine or something? There's nobody you can trust more than a drunk. I think I heard that somewhere.

Peggy, I've never heard you say that once. At least you always know what the fucking motivated by. Yeah, yeah. I know that's exactly what I'm saying. Isn't the opposite of what you just said true? Or is it supposed to be like ironic? No, I just mean because you know exactly what they want. She doesn't want something to do with whatever's in that mind.

But as long as we know, as long as she knows she's going to get some of her drink when she gets back and good. Then time out. We're going to need Mr. Alabasas's help here. You might need to promise the drunk some of the old elixir, if you know what I'm saying. Perhaps Mary is your fucking guy. Yeah, you know. Do you know Mary? I guess she was in here earlier.

He cut her out of the spider sap. That cannot be a good sight. Every fucking saloon in this place knows Mary. So is she full of shit, or is she going to lead us in this mind? She was a scout, and she knows the mines better than any other bird. She's the only bird that I've seen go into those fucking minds. Well, what do you think? I mean, obviously we've got to deal with his geologist,

but in case he's up to no good ones to lead us down the wrong way, we'll have our own guide to verify at least what he's saying. Oh, dear God, we're going to be killed by the skigotins. All right. Mary, where, Mary, are you down here? Mary, where are you? She's right behind. She's like, hey, I'm, um, I'm up.

And you see her kind of feathers. There's like a little bit of down, kind of falling down. He says, where are we going? Where are you going? I haven't, nope, I haven't soiled myself. I'm fine, I'm fine. Mary, I have a very important question to ask you. Yes?

Would you like to be enlisted in this here group, bag of bonds as our guide and our scout is a very honorable role and you will be paid handsomely in whiskey provided by this fair badger

I wasn't honestly I generally don't trust dogs or cats no offense but I was not sold until you said whiskey and then now I am currently presently fucking soul what are you need me to do? I know We need you to lead us into one of these dangerous minds.

I mean, surely you've heard of the mine is returning, and they've got all sorts of crazy things going on in the head. You know what this is going on? Oh, yeah. I mean, they try to keep it on the down low, but the people who know, they know, and it's everyone, old Charlie will just... Great, then that means that you can lead us there,

regardless of what's going on, risk life and limb for the drink. the big iron bonanza the big iron bonanza I like the ring of this that's deep that's deep into the fucking hills yes my friend and we need you to lead us there

again risking life and limb for the drink oh well I've risked life and limb for less and I've risked more for the drink cheers cheers

and so welcome a board is it too early never I said it's never too early for me and she drinks it And with that, Selma says, What the fuck did I get myself out there? Well, I guess this is better than nothing.

Figure out what the fuck he's doing down there. One week. We've got a week. Well, hopefully you don't die. But we'll see you soon. Thank you, Mary. Please lead the way to the months. Well, I guess I will.

And you won't make your way through the town. Well, right as we leave, I lean over to Peggy, and I'll say, Hey, Peggy, you're the smart one. Do they really throw bananas in mines? You know, Gromley, yeah, yeah, they do. And you should keep an eye out, because you never know where the bananas are going to come from, okay? I haven't had a banana since I was at home, like, very far away home in the empire. So, you know, if you want a banana, you just better watch where you go.

watch where your feet are going, watch above your head, watch to the side. I got her, do all that knock and maybe into banana or two? Yeah, and when you hear loud noises, really low noises, like stop doing that thing when you turn your head from side to side. Oh, oh, um, Hazel, maybe if we get enough bananas, you can make a banana queen pie. Have you ever made one of those? Maybe she has a- She's probably stolen banana and, uh...

Yeah, maybe we'll get, maybe we'll get the bananas. But anyway... You keep an eye out for him, okay? I'll do older thing, he said. I promise. Okay. So are we making our way? Yep, you're making your way.

While we are, I just want to, you know, basically just ask Peggy, like, oh, you didn't, I know we were very, very hard at work on the masks. And again, expertly fine grassmanship. Did you have any chance to, you know, with the fans? Oh, no, I didn't walk on those. All right. I mean, we... Mary, I know you're not there, but how far are we from the mine, per se?

Oh, we're almost up there. Just whenever you guys are done, please enjoy. No, I mean, roughly how many days trek to the mine? Oh, just... We'll get there in an hour. Oh, well, hell. Okay, well, that's fine. That's fine.

You know what I've realized, though? I only made one extra masks, so they can send a stinkerton with us if they want, but he's not getting one of these masks. I got enough of the four of them. us and for Mary the Canary. Good call. If this, uh, I want to call him hush, but his name is smiles. If this smiles fella wants to send any of those skinketons in with us, they're on their own. Yeah, it's not my problem. I never promised. I mean, we never promised them masks. Now, now I know

that generally I make do with what we can find around us, and I'm not much of a fighter, but if you get the opportunity, Peggy, you know, to do the thing, I, it, you know, it's a great way You have terrified somebody. You bite your own tongue off. You let your mouth fill with blood, and then you just open your lips and let it run all over yourself while you growl.

Peggy, my tongue is almost my only ass set here. I'm a talker. I can't go without my tongue. It doesn't really have. Who would ever do that? It's so horrible. I mean, maybe in a life-threatening situation, but then I lost my best feature.

I was just making notes on ways to scare people. I am horrified. If it's any consolation. If I bit my tongue off, I wouldn't be able to pack. and I would overheat very easily and die. That sounds like a plug problem more than it sounds like a everybody else kind of problem. Oh, well.

I'm not telling you to do it. I was just giving you ideas. I'm not going to do it. I'm very menacing otherwise. As you can see. Well, right. I mean, Rommler's got the muscles. You've got the brain. But if I can't talk, what does Booker got?

Your soap? I know I saw. The soap is gone. The soap's done, pain. The soap is ridden off into the sunset. Yeah. I don't know. What's your thing?

My what thing. Oh, so you're clear on exhaustion. No, no, I keep track of it on my phone. I'd be happy to tell you where I'm... What's your hustler feature? My hustler feature is clear your exhaustion track when you spring a complicated con, which is what I was trying to fucking do,

or a dangerous mark. I would say a complicated con. So that would be a similar, right? You think? Yeah, absolutely. See, I thought a complicated con. Well, okay. A kind of be like, one that's not complicated.

It's like, oh, you want to buy this rock? Right. So my complicate. And please, this is a learning experience, everyone. My thought of the complicated con was when we rolled in town being like, oh, let's steal a fucking mind from drug trucks. So that's complex and shit. Well, that's very complex.

That's very, that's heads. I was going along con, baby. Yeah, I know that, that would count as well. But I would say complicated con. If it's not like, oh, there's like a drunk and you're like, hey, you want to give me a goal. Okay. Well, in that case, my friends, I have never felt better in my entire life.

You had props on the slogan. I mean, that's pretty complicated. That was literally entirely petty. I showed up and I handed the soap out. I didn't do any work just like Booker Intenio. That's why you have friends, so they can do all the work for you. I can agree. I can drink to that.

Mary, cheers. And to be fair, I did ask if I can come. You gave me permission. You technically hired. Well, then I paid you. Yeah. So, you know, you did all. all the hard way.

One for you and three for me, as even as it can be. You know, that's how Hazelwood wanted to be. Cheers. So eventually you all arrive. As you wind through that the buildings get larger and larger, and you see the huge sign that says, that says, Smiles Mining Company, and the concentration of the skinkertains

and the cat soldiers gets more and more intense. As you see large offices, and these strange, large machines that are boring into the earth, that are just absurdly loud. These machinations that are powered by kinetics, as you see, haggard foxes and other woodland creatures are spinning these wheels as these machines are boring into the earth, and it's horribly loud. However, you see at the very top, almost towards the edge of the forest, this large hill and a bent sign

that's in the Comstock claim and at the entrance you see a row of skinkertons and they are flanking a creature that has a long snout and a long tail

seems to be a weasel as the weasel is standing very very prim and proper and neatly as you all approach And you see that there is a large wooden building, an office it seems to be, but with a large balcony up ahead. And it's far off, but it's far enough where you, it's not directly where you could potentially call out to, but you see a cat with a large leather hat as smiles looks down at you. And as you kind of look at him, he smiles and just waves his hand.

I'm gonna customarily just like tip my hat and, you know, give him a recognition from Booker. I'm gonna bite my tongue off and let blood drain all over myself. But it's actually just a berry that I picked that kind of looks like blood. And then I'm going to slowly put my mask on while I'm keeping full eye contact with him. And he goes back and you see that there is, he's eating the bowl of peaches that he got from himself. Obviously very hungry from the ones that you had snatched. I don't think it had the end of the fact. I thought you were going to say you bite your thumb at him.

Do you bite your thumb in it soon? No. He's just like, as you approach. Aaron Diego! Dagen! Tadens! And, uh... I would like to become a Titan.

Okay. Trust fate. Make a trust fate roll. It fits. Eight. Eight. That's a ten. I guess I don't become a titan. Damn.

Actually, with some assistants, you succeed, and the entire campaign is a massive frog. The frog, just smash his smile. It's so far. One of my favorite, like, YouTube videos, one of my favorite, like, YouTube videos is the original, like, Japanese voice acting cast,

like, singing along the song, like, without knowing that it's fantastic. We, Venners of Jill The Jail. Anyway, so you arrive and you see

this very well-dressed weasel and he looks around and says, I was told by Mr. Smiles that there would only be four of you. You don't get to bring friends.

You know, he never said that, so we bring in someone. To be fair, Peggy is 110% right. We weren't given any restrictions and then Mary here is our guiding to the mind.

Yeah. We got to have someone we trust, we know, I'm not a weasel caneasel. My name is Mr. Y. Okay, Kniezel, it's fine. Mr. Y, how do you spell that? Like the letter Y? Or perhaps like...

You can call me Mr. Y. No more information is necessary for them. I'm going to call him Kniezel, because I think it's a little more fun to say. And I am Mr. Smiles' geologists. I know these minds, and you need a guide. Yeah, that's why we brought a merry canary. And do you believe this... Alleged guy who is smelling of whiskey. Oh, yes, she's a total drunk. Is going to be efficient for your operations.

Yeah, for sure. She says she's been doing lots of work around here, so we trust her. Yeah, absolutely. She's the most knowledgeable miner bird in the whole clearing. The only mining bird. So we're figuring if Mr. Smiles has his guard, we will have ours, and you two can work together and figure out where we're going in his mines. Yeah.

And I will still accompany you. I would assume so. Would Mr. Smiles have it any other way? I suppose not, as he thinks for a moment. And you see that he's a little bit of trepidation. As he says, Well, we should get a move on then. I am not entirely sure what this,

why you would need to bring your own guide if I am going to be joining. Well, one for you, one for us. It's about the whole integrity of the situation. No conflict of interest, my friend. We are all on the same side. No. Can I figure the sky out?

Yeah. As our grumble shoddy, Booker begins to clench up. No, snake eyes, no. Snake eyes. I fail horribly. As you can't discern as fine as an iron trap. as he looks forward and he stares at you, Grownley,

as he sees that his eyes are on, that your eyes are on him. As he says, do you doubt my ability to guide this operation? No, of course not. No, no, not at all. You're the chief geologists, of course, and you're in the employ of Mr. Smiles, and essentially so are we. So we're all colleagues?

No. You told me that yesterday You said two days ago Anything you want to say, Grumly There's not anything you say it's going to be wrong We share the same employer And he wouldn't want to upset him, would we? Yeah

I think we should just do as he says And we should figure out what's going on with this month Would you like to stay here? We could go in on our own if you like Yeah It is true, my friend, Mr. Y, you said It's been told to us That it's very dangerous

Down the Minds, people have walked in promptly expired. Ah, yes, I have seen the effects on the miners. And you're willing to risk your own life for Mr. Smiles. Mrs. Smiles pays me very well, but you seem to have your own guide

make a person in an NPC. You're good, though. You're good. What do you mean I'm good? It's Charles. You're charged plus three, right? It's plus two. I didn't think I could get to plus three. You can if you bump it. I bumped my fucking one.

So one, you can get to plus three with the level up. So do you want to say that you move you? No, fuck no, I need the luck for my desperate smile. I picked luckle of purpose, my friend. Okay, yep. The bottom line is I got a six. I, are you gonna help him? No.

I'm sorry, we want this guy to come with us. So if people don't wanna go, then I'm fine with it. Well, I was kind of talking earlier. So we'll say that that was the help. I will mark an exhaustion. So it becomes a seven, for what? It's convict, persuade an NBC? Yeah. No. Well, I'm persuading him to necessarily not step down and die. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, no, I'm just reiterating that. Oh, no, on a seven and nine, they aren't sure. The gene will tell you what I need to

dissuade him. He looks at you and he, uh, he seems to be, uh, I will say that he seems to be a little bit nervous as you're trying to persuade him. He is very much wanting to execute the orders of Mr. Smiles, but if you basically hype up the horrible dangers in the mine, it seems like you might be able to persuade him to not join you and let you take Barry. Mr. Y, if I will, please, with all due respect, again, if I haven't had it, the pleasure, my name is Booker. Yes, I know your name. I'm headed down into this. this horrible, horrible death trap of a mind against, basically against my will here. And they're talking about magic.

Magic, do you believe in magic? All I know is several dozen. Dozen? Poor souls have ventured down into the cave, if you will, and come up absolutely babbling nonsense. Oh, no, let me rephrase. Half of that dozen came up dead. That is true.

Are you worried for my safety? I'm worried for my own safety. Screw your safety. It will be very dangerous. Often to death. Perhaps it is then... You have a mask? Because we all made masks

so that we could go in there and not die immediately. If it wasn't for penny here, I wouldn't be seen with a hundred feet of this... Do you have a mask for me? No, I didn't know you were going to be here, so I didn't think you was. That's a good joke, my friend.

They have a mask for you, please. No! No, sir. With that, he seems to kind of breathe, the nervousness overcomes him, and he kind of shakes a little bit, twitches. And he says, perhaps you are right, well, I will not waste my time. You have your own guide who is far more disposable than my brain and genius. Yeah, you know, that makes me wonder.

Why would they send you in there without any mask or any protection? Do you think you did something that made him mad if you think he was trying to kill you? Wow. I'm trying to, I'm trying to, so some discord. Yeah, yeah, basically. I'm trying to make him

wonder. You're trying to trick his NPC. Peggy, my friend, that is a great point. I mean, only an employer who simply did not care about their employees would send someone to the Netflix. We just met this drunk and I made

a romance. And he kind of like steps back and he looks around and then he looks to side to side and the skinkertons are looking and they're like as they're like, as

Mr. Smiles does care for the excuse me the genius of my my geological wonders and my ability to find him

he would never throw my life away so easily all the lives of these unless he thought that you had used up all of you know in this one particular mind and while she's saying that I will like snicker

in the background. Very loudly. Make a trick-in NTC. She's rolling on the assisting in next. What'd you get? What's a trick-in-N-N-C? That is coming. Eight.

They hesitate, so you can choose one of these options. Oh. So if you look at the first one, that was pretty good. They hesitate. You shake their confidence or weaken them around. That's what I want to do. He hesitates, and he looks drained, not just him, all of the skinkertons that are with him, which are, is total late. As they all look around and they all kind of keep their eye up at smiles, who is just looking, he's too far away to hear any of this.

Right, he's like way up and he's just looking as he's eating his breakfast. He's drinking a cup of coffee. What a bastard. As he's smiling down, he waves again as you all look up at him. going to casually say, but you know, I'm probably wrong, right? Like, if this is the biggest mind in the entire, in the entire dim, where there's no way he'd be trying to get rid of anyone that could profit off of it, right? But anyway, we've got to get in there and we've got to find out if that's really what's in there,

you know what I mean? Of course. We will be waiting. Don't delay. You are employees now of Mr. Smiles, and he kind of stumbles a little bit. Excuse me. And he reaches into his coat and pulls out a kerchief and dab some sweat.

I'm going to look really sad at him. Take care of yourself, okay? I hope I see you again. Eddie's weasel. And as you were. Edie's a weasel. Eddie's a weasel. Of course.

And as he steps away, he pulls the kerchief back into his coat. he steps away and you then start to see as the skinkertons all part the entrance of this mind, it's very dark inside and it sounds empty. You hear the whispers of the

skinkertons as Mr. Y walks over to them and they all start to kind of talk a little bit and they're all keeping, looking back up from each other up to smiles. As they seem to have, something to be distrustful in their morale is very shaken. Good. I'm going to

Time to marry, and I mean I say loudly, all right, drunk who I just met, but whose life I value a lot, here is a mask for you. I'm going to give her a mask, a mask out everybody's mask. You better put these on now because you don't know where this thing just starts. It honestly could be leaking out here in very small batches, even at the entrance, and long exposure could pause it. So, you know, Peggy, I don't doubt your ability for one second.

You've done nothing but protect my hide from day one. I'm a little concerned how I suddenly got roped into potentially laying down my life for people I don't even know. Yeah, I questioned that when I woke up this morning, but then we sold a lot of really poor quality soaked to a bunch of really dirty old men. And so now I just... They're poor helpless miners. What else are they going to do? They need somebody to look after them. You know, they mines and made that gold we took from them, and it's been a real moral question for the...

Wait, and you just go from miners? Yeah, I don't want to talk about it. Let's go in. At the end of the day, Grumley, my friend, we can't help anyone if we're dead. Yeah. I agree. I think we definitely shouldn't die, but at the very least, we could... Maybe we'd kill three birds with one stone. Well, but, you know, Mary's a bird.

We all need to understand that we step in the threshold here. We may instantly die. We all are accepting that risk. Oh, no, no, that's ridiculous. I think one would be fine. put that mask on and you walk right in well no i'm gonna put this mask on i trust if peggy has anything to do with this she'll protect us because i believe in her i believe in her and her abilities

but this is beyond her this is beyond any of us is this baloney magic that we've heard of only you took booker's mask i'm i'm sure it's so weird oh here you go which one's one's one you know the one that shaped like your face darling i'm gonna give it to him How do I look? Basically look like yourself, but like you're wearing somebody else's skin over your face. It's kind of like something's straight out of a horror movie.

She's going to work, I'll see. And as you make your way to one last look towards the group, and as they're fanning out, they're just going to, they kind of post a watch at the entrance in his mind. You actually notice that there are a slight bulges in the end of his mind. in the breast pockets of Mr. Wise coats, in about the shape of blades, as you get the sense of perhaps what his intentions may have been, as he watches you all.

But he's not proceeding once. He's standing back, and he's looking, like his morale has been shaking quite a bit, as they start to whisper amongst each other, as you all enter into the minds. and you begin to descend deeper and deeper. As the eerie quiet, you know what mines are like. You're used to the loud clanging and echoing through these tunnels.

As the occasional bit of dust and so falls down, dirt from the top of these tunnels, falls down a little bit. As all of the mine support seem to be somewhat precariously placed, and you see that there are tracks for mine carts going off down into this mind. You get further and further, and Mary, you arrive at a fork, and Mary knows exactly the way to go, which would have potentially been a dilemma.

You managed to avoid entirely as you... Yes. And then arrive at another fork. Both carts go and down, all of the amateurs would tell us to go to... left, the real secret is, are you paying attention, is to go right. And then she starts walking left, I mean, and she starts walking in the appropriate direction.

Oh dear, heaven's above we're going to die. You know, I really like her. I'm just going to say she's my kind of people. You need the way, Mary, you're the expert. And you get deeper and deeper, and the tunnel gets narrower and narrower. As the tunnel continues, and then finally you see it's dark. There are a few lanterns kind of hung up along with the side here, because you do need lighting, as Canary, Mary the Canary, guides you.

And you said it first, man. And eventually, you arrive at this chamber. You see a mine cart that is spilled over with iron ore, abandoned mining picks, as you see that all of the walls of this have seemed to have been systematically bored out and dug. However, you see rough

a rubble and stone and dirt that seems to give way into a cavern up ahead. And Mary looks at you with her mask and says, well, I can't see shit with this fucking thing on, but that's the bonanza.

So, my friend, I know that you've been uh... predisposed for a while but has anyone breached the uh... precipice and returned alive the ones that came back alive were screaming their guts out and they're tatt down to the cots

and the the the fricking docks tent fantastic well in that case then i will be the one very first one to volunteer grumbly to start Step first and go forward. I'm going to do it. I'm going to walk up and then I'm going to scream and run back and then you start laughing.

I'm kidding. Oh my God. So you're an agreement that Grammally should go first. I'm not afraid of a few bananas. That's not cool. You walk? You walk. You walk right in.

Like, well, I guess if we all die, then at least I can, I'll take off my mask and finally enjoy a drink and she puts it back. I can't believe I can't. Well, I value my life a little bit. And she follows you. Can't drink when you're dead.

That's the best fucking point I ever heard. And she like tightens her matters. As she joins you and walks forward and you step into this cavern. And as you walk forward, the space begins to open up. You see scrapes along the wall. You then see a dropped mining pick abandoned. A few pieces of coin. I can pick that up and put in my pack.

You managed to do that. You find some coin scattered. You then you see these rocks that seem to litter the floor of this cavern As the ceiling gets wider and wider, as you all look around and you step forward and nothing seems to be affecting you. You don't feel crazy. You haven't died yet. And then as you're going forward, and then you have a lantern. Mary's providing a lantern because why not?

And she's holding the lantern and you see a rock with something sloughed, slumped up against it, and you approach it, and it is a dead decomposing mire, a fox, that its eyes are wide with form, and his tongue is lolling off to the side. You know, I think that it saw something and not smelled something, but it could have been hallucinations from inhaling something. So that could be a... There could be grubble. There's something behind you! Yeah. Getting.

Do you smell anything weird? Can I sniff around? You can't smell anything because you got a mask. You've welcomed us to... Yeah. You're, you can try, right? I would say you don't need a rule for it, but you smell and it smells nothing.

It smells like the same set that you've been getting through the filtered mask. Well, we're not dead yet, which means it looks like Peggy's done what she needs to do. Yet again, I cannot stress this enough I turned to Mary. You do not know her ingenuity. She's done fantastically well.

Well, I'm not dead yet. And look, you can see around, and she cast a lantern around. And as you look around, the light catches on these massive veins and nodes of iron ore, everywhere you can see. And you realize that a lot of these rocks are just these massive nodes of iron.

As you are in, it is very clear. that this is an absurdly bountiful find. As you arrive and however you get closer and closer, and your vision starts to get a little bit clouded. As you step more and more forward, and as it's clouded, it's difficult to see. There's a strange color, and through the lantern light,

you can see that almost there's a strange, there's particles, there's mist, there's some sort of, is it ash? But it's the color of like, of a, of orange and red, almost like embers floating through. As you step forward into this orange cloud, as you step forward further and further, nothing happens. It seems that all of these particles that should be,

if he had breathed it in, might have an effect, are being filtered by this mask. Holy shit. As you make your way and eventually it gets, thicker and thicker and Mary looks around and well did any of you know what the fuck this is would you describe it as a

amazing yeah a little bit a little bit it is it is just this thick dense it's not unlike almost the spores that you see it's kind of it's similar it's almost like a rhyming challenge as you've as you are in this thick dense

cloud of particles of of miss of a cloud of something. As you set forward, you get closer and closer towards the back of this cave or further into the cave. And then you start to see through this orangey, reddish cloud, stone pillars rising up. And behind the pillars, great walls built a block stone rising up. higher and higher, disappearing into the climate. As you...

So it's so thick we can't even see the roof of the case. Exactly right. It's so thick, you can only see probably about 20 feet in front of you. As you see that there's the iron nodes and there's rubble along the structure. And you approach closer and closer. And you start to see... I want to take one of the big iron nodes and put it in my pack. Oh, the nodes are like these big rocks.

So there are many like big pieces? Because what I want to do is I want to take a big piece of like pure iron back just to hand it to smiles and be like, we made it out. This is what you can look forward to in there. It's kind of like proof that we made it all the way. I would say you see a little bit of this rock formation. And I do have a pick. And oh, yeah, so you have a peck.

I would say that is easy. You're able to easily shave. off that's incredibly thick piece about yea big. Put it in one of the pockets of my toolbouts like, you keep. Yeah, you do that. And so you place it in there and just know that you have iron. I know that you do. Yeah.

I made a little. Yes, it's very similar to the upside down. Thank you. I was trying to think there's something that I'm thinking of where this is similar to, and the upside down is similar to that. And you approach, and suddenly these stone walls, rising up, like a massive fortress. You've seen fortresses built by the Erie and by the Marquis-Eight, but this is of an

architecture that you have never seen before, and it's old and worn and crumbling. And then suddenly Mary's lantern light shines across a large symbol above an empty stone door. And you see a heart, the symbol of a heart that seems to be on fire blazing. And at the center is the head of a stag with a crown on top of its head. Wow. Where are we? Have you seen any phnomowness?

I've heard of fucking deer. Is this Are we about to get like Sacrifice to Horrible Dark Gods? All right, no, no. You know it's definitely possible, but I sure hope not. No matter what happens, Mary, we need your absolute secrecy. You cannot tell anyone outside of this cave

Anything that you've seen today. Do you understand? We're willing to pay you liquidly. What does that mean? With boots. Oh, yeah, yeah, no, I hope. Like liquid assets. Like booze.

Like the fermented kind, that'll get you all sorts of messed up. The point is you can't tell anyone about this. Yeah, all we can talk about is the iron. You can't tell them about this weird. You got to understand. We sent Mr. Y away for a reason. We couldn't risk him finding this.

Well, Irene. Who's Irene? I knew an Irene was. Oh, anyway. I mean, I had to tell you, I had to tell you, uh, cooker. Is that your name? You're like a chef? No, Booker.

Booker, got it. Like, like the book, but I don't read. I've never read a fucking book. Do I look like I read books? That is insulting my intelligence. Me and you, both, my friend. But I'm going to be honest with you. I'll take extra booze, but anything I say, I'm a drunk,

and they ain't going to believe me no matter what I say. That's fine. The less likely to believe you, better. We just need your word that you're going to be honest here and do what you can to not spread this around. It's important. I can't stress that enough. I can't easily be honest. You've been kind of a good day. I'm not risking my life for nothing here, all right? This is critically important that you don't tell anyone about this. Even though Gromley's tried roughly half a dozen times.

No, I mean, this is serious. People could die if you let this slip. Do you want to die? You could die. You could be one of the people that die. How are you going to keep drinking if you die? I don't want to fucking die. No, I don't. Well, I'm just saying that's why you should just never mention this.

Pretend that you aren't even here. You got a spruce. You just keep an eye out, but just after this is all over, you didn't see nothing. It's for your own safety and for Oz as well. Understood? I guess I don't fucking understand. Fair enough. as

she continues for you see the large stone door and there's darkness inside the lantern light

is being blocked by these orange as reddish particles that almost look like burning embers

but it's so dark in this in this cavern you can't see into it what do you do I guess

there's no such thing as Doc Vision in this game I will look at my good

Grumley. Grumley, my friend. Do you have any kind of a torch? I mean... Well, you have a lantern already going. Well, shit. You know what?

I will say that because of your raccoon that you'd be able to see... Can raccoons not see well? I don't know. I just don't like where this is going, my friend. My point is, I guess if the... Well, no, I'm going to leave it up with the GM here.

I apologize. I'll take a step back. He is technically not too. Continue. I would say a... A rack. Coon would have a superior dark vision. And so you can see further than anyone else, as even though it's through the fog,

you see that there is a faint, faint glow, a tiny point of almost a tiny little fire deep into the structure. Well, my friends, provided Mr. Y is not a result back, which would be the case. I'm going to leave the way Are you all right with that?

Grabble, me, Peggy. You're all over that? Yeah. I can't see nothing, so I'll just keep my nose out. Do you trust me? Of course, I do. Yeah, of course. We've survived this long.

We've been vagabonding around for like a year now. As far as I'm not dead yet. Now you just got to be careful. He's going to lead us through. That means a lot to me. All I ask is that whoever's behind me grab my hand, whoever's behind them grab their hand, so on and so forth.

we form a safety chain. All right, I'll be right behind you, all right? Fair enough. Grab your hand and then I'll reach my hand back out. So it'll be me than Grumley, then whoever wants to grab Grumley's hand. I'm already open. And then perhaps Hazel,

and then bringing up the rear will be merry. Are you all right with that? Is that an amenable? I'm fine with it, whatever you say. I'm, I'm here to serve as long as I give us some booze. I would like to head towards light. Okay.

And you didn't mention the light. I didn't. did not. And so I'm just going. Correct. So you all enter this structure. And this building seems to be the remains of some sort of, is it a fortress? Is it a temple?

As these huge stone walls all around you, it seems to be this large entrance hall. You see where doors would have been are all collapsed in with rubble. As you step forward, you see an arched door at the very back. as you get closer and closer. And at this point, when you're into this room, as you see that there are any kind of wood, or you see tiny fragments of wood, of cloth, of metal, scattered about, but it's all so decayed and ruined.

You can't make sense of what it was. Whatever this is feels impossibly old. As you continue, you then see an arched doorwork. way up ahead. And that's when you all see that faint glowing light into a chamber directly ahead. There is, friend. There it is. That's what I saw. And that's where we're headed. Well, how would there be a fire in here? Let's just reserve judgment until we get closer. Is that all right, Grumman? And we're just people here.

You're not necessarily. You know, volcanoes have molten lava, magma, depending on where it is. on the outside of the inside and not a single person has to be there to make flames. There could be gases coming out of the rock bed that could have somehow ignited based on heat. And not a single Maya has made it this deep. Yeah. Maybe some dead and they've been surviving on your side of this cavern. And if that's the case, we'll get them out safely. But everyone be on your guard.

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Thank you. You were talking to each other, though, Brinsley. Oh, yes, you were talking. We were saying, what were we saying? I was saying, no, I was telling Grumley that, uh, we were all telling Grumley. You and I were convincing Grumley that there may be people, there may not be people. Either way, if they need saving, we will. Regardless, we don't know if it's people and be on your God and he drew the sword and we proceeded.

That's right. I drew my sword, though. I got it, I got it holding on to it. Okay. And it's ready to go. You step forward as you get closer and closer to this arched doorway. And you see now there's a flickering flame clearly as you approach further and further. And this little light is glinting around metal now, you can see.

But no more than that. And suddenly as you step in, you're fully submerged as the thickness. of this strange particles. It gets more and more intense. As the light casts all around you, through the particles, you then start to, you see it a massive looming shape

directly in front of you. And you almost rear back and you see that it is a statue. As you see directly ahead of you, the flame, you see the locus of the flame. It is a tiny little flame flickering. It looks to be a large amulet. It's in the shape of a heart.

And it is around, a large golden chain is extending up, hanging around the neck of a stone statue. What seems to be a stack. Huge amplers. In heavy armor, with this large amulet around his neck, you see a crown in the statue, standing tall, a stoic-looking stagg, extending an arm holding a sword that seems to be almost a light with the flames rising up in the statue. How many of us were better question? Have I seen a deer or a stack before? None of you have seen a deer.

Okay. That's what I was kind of learned the impression. So you, none of you had seen a deer, you know what the descriptions would be. You would know the lore, you know that they are out. You know that they're antlers and they're out. You know that they're antlers and they're lounks out. This is the first time that you've seen anything like this. And then you see on in one hand and the other is holding a large banner that has the same symbol carved into it.

as you see at the center of this, it's all statue except for this flaming medallion. And you see that the, that as you get closer in this amlet and the heart, there seems to be a little, almost like a little cap of where the center of this hole is. Where you may be able to close it. And as you get closer, you see that there are, you like, you light, flickers through as you enter and you start to see that there are murals on the wall. But at the center of the room as you're standing before this huge statue, it's hard to tell in this large circular chamber. What do you do? This is, this is it. This is one of those relics that the animal god was talking about.

I don't like where this is going at all. Yeah, I think I'm going to just go close that thing because it's letting out some vapids and I'm just going to go close it. you walk up and as it is... Hey, no! It is... No, it is hanging up,

but you'd easily be able to jump or, like, have your tongue. Yeah, I'll jump up and do it. Because I don't know what it's made of it. It might poison me. And you, you leap up and you, with your tongue, it shoots out.

Well, no, because I've got my mask. I'm just leaping up and... leave up and you're smacking it. And this thing closes this incredible heat as you smack it shut. And suddenly an incredible burst of heat burst out of

almost shattering the silence of the room and it's so hot. Peggy, you take one exhaustion as this blast of heat and light illuminates the room as it blasts through all of these embers. first, and then an immediate silence. And then, suddenly, you start to feel a rush behind you.

As you see, all of these orange embery particles rush past you all into this heart-shaped medallion, as it all rushes in, flying in as even though this thing is closed, it's glowing with this orange embering light. As it only takes 10 seconds, as the room filled with orange, you can barely see as all this mist and these particles all coalesce and shoot into this medallion and it rattles. And suddenly, this fog, this mist, these vapors that have been around you, the tomb, it's all clear. However, the heart itself now is glowing. It's not just the little cap.

The whole heart is glowing red and orange. So that's the fire we were seeing was. was the animal. There's a flame inside the end. But now the maizma has been essentially removed. Yep. From what we understand. Yep.

You know, that hurt a lot a little bit. Are you all right? I just feel really tight. That was a long jump, you know? My little, my little, my little legs are feeling swore. You got to be careful when we're dealing with things like this. And I don't know what that. What the hell that was?

Was that magic? I've never seen anything like that. I don't know how to explain it. I couldn't find any like I couldn't find the battery or anything on there. I found no wires. It didn't look at all. Like there was anything that might be causing the problem. So the real question is when do we convince Hazel to go out there and grab this thing?

I don't know. Probably sometime next week. Fuck! You keep saying we're going to figure it out in the week. Tushe, my friend. Tusha. Does it sound like? like we can remove it.

I don't think so. I don't know why you could take it out. Does it look like with how it's built, like we can take it off? With how it's built, it looks like you would, there are,

it looks like the antlers go up. You're not really sure how the chain is pretty long, though, it's hanging low. As you see this stag, wearing armor, holding a banner, a sword, is standing,

there and but and you can the chain is long and wide you're not sure if it's going to get over the antlers all right grambly you're pretty tall do you want me to see if there's any kind of clasp on the back if you could calm up there and take a look i mean i don't want to do it but i want to get out of here as quickly as possible well hopefully you don't get tired like she does so don't don't help yourself climbing up there i'll do what i can grumly give me a boost and i'd like to be boosted up the back of the stash you to see right kind of clasp on the necklace so uh you uh You are easily able to boost with your raccoon abilities, you're able to skitter up there. And you are, you find that there is a small clasp, but it is fastened securely.

Fast and secure. Can you describe a little bit more how it's fastened securely? So you see a clasp and there is a, it seems like there's one end is like a ring, and the other is seems like a two-pronged hook, and it's basically a, it's basically a, one has like two little problems. So there's not lots, it's not, there's no lever. Yeah, it's, it's, it looks like there might be some kind of hinge to open it. But it looks like it might be a little tough. You can get it down?

Uh, uh, uh, groundly, I'm gonna be honest with you, my friend. Uh, it appears like there might be a place where we could, uh, take this apart, but this is suddenly not my expertise. Well, what do you know? Peggy? Here she comes. We need your expertise. Um, nah.

What do you need you? And standing at top Brony's shoulders, I yelled down to her of what I'm looking at. And do you think maybe we might boost you up and you need to take a look at it yourself? Can I, Boor-Raecker? This is not my area of expertise. Yeah, sure, and I'm just going to jump. Okay, you leap up and you're easily able to join him. You're on the shoulders of this large, uh, slur staff.

Tell her what I saw because I was describing it. Yeah, there's a large, a clasp around, uh, this, um, medallion, and it seems to be securely found. It doesn't appear to be locked. It's just stuck, and I don't want to mess with it. Okay, so what do you want me to do with it? Get the old necklace off the old neck here, if you know what I'm saying. So you want to break this class? No, don't break it. It could be a very powerful thing.

I was hoping that maybe you could use a little finesse like you do with your big brain and figure it out. Or you could, maybe do you have any grease on you to like grease it up? Brumley, that's a fantastic idea. You have whatever you need if you're willing to take it decay. I think I have some cooking fat that I used earlier if you want to try that. And I would like to take some like taps, I don't know, some kind of like cooking fat, butter or whatever, like fat, like animal fat, and I want to pass it up to Peggy. And I'll mark it decay for that. Okay.

All this is gonna make, all this is gonna do is make my hands all slippery. Just try to grease it up. up so it comes apart easy without breaking it. So you want me to try and take the necklace off of this thing? Well, I think if what we say... Does it look like the necklace is like formed into the statue? Does it look like it could be removed? It could be removed.

It is hanging, but there is kind of the strain below. I don't want to bring the clasp. I didn't want to just try to smash it, which is why I was, you know, describing the whole thing to you, I guess. And remember what Jericho said is that there were four, very powerful artifacts and often this is probably the one in this here ruin.

Okay, now I'll try. I'm going to try to tinker with the mechanism and see if I can remove it from I'm going to use my you have a move for that. Oh, you do? I'm going to use

my eccentric tool belt and my tinkers tools to attempt to, I guess I just attempt roguish feats. Yep. And I don't have nimble mind, so I would roll with finesse. Okay, you didn't level up last time, right?

So if you want to take down... I mean, all it does is let me use cunning instead of finesse, but I'm plus two on both of them, so it doesn't matter. Oh, shit. So you can attempt roguish feats. Oh, shit. Does anybody want to help me at all? Because I just...

I got a seven. I guess that's better now. Yeah, because even we both help, he doesn't get too ten. No, yeah. I got a seven, so I attempt the roguish sneakers. I mean, that's a, that's a, that's a, that's a partial sotid for sure. Um, so I'm going to leave evidence of my roguerie behind, so it'll be easy to see that, like, my tools have took something from this, if someone were to look. And I'm going to mark a decay.

Okay. So, uh, as, uh, you do this, you take out, uh, one of your tools, as you're, uh, attempting to, uh, you do this. One of your little tool businesses, I don't know what the name. I don't know like screwdrivers. A screw, yeah. Spanner. Dang it. I was trying to think of Spanner. Spanner, uh, what is that? And it breaks and you know, you have plenty of those, but it does.

It's like a wrench or something. No, seriously. Yeah, what is that? I've never heard that before. It's like kind of a wrench business. I don't know. It's in a warcraft all the time. No, no, I love that. And, uh, is one of it breaks and costing you the difference. From my frogish army knife. Yeah, your frogish army knife. Exactly right. As soon as the clasp is undone, it's seemingly unfastens, and it's open, despite that. And you do manage to spill out a,

it's very clear, there's a loud echoing as you undo this clasp. Okay? It's unclasped, it's still around the neck. Now I'm going to just pull it off from the neck. If I have to climb up on it and like scramble up over him and do whatever I have to do it. We don't pull it off anymore now because it's unclasped, right? So we can get it around his neck.

Yeah. That's why I just want to get it off of its neck. Okay. So you manage to do that and you let it down and Grumley's able to grab it. And as you grab it Grumley, there's a heat coming from this, from this amulet. As it drops down, it's not hot enough to cause injury or to, to burn, but it is absolutely radiating with this strange fire. And the amulet is this, you get a better look at it.

It's gold and this strange red gem as it forms a heart. And the center is that heart of the fiery core of the center of this thing. It's glowing orange. And it seems to also have kind of a strange flame design on top of it. And it lands in your hands. You hear the jingling. quiet. Gosh, I think I think magic is real.

No, you've been drinking. You've been drinking, but I'm not. Now, look at this. This shouldn't be a real thing, and I like hold the amulet up. It's like, is it huge? It's like, it's like, it's yay big to like up. Oh, yeah. So it would be like it's big if I'm not going to put it on, but it'd be like that thing. Yeah.

This is called like a glowing flame in it. And I kind of like grab the amulet itself to see if it's hot. You grab it and it is very, very warm. It is hot. enough really it was a little bit hotter it might burn your paws but it's one of those things where it's on a

really hot day and you're like pressing your hand against like a metal bench or something It's not like touching a hot stone. Exactly right, exactly right. So what do we so hold on so can you reset the scene of exactly where we are and what like the whole surrounding area looks like? Okay so you are on a circular

chamber stone of this almost looks like a temple if you know what a temple is as at the center is this large statue of the stoic dear king. And you remember Jericho mentioning the blazing the blazing heart. Right. The king of the blazing heart.

As now Booker and Peggy are on top of this statue on either shoulder after dropping down the amulet to you and you have Mary and

Hazel next to you. As you look around and you sort of see that there are murals. they're finally flicks of color through the, that the mist is gone. Right, because we can now see up to the roof. You can now see up to the roof, and there's a dome ceiling with a flame pattern on the top.

You just see that there is a mosaic, a mural pattern all the way across, but it's difficult to make out exactly what it is. And, yeah, that's the scene. But we, either you're boosting both of us, so you're boosting me and I'm boosting her. And she's on. You're a frog and a raccoon, so I think the idea is that you just jumped up on there.

And then I boosted you up, but then you could skitter all the way up, or I don't need to be hitting you. Okay. You're like, it's like when you were in Mayo's roof and destroying and shitting all over the place. It's kind of like that. She's not here anymore. I guess to tell you that. Or one of my serious if you can tell you that story. Um

So What do we do with this? Do we put it on? No, no, no Are you crazy? Well, I don't know. It looks really powerful. Well, all we need to do is make sure that it's safe.

Maybe wrap it up in some cloth. I'm willing to volunteer what I've got and keep it safe and we tell no one. Correct? Understood. Nobody could know, but I... Understood. Man, of course, understood.

Do we want to take a look at those things that they are those mural things? I suppose one of us might be able to get a closer look. Again, we might need to use your expertly tall shoulders, but show. Well, I guess as far as, like, what would make the most sense of between the four of us, like, getting up there? I mean, I can't imagine we'd be able to climb a triple wall, right? if it's like stone. Right. Well, yeah.

You might be able to, like, I think that once you just go to the sides of the room, you can hold the lantern and look up, but usually the center of the room and it's still high. I don't know how to hold. It's pretty high up, but you be able to see. I'm going to take some ore and spider silk, which is super sticky,

and create like a climbing wall so we can climb up and check it. Yeah. Yeah, you do that. And so you managed to have a climbing wall, and you look up and you start to see and you take some time to do this and Mary's helping like a little bit

Yeah just putting these little things and you see an initial mural you see a woodland huge trees and through the trees

you see shapes massive spiders centipedes beetles lawns pure savagery you see

creatures with vicious evil faces but seemingly made out of trees themselves. You see, and you see creatures made entirely of just bone, but walking the earth, groaning faces. And then in the next scene, you see a blazing path of fire through this forest, scorching, scorching, All of these creatures now cowering. And the source of this, a proud, regal-looking stagg, holding a flaming sword crown atop the head and with an amulet around the neck and holding a banner. And then in the next scene you see, and this is, so that was on one side and then in the center, is the third final scene

is rows of structures stone buildings all throughout the forest and rows and rows and rows of deer stags and doze and at the very center

you see this tank holding the sword up and the banner and you realize that as you get to the center you notice that there an extra bit of care put onto four of these objects.

The medallion around the neck, the crown atop his head, the sword in one hand, and then the banner in the other. As you see that there are now within this forest, there are, there are, four cities that have been populated by deer. And they all seem to be raising up their hands as a strange, It looks like a fire, but is it a glow? You don't even know what magic is. And they're all raising their hooves.

And you see all of the creatures and the beasts of the forest all on the outskirts pushed away. That's what you say. Well, this is certainly nothing like anything I've ever seen in my entire life. What's all this saying then? Did he, like, oh, were there a bunch of beasties? I mean, in the woods until this guy came along? He appears to be some kind of sage. or at least some sort of hero.

Maybe he is what made the dimwood safe to populate, to live in? I was under the impression of the year it did this many, many years ago. But I suppose that's just what we've heard from word of mouth. I've heard that as well. Huh. Well, maybe I've never seen a deer before. I mean, I've only ever thought that they were just in our tales of yore. Legend

Well By the way It looks like we've got One of the four things That Jericho was talking about Do we just Wrap it up We absolutely

We hate it and we tell no one Well shouldn't one of us try to put it on Absolutely not See if we get great strength Are you kidding me You must be kidding Well No I'm just saying it could be very useful

Why did you not Even begin to win the things that we walked through that presumably might outright kill us and then this this amulet contained it no no thank you my friend that's a good point but who should carry it should I carry it I think so you know you've already got in your hand you wrap it up you keep it very very close to your chest because no one's got a big a heart than grumly figuratively and literally I'm great And you tell no one.

You understand. We do not speak of this again. No, I definitely won't mention this at all. All ruins to anybody. With any, with just a little bit of luck, that amulet is just a piece of jewelry and will be all right. And all of this won't be anything other than nothing. All right. All right.

But if, God forbid, this thing is something greater. You all might be in a little bit of trouble here. I think you're right. well I'll wrap it up and I'll put it sort of like in my armor basically in the in the front pouch of my well I guess it's huge though right it's like this big yeah so I'm gonna wrap it up and I'm going to put it at the very bottom of my like main pack got so that's very safe and secure basically the safest part of my of all of my

bags and stuff sounds good um uh I don't I turn around to Mary and I say, All right, I think that's what we need it. Should we just take a look around, make sure we didn't miss anything and head out? Agreed. Let's get

out of here immediately. Understood. All right. Let's go. And you all leave. And as you begin to make your way, leaving this essential chamber before behind,

As soon as you grumble, step across the threshold out of this chamber into the larger building, you hear loud rumbling and grinding of stone as you look behind you for just a moment and you start to see this head of this statue move as it looks in your direction, and the sword, the arm starts to move, and then all of a sudden it crumbles and falls. And then you feel rumbling all around you as dust and silk starts to fall as a stone slams down. And it feels like the structural integrity of this building is starting to collapse. We're going to go right now. Mary, take us out of here immediately.

I want to just remember the way back. I want to use crash and smash. Okay. Where when you smash your way through scenery to meet someone or something, well, with might. Um, and so the idea is I just want to basically smash through everything. So there's a clear path behind me. So they aren't slowed down by like big rocks or iron or whatever. Is that a roll?

Yeah. So I need a roll and easily see what happens to do that. Pretty fucking good. Uh, that's a 13. A 13. Yeah. Okay. So I have to choose one on a 10 plus.

Yes. Um, so I can either hurt myself. I can break an important part of the structures around me or I can damage or leave piece of gear behind. I think I'm just going to break important parts of the mind. Yeah. As you do this, you're all running out as you're sprinting following Grumley as these massive stone bricks are collapsing in front of you. But Grumley just bashes them out of the way and smashes them as you get a direct path. to the entrance.

As you managed to Albury, thanks to Grumley's help, all the obstacles have been clear, and you hear the loud rumbling as, there's three massive blocks and collapsed through the door. And it almost was like you're totally trapped in. This pile of stones has emerged, and Grumbley just smashes through, said the stones are flying everywhere.

And then with one final rumbling, a second after you stumble out, this structure collapses into its, and then it starts to kind of shake and start dissolving, almost into just like gravel. You're out of the mine. You're out of the building. Well, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, back into the big room with all the iron. And you look around.

Yeah, okay. You're in, you're in, and you see all of the iron all over you. The, the orange fog is gone. As, uh, you look around and you start to see all of just this massive cavern full of iron ore. Well, uh, you know, Levi's smiles are going to be very happy about this, but... I can't help thinking, while we've achieved our secret goal, that he's just gonna walk away, live in large. I don't like it. I don't like it one bit. Well, at least he won't kill the miners, and we...

Save them from being killed or gone crazy. Well, he agreed, I suppose. But... Let me ask Peggy. I mean, you don't think he's going to be honest to his word, do you? You know, all I can do is hope. Chouche. Chouche. Well, I think no matter what we do, we did a good thing here today, and hopefully we

saved some lives. And he said he would pay us for clearing out the mine, and now he can mine it. If he keeps his word, I suppose it'll be all right. Right, well. Mary, would you like to lead us at... I want to like look behind and all the rubble and just see if I can get any sense of, you know, what the intention of this might have been or like the stone or whatever. You get the sense that this may have been some kind of like massive church. Like you've seen churches made out of like wood and the like and maybe the occasional like a large stone church back in the large cities probably, cathedrals and the like.

You get the sense that this would be what you would imagine an ancient, ancient, ancient folk to worship it. Got it. Um, well, uh, leaded away and do we, do we think we should... I don't know. Should we... What do we do with all these bodies? Nothing. It's unfortunately not our responsibility. All right. We get out of here with our lives.

We report back to Mr. Alabaster, and we hopefully move on from here without any being any too much bloodshed. Agreed. Well... Let's go. And as you all make your way, Mary guides you effortlessly through this mine. And as you arrive out, you've spent a long time navigating as the sun is setting.

And as you're making your way, you see the whole, clearing ahead of you, the whole town, as a number of Skinkertons aren't either sign of this mine entrance. And you look up ahead and you see that... Is there any chance we see Skevill, the Weevil, anywhere around? Mr. Y? Yeah. I will say he's a skevill. Because I would like to try to find him before we find anybody else. I will say that you don't see him around immediately,

as soon as you leave. As the Sinkertins look at you and immediately flank you and start walking you towards the large central building where you can first see in smiles. This is in the cops up. Yeah, this is right outside. And you don't see Mr. Y anywhere. anywhere. And you, as you're being guided by them, they're kind of looking around like,

like almost like with some trepidation. And you see up ahead that, that the large gray cat, Levi Smiles, is, is standing there with a large glass of maybe four fingers of whiskey for it and he is beaming down at you and you get in about in your shop as he looks down at you

and he says well you're out alive I hope you have made my mind finally usable to advance my inch as you see a flash of fur

as you see Mr. Y behind him with a knife in his back, and you see Smiles spits up blood and tumbles forward off of the railing, landing hard onto the ground in front of you. And that's rolling the session. What? Shit.

Let's see. Oh, my God. That's why you subverted my expectations, Mike. You are a true Ryan Jones. All right, well, fuck. I got nothing. to say, I guess. Thank you so much for listening to the Legends of Aventrys podcast.

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