Not Another D&D Podcast - Eldermourne - Ep. 27: Broken Bonds

Episode Date: July 2, 2021

The Third Mates confront Stella Vervain and uncover a conspiracy in West Precinct. Hank defends his son's honor, Fia sticks it to the Reaper, and Zirk stands up to his mom. Support us at Patreon.com/Naddpod to get access to the after-show and a bunch of other Naddpod content!Music / Sound Effects Include:"Sci-fi Laboratory" by Qubodup at Freesound.org."A Wizard's Tournament" by Emily Axford."The Pact" by Emily Axford."The Purge" by Emily Axford."Spooky Shafts" by Emily Axford."Alone" by Emily Axford."Cursed" by Emily Axford."Demi-God" by Emily Axford."The Valiant Ol' Cobb" by Emily Axford."Young Love" by Emily Axford."Gunvar" by Emily Axford."All I Need is One Thread to Spin a Web" by Emily Axford."Montgomery Manor" by Emily Axford.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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with brush processing. Code P-A-W-P-A-W. Goodbye, Sweeties. Welcome to the campaign after the campaign after the campaign. This is not another D&D podcast. Welcome back to Eldermore and Everybody. Eldermore and everybody! Eldermore! Eldermore! I'm your Dungeon Master Brian Murphy joined by Jake Herwits.

The relationship with my son has gone south because I put both feet in my mouth. You did it, Kati! Okay, this is, we need to tell them behind the scenes. We literally... No, no, no, no, tell them. Recorded the intro. Is it embarrassing story for literally, both of them are thinking. No, that's all they're thinking. Recorded the intro. Is it embarrassing story for me and Paz. Recorded the intro.

Murf added out Jake protesting. Okay. I am a small silence. He's been silenced. Oh, he's been in this rules. We were recording the intro and Caldwell realize that he had been recording. So we had to re-record it,

but in the original recording, Jake fucked up his rhyme and he said, oh good, now I can get my rhyme, right? No, but he's mad at me anymore. It's so good. Maybe I'll splice in the recording of Jake fucking up the first time. Let's go ahead.

We're gonna go ahead and cut to Jake's first intro. Okay, let's make that. Let's make that. Oh fuck, go ahead and cut to Jake's first intro. Okay, let's make that footage. My hell fuck. A relationship with my son has gone south because I put both feet in my mouth. I forgot it for a second. Yeah, good, good, I'm your called well. This is unfair.

Cold well's huge fuck up. It's just shining a light on mine. That's not Jake. That's true. That's true. That's true. Hey, turn off your recording so that I get another shot at it. And I obliged it. This is your dad for getting to pick you up and then you get mugged.

This is called those mistakes and then you are really, really suffering for it. Then of course we've got Emily Axford. Live in the dream and looking like Liam. Feel Boginia. Emily, it's even better the second time here in it. Thank you. I do live it up different time. It's so good.

Actually, if I don't do go ahead and use whichever one I better. OK, two for two. Two for two. Can I say my live in La Vida, Liam, joke again? Because I thought that was fun from the first intro. Sure. You know, as memorable as it was, I completely forgot it. And of course called old Tanner oh

Stella Vervein special little guy who's getting swept up don't fuck up. We don't look a lot Surveille yeehaw Wallace dismount all the judges love it swing that about about about about a wow 2 to attitudes and one zero attitude It's he think there's any deviation there, but, wow. Who's a little bit really good at two out of two? He didn't record. Jake, you could just turn off your zoom right now

and then we'd have to start recording again. I need another shot. This intro's way better than the other one, guys. I'm just saying, this is good. Maybe we should fuck up the show every day. I honestly was barely paying attention. And then when Jake messed up again, I could not stop laughing.

Why were you barely paying attention? I was looking at my spells. OK, all right. All right. He's got a lot of spells. She's got a lot of spells. I have to remember what I can do. All right, guys, let's go ahead and get into the recap.

Last time you guys began at the dinner party for Carlisle Locnamore's fundraiser for his run for Chancellor of Outerboro. Hank snuck off and managed to get access to his office and uncovered more information about Carlisle's motivations. There was information on political rivals, as well as several suspicious newspaper articles about the horror attacks in Outerboro and the bloated defense funds resulting from it. You all came together and shared your findings before Zirk went off to join his mom at the lab.

She revealed to him that they had isolated the sound wave of the mysterious Reaper Bell and were able to recreate it in a device called the Necrophone, which was being kept in the secret office of her laboratory. Meanwhile, Fia, Hank, and Tab noticed a fire in the town square and ran off to investigate. There, they encountered the West precinct horror hunters, including Quick Blast Cass Calloway, and more importantly, Hank Jr. as they were fighting off to Borers. Hank was narrowly able to stop one of the boars from goring his son, but fell short of reconciling with him when his son turned down his proposition of working together and walked off.

While quick blast, addressed the local citizens and spread a story about the West precinct horror hunter's bravery, Fiya and Hank spoke with Patilda about how the horror attack seemed premeditated. You headed to the lab to confront Stella and snuck in, but watched as she and Zirk walked into the secret room in the middle of the lab, and that's where we are now. Huh. So, yes it is. We will start with Henry and Fia. I ended last episode narrating that the door had closed behind them, but theoretically you guys would have a split second to act. So if you guys had any way of getting in undetected in a single turn,

I will say that you're within like 30 feet. You guys are at Liam's station. Your trust is Liam. You don't know if Liam has credentials to get into this like super secret laboratory. You would assume not. Okay. If you're going to give it, if you're going to give it, if you're going to say the door is cracked open, I'm going to look to Mr. Henry and say,

I think you have your own ways of doing this. I'm gonna grab Spoonie from him. Hey! And then Missy step into there, Aslium. Okay, I'll say Hank, are you gonna wait and see how this goes or are you able to follow in some way? Yeah, no, I'm not gonna wait. She stole my spoon. I summon shank just behind the door and I swap places with shank. Go ahead and are you trying to hide or anything?

Yes. If I can see just beyond the secret door, I want to summon Shank beyond, like beyond the like sight of somebody in the lab. Okay. Okay. I can just bypass like walking through the door. I would like to miss this step like behind some sort of like counter or something because the Liam thing is like the second line of the- Got it. Okay guys go ahead and give me perception checks and that will determine how easy your stealth checks are. Okay. Nice. Nice. That's a three on my perception. A three. That's going to be a 16 for me. A 16 for you.

Okay, go ahead and give me a self check. Okay. Nine. Nine. Okay, my stealth is going to be six. Hmm. So, so we're making a ruckus wrestling for the spruin' probably.

Mr. Henry, I have a plan, okay? You have something that belongs to me. So, Zirk, you and your mom walk into the secret office in the middle of the lab, door closes behind you and you immediately see Henry and Liam, like starting to duck behind a test tube and you see Stella Yelts out and goes, Henry, what the fuck are you doing in here? I've been hanging out with Liam. Yeah, these guys, these are crack-up, he really is. I slap Liam's back.

Zirk believes this, Zirk Hunter believes this is happening. You see Stella walks over and goes, Liam, you have clearance to be in here? Absolutely, Mrs. Stella. I'm just gonna say Stella. What the fuck? Yeah, go ahead and give me a deception check. I'll say with advantage because it's alter self

so it's a spell and you're not just completely faking it. But it is, you could tell she's like kind of freaked out that Liam's in here. Well, I'm gonna tell you I got a net one and a five, so that's gonna be four. With advantage, that's a four. You see, she leans in, and she looks at you really closely. I stink of cigar smoke.

It's just in the hole, no. It's a cigar smoke. How to trace a fish. She sniffs and she goes, all right, you're good. You don't got all the trinkets that I got, but you're good at magic this girl. She's good. She's fucking good.

I drop this spell and I say, I just wanted to play with the best of them, huh? And I do a playful album. Fiya, Henry, what are you all doing here? Well, we came to see what the hell's going on in this lab, Zirk. Well, yes, Mr. Zirk, there was a fire outside. There was a fire, and we think that maybe Stella, your employee, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,. I got a 23. Okay. Yeah, no one wants to hear about my 12, right? I'm ready.

Yeah. Fiya and Zirk, you see she's pretty good at keeping up a good face, but you can tell she kind of recognizes what's going on. She looks like worried for like a split second, but she's like smiling and nodding her head, and she goes, all right. Yeah, I don't know, that sounds fucked up.

Look, quick blast, she's good people, all right? I'm sure, look, what was going on? There was a fire, did you see her set the fire? Is it possible that she was just near a fire? I kind of like look between Fiya and Stella, and then at Henry, just for good measure, I guess. Hey, and then I kind just for good measure I guess. And then I kind of start like pacing the room a little bit

and I say, wow, there's a lot of crazy stuff going on in this town. And now that we're all here, I think you owe us a full unadulterated explanation. And as I'm pacing, I want to step towards the door and try and cast arcane lock on it. Okay, yeah, go ahead and give me a slight of hand check.

I don't think I've ever used a slight of hand, but I have plus eight to it. Oh shit, okay. Shout out to the two crew, that's a 10 total. Okay, Zerke, you wave your hand over the door. There's a magical lock that appears for a split second over the door. There's like a little sound as it settles and you see Stella looks up and she looks at you

and she goes, so that's how it is zirky and ambush. Isn't it an ambush? This is just for people in a room talking things out, okay? We deserve to know what is going on here, okay? And I want to trust you, but God, it's so hard and you know what? I should really know better. I should really know better But I want to trust you And Turkey, I wanted to trust you and now to your fucking friends are in here and you locked the door behind me

Anything you can say to me you can say to them Nobody else is getting in here until we figure this all out, okay? Alright, alright. Everybody fucking relax. We're doing science experiments. There's just a lot of shit we gotta learn, okay? You ever see a fucking horror before? There's horrors in here. Ah, I don't know, fucking skeletons. Okay, hey, that's cool.

So you're making them. Where are they going? Where are you sending? They're going. I'm not sending them anywhere. You see she gestures around and you guys see This is an impressive fucking room. So like you guys have been in this little like argument with the four of you You guys see that this room is set up almost like a small stadium or Coliseum up almost like a small stadium or Coliseum. Wow, these big and high. No, no, no, no, no, it's small, small, small. I mean, it's just like descending rows, descending rows.

So there's like a puppy bull stadium. Yeah, like a puppy bull stadium. Bigger than that. Somewhere between a puppy bull stadium and a full dog bull stadium. Full dog bull stadium. I think Jake's got the way of it. There you go.

You see, there are four levels of descending rows that lead to a device in the middle of the room. You see, along the descending rows are huge test tubes that are definitely big enough to hold large creatures, but you can't see inside them. They are protected by metal reinforcement. These big metal grates, like ones that you would pull down to protect a building when you're closing up for the night.

They look like reinforced. Between each of the descending rows, there's like a small purple force field. And when you look at the bottom, you can see the device itself. It looks like a high-tech phonograph with buttons and a crank on the side. You see there's a horn coming out of it that looks like a force field of magic. It has this metal frame of actual machinery, but the material of the actual horn looks like a sustained spell and you see Stella backs up she starts walking down the stairs towards the device and she goes all right look this is the necrophone we've been able to recreate the sounds of the bell to awaken horrors There are horrors and all these tubes behind the reinforced metal. They ain't get now. Have you made any borders?

Borders Borers, borers, ah, I don't know there might be we make all kind of animals a weird shit. Go ahead and give me an insight check 15 she's lying Okay Shit, go ahead and give me an insight check 15 She's lying Okay Um... I know that you made a border I know that you know you made a border And I am starting to suspect that you know that a border attacked the newspaper place tonight

That's terrible Was anyone injured? My son was almost He was moments away from being a fucking niallated. What's you? You. Okay, okay, and that's a tragedy. A very avoidable tragedy it looks like. Okay. Let's...

level with each other here. Alright. Finally. That's what we're here to do. I feel like there are some accusations flying around I'm sorry that Something almost happened to your kid But this is a very controlled thing we got going on in here

All right Nobody's supposed to get hurt Locked no more wants this. Okay. This is a lock no more idea, not a me idea. Scared people open up their wallets, all right? He wants power. Okay, but the idea is man is not you are the execution of the idea and so therefore your culpability is important in this equation. Yeah, and you don't know what happens after he has the power, right? You're helping him get the power. What kind of what kind of petty king is he gonna be? Oh, but it that what happens after that what happens after that is he I'm a made woman he opens up a million opportunities government contracts weapons transportation

Cures for diseases everything for feigned industries and you don't care who gets killed in the process It's people like my boy. He's funny. Is he dead? Thank God. Thank God. He's not Can I look at this? Can I see this? People like my boy. Is he dead? Thank god, thank god he's not. Look. Can I look at this? Can I see this necrophone? You can see. This is one machine controlling everything. It is one machine in the middle of the room.

I'm going to try to cast suggestion on Stella. OK. And tell her to disassemble the necrophone. OK. So she has to do a wisdom save. I don't know what her wisdom is. She got a five. Oh, whoa.

For the next eight hours, she will disassemble. She begins like not even, just like unconsciously going over and just messing with it, just starts like taking off the disassembling, the metal frame around the horn, going and started to like open up the motor and things like that, as she continues talking to you. She's like absent-mindedly. It's almost like she's tinkering,

but she's talking and she goes, look, hey, Hank, nothing was supposed to happen to your boy. That's locked no more, putting him in the line of danger. And that's quick blast. Quick blast is supposed to protect them. That's all thing. She's my best person, alright? When will it be enough?

When- when will what be enough? When will it be enough for you, Ma? When? Will you be satisfied with what you have? Don't you see? More and more people are gonna get hurt. You have to find a line. I've said this for years. I don't know why I can't keep

learning this lesson. I've learned so much but every time I talk to you I forget. There's no saving you. You'll never find the line. I'm done. Uh, Sir, slams a table and then walks over and just starts helping or disassemble the machine. Can I throw it to a slight of hand like a couple, like any components that look like, oh, this is an important element, and I would like to take it. Yeah, you see, Zerko's over, starts tinkering with it. You see, she has her head down and she goes, Sarah, come on, you don't mean that, you're not done, you know, how it is, it's got, you're up one day, you're down the next, you gotta get up up up

or else you're gonna fall down, down, down, down. Alright, I gotta be two steps ahead for when I fall a step back, you know what I'm saying? No. Ma, no. Since I left, I've seen that there's another way. There's multiple ways. That's what science and tinkering and knowledge are all about is finding alternate ways to do things, to make things better.

You're stuck. I've spent so much time trying to fix things and and you're the one thing that's always broken, and I just can't anymore. There's other people that need me, okay? So we're gonna take these components, and we're gonna wait until the toiletium is ready, and then I think it's goodbye for real, okay? She just kind of nods,

and doesn't have anything to say back. She just keeps her, she goes to kind of respond and then kind of thinks better of it. Fiya and Zirk, as you guys both kind of look in this machine to see if there's anything special about these particular parts, both of you guys go ahead and give me insight or investigation checks.

15. 24. Okay. Thanks. You guys look inside the machine and I'll say FIA gets a better look at it and Zirk probably has a little bit more experience looking in like these machines. So you're kind of able to quickly like find the important parts but you're kind of like maybe a little absent-mindedly taking things out.

And Fiya, you look inside the machine and you see that several parts, the like amplifier in particular, look to be different than some of the other parts, just kind of not as high of quality. And you being kind of inherently magical, you sense that a lot of the parts in here are enchanted by powerful, expensive magics, but these parts seem to be more generic. What does generic mean to fear? Yeah, you look at this and you're kind of like, why is this machine bunk or what is up with these pieces?

Something seems wrong. And you see, Stella's just absent-mindedly going through it, so she doesn't really notice it. Um, can I hold up one of the generic pieces to her and say, uh, where does you find this? You see, she goes, oh, oh, these things were so fucking expensive. We had to send these off to be, um, you see, she looks at it and she goes, what the fuck? No, this isn't the fucking amplifier. This is, you see, she like grabs a different piece from Yuzark and she looks at it and she goes,

no, no, no, this is, this might work for it to get like a mile or something like that, but this isn't gonna, you see, you see she looks out at the room around you guys. She like gestures around you. You guys saw these like purple force fields between each of the rows. You see she gestures to them and she goes,

we obviously we don't have a big enough room to test how far this thing can go. So these force fields sort of mimic distance. So the closest one is within like a normal earshot within a few feet. The one behind it is like a hundred feet away and by the end it's like 10 miles up on four tiers up there. But this stuff, we needed primo magic parts and this is not what that is. If we put this thing together, I'd be surprised if we could even get the shit around here. I don't know what the fuck this is.

Well, I know what it is. You quack, you built this thing, you built this thing for the take it away and they reassembled it. Who the fuck? That's what I wanted to say. Who has access to this other than you? Give me a list of the roster. It's just Quick Bl blast and her crew, okay?

It's quick blast, big Rex, little Rex and Ranch. You gave it to Ranch. What? You gave the coach a ranch? He's a son of a bitch. I was going through your mind when you give access to a secret lab to a bunch of gun-toting like wild people. Okay, and ranch. Okay, ranch of all people. Okay, alright, look, okay, the way the way

we're supposed to go, and this is the way it is, and it's fine, okay? Quick blast and ranch, they protect Edgar Locke no more, make sure he gets the job done. We get good press, nobody gets hurt. Everything's super nice. Big wrecks and little wrecks, they come in here, they take minor horrors, really minor ones, and there's a little tunnel thing that they can put on our salamanders. That borers, all right?

We know. Okay, okay, she's out of the bag. Apparently, small borers take looking cast detect thoughts All right, we know okay Okay, she said she's out of the bag Apparently I wanted to take looking cast detect thoughts on you and I fucking didn't Don't waste a spell slot for you. Just don't oh What the spell slot felt more invasive than suggestion if that makes sense all right look You see she even as you guys are like going through it. She's still a suggestion on her So she's still just like disassembling things

She's like great things that she going through it, she's still a suggestion on her. So she's still just like disassembling things. She's just like, that's great. So she goes through it. And she goes, look, big racks and little racks would have been the last ones in here. They must have just sold the,

they must have thought they could sell the parts or something. Look, I haven't tried this yet. Stella, really Mrs. Stella, you buy this explanation. What else would they be doing with it? They're getting paid to build this same machine and other places. They're recreating this.

Think the worst possible thing that they could do with it and that's exactly what they're doing with it. You gave them the tech and now they replicate it. You guys see, she's sweating so hard. She goes, like, no, no, no, no, no, no. See, no one is supposed to get hurt. We just, yes. Well, guess who's on the front no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, What do you do on the IP for this invest for do I own the IP of course I do Yeah, if somebody else tries to use it I will sue their pants off all right. I will take this to court

Okay, I thought the answer was gonna be no one it was gonna hurt your feeling so okay I guess you can I see can I see can I see the copy can I see the yeah? Can I see your work agreement your? In the middle of the lab right here. And also I'm unscrewing this thing and I feel like I have to do this. For good, I peep mom. You do for eight hours. Are there blueprints or a guide to how to build this machine somewhere?

Yeah, of course, the one. It's in my office. Zirk rushes out, unlocks the door, and then runs over to Stella's office. You go by these guards that are just outside this lab door. Special boy coming through. Yeah, you run right past, because you're the one who was invited in, so you're fine. They don't give you a second look.

And you remember her telling you that the neck or a phone couldn't, the sound couldn't travel outside of this room. There's a silence spell around the whole thing. It's like ultimate soundproofing. So these guards out here haven't even heard anybody yelling inside. So literally you rush out, you close the door behind you, Zirk go ahead and get me an investigate check as you like go through your mom's stuff. Cool. As soon as I'm out of ear and eye shot, I slam her desk a little bit and try and choke back at her. And then I look for some hard alcohol on her desk and I swig it.

Yeah, there's some whiskey right there. And then I roll it too. Two, okay. Sure. Plus, investigate is six. Okay. Zirk, you look around. You see, she can be a little disorganized,

and you see that there are papers everywhere. You go through it, and you do not see any blueprints here. Can I actually bond this action? Have Sunt Spoonie to go help? Um, Mr. Zirk with this investigation. Hey, where are you going? Hey, come here. Oh, fuck.

Okay, yeah, go ahead and roll with advantage then. Spoonie? What do you see? Spoonie starts flapping around on the, just banging around on the desk. What do you see, little fella? Everyone leaves me. Okay, I got a six that time,

plus four for investigation. That's a 10. I'm gonna use Flash of Genius to add plus four to that. Okay, so 14. Zirk, you look around and you find a folder with some information on the necrophone, like stuff like the patents for it and stuff and some basic information and the blueprints are not in here. God damn it.

Oh, they've been stolen. Oh, elders balls. I can't believe she did this. And Zirk, go ahead and give me a perception check as you're out here. Okay. Did she mention that there was like a secret tunnel in that silenced room? She did mention that, yeah.

Okay, I feel like Zirk is remembering that as soon as he leaves the room. Cool. Okay, perception is going to be, that's a dirty 20. A dirty 20, okay. Zirk, you see that quick blast cast Callaway is storming into the lab. And you also see ranch, big wrecks, and little wrecks.

These three like cowboys are outside of the lab like kind of waiting around. And you see quick blast is heading for the lab in the center, or the office in the center. I'm gonna cast disguise self on myself and make it look like I'm just a janitor. Okay. And then I'm going to start mopping and block their path.

Okay, go ahead and give me a deception check Dirty floors in here. Hey get the fuck out of the way Sorry, oh, I'm making a heck of a mess with these dusty boots. I need to talk to the goddamn boss You need to get the fuck out of the way. Well, I need to clean these goddamn floors, and I don't want to appreciate your cussing on my time That is going to be a 19. You see she is tricked but grabs you, go ahead and give me an athletics check. That's not great. That's a four.

Okay. You see she does a shove attack with like four arms like two arms and then two mechanical arms pushes you over Mercy and then walks over and enters this center room in the No, no miss Callaway. Please don't enter that room. I say very loudly within your shot of everyone Oh, but they're in the silence room, but as the door, as the door opens, they hear it as it's coming. Do you guys hide or anything or what do you guys do? Yeah, hide. I'll hide just so I can get a surprise round. Yeah, I'm running really low on spell, so I definitely fucking hide and let Stella keep disassembling this warm machine. Hank and Fiya,

go ahead and give me stealth checks. This will be against her passive perception. She's not looking for you. You see she storms into the room and immediately starts yelling at Stella. You see the door closes behind her as a friendly janitor is yelling out there. I got a 21.

Okay. Okay, 18 plus 1, 19. Okay. So you guys see, you guys, as you hear, Zirk yell out in the office, door opens, that part does not have like a silence spell on it. It doesn't reseal until the door's closed. Door closes behind, quick blast.

I'm up. You guys are able to jump behind some like test tubes nearby. You see quick blast throws down her like the like hunters cap that she had on and her cloak. Now she's back in her like kind of cowboy gear and you see she storms down to Stella and she goes what the what the hell you doing boss and you see she goes it's I gotta fix it all right you you worry about your stuff I'll worry about my stuff. What's going on? Um, and you see, Quake Blast goes, I'll tell you what's going on. Zerks, little friends, almost fucked everything up.

We're supposed to look like the heroes here, but they're running around playing vigilante. They know something's up. And you see Stella goes, yeah, they know something's up. Uh, look. Cass, did you take anything from this machine Hank and Fia go ahead and give me insight checks 19 30 20 you guys watch as quick blast answers and she answers lightning quick looking Stella right in the eyes and she goes no what the fuck am I gonna do with stuff that's in your weird fucking machine? And you get the sense that she's telling the truth.

Okay, Vic Blast has been absolved, but what about little Rex and little Ranch and Vatna? You said it was big Rex and little Rex is Rex. Big Rex and Ranch? Yeah, you see them all outside. They're kind of just like pedaling around like waiting for their boss. Can I try and enter the room or is the door closed? The door is closed, but if you're not the janitor you could get back in a zirp, certainly.

I'm gonna drop the disguise and try and get back into the room. So I can see what's going on. You drop the disguise, you are allowed in there before. You see these two guards move Open up the door Door closes behind you and you see caskos. Oh there he is the fucking man of the hour your friends were a huge help to not Zurk Yeah, they're very helpful people. Yeah, it's kind of what they do. Yeah, they fucking are no it was great

I just had to talk to the fucking media for a fucking while and make up a fucking wild story about why Edgar Lachnermore was so fucking great, even though he just about pissed himself when the board showed up. I almost stand up so fear can grab me. I shove Mr. Henry down. This is not your fight. This is not the fight. Just talk about my boy.

You see Stella goes, all right, lay off the kid, look, we got big problems here, Cass. Somebody is fucking stealing from the lab. And you see Cass goes, well sure as fuck ain't any of my guys. They fucking listen to what I tell them to do, ain't nobody stealing from this, this money's too fucking sweet. Why the fuck would anybody steal from you? I stand up, there's no reason to hide from quick blast anymore. You take my son's name out of your mouth, alright?

Well, who, where did you come from? I was behind the desk. I dropped something. It was a tiny little animated spoon, but that's not important. Alright. It's not your spoon! It's all of our spoon. I too like the spoon. Stella is disassembling everything and she's like, look, they fucking know, all right? They know everything, all right?

It's that the fucking jig is up. Things are bad, somebody stealing shit, okay? Somebody stole shit from the microphone. We're a deep shit. It's not gonna be two borers at a time now, okay? You're absolutely fucked. This town is gonna be overrun by horrors if we don't find where this thing is and who took it?

All right, you must realize quick blast that you're being set up to be a sacrificial lamb. You and your entire legion are going to be sacrificed to make this horror Problem look even more dire yet my son's gonna die next to ranch This is about yourself interest if nothing else will appeal to you. All right. Yeah, so I'll get the all right It's time to move on. It's time to get out of town. That's thanks for the heads up No, you not just get out of town. You the money's too sweet, right? You you like the job. You like working for a vein Don't you help us help us find this Help us find this Necrophobia.

Only people who were in this fucking lab were just me and ranch and the Rexes. Alright, we'll bring them in. We're gonna question them too. Alright, I'll fucking get them. Bring them in, bring them in. Alright, alright. This episode of NADPOT has brought to you by Bird Dogs. There are companies that makes pants and shorts, so no matter where you fall and the age

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going to need all the movement you can get when you and your brothers and legs are out there on the battlefield kicking the shit out of your rivals. So when the lower body battle begins and brother is forced to kick brother, make sure you are wearing bird dogs. To get yours and a free Yeti-style tumbler go to birddogs.com slash pop-a or enter promo code pop-a at checkout. That's birddogs.com slash pop-a or promo code pop-a for a free Yet Yeti style tumbler. You won't want to take your bird dogs off We promise you. Okay, that's it for me. Go team pants and enjoy the show You guys want to take bets on who it is. I think it's ranch. I'm leaning ranch for sure

And you guys see after a little bit for sure. And you guys see after a little bit quick blast comes back in with just ranch. What do you want with me? What do you want with ranch? Where are the rexes? You see quick blast goes as soon as I came out and said you guys want to talk to them but they fucking took off. Wow I do not need to use a spell to know that's guilty behavior. Yeah ring a ding. All right. We got to take off. We got to go find these regs. Yeah, let's go. Let's go follow them. Can we try and grab as much from the necrophone as we can just to like make sure that it is inoperable? Yeah. You guys grab a few key parts of the necrophone and start rushing out. You brush past quick blast and ranch

and Stella yells out after you, sounding like sheepish, goes, at beat, can't fall out there, Zerke. Zerke pauses for a second, and then takes the top hat that she gave him, throws it on the ground, looks at her for a second, and then keeps running. You guys exit the lab, and you immediately see

in the distance, you see big wrecks and little wrecks running off in separate directions. You see that they have split up. Big wrecks is the shorter one, hilarious, I know. Is this a stocky dude? What is it funny? Stocky dude with stringy hair under a flop hat and little Rex is a tall skinny woman with Similar hair similar looking outfit you see he's running down near the docks near the water and she's going off

Into a small patch of woods in the opposite direction and you actually see that betilda and tab in the opposite direction, and you actually see that Batilda and Tab look like they're in pursuit of her, like they're in pursuit of Little Rex. You see Tab is a bit slower. You see she's got her bow out. She may have just already taken a shot, but Batilda is going after the one girl, and the guy is getting away down the docks. Okay, Batilda this is smartest person I know, so I will follow her. Okay, and we don't wanna let this little dude get away, so we're gonna follow him. Yeah, I'm Gronzark. I'm confused about why their nickname is big.

I wanna follow up about that. I have a lot of questions. We'll ask him at the docks. Come on, Henry. So, Fiat takes off kind of a blows past tap because she's a little slow. She's got her bow out. Joins Batilda starts chasing off little wrecks

into the forest here, Hank and Zirk. You guys take off after big wrecks, who's rushing down to the docks. This is away from the kind of houseboats and stuff like where Batilda's houseboat is. This is more near like Stella's weapons factory, so there's not much stuff around. More industrial dock.

More industrial dock. More industrial dock. Not a lot of people run off in pollutants in the water. As you guys are running off, you had seen that it started to rain outside. The rain starts beating down harder. You feel the water pounding down as you chase big wrecks to the water's edge. You see he rushes up.

You guys are a little bit faster than him, so you're gaining on him. You see he sees a small dinghy, but sees that you guys are like on his tail, kind of decides better of it. He doesn't have time to get away and just kind of throws his hands up and turns around and goes, all right, all right, you got me. Okay, that seems too easy. Yeah, I thought we were gonna drop your weapons. Yeah, that's good. Yeah, drop them. Yeah, I thought we were gonna make it. Drop your weapons. Yeah, that's good. Yeah, drop them. Yeah, I look at Henry.

Drop the weapons, right? Right, let's drop them, buddy. You see he throws down his rifle. All right. Reaches into his pockets. No funny business. It's not any funny business. I know what you're here for.

You're looking for this, right? You see he pulls out an enchanted mechanical part clearly like from the necrophome. Yeah, okay. Yep. Hand that over. Toss it. Toss it right here. Well, don't toss it. I wouldn't toss it. Okay, put it on the ground. Put it on the ground. And you go sitting the dinghy. All right. Actually, I can't, I can't do that. There's a woman who needs this. She says people aren't worshipping the reaper the way they used to and that we have to convert the masses if not by faith, then by force.

You see the illusion breaks and wrecks transforms into Moxora, sorceress with silver paldrens, a black robe, and a scale chain down her neck. Her eyes glow white, and she immediately casts a spell reaching into the ground and pulling out dozens of spectral hands that shoot out and grab around your necks. Guys, go ahead and give me Constitution saving throws. Okay. 16. 18. That is two fails. Next guys go ahead and give me Constitution saving throws

16 18 that is two fails Okay, flash adenius on Henry. What does that bring it to? That's a plus four so 30 20 that is still a fail Should use it on myself fuck is strong you guys feel the spectral hands wrap around your throats. I'm in begin to choke you and hold you guys up. You guys both take 47 damage and are strained. How many? 47. 47 damage.

47. 47 damage as you're being held still. 47 damage. 47 damage. Oh my god. That's literally more hip points than I have. That is... That's most of mine! As you struggle, as these spectral hands wrap around your neck,

you see, she walks up to you guys as you're restrained and goes... Finally, we meet face to face. I didn't think fate would bring us together this soon. What do you know about us? I know quite a bit about you. I've been tracking your progress ever since Petty Jack reported back to me after your run-in in Thornkirk. And you guys remember Petty Jack was the criminal contact that was helping Moxora get bounty hunters to

fight the blades to track them down. And she goes, luckily for you neither of you have what I need. You're just bargaining chips and I won't throw those away unless we fail to make a deal. As long as your friends, perhaps betil to the bladewitch, perhaps your people are cooperative, you might survive long enough to see the coming conversion. You see she rotates the magical piece of machinery in her hand, and it makes it disappear. We're not bargaining chips. We're not gonna be used to make your fucked up deal.

Well, that's not entirely up to you, is it? We'll see what my cohort can get out of the others. After Moxora, Henry, that is your turn. You are... Restrain. Okay, well, that is your turn. You are restrained. I'm restrained. Okay, well, I summon Shank nearby, okay, 15 feet away, and I swap places with him. Henry, I can't do it all on my turn, I don't think.

You also need 15 feet of movement to be able to swap places with Shank. You are not immune to being restrained. I double-checked that because it seemed kind of ridiculous. Oh, brutal. At least I got away with it once. He read the rules. He read the rules. Henry, at the end of your turn, go ahead and give me another constitution saving throw as you try to get out. That's not going to do it at all, that's a 14.

Okay, 14, you do not get out and Hank, you take another five damage as you feel the spectral hand, choke you again, you feel the bones in your neck cracking. We are gonna cut over to... Henry, Henry! Fia and Fatil that chase Little Rex into the woods here. You see, she's tall, gangly woman with a flap hat on,

but you see as soon as you get into the woods, she stays facing away from you. And you see Fatilda pulls her sword out and holds her hand up to you, Fiya. As you see, Little Rex suddenly transforms into the Prophet Cain. You see this hunter turns around. About the same height but much stockier. This hunter in a black cloak and flap, bandages all over his face, long sithe in his hands, tips his hat, and he goes,

Attila the blade witch, turns to you, Fia, and your little pupil, watch this girl, maybe you'll learn something. See he spins aside, gets into fighting position. You see Batilda looks kind of nervous. Batilda, Batilda, we should focus on stopping him rather than trying to fight him. You see she pulls her, she's got like an extra silver sword besides just the crescent moon blade that you have. You see that she walks in a defensive position, sort of trying to make distance between you two, to like flank him,

and you hear a message in your head, go, that's right girl, very smart. We should try to just get away. I've beaten him before, just barely. He's different now, more powerful. Tell Tabitha as well. You see Tabitha in the bushes nearby, pulling a bow out. Oh, go ahead yeah she's safe. Yeah she seems safe but as safe as you can be in front of a dude who looks like the Reaper himself. He's got this giant side swings it around. You see as he spins it

it almost looks like you can see into the plane of Exodus. You see like lost souls in his side as he spins it around. Good Lord. You see as you guys start to get into position, as Batilda starts to go to the one side, you see Cain is backing up, making sure you don't get the jump on him, and you hear Batilda eyes on Cain looking ready to fight, but you hear her send a message to you, Fiya, and she goes, just in case I don't get to do this later. I want you to know I didn't take you in because I saw you as a protege. I brought you in because I liked you and I grew to love you. And I wanted to say that. I saw what happened with Henry and his son and things are too short. I guess I'm saying this in my head, but I didn't know how much I wanted to hear that. And of course I love you too, but I think I've thrown those words around very liberally with you already.

It's good to be liberal with those words, girl. You see the moonlight shining on her silver blade as she walks around the other side of Cain. I know that because of my duty that there wasn't a world where I was going to be around the train car all the time, but if I could go back and change one thing, I would have told you that I didn't want to leave.

I am without words. I always thought maybe I wasn't new since. You see, in real life, she shakes her head and she goes, all right little fang. Now let's put the blade to this guy and get the fuck out of here. Out loud I say fuck yes. Sweet. Via, you are first. Kane did not roll great on his initiative. So you see, you see for as cool as he's kind of acting, this is almost a little bit of like a Darth Vader fighting Obi-Wan Kenobi thing with Batilda.

He knows he's more powerful at this point, but he's still like a little scared of it. Okay, I will pray on every last thread of his fear and I will make him unravel like a scared little spatter. And I'm going to since I am solo on spells, I'm going to try an ability I just got that I have not used yet called momentary stasis. He will do a constitution saving throw or be incapacitated and have a speed of zero. Holy fuck. Alright. You see, it's going to make a constitution saving throw.

That's a 15. What is your... My thing is 15. So he beats it. So I'm going to fucking colonel shift. Yes. Yes. I have all dragged this fucker down the time. Hell. Fia, you hold your hands out. There's like these spectral chains that whip around him. He bursts out of them, but then they wrap around again for a second chance, he will make another roll 14 that time. Yes!

Give the horns time, Devil! You see they completely wrap around him, and what is the effect? Momentary stasis. As an action you can magically force a larger, smaller creature you can see within 60 feet of you to make a constitution saving throw. Unless the saving throw is a success, the creature is encased in a field of magical energy until the end of your next turn, or until the creature takes any damage. While encased this way, the creature is incapacitated and has a speed of zero. Absolutely sick. Bravo!

You thought my guy who was supposed to fucking ambush you is wrapped in chains. And he goes, is this how you have to fight me, but Dilda, with your little pupil, fucking trying to last some me? I would say that you are the pupil learning a lesson that right now, that boy. She didn't try to last so you just did it. I want to be in that fight. Yeah, things are so much worse for us.

You see, there is a chain wrapped around this dude. That is, do you want to take your movement or do anything with it? Yeah, and then I'm going to be like, Battilda tab out. You see Battilda goes, yeah, that's about enough for now, little fang. You see, spins her sword around, puts it in the scabbard, takes her hat off, and kind of bows to cane, and goes, sorry we couldn't have around, too. Congratulations on the new trick you learned, turning into fucking other people, and trying to trick us in the woods. But my protege A, C, has to have gotten the jump on you, So I think even after you eventually killed me, which let's face it, you might,

people will still exist, who can kick your ass? That just kind of seems like what's going to happen now. And yeah, you see, Batilda is going to take a dash action on her turn and fucking start bolting back towards the lab. Tab is after Batilda, she starts bolting. Fiya, are you running 30 feet away? Yeah, I am. Sweet, Fiya, you run 30 feet away.

That is Cain's turn. Cain just struggles in the back with the chains around him. And you're closest to him. And you hear him sending a message to you. It sounds almost as if he's right over your shoulder and you hear, I'm not going to forget about this girl. I hope you didn't. I said it was a lesson.

You don't want to unlearn your lessons, do you? Oh, only lesson I ever learned is not to trust Batilda the Blade Witch, alright? And why is that? She didn't tell anybody about this little situation that all we needed to do was hand over one girl. And how are you so sure that when you hand over this little girl that will be the last demand of this tyrant? You hear a little laugh and he goes, he's got the keys to Revery ain't like we got a

fucking choice and you're running and you get out of range and you see Batilda and Tab are both running ahead Zirk consciousness. I look to Henry and I manage to shimmy out one hand with a potion in it and I say your son seems like a good kid and I pour a second-level cure wounds into his mouth. I'm looking okay. If you're close to Death Store, you know, you can chug this potion. Don't think twice about it.

No, Zerg's in a weird place. Zerg needs to help someone else. And Henry doesn't feel like he deserves to be helped. So, it's a good guy. So that's six plus my spell casting modifier, so that's 10 plus and actually, that's 14 points of healing. Wow.

Hank, you're healed back up for 14. You guys feel these spectral hands around you more and more of them. She seems to be concentrating it. She's holding her hands up, eyes glowing white. Zerk, at the end of your turn, go ahead and give me another constitution saving throw to try to kick out of it.

Okay, come on, Zirk. That's a 22? Come on, it's got it to it. 22 is going to do it. Yes! That is exactly what you needed to hit, Zirk. You see, as you pour this potion in Hank's mouth, you see a sprytle kind of whips around you,

there's this little bit of trickster magic that gives you like a little bit of room between the hands and your neck, you're able to jam your hands in there and sort of wiggle out, you get out and you are free. Yeah, I look at Henry and say, good luck. I'll jump in the hole and I book it back towards the lab. Henry was about to yell run and then he's like, oh, okay, leave him spoon at least. I

load spoon into my gun and shoot him back at Hank. No, thank him with you. Run, you sweet little spoon. Go on, get. Hank, you see, as Zirk begins to run away, has just given you this potion, has just thrown you Spoonie, starts running away 30 feet. You see, as she holds you up with the spectral hand still choking you, she goes, you're more used to me alive than you are dead, but if you insist and you see she's going to cast Circle of Death on Zirk, you see a ball of negative energy

rippling through the air as it flies at Zirk. Zirk, go ahead and give me a constitution saving throw. Okay, wow. I try to regurgitate some of my healing potion to a little bit back in your mouth. That is going to be a 10. Okay. I don't even think it's worth using Flash Agenius. Zerk, you are hit in the back by this negative energy for 32 damage.

Zerk's down. Okay. Hank, you see, Zerk drops down. Okay, Hank you see, Zirk drops down. That is Maksora's turn on Maksora's turn. She is going to teleport over to where Zirk is, grab him by the collar and hoist him up. Hank, that is your turn. Hey, you put him down. I'm gonna try to get out of the grapple. Okay. Come on. I think you can use Spoonie for her help action.

I think Spoonie is there to give you a help action. Yeah, Spoonie does the same thing that Spritele did. Great, because I did roll it to, shout out to the two crew. And then a four. Awww, a four. Shout out to the Spoonie crew. You stay being choked.

You take another four damage as you feel the spectral grip tighten around your neck. That is Fia's turn. Okay. Fia, do you have any way to move quite fast? Cause I'm gonna say this is about like two full dash actions of distance. Oh dear.

I'm gonna say like 200 feet. Oh no. But deal that, do you have like a enchanted broom that seems kind of like your aesthetic? I think you used to have one of the long time ago, do you remember that little thing? Yes, I don't have it. I do have it. I do have, I don't have it anymore, but I do have misty steps so I can get a little thing. Yes, I don't have it. I do have I don't have it anymore, but I do have misty steps So I can get a little farther

Okay, I have no spells last for misty step unless I want to waste a fourth level You you guys actually don't know what's going on with zirke and hang so you don't know it's that dire Right, I know, but I'm saying we still would be wanting to get to them Yeah, you guys know something's up certainly, but I think, okay, if we don't know that, if we know something is up, we can assume this is Kane, it's probably Maxora. But I maybe don't know it's a dire masterpiece, so I think I just say, but you'll get into range

and I take a dash action because I am not within range to do anything. Sweet, Fia. Because if I, yeah. I take a dash action because I am not within range to do anything. Sweet, Fia. Because if I, yeah. Fia, you move 60 feet on Batilda's turn. She moves 90 feet. She will get their next turn hank

as you're being held up by the spectral arm. You see Batilda in the distance coming towards you. I'm gonna say tab. We're over here. I'm gonna say tab is gonna take a 60 foot dash action technically. She could take a shot from far range, but I'm gonna say realistically,

she doesn't totally have the lay of the land. So she's just running up. That makes sense. But Batilda is the closest right now. That is Keynes turn. Oh. At the end of your turn, Fiya, he breaks loose of this thing, and he is going to run 60 feet.

You feel him rushing behind you, Fiya, but 30 feet behind, because you had an extra turn. That is Zerk's turn. Zerk, go ahead and give me a death saving throw. No. That's a natural one, y'all. That's a natural one. Good fucking. That is... Skyscris. Yeah, she's going to take you. Deathsaving fails. OK. After search turn, that is Moxora. You see Moxora has circled up.

You said he's more useful alive, right? So do something. You see she looks at you, and she smiles, and she goes why what do you suggest you're traveling with Patilda the blade witch would you hand her over? Really all I need is the location of one girl and he can live. Patilda doesn't even know what some random girl what are you talking about? Um, go ahead and give me a deception check. Fucking four! Oh, that's wrong.

That's wrong, fours. She turns her head and smiles and goes, you know about Sarah and Isis, do you? Sarah, who? No. Hmm. I love lying after you already failed the deception. I'm not gonna failed the deception.

I'm not gonna give it up. You see, Zirk choking. She does nothing to help him. Flicks her wrist. There's a charge of negative energy in her hands. She ready's an action. Hank, that is your turn. Do you know where she is? hands, she readies an action. Hank, that is your turn.

Do you know where she is? I don't even know who you're talking about. I couldn't even say the name that you said. Again, it was like Sarat, Sarat is the hand. Dangerously close to Zerkspace. Can I try to escape the grapple? Go ahead and try to escape the grapple. The way I have spoonies, self-stuff. Yeah, he's not a spider.

I rolled another four. Oh, poor. I rolled another four. I'm gonna roll the dice that's four. Four doors and death is behind all of them. Because he can't roll another four. That would be insane. Dude, it rolled the one.

So you stay grappled. Okay, do what's happening to us? Dude, it rolled the one. So you stay grappled. Okay. Dude, why is this happening to us? What the fuck? You take another four damage as it chokes you. And she goes, all of this for one person. Yeah, that seems bizarre. I don't have no idea.

One life. This is one life, holds up zirke. Is it not? One life for one life. That's it's not a trade that I meant liberty to make after Hank that is fiesta. Okay, so what I want to do is like I can't get into range but book var can fly 120 feet and then be within range. If I were able to cast a healing word through BookVar on Mr. Zerg. Oh, okay. So I don't know if the language,

I don't know if I've ever done it. I think normally with familiar, it's touch, but I will say, Fiya, you close your eyes and you use your connection with BookVar. This is a very extreme situation. You enchant him with some magic, you hear bookvargo. Miss I will get to them as quickly as possible. I will help them. Okay bookvar be careful you're very dear to me.

You're my best friend miss. You're my best friend. I've been with you longer than anyone else. You see you're really all I know. Book of our flaps off. I'm going to say normally the way the spell works is that it's only touch, but I will let you cast healing word if you can succeed on an arcana check. Okay. Can I add my Vidalkin D4? Can you add your Vidalkin D4? Yes. 19 on the dice, bitch.

Yes. Where'd you? That's a plus seven to the arcana and then only a one on the D4. That's really nice. Take it. 27. 27. That's great. We needed that. Thank you to one fucking girl. Huh? Just one fucking good role. Is that so much that's 27 on the dice?

I haven't rolled above a four in what feels like an eternity. Oh my god. Yeah, a real real good one. I was telling off my mom. That was fun. As the rest of the party is rushing towards you guys trying to get to you, you guys see book far flaps out of the forest above everyone. You see opens up a picture book,

and it's a picture of Fia casting a healing word. Oh! I remember that day, that's the first time that I cast healing word, and I did it on bookfar even though he wasn't even heard. Cast healing word on Zerke. Okay, cool. So I'm gonna do a fourth level healing word on it.

Shit. Okay. Fourth level. Wow. My friends, that's two fours and two threes. Okay, so that's only 14 plus three. Okay. 17 hit points. 17! It's incredible. It's a long way from two deaths. Zirk, you are suddenly in the sore services clutches and you suddenly pop back to life.

I think like as I wake up, I just start screaming and I point my gun right at her head. You see, she had her ready to action. You see, tosses you aside, you crash on the ground. You see she looks up at bookfar and smiles and goes, I'd recognize that magic anywhere. And you see she whips her hands around and shoots a circle of death up at a bookfar, Fia, go ahead and give me a dexterity saving throw.

That's a seek six minus one. You see bookfar is shot out of the air and you see the book de-animates and flaps around spinning through the air and then crashes in the grass below. No, you went out a hero. You see on the next initiative, that's Batilda's turn. Batilda rushes in, misty steps. I was wondering when I was gonna get a crack at you and is gonna take some shots at Moxora. You see Moxora, surprisingly dexterous. Moves out of the way of the first blade, just like does a shoulder lean back, does a shoulder lean back moving out of the second one. But you see, Batilda does strike true and slashes with a like, with a like magical

smite on the last one. You see like a burst of arcane magic as she does 17 damage to Moxora. At the end of Batilda's turn, you see she smiles at Batilda and goes, Batilda, there was a time when capturing you might have meant something, but I've got all I need right here. You see she whew teleports over to Bookfar and picks him up. What? That is Cain's turn. You see behind you, Cain looks out, sees Maksora holding book far. Oh, they can fucking scry on the renavig. Oh, no. Cain smiles as he sees Maksora holding the book,

Reaper Divine Magic in his side as he rips a planar rift, and you see he walks through and disappears. Kane has gone. Right before it seals back up, I wish for coward. Zirk, that is your turn? I think Zirk just quickly slaps a healing word, nicotine patch on his arm, to just try and bolster himself a little bit, and just angrily fires in Moxora. Sweet, go ahead and make an attack roll.

16, 16 does not hit. You see she, at the very last second, the speed of a bullet is no match for her. She just moves her head slightly after Zirk. That is tab. Tab is just going to take some shots. Try to hit her hands where like bookfar is. Misses both shots. You see Moxora dodges with her head. Unmoxora's turn. Flicks her wrist once again. You see, handful of negative energy.

You see, she opens up the book. And it animates again. She's able to turn it into bookfar. You see, like, the little eyes, and you feel him come back, Fia? Miss? Miss? How did you make Bookfar? You see she reaches in and begins pulling out a magical projection of a humanoid boy.

You've had Bookfar since you were a child. He was always like a little brother to you. And... Yes, if you're a little brother to me, you see him as as like your little brother you see the spectral image of a bookish boy with little tusks and pinsting glasses is dragged from the book from like the collar as she pulls him out and he goes miss miss help miss I don't have your book for you. Don't worry. I'm here. We are here. It's always you and me. There's always you and me. You see, Maxora? Whew! Teleports away.

And is gone. Oh! And, Fiya, you... You feel like you... Don't know how to summon bookfarrr. You've forgotten how to do it. You've lost your connection to bookfarrr. But, Hilda, what's happening?

I'm trying to bring him back. It's like he's gone. What is happening? I guess I will claw at the ground where he was. Hank, you, the spectral hand that was around your neck disappears. You've got out of that, finally. Crash to the ground. No match for me. No, no. You've fallen crash to the ground ground, Zirk, you're super fucked up. Fiya, you and Batilda rush over. You see, bookfar is this

D-animated book that has like a burn mark on it. What did she do? How could she bring him? Irina brought him, I made him. How did she do this? Where is he? Where did she take him to? Why is this not working? This is always is working and it's never not worth before

It's okay. We're gonna find him. We're gonna find him. It's okay. I Have always suspected that book far was something special more than just a regular familiar. I don't know how I don't know how Maksora was able to send Sets, but perhaps she was just powerful enough. She seems to have been able to exercise him from the book. I feel this is on my fault. I said to myself, some day I'm going to learn the spell to disguise as magical aura because I know that he thinks of arena's magic and I never did it. I was so busy, I just had other things to learn. I didn't have time to do it.

This is all my fault. No. And now I can never bring him back. Is that what is going to happen now? It's not your fault. We are gonna bring him back. We're gonna help you bring him back. We're not gonna rest until we get him back. All right? Yeah. He's one of us. He's a third mate. We gotta stick together. I think I know where their ultimate goal is. They've gotta be trying to go to Zalbordar as well. But I worry about what'll happen to him if we get there too late. So we have to hurry. But you, this teleportation magic, where do we find it? We have to get there sooner.

I simply can't sit around waiting for this toiletium. I have tried so hard to be a good girl and wait for this to happen, but it is nonsense that we are sitting here waiting for this so long. You see Batilda pulls you in for a hug via and goes it's all right little thing. They need him to find arena. He's safe as long as she's safe. I don't think she would harm bookfar considering she gestures to Zurken Henry who look way worse for the wear for their encounter with Moxora. She didn't kill these two. She thought about it really hard. She could have done it very easily, that's for sure.

Yeah. But Hild, why do you... A little bit of my logic is being shaken by this? How many lives are traded for one person? My resolve is... weakening. I don't mean to be simple-minded, but I... I just feel like they are asking me to trade everyone I love or one other person I love.

I don't understand this mathematics. She nods and she goes, if we're thinking about this purely logically little fang, then people like Cain are right to fight for the side that they fight for. But we're not talking about pure logic here. We're talking about right and wrong. There is a God who wants us to serve up a life, an innocent life. And after that, what happens? Does he stop?

I don't think he does. I think it's him. What happens once he has the power of the trickster as well? And what about you, Mr. Henry and Mr. Zirk? I feel selfish because... We're all wrapped up in this. No one ever asks for just one thing. The Reaper is going to keep on asking, and he'll keep on getting powerful people to do his bidding, and it has to end.

The line will always move forward, farther and farther towards tragedy. We can't follow these rules. We have to make our own. We have to challenge them. Yeah, Bukfar is gone. Henry Jr. is in danger. Zork, your mom's wrapped up in this. We're all fighting for the same purpose here. So you do nothing I am being yet. Tula is a child who selfishly wants her childhood best friend back in his trading life for this.

I want to see the world through eyes like yours. I think it would be selfish to give in to these demands. You're right because the questioning of my resolve comes from losing book for and feeling like I would do anything to get him back. So that he's the true selfishness. I think that getting arena back is our first step. I think if we can talk to her, maybe that's the way that we begin to change this world, but without her everything's lost.

She's very powerful. I sometimes wonder. I mean, you see what she did with Pukfar. And here he is, like an actual little boy. Yeah, just... What could that kind of magic do if it were not running from something? Just watching Maksora, and the way that she wielded life and death. But then, seeing something even more pure than life come out of book fart, there's a power we have to understand, and I think the only way to do it is by finding arena.

Zirk, going back to what you were kind of saying before about how the little D'Aliant is always moving, it's the same logic as what's going on with your mom. It's like, do you think this is ever going to stop? No. It'll never be enough, Fiya. I really loudly unclog my cherry liqueur flask. But I handed out for other people to drink first, because I don't want to drink alone. I take, I take, I very quickly take a sip, but I remember myself and take and make sure that it's a little bit smaller so

Fiya can take a really long pull. Well, it's actually an enchanted ever-failing flask, so you actually can't be empty. Alright, and yeah, then I guzzle it for five seconds. Dig deep, buddy, dig deep. You actually see tab walks up and she takes a drink as well and she goes, oh I've been kind of being a bit quiet because I feel like it's not really my place considering all the strange things that have been happening. No, I'm sorry I did not talk to you about this.

Oh well all I wanted to say is all my time in Indu Thera. I've never seen the Reaper an entire place that is supposedly filled with what you might call Horas and I've never seen him. It's always people talking, trying to make people scared. And there's a lot of magical things going on, so I'm not sion, that the rape it doesn't exist, but I'm sion. I don't know about all this. Sometimes I wonder if the gods are the people professing to be gods or just people that conned their way into more power than anyone's ever had. But Hilda, have you met the trickster?

Shakes her head. She goes, the trickster has never asked for, has never asked to be worshiped. She just created magic and the fairies. And you see, Tab goes, Nindo Terra, there were a lot of people that were scared by the things that Moksoro was sighing when she came there. She comes here, people are scared again.

I think that seeing Tab and seeing the things in my mom's lab, it's helped me to realize that magic like everything else is just a system. And systems can be dismantled as easily as you can break apart a machine. And Fiya, go ahead and do me an insight check. 19. Fiya, you, as you think about this, as you're hearing tab kind of question this stuff and basically being like, I lived in a big undead city and I've never seen the Reaper for like, however many years I've been alive, you start thinking about it and you can recall.

The fervor that was mobilized by the ideology of the Reaper in my village? Yes, not in, and when you think back on the village that you lived in in Innerboro, like you got sent to the scales the last time you were caught with Arena, but you had been caught a couple other times doing like Trickster Magic, and your father would punish you by making you read like Reaper spell books and would say like, this is the right way to do magic, this is divine magic, this is...

So they are two different types of magic. So they are two different types of magic? When Mr. Reserve talks about a system of magic, there's actually two different systems, perhaps. And as you think about it, Fiya, you remember as a kid, your father encouraging you to use divine magic and to read these old Reaper books, and he would be happy when you successfully did it, but you never really believed in it. And yet, you still were able to do it.

So something's messy here, something's strange. The Reaper is just like co-opting magic. Or is the Reaper a machination of the people? I don't know. Really where magic, especially this type of magic comes from, but collective consciousness has a lot of power. That's true. Have do you do magic? Oh, now I'm just an orchard.

I just use my orchard stick and they're good at what? I see nothing, but it's pretty magical. It's also useful. Oh, try to shoot it at the lady. Ah, she lived. Yeah, wooden bolts. That's a spell. Yeah, you'd have been dead if you was just my, ah, yeah.

You would have been dead, yeah, if you were just standing there with your face exposed to the arrow. Right, yeah. Guys, go ahead and give me perception checks as you stand here talking. I can roll another four. Both. You're spooning.

That's a 15. Thank you, spooning! That's a 15. Thank you, Spoonie. That's a 22. 13. You guys see in the distance, a bunch of knights and guards, riding towards the lab. You see they are wearing the house colors,

aqua marine for the locknamores and red for the ariasis, which is Izzy's family. You see there are a lot of them and they are surrounding the lab. There's a carriage that is likely carrying a car liel or his father-in-law or both and a few men are ushered out of it into the lab. It fully looks like they are in crisis mode, like they've just learned about the situation with the necrophone. And you guys know that the twilightium was supposed to be done within a couple days, and it is night two, so it could be done or close to done, you don't know, but now the lab is full of...

Crawling with people. Locknomorce forces. Oh no. And even worse, you guys see it goes into some kind of lockdown. You see the glass panels that normally allow you to see into the lab, start lighting up with purple energy as an entire force field begins to pop up over the dome. Oh, we're fucked.

Oh, and that's where we'll end our session. Hmm. We're fucked. It got worse. Murf, you took every spell from me except for one first level spell. This is a new thing, but... Yeah. You got it.

Yeah, that's... I've got a lot of close calls. I think that might have been the closest. That was super, super close. That was scary. That was scary. Yeah. Didn't, didn't like it.

In fact, we'll talk about it more over on our Patreon, patreon.com slash nad pod that's n-a-d-d-p-o-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d- to listen to our after show. Does anybody have anything they'd like to plug? Oh, you know what? It was the three black halflings podcast, one year birthday. Whoa, this past year. Happy birthday. Happy birthday. So I want to wish them a happy birthday.

11 is one minus 110. Yeah, check out that episode. It was great. Check it out, guys. Anybody else have anything to like to plug? Yeah, I'm gonna plug a really weird thing. Do it, do it, do it, please do. This guy, Tyler, I think his name is Tyler Thrasher Art

on Instagram. He is like a, he's a plant guy and people send him pictures of their plants and then he roasts their plants. They send him pictures of their dying plants and then he just like absolutely berates them. And it's truly good content. This is just a weird thing that I saw right before we recorded, so it's on our mind.

That's rough. I'm gonna scoop Merff and plug our Patreon, patreon.com slash mad pod. Nice. Check it out. Yeah, check it out. Sweet guys, you can follow us on social media that we may or may not use.

Etsy's Mer Murphy's me at called Is called well at a extra Emily and at jager versus Jake and you tweet about the show using hashtag nad pod that's any ddp OD It's the end of our show, which means it's time to shout out our benevolent council of elders. We couldn't do it without you, and now we sing your praises. Here we go. Brad D. Jeffrey S.

Haldor Frostback, Steelbreaker, and Matt Imm. Other VVane Industries employees who have clearance to enter the Necrophone Chamber. They don't really care about the horror experiments though, and mostly use the room to play Smash Brothers during their lunch breaks. Nice. Jordan DJ, Cutter W, Jive G, Zolo Dolo, and Dylan B, the inventors of the carer, a horseless carriage powered by human souls. Sure these carers may be vaguely unethical, but they're powered by blood, so it's

actually super eco-friendly. Wow, nice trade-off. Shoeberthemushroom, Danielle the Dastroly Dame, Andrew M, Beardman Dan and Scott D, a Reaper Rock band releasing their first single exclusively for the Necrophone. Playing the song will cause countless horrors to rise from their graves, but it's kind of a bop, so no one really minds. Danny P. Mixologist Michael McD.

Boundore's Boy Andrew B. and Kevin S. Teen to its snuck into the woods to make out only to be interrupted by Keynes showdown with Fia. They thought about running, but decided to stick around because it was such a touching scene. Hard to agree. Justin I, Ragnar Faredwind, TGM the gnome barbarian, Elena M and Traylae the cray-fay. Patton officers who really should have raised more alarms when Stella Vervein came

in to register the necrophone. In their defense though, it would have been a lot of paperwork and she came in at like 4.45 on a Friday. Ugh, I get it. Jared E. Austin Bonesaw MR. Damial R. Cyborg version of Josh the Cobald and Octo Litch. Other objects brought to life by Arena. Jared E. is a talking sword, Austin is a living shield, Demiel is a sentient mannequin,

and Josh and Octo Lich are a pair of shoes that sing when you take steps in them. Not very practical, but super cute. Gage M. Richard X Machina, Michael L. Sergio Salazar Salaman Sakaraias de Sekwani, and Tras the Traveler. Souls from the Plane of Exodus, they spend their days drifting eternally in a sea of unending human consciousness. Except for on Tuesdays. On Tuesdays, they meet up with their adult dodgeball team. Fun!

Sir Carl, Joris, Dena G, Azoth Shadows, and Kalim L. The evil wizards who invented the circle of Death Spell. Their inspiration for creating this spell was to invent a version of flaming spear that doesn't suck. Mission accomplished, gang. Jack L, flawless well, temporal, Sam L, Nicholas C, and Reese in S. Maksora's Paul Dran Designers. Not a lot of people know this, but Maksora actually started the 80s business woman shoulder pad trend, and no one's worn it better since. Samuel B. Mike H. Byron Murphy likes to drink curfee.

Matthew E. Colton B. And Adam G. The makers of a public domain necrophone. Come on people, just because it's evil doesn't mean we shouldn't invest in public works. Megan S. Mateo C. Inny Badger. Panama James. Cummins the Bard.

And Adrian the Halfling Bard. A group of necromantic masseurs who actually use the same spectral hands bell that Muxora did. But for a deep tissue Shiatsu massage that will have you walking like a new person. Terrifying. Dan, Scott W, Nikki W, Grace G, Drew Nasty, and C.C. Lulu. Heavy metal band and sirens lock that is renaming themselves chains of the time devil

after this episode. Can't get more metal than that. Barnes & Aitor, Michelle O, Timmy R. Jonathan W. The Croc, Wearing Warrior, and Lucas B. The makers of Plane Rip, the only Swiss army knife with a blade that can tear a rift into different planes. Make sure not to get confused with the wine opener, yikes! Aaron S. It's Kevin, New York, and Steven C, a library of books that is fucking terrified of Moxorra now. Don't worry, friends.

She actually doesn't really care for historical fiction, so you're safe. K.J. Michael M. Mike K. Karen J. Ekathor 666 and Nick W. Ranges extended family who is just so relieved he was not implicated in any of the smalarky and really just wished their sweet ranch would come on home. Taylor A. Matthew R. Esmi M. Nathan and Kazamiir are all knowing. Kane's hunting buddies. They go to estate sales and hunt out the best deals on vintage goods. Kane didn't specify in the moment, but that's what kind of hunter he is.

A bargain hunter. Big bad beard of the mad, Eric McDee, Thrath, Burley T, and Jay Dragonborn. The Ranch Branch, proud members of Ranch's family tree. Ranch! That's what it says on their coat of arms. Joe Rowe the inner pro pro, Cody B, Liam D,, the San Drean, Ben A, and Fel Donas. The team of comedy writers who came up with the Big Rex Little Rex joke. Only elite comedians could come up with something as clever as Big Rex being the little one.

That's comedy gold. Dave H. Koala Bear, Catherine S, David K,. Koala Bear Katherine S. David K. Christian S. And Dustin S. Inventors who are challenging Stella for the Necrophone IP. Their Necrophone is a chat line for Necromansors to talk on the phone about skeletons and stuff. Unsurprisingly, it's a huge hit in Elder Morn.

Keith K. Connor F. The Time Walker. Vashguard. Two left eyes. and Frankie Koala. Big Rex and Little Rex's best friends who are going to be absolutely devastated when they find out they've been killed and replaced by Reaper followers. Bar trivia will never be the same!

Big Bad John, DPC is awesome, Aston S, Blair the M Blair, Marblearian, Pork Chop, and Chanel M. The magical scientists behind the missing necrophone parts, these brilliant minds might have inadvertently brought about the apocalypse, just like any good scientist would. Furion Hot Pants, Valacy Raptor, Minette F. Pat L, A Chuta A, and Lauren H. The horror anthropologist who designated Bohr horrors with the name Bore. In their defense, it was a long day, and they had already named a bunch of horrors. Elias Hawthorn, Maddy Why, Alex H. The eldest Barry, Evan V. Ryan S. and the Bone Duster. A team of eldermore and medical students who were also allowed inside Stella's secret

lab. Was there anyone not allowed inside this lab? Seriously, I want to know. Joshua H. Robot Crisp. Yiddressil. Brantley C. Micah B.

And poops. Thieves who were also hiding in the secret lab, G's, but after overhearing all the drama, decided to just leave and call it a night. Good plan. Carly Ann, Laurie P, spam gaming the not-so-skilled gamer, Connor Savage, Russell H, and Christopher J. Pebblepott. The lab interns who accidentally left the blueprints for the necrophone in the copier. Big mistake, guys.

Definitely not getting college credit for that one. Logan S. Leviathan, Dimmie A. Bioquart 7. Kenny. And Remington CD. West precinct horror hunters. They were all out celebrating making the squad and got a little rowdy and thus absolutely missed their first chance to hunt a horror when the borer showed up. Maybe for the best. Amber K. Thrill of the Fight, Sullivan H, Everett P, Drug Hopdropper, and Sydney T, guards at Stella's lab who are all a little suspicious of the brand new janitor they've never seen.

But hey, the accent checks out, so they're gonna look the other way. Thanks guys, the element god, Lindsey W, Champ Wild, Vailan, Sprite Pepsi, and Carlin Sea. Members of the West precinct press were all a little confused trying to parse out quick blasts long-winded free-wheeling interview. They were curious about the heroes who actually killed the borers, or at the very least the altercation where Edgar Jr. threw a canteen at an unnamed middle-aged man, and she gave

them nothing. Anthony S. Tristan C. The Lucid Uptus Goose. Jake. Emily S. The new petty king about a Burrow CC, and Matthew J. High school friends who came up with big wrecks and little wrecks in congruence nicknames. And let me tell you, they are still laughing about it. It's that clever. Scriptscripper Michael S, the bone duster, Noah, Wyatt B, Estelle, and Ghost. Lognomore's team of lawyers who had Stella assigned mountains of paperwork and contrary to her belief,

100% have all of her intellectual property locked up, including stuff she came up with before she was employed by them and anything she invents after. Oh, I don't feel bad for her, but seriously, reach her contracts. Rogue Cree, Daniel N, Baroness, Swastions Romance Partner from the Baronies, Mr. Dude's Guy, and Conflicted DM. West precinct rodeo clowns who saw Kane get lassoed and knew it was their time to shine. They did their best dancing around him, but he still made a beeline for the third mates. A veilion effort everyone. Give yourself

a honk, just an lb, conner p, dandy, jennifer r, and clifton a. People who were also grappled by mage hands like Henry, but luckily for them they were nice little mage hand hugs and high fives. Oh, actually sounds kinda sweet. Richard G. Imbarber. Marcos P. Pup Kalish. Learns the balance druid. And Dakota J.P. Doc workers coming out of the woodwork after hearing about Fias never ending cherry lacour flask. I mean, yes, there's enough to go around, but this is ridiculous. Hey, Ghost V! Tracy P! A very big bed 91, Tyler B, Scrumpey Bogpipe, and Zachary R. Quick blast gym spotters who are actually kind of redundant considering Quick Blast has extra arms to spot herself. But you know what?

Sometimes she likes to push extra weight, okay? And she actually does need six spotters. Sorry, not sorry. Don't apologize, you get it quick blast, you deserve it. And with that, we are done with our shout outs. Thank you all so so much for listening and supporting us. We'll catch you next week. Bye bye! you