The Glass Cannon Podcast - Gatewalkers Episode 63 – Meow Mix 2: Pounce Upon a Time

Episode Date: December 13, 2024

A fey feline preys upon the party as they get lost in the streets of Skywatch. Watch the video here: https://youtu.be/3UKoj7mHldY This episode was sponsored by Foundry VTT and Norse Foundry. See why tabletop gamers everywhere have made the switch to Foundry Virtual Tabletop at https://foundryvtt.com/gcp For all your random number-generating needs, visit Norse Foundry at https://norsefoundry.com Visit https://auraframes.com and use code "GCN" to get $35 off Aura's best-selling Carver Mat frames. Our listeners get 22% off their first order when you use code "GCP" at https://iherb.com/shop/GCP. Existing customers receive 15% off. Wishlist Vesper on Steam today by visiting https://playvesper.com/glasscannon. Go to https://zbiotics.com/GCP to learn more and get 15% off your first order when you use "GCP" at checkout. ZBiotics is backed with a 100% money back guarantee, so if you're unsatisfied for any reason, they'll refund your money, no questions asked. Access exclusive podcasts, ad-free episodes, and livestreams with a 30-day free trial with code "GCN30" at jointhenaish.com. For more podcasts and livestreams, visit glasscannonnetwork.com. Watch new episodes when they premiere every Thursday at 8PM ET on youtube.com/theglasscannon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Hamburglar, why are you calling? Rubble, rubble. McDonald's has a new biggest burger called Big Arch made with two 100% Canadian beef patties, a new delicious sauce and all the McDonald's flavors you love and wait, you want me to help you get it? Rubble. Come on. Compared to beef burgers on McDonald's current menu at participating restaurants in Canada You are listening to the glass cannon network the premier source for role-playing game entertainment

Last week on the glass cannon podcast Last week on the Glass Cannon Podcast. Well, sun is setting. I can see the first sign of stars. Let's go. And off you go into the night in search of the Mystic Market, somewhere here in town. You're looking at the stars, but you do feel like you keep getting distracted by what you see. Should have been at the market by now. I don't understand. You do notice there's another building that sort of juts out, but as you're both watching there,

this like creature seems to come flying out. Its bite seems to be burning through you. It's what pounces, bites, and burns. The cat's really mean. I wouldn't underestimate it. It then pounces towards Brother Ramius. Dying too, man. Oh, boy. I could go down with a single hit so can I bye

It's just nuts. It's nuts. It's a 33 dead. So I'm done dying to For Asta we're gonna get TPK'd by a fucking cat. It is now Buggles turn boom cold snap hit something happens The cat takes this damage. It disperses into ash cinders. All of you within this disbursement start to feel really, really hot. The adventure continues now. No I take a trip down candy cane lane with me It's the straightest thing I swear you'll ever see is the best Joe. I don't know that song. It's from Sia

You know Sia. I don't know what that is either. Yeah, Sia I don't like Sia. You don't like Sia? She makes me mad. Okay. You wanna talk about? No. Okay, I don't like Sia. I don't like pink Wow No. Oh God. I don't like Sia. I don't like pink. Wow. Something about them. I'm just like, fuck. Okay. Okay.

Sorry I brought it up. Turn this shit off. You know who else Kate doesn't like? Me. Oh, okay. Let's talk about what happened at the tea shop today, Kate. Whoa, at the tea shop, first of all. That's embarrassing.

Secondly, continue. Not manly. The tea shop is delicious. They have coffee's embarrassing. Secondly, not manly. The tea shop is delicious. They have coffee as well. This is also the place where Sydney was mistaken for Dua Lipa, so it's a... I don't buy coffee, but that's why Sydney likes it.

It's my favorite place on earth. Also, question, is bubble tea just grosser pulp? Do you like tapioca balls? It's not pulp. But it's just junk inside the tea. No, it's tapioca balls? It's not pulp. But it's just junk inside the tea. No, it's tapioca balls. Tapioca balls. It's like chewy ball, kin, candy.

Hold on. Inside the tea. There's a lot to unpack here. I want to get back to Sierra first. She's annoying. Candy King Lane is a great Christmas song. She's got some other good hits. I think you should really check her out.

I hate everything that she does. She may have had an appropriate relationship with a child. See it if you're listening. I'm sorry. I don't fucking like you. Maddie Ziegler. Oh, I read about that. A little bit of a child. I'm sorry, I don't like you. Maddie Ziegler. Oh, I read about that. Michael Jackson.

I'm gonna swing. I fucking hate that song. I'm gonna swing. Oh, I know that song. That's Sia. Well, she's got a Christmas album. That's a great tune. She may have had an inappropriate relationship with a child.

I'm not sure. We shouldn't talk about Sia. Shouldn't buy coffee from a tea shop. Number two, why does Kate not like you? I was at the tea shop getting myself a tea. Mm-hmm Kate walked in It was the first it was the morning. Yeah, we were walking to Here to record today record. Okay, and Kate walks in she looks at me. Oh, okay Kate looks at me like I was complete stranger and says hey and then looks away and I was like, that's weird and says, hey, and then looks away. And I was like, that's weird.

And then. Wow. I had a weird morning with some people on the train just behaving poorly. So. Were they bearded? Were they bearded? No.

Okay. And I didn't. Were they listening to Sia on a boombox? Oh God. And it was before my second coffee. I was ordering my second coffee while I was there. So I walk into the coffee shop, lights blaring in. A man goes, hello.

And I go, hey. And then I just like look at the menu and then I was like, you turned around. And I was like, who the fuck was I? I looked directly at him this time. And I was like, oh my God, it's Matthew. Wow. And then you said hi again.

But I did one of those things where I was just like, I did one of those things where I was just kind of like, I'm not gonna engage with anyone. That's what happened. You said hi again. But I did one of those things where I was just like, I think she left the place. Yeah. How did that end? I did one of those things where I was just kind of like, I'm not gonna engage with anyone. That's what happened. I thought, I was like, whoa, this is information I didn't expect, but I'm glad to have. I said I was sorry.

So there was no like, nothing was resolved in the tea shop? No, Kate was like, oh, and then she like punched me in the arm. Oh, I didn't, I didn't punch you. It wasn't hard. That's how she shows affection. It was like, oh, there you are. Yeah, like a cat.

Yeah. But no, we had a lovely little chit chat. What was the gap between you ignoring him and apologizing? Like one second. Okay. All right. So Matthew's over. No, wait, Matthew's saying it was a little bit more.

Matthew's trying to start a smear camp. We're talking Matthew, let's be honest. A smear camp. Because you smear cam playing 10 seconds. It would say under 10 under 10. It was a one second What about I would say approximately squiggle line to legal sign five. So alright, so this is how be like hey, hey But she knew it was Matthew and still didn't say hey, why not? You are just lying. If you count out five seconds, that's a roll security cam footage. I was nervous for three seconds as I reenacted that.

I thought we were going to lose listeners. That long of a gap? People are checking their phone to see if it stopped working. Right. Is it frozen? Is the video frozen? That was the only possible explanation. That's how long you made him wait for a hello

She said hello. She just treated me like I was just a second class. Yeah Like you were just hitting on her which is what you were for drinking tea Yes, how you feel is how I feel every week Sydney and I go ha ha ha at least a tiger side eating my face Sometimes you guys eat my face and I'm like, you know what? Maybe we shouldn't make fun of each other. There's a- Oh. Every single day.

Hey, Kate, you gotta let the tiger- We'll get to her. Don't worry. Gotta let the tiger lick you when you got egg on your face. I don't mean to make fun of you, so I apologize. Is that an expression? Yep. But I do mean to just clarify, you don't hate me?

You do hate me? Say it on air on recording. I don't know now. Oh, man. What if he was swinging from a chandelier? Chandelier. Hey. Chandel't know now. Oh, man. What if he was swinging from a chandelier? Hey. Chandelier. For sure.

Hey. I don't know that song. Picture it. Hey. That's a t-shirt. Not the swing from a chandelier with a bubble tea cup. All the Sia fans in the comments are going to be like, OK, what's wrong with Sia?

Everything. A lot. Wow. Guess we won't be taking a trip down Candy Cane Lane today. Festivus is a couple weeks away. I celebrate around the aluminum pole. As you know, there are feats of strength. There's also the airing of grievances.

Airing of Jonskys. And even though we're a little early for Festivus, I think we should air some grievances. Finally. Oh no. We finished last episode and it was hot in her. There were things said that I cannot hear repeated again on this show because it would hurt people's feelings. But I want to talk about it.

But I want to say it. But I want to say it. I want Joe to say it. In the interest of healing. We get to say whatever we want? Yes. As long as it's germane to the subject. Like SIA.

It has to be germane to someone here. Can we talk about SIA? No. We're going to talk about the disillusionment with this campaign. Yours or ours? It's ours. Are we going to pass the speaking sword? Because I will jump down someone's throat if I have a thought.

So maybe we should use a sword. Are you worried about being talked over? I'm worried about talking over people. Do you want to go first? You're holding it very tightly. You feel like you want to go first. It's also, it's not a sword. It's a dagger?

It's a dagger. It's a derk. A bodkin? I like calling it a derk. It's a derk. A bodkin? I like calling it a derk. It's a derk. We've had two character deaths on the verge of possibly another one in what feels like a random encounter. We had seven combats in a row, so seven episodes worth of combats in a row, finally leveled

up. Everyone survived, had a much needed, almost two episodes of roleplay. One and a half episodes of much needed, almost two episodes of role play, one and a half episodes of much needed role play. But this is a tactical combat game. Of course, you're going to get back into combat. We do. And straight out of the gate, crits, crits, crits, crits, crits, fumble, fumble, fumble, fumble, fumble, as often happens. A lot of fumbles on this side. I've been at 18 once.

A lot of crits over there. And it makes you upset. Now you have said before that part of this game is people go down a lot. People go to dying a lot. Yeah, that is true. That happens a lot. Especially at low levels. It's less painful when it isn't the healer that goes down. Yeah.

Much more painful when the healer goes down first. I like the idea. Kate, you have the sword. I like the idea. Kate, you have the sword. I like the idea of the fact that like Pathfinder 2E is harder at lower levels. So you don't feel like a hero at level one. You kind of have to work for it. I respect that.

I like it. But. Here we go. We're level four now. And I still feel like I'm not a hero. And I still feel like everything that we fight, I mean, sometimes we do roll pretty badly, but like, you know, you roll really well,

and then you still don't crit. And that sucks. Kate, thank you for sharing. Can I have the speaking jerk? Speaking jerk? Speaking jerk? I went like 40 to 50 seconds there without speaking. It was shocking.

It's hard for all of us. Scary. This feels great. Now you know we keep it by us. Now you have room to express yourself. I just got so excited. Hey, you don't have the dirk anymore. Excuse me.

The dirk dig the go. I'm tired of talking about this fucking campaign. Tired of talking about it. I like it. I don't like it. It actually has less to do with the campaign as a story. I am frustrated by the mechanics of what seem like random non-boss combats where you basically have to roll a natural 15 to hit on your first attack and where enemies crit you on their multiple attack penalty,

second attack without rolling a natural 20. That to me feels like a game that's not very fun to play for players and is very just frustrating over and over again. And I think that the way Kate described it, you don't feel like a hero over and over and over, you don't feel like a hero. And it's just a bit of a grind. Mm-hmm.

You done? Holy shit. Nice catch. Throwing knives. Circus performers. Whoa. Wow. Lockwood spin.

Here I go. Lockwood spin. I didn't feel nervous. I was very nervous. I was like, is there anything I'm going to spill? No, I'm good. You could have stabbed Hubert. Good. Honestly, I will do it. I'm gonna spill no I'm good. You could have stabbed Hubert good honestly I

Will do it I swear if it's the same I I feel fine Yeah, I think the one thing that's frustrating is having a character death building a new character trying to make it fun and interesting I loved my original character obviously think we all did sorry Yeah fine you can compliment me or what I'm saying I think we all did. Sorry. Now I think, shut up! Are there exceptions for compliments? Yeah, fine. You can compliment me or what I'm saying. Your hair looks amazing today. Thank you!

Sorry. Thank you. It was a really good catch. Sorry. That made me cry. But I think the Magus class in 2E is nerfed in many ways, as Matthew can attest to the differences between 1E, because he played a Magus in 1E.

And we've gone over some things where you're like, oh, yeah, that's different. Some of them being... You believe it to be nerfed. Yes. Some of them... I can already see the comments coming in. Oh, that's fine. How dare she say it's nerfed?

You can say it, everyone. The most powerful class ever? Mostly with the remaster, spells that were taken away are changed. There used to be Shocking Grasp, which was huge for Amegas that no longer exists and doesn't exist the same way. I can't use it basically as Amegas. Beyond that, there's some cool stuff like, yes, I can still two-hand a katana. I don't need a hand free.

It's only somatic. You can draw shapes with your sword unless because of Laughing Shadow, I'm in Arcane Cascade. I need to have a hand free while in my Arcade Cascade stand. There's things that are so mechanically specific that nerf Amegas and I'm working with what I got. I can do what I can do, but in a combat, especially with creatures that move around a lot, which we've dealt with, it's just frustrating sometimes.

I feel like I'm useless because I run up spell strike and that's it for my round. If I miss, I miss. If I roll a fucking one, I roll a one and that's real bad. So I think, I don't know, people talk a lot about party balance and I feel like we have an okay balance though some people online would disagree. I think we do okay and it's still extremely difficult for us as a party. And I just, I don't know, makes me think that, is it me?

Hmm. That's my grievance. Wow, that's good. You seem like you've been very angry at this campaign as well, at TUI in general. I think you have a lot to say. We want to hear it. It's a safe space. I'm a little upset that to date,

no one has mentioned, let alone complimented my new hoodie. I really like your hoodie. I was just going to, I just didn't think it was appropriate. Actually, is that cashmere? It looks so soft. I would even call that a cardigan.

Where did you get that? That's my cousin's makes them. Oh my God that a cardigan. Where did you get that? That's my cousin's makes them. Oh my god. My cousin Megan. Cousin Jason Crew? That's right. Jason Crew.

I want one. That's all you had to. That's all you had. Wow. This kid's enjoying every moment of the game. Everything else is great. I love that. I love it.

I love that hoodie. I have been. That's all the time we have. Oh. Oh. All right. Well, I'll just. We'll see you right after this break.

Can I air my grievance or no? Yes, please. Air it. Air it away. I just feel like we don't get to play enough together, and I miss that. Wow. So that's your grievance. My grievance. Well, there you have it. I mean, I have more. You want to go again?

Kate, take the derk. Oh. Make the speaking derk. I thought that was a nice way to go out, but okay. Kate has the derirk, Matthew. She's right. Yeah, I hope it's better than what Matthew said. I feel self-conscious, so I don't wanna complain too much,

but it's festivus, we can complete. It's festivus, that's what we're supposed to do. The airing of grievances. Another grievance I have is that I think the nature of this campaign is to be grindy, and you either like that or you don't. I have another one. She wasn't talking about that. I actually have another one too that I just remembered

and this came up, my background that I picked, I picked a different one for this character. Yeah. All you're complaining about is your character build. It's so funny. Everything's in your control. I still remember, I remember distinctly the moment we were in the restaurant,

and you were like, I think I know what I'm going to do next. After we had Sally Lost Lucky, you were like, magus. And I just went, fuck. That was my initial reaction. That is what happened. I like a challenge. But here's the thing. I picked the one background that no one in the party has.

I didn't want to double up and us have the same deviant feats because it's a show. I thought it would be interesting. It is written for this specific campaign. It is an energy consume ability. Not once have we fought an enemy that does the energy that I can actually use my deviant feet. That is a fascinating and stupid design.

Not once. It's a fascinating and stupid design. Not once. Like it's a fascinatingly stupid choice to make a campaign feat that has no relevance in the campaign. It is cold energy and an enemy has to use it and I can consume it. Oh, it's coming up. It's coming up. We're going to the Crown of Europe.

I know, which I was so excited about and then we got to fucking Skywatch and I was like, nope, still not happening. And that's when she threw the speaking dirt. Sorry about your dice. Which I was so excited about and then we got to fucking skywatch and I was like nope still not happening And that's when she threw the speaking dirt Sorry about your days Pretty sure you guys fuck enemies with gold Troy do you have any a blasted cold at us like you've had a couple? Yeah

Do you have any you get you have to agree you want the speaking dirt? No, I Don't take the dirt. Yeah, give him the derk. Well, throw it in. Oh! Oh! Think collapse! How? Throw it to him.

Don't launch it out of a trebuchet. Throw it like you're trying to. I'm just a girl. You know though, we should put down screens for this. There should be no screens between us. Yeah, no screens between us. Do I have an Apple logo? It's symbolic. We I have an Apple logo? It's symbolic.

We'll cover the Apple logo. Well, now you just said it. At this point, you're just giving them free advertising anyway. I rolled like four 18s and a 17 last week against you guys' three natural ones, I think, or two natural ones. Yeah. And that happens whenever things go this way, it's because that happens. All right. Rocks, you guys are rolling shit.

Maybe, but here's where I disagree. And this whole like- All I said was facts. I know, I know. But here's where I disagree that like, that's the reason that I don't like this campaign. It's like I, that I don't like some of the design, the encounter design. It is not because of bad rolls. It is because like what you can,

a couple natural ones, a couple high, super high rolls, like that'll swing things for sure. And I don't mean to just like complain about like random chance. It just feels a little wrong to me. Like when you say you guys roll like shit, a lot of times what Matthew, our frontline fighter guy is rolling is a natural 11, a natural 12.

And those- And you think those should hit? Against an off guard opponent. We are in position, they are off guard and it's still a fucking miss. And it's not that we are constantly rolling like shit. Yeah, the natural ones happen. It's also not the boss. If we got into the Raiders camp, and this was Gorka, Gorkan the Swift, I can't remember

his name exactly, and you're like, you're going against the head hobgoblin, 100%, I can see it. And if you TPK, you're like, man, we went down to this tough boss. But it's like a random encounter against some creature that has no relevance to the story that you're aware of. And it's like three levels higher than you. It just seems strange to me in terms of encounter design. It has nothing to do with the overall story, nothing to do with the way you're running it.

And I think not as much to do with the die rolls. It's just that they're so extreme every random encounter, I feel like. It's not three levels higher than you, but still. Yeah. Feels like it. Yeah. Oh, nothing else?

I don't need it. Oh. I already threw the dirk. Random encounters were a big part of original D&D and so when they pop back up in these adventure paths, it stays true to sort of the spirit of the original game. And I like that, but I can understand when it goes awry, it can feel less meaningful. But it happened in Giant Slayer, Orim Vorex.

You know what else I should say? I should put this point in there. Hero points. Yeah. They are a designed part of the game that you have essentially taken out of it. So I shouldn't call this a failing of the encounter and designer, designed part of the game that you have essentially taken out of it. I shouldn't call this a failing of the encounter and designer, a failing of the system. It's the way that we're playing it. It's just like- That is a great point.

Yeah. Almost every one of those natural ones just would not have happened in the actual game that this was designed for. We also wouldn't be as terrified on a razor's edge every time someone went down because we'd have more opportunities to stabilize. Yes. Totally. And I think that that goes, it's so funny, they're called hero points, and that's exactly what Kate's point was,

was we don't feel like heroes. And it's like, if that's the kind of game you wanna play, that's fine. But I think that's what hero points do. They make you feel like heroes. Make you feel like heroes. So it's interesting. It almost like reinforces the game design in a way that they put those in

there for that reason. Because we have them in Blood of the Wild. It doesn't feel like they have that much of an impact, but you can see they must have a huge impact because we never feel this way except in major encounters against boss level enemies. Yeah, yeah. But interesting. Yeah. Yeah, I wonder if that makes a big difference. I mean, yeah, that extra life one that we did, it was a one shot, we were giving away like bottle caps for like donations. So it's like a bit different. Like at one point I had like four of them.

So it's, but like, yeah, it definitely did like, I had like three or four of them at one point Remember seeing people like in chapping like they're having so much fun with this I'm like well Yeah, cuz I got like three bottle caps is fucking different and we're level four and all of that But like it was also kind of a different campaign like it didn't seem like it's a one-shot But it didn't seem like as crazy deadly and I don't know Yeah I also want to say to Joe's point to like this is not a failure seem like as crazy deadly and I don't know. Yeah.

I also want to say to Joe's point too, like this is not a failure of the campaign and any like I'm not speaking to Paizo when I talk about my disappointments. It's mostly I'm disappointed in like my roles or you know, my own character build for sure. Like I thought it'd be fun to play Amegas and it is fun and I am loving our party dynamics. I'm loving the storytelling. I think you're a wonderful GM obviously and I think we're all playing in like a fun way, but it is just combat after combat getting beaten down is like Hard. Yeah, it's it weighs on it weighs on you, but I'm emotional that being said love Asta I still love her build even if people out there like ah you should have done this to max out

I'm like I don't care about that I care about the character and the and what it brings to the table. So no issues overall, no issues. Just a little bit tired, a little bit tired. I think I was having more fun before I was rightly corrected about how much damage I was supposed to be feeling with my spells. That was way more fun.

I hit letter of kill. I like my way better, but I like my way better. Yeah. Yeah. Well, yeah I know you're having fun in Blood of the Wild, but you're also a barbarian that hits everything You know your BA you guys don't have any character. I don't know a B that can withstand. It's not true I don't think these are maxed BAB characters as a fighter level four was not the same as one. You know, you're the BA bees are pretty consistent Yeah, mine mine is the same as BarnesE. The BABs are pretty consistent. Mine is the same as Barnes's for my Divine Lance. It all tweaks on your max ability score.

I'm a plus four strength. I am a strength ability score, and I have a plus four. Yeah, interesting. And yeah, so that's where. I don't think hero points make that much of a difference. I think of Extra Life, I was rolling poorly, you guys were rolling really well. That too, yeah.

It's that. The luck just seems to. You guys need to do a real luck ritual. We spent hero points in that game too. Wait, here's my question though. I know we're not done with the encounter, so maybe you can't tell me, but this cat, what is its plus to hit?

Cause you said you didn't even roll a natural 20. Yeah, that's pretty hard. My guess is 14. So that's, you know, my plus to hit, even with my plus one striking rune right now is 11. Yeah. I feel like that's significantly lower. No? I don't know, is that balanced usually? Well, for one, combatting against multiple. Sure.

And against five instead of four. Sure. Yeah. It's been a lot of one versus five. It's also balanced for four characters. Yeah. And you're still, you know, just unfortunately struggling. It could just be the dice rolling. But what I think is pretty inevitable

is the feeling that everybody has. Yeah, yeah. You're just like, ah, god. I just want to hit and not go down. I feel like a failure all the time. And that's fun. You feel enough that way in your life. Right, exactly.

You can replicate it in a fantasy scenario. Exactly. We were doing accounting in the last episode and now I have to feel like a failure. This is so hard for me. I feel like I think about, cause I know it's not the same game, but playing Call of Cthulhu,

it's like that game is very like high pressure and like scary to play and you're on edge during combat cause you're squishy. And when you roll low, it sucks, but like it doesn't. When you roll low, it's good. It's good. Oh no, when you roll high or like when you roll low, it sucks, but it doesn't. I don't know. When you roll low, it's good. It's good. Oh no, when you roll high, or when you roll badly,

or whatever. When you fail. When you fail, it sucks, but you do have that luck pool you can pull from, which makes it a bit better. But then also, I don't know, it's just, I think back on that where I'm like, this is also a terrifying game, we're always on edge. But when I do it here with this one, I'm just like,

yeah, it just weighs me down. I'm like- Also, call it that you're not heroes. Yeah. Yeah. You're not meant to be heroes. I think you're, I think you're, I think you might be right about the hero points are not having an enormous math mat,

wouldn't have an enormous mathematical effect. But that's psychological. They have a huge psychological effect. Cause that way, cause if you were to fail twice Like I've already put your hero point and fail again. I don't like I don't I don't feel like ground down by The like the world against me. I feel around like I feel like oh like oh god They're like it just feels so crushing but really natural ones back-to-back is crushing right? Yeah, I mean, we're just like feel like you earned that yeah

That's what I'm trying to say. That's an earned disaster. Sure. As opposed to the world being against you. And I think if I miss on that first attack at this level, right, if I roll a natural 13, natural 14 and miss, which happened, it didn't happen in this passing counter, but it has usually, it will often happen. And I'm like, oh God, that's so debilitating because now I'm going to roll my, if I go

to roll my second attack, which I feel like I have to, because I'm the, oh, god, that's so debilitating. Because now I'm going to roll my, if I go to roll my second attack, which I feel like I have to, because I'm the only one in the party who can deal damage because Aos is on a different plane, then, or something, then it's like, oh, that's definitely not going to hit. So then I'm like, okay, well, then do I spend it doing the, get the plus one. But then it's like the, the strategy of getting the plus one doesn't even feel effective because I'm rolling, like if I can't hit on a 14, you know, it's just, but whereas with the hero point, you know, you're like, okay, it doesn't feel like I have to hit on this one roll,

right? It doesn't feel so high pressure. And then it's like, okay, well, like, but then I have the decision, like, I could use the hero point right now. So how would you feel about getting hero points once every four or five episodes? But on the flip side, time you roll 10 under the AC, you get a fan fumble. That's, I mean, then you would never, it makes the second attack so risky. I think it would mean more than every four or five episodes because I roll how many attacks in the counter.

So it would be one every three. Those fan fumbles are brutal. I mean, the fan fumble had a huge impact one every three. Those fan fumbles are brutal. The fan fumble had a huge impact on that, too. That's not in the game. That's the other thing. That's not in the encounter design. Right.

Yeah, that's true. In this particular. That brought us down to four characters, which is what it's designed for. What it's supposed to be. Well, let me say one other thing. And then I came back and died. Right.

One other thing purely mechanically coming off of Call of Cthulhu and what Matthew was just saying about rolling like a natural 13. If you think about Call of Cthulhu, yes, you're not a hero. But generally speaking, and we're not talking about combat here because Call of Cthulhu is not about combat.

It's like it happens. And when it does, it's very, very, very deadly. But throughout, when you roll, the thing that you are best at in Call of Cthulhu, since it's a D100 system, it's pretty easy to say you have a 75% chance of success or 70% chance of success in Call of Cthulhu if it is the thing you are best at, the thing you're spec'd for. That's generally going to be what your score is. For these characters, this is what they're best at and they have a 25% chance to hit or 30% chance to hit.

It's a complete reversal of the success failure mechanic that just – in this particular campaign I felt like that feels – I think that's why you tend to feel like a failure. It's interesting, yeah. I wouldn't feel like a failure in Call of Cthulhu if I'm a librarian and the hideous monster comes up to me and I'm looking at, I'm rolling on a 20 or a 15. Right. A 15% chance. I'm like, oh man, I'm just gonna die

and it's part of the story, it is what it is. But when you're like, I'm the only one that is good in my party and I rolled over a 10 and I still fail, it's frustrating. The thing I feel like also happens with you a lot is you will roll like a 12 or a 10 or something on your first roll and then roll and miss. And then roll a natural 18.

And then roll a natural 19. Yeah, it's infuriating. And then miss. It's just so brutal. Yeah. Yep. That happens. And then also like, yeah, I don't know.

Like last episode I was missing the stunning fist and it's just like, oh, if I miss that, then it also like, yeah, I don't know. Like last episode I was missing the stunning fist and it's just like, oh, if I miss that, then it's like, oh, I can't believe I missed doing that. And not only is like, they're not gonna be pissed at me, but like every single little thing helps when you're like this dire. So I'm like, God, I just suck, God. Not only does Zephyr suck, but I suck.

Right, right. Yeah, well it's good to talk about these things. It's good to get them out and see how you're feeling, because I know it was frustrating and like, you know, this, you're not out of the woods yet with this. This is still really bad. It disseminated at the end of last episode. It's gone, we're free.

But you literally use the term ash, which is only what happens to dead things. I think we're done here. The air heated up around us. Bless your heart. Oh, you sweet summertime. It's good to know. It's good to check in though every once in a while. I know there's been some frustrations, but the frustrations aren't so much with the story

or anything like that. It's with the just not feeling like a hero. Yeah. Yeah. It's interesting to say the hero points because I don't know if they'd make a big mathematical difference, but I don't think I think about the emotional, psychological difference they would make. When you have a horrible role,

you can get rid of that one. Yeah. Once in a while. And I know- And that doesn't feel cheap to you at all? Well, I understand- Not in this design. It feels so cheap to me.

I understand your sort of reluctance, your reasoning for not wanting to have them as much in this, because it can undo like a failure in a dramatic moment. And it's just like, oh, you know, it's like throwing the challenge flag. It's just like, there's enough of that in the NFL. So I understand that like completely,

but it does sort of, the impact of it just does sort of add up, I think, over time. Yeah. The scenario I imagine is like, yeah, you save them for those you know those those death saves that's obviously like that's obviously the primary use them for us but then also like that that moment where it's like okay like you have to hit the monster right now or we're all gonna die and I know because of the way they because of the monsters AC I'm only gonna

really get a chance on the first attack and I roll that natural seven you know and it's like okay well now like that feels like okay I'm gonna spend the bottle cap chance on the first attack. And I roll that natural seven. You know, and then it's like, okay, well now, that feels like, okay, I'm gonna spend the bottle cap, be a hero and see if I can rouse myself. It's so fun to do that, even if you miss it. Even if you miss it. Even the second time, it's fun to be able to do that. Like this is so much. That's why I started

not saving them, like we all started at one point just saving them for recovery checks. And I'm like, I'm gonna do that, that's not fun. And I just started spending them on attack rolls, even though I have none now and I might die. But like it made it fun. Like you can crit on them and it changes everything. Yeah.

The fact that you have to take the second result too also feels, it's not like we're rolling twice and taking it better. Yeah. But you have to take the second one. Yeah. Yeah, so if you didn't fumble, you could fumble. There's a greater risk as well.

We've done that frequently. Especially on saving thrust. Especially the way you guys roll. Well, it's an interesting discussion. I just wanted to bring it up because we'll see what happens with this episode. Maybe we'll just, we've talked about this being a TPK and then we just go out to dinner.

Oysters. Take a couple months off. But yeah, I'll be interested to see what happens and how I take in this information and see if we make any changes. But we'll be back right after this quick break. My absolute favorite thing to do during the holidays is see more family and friends. Work, life, things get busy.

You know this and the holidays are the perfect time to slow down a little bit and see more of the people we love. And that's why the best gift that I can think to give this year is an Aura digital picture frame. It is the number one digital photo frame according to Wirecutter, probably because it's awesome and incredibly easy to use, allowing you to upload unlimited photos and videos directly from your phone to the frame. My wife and I have had one for about a year and we love it. I've already given one to my mom for Mother's Day this year and she's obsessed with it. I preloaded pictures on it while it was still in the box, which is such a cool function. And so when she opened it, there were already dozens of pics already on there. She's added hundreds of pictures since this summer.

And I just want to give that gift again to more family this year. And I'll literally be doing that using our promo code. No BS. I'm literally buying this right now using our promo code. And you should too. Save on the perfect gift by visiting AuraFrames.com to get $35 off Aura's best selling What's up everybody, Troy LaValle here. Support for today's episode comes once again from iHerb. iHerb offers the best curated selection of wellness products at the best possible value across a variety of categories such as supplements, sports, nutrition, groceries, beauty. This is your one-stop shop for all your health and wellness needs. And they care

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Choose iHerb because wellness matters. Folks, we're back. We've gathered around the aluminum pole. And now we want to thank our sponsors, Norse Foundry and Foundry Virtual Tabletop. A couple of foundries. It's so funny, because I could sit here and be like, how bad we've been rolling, and just be like, Norse Foundry, for all your shitty rolling needs.

And you're just over there rolling Norse Foundry. Yeah. Does Norse Foundry have a little bit of a bent towards GMs? I mean, we use it in Strange Aeons also on our live tour. That's true. I roll fine. I roll fine.

Yeah. Generally. Yeah, and I needn't ship lately on my Strange Aeons rolls. Yeah. I just rolled 17, on my strategy on rolls. Yeah. I just rolled 17, 18, 20 on a new diary. 17, 18, 20? I have a new slogan. Oh. Like a broken clock in a bag,

Norse Foundry, right twice a day. Oh! We'll workshop it. We'll workshop it. Because of the Festivus. Ah. That's part of it, is you gotta have the broken clock in the bag.

Broken clock, there you go. Broken clock in the bag. That's a Festivus. Ah. That's part of it, is you've got to have the broken clock in the bag. Broken clock. There you go. Broken clock in the bag. That's a Festivus-only promotion. I forgot we were celebrating Festivus. It's important releasing this outside of Festivus. Festivus for the rest of us, you know that you have to navigate these enchanted streets.

Something is wrong in Skywatch. They told you. It's easier to do it at night than during the day, even though day would present perhaps a safer way of moving about. You decide to take what you think is going to be an easier check to go at night, see the stars or the ramius rolls, the survival check. And you get the sense that roll didn't go well. You stumble into this street, these three-story apartment buildings, something doesn't seem right.

All the doors are shut except Asta and Buggles notice, oh, that is strange. That door up there is open. This smoky little feline comes rushing out, pounces towards Ramias, just jaws and claws and pouncing, really doing a lot of damage when it hits. It's doing fire damage in addition to the piercing damage from its mouth. You've done a lot of damage to it, but it keeps laying into you. It's immune to fire, which neuters, you know, 50 percent of buguggles attacks. Yeah, like a stray cat in Brooklyn. I totally agree.

A stray cat that had the misfortune of wandering by Sydney's apartment. Mad Sydney's window, they call her. The cat's doing great. Cat update. Cat update. Cat's good. Still at the house hanging out.

If anybody's looking for a cat. I can't remember who hit it last. Somebody hit, Buggles. Me. Yeah, Buggles. Buggles hit it. I got the Frosty Fire. Yes. Buggles hits it for like 20 something points of damage,

I think. 18 points. 18 points, it's all in the chat here. I could just read the chat. Anyways, hits it. And it like disperses into this cloud of cinders and ash. You guys start thinking metagaming wise, Oh, this must be sort of sort of death row. That's not good creatures that die and do damage on the moment of death. But that doesn't quite seem to be what's happening here. It seems like it's like dematerialized, at least for a moment,

with this hot ash that is surrounding all of you. It's a 20-foot emanation around you. Two of you are unconscious. One of you unconscious and dying too. And Asta, Ramius has at least made both of his recovery checks and is just unconscious. But can't move, can't do anything to wake up from this burning hot ash. On top of that, this creature seems to be gone.

Everyone within the cloud here is concealed and this creature, at least for the moment, is not visible to you at all. And that is where we pick up this week's episode. Buggles, I think that was your first action, or your first two actions. I don't think you moved first. No, I didn't move. Yeah, that was my first two actions.

You still have an action left. So with this sort of heat building up around us in this cloud of ash, I'm gonna use my third action to cast another spell. I'm gonna cast Thermal Stasis on Zephyr. Hmm, cool. In the cloud.

What's that? It basically, it gives you resistance two against fire and cold for one round. Nice! Resistance to fire and cold. And now even though she's concealed, that shouldn't, you should still be able to, you are difficult for one or more creatures to see due to thick fog. You can be concealed to creatures but not others. While concealed you can still be observed

But you're tougher to target. I would say unless you want to refute it that you can see her and cast that you can see her and cast that Yeah, oh actually it's four for the Titan. So it is resistance four to fire and cold Also, I'm gonna square adjacent to you. Like maybe you know I'm just right around that corner. Yeah, I can like reach out. And it's actually, I think it's like Buggles, just sort of pushing through the barrier in his mind to like reach out to you and just like, fwoom, like give you that bit of protection. And that breaks the spell. And then it's just like the Kulukhan is like, is banished for the moment. He's like, oh, who can banished? Sorry, so every, I'm sorry. Everybody within the cloud is concealed.

Everyone in the cloud is concealed. Yeah, there's a flat check. If you're casting a spell on her. It's not a targeted spell. Okay. What's a mental thing? Yeah. Okay. If it's mental, I'm gonna say you have

that mental connection with her. I'm not gonna make you roll the check. It's an emotion spell. I just have to feel her. Yeah, I'm fine with it. It would be DC5 for conceal, but if it's mental, I'm not gonna worry about it. We roll plenty of DC5s next two rounds. Enough to worry with. I'm fine with that. It is now Zephyr's turn. I'm gonna use my last focus spell for right now to harmonize self.

So I get eight more hit points back. Huge. Let me just hit. Need. Oh, I'm sorry. Let me take it back. Just very important there where Buggles finished his turn in this cloud of cinders. Something happens.

Just remove that eight really quick. Just remove that eight really quick. Just remove that eight really quick. Buggles, you take seven points of fire damage. Okay. Continue, there's F. Okay, I'm gonna put that eight points back on now. I have such few hit points that if you hit me, I might have gone down.

You need to get out of this. Yeah, but we don't know where we are, if this thing is dead, so I don't even know where to go to be safe, but I do know that both Asta and Brother Ramius are down. You can also see there's that 20 foot radius, wherever this is. There is a space to the north. There's spaces to the south, but with Asta and Ramious down They will take this damage. All right return which by the way, just putting it out there should Asta fail

or critically fail her recovery save the fire damage will kill her I Am actually going to take back for the second time, passing my Focus Fall to Harmonize Self. First action, run up to Asta, second action grab her, third drag her out of the 20 foot range. Okay let's talk about that. She's not Bugles. I know. That's gonna be a lot. But I only have to drag her like 10, 15 feet. And I have 35 feet of movement.

So you'd be encumbered most likely. So half speed, she could still do it in 15. You have to move 20. How much, what's your bulk? Sorry, that was an impolite question. What's your bulk? You can't ask a lady her bulk. You can't ask a woman her bulk. You can't ask a woman her bulk.

What's Asta's bulk? HR. You need to be able to... All right so moving up to her that's your first action. Grabbing her is the second. You then would need to move 25 feet to get you and her out. 25? Because do you see these two spaces at the bottom here is oh you want to go that way 20 and then this is 15 Yeah, but you you have to you guys don't share a space. You know my total bulk is four What well actually you may not be encumbered? What's your 20 if you can move 20 feet? I would say you could get her out of it. Um, what's my what what's your what's your current bulk? It'll be under your gear. It'll say total bulk. I'm unencumbered

bulk three of of What's your current bulk level? It'll be under your gear. It'll say total bulk. I'm unencumbered. Bulk three. Of? Of Max 13. So? Encumbered is eight. And you're four? I'm four. So actually you won't be encumbered.

So you should just be able, because you're so strong, you shouldn't be able to drag her. So you're bulk three. This would put you up to bulk seven, which wouldn't encumber you. And you can move how many feet? 35 feet. And even if she took the, even if she wasn't encumbered,

it's just a 10 foot penalty. Okay. So I can move 25. Cool. All right, so I'm going to say you can do it. Awesome. I don't see why you couldn't, that's your whole turn. Yeah. Move us away. Now right to the edge of that 20 foot radius.

Here's the thing, thank you for doing that. Maybe you should have saved radius, Remius, because I still have to roll for my save and I could very well still die. You're just gonna die now. She had to get you out now. Otherwise you definitely would have died. If anything goes wrong, I definitely would have died.

Yeah, you're right, you're right. Yeah, I mean, unless you succeed on your recovery check. I don't know if it matters. I feel like I would have tried to move her as far away as possible and not right outside the limit. Okay. How far can you move? 35 feet.

Okay, so you can move another 15. So they're leaving. Let's leave in the combat. That's pretty heroic. Well. Yeah. Running away. Here, here.

I want to- So weird Kate doesn't feel like a hero. I want to move her- Actually, it was incredibly heroic. It, running away. Here, here. I wanna, I wanna. So weird Kate doesn't feel like a hero. I wanna move her. Actually it was incredibly heroic. It was very heroic. Right to, let me ping it. Right there? Yes, yes. Okay.

Because I still wanna be within range. You're within range, yeah. All right, so you bring her carcass. Uh. It's not dead yet. Over to this. You bring her limp carcass to the edge of this. The cadaver of your friend.

Embankment. Uh, and worried as you do so, as you pull further away, Over to this. You bring your limp carcass to the edge of this cadaver of your friend. And worried as you do so, as you pull further away, that you could get disoriented by these streets as well. Yeah, yeah, if we get separated. If we get separated, everybody lost. Teomachus Barnes. Teomachus.

Uh, okay. How much, how heavy are you? Uh, I don't know, okay. How heavy are you? I don't know, man. How many balls? Super light. It's on your character sheet. Oh, that's right, you are like, city. Where is it?

Scroll down. Scroll down. You scroll. Three? Okay, great. So I could do the same thing. So I'm gonna, so, and you're stable, so I don't have to worry about it.

Correct. Okay. Because I could have also just given you the potion, but okay. But Barnes is gonna glint the mirror, he'll appear. Barnes was looking at where Ramius was, so I'm assuming like I don't need to, and then in the darkness I'll grab onto his form. Wait, we just concealed, you can see me. Now I can see, I couldn't see you before. You can? Everybody within the cloud is concealed. To each other, even if you me. Now I can see, I couldn't see it before. You can? Everybody within the cloud is concealed. To each other, even if you're more- You're not hit, you're not hit.

Oh, great. Okay, great. So then I'll glint the mirror, another Barnes will appear. First action. The other, that second Barnes will then grab Ramius. Second act. And drag him from the, drag him from the, the, and tell,

and y'all shout to Buggles, I've got Ramius. And how far can you move? 25 feet. All right, do you wanna move the full compliment? Buggles. I've got Ramious. And how far can you move? 25 feet. Alright, do you want to move the full compliment? Yes, please. Okay, that will take... When are you encumbered? I am encumbered at eight.

I'm currently at three. With you, it would be six. Six, okay. Okay, juicy. Ramious out, leaving Buggles alone. So my Buggles just disappeared from me on Foundry. Ha ha ha. Once I left the cloud. Okay, and now? Ramius out leaving Buggles alone. So Buggles just disappeared from me on Foundry. Ha ha.

Once I left the cloud. Okay, and now. And I shout, I know I tell you I'm getting Ramius, I also tell you I'm pulling down. I in some like whatever direction would make sense to show you which way I went. Okay. Go to the top of round six.

It would be brother Ramius's turn, brother Ramius is unconscious. He took six points of damage from being dragged across the uneven ground. Back to dying once. There was a sh of damage from being dragged across the uneven ground. Back to dying one. There was a shard of like a broken Heineken bottle. Cut him in the leg.

He's bleeding out, hit his carotid artery. This house is out of a soccer stadium? I've got all these colors around me. It's lodged in my back. And for the 50th time in campaign two, I need a death roll from Sydney. You, it would be DC 12. So a one or a two kills you.

I have toughness, so it's DC 11. Okay. So only a natural one. Stop. Don't, don't. Don't, you of all people. I honestly thought it was a positive thing. We taunt the gods.

You of all people. I felt so confident when I rolled this for fucking Lucky too. I thought she was out of the woods. And here I am again, dragged out of the woods. There's no chance. Yeah, God can't kill you. No, stop. I'm gonna give him the try, I have a 5% chance.

All right. Get a close up. I'm so scared. Get in there, Brody. There's 20 different options. Get in there! 15. Hope. Dying options. Get in there! 15. Ho. Dying one.

Nice try, God. Nice try, God. Not today, God! Dying one. Ho ho ho ho ho ho ho. I just moved. You just moved me into a house? I didn't mean to.

I think you'll like this place. What's going on in there? There's a couple in there Going at it Squatting Lovely Doesn't know what to do now now that you guys played so well he thought he thought he had us he thought he thought it was Over yeah, I thought it was over. I thought it was over.

He's like, oh, this is gonna be great. We're just gonna be getting scenes, the whole episode. Reaction to start slapping brother Amys's cheeks? I don't think it's gonna be very effective, so I think it'll just be fun. His butt cheeks? Yeah, which cheeks? The ones on his face.

Did Bless move with you? I guess it does, right? No, right? Yeah, sure. Centered on you. We do this every time, and you always respond the same way. Yeah, sure. Yeah, sure.

Why not? It doesn't, you don't know? It is an emanation. Most emanations come from a source that... It's not a burst. It's not a burst. The Cloud of Cinder starts to like, whoa, Rematerialize

Into this creature which is now right next to Buggles. Oh This thing and will attack Buggles Hold you against your off guard AC here, right? I'm in trouble. This is bad off guard AC and this will deal extra damage. Why is it off guard? It's part of the ability I can reappear in any spot the character attacks is off guard and a hit would deal an extra 1d6 fire damage it's a really nerfed creature a crit here would you got to give us a real pad let's that is going to be a 22 hit that's a hit against off guard okay so it's going to be, all right,

12 points of piercing and nine points of fire. 21 points. Okay. Oh, he's still up. That means- I don't know if he was hit yet. We can end it. If only I had a healing potion on my belt. Zephyr could feed me it,

but I don't because someone stole it from me. You know who does have a healing potion. You don't have any healing potions on you? No. You know who does have one? Oh shit! All right, you're no longer off guard. I have a minor one. You took it back.

I don't remember. I'm gonna die because of you. She has a minor healing potion. Guys, don't fight. You're both pretty. Go on. Claw attack against Bugles regular AC. 19. That's a hit.

18 points of slashing. And I'm dying one. No! Dying one, you'll live forever. Three out of five characters down. The remaining two characters combined, hit point total is? Currently, seven?

Is it like seven? I have 10. I have 17. Oh, 20. Well, we'll live forever. We'll live forever. It is funny though, you mentioned, cause I was thinking the Orm Vorex,

cause it was another cat. We had no business running into it all. And almost killed everyone. Yeah. We were significantly more powerful though. I think we were like level like eight or eight or nine or so. I feel like that. Yeah.

That was I think almost to the day because we're recording this in early-ish November. We were in Massachusetts. So to the day eight years ago. Almost. Wow, yeah. No, you're right. Final action is going to pounce 30 feet and attack Barnes. Oh, god, this thing is... Exactly had 30 feet.

Oh my gosh. Let's go Jaws. John's on the line. Okay. Probably a miss. Regular AC 15. Miss. Big round.

Yeah, no kidding. Big round! Huge. Huge. Huge. It is, Bell Buggles will move. Right there. It is Zephyr's turn. It is, Zephyr's turn.

Since Asta's down, can I like share space with her and kind of like stand over her so I can flank the thing with Barnes? Barnes? Please. Yeah, right? stand over her so I can flank the thing with Barnes. Please. Yeah, right? We've allowed in the past. Share a space with a dead enemy or a dead ally.

She's not our enemy yet. She just stole a couple things from us. Yeah, you know what? I will allow it. I will allow it. If Asta were to come to, then, you know, she'd probably, one of you would get pushed out of it. Normally I don't allow it, but I would do it for a dead character, and she's basically dead. Wait, get pushed out of what?

Out of the square. She wants to share a square with you. So I can't share a square. But this is a special situation where you're nearly dead. Yeah, stand above me. And prone. I'm like standing over you, yeah. What he's saying is if you get woken up somehow, you'll have to, one of you'll have to get back to that. I'm just looking here, you can,

I just saw something interesting. You can share a space with a prone creature if that creature is willing, unconscious, or dead, and if it is your size or smaller. So it's in the rules. Really? Yeah. That's great, so we could just do this

whenever we feel like it? Yeah, and the GM, well, yeah, willing, it says. The GM might allow you to climb atop the corpse eyes are smaller. So it's in the rules. Really? Yeah. That's great. So we could just do this whenever we feel like it? Yeah. And the GM, well, willing, it says, the GM might allow you to climb atop the corpse or unconscious body of a larger creature in some situations. A prone creature can't stand up while someone else occupies its space, but it can crawl to a space where it's able to stand or can attempt to shove the other creature out of the way. Capital S. So yeah, you can share. Interesting.

So one step up so I can flank. You take two points of damage faster. Two? Wait, what? What? I was like, great, back down to dying too. What? Back down to your face.

Flurry of blows with my fists. Flurry of blows. Flurry of blows with my fists. 20, well blast bless, right? 29 to hit. 29 is a hit. And then the second one. 25.

Two hits. Yes. Two hits. Action, Kate. Action, Kate. Yes. Fortitude save. Fortitude save.

I had lunch, so I fucking remember. 31, critical success. Check. Okay, so that's two hits. 15 points of damage with my hands. If she steps over, does a cross, and then a front kick. Crawl. Cross, front kick, step. Oh, and I have one more action.

I don't think I want to move out of flanking so that you can get a buff, but I would like to move out the square so that she can get up if she needs to. I would, so that, if you want to stay in flanking, great, but I also think it doesn't really help me if you move either way five feet. So if you want to get away, get, great, but I also think it doesn't really help me if you move either way five feet. So if you want to get away, get away. I can always bring the implement in.

Actually, final action, the focus spell that I undid four times and didn't actually use. Focus spell to harmonize myself, get eight hit points. That's only one action. Since it's one action and I'm right next to this thing. Take it. Yeah, because if you don't kill it this round, it's gonna lay you all out. It is the Obelisk's Bond's turn. Okay, I'm gonna do... This is enormous, because Ramius is unconscious.

Asta is unconscious and dying. Buggles is unconscious and dying. I'm stabilized. It's just us. No, you're dying. No, I'm dying one. You're dying one. It's just us. It's just the two of you. Hey. Good thing we're not in a tea shop right now. Look at us. Shut up. Good thing it's not a tea shop. Who is that over there? Oh hey. Yeah you know what you don't get the flanking bonus cause it's Kate. Some weird man.

Zebra looks across. Who is that fighting the cat? Hiking bonuses are only for friends. Oh, Matthew. No, Matthew! It could be any number besides that. It's not. It's not a natural one, it's just a natural eight. Which brings us to a total of 19.

You know what a hero would do with a bless? 20. Who would hit? You or a hero? With a bless? With a bless. What's the Bless? 20. You were a hero. With the Bless? With the Bless. What's total? 19.

Off guard. Yeah, we know that doesn't hit. Okay, so instead, for my second action. It's a gamble. Do it. Okay, second, my last two actions. Okay. Force Barrage.

Oh! Hey, there we go. That's why you got the spell. Yeah, the spell. Force Barrage. How many missiles? Two. Two D4.

I got two actions. Two Johns. Four points of damage. What? No. Is it a two D4? Six. What? It's one D4 plus one. Six points of damage. What? No. Is it a 2d4? 6. What? 1d4 plus 1. 6 points of damage. Still up. Okay. Round 7. Brother Ramius, unconscious and stable. Asta, unconscious and dying.

DC 10 because of your toughness. You are dying one, a success here, 10 or higher. Exactly the scenario I talked about with the hero points. It's like I have to hit on this one attack. Yes, yeah, exactly. All right, here we go. I rolled this, I rolled the last one. 10 or higher and you're stable.

Seven, back to dying two. God damn it. Do you see it? Do you see a scenario of how this could end? This fight? I see it. Is this scenario Oscar-winning? I mean, you brought up a really interesting thing, like if your character goes down and how like, lucky you went down to a fox. Oh my god, I brought, listen to this poetic justice. This is the only reason I would be okay with a death for Asta in this scenario.

Lucky bit by a fox and goes down. Amazing. Asta scratched by a cat. And goes down, that is fascinating. That's a beautiful bookend. That is poetic. There's no way that anyone would ever plan for that. We'll talk all about that in the epilogue episode next week.

Yeah. Or after this break. Or after this break. We're not even at the break. No. Maybe we'll take a break after poor Buggles. Death roll here. DC 11, recovery check.

Oh, that beautiful die. 11 or higher and you're stable. Okay, I love this die, by the way. So pretty. This is Eric, our friend Eric and our Foundry. It looks like it's lit up, but it's just the light there. Yeah, it's just like the way the light hits it. Like it's frosted, it's prism, it's real nice.

I know, studio lights, it's great. Let's see if you still love it. 13. Hey! Monkey 13. Bugles, stable and unconscious. That's big. The dying one roll to stable is huge.

It is the Elan-Anx's turn. Elan-Anx. Elan-Anx. Elan-Anx. How come they always have to make cat names unpronounced? El-Anx. It's the El-Anx's turn. El-Anx Morissette. Asta is dying too.

Bugles and Ramius are stable and unconscious. Zephyr and Barnes have X amount of hit points left and this creature has its full complement of attacks. We'll be back right after this quick break. Nace, you do not want to skip this ad. I promise you this episode is brought to you by our friends at Vesper who have brought along Ross Bryant to create an RPG video game. Ross Bryant is here with me today to discuss this really quick. Ross, you are now a video game RPG designer?

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Roll a die. Barnes to the north. Zephyr to the south. One, two, three Barnes. Four, five, six. Zephyr. And I'll do this for every attack. I can't make a fist with my nails.

Barnes. Two. I can't make a fist with my nails. Barnes. Two. Is that a Troy die? Sure is. Jaws. He can't even look! I haven't rolled a natural 20 in all of these. That's true, in all of this.

In all of these rolls. I have not rolled a natural 20. It's not a natural 20. Oh, God. It's certainly a hit. Is it a crit, though? Probably not. 30. Not a crit.

Barely. Can you survive a single hit? If he rolls badly. 15 piercing, two fire. You had 17. He had 17 left. He told us before. if he rolled badly. 15 piercing, two fire. You had 17. 17. He had 17 left. He told us before.

He had 17. God damn it! Barnes goes down. This is unbelievable. Oh, it's very believable. Dying. One. Second attack will be on Zephyr. Zephyr just sees all everyone going down.

She's the last one standing right now. She's just like, this is how it was gonna go. Put your glasses on. 17. Miss. Oh, come on. Miss me with that. This is minus 10, you can do this!

My hands are sweaty. I've hit on the minus 10 Yeah, this you have oh we know Okay Higher B. I'd be with the claw lower damage for care lower B. I'd be I'm gonna say with the jaws you're gonna not one That would be good for you guys you're gonna not one Here we go What's his name? Smokey?

Smokey, he doesn't need a name. Here we go. Oh wait, right, Annie Lemmix. Annie Lemmix. 11. Miss! Yes! Oh, Zephia!

This is only half the battle though, Zephyr, because it is your turn. And you are standing next to this creature with your full compliment of attacks. Of course it was gonna be Kate. Of course it was gonna be. Talk about needing to hear, how did I hear you?

I love the drama. I hate that I am the drama. Yeah, but I love that this drama's happening. I'm gonna swing from a chandelier hill. Maybe I'll let you guys die. Maybe Zephyr has a gate to catch. Troy started it, you're gonna let him win. Has a gate to catch back to Ketchabelle.

The gate to Ketchabelle. You know what? Ketchabelle. I hate Ketchabelle. I tried to finish it. She's stripping up her words. She's nervous, she's having a stroke. She's looking. She's gonna leave us for a valve trip. She's stripping over words. She's nervous How dare you make fun of me and my starter when all of you are down right now

Newscaster I look at the cat. Do I get the sense that if I were to hit, the cat is covered in cat blood. I'm just trying to balance like, do I try to hit it? I guess I could just do one full of your blows, but then I need to take out. Well, no, I could take out my minor healing potion that I have, give it to Asta in two.

Just hit it. So hit it, and then when I miss, I still get one heal up. No, no, no, hit it with your full attack, see what happens. Yeah, my Fuller Blows is one action. No matter what, even if you feed me a potion and I come back up, the cat is going to take me down,

so I say do the most damage possible. That's not true. You'll go before the cat. But I have to stand up. And I don't even know where the cat is. I can't see anything. It's right next to you. It is?

Yes. Zephyr is currently standing. I'm standing on you. Oh, you're standing on me. We can't see because she's dying. Gotcha. I don't know what character is what. Up to you then.

Make a decision of what Zephyr would do, whatever you wanna do, I trust. I think it just makes sense that her Titan Swing would unleash. Everyone is down. It tends to unleash when she's just freaking out and can't hold in her energy. So, schwamp, schwamp, schwamp.

Limbs get long. Tighten swing. Make an melee strike. I need a backlash check. Oh, backlash check first. DC five. 11. Got that out the way.

Yep. Okay, no backlash. All right, here we go. Tighten swing, this is it. 25 to hit. That is a hit. Yes! Okay, so 25 to hit.

On a hit, I deal 1d6 persistent bleed on top of my regular damage. Okay, roll your regular damage. So 1d6, six plus three to nine points of damage, max damage. And you kill them. Yes! Oh!

Tidal wave, oh my zephyr. All right, this is very important here though, because you are not out of the woods. Everybody else is unconscious and dying. You got your first action. This thing is now bleeding out from the persistent bleed damage. You have killed this creature.

You have two more actions. They will continue to roll their death saves and could perish around you. All right. What dying levels is everyone? You're stabilized. Yes, the corpse. Remus. I'm stable.

Bugles is stable. You're two. I'm fine. Dying one. Dying one. And I have die hard, so we have a minute. I feel like, you're right. But then I have to move. I only have two actions left. Or wait, Titan Swing. Oh my God,

if Asta had the potion. Titan Swing is two actions. You could take it and it finished her. That's what I was worried about. I didn't wanna say anything. She has. Titan Swing is two actions. So there's nothing we can do anyway.

Action. I take out my healing potion. And start to unstopper it. Oh my God. You're still so traumatized from Lucky. And now you've got this thing inches from her mouth. It takes two actions because my limbs gotta plomp, plomp back off. Clumsy old limbs.

It's round seven, excuse me, round eight. The Atlantic's, Annie Lennox is dead. You're just tuning in. Annie Lennox is dead. Woo! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha Someone who just tuned in. What did she say? On all the forces radio. Now Sia hates us. Your rhythmic sails through the roof. And Lennox hates us. It's Christmas. Ah!

Ramious, unconscious, stable. Then we come to Asta, who is, yet again, dying too. It's fine. You need to roll a DC 11, because of your toughness, flat check. A natural one and you're permanently dead. Anything else and she'll pour this down your mouth and you'll live forever.

Just Francis. Francis, don't laugh. He knows, he knows, he knows. Okay, here I go. Oh my god. Twice. You did it again. Twice and one. I'm sorry. That was so insensitive. I didn't mean to press the button. Oh, come on!

I can't believe this is happening. I cannot believe it's happening again. Oh my god Dude that is statistically crazy Statistics all of our characters have died this one. This is exactly. Yeah, you just got your awakened power is my died I did it to myself. It's like I stabbed myself. Oh my god. Oh my god. I've got to.

In the arms of the age. She's, for the audio audience, she's slipping the dirt between her own ears. She's crying to the heavens, but it's silent. The thing is, if I did Flurry of Blows, I wouldn't have hit on either of those things. You get a bonus. You did what you had to do. I get a different bonus.

You did what you had to do. And like, even if I take, like, oh what if I didn't do the two action and I could have gotten you, like I wouldn't have hit. Hey, you did what you had to do. You had that premonition of us laying you on the table. Maybe that was my death. I watched my own death. Wow. And I said it, and I believe it.

It was the only way that it would have been poetic justice, that if Lucky went down from a fox, Asta goes down from a cat. The exact same way. The enemy dead. A natural one post-fight. It's you and me. Two people whose characters have died on death saves.

And it's Zephyr, who was there both times, about to save the person. Oh, an unstoppable bottle standing over your body. My limbs are shrinking back and I have control of them again to do it. And I see you just like you just watch Yeah, you just watch like her her fur just like stops rising just goes up and then Is still I know we still have to do more death saves but I feel like I would see that happen and know and

Still try to like put it down your throat. Don't Just pours pours it all over your mouth. Don't. Well, let's see what happens on her turn. Joe's exploding right now. Kate, that might be what you do. Watching people play. That's fine.

I don't know what the problem is. Are they using consumables? Buggles. That's wasting consumable while we're at it. It's fine, unconscious and stable. Now it goes to Barnes. Barnes is dying one, and Zephyr is considering pouring the potion into Asta's mouth.

Open up my noise boundary. This is the Matthew die chunk. Natural one. Yep, I rolled my Sydney die too, so. Natural one will take you to dying three. Cracked. Cracked. I'm an 11.

Natural 13. Stable. Stable. And now, you're out of combat. Now, you're out of combat. Oh. Whew. Zephyr, you are the only one conscious. They're all unconscious, and you're just standing there

amidst this carnage with no medicine skill. Yeah. You assume everyone is dead. Yeah, I think what happened is her limbs shrunk back from the Titan swing and she's taking out the minor healing potion. And as she's unscrewing it, as her fingers are like dextrous for this task again, she's just like, just hold on. Just hold on. We're so close, we're good. And she just sees you look up at her and take your last breath,

or I don't know if your eyes are open or not. She, yeah, so you know what, here's the death scene. It's literally in bullet time, like seconds. You have the potion, you're about to pour it. And she reaches up toward you, and she just so lightly touches the Lucky month tassel which is also right next to the pouch of Lucky's ashes that are on your belt and she just like brushes her hand against it as her hand falls back onto her body and she just passes away.

And she's just holding the open, ready to pour, like maybe a drop comes out and she wants to like, just be like, no, no, and just like give in to just like freaking out and pouring all the healing potions down your throat, like it's gonna save save you, but she knows, she's heard you enough, this voice in her head being like, you can't waste any of this stuff. You need to be, every healing potion is precious. And she looks around and she sees like Buggles rise and fall of his chest a little bit.

She's like, everyone else is still alive. Okay. And she's like through the tears, looks down at you and gets up and walks over to Ramious pours a minor healing potion Down you down down your throat. How do you shirt? My concealed your shirt wakes up This is your mouth, it goes in your eyes. It's very dark. It just dribbles right out of his mouth.

Am I concealed? Your shirt wakes up. No. Oh, oh. Like tears. Unfortunately, I have no magical ability. Get me off the pig. Tears, tears streaming down her face

as she's just going through the motions, knowing that this is what she has to do and she can't give into like her big emotions right now and goes to each of you because we have enough we have three minor ones I see them on our on our sheet but he can heal she's gonna do that or not what you poured it down Rami's throat so roll roll the John James oh what do I what do I it's a minor healing potion yeah well so was that it's a what is it? D8 2d?

Hold on either d6 whichever one you got there. I was for it. What's lower minor or less not on your sheet It like doesn't say on the sheet. Oh, I'm just looking at like our our written sheet not on a potion minor 1d8 Eight points Wow ice Teramia so you like come back up. Yeah, he'll come to you Uh, eight points. Wow. Nice. To Ramias. So you like come back up. Yeah, he'll come to you. He opens his eyes.

He's like, Asta, Asta, you got to do something. You have to bring her back. Like you brought me back. Where is the creature? Where is it? No, Asta, you have to bring her back. You brought us back. You have to bring her back.

He sits up and he's just got blood all over his robes and stuff from being torn up. He's just trying to pull you and push you over to her, like not giving you a second. He sees that he's not where he went down originally. He's like looking around. The buildings are not in the same place. And he's very confused and he just sees Asta lying there. And he'll just, on all fours, just like crawl over. Asta, Asta! And he touches her face. He opens her mouth. He's just looking to make sure she's not breathing. She's not breathing. He feels her pulse.

What happened? When did she go down? When did she stop breathing? How long ago? I was the last one up, you all were down and I hit the creature with my power and as soon as it was down, I went to grab a potion, but my limbs were still shrinking back

and I just, one more second, just one more second. And- Bonds, he's down as well. And he's going to, yeah, and he's gonna do battle medicine on her, obviously, to no effect. And it's not working And it's not working. It's not working. And he's gonna turn to Barnes and just like jump over there,

sees that he's stable. Can you imagine? I just rewatched the clip of ER when Carter and Lucy get stabbed. Like, can you imagine being Dr. Carter, having been stabbed to the point where you're just like, unconscious and bleeding out and dying, being awoken and healed a little bit,

and then being told, cooperate on everyone else. Yeah, it's just wild. I imagine his vision crawling in from the sides. He's cranking, trying to like, there's stars at the edge of his vision, and he sees that Barnes is stable, and he'll do battle medicine on Barnes. And let's see see see how that goes

What did you do? What did you roll? I swear to god. You rolled a natural one. Barnes goes to dying one. I rolled another natural one! Oh my god. Jesus Christ! Knock out on a blood, sweat and tears It has nothing to do with the rolling while we don't feel like heroes. I think at this point like Zephyr's young, you're like,

Ravius, did you get- Oh, shit! And blood just starts going pssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss I've used my battle medicine so now Guide us through these dark times in this dark place, and he will fucking use a heal spell We're gonna be back in camp in 15 minutes Charges they're gonna be lost for that goddamn losers. Hey, you can get a striking rune on your, uh, on your head. Yeah, a striking rune. Bill us for the body disposal. Uh, alright, so that is 16 points of healing. I did a level one heal on you. For her, excuse me?

Yeah, for you. How long are you dying? So, you wake back up, and, oh, the spell leaves him, and you wake back up. And he's like, Bansh, As, Ahsak, I can't wake her up See if there's anything you can do and he stands up. He's like, Buggles! and he starts running over to Buggles and He's gonna put Buggles back to dying real quick laughter He's gonna step on his throat as he's walking over there now Barnes is just desperately feeling for a pulse and also us his neck

You know that makes Barnes wounded too now because of that Well, I hope you find out you got conscious became wounded one you brought him to die He's not wounded to a critical It was a very serious injury. I did All right, so then yeah, but now you got 16 hit points to spare. I'm sure you'll be fine. He's not gonna do the same thing with Buggles, can't risk it.

You're the worst doctor. I'm doing my best! I'm a barber! Christ's sake! That doesn't make any sense. For kippa's sake! Okay. I did my best, but I guess my best wasn't good enough. 25 hit points to Bugles. Oh, huge.

I suggest he's gonna cast a healing font on Bugles to get you up. He doesn't know either. Yeah, just like looking around wildly for this, for this cat. And it's defeated, Puggles. Zephyr killed it. But Hoster's not well. She's not well, Puggles. Now stand back up and start moving slowly back. Brother Ramius. Is she breathing yet? She woken. You just kind of catch, you look at it, he's kind of crouching over her body,

and he just looks up and he just, he's just so shook of the head. He just goes, no! Pushes you out of the way, goes down on top of her, smacks her. You're firmly fucking feet in your head. Samak stare. From her pockets, Smack, Smack. You're firmly fucking feet in your head. Look out! Some ass stare. From her pockets, rocks, gold,

like, jeez, you smackers. One of my books. Yeah, like stuff from one of ours that we didn't realize was missing. It's like flying out of her pocket. A couple of forks, passports. Grabs her collar, just. Items from each of your backpacks, handles.

And that one coin you saw on the ground? Yeah, the one gold coin she picked up flies out of her pocket. And he just has these flashes, these flashes of seeing you when you first walked in to that, and the druids, that place place I forget what her name was the halfling Lemma Feldthorne. Lemma Feldthorne yeah when you first walked into Lemma's place.

Lemma Feld or is that what I miss? Lemma Feldthorne. What was the horse's name oh, she smells your crotch. She rode a horse into the hole. Buckets of biscuits. Anyway, he sees this image in his mind of Austa walking in and so innocent and so young and just being like, you know, I saw you. I was there. And it's being like, who are you working for? And not trusting her and everything.

And then she became part of us, obviously, for a long time. And so it has this flash of seeing her there and how choosing to come in and reveal herself to us killed her. And he just sits back on his haunches. Tear just starts to come down his cheek. I'm so tired. It's not worth it anymore. This keeps happening.

The danger will only increase from here on out. I can't do it anymore. It's only because of you that we are alive. Yeah, I can't do this anymore. It's too much. How did you do it? I can't do this anymore. It's too much. How did you do it? My power, again, I came out and because of that I was able to kill it, but because of that I couldn't give her the potion in time.

But you saved us all. Yes, if you had not destroyed it in that moment, we'd all be dead. It would tear us limb from limb, feed on all of us. Is that... You cannot give up. Asta gave her life for this cause. If you were to give up now, it would be to dishonor her memory. So we keep going and putting more people in danger to not dishonor the memory of our dead friends?

putting more people in danger to not dishonor the memory of our dead friends? I think that... I think that Sakawachi's people may be right. Whatever this Asoyo is, it may be the doom of not just their people, but all of us. And people will have to die trying to stop it. And if we give up, it will consume us all. Come on, come on. And if you look, Buggles is like, he's smacking himself in his head. And he's just like, come on, come on. And he's like trying to force this like healing psychic energy that he can produce sometimes.

Like he's trying to force it out of his brain and into, into Asta. And it's not coming. And he's just like smacking himself. Come on! And it's like tears rolling down his face. And he's just like, keeps like hitting himself. And he just finally just collapses next to her body. It is an act of service we do, this mission.

All of you, you began this journey because you were trying to solve a mystery about yourselves. But now, Brother Amius is right. What is before us is far greater and far more important and far more many lives at stake. We cannot give up. Not yet. Brother Amius, you've done so much. I know you yourself are hurting, but... I must ask you. Can you patch us up? Let's get us out of this space. I don't think we are safe here. I'll try.

He pulls out his medikit, sets it down. Come here. And he's just like, kind of like, absolutely looking over at Asta, that strange stillness of her now actual corpse. Actual cadet. And he starts working on Barnes. To try to to treat wounds. And that's gonna be a success and I did the extra bonus. So you're gonna get 21 points of healing and that's 10 minutes and then you know we'll we'll keep going through this.

That is, ah, 15 points of damage. I'm good. There goes the wounded condition. At least Barnes to start. Barnes is gonna just do a perception check around the area so you see if I can keep, make sure nothing's gonna bother us while Brother Amius attends to the rest of us. Natural 20.

Fuckin' mother. How dare you? You disgust me. God damn it. I thought you would do that. You don't hear anything. I had no doubt. Nice flavor roll. Nice flavor roll.

Nice flavor roll. Bugles. 17. That is me done. Oh, great. And then just very gently, he's still all beat up. He hasn't helped himself yet. All bloodied.

And he looks at Zephyr. Zephyr, let me patch you up, please. We don't even know. We have to get her out of here and we don't know if we'll be jumped along the way. She's just like not looking at you, just sitting with her back against like the wall of the building that's by where Asa's body is and just like doesn't respond.

She's just like staring down the street. She's just going to pull out some bandages. You can see the scratches along her neck where this thing dug into her flesh. It's a little sting, a little. She's trying to see if she'll respond at all. She's not responding. And he'll start working. Oh, hit it.

Four. Oh, that was a good one. 22. 22. I'm still down 12. Okay. That is a crit. And you're fine. Okay. That is a crit. And you're fine.

Cool. Barnes is gonna sheath his kukri, and he's going to bear Asta's body. Can't leave it here, disappear. She's a fox. You maintain your kitsune form, right? You say bear. Oh, gosh.

Yes. What did you say? I'm gonna bear her body. You took her clothes off? You bared her body? Although I do love, I love the idea of if she died, she goes into like a fox form, but no, she's just her kitsune form. I would just put you in my pocket.

You stick me around your neck. I'll carry you. Strip her bear and carry her back to camp. Take my loot. I'm with you. Take my loot. I bear her body. Are you heading back to the Spiderman Wolves' camp or are you pushing on?

No, not yet. You just hear Ramius screaming. You try to treat yourself and get a natural one? I tried to treat myself. And I got a natural one. So to be honest, I rolled damage against myself. One D8. I have eight hit points.

Stop, no. I rolled a one. Okay, good. I was like, okay, good. I don't have to bother anybody. It's One D8, I have eight hit pulls. Stop, no. I rolled a one. Okay, good. I was like, oh, okay, good. I don't have to bother anybody. It's two D8. Then I rolled another natural one. On the next check.

So now I'm at seven hit pulls. Lose it. And then I rolled the damage, and I rolled another one. So that's four consecutive ones. Too bad, too good. But all ones. Too bad.

Now I think you should watch to see as he's cutting himself open like a lunatic. You're probably really tired. It makes sense. But not a fumble. Failure, but not a fumble. Yeah, he's rolled a four. Failure, but not a fumble.

Four, five, two. Ah! God damn it! Yeah, he's really a for four Mary succeeded on that Stitch in place Roll the standard trying not to look at him. This is shaking and sweating Son of a keeper Character My god, you don't even need anyone else to play with you do it's not a successful for three points I mean, this is just great natural to

All right Hours are passing. The sun is setting in the west. Sun's already set, it's rising. I can't walk yet. Alright, the sun's... Another failure! I'm losing a different die! Come back to camp! Okay, different die, different die. I can't walk the streets like this! Natural 17 on the other one.

See? Just have to change up that Norse Foundry sometimes. To the Rose Quartz. Alright. You full? Not even close. We're getting there. Norris Foundry sometimes to the Rose Quartz. All right. You at full? Not even close. I just said we're getting there. We're getting there.

Yeah, now he's only down 11. Shut up. One more. And that 18. I really did just need to change the die. And back to full. You think you would have changed it after the one, one, three, four, one, or whatever it was.

Well, that's what I thought it would happen. Now it's going to happen. It was like two and a half hours, right? Yeah. A few. Yes, multiple hours. While we walked, you just stabbed yourself? No, I just sat there.

You just had to wait. You had to wait. You just kept screaming. I'm already waiting. I'm dead. She stinks. She stinks now. Yeah.

That's it. Two hours. I don't stink. Maybe it's the branzino. I don two hours. Maybe it's the branzino It all started with that damn bronze Walked into my office. Like a hard boiled Italian restaurant kitchen mystery. Should've known that. Like some handle Tuesday.

Branzeno. That Branzeno. Blue eyes, ramius's fingers. As soon as that Branzeno landed on the cat, I knew things were gonna be straight. Is this Oss's eulogy? Oh my god. Okay.

So carrying off his body, moving, still trying to navigate toward the market. Brother Ramius. Are you gonna go towards the market or are you going back to Tia? Are we going back? Like, we don't even know what we're approaching. Like, we're just assuming that this is gonna be a chill interaction. Also, a cat just killed our friend. So maybe we should go back. Honestly, I don't want to leave her with them. So maybe we should go back. Damn. Honestly, I don't wanna leave her with them. I guess we could just pay it.

Sakawatchi and the Pneuma and Hubert are there. Yeah. That's true. Oh, Hubert is going to be crushed. I mean, I think we have to go back. Yeah, we can't. We have to admit that it defeated us on this attempt. We have to return. Can't keep carrying her body deeper into unknown territory.

All right. Can you navigate us back? I'll try. Now the sun is fucking up. And the DCs are increased. The DC is like small. Oh no. I'm a piece of shit.

A whole night. Oh no. What a piece of shit. Oh, full life. It hadn't taken so long. Yeah, for real. So like the stars are going to lose. I just want to be clear. We could have said, Joe could have said, we're gonna spend an hour or two healing. Is that all right?

And you probably would have hand w had with it wouldn't you? I thought about it. I Just like that to be honest play honest Also, the four ones in a row is a real punch to the stomach all right. He's going to Navigate by what stars are left. There's only a few bright ones the dawn star dawn star What did you roll the same exact? Only a few bright ones. The Dawn Star. The Dawn Star. What did you roll? The same exact shit bird roll. Natural two for a 14.

Same exact failure. Jones gonna roll, you ready for that one. Natural 14. Once you start seeing, once Barnes starts seeing you start to sweat yeah look around nervously I'll drop off his body and heap on the ground and pull out my kukri just wait for whatever's gonna come Gonna attack us again you guys walk for an hour Heading in a completely different direction an hour heading in a completely different direction. But you, those of you who are watching down while Remus was watching up, it feels as if

you're just moving back exactly where you were going. You're making only right turns. You know you're moving in a certain direction. After an hour, you come upon the body of the Atlantix. End up right back in the same spot. So sorry. Can't see it. I feel like Zephyr starts crying

because like that's gotta suck. We're carrying her friend, our friend, she's dead. We're trying to just get back to camp to regroup. The God forsaking sun is shining down on us. And we come across the dead body of the cat again, and I bet you it's just like maddening. Like we were up all night while you were screaming. The stain.

Trying to heal yourself. That stuff fell. I'm going to try to navigate us with astronomy. The brand Zeno really stinks. The sun did not help. Wait, wait, wait. Can we still attempt astronomy? Yeah, you can.

Okay. I mean, it's going to be hard, attempt astronomy? Yeah, you can. Okay. I mean, it's gonna be hard, but... I mean, maybe you just better do survival. Because the DC is gonna be higher. What's your bone? 12. Oh, yeah, mine's only plus seven for astronomy. I only got plus six.

It's, yeah, the one skill I put expert in. Did you roll the rose quartz? Yeah. Try it again. What's the worst that could happen? Alright. I'll try a different way. Different path.

22 that time. Another hour passes. Wait. This is it. Wait. Has to be. You hear the sound of water. And you see the docks up ahead. You see Smiling Wolf's camp.

Maybe the wolf howls start up until they realize very quickly the situation as you carry Asta's body into the camp. They all stand up and they don't quite approach. They kind of give space for you. You see Matt's kind of walk up unknowing, wondering what's going on and then sees. And he, um, just kind of to sleep in? She, uh, is everything all right? No, Hubert. And like, there's dried, like, runny, dirty tears on her face. No, it's not okay. It's not okay. It gets closer and you see... ...smells... ...death.

At Mach, you all share... ...your curse. I don't think I like your world. It turns around. And we'll see you next week. It's time to make your membership official. Start your 30 day free trial today and become an official member of the Naish at jointhenash.com with the promo code GCN30. That's join the naish.com and use code GCN30 to gain access to exclusive podcasts, ad free episodes and content you can't find anywhere else. Once again, it's jointhenash.com and use code GCN30 at signup

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