hey nerds we are able to keep Venture fourth ad free thanks to our amazing patrons to help keep this podcast free
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of ads check out our patreon Link in our description hello this is zika and I'm your DM Ethan welcome to venture fourth
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[Music]
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foreign [Music]
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ly the party had followed shria and a lead that he had deep into the forest
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where the party had found the likes of chath and a few other teachers of the iron light Collective
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after a discussion on the morality and the ethics of killing and hunting
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monsters a fight broke out the fight concluded with the Agents of
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repair Victorious and heading back to the town of saddlemount unfortunately on the way shria seemed to
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become ill and fall to the party becoming unconscious having to drag his
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body back to saddlemount Kalin had a contact there
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they took sriya to kalin's mysterious contact and she determined that in the battle
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with chath shria had been poisoned with a mysterious metal substance
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and the only way to cure it was with five ingredients
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Seeker you were tasked with finding shambling Mound sap
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now looking down at the map laid out before you you see that there is a circle
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indicating where you can find shambling Mount sap Lyra head indicated it on the map for
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you you can see on the map there is the
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different districts of Saddle Mountain and you can see just outside of saddle mount sort of attached to the outer
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portion of the city you can see a series of farms almost entering into the forests Beyond
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and you can see one of these Farms is circled indicating that that is where you should
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go so as the rest of the party dashes off with this 24-hour deadline in mind
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what would you like to do want to head off towards that farm approximately so how far is this district from
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where we are where I'm right now just outside of Lyra's like heading that way approximately how far
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um so you are you're currently pretty close to the coast actually
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um and Lyra's shop the grumbling Garden Grove is pretty close to the coast there that you
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guys had come in through a Freed's portal he Farms are just on the outside near
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the forest pretty much on the opposite side of the city and from what you remember
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um just a day or two ago it's gonna take you
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Maybe two hours if you are making good time if
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you're going at a more casual Pace probably double that four hours I'm going I want to put my hood up and
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make my way with haste I want to get I want to get as I want to get really
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close uh to the edge of town and as I as I start to get closer to
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this this District in this area I will start to slow down and take an account of what's
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around and trying to surveil what I would love to do is get up to this farm and and try and see what I can make out
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of the people inside uh you know is there Commerce is their business what's happening definitely as you start to
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exit the the main portion of the city houses become more sparse the area
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between them becomes larger and larger and larger and as you begin looking
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around you can see the beginning of the forest and you can see it might actually
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be a little more difficult than you thought to find each of these Farms as they are actually implanted
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themselves into the forest as you're looking around what specifically are you looking for
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um well I'm going to start by looking for okay okay so
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I want to find a farm uh looking start looking for tracks are
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there any Trails or maybe any Cuts in the the brush any any
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um any waste through the trees that that look like they've been worn people have gone through them
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I'm gonna have you make an investigation check for me
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not terrible we get to add to it [Music]
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investigation oh 16 16. um you begin to see a couple of of
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different paths going into the forest from here um you see a couple that are a little bit more well worn
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um but you do see one that is heading almost directly north it is a little bit of a smaller path
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you're having a tough time sort of picking it out from the overgrowth and the grass and the plants but you can see
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some footsteps going through definitely humanoid into the forest and how many farms do I
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see on the map are there you said three uh in the area in this area
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um there's there's four that you can see that are directly in this in this path
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or in in this sort of area um that if you weren't looking too closely you could end up at any one of
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them and I I look up at this guy what what time of day is it you're you're approaching evening
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um the sun has just gone down within the last hour and everything is
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starting to get dark and you can see the the trees are starting to cast these Shadows that you that you just can't
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quite see too far into the forest okay so the one the path to the north with
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the footsteps I want to start um moving in that direction to the north
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I'm going to actually not stay on the path I want to be into the trees so if I
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head into the north I want to be I'll go to the left side or the west side of the path and be in the trees
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um enough to to keep my eyes on the path to try and follow it but I want to be
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obscure my myself from uh site all right um it's gonna slow down your pace just a
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little bit but you are from from your experience fairly well covered as you're
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moving through as you begin to
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walk down this path or the path adjacent you begin darting between the trees
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and pretty soon your leg hits something your left leg
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doesn't quite feel like the same bushes that you're trekking through and as you look down you can see a little wooden
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post in the ground you look ahead about five feet see
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another little wooden post and you see another one another five feet
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and you can see a thin string between them
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and you see these posts continuing to go in front of you and behind you with this thin little
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string going between them and you get the sense that this is probably
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to Mark land you have probably stumbled across a land
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marker of a farm to your left but you do still see this one path going
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forward I want to Mark a tree right here um I'm gonna Mark the northern side of a
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tree with a symbol that just lets me know I'm gonna put a triangle
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and an arrow to the so if I'm on the North side to the right so off to the what would be the left if I was facing
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north so I can remember that I think there's a a uh a farm off to that direction and
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then I'm going to continue carefully over this wire not tripping anything or or trying to um
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activate it and head north all right um am I am I hearing any like as I'm
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moving [Music] what what's going on in the in this
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Forest like are there birds are there animals I'm gonna have you make a perception check for me
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daddy likes that so that's gonna be a 19. you look around and as the force
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is getting darker you do start to to see sort of General Forest life a lot of the
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the animals seem to um be heading in for the night you don't see as many birds as you would during
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the day you don't see as many Little Critters but keeping your ears open
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just off to your left where that farm is you do you you begin to hear
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metal whirring and clanging together almost
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like some sort of machinery or this this metal continues to bang in
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this rhythmic noise [Music] almost like work's being done or
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more rhythmic than that almost almost like a machine
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interesting hmm uh they look North
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do I see a farmhouse yet or do I see anything or
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am I still nothing still more forced it is tough to see through the tree line
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um and you really can't see past 30 maybe 35 feet
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okay so it's tough to determine uh this is um
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want to see what that is what is a shambling mountain sap anyway okay I'm going to go back to my tree okay
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change my arrow to straight up and then I'm going to head towards this sound very cautiously okay
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as you do you eventually get to a clearing an opening in the trees and the
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first thing that you see is rows of of Farmland you can see rows of crops here
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little different different plants and plant life sprouting up out of the
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ground you can see that the land is very well tended too
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and you spot the source of that sound you can see
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what looks like almost like a tall spider but with four legs okay okay made of machine parts and
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each leg as it moves worse and bangs metal together as it
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moves into a new position and puts its leg into the ground you can see a little capsule
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descend from the body this little metal and wooden capsule as
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it drives itself into the ground digs up one of the plants shoots it back up into the body and continues moving in
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this mechanical outside motion Hall is this spider like four-legged thing 15
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feet 15 feet okay it's pretty tall the modern wonders of farming uh okay
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rules of thumb do I see the thumb yes you can see the the rows of Farmland
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you can see all of the crops and the plants that are planted here do I see anyone in this uh
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arachnid you don't um and looking at the body of it
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probably if there was someone piloting it only about enough space for maybe a
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gnome or a halfling not a whole lot of space as as these wiry legs come down
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and hit the ground the body of it is actually not that big okay
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um I and the rows of crops are they are they tall are they short you can see the
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ones that are close to you seem to be newer crops and the ones that are further away and the ones that are um
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the furthest away where this where this mechanical spider creature is going seemed to be the most developed crops
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and as this spider moves from crop to crop and descends its body shoots the
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pod into the ground and harvests each of the plants you get the feeling that this is an
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automated harvesting machine very interesting I want to make my way
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around like shifting opposite of how it's moving so if it's moving along I
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want to kind of circle around okay and I want to find a I want to find a silent approach or an
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obscure approach as obscured as possible towards the farm I want to I want to see
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if anyone else is there I want to kind of see
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um I guess I'm kind of curious what are the crops like can I tell what the crops are make a nature check for me super strong
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on that nature boy hair yep that dice roll did not betray my actual nature
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skills five it's tough to tell um you do see
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um most of them are sort of leafy uh but it's it's really tough to to pinpoint
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I'm a city boy I don't know uh okay yeah so let's make an approach
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uh as as as stealthily as possible um trying to not
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trying to even though I think it's automated I I don't want to be seen by it so I want to kind of circle around
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and see if I can get up to the farm and see what's going on going on okay in it you circle around and and this is open
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we're clearing yes yes you circle around and the Sun is the Sun is
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almost done at this point okay perfect um you circle around my vision kick in
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you you do have nightmares I do I do dark vision yeah um so you can clearly see
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um a little Farmhouse and right next to it a barn with both of the barn doors wide open
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and from within the barn you can once again hear clanging of metal but whereas the metal that you
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heard outside with this mechanical spider that was precise and very rhythmic the
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metal cling that you can hear from within the barn is a little bit more scattered a little bit more organic in
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its in its pacing and pattern as I I'd like to peek in see if I see
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anyone doing anything all right you look in and immediately you can see the soft
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glow of a lantern um and and right next to it kneel down
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you can see uh what appears to be a human man who is currently working on one of these
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mechanical spider creatures this spider creature um the the mechanism is completely
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upside down so its legs are going straight up into the air and this human is sort of hunched over and working on
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the body of this thing okay um I'm gonna step back from peeking in
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and look down in my hand and
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I'm going to look at a ring on my hand and I'm gonna I'm gonna just turn it shifted
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and my Visage will change from that of a 6-1 mahogany dark-skinned bald-headed
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Seeker to that of a full fully uh fully
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haired very light skinned like um like like like a
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like a mocha coffee colored skin uh gentleman with a mustache a slight scar
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over the left eye and um wearing some pretty plain clothing
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and I'm going to knock on the door
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and walk in and say uh hey hey there stranger uh gonna get your
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help for something and you can see uh this gentleman stands
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up and as he turns around um you can see a messy tuft of brown
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hair on top of his head um a a very clean shaven face and his
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clothes while seeming very nice seemed to be very well worn you can see a what
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was probably once a white collared undershirt sleeves rolled up to his
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elbows browned and dirtied and worn with time you can see uh just as as worn a black
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vest over it and a very loose blue tie and a
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uh just a little blue towel over his shoulder and as he turns around he wipes the the sweat from his forehead and oh
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uh hey hi um come in I guess hey names names
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Darian I'm uh traveling through these parts and looking for I've got a kind of a strange
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strange request but I'm I'm looking for some shambling Mount zap wondering if
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and I was pointed in this direction wondering if maybe you could assist
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I'll say like my clothes my clothes were to be as plain and farmer-like as I
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could make them so I definitely somewhat appeal to the the good nature of this farmer and uh this gentleman um walks
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right up to you grabs the the towel off of his um shoulder sort of wipes his hand off a
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little bit you can see that there's dirt and and grease um all within his fingers but he tries to wipe it off as best as he can and
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reaches his hand out to to shake your hand I reach my hand right out and a firm handshake
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um and you can you can even feel like there's still sort of that that layer of Grease there that hasn't quite been been
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completely rubbed off and um he puts the the towel back on his
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shoulder and well um I I don't personally deal in shambling
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Mount sap um but I if you're looking for uh my neighbor I think uh he he might still
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have some in stock um his name's Silas Silas Silas Greg Silas Grigg Silas Grigg up the road
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there um he's been you know farming with those
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uh with those creatures for well as long as I've been here so well when you write
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it I appreciate this very much which which way up the road is there an easy way to get there from here
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yeah so I wouldn't really say it's it's easy necessarily um but uh if you just exit the property
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that way and you should come across you're gonna have to really keep an eye out for it there's a there's a small little path there
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um and really keep your eyes open because it's going to be easy to miss but if you just take keep taking that North uh maybe about another 15 to 20
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minutes on foot uh you should be right on his doorstep smirk a little North
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excellent well look I really appreciate it hey anytime well uh have a have a good evening I'm
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gonna it's actually really important I have to get going so no worries
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um good to see another face out here he reaches out to shake your hand once again one more Shake firm shake and I
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will turn on my heels and head right back out all right now as you head out you you hear once again the clanging of
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metal um as he he begins working once again on his um metal spider
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you make your way back out to the path I'll I'll adjust the ring go back to
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secret form all right take off in a Sprint feeling pretty safe across this and just say huh North I should have
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stayed where I was going ah anyway and as you're sprinting it only takes
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you about 10 minutes to get to this secondary clearing
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um you can see as this clearing opens you can see
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a very similar sort of rows of farmland although these
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don't have anything in them [Music] you can see sort of off in the distance
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almost what looked like Stables but again nothing in
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and as you look off into the corner right next to the farmhouse you can see a much smaller one of these
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mechanical spiders doesn't seem to be moving and from this distance you can just start to see
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rust forming all over it not in the the new condition that you
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would just see are there any lights on in any part of farm or the Stables or
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Torchlight any any indication of none in the Stables but as you look into The
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Farmhouse you can see that there are two rooms on the opposite ends of this house and both
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of them have Windows and you can see both of them lit from the inside with what might be a torch or a candle
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and as you're looking you see the one on the left go out turning dark
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now only the one on the right lit up okay
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um I'm going to somewhat cautiously but feeling pretty confident after the last interaction and
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this look at Silas is we're neighbors now um I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna make my way towards the house
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um I'm going to activate the ring and turn into Darien again
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and I'm going to before I knock on the door I want to go
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over to the side of the house where the light is and just see if I can peek in and see if anybody's awake uh see if
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anybody's there and then I want to come around so I want to sneak around look in and then come back to the door and knock on the door all right I'm gonna have you
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make a stealth check for me as you're approaching this house so that's I mean that's that's all that's 29. nice
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um I don't even see me yeah you are um completely silent moving up to this
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house and um the sort of the the soft dirt of this Farmland really helps you
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pad your steps and you are completely quiet as you approach and you sneak up much easier than the city oh my goodness
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oh you're you're finding it each footstep is quieter than the last and as you're approaching this house
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you peek in through the window and you can see one figure inside
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can't quite make out any features but they are sort of silhouetted by this
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candle in the corner you can see them grabbing a couple of bags opening them up
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sort of casually putting a few items in there closing up the bag putting the bag on another pile of bags
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um I'm going to back up from the window and head around to what I perceive as
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the front door I'm Gonna Knock on it give me one moment
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uh no problem now just kind of back up from the door a little like to give a little space
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as soon as you back up you hear a couple of
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can't quite tell what it is but something hitting the ground
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after a minute the door clicks and opens
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hey what can I do for you and in front of you you see
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um a what looks to be almost half Dwarven
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half human long white beard um very short very stocky
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um but but humanoid features um very simple plain clothing that
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almost mirrors what you were wearing in your disguise um sort of a a light brown tunic and
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um and this this old weathered wrinkly skin
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uh Silas Silas Greek it's a pleasure to meet you pleasure to
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meet you name's Darian now reach out my my right hand for a uh handshake and say uh your neighbor just
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down the road sent me over because I'm I'm looking for some shambling Mounds happen said that you uh you may be able
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to help me with that he greets your hand with one of the most calloused and rough hands Seeker has
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ever come across uh you're a few days late I'm afraid oh
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no um I'm just packing up and uh moving south so I am I'm terribly sorry
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you don't have any none this is a matter of extreme importance not at the moment
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um I sold all of mine last week and uh for a pretty hefty price sorry I'm I'm
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moving out of here into somewhere I might be a bit more comfortable and I I
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I kind of throw my hands up ah well that's good for you but would you be is
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there any way you could maybe tell me where you sold it or would they be willing to sell me some
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a search of it Rich fellow came by I requested to
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purchase all of my sap and uh all of my shambling Mounds and so he could take
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them back to his property uh he's he's a he's a baron in the city Lee I think his
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name was a baron named Lee Rich what do you do with shambling Mound sap anyway
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well it's uh quite good for a few things um you can use it in various
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mechanical components it works as quite the lubricant as well as in spells and
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things of that nature okay that's Barren Lee Dude also quite
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sweet put some in your tea so eat it got it I'll try that
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do you have any way to get in contact with this Baron uh he didn't leave me any contact
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information just just a pile of gold I'm afraid uh but I can I can tell you where
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he resides uh he had me deliver everything to his his well it's it's kind of a castle it's
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quite impressive Castle nothing wrong with the sack of gold by the way no good on you
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yes an address would be great all right um do you have a map or something I'm
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afraid I'm not quite good with uh my map that I've been looking at
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um I think I have a map yeah I'm gonna show my map and uh
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haven't let him point out where where it may be he had me deliver everything to yes
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right about here and he points onto the map um sort of uh the the Eastern side of
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saddle mount also sort of near the outskirts [Music] it uh quite an outfit there there was a
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plenty of guards and uh and uh it seemed that he was stocking up for something I
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wasn't the only farmer there delivering things it seems that he bought out a couple of other Farms
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um and and uh and purchased all of their goods as well you don't mind me asking what are you
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doing with this land well I tried to sell it but unfortunately uh land that has been uh
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taken up by shambling Mounds is not good land for really much else so uh I'm just
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going to let nature do with it what it will all right I'd love to chat
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Silas you're extremely helpful I need to track down this sap
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host haste pleasure um you got two minutes
29:59
since I gave you all that helpful information would you help an old man with a bad back
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come here anyway to his house and uh he grabs one of the the bags and you can see on the inside
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of this house all the shelves have been cleared out um tables have been cleared
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um and it seems that he's packing everything into a couple of his bags and uh he has you grab a couple of them
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takes you out back he's got a cart with a horse there um load him up into the back
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the rest of my stuff well time to say goodbye to the farm I I
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appreciate your help not a problem I'm glad I could help thank you for this information you're
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very welcome we'll go to good use I promise I'm sure it will all right oh question yes best way back
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to town from here there's a small path that you can take it it goes as just south here
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um I Look to be the one that you were taking on on your way up here as a matter of fact okay yes all right well I
31:04
will I will head out that way thank you you're very welcome and I will take off all right
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as you take off South um you can just start to hear the uh the Clapping of the Hooves of of his horse
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of silas's horse and as you make your way back into saddle mount now you have a new destination
31:25
um you take the bat path back to town and you sort of make your way through
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the streets is there anything that you want to do or look out for on your way yeah like when
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I'm getting close to the district where this Castle I mean it's probably its own District but
31:41
um when I when I can see it in the distance I want to keep an eye out for
31:47
taverns bars establishments specifically um you know if I see any markings that
31:53
might be interesting um I want to keep an eye out for markings
31:59
on the so I'm going to look for taverns and then I want to look for markings either on the signs or around
32:05
um the building etched in to the wood or the plaster for sure um make an
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investigation check for me for sure do that
32:16
that's going to give me a 16. 16.
32:22
um as you are dashing through the city um you come across a Tavern that
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to the untrained eye it would probably just look like scratches into the wood
32:35
but you quickly identify a marking on this sign
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it has got a it's it's a very small circle within a larger triangle
32:48
within a larger sort of u-shape and it has a little tail coming down
32:55
from the very bottom of it ah all right um and I and on the way back I would have shifted the ring I would have
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rotated the ring back to go to secret form okay and uh seeing this sign
33:08
I'll kind of just uh I'll just trace it with my fingers
33:15
and just think back for a moment
33:22
uh this world okay let's go and I will enter The Establishment is it I'm
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guessing it's open there's a there's yes it is it is open it is filled with people
33:36
um you could you could hear the tavern before you saw it okay I'm going to come in and before I open
33:44
the door Hood up and I'm gonna make my way to the bar all right and as you as
33:50
you enter this establishment um you're immediately hit with the
33:55
sounds of a live band off in the corner um you can hear the the footsteps of
34:02
dancing people dancing to the music um you smell various foods and drinks
34:09
and frankly body odors yeah but this looks
34:14
like a very Lively establishment and pretty laser focused like I noticed
34:21
at all I'm taking it in I am observing the room um I would love to see if anybody
34:27
notices me coming in but I'm not really
34:32
even with my eyes participating in any of it I want to make a beeline to uh the
34:38
bar and try and get the uh bartender's attention all right um it takes a couple of moments you sort
34:45
of have to raise your hand a couple of times try and catch their eyesight um but but pretty soon a young gentleman
34:51
uh looks like a half Elven gentleman um behind the bar turns around and while
34:57
in the middle of making another drink sort of leans over and lends you his ear hey what can I get for you can I get a
35:05
glass of water half full and a napkin please sure uh you don't want anything else we
35:11
got we got some great great drinks here that is all for now thank you all right and he sort of has to to yell over the
35:17
sounds of the bar um but he finishes making his drink and very quickly throws together
35:26
simple glass of water and a napkin for you all right I will just take it
35:32
uh do I have a clear do I have a little space on the bar can I turn very small space but yes you're able to sort of
35:38
rotate and have your own little so I just kind of want to rotate and kind of just have uh my side like just my elbow
35:44
up on the the ledge and just kind of lean against and have my glass of water
35:49
um in my right hand and a the napkin just kind of underneath it and just
35:55
surround the room just observe the room all right what are you looking for anything in particular
36:01
um yeah noticing any any uh any Trends within the people here yeah so I mean
36:08
immediately I look to the corners to see if there's any um I mean I've got a
36:15
history of of dealing with uh other roguish types
36:20
um sitting in in Corners with hoods up uh trying to see if there's any any dealings or offhanded dealings or just
36:27
small conversations happening along the edges of the room um just trying to
36:32
see if there's any of that happening yeah um you do see a couple of small
36:38
little dealings you you see a group of of three humans off in one corner and
36:45
they seem to be sort of talking to themselves making side eyes at other people if anyone gets too close and you
36:51
can see um a drunken man sort of dances up and and gets a little bit too close to them and they they stop talking and
36:58
they sort of give him a side eye until he dances off and uh and continues then they continue their conversation you can
37:05
see in another corner um there is a another young half Elven
37:11
gentleman who is in the middle of of trying his best to flirt with a young
37:18
human woman um you can see that that um there's there's some flirtation going on but you can see he's he's really
37:25
trying to lay it on thick um and as you're in the middle of sort of surveying this room
37:32
a uh human man sort of bumps up against you and almost knocks your drink over well and in sort of like this this
37:39
drunkenly stupor you notice um this long leather coat
37:46
um a wide brimmed hat that comes down and almost sort of covers his eyes
37:51
um and a series of necklaces made out of different materials on his collar
37:58
and as he bumps into you hey I I'm I'm so sorry I didn't
38:06
I didn't see you there hey is that hey that's the same order
38:11
that I get huh well then I shall get you your next round I thank you I I'd appreciate that
38:19
yes um look uh I'm new around here and uh
38:25
[Music] I'm not uh I'm not planning to stay long but I could
38:31
I'm looking for something to keep me in a tent looking for something interesting well I mean
38:38
I've got a couple of suggestions but um I think I think we better if you uh
38:43
help me out with that next order first I'll flag down the uh uh excuse me uh barkeep gonna have a
38:51
another water with a napkin please and as I'm doing that my hand is reaching
38:57
out to this gentleman very very quietly and stealthily to hand uh two pieces of
39:04
gold and he almost it's very convincingly
39:11
drunkenly falls into you but expertly with fingers like feathers
39:20
swipes the gold from you puts it into his pocket and sort of backs up sorry I I didn't mean to I'm sorry I tripped I'm
39:27
I didn't mean to to just let's watch the space a little okay hey that's
39:36
over in the corner okay all right and he takes you over into the corner um and you both sit down there are still
39:42
a lot of people around you but you you have sort of found the quietest corner of this of this place
39:49
so you're looking for uh entertainment something to to get you through the week
39:54
if it's that long maybe but yes I you know I typically enjoy the theater
40:01
but lately I've been playing a lot of cards that's I
40:10
a couple of card games together other a week are you interested in joining absolutely yeah yeah I can uh yeah I'll
40:17
get you the name of the place nothing and he um slides your napkin over
40:22
and he makes a quick little note on the napkin and you look down and you can see
40:28
scribbled on this napkin um the name of a restaurant
40:33
um the ports Breeze and right under that um you can see
40:39
it says that the card game starts at midnight and right now I'm guessing it's
40:46
what probably uh what are we talking about eight or nine probably close to nine o'clock nine
40:52
o'clock okay and he points down to the napkin so I will
40:57
take this information and just kind of say it to myself uh we'll previous game starts okay and I will crumple it up
41:04
and I will put it in my water all right and as it goes into your your cup of water you can
41:12
see the ink low from the napkin and completely dissolve now let's Stir It Up
41:17
a little bit and push it away and um [Music]
41:22
you know I was actually thinking of playing cards tonight if you want me to
41:28
that'll be fantastic I do need to do one thing first yeah of course
41:34
um how about we meet back here in an hour that sounds good to me okay
41:41
fantastic all right and uh he continues sitting there in the
41:47
corner you get up you head out what are you doing what I would like to do is start surveilling this Castle
41:54
okay as you approach um you see that the the farmer Silas
42:02
blew it a little bit out of proportion when he said Castle um it's it's not quite that it is it is
42:07
quite large but a little bit more in the size of like a large manner or um yeah a
42:12
large estate like compared to like where I met this like like a like a nice nice
42:17
manner but exactly yes um someone who's got quite a bit of money someone who um who who has various business dealings
42:25
um and and you can see a large wall around the outside
42:32
um this white stone wall that has these Vines and Ivy beautifully sort of
42:39
creeping up the side of it um and you can see at the very top
42:45
um spikes of of iron coming out of the top and are there
42:51
is it easy enough to make my way around the outside of the wall to check it all out well I'm looking for points that
42:57
might be might be hidden in Shadow or any doors in the wall definitely so this
43:04
notified sorry the vines you mentioned are they do they look sturdy enough or could I
43:11
could I test them are they sturdy enough to climb [Music] um looking around at these Vines they do
43:17
seem to be very decorative um lots of leaves coming off of them nothing sturdy enough to grab
43:26
and the iron Spikes all the way around are they
43:31
decorative or are they protection are they they look decorative up to the
43:36
point of their spikes at the very top which do seem to be a deterrent of someone hopping the walls but they are
43:43
placed and and crafted in sort of a as much as you can delicate manner
43:48
[Music] and making my way just around this wall
43:55
what what else do I notice do I notice any doors do I notice any other points of potential egress or is there just one
44:02
main so yes you do see the main gate and at the main gate you do see a single
44:08
guard there um in in studded leather armor with a
44:14
spear that they're holding at their side and a very small Shield wrapping their forearm
44:22
I'm gonna have you make an investigation check to see if you can find any other entrances
44:27
eleven eleven um you do see sort of on the back corner
44:33
of this wall you do see where some of the stone has been cracked a little bit
44:39
you don't know if you'll be able to do anything with that but it just does seem to be a
44:45
slight weakness that none of the other points have I would presume that'd probably take a good how far is that
44:51
from The Establishment I was just that like could I have done that in say a half hour or so oh yeah it would it
44:56
would have probably taken you a half an hour this ports Breeze is it close enough for me to
45:03
stop by and take a look at prior to going back to meet my my new friend
45:09
um well it depends what you you what your timeline is going to look like
45:16
um my ideas it will take you about 20 minutes of walking
45:21
in order to get to the ports Breeze okay [Music] um
45:27
so in that case I'm gonna head back to the establishment and meet my friend and so he can take me to the card game all
45:34
right um you meet back up with him and he sort of
45:40
acting drunkenly puts his arm around you and sort of stumbles and and uh whoa
45:45
they're friends hold on puts his weight on you is it no we're good we're we're going we're going what did I tell you about personal space and goodness as
45:53
soon as you exit the bar stands up straight sort of straightens
46:00
his coat wipes it off a little bit wipe some of the dirt off um
46:05
pleasure to meet you let's go pleasure to meet you and continues walking off um you both walk about 10 minutes
46:12
and after about 10 minutes you both make it to the ports Breeze um
46:18
you look at the front of the parts Breeze and it is a a beautiful establishment and
46:26
very quiet um just sort of barely through the front doors you can hear
46:32
a a very subtle chime of a piano being played masterfully and as you approach
46:40
the front um your new companion walks you right in
46:45
walks you around through some of the tables and you can see each of the tables each of them are these circular
46:52
tables each with four chairs at each of them you can see the chairs have these beautiful satin cushions on each of them
46:59
the tables have this white linen tablecloth over all of them each of them have vases with flowers in the middle
47:06
and you both sort of weave your way through these tables you hear various
47:11
conversations um you hear a couple who's on a date night you hear a couple who are having a
47:20
business dealing um and as you're making your way into the tables that we're making our way do
47:25
any of them have any like bread or any crackers or any anything that I Yes
47:31
actually each of these tables um has like a little basket that has some um
47:36
yeah I would love to just swipe one as we're walking and just wipe a bread make a sleight of hand check
47:41
[Music] yeah 21 21. you're walking through and
47:48
you see that there's a gentleman right in front of you that you're heading towards in a like a beautiful suit just
47:57
very neatly pressed and you can see him just lean back as the start of a sneeze
48:03
and as he puts his head down into sort of his elbow area you time it perfectly
48:10
where you swipe a piece of bread off of his off of his plate and as he finishes
48:15
his sneeze and comes back he sort of looks down at his plate and looks around and a piece of bread has just disappeared
48:20
from his plate as we're walking I just kind of say that classy joint very nice
48:28
I don't uh make a habit of coming here except for when I need to and you both
48:33
pass through the doors into the kitchen and you can see the kitchen is is much
48:38
more bustling than the the dining room the dining room is very quiet and reserved the kitchen is is a site of
48:46
organized chaos um and as you weave your way through all
48:51
of the the chefs and the cooks and um being careful not to be stabbed by any of these knives that they're that
48:58
they're cooking with um you make your way into the back storage area
49:04
and your new companion moves a barrel out of the way the corner lifts up a
49:10
hatch and you can see a ladder descending down you both descend the the latter and once
49:19
you get to the bottom it opens up into a room about 20 feet by 20 feet you can
49:26
see this room is a little small um area you can see a bar up in the
49:33
corner but notably you can see a a wall one of these walls
49:38
entirely covered in loose pieces of paper you can see
49:44
different sheets that say reward on them you can see uh different bounties placed
49:50
there and you can see all of these different papers all pinned to this wall
49:56
is there anybody else in the room yes there are three other people in this room
50:03
um I will turn to my new friend and
50:08
um chewing on my bread ah it's interesting a piece of bread
50:15
no I'm quite tasty uh no I'm full I haven't eaten in a while
50:20
um so I could use some help I'm uh looking for something for an item
50:29
uh gambling Mountain sap and told there is a person in town an
50:36
important person it may well not may have will have a lot of it
50:43
hey boys this guy's looking for shambling mound stop and they all sort of cover their mouths
50:49
and start to start laughing to themselves I'm I'm sorry friend you are here about
50:54
a week late for shambling mound sap what do you mean
50:59
it's it's all stocked up in the manner and oh there is yes yes this is the person
51:06
okay so you know this uh well I I'm going to have to liberate them
51:12
you're gonna have to what's so funny
51:18
uh no no um sorry no it's I just it's a matter of life and death I must it always is
51:26
um how many how many times have you tried and he leans over to one or the other
51:33
um gentlemen in in this uh little room and he goes I think God I think last time was four
51:40
four yeah no I I've never gotten actually into it I've gotten past the
51:46
wall but not actually into the manner you want to get into the manor
51:52
not particularly but I do need sap so yes good luck I want to like walk around the
51:59
room like the wall with the The Wanted signs yeah direct to any of
52:06
these faces show up on any of those uh signs
52:11
make a perception check man where look let's go
52:20
um perception that's a 18. in 18 you don't see any on this wall that match up
52:27
with these four gentlemen you look on the other wall though
52:32
and there is about 15 wanted posters all of these 15 have one of these
52:40
members on them and you can see that each of these the the photos or the the
52:47
drawings of these gentlemen all have like funny mustaches drawn on them or
52:52
like weird glasses it seems sort of like a mocking of of these wanted posters
52:58
yeah yeah so you've gotten past the wall first of all
53:05
you can call me zika what are your names
53:11
oh we don't do that that's fair you've gotten over the wall what about the rest of you
53:17
and why are you so scared um well the uh the guards of the Lee
53:23
Manor they aren't really ones to turn you into the town guard
53:31
they're the kind of people with the money to just drive a spear through your chest
53:36
and bury in the backyard and no one's the wiser
53:41
I've met people like this before but that's I just saw one at the front gate
53:47
how many gods do you have well I mean we've seen the one at the front
53:54
and then there's usually about four of them patrolling the the grounds outside
54:00
the house now like we said we haven't seen anyone
54:05
go in but when we scoped it out last time we did see uh there was a rotating shift of about 15 that Patrol the inside
54:13
I can't tell you where they go or where they're stationed but I'd say on a good
54:18
day 15 inside I will pay you for information and a little bit of help I don't need you to go in I can handle
54:24
that oh yeah we're not going in of course but I could maybe use some kind of a
54:29
diversion but I need to know what you know and I will pay you all right well um there is a
54:39
very secretive service entrance in the back we noticed that
54:46
there weren't any guards going in through the front and they were always rotating their
54:52
guards and I'm pretty sure the guards don't live in the manor they had to be getting in somehow
54:58
they've uh they've got a section of the wall that mechanically sort of
55:05
can be deconstructed and reconstructed to continue looking like the normal bit of the wall
55:11
we've tried to blast through the wall one time but that didn't uh work out well you guys saw I think I saw that
55:18
area yeah I mean SAR efforts unfortunately but uh yeah you're not going to be
55:25
getting over that wall you're not going to be getting through that wall the only way is through either that main entrance or the service entrance in the back
55:33
you I'm just going to call you Jimmy how did you get in you said you got over the wall or
55:40
you got through the front entrance how did you get in uh I got I got over the wall um but uh and he sort of reaches down
55:48
and rolls up his pant leg and you can see this massive gash through his
55:54
through his leg uh once they uh they it's yeah yeah it hurt for quite a bit
56:01
um the thing with the wall is if you go over
56:07
you're going to be seen from just about every one of those guards possible
56:13
if they don't see you you'd be able to land in there if you can get over the spikes and everything but
56:19
it presents a pretty big Target who else is anyone else here tried oh we've all tried
56:25
with various levels of success any other information you can uh you can
56:31
give I mean if you're gonna be sneaking in
56:36
there be quiet if you're gonna be getting in there any other way
56:42
you think they're really lucky is uh like the guards maybe they live back there or that's where they
56:49
that's where that's where they that's where they enter and exit that's where they also bring in uh new new shipments
56:57
of food and supplies um things of that sort okay
57:03
[Music] have you in any of your time have you
57:08
notice any kind of a regular timing of shipments coming into the into the back
57:16
well yeah they uh they usually bring them in late at night it's most nights but you got to catch
57:23
them at the right time it's it's tough to catch them at the right time and they
57:29
also Patrol they have people patrolling outside of the walls so if they see anyone staring at the walls for too long they uh
57:35
get you on your way okay I think I I have a couple of ideas
57:41
anything else you you can you can give me any other recommendations recommendations uh don't do it other
57:48
than that yes not okay I knew you would say this but I don't have a choice I'm going so
57:55
uh thank you and I will um [Music]
58:01
you know what I think I could use your help for a maybe a distraction
58:08
some sort of distraction we could do [Music]
58:13
this would let me maybe get into the front or the back uh all right what kind of distraction do
58:20
you need what would get the guards attention in the front maybe a fight
58:26
uh maybe some drunken Tufts walking up to the to the gate yeah
58:33
I think we could make that work okay that would be great so let's plan on this distraction
58:39
happening in let's say let's say one hour one hour you got it
58:49
um all right boys let's get ready and they start picking up their stuff and um I
58:56
will hand them a bag of coins I'll reach into my backpack
59:02
barely reach my hand just like to the top and then we'll come out with a bag of coins four of them
59:08
so I will hand them each out of that bag I will hand them each uh three gold
59:15
okay I'll take them and uh the companion that you came into this room with
59:22
um as he's sort of packing up his stuff he comes over he Patsy on the back and he says hey you're a pretty good card player and he
59:28
reaches into his pocket and pulls out a playing card and hands it to you and you can see that there is a um a little
59:35
symbol of a blue dragon on this card okay [Music]
59:42
um just a blue dragon just a it's a little like artfully done sketch of a blue dragon
59:47
anything else on the other side [Music]
59:53
I will take it okay um and the four of them
59:58
open up the the hatch to the ladder climb out they leave I will leave
1:00:04
um what I would like to do in this hour is
1:00:09
so I saw the guard it's not what the guard was wearing uh I would like to see
1:00:16
if I can catch any kind of merchants any delivery service
1:00:21
if I can make out which direction they may come to the service entrance from and I want to get some distance from the
1:00:28
wall I don't want to be obvious with the wall but I want to try and see if I can find anyone making their way in oh are
1:00:35
there any um so uh as we're walking out I'll just ask
1:00:41
uh where's the likeliest place that they would get bread for the Mana
1:00:48
who would deliver [Music]
1:00:54
the rising tide is is one of the most popular bakeries in town it's also pretty big I would assume that they
1:01:01
could stock them up pretty well where would I find this uh this Rising type uh it's gonna be about four blocks over
1:01:06
to the east okay that's I mean a big place you're not gonna miss it
1:01:12
I'll make my way there and what I want to do is
1:01:18
um it's late so well they're making bread
1:01:24
for the city so they might be open I want to see I want to scope out the operation a little bit all right
1:01:29
um you get to the rising tide and um you can see it is quite a large building and
1:01:35
this is one of those places it's not good like that baking bread is incredible oh my God it reminds me of my
1:01:40
mom baking bread so good and as you approach um you can see still eating one of the
1:01:46
rolls yeah from the restaurant from the but you can see as you sort of survey
1:01:51
this this building you can see just out of the back very quietly in sort of a dark corner of
1:01:57
this building you can see a a couple of people just shadowy
1:02:05
figures seem to be loading up a cart with a couple of boxes how many figures can I make out you can make out two two
1:02:12
okay I am going to watch them for a moment okay and see how
1:02:19
many of them take off with the card maybe both but I don't know I want to see how many like as they start to get
1:02:25
ready to go I want to see how many because what I am trying to assess is how I'm going to intervene and intercept
1:02:32
okay you can see them both loading up the cart and you watch as they finish
1:02:37
loading the cart one of them goes back inside one of them hops onto the horse
1:02:44
and begins writing off just one of them leaving with this shipment so what I
1:02:49
want to do is reach into my side pocket of my bag and
1:02:54
pull out a ring and put it on and I'm going to look at them and I'm
1:03:01
going to say Dismount and cast command okay
1:03:07
is that a role on my end it is and it is a
1:03:13
wisdom let's see wisdom saving throne [Music]
1:03:19
that's a seven uh there's not a beat of fourteen okay
1:03:24
this this woman who's on the horse completely stops the horse a glaze goes over her eyes
1:03:31
she puts the reins down hops off the horse where is the street well lit is it what
1:03:37
are we no this is this is like a dark alleyway okay so what I'm gonna attempt to do now is cast
1:03:44
um sleep and this ring has a
1:03:49
it has a text some symbols all around it it's not Elvish it's not see I don't know what it
1:03:56
is secret doesn't know what it is and they glow slightly when uh when it's being used to cast and
1:04:04
um as I look at
1:04:09
this woman I'm going to say sleep
1:04:18
28 21 20 21 so if that's enough uh hit
1:04:25
points to make the creature fall asleep then they would she collapses onto the ground okay and I will quickly get
1:04:32
quietly move over to her and pick her up and
1:04:37
uh move her back towards the Rising tide okay I'm so sorry I'm so
1:04:45
sorry ah I would not do this if this was not important and I will go hop on the horse and head off to make a delivery
1:04:51
and as I hop on the horse we'll take that ring off and look at it and shudder oh
1:04:58
put it back in a pocket and I will turn my other ring and I will look
1:05:03
as close to her as possible but it's gonna be about a six foot version of her okay all right
1:05:09
um all of a sudden your your hair lengthens into
1:05:15
like a shoulder length dirty blonde um and your clothes begin to to morph and
1:05:24
warp into the clothes that she was wearing which was a much lighter leather armor
1:05:30
um and pretty soon you look exactly like this woman and I'm gonna make my way over to the
1:05:37
manor to the rear and um
1:05:43
hopefully timing wise we're pretty close like what I would what I'm gonna wait for I'm gonna wait for the
1:05:49
um actually I'm not gonna wait for it I want to go slightly before they're gonna start making the Ruckus at the front
1:05:57
um and I'm gonna head up to this service entrance and knock on the door because I'm assuming
1:06:04
that's what you do all right um you look where where the wall is I'm gonna have you make a investigation
1:06:11
check okay because you can see that this wall is entirely flush um and from what they had described to
1:06:18
you it's sort of a hidden it's hidden entrance right yes you should have got the exact location that's a 16 a 16.
1:06:26
okay you're looking at this wall and you cannot find any differences in the
1:06:32
texture okay okay um I am going to ah
1:06:45
so my I'm gonna try this uh
1:06:52
I'm going to on my left ear where I have the
1:06:58
copper wire earring along my ear I'm gonna just rub it and Whisper into my
1:07:03
hand uh hello are you close uh to my friend
1:07:09
who I just met at the who gave me the blue dragon car to see if they are near
1:07:15
what's the range on that 120 feet 120 feet
1:07:23
it's pretty big manner so it may not no that no you would not get a response
1:07:31
and yeah looking at this place
1:07:37
the diameter of the wall yep or the diameter of the the this whole compound
1:07:43
is more than 120 feet God damn it okay I will turn the ring turn back into Seeker
1:07:49
I want to look into the to the wagon of is there any like there's bread yeah yes I just want to take a piece okay and
1:07:55
start eating it and then I want to um I'm gonna turn the ring I want to
1:08:01
just turn into just like a disheveled you know like a local drunk
1:08:07
um that's stumbling through town and I want to I'm going to work my way around to the front gate okay and I'm gonna try
1:08:14
and keep a bit of a distance and muttering things ah the sky's falling
1:08:21
all right how am I supposed to eat it with a fork ah it's always the fork and
1:08:28
then I'm waiting for my distraction to begin uh and at that point I'm gonna make my
1:08:35
way um as they start to move up I want to move up kind of alongside them okay you
1:08:41
do see as you're approaching the front you do see this group of four gentlemen beginning to walk towards the front and
1:08:47
you can see they're all like sort of stumbling over each other They're laughing to themselves I'm just walking like oh God's New Gods
1:08:54
I just want a God In A Bottle tastes good all right and the the other four get to
1:09:02
the front and they sort of see you you can see a little bit of a confused
1:09:08
look on their face but they continue on and they stumble up to this guard I'll just nod kind of try and give a nod of
1:09:15
keep going all right um and one of them stumbles up to this guard
1:09:20
and you can see the guard standing there very rigidly and he throws his arm over the guard shoulder and he says you know
1:09:26
what I think about it all you know you and I don't even think you're ready to know what I think about
1:09:32
all of this it's not even just the little bits it's the entire system of it
1:09:39
and you can see this guard beginning to get very frustrated and pushing him off and all four of them
1:09:45
begin to sort of like walk up and he gets no well he says that he's uh he
1:09:50
says he's just this big thing and he's so important so in this I'm just looking
1:09:55
for just a moment just a moment to slip by
1:10:01
um is the gate what is the position of the gate right now
1:10:07
it's a a gate there that this guard is standing in front of um it looks to be like a cast iron
1:10:13
um gate uh you can see through it you can see to the manor but um the the
1:10:19
spaces in between each of these bars are is very very small very small and the
1:10:24
gate itself is closed does he have any keys on them um he does have uh uh Keys down by his
1:10:30
side yes okay um we're gonna we're gonna
1:10:35
earn another one we're gonna try this again um [Music]
1:10:41
I'm going to just kind of groan
1:10:47
reach in pull out that ring with the symbols all sigils all around it and
1:10:54
look at him and just say uh
1:11:01
paralyzed okay
1:11:09
okay that's a 17. um he's six seeds okay
1:11:16
and as soon as these four gentlemen see that that you cast that
1:11:22
the guard looks to you and he grabs his spear
1:11:28
and he lunges towards you and all four of these these supposed
1:11:33
drunkards just start beating him up just start
1:11:38
punching the [ __ ] out let's go as they all like knock him to the ground and just start like kicking him in the ribs
1:11:44
and one of them the the companion who took you uh in originally
1:11:49
um throws himself down on the ground next to this guard who's now on the ground wraps his arm around his throat
1:11:55
and starts choking him until he's unconscious as this guard now passes out he looks to you and he goes what
1:12:02
what's that it didn't it didn't didn't work sorry uh okay well I mean we're just gonna we're
1:12:08
gonna make do with what we have as they start like stripping the guard down and one of them starts like putting on his armor yeah here take the keys and I just
1:12:15
hand out like four more gold thank you thank you and I want to take the keys and I want to I want to enter the gate
1:12:22
as quickly and quietly as possible okay um and by the time you get through the
1:12:28
gates um the your companion has fully put on the guard's uniform is
1:12:35
now standing there with the spear as the other three are silently dragging him back into one of the Alleyways of the
1:12:41
city they're good fantastic okay as you walk in
1:12:46
you see that there are actually several buildings within this this manner you can see uh one off tier
1:12:55
left that looks like a little bit of a shack but the main manner directly in front of you is massive you can see
1:13:03
um just walking away with his back towards you you can see another guard sort of Dipping down
1:13:10
around the uh the manner how well lit is it around the man are there torches
1:13:16
there are torches there are sconces all along the outside of the manor keeping it very well lit you can see a couple of
1:13:22
darkened Corners um but for the most part it is pretty well lit okay you can also just begin to
1:13:28
hear another guard walking around the other corner of the manor making his way
1:13:34
towards you you can't quite see him yet but you can hear the footsteps making their way towards you what would you like to do I want to so the guard that
1:13:40
is walking away from me right now I want to [Music] kind of one for one match the steps
1:13:47
going that direction and do I see is that it looks like maybe there's a
1:13:52
building is there a building off in that direction or doors off to your left yes yes so you make your way
1:13:59
silently in perfect timing and in my head they're just like okay
1:14:05
where would I be if I was think like this app where would this epi
1:14:11
and you walk into this building off to the left and you can see that this
1:14:17
building is is filled with paperwork you can see a couple of open books app
1:14:24
um and you can see paperwork you do notice one of these books that is open does seem to have a list of
1:14:32
um of the current inventory of the compound I will let's let's read
1:14:40
I want to read through that I want to okay um as you are required because there's a
1:14:45
guard coming behind yes um as you are reading through that you
1:14:50
can hear the guard that was circling around towards you moving around you can hear his footsteps
1:14:56
just outside the door and you can hear him just pass go by okay but now looking at it you can see that
1:15:02
there's probably a series of guards circling circling this compound as you're reading through it why do you
1:15:09
always do circling Gods it's not the best it is not the best way but I mean I like it I'm gonna have you make an investigation check
1:15:15
[Music] carry the one and then that's gonna be 24. 24.
1:15:22
um very quickly you start 22. 22. nice um very quickly you find uh the um both
1:15:28
the shambling Mounds and the sap you can see that the shambling Mounds are are
1:15:33
being kept in an underground farming area what is it underneath the ground
1:15:39
underneath um this compound you can see the sap itself however seems to be
1:15:46
um held in a storage area out sort of in the back still on this ground level
1:15:51
[Music] back like so I'm in the front so in the back of the manner from where I am in
1:15:57
the back of the manner far away from where I am as possible okay okay and you can see each of these these items is
1:16:03
labeled as well as obviously where they are um and you can see a little guide on
1:16:10
there as well you get a little layout of the the this this manner itself
1:16:15
um you can see the shed that you are currently in you can see the manner
1:16:20
itself and you can also see this storage area out in the back and from what you can see it is completely walled off from
1:16:29
the outside except for a small little hallway that attaches itself to the main manner [Music]
1:16:35
with no entrance from the outside with no entrance from the outside it looks like you have to go through the manor
1:16:40
and enter through the manor or at least that's what this diagram is describing do I have any can I see the man are
1:16:47
there any windows can I see the manner from here um you would have to peek out the front door but as you do you just hear another
1:16:53
guard pass by in front and as they pass by it goes silent once more all right uh
1:17:00
so I want to peek out and I want to what I so I know there's the front door to the manor that I saw when I was coming
1:17:05
yes through the main entrance if I look to the left or right are there
1:17:11
any other points of Entry looking for Windows um any other doors any kind of uh you
1:17:18
can see two windows on either side of the entrance okay um but with the way that these walls and
1:17:25
everything are set up you can't really see the sides of the manner from where you currently are you're just seeing
1:17:31
this massive front face of the manner so with the guards circling if I look if I look straight ahead of where I'm out
1:17:37
this door do I see the next guard coming yet or no you do not the other guard
1:17:43
just passed in front of you before you peeked out so I want to Dart over to the front door okay and see if it's open I
1:17:51
mean why wouldn't they leave it open it's open yeah it is locked of course do my I want to try my keys okay he's from
1:17:57
the gate man um you go you fumble through the keys um I'm gonna have you make a sleight of
1:18:03
hand check to see how quickly you can make your way through these keys foreign
1:18:09
[Music] a 17. you start making your way through these Keys the first one doesn't unlock
1:18:15
it you can see there's about five keys on this five Keys the second one doesn't unlock it the third one doesn't unlock
1:18:22
it you start to hear footsteps coming around the corner come on come on and just as you see a guard rounding the
1:18:29
corner the fourth one opens it you step inside you close the door behind you
1:18:35
[Music] okay uh as I walk in what do I see am I
1:18:41
in like a Fourier or like yes you are in this little entrance area and you can
1:18:46
see um to both your right and your left you can see um little uh uh almost like display
1:18:54
areas um showcasing some artwork of the manner there are statues in each of them
1:19:01
um and just like a little art entrance here how this time of night how lit up is the
1:19:08
inside of the minute I'm I'm seeking Shadow Darkness the inside of this manner is actually quite a bit darker
1:19:15
than the outside it's not quite as well lit um and you can see especially at this
1:19:20
time of night most of the sconces and the Torches and the candles inside have been extinguished being right here in
1:19:27
the front entryway do I hear any voices do I hear any footsteps
1:19:37
um and you can just hear conversations from what you assume is
1:19:43
two guards you can't exactly place where the voices are coming from but you can
1:19:48
you can tell it might just be outside of this this little um entrance way and to the right
1:19:58
okay uh so straight ahead of me is an opening
1:20:04
hallway um do I
1:20:09
so to my right where I think I hear these voices do I see a doorway that
1:20:14
they might be behind if you just peek out of this this um into this hallway if I peek out of there for you you can see
1:20:21
that there is an open doorway no door no door there but it is an open uh entrance
1:20:26
way into another room okay and you can as you're peeking out into this hallway you can pinpoint that that's where the
1:20:32
voices are coming from so what I want to do here I'm gonna step back into the foyer
1:20:39
um okay and I'm going to pull out a
1:20:45
red tin out of my bag and I'm going to slide it back and it's full it's you're
1:20:51
looking at it it's got like um like a like a viscous oil kind of like a petroleum jelly type uh and I'm going to
1:21:02
grab it and I'm going to rub it on my I'm going to just rub it on my finger
1:21:07
actually my fingertip my forefinger and rub it on my throat and and just whisper to myself who
1:21:16
and then um what they're gonna hear off across
1:21:21
the way from where they are so if I'm looking down the hallway to the left what they're gonna hear is
1:21:29
um what sounds like some books falling or uh yeah like some books falling to
1:21:34
the ground all right um and as soon as that happens you hear the
1:21:40
the sound of books falling you can hear the guards what
1:21:46
um not again okay just give me one second I'll be right back
1:21:51
as one of the guards crosses the hallway opens up the doorway put to the other
1:21:57
side of the the hallway and walks into the room um and while that happens I want to
1:22:03
[Music] peek out and in that room to the right where the
1:22:11
guard came from um I want to make a whisper so I'm gonna
1:22:17
first I'm gonna whisper myself who and in the back of the room I want
1:22:23
them to hear a whisper that says I'm over here oh no no no no no no
1:22:30
is someone there hello
1:22:36
if anyone's there you're gonna get stabbed by a spear as you can hear their
1:22:41
footsteps moving away as they start further down into this room I want to quickly go across the opening
1:22:48
and look for the next room um all right you make your way down the
1:22:55
hall what am I saying um and you can see that at the end of this hallway
1:23:00
um off to your left it sort of opens up you can see a staircase leading both up and down okay um at the end of of that
1:23:07
little bit you can see there is um another room off there to your left if you go to the right however you can
1:23:14
see it opens up it there's a little hallway that then opens up into a much larger room where are you going I'm
1:23:20
gonna go right into this larger room I'm going to be scanning for any movement motion voices in there but I'm gonna go
1:23:26
into that room I want to tuck myself in as soon as you walk into this room um you see that there is a um a shrine
1:23:35
to the old gods um and looking around you see a lot of
1:23:40
imagery that reminds you of louris
1:23:46
interesting it looks like this is a personal worship area
1:23:51
huh did not expect that uh
1:23:56
intrigued I'm going to ah so I know that I still need to go
1:24:05
through here towards the back a little bit more to get to that that open area or that the area where the sap is yes
1:24:11
uh just glancing like looking at the altar or like the the front part of this room
1:24:17
is there an altar is there a table like yes there's a there's an altar um and then there are two um sort of uh rugs
1:24:25
off to either side um looks like sort of worship areas but yes there is a central
1:24:32
um sort of kneeling area right in front of a shrine oh goodness don't feel bad still I feel
1:24:38
bad stealing from you but I'm still going to do it um I don't know what that was there aren't any books over here on the ground
1:24:46
you can hear a door open footsteps crossing the hall I want to quietly move
1:24:52
uh to the left side of this altar room uh moving towards the next opening and
1:24:59
peek into the next base to see if there's any like is it an open
1:25:05
doorway or is that a door it is an open doorway that you can see leading off into this next room
1:25:10
um and as you approach it you hear voices from inside what is he talk what
1:25:17
is he talking about books no no no no no I don't I'm just gonna leave him as he is and as you peek in
1:25:24
you see two more guards in here both sitting at a large dining table
1:25:30
eating what looks to be their dinner but just it looks like they're taking a
1:25:35
little break and eating in this large dining area you look in and you can see a long table
1:25:42
with ornate uh imagery carved into each of the legs and into the wood itself you
1:25:49
can see intricately carved wooden chairs around this table as well and
1:25:55
um a a massive stained glass window on the other side
1:26:02
all right so looking at the altar
1:26:09
I'm gonna pull out my oil my my jelly and rub it
1:26:16
take a bigger goop and rub my hands and looking at the altar I will say I will
1:26:22
say a word say a word to myself uh and that word is
1:26:27
cool and what will happen is a purple flame
1:26:33
will start to burn a magical flame will start to burn and I want it to be pretty
1:26:38
bright I want to try and get their attention um I want to try and get their attention and as I'm doing this I want to tuck
1:26:44
myself in this corner and hide as well as I can with my black um with my black cape I want to hide as
1:26:50
well as I can in this corner and if I can get their attention I want to use thamaturgy one more time
1:26:57
to say here so you cast this and all of a sudden the
1:27:05
light extends out from it and you can see these rays of purple light just
1:27:11
extending off into the um into this dining area you can hear both of their Forks drop
1:27:18
and then the voice they both stare at each other
1:27:25
I'm I'm not gonna go over there you go you go over there okay okay I'll go
1:27:33
one of the guards gets up starts moving towards the entrance
1:27:40
he backs away and he says no I'm not going alone you have to come over here too the other guard finishes chewing his
1:27:46
bike and going okay okay and they both walk into the room as they walk into the room I want to slide I
1:27:53
want to slip ever so quietly around the corner of the wall into the dining room
1:28:00
where they were as you do and as you're as you're crouching there actually
1:28:06
one of the guards passes within inches of you
1:28:13
and they continue walking in looking at the shrine as you just make your way around the wall into the dining area
1:28:20
you get a better sense of the space of this room
1:28:27
what would you like to do and that flame will that'll burn for one minute so we'll probably keep their attention for
1:28:33
that much time uh trying to get my bearings in this room I wanna are there is there an X is
1:28:41
there a door out of this room um so you wanna you can see one more exit
1:28:49
um off on the the left side of this room
1:28:55
um and you can see that there is a doorway that leads you don't know where so I wanna and this door closed the door
1:29:01
is closed I don't make my way to the door and I want to just check I want to like I want to put my ear on it see if I
1:29:06
hear anything on the other side and I want to kind of just with my I want to check the frame I wanna
1:29:12
uh without turn is it a knob or handle it is a handle so without uh
1:29:18
turning the handle I want to assess it see if it will make noise if it's got
1:29:24
any kind of an alarm on it um make an investigation check for me
1:29:30
[Music] that's a 18 plus six so that's like 24.
1:29:37
nice um just barely checking all of the the
1:29:43
door it looks to be a normal door it doesn't talk it doesn't look to have any traps
1:29:49
on it it looks to be a normal door do I hear anything on the other side you do not
1:29:55
it's open is it open is it locked it is not locked all right then I want to enter I want to enter this door
1:30:03
and look I believe I should be getting closer to the rear of the manor
1:30:09
um do I see so if I look to my right what do I see as you open the door and go into this
1:30:16
room you are not able to hear them but you just see
1:30:22
a guard leaning up against the wall fighting to stay awake
1:30:29
sort of in that in and out of sleep they're leaning up against the wall you
1:30:34
can see that their their spear is leaning up against the wall as well and you can see them just barely trying
1:30:41
to keep their eyes open um I didn't actually take the ring off that uh for sleep so I'm going to
1:30:50
very quickly just say I'm gonna turn I'm going to turn the
1:30:55
ring and say sleep and immediately
1:31:00
their head leans and hits the wall as they fall fully asleep oh my goodness
1:31:07
okay [Music] uh and I want to look to my right now
1:31:13
that that surprise has been found uh and actually uh looking down on my left hand
1:31:19
I'm going to pull the ring off okay and put it back in my bag and say you can't stay here you must go
1:31:26
looking to your right you see a much heavier door this door
1:31:31
you can see is made of wood but you can just tell it is this it's this
1:31:36
thick oh and dark wood the door behind me I closed okay yeah it's this thick
1:31:42
dark wood with intricate carvings in it you can see golden handles on either
1:31:48
side and a a golden
1:31:54
lock right there on each of the doors uh I've gotta try it and see if it's
1:32:01
unlocked it is not it is very much locked you can barely even turn the handle I want to go
1:32:08
pat down this uh this guard does this guard have any Keys any the guard does
1:32:13
have a key notably the key that you find is a single key not in a ring like the others and this key is much bigger both
1:32:23
in in length and also just in in its sturdiness the material seems heavier
1:32:28
and I the from the inventory this room behind here from what I remember in the
1:32:34
and like the the layout it just has the sap it has a couple of other items okay in
1:32:40
there as well but if you were just looking for the sap yeah this is where it is okay perfect um well I will take said key and I will
1:32:48
make my way to that door and try and open it turn turn the key okay the
1:32:54
beautiful key you walk inside and you see a little uh a short hallway
1:33:00
in front of you continue walking down the hallway
1:33:07
and it opens up into a large storage room you can see that there are a couple
1:33:13
of torches lit here as there are no windows to the outside there are no doors to the outside this is a fortified
1:33:18
room but you can see a couple of torches lit as well as
1:33:23
these shelves that are just filled with different ingredients you can see various potions on the shelves
1:33:31
um and and seemingly a million different things on all of these shelves
1:33:37
any labels do I hear any people or any footfalls is there anyone in here it is
1:33:43
eerily quiet it seems like all of the sound is completely trapped within this room
1:33:49
I want to start searching the shelves and look for
1:33:55
um look for anything that says shambling Mount sap or anything like that okay
1:34:01
you start looking around and you can see the individual bottles and the individual items are not labeled but you
1:34:07
can see on the shelves themselves little plaques right next to the large groupings of items
1:34:13
I'm gonna have you make an investigation check don't film me oh no I said Natty
1:34:21
that's the natural one it turns out I never learned to read it's gonna take you some time to look through this you
1:34:27
make a initial you make an initial pass see if you can find it quick you you
1:34:33
can't what would you like to do
1:34:39
you can continue looking but the longer you stay in here yeah
1:34:44
the guard outside has a chance of waking up as well as other guards having a chance to come by and wake him up so
1:34:49
with that in mind what are you gonna do can't stay too long ah
1:34:56
said it was kind of a sap and seemed he said it tastes good
1:35:01
um God I don't want to start tasting things but
1:35:07
[Music] uh okay if you want to if you want to investigate and look at these labels
1:35:14
closer you definitely can but time is let me ask you this yes since this just
1:35:20
happened like these this is a new shipment there anything like as I'm looking at
1:35:26
these is there dust on any of the vials do any of them look newer fresher
1:35:33
um as I'm looking at the the places where they're sitting are there outlines of you can see
1:35:40
certain items have a small layer of dust over them whereas others like the bottom
1:35:45
a nice fine patina yes yes some of the bottles are shiny some of them are a
1:35:51
little bit more dulled so I want to look for the shiny side I want to look for more of the shiny and I
1:35:57
I'm sounds like it's edible so I want to look for one of the bottles that's shiny
1:36:02
and read the label I want to investigate the label and um
1:36:09
okay that's what I'm gonna do you look and you see the little plaque next to it it is not trembling oh good thing I
1:36:16
didn't try that uh okay okay uh looking for more as you look for the next one
1:36:23
you begin to hear shouting from just outside down the hallway
1:36:30
great this has got to be what the fourth time this week that you've fallen asleep on the job
1:36:36
this is this is unacceptable no no get your things and get out
1:36:42
is this door the door the second set of doors that I just came through are they lockable from the inside
1:36:48
you did not see a lock you would have to run down in the hallway and check me out uh all right so I want to in this room
1:36:57
if somebody were to walk in is there a way to obscure myself from them seeing me when they walk in if you wanted to to
1:37:03
go up against one of the walls that's near the uh near the hallway you could hide yourself up against one
1:37:10
of the walls um in the that's that's pretty much it if I
1:37:15
make my way around this room are there any other compartments any other doors any other in the floor are there any
1:37:21
well this is not in the basement the shamling mountains are in the basement um
1:37:27
as you're looking around you hear the doors to the hallway open door's the hallway open and you hear footsteps
1:37:34
coming down the hallway what are you gonna do [Music] I'm going to make myself tiny and near
1:37:43
the edge of the wall there so when someone comes in I'm gonna hide I'm gonna I'm gonna hide and I'm going to
1:37:50
prepare a gonna
1:38:00
I'm gonna prepare a uh a command
1:38:05
but I've got to put this all right out of the hallway I I put the ring on to
1:38:11
the room I put the ring on and I'm what as what what does he do when he
1:38:17
walks in the room he starts looking around from right to left and I'm on the
1:38:22
scanning the room I can't I will say
1:38:28
stop [Music]
1:38:34
you rolled a six that does not beat a fourteen no that does not as his head
1:38:39
creaks to a stop and he stands there Frozen
1:38:46
I want to move around to the back of him okay and
1:38:52
I'm going to just check what effect to the Target how long does this
1:38:59
last last one round okay so I'm gonna move around to the back of them and
1:39:05
yeah sorry I want to pull out a dagger turn it and hit him on the back of the head
1:39:12
as hard as I can to try and knock them out all right um I'm gonna have you he's not wearing a Helm is he he is not
1:39:19
um I'm gonna have you roll a D6 for me
1:39:24
[Music] two two
1:39:31
he collapses I am going to reach into my bag and grab
1:39:37
some rope and tie um I'm gonna stuff like a a shirt into
1:39:42
his mouth tie it and I'm gonna bind hands if he's gonna take a second but I'm gonna bind hands and feet okay and
1:39:49
drag him to the side okay as you do he is bound and gagged the big guy is probably gonna take me a minute not the
1:39:55
strongest it's it's gonna take you a minute um but you get the gag in there first he is not able to say anything okay
1:40:01
shambling Mount where would I be okay back to such uh
1:40:09
make another investigation check for me that is an 18. an 18. okay you know the
1:40:18
section that you checked yes and now you go over and and being a little bit more thorough and a little
1:40:25
bit more um uh cautious with with how you're checking
1:40:30
you look off in the last row in the last corner of course
1:40:35
you see vials of sap okay shambling mounts out I'm going to take
1:40:42
uh [Music] let's see I'll take three vials three
1:40:48
vials okay you stuff three vials in your pocket could be enough right that she didn't say how much
1:40:53
ah I'll take two more okay you have five vials of shambling Mount sap what are you doing one more because I heard it's
1:41:00
good in tea and some of them like six vials okay yes now I'm going to try and
1:41:05
retrace my steps back out to where the sleeping God was okay
1:41:11
and as I'm walking by the guard I knocked out I'm so sorry he was woken up they were they were
1:41:17
yelling at him that he was that he was sleeping that's the same guy oh the same guy got him that's right he was getting
1:41:24
his stuff and heading out all right so I wanna do I hear anything past these really nice golden gilded doors
1:41:31
I don't know could I hear through him I mean they're pretty they're thick doors you wouldn't be able to hear through them uh oh idea I'm gonna go back to
1:41:39
this guy okay does he have his Spear and his uh Shield yes he does okay so I'm
1:41:44
going to grab them and I'm going to take off that damn's command ring put it
1:41:50
away and I'm going to turn my other ring and look like uh
1:41:57
we shall call you Zachary I'm going to look like Zachary okay all right and immediately your Visions begins to
1:42:04
change and soon enough you look exactly like this guard you are holding his his shield and his spear as you walk back
1:42:11
down the hallway I'm gonna walk back down and
1:42:17
um I want to go I want to go through the this is the guard that got fired right like yes uh do I see any water or any
1:42:25
like a glass of water can I go back through the kitchen area yes you would be actually going back through the dining room in the dining room area
1:42:31
there are um there are two glasses of water from where the guards were eating dip my my hands into the water and rub
1:42:38
it like from my eyes like down my cheeks and as I'm as I make my way into this little Temple area I just just kind of
1:42:46
just you make your way into the temple area or at the into the um this little
1:42:52
shrine you make your way back out into the hallway and as you make your way and you're like walking by the front it's
1:42:57
like by Lars bye
1:43:02
I tried and as you walk back into the main hallway you see the four other guards
1:43:09
that you had seen throughout this manner can't even look on the eye they look at you and they go disgraceful eyes
1:43:16
downcast
1:43:21
I know and you walk right past them as they look at you shaking their heads
1:43:29
you walk out to the front area you walk out the front down the steps you see another guard
1:43:36
passing the in front of you [Music]
1:43:42
I can't make I'm just looking down at the ground just marching to the front
1:43:47
you make your way out to the front Gates you see your companion standing there still with his
1:43:54
shield and spear ah oh come on come on oh
1:44:02
you've come with me um no I'm I'm stationed here at the
1:44:07
front no you're not come on you're with me and I will I will uh turn my ring and turn back
1:44:14
into seeker and oh okay he immediately drops the spear in his shield and
1:44:20
he begins walking with you out of the manor and back into the city
1:44:26
of Saddle Mountain did you get what you need indeed I did
1:44:32
holy [ __ ] man um okay I couldn't have done it without
1:44:37
your help I mean I underestimated you uh you guys were really good
1:44:43
okay what's what's the score what did we get I got some shambling Mount sap good and
1:44:52
that is all I needed what you needed
1:44:57
is there was there more what was what
1:45:04
gold diamonds precious gemstones I don't I don't know I was just expecting a
1:45:09
little bit more but I okay what is more precious than a than a creature's life
1:45:14
gold gold is more precious I completely disagree with you on this but I mean I gotta I gotta would you
1:45:21
like a vial of Zap I will produce a vial this app and say I hear it is gudanti well yeah okay I'll take one here you go
1:45:29
thank you you can say you got it I mean you you really helped a lot well
1:45:35
I think I'm just proud to uh to have been a part of breaking into the manor
1:45:42
that was uh you don't know how long we've been trying to get someone in there I underestimated
1:45:48
you I could give you some notes for your next try [Music] I will pick your brain yes
1:45:57
um but until then um we're gonna we're gonna head back I've got the rising time going I've got
1:46:02
to get this back as quickly as possible okay um you know where we stay I know how to
1:46:08
find you all right he reaches out to shake your hand I reach out shake hands pleasure playing
1:46:15
cards with you and that is where we're gonna end this episode we're gonna call it right there
1:46:21
hey Seeker successfully getting away thank you all so much for listening and we can't wait to see you all again next
1:46:27
week bye nerds bye nerds bye nudes hi nerds no I'm just kidding it's me Russ uh just want to say thank you uh for
1:46:35
listening once again uh make sure to like follow subscribe if you enjoy this because then it shows us that you enjoy
1:46:41
it and then it makes us happy um also if uh if you're looking for a
1:46:46
way to talk to other nerds that uh love this podcast uh there's a Discord a
1:46:51
community Discord that we have and there's a decent amount of people in there just chatting it up uh about d d about life about the show
1:46:58
um and if you want to be a part of that it's it's in the links so go ahead and click it and check it out other than that thank you again for listening and
1:47:05
we'll see in the next one bye nerds foreign [Applause]
Venture Forth is a Dungeons and Dragons podcast. We play 5th edition (5e) Dungeons and Dragons in a home-brew D&D setting. Our campaign takes place in the high fantasy realm of Elbor. A world filled with monsters, heroes and epic tales to be told. We've had the honor of partnering with DnD Beyond so if you'd like to support the podcast, be sure to head over to dndbeyond.link/venture !
Venture Forth is a Dungeons and Dragons podcast. We play 5th edition (5e) Dungeons and Dragons in a home-brew D&D actual play setting. Our campaign takes place in the high fantasy realm of Elbor. A world of monsters, heroes and epic tales to be told. D&D is a TTRPG, a tabletop roleplaying game, also known as an RPG. Our gameplay is perfect for beginners to Dungeons and Dragons from episode 1.Olma, Flynn, March, Ceallach, Shraya
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Venture Forth, Dungeons and Dragons podcast, 5e, actual play, actual play podcast, d&d, d&d 5e, d&d actual play, d&d campaign, d&d episode 1, d&d for beginners, d&d game, d&d gameplay, d&d podcast, d&d podcast for beginners, d&d podcasts for beginners, dnd, dnd 5e, dnd campaign, dnd podcast, dnd podcast ep 1, dungeons and dragons, dungeons and dragons 5e, dungeons and dragons campaign, rpg, ttrpg
Venture Forth, Dungeons and Dragons podcast, 5e, actual play podcast, d&d, d&d 5e, d&d actual play, d&d campaign, d&d gameplay, d&d podcast, dnd, dnd 5e, dnd campaign, dnd podcast, dungeons and dragons, dungeons and dragons campaign, rpg, ttrpg
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