Whispers in Wregate
Journey back in time with the Time Breakers as they infiltrate the Black Sun Festival, attempting to alter the fate of the city by thwarting a cataclysmic plot. But beware, for a greater threat looms that could overshadow even the consequences of their plane-shifting actions. Can this epic adventure be completed without too many rippling butterfly effects, or will they change the world for the better?? Come along and find out!
Whispers in Wregate
WiW 31: NoTa Breakfast Conspiracy
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What if the truth behind an assassination attempt was hidden in the most unexpected places? Get ready for a thrilling ride as we follow the heroes of Timebreakers on a quest to uncover the secrets surrounding Lord Corvatash. Thaddeus delves deep into intricate blueprints, but an unsettling inner voice disrupts his focus, hinting at deeper conspiracies. Elise and Sarah join forces to piece together the chaotic scenes using minor illusions, revealing inconsistencies that challenge their understanding of the attack.
As the morning sun rises, Elise and Sarah's meticulous investigation continues, while Shimmer cleverly disguises herself to protect Corvatash and Seraphina. The Black Sun Festival casts an ominous shadow, yet our heroes remain undeterred. Shimmer transitions seamlessly between roles, planning a regroup at Thaddeus' house. They unravel the tangled web of political maneuvers and deception, questioning the true allegiances within the castle, and debating the strategic importance of the Starshard. Every revelation brings them closer to the heart of the conspiracy.
Join us as we explore the team's search for Dylan and their debates on using Speak With Dead. Thaddeus and Sarah's morning adventure leads them to the charming gnome Shortcake and his irresistible "Surprise Breakfast," adding a touch of humor and camaraderie to the investigation. Don't miss out on the fun and the intrigue—be part of the Breakers Time community on Discord and help us build the city from the inside. Your feedback is invaluable, and we're eager to hear your thoughts on this captivating journey!
Come join our discord, not only to meet the players but to join the City its-self and gain the opportunity to join the party as a guest on their adventures : <a href="https://discord.gg/Y7UNS7aErT">Discord</a>
This podcast uses many sounds from freesound.com, for the full list see here: https://eliselappan.wixsite.com/multimedia/general-5
Opening and closing music Composed by Ryan Muns, owner and operator of Eyes On The Moon Studios. For inquiries, please send an email to eyesonthemoonstudios@gmail.com. Eyes On The Moon Studios can be found on Spotify, Bandcamp, and most other major streaming services.
Hello and welcome back. I'm Baron Battlebred, your guide through the streets and whispers of regate Gather round ye lost folk as we spiral back to the Timebreakers, trying to rewrite history and change their fates.
Speaker 2Timebreakers Time Timebreakers.
Speaker 1When we last left off, the Timebreakers had managed to foil an assassination attempt, successfully resuscitate Lord Corvatash and managed to sneak him out of the castle without getting caught. After arriving back at Thaddeus's house, they formed a plan. Shimmer took Lord Corvatash back to his own house where they met Lady Serafina, and Shimmer laid out the whole thing of them traveling back in time, how they're friends in the future, how the cult is going to destroy everybody, all the information that she could give, and she decided to stay there overnight to help protect them. As Lord Corvitash recovers, thaddeus, elise and Sarah went to a seedy bar. They retrieved the gold that the assassin who was supposed to kill lord corvitash was meant to receive. They got in a small fight with the bodyguard of the man who paid them and they managed to make it back to thaddeus's house without much issue. Unfortunately, they've already taken a long rest for the day, so they have the night to themselves. Uh, thaddeus, sarah, elise, what?
Speaker 3are you guys up to? Well, I've been studying my blueprints, not really paying much mind to whatever else is going on.
Speaker 1Uh, let's see studying the blueprints. Um, why don't you give me a Tinker's check D20 plus your proficiency? Modifier.
Speaker 3It's gonna be a 17, I believe I haven't logged into D&D Beyond yet. I'm gonna do that now. Well, what'd you roll? 15 plus a 2 is my proficiency modifier, I believe.
Speaker 1Your proficiency is 3, so that is an 18. As you sit there studying your blueprints, you gain a greater understanding of it and in order to help you visualize things, you gather a bunch of random scrap materials that you have lying around as you put things into place. At building a mock-up of what you have on the blueprint, making marks of where certain situations would go, like oh, we could put a power source here, we can put a bolt trigger here. Uh, like this should be hollowed out could make a barrel, all those kind of things. As you study these blueprints, how long do you spend studying them?
Speaker 3Good three to four hours probably.
Speaker 1Thaddeus, as you're studying these blueprints, I need you to roll me a wisdom save. That would be a seven Thaddeus. After about two and a half hours of studying these blueprints, you realize that a lot of these things are how would I say this? It messes with your head a little bit, because the science behind this particular design is beyond the scope of what you, as a tinker, have dealt with in your past. And as you sit there reading these blueprints, putting together the mock-up, trying to figure out how these parts could all go together to make what it says they make, uh, you hear a tiny voice inside your head going we could take over the world with this steve no, that's jeremy jeremy, the voice does not respond to being called names.
Speaker 5Weird.
Speaker 2Whatever Ryan's salting the voice, see if they respond to insults.
Speaker 1Elise Thaddeus is studying his blueprints off at his work table. What are you up to Elise?
Speaker 2is sitting at a table that's mostly cleaned off I'm sure Daddy says some gadgets and gizmos on the table.
Speaker 2She's using cards as kind of reference points, but she's not playing any card game. She places the cards at various points and uses minor illusion to recreate the images of these characters that she has come to interface with, such as the man who hired the assassin, such as lord corvites, such as the bodyguard and such as the other assassins that were in league with the assassin we had already killed. Um, she is creating like figures in front of her, planning out different angles of attack in different angles of approach towards determining why Lord Corvus Ash was being assassinated, how she knows, or if she knows any of the characters that are involved, and at the same time, there's also a minor illusion of the rooms in question. So we have she's got a small minor illusion of the meeting place, of the uh, the lizard's room or their, their chamber. The lizard themself is one of the figures. She's sort of piecing it all together with her illusions and her cards okay, okay, um, roll me an intelligence check first.
Speaker 1We'll start with that 14. Okay, that's not bad. Um, so you're? You're a pretty smart person. You're able to keep a lot of the details of what you expect. But as you start piecing things together, roll me a perception if you're looking for clues or an insight, if you're looking for clues in the people that you have interacted with. Yeah, let's do. Perception 13. As you look around at the situation that you have laid out in front of you through your minor illusions and your cards and your people, a couple of things come to mind. First, lord Corvatash said that the four guards that he brought with him had turned on him. He said that he was struck in the side with a halberd, but the wound was piercing.
Speaker 2We see is like the illusion focuses in on where he was attacked and the type of weapons that could have made this puncture wound.
Speaker 1You would know as somebody who has gotten into fights before, that in the fray of a melee like that, especially with multiple combatants, it's easy to lose track of what did or did not happen. So it is unclear as to whether he was misremembering or if he was telling it a purposeful deception.
Speaker 2At least says to no one in particular.
Speaker 1But those are the only new clues that you get out of re-looking at this through your illusions.
Speaker 4Sarah comes up, starts looking at all your stuff and says what's so interesting?
Speaker 2Lord Kovatesh's wound was not created in the manner he had described. It should be a more piercing weapon rather than one that is used to slash at somebody. Did it not stab with a halberd? It would create a different wound. See, here we have a small puncture. A halberd would make a much larger impact.
Speaker 4You think maybe a spear did it.
Speaker 1No, you would know that it was a much smaller wound than a spear would be capable of.
Speaker 4Looks at my rapier.
Speaker 2Probably a bolt.
Speaker 4Then A rapier did it.
Speaker 1Something closer to a rapier or a bolt? Yes, and if that's the case, you do remember that the bolts that the assassin used were poisoned.
Speaker 2We cannot rule out poison Corvitash may very well still be in danger. If the poison isn't particularly fast acting, this could have longer term ramifications.
Speaker 5Didn't we give him anti-poison, anti-venom?
Speaker 1You gave him an antidote potion or what you believed to be an antidote potion?
Speaker 2Yes, so rewind that Instead Thanks to Arcana. Thanks to Arcana, elise will instead say it seems the assassins could have been in the room. Well, that's obvious too. Yeah, I got nothing.
Speaker 1We didn't quite meet the gear cap to get a piece together from the GM, so we're going to move on to Sarah, sarah.
Speaker 4I'm looking at the table.
Speaker 1You are looking at the table. Would you like to attempt to aid in the investigation? I guess?
Speaker 4Yes, do you want me to roll investigation or insight?
Speaker 1Uh, roll me. Perception if you are looking at the physical clues, or an insight if you want to look into the people who you have dealt with.
Speaker 4Perception or insight.
Speaker 1Well, they're the same roll, but Eh, you know, sometimes you have like proficiencies in one or the other Nine.
Speaker 4Sarah you haven't dealt with enough I presume that there were five people in this room out of the six.
Speaker 1Well, out of the at least seven If you include the assassin, because the lizard was there the four guards and corvatash and at least one assassin case in point yeah, no, unfortunately, uh not much from you.
Speaker 2Uh, how long do you guys spend studying these illusions? Probably a solid few hours, hours of just she's like. It's almost like she's creating a repeat of like a video footage, three dimensional video footage in a sense, of just different elements. She's going through all of the faces, recreating faces, giving them 360, you know, bringing in different figures. It's almost like a video montage of just facts that she knows, things that she's seen and the layouts that they've come across, even including the little thieves then that they'd broken into so like what would it look like if this person was here with the dagger, versus if the person was still in the corner, shot and then hid again yeah, and trying to figure out if there's any connection between any of these scenes that they've come across, because we've got the thieves then working with the cultists, we've got the assassins going after korvitesh, we have so-and-so unnamed noble trying to vie for power and create a power vacuum for themselves.
Speaker 1I will say, elise, that you have lived in this city for a while and I don't remember if we covered it, but you did not recognize this particular noble. Like you're pretty sure you know most of the upper hierarchy, you did not recognize this individual.
Speaker 2This man is a new player in town. I don't recognize his face from all of my life in Regate.
Speaker 1Shimmer, mm-hmm. You are currently staying the night at Lord Corvitash and Lady Artman's house. What are you up to?
Speaker 5I don't really have anything other than to make sure that they aren't killed.
Speaker 1Okay, so you're standing watch then.
Speaker 5Basically.
Speaker 1How would you go about doing that? Describe how you would handle this.
Speaker 5I guess I would stay outside their bedroom area with permission, disguised as a guard. Probably a masculine guard, because no one which a guard. Probably a masculine guard, because no one which is fixed. This shiver would be male.
Speaker 1Okay, so you're going to be in the hallway then and protecting their bedroom door.
Speaker 5Yep. And listening in.
Speaker 1Got it. Keeping an ear out, okay, yeah, okay, give me a perception roll to keep an eye out for the night and that's terrible it's not the best, but it's not the worst. And would you want to use deception, performance or stealth uh, to keep up your disguise?
Speaker 5Deception.
Speaker 1Alright, go for it.
Speaker 5That would be 23.
Speaker 1Wow, yeah, no, easy enough. You are definitely not Shimmer anymore, but you go through the night and I assume you spend all night here.
Speaker 5Yeah.
Speaker 1As everyone spends the night working on their respective things. Elise and Sarah are looking through previous situations, thaddeus is studying his blueprints, shimmer is guarding Lord Corvatash and Lady Seraphina. And the night drags on. The hours drag on. Everything comes and goes. And the night drags on. The hours drag on. Everything comes and goes. It's surprisingly quiet after so much excitement over the last few days. Dawn starts to break, with nothing having happened to any of you In the early morning hours. As dawn breaks on day three of the Black Sun Festival, from two different windows of the same building, a tiny paper bird starts fluttering. One immediately burns to ash, followed by a stifled shriek. The other streaks across the city to land in a gnarled hand before being crushed and ignited, a wry grin crossing the face of a cloaked figure. We are currently at 120 hours until the sacrifice. What would you guys like to do on this fine morning?
Speaker 4Did we notice any of that happening?
Speaker 5No, Once Lord Corvatash and Lady Seraphina get up, Shimmer will become Shimmer again and join them for breakfast, I assume.
Speaker 1Yeah, easy enough, she'll make sure he's healing. Well, he is. Corvitash gets up and he comes out of the room and he's like ah, basically back to tip-top shape. Probably would have been dead on the ground behind that wall if you guys hadn't come along.
Speaker 5I'm glad we did.
Speaker 1I'm glad you did too. Lady Serafina will also step out of the room, quite happy to see that her fiancé is alive and kicking and back in top form. All right, the day is yours. What would you guys like to do out here?
Speaker 5After breakfast, Shimmer is going to have to sneak out and head back to Thaddeus' house to meet up with the rest of the group out of here. After breakfast, the Shimmer is gonna have to sneak out and head back to Thaddeus' house to meet up with the rest of the group.
Speaker 1You wanna sneak out?
Speaker 5Servant's entrance disguised as a servant.
Speaker 1Uh, okay, go ahead, and uh, roll me stealth.
Speaker 5I should. I was just gonna disguise myself as one of their known servants.
Speaker 4If she's doing this, she has advantage.
Speaker 1I mean, if she's just going to disguise herself as somebody who already exists, then it's not really a problem.
Speaker 5I am a changeling, I can do that.
Speaker 4Yes, yes, you can.
Speaker 1Okay, then you won't need to roll the stealth. You can just walk out of the servant's entrance dressed as one of their house people. Not a problem, you're headed back to Thaddeus' house. Yep, alright, it's still pretty early in the morning. When you arrive, you find that everyone else is also awake staring at their, you know, respective research moments.
Speaker 5I'd like to duck in an alleyway and change appearances halfway through there.
Speaker 1Okay, easy enough.
Speaker 5Probably just back to being Shimmer.
Speaker 1Cool.
Speaker 5She is not happy about having to be in a servant's uniform.
Speaker 1That was your choice.
Speaker 5She is very grumbly about it when she walks. She's like she's going to complain about it as soon as she walks in Thaddeus' front door Easy enough.
Speaker 1You guys just barely notice that the sun is coming up as the front door pops in and Shimmer steps inside grumbling.
Speaker 4I love that you're pissed off about something that none of us have any idea about.
Speaker 3Thaddeus just has a bewildered look on his face like what?
Speaker 2At least he'll be still holding the illusion. But look over quizzically.
Speaker 5Yeah, shimmer will then go somewhere and change back into a regular outfit.
Speaker 4Just imagine walking through the door. I fucking hate these goddamn clothes. That is exactly what happened.
Speaker 3I see that Seed as shivers complaining about the clothing. Then throws her necklace towards Elise while diving into it to go change.
Speaker 5That is what I was imagining basically.
Speaker 3And Elise just nonchalantly catches it Like it's no big thing at this point.
Speaker 2And sets it on the table next to one of the cards. And now that represents. That represents Shimmer on her battlefield situation. Here there's a situation report.
Speaker 4Of course it does. Now that there's a new piece in play, I think I should, you know, make another insight.
Speaker 1Yeah, you think so. Yeah, okay, uh, but you've been up all night, so it will be a disadvantage.
Speaker 4That's an eight.
Speaker 1Yeah, even without the disadvantage, neither of those uh, neither of those would have given you any new information. I'm sorry.
Speaker 3Uh, now that Thaddeus is kind of like done with his blueprints and he's off doing something else, can he roll an insight to see what's going on with the Lisa's battlefield thing?
Speaker 1Yeah, if you would like, you can also step up and take a look at it with a fresh pair of eyes.
Speaker 3Yeah, I'm going to take a look, fresh pair of eyes to it, with insight, all right, with insight.
Speaker 2Interestingly enough, he has my same bonus as arcana, so you're secretly rolling arcana, yeah, okay.
Speaker 1Oh no, I can see it here. If it says insight, we're good. If it says arcana, someone's in trouble, that's going to be a 15.
Speaker 2He rolls arcana. You say, yep, this is an illusion spell, Yep.
Speaker 1Alright Thaddeus with a 15,. Who are you focused on? Which part of the battlefields that Elise has shared are you focusing on?
Speaker 3Considering that I had a close look at Corvatash's wounds because I spent the most time with him, you know, helping him out and everything like that, along with Shimmer- that's probably what I'm focusing on. Okay Seeing, if anything stands out that you know I didn't catch the first time.
Speaker 1Okay, you, you stare at this, and Elise. You heard Elise voice her her concern earlier that Corvitash's wound was too small and puncture-like to be made by a halberd. And as you stare at it, you realize something else. That was the only wound he had, despite being jumped by at least four other guards in the middle of the fight, Like he was blindsided by his own people turning on him, and yet he only took one small wound before being trapped in the corner. That just seems highly unlikely.
Speaker 3Thaddeus turns to Elise. I just realized that was the only wound he had. Are you suggesting he was lying about the entire fight? Well, he did seem pretty bad off, but I don't know.
Speaker 1Oh he was. He was definitely bad off, he was near death, but he only had the one physical mark on him.
Speaker 3Unless there's some kind of magic that something's going on that I don't know about.
Speaker 5We did also before we got, I think before we even got close to him. I think we healed him as well. I'd like to point that out, because as soon as we broke through the wall, I think that's the very first thing I did was heal word, healing word, right Before we even approached him.
Speaker 1But the you know, seven or so hit points that he would have gotten back would not have been enough to remove what should have been several large slashing wounds.
Speaker 2So we are. We are, in theory, expecting that him being jumped by four people means that they would have gotten an attack on him, because that's not necessarily like I know. This is a bit like. This is D&D. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1Based on the damage of the room that you were in. Right, it's not like how would I say this? It's not like it was a short battle. The entire room was trashed. To the best of your knowledge, there were weapon strikes on almost all surfaces of some kind or another, Some made by swords, which were not mentioned, Some made by halberds, some piercing items. Obviously you assumed previously that those sword strikes were made by Lord Corvatash's weapon, but if he swung so many times, then surely others would have swung at him at least four times as many times.
Speaker 3Huh, Either Lord Corvatash is a really, really skilled warrior or I don't know. Something doesn't add up, Elise.
Speaker 1Thaddeus, while you're thinking on this, why don't you go ahead and roll me, arcana, to see what you can figure out about magic 15 as well? Thinking hard on it, thaddeus, you do know that there are magics, um, that can mess with your interpretation of reality. Um, illusions can be dealt with. Uh, there are strong enough magic casters can modify memories of situations. There are lots of things that mess with the mind. None of them are pleasant to think about.
Speaker 3You mean like thinking about being ripped in half.
Speaker 4Oh, goddammit.
Speaker 1Why don't you give me a wisdom save Thaddeus.
Speaker 4Of course you did that to yourself 17.
Speaker 3Yeah.
Plotting Political Maneuvers and Deception
Speaker 1You wince a little, thinking about your own poor memories that you wish that you could get rid of. But you don't have to roll anything else on that, woohoo. But you are correct in that, situationally, something about that fight is not adding up. Hmm, well, if that fight's not adding up.
Speaker 3Hmm, well, if that fight's not adding up, right then maybe when I pricked him with my bolt and everything like that and I saw red blood, that might not have been real red blood.
Speaker 4That's what you got from that?
Speaker 5Yeah, I have two directions that could go. I don't like either of them.
Speaker 2Either Corvatash is not the good guy.
Speaker 5Or the lizard isn't.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 5Lord Corvatash was being held behind a wall that was being maintained concentration on and there was an assassin waiting for it to go down. So like they wanted Corvatash dead, like someone wanted him dead, oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3By the way, Shimmer's still in her locket, or did Shimmer pop out already?
Speaker 5I imagine Shimmer popped out midway through this conversation.
Speaker 3Got it. That explains why I was hearing Shimmer, because before I thought I was like hearing the locket, like rattle or something like that, and the muffling sound of shimmer speaking through it but I'm actually talking as I'm talking as noelle.
Speaker 5Actually I'm not talking as shimmer, but like there was an assassin waiting outside that wall to kill corvintash. Like, regardless of whatever was happening with the guards and the lizard, someone wanted Corvatash dead. So, which makes me think? So that bit makes me think that the lizard is the one that's not on our side. That, including the fact that Gregory left with the uh, that one day, when he was supposed to take the Starshard or whatever it is, and he went out the front door rather than going towards the vault and left in a carriage, possibly on the Lizard's orders.
Speaker 4Do we know where the uh and?
Speaker 5now both Gregory and the Starshard and the lizard are all gone.
Speaker 4Hear me out. What if we go to Lord Corvatash and we ask him where the vault is, and we go there to see if the star is there?
Speaker 5We know that it's not there. We know that the cult has it currently.
Speaker 4Do we know that? Yes, where is our confirmation of that?
Speaker 5We didn't. We've never thought to be fair. Last time we saw it was in the Lizzo's room, but we were informed. They have it.
Speaker 3Well, I have a thought, but I probably want to roll. Uh, what would it be Like? Insight or something like that?
Speaker 1Uh, well, that depends. Because I have a thought as a player, but I want to see if I can translate it to uh, that is having the thought. Oh, I mean you, just you could have this thought. You could, yeah, you can have a thought. You don't have to roll for a thought that you, as a player, have.
Speaker 3Maybe I want to roll, maybe you know, I feel like I want to roll insight now what, what you choose, what the difficulty is, why? Don't you tell me the basis of your thought and I will give you something to roll for it okay, so the basis of the thought is is that, uh, corvitash said that they took the lizard and gregory, but we know for a fact that gregory left the castle. So what is corvitash up to?
Speaker 5we, we know that he left the castle, but it had been like a day since then, right, like it had been a day since he left, so he could have come back.
Speaker 3Possibly, but it still stands to reason that Just the whole thing doesn't add up. Allow me to roll for tinfoil hat Roll for tinfoil hat roll roll for tinfoil hat okay, okay, you want to roll for tinfoil hat? I don't want to roll for tinfoil hat, I'm just saying you're trying to roll conspiracy.
Speaker 1It does roll like, it does sound like a big conspiracy. So tell you what, just for the fun of it. Um, you can give me insight or you can give me survival.
Speaker 3We're going to go with insight, because I get a plus seven. Survival is a plus four 17.
Speaker 1Okay, pieces start coming together for you. Thaddeus, just a little bit. You know that the lizard has been doing his best to help you right? The lizard is the one keeping an eye on the star in the jar. The lizard is the one who has been handling looking for cultists within the castle's people. And the lizard is the one who spends the most correspondence with Prince Vernor. Gregory is the lizard's personal assistant, the guard who's most often outside of his room, the one with whom the lizard gives the most delicate tasks to. So anything that Gregory does falls on the lizard's command. But you also don't know if you can trust what Lord Corvatash said about the situation in the room, whether malicious or otherwise, right, whether it was malicious, whether his memory has been scrambled by magic, whether what he saw was even real. You don't even know if the lizard was actually taken.
Speaker 2If you can't trust what Lord Corvatash said, hmm, Like the cult itself, is a faction, but with the rippling ramifications of our own actions and the fact that there are entities in play that didn't exist the first time around.
Speaker 1This means we have a secondary, smaller faction, almost by necessity, elise, you were the one who went into the room to deal with the assassins. They weren't acting on part of a cult, they were acting politically. So they might not even be part of the Siricists.
Speaker 2It's just that convenient alliance. Well, not even necessarily an alliance, but a convenient alignment of two different factions. That is true.
Speaker 5Shimmer is a noble and she has been within the city for a little while at this point, but she isn't from Reigate, so she is within the nobility circle of Reigate and she is involved with some form of the castle hierarchy in our time, I believe. Would she know where the vault is herself?
Speaker 1In Regeit's castle.
Speaker 5Yes.
Speaker 1She wouldn't know where the vault is herself, as this is not her. This is not a castle that she has spent much time in, At least not as far as going to look at the vault is concerned. Normally when Shimmer is dealt with, the royalty inside the castle. Any items were procured and brought to her. But you are technically nobility and thus could probably convince any remaining guard to take you to it with little issue so if we can't trust anyone, including Lord Corvatash, then take matters into our own hands.
Speaker 5And also uh, I don't want to interrupt the current conversation, but before we even touch on that subject, I want to have a conversation with Elise about the whole thing that happened at the bar and such.
Speaker 3Elise. Yes, darius, can you uh the object that you said you can track? Is it nearby?
Speaker 2I can't be sure. It's a very short time limit on that spell.
Speaker 1What's the range on the spell? It's like a thousand feet, thousand feet.
Speaker 2Red gate's pretty big, it's a ten minute spell.
Speaker 1Uh, roll me an intelligence check, Elise 24. With a 24, you're 99% certain that the person who is currently holding onto said item is not in the eastern village. They're somewhere else within the city, but it's highly unlikely that they're here in the suburbs.
Speaker 2It's probably more high class, high society than this or, alternatively, maybe it's a merchant class.
Speaker 3The reason I ask is because I feel like the only people we can trust right now are the people that are trying to politically gain advantage.
Speaker 2What makes?
Speaker 4you say that, are you implying that we should manipulate their desire for power to turn them to our goals?
Speaker 3Yes or our goals rather Okay, so follow my logic here If they're trying to just attain power and they don't know what the seerists are doing, or chaos, people, cultists, those jerks that basically dropped us into limbo, then it stands to reason that that alliance is just a temporary one and that they really can be swayed to uh, inadvertently help us out. So I don't know, I build things. I'm not good at this kind of plans.
Speaker 4I fight things, neither am I.
Speaker 5That gave me a very stupid idea. I think we should go back like three plans Okay. And go back to our speak with dead plan with the fucking assassin.
Speaker 1Um, where's the assassin's body?
Speaker 3Well, it was in the castle. It was in the lizard's room, because Sarah dragged the body out, uh-huh.
Speaker 1So, in order to go back to your speak with dead plan, you'd have to sneak back into the castle. Well, I guess you wouldn't have to sneak back into the castle, but you would have to sneak back into the lizard's room.
Speaker 5I think, I know a guy who can get us into the castle and we have to bring someone who can speak with dead. I would like, can I bring Lindsay?
Speaker 4into this. I was gonna say this city's filled with fucking wizards and stuff. Who's to say that we can't just go find any generic wizard?
Seeking Information With Unforeseen Surprises
Speaker 5It's a wizard with a name tag that says hello, my name is Generic Wizard my logic for my logic for explanation for why lindsey specifically, is that she works for someone, she lives in reggae and works with someone and lives with and is very close to someone who works for the, not with the, not a company, and so that's not a cultist so hear me out, right.
Speaker 4We go to a cleric who has one of the helmets on and we tell them that a dead guy knows where Dylan is. We need to speak with dead.
Speaker 3I like that idea.
Speaker 2So how are you going to make sure they ask the right questions if they have the helmet on?
Speaker 1Wouldn't the first question they ask be where's Dylan?
Speaker 5Yeah, like I think it's not. We're not going to get the right questions from someone like that.
Speaker 3I could see it now. He just constantly is asking where's Dylan, where's Dylan, where's Dylan, where's Dylan?
Speaker 2I still don't know, I still don't know. Oh, five questions are up.
Speaker 4So can I ask them a question?
Speaker 2It says you, as in the caster.
Speaker 5Yeah.
Speaker 1May I offer a suggestion as a GM? Yeah, yes, you did recently procure about 10,000 gold. You could attempt to purchase an item capable of casting said spell.
Speaker 5No.
Speaker 2Why is there a no?
Speaker 5I think Thaddeus and Talon would know each other because Artificers with the Nata Company.
Speaker 1Okay, okay, okay, that sounds like a connection?
Speaker 5Yeah, we have a connection Thaddeus.
Speaker 1Sorry, shimmer, you said Talon right.
Speaker 5Talon. He doesn't know Speak With Dead, but he is very good friends with someone who does.
Speaker 1Okay, who is currently?
Speaker 5in reggae.
Speaker 1Then I will allow Thaddeus, if he so wishes, to make an intelligence roll to see if he knows Talon who knows Lindsay.
Speaker 3That's going to be a six.
Speaker 4That's not enough.
Speaker 1Thaddeus does not remember that Talon exists right now also keep in mind.
Speaker 3Thaddeus would usually keep to himself do his work, and then that's about it.
Speaker 1Talon would probably also be working from home most of the time as well, so like it was a stretch, but like I tried okay any other plans we can wander around till we happen upon them I figure, uh, you guys have probably spent like maybe two hours of uh this morning, uh, talking about this, looking at things, going through this information. After shimmer arrives, arrives Shimmer having the talk with Elise and gathering that information.
Speaker 5I would like. The part I specifically wanted to talk about is I want to see the appearance of this noble bitch.
Speaker 3Two hours. You say yeah, thaddeus is While they're continuing the talk and everything like that. Thaddeus would like to leave. To go, try to track down that gnome soup vendor.
Speaker 1Okay, shimmer and Elise can have the conversation while Thaddeus goes out to find breakfast Easy enough.
Speaker 4I follow Thaddeus.
Speaker 1All right, Thaddeus and Sarah are going to go out to find breakfast.
Speaker 3Yeah, that sounds about right.
Speaker 1Okay, Right so Shimmer. What information did you want from Elise? Right, so shimmer. What information did you want from elise?
Speaker 5I want to know what the maybe through a minor illusion, what the uh noble who hired them looks like. So to know if shimmer knows what they look like the face is still there.
Speaker 2Okay, her screen. You can zoom and enhance zoom and can zoom and enhance Zoom and enhance.
Speaker 5Does she know him or in any way?
Speaker 1Roll me perception or a flat intelligence roll.
Speaker 5I wonder if I get anything from being a noble.
Speaker 1I will give you advantage.
Speaker 5Background Position of privilege. Nope, that is specific. What is it?
Speaker 1You can roll a perception or a flat intelligence roll, but I will give you advantage because you are closer to the circle than Elise is.
Speaker 5I'll do perception 23.
Speaker 1Yes, you do have a minor recognition of this character. You recognize that this particular individual is not necessarily a noble themselves, but they are noble adjacent in the sense that they are from like a branch family of nobles that aren't inherently Regatian.
Speaker 5Timur will reglay that to Elise An outsider.
Speaker 1You don't remember his first name, but you're fairly certain that his last name is Blackthorn.
Speaker 5I will also tell that to Elise.
Speaker 2Does that name mean anything? It's not like in our time, the Siricists' identities were mysteries, or at least not all of them will be. So if there's any ties to a specific Sirius, we would we could possibly know what that is.
Speaker 1It does not ring any bells towards what you know of the cultists, so it's most likely that this is a third entity vying for something, vying for some type of power, completely unrelated to the cultists themselves. Uh, seeing as this information was not come to, was not brought to light, uh, either they didn't succeed previously or their whatever they did was so underwhelming in the end that it was completely overlooked as something the cultists may have handled.
Speaker 2The way I see it, our best bet is to either go back and speak to Corvatash attempt to find the lizard or speak to this unknown noble.
Speaker 5We could buy a scroll of speak with dead. Not an item, but a scroll. Yes, I believe so.
Speaker 2They're bound to have some scrolls for purchase.
Speaker 5We could just do it our damn selves, talk into it, corpse, our damn selves.
Speaker 4We could Hear me out. We go find a cleric. We say we need a scroll of speak with dead Because we know someone. We go find a cleric. We say we need a scroll of speak with dead because we know someone who may know where Helen is.
Speaker 5No, damn it.
Speaker 3Why can't we just buy a scroll like a normal thing, Just throwing it out there? When Thaddeus left with Sarah to go find the gnome soup vendor, he still had the bag of holding with the 10,000 gold on him.
Speaker 1That he does.
Speaker 4Specifically. I don't think Elise would let that out of her sight.
Speaker 1I'll be honest with you I don't think she would have let that out of her sight. No.
Speaker 2No, I don't Like. If she saw him grab that bag of holding again and start carrying it up, you'd probably uh be like hey, where are you going with that money?
Speaker 3well, he never took it off.
Speaker 2That's the thing so he's just like has a bag while he's looking at the blueprints. He just has that bag on his back. Yeah, I can see that happening, like bag while he's looking at the blueprints.
Speaker 5He just has that bag on his back. Yeah, I can see that happening, that's not unusual.
Speaker 2That's like wearing your backpack while you're sitting at your desk.
Speaker 1Okay. So let's say Okay. So let's go back all the way to the beginning. When Thaddeus and Sarah are leaving the house, elise and Shimmer set down to have a conversation. Elise, roll me a perception. See, if you notice that Thaddeus has the bag on him, it's only an eight. I'm going to say that I guess it didn't cross your mind. He wasn't necessarily being stealthy with it, but you were distracted by staring at your illusions and the fact that Shimmer came up to have a conversation with you.
Speaker 4And you're trying to concentrate on said illusions.
Speaker 1Yeah, alright, so Shimmer and Elise are having that conversation about Blackthorn, thaddeus and Sarah, you guys have stepped out to go find a gnome soup vendor in an attempt to procure breakfast.
Speaker 3Yes, so I'm retracing the steps that we took last time that led us to the area where the soup vendor was, and then I'm going to follow my nose.
Speaker 1Okay, you boy. Where was the soup vendor last time? Was it the seaworld?
Speaker 3or was it in the Bazaar Bazaar in upper ward area?
Speaker 1Yeah, that's what I thought. Okay, so you head out from your home, you're headed towards the Bazaar anyway, because that's where you would get breakfast. If you can't find the vendor, and you travel through the upper ward and you walk up into Watcher's Row and, around the corner, into the bazaar, go ahead and roll me a perception or investigation check 20, dirty 20. Yeah, okay, sarah, you watch as Thaddeus is walking towards a row of delicious smelling breakfast stalls when suddenly he stops and he sniffs the air and he turns in a circle, sniffing the air again and he turns back and he just he takes off running while saying surprise, swiftly making his way down around the court, out of watchers row down, down past the corner, out of Watcher's Row, down past the Apothecary building and closer to the river than you expected, you can hear a tiny voice somewhere in the distance shouting.
Speaker 3Surprise, surprise. Thaddeus will beeline to that voice as best he can without knocking people over uh, yeah, sarah, are you following?
Speaker 4yeah, I'm teething up. Okay, are you concerned about knocking people over?
Breakfast Plans and Surprises
Speaker 1not really yeah, I didn't think so. Thaddeus is bobbing and weaving through the early morning crowd. It's not as packed as it could be, but he's sidestepping, he's spitting, he's working his way through. Thaddeus, roll me a dex check 17. Nice, you managed to make it pretty deep into this crowd without injuring anybody. Sarah, roll me a strength check because you are not as concerned about dodging through people.
Speaker 4So just straight strength, yep Three.
Speaker 1Sarah, you attempt to push the first person in your way, just push past them, but they are much larger than you and unfortunately they do not move the way that you expect them to, and instead you end up pushing yourself basically off the street and onto the sidewalk, where it is far less dense, and you realize that it's a much shorter walk this way.
Speaker 4Yeah, I'll keep going that way.
Speaker 1Great, you keep following Thaddeus, you guys. You make your way through and after two or three blocks you turn a corner and there, standing in front of a parked stall, is a small gnome in a very large chef hat yelling out Surprise Breakfast, Surprise.
Speaker 4Raging's like a zoomed out scene and then like there's like a white stick of just this guy's hat just towering over all the buildings.
Speaker 1Not quite that tall, but his hat does make him the tallest person on the street.
Speaker 4That is funny, but um, yeah, no, I was talking about like the, the, uh, what's his name from? Like, uh, not Jimita John, but like Fairly Oddparents.
Speaker 1Uh, the Dibidome. Yeah, yeah okay, so imagine that but with a chef's hat.
Speaker 4You can never see the top of his hat, no matter how zoomed out the camera is.
Speaker 1Thaddeus, you arrive in front of Surprise, out of breath, having run this far, sarah, you walk up behind him. Ah, surprise, you here for Surprise, yeah.
Speaker 3Yes, yes.
Speaker 1Whoa, whoa, whoa. Yes, yeah, whoa, whoa, whoa. My good friend, you run too fast for surprise. Yeah, no, you must. Surprise is good, but you must take a seat. Okay, three, no Four, I'm really hungry.
Speaker 3Four Surprise, four surprise. Huh yeah, I'm really hungry. Four surprise.
Speaker 1Four surprise. Huh, hey, you are hungry. Hey, that uh.
Speaker 3Three, uh, two are for friends and the other two are for me.
Speaker 4Yeah, okay, well, I wouldn't necessarily call them friends, but I know them. Hey damn.
Speaker 3Oh, a.
Speaker 4Quentin surprise.
Speaker 1Uh, tell you what you buy so many.
Speaker 5We've come to calling us friends. Progress.
Speaker 1Tell you what you buy so many, I give you a discount. Eh, six silver for four.
Speaker 3Six silver Great yeah. Alright, Thaddeus will hand over six sil-. Actually, you know what Thaddeus is feeling very generous right now. He's going to Thaddeus Hand over six. Actually, you know what Thaddeus is feeling very generous right now. He's going to hand the person eight silver.
Speaker 1Oh, eight silver, you want five huh.
Speaker 3No, but I want to give you this because your surprise just smells so amazing and I'm glad I found you.
Speaker 1I'm glad I found you too. It's a very fruitful morning. Yes, yes, okay, thaddeus, you give eight silver for your fourth surprise. Go ahead and roll me four D6.
Speaker 3Oh, oh, oh, oh, my Wow.
Speaker 1All right. So you got a four, a three, a three and a three.
Speaker 3Yes, I got a four, a three, a three and a three. Yes, I got a four a three, a three and a three.
Speaker 1Okay, basically, middle of the road. So you are handed four red bowls with their tops on, each one individually wrapped in its own little carrying bag. Go ahead and roll me a D6, two D6s and we'll see which one you grab. If you end up with two, threes or three and a four, two and six excellent, um, you open your first bread bowl that you are consuming yourself. Are you opening it here or are you taking it back home first?
Speaker 3yeah, I'm gonna open the first bowl here and then I'm taking the other bowl back and then being like look, I got us all three surprises. Excellent, not letting them know that I already had one.
Speaker 1You open your first bread bowl and inside is a delicious looking beef stew. There's carrots and potatoes and surprisingly large chunks of a very stringy, fat-melted beef. Almost like you would prefer to find it on a skewer of a kebab rather than in a stew itself, but when you bite into it it just falls apart in your mouth into little tiny pieces and it's delicious.
Speaker 4Mmm.
Speaker 3Mmm, it's so good, it just melts in the mouth.
Speaker 1Don't do that again, or it'll be poisoned.
Speaker 3I swear to God.
Speaker 4Such hostility.
Speaker 1Oh man, Sarah, you watch as Thaddeus enjoys his breakfast beef stew, Are you? What are you up to here?
Speaker 4I'm holding one of the three surprises, looking at it at the red cap longingly, as I still do not have the function to eat.
Speaker 1You already got it. Okay, you guys get there and I guess you eat your delicious food. You thank the gnome for breakfast and you start heading home, I assume.
Speaker 3Mm-hmm, thank you. What's your name again?
Speaker 1I am Shortcake.
Speaker 3Thank you, shortcake, for this excellent breakfast. It was so amazing that you know I made sounds that apparently offended the universe.
Speaker 1Hey, you do a great many things. Huh, I will not forget you. You are an excellent customer. I'm sure we will see each other again soon.
Speaker 3Here's hoping.
Speaker 4Watch the surprise has like fucking nicotine or something in it. The surprise isn't that you know? It's a random bowl of food. The surprise is that it's addictive.
Speaker 1You guys make your way back. You guys make your way back to Thaddeus' house With the three Surprise bowls and right as Elise and Shimmer Are finishing their conversation, thaddeus, you make it to your front door. What do you do?
Speaker 3Well, it's my front door. I'm going to walk in with the surprise bowls and I'm going to be like got breakfast, okay, excellence, much appreciated. Going to walk in with the surprise bowls and I'm gonna be like got breakfast, okay, excellent.
Speaker 2Much appreciated. Wait, did you take all the coin with you?
Speaker 3Oh wait, hang on. I check my uh back and I see that I still have the bag of holding and I'm like, oh yeah, sorry about that. And I take the pack off and just set it on the table.
Speaker 2A look of anger crosses Elisa's face, but she's like she's holding it in. She's trying to keep that emotion from surfacing, okay, but is appreciative of the food.
Speaker 1Thaddeus gives you and Shimmer both a surprise bowl. As you open yours, you find that they are both the same beef stew. Delicious, thaddeus. Yes, you have a. You have a bowl of your own. You sit down at the table, you pop it open and, seeing that your friends also got beef stew, you're a little disappointed, until you open your own and you find that your bowl is filled with, uh, cioppino, which is? It's a fish stew that is made from crab clams, shrimp, squid fish and mussels in a tomato-based broth. Well, it smells good.
Speaker 3That definitely does not sound appealing, but it smells good.
Speaker 1Apparently it comes from another continent.
Speaker 2A French continent Italian. An another continent, a French continent Italian.
Speaker 1An Italian continent.
Speaker 5Italian continent.
Speaker 1Yeah, but as you guys sit down for breakfast, having learned what you have learned over the last couple of hours of talking with each other, going back over information that you had and trying to figure out a plan, did you come to a to figure out a plan? Did you come to a decision on what your plan was?
Speaker 2I think we are buying a scroll of Speak With Dead at the very least.
Speaker 1Okay, then you just have to find a way to get back into the castle.
Speaker 3I think I know a guy. He's somebody who helps me find things that fell off the back of carts.
Speaker 4Oh god damn it.
Speaker 1And we'll find out who that is in the next session, because I'm cutting it here. We are way over time. That's all for now, but when we return next episode, I'm sure that the Time Breakers will continue to impress us.
Speaker 2Breakers Time breakers.
Speaker 1You can come join the Discord Link is in the description and help us build the city from the inside. Leave a rating we appreciate them. Leave a review we appreciate those even more. And just you know, let us know how you feel about it. Thanks for listening.