Episode 4: Put the Girl in the Sack

This week in Witherwild, things get weirder, wetter, and wildly more suspicious.
Karl’s ever-committed frogman rogue, Leroy Von Braun, returns—this time with a soggy, starry-eyed child in tow who has done nothing wrong ever. Having rescued her from a serpent-infested river, Leroy has now dubbed her Lyra and is determined to uncover who (or what) she really is. Naturally, this involves threats of sack-stuffing and increasingly unhinged conversations with ghost fish.

Richard leads the duo through a reverse dungeon crawl, retracing the path of fleeing townsfolk back into the chaos they abandoned—collapsing floors, forgotten altars, and one mysteriously judgmental bowl included. Along the way, Leroy tests out various questionable parenting strategies, including but not limited to: Smuggling Lyra in burlap...

Back in Nernwihr, tensions boil. The town's barely holding together, and Leroy’s unconventional approach to urban diplomacy—stealth gardening, insect-based sermonizing, and mild threats of violence—does little to help. Still, somehow, hope takes root.

We also unpack how dungeon design can evolve with player decisions, what it means to reverse a combat encounter narratively, and how Daggerheart’s mechanics support character-driven tension—especially when those characters are equal parts ridiculous and heroic.

If you enjoy collaborative chaos, creepy teeth metaphors, or frogmen on the verge of a parenting arc, this episode’s for you.

P.S. No children were actually sacked in the making of this session. We triple-checked.

 Grab full episode content at: https://rajkevis.itch.io/

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:01

We need some kind of opening catchphrase. Welcome to Richard and Carl Play Daggerheart, our other other podcast. I'm Richard, who put my name first, blatantly disregarding Dewey and his decimal system.

SPEAKER_04 0:17

And I am Carl, who puts his name last, apparently, and not by choice.

SPEAKER_02 0:22

I will say, to be fair, as my editor working on the itch files that go with these presentations, if you were to write the title card or draw it and then give it to me, you could put your name wherever you wanted.

SPEAKER_04 0:40

I I did I mean, I guess I wouldn't say exactly I was forced to learn uh image editing software, but I but I I do have uh open source imaging software called GIMP.

SPEAKER_02 0:52

I mean, uh I feel like that just got our podcast the most likes we've ever got is simply saying you use GIMP because, yes. It is beloved. It is a VLC player for the people.

SPEAKER_04 1:05

I I find it to be uh quite capable for anything that uh amateur uh image manipulating person might do. Amate graphic designer, I guess?

unknown 1:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:17

I would say graphic design.

SPEAKER_04 1:18

You could say I'm an amateur graphic designer.

SPEAKER_02 1:20

Well, it's funny, because it's like when I was in school, they're like, use Adobe because we give Adobe all this money. And then half the people would use Canva because it's Adobe without talent. And it's like it's like, can we show up for a Canva membership? I'm like, you pay so much money for Adobe. Also, GIMP is free, we could just use that. Oh no, okay. It's like they have this massive Teams infrastructure, and then occasionally someone will just send me a Google Doc, and I'm like, what is this doing here? I know why I use it, but why are you guys using it? Well yeah, what's new with you?

SPEAKER_04 1:55

Well, I mean, um, at some point in the future, uh, I am getting married. People may have heard me throw around the word fiance several times since her and I like to watch movies together and go for walks and whatnot.

SPEAKER_02 2:08

I will say though, fiance can be a pretty indefinite title.

SPEAKER_04 2:14

Well, I mean, it's it's uh close enough in the future uh that um we had to make save the dates. Um I mentioned the the GIMP, because I'm not paying for Adobe. Adobe's expensive, and I hate subscription service software.

SPEAKER_02 2:37

I I just like shouting out local libraries. They're good and people should go to them so they stay alive.

SPEAKER_04 2:44

Yeah, that's that's fair. Local libraries are definitely a good thing.

SPEAKER_00 2:50

Just me thinking aloud. That's just a thing I can do.

SPEAKER_04 2:55

Anyways, um so uh our our wedding is uh going to be movie themed, uh, so like each table uh will have like a instead of being like numbered or having names, each table will have a movie poster to be like, oh, you're at the Gone with the Wind table, or you're at the Jurassic Park table, because that's my mom's favorite favorite movie, apparently, Jurassic Park.

SPEAKER_02 3:19

That makes sense. I mean it's better than Dilly and the Clonosaurus.

SPEAKER_04 3:23

Uh initially, actually, my mom said uh The Princess Bride. Reasonable. Well, it is reasonable, uh, but it caught me completely by surprise because A, that's my favorite movie, and B, I didn't realize she'd ever even watched that movie, and then somehow it's her favorite.

SPEAKER_02 3:40

And then you piece together when you were a young, young kid, and maybe it got like implanted on you by this mother before you even realized it. Like I can see the conspiracy where she's watching this movie and you're like three.

SPEAKER_04 3:54

I I mean I I must have watched it at a fairly young age because I definitely watched the movie before I read the book. Uh the book and the movie are equally good in different ways.

SPEAKER_02 4:04

Um I mean, they're just a DD campaign.

SPEAKER_04 4:09

I you know, I had to shove in a movie review here somehow, so ten would recommend.

SPEAKER_02 4:16

Uh actually, I know this is like gonna be in my save the date, but am I placed at a specific movie and am I allowed to know which one?

SPEAKER_04 4:25

Um well, I mean, you'll you'll be at the the head table as as the best man, so is that a princess bride table?

SPEAKER_02 4:31

Does the head table get a name? It should get a name, right?

SPEAKER_04 4:35

Yeah, I hadn't really thought about that, because it's a good thing.

SPEAKER_02 4:38

It should be the Princess Bride Table if you haven't used that yet, because it's very thematic.

SPEAKER_04 4:44

The Princess Bride is not my fiance's favorite movie, although she apparently has too many favorites to choose.

SPEAKER_02 4:49

Counterpoint, you'd literally be sitting at the Princess Bride's table as the bride's fiance.

SPEAKER_04 4:59

But our our saved date, um, I don't know how many people are actually going to get what we were going for. I mean, they'll see the the final product, but but basically, uh there's a uh French poster for Casablanca, uh, which I may have done a mini-movie review on a previous episode, either this podcast or our other podcast. I'm not sure which.

SPEAKER_02 5:22

It's somewhere. Might have been this one, tough to say.

SPEAKER_04 5:26

But because we watched Casablanca because I because I had to have seen the movie before I make the same date, because I took this French Casablanca movie poster and I swapped our faces onto the actors.

SPEAKER_02 5:38

I am so happy no AI was involved in this process.

SPEAKER_04 5:42

Yeah, it was all it was all game. So proud of you. And actual photos taken with uh with my camera on my phone, because camera phones are adequate. Again, for most amateur uh graphic designers, your camera phone is way more than adequate.

SPEAKER_02 5:57

Oh yeah. Um to the point where it's like the camera phone is just actually better than if you had a deposable camera from 20 years ago. It's like, yeah, no. I'm sorry to tell you, but it's disappointing that it went this way, because I know how to develop in the dark room a skill that absolutely got phased out.

SPEAKER_04 6:15

Yeah, uh, I don't even know. You might be able to buy a disposable camera, but I don't think you can actually buy camera film anymore.

SPEAKER_02 6:25

Deeply tragic. I'm sure there's special shows. Like, I I'm picturing this like black market camera boutique, and it was pretty great.

SPEAKER_04 6:34

Um, but yeah, so uh our our our wedding date is a little more than a year away, I guess. I'll I'll be more specific. So that way when someone watches this in two years, they'll be expecting a wedding in another year. That's amazing, though.

SPEAKER_02 6:47

Like, the archive of our history that exists on the internet will be so fascinating. It's gonna be like our theory and legend, where by putting these together, especially since we're unreliable narrators, they'll just never actually be able to assemble a coherent timeline no matter how hard they try.

SPEAKER_04 7:06

Uh but so the these uh I I actually I managed to finish these save the dates. We haven't printed any yet, so I haven't seen what they look like actually in print, but but the the front is this uh Casablanca poster with our faces swapped on it and then you know our names instead of all the actress names and save the date instead of Casablanca. And then the back is uh um I found stills from Casablanca and like an old school film strip thing, so it's just like a couple stills from the um from the movie, and then it says you know RSVP to the uh our wedding email. Which so you know I I'm pretty I I don't think it looks super great, but I guess I am only an amateur graphic designer and and uh everyone else involved so far seems to like it, so I almost done an adequate job.

SPEAKER_02 7:57

Also it was made with love, which should be a factor here.

SPEAKER_04 8:01

It was made with love, unlike our newest uh menu at uh redacted pizza place that uh I'm sure you can send the name.

SPEAKER_02 8:14

It would not cost much.

SPEAKER_04 8:16

Yeah, I mean, so uh our one of our more iconic uh mascot designs is the the hippie guy. Yeah. And he's just like sitting there, he's got like a tie-dye shirt, a sign that says peace, love, and pizza, a couple pizza boxes, and he's sitting cross-legged on a carpet in the middle of a field or whatever this hippie guy is doing.

SPEAKER_02 8:36

I mean, it is the target audience for pizza, to be fair. As much shade as I enjoy throwing at you for the bit, I gotta admit that is in fact what a pizza eater does look like.

SPEAKER_04 8:46

Well, uh, see, uh, somewhat recently, uh my boss uh has decided to uh AIFI our old designs.

SPEAKER_02 8:56

Ha ha ha! Uh, he doesn't know about design principles and oh no.

SPEAKER_04 9:02

Um, and this the hippie guy, uh his upper half looks surprisingly good. I mean, it is AI tends towards the most generic style because it's just amalgamation of all styles.

SPEAKER_02 9:17

And crime. It just does theft.

SPEAKER_04 9:21

But uh, it does look incredibly like the original, but except for like uh ran through Blender or whatever program you'd use to make a 3D model. Except, uh, it couldn't figure out where the end of his pant legs are. And so he's sitting cross-legged and his pant leg just ends into another pant leg, and then he has feet like flat on the ground underneath his legs. And it's just like, ooh.

SPEAKER_02 9:50

So the problem of AI, well, one of the problems, because this could easily be, we wouldn't even play any dagger heart, it would be Richard bitch's about AI in academics for the next two hours. Is the perceived time saved doesn't actually exist. So let's do a hypothetical. Let's say your boss calls University of Saskatchewan and it's like, I would like to speak to your art department, please. You can put on phone the art department, and you go, I'm planning a rebranding relaunch of my small business. I'm willing to put up a $200 scholarship for the best drawing of this pizza man. And they'll then be featured on it. Their name will be in the bottom corner of their signature, they get a prize, we get a prize. This costs me a hundred bucks. Most students would jump for a hundred dollar TJ's pizza gift card. Shit. Redacted pizza gift card. Right. I I I'm not gonna edit that out, by the way. So they would jump at the top chance for this gift card, and then real artists would get exposure. So if you look at how much your boss makes an hour and assume it's minimum wage for some reason. If he puts up pays an artist a hundred bucks or two hundred bucks to draw this, and that's worth ten hours of his life, how long do you think it'd actually take messing with that AI with no knowledge of how any of arts or editing tools work to make something better? Would it be eight hours that felt like it was twenty minutes? Would it be two days messing with the stupid thing? Like at what point is it actually cheaper to just pay a human being, ignoring all of the other aspects of AI?

SPEAKER_04 11:31

The the the weird thing about this, uh, is that he is still actually paying a professional graphic designer to make our flyers, and I believe he has just given the graphic designer the okay to use AI instead of actually designing a brand new design every every month.

SPEAKER_02 11:50

Oof. That is a bad deal. That'd be like saying if I gave the okay for you to just not put cheese on half my pizzas and put in cheese a lot.

SPEAKER_04 11:59

Yeah, I mean, personally, most of them have looked okay, but the hippie guy in particular, like I said, AI just could not recognize the end of his pant legs, uh, and it just looks a little bit uh a little goofy. The top half is absolutely like perfect rendition in a 3D art style.

SPEAKER_02 12:18

Uh what's really funny about the people trying to use the AI, like this graphics designer, why is if if your marketable skill is you can do graphics, why would you let your boss know that there's a tool that can do it for you when you ask permission to use the tool? Because didn't you just explicitly tell a guy, hey, what do you need me for? Like it seems like a weird choice, because like, yeah, if a person was doing a job for me, I was paying, and they said, hey, I can use this IEI tool to do it better, my first thought is, What would I need you for then?

SPEAKER_04 12:49

Well, so it is kind of a little bit um It's it's a weird slippery. He does still he does still do some amount of work in designing the layout of the menu itself. Uh additionally, um he uh he is also a small business or our professional graphic designer, which my boss is actually uh part a partner in this other graphic design company.

SPEAKER_00 13:12

Yeah, that makes sense, weirdly.

SPEAKER_04 13:14

And so uh he is uh currently overwhelmed with his other work, and so this AI work, it's like my my boss needs new menu designs, and so he's allowed this guy to slack off on the work for us so that he can focus on his other work that is not for us for the most part.

SPEAKER_02 13:32

It's just such a slippery slope when your identity and your brand are directly tied into it. Because it's like, if I'm like, can I see some samples of this guy's work and I see the legs that just infinitely go to the void, it would make me immediately question how much work was done in every other component, right? It's like if you're like to use the machine to draw your pant legs, why do I trust that you manually sort uh checked for typos in the text? Uh oh well. Like, I'm not condemning because I don't understand small business practicalities because what do I know? I'm just a trained professional.

SPEAKER_04 14:08

But So I'm done with TLDR. What's new with me is that I I actually made our um save the dates uh without the use of any AI tools.

SPEAKER_02 14:20

Uh, wrap up my AI rent because there's no way I can avoid it. My problem isn't actually with the accessibility blah blah de blah using a prompt, anyone can draw a tool. As you know, I'm disabled and was told spell checkers and computers were cheating growing up as a writer. Now every writer on earth uses Word. Because it'd be insane to handwrite a manuscript and type it up again. It's very rare. Plus, I physically couldn't. So I can understand some sense of it. My issue is whenever someone's pro AI and telling me about AI, right, they'll tell me about how good it is, it always ends with them trying to sell me stolen goods. Because like it starts with, yeah, I used AI with prompt engineering to make my pizza guy. Pay me for my graphic design service. And I'm like, No. Anytime you use an AI tool, you don't deserve money anymore because it's a crab machine that's ran by a non-profit somehow. So it's like, that's my issue, is yeah, we can look into the whole killing the earth with record high heat waves and sl uh mankind slowly burns to death problem. But I'm more upset that whenever someone tells me how awesome this free tool is, they then try and sell me something immediately afterward of the same breath. And that blows my mind. Could you imagine if someone went to redact to donuts we used to work at, got all of the end of day donuts, and then had the gall to set up a food truck outside the donut place to sell those donuts back to people? That is literally what's happening. It's like, hey, can I have all your end-of-day bread? Sure. Can I have all your lunch meats are gonna go expired? Sure. And then you make sandwiches outside the grocery store that gave you the free food, and then try and steal their business? That is actually what's happening. Right. And someone's just like, look, I made this really cool, I don't know, someone's like, I made a bleach visual novel using AI to guesstimate alternate routes, and here's a free game, and you can play it, click here, and be like, sweet. And I guarantee you there'd be a donation button attached to it.

SPEAKER_04 16:22

Yeah, that's probably true.

SPEAKER_02 16:24

Alright, that's my rant. I used up my what's new with me section. But my actual what's new with me is procrastinating working on one writing contract, meeting with my author friend tomorrow, working on start my next contract next week. So it's like I was being really productive working on projects. And then now that I like signed the dotted line to start a new contract on the 6th, my ambition to do the things I was like gonna do dropped because I'm like. It's weird, you'd think, oh, because I have work coming, I'll have less free time, I need to get things done. My brain's like, oh, because I have work done coming, I'm gonna cut down your dopamine supply, and you can just chill.

SPEAKER_06 17:10

Hmm.

SPEAKER_04 17:12

So I mean I always do find that I I personally, like, when I have a project, I will sit there and I will think about it until like the day before it's actually due to be done. Uh and then, having thought about it, be like, okay, now I'd actually like type it up or whatever, and then and I find that I I personally work well with that motivation of the looming deadline, but it's like I haven't really worked on it, but I have put a lot of thought into all the projects that I do.

SPEAKER_02 17:41

Yeah, it's kind of weird for me as it's like, the busier I am, the more productive I am. Part of my problem is I know how long things take me, and I've mapped out my process so I can be like, oh, these two chapters will take me six hours. So as long as I start it between s now and Sunday at midnight, I'll be good. But when I have enough things filling out my calendar, I like use my time more efficiently. Right. But also I'll like, because of the power of magical power of ADHD, some days I'll hyperfocus on Pokemon mathematics for no reason that has nothing to do with my existing products, and be like, oh yeah, that's how I would do this. Which will probably go nowhere, but more likely will someday be recycled and reused in a future project. But with that out of the way, let's get into rolling some dice and playing some games. Due to the power of you forgetting to feed the Pikachu's in your apartment, the part where you gave your entire recap has been cut, but I'm going to make you do it again. And after you give your recap, I will reward you a hope point if you put your effort into it. However, you're only obligated to recap what was important to your character. Feel free to ask me about setting, plot, location questions. As this is just kind of a mild homebrew thing I do at the start of all of my sessions, since my games are monthly, to force people to get back into character a bit and remember what they care about, and to remind the other players what they care about, because sometimes players will get tunnel vision on themselves, which is a very reasonable thing to have happen.

SPEAKER_04 19:18

Fair enough. Um, well, so uh the the story uh starts, for my character at least, for Leroy von Wolm.

SPEAKER_02 19:28

Not Elroy, legally distinct.

SPEAKER_04 19:31

Yeah, definitely not Elroy. Um, so the the story begins for my character in the uh neutral city of uh Pobbler's Cove, uh which is run by um I don't actually have his full name, I just definitely Yeah, I I have his name is Ed.

SPEAKER_02 19:48

Um It's actually like Edward Eldron, and it's just like he just goes by Ed because no one ever gets it right, and that's kind of a recurring bit. Because he just has too many Eds in his name.

SPEAKER_04 20:02

He uh He has contracted my time out to a spymaster named Crayle Dern.

SPEAKER_02 20:09

Crayle Dern. K-R-E-L-L-D-I-R-N, the Haven Spymaster, calculating dry and clearly uncomfortable in your presence.

SPEAKER_04 20:20

Um and uh Dern has given me a uh a mission to go to um the village the treetop village of Allura, uh, which takes me through Next Vidir. That's what I have written. Uh, which I assume to be the town that my character is currently at, but before we get there.

SPEAKER_02 20:44

It's funny that you have no confirmation of this, and it'd be a really amusing game master move on my end, for that not to be where you are.

SPEAKER_04 20:54

In any event, um Leroy uh was uh used as a as a body in a in a murder cover-up. Um to fake someone's death, I guess is what I mean to say. Uh, and the grave that he was resurrected from, that man, was named Elroy. And before being dismissed on this mission, um the uh spymaster Dern uh called my character Elroy, so he clearly knows something about my past. Which makes me very suspicious. Leroy very suspicious. I'm suspicious too, but Leroy is definitely suspicious. Uh and so upon uh going through the the festival, uh buying uh a wonderful tasty snack, which will certainly come in useful later. Um he leaves the town and uses the cunning disguise ability to disguise himself as uh the guard that uh was uh watching over his cart and stuff that he was supposed to use to guard the adventure. Um so that uh in case he was being followed, no one would really know where he actually went because they would think he's just this random guard.

SPEAKER_02 22:08

It's an amusing concept because you did disguise yourself as a guard from another city. And to give a little oversight for the campaign as a whole, this campaign takes place using the Witherwild campaign frame. And to not give the entire life story, but what's relevant to you and your situation right now, is the nation of Haven had built its capital across a dead god, a stone golem they had slain, allegedly, to create their nation. A large plague spread out of Haven, forcing them to invade the nearby Witherwild, the endless extangle and expanse of woods, in search of a certain crimson bloom that operated as a cure or a vaccine to the serpent sickness, a plague that came across their original city, petrifying people and turning them to stone. Some of which used as party favor ornaments in a garden in your hometown. Right. So, with Haven being the military presence, and the Witherwild and the Wildlings, the loose collision of almost of rebels of sorts, smaller communities forcing themselves to become a pseudo-nation under pressure. Lord Ed technically works for Haven, but has maintained a neutral trade area, his city, because it's right on the port, so it has access to the rest of the Haven capitals and right in the woods. Kind of act as acts as like a neutral third power because he allows trade. He allows basically everyone within his feet, because he's one king in a series of kings under an empire. Right. Allows trade to come and go as it pleases. So your jobs aren't as a Haven soldier, but you are technically employed by Haven in a place that needs to stay, that really tries its hardest to stay directly, delicately balanced between these two powers to keep the money flowing.

SPEAKER_06 24:01

Right, right.

SPEAKER_02 24:01

It's also worth noting that weeks last uh one day, a week of dun daylight and a week of night. And there's some more things about mages and stolen eyes and internal bloom. But from your point of view, the key factors to you right now are these two nations are at war, and your family being complex and wealthy in Haven before the fall of the city. Worked out kind of in your favor that this outbreak of the plague happened around the time you came back from the dead. Which is part of probably why you can exist so freely, is the capital city of Haven is no longer a factor. And as you absorb that information, you may resume your recap.

SPEAKER_04 24:48

I don't know if you could hear the cat meowing at me, but the cat meowed at me, so.

SPEAKER_02 24:51

That is now canon.

SPEAKER_04 24:54

Anyways, um so I uh on my way to Allura, uh, I come across uh a little girl that's stranded on a sandbar in the river. Um and uh I decide to rescue her. Uh turns out there was some sort of large sea serpent in the water and very nearly ate my my hippo bear or hippo bear.

SPEAKER_02 25:16

He never even got in.

SPEAKER_04 25:18

Um I didn't successfully save the girl. And uh now that she's also convinced I am a guard instead of myself, I I feel like I have to keep up the ruse. Uh and in doing so I ended up having to help uh kill some some plants that were attacking nearby town and and put up fires on their fields of opium or whatever illicit drug they were growing.

SPEAKER_02 25:43

Fun fact, they were just trying to grow a vaccine for this plague.

SPEAKER_04 25:49

Well, I mean I uh I helped put out the fire. Hopefully I put out the fire enough that uh it doesn't cause a shortage of now. Uh but uh I managed not undetected, but I managed to help out the guards fight the the bramble blooms that were very dangerous for them and and then help them put out the fires um without revealing my identity to the guards or to the girl before sneaking off. Uh and now the girl and I, uh, after a short discussion most likely, uh, will be sneaking into a back way of the city um so that we can try and figure out from the shadows what is actually going on here.

SPEAKER_02 26:42

Alright, so let's let this game begin. So the fire having been quickly put out, having introduced yourself as this fake guard, and then backing away, after fighting the tangle brace, sentient vine-like creatures that would infest human bodies, crush their bones, and move them around like Mexicans. A bog, much like a cranberry bog, is set up that they flooded the area to lift the plants up to then drain it and collect them. So, as you find yourself on the nearby hills have been scuttled away. The city is a wall. The city of Nerware is has stone walls, but they're ancient and old. Almost like someone had shaped the cliff around the city rather than built a wall particularly. Though the Bramble Swarms have been defeated, you do feel the tension in the air. It's not like you're hearing people cheering. People did die to these plants, although you did make record time in getting here. And you do smell the charred herbs and blood in the air. The front gate is pretty heavily fortified, and your disguise, disput the power of caffeine and baked goods, is still on pretty consistently. And you learned from the little girl in your conversations that they had cast her out of the town. Things like witch seedling bloom spawn were mumbled to her. And as she was attempting to make it to your hometown across the bridge in hopes of finding some solace and help, the bridge collapsed and she found herself bent on a sandbar. At least this is a version of the story you've gotten from little bits of quiet mumbling here and there. But the thing that sticks with you the most is when she warns you that you've already bloomed before getting extremely silent. So as you rest in your cover, and the smoke has pretty much stopped it now, you do see that there's a beautiful spire in the center of the city, but it looks like something has taken a bite out of it. So, you're outside the town.

SPEAKER_01 28:46

What would you like to do?

SPEAKER_02 28:48

Your original mission you were given was to try and find information on an elusive criminal known as a Feinwraith. And you were asked to stop through here. You were also mentioned, because this is a Haven Outpost, to help if you arrive, possibly to try and repair the spire, possibly to get more information. But this is a role-playing game, and even though the original intent of this podcast was to run through these adventures so people could see how they play out at their own table, I am prepared for you to skip this city entirely if you so choose, if that is what the narrative demands. I am prepped and ready on board for this. But the question is yours, what would you, Leroy, the Frogman, Lord of the Flies, Expert Gardener, like to do?

SPEAKER_04 29:40

Um, okay, so I seem to recall at the end of your last session, uh, that hey, uh the little girl who's who's I don't I believe I asked her her name and she said she didn't know, number one. And number two, uh, she has some sort of spirit with her?

SPEAKER_01 30:01

She does seem to have a skeletal corgi by her side.

SPEAKER_04 30:05

A skeletal corgi.

SPEAKER_02 30:07

Correct. Looks kinda like a corgi meets of dry bones. Like it should be horrifying, but it's like someone took the time to bleach and polish up the bones.

SPEAKER_04 30:17

Uh, is this one of those like uh fake skeletons that has ear bones?

SPEAKER_02 30:22

Seems to be a legitimate skeleton as you investigate. Go ahead and roll a knowledge check for me.

SPEAKER_04 30:28

I I feel like being dead is gonna apply here.

SPEAKER_02 30:31

Hmm. Being dead is one of your expertise, so you can spend a hope to add that.

SPEAKER_04 30:36

Nice. Uh sorry, what kind of role was I making? Knowledge. Knowledge. Plus two. Eh. That is a 17 with hope.

SPEAKER_02 30:50

So, you're not a mage by trade, but you do have magic abilities, and you do come from a society that practiced the more Haven-esque magic. So a lot of the magic of this world is through channeling the energy and powers of spirits. Haven took a more clinical approach of ley lines, we arcane weaves, glyphs, sigils. Where the folk, the wildlings, are far more likely to channel it more holistically. This spell, whether cost cast consciously by this child or not, is more similar to a Haven-S spell. It is an equation, a calculation that has bound the spirit of a dog to its original bones to keep it animated. You look closer and you see that little glyphs have been drawn, carved into the bones of this dog, to bind its own spirit to its skeletal remains. It seems happy with you were to fuse, try and shove the soul of a dog and a little girl into the same body, creating unyielding agony. Binding a soul to its original body as far as short-term cons uh uh concl uh vessels are concerned isn't the most sacrilegious. However, this is straight up necromancy. Not a common practice.

SPEAKER_04 32:18

I see. Well that's disturbing.

SPEAKER_02 32:24

It tilts its head at you expectantly, like a corgi looking for scritches.

SPEAKER_04 32:29

Uh I will give the skeletal dog some scritches.

SPEAKER_02 32:33

Its legs start stomping in the background as it enjoys the scritches.

SPEAKER_03 32:40

Um.

SPEAKER_04 32:42

Alright. So has the little girl led me to this back entrance so she knows the way in?

SPEAKER_02 32:53

Yes, if that is your intent. So you as you go around the more jagged, like I said, naturalesque wall, you see what looks like a little waterfall coming over the side with a hint of a sewage smell to it. And you look through and see some rusted bars. You look above the water line, and you see what looks like a magic wand is wedged in the rocks above, almost magically suspending it open.

SPEAKER_04 33:18

Huh. Oh alright. So this is how you got out of the city.

SPEAKER_01 33:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 33:30

I say to the little girl.

SPEAKER_01 33:31

She looks at you and goes, yeah, the fell kinda heard, but Fluffy copy.

SPEAKER_04 33:44

Naming sense when your puppy was actually alive.

SPEAKER_01 33:47

What are you talking about? Fluffy's alive.

SPEAKER_04 33:50

Hmm. Well, how long has your uh adorable little dog been a pile of bone?

SPEAKER_01 33:57

What are you talking about?

SPEAKER_02 34:04

Fair enough. Be so mean to Fluffy as she starts petting Fluffy.

SPEAKER_01 34:11

I feed him the best I can. I take good care of Fluffy.

SPEAKER_04 34:19

What does Fluffy like to eat?

SPEAKER_02 34:22

Um, like fruits and meats and bacons and kiblys.

SPEAKER_04 34:32

Well, your your cute little dog has a name. Uh what should I call you?

SPEAKER_01 34:40

Um, I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 34:46

Hmm. Well, how about I call you Lyra?

SPEAKER_01 34:51

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 34:52

She seems happy enough with that. Um, so she doesn't remember her own name. She's delusional that their dog is actually alive.

SPEAKER_00 35:06

Um Maybe you're delusional that it's dead.

SPEAKER_04 35:09

Maybe. Um. Is there uh can I can I do like a mental welfare check on her and see if she's actually just like crazy? Because she's also talked about blooming and it's like, what's what's even going on here?

SPEAKER_02 35:26

I didn't roll an instinct check for me for mental health.

SPEAKER_04 35:30

Instinct? Oh, no, I clicked on the Alright, let's see if I roll 22, but with Oh, no, that's a critical success. Two elevens.

SPEAKER_02 35:41

Nice. That clears the stress, gains you a hope, lets you keep your illusion up ever so slightly longer. So what you gather.

SPEAKER_04 35:49

Yeah, that's true. That is my check-in to cheese. Oh, forgot I only had. Okay, sorry, go ahead.

SPEAKER_02 35:58

So the best you can gather is she looks pretty battered and bruised. And I wouldn't say it's a psychotic break, but it's kind of a psychotic break. Like she sees the dog as alive. She genuinely believes it. She was being earnest from her point of view, she wasn't lying to you about it.

SPEAKER_05 36:16

Hmm.

SPEAKER_02 36:17

And it's like she's been honest and forthright to you to the best of her ability.

SPEAKER_03 36:22

Right.

SPEAKER_02 36:23

But something has like damaged her enough that she is repressing a lot, living in a bit of a delusion. And you're mildly concerned what would happen if you were to break that delusion.

SPEAKER_03 36:37

Right, right, right. Uh well.

SPEAKER_04 36:45

Uh I guess uh we'll uh attempt to sneak into the uh through this tunnel. Um You said the magic wand seems to be suspending the uh the tunnel open.

SPEAKER_02 37:00

Correct.

SPEAKER_04 37:02

Hmm.

SPEAKER_02 37:04

It's almost like it's defying gravity kinda like floating there.

SPEAKER_05 37:09

Hmm.

SPEAKER_04 37:11

Well I'm I'm not gonna mess with it on my way in. We're just we're just gonna try and sneak in, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 37:17

Okay. It is fun. And once we get to the end of the episode where we do our recap of events, it's gonna be a fun story to tell you. So now that you've snuck in through this, and make it through and start heading down the tunnels.

SPEAKER_04 37:32

Hmm.

SPEAKER_02 37:33

Are you going at a fast pace or are you kinda sneaking through?

SPEAKER_04 37:37

Uh we're we're going to sneak- we're trying to sneak through.

SPEAKER_02 37:40

Alright, go ahead and make a finesse jack for me, please.

SPEAKER_04 37:47

Shh I do not have a plus two finesse. That is a 17 uh with fear.

SPEAKER_02 37:58

I will happily take a fear. I was running pretty low on that. So as I take my fear for myself, sitting at an almighty three fear at the moment, you look and you're being pretty sneaky. You step on like a loose piece of piping and it kind of out. And it's that's the part where you kind of notice the structure is weird. It's like someone took an ancient temple, a shrine, and ran a bunch of piping and things to repurpose it as a sewer. So someone took a holy site and used it as a sewer because of where it happened to be located. This rusted bridge creaks, and you do find you have to cross it one at a time. And if you guys were in a hurry, it would be dangerous. As you go through an old pipe that's burst, a tangled root, grabbing at ankles. And the tunnel forks. Do you it seems that at the start the tunnel forks and it looks like you can go left or right here. And at this point the little girl kind of tugs at your pant leg and points up and says, We have to follow the fish.

SPEAKER_04 39:12

Follow the fish.

SPEAKER_02 39:14

She seems to be pointing at a space in the air.

SPEAKER_04 39:18

Okay. Let's see, do I have anything? Hmm, I don't think I have anything that's gonna help me see this invisible fish.

SPEAKER_02 39:33

If you like, you can do instinct to just simply try and see the invisible fish.

SPEAKER_04 39:38

I yeah, I'll I'm gonna I'm going to do that. And oh, I don't have I clicked the wrong button. I do not know. Get out of here, get out of here. Life is hard. An eleven with hope.

SPEAKER_01 39:58

So eleven's not quite enough to see it.

SPEAKER_02 40:01

But it's almost like you can see the absence of it, like the air is kind of moving in the space she's looking. You have enough hope to feel like there is in fact a spirit there she's seeing? Maybe. Or more of these delusions. But the fish, she says, is going left.

SPEAKER_04 40:20

Well, I mean, uh I I guess we're going left, we're gonna follow the fish.

SPEAKER_02 40:28

Alright, as you follow the fish, you see what looks like a snap stick and a portcullis has been lowered. Like someone had it propped open with a stick, and the stick had given way under the heavy iron gate, which has been dropped down. On the other side of the gate, you see what looks like maybe it's an altar, maybe it's a prayer wheel. You're not really sure. But does seem to be a large circle on the other side of this wheel. Of Stars of this Pokalus.

SPEAKER_04 41:01

Huh. Well, am I able to lift the portcullis?

SPEAKER_02 41:06

You can certainly try. Go ahead and roll strength.

SPEAKER_04 41:10

Ooh, I don't like the sound of that. Let's roll. Fifteen with fear. I will happen to take out fear.

SPEAKER_02 41:23

You're lifting, you're lifting. You have a choice. Do you want to spend a stress or a hit point to get this open? Do you want to burn out your mental physique, or do you want to throw at your back a little bit to prop this open?

SPEAKER_04 41:39

Uh, I think I'll throw at my back a bit.

SPEAKER_02 41:42

Alright, you crit through it costs you a hit point, but you've opened this gate, kind of like rotate it through and let it slam shut on the other side behind you. It feels weird, like you're going through a Zelda temple through reverse. As you see this wheel in front of you, and you don't see an exit to this room, just stone walls all the way around you.

SPEAKER_05 42:04

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 42:05

And the working of this artificially installed piping running across the floor. And it looks like it the piping almost like goes straight through the wall, like it's carved imparsibly close to the piping.

SPEAKER_04 42:16

Hmm. Um do I see any uh strange sigils or glyphs uh now that I'm on this side of the uh uh you do see what looks like.

SPEAKER_02 42:31

It's weird. You see it's like a almost like a mural, but chunks are missing out where you see a bird flying over a village, you see a tree growing outward, you see a plant withering, you see a chameleon, and you see what looks like a sideways emotion.

SPEAKER_04 42:48

Uh, I see. Um Are there any uh insects in this room?

SPEAKER_02 42:59

There are crickets. And the little budgels of moss that are pretty easily available, and a few flies bubbing along the what looks like an open grate above a sewage line. Well, not an open grate, it's like a sidewalk grate that's on top of this pipe. So you assume that'd be like maintenance to get into the piping?

SPEAKER_04 43:20

Yeah, yeah, okay, okay. Well, Lyra, uh where's the fish leading now?

SPEAKER_02 43:27

And she just walks through the back wall. Like walks through solid stone.

SPEAKER_04 43:33

Well, I mean, I guess I'll follow suit.

SPEAKER_02 43:37

As you walk through it, you see a wide chamber lit by f phosphorescent fungus clinging to old offering bowls. In the center is a reflection pool, a painting of two kois swimming in it that moves based on the angle you look at it. The image shows people offering things. And you get the feeling from this room that this was some sort of personal offering chamber.

SPEAKER_04 44:04

Uh again, no no other visible exits.

SPEAKER_02 44:07

Uh you do see like one of those you know those like Japanese style like tie gates that are like the two wooden sticks with like the wood across it? Okay, Tori gates? You see one of those on the far wall that's like shimmering inside it.

SPEAKER_04 44:26

Nothing suspicious about that. Hmm. This little girl seems more and more sus. Uh okay, so uh is there anything in the pool? Has anything been offered?

SPEAKER_02 44:43

Do you go look in the pool?

SPEAKER_04 44:45

I am gonna take a look in the pool.

SPEAKER_02 44:47

So as you look in the pool, you see a faint image of the girl staring back at you from the water. So you see yourself and you see her in the reflection. But in her reflection, she looks older, angry, and is crying blood. She kneels at the water's edge and speaks softly. They wanted me to drown here, but I didn't. I floated and they followed. And in your own reflection, you see your true image, not your disguised self. Ah. She looked away and dropped down, you no longer see her reflection in the pool.

SPEAKER_04 45:29

Huh. Okay, okay. Um, and there's no like blood or anything in this room, though. It's just just appears to be where she was sacrificed.

SPEAKER_02 45:44

It does look like someone drilled a bulletin board on the false stone wall and there's a clipboard hanging from it, and it just says sewer maintenance.

SPEAKER_04 45:52

Ooh, can I check the sewer maintenance logs? Now do I have any names?

SPEAKER_02 45:56

Uh, you have a few names on the sewer maintenance logs. Give me a moment here. Actually, you tell me. What names are the three names you see on this maintenance log?

SPEAKER_04 46:11

Uh well, one of them is someone named Bobert. Bobert. Nice. Um. One of them is uh someone named Jill. Jill. And uh one of them is someone named uh Kofi. K-O-F-I.

SPEAKER_02 46:33

Okay, so looking at Bobert, Jill, and Kofi, just from looking at the way they sign their signatures, give me one fan fact about each of them just from their handwriting.

SPEAKER_04 46:44

Um so, uh Bobbert um has embellished uh the O of his of his signature to be a flower. Um Jill uh is hardly legible, a very like shaky hand. Um and uh Kofi uh almost looks uh like it was stamped, not signed.

SPEAKER_02 47:25

Excellent. This will be incredibly relevant later in the campaign. So, after checking the clipboard, do you keep the clipboard? Or do you just leave it there?

SPEAKER_04 47:41

I will keep the clipboard.

SPEAKER_02 47:44

Alright, you have a clipboard, and it does have the Have insignia on it. As you pick up the clipboard and you flip over the back of it, there is something car scratched into the back of the clipboard. And it simply says, the toll has taken all my pogs.

SPEAKER_04 48:04

The toll has taken all of my pogs. Jill. Yep. And Kofi.

unknown 48:29

Oh.

SPEAKER_04 48:32

Okay, I guess we're I guess I can't put that much information on this, uh.

SPEAKER_02 48:38

I think there is a full note section at least.

SPEAKER_04 48:40

Well, there is a full note section, but I'm putting the clipboard in my uh next.

SPEAKER_02 48:48

You never know when you'll need to meet someone with a clipboard. Or in my experience, get into any location on earth.

SPEAKER_04 48:58

That may be why I have taken the clipboard, but yes. Excellent.

SPEAKER_01 49:02

So um The Rusty Tory gate bars your path.

SPEAKER_04 49:09

The toll has taken all my pogs, huh? Okay, uh, and uh this uh clearly evil witch lady. Well, maybe not evil, but witch lady, who's currently disguised as a little girl. Disguised even from herself, it seems. Where does does is she still following the fish?

SPEAKER_02 49:35

Uh the fish seems to be swimming above the bowl, she kind of informs you.

SPEAKER_04 49:44

In above the sacrificial water bowl.

SPEAKER_02 49:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 49:49

Hmm. And then there's uh some sort of gate that I can go through to proceed into the city.

SPEAKER_02 49:59

At least further into this tunnel. But this seemed to be glowing with an arcane shimmer.

SPEAKER_04 50:08

Um, I mean, I guess we'll try and open the gate and see what happens.

SPEAKER_02 50:13

So it's not so much an openable gate as it's like an archway, almost like. Picture one of those little gates they set up while playing like mini-golf or something like. It's like a gate you'd have to walk under. It's half collapsed, its wooden crossbeam is carved with ancient glyphs. Seems to be a Feinwick script of some sort.

SPEAKER_04 50:37

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_02 50:40

And you've been around long enough to know, like, this is probably some sort of like magic gateway that needs like some sort of condition to let me walk through it.

SPEAKER_03 50:49

Ah.

SPEAKER_04 50:51

I see. Well there, Lyra. Uh, where to now? I don't know if we can get through this gate.

SPEAKER_01 51:05

You have to give something to the bowl.

SPEAKER_02 51:07

And she reaches into her pocket, pulls out what looks like a piece of beef jerky, drops it in the bowl. And then the bowl comes for a second. And she starts walking towards the gate.

SPEAKER_04 51:20

Huh. Alright, alright. Uh do I have rations then in my basic supplies?

SPEAKER_02 51:25

You seem like you would, like you spent all your money on food. However, they did mention it has to be you. So, is a ration important to you? Because you're not a starving child on the road, with a pet dog they have to take care of.

SPEAKER_04 51:43

Uh, that has to be something that's important to me.

SPEAKER_02 51:46

Quite possibly. Like pogs, for example.

SPEAKER_04 51:53

Well, I don't know, I don't really have any personal effects on me.

SPEAKER_02 51:58

There's no reason it would have to be something physical.

SPEAKER_05 52:08

Hmm.

SPEAKER_02 52:11

But you don't know, maybe you could just walk through the gate and see what happens.

SPEAKER_04 52:16

I'm just gonna try and walk through the gate and see what happens. Well no, first I'm going to uh put um a ration in the in the bowl and then try to walk through the gate.

SPEAKER_02 52:26

So as you take your step through the gate, how valuable was that ration to you?

SPEAKER_04 52:31

Um, okay, so how long was I traveling on the road again? I was traveling for like a whole day.

SPEAKER_00 52:42

About a week.

SPEAKER_04 52:44

For about a week. Right, right.

SPEAKER_02 52:47

You made really good time. It's like you took your seven-day trip in three.

SPEAKER_04 52:53

Uh, well, I so my rations are about half gone, so I would say, yeah, yes. Fairly important.

SPEAKER_02 53:01

Um as you step through the gate and it glows and pa passes, it did not quite feel like your offering was enough, so it took something else from you.

unknown 53:13

Oh.

SPEAKER_02 53:13

You can no longer remember what color your mother's eyes were. Oh. And you have passed through the gate successfully.

unknown 53:22

Huh.

SPEAKER_02 53:24

And now you just kind of see, like, as you go through, there's some stairs up and what looks like a maintenance hatch.

SPEAKER_04 53:33

Alright, well, I guess we'll go open this maintenance hatch hatch.

SPEAKER_02 53:37

It is heavy.

SPEAKER_04 53:40

Uh-oh.

SPEAKER_02 53:41

And seems to be locked on the other side.

SPEAKER_04 53:45

Seems to be locked on the other side. Well, where is Lyra?

SPEAKER_02 53:50

Standing next to you.

SPEAKER_04 53:58

Uh and there's no other exit through this, uh Doesn't appear to be.

SPEAKER_02 54:04

I mean, any stone wall is an exit if you try hard enough.

SPEAKER_04 54:09

Yeah, you know, there was a m there was a a fake wall in the other room. I'm gonna I'm gonna feel all the walls around here and see if I can find another possible exit or entrance.

SPEAKER_02 54:18

Go ahead and roll an instinct check for me. Or finesse.

SPEAKER_04 54:22

I'm gonna go with finesse.

SPEAKER_02 54:24

Alright, so for finesse, that means you're like literally not tapping gently on each of the walls to try and like listen for it. So you tell me what you found. Because you did find a fake wall in here.

SPEAKER_04 54:39

Uh with my uh well, I rolled an eleven with fear for my finesse roll.

SPEAKER_02 54:48

Perfect. So as you go tap-tap-tap-tap, you feel wood texture. Like there's a wooden door behind an illusionary stone one. And I'm gonna spend a fear, and you just kinda hear like murmuring behind it, be like. Go ahead and mark a stress.

SPEAKER_05 55:08

Uh-oh.

SPEAKER_02 55:09

Because you're mildly concerned that there's someone in there. And going back the way you came would be a colossal pain in the ass. But going forward's also a pain. But you do pick up there's probably two to four people in that room.

SPEAKER_03 55:24

I see. Um.

SPEAKER_02 55:30

And you gather from the context it was probably a piece of the original temple before they converted it into a sewer.

SPEAKER_04 55:40

Well, I mean, I guess, uh. What does the fish say about this door, Lyra?

SPEAKER_01 55:48

It says Oh, it's gone.

SPEAKER_00 55:51

The fish just seems to have left.

SPEAKER_04 55:58

The fish seems to have left, huh?

SPEAKER_02 56:00

Probably back to its bowl to guide people who offer nice things through the tunnels.

SPEAKER_04 56:05

Hmm. Well, I guess I'll just uh open the door and see what's on the other side.

SPEAKER_02 56:18

So as you do you try and like creak the door open, or are you just opening it?

SPEAKER_04 56:22

I'm just gonna open it.

SPEAKER_02 56:24

So as you open it, you see shocked what looks like two catfolk. They they look like thugs. Like, you've opened a thug's room. These are four thugs sitting around a table. Two of them are playing cards, one of them's just throwing knives at a dartboard, the other one's drinking a flask, and all of them just stare directly at you.

SPEAKER_05 56:44

Hmm.

SPEAKER_02 56:50

Spotlight is on you.

SPEAKER_04 56:59

I seem to be a bit lost. Perhaps you can uh direct me to the exit.

SPEAKER_02 57:04

Roll presses check with what's quite frankly gonna be a hard DC, because that is not a convincing anything.

SPEAKER_04 57:12

Uh well, do I have advantage from the fact that I'm disguised still?

SPEAKER_02 57:17

So roll a knowledge reaction roll for me. This won't be for hope or fear, just in a moment what you realize.

SPEAKER_04 57:26

Okay, knowledge reaction roll. Uh, that is a 10.

SPEAKER_02 57:31

So, these are Feynwild rebels.

SPEAKER_04 57:36

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 57:36

And you are wearing a Haven police officer uniform and knocked on the door.

SPEAKER_03 57:41

Right, right, okay.

SPEAKER_02 57:47

And said I'm Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 57:53

I'm probably not gonna succeed my presence check to have them just guide me out of here, but we'll see.

SPEAKER_02 57:58

Well, uh You will still roll the presence check. I can't stop you from doing that.

SPEAKER_04 58:04

Um, but but uh again, so I mean I guess I'm not trying to pass my well, I am trying to pass myself off as a guard, but I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 58:12

So it's weird, because it's like you're passing yourself as a guard an image.

SPEAKER_02 58:16

But didn't really work that into your description in any way.

unknown 58:21

Right.

SPEAKER_02 58:21

So it's like technically that would give you disadvantage. But since you're to just be like, I'm a lost police officer in your biker bar.

SPEAKER_05 58:30

Hmm.

SPEAKER_02 58:31

But I'm kind of in a straight roll because they're mostly just confused.

SPEAKER_04 58:36

Alright. That was a 14 with hope. Woo-hoo!

SPEAKER_02 58:42

So two of them have drawn crossbows and have them pointed right at you. And the leader, who appears to be a rivet of some sort, uh purple dirt frog, walks up, presses a knife to your throat. Do you allow them to approach and put a knife up to your throat?

SPEAKER_04 59:01

Oh yeah, I'm not gonna resist.

SPEAKER_02 59:03

He's like, What the fuck you doing here? I thought we had a can I thought we had a deal. You fucker stay up, we stay down. Can I help you, buddy, who is lost here?

SPEAKER_04 59:19

Um, are are there any insects in this room?

SPEAKER_02 59:25

No. Surprisingly clean.

SPEAKER_04 59:28

Oh. Hmm. You know what?

SPEAKER_02 59:32

I'll ask you. You describe an insect in this room. I'll let you add an insect to this room. Because I want to see where you're going with this. Um, are in a sewer.

SPEAKER_04 59:48

You said there were crickets in in the original room. I gotta assume there's at least spider webs. Um.

unknown 59:56

Oh.

SPEAKER_02 59:57

So I mean I'm gonna say there's a a little web with a few cricket spiders in it eating what looks like a weird gecko fly.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:12

Um well. Uh, since this guy is a rivet. Um careful what you do here, bud. No, I I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna use my my tongue uh to eat one of those bugs.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:30

Okay. So he raises an eyebrow. I am gonna have you smark the stress to use your tongue. I believe it's stress to use it. However, it will give you advantage on your next presence roll, which for the record. the fact that you're getting a second try at this is pretty pretty impressive. So what do you say into these ne'er doels?

SPEAKER_04 1:00:58

To be perfectly honest, uh, I'm not from around here. Uh I was just passing through and uh there was some trouble outside, so I wanted to try and sneak in and see what I could learn about what was going on here, uh, from the shadows. Just in case there's corruption within the police force above.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:18

Alright, go ahead and roll a presence check with advantage.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:22

Because you're definitely not being hostile to these clearly criminals that you probably should be arresting if you were in fact a guard.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:30

Ooh, sixteen, but with fear.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:33

He's gonna be like tell you what, as you know, we also watching out for trouble. As you may or may not know, we work around these parts. And I do believe a nice finder's fee, and we'd be happy to escort you out of here.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:53

Uh okay, so one bag is ten handfuls?

SPEAKER_00 1:02:04

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:08

Um I will reach into my collection and offer them five handfuls, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:19

So they happily escort So this is where it gets tricky. So they start to escort you out. They have not seen the girl yet at this point. Oh, really? Yeah. So they happily accept the bribe and be like, yeah, we'll happily escort you out of here. They're not just gonna give you directions, they're gonna leave out. You see one of them grabs like a keyring off the bar stand, starts walking out like one in front of you, two beside you, one behind you. As they step out, you see hiding in the corner is a little girl, clearly hiding from them. They haven't noticed her yet. But they will shortly. Do you want to intervene in any way? Because they will spot her once you move around this corner.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:58

And she is quite definitely hiding.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:01

Quite definitely trying to hide from them.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:05

Um. Okay, so. Um, I don't actually recall the description of the the guard that I have uh taken the form of. I know I I know in character I know what they look like because I saw them in person, but um am I uh do I appear to be like big and stocky? Like could I actually potentially it'd be really difficult, but what could I hide her behind myself?

SPEAKER_02 1:03:34

I think so. I think we've been operating under the assumption, even though we never stated, that you're a relatively large human male. Cause that just seems to be like the default mental picture of a police officer.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:46

Right, right.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:47

Because at no point did we mention you were like disguised as an orc or a giant or a gnome or anything like that. But I will say that you're definitely stocky enough to get away with this. Actually, you tell me what you look like. You tell me about this character you've been for the last two days. Paint me a picture.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:06

Um, well. Uh bald. With a uh scar across the forehead that goes across one eye. Um I'm gonna say uh missing his right pinky. Uh but stocking and muscular. Um probably about average height.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:31

Alright. So I'm gonna say you have no issue being a physical meat shield, but there will still be a roll involved. So I'm gonna have you roll presents to just kinda physically use your presence to be more a mild distraction than anything.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:49

Alright. Oh man. I really should have invested more in presents. Well, let's see. Ooh, sixteen with hope.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:58

Sixteen with hope? Yeah, no issue at all. You hide her, one of them unclocks it, unlocks it, opens the doors like you're free to go. If you do go through here, though, you will be separated from her from a bit, and it'll be kind of up to her to figure out the rest from that point.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:15

Hmm.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:19

Well, I mean, uh I I think I am gonna go through. And hopefully she can figure a way out. Because she got through here in the first place, so. Should be. I think I gotta close the door just one second here.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:36

Dramatic. But yes. With no issue at all, you have managed to come to the surface of the town. The daylight's still shining down upon you. As it will be for another few days.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:50

You've uh sorry, when I said I closed the door, I was actually talking about a uh a real life door.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:56

I know, and I was working it into the narrative and you ruined it. You ruined it. Now that we're you're outside both figuratively and liverily here you look at the town around you, it's scarred beauty. You see the spire yet again, this time pretty close, only a few blocks away from you. And as you look around this town for but a moment. Describe something about it that shows how the people live here despite the danger. Is a tavern somehow never closed its doors? Is a wooden sign scorched but still swinging? Is a bloom drying rack strung over an alley? Give me something that shows like a quiet optimism of the town.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:53

Describe a key's for quiet optimism of the town.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:58

Like a leaning guard tower patched with stone and timber.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:03

Um I I mean, uh I uh I like to think that there's uh a nice little house that has a uh a couple of uh garden boxes up front with some some beautiful flowers and garden box.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:20

Alright, so for the first time in probably twenty-four hours, no one is observing you in your disguise.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:27

Hmm.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:28

And you're sitting outside the grate. Are you going to sit there and wait for the child, or is this where the two of you part ways? You could make a clean break here.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:37

No, I'm I'm gonna wait for the child. I'm curious where this is going.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:41

Alright. I do believe you need to re-up your spell.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:45

Uh well, no. I'm actually I'm gonna- I'm gonna let it lapse. Um, she might have a hard time finding me, but when she does find me, or rather when I find her, I'm gonna tell her that my true form is a disguise.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:00

Okay. So, you are behind a local smithy, and there is like a lovely bench and tree. Like, it makes sense for someone just to be chilling here. You're not particularly out of place. About 10 minutes, 15 minutes pass. About an hour passes and still no sign of her.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:17

Oh dear.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:19

You continue to wait.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:23

Okay, um. Hmm. And I haven't seen any activity out of the grate.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:34

Correct.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:38

Okay. Well, I mean, this is probably a bad idea, uh, but I am going to uh use another stress uh to assume the form of the boss uh from the from the dungeon, from the place there.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:55

Uh okay, the poison dark frog.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:57

The poison dark frog.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:58

Not a very hard thing for you to pull off, admittedly.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:02

Uh and then I'm gonna go back into the uh the sewers and see if I can uh cause enough confusion and or rescue the little girl.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:11

So as you open the sewer up slowly, I'm gonna have you roll a finesse check to be stealth for this.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:20

Twelve with fear. Uh-oh.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:22

I'm setting up a beautiful five fear right now. It's lovely. It's there's a lot I can do with that. Yeah, yeah. I could have things attack you five times, it's pretty great. So as you creep in, you see the problem. Almost instantly as you peek your head down. Still out of sight, just kinda like peering your eye. I'll go as far as to say like you do the thing where you pull a mirror out of your pocket and use it to look around the corner.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:45

Uh-uh.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:46

Sitting in what looks like a makeshift chair is one of the thugs of crossbow pointed, just watching the entryway.

unknown 1:09:52

Huh.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:52

And the little girl, you get the feeling is still hiding in the same spot and just hasn't figured out a good way to get across and not break his line of sight. They're now guarding the entryway.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:02

Uh and it the boss is visible?

SPEAKER_02 1:10:06

No. You're looking at what look to appears to be a Katari, a cat poke. Hmm. With a crossbow. And the crossbow bolt looks mean. It is a nasty looking crossbow bolt. Like, it's like made of like jagged obsidian that's been like glued and rolled around a glass stem. It's a mean crossbow bolt. Sure would hurt. Probably poisoned.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:31

Huh. Well.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:45

Nope, just the one guy from your angle you can see at, which by the way, you have not descended the stairs yet. So he could just be slightly out of view. But you were able to piece together that where the girl's hiding, she'd have to come out and go directly across the line of sight to get up the stairs, which kind of go up and bend a bit. And he's specifically watching to see if someone goes up or down the stairs. You did not.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:11

Do I see the girl?

SPEAKER_02 1:11:13

Uh yes, you do, using your mirror to look at the other angle. It's like the stairwell is the only thing keeping her out of this guy's line of sight.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:21

I see.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:24

She seems to be curled up in a corner petting the dog, looking really scared.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:28

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:32

Well I think I since I am disguised as the boss, I am going to uh Ugh no, see I don't dang it. I'll have the mental fortitude to actually do anything. I don't necessarily let's see.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:58

I'm gonna spend a fear, and you see I've set a dramatic D4 on the table sitting at a four.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:04

Oh boy.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:06

What's she gonna do?

SPEAKER_04 1:12:09

Well, I mean, uh, I guess I'm going to uh try and do a dive roll to grab the uh grab the girl and then run out.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:19

Oh, you're going for sheer agility on this one. Go ahead and roll agility rolls, just roll down the stairs, grab her, and then run back out. Agility roll. Roll fifteen with fear. So, you run, you roll down the stairs, you grab the girl, you turn to go back up. You see him look really confused for a second, because you're his boss. That just rolled down the stairs to grab the girl, which he saw very clearly. Go ahead and make a presence roll to do something for he doesn't just shoot you in the face.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:55

Uh 13 with fear.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:58

What do you say or do with anything, or do you just start running back up the stairs?

SPEAKER_03 1:13:05

Um.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:09

I uh I'm gonna look at the guy and be like, what are you doing, you fools? This girl's been here this whole time, and then run back up the stairs.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:21

So he looks at you, looks back towards the door where you should be, looks at you again. His brain doing like the calculating face. Hey! And then he just shoots you. Oof. Kidra! Actually, let me check the numbers. You you might have got away with this. Now 13 is what you needed. He is just confused long enough for you to run up the stairs. Him and the other one that you didn't see that you catch a glimpse of, the like reflection off the arrow, be like, oh, there's two snipers trained on me. As his boss rolls down the stairs, grabs a girl, calls him fools, and runs back up the stairs holding her. You're in the street? I'm gonna spend a beer to take that timer down.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:07

What would you like to do? Well, I gotta drop my disguise. Um worry, Lyra, it's me. This this is a this is another disguise, so they won't be able to track us this easily. Lie to the child. Oof, a ten with fear. They might believe you, you don't know. Doesn't really matter. I saved their life.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:41

Reasonable.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:42

I mean, sure. I put them into danger, but you know, I saved their life.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:46

Alright. I'm going to spend that fear to take that down to two. And you're hearing footsteps starting to rush. And you you can't quite hear the sound through the sewer grate, but you believe in your mind's eye the conversation to zoom the focus kind of went like this. Boss, why'd you roll down the stairs and grab the girl? Saying that out loud, that was an abuster. Yes, you fucking idiot! And they're running up the stairs.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:09

Um, you said there's uh there's a park bench? Yep. Uh, can I move it to try and bar the door? Go ahead and roll strength. Let's uh let's. Ooh, a 12 with hope.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:27

So, thanks to the power of empty homeless architecture, there's like those little bands in the middle of it so you can't lie comfortably on it. Right. But also the legs of it are like screwed to the gr bolted to the ground.

SPEAKER_05 1:15:38

Hmm.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:39

You do believe you could move it, but you'd have to take a moment to unscrew those bolts with finesse and then try the strength again.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:46

Uh, yeah, no, that's not worth it.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:48

Um You could probably do it. You're pretty quick.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:54

Alright, alright, let's go for it. Let's try and unscrew these bolts with finesse and then try again.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:58

Go ahead and roll finesse.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:00

Finesse? 15 with deer.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:04

So as you're screw, screw, screw, screw. I tick down my dice to one. You get the bolts out. A couple stands, people look over, like the hell are you doing? As you drag the bench across onto it, you have put the bench over it successfully. It is a heavy photo card. She helped you a little bit with it, because it's just was an industrial ass steel bench that is now on top of this grate. People are just giving you the weirdest side-eye.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:28

Yeah, okay. Uh well, I mean, now that I have the bench in front of the door, uh, in front of the grate, um and I'm no longer disguised as the guard or as the boss. Uh I mean they might recognize the girl, but we'll just we'll just walk along uh casually away.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:49

So, as you begin to walk casually away, what are two offhand comments villagers make about this girl? Because you do catch their murmurings here and there that this village seems to believe that this child is cursed, and that's why plant monsters are attacking them.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:06

Right. Uh so I mean I guess um that she's cursed. Well she means she is definitely cursed.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:26

So you do see that, like, the the spire, which is supposed to project the magical barrier around the town that one of your previous incarnations died to repair for a different town. And you see, like, the guard station is like built into the base of that. So you can see where the guard station is pretty easily. There's a couple windmills and farms and merchant stalls. But like it's not exactly a peppy town to be in. And you notice that you they don't seem to be treating the Haven officers particularly bad here.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:56

Right, right.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:56

And it's the wildlings that are giving you the dirty looks.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:01

I see. Um Well, no, we're just we're just gonna head over to the to the Haven Guard post, I guess, the two of us.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:13

You open the door, you close the door.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:16

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:17

And you do see Lieutenant Mavian again. The one that you're like, oh go, I'll put out the dirt. Which seems to be a very distracted, overworked, and exhausted commander.

SPEAKER_05 1:18:27

Hmm.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:28

You're getting, get in, quick, quick, quick, and like gesturing you in.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:32

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:33

And the door shut behind you. She looks at you, looks at the girl looks at you. Why? Why? Why would she bring the girl back here? I'm all for getting children out of superstitial locals' hands. Why? How and she's just pouring herself a drink.

SPEAKER_04 1:19:06

The little girl is?

SPEAKER_02 1:19:07

Uh no, the com Lieutenant is. Lieutenant, okay, okay. Just pouring herself a drink. Like, why would you do this to me?

SPEAKER_04 1:19:20

Uh well, uh to be perfectly honest, I'm not really certain what's going on here, and I I uh was told to come and and make sure this town was okay, and I found this little girl trapped on a sandbar in the river.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:35

Uh well, keep her out of sight. The soldiers don't want to protect her because it'll make the people mad. The people might riot. Apparently the wild ones sent her south after three separate attacks. Their sacred grove fell, and she must have walked for days before your little river encounter. So who sent you here in the first place? And what's your name?

SPEAKER_04 1:20:16

Well. Okay, I never gave Elroy a last name. Should it should we give him a last name, or should I choice is yours.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:29

I will say whatever name you say was Elroy's last name will become canon on the spot. But you will have to head on to your notes and remind me later.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:38

Yeah, of course, of course.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:40

You can be Elroy or Leroy right now, no issue.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:48

Well, I mean I I've decided his last name is Jenkins because that's funny to me. Nice.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:58

Was sent here by uh Greel Dern. Oh shit, and she puts her drink down. As you recall, Krill is internal police.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:09

Right, right.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:10

And she is drinking on the job right now.

SPEAKER_04 1:21:14

Wow, don't no. No, don't worry. It's perfectly fine. You seem stressed.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:20

Yeah, it's been a most I don't know if you noticed, but we were being attacked by tumbleweeds that set our crops on fire. And if we don't have the crops, we don't get the money, we don't get the money, we don't get the schools, we don't get the food, we don't get the funding. And then we die to the monsters. And the shield that's supposed to keep our town going is not so good. Not so shielding right now. And the villagers think it was this little girl's fault. Hmm. Would you like a drink? I'm so rude, sorry. Would you like a drink?

SPEAKER_03 1:21:52

Uh yeah, I'd love a drink.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:55

She like cleans the corner of the cup she was thinking from and tops it back up and slides that to you and grabs herself another one?

SPEAKER_04 1:22:02

Uh, yeah, I mean I'll I'll uh I'll take a sip.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:05

You can reduce one stress.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:08

Nice.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:11

Alright.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:12

Uh so the tower with the big bite out of it, is that that where the shield's supposed to be?

SPEAKER_00 1:22:23

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:25

Hmm. Oh, and I'm in said tower?

SPEAKER_02 1:22:29

Yeah, you're in like a little it's like you see the tower as the back wall, like someone like built a house around the base of this obelisk. Hmm. And the house is apparently much newer in construct than the obelisk. This is somebody literally built a cottage around the Washington Monument.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:49

Hmm. Well, Lyra. Everyone seems to think you're at fault for this tower being destroyed. What do you gotta say about this?

SPEAKER_01 1:23:04

How would I break a tower?

unknown 1:23:09

Hmm.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:12

Well, I'm not sure, but uh your dog seems to be affected by some sort of powerful magic.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:19

Fluffy! Oh, he's a normal dog. As Fluffy proceeds to shake its head and make dry bone sound effects.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:39

Well uh I guess perhaps we should uh if I may go into the tower and see what's going on in there. I turn to the room.

SPEAKER_05 1:23:54

Hmm.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:56

So, your boss sent you here to check in on us, which is lovely.

SPEAKER_05 1:24:00

Hmm.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:01

Tell you what. Best thing you could do right now is we have an Arcanist coming in from Haven, Maine, to take a look at the tower in a few days.

SPEAKER_05 1:24:09

Hmm.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:09

The townsfolk are super superstitious and we'll have a ride on her hand. I'm not gonna ask you to murder a girl. I would like to know what she knows, but I can't really keep her here to ask questions.

SPEAKER_05 1:24:20

Hmm.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:21

So, if it's okay, I'd like to subcontract you to take the girl out of the city undetected and tell your boss that you were asked politely to leave. And at this point, she just kinda like whispers to us, like, the kid knows something. But if she gets burned at the stake for witchcraft, that's not really gonna help us. So I would say we give you a nice babysitter fee, you escort her out of town, or take her either back home, take her to another city, and see if we can't get her to tell us anything she knows. The gossip in the rumors has got too far. People are saying she summoned monsters to attack the tower, people saying she summoned the plants to get her, people say the wither wild ones are dead. I don't know. But I don't wanna know. We got enough sketchy people around town already. The gangs basically run this place.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:18

Yes, I have come across them.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:21

Yep. Probably asked you for a finder's fee.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:25

Very well, I accept your offer.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:27

She hands you a bag of gold.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:30

Nice.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:31

Alright. And make sure to tell Krill, five-star, great experience, hardworking, committed guard commander, who's a little on the pretty side and absolutely on the overwork side, could definitely use a raise. Hear me, go up to the next pay scale.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:47

I'll put in a good word for you. Excellent.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:49

And for context, part of how one of the things Krill gave you was a little medallion to show that you're like official. Right.

SPEAKER_04 1:26:01

Yeah, yeah. I I I I guess I was operating under the same assumption that I had something to prove my my official duties.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:08

Yeah, it's like just like a little badge. Probably enchanted to be more official.

SPEAKER_04 1:26:14

Hmm.

unknown 1:26:15

Alright.

SPEAKER_04 1:26:16

Uh so yeah, I guess now uh Lyra and I need to try and sneak back out of town, but we're not sneaking out the same way we left. That's for su came in, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:25

Indeed. It's almost like whoever wrote this adventure had that over-elaborate exit tunnel as the way you would normally leave this town. And now you've gone back through in reverse and is very curious to see how this plays out.

SPEAKER_04 1:26:41

Hmm. Uh, is there another exit to the to the guard station?

SPEAKER_02 1:26:46

Uh, the guard station itself?

unknown 1:26:48

No.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:50

Alright.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:52

Well, I guess if you wanted to, you could like climb the back wall and like go like there's basically like there's a little ladder that leads you on top of the guard station.

SPEAKER_05 1:27:02

Hmm.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:03

So like a little trapdoor to the ceiling, and then you could like. That was so people could get up on the scaffolding to like study or analyze or work on the obelisk that protects the town. So technically you can climb up the roof and like jump off a roof if you really wanted to.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:19

Are there any burlap sacks that would be big enough to hold the girl?

SPEAKER_02 1:27:23

Yes. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:28

This might be uncomfortable, Dyra. But you'll need to- I'll need to carry you around in the sack for a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:34

No.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:38

Well, I mean, I guess you can be burnt at the stake for witchcraft then if you want.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:42

Roll a persuasion check. Up for presence check. I mean, you did ask the child, get in the sack. That's a tough sell, that's all I'm saying. I wouldn't get in the sack if you told me to.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:53

I I only rolled a six with hope, though.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:56

You gain a hope, but she's not going in the sack.

SPEAKER_04 1:28:01

Um, well, I have rope. Uh I'm just gonna tie her up and throw her in a sack.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:06

Oh, oh shit. Um, go ahead and roll a finesse jack.

SPEAKER_04 1:28:14

Uh also only a six with hope.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:17

So as you go to tie her with the rope, she's like, don't. Get away. And you see, like, crackling a black lightning around her eyes as a get away. The dog's eyes are glowing a deep red, and its bangs are growing and becoming serrated as it's growling at you.

SPEAKER_04 1:28:38

Well, Lyra. The townsfolk seem to think that you're some sort of evil witch that's causing all the problems here. I'm trying to sneak you out of town. Uh. But your hostility here seems to be uh more in line with their superstitions than you let them.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:59

You're not gonna tie me up, throw me in a sack, and throw me in the river again.

SPEAKER_04 1:29:04

No one said I was gonna throw you in the river. Just can't have people see you me carry you around on my shoulder fireman style.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:14

Um, she's looking around. Um can I like put on a costume or like something that isn't me being tied up and thrown in a sack?

SPEAKER_04 1:29:26

You wouldn't have to be tied up if you came to if you were in the sack willingly.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:30

She doesn't want to get tied up and thrown in a sack, dude. This is an Epstein situation, you can't just tie up the child and throw them in a sack. Without them fighting back.

SPEAKER_05 1:29:45

Hmm.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:47

Well, good getting the episode podcast cancelled on episode three. Good job, me. Alright, let's continue.

SPEAKER_04 1:30:00

Well, I guess at the very least. Follow me up the ladder here. We'll go up the ladder.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:06

She's willing to follow you up the ladder, but she's not happy that you threatened to tie her up and throwing her in a sack.

SPEAKER_04 1:30:14

Understandable.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:18

Rolling instinct check.

SPEAKER_04 1:30:22

Instincts? Fifteen with uh hope.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:28

She's looking like she's waiting for an exact moment to bolt, run away, and hide from you. She thought you were a good guy. Just not so sure anymore. Kind of the something in the sack thing.

SPEAKER_04 1:30:41

Well, I mean. I I guess that's her prerogative. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:30:48

I don't blame her.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:53

But you do find yourself on top of this roof. There's it's a wide enough roof that no one can really see you on top of it from this angle. So you're like pretty well hidden up here. And you know there's still another three days of sunlight left before nightfall.

SPEAKER_04 1:31:08

Right.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:09

Which for the record, because t sunsetting and rising is like a day-long process, it is so hard to see during sunrise and sunfall.

SPEAKER_04 1:31:19

I see.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:21

Um No, you don't.

SPEAKER_03 1:31:25

Right, right. Um. Well.

SPEAKER_04 1:31:36

I'm not really sure how to convince out of this, but the only way off of the roof is to jump down, or go back down the ladder.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:51

Um, yes, as you look around. Actually, you tell me, what do you see on top of this? Picture like a construction scaffolding kind of roof. You tell me what's up here. There might be some ropes, there might be some Assassin's Creed style hay bales around.

SPEAKER_04 1:32:07

Ooh, yeah. You know, I'm pretty sure there is uh a convenient garbage bin somewhere nearby.

SPEAKER_02 1:32:15

Yeah, I'd allow it. It makes sense for like trying to build this building and fix patch holes and things.

SPEAKER_04 1:32:23

So, um, she's following me, right? Mm-hmm. And does the garbage bin have a lid?

SPEAKER_02 1:32:32

I think at that time period, no. It's more like a large two by four f uh crate full of like sod and hay and stuff.

SPEAKER_04 1:32:44

Um food waste. Well I mean she already doesn't trust me, so I'm gonna, you know, just push her into the bin. Go ahead and push her off the roof into the bin. Roll 15. Nope, critical success.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:03

So you've shoved her off a roof into a dumpster. Is that what I'm understanding here? Explain describe the scene. Paint the scene for me, please.

SPEAKER_04 1:33:11

Well, I mean, so since since it was a critical success, then my actual goal for us was for us to both get off the roof.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:17

Oh, I'm gonna say you do like the dramatic catch her and jump in, land perfectly, roll outside kind of thing. Like it is a smooth landing game, then. Yeah, yeah, that's a better play for that.

SPEAKER_04 1:33:29

No, no, I was definitely planning on just like grabbing her, jumping off the roof. Uh and then I well, I mean, I I think we're just gonna well, I'm gonna try and just bolt for the for the exit to the city.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:43

So as you begin speed walking through the city, you see the main gate. There's two guards on one side, two guards on the other, four guards up in towers, and the gate is currently closed.

SPEAKER_04 1:33:56

Right, right.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:59

Do you just run to the gate?

SPEAKER_04 1:34:02

Well, I mean, I'm gonna flash them my my little badge.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:06

So, to a lieutenant the badge meant something. Because these random guards are like, who the fuck are you?

SPEAKER_04 1:34:17

I am Elroy Jenkins, and I have been told to get this little girl of town so the citizens don't revolt.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:23

Roll a persuasion check with advantage. I do appreciate you're holding a badge, but you're like holding an FBI badge to like a transit cop, and they're just kinda like, what?

SPEAKER_04 1:34:33

Uh, that is an 11 with fear.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:37

Go on, then.

SPEAKER_04 1:34:39

Oh, they're gonna open the door for me. Alright. Cool, cool.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:44

But you do see in the distance, like, several shady people in robes are like shuffling through the crowd towards you.

SPEAKER_04 1:34:52

Hmm. Well, I mean, uh I mean we're just gonna keep walking and pretend like we don't see them.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:59

You have made it out of the gate. And I'm gonna dramatically put a D5 uh D8 on the table.

SPEAKER_04 1:35:07

Ooh.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:10

So You feel like they know you're leaving. You did you were subtle to a certain extent. But some people want this child dead, and there's absolutely some goons. Deeply confused goons, that know somebody came into the tower, grabbed the cursed child, dressed as their boss, and then left. And then people saw you. Technically, they've never seen you with the child, but they saw somebody with the child, and they're kind of piecing this together.

SPEAKER_04 1:35:43

Um, listen here, Lyra. You can strike out as on your own and try to deal with those goons back there. Or you and I can work together. And I can take you to along with me to Allura. We can try and solve this mystery together.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:06

She nods her head.

SPEAKER_04 1:36:08

I know you this is a bad thing. I know you don't trust me.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:11

I know you don't trust me, but she seems on board with this. No need for a roll, but I'm gonna take this d5 to a d4. Oh boy.

SPEAKER_04 1:36:29

Now you do seem to have some magic here. Uh got anything that can help us uh transport ourselves.

SPEAKER_01 1:36:38

I don't have magic.

SPEAKER_04 1:36:42

C. I wonder what that well took from you. Anyways. Uh okay, well, so now I'm outside of the town. Uh the We don't have a cart or anything.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:04

Nope. And you have a sneaking suspicion that through the secret exit of the town, there's goons probably heading up to look for you, because news has probably got around. And through the front door, there's probably gonna be goons chasing you on horseback shortly.

SPEAKER_04 1:37:18

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:19

You feel like this timer is giving you like a five-action head start, because you did match to get off here pretty smoothly. Before things try and hunt you down, kill you, eat you, and burn you both at the stake.

SPEAKER_04 1:37:31

Right, right. Um. Well, I guess we gotta find somewhere to hide. As well as some way to. Hmm. No, yeah, no, I I I think we're so this is like the out into the fields that were burned?

SPEAKER_02 1:37:52

Yes. Through uh Shinhai Water.

SPEAKER_04 1:37:57

Shinhai Water. But there is like a normal walking path.

SPEAKER_02 1:38:05

And you do see a few people are out here farming, trying to like deal with the attack from the other day. You see a couple mourning over a dead body crying.

SPEAKER_03 1:38:15

Ugh.

SPEAKER_02 1:38:19

And you see that there are like little houses and thatched things, like outside of the port proper. You are in like a smaller outside town where there's like four or five houses around, a road, guard houses farming. And you do see there's a fair number of town guards in these towers watching the farmers. Making sure no one steals anything.

SPEAKER_04 1:38:42

Okay, okay. Um I uh I think our best bet is probably actually to uh play dead.

SPEAKER_00 1:38:58

Excuse you?

SPEAKER_04 1:38:59

And hope?

SPEAKER_02 1:39:02

Please explain and elaborate.

SPEAKER_04 1:39:06

Well you said that uh that there was someone mourning over a dead corpse, right? Um I think my my tentative plan uh would be to uh hide the little girl under some brush or debris or whatever, uh, and then disguise myself as a guard and pretend that I'm just a uh another dead guard in in the um in the bog. So that when everyone comes running past looking for me, all they will see is the the body of a dead guard.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:45

Roll a finesse jack to pull off this quick change.

SPEAKER_04 1:39:49

Oh, but I imagine being dead applies here.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:52

I will allow this. And I'm gonna spend a few fear, and you just hear footsteps, like in distances, and you're like, hmm. It's almost like he spawned five additional enemies with the sphere to try and hunt you down and kill you. You don't know.

SPEAKER_04 1:40:14

Oh, I only got a 13 with fear? That's not good.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:18

So, as you put her in some canopy and just lie in the ground dead. Your entire plan is just to be dead.

SPEAKER_04 1:40:25

Well, okay, so I am gonna use a stress point to disguise myself as a guard.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:31

So, as you're a dead guard, just dead in the field, about an hour passes, and a couple guards come up, with looks like a wagon they're pulling behind them with dead bodies piled in it.

SPEAKER_06 1:40:42

Uh-huh-uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:43

And they grab you by the ankles and the wrists. Yeah. And they throw you into the pile of dead bodies. Okay. And start wheeling you away from the girl.

unknown 1:40:54

Huh.

SPEAKER_04 1:40:55

Okay. They're wheeling me back into town?

SPEAKER_02 1:41:00

No. You're not sure where they're taking you.

SPEAKER_04 1:41:03

Hmm. I see.

SPEAKER_02 1:41:06

The little girl quickly says like whispers to you before they approach, being like, should I stay here or should I follow you?

SPEAKER_04 1:41:16

If you could somehow manage to follow me, that would be ideal, I think.

SPEAKER_01 1:41:22

So she hands you what looks like a little bone, is like, take this lucky charm.

SPEAKER_04 1:41:28

Okay. Take the lucky charm.

SPEAKER_01 1:41:32

It's a pretty flower.

SPEAKER_02 1:41:35

It is not a bone.

SPEAKER_04 1:41:39

I see, I see.

SPEAKER_02 1:41:41

So you've been thrown into the back of this corpse carriage, and you're being rolled along. Five minutes past, ten minutes past, you're keeping your eyes shut, you're keeping your breathing almost non-existent. And then you see that this card is approaching and you smell fire, uh, smell burning hair and flesh in the distance.

SPEAKER_04 1:42:01

Right, right.

SPEAKER_02 1:42:02

That's it. Your eyes are closed, you can't move, but you do smell fire in the distance. Do you want to keep still?

SPEAKER_04 1:42:10

Uh, I mean, uh So. Yeah, I'm gonna keep still for now.

SPEAKER_02 1:42:18

I'm gonna say roll finesse. And you can use your experience of being a corpse if you like.

SPEAKER_04 1:42:25

Alright. Ooh, 23 with fear, but 23. Uh well. I mean, I I kind of assumed I was keeping my eyes open, but like glazed and lifeless if I can.

SPEAKER_02 1:42:46

Okay, you have enough like magic in your shadowy domain abilities that'll allow you to do that. So as your eyes are open, as you're looking up at the sky unmoving, of like a dead body on top of you, because they threw a couple more on you as they went collecting these corpses.

SPEAKER_05 1:42:59

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 1:42:59

They bring these eight bodies, and you see, like two hands reach from above the body above you, and you see them like sway and go and throw it. Your head's still perfectly still looking straight up. You smell an incre like you feel like the heat move up a bit. Like someone just threw a dead body into a fire. There's you and the two bodies under you now remaining in the cart. You are now at the top of the cart.

SPEAKER_04 1:43:35

I'm now at the top of the cart. Oh boy. Um okay, so as they're throwing out the last body, can I somehow manage to uh like um just like tuck and roll out of the way so they hopefully don't even notice?

SPEAKER_02 1:43:50

Go and roll the most intense finesse check of your life.

SPEAKER_04 1:43:54

Oh boy. Finesse? Ooh, that's a 22 with hope.

SPEAKER_02 1:44:01

So you like roll under a body so they grab the one above you and like get under the cart. You're now under the cart and they're like counting, like one, two, three. The fuck? And like they're trying to figure out like did we and you were like, did we th how was that four or five? And they're like, fuck man, that's not very respectful. I don't did we lose a body? We didn't lose a body, okay? And you're the cards.

SPEAKER_04 1:44:35

Uh is that also where the little girl is, or you don't know where she is right now. Huh. Well, I mean, uh while they're discussing amongst themselves, I'm just going to uh okay. Do I see anywhere that I can like kind of dash over to and hide?

SPEAKER_02 1:44:54

Not very clearly. It seems like they're deliberately taking you to the outskirts of the farmland to set up a body pile to then light it on fire to kill the bodies so they don't come back to kill the monsters. So they're pretty they're pretty making sure to kill these bodies dead.

SPEAKER_05 1:45:08

Hmm.

SPEAKER_02 1:45:10

And yeah, you're literally at the bottom of a hill. Like, picture a garbage dump in your mind's eye, right? Scale it down a bit. But there isn't like a ton of like things to hide behind.

SPEAKER_04 1:45:26

Well, I mean, I think I'm going to just uh wait until they're done and and uh head back and then just like drop off the cart and hopefully they don't notice that uh are you like cape beering under the cart then? Yeah, I think so.

SPEAKER_02 1:45:45

Alright, roll another finesse check.

SPEAKER_04 1:45:51

Roll 15 with fear.

SPEAKER_02 1:45:54

Appropriate. So they throw out the rest of the c corpses and then start moving the cart along. And it doesn't seem to be heading like back to town, it seems to be like heading forward like they're doing a full lap around this cast up around this building, looking for more dead bodies.

SPEAKER_05 1:46:08

Hmm.

SPEAKER_02 1:46:09

And it goes, and about an hour passes. And your arms and legs are getting pretty tired hanging off the bottom of this cart that's very slowly trotting along the side.

SPEAKER_03 1:46:20

Right, right.

SPEAKER_02 1:46:21

It's being pulled by the guard, not by like an animal or anything, so this is just tedious.

SPEAKER_04 1:46:27

Uh so there hasn't been a good opportunity for me to just like drop off the cart and hopefully.

SPEAKER_02 1:46:33

Roll up instinct roll to see if you can find a good spot to get out of there.

SPEAKER_04 1:46:41

Ooh, 22 with hope.

SPEAKER_02 1:46:43

So, no issue at all, you find like a bush, drop off, roll into a bush. They've continued on their merry way. You're in a bush, you wait until they're out of visible range, you get up, you brush yourself off. You're now disguised as a guard that other guards found dead that went to throw in a fire, misplaced, maybe they're not really sure. Outside of town. This is your current state of affairs. So they saw two people leave town, a little girl and a dude. Maybe they have no idea what happened to this dude. Who turned into another dude, got through in a corpse, getting thrown in a fire. What would you like to do?

SPEAKER_04 1:47:18

Um Well, I mean, I would just like to rest until uh hopefully Lyra actually managed to follow me and and finds me.

SPEAKER_02 1:47:26

Alright. Go ahead and take a short rest. Are you still in disguise as a dead guard?

SPEAKER_04 1:47:32

Uh I'm gonna let my disguise drop.

SPEAKER_02 1:47:35

Okay. So just in a random bush outside town, a little ways from the main road, chillin'.

SPEAKER_04 1:47:42

Uh well yeah, now um now I'm like uh meditating.

SPEAKER_02 1:47:46

Um, do you like set up a fire, cook yourself a meal, or do you just sit there waiting patiently, stoically?

SPEAKER_04 1:47:53

I'm gonna I'm just gonna like, yeah, like I'm I'm I'm meditating to try and alleviate the the process and alleviate the mental stress that I've gone through this whole day.

SPEAKER_02 1:48:02

So I'm gonna let you take a short rest, but you get one less move, because you're using one move to stay super alert. You don't get to really rest and recover too much in this. You get one short rest move instead of two.

SPEAKER_04 1:48:14

I'm gonna clear stress. And I managed to clear four stress. That's pretty good.

SPEAKER_02 1:48:24

Nice. Um I managed to get myself an extra four fear. Pretty great. Alright. And after a little while, the little girl does like poke you in the arm, comes up through the bushes, she managed to find you.

SPEAKER_05 1:48:37

Hmm.

SPEAKER_02 1:48:39

And for now, you've gotten immediately out of the distance of the town. You managed to, like, ride a cart for four hours. Got like twenty minutes away. And what would you like to do? Actually, I think that's what we're gonna call it here for today's session.

SPEAKER_05 1:48:57

Hmm.

SPEAKER_02 1:48:58

So we'll now discuss what happened through the campaign, what could have happened, and kind of metagame a bit.

SPEAKER_03 1:49:04

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:49:04

So we didn't make it to the start of Adventure 2 yet. This piece is of Into the Bloom, Adventure 1, you made it about halfway through. The final part is an escape through that tunnel system through those rooms while those scarves are chasing to assassinate you.

SPEAKER_03 1:49:18

Right, right.

SPEAKER_02 1:49:19

That simply didn't happen, you went in backwards.

SPEAKER_03 1:49:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:49:23

So I had to like run every room in reverse.

SPEAKER_05 1:49:27

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 1:49:28

Which was amusing because it's like there's just an invisible wall, because you're supposed to solve the puzzle in the last room to see through it, but whatever.

SPEAKER_03 1:49:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:49:36

And there was like a full chase mechanic that didn't really get used where you hit an old pipe, you have to blitz left or right, a route crashes, you have to jump or dodge. And it's like a high speed escape scene that happens. I was preparing to reuse that high speed escape for your second escape from the city, but instead you did the slowest speed escape I've ever seen in my life. And I'm like, alright. Your good plan is to decide disguise yourself as a dead body and get thrown on the corpse pile and then dragged to the fire pit and then roll away and escape.

SPEAKER_04 1:50:09

Yeah. Seems like a solid plan.

SPEAKER_02 1:50:12

Which I am completely fine with. So most of the NPCs you did encounter in the city, although you encountered most of them out of the city.

SPEAKER_05 1:50:19

Hmm.

SPEAKER_02 1:50:19

You didn't buy or sell anything, which is fair.

SPEAKER_05 1:50:22

Hmm.

SPEAKER_02 1:50:23

As it's designed, there are stat blocks for the assassins who are chasing you, but it's really like designed so when the assassins are chasing you, you can pull that rot immovable rod out of the wall, collapse it on them, and escape into the night.

SPEAKER_05 1:50:35

Hmm.

SPEAKER_02 1:50:36

So that's how this was designed to play out. So you absolutely did act five, then four, then three, then back to five again.

SPEAKER_04 1:50:44

Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:50:46

But it was interesting because I could have just had you sneak in the city to a different route, and then use that route as intended later. Right. But I kind of wanted to run it backwards and see how it worked. So you didn't do any fights. However, this was the second half of a session, and I wrote it in such a way that the one big fight is fighting all of those plant monsters at the start.

SPEAKER_05 1:51:12

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 1:51:12

And then the thugs are like an optional encounter that you don't actually have to fight.

SPEAKER_05 1:51:17

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 1:51:18

So when I ran it for my other group, and they ran it in sequence, they go to town, they conspire, one of the party members pro Have, and one of the party members pro Fanewild. They meet Krell there instead of meeting him in the first town, because they know meet him in the first town.

SPEAKER_03 1:51:33

Right.

SPEAKER_02 1:51:34

He gives them the quest line, tells him to smuggle the girl out, they go through the sewers, and escape into the wilderness. How'd you feel about the session? Which it seems like for the sake of our podcast, since these are written to be two to four hours, we'll probably much it'll probably take one podcast per half adventure.

SPEAKER_04 1:51:54

Okay, so I did get to the end of the adventure then.

SPEAKER_02 1:51:57

Yes. The objective is to have you having. Here's like the final line of text. Golden beams cut through the canopy, lighting the mocks with a warm glow. Your handbrushes something flushed within your coat or in a pouch you don't remember passing there. A beast apartment folded cleanly, dry even now. For those who believe in course correction, the girl you protect was nearly taken by those who serve neither Haven nor Truth. One that doesn't end in Blaze or Rod. There was a rebel loose in the woods calling herself the Fainwraith. She plans to pluck the sewing eye from Nicko the Great Owl. If she succeeds, we may replace one catastrophe with another. Start your search in Alora, the treetop village. I will not be there. She has roots there. You've outran your first storm, let's see how you weather the next. K. D. You already had that information, though.

SPEAKER_04 1:52:47

Ah, okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:52:49

Because you had that information at the very start. Right, right. The new piece of information was the girl you protect was nearly taken by those who neither serve Haven nor Truth. That should concern you. That information I gave you using the voice of the NPC in the guard house. And the last piece of text was the rod of the Witherwell lies behind you, and for the first time today it's quiet. Take a moment to describe what your character looks like after the escape. Are you bloody, limped, burned, exhilarated, quiet?

SPEAKER_04 1:53:23

Uh well, I mean, my character is definitely uh covered in filth and and looks like a dead body, so you know there's there's What do you notice in the forest around you that tells you this place is different from the places you've been before, now that you've escaped a spare distance from the town? Hmm. Um, I mean there's a a lack of um eyeballs in this particular section of the forest, I think.

SPEAKER_02 1:53:55

Alright. And as the winds shift and the words sink in, somewhere beyond the trees rise a Laura, perched in the canopy like a watchful thought. You escaped the dark, but the path ahead may still be darker.

SPEAKER_05 1:54:07

Hmm.

SPEAKER_02 1:54:09

So, ignoring how you sequence broke and would have crashed a Final Fantasy game, you did do everything in this mission that needed to be done for the story to make sense going forward.

SPEAKER_03 1:54:19

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:54:31

Um I probably would have been more willing to just fight the thugs if I well, I mean, I guess Lyra might be a valuable party member. She does seem to have some sort of uh capabilities. Um, but um I would be much more willing to get into a fight if I weren't doing like a a solo campaign. Um so I mean I the the options were there, and the way combat works, it is it is fairly well balanced for the number of players, I I think. Oh, so But I did also kind of avoid the fights.

SPEAKER_02 1:55:12

So those four thugs in the cave, say you decide to fight them, or the roles went badly and you didn't talk your way out of it.

SPEAKER_05 1:55:18

Hmm.

SPEAKER_02 1:55:19

Each one has like four HP.

SPEAKER_05 1:55:22

Hmm.

SPEAKER_02 1:55:24

And yeah, like two of them literally have three So among all of them, they're gonna have a net total of 12 HP.

SPEAKER_05 1:55:31

Hmm.

SPEAKER_02 1:55:31

And you have a little girl that can step in and help. You would have been able to win that fight in theory. That was about as strong as those first frogs that stole your card in our playtest session.

SPEAKER_04 1:55:44

Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:55:45

So you absolutely could have won. But I guess my question is more meta question of did you mind that you didn't fight them? Did you enjoy not fighting them, and instead rolling down the stairs dressed as their boss, telling them that they screwed up and then running away.

SPEAKER_04 1:55:59

Uh well, I mean, I I definitely think uh that the role-playing aspect, like I don't I don't mind combat scenarios, uh but in this case the role-playing aspects seemed more interesting than combat.

SPEAKER_02 1:56:14

Excellent.

SPEAKER_04 1:56:15

So I d I definitely don't mind uh that it was role-played instead of combat.

SPEAKER_02 1:56:20

Alright, so I'm gonna explain the chase rules, which I did end up using for your second escape. So, how it's written in the adventure is the players are fleeing through the crumbling aqueduct tunnels. That didn't apply. A magical spirit is guiding them. That didn't apply. The players get a progress bar started at four. The pursuers get a progress guard started at six. And the goal is you have to get to zero before they catch you. On successful hope, your countdown ticks down by one. On failure or success with failure, their countdown ticks. And your goal is to get to zero before they caught up with you. If they caught up with you, there'd be a fight. It's funny because your chase was roll into a ditch, pretend to be a corpse, grab onto a cart, jump off the cart. I was still tracking the chase mechanics. They were still chasing you. It just was not a high-speed pursuit. So narrative-wise, I could have like tried to hype up the they're chasing you the catching up, but you weren't trying to outrun them, you were trying to escape them.

SPEAKER_03 1:57:20

Right.

SPEAKER_02 1:57:21

So had they caught up with you, they would have shot you, you would have taken some damage, and then you would have either had to start running again or fight them.

SPEAKER_03 1:57:29

Right.

SPEAKER_02 1:57:30

Or cleverly escape. I really wanted to see how far this was gonna go. I honestly thought you were gonna let yourself be in the corpse pit, burn while they walked away, and then roll out. I really want to know how far you're gonna take being thrown out as a dead body. Because the part of your plan that my your plan that confused me was like. And I'm like, should I clarify this? Nah, this is funnier, is do people just leave a dead body they like if you're guards going around a bunch of guards dying a file, do you just leave the dead body there? No, right? Like, the plant monsters were using them and piloting them as like you'd have to like collect your dead, right? Like, not just leave them there indefinitely. So, like, I love the idea of, oh, I just pretend to be a dead body as a way to get out of here. But I'm like, my brain was like, do you just sit there indefinitely? Is that what happens until like the moss grows over and enough time has passed and you leave?

SPEAKER_04 1:58:25

Uh well, I mean, that was my initial plan, but then when the guards picked me up to bring me to the to the body pile, I was like, ah. Well that means that like not only am I uh I'm I'm moving as a dead body. So it's like that's like a a double double hiding thing, like.

SPEAKER_02 1:58:43

Well, part of why I did it that way is it seemed like a better way for me to use those chase mechanics than you just lie there motionlessly, and I keep having you roll to lie there motionlessly as time passes. Cause nowhere in here is it written, the guards find you, load your body up on a trolley, and drag you to a corpse pit.

SPEAKER_06 1:59:00

Right, right, right.

SPEAKER_02 1:59:01

But I felt like something needed to happen there other than me just being like, oh, they're looking for you. Oh, they're still looking for you. Like, there was a version where you see the guards just like walk up and like poke you with a stick to see if you're dead.

SPEAKER_04 1:59:17

Um, I definitely I definitely enjoyed that session. I uh I felt like um aside from tying up the little girl and putting her in her burlap sack so that I didn't notice leaving town.

SPEAKER_02 1:59:35

You just pitched it to her so badly. Like, my uh this is like me as a GM almost metagaming. I'm like, if someone's like, okay, the plan is to smuggle you out in a sack, that's one thing. You're like, I don't want to be in the sack, and the response is, oh, I'll tie you up by your hands and feet. No. Right? Like No, you're not a that's bad. Your level of like straight-up contempt for this NPC is amazing to me. You're like, no, no, you're the villain of this campaign, I know it, and I don't trust you, I'm gonna kill you. I thought at one point there were I really thought you were going to ditch her so you could escape. Like, you were gonna like be like, girl's yours and just leave.

SPEAKER_06 2:00:19

Hmm.

SPEAKER_02 2:00:20

Or like find a way to use her for leverage. Like, I thought this was gonna get dark. She's so emotionally broken that she's seeing reality unfold in front of her, and you're like, bitch is lying. Die, nine-year-old. I'm good to kill you.

SPEAKER_04 2:00:42

I don't know, that reflection, she's clearly not just a nine-year-old.

SPEAKER_02 2:00:46

Yeah, it's funny though, because like I playtested this one, and then I ran it for another group, and their thoughts are like, oh, this is a key plot point, and we must protect this kid because they're vital to the plot. And you're like, this kid is strawed and I'm gonna kill them.

SPEAKER_04 2:01:05

Okay, so my my question for the other playtest group.

SPEAKER_02 2:01:10

So the little girl on the sandbar, um like did they bring her into the town as well, or yeah, so for the first group, it was how I introduced one of the players as a party member, so they just joined the party and played the little girl.

SPEAKER_04 2:01:28

Ah, okay.

SPEAKER_02 2:01:28

So they just came in with the town, walked right up, and then the guard's like, what are you doing? Just brazingly walking the child through here. You need to get her out of here. Here's the tunnel escape.

SPEAKER_05 2:01:37

Hmm.

SPEAKER_02 2:01:38

And they're like, oh, little girl, what happened? It's like my parents died. They're like, so sad. Oh no, she hit she's traumatized and sees her zombie dog is real. This is a problem, we must protect this child.

unknown 2:01:50

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 2:01:51

And then the other playtest session was a little more like yours where they're like good cop bad coping with the little girl. And just kind of like hid her in the bushes when they fought the fight, and then went out and got her, brought her into town, realized town wasn't safe, and then escaped through the sewers.

SPEAKER_03 2:02:07

Right.

SPEAKER_02 2:02:08

So, both of them are like, we must protect this NPC, and she's like, No.

SPEAKER_04 2:02:15

I shouldn't say that, but the NPC can largely protect herself. She's she seems moderately competent.

SPEAKER_02 2:02:25

Or it's funny, because the other groups are like, no, we must protect a small child with her lives. I gave them all like the same box text too, which is what makes this so fun to do. Like the one that was straight up a player is like, no, no, they just have a neck, they have like the Bone Reaver class I wrote that they're playing as, where they're like, oh no, you just get to like fight things with your skeleton dog.

SPEAKER_04 2:02:52

That's funny.

SPEAKER_02 2:02:55

I really almost thought for a second it was gonna come to blows where you physically restrain the child.

SPEAKER_04 2:03:06

I mean, uh obviously uh my character isn't perfectly adjusted. Uh but I I I uh like to think he's not like a psychotic adventurer, like a like a typical.

SPEAKER_02 2:03:18

Well, that was the thing, like it was that was such a dice moment, because the dice dictated how that played out, not you. Because you're like, yeah, no, I got this plan of I'll just carry her out in the sack. But then the part where I'm like, no, I'm just gonna tie her up. And so I'm like, oh wow, I've made her so suspicious, you're like, no, no, I'm going to no, this isn't optional anymore. This is now my job. And I think if I didn't have an NPC straight up say to you, you should interrogate this child, you probably wouldn't have threw her in the sack.

SPEAKER_04 2:03:48

No, probably not. And that was definitely the like Because she she definitely knows something.

SPEAKER_02 2:03:58

I mean, you firmly believe from an earlier role. You firmly believe that she is being honest to you from what she herself knows right now. So it's like there's more in there, but she's not aware of it. Is kind of the vibes I was going for.

SPEAKER_04 2:04:16

Because she gave up something to that to that fountain.

SPEAKER_02 2:04:20

Uh honestly, it's like part of me always, because of the way we do this podcast, I'm always tempted to metagame some things and not other things. I'm like, yeah. But the fountain's really not that hard. You could just tell it a fun story and it lets you pass.

SPEAKER_04 2:04:35

No, I lost the color of my mother's eyes when it could have been just a fun story.

SPEAKER_02 2:04:41

You had to give something of value to you. So a clever joke would have been great. But like, you had no emotional attachment to that food you gave it, so it decided it would take something because you did not give it anything.

SPEAKER_05 2:04:57

Hmm.

SPEAKER_02 2:04:58

Like, I had a party member literally say, so like, when the full group went through, some did obvious things like this is my sword I got from my village, this is my magic wand, it's all I have. And then one player's like, I owe nothing, so good day, sir.

SPEAKER_05 2:05:14

Hmm.

SPEAKER_02 2:05:14

Because a good day is the most valuable thing I have to give right now. And like, is that true? It's like, yeah, I owe literally nothing. Like, oh alright, then I guess yeah.

SPEAKER_04 2:05:24

Good day, sir.

SPEAKER_02 2:05:28

I'm still waiting for it to pay off that you know the guards that the names of the guards that were doing maintenance routes in the sewers. Cause you technically have the names of those thugs who are pretending to be guards in the sewers.

SPEAKER_05 2:05:43

Hmm.

SPEAKER_02 2:05:44

So it's like, you got something you could do with that. I don't know what, but I do I appreciate random checkoffs guns. Cause there was no clipboard in the original version, but you were looking for something, so I put it there.

SPEAKER_04 2:05:56

Right, right.

SPEAKER_02 2:05:57

Cause yet again, you went through the dungeon backwards.

SPEAKER_05 2:06:02

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 2:06:02

Because I wanted to know if that would work. But yeah, I think we'll wrap up here. Any closing thoughts or remarks? Other than you pulled the Will Smith of you see a girl uh look at all the aliens in the mural, and the little girl has a physics textbook, and that's suspicious, so you shoot her.

SPEAKER_04 2:06:22

Well, I'm not going to shoot her, but yeah, that's I I uh definitely need to figure out what's going on. Also, her dog is suspicious too. Fluffy.

SPEAKER_01 2:06:38

Don't be mean to Fluffy. Fluffy's done nothing wrong.

SPEAKER_02 2:06:43

Yet. Alright, so for those listening to this podcast, thank you for tuning in. We'll have up the next episode when we feel like it. You can download this adventure off of itch.io and play it backwards with your own Carl. Thank you for tuning in and bye.