Episode 6: The Truth is a Terrible Liar

This week in Witherwild, we discovered that pineapple on pizza isn’t just a culinary crime—it’s a felony with body count potential. Also, Richard has officially lost the power to be of use in customer service, so if you need a refund, good luck explaining your return policy to the abyss.

Karl carried the banner this session, trudging solo to Wyrmhearth Crossing. After a spa day the floating ribbit town was less “safe haven” and more “freedom fighter’ guild recruiting booth,” with assassins showing up to prove that alleyways are where fun goes to die. They tried to hit him with a sack of doornobs as Leroy tried to make sparks fly—literally, romantically—by shipping the prisoners together during the interrogation, but the dice gods said nope. Instead, the captives were magically compelled into telling the “truth,” which turned out to be a rich stew of rumors, half-lies, and the kind of misinformation you’d expect from people whose dental plan is “don’t get caught.”

Still, between scones, bitter coffee, and lantern-lit intimidation, we learned a few things: someone’s paying bounties, someone’s stirring the pot under Wyrmhearth, and the Fanewraith’s shadow is getting longer. None of it is reliable, of course, but unreliability is the most trustworthy thing about an informant. Karl closed the session before the group could hit the locked archives heist, meaning the cliffhanger is basically: “Do you believe the liars or the liars who accuse the liars of lying?”

To round things out, we dug into the Scarlet Veil Syndicate—our resident mage mafia who run protection rackets, flower dens, and magical arbitration courts that smell faintly of burnt sugar and bad decisions. They thrive in the cracks between empires, rebels, and locals—basically, if there’s power vacuum, they’ll fill it with spores and contracts.

Meanwhile, my other party has officially split the difference: half are going for a prison break, half are leaning into interrogation. We’ll see who regrets their life choices faster.

P.S. Karl still didn’t get the romance subplot, but he did manage to get a truth out of someone magically bullied into honesty. Progress? Maybe.

Transcript

Speaker 01 0:01

We don't have a good intro. Welcome to Richard and Karl play Daggerheart. I'm Richard, still coming up with our opening banter. I am Karl, who's like, I thought that not having opening banter was our opening banter. Like, I don't know, I feel like we're slightly smoother on our other less popular podcast. Yeah. So before we get into daggering some hearts, what's new in the Karlverse? Well, I mean, I heard that people like pizza store anecdotes. This is true. Oh, we did get a comment on an earlier episode that they're happy we cannot sell your organs. Too bad. They're happy it is illegal to ship organs. But please, continue about pizza antidotes. Antidotes? Antidotes? I like that. I'll give you a little pizza antidote. I believe a pizza antidote is called a salad. Oh, the worst. That was my dinner. Yeah, yeah, salad is the worst. Or rather, lettuce is the worst. I really don't like lettuce. I'm not going to go into too much detail about why I don't particularly like lettuce, but suffice it to say, you know, I have some sympathy, perhaps even empathy, for people with food allergies because of my hatred of lettuce. You know, like, you go to a restaurant and and you order a burger without lettuce, then it comes with lettuce, and it's like... Like, you don't want to complain, but you also want to get the food that you ordered, and it also, you know, it ruins your meal. I mean, obviously it's less extreme than people who actually have allergies, but it's like... The worst, actually, though, is when, like, you order a burger with lettuce and a burger without lettuce, one for your friend, one for yourself. Oh, I always make sure that if I order... So, tomatoes kill my brother. So if I order two burgers, I order them both... no tomato to increase the odds that they screw it up. Right, right. I mean, that makes sense. But I have had situations where I have one with lettuce, one without lettuce, and the one without lettuce is obviously mine. A friend grabs a burger, takes a bite. They're half done their burger. I open it up. It turns out they're eating my burger. And so it's like, you know, I feel really bad for people who have allergies because it's a similar situation where it's like you have to order special food for yourself. And people who don't have allergies can still enjoy your food. I I mean, to be fair, though, you could do what my brother did with coconut and just say you're allergic to lettuce. Just commit so hard to it. That'd be like, guys, you know I have a lettuce allergy. And that's just who you are now. Because, like, you hit a point where people are like, eh, whatever, just man up and eat your lettuce. Sexist, rude, and a thing people have absolutely told you before. Now, if you tell them the lettuce could constrict my windpipe and might be directly responsible for me getting organ surgery, then suddenly... Suddenly your lettuce intolerance stops being something they're so flippant about. Well, okay, but so, the point of the story is not so much that I dislike lettuce. The point of that, the point there is that, you know, like, I feel like, obviously, like I say, I don't want to belittle people's allergies because if it's life-threatening, that is far more serious than my disdain for lettuce. But I do feel like I have some understanding and sympathy, or even, as I say, empathy, for people who allergies because of the difficulties you know I will say though to put a bit more onto your lettuce dislike which I don't even mind if we don't even get to the TTRPG because this is important banter so for the listeners at home there is an experiment I conducted to see whether or not Karl just needed to tough it up and not have lettuce so once a week a Subway sandwich was purchased for I don't know two three months so on the last one a single strand of lettuce could be hidden between two slices of meat to see if it was psychological or physiological. Now, the reason I point this out is a single piece of lettuce was enough to ruin a footlong sandwich for you, correct? I definitely knew there was lettuce on there, for sure. Now, my brother with actual allergies, I have absolutely seen that human being eat a piece of chocolate and be like, huh, that probably had almonds in it. I should probably take a Benadryl. So it's like, your aversion to lettuce is stronger than some people's self-preservation for allergies? Well, okay, so the way I was going with this is, you know, particularly if it's a life-threatening allergy, you are taking your life into your own hands, taking a big risk by getting a stranger to make your food. Yes. If you're okay with that risk, and you tell the cook about your allergy, they do have a responsibility to try and minimize the risk as much as possible. But, you know, you're taking a risk no matter what. Like, even with me eating lettuce, it's like, if someone puts lettuce on my sandwich and they're like, oh no, he said no lettuce, and they try to pick it off, you just can't. I can still taste it. It's still there. This has been tested. I have tested this personally to ensure the validity of this claim. So, you know, like I say, it sucks, but if you have an allergy, particularly a life-threatening one, you are taking a risk. But again, I feel that if you tell the restaurant about your allergy, they do have a responsibility to try and minimize the risk. Yes. I mean, I don't actually know, like, despite working in kitchens for years, what the legal requirement of, like, how legally a restaurant needs to care about your allergy is. But it's pretty relevant. Like, if a health inspection happens and your allergenic equipment is not separated, labeled, clear, you do just fail your inspection. But, so, I also think, you know, people like to order online because they just don't like face-to-face interactions. It is destroying our world. Or talking on the phone. Right, and so, I kind of feel that, like, if you're ordering online, you shouldn't really expect the restaurant to actually confirm your order. They're just going to make what you order correct like unless there's something obviously wrong with your order or something that there's some requests that they just can't fulfill the restaurant is we'll just make what you order and if you accidentally made a mistake on your order it's not the responsibility of the restaurant because you ordered online you should have you should have checked your order yourself we have simply sorry go ahead we've socially contracted to society when do Well, I mean... It's kind of a social contract. It's also, it's just like, it doesn't really make any sense. If you're going to place your order online and then we're going to call to confirm it, why didn't you just call? Yeah, it's true. It's a waste of everybody's resources.

Speaker 00 7:56

Oh,

Speaker 01 7:56

yeah. In any event, I tend to agree with the social norm of if you're placing your order online, you don't expect us to confirm it unless there is something obviously wrong about it. Or if it breaks over $300. If I see an order go over $100, I'm like, hmm, that's kind of shady. If I see an order at $200 or $300, I'm like, I'm not sending my driver out there. What if they don't give you a... I'm not going to make 20 pizzas. Yeah, you can tell me in person if I need to lose out on five people's wages for the next two hours making this meal. So, working at my job, making pizzas, someone orders online. They order four extra large pizzas yes the first two are irrelevant the second two are all dressed which salami pepperoni ham mushrooms onions green peppers pineapples you know i immediately pictured all trip all dressed chip spice just being sprinkled on top of this pizza and i'm not sure that's wrong i don't know what a whole dress chip spice is supposed to be but it would taste good on a pizza it probably would but um but so that's all the tommy's on the all dressed uh One, just normal. The second one, no pineapple. And it even has a little note that says, severe pineapple allergy. It's also worth noting that pineapple eats you. So, I'm looking at this and I'm like, hmm. It's pretty bold to order two pizzas, one with pineapple and one without, when there's someone with a pineapple allergy. But, if that's a risk that they're willing to take, it's our duty to minimize the risk, so make sure everybody washes their hands before handling the allergy pizza we cut it on a clean with a clean knife and board uh make sure there's no cross contamination we send it out yeah like you do uh they call they call back and they're like um yeah i'm calling back to complain because there's pineapple on my pizza and i'm like no we we specifically made sure to cut that pizza on a different cutting board and everything we did everything we could to make sure there was no pineapple or cross-contamination on your pizza. And they're like, yeah, I'm talking about the other one. I didn't put no pineapple on there because I forgot, but you guys, like, it's an allergy. You guys should just know. Anytime an argument in any context, literally any, I mean any of you guys should just know, you've lost the argument. Doesn't matter the context. So, I mean, eventually, like, she wanted a credit, a refund, and eventually we're just like, yeah, no, I mean, this is your mistake. We're going to be generous and give you a $5 credit, but, like, you ordered online. You have the life-threatening allergy. We did everything we could for the one pizza that was specifically labeled to be allergy sensitive. Like, you're lucky were doing anything at all for you. Five years ago, six years ago, X number of years ago when I was in the culinary world, I was a different human being. I had been broken down by subservience, right? Like I was used to just bowing my head and accepting the orders. Now that I'm a professional communicator where being an idiot and publicly stating things is literally my job now, I'm a different person. So it's like five years ago had this person yelled at me over the phone. I too would have been like i will do a comp i will do this i will do that but current me would have been like what should we have like why didn't you write in the additional comments both pizzas or here's a thought if you're ordering two pizzas for yourself and follow me here on this one share the second one you fat son of a bleep bleep bleep bleep bleep Because it's like, you have an entire pizza you can eat. That implies that you're upset you can't eat the second entire pizza. I don't know. Maybe don't eat two pizzas in one sitting. So I don't think I can maintain a kitchen job anymore because I might say what I'm thinking. Like I say, at the top of the story here, it's like, I have sympathy because the people who can enjoy pineapple can still enjoy the pizza without pineapple. So it's like, maybe some of her friends are just dicks and they're just going to eat her whole pizza and then leave her with the pineapple pizza or something, but I don't know. It's like, to go to your earlier burger example, so if we ordered four burgers, right, and then we went two without lettuce and two with lettuce, and I ate one of your ones without lettuce by mistake, you know what I would do? I wouldn't complain to Burger King. I would go get you another burger, right? Like, that seems like the thing to do. Or I would give you my burger or, like, figure out something, because... get again it just seems like I know from insider knowledge about redacted pizza that two for one is the deal so I can kind of see like you would never only buy one pizza typically right but make friends and then share your pizza then you have friends like they ordered four extra large pizzas which is in theory enough for about like 16 people like there should still be plenty of pizza to go around for everybody who has specific needs but regardless I think we probably lost a customer because they were upset that we didn't want to actually give them a full you don't think so? If there's one thing I know from data analytics and restaurant managing pizza people don't order based on any factors other than geographical location and price and If I were to order from my pizza hut and they poisoned my brother and I'm like, you guys straight up use peanuts on this pizza, why would you use peanut-based pepperoni that looks and tastes identical? That's insane. And they'd be like, sorry, and I'd be like, I'll never order from you again. And they'd be like, okay. And then a month would pass, I'd go online, it'd auto-select that pizza place, and I'd end up with the same poisonous pizza. Like, the idea that people would boycott a business, I like, people couldn't even commit to not using Amazon during a 50% tariff hike. People couldn't commit to buying Canadian brand maple cookies on the shelf to fight for national sovereignty. Literally, in evading armies to the south, they're like, well, I can either spend 13 cents more or directly give funds to a hostile military power threatening to annex us. There is no way. You'd have to actually have hospitalized them. And then it wouldn't even be them. It would be like their partner who doesn't want them nearly dying playing watchguard over the pizza. So I think you're fine. I'm calling their bluff right now. What are they going to do? Order from the other pizza place? Come on. Makes sense here. I mean, it's about risk assessment and management. I don't really want a customer who has such flagrant disrespect regard for their own safety that they would order online and not confirm their order when they have a deadly allergy then they're going to try and blame it on us so it's like if they don't order from us anymore it's like yeah not a big loss good for their safety order from a place that doesn't stock pineapple yeah I mean and like like I say she was taking a risk having strangers make her pizzas in the first place so it's like then she decided to make it even riskier by not talking talking to an actual person to make sure that we got the order right. thing about allergies is allergies are serious like I want to be very clear it can cause anaphylactic shock you can have to use an empty pen a pineapple allergy can be fatal but my friends I know with fatal allergies just seem to live their lives of a certain more like I had a good friend of mine asked to see like the ingredients binder that they keep in the back of restaurants to like make sure there was no risk of anything in their allergy list from killing them but also my other associate with allergies will just be like, eh, I'll probably not die. It's fine. Like, I think I'd be like, the thing that makes it weird is the idea that you ate three pizzas and it's the fourth one that's the problem is what I'm stuck on as a person. like to like loop back to like if for writers and why my customer service skills have atrophy to nothing I'm an author and I have a good to flex that a bit because I make almost as much as a minimum wage food service industry with my writing it's a huge accomplishment it's pretty impressive really is that if someone gives my writing a bad review that's everybody so for a restaurant you can have one person be like you screwed up my order I actually wanted jalapeno peppers not banana peppers and it's mildly annoying you serve them if I were to try and tool my writing to every witty comment I've gotten from somebody about what's wrong with my writing I never will have written a book so I absolutely cannot care if the customer likes my work I simply can't because I've heard everything from the story would be better if the point of view changed to there's a typo in the dedication so I stopped reading it there so I'm like wait you didn't get to the book because the dedication bugged you and your thought wasn't skip it it was well the book is ruined so don't get me wrong I've become much more warm to the kindness of strangers I enjoy human beings more than I did five years ago as a general rule not to sound bitter I've just separated real human beings from other human beings in the pile of customers angry reviewers people who don't don't affect my day-to-day life. They're not really people to me as much as they should be these days. I have enough named people I have to care about and pay attention to. So if someone was like, I'm going to sue you for pineapple on your book, I'd be like, why are you reading my book? Why are you doing this to yourself? And I get that a lot being like, I'll do a workshop, give it to the workshop group, and someone would be like, I didn't really get it. I'm like, well, that makes sense. It's about quantum jumping robots. What do you prefer reading? literary nonfiction? Oh, that's probably why. And they're like, it's too complicated. Can it be less complicated? I'm like, no. I think I'll just take my business elsewhere. But on a more nerdy note, my workplace schedule has been screwed up for a while because one of our foreign workers returned home for three months. Makes sense. But now that they're coming back, I was actually able to restart my monthly D&D with the goal of sending my players to space. Nice. They currently just got to the Infinite Staircase, which is where the Iron Shadow comes from, which is a strange shadow that sucks the creativity out of living beings until they turn into shadows. I think you forced me to give a mini rant about 5E. Let's step back for just one minute, though. I have a friend in the group, and he's been playing D&D for a long time. I think his preferred edition is 3.5. Sure. But when I mentioned the Iron Shadow, he's like, oh, I know the Iron Shadow. And he was thinking about it. He's like, oh, yeah, it was in some of the D&D books. And they just used the Infinite Staircase as a quick travel, but it was somewhat different. dangerous because the iron shadow could potentially you know kill you um but apparently if you try and look up the iron shadow uh i haven't done this myself but if you try and look up what the iron shadow is there is almost no lore about it online so my many dnd rant and just give me two minutes to give this pipeline okay it is not an angry rant it is not even a judgmental rant it's a fundamental misunderstanding between how your audience uses a product and the store you're trying to tell. So, in D&D Adventures, over, like, a five-year chunk of time, they slowly gave more and more pieces of plane chase material, right? So they could, like, be elaborate when they announced that it was coming to it, or planescape. So it's like, you get to the end of Dragon Heist, and you see the helm of a ship. You get to the Frost Rime, and you see its cannons. You get to here, and it's like, if you were to, like, play every 5e adventure from start to finish, you would end up with a ship to go do plane chase adventures huh no one has ever finished a campaign book on earth so it's like i love the idea that like okay you have these like little easter eggs here and there to create this awesome plane hopping hunt down nico bolus by going through all the locations epic adventure that physically is impossible to do like i said it's not a good pattern or pattern it's just funny for the like for example they give about this Unearthed Arcana recently, which, like, these are playtest classes. People are like, these are Dark Sun classes. Dark Sun is coming! Yes! And I'm like, you're going to find eight people in four years to start playing Dark Sun? Okay. It's like, the hype is so weird, because D&D products just cannot match up the play speed to do, like, hype cycles the way other things will. It's like, oh, foreshadowing. They foreshadowed Aberron. Now Aberron's out. I'm like, but you guys didn't do anything there. You're like, here's our Eberron book. Yay. And I'm like, but like, they're simply... How fast do you think it takes someone to get accustomed to a universe to build a game for your universe and then do stuff in your universe? How many D&D settings do we actually need? The answer is one, maybe. Oh, I mean, that was really funny when we tried to do the Critical Role campaign. And... the actual setting didn't matter most of the players were interested in their own backstories well it's funny because it's like i went through the book i was prepared to run it which it was because i was used to campaign books at the time it being more like here's like a hex crawl type map made sense in theory but this comes down to the dmd tempoing where i'm like one character i want to go it's like you gave me this page as a backstory in the fey wild i'll send you there which means there will be no critical role references to be found here except for like like the one Fae character that shows up in season one Critical Role, maybe. I swear. Like, they get to it later in the show. Like, each campaign does a little bit in the Fae Wild. But it's... The fanfic campaign is weird. Because it's like, I don't know how I would do it, to be honest. Like, I tried, because that's what people were into. But me trying to voice Critical Role characters is not going to go well. And I'm always worried about Boruto Syndrome, or It's like every character is talking about how awesome the Critical Role characters were. Which doesn't really matter when you're the players. But if you don't do any name dropping at all, then the setting is just a setting. Right. Because the world of Exandria and the Forgotten Realms and a lot of Critical Role fans probably listen to our podcast and I might lose a lot of people here. They only really matter when you're in them. Like, if you go and play Exandria specifically to not do Critical Role cameos, it's not not that different from the Forgotten Realms. It really isn't. I mean, it uses the same core rules as any other D&D game, and there aren't any special additions to the rules for that setting, as far as I know. Well, what's interesting about that setting, to not derail too long, one of the things that's funny is that because they started out Pathfinder, then jumped to D&D, then jumped to their own setting, kind of, sort of, a lot of the gods in it use monikers that directly reference 5e gods with slightly different names like they'll be like the platinum dragon the platinum dragon it's like yeah that's bahamut the platinum dragon because the problem with 5e is a lot of the lore is built into building your characters so if you build a cleric or a paladin from the book you'll end up making them forgotten realms coded even if you don't mean to because that's where you learn like what races and gods you could ancestries and gods you could play as so it kind of bleeds into itself a bit. Mm-hmm. Anywho. But that's enough about pizza store anecdotes and my campaign where I'm attempting to send them to space through the infinite staircase. I mean, that is fascinating. Don't get me wrong. What's new with you there, Richard? So I got my course schedules and my TAing schedules and got a look at my future. Mm-hmm. And I have a lot of six in the morning in my future because i have to be like at the campus ready to be functional by nine and it's like an hour and a half to two hour commute plus i like to like shower and brush my teeth and be presentable right right so like monday through friday i have class and things but i'm such a slacker normally i'm weird i do think i'll probably end up being more productive in my side ventures because i tend to be when i have less time and i can procrastinate less right that makes sense i'm an anxiety driven riddled mess but yeah with all my course schedules in, plus my work stuff, plus my side creating of stuff, I am going to have a very, very busy few months, and I'm actually really excited. Like, I go for my orientation in two days. Alright. So you're going for orientation before the long weekend? I know, wild, right? Huh. Alright. Well, it's like a twinned orientation, right? Because I have to get student orientation stuff, and then I have to get TA orientation stuff going on, too. So I and do my professor assistantship type stuff. And all in all, I am a very happy creature. Yes, once you can be... Proficially called Professor Vlad. Right? No, I think I'm kind of like... Well, the thing is, my master's can go into a PhD program. It is entirely possible for me to get this Dr. Vlad thing going. In communications. Objectively pointless. You're making fun of my professor for being a doctor of musicology. Yes. The thing is, I do everything from the bit. Like, it's saying Richard, PhD on our downloadable Daggerheart Files is hilarious. That is just funny to be like, yeah, Dr. Richard wrote this bayonet class. Oh, just good stuff. All right. So that's all I really got new with me. So are we ready to get into this game? I think so. So to earn a hope, I'll give a bit of the recap on my end first, and then I'll ask you a few questions. Alright, alright. So, last time on Richard and Karl Play Daggerheart. So, to kind of give it a montage. Your character, the ribbit touched human. Just ribbit enough to make it awkward at parties and not go sunbathing. Went through some backstory stuff, nothing super interesting. An affair, some politics, waking up in a grave, being mistaken, identity. You know, just things that happen to people. not that exciting, but finds himself getting a contract to pay off some of his resurrection debt. He was told to go on an adventure to help bring down a local terrorist named the Fane Wraith, who may or may not be three raccoons in a trench coat. We don't know. Given this mission, you're also ordered to stop in on towns on the way that were having problems with their magical barriers that were preventing both the horrific sickness that strikes into the Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Ooh. Hmm. You see below you a thick marshland that would come up to about your waist. And in the distance down that river a bit, you see Worm's Hearth cresting. Much like Pacific Lodge Town in Pokemon, it is a floating city in the water. Sort of like a wooden Venice. And recently, through various channels you've heard, it's been going through a Vegas vacation of sorts. As it's in a made trade route, you can ship things by water. And because they control access in and out of Haven effectively, the Empire controlling the region, they make mint. They put up a university, they have delicious street food, delightful maple bug pie. But you do have a couple options. As someone who, our dear Leroy, has been very good at pretending to be other people, hiding his face, and quite frankly, befuddling future assassins. Befuddling super future assassins. You basically have three options at your disposal. The first is descending down this hills going into the water waving to the local ribbits who patrol taking a boat in and being treated like royalty or garbage you don't know we'll find out when you get there but could enter the city as a tourist you could flash your badge say you have some important paperwork and be there on official business if you choose as is a haven run outpost but you could try and go through the swamp without stopping through this town and wade your way through or you could say the heck into all of this and this town being built in like a marsh with stone valleys on either side you could just skip this count entirely climb the cliffs in front of you and make your way to the next stop the city of Elora where your hint to where this domestic freedom fighter may be is the next location so if you wanted to maintain this low profile you could take this delightful adventure I've written and you test the other delightful adventure I've written that two out of three groups did not attempt choice is yours my friend But... Two out of three groups did attempt to go to Wormhearth. Two out of three groups, which you should not have this, but it's like the little hidden button they put in the Persona games to see what other people picked. Two out of three went to the town. I mean, okay. I mean, I was planning on going to the town. I was just, you know, had to. Yeah. And we'll discuss at the end of the episode how that played out because this is a live play and a discussion show because we said so. I mean, I don't really have a whole lot to add to your recap. I mean, the little girl, I have named her Lyra. She seemed to recognize the town as her hometown, but the name of the grove is so forgotten that it seems to have wiped itself off of the map. You can see that it used to say something there, but even on the oldest maps that Leroy has. The name has faded into obscurity. So it's very suspicious. Especially seeing as it's so close to this Wormhearth place. I don't know. It was about a two day trek. So you spent a couple days to get there and a couple days to get back to Wormhearth. So it would be about going to Moose Jaw.

Speaker 00 33:32

Yeah, okay.

Speaker 01 33:33

Just to give a little more perspective.

Speaker 00 33:36

Moosejaw.

Speaker 01 33:38

Yes, viewers. Feel free to look up Saskatoon and Moosejaw to figure this out on your maps. Anyways, um, but yeah, I mean, all I really have to add to your recap is that, uh, that appeared to be Lyra's hometown and is so forgotten that even the maps have forgotten its name. I'll let you take a hope for, uh, for complying and complicitation. Um, but, before I go into the city, um, um, I need to assume the form of my trusty guard friend that gave me my cart in the first place because I don't want people to know that it's me. So, did you ever get that guard's name or any identification to know his identity? You know, I don't believe so. I just assumed his form. Perfect. And then I was hoping that no one else would recognize him because... I mean, we're going, you know, away from the city, and I assume most guards don't actually leave the city that often. That is definitely true in this setting. Very well. So, I need to mark a stress, and I am disguised. And for context, I currently have five fear.

Speaker 00 35:08

All right, all right.

Speaker 01 35:10

Eagle-eyed listeners may realize that that seems like a number I pulled out of nowhere because I didn't actually remember how much fear I had between games, and you would be correct. Well, I mean, I have five hopes, so... Although my hope is actually tracked between games, so I actually genuinely know how much hope I have. Well, you took a short rest, which involved me rolling a d4 plus one, and I feel like I nailed it. I recall saying nailed it. But... But yeah, so I mean, I assume the form of my guard acquaintance-ish person. And did we come up with a description for him? I'm trying to remember. Um... I believe he was a broad-shouldered cat person. Um... That is correct. Oh, you actually have notes about that? I do. I have his name and the fact that his life has been being slowly ruined, but he doesn't know it yet because things travel slow. His life is being ruined? Well, you did use that form to fake his death. Uh... Yeah, I suppose I kind of sort of did, didn't I? So, like, he showed up in a town, then ran out to help, then died. Very confusing. You know, think about it. Just to be above board, I don't think this information would ever make it back to him because that's a pretty close loop. Like, people can't really write his next of kin when he just one out died and got thrown in the corpse fire. And then somehow reappeared in Wormhearth. And like, what's funny is they went to like, they didn't think to frisk your body before they threw you in the corpse pile because they were dealing with an infectious disease outbreak. But, I mean, so for now, I'm just going to approach the gate. I assume I look kind of haggard and worn because I haven't actually, like, fully slept in several days. I'll allow it. And I also assume that dusk is very nearly over because last session was in twilight? Yes. So soon it will be day. Soon it will be day? Well, wait no you started during the day soon it'll be night you are correct my apologies yeah i mean i definitely said dusk which was you know the opposite of dawn you are correct good for you yay uh but I'm going to approach the city gates. And are there any guards on duty? So as you start like waiting out from the swamp where you see the stuff goes, you see two friendly ribbits waving at you and you see one in a gondola kind of heading out your way. Oh. Yeah, I mean, I'm going to I'm going to wave them over. Actually, can I do I need to mark a stress if I want to wave with my tongue? No, I'll let you have that as a freebie. All right. No, you're a cat person right now whose tongue waved at them. Oh, yeah, I forgot about that part. Yeah, I'm happy with that. Oh, well. That's great. They, like, look at each other a little confused, one shrugs a bit. So as the boat gondola's up to you, and it's, like, about, like, mid-section high, the

Speaker 00 38:47

ribbon.

Speaker 01 38:48

Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Careful lift to the city.

Speaker 00 38:52

Yes, I would

Speaker 01 38:53

love a lift. As you two climb in the boat... Please continue.

Speaker 00 39:00

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 01 39:01

Yeah, I'm just, I'm here on official business. I've been informed that there's been some problems with the barriers in this area. Just coming to double check and make sure that the town's okay. Oh! Don't you know, we don't actually need a barrier around here. We just use sticks and points to how the entire village is floating. But yes, Gondor Alight, free for you, good officer. Free for you. And they begin to Paddle your boat, and you arrive on the docks. As you step off... The spongy path into the creaking plant walkway. Wormhoth Crossing embraces you in its ramshackle charm. It's a patchwork of rope bridges, floating platforms, and squat towers that sway just enough to make you wonder if this whole place might drift away. Not really needing a magical barrier, its solution to prevent disease is the gondolas are the only way they let you into the town. If you just try and swim up, they just shove you back into the water. It's a clean and efficient system.

Unknown 40:09

What?

Speaker 01 40:09

Hmm. As he passes the low arc on the guard station, which is also the port in the situation, you do see that this local police station has an attached bakery. And the scent of fresh bread and pies, possibly containing maple and possibly containing dragonflies, wafts over to you. And you see one of the guards is coming up as they're like checking your badge and basically papers pleasing you. I'm going to need you to go ahead and make a... presence roll to see if you can maintain that you are a guard. Because technically you've never went through official guard training, and you've just kind of been winging it based on the fact that no one's really been asking you too many questions, and now they're asking you too many questions. Well, you see, the nice thing about my Uncanny Disguise is that it gives me advantage on presence checks to avoid scrutiny. Excellent. So I'm sure you'll do decent here and not at all biff it. I'm not actually prepared for what happens if you biff it. It'd be fascinating. No one's ever biffed it walking into the town before. And roll. A 20 with fear. Directly to jail. No. So, as you go in, explain what you're doing. Pepper in, like, 90% truth, because technically the only lie here is your face. What name do you give the guards? Um... Uh... Again... for their official logs to know who came into this town and who left. Epsu Hore. That's the word. I need the spelling for that one, my friend. It is... E-P-S-U O-R-R-E Okay. Okay. Mmm. Well, probably only a couple days. I do have some more business going down here. I have to check out other towns and barriers. I'm on my way to Allura. Of course, of course. I do recommend, as they point out, there's a bunkhouse down the main pier if you need a place to dry off. Food's decent. Markets trades late if you're off your supplies. Or, if you want to go a little fancier, we have a lovely hotel. Nice jazz lounge going up. Some of the local bards putting on a show. And really just and they just kind of like hand you like a version of their town badge and they have the crest of what looks like two ribbits shaking hands, each holding a knife behind their back. This is one of our local badges and they'll see you're one of us. Haven nights and they're not going to charge you for nothing while you stay here. You're covered. You won't try to any trouble here if you're not looking for it. Thank you kindly. Well, I mean, my character is quite tired. Leroy is definitely going to be heading towards... I think he wants a nice hotel. I've been on the road for, what, like seven, pretty much seven days. All right. So as you go down the pier to the nice end of town, which most of it's pretty nice, honestly. It's like they've definitely done some... The best way I can put it is it feels like what used to be a trading post, a pretty mid-tier one, has... done what the coast near niagara has done have set up their kiosks and stands and food courts and commercialized the living heck out of this place to trap tourists while they detox before they head back out to the other side of the trail smells good it's relatively festive not quite the full festival like you left but pretty pleasant so as you find the nice hotel and enter the lobby you see a peculiar sight you see a high-ranking haven mage sparkling pristine robe gold trim around it doesn't look at you at all but next to them seems to be like a four foot tall fluffy goblin that's just stuffing food into takeaway containers at the continental breakfast and you realize something this hotel is so classy the breakfast just goes they just keep restocking the food there is no check there is no pass they don't care cucumber water by the doorway it is beautiful in here and you see what it looks like kind of Constable? Do they have any badge or insignia indicating their rank? You get a vibe of hotelier as their rank. Ah, yeah, yeah. Okay, okay. Well, I mean, yeah. They know I'm a constable, I guess, so I'm just looking for a room where me and my friend here need to rest. Highly recommend you head to the bath hall two doors down first. We'll get your room ready for you and it will be a lovely time and do you have anywhere to uh repair armor around here oh yeah if you head down the dock you know what actually for some of your esteem we have a couple workers on hand and we can have this fully fixed for you by the time you come back from your bath Oh, yes, that would be lovely. And I mean, there's nothing special with all my armor, so I'm just going to hand it over. All right. So as you head up to the room, get changed, load the armor onto like the repair cart. They take it down. They show you where their little repair area is. You see people mending napkins and fixing brass work. You see what looks like a stout dwarven man just kind of screwing in some screws and gets to work on your armor. No issue at all. all right this is pretty luxe um well i mean i don't really necessarily need a long rest but uh i mean leroy is quite tired so i think uh i think after this bath he's just um So, Lyra, what does Fluffy like to eat? Fluffy likes things dogs like, like mostly meat scraps and bones and brads and he really likes fish. I know that's weird, but he likes fish. Hmm. Is there like a bell to ring for room service or something? Absolutely there is. Well, I mean, yeah, we're going to bring up some room service. So for the sake of brevity. Oh, actually, go ahead. No, no, I just want to order a whole fish for Fluffy so that Fluffy can... I want to feed into her delusions that Fluffy's still alive, but I also think it's funny that Fluffy, the bone dog, will have bones. Well, it's amusing as Fluffy eats the fish, and you see as it's chomping on the bones, cracks in its own bones begin to fix, like it's leeching the calcium from it.

Unknown 48:36

Ha ha!

Speaker 01 48:37

And feel free to take the benefits of a long rest. Actually, a complete long rest. Not only does your HP and stress recover, your armor has been fixed. You get a couple hope. This is a very, very comfortable, relaxing stay.

Speaker 00 48:55

and

Speaker 01 48:59

confirm. And with that, the day is yours after what was a truly terrible journey. What would you like to do? Okay, so... I guess now I need to open and inspect my treasure chest. You did acquire an entire treasure chest. I'm going to have you roll a fresh 2d12 for me. 2d12. Due to the quantum uncertainty principle, there could be something different in this chest than was there last week. I rolled a 12! So you open the chest. It seems empty. So you're messing around with the chest a bit. Go ahead and make a knowledge roll for me.

Speaker 00 49:53

All right.

Speaker 01 49:58

A nine with fear. I'm going to spend that fear. Something somewhere happened. So. After fiddling around with the chest for a while, and Lyra comes up, pokes on it, and is like, you gotta say the magic word. Hmm. Do you happen to know what the magic word is? She puts her hand on the chest, and, like, her eyes light up slightly. Um... and she goes like okay what you do so she says a phrase and you don't really recognize the language it seems pretty arcane and then opens the chest back up and there appears to be a handful of gold pieces inside it now huh and a scrap of paper gold pieces Ooh, what's on the scrap of paper? To change the word, knock inside the open chest three times and speak it to hide your secrets. So you can go ahead and add the empty chest to your inventory. Appears empty until a trigger word reveals its contents. I appreciate that the chest was what was valuable inside the chest. So you can assign whatever trigger word you like to this chest. And yeah, when you put something in and say the word and close it, the next person opens it, sees an empty chest, feels around, nothing's in there. And then you close it, say the word and open it, and the thing is back in it.

Speaker 00 51:37

I need contents.

Speaker 01 51:45

using

Speaker 00 51:46

a

Speaker 01 51:48

secret passphrase. Okay, well, first things first. I need the name of a random beetle. Let's see, random beetle name. Ringo. Well, that's very clever. Thank you. I was quite proud of it. I no longer look like John Lennon, no matter how round my glasses are.

Speaker 00 52:31

Hmm.

Speaker 01 52:34

What do you got for me? I don't... See, I was trying to think of what my favorite bug snack would be. Leroy's favorite bug snack would be. Cicada's pretty good. Cicada? Yeah, yeah, okay, okay. We'll go with Cicada, because, I mean... It's a once-a-decade treat. I looked up a random beetle name generator, and it actually, you know, generated me, like, names for beetles, like Sir Bugington or Captain Crunch. I'm very thrilled with how much closer my guess was to what you got than what you wanted. and for context so this is a reasonably sized chest you can carry it on your backpack but it's pretty hefty and if push came to shove you could absolutely hide yourself or the little girl in it but it's about the size of like a suitcase so like you'd have to contortion yourself into it right right okay So I basically just have a secret suitcase. Well, yeah. So, I mean, I am going to change the past phase to be a cicada. Nice. Because I don't know enough about beetles personally, but that's a good name. And canon, that is now Leroy's favorite. bug snack. Because they're so rare and look like Perfect Cell. But, okay. So, this town is a stop on the way to Allura. Yes. They don't have a barrier that I need to actually inspect because they have their own security system for this kind of stuff. Yep. And you have noticed a lot of Haven mages milling about. And by a lot, I mean like you've seen two or three, which is a lot of mages per square foot. Hmm. I see... So I guess, is there... How tall is this hotel? Like, I'm going to say... Well, it's made of wood and floating on a platform. So it's more wide than it is tall. But it's like five stories with a rooftop bar on it. Well, I mean... For now, I'm going to go to the rooftop bar. Um... And I'm going to order a Beetlejuice cocktail. Absolutely have that prepared and ready to go. Like, you've noticed since mailing about this town that most of the cops are either human with the occasional Khajiit and a few, like, ribbits that feel like are probably promoted because they needed some local talent. But this town's, like, 90% ribbit.

Speaker 00 55:47

Hmm.

Speaker 01 55:48

So like your bartender is a ribbit and he's like, yeah, absolutely. Ribbits and fairies are probably the most common you see around here. But so then I'm going to find my way to like the edge of this rooftop bar, like the edge of the roof. Yeah. And while I'm sipping on my delicious drink, I'm going to see like, do the mages seem to be congregating anywhere in particular? Are they all just kind of milling about or? Go ahead and make a knowledge roll for me. A knowledge roll.

Unknown 56:25

Okay.

Speaker 01 56:27

And... A five, but with hope. So, you're looking around the city, and there's a fair number of new buildings that have strung up. And... With a five, you're not really seeing, like, mage congregate. Maybe they go to the library? You don't know.

Unknown 56:48

Hmm. Hmm.

Speaker 01 56:50

Five's a pretty bad roll.

Unknown 56:52

Hmm.

Speaker 00 56:56

Okay.

Speaker 01 57:01

What all do I... Because I have my dossier still. My dossier of important names that I got from... What's his name? He has a name... He's a spy. Kern? He is. Dern. Kern Dern. Um... Okay, well... So, I'm also kind of looking for Elroy, even though Dern thinks I'm Elroy. So tell me a bit more of Elroy. What was his day job before you were a fake body for him?

Unknown 57:49

Um...

Speaker 01 57:50

Well, I mean, he worked for some sort of mob organization, which is to say that I'm hoping that somewhere in my dossier... Yeah, so in the description of my backstory, I said that Elroy worked for a mob and needed to fake his own death to get out. So would I know what the name of the mob that he worked for, of the organization? I assume so. Go ahead and make a knowledge roll for me. Also, things are a little blurry after you found yourself in a dirt nap. Fair enough. That is an 11, but with fear. Appropriate. So... What you kind of know is that Elroy was up with some sketchy folk and the mob is one way to put it. But Haven is what? How do we say an erotocracy type situation? Several kings pledging fealty to an emperor. So most crime will actually trace its roots to a noble backing. So the quote unquote mob he owed money to was more likely the private accounting of some nobles and I see my question to you is is if you had to give Elroy a Daggerheart character class what would it have been what kind of work did Elroy do what kind of vibes did he give you hmm what kind of work did Elroy do um well I suspect he was somewhat of a... somewhat of a scholar not really not really much of a combatant but doing research and maintaining magical equipment excellent so there's a good chance that the mob quote-unquote he was working for there's a good chance that a lot of their crime and actions were tied with some wayward side of the imperial court mages so much like you've seen some court mages in the day there's a good side of mages that are going about doing their imperial duty of colonization what have you but whoever they were that Elra was tied up to and whoever was funding them were definitely more you know how mages can be vain powerful greedy there's a good chance he was a mage's assistant who was trying to take a little bit more of their fair share of the country of the profits of the illegal activities. So please go ahead. Well, so I was hoping that I might be able to find a name in the dossier for someone that would be in Wormhearth that I might be able to ask questions. My apologies. So as you start looking for the dossier, the person you're looking for who might have some ties, because it's not like full information, right? You got bits and pieces and knowledge There's a name that comes up a few times known as Relip Thimblegourd. Relip Thimblegourd. Okay. R-E-L-I-I-P. Okay, I should actually... Okay, so important characters. R-I... You said Rillip, right? Yeah, R-E-L-I-I-P. Thimblegord. Yep, that part is SSL, as it sounds. Rillip Thimblegord. All right. And he is... A Frungrul! Particularly, he was an archivist. And your notes you have about them are... Squat, blue-capped Frungrul. He typically has paper stuck to his mushroom cap with pins.

Speaker 00 1:02:35

Hmm.

Speaker 01 1:02:41

Alright, alright. Well... I guess, uh... Do I have any information about what he does in town? Where do I start looking for him based on the dossier, I guess? So, what you hear here is from your little bits that you have on the dossier is he's an import-export specialist. Typically found moving around rare literature. Yeah, okay, okay. Um... Well then, I guess the first place to go and check out would be... I assume there's a library here, yes, no? Yes. So as you start heading down towards some of the newer Haven buildings, they put in first aid centers, libraries, soup kitchens, public housing. As you're heading down the docks, though... Hmm. Hmm. Because as you're walking along and the two alleys meet a narrow platform between the reedwalk jocks, the bell tolls to mark the hour. The sun sinks behind the tallish watchtower, and there's like a blinding flare of light in that moment across the water and the pilish iron fittings that appear. As I sudden glare, too fast a warning, you feel like these attackers are on you. Go ahead and roll an instinct check for me, please. An instinct? Instinct check. All right. Instinct. Was that a reaction roll or was that? That was a regular roll. Regular roll. All right. So 14 with hope. So that was also kind of my way of deciding who gets to jump on who. So at 14 with Hope, the focus stays on you. At the end of the alley, you see two people in definitely not Haven outfits. Definitely more wickling attirement, cloaks, an insignia you don't quite recognize. The first one looks like a dwarven man with butterflies and his braided green beard. It looks kind of shaky. And this person standing next to him would be the most beautiful woman you've ever seen. If her face was not vertical instead of, her mouth wasn't vertical instead of Oh. Okay. Ha ha ha ha ha ha! So my question to you before this combat begins, how do you know these assailants are not hardened killers or elite assassins? How do I know these assailants are not hardened killers or elite assassins? Um... Okay, so there's four of them. Correct. And they have me cornered at either end of an alleyway, right? Well, cornered in the sense that you could just jump off into the water, but that's like an eight-foot plunge. Yeah, no, I mean, I have escape options. That's not a problem, but... Yeah, you're vaguely cornered. But... So, how do I know that they are not assassins? Well, I mean, the guy in the Assassin's Creed cosplay, he has excessively large pauldrons, but no other form of metal protection on his suit of armor. Beautiful. the generic human, he... I mean, that guy, he might be like a spy or something, but I can tell that his hands, his fingernails are excessive, are too clean for someone who actually does this kind of dirty work.

Unknown 1:07:51

Uh...

Speaker 01 1:07:52

Similarly, like the dwarf with the green beard. I mean, that's either a terrible disguise or he's just going to stick out like a sore thumb. There's no way he can actually be an assassin. As you look him over and think that, you do see he seems to have little butterfly wings on his shoulders, but they would not be enough to lift his weight.

Unknown 1:08:15

Yeah.

Speaker 01 1:08:16

The only one that would be a little bit suspicious is the one with the weird vertical mouth. Okay, so I assume it goes, like, down from her nose, like, across her chin. Or down her chin. Yeah. And then her chin would kind of, like, open up like a predator mouth. Yes. Okay. Um... I mean, And what is her... She's wearing nice clothes as well? So they all have matching cloaks over their regular people clothes. So it's like someone handed them storm cloaks and be like, now put on your matching cloaks. And then it's just like a dude's basically in jeans and a tank top. Or ye old fantasy equivalency. Yeah, well, I mean, that's really the only indication that the lady is untrained. It's the fact that it's just a cloak over top of her. normal relatively nice clothing all right so the spotlight's on you what you gonna do one of them is holding a crossbow to the side like in a gangster movie

Speaker 00 1:09:32

hmm

Speaker 01 1:09:37

okay So I am assuming that I took time to get my armor back from the repair shop. You are in peak fighting form. You have been never in your life more qualified to murder these four people if you so choose. Like, you even deliberately had a light lunch so you wouldn't cramp up. And that was, like, an hour ago, and it's been, like, pretty... Like, you're good. Mm, mm, mm. Uh, and how... So, actually, just a quick question about distances. Uh, there's melee, very close, close, far, and very far? Correct. So, melee is if you're touching. Very close is within 5 to 10 feet. Close is within 10 to 30 feet. Far is within 30 to 100 feet. And very far is about 100 to 300 feet. So in this case, they're all within about 30 feet of you. So they're all close. Yes. Not very close, huh?

Unknown 1:10:53

Hmm. Hmm.

Speaker 01 1:10:55

So if you run towards one group, the other group would be about far away from that center because you're in the exact middle between them. Okay. Well, what I actually want to do, I think, is I'm going to... Okay, so being cloaked gives me advantage on... Okay, so what attack rolls against you have disadvantage. Click to see more. Oh, I see. A journal entry is covering it. And there's also a center button with an eye on it that lists what all your stats do if that ever comes up. Um... But I digress. Anyways, the point is that I was planning on, given that this is a shadowy alley, I should be able to use my shadow stepper feature, yes, no? I'll allow it, since I literally described it as the sunset and darkness hits. Kind of hard for me to walk back that one. Like, I described the wave of shadow crossing the town. You're like, there's shadows here, right? I'm like, nuh-uh. Because I would like to shadow step behind the guy in the cosplay with his stupid pauldrons. Oh my god! He says in a bad French accent. But then I want to try my Tell No Lies spell. Okay. Where I cast, it's a spell cast roll against a target within very close range, so I'm going to appear behind him very close. And on a success, they can't lie to you while they remain within close range, but they are not compelled to speak. If you ask them a question and they refuse to answer, they must mark a stress until the effect ends. They are typically unaware the spell has been cast until it causes them to utter the truth. Okay. So do I get advantage for being hidden? It wasn't actually explicitly listed as a benefit of being hidden i'll say yes i'll give it to you once for you to ominously sneak up and cast a spell that feels fair that is only a 10 with with hope 10 does it they're not particularly well trained Oh, my. And they don't even know that they've been cast then. Correct. Nice. Well, then... And it was with hope, so spotlight's still on you. Okay, so... I guess I'm just going to walk up behind him, put my knife to his throat, and be like, Who are you working for? And he's going to say in response, To free our country from you imperialist pigs! Completely losing his fake French accent. Because that would be a lie. So you're saying that you, uh, independently acquired these matching cloaks?

Speaker 00 1:14:46

Kind

Speaker 01 1:14:52

of? So, I'm gonna say you can roll a presence check if you want to try and continue the conversation plus this point. Um... Okay, well, I guess... Oh, man, I'm... At this point, I guess I would have had to have marked another stress to stay disguised as the guard. I was giving you one freebie under the assumption that Brunch kept up your magical powers. Okay, okay. Um... Well, I mean... Yeah, I mean, I'll... That was presents, you said? Yep.

Unknown 1:15:32

Okay.

Speaker 01 1:15:32

But I wouldn't have advantage because I'm not trying to avoid scrutiny. It's very hard for me to argue you're hidden while you're talking with this man. Even if you're Batman-ing behind him. The Uncanny Disguise gives me advantage on presence checks to avoid scrutiny, specifically. Not yet. Later in this adventure, that might matter. But I'd say not in this situation. It doesn't really matter. He thinks you're who you are. He called you an imperialist pig. Right, yeah, yeah. I guess. Okay, so presence. You said, right? Yep. It's not hard while someone has their hand on your shoulder and saying, where's the drugs for you to think they're a cop. Fair enough. I got a 14 with hope. Okay, so I'm going to go ahead and spend three fear here. Okay. Bringing my fear supply down cripplingly low. But these guards were all about to die, and I feel the need to help them out a little bit. So as you're questioning their buddy with the hand on the shoulder in seemingly a leisurely manner, first one turns and screams, and fires a crossbow at you. More out of spook than actual intent to fire. Does a... nine hit you?

Speaker 00 1:16:51

Sorry, an 8. A 9 does not hit.

Speaker 01 1:16:53

So you just see an arrow go past you. The second one is holding what looks like a sack. Like a Santa sack of presents, and you hear metal rattling in it. And they're going to attempt to hit you with a sack of doorknobs. Okay. 8... Eight does not hit. And the third one is going to attempt to stab you with what looks like a kitchen knife. Eleven. Eleven does not hit. So as they all run at you, one hits the other in the face with a bag. A fire arrow just fires off randomly, hits the dock, ricochets off. And then the third one is just shaking. Spotlight is back to you. Okay. So I want you to know you did like a limbo Matrix slow motion backup as the bag went over your face and thwacked the other one. Not enough to do real damage, but enough to hurt their feels. Okay. Well... And for the record, it was a human guy who tried to swing at you with a sack of doorknobs. The human guy tried to swing at me with a sack of doorknobs. Yeah, you're never going to assassinate anybody with clumsy skills like that. And you know what? I am just going to spend a hope, they are all within very close range I assume, to use my Reign of Blades spell. Are you intending this to be lethal? No, I don't really want to kill any of them. Okay, because that's as simple as it is in this game. If you tell me you're not trying to kill them, they won't die. Okay. All right, so spell cast roll. And... 17 with fear. That'll hit. Go ahead and roll damage. And... 12 damage. So you pull up four knives like you do like the classic anime. You have like six knives between each fingers with the tips painting down. Under your arms you flick them to your left and right and they all whip through the air. You hear them coast through as the handles of all of the knives hit each one in the forehead and they'll flood to the ground. You hear one of them as they get hit. They just scream at the top of their lungs until they hit the ground and pass out. You hear footsteps approaching, likely alerted to by the screams of this person. With your kind hearing, you assume that's the town guards on their way. Okay. Well, I guess I need to quickly rummage through their cloaks, see if I can find anything, and then hopefully, as soon as I think the guards are anywhere within sight, I can just use my shadow stepper feature to... I can move far distance, so I should be able to safely find a spot to hide within far distance. Okay, go ahead and roll a knowledge check first to rifle through their belongings. Rifling through their belongings. Roll. 20 with hope. 20 with hope. Okay, so. You do manage to find some garbage tier weapons, worse than anything you could possibly use. You've On the woman you find what appears to be a flask of gin Well, I'm going to take that. And on the dwarf you find what looks like a sealed letter. A sealed letter? Seems like I might have used my spell on the wrong person. Guards are quickly approaching. Did you want to try and hide? Hide? Well, okay, so, I'm in an alley, um... Dressed as a police officer, having a hand in some wanted criminals, yes. You know, I'm not gonna hide, I'm actually, do I have handcuffs in my basic supplies? Uh, you find some on the dwarf. I'm just gonna put them all in handcuffs. As the scuffle ends, Captain Thalen, who you met at the docks, and her guards come running, boot-studding across the board, surveilling the seeds. Burr's brow furrowed, but not surprised. Gives the attackers a long look, then back to you. Wow! On vacation, no less! You did half my job for me! Hmm. Well, these fellas seem like they're not too keen on imperial forces being in the city. Yeah, but trying to make friends with the locals, our police programs basically catch and release fifth time this week. Haven't actually hurt nobody, so it's technically a misdemeanor. Did they actually get a hit on you, so I can lock them up for longer?

Speaker 00 1:22:41

Ah, no. No, they didn't even scratch me.

Speaker 01 1:22:46

Well, I guess that's good. That's good. I don't want to give a bad impression. Sorry, sorry. I don't get a lot of... Yeah, um, good job. Um, wanna help us bring them back to the station? Did you see one of the guards is holding, like, two coffees? It's, like, balancing, like... You know when you have, like, the three cups of coffee so you're holding one in each hand and then, like, a third one awkwardly perched between the two?

Speaker 00 1:23:10

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 01 1:23:11

So that's one guard balancing the drinks for the squad and the other one like you see like some crumb and butter like they were eating breakfast and just ran down the street so I assume I was able to pocket the sealed letter though oh yeah no issue at all robbing these guys so I pocketed the gold the sealed letter and the other ones didn't have anything of value a locked locket if that's valuable to you hmm It's the first time in 10 years of D&D you found a locket that was in fact locked. Stolen from dwarf... Dwarven criminal. Great. And then the other item... I am going to have pocketed the locked locket. All right, you can just go lock hyphen it. Lock it. That is how it is in my notes, yes. And sorry, which criminal was that one from? That was from the human. From the human criminal. All right. Lock-dash it. The letter... Oh my. So, as you make it back to the guard station, you sit down, and the guards are put in their cells, which, one of the cells has like a hand-cranked dough mixer in it. Okay. Another one is clearly a dry storage of some kind. With just, like, cans of, like, sacks of flour. And the other two seem to be, like, actual lock-up places. It is amusing to you that they didn't take over the bakery to build their guard station. They took over half the bakery to build their guard station. So... At this point, the captain looks at you... You have any questions for these guys?

Speaker 00 1:25:38

Well,

Speaker 01 1:25:47

so... They all seem to have matching cloaks. Do you guys know where they got these cloaks from? We got nothing. So if you want to take a crack at them and I don't know, maybe like do that city cop thing of like, I don't know, scaring them and roughing them a bit. We're more than willing to let you have the room. It's fine, really. But like, not like getting us to like be fined bad, but like, you know, we're happy to look the other way and take a long runch. Yeah, sure. I'll give it a crack and see if I get anything out of these guys for you. Excellent. So as you enter the room, the prisoners are bound in each room in a different way. The wind rattles the reed walls. A single wooden table creaks under the weight of a chipped kettle and a few mugs. Captain Thalen is leaning against the doorway, arms folded, kind of watching, but kind of like giving you your space. And this is where we can use my interrogation mechanics. I am placing a D8 dramatically on the table right now. Use it in your mind's eye. This represents the prisoner's stamina as a collective. It starts at 8. At the end of each action, I tick down this dice by once. There's various difficulties based on your approach. If there was a group, you would roll in turns, possibly good cop bad coming. You could bring the little girl to help waterboard if you want or just leave her outside with the bakery. You do see an elven gentleman who seems to have created a butane magic torch with their fingertip, crisping the top of a creme brulee. And how the interrogation goes is you have these eight attempts. On a critical success, you'll learn two facts. On a success with hope, you'll learn a fact. On a success with fear, you'll learn a conjecture, a rumor, or incomplete information. On a failure with hope, you learn nothing. And on a failure with fear, you learn active misinformation that your character believes is complete truth from the interrogation.

Speaker 00 1:27:48

I see.

Speaker 01 1:27:48

So with the countdown beginning and the room is yours, which one would you like to interrogate first? Well, I think the assassin seems like he knows the least. Wait, the assassin was the human, right? The assassin was the ribbit in Assassin Creed's robes. Ah, so the assassin seems to know the least. But the one who seems to know the most, given that they had a sealed letter, they seem to have actually had an objective. Would you like to open that letter before you go in? yeah let's read the letter let's see what the letter's all about as you open it dearest timorel mom believes you're a failure i concur you're bad at smithing you're bad at home wrecking and you owe us a ton of money mother is sick come back and pay what you owe you worthless deadbeat signs your sister It's full of glitter, and it, like, glitter bombs you when you open it. So this appears that Tamaleth, the half-fae, half-dwarven gentleman, is unloved from his family, unemployed, and was called a deadbeat, who owes money to their family and needs to pay it back. Uh, sorry, Tamaris? Tamaris. T, apostrophe, mar, M-A-R, T-H. Tamaris. Alright, alright. Actually, wait, I think I gave you the wrong name, sorry. This is Bobbert. This is Bobbert? This is Bobbert, who apparently got fired from their last job and is a deadbeat and owes their family money. Bobbert as in the guy that was on my Haven clipboard? Yeah, so apparently got fired and moved on to the next town. Oh, I see. Made better time than you. Well, you don't know how long ago he was on that clipboard, but it does seem to have the same embellished O as a flower.

Speaker 00 1:30:08

Yeah, okay, okay.

Speaker 01 1:30:15

So, Bobbert. So you're going into Bobbert's room first? I am going into Bobbert's room first. He does still seem to know the most. All right. What happened to your job in... Sorry, what was the name of the city that I was at last? Nairware. It was... Nairware.

Speaker 00 1:30:41

It's a long way from Nairware,

Speaker 01 1:30:45

there, Bobbert. You get advantage on this role for knowing this man's backstory in the interrogation. So you also get an ag-extra D6 to your role. Okay. Um... So, what happened with your other job there?

Unknown 1:31:08

Uh...

Speaker 01 1:31:09

Instinct? I'm going to say, so you're just trying to, so are you trying to read his reaction or are you trying to get him talking? Because Presence, if you're trying to get him talking, Instinct, you're just trying to like make him squirm and see if he can learn something that way. I think I'm more so just trying to make him squirm because he, you know, I know so much about him that he's. All right, go ahead and roll Instinct with advantage. With advantage. 21 with fear. Oh, So after, and he's still magically compelled to tell the truth in my headcanon. Not sure if that's mechanically true. So he looks at you and goes... I didn't want to work for them, okay? But I was never good at smithing. I was never good at brewing. I was never good at cooking. I was never good at sleeping. And the thing is, I'm not good at work, man. We should just be free to live, man. No one should need jobs, man. Capitalism's some bullshit, man. So, I'm at the local pub handing out my dope flyers about how we should just start a hippie commune as I have time, right? And somebody seemed to like that because the next day I got a letter with some instructions that burned itself, which how cool is that? And a cloak. And it said to do something. And now he's like, oh, I've spoken too much. Um. So are we... That was your first success. You have seven more interrogations going on. Okay, so I guess for posterity, I should probably use my Tell No Lies spell on him again just to be... I was just going to let you have it, not knowing how much time had passed. Well, okay, so they can't lie to you while they remain within close range. You did drag them back to jail. I mean, technically I cast it on the ribbit. Oh, you did. Yeah, okay, then mark another spell. My bad. I was being too kind. Well, there doesn't actually seem to be any sort of limitation on this, aside from the fact that they have to remain within close range. And I would assume it ends as soon as they leave close range. Or I can spend a fear to end it. Right, yeah. But I am going to roll my spell roll 17 with fear. Yep, no issue. I will take that fear, though. And you have seven more questions to ask.

Speaker 00 1:33:56

I'm set to do something. So, did I tell you to target me specifically? Go

Speaker 01 1:34:11

ahead and roll presence on this one. Sure. Do I still have advantage? Nah, you got one and done. One and done, okay. Fifteen with fear.

Unknown 1:34:24

Okay.

Speaker 01 1:34:27

Well... Listen. Um... We were told to... There was someone of interest in your party.

Speaker 00 1:34:46

Oh. I

Speaker 01 1:34:46

see. So at this point, you piece together from the cloaks in your dossier, there's an incredible likelihood that whether they've met them or are working directly, there's a very good chance they are working for the Fane Wraith, given the insignia on the cloak of a Wraith in the Fanes. And in fact, where the name comes from. A Wraith in the Fanes. Well, okay. um i'm gonna go uh okay are these cells open enough that they can hear the interrogation that i'm doing each person or nope they're pretty solid they were designed to cells first and then at least to the bakery second yeah okay okay so uh which is unfortunate that no one can hear you from dry storage okay so i'm gonna go over to uh the beautiful ladies room Uh, let's see if I can get her with a spellcast roll here. Another 15 with fear, apparently. Noted. I will take that fear. Happily. Um... Um... You're quite the beautiful lady. I hear that Bobbert even has a thing for you. How do you feel about Bobbert? No. She just says no? Complete truth. She feels nothing for Bobbert. Nothing. Well... If you're not with that bum for the romance, why are you even a part of this group? Hmm, I'm just scrimmaging at you. Go ahead and roll presence. Roll presence. presence. Ooh, 20, but with fear. I'm not with them for the group. I'm with them to get to the actual group and prove myself, but I was paired with these dunderheads. Just go to the board, read the coded message. They are now aware they're under a spell.

Speaker 00 1:37:36

Hmm. Where is this board?

Speaker 01 1:37:43

ahead and roll whatever you would like to do to get them to talk because they don't seem that talking at them is going to make them talk in this situation you might have to bribe them slap them watch their micro gestures change up the topic a bit or you could just try asking again but the dc is higher than it was before because they know they're under a true spell right right right uh no okay so coding messages on the board um well surely someone as beautiful as you wouldn't need to prove yourself you must have had a life of luxury before joining these dunderheads as you say go ahead and roll presence with disadvantage presence with disadvantage uh oh That is a 10 with fear. So she looks at you. It's not me you want. The person you're looking for is actually made of three raccoons. So you believe that the Fane Wraith is made of three raccoons.

Speaker 00 1:39:07

In the trench coat.

Speaker 01 1:39:11

Maybe not three. You're not sure of the number, but she's actually made of raccoons. And you believe this woman is telling you the truth. Okay, well, so now I've used... That was two rolls on her? Yep. So you still have four rolls remaining. Well, I mean... I feel like the Ribbit is the most useless, but I'm going to go for the human next. Get into my little spell-casty role, because apparently there's... It's not exactly a combat-type ability, so there doesn't really seem to be any limits to my spell. Which is fair. If you get it wrong, I'm not going to let you recast it on them again and keep trying. Right, right, right. But this time I managed to get a 21 with hope. That'll probably work. Probably. I feel pretty good about that. So as you go to sit down, you hear a little knock on the door. And... Corporal Nira ducks inside with a tray of steaming scones and a pot of coffee. Scone?

Unknown 1:40:22

Scone?

Speaker 01 1:40:23

I'll pursue a scone. Yeah, I mean, I'll just take a scone. Excellent. Scone. Offers one to the prisoner. Prisoner just takes one. It's like their hands are chained to the table, but if they pull one hand back, the other can go forward a bit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, okay. Like their hands are chained together and they go through a loop. Yes.

Unknown 1:40:48

Yes.

Speaker 01 1:40:50

Yeah, okay. Top up your coffee, freshen it up. Yes, thank you, thank you. Don't let me keep you guys. Have fun. And then she just walks out of the room.

Speaker 00 1:41:04

So... Bobbert says that you're the ringleader.

Speaker 01 1:41:09

That would be accurate. Well, how did you manage to woo such a beautiful lady over there? Well, I mean, her love of costumes is a little ridiculous, right? And the French accent is really tacky. But she's made of good stuff. She is reliable. If you're in a pinch, she will come for you. Is he talking about the beautiful lady, or is he talking about the ribbit? The ribbit to him is a beautiful lady, yes. Since I have pieced this together, I can assume that Leroy has also pieced this together, or do I need to roll for that? Leroy has absolutely pieced this together. Yeah, okay, okay. Yeah, but why are you guys walking around with such dead weight with the other two? We don't pick who we're assigned with, okay? And I'm pretty sure that the race was giving me a test to see if I could work with imbeciles to make sure I would cool and wouldn't break under pressure. You do seem like a pretty cool dude. Thanks. Appreciate it. Like, with all these, like, fascist bastards running around taking her down, takes a bite of this guy's offer to sip of his coffee, which has been pre-creamed and sugared. They're just There's monsters coming here and taking the place for themselves. Yeah. Filling it with their stupid libraries and public housing. Just a way to keep the people down, man. We didn't vote for this. You understand? If the rich weren't taxed so heavily by these havens, then the poor would have more money and there'd be more jobs for people like me.

Speaker 00 1:43:18

I hear you, I hear you. Uh,

Speaker 01 1:43:23

but, uh, you know, I'm not a big fan of the establishment either, but I do have a job to do, you know. Gotta try and figure out, you know, who would be, who would want to target Imperial soldiers and whatnot, you know. I mean, besides everybody, because you suck. Not a lie has left this man's mouth. He genuinely believes in trickle-down economics. Well, see, the thing is, I'd really like to know where your message board is. That's pretty clever, huh? For your missions, you know. Go ahead and roll a instinct roll for me, please. Instinct roll. 11 with hope. Okay, okay. Alright, listen, so, we communicate through coded messages on the job board open to any adventurer, just sitting up there right outside the guard station with people looking for work. And it's in a clever cipher that most people can't figure out, right? And, like, the word is that the Spain Wraith, the reason she knows all this Haven thing is, like, how they're trying to, how Haven has decreased the health rate, how they keep forcing artificial medicines in, how they're against teaching your own kids what they should know. Yeah, it turns out that the Fane Wraith is actually, this could blow your mind, Spymaster Krell's daughter. Ja, ja, ja. He believes this. Oh, see ya. I heard that the Fane Wraith is actually three raccoons in a trench coat. Man can't adopt three raccoons as his daughter. I'm gonna go ahead and take a notch down on the wheel. You got three remaining. So, not a biological daughter,

Speaker 00 1:45:39

huh?

Speaker 01 1:45:41

A man, love is love. That's true. Why do you think it's a father-daughter relationship? Couldn't it be something more intimate?

Unknown 1:45:55

Hmm.

Speaker 01 1:45:56

I don't know, it seems better to adopt a raccoon, right? That just seems like it's less creepy that way. Still, he genuinely believes this. So I've convinced him that the Bane Wraith is a stray raccoon who's in the trench coat? He might have already believed it, it's hard to tell. Your roll wasn't great. You've been using the same tactic a lot here. The DC's creeped up to 12, not quite being good enough. Close. Fair enough, fair enough. Pretty close, but not quite good enough. So you absolutely believe that he believes this. Well, I mean, obviously, he can't lie to me, so... Well, you know, I think I... You've been very helpful. I'll make sure that the... Sorry, go ahead. Oh no, you go ahead first. You're about to do something good for me. I should not have talked. I really need to stop talking so much. I keep talking and life keeps getting worse. Well... See, as it turns out, I'm actually trying to find the Vayne Wraith so that I can... Maybe join and offer information from the other side and turn coats, you know, like a double agent. Go ahead and roll a finesse check for this one. A finesse check? Just for general double agent-ness. Oof, I am not a double agent. Do you not look like a double agent? What'd you get? A six with hope.

Unknown 1:47:38

Hmm.

Speaker 01 1:47:41

I mean, I'm sure we can find a use for anyone dedicated to the cause, brother. And you're down to two dice rolls remaining. Uh... Don't worry, I'll get your drink refilled and get you out of here right away. And then I'm gonna go to the final room with the ribbit. Bonjour! Well, hello to you too. Mon ami, what brings you to speak to me, such a majestic assassin? Well, it must be hard to be an assassin when you're so strikingly beautiful. You have good eyes and good taste as well. Well, see, the truth is, my father was a ribbit. And I'm going to, like, do the whole tongue thing. Oh, a ribbit. A ribbit cat, folk. That is. I haven't seen many like that around. It was kind of a messy situation at home, I admit. Very fair. Haven's doing a lot of messy situations. That's why we're fighting for the freedom.

Speaker 00 1:49:04

Yeah,

Speaker 01 1:49:05

so... I'm going to spend a fear so your spell's not affecting this rock. Okay. I gave you three out of four. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That is fair. Uh...

Speaker 00 1:49:26

No... Heard that the human guy, he's got a thing for you, too. What do you feel about him?

Speaker 01 1:49:34

He's gonna have to work on that hotel, but he's off to a good start. Well, you know... Wouldn't you rather just settle down with someone than fight this whole rebellion? Listen, friend. This city used to be an assassin training ground, the ancestral home of my people. Just because we smile to get extra tips from the tourists doesn't mean we enjoy being property. These guards, maybe they seem decent. Maybe even they believe they're decent, mon ami. But you shouldn't trust them. No one here will tell you the truth unless you drag it out. If you ask about that city south of here, you'll hear it's the Fane Wraith who cursed it. But that is a lie. Those guards you just drank the coffee with, they helped burn it to the ground. Check the archives beneath the main tower. That's where they keep the records no one's supposed to read. Mm.

Speaker 00 1:51:10

Well, perhaps you know of a way in.

Speaker 01 1:51:17

Perhaps I do, but I can't do much chained to this table.

Speaker 00 1:51:22

Fair,

Speaker 01 1:51:23

fair. You have one notch left on your dice. I have one notch left. You don't believe this frog is lying, except the accent. Except the accent. Well.

Speaker 00 1:51:52

Hmm.

Speaker 01 1:51:54

What would I want? So...

Speaker 00 1:52:03

Why

Speaker 01 1:52:05

would you want to serve a raccoon, three raccoons in a trench coat, though? That's what I don't get. Well, you see, the spirits in nature, the minor deities that empower this place, Haven is using them like fuel, eating them to feed their war machine. If the raccoons are the spirits, if the Faneways is the nature itself fighting back, then I will fight for these raccoons. I will die for these raccoons. Go ahead and roll Instinct to see how much of this you believe. Instinct, come on. with hope you believe most of it the part where he'll be welcomed to the secret order of assassins when they come back because he's proven himself so awesome probably not probably not what's gonna happen the stuff about the guards being suspicious in a town to the south and ceasing to exist on the map that strikes you as a little more authentic and the idea that underneath the central library there could be something under this floating town that floats That strikes you. Like, you think about the geography and the layout of this city. There could be something floating down under there. There's been a lot of wizards lying around, and you couldn't really figure out where they conjugate. Yeah, okay. The deterrogation comes to an end. So we'll wrap up here, because we got super engrossed in the roleplay, and we've hit, like, the hour 50 mark. I thought we have. So... As it stands right now, you're about two thirds of the way through this adventure.

Speaker 00 1:54:08

Which

Speaker 01 1:54:09

means I can give some spoilers from when I ran this last weekend and ran into the test group to see how things went different. Okay. So thing the first. The interrogation, they had an actual French assassin frog interrogate the French assassin frog who folded immediately.

Speaker 00 1:54:27

Yeah, okay.

Speaker 01 1:54:28

And so the weekend group decided to break into two parties, one to go in the city proper and one to dive under the city to see if something was hiding there. Okay. breaking my chain of events in half okay so they did go to the hotel these thugs have never injured anybody one brought the kid with them to play good cop bad cop with another party when they're interrogating one was being a haven official and one was being a wither wild official and they split between them and try and good cop bad cop them back and forth to the point where i gave the good players the good cop bad cop experience so they can now use that when they're a team because they have good cop bad cop it down to an art form but meta wise what do you think of me adding a mini game for interrogating these people with for the record how it worked is each of those categories, facts, conjecture, and misinformation, I had tables to roll on. But depending on the role play went, I would just give you the information that was where the conversation would be going.

Speaker 00 1:55:35

Right,

Speaker 01 1:55:35

right. And the DC was like, it started at 15 for a reasonable approach, 20 for a stretch, and if you repeated it, it kind of ticked up a bit. Yeah, okay. And then the D8 was if a full party was playing this. I like the version of it where each party member's in a room with a different thug, and then each person gets two shots. at them, because I think that'd be really funny. And everyone, 100% of people, because remember I'm rolling at a random table for the lore you get, have gotten the Maid of Raccoons. 100% of PCs believe the Fade Wraith is Maid of Raccoons. And I am so happy. So here's some misinformation you didn't get. The sewing eye is a myth. Something the government made up to control us. The Fane Wraith is the Emperor's third cousin.

Speaker 00 1:56:34

Okay.

Speaker 01 1:56:35

She keeps her toenails in a jar. Okay. And she can't cross running water.

Unknown 1:56:43

Huh.

Speaker 01 1:56:44

They can't cross running water as a fake rumor would mess with people so much. Oh yeah, definitely. They're metagaming, they couldn't control it. They would not be able to control it, no. So I set this up that in theory the players should instantly know these thugs are with the Thane Wraith because my tables are all questions about clues about the Thane Wraith because that's what they're supposed to be investigating for. But I found I needed to give it a bit of extra padding so that's why I ad-libbed the logos like, yeah, you just know this because that's what you should be what i've written the scenario to be about

Speaker 00 1:57:21

right

Speaker 01 1:57:22

and the lackeys were tier one minions called jagged knife lackeys with their one hit point one stress minus two to attack Thresholds none. Difficulty nine. Okay. And the bit being that after people fought Zombie City, I just got it to give people an easy fight that wasn't really a fight. The other party accidentally lit the docks on fire and the guards came running because of the fire and then they said the thugs lit the docks on fire.

Unknown 1:57:53

Okay.

Speaker 01 1:57:54

Oh, that would get them arrested pretty good. So those ones are in actual jail. They're going to be held in until the end of the week

Speaker 00 1:58:00

hmm

Speaker 01 1:58:05

well yeah what did you think since we got a few minutes to like de-beef um so um i uh i i would say uh that You're definitely right to give some more additional context to make sure that it's like, okay, these people work for Fane Wraith. I mean, I guess in this context, I don't know who else they would work for, but given that my character... The Fane Wraith seems to be somewhere over by Allura, so I hadn't even really been thinking about the fact that it's like, oh yeah, maybe the Fane Wraith has spies here. Um... Which, I mean, it's good to know. I mean, I think I tried to give you the hint at the start of going to the town, remember you're on the hunt for the Bane Wraith. Was kind of like, did that railroad jeep give you the hint? However, I did have a stat block prepared for an epic mountain exploration. Which would have been a very different session. You were hoping I would have explored the mountain? No, I was hoping you would have tried to explore the mountain, failed, and then crawled back to the town injured.

Unknown 1:59:25

Okay.

Speaker 01 1:59:25

Just failed completely to climb a mountain. Came back broken arm. Be like, I tried, guys. So a little meta is the next session will be probably you trying to explore around to find this underground lab. Yeah, that makes sense. Or you leaving it and be like, that's not my problem. Just leave me with him, which is completely within your power. Oh, no. If it's going to give me information about this big bad that I've been carrying around, she's going to come with me for sure. So I'm so happy that just mentioning there were some mages was fair enough to you be like, where the hell are these mages gathering? Like, perfect. Because that is like this box text I have at the end of the interrogation verbatim. Nice. No railroading here. You want this all on your own. Ha ha ha ha. this one relates to the actual plot with you in it so a little bit go ahead so here's some backstory you probably should have had before the session okay is the syndicate the mafia of sorts that elroy worked for was the scarlet veil syndicate scarlet veil okay and effectively they're a cabal of wizards rogues and disgraced priests united to control the flow and distribution of the red blossoms for the antidote they're not really smuggler they're a mage mafia an arcane crime family running protection rackets controlling the black market spy of the supply of the crimson veil and weaving influence across haven and banewick alike because they know so what they do so we know the flower can unpetrify you right What they know is that if they petrify you intentionally and then un-petrify you, it fixes any illnesses in you. So they can like reattach an arm, petrify you, un-petrify you, and it heals you. So these petals are super highly regulated by Haven, right? Collected, distributed. And their job is to steal a few and then sell them back to people who came. Because normally you go on a waiting list for one of these, right? You're like, I want my mother sick. And they're like, we have a waiting list in order for when you get your flower. Because Haven's running it like militaristically, right? Right, like aid goes to these regions. And then the mafia is like, aye, would you like an alternative antidote? Would you like some petals, some heroin to see if that unpetrifies you? Would you like to just do some for fun? Yeah, okay. So basically the flower you have on you is about equivalent to 10 kilos of cocaine. If the syndicate got it to use it to try and like splice with other ailments to sell to people on the street. Because they'll like literally sell watered down crimson vials to people to semi-unpetrify them. To semi-unpetrify them. Jeez. So they just have really bad eczema. And the last thing you know is that their symbol is a red petal pressed inside a wax sign sigil. And they also sell fake ears and stuff. Sorry, what was the name of the syndicate? The Crimson... The Scarlet Veil. Scarlet Veil. Fun things they'll do include burning down competitive fields while protecting their own to infect the market of it. Nothing like selling people Tylenol and burning down the Tylenol fields. The criminal syndicate associated... Elroy uses the red flowers as drugs to de-petrify people. Oh, it's also worth noting they get you really high. Right. You did mention that when you were talking about the first town. So it's entirely possible they could just get really high with it. Which I do think is what will happen to your legendary artifact when you have it. You're just going to snort it one of these sessions and see what it does. You're just going to get really high. But now that I've given you a massive lore dump that I didn't stop the session to give you because I had to write it... We should be good to go. Makes sense, makes sense. At some point, this will actually have to go in one of our download documents. I might actually do up a separate download document that's just this backstory on the itch.io for this faction. Yeah. Because this one is completely custom to your character because the rest of the characters don't matter. However, two of those party members did make a cameo in this session in the hotel. I did have their characters, as they showed up in my home game, stealing from the buffet. Because I enjoy Easter eggs. And they'll probably see an Easter egg of a cat extending out their frog tongue to wait and that'll probably be the extent of that easter egg that's pretty funny i think the funniest easter egg is in your dossier was a character they met that they didn't know was a criminal oh because they met this mushroom and they had a lovely conversation with it uh yeah so i don't Maybe I missed your introduction of what I was supposed to do in the city, but it was like, I didn't really... For some reason, the idea of looking for a Fane Wraith in the city was just like... Flew over my head, so then I started looking through what I have to see if I could find Elroy. So, I was prepared for that too. Like, it's one of those things where you don't really have to railroad when all roads go somewhere.

Unknown 2:06:02

Yeah.

Speaker 01 2:06:03

right so had you been like hey what do you guys know about this cult and things and started like deliberately trying to find more about the mafia it would have led you to the mafia makes sense so it's like there's a lot of routes that could have went like there's a version of this campaign where you just stop caring about the fan rates like no no I'm running my campaign and you can deal with it well I mean Leroy's current assumption is that Elroy and Thane Wraith are somehow connected. Um... And that Gern seems to think that Leeroy is Elroy. Which is kind of odd in and of itself. but in any event, um, uh, yeah, I guess that it's good when all roads lead somewhere and then, you know, you just got to choose a road and go. Oh yeah. Like I'm fully prepared. Like, it's kind of like when he went through my dungeon backwards because you decide to break in or my home group decide to split my session into two different adventures. And I'm like, okay. So it's their interrogation. Didn't lead them anywhere because the other people were already there.

Unknown 2:07:33

Yeah.

Speaker 01 2:07:34

They're like, clearly there should be something secret hidden under this town. I'm like, okay, I guess I'm going to leave an outdoor exit so they can come in then. But overall, I think this was an interesting session. I definitely got sidetracked with the role-playing. Yeah, it definitely went longer than I was expecting for this chunk of the story, but I'm completely fine with that. Because it's like, oh, I thought we'd get to the end here, and you're like, no, no, no, I'm going to... I'm going to keep asking people if they're in relation to this beautiful woman who has a vertical mouth, because clearly, clearly, I'm fine with that, but no one would ever. So you just go up to this person and be like... Do people listen to you a lot because you're beautiful? And they're like, I have a horrifying disfigurement. No. What? What happens is we woke up one day, there was cloaks in our room, and there was a message on the board. I don't know these people. I hate these people. Well, I mean, I definitely discerned that they weren't targeting me in particular. Well, no, possibly they were targeting me in particular. Yeah, you got a piece of information on that one you're going to have to think about. They're targeting someone in your party, whatever that means. I mean, I still assume it was me, but... But anyways. But yeah, that was definitely a fun session. And now you guys, everyone who's played this session is going to fire crossbow bolts at every raccoon they see. but uh do we do we do random questions with this or do we have random questions i think we just ramble and wrap up i think i'm going to end with and if you enjoyed this check out richard and play and carl play dagger heart check out our long-running deep space and dragons podcast and all and the adventure we played this week is available on our itch.io so click that enjoy it and we cannot give away a human spleen as a prize yeah sorry you cannot have a spleen oh you can have a spleen as long as it's your own but i don't know if you can keep Keep it in a jar. That might not be allowed either. I'm not sure. We are allowed to make like a plaster mold and make like a fake silicone spleen to send out. Bye. Bye.