Episode 7: How Not to Steal a Boat from a Newly Widowed Friend.

This week in Witherwild, Leroy decided that “security clearance” was just a suggestion and waltzed into a laboratory like he owned the place. Instead of stealing anything useful—like, say, information, artifacts, or even snacks—he made friends(?) with a spirit he also upped his drip game.

The real shocker wasn’t what he took, but what he didn’t: a boat belonging to a grieving widow, which he somehow managed to leave untouched. Growth? Or just the dice forgetting to punish him that hard? Either way, the river remains widow-owned, not Leroy-powered.

Naturally, after all that chaos, he decided the best place to recharge was in a coffin. Yes, an actual coffin. My man bypassed hammocks, bedrolls, and couches to tuck himself into a velvet-lined box like he was auditioning for “Undead Chic: The Nap Collection.”

So the episode’s moral: don’t trust Leroy in a lab, do trust him with your boat (surprisingly), and if you’re ever tired enough, anything with a lid counts as a bed.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Insert catchphrase here. And welcome to Richard and Carl Play Dagger Heart. I'm Richard. The Dagger.

SPEAKER_05 0:10

And I am Carl, but I'm I am not the heart. I am the soul.

SPEAKER_01 0:14

I thought you were gonna say spleen. I really thought you were gonna say spleen.

SPEAKER_05 0:23

I mean, how can I be the spleen if it's if that's about to get removed?

SPEAKER_01 0:26

Like that's same way how that wouldn't be I mean that's the entire plot of Kingdom Hearts and Bleach. You could be the hollow with just the hole in you. You're the heart of the group.

SPEAKER_05 0:42

Fair, fair.

SPEAKER_01 0:43

But before we get into organ-related semantics, first a couple disclaimers. This is a comedy podcast. Take nothing we say seriously ever. Ever.

SPEAKER_05 0:53

We're not giving out medical advice or legal advice or anything like that.

SPEAKER_01 0:57

We're not allowed to sell Carl's organs, the court said no.

SPEAKER_05 1:02

We're just relaying anecdotes about our our lives and the games that we like to and media that we like to consume.

SPEAKER_01 1:10

And if you wandered onto this episode when you weren't supposed to, and you see me in person, if I'm off the clock, praise me. If I'm on the clock, you don't know me. You never met me. A ghost, an enigma, an illusion.

SPEAKER_05 1:24

It's an excellent disclaimer.

SPEAKER_01 1:26

Oh, absolutely. I still love the team four-star disclaimer of we're a fan-based parody. Support the festival release. They'll be like, buy merchandise fuckers! I use my f-bomb up. So, now that I've through the episode. Now that I've turned any children off from watching this, which is good, I do enjoy parody like, ooh, let's listen to Richard and Carl's new episode, and I just scream the F-bomb within a minute. What's new with you?

SPEAKER_05 1:52

Yeah. Uh, well, first things first. I need to apologize to our super fan with the Carl tattoo. Um I got glasses.

SPEAKER_01 2:04

Oh, that's so awesome! Ha!

SPEAKER_05 2:07

Sick. Um, I mean they're they're a relatively weak prescription, only I I think they said it was 0.75, which means I could have just bought uh reading glasses off of the Dollarama store shelf, but uh, you know, that's I'm so happy with this revelation.

SPEAKER_01 2:25

Welcome to the Blind Club Punk.

SPEAKER_05 2:29

Well, uh, I got it mostly for driving and and nighttime. Uh I don't really feel like I need them day to day, but I have been trying to wear them all the time because then I can just get used to them in case my prescription does change and become more necessary.

SPEAKER_01 2:43

I I get so much joy from you not having a physical advantage of well to be fair, I'm still actually blind, but like, well, metaphorically actually blind. If we switch glasses, you'd be like, why am I underwater and upside down somehow?

SPEAKER_05 2:59

But, um more more interestingly, unless you're the super fan with the Carl tattoo who now has to get glasses tattooed onto it.

SPEAKER_02 3:06

That sounds like a really easy addition, though.

SPEAKER_01 3:09

Like, that's less of a problem and more of a touch-up.

SPEAKER_05 3:14

That's that's true. But I mean then how are they supposed to find me if I'm not wearing my glasses, or vice versa? I think they might just have to get a second tattoo, one with glasses and one without, so they can make sure that they find the right person.

SPEAKER_01 3:28

What are you, Clark Kent wearing hypnoglasses? Like, I think they can figure this out. However, when I do see you next, I am gonna pretend I don't recognize you until you take the glasses off. I'm gonna be like, sir, sir, I'm looking for my friend. Man, old man, I'm looking for Carl. He's a young lad who doesn't wouldn't need glasses.

SPEAKER_05 3:49

Anyways. But so more interestingly, uh, you know, I I came across some vampires that cursed my spleen to steal my platelets. That did happen, yes.

SPEAKER_01 4:00

And picture the adorable platelets from Cells at Work. We need to like just know that these platelets are suffering and they need your love by donating to our anyway.

SPEAKER_05 4:11

But anyway, so um I th I think I've stumbled on to what the the vampire's evil plan actually is.

SPEAKER_01 4:18

If you say trickle down economics, I'm gonna lose my shit.

SPEAKER_05 4:22

No, no, no. They they steal uh platelets with the with the cursed spleens. Uh and they do eat some of the platelets, but uh then uh they uh sell some of the blood back to the health authorities to make medicine for the condition that the cursed spleen causes.

SPEAKER_01 4:40

Okay, this metaphor. So, off the record, I can talk a little bit about how I literally gave a lecture today on the difference between metaphors and similes.

SPEAKER_05 4:49

You say off the record as you're literally recording.

SPEAKER_00 4:53

I know. That's just I if that ends up being my catchphrase of saying off the record or being actively recorded, that's kind of great.

SPEAKER_05 5:01

Anyways, go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 5:02

I believe in her honest's ability to be low key about things. So I said that the difference between imagery and a metaphor is a metaphor has to connect two diametrically opposed things, two things that normally wouldn't be paired together in nature. Because if you say if it's like it's hot as a searing fire outside, that doesn't really feel much like a metaphor or a simile. Even though it is, it's like, no, that's just imagery, it's just searing hot outside. But if I say, Richard, a smile of a peacock, that's confusing. You're you're going into some like interesting metaphor here, and I would need to like it'd be fun to make an undergrad class decode what you're talking about.

SPEAKER_05 5:44

Well, uh, what I'm actually talking about, um, I don't know what the acronym stands were, but it's it's uh a a clinical treatment uh known as I V-I-G. Um the G stands for globulin, uh which uh it makes it some it's like it's a blood product, so so it's before I could take this medicine, uh I had to uh give them verbal consent. Uh and then when I got there, then I had to give them written consent. And and then uh once they figured out my dosage, then they actually finally hooked me up. But and then you had to give them spiritual consent, yes. But uh so um this uh my appointment for this IVIG was at uh 8 30. And they say to arrive a half hour early so you can get your uh intake papers and get registered and whatnot, so that you're not gonna be late for your appointment.

SPEAKER_01 6:37

So I want to put out a treasure hunt. If someone wants to go through about 120 episodes Deep Space and Dragons, you now have exactly enough fragments of information to stand outside Carl's hospital of a get well student sign. You'll need to listen to all of them for individual features, but this is now solvable.

SPEAKER_05 6:54

No, no, I I don't know if it is because there are three hospitals in in in the city that I live in, which is has never come up in our podcast ever. Oh, never. I don't mention it on a daily basis. So in redactive city, at redactive hospital.

SPEAKER_01 7:12

I don't know. I feel like they can map it out just based on where competitive pizzeria are.

SPEAKER_05 7:18

Um, but so I get there, and I get there like, you know, five to eight. I head inside, I get registered, there weren't even that many people waiting in line, so I I they're like, okay, you need to go to the third floor, follow the signs for uh CTC, that's for clinical treatment center. Okay. So I go up to the third floor, I follow the signs, and I come to this hallway, and it's a 90-degree turn, and the wall straight ahead of me, it says, Welcome to the clinical treatment center, and there's two chairs. I walk up, and that appears to be all that this is. It's just two chairs. And not even like medical chairs, they're just like like chairs, random, just regular chairs underneath the side.

SPEAKER_01 8:01

Exactly how they tested Edward Elric at his first like alchemy exam with the three chair stool uh three-leg stool.

SPEAKER_05 8:09

Well, so as I got closer, I I realized that uh the chairs are all on the wall, and then on to the right, like the hallway turns 90 degrees to the left, and on the right hand side, there's a door, and the door says ambulatory care clinical treatment center. And I'm like, ambulatory care? Like w We're on the third floor. Uh why would they have anything to related to ambulances on the third floor? Am I even in the right place? Helicopters. Well, no, it turns out that ambulatory has nothing to do with well, I don't know if it has nothing to do with ambulances, but it has more to do with the ability to walk around while being treated.

SPEAKER_01 8:49

Uh as in like So did we just so to mention the whole like helping people break down words where I was explaining the other day, penta means five meter is a metric foot, as in a sound thing, and then ambic is the bedum noise. Yeah, breaking down words is a secret to life. As I had to explain that, like how H2O can be for water, penta can be for poetry. It makes sense, I promise. You're like, ambulance! And ambulatory? Ambulance probably means can't move, bring to here. Ambula, like, as an ambidextrous. Like these words are linking in my brain now. New level unlocked.

SPEAKER_05 9:29

Yeah, no, I I have no idea if ambulatory is actually related to ambulance. Uh I kind of tried to look it up, but it but in any event, um, I got confused. I turned around, I was kind of like walking around, looking all confused, and uh um nurse was like, Oh, what are you looking for? I was like, the clinical treatment center. Like, oh yeah, just go sit in one of those chairs. Uh they're not open yet. And it's like, oh. So they told me to come here for my appointment early, uh, and I'm here before my the clinical treatment center is even open. Okay. Uh fortunately it was only like it was like five after eight, so that I didn't have to wait too long. But uh so I I get in there and uh they hooked me up to um they said it was sugar water, but they anyway they hooked me up to some fluids. You're about to go. Uh well no, I mean it would have to be like Pepsi Clear. Ugh. If they're it's it was a clear liquid. Uh whatever it was that they were pumping into my arm.

SPEAKER_01 10:37

Alright, so they hooked you up to Pepsi Clear. That's canon now. Please continue.

SPEAKER_03 10:41

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 10:42

Uh actually pause. Picture, if you will. You're an executive working at Pepsi Company, and the Coca-Bull Cola bear is defeated you again. Arizona iced tea is being abashed against the times, and you're in the early 70s and you need a new flavor. And a medical supply truck is tipped over full of packets that are used for platelet operations, do you think? New cola flavor. So, yes, you are pumped with Pepsi Clear, but not that they put Pepsi Clear in the bag, it's that they emptied the bag into the can to make the Pepsi Clear.

SPEAKER_05 11:15

And then poured it back into the bag to treat me. Gotcha. Yep. You may presume this was vital to your story. Um, but so uh I'm I'm sitting there getting the sugar water pumped into me, uh, and I start hearing them talking about how they're not sure what kind of dosage, because their form says 5%, but the medical stores says 10%, and so then they have to like try and get a hold of the doctor to figure out which which prescription was actually right, and eventually they come over and like we're just trying to figure out uh what happened here because we don't know which prescription to give you.

SPEAKER_01 11:50

Don't you obviously just split the middle and give you seven? I'm sure that's how medicine works.

SPEAKER_05 11:56

No, after about a half hour they were able to get a hold of the of the hematologist, uh, and he's like, yeah, 10%. Uh and I b I believe it's 10% by volume, or maybe it was 10% by weight, I don't know. Either way, uh it was like they finally got the the medicine, and there were two 400 milliliter bottles. Uh, and I was like, okay. So they hooked them up to the thing. Uh I had worked late that night before, so I'm kind of like dozing on on and off. I don't know if they thought that was good or not, because they hooked me up to uh uh one of those blood pressure machines with like the cuff, and it was like set to go off every like 15-20 minutes to make sure I didn't have any sort of adverse reaction to the uh to the medicine.

SPEAKER_00 12:47

And a spider came down and bit you. But seriously, please continue.

SPEAKER_05 12:53

Fortunately, as far as I know, no spiders came down and bit me. I c like I said I kinda dozed off of you know, you know. Um but uh by about 11 o'clock, I'm looking at the uh the first bottle. Um so now I I you know I've been here for like three hours. My little um my appointment letter said it'll be one to three hours, and I'm looking at the bottle and it's like I'm only like half done the first bottle. Like, this is this is not gonna take only three hours. Uh I mean I paid for five hours of parking because I'm not getting caught by that again, but that may not even be enough.

SPEAKER_01 13:35

Remember the part where I said on podcast on the record just to have someone drive you to the hospital and then pick you up. Anyone you've ever given a lift everywhere anywhere in the last decade owes you one. You probably could have made me ethically do it and I would have been honor bound.

SPEAKER_05 13:53

Anyways, uh, fortunately you can just add more time uh via the internet, so it it I I was able to add more time, I ended up paying for the entire day. Um, but that's um that's not really the point of the story. The point of the story is that it's like I'm just like sitting here and so this is casual, whatever. It seems like overkill that they're taking my heart rate and temperature every like 15-20 minutes, but whatever. They do they gotta do what they gotta do. Um so another patient comes in, uh, and they end up sharing the room with me, and they're getting some sort of iron infusion. Um and uh they uh they're talking to the nurse, they're getting everything all set up, uh, and then the nurse starts making a panicked noise, and they're like, oh, she's like not breathing. Ah uh and so then they had to like kick me out of the room because they had to like get people to come and treat this person who had a reaction to the to the iron infusion. Uh it's like, huh, well, maybe it was a good thing they had me hooked up to this vitals machine.

SPEAKER_01 15:00

Mm-hmm. You're like, oh, this justified the system. I mean, I didn't die, but apparently.

SPEAKER_05 15:07

Well, and then uh I I don't know if there's like specific training you get for calling uh loved ones of of people who have adverse reactions or whatever, but I hear them calling the husband of of this patient. And they're like, Yeah, can you come to the hospital? Your wife had a reaction to the medicine. And then he says something, and then she says, Oh, can you come sooner? And it's like, if I got that phone call, that would not be reassuring. Like, no. I mean, I don't know, I don't know if that's the normal protocol for how you you call people to let them know that their loved ones potentially had a uh the reaction to the medicine that or treatment, but like I mean I appreciate the can you hustle please? As far as I know, uh they stabilized the patient and she was I think she was actually able like talking by the time I actually ended up leaving, uh, which this one to three hour procedure uh ended up taking six hours. Wow, you're real bad at being injected with Pepsi. Well, I don't I don't know. Uh again, they wanted to start the IV thing slowly, uh, because they wanted to make sure I didn't have any reaction or whatever. Um But then, you know, I'm just like sitting there dozing off or whatever, so I don't know if they just like weren't checking on the rate or or what, but uh like I said, about 11 o'clock uh was when I noticed that it was like this is if this is gonna take like 12 hours if we keep going at this rate, and then they come up to like, oh yeah, this is going way too slow. So they upped it up to like 220 milliliters an hour an hour or something. Um and then after you're done getting the medicine in infuse infusion, then they do uh flush, which I assume is more sugar water, but I I I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 17:02

Unfortunately, I don't have any taste buds on the inside of my hand, so fun fact about working on that memoir I was working over the summer. Um because if synestasia, the person I was transcribing for, could actually taste when they did a saline flush. So your brain sometimes will be like, oh, this isn't how this should be working. Have a flavor. Fair. So you can't in fact taste it. You just seem to lack that ability slash curse. Cause it's more of a curse. Being able to taste your medicine when it's injected in you is probably not a good thing.

SPEAKER_05 17:45

Uh but uh it seems that um my cursed spleen, uh, depending on your perspective, uh, responded well to the medicine, and my platelet counts, uh, as of yesterday, uh, were actually within normal range.

SPEAKER_00 18:02

So I need to pause you for a second. So, depending on your perspective, are you saying that a decent percentage of our audience is voting against your platelet's recovery? And I didn't realize this was a partisan issue, that there was a camp of yes, we want Carl to not be dead and recover, and a camp of I wonder who Richard's new co-host will be.

SPEAKER_05 18:27

More like, uh, there could be vampires listening into this conversation to make sure that I don't spill the beans about their evil plan to sell the blood back to the health authorities to make medicine for the conditions they cause.

SPEAKER_01 18:40

I'm just saying that like even Panda would be like, yeah, Carl should probably get a keep his platelets. Like it's interesting to be on the other side of this issue that everything is a liberal conservative debate.

SPEAKER_00 18:56

This I this feels like it should be politically neutral whether or not your platelets come back.

SPEAKER_05 19:04

Uh I mean, as far as I know, I am still going to be having the spleen nectomy because they have it all like lined up. Um, so you know, that'll that'll be good to get the cursed spleen out of me.

SPEAKER_01 19:16

The way you phrase that, like, well, my platelet counts are up, but I already scheduled it. Like, I know it's more complicated than that, but the energy of well, I think I'm cured, but they're already gonna cut off the leg, and I mean sure the gang freakness has receded, but I'm already booked in and just be such an inconvenience to not have my leg sawed off that I should probably commit. I don't want to be a bother to their secretaries.

SPEAKER_05 19:44

But uh I uh and then uh as another preparatory uh thing for my my spleenactomy, uh it I should have grabbed the papers from my car, but but your spleen does help protect you against certain infections. Uh most notably uh I don't know how many types of meningitis there are.

SPEAKER_01 20:05

Well there's meningitis, there's m2fitis, f to m gitis.

SPEAKER_05 20:13

I see what it's like meningitis uh like A through Z. I don't I don't know if there is a meningitis for every letter of the alphabet.

SPEAKER_01 20:23

So which one's a Raichu that gets two tails? Is that meningitis X or meningitis Y?

unknown 20:30

I don't know.

SPEAKER_05 20:32

All I know is that meningitis is bad because it causes brain infections and you die.

SPEAKER_01 20:37

Yeah, like I said, I I didn't think there was a debate on whether or not we needed somebody to replace you on this podcast by you die. But hey.

SPEAKER_05 20:49

No, no, no, see, the thing is they call me up uh and they're like, yeah, we need to get you these uh vaccines, uh meningitis, uh pneumonia, and like 20 different strains of influenza or something like that. Um and uh like yeah, you need you need to come in as soon as possible because like you have to get this done be a certain time before your surgery, so uh can you come in today? And I go in, uh, and they're like, okay, we're gonna give you four vaccines, you get two in each arm. Your arms might be sore tomorrow. Yeah. I don't like needles. Well, especially as you can see specifically, I don't know how many vaccines are administered in other ways, but these ones were specifically the musculatory ones where they injected into the muscle. Uh no. So, uh yeah, that they were they were right. My arms were very sore, but my platelet count was up, so I it it's worth it.

SPEAKER_00 21:53

Excellent ish.

SPEAKER_05 21:54

Yes. And I mean that's that's what's new with me, is that I I am one step closer to Not dying.

SPEAKER_01 22:01

I appreciate that. Like, I don't have that many diamonds to resurrect you. I've already resurrected you a few times, and each time you come back with slightly worse eyesight.

SPEAKER_05 22:12

Uh How many how much does a gold piece weigh in D?

SPEAKER_01 22:18

Mm. Thankfully we're playing Daggerheart where they just measure it by the handful. And you can have like a chest on you.

SPEAKER_05 22:24

But I'm I'm just curious mostly because uh like it you need a thousand gold piece diamond for resurrection in.

SPEAKER_01 22:32

So apparently it's 91 grams or 0.02 pounds for a gold coin.

SPEAKER_05 22:39

0.02 pounds for a gold coin. So that's like 20 pounds of gold? A thousand gold.

SPEAKER_01 22:52

That sounds right. I'm not checking your math. Resurrection is expensive, holy. Yes, as it should be. Like, we don't want to live in a world where the world's first trillionaire can infinitely resurrect themselves.

SPEAKER_05 23:09

Well, I mean, 20 pounds of gold is nothing to a trillionaire, but that's not really the point.

SPEAKER_01 23:14

It's true. You can't actually visualize a trillion dollars. But they could afford to put all of America on universal basic income for five years.

SPEAKER_05 23:24

That would be pretty good.

SPEAKER_01 23:25

Yeah, but why would you do that when you could just hoard it like a dragon? Make smog look poor. Smog.

SPEAKER_05 23:32

Uh but what so that's what's new with me, and what's new with you there, Richard?

SPEAKER_01 23:36

Poor life decisions. So I'm in grad school, I'm TA in classes, I'm working, I'm freelancing, I'm ghostwriting, I'm entering contests, I'm going to book launches and printing festivals, and I'm so tired.

SPEAKER_05 23:54

Printing festivals?

SPEAKER_01 23:56

Yeah, so I think I could have dropped them. So I went to Coach House Books' to have a fun word for it, Way Goose Festival. Which is when printers formally take a break to switch to candlelight for the printing season. So at this old printing house where they have like their vintage printing pests, like 300 plus people were there, authors, writers, agents, free hot dogs that were clearly Costco hot dogs, the best kind of hot dogs.

SPEAKER_03 24:28

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 24:28

So we had our toasts, and like I met a couple authors I know, and then I got a flex on my classmates because I met a couple authors I know. Uh switch to candlelight? Yeah, so the Waze Goose. Waze Goose which has a Z in it. Yeah, it makes sense. Is to mark the beginning of the season of working by candlelight. So they had like a season end party when they would switch to candlelight. Because it was the end of September. It was a one-time an entertainment given by a master printer to his workmen each year on or around St. Pearl Follow Mews Day to mark the traditional end of summer and the start of the season of working by candlelight.

SPEAKER_05 25:13

Hmm. Yep, okay.

SPEAKER_01 25:16

I don't make the rules.

SPEAKER_05 25:19

Nah, I mean that sound that I mean it kind of makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 25:24

You're jealous you didn't. Admit it, you're jealous you didn't come to the book festival with me and look at old timey printing presses. Uh, that would have been pretty ballin'. Yeah, yeah, you know it. So, like, other than making poor life choices, like, huh, I'm up at five in the mor. So here's the thing about why my sleep schedule is suffering and I deserve it. Hmm. I'm up at 5 30 in the morning to be out the door by 6 45, because that gives me enough time that if I miss my first train, I can catch a second train and still make it to class. That means I could just sleep an extra hour a day if I was willing to risk being late. But I can't be trusted. So even on days where I don't have to be there first thing, I use the same route because it works. And if I change it slightly, I might get lost or explode. So it's I like volunteer to give like a big hour-long seminar on scientific rhetoric week one. And now it's like my workload's reduced a bit because I've technically finished a third of my grade. Grad school's wild, by the way. They're like, give a seminar, write an outline, write a 30-page paper, and participate every week, you scrubs. We'll know if you don't. And I don't think the Richard Gambit will work of being super, super participating at the start, so they stop asking me in the second half and I can slack. It worked in undergrad, great. They're tired of listening to me talk by about week three, and then I could just kind of coast. Right, right. But grad school, like, they keep not saying no. I keep suggesting increasingly ridiculous shit, and they keep being on board, and I'm not sure how to handle it. Because I'm out here being like, I want to talk about how in the original Pokemon game the sprite is non-binary and your character name associates you with it, and that's why it was appropriate for ages of each gender. And they're like, that's awesome! Here's some material to read about it. I'm like, oh, wait a minute.

SPEAKER_05 27:19

Now you actually have to do uh research on gender norms and there's no Pokemon.

SPEAKER_01 27:25

Well, it's like the thing is, I like doing this kind of thing, but now it's weird because it's like one of my classes, which is in like science and literature, is like week six is on alchemy, and I'm like, wait, I could just write a 30-page paper on the meaning of full metal alchemist and get graded for it. But the problem is being able to do stuff means the problem isn't that I have to do it now. It's that I can do it and my options are insane. And choice paralysis is real when I'm actually because it used to be, oh, I'll pick the least bad option, but now it's you could do anything. What do you actually want to do? I'm like, oh no, what do I want to do with my life? That wasn't the plan. I went to school to procrastinate, not to accomplish things. That's funny. What do you mean I could just write an essay on cyberpunk if I want to? Huh. Like, one of our assignments is pick any book and read the first five minutes of us and of it and tell us why it's important. And I'm like, so I could make you listen to five minutes of Lord of the Rings, like, if you want to, but I'm sure you know something more interesting than that.

SPEAKER_05 28:33

Oh, they're goading you.

SPEAKER_01 28:36

They're they're they're drawing the best out of me, and I'm not sure if I like it.

SPEAKER_00 28:44

That's pretty funny.

SPEAKER_01 28:45

Yeah. Like, it's like one of my instructions for TA ing that I won't talk on too much because Kadaventiality blah blah blah is like. Can I do this? Yes. Really? Yeah, be engaging. Have some fun with it. This doesn't sound right. You pay me. I am suspicious. Are you sure I can do this? I don't know why not. Huh. Okay. So that's where I'm at right now, is it's like school's fun, which leaves me slightly suspicious. Oh, I also made a sassy remark to the provost of the school without meaning to. So I get in an elevator today, right? Because I'm on the redacted floor of the redacted building. Uh-huh. And there's two people in nice suits in the room, and me being like, in a button-up shirt, so people will open the door for me without having to reach for my ID code. Like you do. Right. And they're like, oh, what floor? And I'm like, oh, this one. They're like, alright, but it's like this time it's not gonna cost you. And then I go, Well, I mean, technically I pay for it. Actually, wait a minute, I'm a grad student. You pay me. And they're like, oh, what are you in? And I like have this whole conversation, but I was gonna make a quip that's like, oh, this time it's free, what floor do you want to go? And I'm like, actually, it's like twenty thousand dollars. But I'm like, wait a minute, you pay me. Fools! You fools! What have you done? You're enabling my tendencies to talk about things, you psychos. Note. I do not believe calling people psychos is fair. I don't think that's acceptable language in today's society. Mental health is real and you should seek therapy. Yep. Unless it's a psycho gundam or a psychoru gundam, in which case, completely fair game.

SPEAKER_05 30:31

Completely fair game.

SPEAKER_01 30:33

I 180 on that. I used to think the psychodice was stupid, but now I'm like, you know, now that it's like 40 years after it launched and they're still doing it, now it's just like there's a certain point of critical mass for a bit where I start respecting the bit. It's like so you use a placeholder sprite and you committed to it for the entire time for someone to be born and possibly have grandkids now. That is commitment to a bit. That is commitment to a bit. So shall we get into daggering some hearts?

SPEAKER_05 31:07

I I think we probably should actually get into uh the um heart of our episode.

SPEAKER_01 31:15

Indeed. So, last time on, Richard and Carl play Dagger Heart. You're a frog man, who's so you're a character with the identity of a dead character who is framed for the death of another character who's been in disguise of a third character, who then stole the identity of a fourth character.

SPEAKER_05 31:37

Ah, yes, good old Epsuhore.

SPEAKER_01 31:41

So uh so far in the campaign, I'll let you give the recap from this point after I gave my satirical your character pretending to be a character who's a dead relative of another character who's now in disguise.

SPEAKER_04 31:57

Um well, see, uh Elroy.

SPEAKER_05 32:04

Uh Jenkins. No, no, Elroy Von Walthorm.

SPEAKER_04 32:08

There we go.

SPEAKER_05 32:11

You're the one who told me that I couldn't be Elroy Jenkins. I said you could be. Huh. Well, maybe I misunderstood the assignments.

SPEAKER_01 32:21

Well, this recap is not helping our audience. So the TLD. I was gonna just TLDR it in 30 seconds, like a terrible abridge recap. So TLDR, you're in a town. And you did an interrogation. A town on the water. A town on the water. You gotta keep that in mind. And you did an interrogation. You did not try and throw a child in the sack this week.

SPEAKER_05 32:46

Not this week, nope.

SPEAKER_01 32:47

Nope. You had some delicious burger-sized dragonfly street food. And I'm gonna actually let you explain now, instead of being woefully unhelpful.

SPEAKER_05 33:00

Um well, I mean, uh, I am on a quest to find the Feinwraith. Um, who is quite clearly three raccoons in a trench coat. You beat me to it. Excellent. Have a hope. Continue. Uh um, and so far my quest has taken me past uh a town that seems to have been growing flowers to try and find the shiny one that cures the the serpent sickness. Um but their fields were on fire and I had to save them from bramble bramble thorns? Yes. Oh, brambles, bramble thorns. Um and uh so I managed to help the guards be defeat the bramble thorns and and put out the fire. Uh but while I was there, I came across um this little girl who I'm naming Lyra. Who I still think she's probably the big bat of the campaign, but uh it remains to be seen. Uh at the very least, everyone in in this first town thought that she was cursed. Uh, and the city guards are like, yeah, just take her out of here. Uh, because otherwise it'll cause problems. So I take her with me. Uh we uh keep going on our way, and we come across uh the Forgotten Grove. So forgotten that it's erased itself from the maps.

SPEAKER_01 34:24

Nice, good emphasis.

SPEAKER_05 34:27

But it appears to have at least at one point in Lyra's home. Um and while we're there, we happen to find a sweet treasure chest, uh, where the treasure is the treasure chest because you can hide stuff in there.

SPEAKER_01 34:40

That is true.

SPEAKER_05 34:43

Uh, and one of those red flowers that uh, you know, everyone's been looking for that can cure this the serpent sickness.

SPEAKER_01 34:50

Or get you really, really high.

SPEAKER_05 34:53

Well, or both. You never know. Um. But more to the point. Um I decided that we were just gonna get out of there, and we keep going along the path, and uh we come across uh I don't remember what the name of the town was, uh, but it's it's a town of of frog people, uh, which I half feel at home in because I am half frog, half human. Umroy is.

SPEAKER_01 35:23

So it is a largely ribbet community. Ribbits were the firm you were looking for. And the town is Wormhearth Crossing. And it is effectively a floating city that once the Haven Empire came in, they became a bit of a trade hotspot. They've opened up some libraries, some scholarly wizard labs, and through tourism and letting people through, they're going through a bit of an econom economic boom. Striking more of like it's entirely possible they're heading in the direction of a California-type situation where it's like they're starting to build out, starting to have universities, starting to bring in scholars, and as a side effect, setting up their food carts, their bridges. And through some of your interrogations, you got some rumors that there were structures originally under the city that they built up on top of.

SPEAKER_05 36:24

Right, and I'm I'm kind of suspicious that that may in fact be where all the uh mages that have been milling about the town are uh but I don't know what they're doing down there, but I think they might be c congregating down there.

SPEAKER_01 36:39

You did effectively manage to ship two of the prisoners together as well. Which was really the goal of the interrogation.

SPEAKER_05 36:48

Yeah, well, I mean, I I don't know why n everyone wasn't just uh fawning over the um predator lady.

SPEAKER_01 36:58

I think you answered your own question there.

SPEAKER_05 37:00

Well, you know, as long as she has a regular human face before she opens her mouth, I think we'll be fine.

SPEAKER_01 37:08

It could just be that the cosplay frog has a great personality. And she may not. We're not here to judge people of looks. Uh.

SPEAKER_05 37:21

But uh yes. That is the recap is that I am in town and I'm actually about to try and investigate. Um, I believe I was also thinking about looking for the library.

SPEAKER_01 37:34

Uh I believe so. And I believe it's worth noting that was it sunrise or sunset?

SPEAKER_05 37:43

Uh, the sun has set or is in the process of setting.

SPEAKER_01 37:46

Yes, so it is because the sun setting process is a six-hour ordeal. It is golden hour and it is blinding, which is what they tried to use as like use as a diversion to mug you that did not go well for them. Did not go well.

SPEAKER_05 38:00

It did not go well for the muggers. They instead got arrested and interrogated.

SPEAKER_01 38:05

And are in jail for a week. And when sunrise sunset is the day, being in jail for a week is kind of rough.

SPEAKER_05 38:15

Oh, yeah, that's true.

SPEAKER_01 38:18

So to give a bit last is after finding your investigation, learning various truths or lies about the Fainwraith. The prisoners slumped with their breathing ragged, gave you a hint that the guards, they may seem decent. They may even believe they're decent, but you shouldn't trust them. No one here will tell you the truth unless you drag it out. Ask about the old groad south of here, you'll hear it was the Fainwraith who cursed it. But that was a lie. The guards you just drank coffee with, some of them help burn it down. Check on the archives beneath the main tower. That's where they keep the records nobody is supposed to read. Their lips curling in something that could be a smile of a warning. Ledgers of every operation, haven't sanctioned, every artifact they've reclaimed, every death they've signed for. If you ask Captain Thalion, head of the guards, slash local barista, if she'll let you into the archives, the library you seek, she'll say no. And that should speak volumes, unintended. But if you can get in, if you got the spine. And as she's hushed away, and you leave the prison cell, the twilight is yours. What would you like to do?

SPEAKER_05 39:44

Um so, um I would like to uh find the captain slash barista. Um, and uh I'm gonna I'm I'm gonna you know get close to her uh and I'm going to attempt this um the tell no lies. I'm gonna uh attempt my spellcast roll against her.

SPEAKER_01 40:17

Okay, go ahead and make a roll for me.

SPEAKER_05 40:21

And I roll an eleven with hope.

SPEAKER_01 40:26

Eleven with hope doesn't do it. Hmm, bummer. Oh well. Um, can I help you? You you want back in? You want so we got these things where we like take a cinnamon roll and put it in a muffin tin, right? And we like like cinnamon roll muffins. They're pretty good.

SPEAKER_05 40:46

That does sound quite good.

SPEAKER_01 40:47

Uh uh I'll take one of those, please. No charge, you're giving a delicious cinnamon roll muffin. She's hard to read.

SPEAKER_05 40:58

So uh I've heard that this uh town has a fairly impressive uh archive.

SPEAKER_01 41:08

Yes. Well Do you think they're gonna try and hit the archive?

SPEAKER_05 41:16

Well, uh it it's possible that someone's already in there trying to gather information. Uh plus uh I was kind of hoping that uh uh you know my uh my father was was uh was a ribbet. And I was kind of hoping that maybe I might be able to uh head in there and and see if I can find any information about my my family history.

SPEAKER_01 41:36

So, for context, you are described as a cat, yes.

SPEAKER_05 41:41

Uh, I'm gonna flick my ribbot tongue at her.

SPEAKER_01 41:43

Excellent. Go ahead and roll a presence check, and please fail for me.

SPEAKER_05 41:49

Uh please fail?

unknown 41:50

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 41:51

I'll see what I can do. I do have a minus one to presence, so. Ooh, nine with fear.

SPEAKER_01 41:57

You think they're gonna attack? We're gonna double the guard. Don't worry, friend. With thugs around this around, you're right to point this out. We're gonna make sure to increase security on that. Thank you for your contribution. And she walks away.

SPEAKER_05 42:11

Huh. She didn't uh deny my request to go to the archives, though.

SPEAKER_01 42:19

Instead, she's gonna go put more guards outside it and lock it down. And for context, you have a sneaking suspicion that they're probably not gonna let you in now that they think that the thugs are gonna try and rob it. And I'm currently sitting at three fear tokens.

SPEAKER_04 42:35

Alright, alright, well.

SPEAKER_05 42:40

Uh I guess I'm gonna head. Can I follow the mages to see because you said they were like congregating, assumably, around this archive.

SPEAKER_01 42:53

Go ahead and roll an instinct check to see if you can find any mages milling about.

SPEAKER_05 42:58

Instinct. Um, so I I wanna try to apply my Lord of the Flies. Uh I I what I figure is that mages are going to uh avoid s uh the dirty and smelly sections of town. Uh and so I wanna see, I wanna try and see if I can track them based on where there aren't any flies. Would I be able to apply my Lord of the Flies?

SPEAKER_01 43:32

I'm gonna let you have it this time, but that is on the outer limits of what I'm gonna let you get away with. That is a stretch. I'm gonna let you have it, but I'm gonna be like, I'm gonna use my I I'm letting you have this, but I'm my eyebrow is raised.

SPEAKER_05 43:50

It did not help.

SPEAKER_01 43:52

Uh I got an eight with beer. So, as you're like, they're not gonna go to the dirty areas. You go to like Try and map out where there's flies, and you remember something. You're in a bog. Right. Okay.

SPEAKER_05 44:08

So like there's flies everywhere.

SPEAKER_01 44:10

Yeah. Good job. Enjoy that discovery. Okay. And you lost track of the mage you were following because you're looking at the flies instead. So I want you to know that while you're staring at a fly trying to do this like city map, a mage has walked behind you and your character did not see them. But I want you to know you didn't see them.

SPEAKER_04 44:31

Right, right, right. Um okay.

SPEAKER_05 44:35

Uh well then, um I uh guess I'll just head back to my hotel for now. Uh assumably that's where Lyra is.

SPEAKER_01 44:50

Yep. You did not bring her to torture prisoners. The only person who did not bring her to torture prisoners.

SPEAKER_05 45:06

Well, okay, so firstly, I'm gonna come up to her. I'm gonna offer her my my what's left of my cinnamon bun.

SPEAKER_01 45:15

It is delicious.

SPEAKER_05 45:20

So it seems like we might need to uh sneak into an archive. Just wondering, uh you know, yeah, I had some pretty inside knowledge of the that other town we that I that I found you in. Yeah, you ever been around here before?

SPEAKER_01 45:38

I haven't, no. But we're gonna break into somewhere.

SPEAKER_05 45:46

Well, I mean, there's gotta be some sort of uh sewer system we could take advantage of, and I was kinda hoping that that you might be able to help navigate the sewer system with me, but um could be could be dangerous.

SPEAKER_01 46:01

Um the city floats, right? So would there be sewers or would it just go into the bog?

SPEAKER_05 46:15

That's a good point Well maybe we should try and see if we can find some like water breathing potions or something. Okay Unless you unless you have a spell or something for that.

SPEAKER_01 46:33

Um and she thinks real hard. Um no. Uh my dog he can swim real good. He holds his breath a very long time. Hmm.

SPEAKER_05 46:59

Well I don't have any inside information about what this thing is actually like, but it does seem like perhaps going under the water would be the best choice of action. To see if we can get there from underneath.

SPEAKER_04 47:15

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 47:17

Hmm, you wanna send your dog to to scout it out for us? In the meantime, we'll sit here at the at the hotel and and uh enjoy some delightful scones and okay.

SPEAKER_01 47:30

So as she sits down, she kind of sits like cross-legged on the floor. And the skeletal dog, you see like fins grow out of its spine. Okay. And then it jumps out the window and you hear a sploosh as it goes like four stories into the water below. And her eyes are glowing, and she's like, I see him, um going down lots of water, and it looks like um like a pine cone under the city, like it floating there below the city, like like a pine cone that goes all the way down to the ground, and there's like little vents and things around it. Like a tower that goes down, not up. To the bottom of the bog.

SPEAKER_05 48:19

Is it is the city attached to it?

SPEAKER_01 48:24

Um the city's uh I guess I can't floating above it, and there's like chains like stuffed attached to it.

SPEAKER_05 48:33

Interesting, interesting.

SPEAKER_01 48:35

Uh it's no I see it. It's it's attached to the the it is attached and it's attached there's the library, it's like it's welded, and there's pipes from there to it, yes. Interesting. Interesting. And there's a big fish! Oh no, fluffy! Fluffy will take a while to come back.

SPEAKER_05 49:01

Hmm. That makes sense. Perhaps swimming isn't the best way, but maybe if we can figure out where those pipes connect the to the city proper, we can use those pipes to get down into the into that tower.

SPEAKER_01 49:16

Th there seems to be about like four of them, one in each corner that comes up to the town somewhere.

SPEAKER_05 49:25

Okay. Well, uh, which corner is closest to the town to the hotel?

SPEAKER_01 49:34

Uh, there seems to be one attached to the bottom floor of the basement of the hotel.

SPEAKER_05 49:40

Interesting. Uh does this hotel have an elevator? It does not. It does not. Alright, well, I guess we uh I guess we better start heading down some stairs then. Uh, we're gonna go to the stairwell and we're gonna head down to the to the lowest stairwell that we can get to where the door is not locked.

SPEAKER_01 50:06

So as you like head down the stairs and get to like the bottom floor, you see what looks like the burliest dracon draconoid humanoids you've ever seen, just leaning against the door. Arms crossed. With like a gut sword leaning on his side, and he's just kinda like one eye open, staring at the stairwell, guarding a door.

SPEAKER_05 50:32

Staring at the stairwell, guarding a door.

SPEAKER_01 50:34

Yeah, so he's back to the door, like your eyes m well, do you try and sneak down the stairs?

SPEAKER_05 50:41

Um no, no, we weren't exactly trying to sneak, per se.

SPEAKER_01 50:45

Alright, then you see your eyes meet, and he like looks at you and you look at him, very clearly guarding this door. And you notice that there is three locks on the door.

SPEAKER_05 51:02

Uh uh, excuse me, sir. Uh I I seem to be lost. I was I was uh hoping to find the weight training facility, uh, but I seem to have taken a wrong turn.

SPEAKER_01 51:13

Uh, um the gym? You tell me where the gym is in this hotel, because there is one. Describe the gym and what floor it's on.

SPEAKER_05 51:26

Um okay. Well, so uh the gym itself uh is actually uh surprisingly not geared towards ribbots because why would ribbets be staying in this hotel? Uh so I mean it has it has uh it has treadmills uh and like weight benches and and like stuff that you would find in in the typical gym in North America, we'll say. Not that that's relevant, but um and I I do believe it would be just on the ground floor.

SPEAKER_01 52:07

Alright. So he accurately describes how to get to the gym. Which also has those giant rope things where you do the no no no no no. I know I just made the noise, but you could clearly picture the work rope workout thingy.

SPEAKER_05 52:23

Alright, alright. Uh so we're gonna head back up the stairs.

SPEAKER_03 52:27

Yep.

SPEAKER_05 52:29

Uh and then I guess. Um what do I have in my inventory that would be able to help with this?

SPEAKER_01 52:45

I don't know. What do you think?

SPEAKER_05 52:46

Box number 10. Box number 10 is uh Okay. Um, so I got a lock it uh from the human criminal. Um it's currently locked, yes now?

SPEAKER_01 53:05

Yes.

SPEAKER_05 53:09

I already read the sealed letter. Okay, well, uh hopefully I don't think this is actually gonna be related, but I'm gonna try and see if I can get this locket open to see what pictures are inside it.

SPEAKER_01 53:23

Open a finesse check.

SPEAKER_05 53:25

Finesse check, alright.

SPEAKER_01 53:27

Ba-da-da-da-da-da-da.

SPEAKER_05 53:29

Finesse, come on! Eleven with hope! Woohoo!

SPEAKER_01 53:34

So as you manage to pick the lock on the locket, it opens. You couldn't be less surprised to see the heart-shaped frame with the ribbon on one side and the human on the other.

SPEAKER_05 53:47

Dang it. I was hoping there'd be some small chance it would be that guy, the the guard, would be in the locket for some reason.

SPEAKER_01 53:54

No, but there does seem to be like a fine black powder inside the locket.

SPEAKER_05 53:59

Ooh, a fine black powder. Hmm.

SPEAKER_01 54:05

And it was like in like a little baggy, like, you know, like the how Dio put his poison medicine for his father and like like they fold in like like a paper story envelope kind of thing?

SPEAKER_03 54:16

Mm. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 54:18

Yeah. So inside that like origami envelope is a fine black powder. So it's not just loose in there.

SPEAKER_05 54:24

Yeah, okay, okay, that makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 54:25

And for context, the lockets like about the size roughly of a one-a-day men's multivitamin bottle. It's a decent size locket.

SPEAKER_05 54:36

Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_01 54:38

I could have used pocket watch. That would have been a much better metaphor than the vitamin bottle on my desk, but I stand by it.

SPEAKER_05 54:48

Um. Can I uh is there any way for me to determine what what this powder is?

SPEAKER_01 54:57

I mean, you can roll an intelligence check, uh, knowledge check, or you can just eat some.

SPEAKER_05 55:02

No, no, I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna go for the knowledge check first. Uh okay, um actually um given that this could be poison, can I apply my being dead to this?

SPEAKER_01 55:18

I'll allow it.

SPEAKER_05 55:21

Nice. And it only costs one hope to do the skill, right?

SPEAKER_01 55:25

Yep.

SPEAKER_05 55:29

And roll. Yeah, 16 with hope.

SPEAKER_01 55:34

It seems like it'll go explodey when exposed to heat. When exposed to heat. Yeah, you're pretty sure this is lycopodium powder. Powder.

SPEAKER_04 55:49

I see, I see. Um, alright.

SPEAKER_01 56:01

Then So looking at the inside of the locket, if that locket was thrown, it's like the metal would spark and then it would explode. It's basically he made a grenade.

SPEAKER_05 56:16

Okay. So uh Libra and I are gonna sneak back downstairs.

SPEAKER_01 56:23

Go ahead and roll finesse. And I'm pretty sure you have relevant class powers for being sneaky.

SPEAKER_05 56:35

Uh relevant class powers, let's see. For being sneaky. Um Yes and no. My relevant class power is that if I would be hidden, I'm cloaked instead.

SPEAKER_01 56:50

Good to note. I'ma take that note. So, roll finesse to try and sneak.

SPEAKER_05 56:57

I rolled a nine with hope. I am not sneaky.

SPEAKER_04 57:00

You don't know that.

SPEAKER_05 57:03

That's true. Maybe this guy is sleeping now. Um. But I mean, basically, I wanna get as close as I can, and then throw the locket at the door. Behind the guy.

SPEAKER_01 57:20

Okay, okay, so as you sneak, you feel inconfident, you throw the locket. Go ahead and roll either strength, agility, or finesse for me. Okay, let's go with finesse.

SPEAKER_05 57:36

And Critical success!

SPEAKER_01 57:39

Yeah! Go ahead and roll 4d6 for me.

SPEAKER_05 57:45

4d6. Yep. One, two, three, four. And they are twelve.

SPEAKER_01 57:55

So twelve plus twenty-four is thirty-six damage that explosive does. Uh-huh. So, I have a question for you. Are you- do you want him to get hit by this explosion or just the door behind him?

SPEAKER_05 58:10

Uh, well, I mostly want it to be the door behind him. I want him to get, like, thrown away from the door. Uh, I mean, he might take some damage, but I I really I don't want to, like, seriously injure him. I just want him to be like knocked over, and then I will be able to, like, either shadow step or just quickly run through the door and So the door blows off its hinges.

SPEAKER_01 58:32

The explosion sends him staggering back into the wall, slams heavy. So, for context, his HP thresholds were five and nine. And you could have done 36 damage. So, that would have been fatal if it was thrown at him. So, I'm gonna say he is out of commission but not dead. He is concussed, he hits the wall, the back of his helmet makes a k noise. As he slumps to the ground out cold. However, you hear pH. People are aware. People are aware this happened. They don't know what happened. Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_05 59:19

Um. Guard's looking pretty rough. The guard is looking pretty rough. The question is, do I go through this door or do I use it as a diversion to try and find a different door?

SPEAKER_01 59:33

Choice is yours, but I'm putting a timer on it. And you gotta go. Click, click, click. If I had a sand hourglass, I put it on the table.

SPEAKER_05 59:40

Nope, no, we're we're going through this door. We're gonna we're gonna run through this door.

SPEAKER_01 59:44

Alright, so as you run through the door, you hear the sounds of footsteps ahead of you. You hear murmuring, like, what the hell is that? I don't know. And I have put a D6 on the table dramatically. Which was originally intended for an elaborate heist, which is what I was expecting you would do. That is not what is happening.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:08

Um, and how dark is this stairwell?

SPEAKER_01 1:00:12

So you do see that there seems to be like a light blue light as like magical lanterns are set up, and the stairwell seems to spiral down for about like three stories relatively.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:24

Hmm. It's a it's a spiral staircase.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:28

Yes. Heading down. Heading down. Which does kind of line up to how this was connected to the structure.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:36

Yeah, I mean that part makes sense. Uh spiral staircase, I mean it's a it's a good fortification for stopping people from entering. Hmm. Well then. And it it's sorry, it's lit by these uh torches.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:57

Oh yeah, it's pretty well lit. And a lovely blue color, a bit of lapis lazuli going on here.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:06

Uh, am I able to put out the torches?

SPEAKER_01 1:01:10

Um, you're not sure? Go ahead and roll knowledge. I take to a five.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:16

Roll a knowledge check. Uh, that is an 18 with fear.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:22

So you do have mild spellcasting abilities as part of your nature. And you just kind of like can attune with it, and like the flame goes from blue to black. And then now it doesn't go out. Instead, it's emitting like very, very soft rave lighting. So it's dark, but you it's like you change the color and slid it all the way down to the lowest hue in saturation. I see. Um I'm gonna spend a fear, as you hear. And the dice ticks down to a four.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:56

Okay. Can I make it dark enough to be able to activate my shadow stepper ability?

SPEAKER_01 1:02:02

Yes. I'm gonna say you've made I'm gonna say you basically hack the lights of the building by doing this, and you've dimmed all of the lights down.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:12

Yeah, okay, okay. Um we have established that I can shadow step with Lyra? Correct.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:24

Because she is basically furniture.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:29

Uh well, I mean, I'm just gonna like pick her up and fireman carry her, uh, running down the stairs towards the sounds. Uh, and then as soon as I see the other guards, um I am going to uh use my shadow stepper ability to try and teleport past them.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:53

Okay, so as you teleport past these guards, you know something interesting. The first guard looks like one of the officers you saw when you first arrived in the town. Mm-hmm. Who was a pretty stout-looking dwarven woman, seemed to be give wave and a big smile. But what's uh what kind of unsettles you a bit is you see what kind of looks like a dog standing next to them. But it has six legs, glowing red eyes, and two long toothy squid arms. Coming kinda like ears.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:33

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:34

And it's like panting, looking around, excited, trying to sniff for you. Go ahead and roll a finesse check for me.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:49

Twelve with fear.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:52

So you're feeling hidden from the guard, and well. You're not feeling hidden from the doppelhund. The doppelhund. So, with this situation, especially since that was fear. It's going to. You see, it's like tendrils light up. And it looks like it splits into two, like its body just kind of separates. One behind you and one in front of you, and you're currently pinned by it as it's looking playful. It's gonna go ahead, and its toothy arms are gonna attempt to grab the sides of your face.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:30

Oh boy.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:33

Do do do. Where's my dice roller? Here it is. I don't ride dice very often in this game, it took me a moment. Does a 15 hit you? A 15 does hit. So, you're looking at 10 points of physical damage. And it's going to do a double lash. I'm going to mark a stress to have the other what tendril lash at you.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:11

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:12

Which is going to. 17? 17 hits? Because of their ability, they get to combine their damage together. So what happens here is it is 20 damage. Instead of two attacks for 10, it's one attack for 20.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:30

Oh, jeez. Um, well, I mean, I'm gonna spend an armor slot to reduce that to major damage instead. No, it'll only take two hit points.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:40

Okay. So I'm going to now spend a fear for the guard to go, what's going on, boy? And turn around dramatically. Spotlight is now yours. There is one guard and the two doppelhounders. Okay. Um

SPEAKER_05 1:06:08

Okay, so I have a torch in my inventory.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:13

You do.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:16

Um can I quickly light it, wag wave wig wave it around, and then toss it to throw it as a distraction for the dogs, and then attempt to shadow step past them again?

SPEAKER_01 1:06:29

I wonder what that would be finesse to try and distract them with a torch. Try and distract them with the torch. And critical success. Yeah. So I was gonna be this is gonna be hard to succeed at. However, as you go fetch, both it and the illusion run for the stick. Mm-hmm. And they both have ran towards the stick. And you have shadow stepped away.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:54

I have shadow stepped further down the stairs, yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:57

Was that with hope?

SPEAKER_05 1:06:59

Uh well, it was a critical success. Shadow step doesn't require hope.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:03

And it also clears the stress for a critical success. Oh, awesome. Nice. Alright, so I'm gonna. Oh, it's not too clear then. I'm tempted to spend a fear for them to try and find you, but I'm not gonna let you get away this time.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:18

Well, because I do still have to try and get out somehow.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:22

So, you have managed to sneak past the the doppelhound, which fun fact on a recent date, I had them pick a monster to throw at you, and that is what they had picked. That is a fun fact. Yeah, so as you find yourself having escaped the royalty-free displacer beasts. You find yourself in the ch into a colder chamber. It's colder than the river outside. And now that you've kind of went through the spiral and the main doors opened, you see the walls are lined floor to ceiling with shelves, ledgers, bounded reports, crates marked with Craven's crest. But you also notice how this room opened up. It's like an empty training hall where it's like you feel like that's where a barrax would be, that's where an armory would be. Like something was here first, and then they moved in and set up their laboratory. Arcane chandeliers have been dimmed, no longer flickering their blue light. And against the far wall, you see what looks like a door with three locks on it again. So there seems to be about five rooms in here, and you gather just from like the markings that there's a barracks, an armory, what was an office, a library, and what could be another exit. Because you know there's about four egg there's four exits in here, but you don't really see all four of them. Go ahead and roll knowledge for me.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:54

I will roll a knowledge check. And fifteen with fear.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:01

So there's an urban legend of sorts, and I'm gonna spend a fear as a shadows rustle a bit. That there exists what are known as a League of Ribbon Assassins. And they had a secret base somewhere before Haven occupied. So this appears to be the ancient temple of Ubisoft, hidden below the city waves. Where that's where the legendary assassins that the poor cosplayer was pretending to be was from here. But it seems long since abandoned. So it seems like Haven came in and stole this assassin training camp and put a library in it instead. You also see three dead bodies with their throat slipped.

unknown 1:09:49

Huh.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:49

That look like they were Haven guards. Like someone beat you here by a matter of hours.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:56

Huh. Um I can j I can just tell that they haven't been dead that long.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:03

I mean the blood's still like s sliding across the floor.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:08

Uh. So there almost definitely is someth someone here. Um, well. You said there's an armory?

SPEAKER_00 1:10:20

Yes.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:23

I guess the first place I want to check out is the armory and see if I can find uh any better gear.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:29

Okay, so as you rush down towards the armory.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:34

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:36

As you open the door, describe what this assassin's armory looks like to me.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:41

What the assassin's armory looks like.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:43

Yeah, what are you seeing in here?

SPEAKER_05 1:10:47

Um, well, I mean, so they've got lots of um like blowguns, poison darts, crossbows. Uh not very many actual like I th um no, I think they had probably have like a couple long bows, but mostly it's the the smaller hand hand weapons. Um short swords, daggers. Um and uh then they would also have uh uh several like uh cloaks. Um I'm assuming they would have some leather canvasin type armor, although that's what I already have, but canvas and armor.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:35

So one thing you do see that's kind of interesting is you see what looks like which would be deep cultural appropriation if you stole one, but does look like the under armor and overcloak of what's known as Tyra Soft Armor or Assassin's Ropes. They have a base threshold of eight and eighteen, a base armor score of five, and have the quiet feature. They give you a plus two bonus to rolls to make you move silently.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:04

Uh well, yeah, I mean it's only half cultural appropriation. So I I am gonna can I quickly try and swap out my armor for the Assassin's Rogue robe?

SPEAKER_01 1:12:17

I'm gonna take down this dice timer to a three.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:20

Okay, so and what is the the armor?

SPEAKER_01 1:12:24

So it is called. Well, my brain just buffered even though I have the page open. Give me a moment to refine the thing I was just reading.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:34

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:35

Why do I have so many tabs? It's Tyrus Soft Armor. So it is T-Y-R-I-S. Oh, there I got it. I see it. And that gives you like armor about So the timer paused of this is a timer until like reinforcements arrive from the surface for the explosion. Right, right. And it's still sitting at three left. Your fight with the Splissel hounds did not take long. So that's the first thing you noticed was this very appropriate armor. The second thing you noticed. Roll a D uh roll a D10 for me, please. A D10. Roll seven. So all the gear you saw before of like mini crossbows and knives, that's all tier one arm weapons you could have, any you see fit. But there is one thing you noticed that was a little more interesting than the rest. Oh. So it looks like a dagger, but it has a more elaborate hilt. Like it's a twisted curved blade with almost like teeth maws at the base where the pommel where the guard would grow. And you know that to be a devouring dagger. A devouring dagger. It is known for being scary, making people mark stress when they're stabbed by it.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:10

Huh.

SPEAKER_05 1:14:15

Wait, um can can you use a primary weapon in your offhand? Because my primary weapon is a crossbow right now.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:24

Yes, you can. You just don't get secondary weapon bonus effects in your offhand. Actually, I honestly don't care. If you had two secondary weapons, I'd let you have both powers. Uh, well. And if the character sheet fights you, you can click the box to change it to being a secondary. I have no problem.

SPEAKER_05 1:14:49

I am gonna I am gonna take that so no one uses it against me. Uh, but I don't think I'm gonna equip it at this time.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:57

Got it. You can spend a stress to equip it if you change your mind. Okay. So now there's two dice uh notches left on the dice before reinforcements arrive, because you stopped in the armory.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:09

Alright, now. Um.

SPEAKER_05 1:15:15

I don't really care who killed the guards, uh, but I do wonder what they were looking for, since they obviously didn't raid the armory. Um, can I see any signs of what they were looking for?

SPEAKER_01 1:15:28

Go ahead and roll a knowledge or a sense or instinct.

SPEAKER_05 1:15:37

Hmm. They're equally good. So I'm gonna go with knowledge. And none of my experiences would apply. I can't or rather I can't think of any ways to make them apply. Uh so that was an 11 with hope. Woo-hoo!

SPEAKER_01 1:15:52

So they did come in the armory, they just didn't take the things you took. Because you do see like footprint uh you do see some muddy footprints on the roof.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:02

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:02

And it looks like they tried to get into the library and then left. Just kind of looking at the footprints.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:09

They tried to get into the library and didn't succeed?

SPEAKER_01 1:16:12

You're pretty sure they tried and then got scared off. But you're not certain. Uh-huh. But as you're doing this, I tick down the dice, you do see what looks like the most cliche wizard-looking wizard you've ever seen. Come out of the locked door for the office. And you see what looks like a large Micah-in-mushroom folk who has a bunch of like papers like safety pinned to his mushroom cap, who's wandering over and he looks old, and he's like, ask me a bunch of questions, and I don't get paid enough to not get taken hostage. And it's like, you idiot. And they seem to be bickering, trying to figure out what the explosion was.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:01

Um, okay, so I I should have done this before I started combat, but I'm gonna spend three hope to uh activate my um rogues dodge. Uh gain plus two to provision until the next time it attack seeds against you, otherwise it lasts until my next long rest. Oh, sorry, until my next rest is what it says.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:19

So you hear footprints rapidly approaching from all four directions, and you do see these two in the middle trying to find a target.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:27

Hmm, mmm, mmm.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:29

And this wizard you see is wearing a purple cape. What looks like full plate mail, and like a metal face mask that like seems to be attached to like an iron wizard hat. Holding a spear-like wizard staff, and above his hand appears to be like an enfolding in on itself Tesserx Square.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:54

Well, I think I actually just want to you said there were muddy footprints on the ceiling? Yes. Interesting. Uh so I would like to attempt to hide, but I would also like to subtly set the lights so that the footprints on the ceiling are more obvious.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:23

Alrighty then, go ahead and roll knowledge.

SPEAKER_05 1:18:26

Uh knowledge, alright? Come on, don't fail me. Uh 13 with hope. Woo-hoo!

SPEAKER_01 1:18:36

So, as you light it up, they're like up there, and they start heading down the hallway, and you feel like much like the garden in Hyrule Castle. If you run for it now, you can make it into that study without being seen. If you choose. I'm I am definitely going for the study. I'm glad I read your intent on that one, because half him is like, haha, now he's going to stab them in the face.

SPEAKER_05 1:18:59

Well, I'm I may be a petty thief, uh, but I'm not planning on on murdering anyone that I don't have to.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:05

Fair. So, as you get into this room, you see much more like you're seeing more crates, you're seeing bookshelves with the books chained to the shelf, you're seeing wooden trays cluttered with delicate glass vials and pinned botanical samples. You see more arcane chandeliers, and against the fall wall far wall, a spell circle close, concentric rings of runes binding a creature no larger than a child. Its eyes luminous and its limbs trailing. It has wings that seem to spread out and become like more transparent the further out they go into infinity. Its mouth and eyes are sewn shut with silver thread. As soon as you enter the room, it lifts its head and stares at you, with a vacant space of where its eyes should be. A small blast pla plaque reads specimen twelve, sub deity dormant.

SPEAKER_05 1:20:08

Um I'm just gonna ignore that for the moment. Um so uh I have the little dossier of important figures. Um does this contain any sort of iconography for the Feinraith?

SPEAKER_01 1:20:28

This feels very Haven coded, this room.

SPEAKER_05 1:20:32

Okay, so I I guess what I was asking about the dossier is whether or not I would actually know uh what sort of iconography the Feinraith would would be using.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:43

Um nothing directly comes to mind. You haven't seen any this thing looks pretty fucked up. So you do look around a bit, and you see on a black chalkboard what looks like a diagram of what looks like a baby, and then like an arrow, and then like a diagram of his soul being ripped out, and then an arrow, and then what looks like a brass carving of a toaster, and then a light being shoved into the toaster.

SPEAKER_05 1:21:12

Uh-huh. So this seems to be some sort of horrifying uh soul magic.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:20

It's not an unaccurate statement to make. Or it could be scientific progress, you're not sure.

SPEAKER_05 1:21:28

Well. And how is this creature bound?

SPEAKER_01 1:21:33

Seems to be in a spell circle, and its eyes and mouth is sewn shut. And it's you look closer, it's hands and feet are webbed, and between the webbing is more silver thread as it's tied to the sewn to the wall.

SPEAKER_05 1:21:46

Sewn to the wall.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:48

With the spell circle glowing around it.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:53

Mm.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:54

And you see like it's sewn to the wall and there seems to be a jar next to it with a little storm cloud raining.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:00

Hmm. Well.

SPEAKER_05 1:22:07

I mean Lyra. Do you recognize this creature?

SPEAKER_01 1:22:19

Her head twists at you almost unnaturally. It shouldn't be here. It shouldn't be tied up. This is bad.

SPEAKER_05 1:22:30

Well maybe we can help it then. Maybe we maybe we should uh break the spell circle and under the silver threads.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:38

And she grabs your sleeve, but we need to be careful. It's angry. It it's scared and it's dangerous.

SPEAKER_05 1:22:51

Okay, okay. Um can it do you know if it can sense emotions like if I were to put my hand on its head and try to convey that I mean it no harm?

SPEAKER_00 1:23:09

Maybe.

SPEAKER_05 1:23:11

Well, I mean, that's my best bet, because I don't want to just let it out if it's gonna like kill me, but I'm gonna I'm gonna lay my hand on its head and or I don't know, like gently like rub it its back or something or so. See if I can find somewhere that doesn't look like it's like injured or anything, and like just like put my hand on it and be like, Don't worry, I'll get you out of here. And start undoing some of the threads.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:34

That is fascinating. Go ahead and roll me. Give me one second here. I need to check something because this was an interesting choice. That is fascinating. So as you place your hand on it, I need you to roll a hope dice for me, just a d12. Just like a duality dice? Yeah, just a regular d12 by itself.

SPEAKER_05 1:24:09

Uh okay, let's just Okay. Let's go with a D12. Oh, no. Clear. Clear that. Rolling a D12. Roll 12!

unknown 1:24:24

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:25

It is not lower than your level. Good. So, as you touch it, you feel like crackles of energy going up your arm. You I'm gonna go ahead and spend a fear, and you take a hit point. Oof. Okay. And as it's crackling up, you see visions. You see a town. You see that town you were in before. People selling baking bread, and you see that it's rainy. Lots of rain. And in the clouds you kind of see like a vague face, a vague smile. That's reminiscent of this creature in a different form. You remember the town talking about how after Haven moved in, the crops were growing, their abundance in food, the river was calm, it became a trade route. But the rain was stopping. And you're starting to get a feeling that they've captured the the spirit that governs the rain in this region, and found it and twisted it, and has been siphoning its power to keep the town safe, to control the waters around the town. If it is freed, it is angry. It is rageful. This town may not survive at being freed, but nature can return to its correct balance. They have captured lightning in a bottle. Okay. And it's you're getting a bit that it shouldn't be in this body. It is in the wrong form. And it is in pain. It is in agony. It it's it's not quite Edward Kill Me. It's viral and wild, but it knows you mean it no harm. Hmm.

SPEAKER_05 1:26:16

Um I mean, I would hate to have this weighing on my conscience, as all the innocent people that might die from this, but I am going to continue with releasing the lightning spirit.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:30

So as you cut one, I'm gonna spend a fear. You take another damage from a zappy zap. Go ahead and roll finesse for me. Finesse.

SPEAKER_05 1:26:42

Come on 22 with fear.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:46

Excellent. I'm gonna spend a fear. Psst you take another da hit point from a zappy zap.

SPEAKER_05 1:26:51

Oof. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:53

It seems to be half untied.

SPEAKER_05 1:26:58

Okay. Well, I don't have any way to stop myself from dying if it zaps me again.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:17

You're down to a singular hit point?

SPEAKER_05 1:27:21

Uh I've been focusing on stress and not hit points.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:25

Okay, okay. Uh oh. Do you have a healing potion on you?

SPEAKER_05 1:27:29

No, I have a stamina potion instead.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:32

Oh no. You got it half read. You see that circle's dimmed a bit behind it, and the lights are going out. A few of them are turning off. Uh you feel like that timer, you got a few seconds left.

SPEAKER_05 1:27:48

Lyra, this this might hurt, but I'm gonna need you to to help me cut this cut these last ropes. Roll the presence check of your life. The presence check of my life? Oh boy. Roll for it. Oof, only an eight with hope.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:07

Um here, and she hands you a healing potion.

SPEAKER_05 1:28:13

Woo! Okay, a healing potion heals for one d4?

SPEAKER_01 1:28:17

Yep.

SPEAKER_05 1:28:20

Alright. I'm not even gonna add it to my inventory. Roll I only healed for one. But I'm going for it. I'm I'm trying to untie the the other half.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:35

Give me one moment. I want to check something on the health potion. 1d4 plus one. Oh, alright.

SPEAKER_05 1:28:45

Alright, go ahead and roll. Go ahead and roll finesse. Finesse?

SPEAKER_01 1:28:54

Ooh, seven with fear. That's not good. You cut another one, you take another zappy zap.

SPEAKER_05 1:29:05

Uh so now what? It's it's three-quarters of the way free?

SPEAKER_00 1:29:09

Yep.

SPEAKER_05 1:29:12

Ow, I mean I I I'm gonna commit to the bit. I gotta I gotta get this thing free. Another finesse check? Yep. Come on. Something good. 20 with hope! Woo-hoo!

SPEAKER_01 1:29:28

As you cut it, I'm gonna spend my last beer. You take any point. So you have three options here. Mm-hmm. You could just simply go down and hope Lyra gets you back up. You could go out in a blaze of bore glory and have one more turn of guaranteed success. Or you could risk it all and roll your duality on hope you get back up and on here you die.

SPEAKER_05 1:29:58

You've you you've miscalculated. Um I healed for two, and then you dealt me two, so I still have one hit point left.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:05

So your life flashes before your eyes for a moment. And then as you free it, you see its hands start viciously pulling at its face, at its eyes. You see it rips the thread of silver blood, splashes across the room. Its eyes open, its pupils split into twos and fours and six. Its mouth, it uses its hands to pry in the inside of its mouth and rips its own mouth open and keeps pulling, it keeps pulling, it keeps pulling. As a brighter and brighter light starts coming out, and then you see as it pulls its jaw backwards down its neck like it's peeling its own skin off. Water starts pouring in the hole it left, and a deflays skin sack lands on the ground, and then all the lights go out.

unknown 1:30:52

Oh.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:53

You're in a pitchback room, water's lushing, and you're hearing screaming and panicking around you. There's just a hole in the ceiling. And water is pouring in.

SPEAKER_05 1:31:07

So how far is it to the surface of the water?

SPEAKER_01 1:31:12

Like, you went down, I don't know, like three flights of stairs? So, like three lights of stairs of a swim up?

SPEAKER_05 1:31:19

Well, uh, more so to the point, um I guess. Is it actually nighttime out now? Yes. So, would you allow me to use my shadow stepper to teleport to the surface of the water? Does it go that far? Uh, it uh can move anywhere within far range.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:42

I you can see anywhere you can see, right? I'm gonna say on a janky technicality, you can't really see the surface of water through the water.

SPEAKER_05 1:31:52

Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:53

So I'm gonna go with no on this one. Also, you can't really see anything. It's pitch black in here. And it's too dark to shadow stab, ironically. And the water's filling up. I'm putting a D4 on the table for like until this room fills up completely and you start to drown. And you hear Well no! The boom! As you hear a massive thunderstorm starts on the surface. Rain hammering down, lightning bolts cracking.

SPEAKER_04 1:32:21

Um Yeah, no. Lyra, I think we're gonna have to swim for it here.

SPEAKER_05 1:32:28

Um she grabs onto you for dear life. And uh, yeah, I guess we're just gonna attempt to to swim to the surface through the hole that was left in the ceiling.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:38

Go ahead and roll a strength check.

SPEAKER_05 1:32:41

A strength check? Yeah, none of my experiences apply here. Eleven with fear.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:49

I'm gonna take that fear point as you're trying to swim up in the darkness, and you you can't really see where you're going. And you don't have you're not actually amphibious. Yeah, yeah, that's true. So, you might be closer to the surface. You might not be, you might just be drowning. Go ahead and roll another strength test for me.

SPEAKER_05 1:33:09

Another strength test? Oh no! That's a five with fear.

SPEAKER_01 1:33:16

So you feel like you're further away from the surface than you were a minute ago. And you can barely make out anything. Hmm. You do see that there's light. Kind of, and you think that might be up, but you're not really sure. I guess I'm swimming towards the light. Alright, go ahead and roll strength.

SPEAKER_05 1:33:39

One more time. Come on, don't fail me now.

SPEAKER_01 1:33:43

Sixteen with hope! Woo-hoo! So, carrying Lyra, you manage with fear, vigor, and effort. Your head above the wrong surface. You take a deep breath, and you see that that pillar of light you swarm up to is Wormshearth Crossing is on fire. It has been hit by several bolts of lightning, and as a floating, floats him in the water. A town floating in a bog should not have gotten this big for how much of at risk it would be for a fire or a lightning storm if they didn't have that under control for the last few years. Right, right. And the rain and wind is vicious. Um you see the ribbots running around desperately trying to like take buckets of the swamp wire and splash them on the fires. Crack, another bolt of lightning. Crack right into the bakery. The guards are panicking, children are screaming, smoke is raising up to the sky. The thicket of ash and tar in the back of your lungs.

SPEAKER_05 1:34:47

I am definitely gonna drop my disguise. Um and uh then, um, are there any unattended boats? Go ahead and roll nulge. Let's see if we can find an unattended boat.

SPEAKER_01 1:35:06

Sixteen with fear. So, I'm gonna spend that fear immediately for dramat for dramatic irony. So you do see a boat attached by a rope, and you see what appears to be a mother relatively young, short, curvy, curly hair, under their arm, their child, no more than two, and their husband running towards down the dock, flames behind them towards this boat. You could absolutely get to this boat first and take it.

SPEAKER_05 1:35:34

No! Why? Why would you do this?

SPEAKER_00 1:35:39

I spent a fear for it. I played fair.

SPEAKER_05 1:35:42

You did play fair, fair. Um, and the boat's just not big enough for all five of us.

SPEAKER_01 1:35:49

Nope. It'll comfortably fit either them or you. It was one of the little gondolas that used to come to this town in the first place. Right, right. Dang it.

SPEAKER_05 1:36:02

Um. Oh, dang it. And there's no way for me to know whether or not they deserve it. They probably don't, though.

SPEAKER_01 1:36:12

So it's like you see the woman, a beautiful human woman, short bobbed hair, and you look at the child with its large, almost anime character-like eyes. It's been a pat spotchy patterning. And you look in the distance behind them, and you see like you see the mother and the two children, and you see the dead ribbet struck by a bolt of lightning about a half meter behind them.

SPEAKER_04 1:36:36

Ooh. Dang.

SPEAKER_05 1:36:40

Um, well I guess I'm going to an abandoning I couldn't like offer to help them either. Like, 'cause she might have trouble rowing the boat in the storm.

SPEAKER_01 1:37:03

The boat w it's because it's you and Lyra that you'd have an issue.

SPEAKER_05 1:37:08

Right, right. Um Well, I think I left my treasure chest in the hotel. That's funny. Um so I I am actually going to uh swim to shore and try and see if I can get my treasure chest from the hotel before all uh the hotel is on fire.

SPEAKER_01 1:37:30

It's been hit by repeated lightning bolts.

SPEAKER_00 1:37:33

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:37:34

Remember the pillar of light that went up from you? Like, there's a hole in the middle of the town where a pillar went up as it's flooding and collapsing and sinking into the bog while on fire. There's no hotel. There is a pile of burning lumber. Uh-huh. And it's weird, you think the rain would be helping to put out the fire, but just kind of splashing sparks everywhere like a grease fire.

SPEAKER_05 1:37:58

Okay. Well, that's that's a lost cause. I need to search for a different boat that's not being.

SPEAKER_01 1:38:04

So you're gonna try and find a different boat then? Well Most of the boats are being taken as people are abandoning ship.

SPEAKER_05 1:38:16

Yeah, yeah. Or I can't really trust this thing not to smite me. Yeah, no, I gotta I gotta try and see if I can find a different boat, I guess. My poor treasure chest and flower.

SPEAKER_01 1:38:36

Oh, damn. So go ahead and roll a knowledge check.

SPEAKER_05 1:38:42

A knowledge check? Actually, sorry, uh instinct. Oh, change that to instinct then. Instinct of 13 with fear.

SPEAKER_01 1:38:54

No boats. They're all being taken by people flooding ship. You do have a weird moment of confidence, though, that that treasure chest will probably sink to the bottom of the lake, and in theory, you can swim down and get it.

SPEAKER_05 1:39:05

Ooh, would I be able to hide myself in the treasure chest? Maybe good.

SPEAKER_01 1:39:11

I want this. So go ahead and if you want to try and swim to where you think the treasure chest is gonna be and hide yourself in the treasure chest. I'm gonna have you roll a speed check. And through the power synth make timing, allow it if you get high enough.

SPEAKER_05 1:39:25

Alright. Um I can't apply any of my skills, I don't think. So I will just roll for it. 16 with hope!

SPEAKER_01 1:39:36

So as you grab Lyra, see the boats, you see the towns on fire collapsing, you see women and children running to the boats, or seeing dead husbands smote. And then you see the hotel just crash sideways into the water, and you see it. Your treasure chest sinking down, you have a thought. You gra you firemen grab Lyra, you start swimming towards it, you climb up into it, close the lid, Dio coffin style, as this chest resizes to fit you as it sinks to the bottom of the lake.

SPEAKER_05 1:40:05

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:40:08

So you and Lyra are basically in a coffin. Yeah. You don't know how much air it holds, but you aren't being hit by lightning or fire or burnt rubble. You can't really hear that much sound out of it, and you're in a box. How long do you spend in this box?

SPEAKER_05 1:40:29

Hmm. Can't really hear much sound.

SPEAKER_01 1:40:34

You as your background have a pretty good sense of time, though. Especially with the day-night cycle, you're pretty good internally of tracking time.

SPEAKER_05 1:40:46

Let's try and wait like four hours.

SPEAKER_01 1:40:51

Okay. Go ahead and roll a strength test for me.

SPEAKER_05 1:40:56

A strength test. Strength of 18 with hope.

SPEAKER_01 1:41:02

Alright. So after about four hours, you're noticing the air is getting a little bit thin?

SPEAKER_05 1:41:18

That's it, that's all. The air's getting thin?

SPEAKER_00 1:41:20

Yep.

SPEAKER_05 1:41:22

Huh. Well, I mean, I guess we need to take a deep breath. Lyra, we're gonna open the chest and see what's going on out there. Uh, so take a deep breath, we're probably gonna have to swim for the surface. And uh open the chest and see uh what's going on out there.

SPEAKER_01 1:41:45

So, as you open the chest and pop your head out, you see the town is gone. There's just no town there anymore. You just see drift wood. Most of the fire. As you're kind of like breathing a bit. The chest is kind of like seems to have been swept up to the current downriver, and you're on like a sandbar on the beach. Huh. Alright. You seem to have went You're not sure if you went to the other side of the pass or backwards. So I'm gonna have you roll a D6. If a four, five, or six, you got swept up towards your destination. And if you get below a s a three, two, or one, you got backslid further from your original destination.

SPEAKER_05 1:42:32

I rolled a one.

SPEAKER_01 1:42:35

So you remember when you were at the fork in the road, and you're like, you can go the water route or you can go the high route? Yeah, you're back to the fork in the road. Back all the way back to the fork in the road. Yeah. Because the dam exploded.

SPEAKER_05 1:42:54

I see, I see. That makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 1:43:00

Um also apparently your your treasure chest is kind of shape sizes now, which is gonna be punish me later in this adventure, but yes. Because that's just such a beautiful cinematic moment.

SPEAKER_05 1:43:16

But the good news is that I was able to save the the flower then as well, because the flower was in the chest. Correct.

SPEAKER_01 1:43:23

So as you look into the distance, you do see like a few boats are on the beach, and you do see what looks like a really soggy wizard standing on the water like a really angry possibly religious figure if they had to like snowwalk through a river, but they can walk on water. He is battered and bruised and burned, his helmet is cracked, his eyes showing. He's like stomping on the water towards you guys who have now popped out of this chest. Can I tell if he's seen us? Uh, go ahead. Did you want to try and hide from him?

SPEAKER_05 1:44:00

Um 50-50. I this guy he seems like he's the guy behind these uh insane experiments, and he needs to die.

SPEAKER_01 1:44:11

And he looks injured as hell from your quick look at him.

SPEAKER_05 1:44:17

Um so I mean I suppose I do want to be hidden from him. Would I be able to use my shadow step to get behind him?

unknown 1:44:31

Um.

SPEAKER_05 1:44:33

Since it's nighttime.

SPEAKER_03 1:44:36

Yes!

SPEAKER_05 1:44:39

Because I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna use my shadow step to get behind him, and I am going to shoot him in the back of the head with my crossbow, uh, activating my haird with the dagger to also stab him in the kidney at the same time.

SPEAKER_01 1:44:57

Alright, go ahead, and that is slick. It's cool. Real cool.

SPEAKER_05 1:45:02

And then uh let's. Ah no! Wait, do I have advantage because I'm cloaked?

SPEAKER_01 1:45:13

Yes. Which is adding a d6 in this game.

SPEAKER_05 1:45:17

Okay, well, I mean, I don't know if that's gonna do enough because I rolled a five with fear, but let's roll the d6.

SPEAKER_00 1:45:23

But maybe.

SPEAKER_05 1:45:25

Uh that gets me to eight.

SPEAKER_01 1:45:29

So as you go to stab him, he does the Darth Vader turnaround, holds his hand out like a force choke, and he's gonna use his warding sphere reaction. So you take. Wow, doesn't even see if it hits, it just smacks you, huh? 11 points of damage as he just force blasts you in the face.

SPEAKER_05 1:45:54

Am I allowed to spawn more than one armor slot?

SPEAKER_01 1:45:57

Only one at a time.

SPEAKER_05 1:45:59

Only one at a time. Uh, well, I mean, I guess that means I go down.

SPEAKER_01 1:46:06

Wait, you're in the treasure chest for four hours, right? Yeah. Take a short rest.

unknown 1:46:12

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 1:46:14

You're so generous. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:46:16

I mean, you are about to be dark vadered by Jesus, so.

SPEAKER_05 1:46:19

Downtime, short rest. Uh, ten to wounds.

SPEAKER_01 1:46:24

You like, I asked you the amount of time specifically for this question, so. Um I do, however, get a d4 fear myself. Okay, now. I got four fear! Ha ha!

SPEAKER_05 1:46:42

Funk. Plus your tier. My tier my I'm currently tier two. One or two? Tier two.

SPEAKER_01 1:46:49

It goes from level one to level two. You go up a tier like instantly.

SPEAKER_05 1:46:54

I've managed to clear all my hit points. And I might as well also clear some stress. Which I managed to clear all my stress too. Alright. In which case, I uh yeah, uh- I I guess. How much are you saying? You decided to take eleven?

SPEAKER_02 1:47:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:47:14

I am still gonna use an armor slot to reduce that to the next tier down. Uh, so I only take one hit point.

SPEAKER_01 1:47:22

Alright. And then, now it's back to his actions because he had a reaction to do that. So, as you hit him, you want to stab him as force field like almighty pushes you back. It seems to be disabled at the moment. He'd have to like spend some effort in action to recharge that shield. Is what he'd l could do. Instead, he's going to now turn at you that's been blasted by the sphere. It's gonna roy Mustang, snap his fingers with hate, and use arcade artillery. I have to spend a fear to do this. Make an agility reaction roll.

SPEAKER_05 1:47:59

An agility reaction roll, so I don't get hope or fear, but it's hope or fear. Um, actually, I just I do have one quick question. I mean, okay, it doesn't really matter for now, but uh 14 with hope for the reaction roll. Oh no, it doesn't hope doesn't matter. 14. Okay. Um my rogue's dodge plus two to evasion until the next time attack succeeds again succeeds against you. Uh does the Almighty push count as a attack that would have disabled my rogue's dodge ability?

SPEAKER_01 1:48:37

It didn't use the attack number, so I'm gonna say no.

SPEAKER_05 1:48:40

Okay, just one double check. Anyway, yeah, so I rolled a 14 to react to the Roy Mustang.

SPEAKER_01 1:48:47

Yeah, you need a bit more than that, so you take 13 points of damage as a uh precise hail of magical blasts as he starts snapping explosions at you.

SPEAKER_05 1:48:59

Okay, that does not sound good.

SPEAKER_01 1:49:00

Spotlight's back to you. Um The building falling on him hurt him a lot. This is a tough fight, but he's he's looking as bad as you, probably.

SPEAKER_05 1:49:18

Um I'm gonna try this again. Uh can I shadow port behind him to try again with the sneak attack? Yes you can. Alright, so I spend a stress to shadow port behind him, and then I can roll with advantage for being cloaked, yes now? Yes. With advantage for being cloaked. That is a twenty with fear.

SPEAKER_01 1:49:58

Oh, twenty head.

SPEAKER_05 1:50:01

Alright, and so then he takes uh the two d6 damage for my sneak attack uh and he takes two d6 plus one physical for my crossbow. And he takes an additional two, so that comes out to 17 points of damage. Oh my for my dagger.

SPEAKER_01 1:50:26

As the dagger gets him in the spleen, cost up some blood. He's he's looking ragged. I'm gonna spend a fear, and I'm gonna have him spend a test, stress, and he's going to teleport to far range away. Oh so he's just gonna and warp himself a far range away. Spotlights back to you.

SPEAKER_05 1:50:55

Unfortunately for this guy, I uh I am not stressed out right now because I had a nice little rest near my treasure chest, so I I'm gonna use my shadow port to chase him down.

SPEAKER_01 1:51:07

It also goes far range.

SPEAKER_05 1:51:10

It does. Uh here I am cloaked, uh, so I once again can attack him uh with my crossbow.

SPEAKER_01 1:51:20

I'm gonna make you roll finesse to actually hide in the circumstance. He's paying attention to you now. Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_05 1:51:26

Roll for finesse. And 17 with hope.

SPEAKER_01 1:51:32

Alright, so he teleports, you teleport. This is such anime shenanigans right now. Like, you just ob you know when like you Obito uh Minato throws the dagger at Obito and it phases through him, and then he teleports to the dagger? That is in fact what's happening right now.

SPEAKER_05 1:51:52

Uh I'm rolling for my tank roll. Ugh. Uh I don't I don't I don't know if that hit. Uh does a nine hit?

SPEAKER_01 1:52:03

So at this point, he goes to start teleporting again as your attack's about to miss. Go ahead and roll another d6 as you hear her yell on your le the little girl yell on your left. And she's gonna get the other band.

SPEAKER_05 1:52:20

Uh that brings it to eleven.

SPEAKER_01 1:52:23

Not quite enough. As your dagger just phases through him. And that was with hope, right? Uh no, that was with fear. Alright, so it's his move. You started to panic a bit because teleporting didn't work. You kinda needed teleporting to work. So he's gonna spend a stress to recharge his barrier as you see like light shimmering around him. And he's just gonna. I can't believe he's gonna do this. This is such a bitch move, but he is going to attempt to use his eruption ability. Oh. So, make an agility reaction roll. Agility?

SPEAKER_05 1:53:07

Rolling 12 with hope.

SPEAKER_01 1:53:09

12 with hope. So him and you both take eight points of damage. Okay. As a pillar of ice grows between you and launches you back a range. I see. And then I'm gonna he's gonna spend his next fear to try and teleport again.

SPEAKER_05 1:53:36

Ooh. And he's in very he'd be at very far range then, yeah?

SPEAKER_01 1:53:40

Yeah. Hmm. Well he looks like death is imminent.

SPEAKER_05 1:53:53

I mean, I I really have no choice but to uh wait. How close can I move? Like if after moving a certain distance, I have to do like an agility check to see if I can actually close the distance, yes or the intent by me as your GM right now is to make you have to roll an agility check to be able to shadow step to him. Uh well, yeah, I'm I'm going to attempt to make that check.

SPEAKER_01 1:54:20

Go ahead and roll.

SPEAKER_05 1:54:22

My agility check of 12 with hope.

SPEAKER_01 1:54:26

12? Will do it. Be able to get you close enough to shadow step.

SPEAKER_05 1:54:33

So I will spend another stress. I will shadow step behind him. Uh and attempt to attack him one more time.

SPEAKER_01 1:54:42

Uh skeletal dog bites his shin, giving you advantage. Nice!

SPEAKER_05 1:54:51

That is a 14 with hope.

SPEAKER_01 1:54:54

Doesn't quite do it. Oh dang it. Luckily though, his barrier wasn't able to trigger. If that wasn't hope, spotlight's still on you. Okay. I don't even notice, but I burned all my fear exploding you. Um so now. So I'll give you some meta-knowledge. His explosions seem to hit things within close range. After he takes damage. If he is dead, he might not explode, you don't know.

SPEAKER_05 1:55:36

Well, yeah, no, I was thinking about uh shadow porting away so that I'm okay. Yeah, so I'm far distance away. So I'll spend a stress to do that, and then I'm just gonna shoot at him from this distance with my crossbow.

SPEAKER_01 1:55:55

I will make you roll up the mess check because he is trying to spy. So I'm gonna spend a fear. Oh yeah, I can do that. I'm gonna spend my last fear after you shadow step. So he turns his head and sees you.

unknown 1:56:06

Ah.

SPEAKER_01 1:56:06

So you're not cloaked, because he he knows your game, but it does cost me a fear to take away your cloaking. Sorry. Just mechanics-wise, so you know that I can spend a fear to take away your cloaking, if it makes narrative sense, and I feel like he is trying to track you desperately right now.

SPEAKER_05 1:56:25

Hmm. Uh well, I'm still going to attempt to shoot him with my crossbow. Um 11 with fear. That does not. That doesn't do it. Nope.

SPEAKER_01 1:56:35

He is going to. First, he's gonna mark a stress to teleport, which is his last stress. He is now vulnerable. And he has you've lost sight of him for a second. He is trying to hide from you. Oh boy. Uh, so do I have to try and spot him then? Yeah, you'd have to successfully beat his DC with a sense or knowledge check. Based on how you're trying to track him. Or if you're like, Lord of the flies, I try and see dead flies on him. I y you get the idea. So whatever stag you want to use to try and track him, if it makes rational sense.

SPEAKER_05 1:57:17

Well, um he is a mushroom person, yes now?

SPEAKER_01 1:57:21

No, the mushroom person's long dead. This is the other guy in the dope battle armor. Uh yeah, yeah, yeah, okay. Okay. Then, um You actually can see part of his face now that he's smashed his helmet off. He appears to be an elven humanoid.

SPEAKER_05 1:57:36

I I am going to try and track him by track him by instinct. Uh let's see if I can actually roll a decent roll. Ugh, a nine with fear.

SPEAKER_01 1:57:48

So, as you try and spot him, you've lost track of him at the moment. He is going to move his regular walking amount, because he is out of magic. And has scampered away. So go ahead and make a no spotlights back to you. You effectively have two turns to spot him before he's got away completely.

SPEAKER_05 1:58:11

Instinct? Critical success!

SPEAKER_01 1:58:16

Motherfucker! I mean, no that's what I mean.

SPEAKER_05 1:58:21

Yeah. I clear a stress and automatically succeed?

SPEAKER_01 1:58:25

Yes. He was about halfway up the hill that leads on the route towards the lost village.

SPEAKER_05 1:58:32

Um well, I mean, I still have is he within far distance? Yep. Because he had to move then using foot power. I then I have the stress I need to be able to teleport to him. Yep. Um. And this time I'm going to use uh my reign of blades. Oh. Because Reign of Blades deals an extra 1d8 when they're vulnerable.

SPEAKER_01 1:59:01

He is vulnerable.

SPEAKER_05 1:59:04

Uh 15 with hope.

SPEAKER_01 1:59:09

Do you have any experiences you can add to bring that to a 16? Because 15 is not gonna do it for you.

SPEAKER_04 1:59:20

Well okay.

SPEAKER_05 1:59:25

Uh well, so he's tattered and bruised.

SPEAKER_01 1:59:32

Um There's like blood leaking from the hole in his mask.

SPEAKER_05 1:59:42

Um I I don't I don't really know how I would like Lord of the Flies, I don't like I was gonna be like, oh, does he have any like leeches on him? Then that would show me a weak spot that I could attach a target. I'll allow it. Or I like the leeches. If I get the plus two from Lord of the Flies, that brings it to 17.

SPEAKER_01 2:00:08

Alright, go ahead and roll damage. You have to get above 11 to end this.

SPEAKER_05 2:00:13

Well, I mean 2d8 plus 2. Uh, and then plus another one d8 brings it to 18. How do you want to do this? Um. Well, I mean, uh, I kind of just want the like blades to like spin around me, and then they just like all just right into his chest.

SPEAKER_01 2:00:40

As the blades shang on his chest, and the mask of his shatters off the leeches on his neck, giving him the one opening. You do recognize a tattoo under his eye of the Scarlet Veil Syndicate. And that's where we'll end tonight's session.

unknown 2:00:56

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 2:00:57

So, to give a debrief, because we do like doing the debriefs about this session, a few things to note. Thing of note first. I did allude to my other party that I ran the same session through going through and already looting the library. Right. Slash the secret frog temple.

SPEAKER_04 2:01:15

Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_01 2:01:16

But I still left all the lore and things you would normally find there in there, because there was books and documents and lore information. Right. So, freeing the spirit is always a rough option because I try and make it like super dramatic. No one's blown the hell out of the town. You blew the f out of that town. That town got screwed. Like you're like, so did you piece together that that was the deity that used to guard the other town that they dragged and turned into a battery?

SPEAKER_05 2:01:49

I kind of kind of figured. Uh, you did say that the smile reminded the a different smile reminded me of of that other town. I was like, yeah, you know, this is obviously uh a front for something abominable.

SPEAKER_01 2:02:04

So I'm absolutely when I run the next session tomorrow, gonna describe that the town someone blew up the town. Cause I'm enjoying making it that you're running the same campaign, but just different enough for me to Easter egg it. But how'd you feel about that session where I kind of I made you do a fight a bit, because I'm like, yeah, boss battle? And I was gonna let this guy had he got away, you would have got the hint that he was a member of the Scarlet Bale. And I tried to get away and you said no. So here we go. No recurring villain for me.

SPEAKER_05 2:02:40

He did almost get away, though.

SPEAKER_01 2:02:42

He tried. So I had him take like three hit points from a building falling on him, which felt fair.

SPEAKER_03 2:02:49

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 2:02:51

Cause you dropped obsidian on him.

SPEAKER_05 2:02:55

I also I muchly appreciate the short rest I was able to get in the uh in the chest.

SPEAKER_01 2:03:00

Fair is fair. Well, what's funny is I was gonna have him originally die, and then you're like, oh, I'm gonna teleport to the surface. Like, well, fine, then he's gonna teleport to the surface. Be that way.

SPEAKER_05 2:03:13

That's funny.

SPEAKER_01 2:03:14

Well, it's kind of funny is so like part of the GM move is that that I can spend a fear to deal stress or deal HP, but I rarely do the HP unless it makes perfect narrative sense. And what you were rolling for wasn't whether it hurt you, it hurts you every time because I was spending fear points to do it. You were really rolling for how fast you freed him. Hmm. Yeah, okay. So what you were rolling for how many moves it took to free the creature.

SPEAKER_05 2:03:42

Yeah, that makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 2:03:44

And it was really of a, hey, if you roll a fear, I'm gonna zap you. But if I ran out of fear, I couldn't zap you anymore.

SPEAKER_05 2:03:51

Uh I mean I had a a good number of critical successes this time, which was nice. Um, but I also feel like I had a lot of fear. Like you were you were constantly stalked.

SPEAKER_01 2:04:04

Oh man. Did I do emotional damage spending a fear point to have another c uh person try and steal the boat for their loving family? No, no.

SPEAKER_00 2:04:14

That was that was that person was innocent, but that was uh that's the most damage I've done to you in a while, and I was happy with that.

SPEAKER_01 2:04:28

So yeah, the other the other party did a heist for context. Like the other two times I ran it, like I have a bunch of hints in things where locals can give you hints to like different ways to break in, different rumors, there's a timer for how long till guards get there. But you're like, nah, I'm just gonna grenade the door and run right in. I'm like, huh. Okay. I have no problem with this.

SPEAKER_05 2:04:57

Uh yeah, I mean I don't really know what uh Leroy would have been suspicious of. Well, aside from the fa aside from the fact that the door was guarded. That's like uh you know, oh, they're they're gonna loot the the building under the sea, under the water. We should drop our guards. It's like, hmm, well there must be something valuable in there.

SPEAKER_01 2:05:22

Oh, yeah, plus the guard plus the thugs straight up be like, there's war crimes below the surface.

SPEAKER_05 2:05:28

Yeah. Um So Aros is like, you know what, I need to get down there quickly. And uh obviously I couldn't just I had trouble just sneaking past the guard, so.

SPEAKER_01 2:05:40

Well, it's funny is there is a rooftop sky that you could have got in through, there is a drainage hatch, there are people that would tell you about the rotations of the guards. I swore you're going to wait for that guard to take a leak to pretend to be him and go just walk through the door. I was certain you were going to use your sh clearly established lockpicking and shapeshifting skills to rogue your way in, and then I was gonna send a timer while you snooped around.

SPEAKER_05 2:06:06

Hmm. Also No, no, you gave me uh a grenade. I did.

SPEAKER_01 2:06:14

So I I had to use it. It was Of course the domestic terrorist had a lovely locket with a bomb in it. That just makes sense. That makes sense that he would have that, and you know it. You know what's funny though is my player that was playing like an actual ribbon assassin, which is why the underground place is called Ubisoft.

SPEAKER_00 2:06:37

Yeah, okay. Because I had them name it, and I'm like, that it it really Ubisoft okay, it's the Underground City of Ubisoft.

SPEAKER_03 2:06:46

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 2:06:47

But I didn't discover when they were there trying to loot it that the game actually had nice assassin ropes. Because I was like, okay, because I'm like, while you're describing things, I'm like, alright, what tiers do stuff it gives? I'm like, tier soft armor, like what does that do? Oh, there's actually assassin ropes? So I need to now retroactively give my other player these assassin ropes that make you quieter.

SPEAKER_05 2:07:09

The the assassin's ropes are kind of kind of uh awesome. A thought lawn. So the Gambison armor only had three armor slots, the uh assassin ropes have five.

SPEAKER_04 2:07:20

Right.

SPEAKER_05 2:07:21

Uh and it raised my thresholds by two each.

SPEAKER_01 2:07:24

So And a silent well, it's because you did go up a tier for stuff, right? So Dagger Heart's interesting where it's like my goal is you're tier two, which means by the time you hit tier three, all your gear should already be upgraded through tier two by either shops or finding things.

SPEAKER_03 2:07:43

Hmm.

SPEAKER_01 2:07:44

So in my brain, it made sense to start giving you tier two stuff now. Right. But yeah, it is objectively better. By like a lot. Also, I went to give you the fun dagger because it does something fun, but I should have just offered you the improved crossbow, which is just a crossbow, but better.

SPEAKER_05 2:08:05

Yeah. I don't know, I I might equip the the fun dagger. Um because it deals more damage. Like it deals D8's plus four magic damage.

SPEAKER_01 2:08:20

And marking a stress is funny, because that would have stopped the wizard from teleporting.

SPEAKER_05 2:08:26

It would have been helpful in this exact situation. You are right.

SPEAKER_01 2:08:29

But there's no way you could have known that.

SPEAKER_05 2:08:32

Um well, and then the other thing too is like that that plus two to damage if you're within melee range. Um it seems it felt like it was more important to try and hit those damage thresholds than it was to try and stop him from using his abilities.

SPEAKER_01 2:08:49

Yeah, it can go a lot of ways. Like. So one of the things is the game talks about like primary-secondary. I personally GM that if you want to put something in a different slot, I'm fine with it. If you wanted to rock two shields, I find that hilarious. And in like the Nexus sheet, you can just kind of click a checkbox to change something from primary to secondary anyway. Right. I also consider putting a revolver in the room. Cause there's just a secondary weapon of small revolver.

SPEAKER_03 2:09:23

Oof.

SPEAKER_01 2:09:23

I thought about it. You didn't get a revolver, but it would have been funny.

SPEAKER_05 2:09:28

It would have been funny.

SPEAKER_01 2:09:31

Alright, so yeah, for the session, like, the only difference from how I planned it, how it played out, was for the heist, I was gonna have a bunch of characters with little rumors, and then there is like a drainage hatch, or a skylight, or a small catwalk, or the archivist private entrance. And then it was the idea that you would like plan a little heist. When I ran it for my other group, they blit into two parties. One directly went into the underground, and the other one did the interrogation. So while one party was heisting, the other one was interrogating the guards, and then they both left at the same time. Yeah, okay. And the ribbon assassin managed to triple critical hit, kill three guards in one dice roll. Savage. So as I described as him like jumping, doing an upside-down vertical cartwheel, slicing three necks and landing. I'm like, I gotta mention that in this one when you're there, because that was awesome.

SPEAKER_03 2:10:24

Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_01 2:10:25

It's kind of switching from me running the same adventure with different parties to me running like a West Marches of everyone interacting, because I can't help myself. It's just too much fun. And they also, so Daggerheart puts out their like playtest contents for free on their website. They put up like a monster supplement that has like a lot of DD-inspired monsters, like the royalty-free Displacer Beast. Right. So I messaged the person I'm seeing, hey, pick a monster so I can blame it on you to attack my party for DD, and they went Displacer Beast, and the Daggerher version is the Doppel Honde. DoppelHoned. Which is the dog instead of a cat, and it's otherwise identical to the Displacer Beast. It drowned. There was no way it was getting out of the flooded building. It's kind of fun, though, because like I made a GM's judgment call for how dramatic to make freeing the spirit be.

SPEAKER_03 2:11:19

Hmm.

SPEAKER_01 2:11:20

Cause the other party decided to not free the spirit because it was like they're being stealthy and it was too big of a thing. Hmm. But the first person freed the spirit, and I didn't quite devastate them to that extent.

unknown 2:11:36

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 2:11:37

I decided to like, because you hadn't fought anything in three sessions, I decided to just be super dramatic explosion with you.

SPEAKER_05 2:11:44

Hmm. That is true. I I have been mostly avoiding fighting.

SPEAKER_01 2:11:48

Which is fine, you were playing a rogue. Which is why I was kinda surprised to see you run in with murderous intent.

SPEAKER_05 2:11:56

Well, I mean not murderous intent, but

SPEAKER_01 2:12:00

I mean I was just I am kinda sad I couldn't get my wizard far enough away to become a recurring villain. But such is life. The dice meeting.

SPEAKER_05 2:12:17

Yep. And I was like, you know what, fine. Uh if if they're gonna up the guard, and this is such an important place and it's hard to get to, I'm just gonna get there by any means possible.

SPEAKER_01 2:12:28

Which is fair. It's not what I expected, because it's like it's ironic that you're the character that I thought would be the most likely to heist when I wrote a heist.

SPEAKER_05 2:12:40

That's funny.

SPEAKER_01 2:12:43

And it's like when I originally wrote the adventure, the archives weren't like a super dramatic underground thing, but that kind of got added when a player's like, Assassin Den. I'm like, alright, there's an assassin dead under the ribbon city now.

unknown 2:12:57

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 2:12:58

But I did always have it kind of like go underwater, because I like the idea of this library having like a submersible part of it, so if they wanted to, they could just bury their illegal research by dropping it to the bottom of the lake.

SPEAKER_05 2:13:09

Hmm.

SPEAKER_01 2:13:10

That makes sense. And yeah, there was like I have like so many hypotheticals planned, like if you steal the archivist's key, if you sneak in late into the night, if you surprise find the mushroom dude and then like bribe him. They had such a lengthy discussion with that mushroom dude about politics.

SPEAKER_02 2:13:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:13:33

Because he's like, he's he was he just guarded the book section. He was in the library room instead of like the office where you went. And he was basically like, you can't burn books, books are important. You work for bad guys, bad guys who pay me to read books, this is great. Someone's gotta record what they do so future generations know how awful they were. And they like we're trying to argue him to revolt. He's like, no, no, what I do is important because I tracked that they're bad people and someone has to do it, therefore I'm a good guy.

SPEAKER_05 2:14:02

That's some solid logic.

SPEAKER_01 2:14:05

He's dead now.

SPEAKER_05 2:14:08

Yep. He got devastated with the town.

SPEAKER_01 2:14:12

Oh, that's gonna be so funny for my players when this comes up in like ten sessions when they return, and it's just a waste. And they're like, well, I guess the spirit got free.

SPEAKER_05 2:14:21

Uh, your other uh player who freed the spirit, you said you didn't devastate the town quite so thoroughly.

SPEAKER_01 2:14:28

So I was more ominous about it, where I'm like, and you free them rainstorm for the first time, and soon a flood will come destroy this town. But the difference was you touched the spirit and it read your memories. So I'm like, that's an interesting choice. Because the spirit got to know that the town its guarded was full of zombies, that Haven had mur moved in here and did science experiments, and knew it was in a lab being tortured. Right. So you gave it information to be pissed. Also, you have issues, and now it has issues.

SPEAKER_05 2:15:11

Leroy von Wolfholm does have issues.

SPEAKER_01 2:15:13

Also, and I don't think this is good DMing advice, but because it's you, I've enjoy tormenting you, right? So, like, for when I was running a test run on my friend, I think having a wife and child and having them choose whether or not they die in the fire isn't the thing I pull on all my players. That feels like a thing to do to Carl specifically.

SPEAKER_05 2:15:37

If I was a different character, I might have might have gone for it.

SPEAKER_01 2:15:41

You thought about it.

SPEAKER_05 2:15:42

I did, I did. Uh but the uh some of what I did today was somewhat psychotic. But my whole entire characteristic is the idea that I am the well-adjusted adventurer that got forced into the adventure by external situations. Uh, and so he's generally not gonna just murder hobo people or throw people off a boat for his own well.

SPEAKER_01 2:16:11

That's the thing is you never murder hobo. You're like, okay, I need to get in here quickly. So you specifically didn't kill the first guard. And you're like, I need to free the spirit. Cause nature is fucked. But you did say, and I quote, I'm gonna free the spirit, and I guess I'm gonna have to endure the consequences.

SPEAKER_00 2:16:29

And because you said that out loud, I had to make three consequences.

unknown 2:16:35

No.

SPEAKER_00 2:16:36

You gave me express permission to make there be consequences. There's your feelings, you know it to be true.

SPEAKER_05 2:16:46

All in all, that was a very fun adventure. Uh, and I mean, I like to say I have been mostly avoiding combat, but it was nice to have a little bit of combat once again.

SPEAKER_01 2:16:55

Oh yeah, you crushed it. Man, I felt so outplayed when like I teleport away, you're like, well, I teleport directly behind them, and I'm like, okay, you're doing the Minado Obino fight. I see. I see what's happening here. Although I stand by my I can teleport to any shadows I can see, so I look at the bottom of a lake to the surface. I'm like, no. Where would you foothold? How would that even work?

SPEAKER_00 2:17:18

That's fair. That's fair. I'm drawing a line in the sand, and it is here and no further.

SPEAKER_01 2:17:25

And the thing is, like, I can spend a fear to like take away any status condition if I need to, like, end effects you put on enemies or end effects you put on yourself. But the rules are like it should make narrative sense. So theoretically, I could just always take away your hiding by spending a fear. But I really only do it if I think narratively they'd be able to see you.

SPEAKER_05 2:17:46

Right, yeah, that makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 2:17:48

Because I'm not just gonna be like, I ha I shadow step, cool, spend a fear they can see you. I shadow step, cool, no more shadow step for you. Screw you. As a general rule, I give you the first one for free, the second one I debate it, and the third one I make you actually hide.

SPEAKER_05 2:18:04

Yeah, that makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 2:18:06

Also, I think you've go up a level now. Oh, nice. Because you did kill the war wizard. And twelve guards, and a dog, and thirty-two villagers, and a bakery, and five local townsfolk, and several buildings, and some local flora and fauna.

SPEAKER_05 2:18:28

Alright. I uh definitely Oh dang it.

SPEAKER_01 2:18:33

Okay, now how do I I've leveled up once before. We'll do it at the start of next session to be part of the video. Plus, I need to go to bed, so we're gonna wrap up here. Alright, that sounds good. Thank you everybody for tuning in to Richard and Carl play Daggerheart, where I try to emotionally torture my best friend. You can download your version of this adventure for free on itch.io and put some money in the tip jar. And I promise I will use every penny in torturing Carl. Bye. Bye. I really will use every penny in torturing Carl. No hesitation.