Episode 10: Featherlight Beginnings

This week in Witherwild, we open not with eldritch horrors or tangled plot threads, but with Karl’s body betraying him in the most low-fantasy way possible. First, the good news: he does not have MS. The bad news: his foot has been dramatically introduced to a knife. Life finds balance in weird ways. Between careful steps and cautious optimism, we check in on what’s new with Karl, because no campaign truly begins until the GM’s real-world hit points are accounted for.

From there, we descend into the sacred ritual of character creation as Lyra finally takes shape. Stats, background, and the soft mechanical bones of who she’s going to become are laid out on the table. We talk about what makes this system tick, the weight of choices, and the looming poetry of death moves—those final narrative echoes that ensure even the end of a character means something in the world.

And just when the rules start to feel heavy, the Witherwild does what it does best. We step out of the numbers and into the air, meeting a group of friendly birb people who feel like they flew in from a softer corner of the setting. Feathers, curiosity, and just enough strangeness to remind us we’re not in Kansas, or even in a normal forest. They’re a reminder that not every unknown in Witherwild wants your blood. Some just want to share stories, or breadcrumbs, or maybe directions you don’t entirely trust.

So this episode’s moral: not every week is about fighting fate. Sometimes it’s about building it—one carefully chosen stat, one strange bird conversation, and one stabbed foot at a time.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Richard Carl PlayDaggerheart is a Richard and Carl product owned by the non-existent Richard and Carl Corporation. We're independent creators. Give us money.

SPEAKER_05 0:10

Yeah, together we independently create things. Uh that's amazing. The other voice was Richard.

SPEAKER_00 0:17

You know what would have been really funny though is if we switched the names around for the Daggerheart one. Like I regret not doing that bit.

SPEAKER_05 0:25

My name is Carl. I I uh I am the the player, and uh Richard is the is the DM for our uh Daggerheart adventures.

SPEAKER_00 0:34

And he works for me, would be amazing. Because it's fine to be like the DM's not in charge here. It's like, how is that even possible? It's like don't worry about it. Yeah. Alright, so for those uninitiated who've decided to start on episode 7 or 8 or wherever we are, we play Daggerheart. We usually start with a what's new with each other section, and then we'll give a bit of a recap and then throw into the game proper. I feel like giving Daggerheart a shout-out, they just launched pre-orders for their first expansion coming out. Nice. So it's a full book that has like Blood Domain and Dread Domain, and it looks like a lot of their pla uh polished refined versions of their play stuff test stuff, plus a bunch of quote unquote other stuff. They don't pay us for this podcast, but they have entertained me a fair bit recently, and they give out a lot of their stuff, like their SRD agreements and things are pretty good, so. Honestly, if you want to go steal their game, it's really easy to steal. They just kinda give you everything you need to play it. And I tend to find that when people just let me play their product, I tend to then give them money. Because I don't have to. It's like a reverse Stockholm Power Trip thing. Yeah. Yeah, that's my not sponsorship blurb. So, what's new in the Carl world? Are the Carl Realms? Yeah, the Carl Realms.

SPEAKER_05 1:58

Well, so hopefully this is the end of my podcast where the medical journey.

SPEAKER_00 2:03

Uh-oh. Um That's so I'm gonna put repeat back to you what you just said, right? Hopefully this is the end of me giving you medical updates is the most like foreshadowing I'm going to die statement anyone's ever like. Are you just gonna be like, this is the last time I give you medical updates because I'm in palliative care?

SPEAKER_05 2:21

Like No, I I I I already did the Wi-Fi as bad at the hospital bit, so that's too not going for that again. And that was foreshadowing back in back on April Fool's Day. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 2:39

Oh no. No one should ever accidentally foreshadow real life. That's just unfortunate.

SPEAKER_05 2:46

Okay. Uh, but so um I was referred to a neurologist uh that happens to work at the MS MS Society of um, and uh, you know, that that makes sense. MS is a neurological condition. Um but the reason I was referred is because uh I got an MRI and there were uh bright spots in my brain. And the neuroophthalmologist, who was the one that ordered the MRI, uh said that she didn't think it was anything, uh, but she wanted a second opinion. Uh so then she told me that she referred me to the MS Society. Um and uh so they call me up and they're like, yeah, you know, um you got referred to the neurologist here. Uh we're gonna schedule you an appointment. And they you know, you know, they give me the date, the time, and the place. Um, and then they're like, yeah, you know, we'll we'll what's your email? Uh we'll confirm this information with you via email. I'm like, oh yeah. Uh so I give them my email.

SPEAKER_00 3:55

Um please tell me it's not Carl.poop anymore.

SPEAKER_05 4:01

I just no no, I I I don't have Carl dot access to Carl.poop. It's actually Carl.not.poop. Uh I don't generally use that one. Usually I use uh King Karhiko.

SPEAKER_00 4:12

Like, as much as I love to dox you, that that is a particularly funny thing to give a doctor.

SPEAKER_05 4:20

Uh my very first email I ever made uh was with Hotmail. Uh circa 2003-ish. Um yeah. Anyway, uh so very first email. Um and I I love my my email address, uh, but um easy to remember, uh hard to spell, especially seeing as it's uh uh misspelling of a word that actually isn't technically correct.

SPEAKER_00 4:48

Man, you'd be roasted in the humanities for cultural appropriation.

SPEAKER_05 4:56

I I don't know. You make it did you anyways, uh so I spelled all my email for them and they're like, okay, yeah, we'll we'll send you the details. Uh and uh they they didn't. Yep. Um and I neglected to uh write this appointment down in in my calendar. So I knew the the date and I knew the place, uh, but I had forgotten what time my appointment was. Not a big deal. No, no, no. I was gonna call the hospital and confirm when my appointment actually was.

SPEAKER_00 5:37

That is much smarter than a lot of anxious people I have as either coworkers or students who would just go there at like four in the morning and sit there all day till they're called. Because that's less stressful than sending the email.

SPEAKER_05 5:50

I I actually I I attempted to call them. Um and so the the day before my appointment, I I give them a call. Um and uh someone picks up and they're like, uh city hospital circuit board, how can I direct your call? I'm like, oh yeah, I got a schedule with this neurologist. Uh I don't know the doctor's name, I don't know the time, uh, so I need to confirm my appointment. And they're like, okay, we'll put you through to registration. Uh goes to registration, they hang up on me. What? Okay. Whatever. Call again. A little bit, a little bit shorter. I'm like, okay, yeah, I just need to confirm what time my appointment is for tomorrow. Uh they're like, okay, we'll put you through to registration. Go to registration, uh, hangs up with me again. Uh so I'm like, well, I really need to know. Um, so I'm gonna I'm gonna try one more time. Third time's the charm. I get I go through it, get through to registration. Uh they pick up and they're like, oh, how can I help you? And it's like, okay, um, I have an appointment tomorrow, uh, but they never sent me the confirmation of the details, and I don't remember what time it is. Uh and then she's like, oh, um, well, we don't actually see appointments until the day of. Uh, so you'll have to call tomorrow after four after 5 30 a.m. Why? Computers, we're invented!

SPEAKER_01 7:12

This is Saskatoon thing or a Canada thing.

SPEAKER_05 7:15

Oh I I have no idea. Uh, but so so uh, you know, whatever, I'll just set an alarm to get up at 6 30 in the morning because I'm reasonably confident that my appointment wasn't at my own.

SPEAKER_00 7:28

That's just my life I live. I don't recommend it.

SPEAKER_05 7:32

So I so I get up, uh, I give them a call, um, they answer right away this time, which is great. Uh they're like, yeah, your appointment's at 9 30. It's like, alright, I'll be there. So I get to the hospital, um, and one thing I learned from all my hospital visits uh is that A, it's worthwhile to have the parking app on your phone if you're uh going in for any sort of type of surgery, because you'll be at the hospital a fair bit. Uh B, you never know uh how long you're gonna be at the hospital for. Um so it's a good idea to uh overpay for parking, which they probably make tons of money off of people overpaying for parking, but you just don't know how long you're gonna be there.

SPEAKER_00 8:20

I mean, if anyone's scamming people, I'm kinda fine with it being the hospital. If they're like just score unless they don't own their own parking, in which case fuck a b uh but so I pay for five hours.

SPEAKER_05 8:36

Uh you're not allowed to pay for six hours after six hours they just make you pay for the whole day. Um which is, you know, that the difference between five hours and six hours is the same as a single hour, but you get the whole day. But I was like, no, there's no way I'm gonna be here all day. But five hours, let's let's just pay that for now. Uh go in, get the registration, uh, and they uh they put the little bracelet on, and then they're like, okay, do you know where you're going? It's like, no, I don't know where I'm going. I mean, I didn't say this to the registration desk, and uh, I'm sure they have lots of people who have been to the MS Society multiple times and know exactly where they're going. Uh but I've never been there because I don't know anyone who has MS. Like, why would I go to the MS Society?

SPEAKER_00 9:25

Exactly. Go give them money or volunteer, be a good person, I don't know.

SPEAKER_05 9:31

Uh but they're like, okay, it's the seventh floor uh in the rehabilitation clinic. Okay. Fair enough. Take the elevator to the seventh floor. Uh I've found um, I mean, I guess I can't speak for all hospitals. Uh but hospitals go for it.

SPEAKER_00 9:52

Speak for all hospitals right now. You got my permission. Go for it.

SPEAKER_05 9:56

Well, hospitals uh and airports too, in my experience. Uh they seem like they would be big confusing messes. Uh, but in general, they're uh actually uh well marked and it's easy to find where you need to go at any given time. There's just big signs. Uh you just gotta be careful you're watching for the signs.

SPEAKER_00 10:16

This went far around. Hospitals even have what they can you're like. The thing about hospitals is they're well organized. I'm like, huh, what a twist, actually.

SPEAKER_02 10:26

Well, I mean, okay.

SPEAKER_05 10:28

Um sometimes the different departments uh in the city hospital in particular, uh are like you get there and it's like, is this am I in the right place? Because like this is just a hallway with chairs.

SPEAKER_00 10:46

Well, I'm gonna tell you a bit about downtown Toronto and then let you continue your story. Because it is perfect. Okay. So the college I go to, I spend most of my time in a lounge on the tenth floor in a building. Attached to that building, I can either exit the door to walk to another building, take a bridge on the third floor, take a different bridge on the third floor, or take the underground tunnel on the zeroth floor. So these buildings are all kind of attached together, but not really. In theory, if you leave Union Station, there's enough underground connecting pathways to get entirely the like 12 blocks it takes to get to my school without once being hit by natural light. So, like, the confusion of trying to find something in this web of interconnected buildings, with my navigational skills being literally non-existent. You're like, oh yeah, some hospital floors are confusing. I'm like, the floors are labeled? The floors are labeled? With like vicious glee and excitement. Please label things, guys. Like, do you know the difference between Kerntell North and Kern Cell South? You think one would be to the north and one would be to the south, but how can you tell that underground? I will agree.

SPEAKER_05 11:59

Uh, I have found that universities are not well labeled and are extremely confusing. Uh, you actually, for the first little while, will probably need a map to figure out where you're going.

unknown 12:10

Right.

SPEAKER_05 12:11

Hospitals, reasonably easy to navigate. So I get up to the seventh floor, uh, and uh follow the signs to the rehabilitation clinic. I get to the uh reception for the real rehabilitation clinic, and they have a little sign that says MS Society this way. So I'm just gonna walk past the front desk, and the front desk lady is like, oh, excuse me, where where are you off to? And it's like, oh, I'm off to the MS Society. He's like, Oh, yeah, yeah, that's the right way. Great. Walk down the hallway. Uh, I get to the pregnant hallway with chairs. Um, but there's no reception where I expected a reception to be. There's just uh it was it was an open door. Uh but it just said uh MS Society office. Um and there's this lady sitting, like she's on the phone, she's at a computer, uh, and she's not facing the door. And it's like, I don't really want to interrupt this person who's on the phone to give them my intake papers. Um but I'm like, what there's no like reception desk, where do I even go? Uh so I wander a little further around, kind of like peek around the corner, like at who do I give my papers to? And then someone like they they like appear and they're like, oh, yeah, I'll I'll take this for you, and they tell me to sit and wait. Um so I'm I'm sitting, I'm waiting, playing a game on my phone. Nurse comes up, like, I'm such and such nurse. I I'm sorry, I don't remember their name. Plus, then we I don't want to dox the nurse.

SPEAKER_00 13:48

Yeah, that's you you had such a free path to not look like you forgot their name. You're like, no, no, I'm gonna confess that I don't know this person. I'm gonna protect their identity, but I want you to know that I also simply didn't care. It's not by choice. Simply didn't care. Understood. Glad you took the time and the airwaves to be like, I could have learned their name, but like if they were really good, they would have been a doctor, not a nurse. You can be a doctor of nurse nursing? Yeah, we did have this conversation. This is true, but please continue with I assume the story is going somewhere. Uh for context, while the story is going, I've been looking up like raccoon patterned dress shirts.

unknown 14:37

Anyways.

SPEAKER_05 14:38

Um so like when I went to the neuro ophthalmologist, God that's a good thing. They really just they really just did uh ophthalmologist tests. Like they did all the eyesight exams and and all that stuff, and uh when I actually got to see the the actual doctor, um they were just like, Yeah, you know, you know, this is what happened, this is what I think it is. Um I'm gonna refer you to the neurologist for second opinion or whatever. Or to the MRI for the for the to be safe. Um and then um when I go to the neurologist, um the nurse comes up and she's like, Okay, we're gonna do some of these like uh little tests. It's like you know um walk say like 20 feet as quickly as possible. Uh and then she writes down what time how long that took you, and then you turn around, you walk back as quickly as possible. They write down what what how long that took you.

SPEAKER_00 15:41

Uh I know this isn't where you're going with this, but I desperately want you to have Naruto ran down a hallway at the hospital.

SPEAKER_05 15:51

No, you're you're supposed to walk as quickly as you can safely.

SPEAKER_00 15:55

Yeah, with your hands behind you, as it goes duh. That's how you go quickly.

SPEAKER_05 16:05

Um, I I did not uh not her to run down the hallway. I just just you'll never get this chance again in your life. Waste today. Um so then we go into the the private room and and uh she like gets me to do this little like peg test where you have to pick up you you do it with both hands, but uh one hand you you pick out the pegs, you put them in the holes, and then you take them out of the holes and put them back in the dish, and then you switch and do it with the other hand, and they they time you on how long it takes you to do the little peg test. Um then they have like a this little like sheet, uh it's like a uh cipher for numbers. Ooh. So numbers one through nine, uh, and then they have a symbol, and then you just suppose to follow along on the chart and state which number is which symbol, uh, and then they see how far you get on the chart. And I mean, I don't know how I did. I didn't manage to complete the page, uh, but uh whatever, whatever. I hope I'm uh you know okay, I guess.

SPEAKER_00 17:14

Is that where the story ends?

SPEAKER_05 17:17

No, no, no. Then she asks me a whole bunch of uh uh symptom-related questions, like, oh, do you have all these any of these symptoms? You know, it's all the the symptoms for MS. Yeah. Um and I was like, you know, go through it all. I was like, no, no, no, no, no, no, none of that. And she's like, okay, well, uh, I'm gonna go give this to the neurologist, Dr. Ballantyne.

SPEAKER_00 17:41

That's so funny, and I can't actually tell you why, but please continue. I literally cannot tell you why, but that's really funny.

SPEAKER_05 17:52

Um but so uh then she leaves the room. Um I'm sitting there for another like 10-15 minutes. But in the meantime, I have to uh fill out like um a electronic communication consent form. Um I found this out with the neurologist. Uh if you don't have the consent form, uh they cannot send you any medical information via email. That um makes all of the sense to me, honestly. Yeah, so like um speaking to the neurologist, uh speaking of the neurologist, I guess, um I uh have to do m uh weekly blood work and I lost my um requisition form. Two weeks in a row, actually.

SPEAKER_00 18:38

I almost thought you were about to say, and I lost my blood. I cannot find my blood anymore. I'm like, that's a problem. I don't know where it went.

SPEAKER_05 18:48

No, but no, I I lost my requisition form two weeks in a row. Uh I get to the uh blood clinic and um I just don't have my requisition form, and it's like, ah, so I had to call the neural the hematologist uh and the receptionist was very nice, and she faxed the requisition form over to them. And the second time I lost it, I was like, hey, can you uh just like email it to me so if I lose it I can just print it off myself? Uh and they're like, yeah, no, you haven't signed the consent form, so we can't do that.

SPEAKER_00 19:21

Weirdly makes perfect sense to me.

SPEAKER_05 19:25

Like it does make sense.

SPEAKER_00 19:26

Like, not everyone's us, and we just say our private medical information on a publicly available podcast. Like, some people do actually believe in piracy, privacy. Not us at all. We've proven this time and time again that we do not seem to care about our own privacy or the privacy of those around us, but we probably should.

SPEAKER_05 19:46

Uh, anyways. Um, so I have to sign this consent form at the neurologist's office. Um, and then there was like a little uh questionnaire about whether or not the person who uh came to see me uh washed their hands before and after they left.

SPEAKER_00 20:04

That's important. Um they don't want to get any cars.

SPEAKER_05 20:07

But then lastly, uh there was like um a consent form to have them keep my information in a uh medical database, uh, and also to participate in further MS studies. Or at least I assume they're for MS research studies, but further studies. Yeah. Yeah, uh, I'm just like, well, I mean, I guess I haven't seen the neurologist yet, uh, but I'm reasonably certain I don't have MS, so like I why would I sign up for this research study? I don't think they're ever gonna need me.

SPEAKER_00 20:45

Well, maybe they need people who don't have MS to t uh use as the test group for things they would test on people with MS. Well, you know, I wouldn't have to be able to do it. Don't be selfish with your personal information, Carl. I'll give it to databases.

SPEAKER_05 20:58

I I do have to wonder uh how often people get referred to the MS Society uh when they don't actually have MS. Uh because apparently there are neurologists that work at other hospitals in in the city, which was a surprise. Uh but the MS Society is specifically at the city hospital, and that is specifically where I got referred to.

SPEAKER_04 21:20

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 21:20

Um so like I I don't know. I decided I opted not to sign up for the research because I was like, I I don't really want to be contacted for further research, and I don't think I'll be a useful subject in this case. Got it.

SPEAKER_00 21:37

You don't care people die in yourself. Understood. It's fine, not everyone has to be so fine.

SPEAKER_05 21:47

Fin finally the neurologist shows up, uh, and she's all like, yeah. We don't think you have MS. Yay! Uh apparently. Apparently, bright spots in your brain when you get a Uh medical imaging. Um, but the bright spots in your brain are somewhat like freckles. Uh where uh wasn't expecting that, that would be real. Most of the time they are completely benign. Every now and then they could be a sign of something more serious, but it's just a normal part of aging that you just get bright spots in your brain. Um and uh the bright spots in my brain were not the right size, shape, or location uh to be a mess.

SPEAKER_00 22:30

This sounds like a victory. Also, it would have been really funny if you came on our podcast and then it was. So I didn't tell you this over a text to the phone, but I decided publicly on our DD podcast, Daggerheart Podcast, dang it. I am going to trauma dump this on you. Enjoy. That would have actually been like the flex of a century. So it turns out I have MS. Just thought I'd this is the ideal place and time to tell you. See you at my wedding. There's so many implications that just works its way into that. That in particular, they're like, oh, by the way, I'm like, wait, does your fiance like oh no, there's so many layers.

SPEAKER_05 23:15

Anyways. Um but she does a few more uh neurological tests. Uh the weirdest one, like she did like the hammer reflex test thing where she strikes your your joints and sees whether or not your reflexes are working. Yeah, but the weirdest one was where she like scraped the bottom of my feet with a uh popsicle stick. I hate that. Oh no. Tongue depressor out of if you prefer, but um and then after that she like took a like a little wooden toothpick and just like, oh, does this feel pokey? And she's like poked poked my hands and arms and legs and feet and stuff. I was like, yeah, yeah, that all feels pokey. And she's like, Oh yeah. So yeah, pretty sure you don't have MS. Uh your uh the white spots are like freckles, you know, blah blah blah. Uh you're good to go. And so like I thought, I'm sorry, go ahead. Oh, you go ahead.

unknown 24:16

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_05 24:17

So, like I said, I I wasn't sure how long this would be. Um I had gotten there around nine o'clock. And luckily, um I mean I feel slightly annoyed that I once again overpaid for parking. Uh but I was done by by 10.30.

SPEAKER_00 24:34

Nice.

SPEAKER_05 24:36

Uh and then I was from there I had to go straight to work.

SPEAKER_00 24:41

Your life sometimes, man. So what I keep thinking from this though is it's like you go and be like, I don't have MS. I gotta wonder around which test your brain starts going, but maybe I do, just simply because you're there being tested for it. Cause I have to imagine at some point, like, the creeping doubt of I don't have it. But they're stabbing me in the leg with a popsicle stick right now, and I gotta wonder. Maybe I do, in fact, have something. Just simply from like they keep testing you. Like, well, at some point your brain's gotta think, maybe there's something going on here I'm not aware of.

SPEAKER_05 25:15

Uh well, I'm sure there are some people whose brains do work that way. Um as I had mentioned, I I believe this was on our our uh Richard Carl Basent podcast, but I I mentioned uh that the uh neuroophthalmologist um they called me to inform me that they had referred me to the neurologist, and they wanted to make sure that I knew that it was gonna come from the MS Society, uh, because there are people who would be immediately freaked out that they're getting uh referral to a neurologist.

SPEAKER_00 25:49

And reasonably. Like I I want to put it in that, like, yes, they would be freaked out as they should be, because that is terrifying.

SPEAKER_05 25:58

And and then as you say, um, you know, doing all these tests, there are also people who would just you know they would become quite worried that maybe they do, maybe maybe they're not fast enough at the peg test or the not didn't get far enough down the sheet on the the cipher test or whatever, but but uh that's just not how my brain works. I was just like, okay.

SPEAKER_00 26:20

I'd be like, oh god, if I fail the peg test, I get MS. That's how that works, right? God.

SPEAKER_05 26:32

Uh but so, yeah, I mean, kind of an anticlimactic story. I mean, the ending is I overpaid for parking.

SPEAKER_00 26:40

I mean, to be fair, no real-world doctor appointment should ever feel like an episode of House. Seems like a f like that's bad.

SPEAKER_05 26:51

Um as a side note, uh there's also a show called Monk, uh, which had a similar problem. Uh, but basically, House. Um the timeline is a little bit hazy in house. Like, you don't really know how much time is actually passed in an episode or in between episodes. Um But like I I guess it's the United States, so there there could just be that many uh bizarre, quote unquote unsolvable cases.

SPEAKER_00 27:23

Oh, I fully believe that.

SPEAKER_05 27:24

But at some at some point it's like, really? He has another case that's uh you know just just wasn't lupus? Well, I just think it'd be really fun.

SPEAKER_00 27:35

You know what's crazy though? To throw this back at you a little bit. How good would the I I mean it's unironically, would the show be better if not every mystery was a mystery and sometimes it's like he does all this, it's like no no he just has a cold. Like, would the medical mystery show be better if the professional overthought them some of the times it was just wrong?

SPEAKER_05 27:57

Well, so I I've I've talked to this about uh sort of about this to my fiance. Um so many shows, uh in my opinion, overstay their welcome. Um, like I mentioned the show Monk, uh this uh guy has like a psychological breakdown after his wife is murdered, and he develops OCD, and uh and then he becomes a private investigator uh to try and solve his wife's murder and ends up running into all sorts of other murders all over the case, all over the place and you know helping solve them. Uh and in the episode where he gets knocked out, falls into the back of a garbage truck, and he gets carried to another town, wakes up with amnesia, and then finds and solves a murder. Yep, seems legitimate. I was like, the show's done.

SPEAKER_00 28:43

Cancel.

SPEAKER_05 28:45

Yeah, like I no, how how does he s he goes on vacation and someone gets murdered in the hotel he's staying? No, how what are the odds? Literally zero. Um probably. In any event, I I often find um if a show doesn't pivot at a certain point, uh, then it kind of breaks my suspension of disbelief because the plot keeps repeating over and over again, and and it's like, how does this keep happening? Uh, but if it does pivot, then it's like, well, is this the same show that I was actually watching before? Like, what is even going on here?

SPEAKER_00 29:25

I mean, the solution is to Jojo's it. It's the hardest thing to do in the world. But like, if you could actually pull a JoJo's and just do a time skip, follow other characters and have it loosely connected, you can't do that forever.

SPEAKER_05 29:40

Well, anyways, now that our our uh medical drama show has pivoted into a uh literary analysis show, what's new with you there, Richard?

SPEAKER_00 29:50

I hate how well played that was. Uh, let's see. So, shocking some people, I'm a student. And I'm getting near the end of the semester and having to write these big large-scale papers. But yesterday, one of my papers got accepted for a conference. So I'm sitting in the study hall with my classmates, like you're expecting from any college drama you've ever seen. And I'm like, crap. And they're like, what? I'm like, well, I sent in this application for this conference largely as a bluff, to be like, oh, I send in things all the time. I get a lot of rejection letters, I'm a writer. I'm like, crap, now I actually have to present my paper. I haven't finished writing yet at a conference in two weeks. And I'm like, curse my own success. Now I have to go talk get get paid to go talk about the ghost in the show for 15 minutes at a conference. And I'm like, that might finally give me the motivation I need to like write finish writing this paper. But I just find it funny because it's like the actual advice I got from my mentor is apply first, and then if you get in, worry about writing the paper. And I'm like, apparently that's just what everyone does.

SPEAKER_05 31:01

So what do you want to just like submit your abstract for the paper, or like how do you apply to the paper?

SPEAKER_00 31:11

I submit my abstract, tell which tells them all about this paper I plan to write, and now I got accepted, so now I have to be prepared to actually do the thing. That's pretty funny. Right? So it's like I have to go give this presentation, and then I sent an abstract to another conference to give a presentation. Because it's like I wrote two big papers, so I'm like, oh, I have these papers coming, I'll send them out. Mm-hmm. And I'm like, yay, conferences! So now I get to go to conferences and things, and it's been like uh this weekend I have. The thing is, I'm so cluster-brained and so ADHD, it always baffles me when I'm ahead of the rest of my class because like my brain barely functions on a good day.

SPEAKER_01 31:53

Hmm.

SPEAKER_00 31:54

But I am actually in a pretty good position right now. So now I just have to finish writing these large papers and do a couple small assignments, and I pretty much should be able to like wrap up my schoolwork for the semester early. Nice. And that'll let me proceed to then start sending out doctorate forms because I enjoy being a professional student.

SPEAKER_05 32:15

Uh, right now, and right now you're only a master of being a professional student, you need to be a doctorate.

SPEAKER_00 32:20

Well, what's funny is like once you get to a certain level of schooling with funding and payment, I'm already at the point where I'm making as much money as I did as a kitchen manager by just being a student.

SPEAKER_01 32:30

Hmm.

SPEAKER_00 32:31

So it's like my life's just better. Like, me and my cohort, it was someone's birthday, so we went for bar trivia after class. Where I only got nerd question rights. I got Vulcanized right as a question that was about a form of rubber that's also a Star Trek character. And I got Princess Amadella right, and then it's like, what about music in books and movies? Like, I don't know these things. I'm a writer, I'm a professional liar. I don't know things in facts. That's not what I do. Nothing I've ever said should be taken as fact. These papers are definitely just because I'm a storyteller and I'm able to bullshit my way enough to make a convincing statement. Don't believe in me. That's just foolishness. So long story short.

SPEAKER_05 33:22

Side note. Yeah, go ahead. Side note, uh, we're we're uh we're a parody uh comedy c podcast, uh so you know don't cite us as a as a legitimate source.

SPEAKER_00 33:34

Nope. Nothing everything I say here publicly on the internet is incompetent, okay, guys. Like, could you imagine like if I sent like hundreds of emails that were potentially scandalous and then they got leaked by the Supreme Court? Like, no, no, everything I say is private, of course.

SPEAKER_05 33:51

Of course. So yeah, don't so don't go spreading my private medical information over the internet.

SPEAKER_00 33:57

Uh I do think you should have checked the research box because maybe they could have done something value from you. I don't know, maybe. I don't know. It's a personal choice to make and you made it wrong. Uh so is there is there anything else new with you besides the uh trivia night and and uh Well, I'm sorry that my paper my abstract being accepted for an academic conference on the future of communication is an interesting news compared to your anecdote about hallway placement. I'm sorry I'm not interesting.

SPEAKER_05 34:33

Oh, you are interesting, it's just uh you uh despite being a professional writer, you're not as much of a storyteller. Yeah, because I'm gonna have to storytell for the next hour and a half. Fair enough, you are an excellent storyteller.

SPEAKER_00 34:50

Well, that's the joke. Like, my personal life is actually like I love to tell people I'm interested in theory and boring in practice. And it really comes down to how interesting I feel like being in any given day. Because I can make like my mundane nonsense sound fascinating. I could be like, as I w swim through the wave of people listening to my book of quantum physics and audiobook, I see a raccoon attacked by a goose. Like, I can make my day-to-day fascinating, don't quit me wrong. Although I did see a raccoon on the side of the street, and apparently raccoons are becoming more domesticate they're domesticating themselves. Oh. Which is awesome because I fully believe that in ten years, if I can have a properly trained domesticated pet raccoon, I would that's the only way I can replace Miko.

SPEAKER_05 35:33

You know, I I don't know if you if you heard the statistic or not, but during COVID, um, there was so much less garbage being thrown out in the streets. Uh, that rats, uh, who are very much though not domesticating themselves, uh, got into turf wars over the the scraps that were actually being thrown out.

SPEAKER_00 35:52

Uh, that'd be a great campaign to run, just the rodents of Toronto City.

SPEAKER_05 35:57

Well, I mean, I I I believe the newspaper article uh was specifically talking about New York, uh, but I'm sure uh it similarly uh litter decreased in uh other major metropolitan centers.

SPEAKER_00 36:10

Toronto wants to be New York in the same way that my school wants to be the other school. Where it's like they'll be like, I'm awesome and great at my own thing. I'm like, why are you trying to build that that bridge there? It looks really suspicious like this other city's bridge, like you want to be them. No! It's unrelated. Really, why are you trying to build your own Wall Street then, huh, Toronto, if you don't want to be them? Nuh-uh. Anywho. Uh, shall we get into the game proper?

SPEAKER_05 36:42

I mean, sure. Uh uh, hopefully uh the listeners find this episode interesting. We kind of did do a little build a character We kind of did do a little uh build the character uh when I built um Leroy.

SPEAKER_00 36:55

Well to be fair though, like, if we do a build a character episode, the thing is our early episodes did really well because I'm also like, no, you can download our content or use this to learn how to play this game. So it's like our reminders of how to build characters are fine. But more importantly, like I said, I I don't care if they listen to the episode, that's on them. This is them problem if they don't enjoy it. Like we're kind of talking pre-stream about a bridge series and things where it's like, I don't know if they're too corporate or this or that. My takeaway from that is people give whatever reason they want to like or dislike something. Fair enough. And I do think we'd drive ourselves mad being like, we skipped character creation because of looking at the analytic download metrics and view times would probably not help us. Probably not. The more we care, the worse we would do. Not even the less fun it would be, just the worse we would do. Yeah, probably. Uh, but I digress. Character creation time. So Yeah. I'm also gonna open up my character creator with you so I can paint an imagination palace for our listeners. So, for context, we're using Daggerheart Nexus as a character builder. On one hand, it's like their official tool, da da da da da da, linked together. It actually can link directly into roll 20, which is amusing. But on the other hand, making a pen and paper for Daggerheart is not that different. Like, I think if we were doing this in person, I don't know if we would bother with the online tool, but we play online. But the biggest benefit to the online tool, where most of my players in person also have an online copy, is if they spell a drink on it or put notes on it or do things, I can then like receive a link to that character and look and fix things. Hmm. So I like the digital tools. But I also fully understand why people be like, nah, I'm good.

SPEAKER_05 38:51

You know, there there is something nice about the tactile feedback of actually like writing things down on a piece of paper.

SPEAKER_00 38:56

Like, I also kind of understand the like desire to do both weirdly. Like, here's my physical, like, to like make it in the character builder and then print it off is actually a really solid strategy, because it just exports to a PDF anyway.

SPEAKER_05 39:09

Uh but so the f the first step of uh getting started with creating your character is character name.

SPEAKER_00 39:16

So, for listeners who are starting here, I had my first player death of this campaign. And not my first player death of the week, which I will get to. But long story short, Daggerheart has its three options, and I had a pretty lengthy chat with a few of my players about this. Of they basically boil down to exit the scene, straight up gamble, or die in a blaze of glory. Right. And players like to feel challenged, and I find that players are avoiding the leave the scene because when I explain to them, oh, you can just not die, they almost like instinctively, due to gamification, refuse to ever use that feature. But really, every time you take that feature, you roll to get a scar, and if you get five scars, you die. So it's really more of, and I need to change how to describe it of would you like to use one of your spare lives? Because like mechanically, you can only go down between five and x number of times. Like if you roll really well, you could go down an infinite number of times. But the odds scale, right? So at your current level, you would have had a one in three chance of losing a hope slot. And each level, the odds get higher that you'll lose a hope slot, and when you run out of hope slots, you just die forever. So I'm curious to ask you: if I told you, do you want to gamble, go into a Blaze of Glory, or use up a spare life, would that have changed your decision? The idea that you can't infinitely leave the scenes.

SPEAKER_05 40:56

See, particularly in this uh one-on-one campaign, I want to be a part of every scene that I'm you know in. And leaving the scene. Um one elegant it it does kind of feel like cheating because it's like, oh, you just have extra lives. And then also it's like I I don't actually get to play out the scene.

SPEAKER_00 41:24

Well, to be fair, I wasn't gonna really show the scene either. I was just going to be like you awaken several hours later in a daze in a pit bed. And then use that like held knowledge from you to mess with you, right? Like I wasn't gonna tell you what happened because then you wouldn't know. Right, right. But I'm thinking about home ruling it that people just always take a scar? Yeah? What do you think? If you just knew that you would take a scar, no ma if like every time you went down you would take a scar 100%, does that make that option more appealing? Or would you rather gamble on taking a scar? Well, okay, okay.

SPEAKER_05 42:04

Um I uh obviously a significant part of the game is rolling dice. Um so in my opinion, uh any option that doesn't let you roll dice is bad. Um I mean the the critical success option, the the blaze of glory. Uh yeah, it is really cool because you just like and you just do something epic before you die. And you you never die without purpose. Uh you can die without purpose if you gamble on it.

SPEAKER_01 42:40

You and one of my other players found out.

SPEAKER_05 42:45

Um yeah, extending the scene just seems a little bit of a There are definitely scenarios where I would take that option. Um like particularly if you accidentally died in a in a a mundane fight that you weren't supposed to lose.

SPEAKER_00 43:02

I would not gamble on that one. Because it's like you're downed and another player can get you up, is like the game design intent, right? So I think it I I just wonder if part of its phrasing, like it's like you're you've fallen down. Do you want to take a scar, uh, roll the dice, or go into Blaze Glory? Like, I think it's I don't know. I'm just trying to make it that people feel like more encouraged. Cause the idea is that, like, I think death by running out of hope is the most interesting way to kill a player in this. Like the idea that you've just fallen one too many times and you're done is like narratively interesting to me. Because like the longer character especially since like once you take that third scar, you lose your hope feature. And you can't get the scars healed, but I don't know. Sorry, you're saying like leaving the scene is just unsatisfying?

SPEAKER_05 44:04

Well, it it's more like um the scene that that we were in, uh this uh where I just stepped in the middle of a political meeting and just like threw names out and messed people up with uh with my comments. Um It felt like I I don't know how much of an impact I would have had, but there was more for me to be gained by not leaving the scene. Um Where, like I say, if if you were like just fighting a pack of wolves and you had some unlike your roles and you and your character gets damned by these wolves, leaving the scene would make more sense as a as a choice, because it's like there was there wasn't really much to be gained by gambling your life against wolves.

SPEAKER_00 44:54

Yeah. Where when it came to because I'll just spoil I'll spoil a lot of how my current session's going while we're character building, so it's gonna be a bit of a less live play episode, just cuz. But like, what's interesting is I had two players go down on the weekend. They were fighting what was effectively a giant dragonfly. You may recall when the blooms lit on fire in like session two, you saw like the silhouette of a creature flying above.

SPEAKER_03 45:18

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 45:19

It finally that thing finally got around to hunting them down.

SPEAKER_03 45:22

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 45:23

And one player went down and immediately like, I'm gonna roll for it. And it was like five of them fighting this dragonfly. Mm-hmm. And narratively, I thought it was fascinating that they chose to gamble, because someone could have just ran up with a healing potion on the next turn. Hmm. But they're like, no, no, I'm not gonna pick this not die option. That's like a coward's way out. I'm like, yeah. But conversely, if you went down and then another player used up their spotlight to heal you up, then the spotlight can go back to me. It's like Kind of like how the fight flow works, where it like a TPK can result because people kept trying to get each other up because there's there's no healing word boomeranging really happening in Daggerheart. Because if you try and like, because just of how turn orders are structured, right? Where I can just spend a fear to like prevent it. Right. And if you go down multiple times in a scene, those odds of getting a scar increase pretty drastically, right? Because if you went down three times in a scene, you would definitely well, not definitely, because dice are be like that, but you could end up with somewhere between zero and three scars, and you'd probably run up with one.

SPEAKER_05 46:36

Right. Well, like I say, for me personally, uh it depends on the narrative importance of uh the fight. Um so if this dragonfly fight was uh narratively significant, and not just like this dragonfly found them and and attacked them for because they were in the wrong spot in the woods or something, um then to me, leaving the scene makes more sense because it's like you weren't fighting a boss, you weren't advancing the story per se. Uh but in the case of Leroy, uh, where I was directly trying to fish for information by dropping the names, um like say leaving the scene, just that there was way more to be gained by gambling, uh but I wasn't in a in a position where uh Blaze of Glory would have made any sort of significant difference either.

SPEAKER_00 47:36

Where one of my players, the one that chose to just like roll the dice and lost, just kinda died. Where another player went down, but they were playing the Lyra equivalency on their campaign. And they didn't want to have like the small child that the plots built around die to a random dragonfly in the woods. Ah, so they they chose to leave the scene then? Yeah, so that's the one player left the scene. First time I've had a player leave the scene was the one playing a small child. And part of it, I think, is it just didn't want to make me murder a small child. That was gonna be brutal with it. But let's get into the character building aspect now that we've cocked a like of the death, because I I think the death mechanics are fine. Like, I don't think I need to make Leave the Scene more punishing it to make it more appealing. Which is funny because it's like I do think I need to stress that I'm gonna start saying instead of Leave the Scene, would you like to take a scar? Because then you still roll for it, like, and not mechanically change it. But I think I need to mention that it's not free, so you're still feeling like you're getting punished. Right. Cause I think people might have been starting to like feel like, oh, if I could just not die, then there's no tension here, so I'm gonna choose to make this more dramatic. Cause like, in your scene, for example, an NPC could have just got you back up next turn. Hmm. Right, like there were characters available, so I guess my last question to you before we get back into character building, is if you were playing this with Teron as your other player, and they were playing like a bard, would you have still chose to roll for it?

SPEAKER_02 49:15

Oh well, I mean, so there's two of you in this terrible situation.

SPEAKER_00 49:21

The situation's still equally terrible where you're like, oh shit, I'm like, this is a master cluster fucking, I could probably die here.

SPEAKER_05 49:28

Um and then this uh one-on-one campaign, um, there hasn't really been any reason to explain that it's like, yeah, other players can still pick you up after you're potentially doing your death move.

SPEAKER_00 49:41

Like I told you, like when you had your NPC with you, I did explicitly say a couple times if you go down, they'll probably get you up. Probably, maybe.

SPEAKER_05 49:50

Uh, but the idea that your teammates can still save you, I mean, that does make leaving the scene a little bit more attractive as well. Uh, because then you can not less gamble with it, and actually more like you're guaranteed you won't die.

SPEAKER_00 50:06

But or it might increase the odds that you both die. Well, yeah, but anyways, uh so spoilers aside, you're going to be building Lyra today if memory serves. The little girl you left for dead on top of a mountain.

SPEAKER_05 50:24

I had no choice. I left myself for dead in the claws of a giant eagle, so there was many choices.

SPEAKER_00 50:32

They were fascinating. I want you to let you know that, like, I'm doing like a parallel world thing where it's not that your campaign and my other one are happening simultaneously, but I'll throw in Easter eggs. And they absolutely just saw a man pretending to be dead being held by an eagle flying north, and that's all they know about you. And they're probably gonna find your head on a pike when they get to the village. On a pike? Oh man, the cats don't like me anymore. Well, it depends who runs a village. Also, it's a parallel timeline, so you never know. Alright, so I'm gonna say this now. I am an English teaching assistant. Pronouns are real, okay? I hate nothing more than someone being like, I don't believe in pronouns. I'm like, shut up. Hmm. I can understand being like, uh, personal pronouns, people picky. Whatever. Put the number letters in the box. That's how English works. So what pronouns would you like to give this character? Well, I mean, I just she her is is fine. Yeah. I mean, it is funny that, like, if people were going heavy into the neo-pronouns, like, I'm gonna go zay there, and your DM gets it wrong, also don't be a dick back to your DM if you're being too quirky with it. Like, DMs respecting he, she, them, they. That's all fair game. If you start being janky with it, like I go by it's its pronouns, you're both sides have to take treat it with respect or it doesn't work. Hmm, I agree. Next is a campaign frame button. Pick the wither wild.

SPEAKER_05 52:03

The uh what what level am I am I starting at level three or level two? You're starting at level three. Woohoo! Alright. So pronouns, level, campaign frame, choose the wither wild.

SPEAKER_00 52:16

Uh I've noticed that the Dungeons of Dray Came one has snuck in into being on the list, and I'm just going to ignore that for now. Alright. So, class. As is rules with me, you can use this in any of the playtest classes as well. It's interesting to note that they've like put out pre-orders for a book containing the pl refined playtest classes.

SPEAKER_01 52:37

Hmm.

SPEAKER_00 52:38

I fill in the surveys for how playtesting goes for my players. But what class would you like to pick?

SPEAKER_05 52:45

Well, so, um, I mentioned off-stream. Uh Lyra clearly has a uh broken psyche, uh, and I was gonna use that to uh one one side is the timid little girl, and one side is a uh rage-filled monster of sorts. Kind of like kinda like the Hulk, I guess. Uh and the Hulk, uh at least in DED terms, would very definitely be a barbarian.

SPEAKER_00 53:15

So this conversation was interesting, cuz Guardian isn't one of my favorite Daggerheart classes, because it's directly between fighter and paladin in like des uh barbarian paladin in design philosophy. Because unstoppable is just rage. Yes, it works mechanically differently, you have an unstoppable die, it takes down, da da da da da. But the key benefit of reducing damage by a threshold and adding the value of the unstoppable eye to your damage roll, that is just barbarian rage. Right. And like the subclasses of Stalwart is like a barbarian paladin mix, or vengeance is like the most barbarian of barbarians. Right, right. However, Bloodhunter did come out as an option as well, which is about sending spending life force, and its subclasses are Ghost Slayer, Mutant, or Lycan. Your Hulk example, the if you built the Hulk as a werewolf, that would actually work really well. Mechanically, like you would just reflavor werewolf to being gray. Right, right. And likewise, if you played the Hulk as a mutant gin, that would also work really well. And convert and the last option is the Brawler, which is their Wuk uh Wuxa Wuxa, whatever. There's an X in there. I'm not pronouncing this well, I don't have a cultural consultant for this. Anywho, they are their unarmed combatants, but if you go from like there's the martial arts one subclass that's about different stances, and then there's the juggernaut, which increase unarmed attacks, you can unarm attack two creatures, you can overwhelm them, and when you hit them, you can throw them close range. You could definitely make an argument for this monk, or this brawler, as it were, like a barbarian-style brawler, would also work really well. Because Guardian's Valor and Blade, the defense domain and the stabby domain, brawler's valor and bone, the defense domain, and like the ranger-y, skilly, tactician-y type domain, and then bloodhunter's blade and blood. Which is moving further away from what you're going for. Like, mechanically, the idea of oh, my barbarians hurt themselves to be powerful isn't actually a barbarian thing. But it's kind of part of the barbarian fantasy. Um there's always just a warrior.

SPEAKER_05 55:45

Uh, because Valor is the defensive.

SPEAKER_00 55:49

Yeah, Valor is where a lot of the like barbarian-esque things are found.

SPEAKER_01 55:54

Hmm.

SPEAKER_00 55:54

So Val Valor is where, for example, as I just kind of pull up the cards in front of me. Is where you get like bare bones, where when you choose not to equip armor, your armor score becomes three plus your strength and damage thresholds. Valor is where you have body basher, bold presence, forceful push, surge, goad them on, ground pound, I'm your shield type stuff. Hmm. So Valor is like. If you're to split Paladin into two sides, Valor is the take hits, and Splend is like the healy. Where Valor for Guardian is the take hits, and then the blade is the staby. Where for Brawler, Valor is the take hits, and bone is the move quickly. And if you want me to invent you a new class on the spot, you're like, actually, I want to be Valor and Blood, that'd be sick. And would take me a while to assemble. And then it'd turn to a weird stream where I try and write a new class on stream. Which I would do, but like, gang, throw me in the spot with no prepsy what I can do. Because we both know I will just make people new classes.

SPEAKER_02 57:11

No, no. Um.

SPEAKER_05 57:19

Hmm. I'm I'm pretty sure I just I wanna go. You know, actually I like I like the I'm gonna get I'm gonna choose the brawler, I think.

SPEAKER_00 57:30

Alright, I think I sold you all my shenanigans.

SPEAKER_05 57:33

The unarmed striker, because you cause Valor is, as you said, the the defensive line, so.

SPEAKER_00 57:40

Alright. So I'm gonna click the select glass button for brawler.

SPEAKER_05 57:45

Brawler, okay, so choose a subclass.

SPEAKER_00 57:48

So, yeah, as I was kinda saying, Juggernaut is definitely your more like a boxer subclass. Where martial artists is your more martial artist subclass. And one of the things is you get to choose whatever trait you want to power your unarmed strikes.

SPEAKER_05 58:08

Um, I'm I'm definitely I'm gonna choose the juggernaut that both sounds more thematically appropriate and the idea that you just spend a hope to mark someone mark a stress on a character and thrill them. That just sounds awesome.

SPEAKER_00 58:27

Right. Alright. So for traits. This one's kind of interesting because like the recommended set is highest instinct with high agility, high strength. But when we look at like those class features, which I'm going to like pull up the class on my end and read things off to you. See, it's kind of funny because like the playtest stuff doesn't show up like when I first click the tab, I have to like go into the sub-menu to find it. So the powers you get as a brawler are decent starting evasion and hit points. You can spend three hope when you succeed on an attack to stagger start uh to stagger a target and force them to mark a stress. When you're unarmed, you have plus one to evasion. Your unarmed strikes are considered a melee weapon, use a trade of your choice and deal 1d8 plus 1d6 physical damage. And then your combo strikes power is when you make damage of a melee weapon before dealing the damage. You can mark a stress start combos, you roll combo dice, and you're just kind of like exploding dice and extra hits. We'll figure out the specifics when it fights. But the reason I bring this up is when you look at like your subclass features, they don't care about any of your traits. They don't really care what stat you use. Right. The martial artist also like its stance don't particularly care that much. So when it comes to picking your stats, they gave it high instinct to go like more DD Monk. I would actually recommend for your style. I would probably put points into strength, agility or finesse. Because I feel like if she's going Hulkrave, strength is cool. But if she's going ballistic, like X29 Wolverine style, then agility might be your highest stat. But you have a lot of flexibility for this class. Um I would probably go agility to strength one, finesse one, knowledge minus one. Uh finesse. Or presence might be the one I would drop because she's had a pretty bad interaction everywhere she's gone. And you nearly threw her in a sack. Being throwing in a sack doesn't typically happen to high charisma characters.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:55

Uh you are right. Um mechanically, I was thinking that I might actually go for presents. Um because while her uh normal timid character uh has had bad interactions, uh her um alter ego.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:16

Okay. So are you gonna just punch people with your charisma and just be terrifying? Is that the strategy? You're like charisma-powered martial artist.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:26

Yeah, that that that's kinda what I'm thinking of. And then also um it creates a character that's a little bit um opposite to uh the character I had before.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:37

With that underway, I think my new suggestion for how to spend this would be plus two to presence. I would still go plus one to agility and plus one finesse because they just naturally align with the kind of like things you would do as this class, like running through fields or hiding. And then I probably drop knowledge.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:59

Well, actually, I was thinking about dropping strength. Oh, okay, that would work too. Just just just because size like her she's a little girl, so she's not actually strong. Okay. So And then yeah, zero to knowledge and uh instinct, I guess.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:24

Alright. So for weapons, I would go down to the search bar and just type in presents. And you're not really gonna use your weapons, but you have them. So I would recommend like just grabbing a whip and a rapier. Fair enough. And just to have because they're free, might as well.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:45

Makes sense.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:46

Likewise for starting armor. I would probably grab leather armor, but if you end up grabbing a certain card, you'll end up unequipping it.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:55

Leather armor, okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:56

I would go with a minor health potion or stamina potion, really doesn't matter which.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:03

A book about your secret hobby. No, hand wraps from a mentor.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:08

So the hand wraps I'm assuming are from Leroy. And you can edit this item to be more specific and fitting.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:16

Alright.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:16

So you can edit those hand wraps to being any momentum from Leroy if you want to go that route, or the book can be about anything.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:24

No, the I I think the hand wraps are are are better than the book. Alright. So Alright, so now the first level of domain cards.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:33

I know what cards I want, but your build is not necessarily what I would pick. So I really like forceful push because you can forceful push and then spend a hope to push them even further and then knock them back to like medium range.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:50

On a successful attack with your primary weapon, you deal damage and knock a target back to close range. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:00

But conversely, bare bones is pretty good.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:06

You have a base armor score of three plus your strength. Uh well, bare bones is good, except for. Oh right.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:16

Not so much in this build. So another one I actually really like for this one because you're smaller and like savage. Death maneuvers can be fun. Oh, untouchable and death maneuvers are both good picks.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:33

One's per risk, marker stress to get anywhere that's in far range will let me. Okay, yeah, I like that one. And I think I want untouchable as well.

unknown 1:04:42

Excellent.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:42

I wrong that I'm choosing two bone class ones instead of the valor defensive ones that you'd suggested.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:48

Completely legitimate, though, because it's like That's like the flexibility here of you're definitely not nearly as statlocked as you are in 5e.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:56

Like most classes. The Barbarian was very much a little well, very much multi-attribute dependent. Um and then it just becomes hard to like same thing with the monk in in 5e, where it becomes hard to build a statistically unique character.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:16

Where like you kind of caught me off guard here by being like, I'll use per charisma as my main set. I'm like, I actually didn't see that coming. I was expecting you to either go agility build, which would involve you grabbing some more cards to what you grabbed, or power build. I didn't expect charisma build. This is interesting. Alright, so let's move into heritage. Heritage. So, what I would recommend is instead of thinking about like this literally of what race am I, is more like what mechanically fits being the little girl. Cause the instinct to just click human is easy. One of my players for running this a s character, I actually they actually went halfling. Because it just kind of fit well into Like, oh, there's a little kid in your party, and it gives your party extra hope. And they roll one on hope, you can re-roll it. Made sense mechanically for like being a kid in a fantasy setting. Right. Conversely, like, and like I said, we I'm happy for you to click the mixed race option and then just name it like child. If you want to do something like, oh, I want to have goblin powers, but I'm not actually a goblin, like a half goblin, half gnome of like, oh, I have nimble fingers and I have quick reflexes would make some sense. But if you really want to lean into like the hidden power rage mode kind of energy, the playtest Ethereus is interesting. Okay, so I mean I'm on your campaign. Under Accessory, you should be able to see Ethereus.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:55

Uh no, no, unfortunately, I don't. Earthkin, Elf, and Emberkin.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:03

That is interesting. Let's see.

unknown 1:07:07

Hmm.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:08

Wait, you see Emberkin? Yeah. So that means the void stuff is showing up for you. Because Emberkin is like four down on the list.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:22

Hmm.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:24

So you seem to have access to it. So go to uh choose an ancestry. Uh-huh. So when you just click the box, what's the first one that pops up?

SPEAKER_05 1:07:36

Uh oh, Aetherist, yeah, with an A. I don't know. Is that what you were? Yeah, that's the one I was talking about. Okay, okay. We have Advantagestone Rolls to Commander Persuade, or um an ally within well, you don't want that, Hallowed Era, but Hallowed Aura.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:54

But like the flavor of the Ranged Auras and Glowing Eyes. And Hallowed Aura would apply to any friendly anything. So for record, if I attack your boat, you can say, can I use my Hallow Aura on my boat? Or any NPCs. Like it applies to all NPCs. And there's usually an NPC around you eventually. Right. Conversely, like. I don't know, like, there's a lot of options. Like, for example, Infernace kind of fits the way people have been treating you.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:34

Hmm. Infernace.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:44

When you roll fear, you weren't too stressed to advance it to help. Or you can have dis you have advantage on rolls to intimidate hostile creatures?

SPEAKER_01 1:08:51

Yes. Hmm.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:56

Because which one was I just looking at?

SPEAKER_02 1:09:03

Oh, you're right.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:05

Uh the um Dracona. The your scales act as natural protection if you would take severe damage, mark a stress to mark one fewer hit point. Um that fits right in with the idea of being uh resilient. Okay. Uh and then dread visage. I mean um creatures turn hostile from the infernus. I think that's a great combination.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:44

Alright, let's I mean uh I mean you could just go.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:56

I really like the idea of uh mixed ancestry with the clank. But uh I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:05

We can see how that could play out.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:08

But I think we call those cyborgs.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:14

Um so I mean you've said that you have uh a lore uh reason for why uh Lyra appears seems to be older than she uh actually is. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:28

I also said I'm willing to negotiate.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:32

Well, I mean the idea of being part clank, uh uh some sort of homunculus that was created, uh and then also takes a trait from some other uh so not necessarily a robot, but a creation nonetheless.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:51

So if you want Lyra to be a clank, and that's the information you give me and give me free reign with that, I will do so much with that power. With if you make this choice right now being partial clank or full clank, I will run with that. You will be giving me gold to work with. I will not let you know why you're a clank. You can find that out as we go, but please make this choice. I like this choice.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:19

Um because I kind of I kind of like uh clank dracona. Okay. Um where I take the efficient efficient from the clank so I can short do a long rest action instead of a short rest action. Uh and then also the scales, which wouldn't necessarily be scales in this case. Um I I know exactly what I'm gonna do with this.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:44

Yes, I approve this as your GL. Okay. Alright, so selecting So for context, your scale is your flesh repetrifying.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:55

Right? Spicy.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:02

Select Okay, uh, but I guess my race is homunculus? Yeah, let's go with that. That's fun. Okay. Homunculus.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:17

So for community, reborn would make the most sense, but it does literally nothing right now.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:25

Uh but uh but um it was scales?

SPEAKER_05 1:12:32

And efficient. And efficient. Alright, so choose a community. Uh so reborn makes the most sense. Yeah, okay, that does just make the most sense.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:48

You were a part of community, but no longer remember it. Mechanically, is you pick whatever group you happen to be within session. So, like, if you're in the catfolk village, I will tell you what catfolk community ability you get. Uh okay. So that's option one. But another option is Wanderborn or Wildborn, both seem really appropriate. Wildborn seems really appropriate right now. However, it's also particularly funny to pick Ridgeborn because you're left on a mountain.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:23

Being a part of this community means you live with nomad, or you're going at permanent home, you just vibrate. Nomadic pack.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:34

Wonderborn by far has the best ability. People online will be like, well, this one does math, this never's like, no, no, no. A Looney Tunes backpack is the best power. And if it's not, you're simply not putting enough thought into it. That is easily the Like a lot of them are like advantage in mountains or stealthy in the woods. I'm like, Looney Tune bag's just the best one. Just buy a lot.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:57

Uh yeah, I I rather uh Okay, so what does the once per session you kind of hope to use an ally's community ability if you do your ally can to hope. Your discovery community you weren't part of, you can use that one permanently instead.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:19

Like I do think Wanderborn is mechanically more fun for you.

SPEAKER_05 1:14:24

Yeah, and I I don't know. Um, I mean I guess you have access to all the the uh communities. Community abilities. Uh but the idea that it's like I can I can just change my community, but I don't like you would tell me what I get from it, but it's like that just feels like I I have to know a lot more. Fair enough. I d I do like um Wanderborn or Wildborn.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:54

Warborn's not too bad either. Because your hometown was ravaged.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:03

When attack would cause you to mark a stress, you can spend a hope instead.

SPEAKER_05 1:15:09

Actually, I kind of do like Warborn. Okay. Because again, it it uh fits into that natural resilience of being uh like she's a small child, but she is unnaturally tough. I I think I'm gonna go with Warborn. I do like the Mooney Tunes backpack, but Warborn seems good.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:32

Thematic. Alright, so I will let you pick any one of these transformations if you want them. But I don't think you're gonna. So every one of these transformations gives you a cool power and some downside. Like reanimated, you can only clear hit points if you have access to remains from recently dispute creatures to absorb their body parts. But when you risk it all on a death move, you fail, you lose a hit point instead. And get back up.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:04

Or take when you permanently mark a hit point to 16 instead.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:13

That would have would have always would have been more fun for your last character, admittedly.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:22

When you roll a failure of fear, you must mark a stress or give the gym an additional fear. Your advantage size always gonna be ten inches. I don't know how often I get you get advantage. Pretty often. Vampire. No, it's a strength roll. And werewolf.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:45

For vampire, I would easily let someone switch out that strength roll with any other role though. Because I disagree with that design choice of vampire bites or strength. I'm like, that makes more sense for charisma than martial arts does. You can absolutely talk someone into being bitten. That's the entire vampire romance genre. I read Midnight Secretary. You don't need strength to make a vampire bite.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:09

Mark of stress to feed.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:11

Good point. You can spend five tokens. If you want an actual to make your fear die a d20.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:21

Uh why why would you want your fear die to be a t20? Because you're overall because you add your two dice together for how big the roll is. So you can give roll up to a 32.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:37

Right, right, right.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:38

But but you're also far more likely to give the um Yeah, but you're also far more likely to hit your target or succeed at your dice roll. Yeah. A success with fear is better than a failure with hope, because remember, if you fail, I still get a turn. Fair enough, fair enough. And also, yeah, you can roll a 32. Which will probably successfully pick a lock.

SPEAKER_05 1:18:07

I am going to choose werewolf. Actually. Although shit.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:13

Alright. Call my blue. I assume you're not actually gonna make it a wolf form, though. Or are you?

SPEAKER_05 1:18:20

Yeah, that's definitely not gonna be a wolf form, no.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:23

Alright, so you'll be able to mark one or more hit points to enter your form. Well, and we'll decide what the form is when it comes up. Alright. Man, frenzy's hilarious.

SPEAKER_05 1:18:37

Frenzy? Uh oh yeah, when you if you mark your last stress, you uh attack everyone near you. Um actually deal that much physical damage to all creatures within close range very close range.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:54

For a solo campaign, that's amazing. For a party campaign, there's an obvious downside to that. Like you definitely called my bluff. I didn't think you'd actually pick a transformation. I'm on board with this.

SPEAKER_05 1:19:06

I mean, I don't know how often I'm actually going to transform. But you can't.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:13

Right? Like, that transform is cool too, because you mark the stress, go into mode, deal extra dice, and then when you gain hope, you get stressed instead. That's hilarious. Not when you gain fear, it's when you gain hope that it stresses you out instead. Huh.

SPEAKER_05 1:19:33

Alright. Yeah, yeah. Pretty pretty savage.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:39

Alright, next is experiences. So these ones always can take a while. Sometimes I'm like, people can just leave them blank until something comes to them in session. I'm tempted to put have you put abandoned on a mountain.

SPEAKER_05 1:19:55

Abandonment issues?

SPEAKER_00 1:19:57

Yep.

SPEAKER_05 1:19:58

Just because it's just such a fun huh? I am gonna take abandonment.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:04

That's just such a fun thing to be like, do my abandonment issues apply here? It's just a fun sentence.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:13

Um then for a second one.

SPEAKER_05 1:20:22

Abandonment issues and social pariah. Yeah. Nice. That's what I'm gonna go with for now.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:30

Nice, nice, nice.

SPEAKER_05 1:20:33

I don't really care about the background questions or connections, I don't think.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:37

Nah, we could kind of fill these in as they come up. But like, these are definitely the last thing. I think the ones that are worth filling in are probably the additional Wither Wild question. No, we'll leave all this blank. We can figure it out as we go.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:51

Um okay.

SPEAKER_05 1:20:54

So um one of the weird things about the the Nexus, Dega Heart Nexus, is um the campaign frames don't um don't create the additional connections questions.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:11

They do. They're just not where you think they are. If you click answer background questions and scroll down.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:20

No, I I don't see them.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:22

Oh well, we'll leave this blank for now. But I am seeing them on my end under answer background questions.

SPEAKER_05 1:21:30

Yeah, I don't know. It could also be that I'm I'm part of your campaign and and uh it just isn't just a glitch with how the thing is done for players or something.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:40

But the last thing we're gonna do on this audio-only character building podcast is l argue in real time over tech issues. Right. Alright, so now you get what your next experience.

SPEAKER_05 1:21:53

My next experience, oh.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:55

Uh, is it bad? My suggestion to you is girl in a crate. Your ability to hide in crates.

SPEAKER_05 1:22:04

Girl in a crate, and we'll go with that for now.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:07

And like I said, these are up to negotiation. The level up options are the fun one. Unless you have a special one at the bottom for increased combat dice. Combo dice. Oh. Well. Hmm. So for a reminder of how combo strikes work is once you roll damage with the weapon. Oh, sorry, once you hit with the weapon, but before you roll damage. You mark a stress to start a combo. You roll your combo dice and gain its value. Then you roll it again. If the value of the second roll is equal or greater than the first one, you then roll it again. So, like, hypothetically, you would go and do a punch, right? Mm-hmm. You'd mark a stress to start a combo. You'd roll your combo dice. If it gets a one, you would roll it again. If it's a two, you'd roll it again. If it's a three, you'd roll it again. And then you add the ball up. However, if you go mark and stress and roll your combo dice and it's a four, you have to roll a four again to keep it to hit twice.

SPEAKER_05 1:23:14

Right. Um. Well, I think for level one, I would probably choose uh increased evasion. Or well, for level two, I would choose increased evasion and increased traits.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:29

That is where I would go as well.

SPEAKER_05 1:23:32

Uh, because I want to increase my presence and I want to increase my agility. That is and then I do get to choose a new card you make card. Level two ones, strategic approach, equal to your knowledge, while not super knowledgeable. Ferocity. Adversary mark hit points, you spend two hopes to increase your evasion.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:04

Number of hit points they marked until the next attack is made against you.

SPEAKER_05 1:24:09

Bold presence, that sounds thematic. When you make a presence roll, you can spend a hope to add your well that's that's funny.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:19

That's funny. The body batcher and bold presence are not on your side. No.

SPEAKER_05 1:24:26

No, they are not. They they don't expect you to to to go uh anything other than strength.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:34

Which honestly is fine though. Like, that's why there's enough cards that's not a problem, really. Because you can take Ferocity's solid for you, strategic approach is okay. And you can still grab things from lower levels, too. Where I see incomping is also pretty good.

SPEAKER_05 1:24:59

The first time you move within close range of an adversary, make an attack against them.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:03

Use many tokens, choose one of the following options. Attack from disadvantage, clear a stress on an ally, or add a d8 to your damage roll.

SPEAKER_05 1:25:11

Well, I'm not s my knowledge is zero, so I just get one token, but dealing that extra damage would be neat.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:21

Yeah, I personally would probably either grab ferocity or I see it coming. But strategic poach is interesting.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:31

When you're targeted by an attack made on beyond melee range, you might a stress roll d4 and add your vase.

SPEAKER_05 1:25:38

Yeah, I kind of I think I'm gonna say take I see it coming. Alright. Level three. So I can't increase my evasion. I could increase my traits. And I feel like I so level I do think that increasing HP is gonna be important. I I have that feeling. Uh increase the combo die use for combo strikes.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:13

I think increased experiences is the least commonly picked one, but it's actually really strong.

SPEAKER_05 1:26:19

That is true. Maybe I should just increase my traits again.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:29

Give yourself some more knowledge. Tell you what, if you really want to, I would be fine with you going back and like grabbing your point from finesse and moving it into knowledge instead.

SPEAKER_05 1:26:43

Yeah, I'm not I'm not sure about that one.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:47

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 1:26:49

But I will increase my traits again. Um and I'm right, I'm not allowed to increase my presence. And I'm not allowed to increase my agility. Hmm.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:06

Well, if I'm not allowed to increase those, then maybe I actually want something else.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:12

I mean, HP and stress are both good to have. You can also grab two HP.

SPEAKER_05 1:27:18

Can you?

SPEAKER_00 1:27:19

Yep. Huh.

SPEAKER_05 1:27:24

But no, I'm gonna go one HP and one stress, because there does seem to be a lot of op a lot of opportunities for you to mark stress with this particular class. And then as my level three options for my card, uh body basher. Wow. Valor is all about the strength. Well, that was still a level two one you're looking at. Body basher? Yeah, that was level two. Oh, you're right. Now your options are cooling on me. Which I don't need. Critical inspiration. Don't need that one.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:02

Wow, okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:08

Bracelet used two armor slots on an attack.

SPEAKER_05 1:28:14

Hmm. I kinda like that one, I think. But let's. Or there's tactician. I mean you help an ally. Well that's not. I mean, I guess it could be, but uh when you mark an armor slot to reduce the damage you give with the GM. Wow. Okay. So Brace.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:47

I don't know where that other version of Brace showed. I don't know what this Octarian brace is even from. I've never seen this card before in my life, but I'd absolutely let you take it.

SPEAKER_05 1:29:03

You do like fear. Um yeah, I'm gonna I think I'm gonna take the Octarian brace, which when I mark an armor slot to reduce incoming damage, I can give the GM additional fear to mark any number of additional armor slots.

SPEAKER_00 1:29:16

I'm just saying I actually don't know what that card's from. Like, I think it's like coming from an upcoming book or something.

SPEAKER_05 1:29:26

Well, I'm gonna I'm gonna take that one because I I think I have too many things that give me the mark stress already, so the regular braces uh not gonna be that great. Alright. Uh and with that, I think my character is.

SPEAKER_00 1:29:47

Alright, let's play for a bit. I still have you for half an hour more. Alright. So you've had a rough few days. As you are chased out of a town, accused of witchcraft, left abandoned in a river, and then shoved in a crate, hidden in a false bottom treasure chest. Just chaos and savages, a village full of zombies. And as you find yourself on top of a mountain, watching your protector carried away by a giant eagle who tried to shove you in a crate. You realize something. It's cold, you're tired, and you're on top of a mountain. What would you like to do? And describe what you look like to our viewers.

SPEAKER_05 1:30:39

Um well, I mean my assumption, um, since I am a homunculus, but I don't want to s the my creator, whoever they were, didn't want me to stand out. My assumption is that I'm uh just a uh little girl. A human little girl. Uh just um with uh black hair, uh pale skin. Uh probably like just over four feet tall. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:31:20

So as you stand here on top of this cliff, you see that you're near the top of a mountain, and down in the plateau a bit you do see that there is engraved sigils in the walls. And you see the stony peaks that pierce the clouds with the twisting path winding its way over and through the switchbacks as you go kinda go through the top of this mountain range. You're expecting toil and supplies and staminas, but you are fully rested, you've taken a long rest.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:55

Hmm.

SPEAKER_05 1:31:58

Uh, but so the the gist of this is that I have to find my way down this mountain now.

SPEAKER_00 1:32:04

It's less more it's less you find your way down and more, you've made it to the top of this, like to this mountain range, and now you're heading through the mountain range south. So it's like this one mountain kind of goes down over to the next mountain. Like you go through a series of mountains to get where you're trying to get.

SPEAKER_05 1:32:20

Huh. Um do I see any signs of the giant eagles?

SPEAKER_00 1:32:27

Go ahead and roll a instinct roll.

SPEAKER_05 1:32:31

Okay, um I guess. Instinct roll 19 with hope.

SPEAKER_00 1:32:42

You don't see any eagles. You do see the raptors you don't see uh you see an abandoned raptor's nest that looks like it would have been where eagles once lived, but the icy winds up here seem to have repelled them to move further south. Hmm.

SPEAKER_05 1:33:04

I see. Uh just uh gotta You said that I can use whatever trait I'd like for my Yeah, somewhere there'll be a little pop-up box for that.

SPEAKER_00 1:33:19

I don't know where.

SPEAKER_05 1:33:21

Okay, well we'll figure that out later, I guess. Anyways, um so no signs of the eagles. Uh Well, I mean I guess uh I'll just start heading heading south, because I gotta try and find uh my uh protector.

SPEAKER_00 1:33:44

Is that what you really want to do? Does that guy mean anything to you? Tell me about your thoughts on Elroy. On Leroy? Elroy is the bad one. Correct, in character, you know this.

SPEAKER_05 1:33:57

Maybe that is a good question. He was a strange fellow for sure. Um but I'm not really certain what his true face is because he kept changing forms so often. He must have been some sort of shapeshifter. But he was the first person who was nice to me. And uh I uh Okay, so you know I of abandonment issues. Uh he was the first person who was nice to me. Uh so it it doesn't really matter whether or not he was a a crook or a villain, or if he tried to shove me in a sack. He brought me with me with him and and he protected me as best he could from all all manner of uh terrifying uh creatures and spirits and um I I uh I just I I don't think I can handle being abandoned by him. I gotta find him because like being alone is is scarier than than being with someone you hardly know.

SPEAKER_00 1:35:28

Alright. As you continue to head through the various rocky lodges, the existing pythons climb through down and around to a bridge that effectively there's a massive valley below, and this bridge connects these two relatively high rocky plateaus. Would you like to simply walk across this bridge? It's not suspicious at all.

SPEAKER_05 1:35:53

Uh yeah, I mean I'm just gonna walk across the bridge, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:35:59

With each step you feel it creaking and twisting as the wind the frigid icy wind picks up, cutting into you. You cross through this bridge, you go through the hand holds, and a couple days pass going through this treacherous mountain path, mostly uneventful. And you find yourself having effectively made it through and climbing down, where the rocky landscape returns to the woods. You're relatively lost. You you have a vague sense that you were, as part of your group, heading to the south and trying to avoid the thick, bog-like swamp area and the exploded down in river. But you do seem to be just I'm not gonna say lost in the woods. It isn't as bad as what happened to poor Leroy being dropped off by an eagle. But you are back in the wilds alone again. With, I believe, five more days of night left.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:02

Hmm. Five more days of night. Uh bda ba-da, let's see.

SPEAKER_05 1:37:10

Well, I mean, uh it would be a waste of time just to Who knows where Leroy could be? And and and why would why would he leave me like this? This is this is terrible. Um I need to search for for signs of uh any any uh humanoids uh that that might be able to help me because there's now now that I've gone down the mountain, I'm getting like sick to my stomach with the idea that he just left me here.

SPEAKER_00 1:37:45

Go ahead and roll a nature check uh knowledge check for me.

SPEAKER_05 1:37:49

A knowledge check. Roll seven with hope.

SPEAKER_00 1:37:54

Oh no. So as you're trying to find any signs of life, humanity, through the switchback area where the rocks in the forest meet. You do see that looks like not so much fresh footsteps, but like a trail that seems to like cut back into the mountainous range heading back up. Not to the intent of the mountain you just climbed, but it does seem like there's a trail people have been following up through a cliffside. On the outer edges of the Weather Wild.

SPEAKER_05 1:38:32

I I I've just gotta uh gotta try and climb that. Alright, go ahead and you tell me what do you roll to climb. Uh I'm going to use uh agility. I'm just I'm just now that I've found people, I'm super excited to you know hopefully find someone who will accept me and jump up there, you know. Agility.

SPEAKER_00 1:38:55

Go ahead and roll.

SPEAKER_05 1:38:56

Uh would my abandonment issues apply?

SPEAKER_00 1:38:59

I'll allow it. Roll.

SPEAKER_05 1:39:06

25 with hope.

SPEAKER_00 1:39:08

So much like Kakashi with unarm tied behind his back parkouring up the side of a cliff. This is starting to become like second nature to you. As you manage to. It's not so much like a ridiculous, like, sheer rock climb, so much as following like a relatively rocky trail. But once you get to the top of this cliff, you see what looks like a chapel of black stone. It looks like it's a ruined chapel once dedicated to a goddess or de local deity. Now shattered, its arch windows, frames, and keystone remain. You see flocks of raven. No, you're looking more like a no, they're humanoid. Like a flock of raven humanoids seem to be gathered around a small campfire.

SPEAKER_05 1:39:56

Um, um can I uh I I feel like these people look like they're a little bit like outcast and downtrodden. A little bit.

SPEAKER_00 1:40:14

You see, one has a bow next to their side. You see that there is five of them. Two with bows, two with swords, and one that looks a little more self-important than the others.

SPEAKER_05 1:40:35

Well, you know what? No, I'm I'm uh I'm gonna try and hide and kind of like sneak up and see if I can listen in on them.

SPEAKER_00 1:40:45

Go ahead and roll a finesse roll for me.

SPEAKER_05 1:40:49

Hide.

SPEAKER_00 1:40:51

Let's roll 13 with hope. So as you just blend into the surroundings, you smell incense in the air, and you kinda hear them singing in a bird-like voice, it's like a coo-cloo-cluo, as they're grilling what seems to be some sort of possum bear over a fire. And you get little bits of chatter, but like you're not like getting like conspiracy or things. You're just kind of getting like coworker banter, like, how's the weather? Sure is weather out here. Ugh. But if they're mostly just kind of sitting in science silence, humming to themselves.

SPEAKER_05 1:41:32

Hmm.

SPEAKER_00 1:41:33

Go ahead and roll an instinct roll for me.

SPEAKER_05 1:41:36

Uh instinct reaction roll or Yes. Instinct reaction roll. Instinct of seven.

SPEAKER_00 1:41:46

They don't seem hostile.

SPEAKER_05 1:41:52

Hmm. Well, yeah, I'm just gonna leave them to their business and and uh see what's up with this uh abandoned looking chapel.

SPEAKER_00 1:42:02

Alright. To get into it, you kind of would have to like go within five feet of them. They're camped out on like in front of the front door. Or you could try and go through one of the broken windows if you prefer. Or any other route you tell me.

SPEAKER_05 1:42:16

No, well, okay, um. So what kind of equip like do I just actually have the basic supplies?

SPEAKER_00 1:42:24

Like the rope and the Yeah, and I can see me probably grab some py uh climbing pythons during your climbing adventure.

SPEAKER_05 1:42:32

Uh, because like are there upper windows or yeah, it's about two-story.

SPEAKER_00 1:42:38

It looks actually very similar to that church you nearly bought in Swift Current. For size and metrics.

SPEAKER_05 1:42:47

Anyways, um I'm gonna climb up to the second story uh if I can, and try and go through one of those windows.

SPEAKER_00 1:42:59

Uh, with the equipment you have, easy enough. So as you go through, it feels warmer in here, like it's almost like it would have centralized heating, even though it doesn't seem to be. But as you walk in, it feels like something or someone is watching you. Not the guards outside, but like you feel like you're being watched all over your body as like goosebumps cover you. Go ahead and make a instinct reaction roll, please.

SPEAKER_05 1:43:35

Instinct reaction 11 with hope. Oh no, hope doesn't matter.

SPEAKER_00 1:43:41

It's so weird. It's like the songs outside are like blending in with instruments sourceless from nowhere. Ugh. Alright. As you were in this place, which feels present like there's a force in here. Hmm.

SPEAKER_05 1:44:03

I see. Um okay, so uh so I'm on the second floor. Um do I see any uh religious paraphernalia?

SPEAKER_00 1:44:17

Nothing that seems like this place seems like it's been abandoned for a while, like going into an old job site. So like you do see like scuff marks on the ground and like a barrel, but it seems to be largely empty. Like this place has been thoroughly looted over the years. Okay, okay. See some jerk just left a cup here. It's just a chipped cup.

SPEAKER_05 1:44:45

Okay, so you know how in video games you'll like sneak around in a barrel to try and and like uh get through places without being seen?

SPEAKER_01 1:44:56

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_05 1:44:57

Um is there a like an eye hole in the barrel that I would be able to use, like flip this barrel over and try to use this technique to to sneak around pretending to be a barrel?

SPEAKER_00 1:45:08

You can certainly try. I have no problems with you attempting this.

SPEAKER_05 1:45:13

Would would girl in a crate apply?

SPEAKER_00 1:45:15

Yes. Obviously, yes.

SPEAKER_05 1:45:18

Okay, so what a what will I roll for this?

SPEAKER_00 1:45:21

What what were you expecting me to say other than yes, then does my crate ability apply to hiding around in a barrel? Did you think I would say no to that? Like, did it occur to you that I would no because it's the wrong geometric shape? Just double checking. Like, you did nothing wrong here, but go ahead and roll. I'm gonna say finesse or presence, your choice. Because this could just be just straight up. Everyone knows Tell us Nakes in a box, but he gets away with it through sheer Shabbaz.

SPEAKER_05 1:45:50

I'm I'm going with presence. And Girl in the crate applies. Uh 18 with with hope.

SPEAKER_00 1:45:58

You have no issue sneaking around this temple in a barrel. So when the guards occasionally come into their rounds, look around, they just see a barrel, and then you move some more. But to what end? Like, what is the objective here? Because you were already spying on them, then you snuck past them to go into this temple, and now you're a barrel. What is step two of this plan?

SPEAKER_05 1:46:19

I mean, step two, I mean, um I'm I'm wondering uh if this is like a uh like a cult type thing. Uh I'm kind of looking for uh like signs of maybe they've been doing rituals or like uh signs that they've been holding people captive here. Like, you know, like I think they they don't seem uh hostile, but at the same time I'm a little bit a little bit worried uh that you know they are themselves uh social pariahs.

SPEAKER_01 1:46:48

Alright.

SPEAKER_00 1:46:48

How do you roll an instinct roll with advantage because you've been spying on them casually all day?

SPEAKER_05 1:46:54

Uh and my social pariah skill experience would apply. Sure. Instinct roll with advantage.

SPEAKER_00 1:47:01

I'm surprised you haven't ran out of hope yet, though. Because all these experiences you have to pay a hope to use.

SPEAKER_05 1:47:10

That's true. But I keep rolling with hope, so.

SPEAKER_00 1:47:13

Alright, fair enough.

SPEAKER_05 1:47:14

Let them roll.

SPEAKER_00 1:47:17

Critical success! Oh damn, you also clear a stress on a crit. Well, I haven't been stressed out. Yeah, but just know that you would have. I I remind people of things, it's my job. I'd love to live in a world where I don't have to give out reminders of the game mechanics. That would be a truly majestic world to live in, but it is not reality. So, with your critical success.

SPEAKER_05 1:47:47

Doo do do do I also gain a hope from that?

SPEAKER_00 1:47:52

Yes. Excellent. I'm just double checking some of that in my notes here. So, it's not that these are pariahs. What they are is their remnants. So, as you're aware, when Haven invaded the Witherwild, many people who naturally lived in this area were displaced, put to work in the farms, giving education, sometimes by force, by being taken away from their families. There was a lot of complexity to their quote-unquote invasion that happened. Right, right. Here, this group. They seem to have this temple, as you can tell from the damages in your time here, was attacked at some point and looted by Haven soldiers. Mm-hmm. While these guards were out on patrol. You see the little graves that were set up for their f uh other members? This congregation probably had about 20 or so avian folk who used this as a base of operations. But only a few, like only less than half were there at a time, because it was basically like a pilgrimage rest point, like a spiritual truck stop for these crow-like avian beings. So these ones returned to find their comrades dead and are keeping a vigil. But they used to send people out to get supplies, to trade, to go on pilgrimages. So these ones are kind of stuck here now, because they're hesitant to leave this holy site, but will sneak away one or two at a time to like get supplies and trade. And it looks like this temple used to be a place of healing, and that's where they'd get their income from, but their healers are all dead. Ah, bummer. And it seems to prey to the deity of the north wind.

SPEAKER_05 1:49:46

The deity of the north wind? Oh.

SPEAKER_00 1:49:49

Which you can't really quite understand their name for because it's bird noises. But you do see that inside of the ship. Shattered statue that is holding a single quartz eye that's cracked. And the inscription below says light to those that seek the truth.

SPEAKER_05 1:50:12

Light to those that seek the truth.

SPEAKER_01 1:50:17

Huh.

SPEAKER_05 1:50:20

Well. Um I think I'm gonna try and sneak back outside.

SPEAKER_00 1:50:29

No issue, you have barrel per tactics.

SPEAKER_05 1:50:34

Uh and then uh I'm going to uh drop out of stealth and uh approach the the guards.

SPEAKER_00 1:50:43

One of th they draw their bow and then one of them looks and like really, and they're always like, No, you don't know. Just from their gestures, you get the idea, like, really you're gonna draw full bows on this little girl, and they're like, No, we probably should.

SPEAKER_04 1:50:58

Excuse me, uh I've I've I'm I've been lost and I get trying to find my way through the woods, and I just I've just been looking for s for somewhere to rest and and and and someone to give me directions. Can can you help me please?

SPEAKER_00 1:51:16

Girl. Uh-huh. They lower their weapons and what the one in the middle says in very broken common. Ugh, come sit. We have food not good, can share. I I will sit with him at the campfire. He gives you mostly water, stew. There seems to be like a parsnip in there, maybe. It's adequate. As they sit and they don't really talk to you much. They're just kinda like, ugh, come in. They're one of those people who are like, well, it is our creed that we have to let people in. Doesn't necessarily mean we want to, but we kinda have to.

SPEAKER_05 1:51:59

Um, do I remember uh where Leroy was going? That he was going to Allure, obviously.

SPEAKER_00 1:52:06

You do know this. I I can safely assume you and Leroy talked during your like month-long walks.

SPEAKER_01 1:52:13

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 1:52:13

So I will assume that through casual conversation, Lyra's been informed about most things. Um what one's Alora? What what do you know about this place?

SPEAKER_05 1:52:44

Uh what what do I know about this place?

SPEAKER_00 1:52:48

You know that it's a wa uh wither w uh wildling village uh largely of catfolk. Seven days south, near a large tree w by the end of a stream. Huh.

SPEAKER_04 1:53:01

Uh and just just that it's it's a it's a village of of uh catfolk about about seven days south from here, but I'd I've lost my sense of direction and and I don't know, I don't know how to get there.

SPEAKER_00 1:53:17

Catfolk? Uh and like you just see them be like, you know the reaction people get where you're like, oh you're going on vacation, where you're going, you're like Edmonton, they're like, ugh. Like it's not like dislike of the village of Alora, it's more like the cat village, boo. Hmm. One of them looks at you and goes. They look at each other, they look at their like bags of wares and be like, I could go with you to a cat village. So begrudgingly, like that would be wonderful.

SPEAKER_04 1:53:55

Thank you, thank you so much.

SPEAKER_00 1:53:57

With the countance of one of those street pro st uh street uh preachers going, hey, you had a church. Can Jesus buy me a meal? And they like kinda have to. Like, they kinda have to give you shelter and food because they're a there's part of their tenants, even though they don't particularly like humans or want to help you at all. They're absolutely willing to. And they go, we'll head out at dawn.

SPEAKER_04 1:54:27

Yes, thank you. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_00 1:54:28

And since you spent like two days fucking around this place, Dawn will be in two days. Okay. So what would you like to do for the next two days of downtime? As you see, they're spending this time like drying leathers and preserving meats and like you see, like three will be here, and a couple will go out into the woods and then just come back with like food and supplies and things to prepare for this pilgrimage. Um You enjoy the one that's plucking feathers out of the other one when they're not looking, going, ah! And then like fletching an arrow with it.

SPEAKER_05 1:55:07

Uh well, if I go back into the the temple, do I feel the uh watchful eye of whatever presence was there?

SPEAKER_00 1:55:14

You do.

SPEAKER_05 1:55:16

You do. Um Well Hmm. I uh And like are there in there doesn't seem to be any like religious texts or anything in here that would help me learn more about this god of the northern winds, eh?

SPEAKER_00 1:55:41

You do find like there is some like you don't really recognize the language, but there's the odd like chipped mural carved in, the central statue. It's interesting because like it is a holy site, but it's less of a monastery, and really was designed to be like a checkpoint on the way to somewhere else, like a traveler's house. So it's more set up like a weird combination of a church and an Airbnb. Because you do see like the sleeping cloth enclothes and like a bathroom, like a shower area, like it seems to be like largely set up for travelers. But it's funny is you notice that the bird folk aren't really using the amenities inside it. They're more camped out outside of it. But will like go in to check out and like they'll go in and like clean things up and then go sit back outside.

SPEAKER_01 1:56:31

Hmm.

SPEAKER_00 1:56:32

So they could be inside hiding where it's from the shelter, but they seem to be choosing not to.

SPEAKER_05 1:56:40

Ah, well, I mean, I'm gonna go back outside and we uh I I don't mean to to intrude, but I'm just wondering why why don't you stay inside the temple?

SPEAKER_00 1:56:54

Our job as they're trying struggling to find the right words. Our job is to help travelers travel. We are not travelers, so we don't get the blessings of travelers. Because we use this place as home. We were supposed to be travelers. We can use the temple again when traveling. When I come back, I will be welcome in the trav temple after escorting you because I will be a traveler again. But for now, we're not traveling, so we stay. Outside.

SPEAKER_05 1:57:30

Um Okay. Uh well then, um uh going to go inside and uh just take a nap in one of the in one of the encloves. Alright, make an instinct roll, not a reaction roll.

SPEAKER_00 1:57:52

An instinct roll. 23 with fear. Perfect. As you begin to sleep, you feel like the eyes of the temple on you, but they're kind of warm and soothing. If you were injured, you would absolutely heal to full HP by sleeping here. But also, you see visions of sorts. You it's like looking from above as you're like flying past and going through the trees. You see Leroy bargaining with the bone fairy, lost in the woods. You see him escaping the eagle's grap, and running from the children of the eagle, leaving it to die. You see him fishing by the lake with the catfolk, and then you see him violently stomped to death by tables and chairs as you wake up where your eyes are wide open.

SPEAKER_03 1:58:39

Oh dear.

SPEAKER_00 1:58:41

So you do see before you in rough flashes the path to Alora. But you did see Eeroy being stomped to death by a table. Well So what does it feel as you are touched by this vision? What feelings linger after the images have passed?

SPEAKER_05 1:59:07

Uh Wow, like he uh I've I have some serious abandonment issues. Um I'm actually the feelings of of anger, but not at the people who killed Leroy, uh, but at Leroy for abandoning me and then seemingly just dying without me. Why how could he do this to me?

SPEAKER_00 1:59:33

Well, you saw him being attacked, you didn't necessarily know for sure. You saw him being brutalized, but you're not sure he died.

SPEAKER_05 1:59:42

That I mean that's true. Uh, but I I I do get this stinking feeling uh that I'll never see him again after he abandoned me. Uh, and I am angry and have to at least must at least try and find his corpse so I can yell at him like it's or wherever he may be. I gotta find him to be like, hey, you you you can't just nearly die on me or die on me like that.

SPEAKER_00 2:00:07

That's not And as the rage courses into your veins, then morning comes, the sun finally begins to rise, and you as you as your unnamed birdfriend begin to be escorted to the town of Alora. That is where we'll wrap up today's session. Nothing jumped you and tried to kill you. Many things wanted to, but nothing succeeded. Yeah, okay. Alright, so how'd you feel about that session as we wrap things up here?

SPEAKER_05 2:00:39

Uh I I was definitely waiting for something to jump out and kill me. Or try to.

SPEAKER_00 2:00:46

She had a bad enough day. You almost had to fight a Minotaur on the bridge, though. There's a dice roll involved whether or not something jumped you on the bridge. Um it was eerily peaceful.

SPEAKER_05 2:01:04

Um, I mean I uh like I said I was expecting to be jumped by something, or that like the crow people would be unhapp would would be hostile, or that like whatever presence was in the temple would be evil.

SPEAKER_00 2:01:23

Oh, there's a lot of things you could have done to piss off that temple and piss off those ravens. It was extremely easy to have to fight the ravens. Or have to fight the temple itself. There's literally a checkbox on the temple that says because the temple has a stat block, yay, temple. When the PCs have trespassed, blasphemized, or otherwise offended the clergy, you can spend a fear to hum summon a high seraph, and 1d4 bladed guards within close range of the senior priest to enforce their will. What symbols or icons do they bear that are appointed agents? Who leads this group and what leads them to this calling? So I had uh the temple tries to kill you, button. There's many ways the temple could have tried to kill you. You just didn't happen to break any of their tenants. You mostly just sat there for two days doing nothing. Which was worse than that.

SPEAKER_05 2:02:20

Making sure that they weren't like cultists or something.

SPEAKER_00 2:02:24

No, they were just protecting this temple. But there's a lot of ways that you could have ended up being Leroy. Also, the fact that it summons a high Sarah of a tier 4 creature is insane.

SPEAKER_05 2:02:37

Oh. Yeah, okay, I I definitely would have been Leroy.

SPEAKER_00 2:02:43

I don't think it would have done anything itself. It would have just been like a massive crow god in that space, telling you I should probably get out of here. Because it wouldn't have been able to chase you out of the temple. But as empowers include spending a fear to make the target guilty in the gu eyes of God, and while guilty, you don't gain hope on results of hope. Oh. When an adversary succeeds on a standard attack against a guilty target, they do severe damage instead of their standard damage. Oh my. This thing is mean. Oh, there's the unarmed. Okay. But the guards themselves aren't particularly terrifying. Like. It's a seasoned guard with a knife, a whistle, and a billowing bird-like voice. The only difference between these guards and normal guards is they can fly. Ah. That pesky ability to fly. Yeah, he's literally just an archer guard with the flying power added to it. So you could have probably taken all five of them, admittedly. Although they would have surrendered after the first one was beaten. Like, for context, the archer that's accompanying you has a DC of 10, his thresholds are four and eight, he has three max HP, four max stress, and plus one to attack.

SPEAKER_03 2:04:06

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 2:04:07

And his experience is local knowledge, and he can make a hobbling shot.

SPEAKER_05 2:04:14

I I probably could have taken that guy.

SPEAKER_00 2:04:16

Oh, absolutely. Like, especially if you like waited. I thought you were gonna wait in the temple till one came in and just jump him. Like, they just go to check the barrel and just get beaten to death. Oh no, see, Lyra's not in angry mode yet. Indeed. But I was also hesitant to dive too deep into combat because there's a bunch of mechanics to learn, and we had a limited time frame. So it's more like this session was to set up the next one to get things going mid in media res. Hmm. And not have the entire party TPK'd by a Firefly. And yeah, like, so the last session I ran with the other group, they ended up going down the coast to Alora and stopping on like four locations Elroy never did. Okay. Which is great for me, because I just get to use those co use those locations next time we play. And you end up there. So it's interesting that, like. I tested the city of Alora before my group my main party got there, so they still have to get their next session. But for them, I tested the things you're gonna go through on your way to the place you've already been. Hmm. It's interesting because one group fast traveled there and the other one will slow traveled, so there's just like. I'm weirdly prepared right now, it's pretty great. That is pretty great. And I'd ask you if you had questions on your new class, but you won't really know that till next session.

SPEAKER_03 2:05:38

Well, I mean, uh, it seems pretty uh straightforward.

SPEAKER_00 2:05:44

Did you find the button to set your armor on armed attack? I think it's under like class features. Yes, I did.

SPEAKER_05 2:05:50

Uh class features, brawler, they let you set your unarmed strife trait. I am really curious that it's defaults to strength, but it makes sense that defaults to strength.

SPEAKER_00 2:05:59

I find it funny though, because I've complained at length that 5e does like poisoning to design spaces. Hmm. And I find it funny that the stats defaulted to like having high wisdom. They're like, oh yeah, you're gonna build this with wisdom.

SPEAKER_01 2:06:18

Hmm.

SPEAKER_00 2:06:18

Wisdom monks only make sense if you're casually racist. Cause like, the idea of the Oriental mentor with ancient wisdom is a racist trope. Right. But also in this case, it's like if you're physically trained, and your strength comes from being physically trained, and the three stats are agility, strength, and finesse, why instinct? Mmm. Right? Like, it's always kind of been a pet peeve of mine for like monk design is monks have no reason to be a wisdom class at all. Right. And like, even looking at the cards they give you as a brawler in this, you would gain nothing. None of those cards would have benefited from having those plus two instinct you start with.

SPEAKER_01 2:07:13

Hmm.

SPEAKER_00 2:07:14

They would have benefited you yet. Like the stats that your cards actually interact with are s agility, knowledge, and strength are what the cards were saying they bet cared about. Right. So, like, if you built a hot strength plus two, agility plus one, finesse plus one brawler, that would just in my my brain work better than if you put your plus two into instinct. Because your unarmed strike would use a scale on a different stat, and you'd be better at like reading people, but you wouldn't be better at parkouring. Right. I just thought it was interesting.

SPEAKER_05 2:07:55

What do you think about it? This monk version uh definitely um I I do find it interesting that the Valor class is is so directly dependent on strengths.

SPEAKER_00 2:08:10

I wasn't expecting that myself, honestly. Uh it's not like I have every card memorized. Like I have a rough idea of most of them at this point.

SPEAKER_05 2:08:18

But uh I uh I I feel like you just have a lot more um freedom. Like the monk class, everyone hated on the Ranger. Uh but I I think the Monk class is one of the most poorly designed 5e classes, at least in the 2014 edition. I haven't really looked that much at the 2024 edition. Uh but like the it's just so hard to create a different monk, but like you say, it's like why wisdom? Well, like the thing why couldn't it be something else?

SPEAKER_00 2:08:57

Well, it's funny it's for the 5e monk too. The f the problem I had with the monk, and this is a weird thing for like DD classes, is I don't like classes that o self-optimize. So for the monk, it's not that playing a monk is ever bad, it's that no no, you put all your points in dexterity and wisdom. What's a feat never matter. And you really like almost every monk ends up having the same build, because like an open-hand monk with max decks and wisdom with some kind of elf is just correct. Right. Or what's interesting about Daggerheart's design is so as you mentioned, there's a more strength things in Valor than I thought there would be. Which Valor is used by barbarians and p and seraphs, so like, yeah, it makes sense. But I don't think you lost out on anything from losing out on those options weirdly. Because bare bones. At later games, you only get to have five cards out in your loadout at a time, right? Hmm. So the slot does become more relevant later. Right. So bare bones wasn't particularly good. Forceful push and I am your shield both worked fine. Body Basher kinda sucks that you can't have that one. Bold presence kinda sucks you can't have that one. But a lot of your options were lost because we're running a solo campaign, not because of like being locked out of it because of strength. Right, right. So you lose out at two abilities that are virtually strength, and then on bone, I find it funny that the bone uses knowledge when it's the skills used by uh used by rangers and I'm blanking on the other one that uses bone. It's like rangers and fighters or something.

SPEAKER_01 2:10:45

Hmm.

SPEAKER_00 2:10:46

So it's amusing to me because it's like you're not gonna have knowledge normally, and I think that's a good thing to have an occasional ability be like, oh, but if my fighter's smart, this I actually have a use for it. Right, right. But I did take like the effort to like spy on all your upcoming abilities, and nothing else seems to really care about strength. Oh that's good. Yeah, I think it was like it's kind of carbo loaded at the start there. Hmm. But most of the skills I'm looking at going forward, there's like one at level 8 that involves a strength roll.

SPEAKER_01 2:11:20

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 2:11:20

And I think that's like the only other one I see here that straight up uses strength is one level eight ability.

SPEAKER_05 2:11:28

Hmm. Well, that's not bad.

SPEAKER_00 2:11:32

Although, I will say for a few of them, like if you're like, actually, um, for bold presence, when I make a present roll, can I add my agility to it instead? I, as a GM, would almost always let someone swap out a slot if it makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 2:11:47

Hmm.

SPEAKER_00 2:11:48

Like, body basher should probably give a bonus to your damage roll equal to the stat you rolled with your weapon. Right. Because if you tried to argue why can't I use agility for body bash? I would let you have it in an instant. Because yeah. Why can't you use your speed to tackle someone? That's a good question, guy. I don't know, I just find your build really interesting, and I'm curious to see how quote unquote good it does. Right. Because it doesn't feel like your build's gonna be worse at punching things than if you were a strength, but also now you're good at talking things, which is definitely relevant. Even if you can't ground pound as well. But uh I think unfortunately I do have to get get going, but yeah, thank you everyone for listening to this episode. Thank you, Carl, for dying so we can keep trying out new classes. It would be funny to watch you go through every class as you always choose death. And happy gaming, stay hydrated, and such a goodbye.

SPEAKER_03 2:12:58

Bye!