Episode 14: Shark Dentist

We spiral from a decade long Unity project and Windows upgrade paranoia into a Daggerheart session where the ocean itself tries to kill us. Lyra rows into a petrified ash town, picks a fight with the supernatural, and barely escapes a lightning lava nightmare with a pocket full of weird loot.
• Unity dev setbacks, Visual Studio autocomplete failure, and the one setting that fixes everything 
• Windows 11 TPM requirements, registry workarounds, and why you should fact-check us 
• School overload, writing feedback, and the strange logic of ordering drinks you dislike 
• Shark combat tactics, water disadvantage rulings, and becoming the shark dentist 
• Looting an ash-covered general store for practical gear and a premium bedroll 
• A haunted city “echo” with a five turn disaster countdown and spectral attackers 
• Escaping by boat as blue magma hits seawater and the world snaps back 
• A hidden cat cave, a journal-poem, and lore threads tied to electricity 
• A cliff climb progress counter, Fear management, and an earned portal seed 
Thank you, people who have been supporting the campaign by buying our itch.io modules.

Transcript

Welcome And Friendly Roasting

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Good unspecified time period, adventurers. And welcome to Richard and Carl Play Daggerheart. I'm Richard. I don't actually play the Daggerheart.

SPEAKER_01 0:11

Uh-oh, I am Carl, and I do actually play the Daggerheart.

SPEAKER_02 0:16

So before we get into the thing that we're directly advertising we do, let's take a like, I don't know, 45-minute break to talk about whatever's going on in the Carlverse, because apparently our fans like you. Because you're not mean to them and you don't blatantly insult them on stream like me, it's weird.

SPEAKER_01 0:35

I don't know. There was one time you told me I was like mansplaining stuff, and I was like, oh, you do mansplain.

SPEAKER_02 0:42

Depends what it is, because like if you're like, hey, here's my lived experience in Saskatoon, that's great. And other times you're like, so I've discovered this thing called a semicolon, right? And it attaches two sentences together, and I'm like, Carl, how foolish do you think our audience are? And then I grade some tests, I'm like, no, no, Carl was right. He was right to explain this.

SPEAKER_01 1:07

That's that's funny. Uh

The Long Road Back To Game Dev

SPEAKER_01 1:12

well, so what what's new with me? Um, eons ago when Future Stop when Future Shop was still a thing.

SPEAKER_02 1:23

Oh, I need to stop you for a mini story. So we were in a pub grading essays like teachers do. Note if you're my employer, this is a comedy podcast. And one of the essays started with Since the Beginning of Time, there have been gender roles. And that was their opening sentence. And I just love the since the beginning of time is an opening sentence in an essay. Like almost any essay, it doesn't make it better, but it makes it more entertaining. Since the beginning of time. It's just such a such a way to start your lit analyst. Please continue. So since the beginning of time, there was Future Shop. Go on.

SPEAKER_01 2:01

Well, I mean, Future Shop is a thing of the past. It's it's a funny joke, I'm gonna keep making it. Anyways, uh so uh well, eons ago, uh Richard and I uh decided that we would uh try and develop a uh video game together using that XNA framework, which I don't even know if it's still a thing. Bubble Fighter. Um but uh for a variety of reasons uh we we did not ever complete that project. Uh but through that research we were doing for that project, we stumbled upon upon Unity that it's not exactly a game creator, but I guess it's a game engine. I don't know. Game engine creator.

SPEAKER_02 2:58

Sure. Like I I'm just not gonna mansplain this to you. I'm just gonna let you have this for a while. I will interject if needed, but I think you got this.

SPEAKER_01 3:10

Anyway, a physics engine, that's what that's what it is. That's what it is, I guess. Anyways. Point of the matter is uh that uh my dad and his friend, oddly enough, also knew Richard.

SPEAKER_02 3:26

You know uh Richards are very common if they're 30 years older than me.

SPEAKER_01 3:32

20 to 30. Uh, but I don't know if they actually invented this game or not, but they they played uh a game with uh pen and paper. Uh well, pen and grid paper, I guess, more specifically.

SPEAKER_02 3:47

Um, I I need a pause for one more tangent. So my campus had like an open house research development thing, and my professor had some games on play. So he put in two of my games, one under my actual name, but then we need a pseudonym. So the second one went with it was like Willie D word, because Willie is dick is Richard. Okay. That's it, that's the tangent. I thought it was pretty good to use the scope the pseudonym Willy for Richard. That is pretty funny.

SPEAKER_01 4:21

Willie De Riddle, that was it. That's pretty good, right? Yeah. Um but so my my dad uh and his friend Richard uh they say they invented a game. Uh it's it's basically it's uh kind of a good-based racing game. Uh each turn you increase your speed by however much and try and race around a track that you drew on grid paper uh without hitting walls or each other. Um so when you move between two points, you just connect them with the a line drawn by a ruler, and then if you have anything on the line, then uh you have to stop there and and restart.

SPEAKER_02 5:07

You know what never occurred to us to do is simply write down the rules for that version of it with the grid paper and just put those on itch.io as like you download this along with some grid paper and just play it. Like we could just publish that version, it would take like an afternoon, and millions of people could enjoy that game. Like, I'm saying this out loud because I feel like we should just do that after like this podcast. Anyone can literally just put that game for download, like, at the end of this episode, because it's only like three pages of rules at most. Like maybe put in that. Uh I might just make this game and put it online afterward and put the credits where it goes as a free download.

SPEAKER_01 5:48

Uh, but this uh this inspired me as uh something that I felt like I could could actually uh program and make into a video game and potentially uh improve due to rules enforcement, allowing things like you do need to put in an important comment here.

SPEAKER_02 6:06

Wa wah. You may resume.

SPEAKER_01 6:11

Uh well, so uh you know, potentially improve, you know, like instead of being turn-based, you know, everyone increases their speed, uh, and then all of the characters move at the same time. And uh how much time you have to to make your move depends on how fast you're going. So you have less time the faster you're going to simulate uh reaction time and and stuff like that. Um and uh I started trying to program this, and I've had I've had several setbacks. Um one of them being um I don't know why this stuck stood out to me in particular, uh, but uh I was I was trying to program my game. Uh I asked I asked Richard for help. That's me. And yeah, yeah. Uh I uh specifically I said I asked Richard for help with my uh map editing software is what I called it. Oh that's uh nostalgic almost. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then you're like, ah yeah, yeah, you're not making map editing software. It's like, oh okay. That was not helpful. Anyways. Uh but fast fast forward. Um and uh, you know, my I had moved to the house limit now, and uh my computer crashed because I knocked it over with my shin, whatever, blah blah blah.

SPEAKER_02 7:37

Sorry, I I need to point this out. Like, I'm mostly just recapping what you said for listeners. My computer crashed because I bumped into it with my shin is like a very tech like I think crashed is not quite the way they're picturing it, but it was also exactly the way they're picturing it. Because like the hardest thing, crashes and car crash also crashes and files stop working. Both things happened.

SPEAKER_01 8:05

Uh well, I mean, yeah, maybe my computer should get a driver's license, then then it wouldn't crash so often. Yeah, get one before me.

SPEAKER_02 8:15

Our poor driving instructor was so on death's door at all times, but that's a story for another day.

SPEAKER_01 8:21

Uh but so I uh I bought a computer to replace it, and the computer was running Windows 10. Which uh is currently sort of out of date. Uh they stopped giving out free updates, and uh, if you want updates, you have to pay for them until the end of until October of 2026.

SPEAKER_02 8:44

I've never wanted updates, so they've always just been like, I know technically they do things behind the screens that are important, but I'm like, no, I've never had my computer say uh Windows update happening and then run better afterwards. That's literally never happened.

SPEAKER_01 9:01

See, uh I discovered uh that uh Microsoft Windows, their business model seems to be that they uh sell licenses to hardware uh manufacturers, and then the manufacturers obviously sell the hardware to the consumer, uh, and they uh pass the cost of the license onto the consumer when they sell the product.

SPEAKER_02 9:25

Oh, really? Because I thought their business model was smuggling antibiotics into their wife's foods so they wouldn't realize they had an affair.

SPEAKER_01 9:32

Well, uh I'm just talking about Windows, I'm not talking about Microsoft as a whole.

SPEAKER_02 9:39

No, I don't think it's slander if it's written on a publicly available document.

SPEAKER_01 9:46

Anyways.

SPEAKER_02 9:58

No

Windows 11 TPM Panic And Upgrades

SPEAKER_02 9:59

one just ever makes a good or a service anymore.

SPEAKER_01 10:05

Okay, but so um in uh 2016, uh there was discovered that uh most Windows computers have a uh level chip that has it's called the trusted platform module. Uh and in 2016 they discovered that there was a security vulnerability in the TPM. Okay uh and uh Microsoft decided that they would try to use this security vulnerability to uh scare and bully people into upgrading to Windows 11. Uh, this the I mean this is just speculation, but this seems to be whatever happened.

SPEAKER_02 10:41

We are comedy podcast. Don't get your news from us.

SPEAKER_01 10:45

Well, they they they say that TPM 2.0 is required for Windows 11. Yeah. But it is not. Windows 11 will run on a computer that has an older TPM. You just have that security vulnerability that they're trying to scare people into you that they're trying to use to scare people to into upgrading. Uh, and if they don't have this TPM, then they're hoping people will buy new hardware, which will get some more money from their licenses.

SPEAKER_02 11:10

So I'm gonna need you to text me this information because I'm meeting with my friend this evening who was a PhD candidate for cybersecurity. I'm just curious how accurate this is. Because I think like I have the abil I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm saying I have the ability to actually fact-check this. Which normally you don't, so I might as well use that power.

SPEAKER_01 11:33

Um, so the computer that I bought though, uh, was a refurbished workstation, one of those small form factor ones.

SPEAKER_03 11:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:39

Uh, and apparently uh does not have the right TPM. Uh and so for a while I was like, oh, I'm not gonna bother upgrading. But then I installed Unity because I decided I would try and re restart my project. Um and uh when I installed Unity the first time, way back when, uh I downloaded Visual Studio, uh, and it just worked. No questions asked. I do recall this. These two programs just work together. Uh this time the autocomplete feature just wasn't working, and without the autocomplete feature, it's like I hate to be uh so reliant on technology that I need this autocomplete thing. He says while completing a video game. But also um actually going through and memorizing all of the different uh members and mode methods and classes and everything that you can possibly call and trying to type them out accurately from memory, or while just checking a reference document, it's just it's gonna take so long to actually complete a game in this way. Like immense respect for people who who uh coded before uh development environments uh were able to do this autocomplete feature, because that it would have been quite arduous.

SPEAKER_02 13:03

I mean, with some of the tech I've been fighting with this semester, there is no autocomplete for Inform 7 because it's a nonsense coding language. So I feel you. I say nonsense because like it it's written like English. It'll be like the room is north, the room's description is trees, and like that's like how you actually code in this thing. But it'll be like, oh, we did put a period at the end of this room looks like trees, so compile error, and I'm like, just be code. Stop being poetry. Right. But I also love it because it's like kind of like it's very aesthetically pleasing code. Sorry, unrelated brands.

SPEAKER_01 13:46

But so also when I when I started Unity, um I was going to university at the time. And even though it has nothing to do with the degree I was pursuing, Microsoft gave me a lifetime license for Visual Studio 2010 Pro. Okay. And uh so initially I was like, okay, I'm still using this really old development environment. Maybe it's because the development environment's too old. Uh so I go online, I download this uh Visual Studio code, which immediately I'm I'm prompted to try and use AI to solve my problems. I'm like, no, no, the point of this project is to create something myself with my own two hands, ironically, as I complained about autocomplete.

SPEAKER_02 14:33

So the thing I post in her chat is what Inform 7 coding language looks like. I see. It's very aesthetically pleasing, but not very useful.

SPEAKER_01 14:49

Oh but so so then I uh start up Unity and the autocomplete's still not working. Uh so then I look again and like, okay, Visual Studio Community 2026. It's a more robust version of the Visual Studio Code, and it's closer to what I was using with the Visual Studio 2010. So I install that one. And it's like, oh, autocomplete's still not working. Um alright. Maybe I uh should just upgrade to Windows 11, wipe my computer with the with a clean uh install, and then try and install it again.

SPEAKER_02 15:30

Umunds like you're one step away from just putting the whole thing in a magnet or a microwave.

SPEAKER_01 15:36

So I I I figure out that uh Windows 11 doesn't actually require this TPM 2.0, and there are three lines of uh code that you can add to your registry to just tell it to not bother checking your TPM. Uh if for some reason you have older hardware that you can't part with, and you but it's capable of running Windows 11 uh aside from the TPM. You can look online, it's pretty easy to find the information you need to do this. Uh, I personally, you know, I'm okay with uh messing with the registry on my computer.

SPEAKER_02 16:13

Um I just have this hilarious scenario in mind. So we go into this computer programming deep dive, and then we learn that thousands of people listened to this episode, thousands of people did this, and then I don't know, I'm gonna say the literal Legion of Doom does a moss hack across Canada that now the entire country is a security vulnerability because various librarians and school admins listen to this podcast, and then just all of Canada's knowledge is deleted. All of our literature, all of our research, government files, our entire tax registry just gone because they listened to Carl for 15 minutes unwarned. The time you broke Canada.

SPEAKER_01 16:59

Just saying, uh, it's easy enough to find the information. I'm not gonna give it out. You have to do a little bit of F.

SPEAKER_02 17:05

I'm just saying, trusting Carl for computer security advice is like trusting either of us for medical advice. You probably shouldn't. I'm not even saying you're wrong, I'm saying check your sources. Because Carl as a computer science source is like me as a doctor. Just I'm not sure how kind of strategy that is. Like you made it work for you, I believe it, but like, could you imagine if someone asked me for directions? It's just not a good tactic.

SPEAKER_01 17:33

Um so I've got my computer wiped, and uh I'm reinstalling all

Reinstalls, Autocomplete, And The Real Fix

SPEAKER_01 17:39

my programs. Uh and now as a little bit of a side tangent, something I found funny. Uh I I use a uh free program called Kinkscape. Yeah. And I searched it up and I find it on the Microsoft Store actually, and it's still free on the Microsoft Store. I'm like, alright, maybe I should just download my stuff through the Microsoft Store just to you know be more secure about what I'm downloading, despite the security vulnerabilities on my computer. This seems like a winning strategy. Uh alternative to Microsoft Office, because I absolutely hate the idea of the subscription program uh Office 365.

SPEAKER_00 18:23

Reasonable.

SPEAKER_02 18:25

Well, as a student, the idea that I would pay for software is truly absurd, so I simply don't. That is simply not happening.

SPEAKER_01 18:35

Right, but if you got used to using uh Office 365 and then you go to use it in a personal capacity outside of school, uh I think I actually bought Office when I bought my nov when I wrote my first book.

SPEAKER_02 18:47

I'm like, I'm paying for Office because I need this to not screw me over because I'm writing a book and I don't trust it.

SPEAKER_01 18:54

But anyway, so LibreOffice is famously free, alternative to uh Microsoft Office.

SPEAKER_02 19:00

I do appreciate that, like I still use Inkscape instead of Adobe Illustrator. Yeah, Inkscape.

SPEAKER_01 19:07

Um and uh I go on the Microsoft store and it's on there. Uh but it's five bucks. And I'm like, mmm, that's still pretty cheap. But it's you could get like three donuts now, maybe. But but I'm I'm gonna check to see their official website. Uh it turns out if you go to the official website for LibreOffice, not only is it still free, but the version that they're offering on Microsoft store is like version 24, and the most recent version is version 26. Huh. Uh so so you're paying five bucks for an outdated version of free software? That feels like a scam. Yeah, I'm I'm a little bit curious. Uh maybe you can ask a computer science friend if they if they have any idea. I'm a little bit curious uh how much of that money goes to the uh software creator and how much of it goes to Microsoft.

SPEAKER_02 20:01

I feel like zero. Like I feel like they're just taking yeah, I think, yeah, just zero.

SPEAKER_01 20:07

I'll maybe get tricked by Microsoft into buying uh outdated free software. Yeah but that sounds right. Anyways. Uh but anyways, uh get all my programs reinstalled. Uh I vote up Unity, I boot up my most recent version of Microsoft of uh Visual Studio, and uh it still won't work. Womp womp. Uh it turns out for some reason uh Unity was just not uh directed to look at the right executable for Visual Studio. Uh and it was actually a fairly simple fix that didn't involve all this uh useless preamble.

SPEAKER_02 20:47

Did you try turning your computer off and on?

SPEAKER_01 20:49

Was that the problem? No, no, it was literally just like, oh yeah, just make sure it's looking at this file and just like, oh, wow, okay. I guess I didn't have to reinstall Visual Studio four times.

SPEAKER_02 21:05

What a twist!

SPEAKER_01 21:08

But now, uh I I don't know what exactly it was that just like clicked for me, but I was coding and I was like, oh hey, you know, this is how you use a scriptable object, and suddenly uh progress that took me like three months last time I tried only took me like three days. Excellent.

SPEAKER_02 21:28

The story has a happy-ish ending. Yeah, yeah. And it wasn't just you bringing down our entire data infrastructure.

SPEAKER_01 21:35

So so so the game that I'm coding uh is is very nearly as functional as it was in three days after like you know three or four months before.

SPEAKER_02 21:44

And like nine years before. Uh yeah, that's true. I mean, there has it has been you know eons. To be a sassy bitch about it, I put out seven books in that time.

SPEAKER_01 21:56

Well, you know, I I put I put one public. hopefully got one story published, short story. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:03

It's in a quantum state. You haven't not got it. Ooh, it's in a quantum state. That's actually really funny.

unknown 22:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:09

Yeah, yeah. I'm still waiting for them to to uh to just reject me already.

SPEAKER_02 22:14

Like I haven't been rejected yet either and apparently another wave of rejections went out yesterday, according to my friend who's following this more closely. They do something called that's my like actual author friend does something called subscription man uh subs uh submission mancy. Where basically on ver on these older internet forms like pre-reddit authors like post their rejection dates to kind of like figure out what when people are getting letters to try and calculate where you are in the queue. And they're like according to my methods we're still in the runnings because we would have been rejected by now which means we're probably getting looking at a second reading yeah yeah alright but yes yeah 73 days with with literally no no feedback that's a good thing because we know you could have been rejected by now could have been rejected twice yeah but yeah TLDR though I do think like the original rules for this game about how you write on graph paper to do it could like be typed up on Word in like 10 minutes and then put on a Canva file to be a nice one page download and just exist like instantly good it could.

SPEAKER_01 23:29

Uh but all of that computer science aside that's that's what's new with me is that I've been uh successfully working on my project of you know a decade.

SPEAKER_02 23:41

Excellent I'm proud of you good job I may be mean to you all the time but that's the point of the show. It's

School Overload, Writing Notes, And Beer Logic

SPEAKER_02 23:49

called what's to do with you then so I got some feedback for the outline of the novel I'm working on and got eviscerated slightly they're like yeah your novel's a series of really cool scenes and you forgot to connect them with meaningful emotional development also you should probably have the conflict within the first three pages and I'm like ow you're right I got a devastatingly low grade of an 80 on it. Oh I know right like that's like devastatingly low but SAS aside I'm planning to spend this weekend working on my next layer of revision on that. Oh also my fingernails are currently pink and blue is that so I was giving a group presentation with one of my friends and we decided day of that painting our fingernails to match the color palette of the comic book we were discussing was a baller move. Fair enough but I also learned that like we worked on this project for about 24 hours like there was a straight up nap session that happened in the middle of this project Okay's funny because it's like I do think working with this person resulted in a higher quality project but I don't know if the time ratio is even remotely efficient. Because it's like I feel like it would have taken me two hours and with two of us it took closer to 24 hours and I don't know if it was 30 tim if it was 20 times better the assignment or 10 times better. Five times six times better anyway I can't be bothered to do the math but so that presentation is done which is lovely. And then yeah I have my programming project I have to hand in my comic book about making comic books uh my comic book essay about making comic book essays and a big chunk of my novel need to be handed in so those are like my big things is just schoolwork. We have like seven events over the last three weeks at campus and I don't actually remember what they all were because everything's blurred together into a quantum soup. Like my life's going great I just seem to have forgotten most of it and it's like I'm like you gotta add to a group chat which kind of beer do you like and I'm like I don't know I should respond to this this is important to people but my brain is too busy thinking about monstration and spatiotopia right now that I simply don't know what beverages I enjoy. Fair enough that has a good name although I've started drinking more beer than I ever have in my life because I learned something. Oh? So my classmates after big assignments and things like to go out to a pub and I'm in downtown Toronto. There's pubs everywhere.

SPEAKER_03 26:43

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 26:44

But so as you're aware I enjoy drinks that are a little more not to say there's a gender binary and not to go since the beginning of time people have been forced into certain gender roles like a person an essay I recently enjoyed. But I tend to enjoy drinks that are conventionally by social convention considered girly drinks. I don't say that as a sexist comment I say that as a I want marasino cherries in my drink. But I don't care for beer that much and that's the secret is if I order a beer which I don't care for that much I can simply sip on one of them and it will last longer because in it's not as enjoyable so I won't drink it back like candy so I'm gonna sip this drink slowly. So I'm like having like a glass of wine or a beer because it is less tasty to me therefore I won't consume it as fast and spend as much money.

SPEAKER_01 27:37

I guess that's a smart move.

SPEAKER_02 27:39

Is it is ordering a drink you enjoy less so you drink it slower really a good strategy I I definitely would never order beer.

SPEAKER_01 27:49

Uh a beer's not really a sipping drink and B uh beer is gross like I can't like I I take one sip and it makes me won't throw up where it's like my classmates oh get a picture for the table and I'm like alright I think I can tolerate this I mean speaking of gender biases actually I tell people that I don't like coffee or I tell people that I don't like beer and I'm like oh are you even a real man? It's like holy beer and coffee that makes you a man alright.

SPEAKER_02 28:19

To be fair apparently because like we know it's like it's not genetic because non-binary have existed since Gilgamesh which by the way my temptation to write on that essay like since the beginning of time men and women have been put into genderized roles to me like have you even read the Echoic of Gilgamesh? Because it contains two non-binary characters and it's our first story bitch. So the gender binary is some bullshit. I think what you meant to say was since the beginning of oh what do they call those like Abrahamic tradition based theology so your Christianity your Judaism your Catholicism that's when we started writing down specific gender roles. And I'm not saying they didn't exist before then but that's when we started ripping people's ribs out to make other people but like you go back to like Loki and Norris mythology it's like no no Loki didn't have a gender Drag was cool back then I'm just saying that since the beginning of time is not true on that one and you're not a real man because you don't drink beer is I guess what I'm saying. Okay the joke being that people used to drink it partly because drinking unbeard water would just kill you because you rot beer to the point where it becomes like sterile I mean it's funny because it's like Carl doesn't like rotten bread smoothies what a what a girl no rotten bread smoothies just especially when it's that way just sounds awful you you don't want carbonated bread smoothies? What are you some kind of no I do not I mean I've been making the joke all day to my one of my friends that happy Good Friday Jesus was a stand user who had yeast Domancy yeast A Mancy? All his powers are yeast based I'm not the one who wrote the source text okay turn water into wine boom yeast create bread boom yeast come back to life boom yeast I feel like I might get canceled though if I boldly proclaim that Jesus came back to life because the yeast inhabiting his body controlled it like a meat puppet probably won't go over well that's kind of disturbing yeast is weird how do we cultivate that like yeast is such a weird thing oh yeah we just have our pet bacteria that alcohols us what yeah sourdough sourdough is delicious and yeah but some people are using starters that have been like the same yeast for like over a hundred years. And statistically could have originally reanimated Jesus the Jesus yeast you know what it's funny because I always love that I'll watch something like Fate's Day night and there'll be like this magical artifact and then they'll actually be in a building in Rome and I'm like you know it's wild how many magical artifacts are physical things that exist like this specific sourdough starter made from the original wine could exist. Like that's true. I love the idea of a Babylonian stout starter used by King Gilgamesh like that's funny because yeast is functionally immortal because it's a constantly repopulated colony you could technically have like truly absurdly old yeast well technically it'd be a yeast lineage. Anywho what's new with me is I'm so overworked that I'm talking yeast to Mancy That's about right. I just love the idea being like since the beginning of time there are gender roles I'm like did you even read Gilgamesh fail. Oh and my brother hit me with the most savage burn of my life so I come back with my like blue and pur uh pink painted fingernails right and he notices a day later because I don't own nail polish remover which is on my shopping list today and goes I'm like I think it looks good he's like I think you look like a soccer from Hunter Hunter that one made me recoil. Like oh there's so many implications there oh no yeah it's because you're such a clown like I every part of it hurt there's so much that hurts it's rough take that my self-esteem but I drink beer so it doesn't matter if I paint my nails pink oh yeah that's

Back To Daggerheart And The Recap

SPEAKER_02 33:15

that's true. You drink beer you drink coffee I love to joke that coffee and chocolate are only socially acceptable narcotics like oh yeah I just drink this drug and you're an idiot for not drinking this drug idiot well uh speaking of drugs do we want to see how many characters I can kill with uh with poison today that was pretty good like I was wondering where you're going to do your pivot and you're like okay I'm gonna see you transition and I was watching you transition pretty clean like B plus like needs clarity could expand good job Alright so let's have Dagger some hearts last time on Dagger Heart you were on a boat that was powered by our fire kit team you decided when faced with the emotional choice of is it okay for Doctors Without Borders to abuse kittens to save lives you decided I'ma leave so after poisoning some poisoners getting into a fight on boat I think you decide to just take a small suit a small rowboat and just leave and go to the coast.

SPEAKER_01 34:32

Is that correct because um I mean I don't know what exactly I'm hoping to find in Alora after so much time spans but maybe I can find uh Leroy's um grave marker or something the movie they buried in maybe in their graveyard I don't know but with that we'll part paint the following scene you're on a medium sized rowboat something that could be used to escape a Titanic in size it would definitely fit two people on it easily and comfortably you're about it'll take you about four hours to row all the way to the coast because the boat didn't really pull in to stop.

SPEAKER_02 35:14

So it is a bit of rowing it's not insane like you can see the coast you're not in like danger of journey but you do have to row across a like sized amount of ocean water. You see on the coast from this distance and as you recall to the south of Allora is a volcano that shoots lightning up into the sky. And you see looking into the coast what looks like almost like someone made obsidian sculptures of houses and statues.

Rowboat Trouble And Shark Combat

SPEAKER_02 35:45

The water around you seems relatively smooth but you see a few ripples. In the distance you see what looks like a fin just kind of pop up and down what would you like to do?

SPEAKER_01 36:00

Um well I mean I feel like I gotta row faster.

SPEAKER_02 36:09

Go ahead and make a strength check for me. Uh oh I'm not very strong yeah but I really don't know how I can argue finesse for rowing like it's literally gym equipment to work out your triceps I got a four with hope. So you're rowing and you're moving and that fin is now within close range circling your boat uh oh no that's not good I haven't even rested dang it however that means my fear hasn't restocked either and I did use it all up so I have no fear to play with right now.

SPEAKER_01 36:57

I really hope our viewers are actually keeping track of these tokens because we are not and be like no they're wrong their math is bad I have no idea how many fear tokens you have but but I know uh that the website tracks all of my stats expertly which is you know not good.

SPEAKER_02 37:15

So they're working on it for mine. So the campaign tab on Daggerheart Nexus is pretty new. So they added a new feature like last week so we currently have players and we have NPCs where I can choose any like stat block and it pins it and it lets me write GM notes about it, a short description and a long description. But it's and then I can open the sheet from there. But they don't have their extra Yeah so I can basically preload creatures to pull up their sheets from this list of NPCs.

SPEAKER_01 37:44

And that gives you the dice roller now? Because I remember last time it was tools.

SPEAKER_02 37:48

Yeah so I got the dice roll I think we are in the middle of the update which is why my dice roller disappeared. Ah okay okay and then like the resources tab still says coming soon the encounter still says coming soon. But I'm able to now like at least put the NPCs I intend to use. And by this it lets me put both environments it's called NPCs but I can put my environment cards there and my monster cards. So I almost wonder if the tab should be objects because I can like put information so it lets me track notes and open the sheets for both encounters and locations. So it might be poorly. Because NPCs makes you think non-enemies but really it's like an object it's like a creature's environments tab. Good thing Daggerheart listens to our episodes and we'll take this feedback to heart. You know I think they might though like I think somebody at Derrington press at some point has at least listened to a sample of us because we've been shared by them a few times. Huh I like to bel I like to believe Matt Mercer needs to de-stress so he listens to us fumble through it for a while and then just laughs. Like I enjoy the idea that we're his doom scrolling entertainment Anywho Sharkfin Uh they're in close range?

SPEAKER_01 39:12

Yep Um well Okay's something that I don't think we've actually uh had to use yet um is there any sort of disadvantage for fighting in the water?

SPEAKER_02 39:29

That is a very good question So there's unlike DD, there's no like distinct rules like you'll remember like crossbow and trident said doesn't have disadvantage in the water right from DD Yeah but for Daggerheart like water combat simply didn't put up any rules and I'm checking into the rulings on disadvantage itself to see if like water's given in an example Right right giving advantage is advantage. I'm just gonna see if there's precedent because there doesn't seem to be specific water rules.

SPEAKER_01 40:18

My instinct is to give disadvantage minus a D6.

SPEAKER_02 40:26

Yeah but let's see if there's any actual examples for example if the player is attempting to sprint through deep mud or knee-high water you might prove disadvantage on agility rules I'm going to say it would be disadvantage to fight in the water. That feels correct I see I see unless you can tell me why that's not the case unless you became a fish or something no no I I I definitely did not become a fish. But yeah I'm not seeing any specific aquatic combat rules.

SPEAKER_01 41:01

I feel like if I made like a pirate's campaign frame I would put those in to be more specific Okay well so this uh this creature that I can see the fin of uh can I see its face you can uh go ahead and roll a instinct roll please or knowledge I'm gonna go for instinct I'm gonna instinctively try and find their eyes critical success it is a shark it is the most shark shark you've ever sharked but uh critical success you clear a stress and gain a hope alright clear stress gain a hope alright it is a shark it is the most sharky shark to ever shark sure is a shark well I mean mostly I'm just wondering if I could like uh just like dive into the water and spear this shark in the eye with my fist. You can certainly try uh would my vital points experience count? Only because you got a really high role spotting it I think because you like specifically mapped out that shark's physiology and you're like I want to look deep in its face so is this just uh an attack roll or Yeah Alright plus you can spend a hope to add plus two for your experience like you do and then spend a hope and plus two alright and roll eighteen with hope eighteen with hope we'll hit shark Alright so then I can after making damage rolls a melee weapon but before dealing that damage marking did you give yourself disadvantage I should uh you want me to roll a d6 see how much I lose I can roll it I'm happy to roll it okay but d6 one d6 roll I got a six that mean I miss what does it bring it down to twelve yes it does because the shark is in water however I have no fear to play with so it's still my move um well I mean I guess I I attempt again go ahead and I want to punch him right in the eye using my title point skill so now I roll

SPEAKER_00 44:02

And vital point skill. Uh and then with the D6. I forgot to give myself disadvantage once again. Oh good. Oh, did you give yourself disadvantage this time? 17 will hit. Sorry, just one second. I seem to have uh messed up my earbud button.

SPEAKER_02 44:30

Remember the time you said you always use your headset correctly? So, for while Carl's fighting with his headset, viewers, Carl made a quip two weeks ago that he has never used his headset incorrectly. He's like, I would never use my headset wrong. Yeah, but I just I will always remember the time you specifically said, quote, unlike Vlad, I would never use my headset wrong.

SPEAKER_01 45:06

Anyways, uh 17 does does that hit? 17 does hit. Nice. So then after we're making normally a damage roll before tired dating the damage. Alright. So I roll for damage. Uh which is currently 30, but I am going to uh mark a stress to combo off in the water.

SPEAKER_02 45:36

Okay, go ahead and make your combo eight.

SPEAKER_01 45:40

Mark a stress. My thing is a d8. So I roll a six. And so I have to roll. I have to roll greater than equal to or greater than a six, alright. Ooh, I rolled an eight.

SPEAKER_02 46:04

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 46:05

And I rolled a six. So that is an additional twenty damage, so that makes it fifty damage.

SPEAKER_02 46:10

50! So that was enough to double its severe threshold, as you're just punching the shark repeatedly in the eye. It is displeased with you. However, because of its cracked scales, whenever it takes damage, I roll a number of dick d6s equal to the HB marked, which was four. Okay. And for each four or higher, I get a fear. Ooh. Sounds scary. Alright, so. Doo-do-do doo. Dice roller. Three, four, roll. I gain back one uh no two. I gain back two fear from the crash sails. Ah. Which means I can spend a fear to have it do something about being punched repeatedly in the face.

SPEAKER_01 47:15

Uh, but okay. Uh whenever you make an adversary mark one or more hit points, you can spend two hopes to increase your evasion by the number of hit points marked. Will you mark four hit points? Ah, you bastard!

SPEAKER_02 47:26

I mean, yes. Uh I'm not trying to kill my player, it's fine.

SPEAKER_01 47:33

Alright. So now I have an additional four evasion until I am until someone attacks me. Alright.

SPEAKER_02 47:44

Yay! So, you see a second fin approaching from the distance. Uh-oh. Sharky number one is gonna go ahead and make his attack. Okay. I'm giving him an advantage because he's a shark in the water. Uh-huh. Does a 17 hit you? It does not, because I'm ferocious. You just see it like mrr flailing at you. And turn order goes back to you. That is all it gotta do is try and like nom you desperately.

SPEAKER_01 48:21

Um. Would it just be an attack to try and knock its teeth out?

SPEAKER_02 48:26

Um I'm going to say, if you're trying to specifically disable its ability to attack, I will have you, if you choose to rather than attack, make a finesse roll to knock its teeth out. If you get above its difficulty, I will disable its bite attack. So it won't do damage, it will simply remove its toothy maw ability. So I'll let you attempt that if you like.

SPEAKER_01 48:55

Um and then medical training probably wouldn't apply.

SPEAKER_02 49:01

Would it? I'll let you get away with that. I'd let you aim for the right piece of the gummy bits to try and get its teeth out. I guess. Alright, alright. Maybe.

SPEAKER_01 49:10

I I am going to try to I'm gonna be the shark dentist. The shark dentist.

SPEAKER_02 49:17

That's an awesome experience to add after the next level up, though.

SPEAKER_01 49:22

Uh do I have disadvantage on trying to remove its teeth?

SPEAKER_02 49:25

Uh yes. Surgery in the water is harder.

SPEAKER_01 49:32

Oh, critical success.

SPEAKER_02 49:34

Are you kidding me? So you just start like going like pressure point po ja da, and it's just teeth fall out. It's like this is the saddest expression a shark has ever had if you strategically removed its teeth. And turn order's still yours. The second one is swimming towards you. This one, you've done enough damage to its mouth that it simply can no longer use its rending bite ability or its toothy maw ability.

SPEAKER_01 50:03

Okay. Um I mean, I guess I'm just gonna attempt to punch it once again.

SPEAKER_02 50:11

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 50:12

Um The second shark is within close range now, by the way.

SPEAKER_02 50:16

The second shark is within close range? Yeah, it'll get to you on his turn. It's about 20 feet away.

SPEAKER_03 50:21

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 50:24

It's funny that the game abstracts ranges, and I almost always immediately be like, no, no, I guess I need feet. Instead of meters like a sensible person. Instead of meters like a sensible person. Stupid Canada being like, well, we're so close to America, we're gonna use feet. Which I guarantee will be updated to the president's foot size by the end of the term, which will be a lie about how big his feet are. Anywho, rant aside, he's 30 feet away. Uh, 29 feet away. Eee. Twenty-nine feet away. Or five to six inches on the battle grid we're totally using, which is roughly the length of a standard pen or pencil.

SPEAKER_01 51:04

Yeah, no, I guess I'm just no, I'm gonna just attempt to punch this this shark once again. Alright, go ahead. Well, I have disadvantage, which is not good. And I roll.

SPEAKER_02 51:19

What?

SPEAKER_01 51:20

Another critical success!

SPEAKER_02 51:24

What?

unknown 51:25

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 51:27

Go ahead and roll damage and also get the maximum value of your damage dice added to the roll for good measure.

SPEAKER_01 51:36

Uh yeah, this guy is so screwed. Uh 23 base damage uh with 42 for the max damage in my shark just floats upside down onto its belly, it's dead.

SPEAKER_02 51:54

Why did they make a presence roll for me? Uh presence reaction roll. Presence reaction?

SPEAKER_01 52:04

Wow. The the beam of light loves me today. That is another critical success.

SPEAKER_02 52:10

The other shark turns around and swims away.

SPEAKER_01 52:14

Uh how many shark teeth can I add to my inventory? I don't know if I'll need them for anything, but they seem like they might be useful.

SPEAKER_02 52:27

Actually, is that Um Roll a D100 for me.

SPEAKER_01 52:37

A D100. Uh there does not seem to be a D100 option in here.

SPEAKER_03 52:45

Just 5D twenties?

SPEAKER_01 52:48

Yeah, five D20s.

SPEAKER_02 52:56

42! You got 42 shark teeth. Alright. Because they may have between 50 and 300 teeth, and I'm like, okay, you don't need 300 teeth. That is a fair number of tooth. Alright, I have shark teeth. They're not hard to make into a syringe. Enjoy your shark teeth.

SPEAKER_01 53:20

Oh, really? Oh yeah. To make into a syringe.

SPEAKER_02 53:24

Huh. I saw this on an episode of Lost Once Upon a Time that they're like a shark teeth because they're hollow or relatively easy and needle-like are relatively easy to make into needles.

SPEAKER_01 53:34

Huh. That sounds useful. But I guess I'm gonna get back into my boat uh and uh start rowing away. Back to back to the shore.

SPEAKER_02 53:52

Uh I was wrong about them being easy to make into syringes. I looked this up. They are not easy to make into syringes. But you do have shark teeth. Yeah, okay. I mean I don't know what I'm gonna do with them, but some hobbyists have used fossil-like shark teeth as stylus needles for cutting vinyl records.

SPEAKER_01 54:11

Ooh. Yeah. Well, I mean they're very they're very sharp, so I'm sure I'm can like I can like make a serrated club or something. That'd be cool. That would be cool.

SPEAKER_02 54:23

You know what? I'm gonna tell you what you can do with the shark teeth for crafting. So make a note down somewhere that so the sharks had an ability called rending bite. Which was when the six target makes a successful attack, the target must also mark an armor slot without receiving its benefits. NPCs don't really have armor slots, but you can probably build some kind of rending bite ability that makes them mark an additional HP or break through armor type abilities. So I don't know what you I haven't figured out exactly how this serrated glove will work, but it'll probably be based on how rending bite functions. So I'm gonna just put this in our chat log. And I will figure out if you decide to craft something cool with it later. But that shark be gone.

SPEAKER_01 55:14

That shark be gone. And I just now I can calmly row to the shore.

SPEAKER_02 55:22

Oh, yeah, roll a strength check to see how crappy you are at rowing. After punching that shark to death. 18 with fear. Uh oh. I have two fear now, yay me. Yay you with your fear. So you have successfully rowed up. And you look at this city, an abandoned city, that seems almost void.

SPEAKER_01 55:49

Thus it's like sorry, I I hit my

The Ash City And Looting The Store

SPEAKER_01 55:52

earbuds again. I I don't know my ears are particularly waxy today, so this one second.

SPEAKER_02 55:56

Be better! So, Carl will return sort shortly, because apparently he's much like a child, is unable to play with not play with his ears while recording this podcast.

SPEAKER_01 56:09

It really just takes a second, I just if I hit sign on my earbuds, please. Well, what am I gonna do?

SPEAKER_02 56:15

Not judge you?

SPEAKER_01 56:18

Fair enough.

SPEAKER_02 56:20

But yes, so to describe the situation a bit, much like a Venice or a Pacific Lodge Town, kind of like Wormsheart Crossing, you have like the large wooden docks, and then up the sandy beach, you see what looks like structures that seem to have been like forged out of like a nice marble stone. And they're like wooden and stone structures that have a thin layer of volcanic ash covering them all, much like a Vachuvia situation. It looks like everything on this beach has been encased in ash. So it looked like a Sidian from the coast was actually and you look closer, it looks like I originally thought this might have been serpent sickness or petrified people. And it could still be, but it looks like a scene where people's bodies were petrified and then coated in this thick layer of ash. And it almost unnaturally, remember when the light lighting was almost the sun was red from the smoke of the forest fires in Saskatoon a number of years ago? Where there was almost like that crimson toning over the ground as the sun doesn't quite hit? That is the lighting in this area on this beach. And the day-night cycle where we're at right now is you're pretty close to midday. Pretty close to midday. So you have three more days of midday, but like the lighting almost feels like a twilight.

SPEAKER_01 57:47

Um well, I mean, can I see if there's like a uh a general store or somewhere to get supplies? Make an instinct roll for me. Instinct roll. Wow. Why why does the beautiful light like me so much? That that is another critical success.

SPEAKER_02 58:09

So looking around. So this seems like this place was the site of a b not of a battle, but the something about like you can see from the distance, like some of the volcanic Are you kidding me? Hi, welcome back to the episode.

SPEAKER_01 58:30

Yeah, no. My earbuds are being particularly annoying today.

SPEAKER_02 58:33

I literally said in recording in our episode Daggerheart, are you kidding me?

SPEAKER_01 58:39

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_02 58:40

I think I'm I'm hopefully a kid. So, it literally says on like the stat block I'm using for this environment, you gain valuable information and a related useful item just to metagame a bit because this is a play along type series. So I'm gonna because it's Daggerheart and I was kind of switching into some DD bad habits. What kind of information would you like to know? Ask me three questions and I will answer them.

SPEAKER_01 59:09

What kind of information would I like to know? Uh so firstly, um do these like so the the last town that we were in with statues uh happened to be Lyra's hometown, and and the statues themselves are being controlled by some sort of uh malevolent force. Uh, do any of these statues look like they uh can or have moved on their own in in recent time?

SPEAKER_02 59:39

They look like they have been stuck for decades. Like they've been here for so long, and the ash has slowly stuck on them that they've look like they have not moved at all.

SPEAKER_01 59:53

Uh, okay, okay. Uh then my second question is um I guess I was also looking for loot, basically. Like I was like, hmm, is there a general store that might have some useful equipment?

SPEAKER_02 1:00:06

Or so as you approach the general store, you do manage to find it, but like the wooden door seems to be petrified around the hinges. And it would take a decent amount of force, because as you know, like the layers of ash become hardened like stone. It would you would take a bit of effort to try and open the door. Would you like to do such? Are there any windows that would be easier to smash? Um they seem like the wind you do see the windows aren't perfectly preserved, like the structure around them is. And it's like it looks like time from like weathering and wind and things, or maybe animals have already smashed the windows. And the bits of glass are probably already ashed over and crystallized. So you could kind of like You know how like an air duct works with like its level of almost like carbonization around it? Is kind of how the windows look. So you could probably climb right in. Yeah, I'll try and climb in through a window. I'm not even gonna make you roll for it. You have successfully went into this store. You tell me what kind of objects do you see in this store? And keeping in mind this was like a coastal beach town, and it was a wildling town. So it's more like the kind of like trinkets, you would see it's close more farmer's market than Walmart, if that makes sense. I don't know if you've ever been to Vancouver Island or Victoria, but like it's like half normal stuff and half like souvenir type things almost.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:40

Well, I mean, I was definitely gonna think that I see like lots of like fishing gear. Oh yeah. And uh what else would I find? Um well fishing gear and then also like uh ropes and uh re like boat repair equipments.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:10

Absolutely no issues for you to find those kind of like simple tools. Like feel free to add as many like simple tool type things as you like to your inventory, because a fishing rod, buckets, rope. And you see, like on the shelf perfectly represerved, a beautiful sleeping bag.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:31

Oh, a fishing rod is apparently a weapon.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:34

Feel free to add that to your inventory, but you can also add one premium bedroll. A premium bedroll? During downtime, you automatically clear a stress. Oh nice.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:52

I like that. Um then I guess uh the last thing I'm looking for is uh I I I haven't rested in a while. Uh does this house look like it would be secure enough to safely rest?

SPEAKER_02 1:03:10

You feel like I don't know, this place gives you kind of spooky vibes. From your previous role, the vibes of this place. I don't know. Right, okay. It feels how can I put this? It feels like it's hard like the wispy smoke almost like you'll look in the corner of your eye and it'll like almost be like person-shaped at times. It just kind of leaves you a little unsettled. You don't feel super confident you could rest in this town safely.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:43

Alright, well, uh then I guess I'm gonna take my fishing rod and my premium bedroll, and uh that feels like valuable.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:53

The prompt says to give you valuable information. That felt like valuable information.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:59

That did seem valuable.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:02

Alright. So

Ghosts, The Flower, And Disaster Echoes

SPEAKER_02 1:04:04

as you begin to head out of this town, you hear and you see what it looks like in the distance. It looks like a rivet. But like you can see like a dark blue and dark grey wispy etherealness, like the clouds like rivet-shaped, forms and then dissipates a bit. A sword on its side, and its face, you see it like croak as like the skin folds back and shows the skull underneath it, and then it fades away and reforms again. Oh. That just doesn't seem good at all. You see about three or four just scattered throughout, like, of these shapes forming and then dissipating again. From your earlier investigation, the statues didn't move. And you have the feeling that the people were killed almost instantly from the volcanic ash, the high temperature searing their skin, sealing them in place. And their spirits might not know rest. And as you're aware from the boat, if there was a guardian fire spirit that existed to help usher on people to the great beyond afterward and return them to nature, it is not present in this area. And the spirits of this area have been free to just linger displeased.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:26

Uh um I I feel like I gotta hmm. You said I see like three or four of these spirits? You do.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:38

And you do see also inside the shop, several plants are set up that are petrified along the wall. But there's one flower that seems fine. That's like a deep crimson color that seems to has roots seem to be growing through the building, and it's just sitting there, collecting sunlight through the open window. Uh I see.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:03

Hmm.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:04

And you recognize that plant immediately, and it makes sense that if it cures viral petrification, it also seems to be resistance to other forms of petrification.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:14

Uh yeah, I mean I'm gonna grab as many of the petals as I can.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:19

As you reach towards it, you see what looks like a twisted catfolk skull rips comes out around the plat flower, and its hands go for your throat. I'm gonna spend a few to have the Spectral Guardian attack. Oh no. I'm gonna give it an advantage because I don't think you saw this coming.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:39

I did not.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:44

Alright. Does a 16 hit you? A 16 does hit. You take nine points of damage as its hands clasp around your neck. Alright. And you must mark a stress. Because ghosts.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:10

Um brave face. No, I'm I'll just mark a stress.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:18

I'll I'll mark a stress. I appreciate you being like No, I'm brave as this ghost comes out of the counter to strangle me.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:27

Okay. Alright. But so. Now now spotlights on me.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:36

Yep. I only have one point of fear left. Remember, you don't have to always fight. You can flee, you can do what you see fit. But this town, this haunted city of sorts. You have a feeling from your earlier role that these flowers tend to attract magical energy because they feed on it. And you have the sneaking suspicion that if you grab this flower, these ghosts will probably follow you and the flower. However, it's also where unfathomable wealth can bring back the dead, can cure people of illness, the Empire desperately wants it, etc. etc.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:17

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Um. Well, I think for now I'm gonna try and uppercut this ghost, see if I can knock his block off.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:27

I appreciate the hustle. Go ahead and roll your attack. Let's see how these your crit farming today continues.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:35

Ooh, 12 with fear.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:39

12 with fear. So that does not hit a ghost. Uh-oh. I'm going to spend that fear to activate the city's apocalypse then ability. Uh-oh. So a countdown has started. As you go to uppercut the ghost, your fist goes through it, you look around, and it's weird. It's like you see the city come back to life, but almost like a projection over top of things. You see the building in its original wooden form, you see the shopkeep, a lazy ribbot man leaning on the desk, and you hear this crackle of thunder as you hear the volcano erupting. You seem to be reliving the echo of the past disaster that ravaged this environment. A five-turn countdown has begun.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:33

Oh dear. Alright. Um. Uh now. So can I see the edge of this projection?

SPEAKER_02 1:09:51

Uh, not from your perspective of being inside this door that you climb through a window to get in of.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:59

Alright. Well, I guess I'm just gonna screw the flower, I'm getting out of here, and you're gonna try and get out this window and and uh and see if I can spot the edge of the projection.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:11

Roll it, agility check. Getting out through a window when you have infinite time is easy. Parkouring out a window is much harder.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:19

Agility check!

SPEAKER_02 1:10:22

18 with fear. I will happily take that fear token as you leap out the window successfully. And the projection is like you can't really see the edge of it. Like you look out into the water and can only really see out five feet. And it's because you're in the middle of this illusion of sorts, it's really hard to tell. But you know to the northeast of here is like the trail that leads out of this town out into the woods. And your or role earlier led you to believe that the f like twenty or so town uh buildings and the docks and the people petrified, if you keep going to the northeast, you'll eventually head into the woods closer towards Alora. So you feel something weird. You look over to the distance, and you see what looks like an elvish archer, and you can't make out the words because of his projection, but they're screaming at you as they fire an arrow. Uh-oh.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:19

Does a 14 hit you? If it meets it beats? Yep. Yeah, 14 hits then.

unknown 1:11:29

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:30

Uh, but wait a second, wait a second, wait a second, wait a second. Um when you're targeted by an attack made from beyond melee range, you can mark a stress to roll a D4 and gain a bonus to your evasion. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:43

No matter what you roll, I miss. Damn you! Alright, turn orders back to you.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:53

Hmm. Um.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:00

Okay. So how far away are is this elf? He is within far range. And uh are they in the direction that I need to run to escape the town? Uh no. They're on the roof of a different building. Okay, well, I mean, I I think I just gotta book it and try and escape this town before this countdown runs up. Alright, go ahead and roll in agility. My sense of impending doom. Agility.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:30

An eight with hope. So as you run as fast as you can, which isn't very. You start heading towards the north and you see the volcano erupt. And you see lava that's like a bright blue color with arcs of lightning sparking off it, pouring down towards the path.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:50

Oh boy. This is not good.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:56

Alright, and now. It was with Pope, so you can just make another move.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:04

Right, right. Well, I mean, I I just want to keep looking at it. I gotta get out of here. Alright, are you gonna run towards the lava that's coming in?

SPEAKER_02 1:13:15

Well, okay, the that's the the path that I need to take. Pretty much. That's like the one uh road out of here, basically. Um you can swim into the ocean, or you could head up to northern crop if you head north, it's like gets increasingly lock rocky and craggy. Cause you're on like a Battle of Dieppe beach landing sort. So it's like there's stone cliffs on the left side, the beach continues down to the south, and then that's the main trail up through the woods.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:47

Uh I gotta keep running. I'm I'm going, I'm trying- I I gotta get to Alora. Hopefully I can outrun this magma.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:58

No, you'd be running directly towards the magma. The magma's flowing from the direction of Alora, because that's how hills work.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:06

I see. Oh well then. I guess I gotta run back towards my boat and try and get back into my boat.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:16

Is that your final answer? Or do you want to do a knowledge or investigation here to get more information?

SPEAKER_01 1:14:22

Hmm. Well, each roll I make rope ticks down the timer? Correct. So then I've ticked down the timer twice? Correct. Or three times. Twice. Twice. Twice. Um, yeah, I think I think maybe I do want to try and see if I can uh figure out the nature of this illusion.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:54

Okay, go ahead and roll knowledge or instinct.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:58

I'm going to roll knowledge this time.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:02

And nine with fear. Uh-oh. So you know that you're looking at an illusion. You don't know if that illusion can hurt you, but you know it's illusionary.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:16

Right, right, right.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:17

Alright, so now that you've given me that fear, at the top of the trail, basically like standing in front of the lava, you see what looks like a commander, and you see like spectral imperial forces storming the beach as he's at the top of this hill, and he looks behind him and sees the lava screaming. And you see the images start to desync of that captain and the spectral one who's staring directly at you. Uh-oh. The spectral captain is going to draw his bow and fire a shot at you as well.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:46

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:49

Does an eleven hit you?

SPEAKER_01 1:15:51

Eleven does not hit.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:53

Alright, I'm gonna spend the first of my three fear as the original guardian from inside that house comes out of the ground behind you, the rivet, and tries to stab you with a spear.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:05

Stab you with a spear? Oh boy.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:08

Does a two hit you?

SPEAKER_01 1:16:10

A two does not hit.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:11

So he goes to stab you, and then you see him get shot three times by crossbows in this flashback, and then drop to his knees. Huh. And then I'm going to spend my final fear to activate the other Spectral Guardian, who is going who looks like. He kinda looks like. How can I put this? Picture Dwayne the Rock Johnson in a movie where he played a tooth fairy. Okay, okay. And this fairy is gonna run at you with his giant war hammer and try and smash you. The war hammer end is shaped like a tooth.

unknown 1:16:49

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:52

Does a doot do do do There we go. Does a 19 hit you? Ooh, a 19 does hit me. Alright, you take seven points of damage as this tooth hammer slams into your side. Oh boy. And because it's a grave blade, you must mark a stress. I must mark a stress.

unknown 1:17:24

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:25

So at this point you've pieced together there's about four ghosts. There's the elven commander, the elven sniper, the ribbot guardian, and the Duane, the Drock Johnson Guardian. Right. You're not sure if the lava approaching is an illusion. It seems to be like hitting the guy that's attacking you. It's kind of weird to see like these two events stack simultaneously. But I am out of fear points for now. And the turn order is yours.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:56

Uh alright. Um I am going to. Oh boy. I think I gotta just try and run from my boat.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:15

So you're changing direction and running in the exact opposite direction? Because you were running away from the boat, and now you've changed your mind.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:25

Yeah, yeah. Well, because uh, you know, the the path seems to lead to the lava, and I'm not sure about that lava, so.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:33

Alright, go ahead and roll an agility check for me.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:37

Roll that agility check? Uh a nine with fear.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:43

So, I will happily take that beer. Click this down. As you're running, running, running from them. An arrow is shot directly towards you. Uh-oh. It would love to use its ability to pick your target, but that's sort of irrelevant because there's only one of you.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:03

Ah.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:07

Does a five hit you?

SPEAKER_01 1:19:09

A five does not hit.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:11

The arrow fires. It misses. I might hold on to my fear, though. Turn goes back to you.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:16

Uh keep running. Hopefully, eventually I can actually get some footing and get out of here.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:21

Roll an agility check.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:24

18 with fear.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:26

Well, happily take that fear. Running, running, running. You've made it back to the dock. You're running around the dock. You see that blue lava-like substance oozing through the town. You see what looks like just like an innocent family screaming, running for their lives, unable to escape, because it touches their ankle and they see their entire body seize like they were tased. And you smell like the burnt flesh and hair as a large current from this liquid substance. Petrif like seasons their muscles completely.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:58

Oh boy.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:59

As Ash begins to rain down from above. And since you rolled with fear, I'm gonna have the captain take a shot at you. Twelve?

SPEAKER_01 1:20:14

Twelve does not hit.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:15

Another arrow just shoots past your head. Combat's back to you, I'm gonna sit here happily with my two fear.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:22

I mean, I'm getting in my boat and I'm trying to find a different landing point because I gotta get away from this electric lava.

Escape By Sea And Searching For Shelter

SPEAKER_02 1:20:29

Go ahead and roll a strength jacket for the boat.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:35

How strong can I be this time? Another 18 was fear.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:39

So, as you row, row, row your boat, gently as fuck from the stream, you see the blue liquid moves its way through the town and then meets the water, and where it connects, massive sparks shoot up. You see fish floating and bubbling to the surface. You see what looks like spikes of almost like ethereal coral shoots out of the water. Oh boy. And as you row, row, row, row, the countdown comes to an end, and you see the town returns back to its normal hazy state now that you've rowed about 15 minutes out of town.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:16

Yeah, alright.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:18

And you are in the water. Again. Um, I'm gonna spend two beer to have you mark two stress from this experience.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:29

Oh boy.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:31

That seems reasonable.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:33

I am getting pretty stressed out.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:36

Good! You watched a town explode around you in HD.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:41

That feels like I guess I'm gonna follow the coast until I find another beach to land on.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:48

Go ahead and roll a knowledge check.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:51

Knowledge. 15 with fear.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:56

Okay. So as you search down up and down the coast, you see a couple more fins, you glare at them, they change direction and move. And as you go further and further down, the walls, like, it's like it becomes rockier and more jagged. And you're not really seeing any ports within like a reasonable day's row.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:21

I see.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:23

So your options are it would take you about seven days of rowing to get all the way back to the uh to the Bastion the Moonlit Bastion. Your map doesn't really show any more landing points, because this is one of the like, this is located, and then you head inland from here to Alora. Right. Do you just kind of keep going to try and find anywhere you can park your boat?

SPEAKER_01 1:22:50

Uh well yeah, I mean I really I need to try and find like a cave or something that I might be able to like rest in, because I need to rest up.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:59

Okay. So go ahead and roll a d20 for me.

The Cat Cave And A Strange Poem

SPEAKER_02 1:23:05

A D20. Roll.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:10

That's a 19.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:11

So 19 hours later. Oh. The moment the excitement from the joy left your soul. You do manage to find what looks like a small cave in the side of the rocky wall. You tell me, what is inside that cave? What does it look like from outside?

SPEAKER_01 1:23:32

What does it look like from outside? Um, well, I think it looks like the maw of a tiger. Like um uh like the Cave of Wonders. Like the opening of the Cave of Wonders. Okay. Umluding like the the weird tongue that turns into steps that go downward. Okay. Uh, but yeah, that's that's where I'm landing. I'm I'm exhausted from rowing like all day and all night.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:04

Okay, do you climb up the tongue stairs into this cave?

SPEAKER_01 1:24:08

Yes, I do.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:10

As you enter this room, you see that you kind of like walk through, it almost feels like you like walk through a membrane of sorts, kind of like one of the barrier natural magical barriers that have been around some of the towns you've seen and the bastion itself. Inside this cave room, it's not very big, like 30 foot by 30 foot. You see it looks like a bunch of pillows have been lied down, laid down in patterns. Okay. You see what looks like a small like you see that there's a few sub-rooms carved into this cave. You look around, it looks like there's a small bathroom. A small, like, stove, like a wood-filled stove with a couple charred logs inside it. You see what looks like a hammock attached to the side of the wall. And yeah. It seems to be like almost like a small apartment in here.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:08

Uh, does it look like it's well been used recently then?

SPEAKER_02 1:25:11

Go ahead and roll a knowledge check.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:15

Knowledge roll.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:18

20 with hope. It does not.

unknown 1:25:22

Huh.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:22

Looks like someone hasn't been in here in a very long time.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:26

Uh, well then um I'm gonna use my premium bed roll and I'm just gonna like take a nap. Alright.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:35

So, do you want to take a short rest or a long rest? I think I want to attempt a long rest. Okay. Let me check my uh consult my data here. So go ahead and take your two long rest moves, if not more, because of your neak biology.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:54

Um, well, so unfortunately, efficient doesn't give me anything extra for long resting.

unknown 1:26:03

Alright.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:05

Then enjoy your long rest, and I'm gonna have you give me a moment here. I just need to check on the specific numbers here. Okay, quads quizzes. Roll 1d4 for me, please.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:33

1d4. Alright. I have rolled a three.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:40

I gain four fear. Oh. And I am advancing a long-term countdown. Something somewhere in the universe has happened.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:52

That is not good. Quite possibly.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:56

But you do manage to rest successfully.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:01

Woo-hoo!

SPEAKER_02 1:27:03

And it's funny, is one thing that strikes you about odd about this place, other than like the hammock in the stove, is you see like a little food dish and water dish. You see uh the most luxurious cat bed you've ever seen. You see like little string toys. And this seemed to have been a home for somebody and their cat.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:30

But they're not here now and they haven't been for a long time.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:33

Correct.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:36

Hmm. Alright. Um now that I've rested up, uh do I see if there's any like books or journals or anything around here that I might be able to go ahead and roll an instinct check. I'm going to roll for instinct. A nine with fear.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:01

I'm going to spend a fear for you to just get the heedy jees. Well uh give me a moment to find something in my notes here. That is very specific. In the meantime, describe more details you notice about this room.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:27

Um so uh oddly enough, the walls are covered with wallpaper. Uh and the wallpaper has a repeating pattern of different fruits and vegetables. Interesting.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:44

So describe what the cliff around the cave looked like from outside before.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:49

Describe what the cliff around the cave looked like.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:52

Yeah, like height, weight type of rocks. Is there trees above it? How hard of a climb is it? I'm putting all of this in your hands right now.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:03

Um, so the cave outside uh is a smooth black rock. Um but uh it has like uh jagged like little edges, kind of like like you know what like those little like goats that would climb up a mountain? They like climb up the like little time crags and whatnot. So it's a fairly smooth rock, but it has lots of like lines of different layers, I guess. It's like it's like it chipped away each at layers as it goes higher up. Okay. Uh which then obviously surrounds what appears to be the the cat snout of the entrance to this cave. Um as for height, I'm gonna say I mean it's probably like forty feet tall.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:04

Interesting. So, here is what it says in the notebook written on this desk.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:10

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:11

For I will consider my cat Joffrey, for he is a servant and one true God, duty daily serving him. For the first glance of Golory of God in the East, he worships his way. For this is done by wreathing his body seven times round with elegant quickness. For then he leaps up to catch the musk, which blessing upon his prayer, for he rolls upon prank to work in, for having done duty and received blessing, he begins to consider himself. He looks upon his forepaws to see if they are clean. For secondly he kicks up behind to clear away there. For thirdly he works upon stretch with forepaws extended, for fourthly he sharpens his paws by wood, for fifthly he washes himself, for sixthly he rolls upon wash, for seventhly he flees himself, that he may not be interrupted upon the beat. For eighthly he rubs himself against a post. For ninthly he looks up for instructions, for tenthly he goes in quest of food. For all if he meets another cat, he will kiss her in kindness, for when he takes his prey he plays upon it to give it a chance. For one month and seventh escapes his dowling, for he is tensuous of his point, for his mystery of gravity and waverly, for he knows he is the savior, for there's nothing sweeter than his peace when at rest.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:41

It kind of sounds like maybe I got cursed by a cat spirit.

SPEAKER_00 1:31:47

Hmm. Interesting.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:54

Um there's two last lines that are the most interesting to you at the end of this poem. Okay. For by stroking of him, I have found out electricity. For his motions upon the face of the world are more than any other quadruped, for he can tread to all measures upon the music, for he can swim for life, for he can creep.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:28

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:32

Well, it sounds like maybe I need to confront this cat spirit. It sounds from this poem. Does it sound like perhaps this cat spirit lives in the lightning volcano?

SPEAKER_02 1:32:47

Up to you to decide. I ain't telling you nothing.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:51

Fair enough. Uh, but so does there appear to be any way to climb upward within this uh apartment cave? Like, is there another uh exit that leads not to the water?

SPEAKER_00 1:33:04

No.

SPEAKER_01 1:33:06

I see. Well, now that I'm rested, I think I'm going to go outside and attempt to climb the cliffcase.

Cliff Climb Countdown And A Portal Seed

SPEAKER_01 1:33:17

Which I've got to do.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:18

So as you head outside the cave and climb down the tongue, the tongue retracts and the mouth closes and looks like regular stone. Uh-oh. And you're just kind of standing on a couple rocks with your boat pythoned and roped into place.

SPEAKER_01 1:33:38

See. Um well, I'm gonna try and climb this cliff, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:45

You tell me what stat you're going to use to climb a cliff.

SPEAKER_01 1:33:49

Uh, I think I'm gonna use finesse because I'm trying to like find finger holes and footholds and I'll allow it. That seems legit.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:00

Alright. Roll 18 with fear. 18 with fear. So, I'm currently using the cliffside as stent traversal challenge.

SPEAKER_03 1:34:13

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:14

And 15 with fear was a success. You have the counter has been started. It's a counter of twelve. And you need to make it up to the top of the cliff. However, there is a decent chance of you plummeting to your death while trying to climb this cliff. Uh-oh. So you have eleven various degrees of success to go. I see. Feel free to roll again, or use a different skill roll or a spell, or whatever you'd like to do.

SPEAKER_01 1:34:49

Hmm. Um. Well, I don't really have any abilities that are gonna help with this. Um bum bum bum. Yeah. Because I have to mark a hit point to enter my wolf form. Plus, my wolf form doesn't really do anything. In this case. I guess uh all I can do is is keep attempting to climb.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:24

Alright, go ahead and roll up.

SPEAKER_01 1:35:30

Ooh, 13 with fear.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:32

So you climb another one, you still have ten to go, and I'm up to six fear now.

SPEAKER_01 1:35:38

That is bad news bears.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:40

Mm-hmm. Sorry, what did you get again? A 13? And sh it's difficult. You barely you you barely beat what you need to beat there.

SPEAKER_01 1:35:52

Oh my. Um. Okay, but uh, can I find a decent foothold and uh attempt to like jump to my next pan hold point? Go ahead and roll agility?

SPEAKER_02 1:36:09

Agility roll, yes. Agility! Yeah. 20 with fear. So the counter ticks down three from that one. So now you're sit looking at seven more successes. You do a massive leap and cut through a big chunk of this parkour climb. You hear kaw, kaw, which sounds like giant eagles in the distance. I'm up to seven feet. Uh yeah, okay, okay. Um and you hear a thunderous as an arc of lightning shoots up from this into the sky. Uh-oh.

SPEAKER_01 1:36:47

That doesn't sound good at all. Um. Well.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:53

Hmm. You're climbing. You're making decent progress.

SPEAKER_01 1:37:00

Eight more to go. Well, I mean, yeah, I'm uh I'm just gonna switch to trying to find find pantalops again because I I uh I feel like that was a dangerous maneuver.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:12

Alright. And just so you're aware, based on how high you get on the countdown, is directly proportional to the number of d12 that are rolled upon falling.

SPEAKER_01 1:37:23

Right, right. Uh well, I'm gonna attempt to climb using my finesse again. Go ahead and roll. A 16 with fear.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:35

You're sitting at seven remaining.

SPEAKER_03 1:37:39

Hmm.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:42

And I am up to seven fear.

SPEAKER_01 1:37:45

Let's see. Hmm. I don't really see anything else I have on my sheet that would help with this climb. I guess I'm gonna attempt another risky risky uh leap to another hand holds. Go ahead and roll a strength check or agility. Agility Oh boy, that's only an eight with spear. Go ahead and make a agility reaction roll for me, please.

SPEAKER_02 1:38:22

Agility reaction roll a six with hope. So it is now nine rolls to climb up as you plummet down a bit, hit some of the rocks, catch yourself. Go ahead and mark a stress. And how can you tell how many others have fallen climbing with this cliff?

SPEAKER_01 1:38:48

Oh how many others have fallen climbing this cliff? Uh well. I uh the cliff actually seems to be like perfectly clean. It doesn't doesn't look like anybody has actually ever attempted to climb this cliff from what I can see. Excellent.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:21

Alright, go ahead and make your next roll.

SPEAKER_01 1:39:24

Well, risky maneuver didn't work out, so let's just slow and steady. Slow and steady with some finesse. A 20 with hope.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:34

So, a 20 with hope, you manage to catch back up the missed ground, and you're down to seven again on this counter.

SPEAKER_03 1:39:43

Hmm.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:48

You're over halfway up. Well you're about halfway up. Which is a delightful 3D12 if you hit the ground from here.

SPEAKER_01 1:40:05

Alright. Um I uh attempt to use my whip to uh give myself like to whip on something like a branch that's sticking over the side of the cliff to pull myself up a little more.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:24

Go ahead and make an attack roll with your whip.

SPEAKER_01 1:40:28

Yeah, with my whip. Uh if I use my whip, do I have to change my weapon?

SPEAKER_02 1:40:41

No. So the whip will be 2d12 plus your presence stat. Okay. Uh 15 with beer. Fifteen. You manage to whip your whip way through, you're looking at five successes left to get to the top of this cliff. And I'm sitting at an impressive eight beer.

SPEAKER_01 1:41:03

Uh, so now that I have a better foothold with this branch that's sticking out of the side of the mountain, uh, I'm just gonna attempt uh another acrobatic leap to the to the next handle. Go ahead. Acrobatic leap. 15 with beer.

SPEAKER_02 1:41:22

I'm sitting at an impressive nine fear, and you have five more uh four more ticks to go to get to the top. You can see the top now.

SPEAKER_01 1:41:31

I can see the top. Alright, let's go back to slow and steady. Let's uh finesse for flop the handholds again. What's funny with hope?

SPEAKER_02 1:41:42

Alright, you're looking at two left to go. You're almost at the top. You're winded, you're beaten, but you're almost there.

SPEAKER_01 1:41:50

Well, okay, so um I think I think I want to try the whip again. Okay. Let's see if I can whip onto some sort of tree or something that's nearby. 16 with the year.

SPEAKER_02 1:42:06

So you see at the top of the cliff a large tree at the top of it. And wrapped around that tree is a large anaconda-like snake. You realize you don't see the camo on the snake right away, but your whip wraps around the snake's neck and tugs tight. As you manage to pull yourself up two more as the snake is choking from the rip whip around its neck, but is anchored on the tree.

SPEAKER_01 1:42:29

Uh oh boy. Now I'm on the clifftop, but it's almost there.

SPEAKER_02 1:42:37

You're like half your hand is touching the top of the cliff, and your wraps roped around a snake's neck, and you have one more success to do. Uh, alright. And the snake looks deeply upset that it's being choked for no reason. It's just limited as life.

SPEAKER_01 1:42:53

I am I'm just gonna try and slow and steady, try and find another handhold and pull myself up and hopefully uh roll onto the clifftop. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:43:07

17 with hope. 17 with hope. You have made it up the cliffside ascent. As you pull yourself up with that last pull, you climb up and the snake falls. You watch the snake in slow motion falling down the path you just took. Roll 12d12 for me, please.

SPEAKER_00 1:43:30

Uh one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, and twelve.

SPEAKER_02 1:43:39

Seventy. Woo! You see that snake just and just impaled on a spiky rock. Ugh. Poor snake. It is very dead. You are now on the top of this cliff. Describe the type of tree that you grappled on to.

SPEAKER_01 1:43:58

Um so this tree, um. It's like a uh giant bonsai tree. Uh okay. Yeah, yeah. Uh, so it has like the branches that stick out, and then they have like well, I mean, it seems oddly well maintained, actually. Like they're like perfect spheres, the the clumps of leaves. Um and uh they form a sort of like spiral uh helix around the central nucleus-looking uh shrub bush.

SPEAKER_02 1:44:42

Okay, attached to it you see there's two seeds about the size of a pomegranate. So either a seed or a fruit. There's one red one and one blue one. Sorry, one blue one and one orange one.

SPEAKER_01 1:44:53

A blue one and oh, well, I mean. I gotta take the blue one.

SPEAKER_02 1:44:59

You're holding a blue seed.

SPEAKER_01 1:45:03

Uh yeah, I'm just gonna I'm just gonna put that blue seed in my inventory and then uh go ahead and add a portal seed to your inventory. Manage equipment and add a is that an actual item? Let's see. A portal seed, alright.

SPEAKER_00 1:45:23

I have a portal seed.

SPEAKER_01 1:45:26

Ah. So I need to find a second portal seed of seeds.

SPEAKER_02 1:45:32

As you look at this tree that has two seeds on it. I guess I'll grab the other seed. However, if you leave the seed here, that is where the seed will lead the your blue seed will lead you to.

SPEAKER_01 1:45:44

Hmm, that's a good point. Yeah, yeah, no, I am gonna leave the seed there.

unknown 1:45:51

Alright.

SPEAKER_02 1:45:52

So you now know that if you plant it in a spot, it'll grow in 24 hours, and you can use it to come back to this location of a random cliffside. On the coast. About a 19-hour row from a ghost town. Which you can say with pretty good confidence no one would ever think to look for you here.

SPEAKER_01 1:46:12

Yeah, yeah, that's true. Alright.

SPEAKER_02 1:46:16

And to wrap up our session here, describe what the landscape looks like on top of this cliff in the southern end of this chunk of the Wither Wild. Um Well, you're about three days land travel from the city of Alora in theory.

SPEAKER_01 1:46:36

So uh this this tree seems to be a lonely tree. Uh otherwise that it's just kind of a rocky expanse for uh I'm gonna say far distance. Uh, but then uh the ground kind of gently slopes back down and into uh into wooded forest, I guess. Wooded.

SPEAKER_02 1:46:57

What's something you what's a unique detail about these trees?

SPEAKER_01 1:47:02

A unique detail about these trees. Um instead of having leaves, uh, they're they're kind of like pine trees, except for it's more like uh like a fine fir. But but it seems to be uh like uh static electricity, like it's all kind of like goofy.

SPEAKER_02 1:47:28

Okay. I enjoy that. That fits the lore nicely. So you're basically at a crossroads of store, where if you go more inland, it'll lead you through the forest, it'll get thicker. The rivers, as you recall, are like slightly tinted purple because they're slightly alcoholic. And it'll lead you towards the wooded tree city of Alora. Along the southern coast, if you continue to follow the more rocky craggy line, you could get to the reverse lightning volcano with its electrified blue magma.

GM Breakdown, What Worked, And Thanks

SPEAKER_02 1:47:58

But with that, we're gonna end today's session, and because we like to do like a bit of metafiction here and talk about the session, how did you feel about this week's session?

SPEAKER_01 1:48:10

Um I uh the the clip climb ascend um is definitely not my character's strong suit. Um I I feel like that type of environment is probably better suited to party groups as well, because then there's more people can contribute in more ways.

SPEAKER_02 1:48:32

Uh well, so what was interesting about it, and here's why I did it this way. So logically, I should have reduced the progress countdown by like a quarter. Yeah. But I kinda wanted to end the episode on some like dramatic tension of sorts. So I did want to make you work for that because we took the time to describe the cliff as intimidating. Right, right. And I also like, it became a situation where it sort of turned into a fear mill, where if you were succeeding more rapidly, I would have spent some of that fear to like have the snake bite you, or the scorpion, or that deep root defender that that was that tree punch you. But because it was going so poorly, I'm like, this is useful for dramatic tension later, because now you know that I have like a full stock of fear as you head into the woods. So I kind of like restrained myself, and I let that part be kind of a chill section, because the ghost town was not. How did you feel about the ghost town?

SPEAKER_01 1:49:32

Oh man, the ghost town, he be teebies. I don't I don't know. Uh punching ghosts with your fist just doesn't seem seem very wise. So the And also I hadn't rested at that point, so it's like I'm getting stressed out and getting hurt, and it's like oof.

SPEAKER_02 1:49:48

So what's funny about the ghost town? So the ghost town stat block itself, as I'm pulling it up here, is the haunted city, it's a tier two stat block. You have th tier three stats. So you're about on par with a tier two party, I'm finding mechanically. Okay. Like I calculate the fight to be difficult, but theoretically winnable. But here's what's funny about how it's structured. So the first feature it had was buried knowledge, where you can seek knowledge, make an instinct or knowledge roll to learn about the place, and potentially discover possibly haunted loot. So you gained valuable information to relay a useful item. If you'd only gotten a regular success, it would have been information, with fear it would have been incomplete information, and with failure, you would have marked a stress.

SPEAKER_00 1:50:32

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:50:32

Its first mechanic is enemies who appear here are in a ghostly form, which gives them resistance to physical damage, and I can mark stress to have them move through objects. So it's like designed that anything I spawn here becomes a ghost. Right. The second thing is this dead ends mechanic where ghosts of earlier era manifest. These hauntings change the layout of the environment, blocking the way behind them, forcing a detour, presenting them with a challenge. So that was the mechanic I used for the ghost lava. Ah. And then its last stat block feature is Apocalypse Then, where I spend a fear to manifest to pass disaster, activate a progress counters and disaster to plays. To complete the countdown and escape the catastrophe, the player must overcome these threats. So these roles that made you think it was getting worse was actually how you clear the puzzle. So I was actually tracking your successes, not your failures, but I let you think I was tracking your failures for the intensity. So you getting onto the boat was actually the win condition of escaping. But I want you to feel like instead of, oh, I'm progressing and it's going well, I wanted you to think it was going terribly. So I wasn't telling you that these counter ticks were a win, I was just telling you they were ticks. So you thought you were going to explode. Right, right. How do you feel about that? Where I use kind of the rules as written, but let you believe you are heading towards doom.

SPEAKER_01 1:52:08

Yeah, that one was that was that was a very tense moment. I I I did enjoy that. Um because it made me feel like I didn't have time to actually like stop and fight these guys.

SPEAKER_02 1:52:19

Um yeah, the theory is after like literally any five actions, the last action was gonna show the town be obliterated, and then it was gonna go back to normal. Right. And then the remaining ghosts, I was basically gonna be like after the flashback plays out, the ghosts were gonna lose the advantage they had on their attack rolls during the apocalypse, and the fight was just gonna go back to normal. Oh. Yeah, okay. So it's like you live through the cutscene, and during the cutscene, you're at disadvantage for things attacking you because the disaster's happening, and then once you've cleared the disaster, you've escaped the apocalypse. So I always used the snapblock as written. I just adjusted kind of the context. Right, right. And then the monsters themselves were literally the suggested adversaries of uh instead of making new ones and making them to ghosts, I just spawned a spectral archer, a spectral captain, and two spectral guardians. Which were just regular ass tier two ghosts. Yeah, okay. I thought the archers worked surprisingly well because it kind of like for the escape scene, added I don't know, I thought it added flavor to have them taking shots at you while like they're in a flashback fighting their invasion.

SPEAKER_01 1:53:36

Right, right. I did like that too.

SPEAKER_02 1:53:39

Alright, so would you say that was like because that was kind of the centerpiece of this episode, did you enjoy that being like the focus of this session?

SPEAKER_01 1:53:49

Uh yeah, I mean it was very, very mysterious and uh like I got a I got a lot of good stuff out of it as a player, uh, and then also it was like intense. Um trying to escape from an illusionary disaster.

SPEAKER_02 1:54:10

So did you catch that this resting place was for the cat spirit you encountered earlier on the boat?

SPEAKER_01 1:54:18

Uh well I thought that it might be related, but it also like made me think more that there's a cat spirit in the volcano.

SPEAKER_02 1:54:27

Yeah. So effectively, you gave me a cat-themed cave, and I decided, like, oh, cat-themed cave, I'm gonna connect it to cat spirits. And the poem I read, which I'm now were was actually a thing for class, that was just an ode to the cat. Like, it was just a regular cat poem, and I'm like, I'm gonna pick lines from this that fit the campaign from this unrelated cat poem, and now I'm weaving that into the lore in the background. Because there's that line in the poem about petting the cat creating electricity. I'm like, that associates to lightning volcano. Okay, we're cooking, we're cooking. So the cat poem was not pre-prepared. I just happened to have a cat poem handy. That's funny. And I'm like, okay, so cause you pitched me the lightning volcano forever ago as a location. That's true. So I'm just kind of like letting some threads I've had a lot of threads in this campaign I have pre-planned, but I kind of keep the spirits vague so I can flavor them to fit better what the players do. Right, right. Cause I need it, like, obviously, like, whenever you see one of those flowers, you're kind of making the connection that the flowers bloom in spiritually special places. Right. Which means wherever there's a flower, there will be some kind of guardian spirit or a missing guardian spirit. And if you take the flower, it pisses off the environment, is kind of the theme of this campaign. So if you take the flower, nature gets pissed at you. That makes sense. So I am curious to see which direction you end up going. Because I don't know if you're gonna go explore Alura or if you're heading for the lightning volcano. I could tell you which one of those areas is lower level, but I'm not gonna stop you. Right, right. Like like classics Legend of Zelda, you're like, hmm, do I want to climb into the fire temple and skip over the forest temple? Not saying I'm doing that deliberately, but I think that should wrap up our session.

SPEAKER_01 1:56:25

Yeah, I really gotta go to the watch room, and I don't think they want me to do that on stream, so.

SPEAKER_02 1:56:29

Oof, what a way to get cancelled. But thank you everyone who tuned in. Thank you, people who have been supporting the campaign by buying our itch.io modules. I know I said I'd originally try and make it a play-along series of one adventure for every episode. I have them rough drafted, and I'm gonna start putting them out over the summer. So there's a good chance that several of our sessions are going to be turned into a venture over the next few weeks. Because our fans deserve it. They deserve free adventures. Thank you for tuning in. And I think Carl broke a record for how long his characters lived. Thanks for joining us. Bye. Bye.

SPEAKER_01 1:57:08

I'd say that was a good episode. I think so too.