Meet Fizzz

Welcome to A Tale of Two Kobolds, a new actual play podcast that follows the adventures of two Kobolds. Episode 1 kicks off with the adventures of Fizzz after she’s swept from a bridge and separated from her adventuring party and her best friend, another kobold named Bang.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:06

Hello, I'm Fizz.

SPEAKER_00 0:08

Hi, I'm Beg.

SPEAKER_01 0:10

We are two COBOLs that got swept along on adventures with a group of tall people. Well, to be fair, almost everyone's a tall people because we're pretty small cobalts.

SPEAKER_00 0:20

Indeed, we are. Something happened on one of the adventures and we got separated.

SPEAKER_01 0:25

Wait, wait, wait. Should we talk about how we met up with the tall people and why we joined them for adventures in the first place?

SPEAKER_00 0:32

Um, not really, because the adventures we're having right now is all about how we're trying to find each other again.

SPEAKER_01 0:38

Oh, right. Uh I guess we gotta leave some content for the flashback sequences, huh? That's right.

SPEAKER_00 0:44

Anyway, we were traveling with our tall people looking for something big and powerful. They're always looking for big and powerful things. We were crossing a really big bridge one day over in Grizzly Pass and we got attacked. By bandits.

SPEAKER_01 0:58

Can you believe it? Our tall people are crazy powerful, and a group of bandits thought they can take them on? That's so dumb.

SPEAKER_00 1:06

Well, I mean, the bandits did manage to make the bridge collapse.

SPEAKER_01 1:10

Yeah, with me still on it. Iskra tried to save me by holding her long staff out for me to grab before I got swept away by the river, and I got it, but then there was a big crack and the staff broke, and so then Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

SPEAKER_00 1:25

I can't give too much away now. But I did panic when I saw you get swept away. My best friend and the only other kobold I knew that was brave enough to go adventuring, our our friend Jack had to hold me back from hop jumping in after you. He said I'd be killed too.

SPEAKER_01 1:41

Well, in that case, I'm glad you didn't. But I'm not dead. I just need to find my way back to you and our tall people. Um should be pretty easy, right?

SPEAKER_00 1:51

Well, uh, see, I I didn't think you were dead, and that's why I ended up leaving in the middle of the night to come look for you. So uh Oh great. Yeah, that that's where our ventures are really gonna begin.

SPEAKER_01 2:04

Hello. Um, welcome to our new actual play DD podcast, A Tale of Two Kobalds. I'm Jess. And I'm Hids. And before we dive into things, we wanted to talk a little bit about how this will work. We kind of tossed around several ideas and because we've we've been wanting to make an actual play podcast for a while a long time. And uh we landed on what we hope will be a fun way to tell the story of these two cobalts that got separated and are looking for each other.

SPEAKER_00 2:34

So what we're gonna do is alternate between one of us GMing and the other one playing. So for instance, we're gonna kick off with one character, Fizz, for example, and I'm gonna GM for the solo adventure and Jess will play Fizz. We're gonna follow her story for a bit and then switch over to Bang's story, in which Jess will be the GM and I will play Bang. And these switches may happen after every episode, or there may be a couple episodes in a row where we follow one character. It just kind of depends on on how the story plays out.

SPEAKER_01 3:07

So, like we know eventually these two cobalts have to find each other. So who will be the GM then? Um we're still trying to figure that out. We've uh we've done some pretty complicated things as GMs before, so I'm sure we'll think of something. I'm I'm sure we will.

SPEAKER_00 3:26

We're we're pretty creative and clever, I think I like to think. Yeah. So in today's episode, we are gonna start off with Fizz's adventure. So let's uh get to meet Fizz a little bit, and we'll meet Bang later.

SPEAKER_01 3:39

So Fizz um is a level two druid spelled with three Zs, by the way, Fizz. She's more outspoken than Bang. He's a little bit shy, uh, but she is just as curious. Uh she loves plants and all things that grow, and she dreams of someday being a powerful druid and powerful protector of nature.

SPEAKER_00 4:02

So kobold, in case you don't know, tell us what tell us what she looks like. Describe a kobold.

SPEAKER_01 4:09

Okay, so kobolds, uh, if you're not familiar with the kobold species, there's small, like reptilian, lizard-ish, dragon-ish creatures, usually about two to three feet tall. They've got the teeth, they got the claws, they've got scales. Fizz is right there in the middle range, about two and a half feet tall. Her scales are like a dark, dusty magenta color, and her eyes are like those really big round cayman crocodile eyes. I love those. I love those guys. Um, and they're like a soft golden color. Uh, and I think um I'm undecided about everything else about her appearance, so that's just gonna come out in gameplay or uh character art. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 4:52

Yeah, like little clothes and stuff might you you change clothes, you don't just only wear the same thing every day. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:00

I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 5:01

We'll see. We'll see what the stories tell for that.

SPEAKER_01 5:04

Um so one of the I do want to mention one of the little quirky character traits that I'm gonna try to incorporate if I remember to do it. Um I decided she should uh always look for ways to compliment people. Like no matter who she's talking to. Like, oh, the way you're pointing that sword at me is really intimidating. That's that's a good job.

unknown 5:29

It's adorable.

SPEAKER_01 5:30

Wow, you know all the right places to stab someone and you didn't even get any blood on you. I think she uh she does this partially because she likes to look for the silver linings. Um, she's eager to make friends, but also she knows that a well-timed compliment can be a little disarming at times. So she's she's clever like that. And I will try to be that level of clever during gameplay, but we'll see.

SPEAKER_00 5:58

I think it's gonna be fun.

SPEAKER_01 6:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:00

What is uh starting equipment, that sort of thing? Because I know like a lot of people, we want to talk about mechanics a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 6:05

Okay, yeah, mechanically, mechanic-wise. Uh starter equipment, she's got leather armor, a couple daggers, uh standard healing potions. I think we gave them two, two each.

SPEAKER_00 6:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:17

Um I uh she has a handful of gold coins. She's not really the bank of the operation. And uh she after she gets swept away in a river, she has a broken end of a druid's staff.

SPEAKER_00 6:34

Or does she?

SPEAKER_01 6:36

Um I freaking hope so. Great GM, thank you. Uh so she's got um a handful of spells, but I don't feel like I need to go over the all of those right now. I could just um we'll see what comes out. That'll come out in game.

SPEAKER_00 6:54

Yeah. Because druids have the ability to change their spells out each morning. So you it you're never gonna be stuck with just one one choice.

SPEAKER_01 7:02

Yeah, and I don't want to be like, so today Fizz chose these spells and list them all. And sorry, if you like mechanics heavy uh audio, this is probably not the podcast screen.

SPEAKER_00 7:14

Yeah. We tend to, we are very much rule of cool out rules, rules as written. For sure. Um, so if you hear us kind of uh interpreting a spell different or a rule rule different, don't don't add us. We're we we got it. I mean, we might correct something later on if we found out we did something totally wrong, but this is just a fun uh storytelling uh actual play, so we're just gonna kind of run with with having fun with it.

SPEAKER_01 7:41

Yeah. And as far as like actual stats go, we will be sharing uh character sheets um for our patrons. Yeah. Yeah. You can become a paid patron by going to Jess Nope. Uh that's well, okay. Become a paid patron, support the show by going to patreon.com slash Jess and Hids, J-E-S-S-A-N-D-H-I-D-S.

SPEAKER_00 8:11

You also, as a patron, have the opportunity to help us make decisions on the storyline as we move forward, as well as maybe giving input on NPCs, locations, encounters. Um, you know, do we throw a green dragon at at level two fizz or you know, or which direction should they go if they've reached a point where they're unsure?

SPEAKER_01 8:31

Um and also Can we get a deck of many things? Should we get a deck of a deck of many things?

SPEAKER_00 8:36

Yeah, stuff like that. We we actually did a a session with our patrons this weekend and really got a lot of the world that we're uh gonna take this adventure in kind of fleshed out.

SPEAKER_01 8:48

Yeah, we have a map drawn. Hits draws maps.

SPEAKER_00 8:52

I I love drawing maps.

SPEAKER_01 8:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:54

We also have a little bit of character art, which is something new that I'm I'm getting into, which is really fun. It's exciting. So if you'd like to get in on the inside of stuff, it's patreon.com slash Jessin Hidge. You can support the show and you can help uh the show evolve. The story, you can help tell the story.

SPEAKER_01 9:11

Yeah. And um, we also have another podcast. Oh, Jess and Hid's Make Words. Just Jess and Hid's Make a Podcast. Oh my gosh, no, it's Jess and Hid's Make a Podcast. Sorry. It's been a long day. It has. This is gonna be fun. I try to make words. I don't often succeed.

SPEAKER_00 9:30

So yeah, check out our other podcast, Jessin Hidds Make a Podcast. It is a uh, for lack of a better description, it's a podcast of random things. Yeah. Kind of different topics.

SPEAKER_01 9:41

We just talk about whatever we want to talk about and we draw a card to see what we're gonna talk about next. Yeah, it's really fun. And I have actually learned a lot over the last uh 60 odd episodes.

SPEAKER_00 9:50

I have learned a lot. I have also forgotten almost. All right. Um I think you're are you ready to get into this? Are you uh I'm ready. I don't know if if Fizz is ready though. Okay, Fizz, you gotta you gotta get ready. You have been swept away in a river.

SPEAKER_01 10:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:10

You have tumbled. I'm tumbling. Head over heels, gasping for.

SPEAKER_01 10:15

Am I falling in love?

SPEAKER_00 10:16

No, you're you're nearly drowning.

SPEAKER_01 10:19

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 10:20

And then everything goes dark.

SPEAKER_01 10:22

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 10:24

And then I'm gonna switch over to my other document.

SPEAKER_01 10:27

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 10:29

And switch over to DM mode. Yeah. You the last thing you remember is drifting down the river. Um, this tumbling river getting knocked against rocks, uh, getting pushed under in currents and eddies, and then darkness. And then you wake up, you're sore, you're battered, you're bruised, and your hands are tied. Oh, what you uh kind of shake shake yourself awake a little bit, realizing your hands are tied, and um as you take a look around, uh, there's a few different things you you notice right away. You're in a cage. Oh. Um it's uh it's a rough built cage of like sticks and kind of bamboo type things just roped together, and the door is actually not locked, it's just tied together with some rope. Oh, I could chew those off. Okay, well, continue. Okay. Voice in my head. I like it. I like it. Yeah. Um a little distance away you can see your belongings, uh, uh a rough little pack, a cloak, and uh a piece of broken staff. Oh, good. Um they're sitting on a crate, and as you continue to look around, you see a lot of crates, and you're you you don't see sky. You just see wooden floor, wooden walls, and a wooden ceiling above you.

SPEAKER_01 12:03

Okay. Okay. Uh do I see any living thing around me?

SPEAKER_00 12:11

Um, not at the moment. Roll a perception check for me.

SPEAKER_01 12:15

Oh, first roll. Hey, that's a dirty 20.

SPEAKER_00 12:21

Hey, all right. Um, okay, so I said you see your belongings and these crates, and as you're kind of uh trying to sit up a little bit and move around um in this cage, you can see that um just outside of the cage there's a little tin plate. Um there's a piece of bread and wilted fruit on it, and there's a small cup of it's water. It's not really the cleanest water, but it's water. Um you also get a feeling of movement, and then you can hear a soft uh creaking with the movement, and then you hear the soft uh lapping of water, and you realize that you are in a boat. On a boat.

SPEAKER_01 13:05

Okay. Um okay, I think what do I smell?

SPEAKER_00 13:11

You smell um kind of damp. Uh kind of a dirty, um a dirty smell, a damp, uh rivery, watery smell. River water. River water. Okay. There's also a little bit of um that 20 was a good roll. There's a little bit of um a metallic tang to the air. It's just very faint.

SPEAKER_01 13:37

Okay. I'm not sure Fizz would know what to do with that information, but she does know she's not smelling salt. So she hasn't drifted all the way to the ocean, which is good because that's like a long ways away. A long way away. Okay. Okay, okay.

unknown 13:57

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 13:58

As you are uh sitting there kind of taking in your surroundings and and coming to these conclusions, what would you like to do now?

SPEAKER_01 14:06

I think are my hands bound by rope? It's rope, it's behind your back. Behind my back. Okay. I probably can't chew that off.

SPEAKER_00 14:15

Not unless you're very flexible.

SPEAKER_01 14:17

Yeah. Um I can't roll for flexibility. I don't know. Uh no, okay. She's gonna I'm gonna stand up.

SPEAKER_00 14:25

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 14:26

And I am gonna try to chew the rope off of the cage.

SPEAKER_00 14:30

Okay. It is you can't stand like you can stand up almost all the way. Um, this cage was built for something, you know, slightly bigger than yourself. So you do have a little room to move around. Um go ahead um hmm. Chew the ropes. Chew check. Chew a chew, roll a chew check. Roll roll to chew. Roll to chew. Um do you do you have a little a bite? I don't know. Do you have a little bite attack? Uh it's not showing up on my air. Okay, well let's just do let's just do your unarmed strike. Okay. And and we'll do uh like a D4 of piercing to see what eighteen. Okay, and roll the D4.

SPEAKER_01 15:11

Oh gosh.

SPEAKER_00 15:13

One. One. All right, you you start chewing, and this rope is pretty thick and it's kind of um been treated with like tar or something, so it's it's kind of gross to chew on. Um you think maybe that might be like some weatherproofing or something to kind of make it last longer. Um, as you are chewing on this, you hear the sound of footsteps on uh coming down a staircase town lower further down in this area of where you are.

SPEAKER_01 15:42

I think I'm gonna yeah, she's gonna she's gonna call out. Um, hello?

SPEAKER_00 15:50

What's that?

SPEAKER_01 15:51

Hello?

SPEAKER_00 15:52

Oh, it's that it's that little rat over there. All right.

SPEAKER_01 15:55

Uh-uh.

SPEAKER_00 15:56

I'm not a rat, I'm a cobald. I don't know what you are. And as you are saying this, you hear these footsteps drawing closer and um rats have fur. Two goblins uh come towards you. And uh they're they're looking a little rough. They're uh one of them has a gold tooth and they're like Oh, that's shiny. Uh shut up, you oh little lizard. I'm a cobalt. I don't care what you are. You're captive is what you are.

SPEAKER_01 16:28

Where?

SPEAKER_00 16:30

In the boat.

SPEAKER_01 16:32

Okay. I forgot to name the boat. All right. Um okay, I'm captive in a nameless boat. Should we name the boat real quick?

SPEAKER_00 16:48

Yeah, let's name the boat real quick. Um I'm gonna just do something. Uh all right, we're gonna call this um I'm looking at my at my characters who are on this boat. Uh we're gonna call it uh Tusk's revenge. Tusks? Tusk revenge. Yeah. Tusks. All right. All right. Where? You're a captive on the Tusk's revenge.

SPEAKER_01 17:20

What is that?

SPEAKER_00 17:22

It's the boat you're on. God, you're not very smart, are you?

SPEAKER_01 17:25

That's the name of the boat?

SPEAKER_00 17:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:27

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 17:28

You've never heard of it?

SPEAKER_01 17:29

Why does the Tusk want revenge?

SPEAKER_00 17:32

You'd have to ask the captain.

SPEAKER_01 17:35

Have I heard of this boat? Um I'm gonna say no. Okay. I haven't heard of you, but that's probably because um I don't know many boats by name. I'm sure you're really famous.

SPEAKER_00 17:52

Well, I mean, Captain probably is.

SPEAKER_01 17:55

What am I doing here?

SPEAKER_00 17:57

You're you're captive. You're you're uh cargo now. Cargo. Mm-hmm. No, it's pronounced cobalt. Just hang on, hang on. And the one goblin kind of pushes the other way and he's like he kind of kneels down in front of the cage. He's like, You're a captive on the Tusk Revenge.

SPEAKER_01 18:20

No, I get that. We're river pirates.

SPEAKER_00 18:23

Right, because the doors were you chewing on this? No. You should got a little bit. Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_01 18:34

I was eating tar before I got swept away in the river. Sure. Yeah. Oh, you got swept away in the river.

SPEAKER_00 18:40

That okay. We uh Where did you find me? Just uh laying on some rocks. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:48

I just thought you scooped me out of the river.

SPEAKER_00 18:51

No, we we'd hoped we found you and we went over and we were like, haha, we're just gonna take her stuff, and then you like moaned a little bit, and the captain was like, ha, we'll just take her and sell her, and you know. Or I mean i i you know, you if you if you're the pirate type, you could maybe talk him into letting you be part of the crew, but um I'm I'm Gibble, by the way. Gibble? Gibble. Okay, I'm Fizz. Fizz. Uh Fizz. Fizz. Fizz Uh, we'll get there.

SPEAKER_01 19:34

Okay. Um and and what's your name? That's Gren. Gren. Yeah, he's a little grumpy. Gibble and Gren. Yeah. Gibble and Grumpy Gren. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 19:44

Don't call him don't don't call me that.

SPEAKER_01 19:47

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 19:47

Alright, yeah, it's he's a little touchy.

SPEAKER_01 19:51

Yeah, he called me a rat earlier.

SPEAKER_00 19:53

Um You looked like a drowned rat when we found you.

SPEAKER_01 19:56

I have scales. Anyway, um, okay. The captain I I could be a pirate. Yeah. I need to get back to my friends.

SPEAKER_00 20:10

Mmm, well. Right now you have two options. You have you can become a pirate and stay on the ship and serve Captain Gold Tusk loyally.

SPEAKER_01 20:22

Oh, I get the name of the ship now. Yeah, yeah. Tusk.

SPEAKER_00 20:27

Very clever. Anyway, or you just stay in the cage, um, and when we get to the port, we sell you to whoever wants you.

SPEAKER_01 20:37

Oh, uh do you sail through Grizzly Pass often?

SPEAKER_00 20:42

Uh Grizzly Pass, that's oh no, that's way up in the mountains. That's Do you get close to it? We're going the opposite way. That's about two days behind us right now.

SPEAKER_01 20:53

Uh Okay, I want to be a pirate.

SPEAKER_00 20:58

I wanna I wanna be a pirate. You you wanna be a pirate. I want to be a pirate. Okay. Uh roll a deception check.

SPEAKER_01 21:11

Five. Oh wait, no, I was going with the other dice. Seventeen. Pick one and go for it. It was it's the green one.

SPEAKER_00 21:19

Seventeen. Gren is not, he's like, ah, you're just full of crap. And uh Gibble just like see, I want to believe you, but I don't. Because everybody everybody says they want to be a pirate.

SPEAKER_01 21:38

Well, when you give the option of being a pirate or getting sold, yeah, you understand why people say they want to be pirates.

SPEAKER_00 21:46

I get I get it. Um, but see, um it's not just like you just like, oh yeah, I'm gonna be a pirate and you're a pirate. You have to kind of prove yourself to the captain, and um, he's perfect. Okay. So are you it you know, you're gonna try to run away, aren't you? I can I could see it. You're gonna you're gonna try to run away.

SPEAKER_01 22:09

I okay um we'll s we'll maybe. We'll see. I don't know. I don't have a pl I currently do not have a plan.

SPEAKER_00 22:21

Okay. Well I think a good plan right now is just to stay where you are, stop chewing the ropes, and uh see what happens when we get to port. Well, can I talk to the captain before we get to port? Uh I'll ask him. I Gren, why don't you go uh won't you go ask ask the captain and Gren grumbles and stomps off. He stomps off, he goes upstairs, and Gibble leans forward and he's like, Look, I was where you were. I don't want to like do you do you want to get out of here? I mean I think it's really wrong what we're doing, but Gren's my cousin, I couldn't leave him behind. And uh so now I'm just kind of a a pirate on the river.

SPEAKER_01 23:10

Can I um what's this guy's vibe? Um roll an insight check. Oh, I like I like this die.

SPEAKER_00 23:21

Um 19 He seems pretty genuine. Um like his cousin Gren was very grumpy and seemed to really like not give a crap either way. Uh-huh. Um Gibble is a little more uh I mean, as you kind of look him over, he's his clothes are a little more well kept. He's a little more kind of maybe like he has a little more uh self-respect about how he carries himself and stuff. Okay. Um and he does seem like he's not totally keen on this, but there's maybe a family loyalty thing going on with with his cousin. Maybe they just kind of in it.

SPEAKER_01 24:02

Yeah. Okay. So his cousin was like, hey, let's be pirates.

SPEAKER_00 24:05

And well, I so yeah, I mean he mentioned that he was in your position. So he did you I think you could surmise that they were once where you were, and given the option they they chose.

SPEAKER_01 24:20

Yeah. Okay. She'll say, um, yeah, I don't really want to be a pirate. I mean, maybe someday, but I kind of got separated from my friends and my best friend, and I kind of want to get back to them.

SPEAKER_00 24:36

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 24:37

Um can I pretend that I want to be a pirate? Nah, the captain will see through that.

SPEAKER_00 24:42

He's uh I know spells. He runs a really tight ship, and everybody on the crew is really loyal. We're we're kind of the newest ones. And uh, I mean granted try to keep you around just so you'd be like the the the lowest on the ladder. Oh, right, I get it. Right now that's us. We kind of do the dirty work and stuff.

SPEAKER_01 25:06

Um if I like can we like pretend to knock you out? Untie my hands. Um we don't have to pretend. I could try to actually do it.

SPEAKER_00 25:21

Well I don't know that that would go well for me. I don't know that it would go well for me. I mean, if you want to out of character, if you want to try something just while he's doing that, just let me know. Um I'll I'll tell you we're right now we're we're it we're about to head into a quiet part of the river before we get to uh copper pot. Do you know where that is? That's the lake.

SPEAKER_01 25:48

Is that um hmm? I guess yeah, she would know.

SPEAKER_00 25:52

She would know, right? She would know where. I think she would have like general knowledge of of the air. Where the copper bottom river flows, it starts high in the mountains um and comes through Grizzly Pass, which is very rough and uh tumbling part of the river, and then it kind of opens out and becomes like a a true river that can have boats and that sort of thing on it.

SPEAKER_01 26:11

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um we're a long ways away from Grizzly Pass.

SPEAKER_00 26:16

Yeah, about about two days at least. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 26:21

I'm really sore, but I would like to get off of the boat.

unknown 26:25

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 26:26

Well, it like I said, the river's slowing down just a bit. Um and we'll be kinda busy. We'll be kinda busy looking for you know, watching for sandbars and things. Um and you hear kind of a bell ringing. Uh yep, that's that I gotta go. Um but just the river's slow. Uh one side's the farmland and the other side's the forest.

SPEAKER_01 26:52

Which side?

SPEAKER_00 26:54

Port.

SPEAKER_01 26:55

Port is left the forest. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 26:59

Oh yeah, sorry. Uh port side, left side.

SPEAKER_01 27:03

Gee, what kind of pirate are you? Well, I see. I'm kidding, you're a very good one.

SPEAKER_00 27:06

Yeah. No, I know, thank you. We're trying.

SPEAKER_01 27:10

I mean, I guess I can um hey, listen, I'm gonna stay right here, locked up.

SPEAKER_00 27:17

All right, you hear footsteps coming down the stairs, and you can see in the distance, you can see Gren coming back downstairs. Yeah, so yeah, you're gonna stay right there. Yes, I am. Locked up. Yes. And you're not gonna try anything stupid, you hear me?

SPEAKER_01 27:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:30

All right.

SPEAKER_01 27:32

Okay, bye.

SPEAKER_00 27:33

And uh Gren comes over and he's like, come on, we gotta go. And they and they kinda go off, and you can hear shouts and and you can hear the boat kind of creaking around you um as it's kind of being maneuvered through this area of sandbars and everything. What would you like to do now?

SPEAKER_01 27:51

Oh man, I I'm looking at my spells and I have Thunder Wave. The problem with that is it's gonna make a big noise. Yes. Yes, it is gonna make a big noise. Um I have I think my best option is to keep trying to chew the rope and then figure out a way, like once I can get out of the cage, I can try to find my dagger and cut my hands free. I don't know. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 28:23

Uh roll a perception check for me.

unknown 28:25

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 28:28

Eighteen. Eighteen, okay. Um, as uh as you're sitting there and you you see uh Gren and Gibble kind of go back upstairs and you can hear the noise and stuff, you'd look around and um as right before Gibble had left, he kind of leaned forward and was was kind of shouting at you. And you can see uh right at the edge of the cage, there is a little broken piece of glass. Can I get it? Uh yeah. I mean I think it's like it's it's definitely in reachable area, but you're you know, your hands are behind your back. Okay. Yeah, I'm just gonna like back up to the cage and try to get it. Okay. Um give me a Go ahead and just give me uh give me a just a dex check. Twelve. Twelve, okay. Um yeah, I mean you can get it. It's you might cut yourself a little bit on it, but you you do have it in your hands. Okay, I'm gonna start just sawing my hands. All right. Not at my hands. Well, at the rope, yeah. Yeah. It's not the easiest thing, but you manage to get it in and start working it and get the ropes kind of torn enough apart that you can and I'm like twisting and stuff too. Yeah, you managed to get your hands free.

SPEAKER_01 29:48

Okay. Then I'm gonna start cutting the cage doors too.

SPEAKER_00 29:53

Okay. I mean you could probably just untie it at this point because you can it's just like I said, it's just the the it's just to keep you in one place and the finding your hands was to keep you from the easy escape. Yeah. Okay, so you you have the door, it kind of creaks a little bit as it opens, but there's enough sound.

unknown 30:12

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 30:12

I'm sorry, the door says. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 30:16

Surprise, it's a mimic. You're just doing your job as a door, it's okay. Um Thanks. I'll go grab my stuff. Uh does it look like other than the stairs that the goblins came down? Is there any other way out?

SPEAKER_00 30:32

Um there is there are like some a couple portholes here and there. Um Oh wait. I forget. I have wild shape. Oh, there you go. Okay. Forget you're playing a druid.

SPEAKER_01 30:47

Yeah. You know what? I'm just gonna I'm gonna turn into a rat.

SPEAKER_00 30:54

See, I told you you were a rat. I'm gonna get my stuff first though. Okay. Get your stuff. Um, you do notice that your your coin purse is missing, but you're most of your stuff, like your clothes are still there. Wait a second.

SPEAKER_01 31:09

Can I pry open a couple crates before I go? Okay, okay. Yeah. They're pirates. Yeah. Whatever.

SPEAKER_00 31:20

Okay. Uh, what do you want me to do? Um, well, how are you gonna how are you gonna pry these open? Uh I think I have a crowbar. Ah, yes, the Dungeoneer's package.

SPEAKER_01 31:36

Yeah. Let me make sure I don't actually Okay. Yeah, no. Uh, but I do have some daggers. So yeah, I think I'll I'll try to do that.

SPEAKER_00 31:48

All right, give me a strength check.

SPEAKER_01 31:50

Oh boy.

SPEAKER_00 31:53

Eleven. Eleven. You find a crate nearby. It's a smaller crate, and uh it takes a little bit of work, but you are able to kind of creak open the lid a little bit. Um, and most of what you see uh on the top is kind of just like uh straw and that sort of thing, kind of like use for packing. Okay. Yeah. Um you dig through and you find a couple of little small uh porcelain figurines, just kind of random little animals or something that like maybe they were meant to be sold. Um, and then you find uh a couple little uh gold uh embossed plates.

SPEAKER_02 32:36

Ooh.

SPEAKER_00 32:37

Like so it's it's like a porcelain plate, but it's got the gold overlay. So it looks it looks all looks like it should be solid gold, but it's it's not. So you can you can add those to your inventory. Two two of each, we'll say.

SPEAKER_01 32:50

Okay. Cool. Um I'm gonna try one more crate. Okay. Not wanting to push my luck. Maybe it is push. Ooh, I got a crate. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 33:01

Um you find another little crate and uh pop it open, and this one actually has it's a smaller crate, um, and it's got a lot more stuffing, and as you kind of peel the stuff away, you find um a jade, a carved jade like rod um that's got kind of some different little animals kind of carved into it. Uh it's pretty, it's pretty heavy, but it's only like about maybe like seven or eight inches long. Is it magical? Not that you can tell. I wouldn't be able to tell. Okay. But it it definitely looks valuable.

SPEAKER_01 33:40

Yeah. All right. I will stash everything away in my little bag. Okay. And shift into a rat. Okay. With my wild shape. Squeak, squeak, squeaking. Squeak, squeaker. Squeak, squeaky. What are you doing, little rat fizz? Uh heading up the stairs. Oh, right upstairs. Okay. I mean, I'm a rat.

SPEAKER_00 34:04

Okay. Rats are on ships. You uh they usually don't go straight up into public view, but you run up the stairs um and you this is your first light. It's very bright up here. It's it's like middle of the day, the sun is high in the sky. Okay. Um, and you see uh the top of this ship is very busy. There are uh you can see kind of up near the uh there's like a raised area on the deck. I'm not gonna get into nautical terms because I don't know them all, but there's a raised area on the deck, and you can see this big hulking uh orc. Um he's got two giant scimitars on his back, a thick beard, it's got a patch over one eye, and one of his tusk is just completely capped in gold. And um he's kind of there. Could have guessed that. Yeah. Oh, look, it must be Captain Gold Tusk. Uh and you also see um next to him kind of, he's kind of overseeing everything, and then you have next to him is who's actually like kind of barking orders at the different uh the rest of the shipmates. Um this is a stocky, barrel-chested dwarf, and he's got just a glorious beard banded with gold and iron bands. Um, he's got a big hefty square-headed hammer at his belt. Um, and he's kind of barking orders at, you see Gren and Gibble, and then you also see two uh humans who are kind of running back and forth. One of them has uh long, lanky hair and a ponytail, and he's got a wicked scar across his cheek, and then the other one is more kind of broad shoulders, real muscular, he's got his hair's in thick braids, and he's kind of covered in his chest is kind of covered in tattoos. Um and there are kind of going back and forth, kind of dropping things over the over the side of the boat and calling out measurements back to to the dwarf, who is then kind of barking orders uh to turn and move the ship between uh the sandbars on this river, which you can now see is just kind of wide um and you are kind of moving through it slowly with the wind. There's a little bit of wind in the sails.

SPEAKER_01 36:25

Okay.

unknown 36:27

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 36:30

We have. Ship cat has taken notice of you. And uh and it is now uh kind of creeping towards you. Yeah, that just happened.

SPEAKER_01 36:44

Um I mean, I think I'm just gonna run and jump over the side of the boat.

SPEAKER_00 36:49

Okay. Um I'm gonna say, give me a dexterity saving through as you take off. Which side of the boat are you going to? Uh forest side. Forest side, okay. Forest. So you take off and the cat is after you. Twenty-one. Twenty-one. Well, they rolled lower than that. So the cat uh swipes at you and just barely catches your tail. Um, but you manage to leap between the railings of the ship and sail into the water, and the last thing you hear is the cat behind you, uh, disappointed that it that it lost its meal. You are now in the river.

SPEAKER_01 37:34

Oh, swimming.

SPEAKER_00 37:35

Swimming. Um give me uh give me an athletics check. Uh the current here is not very strong, but you are a rat. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 37:46

Athletics is not my strong suit.

SPEAKER_00 37:50

I got a nine. A nine. Um you you hit the water kind of uh almost belly flopping. Uh you hit it pretty hard and and it kind of knocks the wind out of you. But so you you spend a little bit of time. Um right mostly right now you're just kind of fighting to not get pulled into the current that the boat itself is is creating as it moves along.

SPEAKER_01 38:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:12

Um so you get a little tumbled around in the water a bit, uh, but manage to come up kind of uh choking and gasping.

unknown 38:20

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 38:23

Like that. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 38:27

Thanks for doing my sound effects for me.

SPEAKER_00 38:30

I live to serve. Um so you you manage and you can you're uh above the water, kind of float, kind of treading water a little bit, getting your air, getting air back in your lungs, and the boat's pulling away and the cats just glaring at you from the from the railing. But no one else has seemed to notice the the rat that jumped overboard. Good. Um so give me another athletics. I give me three athletics roll. Let's see how how you can get to shore.

SPEAKER_01 38:56

18. Sorry, talking to the microphone. 18, 13, and 12.

SPEAKER_00 39:04

And 12. Um that that fits. You you get your air and you start uh swimming away, and um it takes a little bit longer than you had expected uh in rat form. You you just got little tiny strokes. Um but you eventually do make it into the grassy riverbank and and manage to pull yourself up onto the shore in this little clump of weeds, and you're just you're very, very tired right now.

SPEAKER_01 39:32

Yeah. Okay. I think the first thing first thing Fizz would do is kind of get into the cover of the tree line.

SPEAKER_00 39:45

Okay. Yeah, it's it's the the trees grow really close here. Um it's just a quick little quick little jog out of this clump of grass and and into the trees.

SPEAKER_01 39:54

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 39:55

Um, and then as you kind of look around and get your bearings, you can see the boat moving further downriver. And on the other side of the river, uh you can see just farms um that that just kind of stretch off into the distance. Um and far in the distance, just at the edge of your uh kind of line of sight, you can see the tops of of a city of some sort.

SPEAKER_01 40:17

Okay. Retrospect, I might should have gone on the farm side, but that's okay. I'm trying to get back to the bounds. Um I'm gonna drop wild shape. Okay. Um back to fizz and check out all of my equipment. Okay. I mostly am concerned, I think I think she would be really concerned about the staff. Staff. It broke.

SPEAKER_00 40:47

Yeah, the the staff is there. It's it kind of is uh just kind of tucked into your pack. Um but it is it is there. It is a broken, it's the broken end of your friend Iskra's staff. Okay. Um, and then you have your other equipment. They mostly just took your gold and um you had tucked your healing potions kind of wrapped in clothing, and uh that did not seem to be bothered. They're still tucked deep in your in your bag. Oh, good. Cool. I think this is a good place we can take a little intermission. Yeah. And uh we'll do our little our little seg intermission segment. Okay. All right, cool. So that was fun. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 41:31

Are you having fun with fizz right now? I am having fun with fizz. Yay! Fun with fizz. Aw. That's not gonna be a thing. No. No, that's that's dumb.

SPEAKER_00 41:45

So that was the first bit of our adventure for fizz. We're gonna get right back to it in just a few minutes. But right now we're introducing this new kind of segment intermission thing.

SPEAKER_01 41:58

So, along with um the actual play podcast, uh, we've always wanted to do short little segments on like tips and tricks that we've learned over the past like eight or nine years of playing DD and other role-playing games. We've both been players and GMs throughout those years, and we've helped a lot of new players learn the games and enjoy like the storytelling aspect of RPGs.

SPEAKER_00 42:26

So we both have learned like little tips and tricks, and we've had a lot of fun with it, and we wanted to kind of do like we talked about doing YouTube videos or maybe one day TikTok. I don't know. Maybe I'm terri I don't know. We never do. But we've we have this podcast, which is you know, RPG-oriented, obviously. So it seemed like the perfect place to put these little segments. So for this first episode and introduction for this, we're gonna kind of focus on the sort of cozy mechanics that we're gonna use in this podcast, uh, specifically, because it's just the two of us, you know, one GM, one player. We don't want to like spend the entire time just rolling dice, rolling dice, rolling dice. Or looking up rules. Yeah. Or yeah. We any any of our patrons right now that have played games with us, um, you know, we're loosey goosey on the rules. Oh yeah. We we are like, does that make sense? Does it sound cool? Is it gonna be fun? Let's do it. Okay, so the rules say you have to do it this way, but this this way's more fun. Yeah. So we're gonna do that. And that's what we're gonna do kind of in in this uh podcast with our characters here is just kind of get creative and and have fun with it.

SPEAKER_01 43:47

Yeah. So like we all love rolling dice. Um we we both recently purchased like character specific dice sets for.

SPEAKER_00 43:57

Oh no, I just threw my D20 on the crown. I'm gonna need that in a minute.

SPEAKER_01 44:04

But we yeah, we we for fizz and bang, we we like to buy dice sets that match the characters that we play, which you know, we're not the only ones, but we may have I mean it's it's I know. We have a lot of dice. I'm just acknowledging that we're weird. We have a lot of dice. Yes. So like we like rolling dice, but we don't necessarily feel the need to roll for every single little thing. Uh we're doing a lot of like common sense commentary and descriptions. So, like, for example, when Fizz uh woke up in the cage in the hold of the ship.

SPEAKER_00 44:42

The Tusk's revenge.

SPEAKER_01 44:44

The Tusk's Revenge. There were um there are a lot of things that she could like easily notice about her surroundings just by looking around. Like there's like no perception check needed just to look and use your eyes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:58

And she's she's a new adventurer, but she has been adventuring a bit, so she's already starting to get that kind of aware situational awareness, you know, staying safe, just traveling around. So she's you know, she wakes up, her hands are tied, and she's gonna look around and be like, Oh crap, where am I? Yeah. There's no reason to roll a perception check just to get that information.

SPEAKER_01 45:21

Yeah. Unless there was something more specific that Fizz would have looked for, or you know, if she wanted to try to see if she could figure anything else out, then then maybe a role would have been called for.

SPEAKER_00 45:35

But to get just to gain that deeper, like, okay, initial view is this. What can I find in my situation to help me escape? Yeah. And I think like Fizz just like, I'm gonna chew the ropes. Um, which was it's a good, good attempt. Listen, I got teeth. I know you do. It's kind of crazy. Never really played a character that would be like, I got teeth. It was perfect. Um, so the thing that helps um knowing what your characters are seeing as as the GM is obviously knowing where they're at. In your GM prep part, just like, okay, they're gonna be in this room, what's in this room, and just really know. Like I have a mental picture of the ship in my head. I know what it looks like, you know, in the cargo hold, in the galley. If you'd gone into like the sleeping quarters, I could have described all that to you and everything. But um, but you didn't, which is good, because we would have got like really you would have it would not have gone well for it. It would have been calm. Yeah, yeah. It would have it would have been a problem. But um, but yeah, I just had that. And that way you can if you know that much ahead of time, you can be like, if your player says, Is there this, you know it's there. Yeah. You have that clear picture, and you're like, actually, yeah, it's right over there.

SPEAKER_01 46:55

And if you like, if you don't figure all that out ahead of time, you can make it up on the fly. That's totally fine. It kind of depends on uh how comfortable you are with your level of creativity. Um, and especially like in in a medium like this, this is an audio medium, we cannot show you a map or a layout or pictures of how anything looks. So you're gonna have to get really good with the descriptions. And as a GM, even if you do have maps like that people are looking at, it really, really helps to know your surroundings because it's more than just you know, a tile layout on a floor.

SPEAKER_00 47:37

Yeah. If you've seen like a 20 by 20 room, what's in there? A desk. What does a desk look like? You know, have that all in your head. Your players may not ask for it, but if they do ask for certain things, know what's there. You're right there. You can give it. And yeah, even if you do like make stuff up on the fly, don't don't tell your players that. Like that's oh yeah, keep that a CTM secret. They have to know, they have to think that you're a genius. You know everything there is to know. I knew all of this beforehand. Yeah. I mean, I have right now, I have a 500-page document of Fizz's entire adventure laid out. Right. Um, and uh yeah, there are gonna be no surprises.

SPEAKER_01 48:16

If Fizz wanted to be for Fizz If Fizz wanted to know what forest supplied the trees to make the wood planks that the ship was made out of, you'd have been able to tell her. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 48:33

It's the falling mist forest. Oh, that close? Yeah. Okay. Not really. There are other forests where the ships are made. Sorry. I just had to be really smart, but we haven't named the entire world yet, so we're still working on the map there. It's only episode one. I know. I didn't think Fizz would want that information. But I can get it for you. I don't want it. I don't care though. Yeah, I so just the cozy part of this game is gonna be the just keeping the story moving forward with the, you know, it's the storytelling of it.

SPEAKER_01 49:13

That's like our style of gameplay that we love the most is story and character driven, less about roles and mechanics and what your character sheet says you can do. It's like what my character would want to do in this moment. And she wanted to chew ropes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 49:29

So I mean it made perfect sense. Yeah. Really, it it did. I loved it. Yeah. Um, so yeah, I think that we'll get more into like we have we do have like some a lot of things written down, like what we want to kind of tips and tricks like that, being prepared, knowing, you know, situational awareness for for the GM, so yeah, you can let your players know.

SPEAKER_01 49:50

It's a lot more than just reading the module notes and descriptions. You gotta get a solid picture of it in your own head before you can describe it to your players.

SPEAKER_00 49:58

Yeah. And and as you go through your mod, uh see, I'm gonna start diving down into that deep. That'll be in a that'll be in a later segment because we don't want this to run into a two hours, you know, intermission where we talk about that. Yeah. So yeah, that's uh just a quick little introduction to this segment that's gonna be the intermission portion of our of our podcast.

SPEAKER_01 50:20

Yeah. And if the if this is the only little intermission that you listen to, please don't please listen to more of them. But if this is the only one, remember that Gary Gygax, the creator of DD, once said the rule of cool outweighs rules as written. I don't know if that's a direct quote, but I've always heard that he said it.

SPEAKER_00 50:38

I've always heard you said it's before we're not. Um for one E. And it's kind of really it's the spirit of the game, not the letter of the rules, which is important. Never hold to the letter written or allow a rules lawyer to force quotations from the rule book upon you, which I love that. Yeah. Because sometimes the rules, like the rules are there to give structure to this game. So, like, you know, turn order and stuff like that can be not utter chaos. Yeah. Um, and and there are rules of magic, and there are like there are just general rules of day-to-day life for us as humans on planet Earth, you know. So that's kind of what these are there for. But it's also a fantasy game, it's a make-believe, and it's you have magic and you can do things, you can recover from a battle with a night's sleep, you know, and and you can make gold just by wandering around finding things. Yeah, it's great. Yeah. Um, so bogging down in the minutia of the rules is it's too much like real life. Don't want to do it.

SPEAKER_01 51:40

Yeah, that's not our gameplay style. I know like a lot of people have like that kind of gameplay. So if that's what you do, then you do you. Yeah. That's cool. Some people are are uh rules lovers. No. What's the what's something funny to say there? I can't I can't think of anything. Um they just really love it.

SPEAKER_00 52:04

They just like they like a structure, they really like having a a a straightforward structure. Yeah. A lot of people like getting bogged down in rules, but I don't. I don't. Yeah. That's not myself. Which is good. We just like playing. We're like, you know, it sounds like a cool idea. So and we've we've ran some campaigns for our patrons and kind of really encouraged that and have gotten some super memorable moments um that are just hilarious, like when the monk ran up the wall and dropped down on top of somebody or something. I don't know. It was crazy.

SPEAKER_01 52:39

It was they could do damage like that.

SPEAKER_00 52:40

Yeah, you can do bludgeoning damage by falling on someone, and it was it was great. And monks can run up walls. I know. Yeah. Wish I could do that.

SPEAKER_01 52:50

Ninja. Um, but yeah, it's like it's it's a really cool thing to be DMing a game and seeing somebody look up from their character sheet and say, Can I do this? I don't know if this is something that I can do, but here's what I want to do. And like, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 53:11

Yeah. That's my favorite thing.

SPEAKER_01 53:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 53:13

Cause then you know like they are all in on their character and they're they're in the world. Yeah. And I that's as a GM, that's like a super rewarding moment. Yeah. Because you're like, I have inspired creativity. You know, they're like stepping out and thinking beyond words on a page. Oh, the Yeah. Beyond stats and mechanics. I have a cat on my lap and she's sliding down. Okay, come here, sweetie. Okay, all right, got you. Saved you. And now she's gone. And she's gone. Maybe she wanted to slide down. Maybe she didn't look like it. Her face was pure panic.

SPEAKER_01 53:48

All right. So that's that's it for our our tip, I guess, today. We just kind of wanted to let you guys know what we were doing.

SPEAKER_00 53:58

Embrace the chaos.

SPEAKER_01 54:00

Yeah. What embrace the chaos.

SPEAKER_00 54:05

Step out of the rule box. Just have fun with it. That's my GM tip for the day.

SPEAKER_01 54:10

Yeah. Step out of the rule box, if that means.

SPEAKER_00 54:15

All right. All right. We're gonna see what the second half happens to Finn's here.

SPEAKER_01 54:20

Well, no, no. First, um, I want to tell everybody where to like find us. Yeah. If you want to support our podcast, that would be awesome. You can find us at patreon.com slash Jess and Hids, J-E-S-S-A-N-D-H-I-D-S. We have a super active Discord server with public channels as well as patron-only channels. Patrons get to uh, like Hids said earlier, they've been getting to help us craft the world that Fizz and Bang are exploring. And it's been a lot of fun. So much fun. And we also have a rotating schedule of TTRPGs that we play with our patrons, uh, not just DD. All kinds of fun games. Yeah. Including some Jess and Hids original games that we have created, some D6 games. Well, like two of them that we've created so far. Uh you can also find us on the Social Meets, uh, Instagram, Facebook, and Threads, maybe eventually TikTok. I don't know. Maybe. Uh just you could just search for Jess and Hids and you'll find all the links. Um you can also find all of the important links on our website and some possible merch coming in the future. Uh Jessandhids.com.

SPEAKER_00 55:41

And be sure to check out our other podcast, Jess and Hids Make a Podcast. Yeah. That was a lot of fun. It's so much fun. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 55:50

Back to the adventure. That's that was not Fizz's voice.

SPEAKER_00 55:53

No, it was not. It was one of the ones you tried out. I know. Let's get back to it. Okay. Okay. So we're back with Fizz on the edge of the forest.

SPEAKER_03 56:09

And the river.

SPEAKER_00 56:10

And the river. Between the forest and the river. Um, you've climbed up on the bank, you've shifted back out of your rat form. Yeah. Um this area is uh there's like a little grassy bank, and then the trees kind of press right up against it. Um, and then across across the river, you can see the edges of farmland and some more trees, and further in the distance there are houses and and things kind of, but you know, in far enough away that's where the people are. I like plants better. Yeah. I mean, don't we all? So you are very tired. Um I will say even slightly exhausted. So I'm gonna um I'm gonna give you one level of exhaustion.

SPEAKER_01 56:55

Okay. What does that mean?

SPEAKER_00 56:58

That means I believe uh you have disadvantage on ability checks. Not the new rules. Hang on. Oh, I haven't looked at the new rules.

SPEAKER_01 57:08

One level is a minus two to all D20 tests and minus five feet to my speed. The legacy version is disadvantage on ability checks. So what are we doing? What do you want to play with?

SPEAKER_00 57:20

I like the just disadvantage. Okay. We'll go with that. Yeah, let's go with that. Legacy version. Okay, we're gonna go legacy rules here. I like it.

SPEAKER_01 57:29

And for those who don't know, uh, there are six levels of exhaustion. Um, level six is you die. You're just you're so exhausted that you die. Um just die dead. Yeah. But yeah, that's it's like a it's a we don't really use it a whole lot in our games.

SPEAKER_00 57:50

No. Every once in a while, but I I think people are pretty uh on point about taking rests and and that sort of thing.

SPEAKER_01 57:56

Yeah, I don't think I've ever gone beyond like three levels of exhaustion in a game. And that was like there was a mechanic written in that particular module that we were playing about exhaustion. I don't know. I don't remember what was happening.

SPEAKER_00 58:10

Anyway, we're on the riverside, and you're really tired because you've had a rough bit of time. You're not really sure actually how much time has passed because you were unconscious for a portion of it. But the goblin on the boat did say that. Oh, sorry. I was unconscious on the boat. Yes, got it. After falling in the river, yes, yes, and being scooped up or found by the pirate. Uh-huh. Anyway, um, but the goblin did say that you were about two days away from uh Grizzly Pass, or at least the the path that led up into that area and that's into the mountains.

SPEAKER_01 58:48

Okay, and Grizzly Pass is uh that's where my tall people were. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 58:54

Okay. Yep. Um, so you're on this riverbank now, and it is uh, like I said, the grass is kind of overhanging the river, and there's a little bit of open space, but then it goes right into the forest. And this is uh there are willow trees kind of with their branches in some areas uh kind of dipping into the water. Um there's oak trees and just a different variety of trees kind of making up this forest as you kind of look around and and get your bearings here. Um what would you like to do?

SPEAKER_01 59:25

Probably f uh what time of day is it? Um it's about midday. Uh find some food. Okay. And find somewhere to I don't know. If if I'm if I'm feeling tired, I probably don't want to travel too much, but since it's only midday, I could probably at least walk a little bit more toward where I believe Grizzly Peak to be or Grizzly Pass. Grizzly Pass, okay. Um go ahead and roll a survival check. No.

unknown 1:00:02

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:02

At disadvantage. Because you're tired. Oh yeah. 17. 17. Oh, nice. Okay. Um, you take a minute to kind of get your bearings, you know which way the river's flowing, and you know it's don't want to follow that the river, so you start start moving up along the riverbank, and um eventually the trees get kind of close to the edge, and you make your way a little ways into the forest, um, kind of following a little bit of a game trail along the river here. Um and you can find some uh little bushes with berries and that sort of thing kind of growing in this area as well. I will pick some and eat some. And then you died. They were poisonous. No. Um, you were able to find a little, yeah, find some little fruit berries, like um I'm not gonna. Little fruit berries. Fruit berries. Little fruit berries. That's a thing that exists in this world. Uh fruit berries. And you find this and you have a nice little snack. And you can continue moving up river through the trees. And sometimes you get kind of a little bit further away, but you can always the river's kind of always within view. Yeah. Um, through the trees.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:19

Yeah, I I stick to the river because I know that's you know where I came from.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:24

That's where you came from. That's where you need to go. And then you continue onward for a little few hours, and eventually it starts to get uh starts the sun starts setting and it starts to get a little dark.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:39

Okay. So I'm all alone. I would like to find somewhere safe to possibly get some sleep. What would you be looking for? Somewhere safe.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:51

I mean, do you want to climb a tree safe?

SPEAKER_01 1:01:53

Do you want to look for a listen? Jess is not a survivalist. I don't know. But but the fizz. What would a cobalt look for? Probably a cave. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:06

I don't know, man. We'll say you look for a little cave. That makes sense. Yeah. Um, go ahead and give me um investigation. Or nature, your choice.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:20

Um nature's a whole lot better. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:23

18. 18? Okay. Um, yeah, you start looking around and you actually you don't find really a cave, but you find uh this giant willow tree that's set back a little bit, not far from the river, but uh a little ways back. And the way that it has kind of leaned forward, maybe in a storm or just a softening of the ground, there is kind of a a sunken area between its roots that you can kind of climb in and get a nice little. It's not super deep, but it's enough that if there were some weather or whatever, or if somebody were just happening passing by, you could kind of tuck yourself in there and have a have a cozy little dry spot for the night. Cool. Okay. And that's what I do. And you get a relatively peaceful night's sleep. Relatively peaceful. Well, there's probably some dreams. Go ahead and uh roll it. Roll do you have uh do you have percentile dice?

SPEAKER_01 1:03:24

Um yeah, it's relatively peaceful.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:32

You have a few little snippets of dreams um of being kind of in the water, uh getting kind of tossed around, um, but nothing's like that's so dramatic of a memory or like a scary thing that you you know wake up or whatever, but you manage to you manage to get some sleep. In the in the morning, as you're you're still sleeping and you are awakened by uh kind of something you you feel your ear kind of lift and then drop. Oh and then you feel little little tiny little tugs at your clothes.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:12

Uh animal type tugs. Do I hear what do I hear? Um you actually you don't really hear anything. Oh. I'm gonna open my eyes and look around. It doesn't seem okay. It doesn't seem threatening, right? No, it's just like if something were just kind of like Okay, so I think Fizz would be used to roughing it outdoors, and she is all druid and loves animals, so she's like, oh, what little animal is messing with me right now? So yeah, I don't think she's freaking out.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:46

She's just gonna open her eyes and be like, hey, when you open your eyes, um you don't immediately see anything. Um you're kind of tucked in the roots of this willow tree, and there are some long, like the long wispy uh branches kind of blowing. It almost seems like maybe somehow the branches were kind of blowing into your little your little cave here in the roots. Oh, it was just the little willows. Roll um roll perception check for me. And you had a long rest, so you are good with the exhaustion that's gone. Okay. You feel quite refreshed. Um as as you're kind of waking up and taking in your surroundings and kind of looking around to see what's what was kind of tugging at you, you catch a glance of the willow branches kind of blowing, and you realize that right on the edge of the of one of these branches, you see a little twig that's kind of attached to the branch. Like you know how the willow branches have that long, slender, and then there's all these the leaves are on it. This is actually a twig that's um uh a attached to that. Is it like a little is it a little stick bug? Kind of kind of like that, but it's not an act, it's not a bug. It's just it looks it literally looks like maybe a three or four inch long twig that's attached to that to that willow branch.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:24

Okay. Is that unusual?

SPEAKER_00 1:06:26

I I mean yeah that is that would be I think that would be unusual for for you to to notice. Okay. That's not not something you normally see on on willow. That's weird.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:36

Hey were you I get my fizz voice um were you poking me? That's not my fizz voice. It'll take a bit go ahead we can run through this a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:51

Um were you poking me? The the branch kind of moves and the little twig drops to the ground.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:00

Whoa so you weren't attached uh can I get a closer look? Yeah okay Fizz is gonna walk up there well actually you know what she's gonna do she's gonna belly crawl okay toward the little twig okay and just see how close she can get and the whole way she's like okay you're a twig are you alive or um did you just fall off? Can you understand me?

SPEAKER_00 1:07:36

As you creep this is okay as you creep closer and I I'm just picturing you kind of real down low and your your snout kind of comes right up within a few inches of this twig and it's it's just laying there on the ground. But as you draw closer you can see on like the part of the bark of this twig there's a little face and the eyes are like wide open but they're not they're like not really looking at you they're like you kind of get the vibe that they're like if I don't look at it it'll go away you know you know when you're playing hide and seek and you so it's just kind of staring kind of into the distance and just just this little twig just laying there super still.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:23

Oh it's okay twig I'm not gonna hurt you my name's Fizz what's your name? Why one of the eyes kind of flicks towards you and then I knew you were alive it's okay I'm not gonna hurt you I promise are you um is it rude to ask what you are? You're a you're a very um handsome twig.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:47

It kind of blinks at you and then it lets out this little fine it stands up and it's it's about three inches tall and it it does just look like a little twig now you can kind of see little arms kind of kind of come out of the wood and they're like twig shaped too like it would like if you had just left it if you were just walking you would never see that this was anything more than a twig. And it puts out its little arms and its little legs and it stands up and looks at you.

unknown 1:09:18

What are you?

SPEAKER_01 1:09:20

I'm a cobold cobald Yeah we're like dragons but um a lot smaller than actual dragons you're pretty big you should see dragons I've heard about dragons what what are you I'm a weepling a a what a weepling um is that like a kind of fairy?

SPEAKER_00 1:10:01

Hmm maybe do you have wings? And the it kind of stands up a little taller and these two little wings kind of come out from its back but they look just like willow leaves that long slender green kind of pale green and it looks so proudly flutters the wings and lifts off the ground just a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:24

Aww so you are a kind of fairy I think Fay I don't I don't know the terminology I'm still uh learning about how to you know be an adventurer and meet new people I never met new people you've never met anybody just you not even like animals oh all kinds of animals but they're not people there's Jess wondering if cobalt's people that that's not a term that strictly replies to humans indeed we're not gonna sit here and get it we can sentient beings yeah do you do you live in this willow?

SPEAKER_00 1:11:09

Mm-hmm are there more of you how many more they point and kind of a little ways above your head as you kind of look up you can see uh where the the branches of this willow tree are kind of just uh swaying in the wind the soft breeze that's blowing here now that you kind of know what you're looking for you can see like 10 or 15 of these little twigs just kind of there and as they as you look up and and kind of look right at them they they all kind of freeze and a few of them like dart away on their on their little leaf wings. And then but a few more kind of come down their little branches and then drop to the ground and walk over and they're all kind of clustered together next to or kind of behind the the little weepling that you're talking to. Oh hello little weeplings some of them kind of duck behind and I I'm sorry I didn't mean to scare you um really big sorry I can lay down on my belly again would that help?

SPEAKER_01 1:12:24

You're still really big but yeah okay so Fizz will get down on her belly maybe little prop her little chin up on her elbows or something.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:34

Oh that's adorable so yeah they are you you kind of get down there and prop your chin on your elbows and you're looking at these little and there's there's like five or six of them now and they're just kind of all they're all kind of hiding behind this one that you initially started talking to and kind of peeking out or around each other. And uh the the original one is just kind of where are you from?

SPEAKER_01 1:12:58

I'm from a a place a long ways away and across sort of across an ocean it's in an island. They're all just like it's really really far away there's like volcanoes and a lot of jungle on the island.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:21

Utter confusion on their little bark faces.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:24

I'm not from here we probably would have seen you before if you were from here because this is our tree.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:33

So not many people come through here? Nope huh well I got separated from my tall people and my other cobalt friend his name's bang bang yes fizz fizz that's close this is a good job it's closer than a lot of people get to pronouncing my name the right way um do you know hmm do you know where Grizzly Pass is?

SPEAKER_00 1:14:09

Just confusion confusion they're just like staring at you trying to figure out what how what half the words you've said have meant Okay um well thank you for letting me sleep under your willow tree.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:26

I felt really safe the willow tree's very safe yeah that's where we stay it keeps us safe and sometimes sometimes we visit other trees are you from a tree?

SPEAKER_01 1:14:41

No I don't think so I'm I hatched from an egg oh like a bird yeah but you don't have to like a bird no yeah well some lizards hatch uh from eggs too oh yeah I wish I had wings though then I would be almost like a real dragon we have wings weepling weeplings if I had drawing skills I would draw pictures of you guys but I don't what's a picture? It's like a hmm I wonder if she would have anything her in her bag she probably has books I'm sure she has books in her bag she'll pull one out and show them a picture.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:25

Did you sit up they all kind of move away kind of pictures I think they all kind of move away except for the the initial one they're kind of still this like fascinated by you. But yeah I think she would have a book uh about flowers yeah that makes sense yeah um so she pulls out you you pull out this book and uh initially like they're all kind of they all kind of back away a little bit like oh and and then they creep up and again it's that the initial one you were talking to is seems to be the boldest and they kind of creep up the book is is much larger than they are so they flap flutter their little wings and lift into the air and are looking curiously at this the this book with this picture of these flowers and just kind of fascinated at it. And then you hear kind of the flutter of of birds and stuff and and the other ones kind of scatter but this one little one just is entranced with your book.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:24

She's she's flipping through the pages and I I'm kind of picturing it's like a field guide to maybe healing plants plants with medicinal properties. I think she might want to learn that's like something that she's trying to learn. Okay. So yeah she's pointing out like and this helps when you have a really upset stomach it's really pretty but what you do is you you take the flower and you kind of grind it up a little bit and eat it. I don't know if that's going to be offensive for you to hear just don't talk talk to them about willow bark, okay?

SPEAKER_00 1:17:03

That's a remedy. Yeah I I think they're just enraptured um and every time you turn the page they kind of flutter out of the way and let the page um and then a few times that they get excited when they see certain flowers um and then they uh once or twice kind of dart away and come back with a little a little piece of something and and lay it in the book and it's you know like it's a leaf that this drawn in the book you know or a little a little uh bit of a flower um that they found that matches what's in the book.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:38

Wow you're you're really good at that at finding plants I'm still learning how to identify them just based on the way they look sometimes some of them can look very similar to each other. Yeah um they're I don't go very far but sometimes I go a little bit farther than others I like plants too you're like me me and my friend Bang not a lot of cobalt like to be adventurers but we wanted to travel and and go farther than anybody else oh yes I one time I went all all the way down to the to the cherry tree she's gonna look around for the cherry tree how close is it probably like maybe thirty or forty feet away you can see a little the kind of a cherry tree. You're really brave they're the bravest I bet that cherry tree is really pretty in the spring.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:38

It's so pinks yeah they're pretty flowers.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:42

Um what's your name?

SPEAKER_00 1:18:44

Um um what do you what do the other uh what what are they called winglings weeplings weeplings uh what do the other weeplings call you um they they they don't like we just know who we are oh well that's cool but you're a you're a fizz I'm a fizz yes oh when I first saw you I thought you were a twig twig you can call me twig okay um twig twig yeah I like that I'm I wanna go to the cherry tree yes okay let's go see the cherry tree you want to ride on my shoulder I'm not as tall as the willow tree but you might be able to see some pretty cool things from my shoulder okay flutter up to your shoulder and kinda uh do you have just like a regular kind of shirt like or a little cloak yeah I think she's got like a little cloak on okay yeah they kinda settle in and and grab the the fabric of your cloak um and as you stand up they're like oh whoa it's a different feeling than actually flying um but they yeah they kind of grip that and they're uh as you're walking along they're like oh it's so fast so fast so fast wait how fast how fast can we blings fly they're just little things they just flitter around I'm sure they're faster than than walking speed maybe maybe uh twig doesn't fly that fast okay just lose yourself in the moment sure so you walk all the way over to the cherry tree is about 20 or 30 feet away and uh little twig is there and just kinda they're just kind of chattering the whole time oh and and there's a little daisy and there's a little there's an oak tree and then here's the cherry tree far so far as I've ever been in my whole time of being me.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:05

Hey twig yeah do you want to go even farther than the cherry tree? I don't know. So Fizzy's gonna step around the cherry tree see look out that way there's more trees can you see above the trees look at where the mountains are oh I think that's where my tall people are going somewhere up in those mountains it's gonna be it's a long way away you can stay here with us Aw oh thank you but I I really want to find my friends do you wanna do you wanna come with me?

SPEAKER_02 1:21:48

Farther than the cherry tree?

SPEAKER_00 1:21:50

A lot farther than the cherry tree it's gonna be a long way from from your home so you don't have to come if you don't want to if you don't want to leave your friends and and your family and your willow tree but it'll be an adventure I'm the bravest you are really brave I can go with you yeah I can sit on your shoulder yeah and um we'll find your bank yes um and they kinda look back at the willow and they look up at the cherry and they look up at the distant mountains okay okay and we could come back here um after I find my friends or maybe before that if it's really hard to find them okay okay and then I can tell everybody about what's past the cherry tree yes okay a lot of stuff past the cherry tree and I think that's where I want to wrap this scene with with Fizz and her new little twig companion yay set out deeper into the forest beyond the cherry tree beyond the cherry tree I uh I I love little Fizz.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:19

Me too I like how um I mean first blush impressant impression this is only the first episode so we'll see but I like her so far.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:28

Yeah it'd be interesting to see what happens when things get really rough things get scary and Fizz is gonna like hulk out. Um I'm just a little cobalt I've got some spells not a lot that's what do we have for our little adventure I know like the second half of this episode wasn't really long but it's this is a good kind of place to wrap up as Fizz um has made her escape from the the pirates and has started on her adventure back back up into the mountains to find her friends.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:04

Sweet. I think um next month we're gonna see what Bang's been up to all right that'll be really fun I forgot that was Bang's voice. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:18

Yeah he's kind of got this slow slow kind of way of talking I'm gonna have to practice that a bit to get to get in there with the to get in there with in my bang headspace you got a month to do it.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:35

Well less than that because we need to record. Oh yeah we gotta do that.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:38

Actually record not at the last minute so thank you guys for listening to our first episode of a tale of two kobold we'll be back on the first of May with our next episode