Meet Bang

This month on A Tale of Two Kobolds, we introduce Bang as he begins his search for Fizzz! 

In the Middle Bit, we talk about the importance of a Zero Session for both the GM and the players.

Reddit Thread on Use of the X Card

The X Card Explained

Roll 20 Blog Post on Game Safety

TTRPG Safety Tool Kit Google Drive

Transcript

SPEAKER_06 0:07

Hello and welcome to episode two of A Tale of Two Kobolds. I'm Jess. I'm Hidge. And uh last month you all got to meet Fizz, my character. This month I will be the DM, and we get to uh meet Bang.

SPEAKER_04 0:26

Which is my character. Yeah. I'm excited.

SPEAKER_06 0:29

Yeah. So uh before we start that, I do want to recap a little bit. Not necessarily any of Fizz's adventure because Bang doesn't know that. But if you didn't listen to episode one, there are these two cobalts who got separated from each other. Um, Fizz specifically got swept away in a river and separated from their whole adventuring party. And the first episode kind of dealt with the immediately after that and her her sort of plan to get back. Meanwhile, Bang uh has been continuing with their party of tall people, and we're gonna pick up with Bang leaving the group. But before we get into that, tell us about Bang.

SPEAKER_04 1:20

Uh okay. Bang is a little rogue, kobold. I'll describe him and then I'll talk about his class, I think. Yeah. Um he has dark, shimmery blue scales, and um his ears are kind of big and round at the bottom. They're kind of in like instead of being narrow ears, they're big round ears. Like floppy, yeah, big floppy ears that kind of droop down. Um, and then he's he has big expressive eyes. Um, he's really very small. He's just about two feet tall and um very slight in build. He's uh kind of well aware that kobolds are often seem as troublesome creatures and low intelligence, you know, the the kind of trope of DD. Yeah. Um but he has taken pains to kind of educate himself and he'll kind of speak slower and enunciate and try to when, you know, try to he tries to fit in with whatever group he's around. So if he's around like an educated group, he'll he'll use bigger words and talk slower. And but if he's just hanging out, you know, like in a tavern or something or around a campfire and everybody's just kind of relaxed, he just kind of slips into just real casual speech patterns. Um he kind of just blends in instead of like trying to make a scene about being a kobold or whatever. So yeah. There's more like little personality traits that I think uh I wrote on my character sheet. Let me go look at this. Um he's real calm and friendly, and definitely is more like how can I get out of this situation without fighting? Um, because he knows like he's at a disadvantage because how small he is. Yeah. But he will fight if necessary. And he's a little fierce fighter, but he will always try to look for nonviolent ways out.

SPEAKER_06 3:18

Okay. Um, I think last month I talked a little bit about uh the actual build and the character sheet. I didn't go into like the the stat numbers or anything. I think that's a perk that we're saving for our patrons. We'll share our character sheet with our patrons. But if you want to talk more about um the actual mechanic side of his build. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 3:42

Um, yeah, he's uh he's a level two rogue, and my plan is to do the inquisitive rogue, because I feel like that fits his personality. I like that. Um, which in DD, the inquisitive rogue kind of is more like um investigative and not really thief or assassin type. They're more kind of like learning about their situation and using that to their advantage. Yeah. Um, but I do leave room for character growth, so depending on where is he where he's at when he's ready to make that decision in the level up process, I don't know. We'll see. I never plan my characters out like way far in advance. Yeah. Just kind of see what happens in story-wise. We're we're vibe vibes levelers, yeah. Yeah, for sure. Um so yeah, he does it, he has a couple daggers and a little short bow, and just wears um simple leather armor. He is very like Dex is his highest score, ability score.

SPEAKER_06 4:41

Yeah, that's important for a rogue.

SPEAKER_04 4:43

Yeah, and the rest are all just kind of.

SPEAKER_06 4:45

But also, if you are new to DD and might not know this, your DEX directly influences your AC, which is which stands for armor class. That's how easy you are to hit or how hard you are to hit. The higher your DEX, the harder you are to hit because you are better at dodging or whatever.

SPEAKER_04 5:00

He has an armor class of 14. Okay. Um, and he currently has 18 little hit points. Oh, that's so s oh, it's so squishy. We've been playing like higher level stuff in our games, and I'm like, oh, he's 18.

SPEAKER_06 5:14

Going back to level two. He's so squishy.

SPEAKER_04 5:19

Low armor class. Oh my goodness. But um, yeah, he's just your kind of gonna be your basic, he's got basic vent adventuring gear, and I think we said we gave everybody one uh or we gave them both a potion of healing um and a handful of gold or something. Since that's how they've been on their low adventuring, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I think that is all right now because like level two, you don't really have a lot happening. Yeah. So yeah, my goal is to do one character. My goal is to do the inquisitive rogue, but we'll see, we'll see, like I said, how it turns out.

SPEAKER_06 5:58

Yeah. All right. So bang.

SPEAKER_04 6:03

Yes.

SPEAKER_06 6:04

You're sitting by yourself right now at a small campfire. It's your first night away from your group of tall people. And Jack, the fighter in your group, um, he's always the one that kind of looked after you. He he didn't want you to go, but it seems like everybody else in the group understood why you wanted to. Um what would you have said to Jack to sort of convince him to not worry about you or whatever? Like he's not, you're an adult cobalt, so he's not gonna like stop you from going anywhere, but he tried to convince you not to go, so what would you have said?

SPEAKER_04 6:45

Um okay. Oh, I did I forgot to mention that when you said adult. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Really quick, kobolds are considered mature between six to ten years of age and can set off on their own. Bang is 19. So he's he's a mature adult.

SPEAKER_06 7:03

So yeah, and I think uh Fizz would actually be around the same age because I think we've talked we haven't mentioned it on the podcast yet, but they were kind of in the same sort of clutch of eggs. Yeah. Oh no, no, they weren't. But they're the same age.

SPEAKER_04 7:16

They're the same, they were in the same like location tribe, I think, but they weren't yeah, they weren't born together.

SPEAKER_06 7:22

They're not related. We still haven't actually fleshed out their actual backstories before they met up with the adventurers, but that's that's something we can come up with. Um but yeah, I we realized that I never mentioned anything about cobalt ages, and so yeah, you looked into that, and I think yeah, Fizz is probably around the same age. Yeah, I like that.

SPEAKER_04 7:47

Yeah, because they're they're they're friends. Yeah. Um, okay, back to back to inside Jack doesn't want you to go. Jack, I'm not with Jack, I have left the party, right? This is just kind of this is a sort of flashback. Okay, flashback.

SPEAKER_06 7:59

We're kind of setting the mood here for Bang.

SPEAKER_04 8:02

Gotcha. Okay. So Jack was the one in the party who kind of accepted us in as as Kobold Adventures, kind of took the chance with us. Yeah. And so Bang really appreciated that with him and has a feeling of loyalty to to Jack, which is why after the initial search for Fizz, they kind uh the party went on after they did their search and couldn't find her, and and Bang stayed with the party, but it kind of bothered him more and more that he didn't do more to find Fizz because she's kind of his best friend. So And there's that lack of closure.

SPEAKER_06 8:40

Yeah, like I don't know. She can't really be dead because we didn't find a body.

SPEAKER_04 8:44

So Yeah, we didn't find her, so she's somewhere. Um But there was the loyalty to Jack as well, like because Jack had, you know, taken a chance with two little kobolds in a world that people don't really do that, you know. Um so I think Bi Bang went along with that, and then it just bothered him more and more. And he approached Jack with that, and uh they had some conversations, and I I think like I think what he would have said that might have kind of kicked it, would you know, like got Jack on his side with with leaving, would would have been that Fizz was his oldest friend and it didn't feel right, it didn't sit with him well that he he felt like he had abandoned her.

SPEAKER_06 9:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 9:36

And like he would be clear that that was not he didn't think the whole group as a whole like had abandoned her, but he just felt like he could do more. He didn't want to like pull the whole party away from their goals because they have they were already on this trek when when the Kobolds joined them. So yeah, I think it would be a matter of just like, I I got this, I can go find my friend, you know, plus I could be quicker moving around faster, not having to worry about a whole party of people, and then they could continue on their on their journey. And you know, he's like, it's fine, I'm gonna go down. She probably just swept, you know, downriver a little bit and she's making her way back here. We'll find you, you know, I'll find her and then we'll come find you and we'll be, you know, we'll catch up. It'll be great. Okay.

SPEAKER_06 10:21

Yeah. So yeah. And I think the uh playing to the the loyalty side of thing, because we we haven't really fleshed out any of the tall people yet, uh as far as their personalities and their character.

SPEAKER_04 10:34

But I think Jack sort of being the unspoken leader of the I think he's kinda he's the fighter, and I think he is kind of he has that sort of protective vibe. Helping make if if everybody's trying to figure out something, he'll kind of just be like, all right, here's the pros and cons, let's make a decision and not just keep sitting here. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 10:57

Yeah. So I think he he understands loyalty, he understands all of that. So he he was probably more comfortable with it. So I think uh Jack before Bang leaves, he will gift a dagger. Oh. And this is a plus one magical dagger. Oh my goodness. And it might be the only magic item that you possess.

SPEAKER_04 11:26

It is probably the only magic item that Bang has ever possessed.

SPEAKER_06 11:31

I guess with the exception of the potions, but those are kind of those are consumables one and done. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 11:37

Oh, that's his I was looking at the character. I just typed in danger instead of dagger. Danger. Danger.

SPEAKER_06 11:45

Plus one danger. Oh no.

SPEAKER_04 11:47

I was looking at the character sheet in the uh background and stuff, and it's like treasured possession. And I'm like, I don't really know. Uh, this dagger is now his treasured possession. Aww. It's the yeah, it's the first magical thing he's ever owned.

SPEAKER_06 12:02

And coming from Jack, I think that's a that's a big and I think now like the whole group knowing that Bang is better equipped to handle being by himself now. Um, they'll be comfortable with letting him go and they'll continue on their journey to find, you know, whatever big magical item that they were looking for that the cobalt themselves might not know much about. I don't know. Fizz definitely probably wasn't paying attention to any of those little planning meetings.

SPEAKER_04 12:31

Yeah, I think Bang might have might have listened in, but he's he's here more to learn and explore the world. Yeah. Like and and kind of do that advanced logistics. Yeah, and oh, I can sneak in somewhere if you need me to, like that type of thing.

SPEAKER_06 12:47

So yeah. So you're here uh sitting alone by this campfire now, messing with your little new dagger, maybe getting some practice in with it. Uh what are you thinking? What's your plan? Okay, campfire. Is it is it nighttime? It is nighttime. This is the first night away from your tall people.

SPEAKER_04 13:07

This is like I've traveled a day back towards the bridge. I think we said we were a couple days away.

SPEAKER_06 13:13

You were probably a few days away, maybe three or four days away. Okay, okay, okay. And so you are now I don't know at what point or what time of day you parted with your group. Uh we can say it was in the morning.

SPEAKER_04 13:26

Yeah, I think he would have left pretty early instead of traveling on and getting further away.

SPEAKER_06 13:30

Yeah. So yeah, you are now a day's travel uh closer to the bridge where you lost Fizz. So still we'll say three days away.

SPEAKER_04 13:41

Three Okay, okay, still a distance away. So okay, um, I think he's he's been practicing with his dagger. I think the the day was spent just moving and like, okay, I'm on my way. I'm going back. I'm gonna find I'm gonna find my friend. And now he's sitting here alone in in the big world. This is probably the first time he's been like alone alone. Like he did some traveling on on the island where they're from and camped out and stuff, but that was home island, you know. That was finally isolated place, yeah. And this is his first time alone. So I think like it's kind of settling in that he's like, Oh, I'm I'm very small and I'm very alone.

SPEAKER_06 14:27

And I think also as you traveled, you realize that you're for some reason you're not able to cover the same amount of distance as you did with the tall people. Yeah. Because you are small and you are traveling alone. It seems like being with the tall people kind of encouraged you to keep up.

SPEAKER_04 14:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 14:44

Not that they were like wearing you out and whatever. They they're very considerate of the cobalt. But yeah, I think it it might just maybe it's all in your head, but it seems like it is going a little bit slower.

SPEAKER_04 14:55

For sure, for sure. Um, yeah, so I think he's um he's just there kind of thinking about, okay, well, I have to keep watch for myself during the night and make sure I also get enough sleep. And maybe um I think he might set up a few little things around his camp to kind of like make sounds if something gets too close. Okay. I think that, and um spend some time doing that and then make a little make a little nest, kind of maybe at the base of a tree or something that he can kind of hunker down in for the night. Yeah. But yeah, I think he's finally realizing he's oh crap, I'm alone.

SPEAKER_06 15:36

Yeah. So what kind of noise making devices or traps would you set up? Is Bang a a trinket collector? Like, do you have like little scraps of metal that you can string together to make little noise makers, or are you doing the tripwire thing or just maybe scrunching up some leaves sort of around a perimeter?

SPEAKER_04 15:57

I think I'm looking to see what kind of uh stuff comes in his adventuring gear pack. And he does have uh some rope and string and a little bell. Oh. So I think he might kind of do it down low where some were and like a rope low around the perimeter. It's a 50 foot, 50 feet of rope. So he would just kind of make a little perimeter and then somewhere along that rope put that little bell and then kind of put leaves and stuff to hide it. So something coming through would hit it, would hit that rope and then ring the bell. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 16:33

Okay, that's clever.

SPEAKER_04 16:35

Thanks. My brain just came up with that just now. So yeah, I think, yeah, that I think would make him feel a little a little more secure about getting a night's sleep.

SPEAKER_06 16:45

Okay. And you do, you get a night's sleep. I'm not gonna throw anything at you the first bang's first night away. Yeah, that that seems to work just fine. There, there were a couple times during the night where you did hear sort of the soft ringing of the bell, and you wake up and you see like a rabbit or, you know, very other various other small forest animals. Like not nothing to be worried about, nothing threatening. Uh, but you do get a full night's sleep. You wake up the next morning and you know you've got three days of travel ahead of you. So I want to know. We're sprinkling a lot of flavor in here before we get to the actual good stuff, but I kind of want to know how Bang is traveling. So you're on foot, yes, but are you like going as fast as you can? Are you doing like spurts of fast walking or even running? That seems like it would be a little counterintuitive because you'd have to rest. Does Bang get distracted a lot? Like, how is he continuing, or is he just like single-mindedly traveling on this road?

SPEAKER_04 17:57

Okay, I'm gonna I'm gonna make this decision that Bang does not have ADHD. Okay. That the majority of my characters do have. Um yeah, it would be a disaster if both Kobolds had ADHD. Um I think he's like he's done some camping and exploring and stuff around the island before, so he is not pushing himself to move as fast as he can. Okay. Um he's moving steadily, but you know, thinking about conserving energy because he's got several days and every night might not be a full night's rest. Um, he's aware of that. And he's also never been in this area before. They're they're up in the these high mountains of the, I think it's called the Urso Range. Yeah. Um he's so he is kind of like looking at things, and I think if he sees something that kind of piques his interest, like maybe a different type of mushroom or a different type of tree he's never seen, because the island is more tropical. Um, I think he may stop and and kind of pull out his notes and make a little note about that.

SPEAKER_07 19:07

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 19:07

Um, just to kind of learn, maybe if he's curious, like, oh, you know, is this edible? Or I don't think he would he does a little bit of sketching. I that's just a character thing I like, I like to give my characters. Um but yeah, he does a little bit. So like he might do some rough little sketches uh of if he sees something that's very interesting or that. But um in general, he he's probably doing that like at lunch or when he stops for a break. Okay. He'll kind of really examine the area around him. But moving just at a steady pace, not too slow, not not dawdling, but not running. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_06 19:46

Very goal-oriented.

SPEAKER_04 19:48

Yeah, yeah. I like that. Unlike myself.

SPEAKER_06 19:51

Um, so you travel another full day. You are two days away from the bridge now. Um, this time evening starts to fall. Uh, you're you're looking for a place to camp. And normally in DD, this is where you would roll maybe a survival check to see if you can find a good place, but we're not gonna do that. Instead, I'm gonna have you uh roll a perception check. Perception.

SPEAKER_04 20:16

Oh, it's been a while. Um 15. Perception, that's a dirty 20.

SPEAKER_06 20:22

Oh, nice. Okay, so you you stop and start looking for a place, and almost immediately you see the glow of another campfire sort of further tucked away. You could probably surmise that it is another traveler on the road. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 20:38

Oh, that's what I want to ask. Is this more like a trail or is this like a traveled road?

SPEAKER_06 20:43

It's a traveled road. I think the the group of tall people left the bridge, and that was obviously on a road. And so I think right now, as you go up the Urso Mountain range, you're still sort of on a well-traveled road.

SPEAKER_01 20:55

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 20:56

As the party continues, they will eventually branch off and go find what they're looking for. But I think for right now, Bang is on still on a well-traveled. Okay, okay, cool, cool, cool. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I like that. Okay. So not uncommon to see travelers. Okay. I think I notice this glow. I'm curious. With actually with that dirty 20, you can smell food cooking as well.

SPEAKER_04 21:21

Oh man. Okay. I think I'm gonna try to kind of scout out like quietly what because like if it's a group of like if it's a big group, he might not approach. Okay. Um, depending on what they look like, like if it's bandits, because we ran into some bandits, yeah. They cause the whole problem. It's those bandits, he's gonna try to skirt around.

SPEAKER_06 21:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 21:44

Um, but if it just looks like a traveler, he may he may cautiously approach.

SPEAKER_06 21:48

Okay. Go ahead and roll uh stealth as you approach. And this is about we'll say it's about fifty feet off the road. Okay. Like you just see the glow of the campfire and smell the food right now.

unknown 22:00

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 22:00

Um that is a sixteen.

SPEAKER_06 22:02

A sixteen. All right. That is a lot better than I rolled for perception because I rolled a four on the day. Oh. So yeah, you are able to get pretty close to this campsite. The first thing you see is a wagon, sort of like a a canvas-covered wagon. Okay. And it is sort of set away from the fire. Then you see a donkey nearby that's kind of, would you hobble a donkey or I don't know?

SPEAKER_04 22:32

I mean it would depend.

SPEAKER_06 22:33

Yeah. I think this this donkey knows her owner. She she would stick around, but she's kind of grazing, munching on some grass that's in this little clearing here. And you see one old man sitting next to the campfire and he's got something roasting on a spit.

SPEAKER_04 22:51

That smells good.

SPEAKER_06 22:52

Yeah. It's uh you could probably tell it's rabbit.

SPEAKER_04 22:56

Okay. I think okay, I've snuck close. I want to kind of maybe sneak back and then approach like the way I would notice that he came into this area, like a little path or whatever. Yeah. And I'm gonna definitely see wagon tracks. I have a little lantern and I I don't need it because I have dark vision. So I think I'll light that lantern and I'll just kind of walk towards his little campsite. Like not so just not trying to Yeah, I'm not trying to sneak up. I'm not I'm just like making my presence known with the lantern. And when I get kind of like, you know, when you camp, there's kind of like this, this is our campsite, this kind of like this invisible zone. Yeah. I'll kind of come to the edge. Yeah. It's a personal bubble. I'll kind of come to the edge of that and and raise my lantern up so it kind of shines on me too, so you can see me. And I will say good evening. Oh wait, that's not how I talk. Um, I forgot Bang's voice. Hang on. Southern Southern uh uh well uh good good evening, traveler.

SPEAKER_06 24:05

You see him tense slightly, but for someone traveling alone, he does he still seems very relaxed. And he turns and looks at you and he he kind of squints because you're just sort of at the edge of the campfire light, and the lantern is there, but it's you know, it's not completely illuminating you.

SPEAKER_04 24:22

Yeah, I'll I'll uh once I once he like sees me or my presence, I'll kind of um I I'm keeping like my the lantern up high and my other hand is kind of away from me. Like I'm I'm approaching carefully.

SPEAKER_00 24:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 24:35

Um and I'll and I'll step a few feet in so he can see me a little more. And I'll kind of I'll kind of lower the land. I'm like not shiny it in his eyes, but you know I know. Um yeah, I'll just kind of lower it so I'm like and I'll just kind of wait until he acknowledges me. And he says, uh, hello, little one.

SPEAKER_07 24:54

Come, come, welcome. Are you alone?

SPEAKER_04 24:58

Uh yes, sir, I am.

SPEAKER_07 25:01

Come, you can share my fire.

SPEAKER_04 25:04

Oh, well, uh thank you very much. And I'll I'll come up close and I'll douse the lantern and click it back on my pack. My name is Razul. Razul. Well, my name's Bang. It's a pleasure to meet you.

SPEAKER_06 25:18

He sort of looks you up and down, and he doesn't seem he doesn't seem surprised to see a kobold. Okay. You can tell he's he's probably met kobolds before, and he says, Hmm, not many cobalt where I come from, but I have seen a few on my travels.

SPEAKER_04 25:37

Uh where where are you f where do you come from?

SPEAKER_07 25:40

I come from Dragon's Hearth, the desert.

SPEAKER_04 25:44

Oh. Oh. I've heard of that, but I I've never visited myself.

SPEAKER_06 25:49

Right about then the donkey shakes her head and you hear the little ears flapping. Razul laughs and says, Oh, that's just Beta. She's my donkey. Oh. Beta? That's that's a pretty name.

SPEAKER_04 26:03

Come, come sit. Uh uh thank you, sir, and I'll I'll go and uh sit down.

SPEAKER_06 26:08

And what's uh a lone cobald doing traveling these woods?

SPEAKER_04 26:13

Okay, uh you said I'm I'm gonna ask you You said he seems just kind of casual. Can I like how do am I getting a vibe like he is just a total chill traveler and not like you can roll insight if you want. Eleven.

SPEAKER_06 26:29

Alright. Um, yeah, with that with that role, you're kind of taking a measure of him, and you you don't really perceive any sort of like he he's got a walking staff sort of sat near him.

SPEAKER_01 26:45

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 26:45

You clock a dagger straps to his belt. Is he like more traveling clothes? He's not like there's nothing. Okay. Yeah, he's not he doesn't seem to be armored out or anything. It he he does appear to be from a warmer climate. He's kind of dressed in layers of sort of light flowy material. Um he has he does have a thicker traveling cloak on because he is not in the desert anymore. He's you know, the nights can get a little chilly. Yeah, you don't really perceive anything like super magical about him. Okay. If that's what you were going for.

SPEAKER_04 27:19

Like, I think just going for kind of a vibe check situational awareness type thing. Yeah. Like I don't feel in any like like he's trying to lure me in or anything like that.

SPEAKER_06 27:31

Yeah, yeah. So vibes are he is a completely chill traveler, and you you look around, you get a closer look at the the wagon now that you're here in the campsite. It doesn't seem like there's nothing really fancy about it that would really make a a target for bandits. So like he's he's pretty chill in that like he's not he doesn't consider himself to be a target. Okay, okay, cool. Yeah, he's just super relaxed and chill.

SPEAKER_04 27:59

Okay. Well, uh I wasn't always alone. Um I I was traveling with the group and and uh ran into a little little trouble over there at uh Grizzly Pass down downriver a bit. And um got separated from a a friend of mine and we searched around a little bit and didn't find her and our my group uh needed to continue on and uh that just kinda didn't sit right with me after a while and I I um set off on my own to go find my friend.

SPEAKER_07 28:33

Well that is noble of you.

SPEAKER_04 28:36

I don't I don't know about noble. Just she's my friend. I've known her all my life and I just didn't feel right not doing the the most thorough search I could.

SPEAKER_06 28:48

I wish you luck. I'm on a little search of my own. I'm going down towards the Grizzly Pass. Was this the voice I had a second ago? Yeah, yeah. No, it's good. I like it. Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_07 29:00

I'm happy to to give you a ride.

SPEAKER_04 29:04

Well, you know, I I might take you up on that. It's uh I don't mind walking, but I I bet that sweet little donkey moves a little faster than me on a good day. She does. I I I've I I've got a bit of gold. I can I can pay my way if if that's all right with you.

SPEAKER_06 29:24

Gold won't be necessary, but perhaps you can help me search I mean I I you're gonna help me a little bit.

SPEAKER_04 29:32

I I'm I don't mind helping you. What are you looking for?

SPEAKER_06 29:36

In the desert we heard of a legend of a lotus plant that is incredibly magical and can bring an eternal supply of water wherever it's placed. My people in the desert, our underground aquifers are drying up and we don't know why. I'm hoping I've been on this journey hoping to find this lotus, and stories say that there is one in the center of a lake in Grizzly Pass somewhere. Oh that's what I'm searching for.

SPEAKER_04 30:16

I mean I I I can help you look. I don't want to get too far too far off course, but I mean you're gonna save me quite a bit of travel time. Do you do you know where that the lake is where you're supposed to look or No.

SPEAKER_06 30:33

That's that does complicate things.

SPEAKER_04 30:39

I I've learned.

SPEAKER_06 30:40

I am willing to take you as far as the bridge. Hopefully I find what I'm looking for.

SPEAKER_04 30:47

Well, and unless there's been some work done, there's no bridge right there at the moment. Uh that's kind of what happened. We were a group I was with were crossing that bridge and bandits came along and took it out. We we managed to uh to get across except for for my friend. She fell there at the end and got swept away. And that's uh that's why I need to go find her. I can I can help you look for that for that lake a bit. My friend's pretty resourceful as long as she's not, you know, badly injured, I think she'll as long as long as it doesn't take us too far off track and too many days out out of the way. I I'd be willing to help you. I mean that's I've never seen a I've I've heard about lotus flowers. I've read about 'em in books and stuff, but I've never I've never seen one up close. That's uh that would be that'd be something, especially a magical one like that.

SPEAKER_06 31:47

Well, I do hope your friend is okay and I hope that we find what we're looking for before we get to the bridge. Especially if it's out.

SPEAKER_04 31:57

Yeah. I'd I mean, that'd be great. That kind of two birds, one stone, sort of thing.

SPEAKER_06 32:04

You can keep the two of you can keep chit-chatting. You'll find out more about his people in the desert. You and I have not actually fleshed out what that might be. Yeah. I kind of feel like is I don't know, is it too tropey to make desert people a little bit more nomadic? Or to I don't think so.

SPEAKER_04 32:27

Because you unless there's like an oasis type, they would stay there. But also like it would depend on water sources. Yeah. So I think they would kind of travel and like yeah, I don't I don't I don't say it could be like maybe slightly nomadic. Yeah. Seasonally nomadic or something.

SPEAKER_06 32:43

I know we do have a big city in the desert we made on the map. Yeah, I need to give me a so maybe maybe he's sort of smaller community vibes that rely on these underground uh water sources.

unknown 32:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 32:58

Yeah, that that's more it's kind of towards the coastal cliffs thing. Okay. Um like that canyon area. Canyon area, yeah. Okay. And we can we can uh drop a picture of the map on our Patreon. Yeah. Jessinhids.com slash Patreon.

SPEAKER_06 33:16

So yeah, you you he kind of tells you about the the desert landscape. Because I don't think Bang's ever been to a desert before.

SPEAKER_00 33:24

No.

SPEAKER_06 33:24

And he will also ask about like the jungle. He is familiar that cobalds tend to originate from more tropical jungle areas. Yeah, and I might ask about that.

SPEAKER_04 33:36

I think um, unless we uh play out this whole conversation, I think uh Bang would talk about where he's from, which is um there are two islands uh kind of actually they're they're not far off the coast where this desert area kind of ends at the ocean. They're kind of set off uh, you know, a little a little bit sailing trip away from the coast, but it's uh they're the the Bloodstone Islands are are what people call them. And Bang and Fizz are from the Northern Island. Sorry, I had to had I'm trying to find my notes here.

SPEAKER_06 34:10

I'm like, I don't even have that dock pulled up.

SPEAKER_04 34:13

They are from the yeah, they are from the Northern Island, which we actually have it named yet, but near uh a a range of mountains called the Iron Peaks. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. So um, yeah, I think it's I think the these islands have kind of been used as kind of mining communities and stuff.

SPEAKER_06 34:31

But yeah, I think we said they're very mineral rich.

SPEAKER_04 34:34

Yeah. I'm looking at some of the names we've given in uh Mike the Iron Peaks, yeah, Bloodstone, High Right Cove. That's like we've given them some kind of uh minerally names. Um but yeah, I think Bang would talk a little bit about where he's from and the islands and the tropical area and stuff. And I think um he would be very interested in in learning more about the desert for sure. It would be a lot of different things.

SPEAKER_06 35:02

Because it's a completely different yeah, totally different, like no water um sand just everywhere. Yeah. Razul will talk about just the beautiful sunsets and when it rains, you get this just amazing vista of storm clouds and lightning, and yeah, he'll he'll just describe just the beauty of the desert.

SPEAKER_04 35:28

Yeah, I didn't bang us all in, listen to that. He's probably sitting there, kind of uh he's got big eyes anyway, the big kind of reptilian eyes, and he's they're open wide, and he's just maybe mouth open a little bit in in awe of like, oh that yeah, like Razul I'm making a character choice right now.

SPEAKER_06 35:45

Razul is uh definitely a storyteller. So he's I love it, he's getting animated with the gestures and just he's very good with words, which is something that Jess can't do right now. But yeah, maybe later we'll write a little Patreon perk. We'll have Razul tell some stories about the desert. Okay, yeah. So yeah, you guys can share a meal and then bed down for the night. Uh the next morning, the wagon, the camp gets packed up into the wagon. And um, it's it's kind of a small, it's small enough for one donkey to carry. So he doesn't have a whole lot of possessions, just mostly stuff to travel. He's got, you know, food rations and you know, typical sort of traveling gear. Okay. And I think not even a tent. I think he just has been sleeping under the stars with some some blankets and like a bedroll, whatever. But there is room for uh Bang to join him in the cart and you make good small. Very small. Very small. Yeah. So yeah, Bita gets gets hooked up. B-I-T-A. Bita, probably, now that I think about it. And Razul is R-A-S-U-L.

SPEAKER_04 36:56

S-U-L. I spelled it with the Z.

unknown 36:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 36:59

Okay.

unknown 36:59

S U L.

SPEAKER_06 37:00

You hear some, you know, empty glass jars or whatever, formally carried rations or water or something clinking in the back, and your your travel is is pretty pleasant. Um, I imagine there's more stories being swapped.

SPEAKER_04 37:15

For sure. Yeah. And I Bang would definitely ask about, you know, what it's like to live in the desert, and you know, uh, he would be concerned too, like wondering why the water is drying up.

SPEAKER_06 37:28

Razul, he he is very concerned about that. And he'll mention again that nobody can really figure out why the water's drying up. It's kind of a a mystery, and he's hoping that finding this lotus plant will enable them to have sort of an endless supply of water. They just they can either plant it in the aquifer or keep it with them in, you know, a a large container, a well, maybe. I don't know. Okay. He sort of doesn't really have a plan. He just knows that this thing exists and he wants to take it back to the desert. Yeah. And I think um as you travel, you see him take out. Let's see, do I want to make it kind of like a dowsing rod kind of thing where you find water or some sort of magical compass? I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 38:25

I mean, if it's a dowsing rod where there's rivers, there's a lot of water. There's a lot of water that you might have seen. Maybe he tried that and it was like, okay, well, yeah, not helpful.

SPEAKER_06 38:36

I do want to give him kind of something, a way of finding a sort of larger body of water. I like the magical compass thing.

SPEAKER_04 38:46

Yeah. Something that detects maybe a concentration of water. Yeah. Because that I feel like desert life, you would have that. Especially if you're kind of slightly nomadic and you're traveling.

SPEAKER_06 38:57

And in a world where magic exists. Why not? Why not? Yeah. Okay. Okay. So every once in a while you see him pull out this compass and look around and kind of shake his head and put it back in his pocket.

SPEAKER_04 39:12

Definitely gonna ask about it. Be curious about it. Like, is that I mean, we're following the road, but it's uh is that something different? Some other kind of compass? Oh.

SPEAKER_06 39:23

Yes. And he he pulls out the compass again and hands it to Bang, and you can look. And it it's definitely not pointing north. It's actually kind of uh, you know, the Pirates of the Caribbean. Yeah, that's that that compass, it's kind of just kind of going all over the place. And like every once in a while it'll kind of point toward the water, but then kind of back, you know, in in some random direction or toward the river.

SPEAKER_01 39:48

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 39:49

And he'll explain this is a water-seeking compass. Oh it uh the the river is kind of throwing it off a little bit, but it's its purpose, it it's been magically enchanted to point out large concentrations of water, and I'm hoping that this will help. That is right handy. It can detect large concentrations of water up to a mile away.

SPEAKER_04 40:25

So it might not be helpful if we're more than a mile from a lake, but Yeah, um I mean that would be I guess if it kinda maybe if you move moved away from the the road and the river, you might might get you a little bit better of a more a true signal.

SPEAKER_00 40:49

I don't know. We wouldn't have to go.

SPEAKER_04 40:51

You'd go up top of that mountain, hold it up higher. Um Yeah, I could that's that's pretty wild. I I don't have a lot of experience with uh magical items and that sort of thing, but uh uh my friend uh Jack with the party gave me this magical dagger and it's the first magical thing I've ever owned. I'm pretty excited about that, but uh but that that doesn't really help our conversation here. Um and I'll I'll very I I feel like Bang's this compass is probably pretty big in his in his little hands and and he's holding it very carefully with both hands. Um kind of watching the needle. Um does he notice like any while while he's holding it, is there any kind of shift or is it still just kind of doing the random to the river and then off in different directions or um right now it is random.

SPEAKER_06 41:48

You've been traveling for about half half the day. Okay. And uh Razul will suggest that we stop for lunch and maybe if you'd like, you can go oh, I guess I could do this in my character voice. Um take that compass if you want and and maybe walk walk around a little bit, spiral out from the road and see. Are you are you sure about that?

SPEAKER_04 42:16

I mean, this is has to be pretty pretty valuable. Oh, it is.

SPEAKER_06 42:22

And you you d you trust me? You haven't given me a reason not to.

SPEAKER_04 42:27

I I uh all right, yeah. I'll I'll I'll go look and I'll I'll come back and if I see anything and I'll have lunch waiting.

SPEAKER_06 42:37

All right. So yeah, he'll I'm kinda slipping into that southern accent.

SPEAKER_07 42:43

I'll have lunch waiting. All right.

SPEAKER_04 42:47

Um okay, yeah. So I think Bang will hold this very carefully. Um I think maybe does it have like a is it just like it's just to have like a chain or a loop or something?

SPEAKER_06 43:01

There is, yeah, there's a little um like twine. Little twine.

SPEAKER_04 43:05

Okay, I think twine. Yeah, like he'll put it uh around his neck and kind of tuck it under. He's got like a a little bit of leather armor, he'll kinda tuck it so it's safe. And that and then his hands are free.

SPEAKER_06 43:16

On him it might look like the flavor of flavor. Yeah, the flavor flavor. No, it's not that big. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 43:22

Yep we um yeah, and then he'll start uh kind of doing like a a zigzag deeper into the woods, away in the opposite direction of the river. Okay. So I kind of picture this road follows the river for the most part. You know the way that the river is.

SPEAKER_06 43:38

It might like, you know, deviate from it a little bit. It just depends depending on like boulders or whatever. Yeah, it's okay it's following the road or the yep, the river.

SPEAKER_04 43:49

Yeah, so I think he'll he'll kind of move out into the forest here and kind of, you know, watch uh maybe move maybe. Move uh out like maybe a hundred, two hundred feet away from the camp and then check the compass again and see if it's changing, and then kind of do that again. He's not gonna get too far out. He might go out like maybe take about 15 or 20 minutes out. Okay. Um, and then if he finds anything, obviously kind of mark and note the surroundings and then come back in. But otherwise just kind of he'll definitely pay attention to surroundings because he doesn't want to get lost. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 44:28

Um, but but yeah, I think just kind of I'll I'm I'm not gonna make you roll for that. I think you're good directional.

SPEAKER_04 44:35

And and like the rivers there, he can yeah, uh I'm gonna go with like they kobolds have the a sense of a decent sense of smell, more so than a human. Yeah. Um so yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_06 44:46

Okay. So bang, you you kind of start doing this little zigzag search thing, and you check the compass a few times, and just when you're you're about to head back to the road, um, you decide to go a little further, maybe you know, a couple minutes more. And you check the compass, and at first it does kind of swivel a little bit, but then it kind of starts to slow down a little bit. And it's going back and forth, but like smaller sort of degrees, I guess. And then it settles in a single direction and it stays there. And it's um it's a little further in the direction you're going, like generally toward the bridge area, but far like I don't actually know which direction we're traveling in the first place, but it's like we're traveling kind of south uh southwest. Okay, you're going southwest. So we'll say that it's sort of pointing maybe due west.

SPEAKER_04 45:58

Okay. When I get that kind of steady thing, I'm gonna can I I want to look ahead in the that direction. Like it does is it does it elevate, or is there like maybe if I look further, I keep in mind that I'm very small and we're in the forest. Um so if I kind of look up, do I see like maybe an area where the trees are like the tops of the trees clear? I don't know if that would be something I could tell.

SPEAKER_06 46:24

Yeah, it's it's difficult to tell. It is um kind of heavier forestation the further away you get from the road. So you know for sure that the wagon wouldn't be able to come here. Okay. Can I it's not elevated. You can tell that like there's no like rise in the trees.

SPEAKER_04 46:45

Can I attempt to climb like find a tree and climb it and see if I could kind of get higher a better view?

SPEAKER_06 46:53

Yeah, you can look around and I mean trees are plentiful. You can easily find one that you can get uh a boost up on and climb up. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 47:01

Get my little claws.

SPEAKER_06 47:02

Yeah. Get my little claws out. Uh athletics check. Athletics, okay. Yeah. Go ahead and make it at advantage because cobalt and claws. Okay. Oh, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 47:13

Um 15 and a 17. Uh, so that gives me a 19 total.

SPEAKER_06 47:18

Okay. Yeah, you can easily make it all the way up. You're you're almost clearing the tree line. I imagine you would have chosen a tall tree. Yeah, I would have, I would have looked for like kind of one that I could tell reached higher than the compass again and it is pointing west, and you look in that direction, and you do see a clearing in the trees from this vantage point. And it's not a huge clearing, but it's an obvious one. And as you look, you see like a heron clearing the trees and flying away and landing somewhere. Um, I'm getting excited because I think there's water there. Yeah, you're you are pretty sure that there is a body of water there. You don't know if it's the one you're looking for.

SPEAKER_04 48:06

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 48:06

Did you want to look around? Yeah, I want to look around.

SPEAKER_04 48:10

I kind of yeah, get like I imagine like I'll be able to see the the ravine that the river's in.

SPEAKER_06 48:16

Yeah, you definitely see can tell that. Yeah, you can see.

SPEAKER_04 48:19

Maybe not the actual river, but where the trees break. Um Yeah, I think I want to kind of look around for maybe um maybe a a different kind of tree that's also is is tall, or maybe uh if there's any kind of rock outcropping or something that I could use as a landmark while we're so I can find my way. To the like from yeah, like from where I'm at. Like, do is there anything ahead of me? And I realize that I'm uh like above the canopy here, but is there anything like if I were to climb another tree, I could be like, okay, I'm I'm closer, I'm going in the right direction. And I know I have the compass. You do have the compass, yeah. Okay. Um I think this is just his natural process of of wayfinding.

SPEAKER_06 49:03

Like there are um taller trees as you the trees that seem to be growing around this body of water are like a different kind of tree. Like right now it's like evergreens, pines. Okay. Um you know, like what we have around here. Yeah, yeah. Around the the water you see oaks that are kind of very distinctive. Um I'd say that's probably the only the only distinctive landmarks around it. It seems like a very sort of isolated area. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 49:39

Okay. I will definitely make note of those the different trees and then um like one last kind of look around of everything and then climb down. And then I'm going to take one of my non-magical daggers and just kind of make a little mark on this tree.

SPEAKER_07 49:55

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 49:55

Um, and then I may do that once or twice, kind of coming back just to kind of I I know I have the compass uh for everyone out there. Like I know I have the compass that will lead me in this direction, but I think this is just Bang's natural only pointed to the water once you reach that point.

SPEAKER_06 50:14

So like this this can be you like because you still have, you know, like 30 or so 30 minutes from the the road to the point.

SPEAKER_04 50:25

Yeah, I I would and I think like it's just his natural uh you know, cross-country training thing to just kind of mark and and it it's not like a big like X or anything, it's just like maybe a little mark that he recognizes down low. Yeah. Um I think being friends with Fizz, he wouldn't do anything that would harm a tree. Um so yeah, I think he he does kind of just do some simple stuff to kind of that he would recognize and uh I'll make my way back to to the camp. Cool. Uh hey, uh Rosal, I well I don't I don't want to get too excited, but uh there is a a pretty big body of water. Not sure how far out uh the compass kind of dinged about when I was about thirty minutes out from here.

SPEAKER_06 51:16

Yeah, probably another mile after that. I'll say it was kind of like at the edge of the range of the compass. Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 51:22

Oh yeah. Right, you told me that. Um so yeah, maybe mile and a half fish, but uh it's it's west through the woods, and I don't think uh I mean Bitakin might make it, but I don't think the wagon will.

SPEAKER_06 51:38

We should check that out. I mean he he looks kind of excited, but like doing that, you know.

SPEAKER_04 51:45

Well Yeah, I think uh Bang is also like cautiously excited. Yeah. That I mean, he's super excited that he has this magic item that pointed to water that works.

SPEAKER_06 51:56

It's like, oh my gosh, it works. Um like Rosal's aware that it could be a waste of time.

SPEAKER_04 52:01

Yeah, and I think in the back of his mind, Bang is like, huh, this is probably just a random lake. Um but yeah, I think it's like yeah, yeah, let's uh do you want me to go? And I'm I mean, I could go check it out, or if you wanna hide the wagon, I guess, in the in the woods here next to the road or why don't you go?

SPEAKER_06 52:27

But if that lotus plant is there, you'll need a container to put it in. You see, you need the whole plant, roots and all. Oh. So there might be some swimming involved. Can you swim?

unknown 52:44

Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_06 52:45

You grew up on that.

SPEAKER_04 52:46

I grew up on that island, yeah, yeah. We we had a lot of swimming. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 52:52

So Razul will go to his wagon and pull out like a gallon-sized glass jar, which, you know, for him, it's not a big deal to carry. For for Bang, he kind of looks at you and looks at the jar and then like fashions a rope around the rim of it. And it's got like a cork lid, um, like a big flat cork lid. It's kind of a wide mouth jar. So he fastens a rope with a little like shoulder strap that you can carry it easily enough, and you'd be able to swim with it too.

SPEAKER_04 53:24

I think what Bang will do. I like the rope idea, but I think he's a little worried about just exposed glass.

SPEAKER_06 53:33

Um it's it's got netting around. Oh, it's got oh, okay, okay, I got you. Okay, um failed to mention that, but it is in my notes.

SPEAKER_04 53:39

I gotcha, okay. Um I was thinking about like is it hmm, it's probably too big to fit in his pack. Like if he took his stuff out, would it fit? Um it might be still too big. Yeah, how big is his pack? It's not huge. Um okay, so yeah, so he'll he'll kind of hook that so it's over his shoulders and maybe wrap his cloak around it just for I think I think he's just worried that he's gonna get there and find the thing and it's gonna be broken and he's gonna be like, well crap. Uh um so yeah, I think he'll he'll wrap his cloak around it and then like put it over his shoulders so he can carry it like a pack. Okay. Um, which means he's only gonna be taking uh his magic dagger and his regular dagger and some rope. And the compass. And the compass, yeah. Okay. Cause yeah, he wouldn't be able to carry his bow and quiver and all of that. So yeah, his leave his stuff behind. A little nervous, but uh yeah.

SPEAKER_06 54:43

Razul says good luck. Bing.

SPEAKER_04 54:48

Thank you. I I hope I hope this is what we're looking for in it. And uh me too. If it's not, we'll we'll keep trying.

SPEAKER_06 54:57

This is a good stopping point to do our little bit in the middle. Oh, okay. We've been calling it the middle bit.

SPEAKER_04 55:04

The the yeah, the little middle bit. Yeah. If you've got a good name for it, let us know.

SPEAKER_06 55:10

Yeah, because uh otherwise it's just gonna be the middle bit. So the middle bit.

SPEAKER_04 55:14

I like you know what, I like it in the middle bit. Yeah, it's fine. Okay, cool.

SPEAKER_06 55:17

Okay, we will be back.

SPEAKER_04 55:25

Okay, all right, it's time for the middle bit. The middle bit, where we give you tips on DD and RPG stuff.

SPEAKER_06 55:34

Yeah. But before we do that, we should tell people where to find us. All the places. If you didn't know, you are listening to a podcast by Jess and Hids called A Tale of Two Kobolds. And um, if you would like to learn more about what we do uh in addition to this podcast, you can find us at patreon.com slash Jess and Hids. You can also look on our website, jessandhids.com.

SPEAKER_04 56:07

If you'd like to support our podcast, um that would be awesome. And you can join our Patreon. Uh, we have several different tiers available. Um the Spark tier is the one I want to talk about. It's uh six dollars a month, and that gets you into our gaming sessions. We have um DD-based games, we have D6-based RPGs, we have other random game mechanic RPGs that we play. Um, and they're a lot of fun. We have uh, I don't know, like six or seven games a week. We have a couple campaigns running.

SPEAKER_06 56:46

Yeah, I mean, sometimes we have more multiple, yeah, eight games a week.

SPEAKER_01 56:52

Eight games a week.

SPEAKER_04 56:55

Um I feel like that's like what I was doing in 2020.

SPEAKER_06 57:01

Yeah. But yeah, if you We don't DM them all. No, we don't.

SPEAKER_04 57:05

We have some we have guest GMs that run some stuff for us and we have a lot of fun. Yeah. So yeah, if you'd like to um play some games, we do love welcoming new people and teaching and uh helping you learn all the different things too.

SPEAKER_06 57:20

Yeah. Play games with us. I was taking a big breath to do that, and then you just didn't finish your sentence. So sorry wait.

SPEAKER_02 57:31

Over there flailing, like, ah.

SPEAKER_04 57:34

So yeah, check us out. Um, patreon.com slash Jess and Hids.

SPEAKER_06 57:38

Yeah. You can also follow us on all the social medias, just search for Jess and Hids. We'll we'll show up uh Instagram, Facebook, uh threads. And that's it for now. We do have a TikTok account, and you are welcome to follow us, but we haven't put out any content.

SPEAKER_00 57:54

So I've reposted a few things, but that's about it.

SPEAKER_06 57:58

We we are rarely on TikTok. It's like a time waster for me. I can't.

SPEAKER_04 58:02

Yeah, I just I just lose hours and hours. So I've I've made myself stop.

SPEAKER_06 58:07

When we eventually start putting out content, though, we're here for you. Yeah, yeah, we'll be there.

SPEAKER_04 58:12

So follow us now, and uh then we'll just start showing up in your news feed one day and you'll be like, hey, there they are.

SPEAKER_06 58:17

Oh look, they finally figured out TikTok.

SPEAKER_04 58:20

Also, um, really quick, I wanted to give a shout out. We got an email the other day, and I was like, this is this is really this I was like, this feels sketchy, or maybe it was like one of those random uh like hi, I do this thing and I'm I saw your podcast, and they obviously didn't listen to it or anything. Um, but so I did, but there was enough of it that felt like, hey, this seems legit too. Um so I actually did a little little Google Googling, and um I discovered this uh this guy, Rob, that emailed us, actually does run a website and it is called audiofiction.co.uk. Um I believe he's Camrid, Cambridge based, and it is a um it's a fictional, it's a fiction podcast library, like a database. Yeah. So he he's I emailed, we've emailed back and forth a little bit, and um he said he always wanted a place where he could find new podcasts easily, like and have them kind of in one place, like specifically fiction podcasts, and yeah, which is cool, which is really cool. Um so he added our podcast, A Tale of Two Kobolds, and we were like, all right, thanks, Rob, that's cool. Um, so audiofiction.co.uk, go check it out. Um, it's got he puts like the first episode links to the first episode of new podcasts, and um, I actually found a couple on there I might listen to. I was like, this one looks interesting, but it's a variety. There's RPG uh actual play game podcasts like ours, there's fiction, there's where people will read books or do like kind of radio play type fictional like audio dramas. Audio drama, thank you. That's the word. Um, but yeah, there's a lot of cool stuff on there. So I just wanted to uh give a shout out to Rob. Yeah, thanks, Rob.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:19

Thank you for putting us on your list. Yeah. And you found us pretty quick. So that's cool.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:25

Very cool. Like we're like started getting like some random uh downloads, and I was like, we've been shared somewhere or something. Like we're just getting a lot of these.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:34

Yeah, we had a big uptick in downloads, and uh considering we've only had one episode, yeah, and a trailer. And trailer, yeah, it was it seemed uh interesting. But they like us. Yeah, yeah. We're glad that like it people seem to like it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:54

So let's get into this month's little segment of uh tips for uh role-playing games. Yeah. For running games.

SPEAKER_06 1:01:04

For running games. Um and I guess, yeah, if you're a player, you can you can listen to this too. Oh yeah. It'll it'll be helpful. For sure.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:12

Um, last time we just kind of talked a little bit about the cozy mechanics we're using for the for this podcast. But um, this is kind of just in general type stuff. And our topic this, I keep wanting to say this week. Our topic this month is the importance of the zero session.

SPEAKER_06 1:01:30

So if you don't know what a zero session is, this is the session that needs to happen before your adventure actually begins. This is where you sit as players and as a GM and meet each other and get a feel for how uh like personalities and how the game's gonna go.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:52

Um and this is like we're we're coming to you with this like kind of as a um online, because that's where all our games take place are online. Yeah. This is also a good thing if you're going to a game store that offers games. Uh the the GM should have a zero session where you kind of learn a little bit about uh what to expect from them and what they expect from you. Yeah. And we just have a few bullet points to go through.

SPEAKER_06 1:02:17

And like I will say, like if you are signing up for games at a game store and you it's like a one and done sort of thing, and there's no like it's not a campaign. If you're signing up for a one-shot, the the GM should also spend some time at the beginning of the session doing exactly this, what you would do in a zero session.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:39

And we don't have like a game store near us, we're kind of out away from away from things. So this may be something that when you go to your game store, they may have like, here's what to expect from our games. Here's Yeah, we don't really know how that works.

SPEAKER_06 1:02:51

I don't know how it works because we don't have a have that option around. Yeah, if you want to email us and inform us, yeah, you can tell us we'll we'll fix it.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:59

Yeah. Um, but so yeah, I just wanted we're gonna go through a couple bullet points um to help new players and new GMs, or if you've never done a zero session but you have run games, it's a good thing to kind of get a feel for things. Yeah. Um, I think really quick, one of the first things I want to go go over, and I'm going out of order of the way I actually made this list, but um checking in with your players about phobias or triggers and staying aware of of that as you plan your sessions, you know. Um in general, most people can do the fantasy versus reality thing and separate it, but sometimes stuff happens and you're triggered by something and you're not really kind of planning, you know.

SPEAKER_06 1:03:48

I mean you never plan to get triggered.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:49

You never plan to get triggered, but like you're you're in the middle of something and then something kind of hits you um and you you're it just you know you kind of get in a bad space in your head. So if you're as as a GM, if you're kind of aware of that, you can, you know, maybe talk to your player beforehand, say, hey, in this session, this, that, or this comes up, is that gonna be okay? I can edit it out, you know, or if the player's like, no, I'm good, run with it. Yeah, you know, you don't have to worry about that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:04:21

Um I'll list oh go ahead. Sorry, it's you like you know your triggers, right? Um, and so like for me, me for example, I don't really have any huge triggers that I would feel the need to bring up to a GM. Like I joke about how Jack Nicholson is creepy and I really hate scorpions and celery, but none of those are like triggers for me. Yeah. So like when we say by trigger, we don't really mean we mean like the original meaning of the word trigger that like something that gives you a physical reaction and kind of shuts shuts you down. Yeah. And makes it really hard for you to continue going playing the game. We don't just we don't mean like I really don't like scorpions, like unless it is unless it is an actual phobia.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:08

Um for me, like uh gaslighting and narcissistic manipulation is a huge thing. And I I have been in a game that I've had to like, hey, stop. I I can't go on with this game. I have to, you know, just because some some player player interaction, character interaction, I was just like, I can't do this.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:29

Um and and we did, we just stepped back. And there's um that was something that it was online and and it was kind of I just took a moment and messaged the the GM and was like, okay, I'm gonna step away. And and we we all talked through it and got past it, and it was fine. Um, but there are a lot of different um things that you can use that have been like kind of brought into the RPG world. Yeah. And I'll I'll we'll list these like in the show notes. We'll put links, but there are some Reddit threads. Reds, a lot of things use the X card, which is just a card that you can have in if you're playing a real life game, or if you are online, you can have a signal that your player can give um that's they could just hold up a card, or they can just hold up their hand, you know, do the do the uh or hand across the throat, like stop, stop, stop, or or just message you on the side like, hey, I'm uncomfortable.

SPEAKER_06 1:06:26

Yeah, and it's just something that is understood among the all of the players, the entire table, that like we we stop and we move on and no questions asked.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:36

Yeah, this conversation is over, next, you know, and and that's done. Um, and there's also like yellow, yellow, red, green, or green, yellow, red. I don't know how that works. Um, where people are like, well, I'm uncomfortable, but go ahead with it, you know, as long as it doesn't. And so it's just a matter of making everyone kind of feel comfortable because I feel like you can come into contact with so much stuff in playing like a DD game where you get to kind of grow as a person yourself while your character's growing. Yeah. But you do want to make sure that you're comfortable and not, you know, making someone else feel just, you know, PTSD or just really uncomfortable and skeeved out by what's happening. So that's kind of the for me, that's one of the big things to kind of check in with at the start of a game.

SPEAKER_06 1:07:28

Keep the fiction in the fiction if you start actually feeling bad, uncomfortable in any way, you as a person. Yeah. Yeah, you should be comfortable to go to the GM and say this isn't cool. Yeah. And that is why the zero session is so important, because you also, you know, it gives a chance for players to get to know the GM and get comfortable with the GM being somebody that you would go to and say, I'm not cool with this. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:00

And then And if you're in a situation and the the GM's like, yeah, well, deal with it. Yeah, find a new game.

SPEAKER_06 1:08:05

Yeah. Come play with us. Okay. That game is not worth your time if the GM is not going to take your actual personal feelings into account. Yeah. Your real life feelings. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:16

And and you know, there's a there's the line where you have to say, Yeah, this makes me uncomfortable, but I still want to play this game. And as long as you're comfortable with the uh, you know, something, that's that's good. So um, so that's kind of like the big the big thing uh to kind of make sure because you want to have fun regardless of what kind of game you're playing. Yeah. And you want to be comfortable with the group you're playing with. Um so some other points that you can uh introduce in in the GM session, in the zero session.

SPEAKER_06 1:08:49

It's it's a great time to introduce the setting of your game. A lot of DD games tend to take place in like a fantasy world, but a lot of them also don't. There's so much content out there. So introduce the setting, especially if you're homebrewing your own world. Make sure your players know the rules of magic, the the magic system being used, or like the common elements that you might find in this world that the players supposedly live in, so they would be familiar with it. Um, if you are doing a campaign in space, make sure your players know, by the way, you're in space. Or to pull an actual um Wizards of the Coast module, uh, you are currently running Rhyme of the Frost Maiden in your play-by-post game, and it's a game that takes place during this harsh, eternal winter, and that's kind of the crux, I guess, of the game. Like that's that's a big plot point in it. So, like, that's something that you should mention in the zero session. By the way, it's cold, it's always cold, and that's gonna be an issue. Because like weather isn't usually something that you really have to worry about in a game, but in this particular one, you do. So you want to make sure your players know you need to be prepared to, you know, withstand these harsh, harsh temperatures.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:15

Yeah, and I I did kind of this is a perfect meet a perfect moment to understand why the zero session is important. Because this is a play-by-post game, we didn't sit down all together and have a zero session. I was just putting information in our Discord channel, and I realized that I did put in like, hey, there is this eternal winter and stuff. What I didn't mention was that this is going the cold can affect you, and you're gonna have to be aware. So I actually was, I had to, I was, you know, my players are like, what is happening right now? And I'm like, didn't Oh, it's cold. It's it's cold. I didn't explain this. I'm really sorry, you guys. Okay, uh we'll do a little bit of fixing that. Um, but yeah, moving forward, cold is an issue. Uh, and you're gonna have to be aware of that, like you know, being out at night is deadly, yeah, that sort of thing. So yeah, I had to do a little backpedal there, like, oh crap, I thought I put this information. But, you know, and it is a play-by-post, so it's all text-based. Where had we sat down in person or online, I would have been like, okay, so I have to stress how cold it is. You would have been able to emphasize. And that also can help, like, that also helps your players know what kind of characters to bring into a game. You know, if you're in a freezing cold place, you might not want to build a character who hates the cold, or or they might hate it, but like maybe is like vulnerable to cold for some reason in the build or whatever. You want you want someone who's can work well in that um situation. And that's not to say by all don't build the character you want to play, just be aware that you might be at a severe disadvantage or or something like that. So um, yeah, that's it's good to know what kind of game you're gonna play so that you can kind of craft your character to fit the scenario, I think.

SPEAKER_06 1:12:07

Yeah. Yeah. And the same goes for any TTRPG that you play. Um, like we play Badge Quest. What you need to know about Badge Quest is generally takes place in a small town. You are scouts selling cookies and weird things happen.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:25

And you're like nine to twelve years old.

SPEAKER_06 1:12:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:28

So um, but it's like real world. There's there's not really like magic, it's kind of real world with some weird paranormal stuff.

SPEAKER_06 1:12:36

But like in cases like that, it would be a good idea to sort of establish what kind of tech is available to you. Um is is it gonna be like the 80s style Goonies, kids riding bikes, running all around?

SPEAKER_04 1:12:50

There's a gameplay of that, kids on bikes.

SPEAKER_06 1:12:52

Kids on bikes is a game genre who actually um but yeah. Um, or are they is everybody gonna have you know smartphones and and things like that? It's it's something that needs to be established.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:03

Yeah. Which is fun. And it I think that part of the zero session is will help your characters or your players enjoy the game even more. And something that you would add in at that moment while you're building your world or kind of helping your players understand, is if you have table rules that deviate from rules as written in the book, this is the time to tell your players. Um for I'll use example uh in D D Beyond, Rules as Written is for critical, you just uh roll your dice twice. So it would be like if you have a D e for damage, you roll two D8, and whatever's on the dice, that's your bonus damage.

SPEAKER_06 1:13:46

Even if you roll two ones. Two ones. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:48

And so when we do a critical damage, you get your dice the total. So you would get the full D8 and a regular Oh, yeah. Yeah. So you would get the full D8, and then you would roll a D8 and add that to it. So you're always gonna do your maximum amount of damage plus. Yeah. So it's it's it makes the crit worth it. Yeah, it makes it like an actual, like really good hit that you you you were able to hit that weak spot in their armor and and do like this massive amount of damage. Yeah. And and so it's like kind of really fulfilling and and satisfying when you hit that nat 20. Yeah, and you're like, yes, all right, now I gotta do a lot of math. Um But yeah, and so if you have table rules, you know, that are gonna be different, like if something, you know, like you want to switch up something and do a make it a bonus action instead of an action or whatever, if it makes sense, just make sure your players know ahead of time and then write it down so that you are consistent throughout your game and they don't come back and say, Well, you let me do that last time. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:14:57

Especially if it's like an on-the-fly ruling that you're like, okay, from now on, this is how this is gonna work, this specific thing is gonna work. Write that down.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:04

Yeah, because we 100% like our we talked a bit about it last last session or episode when rule of cool, oh way out rules rules is written. Oh, yeah. Like if you can come up with something and give us a good reason why you think it'll work, that's that's what we're gonna go for. The creativity reward, the creativity. But write it down, especially if it's maybe a kind of a loose interpretation of how a spell works. Yeah, write it down so that when they try to do it next time and you're like, What are you trying to pull?

SPEAKER_01 1:15:34

I'm like, Oh my god, last time it worked, why does it work now? Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:39

Um, and you know, a point I want one more point on that is um knowing the world that you are building in.

SPEAKER_07 1:15:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:49

The game I run on Saturdays, um, a player used a spell that is comprehend languages. And that means that when you read a language, you understand it. Yeah. Any language in the world. Any language in the world. And uh they couldn't read a language and they were very confused. Yeah. And I I did like, I broke out of the game and I was like, trust me that I have a reason for this. Yeah. And it will be revealed, but not right now.

SPEAKER_06 1:16:15

Because otherwise the player would have been like, well, all the players would have been replaced.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:18

Everybody was like, that doesn't work. Are you wait? Literally, that's how the snow works. That's that's not fair, you know. Um, but I I was like, hey, it's okay. Yeah, I'm very intrigued by that. I am a player in that game.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:30

I know. You don't even know. It's fun.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:34

So but yeah, just establish once you establish something is is for real in your game, keep it, make sure you do that.

SPEAKER_06 1:16:41

Yeah. And then speaking of expectations, um we we always in our zero sessions make sure that our players know that we value good story over like min-maxing. And like you're not trying to be the most powerful person. Like, that's not that's not the point of the game, is to be the most powerful person ever. Um, we like to think of that as a perk. Yeah. Like you will level up and you will grow more powerful and you'll get these cool magical items. But for us, the point is just to tell a good story. Um, the powerful stuff, the cool weapons, the the loot, all of that. That's just a perk.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:35

Yeah. I you you did a quote the other day when we were kind of talking about this part. You said, that's not the point, it's a perk. And I love that. Yeah. Like, and and that's not to say that a min-max style is wrong. Yeah. Um, our games are just not like built to min-max.

SPEAKER_06 1:17:51

I and that's something that we bring up in every zero session. That's important for players to know that like you can min-max, that's fine. But we we love a good flawed character as well. Yeah. If you want to build in flaws into your stats, that's great. You don't necessarily have to. Just tell a good story.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:12

Yeah. And just and just have fun with it. I mean, like I mentioned uh at the beginning of the episode with the bang, I'm planning to go Inquisitive row, but I don't know where his story is gonna take him. Yeah. So I'm leaving it open by not planning out, you know, through level whatever, 10 or 15, whatever. I don't know how far this is gonna go, but I don't I don't know what he's gonna do at every step because I don't know what experiences he's going to have as he you know progresses on his journey.

SPEAKER_06 1:18:40

So I have no idea what kind of what druid circle Fizz is gonna choose. I should probably figure that out because I think that's a level three decision. You haven't leveled three yet.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:51

So there might be some there might be some clues coming up that might help make that decision. See? Leave it. Clues to help make okay I mean, my or not clues, uh events. We'll go with the events. Things that nudge her a certain direction.

SPEAKER_06 1:19:05

Do you have a circle in mind?

SPEAKER_04 1:19:06

Um I have my no, no, no, no, no, no. I'm just saying no, I would not pick your circle for you. I'm just saying I know uh I have my outline of next episode. Okay. And so I know some things that are gonna happen that might influence her one way or the other. Sweet. So yeah. Um, but yeah, I going back to the Min-Max, I've never played that way.

SPEAKER_06 1:19:30

Um I mean how I wasn't how I was taught to play. I like to build a character that makes sense. Like there are like specifically talking about D D, there are stats that you want to boost. Let's say let we'll use Fizz as an example. Fizz is a druid, and the rules are your spell casting ability is directly related to your wisdom score. And so I like to bump up my wisdom if I'm playing a druid. Yeah. And like same thing if I'm playing a fighter, I want my strength to be up there. If I'm playing a rogue, I want it to be decks. Like, I want like there's a reason that you are the class that you're playing, and that's because you're good at this thing. So like I don't consider that min-maxing.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:19

No. I think it's yeah, there's that's yeah, you there are things like your training for your rogue training or your or your druid training that require a certain thing. Yeah. You know, if you think about it in a I'm an air quotes realistic manner, you know, you have to do uh a few things that help, you know, create this character. But yeah, like you are gonna pay attention to your skills in that aspect and where you're putting your ability checks and or your ability scores and that sort of thing. Yeah. But it's uh it's you know, just let it work for your character and and work, think about your personality and stuff. And I think that I think that is how you really have for me. That's how I have a fun game. Is is like I'm good at this thing, but you know, I might also be really bad at this other thing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:21:06

Um anyway, we have ventured into random tips and not like yeah, we got a real session. So back to the zero session.

SPEAKER_04 1:21:16

Yeah. Sorry. I do I get excited about this stuff. I just really like it. I know we could talk about we could talk about this for a really long time. We could, but this is just the middle segment. We gotta get back to Bang's adventure. Yeah. Okay, so we did the check-in with phobias, we did talking about um building the character to tell the story. Um, a couple other things I have just made in our notes. Um, along with the from the GM side of things, establishing the party setup, you know, do your characters know each other or are they gonna get to know each other as the game unfolds? And that's important, I think. Like, even and if they do know each other beforehand, kind of having that conversation, like, okay, you know, how long have you known each other? What, you know, do you know all their deep dark secrets because you've been besties forever, or how do you think yeah, have you just been hanging out for the past month or so and you're like, yeah, let's go on an adventure together. So, and that helps to like your players once the campaign starts, it helps with the role play. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:22:20

Yeah, I will always prefer, at least with uh campaigns, starting with you all don't know each other. Yeah. But that is again something that is up to the GM and can be established during the zero session. I think one more thing we'll touch on is if you have new players in your group, um, or a group of all new players, uh a zero session is a good time to go over each character sheet and make sure they know how to read it, where to find stuff, and maybe make sure that they know like which you you know, like your your AC is directly related to your decks stat. Your ability to hit with a melee weapon is directly related to your strength stat and like where all of those things relate to decks, you know. Yeah, having proficiency with something means da-da-da-da-da-da. And if if you're building a white-da-da over there, it means you can add your proficiency modifier to your role.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:25

And and if you're playing on um DD Beyond, which is like, and I keep coming back to that website because it is kind of the standard, it's Wizards of the Coast owns DD. And so there are a myriad it's different places where you can get different types of character sheets and stuff, but that's kind of the go-to one. Um, it does the math for you. So a lot of players have these numbers that are generated by the choices they made, but they don't really understand them. Yeah. So just take a minute and be like, okay, this is why you have a plus seven to hit. Oh, to hit means that's what you add to your D20 to to to hit something. Yeah. You know, and and these numbers are how much damage you do. So just making sure everybody understands their character sheets and and where where things are and and how to find them. And I think that that real that's really helpful. Um, especially if you're if you have don't have a printed sheet, you have a website and you're using their Yeah. It's different on a tablet, it's different on a phone, it's different on the browser. So you kind of knowing we've been in games and they're like, where do I find that? And I'm like, um, it's right here. I don't have that. Oh you're on a phone. Yeah. Okay, so you have to like tap a few things and swipe a few pages and and you can get to that place. So yeah, so you have to know as a GM, you have to be aware of of how the different devices work too. Yeah. Or be willing to sit and help them out.

SPEAKER_06 1:24:50

But yeah. The same can be said for any any other TTRPG. Uh they usually come with character sheets, so make sure your player can can understand it. Yeah, I think that's the only that's that was the last thing we wanted to do. I think so.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:06

Just um taking that time to really get to know each other.

SPEAKER_06 1:25:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:10

And the world.

SPEAKER_06 1:25:12

Yeah. Have a zero session. If you're planning on running a campaign, have a zero session. If you're planning on running one shots, make sure your players know beforehand going in. You can have like a truncated uh introduction at the beginning of your session to say, you know, I run a clean game or whatever. I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:32

Yeah. And and one shots are a different ball game, but it it also still important to have fun and and everybody be aware of what's gonna happen in the game. Um what to or not what's gonna happen, but what to expect, you know? Yeah. Um just for just for the most fun that you can have. So I think um, yeah. I think that wraps up our little middle segment here. The middle bit. The middle bit. I like the name. I think that's what we're just gonna call it. Yeah. Um and uh now I'm excited to see where uh what's gonna happen where the little thing is gonna go.

SPEAKER_06 1:26:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:26:06

I just Well, we know where he's gonna go. Well, yeah, we know where he's going, but what's gonna happen when he gets there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:26:14

Okay, back to it. Back to it. And we're back. And we're back. I hope you enjoyed that middle bit that we have not yet recorded. We said some cool stuff. It was really cool. And uh helped me. We were probably pretty funny, hopefully. Hopefully. I don't know. We think we're funny. And that's all that matters is what we think about ourselves.

SPEAKER_07 1:26:37

Back to the adventure.

SPEAKER_06 1:26:41

Okay, I do no, hang on. I have a retcon. Yes. I said the compass was pointing west, correct. But you would have had to travel east to go further from the w the river. Oh, okay. So we did look at the map a little bit. Yeah, we we consulted the map and I was wrong. The compass was pointing east. Okay. Yes. So you are still traveling-still traveling in a southwesterly direction down the road, but the compass would have been east. You are on that side of the river. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:10

Eastern side. Yeah. Okay. Put the river. Um I have my mental picture, I have to put the river on my other side now. Okay, all right, we're good.

SPEAKER_06 1:27:17

Okay. So bang. Yes. You start traveling. It does not take you long at all to find the tree that you climbed following your your marks on the tree. And now that you are there, you look down at the compass and it is, in fact, pointing east. Okay. So as you continue to travel, the train isn't it's not super rough or rocky here. It you're kind of in a little uh flat area between two mountains. Okay. Uh or rises. Like the vegetation is getting thicker and thicker, but it's pretty easy for you to travel. You're a cobalt. You're Used to jungle y environments. So this is nothing for you. So before long, you do reach a lake. And it's kind of a it's a relatively small lake. It's about a hundred yards from shore to shore. So like football size.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:15

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 1:28:15

Football field size, not football size. That's a tiny. That's really small. Yeah. That's really, really small. Okay. So a hundred yards from shore to shore. And um just based on looking all around at like it's just like surrounded by those I said oak trees. Yeah, like I'm pretty sure oaks grow next to bodies of water. They grow everywhere. They like water. But like between the oak pines, yeah, they're sure.

SPEAKER_04 1:28:43

I mean, that's a thing. It's a fantasy world.

SPEAKER_06 1:28:45

It could be whatever, whatever I say it is. So lots of vegetation growing around here, and you can tell just by looking around that there are no inlets or outlets to this lake.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:56

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_06 1:28:57

And when you get a closer look at the water, it is very clear. It's very clean and very fresh.

SPEAKER_04 1:29:07

I feel like Bang is kind of in awe because um the jungle water the jungle lakes and waters tend to be a little more brackish, not like gross, but just water for sure.

SPEAKER_06 1:29:18

It has that layer of like what's that stuff called on top?

SPEAKER_04 1:29:22

Like uh duckweed or yeah, yeah. And I think um just I just want to say like we are like going back and forth with notes a lot because we are establishing locations and stuff for our listeners, um things that may never come out in the story, but they like kind of building the world. Uh Bang is from the area on the Northern Islands near Raven Lake, which is kind of a uh black bottom lake, obsidian from the from the volcano there. And I think there's a lot of debris and stuff like that. So he is not used to really clear, clear water. Uh-huh. So yeah, I think he's gonna take just a minute and kind of kind of absorb this moment. Like this is like a really pretty, you know, kind of there's no I I'm assuming there's no like housing or anything like this is wilderness.

SPEAKER_06 1:30:11

Okay. Definitely in the middle of nowhere. Nowhere, okay. The bottom of the lake, you can see through the water, like by the shore. And it's just this very lush, mossy uh lake bed and vibrant green, and then it kind of like disappears into darkness because um the you you're not actually sure how deep the lake goes. And as you look out um in the middle of the lake, there is sort of like a cluster of green vegetation that seems to be growing out of it. And from this distance, you can't really tell if it's just a tiny little island. It doesn't seem that big. It might be like maybe three feet in diameter. It doesn't seem huge, but it could like you're not sure if it's like a something growing up out of it or like uh I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 1:31:02

There's like a cluster of greenery that's kind of okay.

SPEAKER_06 1:31:05

It could have been like debris floating in it or something. You're not sure from here, but um it is a cluster of green in the middle of a lake.

SPEAKER_04 1:31:15

I think I might scramble up one of the trees and kind of get a bird's eye view. Okay. Like and see if there's anything because you know how sometimes when you're above the water you can see a little more depth. Yeah. I think yeah, I think he's gonna try to do that. Um, find uh like one of the trees that's closer to the edge and and scramble up it. Yeah. Um just to get kind of a better overall view. And like he wants to, he's cautious. He wants to check and make sure there's like, you know, oh, I I missed the tiger that's on the other side of the or the bear. I don't know. Tiger. Jungle.

SPEAKER_06 1:31:48

Jungle and the you know, tiger in the jungle, but yeah. Uh okay, yeah, you can find uh, again, no problem finding a tall tree. Okay. Um athletics. Athletics at advantage.

SPEAKER_04 1:31:58

Uh that is a, I think it's another nineteen. Yeah, nineteen. I like these days.

SPEAKER_06 1:32:05

Okay. Yeah, you get um you get a a really good view of the lake. You can look down at the cluster of vegetation and you do see sort of this vibrant white in the middle of this little three-foot sort of diameter cluster of green.

SPEAKER_04 1:32:25

Dang, that might be what I'm looking for.

SPEAKER_06 1:32:28

Um, from your height in the tree, you can't tell too much detail, but there is definitely, you know, the splash of white right there. Um, and as far as the depth of the lake goes, the sunlight is sort of dappling through the water. It's you can see more of it now that you're up high, but there's still like right there in the center of the lake, it does still get dark, and you're not actually sure how deep it goes. But around the edges, like you can see that it is it's still this mossy, vibrant green that just kind of disappears, you know, the deeper the lake goes. Okay. Um, you can stay up there for a couple minutes and kind of uh look at your surroundings. You don't really see anything, any wildlife in the trees right now. It seems to be pretty quiet. Okay. Um, but you do see occasional movement in the water. Uh you clock like a a tiny little uh school of fish, like lake minnows or whatever. Okay. I don't know if that's a thing, but yeah. So this this lake does have wildlife. You can't see anything super huge and threatening in the water.

SPEAKER_00 1:33:40

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:33:42

I'm also gonna say when I climbed up this tree, I I left the jar. I that occurred to me. I didn't climb with the jar on my back. Um, so yeah, I'll climb down. Okay, I know what I'm gonna do. I yeah. I'm gonna take my rope and tie it to the to the little handles that he put on the jar.

SPEAKER_07 1:34:01

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:34:02

And I'm gonna just hold the rope and kind of tow the jar because the jar is empty and it should float.

SPEAKER_06 1:34:08

Yeah, and it it's got the cork on it. Okay. It's buoyant.

SPEAKER_04 1:34:12

Okay, so yeah, I'm gonna kind of tow it behind me. Okay. Yeah, I think I'm gonna do that. I'll tow behind me. So if this is what I'm looking for, I can put it in and then kind of do the same thing getting back.

SPEAKER_06 1:34:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:34:24

Um, I mean heavier.

SPEAKER_06 1:34:26

I imagine you know how to swim, so you can tread water as you fill this jar and figure out once you get closer to the plant, you can figure out how to do it.

SPEAKER_04 1:34:35

Yeah, I I'm thinking I don't know like if I can just leave the jar here and bring the plant back and then put it in without like, you know, pulling it through the water. But I also don't want to waste a lot of time swimming back and forth and tire myself out either.

SPEAKER_06 1:34:51

So yeah, I'm gonna do that. The only thing Rosal knew is that it needs to be roots and all in the jar. In the jar, okay.

unknown 1:34:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:34:58

Okay. Yeah, I think I'm gonna I'll I'll do that. I'll have the rope tied to the jar. The jar can kind of be behind me, and I'll uh yeah, I'll think I'll just put the rope in my teeth and and swim out and kind of tug, kind of pull this behind me. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:35:17

Um go ahead and make an athletics check to swim out. Okay. You'll get there no matter what. I just want to see how tiring it is.

SPEAKER_04 1:35:24

Uh oh, that's not it's a 10.

SPEAKER_06 1:35:27

Okay. That's not it's not bad. It was below DC. Okay, okay. Um you make it out there and you reach this this cluster of green. And now that you're close up, you do see in the center is this vibrant white lotus blossom about the size of your head. It's it's I mean, it's like almost gonna take up the full jar uh jar. Like the um there there will be enough room for the roots and stuff, but just like the in full bloom, it's gonna take up what's the word? Circumference? The entire circumference of the jar. Yeah. It's gonna feel it's gonna be. I bet it smells good too. I don't know. It does. So like you're you're kind of treading water as you look at this plant, and you do notice that the the tips of the leaves are kind of glowing golden. They're releasing this soft golden glow. So you are definitely sure that this is the lotus of legend that you're looking for. As you're looking at this plant, roll an investigation. Or go ahead and do perception. Just yeah, because you're kind of just taking it all in.

SPEAKER_04 1:36:42

Um oh hey, 24.

SPEAKER_06 1:36:45

All right. So you're looking at this and you see um this big blossom is surrounded kind of by leaves that are floating on the surface, and some of the leaves are kind of like sprouting out over it that kind of like it hid your view of the the white from the shore.

SPEAKER_01 1:37:03

Um, I got you.

SPEAKER_06 1:37:05

And you can actually see out of uh underneath one of these, the leaves that are floating on the surface of the water, you see another, a second little bud of a blossom kind of poking out. So you have this main lotus and you have this little bud.

SPEAKER_04 1:37:24

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 1:37:25

Would you like to check out below the water? Now that you're here, like the water is clear and you can see just from being above the water, you can see that the the stem kind of goes down, and there are kind of leaves that are shooting off underwater as it goes down. Okay. But it does kind of disappear into uh blackness. You're still unsure how deep the water is.

SPEAKER_04 1:37:49

Yeah, okay. I think um is this like kind of stable enough, like he can kind of hold on to the plant and rest a little bit?

SPEAKER_06 1:37:59

Like there's this little cluster of clustered it, yeah. You're small enough that yes, it it can definitely kind of act as a floaty for you.

SPEAKER_04 1:38:10

Yeah, that's I just just I'm just thinking like constantly. Okay.

SPEAKER_06 1:38:13

Um I actually read up on the DD rules for swimming, and they're vague, but I found a post that says like you can swim for an hour without having to make con checks. Oh, okay. Which seems like yeah, I could probably tread water for an hour. I know a lot of people can't, but I sink straight down. So um it just like it depends on your bodybuilding.

SPEAKER_04 1:38:38

I was to say Hiddles would not go in the lake after this, they would take the time to build a boat. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:38:42

Um but like for an adventurer, sure.

SPEAKER_04 1:38:45

Yeah, yeah. Uh okay. Yeah, I think my my thought, and this is something that's been kind of kicking around, I think, since Bang started talking with Russell, and he might have even asked Russell, but I didn't think of it until we just got here. Russul. Razul. Yeah, this is something that's kind of thinking, like, especially while he's walking to get this, like thinking this might be the lake that, you know, the um there is a thought that what happens to the lake if if this is the the flower and he takes it away, does the lake disappear? Does the water go away? Um and I feel like that might have been something he might would have asked Russul, but I don't Russul. Um but I don't know for I don't want to like say I did that. Um I think it's something that he's thinking as he's walking.

SPEAKER_07 1:39:39

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:39:40

Because I think up to this point it was just like, oh, okay, magical flower, cool, take the flower, you have water. Yeah. But now seeing all of this and seeing this small lake and like I think that's I think that's a question. So I think I might have him uh examine that bud. Okay. And see if yeah, like does that bud maybe have its own little roots kind of growing off of it? Okay. Um so yeah, I'll go, I'll kind of duck underwater and kind of maybe use the the bulk of the roots of the plant to kind of pull myself under a little bit and and examine that.

SPEAKER_06 1:40:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:40:17

Um make another perception check. Um that is a 19.

SPEAKER_06 1:40:25

Okay, you do see the stem of this smaller bud, it's sort of like coiled and wrapped around this main lotus stem.

SPEAKER_01 1:40:36

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 1:40:37

And you think in order to untangle it all, you would have to sort of start either at the bottom or at the top, but it's gonna have to be sort of continuously unwoven from it. So like you could well, yeah. That that's what you see.

SPEAKER_04 1:40:57

Okay. All right, I'll go back up and get some get some air. Okay. Hmm. Yeah, I think that's what he's gonna try to do because I'm also looking like these roots go all the way down. And I'm thinking like, uh, it's not all gonna fit in that jar. And I don't know if like cutting the roots.

SPEAKER_06 1:41:17

You're still unsure how deep the lake is.

SPEAKER_04 1:41:19

Yeah, I don't that's yeah, I think I'm gonna try to get unwind that bud. Okay. That that section of root. Okay. And see if I could get that. Or does it go like keep going all the way down to, or can I see that little bud keeps going all the way down to? Yeah.

unknown 1:41:38

Oh dang.

SPEAKER_06 1:41:39

I will say I when I looked up the rules, I found out that you can hold your breath for one minute because it's your con modifier plus one. And that's why I asked your con modifier earlier. Okay. So Bang can hold his breath for one minute. And you also have um generally, rules as written, your swim speed is halved because it's considered difficult terrain unless it specifies that you have otherwise that you have swim speed. So 15 feet would be my swim speed. So you can do 15 feet in six seconds.

SPEAKER_01 1:42:16

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 1:42:16

So you can do 150 feet in a minute. But you want to give yourself time to get back to. So like you can do some you could do some test dives to see if you can find the bottom of this.

SPEAKER_04 1:42:30

Okay. Yeah, I think I'll I think I'll have to do that because he doesn't, yeah, I the whole root thing is not gonna fit in. He's concerned that cutting it is going to damage the magic. Yeah, I think the goal is to get to see if he could find the end of that bud. So I think I'm gonna go and I'm actually gonna use the roots to kind of help pull myself along. Okay. To kind of save my energy and my breath and stuff.

SPEAKER_06 1:42:58

Yeah, like you could probably, you know what, I'll say you can move faster that way too, because you're not like having to move your arms, whatever to swim.

SPEAKER_04 1:43:06

So fight gravity or the buoyancy.

SPEAKER_06 1:43:09

And it's it's strong enough. That stem on that main lotus is strong enough for you to be able to do that.

SPEAKER_04 1:43:16

Yeah, I'm picturing it like a pretty wide, like almost like a small tree trunk, kind of as it winds down. Yeah. Okay. Um, okay, yeah, I'll I'm gonna like put my hand on that the bud, the root bud that kind of circles around. Okay. And I'm gonna move slowly but as quickly as I can because I'm limited on air, but and pulling myself along this row uh route, and I want to follow that twisting one, the bud one. And I'll go down how far can I get in like 30 seconds? That's five. You can get halfway. It's like 60 feet, 70 feet, something like that.

SPEAKER_06 1:43:56

Um yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:43:58

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 1:43:59

Yeah. Um you don't need that that far. You don't need to go that far. Um, so I'll say you get about 30 feet down. Okay. And your your night night vision, your dark vision has kicked in. You are cobalt. You are once you reach about 20 feet, it starts getting into dim lighting. And now that you're at 30 feet, everything is kind of dark around you. You can tell that the water is still clear, but it's just like sunlight. Just the sunlight down here. You see pretty clearly the bottom of the lake about another 20 feet below you. So it's about I think it's 50 feet total. Okay. Okay. 50, 55, 60, somewhere around there. Okay. Okay, cool, cool, cool. Yeah. And you see the little, the little stem, the smaller one, does continue down all the way down to the lake bed.

SPEAKER_01 1:44:53

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 1:44:54

And roll another perception check.

SPEAKER_04 1:44:59

Um, I really shouldn't remember that number. Five. Okay. Uh that's a dirty 20.

SPEAKER_06 1:45:05

Okay. You can see now that you're looking down, there's kind of like uh so far everything has been sort of that like mossy covered lake bed, but you can actually see some exposed roots extending up beyond the the mossy, grassy, whatever greenery is down there covering the the bottom of this lake. Okay. So some of the roots are exposed. So you can tell that like this, the grass that covers the bottom of the lake is not gonna be like super long. So you you can tell that um the smaller bud, the root system is sort of entangled with the larger lotuses root system, and it might take some pretty good sleight of hand to uh set it free. You also see with a dirty 20, there is a dark shape in the water. Is it moving near me? Getting closer.

SPEAKER_04 1:46:08

Okay, I'm gonna um crap. Okay, I'm I'm gonna pull use the root to crawl back, pull myself back up pretty quickly if I can get get my air.

SPEAKER_03 1:46:18

Yeah. Was it a dark shape much, much larger than me? It was about the size of two kobolds.

SPEAKER_04 1:46:25

Okay, okay, that's not too bad. Okay, okay. I'm gonna get my air. I'm going to really quickly take the rope that's holding the jug and just kind of coil it, like fix it to the root system so the jug doesn't drift away. To the stem. To the stem, yeah, just so the so that doesn't drift away. Okay, you're just anchoring it. Yeah. I I don't want to lose it if if I have to fight a fish or something. Um do I feel like I can if I'm left undisturbed, do I feel like I can get that root loose with the amount of like using the root to pull myself down, or maybe even oh, maybe no, that I couldn't get a rock. Yeah, if I use the root system to get down there, and do I feel like I can get it untangled and then come back up for air? Like, do I feel like this is doable?

SPEAKER_06 1:47:17

Yeah. Okay. You like you saw the root system of the smaller lotus? I mean, you see the root system of the bigger lotus too. It's just kind of you know, retaking the bigger.

SPEAKER_04 1:47:26

Okay, and this other one's just kind of tangled up. Yeah, okay. Okay, then in that case, I want to kind of look around while I'm getting my breath here and I've I've fixed the rope so the jar doesn't float away. Is that thing closer now?

SPEAKER_06 1:47:42

Uh you look down and you do see um the dark shape has kind of risen in elevation and is kind of circling around the stem.

unknown 1:47:56

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 1:47:57

Shoot. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:47:58

Is it coming closer? It's coming closer. Crap. Yeah. Oh man. I'm gonna get my little dagger out and hold it ready, and then I'm gonna I'm holding on to the stem with my other hand. I don't have any other weapons right now. Uh can I tell what it is yet?

SPEAKER_06 1:48:16

Um if you do you wanna uh wait for it to get closer?

SPEAKER_07 1:48:20

I don't know what else to do. Like, um, I mean it's there.

SPEAKER_06 1:48:24

Okay. And it's it hasn't left yet.

SPEAKER_04 1:48:26

So you It's probably gonna I think I'm just gonna be I think I'm just gonna be ready because yeah, I'm I'm holding on some kind of like not using up my energy staying afloat. I'm holding on to the stem. And I think I want to like pull myself closer. Like maybe if I hide against this, it won't see me and it'll go away. It'll think I got out of the water. I don't know. I just trying to be real real still and and I'm I've got the plant in one hand and the dagger in the other. Okay, ready.

SPEAKER_06 1:48:57

Um roll stealth, just because you're trying to hide.

SPEAKER_04 1:49:01

Do you want me to just a straight roll?

SPEAKER_06 1:49:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:49:04

Okay. Um man, that was almost really bad, but it rolled to a 19 on the die, um, which gives me a it was it hesitated on a three, and I was like, oh, and then it flipped. 24. Okay.

SPEAKER_06 1:49:18

So this dark shape is circling and it kind of like it is coming up, but you can tell that it sort of is going slower. And now that it's it's rising up, you can tell that it is a giant water beetle. Water beetle.

SPEAKER_04 1:49:42

I think it's like a beetle that big.

SPEAKER_06 1:49:44

Yeah, it's it's huge. I mean the size of two cold tubing. Yeah. Okay. And um yeah, it's it's looking around. It has not Clocked you. Okay. Yeah. It did clock you when you were down in the water. So it knows you're here. Yeah. But it has not seen you yet. I'm just going to continue to be really still and hope it goes away. That's what I'm Okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:50:14

That's what I'm working with. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:50:17

I I have to let that original stealth ride, don't I? You don't have to. Oh it's your game. If you want to. You can. I guess I don't know rules is written. But well, it is getting closer to you. So go ahead and roll another step.

SPEAKER_04 1:50:28

I mean, yeah, I'm floating here. So um, oh, that's a lower one. It's still good. 17.

SPEAKER_06 1:50:36

I got an 18. All right.

SPEAKER_04 1:50:38

So I think like Bangladesh like maybe shifted just a little bit, like trying to keep an eye on it and ruffled the water.

SPEAKER_06 1:50:47

Yeah, you've got one hand on the stem, so like like a little bit of movement there caused ripples to go out. So this thing has seen you now, and I need you to roll initiative. First combat.

SPEAKER_04 1:51:00

I know. I didn't make you, I didn't make you fight anything. I know. Well, that's you you uh shaped out of it. So ooh. Uh 12 again. I a twelve a different way.

SPEAKER_06 1:51:11

Um crap. Wow. Initiative order. The turn order turn order is gonna be really easy to keep track of because you go first. Okay. Um I don't even have to keep track of initiative. Wow. Yeah. Uh okay. Um it is, I will say right now it's about 10 feet below you.

SPEAKER_04 1:51:30

Coming towards me.

SPEAKER_06 1:51:31

Yeah.

unknown 1:51:32

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:51:33

I can't throw my dagger in the water. So I think I'm gonna um I'm gonna shift so like kind of my back's up against the the root system there. Okay. And I'm gonna be ready with my dagger when it gets close enough, I'll I'll do a whole a held action. And as I'm I'm watching as it gets close, I want to look for somewhere um that I look like I can stick a dagger in.

SPEAKER_06 1:51:59

Because I'm assuming beetle, it's got some like hard it's got, yeah, it's got that hard shell top.

SPEAKER_04 1:52:05

Okay. So maybe like in the neck area or in a like where one of its legs are or something. That's where or or the face. I I don't know what its face looks like, but yeah, I'm not actually sure either.

SPEAKER_06 1:52:15

I should pull up a picture of a water beetle. It's just a giant one of those. Oh, I don't like that. What this is the first picture that popped up in the water. Oh, yeah. So I mean I love it for the for the visual of it. The face area might be your best bet, then. Okay, yeah. Just based on that picture.

SPEAKER_03 1:52:33

Okay. Um, which means I'm like, yeah, I'm like, okay, I'm gonna go.

SPEAKER_06 1:52:39

It's actually got a very pretty shell. It's got a it's kind of got those jewel tone hues. It's got like the teals and the blues. Yeah, that's okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:52:48

We're gonna say this one's pretty.

SPEAKER_06 1:52:49

This one's a fantasy water beetle.

SPEAKER_04 1:52:51

Okay, fantasy fantasy water beetles are very pretty.

SPEAKER_06 1:52:54

Yeah, so okay, so you're basically holding an action until it gets closer, but getting closer is your trigger and not it attacking. I'm gonna go ahead and say it is now in melee range with you. You've sort of waited.

SPEAKER_04 1:53:08

Made sure of that. Um yeah, I'll I'll aim like, oh crap. Yeah, I said it. I I should have clarified.

SPEAKER_06 1:53:20

Um Well, no, you said it's your turn. You can go.

SPEAKER_07 1:53:23

What do you mean? Well, you I well so clarify okay, can I clarify that?

SPEAKER_04 1:53:27

Like, I want to make sure it is going to attack me and not just like gonna come up and sniff me and swim away. Yeah, it's it is gonna I can read the situation. Okay. Then yeah, uh when it's close enough for me to get a good jab at it, I'm gonna try to jab it with my dagger and be like, not a tasty snack, and just Okay. Hopefully, if I bite first, it'll run away. Okay. Swim away. Swim away. Okay. So I gotta roll.

SPEAKER_06 1:53:54

Yes, you do. Banks. That's how combat works. Banks attack. For those of you who are new to DD, this is called combat. So initiative, when I had HID's roll initiative, that was to determine who goes first and what order we go in. Although story-wise, in game, this is all sort of happening at once. Initiative is just a way to control the chaos. Um, and especially in games with multiple players or facing multiple opponents, you kind of need to know who's, you know, going in what order, so we're not all shouting at once. Okay. What did you roll?

SPEAKER_04 1:54:28

I got a nine on the die. Yes, that is a nine. Okay. Um, and fourteen to hit. That hits. Oh, yay. Um, and that is a it's a little dagger. I'm just using my regular dagger, not my magical one. Okay, that's fine. Um I feel like Banks doesn't want to risk losing that. Uh, that is going to be six points of piercing damage. Okay.

SPEAKER_06 1:54:56

It definitely didn't like it, but it it wants to try to eat you. But still. I'm not tasty. It wasn't enough to scare it away. I don't taste good, I say. Okay. It's gonna it's gonna kind of rear up and it's not breaching the water, but it's gonna kind of go for like your your torso region and try to bite you.

SPEAKER_04 1:55:26

Oh no. Okay.

SPEAKER_06 1:55:27

Okay, okay. That's gonna be gnat one. Oh my very first roll in combat. Ha ha! Yay! Nat will not hit. Okay. Okay, it is your turn. So he he's getting kind of frustrated with him.

SPEAKER_04 1:55:40

Okay, yeah, I'll uh I'll slash at him again or stab at him again with my dagger. Oh no, that's a seven. That will miss. My poor little die. You've done up all my good rolls. Okay.

SPEAKER_06 1:55:52

He's got a nine.

SPEAKER_04 1:55:54

A nine's not gonna hit me. No. Uh okay, I'll stab him again. Um, oh my gosh. Okay. I mean water fighting is hard. It is hard. It is actually um hard to do. Okay.

SPEAKER_06 1:56:14

This is hilarious. It's our first ever combat. How many rounds has it been now? Um, it's a good thing it didn't it didn't attack you underwater.

SPEAKER_04 1:56:22

I know. You would have been running out of breath. I would have been running out of breath. I'm glad I came up. Um this is round three, I think, and I've rolled another eight.

SPEAKER_06 1:56:32

That's not gonna do it. Ten?

SPEAKER_04 1:56:35

No. Okay. I think okay, so I'm picturing this like Bang is trying to hold on to the the plant. Um, and this thing is like, because he's kind of up in the close in the roots, it's just struggling to get it. He can't get a good shot. He can't get a good, and conversely, he can't get a good stab at it either. Yeah. Um, okay, one more. This is round four. Oh, there we go. I got a 19 on the die. 24 to hit. Okay, yeah, that'll do it. Uh uh D4. Ooh, uh, that is my maximum damage of seven.

SPEAKER_01 1:57:09

Seven, nice.

SPEAKER_07 1:57:10

Dabby.

SPEAKER_04 1:57:11

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:57:12

I'm like, don't really want to kill you, but I have to because I don't want to die either.

SPEAKER_06 1:57:17

Okay, this thing is gonna go in for a bite and got a dirty 20 to hit. Oh, that does it. Ouch, ouch, and so squishy. So that is gonna be six points of piercing damage. Okay, ow.

SPEAKER_07 1:57:36

Ow. It's got a sharp little mandibles.

SPEAKER_06 1:57:40

Yeah, chomps into your leg a little bit and tries to kind of tug you under, but your your grip on the lotus is is pretty solid.

SPEAKER_04 1:57:48

Um, I'm gonna stab him again. Oh, that's another 19. My dice are back, baby. So that's a 24 to hit. Oh, that's only a two. Uh five points of piercing.

SPEAKER_06 1:58:00

Okay. Um, when you do that, uh this beetle r releases an ink cloud. Oh it's like it takes up about 10 foot, 10 foot radius. Now we can't see him. Now, yeah, you can't see him now.

unknown 1:58:17

Oh, dang.

SPEAKER_06 1:58:18

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:58:19

But if we ever do this visually, you guys are gonna crack up because I'm like, I've got one hand over my shoulder like I'm holding a plant, and the other like I'm like, I'm like living this moment.

SPEAKER_06 1:58:33

So you feel sort of a rush of water, kind of like he tried to attack you again, but he missed. Okay. And now you don't feel anything. No water currents, nothing. But the this ink cloud is still here and it's heavily obscuring the water.

SPEAKER_04 1:58:53

Okay.

unknown 1:58:54

Crap.

SPEAKER_04 1:58:57

I I kind of catch my breath and I'm waiting and I'm waiting, and I think I'm gonna wait until I feel like water kind of moving around me again. Like he I want I'm gonna wait until he's coming in for another attack. Okay. And then I'll and I'll and I will I'll make that at disadvantage, right? Because of the You would, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:59:14

Okay. So you wait. And you wait. And it's only seconds, but it feels like a lot longer. Maybe a minute passes. And this ink cloud slowly starts to dissipate, and you don't see the beetle anywhere.

SPEAKER_04 1:59:37

Okay, okay. I'm bleeding a little bit, but it's not too bad. I got I got scales under my armor. So, okay. Um I'm gonna give it another little bit. I'm gonna catch my breath. I'm gonna kind of re refocus on my thing, and I'm like some deep breathing exercises. A little deep breathing. Um I'm still holding on to the plant. So yeah, I think I'm trying to decide now, like, okay, I know this thing's here, but I need to get this plant and get back to camp because it it will get dark because that's how time works.

SPEAKER_06 2:00:14

Um I think I'd say this whole process has taken, like, you you did a lot of investigating and it took a several minutes for you to swim to the center of the lake. So, like I'm thinking like here was probably an hour. Okay. And then you've probably been here for about 30 minutes.

SPEAKER_04 2:00:31

Okay, cool, cool. That's that's kind of where I was at. Um I think I want to try to start unraveling from the top so that I can kind of work with it and it'll kind of like pulling it away from the the main plant. Okay. Is it does it look like I can do that? Like kind of like use. And that way I can be above the waters for the long, you know.

SPEAKER_06 2:00:58

Yeah, for as long as possible.

SPEAKER_04 2:00:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 2:01:00

Yeah. Um, so you you can start like delicately pulling this bud away. Um, and it uh the the top few feet comes away fairly easily, but you kind of get to a point where you're gonna have to get closer to it and start like unraveling it that way. Okay. Um, by going underwater.

SPEAKER_04 2:01:26

Okay. I'm gonna take a I'm gonna do a a little bit of deep breathing to kind of stretch my lungs a little bit. I don't know how this works. Um, I don't swim, but and then I'll get a breath and then use the route to pull myself down and work as for you know like maybe 30, 40 seconds to to get it until I start to feel that tightness. Okay. And then I'll and then I'll go back up. Roll sleight of hand. Slight of hand. Okay. Uh that's not great. Um that's a 12.

SPEAKER_06 2:02:02

Okay, so uh you go down to where you have to start kind of have getting a closer sort of what's the word I'm looking at? You have to get closer to it. Yeah. And you're kind of disheartened a little bit because it gets caught on some of the bigger leaves that are coming off of this main stem. And so you you take a minute, less than a minute, you take a few seconds to work on that, and then you start feeling that tightness in your chest, and you have to go back up for breath. So you maybe have cleared like another uh three feet. Oh gosh, okay. Okay, okay. So I'll say you've got about 10 feet of it cleared right now.

SPEAKER_04 2:02:40

Okay. Okay. You can you can do this, bang. You can do this, you got this. And what did I say? It's 50 feet. 50 feet, yeah. Okay. I'm gonna gather myself for a minute and then I'll get another good lung full and uh use the roots to pull myself down as quickly as I can to that area so I can spend more time working on the root. Slide of hand.

SPEAKER_01 2:03:06

Oh, hey, I crit baby. Woohoo! That's the first crit. Yay. Mat 20.

SPEAKER_06 2:03:13

Okay. Um, the rest of it, uh, because it was a crit, you're able to get the rest of the plant. And you're kind of like, I think you're kind of like coiling it up with you as you go.

SPEAKER_04 2:03:25

Yeah, and well, I'm kind of like letting it kind of like come loose as I as it's coming loose. I assume the bud is still floating. Is the bud still floating, or am I taking it with me?

SPEAKER_06 2:03:33

Well, that's up to you. If if it's still floating, you have to physically go around in circles around the thing. If you are taking it with you, you can kind of just do like a little bit. I would do that. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 2:03:45

That would be the smarter thing to do. Might be a little more cumbersome, but getting tangled up would and swim, that would take care of yeah. Yeah, okay. I'm definitely then kind of pulling it, like coiling it like a rope, like loop, big loopy coil so I don't damage the roots.

SPEAKER_06 2:03:58

So yeah, you're able to take this coil and sort of reach around this bigger stem and grab it with the other hand and do it that way. Okay. Instead of swimming around circles.

SPEAKER_04 2:04:09

Burn up a lot of energy that I don't have. Okay.

SPEAKER_06 2:04:11

Okay. So yeah, you're able to do that and you get down to the root system. And you actually, now that you're here, you can see that the root system of this main lotus is. I mean, it's if this were in the air, it would be like an aerial root system. Okay. There are a few little tendrils going into the soil, the silt, whatever it is. Yeah. But it it's like up above the kind of like combed. And only like the very, very tips are kind of in here. And that's you see um there's this little cluster, the smaller root cluster that this little smaller stem is coming from. So make one more slide of hand check to see if you can free that little cluster.

SPEAKER_04 2:04:57

Come on, dice don't film it now. Um, that is a 14 on the die, which gives me a 21.

SPEAKER_06 2:05:03

Okay. Yeah, you are able, um, you sort of start feeling a little bit of tightness in your chest, but you like you force yourself to focus. It it hasn't been a full minute. Okay. You know this, you know your limits as far as how long you can hold your breath. So you just concentrate and focus on what you're doing, and the smaller root system does break free. And you now have this little lotus bud.

SPEAKER_04 2:05:30

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 2:05:31

With the stem and the roots and all. A 50-foot stem. Dang, that's crazy. And it's like, it's just like a tiny little bit.

SPEAKER_04 2:05:38

Yeah, it's I'm picturing it like kind of thin.

SPEAKER_06 2:05:39

Yeah, it's it's very thin, delicate.

SPEAKER_04 2:05:43

Okay. Um, I'm gonna like as soon as that, as soon as I'm sure I've got that loose and safe, I'm gonna kind of kind of hold the the plant and everything kind of close to me without crushing it, but protectively. And then I'm just gonna like push off the bottom with my feet and and kick my way up. Like, yeah. Come out the top.

SPEAKER_06 2:06:03

Yeah, you get there like right, like it's that like this. Oh, I'm sorry if this gives you anxiety, but like the like five feet from the side. Five feet from the surface, your body is like, take a breath, take a breath.

SPEAKER_00 2:06:15

But then you like you, I can see the light, I can see the light. Okay, yeah.

unknown 2:06:21

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_04 2:06:25

For for for our listeners, uh, Hids has a fear of water. Yeah. Um, is that not not not a good thing? This is a thanks uh for this first time, but no, that's it's good.

SPEAKER_06 2:06:38

That's funny because we haven't recorded it yet, but the middle bit was about the importance of a zero session and knowing people's triggers.

SPEAKER_04 2:06:46

It's okay. You know, being sensitive about them. You know what works for me. So this isn't too good. I knew this wasn't gonna be too like this is con this is controlled, which I can handle. It's the it's the being tossed around and not being able to get to the surface that I do not. It's cozy.

SPEAKER_06 2:07:03

I wouldn't have made you drown.

SPEAKER_04 2:07:05

Yeah, no, I hope not. Well, I mean you tried to kill me in the wheel. No, it's good. Okay. I'm at the top. I'm like, oh, okay. Catch my breath, catch my breath. And I uh I think I'm I'm gonna um get my breath and then find my rope and and pull the jug towards me and uh carefully kinda like feed it in. Yeah, kind of feed it so it coils around and and the bud's in the center. Okay. Um I'm not gonna put too much water in because I don't wanna I have to get this back to shore. I don't want to drag it like along the bottom of the thing. So I'll leave a I'll put a little water, but I'll leave air so it's still buoyant. Okay. And then because like right right before I get to swim away back to shore, I stop and I look back at the big the big main plant. Um, and I think about Fizz and how much she loves nature and everything. And I uh I think I kind of like it's a little awkward at first, but then I kind of like put my hand on the the big plant and I I I thank you. This is this is for a good thing. This feels a little weird talking to a plant, but Fizz does it. Fizz is my friend and and this is not how I talk. Nope. Uh okay, all right, all right. Thank you, friend. Uh I I hope I didn't damage you or in other anyway, but this is gosh, this feels kind of weird talking to a plant, but um my friend Fizz does this and thank you. This is this is gonna help people and I'm gonna go now. This now I just feel awkward. Thank you.

SPEAKER_06 2:08:47

And then I'm gonna sure if it's like the the angle of the sun has changed since you've been here, or if it's like, you know, reflecting off the water. But as you talk to this plant, the soft gold glow seems to pulse a little bit. Just lets out a little just a little pulse and then and then the water stills.

SPEAKER_04 2:09:10

And you can swim back. I'll swim swim back with my one more athletics check. Okay. Just a regular check or since I've been uh just a regular check is fine.

SPEAKER_06 2:09:22

All right.

SPEAKER_04 2:09:23

Oh gosh, I could it's a good thing I didn't roll at disventage because they're both fives. Um that's a seven. Well, so then it wouldn't matter. It wouldn't matter, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 2:09:32

All right. Um by the time you get to shore, you are pretty exhausted. Um not like exhausted enough to take a level of exhaustion, but you definitely feel like you need to take a breather before you make the trek back to the road.

SPEAKER_04 2:09:48

I'll I'll get far enough away from the shore and uh like you know, five or ten feet away and pull the make sure the jar in the plant is safe next to me, and then I'm just gonna lay on my back and whew.

SPEAKER_06 2:10:00

You look over at the little the little lotus bud in this jar, and like you s you mentioned you didn't fill it all the way with water. Yeah. But right now, when you look at it, it's full of water.

SPEAKER_04 2:10:16

Oh man.

SPEAKER_06 2:10:18

It doesn't look excuse me, it doesn't look in danger. I mean you can't drown a lotus, they live in the water. But like, yeah, it it definitely has more water in it than what you put in it.

SPEAKER_04 2:10:32

I'm pretty sure this is the the right plant. Russell's gonna be so happy. Russell. I can't help it. That's my accent. Comes out funny.

SPEAKER_06 2:10:43

Would it help if I spelt it with a Z?

SPEAKER_04 2:10:46

Razul? I could I could just say it with a Z.

SPEAKER_06 2:10:49

That that is how you pronounce it. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 2:10:53

Yeah, that's pretty amazing.

unknown 2:10:57

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 2:10:57

All right, yeah. So yeah, you're I'll take a few minutes here to kind of because I'm also gonna have to carry this jar of water.

SPEAKER_06 2:11:04

Yeah, it is now a heavy jar. It's a gal well, it's a gallon jug, so it's like carrying a milk jug, but also made of glass. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 2:11:14

It's about eight pounds. Yeah, about eight pounds. Like that's why I was like, that's like I think a gallon of water is five pounds. Yeah, okay. Okay, that's all right. I'm I'm a tough little kobold. Okay, yeah. I'll take a few, I think I'll take like 10 or 15 minutes here just to kind of catch my breath and and really feel like because I've been in the water. So it's been kind of like, you know, when you've been swimming, you come out and you're like, uh, everything feels weird. Gravity is back. Um yeah, so I'll take a few minutes and just sit here and then get the jar back on my back. Do does it look like I can put the cork back on it, or is it kind of like is it overflowing?

SPEAKER_06 2:11:51

Or okay. It seems to have just filled just the container. You can definitely put the cork on it. without damaging it. Like it's not um you're not gonna like squish the bud or anything. Okay. The bud can survive a little while.

SPEAKER_04 2:12:07

Okay. That's uh that's what I'm just I don't want to damage the plant itself. Um but I also like don't want water splashing all over me as I'm working back to camp. Um okay so yeah I'll I'll do that. I'll put the cork back on and um kind of just make my way, start making my way back back to uh Razul.

SPEAKER_06 2:12:28

All right. So like I imagine even when you were following the compass from the point that you originally climbed that first tree to the lake that you were still making notches into that's I think that's just his habit.

SPEAKER_04 2:12:41

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 2:12:41

So yeah you are I won't make you roll a you know survival check to navigate your way back. You you make it back there it's it's a little bit slower going because you're like you've got this big jug of water on your back and you're probably trying not to jostle it. Yeah um tired and you're really tired and also that thing bit your leg.

SPEAKER_04 2:12:58

Yeah oh yeah so I probably would have taken some time to like put a band on that and make sure yeah. Okay. Yeah and you have basic um no but I don't they're all it's actually never mind it's all at camp. Oh yeah you don't have any stuff okay yeah I maybe um yeah I'll I'll just go I'll just I mean you do have your your bit of rope you can tourniquet. Yeah maybe I'll not gonna make you bleed out peel yeah I don't I don't think it was that much damage. I'll like take my dagger and pull off some of the rope um and not maybe just like pull some fibers and kind of make just like a a rough messy bandage just to kind of put a little pressure not like tourniquet saw but just a little pressure to yeah.

SPEAKER_06 2:13:47

Yeah okay because it is like an hour walk back to the camp.

SPEAKER_04 2:13:49

Yeah you don't want to tourniquet your leg for that yeah that's I will lose a leg. Yes.

SPEAKER_06 2:13:53

Um yeah you're you're fine you're able to do some some quick field dressing and uh you get back to the camp and it's definitely gonna be uh it's gonna need to be treated. Yeah. But Razul sees you come back and he's like my friend are you okay?

SPEAKER_04 2:14:14

Uh yeah I'm probably walking really slow at this point. Uh I I got it I got I got it. I got you got it and I I will like get up to him and and very carefully kind of set the the jar down and take my cloak off from around it and be like and then I just kind of sit down.

SPEAKER_06 2:14:35

Kind of collapse on the ground like it takes him a few seconds as he's just admiring this little lotus bud um but he does notice that like oh you're you're injured.

SPEAKER_04 2:14:52

Uh it's n uh yeah it's not it's not real bad. Um there was a really big uh beetle that tried to it was it was big as like bigger and bigger than me, like two of me big and and uh it it came at me while I was I was out in the middle I had I'm not as good a storyteller as you are um but I I had to swim out he's captivated to this lake in the middle of the lake and there was a there's actually a a really big lotus and this one was kind of attached to it but I didn't want to I didn't want to take it take the big one. I didn't want to cut it I was worried about messing up the magic. And uh while I was trying to untangle the roots and figure everything out this big water beetle came up and and uh I I I fought it off a little bit and then it just made ink and then it went disappeared. I don't I don't know if I if I killed it or maybe I just heard it enough that it figured I wasn't tasty enough worth the trouble.

SPEAKER_06 2:15:57

I think as you are telling this story he has gone to the the wagon and is like pulling out bandages and medical supplies and things and he's like uh-huh uh huh okay just like okay wrap your leg so thank you that that feels a lot better yeah um wow bang this this is you truly have saved my people uh I mean no you you did you it I just helped I mean you you said you left home and and came out looking for something you weren't sure about and I just I just helped a little bit. Can you imagine me fighting a water beetle?

SPEAKER_04 2:16:46

Well I mean you're yeah you're you're a lot bigger than me.

SPEAKER_06 2:16:50

He laughed you probably would you probably have done all right well I can't thank you enough there's anything anything you want from me anything at all is yours and obviously a ride to wherever you're going.

SPEAKER_04 2:17:14

Well I mean you've alre you've shortened my my journey a good bit already and um I don't have far to get down to the bridge pass there and uh you probably need to get this back to your people I will take you to the bridge I can go that far. I'd I'd appreciate that that's I I yeah I do appreciate that that'll that'll give me some time to to heal up a little bit and rest.

SPEAKER_06 2:17:42

Mm-hmm all right so we can go a bit there's there's one more little little thing okay that I want to cover. So you he gives you more food before you you know get back in the wagon and and go but you you are able to travel the rest of the day and you still when you make camp that night you do still have a full day's worth of travel. But that night at camp Razul approaches you he was kind of like you were maybe dozing off. This was kind of late at night and you're still resting up and he was sitting with the lotus blossom by the fire just admiring it. And you doze off for a little bit but he he wakes you and he approaches you with a a smaller jar and it's it's also glass and he he smiles as he kneels next to you and hands you this jar and he says there were offshoots of the roots that you got and there was a smaller root system. I detached it and it filled the jug it filled this bottle and I want you to have this that's are you are you sure are you sure I mean that that can help your people too one lotus blossom is all we need to fill our aquifers we'll have all the water we need forever I think Ben gets a little emotional like he's just saying I think yeah I mean that's Razul that's that's I mean this is a treasure.

SPEAKER_04 2:19:30

I'm I'm just a little old copold here. Um I think after he'll he'll he's kind of speechless for a minute and then he'll kind of take the jar and kind of look at the little small buds and the small little root system and too bad I didn't didn't see you in the beginning. That would have made things a lot easier thank you Russell I'm gonna I'll I'm I'm gonna cherish this and he kind of hugs it to his chest a little bit this might be the I don't know this is this is a bit better than anything I've ever owned or seen or thank you. Yeah he just kind of falls quiet like he's he's out of words.

SPEAKER_06 2:20:16

Razul he'll just put a hand on your shoulder and nod and smile and say we are I'll tell stories about you.

SPEAKER_04 2:20:28

My people will be so happy to hear about the little cobalt who helped I think like his the scales like around his face kind of darken a little bit like he's got these blue shimmery scales and I I feel like they kind of go like a darker like it's with the blush like just they just kind of get a little bit darker deeper blue and he uh he ducks his head and he's like ah well I I said I'm not a good storyteller but um I'll I'll talk about you and I'll talk about your people and share what you've told me about them and I don't know maybe one day I'll I'll find Fizz and and we'll we'll come visit. I hope you do yeah I'm I'll make sure we do I'll make sure we do. This isn't goodbye yet we still have a day's travel ahead so get some sleep all right I think that's where I want to end the session oh little bangs all like oh he's having emotions he's all yeah I think he's just gonna like lay down kind of curl curl around this thing and just stare at this plant like for the night and just like oh I can't this is I thought the magic dagger was cool and now I've got this um yeah he's a little he's a little overwhelmed he's really also very very tired.

SPEAKER_06 2:21:56

Yeah yeah take a long rest okay reset your character sheet and uh we'll see where Bang's adventures go.

SPEAKER_04 2:22:06

I'm so excited this is really fun and I am so excited I know we've talked a little bit about the the the arcing story that's gonna kind of happen yeah and but just coming into like I don't know what you're what you're giving me and you don't know what I'm gonna give you we we do know kind of the arc the big arc that this will follow yeah um but the day-to-day stuff is is all as you know we're hearing it we're reacting as we well no we plan it we plan it but uh sometimes the planning is just like flower question mark um but no uh this is really fun I love this so much um thank you that was an excellent adventure I think do we want to um do we want to pick up with the bang in the morning next session or do we want to see what Fizz we playing her up to Fizz and Twig?

SPEAKER_06 2:23:03

Oh yeah fizz and twig should we put a poll up in Patreon?

SPEAKER_04 2:23:08

Hey we could do either way yeah yeah we'll we'll do a um we'll do an open let's do a patron poll let's do a patron only poll okay go to just just patreon dot com and uh vote vote and we'll see which direction we go next yeah I'm excited me too thank you all for listening yeah catch you next time catch you next time