[00:00:38] Speaker A: Hello everyone. Welcome to the Cracked Die podcast. Name is Rich. I play Pond Watcher and boy today. I just want to talk about ancestries and playing against type. In Pathfinder second edition ancestries. They represent your race and ethnicity. They bring a lot to the character, both mechanically and to your backstory, to your options for the character and personally. For me, it's the first thing that I settle on before building the character. I think the most interesting aspect is that each ancestry in second edition has what are called ability boosts, or ability flaws carried over from previous editions of DND and Pathfinder. This represents what the ancestry is naturally predisposed to be good and bad at, and this leads to certain ancestries having synergies with certain classes. For example, dwarves have ability boosts to both constitution and wisdom, which leads them to be good fighters, clerics, or druids, classes that lean on those statistics. But also, dwarves have an ability flaw in charisma, meaning it's more difficult to have a good dwarven bard or sorcerer or anyone who needs that high charisma score. In game terms, you take an immediate minus two to your ability flaw statistic when you make your character. Now, I tried to make Pondwatcher interesting by making him a barbarian, but also making him an elf. Elves have a predilection towards magic, art, and beauty, and that's not really what he's all about. And also mechanically, they get boosts to their dexterity and their intelligence, but they receive a flaw to your constitution. And obviously constitution, health, HP, all of that stuff is very important when you're a barbarian who is constantly hit and murdered and drowned pretty much every 15 minutes on the podcast. So fixing that Constitution flaw took a lot of points at character creation, which left Pond watcher a little weaker in the strength department than you might expect for a barbarian. And if that interests you, or if you're wondering what other sort of choices I made, you can check out his level three character sheet right on thecrackdypodcast.com. And I think it makes it a more interesting character, if a little under optimized. But I like that he hasn't died yet.
[00:02:48] Speaker B: Anyway, that's enough for me.
[00:02:50] Speaker A: So please go ahead and enjoy episode 23 of the Cracked Eye podcast.
[00:02:55] Speaker C: Welcome to the 23rd episode of the Cracked Die podcast.
[00:03:00] Speaker D: How do you spell welcome?
[00:03:02] Speaker C: H w.
Welcome.
[00:03:07] Speaker E: Those are two letters.
[00:03:08] Speaker C: Yes. I can't spell after that.
[00:03:10] Speaker B: Welcome.
[00:03:11] Speaker C: Yes. So we've done it.
[00:03:13] Speaker B: We did it. It's the last episode.
[00:03:15] Speaker C: Final episode. Not really.
[00:03:16] Speaker E: Please. It's the final 23rd episode of the podcast.
[00:03:20] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:03:20] Speaker D: We're never doing a 23rd episode again.
[00:03:22] Speaker C: Exactly.
[00:03:23] Speaker E: Unless we start another book, in which case, I guess we'll start it.
[00:03:25] Speaker C: All right. Yeah. If you guys completely wipe like TPK, we're going to start numbering the episodes over again, and we'll just make it as season two.
[00:03:32] Speaker F: Makes sense.
[00:03:32] Speaker D: That'll be very confusing for everyone.
[00:03:34] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:03:34] Speaker D: Like the new Tomb Raider game.
[00:03:37] Speaker C: Where does it fit in?
[00:03:38] Speaker B: Where does it fit in?
[00:03:39] Speaker E: Just called Tomb Raider.
[00:03:40] Speaker C: All right, so there's a couple things we need to talk about before we dive back into Brianna talking with Roxy. So, first off, we did all of the selling and all of the math that went along with it. And I actually still have the piece of paper in front of me.
[00:03:57] Speaker B: Oh, boy.
[00:03:58] Speaker C: It looks like a chalkboard from a movie where they're just writing numbers and crossing and drawing lines.
[00:04:04] Speaker D: Absolutely beautiful, mind.
[00:04:05] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:04:06] Speaker F: Jinx. It's like you're the same person.
[00:04:08] Speaker E: I mean, you both look the same.
[00:04:09] Speaker C: So at the end of easily confused selling everything. So when you sell things in this game, you only sell it for half the value. You guys had a total of 341 gold pieces and 20 silver pieces.
Then divided amongst the six of you wound up with like, 50. We rounded things up. So you guys had like, 56 gold, seven silver, and, like, three copper or something like that.
[00:04:37] Speaker D: It's whatever the math wrote.
[00:04:38] Speaker C: Yeah. What did you all buy? What'd you get? Shopping trips. What'd you guys get?
[00:04:43] Speaker G: Okay, I'll start.
[00:04:44] Speaker D: Since we're clockwise a two pay.
[00:04:48] Speaker G: We didn't want to say anything.
[00:04:50] Speaker D: Twintallen shaves his head on purpose.
[00:04:52] Speaker B: Twintallen, your hair looks great today.
[00:04:54] Speaker C: Thanks.
[00:04:55] Speaker G: I've been working on it.
[00:04:56] Speaker B: Blonde ponytail, really suits you.
[00:04:58] Speaker D: That's the thing about a weave. You can't go from nothing to long hair. You got to just incrementally increase it.
[00:05:04] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:05:05] Speaker D: From personal experience.
Now. So what twin Talon purchased, he sold with his money.
[00:05:12] Speaker C: He took some of the money he.
[00:05:14] Speaker D: Had left over from the initial character creation. And he got a striking rune for one of his short swords.
[00:05:22] Speaker C: And what does that do?
[00:05:24] Speaker D: So a striking rune does what I thought the plus one weapon did originally, which is to add one die of damage. So that sword. Sword, instead of doing one d six, we'll do two d six.
[00:05:35] Speaker C: Cool. If only you had some really cool rings and you could pass that to.
[00:05:39] Speaker B: The other, then they would both be striking. Yes. But moral compunctions.
[00:05:45] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:05:45] Speaker D: Too bad morality had entered with. It should be chaos, like a belief system.
[00:05:50] Speaker C: Besides the striking. So that plus one sword is now a plus one striking sword. Is that correct?
[00:05:55] Speaker D: Correct.
[00:05:56] Speaker C: Great. Anything else? That was it.
[00:05:57] Speaker D: No. Those things are very expensive. I mean, even with 57 gold, I had to dip into my initial money for an additional gold. And that's including the discount we got for being good adventurers and doing quests for the town.
[00:06:12] Speaker C: Yes. So you all receive a 5% discount when shopping in Breech Hill called the Adventurers discount.
[00:06:19] Speaker B: Does that apply to booze?
[00:06:21] Speaker C: Yes.
However, we haven't done any downtime activities yet. There is a new downtime activity unlocked, essentially for you guys called befriend a local. And what you do is you spend the day in the company of an NPC of your choice.
You roll diplomacy to check your degree of success versus a destatic DC of 20. If you critically succeed, any goods and services purchased from that NPC is discounted at 10%. Also, if they're not a merchant NPC, it grants you a plus one circumstance bonus to diplomacy checks you attempt as part of your downtime activity. So if you're trying to do something that requires diplomacy in the downtime, for every local NPC that you befriend, you get a plus one. And you can do this to multiple, obviously multiple locals.
[00:07:20] Speaker B: Cool.
[00:07:21] Speaker C: But just for being good and having returned Kalmot, you guys get a 5% discount in Breach hill.
[00:07:26] Speaker D: So I went to Brianna's family shop and I purchased a striking room for one of my short swords. And that was all of my money.
[00:07:34] Speaker C: Yes. And we're going to say that because Brianna's family runs a shop here. And if Brianna goes with you, you get the full 10% because you've already befriended them. So we can mark down that everyone is befriended. Brianna's family, what is a shop called?
[00:07:50] Speaker F: Solado and sons.
[00:07:53] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:07:53] Speaker C: Gotcha.
[00:07:54] Speaker D: Wow, that's a slight.
[00:07:55] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:07:56] Speaker B: All right.
[00:07:57] Speaker C: Uh huh.
[00:07:57] Speaker G: Ouch.
[00:07:58] Speaker F: It was a slight, but apparently it wasn't mum's idea. But that's a story for another time.
[00:08:04] Speaker C: That's a story for another episode.
[00:08:06] Speaker B: I don't think pound Watcher is wise enough to pick up on that. And he probably wouldn't mention it.
[00:08:10] Speaker C: All right, temid, what did you purchase?
[00:08:12] Speaker E: So temid was able to get the same discount and also was able to borrow a little bit of funds from two of his very kind friends, Brianna and silver.
[00:08:22] Speaker F: Toyota had to come.
[00:08:23] Speaker E: And you said, you're welcome.
[00:08:25] Speaker F: See?
[00:08:26] Speaker E: Okay. And he was able to also get a striking rune because we want to kill things very quickly. And then also he spent a little bit of his cash and bought some extra ale. I think I negotiated with our very, very kind GM, and I was able to, for a small, or actually not so small fee, pick up enough alcohol to last for quite a while. So I don't have to worry about not having a drink anymore.
[00:08:50] Speaker D: How much bulk is that going to cost you?
[00:08:52] Speaker E: Zero.
[00:08:54] Speaker D: Interesting.
[00:08:55] Speaker C: Wa. Two.
[00:08:56] Speaker B: Two.
[00:08:56] Speaker C: Bulk.
[00:08:57] Speaker E: All right, that's fine. I have plenty to spare.
[00:08:58] Speaker B: You're going to slosh every time you.
[00:09:00] Speaker E: Try to do a stealth check?
[00:09:01] Speaker C: You are.
[00:09:02] Speaker G: He's already sloshed.
[00:09:03] Speaker B: Hi.
[00:09:03] Speaker E: Oh, Brienna.
[00:09:05] Speaker C: What did you get?
[00:09:06] Speaker F: Well, other than a cuff around the ear for my mother.
[00:09:11] Speaker D: You see the company you keep, it's very interesting. I mean, it's your life. You can do what you want.
[00:09:17] Speaker F: Sounds oddly familiar.
[00:09:19] Speaker B: Deep cut there.
[00:09:21] Speaker F: Well, she was actually looking at bettering her shield, but then Pawnwatcher is like, hey, I have one of those. You can just have mine.
[00:09:27] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:09:28] Speaker F: So she's like, okay, so are you.
[00:09:31] Speaker C: Just pocketing the gold and holding onto it?
[00:09:33] Speaker F: I mean, the stuff that I wanted to get is far too expensive for what I have right now, so I'll just pocket it for now.
[00:09:39] Speaker C: That's great. You can put it in a bank and have it earn interest.
[00:09:42] Speaker F: Sure.
[00:09:44] Speaker B: The shield I gave you does have my face on it, so have fun with that.
[00:09:49] Speaker D: On the outside or the inside?
[00:09:50] Speaker B: The inside.
[00:09:51] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:09:52] Speaker B: It stares at you when you lift it up.
[00:09:54] Speaker G: He's like a dog that growls in his own reaction.
[00:09:58] Speaker C: You get intimidated every time you pull the shield.
[00:10:02] Speaker F: I have to roll a check every time I do.
[00:10:04] Speaker D: Well, it depends what his expression is.
[00:10:05] Speaker C: It changes. It's like a Harry Potter picture.
[00:10:10] Speaker B: Pond Watcher is actually a high level wizard.
[00:10:12] Speaker D: And just pretending, that makes so much more sense. Why? You're very poor at combat.
[00:10:18] Speaker C: Speaking of pond watcher, what did you get optimized.
[00:10:22] Speaker B: Okay, so Pond Watcher borrowed a lot of money from silver.
[00:10:26] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:10:27] Speaker B: And by borrowed, I mean just received with no intention of giving it back. And he purchased a striking rune for Mommy's halberd and also a breastplate. So gone are the hide vestments he was wearing. And now he has a breastplate and still, basically, he's wearing a tank top made of metal and with low rise pants.
[00:10:51] Speaker C: All right.
[00:10:52] Speaker F: I love it.
[00:10:52] Speaker C: And what did Silver purchase?
[00:10:54] Speaker G: Well, silver being in charge of the royal treasury, which we added to significantly.
[00:11:00] Speaker B: Over this venture, we have given a lot.
[00:11:03] Speaker G: He gave a portion of that money to Pond Watcher and then the rest that he didn't give to Temad. He bought a very nice maestro virtuoso. Instruments.
So his old beat up guitar got replaced as one of those steel drum type guitars.
[00:11:21] Speaker C: All right, you know what I'm talking about.
[00:11:22] Speaker G: Silver strings still sounds about the same, but he's quite happy with it.
[00:11:27] Speaker C: That's awesome.
[00:11:28] Speaker H: Previously on the Cracked Die podcast.
[00:11:30] Speaker I: All heroes discover an exit from the basement of Citadel alterin back to Breech Hill. After gathering Kalmott and discussing things with the bramble brashers, our heroes returned to breech Hill to claim their reward. From there, our heroes returned to the pickled pigsia to discuss information about the joint. Will our heroes be able to increase sales at the pickled pigsia? Will they discover more information about the secret tunnel? Will Silver ever apologize to that halfling? Find out the answers to these questions and more on this episode of the Cracked Die podcast.
[00:12:07] Speaker C: So if you remember, you rolled a. Well, I rolled for you a perception check. When you first started talking to her and you discovered that she was withholding information, and that feeling is still kind of nagging in the back of your.
[00:12:24] Speaker B: Head, would you say that she gets off on being withholding?
[00:12:27] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:12:29] Speaker B: Got it in there.
[00:12:33] Speaker E: I'm just going to leave that as it is.
[00:12:35] Speaker B: It's an arrested development.
[00:12:37] Speaker C: I know. It's very good.
[00:12:40] Speaker E: So good. None of us laugh.
[00:12:42] Speaker F: I giggled.
[00:12:43] Speaker C: So you think this is kind of one of those you scratch my back, I'll scratch your back type situation? Okay, so she's looking for a way to get more patrons into this bar.
[00:12:56] Speaker F: Well, we do have a very skilled performer. If I could just find him, and she'll kind of like, look over at pond watcher. Where is silver?
What other sort of things would you like us to do? Arm wrestling competition.
[00:13:16] Speaker C: Sure, if you can pull some people in and have someone in your group compete with them, and you can provide live music.
[00:13:24] Speaker E: I have another idea as well.
[00:13:26] Speaker C: She rolls her eyes and looks at you. What?
[00:13:30] Speaker B: Don't, man. Explain to her.
[00:13:33] Speaker E: All right, I'll just go home.
[00:13:34] Speaker B: I'm sorry.
[00:13:36] Speaker E: We could walk about town for a little while and tell people about how much fun they would have here at this tavern with what we're doing.
[00:13:45] Speaker F: Do we have time for that?
[00:13:46] Speaker E: Like an hour? 2 hours?
[00:13:48] Speaker F: Wouldn't it be better served having a good drink here and hopefully finding silver.
[00:13:53] Speaker C: Or whatever he is?
[00:13:55] Speaker E: You had me a drink.
[00:13:56] Speaker F: There you go.
[00:13:57] Speaker C: All right, so you're going to set up some arm wrestling contests.
[00:14:00] Speaker G: We're going to do over the top.
[00:14:02] Speaker C: Yes, the whole movie of over the top in an hour, perform it as silver, and then silver will be playing music as soon as you find him. Whatever. So let's smash cut over to silver.
So you went back?
[00:14:18] Speaker G: I'm in her office at this point, yes.
[00:14:20] Speaker C: You went into the office where Roxy keeps track of things.
[00:14:26] Speaker G: I'm, like, rummaging around.
[00:14:29] Speaker C: What's your perception bonus?
[00:14:30] Speaker G: My perception bonus plus nine.
[00:14:36] Speaker C: All right, so you find the ledger that keeps track of basically the payroll and money coming in and out of the bar. And you notice that the money coming in, there's a discrepancy between the money coming in and what you can see because she also keeps, like, the safe back there.
[00:14:55] Speaker G: Okay.
[00:14:55] Speaker C: But it's not really a safe. It's just kind of a bag. And you do some quick looking and you notice that there's quite a discrepancy based on what the earnings of this bar are and what's in that bag. There's a big difference. So there's more money in there than there is in the ledgers.
[00:15:12] Speaker G: There's more money in the bag? Yes. How much money is in the bag?
[00:15:16] Speaker C: Well, probably about 50 gold to run the tavern, pay the staff, keep the pickling.
[00:15:23] Speaker G: I'm not going to steal it.
[00:15:24] Speaker C: Okay. I was like, you're just going to drive a small business to bankruptcy.
[00:15:29] Speaker B: You're going to have to report this to the SEC.
[00:15:32] Speaker G: Yeah, I'm not going to steal. So she's getting more money in than what this thing is earning.
[00:15:39] Speaker C: Interesting. Yes.
[00:15:41] Speaker G: Okay, how much is, like, percentile base? Is there like a ballpark?
[00:15:47] Speaker C: It's really hard to tell because you're looking so quickly. But the ledger says, I sold this much ale, I paid this much for ale. Sold this many pickled items. I paid this much for pickled items.
Wait staff.
And you look at it and you see that she pays her wait staff surprisingly well. She pays them like, she'll have to hire somebody new, like five silver a day. Plus they get to keep their tips interesting.
[00:16:15] Speaker G: Well, I'm all for supporting small businesses and not stealing. Robbing somebody blind.
[00:16:21] Speaker E: It's really hush money because they're probably in on it.
[00:16:24] Speaker G: I'm really curious where all this extra money is coming from. And it's a significant amount.
[00:16:28] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:16:28] Speaker E: It's a part of the journal that says illegal activity.
[00:16:31] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:16:33] Speaker G: Can I palm? Well, palming the ledger wouldn't really help, would it?
[00:16:37] Speaker D: No one's there.
[00:16:39] Speaker G: You don't have to.
[00:16:39] Speaker C: You don't have to palm it.
[00:16:40] Speaker B: No.
[00:16:41] Speaker G: Like palming in the middle.
[00:16:42] Speaker C: There's no security cameras in ye old breach hill.
[00:16:46] Speaker E: Wait, what?
[00:16:47] Speaker C: I know.
[00:16:48] Speaker B: Steal it all and leave a note.
[00:16:49] Speaker C: That says, calm do I get the.
[00:16:52] Speaker G: Sense if I wasn't rushed, if I kept the ledger, I might find something from it?
[00:16:57] Speaker C: Maybe. You're not really sure. Probably not.
[00:17:00] Speaker G: Okay, I'm going to put a pin on it and I'll leave it there. I won't take anything. Okay, then I will leave, walk out the front door, and then at this point, invisibility will be about over.
[00:17:11] Speaker C: Yeah. So as you walk out the door, you hear Brianna leaning over to pond, watch and go, where's silver?
[00:17:18] Speaker G: And then you, I guess I would open the door and say, one of y'all call for a bard.
[00:17:27] Speaker C: Silver is here.
[00:17:29] Speaker F: That's kind of perfect timing. It's like you helped me or something. Yes.
[00:17:33] Speaker E: Timid goes, ah.
[00:17:35] Speaker C: I can't believe it.
[00:17:36] Speaker B: Hey, everyone, look, a very great bard has arrived. Your prayers have been answered.
[00:17:42] Speaker C: All right, so you guys, thank you. Kaden, Kaylee, you start setting up. And the arm wrestling is surprisingly popular with the regular patrons.
[00:17:52] Speaker E: And rather than temid, go outside and kind of use his deception, his charming liar, to kind of call people and be like, ringmaster. Come on. Come all to see the.
[00:18:03] Speaker C: You're busking outside to get people in. Gotcha. Twintelon. What are you doing during all of this? Because it's suddenly gone from a very dull, angry, tense place to the dust on the windows seems to be a little bit thinner and the grind seems to be a little bit cleaner and the light seems to a little bit brighter as good things are happening. Not really, but sure.
You feel the tension drop in the room.
[00:18:28] Speaker D: That's great. I don't know that she's going to be helpful until we've increased business. Have we done that?
[00:18:33] Speaker C: I mean, more people are starting to come in with that. What's your performance silver bonus?
[00:18:38] Speaker G: My performance bonus?
[00:18:39] Speaker C: Yes. Ten. All right. So with a 29, you are basically. Who's a popular singer nowadays?
[00:18:48] Speaker E: Me.
[00:18:49] Speaker B: Lewis Capaldi.
[00:18:50] Speaker C: Sure. You're the next Lewis Capaldi.
[00:18:53] Speaker D: Who is that?
[00:18:54] Speaker B: He has the number one single in Britain right now, I'll have you know.
[00:18:58] Speaker G: Harry Styles.
[00:18:59] Speaker E: What's the name of this single?
[00:19:01] Speaker C: Oombop. That was when I stopped paying attention.
[00:19:03] Speaker E: Wow, you look like an oombopper.
[00:19:06] Speaker G: I could either be singing or I could be telling a story about this. You gotta be playing carriage driver who was estranged from his son and decided he would enter arm wrestling tournament.
[00:19:17] Speaker C: So you're singing the story of over the top. The story of over the top. You're telling this. You've made it a musical, too. It's now over the top. The musical and you're playing all the parts.
[00:19:30] Speaker G: Oh, my God.
[00:19:31] Speaker C: I want to see that.
[00:19:33] Speaker G: I would see that.
[00:19:35] Speaker C: If anyone out there can write a musical, I would recommend over the top the musical. That would be a great thing. After about an hour of timid, what's.
[00:19:48] Speaker E: Your bonus to plus seven?
[00:19:50] Speaker C: All right. So with a 17, you start pulling new people in the old standard. Patrons of this joint are excited to have new people in here now. And it's a much different atmosphere than when you started.
[00:20:04] Speaker D: Did they ever think about just being nice to people when they came in? Because.
[00:20:08] Speaker G: No. Okay.
[00:20:09] Speaker E: It's not really an option.
[00:20:10] Speaker D: I don't know what I have to add to this, just so I know stealth and thievery, and I don't want to just rob the patrons.
[00:20:17] Speaker C: Breech Hill is a port town, essentially, not a port town. They're not on the water, but a lot of people pass through here, so the people are more like they're friendly, but they're not super welcoming, if that makes sense.
[00:20:30] Speaker B: They're locals who are like. Right, this is my bar.
[00:20:33] Speaker C: Right, exactly. You can come in here and take my job.
[00:20:39] Speaker E: So actually, I think twin Talon can steal their hearts by maybe doing, like, a juggling act or something with his swords or something. Might be fun like that, if you think he's capable of doing something like that.
[00:20:50] Speaker D: If that's acrobatics, then I'm good at that.
[00:20:52] Speaker E: But personally, if I was a GM, I mean, much better GM, I'd be the best GM.
[00:20:59] Speaker C: Thanks.
[00:21:00] Speaker G: Shots fired anyway.
[00:21:02] Speaker B: Yes, you could do that.
[00:21:03] Speaker C: But Roxy kind of, like, flags all of you to come with her back into her back office.
[00:21:08] Speaker B: Okay, I just want to say, pond Watcher has been pounding beers this entire.
[00:21:13] Speaker C: Time, probably on the house.
[00:21:15] Speaker B: Are they still from the trough?
[00:21:17] Speaker C: No, these are the good. Everyone can go back into the room, except for silver, who's still telling his story. As you four head into the back room, Roxy looks around and is like, all right, so I know about the tunnel and the door, but I don't know where it goes.
Vase. I've never explored there, but the owner of the reliant book company paid me some gold every month to let her use it, and that's extra money. I could pay my wait staff more. I could get better pickling. So I didn't really think anything of it. And then she went in. She came out a couple days ago, and then I haven't seen her since.
[00:22:02] Speaker B: She came out of the tunnel, or she went into the tunnel.
[00:22:05] Speaker C: No, she came out through here, and then she's been gone ever since.
[00:22:09] Speaker E: Did she have anything with her?
[00:22:10] Speaker C: No. Nothing more than her backpack.
[00:22:13] Speaker D: How long has that tunnel been there?
[00:22:15] Speaker C: Ever since I bought the place that was going to be my.
I initially boarded it up, I think, when the hell knights were here. This was, like, a passageway that they used to get closer to the goblin, to the war, and kind of a secret entrance and out exit from the citadel. But I boarded it up, and then Vase said, hey, there's a tunnel down there. I was like, yeah, I boarded it up. She's like, I'll pay you ten gold a month to use it.
[00:22:44] Speaker B: What else do you know about vase?
[00:22:46] Speaker C: She's creepy. Yes, but other than that, it was purely business. Like, she would come in, she'd use the tunnel, she'd be gone for a little bit, and then she'd come back. Either a couple of hours, every now and then a couple of days, but she never did anything wrong. She always paid on time, so I could just keep a blind eye to the situation.
[00:23:05] Speaker D: Okay, well, this tunnel does, in fact, go to the hell knight fortress.
[00:23:10] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:23:11] Speaker F: I think it would be prudent to have it boarded up again, as I don't quite see Vaz using it anymore.
[00:23:18] Speaker C: Is she okay? Did anything happen to her?
[00:23:22] Speaker D: She did some bad magic over at the hell Knight fortress. Raised some skeletons.
[00:23:27] Speaker C: What?
[00:23:27] Speaker B: And it's also full of monsters, so you should probably board this up.
[00:23:30] Speaker C: Monster?
Yeah. And she leans her head out. She leans her head out of her office, and she calls for her other server. And you got to go to the basement and board it up right now. They nod and head back down to the basement.
[00:23:46] Speaker B: Also your other server.
I found some money for him. So here. You have this.
[00:23:54] Speaker C: It's five silver pieces. Oh.
[00:23:56] Speaker B: I was supposed to give it to him earlier, but he was sick or something.
[00:23:59] Speaker C: Yeah, he's been in a weird spot lately.
[00:24:04] Speaker B: Yes. Well, give him this. Say it's from Tamid.
[00:24:09] Speaker C: Tamid. Okay.
[00:24:11] Speaker E: Wait. What?
[00:24:13] Speaker B: You are asleep. It's fine. It's a whole thing. Yeah.
[00:24:16] Speaker E: You just wait, okay?
[00:24:19] Speaker B: No, it'll be good for you. You think you're a nice guy, right?
[00:24:22] Speaker E: I am a nice guy.
[00:24:23] Speaker B: Yeah. He'll know. It's good.
[00:24:25] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:24:25] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:24:26] Speaker E: All right. Cracks open another beer.
[00:24:29] Speaker C: All right.
[00:24:30] Speaker F: Brianna's just kind of smiling to herself.
[00:24:33] Speaker C: Like that was actually a good thing.
[00:24:37] Speaker F: Yeah. That's why serenity is all about redemption. So she's like, okay, points in my book.
[00:24:43] Speaker C: So Roxy looks, and he goes, I'm not in trouble, am I?
[00:24:47] Speaker E: So before she says that, I forget what skill it is. Now I forget what skill it is now that actually allows you to sense motive.
[00:24:55] Speaker B: Diplomacy.
[00:24:56] Speaker E: Is it diplomacy? Okay.
[00:24:58] Speaker C: A perception to tell that she is not.
[00:25:00] Speaker B: I was wrong.
[00:25:01] Speaker C: Quite forthright in this statement.
[00:25:03] Speaker F: I was right for only one time.
[00:25:06] Speaker E: I mean, it was cracked until I moved the thing. Can I roll again?
[00:25:11] Speaker C: What's your total? Wait, I'm supposed to roll it? Hang on.
[00:25:15] Speaker D: Why don't you let Sean roll it?
[00:25:16] Speaker C: What's your bonus? Eight.
[00:25:19] Speaker F: Wow. You're so perceptive.
[00:25:21] Speaker E: All right, is she lying to us about any of what she just said?
[00:25:26] Speaker C: As far as you can tell, no.
[00:25:28] Speaker E: Can you tell me what I rolled?
[00:25:30] Speaker C: No.
[00:25:30] Speaker E: Can you tell me what the total was?
[00:25:32] Speaker C: No, because I can't do math.
[00:25:34] Speaker D: So that's how you know that he's.
[00:25:35] Speaker G: Right about whether or not she was lying.
[00:25:37] Speaker B: It was either low or high, one.
[00:25:39] Speaker G: Or the other, or.
[00:25:40] Speaker E: Tell me, did I beat the DC?
[00:25:42] Speaker B: No.
[00:25:42] Speaker E: No, I didn't beat the DC.
[00:25:43] Speaker C: No. I'm not going to tell you.
[00:25:45] Speaker B: One plus two plus one plus one. Two plus one plus two.
[00:25:50] Speaker C: Last one. Okay, so you believe that she is telling the truth.
[00:25:54] Speaker F: Okay.
[00:25:54] Speaker E: All right, so he's not going to say anything.
[00:25:57] Speaker C: I'm not in trouble, am I? Is what she says. Before I was rudely interrupted.
[00:26:02] Speaker F: No. Just please do be careful, and we will check back in as soon as we have more information.
[00:26:09] Speaker D: Also, I would recommend being suspicious of people who want to use secret doors in your buildings.
[00:26:17] Speaker C: Well, I know she procured rare and difficult to find. I figured, you know, it was just her being safe and storing those rare books somewhere that people probably wouldn't. That's. That was my thoughts behind it.
[00:26:31] Speaker D: Well, whatever you tell yourself is your own business. I just think it's a good practice.
[00:26:36] Speaker E: Kevin puts a hand on his shoulder.
[00:26:38] Speaker D: To be suspicious of people who do suspicious things.
[00:26:42] Speaker C: Damn.
[00:26:44] Speaker F: Why is everybody so punchy tonight?
[00:26:47] Speaker C: Note taken.
[00:26:48] Speaker D: I've not said, like, a word the entire time.
[00:26:52] Speaker E: Keep it that way.
[00:26:54] Speaker B: But seriously, there was, like, frogs and dragons and stuff in there.
[00:26:57] Speaker C: There were dragons?
[00:26:58] Speaker B: Yeah. Like a big dragon with little eggs.
[00:27:01] Speaker E: There were also two little dragons.
[00:27:03] Speaker B: Two little tiny dragons.
[00:27:04] Speaker E: They were actually quite adorable. They're not dragons. They're cobalt.
[00:27:07] Speaker B: Deceptively cute, but you cannot trust them.
[00:27:10] Speaker C: So I would close this right up.
I have my best person working on it.
[00:27:16] Speaker D: The only one that hasn't been scared away.
[00:27:18] Speaker B: Listen, great job. I'm sorry what I said about your bar. I really like it, and I'm going to go drink at the bar now, so goodbye.
[00:27:26] Speaker C: The cleaning tips probably would help.
[00:27:29] Speaker B: He left.
[00:27:30] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:27:30] Speaker E: The ale is surprisingly good here as well. Not quite as good as the king, but you really can't blame you for that because really we're the best. But you guys are a close fourth.
[00:27:43] Speaker C: She looks so confused as you all walk out of the room.
[00:27:47] Speaker E: He says that as he's walking away too, just like, hey, silver, play the.
[00:27:50] Speaker C: Song that I like, silver is now saying.
[00:27:53] Speaker G: And what was it called?
[00:27:56] Speaker B: It was like a bird who had lots of freedom.
[00:28:03] Speaker G: I don't think we got 14 minutes right now. I'm sorry.
[00:28:07] Speaker E: And then there's a stairway up to like, paradise.
[00:28:12] Speaker B: Valhalla.
[00:28:15] Speaker C: I'm just going to stairway to the Starstone.
[00:28:18] Speaker F: Yes.
[00:28:19] Speaker E: Even better.
[00:28:20] Speaker G: And in the end, the man who was known as Slyestones was able to buy a new carriage and left the town with his son.
[00:28:37] Speaker C: Credits by credits. All right.
[00:28:41] Speaker E: Temid turns to twin Talon. At this point. He's like, I always love that.
[00:28:45] Speaker B: Actually, pound Watcher will take temid aside. Too tamed. Did you know that I heard something once.
Kailian.
[00:28:54] Speaker E: Close enough.
[00:28:55] Speaker B: He wanted to use the star stone so that he could make love to Callistria. Did you know that?
[00:29:03] Speaker E: Yes. Who wouldn't want to?
[00:29:05] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:29:06] Speaker E: High five.
[00:29:07] Speaker B: That's pretty good.
[00:29:08] Speaker E: It is. Yeah.
[00:29:09] Speaker B: So what do you think about that?
Because one is your God and one is my God.
[00:29:15] Speaker E: Are you flirting with me? What?
I mean, it's not that I never.
[00:29:20] Speaker B: Thought about it, but I'm just saying it's funny.
[00:29:24] Speaker E: It is funny. It is very funny.
[00:29:28] Speaker B: Because I don't know if that's like what you're into or not, but it gets pretty cold on the tundra.
[00:29:36] Speaker E: He looks at Pond Watcher and he's really big and he's got quite a bit of reach. So maybe he takes a step out.
[00:29:41] Speaker C: Of the reach a little bit.
[00:29:43] Speaker E: Well, want to drink or something?
[00:29:47] Speaker B: Yeah. All right, cool. Well, like here or like somewhere else?
[00:29:53] Speaker E: Here's fine.
[00:29:54] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:29:54] Speaker E: There's ill right here in front of everybody.
Everybody's cool right here, right?
[00:29:59] Speaker B: The savor sting she's called. Did you know that?
[00:30:01] Speaker E: Really?
[00:30:02] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:30:03] Speaker E: Why do they call?
[00:30:04] Speaker B: Oh, because she likes wasps and stuff.
She's also the goddess of lust.
[00:30:10] Speaker E: Yeah, that's interesting.
Tell me more, please.
[00:30:15] Speaker C: I bought a new breastplate.
[00:30:18] Speaker E: Can I touch the breastplate?
[00:30:20] Speaker B: Sure.
[00:30:20] Speaker E: Oh, nice. It's very firm.
[00:30:22] Speaker B: I didn't put it on yet because we're like in a bar or whatever.
[00:30:26] Speaker E: So I was feeling your chest then. Not the breastplate.
[00:30:28] Speaker B: No.
[00:30:30] Speaker E: That's impressive.
[00:30:31] Speaker C: Oh boy.
[00:30:32] Speaker E: That's really impressive. I don't know why your nipples are hard.
[00:30:35] Speaker C: That's very cold in here.
[00:30:37] Speaker B: I'm sorry, but I have resistance to cold anyway. Damn it. I really like you. You're a good guy.
[00:30:44] Speaker E: You too, pawn watcher. I really enjoy your company.
[00:30:46] Speaker B: I'm sorry you were sick before, and we left you in a bed.
[00:30:49] Speaker E: I'm sorry. I slept the whole day. I couldn't get out of bed. I think that's what happened.
[00:30:54] Speaker C: Wow.
[00:30:55] Speaker E: Did you guys tell me to sleep? I'm not really sure.
[00:30:57] Speaker B: You seemed like you wouldn't wake up and thought maybe you were dead. And we're like, should we steal? You just left me. But then you seemed okay.
I'm very drunk right now.
[00:31:08] Speaker E: I can tell. It takes a little bit more than that to get me drunk. We need to work on your resistance.
[00:31:13] Speaker B: Yeah, my constitution is not very high anyway.
And he just puts his head on the bar because he's just, like, wasted.
[00:31:22] Speaker C: Wow.
[00:31:23] Speaker E: Tamit calls over there, get some water for him, please.
He's new to this.
[00:31:29] Speaker G: Yeah, he deserves hero point for that.
[00:31:32] Speaker C: Yes.
You both get hero points.
Wow.
[00:31:37] Speaker F: Take mine, please.
[00:31:38] Speaker C: No. I'm going to give them both a hero.
[00:31:41] Speaker G: That was very funny.
[00:31:42] Speaker F: That was brilliant.
[00:31:43] Speaker C: Okay, so you ship it.
You continue to drink for the rest.
[00:31:48] Speaker E: Being shipped with everybody.
[00:31:49] Speaker B: Pondwater sexuality is unclear at this point, and I want to keep.
[00:31:53] Speaker E: It's very clear at this point.
[00:31:55] Speaker G: Everything would Temad, at one point, notice the thing in his pocket?
[00:32:01] Speaker E: Yeah, would I ever?
[00:32:02] Speaker G: Because silver is, like, keeping an eye on it before that.
[00:32:06] Speaker E: So, temid, actually, he drinks a lot, right? So he's like, I got to take a leak. So he goes to the bathroom, and he's one of those weirdos that kind of takes his pants off and uses a urinal. I don't know why, but then when he pulls his pants up, because you.
[00:32:18] Speaker D: Like the feel of urine splashing on your bare mean.
[00:32:23] Speaker E: Yeah, it's nice and warm. It's at the right temperature. It's like body temperature, right? So it's just like. It feels great.
[00:32:29] Speaker G: Sure. Anyways, is there a urinal? Are you just peeing on the wall outside?
[00:32:33] Speaker E: Wait, isn't that a urinal? And isn't that what urinals were in the oldie time?
[00:32:37] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:32:37] Speaker G: Anyways, he goes picturing your bare ass in the middle of the street.
[00:32:40] Speaker C: I feel like he goes to take.
[00:32:41] Speaker E: A leak, and then as he adjusts his pants again, he kind of feels something in his pocket, and he reaches in and he pulls it out.
[00:32:47] Speaker B: It's a grenade.
[00:32:48] Speaker E: It's a grenade. And he dies.
[00:32:49] Speaker C: No, it's a.
[00:32:50] Speaker G: Okay, I'll tell you what it is. I imagine silver is just sort of, like, hovering near you. Otherwise, while he's peeing, he's an old man. He maybe needed help peeing. So you find it's an ornate locket.
[00:33:03] Speaker C: I believe, what it was.
[00:33:04] Speaker G: Ring. And on the ring is inscribed Alex's family name.
[00:33:08] Speaker E: Oh, I don't remember taking this. Maybe I was drunk, he says to himself in his head, because no one can hear him, but I think as he turns around, it's probably still in his hand.
[00:33:20] Speaker C: And then you see silver lurking and washing in a bush.
[00:33:24] Speaker G: I like to think that he hasn't.
[00:33:26] Speaker D: Pulled his pants up because he said he didn't.
[00:33:27] Speaker C: He's not midpoint, so he's just, like, hanging out. It's still going around.
[00:33:31] Speaker E: He's just making a circle. He's spinning in a circle, and there's.
[00:33:33] Speaker C: Like, a stream, and it gets weaker.
[00:33:36] Speaker E: As time goes on, so it's like a spiral.
[00:33:38] Speaker C: Please come back.
[00:33:42] Speaker G: What you got there? Timid.
[00:33:44] Speaker E: I've got a ring, and it's suspicion.
[00:33:46] Speaker G: That's what I've got.
[00:33:47] Speaker D: Why are you in that bush?
[00:33:49] Speaker E: First of all, before I answer this question, why are you staring at me peeing? No. He looks at the ring, and he's like, I don't know.
It's a ring, and it looks like Alex family.
I must have picked it up at some point. I don't remember doing well, do you know anything about this?
[00:34:07] Speaker G: I don't know.
Say, you know, mysterious things happen. Kate and Kaylin and all that. I know you were trying to bring him towards your God. Maybe it was like a message from.
[00:34:18] Speaker E: I don't know, less than that. I was actually just trying to keep him away from.
I mean, if he ended up in servitude of Kaden Kalyan, that'd be great, but just want to have a drink with him.
[00:34:28] Speaker G: Well, I don't mess with gods too much. I think I might have punched Kate and Kayla in the face once, but that's a story for another time.
[00:34:36] Speaker E: That's physically impossible.
[00:34:39] Speaker G: It's a long story. And those are most.
[00:34:42] Speaker E: You want some type of psychedelic drug?
[00:34:44] Speaker G: Look, those sound like details, timid.
And I ain't a detailed oriented kind of guy, so. The point is, my experience with gods is sometimes they give you gifts or signs of some sort, so maybe you're on the right path. I don't know. You're the cleric. I'm the guy that sings about arm wrestling contests.
[00:35:08] Speaker E: Yes, but that arm wrestling contest that you sang about helped us quite a bit just now, with our work with.
[00:35:15] Speaker G: The proprietor of this place, I'm sure. But we're talking about your soul and all that sort of thing.
[00:35:21] Speaker E: Yeah. I mean, I wasn't going to stop trying to bring people away from Esmodeus and more towards someone like Kaden Killian, but this is certainly a sign if it is from him. But maybe Pawnwatcher would like this. I know he and Alec were friends. Maybe he'll decide what to do with it.
[00:35:38] Speaker G: All right. Just think you're doing good work.
[00:35:41] Speaker E: I appreciate that. And I appreciate what you do for this group as well. Even with all the lurking and watching people pee and something you need to work on.
[00:35:50] Speaker G: I am an old man.
[00:35:51] Speaker E: That does not excuse you from being a creep.
[00:35:55] Speaker G: I'm an old man.
[00:35:56] Speaker C: I don't.
[00:35:57] Speaker G: Ain't nothing I haven't seen before.
[00:35:59] Speaker E: It's true.
[00:36:01] Speaker C: And with that, Timothy pulls up his pants.
[00:36:04] Speaker E: Yeah, we were talking with my pants down the whole time.
[00:36:07] Speaker D: At what point does it sink it in when he said, it's nothing I've not seen before? That he's watched you pee previously.
[00:36:15] Speaker E: See, Temit took it differently. He took it as I've seen many penises and vaginas and everything under the sun, really, my whole life. So there's really no point in me sexualizing this stuff. That's the way that I.
[00:36:25] Speaker G: That's what I was intending, but that's.
[00:36:28] Speaker C: Nope. I think you've watched him pee before.
[00:36:31] Speaker G: So with that, well, he has been maybe really drunk.
[00:36:35] Speaker E: So let me get this clear.
He put Alex ring in Temid's pocket.
[00:36:40] Speaker C: You don't know.
[00:36:41] Speaker E: You just found. No.
[00:36:43] Speaker C: Anwar knows. Yeah. Anwar knows that he dropped that into Temid's pocket.
[00:36:46] Speaker E: Okay, that's interesting. And I'm curious about this. I'm curious about this. And Temid's a little bit confused right now.
[00:36:54] Speaker G: I'm sure he's also drunk. A little drunk.
[00:36:57] Speaker E: I think we established early on that he doesn't get drunk ever.
[00:37:01] Speaker B: That's a monk.
[00:37:03] Speaker C: So you guys have free drinks in the pickled ear for the rest of the night?
[00:37:08] Speaker E: Oh, they're going bankrupt.
[00:37:11] Speaker B: Do we have someplace to stay?
[00:37:13] Speaker G: I mean, we could stay.
[00:37:15] Speaker E: We go to cadence keg if you want to sleep there. They've got plenty of Ale.
[00:37:19] Speaker F: We do have some space in.
[00:37:21] Speaker B: Pondwatcher is probably going to pass out in an alleyway. Unless someone points into it.
[00:37:25] Speaker C: Temid.
[00:37:26] Speaker E: And I think Temid's going to look at silver and be like, we could drag him back to Cadence, gag the.
[00:37:30] Speaker G: First time I'd had to get. When the king's in his cups a little bit too much, that's fine.
[00:37:35] Speaker C: So you all find a place to sleep for the night.
[00:37:38] Speaker E: Teman's actually going to suggest that everyone kind of, we stay close, if not in the same building. Very close. I know everyone's kind of going to go off to their own places, but maybe we should. Oh, yeah, no, stay close to each other. Just because we're an adventuring party and we could get into trouble.
[00:37:55] Speaker C: So, number six on your map is the great dream house. It's a Desna temple and tavern, southeast.
[00:38:04] Speaker D: Of the pickled ear.
[00:38:04] Speaker C: Yes, it is southeast of the pickled ear.
[00:38:06] Speaker E: I'm just saying. Cadence keg is also a temple, and it is a tavern as well.
[00:38:10] Speaker D: And it's on the way to the great dream house.
[00:38:12] Speaker B: So as we leave, Pond Watcher will yell.
[00:38:17] Speaker C: So you all wind up at Cadence keg.
[00:38:20] Speaker E: So Temit's kind of like, leading the group with like, a little dance. Like, everyone's got to kind of walk.
[00:38:24] Speaker C: In a step, and you all find a place to sleep for the night. Temid may reduce his drain drain by one. So you're now drained one instead of drained two.
[00:38:36] Speaker E: Secret. I had already done that.
[00:38:37] Speaker C: Okay, good. Oh, this would be the second. No, it's still the first night. So, yeah, you're still at drained one.
[00:38:44] Speaker E: No, I was at drained one when I started.
[00:38:46] Speaker C: Yeah, you're done. Your drain is gone. Great. So you wake up bright and early at 10:00 some people are feeling it. Pond watcher. Others are not timid. And it's a bright, beautiful, sunshiny day, brisk fall morning, nice 60 degrees outside with a slight wind coming off the water in the middle of the town. You all have this shiny new equipment, or 56 gold in your pocket, which is something else, too.
[00:39:19] Speaker E: So I'd like to actually take a. Temid has something that, before he goes to sleep, when everyone else is asleep, actually, he was having a hard time going to sleep. And he kind of gets up and he walks away into a corner, and he thinks about that dream that he had the night before, the little fever dream. And he very mindlessly kind of draws that symbol that he had seen, but now with the extra portion of it that we saw before. Right, that third triangle.
[00:39:49] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:39:50] Speaker E: And he erases that third triangle, and then he draws it back, and then he kind of, like, erases that triangle, and then he draws it back. And all the while thinking about what he went through, his escape, and how difficult his time was there, and he looks back at his allies, and he kind of really, like.
He has a moment. And I'll give you a little bit of insight into what he's thinking. He has a moment where he thinks about how he wants to divulge more information to them, only because he's starting to feel kinship with them. However, he's not used to doing something like that, and his initial reaction is to always kind of hide that kind of stuff. So he's very torn and he has a hard time sleeping, but he eventually makes his way back to his little bed or cot or whatever that he's sleeping in at the moment, and he closes his eyes and he has a restless kind of sleep.
[00:40:42] Speaker C: Great, I like it. You all wake up in the next morning, and it's the first time in a couple of days that you've had a fitful sleep, because some people were really bothered by dreams the previous night, and you're actually, like, in bed instead of in sleeping bags on the ground. And I don't know how many of you have camped before, but there is nothing like that first night's rest back in a bed after camping, and it's just, you sleep. The Odin sleep. So what are you guys going to do now?
[00:41:15] Speaker G: I guess we'll go to the Starstone.
[00:41:17] Speaker C: The Starstone?
[00:41:18] Speaker F: Okay.
[00:41:19] Speaker G: No, Stella's stone. Whatever.
[00:41:20] Speaker D: None of that.
The Guardian's way.
[00:41:24] Speaker C: All right.
[00:41:24] Speaker E: Do we have any ability to speak to someone who may know more about Guardian's way? Have we researched that enough?
[00:41:32] Speaker C: You haven't researched it at all?
[00:41:33] Speaker G: We knew a bartic lore.
[00:41:35] Speaker D: We already did that.
[00:41:35] Speaker G: Oh, we did?
[00:41:36] Speaker D: Yeah, we used our own knowledge. So, beyond that, I'm not sure. Who in town.
[00:41:42] Speaker E: Can we do a society check?
[00:41:43] Speaker G: I think the person who would know is the person we're chasing.
[00:41:46] Speaker D: Well, there's also the breach hill town hall. The breach hill archives. I mean, those are to the south end of town where we started.
[00:41:51] Speaker C: Yeah, right.
[00:41:52] Speaker E: But if you could point us towards someone who may have a better idea.
[00:41:54] Speaker C: I mean, if we go to the archives, I'm sure you can find, like, an archivist who would probably know stuff about the area.
[00:42:03] Speaker E: Sure.
[00:42:04] Speaker F: I mean, wouldn't breach Hill lore also help?
[00:42:06] Speaker C: Breach Hill lore would absolutely help. You could do that, too.
[00:42:09] Speaker E: What about Contargo lore?
[00:42:10] Speaker B: Pond Watcher is going to go for a swim to try to clear his alcohol addled, hungover brain while they're figuring this out because he's totally uninterested in going to an archive. Okay, so that's what he's doing?
He's just going to jump in the water and try to not be super hungover.
[00:42:27] Speaker C: Gotcha.
[00:42:28] Speaker F: Before Brianna does, go to the archives. She would have left a thermos of some kind with some potent tea by his clothes or whatever, and just kept going.
[00:42:40] Speaker E: Ahmed walks by ot.
He doesn't do that.
[00:42:44] Speaker C: Are you breach hill loring, or are you going to. Okay, give me a breach hill lore.
[00:42:48] Speaker F: 21.
[00:42:49] Speaker C: 21. So you know that 20 years ago, the goblin blood wars raged, and vicious goblins and hop goblins poured from all corners of Iceker's foothills to slaughter humans, claim territory, and burn any villages found. Many of the goblinoid hordes were overwhelming in numbers, but lacked any structure or leadership. But some smaller groups benefited from brilliant charge of shrewd goblin commanders. During the height of the wars, the clearing that became known as Guardians Way was one major place where goblinoids emerged to muster their numbers and attack the settlements beyond, including Breechill. It's located about 6 miles northwest of town. Guardians Way was once a heavily fortified outpost built to try and stem the tide of goblinoids before they could rampage into more populated areas beyond. Companies of elite human soldiers lived and fought there, and their Bravery saved many lives during the four years of conflict. However, 18 years ago, the wars ended, and there was no longer a military need for soldiers to live here in isolation. And so Icegard's military abandoned the station.
[00:44:01] Speaker F: I'll relay that information.
[00:44:03] Speaker E: All right. Repeat.
[00:44:04] Speaker F: Oh, no.
[00:44:06] Speaker D: Guardians way.
[00:44:07] Speaker F: Yeah, this is northwesty side of town.
[00:44:09] Speaker C: 6 miles that way.
[00:44:10] Speaker G: It's like a two hour walk.
[00:44:11] Speaker C: Yeah ish.
[00:44:13] Speaker F: Is there anything along the way we should be concerned about? Like, are there any, I don't know, remnants of the goblin wars?
[00:44:24] Speaker C: No, it's too close to town for it to be a problem. I was doing the math. I was trying to figure out how long it would take you guys to walk there. And I walk at a ten minute mile pace. Okay? Right. So it would take me an hour to walk there. Now, I'm not wearing heavy armor or armor at all, or swords or anything like that. So I'd say it would only actually probably take you 90 minutes to walk there at a brisk pace. If you want to go slower, you can definitely go slower, but it's pretty close to town.
[00:44:56] Speaker D: Where is citadel? All terrain, or alterin? Alterin. Compared to the town, what direction?
[00:45:03] Speaker C: It is also to the northeast, I believe. Let me double check that. Okay.
[00:45:08] Speaker D: I'm just curious, considering they went, we assume that they came through Austea's ring and then ended up in the citadel. I think we've sold all our cavalcade of silver weapons at this point, so we're probably okay. I'll just leave my backpack and stuff. Do you think that your family will be okay watching the wargs while we.
[00:45:26] Speaker F: I think my brothers would be very keen on puppies.
[00:45:29] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:45:30] Speaker C: All right.
[00:45:31] Speaker D: So after twin Talon shaves his head and does his calisthenics for the morning, he will drop the wargs off with Brianna's family and he'll explain to them what their names are and what they eat, which is apparently blackberries and whatever rations we have.
[00:45:49] Speaker E: This one's kind of moody and this one's a little.
[00:45:52] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:45:53] Speaker D: And then he'll be ready to know. I don't know if anybody else is actually going to the archives or if you guys were like, we should go to the archives. And Brianna's like, let me tell you all about it.
[00:46:01] Speaker F: Yeah, that's pretty much what happened.
[00:46:04] Speaker C: Brianna's like, archives.
[00:46:05] Speaker E: I am the archives.
[00:46:07] Speaker F: We've lived here long enough. We came from Magnum army.
[00:46:10] Speaker B: You pick up wet Pond watcher on.
[00:46:13] Speaker C: The way from the glistening off of his muscles. Pond watcher.
[00:46:17] Speaker D: You should be careful of watching the pond so close that you fall in.
[00:46:22] Speaker E: We're just going to let that be all right. We're just going to let that one be.
[00:46:25] Speaker B: I thought you were going for like an hour or something, but okay.
[00:46:28] Speaker G: Yeah, I don't know.
[00:46:29] Speaker F: Sorry. I did have the information we needed.
[00:46:31] Speaker D: All right, let's go.
[00:46:32] Speaker F: Did you drink your tea before you went?
[00:46:34] Speaker B: Oh, is that what that was? I thought someone had peed in a cup. And yes, I drank.
[00:46:39] Speaker C: Thank you.
[00:46:40] Speaker B: I appreciate this kindness you have done for me.
[00:46:43] Speaker E: Oh, I did pee in that cup, actually.
[00:46:45] Speaker C: Oh, boy.
[00:46:47] Speaker E: Was I not supposed to? Is that not a peeing cup?
[00:46:49] Speaker B: Drank some trough water last night and then a pee cup today already. Things are going very well.
[00:46:55] Speaker F: Guessing your constitution now is great.
[00:46:59] Speaker C: All right.
[00:47:00] Speaker E: He actually gets drunk off of Temid's pee.
He did not pee in it, though.
[00:47:06] Speaker B: Hair of the dog.
[00:47:07] Speaker E: Just want to make sure that it's known.
[00:47:09] Speaker C: And then kemid invited invented Bud light.
Yeah, that's right. Come after me, Anheuser Bush.
[00:47:17] Speaker E: Unless you want to sponsor us. Unless you want to sponsor us exclusively. Drink you?
[00:47:20] Speaker G: Yeah, then I have never drinking a bud light in my life.
[00:47:22] Speaker E: Well, unless they'll start as soon as they sponsor us.
[00:47:25] Speaker C: Okay. Absolutely. So you guys walk for about 90 minutes.
[00:47:30] Speaker E: So Temit, kind of while we're walking, would like to just talk to Pond Watcher about the ring. Says, hey, you have to.
[00:47:37] Speaker D: Have you seen this movie?
[00:47:39] Speaker E: It's this movie, and it's really funny.
[00:47:41] Speaker B: Seven days. I don't understand. He just goes, what is a VCR?
[00:47:46] Speaker E: You were friends with Alec, weren't you?
[00:47:48] Speaker B: Yeah. Alec was pretty cool guy. But then he died.
[00:47:52] Speaker E: Yeah, he did. So anyways, I must have picked up this ring at some point when I was trying to help him. And I know the two of you were pretty close. I don't know if you wanted to keep it or take care of it or. Does it mean anything to you?
[00:48:07] Speaker B: Sure.
What is it?
[00:48:10] Speaker E: It's a ring.
[00:48:11] Speaker B: Like I said.
[00:48:12] Speaker C: He was looking for a ring, right?
[00:48:13] Speaker E: He was looking for a ring.
[00:48:14] Speaker B: He never found it.
[00:48:15] Speaker E: Yeah, I must have picked it up somewhere, but it was in my pocket.
[00:48:18] Speaker B: Yeah, I'll take it. I have a cool ring with a ruby in it.
[00:48:22] Speaker E: Yeah, that's your silver friendship ring, right?
[00:48:26] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:48:26] Speaker E: That's really cool.
[00:48:27] Speaker B: All right, sure. I mean, I don't know where his family lives or whatever. I wasn't really paying attention when he told us.
[00:48:33] Speaker E: I just thought maybe it would be most proper for you to hold on to it, seeing as how you were probably the person that showed him the most amount of kindness. Besides maybe Brianna. But he was pretty cool guy. He was a nice guy.
[00:48:46] Speaker B: I took his sword.
[00:48:47] Speaker E: That's true. Now you can have his ring.
[00:48:49] Speaker B: Okay. I mean, if you want to give it to me, I'll take it. Thanks, man.
[00:48:53] Speaker E: Can you just hold out your left hand?
[00:48:55] Speaker B: Which finger?
[00:48:56] Speaker E: On your ring finger?
[00:48:57] Speaker B: I don't understand your customs, but all right.
[00:49:00] Speaker E: I know. He just hands it to you.
[00:49:02] Speaker B: All right, cool.
[00:49:03] Speaker C: I actually want to take a quick pause while you're walking and ask, what did you guys do with Alex's body?
[00:49:10] Speaker B: Whose body?
[00:49:12] Speaker E: We stuck it in one of the coffins, I think. No, upside down.
[00:49:16] Speaker B: So you could be away?
[00:49:17] Speaker C: No.
[00:49:17] Speaker E: While you guys were away, I went down into the tombs and I put his body in the coffin.
[00:49:23] Speaker B: Put it upside down, I imagine.
[00:49:25] Speaker G: We arranged for transported the body back to his family estates.
[00:49:31] Speaker E: Oh, if we did that, then we could have just given the ring.
[00:49:33] Speaker B: With who?
[00:49:33] Speaker C: With who? No one knows.
[00:49:35] Speaker G: We don't know where his family.
[00:49:37] Speaker E: I think the best thing that we could have done was to entomb his body with the rest of the hell knights. Because that's where the path he was thinking about heading down.
[00:49:44] Speaker D: Brianna was doing rights on him.
[00:49:46] Speaker C: Yeah, Brianna did, actually.
[00:49:49] Speaker E: Then Brianna should be the one that decides what happened to his body.
[00:49:52] Speaker C: Do you want to bring his body back?
[00:49:53] Speaker F: Yes. Originally that was the plan. And I was hoping to speak to. What was the name of the. I have notes.
[00:50:01] Speaker B: Brent?
[00:50:02] Speaker F: Nope.
[00:50:03] Speaker B: Terry.
[00:50:04] Speaker F: Leader of the Breech hill Anwar.
[00:50:07] Speaker G: No, what's her name?
[00:50:09] Speaker D: That's Gardenia Greta.
[00:50:10] Speaker F: Gardenia Greta probably let her know that we had a fallen companion, and if there was a way to contact his family and perhaps even, I mean, I don't know, gentle repose, goodness knows how long we were there. So the likelihood of just burying him in three chill and then sending word to his family that he had fallen.
[00:50:34] Speaker C: Okay, so Greta will obviously, first off, apologize that you had a companion fall doing some work for the city or the town, and she absolutely will do her best to reach out to.
She'll reach out to the hell knights. In the meantime, the guards will take his body to the chapel of Desna and put him into gentle repose until such times as the family or the hell knights reach out and figure out what to do with him.
[00:51:11] Speaker E: Okay, so this happened prior to.
[00:51:16] Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely. This happened when you guys.
[00:51:18] Speaker F: When he first came in.
[00:51:19] Speaker E: So then temed would also then like to tell some of the other clergy at Cadence keg to have them visit because of the. Because he thought that they were starting to have some type of connection, and he just wanted know, because Desna. And know they're buds, or at least they're good with each. You know, they're very much welcome, so they're just going to know. Send them off as well.
[00:51:48] Speaker C: Great. Cool. Sorry. I know that was something we wanted to touch on and make sure that thank you got handled, but the whole ring situation reminded me of that. So you walk the 90 minutes to get to the guardian's way. The thick forest finally gives way to a meadow where three sturdy outposts have been built into tree. A fourth building stands on the ground in the meadow's center. Behind it, a vine covered rocky cliff rises up 50ft to a barren bluff above.
[00:52:21] Speaker D: Okay, so there's a building and a clearing.
[00:52:24] Speaker C: There are three towers that you can see and a building behind the first tower. These platforms are built into the trees, quite high so that anyone up there would be able to see anything coming through this clearing.
[00:52:45] Speaker E: So the platforms are the towers?
[00:52:47] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:52:48] Speaker E: Okay, and then. So there's basically three platforms, probably meant to keep watch, and then a building behind those, which is what they're probably keeping watch for.
[00:52:57] Speaker D: I think the building is in the middle of the three towers.
[00:53:01] Speaker E: I got you. Okay.
All right, so we have a platform in the middle. Behind that is a building. And then on the two sides of the building, there are platforms. Gotcha.
[00:53:11] Speaker C: Correct.
[00:53:12] Speaker D: Twin Talon is going to do his best to be stealthy and so that if there is anyone here like we suspect.
[00:53:19] Speaker C: All right, we're going into exploration mode.
Let's talk about what each person is doing. So twin Talon is stealthing. What's your bonus?
[00:53:31] Speaker D: Plus eleven.
[00:53:32] Speaker F: Damn.
[00:53:33] Speaker C: All right, temid, what are you doing?
[00:53:37] Speaker E: Temid's hanging back and perceiving. Plus eight.
[00:53:44] Speaker C: All right, Brianna, what are you doing?
[00:53:47] Speaker F: Brianna has her shield up and is also perceiving.
[00:53:51] Speaker C: All right, pond watcher.
[00:53:54] Speaker B: Pond watcher will stealth ahead with twin Talon.
[00:53:58] Speaker C: All right, what's your stealth bonus?
[00:53:59] Speaker B: Plus seven?
[00:54:01] Speaker G: Do you want me to turn you invisible?
[00:54:12] Speaker C: And silver, what are you doing?
[00:54:14] Speaker G: Detecting magic.
[00:54:15] Speaker C: Okay, so as you see in the map in front of you guys, there are some passageways and whatnot. Please place yourself as you would like and then we will talk about what happened.
[00:54:31] Speaker B: Where did you want to go?
[00:54:33] Speaker C: Print.
[00:54:34] Speaker D: Allen is going to be advancing on that building. No, that is a tower. So advancing on the building in the middle.
[00:54:41] Speaker C: Are you going to stick to the tree line or are you going to go.
[00:54:43] Speaker D: But he is going to stick to the tree line to be as hidden as possible.
[00:54:47] Speaker B: I'm stealthing this way.
[00:54:49] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:54:49] Speaker B: No, I'm just looking at this thing.
[00:54:51] Speaker C: Yeah, you can go under that. It is above, but I don't have elevation because I'm a crappy gm.
[00:54:58] Speaker D: It's a piece of paper, Sean.
[00:54:59] Speaker B: I know.
[00:55:00] Speaker C: I should have built towers for you. It's fine.
[00:55:02] Speaker F: We're doing it.
[00:55:04] Speaker C: And Brianna.
[00:55:07] Speaker F: Exactly.
[00:55:08] Speaker C: And Temit are in the middle there. Just chilling, walking forward.
[00:55:12] Speaker F: I think Brianna will come around to the right of. Yeah.
[00:55:17] Speaker C: All right. And temid, where are you going? You're going in the middle.
[00:55:21] Speaker E: So timid is going to hang around and go off to the right? Well, yeah, that's the other direction. Oh, is that where Brianna went coming over?
[00:55:32] Speaker D: Serena's not even here.
[00:55:33] Speaker E: This actually, I think on the left side, actually. Then maybe he'll go on the left side. So we'll have one person perceiving on either side.
[00:55:38] Speaker C: All right. And then Silver is right in the.
[00:55:40] Speaker E: Middle but far enough back to where he doesn't interfere with twin towns.
[00:55:44] Speaker F: Stealthing.
[00:55:44] Speaker E: Stealthing.
[00:55:45] Speaker C: Pull temid back about. There's 10ft. Great. All right, so as you approach this, the lower portion of this large two tier wooden platform, the middle tower is supported 20ft off the ground by the trunk and branches of three large trees. A pair of rope ladders provides access to the platform's lower tier while another rope ladder provides access to the upper 110ft above, the branches of the central tree hang down low, obscuring the contents of both platforms. Silver. As you are detecting magic, you hear in a growling voice. Oi. Who goes there?
[00:56:32] Speaker G: Greetings, fine sir.
My companion and I haven't really come up with a name for our traveling group.
[00:56:40] Speaker C: So there's more of you? Well, naturally.
[00:56:42] Speaker G: A bard always travels with a performing troop. I came along ahead in order to see if this is a good place to stay for the night as we made our way to the town over.
They're just yonder back in that their road. He's speaking quite loudly so that hopefully other people can hear him. They're in that road, but we'd be happy to play for our supper if you're bored. I'm not too bad when it comes to all that sort of thing.
[00:57:15] Speaker C: Well, I'm going to need to roll diplomacy for you next week.
[00:57:22] Speaker I: What will happen to our heroes now that they're finally at the Guardian's way? Who is this gruff voice they hear? Will they find more answers to their questions that they have? Will they ever locate Vaz Lorraine? Find out the answers to these questions and more on the next episode of the Cracked Die podcast. And now a word from our well.
[00:57:47] Speaker H: Well, I bought this time with some gold to give you all a warning. Have you heard about the mysterious mosquito witch of the river kingdoms?
I bet you ain't. You see, most of the people who knew about her have left the town known as Shimmerford. You see, the mosquito witch, she used to be celebrated there as some sort of mythical creature that could bring money into the town, until very recently. Then them blood seekers started showing up. I guess you big city folk would call them sturges, or giant mosquitoes. Well, see, these blood seekers have been attacking people and livestock more and more, whatever they can sink their probiscus into. Now, people have found tracks that they attribute to the mosquito witch.
See, she's this large humanoid figure with an unpleasant waxy skin and a pair of unblinking red eyes. See, she keeps her head bowed and has a long, sharp tongue that's as still and pointed as a probiscus. Freshly ribbed mosquito wings protrude from her back, and she has six handless arms tapered into malformed points which keep clutch to its chest like the legs of an insect's pupae. Beware if you see these unblinking eyes. Beware the mosquito witch, for she is up and about.
[00:59:17] Speaker C: What do the mosquito witches come for you?
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