Tales of Yavon | Empire | Ep. 12 | New Allies

[00:00:00] The following is for mature audiences. Listener discretion is advised. See the description for details. Hey, you're listening to Tales of Yavon. Two D&D tables in one shared world. I'm Micah, DM of the Empire Table. And I'm Sarah, DM of the Pirate Table. This episode is with the Empire Table. Long live the Empire.

[00:00:22] So Beth, just to start us out. I got us a very special D6. A golden D6. Especially for you. As we are emerging a new day. A bright new day. The dawn is shining. The stained glass dome is brilliant.

[00:00:47] In this top level of the Empire. Oh, and also, welcome back to the heart of the Empire. First things first, I'm gonna need from you is I'm gonna need you to roll that D6 for me, please. Oh, I'm sure that's nothing important. No. This is either really good or really bad. I just rolled a 6, DM. We rolled a 6! Okay. I think I know it. Everybody dies instantly. Remake your character.

[00:01:15] So, um, just to make sure that you know I'm not fudging rolls. I'm gonna show an impartial individual right now. This is a ability called Borrowed Instinct. You can see, just to make sure that you know that I'm telling the truth here. That's what I have for D6. Okay. Um, and I'm gonna double check here. I feel like this is one that's gonna really frustrate you. So I'm just gonna go ahead and tell you now what it is.

[00:01:44] So you are aware. Please do. Uh, uh, this is, again, Borrowed Instinct. At the start of each of your turns in combat, the DM may choose one, either your movement, action, or bonus action. You can't take that during your turn. Oh my gosh.

[00:02:06] As the voices around you today are so loud and distracting that trying to focus on anything is quite a struggle. Uh-oh. In this glimmering fit level, uh, a knock occurs at the barracks door from just outside. You all have just recently awoken from your beds.

[00:02:35] What would you like to do? I think after our shared experience, um, Brynn wants to get up real quick and leave the room. Um, yeah. Um, and he goes, yeah, hold on, everybody. Um, I'll be back. Uh, any, uh, any, any refreshments, any beverages that anybody wants? Ah, never mind. And I'll walk off.

[00:03:03] Um, just as he goes to leave, um, is he leaving out the same door that we just heard the knocks from? Or is there another door that he would be exiting from? I mean, up to you, Brynn, the only other room is going to be a small restroom. Uh, yeah, no, he, uh, he's not going to the restroom. He's going out the, the main door, I guess. Uh, I guess Swoop will be like, oh, wait. And then as he kind of shuffles out, he'll, he'll greet whoever was going to knock kind of unprepared for the door opening.

[00:03:30] As you open the door, you see the terrifying hell of Rin Sadoba looking down at you. I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll be back. I'll be back. Oi, little, oh, oh, oi, uh, good to see you again, Rin. And he'll kind of like straighten up, trying to look as nonchalant as possible. There's a reason you're stepping over this way?

[00:03:58] Uh, I think Rin being so shocked by the bracedness of Brynn to just walk past her, just lets it happen. As she looks into the room and says, you're being beckoned to the throne room. Hi. Hi. Thank you, Rin. And, uh, Nico's going to sit up finally because he was just laying there staring at the ceiling.

[00:04:23] Sit up, put his head in his hands and rub the size of his head for a moment while he collects his bearings. I think Poppy, uh, was curled up like a little caterpillar under all of her blankets. And when she pops out, she's perfectly done up like all of her little, little tiny bits of makeup and her hair all flawless. And she comes out and she's just fully dressed and she worm wriggles out of her little cocoon and goes, I'm ready. Is this the Poppy that we're used to seeing? Oh yeah. This is, oh yeah.

[00:04:53] All done up and pinks and, uh, blacks and grays. Would Swoop notice, um, Nico and his current dishevelment? Would Nico be hiding it? No, but we all just woke up. So I don't know. Maybe Nico's just tired. Yeah, just wake up. I think we're learning that Nico's probably always constantly tired. Okay. Okay. Up to you.

[00:05:22] He's not hiding anything anymore. He, uh, he realizes that the most dangerous person to him already knows. And then, yeah, Nico just looks tired. No way the checks out. In case it wasn't obvious, that wasn't a request. I mean, Poppy's up and kind of standing by the door.

[00:05:52] It's like she was just, I'm ready. So she's, she's waiting right there. Well, yeah, yeah. We understand. Let's get a move on. Is there anything Nico would try to do as he gets the space before we are ushered into the throne room? You're pointing at me. So I'm thinking you're asking about Bryn. You said Nico. I'm sorry, Bryn. Yes. Um, so Bryn will go off and one, um, he will find some parchment and ink.

[00:06:19] Uh, and while he has some time, uh, real quick, he's going to quickly draw four cattail reeds. Uh, and then he's going to, uh, he's going to rip them into little squares. And so each individual square has an individual cattail reed that he drew. And then second, he's going to go off to, um, the kitchen area.

[00:06:48] Uh, and he's going to, he, he was hoping to have, you know, hoping to have this sit down with everybody in our room. And like, you know, we, again, this shared experience, this, uh, these, um, shared visions that we have with the dream with Zoa, uh, sort of driving and giving answers and, uh, reassurance and stuff like that.

[00:07:09] Uh, so he was going to go grab, you know, like, uh, a craft of like orange juice, the craft of water, a craft of coffee, a craft of, uh, a breakfast out, you know, partially more for himself. Uh, but to share if anybody wanted a breakfast out with him. Um, and so he was, he was going to go see if he could grab a tray of this, um, the, um, these beverages and come back.

[00:07:33] Uh, but I guess when he comes back to the room, uh, I, I figure this sounds like it would take a little bit of time to, you know, travel to the kitchen, travel back that nobody's back at the room. I, I, I kind of figured that the timing of that. I mean, I like it. I think honestly what ends up happening is you go out towards the center.

[00:07:54] You see a figure familiar to your dreams sitting among the trees as she beckons over to Ren and says, give them a moment. Thank you. Thank you. I'll be back. I'll be back. And seeing, seeing his new, you know, newfound friend and Bren, uh, kind of, kind of take off and seeming super urgent. So we'll be like, Oh yeah, we'll be right there.

[00:08:22] And then he'll, uh, and kind of fly over to Bren. Hey, Hey little buddy, what are we, uh, what are we doing? What's so important? Where are we going? Who are we fighting? Well, with my, uh, with my newfound level and monk, you can see you're having a hard time keeping up with me as I've got an extra 10 feet of movement. And so he, he's just, he's just moving quick. Uh, one, just with this, uh, this drive to go to, to do these things that he had in his mind.

[00:08:52] Uh, but then to just with, um, after, after our instance with this hag, just unlocking this, um, the sort of power just to do things, um, and have that drive. And so you can see he's going faster than you. And I, I think the kitchen's this way. Oh yeah. All right. And Swooch is doing his best to keep up. Yeah. Uh, but then I guess, um,

[00:09:22] You come back with a craft of everything. I mean, everything on this top level is in this big circle. Like there's, there's all these buildings surrounding this one garden. And towards one point of this level is of course that golden, almost monastery like throne room. That's hard to look at. And you almost feel like you're bowing as you do.

[00:09:49] But the golden empress, like I said, is just sitting crisscross in her human form among the trees. Waiting for you to show back up. Uh, and so, yeah, if, uh, as, as we heard, you know, Zoe gave us the time, um, Bryn, Bryn will come back, um, with a swoop following.

[00:10:12] You probably have a tray of, uh, two of the crafts in mind and I'll have a tray of the other two crafts in mind, uh, and, um, and cups and stuff like that. And so we'll meet Poppy and Nico, uh, Zoe and, um, the captain out there. And, uh, okay. Um, I've got, I've got water. I've got coffee. I've got breakfast out. I've got orange juice. Um, what, what, what would, what would you all like? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, you little bugger. You fast.

[00:10:42] I mean, I'm here as well. Here's the, here's the, the shit. And swoop. I'll just go sit down. Oh, you little bugger. Woo. Uh, and, um, Bryn will, would just like to pour cups for, you know, everybody. Uh, and so, uh, uh, Poppy, what do you, what do you feel this morning? I, I, I've got. Water. Water, of course. Then he'll pour one up real quick and hand you a cup.

[00:11:11] Um, Nico, um, if you drink anything, what would you like? I think, uh, water, water, please. Water. Sure. Here you go. Yep. Splash it up into his scaly face. Um, and, uh, yeah, swoops. Thanks for, thanks for helping out with the extra hand there. What would you like? Some water. Water would be, would be great. Okay. I guess everybody likes water. Here you go. Uh, and, and captain, can I get you anything?

[00:11:41] I guess a coffee black. Coffee black. I, I like it. And he'll pour the coffee. Um, you know, it's still hot, um, hot pot of coffee there and hand it over, uh, to the captain there. Uh, and he'll bow to Zoe and can I get you anything Empress? Yes. An orange juice. And he'll slowly, uh, slowly pour it. Make sure nothing splashes drops or anything.

[00:12:10] Walks over gently and hands it, um, hands it to her here in the area. And he'll go and just pick up this, this cup that he's already poured himself. And you'll see it's almost thick like a coffee, but it's the breakfast stout, um, that he's having for himself. Um, uh, I'm, I'm sorry. I just, you know, I just felt like we all needed that after, after what happened. I see.

[00:12:42] Is anyone confused on what needs to happen moving forward? This is so, by the way. Uh, I, I, I mean, that almost one of the last things you told us was we, we need to head to my hometown and, um, I need to, I need to plant the seed that I, um, received from karma.

[00:13:08] And as he, as he says that he's going to go to the big tree, um, and put his hand on it and goes, Oh God, good morning, karma. Um, you know, hoping to just get a message, uh, back to her in that way. I mean, the trees rustle a little bit, do with that what you will.

[00:13:26] Um, and again, he, it would, he has, he has hope, um, with the, with the nature of things, especially individually on the empire that he found out she controls the nature, the flow of, um, mainly sewage. But, uh, you know, the water, the plants of this empire, she's the heart, as she said.

[00:13:53] And so just feeling that part of nature just hopes and feels that that message does get back. And that's just, that's just what he holds in his, his head and his heart. Any of the rest of you? I have no questions. I must go to where I awoke, I think.

[00:14:19] Oi, ready for, uh, for next objective, ma'am. Zoe will get up abruptly, put her orange juice down and say, I have an empire to run.

[00:14:36] As she begins to walk off, she'll put a hand on Nico's shoulder and say, live in a way that makes me not regret my decision.

[00:15:00] She'll turn to Rin and say, give them the hag I think they wanted, and she'll walk away. Miss Empress? Yes? Are we working in your name or clandestinely? She will pull out a letter with her seal and hand it to you.

[00:15:28] As she says, whatever suits the moment, I suppose. Very well. And I will tuck it away. She will go towards the throne room at this point. Uh, Rin will very unceremoniously pull out a hag's hag and throw it on the ground and walk off after her.

[00:15:54] And the four of you are left here on the fifth floor. You'll see as soon as the Empress leaves the room, Nico will slump shoulders, deflate. And, uh, he's going to sit down, pull out the blade and start looking at it. Interesting. What does that mean for Nico? Um, he's doing a little check, I believe.

[00:16:25] Okay. He, uh, now understands the blade a little bit better. Um, did you, did we want to cast anything on this or no? This above table. Um, actually, sure, sure. He'll cast it on a den pie. It's up to you because you just mentioned it to me. So I want to make sure that I'm respecting your player choice here. You can tell me either way.

[00:16:55] Sure. Oh, okay. We are, you are wanting to, to cast something. What would you like to cast? Uh, identify. Interesting. Um, did you have that this whole time or did you just get it? Uh, I believe I switched it out for something. Oh, on the level up. Mm-hmm. Got you. I was like, you attuned to this thing before casting? I did. Yeah. A little backwards. Doesn't seem important. So.

[00:17:26] I'm going to let this moment be private since you are the one casting it. Oh, God. You technically get to know the nature of the blade, including any effects that may occur. However, this would have to be above table. Mm-hmm. So that, that does mean I'm just going to reveal to you and you alone what the D6 table does. Oh. In its entirety. Oh, cool.

[00:17:51] So you can understand why I was so desperate for you not to do this. Okay? Oh, no. Oh. Oh. Desperate for her not to, for Nico not to attune to this. It starts at the top there. Feel free to read through that in your own time. Oh. While she's reading through that, would anyone else like to do anything? I think, well, I think just real quick, as an Eldritch Knight, I don't think you get, you get access to the spell.

[00:18:21] I don't think you can do it as a ritual. Right? I think, I think it does have to take a spell slot since fighters don't get their ritual spellcasting. Correct. So it would take the spell slot. Yeah, it takes spell slot and it's one minute casting time of ritual. Right. Now, yeah, I'm trying to, I'm trying to remember the rules with, because I'm trying to remember in 2014, only specific classes could cast ritual spells as rituals. I don't recall 2024.

[00:18:51] I know I looked this up before just for myself, I think probably for another game or another purpose or something like that. So I can't, yeah, I can't remember. It's Eldritch Knight. I was just curious. Since you're doing it with a spell slot, it can be instantaneous. The one minute is for ritual. If it basically, which is a way to do it without. Ritual is an extra 10 minutes. Oh, sorry. Yes. Oh, I see. Yeah. No, it says casting time, one minute duration instantaneous. Yeah. I was like, I don't know, guys.

[00:19:20] I'm just looking at what I'm looking at. Okay. Perfect. That, that, that, again, it, you know, I might, I might ask questions like this personally, just, just to learn and just to figure out and understand better. Um, this says that any spell casting class can cast a spell as a ritual if they have it prepared and it has the ritual tech. Okay, cool. Oh, really? Yeah. Including sorcerers? It says any spell casting class. That's crazy. Okay. Well, good for you. If you want to spend the 10 minutes, then go for it.

[00:19:46] Then I think the, like, ritual caster feat, if I'm trying to remember, is, um, you just get extra ritual, uh, spells that you can do. Does it speed it up a little bit too? I think so. You might be right. Uh, in that way. Once you have more ritual spells. Yeah. Along with getting that feat, yeah. You can pick a lot of, um. I was going to say, I had it for, but it was like, I'm not sure if it was 2024. I'm pretty sure it was 2024 rules, but the divination caster I did a while back. I was like, I think I made her a ritual caster because I was like, she's full utility.

[00:20:17] Yeah. Yeah. Um, but I, um, as Nico, I guess is focusing, focusing in on this, um, you'll see Brynn, uh, puts his hand in his pocket and pulls out this, this, these sheets of parchment, parchment, these little torn squares of parchment. Uh, and he'll go to each one of you and, um, well, Pompey, I know you've liked to share

[00:20:46] flowers and I still have mine and he'll, you know, open his lapel, show the flower that you gave us. And whenever we first were, uh, in front of the, um, cider house, whenever you, you rolled a natural one on a perception and you got lost and just pick flowers. And so he kept that with himself. Uh, and under that lapel, you'll see the flower and the cattail reed that he keeps under his lapel.

[00:21:09] Um, well, um, this is a symbol of, you know, my home where we're, well, we were told to go there and, you know, we, this, this moment we all had together last night. I, I, I want to give you all this. And he hands you the torn pieces of parchment with each a cattail reed on it. You know, hand one to Poppy, to Nico and to Swoop.

[00:21:40] And it, I don't come to trusting so easily, but I want to trust you all. I, after, after last night, there's, there's more to each of us. There's more that we shared last night than, I mean, I don't know a lot of people can say for themselves. And so just keeping with that, I want to share this with you all.

[00:22:11] Oh, we appreciate it, man. It's greatly, greatly appreciated of you. But, uh, but these, these are only temporary. These are only temporary. Um, I can, I can find you some whenever we, whenever we get to my, uh, get to my home at the, uh, Drowned Reed Shire. I'll, I'll find each of you one that, that speaks to me and I'll, you'll, you'll, you'll just get a real one that you can hold on to. Thank you. Well. Appreciate that, man.

[00:22:41] And he'll tuck it away on his robes. But, you know, I'd like to thank you, Poppy. You, you helped me. You saw the potential, um, that we could both help each other. You know, we were down in the sewers that got pretty dicey down there. Um, and then swoops. I, I would definitely like to thank you with, uh, the help there. Your, uh, your healing that you gave me there with the hag. I know I was somewhere else. That's not, that wasn't me.

[00:23:11] That's just where the hag took me. And so I just like to say thank you as well. And, um. Hey man, I've been in that dark place before. That's, uh, not something you have to go through alone anymore. I appreciate that. And that's, that's one reason why I want to give you, you know, this read. And Nico, I, I, you taking care of Poppy there with the hag.

[00:23:37] I, again, I still took note of it, but I, I, I couldn't get there in that moment, uh, to help her myself. But I want to say thank you on, on half of Poppy. I know, I know she said thank you, but I would just like to say that as well. Of course, you are my friend. And with that, you kind of see him, you know, like his, his shaggy hair covering his eyes.

[00:24:06] And he'll kind of, like, kind of bend down a little bit and just, and then just look back up at everybody, just still with that hair. But just him taking that, taking that moment in as, you know, Nico claiming friend and him and Brynn claiming friends with everybody else. I've never had friends before. It's quite interesting. Lots more death and dying than I thought.

[00:24:34] Bit more blood than I imagined, for sure. It's wonderful. Well, um, I mean, can I ask, after last night, you, you say you, you haven't had a lot of friends. Is, is it because, what has, what has happened that you've had to be in hiding? Only two people knew what I was. Then that number went down to one. And now, suddenly, it has gone up by. Four?

[00:25:05] Is, is the one that you're mentioning Almaz? Yes. I've, I've, again, I'm hard to, I'm hard to come to trust, but I feel like we can trust Almaz. Do you trust her? Well, she hasn't sold me out and gotten me killed yet, so if that's what trust is, then yes. Okay. Now that you all know, I look forward to seeing if I can trust you too.

[00:25:35] Um, well, you know, this, this parchment for me can represent trust that you can put in me as well. Then I'll keep it safe. And then she pours her 15th sugar packet into her water. Sugar water. More. Oh my gosh, what a reference. Right? Yep. If you know, you know. Oh yeah. Gotta love Men in Black. Well, now you gave it away.

[00:26:06] I know. I ruined it. Old and busted. New hot. Um, so, Swoops, the, well, the, the image that Zola gave us, she was helping your father escape? Oy, that's right. Do you know, do you know where he went before this? Before this? Well, before the escape that she showed us.

[00:26:35] Hey, Swoop. Why don't you give me a check? A history check. To see if it was really Zola helping your father. It's an out one. Hit that button. It was probably Zola helping your father. Hit that button. Uh. Oy. Yeah. It was definitely Zola. Okay. Yeah. I, uh, gotta say, I'm guessing on an out one, that's me having no idea. Okay, great. Uh.

[00:27:05] No idea. Yeah. It was definitely, uh, Zola helping me old, me old man out. We, uh, you know, we chose the ones gotta, gotta keep it tightly knit. And you're now the keeper of secrets? Uh, I can't really talk about that. You know, it's, uh, kinda with the territory. Yeah, uh, well, I guess the keeper of secrets has to keep those secrets. Um. Yeah. But that's kinda cool.

[00:27:34] Your, your lineage is from your God. That's so cool. But like, yeah, I, I'd picture all of us, you know, still out in this garden. Bren's, you know, sitting on one of these, uh, tall rocks here in this garden.

[00:27:54] And just, um, you know, like if, uh, if we all feel open, you know, um, we can, you know, I, I mean, I know I'm asking questions about, you know, what we all saw from each other. I mean, I, I mean, is there any questions that you all have all of me? I'm sorry. Uh, uh, you know, I'm, I'm happy to answer anything or, I mean, I, I would like to talk this out if, you know, we shared, we shared that.

[00:28:24] I think it was a pretty big deal, right? Hags are very good at getting under people's skin. Yes. It's very, brings forth a lot of emotions. But not, not only, not only the hag, but the show. Yeah. And Poppy's gonna look around and does she spot the same kind of spell she saw in the room that were scrying spells and watching spells?

[00:28:54] Uh, are you, are you doing a check for this? Yes. Okay. Yeah, if I can. Um, yeah, give me an arcana check. Why not? Okay. Yeah. Could I help at all by looking around just with my naked eye? You know, if that helps. I don't think that's gonna help. Okay. Only because she said she's looking for scrying and scrying specifically outlines it is invisible. True. 18. 18. She didn't need it. It's only because of my modifier.

[00:29:24] I don't think you notice anything. Okay. In this moment, in fact, even the paladins that were surrounding this garden. This courtyard. Have all gone towards the throne room following the empress. Hmm. Okay. So seeing that, she'll go, we might be alone, but we weren't in our room. Hmm.

[00:29:51] So perhaps we speak around certain topics going forward. As Brynn, like, looks around, like, paranoid now. She'll wait until she catches your eye, and then she'll wink, and her eye will go solid black, and then she'll wink again, and it goes back to normal. Ah. But yes, that was quite the dream, wasn't it?

[00:30:21] I mean, Nico, do we still call you Nico? No. It is the only name I know. Do you want a new one? What? Would you give me a new one? I change my name all the time. It's very fun. Will you give me a name as my first friend? Sure.

[00:30:52] Hmm. Oh, you kind of look like a bab to me. You kind of look like a bab. I think we veto that. Bob would be a good one. No, I think we veto that. A barb? B-A-R-B? Is that what you're trying to say in this Australian accent? Bob. B-O-B. Oh, B-O-B. I thought you were going babs like Barbara Gordon. I was like, oh, okay. There we go. You sound like a bob, but with an Australian accent. It makes it difficult to say the O instead of the A.

[00:31:21] Hey, Swimbs. Hey, Swimbs, what's Australian? O-E. You'll have to learn about it when you get a little bit older. I'm 26 years old. You can think on it. We'll think on it. For now, call me Nico. Well, okay. I'll be happy to call you. Whatever we come up with.

[00:31:50] But, I mean, if everybody's changing names, Swoops, I mean, I think your name's kind of cool. Swooperian and your dad, Squakarius. Squakulus. Squakulus. That's right. Yeah. Those are some cool names. I think you should keep yours. Yeah, thanks. I appreciate it. Yours is not bad either. We could make it a little more bird-themed maybe, but other than that, I think it's pretty solid. I mean, I think it'd be weird. Yeah, yeah.

[00:32:19] I guess it's kind of on brand for me. I guess that totally tracks. Yeah, a little bit. You know, I'm not very, as you like to say, aerodynamic or avian. Hey, you've got some aerodynamic features, my little friend. I wouldn't beat yourself up too much. You do move very fast. Yeah, yeah. That's quite an admirable trait to have. You're very quick on your feet. Well, I mean, don't... I mean, you're not going to try and come on to me, are you? No, no. Okay.

[00:32:48] Not that angler. Definitely not. Okay. We can still be friends, though. Yeah. Yeah. Sure. Um. And Swoop will kind of like look around awkwardly. He'll be like, well, let's hit that old dusty road, eh? I like how everyone looked to me to give help. I'm like, nope, you guys are going to fill this scene out. Dad, dad, help. Brynn just friend-zoned Swoop.

[00:33:15] He's just going to look up towards the sky, wandering in his mind, Paka helps. Um, Nico's going to stand all the way up, dust himself off, put the blade away, sort of. And then, um, I think we should make our way. Uh, we have to stop at Brynn's hometown. We have to stop at mine as well. We have to go see Karma about a head and a diamond. Oh, yes. Well, um, Nico, where are you from?

[00:33:44] Um, or is, or is it your, your body, where your body's from? Mm. Uh, I don't know where I'm from, but I don't know where I wake up. And, uh, where I wake up is quite dark. We'll go there after yours. Oh, I mean, okay, yeah. Considering we're all friends. Absolutely. We all trust one another. I would like to. What if I were to go speak to Karma by myself to get the reward,

[00:34:12] and then we all meet up and do our shopping and split the money? I think going alone, knowing that you and I especially are in danger here, is a bad idea. I've lived here my whole life. If you think so, Poppy. Um, why is it you feel that you and Poppy are in danger here in the capital? We are not what I see, what we seem, and a lot of things are coming to light. Oh.

[00:34:43] Oh. And, yeah, you know, Bryn will think back on what we learned about, um, the, what was it? Day of Darkness. And I think we learned a little bit more about the Day of Darkness in our, um. You did? In our dream state where, um, the Day of Darkness, the, this is Zoa's brother. Is that right? The Silver Dragon? Uh, Boz, the Silver Dragon. Boz, the Silver Dragon.

[00:35:12] That sounds, that sounds awesome. I have Boz, the Silver Dragon. That sounds cool. Um, where Boz, before he died, passed this legislature of where, um, creatures like Poppy, quote unquote changeling,

[00:35:33] um, whoever can change their appearance innately, right, are not welcome in the empire or on the continent? What, did we learn that specifically? So you're close. You're, you're really close. The Day of Darkness is the day that Boz died. Right, right. But on that day before he died. Oh, okay. The day after he died. It was basically-

[00:36:01] Legislation was pushed forth by the Senate. 100 members of the Senate. The only vote against it was the Empress herself. Um, yeah. I thought, I thought I remember hearing that the Silver Dragon, you know, wanted to pass that before. No? Okay. I'll have to change notes. Yeah, it was after he passed and it's basically like genocide on all the changelings almost. Or, or just, um, banishment.

[00:36:32] Was it banishment? I thought it was like, actually, no? No, it was, the only thing I communicated, I think your imaginations are filling in some of the blanks. Right. Because I keep it vague. It was legislation that acted against people who could naturally change their appearance. Oh, okay. Illusion magic is fine, but if physically you can just change it for me. Right, right, right. If you want more context. That's what I was saying, the innate, the innate ability to do so.

[00:37:00] But, um, but what we're asking is, again, were they executed or was it just, you gotta get out of here. You can't be here. I think you should ask your party member. Okay, cool. Um, it, and I mean, this is, this is player, you know, recounting, uh, the dream again, uh, and, you know, wanting to come up with questions, uh, for each of us, for each of our.

[00:37:30] Our dream sequences that we all had together, you know, we were all a part of each other's and stuff like that. So. Question. I believe, you know, for Sarah's, some was revealed, but also, I, I don't know. I've thought maybe Swoop is the only one that caught on to the fact she was a changeling or am I incorrect there? Because I think I saw her during the battle, right? You saw during the battle, but we all did get the story. The story, that's right. During the dream. During the dream, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:37:59] I would say, I would say just above table and above podcast. I'm going to let that be Poppy's scene. I think I've talked to Sarah enough about that to let her handle that for the group. Which part specifically? All, all, all conversations regarding to changelands. Okay. Well, yeah. The blanket. Would you, Sarah? Yeah. Yeah. Because I think I know, I think I know what my character knows versus what I know.

[00:38:28] So I might keep it a little vague just to be on the safe side, but I think, I think the line is. Yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah. Hey, Poppy, given your current, say, condition, you don't believe that would cause any, I don't know, any kind of damage to yourself or any harm to your well-doing on your solo venture? Yeah. I've been solo most of my life.

[00:38:55] This is the first time I've ever really worked in a team, especially this long. And this isn't your first time in the Empire, though, right? I was born here. Okay. Okay. I am a blood-born citizen. Absolutely. And he can't wink, so he'll cover one eye with one hand and then just blink at you, winking back at you. Understanding. Hey, if that's what you got to do, I believe in you.

[00:39:25] Maybe I'll be with you. He can join, sure. That's not necessarily what he... Never mind. You'll meet us then? Certainly. Let us know if you need help. I'll send a ghost. Hopefully not mine. Oh, um, speaking of, um, I know I asked you to do this before.

[00:39:50] Or, um, do you think you can try and reach out to, uh, you know, Elder Sinna from my hometowns? I just, I just, I was just, I just want to make sure what I saw with this hag, what she tried to show me, if it was real, if it was not.

[00:40:10] Um, I, do you think you can contact your spirits again to see if, um, she really is dead or is really not? I can try. I... But some spirits don't show themselves to me. And some aren't spirits. So... I, um... She could be alive. I would... Or she could be quite rude and refuse a summoning. Or she could have moved on.

[00:40:39] If, um... But I can try. I think I'm okay if, if we just do it one more time. Certainly. Um, thank you. And I'll get my cards out and I will make a show of shuffling through them. And I will attempt to see if this person will show themselves to me if they are a spirit.

[00:41:03] Knowing that usually the ones who show themselves to me are the ones that want to be seen and they show up whether I want them to or not. Roll a D100. Okay. Beth, keep me honest. It fell outside the thing, but I think we keep that. It should be a re-roll. It got caught, like, between that fold and that board. DM? Hey, we always honor if the dice is cocked.

[00:41:35] Okay. Better. On the cock, as they say. Hell yeah. First one was a 20, but it was on the outside, hanging off of the roll and the thing. The next one was an 80. Okay. 80. Add the D10 too. So I know exactly what it is. Oh, do a D10? Uh-huh. D10 and a D10. You see if the percentile die and the single, so we get an exact number of the D100. Oh, that's cool. Okay. Oh, well, that was an accidental. There we go.

[00:42:05] Zero. Does that mean 10? Yeah. So 80. 80 flat. Mm-hmm. No one answers. No one answers. If they're there, they're not talking. I mean... Which could be a very good sign. Yeah. That's how I would like to take it. And you know what? I think that's what I'm going to stick with.

[00:42:37] If she's not going to answer you on behalf of me, I think that's good. So I feel a little better. Good. But not until I can see her at the Shire. Sometimes knowing is worse. Yeah, but that gives you the closure, you know? You know, that's what I'm looking for. I'm looking for the answer.

[00:43:07] If it's, you know, if it's an answer I'm not looking for, at least I have one. Interesting. We know how that works out. As long as we can stick together, I will. And he'll... Cool. He'll give you a little smirk, a little smile. Yeah. Um, Nico's going to take a few steps towards Poppy. He knows last time he went to touch her, she flinched away. So he's being very careful now. He's going to lean forward.

[00:43:36] And they're just going to... If you can see ghosts, can you see the ones that follow me? Whoa! Do you have ghosts following you? He was whispering this into Poppy's ears. But if you have really good hearing, maybe. I mean, my passive perception is 16. So... Can I reach out to Nico and see if I can discern any crazy shit with him? Roll another D100 for me. Yes!

[00:44:05] Let's go. D100 and the D10? Yep. Are we just going to say, hey, give me a ghost roll now? And Sarah could just know, hey, that's a D100 roll. Yeah. Yeah? Yeah, honestly, yeah. Give me a ghost check. Ghost check! Give me a ghost check! Let's go! 42. Which is the answer to the universe. Hey-o! Oh, that has to be the best one. It's like a nat 20. Roll to persuade the DM. That's the next campaign.

[00:44:34] I'm actually not making this that hard for you. Mm-hmm. All of it falls under. I'm following the rules from a magic item called the belt of, I think it's dwarven kind. Mm-hmm. So you actually want a lower number. Oh! It's the briefest glimpse. Does she grow a beard? It's the briefest glimpse. No, that'd be so funny, though. Ah! It's the briefest glimpse. It's the briefest glimpse.

[00:45:04] But for a moment, you swear you see a hundred hands on Nico's shoulders. Oh, that's crazy. And 200 eyes peering down at him. As if a great burden is trying so desperately to push him towards the ground. Nico is like centimeters from Poppy, like leaning over her so that nobody else hears. But of course, Brynn overhears.

[00:45:33] I am rapidly fluttering my eyelashes to try and get the image to go away. That laugh, though. That was great. Hmm. You have more friends than I do. I mean, the only ones I've made are you three? Not that kind. Oh. Oh, I see. Have you thought about seeing some sort of cleric? No.

[00:46:04] Actually, I feel like that's dangerous considering my condition. True. But outside the city, we might find someone who could look into all of them and do so without it getting back to the capital. Safe bet. We should hurry then. Um, real quick, speaking of your condition, and Brynn, well, you know,

[00:46:30] like look around paranoid again as, uh, as Poppy mentioned or, you know, started looking around for invisible eyes. Um, speaking of your condition, have you known about your condition this whole time? I knew I did not know. Well, I knew I did not recognize these people or this place. So, like, when you look down at your hands. They are not mine.

[00:46:59] They are not, whoa. Whoa. And then, like, he'll go, whoa. Whoa. And, you know, he'll, he's looking down at his hands thinking, you know, being empathetic of that. Oh, what if these were not my hands? You know, being all introspective a little bit. But, but, I mean, do you, do you know how long you have been in this body? Yeah. No longer than a few months.

[00:47:30] And what's the, what's the first thing you remember then? Blood. Death. Whoa. That's pretty intense. Yours or others? Yes. Whoa. That was so quick. She said, yeah, like, whoa, like, this is all like, you know, after knowing it's just

[00:47:54] a, if anything, not a big tidal wave to everybody else, but, you know, big tidal wave to Brynn, uh, just taking it all in, trying to understand and stuff like that. But I mean, uh, you know, I, I have some ideas, um, that I can do before we head out, uh, to, you know, we got to head down South, uh, you know, maybe about, maybe about Southwest, um, here from the Capitol.

[00:48:22] Uh, so I've got some ideas if we're going to go trekking and adventuring, uh, to kind of help myself to actually, you know, help my friends here as he gestures to everybody around. Um, so, I mean, if, if, if we all have like a chore list, I've, I've got one of my own. Um, so I can do that real quick and then we can all, we can all, where do we, where do we, where do we want to come back to? Where do we want to meet up?

[00:48:51] Uh, Dan, would I know a good place to meet up before heading out? Like a good area landmark? Yeah. Are we looking for something specifically in case you're like away from prying eyes or is it, are you just looking for a general location? Uh, we're all, we're all familiar with Alma's, you know, restaurant, the Emerald. The Emerald Toad. Yeah. We know that. We know the Cider House. We all know. The Yawning Fairy.

[00:49:19] The Yawning Fairy is a mutual place between everybody. So. True. Would we like to all meet at all masses? I, I think that'd be okay. Yeah, definitely got some, some stuff I gotta go take care of before we leave. Uh, in that case, just so I got the marching order correctly, Brynn, you're going off to do your own thing to get supplies. Uh, swoop, I'm assuming the trials, is that where we're headed? I'm gonna go see me uncle.

[00:49:47] Okay, God, you're going to the Hall of Gods to see your uncle to finish your trials. Nico, you were recommended to maybe see a cleric. What would you like to do? Um, so they, uh, after changing into some fresh clothes, um, look a little lost for a moment. Like, they start following, swoop, swoop, like, flies away. Start following Brynn, Brynn, like, sprints away. Start following after Poppy. She's, she, he turns around, she's gone.

[00:50:17] He looks lost. Maybe a little scared for a moment. And then he stands up straighter and heads to where he thought he remembers the clerics being. No, no, no, no. I think he starts to head that way and then a shoulder plate falls off and he goes to get new armor instead. Because he doesn't want to go to the capitals clerics for dangerous, uh, suspicion reasons. Makes sense to me.

[00:50:46] Um, I'm so curious about your character, Nico. Oh my gosh. For real? Who have we been playing with this whole time? They don't even know. Oh gosh. No, like, if you guys knew what the contents were of the item that I just made. Maybe you wouldn't leave. The revolt you would have against Beth. Um, anyways. Beth, we, we know that Beth is a chaos player, so.

[00:51:13] Well, DM, you're saying that randomly, randomly attuning to an item that we know is cursed is a bad idea? What? The blade of a thousand souls. I mean, it sounds totally player friendly. That was the good version of the blade. No, that sounds really peaceful and not like it's going to completely break your mental capacity in any way, shape, or form. Um, okay. Yeah, absolutely. So that's what, what ends up happening for Nico. You were going to those clerics, but that pesky armor.

[00:51:42] You end up selling your armor. You get some new armor for yourself. Swoop. You make your way back up to the Hall of the Gods. And as you look towards the sky, all the stained glass surrounding you, daylight pouring in on a new day, you see the bird-like structure of the Temple of Bacaw with the open mouth entrance at the front.

[00:52:16] What do you do? Uh, as Swoop looks up, he, he's going to kind of be in awe of the statue at first. Um, just as he's looking at it, this is definitely Bacaw. Correct? This is definitely Bacaw. Uh, he, he looks up and kind of bows his head as his wings go out and he goes, and then he, he will make his way in.

[00:52:40] As you make your way in, a figure in solid floor-length white robes with golden trim, hood over his face, comes towards you, a long protruding beak underneath. As he pulls back the hood and goes, amen. It's your Uncle Rowie. Oi, good to see you again, man.

[00:53:09] And I'll go up and attempt a dap. Good to see you, prof. Uh, yeah, so you like, uh, you worked through all the, with, I don't know if it was mental or maybe some heart things that were going on? Oi, Rowie. Last, last we spoke, you, uh, you really touched a nerve. And, uh, I, I don't think you would have wanted me to, uh, to represent the family that way. I've been trying to lead better, a way that he would approve.

[00:53:41] I'm glad to hear it. Sounds like you're ready then. He's gonna clap his hands together as torches light up the long hallway of this temple. And towards the very back, you see that there's this light of a fire that's been burning this whole time.

[00:54:08] Your Uncle Rowie is gonna lead you to the fire as he scoops up a hand of it. And it doesn't burn him. Oi, that's it, isn't it? It's the eternal flame. The eternal flame. It's right on. This is, this is the blessing of the burning wing. And that's what I've been tasked with. Making sure this bad boy doesn't go out.

[00:54:39] Boy, might I just say, Bacall bless me. That's some crazy shit right there. It is some crazy shit. He's gonna hold the fire out in between you and say, Um, you know, strange noises, hallucinations, involuntary bowel movements are common during this process. And just, just try to hang on tight and have fun.

[00:55:09] Okay, three, two, one. And he's gonna push the fire into your chest. Oi, hola! As that happens, it doesn't burn you, but your robes begin to light up. They turn pearlescent where they were just pure white. And where was the one golden feather? Now, almost in an outline of stitching, it seems to show the flame.

[00:55:37] As you go into your mind's eye, you open and you see you're in a wide open space. There's a floor beneath you, but not very far.

[00:55:57] Only a few steps out, you see a large chasm between where you stand and a doorway on the far side. As you check yourself and orient yourself in this moment, you realize you don't have your wings.

[00:56:22] Oi, what in the butt-eaten swoop will attempt to like turn around and like pat his back, trying to locate his wings. In a script right near the ledge, it says, take the leap.

[00:56:47] And swoop hesitantly will kind of walk over to the ledge, kind of peer over and look down for a moment. What do I see? Nothing. It's just black. Swoop will take a couple of steps back. May Bacall guide me. And he'll... And then dive.

[00:57:17] You dive and immediately start to fall. 20 feet. 40 feet. Oh, Bacall, please! 100 feet. When suddenly you feel the lift of air beneath your wings as they have reappeared. And as you start to get to what should be the close to the bottom of this, you start to hear a voice.

[00:57:46] No, please! No, please! No, please! No, please! And you see a small figure huddled in a corner with a larger figure over him. About to strike. Swoop will, you know, noticing his wings again, will immediately walk in on target and like dive bomb towards the threat.

[00:58:16] Yeah, just roll to hit. However you feel you would do it, go ahead and give me a roll to hit. Okay, so how I would do it then. So, Swoop then would rocket in Superman style, both arms out, you know, wings, dive bomb style. And as I get, you know, within 20 or 15 feet or so, I'm going to attempt some, whatchamacallit, magic missiles. Yeah! Oh, in that case, it's a direct hit. No roll, just give me some damage. Let me see.

[00:58:48] Or actually, I think in this case, if you want to do the damage, I won't take it from you. You don't have to. Okay. Three strikes hit this figure as it collapses down. But as you get closer to this figure, you realize that this is the shopkeeper that you struck on the road to the capital and threatens.

[00:59:15] As he looks at you now and says, not two of them. Please, I don't know anything. Oy, I thought you were. I'll try and turn back to where the kid was a moment ago. You'll look back.

[00:59:38] And a version of yourself will look back at you, wild, with red eyes, in almost beast-like form. Please, no. Oy. Look, man. From before, I did what I had to do, man. It wasn't personal, I assure you. Got nothing to worry about.

[01:00:05] I'll kind of put his hand on the old man looking back at the beastly form that there was. When you put your hands on his shoulder, the other version of you will disappear. And then so will the old man. As you stand at the bottom of this chasm, another voice speaks from behind you. Oy, son.

[01:00:36] Pa? And he'll turn quickly. Aye. It's good to see you. Oy, pa. Oh, and he'll run towards him and attempt an embrace. He'll let you embrace him. Sorry, pa. I know you never like to be touched, really. My apologies. It's just I've missed you. He'll, the moment you start saying that, pull you in tighter.

[01:01:07] I missed you, too. But now it's time to choose. And I'll tell you straight. Do you want to be high protector? Or do you want revenge? Because I can tell you who did it.

[01:01:35] Swoop will kind of look inside himself for a moment. Kind of conflicted. Thinking, just images flashing through his mind of, you know, how he found his father. You know, wingless, bloodied. And all the frustration and the months and the days that came. And as he takes a deep breath.

[01:02:04] Pa, I know the way you taught me was the way of Bacall. And I know we're here to serve a higher calling. I know what I must do. And I know what I must put aside in order to do so. I love you, too, pa. He'll disappear.

[01:02:25] From all around you, almost from the room itself, a voice will begin to speak. A new protector has been selected. But no. The contract you sign, and yes, it is a contract, is binding.

[01:02:54] And to intentionally desecrate or break, this contract will also break the sovereignty of your tribe. I walk the light and honor Bacall always. Then you are named High Protector. And as so, you now hold the burden.

[01:03:25] You are not a protector of your people. Nor of the Empress. But of secrets. There are vaults. Unplottable on a map. Unspeakable to your lips. That only you will have the intuition to find. If you need to.

[01:03:54] These vaults contain the armory of the primordials. The first library. Including sacred tomes of the death of the silver dragon. History of elemental beings.

[01:04:20] And other such secrets. And the third vault. Contains something more precious. To the Empress herself. Than anything else combined. You will know what to do. I would now like you to add. The robes of Bacall to your inventory.

[01:04:50] Oh snap. I'm going to give you a moment to do that. Because I do actually want you to read. What some of the functions are. Of these robes. As I said. They have changed on you. Taking on the title of High Protector. Okay. Okay. Robes. Of Bacall. Oh my goodness. Look at this. Wondrous item. Alright. Wondrous rare.

[01:05:20] These pearlescent robes. Shimmer between shades of ivory, silver, and midnight blue. Embroidered over the heart as a single golden feather. Said to resemble the one shed by Bacall. The great eagle who led the first migration. Those attuned to the robes sometimes hear the distant beat of wings. When standing beneath the open sky. The robes can be used as a spellcasting focus. Protectors Burden. While attuned to these robes.

[01:05:48] You cannot willingly reveal the location, nature, defenses, or secrets of any vault protected by the protector's contract. Attempts to communicate such information through speech, writing, maps, magical means, or other methods fail. The information becomes obscured, forgotten, distorted, or otherwise impossible to convey to other creatures. Celestial Migration. Aero-Cochra are descended from the first migration. An ancient journey guided by Bacall's across worlds.

[01:06:18] Though hidden vaults cannot be perceived as locations, those bound to protector's contracts can sense the path Bacall once flew. During a long rest beneath an open sky, you may spend ten minutes contemplating a vault known to the protector's contract. And make a wisdom survival check. As you meditate, you glimpse Bacall's soaring through your mind's eyes. His flight guides your understanding of the vault's whereabouts.

[01:06:48] And then gives me some general information about how the checks would work. The information gained cannot be revealed, exact location, route, or map, or coordinate. Bird's eye view while wearing these robes. Feather Fall and Arguery are added to your spell list. This feature does not grant you free spell casting of these spells or additional spell slots. You must cast them through normally using your own spell slots or another feature that allows you to cast them. Dope! Thank you. Alright.

[01:07:17] So that mechanic is custom to only you. You are one of one. And although you will not be able to communicate that to anybody, your intuition will be able to guide you and whoever you'd like to any of these vaults. Holy cow. And I think that's a good place where we can pick up with the group unless you have anything else. Do you have anything else you'd like to say to Uncle Rowy?

[01:07:43] So kind of as I receive the robes, everything fades around me. The vision completely changes and you realize you've been staring at the fire next to your uncle this entire time. Oi. Rowy, is that you? Yeah, man. Rowy, he was... He was here. Did you poop yourself? Did you... Oh, shit.

[01:08:14] Hey, oi, he was here, mate. Did you not see him a minute ago? He had the wings. He was alright. It wasn't for me to see. As he prestatizations all of the poop away for you. Oi, thanks, man. Appreciate that. You did warn me, to be fair. Not much of a warning. I would have taken off my trousers, but I appreciate the warning nonetheless. Yeah, we're not that close yet. Oi, well... I appreciate the...

[01:08:43] I appreciate you being here for me, and... I appreciate the guidance. I'm always here. And... May Bacall guide you. May Bacall guide you as well, Wonk. Bacall... Bacall... Bacall... Bacall... And then, uh, Swoop will... Take a deep breath as he looks back up at Bacall. I'll do you good sir. And he'll... Back to the group. Swoop, I'm so sorry. There's one more thing I forgot to mention.

[01:09:13] These vaults can only be opened by the Golden Empress herself, or by the wings of a chosen protector of your family. Brynn, you can tell me. We're separating from the group. First instinct, where would you be going? Um... I think for an idea for, you know...

[01:09:39] We got instructions from Zoa to go to the Drowned Reedshire and stop this oppression that she was not aware of. And so, his first thought for, you know, if we're gonna be going, we're gonna be on a trek, we're going on adventure, quest, whatever. So, his first thought is where, you know, where we first met Brynn was down in the first level. And where old gladiators hang out was at the Lazy Ogre Tavern.

[01:10:07] And so, that's maybe one of his first thoughts was, hey, these battle-readied fighters might have something to help out with. And so, that's where he would like to go. Yeah, absolutely. We make our way back down to the first level where the Lazy Ogre is. And if you recall, it's... It's not the... It's not the five-star cuisine spot to be.

[01:10:33] But for locals, especially lower surf-type locals of the capital, this is home. You go in, and it's just... It's the familiar stains. And it's the big fireplace hearth in the background that's going on. And you see the tatted-up human behind the bar that you spoke with previously, throw a towel over his shoulder as he looks at you and goes,

[01:11:02] Ah, Brynn, you're back. Yeah, it's me. You know, I kind of have a question. I'm about to be leaving the capital here soon. And, well, this place came to my mind for helping out with that. And I... Do those tattoos do anything special? He's going to lean down at you, kind of look to either side and go,

[01:11:31] Aren't you a cop? No, not anymore. So, again, I mean, I'm not going to tell anybody I'm leaving the capital here. I just told you that. And, I mean, I'm not in my uniform right now. So, I mean, you can trust me. You see the Goliath in the corner, far back table, past the hearth.

[01:12:00] And probably with Brynn's high perception, just passive perception, probably clocked him just coming in already. But without, like, moving Brynn's head, he'll do the move, you know, from Get Smart with Anne Hathaway and... Yes, I know what you're talking about, Steve Carell. Yeah, Steve Carell. And, like, he just widens his eyes and stresses that. And Brynn will just do that and be like, okay, yeah, he's still there. Yeah, I see him.

[01:12:32] And, yeah, you look back, you see it's a tall figure with kind of reddish skin, bald head, and lots of tattoos over the markings of the Goliath as the bartender gives a whistle, gives a little sign in the air, and the Goliath beckons you over.

[01:12:56] And I guess, quick question, this Goliath, we've heard before that giants are sort of rare in this continent. Mm-hmm. How rare would this Goliath be as well? Is this... Yeah, so they're pretty well integrated into society. There's no animosity or anything there.

[01:13:21] They are kind of recognized as maybe the first native species to the Empire before the Empire was established. But, again, still pretty well integrated into society. It's not surprising to see one here in the capital. Okay. Just full-blown giants are rare, and we don't know anything behind that now.

[01:13:47] But, yeah, we just know that there are more sightings recently. Is that right? That's right. More sightings? Okay. But, okay, but Goliaths are still normal sightings, I guess. So, you know, Bren will slide a gold to the bartender and head on over to the Goliath. You're a gentleman and a scholar.

[01:14:10] As you walk towards the figure, he's kind of hunched in this seat that's too small for him on this little table. He says, Take a seat. And he'll just nod and just hop in the seat, I guess across from him where I guess he gestured. My name's Baraxis.

[01:14:37] Well, Baraxis, I'm Brindle Wickfoot. I was asking our friend over there about those special tattoos. I didn't know if he had any special tattoos. But, you know, with you hardened fighters here, I'm about to be going on a trek here. And I figured maybe somebody here might have something to help out with that. Certainly. He's going to tap a notch on this little table.

[01:15:08] And the table where you're at is attached to the wall. And you're going to see, like, the whole wall turn. And you flip into a private room. Kind of like in the old Clue movie where you accidentally go into the secret room and a different table takes over. Yeah, a speakeasy area here. And he brings you back to a table for you to lay down on.

[01:15:33] And he'll show you an array of options that he's actually got up behind this table as he says, Are you looking for anything in particular? Or one of these, will they do? Well, for me, I'm one of the ones that gets up in the fight. You know, up at the fray there. And, you know, I fight with my friend here, John Wick.

[01:16:02] And he'll pat the knife on his belt buckle. But I also do some kicks and punches and headbutts and stuff like that. So I've got my dagger pretty much covered here. But maybe something to help me out with the punching and the kicking. Sounds like you need an Eldritch Claw. Is that what it's called? That sounds cool. Any request on design?

[01:16:31] I think I've got something in mind. And he'll describe this scene of we're at a bank, a river bank, but more swamp because you'll see that there's this,

[01:16:52] these Johnson grass is what it's called, where you see the tall, thin, spindly grass and then cattail reeds, which he is familiar with because he has one under his lapel. And then he mentions this, this badger is up on the bank and he's got this, he's got this chain in his mouth and the chain is coming up from the water.

[01:17:21] And you can see that one of the links in the chain is breaking while this badger is biting onto it. And in the background, there's going to be a full moon. He's going to kind of sketch it out for you to get your approval before he picks up his needle. How's this? It's got the badger and the chain just as you described it. You are an artist. Thank you.

[01:17:49] Vraxius is going to, he's going to pick up his needle and this is old school tapping method that he's going to be doing this. And you see that there's this swirling iridescent type of colors that he's got next to him that he's beginning to dip the needles into. I'm going to need a constitution save from you. And this is just for fun. I figured, I was hoping this was. You die. Yes. Some punishment just for this.

[01:18:20] Con save. Oh, it's a soft 20. Soft 20. You handle the pain pretty well. You're taking it like a champ. And even as Vraxius is tapping this out, he acknowledges, you're like a natural with this. Well, I come from the swamp. It's, you know, bug bites. It can be a little vicious down there if you're not careful. And, you know, I've been walking the streets here for the Capitol. Thank you.

[01:18:50] And you can trust me. I'm about to head out, so I've got nothing to tattle on here. He'll keep tapping as he begins to tell you a little bit of story about him. And you'll notice on one of his hands, he's got a really large golden ring. But as he taps, he'll tell you, I come from one of the last standalone tribes of Goliaths and all the Empire.

[01:19:18] This is very frowned upon, what I did. You see these? And he'll show you not the tattoos, but the birthmark stretches that seem to swirl a Goliath's body. He'll say, these are called lifelines to a Goliath. My people believe that they tell our destiny. And tattoos, they botch the destiny.

[01:19:48] But I believe we make our own, huh? And a wink to you. Yeah, that's kind of what I'm doing. Yeah. Still, I miss home. Yeah, that's where I'm heading to. What's going to do? Uh, as he taps, he's going to go, I figured I've done my fair share of adventuring too before this.

[01:20:18] As he finishes it out, I say that looks pretty good. I hope you get your own treasures as he kind of wrinkles the ring in front of you. And what is that treasure, I might ask? Ring of heroism. You say you're done with your adventuring, you say? Perhaps.

[01:20:47] You think that ring could still use some adventuring? I'd be happy to pay. I'd be happy to accept your gold. And I guess with the newfound gold, he'll balance up with the use and work of the tattoo as he goes over to a mirror and looks under his left arm, kind of where the ribcage is. He kind of checks it out and goes,

[01:21:17] yeah, you're an artist. And checks it out and maybe in the mirror you almost see like this, this film just shine across this tattoo and maybe you see the badger bite a little bit harder. You see a little spark off the chain. I like it. Gold exchange hands, he will give you the ring. Is there anything else Brynn would like to do before we move on?

[01:21:51] You know what? He might go buy a drink for him, the Goliath, and the bartender just to share something real quick and maybe catch one more story from one of these brazen fighters here just to see what he needs to do while he's out to be considered an adventurer. You see there's an older dwarvish man

[01:22:21] that's laying against the bar. He has already gathered a bit of a crowd around him. If you believe it, 20 folk against one. I did some quick talking in that moment. I knew my sword could not pierce that many. And so I convinced them that the gold was not their gold, but someone else's that I could find. And if you'll believe it,

[01:22:50] I led those 20 men to attack random strangers that I said actually took their gold. And Brynn just like, well, I guess you gotta do what you gotta do. Just thinking to himself, maybe that's what it is. You just gotta do what you gotta do. Yeah. Maybe that's what it is. As he collapses on the bar. Ha!

[01:23:22] But after that, I think he's, you know, fair to get back with the group. All right. Sounds good. And then Poppy, you were able to get the items that you were wanting purchased as well and rations, so you can keep that on yourself if you want and just let the party know as you go through. That being said, unless anyone's wanting to role play something individually,

[01:23:49] we're all reconvening at Almaz's residence or at the Emerald Toad? I think the Emerald Toad because that's where we're all, that's where we all first really came together. Yeah, I like it. And that was one reason why Brynn suggested that, just to meet up and... Sounds good. Yeah. The only thing I'll say on this split up

[01:24:19] is for Nico. While you're on your journey initially to the clerics and then turning to get your armor, you stop and look down to find one copper piece on the floor. I don't know. I'm sure somebody can use this and he's going to go to grab it.

[01:24:48] Yeah, sounds good. You all reconvene at the Emerald Toad on the second floor. Damn it, Nico. Stop picking stuff up. Fine, Penny. Pick it up all day long. You're cursed! He puts the coin between his teeth and bites it. I don't know why they do that, but I'm doing it. It just blows up. Real empire quality. Shaped like a dragon scale

[01:25:19] with the proper marks on it. It's a regular copper piece. We're all going to take hours to do our stuff. Take 10 minutes to cast identify on this piece of spending. In fairness, how about this? I'll let you do a check of your choice if you'd like. If you think Nico would think to do a check. Perception's just to smell it. Yeah, it's copper. It's not a chocolate. She did say she bit it. Taste test. Yeah, taste test.

[01:25:49] Does it taste demonic? Your teeth has feelings, so you'd be able to feel that bad boy when you The teeth that touch it come alive. I love that the whole party is like trying their damnedest to make sure I figure this out first. The teeth that touch it actually just fully decay and then dissolve in your mouth. Perhaps dangerous. You're just toothless on one side of your mouth now. Well. Shit. No. I think he'll do

[01:26:18] a perception check because he's really jumpy. Like they've gotten used to being surrounded by people and all of a sudden there is no one. It's just them. Go ahead and give me a perception check. Yeah. Who are you indeed? Ask myself that question every night. The mirror never answers. That's a nat one? It's a nat one. Hey. You got your second nat one? That's my second nat one. No. Where is it? Where's the dice? Mm-hmm. Out the window. I don't know

[01:26:48] if this shocks anyone but you don't notice anything. Your lucky day you found a copper piece. At least you passed that perception check. Maybe I'll give this to Swoop since he bought food. Suddenly somewhere Swoop's feathers ruffle and he doesn't know why. Fall out. Not even playing. Your bald spa gets a little extra colder. So a couple things that I would probably like to notate as we reconvene on the Emerald Toad though.

[01:27:18] I think the most noticeable change when you look at Swoop there is a pearlescent quality to his white robes and it's the strangest thing. You're looking at where the golden feather on his chest usually is and you swear that it's moving as if it's been ablazed by a moving flame. And then I suppose the other part I can't really say because of placement it would be up to Brynn whether he would

[01:27:47] communicate that with the group or not. Yeah. He would let everybody know. Yeah. Hey. Well while I was out I figured we're about to be leaving the capital and I I just got some things to help us out while we're out adventuring on a trek you know. So I got I got a little help from some some fighters at the Lazy Ogre Tavern. So this ring is nice

[01:28:17] you know it gives me a little a little heartiness in battle and then I you know I'm kind of proud of this one and he'll open the left side of his jacket and you'll see on the rib under his arm is this tattoo this magical tattoo and I will share it with everybody but for listeners we've

[01:28:47] heard it's a badger on a bank side of biting a chain but here I'll copy it for everybody boy this that there's hard to say like you get that old stick and poke it seems don't mention it out loud only the ones allowed to have this kind of thing are the guards that's oh my bad

[01:29:16] my bad it looks looks good looks good whoever whoever did that one's got a some pretty masterful hands I'd say yeah they did real good I'm I'm proud of it and he did a really good job by me and so which cattail am I and I'll hold up my picture of the cattail and put it next to each one and none of them match yeah you know what you're you're this one right here and he'll just he'll just point to

[01:29:46] one on the right side on the inside closer to the batter well I have to be this one then since it's taller yeah yeah that makes perfect sense that's what I thought as yeah just like and I'm definitely the chain yeah if you want to get broken I can definitely do that for you but that wasn't in my mind

[01:30:15] our DM just face falling into the mic on I'm debating on whether to make brand roll a deception check here I mean I did just say you know yeah that wasn't in my mind but you can be but it this kind of tells the story that our shared dream illuminated

[01:30:47] the man talking to the old woman the old woman is the elder Sina as I've been asking about and that's who I saw was in the cauldron whenever we met up with the remind me the hag's name Mira is that right that is exactly right and that's that's just where the place it took me that dark place you know

[01:31:16] she was very highly respected in in the shire and she was there protecting me from what we all saw I was the one hiding under the dock there and called drake is the man reeves called drake he was a man with the ledger as it really was the eel skin

[01:31:46] ledger and that's how he that's how he held our our shire under his thumb all the power was in this book I will just pause here and say since this is the first time it's being communicated I know everything swoops been through in the promise he just made the journey he initially made to the capital was in pursuit of a man with a ledger was this book actual

[01:32:15] magic or administrative pressure it was highly administrative pressure it is again how he kept his thumb on our shire he used it for just taking orders he put us to work we only lived in the shire for copacetic means we lived off the land we lived off the swamp the

[01:32:45] river the water the trees everything you know being in the swamp close to the sea would bring in drift wood we would use the dirt the clay to make tools make art make pots pans things that you hid kilns to create these such tools and art

[01:33:15] we fished but we didn't catch too much we only got what we needed so that we didn't overfish but we also kept the population low so everything was naturally in order harmonious harmonious this man with the ledger I believe that may be the same men that I've been after well then I think you and I have a shared enemy

[01:33:46] because I didn't take care of the man I took care of the book so one night I took it upon myself after that night where he took Senna to lock her up for no good reason and with all while Brynn is retelling this account this scene the story

[01:34:17] you can kind of tell that he is getting angry again as you saw there at the noble's house in Mira as he's talking about this cauldrake in his ledger and that night I didn't want it to be happening anymore I took it upon myself I didn't share it with anybody I didn't share my plan it was just me I didn't want anybody else getting hurt so I snuck into his tower the tower

[01:34:47] that he made us build with the resources the river the trees the stone that we built for him that he told us we had to build and this is the oppression that Zoa mentioned that she was unaware of and I do still believe her that this was not this was not her order unsanctioned and so it still happened

[01:35:17] and I wanted it to stop then it will so I took it upon myself I took I took a batch of fur I disguised myself I climbed this tower I snuck in I took the ledger water washed it away saw the

[01:35:46] swamp the water does not answer to the ink the water washes away the ink and that's what this represents as he shows the tattoo again and that night before I left before I came to sneak into the capital I I made a similar image

[01:36:17] plastered on that tower of showing that this swamp will not be chained this will not be oppressed for again we were harmonious as as poppy said and that's how we lived we didn't hurt anybody we traded we traded with others around us we traded with traveling orcs nomads that came through if there was something we had access of we could help trade

[01:36:47] it we were friendly but somebody decided to take advantage of that and so I was the answer so I'm just hoping I'm hoping that the shire is still there sounds like we better get headed that way indeed we will go we will find your sinna and

[01:37:18] we will avenge her or we will save her when we call drake are we killing him if he is still doing the things that he has done to my shire then I feel he must be killed oy this same fire has burned in me for almost a year

[01:37:48] trust me he is yet another pawn of a greater scheme our work is not done with him we need to go to the top who's at the top it's a good question ma'am guess we'll see well happy to start and ending any other pression

[01:38:25] hey Bryn before we move on any further give me a history check at advantage oh negative two here we go woo it's a good start can I can I see that he's trying real hard to think about something and just out the corner of my mouth whisper a little bit of guidance to him sure um I want you to witness yes

[01:38:56] oh two 17s two 17s on the die and then a d6 or no d4 d4 for guidance that's a one all right 18 minus two 16 total with a 16 your mind flashes back to that moment of burning the ledger you remember the feeling of how that normal size the ledger

[01:39:25] was so much heavier than it should have been as you burned it and as you burned it by the side of the water waiting for it to turn to ash you remember seeing the inky blackness trickle out of it and bleed into the swamp before you pushed the ashes in as well

[01:40:00] sorry pick up right where that's some subtle that's some foreshadowing right there if I've ever if I've ever seen it I ever did see it don't think I was gonna let that moment in your backstory go it was an open canvas you put your art on it I'm happy to I'm happy to admire it oh man and Poppy's not even suspicious of this because she's just like yeah Bryn's

[01:40:29] forthright so if he says the book wasn't magic it probably wasn't magic as far as he knew yeah yeah exactly so above table I'm not sure what to do with this item I have but the quickling blood I can't use what is it but well we yeah above table I don't even know would I be allowed to tell them or like should they

[01:40:59] have to do a check you should be able to use it so what I communicated to you is your detriment is I get to pick which of your movement action or bonus action no no no no the quickling blood correct but the quickling blood should be fine for you to use yeah but I have it you can use it you absolutely can I can use it it would just be pointless for my character to use it above table what does it do yeah okay so it

[01:41:51] for 50 old you can convert it into a potion of haste dope okay that's cool um just just as a quickling blood for the reactions do you get lethargic after that as well or just as okay no as further so that's just 10 rounds and if anybody's leaving your radius stab stab stab stab stab yeah I mean could you take two reactions at the same time or just I

[01:42:21] listen I specifically put it if it can be from the same event so if you choose to do it for one event or you can space it

[01:42:52] so I pause it real quick everyone take a quick break we reconvene at the emerald toad all of you have come together now just remind me real quick we mentioned we wanted to come back here because this was kind of the catalyst of the party's group would anyone have made an attempt to invite Almaz or are we just reconvening in

[01:43:22] as far as Brynn knows this is her place she had a private room and stuff like that so you have been to her actual house too oh okay we breezed through that really quick there was some high stakes happening but I will just remind the party

[01:43:55] if need be then yeah I guess I mean we did kind of talk about it I feel like Poppy would have most likely been the one to send the invite if we felt like yeah I

[01:44:27] the way Nico has been contacting and contacted by her he would know if he finds one of the forgotten children that they'll easily get a message to her so I mean yeah both of us would know that and so Poppy's gonna send her

[01:44:57] or if he notices any on our way to the bar just perhaps let Elmas know we'll be leaving soon if she wants to talk okay understood so we'll assume that the invitation was given if she's available you know one thing I just remembered I'm not going to force this but I didn't ask would Poppy have looked at the letter that she received

[01:45:28] from the golden empress the second I was alone and sequestered somewhere yeah if is the letter sealed it has the seal on it but is it one of those that and I assume Poppy would maybe know from working with Elmas one that she knows how to undo and then reapply it's not a seal you have to break it's a seal next to her signature on a piece of parchment can I test it arcana wise to see if there are any obvious

[01:45:57] repercussions or anything I can see for is it like magically sealed or trapped give me an quick arcana check before we go inside just a quick little oh that's that's on me that's my mistake I should ask that hey I meant to say something earlier that I was gonna do that and I forgot so that's on me too uh that is 26 arcana a 26 I was a 19 plus 7 damn you get the sense that if

[01:46:27] you had those special glasses from one of the census members down below checking people in you know in the empire TSA basically right you would probably pick up on a few things arcane wise on this parchment to see what the repercussions could possibly be correct gotcha so then I would have tucked it away again and not opened it not oh okay no if there is some spell work on here

[01:46:57] not fucking with the empress with a 26 it's not that the spell work would do anything because it's not like a broken seal where you are breaking it to open right it's a single parchment with her seal at the bottom next to a signature so you can open it and read it without breaking up an envelope or anything it is just parchment folded yes almost sort of like a certificate of sorts okay then yeah I would

[01:47:26] then I would open it by high decree of the golden empress I hear by name Bryn Poppy Nico and Swoop special emissaries of the emperor and grant them the temporary title of lieutenant in the empire's army how many grades below

[01:47:56] Sadoba is that two damn nobody better tell Swoop that go back to his head right PS don't F no don't tell Swoop Poppy I know you looked at this no all right I refold it and I stick it

[01:48:29] says two fold one magical protection to make sure this can't be destroyed okay two magical enchantments to ensure that it can be verified as an official document okay that's cool okay yeah awesome as you enter into the emerald toad you see a familiar dwarf with a fantastic groomed mustache come up to you

[01:48:59] hello I am Dooley ah it is you all again welcome back to the emerald toad how may I help you is all mazen yes let me see she arrived five minutes ago perfectly on time and is this the bartender we're talking to or is this just like this this is the matron d

[01:49:29] oh okay so at the front of the establishment as we walk in yes understood or we could see you after you being a dick last time you got his creepy brother to serve you and be a bad server on behalf of poppy's request oh that is right that is right that is we could see again mate ah yes the bird right this way you shook my hand this time I appreciate that he'll snap and he'll lead you just like

[01:49:59] last time with like surgically military precision one two three through all of the tables to a special back room and in voguing slightly against the table this time wearing turquoise silks still with the same orchid pattern all over it but a nice coral blue lipstick on her lips in the shape of a heart she strikes

[01:50:29] pose she says my dears welcome all hello alma hello dear poppy oh how is you ma'am might I just say you're looking extra lovely today you are looking a little more pleasant yourself i appreciated them robes is new thanks for noticing well you survived hopefully you didn't well

[01:50:59] I won't out you in front of the group we yeah we keep that on the load down we certainly do we certainly do and uh swoop will nervously kind of look around the group just like trying to play it off secret well sit sit everyone what's the gossip lots have happened there was a hag oh so you were right about that yeah i was wondering

[01:51:28] if the feywild did something to you not more than most wonderful um she's the granddaughter of oh shit it's in my notes somewhere goddammit uh granny witherot thank you so nailed it you guys got a bit a taste if any of you want to just for

[01:51:58] funsy because i've spent a lot of time working on the lore for everything any of you guys want to make a roll arcana or history to get a little bit more insight into let's say familial ties with hags or the origin of hags feel free this tiny die feels so weird in my hand thanks micah you're welcome uh 21 arcana for poppy 21 nice i will wait for everyone else that wants

[01:52:28] to roll is it just gonna be swoop and poppy i mean bryn doesn't have a reason to really look into this i mean i i went to make a history check but i only got a 12 so like nico's sitting there like thinking like claw against his head school swoop will scratch the underside of his beak and contemplation as he rolls in that one yeah strangely absent in the education of an aracocra you can't imagine why

[01:52:58] doesn't make any sense no gonna walk away poppy the grandmother is the most powerful of hags but hags don't really operate in terms of normal families what you know is new family members aren't simply added through the normal birds and bees but rather through consummation

[01:53:28] or rather consumption of a mortal baby in which case the hag later gives birth to a baby that they have eaten and here's the important part on the 15th year they begin to show the traits of becoming a hag do we know how old

[01:53:58] Mira was based on what your guess was between 15 to 18 years old oh excuse me no pardon me we let me retcon uh i i miss book because i just had that in my head 27 years old right that is what we decided yep that's almost how old bren is your knowledge would tell you that though that is a very young age for a hag 27 27

[01:54:29] as once they are born they are essentially immortal ageless got got you okay then uh then i'll tell almaz this information and then just kind of looking at her a little intensely go i believe Mira was 27 just turned it a few days ago strangely

[01:54:59] specific she seemed very keen on letting us know hmm what a special number well everyone how can i help for the sake of time can poppy and everybody give her the lowdown of basically what happened in the hag fight 100% their knowledge of pecusser

[01:55:29] door being the one behind everything being taken to the empress and some of the secrets that got revealed poppy would only reveal her own secrets to almaz that everyone else above table knows and would explain what the empress now knows about her understood yeah we can edit through that i think she would let that all be said uninterrupted sweet what questions would you have for

[01:55:59] her though regarding any of these topics what's happening with pecusser door now that the empress knows he's been not so forthcoming well it is only 11 a.m we can only guess but from what i understand a special session

[01:56:28] has been scheduled for tomorrow tomorrow i would assume perhaps some verification is occurring regarding the forgive me i don't miss mean to misspeak accusations that you have brought forth against the governor though i haven't said anything about pecruciador but just

[01:56:58] the one i know that was you know working under his name and he thinks yeah he thinks back as um whenever whenever brent first saw pecruciador had that same uh that like wheat grain and sickle symbol yeah pecruciador had that and then he he remembered

[01:57:27] seeing that off of pecruciador he saw that same symbol on cauldrake so he's like oh yeah he will especially as a named governor be given a chance to defend himself or separate himself as i imagine he will go to great lengths to do i mean do we do we need to stop that do we need to be here for that i mean

[01:57:57] can we do anything about that not unless you want to get rested well no what you can do is on your journey see if there is anything that directly ties this man with the ledger to pacruciador himself okay that is the missing link we do keep on hearing

[01:58:26] pacruciador everywhere we go i'm sure it won't be hard and you will continue he has ravaged this region it wasn't too long ago that not so much of this state was not under his control and the trust that he earned with the bronze dragon sorry the late bronze dragon bayrosh

[01:58:57] some still don't understand myself included hey little aside above table we found a letter on one of the goblins that we killed did it have an insignia or a signature on it are you talking about the love letters no there was a letter that was like yeah we accomplished all of this stuff oh oh the list of like ingredients

[01:59:27] and ritual stuff no no no I have it let me find it in my notes I'm blessed because I'm getting confused with everything I can help a little bit that like phase one has been completed yes waiting for where's it at yeah I just want to make sure it's not assigned to anyone we've heard of no it didn't it didn't have any specifics in it okay cool um it was just phase one complete

[01:59:57] waiting for phase two of materials send like more backup if you can or something like that and is Poppy the only one that knows that the vendor that ended up being Mira was sent or brought in by I didn't think so I thought I thought everybody knew that she was brought in by him at least would know yeah

[02:00:26] because it was it was at the front gates where she mentioned that she was here did she say something specific like she was here to help sell her grandmother's wares or something like that motherfucker so she's here to sell her grandmother's wares and got invited in by Pacociador so me and you Swoop would know that yeah Pacociador sent the invite yeah yeah yeah I don't know if we want to bring that up to her like hey he was

[02:00:56] dealing with a hag yeah yeah I'll go yeah I'll go ahead and tell him I definitely yeah I definitely would would as well yeah here yeah you yeah you do it yeah boy that Pacociador he may have been involved with the hag we we heard mention of his name being involved in sending out that that invite to to Mira that is troubling but not altogether unexpected

[02:01:27] he controls the majority of commerce within the state now there is perhaps a connection to be made by the fact that a few of those nobles had the same black dripping eyes as the ones victimized by the cultists the night prior a wonderful observation but again not one we can tie to the governor but wait what about Taniko

[02:01:56] these cultists from what we saw in your scene could these be the same cultists wait is this Bryn asking an actual question okay I do not know who cultists and I do not work for them if that is what you're asking no not that you're part of

[02:02:26] them but whatever you took part in stopping I think the real Nico was trying to stop the cultists here that showed up and previously you you said that this change or exchange of souls happened

[02:02:55] what like six months ago or something like that something like that yeah so um Bryn Bryn is just trying to make that connection here about what we what we just saw last night and then what we've experienced so far as well and you know you're we learned that this blade is part of the sword of a thousand souls and you

[02:03:25] are a soul not in your own body it is strange to be sure we should probably figure out what is up with it and where the rest of blade is for sure boy that is definitely some crazy shit and swoop we'll kind of lean back oi duly and I'll kind of wave duly over yes sir oi you think we can get a round of drinks for everybody here none of that brown shade

[02:03:55] whatever that is leave it up front we need the good stuff back here and uh throw in throw in one for for miss zephaloni as well and I'll kind of drop drop some gold in the sand wonderful sir I'll be thinking elvish wine whatever you got that's nice and fancy back there whatever the missus would like then I'll kind of wink towards him he'll go out and get some bottles and bring some can I maybe get some ink and parchment real quick

[02:04:24] if you don't mind uh bully his blonde brother will pop up here out of nowhere here you go oh thank you bully yes and a quick you know shudder you're welcome as he disappears he goes to the kitchen and you hear him go yes I did it right boy he's a good man that one they gave him to me last time because he thought he was shit he's the only one that cares he's doing such a good job now yeah he's really stepped it

[02:04:54] up his brother duly was head and shoulders but man I wonder if he's been replaced really growing on me possibly but uh yeah Brynn as you can suspect he's asked for ink and parchment and he's gonna draw another um cat reed tail on this parchment and kind of tear it off of this

[02:05:26] to you um friends and trustworthy and I've come to see that you're you're a friend you're a great connection and I think you're one um that cares what's going on here in the capital so um I just want to give this to you as a symbol of friendship if you would um accept that she'll take it

[02:05:57] and she'll say I will treasure it in ways you don't know thank you you know for revelry as she grabs her glass and raises it for revelry yes absolutely for the love of the game to you ma'am absolutely and for the small folk for the forgotten

[02:06:26] and for the forgotten for the lost for the oppressed she'll tap it on the table and clink all with you as she takes a sip instead of drinking the wine poppy just has a glass of honey she's just she's just eaten out of a small little jar honey she doesn't wonderful anything else you would like to ask almaz before you set out

[02:06:55] i think i've asked before we already we i've already i believe i've already asked her about the day of darkness i think she's told us everything that she could at least i think you asked poppy actually regarding the day of darkness that was just recently but i believe before i've asked her about the day of darkness and gave just i think that was her that gave just a little bit of answer and

[02:07:39] i'll take this time to if i haven't i thought i had i'll ask almaz about the day of darkness and if she if you dm give any more information about that then i'll happily note it and if it's something i already know then we covered our base there i think she would take a moment lean back in

[02:08:10] a very special person to give more detail regarding what happened that dark day anyone that would like to make a perception check or an insight check may do so 18

[02:08:42] 18 19 insight 19 insight 17 perception for swoop 17 perception that's a seven okay nico is little lost um and just out of curiosity would nico share his tale with almas i think he's a little scared too like he trusts as far

[02:09:12] as he can trust the three people he's been traveling with and doesn't trust zoa at all but she's the only other person that knows so i think unless it comes up or unless she notices something he's just going to stay quiet no that's the safer yeah we're gonna start with poppy's insight she knows something with the perception of swoop and bryn

[02:09:41] it's not what what she does but the determinant look away from a certain part of the table that gets you swoop in particular it doesn't seem like her gaze is meeting your eyes poppy um I know this day affected you

[02:10:11] do do you know anything that you could shine a light on at least to be clear above board my understanding is poppy doesn't know the specifics of what happened just the effects correct you know the effects in terms of of what you have perceived and and just from the empire as a whole execution is probably not on the table right but you

[02:10:41] what you would be able to communicate is going to be based more off your personal experience got you okay dope so poppy would turn and say i don't know what happened that day i just know what happened all the days afterward any of that is something we can already tell of or have already been

[02:11:11] told is that death is perhaps an exaggeration but for someone who has one home losing it is perhaps as close to death as they have gotten and to leave is fine because you can return to be exiled

[02:11:41] your identity is your own to choose but there are so few truths one like me can cling to so Lara is my home what am I if I lose it and after you know having that moment if if Bren and Poppy are you know sitting close Bren will

[02:12:11] you know kind of reach his hand out to just touch touch yours after after hearing that after hearing and feeling internally that yeah what is it if I lose my own you know he that as well and he can only imagine how that is for Poppy and just yeah he'll just touch

[02:12:41] his hands of your they are so small well I'm not as big as everybody but you know look we match and she'll under the table make her hand to halflings whoa yes but only for moments of time unless I do the whole thing and it just kind of shakes out back into her hand whoa Nico's going to walk over to the other side of Poppy

[02:13:11] I mean if we're talking of great darkness perhaps somebody who's turned light into a weapon would know something perhaps Rin Captain Rin also speak further okay I have no idea what this is I can find out I don't know how important it is and he will shake the

[02:13:41] little bottle of quickling blood that he collected earlier would anyone like to hold on to it I have no means to I guess further understand it can can swoop potentially take the vial from Nico and just potentially if we have time

[02:14:11] you know richly cast detect magic on it you know at the side of the bar kind of as I'm sipping my wine just trying to fully understand this Nico technically does have the capacity to know what this item does but I'm not trying to take that away from

[02:14:40] swoop I'm just letting you know it is within your player's power to gain a specific knowledge of what this will sure why not I mean as long as there's no repercussions I

[02:15:10] was hesitant to waste another spell slot yeah so it'll count as ritual it won't count against your spell slots swoop I'm not going to take that away from you but just for the sake of clarity for the group quickly in blood as I mentioned above table you get two reactions basically per round if you drink this if you choose to hold on to it though it only costs 50 gold to go to apothecary or someone with an alchemist kit and have them convert this to a full potion

[02:15:40] of haste I mean if you don't want to hang on to it I can find some use out of it I have so many things to keep track of I don't know if I will remember I definitely happy to take it off your hands I'll pass you that bottle and above table it is in our party inventory if you

[02:16:10] want to brew baby I was on fire once again anything else that we like to say to Almas I mean she just let us know that Brent experience down in the shire we know that the grush door is

[02:16:39] on trial but has a chance to defend and so if he could get it past zoa I wouldn't be surprised if he could get it however she is all about lawful order

[02:17:08] and it thank very much Roman Caesar before it became more of a imperial swing the senate has a lot of power in the decisions that get made she is still empress but she can in specific instances a trial being one where legislation being another be outvoted so we know that we asked about the

[02:17:38] day of darkness here's here's what I have the day of darkness on the balcony Sadoba mentioned this kind very taboo here in the empire the silver dragon

[02:18:08] governor passed on that day well that's what I have in my notes but I think I wrote it down wrong but the law was passed the day after that anybody that could change image daily like a changeling or otherwise was banished and forbidden in the city and on that day of darkness Zoha's

[02:18:37] brother died the silver dragon and what was his name again the silver dragon is Boz the bronze dragon was Bayrosh Bayrosh that's it and Bayrosh died just two days ago here while Zoha had to take him out in the dance of the dragons ceremony that we all witness and I think this was also stated because there are a lot of clerics in this city there was an attempt

[02:19:06] to save Bayrosh I don't know maybe I didn't say this but I believe if I haven't said it apologies it should be retconned this would have been communicated to the general public Bayrosh was attempted to be revived they found it impossible to do so as I don't know if this part would go in but I think it's interesting for you guys to know the body itself began to shrivel up after death I

[02:19:38] don't know if you gave the note that clerics did try to revive but I do have in my notes here Zoe personally gave the news of Bayrosh Bayrosh is dead and can't be I think

[02:20:13] my feeling is true and so we have the notes of what we can know and suspect already so far on the day of darkness okay in that case are we leaving the emerald toad if we're leaving I got

[02:20:43] two things I want to do once the party has left the room and then ready to go yeah swoop you know finish finishes the rest of this wine we thank you for your time man you've been a bliss and he'll kind of shoot her a wink as he turns to leave oh I like this version of you more boy it's a pleasure to meet you ma'am and might I just say I apologize for my destructive behavior

[02:21:13] that may befallen me upon our entry to your city and may I apologize to you for the burden you must now hold and swoop will kind of look over offended and shake it off boy may be always be with you man and he'll kind

[02:21:59] of course since since we're going to the shire are there any errands you'd like me to run before oh great fun I'll be up for it quite a while at least two weeks I believe if not more depending on how it

[02:22:37] or should be reconvening pending a certain trial in my hometown should you make that journey it is up to you but I will find a way to send word if such instance happens and just

[02:23:16] nice to have you this and leverage over or a favorite ode when you naughty girl you're not supposed to do this wonderful you didn't get them from me oh I never get anything from anyone but little birds and she does a perfect impersonation of a mourning dove as she swans out

[02:23:46] wonderful we're now we're taking a long rest so this is going to span out potentially over a few days what we've done it doesn't necessarily have to have occurred all in one day we're going through the fifth day of the week which is the hero day of the hero and would mark the true day of the solstice in mid summer that day in particular you can feel a revelry of the festival kind of pick its momentum back up after everything that's happened and

[02:24:16] fireworks go off the entire night on the sixth day the day of the trickster your rest is over and I'm assuming unless anyone wants to correct me are we making our way out and would be pushing

[02:24:45] to head to the shire because that was a direct order from zoa to go there and then also of course it's his home he's worried stuff like that so he would be pushing for that feel free to say no but just for shits and giggles can I see if I manage to charm one of those pairs of glasses off any of the people down on that first level or is that something that would be more intense the pair

[02:25:15] of glasses just to see I don't know if it just be one charisma check of some I will give it to you it it's going to be a really tough roll if you want to box a doom all gatekeepers of the empire I didn't think about this forgive me Nico since we're fast forwarding days I need

[02:25:45] another d6 roll do you want to do it every long rest that it changes or every day night cycle I think it's more fun for me if it's every dawn for hers could I potentially say that I go with her and attempt the help action try and no I'm gonna roll cool this I would

[02:26:15] say probably it's against my better nature to let you do this but sure go ahead Poppy make this roll advantage as you like this this

[02:26:44] signet ring that I have it gets charges back every daily at dawn if it specifically says at dawn I think I need to honor that probably if it says long rest all I believe all of them are printed saying at dawn I would rather do at dawn the only thing with his item is his items gonna be extremely OP I mean I can yeah I can span

[02:27:14] this signet ring which gives me heroism I have three charges of it and if we're doing pretty realism let's say every long rest for you seems fair to me yeah I mean you rolled the same thing maybe I will do every long rest I'll I'll I'll debate it I don't know if it's a really rough one it might be nice to be to try that actually what I'm thinking honestly for you it it for him it's going to overpowered for you it actually would help you probably for it to be every dawn

[02:27:44] so I'll say long rest for you so we're we're not having 1200 uses of heroism agreed and for you let's just do it every dawn because some of these I mean this isn't the nastiest one right there's worse there's only like one that is better and that one's only better under certain circumstances there's there's one that could potentially narratively be better but it's going to be hell free role play so remind me what this d6 one does that you just rolled

[02:28:14] so he can choose oh that's right action bonus action reaction you can't use one of those yeah on that turn or just choose the one but to be in the sake of fairness more than likely I because if it's a

[02:28:44] reaction she might get to use it reactions are unaffected it's specifically within her action economy of action bonus action or movement or movement okay I thought I heard reaction gotcha that's the third one yes gotcha sweet wait wait wait so you use it once when it hits my turn every turn sweet I mean that is kind of the only fair way you can do it because either you're going to be taking it easy on me or you're gonna be again I'm not this sadistic guys

[02:29:12] I made this though three times to this item because narratively I needed this to be somewhat of a legendary item so this is where we're at you're right he did he did say I would think twice and my ass went I'm thinking not at all I don't think after that and said just in case you think that's pushing you towards it I'm not

[02:29:42] I'm being serious as your friend that the real life stakes of this game could change if you were to you're right you gave her every chance for an out and she blatantly yes and I said oh you're screwing everyone over as your friends not to channel my Brennan but it's important that you know this Devin a lot of this I'm trying to sandbox for you guys this world

[02:30:12] character that that is why that's why I've been saying it from the beginning and I feel I need to talk to you about this because I I feel like this could actually bite me I do actually need to communicate this to the group I'm I created an item that could potentially go against one of my own rules which was no PvP so I'm gonna retcon that rule a little bit no PvP unless both people out of out of session say

[02:30:41] we want to do this and you give me time to facilitate because I really think that it could be that detrimental to you guys if you fight in party and then go face something damn right but yes what was your role Poppy um it was a 2 and a 12 yeah so so well that that was the pure role but you said I needed a nat 20 on the die you needed so it would have been a 19 or a something else so yeah unfortunately dear madam I need these

[02:31:11] in order to do my work here at the table for the empire for the capital oh he fucking he bollocks and he'll fucking turn around oh wait so we're all crowded around this guy and you're trying to yep you're trying to ask for his glasses yeah I think Miko's gonna shoulders up high being much taller I'm sure than this person lean over him I think

[02:31:40] we are on great mission for the empress it would be a benefit to all if you help us and uh try to strong arm these glasses without actually robbing him you're trying to force another roll and I'm be honest I'm not I'm not gonna allow it okay um I did want to say and I'll do this in the sake of fairness I so loved your role play moment that you had

[02:32:10] with Brynn while you were at the table I was going to give you heroic inspiration if this is a big enough deal to you that you want to burn your heroic inspiration you can do so I appreciate you no I'm adding the heroic inspiration but no this was just my Hail Mary luck thing just to see if I could since it was a small thread on the way out just to see if it could but if it didn't happen didn't happen it's all good no uh there's a lack of response but before you can even lock eyes

[02:32:39] a small child tugs on Nico's cape yes child what is wrong what do you need the one that you're supposed to meet is just a little further in the festival okay thank you uh we should get the move on yes yes we should and I'll look back at the guy and I'll just do the little fingers to my eyes to his eyes

[02:33:08] and the little wave to the dude with the glasses he's just going to look at you with the monocle as a couple of the panes of glass just slide down on their own and she has a perfectly pleasant smile on her face it's not intimidating but it's a weird mixture of what should be intimidating with the actual oh no that reads that definitely reads good good good good I'll make sure for podcast listeners they can get the vibe yeah yeah yeah weird tension she's been spending a lot of time with the bird has sex with spiders

[02:33:38] oh well um anyways you guys move on you're going through the festival like I said fireworks were going off throughout the night you're back among the common people the smell of ales on the air you can see where all the great uh uh bonfires were for for the midsummer festival it's called the cinder festival it has a deep weight uh from a druidic sense within the culture and one of the most

[02:34:07] prevalent pastimes for common people when this festival is going on is creating these beautiful bonfires and dancing around them with their families in great groups uh you get the smell of of the wild oranges from the orange trees that grow in the region and fresh baked bread um revelry hasn't been lost even though a great tragedy has occurred I love

[02:34:37] that transition that being said there is a lot of whispering happening around town go ahead and give me a group perception check oh and we can cut this but I just wanted to let you know John uh do you have guidance I do not not anymore okay okay he reset it on his last level got you okay I was gonna say for future like uh situations whenever I'm shape changed which I

[02:35:07] technically always am when I look like the elf poppy I get advantage on all of my charisma rolls oh really good to know yeah that's why I was always rolling double before so uh so when it comes to that help if there's other things that you can do you don't have to try and help me get advantage I get it cool but I do appreciate that and I love that we had a little small moment there that was pretty dope uh perception for uh for swoop would be a 21 a 21 that's great 18 for nico 18 uh 17 for poppy 17

[02:35:36] as this festival is sort of native here in uh rashma and you know the halflings naturally are sort of uh not big partiers but they like to celebrate things and stuff like that so bryn is already in the spirits to celebrate getting you know a drink for him and swoop and uh grabbing a pastry or two and I got an 11 yeah you you go off um while you're out you just you catch

[02:36:05] a traveling vendor of ale big tankards being held uh by a an orcish winch and you're not quite paying attention as much as everyone else uh everyone else at the table i'm gonna start with uh nico and poppy for the lower rolls a fluttering hits your ear as you hear a couple common folk still sitting around the ashes of one

[02:36:35] of the bonfires speaking amongst themselves as one woman says the name pakush rador is uh is that right governor already i can't imagine why we've been such a short time since anyone's even seen him

[02:37:03] i know his companies have been around for a while we've all heard of his companies of course but no one's really seen his face until what the last six months or so did he end up governor swoop your hire role you notice that

[02:37:32] at that same fire you notice another figure slumped down guards have been monitoring the area there has been a lot of the monk beat cops surrounding but just with the severity of what happened and especially being underneath where a major attack happened there is a heavy paladin presence of alertness with the

[02:38:02] 21 perception you realize that the paladins are strangely positioned as if they are looking away from this figure sitting at this bonfire as you look at him he locks eyes with you and please welcome to the table for the first time ever Devin welcome welcome howdy

[02:38:33] if you could do us all favor please introduce who we see sitting at this bonfire yeah this is Gideon Forge you see a man with a blue cloak feels like an impossibly clean armor wearing a mask it is a blue mask with gold fila whatever it is filigree yeah filigree all over that and all over the armor with a sword strapped to his back

[02:39:03] that glows silver he is sitting at the campfire holding a lamp that is attached to his belt swoop kind of looking over noticing this individual you know will walk by one of the stands that you said you know smell the veil quickly to none of the brown shite and gets

[02:39:33] the good stuff you know passes over the coinage and he'll go kind of plop down next to this individual and he's going to be like fancy a drink there mate you look like you could potentially use one I look at him and I look at the cup and I take the cup but I don't lift the mask I don't do anything to drink from it I kind of just hold it thanks no yeah I don't believe

[02:40:03] these these gods you know too much on you being here in the festival their particular reason you you here mate I I here to meet some people and they don't they don't take too kindly to me boy I see they haven't been too kind to me during my time here either but I can guarantee it's for different reasons I can imagine probably

[02:40:33] so if you met me you know a as he's kind of sitting there as that happens Gideon you look down and you have you can tell me where a letter with a certain golden sigil on it in your recollections

[02:41:02] of reading that letter it does mention an aracocra an elf a halfling and a dragonborn yeah so I as I see the group I reach underneath my cloak and to my back and pull out a letter with the seal of the golden empress on it and I open it up just to recount I assume

[02:41:32] it gives names or just the people it will give the description and it will give the names and I let's push your computer just like three inches and get it just a little bit closer because every time you turn towards me it's golden every time you look away and I

[02:42:15] names of the individuals that you should be meeting I'm not going to share anything in that letter unless you would like to beyond that okay as I pull out the letter and look at it

[02:42:45] you be attempting to hide this from the party not hardcore yeah give me a perception check I was going to let it be contested can I can I have a ghost help cast guidance on him go for it okay how much is guidance I believe it's a d4 correct I

[02:43:17] the sigil of zoa the golden empress which is that or so shape of the dragon in a golden sigil away you you seem like you're here for pretty high calling me and my party folks here are as well I'm actually here for you to kill us no we need to take this outside the

[02:43:47] no no nothing like that no wait guys zoa mentioned that we were supposed to meet somebody it's true I mean and also our reputation precedes us everywhere we go no idea where that could be and swoop will look off into the distance smash cut to him and swoop and swoop and swoop is looking off in the distance brin you know holds up an extra cup that he got for

[02:44:16] swoops as swoop isn't paying attention brin's like trying to wave it in front of his oh thank you man oh yeah i got it oh you already have one this big tankard that he got from the previous vendor and kind of hands out pastries to everybody and takes a swig of his big

[02:44:46] tankard as well from this cider festival this is your third drink at 11 a.m. for a bird give me a constitution save we're gonna go through this dance every time you give me the opportunity to that's not bad okay so constitution save yeah uh you're

[02:45:17] i was sent by the queen to find you and to aid you and i'll show i'll fold the letter back up so that you can see the sigil but only the sigil um she promised me information if i helped so here i am

[02:46:07] and i'll dangerous venture we are on as is my life okay join us then what's your stick man we all got our own thing what's your thing man i don't carry sticks oy that's probably a little bit lost in translation there but uh actually i do carry a stick never mind yeah no uh what's your thing man what's your thing he does magic i'm sure not

[02:46:36] just what we've seen because he's done not much also i fly wait a second she talks to dead people he is very fast and stabbing people and i am punching them in the face what are you doing uh i'm a knight swords and things swords and things very cool oh yeah like both of those can i unfocus my eyes and see if any spirits

[02:47:06] walk up behind him give me a ghost check honestly do give me a ghost check what i will say with brin's passive i don't think anyone else has this high with pin uh brin's passive the moment he says he's a knight one of the nearby paladins is gonna scoff oh and walk off uh 32 holy oh that's right i was about to say 32 no

[02:47:36] 32 32 um i did tell you lower was better on this one 32 is pretty good i'm gonna say with a 32 you're able to get a sense of i guess the aura of him and and it's not one of undead there aren't any ghosts particularly that are clinging to him

[02:48:05] uh but there is a strange aura about him nonetheless who you're gonna call ray and pop uh so yeah after after hearing that yeah brin will hopefully uh pop a seat next to you can you tell us why none of these guards are wanting to look this way at you

[02:48:35] i used to be among them and i decided to go a different path and they didn't like that anyone in particular we should prank oh god everyone really at this point poppy what do you have in mind what can we what can we do with everyone everyone ghost check

[02:49:05] to race all the ghosts now i'm kidding we totally break the game with this new new random check you were in good company i was guard while not being guard at same time for quite while yeah um i used to work for the city as well before being sent on our current track that you're uh you just got requested for so um you're

[02:49:35] you're not alone in being ones leaving city duties i wasn't in my new job terribly long before i got this request but i was promised assistance in giving assistance oh so you scratch our backs we can scratch yours exactly huh sounds quite fair i wonder where the trap lies perhaps we should give

[02:50:05] him information since he is coming on big trip for very many objectives okay so we're going to my hometown the drowned reach irons and we think there's something bad happening there again because whenever i was there before like a couple years ago there was something bad happening i stopped it but zo is telling us that we gotta go stop some more bad stuff great the bad stuff caused

[02:50:34] by a city official who is doing things by himself or possibly by pukushrador's order apparently we shouldn't say that very loud but we're surrounded by gods oy maybe we uh maybe we get out of here and explain all the details on the red club all the common folk in their revelry saying all of this with

[02:51:04] the palace guard oy oy between you and i and i'll kind of lean over a lot of the people in the city can be kind of a dick man we uh i say we get the fuck out of here and then we go from there this one was going around punching everybody so maybe we should the first thing i saw him do was a child oy between you and i that one was a little shit man he he wouldn't lick us in the eye wouldn't speak to us with respect i still regret it you know not my place not my time place clearly different than back home

[02:51:35] i'm a changed man i'm a changed bird inside shade do you really regret it it's a nat too um yeah he definitely regrets it he regrets it a lot guys we he's he's good he knows we don't have to keep bringing it up it ruffles his feathers you see feathers ruffle when the wound is gone from the child's face i'll consider ah i'm gonna reach in shit that's gonna take a while pull out a little notebook and josh some information down before

[02:52:05] pocketing it back the drama within the party already anyways uh for nitty-gritty details we should probably leave city yeah uh you guys can start to leave two things are gonna happen though nico as you're walking you look down and you

[02:52:35] find another penny another copper on the ground i don't like this i am i am starting to find pennies everywhere this seems a good luck maybe a good good change he's gonna pick it up swoop take out the other one look look excellent luck puppy as soon as he mentions finding pennies everywhere can i like look down real quick and verify that there's truly a penny on the ground

[02:53:04] there's a penny on the ground he's holding them in his hands yeah no these are real pennies guys these are real pennies he's showing off his prize he's experienced they are as copper as nico's scales whenever he picks it up can swoop like look in all directions see if maybe there's like a different penny like there's like maybe a trail of said pennies give me a perception check somebody's pouch has a hole in it or something yeah give me a perception check while you're doing that actually i'll wait for the roll i think it's more fun for me uh perception

[02:53:34] yeah it's a 19 19 you're nailing perception you my perception's like uh plus two but i i've been rolling perception rolls only he's a bird i mean he's basically a giant eagle he should be doing good at perception but it's pretty good you swear doing a quick 360 that somebody was just looking at your group but you can't place who with the number of people

[02:54:03] oh yeah we're being watched guys we should get the get the hell out of here yes you're right who paid for food that we now have in bag soup you paid for yes yeah we figured we may need rations for the road he's gonna take like all the coppers that he has and then plop it into your feather paws whenever the copper touches my hand knowing how you know nico came about and what nico just said about randomly finding copper can i like

[02:54:33] closely inspect this copper i mean maybe maybe arcana check just making sure that this is normal ass copper before i put this in my perception my possession why not any any kind of role of my choosing or anyone in particular no you can do a role shit i mean you're gonna be looking and counting 2 000 pieces of copper yeah i'm sitting here no no no not that many it was like 15 gotcha but i'm sitting here thinking that it's just a normal copper and mike is just messing with

[02:55:03] us dude i'm telling you there's something fucked up with that copper and i don't want it in my possession it's a suspicious penny you guys we're all just like oh my god 18's pretty good 18 these are all regular dragon mark pennies if you're giving me some rank shit man i'm gonna be pretty pissed i find them in ground or on table or in pocket i don't know so uh how much rations did you get i 100 days right 200

[02:55:33] because i gave you two gold oh two gold okay gotcha gotcha let me read yeah so i'm going to look at all the copper i'm gonna take a deep breath in i'm gonna shove it in my coin verse yeah it should be plenty honestly for the trip okay that being said there was a second thing that happened miko finds the penny poppy a certain stone begins to glow as out from it says

[02:56:02] the voice of karma our dealings are complete but professional courtesy watch your back and that's where we'll end the episode this has been tales of yvonne the empire table beyond the empire's reach the pirate table sails dangerous waters be sure to follow their side of the story to uncover more about the world of

[02:56:32] yvonne follow the show to stay ahead of what's coming and if you're enjoying the journey leave a review it brings more souls into the story until next time long live the empire