The Glass Cannon Podcast - Gatewalkers Episode 15 – The After Math

Episode Date: December 29, 2023

High above the forest floor, the battlefield among the trees quiets as the rebel Oaksteward surrenders. Watch the video here: https://youtu.be/A1uTORZrh58 This episode was sponsored by Demiplane, Foundry VTT and Norse Foundry. Check out Demiplane's Pathfinder Nexus and character creation tools at https://bit.ly/GCNOfficialTools See why tabletop gamers everywhere have made the switch to Foundry Virtual Tabletop at https://foundryvtt.com/gcp Visit https://microdose.com and use code GCP to get free shipping and 30% off your first order. Visit https://manscaped.com and use code GCP to get 20% off and free shipping. Visit https://drinkAG1.com/GLASSCANNON to get a free 1-year supply of Vitamin D3K2 and 5 free AG1 travel packs with your first purchase. Visit https://betterhelp.com/GCN to give online therapy a try. The Glass Cannon Podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp today to get 10% off your first month. Visit https://nordVPN.com/GCP and use code GCP to get 4 extra months on the 2-year plan. For more podcasts and livestreams, visit glasscannonnetwork.com and for hundreds of hours of exclusive shows and benefits, make your membership official and join Glass Cannon Nation today by becoming a subscriber at jointhenaish.com. Watch new episodes when they premiere every Thursday at 8PM ET on youtube.com/theglasscannon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Drinking a McCafe coffee is a lot like... You know that... feeling? Where it's so good you actually want a... a friend to get one? That feeling of... and getting the last... where it just hits in all the right ways that you...

to get one multiple times a day. Yep, McCafe just shouts... Order your McCafe on the app or in restaurant today. Must be McCafe. At participating McDonald's in Canada. App download and registration required. You are listening to the Glass Cannon Network. The premier source for role-playing game entertainment.

Last week on the Glass Cannon Podcast. Bye. Bye. Having a good time. You're going to be fine. I've been bracing the chaos and the bad rolls. Though the dark druid attempted to flee the scene. Where is he? He's fleeing out the window.

Hold on. You're hurt. You're hurt. I'm fine. Give chase. He's right at the bottom of the zip line. I'm going to jump on him. I'm going to claw his eyes out.

The heroes gave chase, and the battle raged on. And fur on the back of her neck is all up, and she is pissed. 21 to hit. 21 is a hit. Yes! 20 to hit. Hit. Yes!

The rebel oak steward's cunning proved a deadly challenge. As you start sliding, he cuts the rope. You are falling to the forest floor. But the heroes forced the druid to plea for mercy. He looks down, looks down at his wounds, looks over at Buggles, swinging there, just firing spells up at him. Looks around, realizes down at his wounds, looks over at Buggles, swinging there, just firing spells up at him. Looks around, realizes he has no allies and says,

There's no need for anyone else to die here! Perhaps we can talk! Ho ho ho ho ho ho! The adventure continues. Will Lucky survive? No. hello everyone and welcome back to the Glass Cannon Podcast. It is the last show of 2023, which is crazy because in years past, in shows past, we would be recording this much closer to New Year's Eve than we are now.

But now we're a little more professional. we are now, but now we're a little more professional. We have the, uh, the ability to record ahead, uh, which is important because there's a lot of, a lot of factors here, cameras, a lot of editing, a lot that goes on. Um, so I can't even think that far ahead as to what my resolution, uh, would be because I feel like I'll be a completely different person. Check in with us in about April and I'll tell you what my resolution is going to be. Do you find that like, obviously people make their resolutions, and then, you know, they peter off? You know, you go to the gym on January 2nd, and there's a million people there. They're like, all right, calm down, cowgirls.

I'd like to say that I think I might have—it's possible. This is a bold statement, but it's possible that I have spent more money on gyms I don't go to than any human has ever done on the planet. That is the business model of every gym. Exactly. So I know tons of people do it. I still think I did the most. I'd like to imagine you just have like a horrible addiction to signing up for new gyms. Like a new gym pops up in your neighborhood and you're like, I gotta,

I gotta try. I'm like, I gotta go. I gotta go. And I go a few times and I'm like, this is awful. Every minute from the time you walk through the door is awful. But they lock you in with a contract. So then you try to leave and they're like,

ah, you signed up for the six months though. And that's it. Yep. You're paying. You're paying. It's $30 just to sign. You know,

let me talk to my manager and see if I can waive that $30. Hey, Tom, can I? Tom says I can waive the $30. He never does. I can only do it today though. You'd have to sign up for a year now.

He likes you. And then a year later, you can't get out of the contract. Like, oh yeah, you got to pay the $180 initiation fee. Right. And what I do is I say,

okay, I will pay you to not come here. Thank you. Thank you. That exactly is the business model we have. We should start a gym. We really should. There's money in the nest work for just income. Okay, glass cannon gym. I kind

of like this idea. Is it CrossFit? Like, what's the vibe of the gym? I think we'll offer that as a service, but then we'll offer like yoga. Medicine balls are all D20s. This is how you expand. It isn't more fucking actual place. It's like new territory. It's a glass cannon

gym. The bottom of this building, when we looked at this space, they were like, do you want to see the basement? We're like, sure. And it's like 14,000 square feet. It's like a roller derby. They were like, two karate studios are thinking about buying this and putting up a wall. We could build a gym down there, Glass Cannon Fitness. And yeah, there'd be some CrossFit, but there'd also be some yoga.

Kate would be teaching a judo class every Friday night. Yep. You know what's amazing about it? You know what's amazing about you? Please tell me. Before the year ends. You're like, million dollar idea. Cutting edge from 13 years ago idea.

Yeah, I mean, we can't even get people to buy tickets to New York shows. I don't think they're going to find it. But you've got the New York Sports Club up the street, which sucks. You've got Planet Fitness, which is cheap. Sucks. If we had a new one, I think that's what the neighborhood needs. A third gym Planet Fitness which is cheap. Sucks. If we had a new one I think that's what the neighborhood needs.

A third gym within two blocks. Yeah. T-T-R-P-G themed gym because game stores around the block aren't closing down when all they do

is sell games. It'd be like part LARPing part working out. Okay. All right. This is interesting. Now we're talking. That idea costs you money.

Right. Right. Like if you can do 20 reps like your attack hits. Yes, and the medicine balls like you said are D20s, so it's like you gotta lift that to roll well. Why are you gamifying? Can't you just make the barbells

old-timey? You have to make it competitive. You have to gamify it. If it's not competitive, no one will exercise. I won't go to the gym unless I'm thinking that it is a competition between me and everyone else at the gym. The minute you walk in, you know what your level is compared to everyone else that works at that gym. It's like playing who's the hottest on the train. Well, you know what? I think you succeed.

Is that a game you play with your friends? No, I play with myself. You get on the train and the car that you're in, you look around, you go, who's the hottest on this train car? And then you think, is it possibly me? You know what? I played that game and I never knew I was playing it. I had never defined it before.

It's called judging people by their looks. It's a fun game. If the world ended and we were just stuck in this car, who would I procreate with? Exactly. I never wanted to be me and I never is. Can I tell a quick story? Yeah. Is it New Year's Eve or gym related?

Sort of tangentially. Okay. I'll allow it. Also tangentially involves me at the end. So, you know, my sister, Sing, you guys all know my sister. Oh, yeah. Wonderful. Have you all met Sing?

Have you guys met Sing? I still haven't met her. You guys haven't met Sing. You would love Sing. I know I would. You can endorse Sing. Sing's the best. Sing's great.

So Sing was taking the younger of my nephews out to the playground at the park by her house. And he struck up a friendship with this little girl his own age. And they really hit it off. And they're playing together for like over like a half hour, 45 minutes. And the little girl's there with her father. And so Singh's just sitting off to the side. And my nephew is just like to the father of the little girl, just like, watch me do a cartwheel.

He's like, okay. And he just like keeps doing cartwheels for this very patient man. And he's just like, oh, that's great. That's yeah. All right. That's awesome. And he's really like hitting it off with this girl and everything. And Singh goes over and talks to him. And it's Christian Slater.

What? What? Wait, so she was sitting there the whole time. Didn't realize. I think she knew it was Christian Slater. But she was just like kind of standing off as just like letting, you know, my nephew just sort of like. Rather than Christian Slater. You kind of have to be a kid to ask Christian Slater to watch you.

This is what's cracking me up. It's just imagining. No one at this table could walk up to Christian Slater to watch you do a car wheel. This is what's cracking me up. It's just imagining. No one at this table could walk up to Christian Slater and say, watch me do a car wheel. Watch me do a car wheel. I'm just imagining Baby Bennett just like, watch me do a car wheel. He's like, yeah, that's really great. What a great car wheel. So then Sing and Christian Slater start hanging out.

And they end up leaving the car together. They go to the bar. They left the kids. We're going to park together and they go to the bar they left the kids we're gonna drink they go back to the subway subway goes past my sister's apartment and so they exchange phone numbers and uh christian slater was just like next time you're at the park just give me you know text me and like we'll come up and you know because the kids get along so well yeah and but this is the best part of the story so then christian slater leaves sing is freaking out she loves christian slater of course you know the 14 year old girl inside of her is like losing her mind and she she tells baby bennett she's just like you know you you just met someone very famous and bennett says oh like uncle skid

nice Oh, nice. A little bonus this Christmas. She says, no, no, no, not that famous. So she's texting him today. I'll let you guys know like what happens. Oh, Mike, I hope he comes to the park. I hope he does too. I hope he comes on the show. I really hope.

But it was so funny because I was saying, I was saying to Sang, I was like, if you literally had a draft of like the people in the world that my nephew could strike up a friendship with their kid, Christian Slater would easily be top five. I love Christian Slater. I was just watching Name of the Rose a couple weeks ago. I've always really liked him. He's really cool. Another Star Trek officer, Another Starfleet officer.

Dude, you are like... Name of the Rose, inspiration for Brother Ramius. Right? That's great. I would just watch you. It's a great movie. You are two playground hangs from just casually showing up. Oh, this is my brother. Yeah, I'll tell you that. No, exactly. Well, I'm excited for the moment where Bennett is like, are you as famous as

my uncle's? I do like the idea. He's gonna be like, who. Well, I'm excited for the moment where Bennett is like, are you as famous as my uncle Skid? I do like the idea. Who is this Skid? I shall fight him. I like the idea that baby Bennett is like, I will ask every famous person now, do you know my uncle Skid? Like, assuming that you all know each other.

Yeah, yeah. You always hang out at the famous club. Yeah. The parties. Yeah, it is funny when you have kids how, my wife does this all the time, not me, because I'm antisocial, but like, you just, if the kids hit it off at when you have kids how uh my wife does this all the time not me because i'm anti-social but like you just if the kids hit it off at a playground it's like we should hang out every day now yeah it's like you might as well get used to this and also but if

that parent is like a human being who can have a conversation it's a godsend yeah yeah i'm always worried i'm like you know they're gonna try and kidnap you and kill you. Jesus. I say you just have to be careful. Well, I think you most likely are setting you up to be kidnapped and murdered. But you would probably trust Christian Slater, right? Because he's a little too high profile. Well, this is perfect. If it was Christian Slater.

You've never heard of a celebrity committing a crime. She's never. Yeah, I mean, if it was Christian Slater, I'd be like, oh, all right, that's fine. You'd probably be more apt to trust Christian Slater. Anyone else just giving out their number and being nice, I assume. What if it was Christian Slater, I'd be like, oh, all right, that's fine. You'd probably be more apt to trust Christian Slater. Anyone else just giving out their number and being nice, I assume. What if it was a celebrity whose on-screen persona is all about being terrifying, but is actually a very nice person? Yeah, like Mads Mikkelsen. I was literally.

That's a great example. Who was apparently the nicest man. Super, supposedly super, super nice guy. I'm about to say that because I saw him. I would feel very intimidated right off the bat. Not only because he's Mads Mikkelsen and I love him, but I would also just be like, well, I can't possibly find anything in common with this man. But he's a normal guy.

I'm sure he goes to the park with his kids. He's a beautiful dancer. He is a very good dancer. Have you watched Another Round? No. Oh, my God. Great movie. I've seen the trailer, though, where he's spinning around. I didn't realize he was a good dancer. He was like a professional dancer before he. Great movie. I've seen the trailer though where he's, you know, spinning around.

I didn't realize he was a good dancer. He was like a professional dancer before he was an actor. I had no idea. The name that came to mind for me was like Peter Stormar. Can you imagine like

encountering him on the playground and being like, you're kissing it off. Get away from him. Well, that's a cool story. I thought it was pretty cool. It's a very cool story,

though it cannot be described as being even remotely tangential like New Year's Eve or gyms I thought it was pretty cool. It's a very cool story, though it cannot be described as being even remotely tangential to New Year's Eve or gyms. Oh my God, yeah. It happened like really soon. I bet you he works out. I bet Christian Satter goes to a gym. He probably works out constantly.

He has probably never spent a single month's fee on a gym. I bet you he's had a New Year's resolution. Yeah. The first thing when you're introduced to him, you should ask him, even if it happens in like November, ask him what his New Year's is. Then, okay, that'll

post-validate the story. You can report back. Settle a bet between my friends and I. What's your New Year's resolution? And do you work out? We'll cover it when it comes on, inevitably comes on the show. Settle a weird bet that my friends and I have.

Yeah. Now you have to keep watching until April to find out what Christian Slater's New Year's resolution is. Not to mention his fitness goals. We'll be right back after this. So you've probably heard the term microdose or microdosing being bandied about some these days, including possibly even from us. But if not, just know that all kinds of people are microdosing to feel healthier and perform better. A lot of times we will go on the road and in a state where we can, go on the road and in a state where we can, we will go out and buy some little tiny milligram dosage of gummies or M&Ms or something. And they can really help us just, for me, just really help me relax and have a good time. I'll bring them back home, use them to help me sleep. And I don't

like weed. I used to like weed quite a bit. I don't really anymore that a full dosage is not good for me, but a little tiny bit works really well to relax me, put me in the zone, and help me live a little bit better life. To learn more about microdosing THC, go to microdose.com and use code GCP to get free shipping and 30% off your first order. Again, that's Microdose.com, code GCP, Microdose.com, code GCP for 30% off. I hope everyone is ready to step into 2024 with confidence, thanks to Manscaped, where resolutions are met and hairs are neatly kept. As the new year approaches, why not make self-improvement a breeze by keeping your body well-groomed, right? You want to start the year off right, looking nice from head to toe. You want

to attract a special someone? Keep it clean down there. And the best way to do that is with Manscaped's Performance Package 5.0 Ultra, the ultimate all-inclusive kit designed to help you feel clean-cut and confident, as you should especially as we're about to close one year and start the next. This package comes with the Powerhouse Lawn Mower 5.0 Ultra. This next-gen trimmer ensures precision and ease, which is what you want to ensure when you're shaving you know where. So kick off 2024 with a trim above the rest

and use code GCP at manscaped.com for 20% off and free shipping. You know, it's the end of the year. I've been eating a ton since Thanksgiving. And before, I want to start the new year by dropping a couple LBs, hitting the gym. And you hit the gym,

and you start seeing those muscles come back. Yeah, it's all covered by hair. Clean that up. And the best way to do that is with the Performance Package 5.0 Ultra from Manscaped. But shaving your body hair and your pubes is one thing. Keep your nose and ears clean as well. There's nothing worse than standing five feet away

from someone and seeing a huge nose hair or a gross ear hair. That's why you need the Weed Whacker 2.0 ear and nose hair trimmer. And I know as I'm saying this, there are people who have never shaved their nose hair or their ear hair. And let me tell you what, it shows.

Everyone in your life notices. Go ahead and get that Weed Whacker 2.0 ear and nose hair trimmer, and I'll leave you alone. When you get this package, you're also going to get two free gifts, the Boxers 2.0 and the Shed 2.0 toiletry bag. We travel all the time for our tour. The toiletry bag is a no-brainer for me and the rest of the guys. And, you know, boxers are fine, but

boxers 2.0 from Manscaped are even better. So get 20% off and free shipping with the code GCP at Manscaped.com. That's 20% off with free shipping at Manscaped.com and use code GCP. Happy New Year

to you and your balls. Several people at to you and your balls. Several people at this table have small children. And some of us have small children in daycare. Yes. And it is currently cold and flu season. And it's awful. Is that true for you guys too?

Oh yeah, the cough is coming for you. You hear it, you hear it a few days, and then you're like and it's imminent. It's coming for me. So what do you do? What do you do those of you who have older children than i do i sequester myself in a room of the house and say wife go get sick isn't that what you're supposed to do no try no you're supposed to drink ag1 in the morning the other solution why not do both the better solution i mean when i started drinking ag1 daily well first of all i didn't even have to listen to very strange outdated advice from my co-workers but also i felt like i was doing i was starting every day with something that could possibly you

know like do something good for my body yeah Yeah. And that's because AG1 is a foundational nutrition supplement that supports your body's universal needs, like gut optimization, stress management, and immune support. Since 2010, AG1 has led the future of foundational nutrition, continuously refining their formula to create a smarter, better way to elevate your baseline health. And I feel like that constantly evolving thing, we talked about this because we were drinking AG1,

like it's gotten better than when we were drinking it years ago. Yeah. It tastes different and I'm really loving it right now. Yeah, it's just a great way to start the day because even if you're like, you eat a pretty decent balanced diet, there's still so many nutrients

you're not getting on a daily basis. And you start the day with this, you just feel like, all right, I'm ready to go. I am also, this, you just feel like, all right, I'm ready to go. I am also, this is going to sound so silly, but I'm terrible at regularly taking a multivitamin. I always forget.

Yeah, me too. Like, shockingly. It's just the easiest thing in the world. I always forget. And they give me headaches too. Really? Like, I don't need that much zinc. Have you seen a doctor?

I'm over-zinc'd. Who needs 2,000% of your daily zinc intake? What am I, a triggering mechanism? Yeah, Caitlin and I are now drinking it daily. And we're having a great time with it. My sister-in-law came to visit recently and asked if she could take some of my AG1 back with her to Tulsa.

And I said no. Yeah, you have rights to not let her have it. I like the little bottle, too. The little shake bottle. That's fun. It's very nice. Very convenient. I don't know why you didn't tell your sister-in-law that if she wants to take ownership of her

health, it starts with AG1. I did tell her that, Matthew. Just give him the call to action, because that's what I gave her. Did you give her a promo code at least? I did. I gave her the promo code. Give her the promo code. Oh, you want some?

Sure. Here's the promo code on the website. Here's the promo code. Honestly, I've done that before. AG1. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas is the code. AG1 is the supplement I trust to provide the support my body needs daily.

If you want to take ownership of your health, it starts with AG1. Try AG1 and get a free one-year supply of vitamin D3K2 and five free AG1 travel packs with your first purchase. Go to drinkag1.com slash glasscanon. That's drinkag1.com slash glasscanon. Check it out. Once again, I want to thank our sponsors, Demiplane, Foundry VTT, and Norse Foundry. Come on. For all your random...

Oh, fuck. Fuck. He's looking for a drop. For all your random number generating needs, that's Norse Foundry. And we'll... And pause for edit. I like to think... I would still think about Christian Slater movies.

It is possible the first draft of Norse foundry's slogan was oh fuck oh fuck you roll the die oh fuck that could fit on a t-shirt more easily than my other very very exciting combat last week. What a great Christmas episode. One of my favorite combats we've ever had. Matthew, what did you say before the show? I said I think it is my favorite combat we've ever done. Cinematic. Yeah, I can agree with that.

I mean, it wasn't quite as internally satisfying as the famous Grian fight. Sure. It was probably. You weren't as miserable. Yeah. You were actually pretty happy. Yeah, I was having't as miserable. Yeah. Yeah. You were actually pretty happy. Yeah, I was having a good time. Yeah.

But it was, I mean, I thought everyone, at any given moment, I felt everyone could have died. Yep. Yeah. We were the multi-level, but still involved-ness of it. It's less disappointing. It's really disappointing when you fall out of the combat and you can't get involved. But Zephyr was a major player from the ground.

Also, the twists and turns. We thought, okay, we have to give chase. Here's how the story is going to go. We give chase. We follow him. But then you falling. Him cutting the rope. It was literally a high wire act encounter with Nonet.

Yes. We all were on our own. The rebels dangling from the rope. Brother Ramius from the rope. Me on the- You going around and the bridge bridge falling setting off that trap. I mean, just hanging. That was the thing, too. It was happening in three dimensions.

There were multiple levels to it. The Y-axis. The random fox that may have killed you. The fox that Troy made up out of nowhere to kill your character. I was joking. The rogue fox. The character assassin fox.

It was a wonderful Christmas episode where I was punished as a player and a character. Just over and over and over. For every choice you made. Yep. I do like that idea, Skid. I think that they should have a character assassin archetype. It's called a character assassin. Yeah.

And you just re-skin it as any kind of animal that you feel suits the situation. Kitsune character assassin. I mean, it was hilarious because I was like, ah, the fox bit me. I'm low on hit points. But then the sneak attack damage of this fucking fox put me down. And I was pissed. I was so pissed. But you're not

pissed now. No, I said I forgot how pissed I was during the game. I'm sure'm sure replay that footage i literally was sitting here like and i never get like that but i was so mad and now that i've opened back up my uh foundry and i see all the conditions i have i am once again raging you got repissed it's so awful i mean myself that's yourself again i pissed myself again resist i'm pissed it basically i think the map wants you to fight that oak steward that you one shot with your hand crossbow and the fox and then that encounter encounter is dealt with if you're coming from the way that you

came and you also fall off the bridge and then it becomes a little crazier because there's this chasm between you and the enemy or after you fought you fought those sprites right at the beginning, you go up the stairs and you fight them, but they weren't there. I think you maybe saw the guy, but you didn't see the fox. Anyways, the fox still being out there and waiting. Well, there's – in the way that I theorize about character death, right? Like we always talked about like M1E was like falling would just like kill a character. And that can certainly happen in 2E. In 2E, we certainly think

persistent damage is a character killer. Like it can be designed just like there's nothing you can do, completely helpless and die and another real character killer is opening up another encounter that you're not supposed to while you're already in a fight with one and that's kind of what happened here is you walked from one encounter into

another. And that's what Bolin wanted to do. Like by pulling it around to there, he's hoping that he still has allies left to help him now that he's lost his sunflower. He fought very smart. I got to give him credit. But... Or maybe he tried to assassinate the fox.

Troy played on our sympathy for animals. Yeah. We're in a bit of a pickle here because you actually could permanently die. Yeah, I didn't realize this until we were talking before the session, but I still have to roll my death saving throw. Right. Recovery check. Recovery check. Because there's multiple rounds that are still potentially happening. Yes. The fight is not over. You have lit up Bolin to the point where he is looking at himself and realizing even though he has the upper hand here,

he's outnumbered and one more arrow shot could kill him. And so he wants to parlay. However, Buggles goes next and Buggles is way far away, still dangling from that rope, has no way of reaching you to heal. And then you roll your recovery save. Because you're dying two, you've got to hit DC 12 or higher to recover. But that's not really the problem because now you've got a whole other round for Ramius or Talitha or somebody to come help you. The problem is if you roll a natural one or a two, that critical failure would bring you to dying four and you would permanently die. And the only reason that makes me sad is I wish that had happened at the end of last episode as opposed to beginning of this, because then it's a better button. Opening the episode

with your death is just... That's the only reason it makes you sad, is because it would have been a better button. Would it have been like a gift or not if a character died on Christmas? Yeah, is that a present for you, or is that... Yeah, no, it's better to... Now you've got a new resolution. Make a new character. Potentially.

Make a better character. The new character is the present. Yeah. Maybe the new character can have the diehard feet. Oh, there you go. Just look on the bright side. I am going to off-air kick your ass. Wow. And you could too. Turn the mics off. I have something I need to say.

I mean, this is nasty. I was doing some rolls. I'm sorry, I'm just picturing like we need like a cut of this like it's a dramatic like on set Hollywood moment

where like I leave the mic no the mics are still on but like the camera's trying to find you but you're beating them up just off camera

and you just hear please stop please stop we're wearing our lav mics and you just hear like crumble crumble on the face

trying to get through the hair. I would never do the face. It would do the phone book, and then I punch you in the ribs with the phone book so you can't see the marks on you. Oh, good idea. It just bruises your bones. Dark.

That's how you get this through. Yeah. I just got to close a few tabs. Could have done incognito, I realize. What the hell? I'm going to keep the Foundry VTT tab open here because we need to deal with this. And we're going to jump right back in. Bolan has essentially given himself up, but he could run. Right now, he's got his hands up and he's like, let's talk. Now, I will just tell you out the gate, I thought about maybe walking up to you and trying to heal you.

I don't have the ability to do so, both with the character and with the actions that I have. And your psychology. And my general psychology. You're saying Bolan would. You know, it's something I considered. I was like, would Bolan do that to sort of try and get an easier sentence here? And I thought about it. And then I was like, well, let me that to sort of try and get an easier sentence here? And I thought about it. And then I was like, well, let me see if I could even technically do it.

And I just don't. I don't have the movement of the actions or the abilities. I'm going to say, just looking over the foundry, I also don't think Brother Ramius can do it in a round. Wait, wait, what? Even on a failure. He's so far away. Oh, well, yeah, you're on the, yeah. Yeah, so even on a, I was just, I think I'm'm gonna be just a few feet short so let's see should be fine talitha's hanging from a john but has to get up

you'll get there and then i don't have battle medicine you need two actions i need two actions to make the elixir and give it to her so if you climb up then move you still won't have i forgot you were hanging it's possible if you don't recover i don't remember how you could still die i don't remember how far up on the bridge I am. I started climbing. Maybe Bolan could do it in the next round. In my head, you were one action away from climbing up, but that's the action. Yeah, you said you were right at the

edge. So then I can't heal her in this turn. Right. Okay. This is bad. Yeah. There's a couple of different ways you could die. Do I go in the initiative? Let me look at the initiative tracker. None of you can fly. Let me check my character sheet. Let me look at the initiative tracker. None of you can fly, huh? You guys wait. Let me check my character sheet. Let me check my one feat I get at level one.

No. No. You didn't take fly? It's weird. You didn't take the fly feat? I guess I didn't. Yeah, no, because it's going to be. All right, there's Talitha.

There's Lucky. Zephyr, Buggles, and Ramius are so far away. I mean, this is brutal. Lucky Zephyr, Buggles, and Ramius are so far away. I mean, this is brutal. Ramius is in a different building complex that currently has no attachment to any other building complex. Yeah, that's true. Oh, right. Oh, my God. He has a different congressman.

There are windows. There are windows, Brother Ramius. I know. So my calculation to the window is not enough. Okay. To get the heal off this round. So yeah, you gotta, you have to pass the recovery. Not roll a one or a two. We talked a little bit about the math ahead of time. It's a, you get a 90% chance of not dying this turn.

Right. Yeah. And then it's a 45% chance of stabilizing. Could you, Joe, run up to a closer window, lean out, and cast? The further away the window is, she has to be within 30 feet. So I need to be at that window that's like right

across. Yeah, the bed, one of the no, or the, yeah. Let me ask you this question, Troy. Uh-huh? Are bottle caps transferable? You know, I looked it up, and they aren't. Let me ask you this question, Troy. Can you turn a bottle cap in for, say, 10 feet of movement?

Yeah, that is a real good use of a bottle cap. That's kind of interesting. You know, I had this thought the other day that, like, if everyone... I guess that's a no. If everyone turned in their bottle caps, it's a deus ex machina, but it's a three bottle cap minimum.

And then I was like, no, that's stupid. Just let him die. So let's just see how this plays out. I think you're coming in, driving into the city today. I was like, oh, lucky's fine. And over the time from when I walked into the studio to just this moment, I kind of think you're going to die. I'm going to cry. I know. I know.

There's a 90% chance of not dying. You could play Bolan. He seems like a pretty cool guy. That's my consolation. And he's a higher level. Isn't he also going to be

somewhat occupied in the criminal justice system? That's true, but she could role play him as like, maybe he's hurt. You know when you get nervous? You know when you get nervous?

And you start rolling your die out of a nervous thing. You're kind of just like, I was doing that before. Oh my god. I couldn't have had worse rolls in my life. I roll really well normally. I got good die luck. I was rolling a two, a six, a two. I was like, alright, just need to stop

rolling. That's Norse Foundry for all your randomness. I was going to say, this was a problem last episode too. You were rolling really badly. The more nervous I get, the worse I start to roll. It's something that my shaky hands, I don't know what it is. When I'm rolling well. They can smell fear. I know. That's one of the nice new features of

the Norse Foundry gemstone. They can smell my fear. I can smell fear. You had so many opportunities, though. I mean, you had a chance when you were toe-to-toe and you missed on those attacks. That's brutal. And, like, honestly, if Zephyr hadn't had hit Bolan with two arrows, Bolan comes up and shillelays you. Oh, wow. I mean, it just seems like it's now up to fate.

Yeah. Because everything else was against you. So Bolan is gonna stand there and be like, there's no reason for any more of us to die here. Let's,

let's talk. Let's talk it out. And last question. Yeah. You don't have any potions or elixirs on you that Bolan could administer. Oh last question. You don't have any potions or elixirs on you that Bolon could administer. Oh

boy. No, I don't think so. I feel like all the ones that we looted were used. Yeah. I used mine. You used yours. Yeah, I have them marked as all used. Yeah. I have a dose of shiver. Let's get her high. This is gonna make it

milk of the poppy. I'm checking my notes. My last episode notes. We fight Bolan. I go down twice. Once by a fox. Stupid fox. That was my last note. Still the last email you sent to yourself. It's Buggles' turn. Buggles,

you know, I think you, I can't remember exactly where you were, but I feel like you're one climb action away from being in the room. Yeah, no, I think, because I'm at the exactly where you were, but I feel like you're one climb action away from being in the room. Yeah, no, I think because I'm at the very bottom of the rope. Because you went down there. Yeah, so, and I can't really climb. Like, I was able to get down the rope okay, but I'm going to have a real hard time getting up it.

Someone pull the rope up. Help! Help, please! She's in trouble, help! And he's, I'm going to try. I'm going to try to climb the rope. Going down, I wasn't making you roll any checks. I feel like it's a lot easier to go down.

It's still difficult. I didn't want to, you guys were already hamstrung. Going up is a different story. Yeah, all right. Let me, I'm going to try to climb the rope. Okay. I'm now terrified for part of it 8

8 Just bringing up the old climb Skill here Yeah Says you can go 5 feet With a With a 5 So yeah you can climb up 5 feet

With a DC 5 It's only a critical fail it looks like To fall Five. So, yeah, I think you can climb up five feet. With a DC five? It's only a critical fail, it looks like, to fall. Yeah, if you have a speed of, what, 20 to 35? 25 feet. But what's the DC? The GM determines the DC based on the nature of the incline and environmental circumstances. It is a ladder.

A rope. A rope ladder-ish. No, it was a bridge. It's just a rope. It's just a rope. I feel like Rope DC wants to be 10. At least. I think a base 10. So yeah, you just like... Yeah.

So... Makes sense. Buggles is stuck down there. Yeah, it's... There is one. I'm fine. I think he's fine. He hasn't critically failed. Yeah, no, no. Any of you did. It's also a single action, so you can just keep trying Yeah, I'll Try again

18 Alright, so you're able to move up 10 feet One more 14 Look at you go, 20 feet up the road excuse me I said 10 feet that wasn't a critical success

so you move a total of 10 okay so Buggles just hand over hand hopefully doesn't critically fail oh I'm sorry you're right only if I rolled a natural one would I critically fail right if I've set the DC

at 10 only a natural one would I critically fail. Right. If I've set the DC at 10, only a natural one. That's cool. Okay. God. Well, lucky. A couple things are going to happen. You roll a 12 or higher, you're fine. You're fine, and all this goes away.

You roll a 3 to 11, you go to dying 3. You roll a 1 or a 2, you die. Okay. My hands are, like, so sweaty. So are mine. you roll a one or a two you die okay I'm my hands are like so sweaty so are mine my hands are sweaty to be fair

my hands are always sweaty they're very hairy my heart is in my throat okay here I go oh no I just I could see it no

no what did you do no what did you do no no I could see it. No. No! What did you do? No! What is wrong? No! No! No!

It's a one. Oh, my God. Oh, no. No. no ugh laughing laughing that's the saddest drop because it didn't even get through it didn't even get through

try again oh my god laughing no there still has to be a way. I'm so sad. No, no, no. I'm crying. We can fix this.

We can fix this. We need to start thinking about arrangements. She's already moved on to a different stage of grieving. Who's going to pay for the funeral? We haven't thought about a headstone We have to Plot Did she say anything about her wishes?

Did she have any money? In her dying Ex-of-kin Star to be Does she know any other fighters? God Does she have any friends? Siblings, perhaps a cousin with a similar name

But spelled different I can't wait to skin this fucking fox The fox killed her. Skin this corpse. The fox killed this. Yeet it into the sun. Maybe it was a rabid fox. So I have rabies and I'm dead?

Don't touch the corpse. She has rabies. It's the best time to have rabies when you're dead. Yeah, I guess you're right. It's episode 15, and that's our first character death. I'm looking right now. Recovery checks. When you're dying at the start of each of your turns, It's episode 15, and that's our first character death. I'm looking right now, recovery checks. When you're dying at the start of each of your turns,

you must attempt a flat check with a DC equal to 10 plus your current dying value to see if you get better or worse. This is called a recovery check. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Critical failure. Your dying value increases by two. There were 20 options. Two of them would kill you, and you rolled a one.

Okay, but... I see what you're saying. I hear you. We have a cleric who has, I assume, connections to other clerics. Could there be a resurrection? Everyone died in the fire. Joey.

With a dead look in your eye. Everyone I know died in the fire. You're the only friends I have. You're the only cleric left on earth. Um, so, I mean, in this moment, Bolan gives himself up, but the fox sneak attack from the brush kills Lucky. I cannot believe, I cannot believe that I rolled a one. I can't believe I wasn't the one to die first.

I have not accepted this yet. You're still in the denial phase. Yeah, I'm like, no. I'm in the denial phase. This isn't fucking happening. I'm sweating. It is the fox's turn. No, no.

So rude. What's it gonna do, eat my corpse? It is hungry. It has the trait hungry. Just comes and chews on your wounds. The fox does not come out. Go to the top of what would be round nine. I mean, at this point, now with no one about to die,

I can take you out of initiative. Brother Ramius was going to move quickly toward the window. Yeah, so walk me through this cinematic. He moves as quickly as he can toward the window that looks out to the east, and he just sees Lucky's body. When you do that, like, Zephyr's down below. the window that looks out to the east and he just sees Lucky's body. When you do that, like, Zephyr's down below. She's like, I've got Bolan in my sights. You go get her.

I got this guy. Go get her. You guys don't even know I'm dead. He's looking across at the body and he's just going to cast heal. I don't see why he wouldn't. So he's going to reach out through the window. Keep a saver. Oh, yeah, perfect.

I needed you to open the window. And he's going to reach out. I think he's really... I don't know for sure. Let's see. I think he's 30 feet across. I mean, 25 feet across this gap. And he reaches across and uses his last heal of the day.

Any chance, Troy? Reach out, cast heal. When this happens, does light come out of your hands? It like sort of comes from the god, flows out of your hands. You see it float through the tree canopy, land on her body. You've cast this spell before, probably before you even met these people. You probably remember the day you learned how to use these magics.

And there's no movement. You see her black fur, just like, you know, in the wind. Keep her, please. Please. you see her like black fur just like you know in the wind please please nothing until Aethel will like gets up to the top and sees Lucky's body and rushes to her and is like Lucky, Lucky, Lucky please and she like turns her over

and just like sees the blood stained fur the blood matted fur and the fox bite and she's like no He turns her over and sees the blood-stained fur, the blood-matted fur, and the fox bite. And she's like, No. No. And she looks up at Bolan. Zephyr at this point is like,

Guys, is everything all right up there? What's happening? Talitha, is there anything you can do? Is there anything? I mean, he is so hopeless with this because the magic of the keeper did nothing. The body didn't even budge. Talitha just puts her head in her hands and just sits there.

You brought this on yourselves? You had no business coming here. Her blood is on your hands, not mine. I need to get over there. Jalitha, I'll be there in a moment. And he's going to try to get over there. Perhaps you're right. He's not even listening to Bolan.

He's just so focused on Lucky. Perhaps this blood is on our hands. What have you to say? Do you surrender? I do my job here is done your weapons

over the edge fine takes his staff drops it as it falls out of his hands it turns back into regular staff lands

Zephyr you see it land on the forest floor you may have slowed our progress back into regular staff. Toot-toot. Lands. Zephyr, you see it land on the forest floor. You may have slowed our progress, but the obnubilate curse will return, and this time it will be far more powerful. All will fall. Not just elves. Not just catfolk.

All. The Great Reset is coming So that nature can return to its throne They have seen it Humankind has become out of balance With the rest of the natural world It is our responsibility to cull the herd Look at you

Look at what you've done here You think that is the only body? Look at that one He points at the other oak steward. And how many other countless lives have you stolen from this place? Far more than I have! This is why you deserve to go. Tell the fox.

Tell the fox to go. Back to the wild. He'll... He's free. Fading moths! You have served your purpose! And they thank you for it! Run free!

I am sorry for your loss! And you would just hear like... Talitha's gonna stand, and can I go pat him down, make sure he doesn't have any other daggers or weapons on him? He had a Walther PPK. Talk to his belt. What sorcery is this? Don't worry about that.

Talitha's up on the bridge at this point, all alone with him. Yeah, just bridge. Zephyr's on her way up to come up behind Bolan. When she saw him drop his staff, she starts running up there. I can't move my character. You could absolutely, like Yoda style, Buggles if you want.

Well, Buggles is like, I'm pulling Buggles up. You're pulling Buggles up. In the window now. Okay. Because he's almost all the way up. So Brother Ramius went down to the bridge, saw that it was broken down,

the bridge to the south, came back up, and now eventually he's helping Buggles in the window. Come in, come in. Something's happened to Lucky. Do you believe in justice, O-Long? Oh, yes. And it will be served.

Yes, on that we agree. And Talitha's going to run him through with her rapier. Oh, yeah, yeah. Toisa is going to run him through with her rapier. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Tobias' strategy. Run him through. You will deserve everything coming to you. They have seen it, and they are watching.

Just buckles to the ground, spitting up blood. She very coolly withdraws the rapier and just wipes it off on his garments. Zephyr was like behind Bolan while you did that and now maybe like has a clear path to see Lucky on the ground there at the other end of the bridge and just kind of runs past you up to Lucky. This is probably when she actually finds out what's going on and just, yeah, kneels down and is like,

no, this wasn't supposed to happen this way. Looking around just like, oh, no. Like nothing you can do. Just nothing you can do. Yeah, Buggles too. He's right behind. He's like, no, oh, no. Like, nothing you can do. Just nothing you can do. Yeah, Buggles, too. He's right behind. He says, no, no, no. No, I can feel she was hurt.

No, and he's like, tears streaming from his eyes. He runs up and just like kneeling next to her, just kind of like stroking her fur, crying. Knievel! I know you are watching! Please! Please save me! I am not done serving you!

Talitha takes the rapier and stabs him again. Oh, jeez. Bottle cap. Bop. Bop. So we're saying we're all over there now? Yeah, you're all over there now. God.

What do we do? What can we do? And Brother Ramius kneels down again, and now he's still thinking about the struggles that he's had with the healing magics and and even the struggles that he's already had with lucky just just uh healing her with mundane means as well uh when she was burned badly and stuff and he's he's just saying i'm sorry i'm sorry and he's he's removing parts of her garments to look for wounds and is trying to patch her up wherever he can, performing CPR, pumping her heart, you know, just doing all the things that he can try and just sweating and clearly in grief trying to bring her back.

Yeah, when you take off like her copper plates and stuff, you see on her stomach she has her gate walker's mark and it's almost like a big brand and fur is missing. And you just see she has, you know, multiple puncture wounds from fighting Bolan and the fox bite was like nothing, but it's the thing that put her down. And you see that is like kind of on her thigh and maybe you realize like it was her femoral artery or something, like it was just like a crucial hit. Yeah, the loss. And Buggles too, he's like, he's trying to, like he's sitting there crying and he's trying to summon Siak-a-ak,

like his other aspect so that he can do some healing, but it won't come. He's just like hitting his little head. He's just like, ah, come on, come on. She's gone. Tleitha's just still standing over the dead body of Bolan, bloody rapier hanging down from her head. His eyes are open, sir.

Curse this place. Perhaps. Zephyr just like slowly backs away, like flat face, stands up, turns around and just like walks away towards Seletha and Bolan and just loots Bolan. Loot Bolan. Like aggressively.

Aggressively looting. You remember in a British accent that maybe maybe Lucky didn't have a British accent but you remember a British accent and Lucky saying bring my body back bring my body back I'm doing a Harry Potter reference um oh no it's so sad

but yeah maybe like a very sad remembrance of Lucky just saying that she wanted to be uh cremated or something. You know, like some wish of hers that you remember they talked about one time late at night. I remember that and say that off the side of my mouth

to you. We need to bring her potty back. Yes. We must let... And after I loot Bolan, I kick his body over the edge of the... Don't we have to take him back? we killed him I think we do need to bring some proof of it

I don't kick his body over the edge I'll tell you what he had he had a dagger, a hide armor, his leaf mask and the staff which you which he threw to the ground if you want to go retrieve it it is a plus one staff he did not have any healing potions threw to the ground. If you want to go retrieve it as a plus one staff. Oh, all right.

He did not have any healing potions or the ability to save your friend. Yes. What was the name he mentioned when he called out when he, right before I stabbed him again? Kanipo. Kanipo. Kanipo. Save me.

There's more that I can do. Can I roll a knowledge check on that name? Mm-hmm. Is it a god? You tell me what you want to roll, because you've never heard it. I mean, I'll just run through my knowledge. I'll start with Arcana. Yeah.

Natural 19 for 26. All right, so that's as high as you're going to get. It's not a name that you're familiar with at all. Even like the derivation, like, oh, that's Knieper. That sounds like a River Kingdom's name. You don't know it. We must finish clearing the fortress. Assure ourselves there are no more rebel oak stewards left.

And then we will bring Bolan's body and the body of lucky back to seven arches allow me a moment please and he just goes into the folds of his robe and he draws out this small book uh it's just a tiny prayer book and he starts to perform a hastened version of a last rites essentially and it's a small prayer and ritual that the keeper

takes the spirit and grants it access to nirvana where it will once again you know reunite with all of us when we all raise through that enlightenment to nirvana where it will once again you know reunite with all of us when we all raise through that enlightenment to nirvana so he's confident in his belief that he will see lucky again and he's sort of paving that way with this small ritual it only takes about five minutes and it's uh you know some oils and stuff like that like on the forehead, that kind of thing.

And then he closes the book and says, let's clear it out. Medicine checks, we should all heal. I'm pretty hurt. I assume those of you who fell 30 feet are also hurt. I am wounded, I believe. Yeah, wounded too. Okay, then Brother Ramius will begin to attempt

treating wounds up on this bridge. Yeah, with just tears in his eyes. Okay, who's hurt? I healed you. Yeah, my hit points are fine pretty much. Lucky's a little banged up. Who's hurt? Lucky.

Lucky's a little banged up. Somebody heal me. Talitha gets herself. Okay, and how are you doing? I'm only two hit points down, otherwise I'm wounded too. Okay, and then what about Buggles? I actually have a bunch of temporary HP on top of being completely healed. Okay, then he's just going to take a few minutes and try to help Zephyr.

Success. And so you only needed two, right? So you'd absolutely get that so you're fine and then he will work on himself and he succeeds uh as well on himself uh so that's good and oh 13 points of healing to himself so yeah buggles wants to help with this too but he can't because he can't because he can only do the restore the mind when his psyche is unleashed, when Siaka Akas emerges, but that can only happen in an encounter. So he's trying to force it out and it just won't come. She's gone, Lucky.

Lucky. She's gone, Karma. She's gone, Karma. Lucky. Lucky, I mean. She's gone karma Lucky I mean She's gone Buggles I can't believe it Delita you're right

We must clear the fort Let's make sure no one else is here and then we can decide what to do next Can we Have we seen everywhere in the fort at this stage To your knowledge yes um obviously when you walked into that first room that bolan was in um you immediately went into an encounter so you haven't really searched that room um and then the water tower room you were kind of in and out of but you did you did search that um so if you look at that office. It must have been like the office of the head of the gnomes,

the one that you spoke with, Parva. It's now been repurposed. There's that sleeping bag or sleeping mat on the floor where Bolan had taken it over. You look around and you do find some interesting things. You find in one of the cabinets three lesser healing potions. Those really would have come in handy. You son of a bitch.

A few moments ago. Is that true or is that a bit? Look at her face. No, it's true. Draw a bath, pour them in, place my body in. There are three lesser healing potions. I don't think the action economy would have been enough for Brother Ramos to get up there, search,

find it, run to the window, toss it. Directly into her mouth. Directly into her mouth. It shatters all her lips. One drop. One drop dribbles in. Stable. And you also find a journal made

out of like parchment and leaf. It's got like a leaf covering that's been tempered. You start looking through that, and it is the personal journal of one Bolan Nagasa. Start reading. I imagine you start from the back. It's not like, puberty is tough. What do I do when that thing happens in my pants?

This girl I like in my class. You skip towards the back and you see certain entries like, my powers are growing by the day. The gate has gifted me in a way that I feel like I've already just always deserved. Um, so you see that.

And then the entries, uh, is there an entry that describes what he saw in the gate? No, you look quickly, anything describing what he saw? No. Only that he remembers eagerly jumping towards it when the gates came alive.

And we don't remember what we saw ourselves. Some of you do. Yeah, well, just what we saw, but not what happened in the three months or whatever that we were gone. The missing time. You probably all remember what you saw, or maybe you've blacked that out,

but once you walked through... I meant more like what we experienced. Yeah, no one remembers that. And does he say in the journal i meant like more like what we experienced yeah no no one remembers yeah and does he say in the journal that he does not remember what he experienced yeah he doesn't remember either okay so that was an important detail i was asking that of the halfling let's say did he say he remembers what he saw no he does remember them a moment before he remembers the gate opening and eagerly jumping through didn't give it a second thought. Obviously, he saw something that he desired, as all of you did as well. Then you see an entry describing a visit that he received in the night

from a terrifying fae named Kniepo the Slim. named Kniepo the Slim. He said he was so afraid at first, but how quickly that fear turned to calm. He's always loved the Fae and always felt closer to them than other people. And he was desperate for an ally and found that ally in Kniepo. and he was desperate for an ally, and found that ally in Kniepo.

And Kniepo wanted him to do certain things. First of all, to steal the key, which he did, and then gave that key to Kniepo. Sorry, where did he meet Kniepo? The Fae came to him. In Seven Arches? It doesn't say. It says, I was visited the other night by a terrible Fae named Kniepo the Slim.

Oh, he doesn't even have the key. He took the key and he gave it to Kniepo. You read on and it appears that Kniepo is responsible for the obnubulate curse. The original obnubulate curse. Like for thousands of years?

That's what he says, or at least he's taken credit for that. And the key is vital to ensuring that it will not only return but destroy all humankind I've got good news and I've got bad news

as you read that you all level up yeah okay that's the bad news what's the good news the bad news is lucky too soon good news? Well, not all of us. That's the good news. The bad news is lucky. Too soon. Too soon. We'll be right back after this break.

This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. So it's the holidays, which have a lot going for them, as listeners of the show probably know. There are a lot of positive feelings about the holidays on this show, but also they're a very stressful time of year. I mean, there's the travel, and sometimes the family stuff can be really stressful, and then there's the state of the world. And so it's important during this time to take care of yourself and therapy can help with that. Now, I have before taken the position here, the very controversial position, pro, pro healthy minds over here and whatever we all can do to help ourselves get to a healthier mind, I'm pro that. And if you're thinking of starting therapy, maybe give BetterHelp a try. It's entirely online, designed to be convenient, flexible, and suited to your schedule.

Just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist and switch therapists at any time for no additional charge. In the season of giving, give yourself what you need with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com slash GCN today to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash GCN today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash GCN. As we finish off the year here, I just want to take a second to thank NordVPN for being a huge supporter of Campaign 2 on the GCP ever since launch and for helping us bring this show to you week after week. Not only are they supporting the show, they're also offering an awesome deal

to the nation to try out the app. I've been a NordVPN user for a long time, and I can tell you, no BS, that I am shocked, shocked at how easy it is to use, how quickly and efficiently it works, and how inexpensive it is for the services that it provides. There is no faster VPN in the world. I can activate it with a single click, and I never even notice the slightest buffering or lagging, even when I'm streaming. I've told you before how much I love changing my virtual location to help protect my privacy when I'm on public Wi-Fi while I'm traveling, but I don't think I've mentioned before the NordVPN threat protection, which is a whole additional layer of proactive protection against viruses, malware, and phishing sites.

For the price of a cup of coffee a month, I really don't think there's any reason not to try it out. To grab our huge discount off your NordVPN plan, go to nordvpn.com slash gcp. Our code will also give you four extra months on the two-year plan. There's no risk with Nord's 30-day money-back guarantee. The link is in the episode description box. So a lot of information, and you are imbued with new powers. So what's the good news? Some of you. Good news is we need to chat after this show. imbued with new powers. So what's the good news? Some of you.

Good news is, we need to chat after this, after the show. I've found a new actress. Why do I feel like, why do I feel like I'm being reprimanded for you

killing my character? You're like, uh, Sid, we gotta talk after the show. That's how, that's how he works. As someone who's,

who's, uh, had a lot of characters die at Troy's hand, he makes it seem like your fault. I've changed my anger. I wanted to beat you up off air. Now I'd like to beat you up off air. Back on me. Back on me. I was workshopping this show idea for a while where if your character died, you were placed on the show. Honestly.

Maybe this is the show to do it. I think you should do that. New pitch, though. A show where this is the show to do it. I think you should do that. New pitch though, a show where we do like a OG dungeon crawl, but that's what it is because you're going to die like immediately

and you just have like a rotating like musical chairs. Like it's like, and you just get up, you go get a coffee and then eventually five minutes,

you know, you come back, I'm back in the game. Back in. New character. Do you have to rotate out if one of your characters does?

Yes. Yeah. Every boss kill. Every encounter every encounter is the new GM the real question is I would presume Sydney's gonna return to the game right presuming that with a new character doing this live huh we won't need that right now hello oh my my ride's here

I'm also presuming new character level one yeah that's one thing we hadn't talked about wait wait wait when you die wait okay

you are the worst you need to XP your way back to catch up with the party we never talked I didn't sign anything we never talked about this it's part of Troy's new impossible rules. We die at level seven

and you bring in a level one character. It's going to be really dicey. You'll level up super fast. And you start over when you die. You'll be like level three after one encounter. We've talked about it. We collectively disavow Joe and reject that. That would be amazing.

No, but we'll think of something for you to do. Yeah. We'll find something. I could always need some help adding back here. But in the meantime, you did kill Bolan. He deserved it, one would assume here. I believe the thought so. Your job was to bring him back alive, but that didn't happen,

and I'm sure they understood that things could get hairy, and they did. Your lives were at stake, and in fact, one of you perished because of Bolan. Not to mention what Bolan did to these gnomes. Not even seemingly being truthful with his cronies. Grimona certainly didn't think the gnomes were dead, and if she did, she was a good liar. They were displaced, is what she said. Displaced from life.

So as you search his room, you find some potions that would have come in handy, obviously. But you also find his personal journal where he recounts remembering jumping through those gates, coming back with new powers, feeling like he was chosen, being visited by a fae named Kniepo the Slim. And Kniepo explaining to him, we can be allies. Just get me this key. I'm responsible for the Obnubula curse

and I want to bring it back. Does he say anywhere in the journal why Kniepo chose him? No, the only thing you see is that the Thinlands, the Thinlands. I want to visit the Thinlands. See them in their own domain. But there's no sort of motive other than, you know, the same thing that they think of Bolan anarchy.

But they're fey. Kniepo the Slim appears to be fae. Kniepo the Slim from the Thin Lands. Interesting. Have we heard of the Thin Lands? Some sort of flat land? I keep thinking of, makes me think of Slenderman. Ooh.

That's what, I got this. Coming in the night, you know. Yeah, do we know what the thin lands are? Have we heard of that? So Brother Ramius is extremely well read. I haven't rolled on any of this yet. So is this ringing any bells, any legends of the thin lands or a fey of this nature? Yeah, you can give me a roll about it.

What am I rolling on? Is it nature? Yeah, roll nature to see if that's like an area that you've heard of. Is am I rolling on? Is it nature? Yeah, roll nature to see if that's like an area that you've heard of. Is geography still a... I have nature. For yours is not so good. I mean, I could do scouting lore. I mean, I could also do nature, medicine, religion, society.

I mean, I got everything. I got everything. Occultism. I'm going to see if I've ever read any of medicine, religion, society. I mean, I got everything. I got everything. Occultism. I'm going to see if I've ever read any of this. Okay. Nature, I'm going to do. I don't have geography lore. Okay.

Come on, Brother Ramius. Natural one. Dirty 20. Shades of Lucky. So maybe you... Jesus Christ. Maybe you're... We'll call that, for now on our natural ones

the lucky roll brutal but that's hilarious maybe you're like Brother Ramius that book that you took from the quaking stacks may I take a gander in your looking through it I know you don't know how to read Brother Ramius

might I look at the book and you find give me that you illiterate monk I don't know how to read, Brother Ramius. Might I look at the book? I know. And you find... Give me that, you illiterate monk. You find a passage. I mean, I imagine you have to study this for a while, but you do find a passage. It says, In the fields along the western edge of the Wildwood,

the Wildwood, rather, the homesteaders say you can see the shadows of a forest that isn't there. They call it the Thinlands. It's an eerie place, but the soil's rich. Richer than it has any right to be. So folks stay, grow their crops, and huddle close to their hearths at night. That's all it says.

This is in the River Kingdoms? Yeah, somewhere. So on the edge of the Wildwood the river kingdoms yeah somewhere on the edge of the wild woods where we are the wild with the forest within which you are in and which is how we see a forest in the distance but didn't we see some aspect of the thin lands isn't that what happened to us that like um plane shift that we experienced a shadow shift the planar seepage perhaps that was the thing yeah so people go there plant their crops and then leave or they stay it's unclear it makes it seem like there's an area somewhere along the western edge of the wildwood while i keep saying wild wildwood that is called the thin lands but it's unclear if it's a terrestrial place or if it's another plane of existence seems like the people who live there, the soil is very fertile.

So that's why. I think it sounds to me like it's a place where the line between the two worlds is dense. And that there is rich soil there. And so despite the obvious risk of being in a place where the fake and intrude, they're still living there. And so that's that's interesting. It is very interesting. risk of being in a place where the fake and intrude, they're still living there. So, that's interesting. It is very interesting.

We should... Fascinating. We should consult with Lemmerfeld. Lemmerfeld? Lemmerfeld. Lemmerfeldthorn. Lemmerfeldthorn. We should... Yes, we need to return. We will present her this book, the Journal of Bolan. She can sort as proof. I do not know if our duty to

Dr. Riddleson call us away from this place or if finding this going to this thin lands and finding Kenepo and recovering the Shadeweather Key may be our next mission. We shall write him from Seven Arches.

Well, we could just... Is he gone-gone? No, he's meeting us back at the Caravan Sarai, isn't he? No, he's gone-gone. He's gone-gone. He had another thing he was going to deal with, and he said, if you need to contact me, you know, send a letter. Right, okay.

And then eventually you would reconvene back in Ustalav after your mission was done. So, yeah. Okay. Let's recover the plus one staff. Okay. And then let's... And then we... mission was done. Let's recover the plus one staff. And then let's... Zephyr has deadlift lucky and is carrying her body.

We have the mule cart too. I feel like Zephyr feels like she needs to do this. Yeah, but the mule cart is far away. The mule cart is back where we left. It's like a mile and a half away. I feel like we don't want to just leave her body out on the bridge while we're in this where we left like a mile and a half away I feel like we don't want to just leave her body out on the bridge

while we're inside tied up in the mule cart right Corymona has presumably been eaten by wild animals I forgot about her yeah we all did and my books

are all back there too so I'm eager and the horse oh no not your books my books so she's hurt right now The way Hurt people hurt people

That's right The way Joe The way Joe said that I'm gonna try to not lash back out Was so cute He was like You did say that lucky joke When you rolled a one

So I think you're even now You also said it so sweet Where we're like There's a woman tied up In the mule cart You're like And my books And my books

And my books Those books are more valuable Than Lucky's life Wow woman tied up in the mule cart. You're like, and my books. And my books. And my books. Those books are more valuable than Lucky's life. Wow. Clearly the books are still alive. I thought you were going to stop yourself from lashing back. I couldn't help it. I cannot wait for all of the fights that are going to happen when we cut. We're going to just fight everyone in this room.

Keep the cameras rolling. Keep the cameras rolling. We'll do back to back up so you can see the bruises. Bonus content. Just Sydney beating everybody up. So as you're walking back, you know, leaving the Greenleaf Gnome fortress and the trees behind, wondering if they will return from the Eternal Grove and retake it, let's talk about these level-ups. I've mentioned to you that you would be leveling up

at some point in this adventure. So, anybody want to jump in and talk about what they're thinking? Sydney? Oh my god. You know what? We'll come back to you. We'll go with everybody else.

I'll give you time to build a second level character. That's what I'm doing. What about you, Talitha? I imagine Investigator has a cool, like, a nice step up. A couple cool things. I get an Investigator feat, a class feat, and I chose

Shared Stratagem. So, if I, when I devise a stratagem and I hit with that attack, I can designate one ally, and the creature I hit is then flat-footed to that ally. Oh, that's cool. Huge. So I can make a creature flat-footed for Zephyr to hit

or for Brother Rick or for Zephyr to hit. It's cold. And then I get another spell, another formula in my formulae book. Okay. And I don't want to tell you what I took. Classic Matthew. And then I get a skill feat, which I will be honest, selecting skill feats at this level,

I feel like you take battle medicine or not much else. But I didn't want to take battle medicine because I wanted to. I made Lemon Law this, if that's all right. Are we doing Lemon Law for this campaign? Yeah, sure. What I ended up taking was Trick Magic Item. Oh. It's basically like the equivalent of...

Not really an equivalent, but the 2e's version of Use Magic Device where you can try to activate a magic item by trying to trick it into believing you're using magic essentially huh yeah it might come into play you roll on you roll arcana it's my best it's my best skill it's my so i figured that might be fun um zephyr um level two i get a class feat skill feat my class Stunning Fist. So when I use my Flurry of Blows, which I can use with my fists or my bow, when I hit with – if either strike hits and deals damage, then I can have the target try to succeed at a Fortitude save throw.

And if they fail, they get stunned. Oh, wow. So I get a chance to stun with all of that. And then for my skill feat, so to like maybe peek behind the curtain a bit, like I've had this planned for a couple episodes just in case we leveled up. And when we fell, when I fell in that combat, I wanted to jump and scream because the skill feat that I decided to take was cat fall. Oh. Yeah. And I was like, I'm so close. to jump and scream because the skill feat that I decided to take was cat fall. Oh. Yeah.

And I was like, I'm so close. I swear to God, if I die right now, I'm about to take cat fall. Because I thought it would be fun. Like, there's not a lot of fun

level one skill feats you can take. And I thought because we're with Lucky, maybe like, downtime, I learned a thing or two from her.

And now it's just a sad thing that I took. Maybe you did though. her. Now it's just a sad thing that I took. You did, yeah. Yeah. Now it's a memorial feat. A memorial feat. Also It's like a memorial feat. It's like a bummer feat. A memorial cat fall. Also, fun fact,

when I leveled up to level two, my hit points went from 19 to 30. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. Bad ass. So I feel like, is it a 10 HP per level class monk? Um, I don't know.

I just like the character sheet told me it does the math for me. I don't know how the sausage is made, you know? Huh? What's your con? Oh, my con is plus one. Oh yeah.

Then it's a 10 HP bonus. That's great. Yeah. You know, one thing to keep in mind about stunning fist, the last line, con is plus one. Oh yeah. Then it's a 10 HP bonus. That's great level. Yeah. You know, one thing to keep in mind about stunning fist, the last line, this is an incapacitation effect.

Um, so while it doesn't have the incapacitation trade, I think it works the same way in that, uh, you know, it's going to be harder to stun enemies that are much harder than you, but it's great that you can use your bow to enact, uh,

the stun ability. Cause you could take somebody out. How nice that would have been against Bolin. Joe, what do you got? Brother Ramius – and I can't believe that you died. I know. I can't believe it because Brother Ramius I think was inspired by his lack of effectiveness at at uh healing lucky with treating her wounds uh his own sort of um his own sort of mental inadequacy in well the inadequacy that came as a result of him

being in his own own head with the you know the burning wounds and stuff like that and thinking about what he went through. And he knows that he needs to push through that. And he also knows that he can't just rely on the keeper to do everything for him. So he's doubling down and dedicating himself to the study of mundane medicine in order to improve in that area. And so for my second little feat, prove in that area. And so for my second little feat, I eschewed cleric feats and instead did a medic dedication. Oh. So I'm taking a medic dedication, and that is going to allow him to, first of all, he becomes an expert in medicine.

Yep. And then he is going to, if he increases the treat wounds DC to 20, which I am thinking I'm going to try to do more often than not. He gets an extra five points of healing automatically on top of the extra 10 that you normally get. So his treat wounds can start to get really powerful as long as he succeeds at the die roll. This is tough.

But – Dedication. Do these work like multi-classing or does it work more like an archetype in 2A? Archetype. Yeah. Yeah. So opening that up, that dedication up, I can take further medic feats down the line that sort of – they're kind of like doctor-ish feats. Like you get better and better at being like a hands-on healer kind of thing.

Yeah. I mean it works story-wise. You think about the back backstory we saw in episode one of you just being unable to help people in an impossible situation. And now you're out here in combat, and unable to save. So you must have like books that you've just have ignored in your that you're now like, let me look through these. Yeah, yeah. And I think that he got maybe an interest in it. Because the way I imagined when we first saw him, he was in a garden and I always imagined him having this sort of hobby of herbalism and being kind of into growing plants and stuff like that. But then this tragedy strikes and even in his convalescence, which we haven't seen yet, I believe he became fascinated with those that were caring for him and tending to his wounds.

And it's something that he wanted to help people with. But he's just level one. He's just not very good at it yet. This level two feat is going to give him a big step in that direction. And then that will synergize with the skill feat that I took, which was continual recovery. And that will allow him to do treat wounds every 10 minutes instead of every hour to somebody so we can keep the show moving. And you can only take that if you're an expert in medicine, right?

Exactly. That's really the point of that feed is like just to keep the show moving. Just to keep the show moving. I appreciate that. Yeah, exactly. Very cool. And any spells? Another spell slot per day.

Okay. Yeah. But clerics have all access to everything. You get access to everything. Their whole spell list. But another slot is day. Okay. Yeah, but clerics have all access to everything. You get access to everything. Their whole spell list. But another slot is clutch. Yep. Um, Skid.

I got a, another psionic, uh, cantrip. It's not a, no, it's a feat. Sorry, the psychic, uh, feat, my class feat is I took Psi Burst. Hmm. Which is, I can, it's a single action that has the psyche trait, so I can only use it when my psyche is unleashed.

It's a fortitude save, or reflex save, basic reflex save, 1d4 damage against any target within 30 feet. So it's like, you know, my main axe is going to be my like my two action cantrips like produce flame frost like whatever but i have that extra action left i can

just immediately do like one to four damage like additionally oh that's huge especially if a guy's like right on the brink yeah and you sense that yeah and i can also i can do it has the mind shift trait also so it ordinarily does bludgeoning damage. So it's just like battering somebody like, you know, scanners or something. Right. But it has the mind shift trait so I can shift it so it can go against will DC and do straight mental damage. Oh, interesting. Which is really great. Awesome.

I also, I took a new, I had a new spell and I took charm. Ah. Oh. And. All right. So that's the kind of game you want to play. And my skill feat, I took performance. Oh.

Oh. So I think, and this is something that I think that he must, has always had. He's always had this like performance ability, but we just haven't seen it yet because he's shy. Now this represents like that. Okay. So he's taking some improv classes yeah on the side

groundlings entry level uh also one more fun thing i forgot to mention on the medic dedication is when you do battle medicine medicine to somebody they uh are immune to it for a day you can only do it once per day to one character in combat. And with the medic dedication, if a target is temporarily immune to your battle medicine, you can, once per day, you can do it to someone who's immune to it. So it can kind of be a lifesaver. If you've already done battle medicine to somebody and they go down again, you can do it one more time per day, which is cool. And then when you're a master of medicine, you can do it like two times per day or whatever.

Like one more time per day per character? No, no. One more time per day overall. Yeah. I mean, that's the other big thing is I became an expert in Arcana in the past. Oh, that's good too. I got a level up to expert. That's great. Oh, that's cool. I wonder if that's

an investigator thing. I'm sure there's other classes, but that maybe rogues too, like where you get an expert at second level. Yeah. Did anybody else get an expert upgrade? Because I didn't for cleric. No. I only got it from taking the medic dedication. No, I'm not of like a skill-based class at all.

Yeah. I thought about it. There were a lot of ways I could have gone on that because I could do it in deception or diplomacy. Yeah. I feel like having having an arcana makes sense for her i had an entirely alternate build for second level like ready to rock uh that was very like in the story that i was trying to tell brother ramius and i just i undid it all because of all this struggle that he's had helping his companions and it just

makes sense that he's going to double down i have to learn this if i'm going to uh survive and advance be helpful yeah uh all right so you get back to the area where you left cori mona tied up and she's still there uh what do you what is your plan with her are you just bringing her back bring her back as a prisoner bring her back as a prisoner. Bring her back as a prisoner? Okay. Do you say anything to her, Worthadam? Bolan is dead! No, we don't say that. That's self-evident because we're carrying his body.

We're carrying Bolan's body. She looks. She sees Bolan's body. She sees Lucky's body as well, strewn across the back of Zephyr. She doesn't say anything. Lucky's body is well strewn across the back of Zephyr. She doesn't say anything. Did we say we were going to let the gnomes know? If they're... Yeah, they did this thing where they're like, come find us, but we won't tell you where.

They uninvited us. They said, come meet us at the... Emerald Grove, and then they uninvited us. They didn't give us any way for us to let them know. I feel like the gnomes, they'll know. They'll figure it out. They're gnomes. I'm sure I was like, forget about it.

You're not going to the Eternal Grove. We'll leave a note on the'm sure he's like, forget about it. You're not going to the Eternal Grove. We'll leave a note on the entrance. It was like, hey, guys, hope you enjoy the Eternal Grove, the Emerald Grove. You know, enjoy the compound. You're welcome. Your fortress is back. There's nine bodies to dispose of. Rotting in the halls.

We didn't clean up. All right, so you make your way back to Seven Arches, and I can very vividly picture this scene of you walking through the gates now, probably like a southern gate, with bodies, an oak steward tied up, the body of Bolan. Are you displaying it,

or are you kind of keeping it hushed up? I feel like if we have a sheet, maybe be a little discreet about it. Bring Bolan to you? We have to. We have to bring him back. All right. So in the cart, it would be Buggles.

Are you in there with two dead bodies? Yeah. You'd prefer two dead bodies to a horse? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Way, way. I'm way more careful around death than a horse. Brother Ramius is just silently stone-faced driving the mule cart.

Buggles yearbook quote. That's right. Have a great summer. Class of 2015. I'm way more comfortable with death than with a horse. You come into town. People are watching you as you roll in. And we're just going to flash from there

to being back. Hold on. You got to picture Tombstone. It's Tombstone. Remember Tombstone? Never seen it. Say Tombstone. You never saw Tombstone?

Tombstone. Tombstone. Tombstone. Just the way you said it. Did I go all Philly? Tombstone. Oh, shit. I saw Unforgiven.

I didn't see Tombstone. Yeah, there's just a great scene in Tombstone where they're riding a cart with bodies on the back through town. And people in town kill the people. And the people that are kind of responsible for it are there. And they're just trying to not even look them in the eye because they're afraid they'll just start killing everybody. I mean, we're probably all sweaty and dirty. And it's so somber.

It's so sad. Covered in blood. Yeah, we probably look menacing. Some of us are dead. Some of us are dead. Some of us are dead. Some of us aren't even alive. Not alive at all. But yeah, I think we're not making eye contact with anybody

and just sort of like laser focused on getting to Emma. Lemma. Lemma. Yeah, and everyone's watching you. And I just like the idea of fading away from there and now we're just back in the Oak Stewards John

what was it called do you remember? the room with the live horse the wicker house and Lemma's entering the room you've already returned the bodies you've already explained the basics and

she just enters, and you guys look around, and Lucky is not seated where she was the first time you had your meeting with Lemma. It's just an empty chair. Lemma's like, on behalf of the Oak Stewards, we thank you for returning Bolan to us. His life would have likely been forfeit anyway, though questioning him may have enlightened us further. I understand, though, that it was a dangerous mission and you had to do what you had to do. Corimona, for her part, will be tried. I do not know what her sentence will be.

Unfortunately, there is still this matter of the missing key. It's clear that for all his antagonism, Bolon was the junior partner in this plot to revive the omnibulant curse. However, as long as the Shade with a Key lies in the hands of Bolan's fey master, there is no way to guarantee anyone's safety. Given your success in dealing with this rebel threat thus far, I've spoken to the Oak stewards, and we wanted to know if you would be interested in helping us to track down this Kniepo figure and finishing the job. Sorry, real quick, did anything that we read give us any indication that Kniepo had anything directly to do with the gates opening? No.

There was no indication of that. No indication of that, but also no indication that he wasn't somehow involved. Right. And he was supposedly responsible for the curse. Which has been around for centuries, millennia perhaps. Long time. which has been around for centuries, millennia, perhaps. Long time. Our allegiance is to our Lord Dr. Rittleson.

So we must write him and ask his permission. But of course, I think I speak for all of us when the job is not yet finished. Perhaps we can be of service. I understand. I understand. From what we know, it is not much. Over the years, we have heard rumors of an eerie, slender figure roaming the Wildwood, but there are thousands of folktales roaming around the River Kingdoms, most of them the product of over-imaginative bards or farmers afraid of the dark. Fayanara mentioned in her letter to me that you are investigators by trade. If you do end up helping us to find this, Kniepo, I would suggest you start by doing some research.

And thanks to Bolan and the journal that you provided, it seems that you have these three pieces of information to go on. The name, Kniepo the Slim, some connection between Kniepo and the Gorgas. I don't know if you caught this in your reading, but it seemed like Kniepo was perhaps responsible for these Gorga attacks. He has some sort of alliance, or he controls them, or perhaps even conjured them. This is something we discovered when looking further into it. And then, of course, the name of Kniepo's ostensible domain, the Thin Lands. And then, of course, the name of Kniepo's ostensible domain, the Thinlands. I would suggest following up on these leads by combing through records in Seven Arches' quaking stacks.

If you have the Bokrit that I gave you before, you will be able to gain full admittance. I don't know if it will be helpful, but I can also point you in the direction of a recent survivor of a gorga attack, a farmer by the name of Pa Mosby. The Mosby farm is about ten miles outside of town, but he may be able to shine a new light on these creatures, which it seems you have faced as well. Most who have faced them have not lived to tell the tale. If there is some connection between Kniepo and the Gorgas, perhaps Pa Mosby can help.

Lastly, and this may be a stretch, while the Thinlands themselves, whatever they may be, mean really nothing to me or any of us, and as I have asked around, there is an area along the edge of the Wildwood known as Thinlands Farms. Bolan writes that it's... It's called Thinlands Farms. It's called Thinlands Farms,

but it's just a bunch of homesteaders. We don't go there that often. We don't really have dealings with them, though their farmers have come into town to sell their wares from time to time. It is mostly uncultivated land, sodden farms, small villages stretching along the edge of the forest all the way to the Tymon border. It is the only mention of the thin lands I've ever heard. So, mayhaps there is a connection. Thank you.

Now, you said you'd need to wait for Dr. Riddleson's approval, and I appreciate and understand that. However, my colleagues and I believe that time is of the essence. Our elders have taken all this information that you've shared, and we believe we have three days and three nights, perhaps, to stop this before we risk serious ramifications. If what Bolan says is true, and the Shade with a Key is somehow connected to Kniepo's ability to bring back the Omnibir Curse, we need to act quickly.

Where did you get this figure? Three days, three nights, where does it come from? This is what the elders have determined by looking over Bolan's notes and then looking through the histories. You may discover something else in your time at the library, but it seems like Bolan believed that this was to happen soon, especially now that Kniepo has the key. In fact, I believe the key has some original connection to the original curse. As if Kniepo once had access to the key, perhaps even created the key? It is unclear, but the key being in his hands is quite dangerous.

And there's no reason to believe this attempt at a ritual ends with Bolan's favor. So if you are to help us, I would suggest you make haste, and we will do everything we can to relay your messages to Dr. Rittleson, wherever he may be. If what Bolan told you is true, the lives of all who dwell in this land depend on it. And frankly, if your investigation keeps you in and around Seven Arches, your lives depend on it as well. Not just the life of your companion here, pointing at Zephyr. Your secret is safe with me, my dear. But we are all elves now. Buggles, while this exposition is happening,

comes up to Brother Ramius and he's like tugging on his sleeve. Yes. Tell her. What's wrong? Tell her we need to take care of Lucky before we do anything. We need to cremate her. Yes. I'm sorry, where is Lucky's body currently being held? We put it in a trash bag.

Left. Trash bag. You didn't, you weren't clear. You wanted us to do something nice. I'm sorry, I did not know what you meant to explicitly say. Don't put it in the trash. That's what we do with our pets. Buggles is crying.

That's what you do with your cats? You put them in trash bags? Buggles, it's okay. Why was this cry? It's not like it was a horse. Buggle, the mean druid will be dead soon. No, no. Yes, your friend.

I am... We must, of course, perform funerary rites and make sure this happens even before we set out or do anything else. It is of utmost urgency that we show our respect for her sacrifice. It was her wish to be cremated. Cremated and brought back to her home, which I guess we can

do at another time, but at least cremate her and we can bring her with us. I'm so sorry for your loss. Bolan's treachery has left an indelible mark upon so many lives. We have a means of doing this. Fire would be the means.

Yes. We could go to the blacksmith and have her body placed within the ovens there and they could collect the hashes. Yeah, fuck it. What? What was that? I think it's what Lucky would have wanted. I don't care.

It doesn't matter. She was a warrior, perhaps having body Returned to a place where Steel was forged I'll see you in Valhalla brother The appropriate what is that Or we could just Burn her The druids do not burn their dead

However we will honor Whatever wishes you have We could just start a bonfire As well It's up to you Funeral pyre You'll honor whatever wishes you have. We could just start a bonfire as well. It's up to you. Funeral pyre. Funeral pyre. Funeral pyre.

Funeral pyre. Funeral pyre. Yes, we could do that. Is that something you'd want to do before anything? Yes. Yes. All right. Give me an hour, and we will set this up behind the Wicker House.

Okay. I think Talitha will write Dr. Riddleson. I think if it's three days, we're not going to get a response. Once we're out of that conversation with her, Brother Amos is definitely going to go to Talitha and be like, we cannot afford to wait for Dr. Wilson's response. We must write him and update him, but I agree. Time is of the essence. He trusted us to follow our own judgment, and in this case, there is a fear that I have this creature, whatever it is, having the key is a time bomb for all of our lives.

So we must find it quickly. And nothing else takes precedence, even our own desires to find answers to our own questions. Agreed. Buggles, Zephyr? Yeah, I agree. Once we get Lucky situated a container for her, I'll keep a hold of it,

and then I'll go to the library with you guys. We'll do some fun library time! It'll be so fun. I have been to the Quaking Stacks. It is a remarkable place. And the proprietor's extremely friendly. Strange name, but very friendly. I am concerned, however,

about our ability without lucky swords. Our ability to survive encounters the like which we visited, which we visited upon us in the Wildwood. Maybe if we reach out, maybe Dr. Riddleson could send us another investigator. Yes, I know, but the matter is urgent.

We must continue looking for now. Researching, at least, we could get started with. So I shall write Dr. Riddleson immediately and then perhaps after the funeral we go to the quaking stacks. I think I've asked Dr. Riddleson too, like, if we need to contact you, what do you do? And he was like, well, make sure it's a secure message. We don't want

anyone stealing the thunder of our discovery. So just make sure you have a secure way of getting it to him. Yes, if we are indeed just writing a letter and sending it by raven, I would hesitate to speak of the location of the real Seven Arches, for example. So we have encountered problems, we'll speak in generalities, codes. And we'll speak about the loss of Lucky. Yes, that he must know if we meet each other.

All right. So I'll write the letter and we'll send it to Raven, but I won't give him anything. I won't give him any proprietary or confidential information. Just letting him know that Lucky died on a mission.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. A shorthand. I'm reading Dracula right now and it's like kind of everything is shorthand and coded.

Yeah. All right. So you let the bird fly and we follow it for a while. And then we come down to outside behind the wicker house, where all of you have gathered, and there's like a, you know, Anakin Skywalker-type pyre set with Lucky's body on it, dressed in her armor. All of your healing

potions lying with her as she would have wanted. Throw them in the garbage bag with her body. Just laying about all wasted. And any leftover gold you had, it is custom for catfolk to be buried with their friend's gold.

Buried alive with their friend's gold. Buried alive with their friend's gold. Eat my weapons. And Lemma is there with a couple other oak stewards, and they have torches. And they hand a torch to you, Zephyr, and a torch to you, Talitha, and another torch to you, Buggles. Buggles has his head, his hood drawn, his head down. He just shakes his head when they try to hand him the torch. And say, Brother Ramius, would you like to say anything? And he swipes the fire in his face.

Do you want to hold one of these? Why are you doing that? What are you, Frankenstein? Am I a pack of wolves? What are you doing? Did you want to say anything? Yes, I will, but please, I don't need that. I'll do it.

He looks across, he'll walk up to the pyre, to the body laying across, and he'll just turn back around. We are here to honor Lucky's sacrifice. We didn't know her long. In fact, Lucky is a friendly name, not her true name. Let us honor Doro Dolasa

for being willing in this dangerous time to ask the questions that some do not want asked, to pursue the leads that lead to such danger. She went with all haste and with no fear. Often in the short time that I knew her, I knew her to be fearless, and it saved our lives in only a short amount of time.

We owe everything we have to her and it was her wish to be burned. And even as he says the word, it just like sends shocks through his body. We are, not all of us, but most of us, and he's eyeing each of you, from different places, different lands, with different customs. But yet we are all mocked.

And he'll sort of just like put a hand on Lucky's stomach as it's up there. Darrow carried this, Darrow carried the same mark It binds us together And as Darrow burns today Let us remember We are eternally bound To this Objective

And then um He'll step back and just look away so lisa and zephyr approach the pyre zephyr is like white knuckle gripping it maybe a lip quivering and like maybe you can somehow like visually see her taking her emotions and just like stuffing them down so that she can reach out and light with Talitha. Talitha just totally steel-faced.

And Buggles comes up. He produces his own flame with the two of them and lights the pyre alongside them. And as we stand watching it burn, Buggles is like, he starts singing a kind of traditional kind of funeral dirge from his part of the world.

And it's almost like it starts like a drone singing. And it turns into a kind of a hymn. And he starts singing it like through the tears as the flames grow higher and higher. And we hear Buggle's funeral hymn continue as we get sort of an above view of the pyre lighting up. And we see once again Lucky in the gateway, standing, looking resplendent in her armor and weaponry

as the village burns behind her. That was what she saw when she stepped through. Then it cuts back again to the body, burning, as Buggle's hymn continues. And we'll see you next week. Happy New Year! It's time to make your membership official. Become an official member of the N.A.S.H. today at jointhenash.com. That's jointhenash.com, where you'll get access to exclusive podcasts and

live streams you can't find anywhere else. See what everybody's talking about and join the Nash today at jointhenash.com. Bye.