The Glass Cannon Podcast - Gatewalkers Episode 24 – The Artful Lodger

Episode Date: March 1, 2024

A gallery of magical paintings answers some questions about Kaneepo's past while unearthing new mysteries. Watch the video here: 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 EXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal ➼ https://nordvpn.com/gcp Try it risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee! Go to https://hensonshaving.com and enter GCP at checkout to get 100 free blades with your purchase. (Note: youmust add both the 100-blade pack and the razor for the discount to apply.) 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

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You are listening to the Glass Cannon Network, the premier source for role-playing game entertainment. Last week on the Glass Cannon Podcast. Your fear sickens me. This is the hour for Kola Khan. Asta, take her out! I'm going to cast Hydraulic Push. Oh, there you go.

And punch this horse in the neck. She falls. Yeah! Wow! Nice! Who was she? Why does she come to serve Keneepo? She wanted to watch us suffer.

She seemed excited. You put your ear up to that door, and it just like opens. You see framed paintings. The first portrays a long, thin figure. You get the sense that the creature is being born, fully formed. The next one shows this figure now in your world, hunting elves. Ho, ho, ho. You stop in front of the final painting because disturbingly it shows Brother Ramius, Talitha, Buggles, Zephyr, and Lucky

during your encounter at the Seventh Arch. In the background of this image, watching from the trees, this slim, fey figure with its trademark silent grin. The adventure continues now. Hey, what's going on? Welcome back to the Glass Cannon Podcast. Look at the people at this table. Look at them.

There's Joe and Matthew and Kate and Sidney and old skid. I heard my name. And me, Troy. Did you know you could see us this year all around the country and in Canada? Because in addition to this show, we have a live tour. It's been touring since 2018. 2018. 2018.

And now we're kicking off the 2024 tour next month in Toronto. Sorry, sold out. Over 300 people sold out, can't get a seat. They're emailing me right now saying, we might have to put 100 people on stools because the place isn't big enough. That's a lie, I'm exaggerating. But sold out.

But in April, we're going to be in Kansas City and Austin, Texas. And then in May, we're going to be in Vancouver, back to Canada and St. Paul, Minnesota. Then in June, Skid's hometown of Denver, followed by Nashville. And then August, we're going to be in Indianapolis for Gen Con. September, Boston. October, we're going to be in Portland, Oregon.

Not Maine, although I'd prefer to be in Portland, Maine. Portland, Oregon, and Los Angeles. And then we're be in Portland, Maine. Portland, Oregon and Los Angeles. And then we're finishing out the year in Philly, which? I was just thinking what a terrible swing that would be to do Portland, Maine and LA the same weekend. That was the best routing we could get. That was the best routing. With a layover in China because we're going the opposite way.

Which city are you most excited for? You have to pick. You have to pick a favorite. Pick one? You have to pick one that you're most excited for. We had this conversation on Legacy of the Ancients. Don't listen to it. Don't know what that is.

That is so rude. It's a skit. You were once a cast member until we voted you out. That's true. I was like Survivor. Yes, Survivor. Extinguished my flame. Troy and I just high-fived on the way out and the way in.

Is there a city that you're – I'm really looking forward to Kansas City because I've got family there. You do? Family that have never seen me live, yeah. So I'm really looking forward to that. I've got family there. Family I've never seen. Family that has never seen me and that is in for a real, real fun time.

Being like, what on earth is happening? This isn't family you found on like Ancestry.com. No, no, no. This is actually, it's my wife's family. Do you have a whole second family? I inherited it. What's that? A whole second family?

Have you been commuting? Wait, this isn't going on YouTube. Oh, this is your wife's family. This is not really your family. Come on. Is that how you think about your wife's family? No, but I mean, you really should have qualified that to begin with. Not your your family. Come on. Is that how you think about your wife's family? No, but I mean, you really should have qualified that to begin with. Not your blood family.

Sure, but that's his family. It's my family. So people you've known for a couple years. Way more than a couple years. People you've known for about one thirty-second of your life. People I enjoy spending time with more than you. That's true. We got to make that show extra weird for them.

Yeah. All right. Settle in. Find out what their bugaboos are and make the whole show. And I've never been to Kansas City, so I'm looking forward to- Everything's up to date there. Kansas City barbecue. Yeah.

Got to get some KAC barbecue right before the show so we're really tired. Yes. What's up? What's up? Me and Nick Shelton, we went to go see. There was this guy who used to do these infomercials called Tom Vu. And he had these infomercials. It would be him on a yacht with a bunch of women.

They made fun of him on Saturday Night Live one time. And he'd be like, oh, you can be like me. You can have this yacht. This woman's like, all you have to do is come to my seminar. Come to my seminar. And me and Nick Shelton, we'd see this thing. We just to go to this thing because like he was on tv all the time you went to go because i know exactly what you're talking about we went to the seminar because we were like he's on tv all the time and i was just like this will be really funny and we went

and like he was 40 pounds heavier than he than he was on the infomercials and he says like i just got done eating a bunch of barbecue i'm really sorry i'm very sleepy and it was the funniest every time i hear like barbecue i just i think of me how inspiring tom vu yeah matthew uh i know you're psyched for all the meat in kansas city but uh what other cities are you really fired up about you gotta pick one do i have to yeah because we don't have a lot of time vancouver vancouver i've never been really yeah more so than toronto i've been to toronto ah i like that's the only i'm excited to go back but vancouver but i've never been to vancouver is there something in vancouver in particular that you're uh wrecked about uh well i mean the hockey team the hockey team no i i love the pacific northwest and i just i've never been to vancouver so i've heard's a beautiful city, and it's a beautiful region of the country that I enjoy, or beautiful region of the world, not our country.

Many Hallmark Christmas movies are filmed there, and that's what I'm most excited about. I'm not shocked by any of that. I hope it snows in May. Kate, you've got to pick one city. You've got to pick a favorite that you're really excited for. Yeah, Austin. Newark. Austin! Newark! My best friend lives there. Kate, you got to pick one city. You got to pick a favorite that you're really excited for. Yeah. Austin. Austin.

My best friend lives there. Yeah. So I get to see her. Is that the only reason? Yeah. Okay. I mean, it's a fine city too. I've been there multiple times.

Yeah. There's nothing wrong with it. But I mean, for a new city, I'm excited to like see Portland. I'm excited to see both sides of Canada. But Austin. Austin. That's my friend see both sides of Canada. But Austin. Austin. That's my friend. Because you're a friend.

It's nothing to do with us. Keep Austin weird. You guys aren't my friends. Wait, is this the friend that we met? No. I thought your best friend was in Boston. That's a different best friend. I have many best friends.

All these best friends. I could never be a Sim. It dilutes the whole relationship. With the Sims, you can only have one best friend. But in real life, you can have more than one. Kate is very popular. How many best friends do you have? I have a lot of friends.

I have one single best friend. Sad. What I just heard was that Kate has a lot of best friends, but we are not even friends. Yep. That's what I heard. That's what I heard, too. We could have been acquaintances, but we're like work. Yeah, work buddies.

Anyway, I can't wait to go to Austin to see my friend. Cubicle. Yeah. Finally, she can be amongst friends. Austin. It's really hard being on tour and not seeing my friends. That's what I'm hearing. This is so mean to me, also. I feel very hurt by it. Sydney, what friendless city

are you most excited for? Got no friends anywhere. I was going to say Austin, but Joe, on the FOD yesterday, we were talking about cities that we were excited to go to, and I said Austin, and Joe was like, yeah, that tracks. And I didn't like the way he said that.

Explain yourself. I didn't like the way he said that, so I'm changing my answer, because I think that's the obvious answer. I've never been to Austin. I'm very excited, but the way you said it, I didn't like it. Why is it obvious? I don't understand. Because she's like a South by person. She's a South by person.

That is not honest and a creator. You look at Cindy, you assume she's going to South by. Me? Every year. Oh, yeah. I go every year. I've never been. I go every year.

I go to Burning Man. I go to everything that you'd assume I go to looking at me. Yep. That's how I feel, Skid. Thank you. Yeah. So I'm changing my answer and I'm going to say Vancouver like Matthew because I love the Pacific Northwest, love Portland, Seattle

area. Never been to Vancouver. Very excited to go up north. I've been to Austin a few times and everybody's like, Austin, Austin. Holy shit, Austin. Been there a bunch and I'm like, all right. But you've been there. I haven't. It's fine. Everybody. Like two guys on Facebook? Lots of people.

Oh man. Dude, Austin. That's fine. When are we going to Austin? Austin, we're going looking at my spreadsheet. April. In April. It's right after Kansas City.

We go from Kansas City. It might not be warm enough to do the swimming holes. I was looking forward to the swimming holes in Austin. You can swim in a hole. Might be a tad bit cold. Moving on. What's your favorite? What's your,

what are you, are you most excited to go back to Denver? Because it's not sailing very well. Yeah, that doesn't make me very happy. Steve, can you fix that? Uh,

yeah, I definitely want to go I'm looking forward to go back to Denver especially because it'll be in the midst of the NBA playoffs so there's a chance that I might be able to go oh dude I didn't even think about that no nuggets Celtics nugs at the finals see I taught my friend I was talking my friend about it he's like he keeps saying it's like I hope you play the Celtics in the finals like I don't because I have to work with Troy LaVier who's like one of the worst people to have a sports rivalry with like that i could that i get that i could imagine you could

dream it up in a laboratory it couldn't be worse yeah so imagine having a team in the east so you play as teams constantly no no i know see like i don't worst i feel so bad for you having to deal with that regularly like it never happens to me right it never bad for you having to deal with that regularly. Like, it never happens to me. Right. It never happens to me. For you, it would only be the NBA Finals. Right. The last couple years that the Eagles were eliminated, I couldn't read some of the texts that I sent to Joe and his friends.

Making them feel as bad as possible. Yeah. And I can't, I mean, with my particular neuroses and psychology, it could kill me. It could literally kill me. I wouldn't do that to you. And my friend is just like, what if the Nuggets win? What are they beating? I was like, that would be great, but it wouldn't be worth the terror of maybe thinking they would lose. Because we narrowly avoided this apocalyptic scenario last year. It was close. And I'm nervous for the sports results anyway, but I was so much more nervous watching the Celtics,

like maybe they'll make it to the finals. I was so fucking scared. We were all relieved that the Celtics didn't make it to the finals. Exactly. That's exactly what I was just going to say. It's like, this is what Troy does to you psychologically. He makes it so that even if you beat his team, you don't feel joy

or happiness for having got back to him. All you feel is like this shudder of relief that it's over. And that's the highest you get. So it's just not worth all the love. It's like when the shelling stops in World War I. That brief window of just that's all you get.

There have been times where we were on tour and pre-show, Troy would pull up a Celtics playoffs game in the dressing room and he would be by himself in the corner on an iPad, just releasing streams of invective. And all of us would go into another room to get away from that toxicity. I didn't think about this. We'll be in Denver and Nashville for most of that. Yeah, that's wild. I didn't think about this. We'll be in Denver and Nashville for most of that.

That's wild. So what cities are you looking forward to outside of June cities? Well, I'm also looking forward to Boston again because I think my Uncle Bill might be coming. Uncle Bill! Very excited to have him be completely mystified. Let me ask you this. Is this your wife's uncle? No.

Oh, it's your actual family. My actual family. Oh, that's's cool what if the uncle married in would that be actually what if it was on skid side of the family but the uncle married in does that meet your standard married in uncle or is this a blood uncle you know it's funny is your blood flow through your uncle's his uh his his last name is mar like my name and his wife's maiden name is mahar Yeah, Anne Elaine. I don't think she'll be coming. It'd be fun if they hyphenated it because it would just sound like they were laughing. They should, yeah. Mahar! Mahar! Mahar! Mahar! Mahar! Mahar!

Mahar! Everybody get out of here! That's what they say at the end of the wedding. The worst joke you've ever made. I guess. Mahar! Mahar! Mahar! That's fun. They could have just taken her license and just like a,

like white out one of the E's and instead of going through the whole DMV. I'm also really excited for Vancouver. Oh, we're doing another loop because I've never been. And because my wife's best friend lives there, a.k.a. my best friend. I was going to say, a.k.a. your family. We're basically family. You know, it's making up that you have a best friend because you feel weird about what I said. You just said you had another best friend.

Oh, shit. You're going to have to talk to your OG best friend. They're going to have to fight to the death. It's funny we're talking about Uncle Skid because my Uncle Bill on my wife's side also lives in Boston. On your wife's side? Yep, my Uncle Bill on my wife, my boy wife,

on my boy wife's side who works at the Paradise, who we've met. Oh yeah! So my Uncle Bill should meet your Uncle Bill and fight to the death. Well, they don't have to fight. Battle of the Bills. Battle of the Bills.

Definitely blood uncles after that. It could open for us in Boston. Just an idea, Troy. Just spitballing. Well, I was waiting for someone to ask me what I'm most excited for. Oh, I'm sorry. Oh, I always forget to ask you. Troy?

I don't care. I'm most excited for the end of this banter. I'll see you right after this break. A couple months back now, we had an episode of the GCP sponsored by Henson Shaving. And since then, no BS, I have not used any other razor to shave. This razor is it for me. It's all I'm going to use for the next several years, if not the rest of my life. Let me explain why. Henson Shaving is a family-owned aerospace parts manufacturer that has made parts for the International Space Station and the Mars rover. They have used

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it just feels like you are clearing shaving cream away with an aluminum base. Like you can't even feel the cutting sensation. And yet the hair is completely gone. It is as close of a shave as I've ever had and as comfortable and as trauma-free a shave I've ever had. By far. It has become clear that Henson set out to make the best razor. Not the best razor business. The best razor. That's an important distinction. They don't have, like, subscription plans or unique replacement blades that you can only get from them.

In fact, when I say that I'll be using this for years, I'm not exaggerating at all. I'm pretty sure it's going to cost me something like five bucks a year or maybe even less a year to get replacement blades. I've made the change to Henson and I am not looking back. I recommend that you do the same. Get yourself a razor that will last you a lifetime. Try this out. Visit hensonshaving.com slash GCP to pick the razor for you and use code GCP and you'll get two years worth of blades for free with your razor. Just make sure to add them to your cart. That is 100 blades when you head to h-e-n-s-o-n-s-H-A-V-I-N-G dot com slash GCP and use code GCP. I'm so freaking excited about this razor. Honestly, you got to try it. And we're back!

You know, over the past few weeks, I keep forgetting to thank our amazing sponsors. We've got Norse Foundry. Obviously, they're featured a lot. Beautiful dice sets available now. And've got Norse Foundry. Obviously, they're featured a lot. Beautiful dice sets available now. And then there's Demiplane and, of course, Foundry VTT. Check them out. Check out. We've got links

in the descriptions. I don't know why I'm pointing here. If you're watching this on YouTube, there's nothing here. There's nothing there. The title of the episode. That's it. But if you keep going down, there's links there. Use those links. Did your die just kiss? Yes. That was really uncomfortable.

Look over here. Why did you do that in front of everybody? Joe, love is love. Love is love. Yeah, but in the case of dice, love hurts. Like when Joe threw his die at my die. Oh, yeah. Joe wouldn't get it.

We're trying to get some good luck going. That's fun. Yeah. It's not working. I just rolled a natural one. I'm going to put that down. I haven't recorded in a while. You guys recorded in a while? Yes, we record Legacy all the time.

I haven't recorded in a while. Kate and I recorded Time for Chaos. Even that was a couple weeks ago. I'm out of practice being around people that aren't my children in life. So first of all, how do you like the dark purple background? I don't know how it looks on screen, but it looks awesome. I love it.

Kind of sets a mood. Yeah. A definite mood. Spooky. It feels like we're recording an episode inside a bottle of cough syrup. That's always the goal. Great flavored cough syrup? Yeah.

Well, instead of cough syrup, you are in the first world last week you fought and defeated a centaur i think i said centaur at one point i think you can use those interchangeably uh and a velsak auger, a little spinning blade ball of muscle and cord and one eyeball. You defeated them. As usual, Joe walked into the encounter assuming that it was a trick and you were all meant to die. It had to be the weakest centaur in the history of armed and armored centaurs? I mean, you were so convincing that you convinced Matthew into thinking it was an illusion, perhaps.

Yeah, perhaps. No, it was just a regular balanced encounter for this party, and you defeated them like you do every single encounter. That's not true. Surprisingly, we had a harder time with the small metal ball than we did with the giant centaur woman

full of plate armor and weapons. Also, let's not forget the two hours of bloody surgery that had to happen in order to even be able to walk into the next room. How's Talitha looking? Just like stitched up, Frankenstein-esque. Stitchers are going to heal awful, like big scars. Oh, big scars.

Field surgery like that. I also, I looked, there was a question about the spell Augur. Oh. And I did look it up. And it is in Player's Handbook, the original AD&D Player's Handbook. It's Augury in that book. Second level cleric spell. And they do use the terms wheel and woe, even though it's not like an official sort of technical term.

They use the terms wheel and woe in the description of the spell. In the description, yeah. I mean, I know the Augury first edition spell had wheel or woe in it. I think that might even carry over to 2e. But it's certainly out of the remaster. Oh, it is. I would imagine because it's his original D&D. But anyways, you defeat them.

imagine because it's his original D&D. But anyways, you defeat them. And then you walk north. And there are, well, first of all, going back to that room, it seems like they're butchering people. There is meat hanging around that looks like human meat, humanoid meat. There are skulls that have been stripped of flesh like trophies. Now, it seems like this centaur not only was some sort of lieutenant for Kniepo or some sort of captain of the guard, but also was like a serial killer that first caught the attention of the slim and was brought into this domain. So maybe these are her trophies. Maybe they're Kniepo's trophies.

Maybe it's something else that you don't even know about. Are centaurs first world? They're not fey creatures, right? They're just... You know, that's an interesting question. I feel like they... I thought they were just a race of... Maybe.

I don't think they... I mean, they seem fey adjacent, but I don't know if they're actually... A lot of mythical type creatures, like in traditional myth, end up being kind of shoehorned into fae and fantasy. It's stuff like a manticore isn't a fae. No, they're monsters.

A centaur has the trait beast. Yeah, they're monsters. Which is typically natural, right? Yeah. Yeah, they're like associated with nature, but maybe not to the extent that they would be considered like. Can you play as a centaur? To the extent that they would be considered like... Can you play as a centaur? I don't know if the current version has that playability,

but I don't see why you couldn't at some point. It'd be fun. Yeah. It's interesting that they're considered beasts, though, because they're quite humanoid, I would say. Except for the four legs. Yes. Sure, minus that one little detail in the tail.

Minus half their body. Most of them are at least seven feet tall and weigh more than 2,000 pounds. Jesus. And you killed one. Well, I'm seeing now here in the best year that it's a Creature 3.

And I just never would have assumed that. The art made it seem like the size and the art. And it made it seem like it was like Creature 7, right? Yeah. She was also a badass.

She's got a helm, a big cloak, steel shield, and a huge longsword. Anyway, she defeated her. You go up towards the northern part of this room, and there are two doors out, one to the north, one to the west.

As you go to listen to the door to the west, it opens up into a long gallery of paintings that are more than just paintings. They're sort of animated moving pictures. Each painting telling a story

that repeats itself over and over again that seems to be showing the life of some very particular fey creature that you would assume is getting candy paw the slim. And there were a series of ten creature that you would assume is getting Kandipo.

Kandipo the Slim. And there were a series of 10 paintings that really take you through it. I don't want to recount all those paintings per se, but I'd really like to hear in your words what you think is going on here, because finally there is a lot of information being given. However, I'm curious how you see this tying

into what you know so far well I just want to my understanding of this was that these were like stories of Kniepo's life painted after the fact but we appear in the final painting you appear in the final painting

now that happened what days ago yeah still after the fact but it's done very recently a very recent painting or was prophetic so or prophetic sure unclear that's one that's one question i have prophetic is way cooler something also more terrifying something that i took away i mean i wrote notes on all the paintings and stuff um but as as sydney too just not knowing like the history of galarian as a whole so the ayudharaches, like, everything we've been trying to figure out about the gates, this creature, Kanepo, is the reason why there seems to have been a curse on elven people

and why they were dying. Because it seemed like from these paintings, this creature was taking elves, specifically, and, like, murdering them. So, to me, that's, like,'s like an immediate like he either started the curse or the inopulate curse or like that is the curse. That if you're an elf and you're in that area, this guy's traveling through these gates and like taking you. Just a thought. I don't know. But it's also the why of that because it's like he was experimenting on them. Right.

Let's just real quick walk through what we saw. With the nowadays of like him trying to take other people and saying they're not worthy, but it seems like the elves were worthy. But he kept killing them. But why is he killing them if they're worthy? I guess it's worth kind of going

through. Let's just walk through real quick and I want to bring up the questions that we have after seeing it. Because some of it is revelation, but some of it also brings up more questions. Right from the jump is like, the creature seems to be born fully formed, made, or something. Created, whatever it is, and it's just, it has no natural beginning or upbringing or right or anything like that. Then we see this creature hunting elves. First of all, the next picture is you see it kneeling in front of this like cloaked Faye of

chaotic darkness. Yeah. Oh, I completely forgot that. The creature is kneeling in front of a cloaked fey creature. I assumed it was a creator or something. Well, what is the exact, exact description of this cloaked fey creature? I think that was it. Is it humanoid?

It shows this figure kneeling before this figure that seems to be made up of darkness. It looks like a humanoid figure, a shape, and it's cloaked. But it's all just blackness, darkness. It almost looks regal, and the figure that you see, probably Kniepo, is showing fealty to this. Could this be

Renalc? Because we ended the episode, we didn't get to do a knowledge check. So can I do a knowledge check on that creature? Absolutely, yeah. Nobility is still a John check. So can I do a knowledge check on that creature? Absolutely, yeah. Archana? Nobility is still a John here. Nature, probably. Joe, I didn't even... No, no nobility,

but we can do anything. History? I don't have history. Is history... You don't? No. Is history something? How about First World lore?

Such an asshole. That would be really funny. I can do Arcana, I can do nature, I can do occultism, society. I think history falls be really funny. I can do Arcana. I can do nature. I can do occultism, society. I think history falls under society now. Oh, that's right. Nature.

Is it nature? No, society is separate. You can roll nature. It's anything with the first world. You can roll nature. I'm trying not to roll nature. It's my worst knowledge. Oh, well, I'll roll it then.

I'll roll nature. I crush nature every day. I'm awesome at it. That doesn't sound very ecologically funny. It did. As it came out, I was like, roll nature. I crush nature every day. I'm awesome at it. That doesn't sound very ecologically friendly. It did. As it came out, I was like, crush nature. That's the motto of the DuPont Corporation. All right, real quick recall knowledge on nature.

That is a 23 on this figure. Because to me, Ramius is definitely, something is starting with this creature. Efkenipo is kneeling to it. Those dice are really nice. Yeah, these are Norse Foundry, baby. Are they new? No, they're old. These are old Sir Will's dice.

Rose Quartz, gorgeous Norse Foundry die. Thinking back to some of the literature you perused in the Quaking Stacks, you seem to recall a description similar to what you're seeing here that matches that of Count Renalc. So this is the... So banish him, whatever. All right, that brings up another thing.

Okay, great. Then we see him hunting elves. Well, first he comes upon the gnawed corpse of a human That brings up another thing. Okay, great. Then we see him hunting elves. Well, first he comes upon the gnawed corpse of a human holding a strange carved leaf. Shade with her key. Takes that leaf, traces back where this person came from, and finds seven arches. The true seven arches. The true seven arches.

But he's coming from the shadow planet, or he's coming from the first world. Coming from Nighthold, presumably. Traces this to what looks like seven arches. Yeah. And then in the next painting, hunting elves and gorging itself on their shadows, capturing them, experimenting on them,

clearly trying to do something very particular and failing and killing them in the failure. And then the elves bring like these heralds together, like these great warriors together to suppress this murderer and drag him back. They drag him back. And they capture him successfully. They drag him back to the First World, presumably through the gates. Imprison him in this stump. And then imprison him in this stump.

And they take the key back. And then they take the Shade Wither key back and say, you're staying here forever. For all eternity. And then... Like a creepy child. Presumably, at this point, they close the gates, and they say you can't go through the gates anymore, maybe? Yeah, they take the key from him, and they probably seal the gates with the Shade Wither key. And then he, like a creepy child, starts playing with shadows, growing in power, figuring out that they can manipulate the shadow stuff.

Their realm growing as well during this time. And they escape because they grow their realm until it kind of breaches back in. And it's Thinland's farms. And it's Thinland's farms, most likely. But during this time, which presumably takes millennia that he's playing with the shadow stuff, the elves leave Galeria.

Yes, because when he returns, it's all him. When he is... Now, does he... Now, talk about the elves leaving, because this is something from Galarian. Yes. Because when he returns, it's all him. When he is... Now, does he... Now, talk about the elves leaving, because this is something from Galarian history that we just assume everyone knows. But go into that a little bit. Elves are aliens. They are not from Galarian, like in Galarian lore. They're from another planet.

They're from Castorveld, right? Yeah. It's the equivalent of Venus.us yeah that's where they're from they're from another planet and they had settled here for some time but then they predict starfall right they yeah they knew they knew starfall was coming this like cataclysmic event that destroyed the empire the earth yeah the you know atlantis like sunk atlantis they knew it was coming so they all took off so they said we have to leave we have to my people are leaving these shores right so they have to leave and some elves stay behind and uh this is the galarian lore behind what would become

the drow is the elves that sought shelter underground. And then, bam, earthfall happens. Many thousands of years pass, and at some point, we think, during this period, Kniepo is able to at least project his consciousness into the material plane

and start hunting again. But the elves are gone. And he's upset. He's like, he wanted the elves again. But there are elves still on Glarion. Right, because they returned, but not en masse. Like, some returned.

And they returned to find, you know, things like the Obnobula Curse. They returned to find things like some of their major cities, like, completely overrun by either drow or other creatures, and they become enemies. So part of the elven lore, I believe, of the setting is, like, they're still fighting for some of their original cities. But tell me that this doesn't feel directly related to the Obnubulate Curse. They leave this weird, like, shadowy creature experimenting on elves, and then when they come back, they can't go through these gates? Well, it's also a suspicion. This AP is, for the first time, making me wonder if it was ever real. That's my thought.

Or if the Obnubula curse was just an edict handed down by the elves to prevent anyone from ever going in. Maybe that's how Kanipa was like accessing the elves, somehow like using the gates, and then he'd be able to get his little tendril hand. So they were like, if we leave the gates, no problem. That's what I'm wondering. Is it something in the consuming of the elves' shadows

in his experiments, is that allowing him to access through the gates back into our plane? Well, basically to continue with these paintings though, the elves are gone. He starts taking just people from the First World. From our world. From our world, bringing them to the First World, whatever.

Then the final, he finds Bolan in the woods. Recruiting Gorgas, recruiting other creatures to help him. To hunt. To hunt. And he finds Bolan. And he's experimenting on them, it seems, in the same exact way as he was experimenting on these elves. He's looking for something.

He's looking for something and always failing. And in a rage, just destroying and killing everyone because he's not finding what he wants. It's like a child. But then he finds Bolan. He sees Bolan and he basically goes to Bolan in the woods and instructs Bolan, like gets him on his team to go get the Shade Wither Key. Instructs Bolon, like gets him on his team to go get the Shade Wither Key. Then presumably Bolon brings the Shade Wither Key and now he's got it. But then the final painting was not of anything that we've seen because we were in it.

It was us. Were we? Yes. Remember Asta being in it? Okay, that's rude. Who's we? Who's we here? The main characters. Oh, we're speaking French. The main characters. We're speaking French. Who say Asta being in it. Okay, that's rude. Who's we? Who's we here? Wow. The main characters.

Oh, we're speaking French. The main characters. We're speaking French. Who's to say Asta wasn't also in the woods watching this? The original Broadway cast? The original Broadway cast? Oh, my. Not the Turing cast. Not the Turing cast.

The original cast. The Tony winning cast. Original soundtrack cast. Yeah. But Lucky was in it, and it's us fighting the Oak Stewards, the unicorn. At the unicorn event. And then in the background. Is Kniepo laughing at Lucky releasing the unicorn?

I remember that. I saved us. I saved us. I saved us. She's not worthy. I can't believe. Shut it down. I can't believe she did that. I can't believe.

For a thousand years, that painting has been up, and I'd be like, no one would ever do that. No one would ever do that. I couldn't believe what had happened. Little do you know. We're going to laugh about this years later when we finish this campaign, because I probably changed the course of the entire AP by that one decision, that butterfly.

You may be right. Well, guess who's not in the court of Kniep at the Slim? Lucky. Lucky. You missed Kate's comment where she said she wasn't worthy. I'm sorry, it was right there. It was really funny. You're not making any more best friends right now.

Losing them left and right. Alright, so let me throw out, I just want to throw out a couple questions that this brought up for me, and I think the answers are, we don't know, but I want to see if I'm missing anything. So you sent a text to me like, so much,

we all re-listened at least the last 10 minutes yesterday and you were sending a text to me like, everything was revealed. And I remember looking at that text and being like, nothing was revealed. I have more questions.

A ton of information. Like hard information, but it also opens up other questions. So here are my questions to you. See if you know set of information. Like hard information, but it also opens up other questions. So here are my questions to you. See if you know any of these. Who or what created Kniepo? Count Renault. The guy.

So your working theory is that Count Renault created him? It seems like he's pledging fealty, which suggests to me that he wasn't a creation, but maybe not. To me, it's like classic, weird, like a homunculus type thing. Like created this horrible entity that like lashes out like a child, like does all this weird stuff, making friends and the little gorgas and stuff. Feels very childlike to me, like brand new, born and created. That's what it seems like to me. Okay, like having a tantrum. Yeah.

Okay, so are you saying then this question would have no like concrete or logical answer? How or why did the elves become his hated enemies? Because they were there. So there's no real reason. Well, they, they had something,

whatever, whatever it is that he wants. They, he thinks at least that they had it. But do we think that count Renalk told him to do this? Yes. So maybe the source of this elvish hatred comes from Count Renalk?

I mean, is it possible that it all has to do with accessing our plane? Because the IADAR are called elf gates. Yeah, I think that's probably at the root of all this, is that the elves had the technology, the magic, to be able to move between worlds in a way that they might. That's something that might be what they're after. Like they created the Ayudara.

They're able to move between like these two planets in the solar system with ease. I mean, maybe that's part of what it is. Maybe what he's looking for, the worthy thing, is like what we are, gatewalkers. Like maybe there are other people who can do this. Accidentally. Maybe they just didn't know they could do it. There's something about us that allows us to do the same thing without having meant to.

Yeah. But there's also this theme of people being chosen who are not gatewalkers. Almost everybody has not been gatewalkers. And as if they could be made worthy? Right. Presumably we weren't made gatewalkers. And as if they could be made worthy? Right. Presumably we weren't made gatewalkers just by the fact that we walk through them, right?

If there's something innate that allows us to transverse worlds. So the question to what is he looking for in the people he abducts and experiments on is we do not know at all, right? Right. We have no idea what he's looking for. No. And then, uh,

why doesn't he abduct, like, a disproportionate amount of elves? Like, elves are around. Not a lot, though, right? They're still pretty... I mean, as many as are in our games, right? Like, so they're around. Maybe he only has access to the gates by seven arches, and there's not a lot of elves

there because they were told about the curse and therefore stay away. That's true. I mean, we definitely experienced that with Zephyr when we first went in. So do we think—this is a big question that is not on my list that I didn't think of before. Do we think that his influence always has to be within range of an Ayudhara? Or can he move literally anywhere in the world? I think it needs to be close to the Thin Lands, too.

So it's where it came in to the material plane. It's only going to be people in this region that are experiencing these kind of nightmares from him. It's where he's been able to extend his realm. And maybe that burst of the gate time was just like he had this burst of power where he could just affect all the gates at once. Well, this is the big question I want to know is, is this your question? The missing moment? The last one. What does any of this have to do with the night of the missing moment and the gates opening worldwide at once?

You want to know my theory? My meta storyteller theory as opposed to player in the game theory is that actually Kniepo did not cause the missing moment. I don't think he did either. That's what I think. I don't think he did either. I almost feel like maybe... This is just like a book one plot.

It seems like he's taking... It seems like it gave him maybe some means and opportunity or a renewed vigor in his search for the Shadeweather Key, but maybe he didn't actually have any causal relationship. I feel like maybe it's more of an elven thing, like you said.

Like, the elves have this innate ability to travel between worlds, and maybe it was like, I don't know, like old ancient engine technology, like whatever was happening. It fired off and all these gates opened up. But I don't think it's I don't think it's Kinepo. way back, which is we are being presented with this as if Count Renalc and Kniepo are these horrendously evil people that are hunting

down and killing elves. And I think at some point we'll reveal what the elves did to Count Renalc. They must have done something. Well, he's known as the King of Betrayal, so it's like what did he do? Lord of Betrayal. Does it all start and stop with him? Maybe.

But my suspicion is the elves did some shady shit that's not in the record. How many of us think that Count Rinald is going to be elven? I think so. Well, all we know, the only adjective I have applied to them besides the Lord of Betrayal is exotic. Oh. I have Lord of Betrayal

exiled to the Shadow Plane. I should add exotic. Hold on. Exotic. How many people think Count Renulk is the final boss of the Gatewalkers adventure? That's a red herring. It's a little early. That's a red herring.

It's a little early. It's a three book John. It is a three. Well, actually, yeah, that's true. Maybe it is. Maybe he is. I don't think so. I think it's book one.

Maybe book one. You want to know what I think Count Renauk is dead. He was the former. He formerly ruled over Nighthold. He was exiled. To Nighthold. To Nighthold. Oh, to here.

Yes. And ruled Nighthold. But you think he's dead? Yeah, because I'll read the text I have. Well, exiled from where? I think our world. I'm going to read. This is what we learned with the Quaking Stacks.

There was a small footnote in the volume of Pathfinder Chronicles, not the first world. It was about what we first learned the name of Nighthold. The shadowy realm of Nighthold, once ruled by the exotic exiled Count Renaud. Oh. I know. That's what I'm saying.

He doesn't rule it anymore. I know, but this is what he ruled. Where was he exiled to? He was exiled Exiled to here. Ruled it. Presumably died. That's how I read that sentence. Wait, read the sentence one more time. I read the sentence that he was ruling it and then was exiled

from Nighthold. Yeah, read it one more time. Alright, so a colorless forest located in the shadowy realm of Nighthold, once ruled by the exotic exiled Count Renaud. Okay, yeah. So he was exiled from somewhere else, to here, and once ruled it. That's how I read it. All right, so he is a red herring.

Somebody else rules it. Interesting. I assume that Knieper was out. Yeah, maybe he... It's his son. Well, if he would have killed him, if it would have been like a fratricide sortatricide sort of thing or something like that, like, it would have been in the painting. Yeah, it was once ruled... Don't you think, the story of the life of Kniepo?

By the count, and then after the dimension fell apart. And what's-her-name describes this as the court of Kniepo. Captain Salah. Because Captain Salah, the court of Kniea, which sort of implies almost a royal designation. The stump could be his domain. His castle. There could be a bigger castle somewhere. There could be a bigger stump somewhere.

I feel like we know so much. Always a bigger stump. It's always a bigger stump. And also, this whole... We're going to need a bigger stump. This whole thing also definitely reminds me of the plot of Baldur's Gate 2 which

is Eldo kind of reversed because this guy like doing these experiments on elves it's sort of a reversal of what happens at Baldur's Gate 2 but so that's there may be some answers to be found

ooh the court of arm okay so yeah it answers some questions kind of but obviously without the court of Om. Okay. So, yeah, it answers some questions, kind of, but obviously opens up more, asks more. Should we, so take us back to reality of where we are right now. Talitha. Let me live in my fantasy world, please. This is reality. It's reality.

It's real if I say it is. Asta and Talitha are looking at this painting together. And to the north of us, at the end of this long hallway where we've been looking at all these paintings, is a door. Another door. And that's it. That's the only other way it seems to get to move on in this weird tree stump that we're in. No, there's two. There's two doors. There's also another to the north by Brother Ramius.

The other room we were in, we chose. Oh, right, right, right. There's two. There's two doors. There's also the room to the north by Brother Ramius. The other room we were in. Oh, right, right, right. Sorry, my bad. There are two doors. So then Asta turns to the group and she says, This has been enlightening and also terrifying? Is this... And she looks at Zephyr and points to the painting.

That's lucky, right? You said you were there. I didn't get to see them. That's not you with a shadowy figure in the back? That's not me. I didn't get to see them too closely. Yeah, that's our friend. I mean, Brother Ramius is going to obsessively look at this painting.

This is horrible. Is there any other check I can roll? Yeah, is there a check to see how old it is? An alchemy check? Yeah, who has a relevant skill? Crafting? Crafting. I don't know if anyone has any art skills.

We have crafting. No, not like art lore or anything like that. I'll sniff the paint. Yeah. Natural five. 13. It's very hard to tell, especially where it's moving. What about a basic perception?

These paintings are here. This painting is here. Does it look new or is it look exactly the same in terms of its, you know, frame or whatever? You know, does do things age at all or are they all identical? I mean, he's looking at the crafting and you don't really notice anything. Oh, that's good. That's a twenty four. I don't know.

What is that number? Sorry? I don't know. It's a twenty five. I don't know. What is that number? Sorry? I don't know. It's a 25.

Just it compared to the other paintings. Does it seem like newly hung? They seem like they were created at the same time. Okay. Can I take the paint? Does the painting move? Is it like a frame? You lift the painting off the wall.

Can everybody get in the hallway? Or get out of the hallway? Matthew just went to ignore me with his hand. No, no. I went to just wipe the stress away. So Asta grabs the painting. I just want to move it. Smashes it over her lips.

She just wants to shift it a little bit. I want to see if I can look behind it. You grab the painting. I just want to move it. Smashes it over a little. She just wants to shift it a little bit. I want to see if I can look behind it. You grab the painting with your hands, and you go to shift it, and you can take it right off the wall. It seems like it was placed on a hook. Okay, and I look at the back. It's just like a...

Grand hook? Yeah. Asta, what are you doing? I don't know how many galleries you've been in in forest life. Never noticed that one. So this is very strange to you, but... This is interesting.

Should we keep it? It's, uh... Put it back, I think. Seems like a magical painting. Is it still moving? Might be a prophecy. Is it still moving? Is it still moving?

Yeah. It's still moving! Still repeating that sequence over and over. Very unnerving. And I hang it back up. It's still moving. Still repeating that sequence over. Very unnerving. And I hang it back up. It's a little crooked. It's only the rights. There's a scene in Twin Peaks, the first season, that I don't want to spoil if you've never seen it.

But the whole thing is like, who killed Laura Palmer, right? in the whole thing, it's like, who killed Laura Palmer, right? And so very early on, I think in the first episode, the mother goes up to the bedroom and realizes that Laura Palmer's gone. And then she runs back down. And so in the future episodes, she's constantly reliving. You see the ceiling fan. You see her running up the stairs, going into the bedroom. I'm getting chills just thinking about this,

because it was one of the most remarkable things I'd ever seen at the time. And she's just reliving it. And one point she's like drinking or she's thinking and she's reliving it again. And it like scans through the bedroom and you see something that has been there the entire time that you didn't see. And she just like starts screaming.

And the actress that plays her is so interesting looking and her scream is so blood curdling and like grotesque. And you just, she's great. That's kind of what I, the feeling I get when you see Kniepo watching you, cause you were there at that scene and you were thinking you probably reliving that scene.

And now you're reliving that scene. I'm like, there was someone watching. Have you seen tar? No. Same thing. I noticed there's two sequences in there, right? Or I don't want to say anything, but there's, there was someone watching. Have you seen Tar? No. Same thing. I know there's dream sequences in there, right? I don't want to say anything, but you should watch it.

Watch it more than once. Okay. Oh, oh, yeah. You know what I'm talking about? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I guess, is there a way to tell, like... I don't have time to watch it once. You know movies like that?

I'm like, that seems good. And so I just read the synopsis. I'm like, yeah, it sounds like a good movie. That was good. That's what I do with Tar. Well I'm like, yeah, that sounds like a good movie. That was good. That's what I do with tar. Well, then you missed out on a considerable amount. I know. It's so good.

It's very good. So there's two different doors now that go the same direction to the north. Let's keep going this way. Let's keep going this way. Down the creepy hallway? I agree. I want to find what's past these paintings. Talitha will listen at the door.

Okay. True tweener. 18. Nothing. Joe and I were doing a little dance. We were dancing. We kept hitting the same spot. Token dance.

Oster is behind Talitha. You can get in front of me. That way you have a cleaner shot. I have my bow out. Talitha will open the door. Talitha opens the door. Go, go, go. You see a circular-shaped chamber,

A circular-shaped chamber, smaller than the one that you fought the centaur in, about maybe the same size as the one you fought the tooth fairy swarm. There are jars of pigment and canvases in the process of being stretched, lining the walls of what looks like an artist's studio. There is nothing more evil. An artist. An artist. This is true.

Canepa made the paintings? That's even worse. There is an easel in the center of the room. Oh, great. It could have been the centaur lady. Wait, it's in the centaur of the room? It's in the the center of the room. Oh, great. It could have been the centaur lady. Wait, it's in the centaur of the room? It's in the centaur of the room. No, not another room. There's an easel balanced on top of the centaur in the middle of the room.

It's nude. There's an easel in the room, and there's obviously must be some sort of painting on it, but it's covered by a sheet. Now we get to find out if these are prophetic or not. This is a horror movie. This is so scary. This is definitely a horror. In the western portion of the room, there's a bunch of blankets on the floor. Looks like someone is sleeping there, perhaps.

There's our monster. They're not drop cloths. Our monster artists. It's a bed. Yeah, the blankets ares. Our monster artists. It's a bed. Yeah, the blankets are all piled up weirdly. It doesn't look comfortable. And then there's another door

leading east. Portrait of Dorian Gray. Calling it right now. We've got to look at that painting. Are any of you stealthy? I am. I believe I am, too.

Good, the stealthy ones among us. Plus eight. Sneak a look at that painting. Oh, whoa, you're real stealthy. That's my whole thing. I'm only plus three. If anybody's stealthier, they can... I'm plus six.

Alright. So we want a stealth and be careful? Yeah, just so we can take a look at that painting before whoever it is wakes up. Oh, we think someone's sleeping in the room? We think that pile of lumpy blankets might be something bad.

Perhaps stir your bow and sneak in. Just take a look at the painting. Can I like watch the blankets for a second? Is it moving? No. There's no time. There's no time. I was going to say give me a perception check, but Joe said no.

I'll take it. I will do a perception check. Stay out the door at the blankets. Go in there alone as quickly as possible. Natural 17, 24. Watch the blankets. If there's something breathing under there, you don't see any movement.

All right. I'd like to sneak up and... Buggles, you have to be brave. I will. Are you going to come with me? He's already going. Oh my god. He's shaking as he walks in.

He's walking. He's walking. So we both sneak in towards the painting. Oh my god. He's shaking as he walks in. He's walking. He's walking. So we both sneak in towards the painting. Oh my god. Brother Ramius will move up to the door next to Talitha. Okay, give me a stealth checks, dual stealth checks. 24 for Buggles. Natural four.

There we go. All right, so Buggles, you're very quiet. Buggles, you're very quiet. However, Zephyr, you, as you're sneaking in the room, you kind of look towards Buggles and you kick a paint can and the can just goes like all across the room and hits the back wall. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. Nothing happens. God, why are artists so messy?

nothing happens. God, why are artists so messy? It's obviously not my fault. Fucking artists, man. I put my bow away. Brother Ramius from the doorway says, because they're the worst. This party hates artists. Hate them.

Some might consider you a person who makes art for a living, if you consider these podcasts. No, no, no. We mean like painters. Yeah. We hate painters. Like visual artists. We are real artists.

Yeah, real artists. Thespians. Exactly. I hated saying that. So, yeah, I put my bow away and we walk up to the painting and I guess we'll look together, Buggles? Yeah. On the count of three. Okay. One.

Two. Counting very fast. Three. You guys grab the sheet and pull it down. And we'll see you right after this break. No! Dirty! I am pumped to once again thank NordVPN for sponsoring the GCP

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And that's of course like the fun and entertaining benefits you get with the Nord VPN app, but there's also the cybersecurity that comes from using it as well. I have never felt safer or more protected from a cyber perspective than I do when I'm using NordVPN's threat protection feature. To get the best discount off your NordVPN plan, go to nordvpn.com slash GCP. Our link will give you four extra months on the two-year plan. There's no risk with Nord's 30-day money-back guarantee, and you'll help support your old pals at the GCP. The link is in the episode description box. Go check it out. Sheet hits the floor, and you see a half-finished painting.

It is depicting the same figure, who you now assume to be Kniep of the Slim, sitting on a leafy wooden throne. All of the colors aren't in yet, though. So it's like half drawn, some sketched, but moving like the other images, animated. So sometimes the colors rush in, but still don't fully fill in the image.

At the feet of this figure are sketched in forms of elves writhing in agony and dying at the feet of this fey creature. And they're just like, it's moving slowly, but they're sketched in

this very little color, except for that of blood, the kind of running in rivulets between this mound of bodies. But the magics that animate these drawings start to change the sketch. The first thing that you see is among these elves dying at its feet, other races,

other ancestries begin to emerge joining the carnage. Dead humans writhing in agony. Dead dwarves. Dead gnomes. All manner of creatures.

Not just elves. But you also notice that this fey figure is changing as well. Not quite aging, per se, as in, like, from the first picture to the tenth picture, every time you saw it, it never quite changed, but almost as if it's expiring. Oh, that's what it's searching for.

And it disappears from the throne, and a new figure is being sketched in to replace it. But the sketch ends before you can see who or what is replacing the figure in the throne. And you would think this is probably the next picture to be placed. Was there room for this picture in the gallery? So he's looking for a successor. But on the throne is Kniepo. Yeah, the same figure that you assume is Kniepo in all those other pictures. Looking for a successor, or is he going to kind of like a phoenix rise again?

Right, like elven longevity. Yeah, maybe that's why he was tracking down these elves. He's looking for the secret of the elven. But the worthy, like the finding someone who's worthy. Worthy to replace him as he aspires. So weird. But did this already happen? It's changing.

I don't think it's happened yet. This is what the future would be. Like not only elves, but all these other races. Like if he's able to... Well, the sketched in figure has not been sketched in yet. It could be Talitha. Probably is. If you think about how he was born, he was born fully formed.

So I guess with Kniepo expiring, there's like something there where he needs to find someone worthy to like transform. And that was what we saw being born. It was whoever Kniepo was before being reformed. Oh, into Kniepo. Into Kniepo 2.0. So it could have been a person. No, she's saying it could have been a person, but then they were changed into this shadowy, faith creature.

That's interesting. Is there a fight in the room? No, as in, is there any immediate danger that they notice? There's blood on the floor. I think that's paint. Oh. Lick it. Nothing has emerged to attack them. Salitha is going to walk in the room.

And Salitha wants to examine the blankets and search to make sure there's no one in there. Okay. Give me a perception check. You start pulling through and you don't see anything. Natural one. No. I want to look at the paint.

I pull all the blankets up just in case there's anything underneath. All right, give me a perception check there, Kate. Because the pictures are moving and... Patrol won. Wow. Dude, last episode, this episode, when is it going to be my time?

I hate this feeling. It's awful. It's awful. When's it going to be my time? That's awful. When's it going to be my time? Well, if everybody's going to examine that stuff, Brother Ramius is going to move to the other side of the room, to the door on the eastern side. He's just going to get near it.

He's looking back at everybody. They're all working on stuff. And he's just going to listen at that door just to make sure nothing is on the other side of it or might come in after us so quick perception on that uh 18 nothing all right and he's watching everybody else is there anything else in the room that doesn't seem to fit like it's an artist studio but like there's a lot of a lot of painting supplies that seem pretty ordinary. Um, I'll do a, I'm going to help Talitha. I'm going to walk over and also just look around that area to a perception.

No, I'm not. Natural three. And you failed another silent one off camera, didn't you? Yeah. I know. I heard you roll a few times. I rolled a four.

And then I switched die and I was like, now I'll say I'm having a two in perception. So Austin's all over the place. I like to check my dies and see which ones are hot. None of them. None of them are hot, man. All right, I guess there's nothing here. I also kick the blankets.

I mean, I pull up the blankets. Yeah, you pull above the... I trip a little. What about the painting? I don't understand art. What about the painting? What about it? Buggles?

It's unfinished. Have you touched it? I like it. No about the painting? What about it? Buggles? It's unfinished. Have you touched it? I like it. No, just the blanket. Like it? Buggles, what's your criticisms of it? Do you have any thoughts? Well, it's sort of claustrophobic, isn't it?

The frame is like a prison for the figure within. I never would have thought of that. No frame. The composition, really, drawing us up from the dead, writhing bodies of the elves toward Kniepo. Yes, the eyes are drawn up towards this figure. But it doesn't follow the golden ratio, which really speaks to the artist's knowledge. It's subverting the idea. Subverting the golden ratio.

They're flattening the planes in such a way. I think we should steal it. Okay. Okay. I take it. Okay. Okay. I take it. Brother Amias is looking closely at all the figures on the bottom. I know it's probably very small, but does he recognize any figures in the bottom that are writhing in pain? Anyone we know or any of us or anything like that?

He's looking really close. When you look really close at a painting, it's always weird. It's like there's nothing there. Right. But I'm curious. You start staring and you're taken

back to the abbey and just seeing people at the bottom of the stairs reaching up towards you, their faces melting. Go back at the painting, seeing that same figure, but not anyone you know. Shall we move? Keep moving?

Hold on. Asa's got a giant painting. She's still- Hold on. How big is the painting? It's like, you have to carry it like this. You're making it too big for me to take it. It's a big painting.

You're making it too big. If you want to carry it, it's two hands. I'm going to pull it off the framework. Okay. Just the canvas, roll it up and put it in my, my belt. I was going to see if we could add paint to it, but you know what? Let's just take it with us. I like that.

All right. Talitha will listen at the door. Matthew will change dice. Okay. Brother Ramius was at the door really listening. Didn't hear anything. Talitha, you... Talitha, you can't listen

with the magnifying glass. You're right. You try. Talitha puts the magnifying glass... Hands up for the magnifying glass. Oh, jeez. The coast is large. All right.

The coast is close. Have you been listening this whole time with just perception? Yeah. I haven't listened yet. What do you listen with? I haven't listened yet.

I listen with occultism. Oh! Why? What you rocking with, Kate? God. The rage that fills my tiny body. Almost knows no bound. Natural two.

Oh my goodness. What is wrong with us? Can we, I, we're, I, pull back the curtain. We're scheduled to record another episode later.

Can we not? Can we not? Wait, I'll, I imagine you're listening and you like fall on the door. I'll listen too. Here we go. Did you roll your tiny die?

21. Yeah, I rolled my teeny tiny Norse foundry pixie die. Slightly breaded. Slightly breader? pixie die. Slightly breaded. Slightly breader? Slightly better. Slightly breaded? Slightly breaded. Slightly breaded. Sounds like a bakery in there. Sounds like a egg palm sandwich.

First thing you notice is the door is slightly breaded. Oh. But no, you rolled slightly better than Brother Ramius's 18. I combined brother and better. Have another roll, breader boy. Have another roll, breader door.

Nothing, you don't hear anything. Okay, let's go. Coast is safe, clear. Aprevue. And tasty. Who goes, who opens? Asta will open the door. My bow is away.

Asta, you. Bow is away. That's funny, Buggles. I've never heard that.. Us to you. Bow is away. That's funny, Buggles. I've never heard that. Us to you. This is an interesting little room. You see ladders connecting the floor of this two-story... It's a library.

Library. Oh. That's what those little... Do they slide? Oh, I love a slide. I love a slide. They do slide. There's three separate balconies above, and you see books.

Brother Ramius, you're going to love this room. Scattered pages crammed every which way into the shelves, and the stacks that are carved directly from the trunk of the tree. Oh, that sounds great. There is a chandelier up above. Chandelier up above that has, like like fireflies in it lighting the room. And it's a domed ceiling about 30 feet high. And including the door you're walking into, there are several other doors leading out.

Two to the east, one to the west, the way you came in, and another one to the south. Which would presumably lead back to the dining hall where we fought the centaur, right? You would think that that would lead to that you had an option to go north or south. Yeah, you would think that probably does that.

This is incredible. Let's park here for a day and do some reading. Eh, Brother Ramius? Seriously, this would be far better than paintings. As Asta steps to answer the questions we have

right there, a creature jumps out. What? Oh! Asta! From behind the stack. We were gonna read!

Why were you? We're actually going rogue in this room, too. Like, I climbed up one of the ladders. We're just bopping all around the room. That's a great place

to be shooting down from. Asa legitimately was looking for like gilded book covers just like walking along the wall just not listening to anybody. I was going to make

a cup of tea, sit down in the stacks, read some stuff. Oh, I'm sorry that I walked into the room to make space for my party in this narrow

library entrance. You're right. There's plenty of space between you and all of us. It is really close quarters here with the way the shelves are and the way the room is shaped. As you come around the corner, a creature that no doubt heard that can being kicked across the room, hiding behind one of the shelves, jumps out directly at you.

It is an insectoid-looking creature. Has a multicolored carapace that seems to have, like, multicolored runes all over it. It has two sets of arms, two long arms that hang from its shoulders and two smaller arms jutting from its abdomen. Oh.

It's over seven feet tall. Oh, wait a minute. It's a runebug. Could that be the ones from, in that, in the... Whoa, it just got bright in here. Could that be that alien? And it looks like...

What alien? This, this, uh, ancestry, it seems, is in Starfinder. This. Oh. Oh, no. Oh, my goodness.

Oh, my God, it's got a big thorax. There's a lot going on. Roll for initiative. It's gorgeous. Wow, so many colors. And it glows. It's a huge, multicolored, yeah, sectoid with four arms. As it comes from around the corner, its glow fills the room.

It looks, yeah, the runes, it's got, got like all these colorful neon runes all over its body. I like its pose. It's like, ta-da! Yeah. I've arrived. Surprise! All right. Let's talk initiative.

Brother Ramius. 27. 27 for Ramius. Very good. talitha 24 24 nice talitha nice also good buggles 21 21 okay and zephyr seven wow bolus zephyr rolls a seven. And Asta. 21 as well. 21. It won't surprise you that I rolled a 29. I rolled a 29. Oh, my.

You have to be kidding me. I mean, I literally used the automatic roller to set these initiatives. All right, so. What's this thing's perception? It's very high. Of course. That also rolled really well. Of course it is. All right, so here's very high. Of course. That also rolled really well. Of course it is.

All right, so here's what happens. That helps. This thing comes out, and you all are... How close are you to this thing? Let's see. Buggles is obviously the furthest away, 25 feet. All right, so what it's going to do is it's going to take a step right south of Asta, so like a step to avoid any attacks of opportunity,

and then it does a two-action. Wait, you just did a step that would make me do an attack of opportunity. The jump out was the, that wasn't a move. That was like pre-combat. It came out into your thing. And now we've started combat. You don't have AOS anyway, do you? I know, but I'm just saying what you said was wrong.

It's the principle. No, a step does not provoke an attack of opportunity. My question was, there's nothing that does provoke an attack of opportunity, or that has an attack of opportunity around it. Yeah, I don't know what her attack is. Got it, got it, got it. And then all of these runes, these bioluminescent runes on its body start to flare with intense, colorful light. And then it's just like a photograph just comes out of all of you. Everyone roll a fortitude save. Wait, I'm behind a bookshelf.

I have no line of sight or line of effect to this creature. I'm directly behind a bookshelf. I have no line of sight or line of effect to this creature. I'm directly behind a bookshelf. So if you're telling me it would hit me with something visual, then like... It would be everyone but Brother Ramius. Oh, wow. Yeah, based on where everyone's in the room. I agree. So it's like, what do I see?

Just like a multicolored explosion all around? You see this thing, it goes around the bookshelf on all sides, and you just notice all of them kind of wince. Okay. What did you roll, Talitha? 15. 15. Zephyr?

27. You were due. There she is. You were due. Okay. Asta? 24. 24.

And Buckles? 23. 23. Okay. The three of you, what did you roll again? 15. 14. The three of you are dazzled for one round.

But I crit on it. Oh, you rolled a nat 20? Yeah. Oh, I'm sorry, then you're unaffected. The two of you are dazzled for one round. You're dazzled for one minute. Oh. Let's talk about dazzled.

Your eyes are overstimulated or your vision is swimming. If vision is your only precise sense, which it is, all creatures and objects are concealed from you. So any attacks, you're going to have to do DC 5 flat check when trying to attack this creature.

For you guys, it'll just be around for you. But presumably the entire combat. That is the end of its turn. And now it goes to Brother Ramius. And Brother Ramius, you see this burst of light and everybody kind of wincing. It looks like Asta and Buggles are out of it. And Talitha looks completely gone. She's like, ooh!

Okay. All right. Brother Ramius then is going to try to even the score here. He is going to step up to kind of get a look at what did that and is able to see this insectoid creature. Seven feet tall. Definitely some threat there. Yeah. And he's just going to be like Hi

I'm going to do it He'll say, hey, don't do that to my friend I'm Brother Amias No, he'll be like, there's another kind of light that can help us And he will cast Bless on everyone Including the creature And a new light emanates from him all around So all of you can get a plus

You get a plus one to attack rolls. So hopefully that will offset the dazzled. Fantastic. Nice. Okay, plus one to attack rolls. Is that the end of your turn? That is the end of my turn. Move to action, John.

Bless. Talitha, it is your turn. Okay, Talitha is trying to, her vision is all whited out, but she's going to try to devise a stratagem. Um... Her vision is all whited out, but she's going to try to devise a stratagem. And instead... Runs back into the artist's studio. No, she'll take her free knowledge check on this creature.

Okay. What should I roll? That would be... Interesting. I believe it's a cult. Oh, great. I believe it's a cult. Oh, great. Great. 21.

Okay. This is a creature known as a Djeriac. It is a creature native to the Plane of Shadows, where their colorful nature is in opposition to the realm's overwhelmingly monochromatic palette. Did you just come up with that or are you right off the top of my head? I memorized my lines. Monochromatic palette.

Monochromatic palette. In terms of powers and abilities, that glow ability that it did, the good news is that it can usually only do those dazzling bursts. It can only do once a day. So now you feel like you're out of that. However, it does have the ability to pretty quickly attack. ability to pretty quickly attack so it can like uh use its hands basically uh in terms of the meta of the game it can use one action to do multiple attacks as a multi-attack as forearms um and it speaks mainly through telepathy interesting it does not want to uh deign to do anything to its beautiful vocal cords by actually speaking. Maybe we found our artist.

Yeah, the color. Alright, I was thinking, I wondered if it was going to be the librarian, but artist probably is right. Alright, Jalitha is going to attack, because I got the Bless, and I also can move into flanking position. Okay. So Jalitha will hustle around the stacks and get into flanking position with

Asta. Nice! Flank it! Flank it! And that will be, I get a plus one from the Bless, a 19 to hit. Okay, and you also have the Concealed, so now you do the flat check. DC Fizzle. Seven, so I'm okay. So 19 to hit this

Djeriak. Flat-footed. Off-guard. Off-guard. Off-guard, excuse me. Is a hit. Yeah! Huge, huge. Huge. Wait, you didn't roll to hit, did you? No, I used the... You used the other one.

I used the 11. Okay, and now I get to do an extra 1d6 for the strategic strike as well. Let's murder this thing we never talked to. Eight points of damage. Eight points of damage. It does not cry out in pain. Okay, turn. There's a cry out.

I was like, what does that mean? Is it just really tough, or did we do nothing? It winces, but it doesn't want to speak. Does it cry out telepathically? Yeah, you all hear, ow! You son of a bitch! Ow! Ow!

Ow! All right, Talitha, that is your turn. That's my turn. It is now Buggles' turn. Buggles, you are dazzled. Buggles is dazzled. And dazzling. And dazzling.

Thank you. Buggles is going to run around the stacks as well. There we go. And he, yes, he is dazzled, as you can see on our lovely foundry VTT. And he is going to run around the corner. He's got these spots in his eyes, these artifacts. And he snaps his fingers to enact ignition. Right.

Oh, it's the remix to ignition. That is a 21 to hit. That is a hit. Thing's getting lit. Hot and fresh out the kitchen. Nice. Seven points of damage. Seven points of damage.

A little bit of Roy Mustang for you. Pow! Pow! And what kind of damage was that? Cold? Fire. Fire. It's runes.

It's colorful runes looking pain. And it now is Asta's turn. Asta, you're dazzled as well. Okay. I am dazzled, but I think the best thing I should do is just do. And I did. Sorry, I rolled a flat check and I succeeded. Thank you.

Forgot to say. I'm going to do three attacks. I'm just going to swing. I got my katana out. Might as well. Just got to roll higher than a five for each attack. I'm going to roll with my little my little die is rolling really well. I love this little Norse foundry die. I think as you can just say whatever number you want. Yeah, you can't read it. 18 flat check. I roll first,

right? Yeah. Okay. 18 flat check. And then to hit with my katana, first swing. That's going to be off guard, first swing. That's gonna be... Off guard, lowered AC. Oh yeah, it's got the lowered AC. That's gonna be 21. That is a hit. Nice. Alright. Surround this thing and attack it.

Are you rolling a d10? Oh wait, yeah, hold on. D10. D10, two-handed. Uh, ba-ba-ba. That's a 12. You have a tiny illegible defense. I actually do. I'm not doing that. It's too hard to read on the smaller ones.

So that's going to be six, and then plus? Four. Four, thank you. Yep. So that's going to be nine. Ten. Ten. All right.

That's not right. Oh, boy. Big common drop. 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10

10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10

10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 You're learning math like an AI would learn math. Is the minus one in there? We didn't tell you? I'm learning math like chat.

It feels like somewhere around a nine. Chat GPT. Nine? No. Ten? It was slow enough for you to get to ten. That's a really trigonometry. But you have to understand, the drop is too good for me not to do bad math.

She has to. I have to have the drop. You have to see it on purpose. You knew the writing. Yeah. She is ceasing any attempts to be better at math. It's part of the performance. I don't have to.

I even have a calculator here. I'm not using that. No need. Do you want to attack again? Yeah. Okay. But you took the 10 points of damage. I did take the 10 points of damage.

And what is your map on this? Is it minus five? My map on this is minus... With a katana, or do you get a little minus four action? No? No? No, it's minus five, yeah. Damn it! Katana's not special.

Dang. Nine, ten. Nine to hit. It's private, it's private. And then third... Oh, do I... That's a good question. Would you roll another six plus four?

Do I have to roll a flat check for each hit? You do, yeah. Oh. Well, that one would have been a miss. Oh, okay. So this will be the flat check for the third hit. God, I love this small dice. I'm going to take that die and crush it.

17. It looks like you're rolling a piece of lint. It's so cute. You made the flat check. Why are you doing that? It's like you're rolling a piece of lint. It's so cute. Why are you doing that? It's like the bone in that sketch. Hello? Hello?

17 flat check for the third. Swing. Now minus 25. Oh my gosh. That's 19 minus 2, 17. Minus 10. No, that's minus 2. Net minus 2. Oh, net minus 2. So 17. With the off guard, that is a hit. Thatus 10. No, that's minus 2. Minus 2. Net minus 2. Oh, net minus 2. So 17. 17. With the off guard, that is a hit.

Let's go! That's incredible. The rare third attack. I can't believe that. Strike. Missed on the second, hit on the third. Very low damage. Seven points of damage.

Seven points of damage, but you were able to hit it twice. Wow, that's incredible. Way more than I thought you would. We finish the round with Zephyr. How high up am I up here? I'm 15 feet away from it lengthwise. So you actually climbed up the ladder. Yeah.

You are 20 feet up. Okay. There's still 10 more feet between you and the ceiling. So you do not have bless. I don't? No. It doesn't reach quite that far yet. Is that a burst effect or it's an aura?

It's a round brother-ramus. I had it, though. It doesn't reach quite that far yet. Is that a burst effect or it's an aura? It's a round brotheramias. I had it, though. Yeah. Oh, okay. Yeah, you're within range, but if she's 20 feet up and 10 feet over, it's not quite. All right. Beautiful math, isn't it? But I hate getting into that.

Ooh, Pythagorean theorem math. I'm just assuming that those numbers... Square root of 625. Are you doing it? Yeah. I mean, you are. 25. Oh, yeah.

25 feet. Yeah. I did it first. That's not true. You just did the Pythagoras angle, the length of the other line. It's like a savant thing. She can't do simple math, but she can do calculus. You should call him Mr.

Einstein was like that. You should call him Mr. Theorem. I'm on a first name basis. If you notice, there's a thing above your character now that says plus 20 feet. Oh, dope. That's awesome. Currently, she's flying in the center of the room, though. Is that supposed to happen too?

I just moved her back, yeah. If diagonal is still 25 feet, that's still within my volley. So I would get a negative if I try to do my longbow. So I would get a negative if I try to do my longbow. So my second option was the option of cool, which is... Backflip off the back. I want to jump off the back onto this creature. Onto the creature. And like, pew!

A little jumping punch. So maybe like jump to the square next to it. Let's take what was really cool and make it slightly less cool. Why don't you want me to jump onto the creature? She can jump onto the creature. She just has to jump and make a grapple check. Yeah, if that's the goal. Is the goal grapple or is the goal punch?

I've never tried to grapple before, but I feel like I have a mug. She can flavor land on the creature. What do you want to do? I feel like I have a mug. She said what she wants to do. What do you want to do? I feel like I have a problem. She said what she wants to do. Why are you yelling? What do you want to do? If I try to grapple something with four hands,

I feel like that would be good for everyone. You know? Because it would prevent you from making lots of attacks in one round. It would just give a slight penalty. All right. And its escape is probably amazing. Second coolest thing. I'm going to leap to the square that everyone said to leap to. That's so badass, though.

You're jumping 20 feet over a bookshelf. You should land down next to it. I'm going to try to do one of those landings where you roll land a bit. Okay, great. I'm just looking up. You can parkour up over the top of the bookshelf, flip, and land right below it. Just punch him in the carapace-y face. Yes.

Flying spin kick. Oh. To the thorax. Yeah. Kick him in the butt. Yeah, that big butt. Your butt is so big and fat. I'm going to demoralize him.

I want to kick it. By the way, I was spelling Kinepo completely differently. Oh, wait. How do we spell it? Well, it's up here. You can see on the map. It's Kinepo's Court. Oh, that's how I've been spelling it.

Oh, I spelled it. And it's also not Kinepo if that's how it's spelled. Yeah, I kept saying Kinepo. Yeah, every time you say Kinepo, it was like a little dagger in my ears. Kinepo. Kinepo. Kinepo. I'm trying to find the rule for jumping and landing

and softening your fall because you take much damage. Half the distance. I have catfall. You ignore the first ten feet. She has catfall. If you successfully... That's my feet. Or at least that's what it was in one hit. And what does catfall do? You take less damage. Lucky had that.

Catfall. I treat falls 10 feet shorter. If I'm an expert in acrobatics, it's 25. Wow, and you already get the first 10 feet for free, essentially. Which is fine. Yeah, so you land. So what did you decide? You grappling or punching?

Punching. Punching, all right. So you leap down, no problem. Land there, don't take any damage, and then just punch. And you know what? That's so cool. Give yourself a plus one from the sort of momentum from jumping up high. That's cool.

Oh, and a plus one from bless. Because now you are in the ring. Oh, right. Oh, it's cool. So you get into that aura. It's fired as you come into the aura. So that stays. Oh, my God.

That aura stays out there. What's that? That aura stays out there. Yeah. It's not just like a one shot. No. I mean, it's last one. That stays out there? Yeah. It's not just like a one shot. No, I mean, it's. That was what I was asking.

If it was a burst effect or an aura effect. I guess an aura effect. It stays active. It comes off of me. That's cool. However I. All right. Flurry of blows.

Oh, yes, yes, yes. If you step out of the range, you lose it. Yeah. Step into the range. You have it. Yes. Gotcha. Sorry, I didn't understand your question.

Super cool jump down into the scene. And everyone's like, wow, Zephyr's so cool. And then second action, Flurry of Blows with my fists. I got my plus two. Better if we say that. Yeah, that was the thing. That was you guys saying that.

She said we said it. I understand. I don't know. What do you understand? It sounded just like Talith understand. I don't know. What do you understand? I don't understand what you're saying. It sounded just like Talitha. She's the GM. Give yourself a plus one to each attack. Momentum.

Oh, no. Kate Stamis. You Stamis right out of here. Did you nat one on this cool attack? I did. Oh, no. Could have been a two! Even a three!

That is how numbers work. Could have been a two. Even a three! Are we going to the fan-fom-boon? No, are we? Must we? You're a named character, but you're a roll away from losing your name.

We'll take it away. All right, here we go. Oh, my god, this is amazing! Who in the John am I? No. This is from Sean in St. Louis, Missouri. John from St. Louis.

Sean from St. Louis. In an impressive attempt to hit your enemy, you accidentally hit your own head on a bookshelf. No. This is staggering detail and impression. You hit your head like the true hero you were

meant to be. Your attack misses. Roll a will save. Now this would be against the creature's class DC. It would be the DC of whatever that effect the dazzle. So I successfully landed my jump but maybe I'm just like off balance From it a little dizzy and I just whack

As I try to slam your head into something My head into something Um That's 12 It's a fail Not a critical fail Oh no Confused for one round

Oh my god she's gonna start punching her She's going to start punching her friends. She's going to start punching her friends. Does that start right now? Yeah. It's up to Troy. Confused for one round. Yeah, because you come down, and that's what happens. You hit your head.

And you lose sight of who's who in the fight. You miss that punch, but you were flurry of blows, so that second punch is a confused punch. And all that is is pure random. Oh, gosh. And we're all so close because we're flanking. So I hit my head. So you got Brother Ramius, Asta, the enemy, Talitha, and not Buggles. So it's four people.

You're also flat-footed. So the first punch, I overshoot it, hit my head, and now I'm still going in for the second punch. You're rocky, though. You're like, but it's going everywhere. Where'd you go? Adrian! I don't think he was ever punching Adrian. You know, I wouldn't put it past him.

Adrian! Adrian! All right, so roll a d4. And if it's a four, it's the enemy. Well, we should roll the hit first, and then I'll roll to see who it is. Okay. Watch this be a nat 20.

Two gods. Nope, natural this be a nat 20. Two gods. Nope. Natural four. There we go. That's going to be an eight. Sweet. Well, unless it was the enemy. Is the map even with flurry of blows? Yeah, it's the same. Okay. The flurry of blows isn't. Alright, so that wouldn't have hit anybody. Alright, so

She's flailing around right now. You got one more attack. Oh boy. I mean, I'm just, if'm confused, I don't need to... You use all your actions to attack. To strike. To strike. Then I guess I just go to punch again at my worst map, which is a plus zero. Yeah, so we'll see.

If you hit, then I'll tell you who you hit. Seven. Seven. All right, so you get down there and just... At least I roll low also when it matters. Actually, yeah, that worked out really well. The best fumble you could have gotten. All right, so it looked really cool until it didn't.

And now it is the creature's turn. Top of round two. Crap. Okay, all right. Sees a confused elf, half elf. And then you've got, basically, Buggles would no longer be got basically Buggles would no longer be dazzled, Asta would no longer be dazzled, but Talitha is dazzled.

One minute! And is going to attack Talitha. And so Talitha is going to use this thing called Double Claw. So I use two strikes for the price of one and the damage is stacked if they both hit.

So it would overcome any resistances you had. It's on you. I don't have any. Does it suffer the map? Waste of a turn. The map doesn't happen until after. It's like double slice. It's like double slice.

Double slice one action or two actions? It's two actions. It's two actions. But this is one action. Yeah, this is one action. I actually looked up double slice when I was looking at this. That was lucky. I don't know about that feat anymore.

All right. She's dead to me. It's a 25 and a 28. Oh. Oh. It's a hit and a crit. Oh, no. And all this damage will be stacked together.

No. It is a named character. No. Oh, my! This is why I'm telling you. There's no penalties that you see from the down, so that's just, you just roll well. It just rolls really well, yeah. I wish it was only if we knew its name,

because we never ask any characters their names. Norse Foundry Troy dice, probably not available. They're very popular. Only one hit is a critical, though, so I'm not reading this crit and then you're not doubling all of the damage from the first hit, too. I'm doubling the this crit and then you're not doubling all of the damage. I'm doubling the crit damage and then adding it to the base damage. Which, by the way, starts with the D10.

Boy. Alright. Christian from Copenhagen. Hi, Christian. Is that how you pronounce it? That's one of the happiest countries in the world, Denmark. It's on the happiness index. It always ranks near or at the top.

Wow. It's about to make us miserable. Oh, my God. All right. This is Christian from Copenhagen. You know, I learned something today. Hi, Christian. During your perfect strike, you notice an extremely interesting detail in your enemy's reaction.

This detail is so remarkable, unique, and mind-bending that words cannot explain its form or function. If you are a player, double damage and you get a bottle cap. If you are the GM, double damage and you get plus two on attack rolls against your target for the remainder of the combat.

Oh my god. You're probably going down from the damage alone. But thank you, Christian. I'm going down right here. You're going down from the damage alone. But thank you, Christian. Thank you, Christian. That's a cool one. You know, I learned something. I wonder if it's Christian Eriksson. He did make us laugh.

Who used to play for Tottenham. Probably. From a country of such happiness, that was such an evil thing to do. It was nice to the player, though. He thought. He thought ahead. Yeah. But it was unfortunately.

It would have been really happy with him. It was not helpful. Let's ease down on the jovial banter because something horrible yeah that's happened to our I rolled max damage oh come on max damage on the crit since it's all combined into one piece of damage is 35 points of damage

I go down in one pop just these two little claws come out oh and Talitha goes down. I'm just going to put the, where is it? Dying. Oh, man.

Dying animation. Oh, you know what? Hold on. I want to do this. I'm going to use my awakening. As a reaction, my body will flicker onto the ethereal. Yes.

Have you done this? Yes. Oh, sweet. So, all I do is become, become concealed for one round. So it's probably not going to matter, but there's a 20% chance

you'll miss one of those attempts. This is cool. 14. And for the crit? Nat 20. Nat 20 on the crit. Oh,

now you have to roll a flat check. Yeah. DC five flat check. Let's see if you have a, a whiplash. M 20 on the crib. Now you have to roll a flat check. DC5 flat check. Oh, to see if you have a... A whiplash. Mishap. Mishap or whatever it's called. All right. I can never remember the name of that thing.

A backlash? I think it's backlash, yeah. All right, so... A deviant ability. Zephyr comes down, bangs her head. Zephyr's confused. You realize Zephyr could start punching anybody. Talitha, already dazzled, now goes down, dying two.

Because that came from a crit. Oh, boy. Oh, boy. And it still has two actions left. I'm the plus side. I don't think I'm dazzled anymore. Knock the dazzle right out of you. All right, so now, my goodness, I'm like...

I was going to do something real fun on the next turn, too. I believe you. I was going to slap the back of Zephyr's head to give her a chance to roll the flat check to get out of the confusion. All right, so now the drawback of using this is that counts as two attacks for my multiple attack penalty, so now this would be at my third map for any attacks after this.

So you're negative ten, or negative eight, depending on the creature's agility. And I will take that attack against Asta for my second action. Very low chance to hit. Pretty good roll though. Seventeen to hit Asta. Doesn't hit. Okay. Nice, Asta! Hero! Solid.

And then, uh, alright, so I've got one more action here. I will, uh, all right, so I've got one more action here. I will, uh, step right behind Asta, just to create a little more distance, make it a little harder for Brother Ramius to target it. Uh, Buggles probably still has a pretty clean shot, um, but, uh, gets away from any confused attacks from Zephyr. And now it is Brother Ramius' turn. How great are these tokens?

Oh, they're so great. So great! All these effects, too. Like, Talitha just looks insane. And you get a click on... You guys can't see this, but, like, what Talitha sees is just everything is in black and white and everything is a pool. Oh, because she's down.

She's in color, yeah. She doesn't know who the enemy is. That's cool. Really, really cool. Extremely cool. All right. Oh, no. I forgot about Zephyr.

But you know what? Talitha needs you. I'm going to play this like I don't really understand Zephyr's situation right now. So, Ramius, is it possible to the south of Brother Ramius, at the bottom of this jawn ski? Actually, it doesn't matter. I can go around Asta. All right. He's going to move past Zephyr around the bookshelf down to Talitha and just, Talitha, no!

And he will do battle medicine on you. Ah. So, let's try that. Let's see if he goes well. medicine on you. Ah. So let's try that. Let's see if he goes well. Takes it a dying three. Could this backfire and you could hurt her? You could roll a natural one. Okay.

Yeah, but she said she had something cool to do. Yeah. I mean, we just say that. I told you what I was going to do. We always feel like we have something cool. I said explicitly what I was going to do. And then look like we have something cool. I said explicitly what I was going to do. And then look what happened. And it's too late.

And he did it. But Brother Ramius doesn't know that. He doesn't know that she was going to do something cool either. Yeah, that's true. I don't think Talitha yelled out, I'm going to do something cool. I'm going to do something cool. Watch.

It's like, oh, fuck, we have to find out. Watch this. Kind of weird that the dying animation includes unconscious, which is just sleeping. Zs. I know. She's sleeping forever. I won't do it because it does carry some risk. And I do have an extra action.

I'm pro battle motion. Don't let Troy talk you out of healing me. No, it's just that your dying condition is a bit high. So I am going to. He rolled a natural one, it would be hilarious. And we remember what happened last time. He injured you far worse before Abel

I blame myself for saying anything that would have been hilarious. Yeah. You know what? I'll do it. Let's do it. I have a backup. Alright, so I will battle medicine you. I also have a bottle cap. Battle medicine. Here we go. That's going to have a bottle cap. Battle medicine. Here we go.

That's going to be a critical success. Nice. All right. So that's going to be juicy, juicy damage, and I did not have to burn one of these heal spells, which is awesome. Okay. Well, hopefully.

We'll see what the die roll is, but I'm a little frantic. I'm nervous when I'm the one. What's six plus four? Ten. There you go. Ten. She's learning.

I'll never forget. You get 15. 15 points of healing. That's amazing. All right, so. Some quick and dirty battle medicine. No longer dying, but you are wounded one and prone. And still dazzled?

I don't know. I assume I'm still dazzled. Yeah. Yeah, and that's. I flavor remove the dazzle because i didn't think i'd be coming back and you're also off guard and you're also off guard uh all right so you move battle medicine move battle medicine i still have an action and my problem is that so i was like oh i'm gonna aid but i don't think that that is going to help. So let me just... No, I will. I will aid. Okay, so I was going to do Guidance but Guidance gives you the same exact bonus as Bless does.

It's a status bonus so it would not stack. So I'm going to aid, to the best of my ability, Asta in her attack against this creature. So we don't have Bless anymore. It was a one round... No, you have Bless. Oh. But now I can, if I successfully aid, I will stack that on top of it.

For a plus potential two. For a plus potential two, yes. But I do have to actually aid. So let me think about that in the meantime. It's a reaction. Okay. Good talk. Good talk.

Talitha, you are up. But I moved in the initial order. That's right. You moved to... Right before the creature. Right before the creature. So I will update you, and it is Zephyr's turn. So...

Oh, boy. How long am I confused for? Excuse me, I'm sorry. It's Buggles' turn. Oops. I lied. Okay. Buggles is so he, the Kulakan emerges.

His eyes change. And this other aspect of him, like it's just when he comes out, his teeth bear. And the side of him wants to rush at the enemy. the side of him wants to rush at the enemy and the buggles aspect is just like, no, no, is holding, holding it back.

And so the cool, a con boom, uh, does an ignition at range at the enemy. Okay. Uh, that is a 25 to hit five is a hit. Wow. And so he's got cover troy cover still plus two

yeah obviously yeah 25 is a great roll uh okay so that is 11 points of damage okay and then with that salvaged third action he is going to use restore the mind and he's going to reach out to he is going to use Restore the Mind and he's going to reach out to Talitha. It's like, yeah, let me help you. You get six more points of healing back. Awesome. You're right back in this.

I don't think it had cover because Talitha's down. The bookshelf. Bookshelf provides cover. It's center of the square to center of the square. If it would pass through any physical object it's plus two. So minimal. But high enough roll so you're able to damage it pretty significantly and continue to heal. Wounded Talitha.

It is Asta's turn. All right. Asta, seeing this thing brutally attack Talitha and Talitha go down, Asta goes a little feral and she bares her teeth and then you see her just pop out of space. Just disappear. And then you see her reappear on the other side of this creature blocking the doorway. And she reappears

hissing. How did you do that? You set that shit up ahead of time? She called me last night. Wow. We fight like a multicolored bug. I want to do something. I ready my action if we fight a multicolored bug. And when she pops back in, she immediately just two hands with the katana into the bug's back and makes a melee attack.

And this is my very cool Laughing Shadow Hybrid Study Dimensional Assault focus spell that I've been wanting to use. There's a lot of words in a row. I know. So basically, I can tumble through space, I make a short dimensional hop to better position myself, and then as soon as I come back in, I get to make a melee strike. That's amazing. This counts as a spell,

so I'm also setting myself up to do a spell strike next. So this is just one action. Here I go. Okay. And would that provoke an attack of opportunity, this spell? I don't know the answer to that. It would, but it doesn't take. You also jumped conveniently out of Bless, which I don't know why.

I didn't know that was the aura. And I'm going to attempt an aid. I'm rolling nature to attempt to say where to stab, and like the thorax or whatever like aura. And I'm going to attempt an aid. I'm rolling nature to attempt to, you know, say where to stab. And like the thorax or whatever like that. And I rolled a 20. Oh, okay. So you get a plus one. You see a tiny little opening in its carapace.

If you could stick your blade in there, you might be able to kill it. Oh, and I think I will. That's going to be... Oh, I made a mistake before. I have a weapon potency, Jesus, weapon potency rune in my katana. So when I was talking about my map, so I was making such a,

why are you? I am shocked that you have a, what do you have, a plus one katana? Plus one. I built my character with it. Troy didn't say anything. I don't know how you had that.

I've never seen your character. I don't know how. You've been playing with a plus one katana this whole time? Yeah. It just gives me a plus one. So when I said my map was a negative two at my third attack, it's just a negative one, actually. Just wanted to correct that for all the rules.

Where'd you get that rune? Found it. I think you're allowed to have that. Pause for edit. I don't think any characters at this level have a weapon for that. Going to take it out? I should have seen your sheet at some point, but yeah, I don't think you're allowed to have it. Shouldn't affect this role.

We'll see. We could be wrong. That wouldn't affect your map. It does. It affects your two hit. It affects your two hit. Yes, which would affect... It'd still be a minus five.

Oh, okay, but it brings up my two hit. Yes, okay, Matthew. It affects it in the sense that instead of a negative 2 It's a negative 1 on my third hit I see Yes, so, sorry Do we need to pause? Like, what's going on?

No, I get what you're saying Shocked me to my core Alright, let's see what you roll 21 to hit. That is a hit. I know. No matter what made-up weapon. It would be a 20 without it.

I don't think it's that big of a deal. I think that's enough. Next time I build a character, I'm also going to have a legendary katana. Yeah, I'll just give myself a legendary sedian katana. Well, I wish I could die, too. Let's all die. Let's all die. It was a parting gift that Joy gave me.

If it helps, I rolled minimum, so that's five points. All right, so Brother Rahamius reaches out and says, there! And you look down at your katana, and the katana says, here! Because it speaks. And you look down at your katana and the katana says, here! Because it speaks. And you kill the blade. Slide the blade into the right spot! All of you standing there just see the katana come out of its chest

and it slides off the blade, falls to the floor. What is this Dzeriak doing in a library? Is it the artist? Perhaps we'll find out next week. Oh, that's it? We never got his name. We never got his name.

Maybe you should have grappled me. He has literally the answer to every question we're asking. Maybe I fucking should have. Kill it! But it wouldn't deign to speak to us. The katana says, I drink its blood. Oh, no. This new sentient weapon's going to have a faucet actor. I drink its blood. Oh, no. This new sentient weapon's going to have a faucet.

I drink its blood, bro. 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 N-A-I-S-H today at jointhenash.com Bye.