The Glass Cannon Podcast - Gatewalkers Episode 68 – The Kate Escape

Episode Date: January 17, 2025

The heroes must contend with a vicious outburst and a sick companion. Watch the video here: https://youtu.be/xhGHURoBwA8 This episode was sponsored by Foundry VTT and Norse Foundry. See why tabletop gamers everywhere have made the switch to Foundry Virtual Tabletop at https://foundryvtt.com/gcp For all your random number-generating needs, visit Norse Foundry at https://norsefoundry.com Visit https://zbiotics.com/GCP to get 15% off your first order when you use "GCP" at checkout. ZBiotics is backed with a 100% money back guarantee, so if you're unsatisfied for any reason, they'll refund your money, no questions asked. Access exclusive podcasts, ad-free episodes, and livestreams with a 30-day free trial with code "GCN30" at jointhenaish.com. For more podcasts and livestreams, visit glasscannonnetwork.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

There's so many things I want to do and see. Like redoing the basement without having to do it all myself. Or doing absolutely nothing. With a spectacular waterfall view, of course. So, I'm starting here. Investing with RBC. When it comes to reaching your goals, personalized advice and performance matter. And now, you can get $300 when you invest with RBC.

Offer ends March 3rd, 2025. Terms and conditions apply. invest with RBC. Offer ends March 3rd, 2025. Terms and conditions apply. Invest with RBC today. We're so done with new year, new you. This year, it's more you on Bumble. More of you shamelessly sending playlists, especially that one filled with show tunes.

More of you finding Geminis because you know you always like them. More of you dating with intention because you know what you want. And you know what? We love that for you. Someone else will too. Be more you this year and find them on Bumble. You are listening to the Glass Cannon Network, the premier source for role-playing game entertainment. What's going on everybody? It's your old buddy Troy,

and I am here to talk about Glass Cannon Live 2025. In case you missed the news, Strange Aeons, the story that has been the focus of our tour since we began touring in 2018 2018 is moving off the tour. We're gonna be playing that game online, long sessions once a month, marathon sessions live on Twitch. And Glass Cannon Live is about to start

a brand new adventure that I'm calling Ascension. Without giving too much away, this is going to be a story and world shaped in some way by the events of Giant Slayer, the story for the original Glass Cannon podcast. And we are kicking off the tour in Texas. Good old Texas. We're coming to both Dallas and Austin.

I think a lot of people are wondering like, what, should I get tickets to Dallas? The first show is not gonna be a session zero. No, Dallas is going to be episode one. The story is going to begin in Dallas and then continue the next night in Austin. This is a story and a show that I'm going to be working on constantly throughout the year,

building it as we go based on the choices that the characters make. I am so excited about this. This is a project that I've kind of had in the back burner for a while, that maybe I've been like, ah, I can't do it, it's too crazy, but we're doing it. It is going to be a spectacular jumping on point for new people who may be like, ah, I can't listen to the 100th episode of a show, well you can listen to episode one, or catch up really easily when we're on four or five and you only have a couple hours to listen to. So if you have friends you've been trying to get into the Glass Cannon podcast, the Glass Cannon Network for a while,

what a great way to start, bring them to this live show and they will get in on the ground floor, just like you. So head to glasscannonetwork.com slash tour and you can buy tickets or VIP packages to any of the shows that we have coming up this year. The two that are on sale right now are Dallas and Austin. We're coming to Dallas on February 21st and Austin on February 22nd.

But then get ready, because tickets will be on sale soon for Milwaukee on March 21st, St. Paul on March 22nd, Seattle on April 11th, Portland, Oregon on April 12th, that's my mom's birthday, happy birthday, mom. Well, not yet.

Ann Arbor on May 23rd, Toronto on May 24th, and then, of course, we're coming to Vegas in June for Glass Cannon Network Retreat Number 2! That's not a Glass Cannon Live, but just a reminder that that's going on sale as well. Guys, I can't wait to share

Ascension with you. Joe, Skid, Matthew, Kate, Sydney, and I are all gonna be there, and I hope you'll be there too. For Highbury! I forgot it's a cabinet attacking us. She runs up to it. I'm gonna start punching the cabinet. Miss.

That's crazy. And Barnes will take a swing. 18 points of damage. Okay, you do notice not all of that goes through. Divine Lance! Doesn't affect the creature. What? Oh. Spirit.

Oh god. It's a grind, huh? Fiery Frostbite spell. Doesn't take any damage. What? You fucking kidding me? The fireproof cabinet? Yeah, its hardness reduces any damage.

Same roll, natural four. Start making up numbers, man. I gotta fucking pee. Miss. Come on. This sucks. Finally, we said it. Yeah, like, I might, like, so why don't we just

tape, rip the band-aid off now. You kill it, okay? Yeah! Yeah! We gotta administer the antidote. Administer the antidote. No, no. Take a sip of this.

We're friends of Sakawachi. I trust you to take us back. Turner and Butch are going to follow us as well. No, no, no. You can't bring them back to Smiling Wolves. Well, we'll murder them. We'll murder them. No, no. I'm not saying we murder them. The K'uulakan goes over to the prisoners

and just rips out one of their throats with its teeth. Morghuls! Morghuls! Screams are choked with blood as they bleed out and all of you just stare at the carnage. The adventure continues... ...now. No Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the Glass Cannon podcast. You know, I've done a lot of these shows and tonight's is an interesting one. What's going on?

I don't like the tone. I don't like this at all. Are we being fired? There's no easy way to say this. We are being fired. But Kate Stamos has left the show. To shoot her empty chair. And she was told, Your dice stay.

Yeah, the dice stay. The dice stay. Well, she had no time to clean out her office. That's her cubicle. Got some nice dice. We'll mail you your dice. She was so upset after last week's episode. Not only did we hemorrhage viewers, we hemorrhage players.

Yeah. She has left. She was enraged that you ran the gun. I've never seen her that furious. She tore. Oh, you should see her when she gets really mad. Tore at these screens. We had to buy new ones to get out.

She couldn't get out of there. They're giant clawed nails. Yes. They're nails. I won't betray Kate. I miss her so much. I'll kill myself before she leaves and I don't know Oh seppuku, this is network. Yeah, you're how you're how we get the youth votes in

Youthquake the 150 is watching us if Sydney leaves What sad is that that might not have been true 10 years ago, but it's true now. Creeping towards truth. Truth be told, or as much truth as I feel like telling, this is our last recording of 2025. 2024. Oh my gosh. That's a bad slip up.

Whoa. I know what I said. I'm moving on, baby! Joe's over. Joe's over. Go home. Yeah, slip up. Whoa. I know what I said. I just was like, I'm moving on, baby. Show's over, go home. Well, that's recording of 2024. My injury that I had going into the fall really fucked up

our recording schedule. And then so many people it takes to get into this room. It's so hard. It's such a thin line of getting people into recording. So we just, we have a late night tonight and it was go really late with Kate or risk her getting into an accident on her four hour drive home. Four hour drive home. And there was snow this morning. Yeah.

The weather was light. You got snowed in. You were late this morning, which is why we got a later start. Yeah. It started like two hours late and then it was a long day anyway. Yeah, so we've been in here about nine and a half hours. And we're going insane. We've got to get this app. We've got to get this app in the can.

I thought we debated like, can we just do this? But then we'll miss a week. We're like, why don't we just fucking do it without her and have a fun app and see what happens? And we promised each other. To case. To cake. To stay friends.

For its character in poop. No matter what, when to case to state to stay friends character in poop no matter what we go to college we promised each other this would be a fun app yeah yeah I'm actually excited like I'm just have to hanging out maybe it's cuz Kate's gone I don't want to say it definitely was she left and all of a sudden I'm having a great time I don't know there it might be. He said it finally let his hair down. She left, and all of a sudden I'm having a great time. I don't know if there's a correlation. I'm guessing there is. It could also be the colors of the walls behind me. Yeah, there's going to be the colors like candy cane.

Like, who doesn't love candy canes? I didn't watch this. No, I don't. No, she's not. Oh, I love having Kate here. No, she will. She'll be in the chat. But I know it has been nice just kind of resolving ourselves

to having to go this late and doing this. It's just like, I just like hanging out with I just, I like hanging out with these, this group. I like hanging out with you guys. I really look forward to our, I look forward to the days where we're in the studio. Yeah, I always do. These long days, and we've hinted at this before, but sometimes we will do a day of recording

and then sometimes we'll just stay in the studio. Yeah, we'll just hang out. We'll project a movie on the big, on one of these walls. Yeah, we'll have movie nights. That's why. Yeah, you guys stay all night. We play, we put done magic. We were actually, we're going to do it tonight. We were going to do it. We had plans to do it tonight, but we, we couldn't because of the late hours, but like it was like, yeah, we, we, we glow was going to be here.

Like we're going to, we bunker in here. And now it's 1 a.m. just like a real game set. Yeah. We're hanging out. Yep. That's the other reason I like long recording days of this, because I feel like I think they get better and better toward the end, because you get a little punchier, you get a little looser. And we don't really get to play that many marathon sessions. We play so much, but it's always like this story,

then this story, then this story, then this story, then A, then B, then C, then D. And so it's nice to do like A, A, A, A, A. You really get into it. Really can feel the adventure moving forward. Sometimes you really kind of need that to kind of feel more invested like in the story as it's like to really have a sustained kind of play session to really immerse yourself in it. I remember like we did, I don't think any of,

none of you were involved in it, but like the first time we, I did, I ran, Rise of the Rune Lords. We did a retreat, like we rented a house in the Alleghenies and in Pennsylvania. And we just, we were there. We really just played for like 72 hours straight. Like we got through so much of that AP. And it's actually right, we were,

we did it right about where you guys are in legacy. It was like, that happened like, while we were on this retreat. And it was, it was fucking great. Like it was just so awesome to really dive into it consistently for that long. It was like, this is the big argument of our friends at the Order of the Amber Die, who

have mentioned several times. It's like, they swear on marathon games. That's exactly what they do. That's their method. That's way better than playing once a month for eight hours or six hours. So it is so much better to play once every four months or three months for 60 straight hours

Not straight hours you rest you sleep but everybody sleeps in the house, you know what I mean? You crash on floors sleeping bags, whatever you do four hours you get up you make eggs and you go right back into the adventure and you eat and play and like you're looking forward to it for all those months in between exactly and you're emailing back for and you're looking at loot sheets and you're like making sure you distribute everything. You know what I mean? And like, it just... You don't need to do recaps.

It's just like you're just, you're in it for that period. Yeah. We're in a flow state. It's just like things are just coming naturally. You feel in the shoes of your character. Yeah. Well, this is one of the reasons that I wanted Strange Aeons to like continue on. We're pivoting the tour, at least for this year.

I was like, let's just do marathons because we really love the story. Let's really chunk into it and see where we go. And also have that element on the network because all of our shows are, you know, an hour, two hours. Sometimes they go long, but to have like a four hour plus app once in a while, even though I have gone on record to say that's terrible, I think it'll be worth trying. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I was just like, I love that we just, you know, if there was a day booked out where

we're going to be in the studio, there's no other meetings. Yeah. Usually I have to arrange for childcare. So like, I know my kids in good hands, but I also can't help. So there's like, I can't. You have no distractions. There's no other, like, I'm not going to, if I get, you know, no one's going to get on the phone with me.

It's just guilt. Nagging guilt is the only distraction. I mean, but that's constant. Right. That doesn't go away. Also, like, if I can have someone call me, like, if someone calls me, I'm recording. But you're right, also, like, we,

most of us commute out to the studio, so when we have a studio day, it's a full day, and then most of the time, we do plan around that to stay later and hang out more, because we don't get to see each other that often. So it's nice. It's like we have the day and then we have the night where we do movies. It's great.

Just to like see people in person. This is something that's sort of a carryover from the pandemic was it's like just that isolation where you do, like we saw each other like on a screen like all the time. And like, I think that's sort of something that is sort of endemic in the society right now is like, that is the majority or like a sizable plurality

of people's time with other people is like over his screen. And it is so exciting to, it's just so nice to be in person. That's one of the reasons I really look forward to studio days is like be in a room physically with like my friends. Yeah. And how long studio days is to be in a room physically with my friends. And how long have we wanted to be around a single table? Yeah, I-

Talk about it forever. I think there's this misconception out there that because we've been frustrated with certain combats and certain elements of this adventure path that we're not having fun. And there are times when we absolutely aren't having fun. And I have that in, I had that, that predates the Glass Cannon Network. There are sessions. Remember those emails they'd send you like,

this sucks. You who have not had a bad one hour in a session at your home game, throw the first up. You know what I mean? Like sometimes it's- A bad combat, just a bad night where like- In a slog. Yeah, your character doesn't get the thing

that they've been trying to get, but their story doesn't come out in the way you want it to. Like that happens all the time. Yeah. Yeah. There's all kinds of like frustrations that can occur in any game. Inner fighting, interpersonal problems. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We really do enjoy and we right before we started, we had about a 40 minute discussion about our thoughts on the adventure path this far. And I liked that it was off camera, like we really got to dig into some pros and cons

and future plans. But it is, we do enjoy it. And like as much as I'm like really psyched for that two hour drive home, I try to like lean into this moment, especially me who I personally don't have any social life. So like this is it. This is all I have is to come here and do this. And it's nice. Are you having fun? I am. Yeah, I am having fun. I do enjoy it. Like it's a lot of work.

But like, you know, it's, yes, this is a job, right? Yes, this is work. And I think that sometimes right down to the walls, it can feel very sterile when it's not going well, like last week. That's why I wanted to be honest about it and not pretend like, it sucks. It sucks. I want to talk about that and have those discussions and see how we can make it better. Not just RPGs, any game hits those things. Sure. How many board games have we played where it was like started off fine and all of a

sudden you're in a weird... I remember... You're in some sort of weird loop. You're in a situation where you need a certain random event to occur. For five turns. I remember us playing a game of Citadels at a bachelor party and I love Citadels. You brought me into the game. I love that game. We found it. We like happened into a very random way of breaking the economy and basically just the gold, all the gold would just pass from player to player to play Was that Eve assassin thief assassin board game where there are three circles you had to get to the middle?

Is that used to play it all the time? Oh? You're talking about you're talking about you know the John Jamsky the famous adventure game Christ Oh A famous adventure game. Christ. Oh, we played it ad nauseum. Oh, Talisman. Talisman. Talisman.

Remember those Talisman games where you're like, we are never going to get. Yeah, yeah. There's no way we're going to win this. We can't stop playing. That's the thing. It's like, there's two ways that Talisman can. Oh, there's a lot of other ways.

But it's a spectrum. But there are those times where it, do you know Talisman? No, I'm going to google it. It's a fantasy adventure board game that has. It's a games workshop game that goes back to like early eighties. It's very old school. I did it. I Google tell us and super fun. But it's also and there's a digital version. We could totally play it. When I once streamed it with Jared, Logan and Clint, I'm going to play this looks cool.

Oh, it's really cool. It's freaking awesome. But it's also like very random. It's like Monopoly with fantasy. So there's a lot of die rolls. and if things just get into a funk, they can get into a real funk and things could just not be moving. You can not be getting anything done. And vice versa. Do you remember the days where we would finish a game of talisman at like 1130 at night and be like, let's do one more drunk.

Let's run it back and like drunk games of Talisman where you, you had like a 10 second timer on your turn. So it was like you couldn't have any time to make the most, the best, the optimal decision. So it was just like bam bam bam, like hitting a clock, you know what I mean? Like try to move a set. So it was so fun. That makes me think of when we went to PAX East that one time, the first time we won. Oh my God, yeah.

We rented the suite. We got the suite of hotel, like 11 people were staying in the hotel. But at one point we were like running three games concurrently. It was like X-Wing. We had Small World, X-Wing miniature game. And Carcassonne.

And Carcassonne. And Carcassonne. And you were taking a turn and then move on to the next game. Yeah. Oh my God. And we were like walking around the table, like each take a turn and then move on to the next game. Oh my god. And then we were walking around the table, each taking a turn of one of these games. And that was one of the best weekends of my life.

I'll never forget. Incredible. I'll never forget. Yeah, Merwin was there. Yeah, McDermott. McDermott was there. McDermott said some of the funniest things I've ever heard of my life that weekend.

Oh, yeah. It was like, yeah, that was great. Yeah, it was a good time. And if you ever got into a board funk in one of those board games, you had two others you were playing at the same time. Yeah, that's a good way to avoid. We were hardcore.

And there was no children. No one had any children. No, no one had any kids. We weren't even married. Right. No guilt. You were so far from home. That was the same weekend that we played that game

of fiasco, where we were the band. We were in a band. Journey cover band. Yeah. Yeah. And like the developers were like sitting there. Like they were laughing their asses off

with what we were doing. Yeah, it was Sunday afternoon. We were like, we should do one more game. We were like bloodshot eyes. It was the last time they sold beer at the Boston Convention Center. Because of that game. Because of that game. Because of that game.

Like, everyone in the convention center was wasted. Like, we shouldn't do this anymore with nerds. Yeah. They're not. Oh, that was the other thing. It was like, I remember that, like, the Friday night or something. They had a League of Legends, like, kind of LAN thing

going on at one of the things. We were completely trashed. We came out, like, drinking. We came back. Joe was teaching us League. And well, I'd never heard of League. Completely forgot about that. You just had a memory flashback. And so we all sat down, like, and I was playing League. I don't know, we came back. Joe was teaching us league. And well, I'd never heard of league. I completely forgot about that. You just had a memory flashback. And so we all sat down, and I was playing league.

I was like, I don't know what we're doing. And all these people are fucking screaming at me online. It was like, what the fuck are you doing? I don't know what I'm doing. I don't know. Pick a line. I don't know what. You're just clicking around.

Matthew knows what an idiot I am when it comes to like, we should play a game. We should try this game. I'll teach you this game. And I get really excited about it. And I want to pass on my excitement. And we were drunk. And we were at PAX East.

And I took them to a League of Legends land. Because at the time, I was way into League of Legends. It had just launched like a month or two previous or something. I had never heard of it. I was so into it. And I was like, this game is so fun. You guys are going to love it.

So we all sat down at these computers and drunk. I tried to begin explaining how to play League of Legends. And it is such an incredibly complicated game, to get the meta of what you're supposed to be doing. And I'm like, all right, so then you do this, and then you do this, and then you do this. I'm trying to play it at the same time. And it was just a total mess.

It was a mess. Yeah, we were playing on like eight computers. And you were just running around, like giving everybody tips. And I'm laughing my ass off, and all these kids are yelling at me, like in the chat. All these literal children. Yeah. Screaming at you.

It was so great. I loved it. Yeah. So all this is to say, everything is better without Kate. Oh my god. No. I know.

That's not true. I know you're doing that. I know it can drone. Kate, are you watching right now? We miss you already, Kate. Miss you. Kate, come back. I hope you'll stick around Cain, are you watching right now? We miss you already, Cain. Miss you. Hey, come back. I hope you'll stick around after this break,

because this is the show today. Yeah. We'll be right back. Guys, I got to be honest with you. If I go out for a few drinks after our recording today, I know for a fact that I will not bounce back tomorrow morning like I used to. I'm just getting older and I feel like I have to make a choice a lot of times between having

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Just remember to make pre-alcohol your first drink of the night, drink responsibly, and you'll feel your best tomorrow. I always bring my pre-alcohol on tour, and I know that if we're going to go out and have a couple drinks the night before a show when we're in town, Matthew will probably have his too. We'll do a little cheers of our pre-alcohol as our first drink of the night, and then we know we're going to have a great next morning. Go to zbiotics.com slash GCP to learn more and get 15% off your first order when you

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Look at this incredible gorgeous dye. I love that dye. Brody, get a close up of this. That thing is incredible. Iridescent frosted dye. Even the light. The light striking it. It's like Barnes's mirror catching the light.

Exactly. You have a Tolkien quote that you feel in your heart when you hold that up to the light. So strange. Fates of many be ruled by such a little thing. Damn, he's good. He's really good. Shit. Hear that.

That's such a different thing. That's such a different thing. Damn, he's good. He's really good. Shit. Look at that. That's great. That'll go on the Foundry. Yeah. The t-shirt, soon enough. This was free too. Wow. Wait, that's amazing.

No, no, no. I bought this one. I got a discount though. I got Eric. You got the five finger discount. I got a discount, though. I got Eric. Oh, OK. Got the five finger discount. Good buddy, Eric. That's a five finger discount, yeah. You stole that from the first round. That's a little tip. Little chocolate from the Founder booth. And any con to go to.

Just like grab one, run away. You too can get it for free. They have very little security. Yeah, they're like so nice and trusting. So nice and trusting. You can get a heat scrap one. Can I see how those roll? Just walk and run.

Just make sure you wear long sleeves and just a quick elbow into the glass case and you can take whatever you want. I always wonder at cons when I roll like their dice that caught like anyone, any dice booth where they're like, and this die is $200 and they put it in my hand and I'm like, okay. And then I roll it and they reach for it so fast.

It rolls and they're like, thank you. Sometimes they don't even see the result. No, they don't let you see the result. You have to buy it. You should just pull a castor on the Simpsons and just put it in your pocket. And then when they ask for back, just say, what the heck? Yeah, what the heck.

What the heck. What the heck. Give it back. Give what the heck. Oh. No. Well, this is going to be an interesting episode. Kate is not here.

And historically, when a player doesn't show up Something scatological happens to their character sometimes pee sometimes other bodily fluids get involved. We'll try to avoid that We'll try to avoid it, but I can't it's not her fault that she's not here. Yeah, not gonna go out It's never anyone's fault. It's never anyone's like fault when they poop themselves. No, no, I will say upon seeing Buggles Brutally murdered. Oh my god. I will say, upon seeing Buggles brutally murder these people. Oh my god, I forgot. Oh, man, I thought we were going to, like, start, like, ease into. I forgot.

That's what I was going to say. Yeah, but I completely forgot that we have a very serious situation. A very serious situation. And Zephyr is so taken aback by it, she immediately shits her pants. And it's just, she's so traumatized by it. She goes completely canatonic, nonverbal, shits her pants. Shitting her pants. And it's just, she's so traumatized.

She goes completely cantonic, nonverbal, shits her pants. Shitting her pants. And she only brought one pair on this entire adventure. That's the real trap. That was just a lack of foresight right there. That's the tragedy. So she excuses herself away from this scene. But I wanna go into the minds of the other players here.

I don't know if any of you saw this or if you did, you maybe just kind of put it in the back of your mind. But as you were leaving Castroville, the players would remember this. Again, I don't know if the PC saw this. Buggles sent a cyburst, I think, at a lele. It was the cool lecan, we think, we hope, kind of taking over and seeing a lele. It was the Kulakan, we think, we hope, kind of taking over and seeing a lele as

an enemy or whatever shot a cyborus and the lele's head shot back just as Buggles walked through the portal. So the seeds have been sown here that maybe the balance of power between Buggles and the Kulakan is shifting and changing. Well, these are the circumstances that kindles and the Kulakan is shifting and changing. Well, these are the circumstances that kind of made the Kulakan emerge in the first place, was this like extreme stress, extreme fear. So like that's why it seems like he came out in this moment. He was afraid of this dog, like, you know, Buggles refused to go in the room because the obsidian dog that he summoned, that he brought up, it's like he refused to go in the room because the obsidian dog that he summoned that he brought up is like he refused to go in there. Well this is dangerous, right? Because as the danger continues to mount for this story,

the situations are only gonna get worse. So there's a chance that these outbursts will only get worse, but I don't even know if the characters have been able to process all this. In this moment, you, you, you, you just turn and see Chummy and Buggles tearing at the throats of these two innocent-ish raiders. What do you do? Buggles, Buggles stop! What are you doing?

I think Ramius hops up and in a panic runs over and he's going to, I think gut reaction, he's gonna heal one of the people. Now I don't know if the ripping out of the throat caused death beyond, you're right, like permanent death kind of thing. This is my intention was a coup de grace. Yeah.

So yeah, I think he kills him. Yeah. Barnes will on instinct like vault over the tables and try to get over there and try to pull Buggles off. Gic was standing close by when I moved her into the room, but in her eyes, she sees these flashes to instances with the Smiling smiling wolves, who she's been living with and traveling with, and they have been fighting these raiders.

They are enemies. But she's not a smiling wolf. She doesn't really consider herself part of that group wholly. And she sees, you see these flashes of these different scenarios where these smiling wolves are just cutting down these Raiders and gig is there And she's singing or she's playing her instrument and you see her in these like different scenarios holding her hand out Like crushing someone's you know neck and doing something else and like killing a Raider Ripping an arm off

But then it zooms back to her and she she steps away But then it zooms back to her and she steps away from this because she felt like we were not in danger anymore And this kind of goes against her code of ethics this coup de grace situation And she steps back seems like she was kind of not completely on board with doing that like with them anyway Yeah, this is one of the reasons it seems like that was why she was gravitating towards us instead Yeah, she didn't want to be a part of the Smiling Wolves kill spree. She's not into the treasure hunting. She doesn't agree with them. So, yeah, she steps back, though, and kind of looks and she liked Puggles.

They were goofing off when she first met him. So she doesn't recognize us at all. She's just like, what's going on? Why is he doing that? What is he, rabid? going on? Why is he doing that? What is he, rabid? When Barnes grabs you, do you, is, who's driving the car and for how long?

When Barnes, when Barnes grabs the goblin, he- Is the goblin with us? Yeah. I'm scared right now. Is he talking to us right now? He sort of, he doesn't resist. Like he doesn't resist like you, Barnes like pulling him closer.

And you see these like red glowing eyes like looking you in the face. And for the first time he speaks in common. The cool look on. The cool look on. He stoops to speaking common. Says, if the vessel will not act, I will act. And then he vanishes and like, and you see Buggles, like his pupils, like come back.

I think I've got you in like a lock, like I've got your arms, trying to hold you away. He's like smacking his lips and he's like, what happened? What happened? And he's like looking around, he sees you and he sees the bodies and he's like, ah, and the dog, like the slavering jaws with, you know, the blood like running down, it's jowls.

And he just starts like, ah, ah! And he just starts like screaming and just like panicking. Bones, get him out of here. Bones, take him out of the house! I'll take you, I'll take you outside. And Brother Amias runs up to the two people to like, you know, he'll cast a heal spell, see if it does anything. You lay your hands maybe on them

and you see their neck wound starting to close, but it like stops at a certain point. And while the blood isn't gushing, they're completely pale. You just know they're gone. All right. So he tries in vain without casting spells. He tries in vain, you know, to just do like battle medicine kind of stuff, like more physical things, trying to hold pressure on the wound or whatever. And in short order, hope he'll see that they're dead and he's got blood all over his hands. He stands back up and he has all these flashes, these memories of all of his friends dying around him and just, he feels very, now it's hard to explain in the moment, but it makes him feel

like what happened to these people happened to him in an interesting way, but it's hard to explain in the moment, but it makes him feel like what happened to these people happened to him in an interesting way, but it's kind of hard to go into detail right away. The thought is so deep and complicated, but it comes in just an instant, almost like the people that were just killed. The people that were just killed remind him of his friends being killed, and it's because it was easier to just kill them than to deal with the situation and that's sort of what happened to his

friends he believes. It's a theory he's always had and so he just sort of like stumbles back the blood all over his hands and he knows that it wasn't Buggles. He knows that it was the K'uul'a Khan. Something that he is supported almost even fostered. He tries to keep a very open mind. He knows that this entity, whatever it is, this psychological break in you is protecting Buggles, and Buggles feels comforted a lot of times by his presence.

But this might be a step too far. It was brutal, yes, says Deniji. It was brutal, yes, says Deniji, but Sakawachi must be protected at all costs. They were not to be trusted. I know this may seem extreme, but if we had brought this poison into your camp, there is no telling what they would have done. It could have been us or them. Do not begrudge this goblin's act. It wasn't his act. It wasn't his choice. There are more complicated things going on here.

Ramius goes outside. And meanwhile outside, I think Barnes is maybe trying... He's gotten Buggles into a place where he's not shaking and he's kind of gently cleaning the blood off your mouth. And he's just, yeah, Buggles is just sort of like just whimpering, like being held like a child like in your arms and he's just like so drained and confused and stupefied, like technically like stupefied, like sort of like effect like his just the the impact of him taking over his consciousness and then leaving is just like sort of severe and so he's just like and then yeah and he's just like sort of rocking like back and forth

and unable in the moment to come to terms with what's happened. Now I will say like, I'll point out that the K'uula Khan, like for all the like kind of nasty stuff that he's done, it's never been directed against anyone in our group. Like it's, it's been capricious and it's cruel, but like it's always been directed like at outsiders. It's never beenacious and it's cruel, but it's always been directed at outsiders. It's never been directed at anyone. The physical violence has, but not the implied threats. He has had verbal threats against us, but I guess maybe not in common, so we don't really

know. But it sort of feels like he bears his fangs and yells something at you, you know what I mean? Never actually attacked any of us. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do you think, would Barnes get the sense that Buggles is able to speak? Like, if I asked him a question, would he be able to respond? Yeah, I mean, he's sort of out of it, but yeah.

So he's got you in his arms, and he's just like cleaning the sinews and the blood and the viscera off your face. He's like, Buggles, if you don't mind me asking, when did you first become aware of the other's presence in your head? It started as a voice. Just a voice. lying in bed, in my pallet, at night, so afraid, so afraid of what they would do to me, so afraid of what I would see they would do to my friends. I didn't know where it came from. It was very quiet. But it became louder and louder.

And one night I was so afraid and so angry. And it was as if it was as if a door opened in my mind. And I just stepped aside. And let it do what it wanted to do.

How does it feel to be able to do that, to step aside? Feels like being a spectator. There were once, where I am from, there are contests of warriors thrown together in the arena. I would watch them. I would watch them. They would make me, my mistress. she would make me watch, sit beside her and watch these men, elves, goblins fight, kill each other. If I turned away, she would hit me, scold me. She made me watch. It is like this. That is what it is like. So you see everything. I do. And it is clouded.

When I come back, it is clouded. Sometimes I can't remember, but I feel that in the moment I see everything at all is horrifyingly clear while it is happening. Muggles. Brother Amys. He's gonna, he's been listening to this whole thing and he's gonna just kind of kneel down next to you and look you in the eye. This K'uul'khan,

do you wish this being to stay within you? Do you like having it there? Frightens me. Sometimes it frightens me very, very much. And yet, sometimes I am so afraid, and seeing harm done hurt my friends, who hurt me. I think it's fair to say the Kula Khan has saved all of our lives. Yes. Do you know why, Buckles? It saved all of our lives. Yes. Do you know why, Buckles? Do you know why he chose you? Or chooses to aid us?

The Elder said... The Elder said... That I was Siak-Ak reborn. He said that I was chosen for a reason to be the vessel for this force of fire that would come and liberate my people. Put me out into the world. Help me. Build power. Build my strength, allies, forces of magic.

strength, allies, forces of magic. Martial forces bring them back to my home. Tear the heart from our oppressors. He said that I was chosen. There was prophecy, prophecy that made it so. But I don't know if I ever, I never understood. I don't know if I believed him, but he was convinced. And it was through him that I found my way to you.

I don't know. Could I real quick roll an esoteric lore on the Kooloo-Kooloo Con? I think I've done this, maybe I've done this before, but. I've definitely done it before. Do you, do you, uh, add a character? Do we, did you tell us your gate moment? What Buggles? Yeah, there was, so to ca- to re-recap it, like what happened was he was being beaten for some minor incident,

insubordination or something, or perceived insubordination by the lady of his house, like this villa in Arcadia, these like Chalaxian sort of colonizers and being beaten and particularly badly. And in that moment, the K'uulakan made his first appearance and he basically exploded the lady. Oh, right. I remember that. She blew up. And so this like elder goblin, like this sort of majordomo like for the house, like he came in and he saw the aftermath of this. And like he'd been talking and telling about like these stories of like the Kula Khan and Siaka'aak, which is this sort of the vessel for that, like this hero that is the embodiment of the vessel for the K'uulakan who can like come

like leave, like be like a prodigal son to go out into the world, gather the strength to overcome oppressors like he and he was convinced that it was Buggles. And so he sort of gathered him up out of the house like escaped like as the dogs were chasing them and went to this, like, you know, these ancient, like, circle of stones that they didn't understand, but like he was drawn to them and it was, it happened to be on that night that the gates sort of activated and it was just like, it all like lined up with what he understood of this prophecy and he, he sort of pushed him through the gate and then whatever happened happened, but like that was the night.

Do we know what Buggles saw when he looked in the gate? No. The characters do not know. No, no, no. Right, so that's, so then after all this, Ramius is just gonna say, Buggles, what did you see in the gate?

The night that they opened. Do you recall? Were you in control, or was the Kola Khan in control? It was me. He was only there for a fleeting second. The lady was dead. And we came to the gate, we ran through the forest, through the jungle.

The gate was all alight. I remember this light like a rainbow bathing my body. Something inside but I can't remember. I can't. I don't know. But he did not force you to walk through. He said that it was right. He said that the prophecy... ...required it. And I had little choice. I would have been torn apart by the dogs had I not gone. Perhaps he was...

...in my place. I don't know. I rolled a 28 on Esoteric Lore for the cool icon. Is there anything I would know that maybe Buggles hasn't shared or? Yeah, I think like, well, I don't know sort of what the general level of knowledge is on. This is a pretty far flung place. Like this is basically the equivalent of the Americas and like the early colonial era. So I don't know. This would be the equivalent of like knowing some sort of like Mayan or Olmec kind of prophecy myth. But if you did, like yeah, you would know that this is, this with some like deep lore that this is something,

this is a story that like may have made its way to these shores in some circles of this fire, the spirit of fire that would inhabit and control a mortal host towards some end of its own. And like, there are differing accounts of like whether it is towards its own, towards its own, like whether its aims are good or bad, but there are stories of like, of these mortal hosts that can bend this force to their own will towards their own ends.

And that's sort of the key is like whether, you know, it's the beneficial or malevolent is in a lot of these stories is whether the will is there to be able to break this force of their own ends or not. But that's that's sort of that's what you would have heard so burns will say your buckles I don't I Don't know the full extent of the cooler Colin and this entire history, but One thing I do know is For you to be his vessel Takes an enormous amount of strength and resolve.

It may feel like the opposite sometimes, but it needs you more than you need it. And I believe it is up to you to develop the tools to control him and perhaps make him serve your own will. If you don't, it might consume you. And consume all of us too, or possibly, great deal of the world. I don't, I don't want him to hurt you. I don't want him to hurt you. I don't want him to hurt my friends.

We know that, Buggles, of course. Of course. I think Barnes is right, though. Don't underestimate the power you have over the Kul'Kan. We cannot control the Kul'Kan. He needs you as a vessel, just as you need him, and perhaps we all do, for protection. The relationship is symbiotic, and you must know your power in it. These

men, these raiders that the Kaula Khan has murdered, they are our enemies. There is no doubt of that. And Dineji seems to believe rather strongly that the Kaula Khan did the right thing. That they would have turned on us should we have helped them. If we had given their weapons back to defend themselves, they would have set their weapons on us. So perhaps his instincts are more right than we know. But he used me this way. I can taste their blood, Ravius. than we know. But he used me this way.

I can taste their blood, Ravius. I know, and that is why we will help you. To control it. If you wish to control it, we will help you. And cut to inside, where Gikmuk is, who let you guys go outside because this seemed like a personal thing. She doesn't know what the fuck is going on. Never saw that guy in my life.

And uh... At one point I saw you as a player during Skid's intense story, drinking a michelada. And I pictured... And I pictured... Gik-Mak. I pictured Gik-Muk just sitting in the doorway, and being like, this is a crazy story.

She like went to sniff, and then she was like. What? What? What? What? What? What? What?

What? It was thieves dropping at the door just going, what the hell? What the hell? What the hell? What the hell? What the hell? What the hell? What the hell? What the hell? what the hell is going on out there? But inside, I see on the map, Troy,

and I don't know if this is the case, but this room almost looks like there's fabric, like rolls of fabric or something on these tables, like these big bundles, these big, I don't know what you would call them, big rolls of fabric or paper or something. Bolts? Yeah, this was-

Bolts of fabric? this was a fabric. Thank you. Wow. This was Celestia's place. That's what the sign says. There's all these, it was like a textile emporium. There's all these naked dress dummies. Called it.

So she is, you see her inside while this whole conversation is going on. If you cut back and forth, you come in through the window, see what she's doing. She is still looking at this mess. There's blood everywhere and these dead bodies. And she understands on an emotional level that something is going on with Buggles. And she knows occultism, like whether this is a demonic thing or whatever. She understands that Buggles is in a vulnerable place right now. She likes Buggles.

So she has been pulling these bolts of fabric and you see her reach under her shirt and pull out a necklace. And she pulls one of these like small little stones off her necklace and it grows to a dagger in her hand. And then she cuts this bolt of fabric and places it over one of the bodies, pulls another one, slices it, places it over another body,

and then uses some other fabric to kind of like push the blood on the hardwood floor, kind of a way to cover it up. So when Buggles comes back in, it's not so dramatic. And Chami, like the dog is still there, just like watching you do this. Watching Chami kind of moving, like, I don't know this dog.

She puts this here, seeing if that's cool. Okay. She like cuts another one, puts it here. Maybe as you're doing that, Demigie like stoops down over the bodies and lifts up the fabric and just starts feeling around in the pockets of these people, feels around on the woman respectfully,

and then goes over to the man and starts like looking at him and she pulls a runestone that he had around his neck off. What's that? Says, I don't know. This might be of use. Seems like he didn't even know what it was. We honor the dead in my culture, but these people took everything they have. There is no honor in Huh. Is this yours? I do. The wolves, they smell the blood. We should either hole up in here or travel. Actual wolves.

Yes. Arameus, you're back? I thought your friends were. I told you the smiling wolves. I told you they were cannibals. I knew it. They're not cannibals. What?

They're wild animals. It's okay, you got the light of us. Did you say they were cannibals? Yes. They're crazy, but they're not cannibals. It's not the Bye Bye Coat. I don't believe you. Okay.

Well, is it Lanolin? I want to say Lanolin. Lanolin is a phenomenal bard name. I'm going to make a future reference. Lanolin, write it down. Dineji's right, though. There are wolves,

real wolves in the city, they're big. They'll fuck you right up. We should either close the door, seal it off. Let's wait until the sun rises, the wolves will disperse. Perhaps we should. Maybe make a fire in that fireplace, it's gonna get real cold.

Perhaps we should remove the bodies from this building and put them in the house with the the cabinet Oh, we are great. I ain't our great enemy great No longer we defeated the enemy like with a capital E It's the boss of this adventure and for all of us shall append the eponym cabinet killer Agree that the cabinet was the source of the troubles here. And now, with it defeated, the city can go back to being a place of glory once again.

All of a sudden, the shivering streets start to straighten. Yes. You did it. Well, I mean, Denigie's got a point. Perhaps we should check these bodies real quick and we could put them outside, honestly. We're not gonna bury them proper grounds, frozen solid. You prefer the wolves to eat them?

I mean, wolves gotta eat too. It's the way the world works. I know what you're thinking. I understand why you're called the Smiling Wolves. Why are you tapping your head like that? What am I thinking? I understand. They're called the Smiling Wolves because they're you tapping your head like that? What am I saying? I understand. They're called the Smiling Wolves because they're crazy and they smile when they kill people.

Winks is good as a nod to a blind man. Don't know what you're saying. Also, I'm not really a smiling wolf. I'm trying to tell y'all. The wolf is right. The name's Gek Muck. And look what I found. Well, actually, Neji found it, but it's a necklace.

Think it might be magical or something. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. What are you doing? You detect magic coming off of this ruined stone. If it's emanating any magical energies, and it is indeed an aura. Whoa. I will. I'm gonna check it, too.

Attempt to identify it. Yeah. That's gonna be... Pretty good. 23. It is a plus one armor potency rune. Oh! Very cool.

Cool. And Deniji was right. This guy didn't even know what it was. Awesome. It's pretty cool. He's wearing around his neck like a freaking idiot. You're supposed to put this in your armor. Infuse it into a set of armor.

Who wears armor? I do, I do, but I already got one. He has... I got chain mail. Whatchamacallit's plus one breastplate. Oh yeah, whatchamacallit's astas. Astas, you have... Plus one.

What the? I moved on. You have chain mail? I have a chain shirt. Chain shirt, perfect. Tucks it into her pocket. Mind if I hold on to this? Speak to Zephyr after she's done cleaning herself.

I saw what happened. We should leave her alone. She goes to stand up and slips in the shed and hits her head. Oh no. I think she's out for the night. Oh no. Boom. Like no. Boom.

Like Million Dollar Baby. Except now she's got shit all over her face. It would be as if Million Dollar Baby slipped on our own diarrhea. And that is how it all went down. That's all I wanted to picture at home. I gotta re-watch that movie and imagine that. It's like Million Dollar Baby with more shit. Oh.

Alright. Alright, so I've tucked this in my pocket. I'll ask Zephyr once she wakes up. We'll move the bodies into the cabinet house. And then we'll seal this place up. Cut some more fabric for your filthy friend. I cut fabric, I make a big diaper. Just lay it down. Lay the fabric on top of her.

Oh, that's... That's horrible. I'll roll it up, I'll roll it up. I make a big diaper just lay it down Play the fabric on top of her Can't believe the smiling wolves have cuttlefish last night You didn't eat any of the food the smiling wolves gave you, did y'all? Gotta bite. There was so much cheese. I think she overdid it. On the cheese. It wasn't cheese. It wasn't.

We're such children. We've been doing this for like 15 years. We told her this would happen. We said it, she was walking out the door. I was like, this is what's gonna happen Yeah, it's never enough, and I honestly thought we like wouldn't lean into it But you'd feel in the moments right and the idea of nailing just the idea that she should have pants and foul 40 minutes later And slid the shot!

So humiliating! I don't know how any of us could see her in the same light. I know, I certainly can't. The next time she misses a shot with her bow, I'm just gonna be like, ooh. Well, well. Stick your fingers. Oh, shit fingers. Oh, shit fingers, up for a roll, Church. Alright. You could leave early, but there's a price to pay. We'll drag the boss around.

Quickly, Bones. There is no excuse for which there won't be a price to pay. No, no. I literally had COVID bound up. Not only was I covered in shit, but some creepy, inattentive tried to get on me. I forgot that has the brothers.

Sydney missed an episode of Legacy of the Ancients and her character ate manure and just kept eating it until my character cried and begged her to stop and she kept eating manure. You know, Skid did it to me. You all did it to me. You all did it to me. You're literally eating shit.

And Kate was there. She was riding away and she stopped because she saw something awful. And you know what? Kate was there and she did nothing. She didn't say anything. Yeah, remember that. Kate didn't say anything.

She laughed and laughed. Kate, you thought it was so funny. Kate laughed harder than anyone. Harder than anyone. Look at me now, Kate. All right. We move the bodies. We'll drag the bodies to the alchemical shed, whatever it is, and the store.

Throw them in there, close the door. Hoping the wolves don't can't, Brother Amias wants to hope the wolves can't get into the body. Okay. He would like to do some burial rites. And I just wanna say, Not burial rites. Cremation rites, we fully checked the bodies for anything else.

I know that Dhanuji gave me that one. Yeah, and there were the other bodies as well. So I imagine you drag all of these corpses into that little side room. And we check all of them. No, no, no. The cabinet house. Oh, you really drag them right across town. So you're leaving a trail of grud. Across town. It's literally a building.

It's next door to the building we're in. Standing outside of a barber shop looking across the saloon. You go across town. And hit it. Let me just put all the bodies in there. Well, maybe that would like, I mean, it's not, in a survival situation, the worst thing, and maybe we would like draw the attention of the wolves

to these bodies instead of us. Yeah. And if there's any hope, the wolves will defecate on the remnants of the cabinet. Our long vanquished foe. There's some studded leather armor, a couple slings, a couple hatchets, a sap, a short sword, some thieves tools.

Ooh, thieves tools. None of it's magical. No. Do I have thieves tools? Um, a couple clubs that are just like, you know, nothing special, more studded leather. But yeah, nothing, nothing of import that. Okay. Plus one armor potency rune was clutch.

I'll take the thieves tools. Take the thieves tools. Take the thieves tools as you drag all six bodies into the apothecary. And the rest of you hole up inside of this embroidery shop. And I use some of the wood that's been broken from the fight to make a fire in this fireplace that's in the room. I know the, you know, this where we're staying, it's cold. It gets very cold at night, even indoors. So it starts a fire. We're in Brevois.

I'm not remembering this correctly. I'm assuming Sydney's remembering this better than I am. What are we talking about with the actual temperatures here? Like at night, is it 20s, teens? It drops, it drops. We're below zero. This is Brevoi? Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, it's like, ask Napoleon how cold Russia gets. Is that what it is? So it's Russia. It's Russia. So it's cold as shit. Yeah, it's cold, but you're indoors. We're indoors, like we're fine.

What season is it? Always winter. I think it is winter. Yeah, I mean, Sydney's been saying it, so I think it's- There's been snow on the ground and stuff. Yeah, so we're cold. Why do you think the Smiling Wolves have been eating their own?

You're getting pretty close to the world, the land of perpetual snow, but yeah, it's cold. Luckily you're indoors. Start a fire. You start a fire in the fire. There's a fireplace here. Bring the textiles, make like, you know, big sleeping pads for everybody.

Yeah. And you take turns with the watch, Bring the textiles, make like, you know, big sleeping pads for everybody. Yeah. And you take turns with the watch and go to sleep. And we'll be back right after this quick break. With TD Direct Investing, new and existing clients could get 1% cash back. Great! That's 1% closer to being part of the 1%. Maybe, but definitely 100% closer to getting 1% cash back with TD Direct Investing. Conditions apply. Offer ends January 31, 2025. Visit td.com slash DI Offer to learn more.

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Dawn. Is a beautiful name for a girl. Dawn is a beautiful name for a girl? Dawn is a beautiful name for a girl. I agree. The Rosie. Good name for a guy too. Fingers of Dawn. Yeah, Dawn Draper.

The Rosie Fingers of Dawn. Rosie Fingered Dawn. Rosie Fingered Dawn. Let me get a... Dawn Draper. Mafia name. They call me Rosie Fingered Dawn. Yeah.

It's a... Rosie Fingered Dawn. they call me the Rosie finger dawn Rosie with the blood of the other five families Just like cold seal through my heart Being Italian That's why they figured dawn the sun's coming up over the horizon, but it's overcast. And you look out the window, maybe during some of your watches, you saw some hulking shapes in the distance circling that cabin.

But no one molests you. But wait, I think it's the reverse. I think we're resting at sunup. This has been through the night. Oh, we wanted to rest during the day. Oh, yeah, because we were navigating. We didn't set out until the evening. Right.

So we're resting during the day. Resting during the day until the next night. So it's dusk. Okay. So no rosy-fingered dusk. The rosy-fingered dusk. The rosy-fingered dusk. But once the dawn. Hey, have you seen my cousin?

I think we see dawn come up. Rosy-fingered dusk. Hey. Rosy-fingered dusk. My cousin. I think that we see the sun come up before we rest. OK, yeah. Kind of.

You see the sun come up, you're like, time to go to bed. Right. And we start to take watches and rests. And we might see some wolves patting around but they don't attack, okay I'm asking but yeah, no, I see you had me just tell yeah I mean if you're just hanging out there for the night, it takes on the text. Okay Rag all these corpses you have business cards that say that?

Because you should. Crow Valley. Easy going. That's what they call me. That's what my wife says. You're so easy going. The most easy going guy. And then you turn over the car and it says, in the bottom right corner of the car, it

just says, the rosy finger done. The rosy finger done. Tell them the rosy finger done. Say hello. You drag the corpses in the night. This takes the better part of the night. You come back and you start to hole up for the night. Maybe as you're doing it, there are times when you see shadows around there.

You're cautious. You wait and eventually sun rises. That's when you start your sleep schedule. Then as darkness comes the next day, you decide it's time to head out. Well, before we leave, I think that the Remius does take an opportunity to talk a little bit more to her new companion.

We'll kind of hold up in this place for a while. Deneke, yes. Deneke, who's the most important. As we said, we remembered her name. She's very important. Yeah. What do you want to know? I'm an open book.

Gake faces the wall. What do you want to know? I'm an open book. Are you the Rosie Finkadon? No, no, that was my cousin. We're going to need you to testify against the Rosie Finkadon. I think as we're waiting.

It was in the olive oil business. It was in my mind. Years ago. Oh, you mean it. Rosie Finkadon. It was in the olive oil business. It was in my mind. Years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and

years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and

years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years It wasn't even supposed to be there. You ever read his play that he wrote the actor? Half Full Rain. Half Full Rain. No, wait.

I did that play in college. Ben is an early Ben Guzara role. Yeah. It's one of the first major depictions of serious drug addiction on a mainstream stage. Frank Gatso? Michael B. Gatso. Michael B. Gatso.

Yeah, I did, that was one of the, I did a scene from that show in college and it was, it's a great play, it's awesome. God, he's amazing. Did you play the Ben Guzara part? Yeah. The heroin addict? Yeah, yeah, yes.

No, no, no, I played the father. The father. I played the father, yeah. Eh. All right, so you wanna get to know Gic. He wants to know Gic a little bit more. Well, I was gonna say maybe. How old were you when the first time you ate a human being?

When did you lose your virginity? Just that. Watch this, this is me taking the reins. Is the pain you feel that you express in your songs. Godding the horse away. Because of the human beings you've eaten. Anyway, mayhaps Ramius, get out of here, mayhaps Ramius, when you wake up,

it's to cover my watch, but now like we're all kind of waking up, but you see Gic near Buggles Who's still asleep and she's sitting kind of near Buggles Even her back is to him, but she has her loot. She's playing very softly she doesn't want to wake him, but she's just playing and She's playing very softly, she doesn't want to wake him. But she's just playing and she's singing very quietly. To no one, but like kind of to Buggles. And yeah, you just see, she's just like singing. Maybe you can't even hear her. His eyes open and he hears something.

I've got you, you're safe now from harm. Don't worry as I see you, no need for alarm. Don't worry, I've got you, you're safe now from harm. And half in his sleep, like, Buggles is like, he's got his cloak wrapped around, he kind of like rolls over and like snuggles up close to your thigh. It's just like your leg is just like cuddling up against you. She like quietly like moves her lute, puts it down and pulls some of the textiles that they've ripped up over Buggles and then inches a little further away. He says, I want to bother him.

And Remius slowly comes up behind you. Ah! Slowly comes up behind you. Sorry, I heard you from miles away. It was a very beautiful song. Oh, you heard that? Well, just the end part. Huh?

Just the end. Oh, sorry, I didn't- When I woke up, it hit my watch. Oh. But it is a beautiful song. Oh, thanks. I didn't mean to wake you, I was just- What's it about? And he kind of sits down next to you with like pained expression on his face, moves

his legs into a kind of sitting position. I don't know, it's kind of a song that my mom used to sing. So I sing it sometimes to myself. Was your mother a singer as well? I sing it sometimes to myself. Was your mother a singer as well? Oh, no, no. She had a horrible voice. But she liked singing. She sang a lot. She wasn't good though. Gek, I must confess. What are you guys talking about?

Dinege says. Can I sit here with you? Well, you talk. You were awake. Didn't know you were awake, too. From earlier, I thought Father was here. No, I didn't. He's having trouble sleeping already.

I followed the stars. I found you. I cleaned your friends. I cleaned your friends. I cleaned your friends. Oh my god. Jesus Christ. Is that the next thing we have to tell Kate that father cleaned her up?

Just so you know. So shit your pants and hit your head. The good news is. Yada yada yada, father cleaned your head. That's the worst part of it all. Danigis like, oh, you can kind of get the hint that you guys are having a tinnitus. I'll just go over here. She sits with her facing a wall about six inches away.

Denigie, please, please join us. Come join us. No, no, it's fine. Shh. You're so close to where we are. You can hear us anyway. Some of us are trying to sleep. Oh, god.

Sorry. Sorry. I didn't mean to wake you up. I just wanted to sleep. Sorry. I mean, I wake you up. I just I wanted to apologize. I was concerned for you. When we came out here, the dangers that we may face. Thought your singing was beautiful. But that you would be at unnecessary risk in such a dangerous place. But you clearly... Well, I see why smiling wolves

took you in and why they may be loath to let you go. You have some incredible power. How did you come to do that with your voice? Sing it. You spoke and while it sounded normal to me, the leader, Turner, he seemed hurt by the very sound of your words. Oh yeah. I'm fascinated how this could happen.

Yeah. Yeah. It's interesting, isn't it? I always thought I was missing something. Like, I don't know. I wanted to be strong, like my mom, but I wasn't, and I wanted to be smart like my dad, and I guess I'm smart, but not like him. And I thought maybe I was missing something, but then one day I figured out that people

are really affected by what I say. Like, really affected. I thought maybe people just didn't like me, or they liked me too much when I didn't want them to. But then I sort of found out, through a lot of trial and error, that it's actually me. I'm making it happen, you know? It's magic. It's not... No one ever... Oh, I'm sorry. No one ever trained you to do this? You just... You could speak that way and affect people as such and no one ever taught you how?

Nope. I didn't have enough money or nothing to go to school. So I kind of just hit the road and that's when I became a musician. Well, first I was doing the mime-ing thing, but I didn't really speak. So I didn't know I was so strong. But then I started playing, you know, just busking for money here and there and traveling around,

hitching rides when I could, town to town. And that's when I've kind of figured it out but it's been weird people aren't always so receptive you know not everybody wants a bar to round and I get that like got to pay to play I got to pay to play in a lot of places and it's hard to find work. But I started traveling up north and I ended up near Brevoi and then Smiling Wolves kind of picked me up. I had nothing, no money, no prospects, and I showed them what I could do. They wanted me for the treasure hunting stuff and... Of course they did. Of course they would. They wanted me for the treasure hunting stuff and...

Of course they did. Of course they would. Yeah. But... I mean, I mean it when I say like, I'm not... I don't wanna be with them. It's not my... It's not what I wanna be doing. What do you wanna be doing? Oh, man.

Man, if I could really get out there, I'd love to just, I'd love to play for so many people. I just want to be heard. I just want the world to know the name Gic Muck. Can't you see it? You. It catches, don't it? You're thinking about it. Like, yeah, that sounds pretty dang good.

Rolls right off the tongue. These are selfish goals. Who's that? Dineji. Oh. I'm still facing the wall. Shut up. What's not?

Perhaps not. That's not my only goal. I don't know you. That's a threat. I don't know you Sorry, sorry, sorry. Like red nose to the wall There's no honor in that music. I don't have to prove nothing to you. I don't even know you. I got other big goals like I want to I want to Have a family and stuff like I want to I want to have friends have a family and stuff, like I wanna have friends. Selfish.

That's not the, what? I want you to have friends? Dineeji, please. One must aspire to loftier things. Yes, and Dineeji, if we may for a moment, discuss what it is that you are sacrificing yourself for. This quest, you continually say how important Sokwatch is to your people. He has chosen to lead you to some sort of salvation. He is the key to saving your people, right?

He is the key to saving your people, right? That is what we believe. It is my job to guard him with my life. And if need be, lay down my life for him. That's pretty big goals. It's very honorable, and I respect that. I respect that agreement. I don't mean to make light of your aspirations. All of us want different things. My culture is very different.

No, that's okay. I mean, hey, I'm, I'm here now. People change. My road changes all the time. I take a new path, I end up somewhere new and my thoughts change. And I don't know, maybe I'll change my big goals. Like a few days ago, really wanted a fish. Got a fish. And then that ended. Now I want like... Byron's wakes up. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. That ended. Where's your fish now?

I killed the fish. I ate it. I was, I wanted a fish to eat and I ate the fish and now I feel like that's done I heard I thought you wanted a pet or something. So your goals are mainly your next meal a fish is a pet People do it really? Yes, that seems messed up Why can't own the ocean? It's hard logic to us sounds like it sounds like a country Russian song. It can only ocean. That's one of my songs.

Can only ocean. Might as well eat a fish. No matter how hard you try. But you can wave goodbye. Well, I'm very glad that you've decided to come with us. And Mats is okay with you leaving with us. She looks at Barnes. Why are you looking at me?

She looks Ramious. She looks at Dineji. She looks at the bugles body asleep. Gic. She looks at Zephyr's shit covered body. She looks at Zephyr's covered shit. She shakes her head. Slow zoom on Zephyr's shit covered form.

Unconscious shit covered. Crack in her forehead. A tear rolls down Gic's face. Gic, you, That's your future. You told Matt that you were coming with us, right? Yeah. And you told him that you were wanted to pursue this question

that the Gatewalkers seek to answer, yes? She's slowly nodding her head. Gic. What? It seems like perhaps Matt does not want you to come with us. She's slowly nodding her head. We can't be an enemy to Mattes. She's shaking her head now, slowly.

They're definitely threatening our mission to have an entire band of treasure raiding mercenary cannibals chasing us across the ends of the earth. She's slowly shaking her head, yes. And Sakauchi is with him right now. She looks and shakes her head yes slowly. We shouldn't tarry here. You suddenly hear she casts musical accompaniment and you just hear very sad trombone sounds around her. Sadder. And she looks down.

Just a company of facial gestures. She shakes her head yes. Listen. It's like we're a Charlie Brown movie. More like Roger Rabbit, but that's not important. Now that we've spent some more time together, I feel like I should tell you. That's what you hear.

She says, Matt's is not somebody who can be argued with, let alone kind of reason with. I got that. Yeah, he picked up what he was putting down. Seems to have complete control over the Smiling Wolves with very little argument. No, he keeps everybody on a pretty short chain chain and he's big dog, if you're picking up what I'm putting down. So I told him I would come out with y'all to find Hissoy, who's one of his and who

left the city. So I'm not lying, I'm going, I'm going to bring them back when I find them, which we will because that's what we're doing. And then I want to get away with y'all. Because when I signed up to be in the Smiling Wolves, I didn't sign no contract. It's just an agreement. You just agree to it.

And it ends when he says so. And he's never going to say so. Wait, you signed something? Contract and agreement are the same thing. No, I didn't sign it. There's nothing tangible. I know about law. No, I didn't sign it. There's nothing there's nothing tangible I know about law. Well, there's no law here. Did you send it in blood? No, it's his law. That's the law and it's what he says goes. Yes. Well, this I'm afraid is a

common characteristic of leaders of mercenary companies Totalitarian rule with no question to their judgment. Well, I never joined a mercenary company before. And if you agree to serve under them, it's not so easy to break free, but. That doesn't sound like Max right now, what?

Barnes, we can help. You can? We can. We will try. You will? I did have an idea. Of course. It was a bit of a stretch, but I think maybe it could work. Do you have legal training?

No, I thought we could just cut to the chase and fake a death and then meet up with her in the city before we go on to our next step. I know if deception is the best policy, but it sounds like we have time. It's not until after we find this. Who are you looking for? Hissoi.

Hissoi. Not until after we find Hissoi do we need to worry find this. Who are you looking for? Hissoi. Hissoi. Until after we find Hissoi, do we need to worry about this? Well, I mean, worse comes to worse. I also have this, and she has like this scarf on, and she puts her scarf around her face, and then suddenly she just looks like Zephyr. Covered in shit and everything? Yeah, it's a scarf that makes you look like you're covered in shit.

Completely covered in shit. She goes, it's a scarf that makes you covered in shit. Wow. Oh, what a fight. I'm sorry, are you suggesting that we murder Zephyr? It casts a first rank illusory disguise spell. So, and she wraps it, so she just kinda looks, it's a first rank, she kinda looks like Zephyr.

Zaneji pulls a knife out of her sheepskin. I understand. Ghost starts walking towards you. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I will do whatever it takes for psycho watching. No, no, I'm not saying, you don't kill nobody. What? We all studiously avoid trying to look over

at the pools of dried blood in the corner from where they were. Yeah, Miles is not the answer. I'm just saying, I don't rely on nobody and I work alone a lot of the time, so I'm not looking for an out through you. I don't wanna put you in harm's way. No, no, no, we enjoy faking deaths all the time, so I'm not looking for an out-through-you. I don't wanna put you in harm's way. No, no, no, we like to, we enjoy faking deaths all the time.

Oh. Barnes, it sounds like she has many options. I'm just saying, I'm- She's a gnome of many, many talents. Yes, well. I think she'll be fine. Thank you, sir. If your spell doesn't work, I can skin your friend and you can wear her as a pelt.

I don't think we need- You also are a person of many talents. Yes, we do it back home. I don't think we need- You also are a person of many talents. We do it back home. I don't think we need more- Not with people, with animals, but I'm sure it'll work the same way. We don't need more death.

A lot less hair. That's us. Are you rested enough? Yeah, we are. We're going our way. We're waiting for you. It's dark. I already did my-

It's dark, we should pack up. I already did my job. Oh god, he looks over at someone and wakes Zephyr up. Yeah. Yeah. Um. She shit more while she was sleeping.

Yeah. Yeah. I put- Oh, what's wrong with her? I put a big diaper on her. Oh, that's horrible. We just have to change it. I put a thing on.

Diaper? Yeah, I made a big diaper. Fashioned her, it depends. Yeah. I have fashioned her. This big piece of fabric would see his face on it. It's the only fabric they had left. Just make a big diaper if you ever...

Okay. Let's get on our way. The stars are coming out. And I gently wake Buckles up. Hey big guy. We're ready. Wake services. There you go.

Hi, the loveliest dream. I'm glad. You feeling okay? You ready to go? Yeah. All right, you look good. Thank you. Don't forget your cloak.

Yes. Put this cloak around. It's a lunchbox. Oh my God. And we'll set out to go back to the Smiling Wolves camp. All right. Oh, actually, you know what? Right before we leave, I think

Remus is going to say, we have to burn the bodies. Oh, the wolves will get to them. You don't have to worry about that. Why would you say something like that about a Zephyr? Burn them. Wolves will never eat. Oh, the wolves will get to him. You don't have to worry about that. Why would you say something like that about a Zephyr? Burn them. Are you... Yeah.

Wolves will never eat. Not in this condition. This... The spirits must be granted some food. You could also light fire to her and put it in someone's doorbell. Bring it and run away. See if this will happen. Zephyr?

It could be hilarious. This whole woman? It could be very funny. There's poop on the muck. On the muck. There's poop on the muck. That's a real inside joke. Why would we do that? I thought we were just spitballing.

Ramius wants to burn the bodies and say a prayer for their souls. To be granted forgiveness for their deeds and that they will be forgiven in the eyes of the keeper. And so I think he just wants to burn this building down. How long? With their bodies in it. It's kind of the easiest way to do it. And we don't know whether foul infestation created that cabinet, if it could come back in some other form.

So he doesn't really have a problem burning it down. It's only fitting to burn down that building, regardless. Yeah, I think he feels weird about just leaving the corpses there. OK. All right, so everyone helps to pull all of the bodies out into the middle of the mystic market and you say a little prayer over them and then just set fire to them like you would start a fire. I mean, I was going to start it in the building that they're all current.

Well, you just want to light the building up. Burn mean, I was gonna start it in the building that they're all current. You just wanna light the building. Yeah, burn the building. All right. The cabinet building. Burn the cabinet. Burn the potion, the alchemy building. Yeah, I would say once you start the fire,

it doesn't take long before you hear like pops of explosions. Yeah, that's why he thinks there's already a lot of. Red smoke pile pops up in the air, purple smoke, multicolored smoke. This pile of ash be a monument to our great and mighty foe. Cabinet, the cabinet. End of adventure. He prays for their forgiveness and then

let us move. This fire may attract unwanted attention. And we'll start heading back toward the Smiling Wolf's camp. Time for a survival check. Oh, wait a minute. But we don't have to do it alone. We don't have to just rely on Joe this time. Yeah, Dineji's got it. So.

Well, Dineji said she could help, but then as you started talking, she realized that she may have been out of her depth. Depth, yeah. So she's not gonna track her a hundred, but like she doesn't have Sakawatchi skills. What's your plus? My plus?

To survival? My plus to survival is 12. Okay, so I can aid you if you want, I have a plus seven. Sure, yeah, you can attempt. Okay, attempt. Yeah, natural 19. Aided! That's a critical.. Sure. Yeah. You can attempt. Okay. Attempt. Yeah. I hate it. Natural 19.

That's a critical. That's a crit. Plus two to you. Plus two. Plus two. To you. Yep. So yeah, I imagine the two of them talking as he's... For fuck's sake.

I'm getting... Should I roll it? It's too late. I wish that that was what had happened. Um. You wanna use your bottle cap? I'm gonna spend a bottle. What did you get?

So sad. Did you get a natural one? Did you natural one all over your dice tray? No. No, I'm gonna get a natural one now. No, don't. God damn it, get in the dice tray. Natural twin.

Oh! Boom! Turned around! Yeah! Oh! Planet die is back! Good use of the cat. Good use of the cat.

Oh, natural twin to get back. I did not want to get waylaid in one of the random encounter. You begin navigating Skywatch once again under the cover of Night, Brother Ramius, Barnes, Gik Muck, Buggles, Dineji, and a very stinky Zephyr, wearing a diaper made out of fabric with Sia's face on it. So mortified she can't even speak. She's just kind of like, out of fabric would see his face on it. So mortified she can't even speak. She's just kind of like, out of it.

She's like all messed up. This is all from seeing Buggles eat that guy. All messed up. Deneji's like leading her along, but she stinks. Sad Frances. Everyone is stifling laughter. And you walk through these streets and it's like watching a film on repeat.

Everything looks the same until suddenly in the distance it changes and you see the small campfires of the Smiling Wolves camp. We just go into the camp and we see Matt's looking at you and then looking in the distance and seeing this pyre in the middle of the city. And then we come out from that pyre and we see another set of eyes on an oddly shaped head watching through the windows of a post at the fire's well.

And we'll see you next week. What's that? What the, who's that? What eyes, what do they look like? Bob Godwin? Oddly shaped head? They have weird heads. Do they have weird heads?

They have weird heads. Oh, great. You can all see the battleground. That was a worthy furnishing. It's time to make your membership official. Start your 30 day free trial today and become an official member of the Naish at jointhenaish.com with the promo code GCN30. That's jointhenaish.com and use code GCN30 to gain access to exclusive podcasts, ad free

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